Survivors Guilt HIATUS

Chapter 20

The Straw Hat pirates were having a very good time. There hadn’t been any storms, the waves and wind were calm, and no one was picking fights with them! Overall, it was slightly boring. Peace was a wonderful thing, but for Luffy - who had been in a constant state of danger and high alert for most of his life - he was slightly on edge. Of course, no one really noticed this outside of Zoro. He’d like to keep it that way, though. He didn’t want to worry anyone.

“How much longer until the next island?” Usopp asked Nami from his perch on the railing of the deck. He had been fishing for a while with minimal success. He’d been joined by Luffy at some point, but the captain had quickly grown bored and dropped the activity.

“About a day,” Nami answered from her place at the helm. It was her turn in their rotation to steer the ship. Sanji was absolutely overjoyed that it was her turn because she was alone in the room with her. Though, his excitement had faded once he realized the door would be open and Zoro had also chosen to stay in the kitchen as well.

Luffy groaned about being in calm waters for another day. Yeah, he liked a day off to just chill every once in a while, but today wasn’t one of those days. He was aching for an adventure to happen! But, he doubted there’d be anything to do in the East Blue, let alone a day away from the nearest island.

“Quit your whining!” Sanji called from the kitchen as he placed a plate of food in front of Nami, “Foods ready!”

That pulled Luffy out of his slump. In his haste to get to the meat on the table, he skipped the stairs by grabbing the railing and launching himself into the cabin. He narrowly missed the others as he flew into his seat, grabbing a plate the second he sat down. This, of course, was met by indifference from Zoro, awe from Usopp, and outrage of different levels from Nami and Sanji. The latter of which quickly forgot his rage when he realized Nami had agreed with him.

“Why are you so anxious anyway?” Usopp asked, sitting down across from Nami to eat, “You were fine with the calm yesterday and the day before.”

Luffy swallowed the food in his mouth - which had been everything on his plate - before answering, “I’m just not used to sitting still for so long.” he answered. Nami and Zoro shared a quick look. “The island I grew up on was full of adventures! There was never a dull day for me or my brothers!” He opted to leave out the bit where it was pretty boring for Sabo for about seven years.

“Really?” Sanji raised an eyebrow. He grew up in the North Blue, so he knew all about how boring the East Blue is. “Care to share?”

Luffy’s grin brightened to megawatt proportions. He hadn’t ever told anyone about his growing up because the past doesn’t matter to him. That didn’t mean he didn’t like story times though. In the past - future? - Robin had told him stories of her own upbringing, and he had put together pieces of his other crew’s lives from things they said or what they did when and after they joined him. That being said, he’d never really had an excuse to talk about his past, so he was more than happy to share some stories. Though, he’d leave some details out for obvious reasons.

The crew were taken slightly aback by his reaction to Sanji’s prompting. Had he never been able to talk about how he grew up? The way he acts, Sanji and Usopp both thought he would’ve overshared his childhood. Looking back, though, they realized that he actually hadn’t said a word about where or how he grew up. All they knew was that he was born and raised in the East Blue. Nami and Zoro, who had gotten a peek into one of the darker parts of their captain’s past, had similar reactions to the chef and sniper.