Archive of Our Own ^beta

Luffy hummed a quiet tune, swinging his hands that were holding both Ace and Sabo’s own hands. That morning they had to rush to get out of their house on time as they woke up a bit late. They had to quickly prepare Luffy’s backpack and leave so they could drop Luffy off to Makino’s place, which they were currently walking to.

Their Gramps, Garp, had gotten called in for work and couldn’t be there to look after Luffy. And when Luffy’s Gramps has to leave to somewhere, it was usually very sudden for long periods of time. Most likely not going to come back for a while— the last time this happened was around 4 months ago, so they tend to struggle with the sudden change the first few days.

During those times, Luffy is usually left to be dropped off with Makino until Sabo and Ace can get done with school. Luffy, being only 3 (almost 4) years old didn’t quite get what exactly it is you do at a school, but it sounded exciting!

Sabo tried to explain it to him once that a school is where you go to learn, meet a lot of new people and make new friends. Ace snorted at Sabo’s explanation.

Ace said that school was boring and all you do is sit there, listening to someone else speak for hours on end. Also that a lot of people ask for favors, as most can’t do shit on their own, Ace’s words not Luffy’s.

Luffy still didn’t quite understand, but Sabo said to not listen to Ace or worry about it yet, so he agreed— Ace rolled his eyes, to which Sabo smacked him on the back of his head.

Serves you right, Ace! After all, Sabo’s smart and would never lie to him!

The sound of a door opening snapped Luffy out of his thoughts. Completely forgetting what he was just previously thinking about. When he spots Makino, he quickly runs to give her a big hug, as she giggles.

“MAKINO!!!”

“Luffy! How are you? It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you boys,” Makino crouched giving Luffy a big hug, then turned to face Ace and Sabo, “I heard from Garp that he got another case?” Luffy wasn’t sure what it was his Gramps does, but it must be important. He thinks his Gramps once said something to him, but he wasn’t really listening.

“Yeah, you know the old man. Can never say no to a case.” Ace replied yawning, Sabo elbowed him.

“Thank you again for always watching Luffy for us last minute, Makino,” Sabo smiled handing Makino Luffy’s backpack to her.

“It’s not a problem at all! Luckily I had the day off today and I love having Luffy around!” This conversation was boring, fidgeting in place, Luffy was starting to get a bit hungry now.

“Makino, I’m hungry! Do you have any food?”

“Hold on for just a minute Luffy. I’ll make sure to get you something to eat after I finish talking to your brothers okay?”

“But I’m hungry and bored…” Luffy pouted, he hate staying still for too long.

“Hmm…maybe you should go see if Shanks can make you something to eat!” Luffy’s eyes widened, a grin stretching across his face.

“Shanks is here!?”

Makino giggled, she knew just how much Luffy looks up to her boyfriend, idolizing him— and vice versa, Shanks adored Luffy, as if he was his own. “Yep, I’m sure he would love to see you! Why don’t you go find him. Last I saw, he was in the living room.” Forgetting about his hunger, he was now just excited to see Shanks.

“Okay!” Luffy is quick to scramble off into Makino’s apartment. Once he spots Shanks’ red hair near the couch, head facing the TV, Luffy quietly sneaks behind. Trying to muffle his giggles, Luffy pounces over the couch onto Shanks— startling the man.

“What the-? Luffy!” Shanks grabs Luffy before he can abscond, quickly tickling him into the couch. Luffy manages to briefly get away from the onslaught of tickles delivered by Shanks, flipping around to start army crawling away on his belly, laughing. In his attempts to escape again, Shanks grabs Luffy by his ankles to drag him back so he can tickle him some more. All their rough housing causes them to knock the too big strawhat off Luffy’s head, as it gently comes rests on his back.

“What are you doing here anchor? I thought you wouldn’t be here yet, not that I am not glad you’re here now.” Shanks beams, “Oh, and I see you are still taking great care of our treasure, huh!”

Luffy laughs. Shanks grins, letting go of Luffy so he can hop onto his feet again as Luffy raised his arms in excitement.

“Gramps went to work again! And Sabo and Ace got school! So now I’m here to play!”

“Is that so? Well then I guess we’ll get to have a lot of fun today!” Luffy eyes light up, jumping up and down. Shanks quickly stops him before he hurts himself by falling off the couch.

“Yeah! We should go to the park or— or the movies,” Luffy gasps in excitement. “Shanks let’s go fishing!!”

“That sound like a good idea Luffy, but I think today Makino needed me to help her fix her bathroom sink.”

Luffy deflates, pouting in disappointment. “Awwww, but I wanted to go fishing with you…”

Shanks ruffles Luffy’s hair. “Sorry Luffy, maybe another time,” Shanks hums in thought. “I know! Why don’t I make it up to you, are you hungry right now? How about I get you something to eat.” Shanks smiles at Luffy, as he gets up to go towards the kitchen.

“Really?! Okay, I forgive you!” Luffy smiles wide, jumping up onto Shanks’ back, hanging off him.

“Oh, thank goodness you forgave me, anchor! I would have been so sad if you hadn’t.” Shanks said over dramatically, looking at Luffy over his shoulder, giving his best sad looking face, but that only causes Luffy to giggle.

“Shishishishi, silly Shanks. Of course I would forgive you! You’re my friend after all!” Shanks had to look away from Luffy’s beaming smile. Luffy was just too adorable. At that time Makino’s voice cut through before Shanks could die of cuteness overload because of Luffy.

“Luffy! Your brothers are about to leave, come say goodbye!”

Shanks used his arms to support Luffy on his back in a piggyback ride, walking over towards the front doorway. “Come on anchor, let’s go say bye to your brothers shall we?”

“…Okay…”

Shanks knew how sudden Luffy’s mood can shift when his brothers had to leave, going from happy one moment to almost sad, “What’s wrong anchor?”

Luffy pouts, looking away obviously lying. “…Nothing…”

“…Are you sad your brothers have to go, Luffy?” Shanks teases, this startles Luffy, causing him to burst out in denial, yanking some of Shanks’ hair in annoyance.

“No! Stupid Shanks! I’m not sad, see! I’m not crying because I’m a big boy!”

“Okay, if you say so,” Shanks did not sound convinced at all. Luffy huffs, he’s not going to cry just because his brothers have to go.

He’s not sad. Definitely not.

Shanks, with Luffy still on his back trying not to be too upset, walks over to the front door where Makino, Ace, and Sabo stand waiting for their arrival.

When Shanks and Luffy get close enough to the front door, Luffy squirms off of Shanks’ back running over to Ace and Sabo. Once near them, Luffy gives both of them a big hug with a little difficulty, resulting in both older brothers to bend down to Luffy’s height in order to return his hug. If they both heard soft whimpers and felt shaking, they didn’t say anything.

“Lu, what’s wrong?” Ace asks softly, a rare softness Ace only shows to those he cares about. Sabo runs his hand through Luffy’s messy hair from his scuffle with Shanks earlier, whispering soft reassuring words into his ear.

