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A cacophony of sounds rang out simultaneously from the shaded docks; a sword pulled from its sheath, expertly slicing through flesh and bone... the gurgle of a dying man, choking on his own blood... and the scream of a young boy, morphing into a cry of relief when he recognized who stood over his would-be assailant's body.
Shanks didn't kill the bastard because he thought what he'd caught him trying to do was twisted...
He had lost his right to judge others for such crimes.
No, he'd killed him because the fool had dared to lay his filthy hands on someone else's treasure, and there was no question that Shanks prized Luffy above all else.
If it was anything else, he would have been more lenient and forgiving— more like his usual care-free self— but his precious baby boy was strictly off-limits.
Flicking the blood from his blade to tuck it away, Shanks schooled his expression from raw cold fury to something more comforting and approachable, if only for the sake of the badly shaken boy in front of him. It was difficult maintaining control when faced with Luffy's distress; fat tears rolled down his chubby little cheeks, and velvety-soft skin peeked through a small rip in his shirt. The sight made Shanks wish he'd been able to kill the man who did this much more slowly, rather than the quick death he'd been lucky to receive.
But now Luffy was clinging to his leg, and he needed all the loving attention Shanks had to spare.
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, baby," he soothed, crouching down to offer an eagerly-accepted embrace, "it's over, I'm here now... you're safe."
'Safe... hardly.'
Luffy sniffled, nuzzling his head into Shanks' chest, "I'm s–sorry."
The red-haired pirate held his boy out at arm's length to search his face for his reasoning behind the unexpected apology.
"Why are you sorry? You don't have anything to be sorry for, sweetheart."
"B–but I do!" Luffy hiccupped, then averting his eyes as his voice trailed off softly, "I— I thought that... if he... then you wouldn't... want me anymore."
The last few words ended in a sob that stabbed right through Shanks' heart. His boy had confessed his love for the pirate captain many times over, and it was only after Luffy's adorable shows of affection never wavered in their sincerity that he understood that he was serious. Graciously accepting his boy's thirty-fourth marriage proposal in full view of everyone at Partys Bar had been all in good fun— until it suddenly wasn't, and a mortified Shanks found himself questioning Luffy on where and how he'd learned what adults were supposed to do after marriage later that night.
He'd managed to convince his boy to wait until they were 'married' to try anything like that again, but somehow still, over time... pats on the head turned into innocent kisses, which turned into pecks on the lips and lingering touches— eventually, he did give in to Luffy's pleas and indulged his boy, occasionally letting him go far beyond what could be considered innocent (guilt and self-loathing came easy after the first time, but seeing how it pleased Luffy... surely there was no harm if he wasn't the one to initiate it). Then, pet names thoughtlessly slipped off of Shanks' tongue until they felt as harmless as all the rest, and just because they were already 'together', his boy never wavered in his proclamations of love and loyalty— but where others simply found it to be cute, he soaked it in like a sapling in the sunlight.
Luffy had wedged himself so completely into Shanks' life that going without his boy seemed inconceivable, and the playful promise of marriage unwittingly became something not so far-fetched.
He knew he would never stop loving his boy, no matter how sick or how wrong.
Shanks pulled Luffy back against his chest in a pointed hug before pulling back and looking into his eyes.
"Listen," he stated seriously, "that would never happen, okay? And none of this was your fault, anyway. You're my baby boy, got that?"
Luffy just nodded, tears already beginning to ebb in the wake of that peculiar sudden switch in emotion he was oh-so good at.
"Mkay..." he dove back into the hug, wrapping his arms around Shanks' neck and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "I love you."
Shanks glanced from the corpse at his side back to the child in his arms.
"... I love you, too."