He didn't scream, he didn't yell, he didn't speak. He didn't even flinch when they announced his execution to begin. He just blinked and stared at the crowd gathered under and around the execution stand like he had done for the past hour that his crimes had been listed on and on by some marine that hadn't even been born when set off to the at seventeen. The young marine beside him was now telling about some massacre that he had gone on at some point in his life, not that he had ever massacred anyone but the navy, and definitely, the World government didn't care about that. He had lived a good and honest life and if the government didn't acknowledge that then that's it. He doesn't care, his precious people know that and that's enough.
He's halted from his thoughts when the marine officer beside him stops talking and as he focuses his eyes again he can see some familiar faces now in the crowd, tears spilling from their eyes staring at him and he smiles reassuringly back at them causing them to cry even harder while trying to smile back at their captain or friend. He can see his best friend and vice-captain, Zoro, standing side by side with the remaining crew. Sanji, his left hand and cook stood on Zoros's left gripping his hand tightly with his right while his left hand was tightly around Namis shoulder who was sobbing harshly. Brook was standing behind them with hand on both of the men's shoulders and tears were streaming down his bony cheeks. The skeleton was already 140 years old and Luffy hoped he would continue to live on even though he would through time eventually lose the whole crew.
He hoped that his crew would live old and be happy for at least a couple of decades before death would come and collect them, then they would meet in the afterlife and he can listen to his friends telling him stories about their lives after him, he can go and meet his family and crew and tell them about his life after their death.
"Now, commence the execution of the second Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy!" Commands some higher-up marine that Luffy had not bothered to learn the name of, and the executioners ready their bladed spears somebody yells from the crowd.
"Pirate King! Where did you leave your treasure!?" Older people in the crowd who were also at Roger's execution smirk sadly at the question but turn their heads to wait for the second Pirate King's answer to that.
"Don't talk!" Some marine commanded but Luffy didn't listen to them, just smirked at the crowd and started talking.
"Roger was born free as were I! Roger lived free and so did I! Roger died free and so will I! We were free and we will be free! We left everything in that place!" He smirked and looked at his Nakama one last time before his head was chopped off his shoulders and he lost consciousness.
"Luffy, are you alright?" Luffy hear a somehow familiar voice coming above him but he couldn't place where he had heard it before so he opened his eyes to see who it was and found he was lying on a plate of half-finished food.
"Are you feeling alright Luffy?" The woman asks. Just awakened Luffy has the shock of his life when he turns his head to see young Makino looking at him worriedly and checking his temperature with her hand.
Luffy was extremely confused. He had just died so he should be in the afterlife right now. Not with Makino! Last time he had checked she had been an old but healthy grandma to three kids and nowhere near dying. and if she did die Luffy was fairly sure she wouldn't look this young. 'what the heck is going on!?' Luffy thought. He turned his head to look around but stopped as soon as he saw his legs that dangled off the bar stool he was sitting on as they were nowhere near touching the floor. How is that possible!? He wasn't as tall as his father and Gramps had been but he still was well over 2m tall, a respectable 223,5cm (7'3") if he was to be exact. His legs should touch the floor if he was on a normal bar stool and besides that, his legs looked very childlike, small, and chubby, which was not how he should be described. He was a 67-year-old man who had been on the seas for 50 years and was deathly ill. There should be nothing small, cute, or chubby on his person.
Luffy had apparently been on his musing a quite some time as Makino asked again if he was feeling well, this time her voice was already extremely worried and she was pushing the bangs off of his face to check his temperature better.
"Makino?" Luffy asks the young woman tentatively.
"Yes, Luffy?" She answers and Luffy can see the worry ease when he finally answers to the woman.
"What day is it?" Makino was taken aback by the question, Luffy could see it clearly but she still answered.
"Why Luffy? Today's Tuesday, don't you remember? We were reading the News just before you started eating lunch and then fell asleep." Makino's worry came back with the force of a raging Dawn Island tiger.
"No, I meant the date." Makino was taken aback by young Luffy's serious demeanor.
"May 7th, 1509 but shouldn't you remember that? You turned six just two days ago. You were so excited about that."
