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We were young when we first met.
Feeling particularly restless, I slipped out my bedroom window in the middle of the night, using the drain pipe fixed to the side of the humble house to shimmy down from the second floor. My bare feet relished in the tickle of overgrown blades of grass as I landed, a giggle escaping my lips. It wasn’t the first time I had run away in the middle of the night, and it was not going to be the last.
I adjusted my brown leather backpack, ensuring that it contained everything I needed for my late night expedition. Glass containers? Check. Magnifying glass? Check. Matches? You betcha. Cheese cloth and elastic bands? As if I would forget something so important. And, of course, chocolate. I always brought along a large bar of chocolate. It was a necessity.
Pale yellow pajamas fluttering in the midnight breeze, I took off down the hill without so much as a second glance at my home that sat atop it, overlooking the rest of Foosha village, and made for the forested base of Mt. Colubo. Pausing for a moment, I fell to my knees and tucked my chin, somersaulting down the remainder of the slope until I sprawled out in front of a massive tree. Vision blurred and head spinning, I took a moment to flap my limbs against the soft grass of the forest’s edge, waiting for the stars to stop their swirling dance.
The moon was awfully close to being full, a tiny sliver missing from the right side, shadowed in obscurity. It lit the wilderness with a silver light, reflecting off of every leaf waving from every branch on every tree. The natural light would be beneficial for my mission, I decided. I could use it to my advantage.
Pulling myself up from the cool ground, I tightened the straps around my shoulders and marched into the forest, eyes and ears peeled as I scanned my surroundings.
There was the chirp of a cricket. Target acquired.
I crept slowly towards the call, placing my weight in the balls of my feet, stepping down on the soft earth without a sound. I approached the trunk of a nearby tree. The insect’s song was coming from between the gnarled roots that rose from the mossy soil.
Kneeling down, I carefully retrieved my matches and a glass jar from my pack without rustling the leather. I had become a pro at moving in complete silence. It was something you picked up quickly when your general goal in life was to not be seen, to fall into the shadows, to be invisible.
The flame that erupted from the match head revealed the cricket, huddled against the bark of a root and chirping without a care in the world. Moving as fast as possible, I brought the open end of the jar down, capturing the bug between the glass container and the ground. It would be stuck there for a while. I let my muscles relax, and chewed the inside of my cheek to relieve tension as I grabbed an elastic and some cheese cloth. Flipping the jar over, I pawed at the ground in the firelight, snatching up a stick, some soil, and two leaves to add to the cricket’s temporary habitat. Fastening the cloth over the top of the insect’s confines, I beamed triumphantly and made for the clearing that I knew to be a few paces north, collecting medium sized branches along the way.
When I reached the clearing, I arranged the wood in a teepee formation within the circle of stones I had placed many, many moonlit nights ago. Another two matches lit, and a fire was raging. I settled against the tree trunk closest to the dancing flames, cricket tucked against the backpack I had placed by a root, and began to eat my chocolate. The warmth from the orange and red plumes radiated around me, melting it ever so slightly, leaving tracks of the delicious sweet down my fingers.
There was a rustle in the tree above.
A head extended from the canopy, stopping at eye level, uncomfortably close and suspended by a… neck? No, it couldn’t be a neck. It was impossible for any body part to stretch like chewing gum.
Yet, sure enough, a young boy’s round face stared at me, upside down. His mouth was set in an easy smile, his large brown eyes wide and unblinking. A bright yellow straw hat with a red band dangled from a string around his neck, messy raven coloured locks flopping over the brim as he hung from the stretchy… Again, was it a neck? Was this a real person?
I would have screamed, if I wasn’t too shocked by the following action the strange, not-possibly-human, boy took.
Eyeing the chocolate in the hand that was further away from him, he darted his tongue out and licked the melted dessert from the closer fingers with zero hesitation.
“D-do… You want some?” I stuttered, wishing that either of my hands were clean, so I could pinch myself and wake up from whatever wacky dream I was having.
He nodded, shooting me a breathtaking grin that was all teeth and gums, accentuated with a mischievous snicker. Then, the rest of his body fell from the tree top, neck (?) contracting and pulling his torso towards his head. He landed in a pile on the forest floor with a strange plop!
That was when I screamed.
He screamed back.
“What…” I blinked, staring with a mix of fear and bewilderment at the little boy, now seated upright next to me with an entirely proportionate body, “What are you?!”
“I’m a rubber man!” He exclaimed, with no following explanation, as if that made perfect sense.
The flames flickered before us, bathing the kid in a golden glow. His hat was now firmly atop his head, his tongue licking his lips as if looking for trace amounts of chocolate. He looked to be around ten years old or so, close to my age.
