Summary: Young eyes that go wide at the terrific sight in front of them. The ever returning question of "Can you see me?". The nightmares full of blood. || The laugh of a child sounding through the room after hearing amazing stories. The always confirming "Of course I can!". The dreams filled with comforting warmth. The devil fruit that had given Monkey D. Luffy the ability to interact with ghosts was a double-edged sword but would never stop him from becoming the Pirate King.

Dedicated to tumblr user 3rdrandomthing.

"Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living." - Arthur C. Clarke

They all came from the sea, that wild and untamable water only fools would try to rule. From its dark blues, nearly blacks, to its light greens, they all came from the sea. It shaped their life and form, the sea decided when time started and stopped. The sea gave them the freedom they arched for, yet bound them tighter than any cage ever could have. Whenever they looked out to it, let their gazes trail over the horizon, they could faintly hear the sea call out to them. Not all followed its call, but those who did, lived beyond what land could have given them.

Tentatively he raised his with band-aid covered arm, just as if he could reach out and get a hold of the sea. He heard the sea's call louder and clearer than the most ever hoped to. Young age but his will to follow, to leave land behind and join the sea's ever changing nature, was strong enough to sometimes even surprise himself. Then he would gasp for breath, inhale the salty air and imagine being on ship gently rocking on the sea.

The few other children in the village laughed about him, but he didn't care. They were fools if they couldn't see the water right in front of them in the way he did.

Here, alone at the beach, the closest he would ever get to the sea for a long time, the boy could blend out all the noises of those on land. It would forever be just him and the sea, at least until his body reminded him of its dire need for food again and he had to turn his back on the sea.

Makino always said he looked the saddest when he had to part from it. Often he seemed as if he wasn't quite there with her when he returned from the beach. His brown eyes missing a spark, before it ultimately returned to them as soon as he sat his eyes on meat.

So it was really no surprise that he clung to the man whose whole demeanor spoke of the sea's freedom. The man, the pirate, wondered about it for the longest time. Who was this brat, that he asked "Red-Haired" Shanks about the sea, his worst fear only being that he might not get any answer at all.

"What's your name?" Shanks asked the boy, not quite able to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Luffy! And I wanna go to the sea! Tell me about it!"

Makino scowled at Luffy, who caught up quickly. The lessons about manners they had together coming into use for once.

"... Please?" Luffy added and Shanks broke out into broad laughter.

"Of course, I'll tell you, kid. What do you want to know?"

The red haired man easily became one of the boy's favorite people the more he told him about the sea. Shanks also bonded quickly with the child, if not for his love for the wide ocean he hadn't even touched yet, then for the bright smiles and carefree behavior.

Luffy was like a small storm, catching everybody with his winds. Shanks knew that one day the whole world would get a breeze of the little miracle the small boy was. But for that it was still too early, no matter how much the child begged them to take him with them. His crew couldn't shoulder the responsibility for a child who still didn't see the danger of those waters, a child that was under the assumption that stabbing himself with a knife showed true courage.

The red haired man, of course, tried to teach Luffy about the dangers with careful words as to not scare him. He wasn't exactly sure what weight those words had, but the next time he saw Luffy staring out of the window while huge waves crashed, Shanks was sure the boy had kept them in mind.

Swimming was something the little anchor would probably never really master. Shanks had never before seen somebody being so terribly bad at swimming, it was almost as if the sea rejected him. Luffy, the ever stubborn boy though, kept trying and even if he couldn't keep his head over the water, he became rather good at finding wood or a rock to cling onto.

"How did your swimming lessons go?" One of Shanks' nakama, a word Luffy adored since he had learnt its meaning, asked when the boy sat down on a chair at the bar, water running from his black hair and dropping on his shoulders.

"Good!" Luffy answered smiling before turning to Shanks, who sat right next to him. "So now you have to take me on your next adventure! I wanna go to the sea!"

Shanks started to laugh, raking his fingers through Luffy's hair to calm the boy before he could shout about being laughed at.

"Not yet, anchor. You're still a kid."

"I'm not!" Luffy protested. "I can swim-"

"Not immediately drown you mean," Shanks interrupted him amused.

"And fight! My punch is as strong as a pistol!"

"More like a kitten's nudge."

"Stop being mean!" Luffy demanded with all the authority a seven year old could muster.

