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Chapter Text

Luffy doesn't know when he started wearing them. He always had, and might always do.

It's not like he never tried. Makino made sure that he tried other shoes. But in the end, everything else made him feel too restrained, suffocated.

He likes his flip-flops. They are in straw, like his hat, and the insole tickle his feet when he walks. It's like walking on soft grass, and when he steps out of them, the ground feel foreign, the sole of his feet like pads, cushioning his step. With them, he can breathe.

Ace and Sabo tried to wear them too one day, to make him happy. They didn't like it and came back to their shoes one day later. Flip-flops are not the best shoes to run in the forest, or to fight, that's what they said. He didn't blame them at the time, and will never do in fact. They still tried and it was enough to him.

His flip-flop will always be his best ally, he is sure of that.

One day, Makino told him that she was the one who made them. She said it when his flip-flops where starting to feel too small, too restrained. It was the first time that he saw her make them. It fascinated him. So, she taught him.

The first flip-flops that he made were shabby, with straw poking everywhere. When he saw the result, Ace refused to even try them. So, he kept trying, getting better and better with time, until they were good. Not as good as Makino's, but good enough to be used.

He asked her at a time why the straps of his flip-flops where not just in a Y. The added strap was strange, though he liked it. It made them unique, his.

She smiled at his question, her gaze softening even more than what he thought possible.

"You kept losing them, when you were a baby. You were already so full of life, but they never followed you. So I altered them, so that they can always follow you in your adventures." She patted his head, and his stomach burned in a pleasant warmth.

They were his flip-flops, only his. They were made for him, so that they could survive everything that he might do. And that, that was the best thing ever possible.

Chapter Text

The tradition starts with Nami.

They are running in the street, just after beating up Buggy, running away from the honest and kind villager, when Nami start to feel strange in her shoes. There's something strange with her sandals, but she can't put in her mind what. She forgets pretty fast about it when Luffy tell her that he left half of her treasure to the village.

He is frustrating, her treasure was the most important thing right now. He is frustratingly kind. Her frozen heart start to warm.

But she's not going to forgive him.

She's hitting the ground with her feet, trying to stop herself from actually drowning him, when it happens. Her heel break, falling from the sole, and rolling away from her. The two boats are silents while it happens. All hell break with laughter of the two men, hysterical in front of her astonished face.

She passes the next few hours trying to keep together the heel and the sole and hitting the two idiots who just finds this funny. Three hours later, she looks at her shoes in despair. She'll have to buy new ones, and she hates this.

Nami loves fashion, clothes are her armor, what protects her, and one of her few weapons. But her gold, her treasure is meant for something else, something far more important than simple shoes. She doesn't want to use even a part for herself. She's nearly there, soon she'll be free, and she'll be able to buy everything that she wants. But not now.

Though it seems like she doesn't have a say on the matter.

It's in the evening, while she calculates how far is the next island that Luffy surprise her. No one looked at what he was doing since the heel fiasco.

"Oi, Nami! I got ya something!" his voice echoes around them, breaking the silence.

She lifts an eyebrow, skeptical, and look at what he has in his hands. The sight of flip-flops mute her immediately.

"-and I don't even know how you can wear those heels! At least now you'll be cozy!" He was talking, and she could only catch the end of his sentence.

The flip-flops were in straw, like his. With those little straps, one strap joining the Y shaped ones. Like his.

"I need to be sure that you're comfortable, you're my crewmate after all!" His laugh echoes in her head in a warming Shishishishiii. The urge to add "not your navigator" die at the tip of her tongue.

The straps are orange. Like her hair. Vibrant, lively, full of life. In her color. Her eyes sting, and she hears faintly Luffy walking away to Zoro, excited.

"Zoro look, I made those for you too!", everything fade away after that, her sole focuses what is in her hands.

When she joined Arlong, clothes were given to her.

"We can't have you wearing rags now that you're part of us!"

It was the first time that she owned new clothes and not hand-me-downs.

She hated them.

Arlong had no regards to her taste, he gave to show her that she could have anything with him. He gave to show that she was his. Luxurious clothes. Golden jewellery. Always the best.

Vaguely, she remembers saying good night to Luffy and Zoro, answered in their own ways "Nighty night Nami!", "Hm, 'night".

In the privacy of the cabin, she looked again at the flip-flops.

They were handmade, little straw poking at the edge. Nothing luxurious. How Luffy made them was a mystery, even more how he found the materials.

The next morning, she stepped on the dock without a word. She ignored the smug look of Zoro and gave directions to set sail. The blinding smile of Luffy was worth wearing someting as simple as flip-flops.

When she starts her journey to Cocoyashi, the flip-flops are not at her feet anymore, nowhere in sight. It's when she put the gold in her hideout that she extracts them from the bag and hide them in her childhood house. Out of sight. Safe.

Arlong fall, her heart is lighter, and when she runs away from her family to jump on the Merry, her flip-flops are at her feet. They're comfortable, soft, and perfect. Luffy notice immediately and smile brightly.

Nami had a lot of treasure in her life. Golden bar, jewellery, gemstone. All of those had always been superficial. They were signs of her freedom, like her wings that will take her far away without restrain. Those treasures will always be important to her, but they will always be exchangeable. Used. She's the navigator of the Strawhats, and in a sens their treasurer. She's the one who chooses how it'll be divided. How it'll help them progress and not die.

