A very old and dusty story that I wrote years ago, just after Robin joined and never bothered to type up until now. Enjoy!

As I read on a youtube video, I don't own One Piece - so I am not the King of the Pirates.

The torrential rain had been falling for four days now, and as could be expected after four days of being locked up in the Galley with his nakama - Luffy was starting to go stir crazy. He sat slumped at the kitchen table, listening to the endless rain battering off the closed galley door, staring blankly at the wall in front of him - his normally expressive chocolate brown eyes glazed. He hadn't said a word in over an hour.

Behind him Usopp and Chopper were quietly combining their skills to create new bullets for Usopp's sling shot - Zoro sleeping propped up against the wall, his swords against his shoulders a short distance from them. Nami was to Luffy's left reading the paper, and Robin was on his other side engrossed in a book. Sanji was humming very softly as he moved around his kitchen, preparing afternoon tea for the others.

Luffy sighed and turned his head to the side to look at his newest nakama. Robbing was sitting with her head in one hand, and a gentle smile on her face. She frowned very briefly at something written in her book.

'...Fushia Village?' she mumbled absent mindedly, her brow clearing as she turned a page.

Luffy's head shot off the table, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

'Fushia?' he asked excitedly, showing more enthusiasm than he had for days. 'Fushia Village in East Blue?' he stared at his archaeologist, eyes enormous.

'Do you know it, Captain-san?' she asked, gently marking her page and closing the book, resting it on the table in front of her.

'It's the village I grew up in! I...' his voice trailed off, chocolate eyes drifting of their own accord to the cover of the book, were a very familiar face was smiling back at him. He paled slightly and reached for it in a daze - Robin allowing him to pull it towards himself.

'Luffy?' Nami asked in surprise, the others all staring at him in surprise. 'What's so fascinating about the cover of a book?' she asked curiously, folding up her paper.

Luffy turned to look at her, the smile on his face absolutely breathtaking and held the book up for her to see. A good looking man of about 30 with vivid red hair was staring back at her. Three scars covered his left eye and an enormous smile, not unlike Luffy's, lit up his face. 'Biography of Red-haired Shanks' she read in confusion.

'Shishishi!' Luffy laughed, sounding happier than they'd ever heard him. 'Nami - meet Shanks!' he declared, already impossibly wide smile, widening even further.

Her eyes drifted back to the picture and narrowed when she noticed something.

'Luffy...' she started slowly. 'Is that... a strawhat around his neck?'

Luffy grinned and looked at the picture himself.

'Yeah!' he agreed. 'It's THIS strawhat.' He pulled it off to look at it and his smile turned a bit softer. 'Shanks' lucky hat.'

Sanji gasped. 'That's his actual hat?'

'How did you get it, Luffy?' Usopp asked, the others finally deciding this conversation was interesting enough to warrant a slight break from what they had been doing. Zoro remained where he was, but his eyes were open and he was clearly listening. There was so little they knew about their enigmatic captain, the opportunity to learn more had them all stopping what they were doing.

'He gave it to me!' Luffy said proudly, and then paused before clarifying. 'He LENT it to me.'

Robin leaned forwards, clearly interested herself. 'Why did he lend it to you, Captain-san?'

Luffy paused again, the smile on his face faltering for a moment as memories resurfaced.

'I ate the gomu gomu fruit by accident when I was 7 - I was really upset because then I couldn't swim - which meant I couldn't join Shanks' crew. One day bandits came and kidnapped me, they took me out to sea in a row boat and threw me in the water. Our local sea king was about to eat me when Shanks came. He saved me, but he lost his left arm.' He paused for a second to inhale before finishing in a rush. 'He gave me Hat so I could become a great pirate like him. I have to give it back when I become Pirate King.'

There was a long silence as the story sank in with his nakama, the only sounds daring to break the silence were the wind at the rain that were still unrelenting outside, and the gentle hum of the oven as it baked part of the delicious snack Sanji was working on.

'Y-you mean, Red-haired Shanks expects you to become Pirate King too?' Nami demanded, eyes wide.

Luffy gave her a very odd look, 'I AM going to become Pirate King.' he said in an absolutely serious tone of voice that was heard very rarely from the happy go lucky man. The others felt chills run up their spines at the strength in his tone. He was so CERTAIN.

He turned to Robin. 'Can I borrow this when you're finished?'

The older woman smiled. 'You can borrow it now, Captain-san. I've already read it.'

'YES!' he exclaimed. 'Thanks, Robin!'

'You're welcome.' She laughed gently at his excited expression. 'But...can I ask how well you know him? Now I know your hat belongs to Shanks - there seem to be quite a few references to you in that book. He never refers to you by name, of course, but he does sometimes mention 'Anchor' and...' she paused for a brief moment. '...and also as the 'grandson of the marine.''

Luffy laughed hard at that one to the confusion of the others.

'Grandpa left me and Ace with a mountain bandit to train us up to become strong marines. But when Shanks came I decided that I really wanted to be a pirate. Grandpa was away a lot so we were really raised by the mountain bandits and the village - the ones who did the most for us though were Makino who ran the bar and Shanks and his crew when they were around.'

