Shanks had thought about the possibility of this happening, but he had hoped that the kid would have never had the guts to even try. Especially now with all of the uproar the village was in, it took a lot of strength to keep his temper in check. "What the hell..." he growled, eyes glinting dangerously, "Are you doing here Luffy?"
The boy swallowed hard, trying to shrink back into the barrel. He didn't know what had made the captain so mad, but he really didn't want to find out. Did he blow his cover too soon? Maybe he just startled him a bit... Yeah! It was all just one big misunderstanding, that's all. Once he told the redhead why he had snuck on board then Shanks would see how brave he was and make him a pirate!
Well, it was worth a shot anyway.
"I-it's a really funny story," he started, slowly pulling the lid closer, "But you guys look real busy so heh... I shouldn't b-bother you..." He was about to shut himself back in when the container was suddenly picked up and turned completely upside down. "AHH!" he shrieked as he fell onto the deck hard, his back making a solid thud as it came in contact with the wood. "What was that for?!" he yelled, rubbing his head as he glared up at whoever had done it.
Tossing aside the barrel, Shanks yanked Luffy up by his arm. "Come on Anchor," he ordered, dragging him behind him as he headed towards his cabin. "Benn! Send a message to Foosha Village that we found the little runaway! You're in charge until I come back out." It had been a long time since the crew had heard him sound so serious and angry, especially when they weren't even in battle. But no one wanted to say anything to set him off the edge, they knew what would happen then.
"Aye aye Cap'n," Beckman mumbled, "Get back to work everyone! Somebody clean this mess up before we have to deal with splinters and rottin' tangerines!" Luffy almost tripped over his own feet, too shocked to really try to get away. What? Why the cabin? Couldn't he stay outside with everyone else? Unless...
His face paled and he tried to yank his arm away. "W-wait! C'mon Shanks, let me explain first! I-I just fell asleep in there, that's all!" All the redhead did was glower down at him with a look that clearly said, "shut the hell up and move your feet." His head dropped, tears pricking at his eyes as he kept his gaze on the wooden floorboards. Shit! he thought, biting his tongue for now. Why did he have to mess up?! If he had just kept quiet for a bit longer then maybe the captain wouldn't be as mad... He felt like kicking himself in the face for being so stupid.
With the clinking of keys, Shanks unlocked the door with a quick flick of his wrist and pushed the boy inside. "Sit down." His voice had gotten a bit softer, but he still had a scary look on his face that made Luffy squirm. Pulling over a chair of his own, the captain plopped down and crossed his arms as he scanned the boy in front of him. "Now, I'm going to ask you one question and I expect an honest answer. Lying ain't gonna do nothin' except make the situation worse. No smart mouth comments, no excuses." After a meek nod from the kid, he shook his own head. "I want to hear words Anchor, now answer me verbally, do you understand?"
"Y-yes sir..." he mumbled, fiddling with his fingers as his feet swung back and forth. "I'm really-" Shanks cut him off with his hand, causing Luffy to flinch slightly.
"Another thing, only answer the question I ask. Nothing else. Now..." He sat forward a bit, his eyes piercing holes into the child's skull. "When did you get in that barrel?"
He squirmed a bit, but the black-haired boy managed to answer, "Last night."
"What in the world gave you the idea to sneak on board?" Now it was a real struggle to keep his voice level, his hand twitching just from the effort alone.
"M-Makino said I should find a way to convince you to let me be a pirate..." He wrung his hands, not wanting to look up at the redhead and reveal his guilty expression. Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea after all, too bad he didn't realize that yesterday instead of now. "I thought maybe if you saw how brave I was and prepared... you would see I'm not just some little kid and let me join your crew." Yup, now that he said it all out loud he realized just how stupid it all sounded.