"Wait What!?" Luffys mouth was hanging open.
"Okay, Luffy you aren't feeling well, are you? Maybe you should go and take a nap." Makino says frowning and begins to lift him up so she can bring him to his bed.
"No! I have to eat first!" Luffy declares but agrees silently with Makino that a nap would be good even thou he probably wouldn't sleep but he could still use the alone time to think things through and try to understand what the heck is going on. Luffy eats fast and then lets Makino carry him ups stairs and then to his bedroom where she tucks him well.
"I will have to be downstairs but just yell or knock to the floor or just keep some noise if you need something." Makino smiles gently and closes the door behind her leaving Luffy to the dark room with his thoughts.
"Hello there, Pirate King!"
"Hi to you too, Pirate King."
And the ghost of Gol D. Roger. Wait! The ghost of who!?
Luffys neck snaps as he turns his head to look at the source of the voice. There in the corner of the dark room stands Gol D. Roger, the previous Pirate King, or if he's right about what's happening, the only pirate king.
"What the heck is happening?" Luffy groans and puts his hand over his eyes. What he doesn't see doesn't exist. Roger just laughs at his reaction before moving closer to the other one laying on the bed and then sitting down on the bed beside him.
Luffy noticed that Roger left a dent on the mattress where he sat so he was, tangible but his colors were kinda washed looking and he was translucent so he was definitely also a ghost.
"One Piece is a mysterious thing," Roger says and looks down at Luffy while smiling gently. "It fulfills our deepest wishes. The wishes we might not even realize wish for. My wish was to see my old crew grow old and happy and see the future, how the era I started would turn out. In my opinion, it turned out great. Even better I envisioned." Roger smiled gently and put his hand on Luffys shoulder. Luffy thought for a moment. What was his deepest wish? The answer was easy.
"To my Nakama be happy and safe. That was my wish." He says quietly.
"It's a good wish. You and your crew were like family."
"It's not just my crew. It's lots of other people also. Like my brothers and Gramps and father and dad. Wait how do you know what my crew is like? Did you stalk us for 50 years!?" Luffy looked at Roger with a horrified expression who then just started laughing a full belly laugh and soon smirked.
"Closer to 60 years. When you met Ace." He says smirking.
"That's not better!" Luffy yells at the laughing ghost. While he shoots up to a sitting position.
"Luffy are you alright?" Comes Makino's quiet voice from the door that opens when she steps into the room. Roger gets up from the bed so he isn't on the woman's way when he goes to check on the younger Pirate King.
"It's nothing!" Luffy says cheerily, noting that Makino doesn't seem to see the ghost in the room.
"Luffy dear, if you're having nightmares just tell me alright? It's normal, you're still young." Makino smiled gently at him before tucking him back in and telling him that if he feels better in two hours she would come and wake him up for dinner and then leaves the room to go back to work downstairs.
"Nightmare, indeed," Luffy mutters quietly.
"I take offense to that!" Roger huffs and both of them start to snicker quietly at that.
"Why didn't Makino see you?" Luffy asks the ghost after their snicker died down.
"For the same reason you didn't notice me in the past. You didn't get to the One Piece yet."
"That doesn't make any sense. I got The One Piece before I turned 30." Luffy deadpanned at the ghost.
"No. You got the whole treasure when you died and got your wish." Roger answers smirking. "Good speech on the execution stand by the way." He adds and Luffy feels mortified. When he was younger he probably didn't even know what embarrassment was and he still at the age of almost 70 was blunt and didn't care about others' opinions but right now he was talking to his idol, the one man he got inspired by, he was talking to his basically adopted dads basically adopted dad who was like the greatest pirate ever live and he now was mortified at the tough of everything the old king of pirates had seen him do through the years. Luffy decided it would maybe just be better to forget all and continue like nothing ever happened.
Luffy and Roger continue to talk for a while before something finally dawns on him. Wait! I time-traveled! I can save everyone! I can save everyone! Apparently, his face showed the realization because Roger started laughing ad fell onto the floor while clutching his stomach. Luffy pouted and Roger laughed even harder. Luffy could tell that Roger had been waiting for his realization. Luffy huffed and got off f the bed and almost fell over because still hadn't gotten used to his new short stature. His stumble sends another burst of laughter through Roger who was just getting up from the floor.
