IMPORTANT! There is the same story on another website, quotev, but slightly different. I have written that one as well as a favour to a friend, and I'm uploading this one as I was asked to do one for Shanks and I didn't want to write another one, because I don't have much time to write as it is and there is a perfectly good one right here.
Also, if anyone wants a one-shot, type ~sharingangirl into Quotev and you should be at my friends profile. She has published lots of anime one-shots so look at them, that's where the other version of this one is. Her name is AmayaTheDragonSlayer.
(A.N Who can find the hidden quote in the story? Comment what it is if you can, and where it's from.)
Laughter could be heard throughout the bar, creating a vibe of excitement and friendliness that followed my fellow crewmembers around nearly everywhere they went.
"You can't be a pirate! You can't even swim 'anchor'!" Shanks roared with laughter at the little black haired boy.
"I don't have to swim to be a great pirate!" The young boy yelled. "If I can't go on your crew, they I'll get my own! I'll be King of the Pirates with the best crew ever!"
I sat on the stool close to him and touched his shoulder, making me turn his attention to me. I nearly started giggling when his face turned to mine, his cheeks puffed up in anger like a kitten.
"I'm sure you'll be a great pirate when you're older, Luffy. But you can't go out to sea yet, just wait a little longer, ok?" I said softly with a smile, giving his shoulder a light squeeze.
"But I am strong! My punch is like a pistol!" He declared. But he quickly deflated. Ignoring Shanks' loud laugh in the background, he was given a cup of juice from Makino, the bar owner, and quickly chugged it down.
"See! You ARE only a little kid! Pirates don't drink juice!"
"Well then he can be the first juice drinking pirate captain." I said with a small glare in Shanks' direction, not liking how he was trying to discourage the cute little boys dream.
"Awww, Anna! Don't look at me like that! I'm only teasing!" Shanks said, throwing me a wink and a grin, his eyes sparked with glee and I noticed a dimple in his left cheek, which just added to the overall vibe of childish amusement my captain gave off.
I blushed and turned back to my glass of sake, suddenly fascinated in the ripples of colour you could see when the liquid was thrown into light. I both hated and loved the Captain's flirtatious nature. My fluttered whenever he looked my way, and his smile gave my cheeks a whole new shade of pink, it hadn't taken long for me to realise why. I had fallen in love. Big time. Now wasn't really different from back when I first realised my feelings. Shanks still flirted. I still blushed. Yet I still didn't tell him, I felt that if I did then our current relationship would be destroyed, what we had right now was good, it was nice to spend time with him, drink together and joke around like children. I loved him, but he could never feel the same, so I was happy with staying friends, that was the best I could hope for.
"Hey, barmaid! Get me and my men here all of the sake in this place!" A loud voice boomed from somewhere over my shoulder. I whipped my head around, cheeks still slightly pink, to locate the source of the shout. It wasn't difficult to see who it was. A man stood at the entrance of the bar, his body was mostly thick bands of muscle, veins standing out from his arms and his face held and rough, mean look, completely different to Shanks. He made his way over to the bar where Makino was calmly, though a bit shaky stood with a cloth in her hands. I admired her bravery.
"I'm sorry sir, but we're out of sake right now."
"Then what are all these drinking? Water!?" He demanded, getting angry at Makino.
Shanks intervened before Makino or anyone else could get hurt. "Hey now, we have this one bottle left. I haven't drunken any yet so you can have it." He said, tossing it lightly to the man.
He looked at Shanks then the bottle, and then suddenly smashed it over the Captain's head, soaking his shirt and the floor. He then laughed as Shanks calmly asked Makino for a mop and started clearing up the spilt alcohol, practically ignoring the brute.
"Do you know who I am?! I am a mountain bandit!" He bragged. I ignored him, favouring to help Shanks on the floor. He brushed his hand against mine and looked into my eyes; he grinned confidently and send me a comforting look, which calmed me immediately. Shanks had it covered. And I trusted my beloved captain completely.
"Hahaha!" The bandit mocked Shanks "How pathetic!"
He became frustrated when Shanks and I showed little reaction, and smashed through the counter with the sword he carried, then he left with a condescending "You can clean that up too" thrown over his shoulder.
Shanks threw his head back and laughed, and the rest of the crew joined in. I let loose a few chuckles, thinking to myself 'so that's what he was doing… Shanks just didn't want to start a fight in the bar...'
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We were back at the boat and I was sat in the kitchen worried about Shanks, I couldn't stop the image of that sake bottle smashing on top of his head from swirling around my mind. I stood and walked to the large cabinet that stood at the corner of the room, on the bottom shelf there were small bottles of cream for disinfecting wounds, and a box of small bandages. I brought a clean towel and the things I had just picked up from the kitchen to the captains quarters. I hesitated slightly, and then knocked.