Nami had many treasures in her life. Bellmere's mandarins are one of them. They are the reminder of a time where everything was simple, innocent, and full of childish happiness. A link to the woman who saved her, took care of her, and loved her like any mother loved their child. It's her first treasure, the treasure that no one can touch without her consent. The one thing that she took from home. The gold bracelet that she shares with Nojiko could be one too. But Nojiko is still there, on her island. The bracelet is more like a connection with her sister than a treasure.

The flip-flops at her feet are one of her treasure, though. Always will be. It's the sign that her captain choose her. Despite her flaws, despite her treason ("You never betrayed me, Nami! I knew from the start that you wanted to stay."). She cherish them. Nobody will be allowed to touch them, nobody except her crew. Because she knows that they will take care of them with the gentleness that they deserve. She knows because they too, feel like her.

Nami had a lot of treasures in her life, some more important than others. And she thinks, seated surrounded by her friends, her crew, her captain, and her family, that they are too, her treasure.

Chapter Text

Zoro is the second to get flip-flops from Luffy.

Nothing is wrong with his shoes, but the idea that Luffy didn't want him to feel left out warm him.

He never cared about clothes or anything material. As long as Wado is by his side, nothing else matter. He only needs to move like he wants while he fights. So, the flip-flops are accepted without a thought.

He always fought with his boots, but he only needs to get used to those new shoes, nothing really hard.

They're his captain's gift, handmade. The straps are green, and at his feet he is comfy. That's what really matter.

He's not really aware when those flip-flops became as important as they are, but when Nami leave, stealing Merry who knows where, he knows that she doesn't want to leave. Zoro might look like he doesn't care, but he is observant. And someone who looked at their flip-flops like Nami did wasn't someone who left for no real reason. He knows because he too, look at his flip-flops the same way.

That same day, Mihawk cut him in half and he falls in the sea, ashamed of himself beyond belief. He swears to his captain that he will never lose again, never. And then he realizes that his flip-flops are not at his feet anymore. Jonnhy and Yosaku are by his side since he fell, and in a blind panic, he grip one of their shirt - Yosaku's.

"My shoes- !" They look at each other, not understanding. Sharply, he takes another deep breathe and try to get up. "My shoes are-" a wet cough stop him, blood pooling.

"Big Bro' stop moving !! Y-Your shoes was it ?? I-I'll get them so please don't move !" Jonnhy look around, panicking, and finally seem to find them. "They're here, wait a moment Big Bro'!", the end of the sentence his drowned in water, not waiting a moment to go and fetch them.

It's only when they are at his feet that he feels himself soothed, falling in a resting nap. Or maybe it was the wounds, who knows.

When he finally wakes up, it's to Cocoyashi coming in sight, he is left behind on the boat, facing fishmen, and then the witch, back in her broken sandals. Her eyes are dark, without any light, like she has no hope left. It doesn't worry him, he knows what he saw, he knows that it's just a wall to protect herself.

And well, Luffy chooses her as his navigator. They're no other ways, Captain's order.

When the fights are won, when the island party hard enough to put pirates to shame, Zoro notice a cut on the straps of his flip-flops. It's the first time that he despair over an object. He doesn't really know what to think of this.

By pure chance (or maybe the Devil is behind this because he now has a debt), Nami notice too and propose to repair them. Her hands are like a pro, swift and fast, but it's still visible.

"Do you trust me?", waking from her thought, her warm eyes look up to him sharply.

"... Sure." Had it been someone else, Zoro would have thought twice before agreeing. But it's Nami, the girl who protected her flip-flops like they were her right arm.

He's not disappointed. Arts and drawing are Usopp's speciality, but sewing will always be Nami's. The white katana pattern added to the straps are a surprise in a good way. Such a good surprise that when they notice, everyone wants their own pattern, too.

(While Merry drift far away in the sea, Zoro lays on the deck, ready to nap to the sound of Luffy asking Nami for meats on his straps. Two minutes later he asks for dinosaur, and then for robots. Finally, he relents and ask for strawhats. Only after three big bumps appear on top of his head. He doesn't notice, but on this afternoon, Zoro fall asleep with a smile on his face.)

As a kid, Zoro only thought of getting stronger, stronger than anyone else. It's thanks to his ambition that he made his first friend, a girl that he never won against. It's for that little girl that will never reach the adult age that he carries on Wado, her sword.

As a teenager, Zoro left the place that he considered is home, the place where he grew, learnt, and made him stronger. As a teenager, Zoro was already a big fish in a little pond, so he left home, hoping to meet the strongest man in this world. When he left, Zoro expected anything, anything but a little kid blackmailing him to become his first mate.

Zoro had only one attachment in this world, Wado. It's his only link to Kuina, the proof of their promise. His treasure. And it was supposed to be the only one.

At nineteen years old, Zoro met a little scrawny kid, shouting everywhere that he was going to be the Pirate King. At nineteen years old, he met a little kid stronger than him with an aura like light attracting moths. Like the sun charming Icarus and burning him. So far high and powerful, who could burn you with one wrong move.

He became his first mate.

That little kid gave him flip-flops. Handmade flip-flops. As a sign of care.

Zoro only had one treasure when he sets to sea. A katana, Kuina's Wado, to carry a promise. Now, Zoro has two treasures, Wado, and straw flip-flops made by his captain.

And maybe, when he'll stop being in denial, he'll be able to confess that he in fact own three treasures...

Chapter Text

While growing up, nothing missed in the life of Usopp. Materially speaking at least. Nothing could be done about his father out living his best adventure, and his mother six feet in the ground. He tries to not focus on this anyway, least his stomach turn in a painful twist.

