1 CH. 10

Reunion

I woke up the next morning and went downstairs where I met Makino and Luffy in the kitchen. Makino was just finishing making breakfast and luffy was banging his fork on the table chanting "food, food, food" I sat down next to boy "Morning" I said half yawning "Morning!" both luffy and Makino replied "well the bar doesn't open for another hour in you'd like to take a bath before hand" makino said handing both me and luffy a plate before returning to retrieve one for herself "thank you" I said but luffy just dug right into the food. The three of us ate quickly and Luffy ran out side to meet a few kids who were playing in the street. "That boy sure does

have some kind of charm" I said absentmindedly "reminds me of a guy I once knew, no matter what he did you just couldn't stay mad at him" Makino laughed " I know what you mean" she

said and I got up to help her with the dishes but she stopped me "no dear, you go have a shower then you can help me in the bar. I'll be just fine" "ok" I said and went upstairs towards the bathroom. I hopped into the shower and got cleaned up quickly and was ready just as Makino called up for me "10 minutes before we leave!" she called as I stepped out of the bathroom

already redressed and just brushing out my wet hair. So I ran down to meet her and we headed straight out to the bar. We went inside and got everything back together, before she opened up again. People started coming in and soon the place was full again. I was running around taking care of tables when luffy came in and Makino handed me some juice for the boy. So I walked over and set the juice in front of him "here you are luffy" I said patting his head "enjoy" he smiled a big stupid grin and I turned to see Makino again.

-where is he?- I thought to myself starting to worry if he was actually coming. I heard the door open again and before I could turn around to have a look I was lifted into the air into a huge

hug. "Whoa!" I squeaked in surprise. I turned to see it was Shanks and grabbed him in a big hug. "Shanks!" I exclaimed happily. "My god Aria!" Shanks exclaimed finally putting me down "Thank god you're ok!" I heard Makino laugh from behind me "I told ya Aria" Makino said "do you believe me now?" I blinked a few times then laughed when I remembered what she had said "I guess so" I said and Shanks looked at her with that cute confused look on his face "I think the same goes for you to Aria" Makino said laughing when I blushed "oh shut up!" I said "he doesn't need to know that yet" Makino laughed again "why not?" Makino asked and Shanks looked between the both of us confused "what are you girls talking about?" Shanks asked cutting in the conversation "I'll tell you later" I said before Makino had a chance to rat me out. "Oh come on!" Shanks started to whine putting on the puppy face. "Arg!...no! not the puppy face!" I said turning away from him "stop that! Bad boy!" Shanks only got in front of me again and held my shoulders so that I couldn't turn away. I let out a sigh knowing I had lost and looked down to the floor. "Later" I said "not here" Shanks then grabbed my hand and dragged me out of there "be right back Makino" Shanks said catching me by surprise "I just have to know!" he dragged me away from the bar past the crew who all had shocked look on their face at Shanks's devilish grin as he dragged me past them not saying a word. "Shanks!...Shanks!" I called to him "where

are you taking me?" he continued walking straight out of town and didn't stop till we were alone at the beach. My leg was aching from the sudden quick movement and I ended up falling forwards when Shanks suddenly stopped but he grabbed me in a hug holding me steady till I regained my balance. I looked up to see Shanks's eyes showed worry and caring. "What would I

ever do without you?" I asked him causing him to be taken aback a bit. "You're always there when I need you the most and always worrying" Shanks smiled and pulled me into a hug "I've

told you before..." Shanks said in a silly voice "you think I'm sexy!" I wrapped my arms around him and hid my face in his shirt. I felt him move in surprise and I could just imagine him looking at me confused. "I think I'm in love with you" I whispered. "You what?" Shanks asked me only hearing half of what I said then stopped for a moment and laughed "why didn't I guess before?" Shanks said holding me tighter "I love you to"

