Author's note:
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The chapter was beta'd by Gerbilfrind who helped me a lot with grammar and gave me a great feedback while writing and made this chapter more presentable. XD all my love and respect (*deep bow*).
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Warnings:
English is my fourth language. Warning may change in the future.
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Thank you to all that followed and favorited, we are over hundred in both, YAHOOOOOOOO (Luffy's sparkling eyes**). It really warmed my heart and gave me inspiration to continue on writing. THANK YOU, seriously!
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To all of you who reviewed, then I would like to say: you are awesomeness itself. Your response motivated me to write more! It always do! Here is the next chapter XD
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Hope you enjoy,
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See notes at the END, please.
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He was gonna beat the shit out of them, dammit!
He had promised Marcy that he wouldn't make any trouble and he wouldn't use his devil fruit powers, and he didn't yet, but...
These assholes were asking for it.
The three jerks harassed the old nice lady that gave him a lot of meat, then they threw food, MEAT, on the floor (Makino always said one should never waste food, like he would ever do that. It was food!). And they dared to steal his MEAT and throw it away too. He should have beat them up then. But he promised Marcy, and promises were more important than meat, and the floor didn't really matter anyway, it would still be yummy!
But then the tomato guy took his hat, his treasure, Shanks's treasure, and wasn't giving it back.
Marcy was gonna be angry that he broke his promise to her, he really didn't like breaking promises, he hated it. He already had to break one promise to one brother (even though Marcy told him several times that it doesn't count as breaking promise, she had a speech about it but Luffy only remembered the bit about "you don't have crew or flag so …Zzzzz before falling asleep) so he really, really, didn't want to break his promise to Marcy. But his hat, his treasure, as well as his promise to Shanks, which one was more important?
They were all outside the restaurant now and people were stopping to look at them, but nobody was interfering. They were all purposely keeping their distance.
He took long deep breath (Like Marcy always did).
"Give it back, please." Luffy said again, trying very hard to bury the boiling anger inside of him and keep it from reaching his voice.
Tomato guy, the one that had his hat on his head, snickered and nudged the potato guy beside him with his elbow, who was laughing out loud.
Luffy bit his lip hard and demanded in cold voice "Give it back."
"Where did the please go shrimp? Didn't your parents teach you manners!" Potato guy screeched.
Parents? What was that? Food? Teach? Did he mean gramps, Marcy and Ace?
He didn't understand. They should just gave him back his hat.
Their voices were annoying, they were all annoying and he was gonna beat the shit out of them, but first to get his hat back unscratched.
"Saru," the old lady that give him meat yelled running to them from the restaurant entrance where she was watching worriedly near the broken door. "Leave the boy alone, and give him back his hat."
The two ignored her and continued to snicker and nudge each other.
"I sent Jerry to call your father," she threatened, clutching her hands close to her heart, she was trembling but standing tall.
"You good for nothing old witch," a voice said irritably, it come from the tall guy with funny nose and grass hair, that looked like ccmrewb quber hmm ...the green thing that wasn't meat, he was standing near the restaurant wall watching everything unfold in front of him with a nasty smile on his funny-face.
"I will remember this! Saru gave him back the stupid hat," he demanded in irritation.
"But .." Tomato guy said, looking even redder.
Funny-noise guy growled at him.
"Luffffyyyy," came a high shout from behind him. Marcy was running back in his direction and he still didn't have his hat back.
Marcy was barely able to stop herself from colliding in full force with him. She stood beside him, breathing hard.
"Are you okay?" she demanded in puffs, inspecting him all over.
"They are mean and took my hat," he whined "but I didn't beat them up because I promised you and I didn't want you to be upset."
"Ohh Luffy," Marcy sighed looking relieved then she hugged him tight, saying "Thank you. You are a great brother," Luffy laughed at hearing this and hugged her right back.
She seemed a little bit stiff, or maybe it was his imagination.
Marcy had been really upset the last few days but she tried to hide it from him and insisted that she was fine. He didn't know how to make it better, so hearing this made him feel warm inside.
