Category: Mild Romantic Fluff
Characters: Monkey D. Luffy and Charlotte Smoothie
Requested By: camdawg (FanFiction)
Luffy sat perched on the bulkhead of his ship, swinging his legs back and forth as he held his hat to his head lest it be blown away by the considerable breeze rolling off the gently frothing waves. He softly hummed a tune to himself, enjoying the kiss of salt against his skin and the smell of the sea wafting up his nose. Though he very much enjoyed riveting adventures, sometimes just sitting at the head of his ship enjoying the sea was pretty lovely, too. He watched an albatross coast the trade winds above his head, its wings occasionally flapping once before settling back into a steady glide.
"Luffy! Get down here!"
The pirate captain turned his head when he heard his navigator yelling at him, and there she was, standing on the deck of the ship with her hands on her hips. He screwed up his face in disgust, anticipating that the navigator was going to yell at him; however, she held up one of her hands to show that she was holding an envelope. "There's a letter addressed to you!" This definitely garnered his interest, and he hopped down from the bulkhead to stride across the deck and snatched up the letter. "Hey-!" Ignoring her protests, he ripped open the envelope and unfolded the paper inside, eyes wide with curiosity.
"It's from Chiffon!" he cried when he read the name written at the bottom of the letter.
"Chiffon?" Sanji gasped from the second level of the deck. He hopped over the railing to land beside him, peering over his shoulder to confirm that the daughter of Big Mom was, in fact, the sender. "Why would she send a letter to you?" Luffy shrugged in response; he certainly didn't know why the woman would send him a letter. Due to the commotion, the rest of the crew had gathered around. They were all clamoring for him to read the contents aloud.
"All right, all right! Be quiet!" he snapped in irritation before clearing his throat and bringing the letter close to his face to read the swirly, cursive handwriting. "'Dear Straw Hat Luffy,'" he started, "'This is Charlotte Chiffon, Lola's twin sister.'" Luffy only vaguely remembered both of the women, truthfully, but he remembered Chiffon more due to her close association with Bege, who he rather liked. "'I am writing to ask for your help. The World Government demanded that Mama give up one of her children as punishment for the trouble that the failed wedding caused. Mama has handed over Smoothie, and she is going to be imprisoned in Impel Down. I know this is a lot to ask, but please save Smoothie.'" As he read the letter, a ripple of shocked gasps spread through his crewmates.
"She wants us to save one of Big Mom's pirates?" Brooke frowned, or frowned as much as his old bone face would allow.
"It's more than that! She wants us to save her sister!" Chopper squeaked, waving his little reindeer hooves.
"But she's our enemy! Besides, we need to meet up with Zoro and the others at Wano," Nami asserted. She had that cross look on her face again, with her hands primly on her hips.
"It's not Big Mom that's asking, though. It's Chiffon, and she is pretty much why we made it off that island," Sanji pointed out patiently. Luffy ignored the banter of his crew, arguing that they should or shouldn't save the woman, while he just stared hard at the rest of the letter. The ship is currently headed for Impel Down. If you turned around now, you could easily intercept the vessel. Please, Luffy. You are the only one I can ask to do this. I know that it's wrong of me, after all Big Mom did to Sanji and the rest of you, but Smoothie is my sister, and all of us siblings care very much about her. You're the strongest pirate I know, and you always do the right thing.
"Quiet!" he barked suddenly, and the angry squabbling around him immediately ceased. A broad grin spread across his face, and he snickered quietly as he crushed the letter in his fist. "Nami! Set sail for Impel Down! We're gonna catch that ship and set Smoothie free!" he cried, throwing his hands in the air happily. Though sitting on his ship staring at the sea was always lovely, he just loved an adventure. His crewmates looked at him with doubt, but did not openly object; instead, they began scurrying about, adjusting sails and turning the rudder to alter the course to the infamous pirate prison. Luffy did a spin of glee before hopping back up onto the bulkhead of his ship, watching the waves slap against the front of the boat and throw up glittering white foam. Look out, Charlotte Smoothie! The Straw Hats are on their way!
