A/N: Hey guys, been waiting long? Haha, it seems so much faster as an author than a reader :) I wonder of this is how mangakas feel, always rushing to submit those twenty pages by the deadline...

Meh, well, just wanted to say thank you to all who answered my question! If you haven't, well, please do. I wanted to know how people find my fic, since the HP/OP crossover page is quite sparse.

Chapter Eight

Drinking Bets

In the morning, Harry woke up sore, but excited. After Spaz's agreement to travel with Shanks' crew if they are accepted as traveling companions, he sat there awhile longer and watched Harry run, giving pointers on how to stretch afterwards, before the two of them returned to the inn for dinner.

As for Harry, the exercise of running was slightly more familiar to him than push-ups as he had spent a large fraction of his childhood running from Dudley and his gang during Harry Hunting. Sprinting came easily as a result of this experience combined with his lightweight body, but long-distance running was a bit harder. It was something he would have to work on.

Today, however, Harry was going to look for Shanks and ask if he wouldn't mind the two of them joining as people less intimate than crew members. It might be a hard sell, but it couldn't hurt to try, and Harry was still very eager to start a new adventure.

Quickly dressing, Harry grabbed a quick breakfast with Spaz, who woke up at about the same time as Harry, and the pair walked out the inn. Harry breathed in the crisp air and took a moment to marvel at the sunrise before turning to Spaz and saying,

"Well, Spaz, you ready to go find Shanks?"

Spaz grinned cheerfully. "Yes sirree, Harry, I'm ready, we're gonna meet a Yonkou and I still think you're crazy but I wonder what he's like and if he really has hair that red and…"

Harry started walking towards the dock, Spaz babbling behind him, feeling for the tense atmosphere that would alert him to Shanks' Haki, his "Color of Observation" is what he called it yesterday. Strangely, there didn't seem to be any sign of it on the main road, or at port, and all the rowboats were still tied to the dock so Shanks probably wasn't on the ship. Where could he be?

Distant laughter rode on the wind from the direction of the tavern. He couldn't be – at this hour?

Harry walked towards the tavern, the smell of alcohol hanging in the air as he opened the door to see a crowd of men, all rather scruffy looking, most of them asleep, lying on tables and chairs and the floor with bottles of sake and barrels of beer scattered around. The only people who seemed to be among the conscious were at the counter, one being the bartender and the other two being Shanks and Beckman. Shanks was guzzling from a tankard, telling stories to the wide-eyed bartender while Beckman looked on and laughed, almost indulgently, though a bit drunkenly as well.

"Kid!" Shanks called out as Harry picked his way across the room, trying not to step on any one of the utterly smashed members of Shanks' pirate crew. "Pull up a stool! Have some sake, on me! This your friend here? Gonna call me Captain yet?"

Harry sat down on an empty stool and shook his head at the bartender when offered a bottle.

"Daybreak is much too early for that, Shanks," Harry smiled and Spaz bounded onto a stool himself, staring without shame at the drunken picture Shanks was currently presenting. He certainly didn't look like one of the most feared pirates of the Grand Line right now.

"Heee, it's daybreak already? Damn, I gotta get my crew moving soon, the lazy louts, dahahaha!" Shanks took another long draft from of alcohol and made no movement at all to suggest doing any such thing to his drunk crew.

"So, what brings you here to this fine establishment?"

"A request, actually," Harry replied, looking a bit more serious now.

"What kind?"

"It does have to do with me joining, actually. Spaz and I were hoping it may be possible to tag along without becoming pirates, like traveling companions of a sort, or hired hands. I have very little experience with ships and sailing, but I'd like to learn, and I can do some simpler chores in the meanwhile."

There was silence from Shanks at this. Finishing his drink, he set down the glass onto the counter and turned to look at Harry with a frown on his face.

"Kid, I don't know what exactly brought this up, but I want you to know that being a pirate isn't just for fun and games, or something to do on a whim. To live our kind of life is a commitment, and if you can't even commit to the title of being a pirate, it'd be best if you gave up on the idea altogether, you understand? I won't be responsible for a pair of boys who don't know what they want and are out for a lark."

