I am so sorry this chapter is late! I could give you a thousand excuses but I'm sure you'd rather just get on and read the chapter so I'll keep it short and sweet: I was ill for a few days so couldn't really write with a high temperate :).
(By the way, I invented the Curtley Twins - first name that came to mind.)
NOW. ENJOY.

'We are pirates.'

As every head snapped round to face the tall red-head who had spoken, mouths dropped, people bristled, hairs stood on end, and gradually some of the more cowardly of citizens started to back away. But no one spoke; they didn't know what to say, let alone what to think. And as the silence prolonged, the more uneasy the air became, and more the uneasiness settled in, the more the fear spread through the crowd. It was Luffy who spoke first.

'Pirates?' he questioned, his eyes wide as he stared up at the straw-hat, as if not fully understanding, 'You're pirates?'

Shanks looked down at the boy, his expression indifferent, stray shadows covered parts of his face by cause of his hat. He hesitated, then, 'Yes.'

Still no one moved, what were they to do? Somewhere in the crowd a young girl started crying, and the sounds of a desperate mother trying to soothe her frightened daughter drifted through the air. Havoc struck. People ran in all directions, knocking each other out of their way as they hurried. But for what? Shelter? Their homes? No one knew. The only thought they had was to get away from the dangerous man, and fast. And soon there were only six people left out in the open and now almost completely deserted square; Shanks, Yasopp, Luffy, Makino, Gyoru and the mayor, a safe distance back, behind a nearby tree.

Still Luffy stared up at his seniors and as the pirates studied his expression, they began to wonder whether he would run too. But suddenly a gleam lit in the boy's eyes, his face grew bright as he smiled broadly, 'Wow!' he cried, 'Really? You're pirates? So cool!' He lifted his hand in order to tug on Shanks' cloak, eager to ask a thousand questions at once but stopped in his tracks as he was interrupted by Gyoru.

'No, Luffy! Don't get too close to him! You'll get hurt!' he yelled, but he stood rooted to the spot, too afraid of his own well-being to move.

Luffy's head snapped round, 'What? No I won't. His expression was puzzled and he stared at the fishmonger, 'Why would Shanks hurt me?'

Suddenly the mayor burst out from behind his tree, surprising only the common people as the pirates had long before noticed him already, and he rushed over to join the small huddle. He gripped Luffy's arm and pulled him towards himself and he stared fearfully into the eyes of the pirates.

'I don't know what you want with our island or what you may want with the boy,' he spoke quickly, his words tumbling out in a flurry of panic as he took only small pauses for breath, 'But please, I beg of you; don't harm Luffy! Did you bring him back for a ransom? We'll pay whatever you want, just please don't hurt him!'

Shanks stared at the man curiously and Yasopp sighed, 'We don't want to hurt him,' Shanks started, 'I would never dream of it. No, we only wanted to help him.'

The mayor blinked, not understanding, but then his brow furrowed, 'You won't fool me like that!' He spat, 'I know your kind! Always pillaging, always killing, always… stealing!'

'That's not what being a pirate is!' Luffy shouted, breaking free of the mayor's rough grasp on his arm and facing him, his back turned to the pirates, 'It can't be; I know it!'

'Luffy, you know nothing about pirates!' the mayor tried to reason, although he kept his gaze on the man with the dark cloak.

'That's not true!' Luffy rose his voice, fists clenched, 'All those stories you told me… all those stories Makino told me… they're not about pillaging or killing; they're about teamwork.'

Here, both pirates raised their eyebrows, not having expected anything like that coming from a boy so small, so seemingly unintelligent, and they started to wonder whether they really knew the boy at all.

'They're about friendship,' the boy continued, 'and nakama.'

'Friendship?' Gyoru protested, not believing a word of what he was hearing, 'How could you call something so horrible as killing people be an act of friendship? Of kindness? It's barbaric!'

'No,' Luffy countered and he turned his gaze on Makino, who had not moved since the announcement of the two men being pirates and had been staring at them, petrified and rooted to the spot ever since, 'The ones who only kill and steal aren't real pirates; they're cowards. But what about pirates like The Curtley Twins you told me about, Makino?'

At the mention of her name, her head turned slowly downwards to face Luffy, but her eyes stayed glued to the pirates for a moment longer, and as the boy spoke again, they flickered upwards every now and them, wary of what they could suddenly do.

'One of them sacrificed himself to save the other, didn't he?' Luffy pressed.

Makino hesitated before answering, 'Those are stories, Luffy. Fairy tales, most likely. No one knows whether they're true.' She said slowly, shaking her head.

'I believe them!' Luffy's eyebrows narrowed.

This time Gyoru answered, 'Luffy, there are many stories like these! None of them are true; don't believe them for a second.'

'You can't tell me what to believe,' Luffy shouted at his friend, 'You say I don't know anything about pirates, but I've met two of them! Shanks and Yasopp aren't mean or nasty. They're not cruel! They… they helped me.'

'Helped you?' the mayor piped up, his voice scornful, 'How did they help you? I don't think poisoning your mind with thoughts of pirates being respectful and kind is anything to thank them for.'

'In the forest last night,' Luffy hesitated, 'It was dark and I-' he broke off, not really wanting the other villagers to know about his moment of cowardice as he saw it as weakness himself. Behind him, Shanks chuckled.

