#yasl

After the surprise was… sadness.

During the two years after the war, he had come to terms with the fact he had lost his brother, made peace with knowing he had been too weak to save him. But that peace didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. It probably always would but there was nothing he could do; nothing beside getting stronger, strong enough to not lose anyone else he cared about.

But, beyond all that…

Luffy was happy. So incredibly happy.

There wasn’t just Sabo and him. There wasn’t just Ace’s old crew. There were still more people who had memories of Ace, who knew and remembered him for who he really was. Not the Pirate King’s son but the man Ace wanted to be remembered as. People who loved him.

People Luffy had never met, but who knew about Luffy.

“He talked about me,” Luffy mumbled to himself, feeling a smile pull on his lips.

Yamato huffed at that. “More like he wouldn’t shut up about you! His bragging was really annoying, to be honest.”

There were no negative feelings in Yamato’s words; instead, his voice was shaking with amusement and such fondness that it made Luffy finally look up at him again.

As soon as their eyes met, Yamato smiled. “That’s why I wanted to meet you. I’m really glad you’re here, Straw Hat Luffy.”

Only the distant shouts of Yamato’s name could be heard while Luffy and Yamato simply looked at each other in silence for a moment, mutual understanding between them.

“Alright so what’s this about you being Oden? You’re down to two minutes!” Luffy announced finally, shoving two of his fingers in Yamato’s face.

“WHAT?! That’s not fair! You spent most of that time staring off into space!” Yamato shouted back, pointing at Luffy accusingly.

Luffy crossed his arms over his chest, scowling at Yamato. “I don’t care! We’re wasting time here while everyone is fighting!”

Yamato blinked at him once, twice, before hissing, “You’re impossible!”

“One and a half minute,” Luffy replied, giving Yamato an unimpressed stare.

He wasn’t even counting the time, couldn’t have been bothered to—not to mention he could never count down even ten seconds right—but he would be lying if he said the frustrated groan Yamato let out wasn’t worth it.

----------

Luffy nearly jumped out of his skin when Kaido’s voice boomed from below them. He exchanged a quick look with Yamato and they both nodded before they crept carefully and quietly towards the cracked, weak floorboard a little ways to the side.

“Do you see anything?” Luffy asked in a hushed tone, trying to shove Yamato out of the way without much success. Damn these overgrown Grand Line people.

“Nope. But—” Yamato lifted himself up a little to put his hand where his face had been pressed against the board— “I think this will work.”

Slowly, he pushed down. The floorboard creaked under the pressure, bending downwards more and more until there was enough of a gap for them to see the floor below.

Luffy grinned. “Awesome!” Quickly kneeling on the ground, he slapped Yamato’s hand away and put his forehead on top of the board instead. Yeah, he really could see a lot now; the Beast Pirates were all huddled around the Light-Scroll Snail projection, where Kaido went on and on about stupid stuff. Was he even going to say anything important?

A second later, he felt Yamato grabbing his shoulder before he hissed “What are you doing?”

“What do you think?” Luffy said back. “Spying.”

For a moment, there was only silence as Yamato froze, but then something hit the floor right next to Luffy. And, only a split second later, that something poked his cheek.

“Hey!” Luffy cried when he realized what was going on—that Yamato had kneeled down beside him and was shoving his face down just like Luffy was.

“You’re the one who started with this!” Yamato replied defensively. “Now shut up, we’re spying here!”

Luffy was pretty sure Yamato was being louder than him right then but that wasn’t the point! “I didn’t try to poke your eye out with my horns!”

“It’s not like I can take them off!” Yamato snapped, baring his teeth at Luffy.

Luffy only felt it was fair to bare his own back at him but before he could so much at glare at his companion, Kaido and Big Mom’s announcement immediately brought Luffy’s attention to them. The One Piece was Luffy’s, who did these jerks think they were? There was no way Luffy would let them get ahead of him; he was the one who was going to be the Pirate King, goddamnit!

But then something even more pressing appeared on the screen. “That’s Momo!” Luffy’s eyes widened at all the bruises and swelling on the boy’s face. Not to mention his position, tied up and put on display like that! “Momo!!” he cried in alarm, jerking forward on reflex. 

“Hey, don’t shout—”

CRASH!!

Luffy blinked at the sudden change of scenery. How did he suddenly end up on the floor below? Oh. The boards broke. “Whoops?” he tried when Yamato’s angry face blocked his view. There were splinters in his pony tail and a piece of wood was stuck on one of his horns. Luffy didn’t even bother to stop his laughter at the sight.

“This isn’t funny! Idiot!” Yamato shouted, hitting Luffy over the head which only made him laugh harder.

“And the shogun will be my son, Yamato!”

“WHAT?!” Yamato whipped around at Kaido’s latest announcement, immediately forgetting about Luffy, the slightly amused frustration replaced by pure rage.

A grin still on his lips, Luffy jumped up to his feet as well, ready to join in with Yamato’s mad dash towards the performance floor. His expression turned serious, however, when his eyes fell on Kaido’s face on the screen with Momo’s tiny, sad, beaten up figure behind him.

His brow furrowed, shooting one last glare at the man who couldn’t even see him. As he took off after the angrily yelling Yamato, Luffy growled, “Just you wait, Kaido! I’ll be right there to kick your ass!”