"Wanna hear a secret?" Red Haired Shanks slurred.
It was an ordinary night in Foosha's one and only Party Bar. Most of Makino's patrons had left to sleep off the alcohol, while only two stayed.
"Oh?" Makino turned around to face the one of two patrons.
Shanks, with his straw hat that she never saw off of him, stared at her. His face was flushed red, his eyes unfocused, and a drunken smile was plastered on his face. Honestly this was probably the most drunk Makino had ever seen the man.
But perhaps that's to be expected. Today Makino had gotten some higher grade alcohol from the Goa Kingdom on the other side of the island. Not only that, but some alcohol made from citrus from another island within East Blue. She was only able to do so due to the patronage from the Red Haired Pirates.
"It's a very important secret." The man in the straw hat bobbed his head. "So secret that even the Marines don't know!" Loud laughter came from the man, but quickly went down when the kid next to him stirred a little.
Her second patron was knocked out cold, too tired to leave his chair. His cup had only a third of his milk left. As he grumbled in his sleep, the adults could've sworn they heard Luffy say the word meat.
A worried expression wore itself on the young woman's face as she turned back to Shanks. "Is that something you should be telling me?" She asked, voice soft.
"Don't worry Makino, you won't get hurt." He reassured her, grin as easy as could be.
It was quiet for a moment. Makino was thinking. The man took a swig of his drink.
While Shanks was a pirate, he had been at their little village for nearly a whole year. And so far he's been nothing but trustworthy. Surely this would be fine?
"Okay. Tell me." She finally said, coming to her conclusion.
Grinning wide Shanks took a breath in. "The secret is…" he paused for dramatic effect. "Gol D. Roger was sick when he died."
A pin could be heard despite the child's snoring.
"Gold Roger…?" Makino's voice sounded faint.
Anger was swift to overtake the redhead's features.
"Bah!" A slam of glass on wood. "It's Gol D. Roger! Gol D.! The old man always hated that the government got his name wrong."
For a moment Makino had forgotten she was with a drunk man. As the owner of the bar, Makino had seen her fair share of drunkards. Some who had their whole emotions turn at the spin of a hat. Be it negative or positive.
So far she had only seen Shanks as a happy drunk.
This was new.
She had grown comfortable with what she thought she knew.
Another moment of silence. Another sip of alcohol. The anger had simmered down. And then, "he had been sick for a long time." The man's voice was quieter this time. Somber.
Sad.
"He caught something during his travels. Would've died rather quickly if he hadn't found a doctor that knew the right medicine. Unfortunately there was just no cure for it. He just ended up prolonging his life, not knowing if the next moment might end up being his last."
It sounded like Shanks knew the man. Not many did. Not many in East Blue. Unless they were from Loguetown. Unfortunately there were many who claimed to know Roger but really didn't.
Or at least that's what Makino had heard from Garp.
He always had a darker aura around him in those moments.
"Then did you know what that man did?" Shanks continued. "After he finished setting out what he intended to do, he disbanded his crew and turned himself in. Said he wanted to go out with a bang. Well… that's a D for you."
"He turned himself in?" Makino gasped in shock.
The straw hat bobbed once more. "Well he was a pirate after all. Wanted a pirate's death. Dying from sickness would be just too boring." There was sarcasm and bitterness in that last sentence.
"But he was a good man. Smiling while trying to comfort two stupid kids… and what a smile he had. It shone bright like a child's whenever he was filled with glee. Sometimes he was like a child himself with how he acted."
Gears turned in her head. How old was Shanks again?
Shanks' head turned to look at the kid next to him, smile small. Makino's eyes followed to Luffy's sleeping form. "I had a near damned heart attack when I saw that exact same smile on Anchor here. For a second I thought I was seeing Roger again."
"… Just like Gol D. Roger huh?" Makino murmured. She never had the chance to look at any of Roger's bounty posters growing up. But she just couldn't see Luffy's wide grin on an adult's face. It almost felt wrong, for such a bright smile to be on something that wasn't a child's face. That wasn't Luffy's face.
The small smile that was on that man's face grew. "You can bet all of your best booze on it. Hell if I didn't know any better I would've thought that our Anchor was Roger's son!"
A hum. "He's a little too young to be the Pirate King's son." Makino stated the obvious. She wasn't exactly sure what to say otherwise.
"Well, the world works in mysterious ways. Who knows, maybe he really is Roger's son, just sent to the future."
A pause. That was impossible. And yet… why did Shanks say that?
"The… future?"
The man froze. He slowly turned to look down at his drink. "Maybe I really did drink too much." His hat obscuring his eyes.
Shanks was a pirate. He was a pirate. Garp had told her stories.
A shot of fear went right through her. "Ah- Shanks-!"
"I mean," Shanks cut her off, "I did tell you more than one secret."
Her heart stopped beating. Was he…?
"What's a few more?" Shanks' voice became more jubilant.
Oh her heart was starting up again.
"Did you know that Roger fell in love during an eating contest?"
"E-Eh?" What a change of topic.
