Family Portrait

Luffy laughed and tugged on Shanks arm as they stood in front of the Party’s Bar. Next to them was Makino and Ace who was getting his hair fixed up by the lady tavern owner. In front of them Yasopp was grinning ear to ear as he was fixing the camera up for their little photo. Shanks didn’t know how the seven year old had convince him into agreeing with Yasopp that they should take a picture together but then again it was Luffy…one look into those big innocent eyes was enough to make anyone do anything.

“Heehee!” Luffy tugged on the red haired mans arm again “Shanks!” the addressed man raised a crimson eyebrow at the young boy he saw as his own son. A giggle from his side caused Shanks to look up and over in the direction the noise had come from. He saw Makino smiling at him as she was finishing up with Ace’s hair, but the moment the comb left his hair it sprang back to the way it was before she touched it. Makino smile and shook her head before ushering the ten year old to stand next to the red haired pirate and his little brother.

“You four ready?” Yasopp asked standing at the ready with his finger on the switch of the camera.

“Yeah!” Luffy cheered punching a fist in the air before two hands grabbed him from under his arms and lifted him up. Luffy looked up to see Shanks grinning at him.

“Now we’re ready” Luffy grinned wider and looked at Ace who was rolling his eyes and smirking at his brother being held by the pirate captain. Makino giggled and took one of Ace’s hands and made him stand in front of her.

“Alright Captain” Yasopp said looking through the camera at them “You and your wife and kids be sure to smile” again making another jab at just how much they actually looked like a regular family. Shanks grinned and shook his head, not like he would ever deny that was the way he felt for the people around him at the moment. He felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Luffy blinking up at him.

“Yes?” Luffy just grinned before looking back at the camera all the while giggling. Shanks smirked and shook his head; Luffy was in a pretty happy mood today and in a good enough one to play around. He ruffled the boys hair making him laugh.

“Hey!” Luffy laughed before fisting some of Shanks’s red hair but he didn’t pull on it.

“You guys done bonding yet?” Yasopp asked grinning at the little scene before him that his captain and the little boy in his arms was making. The two laughed and Luffy let go of his idols hair. “Okay are you guys ready?” Yasopp asked before looking through the camera again.

“Yes!” Luffy and Shanks yelled.

“Yeah” Ace said simply before Makino put her hands on his shoulders.

“You may take the picture now” she said simply.

“Okay then…” Yasopp said “On the count of three says cheese”

“One…Two…Three!”

“CHEESE!”

*FLASH*

888

Rockstar stood in his captain’s cabin. His captain had been wanting to speak to him about the resent incident on the Whitebeard ship. He wasn’t sure what was going on with this Ace guy; but the other crew members seemed fairly concerned about the man’s well-being with this Blackbeard man, including the captain. He was fairly new to the crew and still getting use to things around the ship since he was now no longer solo. Why on earth nobody in the crew hadn’t heard about him until now he ready didn’t understand. Getting the last details from his captain he went to leave before something caught his eye. He never went into his captain’s room without being told to come in; finding it disrespectful and rude not to mention stepping out of bounds since he was so new to the crew. But the object he saw was a little strange.

The object was a framed photograph of his captain; it was taken back when the captain still had both his arms, but he wasn’t alone in the picture. Beside him was a young woman with a bandana tied on her head and wearing a long skirt. She had her hands on a young boy and both were smiling at the camera. The captain was holding a younger boy and both were grinning widely for the camera…on the captains head was a familiar looking straw hat…he knew he had seen it someplace but he couldn’t remember where…

To anyone who never met the captain they could look at that picture and think it was a couple and their two sons. But since Rockstar knew the captain he knew that there was something odd about this. He knew that captain had spent years as a pirate; judging by how old the two boys where in the photo they couldn’t be captains since he was sure he wasn’t married with two kids at any point in his past. Or…strange as it sounded…had he been?

“Something wrong?” the spiky haired man turned to see his captain sitting at his table that was covered with maps and charts. He was looking at him wondering what was wrong that his newest crew member was still in his room. Shanks looked over to were Rockstar was looking and he smiled “Like the picture?” Shanks asked.

“People you know?” Rockstar asked.

“Close friends of mine” Shanks said walking up to the picture “The pictures ten years old so the kids in it are older now” he picked the picture and looked at it before turning to Rockstar “The younger one I know very well…heh bit of a firecracker” Shanks said; Rockstar noticed something strange about the captain then…as if he wasn’t in the room with him mentally anymore, and traveled mentally back to the time he knew the three in the photograph. Rockstar snapped back from staring at the captain’s odd behavior long enough to notice he was being talked to again. “Don’t worry…you’ll meet him” Shanks tapped at the picture to point out the boy he was holding in the picture.

“Are we heading to where they live?” Rockstar asked and Shanks shook his head grinning as he headed to the door.

“No, he has something of mine he has to return…I’m not sure when that will be but he’ll bring it back” Rockstar raised an eyebrow; the captain was a strange man at times but this was stranger then anything he had seen yet. Looking at the picture once more he then turned to leave before he noticed a bunch of posters hung up on the wall of the cabin. He wasn’t sure why the captain insisted taking those bounty posters while at the last island. Every poster had the picture of a crew that was becoming very well known on the Grand Line, the Straw Hat crew. The captain of that crew, Monkey D. Luffy, was fairly young and it was easy to see he was still in his teens and already the boy had gained such a high bounty. Why Shanks had wanted the posters he wasn’t sure and when he had asked Yasopp and Benn the two men had smirked and shook their heads without ever answering his question and had walked off muttering something about an anchor.

Shaking his head he headed out the door before he noticed something about the teen in the poster.

He was wearing a straw hat most likely the symbol of their crew…a straw hat similar to the one the captain was wearing in the photo.

Rockstar shook his head and headed out the door.

It couldn’t be the same hat.

How could his captain know the famous Straw Hat captain anyway?