Chapter Text
With the steady thrum of ABBA echoing through his wired earbuds, Luffy wove through the early morning crowd with precision much like a video game round played over and over again. Though it was a new day, still the same old blistering late-May heat but this time with new faces in different positions. Some scowled as he zipped by, pointing out the bike lane that was more suited for his mode of transportation than the footwalks. That is true– though he knows the crowd of the city like the back of his hand after living there for a decade and should definitely have the right to ride his flame red Lorimer wherever he pleases. It seemed there were more people than not who agreed– Calling out his name or waving or jumping out of his way with smiles.
He woke up just as Sabo left the apartment and, deciding it was fruitless to try and catch more sleep, he strapped on his black helmet, tightened his basket on his bike and took off as the sun crept over the horizon. In the time he would have otherwise spent idly swiping on his phone, he had made decent progress with his daily routine.
Unlike Sabo, he can’t hold down a ‘normal person’ job (Ace would always snicker at that and butt out, “Can’t or won’t?”). His pastimes always seemed to clash with the 9-5 lifestyle most fell into with ease. That didn’t mean he free-loaded off of his brothers though. He worked to the bone and thought outside the box.
Due to his true passion, everyone and their mothers and their grandmothers knew his name and face and the red bandana he always had either on his forearm or neck. As he rode by, some called out to him and gave him some form of work. Sometimes it was helping move, others needed someone to cover a shift from an employee up and quitting (usually washing dishes or bussing tables– every Friday-Sunday he’d make his rounds to the local restaurants to see if they wanted his help for the day), but most times it was menial labor like hanging and taking down signs for businesses. He was always fast as a bullet gluing new posters for upcoming events or sales, even faster at ripping them down to replace. He always knew exactly where to place which advertisements, so they’d always holler him over before daring to give the task to anyone on their main payroll.
He made decent money, albeit not consistent. He was able to pay bills and help with rent. He had tried to find a more stable position; however, they all ended the same.
He needed the freedom of no true set hours and the ability to run.
Not because he was so unwily that he couldn’t hold still for a shift, but because his pastime would interject any time of day and he’d have a new responsibility that was more pressing than keeping down a job. This role started when he was much younger. Ace actually came up with the idea, and though he claimed he was too old and busy to keep it up, he still wore a red bandana with him everywhere to signify to anyone who needed help that they could come to him.
You see, for a city bustling with life and strangers helping each other out, the structure beneath the pleasantries and bright flyers was rotting. Sure, the occasional tourist passing through could be blinded by the towering architecture and neon lights once the sun fell, but there was always hints of its impending destruction. A fragile glass teetering on the edge of a table with a cat looming over, ready to swat.
Sabo told him all about it after his shifts, running a hand through his lengthy blond curls while pouring himself a glass of wine or cranberry juice. It depended on how bad his day was. Gangs were running rampant and were recruiting children: kids not even out of highschool and with no idea of the trouble they were falling into. The petty groups were pests at best; the big dogs were nothing to sniff at. They worked behind anything Luffy could see with his naked eyes, but Sabo told him enough about their power and influence that he knew even the ones holding the lives of everyone in this city were likely corrupt.
It was a dangerous world out there. He didn’t like the idea of a nameless, faceless being holding power over him and what he did in his life, so he took his own route.
Still prey, but one that could sleep at night.
One that could shove all that knowledge to the back of his mind and wash dishes for a ma-and-pop diner.
“Little red!” Luffy turned his front tire quickly, shuddering to a stop as his foot came down to catch the ground. Without checking his stability, he looked around until he saw a man in a familiar hat waving to him. Today was a good day.
He hightailed it across the street the moment no cars were barreling down the road, arriving at the man’s side within the minute. He waited patiently with a smile until Luffy was stationed in front of him, both of them off to the side to avoid the businessmen speeding about.