I broke off a piece of my half melted chocolate, and passed it to the boy. He snatched it out of my hand with lightning speed, opening his mouth impossibly wide and swallowing the bar whole. I don’t know what made me do it, but I gifted him the other half as well. If he was that hungry, he would need the chocolate more than I did (Jokes on me, am I right?).
“Thank you,” He beamed once more, and this time, there really was chocolate all over his face.
I giggled, lifting a finger and pointing a chocolate covered index finger at his mouth.
He responded by licking my finger once again, and then extending his tongue to clean off his face.
The cricket chirped.
His eyes lit up like the stars in the sky above. He gasped, “Is that a cricket?!” He was staring at the jar I had placed by my bag.
I nodded enthusiastically, excited to have met someone who shared my love of bugs. I turned to pick up the jar, passing it to the strange boy while I retrieved the magnifying glass from my pack. In the light of the fire, we examined the cricket through the glass, giggling when it rubbed its wings together to chirp its signature sound. We took turns mimicking the noise.
“Man, bugs are so neat,” He sighed contentedly as I placed the jar down by my leather backpack once more.
I nodded in agreement, “I wanna be an entomologist when I grow up.”
“I wanna be King of the Pirates,” He was laughing again, “You’ll have to join my crew and we can collect all the bugs from around the world.”
“That would be awesome,” I felt the bark of the tree we were leaning against scratch my scalp as I threw my head back to look at the stars. The stars were moving. And they were awfully close.
“Hey, look,” I breathed, “Fireflies.”
His mouth fell open into a silent cry of excitement. He clapped his hands together, and proceeded to stretch his neck again, plunging his head into the center of the fireflies’ dance. They buzzed around him, over the bridge of his nose and under his chin. Their soft green glow was reflected in his massive eyes for a single second before he snapped his head back to its rightful place.
“How do they glow like that?” He asked, cocking his head to the side, brow furrowing in as he stared at me
curiously.
I smiled, “They produce a chemical reaction inside their bodies. It’s called bioluminescence. Pretty cool, huh?”
“If I eat the right things, could I glow too?”
I squinted my eyes shut as I laughed, “Maybe!”
“Yahoo! I’ll be a glowing rubber man!”
“Sounds like the perfect future Pirate King.”
They grinned at each other. The cricket chirped again. The fire was beginning to die out.
“I should go,” I started, snatching up my bag and my new bug buddy (only for the next day, and then I would let him go), “Don’t want to get caught sneaking out or I can’t do it again, you know?”
He seemed a little disappointed, “Yeah, Ace is probably wondering where I went.”
I hesitated, before sticking out my hand, “I’m (Y/N).”
“Luffy,” He spat in his palm before smacking it against mine.
I recoiled in disgust, “Ew, Luffy! Why?!”
He snickered, flashing me that toothy grin as he shrugged, “Now we’re friends for life. The spit shake is an oath.”
With that, he sped away into the forest, leaving me alone with the song of my cricket and the glow of the fireflies. I smiled. I hoped I could see the strange boy again.
We were teens when we met a second time.
I waved to my parents as I took off down the hill, sneakers slapping against the dirt path that lead to the wooden house on top of the slope. The sun was shining, beating down and warming my skin as I made my way to Makino’s bar, terrarium clutched in my hand. It was a large plastic rectangle, with a perforated lid, the inside heavily decorated with a mossy hunk of tree root, plenty of soil, little plants, and a pile of rotting leaves.
As I turned the corner, my attention was drawn to the crowd gathered at the port. There had to be at least fifteen people huddled around a tiny dinghy, talking to somebody. There was a general air of excitement coming from the group, and I wondered if I would get the same send off when I left next month.
Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I jogged over to the dock, trying to catch sight of who was setting off to sea. I ducked and dodged between bodies until I made it to the front of the crowd, never letting my precious terrarium leave my hands. I set my eyes on the little boat, and my breath caught in my throat.
It was him.
Skinny and rather small for his age, it was hard to tell he was in his later teen years, especially considering his round, boyish face.
Despite his youthful appearance, tight muscles were visible, straining against his smooth, rubbery skin, proving how much he had trained, how much he had grown since their last meeting. His wide eyes, scanning across the group that had gathered to see him off, sparkled with the same excitement as when he had seen the cricket, the fireflies.
“Yo! (Y/N)!” He waved enthusiastically in my direction, stumbling over the seat of the dinghy to get closer, “What bug do you have there?”
He stretched his hand out, tapping on the plastic to accentuate his question.
“Don’t tap on the container,” I growled, before answering, “It’s a horned atlas.”
“A HORNED ATLAS?!” His head came to join his fingers, peering into the terrarium and beaming at the large beetle inside. He took a moment to examine its impressive exoskeleton, and the three horns for which it earned its namesake.
