CHAPTER TWO:

LAY ME DOWN

A few days had passed since the two pirates had received their new boat from the Alvida Pirates, and in those few days quite a lot had happened. They had dropped Coby off at Shells Town merely hours after the people had been freed from the tyranny of Axe-hand Morgan by one Roronoa Zoro, who had disappeared right before the three had shown up. Luffy was disappointed by this, since he had wanted the pirate hunter to be in his crew, but he forgot all about his disappointment once a plate of steaming hot food was placed in front of him. Ace, honoring the deal between the two of them, reluctantly gave his grinning brother his meat. After a slightly tearful farewell from Coby, the two brothers were once again on their way.

Of course, the next day found the brothers on an island overrun by Buggy the Clown, and Ace was reminded of Luffy's fury at his precious hat being damaged. The two of them kicked that entire crew to the curb, however, just before being chased off the island by its furious villagers who mistakenly believed that the brothers had knocked out their mayor (which they had done but purely out of necessity, honest!).

Unsurprisingly, on the third day into their travels, they had defeated the notorious Captain Kuro and stopped him from murdering an innocent girl just for her fortune. This time they were thanked, though, when the girl had given them a small caravel ship by the name of Going Merry. Luffy had been instantly and completely enamored with the ship and had promptly claimed the figurehead as his favorite seat despite the danger, but Ace hadn't expected anything else from him.

Which lead to where they were now, Luffy sitting atop the sheep-based figurehead and Ace charting out the route that they had taken and writing fiercely in the logbook, every once in a while glancing up to make sure that the ship was staying on course and that Luffy was where he was supposed to be. The silence stretched for about five more minutes before it was broken by an immensely bored and hungry Luffy.

"Accceeeee," he whined, turning slightly so that he could see his brother. "I'm boreeeeeeeed."

"I'm busy right now Luffy," Ace said, not looking up from what he was doing. "Go find something to amuse yourself with. I'm sure that there's something on this ship."

"But I already checked and there's nothing."

"Well, that's too bad then. You'll just have to sit there until I'm done."

Luffy pouted but kept quiet, turning so that he could watch the sea again. It was at times like these that he wished that he had another crewmember to mess around with. Yes, he loved his brother, but Ace could be so boring at times, especially when he was doing his navigation stuff and writing in the logbook. Luffy knew how important it was but that didn't change the fact that it was boring when he had to be quiet.

He let out an annoyed whine and laid limply on the figurehead, staring sullenly out in front of him. His boredom was quickly replaced by excitement when he noticed the slowly growing blob in front of the ship. "It's an island!" he cheered, whipping around to look at his brother and teetering dangerously on the figurehead for a moment before he caught his balance Luckily, Ace hadn't saw, otherwise Luffy would've gotten a scolding. "There's an island coming up, Ace!"

Ace blinked and looked at the map, before looking up and noting that there was an island coming up. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment, before packing up his things and storing them in the galley so that they wouldn't be ruined by his brother.

"What's the island called, Ace?" Luffy asked, leaning back to stare at the older man.

"Konomi Islands," Ace answered. "Now, off the figurehead. We don't know how they'll react to pirates so we have to be on our guard."

Luffy wrinkled his nose but obeyed, his excitement level rising. They had been traveling for days without any island in sight, which meant no adventures or new nakama, and he was getting restless to go explore and maybe find some crewmembers along the way. And he was getting kind of hungry too, as he had finished off the last of their food that morning, which had earned him a punch to the top of his head from a furious Ace.

"Are we going to restock on that island too?" Luffy asked.

"Of course."

"Then I'll go look for some crewmembers and get myself some food while you go get the supplies!"

Seeing nothing wrong with that plan, Ace agreed. He was going to do something like that to begin with, anyway, so it wasn't too worrying that Luffy wanted to explore. He actually expected something like that to happen.

As the island got closer, Ace could see Luffy's excitement rising but before he could tell the rubberman to stay put, Luffy was already gone, having used his powers to catapult himself onto the island and ultimately leaving his brother behind.

"Wait! Luffy!" Ace yelled, leaning dangerously over the edge of the ship. "Get back here! You can't just go catapulting yourself onto an island when you don't know how people are going to react, you idiot!" But Luffy was already out of sight and out of earshot of his brother's yelling, causing Ace to let out a frustrated groan and turn back to the ship, only to see that there were two fish-like figures walking towards him, their lips turned up into quite the firghtening grin.

"This is just perfect," Ace sighed, getting into his fighting stance and causing the fishmen (he faintly remembered reading about them somewhere) to give him mocking looks. And just because fate was deciding to be a bitch that day, he felt darkness creeping up on him and before he could even let out a curse, he was asleep, landing heavily on the deck of the Going Merry.

o

O

o

"Meat, meat, meat, meat," Luffy chanted as he strolled through the small town, completely unaware of the looks he was getting from the villagers. His mind was only on one thing at the moment and that was getting some food into his growling stomach. But he couldn't seem to find any open bars or cafes, which only caused his hunger and annoyance to grow.

"Meeeaaaattttt," he groaned, slumping against a table and starring sadly ahead, his lips turned down in a pout. He looked so absolutely miserable that he gathered the attention of the mayor and sheriff of the little town he was in.

"Boy, what are you doing here?"

