Eeyyyyy!!! Since this book is actually successful, if any of you wanna join my discord here's a link!
https://discord.gg/QEvKSBR
There aren't many people in it cause its still pretty new, but I'd love for you to join and get to know some of the readers!!!! I checked the demographics the other day and some of you live in pretty cool places!!!!
Also, Happy belated Birthday Sabo!!!! (It was yesterday, March 20)
Annnndddd heads up, this chapter is super long. Alright, that's all I wanted to say!
Enjoy the chapter!!!!
***
The swift tapping of combat boots pacing a wooden surface echoed loudly throughout the empty cabin.
Gruff voices and cheers could be heard from above, voices booming out as they sung along crudely to a medley on the piano. The notes were light and merry, just as you'd think a pirate ship would be as the crew partied.
The pacing stopped as the sole pirate staying below deck looked up to the ceiling and glared through it to the boisterous pirates above.
"Tch. Loud morons," grumbled the man as his pacing began once more, just a tad faster, allowing his eyes focusing back on something only he could see.
He closed his eyes and grips his sweaty palms into fists, trying to keep grasp on the thing in his hold.
"Darned kid's to persistent," growled the man as he continued the eternal battle for control.
After about six full minutes of mind battling he finally heaved a sigh of relief. Placing his large tan hands on the edge of his cluttered desk, he shifted his weight onto them, letting the desk share his burden of weight.
He smiled darkly to himself, the candle on his desk illuminating his features to make them all the more malicious. He had won the fight once more.
In all honesty it wasn't difficult anymore. The kid had started losing grip on his real sanity long ago, which made controlling him all the easier. His "masters" wanted back their little project, and it was his job to do so. He wanted his freedom, and he was going to get it no matter what the costs.
He tugged roughly at the metal collar around his neck, knowing what would happen if he did accidentally lose even once. One slip up, and he'd never get the chance to be free again. More than that, he'd lose the chance to be captive again, too. Can't do nothing as a dead man.
The squeak and swing of a wooden door caught his attention. He turned and saw his first mate enter the candle lit cabin.
The man was large and burly, sleek blond hair sticking down to his skull with a dull shine of gel. He had a deep scar running from the centre of each cheek and crossing over the bridge of his crooked nose.
A blue and white suit was his choice of clothing, with a red and maroon tie to match. It wasn't tied properly, but he didn't seem bothered by it.
"How's it go Capitan?"
His voice was cocky and had the rasp of a chain smoker.
"Think I'm finally winning the brat over. Don't understand how anyone could possibly be that cheerful," replied the captain.
The first mate nodded and took a seat in a red vinel chair that rested up against the wall.
He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it, taking a nice slow drag as the smell of cloves and tobacco filled the room.
The smoke whisped round both men as a thoughtful silence sunk into their conversation, the ruckus of above deck and the ticking of a broken clock being the only noise still going.
"He's with Whitebeard, ya know," said the captain causally as he looked at the man in the red chair.
The first mate let out another puff of smoke, a small sigh accompanying it. "Yep," he recalled, "Ya told us that a while ago. Sucks that it takes so much focus. Must be weird to constantly be poking around in someones brain."
The captain scoffed. "It's difficult, that's for sure. Idiots don't even known something's up yet. Kid does though. Don't know how he figured it out. He tried to tell em' few hours ago."
The first mate raised his head and cocked an eyebrow at this information.
"Really now? That's a first," he commented thoughtfully.
The captain nodded. "He's a strange one. If it hadn't been for the fact that he already had the trauma going for him, and that he ended up trusting me- naïve lil brat- this would've been down right impossible to do."
The first mate laughed shortly, resting his free hand on his knee.
"He's that strong willed, eh?" He chuckled, "Well that is unusual. But then again, I guess not just anyone could be the son of a Revolutionary," The scarred man tapped his cigar On the chair arm to rid it of the charred grey tip, glancing up at his captain, "Ya got a plan to get him back?"
The captain lifted his left arm, on the end of it fitted a menacing sliver hook, gleaming fire in the candle light. A evil grin spread cross his oily face to show yellow teeth, one of which was gold.
"I wouldn't be a very good slave trader if I didn't."
***
Sabo repositioned himself on the wide arm rest of Whitebeard's seat, observing the deck from this new vantage point. Sure, he'd been up here before, just yesterday in fact, but that had been in the middle of chaos so there hadn't been much time to take in the view.
It was 10 AM, and many crew members were fixing sails and lifting crates to carry them off other places either below or around the open platform.
