A Siren's Journey (One Piece! Various X Reader)

[30] - Baratie Arc ~ 12

🏴‍☠️️Ch. 30: Two New Friends for the Journey! The Strawhats Finally Get Their Cook!🏴‍☠️️

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. . .

I observe my sleeping captain as I finish treating both my own and his injuries in what appears to be Sanji's own bedroom aboard the Baratie.

A loud noise suddenly sounds and starts the rubber captain awake. Luffy slowly opens his eyes and sits up, but then starts to go crazy when he feels his most prized possession isn't in its place on his head.

"AH! MY HAT!! WHERE'S MY HAT?!!"

I gently push him back down onto the bed he's been resting on. "Calm down, Lu. It's right over there. Amazingly unharmed after all the fighting." I point to said straw hat safely tucked away on a small bookshelf at the head of the bed.

"Oh, good. Here it is."

"Have a good nap?" Sanji questions from his sitting position on the windowsill of the room.

Luffy then looks around the room confusedly. "Hey . . .Those pirates . . ."

"They're gone now, thanks to you, chore boy."

We all turn to the doorway and spot a bandaged up Ghin.

"Ghin? What are you still doing here?" Luffy asks.

"That's right. You fell asleep before you could hear the news." Luffy faces me with a wondering look. "Ghin's defected from the Krieg Pirates and would like to join up with us."

"Seriously?!"

"Very." Ghin answers for himself. "I'm not going to truly get anything out of life as a pirate if I continued to stay with the Krieg Pirates, and I have a feeling that I'll be even better than I was before as a Strawhat Pirate. So . . .will you have me, captain?" Ghin is sincere with every word spoken. He really didn't want to be the man he used to be.

"Of course! My first mate already likes ya, so you've got the potential for our crew." He replies proudly.

"I'm glad. I was worried that you wouldn't accept me." Ghin scratches the back of his head nervously.

"Why wouldn't I accept a new friend?"

Hearing that foreign word from the rubber boy startles the ex-Krieg Pirates chief commander, but soon has a genuine smile on his face. Slowly, but surely, Ghin was already becoming a better man.

"So, now that the pirates are gone, (First Name) and I don't have to do any more lame-o chores, right?" Luffy questions with a grin.

"That's the deal." Sanji replies as he looks out at the ocean from the second level balcony just outside the bedroom window.

"Hey, I was wondering—"

But Luffy is cut off by the blond chef. "No, I'm not gonna run away with you to become a pirate."

The rubber boy's head droops down in a sulking manner.

"I've got some unfinished business here; I'll stay until Zeff acknowledges my skill." Sanji explains.

"Okay then, I give up." Luffy breathes out. But despite his words, his arm is stretched out and grasping Sanji by his collar, practically in a choke-hold.

"That means you let go." He chokes out with his own collar constricting his throat. Luffy eventually releases his grip on the young cook. "I can't just leave. These bozos don't know the first thing about how to run a restaurant. But still, I promised myself that one of these days I'll go to the Grand Line."