“………” Luffy is trying really hard not to cry, he hates it when ever his brothers have to leave him, even if it is for a short amount of time— he hates being alone or left behind. Even though they have done this a million times already— it never truly does make it any easier. And although Makino and Shanks will be there with him, he will still really miss them the most.

“Lu…Hey, can tell us what’s wrong?” Sabo is the first to pull away from their little group hug— how Sabo got the strength to do so, Ace will never know. Sabo takes Luffy’s tear stained, snotty face into his hands, wiping the tears away from his little face.

“Oh, Lu…What are we going to do with you? You’re a big boy now right? You’ll be okay, I promise. You’re a tough little guy! Just you wait and see, time will fly by so fast you won’t even realize we were gone in the first place!” Ace ruffles Luffy’s head, standing back up, eventually pulling his strawhat back up onto Luffy’s head where it rightfully belonged.

“Luffy, we’ll be sure to come get you right away once school ends, okay? Can you hold on for us till then?” Sabo stood up besides Ace, smiling softly towards Luffy.

Luffy nods his head in understanding, swallowing his tears, trying to keep from crying again as he rubbed his tears and snot from his nose onto the back of his hand— Sabo will have to remind Luffy how to blow his nose properly again.

“I-I’ll try for Sabo a-and Ace…come back soon, okay? I’ll miss you both! Bye-bye.” Luffy gave them a small wave, as Ace and Sabo waved bye, turning and leaving. Once the door was shut, Makino turned to Luffy.

“Would you still want some food, Luffy?” Luffy smiled, food will definitely help lift his mood.

It was almost lunch time now and luffy couldn’t wait! It was probably one of his top favorite times of the day. It was too bad his brothers had high school and couldn’t eat Makino’s amazing food. Thinking about that made Luffy feel really bummed out— why does his brothers have to leave him for dumb reasons! Why couldn’t he go with them?

As Luffy sat at the dining room table, coloring while he waited for Makino to get his food out of his backpack, he heard the rustling of Makino rummaging through his bag stop. Luffy looks up in confusion.

“Oh dear,” Makino takes out three large different colored bentos (they all eat a lot, so they all need big bentos) from his backpack, two of them looked an awful lot like Sabo and Ace’s bentos.

“Those look like Ace and Sabo’s bentos! Are those for me too?”

“I don’t think so Luffy. If you want anymore food I’ll just make more for you,” Makino places Luffy’s bento in front of him, which he quickly starts working at. “But this is a problem, I think your big brothers made a mistake and put their bentos in with yours.”

Makino pauses as she stares down at the bentos in front of her— thinking about what to do.

Suddenly she gets an idea. This morning Ace and Sabo expressed concern to her about Luffy. As much as they loved Luffy, they wanting to help him become a bit more independent and responsible as he started developing anxiety whenever he is left alone. This morning’s display is just an example of it.

With her mind made up, she decided that she would send Luffy on his first errand! He was about at that age too of being able to go on errands on his own. Luffy just needs a little push to get started.

Luffy tilts his head, mid bite of his food “Meatstake?”

“Mistake, Luffy,”

Luffy swallows, nodding his head, “That’s what I said, but what does that mean?”

“It’s when you slip-up by chance.” Luffy makes a noise of understanding, smiling widely at Makino.

“Oh! Sabo says Ace tends to do that a lot!”

“Luffy, what do you say we should do? Your brothers are at school and probably won’t have anything to eat for lunch!” Luffy gasps, that would be bad! Luffy doesn’t want his brothers to starve!

“We need to take it to them right away, Makino!” Luffy hops out of his chair— stuffing the rest of the food into his mouth.

“That’s a great idea Luffy!” Luffy beamed at the praise.

Makino gasps, Luffy tilts his head questioningly. “Oh no, luffy I almost forgot Shanks needs his lunch and I haven’t made it yet, what will we do?” In reality, Makino did make him lunch she just put it in the fridge, but Luffy doesn’t need to know that. Makino hopes Luffy will buy her lie.

Luffy gasp, “But we can’t let Sabo and Ace starve!”

Makino pretends to think as Luffy stares up at her expectantly.

“Hmmm, I know,” she bend down toward him, “Luffy will you be able to deliver their bentos to them by yourself?” Luffy pauses at the suggestion.

“I know you know how to get to their school. Remember you would always tell me how big it looked every time you walk by it. It’s only about 10 minutes away from here. You can do it right?”

Luffy slowly nods his head fidgeting with his hands. “But Makino, I’ve never been in there by myself before…”

Makino rubs Luffy’s face off crumbs from his lunch. “That’s okay you can just ask someone if they can tell you where Ace and Sabo are. Can you do that?”

“…I guess I can…” Luffy looks down at his feet shuffling them nervously.

“Luffy look at me,” Makino holds his hands in her own, squeezing them. Luffy looks at her, “You don’t have to do this if it makes you too nervous,” She gives him a kind smile, she won’t force him to do it if he doesn’t want to.

Luffy almost looked like he wanted to cry, but firmly balled his hands at his side.

“I want to! I don’t want Ace and Sabo to die!” Makino smiles.

Bit of an exaggeration there Luffy, but at least he looks more determined . She thinks.

“Alright, then let me go get your bag ready for your adventure!” Makino gets up, walking over to the bentos to put them in Luffy’s bag.

“Adenture!?” Luffy jumps at the word in excitement, he’s never been on an adventure before! (He probably has but doesn’t really remember it) “Is it like a adenture that pirates go on?!”

Makino hums walking back over towards him, ignoring his mispronunciation, “I guess in a way it is, but instead of looking for treasure, you’re looking for other pirates! Turn around please.” Luffy turns around as Makino slips his backpack onto his back.

“Now Luffy this is a charm to keep you safe while you go out on your journey, make sure you don’t lose it. And I’m going to put this sticker on your shirt so people can see you’re on your first errand.” Makino slips a little red sling bag around Luffy and sticks on the sticker. With one last check over to make sure Luffy has everything he needs, they head to the door together.

At that time Shanks walks out of the hallway leading to the bathroom, a bit soaked in water, noticing them by the front door. “Oh, where are you guys going?”

Makino and Luffy look over towards Shanks. “Shanks, I’m going on a abvebture to bring Ace and Sabo their lunch so they don’t die!” Luffy exclaims throwing his arms up in the air.

“Adventure, Luffy,” Shanks corrected, “Wow, that’s great Luffy, should I go with yo—“ Shanks noticed the glare Makino gives him, quickly shutting him up. Luffy tilts his head in confusion, but shrugs it off.

“That’s what I said, silly Shanks! I’m going to be a great pirate explorer and find a lot of pirate booty!”

“And to find other pirates, namely your brothers, right Luffy?” Makino giggled.

“Yeah, that too!”

Makino opens the door for Luffy, “Before you leave, this letter is for Ace and Sabo, okay? Make sure they gets it. And this,” Makino shows him a pack of fruit gummy’s, “is a little snack you can eat while you are traveling,” Makino puts both the fruit gummy’s and letter in one of his pants pockets. “Now, have a safe trip, make sure when you cross the street you look both ways and raise your hand up high!”