His brothers were currently below the deck, because Luffy had decided he was not leaving their room for the rest of the day.
Ace had said he'd make sure to change his mind on that before dinner.
They had been taking turns watching Luffy, because while they loved their lil' rubber boy, they were also restless ten-year-olds who could barely sit still for a second, much less 24 hours.
Right now, it was Sabo's turn to do whatever he wished around the ship. He had chosen to spend it on deck and figured he might as well listen to his Captain's stories while he was at it.
"So, my son," Whitebeard boomed with his large voice, "you've heard of all my adventures, now what about yours?"
Sabo tilted his head to the right in a confused expression. "What do you mean? Before we were kidnapped we had lived out entire lives on Dawn Island. We don't really have any adventures to speak of."
Sabo's voice got lower and a bit sad at the end of his explanation, drooping his head bit to look at his twiddling thumbs.
Whitebeard studied the blue boy for a bit and smiled widely. "Well then, tell me of your life on Dawn Island. You boys are quite rambunctious. I expect you did a lot."
Sabo looked up at the giant man, a smile playing on his lips.
"Lived in the woods, for the most part. There was a town but it was pretty awful. Then there was Luffy's village. Makino live there, and she was really nice, " Sabo started saying with great enthusiasm.
"Makino, eh? And who was she? " Whitebeard wondered allowed.
Sabo answered quite willingly. "She was a friend of Luffy's from before he met us. If you exclude..... Those years, we've actually only known each other for a little over a year. Seems like forever though... "
Whitebeard laughed, "Family can be funny like that. Nowadays, it's hard to remember a time when I didn't have this crew as my own family, and yet, some of them just joined up mere weeks ago!"
Whitebeard three back his head and laughed happily at the thought, and Sabo chuckled along.
Then Whitebeard asked, "What did you three do in that year? Bet it was something outrageous if it only took that short time for you to be so close. "
Sabo smirked and nodded. "Oh yeah. When we first met Luffy, Ace tried to kill him a bunch of times. He was only four then, so you can imagine how surprised we were when he'd come back perfectly fine every time we ditched him. But after a while, we grew to like Luffy and then we all did everything together! We even hunted a giant tiger once. " Sabo recalled with an enormous, slightly guilty smile.
Whitebeard raised his eyebrows in amazement. "A tiger, eh? I bet whoever was taking care of you sure had a time with that one," he jested with bright eyes.
"We were raised by bandits!" He stated happily.
Whitebeard laughed heartily and took a swig of bitter liquor from a mug he had been holding.
"My, my! " Whitebeard commented, "That explains quite a bit, actually, Gurararara!"
Sabo puffed out his cheeks and crossed his arms, glaring up playfully at the old man. "What's that supposed to mean! I know those two are hooligans but I was raised up proper!" He exclaimed hotly.
Whitebeard raised an amused eyebrow to the blond boy. "You were raised proper, eh? And what's so different about you if all three of ya were raised by bandits?"
Sabo's burned red as he realised what he had just announced to the Old Captain.
He stumbled over his words as he tried to come up with an excuse. "Well - I uh.... You see I'm not like 'em cause I joined later and..." He trailed off and glanced up to see a very confused Whitebeard looking at him.
Sabo sighed and groaned into his hands, giving up on excuses and settling for the truth.
"I'm not like them cause I'm the son of a noble," he muttered bluntly into his hands.
He's waited for some sort of answer, but one didn't come. He'd done it now. He was going to get him and his brothers kicked off to the ship because of his stupid lineage. What was he going to do-
Sabo's head shot up and stared in blank shock as he watched his Captain laugh louder than ever. Throwing his head back with tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard. For some reason, this made Sabo mad. Why the heck was he laughing!? This wasn't funny!
Sabo stood and pointed an angry finger at the man. "Why are you laughing! It's not funny!" He yelled, tears pricking the corners of his bright blue eyes.
Whitebeard quieted and cast gleaming eyes down to the boy. "And why shouldn't it be!?" He smiled, " It's not like it matters! "
Sabo looked up in distress at the man. He just didn't get it!
"It does matter!" Sabo yelled back desperately, "I'm the son of a noble! Do you know who nobles work for!? Celestial Dragons! That's who! My family works for the same people that destroyed my little brother!"
He was crying now, hard and with no sign of stopping. "It's all cause of idiots like my father that we got kidnapped. People like me."
