Ace,luffy and whitebeard pirates ✿✯

chapter 23 (2/2)

Both crews blink at them, then do a simultaneous: "EHHHHH?!"

Marco flips his arms exasperatedly. 'I shouldn't be surprised anymore. I'm done with this kid's secrets.' But then it clicks, why Luffy's hat annoys him so much. It's Shanks's.

'Of course.'

"Anchor, what the hell are you doing on Whitebeard's ship?!" Shanks demands, definitely not expecting this.

"I can't talk to you!" Luffy yells immediately. He runs back to the safety of his brother. Luffy immediately dashes behind the flame-user and peeks at Shanks cautiously.

"Wha-why not?!"

Luffy shuffles further behind Ace and looks at the ground uncertainly.

"We promised. The next time we meet I was going to be a great pirate..." He trails off, swinging his foot while speaking to the ground.

"How about this time, it doesn't count? You are not even a teen yet" Shanks suggests, wanting to see the boy. Obviously it doesn't take much convincing, as Luffy sprints back to Shanks and hugs him tight.

"Shanks!" Luffy yells with glee. Shanks laughs and swings the boy around. The thick atmosphere immediately eases and everyone watches the pair with mixed curiosity and awe.

Marco feels the air around him grow hotter and he looks beside him to see Ace, who is sporting a major unimpressed look.

"Luffy, what are you doing here?" Shanks asks again as he sets the boy back on his feet.

"The giant ossan (old man) helped me n' ace escape from village!" He responds. Shanks frowns, a little lost.

"And Why would you escape from village ?" Shanks asks with growing dread.

"Because grandpa's stupid people were after us."

Shanks grits his teeth and shoots a look over to whitebeard.

"Well, it has something to do with his heritage" whitebeard said.

"And wait! What is this luffy ?? What is this mark? What happened? Were you injured?" Shanks asked worried.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." Luffy says proudly, but Shanks sees through the lie.

"You're so strong Luffy." Shanks hugs the kid, much to Ace and Marco's annoyance. He's really proud of how Luffy's turning out.

"But what really happened? I mean how did you get hurt?" Shanks again asked.

"I don't remember the only thing I remember is that an admiral with magma and I got hurt from his magma" luffy said, Shanks grates his teeth together. He knows very well which admiral that is.

Luffy frowns at how upset Shanks is.

"Don't worry Shanks, I'm okay and it didn't even hurt."

Shanks grins and shoves the hat further on Luffy's head. "Who said I was worrying?" A softer smile forms on his lips.

Luffy giggles and Shanks hugs him tight. Marco shifts the collar on his shirt when the temperature rises again.

Whitebeard watches the two with interest. Obviously they have some sort of history with each other, and based on their interaction, it is a good one. He grins slyly when he realizes that Luffy may have been the 'thing' that Shanks was protecting from him.

Luffy breaks away from the hug when he spots the crew lined up along the railing of the Red Force. With a grand smile, he jogs up to them and waves enthusiastically.

"Hi Ben! Yasopp! Lucky Roo! Everyone!" The whole crew waves back and cheers their greetings with the exception of Ben, who merely smirks and raises a hand.