Shanks was teasing Luffy the day it happened. The little boy suddenly looked up and turned towards the door. Then a huge grin broke across his face.
"Sagitta-nii! You are back!" came a happy shout that halted every noise inside the bar. As one, the occupants of the bar turned to see Luffy launch himself on a person that just entered. The person turned out to be a boy about thirteen years old, which was six years more than little Luffy. Most of the watchers returned towards their previous activities, while a certain redhead just leaned back in his spot and watched the duo. And as he observed them, he realized several facts.
First, it was clear those two were rather close. The enthusiastic greeting was telling enough. Shanks had to hold back his laughter, when Luffy immediately moved on the other´s back in a makeshift piggy-back, while the teen gave him a look of fond amusement. It probably wasn´t the first time nor would it be the last.
Second, the pirate captain had to admit, if the little raven-haired boy didn´t help him, he would have had great difficulty telling whether the teen was a boy or a girl. He had long silver-white hair that reached his waist, even though he had it tied in a ponytail and androgynous features that could have fooled any professional observer. His clothes didn´t help his case either, since they were baggy and successfully obscured his figure.
Third, the teen was no stranger to fighting. The way he moved spoke of a fighters grace and far too much experience for somebody so young. And the fact he carried Luffy with such ease proved he was strong. It made a part of the captain wonder if it showed this early, then how much it would grow once the boy is an adult.
And finally, the teen was very protective of the younger boy and already claimed him as his own. That much become clear once the pirate and he locked eyes. It was like being given a staredown by a sea king and Shanks could see that he was trying to decide if the man was a treat to the kid on his back or not. And something told Shanks that if he was, he would end up facing somebody very dangerous. Young age or not, the teen was not of the sort anybody wanted to cross. And the older man didn´t let the teen´s smile and pretty face fool him even for a moment.
Thankfully, when the light-haired teen´s emerald-green gaze moved from him to the child riding on the teen´s back something broke the tension. It was probably the sight of Luffy, unharmed and being the cheerful kid he was. Either way, when the teen looked back at Shanks, his expression told him that he deemed the other male as no threat.
"And who is this Luffy?" asked Shanks cheerfully and something in him relaxed.
"Shishishi… This is my big brother Sagitta!" smiled Luffy. "Sagitta, this is Shanks! I´m trying to convince him to take me to the sea with them!"
"Oh really?" inquired the teen with an oddly melodic voice.
"He tries, but I still tell him that he is too young!" complained Shanks.
"Well, good luck with explaining it to him!" chuckled the teen as he sat down on the stool next to the pirate. He let out another chuckle when Luffy abandoned his back and moved to sit on his lap. "Luffy can be stubborn as a mule when he puts his head to something."
The red-head nodded. "I noticed. By the way, how come I didn´t see you around town until now?"
"That´s because Sagitta-nii goes hunting a lot! And he always brings me a lot of delicious meat!" answered Luffy enthusiastically.
"Yeah, because somebody has to make sure you didn´t eat the villagers out of their homes. I swear your stomach is a black hole for food," muttered the said teen.
"Good thing he has you as a big brother then, right?" giggled Makino, the bar´s owner.
"Maybe. And one orange juice for me, please!"
"Me too!" joined Luffy.
The woman gave another laugh before serving them their order.
"See kid! You are not old enough to join my crew. All real men drink booze," said Shanks teasingly.
The brat pouted, before huffing. "Well, I´m almost big enough to join Sagitta-nii on his hunts! And he promised to teach me all the neat tricks too!"
Seeing the look the older male was giving him, the teen sighed. "It will only be trap setting for now, until I´m certain he can handle it. And it is either I train him or letting his grandpa subject him to his insane ideas of training. There is no way I would let that old bastard brainwash him into becoming a marine like himself."
"Like himself?" repeated Shanks confused.
Sagitta openly rolled his eyes. "Luffy´s full name is Monkey D. Luffy. Do I have to elaborate who is his grandfather?"
Shanks ran that through his head and winced. There was only one marine with that surname.
Monkey D. Garp aka the Marine Hero.
"Now you see why I try to prevent that old bastard from getting his claws into him. There are enough insane marines out in the world, thank you very much. And I would rather have Luffy become a free pirate than let him turn into one of the attack dogs of the World Government."
"Yeah. And one Garp is more than enough," shuddered Shanks. "You are quite perceptive, brat."
"I must be. I will be the one to watch Luffy´s back once we are old enough to take off to the world. I´m his first mate, after all. Much to the outrage of the old bastard," smirked the teen.
"Oh?"
