COAST - Luffy x Reader

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Black tipped wings flap overhead, a seagull calling sharply for its brethren, coasting along the light breeze. Red satchels dangle from their thin necks, newspapers sling over their shoulders, and small caps shade their keen eyes from the bright sun as they scan the horizon; For the ocean was vast, and their mission was great.

A lone rider props leisurely against the backbone of his ship, the mast not doing much to contribute in its stout size with sails furled. The boat, if one could even call it that, is not much larger than a canoe – bright yellow and adorned with odd engine-like apparatus that were not often seen on your average vessel. Fire crackles below and over the traveler's feet, fuel for a speedy progression of his mission about the waves.

A hat tips over dark hair, a brilliant orange that glares against the blue surrounding him, much like his personality. Sun-kissed skin appears to glow in the sun's fading rays, dark eyes watching darker waters as they swallow up its warmth.

The gull screeches, a warning of incoming delivery, tucking head under wing to retrieve a copy of the latest news. It drops, and the stranger snatches it from the air with a grin, lifting the freckles on his cheeks. Sitting forward, the red beads strung about his neck rattle against his chest with muddled clicks.

As always, Portgas D. Ace skims over the news without much thought, seeking out loose papers that are folded within. In his opinion, the leaflets he was looking for were a much more intriguing portion of news recently... Everything else was so bleak in comparison, because nowadays Ace was always looking out for the bounty of a certain troublesome little brother.

The older brother huffs a laugh when the first wanted poster meets his eye, Marco the Phoenix. One of his very own crewmates had conjured up some trouble of his own (as per usual). The pineapple-headed man's bounty had supposedly risen ever so slightly than before, which had already been rather high in its own right – Good for him.

Ace skims through the rest of the posters in a growing boredom, recognizing a few famous faces, and a few not-so-famous faces; People he both knew personally and didn't. Nothing seemed overly noteworthy, to his disappointment, and the further he analyzed the less inclined he felt to look.

Finally, he came upon what he was looking for.

Firefist huffs a laugh to himself, separating the page from the rest to get a closer look – Luffy's smiling face in the picture easily reflected by the viewer.

"Well, why am I not surprised..." Ace chuckles again, shaking his head. "But, one-hundred million? What the hell did that idiot get himself into now? Wonder if it had anything to do with that stuff in Alabasta..."

And then, voice trailing into the wind, Portgas D. Ace spots something that he hadn't before.

WANTED. Dead or Alive. Monkey D. Luffy, soulmate of (L/n) (Y/n).

B100,000,000. If you have any information concerning...

'Soulmate.' The word soulmate had been added to Luffy's wanted poster.

Ace doesn't have to look far to find his next target – If he'd bothered to look down after plucking his little brother's bounty from the stack, he would've discovered that yours was next in line – Flicking the paper to join Luffy's poster in one hand, the rest are rendered useless to the older sibling, burned to ashes in his other.

"Lookie here... so Luffy's girl finally showed up, huh?"

Sure enough, scrawled over the yellowed paper was the same description, the same bounty as Luffy's. The photo of a girl with (h/c) hair and (e/c) eyes ruthlessly pasted over the front of the paper makes Ace laugh – her crying face a vision of the same expression that his little brother once wore in their younger days – though he does feel a little bad to see you so down in the dumps.