"Anchor!" Shanks shouted, rushing through the door and freezing, trying to understand what he was seeing. Instead of the horribly injured kid sobbing in agony, he saw poor Ace sitting on the bed while Luffy was clinging to his body, covering him neck to knees in loops of limbs and bawling loudly in his ear. Ace was yelling at him for being an idiot and looking mildly panicked at the state of his brother. Hongo meanwhile was struggling to unwrap Luffy's limbs and trying to get both boys to be quiet and sit still. Shanks watched in shock as the leg that Hongo had almost finished unwrapping slipped from his grasp and immediately shot back around, smacking Hongo in the stomach so he fell forward and somehow managing to tie the doctor against them both, with his arms stuck between their bodies.
"Captain! Little help here!" Gasped Hongo as he desperately flailed in the octopus grip. Shanks tried really really hard to maintain a straight face but between seeing that Luffy hadn't changed and the sudden relief that he was alive, well he couldn't keep the snort in. At Hongo's outraged face he gave in and fell to the ground laughing hysterically. After several minutes of Shanks cackling, Hongo sniffed. "Keep it up Captain. I'll remember this next time you need to spend some time in the infirmary."
Shanks immediately paled and desperately fought for composure. "Okay Okay. Mercy. Just give me a second Doc." Two deep breaths and he hauled himself upright, trying to figure out a way to solve the puzzle in front of him. "Anchor, I need you to let go kid." He said hoping to get through to the sobbing mess in front of him. No change and Shanks sighed as he reached out and snatched his hat off the kid's head. Immediately the boy shouted in outrage and Shanks dove to the side as limbs went whipping around as they retracted. He grunted as he flopped into the wall, glancing up to see the smug face of his doctor standing above him. "No, no, no! I'm all good Hongo. No injuries over here." He said, raising his arm to ward off the doc. "Besides those two definitely need your expertise." He made a shooing motion, feeling no guilt for throwing the two little shits in the doctors path.
Ace meanwhile was gasping for breath and staring unblinkingly at his brother who stood wobbly in the middle of the room, glaring at Shanks. "You can't have it back yet! I'm not pirate king." Luffy said stamping his foot angrily and reaching for his beloved straw hat.
Shanks smiled, recalling a 7 year old Luffy outraged by his crews affectionate ribbing. "Uh uh, Anchor. You want it back, you gotta earn it." He teased, sticking his tongue out and tucking the hat behind him.
Luffy blew his cheeks out and glared at his hero. "Stupid Shanks." He pouted. "You cheated! Came after me before I was ready and stole my fight. Woulda kicked stupid poison guys' ass by myself."
Shanks smile faded as he remembered the panic he'd gone through over the last hours. "Would have kicked his ass! Kid, you would have fallen right into him if I hadn't shown up." He snapped before taking a deep breath. "We are going to have a long talk about this later. Now sit down Luffy. You're going to stay in this bed until Hongo gives you the all clear, understand?"
Luffy squirmed, as Shanks clamped his hand down on his neck and hoisted in into the bed like a pup. "Aw Dad. I don't need to see no doctor. Iva already fixed me up. I wanna go see everyone."
"I said understand!" Shanks repeated sternly, using his hand to prod the kid's chin up and get eye contact.
"Understood." Luffy muttered.
"Good. I don't care if someone else already looked you over, I will only accept a release from Hongo. If you listen to him and don't cause any trouble, I will give you back your hat. Besides Anchor, Ace here is also stuck in bed. Do you really want to leave him alone?" Luffy stared back at his brother and smiled wide, lunging across the beds. Thankfully Shanks expected this and snagged the kid in the air, plopping him back in his own bed. "In your own beds for now Anchor. Hongo needs to check you over first."
Hongo glowered at them from the side of the bed. "Oh am I able to check over my patient now? How nice." Shanks mumbled an apology, wisely moving away from the irritated doctor. Hongo pulled off the kid's filthy shirt and hissed when he saw the kid's battered torso. His hands instantly went to swollen, inflamed puncture wounds down both sides of the kids stomach. "What the hell did this?" He asked horrified.
"Huh?" Luffy said gazing down his body. "Oh those! That was Iva's mystery power!" He said brightly.
Hongo looked at the wounds and narrowed his gaze dangerously. "Iva's mystery power?" He questioned quietly.
"Uh huh. After I fought the stinky guy and got soaked in purple goo."
"Woah Anchor. Stinky guy? Goo? You didn't tell me you got hit with the poison! Benn said you were ok." Shanks yelped stepping forward and trying to check him over for whatever he'd missed.
"Yeah cause that was last time. This time I had 3 give me awesome armour so that I could hit him! Did you see it? I was so cool." Luffy cheered, before his smile dimmed. "But the first time, I punched him and got all sick and then there were the wolves and Iva stabbed me. The first time was not fun and it took forever but then he gave me a dragon line shot and I was all better and had all this energy and then.."
"Stabbed! I thought he was your friend!" Shanks snarled.
"Dragon line? Do you mean he injected you with adrenaline?" Hongo interrupted, trying to sort through the kids rambles and keep Shanks from killing Iva.
"Thats what I said. Cause I couldn't stand up and I had to go save Ace." Luffy smiled widely, not noticing the horror on the faces around him.