Luffy grew more impatient as the day went on, pacing the deck and letting out annoying, wheedling whines whenever one of his crewmates came close enough to hear him. There wasn't much to do besides wait for the ship to appear on the horizon, and Luffy hated waiting. After hours of this, he climbed back onto his favorite perch with a long sigh, holding up his head in his hands as he stared through lidded eyes at the horizon. The sky was beginning to turn a rich golden color as the sun slowly sank into the sea, and its light splashed over the waves, sparkling like the stars slowly appearing with the inky blackness of night. Bored, he watched the blazing ball of fire slowly sink into the water. Then, he suddenly jumped up with an excited shout, pointing at the sunset. "I see it! I see it!" Sure enough, a black speck had appeared in the yellow sun, and was slowly forming the shadowy silhouette of a ship. "Full speed aheaaaaad!" he crowed, spinning around. He then cried out as he lost his balance and pin-wheeled his arms desperately to keep from plummeting into the ocean.
His crewmates were scrambling around the deck again, this time to coax more speed out of the Thousand Sunny. Luffy hopped down onto the wood, watching the sails unfurl and catch the wind and hearing the ropes scream as they shot through the pulley mechanisms. The tension in the air was high, and he could feel his blood beginning to simmer with the rush of battle. He snickered happily as he looked back at the horizon; the shadowy ship was rapidly growing larger, forming the image of an impressive Navy vessel. It was a much larger ship than the Thousand Sunny, and so it was an easy feat to outrun it. Luffy cried out as the water suddenly exploded beside the boat, indicative that a cannonball had been launched at them. "Whoa!" he cackled happily.
"They're shooting at us! They're shooting at us!" Chopper shrieked as he ran in circles with tears streaming down his furry little face. Carrot was attempting to console him, to no avail.
"We're coming on fast, Luffy! I need you to take care of those cannonballs so I can pull close enough for you and Sanji to be able to reach it!" Nami called down to him from where she was tightly gripping the wheel, holding it steady as they rapidly approached the enemy ship. As she spoke, another cannonball screamed overhead, and he quickly inflated himself to send it rocketing harmlessly back into the sea. The vessel was about one hundred yards away now, and he could see little shadowy figures scuttling hither and thither, and hear the disembodied shouts of Navy men drifting on the ocean breeze. Rapidly, the Thousand Sunny closed in on its prey, until the ship was coasting in the wake trail of the formidable ship. The small pirate vessel bounced up and down in the swell, the waves crashing against the hull and sending salty droplets raining down on them. Nami was struggling to hold the wheel fixed, her slim arms shaking with the strain. "That's it! I can't get it any closer! It's up to you now!"
"Chopper! Carrot! Brook! You wanna go?" Luffy cried with delight as he hopped up onto the balustrade and prepared to wind up his arm for the throw. Chopper was sitting in a puddle of his tears and crying, with Carrot kneeling beside him and patting his little reindeer head. He shook it emphatically at the captain's prompting. Before the other two could answer, there came a series of angry shouts, and Luffy turned to see that the Navy soldiers were swinging on ropes to bridge the gap between the two boats. "Whoa!" he shouted, ducking down to avoid being decapitated by a saber. The soldier landed on the deck only to find himself at the business end of Brook's sword.
"Go! We'll take care of things here!" he called, and so Luffy did as bid, stretching out his arm to grab ahold of the sizable mast. Holding a hand to his hat, he sprang over the gap, while Sanji used his Sky Walk to bridge the gap with a series of powerful jumps. They landed on the deck of the ship, falling right into a brawl with low-ranking military personnel. It was kind of pitiful and dull, because he and Sanji had them scattered across the deck groaning and bleeding in a matter of seconds. Luffy grabbed one by the front of his shirt and held him up, shaking him a little.
"Hey! Where's Smoothie?" he demanded. The man, barely conscious, lolled his head and muttered something unintelligible before passing out, much to his disappointment. Luffy dropped him and proceeded to another, who informed him that Smoothie was contained within the bowels of the ship. Luffy wasted no time kicking the doors leading to the lower levels of the boat right off its hinges, sending the reinforcements that were on their way tumbling back down the steps. He plunked down the stairs, punching anyone who made the mistake of coming too close, while Sanji took care of any stragglers he had ignored. For a ship that was bearing a daughter of Big Mom, Luffy was disappointed at the level of security; there was no super-powerful lieutenant or captain to be found. Unbeknownst to him, he had knocked him out upon landing. "This is too easy!" he whined to Sanji as a rather brave soul sprang out from behind a barrel with a loaded rifle.
"Stop whining. Let's just get Smoothie-" he paused to deliver a swift kick to the man's head and send him crashing through the wall- "before they get out a distress signal."
