Chapter 11 - Promise

Edited: 12/2017

Posted: 11/2016

AN: This is pure Luffy/Riyo fluff to set up some key scenes in the future. I struggle with Luffy (and I'm posting this through the android app which doesn't help) so let me know how it is!

~\/~

The call went out mid morning.

Usopp, of course, was the one to catch sight of the barely discernible speck from where he was tinkering with something or other on deck.

Even Riyo had only felt the sure pull of an island's magnetic field an hour earlier. Usopp catching sight of it, without a scope of any kind, was impressive.

Alabasta was on the horizon.

They all watched the island grow as they sailed closer. There was an odd undercurrent of nervous energy in the crew, everyone aware of Vivi's tense body language and worry; they were sailing blindly into a nation on the brink of civil war...if it hadn't erupted already.

Nami gave them the two hour warning to landfall barring any further Grand Line craziness like they had with the swan guy. The reminder that Alabasta was a desert island was clear with their proximity; the sky was nearly cloudless and the temperature kept climbing with the sun.

Even with the sea breeze they were already sweating. The heat was sapping even Luffy's energy. The hyperactive captain was currently sprawled in the shade of the mast with his tongue lolling out. Elsewhere, Sanji had shed his suit jacket as he watched Nami review some maps in her bikini. Zoro was shirtless with clean bandages where he was napping in the shade afforded by the galley.

Chopper had angrily cornered the swordsman after Riyo's talk yesterday morning (Riyo may or may not have mentioned Zoro was borderline maiming himself with his training) and put him on non-optional rest until they arrived at Alabasta; Chopper accepted that trying to keep Zoro out of a fight on the island was going to be as productive as turning Luffy into a vegetarian.

Speaking of Chopper, the zoan had been hiding in the cool shade below deck since early this morning. Poor hatchling was not handling the heat well with his fur.

Riyo was mentally dealing with the heat in her own way where she was sprawled in the full sunlight on the deck. Everyone had stared at her when she changed into her small form and started chortling and rolling around on the nearly burning (for humans) wood. The energy she absorbed from the heat was wonderful. She was sprawled on her stomach, all four limbs and tail splayed out for maximum absorption.

As much as she loved the heat, Riyo was a creature of the sea. Dry heat was a double-edged joy. She needed the sea to survive-she plain needed water of any kind. Dehydration was much more dangerous to her than a human in the moisture-less environment. Humans could typically last a week or so without liquid; sea queens maxed out at three or four days before they became lethargic and eventually comatose. There was no somnum to save her from dehydration. There would only be nothingness and then death.

Peachy.

"Riyo?"

Riyo lifted her head to look at where Luffy had turned his own to watch her. She tilted her head in question at him.

"Let's talk before we get to the island."

She deflated. She was wondering when this would come up. "Of course, Luffy."

The rubber boy bounced up, heat forgotten as his usual energy made itself known.

"Come on!"

Riyo finished her change back to human in time for Luffy to grab her hand and slingshot them to Merry's figure head. They landed with an oomph against the wood.

"Ow," she deadpanned.

"Shishishishishi," Luffy giggled, holding Hat in place as he plopped down on the sheep. He patted the limited space next to him in invitation. Riyo sighed but squeezed herself next to her captain. She highly doubted he enjoyed the extra body heat, but she wasn't going to question him.

They sat in the quiet for a few minutes. There was only the rock of the ship and the distant bickering between Sanji and Zoro-the chef must have caught Zoro sleeping outside the kitchen.

The silence stretched and Riyo found more to enjoy. The waves breaking on the hull as Merry cut forward through the sea, the spray from the water, the wind through her hair.

She could see why Luffy chose this as his special seat. It was the flavor of everything the ocean should be; a sample platter of water, wind, and freedom.

They watched the glittering ocean in the peace of the moment. It was an endless pool laid before them, garnished in diamonds and pearls. With the sun cupped in its fingers, Riyo could almost remember the first haze of joy she felt slipping through those ripples and waves as a hatchling. Her home.

