-Dominoes-
A
One Piece fanfic by Digitaldreamer
Chapter One: Strange Day
Well…here's chapter one. I decided to post it with the prologue, because without it people would probably assume the prologue was a one-shot by itself and would be like "WTF? This has nothing to do with the summary!"
Thus, here we are.
Warnings: None for this chapter, lucky you. I don't get to scar you for life yet.
Scared away yet? No? Well, I hope you enjoy the first chapter of Dominoes!
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Today was a very strange day.
Sanji had been the first to notice, when he had been turning slices of sizzling bacon in a frying pan and noticed that Luffy wasn't there. This was quite peculiar, because as sure as the sun rose every day, the rubber pirate would always be found entering the kitchen early in the morning just so he could drool over whatever Sanji was cooking. Of course, then he would be kicked out, quite literally, by the cook and then go bother someone else whether they were awake or not.
But today, Luffy wasn't there.
The cook had shrugged it off. Maybe Luffy was actually sleeping for once. It wasn't like it was a big deal.
Zoro had been next as he got up early for training, while it was still cool outside. As sweat poured down his body, his shirt long discarded as he did one-handed push-ups, he couldn't help but wonder where Luffy was? The younger boy always seemed to find some point in Zoro's training to watch the swordsman, gazing on wordlessly as weights the size of the Going Merry's figurehead were swung around. Zoro had never bothered to shoo the boy away, but he'd never invited his little audience either.
Even so, he couldn't help but wonder where those curious eyes were this morning.
Usopp noticed soon after that, when he awoke blearily in the crows' nest with his back aching from sleeping in an odd position. He was a bit confused, had he dozed off? He was used to Luffy running around on deck by now, popping up to see if the sharpshooter was really awake.
After pondering this, the sharpshooter had simply yawned and chose to think nothing of it. Nothing to worry about, right?
Chopper, too, took note of the oddity of today as he sat up on the squishy green couch and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The reindeer gazed around for a moment, blinking, before yawning and getting up to go to the bathroom.
It sure seemed quieter today…
Nami noticed how strange things were when she awoke to realize that she had actually awoken on her own, as opposed to some chaos up on deck. After taking a few moments to ponder this, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind gotten up to prepare herself for what would seemingly be an out-of-ordinary day.
Robin, however, was the one to bring up the strangeness as she was the first to sit down at the table for breakfast, a book in hand as usual. She has nodded in gratitude when Sanji handed her usual cup of coffee, and after taking a sip of it she spoke. "Cook-san, where's the Captain?" she asked.
Sanji frowned as he lit a new cigarette. "I don't know, still sleeping I guess. Don't worry about him, Robin-chan."
The dark-haired woman rose a perfectly arched eyebrow and took another sip of her coffee, saying nothing.
After another few minutes the cook was finished with making breakfast, as he set plates heaping with pancakes onto the table, along with bacon and eggs. After doing this he headed into the storage room, then knelt down so he could knock on the trapdoor that led to the girls cabin.
"Nami-saaaaaaaaan?"
"Yes, Sanji-kun?" Nami's voice wafted up through the door.
Sanji had to stop himself from letting out a sigh. Nami-san sounded so wonderful in the mornings! "My wonderful breakfast of love is prepared for your enjoyment, Nami-san! Please come up and sample my breakfast made out of my love for you!"
"I'll be up in a minute, Sanji-kun!"
The cook sighed with delight before standing and heading back to the kitchen door. He poked his head out. "Oi, morons! Food's ready!" he called, earning several differing replies.
"The Great Captain Usopp-sama is NOT a moron! But he'll ignore your rudeness because he requires food!"
"Yay, breakfast!"
"Shut up, Love cook!"
Sanji shook his head and went back to the kitchen to set out the plates and silverware.
Soon enough everyone was eating at the table…except for one person, and it seemed to make things strangely quiet.
"Where's Luffy?" Nami asked as she bit into a piece of tangerine.
"Still sleeping, I think. Here, have some orange juice, Nami-san," Sanji said, offering her a glass. Nami nodded in thanks and took it with a sweet smile.
"Ah, just leave him. More for us!" Usopp declared as he grabbed another pancake.
"Usopp, that was mine!" Chopper whined.
Zoro frowned. That was strange; it wasn't like Luffy to sleep in this late, through breakfast of all things.
"I'll go get him," the swordsman muttered, standing and heading out the door, leaving the sounds of Chopper and Usopp's bickering and Sanji's swooning behind him.
---
The only sound in the boys cabin came from the hammocks in the corner. There lay the curled up form of a boy in a bright red vest and frayed denim shorts. He looked rather peaceful in his sleep, his chest rising and falling.
Zoro frowned as he made his way down the ladder and spotted the boy, then shook his head and smiled a bit. It was a rare sight to see his captain sleeping, and it was one that he never really got sick of.
