OR, a much needed bonding time in the form of forest fires
Sniper lies defeated upon a pile of hay, arms sprawled, red staining the front of his jumper.
Heaving heavily, he grabs for the sunny sky above him, the rays of the sun spilling over his fingertips and landing on his eyes.
"Remember me...for I can't go on any much longer..."
And as he takes his final breath, closing his eyes and lips curling into a smile, he whispers to the world his dying words-
Zoro kicks him on the side.
You sputter, dropping your hoe on the plowed land.
"Get up. The old man needs the cart back." Zoro points behind him, acting as if he hadn't just assaulted someone.
"I was having a moment!" Sniper wheezes, holding his sides.
"To hell with your moment," Zoro glowers. Sniper groans in reply.
"Davy Jones, Zoro, can't you just let a man dream?" You snickered as the hoe, after ten minutes of being plowed into the ground under the angry sun, lodged onto the ground one final time.
You'll be sure to thank Nami for more or less making you use her sunblock lotion, even if she had to corner you on the Merry. Scary Nami was normal and could be encountered in the wild, but it doesn't make it less terrifying.
You shudder, praying for the poor souls who will stand in her way. They would either have to be brave, or ridiculously stupid to do something like that.
After the whole shebang with Nami's island-Comi? Conimo? Something like that-and securing her as the navigator aboard the ship, it was a blur of stupidly spending money and several nights of stealing food.
Which, as expected, did not end well.
Because if you were dirt poor before, you were even more dirt poor now.
This isn't just you talking anymore. This was a collective effort on stupidity and impulse shopping sprees for Luffy's insatiable appetite.
And Nami, being the angel sent from the heavens-or the devil that crawled out from the pits of hell, it depends on how you look at it-made the executive decision on helping out at a local farm for a few quick bucks.
"I have a condition called 'I-can-no-longer-push-carts'..." Sniper weakly says from the ground, still not getting up from his previous attack, hands clawing the ground in a pathetic attempt of getting away.
"You're fine," Zoro says, driving the hoe against the ground a little too hard, causing the ground to crack, "oh."
"Hah, you dumbass." You grinned, but it immediately fell as your foot caught onto something and sent you face-first into the ground.
...It was going as well as you'd expect.
- ❐ -
The wheelbarrow, stuffed to the brim with harvested crops-corn on the cobs, bundles of wheat, eggs you don't remember getting-halted just as you came up to the barn that stood on top of the hill.
It served as the base of operations, or in Sniper's case, his bane of existence as it did not need to be this high up. His words, not yours.
Of course, you could see where he was coming from; he was only but an East Blue precious boy who knows nothing in the seas beyond.
The same could be said with the others.
While Zoro already had a taste of the real world-in the form of a Warlord no less, kudos to him for not dying-he still has long ways to go before he can fully sail the New World.
Nami, from what you've seen, is an exceptional navigator and cartographer. And that was basically the saving grace in the Grand Line. You're just a little worried about her coming face to face with the unpredictable weather in the Grand Line.
Sanji has no problems as a cook, but more so with his fighting capabilities. His kicks sure pack quite a punch-ironic, you snort-but it was still bars below the average fighters beyond Paradise.
And Sniper...you're not sure what to make of Sniper as of this moment.
You sighed, shaking your head, and turned to where the cart full of freshly harvested vegetables that shines under the afternoon sun-
Luffy is sitting on the cart, cheeks stuffed full, and the several crates, which had been overloaded seconds prior, were now empty around him.
"Luffy..."
Maybe dwelling on the other crew members is for another day.
For now, you have a Captain to beat up.
- ❐ -
"It's just past these trees," You push back a branch to clear the way. Nami and Sanji following after your trail.
All three of them have an armful of freshly picked oranges from a nearby isolated garden.
"Are you sure?" Nami asks when she caught sight of the barren land in front of you.
"...Atleast I think so." You say, after a moment.