Sniggers and screeches brought them back to reality. The assholes were still there with his hat. He would ask Marcy's permission to break ..
Marcy tighten her hug around Luffy and whispered, "Please let me handle this."
Luffy nodded and let her go, he didn't like it but if he got his hat back and didn't break his promise to Marcy then that would be enough.
Marcy turned and faced the three, she was smiling her fake smile (he saw it a lot these days), Ace called it the I-am-being-nice-so-you-better-be-nice-too smile.
"Sorry for any trouble my young brother made, would you please give him back the hat?" she said while bowing low for emphasis.
"No," the funny-nose guy answered in high spirits, he had a foul look in his face. Luffy resisted the urge to pull Marcy and put her behind him. She would beat him up if he ever dared to try.
The potato and tomato guys perked up at hearing this, and got back to nudging each other.
Marcy's smile disappeared.
Good, Luffy didn't like when she forced herself to smile. You should smile when you are happy, cry when you are sad and upset, and eat when you are hun …no, eat all the time, preferably meat, he nodded to himself decisively.
Marcy asked "are you sure?" her voice was flat. It made people around go quiet. Luffy felt goosebumps run down his back, this tone of voice wasn't something to argue with. He knew that from hard earned experience, his poor meat.
"So you are also stupid and deaf and not just a short tomato." The guy snarked spitefully, getting closer to Marcy.
Ohhh, he said the forbidden words, he was gonna be ..
"Luffy," Marcy said evenly, and turned around to face him.
This was bad, really bad.
"Hold the newspaper." Her tone of voice didn't change. Luffy got a hold of the newspaper on reflex.
Marcy face was as red as her hair, this was bad, really badddd.
Luffy looked around him in panic clutching the newspaper, and spotted meat-lady. She was standing beside him (HUH), she had left the safety of the restaurant when she saw Marcy arrive.
"Hey, meat lady, where are the hills? We need to run. Now."
The old lady looked worriedly at him unsure of why Luffy would ask such question, "what? The hills .."
Shrieks of utter pain cut into her questions, they both looked at the source of the sudden noise.
Funny faced guy was floundering on the floor, clutching his jewels. Marcy was standing above him, hands clasped in front of her, scowling at him.
Meat-lady put her hands on her mouth, was she trying to hide an exclamation of shock!? or maybe stifle a laugh? She wasn't the only one, the crowd around them had similar faces full of shock and uncertainty.
"You little bitc…" Funny-faced tried to yell in anger, but his voice was croaky, and he didn't get to finish, before Marcy kicked him again. She had seemed to be waiting for it.
Ace called her boots pointy red nasty monsters. Ace tried to explain many times to him that they were scary and that Luffy should really be careful. Monsters. Luffy thought that made them cool, he eyed them with worshipping eyes filled with appreciation. Monsters!
Luffy never understood why kicking someone in the family jewels was supposed to hurt. He tried it on himself several times with different instruments, like an old shirt, his sandals, a piece of wood, and even chunk of meat that was really yummy (cause Marcy said that it all depend on the angle of the attack, he wasn't sure what she meant though).
He tried and tried and it didn't hurt at all. He even tried it once on his sleeping gramps (Luffy was bored and gramps, the meanie, ate all the food that day, stingy!), it only made gramps sneeze and grumble about more rice crackers.
According to Ace it hurt aloooottttt. He thought at first, that they were lying to him but Marcy demonstrated using Ace as an example.
Ace had cried and cursed her. Luffy had never seen Ace so red before.
Ace said some really, really bad words. So bad that Makino said if Luffy ever repeated any of them (not that he remembered any), she would wash his mouth with soap, then he wouldn't be able to savor the taste of meat. He shuddered at the memory, Makino was really scary and mean when she wanted to be.
Ace has walked funny for a while and he wouldn't look at or speak with Marcy. Ace was really mean to Marcy. Marcy had apologized several times, and even brought a lot of food as an apology, Ace refused to eat it. It was soooooo tasty especially the huge chocolate cake she made.