Whitebeard gazed sympathetically at Sabo. These kids really did have it rough. Whitebeard wondered for how long this child had been blaming himself for what had happened to them.
He wrapped his giant hands around Sabo securely in a warm and gentle hug, letting the ten-year-old cry into his chest.
"It's not your fault my son," he said quietly so that only Sabo could hear. His outburst had drawn a few eyes on the deck, but they had all known better than to interfere. If he was with Whitebeard, everything would be fine.
Whitebeard pulled Sabo a little ways away from him so he could look him directly in the eye.
"You had no choice in where you were born. Whether it be the lowest beggar or the highest king, we were all born children of this sea. That's all this crew cares about. I'm sure your brothers feel the same way."
Sabo's eyes grew wide as he processed what he had just been told. They didn't care. He knew that and yet...
"You don't think.... They hate me?" Sabo asked hesitantly, not able to look the Captain in the eye.
Whitebeard laughed, much quieter, but still full heartedly as always. He took his large hand and gently patted Sabo on the head, ruffling his hair a bit.
"With how close you all are? I'm sure it never even crossed their minds."
Sabo smiled at that. Of course they wouldn't blame him. What a silly thing he'd been telling himself for all these months. But now that he had heard Whitebeard's words, he was wondering something else.
"You know..." Sabo started, earning back Whitebeard's attention, "I'm not the only one with a screwed up history."
Whitebeard chuckled. "No, I'm sure your not. But there are plenty of people on this ship with a history they'd rather forget about. You don't gotta tell me anything, boy. We can take things as they come."
Sabo looked down nervously to his right, eyes laying on the wood of the enormous chair arm he was currently sitting on.
"Yeah, I guess. But I'm not to sure they would possibly be as.... Interesting."
Whitebeard didn't comment on that last bit, though it was intriguing.
They let a comfortable silence take place of the conversation as they each overlooked the massive deck and all the workings of it. A light sea breeze blew across the deck, billowing the ship forward as the flapping of the sails sounded pleasantly in the pirates ears. A seagull squawked from above in the cloudless crystal blue sky, landing proudly on the mast running through the lookout which held the Whitebeard Pirates jolly roger.
The two sitting on the ships throne simply enjoyed these things. Sabo was taking advantage of the peace he had so longed for and Whitebeard was watching as his family worked alongside each other.
The only thung that could've made it better would be a good book and his siblings sitting next to him being their old selves. Someday, Sabo knew that his dream would become reality, but until then, this was good enough.
Beneath the deck, Ace was playing cards with Luffy. Ace had never known Luffy to be able to stay still for a whole game, but they had just finished their third and started a fourth. Ace was watching Luffy carefully. He was looking over the nervous straw hat boy for any signs that he was getting too stressed.
A few hours ago, Aria came in to talk to Luffy. She had said he would be okay and to just let him do what he wanted for the day, but Ace thought something strange about the look on her face. She had said he was just fine, but her eyes were filled with worry. Ace had decided to keep a closer eye on Luffy today just in case.
Ace had won all three matches so far, and as far as he could tell, Luffy was just playing mindlessly.
They were currently playing a silent game of crazy 8's*. They were only a few turns in but Luffy's hand was already filled with cards, to the point his small hands were having a hard time holding them. Ace sighed inwardly and decided to give him a few easy chances so that he wasn't struggling so much with his cards.
So, even though he did have an eight in his hand as well as plenty of spades, he drew a card. He looked up at Luffy, who gutted his eyebrows and slowly picked a card from his hand and placing it on the growing stack.
It was a queen of hearts.
The current card was a four of spades.
Ace eyes the card and then Luffy, who was waiting for Ace to take his turn as if nothing was wrong.
Ace bounced ideas as to what he should do around in his head like a Windows sleep screen, each proposition that came to mind a new little burst of colour.
He eventually decided on one and looked up at Luffy hesitantly.
"Uhm... Luffy?"
Luffy titled his head to the side cutely, his large, wide chocolate eyes gazing expectantly at Ace.
Ace laid his cards face down on the bed and rubbed his neck sheepishly with his left hand. He let his eyes travel back over to Luffy and he smiled slightly when he saw Luffy had copied him, also laying his cards face down on the bed.
Ace chuckled as he watched Luffy's expression grow confused.
"Do you know how to play crazy 8's?"
Luffy was quiet for a second as he thought about what he'd been asked, then shrugged in reply.
"'Dun know," he said simply.
Ace laughed, shaking his head at his little brothers naïvity.