Obviously, Shanks found it to sound ridiculous as well. "Do you realize what you've done?!" His voice rose, going into full scolding mode. "The entire village was freaking out, willing to risk their lives to find you! Makino just about passed out because she was sure it was her fault and not to mention you could have gotten hurt! What if the barrel you had chosen wasn't going on the ship you thought, hmm? Did you think of that? And don't even get me started on that pocket knife you had left OPEN! One wrong move while you slept and it could have cut your stomach like butter."
This was just getting worse, Luffy was ready to throw himself over the side of the boat just so he could get out of the lecturing alone. "I-I knew what I was doing! I'm not a ba-OW!" The cry was from the redhead standing up and grabbing the boy's ear firmly. "S-Shanks! Let go!"
"Let go? Fine." The captain sat down and pulled the boy swiftly over his lap without a single pause. "I swear Monkey D. Luffy you are going to be the death of me! You're lucky we found you alive in that barrel, not decaying at the bottom of the freaking ocean!" He pulled down his shorts then boxers, not wanting to waste any time. This was a lesson that the young lad needed to learn now before he got himself killed, and there was going to be no warm up. "Now, I'm going to give you the spanking of your life. It's gonna hurt a lot and I'll be using something else to drive the lesson home, but I expect full cooperation. Understand me young man?"
When the boy stayed silent, he landed his hand hard on the bare skin. "I asked a question." He hated having to be so stern and strict, but this was the only way the message would get through. Shanks had tried time outs and groundings, spankings were the only way to get the brat to truly listen. Maybe if his father had stayed around then they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place, but he did what he had to.
Luffy yelped, jumping a bit when feeling the light smack. Why did he have to open his loud mouth? "Y-yes sir!" he squeaked out, squirming a bit, "P-please, I didn't think-OW!" He was cut off by a quick bombardment of sharp slaps on his backside, a small sensation of the tingling of pain and heat growing.
"Yeah, you didn't think at all. That's part of the reason you're over my knee in the first place!" He continued to pepper his backside, keeping a rhythm as he trailed from the top of his now pink bottom down to the tops of his thighs. "I was absolutely terrified when the mayor told me you were missing!"
He paused, and with hesitation slid open a drawer of his desk. "You know I love you like a son Luffy, but this time you went way too far. If I can't trust you to obey, then how will I know that when I leave you'll be safe? Do you realize just how worried I was, not to mention the rest of the village."
The boy felt something hard tap on his bottom, and he whipped his head around. "S-Shanks! Don't use that!" he shrieked, thrashing around desperately. Sure the captain had threatened to use the hairbrush a few times, but he always thought it was just a bluff to scare him! The thing wasn't huge, but the wood felt heavy as if someone was laying a book on him. His butt hurt enough from the first smacks, he didn't want to know what pain the brush would do. "I-I'll stay in the bottom of the b-boat for the rest of the trip! I'll w-wash all the dishes!"
Shaking his head, the redhead brought the brush's flat side down hard. He wasn't going to bruise the child of course, but this had to be done. Shanks felt like it was his responsibility, his duty as Luffy's role model to step up and teach him some discipline before it was too late. "You'll be down there with a sore bottom, I'll tell you that much. You know what pirates normally do with stowaways? Kill them for fun. You're lucky you were even in the right barrel. What if you ended up on a different ship and they skewered you before throwing you to the sharks?!" It was hard to keep his voice down, but he was just so furious.
The small boy shrieked, bucking and twisting his body in an attempt to avoid the blows. "S-sh-OW! Shaaaaanks!" he whined, drumming his feet against the side of the chair, "I'm sorreeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"I'm glad." WHAP! Shanks had to grip the child's hip to keep him from falling off his lap and finally tucked his flailing legs underneath one of his own. "But you and I both know that you deserve this." SMACK! "I hope this time you'll learn your lesson and won't be so reckless next time." SLAP! God, he was sounding like his father. He wasn't so sure if that was a good or bad thing. "If something happened to you, I'm not sure if I could show my face ever again. You're a special kid, and I know that someday you'll be able to do great things. But right now you're too young and that's okay. Just wait and enjoy being little for now, it's just fine to be a child. I was one, Makino, even the mayor was your age at one time." He bit his lip as he lifted the boy's bottom up higher, aiming for his sit spots. "This hurts me too, and I hate having to do it... But just remember that I do it because I care."