…In a friendly way, of course. Zoro just liked the quiet, really. He definitely did not find the sight to be adorable, because the swordsman most definitely was not gay.
He crossed the room with several strides until he had reached the boys side, and then reached up to lightly shake the boy. "Luffy? Wake up," he said softly.
Luffy gave a low groan, cracking open one dark brown eye to gaze at the swordsman. He then opened both eyes half-way, both looking glazed over.
"Hmm? Zoro?" He mumbled, blinking tiredly.
"Hey. You look like hell," the swordsman commented.
"I'm fine…it's just really hot, that's all," Luffy said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
Zoro rose an eyebrow at this. Hot? They were nearing an island with autumn weather, so if anything it was chilly, definitely not hot.
"That's….strange. Is something wrong?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked at his captain.
Luffy laughed. "Nah, I'm fine!"
"…O….kay. Anyway, it's time for breakfast, so you might want to get up," the swordsman said, hoping that would perk the boy up.
"Breakfast? Yeah…okay," Luffy mumbled, putting his hat on straight and hopping out of the hammock. He stumbled a bit on his feet, then shook his head and began heading towards the ladder.
Zoro frowned as he passed. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm sure," Luffy said, looking back at Zoro and giving him a smile. "Come on, let's go eat!"
With that he headed up the ladder and on deck. Zoro stood in puzzled silence for a moment before shrugging and following.
It wasn't his problem. If Luffy really weren't feeling well, he'd say something.
---
"Ah, there's the sleepy head." Nami commented in an amused tone as Luffy sat down. "How come you slept in so late, you didn't even have watch last night!"
The captain said nothing, he just grabbed a single pancake and poured syrup on it before shoveling it into his mouth. After chewing it and swallowing it the boy got up and began to wobble away. "I'm not hungry," he said.
The effect was instantaneous. Usopp and Chopper's attention went from their argument to Luffy, their jaws dropping along with the piece of bacon they had both wanted. Zoro, whom had been at the door, nearly fell backwards in surprise. Sanji's cigarette fell from his lips. Nami dropped her empty glass, which fortunately didn't break but hit the floor with a loud CLINK! Even Robin's eyes widened a fraction.
"YOU aren't hungry?" Nami cried.
Luffy nodded.
Usopp's eyes narrowed. "Who are you, and what did you do with our captain?"
The rubber pirate shook his head and laughed. "I'm me, I'm me!" he said, grinning. "I just don't feel hungry, alright?"
"Are you sick?" Chopper asked, frowning. He reached up to place a hoof on Luffy's forehead. "You seem kind of warm…"
Luffy laughed, stepping away from the doctor. "I'm okay! Don't worry, I don't get sick, remember?" Before anyone could question him on this, the captain was out the door.
He stumbled across the deck, pausing to lean against the railing and breath. Today was really weird…everything felt so warm. Maybe they were just near a place like Alabasta or something. He also felt really tired…there wasn't much of an explanation for that, though.
But there was no way Luffy was sick, because Luffy was never sick. It just sort of didn't happen.
The boy shrugged off this weirdness. It probably wasn't anything, right? That's what he reassured himself with as he finally made his way up to the figurehead of the Going Merry and climbed up on top of it.
He gazed out at the sea for awhile, lost in something that wasn't really thoughts or daydreams or anything really. It was just him and the sea, the shimmering blue that just seemed to stretch on forever and ever. But Luffy knew it didn't stretch on forever, surely there was something beyond that horizon, a new island, a new adventure, who knew? The rubber pirate could never really be sure what waited beyond that horizon, but he was sure that he would be able to face whatever it was.
That was the fun of being a pirate, you know?
The boy leaned forward on his palms, gazing down at the waves as they lapped against the hull of the ship. They sure were relaxing…
Suddenly, everything seemed to be spinning. The blue seemed to be blurring together with the brown hull of the ship, the cries of the seagulls above were growing fainter…
"Luffy!" Was that Zoro's voice? Why was he yelling?
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was slipping off of the figurehead and falling towards the salty ocean below? Yeah, that might have something to do with it.
The boy's eyes suddenly widened as he realized what was going on and he made to stretch out his arm and catch himself before it was too late!
…But his arm wouldn't stretch!
"Wha?" Luffy mumbled, blinking in confusion as his tanned arm remained it's usual length. What was going on?
This was the last thing that crossed his mind before the cool ocean waters enveloped him and everything went black.
Today was a very strange day.
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To be continued…
Well, here we are! The very first chapter of Dominoes! What did you all think? I hope you liked it! I hope I got everyone in-character and didn't mess up too badly!
…I know it was short. I'm sorry, there just wasn't much to write about. I hope I did everything alright in spite of it's shortness!
Crits and comments are greatly appreciated! Please review!