"Lu, you don't know how to play crazy 8's, so you?" He asked with a grin.
Luffy offered a small smile, his hands resting in his criss-crossed lap.
"Nope!" He stated brightly, as if it was plain as day, and, of course, it was.
"Of course not," Ace said as if he had known all along.
Ace then tried for a good twenty minutes to explain how the game worked, but to no avail. Ace couldn't tell if he was just unable to grasp the concept of if he didn't want to get what was going on. Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter, Luffy being who he is, so he just let the game continue on but this time they played on Luffy's terms.
It was an incredibly confusing game to say the least.
After an hour of what had been deemed "Luffy's Game", Ace started to wonder where Sabo had gotten to. It had been 15 minutes over the time he was meant to be back and he was getting restless being couped up in their small one-windowed bedroom.
He stood up and began walking towards the door. Luffy went wide eyed and watched with panic as his elder walked toward the door.
"I'm not leaving Lu," Ace calmly and quickly reassured the boy, "I'm just peeking outside to see if Sabo's coming back."
Luffy instantly relaxed, his shoulders releasing their tension and slumping back into place; though he never tore his eyes away from Ace as he opened the door to see out.
Ace flashed a quick smile at Luffy before poking his head out into the dark hallway. He heard voices coming from his right and turned to see Izou speaking to one of his subordinates just a few yards down the hall.
His eyes lit up with opportunity as he watched the man Izou was talking to walk away to complete whatever task he had been deemed.
"Psst!!! Izou!" He whisper shouted with his hand cupped around his mouth to make the sound travel further.
Ace watched as Izou straightened at he heard his name, and swiveled his head to locate where the sound came from.
Ace moved his hand out and beckoned the commander over, and once noticed, Izou walked swiftly to the young freckled raven.
"What's up, kiddo?" He asked in a half whisper once close enough.
Ace glanced back into the room at Luffy, who was still staring with eyes bubbling concern, before signing and poking back up at Izou.
"Luffy doesn't wanna leave the room after what happened yesterday, and I need to get out," he explained, " Sabo was supposed to be back twenty minutes ago, but he hasn't. Probably got caught up looking at maps or something.... "
Izou nodded, showing he was keeping track, then asked, "Okay, but why did you need me?"
Ace looked up at the graceful man's painted face.
"Can you plleeeeaassssseee watch Luffy for a bit so I can go do d Sabo and drag his butt back here?" Ace begged with folded hands.
Izou blinked for a second, and then giggled, putting her fan up to his mouth to hide his laughter.I
He could take one look at Ace and tell he was as ansey to get out and do something, but he wasn't expecting to be asked in such a way; from Ace, no less.
"Alright, alright. No need to beg. I'd be happy to. I o my have about half an hour though, I have a meeting with my commission in forty five minutes and I've still gotta do a bit of prep."
Ace simply beamed up at Izou. He was so glad that the cross dresser had agreed to watch Luffy. He would've gone stir-crazy if he didn't get a breath of fresh air soon, and, lucky for him, Izou was one of the very few people that Luffy actually trusted.
"Thank you so much!" He exclaimed happily , opening the door a bit more to let Izou in so he could explain what was happening to Luffy.
Izou laughed once more and said it was no big deal, and then paused before entering as a thought crossed his mind.
"Will he.... Be alright with me being here instead of you?" Izou quizzed uncertainly.
Ace waves the thought off. "He'll be fine. You're one of the few people he's alright around."
Izou nodded and walked into the small room.
Luffy was still sitting on the floor with a deck of cards grasped in his hands and his hat resting upon his head as he stared up at Izou and Ace, dark brown eyes swimming curiously. His head tilted slightly to the right as he looked to as for answers for the commanders sudden appearance.
Ace grabbed Izou's hand and pulled him gently down to a crouching position closer to Luffy's level.
"Lu," Ace started, " Izou is going to stay here and play with you for a little bit so I can go find Sabo, okay? "
Luffy looked up at Izou, who smiled back down at the straw hat child warmly.
Luffy returned the gesture with a shaky grin. He then faced A e once more and asked, "You'll come back... Right?"
Luffy sounded so unsure it hurt Ace to have to leave him at all, but he just couldn't sit still any longer.
"Yeah," Ace replied gently, testing his hand on top of Luffy's hat, " I promise I'll be back real soon. Don't worry bud. "
Luffy nodded curtly in response.
Then Ace waves the two goodbye and left, closing the door behind him. Now all he had to do was fine that troublesome brother of his......
