Archive of Our Own

Not everyone had a soulmate. You could live your whole life without words appearing randomly on your body, binding your fate to someone else’s.

Shanks would brag about his soulmate being the sea, until elegant letters formed in his chest. “What can I get you Captain?” He was eight years old at the time, a brat wiping floors on Roger’s ship.  It had been Buggy who had read them as they formed, incredulous at the sight and snitch that he was, he wasted no time in running to the deck to tell everyone about it.

Shanks had never received so many pats on the back – more like slaps, they hurt! - and congratulations. The Captain had teased him about stealing his place or leaving the crew, both of which Shanks swore he’d never do.

“Don’t worry about it brat, all men must part ways eventually.” At the time, Roger had seemed so young and endless, that a life outside of the Roger Pirates was inconceivable. 

The man himself had a soul-mark, which he refused to show, for whatever reason. Later in life, Shanks and the rest of the crew would meet Lady Rouge, who had sworn loudly at the Captain for spilling ale on her skirt. He had proceeded to declare happily 'It's you!' and the rest was history.

Eventually, after Roger's execution, he formed his own crew and began to grow fond of the term 'captain'. He didn’t kept his mark a secret, it was hard when his shirts were always unbuttoned. Shanks didn’t like the idea of binding someone to his lifestyle, which wasn’t suited for the consistency a family needed, so he didn’t actively looked for his soulmate, though his heart leaped every time they sat on a bar and a barmaid approached them.

He meets his fate in the dullest of the seas, in a little island unworthy of recognition. It was more like a vacation, his name was already well known in both Paradise and the New World, and he wanted to lay low for a while. The village is even tinier than the one he was born into and most people hide at the sight of them. Except for a mayor with a lot of guts, who stood a foot shorter than Shanks and tried his best to intimidate him.

Shanks assured him they were just passing by and politely asked him for directions. With a huff, the old man pointed them at the single bar in town. ‘Partys Bar’ could be read from outside the building, which looked more like a house in Shanks’s opinion. There were a few plants and a rug in front of the door, a place cared-for.

His mother had raised him right, so cleaned his sandals before stepping in.

There were plenty of tables and chairs inside, but not a single patron in sight. He spotted a few dishes with food on them and it didn’t seem like they had been there for long; the people had likely run at the news of their arrival. It was quiet, but Shanks could hear light footsteps above them. They came from the second floor.

“You think we spooked them?” Ben asked dryly, looking around.

Lucky Roo had slipped comfortably into one of the chairs and discretely tried to pick on the leftovers from the gone-patrons. Yasopp made a gaging noise and Doc shook his head in disappointment.

“What?” The round man defended himself. “It’s untouched, just look at it!” Indeed, taking a closer look, Shanks saw that the plate was both full and steaming. Perhaps he had been wrong about the patrons running away. It was barely noon, maybe the bar owner had made lunch for themselves?

Before Shanks could say anything, a small figure appeared from behind the counter: a kid. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes, as if he had just woken up.

“Ma-chan?” His gaze became focused as soon as he saw them, but rather than run away like the scared kid he should be, he cocked his head to the side curiously. “Who are you guys?” Then, his eyes shifted to Lucky Roo and his plate. “Oi, that’s Ma-chan’s!” He screeched.

Shanks stifled a laugh as Lucky Roo jumped back from the chair as the kid run at him ready to fight.

A soft voice came from the stairs. “Luffy? Did you brush your teeth before going down?”

The boy’s demeanor changed completely, he left Lucky Roo’s leg alone and sprinted back to where he came from. A soft laugh could be heard, and a young woman arrived to the scene.

Shanks wondered if she was the kid’s mother, though she didn’t look old enough for that. She wore a long purple skirt and a white shirt, and a handkerchief around her head. She’s pretty, he notices. He wondered if she was married.

Her eyes widen at the sight of them and Shanks doesn’t miss the apprehension in her approach, though beyond that, she appears as if she were greeting any other customer. He should’ve probably ordered everyone to leave the weapons on the ship, they didn’t exactly cause the best feeling on normal people.

Shanks puts on his best charming smile, which would put a sea-king to sleep, and raises his hands in a gesture of peace.