You dodge the punch that would've landed on the back of your head in the nick of time, sending the navigator a shit-eating grin that did nothing but fuel her anger more.
"Why would you even lead the way if you don't even know where the barn is?!" She sends you a fist after pushing her basket onto Sanji's arms, which he accepted wholeheartedly, making you avoid the attack once more.
"It's not like I don't know where the barn is!" You correct her, the basket of oranges tightly secured within the confines of your arms. "It's just that I forgot where it is."
"That's way worse, you idiot!"
You then stopped, making her stop as well.
You point at something on top of her head.
"Is that a spider?"
"S-S...Spider...?" Nami pales as realization sunk in. "Sanji, get it off!"
You turn-Sanji was nowhere to be found.
"I'm sorry, Nami-swan! I can't!"
Ah, nevermind. He was up in the tree.
"There's a spiderweb right there." You point out, not helping the situation get any better.
Sanji falls and shrieks, Nami frantically shakes her head to get the spider off but to no avail, it only made things absolutely worse.
"Ah-Oh, careful-A ton of baby spiders are crawling out."
"You're not helping at all!"
- ❐ -
The old man wanted a ton of logs. Not the small ones, but the ones that were used to build houses. And a shit ton of them.
"Okay, everybody! In the count of three!" Nami belts out, commandeering the bunch of misfits off to the side. Almost like a cheerleader would.
"Go! Go!" Sniper cheers from behind her, obviously hiding.
Nami swivels around and bonks him upside the head, "don't just cheer them on the side! Go help them as well!"
"B-But, Nami! Look at them!"
Nami and Sniper turn their attention to the nicknamed Monsters of the crew, with one on a whole different league than the rest, lifting the pile of tree logs that was four times their height like it was nothing.
Sniper sweatdrops. "Do they look like they need more help?"
You throw them a peace sign with a tongue sticking out, effortlessly carrying your part on your shoulder. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji doing the same although with a slight bit more difficulty.
You would've thought that since it was just carrying logs from one place to another, no disasters would happen, right? I mean come on, what could possibly go wrong?
.
.
.
"Forward, Zoro, Forward!" You yell over your shoulder.
"I am going forward!" He barks back.
"Yeah, forward back to where we came from!"
"Oooh! Is that a Predaceous diving beetle?!"
"Predaysus what beetle?"
"Ack-Luffy, no, wait!"
"This is bad-"
"No, not the logs!"
"...so is it a Peropero diving beetle?"
"Not helping!"
The old man watches from the side, deadpanning. "You guys have no teamwork at all."
- ❐ -
"On one side, we have Monkey D. Luffy! The man who will be the Pirate King!" Sniper hypes, holding up a stick to be imagined as a Den Den Mushi microphone, gesturing wildly to Luffy.
"And on the other side-" He says your name next "-we have our very own Demon!"
"Hey!" Came your shout, but nobody pays it any mind. Sniper continues as it is.
"Today's race consists of only one single lap!" Sniper then 'tsks' the audience with a waggle of his finger. The audience is the rest of the crew all cheering in their own ways.
"I bet all my money on you!" Nami points at you with beli signs as eyes.
"Ooh, (Y/n)-chwama! I'm sure you can beat Luffy no problem!" Sanji twirls in place.
"Beat his ass," Zoro says, nonchalantly.
"What?!" Luffy roars when he hears the very one-sided audience. "No way! I'm not going to lose!"
"But no, no, my dear audience. Don't be fooled by this seemingly normal track down this hill!" Sniper hits a button, which he pulled out of nowhere, and once he did, several pieces of machinery sprung into view; all scattered down the rocky and grassy path.
"Is that...a flaming hoop...?" You asked, when it popped out from the ground. It was all the way to the bottom and the last obstacle.
"Failure to pass through the hoop will get a serving bowl of worms for dinner!"
"Yum!" Luffy licks his lips, unbothered by the menu.
"Oh," You say, also unbothered, "is that it?"
