A/N: Hello again!
With time to truly understand his feelings, Luffy can finally get things straight with Galette, but can the emotionally immature pirate go through with it? Find out now!
I do not own One Piece, It belongs to Eiichiro Oda
With two days passing since Luffy's meeting with the girls, he decides he should talk with Galette again. Lucky for him, Big Mom had Galette's schedule cleared for the day so they could spend some time together. That is why Luffy finds himself on Butter Island on this day, lounging with Galette on the shoreline on Buttery Beach. Galette decides to break the rather comfortable silence the two are in,
"I'm glad we could have this time together." She says with small smile.
"Me too, I haven't seen you in a couple days." Luffy says, smiling as well. They both share a short laugh and Galette leans toward Luffy and starts talking again.
"So, I hope you don't mind, but I want to just talk with you. Everybody knows the famous pirate Straw Hat, but I want to get to know the man Monkey D. Luffy better." She says, adjusting herself to lay sideways to face Luffy and propping herself up with her arm.
"Yeah, okay! But where should I start?" Luffy says rhetorically, but Galette answers with something that has been on her mind a while since Luffy took his shirt off,
"Why don't you tell me about that tattoo on your chest?" She says.
"Oh, this is supposed to represent my brothers and me.!" Luffy says, while Galette mutters,
"Brothers.?" She says, under her breath while Luffy continues,
"The red 'A' is for Ace, the purple 'L' is me, and the blue 'S' is…for Sabo." Luffy says, trailing off a bit sadly at the end. Galette sees his face change and thinks about the "x" going through said "S" and comes to a realization. She reaches over to grab his hand, and squeezes it to try to comfort him. Luffy smiles and acknowledges her doing so by squeezing back as he continues,
"Sabo was the son of a nobleman, but he hated the nobility and ran away. He met Ace before I did and they started stealing money to fund a pirate ship some day when I met him. After we had a problem with some pirates they stole from, we all swore to become brothers and set out to start our pirate journeys when we turned seventeen. But, Sabo…he tried to get away from the island where the nobles could've got him. I didn't even know, but Dogra said he saw him setting sail and ended up sailing right in front of a World Noble's ship, and they blew him up.! When Dogra told me, I cried, but Ace helped me get through it. When Ace grew up and became a pirate, he got a tattoo on his arm that spelled out "ASCE" with the "S" crossed out to remember Sabo by, so I wanted to do something similar, especially after I almost loss Ace two years ago. It makes me feel like I'm carrying a piece of him around with me, and honoring our sworn oath of brotherhood every day." He explains. Galette gives his hand another squeeze and leans in a bit closer, and she traces circles with her thumb on his hand. It brings some comfort to Luffy, and he smiles.
"It's okay, I'll always miss Sabo, but I won't cry about it anymore! I'll make him proud and be a great pirate in his memory!" He says proudly, prompting Galette to return a smile.
"I'm sure he is very proud of you. In fact, I can say with certainty he is." She says. After some silence, she starts the conversation again,
"Well, why don't we talk about something else, now. What about the rest of your life?" She asks. Luffy snaps out of the fog and gets excited again, apparently just wanting an excuse to talk.
"I'm from the East Blue, and I was raised in Foosha Village by a super nice lady named Makino for a while! She owned the Party Bar, and she let me stay with her and always used to sing my lullabies to help me go to sleep at night! Oh, and that's how I met Shanks!" He says ecstatically, bring some surprise to Galette's face.
"Shanks? You mean you know Red Hair?" She asks. There is a sudden realization on Luffy's face,
"Oops, I wasn't supposed to talk about Shanks! Sorry, can you just forget I said anything?" He asks. Galette is a bit surprised that he would expect her to forget something like that, but she has to try to stifle a giggle at it. It does explain where he got his famous Straw Hat.
"Don't worry about me, Luffy. I'll take everything you say to the grave if you wish." She says reassuringly. Luffy takes this to heart and continues,
"Well anyway, Shanks and his crew hung out in the Party Bar and in Foosha for a while, and we became friends, but I wanted him to take me out to sea next time he went back out. He wouldn't do it, though, he said I was just a weak little kid and always called me 'Anchor' since I couldn't swim. Shishishishi! I tried to show him I was tough, so I cut myself with a knife right here." Luffy explains, put his finger on the scar under his eye and continuing.