Luffy knew this man as Penguin– and though he had a hard time remembering names and prefered to give nicknames on noticeable characteristics such as a hat that said “Penguin” and had a little penguin on it– he was sure that the man initially introduced himself under that moniker. Meanwhile, he was certain he had introduced himself as Luffy when Penguin first talked to him, but had since been called any nickname under the sun. He didn’t mind; he actually thought some of them were clever.
“I was hoping to catch you on my run today,” Penguin grinned, taking a sip of one of the coffees he held. The rest sat on a cardboard tray, a bag of goodies tucked between his fingers. “Are you busy?”
“Not really; I did most of my rounds already!” Luffy announced with pride. Penguin raised his eyebrows and nodded along.
“Impressive. Hope you aren’t too tired for this next bit then– Uh.” Penguin looked around for a table, then eventually turned his back to Luffy to reveal a white backpack that blended pretty well in his crisp white shirt. “Open the top zipper. I got some flyers that need to be hung around. Boss has a new club and wants to drum up some excitement for opening night.”
“Wow, that does sound cool,” Luffy chortled as he hopped off his bike and kicked the stand to hold it upright. He opened the backpack and stuck his hand inside, then retrieved several posters rolled up in a bundle and closed the bag. Without looking at the designs further, he tossed it in his basket where his glue and brush resided. “You guys really are busy, huh. I feel like you always have something new to advertise. I appreciate it.”
“He can be a little flashy,” Penguin admitted with a groan as he turned back around, “but he’s always insisted you are the right man for the job. Always done efficiently. Now, let me just- Uh.”
He struggled for a moment, then decided the best action was precariously balancing his coffee on top of one on the tray. With a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead, he felt his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash which he tossed to Luffy before quickly swooping in to take his coffee back into the safety of his firm grip. He breathed out a sigh of relief.
Luffy, although, did inspect the money now in his hands. He unfurled the band holding it together and fanned it out, eyes widening even without counting it out. On a good day, he’d come up with enough to surprise his brothers with takeout. This was a good week in his hands. He usually made good money accepting requests from Penguin, even from the beginning. He thought that Penguin just didn’t know how much his going rate was, but when he eventually clarified to Penguin (after he was handed two hundred dollars for cleaning up some graffiti on an alley wall to a club) that his work wasn’t worth that much and that Penguin shouldn’t carelessly toss his money to him just in case, Penguin had looked at him with an oddly blank face. He stood there for a good minute, excused himself, went back into the club, then came out and handed Luffy two more hundred dollar bills.
Luffy wasn’t a charity case by any means. He’d rather eat out of the dumpster than beg for assistance, but something told him that Penguin understood the cost of money. He just didn’t need it as desperately. So Luffy took the money home and gave it to Sabo to pay the bills with.
Flustered, he put the money together again and held it out, “This is way too much: it’s only flyers. Anyone can do that. Maybe you are meant to give this to someone else?”
“Nope, it’s all yours,” Penguin stated firmly with a just as certain shake of his head. He took another swig of his drink with a satisfied sigh hissing from his throat once he gargled the bitter liquid down. He tilted his drink toward Luffy with a smile. “You do know I’m just a mouthpiece, yeah? Big wig decides your pay, and he’s a fan of you.”
“Fan of me?” Luffy laughed. He shoved the money in the pocket of his shorts for safe keeping. “I didn’t know I could have fans.”
“He liked your style: the way you keep these streets clean. He likes it when people stay out of… Well, you know.” Penguin shrugged his shoulders. “Not many hardworking punks out there, so he likes funding your little venture.”
Luffy tapped his bandana with a knowing grin and Penguin nodded. With that, the man made to turn around and head on his way, but paused and spun back around. He pondered for a moment, a pinkish tint in his cheeks before he said, “Are you busy this friday by chance? That’s opening night and, ya know, I get to skip past all the lines. If you want, I can get you in pretty early and buy you a drink? It might be nice to have a little night off.”
As Luffy mounted his bike again, he hummed. “Don’t you have to be 21 to enter and drink at those?”
