shanks

It was a calm day at sea, with steady winds and vibrant sunlight.

Being a Red-Haired pirate meant drinking, and fighting, and a lot of playing cards, and more drinking.

As time passed you’d grown somewhat envious of crews with women on them. You longed to spend your idle time with other women, painting your nails, gossiping, even just spending time together. 

Your crewmates tried as best they could, but there was only so much hair braiding grown men could tolerate. 

Shanks, out of all of them, was the most eager to help you feel more at home. He let you paint his nails- though you were limited to red and black polish. He let you teach him how to make sugar scrubs, and even sometimes, if he wanted to “relax and rejuvenate” himself, he’d do facemasks with you.

You’d always thought he was handsome, even before you’d joined the crew. And had more than once found yourself staring at his wanted posters. But to be on the seas with him was an entirely different experience. The friendship that accompanied piracy was unexpected, but an unbelievably close bond. 

You felt the same about all your crewmates, they were family and you knew you’d readily die for them. But you didn’t get the same butterflied around all of them that you got around Shanks.

When it was late at night and you were still outside completely unaware of the dropping temperatures and waning moonlight, he’d find himself making his way out of his cabin to find you and lead you back to bed, offering to braid your hair the way you taught him.

More often than not, you’d accept his offer, soaking in how gently he took your hair into his hands, his knuckles softly grazing the back of your neck. 

You’d been lounging outside on the deck where the sun shone brightest, taking advantage of the unusually pleasant weather.

 You laid out on a towel, the sun bathing you in that kind of pleasantly ebbing heat that makes you feel like it was coming from within. 

You could feel your skin tanning, glowing, and glistening as the ship gently rocked back and forth. 

Your bikini was tiny, a necessary measure to ensure that you got evenly bronzed, and you’d happily sauntered past your crewmates, unbothered by their playful whistles and cheers as you walked past them toward your spot. 

After a peaceful fifteen minutes of sunbathing, you were joined by your captain.

“Mind if I tan with you?”

“Not at all, Captain.”

Shanks smiled, you knew he liked when you called him that. 

He laid down next to you, your arms grazing one another. 

You felt yourself dozing off, before a loud bang! woke you up.

You and Shanks both shot up, running toward the source of the sound, along with the rest of the crew. 

A plug had gotten shot out of the hull of the ship and water had started flooding it. 

Fuck, you thought, my room’s gonna flood.

Shanks and Benn barked commands at the crew and you all started working towards plugging the source of the flooding. 

You were limited in your ability to help, given that you were still in a bikini and knew a lot less than your crewmates about plugging holes. 

Shanks laughed as you got soaked by the water and by the time the problem was solved, he was out of breath. 

You made your way back up to where you’d been, hoping to have caught some more sun before having to face your definitely flooded room. When you were greeted with the warm orange and purple hues of sunset, you headed to the kitchen for a beer. 

You sat on the counter and turned when a slight knock on the wall beckoned your attention.

“Hey, Shanks.”

“So,” he started, not wanting to upset you, “Your room got-”

“Flooded. Yeah, I figured.”

You sighed, there was nothing of significant importance in there, and you knew you could buy new things, but it was going to be a pain in the ass.

“Thanks for confirming, though. I’ll go and buy new stuff next time we dock. The lack of a bed kind of sucks though,” you polished off the beer in your hand. 

“Sleep with me,” he said.

“Ha. ha.” 

“What? I’m being serious!”

You paused to consider it. 

“Shanks, c’mon. I’ll take a bunk in the men’s quarters.”

“Not sure that’s any better.”

You laughed, “It’s definitely not.”

He got up and extended a hand toward you, which, after a moment of hesitation, you took. 

“You don’t even need to grab anything, I have a bunch of extra shirts.”

“And an extra toothbrush?”

He smiled at you, “We can share that too.”

“Ugh, gross.”

You waited until you were really tired to actually make your way over to his bedroom, hesitating before you finally knocked on the door. 

He opened it, and it was clear he’d made his best attempt to clean up his room for you. 

You sat on the poorly made bed and told him his room looked nice. 

“Good enough to sleep in?”

“Perfect.”

He smiled with pride. It was sort of adorable. 