Riyo hadn't realized how much she needed that reminder of home until Luffy gave her these few minutes to unwind.

But this was Luffy, and he never stayed silent for too long, especially if he had something on his mind.

"I know you're stronger than all the rest of us combined, Riyo." Riyo stilled, thrown off by Luffy's solemn tone in the safety of his special seat. "You sailed with the Pirate King; you've seen the end of the Grand Line. I know that."

Riyo had to remind herself to breathe as she stared at this boy who laughed with the joy of a sunrise and lived with the heart of a child. This sunshine-boy she thought had never seen more than a few clouds.

Only Luffy could shatter the impression he had created of himself with words that carried the weight of a two by four to the face.

"We can't rely on you for every fight coming up, Riyo, and I know there will be lots. I can't be Pirate King without proving to everyone else I'm strong enough-that we're strong enough as a crew. We need to get stronger individually so we can protect each other always."

Riyo stared at him. He was entirely serious; he was sincerely boiling down the seas-knew-how-herculean task of defying the entirety of the current socio-political world structure into a few 'fights.'

Riyo blinked as her brain tried to process the world through Luffy's eyes...before she realized the kind of simplistic focus it took to be Monkey D. Luffy scared her shitless.

Luffy, of course, had no idea he had thrown Riyo's entire world view off kilter with a few sincere words.

Luffy sat back on his hands to clap his sandaled feet together. The dissonance of the usual action and the mental sound of her wish for sanity shattering was beyond jarring.

Fuck it. Sanity was overrated.

"Your instinct thing, I heard Chopper say you were hiding your real ore-orca-"

"Aura," she supplied without thinking.

Had everyone been eavesdropping on what was supposed to be a private conversation with her Omega?

"Yeah! Your aura. You use it to hide how strong you actually are, right? You used it on the fish restaurant, the fishmen on Nami's island, and on Vivi too, didn't you?"

She swallowed the pain of that last reminder and nodded, not really sure where he was going with this.

"The Marines only have pictures of you in your big dragon body for your bounty poster, because you didn't really stay in your human shape then? That's what Nami said."

She felt like a trained monkey, nodding habitually at his questions.

Luffy listened. He listened and he remembered when it mattered and if he ever really decided to put the effort into thinking like this more often Riyo was 96% certain he could take over the world as the most blunt, ignorantly efficient leader ever.

The reflexive shudder of scales at that thought was not voluntary as her brain kept going with that possibility. Yeah, she was now 98% certain-and that was the final chink of her sanity crashing to the ground.

"The marines don't know what you look like as a human." He grinned at her like it was some ingenious secret. Hell, it kind of was and Riyo was fully on board with this. "And they won't expect you to be with us. I know this fight for Vivi is going to have other important people there because she's a Princess and people will notice royalty. They'll notice us."

99% positive now, seas damn it.

Luffy stared up at the wispy excuse for clouds. He suddenly balled his hands into fists and rapped his knuckles on his head, growling to himself.

Riyo stared in horrified fascination. She thought she saw some steam ghosting from his ears.

He hit his head a few more times. That was definitely steam.

"I want you to keep yourself hidden as long as you can. What you are and how strong you are," he rushed out.

But the next words made her forget her internal debate (abject horror) of Luffy's version of a dictatorship (meat for all and all for meat?) because apparently that's what her brain did when she decided to accept the inevitable lack of sanity when dealing with this crew.

"Ugh, thinking hurts!" He shook his head before he looked at her. "I hate it, but you need to be another rookie like us. It's your choice and I won't force you, but I don't want them to hurt you or hunt you because of the past when we're not strong enough yet to help you."

"Wha-" she started weakly, not even sure what she wanted to say. Luffy seemed to understand, however.

"I know the government wants to kill you because you sailed with Roger and because you know where the One Piece is. And because you're a sea queen. The crazy granny doctor told me how sea queens are killed by the marines, and how the government will take you from us if they can. She tried to tell me more but I made her stop. That's for you to share if you want to. I only care that you're my nakama now and I want you to stay safe." Luffy stared at her. "You're mine, Riyo, just like I'm yours. And I'll kick anyone's ass who tries to take you from me."