***
On the other side of the door, the room had grown quiet while Izou and Luffy sat on the slightly cold wood floor. Izou was watching Luffy, waiting for him to want to do something, and Luffy was staring blankly at the wall, cards still in his small frail hands.
It was rather... Awkward.
I'm attempt to start some small talk Izou tried to discreetly get the boys attention. He raised a hand to his red lips and pretended to clear his throat. However, he had not been expecting Luffy jump at the sound.
The boy turned around quickly while edging away from where he'd heard the noise. It was only once he realised that it was simply Izou (who had not been prepared for this at all and was now sitting wide eyed and watching these events play out) that he calm down and stop moving, now looking up at the feminine man with large, still slightly panicked eyes.
They stared at each other for a minute. Izou no longer knew what to say and didn't know what would happen if he did say something.
So, he didn't.
After a bit of just examining each other's eyes, Luffy diverted his to the floor and rubbed his thu!b against his deck of cards anxiously.
"S-sorry," he murmured to the ground.
Izou raised an eyebrow, but instead of asking a question he just sighed warily.
"You don't have to apologize," he said calmly, "I should've known an unexpected sound would scare you."
Luffy looked up with cloudy eyes, nodding nervously in acceptance of her apology.
Not that he thought he deserved it.
"Well, what would you like to do?" Izou asked kindly.
"Uhmmmm, " Luffy looked around the room and then finally let his eyes land on the cards in his hand.
He held the deck out, smiling up at Izou. "How 'bout cards? Ace was playing with me but....." He trailed off and looked behind Izou at the closed wooden door.
His chocolate eyes were hazy once again and that anxious gleam returned to their depths.
Izou quickly accepted the cards and successfully drew Luffy's attention back to him. He guessed that Luffy was feeling lonely without his siblings. No that he thought about it... If he didn't consider yesterday's crisis, this was the first time he'd been without them next to him.
"We can play cards," he agreed happily.
Izou began shuffling half the deck, give the other half to Luffy so he had something to focus on. Izou took the time to examine the boys current behavior to see where he stood mentally at the moment. Earlier that morning, the commanders, Captain, and Aria had all gotten together for a meeting about the boys. Whitebeard had informed that Sabo was apparently a noble, and the other two were something even more so, according to the boy.
Marco and Aria had given an update on Luffy. Marco said that the child had been hallucinating, though no one had known until yesterday. Aria had a fit about that, and added saying she thinks she found something unusual in Luffy's blood.
Everyone have her their full attention after that, but she didn't have anything else. Only that she knew it was there. The young doctor had been doing different tests on the kids blood to see if she could find anything, anything at all, that seemed wrong. Especially after the explanation she had gotten from Ace and Sabo that apparently even Luffy himself thought something was incredibly off.
It was unfortunately obvious to everyone who saw Luffy that he wasn't necessarily been getting better. And according to Aria, that wasn't good. In fact, he seemed to be even more unstable than he had been to begin with.
Sure, he knew a few more people now, but being able trust people was far from a fully functional human being.
And Luffy barely trusted anyone.
Currently, Luffy seemed normal, but his small frame was tense and stiff. He was still super thin and small for his age. No one knew why, but he didn't want to eat anything. Aria's assumption was that something happened on the ship to give him a bad association with food, and so his brain naturally denied it.
They hadn't been able to get any sort of account as to what has happened to Luffy while he was in captivity, unlike the other boys. If Luffy's experience had been similar to his siblings, it would have been much easier to find out what had happened. However, this was not the case, and so everyone knew very little when it came to Luffy's situation and how his mental health reflected it.
Izou noticed that Luffy had taken to shuffling his part of the deck by laying it out onto wooden floor and mixing everything together, like his hand was a wooden spoon and the cards were his soup.
He was only using one hand. As he finished shuffling his own deck, Izou looked up to see Luffy still gazing down while slowly stirring the cards with one hand. The other hand was glued tightly to his hats rim.
He's not touching anything Izou realised suddenly.
The child was usually clinging onto one of his brothers for dear life, especially after something particularly rattling, such as the battle from the other day. But right now, Luffy had no one to hold onto and anchor him to reality.
No wonder the kid was stressed out.
Izou gathered up Luffy half of the deck and rejoined them, giving it one last quick mix before dealing five cards to himself and the boy across from him.
"Alright, so you know how to play Go Fish, Luffy?" Izou questioned, rearranging the cards in his hands to help organize his thoughts.