(He loves his father, he admires him, but sometimes he wonders how he would have grown up had his father been beside him, with his mother. He lets the thought drift away, Usopp's not a hateful person and only focus on the good side, his father left because he was meant in the sea, not on the ground.)

(He likes to think he's the same. His shaking legs betray him sometime, but he's a proud warrior of sea so he overcomes this. Inside, in his heart, he hopes that it's what makes a real warrior of the sea in the end.)

Usopp never lacked anything, the villager made sure of that. But that never mean that he never wanted nothing. The village is peaceful and his little crew is the best, but sea call to him morning to night. His crew is young, too young. Only playing around and calling it piracy. What he wants more than anything, is out there, in the wide open world. But for that he needs a crew, people that he will loves and will loves him. His people. It's not something that he'll find in his little island, as much as he loves Ninjin, Tamanegi and Piiman, the only person that he cares and is his age is sweet Kaya, who will never seek adventures.

So when Luffy, Zoro and Nami set foot on his home in colorful flip-flops, bringing a chaos of colors and fight, a wind of freedom, he doesn't need to think twice before following them. He's not the captain, but it's okay. They board on Merry, so it feels like it's his too. His captain gives him flip-flops, too. With yellow straps, and in this particular design. He doesn't really understand why, doesn't even know where they come from (the fact that they're handmade will be knew later, when Sanji joins them and he watches, fascinated, Luffy seated still for the first time).

He keeps his shoes in his bag, in case he really needs them, but on the deck his feet now adorn flip-flops that tickles his sole. It's not annoying, quite cozy if he was honest (and he's always honest with Luffy. Not including his stories... and everything), but he's not really confident about fighting in those. Of course, trying would mean fighting, and even if he's a brave warrior of the sea, he's not suicidal neither. He wants to live actual adventures before dying, thank you very much. In fact, he's actually surprised when he notices that Nami, frightened Nami, who will run away with him if needs be, wears them all the time. She still has a hard time running and fighting in those, it's quiet visible, and yet she doesn't take them off. Sometimes, doubt crawl in his heart, making him wonder if maybe he doesn't care about those as much as the other.

And yet, each time that a fight is upon him, he takes those flip-flops as gently as possible, draping them in fabrics like they are the most delicate things in his bag.

The first time that it happens, he runs away from a fishman. He's weak, he knows this, so he runs. Because he wants to stay alive. His plan is to hide and run away, yet something stop him. Luffy's face flash before him, followed by Zoro, Sanji, and finally Nami. Nami, who had been afraid of those men for at least half of her life. At the thought, his toes curl on themselves, and the straw of his flip-flops itch on them. Swallowing, he searches in his bag for his boots, and put the flip-flops there. He fights, with an ardour that surprise even himself, and when the fishman is on the ground, unconscious, he instinctively pulls out the flip-flops to wear them again.

''One day'', he thinks while walking back to Arlong Park, ''one day I'll be able to fight in them. My pride as a Warrior of the sea depend on this!''

After leaving Cocoyashi, his flip-flops end up with little white bull's-eyes, but pride only flows through his body in Loguetown, after beating Daddy Masterson. He's the strawhat's sniper, the only one.

Usopp never had treasures in his life. The village where he lived before was simple, with only the necessities. He loved spending time there, loved screaming in the street, but in front of an adventure, Usopp will always choose the later. The first treasure that he'll receive will be in the form of a sheep. Aboard Going Merry, Usopp feel whole for the first time in his quite short life. On a boat given by the girl that is his friend, waiting for his return to hear all his adventures. He takes care of it, crying whenever Luffy does something stupid to break it, and repair it with every love in him.

Merry is his first treasure.

The second, not really surprising, is his flip-flops. A sign of his place in this crew, of the link that exists between all of them. A treasure that sometimes seems heavier than they are. Usopp is a coward, running away in front of danger, but he's a dreaming coward, hoping for the day when he'll fight full of pride alongside his friends. A day where he'll fight and win, without being afraid of his opponent. Those flip-flops are the remainder of his dream, of his wistful dream, and the reason he fights. They are the proof that Luffy count and trust him. He takes care of them, afraid that at the first tear the trust in him will be destroyed.

Aboard Merry, swaying with the waves, Usopp's third treasures is lively, singing, laughing. Moments with his friends that will never be replaceable, people that make him feel like the world is at the tip of his fingers. Looking at the starry sky, Usopp wishes to never leave the sea and this family.

Chapter Text

At nineteen years old, Sanji lived and saw a lot. Experiencing hunger that twist your inside-out, despair that makes you cling to life like water to a lost wanderer. Sanji knew a lot of things, things that sometime he'd like to forget.

(He can't. Nothing can make him forget that fear in those cells. The fear of dying, the fear of what humans can do. Or well, in his case, what the lack of humanity in a human can do.)

Fear is a feeling linked too well to him, like a leech drinking every hopes. When freedom was at the tip of his fingers, the sea, oh so beautiful sea, showed that they weren't just a jewel to admire.

Sanji never put a foot in a desert, and yet those weeks in hell made him feel like a dehydrated man in the middle of the sand.

He heard a lot about this, those hallucinations from the mind, making people see oasis in a desert, a mirage. Yet, in this rock in the middle of the sea, he couldn't help but thinks that nobody talked about what happened when you were lost in the endless blue sea. Not as much at least.

It was ironic. While the man in the desert sought water, Sanji only wanted to run away from it that day.

The point was, that Sanji saw a lot of things when he was young, and even more while he grew up. Working in a sea restaurant did that, he guessed. A lot of different people passed by, be it pirates, bandits, civilians, marines, and he was sure, revolutionaries. It taught him a lot, especially that few people were honest and pure in their intentions.