"I'm going downstairs to eat please be quiet. I can't talk to you while other people are around," Luffy says to Roger before breathing deeply to calm himself and putting on a big smile. Then he ran down the stair stumbling a little and yelling at Makino to give him food.
When he got downstairs the smile froze on his face when he saw who was at the bar. The bar went quiet the pirates who filled the staples saw the child standing in front of them. Luffy cursed himself for not sensing the pirates or fuck sensing, for not hearing them. The Red hair pirates were known for being loud and partying hard. Luffy felt a hand on his shoulder. Roger's hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality and he continued his kid act and bounced to one of the free bar stools which was right between Shanks and Benn.
Both of the men looked surprised at the kid who looked perfectly content in his place on the stool between the two strange men, usually kid at that age should have been shy and wary of people they didn't know but Shanks noticed immediately that the child wasn't normal but he couldn't place the off feeling the child caused him and so he chose to ignore it.
"You are pirates right?" The boy asks turning to look at both of them. They were yet again surprised by the boy. He knew they were pirates and still chose to sit between them. Shanks had a feeling the boy knew a lot more than he let on. Both of them nod and then the child turns to Benn. Roger can feel the mischief and had a good guess of what the boy was going to do and he was going to enjoy it, a lot.
"So you are the Captain, right?" He asks Benn with a serious expression. The bar goes quiet yet again but they soon burst into laughter as the crew looks at the boy who looked so convinced he was right. Shanks had a look of betrayal on his face as he looked between the boy beside him and his crew, laughing their asses off around the bar.
"The Betrayal," he mutters, "Actually, I am this crews captain. My name is Shanks." He introduces himself to the boy before him before anyone else from his crew gets a word in that could possibly damage his reputation… or ego. Then the boy has the nerve to turn to him and look between him and Benn skeptically before asking:
"Are you sure?" He even squinted his eyes at Shanks. He was flabbergasted. Whose was this sassy child?
"Yeah Kiddo, Shanks there is the Captain" Benn answers to the child.
"Thank you! At least somebody is on my side-" Shanks got cut off by Benn who continued smirking not caring about his captain.
"Thou I do most of the work." The laughter continues at Shanks whines of betrayal. Roger is laughing his ass off with Shanks' crew and then Luffy lets out a snicker of his own and Shanks knew, he knew that the boy had known the whole time who they were. That sassy child knew exactly what he was doing and when he looked down at the boy he could see that the child knew that he knew that the boy knew.
"You little shit," He says to the child amusedly. He was going to like this kid, he knew it already.
"What's your name Kiddo?" He asks the small boy who now was looking around the bar with wonder and… longing? on his eyes. Shanks was confused how could maybe a 5-year-old look so old and mature? Then the boy turned his big eyes towards him before a grin split his face and he answered.
"I'm Luffy!" He answers grinning and Shanks got a slight Deja Vu feeling at the grin but before he could really process anything the boy, now revealed Luffy continues. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy!" He's still smiling brightly while Shanks' face loses all color.
"Luffy, tell me, do you happen to be related to Monkey D. Garp?" Shanks really hoped he was wrong. That old man was crazy.
"Ya know my Gramps?" Luffy turned his look at the pirate who was having a crisis currently.
"Yeah, he's kinda crazy," Shanks says. The end was supposed to be left unsaid. Shanks cursed his big mouth. You just don't say a child that someone from their family is crazy, just as he was going to comfort the kid and say that he didn't mean it, don't get him wrong he totally meant it but the kid didn't need to know that, the kid started laughing.
"Yeah, he is! He once tied me to a bunch of balloons and let me just float off for training!" Luffy says while grinning and Shanks looked horrified. He had thought he knew the crazy side of the man from his times with his old captain Roger but apparently, he'd been wrong. When he contemplated what to say next, the barmaid Makino came out of the kitchen and headed towards the stairs until she noticed the child sitting between the two pirates.