Luffy nodded his answer and removed his hand from hat, grabbing his cards and copying Izou, repositioning them at random.
Izou chuckled to himself as he watched Luffy hold his cards. His small hands were having a bit of trouble coordinating how to hold the cards, and he eventually decided to hold them on top of each other, going through them one by one to look at them.
"You're the youngest, so you go first," Izou stated, waiting patiently for Luffy to pick a card.
" Okay..... Do you have a um-" Luffy put the card closer to his face to check and make sure the number was correct, "Six?"
Izou skimmed his cards and shook his head.
"Nope. Go fish!"
Luffy grabbed his card and then waited for Izou to ask for his own.
"Do you have a king?" Izou asked.
Luffy looked at his cards, then at Izou, then back at his cards, and then he went silent.
Izou cocked an eyebrow with an amused smile on his painted lips. "Luffy?"
Finally, Luffy spoke, though he didn't look up from his cards.
"I have one, but you can't have it!" He declared firmly.
Izou laughed , "And why, may I ask?"
"Because I'm gonna be King of the Pirates! Not you!" Luffy announced, quite sure if himself.
Izou had remembered that the straw hat child had indeed proclaimed this once before, and so has decided to go along with the knee rule:
Luffy gets to keep the Kings.
It has been a long while since he'd seen Luffy so sure if something, so he refused to take that away from him.
"Mmm Okay then," Izou agreed, smirking , "But if you get the Kings, I get the Queens. Because they are lovely like me."
Luffy's eyes here bright and a real smile stretched across his face. Izou didn't know people could smile like that. It was as if the sun itself had just entered the room.
"Deal!" Cheered Luffy.
Then, instead of handing over the Kings, he gave Izou two Queens*, making him one short of a book.
The game went on like this for a while, Luffy ending up with all the Kings and Izou with the Queens as promised. When the game had finished, they had miraculously come to a tie, each having eight books.
Izou wasn't sure if the deck was incomplete or if they were just playing with strange cars, but either way Luffy hadn't cared.
The boy was rather pleased with himself for getting all the Kings, and was now hugging his hat to celebrate the win.
"Hey, Luffy," Izou asked, calling the kids attention.
Luffy looked up from his hat and tilted is head slightly to show he was ready for a question.
"Where'd ya get that old hat from anyway? It looks.... Familiar," Izou quizzed, trying to dig up the memory the straw hat reminded him of.
Luffy smiled up at Izou brightly with this new change in topic and happily explained, "I got it from Shanks! He's who I promised to be the Pirate King too! I'm gonna beat him someday and be the strongest in the world. "
Izou could only sit and state blankly before confirming his thoughts.
Who else could it be?
"Luffy, you mean Shanks as in Four Emperors Shanks? Red Haired Shanks? That Shanks!?" He interrogated.
Luffy seemed to shrink a bit under the barrage of questions,backing just a touch away from Izou and holding his hat closer.
"That's the one..." Luffy confirmed in a much less enthusiastic tone than before.
Izou sighed inwardly, scolding himself for being overbearing the kid with so many questions one after the other.
He smiled kindly at the young boy to try and reassure him he hadn't done anything wrong.
"Shanks is a real popular guy, ain't he?" Izou offered.
Luffy nodded, but didn't say anything else. Izou could already tell that he had retreated back into his shell of safety and silence, and that he wouldn't come out again for a good long while. However, Izou felt he had made some headway with the kid. It had been the first time he'd held a real conversation with Luffy, and he even got the kid to smile. Surely those were worth something.
Izou looked down at the decorated watch on his wrist, and his eyes widened as he read the time. It'd already been thirty minutes, and Ace still hasn't come back. If he waited too much longer, he'd be late for his meeting.
"Lu, I'm gonna poke my head outside the door real quick and see if I can spot your brothers, alright?" Izou said while standing up gracefully from his previous sitting position.
Luffy nodded hesitantly, still focused on the straw hat in his hands as he gazed down blankly at the floorboards.
Izou sighed and made his way to the door, opening it just enough to step outside it partially.
He peered out from the open doorway and scanned both halls, trying to spot any sign of the kids in question. Not even laughter could be heard through the empty halls.
Well, this is bad, Izou thought to himself looking down at his gold engraved watch again. He had about fifteen minutes until his meeting started.
He glanced back at Luffy, who was still poking around with his deck of cards, straw hat resting on his lap.
If anything else, Izou couldn't deny that the kid had a cute sort of charm about him that seemed to follow him no matter what it was he was doing.
