Work Text:
1
Ten meets Johnny when he’s six years old. Back then, he wasn’t known as Ten, and his grandpa still took care of him. Well, taking care might not be the right term, more like dropping by every few months to give his caretaker some money and make sure he’s still alive. But oh well, just small details.
Ten’s grandpa takes him to a boring party the Marines are having, and Ten doesn’t know how long it’s been, but he’s had three whole sandwiches already and, in his mind, everyone is starting to look the same with those white uniforms and grumpy faces.
“... And this is Johnny, he’s one year older than you,” Ten half listens to his grandpa introducing a new man in white and the kid that accompanies him; Johnny, from what Ten managed to catch.
Johnny is serious and is wearing a pair of ridiculous-looking pants, and he’s also the one closest to Ten in age in this boring party, so Ten grins and approaches him, ignoring the talk their grandfathers are having.
“Hi, Johnny!” Ten greets, enthusiastically. Johnny nods once.
“Hello—”
“Do you want to join my pirate crew? I’m going to have the strongest crew ever!” Ten announces.
As always, Ten’s dream (promise (threat)) causes a lot of different reactions. Shocked gasps from mostly everyone who heard. An exasperated sigh from his grandpa. And now, Ten’s new favorite reaction: Johnny’s twitching eye.
“Never!” Johnny says, with a quite dramatic and exaggerated shake of his head. “I will never be part of a pirate crew willingly! Much less yours! I will become a Marine Admiral, not a dirty pirate.”
That makes Ten laugh loudly. Hm, he likes Johnny, he’s fun and has big dreams.
“The offer will still be up by then, though!” It's the last thing Ten tells Johnny, with his characteristic grin, before his grandpa drags him away, scolding him for “screaming such bullshit”.
2
Ten doesn’t see much of Johnny after that. He doesn’t see Johnny at all, actually. Throughout the rest of his childhood and teenage years, Ten asks his grandpa about Johnny every time he drops by to check on Ten and his brothers. And every time Ten receives the same answer: “he’s training to be a Marine, like you should be doing instead of wasting time with that stupid pirate dream of yours!”
He’s glad that Johnny is on his way to achieve his own dream.
They run into each other again while Ten and his crew are in Loguetown. Or more like, Ten runs away from Johnny, because Johnny is chasing him to arrest him before Ten even has the chance to enter the Grand Line.
To be a real pirate who has real adventures one has to enter the Grand Line, the gigantic ocean current that circles around the planet. It’s known as the pirate graveyard; it’s obvious how dangerous that ocean is, but it’s also a mysterious and wild ocean that promises the craziest adventures, so of course Ten heads there. The last stop before the Grand Line? Polestar islands, on which the city of Loguetown is placed.
Currently, Ten is being chased by Johnny and a few other Marine guys who seem to be out of breath but are very stubborn and keep chasing him. Johnny looks perfectly fine, though, not a single hair out of place. Ten giggles.
“So! What do you say, Johnny? Ready to be part of my crew?” Ten asks, stopping at the edge of a cliff he was cornered to. He doesn’t lose his grin even when he’s clearly trapped.
“I told you already: never,” Johnny responds, walking to him, a pair of cuffs out. Ten pouts.
“Alright, then. Maybe next time! Bye!” and just like that, he throws himself to the cliff. Johnny blinks, before gaping and looking down, seeing Ten falling in the direction of his rapidly moving ship. He lands on the deck, on his back, and groans loudly, crawling out of the Ten-shaped hole on the deck.
Ten looks up and smiles broadly, waving wildly at Johnny, who is still staring at him. “See you on the Grand Line, Johnny!”
3
Ten looks at the smoky, burning remains of what once was a lively and green island in the middle of the Grand Line. The tall trees of multicolored leaves are nothing but black and gray ashes that are moved by the wind and get stuck in his hair. He looks at the culprit, who's in the same position he's been ever since Ten found him: kneeling on the hot ground, eyes unfocused and face dirty with the stains the ashes leave when they touch the tears and sweat running down his face.
Johnny's coat, the one that is so white, the one that has the word justice embroidered to the back, is stupidly clean and so, so out of place here.
"I didn't— I was told— I was told no one lived on this island," Johnny mumbles. "The World Government— they said this was an island that pirates use to hide guns. They said I should burn the forest to the ground because— because it's just trees and guns and definitely not lives. It's just a place for pirates to hide, so I should burn it. They didn't say that— they didn't say…"
Ten hums. "They didn't say people lived in the deepest part of the forest."
"They didn't say it was just a community of innocent people who opposed the World Government," Johnny finishes.
Ten sits next to Johnny for hours, watching the ashes move with the wind and the smoke coming from the ground. Johnny doesn’t move from his kneeling position, and neither does Ten.