"Captain, I think I need to have a discussion with this Iva. Can you get him for me? Nicely." Hongo warned, wide-eyed but using his training to keep his voice calm and sure. Shanks meanwhile was fully hyperventilating and clasping at the foolish kid in front of him, reminding himself that he was alive. Magellan had poisoned him, had DARED to poison him and Shanks had just killed him. He should have done so much more, dragged his worthless body after them so that he could make the lesson last for days…weeks! Should have made him regret being alive and beg for the release of death. Should have…the jaws on the shelf across the room shattered and Shanks grimaced as he withdrew his haki. He hadn't had this much difficulty keeping control since he was 13 years ago and dealing with puberty. His attention snapped to the side when he heard a strangled gasp and then Ace bolted from the room. "Hey!" Shouted Hongo after his fleeing patient while keeping a firm grip on Luffy's arm. "Damn it. Captain! Snap out of it and help me out here." Shanks flushed and focused on his exasperated doctor. "You can't be in here Captain. Go and talk with Ace and send me this Iva. I've got Anchor. Go Shanks."
Shanks reluctantly stepped away from Luffy, despite wanting to wrap around him and shelter him from the world. He knew Hongo was right and that if he stayed he would be in the way at best or a haki hazard at worst. "Right… behave kid or I'll send Benn in. I'll be back soon." He ruffled the kid's hair once before heading out and following the flood of emotions pinging off his haki.
Shanks tracked the fleeing Ace across the ship, making a quick detour to find Iva and sending him to the infirmary. Finally he located the kid, sobbing in the brig of the ship. "Haven't you had enough of cages Ace?" He asked as he knelt down next to Ace.
"Go away." Ace said turning away from him and burying his head in his arms.
"Yeah I'm not going to do that. You shouldn't be alone right now, so I'm all yours kid."
"I'm not a kid. And I deserve to be alone. I almost got Luffy killed." Snarled Ace, digging his nails into his arms.
Shanks hissed softly as he unclenched Ace's hands one at a time. "Ace. You didn't do anything. You saved Luffy. You told me he was in danger and because of you, we were able to get there in time to help him."
"Yeah but he was only in danger because of me! Because I got myself captured!"
"No. Teach betrayed Whitebeard, Teach turned on you and the World Government chose to punish you for your father's legacy."
Ace scrambled back away from Shanks wide eyed. "You know about that? How long did you know?" He asked horrified.
Shanks held up a hand reassuringly. "I've known since I met you. Since you introduced yourself as Portgas D. Ace. You look like her you know, and you have her stubbornness and fire. And I actually chose your name when I was a kid."
"You knew my mom?" Ace blinked desperately fighting back more tears.
Shanks snorted. "Hell kid, she helped raise me and Buggy after she started seeing Da-Roger. I was 9 years old when we started calling her Mom. We went to Baterilla after dad… after, to try and find her but we were too late. We thought you were both gone. I don't know how you survived but seas it was a miracle that you lived."
"Thats why you saved me! Because I am his son." Spat Ace.
Shanks smiled softly. "Their son, my baby brother. I won't lie and say it wasn't a factor but no. Even if you weren't their son I would have done the same thing. I was raised to believe the family you chose is more important than the one you were born into. And while I'll always see you as my little brother, I respect your choices to distance yourself from us. I saved you because of who you are. I saved you because as a kid, you raised a ball of chaos, made sure he had a childhood and was loved for who he was. Because you searched for a stranger who is feared and known to be dangerous, simply because you wanted to thank me for something I did years before, something I did before you'd even met Luffy. You're my brother so I would have fought to save you but because you are my kid's brother, because what you've done and because you are YOU, I ignored Whitebeard's claim and I declared war on the World Government. Because leaving your fate to someone else was an unacceptable risk."
There was silence except occasional sniffles for a couple minutes before Ace whispered. "I wasn't distancing myself from you…just him. I didn't even know I had big brothers."
"Not only big brothers but also a bunch of crazy uncles. Actually we just got Buggy from Impel Down and he'll know who you are probably faster than I did. He was always the smart one. If you ever want to meet him or the others I know they would be thrilled to see you but no pressure… or if you just want stories of mom or dad. There was more to them both than what the world government spread after their deaths and you should hear from someone who actually knew them both, not just their reputations."
Ace hesitated before nodding awkwardly. "You said you named me?"
Shanks snorted. "Yeah, it was shortly after mom and dad became official and I won't lie, me and Buggy were acting out. Didn't like the thought of sharing our dad with anybody and we knew that there was a chance they would have a kid. I think he wanted to make sure we knew that we were just as much their kids as any biological children so Da- Roger - promised us that we could name our first baby sibling. Trying to give us a connection but letting 2 nine year olds name a human being wasn't his best decision. We decided I got to name the boy and Buggy got to choose a girl name. Buggy wanted to name a girl Annoyance, but Dad managed to compromise with Ann. Meanwhile I was just starting to learn sword fighting and I was obsessed with swords. Dad's blade Ace was the coolest thing ever. Mom wasn't thrilled when she found out and I'm surprised she followed through on his promise all those years later."
"Wait… You named me after a sword." Ace deadpanned.
"It was a really cool sword!" Protested Shanks laughing. "But come on kid, you need to get back to the infirmary before Hongo actually does tie you to the bed. Grab some food for you and the black hole on the way, I'm sure he's starving by now. I trust you can keep an eye on Anchor and make sure he behaves."
"You're not going to check on him?" Ace questioned.
"I uh- I wasn't handling watching very well and Hongo doesn't need me getting in his way. Besides I need to check in on the crew and make sure we get to safe territory."
Ace smirked at the older man. "In other words, Hongo kicked you out and you're not allowed to go back in."
"Ha," snarked Shanks. "I'm the captain here. I can go where I want. I just respect the good doctor and his space."
"Hmmm chicken." Ace said nodding.
"Absolutely." Shanks agreed.