Harry looked at the bartender. "I'll have that drink afterall, I think."

When the drink arrived, Harry took a sip, and faced back at Shanks.

"I think, the one who doesn't understand, is you Shanks. We've met no less than three times now, and each time you've asked me to join your crew, yet you don't care to use my name. Recalling Beckman's reactions yesterday, it's clear he believes you only want me along because I can do a few fancy tricks and I'm starting to think the same. You obviously don't take me seriously, as you constantly refer to me as "Kid." Most likely, you were thinking that I could join as a pirate apprentice of sorts for a few months, and if it didn't work out, you'd drop me back off here before returning to the Grand Line. That doesn't appeal to me. Being a pirate is a commitment, I know that. That's why I'm not ready to take on that title. I'd like to travel a bit with you, but if I don't cut it as a Grand Line pirate, I want that to be on my terms, not yours. And quite frankly Shanks, I've never called anyone Captain in my life, and I'm not quite willing to start now."

"Dahahahahaha," Shanks laughed, "you're something Kid! Tell you what, my crew members are all out cold and Beckman here doesn't believe in drinking too much, something about not falling unconscious amongst strangers, but I could use a drinking partner. Let's work out way through a barrel of West Blue's finest, and if you're still conscious, I'll grant your request."

"Neh, neh!" called out Spaz, bouncing off his stool to sit on the counter, closer to Harry and where he could see Shanks better. "Can I join, can I can I?"

"Sure, Boy," Shanks yelled out with a wide gesture of his arms, "you're coming too, aintcha?"

"I'll pour for you Captain," Beckman said with a sigh, "or one of you will end up spilling it all like the last time you held a drinking contest."

"Hey, now, Beckman, that wasn't me who knocked it over," Shanks protested, but he let his first mate handle the barrel and the distribution of tankards filled to the brim with beer.

"No sake this time, it'd be a waste to chug that," Shanks explained, as he held out his tankard towards Harry and Spaz. "Cheers!" And with that, the three knocked back the large glasses of alcohol. The game was on!

"So Shanks," Harry said, handing his glass back to Beckman for the second round, "where're we heading?"

"Confident are we?" Shanks replied with a grin. "We'll be going to East Blue for a bit, visit a few islands, maybe check up on Yasopp's hometown and his wife and kid, then stock up on supplies we can't get here in West Blue, and maybe swing by Loguetown for a trip down memory lane."

"Cheers!" Tankards went back to Beckman for a third round.

"Why Loguetown?" Harry asked.

"Gotta pay my respects for my old captain, you know! Great man, that Roger. Cheers!"

Spaz choked on his beer. "You were a pirate on Gold Roger's ship?"

"Sure! Loads of fun, it was. Guess that's still not too well known, huh?"

"You haven't exactly announced it!"

"Well geez, Boy, I never saw the point."

Spaz chugged down his beer in reply, apparently having nothing to say to that.

If Harry wasn't impressed by Shanks before, he certainly was now. They've barely been together for half an hour and he rendered Spaz speechless.

Accepting another tankard of beer, Harry wondered aloud,

"Gold Roger. Is that the guy people call the Pirate King?"

"Yep," Shanks replied, "though you must've been living under a rock to not know that as a fact. We'll be visiting his execution site, though I can't do it personally since the marines probably wouldn't be too happy about it. You might be able to sneak in, though, since your names and faces won't be on wanted posters if you don't do any pirate activities."

"Brill," Harry said, wondering what the island would be like. "Cheers!" And another tankard down.

"So, Shanks," Harry said again, moving on to a new subject as he waited for his refill, "how much did you drink before we got here anyway?"

"Oh, a bottle or two of sake," Shanks shrugged, "Cheers!"

"Five bottles, Captain, and half a barrel of the same beer you're drinking now."

"Five!" exclaimed Spaz and Harry.

"Blimey," Harry continued, as he accepted the final tankard of beer. Sake has about five times the alcohol content of beer. To have drank five bottles of sake in addition to the beer they're downing right now and still be coherent was impressive, to say the least. "If this game was until the last one conscious I'd feel bad taking you on. Cheers!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself! You may have won yourself a place on my boat, and I respect that, but it'll be stormy day in the Calm Belt when a kid like you can drink me under the table, five bottle advantage or not!"