"Alright, alright," Shanks sighed and hold up his hands in an appeasing manner. "Here, take some juice and calm down again. I didn't mean to offend you."

He pushed a glass with orange juice over to the young child. Joyous Luffy directly reached for the glass with his hands and took a big gulp out of it.

"Thank you!"

"Look, still a kid!" Shanks laughed good-natured.

"Meanie!"

Makino just shook her head at the two's behavior. She remembered that nobody in Foosha had been pleased to have "Red-Haired" Shanks come to their village two years ago, but by now he was a welcomed guest. He wouldn't bring any harm to them, rather he improved the situation with his presence. There were few pirates these days that stayed longer than a day as soon as they heard that Shanks was favoring this small village. Nobody wanted to get on the man's bad side after all.

The friendly atmosphere took for a turn though, when the door to the bar was kicked in.

"Sorry for the interruption," the newcomer's voice boomed through room, not sounding apologetic at all. "I just wanted to take a look at these pirates. Seems like I'll be disappointed though, these pirates don't look like much."

Luffy was angry. How dare he speak about Shanks and his crew that way? They were so awesome! But before he could voice his opinion, Makino already welcomed them like any other guest. It confused him, he didn't understand how she could be so nice to such idiots.

"We are bandits," the man introduced himself and his group. "We don't want to cause any trouble, we just need ten barrels of sake."

Makino was as polite as always when she told him that they were out of sake. She had complained about that to Luffy last night, just like usual when Shanks came. 'They drink faster than I can buy new. I should have him call in before he comes for his visit the next time!' She had told him with a smile.

"And what is it that those pirates are drinking then? Water?"

"Ah, no. It's every bit of sake I had left," Makino answered, her friendly voice slightly more strained than before.

"Really?" Shanks joined the conversation.

"Yes! As soon as you are here, I'm out of sake!"

Shanks smiled sheepishly and then hold a bottle out to the bandit.

"This one is still unopened. If you want it - here!"

But the bandit shattered the bottle in one movement. The content spilled all over Shanks, some drops even landing on his precious hat. Luffy's eyes widened, anger already taking form. But Shanks himself seemed to be calm incarnated while the bandit kept talking about how great and strong he was. Luffy wanted to punch this man more than he had ever wanted to punch anybody else before, not even his grandfather.

"Now look at this mess," the man sighed and kneed down to collect the glass shards. "Makino, do you have a mob?"

"I'll take care of it!" she answered quickly and went to get her cleaning supplies.

"What a waste of time," the bandit declared and with a sneer he and his group marched out of the bar again.

Luffy was shocked. How could Shanks, strong and brave Shanks, let that man treat him in such a way?

Silence reigned for a minute before Shanks and his crew broke out in laughter. Taking Makino's hand the captain stood up again, not once holding his amusement in.

"Why are you laughing?!" Luffy shouted.

"Well, because it was funny! Guy didn't even notice who he had in front of him!", Yasopp answered.

"That's stupid!"

"If you say so…"

Pouting Luffy turned away from the laughing crew. He couldn't understand what was supposed to be so funny about getting sake spilled over oneself!

But speculations about possible whys didn't keep the boy entertained for long. He looked around for something that was actually fun and found it in the small treasure chest Shanks had brought with him. The man hadn't told him what was inside of it, although Luffy had been the most polite about it. He had even said please! Looking around the room he discovered that nobody was paying attention to him so Luffy jumped down from the barstool and went to open the trunk. It wasn't locked, the boy realized after five minutes of thinking about how to open it. With a wide smile he looked inside, quite disappointed when it wasn't the expected gold that he found but some kind of fruit. Maybe it was really special and tasted like meat? It was worth a try, Luffy decided and bit into it, only to be greeted with the sour taste of lemon.

"Baaah!" He shouted, most of the fruit already swallowed.

That grabbed everybody's attention. They turned around to see the boy coughing, in his hand the small black rest of the fruit.

"Luffy, are you okay?" Makino asked concerned.

"Y-yeah, Shanks' weird fruit just tasted really awful!"

"Weird fruit?" Shanks echoed before it dawned on him. "Luffy! Did you eat the fruit in the treasure chest?!"

"... Yes?"

"Spit it out! Right now!"

Shanks grabbed the boy and hold him up, patting his back like one would a baby after it ate.

"Shaaaaanks! Stop it!"