"You two are shameless!" Sniper clears his throat. "Usage of devil fruit powers," he throws a look at Luffy, "and monstrous strength," he then looks at you, "is strictly prohibited!"
You glance at Luffy, meeting his eyes, and making a thumbs down at him.
"Are the rules clear?!"
"Loud and clear."
"Let's start this already!"
"Now then...Get, set, ready..."
You crouch down, feeling adrenaline flowing through your veins. More pumped about this silly little game than the battle at Arlong's.
"Go!"
And both sprung into action.
You could jump over the whole course and get it over with already, but honestly, where was the fun in that?
So you humored Luffy for a few minutes, slowing down when you got too fast and running faster when he was way too far ahead, setting off more traps just for the heck of it, or, your favourite-
"Eat this!"
-throwing said traps in Luffy's paths with absolutely no remorse.
"Hey, that's not fair!" He jumps away in time, avoiding the dancing monkey which explodes upon contact with the ground. "You can't just throw them at me!"
You wink, sliding between two traps. "All is fair in love and war, my dear cap'n."
"Is that so?"
You did not like his tone.
"Then, take this!"
Thinking might as well continue to joke around, you let the ball of dirt hit your face despite seeing it coming a mile away.
"Oho?" The dirt slides down your face, revealing the grin hidden underneath. "Two can play that game."
Scooping up a pile of dirt, with a small trap as well, you throw it towards Luffy at lightning speed. Even if he knew it was coming, he couldn't have dodged it.
At one point, it just turned into an all out brawl while still avoiding the traps with Sniper giving commentary over it, Nami raising up the bets, Sanji one inch away from stepping on Luffy, and Zoro watching closely.
It was going well.
Keyword being was.
You lightly punched Luffy, right, but you didn't expect the punch to send him flying back in just one go. You were expecting him to at least tank it somehow.
But, as you watch Luffy's back hit the flaming hoop head-on, your whole life flashes in front of your eyes.
The hoop snaps in half and sets the whole goddamn place on fire.
- ❐ -
Faced with several acres of burning land, months of hard work gone in a flash, the old man lets a tear fall from his eyes.
"...I just wanted some help..."
- ❐ -
The sun is going down by the time all of you were done with the chores the old man needed help with.
Zoro was the last, tasked with loading back all the equipment they all used to farm, and certainly wasn't used to destroy months of work, but it was neither here nor there.
You eyed Nami sweet talking with the old man, definitely asking if there was more that needed to be done so she could just dump the workload onto you all.
So, like any sane and smart person, you decided to leave her sight before things could go wrong.
A danger avoided is better than a danger faced head-on.
Atleast, if it was about Nami.
You went inside the old man's house to wait it out in the kitchen, having remembered that Sanji volunteered to cook for tonight's dinner and didn't accept a no for an answer.
He was humming by the stove, calmly handling all four pots and pans like the expert he was, and tapping his foot to an imaginary beat.
You stand by the doorway. He reminded you of someone.
It was Zeff, mostly, with the way he moves and all, but his physical traits don't help nail it in.
You think for a few minutes, accompanied by his undivided attention and soft humming.
Think, think, think.
Scrunching your eyebrows together, you leaned heavily against the doorway, your presence not yet been acknowledged by the chef.
Blonde hair...no, no...
...swirly eyebrows...? No, you have a feeling you're close, but it's not there yet...
One...Two...Three...
"Sanji!" You exclaim with wide eyes.
The poor said chef, bless his heart and soul, jumps about two feet in the air and knocks every single pot and pan in the vicinity over. Food splattering all over the wooden floors and ceramic countertops.
"E-Eh?" He gazes at the wasted food, before slowly turning over to look at where you just had a world-stopping revelation. "(Y/n)-chwama..?"
"Sanji!" You repeat when he doesn't get it, "San-ji! San-ji! San! Three!"
"H...huh?" You could almost touch his confusion by this point, and your explanation doesn't help. If anything it just confused him more.
You shake your head, backtracking on your own words to hopefully clear the confusion. He turns the stove off to bend down the scattered remains of uncooked food.
