The Apparition

Atlantis peered out of her workshop doorway to focus on the frozen figure of Luffy sitting on the window sill, peering out with a determined expression drawn on his face. Whatever had called for his attention had held it longer than most things, in fact, when Atlantis had called out to him he hadn’t responded prompting her to check on him. “Luff?”

“Hm,” Luffy’s response was distracted, he titled his head slightly towards Atlantis but never moved his eyes away from the item drawing his attention.

With a sigh, Atlantis made her way to stand beside him before stopping short as she gazed out at the docks, at the pirate ship that had landed there.  The Jolly Roger was familiar, but Atlantis simply couldn’t place. Not until her eyes were drawn to the distractingly bright red hair of one of the pirates. The Red-Haired Pirates. An emperor of the sea. Shanks.

She had forgotten they were going to one day encounter Luffy, two years had passed and it had gotten relatively peaceful. Now, this would bring trouble.

“Pirates,” Atlantis muttered as she stared at them as the crew was dismissed by their captain and they began to cautiously venture towards the town.

“Yeah,” Luffy muttered while watching them move before standing abruptly with a grin. “What do you think they are like?”

Atlantis smiled at the ecstatic expression on Luffy’s face before smiling back fondly. “I don’t know, why don't we find out?”

With wide grins the two made for the town, making sure to circle the town instead of entering from the same entrance the pirates had, they ducked into an alleyway as Atlantis led them and stopped at the corner to stare out at the pirates roaming the market.

While most of the pirates were the spitting image of what a pirate should be, some stood out more than others. Such as their leader, with hair like that he couldn’t blend in and the scars on his face made him even more obvious. He didn’t seem to mind the attention the town folks gave him, Atlantis could however see him shift uncomfortably as the citizens gave him a wide berth. 

Yasopp was also one that drew her attention. Unlike the others, he could've blended into the environment of the town. That is if he wasn't an important character for her, this man was the father of Usopp. He was important and therefore he couldn't blend in even though it would've been easy to pass him over.

Another member that drew their attention was Lucky Roux, who Luffy was gaping at while tapping her arm, “Look at him eat. He's gonna eat it all.”

“Jealous?” Atlantis snickered as she turned her gaze to the munching Lucky Roux who was, as Luffy made clear, eating all the food in his reach.

“Why would I be jealous?” Luffy asked as he tilted his head and tore his attention from the pirates to stare at her confused. “I can eat more than that. I’m just hungry now.”

And while Shanks was handsome it was Benn Beckman, the first mate that drew Atlantis’ attention. He was far more handsome than the franchise gave him credit for or maybe it was seeing him in person that changed her perspective, but as he smiled at a little old lady selling fruits Altantis could feel her heart skip a beat. 

Benn Beckman may become a problem.

Shaking her head she pulled away from the corner and gestured for Luffy to follow her, “Let’s go catch some lunch.”

Luffy cheered as he sprinted off around the buildings with Atlantis close on his heels, allowing herself to be happy and ignore the incoming problems she laughed as they made it to the pier. Once there they set out gathering the necessary supplies before finding a quiet end of the pier far away from the pirate’s ship to set up their fishing poles. While Luffy tossed his line out, Atlantis worked on setting up a box to store their catches in before they cooked them and adding a small fire to the side so they could easily move on to the next steps.

Satisfied that the pier wouldn’t burn down, she sat beside Luffy to cast out her own reel. All the while they fished Luffy would talk about the shapes he could see in the clouds and the things he could see in the water, it was an attempt to hold his attention while they worked, and surprisingly it worked as long as someone conversed with him.

Unfortunately, today was a slow day it seemed and it took a lot longer than they expected to catch a good enough amount of fish. Even then, there wouldn’t be enough and they’d probably head out for dinner early as well. Sighing Atlantis began reeling in her pole and moving to set about preparing the fish they had already caught. Luffy grumbled but continued in a vain effort to catch any more fish while Atlantis began cooking them and setting them to the side on a prepared plate.

As the last fish was finished, Atlantis put out the fire and turned to help Luffy reel in his fishing pole to pack up. Only once they had finished packing everything up did they turn their attention back to the food only for Luffy to tilt his head confused and Atlantis to fall in shock.

Sitting in front of them, calmly munching on the last fish was Red Hair Shanks. Pirate Captain Shanks was eating their lunch. Their hard-earned food. It was all gone.

“Hey! Did you eat our food?” Luffy yelled as he threw his fists up with an outrageously cute pout settling on his face.

“Hmm. I guess I did,” Shanks said with a laugh as he eyed Luffy’s shaking fist.

Red Haired Shanks, pirate captain or not, was going to pay for this. 

“You asshole!” Atlantis shouted while jumping at him grabbing onto the stick she had used to push the fire around while cooking the fish to swing at Shanks. The man had the audacity to laugh at her reaction before shifting, dodging a punch aimed at him for Luffy.

“So cute!” Shanks squealed as he danced around the two, dodging their attacks before Atlantis had finally had enough, and stopped where she then grabbed ahold of the bucket that held the fish to toss the cold smelly water in Shank’s face.

Frozen in shock Shanks stared at her, therefore not seeing the punch aimed at his face by Luffy until it landed causing him to fall back in shock once more to stare at the two angry children.

He turned his attention towards the still steaming Luffy and the hardened expression of Atlantis, one that didn’t show the fear that had risen in her but simply anger. He then threw his head back in laughter before jumping to his feet and approaching the children.

It threw them off for a split second, but that was all Shanks needed to scoop them up into his arms and skipping away from the dock with the struggling kids in hand. 

Happily, he made his way to his ship where his crew had already returned to, to drop them onto the main deck in front of Benn Beckman. “Look what I found! Our newest crewmates!”

The crew stared in shock as Luffy rounded on the man to threateningly throw a fist up at him, “No way in hell! I don’t even know who you are!”

At his response, Shanks’ entire crew burst into laughter while pointing fingers at their pouting captain, meanwhile, Benn sighed as he brought a hand up to cradle his head.

So focused on the arguing Luffy and Shanks, none but Yasopp noticed the rapid breathing of the other child. Cautiously he approached to kneel in front of the child, a girl he could tell now that he was closer. Smiling, he tried to reassure her yet it only seemed to cause panic to rise further in the child.

Yasopp’s wide eyes and open palms were the last things Atlantis saw before she fainted in her panic.