He sat on the other edge of the bed, unexpectedly awkwardly. 

You decided to lay down and make yourself comfortable, you pulled the covers over yourself.

“Very soft,” you noted.

He lightly laughed and followed in suit, situating himself under the covers. 

You had your backs to one another- it felt too foreign like you didn’t know one another. 

You flipped over, “Shanks turn around.”

He happily obliged, turning with a goofy smile plastered on his face.

Reaching down, he pulled the covers up to cover your arms and the two of you talked about anything and everything. 

Neither of you remembered falling asleep. 

You woke up later than usual the next morning, the sun was already high and beaming through the Captain’s window. The soft duvet that covered you seemed as though it was trying to keep you in bed, and it had the generous aid of Shanks, who had a strong arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him. 

He was still asleep, it seemed, and was breathing gently. 

You should’ve been up hours ago to get all your chores and work done…  but you had a feeling that the Captain might let you off the hook this one time.

Sleep started to weigh down your eyelids again, and you let it wash over you, snuggling back into Shanks’ chest. You fell asleep quickly, but not before feeling him press a soft kiss 

to the back of your head. 

roger

The warm bath water, full of bubbles and essential oils, soaked into your skin, slowly sloshing back and forth and back and forth along with the steady lull of the ship.

The few moments you got to yourself were always cherished. They were rare, and when they did happen you always felt anxious, but you finally felt as though you could relax. 

You dipped your head below the water a few times, letting your hair soak, braiding it over your shoulder as you closed your eyes and let yourself let go of all the anxieties, and worries, and stresses that came with being a Roger pirate. 

The dim warmth from the candles paired perfectly with the bit of moonlight that made its way through the bathroom window.

And, like clockwork, when you’d allowed yourself to indulge in the moment and started to finally relax;

Knock. Knock.

You sat up, sighing.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Come in,” you arranged the bubbled around yourself as the door opened.

Roger walked his head in, and just as quickly covered his eyes when he saw you in the bath.

“Sorry, Y/n,” he laughed, “Didn’t know you were taking a bath!”

“Right. Because that definitely isn’t what bath-rooms are for.”

He sheepishly tugged at the collar of his shirt, his hand still resting on his face.

“So…” he started, clearly guilty of something.

“Just tell me what happened.”

“Right. Right, well, you see, Rayleigh and I thought we might work on getting the boys to bond a bit more.. Since they fight so much.”

You sat in the tub, watching as he struggled to tell you why he really interrupted your alone time, not saying anything.

“Companionship is the most important thing for good pirates. Establishing connections. There is no better greatness than being loved, than having a partner, someone to rely on. And well, the boys are so young and they bicker so much and fight day in and day out, and so we figured we’d try and start patching that up while they’re still just kids-”

“The point, Roger?”

“Yes-” he stumbled over his words, “Yes- the point. Alright, so Rayleigh suggests a friendly game of catch, seeing as they were in good spirits and they agreed and so we started, just with simple baseballs at first.”

He slowly took his hand off his eyes and searched your face for some kind of expression, anything.

You gave him nothing, but your impatience was evident.

He cleared his throat, “And the boys seemed to enjoy it so I- so we suggested using something more challenging and… R-rayleigh found a bowling ball.”

You’d tried to keep a completely neutral expression, to keep him on edge. But at this, your eyebrows failed you and furrowed. 

Still, you said nothing.

“And Shanks- strong boy, very adept and- and promising.. He, well, unintentionally of course-”

“Roger.”

He nodded and swallowed hard. “He threw it through your window. There’s glass everywhere. It broke the bedframe, there’s a dent in your wall. It-it’s a mess. That they’re cleaning.”

You remained silent. Wordlessly you stood up, earning an uneasy laugh from your Captain as he debated whether or not to cover his eyes again. He chose not to.

You walked toward him, reached past his shoulder, your nose grazing the tip of his, and grabbed your towel. 

You dried yourself off and wrapped the towel around yourself.

“So where am I sleeping tonight?”

Roger smiled.

“No.”

“Would you rather sleep with Rayleigh? Or share a bed with the boys?”

You huffed. 

You’d decided to take the right side of the bed, since it was closer to the door and, as you had so eloquently put it, “Get the hell out of here” in the morning. 