"Then how about a wager?"

"Oh? I'm listening."

"That tankard of beer there is empty, so me and Spaz will be joining you on your ship as, er – "

"Hired cabin boys might be the best way of puttin' it."

"Yeah, that works. So we'll do stuff like cook and clean and probably learn how to sail a ship, but it'd certainly be nice if your crew members could spare some time once in awhile to spar with me. I'm pretty weak, but I figure it'd be worth my time if all I do is dodging as they attack."

"Dahaha, sounds doable! I think my crew won't mind. Maybe we'll hold a weekly exhibition of it, yeah?"

"Lovely. Have the whole ship watch me get my arse kicked."

"I'll bet they'd all come, too. So, if you win, I'll make sure at least once a week someone in my crew knocks you over in a bout. What are you offering me, then?"

"Hmm," Harry thought on this a bit. Offering money didn't seem right in this kind of bet, but what else did he have to give? He had nothing worth teaching, and other than the Belis Rakma gave him, the only material possessions he owned were –

Of course! Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his tea cup, then turned around to Spaz who was talking with the bartender now that the drinking game was over.

"Spaz," Harry called out, tossing the tea cup over, "catch." With lightening speed, Spaz snatched the cup from the air.

"A cup? Where'd you get this, Harry?" Spaz asked, before peering in. "Whoa! Is that tea inside?"

"It is a teacup, after all, Spaz," Harry teased. "Drink from it."

"Tea's not as fun as sake, but okeedokee, Harry," Spaz took a large gulp and looked again into the cup. "Hey! It refilled! Harry, what – ?"

"Toss it back, Spaz," Harry interrupted, and Spaz, with an odd look, lobbed the tea cup back to Harry who caught it and presented it to Shanks.

"This cup," Harry explained to Spaz and Shanks who now were both very curious and very interested in this new object Harry had introduced, "as you've probably noticed, is not just a cup. It's filled with tea from my homeland and never runs out. The tea doesn't spill and the cup," here Harry raiseed the teacup above his head and let it fall to the floor where it landed with a light thud but still perfectly intact despite its delicate handle and thin walls, "doesn't break. I think a unique item like this would be worth a pirate's time to be drinking for, yeah?"

"Man," said Shanks as he picked up the cup from the floor and looked at the tea inside, "this sure is a neat little thing! Alright, you've got yourself a wager, Kid. Let's drink."

"You wanna join, Spaz?" Harry asked.

"Nah, not this time. I wanna watch the show! It's a drinking bet with a pirate! I'm not missing this for the world, no sirree."

"Guess I'll keep pouring then," Beckman sighed and nodded his acknowledgement to the bartender who retrieved more bottles of sake and some shot glasses for the competitors. This was going to be fun.

A/N: So, some comments on this chapter. First off, it's still in present tense, yes. I got about two votes for past tense, two for don't care, and one for present tense, which overall is pretty inconclusive... So for the next few chapters I will be using present tense. Please keep telling me how you feel about that! If you're adamant for one tense over the other, feel free to put in an additional vote, haha. I hope to have a definite answer by chapter fifteen and then I'll go back and rewrite chapters to match whatever tense you guys end up choosing. Thanks!

A/N2: Just a note - the readers seem to prefer past tense, so I changed the chapter to oblige :)

Also, umm, I don't drink. I've honestly never even had a drink... However, I would like to make it known that between this chapter and the next, my characters are NOT NORMAL. I'm pretty sure that most people would pass out after everything I plan on having them drink, or at the very least suffer from blackouts such that by the next day, they wouldn't remember anything they did after certain point in time. I do not condone binge drinking! . However, Shanks and Harry and Spaz will be fine just 'cause they're crazy like that :)

Umm, what else... I apologize for the slow moving story, but meh, I plan on this story going on for a long time, especially since until the One Piece manga ends, there's no end in sight for this fanfic of mine.

Thanks again to RedValentino for being my beta!

I have 77 reviews as of today, Nov 16, 2010! Thanks everyone!

Edited

12/27/10