I was recently told by my favorite author that I use the word "fuck" too often.

This is dedicated to them.

"What're ya spacin' out for, kid?" a slave called out.

Luffy blinked and turned away from the bars to see a group of slaves just looking at him with semi-disgruntled and amused expressions. "What?"

"You've been staring out there for hours," another slave explained with a chuckle. "You could burn through that iron if you stared any longer. You ain't thinking about anything, are you?"

"Nothing."

"Ya really thinking about nothin'?"

"Yeah, nothing."

"How many times do they have to cut you up before you learn?" An older slave mocked as he laughed at Luffy's suffering.

The small teen was propped up against his usual corner in the cell and he didn't even have the willpower to tell the guy to shove a stick up his ass. He just snorted and let his head roll to the side. Luffy caught eye of another man sitting in the opposite corner sleeping soundly. It was Ol' Broken Record, who finally shut up after three weeks of wailing like a spoiled child. Honestly, the lack of incessant repetition of the same phrase grated on his nerves even more than when the guy ran his mouth for hours. Who the hell was he supposed to take out his misdirected rage on, now? Luffy picked up a pebble and tossed it in his hand a few times. After a good second of contemplation, he chucked the pebble at the man's head.

"Ow! What the fuck!?" Ol' Broken Record complained as he rubbed the sore spot on his forehead.

Luffy spread his arms out towards the man as if to showcase him. "And he speaks real words, for once!" The slaves around him laughed at the display but one of them grabbed their own pebble and hit Luffy with it.

"Your trashy language is spreading," the slave grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

Luffy petulantly stuck his tongue out at the other slave. "Stop being a killjoy. You're just bitter about that concussion I gave you two days ago."

"Go fuck yourself, Monkey."

"Wow, such originality," Luffy muttered as he rolled his eyes. "Broken Record, not gonna go on your usual spiel about saviors and what not?" The man didn't respond. Luffy grabbed a roll of bread next to him and munched on it. "Is he dead? Please tell me he's dead."

All the dumb shits in the room chuckled as if he was joking, which was just annoying. Since when did he become the object of hilarity? Some guy reached over to check Broken Record's pulse before his hand was smacked away. "Stop messing with me!" Ol' Broken Record growled as he glared at the guy.

The guy's brows furrowed as he pushed himself to his feet. "Oh, you've been non stop whining for three weeks and now you think you're in charge?" Luffy sighed at the commonly heard threat and closed his eyes to try and catch some sleep. However, before the guy could kick Ol' Broken Record in the stomach, his supposed victim grabbed him by the ankle and practically flipped him onto the concrete ground with a harsh smack. The cell immediately quieted. Luffy couldn't even hear the usual ear-piercing scrape of small rocks against the stone. He cracked open an eye to look over at the once pathetic man.

"I wasn't whining!" Broken Record denied as he stood up and planted his feet on the ground. "I know my crew will come back for me! They said they would! I'll fight any of you dick heads if you dare underestimate them!"

Luffy groaned. And he thought the dumb bastard had finally grown a pair. Why did he have to throw that dumb pebble? Why did he think he missed the hooligan's delusional rambles? "Damn, he's back to speaking gibberish. It was good while it lasted, guys."

"And you!" Broken Record shouted as he spun around. He pointed an accusing finger at Luffy with a vengeful gleam in his eye. Luffy straightened up a little with interest. "What do you know about anything? You're just a fucking child! Stop making assumptions without bases, you stupid brat! I'm not crazy and you're not a psychiatrist so stop acting like you know people when you really don't! My crew will come back for me and-"

