[ Luffy doesn't look back at Eren at first. He's too intent on getting them to one of the honey stalls. But when Eren talks, he does look back for just a moment. He doesn't stop walking, though. ]
Nothing's wrong. I'm a rubber man! My whole body can stretch.
[ it shouldn't be too bizarre, coming from one who can become a giant, and being in a place for months now that cause strange changes, but. a rubber man? this might even be rude, but eren takes luffy's arm and gives it a pull from both sides. ]
[ Luffy stops, mostly because he’s distracted now. He doesn’t mind being stretched like this. His arm does, indeed, stretch in all directions. Anyway, this can’t be ruder than licking, right?]
No. I ate a Devil Fruit when I was a kid. That was a long time ago though!
[ even if they were young (both nineteen to boot), eren can get behind how it really does feel like a long time. maybe it’s worse for him, his sense of time was sometimes jumbled and he’d feel older than he was.
eren let’s go by the time they’re nearing a close-empty honey stand, though, and the attendants are happy to serve them just like the busier stalls, already asking if they’d like a taste test first. ]
Like a pact?
[ something tells him either, no, it really was just a fruit ironically called “devil” or it was a pact with the devil for powers.
[ Luffy isn't in the habit of saying please or thank you; his enthusiasm has to serve well enough. Despite his lack of manners, though, the attendant is happy enough to get a sticky sample for him. ]
A pact...? No. It's a fruit. You eat it and you get powers from it. But from then on, you're weak to water and can't swim. So I can't swim but it doesn't matter. I'm strong anyway. I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!
[ . . . huh. instead of answers, he only has more questions born out of curiosity, but it can wait. despite his simplicity, luffy seems to be a young man of his word. maybe it's too soon to say, they've only just met, but— simpletons don't change much of their values. eren takes the sample after a pause that seems more thoughtful about the earlier conversation, but values it all the same. ]
Thanks. [ where does he even start? piqued to continue, eren lifts a hand to gesture that he's going to speak right after finishing a slurp of his honey, which, tastes pretty damn good. ] You want to be a thief?
[ Luffy is a lot of things, but he's not a liar and he tries to keep his word, even if it's something outrageous like...fighting the Four Emperors. But he's especially serious about food. So he buys a full size honey for himself and one for Eren and he figures that will make them even. Does he know or care how much these things cost? No. But it's probably not enough to get Nami on his case. ]
A thief? No. I'm a pirate.
[ It might seem like a semantic difference, but it's a huge difference to Luffy. ]
We fight people and have cool adventures and stuff! We aren't really thieves unless we gotta be.
[ Except for Nami, maybe, but he's not going to drag her. ]
[ this entire fucking pot of honey is an entire fucking pot of honey. wow— he almost sputters when its suddenly handed to him after a quick exchange he barely missed, and this . . . this is a lot. even, surely, and hell probably even more. ]
. . . Sorry— From what I knew, pirates invade other ships and steal their goods. [ the least he could offer luffy in turn is an attempt to understand because he is now the owner of an entire fucking pot of honey. it'd be more of an asshole move to chew him out, so— culture differences? ] So being a pirate is more like being a sailor? [ a beat, ] An Adventurer?
[ "fighting" and "adventures" . . . it actually sounded like the dream eren devised about the ocean before he knew the truth about the world. it's pathetically simple and that's what has him interested. genuinely interested.
because it sounds like a dream that was once shattered for him existed. elsewhere, far away from his own damned home, but it existed. ]
[ Let it never be said that Luffy does things halfway. He's more likely to go way beyond what a reasonable person would do. ]
I guess some do. Some pirates are assholes. But yeah, we're adventurers! We're sailing around the whole world to the end of the Grand Line!
[ He's excited about this, energised by the very idea of it. He knows they have to do...something...in this place before they can go back to their own world and finish their journey. But Luffy isn't ever really in a hurry unless he has to be. They'll manage. They always do, after all! Besides, they're still waiting on the rest of the crew to show up. He still believes they will, because that's just how it goes, even if they're hideously late now. ]
Once we get to the end, we'll find the One Piece! Then I'll be the pirate king and we'll have a new adventure.
[ It sounds so simple when he says it, though the experience of it has been anything but. ]
[ . . . “mean” . . . he almost doesn’t know what to say to that, faltering because he hasn’t used the term mean possibly ever. human nature was always very clear to him, and maybe if he were talking to a child, he’d agree for complication’s sake. ]
. . . We have people.
[ maybe even the pirate that’s stealing and smuggling goods had their reasons. it feels strange to bunch them all together— but some, to him of course, were unforgivable. ]
There’re shitty ones, but not all of them have to be shitty. Like you.
[ Luffy isn't one to argue morality or the semantics of it. He just accepts Eren's words, takes them at face value. It seems fair enough to him. ]
Everywhere has people. But pirates are pirates.
[ There's some distinction in Luffy's mind, some way to say that pirates do things regular people don't do, but he's as articulate as always and just leaves out how he got from A to B in his head. ]
Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be the Pirate King back home and go on tons more adventures!
[ But, right, not everything is about. ]
What do you do at home?
[ He might have said that with a mouth half full of honey. ]
[ he’s so simple that eren is almost jealous, hardly smiling but his lips still twitching that much upward as he huffed quietly through his teeth. it could’ve been a laugh, one day, short and sweet. it doesn’t exactly get there, but what he feels isn’t negative as he scoops up a spoon of honey for himself. ]
I was a . . . Combatant. Non-civilian. [ “soldier”, but he didn’t know if that was the case any longer. he’d drifted far from that and planned to desert. ] Nothing special.