Luffy's voice was final. Not even a promise; it was a fact as absolute as the sky was blue and water was wet.

Riyo had never told Roger of her past, and Roger had never asked; Riyo knew the Pirate King had pieced most of it together, though. But here was Luffy-how could he-she choked on the abrupt laughter as Luffy blinked at her.

Even Roger wouldn't have turned down someone who had the information.

The laughter may have been bordering on hysteric.

Luffy had every resource at his disposal in Kureha. Riyo didn't know if Kureha had been keeping it gentle for Luffy by telling him they'd kill her or if Luffy had made that assumption from Kureha himself.

Her death would be the kindest outcome if the World Government caught her.

Riyo would destroy the world, would watch the seas burn if they ever caught her and tried anything more than to put her down like the animal they claimed she was.

But Riyo knew her Captain, her Alpha, would hunt to the ends of the oceans if she was ever taken. Roger, for all his temper, had lacked this level of stupid, selfless, endless conviction. There was truth to the saying that it was a fine line between genius and insanity.

Luffy was likely a bit of both and she had no idea what the hells of Impel Down to do with that.

"Luffy, I'm-"

Luffy waited patiently as she cut herself off. What was she? Why did she always have to push away anything that possibly looked like love or hope?

[But Alpha will unders-]

{We kill anything we touch. Hope burns us.}

Right. That.

"We're not safe, Luffy. Everything we touch, every hope we've ever had…" She shook her head as her eyes closed in some attempt to block out the memories. "You'll all be hurt because of us. Because of what I am."

Not safe for the crew. Not safe for the world.

"Yeah. I know you're not safe." Her heart dropped before she felt a warm, rubbery hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look into that grinning face. "But being a pirate isn't about being safe or secure; it's about adventure and freedom and nakama. Any one of us could make a mistake. I don't always listen when I should, and Usopp could blow up the ship, Sanji or Zoro could get caught up in a fight and get hurt or be too late to keep someone else from getting hurt, Nami could miss a storm or whirly thingy or something, Chopper could-"

"Yes, I get it," Riyo cut him off. "But those are all mistakes or accidents. The Other is not an accident. It's a very real part of what I am. It's been taken to the extreme, but it's still me," she said softly. "The Other is still me, Luffy. I am a monster at my core."

She stared at her Captain. Hat was casting a shadow from the high sun as he stared at her, eyes dark and grin gone.

It didn't stop her from asking the words lingering in the back of her mind since that day. "Why did you take me on, Luffy?"

Why did he invite her into the crew knowing she could kill them all?

If she was going to truly commit to this insane idiot-genius' plan, she needed to know what he saw in her. A pathetic, dying lump in a cell rotting away her life because she couldn't be assed to save it herself anymore.

The sudden wave of rage she felt over her Alpha bond made her physically reel back from her captain.

She rolled as gracefully as a stoned moose ass over elbows ina flailing of limbs and landed on the deck behind Merry's figurehead. She sorted herself out enough to sit up on her elbows to stare at her captain from where she was laid out.

Luffy had stood up. His shadow covered the spot she laid in and with the sun at his back, his anger burning across their bond, and his Will staining the air…

Riyo could barely breathe.

This. This was the presence of the future Pirate King.

"Don't ever call yourself a monster again, Riyo. You're not a monster and you deserve to live! I don't care what you are or how old you are or what you've done! No matter what anyone else says, even you, you're my nakama and I'm never, ever letting you go even when you're being stupid!"

The wind shifted, the boat turned, and the sunlight dimmed; suddenly the Pirate King was gone and there was only Luffy staring down at her as if that future man never existed.

A rubber arm stretched out and Riyo found herself grabbing the hand without thought to bounce back to her feet. The same arm wrapped around her shoulders as Luffy turned back to face the sea, forcing her to snap into his side.