The red haired man himself opened the door; his wet shirt was still clinging to his muscular shoulders. He looked at me for a moment and then smiled, he moved aside so I could step in and he playfully said,
"Now why has a pretty young girl come to see me?" I blushed predictably at the complement, but I controlled myself and turned to him, tightly clutching the supplies in my hands.
"Well, erm… I thought you might… um… that you would want-." I started explaining, but my heart was beating too quickly and my brain couldn't process the word properly so I cut myself off and fell silent, looking down.
A warm, slightly calloused hand cupped my cheek and lifted my head up gently.
"Anne." My name fell from his lips. "Are you ok? What's wrong? Are you hurt? Do you have something to tell me?" His kind voice was devoid of his usual playful and merry tone, it was filled with concern. Concern for me. I gave him a nervous smile and held up the items in my hand. He looked down at them with confusion so I gathered the courage and explained.
"I was worried that you got hurt when that bandit smashed the bottle on you, so I brought these…" I told him. He laughed lightly and took the towel, slinging it around his neck.
"Don't worry, I'm not hurt or anything, just a bit wet. But thank you for worrying about me." I blushed brightly at the smile he send me and stuttered.
"I-I have to g-go now." I ducked my head and ran out of the captain's cabin. My heart was beating fast and the image of Shanks' smile was still fresh in my mind, even as I lay in bed that night, I couldn't get his face out of my head.
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Shanks paced the path, his eyebrows drawn together in uncharacteristic worry. Luffy was usually up here early to greet us, sometimes early enough that most of the crew would be asleep, but not today. Today, Luffy was nowhere to be seen. I looked at Shanks again, who was still pacing, and I sighed. I wanted to go over to make sure he was alright but I always lost my nerve and stepped back, letting my captain continue on. I felt a nudge in my side and turned to see Yassop standing there, subtly trying to push me towards Shanks.
"Go on Anne. We all know you like him so go for it, get him to think straight." He nudged me again and grinned. "And how about givin' him a little kiss while you're at it?"
"Yassop!" I growled, punching his arm as he laughed.
"Hey! Why do you have to hit me? Why can't you be the girl that blushes at every little thing the captain says all the time?"
"You know why, baka." Yassop and I were fairly close, and he was the only person in the crew that I had told about my feelings for Shanks. And since it was a secret, naturally the whole crew knows, except Shanks of course. Thought according to him spending time with me and Shanks at the same time for over three minuets is a plain indicator that I love the guy anyway.
"Mah, stop changing the subject and just go over there already." Shooting the sniper (pun intended XD) a sharp look, I started making my way over to my still pacing captain.
"Shanks," my hand found its way to his shoulder and he turned to me. "Luffy is probably still upset about yesterday. We should just go to Makino's bar and he'll probably turn up there."
My mind flashed back to what Luffy did the previous day, when he yelled at Shanks for not fighting back, then proceeded to eat one of the cursed devil fruits. It was understandable if he was upset today; after all he witnessed a fairly scary moment with the bandits then had to deal with the knowledge of his new body. But I didn't understand why Shanks looked so worried. I voiced this to the red-haired man.
"I feel like he's in danger, and him not coming to greet us is just making it worse."
"Well then we can all just go and see, yes?" I smiled and he nodded. I shout from the ship called my name and I turned towards it, one of the nurses was waving me over, shouting something about a problem.
"Come to the bar later on, we'll go find the kid." His warm breath tickled my ear where he leaned down to talk to me. My face immediately erupted in heat. I turned just as he signalled the others to follow him. He gave me one last wink before leaving towards the bar.
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The dull light from the lamp in the dark room was starting to hurt my eyes as they traced carefully over the text in front of me. I had been told by the nurses that one of the crew members had come down with a fever and had become delirious, which led to him completely trashing one of the rooms that resided below deck. That room was the place where important information was stored, so now nearly everything was unorganised and it was up to me, as the 'scholar' of the red-haired pirates to fix it.
I leaned back on the wooden chair and stretched my arms above me until they reached a point that they fell boneless back down, and then I brought my hand back up to take off my reading glasses, placing them on the table. I rubbed at my sore and strained eyes. I must have been down here for hours, just sorting through documents and separated from what was happening outside the room. I leaned back over the table, ready to finish the job when muffled voices made it to my ears. I sat up again and looked at the ceiling, where the noise originated from.
