Jeez I am just pumping out stories! I'm still updating my other ones, but here's one more. I used to write only angst, and then I went to fluff, but here we are, back to angst! And another children characters story. I just love writing those! The world Luffy came from is explained in a bit more detail in the later chapters. Might be slight OOC Garp later on. But you gotta love Shanks. Enjoy~

Song: Still I Fly (I think it's from that Planes movie)

"Luffy, you shouldn't sit by the edge," Zoro said, sitting next to his young friend, towering over him. The human child was small compared to all of the other beasts. "We don't know what happens when humans fall in." Zoro frowned as well as he could with his long snout when Luffy didn't even seem to be listening. Why did they have a prince with the attention span of a fly?

"Don't worry about it. I won't fall in," the child replied. "Plus, you'll save me." Zoro sighed, staring down at the lake from the cliff a safe distance away. He was right, Zoro would save him if he fell in, but no one knew if it would be the same for a human as it was for the beasts. Luffy had came from the lake as a baby, which made him where he was in social status.

Humans could communicate with all the types of beasts, and when not around other humans, most were kind and good. It had been over two hundred years since the last human, who stopped a war with the other dimensions. So, humans were regarded highly, even if they weren't natural to this world.

And humans were extremely rare to come from the lake. Other beasts would come and go, traveling in between the dimensions peacefully. But, no one knew where Luffy had come from. He just floated up to the top one day, bare and too young to even open his eyes.

The beasts had raised him as best as they could. It was really trial and error, but it worked and Luffy was now seven. Though his guards/friends had to wonder how he'd survived, being so simple minded so much and always getting into trouble and endangering himself. He trusted his friends too much, that he disregarded his own safety for doing reckless things.

Like right now, sitting so close to the edge and swinging his legs. "I'll be fine! Don't worry so much. Besides, I came from there. It's not like it'll kill me," Luffy reasoned. Then his stomach growled loudly, and he shot up, running back to the manor, wondering out loud what was for dinner. Zoro trotted after him, barely needing to run with Luffy being so much smaller than him. Than everyone, really.

-x-

Later that night, Luffy was sitting in bed. Not sleeping, sitting. He wished he could go in the lake and travel with the other beasts. He wished he could see what they saw and go where they go. Sanji had told him once that his cooks get a lot of their food from other worlds, that were plentiful with different types of foods. Foreign fruits and vegetables that didn't grow in their home world.

Luffy stood up, deciding he'd go out to the lake and look in it at night, where you can see glimmers from the other worlds, shimmering in the surface. He brought a blanket with him, since it was cold out and he might just choose to sleep out there, listening to the bubbling of the lake.

It wasn't hard sneaking out. He just crawled under his bed and into the stone passages that the servants traveled through. There was an outlet he'd found where the water from the roof flows through. It let out into the bushes not far from the treeline of the property.

He was glad he brought the blanket, because it really was cold outside. The human child wandered through the trees that separated the lake from the manor, pulling the blanket through the twigs and bushes.

When he came out to the clearing, he smiled at the light emanating from the water. Sitting in the same spot he had that afternoon, he looked down into the water. He saw trees, then some stars and planets, and then a little village of small houses. It looked like some of the towns he visited when he rode on Zoro to other parts of the country.

There were windmills that turned in the wind. It looked like a nice place. A little bland and simple. It looked too sleepy for his taste. But then he saw someone run past. On human legs. He gasped and leaned forward, watching as the image faded.

He pouted, and waited for another image to come from the same place, but none came. He swore he saw human legs. Wearing sandals. He frowned, and stood up to spread out the blanket, laying his head nearest to the edge so the light of the water would filter through his eyelids. The blanket wrapped around him.

Everyone was gonna be so mad in the morning. He snuck out without permission in the middle of the night to a place he was never allowed to go to alone. He fell asleep easily to the soft bubbling of the water below him.

When he woke up, it was early morning, and he stood up and went sprinting back to the manor, but was caught red handed by Zoro, who was staring at him angrily from the treeline. Luffy hadn't even made it out of the woods before he was caught.

"Hi, Zoro!" the child said happily, though he knew he was in trouble. "I didn't fall in!"

Zoro picked him up from the scruff of his shirt and tossed him into his room through the open window. "Stay!" he commanded, and left to go get mother, probably. But Luffy, not knowing his own good, jumped back out of the window and ran back to the lake, laughing the whole way. It was funny making Zoro mad. Smoke billowed out of his nostrils and he couldn't control it and it stung his eyes.