An entire village of innocent people destroyed because the World Government decided they didn’t want them around anymore, and Johnny, who lives for justice and fairness, was the one sent to kill them, not even aware of it.
When a Marine ship is visible on the horizon, the sun starting to hide, Ten looks at Johnny, who has the same blank face and troubled eyes.
“Wanna come with me?” Ten asks, standing up. Johnny doesn’t react. Ten waits for a couple of minutes, before nodding once. “See you later, Vice Admiral Johnny.”
4
There are these things called devil fruits. No one knows where they come from or how many exist, but they give incredible powers to whoever eats one. One power per fruit, and a person can eat only one. What powers do these fruits give? Well, it depends. They can allow them to shift into an animal, anything from an insect to a phoenix. They can give someone’s body the properties that rubber has. And they can allow them to manipulate, create and control a natural element like the wind.
Ten’s crew is famous for the devil fruit users that belong to it. Some of the most powerful and dangerous fruits ever known were eaten by Ten’s crewmates. Ten doesn’t consider his fruit that powerful, much less compared to, let’s say, Jeno’s, but the Government does consider Ten’s fruit a threat. It’s easy to understand why: everything has water in it; people, objects, the environment, and in a world of islands, endless sea and countless rivers, Ten’s ability to manipulate water makes him extremely powerful.
That’s why Johnny’s the one to always be sent after Ten. What do you fight water with? Fire, obviously. Johnny ate the devil fruit of fire. Perfect to make a fight between him and Ten interesting, which is something Ten has been hoping to live, and today he thought that finally his dream would come true, but no. Not at all. Johnny and Ten are fighting, but they are using damn swords because Johnny doesn’t want to sink any ships and Ten would feel like an asshole if he attacked him with water when Johnny has kept his fire away.
So, things went like this: Ten and his crew, on board of their ship, the King of Hearts, were going around a deserted island when suddenly out of a random corner a giant Marine warship came and started to attack. The admiral in charge of the ship? Johnny ‘Fire Fist’ Suh.
And now they are fighting. On the deck of the warship. With swords.
Ten barely knows how to hold a sword. It’s an understatement to say he’s losing the fight.
He doesn't even know what’s going on, God help him. He’s just running around trying not to get stabbed by Johnny’s very sharp sword, while half-managing to awkwardly shake his own sword (that he stole from some random Marine guy when he realized Johnny was serious with the sword fight) in Johnny’s direction. ‘The Sea Terror’ Ten, one of the strongest men on Earth, the man who’s the closest to becoming the Pirate King, is barely dodging the stabs a Marine is trying to land on him.
Honestly, Ten’s grandfather, and Ten’s brothers, and every single person who has ever met him, would be very disappointed in him, but fuck, Johnny is good with the pointy and sharp big knife.
“Usually,” Ten pants. Johnny has him against a wall, both of them very close to each other, Johnny’s blade pointing to Ten’s neck. A bad move and it’ll be right across Ten’s throat. Then again, any move and a make out session could happen. “Sword fights are sexy and erotical. This was just… embarrassing, not gonna lie.”
Johnny chuckles, his warm breath against Ten’s cheek makes him feel weird in a good and giddy way.
“Imagine when I go around telling the tale of the Pirate King who can’t hold a sword properly.”
“I’m not the Pirate King.”
“Yet,” Johnny hums. “Ready to come with me and face justice for all of your crimes?”
Now it’s Ten who chuckles. He headbutts Johnny, kicks here and there, moves a bit away, sends an elbow to Johnny’s stomach, a punch to the ribs, a sword thrown away, and soon Ten is straddling Johnny, who’s on the floor with a pained expression.
They went easy on each other, both during the swordfight and right now. Ten has no intention of killing Johnny nor letting his freedom be taken away, and Johnny has no intention of taking it away nor to hurt Ten.
“Time to go, Ten,” Jeno announces in that monotonous voice of his, suddenly appearing out of nowhere next to Ten.
Ten grins. “Sure! What about you, Admiral Johnny? Want to come with us?”
Johnny, surprisingly, just smiles and shakes his head. “Next time I want a real sword duel, Pirate King.”
“Not the Pirate King yet, but I can make the duel happen.” Ten winks, Jeno puts his hand on Ten’s shoulder and both of them, along with the King of Hearts and the crew members on it, disappear.
+1
Ten is in a cage. Not even a cell in a dungeon, no. Just a cage in the middle of a fucking island, waiting for more Marines to arrive so they can take him somewhere to be executed while his death is broadcasted for the whole world to see.
What a nice way to spend a Sunday evening huh.