Those were boring times, he wasn't able to go on adventures with both of them, and Ace, the meanie, didn't want to train with him ...but he did get to eat a lot of meat because they both shared a lot.
He couldn't remember now when Ace stopped being mean, and they made up…
" …. Sit down, or you gonna kiss your baby parts goodbye too," Marcy snapped and both the potato and the tomato's legs gave out and then they were on the floor open mouthed and shaking.
Marcy took the hat from the tomato guy head and inspected it.
"Luffy," Marcy called softly, not lifting her eyes of three on the floor (funny-faced was not moving, was he sleeping? that was gonna really bad for him, Ace said so). "Your hat is okay."
She threw the hat gently in his direction, he caught it and inspected it himself.
It still looked good, no new holes. Marcy had patched it up several times already and she told him that the hat still needed more work, so if he didn't watch out it would fall completely apart. He was really afraid that if he fought or tried pulling the hat, he would damage it more.
He sighed in relief. That was good, he had been really scared. He promised Shanks he would take good care of it.
Marcy had her hands on her hips, clicking her shoes impatiently.
He forgot, not good, not good at all. He put the hat in his head, where it belonged, on his head.
Then he noticed the newspaper that he was still holding, the one Marcy asked him to keep for her in that voice. He folded it paying great attention and put it carefully underneath his precious hat.
"Meat lady, we need to run to the hills." He announced seriously, hands on his hips mirroring Marcy's pose behind him.
"What? Why? Your sister seems to have the situation under control."
"Noooo, we are running from my sister. Ace said that if Marcy's face ever became as red as her hair we should run for the hills." He paused thinking deeply, "There are hills here, right? Right?" or else they would ...
"Don't worry, there are!" the old lady said and laughed, "but how about we go inside and I prepare you some tasty meat before we go on our way."
"Meat," cheered Luffy, deciding that the hills could wait a little bit, meat came first.
"The red meatballs," he demanded.
"Of course."
They turned to the direction of the restaurant, when small boy running from a side road burst in and collided into Luffy who hardly felt it.
The small boy (who seemed strangely familiar to Luffy), who was now in the floor, apologized while panting. Luffy was helping him stand up, when the boy spotted the meat lady standing beside Luffy. The boy called out worriedly, "Grandma, are you okay?"
"I am fine, Jerry. Did you bring Mr. Sherman?" Meat lady asked while brushing the dirt from his pants.
"Yeah. I did. He is …" he trailed off, looking at the puzzling scene in front of him.
"What is going on?" he asked in bewilderment, his exhaustion all forgotten.
A heavy man came running from the same side road, passing them to stop in front the three assholes on the floor, he was wheezing and puffing.
Marcy, who was speaking, paused and demanded, "Who are you?"
Calls of "father, help us", "please", "we will be good" "we promise", could be heard in the background.
Marcy glared at them and silence filled the air, again.
"Who are you?" repeated Marcy flatly.
"I am their father and I apologize for whatever my sons did." He said in between breaths. He was still wheezing.
"Listen Sir, you need to teach your sons some much needed manners."
Marcy begin listing "First they bully my cute baby brother and steal his hat, from a child younger than them, how shameful could someone be? Then they call me rude names... "
The man, was trying to speak but Marcy stopped and glared at him, "See that is what I am talking about, I am speaking and you are trying to interrupt, rude much."
The man opened his mouth and closed it several times, with no sound coming out.
Marcy continued unbothered, "calling me names, hhhaa, I mean, this one.." She was pointing at the sleeping funny faced guy, "Looks like hairy cucumber with huge peak." So that what he looked like… acu.. umb… a plumber, but that was not food. What was plumber again?
"The other two," she pointed behind her at the two cowering on the floor, "with how their bodies look and their colors, they are definitely potato and tomato. I don't even need to explain who is which with how obvious it is."
She paused, looking the wheezing man up and down, "and you, sir, look like a purple whale. Maybe a half whale, no, quarter whale, no, no. I get it. The whale flukes. Did I call you a whale flukes? No, because I have manners …. "
Luffy's stomach growled loudly causing the meat lady and the boy beside her to jump in surprise, they looked at him and then back at his sister several times, a look of astonishment bordering on incredulity was adorning their faces.