"I know right? Honestly it feels on brand for that man. We went to a village just because Captain Roger heard there was an eating contest. So we get there and there was this beautiful woman, as skinny as a stick, as one of the contestants. Guess what? Apparently she was the winner for years! Now, while Roger went there mainly for free food, he was sure he would win. But then- then! The woman won! She managed to beat my captain's bottomless pit of a stomach! You should have seen his face, he had stars in his eyes and perhaps the widest grin I had ever seen on his face! That man fell in love and he fell in love hard!" Shanks paused to down the rest of his drink.
It… sounded like something Luffy would do if she was being honest. If Luffy ever was interested with love. The young barkeep had an inkling that Luffy wouldn't be interested in romantic love at all.
And as the rest of the story came back, she realized something. Shanks said 'we', and 'my.'
That confirmed what she was thinking.
"Rouge didn't feel anything back, after all, Roger didn't know shit about romance. But somehow, with all of Roger's fumbling, Rouge fell in love with him. Dahahaha she was even the one to ask him if he would start a relationship with her!"
That was… really sweet. Gold- Gol D. Roger was like any other man wasn't he?
"Portgas D. Rouge was truly a D, and such a lovely woman… I wish I knew what happened to her." Shanks' voice was so soft, oh so filled with longing.
Her heart ached.
"I had hoped that maybe Toki used her Toki Toki Fruit to send Rouge to the future, but… Wano had been closed for a long time."
Oh… it hadn't really been a change of topic was it.
"Is that… a type of Devil Fruit?" Makino's voice was equally soft. "I heard of them, Devil Fruits, but… one that can send people to the future?"
"…And only to the future. I don't know if there's a fruit that could travel to the past, but Toki had the one that sent her here."
"You mean she was from the past?"
Shanks shook his head. "Now there's a secret I won't tell. But yes, she's from a time where even Garp the Fist hadn't been born yet."
To go to a time where most if not all of your loved ones were dead, never to return? Makino wasn't sure if she could take it. But it sounded like this Toki did. Because surely that's what had happen if Toki came from a time before Garp.
It felt almost rude to Garp, but Makino had a feeling that the timeframe was even longer than what she thought.
"Roger… Roger would've love Anchor. Probably would've said yes to Anchor if Anchor asked to join his crew."
"But you're not him."
Shanks snorted. "Oh hell no. As much as I love my old captain I'll never be him. I might've been found as a baby and was raised on our ship but Anchor wasn't. Maybe in another life, had I found him the way Roger found me, I would've done the same thing. Probably thought it to be fate. But no." There was a heavy sigh through the man's nose. "Captain's kid or not, I'd want Anchor to have some sort of regular childhood. As fun as being raised by pirates was, I'd want an innocent child to not fear about getting hunted by the Marines."
Makino didn't really know what to say. Was that nobel of Shanks? To let a child have a normal childhood?
But she couldn't help but wonder. Why was he telling her this? Was it because of Luffy?
She stood there, behind her bar. Long done was she with the glass she was cleaning. Long gone were Shanks' crew. Long gone was Luffy into dreamland. What little light within the building was dim, covering them with its soft color.
Makino could smell the strong scents of the different types of alcohol Shanks drank throughout the day. The one he had just been drinking was the strongest at that moment. How the man didn't get alcohol poisoning she'll never know.
"Why are you telling me these things?" She finally asked aloud. If she's learning all of this she might as well learn why.
He stayed quiet for a while. Mulling it over. "I… don't really know myself. Maybe I just wanted to talk to someone. Maybe I just needed someone to know."
He gazed at the small child that probably sparked the whole conversation.
"I wonder, if others who knew my captain like I did, would see him and think of Roger. I wonder, would they know that this kid isn't his? But… maybe in a way he is. In spirit that is." Shanks barked out a short laugh. "He said his son would be the next Pirate King. I wonder, Anchor. Will that be you? Will that be your dream? Or would you want to be just some pirate, sailing the seas."
It was clear he was no longer talking to Makino. His whole focus was on one little Monkey D. Luffy.
So there they were. The two adults watching the sleeping child. None of them knew how the future would end up. If Luffy would really go on to become a pirate in the future, or if he would end up becoming the king of the pirates.
"I think… it's time for me to head back to the ship." Shanks said, his voice still as soft as it was earlier. His face was shaded by his straw hat.
The green haired woman nodded. She did not take off her eyes on the six year old as Shanks left.
Now if Shanks were just a little less drunk, and if Makino took her eyes off of Luffy, they would've noticed a small form dart off through the door just before it closed. There, a black haired child with freckles on his face ran out of Foosha Village. He ignored the tears falling from his eyes. To him they weren't there at all.
He didn't stop running until he tripped on a root. The sounds of the jungle at night brought him back to his senses.
There Portgas D. Ace screamed at the top of his lungs.
Soooooo I may or may not got some One Piece brain rot going on rn. This is just a one shot btw, but just to let ya know Ace had been there practically the whole time. Originally I wanted to do this in his POV but then I was like, ya know what? Why not make it a surprise.
Anyways he just so happened to want to go to a different bar as he was tired of Goa's bars. Why not try something new?
He just happened to be there the one night Shanks actually wanted to TALK about some shit. And now Ace is having some crisis. Thanks Shanks!