"Ah Luffy, I was going to go wake you up and see if you were feeling good enough to come and eat but I suppose you're feeling alright then?" When she gets a nod for an answer she heads back to the kitchen to get the food she cooked for Luffy.
"So, can you tell me stories about your adventures?" Luffy asks with a shining smile from Shanks who melts at the sight. Luffy was so cute even though he was fairly sure the boy had inherited more than a little of his grandfather's crazy tendencies.
"Yeah, sure. What do you want to hear about?" Shanks looked at Luffy who had a thoughtful expression while thinking about his options. Shanks was expecting the boy to ask about a treasure or fight they had been in but he was yet again surprised when the boy opened his mouth.
"Can you tell some funny stories about your captain?" Shanks almost fell off his stool and Luffy snickered at his surprise. Roger was muttering about something in the corner, Luffy didn't really care what the man was sulking about.
"How do you know about my captain?" Shanks asks, taken aback.
"Oops! Is it supposed to be a secret?" Shanks was fairly sure the boy was doing everything on purpose but he decided he would tackle that problem later.
"No, it's public information. I was just surprised as most people don't even recognize me here and then there comes this 5-year-old child who seems to know absolutely everything.
"I'm not five! I'm a grown man!"
"Then how old are you?" Shanks asks with an amused tone. Luffy started to sweat. He was absolutely horrible at lying and even thought lying about his age wouldn't cause any more problems than Shanks not believing him to be six and coming to the conclusion that he was still five.
"Luffy, here is your food," Luffy decided that Makino was a lifesaver, for two reasons, she gave him food, and now because of the food he could ignore Shanks in favor of the food so he didn't need to answer him.
"I'm sorry if Luffy has bothered you anyway. He lives with me here at the bar." Makino turns to apologize to the two pirates on both sides of Luffy who was almost inhaling the food that was in front of him causing Shanks to be worried about the boy choking on the food.
"It's no problem Makino-san. He's endearing." Shanks smiled at her and she smiled happily back. "He's probably one of the sassiest children I have met." Shanks continued and looked intrigued when Makino's expression changed to that of a surprise. He could see her worriedly side-eye the youngster next to him. He was interested in this and decided that he needed to talk to the boy at some point alone so he could figure him out.
That chance came faster than he expected when the suspicious boy begged Makino that he could show Shanks around the village and then grabbed the pirate's hand and pulled him out of the door and then the village to a cliff looking over the ocean. The sight was beautiful, the sun was setting behind the horizon painting everything in an orange glowing hue. Shanks turned his gaze at the boy still gripping his hand tightly and they sat down looking at the ocean and its lazy waves.
"Shanks," Luffy starts, and Shanks hums to say that he's listening.
"What do you know about the One Piece?" Shanks was utterly surprised at the question. Luffy sounded curious but it wasn't childlike curiosity that should be expected but just plain curiosity about what he knew.
"Not much. It's the world's greatest treasure and it's located on Laughtale, the last island on the Grandline. Captain didn't tell much more." Shanks said and when he looked at Luffy to see what he was thinking about he became confused. The boy looked like he was contemplating the information and thinking about the given information with a serious expression.
"The One Piece is… mysterious thing." Luffy decided to borrow Roger's words as they really did describe it the best. The whole thing was a big mystery.
When Luffy spoke Shanks got the feeling that the boy knew what he was talking about so he just listened intently.
"The One Piece is a treasure that has resided on Laughtale at least from the Void century. On Laughtale there are heaps of gold jewels and other riches but the One Piece itself is just an unassuming round thing, I'm still not sure what it's made from, a kind of crystal-like material, but that isn't important right now." Shanks was shocked. This boy, this young boy from East Blue that shouldn't even have left the island let alone gone to the grand line on his life talked about the world's greatest treasure like he had been there himself. Shanks couldn't say anything so he just waited for the boy to continue.
"One Piece's whole worth comes from its trait and the trait is that it is capable of fulfilling the founder's deepest wish. The wish that you might not even realize you have. The treasure will fill it the moment it feels it's the best." Luffy says and Shanks just stares when the boy turns to look at him with a sad expression.