"The old man thinks since I´m supposed to be the more mature of the two of us, that I should agree with him and talk Luffy into joining the Marines. Boy, was he pissed when I did the exact opposite and instead joined Luffy in preparing to become pirates. People say that sailors swear a lot, but I think they should hear a marine," chuckled Sagitta fondly at the memory.
"Shishishi! Half the good swear words I learned came when grandpa cursed Nii-san out!" giggled Luffy. "It was funny! But not as much as when Sagitta-nii led him on that insane chase all around the village! Grandpa was pissed it took him two hours before he caught Nii-san!"
"You lead him on a merry chase for two hours?" asked Shanks amused.
"He is an old geezer and I´m the fastest runner around, do the math. It is not my fault he took offence when I told him that he should ´quit bitching and take out the menopause mood swings on someone else´," shrugged Sagitta with a grin.
At this Shanks and every member of his crew listening in, choked and then burst out laughing. "Y-you s-said that? T-To his f-face?" asked Shanks in between fits of laughter.
"Well yeah. Besides, it is true! He is the age and the symptoms match. Or what other explanations do you have for his behaviour? That´s the only one that makes sense!" exclaimed Sagitta, which had the whole bar howling. And then they howled even louder when they thought about it and realized the teen might be right! Hell, Shanks secretly vowed to ask about that the next time he ran into the old marine. His face was guaranteed to be priceless.
"You shouldn´t talk about such things in front of children!" scolded Makino.
"Nah! Sagitta-nii doesn´t mind explaining me things like this so long as I´m genuinely curious," waved her off Luffy. "He just doesn´t show me anything graphic. He says I will have enough time for that when my voice finally breaks… whatever that means."
"It means when you start puberty and begin to notice girls… or boys, in a different light than before. Which probably won´t happen until you are around the same age as I´m now," explained Sagitta patiently. Then he noticed the looks Makino and Shanks were giving him. "What?"
"You do realize where this might lead, right?"
"If you are talking about the Talk, then it is better if I do it. After all, I can´t possibly do it worse than the old bastard or heaven forbid one of the bandits, who might have some questionable motivations," Sagitta told them flatly.
The two thought that over and openly grimaced. "True."
At least Luffy´s big brother will look after him, thought Shanks.
Oh, how true those words turned out to be a few days later when Higuma and his band of bandits returned to cause some trouble. The Red-haired pirates just docked into the port, when they noticed a commotion on the main road. They couldn´t quite make out what was happening, but they were able to hear Luffy´s voice from the middle of it. And that caused the captain to worry, so they hurried over. They came just in time to see the little brat defend himself with what looked like wooden deer horns… and Shanks had to admit that the brat wasn´t half bad, as he deflected or redirected the bandit´s swords away from himself. However, that didn´t last long as the bandit leader, fed up by being made fun of by a child, blindsided Luffy and pinned him to the ground.
But just as Shanks was about to step in, something whizzed through the air and Higuma cried out in pain. Barely a second later something similar happened to several other bandits. The reason revealed to be arrows that hit the bandits into different parts of their bodies and Luffy used the distraction provided by them to dart towards the figure that jumped down from the nearest rooftop.
It was Sagitta.
The teen gracefully landed, took position and aimed his bow and arrow towards the bandits. Luffy immediately crouched in front of his big brother, facing the bandits, wooden weapons raised and ready to fight if necessary.
"Stay put. Or the next will be in the face and heart," said the silver-haired teen calmly, his green eyes as hard and cold as the gems they resembled.
"You…! Who do you think you are to interfere?" sneered the bandit leader.
"What´s wrong? Can´t handle getting an ass-kicking from two kids? Especially when you started it?" mocked Sagitta.
"We were just teaching the brat a lesson! The little shit went on and on about how those pathetic pirates are worth some-" Higuma was cut off when another arrow grazed his cheek.
Everybody froze and watched as the teen calmly took another arrow and got ready for another shot. Sagitta then spoke in a deadly voice, "Shut up. I don´t care for the pathetic excuses from scum capable of hurting children. You tried to harm my family, so now you have to deal with me... But then again, this is what happens when you don´t learn your place in the pecking order. You get your ass kicked or get killed by picking a fight you can´t handle. Either way, it is your fault, bandit."
Seeing the look in the teen´s eyes, Shanks quickly stepped in to prevent the possibility of having to witness a child kill someone.
And no child should experience something like that, regardless of their age.
"Owowowow!" whined Luffy as his big brother fussed over the bruises, scratches and the occasional cuts, he acquired from the fight with the bandits.