"Ooh! You think they'll call Smoker?" he grinned as he continued merrily strolling along the hallway and down another set of stairs.
"I hope the hell not!" came the irritated refute, and Luffy just puffed out his cheeks. He was in the mood for a good fight. Still, he didn't find one, and reached the brig of the ship with relative ease. The keys, which he had swiped from the jail keeper after relieving him of his consciousness, swung around his index finger as he approached the large cell in which the long-legged woman was confined. She had her eyes closed with her arms crossed, and he was reasonably sure that she was asleep; however, as he stopped in front of the bars, her eyes snapped open to stare levelly at him.
"What are you doing here, Straw Hat Luffy?" she inquired calmly. Her silvery hair shone dimly in the dark, settled around her body like some kind of luxurious coat.
"I'm here to rescue you, duh." Though she kept up her unbothered demeanor, he could see her eyes widen slightly in surprise. "Chiffon asked me to," he clarified as he inserted the key in the lock and turned it, then pushed the door open. "I don't really care about you either way, but she's a friend, and my friend asked me for help. Simple as that." He walked into the cell, preparing to unlock the chains that bound her, but Sanji grabbed him by the wrist.
"Hold it, Luffy. How can we trust that she won't hand us over to Big Mom?"
"Couldn't you have brought that up before we stormed the ship?" he whined as he pursed his lips at him. "Besides, you think I'm just gonna let her beat me up and hand me over? Come on, Sanji," he snorted and rolled his eyes. He looked back over at Smoothie, who was just calmly sitting there, chained to the chair and gazing levelly down at him.
"What do you intend to do with me?" she asked suddenly. Luffy blinked, then cocked his head to the side. He hadn't really thought about what he was going to do with Smoothie once he rescued her. He couldn't just deliver her to Big Mom, because he certainly didn't have the manpower to take the Emperor on again so soon. He didn't have time to take her to another island, because he had already wasted enough time and needed to get underway to Wano immediately. He sat there for a moment, thinking, then grinned at her.
"Wanna join my crew?"
"Oh, good grief," Sanji muttered and turned away his a hand over his face, but Luffy thought it was a fantastic idea. What little he had seen of her showed that she was a capable woman, and besides, he didn't have a Long-Leg tribe in his crew yet. She would be the perfect addition.
"No."
"Aw," he pouted glumly and tapped his foot as he tried to think of an alternative. "Well, then, I guess you'll be my hostage," he decided with equal glee. He had never had a hostage before. It was certainly a very pirate-y thing to do.
"How is that any different from my situation now?" she smirked lightly at him, staring at him in amusement through the one eye not covered by her silvery hair. She had Luffy stumped for a minute.
"Well, for one, the food is better," he grinned with a look at Sanji, who was giving him an extremely pained expression. "And I'm not gonna lock you in Impel Down. I've been there. It's not a very fun place," he added as he scrunched up his nose, remembering the vile prison. Smoothie continued to give him that level stare, gauging his truthfulness before she dipped her head in a small nod.
"All right. I won't make any attempt to attack you if you release me," she promised. Luffy grinned in glee and set to unlocking the padlocks on her person, while Sanji was shaking his head and muttering about how asinine the entire thing was. As the chains fell off of her, landing with heavy thunks against the thick wood, Smoothie rubbed her wrists and stretched her arms and legs to relieve the stiffness; then, she stood, stooping over as her head brushed against the low ceiling of the cell. Sanji stiffened, obviously expecting the woman to retaliate, but the woman just looked down at the pirate captain. "Thank you."
"No problem! Come on, hostage!" Luffy laughed as he chucked the keys aside and strolled out of the cell. A few straggling soldiers attacked them on the way up, but they were relatively unbothered as they made it out onto the deck. Luffy could see the Thousand Sunny still sailing in the wake of the massive Navy ship, with a couple of Navy officers swimming in the foamy froth after being thrown off the boat by his crewmates. "Let's get outta here," he grinned and promptly wound his arm tightly around Smoothie's waist, while he stretched the other to latch onto his ship's mast. When the three of them landed securely on the deck, Nami wrenched the wheel and pulled out of the wake, and the sails caught the wind to bear them speedily away from the Navy ship. Luffy released Smoothie and made to head to his favorite napping spot.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Nami cried, taking the steps two at a time on her way down from the wheel. "What are we going to do with her?" she demanded and pointed at the fifteen-foot-tall woman.
"She's my hostage."