We stayed like that for a few minutes till Shanks pulled back. "Come on let's go back before they think something happened to us" Shanks said and I nodded "let's not tell them just

yet" I said "I want to see if anyone can figure it out first" "you want to hide the fact that we're together now?" Shanks asked and I shook my head "nope" I said "I just want to be mysterious" Shanks laughed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as we walked back to the bar. Makino looked at us curiously as we walked in with Shanks's arm around my neck and whole crew was sitting in the bar looked back to se us and broke into a cheer. Yassop passed Shanks a small box that I had no idea he had and Makino just looked at me confused. Luffy sat at the bar drinking a cup of juice so I lead Shanks over next to luffy when a thought hit me. "He looks like Ace don't he?" I asked Shanks before we could reach earshot of Luffy and Shanks just nodded. "Hey luffy" I said when me and Shanks sat down Shanks sitting next to luffy setting the box on the counter and me of Shanks's other side. Luffy looked over after setting his cup back down. "Shanks!" Luffy exclaimed at the sight of Shanks sitting next to him. "Got any more stories?" I sat there

and listened as Shanks told Luffy a bunch of stories about his travels a few adventures I never heard tell of either, about a fruit called the devil fruit and how it grants a person an ability but they loose the ability to swim. Shanks showed luffy the large fruit in the box that he had while telling the story. "Take me with you on your next adventure, Shanks!" Luffy asked excitedly "I want to be a pirate too!" Shanks broke out laughing "how can a boy like you become a pirate?" Shanks asked and luffy got right defiant and angry "why not!" then yassop turned from his seat "Luffy!" yassop said "it's not about how well you can swim. A pirate is more than that." "I can fight to!" luffy pouted "my punches are like a pistol!" "Eh! Really!" Shanks shot back half eating and Luffy got right mad and turned to him "what do you mean by that?" Luffy yelled at him and I laughed slightly at how easily the kid got mad. Another one of the crew mates stepped in "Luffy is just a little kid still." he said and Yassop added "you're about the same age as my kid" "I'm not a kid! I'm a man!" Luffy yelled at everyone "don't' get so angry" Shanks said then put a cup of juice in front of luffy "here have some juice" I recognized this instantly as a form of teasing and started to giggle. Luffy immediately cheered up and grabbed the cup drinking it "Arigato!" luffy said happily then Shanks started to slap the bar "See! Still a kid!" Shanks yelled to him and Luffy got mad again "damn you Shanks!" Luffy yelled. The whole crew started laughing. "Don't laugh at me!" Luffy yelled at the crew "what the hell! Stinky shanks!" the door

was suddenly crashed to the floor and a large group of ugly men walked in. The whole bar went silent and everyone watched them enter except for Shanks who just continued to eat. "Sorry for the interruption" the leader of the group a large ugly man said and started to walk in "so these are the so called pirates. They look like idiots" he broke the door coming in and walked up to the counter finally catching Shanks's attention. "Welcome" Makino said politely "we are bandits.

We're not here to destroy you're bar" he said calmly and the group started to snicker "we need 10 barrels of sake"

I glared at one man who was looking me over and Shanks continued eating silently "sorry, but we are out of sake at the moment" Makino said politely "hmm? That's strange" the

man said "the pirates are drinking something...is it water?" "All the sake we have is out there" Makino said and Shanks looked up "That's not good. We drank everything. Sorry" Shanks said

looking up at him and holding up an unopened bottle of sake "if you want, you can have this. I haven't opened it yet" the man lifted his hand but I recognized it as violence and he swung hitting the bottle breaking it and spilling it's contents everywhere including on Shanks who just tipped his hat to block the flying glass. "I'm a wanted man, I'm worth 8 million belli" he said

and I gave a smug look. "One bottle won't be nearly enough. Don't take me so lightly" "I'll kick your ass if you want" I muttered but the man wasn't paying attention. But I did receive a few glares from his followers "eh, eh, eh now the floor's all wet!" Shanks said looking at the dripping sake and broken glass "sorry about that Makino-san. Do you have a mop?" makino seemed surprised by Shanks's behavior "I'll take care of it!" Makino said rushing over to where Shanks was. I saw the man unsheathe his sword and jumped pulling luffy down as he swung breaking everything on the bar leaving a gash in the wood. "Looks like you enjoy cleaning up. You'll enjoy this even more" the man said re-sheathing the sword again "no point