Hand and head still extended before me, he snickered as his brown gaze darted up to meet mine, “You wanna come with? I haven’t forgotten our oath.”
I shook my head, regret digging a pit in my stomach, “I can’t. Not right now.”
He seemed unfazed, “That’s okay! You’ll just have to join my crew later.”
With a smile, I spat in my palm and held out my hand, “You got it, Captain.”
There it was.
That dazzling grin.
He repeated the same action and our hands met in a wet, slurping shake. There was a gross sucking noise as our hands pulled apart.
I watched the dinghy fade away, sinking below the horizon, clutching my terrarium and trying to ignore the tears that leaked from my eyes. Why I was crying, I would never know. I hardly knew the boy, for all we had were two fleeting moments on Dawn Island that seemed like nothing but an insignificant blip in the large scheme of things, yet there was something about him. Something that spoke deep into my heart of hearts and understood what I needed, and that he could give me exactly that. It was a strange feeling. It was as if we were meant to be together, and I wondered if the spit shake really had created an unbreakable bond between us. Maybe, just maybe, we were going to be friends for life.
“You know you can’t join him, right?” Makino’s solemn tone broke the silence. It was just the two of us left.
I sighed, “I know.”
A teardrop splattered onto the top of my plastic container. I was glad this was the last time I would see him, then he wouldn’t judge me for throwing my dreams away.
At least, I hoped it was the last time I would see him.
We were adults when we met for the last time.
I was patrolling the village, a sleepy town on the coast of a spring island. The buildings were of pale pastel cobblestone, with paneled roofs of matching colours. Vines, over grown and a deep green, wound up walls and poked through cracks in the mortar. Vendors had set up their stalls that morning, and were peddling their goods to the locals, men and women who wandered up and down the main strip as children played tag in the adjacent alleyways.
The marines were a welcome sight for the villagers, as it was always the same patrol group. My squad was kind, and fair, and always happy to buy an apple or two for the scampering kids. I nodded in greeting at a familiar woman who ran the fish market, and she waved me over.
“What can I do for you, Mrs. Nakota?” I smiled, approaching the elderly lady with the pearls in her hair.
She leaned forward, whispering, “Rumour has it, there’s a pirate ship pulling into the harbour.”
I straightened up, blinking as I attempted to rearrange my thoughts. I thanked the lovely vendor and gestured to my squad, relaying the information and stepping swiftly towards the port. It was game time. I would have to see if I could recognize the Jolly Roger, and then I would call in reinforcements. There was no use bothering the higher ups if they were just a handful of bandits with no fighting skills. I had taken down a whole crew of men before, and I welcomed the chance to do it again.
As I neared the boardwalk of the harbour, I heard the whispered concerns of my squadron. Shooting a stern look over my shoulder, I caught sight of them pointing to something sailing into view, previously obscured by a sloping cliff face to the right.
I cursed, the ship was already too close. I grabbed the baby transponder snail I kept in my jacket pocket and prepared to notify the island’s base, when I recognized the figurehead of the ship.
It was a smiling lion, with a mane that resembled a fiery sun. It was an awfully welcoming prow for a pirate ship, though it did match the warmth that spread through me from head to toe, as if my skin was being blistered by the massive star.
The searing warmth that I felt was not from the figurehead, however, but from the man sitting atop it. He sat cross legged, his spine straight and his arms flailing above his head. His straw hat sat atop his dark, shaggy hair, and I was happy to see that the brim did not obscure his wide brown eyes, shining as he stared into my soul. He was grinning that grin. That breathtaking, toothy grin.
I did not hesitate.
I threw my marine cap to the ground, stomping on it as I raced towards the incoming ship, cupping my hands around my mouth and shouting, “Luffy! Take me with you!”
His arm reached out to the harbour, picking me up by the collar of my shirt and rocketing me onto the lion with him. I landed directly in front of him, practically slamming into his well defined chest that was marred with an X shaped scar across the center. He had grown a great deal in the last couple of ears, his boyish face slowly becoming more angular, his irises holding a sort of solemn wisdom that hadn’t been there before.
He blinked, his brow furrowed, “Are eat-all-ologists marines?”
I shook my head, palms planted on the yellow surface beneath me, terrified I would fall into the rippling depths below the ship. The infamous Roronoa Zoro leaned on the railing just past the figurehead, hand on his katanas, watching the exchange with narrowed eyes.
“I didn’t want to be a marine,” I confessed, “But, I had to make ends meet somehow.”
The ship was already turning away from the island, returning to the seas of the New World. I understood that the crew was either, a) completely trusting their captain’s decision to haul a marine on board, or b) confident enough in their abilities to take me out instantaneously if I made a wrong move.