Roger had laughed when you’d said that and despite your best efforts to stay upset you smiled at him. 

The two of you lay down on your backs, facing the ceiling. 

“Comfortable?” he asked. “No.”

He shifted and brought two arms around your waist pulling you into him.

Your cheeks turned a violent shade of pink, you didn’t like not being in control.

“Roger!”

“Nuh-uh,” he said, “Captain’s orders.”

You sighed but obliged, letting him spoon you. 

His arms were strong and you could feel the muscles of his chest through the thin t-shirt he wore. 

“You’re hugging too tight!”

He relented, albeit slightly.

You pushed his arms out and crawled on top of him, laying down on his chest, resting your head on your hand which was propped up by your elbow.

He laced his hands together and brought his arms up behind his head, laying on the pillow and looking at you.

You liked this more, you were on top.

“Better?” he asked.

You nodded. 

“Do you ever worry about those two?”

He smiled one of his signature smiles at you, “No.”

You pinched his chest.

“Ok! Ok- yes,” he admitted, bringing a hand down to rub at the spot you pinched, “Christ, woman.”

You ignored him, “So do I. But it’s only because I know they’ll both be great. In one way or another.”

“Or another,” he laughed.

You woke up in the middle of the night, your arms wrapped around your Captain’s neck, head on his chest. His arms were around your waist and he was out cold, lightly snoring. 

You smiled and pressed kisses wherever you could reach.

In the morning, your anger would return and you’d give both him and the boys an earful. Rayleigh, too, if he wasn’t smart enough to wait out your temper. 

But for now? 

You’d sleep. 

When Roger woke up the next morning your side of his bed was empty. He groggily sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

When was the last time I slept that well? he thought to himself.

There was more sunlight entering his room than usual and he turned toward the source of it.

There, right in the center of his wall was a gaping hole, perfectly round. 

On the floor beneath it was a bowling ball. 

He stood up, contemplating the mess in his room. He looked through the whole to find you barking at Shanks and Buggy to continue mopping the floors. You had a ruler in your hands and Buggy was rubbing the back of his head. 

He laughed, loudly. 

‘I think I’m in love,’ he thought, before going out to join you in yelling at the two. 

benn

“I’d like to apologize in advance,” Shanks announced to the crew, earning several groans in return.

“Yes, yes,” he continued, “Well, as it would happen, I miscounted. Two people are going to have to share a bed.”

This time the crew responded with some cheers and whoops, and you heard more than one person mention your name. 

You sighed.

Hopefully, it was Lucky and Yasopp. They probably shared their bed anyway.

“To decide fairly, Benny here suggested we draw straws.”

More groans from the crew.

“Tough crowd,” Benn mused. 

Shanks held up a plastic cup with a bunch of wooden sticks in it like a child at an arts and crafts fair. 

He shuffled them around before drawing two. 

The air was hilariously tense. 

Who cares if they have to share a bed? you thought to yourself. 

“Benn! Haha!” he laughed, “And…. Y/n!”

The crew erupted into a cacophony of whoops and cheers. 

Your cheeks darkened and you nibbled at the inside of your cheek. 

Of course.

You made brief eye contact with Benn, who looked as cool and composed as ever. 

Noticed only by your Captain, was the slight blush that dusted his cheeks. 

The room was smaller than either of you had expected. 

And so was the bed. You’d have to practically be on top of each other. 

“I’m more than good on the floor, you take the bed. I only ask for a pillow.”

You gave him a look.

“I’m not gonna let you sleep on the floor Benn, and there’s only one pillow.”

You both sat in silence staring at the bed.

“I’m sure there’s a way… to work this out.”

You giggled, “In a 2-foot wide bed?”

Benn smiled. 

“It’s funny. We’d die for each other in battle but a bed is where things get awkward.”

“It’s only awkward ‘cause you’re so awkward.”

He looked down at you, a somewhat insulted expression resting on his face. 

“I’m fine sleeping with you!” 

He raised a brow.

“N-no! No! Not like that! I’d never- I just meant like…” you gestured broadly toward the bed

“You’d never, hm?”

“See what I meant about you making things awkward?”

He laughed.