The boy finally whispered in great hesitation, "What is going on here?"
The meat lady gripped the boy hand and whispered back, "Later." She smiled at Luffy and said, "come on, meat is coming."
Luffy cheered and followed them back to the restaurant, the place was still the mess they left it in. Luffy got angry seeing the mess again, looking out of the window at the ones responsible. Marcy was still going strong in her speech. The whale man looked like he was getting smaller by the minute, and more people were staring open mouthed at them, or were they listening in amazement to his sister speak?
Whenever Marcy was in her lecture mode (Ace said it mean she was trying to explain to idiots how the world worked. But that didn't make sense to him. Marcy was in lecture mode a lot when dealing with Ace and him, did it mean that they were idiots?), people became dump food dumbfofo.. Hmm.. D d dumbfounded, meaning after hearing Marcy speak they became so dumb that they agree to anything she said.
Luffy started cleaning up. He was holding a three-legged chair and not sure what to do with it when the meat lady came back with tray of meat. It smelled so good that drool was falling out of his mouth within second.
"Meat," he cheered, meat lady put it on a close by table, and Luffy started eating without even sitting.
"There are a lot of where this come from so sit and eat slowly," she told him.
" hdsjrt, ahhatn y , thdg o gjudooceee!" (Luffy's language translator: great, thank you, this is so delicious!) Luffy said, not stopping in his chewing.
The old lady stayed there, was she waiting for him?
Luffy finished eating the meat in the last plate and slumped into the chair behind him and began patting his still empty stomach.
"Will it take long?" she asked.
"HUH."
"Your sister!"
"Ohh, Marcy! Yeah. When she is in her lecture mode, it can take hours."
"Hours?" The meat lady echoed.
Luffy was picking his nose, "yeah, Ace taught me how to handle it."
"Ace?"
"Yeah, my big brother, he is awesome and stronger than me, he became a …." Luffy put a hand forcefully in his mouth to stop the words...
Oops ..
"Ehiiii, I wasn't supposed to tell you, so forget it," he demanded his hand still in his mouth. Marcy told him several times not to speak about Ace in front of strangers, but the meat lady gave him meat, so she was nice …
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," she said while doing some weird gesture using her hand and mouth. Was she hungry too? Should he had given her some of his meat?
"Taught you what?"
HUH, Luffy took his hand out, and scratched his head, what were they talking about..
"eeeh, ahh, Marcy!" What was it that Ace told him… hmmmm… was it to scream who did you call tomato? …. No, that was for dis..distra.. distra- action. Oh, right.
"You shouldn't fall asleep, and if you do your eyes should stay open, and .."
Luffy was still trying to remember everything Ace repeated to him million times over, "Yeah, you should nod a lot, and say sorry a lot."
There was something else that was really important, like really important.
"Say that you will never do it again." Yeah, that was it.
"Do what?"
Luffy was picking his nose again.
"Don't know, you should just say it."
Now that he thought about it, the last lecture he get was when they were in Nami's island … hmmmm, definitely there, nothing since then, strange.
The boy opened the kitchen door and come with a big platter of meat, he was having hard time carrying it.
Oops, Luffy almost stretched his hand. He promised, but he was hungry, it smelled so good, meatball…hmmm.. The smell…
The smell was heavenly but he waited as patiently as he could. The wait for the old lady to help the boy and for them to bring the meat in front of him felt like forever and ever. Luffy dove in right away.
The boy was eyeing him in awe and wasn't chatting like before. Luffy shrugged and continued eating the tasty food.
The old lady came back and gone several times with more trays of plates full with colorful food each time. She eyed the stack of empty plates surrounding Luffy that were getting larger with every minute with speculative eye, like she was calculating the time and effort needed to move them and clean them and found it was too much endeavour at the moment, instead she took the small boy to the side, they had a hushed discussion, afterward the boy got out of the small restaurant running.
The food kept coming and Luffy kept eating.