That's why, when a kid wearing a straw hat claiming to be a pirate came to work with them to pay his debt, it didn't really surprise him. The girl on his crew was cute, and the others ... well, the girl was cute. Even the fact that they all wore straw flip-flops didn't really surprise him. He saw sometimes group of friends wearing the same accessories and at first, guessed that it was the same. They were strange, acting so freely with their captain, treating him like an idiot (he was, but he was their captain foremost). In fact, was he not said that they were pirates he would have believed that they were simple civilians doing a friendly outing. The Strawhat's pirates were like no others. Thought, he should have realized this from the start.

The Strawhats are childish, with wonders knew only in kids. Luffy the captain act the most like a child, with his dream of becoming the pirate King, but the others aren't too far behind, with Usopp letting his imagination run wild and Zoro with a pride too high. Nami, the pretty girl if you didn't know, was the only one mature enough, mature for an eighteen years old girl at least.

The thing is that Sanji likes to think of himself as someone responsible, an adult that understand the way of life. How to survive, how to live. He understands because he needed to, and because his debt to Zeff is a burden on his shoulder that he gladly keeps. And yet he doesn't understand. The pretty girl leave them behind and the swordman hold on a pride that will kill him. He doesn't understand how someone can throw away their life like that. He doesn't understand and Luffy doesn't help because somehow, he acts like a Captain who believes in his right hand and doesn't stop the man running to his death.

He knew a lot of different pride, but never did he saw a pride willing to accept defeat, a pride willing to die for. A pride surpassed by simple straw flip-flops. He saw the swordman try to get up, just to find those shoes, and he doesn't understand.

He doesn't understand and yet it seems like Zeff does. Like he is out of the loop and need to get his head out of the hole that he buried himself in.

But the thing is, he doesn't want to understand. If he starts to understand he will want to leave this place without paying back his debt. And it's not something that he wants. Never.

And yet it seems like it's bound to happen.

Luffy creates miracles in his wake, fighting people strong enough to shatter everything, and changing the mind of others.

Mihawk leave after cutting open the green man, accepting a challenge that might never happen again. Don Krieg is on the ground shattered physically and internally after Gin betrayed a man that he always admired, and the Baratie is as unscathed as it could be with all the fights happening. With a boy in flip-flops standing as the sole winner.

All that talk about dreams and wants ignite again the fire in his heart, a fire that shouldn't be alight because he has yet to pay his debt. But his mouth run wild before he can even understand, talking with shining eyes of the one place that seems like paradise to him, to a boy that holds dear every dream that he crosses on his path.

And it feels like liberation. Like the world got his colours back, with a blue shining with the word dreams whispered in the wind.

The reality checks feels like being drowned in the cold and deep water.

The thing is, he'd like to follow them. They are particular pirates, pure at hearts and free in their journey. They feel like the people that he'd love and who would love him back. The ones who would fight for his dreams and that he would fight for theirs. Never before did he feel his heart sing so much, screaming at him to follow them.

But he had a debt to pay. A debt that he accepted and refused to leave behind. Until now. Until a kid younger than him opened his eyes.

Because all this time, all those years, Sanji was locking himself in his own cage, holding Zeff as his guard under the name of a debt. What should have been a pillar protecting him for his dream became his shackles.

And it's so, so frustrating. That he never realized it until now, that a kid younger than him understood this before he himself did. So frustrating and yet so liberating.

It's why he doesn't need much more convincing when around him everyone insults his dishes after he rejects once more Luffy. Those idiots cooks were stupids, thinking that he wouldn't see their acting (or more like hear them). But they were his idiots. And all this time he hurts them by locking himself here. Breathing out the smoke of his cigarette, Sanji comes to a decision that opens a whole new reality.

"I'll be your cook, Captain." (And the blind smile that he receives as an answer his enough to show him that he made the right choice.)

The goodbyes are heart-wreaking, his eyes stings from tears of sorrow and gratitude, of "thank you" and unsaid sorry". And yet his heart never felt as light as right now.

"I'll find it for you old man. For both of us. I swear."

And somehow, a promise for a debt is better than anything else.

Let it be said that Sanji, when he accepted the offer, knew in what he was getting. He knew because before even accepting he saw all the shits happening with the Strawhats.

With that said, it doesn't surprise him that they go against fishmen right off the bat. (And well, if Nami is really a mermaid his dream will be fulfilled-)

(Never mind he said nothing, All Blue is his goal-)

(But come on, can you imagine? Nami, lovely Nami, as a mermaid!)

What surprises him is the state of the island. The surprise is taking little by little the form of an anger so deep that it would have surprised himself if he didn't know himself. And when he looks at everyone, he can see that he is not the only one. They walk to Arlong Park, destroying a gate too big that it must be here to compensate for something, and stop the villager.

What follows is a fight that nearly kill him under the sea, only saved because fucking hell he is a cook and it's his job to tame fish to roast them, so knowledge and his feet are his weapons.

They win, Arlong Park in dust and a navigator fully on their side.

(Sadly, she is not a mermaid, but she is perfect the way she is so it doesn't break his heart.)

It's when they party that mayhem happens among the Strawhats, the other members surrounding Zoro and Nami. Sanji is new, he knows this, he is new and doesn't know much about the crew in itself, about how they pass their days, what they hate and what they like. So when Sanji see the chaos, he walks in it, because he needs to know. He blinks when the sight of flip-flops with green straps appear before him. Huh. The sword pattern is new.