The human child was barefoot, and skidded across the surface of the rocks, but caught himself before he fell over the edge. "Whoa!" he said as he teetered on the edge. But then he saw the flash of bare feet. Human feet, he knew it. The toes flexed, and Luffy leaned forward. The image began to blur again. "No, wait!" he cried, wanting to see more of whatever world that one was.

He leaned forward, and threw his hands up in the air in irritation. But it knocked him off balance and he barely even made a sound before he fell into the water with a quiet splash.

-x-

Luffy's eyes snapped open. He was in a bed, a soft one. Was it all a dream? Phew! Everyone would be so mad if he fell into the water. He sat up and rubbed his tired eyes, looking around to open the curtains to make the room brighter. Sunlight was always better than the lamp. Especially in the morning.

He threw the red curtains open and stared wide eyed outside. What the hell? Where was he?! Wait, he was in that boring town he saw. "Zoro?" he called, voice shaking. Suddenly, he wanted to go back home. He was wearing clothes he didn't remember putting on. This room was a complete mess. Unfamiliar clothing was strewn across the room, with toys scattered around as well.

There was no answer. "How do I get back?!" he cried, running out of the small house. There was no one in there with him. Sanji always said there was a way to get back. A portal that was always above where you ended up.

But when Luffy looked up, all there was was a blue sky. "Oh no…" he whispered. There was no way back! He sprinted away, the blades of grass tickling between his bare toes. All there was was the tiny town and then fields of wheat. He recognized almost everything he saw as something he'd seen.

It looked like his world. Maybe he was sent to some area other than where he usually lived. But that theory was shot down when Luffy saw another human. It was a big one, and he couldn't help but stare at him. He came out of his yard, and then looked at the house Luffy had come out of, with the front door wide open. The man looked concerned, and went inside.

He heard his name being called from the open door and windows. The man obviously didn't see the boy, and started calling his name in panic. How did this human know his name? Luffy hid in the field, crouching down, before he slowly walked backwards.

How did he talk to another human? He'd never seen one before! He started to breathe heavily and quickly. He looked at his hands, which were completely smooth. He had no scars or markings on it. And come to think of it, his whole body felt strange. Lighter. It felt like he'd lost a ton of his body weight. He joined his hands to try and calm down, but his fingers felt strange. He pulled slightly, and they stretched. He screamed.

He fell on his butt in the wheat, and pulled on his toes, and those stretched too. "What the hell is this?!" he screamed again, frozen in place. He heard the man hurrying towards him. He'd made a lot of noise, hadn't he?

He stood up and ran away from the man. Where was he? What would he do now? He was scared. He didn't even notice he was running towards another house until another human hurried out, having heard the boy's screaming.

"Luffy? What's wrong?" she asked, Luffy looked around.

"Who- who're you? Where am I?!" he cried out. She looked at him in concern. Was he acting strange? How did these humans know him? Was this all some sort of illusion? These people were just his imagination? But then, how did he know what they looked like? He'd never seen any human before, only himself as a child. How would he fill out all of the details, like the wrinkles on the woman's face. Or the hair on the first man's face as he walked behind the boy.

"Luffy, what's wrong?" he asked in true concern.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" the boy asked in panic. He tripped as he walked backwards from the humans. Then he got up and ran. Towards the forest, which was the only thing that looked relatively familiar. Maybe his home was back in the forest.

"No, Luffy! Don't go in there alone!" But Luffy kept running until he made it into the forest with the huge trees. But, almost the moment he was in there, there was a large… thing. It was big, with feathers. And it dived at him.

"No, get away from me!" he shouted, hitting the thing in the face. It didn't like this and grabbed the boy's arm with sharp feet. He was tossed through the air out of the forest, but wasn't hurt when he landed, other than a few scrapes from the thing's talons.

He ran from the forest, and toward the little houses. Were there more humans there? And he was hungry, suddenly extremely hungry. More than he had ever been before, and his stomach hurt.

As he ran through the empty field, he heard "Damn it Luffy!" from next to him. He saw a green shadow go past him. "What did you do now?!"

"Zoro?! Zoro, help me!" Luffy called, but the shadow and voice were gone. "Zoro, come back! Where am I?"

He wasn't even paying attention when a bunch of people came running towards him, seeing the boy they seemed to recognize shouting at nothing. A red haired human pushed his way through the small crowd.

"Oi, Luffy. Are you alright?" he asked. Luffy couldn't have possibly had the imagination to make the scars over the red haired guy's eye. "What's wrong?" he asked in true concern.