"What I mean, is...err," You scratch your head, before deciding to go with it, "do you have any other family? Besides Mustache Man, I mean."
Sanji stops, for a brief moment, stuck holding up a pan from the gooey mess of slimey rice.
He doesn't falter, nor shake, but he doesn't move all the same.
"...Sanji?"
It was only after a few moments of silence did he answer, returning to the process of scooping back the remains.
"No..." He finalized, "no, I don't."
You stare. Before breaking out into a small grin.
"Ah, I see." Crouching down beside him, you took off your gloves and tossed them to the side to help him clean up what was partially your fault. You look up, meeting his eyes. "So, just Sanji, then?"
His eyes, blue just like the limitless sky you always loved, seem to sparkle under the crappy light only found in countrysides of rundown islands.
"Yes, (Y/n)-chwama."
Even if he was, you don't think anyone would mind.
"Just Sanji."
And besides, his eyes were far too kinder than those of his father and siblings.
"This is bad..." Sanji begins to mutter to his own, grabbing a rag from a nearby counter to wipe the liquid dry. After he does, he throws the rag on the sink while looking at the vegetables lined on the counter beside.
"We don't have enough for another batch."
You pick up the remaining pans to set them aside.
"Ah! (Y/n)-chwama!" He calls out before you could even stand back up, scrambling over. He takes the cooking utensils from your arms even though they practically weighed nothing. "Let me handle this. You can go wait by the table in the meantime."
Deciding to let him take pans from your hold, his actions all in good thought, you scanned the countertop for the remaining food that was still undisturbed.
And then, like the heavens foretold, light shone from the ceiling, illuminating a particular plate that sat among the rest.
You turned to Sanji with a wide grin, who tilted his head back at you.
- ❐ -
The table, stolen from the dining room-nobody but the old man was surprised at the sight of you carrying a whole ass table without sweat and Sanji carrying the ingredients needed-was already set up by Nami and Sniper.
"So you're directionally challenged, huh." You peer over Zoro's shoulder with a shit-eating grin, watching as he throws the logs into the open fire.
He was the one who brought the logs and took approximately half an hour just to get back to the farm. It would've been alright, if it weren't for the fact that the old man's house was practically a beacon at this hour.
How he got lost was beyond even you.
"I'm not," he denies, growling, and puts more wood.
"It's fine," You pat his shoulder solemnly, "we all have our own shortcomings."
"You're the one who keeps getting lost!" He quips back.
You sweatdrop. "How does that even work when you're the one who's moving?"
"You stupid brute!" A kick comes down upon Zoro's head, almost sending him into the fire face first if you didn't grab him by the collar.
"You put way too much wood in, now we have to wait for the right temperature!" Sanji fumes as he waves around an unlit cigarette, gesturing for the plates with stack piled meat on top.
"Doesn't more wood mean faster cooking time?" Zoro grumbles out, lightly swatting your hand away.
"Yeah, if you want your food hard as a rock!"
"Maybe he wanted rocks for dinner, you never know." You offer, shrugging.
"No, I don't!"
"So you wanted rocks?! Then go get some, you grassy swordsman, and stay lost!-"
You slink away, successfully avoiding another disaster. Well, it's still happening, but you had deniability, so who's the real winner now.
You sit beside Nami and Sniper. Interrupting their idle chatter as they peeled the oranges, gifted by the old man.
"Want some?" Nami offers you one, Sniper gasping from the side. You quirk an eyebrow.
"You're sharing your oranges?" You accept it before she changes her mind. "What a miracle."
"I'm always nice." Nami rolls her eyes.
"Society's 'nice'," Sniper fully peels the orange, moving to take it apart. "Your 'nice' is physical abuse."
You snorted.
From then on, the air is filled with light-hearted jabs against each other and idle talk.
"Is it just me or are the oranges slowly disappearing?" You ask, interrupting Sniper who was in the middle of telling a story.