"For me, that moment was my execution, as well as for Roger." Shanks can see the sadness on the… young? boys eyes.
"What did you wish for?" Shanks asked quietly. He was feeling conflicted, this boy he had met just hours before had somehow time-traveled or gained memories from the future.
"For my Nakama to be happy and safe," Luffy and Shanks both knew that this just meant that Luffys crew could only be happy and safe when he was there which made Luffy equally happy and sad.
"It's a good wish," Shanks smiled down at Luffy.
"Ya know, Roger said exact same thing," Luffy said while leaning his chin on his knees.
"Wait! Who said what now!?" Shanks' eyes were wide.
"Oops! I wasn't supposed to say that," and then Luffy just laughed at something, and Shanks got suspicious again.
"What got you laughing? Next, your gonna tell me Rogers haunting us right now, aren't you." Shanks says sarcastically rolling his eyes but stopped as soon as he saw Luffy's expression which was full of mirth.
"No way…" Shanks didn't believe this, he couldn't believe this. Luffy just started laughing at his expression and he wanted to say something until he felt a slight breeze on his neck and then his straw hat was lifted from his head and replaced by a familiar hand ruffling his hair. Emotion overwhelmed him and soon big tears started to roll from his eyes and sobs shook his whole body. He had missed his captain, he had missed his father, and now every emotion he had buried through the years came back up to the surface.
"Captain… dad," he changed to dad, he had regretted not calling him that before he died. "I missed you… so much! I was so alone! Buggy just left, everyone just left… I was so lonely, I had no one!" Shanks was now full-on crying and Roger looked helplessly between Luffy and Shanks to see what he was supposed to do.
"Just hug him," Luffy huffs rolling his eyes at the ghost who just did as told. Roger sat down beside the red hair and wrapped his arm around the sobbing man.
"You've been doing so good. You have become so strong and you have found an amazing crew to sail with. I've missed you too, Shanks, but I have checked you on times when I'm not checking on my other sons or the crew." Roger squeezes Shanks' shoulder and smiles gently. Shanks turns to look where the voice comes from and is surprised to see his captain on his side even if the captain is translucent he is happy and his face just splits into a wet smile.
"Wait if Shanks finally admitted that you are his father does that mean you are my Granpa now?" Luffy asks Roger who just bursts into a full belly laugh throwing his head backward while Shanks just stilled. After a moment both pirate kings noticed that the red-haired man had stilled and they looked at him in concern.
"Are you okay?" Roger asks his adopted son.
"I'm fine! Just peachy in fact! I only just found out my dad and captain who I saw being executed, has been stalking me for the past twelve years. I have brothers which I only knew about one and now I'm also apparently a father to the future pirate king. I'm absolutely perfect, of course!" Shanks sounded slightly hysteric in the other two's opinion but neither deemed it problematic. Roger breathed deeply and rubbed Shanks' back to comfort him.
"Just take a breath and try to calm down and we can try to answer any questions you might have, alright?" Roger smiled at the young man leaning against him. Shanks nodded and took a calming breath and closed his eyes for a moment before he voiced his first question.
"You said you were checking on my brothers, I'm guessing Buggy is one of them but whose the other one?" Shanks started.
"Ace, he is your younger brother by 17 years and is my and Rouge's biological son," Roger answered and looked at Shaks who had a mixed expression on his face. As a dominant feeling, he could see happiness and surprise at the fact that his brother hadn't been killed by marines. Small tears found their way again back to his eyes but this time they were tears of happiness and relief.
"Okay, that's good, where is he now?" He asked and this time it was Luffy who answered.
"On this island, Grandpa and Rouge gave him to Gramps. We still can't go and meet him yet because he hates his father 'cause the only things he has ever heard of him is marine propaganda but I will try to befriend him this time faster so you can meet him also before leaving." Shanks was surprised yet again but nodded understandingly at him.
"Alright then, what was that about me being your father? I don't remember having a child." He asks this time Luffy.