He’s been here for a couple of days, and even though he’s bored, hungry, thirsty and in pain, he’s not that worried about his death, because he knows it won’t happen. His crew will come for him, he just needs to wait. And that’s exactly what he tells the asshole Marine who comes by every few hours to remind him of his capture.
Then there’s Johnny, who’s a Marine but not an asshole. He keeps Ten company for long enough so Ten doesn’t go insane but also not long enough to make anyone suspect of him. Not that there is anything to suspect; most of the time they are just silently sitting next to the other. Sometimes Ten tells him about his adventures with his crew, and, in even lesser times, Johnny talks about his own adventures.
“Why are you so sure they’ll come for you?” Johnny asks the second day on the island.
“Because we are family. You don’t leave family behind,” Ten responds, simply.
They talk some more and then Johnny leaves. Ten hears some Marines in charge of bringing him just enough water to keep him alive talk about how the Fleet Admiral, Johnny’s boss, has been sending him to destroy islands that question the World Government’s way of ruling. They sound impressed and yearning. Ten can’t see what part of genocide could make anyone yearn, and he knows Johnny must be having the worst time ever with those missions. He just hopes they don’t break him.
He’s in a seastone cage. Seastone, how the sea in solid form is called, is the only material capable of nullifying a devil fruit user’s powers. No one knows why, but the sea makes devil fruit users weak. They can’t swim and just sink like anchors. Make them touch seastone or seawater and they are nothing but weak and slow humans with no powers.
So Ten has no way to get out of this cage, and he doesn’t even have enough force to tell the Marines to fuck off, there’s nothing fun or great about destroying islands for no reason.
On the third day, Johnny asks, “Why do you always ask me to join your crew?”
Ten is weaker and weaker with every minute he spends there, but he always makes an effort to talk with Johnny. He likes him.
“Because I like you and I want you there. You’d fit.”
“How can you even know that? You barely know anything about me.”
“I trust myself on this. Reading people.” Ten shrugs. “I feel like you’d be happy there, so I ask every chance I get.”
At Johnny’s unimpressed stare, Ten sighs. “You dream big, I realized when we met and you told me you were going to become one of the only three Admirals. You have the determination to achieve things that look impossible, like catching me back in Loguetown,” Ten chuckles. “That was so stupid. Trying to catch me when I was so close to the water. But you still ran after me. And remember the island of colorful trees? You didn’t act like most Marines do: heartless, sadistic. You felt guilty, you realized your mistake. You have humanity, and trust me, most people in our world lack that. Lastly, you’re stronger than me in certain aspects, like sword fighting. You can admit you lost.”
Johnny scoffs. “I won that swordfight.”
“But only that,” Ten laughs. “You were the only Marine standing, while me and my crew were still fighting. What’s a leader without their people? Not a winner, for sure. You could have killed me, but that would have gotten your men killed as well. You didn’t want to risk them, so you let me get away, and you didn’t even fight hard, because you had no intention of taking my dream away from me. So, yeah, I think you’d fit.”
Johnny doesn’t say more, and neither does Ten, having talked his fill for the day before feeling exhausted to the bone. He falls asleep and when he wakes up again, the moon is shining brightly.
He doesn’t see Johnny the fourth day, but hears the Marines say that the warship that will take him away and to his death will arrive soon.
On the fifth day, Ten hears a ship can be seen in the distance. The Marines think it’s their ship. Ten knows his crew is coming to get him, so he just relaxes and waits, and a few hours later, when the ship is visible enough, Ten hears noise and screams on the other side of the island, probably the Marines realizing which ship it is, preparing for the battle. It won’t be long until someone comes to get him to a secure place where his crew can’t find him.
The one who comes is Johnny, who looks at him with worry. He looks wary and disheveled, his white Marine cape missing. Ten looks curiously at him.
“Say, Ten,” Johnny starts, and Ten is surprised to hear how nervous and unsure Johnny sounds. “If I asked you to take me with you, what would you say?”
Ten smiles widely. He’s known for his bright grin, and he doesn’t really know what it looks like, but Jeno has told him that the grin he gives to the world and the one he gives to his crew are different. And then there is the Johnny grin, whatever it means.
“It shines brighter.” It’s all the explanation Jeno offers whenever Ten asks about the Johnny grin.
Right now, he knows, his Johnny grin is at its best and shiniest.
“If you were to ask that I’d say: it’d be my damn pleasure to take you with me, Johnny.”
Two days after, the newspapers are published and on the front page there is a picture of Johnny and Ten boarding the King of Hearts, with a headline that reads “Ex-Admiral Johnny ‘Fire Fist’ Suh joins ‘the Sea Terror’ Ten’s pirate crew, NCT, after helping him escape. “He’s the man who’ll become the Pirate King”; the infamous words of Fire Fist.”
And it’s there that another great story begins.