Penguin sputtered, face heating up even more as the coffee jostled about. With a more panicked yelp, he quickly balanced the coffee again, eying it warily until everything seemed to stand still in his palm. He looked back at Luffy. “Wait, how old are you?”
“I’ll be 20 next year,” He replied with ease and Penguin gaped at him.
“For real? Man, I assumed you were at least 22. I’ve been having you running around here for years. Weren’t you in school?”
“Got a GED.”
“Well, shit.” Penguin huffed. He looked between his coffee, Luffy, and back at the city behind him as if he was suddenly lost. Eventually, the tension in his shoulders fell and he let out a chuckle. “Sorry, I won’t... I’m not that kind of person, you know?”
Luffy tilted his head. He anticipated Penguin rescinding his offer, but everything else was lost on him as the older man finished his coffee and threw it into a trashcan stationed outside the shop. He missed and it tumbled onto the sidewalk, but he quickly bent down and picked it up with a ‘tsk’. This time it went in, but only because his hand hovered right over the can before plopping it in. “Still, you should check it out. This location is actually somewhat special. Boss has a love for the whole ‘more than meets the eye’ nonsense, so the club is designed to be like a secret speakeasy. Prohibition style shit. On opening night, there’ll be a clear show of how to get in, but after that you’ll be required to say a passcode or something, but anyone who finds it can enter, it ain’t that secret.”
“Like a spy themed place?” Luffy asked and Penguin agreed.
“Kinda, yeah, I guess.” He shifted on his feet. “But there’s a front to it. So if you enter through the front door, it’s a restaurant. It’s either through a side entrance or a door inside that leads to the actual place. Still— They serve good food. Let me get you dinner on Friday. Just as friends.”
Luffy couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter at the prospect of a new friend. It’s true– he’s known him for years, but they never did much besides talk and exchange things between each other like jobs and cash. Sure, Luffy got along with most people, but that’s different from earning a friend.
“Alright!” He chirped, kicking his stand up on his bike. “I’ll stop by Friday night.”
“Sounds perfect. Come by around 7 so we avoid the crowd. I’ll make sure the kitchen is ready to go by then.”
“7 on Friday, got it!” With that Luffy gave him a salute and began to make his way back down the street, a new job on his mind. Free dinner, a pocketful of bills, and another reason to keep on his patrols. Today was indeed a great day.
He finished hanging the flyers around 3PM. He stopped by the local parks, popular bars, and near liquor stores to glue the flyers up. In the moments he caught his breath, he recited the address in his mind so he’d know where to go on Friday to see Penguin. Once he had finished, he collapsed under the shade of a park tree with a sigh.
Then his phone buzzed a familiar set of rumbles. He had a few different vibrations and noises for calls, texts, alarms, and from the app Usopp developed. Usopp was a master with technology, and he was going to school for it too. He heard Luffy’s plight with his hobbies and developed an app that helped Luffy, or anyone permitted to have the app like his friends and anyone else he recruited under his red bandana, know when one of two notifications came in.
One was if there were any openings in the area for shifts to be filled. These were all entry-level labor, but it still helped businesses out and got Luffy some money. Sometimes Robin or Sanji would take the odd tutoring help someone submitted, but mostly it was Luffy running around completing them. On an even rarer occasion, Brook or Jinbei would do volunteer work through there, but wouldn’t accept pay. These offers were filtered and sent through some account on a website Usopp ran. Luffy spent so much time going to businesses and handing out cards and flyers for people to have and use, and now the app was a common back-up for most people short on numbers for a shift. It took years of being reliable and being the most recognizable person in the city, but he managed it without issue.
But that wasn’t what got their little system known. The second form of notification was something anyone could use, and, in Luffy’s opinion, it was vitally needed.