"Well on the first timeline, this went quite differently, ya know, you coming to Foosha and all. You spend a year here using this village as your base while doing some little trips around the East Blue. I was a little brat and asked in every chance I got for you to take me with you to be a pirate and you refused adamantly every time saying that a Pirate ship is no place for a child." Luffy chuckled lightly.
"And I agree with myself at that," Shanks said, "I grew up in a pirate ship and wouldn't change that for anything but you have a home here so I wouldn't take you with me to the sea. It will never be absolutely safe on the seas and especially on a pirate ship. I wouldn't want to bring a child into that environment except in case where the child was in worse danger on land." Shanks says and Roger and Luffy both agree whole heartily.
"Luffy, I don't know you yet that well but if you still accept then I will gladly be your dad but I would wish to learn more about you." Shanks smiled at the boy who smiled so brightly back he looked like the sun.
"Okay, what do you want to know?" Luffy asked excitedly while he moved to sit in Roger's lap so he could be closer with the two others and Roger just smiled at the small boy on his lap and brought his free hand to his grandson's shoulders.
"Well, you can tell about your Nakama they were important to you right?" Shanks asks with a smile and Luffy begins his story.
"Okay! My Nakama are a lot more people than just my crew. I will start with Gramps and my brothers," Luffy started and then stopped abruptly just before starting on his brothers. "I just realized how weird my family is." He says flatly and Roger burst out laughing and Shanks turned to look at Luffy curiously.
"Explain," he says.
"Well there's my Gramps, Monkey D. Garp, whose son is my biological dad, Monkey D. Dragon, but I have met him in my life altogether maybe five times, and he is more like a strange uncle than a father. I have two older sworn brothers or will have, they are Ace and Sabo which means that one of my brothers is also my uncle, and the other one, Sabo was basically adopted by my bio dad Dragon and is more his son than I am. Oh, also Sabo is actually from a noble family and would have become the king of this island if he had stayed with them. I'm glad he found my father, he was much happier in the Revolutionary Army than with those asshole parents of his." Shanks understood now what Luffy had meant by weird when talking about the family. There was Monkey D. Garp who was plenty of weird on his own already, then it was revealed that the famous marine hero's son was the world's most wanted man and the leader of the Revolutionary army, Monkey D. Dragon who also happened to be Monkey D. Luffy's biological father. Shanks was kinda scared of what he had gotten himself into with this family.
"Oh, and Ace also became the second division commander of the Whitebeard pirates in the future so he's also Whitebeard's son." Luffy continued without noticing Shanks' internal turmoil.
"You really have an interesting family brat!" Roger bellows. "Or we have because you are now my adopted grandson. Oh! I can't wait to stick that into Garp's face!" Roger smirks at the realization and Shanks starts to laugh at that. He could get used to this weird family of his.
"Wait! I just realized I am older than my dad," look of horror dawned on his face and Shanks and Roger looked as the boy started to count his finger frantically. "Oh god… I'm older than Gramps!" The time traveler looked horrified at the thought and Shanks and Roger just burst out laughing at him.
"How old are you Luffy?" Shanks asks Luffy after getting his composure somewhat back.
"67-years. I'm two years older than Gramps." Luffy didn't like this one bit, Grams was always an old man. Did that mean he too was an old man, no that couldn't be it. He was a man in his prime.
"Oh wow, you really are old." Shanks didn't really know what else to say but then one question came to his mind.
"You have had been pretty strong to live to that age on the sea and become pirate king so how did you end up getting executed?" Shanks asks and gets worried when he sees both of the pirate kings grimacing at the question.
"Well, I became pirate king pretty early on my journey. I was only 22 when I got the title, I had been on the seas for 5 years at that point." Luffy started and Shanks was flabbergasted. His son had become pirate king younger than Shanks was right now by good four years. He was so proud right now but the fact he was able to become pirate king at such a young age meant that he should have definitely been strong enough to avoid capture when older and that made him worry a lot.