Luffy was practically wailing now, the hairbrush hurt like nothing he had ever felt before! The wood seemed to bite into his bare butt, burning it horribly. No longer did he care about being quiet so the others wouldn't hear him or seeing the ocean. He would be okay with never stepping foot on the Red Force for the rest of his life if it meant the spanking would stop. "WAAH! PLEASE CAP'N! I'm really sorry!" Finally, he just went limp, giving up on trying to get away. He was ashamed that he disappointed the captain. "P-please don't hate me!"
Shanks froze, the brush in midair. Hate? Before the kid knew what was happening, he found his face pressed into the redhead's shoulder. "...S-Shanks...?" he whimpered, gripping onto his sleeve as he tried to control his sobs. And that's when he realized something that shocked him.
The fearsome pirate of the seas, Red-Haired Shanks, was crying.
It wasn't horribly obvious, but there were indeed tears sliding down his cheeks. "Luffy..." he whispered, squeezing him a bit tighter, "You're more than a friend to me, and that means something. I might have to be the bad guy sometimes when you do wrong, but I could never and would never hate you even if you were trying to kill me." He pulled away, searching the boy's eyes for some understanding. "We all make mistakes, my crewmates do it all the time. But they're still here and I call them my friends." He paused, wiping a tear off of his own face. "Do you get it?"
Lowering his gaze to the ground, Luffy sniffled and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry Shanks... I-I just wanted to show t-that I was ready to be a p-pirate..." The redhead smiled a bit and ruffled the child's hair.
"I know Anchor. I did the same thing as a kid except worse. But promise you won't do anything as stupid as this ever again, okay? Then I won't have to worry about the Mayor getting a heart attack." The kid giggled, starting to perk up again. "So, you're going to be staying in here until we get back to Foosha Village, got it?"
Immediately, Luffy started to whine. "What?! B-but I wanna go see the ocean!" His lips drew into a pout as he crossed his arms. "This is my first time on a pirate ship for real!" It wasn't fair! He went through all the trouble of packing, sneaking onto the ship, and ended up getting spanked for it. Now he wasn't even going to enjoy the ride back. His hard work was wasted and the thought made him flare in anger. "That's not even fair!"
Shanks gave him a stern look, quieting the boy. "You got on the boat because you sneaked on. Letting you out on the top deck would just be a reward, so you're going to stay in here and write an apology to the village." Luffy groaned, letting his body slump forward so his forehead rested on the captain's shoulder.
"I hate writing..." he grumbled, hoping his pity party would convince the redhead to let him go and have some fun. No kid wanted to sit in a room for hours writing stupid letters! This kind of torture had to be illegal. The captain rolled his eyes, trying not to smile.
"Yeah, but they're a lot worse things I could have you do. And I remember you saying something about washing all of the dishes..." He stroked his chin, looking off into the distance as he pretended to think. "Maybe other things... I could ask my mates what they could have you do. How about giving Lucky Roo a foot massage?"
Luffy immediately panicked, waving his hands wildly as his eyes almost popped out of his head. "N-no! I'll write a letter to everyone! Promise!" He had smelled and seen what happened when Roo took off his shoes, it almost poisoned the entire crew for a week. Not to mention there was still a mystery of what feet were hidden underneath his socks.
Laughing, the redhead ruffled his hair. "I'm just messing with ya Anchor. Don't freak out." He had a big smile back on his face, and the kid knew he was truly forgiven. "We'll be back home in no time, make sure to give Makino the biggest hug you've ever tried."
The boy giggled, nuzzling into Shanks' hand for once. Maybe being a kid wasn't so bad, he could be a pirate later. For now, he would be content with dreaming of the day he became the pirate king and stood proudly with the One Piece.
But that didn't mean he couldn't try in a few months, right?
The End