I waited with baited breath. I waited for the young man to scoff in my face for abandoning my dream and joining the marines. I waited to be tossed overboard.
However, Luffy didn’t question me further about my uniform. He simply asked, “What do you want?”
I didn’t have to think about it. I already knew the answer. I had known the answer for nine whole years.
“I want to collect bugs with you.”
He snickered, and there was another flash of that bright beam, “Okay.”
The relief that spread throughout my veins, winding through every inch of my body, was more than enough to invoke a giddy grin.
I went to spit on my palm, to mark this interaction the same way we had marked the other two, but he held his hand over mine before I had a chance. I looked up into his brown eyes, surprised to see a certain seriousness in the depths of his warm gaze.
He leaned forward, capturing my lips in a messy kiss that was far from refined.
My heart stopped for a beat. Or two.
Maybe three.
When he pulled away, he was laughing. I must have been making a pretty ridiculous face.
“Wh…what?” I breathed, my chest heaving from the shock of the man, with whom I felt an unspoken yet understood connection, kissing me.
He placed his two hands behind his head, resting on the back of his iconic hat. He leaned against a spike of the sun-mane and stated matter-o-factly, “Spit shake wasn’t enough for this oath.”
“Luffy?” I was regaining control over my frozen body, wringing my wrists as my eyes darted nervously to the swordsman who was staring me down, “What oath?”
He shrugged, looking at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Old oath has been settled, you’re part of my crew now.”
Without providing any more explanation, he jumped up from his seat, grabbing my hand and dragging me onto the ship. He eagerly introduced me to the rest of the crew, all of whom were surprisingly welcoming despite my uniform. In fact, I was pulled away almost immediately to change into some borrowed clothes while Luffy explained to the others that I would be his personal entomologist (eat-all-ologist), and that a banquet was to be had to celebrate the addition of a new member.
Later that evening, as the party raged on, I sat off to the side, having exhausted myself dancing with my new Nakama, and craving a second helping of Sanji’s delicious cooking. I savored the perfectly seasoned onigiri as I bit into the rice ball I held in my hand. I heard a familiar plop! as my new Captain sat next to me. He snagged a large drumstick from the spread of food across the deck, his arm stretching with the task, and finished it in one bite.
As I watched the living skeleton perform a rousing rendition of Binks’s Sake, I felt something wet touch my fingers. Half-expecting it, I turned my head to see Luffy licking his lips, my onigiri gone from my hand.
“I’m gonna have to get used to that, aren’t I?” I sighed.
He snickered, his eyes disappearing as his grin took up half his face. I wasn’t sure how anybody could ever get angry with the man. He was such a ray of sunshine.
He scooched closer to me, arms winding around my frame and squeezing me just a little too tight for comfort. I could feel the warmth of his rubbery skin against mine, lighting that same fire inside that I had felt when I laid eyes on him in the harbour. I blinked in surprised, turning my head to question the young man, when he dropped his head onto my shoulder and smiled softly, brown eyes staring up at the sky.
His grip tensed, and I winced from the tight grip he had on me.
“Fireflies!” He cried out, excitement making his arms vibrate against me.
I followed his gaze. There, strangely enough, was a swarm of fireflies, buzzing about the lawn of the Thousand Sunny, capturing the attention of every single pirate on board. Luffy’s mouth fell open in a silent shout as he watched the glowing insects flutter about. One danced just past his eyes, and I was thrown back nine years to a ten year old Luffy with a firefly skimming the bridge of his nose. The reflection of the soft green light in his brown irises was nearly provoked a sense of déjà vu.
“I’ve eaten everything, but I never did glow,” He frowned. I could feel the rumble of his words against my shoulder.
“Maybe because you already glow plenty,” I said softly, a warmth creeping across my cheeks.
He lifted his head up, and I could feel his gaze boring into the side of my head. I met his eyes just in time for him to nod once, a satisfied hum in his throat as he declared, “I’m glad we made the oath earlier.”
My blush deepened, and I was suddenly hyper aware of the feeling of his arms wound around me. “Me too,” My voice was tighter than I intended, “I always wanted to sail with you.”
He shook his head, his raven locks flopping with the movement. He pouted, “No, not that oath. Our new promise.”
I frowned, “And what is that again?”
“That we’re gonna sail the world and collect all the bugs together. That, when I become King of the Pirates,” He beamed, and I felt myself melting into his embrace, “I’m gonna marry you.”
I couldn’t help myself. I grabbed his lips with mine, a simple, chaste kiss that conveyed all of the words I wanted to say. That he inspired me, that he made me feel free, that I never wanted to be apart from him ever again.
When I pulled away, a light red dusted the bridge of his nose.
I giggled.
We were inseparable ever since.