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Luffy knew that he wasn’t exactly liked when it came to making friends with other kids his age in Windmill Village. They always avoided him or ignored him when he tried to talk to them, or the times he tried to join them in fun games like hide and seek, playing ball or any other game that seemed fun, they always said no.
They weren’t mean to him, but it still hurts. It also didn’t help that he was alone most of the time, since Garp was almost never around to play with him, and when he is, the only thing he does is train by throwing him towards monkeys or wolves to fight or by dropping him into ravines expecting him to survive. But at least he was there and Luffy felt less lonely.
So, when he finally made friends with Shanks and his crew, he was ecstatic to finally play with other people apart from Makino, and the only thing he did was hang out with them. Sure, the kids in the village avoided him even more and started calling him names when Luffy showed his new cool powers to impress them, but that didn’t end well. It didn’t matter he had Shanks and his crew. He likes them a lot, they talk to him instead of ignoring him and always include him in conversations. Although he does get tired of hearing Yasopp repeating the same story of his son over and over and over again.
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“Hey Luffy, have I ever told you about my son Usopp, oh he was so cute the first time I held him. He should be around your age. I bet that the two of you would be great friends.” a drunk Yasopp told him.
“You’ve told me a thousand times already Yasopp.”
“Huh, really. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. I guess I’m telling it again” raising his drink while laughing.
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They try to include them in the things that they do, mostly in card games since they say he is too short to drink with them and Shanks won’t let him NEAR any weapons because of his little stunt with the knife to try and prove his bravery which leed to the scar on his right eye. But they say he cheats (which he doesn’t, they are just sore losers) because he always wins.
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“I call” Lucky Roux said with a smirk on his face throwing the cards at the table showing a four of a kind.
“GOD DAMNIT AGAIN” Limejuice shouted slamming the deck of cards, out of all of them his hade the worst luck always getting shitty cards.
“Damn, here I thought I could win” Yasop said with a sigh showing a deck of flush.
“Yeah, this is why I stop playing with you Lucky” Hongo said showing his card, being a full house.
“Well Anchor you’re the last one standing, want to show us your cards so I can take the win and see the misery in their faces” Lucky says with a shit eating grin.
“Um ok” Luffy says showing his hand.
“WHAT THE HELL!!!” Limejuice abruptly stands up hitting the table with his hands “I get the shit card wild the kid gets a royal flush.” Limejuice out of frustration, immediately leaves the bar mumbling about cheating and how the game is rigged.
“HAHAHAHAHA, all of you got beat by a kid” Shanks laughs loudly from the counter.
“Admitted Luffy, you cheated” Lucky says with a menacing but play full grin.
“No, I ditin. You guys are just bad at playing” Luffy says while pulling out his tong in a paly full way.
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Also, Shanks always tells him stories about his adventures when he gets back from his voyages. Even when he wasn’t gong for a long time, he still wanted to hear them, even if they were short. Sometimes when Shanks doesn’t have stories from his voyages, he tells stories when he was younger and how he used to be a cabin boy in an infamies crew.
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“SHANKS SHANKS!!!” Luffy yells with this happy shriek as he is running towards the Red Force that just anchored at the ducks. In full speed Luffy tackles Shanks leg in a hug, happy to see his favorite person.
“Hey Anchor, did you miss me” Shank says with a grin, in a teasing tone. Shanks crouch down to return the hug from the excited and squealing 6-year-old, he picks him up, placing him on his shoulder while walking towards the Party Bar. The scene looked adorable, like a father and son reuniting after a long time apart.
“Uh-huh” Luffy nods and when he sits at Shanks shoulder, he sheepishly takes Shanks straw-hat and wears it, smiling and giggling.
“Hey, give it back you little brat” Shanks says, trying to sound stern but miserably failing since he said it with a loving smile and a playful voice.
“Shi Shi Shi. Nuh-uh its mine now.”
“Yeah, sure it is” in a sarcastic tone. When arriving at the Party Bar Shanks places Luffy in his usual seat (also tickling the boy to return his hat), sitting right next to him.