"Where am I? How do you know me?" Luffy said as he backed away. When the man stepped towards him, a worried frown on his face, Luffy looked around in panic and held up a big stick behind him. "G-Get away from me!" he shouted as he pointed the branch at the still approaching man, using it as a weapon, even though his strange hands shook. "Wh- what's wrong with my body? Why does it stretch?!"

The human stopped moving towards him, putting his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "My name is Shanks, and you're in Foosha village. I know you from a couple months ago, when we met in Makino's bar. You tried to take my hat. Your body stretches because you ate a devil fruit that turned you into rubber," he said calmly.

"What's a devil fruit? What's rubber? What's going on?!" Luffy was still panicking. Shanks looked very concerned now. Luffy had no clue what was going on. Something was very wrong. He started walking towards the boy again, and Luffy saw the glint of metal on his waist. Something sharp was attached to his hips.

"Stay away!" Luffy warned.

"Luffy, you need to calm down. Why don't you come down to the bar and we can try and figure out what's wrong. Makino can make you some breakfast. I can hear your stomach rumbling all the way from over here. I'll explain devil fruits and rubber to you there. How about that?" the man said with an easy going smile, trying to hide the concern from his expression.

Luffy's stomach rumbled and hurt again, so he slowly walked around the person, still pointing the stick at him. "T-Take me there," Luffy said, trying to sound threatening, but really just coming across as terrified.

Shanks nodded his head, shooing away the others in the crowd. A colorful bunch of people, in all shapes and sizes. "Alright, I'll take you there."

Luffy followed from a distance, looking around him frantically, trying to see Zoro again. Or someone else he knew. But there was no one, and he heard nothing but the wind and crunching sound as he walked over twigs and dry grass. Shouldn't those things hurt his feet? And what was rubber?

They ended up on a street, with little shops on one side and the coast on another. More humans were around, looking at Luffy in concern but leaving when Shanks gave them a look that told them to back off, but not in a threatening way.

Luffy was led to a building that had some sort of writing on a sign above it. Luffy couldn't read it at all. From what he saw in it, it was some kind of restaurant. Shanks lead him forward, and through the swinging door.

Luffy slowly pushed the swinging door inward, and entered the establishment. The floor was wooden, and the interior looked familiar. He'd never seen it before, but it looked like the dining area of the manor.

Shanks sat on a seat on one end of the bar counter, while Luffy sat on the other. Shanks saw him eyeing his swords in a guarded way, so he unhooked them from his belt and walked to the corner of the bar, setting them against the wall and then walking back to the counter without them. Luffy lowered the stick and set it on his lap.

A human with long hair that was clearly different from Shanks and looked much different from the other human woman, came out of the side room, smiling at Luffy brightly. Before she could speak, Shanks said, "Makino, could you please get Luffy some food?" he asked in an overly friendly voice. Makino looked at him with a confused from, but he gave her a look that made her smile simply. Like nothing was wrong.

"Luffy, you asked what a devil fruit is, and what rubber is, correct?" Shanks asked, not making eye contact and looking at the bar counter. He didn't want to put pressure on the boy, which something was obviously wrong with.

"Yeah."

"Devil fruits give you special powers when you eat one. But, after eating one, you can't swim again," Shanks said.

"Like magic?"

"Yeah. And rubber is a substance that can stretch and lengthen. It also absorbs impact, so falling or being hit won't affect you," the man explained. Makino looked very confused, but just made Luffy the sandwiches. After eating the devil fruit, he ate a lot more than before, so Makino made big servings.

"Are you two humans?" Luffy asked, still on guard.

"Yeah…" Shanks said, thoroughly confused and for once having no clue what to do.

"Why does this one look different than you?" Luffy questioned, pointing at Makino. The woman looked blown away. Luffy was acting so weird; something was very wrong. Shanks cleared his face again. He didn't want to make Luffy think something was wrong with him, since it might just make him panic again and run off, where Shanks would have to chase him for his own safety, as he didn't seem to have a cue as what anything was.

"Makino is a woman, and I am a man. You are a boy, and will grow up to be a man, like me," Shanks replied. He honestly couldn't be anything but impressed on how well he was handing this despite how freaked out he was inside.

"Did something happen this morning? Something different?" Shanks asked after Luffy's expression wandered for a moment, like he'd never heard the terms "man" or "woman".

"Zoro told me not to, but I fell into the lake and I woke up in this house that I've never seen before and I can't find a way to get back," Luffy said hurriedly. His mouth watered when he was presented with the large sandwich. It looked like food Sanji cooked, so he slowly ate it. Then he scarfed the whole thing down in record time, still hungry for more. "How can I still be hungry?"

