Chapter Text
The cross guild wasn't an organization Buggy had the privilege of being the mastermind behind, in fact the way he ended up as it's leader wasn't foreseen by him in the least bit. Nevertheless he was there; with the two most intimidating men in the New World working under him- Sir Crocodile and "Hawkeye" Dracule Mihawk, at least that's what it seemed like to the outside world but the reality couldn't be any further. The dealings between them was not to be kept in plain sight for the world to see, because the two men had the perfect cover under Buggy.
It wasn't Buggy the "Genius Jester" who was the mastermind behind cross guild, it was the two men puppeting him around as they wished, Buggy was nothing more than a mere equipment that acted according to wishes and plans of the two.
All that aside, Buggy was a man of his own, he had dreams. The dreams, which had long been forgotten came flooding into his head out of the blue only when his pirate friend made his move.
After being beaten up relentlessly day after day by his two "subordinates" Buggy's only place of solace was his memories, not like he wanted to reminiscence about them, but the shear stress of being somewhere he didn't want to, forced him to drift away into the past where he was exactly where he wanted to be.
25 YEARS AGO
The Oro Jackson, The To-Be Pirate King's Ship
The Golden Hour's shine spread around the sails in a gloomy light, the winds rocked the huge vessel, sounds of the slightest creaks of the red wood beneath the shuffling Pirates' feet, The redness of the wood with which the ship was made along with the golden light from the sun dyed the ocean around it to a Red hue. The whole crew was excited for something and were at the same time being cautious about it as well. Barrels were rolling, whispers increasing, the rush hour like air in that ship especially wasn't a new thing but it didn't fail to set a suspicious impression on Shanks.
The Red-haired young boy around 14 years of age, was raised by these pirates and was travelling along with them ever since he was born. The boy sat on a huge barrel that was kept alongside other vessels containing valuables, his attire definitely took some influence from the people around him, a white shirt unbuttoned till his chest, a sword comparatively larger than the boy stashed onto his side. He sat there on the barrel trying to make sense of the havoc his crew was causing. The commotion could take a little bit of help from his friend Buggy. Buggy was another member taken in by the crew, in their earlier days, the only one the same age as Shanks.
Before he could put his words into his mouth and call out for his friend, The same friend called out in a loud, demanding voice-
"Shanks!!"
Strange
Shanks thought to himself. Buggy didn't called out to him often, especially not like that in that tone, it felt like instead of needing something from Shanks, Buggy instead wanted to give his red-haired companion something.
Shanks tread fast in the direction of Buggy's voice, past the walls containing the cabins for the crew and into the mast centric deck,
"HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY!!!" the whole crew jumped, Shanks fell back in terror, the voice of around 20 grown men screaming on top of their lungs in unison would push back anyone of his age. Thankfully Buggy came forward and gave him a hand
"Oi Oi get up, no time to be slacking around"
"Happy birthday my boy!!" Gaban lifted him into the air, twirling him around with a huge grin on his face
Gaban, the Captain's left hand man had become a father figure to Shanks.
"You're growing up fast" the Captain, Gold Roger spoke, rubbing Shanks' head with his huge hands with the boy still being seated on top of Gaban's shoulder.
"I have a birthday?" Shanks' confused face made the whole crew laugh,
"Of course you do, clay head" barked buggy, "these people kept it a secret until now, that's all"
Shanks smiled awkwardly at Roger, before reverting back to buggy "YOU ARE THE CLAY HEAD HERE"
"no what-" Buggy's counter words were soon interrupted by Rayleigh, The first mate of the Roger Pirates, sending a smack flying across both their heads, starting from Buggy
"Stop that now kids"
"Heyy! its my birthday at least don't hit me today"
"Fists of love are welcome any day kid" Rayleigh grinned at the boys,
"Now Now" Gaban interrupted "Let's go get the cake!!"
"YAYY CAKE!! " the whole crew shrieked of excitement in unison.
After the party along with all the eating and drinking, Shanks went to find Buggy again, the boy had no will of being in a place for a long amount of time, he would wander around even if there was a second to spare, Shanks with his barrel of orange juice and his food belly due to all the cake he had eaten called out for his friend, searching around the deck, only to find him sitting on the rear side of the ship, leaning his back onto the railing and staring up into the sky.
Shanks swiftly made his way over to the railing and sat down beside him as he poked his nose.
"WATCH IT YOU IDIOT" Buggy growled, he didn't like anyone pointing out his little red ball of a nose.
"Sorry Sorry" Shanks raised his arms in defense, spilling some of the juice on the wooden floor and his shirt.
Buggy stopped midway his attack and looked up at the sky again,
"Look.. the sky is very clear today"
It indeed was, the moon shining it's light on to the ocean lit up the entirety of the Oro Jackson, the stars glimmering were like a series of small extra light illuminating everyone's presence, the wind carrying salt, the smell of the ocean and it's life forms, the sounds of the ship creaking and the waves crashing onto it's base, was something that couldn't be compared to the most magnificent of treasures.
Shanks looked up and took all of that in, all of that with a tummy full of cake, a hand full of juice and his best friend next to him. The red-hair couldn't ask for more.
Buggy wasn't the kid that talked a lot or expressed his feelings, and Shanks was the kid to always talk in behalf and take in whatever his friend didn't have to say. He understood Buggy even without words.
