The air on the upper deck suddenly grew heavy, and it wasnāt the smoke that was to blame. Smoker froze with a cigar clenched between his teeth, momentarily stopping chewing the meat. He was looking down at you, and in the moonlight his stern face seemed carved out of stone ā but deep in his eyes, behind the dark lenses of his glasses, something flashed that youād never seen before: bewilderment mixed with profound, genuine shock.
The Smoker slowly exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, which was instantly dispersed by the warm sea breeze. Your words echoed in his mind, shattering the familiar picture of the world where there were only āMarine officerā and āpirateā.
āLuffyā¦ā His voice sounded quieter than usual, with a hoarseness that betrayed his agitation. āDo you even understand what youāre saying? Weāre on opposite sides of the barricades. Iāve been chasing you all across the Grand Line to throw you behind bars, and youā¦ā
He fell silent, looking at your flushed cheeks and the way you were gazing at him with such expectation. His hand, still gripping yours, didnāt pull away. On the contrary, he squeezed your fingers a little tighter, feeling his own heart treacherously quicken its rhythm. The vice admiral of the Navy, the bane of pirates, now felt as if heād been caught in a storm with no way out.
āDamn you and your sincerity,ā he finally muttered, taking off his glasses and revealing a gaze full of strange, painful tenderness. āYouāre nothing but trouble for me. Ever since Loguetown, youāve been turning my life upside down. And if youāre telling the truthā¦ then I mustāve hit my head alongside you in that caveāin. Because I donāt want to leave.ā
He slowly closed the distance between you, so that you could feel the warmth of his body and the pungent scent of tobacco. His free hand gently, almost fearfully, touched your cheek, wiping away a trace of dust.
āDonāt make me regret this, Straw Hat,ā he whispered, leaning closer to your face.
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Luffy seeing Smoker and instantly lighting up and shouting āSMOKEY!!ā While running full speed towards him and trapping him in a hug while spinning him around will never not bring me immense unfathomable joy
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Okay, Iāll bite XD How do the first interactions with Smoker go? First mermaid heās ever seen, and sheās dragging herself along the ground to find the platform. Awww, Smokey could give her a lift, though who can say if heād appreciate her boobs on his head as much as Ace does, haha!
EYYY a bite ;D
Hereās some Smoker
~~
The first time Smoker sees Straw Hat, the mermaid is perched on top of the execution platform.
Smoker had read the reports, and had seen her bounty poster, and yet some part of him hadnāt quite believed. A mermaid, as a pirate? With a devil fruit? And in a crew with infamous pirates like Portgas and Thatch no less, in East Blue of all places?
Itās laughable, and the cropping of her photo makes it seem all the more likely that itās all just a dumb joke.
And yet there she is, red tail gleaming and unmistakable against dark clouds, so ridiculously and jarringly out of place, but very much real. Her announcement that sheāll become Pirate KingĀ of all things almost manages to top the ridiculousness of her very existence.
Despite being disoriented, a pirate is a pirate, and Smokerās duty is to capture her, and she makes for an easy, gullible victim with no Haki to speak of to counter his smoke. Smoker feels a tinge of regret, briefly wondering what unfortunate history and poor decisions led her to be here, pinned by his seastone jitte, when she could have been in the mermaid lagoon on Fishman Island--when heās stopped by an even more disorienting figure.
Dragon, Supreme Commander of the Revolutionary Army.
Smoker doesnāt have time to dwell on it, because a roar of flame whips past them, and then the mermaidās gone, now swinging from the back of the fire logia pirate, who has the nerve to give Smoker a cheeky wink before they vanish.
They meet again in Alabasta, and Smoker intends to avoid Fire Fist to take Straw Hat as hostage, but the pesky older sibling keeps getting in his way. Thereās now a third brother too, one he hadnāt noticed in Loguetown, but whose identity makes sense given the presence of Dragon, and the man has infuriatingly powerful Haki that bats away smoke like nothing. And to make Smokerās day even worse, he sees the Whitebeard Fourth Division Commander exhibiting some weird power that wasnāt in his reports, and heās there with the two older brothers blocking Smokerās path. Smoker isnāt used to facing challenges, there are few things that can threaten a logia user this far down Paradise after all, and he doesnāt like the odds of him against two logia and a strong Haki user just to get at one damn fish. Itās distressingly predictable that they get away.
He isnāt thrilled when not too long after the incident, his enemies end up rescuing him from certain death via drowning.
Heās on the ground, clothing soaked, having been heaved from the water by Roronoa under Straw Hatās orders--Straw Hat, whoās suddenly too close, peering down at him with droplets of water still clinging to her hair.
She smiles, seeing that heās awake and alright, and Smoker feels more winded than heād been by the crushing water entering Crocodileās prison room. And then sheās gone, a safe distance away, fists readied to fight.
Smoker doesnāt get it, doesnāt get why all these powerful pirates seem to listen to her, doesnāt get why she feels like no other pirate heās ever seen, doesnāt get why she seems so close and yet so untouchable.
He lets them go. Straw Hat grins at him, and says,Ā āYouāre not so bad!ā as she leaves, swinging from Roronoaās back.
The words stick with Smoker.
~~
Over two years later (and after that damn cursed War), Smoker runs into Straw Hat again. Itās awful timing, because that damn Trafalgarās just switched his and Tashigiās bodies, and Tashigiās body just doesnāt move the way Smokerās used to. Smoker distractedly thinks that he and Straw Hat seem better matched now, at least physically (her chest looks a bit bigger though), and heās insulted when she laughs and says theyāll fight again when heās back to himself.
They end up having to team up, which Smoker is very disgruntled about indeed (and also, Fire Fist is very VERY not dead like the government had announced, which is its own separate problem), but sometimes the greater evil must be defeated first, and Caesar and Vergo are that evil.
Smoker has known for a while now, that despite their crewās complete and utter lack of respect for authority, Straw Hat and her brothers arenāt...the worst. The kernel had been planted in Alabasta, and had slowly festered in the back of Smokerās mind during the two years of their crewās disappearance, when heād had had time to question whether Portgasās execution was truly in the name of justice. And now, in Punk Hazard, they seem even grayer, as reluctant but undeniable allies.
The subtle shift in his perception of Straw Hat still doesnāt remotelyĀ prepare Smoker for the mermaid shouting,Ā āHey Smokey, weāre going to the same place, gimme a lift!ā
Smoker doesnāt even have the time to refuse, because suddenly rubbery arms are looping around his neck, without Haki or intent to harm, and Smoker stops his body from turning to smoke just a second before sheās crashing into him.Ā
And then he suddenly has a mermaid on his back, her soft chest squashed against his coat, her tail whipping through the space where his torso would be if he wasnāt flying. Her arms are loose and trusting around Smokerās neck, and she peers down at him expectantly, her face close enough for him to feel the soft, foggy puffs of her breath.
Sheās perched there like she belongs there, as though Smokerās her brother or crew, and Smoker HATESĀ how he doesnāt feel angry, disturbed, or even annoyed.
(Itās as though a subconscious part of him wants this, wants to know what it feels like to have her strength and willpower and insanity all compacted into that misleadingly small package and settled against his own body. As though that part of him wants to know what itās like, to be trusted by the enigma known as Straw Hat Luffy.
(And now that heās experiencing it, he hates that he canāt feel anything but humbled, and now that sheās there, thereās no way heāll drop her).
ā ā Send YukiPri an Ask! ā ā
~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~