"Huh? What do you mean-" Nami swivels her head towards the plate, and lo and behold, it was a dozen fewer than what they started with.
And there was only one culprit.
A dark aura washes over Nami as she cracks her knuckles.
"Luffy..."
You and Sniper snickered. But before Nami even got her hands on Luffy, Sanji and Zoro pop out, holding multiple trays of food as a waft of delicious smell fills the air.
"Sticky honey roast!" Sanji introduces with a big smile, setting the food down at lightning speed. "Done and served!"
Nami and Sniper oggles at the yummy-looking food, the former completely forgetting her anger, and Zoro sets the rest down, but less flamboyantly.
You grinned, before ducking beneath the table to come face-to-face with Luffy. He turns to you, caught red-handed with cheeks full of oranges.
"It's dinner time."
He brightened, laughing. "Thanks for letting me eat the oranges!"
"Don't mention it." You wink, coming back up.
"So it was you!" Nami bellows and nothing could've saved you from her upcoming wrath.
Not even the oranges you Luffy stole.
- ❐ -
The winds tussle your hair around as you lean on Merry's railings.
And as the island gets smaller on the horizon, the old man's yells of gratitude spanning the entire East Blue and in the form of ripe apples and limes, it was a beautiful day.
Light footsteps sound from behind you and you knew who it was before they even spoke.
"Where's the money?" Nami asks with a smile as her hand props itself on her hip.
"Where's the what?" You say, turning around.
"The money."
"What money?"
"You know, the compensation the old man promised us after we helped him out?"
"What."
Again, there was nothing that could have saved you from Nami's wrath.
- ❐ -
After escaping death with minimal injuries and with the help of Sanji distracting Nami as you run to get away, you found yourself hanging around Sniper.
He was busy at the moment though, leaving Luffy to gaze out into the sea on top of Merry's figurehead. He was painting the pirate flag Luffy wanted.
You cast a glance at the discarded fabrics on the side, crude drawings and questionable design filling your sight, before ultimately deciding nope.
You made yourself comfortable next to Sniper, watching over his motions with a trained eye.
His movements seemed like a flowing river, moving from one spot to another in one seamless motion.
"Luffy didn't want a flag when you weren't back yet." Sniper cuts your train of thought off, finishing the lower right part of the bone.
You blink, then found yourself chuckling. "Sounds like him, alright..."
"It's strange," Sniper continues, dipping his brush into the ink to continue lining the skull.
"What is?"
"You seem stronger than the rest of us. I mean, you clearly held back when we were at Nami's village." Sniper flicks the brush. "Even Zoro could tell, and he's as dense as our captain over there." He points at Luffy with the brush.
"And your point is...?"
"Why bother sticking with us?"
The question made you stop. Sniper lines the other side of the crossbones flawlessly as you pondered on what to say.
You could easily lie. Something to cover up your shitshow of a past and the clusterfuck that it was, or just dodge the question entirely.
It's what you would've done years ago.
...but man, you were tired of that life.
"I have a lot of reasons," you offer instead, making the boy perk up in interest with your wording. "Though, I think it's best if I told all of you guys over dinner."
And he smiles in reply, nodding. "Sure!"
Glad he understood the terms, the air went back to being light on your shoulders, him continuing to finish off the flag and moving onto the sails and you watching over him silently.
Before a thought crosses your mind suddenly.
"What's your dream, by the way?"
Sniper stills, in the midst of opening a new can of red paint as he had just run out. "My dream?"
"Yeah," you nod, "treasure, fame, anything."
"It's not as great as the others." He says though, making you frown.
"So? Doesn't make it worth any less."
He searches your eyes then, turning around to face you fully with pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows.
"It's, uh...to ah..."
You lean forward in anticipation. He breaks eye contact to bashfully look everywhere but you.
"...become...warrior...sea..."
"...huh?"
It's not like you had terrible hearing-if anything, you had an exceptional hearing capacity-it was more so because he jumbled all his words together and made it impossible to understand.