“Captain-san you have return welcome back” Makino, who was returning from the back of the bar grits Shanks with this warm and friendly smile.
“Makino, it’s good to see you too, how has thing been around when we were gone. Luffy not giving you too much trouble” Shanks, ever the polity gentleman in front of the pretty bar maid asks.
“Things been doing just fine. And Luffy has been helping around here, know do you and your crew want your usuals” Makino answer.
“We would appreciate that Makino, you are too good to us.” Shanks says with a blush creeping towards his face.
“Hey Shanks tell me how your adventure went” Luffy who got bored hearing the adults talking pipet up.
“HAHAHAHA, Anchor I wasn’t gone for that long, I don’t think I have enough details to tell you a good story.”
“Doesn’t matter I still want to hear it” Luffy ever the optimist says with the brightest smile and with does big doe eyes that makes the kid even more adorable than he already is. Shanks can’t resist that look, it’s just too cute and pure. Seriously it’s already hard enough to say no to Luffy when he asks to join his crew when he comes with does big puppy dog eyes. The kid should have a bounty just for that look, Luffy can ask to take over the government and Shanks would do just that so he can make his precious Anchor is happy and smiling.
“Ok fine I’ll tell you a story. But instead, I’ll tell you the time me and the crew fought against this massive seeking” Shanks tells to the now stary eye boy that is jumping in his sit.
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But the best part when spending time with them, is when they show how much the love and care for him when his sad or hurt. It happened when Luffy tried one time to make friends with the village kids. The interaction ended horribly since this time they actually hit him, calling him a monster as they got fed up whit him asking to play or be his friend. The Red Hair pirates saw how hurt he looked that day, asking him if he was ok and taking care of him. Seeing their Anchor so sad and hurt brook their hearts, since the boy they grew to love was always cheerful, happy, and smiling, and seeing him so down didn’t look right. So, they did everything in their power to cheer their Anchor.
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“Hey Captain, have you seen Anchor?” Yasopp, who was sitting right next to his Captain says with a confused face to the absent 6-year-old that is always found at the Bar.
“You noticed to. I have no idea where he went let alone where he is.” Shanks who was looking at his Anchor usual seat with this look of concern. When he entered the Party Bar, he expected to see Luffy jump out of his seat to greet them all with smiles and hugs, instead they were greeted with silence and an almost empty Bar with the exception of Makino, who was cleaning tables. (That’s right Makino, she most knows where Anchor is). Just as Shanks is about to ask Makino where the boy might be, the swinging doors open to show the silhouette of a small kid.
“Hey, Anchor’s back” Luckys the one to alert everyone about his return.
There was a lot of things the Red Hair pirates were expecting, one of them being that Luffy would run towards their captain and talk his ear of with what he did in the time he was gone, they were also expecting for the boy to greet everyone with hugs, saying that he missed them and got bored waiting for them. What they did not expect was to see a very hurt and sad Luffy enter the bar all dirty, with tattered clothes, a bit bruised and close to tears.
Shanks immediately stud up from his seat almost running towards the little boy that is basically his son. “Luffy are you ok, how did get so beaten so badly, who did this to you!!” Shanks checks Luffy’s face and exposed skin for any lethal injuries which thankfully there weren’t any.
Instead of answering Shanks concerned he started crying slowly until it turned into full sobs. That led to Luffy throwing himself towards Shanks arm for comfort, as Shanks holds the crying boy.
The entire crew were speechless of the sight of Luffy all hurt and dirty, no one moved, to shock from the sight in front of them. That was until Hongo got out of his shock and literally jumped out of his seat and went into action to also started to check Luffy’s injuries.
“The good thing is there isn’t any bleeding so there won’t be any infection that we need to be concerned about. But does bruise are a different story.” Hongo says to Shanks to see if he can calm his worried but furies captain down a bit, as the last thing they need is to make Luffy think that Shanks is mad at him, escalating the problem.
Just as Shanks is about to pick up Luffy to take him to the Red Forces sick bay so Hongo can patch him up, Makino bless her soul, comes out of the bars back room with a first aid kit in hand. Shanks picks Luffy up, who is now sniffling but still crying, placing him in the seats at the counter and backing up a bit to leave space for Hongo to do his work but still close to comfort Luffy.