Luffy nods his head, making a small noise in acknowledgment. “Bye-bye Makino, Shanks!”

Makino and Shanks wave after him as they watches him carefully descend the stairs. Once he is out of their sight, Makino turns to Shanks, “A word Shanks?”

Once Luffy reaches the bottom of the staircase, he starts heading left towards the school. He’s taken this route many times with Ace and Sabo before when they had to go to the store, so he knows where he is going…probably.

As Luffy walks along the sidewalk, he finds a big stick. As quickly as his little legs could carry him, he plucks it off the ground, tapping it along the sidewalk as he continues on. He starts humming a tune as he walks by a big tree, seeing a beetle at its base.

This causes him to stop and crouch down to get a better look at it, dropping his stick in the process. He really wants to catch it right now, but where could he put? He didn’t bring his insect cage with him.

He wants to catch it really bad!

He could just catch it, but then where would he put it? Despite Luffy’s previous dilemma, he decides to catches the beetle anyways. With quick hands Luffy grabs the beetle and quickly shoves it into his pocket that doesn’t have the letter or snack in it. Hopefully it doesn’t escape or die.

Getting back up, Luffy continues on. Luffy eventually manages to make it half way again before stopping, there was something really yummy smelling coming from the park across the street. He usually goes to that park with Sabo and Ace, if they aren’t busy. It should be alright if Luffy makes a quick detour toward the park, right?

He walks over towards the crosswalk to go right, reaching up as he tries to press the button to cross the street, going on his tip toes to press it.

Luffy tilts his head mumbling to himself, “…Now what was it that Makino said to do when crossing the street?”

In the distance, Shanks watches from behind the tree Luffy was just at with sunglasses and a fake mustache on. He must look like a creep spying on a kid, but Makino asked him to make sure Luffy got to the high school safely and to take pictures if possible. He can’t deny Makino anything, she’s got him wrapped around her fingers after all.

What is Luffy doing thought, the school is not that way!? Shanks thinks as he watches Luffy as he managed to press the button to go towards the park, mumbling to himself.

Once the light turns into a little man to signal Luffy could start walking. Shanks watches as Luffy looks left, then right. Seeing as the coast was clear Luffy started walking across with both arms raised up high. Making it all the way across the street.

Well close enough … Shanks thinks as he snaps a picture of Luffy crossing the street. He’s so cute , Shanks thinks as he quickly makes haste to try and cross the street as well.

Luffy finally made it to the park giving a sniff to try and locate where the smell was coming from. As he walks through the park, he looks around. Finally spotting a food cart a bit away from the entrance of the park. He also spots a familiar looking green haired neighbor of his surrounded by what looks to be mean looking older kids and a smaller scuffed up pink haired kid. They were in the opposite area from the food cart.

“Oooh! It’s Zoro! Oiii~ Zoro, what are you doing here!?” Luffy quickly runs over towards Zoro. Zoro is his neighbor and two years older than him, he is super cool! Luffy doesn’t have a lot of friends his age, due to being younger and only really interacting with family. But as much as Zoro denies being friends with Luffy, he never pushes Luffy away, so they must be friends!

“Huh?” Zoro looks towards Luffy and immediately gets pushed down by one of the bullies. Luffy gasps and rushes over to help Zoro. Once Luffy is in range he helps Zoro off the ground.

“Luffy? What are you doing here?” Ignoring Zoro’s question Luffy rounds his attention towards the mean older kids.

“That wasn’t nice, say sorry to Zoro now!” Luffy demands making the older kids snicker meanly.

“Ooh, so scary. What are you going to do about it, huh?” The leader, or what Luffy thinks is the leader of the bullies, says.

“Yeah, we’ll just beat you up like we did to that boy over there,” One of the goons points towards the pink haired kid.

“Luffy-san, right? Come on it’s not worth it, let’s just go…” The pink haired boy says trying to pull Luffy away, Luffy shrugs him off.

Luffy glares at the bullies, before he unexpectedly jumps towards the leader of the bullies catching him off guard.

“Gahh!? What the—!?” Luffy starts kicking, biting, and hitting the bullies. Anything that could hurt them! They messed with his friend after all, they can’t get away with that!

Zoro grins in amusement, taking his bamboo sword out of his training bag he had on him and starts whacking at the other two bullies that were there.

By the time Luffy and Zoro were finished, the older kids started running away in fear and shame from getting beaten by two kids younger than them.

“Shishishi, we really showed them didn’t we Zoro?” Luffy rubs the dirt off from his cheek, fixing his clothes and putting his strawhat back on his head as it fell off onto his back in the scuffle.

Zoro huffs, “Heh, yeah we sure did. You know, you’re crazy Luffy, but also brave for doing that. Thanks for the help.”

Luffy’s eyes light up, “Does this mean we’re friends now! Hurray!!” Luffy cheered. Zoro just shakes his head smiling, “Sure, why not. So why are you here? I saw you and your brothers leave this morning, where are they?”

“Oh! That’s right, I’m a pirate on an absenturn to bring my brothers their lunch! They forgot it in my bag, so Makino is sending me to give it to them! But then I smelled something really good this way!”

Zoro hummed in interest, “Is that so?”

“What are you doing here Zoro?” Luffy asked.

“Well I was heading to my kendo lessons… I could have sworn it was this way. But, then I saw that kid there getting beat up trying to protect a girl,” Zoro points towards the pink haired boy, “That reminds me where did that girl go?”

“Umm, Zoro-san and Luffy-san right? Thank you for helping me out, I thought I could do something, but I guess I was wrong,” the boy said sheepishly, “My name is Koby by the way.”

Luffy gave Koby a big grin patting him on the back a bit harshly causing him to stumble. “Shishishi, it’s no problem Koby! I’m just glad you aren’t hurt! I’m Monkey D. Luffy, nice to meet you! Let’s be friends!”

“O-okay! It’s nice to meet you too Luffy-san!” Koby blinked, I guess they’re friends now. Koby smiles, he doesn’t have a lot of friends.

Luffy turned towards the food stand a bit away from them, “Now, I’m going to go over there to get food!”

Zoro and Koby follow after Luffy as he runs over to the food stand.

“Hello there young man, what can I get for you?”

“Can I get whatever that is that smells really good?!” Luffy drools, it smelled heavenly.

“Why certainly, give me a second.” The old man running the food stand turned around preparing the food. Once he was done he handed Luffy the hotdog. He quickly started eating it. “That’ll be $4!” Luffy gulped down the last bite of the hotdog.

“I don’t have money right now, but you can add it to my pirate treasure tab!”

The old man looked at Luffy, frowning. “Young man, you can’t just get food without money.”

Zoro and Koby watched the exchange happen going to speak up, but suddenly stopped when a familiar looking red haired girl stepped past them standing besides Luffy.

“Sorry mister, my friend here can be so forgetful sometimes. Here you go,” she hand the food stand owner a pile of crumpled up bills, quickly pushing all three boys away from the stand. “Have a nice day.” She calls back, still ushering the three boys away.

