Only a Smile? Young Shanks x Young Reader

30- A What?!

Last time!

The marimo cut down the rocks with a flick of the wrist, sheathing his katana again. "Let's go." He walked over the debris and into the office, "You coming or what?"

Shanks just stood where he was, his jaw hit the ground and he stared at the crying rubble of what used to be the entrance.

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Walking along the halls, Shanks glanced at the male beside himself repeatedly, while carrying Y/n bridal style in his arms.

"Um, so, what's your name?.." Shanks asked, trying his best to strike up a conversation, the awkwardness sinking in. 

"Roronoa Zoro, just call me Zoro."

"I see! Well, I'm Shanks, and this is Y/n," He replied, nodding down towards Y/n, as his hands were occupied.  Zoro and Shanks continued the long journey down the corridors, an imaginary lightbulb flashed above Shanks's head as he realised, "Erm, Zoro-san?... Aren't we going the wrong way?... The exit is that way, isn't it?..." He said as he simultaneously nodded behind them.

"..." Zoro looked at where Shanks was also looking, before noticing his mistake as well, a grim expression appeared on his face, and he looked back to the front, then silently sighed, figuring out a logical excuse. Without looking back, he swiftly explained his newly formed explanation. "We are leaving here, are we not? So we should be sneaky, going out through the normal exit is far too civil and expected. Get it now? Let's go then." He said, quickly walking again.

"I guess that makes sense, good thinking Zoro-san!" Shanks commented as he stared at him with eyes full of admiration. "But, um, where is our new escape route?" He asked with a bright smile, not noticing Zoro's abrupt stop and the grimace on his face, he turned around as a bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face and forced a smile onto his face, which turned out a bit more wigglier than he'd liked.

"It's a very secret passage, so we can't talk about it here." Zoro concocted, slightly sighing in relief when the younger male gave an 'Oh!' of understanding and awe, but was also concerned at his naivety, putting a note at the back of his head to remind himself to give Shanks a lecture about why not to trust so easily, hell, if he's like this, that means he should probably talk to all Shanks's friends as well, he might have infected them. T'was the other way round, but look at Zoro being a concerned hottie 🥺

They walked and walked and walked, while the princess was being carried by her prince, the knight carefully led them along the path, until loud voices interrupted their lovely little stroll.

"------------SAMA!!!"

"-------BIT(CH)-- SAMA!!"

"-----DIE!!!"

"-------OKAY!!"

"WHO---THIS?!"

"THROW THAT PERSON----------------!!!-------------------ON THE STRETCHER!!"

6 points and a cookie for whoever guesses the blank speech correctly in the comments! Answers at the end of the chapter! (If I remember...) HINT: The amount of dashes is the same amount of letters in the sentence! Spaces are not included in the dashes.

"The f*ck? " Zoro questioned as the voices loudened, Shanks looked confused as well, but then he remembered what Y/n and he did once he recognised the door to the ball. "Uh, Zoro-san, let's quickly go!" As soon as he realised what they were shouting about, he said, running ahead of Zoro, who raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

Suddenly the door to the ball opened with a loud 'FLUNK' and then a long, piercing 'CREEK'.

Four men rushed through the door, each one holding the corner of a stretcher, on which a fat pig was lying.

Not expecting to see people in the halls, the men stopped and stared at them, and as was the logical thing to do, Zoro and Shanks stared back at them, staring, staring, staring, staring, oh, Zoro blinked.

"Aha! You blinked! That means we win! Ahahahhah!"

"Zoro-san! How could you do that?! We were so close to winning the staring contest!" Shanks cried out.

"My eyes were hurting." He replied nonchalantly.

"Wait, what are you even doing here!? Everyone is supposed to be in the ballroom!" Exclaimed one of the men, guards ran in front of the men holding the stretcher containing the pig and drew their swords.

"We were in the toilet!" Shanks quickly thought up.

"That's a bad lie! Everyone knows there isn't a toilet in here!" One guard replied.

"What? There's no toilet?? How do you even survive?..." Zoro asked, confused.

"We pee in a bush!"

"What about the women?..."

"They also pee in a bush!"

"How do you poo?"

"We just do it in our pants."

"Yeah, it gets really stinky in here after we have a banquet." Another guard agreed.

"Doesn't it fall out of your pant legs?...."

"It happens all the time! That's why no one wants to be a cleaner here, even though the pay is even more than the knights' wages."

"Oh...." Shanks looked quite disgusted, so did Zoro, but he wasn't as bothered by it.

"Ah, wait! We're getting sidetracked again! We'll let you off the hook if you get back in there right now!" They said.

Shanks glanced at Zoro, their eyes met, and Zoro slightly nodded, giving him the sign that they should go inside. "Okay, we'll be going now!" Shanks led the way, with Zoro walking 1 foot behind him. A man in a butler outfit stared sideways at Shanks as he walked by, Shanks looked back at him, and they made eye contact. Shanks felt a chill run throughout his body, it was as if time slowed down when they passed by each other.

Once he passed him, Shanks felt relieved, a light sigh trickering out, he still felt his eye on himself, cautiously, he continued walking, Zoro following next to him.

"Wait, Red Hair."

Shanks's eyes widened and he felt his heart picking up pace, he turned his head round to face the man, "Yeah?"

"Who is that you're holding?"

"My fiance. She felt tired so she fell asleep." Shanks said, hoping he wouldn't pry anymore.

"Last time I checked, slaves do not have fiances."

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BADAM! ISN'T THAT A SURPRISE??! DEFINITELY NO ONE FIGURED THAT OUT BEFORE! HAHAHAHAHA!.....

I'm so so so so so so so sorry for not posting in around a month, I've been very busy with my job and school and life... AHHH I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL TOMORROWWWW!!!!

Here are the answers for the speech-guessing thing! (I remembered!!):

"TENRYUUBITO-SAMA!!!"

"TENRYUUBIT(CH)O- SAMA!!"

"DON'T DIE!!!"

"IT'LL BE OKAY!!"

"WHO DID THIS?!"

"THROW THAT PERSON WHO DID THIS IN JAIL!!! GET TENRYUUBITO-SAMA ON THE STRETCHER!!"

Claim your 6 points and a cookie here!

Fun fact!

If you write the numbers from 82 to 1 in descending order, you get a prime number (155 digits); 82818079787776757473727170696867666564636261605958575655545352515049484746454443424140393837363534333231302928272625242322212019181716151413121110987654321. I can't believe I wasted my time doing that...

Have a good morning/afternoon/night!! 💖💖

Bye Bye!! 💖💖

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