"Who is Zoro? What lake?" Shanks asked, finally thinking he'd get some answers, since nothing Luffy has said so far answered any of Shanks immediate questions.

"Zoro is my friend and guard. I slept out by the lake last night, but nothing happened and then when I snuck back to the manor he caught me. Then I went back to the lake and I fell in and now I'm here. I heard him in the field but then he left and hasn't come back."

He sounded utterly crazy. He had admitted to hearing voices outside. And neither adult had ever heard the name Zoro before.

"Zoro contacted you? What did he say?" Shanks questioned.

"'What did you do now'," Luffy supplied, silently taking another sandwich from the human woman, Makino. But, after finishing this large one, his stomach finally stopped rumbling.

"Is Zoro a human?" Luffy shook his head.

"I'm the only human."

"You don't have any human family? Do you remember your last name?" Luffy shook his head at the first question, and asked what a last name was at the second. "Your last name is the name your family has. You're last name is 'Monkey'. Your full name is Monkey D. Luffy," Shanks said patiently. Makino had started to sweat behind the bar, extremely concerned for the boy. He had acted fine last night.

"Do you remember the name 'Garp'?" Luffy shook his head. Shanks chewed on his lip, wondering what to do now. But then, some sort of shadow moved across the room.

"Luffy, where are you?" Zoro asked in an echo, but only Luffy could hear.

"Zoro! I'm right here!" he cried out. "Right here!" Luffy shouted, trying to grab the large green shadow, but he couldn't touch it. Then it was gone.

"Luffy, who are you talking to?" Shanks asked.

"You didn't see him? I was talking to Zoro! He just passed right by you!" Luffy shouted, hating this. He knew he must sound crazy to these people, but he wasn't! He was just confused, in a world he had no clue about.

"I didn't see anything. Did you, Makino?" The woman shook her head, gulping. Now she was terrified for Luffy. He was acting mentally ill. Hearing voices in his head and not remembering anything about himself or his life.

But then Zoro came back, and he finally seemed to see Luffy, as he stood right in front of him, somehow fitting into the tavern. Even though Zoro was a blur, the boy could imagine his look of anger. His tail flicked and a glass flew off of the bar. Makino shouted in surprise. To her and Shanks, a glass just flew off of the bar with nothing touching it.

"Luffy, you fool! What have you done?! I can't even get through enough to touch you!"

"I don't know, I fell into the lake. There are all these humans who act like they know me and I don't know what to do. Help me!" Luffy said. Zoro sighed, and then faded out into nothing. Tears welled up in Luffy's eyes with a grimace. Zoro couldn't get him, and Luffy couldn't find any return portal. Was he trapped here? For how long?

Shanks had seen a lot in his life on the Grand Line and the New World, but nothing had disturbed him as much as seeing Luffy like this. And the boy was a terrible liar, so he absolutely believed what he was saying was the truth.

"Should I call Garp?" Makino asked softly, still freaked about the glass' sudden movement. Shanks shook his head. Not yet. Garp would not be calm about Luffy acting like this. He'd probably beat the kid into being sane again, if he was "insane".

When Luffy started sobbing in his seat, hunched over and banging his head against the bar, Makino hurried over and stopped him.

"D- Don't touch me! I don't know you!" he screamed and ran from the tavern, dodging people in his way. He wanted to go home! He ran back to the house he woke up in. Maybe if he went back to bed, he'd wake up at home, and his friends would yell at him for doing stupid things, like normal.

Shanks ran out after him, worried about Luffy's safety while he was in this state. He saw Luffy running back to his house. He was so upset he didn't know Shanks was following, even though his steps were loud and crunching on the dirt path. Luffy slammed the front door that was left open shut behind him, and sprinted up the stairs, burying himself under the blankets and closing his eyes tightly.

Fall asleep, fall asleep, fall asleep!

The man who was following him didn't enter the house after the boy entered. He was probably waiting outside, making sure he wouldn't leave.

He lay in bed for hours, wanting Zoro to show up again. Someone he knew. He was lonely, and scared, and desperate. He shouldn't have given all that information away. Shanks and that lady must think he's their Luffy, and that he's gone crazy.

Are they all fake, or is their Luffy real and he just switched with him? Maybe their Luffy is where this Luffy came from. But Zoro was looking for Luffy. Did that mean he had stolen this Luffy's body? Was this body's original Luffy gone? The thought made Luffy feel immensely guilty even though he hadnt done it purposefully. He hoped that wasn't the case.

