[ eren separating from his main group was possibly thanks to his absolute distraction after getting to sample a little plastic spatula of yaranak's prized honey. one test led to a potent desire to lick it all off and the childish pique for more of a good thing to satisfy his sweet tooth. mead— even some little honey containers to take with them, you can bet he's taking plenty with his housemates (and himself, of course) in mind. trying now an assortment of honeys from wildflower to clover and orange blossom (with a mug of mead in one hand), eren reaches over to one of the sampling handouts to get his hands on a spatula to finally pick out his remaining choices.
beads of it fall down his arm and to the floor, the floor where everyone is stepping and . . . he has a convincing need to lick it all up before it's too late. priority ends up going to the little drop on the floor, all as eren holds up one arm, holding his mead, and the other trickling honey down to his elbow. make way, y'all. ]
[ Luffy loves meat the most, but sweets are a close second. So he's all about this honey tasting, and some of the sweet mead. He can hold alcohol well enough, thanks to his fast metabolism, but he's more interested in just the varieties of honey. It sticks to everything, everyone, in this shiny, irresistible way.
It's chance that Luffy ends up nearby when Eren goes chasing his own drop of honey. But that arm up, honey dripping all over, is...somehow impossible to ignore. Luffy has no sense of personal space generally, but he's aware you don't just go around licking strangers. That would be super weird, right?
But for some reason that doesn't occur to him here. All he can consider is that trickling golden honey, and how it might also drip down to the floor and be wasted. Well, they can't have that! So he takes Eren's arm with one slightly-sticky hand and licks that line of honey off. It's easy for a guy with a stretchy tongue. ]
[ even on the floor all this honey can’t go to waste! none of it! how gross is licking something off the street? very, but it also didn’t seem to deter eren in saving this little drop and getting one more taste elsewhere. it was alarming to have his arm taken, and at first it comes to his mind it might be one of his friends— or the captain (oh no) trying to pull him up.
it wasn’t either of his guesses, and the dreaded fact is solidified when something wet slurps right up his arm and takes all that god damn honey! no! that’s disgusting! never mind he’s been coated in titan spit on more than one occasion, but— still, this doesn’t bring calm, but a chill up his spine as he yanks his arm back. ]
Hey!
[ was that— sticky honey residue on this guy’s fingers?! ]
[ Luffy's eyes go wide when Eren takes his arm back. ]
Whoa! You're a person!
[ Did this dumbass captain think that an arm with honey on it was just hanging out randomly? Apparently so. It hadn't really occurred to him to think beyond it. He's always been driven by impulse, for better or worse (often for worse). Now is no different. Besides, something about the honey just...entices him, even if that's not all that hard to do. ]
That honey's really good, huh?
[ No apology. No explanation. No recognition of how absolutely bonkers this interaction has been for the past few seconds. He just goes right on like nothing is strange, offering his too-wide grin to Eren. ]
[ luffy’s right— the honey is really good, to the point that he only momentarily skips the fact that arms apparently don’t come stuck to people in favor of grabbing the other’s hand to inspect what he thought was glaze on his fingers. more like a snatch at his wrist to get a better look, but then . . .
[ Luffy is momentarily distracted looking for more drips of honey. He's not discerning about where they might be. There's just something about the honey. Of course, Luffy is often entirely inappropriate about food, but this is new even for him.
He shrugs and laughs a little. ]
Dunno. I wasn't thinking about it, I guess! Oh, but that was your honey, huh...I should make it up to you and get more.
[ He has zero problems stealing things, food or otherwise. But this isn't a situation where stealing seems to make sense. He doesn't like to be indebted to people about food, so getting more honey is the logical conclusion to draw if you're Luffy. ]
[ which is what he's more bothered about, instead of luffy taking the drip of honey attached to it, but— it doesn't seem like something he could argue about here, much less win against a guy who doesn't exactly think about where he's putting his mouth.
as he thinks this, eren's thinking of putting the pirate's fingers in his mouth, and scrunches his features immediately at the thought. he lets go of if, in not a bit reluctant, but not without yanking him with objection. ]
[ Luffy takes so little seriously, but this food in exchange for food thing makes sense to him. He'll take food from people who are giving it to him, and won't always feel indebted; depends on the circumstances. And he doesn't really mind stealing; he's a pirate. But he has a weird thing about food. ]
Come on, let's get more.