"Would you shut up about your crew!" Luffy snapped as he used his remaining strength to stand on his feet. The cuts in his back protested but he stood his ground. "If your crew were so great, how are you here in the first place!? Yeah, they're just so fucking great that they can't even save their own crewmate from getting captured by slave trappers! You think a crew as weak as that can raid Mariejois!?" The small teen let out a harsh laugh at the thought. "Use your fucking brain, you moron! You know who the last person psychotic enough to raid Mariejois was? Fisher Tiger! Guess how long ago that was! Five years ago! Nothing fucking changed, you dumbass! They rebuilt this place like magic in just a few short months and beefed up security tenfold! They're putting sixty percent of their firepower into this place! That's how much they care about their precious holy ground!" He marched on over to Broken Record and raised up to his toes just to try and look the idiot with a death warrant in the eye. "Don't come on walking in here like you're hot shit! Your crew won't even be able to make it within a hundred kilometers before they're shot down like animals! You see that half blind old piece of garbage sitting next to those bars and holding his hand out like he thinks he deserves another roll of bread?"

"Fuck you, brat," the man spat.

Luffy ignored the man and returned to staring down Ol' Broken Record with a glare molten enough to melt hell. "He's been in this shithole for thirteen years! Not even Fisher Tiger saved his rotten ass and you think your little crew can somehow do the job? That's real fuckin' cute, pal!" He gestured to the rows and rows of cells around them, filled with slaves. Their eyes were zombie-like; some wide and unseeing, others closed by the hand of death. These former people, now all beaten and burned into the perfect shell. Something the nobles could program to do whatever they wanted. "You want to survive?" he snarled as his eyes scan over the slaves of his own cell. The slaves who were still alive. "Start by forgetting about your little crew and focusing on something that's actually important."

"That was really intense," one of the slaves mentioned as he scrubbed the ballroom floor. Luffy sat up, startled from looking out the window at the rest of Mariejois. He sent the slave an annoyed glance at the comment. "Jeez, just sayin'. Never seen ya go off on someone like that."

"Shut up, dipshit," Luffy retorted as he went back to basically scraping the marble tiles with his rag.

"Hey, ya can' blame a guy for being curious."

"Yes, I can. Shut up." The small teen effectively ended the conversation and continued to dry up excess water. The two cleaned the rest of the ballroom in silence. Right as Luffy was about to pick up his bucket of soapy water and move on to the hallway, a guard walked by and kicked the pail away like nothing. The teen stared at the spilled water that pooled across the ground before his head snapped around to face the dickhead who just kicked over his bucket. Seriously, it was like once a day with these guys.

"Come on, man. This is like the third time, today," the other slave said as he visibly deflated. "Shouldn' you get punished for this?"

"Silence!" The guard bellowed as he smashed the end of his spear against the floor. "You have no right to speak unless spoken to!" With that, he strode away as if he didn't just sound like a mother reprimanding her rowdy children.

The slave shot Luffy an incredulous raise of his eyebrow, which was honestly amusing. He could almost see the urge to laugh written all over the man's face. "Don't speak unless spoken to," Luffy mocked as he started wiping the tiles with his semi-dry rag. "What is he? Even my grandpa doesn't say that." He threw the torn up piece of cloth in his hand against the tiles with a scoff. "Fuck this, I'm not clean up this stupid fucking floor for the third time! Meet you in the hallway!" He stomped over to his bucket and swiped it off the floor before he took the other slave's sponge and marched out of the ballroom.

"Hey! How am I supposed to clean without a sponge!?" the other slave shouted as he scurried after Luffy. "Wait up!" Luffy didn't mind him and continued his beeline straight towards the hallway. The other slave managed to catch up to him, although he heaved from exhaustion. "Jeez, how do you walk so fast? You're bonier than I am!"

Luffy resisted the urge to lash out at his unwanted companion and just pushed open the large doors leading to the glass hallway. The thing was spotless; of course, it was. When was anything in this holy hell not spotless? This was stupid, everything was stupid. He set down his bucket and began scrubbing at random areas in hopes of clearing away any invisible dust from the glass. The last time he half-assed his duties, he got more slashes on his back than he accumulated in three years worth of time. "Let's get this over with. I want my goddamn moldy bread and I ain't gonna let those jackasses back in the cell steal my shit."

"And you blame others for being killjoys."

