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They had known this question would come.
Both Beck and Shanks had seen the way Luffy would come and look whenever they were redoing the braids they both were. Anchor did not wear any, and both men were itching to tie one into his hair. To make sure that when they eventually had to leave Dawn behind, there was something there for all of them to remember them by.
“What do they mean,” Anchor asked, his eyes wide and interested. Looking from Beck to Shanks and back.
Chuckling, Shanks leaned down to pull Luffy onto his lap, “They’re braids, your precious people and your Nakama twist them into your hair and they, or you, are the only ones who can redo them after that.” He ponders on how to explain for a second, before adding, “It’s like a special kind of sign, when someone twists in a braid in your hair. Means they’ll always be thinking of you.”
Luffy’s eyes lit up even more, leading to them being surprised when he asked if he could have that too. Carefully though, in that same tone he used whenever the Red-Hair Pirates set out for a short time. The same one they knew he would use when Shanks and Beck tell him they’ll have to leave for good. That the East isn’t the right place for an Emperor level crew, even if Shanks wasn’t officially an Emperor just yet.
Beck is the one who answers, who mentioned both he and Shanks had been thinking about offering them to him. To make sure that Luffy was aware that he’d always be a part of their little family. While the young boy is sitting on Shanks’ lap, Beck goes over the kind of braids one can use. How some of them are made by your Nakama, mostly on the right side of your face.
A soft smile takes over as he mentions to the left side of Shanks’ face, “As you can see, Shanks also has braids on the left, those are for family. In his case, it’s his mom, dads and brother. The simple ones with the braid on the end, in a color that represents the family member.”
Bony knees climb on Shanks’ lap as Luffy hefts himself higher to go and look at the beads he can distinguish now. One gold, one silver, one copper, another one in a soft pink and one in blue. Gasping softly as he looks on to see another braid, those one much more intricate and woven together from several smaller ones. Pointing at it, he asked about that one.
Shanks’ eyes are soft, “That’s the braid my husband put in there. You know what a husband is, don’t you, Anchor?”
Nodding, Luffy explained that a husband, or a wife, was your very special person. The one you married, if you were old enough. Pulling a face, Luffy explained that the baker and his wife had gotten married not too long ago and he had seen them kiss, wearing nice clothing and looking very happy. Although he didn’t get why one had to kiss to get married.
“In a way, it’s a seal, Anchor,” Shanks started explaining, “Where the kiss is the promise you both make to be there for each other no matter what and nothing can break it until you want to. A braid can be broken, or cut off, even if it’s seen as something you must never do unless there is no other choice. It’s like breaking a bond someone has with another person, all the while that other person can’t be there to protect it.”
Eyes watering, Luffy promised he’d never do that. Not unless there is no other way to do it. Not asking any more questions, but letting Shanks and Beck braid something into his hair. Both end with a bead, a red one for Shanks and a wooden one for Beck. Giggling the whole time, before he ran off and came back with two yellow beads to braid into the older men’s hair. Carefully and so obviously happy at the bonds now set in place.
—
Until Shanks lost his arm saving him and as soon as they arrived on land, Luffy took off to run to Makino’s. Not coming back down, and only sending Makino down with a red and a wooden bead later that night. A tearful young woman mentioned that he had been certain he wouldn’t be able to wear those again. Not after everything that happened.
Both of them wanted to comfort their little Anchor and asked Makino to get him, please.
Not expecting that when the woman did coax the small boy to come down that another would be in her bar. Intense yellow eyes taking in the child on the woman’s lap and the state Shanks was in. Narrowing his eyes before asking what was going on. Coming closer to fiddle with the braid on Shanks’ left side.
“Mihawk,” Shanks muttered, his eyes narrow as he took in the man sitting at his bedside, “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you here.”
Beck confesses to having called the man, as he needed to know what Shanks had done and how he had lost his arm. Except he hadn’t seen Luffy in Makino’s arm until the boy started crying again. Wiggling to be let down and running back up the stairs.
As they catch him up as to what happened, Mihawk is the one to move up the stairs once Makino agrees. To go and look for the child his husband and said husband’s first mate have adopted. Wanting to go and talk to him, if for no other reason than to make sure Luffy knew both Beck and Shanks adored him just the same.
Knocking on the door towards the child’s bedroom, he entered after a young voice called out for him to do so. Finding Luffy, or Anchor as both names were used, hiding under his blanket. Sighing as he sat down, “None of this is your fault, child.”
A young voice answered back, “I talked back to the bandit and now Shanks got hurt. I always get people hurt and then they don’t want to talk to me again.”
There was so much pain in that young voice that even a mighty Warlord of the sea felt for the child. He had known his full name too, so no doubt that the others he had unintentionally hurted, had been civilian children not able to keep up with an adolescent D.
“Even if that were the case, people like that bandit don’t know when to stop or when not to hurt someone else. If it wasn’t you, maybe it was Ms. Makino or one of the other civilians? You never know, and I know for certain that Shanks would have jumped into the water to save them. But because it was you, he went above and beyond, and because he’s an idiot it cost him an arm.” Mihawk explained, finding that Luffy peaked out of the blankets to look at him, more importantly, to look at the braid on the left side of his face, “You’re Shanks’ Husband.”
Nodding, Mihawk agreed that he indeed was. Called here by Beckman once news spread that Red-Haired Shanks had lost an arm.
Luffy's face once more turns sad, “You must be so angry with me.”
Shaking his head, Mihawk confesses to the opposite. “Not at all, you are a child, Luffy. Shanks is an adult and as much as I love him, I knew he would have done something stupid one day or another. At least in this case I can be proud of what he did, which was to save you.”
While it isn’t a smile, Mihawk’s eyes lighten, “You are a proud young man if you stand up for what is wrong, for trying to protect those that are dear to you. Although giving back the beads given to you isn’t the best course of action. Both Shanks and Beck were quite heartbroken about that.”
He coaxes Luffy to come down again and to let him redo Shanks’ braid while Beck redoes his own. Leaving the beads in this time around, and once the Red-Hair Pirates leave, both Mihawk and Luffy are sporting another braid in their hair, signifying one more bond tethered in reality.
—
It would be several years later, as Mihawk is deployed to the East to deal with an upstart Pirate that he sees Luffy once more. Finding him surrounded by his crew and finding that he has done very well for himself.
Except of course, the notion (as he later tells Beck once he meets up with the Red-Hair Pirates) that Luffy is way too much like Shanks for either of their well-being.
Snorting, Beck sighs, “Let’s hope that at least some of our manners and way of thinking have made its way into his head, so he isn’t too much like Shanks.”
Glancing at the man drinking, once more, both Beck and Mihawk are reminded that they wouldn’t want it any other way. That Shanks is the reason they both found a family once more, and despite his antics at times, they wouldn’t want their best friend or husband to be anything but the man he was.
That was all Luffy also had to be, to be the man he was born to be even if the chance of that giving them grey hairs was very likely.