Both crews blink at them, then do a simultaneous: "EHHHHH?!"
Marco flips his arms exasperatedly. 'I shouldn't be surprised anymore. I'm done with this kid's secrets.' But then it clicks, why Luffy's hat annoys him so much. It's Shanks's.
'Of course.'
"Anchor, what the hell are you doing on Whitebeard's ship?!" Shanks demands, definitely not expecting this.
"I can't talk to you!" Luffy yells immediately. He runs back to the safety of his brother. Luffy immediately dashes behind the flame-user and peeks at Shanks cautiously.
"Wha-why not?!"
Luffy shuffles further behind Ace and looks at the ground uncertainly.
"We promised. The next time we meet I was going to be a great pirate..." He trails off, swinging his foot while speaking to the ground.
"How about this time, it doesn't count? You are not even a teen yet" Shanks suggests, wanting to see the boy. Obviously it doesn't take much convincing, as Luffy sprints back to Shanks and hugs him tight.
"Shanks!" Luffy yells with glee. Shanks laughs and swings the boy around. The thick atmosphere immediately eases and everyone watches the pair with mixed curiosity and awe.
Marco feels the air around him grow hotter and he looks beside him to see Ace, who is sporting a major unimpressed look.
"Luffy, what are you doing here?" Shanks asks again as he sets the boy back on his feet.
"The giant ossan (old man) helped me n' ace escape from village!" He responds. Shanks frowns, a little lost.
"And Why would you escape from village ?" Shanks asks with growing dread.
"Because grandpa's stupid people were after us."
Shanks grits his teeth and shoots a look over to whitebeard.
"Well, it has something to do with his heritage" whitebeard said.
"And wait! What is this luffy ?? What is this mark? What happened? Were you injured?" Shanks asked worried.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." Luffy says proudly, but Shanks sees through the lie.
"You're so strong Luffy." Shanks hugs the kid, much to Ace and Marco's annoyance. He's really proud of how Luffy's turning out.
"But what really happened? I mean how did you get hurt?" Shanks again asked.
"I don't remember the only thing I remember is that an admiral with magma and I got hurt from his magma" luffy said, Shanks grates his teeth together. He knows very well which admiral that is.
Luffy frowns at how upset Shanks is.
"Don't worry Shanks, I'm okay and it didn't even hurt."
Shanks grins and shoves the hat further on Luffy's head. "Who said I was worrying?" A softer smile forms on his lips.
Luffy giggles and Shanks hugs him tight. Marco shifts the collar on his shirt when the temperature rises again.
Whitebeard watches the two with interest. Obviously they have some sort of history with each other, and based on their interaction, it is a good one. He grins slyly when he realizes that Luffy may have been the 'thing' that Shanks was protecting from him.
Luffy breaks away from the hug when he spots the crew lined up along the railing of the Red Force. With a grand smile, he jogs up to them and waves enthusiastically.
"Hi Ben! Yasopp! Lucky Roo! Everyone!" The whole crew waves back and cheers their greetings with the exception of Ben, who merely smirks and raises a hand.
Shanks smiles at the cheerful kid, then notices Ace in the corner of his eye. He turns his head, about to say a greeting, but stops. Ace doesn't look the least bit happy. Shanks can almost see the dark cloud looming over his head.
"Hey Ace! What's up?" He calls out. Shanks was hoping to lighten his mood, but the boy just scowls at him. The red-haired captain looks over to Marco for help, only to be met with a shrug.
Ace doesn't know why he's being like this. For some reason when Shanks touches Luffy, he feels like punching the man out. But it's weird, he has never felt this protective.
'I just feel...really annoyed with him.' Ace's mouth twitches in distaste.
"C'mon Ace! Why are you distant all of a sudden? You were so much nicer when we met before!"
"Yeah, so?" Ace snorts, but he softens.
Only to stiffen when Luffy returns to Shanks's side.
"Everybody still looks exactly the same! Shishishi!" The kid laughs. Shanks notices Ace's odd behaviour. When realization sets in, Shanks smirks wickedly at the fire user. Ace's eyes narrow suspiciously.
'Somebody's jealous~' Shanks hums in his head. A sudden urge to bother Ace takes over him. 'Let's see if he blows up like a firework.'
"Oi Luffy," Said boy looks at Shanks expectantly with wide eyes. Ace watches them like a hawk about to swoop down on its prey. "If you give me a hug I'll give you an extra big piece of meat later."