Sitting on the bed made things less tense, you folded your legs, sat on your heels, and faced Benn who sat leaning against the wall with his legs hanging off the bed.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, searching for a lighter. 

He came up empty-handed.

“I have one,” you said, reaching into the front pocket of your bag to grab your pink lighter.

“Cute,” he leaned forward, cigarette between his lips, lighting it. 

You flipped through some pages of a magazine as Benn read.

“Can I try it?”

“Be a little more specific, sweetheart.”

Your body warmed up at the nickname.

“Smoking.”

“Are you sure?”

You nodded eagerly, reaching for the cigarette that still resided between your vice-captain’s lips.

A large hand wrapped around your wrist before you could reach it. 

You blinked to look up at Benn, “Let me help.”

He took the cigarette from his lips and brought it to yours, which were already so obediently parted. 

You inhaled the smoke, your lips closing around the cigarette, gently brushing Beckman’s fingers. 

“Take it easy,” he said. 

You breathed in, tears pooling in the bottom of your eyes, and tried to hold it in, but found yourself stuck in a spasm of coughing. 

Benn laughed, and rubbed your back, before taking another puff himself. 

You scooted closer to him, emboldened by the burning heat in your lungs, and were practically on his lap.

“Let me try again,” you asked, “Guide me.”

“Okay.”

He held the cigarette to your lips, and you awaited instruction.

“Gently suck in the smoke- don’t inhale, just suck lightly.”

You obeyed, your lips softly closing around the soft paper, drawing in the smoke to the back of your throat.

“Good,” he praised, pulling the cig away from your lips, “Now hold it there for a moment, let it warm your mouth.”

You held it, turning to look up at him.

It took him a moment to find the words he was looking for, what with a majority of your ass on his lap, your hands resting on his chest, your eager doe eyes looking up at him- he was getting rather distracted.

“L-like that, yeah.”

“Mm-mmm?” What’s next?

He smiled, lightly laughing, “Now just inhale through your mouth as you normally would, but do it slowly.

Your lips formed a perfect ‘O’ as you inhaled the smoke, feeling a deeply satisfying burning sensation spreading through your lungs. 

Benn had opened the room’s main window earlier, and a cool breeze had found its way in. You got up, to Benn’s obvious disappointment, and closed it. 

This time when you sat back down, you inched yourself the rest of the way forward, making your way fully onto his lap. 

Maybe it was the smoke that had started filling the room or the fact that now you two were alone and touching there was no point in denying what you’d been feeling for one another, but this time, as he drew the cigarette from his mouth you leaned forward and placed your lips on his. 

His lips closed back around yours, slowly at first- not out of hesitation but indulgence. 

You felt his tongue lightly swipe your plump lower lip, teeth gently pressing down against it, and you released a staggered breath into his mouth.

Your heart was pounding against your chest as your mouth flooded with the flavors of tobacco and an unidentifiable clean taste, almost like lemon. 

His hands found the fat of your ass, and as he laid his back against the bedrest, now fully taking up the bed, he lifted you up so you were fully on his lap, your thighs straddling his hips. 

A strong arm trailed up your back, resting his hand against the base of your neck, gently pulling backward to give him access to your throat. 

He placed hot, open-mouthed kisses to your neck, his tongue swiping over every place he kissed. It made you incredibly sensitive and you started to softly squirm in his grip, moaning his name between kisses, holding half-lidded eye contact as strings of saliva connected your mouths. 

You didn’t sleep much, despite Benn’s sincere efforts to get you both to bed.  The last thing you vividly recalled before sleep outweighed your desire for more of him was how overwhelmingly sweet and sensitive his touch was on your body- how softly he handled you. His strong arms massaging your back and palming your tits. 

The next morning you both awoke to a violent knocking on your door.

“Vice Captain! The Captain is requesting your presence, immediately!”

You groaned as you slowly opened your eyes, the idea of leaving the intoxicating warmth of your bed making your head hurt. 

To your delight, Benn simply wrapped his arms tighter around you and flipped you both over to face away from the door. 

“Tell him to fuck off! I’m busy!”

You giggled, knowing that the crew would put two and two together. 

For a moment you worried about how they’d react- was this something that could potentially be dangerous? 

