[~Help Me~] One Piece X Reader Fanfiction

~Chapter 1~

REWRITTEN

(Y/n)'s P.O.V

I didn't remember what happened...

One moment, I was staring up at Shanks's face, those familiar scars, that unfamiliar grief in his eyes, and the next, I was aware of warmth. Steady. Enveloping. The slow rhythm of a heartbeat beneath my ear.

I was being carried.

My eyes fluttered open more. Wooden ceiling. Lantern light. The distant creak of a ship at sea.

"You're awake."

His voice rumbled through his chest. I was curled against him like a child, my legs tucked up, his arm wrapped securely around my back.

"Where..." My voice came out raw. Barely a whisper. "Where am I?"

"Safe," Shanks said simply. "That's all that matters right now."

I should have protested. Should have demanded answers. But my head was pounding. My thoughts were syrup, slow, sticky, impossible to grasp. The last thing I remembered was... what?

My apartment. The manga. The voice.

Help me.

And then nothing.

Shanks pushed open a door at the end of a narrow hallway and carried me inside. His private cabin. Warm. Cluttered with maps and empty sake cups. A large bed dominated the far corner.

He laid me down on the mattress as if I were made of glass.

I sank into the pillows. They smelled like him. Salt and smoke and something warm beneath.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his weight tilting me slightly toward him. His brown eyes searched my face, my (e/c) eyes, my (h/c) hair fanned across his pillow, and for a long moment, he said nothing.

Then he exhaled. A long, shaky breath.

"You scared me," he said quietly. "Showing up on my ship like that. Bleeding. Unconscious." He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from my forehead. His fingers were warm. Calloused. Gentle. "What happened to you, (Y/n)?"

I stared at him.

He knew my name.

Of course he knew my name. Because in this world, in whatever strange dream or nightmare I'd fallen into, I wasn't just a college student from Tokyo.

I was someone to him.

"I..." I swallowed hard. My throat was dry. "I don't... remember."

It wasn't entirely a lie. I didn't remember how I'd gotten here. I didn't remember why I was wearing this unfamiliar dress. I didn't remember the childhood Shanks clearly remembered sharing with me.