Once out of ear shot of the food stand owner, she whispered to them, “Run!” They distantly heard the old man shout, “Hey,” but by that time they were gone to another part in the park.

“Shishishi, that was fun! Thanks for the save!” Luffy laughed, the redhead girl looking back to make sure no one followed them turns back towards him, smacking him on the head.

“You idiot! Why would you go get food without any money?!” The girl said in disbelief groaning, “I had to use the only money I had left of my allowance.” Which was only two dollars, but she crumpled it up that it was hard to tell at first glance it was only two dollars.

Zoro steps in, “Well, why did you leave after Koby saved your butt from getting beat up in the first place?” Zoro shot back.

“I was just getting to safety,” She shot back, “But thank you, for helping me…Arlong and his goons wouldn’t stop harassing me for my homework. I’m Nami.”

“Nice to meet you Nami, I’m Monkey D. Luffy! Let’s be friends!” Luffy chirped.

“No.” Nami replied back instantly. Nami’s frown turned into a small amused smile, which she tries to hide.

“Whaatt, awwww.” Luffy says disappointed, oh well he’ll just have to try again until she says yes!

“Zoro,”

“I’m Koby, I’m glad we could help Nami… Well, I tried to at least, but Luffy-san and Zoro-san did the most work.”

“Still, thanks for helping me back there Koby. That was really brave of you.” Nami says.

“I-it’s no problem…” Koby blushes, flustered. He doesn’t get complemented often. “I just saw them picking on you and no one was helping, and that’s not right. I could just watch, I had to do something!”

“That’s so cool Koby! You’re like a hero!” Luffy exclaims in excitement.

“Well, I want to be a cop when I get older...” Koby blushes, “But, I know it’s a dumb dream...”

Luffy’s smile gets bigger, “It’s not dumb! That’s a cool dream, don’t let anyone tell you other wise!”

“Yeah Koby, that’s a very admirable dream. My dream is pretty silly compared to yours…” Nami says.

Luffy frowns, “Nami, no matter what your dream is, it is not silly! No one should laugh at anyone’s dream!”

Nami is startled, this boy she had just met and known for three minutes is believing in her dream without even knowing what it is, when everyone else she had told before laughed at it. Luffy is the strangest boy she has ever met.

She watches as Luffy digs into his pockets pulling out the snack Makino put in there for him, opening it. Zoro looks at the parks clock noticing the time, he looks towards Luffy.

“Luffy,”

“Huh?” Luffy stares at Zoro, stuffing his mouth full of the fruit gummy’s.

“Don’t you have to go soon? I think the high school has their lunch break around this time.” Luffy gasps! He almost forgot! He was having so much fun with his new friends!

“I have ta’ go!” Luffy says rushing a little ways ahead, he stops and look back at the three other kids, “I’ll see you guys later! Bye-bye! Let’s meet here again soon, okay?!” Luffy enthusiastically waves his arm, running off again towards the entrance of the park.

That was so much fun, Luffy can’t wait to tell his brothers all about his adventure!

When the crosswalk light finally turned back into the walking stick man Shanks quickly crosses the street to the park. Right when he was about to follow Luffy across the street, the light turned to a stop sign again. So he ended up loosing sight of Luffy.

Once Shanks entered the park, he had to walk a bit to find Luffy. Scanning the park, he sees the familiar looking strawhat on Luffy who seems to be… punching an older kid!? With the help from another kids with green hair.

Shanks about runs over there to stop Luffy, but instead stops in his tracks as he watches as the older children run away. He quickly ducks behind another tree.

He watches the scene play out in front of him, he can sort of hear them from where he was hiding. From what he could understand from them talking is that Luffy beat up a those older kids because the were bullies. Shank nods his head in approval, Luffy is such a good kid!

Snap.

He takes a picture. Luffy’s first real fight! His brothers will be so proud it was for a good reason… Well, more like Ace will be proud and Sabo would be too, but will give Luffy a good old lecture as well.

Luffy made it back across the street, continuing his journey to the high school. He was now getting closer to the high school now! He could see it! It was just around this corner…

CRASH!

Luffy topples backwards, landing on his butt. Ouch, that was painful!

“Ouch! That hurt!” Another voice cry out at the same time in pain.

Luffy gets up, dusting himself off, going over to the other kid who he presumably ran into. He looked to be about Luffy’s age maybe a year older with the longest nose Luffy has ever seen!

“Sorry, I didn’t see you. Are you okay?” Luffy helped the other boy up.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry about running into you too. I was trying to get away from a big bear around that corner there!” Luffy gulped, he had to go that way.

“There’s a big bear over there!?”

“Yeah a suuupperrr big one!” The other boy gestured, “But, it’s okay I trapped it behind a big caged wall, so it can’t get us!” Luffy sighed in relief, that’s good it can’t eat them now.

“So why were you running from it?” Luffy cocked his head is confusion.

“W-well that’s because…I knocked it out but it suddenly woke up! It startled me, but it should be okay now! For I, the great Usopp, is not afraid of nothing!” Usopp declared.

Luffy awed at Ussop, he’s so cool! “That’s so cool! You must be really brave! I’m Monkey D. Luffy! We should be friends!”

Usopp nodded in agreement, “Nice to meet you Luffy! I’m the great Usopp! So, where are you headed today?”

Luffy beamed, another new friend! “I’m going to the high school!” He declared, pointing in the direction Usopp just came from.

Usopp choked on his spit, “The high school!? T-t-the one just around the corner!?” Luffy nodded.

“You can’t go that way! I told you already there’s a big scary bear over that way!”

Luffy tilted his head. “But you just said you locked it up.”

“I-I did but it’s still dangerous to go over there!”

“But I have to! I need to save my brothers from dying!”

Usopp shook his head, “No, I’m sorry Luffy. I know we just met, but I can’t allow you to go towards your own doom!”

“Please, Usopp! I need to get to them no matter what!” Luffy pleaded, determined to get past Usopp. Usopp gawked, was this kid insane?

“A-alright then Luffy, fine! A-as a great leader and friend, allow the great Usopp to guard you to safety!”

Luffy cheered, “Let’s go!”

As Luffy and Usopp, cowering a bit behind, moved around the corner they were met with the sight of a big moving truck in front of a house. Luffy remembers always seeing that house whenever he walked by it with his brothers, it was usually empty and sad looking.

As they move past the truck, the sudden noise of loud barking startles the two boys, halting them in their tracks.

“AAAAHHH, WE’RE GONNA DIE!!” Usopp screams in fear, as the boys clutch each other.

“Oi, Chopper get down. Stop barking at people.” The boys stopped clutching each other looking towards the sound of a… boy’s voice?

A blond haired boy, looks to be around Zoro’s age, with a funny curly looking eyebrow was walking up to them from the opposite direction they were at, “Sorry about Chopper. He’s just excited to see new faces. I’m Sanji and that’s my dog, Tony Tony Chopper, but I just call him Chopper for short, we just moved here.”