I was able to make out the words "Captain", "Arm" and "Luffy" so I stood and quickly made my way to the upper level where I soon passed one of my fellow crewmembers that was passing by. Grabbing his arm with my strong grip I started firing off questions.
"What's happening? Is Shanks back? Where is he? Did he find Luffy? Are they-?"
The man cut me off by putting a large hand on my mouth. I gave him a look, and then stuck my tongue out and licked his hand, quickly making him remove the offending appendage.
"Its' a long story, captain Shanks is back and in the medic bay, yeah he did find the kid." He answered me. I demanded that he tell me the story.
He spoke quickly, telling me about how they went to town and were told that Luffy was being held by the bandits in the village, and that something really bad could happen soon to the boy. They got there quickly, talking some and then showing the lowlifes just how outmatched they really are. They took out everyone except the leader, who then got away with Luffy, taking the devil fruit user out to sea. He then said how Shanks swam out to them and saved Luffy, being strangely quiet about that subject, making me feel apprehensive and uneasy about the situation.
"But that doesn't explain why Shanks is in the medical bay!" Getting in the poor man's face, I asked (*CoughDemandedCough*) again for him to tell me the reason.
"..." He was silent as he looked down at me, contemplating how to tell me the news. "Shanks... lost his arm... saving Luffy from a seaking."
The silence in the air could be cut with a knife. 'Shanks... Lost his arm...?' was the only thought that occupied my head. It was surreal to me, that someone as untouchable as captain Shanks could lose something so important to a mere animal, even if that animal was incredibly vicious and feared.
Before my brain had registered what my body was doing, I was half-way to the medical bay where Shanks was. I finally stopped just outside the door, wondering just how to go about seeing him. Yassop's earlier words rang through my head, dusting my cheeks with a pink blush. "How about givin' him a little kiss?" 'Why did that just come into my head? Baka! Stop thinking such dumb thoughts and mature! He doesn't want you and he never will!' My inner voice yelled at me, I dejectedly looked down at the floor, momentarily forgetting that I was stood in front of a door so it was no surprise what happened next.
SMACK. THUD.
I blinked stars out of my eyes and sat up from my sudden descent to the floor. Worried chatter came from somewhere to my left, which turned out to be a nurse, and suppressed laughter came from above me, which I came to see was coming from Yassop. Ben stood at his side watching me with amusement as I got up wobbling.
"I'm ok." I assured the nurse, who at the sight of my glare aimed at the resident sniper scurried off quickly. "May I enquire as to what you find so amusing?" I ground out, voice dangerously polite.
"Haha, nothing Anne. Why don't you skip off to see Shanks now?" He continued to smirk so I pushed passed him, making sure to give his side an extra hard jab with my elbow, wanting to see my captain and not having the energy to fight properly with the baka today.
His bed was at the end of the room. He lay there, peacefully asleep in the sterile bed. It looked so very wrong to see him there. Un-natural. His bright hair that I loved so much was like blood on the snow white pillow, and the empty space where his arm should have been was outlined in the thin sheets, causing my aching head to feel light and sick. I made my way to his bedside and sat on one of the old wooden chairs near it. Resting one of my hands on his hair, and the other on his lone hand, I put my cheek on the sheets and slowly drifted off, not noticing the tiniest pressure on my fingers.
'I love you, Captain Shanks.'
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"Anne... Wake up."
I awoke to a soft, gently voice calling my name, the room was dark and moonlight streamed through the window in the corner. But all my focus was on the man before me.
"Shanks..." I whispered. "Are you ok? Do you hurt?" I was beginning to ramble again, but before I could get started something stopped me. Or I should say someone?
Warm lips softly pressed against mine, the kiss was light and sweet, and much too short but it left my lips tingling, wanting more. As if he read my mind he complied and kissed me again, pulling me by his single arm to his lap and pressing his lips closer to mine. My eyes re-opened and I gazed at him, we had broken apart but his face was still very close to mine, he kissed my nose, making me scrunch it up, and moved back. Then he shuffled into a more comfortable position, which caused my small body to be between his legs.
He leaned his forehead to mine, just resting there and letting his breath fan out across my face, and mine his.
"I need to know... Do you like me?" He bluntly asked. I was still too shocked from the unexpected kiss so I just nodded dumbly. He gave me a face-splitting smile and leaned his forehead against mine, kissing my nose sweetly he whispered.
"Good because I love you. I hope you don't mind a one-armed man because I'm never letting you go."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Captain."
He grinned again and leaned closer, giving me a light wink which sent shivers down my spine and right back up again, making me blush heavily.
"Now how about we take up where we left off?"
A/N: Thank you and please review and check out my other stuff! Thank you and lots of love!