“We mean no trouble,” he let her know. Then, he remembered himself. “We are just a band of hungry sailors, do you have enough tables?” Someone snickered behind him and Shanks felt the need to kick their shins. The corner of her lip lifted and Shanks saw she was repressing a smile.

“We’ll pay,” Ben said immediately.

The girl nodded, looking at Shanks. “What can I get you Captain?”

And Shanks froze on the spot.

-

“We mean no trouble.” Could be read on her shoulder. The calligraphy wasn’t the prettiest one, her friends had warned her. But such things were to be expected from boys.

Makino hadn’t cared about it, she only wanted to know who’d say those words. No one meant trouble in Foosha, so it was safe to assume they’d be an outsider. Garp, acting as the father she never had, had warned her time and time again about being wary of strange men, even if they claimed to be ‘no trouble’.

Makino sighed, Garp-san didn’t have much faith in her self-defense abilities.

The day she met her soulmate had promised to be like any other. She had woken up early and checked on Luffy, who was snoring soundly and sleeping tightly. Garp would often leave him in her care, as the marine had little time to spare for the boy. She had gone downstairs to wipe the floors of the bar and prepare it for customers.

Most people would come around noon to get some lunch, so she had begun cooking early. Makino had left a steaming bowl of curry for Luffy, so he’d be able to eat as soon as he woke up. The boy had quite the appetite and would often lose his mind when he overslept and missed any meals.

She had gone up to wake him up when she noticed that it was noon and there were no signs of him coming down on his own. As soon as she knocked on the door, Luffy flew past her, on his way to the bar.

It took her a moment to recompose and then she went down too. She asked him if he brushed his teeth before going down, which was an habit she was trying to install on him and he went up the stairs right away.

When she got to the bar, she was met with the sight of at least two-dozen men, who looked, for a lack of better words, like pirates. Her heart leaped on her chest, mind immediately wondering where she had left the pistol Garp had gifted her.

Beyond the swords and pistols of their own, there was no threat on their manner.

The one who was at the head raised his hands, likely having noticed her uneasiness. He wore a straw hat on his head, sandals on his feet and an unbuttoned shirt that revealed bits of his chest. Makino couldn’t make out the words, but she saw the black ink.

“We mean no trouble,” he tells her and her mouth goes dry. “We are just a band of hungry sailors. Do you have enough tables?” He asked, gesturing at his men.

A man with black hair spoke after him. “We’ll pay.”

Still shocked, she nodded numbly. Staring at her soulmate, she asked, “What can I get you Captain?”

If she had any doubts, his reaction erased them. She saw the exact moment he realized who she was. What they were to each other.

Soulmates.

Ignoring the butterflies on her stomach and the frozen man at the door of her bar, she cleared her throat and looked at the black-haired man, who was also staring at her intensely too. A round man was staring at her curry.

Makino decided to approach him. “Do you want a plate of that?” The others were sitting

“I would like the whole cooking pot,” he said honestly. Then he added, “Ma’am.”

Makino actually laughed. “None of that, I’m Makino.”

He shook her hand. “Lucky Roo.”

In that moment, Luffy decided to show up.

“I brushed my teeth!” He proclaimed loudly.  She smiled at him, some of the tension leaving her shoulders.

“Good. Take a seat.” She palmed his usual spot and he stuck his tongue at the pirate, almost giving her a heart attack. But Lucky Roo just brushed it off with a laugh of his own and sat right next to Luffy.

“No one should mess with a man’s food.” He said seriously.

Makino pointedly avoided their captain and made her way to the kitchen, where she proceeded to scream into a rag.

-

He would have stood there like an idiot if Ben wouldn’t have pulled him down to a chair. Gone was his smoothness and charming manner, he was gaping at the air as the rest of his crew ate and talked cheerfully.

“You need to get yourself together.” Ben’s tone was as tense as Shanks spine. “She’ll think her soulmate is an idiot if you don’t close your mouth and start behaving like an adult.”

“Soulmate,” Shanks parroted back. Soulmate. Lovely word for an even lovelier woman.

“Soulmate?” The kid spoke with a mouth full of curry. “Ma-chan has one of those!”

Indeed she has.