"Nice timing, Sanji!" Luffy, who was doing who knows what with Usopp before, screams at the top of his lungs when he sees Sanji coming.

It startles him, and his fine curly eyebrows raise with curiosity. The smile of Luffy increase even more, and idly Sanji wonder if this smile has a limit. His attention shift back on his Captain when he speaks again.

"I didn't have the straws when we were on the boat so I could only do them now, but here!" he pushes something in his hands, laughing, "Nami just added the hats too! Ah, but now Nami it's my turn to get my drawings! I'm the Captain so-"

He doesn't listen, transfixed by the sight before him.

He noticed. He noticed those flip-flops at their feet, all in different colours and in this particular design. But he only thought that it was between them, that he would be out of this. He didn't even realize that they were handmade by Luffy himself.

As someone only wearing suits, he's always been aware that the only shoes that he should wear are dress shoes. It's the best for suits, and what he always wore since he started wearing them. Those little flip-flops with deep blue straps are the undoing of years of habits. His eyes look upon them and notice every little details. How some straws were poking out, how the straps were placed in this strange, particular way that screamed "LUFFY". How the blue straps had a Chief's hat pattern.

Sanji wore dress shoes for at least ten years. Since he started cooking on that boat, and on the Baratie.

That day, Sanji left behind him the dress shoes to wear the flip-flops that his Captain made for him, warming his heart.

"Nami-swan, your talent is as amazing as your beauty!~"

Sanji had no treasure on his person when he left the Baratie to join the Strawhats. None. What was important for him was in East Blue, safe, and his hands that could feed the whole world.

No, Sanji had no treasure when he left.

Now though? Sanji could count two treasures without even thinking.

The straw flip-flops are his first treasure. Shoes that he never wore and weren't his style. Shoes that his Captain made for him, adorning them in his colours and his passion. And somehow, Sanji never felt as free as when he wore them. They felt like the boy who made them, liberating and warm. Like he could go anywhere in them, anywhere until All Blue was before him.

His second treasure, his most important treasure, are the people that he feeds daily. People that shout for joy when his dishes are on the table, who fight between each other to get one more bite against their Captain. The crew that will always depend on him to live another day. The crew that will protect his dream. The crew that he will help achieve their dreams.

Chapter Text

Luffy's journey start with Makino giving him a new pair of flip-flops. His old ones are scratched everywhere, with straws left behind at every step that he takes. They are the most important things that he needs with his hat, apart from meats.

She stopped making them for him when he learned, mostly because he wanted to do this himself. The fact that she made them for his departure is the best gift that he could have received.

As such, Luffy's journey start with new flip-flops, on a boat (really small but one nonetheless).

It escalates really fast when a typhoon destroy his boat and he hides in a barrel without any food.

What an exciting start!

And everything keeps getting better and better!

Koby is a crybaby but he is nice, though he doesn't want him on his crew. Koby is his friend, but he feels that it's not where he is meant to be, not where he wants to be. He is proven right quickly when his friend confess that he wants to be a Marine.

It's fine! It's really nice too, to have a dream. And Koby was the one to guide him to his first mate, so that's even better! Koby will be a nice Marine, he knows, and so he can leave the island without worrying about him.

And then he meets the pirate's thief, Nami.

He doesn't like her at first, she used him after all! But then, a little like Zoro, he felt something. Like something more was in her. And well, she can navigate! With only Zoro he's sure that they will never reach Grand Line, so a navigator is what they need!

She lies and manipulates, but he can feels that it's not out of pure malice. He knows pure malice, and her lies feel too desperate, too on the edge for them to be spiteful.

(Too bad that she hates pirates... Kidding! He just needs to make her understand the good side of the pirates!)

After Baggy's ("It's BUGGY you brat!") chaos, they run to the boats and set sails before anyone can stop them. They are waving at the Mayor when Nami's heel fell from her shoes. And then he laughs.

He laughs because for two minutes, she had no reactions, looking dumbly at her heel like it was going to glue itself back on her feet. So he laughs. (For only a short time though. He always thought that his Grandpa was the only one who could hurt him, but here she is, the other exception. Her fists really hurt too! He doesn't understand but he won't takes the risks to anger her!)

But he knows that there is something wrong. There is something wrong because Nami looks at the end of her wits. Like it was the last drops before she breaks. Like there is something more behind this.

So he looks at her, watch when she tries all afternoon to put her heel back. Watches her despair, and comes to a decision. In the cabin, in private, Luffy finds everything that he needs and starts.

He intertwines the straws together, little by little, with a focus that few can do. When he was a kid, this step took days, but now everything is done in less than an hour. Not neatly. Never neatly, but Luffy can do only a few things and this is one of them. Even if it's not perfect, it's good enough.

When the straws are finally all together, he uses his big toes to hold the straws straight, and braids.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Tighten.

Repeat.

It's a little hard. He never made flip-flops for people with feet smaller than him, but before starting, he compared Nami's feet with his own, so hopefully it will be good.

When the sole is finished, he takes some fabric and gets the straps in it.

Sewing is the worst part of making the flip-flops to him. But Makino always told him that no matter how the sewing was done, as long as the threads and knots were tightened enough, everything should hold on. And well he was sure that Nami could always improve this. The straps are sloppy at best, but it stays together and it's what really matters.

By the end of the day, Luffy got two pairs of flip-flops, with straps of different colours.

(Two because Zoro is his first-mate. Two because somehow, it felt wrong to give a pair to Nami, and not to Zoro. Two because strangely enough, those flip-flops are his but if it's with them, he is okay with this.)

