Greetings OP fans! This is the first chapter in a series of oneshots/drabbles that were rolling around my noggin for a while. They aren't anything polished, but I figured they were half decent. Don't expect some deep or detailed storyline here. This is all gonna be au and probably in no particular order. Also, sporadic updates so be warned! Also, I do not own One Piece.

Luffy had always belonged to the sea. Even before Shanks had arrived with a hat and a promise and a dream larger than anything Luffy could have ever imagined before, there had always been the sea. Makino would tell him stories of the mysteries of the water, of mermaids with scales like sunsets and selkies who shed their skin to revel on land. She would tuck him into bed and whisper to him about the nimble water spirits who would dance across the waves or the sprites that would sing songs to sailors willing to listen. Makino, the woman who raised him as her own, wove an image of something magnificent into his young mind. To Luffy, there was nothing except the oceans.

With Shanks came a different view. Whereas Makino's tales were of the secretive treasures of the sea, Shanks warned Luffy of the dangers. There are beasts in the water, the man would divulge, Kings of the sea who gobble boys like you whole. He was told of monsters that roamed just beneath the surface who could dwarf islands and ghosts trapped to their vessels for eternity. Some souls are lost at sea, Luffy, and never escape. Shanks had presented these stories with an air of caution, a warning. Luffy was young and all too easy to be sucked beneath the waves to never resurface.

But Luffy who had heard the call of the sea all his life only smiled at the danger. He did not fear the Sea Kings or the eternal expanse of the ocean that had claimed so many before him. He did not long to see the shining scales of mermaids or hear the melodic songs of sea sprites. Luffy looked towards the sea and saw life. Salt water rushed through his veins, not blood. At seven years old, Luffy knew that he belonged to the ocean even before the hat and the promise. One day, he would walk into the water and never return. The thought did not scare him.

Be careful, Luffy, Makino would chide, fearing for him every time he stared into the sea too long. Her hands would shake as she dried the seawater from his skin and wiped the sand from his feet, If you aren't careful, the sea gods will take you.

There was only one thing Luffy could think of that scared Makino, Shanks, and Ji-ji. Gods. (Parasites, Woop Slap would spit, they'll worm their way in and eat everything inside of you. Once you're hollowed out, they'll wear you around like a puppet.) Every sunrise was accompanied by a hushed warning about the world, to never love too much, to never devote himself to anything, to never give himself away.

But on nights when the moon lit the sky and smudged shimmers on the sea, Luffy would wade out until the felt the flow and ebb in his bones. I belong to you, he would murmur against the waves. He could almost make out some voice originating from the dark depths, but he never went to meet it.

Not yet, the tide shushed, not yet.

But 'yet' never came. Devil fruit eaters were banished from the ocean, forbidden from the water. Consuming a devil's fruit was forsaking the sea lest the unlucky sailor drown. Luffy, who could feel the push and pull of the tide's edge and the thundering of the waves, could never belong to the sea.

And Shanks (who knew the pull of a god on the blood in his veins and the bones in his skin and every last hair on his body) could only give the boy his condolences.

And that's a wrap for chapter 1! Hope you enjoyed! Eventually, there WILL be another chapter, just idk when