'You were raised by Shanks?' Chopper asked, his eyes huge.

Luffy nodded - eyes again drawn irresistibly to the cover of the book in his hands. 'They used Fushia as a base for a few years. Every time they came back from an adventure they'd bring souvenirs for Ace and me.'

Zoro was staring at the Captain in disbelief. He had known that Shanks had saved the black haired boy, but he'd never questioned the extent of the relationship. He also hadn't known the strawhat was on loan. The green haired swordsman released a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. Luffy truly was destined for great things.

'Grandson of the marine?' Sanji said slowly. 'Your grandpa wanted you to become a marine? What did he say when you decided to be a pirate instead?'

Luffy paled and started sweating, giving a strange nervous laugh none of them had ever heard from him before.

'G-Grandpa doesn't know... he'd KILL me if he found out.' Luffy gasped and grabbed at his own head, clearly terrified as a thought occurred to him. 'Aaah! But my bounty is so high now he's going to know! What do I dooo? He'll come after me!' he broke off suddenly realising the others were watching him in confusion.

'Is your grandpa highly ranked?' Usopp asked cautiously, not sure from Luffy's reaction if he really wanted to know.

Luffy froze, staring at the marksman. 'Vice admiral.' he mumbled.

'WHAT?!' Everyone but Robin screamed.

'Vice ADMIRAL?' Zoro demanded. 'Which one?'

Luffy paused again. '...Garp.'

'Garp is your GRANDPA?' Nami breathed. They stared at Luffy's strange reaction - they'd never seen him like this before, he looked terrified at just the mention of his grandpa.

'Isn't it a good thing to have your grandpa that highly ranked?' Sanji asked finally. 'Won't he stop people coming after us?'

Luffy gave another strange laugh. 'Grandpa would be the one chasing us. He's tried to kill me heaps of times in the past and that was just him 'training' us. If he really came after us...' he broke off with an odd shudder and picked up the book - holding Shanks' picture against himself like a talisman, as though the thought of his idol would protect him.

Robin laughed gently and patted the rather frazzled looking young man on the shoulder.

'Don't worry, Captain-san. Vice admirals have a lot of work assigned to them - he wouldn't be able to drop everything and chase after you.' she said soothingly.

'H-he wouldn't?' Luffy asked quietly, the whole crew suddenly struck by how young he looked at that moment. Hugging the book to his chest and his eyes huge. There was obviously some deep seated fear there from his childhood and the crew suddenly wanted to try and make him feel better.

'No way!' Usopp declared confidently. 'Marines have to follow all sorts of boring rules.'

'It's not like pirates who can do whatever they like.' Sanji said from the stove.

'Yeah, they need to get approval and pass their work onto someone else and everything.' Zoro shrugged.

Luffy stared at them all for a long moment before letting out a huge breath and relaxing minutely. He opened his eyes, seeming much more like his regular, fearless self. He ran a shaking hand through his wild black hair and then plopped his hat back on over the top, flashing them a grin.

'Phew!' he exclaimed with a laugh. 'I was really scared there for a second.' he pulled the book back from his chest to stare at the picture of his hero with a strangely wistful expression. With another odd sigh, he stood smoothly and walked over to the wall where Zoro was sitting. The Captain plonked himself down next to the swordsman without a word and opened the book, absorbing himself with an intensity that the crew never thought they'd see from LUFFY being aimed at a BOOK.

Robin laughed softly after spending a few minutes of watching Luffy and turned back to the table.

'Chef-san, may I have a cup of coffee?' she asked with a smile.

'Of course, Robin-chwan!' he smiled at her, tearing his own gaze from the novel sight of watching their Captain read.

'How long until that snack is ready?' Usopp asked.

'Hmmm... about 1/2 an hour.' Sanji replied vaguely.

'That long?' Usopp sighed. 'Ok Chopper, wanna keep working on the bullets?'

Chopper nodded and both stood to move back to their area - just past where Luffy and Zoro were settled. Zoro watched as they moved past, but Luffy was so engrossed in his book that he didn't even glance up. They both flashed him a fond smile as they sat.

A companionable silence filled the room which was suddenly cosy rather than constricting, as it at seemed earlier. The steady pounding of the rain and the waves only adding to the comforting atmosphere.

Sanji grinned as he placed a cup of fresh coffee in front of Robin, and another in front of Nami.

'Oi, Luffy.' he called suddenly.

'Nnnn?' The captain answered distractedly. The cook flashed a genuine grin when Luffy finally wrenched his gaze away from the book to look at him.

'I'm glad you didn't become a marine.'

Luffy smiled back, and gave a huge fake shudder. 'Me too! Can you imagine?' he laughed again.

'Read your book, Crap-captain. I'll let you know when the snack is ready.'

Luffy's grin expanded. 'Thanks Sanji!' he exclaimed and then dropped his head back to the pages of the book, the huge smile gradually fading as he concentrated. The others smiled at him fondly as they each continued what they had been doing - they were all truly lucky that things had worked out the way they had.

So there you go guys, a little one shot that I've had stored away for years and thought I'd finally dust off. I have a few others as well, if this generates any interest, I might finally type those up as well.