After a long while the door opened and Marcy came in skipping, her hair swaying from side to side while whistling happily to an off-tone song, looking all relaxed and more importantly not red faced.
"Mixiii, y raccc, ynkkdsadisnnjj ky moooo?" (Luffy's language translator: Marcy, you're back is everything okay now? ), meaning relax. no need to run to the hills.
"Don't worry, everything is okay. The man owns several shops, he is going to give us food and equipment for free as an apology," she sat in front of him, looking pleased with herself.
"Whale-man?" asked Luffy after swallowing the chunk of meat in his mouth.
"Yes. Luffy it's rude to call him that. He is not quite big enough to be called whale. If you must, call him whale flukes."
Luffy nodded and declared "Okay! A flake!"
"No, you never list ..." Marcy trailed off watching him swallow three chunks of meat together, and shrugged her shoulders.
The old lady come back with more food, stopped by the door surprised at seeing Marcy inside the restaurant so soon, "you are finished dear?"
Marcy stood up and bowed. "Sorry about the mess! We will pay for everything."
"Don't worry about it, the sum you gave me in the beginning is more than enough. Even though I understand now why you gave me such huge sum," she chuckled while putting more dishes that their main ingredient was meat (surprise, surprise) on the table in front of Luffy.
"How about something to drink, and some hot soup for you?" she added.
Marcy was quiet for a while, she had a weird look at her face. Luffy's eyes narrowed, then she smiled (a true smile! finally) and said, "thank you, that will be lovely."
Marcy sat back in her place in front of him.
"reo kryyy?"
She laughed, "Yes. I am okay Luffy, and eat without talking."
Luffy nodded and obeyed.
After several minutes of only the sound of Luffy's shewing, the old lady come back. "Here, this is corn soup with bread and cheese."
"Thank you."
Marcy took a sip of the soup and assured the waiting lady, "it is very tasty, thank you."
The old lady smiled, "eat up dear, you need to put some meat on your bones."
Huh, Mercy needed to eat meat, right, right, meat was the best when you were feeling upset, she should have told him …
"ghdf bbgf MFGD" (Luffy's language translator: Take some MEAT), Luffy was trying to give her a big chunk of meat.
"She didn't mean …" Marcy begin to explain.
"Never mind. Thank you, Luffy." She amended, seeing the determined look on Luffy's face and took the meat from his hand, and took a big bite straight away.
Luffy laughed his signature laugh, Marcy smiled genuinely back at him.
"You still have the newspaper?"
Newspaper, huh, Luffy nodded, and took it out gently from its hidden place under his hat.
At that moment, the boy come back bursting the door open, he looked panicked, the old lady run out of the kitchen, looking around in panic, fearful of another unexpected trouble, spotting her grandson, "Jerry, what happ…"
"You need to go," he said gesturing wildly at Luffy and Marcy.
"What in the world .." began meat lady again.
"There are big men asking about you in the docks," Jerry said hurriedly.
"Shit," cursed Marcy stopping the spoon from reaching her mouth.
"Are they marines?" she asked in urgency, letting her spoon fell on the table with clatter.
Huh, shit, Gramps found them again? Nooooo. Luffy stopped chewing, his jaws froze, and he didn't dare to swallow.
"No, I don't think so, they weren't in uniform."
"Tropical shirt with bright colors?" she demanded.
The boy looked speechless for second, the denied it "what? No, they looked like pirates to me. They had guns and swords…" he trailed off.
Luffy resumed eating cheerfully, ignoring everything else, if it wasn't gramps, then there was no need to worry.
Jerry added to stress the point, "They had your pictures and were asking about you."
"Those damn blasted wanted posters," cursed Marcy getting tense.
"Did they say why they were looking for us?"
He began shaking his head, then stopped and said "I heard someone say, we need to find them fast and call pops."
"Pops?" Marcy repeated, she was frowning in deep thought "Dammit, who the hell is this pops?"
She added under her breath, her head touching the table "wasn't there enough people looking for us as it is."