"You need to spit it out! It's not something a little kid like you should ever eat!"

Luffy was about to shout at the man so he would let him down, but his voice never quite left his mouth.

He was staring at a girl standing next to Shanks he knew hadn't been there before.

Her skin was sickly pale, her right leg and arm were a bloody mess while her right eye was nonexistent. Luffy felt like throwing up, yet he couldn't take his eyes off the red haired girl, who was just a few years older than Luffy.

"Who- who are you?" Luffy whispered, his voice barely above a breath.

"Luffy?" Shanks asked, instead of the hysteric panic from earlier, his voice was full of concern, but the boy didn't react. He just kept staring into what seemed to be thin air for the rest.

"Can you see me?" The girl asked timidly.

Luffy nodded, his own voice failing him in a way it never had before.

"I'm Maria", she introduced herself. "Shanks' older sister!"

Luffy, still so young and small, his mind not yet ready for what his eyes had shown him, passed out on the spot.

"The people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this you keep them alive."

- Rob Montgomery

"Luffy, please come out again," Shanks pleaded.

"No!"

And guilt took yet another bite out of the pirate. Luffy had locked himself up in his room for the past week, the only one allowed to come in being Makino.

Shanks regretted ever picking up that devil fruit. It had been a 'lucky' coincidence, they had found the fruit on an island that yet had to be found by the marines. It was a rather rare one, had been hard to get information on it. The Yūrei Yūrei no mi, a devil fruit that allowed interactions with ghosts apparently. The red haired man wished he could see what had frightened Luffy so much. To understand so that he could help.

But since Luffy locked himself up like that, he couldn't get to the boy and he certainly didn't want to force the door open. Shanks was sure that would be rather contra productive.

"Luffy, please. I'll tell you a story about-"

"Who is Maria?" The boy interrupted him.

Shanks felt like he had been slapped in the face. Hard. Multiple times.

"She was my older sister. She died when I was six, in a- in an accident," Shanks started to talk, carefully refraining from mentioning her brutal murder. "She had red hair just like me and, well, we fought a lot. Over the most ridiculous things too. Never really knew how much she did for me until it was too late."

Of course he hadn't. His sister took him outside to the market when his dear old father had one too many drinks and she kept him entertained until the dark of night forced them to go back home again. Shanks had been an oblivious kid for the longest time, a lot like Luffy actually. The sudden loneliness had forced him to grow up at a speed he had been barely able to handle.

And then the door opened. Luffy stepped out of his room, eye bags clearly visible, his gaze focused somewhere on Shank's right.

"She says that she's sorry she left. She hadn't wanted to leave you. She's proud of you and likes Benn. But you should stop doing gross adult things together."

Shank's eyes widened as Luffy kept talking, playing translator between Shanks and his sister. While at first Luffy had seemed to have been bothered by passing Maria's words forward to Shanks, as soon as she - and wasn't that just impossible? - started commenting Shanks' adventures, Luffy had great fun. At some point they sat down on the ground right in front of Luffy's room, not caring that a comfortable bed or even carpet was just a few meters away.

"All these years and you still stayed here with me? Why didn't you pass on?" Shanks asked Maria, having stopped referring to her in third person a while ago.

"She said she couldn't, she had to keep you safe. She- she's apologizing and crying."

Luffy looked like he was close to tears too. It wasn't right, Shanks thought. Luffy shouldn't be crying, he should never cry, only smile and laugh. He shouldn't have to cry about wounds that time had long sewn together again.

Yet here he was and Shanks could nearly feel how those old and deep wounds reopened. He was supposed to be the mature adult, he had to be fearless and strong in front of the young child which admired him so greatly.

"Let's try," Luffy hiccupped suddenly. Lost in thought, Shanks hadn't even noticed how Luffy had started to converse with Maria again.

Luffy hold out his hand tentatively, as if waiting for someone to take it. And then something strange happened. The boy became completely calm, his chin nearly connected with his chest as he tilted his head. A few seconds ticked away before he suddenly sat up straight again.

"Shanks," Luffy said, his voice higher than usual, less enthusiastic, less childlike too. "Shanks," he repeated, this time more confident. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I died, I'm sorry I left you all alone, I'm sorry I was such a bad sister!"

"... Maria?"