So, irked, you kept trying to make eye contact to break his resolve.
And eventually, he caved in.
"It's to become a brave warrior of the sea just like my father...!"
You smiled in response, as he immediately stumbles over himself, reminding you of Coby in many ways, and looked like he wanted to retract his statement but at the same time wasn't ashamed of announcing it.
"I-I know it's not as grand as becoming the Pirate King or the greatest swordsman, but-"
"What are you talking about?" You chuckled, cutting his nervous rambling off. He looks up and sees your wide smile and unwavering gaze.
"That's a nice dream."
Usopp is but a boy from the East Blue, and had more ways to go before accomplishing his goal, but for the meantime...
He was good in your books.
- ❐ -
You glance up, hovering a hand overhead and peering through your fingers. The sun is hard at work today, it would take a miracle for the weather to change.
"We're finally nearing the Grand Line." Nami looks over a map on the floorboards, while the rest were about and nilly-willy. She points to somewhere on the map. "It looks like the only way into it is through Reverse Mountain here."
"What a pain. Can't we just sail straight into it?" Zoro leans back with arms behind his head.
"Nope. From what the geezer told me, that's the only way boats can enter." Sanji answers back.
"Eh? How come?" Usopp questions.
"'Cause it's supposedly dangerous."
"But how come?!" Usopp repeats, but turns to you when Sanji doesn't answer back, which you guessed he didn't know either. "You should know, right? You've been in the Grand Line before, right?"
You shrug, making a zip motion over your lips. "Sorry, I've been ordered not to tell."
Nami sighs at that, "right, Luffy told us what he did...but the reason for that is..."
"All right! I got it! Then let's head straight into it!" Luffy proposes a dumb idea, as usual.
"Are you even paying attention? After you just ordered the one with the most experience than all of us combined to keep quiet?!"
"But it sounds fun! Plus it'd feel better going straight into it."
Outside, you were calm. Inside, you were screaming God, no.
"Talking to you makes me feel like I'm gonna go crazy..." Nami rubs her forehead, hoping to quell her wrinkles.
"Anyway, let's stop at an island first and get meat! Meat! Meat!"
You laughed as Luffy change the subject, hearing Zoro sigh in the back at the same time.
Nami points at an island on the map. Luffy looking over it immediately.
"There's a famous city on this island... Loguetown."
"Loguetown? Why? Is it famous for its meat?"
"Also known as the city of the beginning and the end..." Zoro mutters in, looking towards the sky. "I'm pretty sure I've heard that before."
"...city of dusk and dawn." You add. The rest sends you questioning looks. You shrugged. "It was what my friend used to describe it as."
"It was the town where Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, was born...and executed." Nami finishes.
"The town where the King of the Pirates died..."
It was almost poetic, wasn't it? The town that welcomed your birth...would also be the one to send you off into the sea.
"Wanna go?"
"Yeah! I wanna see it!" Luffy answers. "I wanna see the town where the man who got One Piece-everything this world has to offer-was born and then died!"
You hated stories like that.
- ❐ -
LOG ENTRY
Bounty Posters: On the Decks Of The Moby Dick.
There was a wooden wall inside the small room of Oyaji, full of posters from different times and of different faces.
They were the ones Oyaji never had the chance to take in, or was gone a little too early.
Ace was also told that while Oyaji's family is his most prized treasure, the wall was a close second. Destroy anything and everything, just never the faces of those he failed.
And the bounty poster of his little brother's first mate was pasted beside a much faded one of a child.
- ❐ -
A/N* ehe here's some fluff then
Idk if u noticed but there's alrdy been some changes in the canon
nothing major though, im just testing the waters :D
it's 3 am so pls forgive me if there's some mistakes lmAOOOO
(Wattpad readers better be glad i didn't prank yo ass)
EDITS - Added Teach, Perospero, Jabra, Bellamy, and Khalifa to the Love Interests.
see ya~!
-
Artwork Credits: Sylvain Sarrailh on Artstation