As though reading your thoughts Benn gave you another reassuring hug, his hands finding your boobs, lightly squeezing them. 

“Worry about it later, Sweetheart.”

And just like that, you fell back asleep. 

rayleigh

“Tired already?” Rayleigh teased, handing you the beer you’d sent him to grab.

“It’s ten past three, I should’ve been in bed hours ago.”

He laughed, rubbing your back.

“I figured you’d have gotten used to the late nights after a good expedition.”

You shrugged, “I guess, but I’m never more tired than when we’re done with an ‘expedition’.”

He smiled at your air quotes around his term. 

You popped open the can of beer he’d handed you and took a few big sips. 

The moon was full and the clear sky ahead meant perfect travel conditions for when the crew set sail tomorrow morning. 

The salty air smelled like home, and you took a few deep breaths. 

It was chilly out, but the fire in front of you more than made up for it, and you felt warm inside from the several beers you’d downed. 

The ship was still full of life, but it was now concentrated into small groups of partiers that were somehow still awake. 

Your captain was, of course, one of the main contributors.

You leant against Rayleigh as the both of you watched him and laughed. 

Your vision slowly blurred as you closed your eyes. 

A not-so-gentle tap on your shoulder woke you up. You blinked your eyes open, suddenly aware of how cold it was. 

A pair of strong arms were wrapped around your body, carrying you bridal style.

“What the hell?”

“Calm down,” Rayleigh replied, “You fell asleep and I figured I’d bring you to your room but it’s- uh, occupied.”

“What does that mean?”

You jumped out of Rayleigh’s arms and peeked into your room to see what was going on.

Shanks and Buggy were passed out on your bed, several alcohol bottles littering the floor. They were sleeping back to back like a pair of milk-drunk kittens. 

“I don’t wanna move them,” Rayleigh explained, “Or they won’t sleep for a week- what with all that alcohol in their system.”

You hated to agree but the two boys were energy houses if you’d ever seen one, it was best to let them sleep when they slept. 

“Okay, I’ll take one of their bunks then. Not ideal but if it keeps them out of the way…”

You walked into the room to grab your toothbrush and makeup remover and slipped past your vice-captain to head toward the men’s barracks. 

“Y/n, sweetheart,” he called out to you, “Hold on a sec, will ya?”

You turned, “Rayleigh, I’m tired and I haven’t showered yet- what do you want?”

He walked toward you, approaching you with his typical confidence, standing in front of you so as to block your path. 

“Why don’t you spend the night in my room, hm?”

You rolled your eyes, and pushed him to the side, too tired to entertain him. 

He grabbed your wrists as you tried to walk away, pulling you into his chest.

He stood you still, wrist still in hand, and bent down to talk in your ear, and for some reason you let him. 

“I’d like to use this opportunity to remind you that my room has its own private shower.”

You sighed.

“And a bath.”

Private bathroom… clean sheets…. Rayleigh. You thought about it for a second.  

“Okay, fine but only this once.”

His room was bigger than expected. You had half a mind to chew him out for living like this while half the crew was stuck sharing bathrooms and beds, but you supposed that was one of the perks of being vice-captain.

“What do you think?”

He winked at you.

“It’ll do, I guess. Where’s the shower?”

He laughed, and despite your best efforts to not inflate his ego, you also smiled.

He pointed toward the bathroom and you entered.

You stepped out of the shower and looked for a towel, failing to find one.

Fuck. 

“Rayleigh! Where are your towels?”

“Top drawer, sweetheart!”

Double fuck. 

You inhaled, “Rayleigh?”

“Hm?”

“I can’t… reach.”

You could practically hear the infuriating smile spreading over his face.

“Coming,” he said, his voice had a slight lilt to it. 

He knocked before he entered and you covered yourself as best you could. Not like he hadn’t seen this much before, right? You’d worn bikinis on board. 

Wrong. He walked in and was struggling to keep his eyes off of you, a light blush spreading across his cheeks.

This made you feel good- great, even. To have Silvers Rayleigh blushing at the sight of you? Scoundrel or not, you’d take it. 

He grabbed you a towel and eagerly turned around to hand it to you. 

“You know you’re gonna have to remove at least one hand to grab it right?”

“Which would you like me to remove?”