Then Luffy- Maria started to cry and clung to his shirt as if her life depended on it. Shanks wondered if she had carried this with her for the past twenty one years. His strong, brave older sister carrying this guilt with her, Shanks felt like he had been the terrible sibling for not noticing, although the rational part of him knew that he couldn't have known.

"You don't have to apologize, sis. You were the best sister I could have asked for."

"I was?"

"Yes."

"Really?" She asked for assurance, her voice so hopeful.

"Really."

Maria wiped her tears off her- Luffy's cheeks, biting on he- Luffy's lips so that she would not start to cry again. Faintly Shanks remembered her having done that too when they still had been innocent children in a small village.

"Would you mind then if I go to mom?" She inquired, so unsure of herself. She felt so selfish, wanting to leave her baby brother like that. But- but he had told her she had been a good sister. She had been the best! Maria just wanted to rest now.

"Not in the slightest," Shanks told her when he realized what she meant by it. "Greet her from me, okay?"

"I will."

It was weird to see another smile on Luffy's face than his own overly cheerful one. It was still his expression but Shanks could never imagine the little boy to smile as timidly as Maria did.

"Don't follow me too soon, Shanks."

She gave him one last smile, before Luffy's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out again. The red haired captain started to panic in the most unfitting way for somebody who was the leader of a group of wanted man. Shanks started to shout for Makino, unable to deal with the sudden passing out of the child all on his own, while forgetting half the words he needed to explain properly what happened. Luckily Makino was educated in the art of understanding a distressed Shanks and took the unconscious Luffy out of his arms.

"He is suffering from a slight fever, caused by overexertion," she told the red haired captain. It wasn't that often that Makino made use of the knowledge her late father, a doctor, had given her, but in those times she did, she was more than thankful.

"He'll be fine again then?"

"He will be standing in your cabin at five in the morning just like usual," Makino answered amused while Shanks let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank god."

"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think."

- Margaret Mead

Explaining Luffy what eating a devil fruit meant was easier than expected but harder than it should be. While the fact that he would be unable to swim for the rest of his life didn't seem to bother the boy too much, although he was a little angry all his swimming lessons had been a great waste of time, Luffy didn't get how eating a fruit could prevent him from swimming. He couldn't wrap his head around the concepts of his body now being weakened by touching too much of still water for too long. It wasn't like Shanks or anyone on his crew knew what exactly the mechanisms behind devil fruit users' weakness to water were. But considering that it had to be very complicated, it would be probably pointless to explain it to Luffy anyway. The boy just had to settle for the fact that water was dangerous and he had to be even more careful now.

Another thing was getting into his head that he shouldn't go around telling everybody about his abilities. People reacted with fear and aggression to things they didn't understand so keeping one's mouth shut about it was the best way to deal with the whole topic.

That of course didn't mean that in the one more week the Red Hair Pirates stayed before they were on their way to the Grand Line again, they weren't helping little Luffy with his new abilities. After all they- their Captain, it was his fault! - were responsible for not keeping the fruit somewhere child safe.

They figured out that not everybody who died stayed as a ghost, only those with a strong enough will. The rest passed on to heaven knows where.

It wasn't exhausting for Luffy to keep interacting with ghosts but being possessed by them was a whole other deal. Luffy could stand it for one minute without passing out when the ghost left again, five until he passed out on his own. Furthermore the boy didn't enjoy the feeling at all. The full possession was like being sick, the same constant feeling of weakness even if the ghost was currently running across the ship's deck. Bound by the limits of Luffy's body, one late swordsman of the Red Haired Pirates, had a hard time using his abilities but nevertheless he was able to perform them. The half possession was a lot more bearable on Luffy, he didn't feel like a complete puppet but it also greatly weakened the ghost's own reign in the young body.

That was about all they figured out in one week and Makino was rather thankful for it. As grateful as she was that the crew helped Luffy, it worried her how often the boy passed out or came home late and very exhausted.

It was on the last day of Shanks' stay that Luffy ran into the bandit from two weeks ago. He was surrounded by his group of followers and the anger the black haired boy had felt back then woke again.

"Hey, you!" Luffy told the man. "You're the meanie that still needs to apologize to Shanks!"

The man scowled and glared at the boy. Unnoticed by Luffy the other bandits circled them, weapons already drawn.

"Who are you, brat?"

"Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm not a brat, butt face!" Luffy shouted.