A shriek cut off their conversation and the two of them turned to look at each other. In silent agreement, they both slammed opened the doors and rushed into the ballroom. Saint Shalulia stood next to the puddle of water they left in the room with a distressed finger.

"Why is there water all over the ground!? I could've slipped and fell! This is an attack on my person! A clear assassination attempt!"

Luffy's face fell into his palm as he groaned. "One of your shitty guards kicked a pale over."

"How dare you speak to me that way, with that vulgar language!" Saint Shalulia screamed. "You should be on your knees! Guards!"

One of the guards walked over to Luffy before they struck him down with their seastone spear. Luffy bit his tongue as he hit the floor with a resonating thud. Blood welled up in his mouth but he remained resilient to any sound of weakness. The fact that his back was still shredded from the last time he pissed someone off didn't help with the pain.

"Deal with this thing accordingly," Shalulia sniffed as she snobbily looked down at Luffy's crippled form. "I have no time for such foolishness. Father is expecting me." She promptly spun around and made her way out of the room, several servants trailing behind her with their heads down low.

"Learn your place, slave!" the guard barked after the door closed.

"Says the slightly more privileged dog," Luffy choked out as he tried to focus his mind on something other than the searing pain. He spat at the guard's feet with a feral smirk. "You think you have authority but you don't. All of you act like you can order us around to hide how little power you really have." He shakily pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet. "You keep us trapped in this hell just to feed your own ego. You know what it's like, don't you? Do you see the world out there? Or are you so blinded by your nonexistent power that you can't look out a window." He bared his teeth like a hungry animal and straightened out his aching back just to try and find the guard's eyes. "Stay blind, then. If you want to keep propelling your delusional fantasy, go ahead. Hit me again. I dare you, bitch."

"Why was I the only one to get whipped?" Luffy mumbled into the concrete.

"You're the one who always causes trouble," a gruff old slave replied as he tore a stiff piece of bread from its foundations with his teeth. "Look, kid. None of us like listening to those assholes but you'll die before next season if you keep pulling the same crap."

"By all means, I tested that fireplace idea yesterday." The small teen let out a suffering sigh and tried to move himself to no avail. "They caught me and beat the shit out of me right in front of everyone who was here at the time. I didn't know guards had seastone spears. That's just unfair."

One of the slaves burst out laughing as he remembered the event that had previously taken place. "It was hilarious! You should've seen how the guard reacted when he tried to bite his hand off! Classic!"

"Wish I were here to see that," the older slave said with a humored snort. "Beats walking around on all fours the entire day carrying the weight of a fat elephant on my back."

Luffy closed his eyes and turned his head so his face wasn't squashed against the floor. "Shut your trap, I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Sleep and you might not wake back up."

"Good."

"You're still hanging on, kid, no matter what you believe you're thinking. One day you'll realize you have to fall. It's okay."

"Shut up."

"Tell me about your crew," Luffy said as he sat down next to Ol' Broken Record. The man scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion as he sent the teen a glare. "What? I'm not sitting next to Mouth Breather over there and listening to the rambles of some guy who's drunk on not drinking for ten years."

"Just a few days ago you were telling me to shut up and now you want me to talk?" Broken Record groused as he shook his head. "You're a brat, you know that?"

Luffy shrugged off the insult as he lazily hung his head. "I've been told. It would've stayed as my nickname if I didn't threaten to castrate all of them with my bare hand. Still call me it, anyway, the bastards." He almost found it in himself to giggle at the absurdly shocked expression on Broken Record's face at whatever he just said before it melted into expectancy.

"Of course you said you would do that. I'm not even surprised anymore."

"Shut up, I'm not that violent."

"The first day I was here, you punched a guy in the face and the following days you threw a bowl at someone's head, gave someone a concussion, threatened to rip out someone's spine from their ass, and pretty much picked a fight with a different noble every hour. Plus the fact that you just told me you're willing to castrate people with your bare hands, I'd say you have something wrong with you."

"Whatever, you're going off topic," Luffy reminded while paying no heed to anything Ol' Broken Record had listed. "I wanna learn about this crew you've been crying about."

