And this is my first chapter story for One Piece, yay. Any way this is for Luffy's birth day, I'm posting the beginning now because I still have to write the end, and type out the rest. I hope to get up the rest during the week, but my plans don't always work out so well.

So please read and enjoy, I would like reviews on this. If I get enough I will post the alternate ending I have already written.

Enough of that, I would like to thank Tenkage Onna and Wendy, for beta reading and helping out on this. I do not own One Piece, if I did, Luffy would be trying to find me and he's not so I don't own it.

Enjoy.

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Praise the Birthday Boy

Luffy Zoro

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The clouds drifted over head and the constant lap of water against the haul of the Thousand Sunny, lulled the crew into an easy mood. No fights had broken out among the group. Mainly the cook and swordsmen as they stayed away from each other. All was calm, no random explosions from Usopp's tinkering, no fights, no captain yelling for food. All in all a very peaceful day, which for the straw-hat crew was exceedingly unusual. Their days were normally spent running from marines or each other. The captain of said crew was sitting up in the crows nest, pouting for what reason, none of the others could fathom. He had been this was since Nami had told everyone at breakfast, the date and announced that they would be coming up to the next island soon. This normally would of sent the young captain head over heels to stare out across the water, expecting land to pop up from the vast horizon. Though not this time, he had sulked out of the kitchen, even denying thirds of this mornings breakfast. Chopper thought he had gotten sick, Usopp said he couldn't handle being captain anymore, the others promptly hit him for it. The rest just kept their thoughts to themselves. They left the captain to sulk for what ever reason, he would be back to normal soon enough any way, and this was the only way to get a quiet day.

The real reason the young captain was in the crows nest sulking and making absurd pouty faces, no normal human should be able to do, was the fact that his birthday was in a few days. Now he wasn't one to sulk on his birthday, in fact he would at any other time be bounding up and down driving every one mad. Yes he knew he drove people insane, but that didn't bug him, he was who he was and he couldn't change that. But something about today was different. He couldn't bring himself to be happy about it. He just thought back to all the birthdays he had back in his village. God why did he have to get homesick now? And thus he got madder at himself. He couldn't even bring himself to tell his crew about his birthday. The young captain let out a sigh and sank lower in the crows nest.

"I need something to do!" Luffy exclaimed jumping up and putting on a determined face. "Maybe I could bug Zoro?" a small smile finally made its way to his face, along with a faint blush. Luffy jumped down to the deck, almost hitting the lines to the sail.

"Luffy what are you trying to do!?" Nami yelled from the railing.

"I'm going to bug Zoro" The boys smile had ballooned to his whole face.

"May I ask why?" The orange head asked in a sarcastic tone, already rubbing her temples. 'so much for a quiet day'

"He's fun to mess with" The captain stated promptly, wandering off to find the elusive swordsman.

"That's true but……….wait did he just say that….no that's not possible." Nami sighed and turned back to watching the sea. 'something's brewing, I can feel it'

The day went on quietly to the shock of most of the crew. Luffy hadn't found Zoro, which meant he had found a new napping secret hiding place for his mid-morning nap. So Luffy pouted and sat him self down in the middle of the deck, trying to think of something else to do. Which he found hard, Usopp was helping Franky somewhere, Zoro was in a new napping place, Chopper was working, Sanji was cooking lunch. No matter how good that smelled he found himself not hungry. Best not to bug Sanji while he was cooking. And Robin and Nami were talking about stuff, that Luffy just didn't want to hear. The captain let out a frustrated grunt. A relaxing day for every one else was hell for him and the calm silence turned his mind back to his birthday. He fell back wards on to the deck and closed his eyes, if there was nothing else to do he would take a nap. He also hoped that a nap would clear the thoughts of his birthday.

Lunch rolled around and everybody assembled in the kitchen, bathing in the fragrance of the food the cook placed in front of them. The seven of them sat and waited, it being to quiet with their carefree captain missing. They waited, not having Luffy there was an itch in their sides. If they ate and he showed up later he would just complain, so they waited.

"Do you think Luffy's ok?" Chopper asked looking down as his food.

"He was fine when I talked to him." Nami said getting slightly aggravated at the missing Captain.

"What did you talk about?" Usopp asked looking up from a marble in his hand.

"He jumped down from the crows nest and said he was doing to bug Zoro, he almost hit the rigging to the sail to, yelled at him for it." Nami waved it off, taking a sip from her drink. "Then where is Luffy bro, Sanji bro yelled for lunch, heard him all the way down in the storage room." The ship Wright said grabbing a soda from the fridge. "He's usually the first one here."

They all looked a Zoro who seemed to be asleep. He raised an eyebrow.

"What? I haven't seen him since breakfast."

"I think I saw captain-san laying on the deck." Put in Robin, setting her book down.