[ he wasn’t the best at fighting, truly, but he was the best at not giving up from one. and he was at least a skilled enough combatant, though hardly full of himself about it, so maybe the best answer would be— ]
Maybe we could spar sometime. [ he was always open to that. after a small spoon of honey is lapped and suckled at like ice cream, he adds on an inquiry: ] What’s your name?
[ That is not at all the point of sparring, Luffy is just Like This. And if he doesn't win, it's not a big deal to him. It just means he has to try harder. He's resilient like that. ]
[ like you’re gonna!! is what eren’s smirk says, but the best argument to that is actually winning. ]
Eren.
[ but he’ll forever be remembered as rubber band man. they’ve probably had enough time around here, plus eren had to find mikasa again, so— he offers an inclined head and a short sign that he’ll be off. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Nothing's wrong. I'm a rubber man! My whole body can stretch.
no subject
[ it shouldn't be too bizarre, coming from one who can become a giant, and being in a place for months now that cause strange changes, but. a rubber man? this might even be rude, but eren takes luffy's arm and gives it a pull from both sides. ]
You were born like this?
no subject
No. I ate a Devil Fruit when I was a kid. That was a long time ago though!
[ As if 19 is really all that old. ]
no subject
eren let’s go by the time they’re nearing a close-empty honey stand, though, and the attendants are happy to serve them just like the busier stalls, already asking if they’d like a taste test first. ]
Like a pact?
[ something tells him either, no, it really was just a fruit ironically called “devil” or it was a pact with the devil for powers.
he’s heard stories enough to make him dubious. ]
no subject
[ Luffy isn't in the habit of saying please or thank you; his enthusiasm has to serve well enough. Despite his lack of manners, though, the attendant is happy enough to get a sticky sample for him. ]
A pact...? No. It's a fruit. You eat it and you get powers from it. But from then on, you're weak to water and can't swim. So I can't swim but it doesn't matter. I'm strong anyway. I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!
[ He holds out one of the samples to Eren. ]
Here. Because I took yours, like I said.
no subject
Thanks. [ where does he even start? piqued to continue, eren lifts a hand to gesture that he's going to speak right after finishing a slurp of his honey, which, tastes pretty damn good. ] You want to be a thief?
no subject
A thief? No. I'm a pirate.
[ It might seem like a semantic difference, but it's a huge difference to Luffy. ]
We fight people and have cool adventures and stuff! We aren't really thieves unless we gotta be.
[ Except for Nami, maybe, but he's not going to drag her. ]
no subject
. . . Sorry— From what I knew, pirates invade other ships and steal their goods. [ the least he could offer luffy in turn is an attempt to understand because he is now the owner of an entire fucking pot of honey. it'd be more of an asshole move to chew him out, so— culture differences? ] So being a pirate is more like being a sailor? [ a beat, ] An Adventurer?
[ "fighting" and "adventures" . . . it actually sounded like the dream eren devised about the ocean before he knew the truth about the world. it's pathetically simple and that's what has him interested. genuinely interested.
because it sounds like a dream that was once shattered for him existed. elsewhere, far away from his own damned home, but it existed. ]
no subject
I guess some do. Some pirates are assholes. But yeah, we're adventurers! We're sailing around the whole world to the end of the Grand Line!
[ He's excited about this, energised by the very idea of it. He knows they have to do...something...in this place before they can go back to their own world and finish their journey. But Luffy isn't ever really in a hurry unless he has to be. They'll manage. They always do, after all! Besides, they're still waiting on the rest of the crew to show up. He still believes they will, because that's just how it goes, even if they're hideously late now. ]
Once we get to the end, we'll find the One Piece! Then I'll be the pirate king and we'll have a new adventure.
[ It sounds so simple when he says it, though the experience of it has been anything but. ]
You only have mean pirates where you come from?
no subject
. . . We have people.
[ maybe even the pirate that’s stealing and smuggling goods had their reasons. it feels strange to bunch them all together— but some, to him of course, were unforgivable. ]
There’re shitty ones, but not all of them have to be shitty. Like you.
no subject
Everywhere has people. But pirates are pirates.
[ There's some distinction in Luffy's mind, some way to say that pirates do things regular people don't do, but he's as articulate as always and just leaves out how he got from A to B in his head. ]
Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna be the Pirate King back home and go on tons more adventures!
[ But, right, not everything is about. ]
What do you do at home?
[ He might have said that with a mouth half full of honey. ]
no subject
I was a . . . Combatant. Non-civilian. [ “soldier”, but he didn’t know if that was the case any longer. he’d drifted far from that and planned to desert. ] Nothing special.
no subject
[ He says this between his own spoonfuls of honey. ]
Or like a Marine?
[ He doesn't have enough other bases of comparison, but he gets the basic gist. ]
Does that mean you're good at fighting? I'm good at fighting, too!
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Maybe we could spar sometime. [ he was always open to that. after a small spoon of honey is lapped and suckled at like ice cream, he adds on an inquiry: ] What’s your name?
no subject
[ That is not at all the point of sparring, Luffy is just Like This. And if he doesn't win, it's not a big deal to him. It just means he has to try harder. He's resilient like that. ]
I'm Luffy!
[ Can he talk around a mouthful of honey? Yes. ]
What's yours?
no subject
Eren.
[ but he’ll forever be remembered as rubber band man. they’ve probably had enough time around here, plus eren had to find mikasa again, so— he offers an inclined head and a short sign that he’ll be off. ]
Thanks for the honey.