He gives the flip-flops to Nami first, proud of himself, and then immediately to Zoro. They both take them without a word, aghast. His happiness goes down at seeing Nami leave for her cabin without wearing them, but this sadness disappear upon seeing Zoro with them at his feet.

Bubbles of happiness appear and blow up in his stomach, at every part of his body, and his heart sing louder and louder "Mine, mine, mine. My crewmate.".

And he likes that feeling.

The next morning, when he is finally calm from the bubbling feeling from the night before, Nami step out of the cabin and the bubbles comes back.

The flip-flops are at her feet. The smile breaking in two his face appear unconsciously, and in his heart, Nami is officially his navigator.

After that, Syrup village appear with murder plans and false pirates. It boils his blood whenever he sees the face of that impostor, and everything in him wants to punch him in his face.

(He does, he is happy to share, and will never hesitate to do it again.)

But the most important thing in this village is Usopp, a liar with a golden heart. He is the son of Yasoop, which makes him really cool, but he is a sniper before everything, and he shares a lot of his adventures!

(That big fish who poops was really cool!)

The more time is spent with the long-nosed boy, the more he wants to leave this island with him. And strangely enough, the need to make flip-flops to the sniper overwhelm him.

When that feeling get too overwhelming, he tries to think why it's happening. He only tries, though. Soon enough he feels his face burning so he gives up.

In the dead of the night, just before their departure, Luffy braids straws together. Zoro is beside him, napping and sometimes looking at him, and Nami left to sleep just after sewing the fabrics of the straps for him. The silence is calming and help him focus on his task, and soon enough, a new pair of flip-flops is finished, with yellow straps.

The next day, when his sniper agree to join them, Luffy gives him the flip-flops, a blinding smile on his face. He sees the hesitation and then the resolve, and the bubbling feeling comes back when Usopp put them on.

For the next few days, four pairs of feet walk around the deck with a clapping sound that resound with Luffy's heart. Then everything goes down at the Baratie.

Nami leaves, Zoro gets hurt, and Sanji doesn't want to join them. So he does the only thing that he knows and that can help: he fights.

He fights until his knuckles are bleeding. Until his voice cracks.

(He thinks of the man who wants to protect the dream of someone else. He thinks of shoulders heavy from a debt he thinks of dreams too big to be restrained by life itself.)

(He doesn't want to think of flip-flops left who knows where. He doesn't want to think of broken sandals. But he won't forget the tears and the plead for help.)

He fights until cheers echoes. Until tears of joys are sheds. Until his cook and his navigator answer yes.

When he works on Sanji's flip-flops, Usopp is beside him, surprised. He watches for a long time, quietly, then takes some straws and mimic him.

t's not until he reaches out Nami to make the straps that he notices the new pattern on Zoro's flip-flops. It startles him for a second before he smiles.

"It's so cool!!! Oy, oy, Namiiiii, I want that too!", he grips her shoulders, shaking her in his joy.

"Me too, me too! I want my jolly roger! As the Capt-", Luffy cuts Usopp, pouting.

"No, no, no, me first! I'm the Captain! I want meats, Nami!", he points to himself with his thumb, proud. A sigh escapes Nami, already looking done with her crew's bullshit.

"I'll do it yes, but you didn't come for this in the first place Luffy, hm?", she tilt her head to the right, curious and at the same time apprehensive.

He blinks, seemingly already forgetting what he came here for, before a shout escape him.

"Right, Nami! I need your help for Sanji's flip-flops!" he pushes the nearly finished flip-flops in her hands with the fabrics. Sighing and yet smiling, she agrees immediately and start the straps until she stops, in her thought. "... Nami?"

Startled, she looks up, before getting her mind straight.

"Sorry, sorry... Just I was thinking...." she hesitates, but before he can answer her, she picks up again, "Should I add a pattern at the same time?"

He only needs a few seconds to understand before a blinding smile appear on his face.

"Do it, Nami!", jumping for joy, he only stops himself from shaking her again by shaking Usopp.

When the flip-flops are finished and at Sanji's feet, the bubbles comes back again, but stronger. And they keep growing and tickling his body when Nami jump on the boat, flip-flops at her feet again.

Cocoyashi is far away, the boat heavier with one new crewmate and mandarin trees, the wind in the sails. On the deck, Luffy can hear at every moment the steps of his second treasure. Steps sounding less like steps and more like flapping. Like wings flying through the waves, sounding like freedom, like happiness.

Distantly, Luffy thinks that the sound isn't loud enough.

Chapter Text

Smoker is only ten when the Pirate King is executed. He is not supposed to be here, at the plaza, but a child will always be a child. He loves the Marines, but the want to see the Pirate King, even in his last moments, is nearly like a need. 

He can see the old man Raoul in the corner of his eyes, and even more people that he doesn't know. Marines, pirates, villagers and foreigners.

(When he walks, trying to get near the platform, Smoker passes by a strange boy with red hair and a strawhat. He ignores him, focused on moving forward, but years later he will remember him and realises who that boy was. He will then scoffs, remembering the distressed face of the boy of that time. "Pirates deserves this, don't choose this path if you're not ready to be killed")

The smile on the Pirate King when the blade pierce him will always stay with him. The plaza turns in a frenzy upon the last words of the pirate who conquered all, and the Golden Era of the piracy start on the island that should have stopped it. 

