Chapter Text
He was born, bright eyed and ready for trouble, to a woman living alone in Brazil. The husband was nowhere to be seen. The new mother died due to complications during childbirth.
The crew stood and watched, not saying a word or shedding a tear for the lonely drunk they followed for nine months.
It wasn’t like their captain needed a mother to be happy.
Luffy would always be happy, because they would always be there for him, just like he was for them.
----
Zoro eyed the kids circling Luffy wearily. Luffy was 6, and was playing (alone) on the playground when the kids approached. His captain either hasn't noticed them or doesn't care. Zoro doesn't think the kids are here to play.
One of the kids throws a punch at the unsuspecting child.
Another does not come.
Garp sent Luffy to America because of him, but he can't find it in himself to care. Let there be rumors that the boy is haunted, or whatever. It will only make people less likely to hurt him. Zoro glares at the plane, it's sleek white body mocking him. This stupid thing was supposed to fly? Yeah right.
Stupid future.
----
Luffy had just arrived at America. There was someone that was supposed to be here for him, right? As Nami looks around the crowded area, she can't help but think that there must be a mistake or something. She sees no sign with Luffy’s name on it, no one in military uniform. The plane landed 30 minutes ago, and Luffy has been sitting in the place Garp had told him to in his letter (which had arrived with the ticket) for the past 15. Most people don't notice the small boy. Those that do don't approach. 15 minutes later, Nami decides to take action. She quickly finds a security guard and carefully zaps him. The man jumps and turns toward where she would have been, if he could see her. Instead he notices little Luffy, sitting alone five feet away.
He approaches.
As Luffy is taken away, Nami hopes that she did the right thing.
She doesn’t notice the man eating pie in a nearby shop that had been staring at her and Luffy the entire time.
Just before she follows the car, she looks around.
She and the reincarnation of one Marshal D. Teach make eye contact.
----
Usopp prefers Makino, all the way back in Brazil, to this new foster family.
They are loud. Very, very loud. They are also mean, and if Luffy doesn't fight to get to the table, and then fight for food, he doesn't eat. If this was what Luffy had to live with in his previous life, Usopp thinks, then it's no wonder that Luffy was so small for his age, and that he had absolutely no table manners. He fires a rock at someone's hand, allowing Luffy to get the rice he had been reaching for. Usopp wonders if this is legal.
Usopp also wonders where Ace is. Or Sabo, for that manner. When did Luffy meet them, again?
Then again, Luffy has never needed any pity. Despite his size, he has always been strong.
It would be nice for someone Luffy could see, hear, and talk to to help out and be there for him, though.
Not the Usopp was complaining.
Usopp would never complain about his captain. (Not seriously, that is.)
----
Sanji is disgusted at the lengths his captain has to go in order to get enough food to survive, much more to be healthy. All of the midnight raids suddenly make sense. The gluttony, the theft. The fact that Luffy probably had the fastest metabolism in existence definitely doesn't help either. Speaking of which.
Luffy enters the kitchen, and manages (after about an hour) to break the child lock on the fridge. Everything in it is either bad or needs to be cooked. He can tell that Luffy is considering the rotten food, from the way he eyes it. Sanji huffs a depressed sigh, opens the freezer, and begins to guide (teach) Luffy on how to make food. His captain will not starve for as long as Sanji can manipulate his surroundings. And even after (if there is an after), his captain will not starve, because Sanji will make sure his boy of a captain can cook the healthiest of meals with the worst of ingredients.
After all, he knows intimately what it's like to starve.
it is a thing he will not let his captain ever endure.
----
Luffy had just turned 7 when he finally meets Ace.
