Warnings: slight angst, OoC characters, fluff

Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece, not me!

The Calm Before

Shanks' eyes opened quickly and he sat up fast before gasping in pain and grabbing his side. He felt hands, one on his shoulder and the other rubbing his back soothingly, as a voice asked him questions, none of which penetrated his cloudy mind.

It took him several minutes to calm down. Once he did, he realized that he was in a small house which appeared to be made of stone. It was dark inside, with only the flickering of a candlelight giving him any ability to see. But all of the forms were hunched over or darkened by the blackness of the shadows that seemed to consume them.

He turned and saw Rouge sitting next to him, a soft and sad smile on her face.

"Rouge?...what…where are we?"

She sighed and turned her head down to the floor, her hands folded over her lap.

"We were attacked. We've…we've lost Benn, Roo and Garp. I'm sorry, Shanks."

Shanks stared blankly for a moment before an anguished look came over his face. He punched his thigh, gritting his teeth.

His best friends were all gone.

"But…you saved Luffy. For that, we must all thank you. You know, the child seems to have taken a liking to you," Rouge's voice was strained with emotion and Shanks could clearly see her eyes were red and puffy, but she still smiled.

He didn't know how she did it.

They were on that island from a very long time ago, where they had met the petrified friends of Usopp, two demons and a werewolf. They weren't going to leave the island since it was, except for other blue bloods, abandoned.

They were going to try and make it home.

Shanks knew it was futile, considering their fate, but couldn't help the feelings of hope from welling up deep in his chest at the thought. Maybe, before it was their time to…move on, to put it delicately, they could have some semblance of a normal life.

All the ghosts and bluebloods were trying to make it happened.

Their island was small, dotted with small foresty areas. Ponds were abundant on the landscape just as the flowers were everywhere, attracting the bees and the butterflies and the birds unaffected by the curse. The grass was green and long and he couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy being outside, which he had been for the past eighty or so years.

And for once, it seemed the sky was returning to it's normal colors. The sun was still attached to the pillar, but the color was becoming ever so slowly a light yellow that it normally appeared as. And the sky – it was also slowly returning to the dazzling blue. The ocean seemed alive again as fish could be found jumping, in the distance dolphins leaped, and every once in a while in the far, far distance, he could make out a whale tale. And the gulls were back, singing their song of absolute freedom.

He realized he wouldn't have it any other way.

There were maybe fourty of them in total, the youngest ones being just a year or two younger than Usopp aside from Luffy, who was easily the youngest of them all. And they had people of all sorts – large, small, tall, short, all colors and all with their own styles and preferences and personalities.

But all of them were somewhat broken by the long battle. They all had their moments of solemnity, eyes dark with longing and remembrance and pain. They figured that, among the groups they had managed to gather to that one island, because they knew that there were others spread among the seas, that they had lost at least 257 people in total. It was a large number, considering there may have only been 600 or 700 to start with.

But still, they kept their chins up and built.

Shanks and Usopp were to live with Roger and Rouge. Their house was small, a cottage really. The walls and floor were made of stone and the roof of logs tied together. There was a hole in the top to allow smoke to escape from their fire pit in the middle of the room. The door wasn't really a door, just a piece of cloth to move aside, much like the window covers. And their beds were nothing more than stuffed pieces of cloth sewn together.

But it was home, and they were proud of it.

The sound of a baby giggling was followed by a light hearted chuckle.

Shanks was sitting out in the rolling, grassy hills of the island, staring out at the waves crashing against the rocky shore. Usopp was sitting nearby, sketching the landscape on a piece of flat wood that he would later carve out, like he had done many times before. He was smiling at the sound of the giggles coming from Luffy.

It had been five years since they had reached the island and Luffy appeared to be only six or seven months old. He was smiley, drooled a lot, and loved to make noise and be loud. His eyes were large and held innocence in them.

Shanks wanted to make sure that shine stayed in those eyes.

He was holding the baby on his lap, bouncing him lightly and making silly faces and sounds. The kid loved to see stuff like that.

"Ah, Luffy, let go!"

Usopp looked over and laughed.

The little bugger like to pull on long hair too. It didn't matter who you were to him – if it was within his reach, your hair got pulled. This included mustaches as well, much to Roger's chagrin.

Luffy let go a little while later, yawning and rubbing at his eyes. He began to whine a little but Shanks just cooed softly, something he still couldn't believe he did, and rocked him until he fell asleep.

Shanks was somewhat of a caretaker now. Luffy's mother had grown very weak over the years. They expected that it meant her time would come before Luffy would reach one year old, something that killed them all to know. She loved the boy with all of her heart, having him sleep right next to her, always with her as she did chores – it was rare for her to let him out of sight until she collapsed in the center of their village one day.

Since then, Dragon has been trying to nurse her back to health. But it's been almost a year. None of them knew what to think or how to help either of them. All they could do was watch over Luffy when they couldn't.

Rouge, Roger, Usopp and Shanks visited often. Luffy loved to see all of them, and as his mother grew weaker, it became normal for him to spend a night at their house. He could eat an ungodly amount of baby food and get into a lot of trouble, but he was sweet and the whole island adored him.

They just wished they could do something for his mother.

"Oi, Shanks!" Usopp called, making the redhead turn. He realized that Usopp had finished the landscape sketch yet had carved something on his lap. The teen held it up and Shanks laughed despite the faint flush of his cheeks.

It was a carving of him and Luffy.

Usopp loved to tease him about how much he loved the baby despite how much he himself loved Luffy. It was just something that he had taken to. They had all been teasing each other ever since they settled the island. They hadn't seen monsters there since.

It didn't mean they didn't exist. Once in a while, one would pass by the island, staring longingly and hungrily, but unable to enter the unexplainable barrier that had formed.

Luffy began to whine again, pulling Shanks out of his thoughts as he bounced the boy a little to make him laugh.

He hated to have to see him cry.

AN: I DID IT! HAH! TAKE THAT WRITERS BLOCK!

I am SO SORRY for such a late update. School kinda destroyed my inspiration for this story. BUT I will NOT leave it unfinished. I hate it when an author does that and have vowed to myself to NEVER do that. I think this chapter came out okay considering my still slightly there writers block. It's definitely good to have nice feels before the next few chapters. I don't know when the next update for this will be - I just had nothing else to do right now and my hands kinda just flew - but I will try to get one up before November and if not, then hopefully Thanksgiving. I'm planning on the former though. The next week will be difficult though because I have to start sending in info to my colleges *shivers* ahhhhahhhhaaaaahhhhh. So, I gotta deal with that first guys. Sorry :( Also, after this chapter, I'll be replying to reviews by PM.

onegirl92: Thanks! That means a lot to me :)

LostFairyMantic: Thanks!

Yana5: =D

kdh1997: Sadly yes. But things got better! For a while...

shadowmarialove: I know! I've been cursing it this whole time. I can be pretty lazy with my updates too. Candy Crush has taken over me. Can't answer that question, but I'm glad you liked the chapter! And seriously, I love your reviews SO FREAKING MUCH, thank you so much for them :)

Bluebird42: I'm sorry! But he has it better than... not gonna say, not gonna say. But yes! Luffy is alive!

luffylova: I'm sorry for the cliffie (I love writing them ;) )Thanks! And I tend to shout when I get excited too :)

Also, if you haven't checked it out, I have another story called It's Complicated. As of now, it gets more updates, but as long as that story is updates, so will this one!

Thank you SO, SO much for the reviews! I love reading every single one of them! Thank you for reading and have a good night/day! :)