Izou pulled out of his thoughts and turned back to the hallway, hearing footsteps coming down the hall in the right hand side. He perked up upon seeing the large, black-bearded pirate waking down the dim corridor, whistling a merry tune to himself.
"Ey! Teach!" Izou called out, giving a little wave to signal the man over.
Teach raised an eyebrow at the commanders curious behaviour, but walked over all the same.
"Hey there, 16th Commander," the large man greeted gleefully, "what can I do ya for?"
Izou lowered his voice as he explained the situation, which seemed to be growing more complicated by the second.
"Ace left me here to watch Lu so he could look for Sabo, who was apparently lost... Or something. I have a mandatory meeting for my division in ten minutes that I'm probably already going to be late for," the cross dressing man took a pause for breath, pulling a stray strand of hair from his face and looking Teach in the eyes to ask his favour, "Do you think you could watch him for a tad? He won't leave the room and he's kinda on edge right now but I really can't wait for Ace to get back."
Teach laughed loudly and patted Izou's shoulder fondly.
"Course I'll watch the kid for ya! Ain't like I got something to do. Go on ahead to your meeting and I'll handle it from here."
Izou let out a sigh of relief. "I swear, Teach, you're a life saver!" He
He smiled and opened the door a bit more, calling out to Inform Luffy.
"Hey Luffy!"
Luffy looked up at Izou, wondering what all the talk was about. He'd had a weird feeling in his but for a bit now, but he wasn't sure what to make of it.
"Imma go to my meeting now, okay? I'm leaving Teach here to watch you, so don't worry about being alone," Izou said with a smile.
Luffy nodded slowly, the gears in his head still processing what he'd been told.
Teach... Teach... Where had he heard that before? And why did it make him so uneasy?
Izou his goodbye to Luffy and then hurried down the hallway to the room where his gathering was taking place, thanking Teach once more as he ran out.
Teach entered the small room, taking up most of the open space, and looked down to see the child he was supposedly taking care of.
A sense of foreboding crashes into Luffy like a wave in a storm, causing him to looking up at the person who now seemed to loom over top of him.
Fear quickly flooded his eyes as he saw the man entering the room. He's had seen him around the ship before, and Every time he did he made sure to keep his distance. Something was dark about this pirate; Luffy couldn't explain why, but he felt that the man shouldn't be trusted.
The cards in his hands dropped to the floor, flurrying around him in a chaotic mess. He gripped his hat right in his hands as his breathing quickened.
Teach approached Luffy, not taking notice of the sudden raise in anxiety that the child was currently seeping out in strong waves, almost like haki.taking
He bent down to Luffy's level best he could, Luffy inching away all the while.
"He there, twerp," the black eyed man said , then took notice of the scattered cards and queried "what'cha up to there?"
Luffy didn't answer, but merely looked up at the talk man with frightened eyes, like that of prey about to flee from a predator.
Luffy mumbled something inaudible, turning his head to the floor and vigorously rubbing the worn rim of his woven straw hat.
"Hmm?" Teach asked, raising an eyebrow with an overly big grin on his face.
"You aren't safe," Luffy repeated, just barely loud enough for the other pirate to hear.
Teach's smile grew tight and almost threatening as he leaned closer to Luffy from his half standing position.
"Is that so?" He said through gritted teeth.
Luffy flinched back at the words, not daring to look up at the dangerous man. It was cold and dark in his shadow, and he wanted to call for help and run as far as he could from here, but he also wanted to inch away into a nice corner and hide for a long, long, while.
"So, kid, what do you mean by "I'm not safe", you think I'm dangerous or something? "
It was a mystery to Luffy's mind how someone could sound so kind and yet make him fear for his life in a time so sweet and condescending it sent shivers up his spine.
Not knowing what else to do, and simply to scared to think straight, Luffy nodded.
Teach's smile fell like an old curtain on an abandoned motel window: dirty and overused.
In its place scowl like that of a result vile criminal. The Navy's definition of pirates finally had someone to fit the bill, but oh how much Luffy wished he hadn't discovered him.
"I'm not sure whether you figured it out, or if you just have as good of an intuition as your brothers say, but guess it's too late now," he stated darkly.
Luffy backed up from the man until he couldn't anymore, spine straight up against the wall farthest from the door; from escape.
Teach laughed, this time that underlying evil coming out in full. He wasn't playing anymore. He advanced closer to Luffy who just stared up in blank petrified horror, tears brimming his eyes and threatening to spill over.
