Chapter 2

Well this is my second chapter of Warming a Cold Heart. I apologize for my faults at the first chapter, and things I totally forgot. That was careless hahahaha! Thanks to CallMeEevee who pointed out my careless and terrible mistake – not describing Mr. Kane. PS. Mr Kane calls his Aunt Mary Bloody Mary in this fanfic, owing to her witch status. Anyway, have fun!

Well, let's go! The second chapter! RnR, and hope you enjoy!

Kane was pissed. He was cold, hungry, waiting to piss, and the hag just wouldn't let him out of the bed. His foul mouth and blunt nature did not help him in anyway, as he felt bumps the size of an egg on his head, not to mention he was now strapped to the bed. This situation reminded him too much of his alcoholic grandfather, which did not help his already foul mood. Already he remembered the terrible punishments.. The whi- CRASH! Kane, while having ice cold composure, couldn't keep it as he saw an object, no, a person, fly past him, crashing into the wall with a scream. While he looked at the fallen figure who was recovering from the crash, he couldn't help but find the person familiar.

"Is your name Monkey D Luffy?" Kane curtly asked, regaining his composure.

Luffy stiffened, hearing his name in such a tone. He turned behind, finding a man who was strapped to the bed. The man looked thin, pale and was of a tall stature. While his hair was an extremely dark, what struck Luffy was the eyes. Narrow, dark blue piercing eyes. It was the very same eyes Ace gave him when they first met. Cold, calculating and full of unreleased anger. To say nothing about the scars on his bare torso. However, Luffy also noticed the look of desperation and hidden loneliness upon the man's eyes. As blockheaded as Luffy was, he had an uncanny ability to read people very well.

While Kane gave Luffy the hardest glare he could to chase him away, he was instead surprised as Luffy reached out a hand with an infectious grin, "You look cool, so come join my crew!"

Kane was dumbstruck. However he had no time to answer as Doctorine(The hag asked him to call her that) burst inside and chased Luffy away, saying something about him not being nice. He must have called her a h**. Doctorine then started to undo the straps on his bed, further amazing him, citing the reason that he was recovered enough to be allowed to move.

"So, are you going to accept that offer, boy? Exchange an old life for a new family? A new start?" Doctorine asked as she undid the straps on his bed.

"What..?" was the only answer of Kane. She couldn't have known where he came from, now could she? Then again, she had lived a pretty long life(Not that he was going to say it).

"Don't try to avoid the question boy, I have lived long enough to know a hardened but brittle heart. And I know where those scars come from. Now, a man is offering his hand to give you a new life and a new beginning. Are you ready to accept it?" Doctorine asked as her eyes softened for a moment, and gleamed with amusement.

"Go away, hag." was Kane's only answer, as he watched Doctorine surprisingly walk away laughing instead of bashing him in the head.

When he woke up the next day, Kane's mind was grumbling and growling about this new situation. It's all because of that bloody Mary. Fucking witch will get her end of it soon. He was wondering, what use was it dumping him here with zero skills to survive in this environment. All he had was his wits. He couldn't fight, he was too blunt for his own good, he didn't have his way with words. What was she thinking..? Then, it hit him. She may have talked a fair bit of nonsense over the phone, but she did mention something about a survival manual and a devil fruit in his bag pack. He looked over the bed and lo and behold, a duffel bag. A Nike one at that, his most hated brand. Fuck you, bloody mary.

As he opened the bag, he saw two things. The first thing was a book that clearly read "INSTRUCTION MANUAL" with a smooch sign from the cover. Yep. Aunt Mary's. Confirm plus chop. And then he saw a bright swirly fruit with a note attached to it. Now, Kane was very hungry due to that old witch strapping him to bed and not allowing him to leave. He did not think for a second to read the note when he took a huge bite out of the fruit.

Normally, people say when you are hungry, anything tastes good. The devil fruit changed all of that for Kane. How bad? Well, make a soup out of water and 1000 spoonfuls of salt. Now put 1000 pieces of bitter leaves inside. It wouldn't even get close to how horrible the devil fruit tasted. Kane found himself wincing and choking down the fruit with tears starting to come out of his eyes.

Tears are weakness. Knock it off, unless you want another.

