AN: Helloo, new fandom! I've recently gotten up to date on One Piece canon, and it is made of awesome. This was spawned from randomly rereading some of the earlier chapters t'other day. Frankly, I have no idea why I wrote it. But it came out interesting, so...here y'are.

Drabble series, Shankscentric, gen, no spoilers.


It's an informed decision.

Well, as much as anything in Shanks' life to date has been an informed decision.

There is Luffy, in the water. Luffy, who ate the devil's fruit and can't swim. And there is a sea monster rising over him.

Shanks dives in without a second thought.

(Without a first thought either, really. He tends to act on spinal reflex.)

He doesn't really notice the pain at first. Ben blames it on the adrenaline, later. Now, Shanks loops his good arm around Luffy's shoulders, pulling him a little higher in the water so he can breathe properly without gagging on saltwater.

"It's just an arm," he says, and Luffy gets his shirt soggier.


Later, it hurts. It hurts like a bitch, like nothing Shanks ever felt before. Ben knots a sash around the stump, tight as it'll go, and heats up the iron he'd borrowed from Makino.

He tries not to scream too loud, because Luffy's only a few rooms over and what'll he think, if he hears Shanks yelling himself raw over this? Kid's got enough on his mind already.

Ben jabs him with something and he mercifully passes out.


They leave the next day, for all Shanks is feverish and his step still isn't steady. ("I'll be fine once we reach open ocean," he assures his shipmates.) He leaves his hat with Luffy and his arm in the beast's belly.

Just a boy. Just an arm.

It's a pain in the ass adjusting. Like learning to walk, learning to swing a sword all over again. He's too old for this, he thinks. Too old to have to start over again.

He's an optimist, though, and nothing if not persistent.


The fevers pass—Ben says it's just his body protesting the loss of a major part. Shanks laughs and says he'd protest it himself, if he thought it would do him any good. He gets his balance back, and slowly regains his skill.

It's not so long before he's back to normal, and the crew breathes a silent sigh of relief.

It's not unknown for a man to die of injuries like Shanks', after all. But Ben makes a good doctor, and Shanks has always been lucky. Yasopp laughs and claps him on the back and claims he never doubted for a moment.

Shanks believes him.


There are still times when it aches, when phantom fingers twitch, when he tries to reach for something with a hand that's no longer there.

He learns, and adapts.

And there are times when it rains like the sky's weeping, and he swipes wet red hair out of his eyes, cursing under his breath—My ship for a goddamn hat!—but he gets used to that too.

The arm is lost forever. But he'll get the hat back someday.


Endnotes: So yeah, new fandom an' all, let me know if I accidentally screwed anything up?

EDIT: Typo fixed. Thanks, Dragonheart287!