The big bear behind the caged fence was just a dog, that was a relief. Usopp cleared his throat, “Y-yeah, it’s okay. I knew that it was a dog this whole time! I was just testing you Luffy.” Luffy did not like that test at all, but that’s okay Usopp is his new friend after all and friends forgave each other.

Luffy liked at Chopper with interest, what a cute dog! “Can I pet him?”

Sanji gives a tiny smile, “Sure,” he moves to open the gates door to let the in. “Chopper is all bark, but no bite. He loves meeting new people. He must have been lonely when I went exploring the neighborhood.”

As the three boys huddle into the yard, Chopper immediately starts sniffing Luffy, licking his face. Luffy giggled. Chopper proceeds to do the same to Usopp.

Luffy looks back towards Sanji, “Oh right, my name is Monkey D. Luffy! Let’s be friends!”

“And I’m the great Usopp! Nice to meet you!”

Sanji gives a small smile, “Yeah, nice to meet you both.”

“So what are you guys doing walking around here?”

Usopp spoke up first, “Well I was trying to go to the park to meet up with my friend Kaya. I live down that way,” Usopp pointed, “A bit past where the high school is. I didn’t realize that someone new moved into this house!”

Sanji nodded, “Yeah, we just moved in on the weekend.”

“That explains I haven’t seen you around here yet!” Usopp nods back.

“What about you Luffy?”

“Well I’m on an abdenture! I’m bringing my brothers their lunches they forgot so that they don’t starve and die!” Sanji made a sound of understanding.

“Well I wish you luck!” Sanji said, “Can I get you guys anything to eat while you’re still here, I can make you a little something before you go.”

Luffy nods! Yes, more food! He can’t wait, he is already hungry for another snack.

“Yes please!” Both Usopp and Luffy say at the same time.

Sanji chuckles, walking towards the house. “Wait right here, I’ll go get it real fast. Be right back.” With that he goes in the house.

When Sanji arrives back outside with the snacks, he sees Chopper rolled over getting tummy rubs from a giggling Usopp and Luffy.

“Here you both go,” he hand each boy a bag of small cookies. “I hope you both like them, I made it myself!” Sanji says proudly.

Luffy opens the bag popping one of the cookies into his mouth. Luffy’s eyes immediately widen in delight, it was heavenly! The sweet rich flavor of the cookies was to die for and the texture was chewy, but not too chewy! The perfect combination, it is probably the best cookies Luffy has ever had!

“This is so good Sanji! You made this!?” Luffy asked in disbelief. Sanji chuckles.

“Yeah, this is really good, better than, dare I say, my moms cookies!” Usopp exclaims.

Sanji bashfully rubs the back of his head. “I’m glad you guys liked it! I’ve been working on perfecting my baking skills lately… you see I want to be a chief when I get older, to be able to make every dish in the world!” Sanji coughs, “But, everyone says that’s a silly dream. No one can make every dish…”

“No!” Sanji and Usopp startles at Luffy’s exclamation, “Sanji, don’t listen to those people! They have no clue what they are talking about! If you want to do it, you should believe in yourself and do it!”

Sanji was speechless, “……pffftttt…” he starts to laugh. “You’re a weird one, Monkey D. Luffy, but thanks. I’m glad you don’t think it’s too ridiculous.”

“Shishishi, of course I believe in you! What are friends for!”

Sanji shakes his head, “You should probably start heading over to the high school soon Luffy. I think I just heard the bell ring for lunch break.”

And he was right, Luffy’s heard the high school’s bell go off in the distance.

“Thanks for the cookies Sanji! Thank you for coming with me Usopp! I’ll see you guys later! My other friends and I are going to meet at the park this Saturday, so make sure you guys come okay! And bring Chopper with you Sanji!” Luffy waves, exiting from the gated yard.

Luffy snickers to himself as he skips towards the school, that was really fun and yummy! He can’t wait to see all his new friends again!

Shanks snapped a lot of pictures sending them to Makino. Their little Luffy was making so many new friends it’s unbelievable! He was doing so well for his first errand, Shanks just hopes it continues  to keep going well for him.

Shanks watches as Luffy continues over towards the high school making it further down towards the schools front entrance.

Silently cheering on Luffy, he doesn’t notice the two little boys Luffy was just talking with staring at him.

“Hey you creep! What are you doing stalking Luffy?!” Usopp yells, throwing a rock with scary accuracy. Usopp points at the disguised Shanks, continuously throwing rocks at him he finds on the ground, Shanks is forced to try and dodge them all.

Sanji goes over towards his house, “Hold him there Usopp, I’m going to call the cops!”

“W-wait! It’s not what you guys think! I’m Luffy’s fr—“ Usopp kicks his shin hard, causing Shanks to go down in pain.

The two boys cheer, not listening to a word Shanks had to say, jumping on his back and shouting loudly for help. Shanks knew the disguise was a bad idea.

Luffy arrived to the high schools front entrance. What does he do now? There were a lot of older looking kids wandering around the school yard now that the school was on their lunch break. None of them paying attention to the small strawhat wearing boy by the front gate.

Luffy gulps, everything was so big looking it was intimidating.

Walking through the gates Luffy looks around. He had only been to the school with Sabo and Ace, but never gone in it. It was so different than it was looking at it from the outside.

Luffy notices a few older girls who were looking at him, whispering to each other while giggling. Luffy blushes looking away.

Why are those girls giggling at him? Did he do something wrong?

Luffy decides to ignore them, continuing to look around, walking into the school building. As soon as he enters the building, there were a lot of big kids that started staring at him.

Luffy wanted to go up to one of them and ask if they knew where Ace or Sabo was, but their stares made him nervous. Luffy ducked his head down, pulling his strawhat closer to his head staring at the ground.

“It’s okay, I can find Ace and Sabo on my own. They must be here somewhere…” Luffy mumbles, trying to comfort himself.

He has no clue where to go, but Luffy decides to go right. As he is turning, he bumps into someone’s legs, stumbling backwards.

“Oh my, I did see you there. Are you okay?” A silky smooth voice asks. Holding Luffy’s shoulders to steady him.

“Sorry for bumping into you miss,” Luffy lifts his hat up so he could see better. The woman he bumped into was clutching a book in her hand. She was really pretty, with shoulder length black hair and bright blue eyes.

The teenagers chuckles, “Thank you for the complement little one, I like your strawhat.” Oh, he must have said that out loud, whoops.

The girl crouches to his level, “My name is Robin. What is your name?”

Luffy smiles, she seems really nice! “My name is Monkey D. Luffy!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Luffy. What brings you here to the high school?” Robin giggles.

Unknown to Luffy, curious onlookers listen in quieting down so they could hear the cute little kids answer.

“Um, I’m looking for my brothers! They forgot their lunch by mm-meatsteak?”

“…Mistake…?” Robin corrects. Luffy nods, “Yeah, meatstake!”

He’s so adorable , everyone listening in thinks.

“I see… that is a problem now isn’t it! And you came all the way here by yourself to bring it to your brothers? That’s impressive Luffy,”

Luffy nods, “Yeah! I’m a big boy afterall!”

“What are your brothers names? I might know who they are and I’ll be able to take you to them.”