He rested a hand on Luffy's shoulder and at the contact, the boy's head swirled round to look at him, 'What's so funny?' he asked flatly, annoyed that the man he was defending was openly laughing at his effort.

Shanks chuckled again, 'It's okay, Luffy,' he said kindly, 'I understand these people very well. Because unfortunately, even if you can accept us for what we are, that does not mean everyone else will.' His hand left the boy's shoulder and he turned his gaze on his shipmate, 'Yasopp,' he started, 'It seems we are not welcome here.' He smiled sadly, 'It seems that you were right, I should have anticipated this. Let's leave before we cause any more trouble.'

His shipmate nodded in agreement, no hint of gloating for being right reached his expression as for once he wished he had been wrong.

'What? You're leaving already?' Luffy's eyes were sad and he gazed up at the two pirates almost longingly.

'Yes, Luffy. We must.' Yasopp answered regretfully.

'But why?' Luffy questioned, his voice quivered with sadness and fresh, unshed tears shone in his eyes.

Shanks smiled and he crouched down to get a better view of the boy he'd only met the day before, 'Because we are unwelcome here.' He explained, 'We cannot stay in a place that does not accept us, but feel free to use our hideout, I'll leave it to you; it's yours. Take good care of it. In truth, we only found it yesterday anyway, so it might need some tidying up.'

'But I don't want you to go yet.' Luffy pleaded with him, bringing his hand to meet his eyes, not wanting the man to see his weakness again.

'Hey now, don't cry,' Shanks soothed the boy, and bringing his hand up, he gently brushed his tears away with his thumb, 'You can't very well be a pirate if you let your emotions always take the better of you, can you now? Be a brave boy for me, eh?'

Luffy nodded, promising he would and he sniffed loudly.

Shanks stood back up, smile still intact and displayed across his features, 'We leave at midnight.' He announced, looking over the villagers one last time, and slowly, he turned away, Yasopp following. But as soon as Shanks turned, his smile dropped and vanished instantly, replaced by a firm frown. And Yasopp, noticing this, said nothing, and instead carried on walking next to his captain, neither of them ever turning round the face the small huddle.

Luffy stared into the darkness of his room, dry tears as well as a new bruise staining his face and he grimaced. He was at his grandfather's house and he ached all over from being punished for being away from home for so long. He pulled his arm up to his face, trying to make out the blue-green mark that he knew would have appeared but could not see anything in the black of night.

He turned over in his bed but squinted as he leant on his side and swiftly changed back to lying on his back. Sitting up, he sighed heavily. Even though he had only known Shanks and Yasopp for a day and a half, he already felt a strong attachment to them, and watching them simply walk away like that… and thinking about how the villagers had come out of their hiding places shortly after the two pirates' departure and how they had cheered at their "triumph" over the pirates had only made the whole thing worse. His grandfather had not been very impressed with him either when he found out all he had been up to, the constant ache in his side petulantly reminding him of his punishment. His eyebrows narrowed as he thought over all that had happened, all that he hated about the villagers and suddenly, he made a decision.

He had to follow them.

Something flickered in the young boy's eyes and he jumped from his bed and ran to his door, not even considering provisions he might need as he ran down the rickety stairs, through the kitchen and out the door. He did not even try to be quiet, knowing full well that when his grandfather was asleep even the loudest of explosions could not wake him up.

'Where will they be?' He thought to himself, 'It'll be midnight soon… but will they still be at the hideout or already be at the southern coast?' He quickly decided that it would be better to go to where he had first met them, at the abandoned dock near the southern coast, and he ran with legs on fire to his destination.

'Almost ready to move out?' Shanks asked Yasopp, who was studying a map of the island. He had drawn a trail to the hideout on it and had been tracing it with his finger, making sure he knew exactly where to go to get to the southern coast. They were still in the hideout and were just preparing to leave.

'Yes.' He answered, then, 'Are you sure you want to do this? We may never find a hideout as good as this and-'

'You saw the villagers, Yasopp,' his captain interrupted him, 'We can't stay here. We didn't get to introduce ourselves properly and so my plan failed. We'll have to try elsewhere. As for the cave,' he continued, glancing around the dug-out they were standing in fondly, 'We can always pinch the idea and use it elsewhere.'

'That will take time.'

'Yes.' Shanks agreed, 'But it will not be for nothing.'

Yasopp nodded and continued to study his map, but as his captain started to turn away he could not hold it in any longer, 'And what about Luffy?' he wanted to know, curiosity finally taking over him.

His captain hesitated before turning back to his crewmate, 'What about him?'

'Don't try to fool me, cap'n, I've seen the way you act around the boy… it's like how you are with the crew, you've taken a liking to him; you already count him as a friend.'

Shanks hesitated, fixing his gaze on the dusty floor, 'That may be so,' he said slowly, 'But there's nothing I can do now. I only hope he won't get into too much trouble for trying to stand up for us.'

Yasopp nodded but could not bring himself to smile at his captain to try and reassure him. Instead, he rolled up the piece of parchment and strapped it to his belt, 'I suppose we won't be needing this now.' He mumbled.

'At least keep it till we're on the boat.' Shanks said in return, lifting his head and smiling at his subordinate, 'Now let's go before the villagers come with torches.'

Yasopp could not help but snort at this, and he followed his captain up the ladder and out the cave and into the night, wondering when his captain ever became so good at masking his sadness.

I'll try to make sure the next one is out earlier this time! :)