[ He turns to go, expecting Eren to come with. If Eren doesn't follow, then he'll reach out with a sticky rubber arm to grab him. ]
[ well, um. okay????? to say he’s confused with the sheer amount of stupidity is being absolutely nice, and at first he doesn’t understand enough to follow. he hangs back, brows crunching together with perplex until he’s pulled along by the pirate’s arm— one that stretches in such a weird way he can’t help but to stare and get his feet moving to follow. fine, they’ll get more, but— ]
—Something’s wrong with your bones.
[ he almost seems to say it in a “let me see” manner— what if it’s broken! did he see things? ]
[ 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. ]
@luffy
beads of it fall down his arm and to the floor, the floor where everyone is stepping and . . . he has a convincing need to lick it all up before it's too late. priority ends up going to the little drop on the floor, all as eren holds up one arm, holding his mead, and the other trickling honey down to his elbow. make way, y'all. ]
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It's chance that Luffy ends up nearby when Eren goes chasing his own drop of honey. But that arm up, honey dripping all over, is...somehow impossible to ignore. Luffy has no sense of personal space generally, but he's aware you don't just go around licking strangers. That would be super weird, right?
But for some reason that doesn't occur to him here. All he can consider is that trickling golden honey, and how it might also drip down to the floor and be wasted. Well, they can't have that! So he takes Eren's arm with one slightly-sticky hand and licks that line of honey off. It's easy for a guy with a stretchy tongue. ]
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it wasn’t either of his guesses, and the dreaded fact is solidified when something wet slurps right up his arm and takes all that god damn honey! no! that’s disgusting! never mind he’s been coated in titan spit on more than one occasion, but— still, this doesn’t bring calm, but a chill up his spine as he yanks his arm back. ]
Hey!
[ was that— sticky honey residue on this guy’s fingers?! ]
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Whoa! You're a person!
[ Did this dumbass captain think that an arm with honey on it was just hanging out randomly? Apparently so. It hadn't really occurred to him to think beyond it. He's always been driven by impulse, for better or worse (often for worse). Now is no different. Besides, something about the honey just...entices him, even if that's not all that hard to do. ]
That honey's really good, huh?
[ No apology. No explanation. No recognition of how absolutely bonkers this interaction has been for the past few seconds. He just goes right on like nothing is strange, offering his too-wide grin to Eren. ]
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his frown goes sharp. ]
Where did you think an arm comes from?
[ ????? ]
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He shrugs and laughs a little. ]
Dunno. I wasn't thinking about it, I guess! Oh, but that was your honey, huh...I should make it up to you and get more.
[ He has zero problems stealing things, food or otherwise. But this isn't a situation where stealing seems to make sense. He doesn't like to be indebted to people about food, so getting more honey is the logical conclusion to draw if you're Luffy. ]
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[ which is what he's more bothered about, instead of luffy taking the drip of honey attached to it, but— it doesn't seem like something he could argue about here, much less win against a guy who doesn't exactly think about where he's putting his mouth.
as he thinks this, eren's thinking of putting the pirate's fingers in his mouth, and scrunches his features immediately at the thought. he lets go of if, in not a bit reluctant, but not without yanking him with objection. ]
Look— It's fine.
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[ LOGIC, what is that? ]
No. I mean it.
[ Luffy takes so little seriously, but this food in exchange for food thing makes sense to him. He'll take food from people who are giving it to him, and won't always feel indebted; depends on the circumstances. And he doesn't really mind stealing; he's a pirate. But he has a weird thing about food. ]
Come on, let's get more.
[ He turns to go, expecting Eren to come with. If Eren doesn't follow, then he'll reach out with a sticky rubber arm to grab him. ]
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—Something’s wrong with your bones.
[ he almost seems to say it in a “let me see” manner— what if it’s broken! did he see things? ]
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Nothing's wrong. I'm a rubber man! My whole body can stretch.
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[ 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?
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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. ]
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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. ]
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[ 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.
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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?
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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. ]
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. . . 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. ]
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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?
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. . . 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.
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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. ]
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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.
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[ 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?
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[ 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?
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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.