In a city rotting from the inside out, danger roams the streets. For a long time, Luffy had lived with patrolling the streets on his own and helping those who needed it as he came upon them, but now there was a way to notify him or one of his trusted friends to give someone aid. Sometimes it was an old lady who couldn’t lift her groceries up three flights of stairs, but most times it had something to do with one of the punkish gangs running rampant. Just last week, a young man was too afraid to leave his apartment to go to work because members of a gang were threatening him outside his complex. The day before that, a girl needed to move out in the two hour window her drug dealing boyfriend left the house before he noticed. A while before that, on one of the shifts Luffy picked up stocking a convenience store, someone his age ran inside crying for help, a wound visible on his upper arm.
Luffy didn’t know all that much about how gangs worked. He was requested to join one twice in his younger years: he was promised booze and drugs along with special privileges due to his fighting prowess. He slugged both men in the nose. He had no interest in doing much besides stopping their shitty behavior. They could destroy each other for all he cared, but when it came down to civilians afraid to leave their homes, he took great issue with that. Besides, Sabo would kick his ass if he even looked at the sign or color of a gang for too long.
Luffy would never dare say that side of his app was abused. If anyone had any reason to be afraid, he prayed they used it. However, it’s a massive city. He was constantly on alert, but his friends were less likely to respond due to having jobs or class or not being equipped enough. Zoro and Sanji regularly let out their frustrations by looking to stop trouble, but Nami and Chopper were more likely to do the simpler tasks of helping watch over sick people while their caretakers got medications or patching up kids that fell off their bikes. These requests weren’t charged for, but as a courtesy they usually did get some money as a thank you for those who could afford it.
For those who couldn’t, Luffy always heard a similar line. Always an apology followed by how thankful they were for the Reds, or Strawhats, and that their hearts were golden. And that they knew they couldn’t trust the police. Luffy knew that feeling.
When Luffy looked at the notification, he noticed it was a latter request. “There’s someone following me. They’ve taken the same path as me for 15 min and I’ve tried to do false turns, but they are still here. I’m too scared to go home. Staying in crowded areas for now. I’m wearing brown shorts and a lime crop top. My hair is blonde and pulled back.”
Luffy got onto his bike and sent a request for their location. Once he got a ping, he zipped off down the road.
It was 10PM when Luffy stumbled home, legs burning with exertion. Zoro crossed his path a while ago, fuming about something his roommate did and being ready to kick some ass. Luffy took it as his sign to go home and collapse on the couch stationed right in front of a dingy TV playing the weather.
Ace wasn’t home; he hardly ever was. Luffy paid it no mind, especially since Sabo was home. His boots were neatly placed on their plastic shoe rack and a note was left nearby about dinner in the fridge. That either meant he was taking a nap and not to interrupt him, or he had his loafers on and dropped by a certain apartment on the ninth floor to deliver some leftovers to the young lady living there.
Koala’s nice. As expected by her name, she was adorable with two large, chocolate milk eyes and a rounded nose. She was a little slow like a koala too. She had to brace herself against walls when going downstairs and used to leave her apartment thirty minutes before she needed to just to make sure she got down in time. When she told this to Sabo one night while they were all eating dinner in the apartment, he began to wake up early to help her down every morning, and tried to get home in time to help her up.
She was also clingy like a koala. Sometimes when Luffy got home real early or really late, he’d walk in to find Sabo lying back on the couch with Koala cuddled next to or on top of him, blissfully dozing. Sometimes he’d be awake too, raking his scarred fingers down her back or stroking the knots from her caramel hair.
Luffy liked her a lot. She used to work at the cafe down the street when he was still in school. Sabo would occasionally walk with him, and in those days they’d stop by and get drinks. Sabo would tip her heavily despite her being well aware of his intentions and trying to rip the tip jar away from him before he had a chance.
Now Sabo just makes a lot of food and insists that he has poor portion control despite always making the right amount of food before he knew Koala moved to their building. She changed jobs to something you can’t quite tip as easily– an editor for a magazine– so Sabo makes do.