There is a bitterness, Smoker notices, upon the Marines after this. A bitterness toward the island that should have finished all, after starting it. Like the sin of this island should have been purged for bringing in this world the Pirate King. Like it should have purged its own sin and failed. Smoker doesn't like this. He loves the Marines, but he loves even more his island. And as if it was their punishment, the Marines stopped coming to protect them. 

Pirates flocks around the island like they own it, hitting what they don't like and terrifying everyone. For the first time in his life, Smoker felt deep hatred for the pirates.

Strangely enough though, Smoker hates pirates but can never bring himself to hate Gold Roger.

Maybe it's the smile, or the pride that he held himself with. The need to not leave like a simple pirate. Maybe because Gold Roger was the only pirate who never acted like a coward or attacked defenseless people. Smoker doesn't forget the fact that Gold Roger, like him, was born on this island. He refuses to forget that before starting, Roger was a kid like him who walked through those streets, greeting and living as a simple civilian.

Years later, when Smoker gets located to Loguetown, he becomes the nightmare of every pirates of East Blue. It is his pride, the peace that he brought to his island, but Smoker forgets that when you kill every small fries, only the strongest remains.

The first time that Smoker see the Strawhat brat, he doesn't think much of him. Truth is, he doesn't even notice that the kid is a pirate. Because that's what he is, a kid. Only out of childhood, not even an adult. Innocent and carefree, childish.

The way that he carries himself doesn't help, with that strawhat and those flip-flops, making the little sound of a duck walking.

The first time that the kid talk to him is to ask direction, like an actual tourist. And now that he thinks about it, maybe to him he was. Yet, he was weak, nearly dying on the execution platform like it was a game.

Smiling.

He was a kid. They were all kids, even that Zoro brat. The same age of Tashigi, full of clumsiness and dreams as big as the world. He saw them all in the city, when he was not aware of who they were. Smiling, joyful, naive. Not yet realizing what being a pirate was.

(Later, when he'll think about them again, he'll reflect and realize that they always knew what being a pirate meant, or at least should mean. That they acted like that because that's what they wanted and nothing else. As free as the wind, as truthful as the sea. There's a bitterness in his throat when he thinks of this, a bitterness that he covers with his three cigars).

They were kids, playing pirates in real life in flip-flops too colourful to be anything but kid's size. Maybe that's why he let them leave. Sometimes, he wonders if he would have still acted the same without Dragon. With time, he's even more unsure. 

(He can see himself sometimes, in the darkness of his cabin, letting them all go. Letting them run to the sea as if it was holding every wings of this world. As if the world needed them to be free.)

He tells nothing of that weird obsession that the Strawhats seems to have with straw flip-flops. Nothing about the fact that anyone that wears some might be part of them.

He's not paid enough anyway.

(The more he watches them and the more he wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just let them roam freely.)

Chapter Text

Life for Buggy had been great those past few years. He got his own crew, let them do as they please, seeks treasures and maps to greatness.

For some years, Buggy tried to stay under the water though. Not because he is afraid, no! But Buggy, even though his crew idolize him, is still weak compared to the pirates of the Grandline.

He knows because he has been there already. Been there, done this. His experience talks for him, and those past few years, pirates had been worse and worse. So he knows that, if he was to leave for the Grandline with his crew, he won't survive.

Or should he say, his crew won't survive. Buggy knows how to survive there, but not them. They're all from the weakest sea after all, and they don't really know what to expect of those sea.

So for years, Buggy stayed there, hidden in the little fish pond (though he was himself a little fish, just looking fashionable among all those boring ones. Buggy knows his weakness, that's how he survives).

Years of carefully hiding, of careful steps to not do too much while still having fun. Years wasted in one day when one of his crewmate showed him that cursed map, stolen by them from a Marine base in his name.

"Captain Buggy, it's time to set sail to the Grandline and show to the world who is the most powerful pirate in the world!", beside him Cabaji shout, pride written all over his face.

Before even a word left him, his crew roared from joy at the announcement of Cabaji. Swallowing, Buggy forced a smile on his face in front of the looks full of admiration from his crew.

"Good job! Now that we have this map, the world only have a limited time of freedom from the fear that the Buggy's crew will cause! Ready yourself my men, soon glory will be at your fingertips!"

Shout of joy and agreement followed his speech, booze following soon after that.

"Ah, in what shit did I get myself into again..."

Let it be said, Buggy never really intended to leave for the Grandline. Not now, not in the future. Or maybe in the future, who knows. When pirates will be weaker than him maybe (yet he can only watch the new generation of pirate becoming stronger little by little. He fears the day when they'll surpass his previous crew).

So when that little thief goes and steal the map, he can only let a sigh of relief in his head while looking murderous on the outside. While he prays that the girl run far away from his men with that map, he screams order around him to follow her and to get him back his map.

It's hard, to be so idolized, yet he can only craves it more and more. To be looked up like that, to have people trusting him and following his every order. That's how a Captain is meant to be.

His men come back without a map and his face nearly relax from the relief. And then the girl comes back with her "Captain" tied up in a rope.

Just the sight of the kid is ticking him off. Smiling, simpleton, stupid, with the same stupid hat than Shanks! And what a coincidence, it is Shanks's hat! The heir of Shanks, just before him, working with a thief who thought him stupid enough to not notice her act.

A girl who is trying to steal his treasure like the map wasn't enough!

What follows is the most annoying and humiliating battle of his whole life. The brat doesn't call him with the right name, idolize his worst enemy, and send him who knows where after being tied up in a small version of his body!

What a joke!