"If she's your hostage, why don't you lock her up?" Luffy screwed up his face in distaste.
"That isn't very nice, Nami." The navigator stamped her foot and pulled at her tangerine hair, then exhaled deeply and composed herself. She threw up her arms in defeat, shaking her head as she turned to head back up the stairs to her chart room.
"All right, all right. I'm setting a course for Wano. This had better not bite us in the butt later, Luffy!" she called down, and he winced as she slammed the door shut. Why is she so grumpy? He pouted. He strolled back over to the mast and settled himself at the base, tipping his hat forward to cover his eyes before settling his arms beside his head. Just as he was about to close his eyes, a pair of feet clad in ornate boots appeared in the thin space beneath the brim of his straw hat, and he looked up to see Smoothie standing over him.
"What? I'm taking a nap."
"I thought I was your hostage?" she blinked down at him. Though she kept her face as blank as ever, he could see the minute traces of confusion there.
"What do you expect me to do? Lock you up, beat you within an inch of your life?" he snorted. How dumb. "Chiffon asked me to rescue you, and I did. Now you're my hostage, and I can treat you however I want, and I don't wanna mistreat you," he shrugged.
"I didn't ask to be rescued." Luffy sat up with a sigh and returned his hat to its proper position, confident that he wasn't going to get his nap with the woman's incessant pestering. He crossed his arms, craning his neck to overcome her towering height.
"So what, you were just okay with Big Mom selling you out like that? For such a big, bad Emperor, she sure let the military push her around," he mocked. Her face flushed a light shade of pink, and he raised an eyebrow as she crouched down so that they were face-to-face.
"Don't insult Mama like that!" she snapped and jabbed her index finger into his chest. Luffy held his ground, keeping his arms crossed as he glared right back into her eyes.
"I'll insult her all I want. I don't respect anyone who can just callously give up their family like that!" he retorted hotly. He hadn't liked the giantess, to begin with, considering her treatment of Sanji, but he definitely didn't like her now. He would have died rather than give up Ace to the military. In fact, he had nearly died doing just that. "She doesn't give a damn about you or any of your siblings. She doesn't deserve your respect either!" he asserted firmly. Smoothie's face slowly drained of color, and he was shocked to see her expression grow sad. She fell back slightly to sit on the deck, her long legs tucked underneath her, and her silvery hair glowed in the moonlight as it framed her hourglass shape.
"She gave me up…" she murmured. Finally, she's getting it. He watched her for a minute. A thin river of tears began running down one of her cheeks. She put up such an emotionless front that he hadn't expected such a reaction from her. I guess she can feel after all. He scooted a little closer to her, dipping his head to look at her since her gaze was downcast.
"Hey. There's no need to cry. You'll have lots of fun as my hostage!" he reassured her brightly. "Sanji makes amazing food, you know. Wait until you meet the rest of my crew, too! They're all waiting at Wano! We do a lot of cool things together, like seeing who can catch the biggest fish or kill the biggest game so Sanji can make it for dinner! We play a bunch of cool games, too, while we're sailing, and Zoro is always really funny the more alcohol he drinks. We have a running bet to see how much alcohol it takes to get him drunk! So far, he can drink five barrels of rum! Five!" he told her ecstatically. "Plus, we make friends everywhere we go! I have a whole armada, you know, with all my friends!" he bragged, sitting back up. He heard Smoothie giggle a little, and he beamed widely at her when she looked up with a tiny smile. He thought she had a rather charming smile.
"You aren't too bad, after all."
"Duh! Are you just figuring that out?" he snickered as he rocked back and forth slightly, holding his feet. He had his eyes closed as he laughed, so he didn't see Smoothie leaning forward until her lips gently pressed against his cheek, and his eyes snapped open in shock. "Uh," he blinked as she pulled back, smirking slightly as she stared at him alluringly. He just rubbed his cheek, not quite sure what to do, and smiled bashfully at her. Her hair looks pretty in the moonlight, he thought, though he wasn't sure where that thought came from.
"I think this is going to be a lot of fun," she chuckled before rising to her towering height and striding away. Luffy leaned forward to watch her climb up the steps to join a very confused Carrot at the helm, and they engaged in avid conversation about Carrot's origins. He watched them for a minute, then snickered to himself and settled himself back down for his nap.
I knew this was a good idea. I think this is gonna be a lot of fun, too! He thought gleefully, the image of the strange new addition to their ship dancing in his mind with the light of the moon…