The man grabbed him by the collar before Luffy could react and hold the boy up by it.

"Let me down!" He protested and tried to hit or kick the bandit but he had no success. His arms and legs were too short, he was still just a naive child dreaming of conquering the whole world with a punch as strong as a pistol.

"Kid, do you know what I do with people that piss me off? I kill them."

Luffy was scared. For the first time since his birth the boy was scared for his life. It was just as if his fright was freezing him, making him immobile. The man's voice held much more malice than Luffy had ever experienced before. He hadn't known that humans could be so terrifying, the sea had never instilled terror like that within him. But he tried to be brave, tried to be invincible like Shanks.

"And you, brat, pissed me off royally so you're definitely gonna die."

The bandit threw Luffy to the ground and quickly pressed him to the land with his foot before he had any chance to escape. He aimed his gun at Luffy, grinning like a madman. He was just seven, he hadn't even sailed on the blue waves once, he couldn't die now!

"Oi, you! Hands off the kid, right now!"

Never before in his life had Luffy been so happy to hear Shanks' voice. The red haired man stood right behind the bandits, his crew surrounding him. Unnecessarily, he could easily take out the whole group himself. It was more for intimidating the bandits, really.

"Take him out!" The leader shouted at his goons, who quickly followed suit.

"This is no silly game," Lucky Roo commented and proceeded to shoot various bandits before they could get too near to his captain. Benn also took a few swings at various bandits and together they took out the group without breaking a sweat.

"Anyone else?"

The bandits' leader gnashed his teeth and threw a smoke bomb on the ground that directly engulfed him and Luffy. The boy could feel how the bandit grabbed him and hauled him over the ground. Luffy wanted to scream but the hand over his mouth and the knife at his neck prevented him from trying. The bandit hurried to get both of them away from the scene. With the sound of waves crashing against each other getting louder, it didn't take Luffy long to recognize where the bandit was taking him, the beach on the north side of the village. Did he want to kill him there where nobody would hear? Luffy felt the tears well in his eyes. He didn't want to die!

But the bandit didn't kill him on the beach, instead he threw Luffy on a little wooden boat.

Nobody would expect a mountain bandit on the sea after all, he thought.

He lead the boat away from the beach, not too far away from the village but a huge distance for a seven year old who had eaten a devil fruit.

"Nobody can hear you scream here," the bandit told Luffy, expecting that this remark made the boy look so damn scared. Little did he know of the Sea King that had risen out of the water right behind him. Luffy crawled to the corner of the little boat, tried to get as far away from the monster as he could. The moment the bandit realized what actually scared the black haired child that much, it had already been too late. The Sea King devoured half the boat and the man with one bite. The destruction of the boat sent Luffy flying into the water. Desperately he tried to stay above the blue but every little movement felt like he had just run a marathon. He gasped for air, but very little of that and a huge amount of water came instead.

He didn't want to give up, he was a fighter, but he couldn't do it anymore. The moment he finally let his limbs rest and the sea take him back, he was pulled into a warm embrace.

The familiar and comforting smell of booze, sea and home reached Luffy's nose. He looked up into Shank's smiling face.

"Everything's alright now, anchor," the man comforted the boy. "No need to cry, Luffy. Men don't cry after all."

But some sort of relieve still washed through Shanks at the sight of Luffy crying. It meant that he was still alive and that Shanks hadn't failed in protecting the young boy.

"Thanks for standing up for us, Luffy."

The black haired child kept sobbing, tears running and not reaching an end. The stress and fright needed to get out of his system in the only way they could right now, with crying. On top of that was the guilt gnawing at Luffy. It was his entire fault, if he had just been stronger!

"My brave little anchor."

"But- but Shanks-"

"It's no big deal."

"But it's gone! Your arm is gone because of me!"

"It's just one arm, and I have another. But only one Luffy, right?"

Luffy didn't see Benn catching a fainting Shanks when the captain of the Red Hair Pirates couldn't stand the pain anymore. The worried first mate called his captain reckless, sacrificing his arm and then carrying the sobbing Luffy back to Makino. Benn also didn't quite understand why Shanks ended up leaving his precious hat with Luffy. He also wouldn't for a long time. Not until Luffy had already exposed the world to the storm he was. He would fully grasp it though the moment Luffy declared war on the government for a nakama. He would wonder why he ever questioned his captain's decision when he saw the boy cradle the body of his brother, surrounded by the enemy.