"Go get him Zoro!" Nami yelled.

The apparently sleeping swordsmen raised an eyebrow again.

"Why?" He answered back glaring at the navigator.

Before he could protest Zoro was kicked out of the kitchen by the stupid Ero-cook. The door slammed shut, leaving the green haired swordsmen standing locked out of the kitchen. With an aggravated sigh Zoro stalked off toward the deck, bent on dragging their captain back so they could eat.

A steady breeze glided over the deck, making the leaves on Nami's' orange trees rustle. Zoro soon found their missing captain, sprawled out on the deck, not snoring at all. Every thing about the captain seemed off to day, from his mood to him not eating and now sleeping in the middle of the deck not snoring. The miffed first mate being the oh so loving one made his way over to the sleeping boy and gave him a quick kick in the side. Though it didn't have the grace of the cooks it appeared to have worked.

"Stop it…………give it back…….its mine……Gale" Luffy mumbled clenching his hat tighter. Ok maybe it hadn't worked. So the swordsman did it again.

"Oi, Luffy."

And again his actions were replied with another mumble and Luffy trying to hit him.

" Will you…..why are you….. Give back my……….hat!"

'what the hell was he dreaming about?' With a sigh Zoro bent down and lifted the captain up. He contemplated hitting him again but he was probably going to have bruises from the kicks. How the boy could sleep through that was a mystery to Zoro, until he remembered the said boy was rubber and probably didn't even feel it. He had to admit that there were a great many advantages to being rubber, one of which was not feeling someone kicking you in side. He slung the boy over his shoulder and made his way to the kitchen, as long as the captain was present they could eat right? He only stopped once to look over the rail when he thought he had seen something move on the water. When it appeared nothing had, Zoro went below deck and into the kitchen.

"Where's Luffy?" Usopp asked with a spoon in his mouth.

Zoro's eye twitched. They started to eat with out him.

" Stupid Ero-cook, I thought you were going to wait!?" Zoro yelled at the blonde chief.

"We would have marimo head, but you took to long and Nami-swan and Robin-Chan were getting hungry" Sanji said lighting a cigarette.

Before Zoro could make a remark to that, Luffy yelled in his sleep and delivered a hard blow to the swordsman's back. Zoro lost his balance and fell face first into a salad bowl on the table. Everyone jumped not expecting Zoro to come flying into the room or Luffy to be standing in the door way clenching his hat to his chest.

"Luffy what's wrong?" Chopper asked the boy in the door way. When no response came, Chopper tried to step closer. Nami stopped him, causing him to look up at her in confusion. If there was something wrong he needed a doctor right?

"Wait." Was the only rely he got.

"…Give back my hat Gale. Its not funny any more!" Luffy yelled his fists closing ever tighter on his hat. His voice had taken a very high boyish pitch.

"I said give back my hat!!" Luffy yelled again. Tears dotted his eyes. Usopp hide slightly behind Sanji and looked over at Nami who was biting her lip.

"I thought this was a one time thing with him."

"I thought it was too" Nami's voice had lost its edge and she gazed at the captain with worry.

"Wait this has happened before?" Sanji put in looking at the captain.

"Yeah, right before we got to the Baratie, he acted weird all day then took a nap and became like this." Usopp elaborated from behind Sanji.

Zoro slowly got up, tearing pieces lettuce off his face. He had, enough of Luffy's mood and after getting almost all of the offensive leafy green vegetable out of his face, he punch Luffy in the jaw.

"Damn it Luffy! What's wrong with you!?" Zoro screamed as Luffy stumbled. The punch was half hearted they all knew it, but it was enough to wake him up.

As Luffy's senses started to drift back from dream world and one of the worst memories he had, he noticed he was in the kitchen, every one was staring at him, and his fingers were numb from how hard he had been holding his hat. The gloom from his up coming birthday also came back. He put his hat on, trying to sink into it as far as possible. Nami was the first to speak up.

"Luffy what's wrong? You've been acting weird, even for you, all day" The others nodded in agreement.

"And who's Gale?" Franky spoke up from the back. Luffy sank deeper into his hat, hoping it would somehow swallow him up. 'The one person I didn't want to think of'

They heard him sigh.

"She was an old friend from my village" he said not looking up and completely avoiding the first question.

The room fell silent. What ever was troubling the captain, he didn't seem to want them to share it with them. That hurt. With all the times he had helped them, didn't he trust them enough, for them to help him?

Suddenly the ship rocked to one side then the other. All of them rushed out of the kitchen to find out what was up, the lunch and conversation promptly forgotten.

On the deck everything looked normal save for the figure now standing on the railing. They tensed and got ready for a fight, but it seemed the person had not yet seen them.

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And thats the first chapter. Please review, and yes I know it was short, and there's a reason for that. Well hope you enjoyed reading, review and Byes.