WARNINGS: Cross-Dressing, YOAI (boyXboy) Shanks X Luffy, and wide age differences between people in a relationship.

Don't like, don't read. You've been warned.

'…' what they are thinking

"…" what they are saying

Disclaimer: I only wish I owned One Piece. It really belongs to Oda.

Being a Girl

Chapter 4: More Than Friends

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Luffy landed clumsily on the dusty ground bellow. He had fallen a long way through a hole in the ground. Bewildered, he looked around. The only source of lighting was an oil lamp sitting on a small, wooden table. Next to it, Luffy saw as his eyes adjusted, was a wooden door.

"Rully, where are you?" A faint voice from above called.

"Sha-" Luffy was about to call back when the caller fell through the hole himself, all but landing on top of the smaller boy. They ended up in a rather compromising position. Shanks quickly rolled off to the side so Luffy could stand up without anyone pinning him to the ground. The younger boy, being as thick as he is, didn't notice their previous position. He got up and reached out a hand to the older man, who smiled and took it. Shanks, a bit disheveled from the high fall, didn't notice the material that held his foot to the sandal had snapped. He went to stand up and put his weight forward on the broken sandal. His foot slipped off the top and shot out in front. He fell backwards, taking Luffy with him.

They landed in an ungraceful heap. Luffy laughed, but Shanks was to busy blushing madly. It wasn't because he was embarrassed that he fell, but at the awkward position they landed in, again. Luffy was lying flat against Shanks' body. He was straddling the older man, legs resting flat on each side of him, and elbows on each side of his head. Their noses were only inches away.

One didn't notice, and the other didn't know what to do.

Finally, Luffy stopped giggling at the older man's clumsiness long enough to notice. He blushed as hard as Shanks.

"Heh, I should let you get up." Luffy franticly and quickly moved to put his weight on his left foot so he could bring himself up. But in his quick movement to get off, his foot slipped just as Shanks' had earlier. Luffy fell back down, though this time his mouth found purchase against something soft. Shanks and Luffy stared wide-eyed at each other as their lips pressed together in a kiss.

A moment passed and neither pulled away. Luffy decided he liked the tingling feeling on his lips. While closing his eyes he added more pressure. He adjusted his body so that he was on his knees and elbows. Arching his back downward, he dipped his head more to get the most out of the amazing feeling.

Shanks was very happy, to say the least, when he felt Luffy kiss back. The older man's eyes closed to a half lidded state as he wrapped his arm around the boys' back, pulling the other more to him. It was a rather chaste kiss, but seemed to last for a delightful eternity. They pulled away and opened their eyes to look at one another, asking silently if the contact was enjoyed. The answer was an unspoken yes. In a moment their heads pushed forward again, eyes slipping closed as well. Luffy moved his bottom lip slowly down and up, loving the felling he got as it moved against Shanks' amazingly soft, warm lips.

BOOOMMMMM!!!! The deafening explosion sounded, completely ruining the moment. Luffy jumped up, "It's the mystery explosion again!" He ran over to the door he had seen earlier. Shanks was left bewildered and forgotten on the floor. "Lets go, Shanks!" Luffy said as the door easily opened.

"Right," Shanks stood up, mentally crying over the fact that the other had so easily moved on from their kiss.

"Shishishi," Luffy waited till Shanks had walked over, then grabbed his hands and started running up the stairs that the door had opened up to.

Shanks looked at the boy in front of him, who was leading him with quick feet up the stairs. Even though it was rather dark, he noticed that the other was blushing slightly. 'So it did mean something to her.'

After what seemed to be a lot of going up the stairs led to a layer of hard surface. Poor Luffy ran his head full-force into it. The sound of skull hitting wood could be heard even from far away. After a worried Shanks made sure Luffy was ok, he felt around the section the younger boy had ran into. Just as he thought, there was a handle. He twisted it to the side and pushed it upwards, revealing the ground above.

"Wow Shanks! You made a door appear through the ground!" Luffy said, eyes twinkling with amazement.

Shanks signed, and was about to explain that the door was there the whole time, when they heard another loud explosion.

BOOOMMMMM! The sound was louder then the first time. They must have been close. Luffy, still holding Shanks' hand, began to sprint. "Rully," Shanks said, putting down his heal and squeezing the hand he was holding to keep the other from continuing forward. "There's a problem."

"Eh?

"You're going the wrong way. The sound came from a different direction."

"Oh…" Luffy turned around and ran back the way he came, quickly passing by the area they emerged from only a few seconds ago.

"Rully." Shanks stopped them again.

"Eh?"

"You're still running the wrong direction."

Luffy huffed while putting his free hand on his hip, "I ran forward and you said that wasn't right. So now we're running the other way and it's still wrong?"

"Don't go making it look like I'm the one who doesn't make sense." Shanks sweatdropped. "When the explosion sounded it didn't come from in front or in back. It came from the left."

"Yosh!" Luffy stated to run.

Shanks stopped him again. "That the right, not the left."

"You're too picky." Luffy retorted, pouting, this time turning and running in the right direction.

There was another explosion. BOOOOMMM!!!! By the way it had gotten louder it was sure they were heading the right way.

Within a minute they arrived at the source of the noises. From the moonlight Shanks and Luffy could make out, from afar, a girl squatting in the middle of a clearing. It seemed as if she was lighting something. The flicker of light they saw her holding went out as she started to run away from the area she had been at. A second later it gave off a bright light and the explosion sounded. BOOOOOMM!!!!

The girl ran back to the area and pulled something out of her pocket, squatting down and proceeding to light it. Shanks, with his pirate-like skill, in a flash had crossed the area between her and where he was previously standing. He gently grabbed her wrist before she could put the lighter to the object. "May I ask what your doing, Miss? Because that seems to be dynamite you're holding."

Her head snapped up, and for a moment she looked at him in shock. The girl stood up and Shanks knew he'd seen her somewhere before. She was pretty. Her height was about that of Luffy's, as she only came up to about Shanks' shoulder. She had mud-brown eyes, brown hair, and big curls that went down to the middle of her back. She wore a frilly, pink skirt and the same color shirt with the word 'ANGEL' printed across it. 'Where have I seen her before?' Shanks wondered.

Luffy came over and looked between the two, tilting his head and wondering why they were staring at each other. The girl broke the silence, "Oh my savior!" She leaped at Shanks and threw her arms around his neck.

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