After Hongo patch Luffy up (and to let the kid calm down a bit so they can hear him clearly without his runny nose and the constant catch of air getting in the way) Shanks kneels down so he can see Luffys face better since the kid is looking down.
“Luffy”. There was no response. “Hey Luffy look at me”. Shanks said in a soft voice as to not scare the kid even more. But there was still no response from Luffy. This time Shanks lifted his arm up, placing it at Luffy cheeks, lifting his face now clearly seeing his watery eyes holding back tears. “Oh Luffy, what happened?”
Luffy, who was eye to eye with Shanks, responded back with this very shaky voice. “Hic, I-I-I was going b-back to here w-wh-when I saw the kids fr-from the village playing. When they noticed me, they-they started to leave but I really wanted to play with them and make friends, so I called out to them so we can play but one of the older kids started to yell at me saying that they didn’t want to p-play with me since I hang out with criminals. I told him that you guys are not criminals and are really nice and fun to play with. But but that made him m-mad, he then pushed me and started to kick and hit me really hard, the other kids joined in h-hi-hitting me which made it hurt more. They started to laugh at me calling me a freak and monster for having powers saying I’m a demon.” As Luffy finished, he couldn’t control his tears anymore and started to cry again bringing his hand to his face to try and wipe away the tears. Makino, who was also in tears, went to hug Luffy tightly trying to comfort him.
But by covering his eyes he couldn’t see the fury that was seen in the faces of the Red Hair pirates. How dare they, how dare does brats hurt their Anchor for wanting to play with them and be their friend. The angriest out of all of them was Shank. He had rage coursing throw him, if he ever saw those little shits near Luffy again, well let’s just say they wouldn’t even think of breathing the same air as Luffy. Look Shanks might be a pirate and has no columns in killing, but his not a complete monster by killing kids let alone hurt them (well to badly at list). It goes against his morals, so he’s not going to hunt down some arrogant brats just to feel better about taking justice for Luffy. Instead, he’ll focus on taking care of Luffy and to make him feel better.
“Shanks am I a bad kid?” Luffy says in the lowest voice possible that you can barely hear it.
This comment shatters all of their hearts. How could he think that he was a bad kid.
“What?! No, no Luffy you are not a bad kid. You are the most amazing kid I know and that will never change. Why would you say that?” Shanks immediately assured Luffy is anything but a bad kid. He extended his arm to take Luffy away from Makinos arms to hug Luffy. Ones he had Luffy in his arms he sat down placing Luffy in his lap and hugging him tighter.
“But no one in the village likes me, the grown up always look at me weird saying something about Gramps and the other kids hate me so that means I’m doing something wrong”
Shanks knew that the village people acted weird around Luffy especially when the topic of Garp was involved. He asked Makino about it as she was the only person that would talk to them without fear or some sort of resentment. She explained that Luffy was Garp’s grandson.
Now for the people that didn’t know Garp would think nothing of Luffy being his grandson. But Shanks knew Garp from his time as a cabin boy in the Roger pirates when the crazy old geezer would throw cannon balls at them like a dart board. He knew that Garp had a son, and that son would eventually be the infamous Revolutionary leader, Dragon. So not only is Luffy the grandson of the Hero of the Marines, Garp the Fist, but he is also the son of the Leader of the Revolutionary Dragon. If this information ever got leek to anyone, especially to the marines, then Luffy, his Luffy would have the world government hunting him down. His sweet, adorable, chaos tornado Luffy would be hated for only existing.
The only thing that held him back from taking Luffy with him was that no one knows that Dragons is related to Garp as he doesn’t use his family name, making it impossible for people to know who his family is, meaning no one will go after Luffy (also he may or may not be a tad afraid of a crazy overprotective Garp going after him but that wouldn’t stop him from taking Luffy to make sure he is safe and protected from the cruel world).
“Hey, what about us, we like to hang out with you don’t we?” Shanks says trying to change the mood.