Luffy went to the bathroom and rolled out the first drawer which was always stocked to the brim with medical supplies. Most of them were bought from Sabo during grocery runs, but a good chunk of the colorful, cartoon bandaids and interesting additions were given by one of their other neighbors, a nurse who came to the city to make it big on the stage. He was doing well for himself now, but still would drop by and claim he had forgotten another box of medical supplies. Twice there was recent receipts inside, and though Sabo would get pissy about not being a charity case once the man left, they all understood what their situation looked like. Two highschool dropouts and one twenty one year old with a brain and a full time job with no adult in sight.
With some difficulty, Luffy laid out some gauze and held it to his arm with his nose as he tried to unfurl tape. He ripped the end with his teeth before haphazardly laying it down across the white fabric. He repeated this a few times until the bandage was hanging on enough that he could wrap a bandana over it to hold its place. Thats the good thing about the color red: it hides blood well.
He ravaged through the leftovers, a meatloaf with a potato, then jumped back onto the couch. He plugged his phone in. It beeped excitedly after dragging through the last few hours on 10% which meant no music or texting. Now he was free to catch up on what was going on in his group chats.
Sanji: No, I’ve tried everything and he won’t listen. His mom and dad aren’t doing shit about it either and it’s pissing me off.
Robin: At this time of night too? That is bizarre. Did you find out what apartment he belongs to?
Sanji: Yeah he’s two floors down. He’s sitting on the couch right now.
Sanji sent a photo and Luffy grinned excitedly as a fluffy tan poodle with one of Sanji’s ties in his mouth flooded his screen. He liked the photo despite Sanji’s frustrations. Zoro seemed to be on the same page.
Zoro: That dog better be out of our apartment when I get back
Sanji: Do you think I want him here either idiot? He keeps pushing past me to get in. Determined little fucker
Franky: I don’t know about dogs, but this has to be some form of abuse, right? Hasn’t it been in your apartment for the past few hours now? I don’t think there’s a great way about this, but if it’s a continuous problem, then you should totally call the dog police or something. Irresponsible ownership doesn’t fall on you.
Luffy: can i pet dog
Sanji: Seeing as they haven’t come by or been yelling for him, I’m going to start looking in on places to take him. Does anyone happen to have a leash or rope I could borrow? He’s got a collar
Luffy: p et
Nami: I know Usopp’s upstairs neighbors likely have rope : )))))
Usopp: Please shut up.
Jinbei: I have a cat carrier.
Sanji: I think the dog is a little too big for that.
Jinbei: He wouldn’t fit in it.
Jinbei: I have green paracord.
Sanji: Mosshead, once you cool down go by Jin’s and get the rope. I’ll take dipsy here in the morning.
Jinbei: It would be strong enough for a leash.
Zoro: Get it yourself, stupid cook. I’m not going back til you get all that dog hair out. I’m crashing somewhere else tonight.
Usopp: I am somewhere else. I’ll let you know when the noises stop.
Zoro: They’ll stop when I get there or I’ll make them stop
Usopp: pleasethisistheonlyplaceicanafford
Sanji: Poodles are hypoallergenic you dick bag
As the chat went on, he pouted and reclined back on the couch. He wished his neighbors were regularly neglectful of their pets' whereabouts so Luffy could chill with a dog. He knew better than to own one: he had no time for those commitments, but that didn’t mean he didn’t crave a drooling, sleepy-eyed basset hound with nubby legs or a giant, fluffy samoyed.
Work and duty came first though! Everything else he could do when he was graying, unable to ride his bike or take the same pain he can grit and bear now. When he grew up, he could envision his dream perfectly. Sabo and Ace, healthy and well, sitting alongside him on a sailboat with a picnic spread out between them. The crew would be there, Koala too, and they’d sing songs and exchange jokes until day break.
He couldn’t do that with ease until everyone was safe and happy though, not just his friends and brothers. Five years under the belt and more to come, he thought with vigor as he headed to bed.
Though, fun would come soon in the form of a new friend and a nice dinner.