"I was never crying about it!"

It was Luffy's turn to send Broken Record an incredulous look. "Really? All I remember is you whining, 'They promised they'd come and get me! I know they're gonna come back for me! I'm tragically relying on people to come break me out of Mariejois! I have unrealistic expectations! Oh, woe is me!" Luffy completely his mocking monologue by throwing the back of his hand over his forehead and dramatically falling to the ground.

"I don't sound like that!" the man retorted as he turned away from Luffy in agitation. "You just think I sound like that!"

"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Luffy said as he sat back up. "Tell me about your crew."

Ol' Broken Record let out an exasperated sigh as he scratched his head. "My crew, huh? They're a bunch of jackasses, that's what they are. Don't care about anything except for adventure and gold. Swear they'd drink themselves to death if I weren't there to steer the ship. We've got five people. Just five. I'm the navigator. Well, I was. Bobo was good with guns. The guy was either shooting something out of the sky somber or shooting something out of the sky drunk. Tobio was the doctor. He always wanted to solve everything by stitching. Got a cold, stitch it up. Got yourself cut in half, stitch it up. Firstmate was always fishing. He really liked fishing. He ain't good at anything but fishing and making plans. Captain's a nutcase. He doesn't follow a plan for anything. He just goes wherever his fuckin' heart leads him. Enough to make it into the Grandline. At least, one island in."

"They sound weird," Luffy commented as he rocked back and forward. "Why did you only get an island in?"

"Damn Whiskey Peak," Ol' Broken Record spat as his hands balled up into fists. "Buncha lying bastards split me apart from my crew."

"Whiskey Peak?"

"You haven't heard about it, have you?" Luffy shook his head and leaned forward, signaling for the man to continue. "The place is swarming with bounty hunters. They act like they welcome pirates but they're all bastards. We were dragged into a fight for our lives, half drunk and messed up from whatever they put in our food. Got myself captured. They said they'd save me." He ran his hand through his cropped hair a few times as if trying to get rid of something in his mind. "Some assholes realized they could just make more money if they sold me to some slave traders. Made the deal and here I am."

Luffy pursed his lips into a frown before he fiddled with the string around his neck and exhaled. "Jeez, when did I ask you for your life story?"

Broken Record looked like he was about to mouth off before he restrained himself. "Why do you care, anyway? Nothing I say matters to you."

The small teen stopped curling the string around his finger and grabbed the straw hat hanging on his back. "See this thing? Someone important gave it to me. He was a pirate." Luffy placed the hat on his head with a content smile. "I made a promise to him that I would become Pirate King." He chuckled as he felt the grooves of the woven straw between his fingers. "Can you imagine a seven-year-old standing on a port just bawling his eyes out like a toddler as he declares he'll become the next Pirate King?"

Ol' Broken Record couldn't help but let the edges of his lips quirk upward in the slightest smile. "You sounded like a way better kid back then than now."

"A crybaby and a weakling?" Luffy shook his head but keep his nostalgic expression. "I'll have to admit, I was less of an asshole."

"Somehow, that's the only part I can't believe."

The two devolved into fits of laughter and giggles as Luffy lightly punched Broken Record in the arm. "Now, who's the asshole?"

Ol' Broken Record smacked his hand down on the teen's shoulder and pushed him away. "Shut it, you're still the asshole."

"And I keep my title for the fourth year!"

The other slaves either scoffed at their enthusiasm or found themselves drawn to the sudden occurrence of joy. Some were about to pitch in before a loud crash disrupted them. A guard stood at the bars with his foot against them. He slowly lowered it and hit the end of his spear against the ground.

"Be quiet," he ordered before he walked off.

Luffy's mood instantly soured as his posture slumped and he stuck his tongue out. "Hope you burn in a fire," he muttered.

"Maybe he will if Fisher Tiger comes in and burns everything down, again," Ol' Broken Record suggested with a shrug.

Luffy grinned and hit him on the head. "You wish."