in wasting time here if you don't have any sake. Lets go!...later cowards" the men left and luffy looked like he was ready to kill but didn't make a move. "Are you alright?" Makino asked Shanks who was still on the floor. "Are you hurt anywhere captain?" "I'm fine, no problem" Shanks said waving one hand in the air then he cracked up laughing with whole crew joining in. "They really got you, that's funny!" yassop proclaimed covering one eye in laughter. "How shameful!" Shanks look off his hat while makino started to wipe off the sake. But luffy broke the laughter. "Why are you laughing? That wasn't cool!" Luffy yelled not understanding that Shanks won by showing he was the better man. "Why didn't you fight back? No matter how many there are or how strong they look, if you don't fight back you're not a man! You're not a pirate!" Shanks looked at him blankly understanding what luffy was feeling. "It's not that I don't' understand your feelings luffy..." Shanks said "but they only spilled some sake. It's nothing to get angry over" "I don't care anymore" I looked down to Shanks who had put his hat back on then heard a crunch of someone eating to see him eating the fruit that was in Shanks's box and

my jaw dropped "stuffing it down, luffy?" Shanks asked from the floor laughing "shut up!" Luffy yelled through eating Shanks then got worried when he spotted what luffy was eating "what are you eating?" Shanks asked sternly. Luffy swallowed and looked over at Shanks who had gotten to his feet angrily and was standing over luffy "that box... did you eat the thing in the box?!" shanks grabbed luffy and started to shake him upside down with the whole bar watching him "spit it out! Spit it out now!" Shanks yelled "All of it!" "Wh what are you doing? Shanks"

luffy replied through bouncing up and down till his entire body stretched and his face hit the floor. Shanks stopped shaking him when he touched the floor and just held him as Luffy rebounded really confused "what was that?" Luffy asked with wide eyes and shanks lifted him face to face "what you ate was the gomu gomu fruit! The gomu gomu fruit is also called the devil's fruit." Shanks said "After eating it you become a rubber man! You won't ever be able to swim!" Luffy screamed "ah! No way!" "You idiot!" Shanks yelled at him. Shanks soon left the bar with the crew his arm over my shoulder again all the way back to the boat. "What's up with you two?" asked Yassop on the way back "one minute I see Shanks drag you off with a sly smirk on his face then you come back with his arms over your shoulder. Are you guys together or

something?" -that was fast!- I though smirking "I don't know, are we?" I asked Shanks who put on a foolish smirk then grabbed me pulling me in front of him. "Is this a good enough answer?" Shanks asked before giving me a kiss gaining some hoots and hollers from the crew when we broke apart. Yassop stood there speechless for a second then jump on the both of us. "It's about time you fools!" Yassop said before he ran up ahead to inform the rest of the crew. We arrived at

the ship to a huge crowd of men jumping on us and had to be quick to avoiding the dog pile. It took us half the night to settle down the crew before we could get to bed. The weather was starting to get bad I could tell tonight wasn't going to be one of my good nights. Shanks did a foolish dance all the way to his room. "What are you doing?" I asked him before he entered the room. Shanks leaned halfway out the door and stuck his tongue out at me. "Nyaa" Shanks said "wouldn't you like to know?" I shook my head and laughed as he entered the room and went to bed. Later that night I woke up to a loud crash of thunder and shuddered in my bed. -damn- I thought - why now?- there was another crash and I grabbed my pillow squeezing it tight. The next crash made me make up my mind -I wonder if the thunder has woken him up?- I thought - I hope he doesn't mind- I got up from my bed still in my pyjama's which were just a pair of shorts and a tank top. I walked out of my room but hesitated when I arrived at Shanks's door. I slowly opened the door and stepped in to see Shanks still sleeping soundly and turned to go back to my room but froze at the sound of the next crash shutting my eyes tightly and clamping onto the doorknob. "Aria?" came Shanks's voice and I looked to see him sitting up looking at me sympathetically. "It's thundering again isn't it?" I nodded slowly and he waved his hand calling me over so I went over. "Come on lass" shanks said foolishly "I won't let the big old mean thunder get you" I laughed at him and swatted at his head making him laugh. He reached out and pulled me onto the bed next to him laying back with me held tightly in his arms. The thunder crashed again and I instinctively grabbed him shutting my eyes tight. Shanks threw his blanket over me and held me tightly bringing my face closer to his chest where I could smell his sweet cologne. I felt him rub his hand through my hair in a soothing way with his free hand and relaxed some. The next crash came and I didn't freeze this time I just laid there with Shanks. "that's better lass" Shanks said "you see, nothing to be afraid of" I felt him chuckle. I soon felt my eyelids grow heavy and curled tighter into him as I fell asleep resting my head on his chest.