“Ace and Sabo!” Luffy says cheerfully! He’ll get to see his brothers again soon! Robin’s eyes widen, surprised. Quickly to recover, as she gains a curious glint in her eyes.

“ WHATTT?! ” Every student says at once, gossiping to one another. This is big, the Sabo and Ace! Not only are they popular, but apparently their brother and they have a cute little brother!?

How come those two never mentioned being brothers, everyone knew they were close and assumed they were best friends, but brothers!?

They kind of look similar now that they all think about it, but they have completely different last names so no one made that connection. That is, until now.

Sabo is well known as one of the top honors student with many achievements. Reliable (sometimes, Koala can testify), smart, kind, and handsome. Not only is he an honors student, but is in a high position in the student counsel, a class president and is also good in various sports!

Ace is the high school’s dubbed “bad boy heart throb”. He’s a delinquent, sure, but excels in any type of sport he plays and handsome! Many girls have a crush on Ace as under his ruggish appearance, he is surprisingly very polite and kind unlike what most people would think at first glance. He was reliable, someone you could get along with easily — he even helps teachers when asked.

Ace and Sabo at first seem like the pair to not get along very well, so it was a mystery how Ace and Sabo were friends in the first place. Now they know.

The screams from the older students startles Luffy, looking behind at them. Did he say something wrong?

A lot of the teenagers were jealous Robin got to help Luffy, silently seething.

How come the black sheep of the school gets to help? Life isn’t fair! They want an excuse to talk to Ace, Sabo and the sunshine that is their little brother!

Robin taps the rim of Luffy’s hat getting his attention. Luffy looks back at Robin. She gives him a smiles.

“I’ll help take you to them, Luffy.” She stands up offering him her hand. Luffy happily takes her hand.

After Shanks finally escaped the two little boys and assured them that yes, he is Luffy’s baby sitter friend (in a way) and he was just making sure Luffy got to the high school alright secretly.

Shanks stands in front of the high school and sees a teenage boy walk near the school gate. Shanks calls out to him, “Hey there!” The teenager looks at him, around in confusion, and then points to himself in question, “Yeah you, have you seen a little boy go in the school?”

The teenager squints his eyes at him in suspicion, “And if I did, why would you like to know?”

As Shanks goes to explain himself, a teenage girl walks up to the boy, “I over heard your conversation. Who are you? And why do you want to know? Are you a pervert!?”

“Wait, wait, wait, I can explain—!”

The teenagers kept going, causing a commotion as more attention went towards them. “Why do you have a disguise on?”

A teenager asks if they should call the teacher or the police, to which someone says yes.

Oh boy, here it goes again…

Luffy followed Robin around the second floor of the school where first years are as Robin mentions. Luffy staring in awe. The insides of the school was huge ! How does Ace and Sabo go here every day and not get lost?!

“So Luffy, is this your first errand by yourself?” Robin asks, having noticed the sticker on his shirt when they first met.

“Hmmph! Makino said that it’s an abacenter! So I’m a pirate, but I’m looking for other pirates like my brothers right now instead of treasure!” Luffy beamed the brightest smile Robin had ever seen in her life right at her.

Robin hummed, letting Luffy know she was listening to him. In her mind though, she could not get over how cute he is.

He’s so adorable! Is this even real? Oh Oda, what did Robin do to deserve being able to interact with this cute little boy!

Of course, Robin kept a neutral face on compared to her rampaging thoughts currently.

Rounding the corner, Robin could see the classroom Ace and Sabo reside in. She is a bit sadden to think she will have to part ways with the little sunshine soon.

“Okay Luffy, we’re here. This is their class,” Luffy snaps back to attention at Robin’s voice.

“Thank you for helping me Robin! I really like you!” Luffy smiles up at her innocently, Robin get her heart throb. He doesn’t realize how much he affected Robin. This is bad for her health.

“Of course, Luffy.” She nods.

Robin uses a lot of complicated words, but Luffy is glad someone as nice as her helped him!

Luffy can’t wait to see his brothers, he was just buzzing with excitement. Robin opens the doorway and Luffy peeks in from besides her, scanning the room. Inside the classroom there were a lot of desks and students lingering around talking with one another.

Luffy titled his head confused, he didn’t see his brothers anywhere in the room.

“AWO! Robin! Hey there good looking!” A loud unfamiliar voice speaks, Robin smiles as a muscular blue haired teen walks up towards them.

It seemed though as if the room gets quieter however, once people see who opened the door into the classroom. But Luffy wasn’t paying attention, only staring in awe at the tall muscular teen who loudly greeted Robin.

“Hello Franky, how are you today?”

“I’m doing SUUUPPEERR now that you’re here! What brings you here today?” Franky asks. Luffy really likes this guy, he looks like a lot of fun to be around!

Franky, as if sensing Luffy’s awe filled stare, looks at him smiling. “Hey there little man! Didn’t see you there! What are you doing here?”

“Franky, this is Luffy. Luffy, Franky,” Robin gestures, introducing them to each other.

“Well it’s SUUUPPER nice to meet you lil’ bro! As Robin said, I’m Franky an aspiring mechanical genius!” Luffy laughs, Luffy reaalllyy likes him, Franky’s super cool!

“Shishishi, I’m Monkey D. Luffy! Nice to meet you Franky!”

“Like wise lil’ man, so what can I do for you two?” Franky questions.

“Luffy here is wondering if his brothers are here in the classroom. He has something to give to them.” Robin smiles, putting her hand on his back.

The shift of attention back to him makes Luffy blush nervously in anxiety and excitement at the prospect of seeing his big brothers again.

“Oh, I see! Who are your brothers, lil’ bro? I’ll go get them!” Franky replies.

“Ace and Sabo!” Luffy says a bit shyly.

Franky’s eyes widen in surprise and quickly composed himself again.

Taking a quick look back into the classroom (everyone went back to what they where previously doing, some still secretly observing) scratches the back of his head, “Sorry lil’ bro but you just missed them! Mr. Brook asked for Sabo’s help with carrying a few music instruments to the storage room and Mr. Newgate asked Ace if he could go find from Mr. Rayleigh and get something from him. He’s a bit hard to track down ya’ see. He never stays in one place. Ace somehow always finds him, no one know how he does it!”

Luffy deflates, disappointedly.

“Oh, okay…” He sulks, Luffy wants to see Ace and Sabo so bad right now!

“Hey lil’ bro, cheer up! They’ll get done pretty soon,” Franky and Robin shared a look that went over Luffy’s head.

“Neh, Luffy,”

Luffy looks at Robin in question, “While we wait for your brothers, would you like to explore the school?”

Luffy’s eye start sparkling in excitement, he can get to see more of Sabo and Ace’s school!! He nods his head up and down vigorously.

Robin and Franky smile at the small boy wearing a strawhat.

“Come, I’ll show you the cool parts of the school lil’ Luffy bro!”

“Okay!” Luffy follows after Franky, who had to slow his stride so Luffy could keep up. “I like you both! Would you be my friend?”

“Sure Luffy bro! I would be SUUPPEERR honored to be your friend!”

