I woke early the next morning, and nearly screamed when I saw Shanks in the chair. After I got my heart rate back to something with in my normal range, I realized he was sound asleep. I let out a sigh of relief.
It made sense, this was probably his room, and I had hijacked it. I sighed, feeling guilty for taking his bed. I hadn't even thought about it last night.
I silently got out of his bed and made my way to the deck. I took a breath, I thought the fresh air would help clear my head a little. I stood by the rail and stared out at the sea, listening to the soft crashing of the waves.
I stood there for what felt like hours, the sun was just peeking out over the horizon when I closed my eyes. My memories were as elusive as they had been the previous night, no name, no family, no friends, no likes, no dislikes. I was a whole new person, I could be any one I wanted to be, except... well... me. I but, then again, did I really want to be me?
"Your an early riser." I didn't need to open my eyes to know it was Shanks.
"I thought you were asleep."
"Guess I'm a light sleeper."
I turned to the red-haired man, opening my eyes as I did. "I'm trying to think, so I'd appreciate it if you went back to sleep."
Shanks apparently took this to mean "Please stay and pester me." He walked up beside me, "Yeah sure."
"I said go back to sleep."
"Maybe I'm not sleepy anymore." He gave me a half-smile.
"Uhg..." There was no way I was going to win that so I just turned back to the ocean, once again putting all my weight on the railing.
"Don't lean on the railing so hard."
I stuck my tongue out at him, "I'm not a member of your crew so I can lean ah- ah.. AHCHO!" I apologized then continued, "So I can lean on the railing as hard as I want."
"Touche." Shanks said. "So, do you remember anything?"
I bit my lower lip. "Well... I'm 18 years old, I'm 5' 9", I have gray eyes, my hair is short brown, and..." My eyes slowly widened as a date came to me. "My birthday is May 22nd!" I shouted triumphantly.
Shanks smiled again, "That's amazing! You've already remembered your birthday!"
"Yeah... but I still can't remember anything else." I stared out at the ocean, the waves crashed up against the ship.
"Well..." Shanks said following my gaze to the waves, "I can only hope you remember more soon," He said, "But until then, I guess we're just going to call you Leanah."
"Leanah?" I glared at Shanks. "Now hold on a minute; since when did you decide my name was Leanah?" I started to get a feeling my name started with a J, not an L.
He stuck his tongue out at me. "Since right now." He confirmed. "Besides, I need to call you something when I introduce you to the crew!"
"You want..." I started slowly, "To introduce me... To... the crew."
"Yeah, you might as well get introduced to them." Shanks said with a giant grin on his face. He began to walk back to his cabin, then stopped, "Oh yeah, we'll be landing at the next island tomorrow, mostly because you're going to need some clothes, but also because we're running out of booze."
"Now hold up!" I said, "You're talking like I'm going to be another member on your crew!"
Shanks turned to smiled at me, "I saw the way you looked at those waves, it's the same way that I saw everybody else on this crew look at them."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to be a pira-" I saw people- three to be exact- They were all refusing someone's proposal to be a part of a pirate crew. The first was a man with a black -or is it dark green?- bandana around his head, he looked beat up, course he was also tied to poles. The second person was a woman with short orange hair, and a tee-shirt with blue stripes. The third and final person was a man with blond hair, and a very curly eyebrow, he wore a suit. I was sure I'd never met these people before... but I knew that they were important. Who are they? I thought angrily, Why can't I remember!?
I grabbed the railing tighter then before, Shanks obviously saw this because in a flash he was by my side asking; "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," I said shaking off the weirdness of seeing people I'd never met before. "I'm fine." I lied as I slowly removed my hand from the railing, slowly flexing my fingers hoping the whiteness in my knuckles would go away.
Shanks frowned, "I may not have known you long, but I know that you're lying."
"Shut up." I was still trying to get the whiteness out of my knuckles. "It's nothing, just... just old memories I guess."
"More memories?" Shanks asked, I could hear it in his voice that he didn't quite believe me. I glared at him, his face changed, he smiled full force, I felt my glare dissipate, he had that infectious smile. "Alright." He said taking my 'hint'. "Let's drink to your new 'memories'."
I nodded, "Yeah." I smiled. "Let's drink!"
The next few hours became a flurry of introductions and beer. I was introduced to Benn Beckman, the first mate, He was the guy who'd been smoking when I was waking up. I was formally introduced to Yasopp, I apologized for spilling the beer he had to clean up, he just had a good laugh about it. Then I was introduced to Lucky Roo, who promptly offered my a piece of the meat he was eating saying it might help my memory problems.
I finally had succumb to Shanks incessant offerings of a drink, and just when I'd put the glass to my lips a small voice in my head said Don't do it! It's illegal! I was a little shocked at the voice. I looked up at Shanks, "Should I really drink this? I mean I'm only 18!"
Shanks cocked his head side-ways in confusion, "I was drinking since I was 15. If it suddenly became illegal for people under a certain age to drink." He shook his head in mock sorrow, "Then I feel sorry for the fools who made that law."
I looked at the drink in my hand, "All right." I gulped the sweet liquid down after I had done so I stared down at my empty glass, then found myself asking for another, then another, but Shanks made me stop after my fourth because, apparently, I had an alcohol tolerance of nil. Though in my brain I could understand his reasoning, but it didn't help that the alcohol was slowing down my thought process.
"Come on! One more glass!" I begged the red haired captain whom was just smiling as he downed another glass.
"No." He said, "It's for your own safety if you just stay away from alcohol for the rest for the night."
"Why should you care? It should be my decision!" I pouted as I turned to Benn. "Come on Benn! Tell him I should be able to have another drink!"
The gray haired first mate let out a puff of smoke from his cigarette, "Sorry," he said as he smiled, "but I'll have to agree with the captain on this one."
"Awwah! You guys are no fair!" I pouted more.
"Hey." Yasopp said, "Why don't I tell a story to get your mind off the beer?"
Several members of the crew groaned, he'd apparently told his stories a lot. I just nodded, "Yes!"
And so, Yasopp started with a story about his son, Usopp, in which he was teaching his boy how to fire a slingshot. Then another about him telling Usopp about going off to sail with Shank's crew, Then he told one about a kid named Monkey D. Luffy. I could picture the two young boys in my mind, I could hear their voices, I knew these two boys, I knew that they were friends, but, when I told Yasopp about this he brushed me off saying that Luffy and Usopp had never met.
The drinking continued and true to his word, Yasopp's stories made me forget about having another glass of beer. Only now I was worried about going crazy, if Luffy and Usopp never met before why was I so sure that they are friends?
What's wrong with me?