"Deal." Luffy launches himself at Shanks and practically squeezes him to death. The captain's face turns from red to blue when the oxygen drains from his body.
"An..chor. Let...go..." He wheezes, slapping Luffy to get off.
"Oops. Sorry Shanks." Luffy releases him and the man gulps in the much needed air.
'Geez, kid's got a grip.' Shanks says mentally, coughing away. But it was so worth it based on the look on Ace's face.
Nearby crew scatter to escape the heat that radiates off of the fire user, with the exception of Marco. Ace practically growls as he marches over to Luffy and pulls him at his side. Damn Shanks.
"Don't listen to him Luffy, he's just teasing you." Ace says to his brother, but still glaring daggers at Shanks. Shanks's eyebrow twitches.
"Well that's just the sort of thing we do." Shanks grits, pulling Luffy back.
"We? When was the last time he saw you hm?" Ace yanks Luffy back, making him stumble a little. ( in this fic luffy met shanks when he was 5 and ace was 11 turning 12)
"Don't be hogging him all the time Ace, he needs to be around his father figure." Ace snorts at the claim.
"Father figure? Please! You're no family!"
"Flame-brain!"
"Drunkard!"
"Hey Marco, can they stop now?" The two men engaged in the argument turn sharply to Luffy, who has somehow made it all the way to Marco and is now tugging on his sleeve.
"I don't know Luffy-yoi. They may be too childish to know when." He says, then he pats Luffy's head.
Shanks and Ace immediately glare at the phoenix. Marco sweat drops at the malice in their gazes.
"You're such a mother hen Marco!"
"Yeah! You're unneeded here, join my crew!"
Marco feels a tick mark appear on his head. 'Since when am I the victim-yoi?'
A cough resounds in the clearing, and everyone looks up to Whitebeard who has a slightly amused expression.
"Looks like you guys know eachother really well" whitebeard said.
Just then, Thatch bursts through the kitchen door. The aroma of freshly cooked food invades the noses of everyone outside. It's then that everyone realizes how hungry they all are. Ace barely holds Luffy back from sprinting to the source, even though he is also having difficulty holding himself back.
"How about we take a lunch first. You're probably all hungry." The chef says. "Shanks's crew is also welcome to dine with us."
"We'll be okay over here." Someone shouts from the Red Force, presumably the cook. "You might not be able to fit both crews in your galley anyway."
Now everyone is looking at the captains, waiting for permission to eat. Luffy breaks out the puppy eyes while Ace continues to stare at the kitchen door while drooling.
"Go and eat you brats. Taking a break might just be what everyone needs." says Whitebeard.
"You guys can eat too, I'll be fine." Shanks says, waving his crew off.
A collective sigh of relief floats through the clearing. Everyone then proceeds to flood to their respective galleys for some long awaited grub.
"FOOD!" Luffy cheers,pushing and kicking and fricking punch his way through everyone to get what he wants.
"So what exactly happened ace?" Shanks asked, all serious again.
"Admiral akainu came to our village for luffy, he wanted to kill or most probably capture luffy because of his father" ace said.
"What? That piece of trash! How dare he hurt luffy, I will kill him" shanks said with a dangerous aura around him.
"Don't sweat it brat, i already did that" whitebeard said and chucked down whole barrel of sake.
"What? You mean Akainu is already dead" shanks asked, surprised.
Whitebeard just smirked, which confirmed that he really did kill Akainu.
"Well good job newgate, if you didn't. I would have find him and killed him" shanks said smiling coldly.
"Umm.... Shanks? I'm sorry for earlier, also thankyou so much for saving my little brothers' life" ace said and get on his knees and bowed his head down.
"Don't mention it ace, i don't mind and about anchor I would do anything for that kid" shanks said, smiling softly.
Whitebeard's laughter boomed.
"Well then, this calls for party. What do you think ace?" whitebeard asked ace.
"Sure oyaji" ace said, he is more than happy to celebrate this victory again and again.
After lunch everybody got to know about party. Thus, they all started preparing for party.
And on that night the red force and whitebeard pirates happily celebrated their victory, shanks and luffy's reunion and partied while night.
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"Well it's good, if I go on this speed. I will reach the mobydick in one week" sabo thought.
(This is where our chapter ends. thankyou for reading and voting for my story.)
( I started watching black clover and damm it's a really good anime, from the first episode to till now(53) episodes it's fire, I was sad that how come I don't know about this masterpiece before but anyway it's a really good anime, I would suggest everyone to give it a try)