“Yippee! Will Robin be my friend too…?”

Luffy looked back, noticing that Robin didn’t follow after them. Robin stood a few distance away still by the classrooms door.

He stares at her tilting his head, “Is Robin not coming?”

“I’ll stay here for now Luffy. I’ll text Franky when your brothers come back, go have fun!” Robin chuckles, waving towards the two boys.

“Common Luffy bro! This way!” Franky gestures Luffy to follow.

Luffy stares at Robin a bit more as she waved at the two boys down the hall, “But…she never answered my question…” he pouts.

Once she was out of sight, they continue walking.

“I hope Robin will be my friend, then she won’t have to look so lonely while we’re gone, being lonely is sad.” Luffy says out loud. Franky gave him a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry Luffy bro! Robin is tough, she’ll be just fine!”

Luffy was enamored by all the different things he had seen while exploring the school with Franky! Franky showed him all of the cool clubs the school had to offer like the archery club, the cooking club, the mechanic’s clubs (Frank’s favorite as he told Luffy), fine literature club, art club, the kendo clue (Luffy thinks Zoro would love that!), and even the gymnastics club!

Luffy especially loved watching the gymnastics club! He wants to do practice flips like the pretty ladies were doing as warm ups. It looked like a lot of fun!

“Do you like gymnastics, Luffy bro? I mean, can’t blame ya’! They are pretty dedicated, usually practicing whenever they have free time. It’s only been about 7 minutes since the bell rang for lunch break and they’re already after it! Gotta admire them for their consistency!” Franky whistled in admiration. Luffy continued staring in awe as he continued watching both girls and boys do stretches and flips around the gym room.

“Alright, Luffy bro how about one more club and then we’ll go back to Robin!” Luffy looks up towards Franky nodding his head. He would like to see more gymnastics, but he also wants to see what else Ace and Sabo’s school had.

“Okay, follow me!” Franky takes Luffy’s tiny hands in his and leads him back towards where the art room which is on the fourth floor (there was so much stairs in the school Franky had to carry him up most of the way).

Once at the top of the stairs, they continue walking along the corridors. A few of the teenagers walking past them would sometimes stop and stare or smile towards them, to which Luffy’s would give a small smile back, waving at them.

Franky stopped in front of the door, prompting Luffy to follow his lead.

Gesturing to the door Franky talks while opening the entrance to the room, “This here is the music room! Mr. Brook is the music teacher. Sabo was helping him, so maybe he’ll still be in there.”

Franky opens the door all the way relieving a large open classroom. There are music stands lined up in the back of the class and chairs stacked besides the window. A tall lanky man stands over towards the side of the room, shuffling through a stack of some papers? Music sheets perhaps? The tall man looks over at the sound of the door opening, setting the papers in his hand down as his gaze settles on Franky and Luffy.

“Oh my! Well hello there Franky-san and…who may this little one here be?”

Luffy gawks at the man, he’s so tall ! Luffy smiles up at the man, “I’m Monkey D. Luffy! You’re super tall mister!”

“Yohohohoho, what a delight it is to meet you Luffy! I’m Brook but everyone here calls me Mr. Brook.”

“Shishishi, I like you Brook and you have a cool Afro too!”

“Why thank you Luffy-san, I like you too and we just met!” Brook proceeds crouch down to Luffy’s height to shake hands with him, which Luffy enthusiastically shakes, “I would get up now, but I’m afraid I might hit the ceiling! Because I’m so tall, yohohohoho!”

Luffy starts laughing, “You’re really funny, Brook! Be my friend!”

“Sure, why not, yohohohoho!” Brook laughs, standing back up.

“Hey Mr. Brook, where’s Sabo? I thought he was helping you? You see Luffy bro here is Sabo’s little brother, he’s on his first errand!”

“I’m a pirate on a abednture!”

“My, how lucky Sabo-san is to have Luffy-san as his younger brother! Unfortunately, you both just missed him. He was such a great help, thanks to him I managed to get this big stack of music sheets here for the music club later today, and all before the 30 minutes of lunch break was over!”

Right as Brook finished speaking, Franky’s phone went off.

“What great timing, Robin just texted saying both Ace and Sabo are back in the classroom. Common Luffy bro let’s get there before the last 15 minutes of lunch break is over! Thanks again Mr. Brook!” Franky waves, makes his way back towards the doorway, with Luffy tailing behind him.

“It was my pleasure! And it was nice meeting you again Luffy-san!”

“Same here! I hope to see you again later, Brook!” Luffy waves, exiting the room after Franky.

The only time Ace and Sabo were really seen interacting at school was around lunch break or P.E. But they try to interact whenever it was possible. However, it would only be after they finished a few tasks. Sometimes one would finish faster than the other, or not at all. But for them to get done with their random task at the same time was quite an unusual coincidence.

They both bumped into each other rounding separate corners before heading towards the corridor that leads to their home room class.

Surprise showed on Sabo’s face, “What a surprise! I didn’t realize you could find Mr. Rayleigh that fast! That must be a new record.”

Ace snorts, shoving Sabo’s shoulder as they continue walking towards their class. “Shut up you ass. He isn’t even hard to find in the first place.”

“And I was starting to think you where just eager to eat the delicious meal I made for you,” Sabo wipes an imaginary tear away, “So what did Mr. Newgate need from him anyways that he had to send you on a fetch quest?”

“Eh, something about needing his lesson plans for next week,” Ace shrugs, “Guess he just forgot to submit them.” Ace throws his arms behind is head as the two boys continue walking.

“I still seriously don’t know how you manage to find him every time, I tried finding him once and it took me the whole lunch break! I didn’t get to eat that day.”

Ace stretches and swings his arm around Sabo’s shoulder, “It’s more like he run into me with out meaning to.”

Sabo shakes his head, unbelievable.

“At least we both got done early, now we can eat, I’m starving !” Ace whines resting his head on Sabo’s shoulder.

Sabo pushes his head away, but Ace clings tighter, “Yeah, yeah you big baby, just don’t fall asleep in your food again. Last time you did that you wouldn’t stop complaining about not getting to finish your food.”

“I can’t help it! The narcolepsy hits me randomly!” Sabo frowned in concern.

“Have you been taking your medicine?”

“I have, don’t worry about it, bo’. It’s probably cause my body’s getting use to the new prescription.”

The two boys get closer to their classroom now, relieved they’ll finally be able to eat their lunch soon.

Sabo notices Robin lingering by their classroom door way reading her book. When she looks up and notices them, she pulls her phone out, closing her book. She types something, then puts her phone away. Sabo raised his eyebrow in question.

Robin was in her second year, a year above both Sabo and Ace, with a not so great reputation at the school. She’s always seen hanging out with a group of older shady upperclassmen, namely Crocodile and his gang, who where all in their third year. She has always been seen alone, an untouchable figure.

A true mystery to others, so people would often avoid hanging out with her except for that one guy in their class named Franky. He was the only one outside of Crocodile’s group seen hanging around her.