Buggy doesn't care about the map, and it's least about his gold and more about the humiliation that those two left him in! The alliance with Alvida is a pleasant surprise, pleasant and needed for the common enemy that they have.

A common enemy that they find again just shy of leaving for the Grandline, at Loguetown. Usually, Buggy would avoid that area. Smoker is know all over East Blue for his ruthlessness against pirates, but Buggy ignores it. He can hardly think straight amidst the waves of humiliation that he can still feel when he thinks of the brat, in fact.

That's why he doesn't really register when he is in front of this goddammit platform again.

"Why the hell aren't you saying anything?!" Buggy shouts, glaring at the kid on the platform.

"What? Um, now what was it again... Boggy?", the brat asks innocently, angering him even more, but before he can say anything, the kid keeps going. "No, Buggie? Uuum, it's not Buhii... Oh I know! Bunny!"

"Are you saying that my ears are as big as my nose?!", he can't help but scream at the shrimp.

"Huh, not that either? Um... Oh yeah! Buffoon!", pride is written all over the face of the Strawhat's boy that it actually shocks Buggy.

" Buffoon?!", he shrieks, voice high from outrage, "Watch your mouth! You're as cheeky as ever, you little bastard!"

People are screaming upon noticing who he is, screaming his name in fear, and when Monkey D. Luffy is locked to the ground, he starts his ascending to the platform, a sword soon placed on his hands.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Please save me.", the kid's voice is the most unapologetic one that he ever heard, it ticks him off even more.

"Why would I save you, idiot?!", Buggy can only shout in answer to that stupid reply.

It's frustrating, fighting against someone like this. It reminds him of the time when he was fighting Shanks daily. The taunt, the easy-going attitude, no will to take him seriously. It rubs him on the wrong side.

He goes to give the final chop, watching with glee the Roronoa brat and another blond brat run after them to stop him. Quickly, he notices what they wear at their feet and scoffs.

"Huh, that's new. Flip-flops, those kids will really do everything"

He notices the pattern on Luffy's flip-flop and shakes his head, getting rid of the distraction. The sword in his hands is high in the sky, and it nearly feel like he can bring down the clouds with him when he will cut.

And then an actual fucking thunderbolt hit the platform and save the brat.

Un-fucking-beliviable.

It saves the brat and render him defenceless long enough to be arrested for the first time of his life by Marines. Shit.

"One day," Buggy thinks, in the darkness of the boat taking him to Impel Down "One day I'll make you pay, Strawhat! Just watch!"

Later, on the same boat, one of his crewmate will tell him about the smile adoring the young pirate seconds before he and the thunder strike.

He doesn't know what to think of this, and he doesn't want to.

Chapter Text

*Peak at the door* ...Hi? *Awkard smile*

So, it'll be a little annoying, but I realize that it's pretty important that I talk to you lot about why I haven't posted since... *looks at the calendar with "2024" in red* Huh, you know what? Forget how long it had been, it's mere triviality!

Hehe

Right? 

So huh, I never planned to not post? And somehow it ended up like this? Okay okay, it's like the short short version of the story, so I'll try to explain as best as I can. I'm still writing for this story, it's not dead or abandonned. I'm just not writing as much as I'd like. I still live with my family and it become more often than not really restricting. Thus blocking me. 

I have like no intimacy, and sometime just being with them is using up all of my energy. My job is helping me a little but even then it's socialising so it's still tiring me.

BUT(T).

I have good news~ 

Soon I'll be moving away, living with my best friend and finally having intimacy and being able to stuck myself in my OWN bedroom to write as much as I'd like without interaction (and my best friend know that I write fanfiction so even if I'm with her I'll be able to write anyways). 

So yep, soon I'll be able to fully come back (to life). Ijustneedanewjobwithapermanentcontractbecauseotherwisewewontbeabletorentanappart.

AND, to apologize about those months without replying or posting, I'm leaving you below a little teaser of some chapter (not much, like a few sentences from three chapters), so enjoy~

TEASER:

Three years later, a ship hit Laboon.

Or more precisely, the crew stopped a crash, ending with only the head figure broken, and as reiteration, the Captain punched Laboon's eye. And then they got swallowed by the whale.

The amount of bad luck actually surprise Crocus. He doesn't know if he should laugh or be worried for them.

And so she fight her way up.

Up.

Up.

And up.

Vivi is a princess, but with time she feel less like a princess and more like a demon. Blood is tainting her hands and she find herself enjoying the people that she is working with.

Yet, watching his brother's crew with those flip-flops at their feet, Ace came to fully accept that maybe, it was just never meant to be a link between them.

The cup of sake was enough.

Bidding farewell to his little brother and his crew with a smile, Ace couldn't think of a better crew for the futur King of the Pirates.

And because I'm feeling generous, one last gift from two chapters far faaar away, do try to guess which characters they are, I won't confirm but I'm interested! 

(That's why he hates Marines. Justice they say. Blood of a demon, they scream. They doesn't hesitate to kill someone for their blood. Justice. The need to spit on this word overwhelm him. Blood will always be red, no matters which blood it is. Yet, they talk as if some blood were black, like Good and Bad where two lines never touching each others. A lie, he knows this. You don't turn to piracy without knowing this.)

[...]

When Marineford is far away from him, he stops thinking of all of this. Doesn't dare.

And it's okay to be like this, he is a pirate after all.

Whatever he left behind is not okay at all.

His scream echoes in every corner, making every members shivers. Because it's a scream of pain. A scream of a pain so deep, that everyone wonder if he is alive.

He isn't dead. But he isn't totally alive neither.

See you soon and hopefully in good health!