"In the end, I lived at the seas for almost 50 years. I was happy with my crew and we were family. some of them started their own families and I became an uncle I was so happy until the end but fate is cruel and the three last years were forever growing misery for me," Shanks didn't like this one bit. This story sounded way too familiar and he felt like someone was choking him. "I had some incurable sickness that slowly killed me and in the end, I turned myself in. If I had to go I would go on my own terms. My story is exactly the same as Rogers was." Luffy smiles sadly at the young redhead who was on the verge of a panic attack and Luffy and Roger both realized the worrying state he was in.
"Shanks, is everything alright?" Roger asks softly while frowning at his son's worrying behavior. Tears started to roll from the redhead's eyes and choked sobs racked his body.
"Why.. why- do- does? Why-..." Shanks mutters while crying.
"Shanks, son, try to take a deep breath. Just try to follow my breathing." Roger says soothingly and slows his breathing so Shnks can match him and maybe calm down.
It takes five minutes for Shanks to calm down and get a grip on his emotion somewhat.
"Can you come here Luffy?" Shanks asks shakily and Luffy crawls over Roger's lap towards Shanks who as soon as he gets close enough wraps his arms around Luffy in a tight hug and Luffy hugs back just as hard but then frowns as his arms don't stretch around his hugger. Luffy decides that that is a problem for a later date. Now he had to comfort his dad. Luffy feels something placed on his head and he loosens his hold on Shanks to check what it is and was surprised to find his straw hat on his head. When he turned his head upwards he saw both Shanks and Roger smiling gently at him.
"Can't be the captain of the Strawhat pirates without a straw hat, can you?" Roger says and Luffy turns to Shanks who the hat belonged currently.
"Don't worry kiddo. You've earned it." He smiles gently with dried tears marking his cheeks and the corners of his eyes and now was Luffys turn to start crying.
"Thanks, Dad," He hugged Shanks tightly.
"You're welcome," He hugged his son back.
"Oi, Captain!" All three of them were startled by the sudden yell and the two alive let hastily go of Roger so nobody would appear to be floating or something similar and then turned to look at Benn who was standing a few dozen meters behind them.
"Hey, Benn!" Shanks yells back at his vice-captain who just shakes his head and comes to stand beside the two who were still sitting and hugging each other.
"Everything alright?" Ben asks his captain. He was worried because he had never seen his captain in the state he was in right now with dried tear streaks all over his cheeks and eyes puffy and red from crying.
"Yes. Everything is good now." Shanks said while smiling a light genuine smile and Benn didn't press as he knew that his captain would most likely tell him whatever was pressing him if he wanted at some point.
"Why did you come here?" Shanks ask Benn.
"Makino was starting to get worried as it's already dark and the air is starting to get colder too." Shanks and Luffy hadn't even realized that the sun had set completely as they had been stuck in their own world for a while now.
"Ah, yeah! We should go back, shouldn't we? Don't want to make Makino-san worry any more than necessary, right Luffy?" Benn had never such an expression on his captain's face before. His captain's eyes were softly gazing at the young child on his lap and to Benn, it almost looked like Shanks was a doting father.
"Yeah! Let's not worry Makino," Luffy said and started to climb off of Shanks but was stopped by a strong hand around his middle.
"Stay put Luffy, let ya dad carry you. You must be tired after a long day." Luffy was pretty sure there were a couple of reasons for this. One probably being that he still wanted comfort after what happened before and the other reason probably being the fact that he wanted to say that he was dad and see Benn's reaction and Luffy came to the conclusion that it was totally worth it when he saw Benn's face. His mouth was hanging open and his cigarette had fallen from his mouth and was now on the ground burning slowly.
Benn did not know what to do. He usually did and now that he didn't he was a bit distressed. What should he do? He didn't plan for this! He had half of mind to call Marco the Phoenix and just ask, 'Hey! What should I do when my captain just decides to adopt a child out of nowhere?' Benn also was a bit worried as his captain was known as childish and easy to go with whims. In his opinion that wasn't the best role model a child could have. In the end, he was cut out of his thoughts by Shanks and the child who was hugging his captain's neck with the straw hat bit a skew because of his and Shanks' proximity.
"You coming Benn?" He asked and Benn could hear the underlying amusement in his captain's voice.
"Sure Captain," Benn shakes his head again and they fall into a comfortable.