Luffy looked up to see a man leaning over him, and his attention was quickly caught by the pinwheel sticking out of the old man's hat. Hunger forgotten for a moment, he straightened up and exclaimed, "That's so cool! Ne, Ossan, why is there a pinwheel in your hat?"

The man blinked but never got to answer as Luffy had already fired off another question, having quickly remembered the real reasn as to why he was on Konomi Islands in the first place. "Pinwheel-ossan, do you know where I can get some meat? I'm hungry."

"This island isn't welcoming to strangers," the man answered. "You should leave and try a different one."

"But, I'm hungry," Luffy whined, "and Ace said that this was the closest place to get supplies before Loguetown... Ah! I left Ace behind! He's gonna be so angry with me..."

Luffy pouted as his stomach growled again but before he could speak, a shaking voice filled the air.

"Arlong's coming!"

Luffy blinked at the sudden feeling of despair that appeared. Usually, he wasn't one for noticing the atmosphere, but not even he could ignore it this time. He sat up and glanced around the small village, his eyes ultimately landing on the Pinwheel-ossan, who looked like he could barely conceal his anger.

"Ne, Pinwheel-ossan, who's Arlong?"

"Someone you shouldn't get involved with."

Luffy tilted his head to one side, watching as the villagers all scrambled into their homes, before he caught sight of the hulking figure walking towards them. His eyes widened at the sight of it and his jaw dropped in shock. He had never seen anyone so cool-looking before! He looked like he was fish, but he was walking and even talking like a human! "So cool," he whispered, earning a heated glare from Pinwheel-ossan.

"There is nothing cool about him at all," he hissed, but before he could say anything else, Arlong and his followers were upon them.

"Are you the one who was found with weapons in his possession three days ago?" the person who Luffy assumed Arlong was asked, towering over Pinwheel-ossan. But before the man could even speak, Luffy had spoken up, oblivious to the warning looks he was getting from the villagers.

"Fish-ossan, do you know where I can get some meat?"

A silence blanketed the village so thick that it could be cut with a sword as everyone turned their attention to look at the grinning Luffy.

"Well, do ya?" he asked again, after the silence had stretched for too long, his grin quickly morphing into a frown when only more silence answered his question. He was hungry, goddammit! And no one would tell him where to find anything to eat!

"Who is this boy?" Arlong asked, spitting out the word like it was poison.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man whose going to be the next Pirate King!" Luffy answered, his grin returning. If all they wanted to know was who he was before giving him any meat than that was fine. "And you must be Arlong! So, do you know where any meat is?"

There was a moment of silence before all the fishmen burst out laughing, causing Luffy to frown in confusion. What was so funny about wanting to know where there was meat? Seriously, these guys must be total idiots to be laughing at something like that.

"You? The next Pirate King?" Arlong asked between his laughter. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in years! How could a lowly human like you be the next Pirate King?!"

Luffy's frown deepened. "Oi! Don't laugh at me! I am going to be the Pirate King and if you don't like it then too bad, you stinkin fish!"

The laughter instantly stopped.

"What did you just say?" Arlong growled, now towering over Luffy with unmistakable fury swimming in his eyes.

"I said that I'm going to be the next Pirate King."

Did this guy have a hearing problem or something? Luffy had spoken in his usual this-is-going-to-come-true voice, which was actually pretty loud, but apparently Arlong hadn't heard him the second time either as he asked, "What did you call me, you stupid human?"

"I called you a stinkin fish," Luffy answered, in a nonchalant voice as he stared up at Arlong.

"You stupid boy," Pinwheel-ossan whispered, shaking his head but he had gone unheard as Arlong had punched Luffy, sending the boy flying, out of anger and disbelief that someone had the nerve to call him a "stinking fish".

"That's a warning to all of you," Arlong said, turning to glare at the watching villagers. "No one goes up against me and expects to live."

Apparently satisfied with the way the villagers looked at him with fear, he turned and ordered the rest of his men to return to Arlong Park, forgetting completely what he had gone to Cocoyashi Village for in the first place.

There was silence as he left but once Arlong was out of earshot, Pinwheel-ossan turned and ordered, "Someone find that boy and see if he's still living. If he is, treat his wounds before sending him away."

"But, Genzo-" someone began until they were interrupted by a furious voice.

"What the hell was that for?!"

Everyone turned to stare disbelievingly at Luffy as he pulled himself out of a heap of wood and glass, perfectly fine after having been punched by Arlong and sent flying into a building.

"Boy, you..." Genzo began, shocked that someone had survived that blow and appeared completely unharmed by it save for a few cuts here and there.

Luffy blinked and looked at him, his face splitting into a wide grin as he pulled his cheek, causing it to stretch more than a normal human's face should. "It's alright. I'm a rubber man so that didn't hurt a bit!"

"A rubber man?"

"Yup! I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi so now I'm a rubber man!"

AN: Sorry if this seems rushed and short, I was sick when I wrote it, which was actually awhile ago. And I'm not to sure of how I wrote Arlong, since I kind of read that Arc real fast when I got to it because I'm just not really fond of it (though I'm excited for the new special that's a retelling of this arc, which is weird, I know). Also, don't expect chapters to come out this fast. I just wanted to get the first two up because I already had them written and all. I also have little interlude type things that I'm working on for the adventures that I skim over (like the Buggy chapters and the ones with Captain Kuro) so expect those eventually, along with maybe something for the goodbye with Coby? Idk yet

- Capri