"Oi" Buggy brought his head back to the ship's level as he spoke to Shanks, "I wanna see the entirety of it"
Motioning his hands like he was sweeping the entire sky, "The whole world"
That was the first time Buggy ever spoke of his desires, even though the crew saw these boys as their own, and took care of them with the at most love, Buggy never did open up to anyone, not even to Shanks, him telling about a thing that could potentially be his dream was not the least bit expected by Shanks,
he was halfway sipping his barrel of juice when the word came out of Buggy and almost chocked on the tiny sip he had taken.
"Careful clay head" Buggy snorted, tapping on Shanks' head to ease away the cough.
Shanks looked at Buggy and noticed his friend was in a serious light when he said those words,
Shanks almost impulsively had only one thing to address, that he himself had not actually thought of a dream, if anybody had a crippling existential crisis in the ship it had to be Shanks, The boy didn't know anything about him, he didn't know where he was from, his lineage, or even how he ended up in roger's crew in the Oro Jackson. It was only that day when it came to his knowledge that he had an actual birthday. Shanks had come to a conclusion that someone like him wasn’t worth having something to dedicate their life for. No dreams or ambitions, he was a lone boat sailing across the sea wherever the wind would carry him
Buggy snapped his fingers in front of shanks' face, waking him up from his deep state of trance
Shanks snapped back into reality only to wince at Buggy, he got up on his feet, placed his barrel of orange juice on the wooden floor and made his way towards Roger's cabin, The hesitant first step turned into swift strides like his life depended on it
Buggy tried to stop him to make sense what was going on, but after calling out to the red hair twice he figured it was no use, Shanks did what he wanted to and no one could stop him.
Buggy let out a huge sigh, and looking at the barrel shanks had just left behind, smiled at himself
Shanks wanted to bash into Roger's cabin, plop onto his captain's bed and cry himself to sleep. However, the adrenaline subsided when he noticed the door was locked. His captain was in there, after a few knocks the door opened and the boy stormed in,
"Hey birthday boy what brings you here?" the drunk Captain asked only to be hit with a
"Don't talk" by Shanks. The boy had almost whispered that to himself but made sure it was loud enough for the Captain to hear it. He didn't bother they boy anymore, as Shanks fell on the bed face down, Roger sat down on the mattress next to him, He spoke no words, just made sure that he could provide the boy a needed company if that's what he wished for in the night to come.
Rayleigh found Buggy still seated in front of the railing, he was now leaning on the wooden shaft and was way past asleep,
The boy was the epitome of innocence when he was asleep, his shoulder length blue hair swaying in the wind, his little red nose rising and falling to the rhythm of his breath.
"You'll catch a cold in here" Rayleigh spoke barely above a whisper, lifted the boy up with his unoccupied hand, and made his way towards the Roger's cabin.
The first mate knocked on the door, only for Roger to come out in a heat, only to hold Rayleigh by the mouth, pulling him inside the room
"Shhhh you idiot" Roger notified Rayleigh and let go of the man, Roger had only then realized that his first mate himself was holding another sleeping boy
Buggy squirmed under the commotion but didn't fully wake up, Rayleigh slammed his Captain, clearly furious as his eyes screamed -
"YOU ARE THE IDIOT YOU DRUNK BAG OF BONES BUGGY'S ASLEEP TOO"
Roger covered both his hands making sure not to wince at the impact, agreeing upon the fact that he was the only idiot in the room.
Rayleigh walked towards the bed, set a bundle of tied papers on the desk next to it and slowly laid down Buggy on the bed next to Shanks making sure, neither of them woke up and slowly made his way out. Roger nodded in gratitude of him bringing the bundle of papers and closed the door once Rayleigh was no longer present in the same four walls.
Shanks and Buggy always slept in Roger's room. The only exception being when they just came out fresh from a fight or quarreled over difference of opinions, today was such a day where they wouldn't have chosen to sleep in the same room, however neither of them were awake to decide for themselves.
Roger sat himself down on the chair in front of the desk and opened the bundle that Rayleigh had just delivered to him. The captain was good at navigation, he did his homework, of working through the ship's course and choosing the destination in accordance to the wind patterns and currents every night, that night was nothing different.
Buggy didn't remember any more details of that day. The way it flashed into his mind for something that didn't even seem important yet somehow came to reveal it self in the most passive way was all question marks for Buggy, Nevertheless he didn't try drown it in himself.
Later that day, Mihawk had gone out for training, Crocodile was busy reading the newspaper, Buggy's memory on the other hand reignited with a peculiar chest box he had found under his Captain's bed before the crew disbanded, there was a piece of paper shoved inside it and nothing else, young buggy tried opening it, not once but several times, each time he would look at the paper that was all, and there would be a hindrance whenever he got close to opening that piece of paper and reading it- almost like the universe didn't act in the favor of him reading whatever was written in it.
25 YEARS AGO
The red hair was sitting on his Captain's table which was very tall for him but he made his way into the height of it somehow, he held his head in one hand and a pen in the other and was looking down at a piece of paper, the piece was the remaining of the many scrapes Roger had left behind, he pressed the tip of the pen to the paper, second guessing weather or not he should be writing such a thing, instead of it being buried somewhere in his heart, the ink spread quickly and made it's way through the thin paper,
Shanks hesitantly tried again this time the young boy shoved his logical thinking to the side and began to write-
"To Buggy"
Which was the same paper Buggy would never come to read