"Every child should have a safe place in their life"

- Joe Manchin

Foosha was a small village, everybody knew each other. It was just as rare to see people coming to the small village as seeing them leave. Nobody out of Foosha went further than to the next island, barely two days away. This exact fact made the village the perfect place to hide the son of Monkey D. Dragon. Years ago Garp had come across the small village while searching for a calm place to spend his vacation at that was still close enough to Goa Kingdom. Despite being a storm and always the first to fight for the marines, he wasn't an idiot. He knew that some things went completely wrong in the navy, he didn't need to dig deep to see it. The fact that he had to hide Ace, an innocent brat, and in a way Luffy too, spoke lengths.

For seven years Garp believed Foosha to be completely safe for his grandson. The moment Luffy started rambling about becoming pirate king and how amazing Shanks was and how cool his new hat was and that he could see ghosts now and who is this woman next to you, gramps?, Garp knew for sure that it wasn't safe anymore.

Because Luffy's retelling of what had happened since Garp's last visit only arose more questions, the old marine had asked Makino. She proved to be a far more reliable source and explained to him how Luffy came to be talking to a woman Garp had loved far more than anyone else, aside the youngest Monkey troublemaker, where everybody else just saw thin-air.

"Gramps, how can granny be so cool but you so stupid?" Luffy asked suddenly, earning himself one of Garp's fists of love.

"Don't ask stupid questions!"

Luffy pouted and climbed down from the barstool. Then he turned to his right and asked his grandmother if she wanted to see the town and the beach. He told her how the beach was his favorite place because it was the closest to the sea. She listened patiently as he continued explaining how exactly he would go about becoming the pirate king and how he had already mastered a lot of his devil fruit powers and gave them super cool names. One of those newly mastered abilities he called Vision. His Night Vision showed him how the ghosts looked like normally, while his Nightmare Vision showed him how they looked the moment of their death. The later was apparently not as tiring but since it was so scary to see how the ghosts really looked, Luffy preferred Night Vision.

The woman had to smile. Yet another child who wouldn't follow Garp the Fist's footsteps. It was probably better that way. Her grandson was a child of the sea, he would be terribly unhappy as a caged marine. Not that the place he would live for the next few years wouldn't be a cage either. A wide and comfortable cage, but nevertheless a cage to protect the young boy. She just hoped little Ace and Luffy would get along. With such a weird devil fruit like that it certainly wouldn't take long until all of East Blue knew about it. Unwanted attention like that shouldn't be placed on his small shoulders yet.

He couldn't stay in the peaceful and normal Foosha.

"In the main, ghosts are said to be forlorn and generally miserable, if not downright depressed. The jolly ghost is rare"

- Dick Cavett

"Granny, tell gramps I don't wanna move out of Foosha! Especially not to some bandits in the mountains! I hate bandits!" Luffy complained to his grandmother for the hundredth time since they started hiking up the mountain.

"Shut up!" Garp ordered with his best marine vice admiral voice. Unfortunately it had absolutely no effect on the seven year old but rather only made him complain even more to his grandmother. Garp had gotten used to Luffy talking to thin-air, to his beloved late wife, some time ago. He would have to teach Luffy to not speak openly to ghosts around other people, it would only cause trouble for the young child.

"I hate theeeeem!" Luffy whined again, the encounter with the bandits who had wanted to kill him still fresh in mind. The thought that he had to live with another group of bandits now was downright terrifying. He hadn't wanted to admit it, maybe even hadn't quite realized it himself, but the kidnapping and his near death experience had made the boy terrified of losing his freedom again. Not afraid of death though. Luffy couldn't imagine being terrified of death, not when it was part of life and unavoidable. He was constantly surrounded by the dead and while he feared the pain of dying, death itself wasn't something he feared.

"Well, it's too late now! We're already here!" Garp told the boy.

In front of them stood a, for the short boy's perspective, rather huge wooden shack. He already disliked it. Makino's home looked and definitely was way more comfortable. It was a home where he was always welcome. Luffy was sure this wouldn't be a home, especially since a home required one to actually want to be there, which Luffy definitely wish for.

