A/N: WARNING: There is some adult content at the end of the chapter. Nothing too serious, but we are starting to get into the main story here. So far, ASN still maintains it's T-rating. But I could very well be changing the rating to M pretty soon. Just throwing that out there.

I covered my mouth and swallowed a burp. It was always fun to watch the reactions of people the first time they saw how much my boys could eat. The Red-Hair Pirates were no exception. They were shouting in disbelief and a couple men ran down into the galley. They returned looking pale and amazed, giving me an astonished stare. My boys had been raised next to two bottomless pits and a group of mountain bandits. They had learned very quickly that they had to eat fast if they wanted food. Add in the fact that Garp had also taught them to eat as much as they could whenever they could, and my twins managed to eat a lot. Not as much as Luffy, but Sora and Eli certainly ate more than Ace had at their age.

I told as much to the crew as I pulled out a harpoon. I tied off the rope to the main mast, making sure that it was thoroughly secured. I also tied the life line to my harness off next to it, thanking Ben for keeping it on me while I had been sleeping. I then walked over to the edge of the ship. I crawled onto the railing and leaned over, looking down at the ocean bellow. Several men shouted and came running forwards, reaching out their arms like they were going to pull me back. I just stared at them and they slowly stopped moving.

"Uh, guys?" I asked, giving them all a wary glance. "Somethin' the matter?"

"You're on the railing, Kitten," Shanks said from the front of the group. "Sure you know what you're doin'?"

I blinked several times at the pirate. "Yeah, I think so," I said warily. I reached into my boot and pulled out one of my knives. The entire crew shouted and moved quickly, but this time they scurried away from me. I gave them a strange look and quickly slid the blade across my palm. I flexed my hand several times to get the blood pumping before flinging the blood out into the ocean. I heard someone ask what I was doing as I shoved the blade back in my boot and licked my wound. "Fishin'," I answered before pulling the harpoon on my lap. "Now, hush. I need to concentrate right now."

I took a deep breath and started focusing. I slowly started easing my Haki down the harpoon and pooling it around the tip. I wasn't very good with Armament Haki and it took all my concentration to use it. It was never very reliable, hence the fact that Luffy had been able to punch me before I could use it. But I had just spent a little time with the Kuja Tribe and had them start teaching me how they coated their weapons. The result was I could coat a section of a blade for exactly eighty-two seconds. Which was just long enough for what I needed to do.

Once the harpoon blade was coated, I stood up and closed my eyes. I opened my Perception Haki and probed the waters around us. I felt mostly fish, but—there! A Sea King! I opened my eyes and grinned at the pirates before using Shave and Moon Walk to stand above the Sea King. I pulled my arm back and threw the harpoon as hard as I could, aiming for the Sea King's head. The beast let out a loud roar and the ocean started turning red. My grin widened and I returned to the ship.

I took a bow before gesturing at the dead Sea King behind me. "Here," I said cheerfully, "more dinner."

I quickly closed my eyes and took several deep breaths through my nose as I started to feel a little nauseous. As I had literally just stood on the deck, I was able to adjust before I threw up. When my stomach was settled, I opened my eyes and glanced down at my palm. The cut wasn't bleeding anymore, but it wasn't quiet healed, so I gave it another lick. When I looked up from my hand, my eyes instantly fell on a male chest. I let out a loud scream and quickly back-peddled. The small of my back ran into the railing of the ship and I found myself falling backwards into the ocean. Right before my harness would have caught me, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me back onto the ship.

I crouched down on the deck and breathed heavily for a moment before I glared up at Shanks. He just gave me a crooked grin. "I was about to compliment your Perception Haki, Kitten," he said with a teasing lilt to his voice, "but obviously it's not as good as I thought.

My glare deepened into a scowl as I stood up and started unbuckling my harness. After stepping several paces away from the railing, of course. "My Perception Haki is very good," I growled. "I just didn't know you were that close to me."

One of Shanks' eyebrows raised as he regarded me. "Oh, it is, huh? Then how good is it?" he asked with a small smirk.

"Good enough to know that there are three—four, now—more Sea Kings thinking about eating the one I just killed. So you might wanna hurry up and bring it in, guys," I called out to his crew. I looked back at Shanks as the last of my harness' buckles came undone and it fell to the deck. "The Old Fart and Vice-Captain both say my Haki got so much better because I have kids. It's nice to be able to pinpoint the exact location of them on an island and see if they're in trouble."

"Vice-Captain?"