“Does she?” Shanks asked numbly.

“Yup! She’s got a tattoo on her shoulder. But the letters are so bad she couldn’t even read them!”

Ben choked on his ale. That snapped Shanks out of his stupor.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Someone else had to read them for her,” the kid let him know. “Cause the handwriting is ugly.” He said bluntly.

Yasopp tried to discretely hide a laugh.

“My handwriting isn’t ugly!” He claimed.

“I don’t care.” Luffy went back to his curry. Lucky Roo palmed Shanks back heartedly.

“Her curry is really good. Congrats, Cap.” Shanks nodded absentmindedly.

“So, kid. Is she your mom?” He decided to ask, it seemed like an important thing to know. If he could charm the kid…

“Nope, I don’t have a mom.” Luffy explained and Shanks heart grew a size. “Gramps leaves me with her when he’s away for work.” He looked down at his bowl. “He’s away all the time.”

So not only she ran a bar, but she was a good cook and kind soul. Oh Roger, he better shape up.

Shanks cleared his throat. “I think I’m gonna see if she needs any help with the kitchen…”

“Ma-chan is fine on her own, she always says so.” Luffy told him.

He brushed it off. “Oh I’m sure, but just in case…”

He run a hand through his hair, slicking it back and then he looked down at his clothes. Not his best shirt, it had more than a few wrinkles, but it didn’t have any holes or stains. His pants were as common as they came and his sandals were…the only pair that he had. He let the straw hat hang from his back and stepped towards the kitchen.

As soon as he went through the doors he collided with her. She had been carrying a barrel of sake, which would have crashed against the floor if Shanks hadn’t grabbed it on time. She began to apologize and then she took a good look at him, realizing who he was.

Her slight frame tensed and Shanks tried a tentative smile.

“I realize that I might have left you with the wrong impression.” He couldn’t outright say I’m a smooth talker. Her face didn’t change. Shanks cleared his throat. “I do mean what I said back there, we mean no trouble.” She flinched at the words.

Shanks didn’t let his eyes stray from her face, but he couldn’t help but wonder what her mark looked like. On her shoulder, the kid had said.

She took the barrel from his hands, to leave it on the floor.

“Would you like to eat something?” She asked at last, gesturing at the small table on the corner of the kitchen. Shanks’s hunger had gone away the second he saw her, as if her sight alone had nourished him. But he wasn’t going to reject her offer.

“Please. Do you need any help?”

“Oh, not at all. I’m fine on my own.”

“So I’ve been told.” She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t inquire.

Once they were sitting, each with a bowl of steaming food in front of them, she spoke again:

“I’m Makino.”

I know, he’d like to say without sounding creepy.

“I’m Shanks.”

-

Just like her, he has no family name to claim. He was born on the South Blue and he lived there until he joined his first crew when he was barely seven, a year older than Luffy. Makino couldn’t imagine the little boy as a fearsome pirate and she couldn’t imagine this towering man as a little boy.

Things are more than a little awkward between them, none willing to acknowledge the sea-king in the room.

Soulmates.

Makino has about fifty books upstairs on the subject matter. Not scientific, but novels. Romance novels, the kind she’d buy by the dozen when the rare merchant passed through Foosha.

She tries to keep her eyes on his, but they inevitably move down to his chest, where his shirt is unbuttoned and his mark could be seen. That was, undoubtedly, her handwriting. If there was any doubt before, it was gone.

“My eyes are up here,” he said playfully and Makino felt her cheeks reddening.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized immediately.

“I don’t mind,” he says just as fast. A nervous laugh escapes her. “I mean, it’s yours.”

In her books, this things usually went smoother. The protagonists would quickly realize that they couldn’t live without each other, from then on, the romance would proceed. But this was the real world, and there was little written about how the first conversation between you and your soulmate should go.

So far, she had been caught staring at his chest while he was speaking.

Great.

“Mine—well, yours, is in my shoulder. I was born with it.”

“This one showed up when I was eight, I think.” So he was eight years older than her. Which was fine, she had once feared her other half might be an old man. “That was nineteen years ago—“

“When I was born.” She finished for him.