He seemed slightly taken aback at your sudden reciprocation of energy. 

“Surprise me.”

He looked down at you with an intensity that you almost recognized- but this was different. You’d seen how he looked at enemies, at pirates and warlords he was planning on killing, but this? This was full of desire and lust.

Surprise me, his words echoed in your head. 

He was so irritatingly arrogant. So self assured. You figured a lesson might be useful. 

Before he could register what was happening you landed a heavy slap to his face, and wrapped the towel around yourself.

He held his cheek in shock, watching you walk out.

“Pervert.”

You got into his bed, not bothering to put on any clothes. 

Extremely aware of his hawk-like watch on you, you sat up in bed and peeled the towel off. You faced away from him, to ensure he wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing anything. 

You slipped under the covers and turned off the lamp at your bedside. 

Within seconds you felt Rayleigh crawling into bed, wrapping an arm around your waist and pressing kisses to your neck.

“Pretty as you are, you give me a headache, you know that?”

“I know.”

Another kiss to your neck. 

He trailed a hand up and down your arm, lulling you to sleep. 

Yawning, you felt sleep start to settle into your body, feeling as though gravity was pulling you down further into the mattress. 

“This won’t happen again, Ray.”

“I know.”

Three weeks later, you woke up in your Vice Captain’s bedroom for the ninth time since that night. 

His hands were tangled on and around you and he was snoring loudly. 

You turned to face him, his arms stayed wrapped around you. 

“G’morning,” he yawned, “Sleep good?”

You kissed him, and then kissed him again, and again. 

“I did.”

"I see what's going on here." He set the bottle down and brought his arm underneath your legs, gathering you up.

You yawned as he set you down on the kitchen counter, giving your knees a little squeeze, "Looks like you had quite a bit of fun, tonight"

"Sure did, mate." You mumbled. Roger let out a laugh as he poured you some water.

He gave you a little smile and held the glass up to your lips, carefully letting you take sips.

He tucked some hair behind your ear. "I don't envy the headache you're in for, darling."

You leaned into Roger's touch and hummed, closing your eyes. His heart fluttered in his chest and he took a little breath, reminding himself of how drunk you were. Smiling, he ruffled your hair

"I love you dearly, but you smell like vodka and stomach bile. So, let's get you changed."  He pressed a kiss to your hair and hoisted you up again.

After a few minutes of debating whether or not you could change clothes on your own without falling on your ass, Roger plopped down on the couch to wait for you. He had just began to drift off when he felt you crawl onto his lap. He yawned as his eyes fluttered open. You nuzzled your nose against his neck.

"Hey, love..." He whispered as you got comfortable. You mumbled something against his skin, sleepily. His eyelids were growing so much heavier now under your body warmth.

"Hm?"

"I love you, Roger."

"I love you too, angel."

"No. No you don't. Not like that."

Roger frowned. He held your face, running his thumb over your cheekbone, comfortingly.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"I...I..." You trailed off. "I love you in the not friend way."

He swallowed thickly, his insides doing flips. Drunk. Drunk. Drunk. You were drunk. You didn't mean it. You couldn't mean it. He bit his lower lip nervously as his nose accidentally brushed yours. You inhaled sharply at the contact.

Before Roger could think, he was tasting the alcohol on your breath. Your lips were soft and gentle. His arms tightened around your waist as your wrists moved to the back of his neck.

You nipped at his lower lip and he moaned, immediately taking your face in his hands and pulling back a little. He shook his head.

"You're drunk, sweetheart. Very drunk. You don't want this." He whispered, sadly.

You whined a little, knowing you absolutely did want every bit of him.

"I'll tell you what, love. If you wake up in the morning and you still want me to, I'd be more than happy to kiss those pretty little lips of yours all day long." He ran a thumb over your lower lip and you nodded, reluctantly.

He grinned, chuckling a little.

"Come'ere, boozy."

He pulled you tighter and tugged his throw blanket off the back of the couch, tucking it around the two of you.

"Sleep, sweetheart. You need it."

You snuggled into his collarbone and he stroked your hair, humming softly.

He admired you passively, his gaze not leaving you as you drifted off. He whispered to you as his eyes grew too heavy to keep open.

"I love you too, you know. In the not friend way."