The older boy bopped him on the head. "Oh hush you! You should be glad it isn´t worse than what a balm can heal, little bro. What were you even thinking? Those bastards were ready to kill you! If I didn´t arrive in time…"
"They were talking bad about Shanks and the others! I couldn´t let them!" complained Luffy as the other applied a healing salve.
"You still should have waited and instead of provoking a fight, you should have plotted some humiliating revenge that couldn´t be traced back to us. I taught you better than this!" The androgynous teen then paused and looked into the child´s eyes. "Besides, how do you think I would feel if something happened to you and I wasn´t here?"
"But nothing bad happened! You came and Shanks and the others too… And…"
"Luffy." the boy went quiet. "Please try to understand that as your big brother, I care a lot about you. You are my precious little sibling. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you."
"Sagitta-nii," whispered the child, tears swelling in his big eyes.
The other only gave him a sad smile. "Please, try to be more careful. I don´t want to lose you. You are the only family I have, otōto."
The younger boy launched himself and hugged his brother as tightly as possible. Said brother just closed his eyes and returned the hug.
Shanks, who was silently watching them up to that point, spoke "You should ease a bit. The kid fought good, for such a small brat. You trained him well."
"Maybe, but still," the teen started, then paused and sighed. "I guess the only way to ease my consciousness is to give Luffy more training."
"Yay! More training with Nii-san!" shouted Luffy, immediately cheering up, much to the amusement of the others.
"Speaking of… may I ask what was the weapon Luffy used to defend himself?" asked Benn, Shanks´ first mate.
"You mean these?" Sagitta produced said wooden weapons. "These are the wooden version of deer horn knives, also known as crescent moon knives. I´m teaching Luffy with these until I´m sure he can handle the real ones."
"Interesting. I have never seen such knives."
"They are not exactly popular, but are way more useful against weapons like swords, lances or other mid-range weapons," Sagitta told them. "And what you saw from Luffy is basically how you fight with them, only with the real things you can also attack your opponent after you deflect their strikes."
Shanks hummed at this. "Sounds like a handy pair of knives."
"Oh, they are. And with the devil fruit Luffy consumed, it is more practical than anything," nodded the teen. Then he looked at the kid sitting in his lap. "But that doesn´t mean I won´t train you in other weapons! Having only one fighting style without branching out might one time become a hindrance."
"Too true, too true," chuckled the pirate captain as Luffy nodded enthusiastically at those words. "What weapons are you going to expand with?"
"I don´t know, yet, but it will be something for mid-range and long-range… For the latter probably a crossbow," wondered the silver-haired teen aloud.
"What, not going to share your knowledge of archery? From what I saw, you shot good enough to teach it to the kid," commented the pirate with a raised eyebrow.
The teen shook his head. "Luffy is still too small and doesn´t have the right muscles developed for a regular bow. And crossbows are good practice for pistols later since I would never just hand over such a thing to a child. That´s just tempting fate!"
"Fair enough," nodded the pirate, easily seeing the younger male´s logic. "You speak quite wise for your age… You sound more like an old man," Shanks teased.
"Excuse me?" Sagitta turned to him with an incredulous expression. "For your information, if anybody in this bar is an old man it is you, Shanks. Your grey hairs stand out against the red clear as day and I sincerely doubt the crow´s feet came from laughing so much."
"What?! I´m not even thirty!" sputtered the redhead.
The teen cocked his head to the side in mock surprise. "Really? Well sorry, but either way compared to me and Luffy you are an old geezer already. I, after all, barely hit puberty and Luffy isn´t even ten yet. Right, Little bro?"
The pirate turned towards the little boy, hoping to get some support against the older child.
Luffy, however, merely looked at him in confusion, before he turned towards his big brother. "You mean Shanks isn´t forty?"
The captain´s jaw dropped, while his crew openly howled with laughter. Seeing their boss getting told off by a duo of kids was hilarious!
Finally, Shanks closed his mouth and shook his head. "I guess I walked myself into that one. Well played, brat."
Said brat merely grinned at him and the captain chuckled, before gently ruffling the younger male´s hair.
As they watched the ship disappear on the horizon, the silver-haired teen felt oddly satisfied with how things played out. Despite his previous distrust towards the pirates, they proved to be the right sort and shown a good example to his little brother. And it showed that both he and Luffy had a long way to go before they were even remotely ready for when they finally ventured to seek adventures on the sea.
Speaking of the little boy, he couldn´t help but chuckle at the determined look on the kid´s face as he clutched the straw hat given to him tightly to his chest. The boy was going to make it far, the teen just knew it. And the teen would be here to fight by his side.
Sure, the time before Luffy found and freed him was hellish, but the teen, formerly known as Harry James Potter, now Hydra D. Sagitta, couldn´t be happier with his life now.