“That makes sense.” Once again, they were in silence. They hadn’t even touched the food, which was going cold. Makino wished she had been born on a big city, where speaking to strangers was the norm. Only this man wasn’t a stranger, he had been with her since her first breath, literally.

“Do you run this bar by yourself?”

“Yes, my mother left it to me.” The former owner hadn’t been her mother, but Makino had considered her one. “It’s a lot of work, even for such a small village.”

“I take you don’t get many visitors.”

A small smile formed on her lips. “We don’t, especially not pirates from the Grand-Line.” It was such a distant place she could barely imagine it. Garp would often find himself there for work and once in a while she’d read the news to find out what sort of trouble was going on. In her pirate-romance novels, there was a fair share of adventures in that part of the world too. “Would you tell me about it? The Grand-Line…”

His eyes widened slightly. “What would you like to know?”

Makino thought of the ‘merfolk’ section on her romance novels. “Have you ever seen a mermaid?”

-

They leave the bar on the late afternoon.

Eventually, Shanks had returned to his table and silenced any suggestive gazes with a glare, while Makino had went back to serve food and refill glasses.

The little kid had lost any shyness by the time Shanks was back, actively talking with anyone who’d hear him. He asked Shanks half thousand questions about being a pirate and Shanks suspected Luffy might have found his vocation. His grandpa, whoever he was, was probably not going to be happy about it.

As they walked to the ship, which they had left on the docks, Shanks was faced with the crew’s questioning.

“What is she like?”

“Is she coming with us?”

“Yeah boss, we’ taking her to the New World?”

Shanks is still pretty shook on the inside, so he doesn’t answer any of these questions. He thinks of the moral implications of stealing a woman from her home and bringing her to the ends of the earth. Probably not right, no good.

Ben’s voice, as usual, is the one to pull him from his daydreams.

“Are we staying?”

Shanks stares at him.

“Of course.”

-

The next morning, Luffy is waiting for them at the docks.

Shanks had spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for a proper gift. He had found nothing of use. Makino didn’t seem to own any jewelry, but that doesn’t mean she is a jewelry-type of woman. All of the necklaces they have are too flashy and not the kind of thing he can picture her wearing.

The rings he finds on the crew’s coffers are pretty and he spots one or two that are subtle. Golden bands with tiny rubies or sapphires, he considers it before throwing away the whole idea. A ring means a lot when a man offers it to a woman.

He walks towards the bar with the boy by his side. Shanks greets politely the neighbors, who are clearly still not fond of the idea of pirates walking around freely. So far no sight of the marines, so it’s fine by him.

Makino looks surprised to him again so soon, but she’s quick to recover and offer them all a smile. One that makes Shanks’s heart jump cheerily on his chest.

According to Yasopp, he’s been smiling like an idiot since the moment they walked inside, but Shanks ignores him. Ben sighs tiredly, drowning in a glass of beer.

“So you are Ma-chan’s soulmate.” Luffy states.

“I am.” Shanks doesn’t see the point on denying it. “But you can’t tell it to your friends, it’d be dangerous for her.” Truly, there’s no issue with him and his crew knowing, but it’d be wise to keep it on a close circle.

“I don’t have friends,” Luffy says.

Shanks raised his eyebrows. “Don’t you go to school or something?”

“Nope.”

Shanks frowned. “There isn’t one here?”

“There is, but Gramps won’t send me there.”

So his grandpa would leave him with Makino but he wouldn’t send him to school. Shanks himself hadn’t received an education, as his mother had been a pirate herself and he’d later join Roger’s crew.

“Ma-chan plays hide-n-seek with me.” Luffy told him. “We also make picnics.”

“Still, you should go to school.” Shanks felt like having a chat with this grandfather of his.

Unexpectedly, Luffy crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I don’t need school, I’m going to be a pirate!” There was a man’s determination that didn’t belong into a little boy’s voice.

Shanks felt sweat pour down his back, but laughed it off. “Oh, are you?”

Makino better not hear he got the idea from him.

-

After a week, he tells his crew that this little vacation will be longer than expected.

A month or two, perhaps.

They’ll stay for a year, but he doesn’t know that at the time.

-

Makino could buy herself a second bar with all the money they pay her. A second bar in Goa.