"Anyway, Makino and Shanks's crew got me stitched up, and I ate a weird fruit in a box Shanks had that turned out to be the Venom Venom Fruit. Shanks was so mad when he found out I ate it too! Shishishishi! And I was totally freaked out when my skin started dripping, but luckily nobody touched me or my poison until I was able to get it under some control. But then those damn bandits came in and made fun of Shanks! They spilled booze all over him and I got so mad that he just let it go! He told me 'Sometimes a man has to know when he shouldn't fight,' but I didn't get it back then. Anyway, the bandits left, but a few days later, the lead bandit kidnapped me! I tried to use my poison to stop him but my poison wasn't even strong enough to melt through the rope yet! He was gonna sell me or kill me, but Shanks showed up and saved me when a Sea King attacked the boat that bandit was trying to take me on. The Sea King ate the bandit whole, but it ate Shanks' arm too! He told it was worth losing to save me, but I felt horrible knowing it was my fault he lost it, you know?.! That's when I decided I would become a great pirate, even stronger than Shanks, and when I told him, he gave me this hat as a symbol of our promise, and he told me to return it to him when I became a great pirate!" Luffy exclaims, holding the hat with his free hand and gazing at it with a fond look. Galette does not say it, but she cannot help but be amazed, and not just at Luffy's ability to talk on and on without taking a break. What an incredible origin, and it answered one of the biggest mysteries amongst the pirates sailing the New World, she now knew exactly why Shanks had returned to the New World with out an arm twelve years ago. Luffy then goes on with his life story in detail, and Galette is absolutely enthralled with the tale. He tells her about Garp's training, living with Dadan and the Mountain Bandits, growing up with Ace, and all the stories of his time as a pirate. When he told her a funny story, she laughed. When he told her about the hardships he and his crew mates faced, she felt sad with him. She took great pride in his achievements, his defeat of enemies over the years like Don Krieg, Arlong, Crocodile, Rob Lucci and CP9, and Gekko Moria. The places he visited like Alabasta, Waters 7, and (especially) Skypiea intrigued her, and his other exploits like starting the Straw Hat Delivery service with Buggy kept her interest piqued as well. The War of Marineford was the most gripping part of the story, and kept her on the edge of her seat. She could not have cared less that she had not made so much as a peep in the hours they had been talking, she was entranced with her love's story. They did not notices as their bodies had become quite tan given the fact that they were in swim trunks and (a somewhat revealing) swimsuit respectively, or that the sun had started to set.
"…So then, as we were all leaving Dressrosa, the blind Admiral guy's attack suddenly stopped and we all went our separate ways and I couldn't see it but I knew that he let us go! And then we got away and went back to Karaibari, and that when Big Mom called and we all came here!" Luffy says, clearly finishing a thought and taking a few quick breathes. It would seem in his excitement, he forgot he needed to breathe for a moment.
"My, what an incredible life you've lived already, Luffy! I had heard of your exploits before now, but I had no idea…They were much more incredible then I could have imagined.!" Galette says, impressed, amazed even.
"Yeah, and it's all for my dream of becoming King of the Pirates! And I'm gonna do it, too! I promised Shanks!" He says. Galette is suddenly not as happy as she just was, and Luffy notices, having becoming a lot more observant of that sort of thing recently (around Galette, at least), but he waits for her to say something. She sighs, and hesitates a moment before speaking up in a somber voice,
"Luffy, what will you do about the Wedding? The invitations just went out, but Mama likes to have them all delivered at the same time. They will reach all the guests on both sides tomorrow morning, and once they do, there will be no turning back. Once the guests receive the invitation, Mama would consider any alterations or cancellation to it an embarrassment, and she might do anything to 'punish' those who embarrass her. Do you know what happened to Kid and his crew after you defeated them?" Galette asks. Luffy shakes his head, hoping he is at least still alive.
"He's still alive, but even with a will like his, I'm sure he wishes Mama would just put him out of his misery by now…" She says, a bit sadly as she sees how upset that makes Luffy look.
"It's just the way things are in the New World, but I don't know if I could bear it if I were responsible for something like that happening to you and your friends. It's my fault, my emotions got the better of me and Mama noticed, so she set this up." Galette says as she looks down at her hands after taking them back from Luffy. Suddenly, she looks up, tears collecting in her eyes but a fierce look in them, one that even makes Luffy shutter and understand the seriousness of what she is about to say next.
"Luffy, you need to make this decision now. If you do not want to do this, we need to go to Mama now and tell her before tomorrow morning. If you have a plan, we need to put it in motion now, but if not, I will help you.! But, I need to know now. I will not stand in the way of your dreams, not the noble dreams and wants of the man I love, do you understand?" Galette asks, her voice strong and determined. Luffy cannot meet her gaze for a moment, and he has to think about how he wants to respond to her for a short moment. Finally, he looks back into her goldenrod eyes and answers,
"I understand. I've been thinking about this for the past few days, and I was also trying understand this 'mystery feeling' I've been feeling since I met with you that night. And I made my decision." There is a moment of hesitation, but he waits until he can say what he has to say with complete and utter certainty that it is the right decision.
"I've decided I will go through with it! I wanna marry you, Gal-y!" He shouts. Galette has to blink a few times before she can react to what he just said.
"E-EEHH?!" She shouts out. It was certainly what she wanted to hear, but not what she expected to. Luffy grabs her hand again with both of his firmly, and explains himself,
"I still don't totally get this feeling, but I want to have you around! I want to make you happy, because being around you, and seeing you happy…makes me happy too!" He declares.
"B-but, your dream…what about becoming King of the Pirates?!" Galette asks while tearing up a bit.
"I can do both! I know I can! I'll be the Pirate King, and you'll be my Pirate Queen, right?! No one can stop me, not even Big Mom! I'll marry you and continue my journey! I'll find the One Piece with you at my side! That's a promise!" He says firmly, resolute with no hesitation. Galette becomes overwhelmed, and begins to cry. Luffy suddenly worries he has upset her, but before he can ask, she kisses him with incredible, pent up passion. Luffy does not really know what to do, so he just lets her keep doing it and tries his best to return it. He does not really do it right, but Galette could care less, she is just happy that things have turned out this way. They kiss, or perhaps more accurately, she kisses him, over and over as the sun finally sets on Butter Island.
A/N: A steamy chapter today, and finally a decision is made! Even so, is everything so simple? What will come of Luffy and Galette's relationship now? Where will it go? That'll be a question for later, for now, bask in the fluff, and don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review!