Kane remembered that quote very well, from his grandfather, who wanted Kane to be free of all weaknesses. But he couldn't remember more of those details now Luffy suddenly burst into the room with a huge grin on his face, a blonde man wearing a suit with the most peculiar eyebrows along with an orange haired girl.

"You are coming with us! That's Sanji and that's Nami, by the way" Luffy suddenly said while pointing to his 2 companions.

"Wait, so this is the new crew member you were talking about? How about Chopper?" Sanji said

"Who cares, I'm gonna take both! He seems fun!" Luffy said happily as Kane glared at him.

"What the hell, I didn't even say anything about joining your crew!" He shouted in rage as he hardened into metal. Literally.

"Well, the devil fruits identity was certainly revealed. Metal metal fruit, I guess. Cool." Kane thought.

"WHOAAAA! AMAZING!" Now Luffy had stars in his eyes as he looked at Kane's metallic arm.

"Well, good luck stopping him now that he has seen that," smirked Sanji, half-amused at Kane's hostility, knowing that it will all be useless to Luffy.

"Yep, Luffy doesn't know the meaning of 'no' " Nami added, trying not to laugh while Kane was giving them the death stare.

"Oh, you'll join them, or you will be stuck in a time loop which will bore you into joining them" Mary's words rang in Kane's mind as he debated whether to join them. However he refused to give in.

"I said no, do I have to say it again..? Blockhead. "Kane coldly said, earning a glare from Sanji and an uneasy look from Nami

"Come, Kane! You will have a family!" Luffy joyfully said, oblivious to Kane's look of surprise when he heard the last word.

Family.. Thinking about it, he never had much of a family. His mother was always out at work, while his father had abandoned the family, leaving only his grandfather, who was an alcoholic. In fact, the only one was closest to being his family was Aunt Mary. This Luffy character did know to push the right buttons to invoke his emotions. However, he refused to give in and gave Luffy the coldest look he could muster and said "Fuck you".

As if he didn't hear what Kane said, or he read Kane's face of silent longing, Luffy ignored him and pulled him along to a sled with the reindeer, who whimpered at the sight of Kane, clearly not recovered from his earlier fright

"WAIT! My BAG!" Kane screamed

"Huh? You' re wearing it,"Sanji said curtly, not pleased with his earlier show of disrespect. It was only because Luffy did not show a reaction that he didn't kick Kane's face in.

Sure enough, the duffel bag was slung at Kane's shoulder. Kane immediately deduced that it might been an enchantment by Bloody Mary to prevent him from losing that bag. While Luffy was chatting with Nami about how he "beat up" a fat king named Wapol, Kane was musing over that word Luffy said. Family. Doctorine also said that. Suddenly, a feeling of longing settled in his chest.

"The Merry! We're going to have a party! TWO new crew members! Shi shi shi shi!" Luffy shouted and burst with his infectious laughter as he sighted the Going Merry.

While Kane still wanted to dispute that idea, part of him told him to wait, to see how this played out. Suddenly, gasps were heard as Sanji said "You're smiling!"

"No I'm not, what are you talking about?" Kane said with his hostile tone as he dismissed their claims of him smiling. Sanji and Nami, however, were smirking,

"Come, Kane, come introduce yourself to my friends!" Luffy said as he held out his hand towards Kane.

Whatever it was, it was a new journey that Doctorine indirectly told him to take. It was a new life, a proper family. Just this time, he was going to try to take a chance. He found himself taking Luffy's hand for a new journey. In another dimension, a certain witch found herself smiling at her nephew's progress. Slowly but surely, he is warming.

There it is, my second chapter. Now, I did skip Luffy fighting wapol. That was because Mr Kane was sleeping and still recovering from his near death experience to actually know what the hell was going on. Well, this is my night present to all of you. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this. Please read and review for any high points, mistakes, ideas, pairings I should correct/do. Hope you enjoyed it! I also apologize if it's pretty draggy, but i felt his gradual change in emotion, and his decision was very important to the story. Also, I havent decided whether i want this series to end while One Piece is still continuing. Should I write it till the end, or should I stop somewhere in the middle(e.g timeskip etc etc etc) Toodles~~