She tries to discretely return some of it to Ben Beckman, Shanks’s first mate, the most levelheaded man in the crew. Still, he wouldn’t take it.

“You deserve it for putting up with him,” he shook his head. Makino stuttered, unsure of how to answer to that. Their captain wasn’t bad company, once he left behind the habit of following her into the kitchen every time they visited her bar.

She later realized he was joking, mostly.

The Redhead-Pirates become part of her daily routine. She’d wake up early in the mornings, clean the bar and get it ready for customers, and they’d show up at lunchtime, though it wasn’t rare to find them there for breakfast either. Makino wasn’t sure of what they did besides drinking, eating and singing, as they always seemed to be at Party’s.

The pirates have endless patience for Luffy’s antics, which she is grateful for. They indulge him, telling tales of their adventures at the sea. It’s good for him, Makino believes, it had always bothered her that the few children of the village wouldn’t play with him.

Shanks is especially attentive, Makino has noticed the way Luffy stares at him; as if he had found the hero he needed. Which isn’t bad at all, as the redheaded man might be a pirate, but he was far from being one of the bloodthirsty savages Garp would speak of.

His crew leaves before him, more often than not, and he stays as she closes. A gentlemanly thing to do, she thinks warmly. He never insists on staying, though he does linger until she bids him farewell.

-

Makino might be growing fond of him.

-

One night, she gathers her courage and asks him if she can kiss him.

The pirate had stared at her dumbfounded. “You don’t need to ask—“

—fine then, she thought, throwing her arms around him.

-

For the first time in his life, and he’s not bragging about it, Shanks spends the night with a woman without any wicked intention.

He had stayed for the closing of Party’s, his crew long gone, when it had started to rain. Water poured furiously from the dark clouds above their heads and it didn’t seem like it was going to stop any soon.

Makino offers, naturally, that they wait inside together until the rain stops.

Thankfully the rain doesn’t stop and before Shanks tells her he’ll survive a wet walk to his ship, Makino tells him he should spend the night, thus making sound every alarm on his head.

“We need to be quiet, Luffy is sleeping.” She tells him as they walk towards her quarters, wood creaking beneath their feet. Shanks spares a glance to Luffy’s door, where snores are coming from. He resists the urge to snort.

Makino’s room is exactly what he had expected, but he can’t make out much of the colors in the dark of the night.

She shows no hesitation and insists he make himself comfortable as she changes. Shanks dutifully stares at the flowery walls as she puts on her sleep-clothes.

When she’s done, she takes the spot by his side and lays her head on his chest. Shanks hopes she can’t feel the quickening of his pulse.

“Tell me a story.”

“About what?” He caresses her hair.

“Mermaids.”

“Of course.”

-

His crew doesn’t dare to say a word as he returns on the early hours of the morning.

-

Perhaps it’s just him, but Shanks thinks Benn’s sighing has grown steadily.

-

They sail to a nearby island.

Shanks fails to convince Ben that it’s because Dawn is starting to become stifling, but he doesn’t say a word as Shanks wanders through the port. He is just looking around, he tells himself, not searching for anything in particular. Especially not a gift for the lovely woman he left back on Foosha.

He had spent the night with her, curled around her soft body in her small bed. When the morning arrived, he pressed a kiss on her forehead and promised he’d be back soon. He sneaked back on his own ship like a thief and pretended he was in the need of adventure.

He finds a trinket or two he thinks she might like and hides them away. A handkerchief for her head and some flowery smelling-perfume, the kind of thing Lady Rouge might have worn once. He’s never bought a gift for anyone, there was no need to. Other than giant sized bottles of sake and barrels of wine and ale, Shanks didn’t have the need to buy anything.

There’s a storm that delays their return, nothing like the ones on the Grand-Line, but enough to make their navigator suggest they stay another day. A day, becomes two and before he knows, they’ve spent a week away from Dawn.

He’s quick on his feet as they return, making his way through the village and greeting the people who have grown used to his presence. It’s noon and patrons are already at the bar. Shanks nods at them and goes straight to the kitchen.

Makino might give him an earful later for being so indiscrete, but he has missed her.