"That's all you got out of that whole thing?" Seeing Shanks' insistent look, I let out a small sigh. "Yes, I'm talking about Vice-Captain Rayleigh."

Shanks' grin widened. "How is he doing? I haven't seen him in a while!" he said happily.

I noticed the twins walk up on to the deck, so I let out a low whistle to get their attention. "He's good; gambling a lot." I grinned as the twins walked up to us. "He's training Luffy right now."

Before Shanks could reply, the twins both chorused, "We're still hungry, Mama."

I laughed as I heard the shocked shouts of the crew. "You guys just ate," I said as I crouched down in front of them. "You gotta let everyone else eat some, too."

They gave me identical skeptical looks. Sora started, "If they were too slow to get the food—,"

"—then they don't deserve to eat," Eli finished.

"Those are the rules at home, yes," I hedged. "But we're guests here. And you can't just eat all of your host's food." They both frowned at me, so I let out a small sigh of defeat. "I just caught a large Sea King. If there's leftovers after the crew's eaten, you can have it. Deal?"

Eli and Sora exchanged looks and had a silent conversation that only happened between twins. As one, they nodded and turned back to me with wide grins. They agreed with me, so I suggested that we go take a bath while everyone ate. Sora wrinkled his nose and Eli let out a loud groan, but they both knew that it wasn't so much as a suggestion as an order. I smiled sweetly at them and stood up. I ruffled their hair and led the way into the Captain's cabin. I unerringly walked over to the attached bathroom and filled the shallow tub with hot water.

As the tub was filling, I undressed with the boys and they asked how I knew about this bathroom. I explained to them that Shanks had had it installed for me when the ship was built. The tub was deep enough to soak in, but shallow enough that a Devil Fruit user wasn't at risk of drowning. They nodded sagely at my explanation before asking why it was in the Captain's cabin if it was for me. I wet Sora's head and started washing his hair as Eli started washing his back. I told them that I had shared the cabin with Shanks the entire time I had been a pirate with him.

Finally satisfied, the boys started telling me all about the ship and crew. The switched places, still talking about how much fun they had while I was sleeping. My chest tightened the more they talked about their adventures. I couldn't tell if I was happy that they were having so much fun, or sad knowing that, as soon as my mission was over, they would never see these pirates again. I was quiet as the boys finished washing and hopped in the tub. They both turned to jello and leaned over the side, but they had happy smiles on their faces. Now that they were clean, I started washing my own hair. I was almost done when I heard the door open behind me.

"Kitten, I have a question about th—" Shanks stopped talking at the same time I stopped snarling.

I felt a panic attack welling in my chest and snapped at Shanks to get out. He spent a long moment staring at me before he murmured an apology and backed out of the bathroom. I let out a shaking breath and pressed my eyes against my knees. When I had finally calmed down, I sat up and finished my shower. The twins gave me concerned looks, but didn't say anything. They knew what had upset me so badly.

When I got wet, it countered my Devil Fruit and I was forced into my human form. I felt totally weak and defenseless as a human and didn't like being around people when human. The most common time I get wet is when I bathe. It had taken several months before I was able to take a bath with my brothers. And I had always preferred Luffy over Ace as he was in the same boat as me. Now that my brothers—brother—was older, we no longer took baths together. In fact, the twins were starting to say they wanted to try bathing alone now.

I pushed those lonely thoughts aside and slipped into the bathtub and relaxed with the twins. As we sat there, Sora started pestering me to sing them a song. Soon Eli joined him and I found both of the twins pestering me to sing for them. I hadn't sung them a lullaby in years, but they had been requesting it for the past several nights. I think it was because they missed Ace and wanted the comfort they felt when we had all lived on Mount Corvo together. I finally gave in and started singing for them.

"Hush now, mo storin

Close your eyes and sleep

Waltzing the waves

Diving the deep

Stars are shining bright

The wind is on the rise

Whispering words

of long lost lullabies

Oh, won't you come with me

Where the moon is made of gold

And in the morning sun

We'll be sailing

Oh, won't you come with me

Where the ocean meets the sky

And as the clouds roll by

We'll sing the song of the sea

I had a dream last night

And heard the sweetest sound

I saw a great white light

And dancers in the round

Castles in the sand

Cradles in the trees

Don't cry

I'll see you by and by

Oh, won't you come with me

Where the moon is made of gold

And in the morning sun

We'll be sailing

Oh, won't you come with me

Where the ocean meets the sky

And as the clouds roll by

We'll sing the song of the sea

Oh, won't you come with me

Where the moon is made of gold

And in the morning sun

We'll be sailing free

Oh won't you come with me

Where the ocean meets the sky

And as the clouds roll by

We'll sing the song of the sea!"

