And You Are?
Atlantis swung her feet back and forth as she waited patiently, the bar was quiet except for the sounds of the broom scraping on the ground as Makino quietly hummed to herself. It wasn’t until the shouts of villagers did Atlantis allow her smile to widen as she hopped down from the counter to approach the window.
From outside the window, a small area of the road was actually viewable from the window and showed very few members of the village. In fact, Atlantis could practically see nothing but the road from the window.
With a sigh, she prepared herself to have to wait outside when a blur passed by the bar. Startled, she rushed to pull the door open, only to find Luffy’s back as he launched himself towards the docks with an excited holler.
“Luffy,” Atlantis sighed with a shake of her head as she exited the building with a fond smile. As she started to make her way towards the docks she was quickly passed by two other boys who were panting from exertion but continued forward.
Pausing she took in their appearances, they didn’t appear to be village kids she was familiar with but if they were chasing Luffy that couldn’t be good. Although, one of them could very well be Ace, the other one? The blond? As Atlantis pondered on her memories of One Piece she began regretting not staying up to date because while she knew about Ace’s death, everything after came in a fog of rumors. Actually, now that she thought about it, doesn't Luffy have a second brother?
“Ah! Granddaughter? Where’s that brat?” Garp confusedly moved looked around her while scratching the back of his head as he stopped to stand beside Atlantis. Muttering to himself he peeked around Atlantis to look into the bar, “Thought I would have to pry him away from you.”
“He headed to the dock.” Atlantis giggled as she gestured towards the mentioned dock where yells could now be heard.
Sighing Garp nodded his head before walking beside Atlantis to head towards the disappointed yells. Upon reaching the pier Luffy shouted in anger while pointing a finger at his grandfather. “You lied to me!”
Luffy was fuming in anger as the other two boys were gesturing for him to get off the box he had climbed onto. Garp sighed exasperatedly while Atlantis giggled, bringing a hand up to cover the sound as she hid behind Garp.
At the sound, Garp narrowed his eyes as he turned to stare at her before moving out of the way causing her to become the attention of the three boys. While the other two seemed confused, Luffy immediately brightened up as he launched himself into the air, “COCO!”
Closing her eyes Atlantis braced for impact, puffing out a gasp of air as she was thrown backward by the force of the impact, ending both her and Luffy sprawling onto the ground. Laughter filled the air as Luffy tightened his grip around her and hid his smile into her neck.
With a smile of her own Atlantis brought her arms up to wrap around Luffy with a bright smile, “Well hello to you, too. You look good Luffy.”
“You came back,” Luffy muttered into her side excitedly causing her to let out a strained chuckle as she shook her head.
“I promised, did I not?”
“Brat!” Garp screamed out as he attempted to pry Luffy off of Atlantis, pulling both of them into the air as he held Luffy by the back of his shirt.
“Luffy! GEEZER! Let him go!” Ace screamed as he kicked Garp in the shin causing Garp to hiss quietly as he dropped the two causing them to giggle and roll away.
Standing up Atlantis stopped Garp in his tracks by pointing at his red angry face with a laugh, “You look like Smoker when…” Abruptly Atlantis sheepishly cut off her response with an awkward chuckle before turning back to Luffy. “I, uh, brought gifts?”
“Yay!” Luffy cheered as he danced around in a circle. “Meat! Meat! Meat!”
“Yeah,” Atlantis sighed dejectedly as she nodded her head slowly while slumping her shoulders. “It is meat.”
Luffy jumped into the air while a large smile before grabbing onto Atlantis’ wrist to shoot down the path to the town, leaving behind the two shocked boys and a laughing Garp. Upon noticing they were alone with Garp the boys took off directly behind Luffy frantically calling out for Luffy to stop or slow down, but Luffy appeared to be unable to hear them over the wind in his ears.
Luffy vaulted into the bar wall as he tripped over the bag in the way with a shout causing Atlantis to crash into the barstool to the other side with a pained grunt.
Ace and Sabo skidded to a stop behind them, choking off a laugh in their throat before Ace rushed over to help Luffy up, berating him all the while for running away. Sabo cautiously stepped towards Atlantis as she rubbed the back of her head before holding a hand out to her with a hesitant smile.
“Hi,” His voice was slightly breathless and his hands were already sweating as Atlantis grabbed ahold of his hand to bring herself to a stand. Once standing she noticed that she was taller than the boys, not by much by enough to make her appear older, a blush had risen to the blond boy’s cheeks as he stared at Atlantis face while gulping.
“Hello,” Atlantis nodded her head with a smile, tilting her head to the side, a habit she had picked up from Luffy that seemed impossible to break. “What’s your name?”
“Sabo,” The boy greeted politely while tipping the top hat off his head and bowing to her. Ace and Luffy had made their way closer with Luffy smiling brightly, standing beside Atlantis and Ace glowering at her with a slight flush to his cheeks. “Um, and you are?”
“Atlantis. It’s a pleasure to meet you Sabo and...” She stopped to take in the boy that could only be First Fist Ace as a child. The freckled boy wouldn’t meet her eye as he glared at the side of her face with the red flush on his face steadily rising in intensity.
“Luffy,” the boy called as he turned to instead glare at his brother furiously while gesturing to the curious girl looking at them. “Who the hell is this?!”
“This is Coco,” Luffy cheerfully jumped back and forth on the heels of his feet before darting forward to wrap Atlantis in a hug while he smiled happily. “Coco. This is my big brother’s Ace and Sabo.”
“Hmm,” Atlantis hummed with a fond smile as she took in Ace’s fierce expression and Sabo’s cautious smile. “I happy you weren’t alone while I was gone.”
Luffy deflated as he turned puppy dog eyes back onto Atlantis expectantly, “You aren’t leaving again right?”
A restrained sad expression crossed Atlantis’ face as she ran a hand through Luffy’s hair disappointedly. “Not right now, but eventually I will have to go back to pick up my training with Smoker.”
“That’s okay,” Luffy nodded his head slowly as he took in what she had to say. “It’s only for now after all.”