"Stay away," Luffy could only murmur in a shallow, daunted voice.
Tech smiled cruelly at the child. "I deal in some shady businesses,and guess what brat? My new employee wants nothing more than to see you back in chains. "
Luffy trembled, unsure of what to do. He tried to sink farther into the wall, hoping that by some miracle it would disappear. When that didn't work, his reflexes of old kicked in and he attempted an attack.
"Gum gum pistol!"
His arm stretched up and out as he turned his head away from the man to keep from meeting his dark black eyes. The punch missed his skull by a good couple of inches, hitting the bed instead.
Before it was able to snap back in all the way, Teach grabbed the rubber arm and glared down at the terrified straw hat child.
"That's not funny, brat," Teach threatened menacingly , "it's not nice to hurt you nakama."
Luffy flinched violently at the word brat. It wasn't so much the word itself, no, in fact, people around the ship sometimes called him a nd his brothers that. BUt the time with which Teach had said it, the pure and unbridled hatred that laid beneath it-
It reminded him of the Celestial Dragons.
Luffy 's mind went blank as disparity took over and he tried cried out.
"Hel-
"Oh no you don't!"
Teach thrusted forward, releasing Luffy's arm and moving faster than a flash of light he pressed a large rugged hand right against Luffy's mouth, suppressing the rest of his short yelp.
Luffy went wide eyed from surprise as his arm snapped back into place and the band clapped over his mouth, clamping it shut. He couldn't look away from the eyes of the Pirate whose hate bore into Luffy's soul.
"Now listen closely," Teach hissed with baited breath, " I'm going to leave and you're not gonna say a single word about any of this to anyone, you got that? Yours gonna stay silent. A single peep and I'll kill you and everyone you think loves you."
Tears in Luffy's eyes overflowed into a waterfall. Teach removed his hand and tched in disgusted as Luffy chocked back sobs to try and keep quiet.
Teach left the room, closing the door silently and putting back in his cheery façade for all to see.
Luffy scampered over to the corner and instantly began hyperventilating, taking short, quick breath a of air between sobs.
His mind was to loud and it only caused more stress as he desperately struggled to keep himself quiet, thinking that at any moment that monster would hear him and slaughter everyone he ever cared about.
He clasped both hands over his mouth and hurried his head into his knees, muffling any and all noise he was creating.
Then, it suddenly occurred to Luffy that he was once again alone.
Isolated.
In danger.
He cried harder at this thought and black spots danced at the corner of his vision as the lack of oxygen to his lungs and brain took its toll on his small malnourished body.
He tried to take deep breaths like Sabo told him too but it did little to help anything. His mind just wouldn't let him do anything but panic as the adrenaline coursing through his veins controlled his every move.
He kept up this struggle for how long? He didn't know. But it felt dark. And lonely.
Because he was alone.
But he couldn't call for help.
He was trapped. And as far as he knew, no one was coming anytime soon.
*****
Terms and Phrases:
Crazy 8's
Basically the original Uno. But the 8's are the wild cards and there is no reverse or skip. Rounds can last a pretty long time.
A book in 'Go Fish'
In the version of 'Go Fish' where you use a standard deck, instead of matching two cards you usually collect all four of the same card instead, or, a book. These are the original rules of the game and if you've ever played 'Go Fish' in Webkinz, you probably know how to play quite well. Idk when they changed the rules, but this way has always been funner to me, so that's how they played.
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This chapter. Oh my gosh. I love it and I hate it cause it was so hard to writeeee. I literally almost made myself cry at the beginning. Bless lil' Sabo's heart.
And then of course there's Luffy. Just trying to protect his loved ones as always.
I can't believe how long this chapter is tho. Like bro 7,000+ words. *bows on hands and knees* please forgive meh. There was simply no good stopping point! ..... I swear that cliff hanger was an accident.
*Hides behind Marco*
Anywho, thank you all for reading!!! Sorry this is a day or two behind. I really tried to get it out on time but, low and behold, I got distracted by watching One Piece. Marineford. Why do I do this to myself. I actually wrote this fix because *spoiler alert* I needed Ace to still be alive.
And so now he is!
Ha ha ha! Take THAT Odachii!
Welp, thank you all for reading the chapter! And to that one person who somehow read the whole though under an hour yesterday! Quarantine may suck for the world, but us fan fiction writers are relishing in the extra attention.
Hope you all have a good week!
Chão!!!
Word Count: 7544