I finished their lullaby and opened my eyes. I let out a small chuckle when I saw that both of the twins were about to fall asleep. A carefully urged them out of the tub, chiding that they couldn't sleep there. I wrapped each of them in a towel before myself and then ushered them out into the cabin. Shanks was leaning against the door and I felt my cheeks heat. He heard me for sure. I pushed my embarrassment aside as I seamlessly shifted into my partial hybrid-form. I wordlessly tossed Shanks a towel and he started to dry Sora's hair as I worked on Eli's.

We worked in silence as we dried their hair before I told them to put on their pajamas. Once the yawning boys were dressed for bed, I asked where they wanted to sleep. They both sleepily replied that they'd sleep with the crew. I nodded and urged them out of the door. Ben was waiting there with open arms and quickly picked the two of them up. He gave me a small smile before he walked off. I felt a smile of my own appear on my face as I noticed that both Sora and Eli fell asleep before the vice-captain had taken two steps.

I softly shut the door and walked over to my own bag. I pulled out my yukata and turned my back on Shanks. I dropped my towel and was about to pull the purple yukata on when Shanks' hand on my shoulder stopped me. My entire body froze as he moved my hair off of my back. When my hair was out of the way, I felt him softly trace the ink in my skin. When I had still been a member of the Red-Hair Pirates, I had gotten the jolly roger tattooed on my back, right over where my heart would be. When I had turned twenty, I had gotten the Roger Pirate's jolly roger on the opposite side. But the tattoo that I felt Shanks spend the most time tracing was the one across my shoulders. It was also a jolly roger, but instead of a skull, it was the letters 'ASL' over a crossed pair of bones. Shanks softly asked what it was for and I found myself answering before I realized I was speaking.

"My brothers' jolly roger. From when they were kids." Shanks let out a small hum of acknowledgment, even as his finger hovered over the 'S'. I said no more about it and Shanks didn't ask. Instead, I felt his hand slowly move down my back and over to my left side. He lightly touched the ugly yellow and green fading bruise on my ribs. I whispered, "I wasn't able to summon my haki to shield against Luffy."

Shanks lightly nudged me around and I found my gaze held captive by his dark stare. Shanks looked down and his eyes followed his hand as it lightly traced up my side. His fingers brushed against the underside of my breast and I felt my breathing hitch. Shanks hesitated there before he continued up. He stopped on the small, almost faded, bruise on the top of my left breast. Shanks' jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth and his eyes met mine again.

"And this," he whispered huskily, "he gave you this—didn't he?"

"Yes," I breathed.

Shanks made a noise that sounded like a low growl and he took a step closer to me. He was now standing close enough that I could feel his every breath against my cheek. Shanks slowly started moving his hand across my chest before sliding down my sternum. As he moved his hand, he spoke in a low voice.

"I remember everything about that night. Like what made your breath hitch—," he said as he lightly brushed against the underside of my breast again, "What made you make that delightful little noise—" I let out a small moan as his thumb brushed over my nipple, "And what you tasted like—" he finished, his voice rough.

Before I knew it, Shanks' lips were pressed against mine. I let out a small cry and instantly returned his kiss. He leaned into me, pushing my back against the wall. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tilted my head to deepen the kiss. Shanks let out a small groan and licked my lip. I instantly opened my mouth for him as his hand tightly gripped my hip. His tongue slowly, hesitantly entered my mouth as his thigh slid between my legs. As his tongue lightly explored my mouth, getting reacquainted after a decade apart, his hand leisurely moved to the apex of my thighs. He touched the right spot and I moaned into his mouth. My head leaned back and hit the wall with a loud bang.

That brought me to my senses and I pushed Shanks away from me. His dark, heady gaze met mine even as we both panted. His eye darted down to the hickey on my breast and he leaned back down towards me. I felt anger well in my chest and I shoved him back again. I shoved my knee into his gut and grabbed the collar of his cloak. I opened the door and threw him out of the cabin before he even registered the pain. As I slammed the door, I felt the tears well in my eyes. I closed them tightly and slid my back down the door. I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face in them as the first sob shook my body.

A/N: I know that this chapter isn't as long as some of the previous ones, but I felt that this was a good place to stop. As always, I love to hear what you have to say and I read every review!

I hop you enjoyed this chapter!

~Shini