I be back from the dead!
Anyway, I don't own One Piece but that would be awesome :D
It is peaceful on deck. It is so rarely peaceful since he left.
Luffy has met many strange people, been many strange places since he left his island. The Merry still rocks in East Blue waters, but Nami assures them that will not last much longer.
Zoro is sleeping against the railing and Luffy debates whether or not to wake him. He decides against it because his first mate has a demon in his gut that eats his insides when he is still too long. There are nights when Zoro never touches his cot, training on deck to appease his tenant. Luffy lets him sleep.
Usopp is fishing but Luffy keeps his distance because the sniper's curls are frizzing and snapping, flashes of dormant magic bubbling up as Usopp concentrates on his pole. Luffy has been victim to those sparks more often than not, and while they sting very little, especially to his rubbery skin, he dislikes the numbness his fingers start to grow after being stung too many times.
Nami is tending her mikan and Luffy knows better than to bother her. When Nami is mad there are static charges and changes in atmosphere. The navigator may be peaceful now with the clear skies above, but Luffy would rather not risk a sudden storm driving them all inside where there is less to do.
Instead, Luffy heads towards the kitchen. When all else fails, seek food. Indeed, Sanji's cooking drifts through the door, stirring up the reminder of his ever-present hunger. The cook is the most recent addition to the crew, but he has quickly learned of his captain's appetite. Luffy supposes that is his curse for all those hunting trips on Dawn Island. He and his brothers feasted on animal god flesh so often, he isn't sure his hunger can ever be sated. He'd never found the meat to be anything special, just muscle and fat like all creatures. Dadan and the bandits had never been able to stomach the meat, but Ace and Sabo had thrived on it.
(He thinks it must be the god inside of them. Fire consumes and what better fuel than the divine kind?)
He still has faint scars on his arms from where the fat had popped and sizzled above his brother's flames, sparks of color and ozone smell and lingering pain trailing across his knuckles. Ace and Sabo would always berate him for getting too close while the god-soul had still writhed violently inside the charring hunk of flesh. It had always made the fire turn pretty colors when it finally died and sunk into the flames.
Of course, Sanji's food tastes a thousand times better than any too-charred chunk of god flesh. The best part, though, is that even though his cook will berate him and shout about his void of a stomach, the blond will always bring over a plate of something or the other after a few minutes. Then he'll grumble about hoping to shut his rubber idiot of a captain up until dinner, but Luffy smiles anyway because it reminds him of Ace.
He misses his brother and the forever warmth and the sparking smirks and the destruction in his eyes, but whenever he runs into his brother again (because he will. They parted three years prior but they were always destined to meet again. It was fact. It was truth. Fate had written it in the sky with blood and tears and dying star souls. One day the sea would have to drift them towards each other because it had been promised) he would have to tell him how bad of a cook he was when they were kids.
And Ace would chase him around with fire in his fists, shouting to the world about his ungrateful brother. And then they would sit down around a campfire like when they were little and Ace would char the meat too much, eat it while the fat still sizzled and Luffy would too even if it grew blisters on his tongue.
They would be gone by morning anyway.
(Luffy could only hope that on that day, his brother wouldn't be gone by morning, too.)
Welp, here I am. Once again. Feeling lost but now and then...
Haven't posted in quite a while but I hope you all enjoy. :D