At lunch time, Luffy's stomach grumbled loudly, and he was ungodly hungry again. He wandered down the stairs, looking around for some sort of kitchen with food in it. It wasn't hard to find as the kitchen was quite large.

He rummaged through the cupboards and refrigerator, and found non-perishable foods, along with fruits. He scarfed down almost all of the food, and then went to explore the rest of the house. He looked through a little window in the front door and saw Shanks was outside still.

The door was unlocked, and Luffy was thankful Shanks hadn't forced his way in. Luffy looked at some books, but they had more pictures in them than of words, which he couldn't decipher at all. It was just strange symbols.

There were pictures of this Luffy's body, as a young child growing up to this age. He had used the bathroom before, so had seen he had the exact same appearance as his other body. There were pictures of him and an older man. In some, Luffy looked happy. In others, he looked scared and miserable.

He wondered who put these picture books together. No one was in this house, and the spare room with another bed had almost nothing in it and the bed was a bit dusty, meaning no one had been sleeping in it for awhile. Did this Luffy have no family to live with? How did he handle the loneliness?

Suddenly, there was a strange noise repeating itself. Luffy looked around for it and then headed towards the sound, finding some sort of creature with two eyes on what looked like stems. He couldn't tell if it was alive.

Luffy pressed down on it. Maybe it would answer if he did that. But, when he pushed it, the stop fell off, but was connected by a cord to the main part of the thing. "Hello?" a man's voice boomed. Luffy "Eep!"ed at the sudden noise.

"H-Hi?" Luffy replied uncertainty. He wondered who it was, but he didn't ask. He'd just seem even more suspicious than he already was. And was very suspicious. It hadn't even been a whole day and now everyone probably thought he was crazy. Great.

If Zoro couldn't reach him, and he found no portal anytime soon, he'd try and act like the other Luffy. If this was all a hallucination brought on by the lake's water. He wished that was the case so badly.

"Luffy! How's my grandson? I heard you're acting strange today," the rough voice said from the communication device. Luffy didn't really know what to reply. He couldn't figure out what the emotion in this man's voice was.

"I-I'm fine, grandfather," Luffy said. Somehow the face of the thing frowned. Did Luffy say something wrong? This was the other Luffy's grandpa, right?

"Grandfather? There definitely is something the matter with you! You never show that much respect!" and then he laughed loudly. The boy didn't know what to say. "Well, I'm concerned. I'll come over. Maybe my Fist of Love will put you back in the right mind set!"

"Fist of love?" Luffy asked quietly. It didn't sound good. This man didn't sound like a nice man to be around, and Luffy didn't want to meet him.

"Of course, boy! I'll beat some sanity into you, like usual. BWAHAHAHA! Then you'll be all back to normal in no time!" Garp laughed in his loud voice.

"What?! What kind of grandpa beats his grandson?!" Luffy shouted angrily, though afraid. He had no doubt this man was serious. Luffy had to get out of there. The face of the creature frowned deeply.

"A good one that ones his grandson to be a strong marine! Don't wimp out on me now, Luffy! I'll be there as soon as I can," Garp said and laughed one more time before the machine went clank and closed its eyes.

The boy stared at it for a moment, before he picked it up, walked to the front window, and dropped it into the bushes. He didn't want to talk to Garp again. What kind of beating would Luffy get? Shanks had said he was immune to blows, so the man couldn't hurt him, right?

To test it, Luffy walked around the house until he found a hammer. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he brought down the hammer on his arm as hard as he could. It bounced off and flew across the room, knocking down a clock on the wall. He looked at the arm; there was no red mark. It was like it never happened. So surely Garp's punches wouldn't hurt him! Phew!

Luffy ransacked the fridge and cupboards again for dinner, finding some candy in his room under the bed. It was delicious! Sanji had brought sweets from other dimensions back home, but Luffy had never tasted this kind of chocolate. Probably because no one and nothing could go here except Luffy.

He had checked through the hole in the front door to see Shanks was still waiting outside, though there was now another man there, with long hair in a ponytail. Neither had weapons on them, and they just sat there. Luffy could see them talking, but their voices were too quiet for the boy to hear through the door.

When he went to bed, he put the covers over his face, so if he woke up to the same place, he wouldn't know right away. Tomorrow, he'd act like these people's Luffy as best as he could. Act like he knew what was going on, and that today was just a really weird one. He closed his eyes and fell asleep surprisingly quickly.

It's 24,000+ words, but only five chapters. Review please! Might be some typos. Anyways, please check out my Family and FAS fic. See you next time!