Riyo wasn't sure how long they sat there. If she listened hard there was the sound of paper as Nami checked a map on deck, the clink of metal as Zoro cleaned his katanas in preparation to land, and even more distant was Sanji's humming.

It was surreal listening to the crew go on as if that glimpse of the future, that moment of possibility, had never happened.

"Do you know what I thought when I saw you?"

Riyo jumped slightly at Luffy's question. She cut off her instant thought of pity and self-recrimination and instead shook her head silently.

At this point she really had no idea what went on in that head of his.

"You reminded me of my brother." Luffy's smile was soft and infinitely sad. "You were lonely and it was easier to hurt yourself than to wait for someone else to do it first."

Riyo had to do a double take. Luffy had a brother? Since when? How? But her captain went on and Riyo was spellbound.

"You looked at me and I knew a part of you still hoped for someone to care, just like him. No matter what you said or what you did to push us all away, that part of you hadn't died. Not yet. Not ever."

Luffy smiled a small, small smile at the sea. There was an echoing bitter-sweet ache in her chest across their bond. This was a new side to her Alpha, another piece of the puzzle turned face up for her to ponder.

The picture was only getting more complex for such a seemingly simple front.

"You'd lost yourself a bit inside your head," Luffy suddenly smiled at her, a simple smile, not overly large, that spoke of acceptance and love, "and I decided I wanted to be the one to lead you out. I'll always bring you back, Riyo, no matter where you go."

Her eyes prickled at the ridiculous declaration. She was so seas-damned tired of tears, but that didn't stop the warm track down her cheek.

"Why?"

The word seemed to be ripped from her soul.

[Why? Why try? Why will Alpha try?]

{Why?} echoed the Other in angry disbelief. It was still recovering from the struggle the other day, biding its time, but even it could not fathom this boy-man it had chosen as Alpha.

"Because you deserve to live. Being King of the Pirates means being the free-est man on the sea. And freedom means nothing without my friends to share it with."

Her watery smile said it all as she leaned her head on Luffy's shoulder. A moment later a straw hat was put gently on her head.

She had no idea how long they sat like that, enjoying the sound of the ship and sea, the view filling with Alabasta's sandy shores.

"I know we're your family, your pit, Riyo, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to die for us. Pretend you have a devil fruit; that way we can protect you for as long as we can."

She choked on a laugh. What an evil little mastermind.

She was never getting her sanity back. She kind of didnt even miss it when she snuggled further into her Alpha's side and felt the slight scratch of the straw on her head.

"You're my crew and my pit. I don't want you to protect us at the cost of yourself. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

The crew wasn't strong enough to take on the World Government.

Riyo knew they weren't.

Luffy knew they weren't.

Not yet.

"Promise me. I don't like hiding what you are...but we both know what'll happen. So you'll have to protect yourself while we get strong, okay? Promise me that you won't sacrifice yourself for us. I know you would die to save us, but I would live to save you."

She took a shuddering breath in before releasing it slowly. Damn Luffy and his stupid logic and sincerity and love and pride and everything else.

She sighed again, steadier this time.

She was going to let Luffy get his way in this and she couldnt even give a shit because it was the right choice in the end.

"I promise. But I promise only as long as no one on the crew or pit will die from my inaction. As long as no one is in immediate life-threatening danger with absolutely no way out. As long as there's a way, I will not show my True Change or give away what I am if I can help it or unless you release me from the promise. I'll pretend I've eaten a devil fruit." She took a deep breath. It was one thing to know for herself. It was another to say it out loud. "I trust you with my life, Luffy. And I'll trust you with theirs. No matter what someone says or does, even against my pit, unless someone will die I will stay in control of Ryuko and the Other."

Maybe something a little smaller than Merry for her max Change while she was pretending? She didn't want anyone asking too many questions. That would only be for extreme scenarios anyway. She could do more than enough damage in her hybrid form.

Luffy nodded sagely in acceptance of the compromise. "Good."

She stuck his hat back on his head and abruptly shifted into her smallest form to curl up in his lap.

He scratched at her eye ridges as they watched their next adventure off Merry's bow.