At least, Chopper thinks it's Ace. He can't really tell because oh god oh god why is there so much blood why is this child bleeding who would do this but he's pretty sure it's Ace. Luffy is applying pressure to the wounds while Chopper stitches the deep ones (he's so, so glad that Luffy is such an accepting person, even if they had been with him all his life, because if he was anyone else sooner or later one would question why things happened around them, why they felt like they were being touched even though they couldn't see or hear anything) and Chopper is immensely grateful that the child (Ace, his mind yells) is out of it because how much they would freak out if (when) they saw nothing stitching them. It takes time, and he more than once fights back the urge to cry because he's stitching someone without an anaesthetic, but soon enough he finishes. And just in time, too, because as soon as he puts the needle down, a blond boy that looks a couple years younger than the one he just stitched (Sabo, his mind supplies) comes running over.
During the thanks the boy (SABO!!) gives Luffy, he wonders why the unconscious one (Ace, why won't you admit that he's obviously ACE?!) is two years older than the blond one (two years older than he should be).
He wonders who the beautiful blonde woman running down the street (toward them) crying about her child (Ace, oh my god Ace is he okay?!) is.
He knows, despite his denial, that the boy is Ace, and that he is older (than he should be) because his mother didn't have to hold him for 20 months, and that the woman is his mother (Rouge, lover of the pirate king) and is obviously not dead due to childbirth.
He wonders if this means that Roger (the pirate king) is alive.
He wonders for the first time what Luffy will do with his boundless energy and life when he becomes an adult.
----
The man grabbed Luffy’s arm. Luffy did not speak, but he screamed as loud as he possibly could. Robin's head snapped up, took in the situation. Within seconds, the man had let go, his arm broken by her invisible hands. Luffy left, the incident already forgotten. Once Luffy was around the corner and out of sight, Robin attacked.
His screams echoed around the abandoned street.
The man would never be heard from again.
The man would never even be found.
----
It is a few days after Luffy met (saved) Ace, listened to Sabo, and smiled at Rouge.
Franky sat with Luffy, observing the quaint house as Rouge sat and began to teach Luffy English. The crew had been fretting about the fact that Luffy didn't know English (and that Dadan and whoever else was in Luffy’s foster family didn't bother trying to teach him) but now it seems they don't have to worry. The moment Rouge learned that Luffy only spoke Portuguese, she went and made it her mission to teach him. Franky was glad. Ace and Sabo were up in Ace’s room, chatting away until Rouge (bless that woman) let up teaching for the day.
The crew was pretty sure that they were learning Luffy's native language from Rouge's old books.
Not that they bothered to check.
And if Luffy would stray from the lesson just to be put back on track with a little bit of food suddenly appearing in his hand, Rouge never said anything.
----
Luffy was only 7 and a half, and would probably never meet anyone who remembered who he once was.
Brook watched the police (led by Smoker, amusingly enough) and child services take Luffy away from the Dadan family. Watched as he was taken to an orphanage. Watched as family after family came, and not a single one came back. Rouge came with Ace and Sabo everyday, never missing a lesson, yes, but she was unable to adopt him. It a was a recurring cycle until one day, Brook saw a face he did not think he would see again.
Jinbei.
He was walking down the street, probably going to work if the briefcase was any indication. The moment the once tiger-shark fishman (and wasn't that strange, to recognise him as a human) noticed Luffy, sitting by a tree and playing (alone) however, he stopped.
Stood there.
Could he possibly…?
The man walked over to the gates, the entrance. Stopped, stood. Hesitated. And then entered. Went to Luffy, and kneeled infront of their captain. Luffy looked up due to the shadow covering him, saw Jinbei, and absolutely beamed. Jinbei smiled in return. Spoke softly, quietly.
“Hello, Luffy, it's been a while.”
If skeletons could smile, or cry for that matter, Brook would be wailing, with a smile that challenged even his captain's best.
And so, his captain was adopted.
He was only 9, but he was finally with someone who knew him as who he once was. Who he would always be.
Monkey D. "Strawhat" Luffy, the second Pirate King, and forever captain (nakama) of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Brook smiled (even though he didn't have lips to smile with, skull joke! yohohohohohoho!), and for the first time since his captains (re)birth, played Bink's Sake.
It was only fitting that his captain started the next chapter of his life with the song of his previous, after all.