One day the Oro Jackson finds an old stranded ship. They manage to find a chest with antique clothes: some dresses, some suits, jackets as such. FemBuggy realizes that they are wedding clothes.
After searching and prodding they find out that it a ship who would marry anyone no matter race or status. The reason it was stranded was that the marine found about them and they had to flee, so they took what they could, managed to get another ship and left that behind.
The crew jokes that is worthless for them as they are not the type to marry anyways. But femBuggy decides to try a dress as its super flashy full of ribbons, lace and silk. Shanks also tries a suit so he can match with FemBuggy.
Somewhere Shanks finds a pair of rings and propose to femBuggy. She rejects him but Roger finds it so funny that he declares them husband and wife. Rayleigh almost kills him as his word is law and by definition they are indeed married.
FemBuggy screams for a annulment, divorce or widowhood. Shanks is in another galaxy due to happiness. Everyone teases them about it and leave it alone after a while.
FemBuggy keeps the ring but in a necklace as the ring is pretty but Shanks wears it on his hand. He even dreams that one day he can have a proper wedding with FemBuggy
FemBuggy janks the ring and leave everything behinds. Shanks picks it and has it resized so he can wear it alongside his.
When someone ask about the rings, he says that he is married. And when they follow up with the question of where his wife is, he only says: destiny pulled us apart.
No one else ask about it.
And indeed if destiny pulled them apart, can't destiny make them meet once again?
This accidental “marriage” is one of those beautifully layered scenes that captures everything fragile and ridiculous about Shanks and FemBuggy’s bond. It’s bittersweet.
the rings and Roger’s impulsive declaration turn it into something heavier, a half-joke that quietly plants itself in both their hearts. For Buggy, it becomes this strange mix of validation and terror: someone chose her in a way that feels permanent, even if it’s all pretend. For Shanks, it’s the first time the idea of “us” feels tangible, something beyond their usual rivalry and crewmate camaraderie.
Some Crewmates treat it like the funniest thing they’ve ever seen, turning it into running jokes for weeks. Others, like Rayleigh, are quietly concerned about how something so silly could accidentally complicate two kids who already have enough emotional baggage between them.
What makes it sting later is how that “playful” moment becomes a symbol of everything they lose at Loguetown. Buggy walks away convinced it was all a fleeting fantasy, another reminder that she was never truly chosen in the way she needed.
Shanks, left holding the pieces, turns those rings into something sacred, a private promise he carries with him through the years, a quiet anchor when the world feels too heavy.
The real tragedy that I see is how both of them seem to want the same thing but couldn’t quite bridge the gap of fear, timing, and self-doubt.
First, Buggy’s walls, built from years of feeling like an afterthought, made her pull away exactly when Shanks was ready to step closer.
Second, Shanks’s easygoing nature hid how deeply he had already committed his heart, so when she left, it shattered him in ways he never fully voiced.
Years later, those rings become their unspoken tether. It’s the kind of long-game storytelling that makes their eventual reunion feel earned and devastatingly sweet. The “marriage” wasn’t just a joke, it was the universe giving them a glimpse of what they could be before the world tore them apart.
This kind of AU hurts in the best way because it honors how messy first love can be when you grow up in a world that doesn’t make space for it. The playful beginning makes the later pain land even harder.
Now to the question, “can’t destiny make them meet once again?”
Years after Loguetown are long and painful. Shanks becomes the Emperor we know, carrying those rings like a quiet vow and throwing himself into the sea with that same lazy grin, but there’s always a piece of him waiting. Buggy builds her own flashy legend, loud and dramatic as ever, but the spot where the ring should be around her neck, feels like a secret reminder she never quite throws away.
We can all agree that the reunion won’t be clean or simple. It will be messy, explosive, and years in the making.
Maybe it happens during one of those fateful crossings where two Emperor-level crews run into each other. Or perhaps destiny can be kinder: a shared battlefield, a Marine trap, or even a neutral island where both of them dock for supplies at the exact wrong, or right, time.
The first conversation is all barbed words, old wounds, and one sided cursing, but the rings are still there in his one hand, she noticed them. They don’t say it out loud at first, but the way they keep gravitating toward each other says everything.
Shanks is more patient now, more willing to call her out on her walls. Buggy is still dramatic and defensive, but she’s also tired of running from the one person who’s always chosen her.
Their reunion isn’t a fairytale fix.
There’s yelling, years of resentment, and a lot of “you left” / “you didn’t come after me”, but underneath it is the same stubborn love that survived Loguetown.
Shanks eventually admits how much those rings meant to him. Buggy finally lets herself believe she was chosen, not just as a crewmate or rival, but as her.
Destiny didn’t just pull them apart. It gave them time to become the people who could actually choose each other properly, as equals, as partners, as the two idiots who’ve been tangled together since they were kids.
The sea works in mysterious ways.
It always brings them back. Eventually.
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