“Well yeah”
“And we also like being your friend, right?” this time it was Ben who spoke.
Luffy nodded to Ben.
Then the whole crew started to join in saying things they like to do with the boy, each time getting a yes from Luffy.
“See your not a bad kid if you are friends with us, if anything I bet those kids are jealous of you for being friends with the cool, strong pirate crew, aren’t I right boys” Shanks says while looking at his crew for confirmation.
“YEAH” the crew yell out with smiles
With this Luffy finally smiled and giggled, making the crew smile more of making Luffy smile.
Now with the new found goal of sheering their Anchor up, they spend the next couples of days playing all of the games that Luffy wanted to play like tag (perpesly being slow or ‘trip’ when Anchor was it to make it for his shorter legs), hide and seek (somehow being very bad at hiding when Luffy was looking for them and being impossible to find Luffy), kick ball (they sure as hell did not let Luffy win no they would never), poker (actually the kid was to lucky for that since he almost always won so they didn’t do anything to make Luffy win), and many more. The cherry on top that made Luffy smile more was when Shanks let him spend the nights at the Red Force essentially having a sleep over every so often. (If the crew were acting a bit overprotective with Luffy as they made sure to never leave him alone and gave dirty looks to all the kids that were even breathing near him, well that’s between them)
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Today was the day that the Red Hair pirates were going to set sail and no one felt sadder than Luffy. How couldn’t he feel sad, he was losing all of his friends and was going back to being alone.
The entire time he was with them, he was clinging on to Shanks like a baby monkey to there mothers. Shanks even teased him about it, saying that he is living up to his name acting like a little monkey.
“Come on Anchor get off me so I can feel me legs.” Shanks who was sitting at the bar stool complained.
“Nooo, I want to stay with you.” Luffy being the child he is wined as he was sitting in Shanks lap hugging Shanks chest.
“But I can’t feel my legs, and I don’t want to lose another limb”
“Shanks leave the kid alone and let him enjoy his last moments with you” Ben the most levelheaded out of the entire crew, including the caption since he also acts like a child said to his caption trying to back up the little Anchor of his.
“Well then you have a kid sitting in your lap cutting your circulation to your legs” Shanks retorted back with this grin that showed anything but comfort.
Ben, although being the most levelheaded, is also one of the most pettiest out of all of them. So, Ben Beckmen with all his pettiness, went to Shanks picking Luffy up taking him away from Shanks, going back to his seat, setting Luffy down in his lap.
Luffy tried and protested but stopped when Ben whispered something in his ear.
“How about we make the caption jealous for all the teasing he has done to you” Ben whispered in his ear.
Luffy, not one to passe the opportunity to tease the caption immediately agreed with Ben
“You know what Shanks; you’re not my favorite anymore Ben is”
“WHAT!!??” Shanks just processing the words that his Anchor just said, jumps out of his seat, in a not so discrete way. Too later stand up with a shocked face.
“Uh-huh, Ben isn’t mean to me like you” Luffy said it with a grin which made the statement even more devilish.
“B-but, but”
“Sorry caption Anchor has decided you’re not the favorite, but I am” Ben milking on the captions suffering by emphasizing the ‘I am’ to make the statement even more evil. This scene makes the entire crew laugh for their captions suffering, some even joining in teasing him.
“HA HA HA HA, wow captain I never thought that you can make Luffy not your favorite anymore”
“Damm got demoted from his pedestal”
“Don’t feel to bad captain now you are with us since we couldn’t compute with the attention Luffy give, well used to give you”
To add salt to the wound Luffy turned around in Bens lap and hugged him with his tiny arms wrapping around his neck.
“Betrayed by my own crew, after everything I have done for you people. You guys don’t deserve my presence” Shanks with all the exaggeration he can muster said with actual tears in his eyes like some kind of tragic anime girl about to lose the love of their lives.
With this everyone started to laugh even harder.
Luffy is really going to miss them, especially Shanks, but at least he has the happy moments with them, that’s what truly matters plus he also has Shanks hat, to remember he has friends that care about him. But for now, he’s going to enjoy this.