Soliloquy of the Broken Soul

Saki Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

*walks in*
"Hi"
*throws grenade's*

If you know you know.

ON WITH THE CHAPTER! PLEASE READ THE END NOTES!

***

A harsh whistle carried across the wind on the deck of the Moby Dick. 

“Captain! Red Hair’s approaching!” A gruff rumble voiced from the Crows Nest. 

"Let him near, kid was expected," Whitebeard announced, drinking from the gallard at his side.

It took a few minutes for the massive ship of the Red Hair pirates to arrive, pulling up to the side of the Moby Dick but still paling in size comparison.

The Whitebeard family just couldn't be out matched.

“Ahoy King!” Shanks grinned, swinging over to the Moby Dick, forgoing the ladder in favour of the rope on the crows nest, a massive Saki bottle at his side.

“Gurarara! Lively as ever I see, Red Hair,” Whitebeard greeted heartily, eyeing Marco to his left and nodding.

The Phoenix excused himself from his conversation with a few brothers and went below deck, Shanks eyeing him from his spot on the deck in front of Whitebeard.

“Where’s Feather’s goin’?” Shanks questioned, popping the cork off the saki bottle and pouring it into Whitebeard's cup.

The old pirate narrowed his eyes, ignoring the question for his own. Though he knew the answer he needed it from the Red Haired pirate. 

“What’s your business Red Hair?” Whitebeard questioned, Taking the enormous Saki cup and drinking from it whilst Shanks poured his own.

Shanks scowled. His heart was thumping and after over three years his torn mind didn’t want any more games.

“You know why I’m here, Whitebeard. I wanna see my kid,” He announced with a glower, punctuating the words by drinking his saki in one go and clanking the cup on the open deck.

Quiet had settled around them by this point and many of Whitebeard's crew were watching closely.

Whitebeard huffed a short laugh and then looked Shanks dead on, "Straight to business, eh? Since when did you become such a stickler?" Whitebeard questioned, an underlying tone of warning in the man's words.

Shanks bolted upright, fist clenched as he stared the old pirate captain down.

"Since Luffy's been missing for three years, that's when!" He snapped angrily, taking a step closer to the Emperor of the Sea with little care for the hundreds of eyes and enemy pirates slowly drawing out concealed weapons.

A stiff silence held the air for a while, stagnant and tense.

Finally, though, Whitebeard sighed with a small smile.

"Sorry Red Hair, just had to make sure our kiddos weren't in danger. They've been through enough," The man nodded and raised a hand, signalling someone in the back. "Marco!"

And then suddenly, within a seconds notice the sullen, much too tired, far to worn out Red Hair captain had gleaming tears in his eyes and the smile of seeing a dead loved one again.

Because after all this time, deep down, he'd accepted that's what happened, and that little Luffy wasn't coming back.

But here the little bugger was, a little too thin, definitely too small, but alive and being nudged forward by a certain Phoenix and two boys slightly taller than Luffy himself.