She smiles at the sight of him, as if he had never left on the first place. Shanks puts on his best smile too, leaning on the frame.

“Did you miss me?”

“Not as much you have missed me,” she answered smoothly. “Luffy told me he saw you running towards here.”

That little snitch!

“…I wanted to get some lunch.”

“Oh, did you?”

Not really. He crosses the distance and wraps an arm around her waist, Makino pulls him down to her face and kisses him. He presses them closer and sighs against her lips. She’s warm and welcoming.

“I bought you something,” he tells her. “But I might have forgotten it in the ship.”

“No problem,” she soothed. “You can give it to me tomorrow.”

-

He spends the night on the second floor of the bar, in her bed.

The gifts don’t make their way to her until a week later, when he remembers that he bought them.

-

“You need to leave,” she warns one day. Shanks immediately stops his ministrations and leans on his elbows, staring at her from his spot on her thigh. “Luffy’s grandfather called, he’s coming back on a week.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“He works with the Navy.”

Well, that made sense.

“We’ll be gone at first hour tomorrow,” he promises.

-

It’s not the first time he leaves, but it’s the longest they’ve been away. Makino feels the letters on her shoulder burning in protest at their separation.

-

She is aware that he won’t stay forever, even when he comes back. And realizes they must speak about it.

-

He’s grown used to Makino’s room. Small and cozy, like her bed, which isn’t long enough for him and leaves his feet hanging at the edge

“You aren’t staying,” she states. Shanks’s heart twists and the letters on his chest seem to dig on his skin.

“I will if you ask,” he says at last, because he doesn’t think he could deny her. She surprises him by laughing.

“Oh, Captain.” Her smile is soft and Shanks buries his face on the crook of her neck. She’s wearing that perfume he bought her, the one that smells really good and tastes pretty bad. “I wouldn’t dare to hold you back.”

“You wouldn’t be holding me back,” he swears. The image of what their future might look like isn’t as blurry as it could be. He sees her on the horizon, with a son or a daughter on her arms, perhaps another on the way—

He is getting ahead of himself.

“You wouldn’t ask me to follow you.”

Shanks frowns, of course he wouldn’t. He doesn’t doubt the strength of her character, but the New World, even Paradise… They are not places that he’d selfishly drag her to.

“It’s the same thing. Your ship will sail and it’ll go until it disappears on the horizon.” She sighed when he pressed a kiss on her shoulder, near the mark that binds them together. “And I’ll be right here once it returns.”

His stomach turns. “I don’t know when we’ll return.” They had made Foosha their base for a year. He had left the New World unattended for too long. “We are going back to the Grand-Line.” And he couldn’t simply come to visit her when he grew lonely and desperate. He thought of Lady Rouge, how Captain Roger had been wary of returning to the South Blue every now and then. He couldn’t risk the Marines hearing about her.

Shanks felt foolish then, he should’ve kept his mark a secret. He hadn’t read anything about it on the newspapers, his wanted poster didn’t even show below his neck, but what if they knew and they came—

“Shanks?”

“I will return.” He promises. “But it won’t be any time soon, it might be years—,” the thought alone is painful enough. He presses their foreheads together.

She deserves a better man, one that would not leave her indefinitely and come back as he pleased. A house on the prairie and a gaggle of children.

“I know.”

“Makino—“

“I know and I understand.” A trembling smile reaches her lips. “I get terribly sea-sick anyway.”

Shanks laughs, but his throat feels constricted.

-

Ironically, he ends up staying for longer than planned, as he loses an arm before he can leave.

Shanks makes a bet on the New Age and promise to Makino.

-

She reads about him from time to time, cuts the newspaper articles about him. She keeps his wanted poster too, thinking it doesn’t make him justice. He doesn’t look half as handsome as he is.

When a young boy asks her to teach him manners so he can properly thank him for saving his brother, Makino teaches him eagerly.

When the young man leaves to be a pirate, Makino tells him to say hi for her.

-

“I almost forgot!” Ace swallows. “Makino-san says hello.”

The letters burn pleasantly on his chest for the first time in years.

Benn answers before he can. “Does she?”

-

When the worst war known to pirates ends, Shanks makes his way back to her.