She lifted her head swiftly and yelled in frustration, "Give me a break, we didn't even have time to restock yet and it was supposed to be free of charge, dammit. I intended to milk the flake for all he was worth."
Both the meat lady and Jerry were watching in unconcealed attentiveness the scene happening in front of them they were completely silent, as if they were afraid that if they breathed they would break the magic.
Marcy abruptly stood up breaking the spell.
"Luffy, we need to leave now," she demanded and begin moving with new determination.
She folded the newspaper and put it in her bag and closed it tightly.
"hkfdkdf djdjt dinskfiiit," (Luffy's language translator: didn't finish yet) he said still chewing the delicious food he had been given.
"NOW," she insisted, her hands coming to rest in her hips.
Luffy put everything on the table (literally) in his mouth and swallowed it in one go.
"I will send Jerry with what food we have in storage to the docks," the old lady suggested looking nonplussed at Luffy's food consuming abilities (maybe the repeated exposure made her immune), while her grandson was frozen with his mouth wide open, seemingly trying to mimic Luffy's eating techniques.
Marcy looked relieved, "Thank you, that will help a lot we could pay.."
"Don't worry about it." The meat lady cut her and added.
"I don't know what kind of trouble you are in, but be careful!"
The old lady gave Marcy a hug and patted Luffy in the head (or patted the small ball on the big ball 'body' like balloon more accurately).
She gave Luffy a huge pot of meatballs (Marcy could only shake her head in exasperation) while ushering them from the back of the restaurant.
"Meat Lady, you're awesome. I'll bring my crew here to eat when we set sail." Luffy stopped chewing for second, to shout his promise.
Marcy was dragging him behind her while he was waving his hands frantically in goodbyes. She was looking around her wildly and muttering.
"Shit, we need to hide for a while, no, maybe… take our ship and sail, no ..they are at the docks…. Maybe better to hide. Shit… Luffy, did you piss someone else that I don't know about?" Luffy was munching on his meatballs while still being dragged.
"Here? Nope, don't think so," he answered between bites.
"Doesn't matter either way, we will have to hide for now."
"To the hills?" asked Luffy, popping in his mouth the last piece of meat.
"Good idea, we can hide in the forest! Hurry up Luffy."
They begin to run in the market using side roads, to find themselves in front a big tall man with their posters in his hands looking right at them, he smiled, looking like a shark delighted that he found his prey.
"Hey, you are .."
Marcy instantly took the empty (shiny with Luffy's drool) pot that Luffy was still dragging behind him and planted it on the man smiling face. They continued running, leaving the pot-faced man cursing creatively behind them.
"Luffy, it is okay to break your promise now," Marcy yelled looking frantically behind her and in front of her.
"Ehhh, really? But we are still her.."
"This is an emergency, it is okay." She cut him off, running faster straight ahead, while he followed.
Another man emerged from their left and gripped Marcy's shoulder "Hey, I found th .. " he began to say.
Marcy bit him and kicked him.
"Which one?" Luffy yelled, people were following them, a lot of people. They could hear their footsteps and screams.
"HUH!"
"Which promise?" Luffy insisted.
"Both, all," Marcy yelled back.
Luffy laughed joyfully, Shishishishi...
He get hold of Marcy with his stretched arm stopping her advance, and looped it around her several time.
"Luffy, wait, what are you .. my bag .. wait, it is torn, we really need to buy a sewi…"
Luffy stretched his other hand to the edge of the tall building in front of them.
"Marcy, the hills are there," he declared with wide smile.
Marcy unable to move, looked helplessly at the far green hills, finally understanding Luffy's intention, she yelled loudly "WAIT, you are not thinking.. ….Ohh, God, please, not again"
And they were flying.
"MY Bagggggggggggggggggggggggg." The scream could be heard all over the island and beyond.
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Here it is, trouble follow them wherever they go.. Your thoughts?
Does anyone have any speculation (now that we are in the fourth chapter) what happened to make them leave?
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I posted the sixth chapter of AaC, and working on the seventh.
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A lot of encouragement = reviews = faster chapter. Just saying ;)