So, it was really an unusual sight to see her without Crocodile or his gang members around her. Sabo always did find it weird how Robin would hang around him, it just didn’t seem like her type scene. She stuck out like a sore thumb in their group, always quiet, super smart, and never truly interacting with any of them.

To see her now, Sabo can only wonder what brought her to hang outside of their classroom door today.

Both boys stop besides her.

“Robin, a pleasure seeing you without Crocodile hanging around. What bring you here today? Are you here to see Franky?” Ace quietly watches the exchange in caution, arm still slung around Sabo’s shoulder.

“Sabo, Ace, how are you both?” Robin nods in greeting, which they return.

“I’m not here to see Franky today, I actually came here to see you two.”

That gets their attention, what could the Robin need from them today. Sabo feels Ace tense at his side.

“You actually have a visitor who came today,”

“Besides yourself?” Ace speaks up in suspicion.

Robin nods, “Yes. In fact, Franky is showing him around the school right now while we waited for the two of you.”

Who could that be? Sabo and Ace wonder looking at one another.

Maybe it’s a new student? But Sabo’s heard nothing about there being a new student.

If that was the case, it would be Sabo’s responsibility to help the student feel more welcomed. Since he usually can’t stay for after school for meetings, he probably missed the meeting about there being a new student transferring in.

Sabo frowns, he feels guilty about that fact but there was no helping it. After all, Sabo can’t just leave Ace to take care of Luffy alone, he might set fire and burn the house down again. (That was one time, Sabo!)

“Who is it-“ As Sabo got ready to ask who it was, a loud booming voice echoed from down the hallway.

“SABO! ACE!” The sound of a familiar voice echos, followed by the sound of tiny feet hitting the ground, as the tiny individual runs towards them.

Both of their eyes widen in shock, “LUFFY?!” They shout in confusion.

Maybe yelling in the hallway was not a great idea because now everyone was looking at them, as the little boy wearing a strawhat runs over towards the two older boys.

Luffy crashes into both their legs, almost toppling them over. Luffy’s strawhat gets knocked off in the impact, now resting on his back.

Both boys crouch down hugging Luffy, as said little boy giggles, hugging them both.

Ace, surprisingly, is the first to break away from the shock. Both older boys pulling back a bit to look at him, “Luffy? What are you doing here?”

“Shishishi, silly Ace. You and Sabo forgot your bentos! So Makino sent me on an adenture to get it back to you guys!” Luffy beams.

Ace and Sabo notice the little sticker Makino placed on his shirt about being on an errand. They’re both shocked! Their Luffy? On his first errand??

“Oops, I almost forgot,” Luffy sticks his hand into one of his pants pocket, digging around with his tongue sticking out. When he finally grabbed what he was looking for, he pulls it out. “Here Makino said to give this to you two!”

Sabo grabs the crumpled up piece of paper from Luffy, unfolding it. Ace leans over to read it as well.

Sabo, Ace,

I know you boys worry a lot for Luffy whenever he cries when you both leave him. I also know you both want him to be more independent and I don’t blame you! But Luffy is growing at his own pace, he just needs a little guidance on how to do stuff on his own from his big brothers. That was the whole point of me sending him on this errand today, to show you both that he can be independent with a push in the right direction. For now, just treasure this time with him relying on you guys as he’ll soon grow up in a blink of an eye.

 - Makino

Sabo and Ace definitely are not tearing up.

“Luffy, we’re so proud of you!” Sabo chokes out, holding Luffy’s face in his hands. Ace ruffles his hair affectionately.

Robin and Franky chuckle at the display the two proud older brothers are showing. While the student body secretly watches the wholesome scene in awe as Ace and Sabo dot on their cute little brother.

( The news must have traveled fast about them being brothers , Robin thinks.)

Franky is tearing up himself, sniffling at the scene in front of him. Robin pats his arm in comfort.

“Well, I have to go now. I’m glad you were able to find your brothers, Luffy,” Robin smiles kindly at Luffy as she gets ready to leave.

Luffy breaks free of his brothers hold on him (with a bit of a struggle seeing as the had him wrapped up in their arms), “Robin! Thank you for the help! But also, you never answered my question from before!”

She stops.

That is true, he did ask her something before leaving with Franky, but she wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Be my friend!”

That was more of a demand and then a question, Luffy…  They all think.

Sabo looks at him concerned, “Luffy-“

“Luffy, you should probably not be asking everyone you like to be your friend. After all, Robin is-“ Ace whispers, getting cut off by Luffy plugging his ears at whatever Ace was about to say, loudly shouting .

“ LALALALLAHH! I can’t hear what Ace is about to say,” Luffy unplugs his ears and looks Ace and Sabo in the eyes, “I don’t care what Ace or Sabo says about Robin. I like her, she’s nice! There for she should be my friend!”

Robin was stunned, so was Ace and Sabo.

Robin covers her mouth in amusement, “Sure Luffy, I’ll be your friend.”

“Yay! Robin said she would be my friend!”

Ace smirks amused, while Sabo shake his head fondly.

Oh, Luffy. What are we going to do with you?

Shank decided he was going to ditch the disguise next time Makino asks him to do anything in secret for her. He almost got arrested. Twice! (He threw the disguise away once he was in the clear.)

Shanks felt defeated on top of being exhausted. So he decided to head back seeing as Luffy got into the school safely and found his brothers. (Teenagers are such loud gossipers! Shanks wonders if he was one too? He doesn’t quite remember.)

Shanks trusts that Luffy can make it back by himself again. He was afterall, a big boy now.

They grow up so fast! He tears up a bit.

As Shanks sulks walking back towards Makino’s apartment, his phone went off in his pocket. Taking his phone out, he sees it’s from Makino.

Shanks, did Luffy get to the school okay? I haven’t heard from you in a few minutes.

Shoot, he forgot to text Makino. Checking the time on his phone it had been over 10 minutes since he last texted her.

Yeah, sorry Makino. I got….. caught up in something. But Luffy made it alright!

That’s good to hear, I was starting to get worried.

Shanks feels bad for making Makino worry like that, he’ll just have to make it up to her later.

Shanks felt his phone vibrate again as a notification pops up on his screen for a new text. He opens it to see a group chat. It was a message from Sabo and Ace.

Makino, thank you for everything. Ace and I don’t know what we would do with our you. Luffy got here in one piece! We’ll make sure to send him back in a few minutes :D

Yeah, we appreciate it Makino! Lu’ even made a lot of friends along the way from what he’s been telling us.

Shanks smiles as his phone vibrates again. In the group chat, Ace sent a picture of the three boys. The bentos were open on a desk, with Luffy sitting on Sabo’s lap, sneaking some food out of Ace’s bento. Shanks laughs, he must look crazy now but he can’t help it.

Shanks feels his phone vibrate one more time.

Oh and Shanks, next time ditch the disguise. Just some friendly advice from a student counsel member :) 

Shanks blushes in embarrassment.

Sabo probably got a report from another student counsel member about a suspicious man in front of the school claiming to know Sabo and Ace.

Now Shanks feels foolish. The world must hate him or something, but he’s glad that Luffy had a great first errand.