Garp went to the front door to knock while Luffy kept listening to his grandmother telling him about how it wouldn't be as bad as the young boy believed it would be. She had a hard time trying to convince Luffy, though his aversion to bandits was strong after all. But he was interested in Ace, the idea of another child nearly his age being around was at least somewhat comforting. Two against the world didn't sound as horrible as one against all.

"Luffy, get over here!"

Reluctantly Luffy walked over to his grandfather again, who was now standing next to a woman with orange hair and two other men.

"Luffy, this is Dadan and two of her followers. You will stay with them now, say hi."

"Yo," he greeted, the word clashing with his formal bowing Makino had him taught him. Make good impression now, rob them off their food later.

"We don't want the brat!" The bandits shouted at Garp.

"I don't wanna be here either!" Luffy complained again.

"Then why are you?!"

But Garp shut the bandits up with the threat of throwing them into prison and Luffy with his caring fist of love. The small boy put both his hands on the spot on his forehead where Garp had hit him.

"Kid ate a devil fruit so make sure he doesn't drown!" Garp told the bandits with a stern voice. As if Luffy needed bandits to watch out for him. Bandits were all terrible and Luffy was strong enough to take care of himself.

It was then that he turned away from the conversation and looked for the other boy the bandits harbored. He found Ace, as he recalled his grandmother calling him, sitting on a huge beast while biting into a huge chunk of meat. He was scowling too and looking like a nasty guy to be around. Luffy's hopes of finding a good friend in him were reduced to nothing.

At least the woman and man sitting him looked really nice. The woman had a lot of freckles, just like Ace, and long pink-ish hair while the man had black hair and was wearing a red coat. Since their appearances were really nice and kind, Luffy decided against trying to see how they looked with Nightmare Vision.

"Hello, my name is Luffy! Can I have some meat? Eh- please?" He introduced himself but Ace just spit at him with deadly accuracy before jumped down from the beast and running away. Meanie.

The woman followed him, looking slightly disappointed while the man stayed behind and studied Luffy. The boy decided to try his luck with the man. Sure, even if he was just a ghost, Luffy wanted, no, needed to make a friend. So ghost man it was.

"Hello!" He tried again and hold out his hand like he had learnt from Makino."I'm Luffy and who are you?"

The man looked around, did half a spin, and then turned back to Luffy. He shook his head and once again scouted the surroundings. Luffy thought the man looked rather stupid like that but refrained from voicing his opinion. Being mean to others didn't give one friends after all.

"I'm talking to you, moustache man!" Luffy addressed him directly so that the man would stop acting like an idiot.

"You can see me?" The man asked perplexed after comprehending that in fact a living seven year old kid was talking to him.

"Yup! I ate the Yūrei Yūrei no mi and now I can see ghosts! Shishishi!" Luffy explained his ability happily.

The man joined his laughter, the deep but warming laugh sounding over the whole clearing, only for a few ears to hear even if so many people were there.

"You're a funny kid. I'm Roger, Ace's dad," moustache man introduced himself and finally took Luffy's outstretched hand that had already started to hurt from being hold up so long.

"I'm Luffy! I'm gonna be king of pirates!"

The black haired child thought it very important to point that out. Even if moustache man didn't look like a bandit, Luffy had to make sure the man knew of his goals.

"Pirate king, eh? I had been called that before dying."

"A pirate?"

Luffy's eyes widened and Roger imagined seeing stars in them. But that was impossible, right?

"Oi, Luffy I'm going to go now- who are you talking to this time?" Garp interrupted their conversation, the bandits standing right behind him.

"Moustache man!" Luffy directly answered happily while one of the bandits complained about getting an even weirder kid this time. "He was a pirate! And Ace's dad!"

Garp paled. Suddenly having brought Luffy here didn't seem like having been such a good idea anymore.

Writer's ramblings:

So, this is my new story! The Inspiration for it came somewhere between reading various 'Ace lives' fanfictions, rereading Thriller Bark Arc and some major Roger and Rouge feels. Add the random thought "It would be awesome if Luffy could see ghosts" and you get this. I'm personally not a friend of different devil fruit Luffy because often he is ridiculously overpowered. This will be 50% ridiculous (family) fluff and 50% angst. Also some gore and blood but not more than in canon.
I will post the next chapter, which is nearly done, when I have the following chapter done. I will do this simply because otherwise I will start slacking. Good thing though: I have summer break now and I am really inspired!
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment on your way out! Thanks!