Chapter Text
Everything felt fuzzy to Coby. The colors were burning his eyes and he could feel the headache building up. The drink in his hand didn’t feel appealing but whenever he thought back to the events that happened hours ago, he found himself knocking a drink back before asking for a refill.
He really shouldn’t be doing this. Coby was no stranger to seeing people drink after spending two years on Alvida’s ship but it was never a good thing when they did. The crew would always be more irritable the next day and eager to focus that on their cabin boy.
Coby knew that he had drank too much but he was far from the only one. He could see Tashigi and Grus sitting near the bar. Tashigi wasn’t even trying to stop her tears anymore and Grus just stared into his cup. Their somber mood clashed harshly with the rest of the bar. Coby was just glad that they had given him some space. They had been hovering ever since he had gotten back to the ship. He couldn’t blame them, not after what happened. But he just needed a moment.
Someone had gotten fed up with the somber mood of the marines sometime ago and had started playing a song that the few civilians in the bar quickly started singing along to. It only made it harder for Coby to hear anything as he started to tune it all out. His Observation Haki was still thrumming underneath his skin even though he had been pushing it to its limits when he was escaping and it was driving him crazy when he was so close to this many people.
They had returned from pirate island hours ago and everyone had filtered into the bar. A report had already been filled out on their way here and Helmeppo had ignored the Den Den Mushi after the first round of calls. They could deal with the fallout later. It was improper but none of them were able to stand the rounds of questions about Garp. Coby knew that the higher ups must’ve been asking about him too, since Helmeppo hadn’t let him get close to the Den Den Mushi after a particularly loud call.
Coby finishes up his drink and squints his eyes. “Sitting here won’t fix anything.” He mumbles and his face scrunches up when he smells the alcohol on his breath. He looks over to Helmeppo and Hibari who are in a halfhearted conversation with two civilians. Coby glances at the door. It was probably fine if he went out for some air, right? He just had to be back before his crew noticed.
He stumbles his way to the door, making his way through the crowd of marines who are too drunk to realise who is pushing past them. Coby risks one glance back into the bar before opening the door.
The cool night air greets him as he steps outside. He can’t help but take a deep breath and he can feel his exhaustion slowly creeping up on him. Coby shakes his head as if trying to shake it all away. He failed because he was too helpless. He was responsible for his friends needing to come and rescue him in the first place. Coby knew that he was responsible for Garp being captured and that couldn’t happen again.
He needed to get stronger and he needed to get stronger now. The marine makes his way through the town. Coby vaguely remembered something like a dojo being near the seedier parts of town that they had to pass through to get to the bar. If he could just get there, then he could start his training. He could start to fix this.
Coby arrives at the dojo and knocks on the door. Minutes pass and nothing happens. He frowns before looking inside through the windows. The lights were turned off and there wasn’t a soul in sight. Coby sighs and looks up at the sky. The stars were bright and the moon always gave him a sense of peace. They were the one thing that couldn’t be taken away from him.
Coby stares a while longer before realisation slowly starts to dawn on him. He huffs, scowling a little at his own idiocy. Of course the dojo wouldn’t open, it was the middle of the night! He looks over to a stone bench and sluggishly makes his way over to it.
Coby’s eyes droop as he stares up at the night sky again. He wonders how Garp could see the same thing that he could. He doubted it, since he might not even be alive anymore. His Observation Haki flares weakly and it draws him back to enough coherency to hear the footsteps that were approaching the bench.
Coby’s eyes snap over to a man who had quietly approached the bench. The man holds up his hand and smiles at him as if showing that he was unarmed. “Hello there. Mind if I join you?” The man asks, gesturing towards the bench. His tone was soft as if he was speaking to a frightened animal.
Coby takes a second to answer as his brain tries to catch up with the man’s words. “U-Uh yes! Go ahead!” Coby hastily responds as he realises that he fell silent. The man chuckles and sits down on his left. He was holding a bottle of something but Coby was too drunk to try and find out. It was none of his business anyway.
The wind brushes through the man’s hair, drawing Coby’s attention. The color looked familiar to him but he couldn’t figure out why. It was the kind of red he’d seen splattered across the battlefield back at Marineford. Coby looks away from the man’s hair and realises that the man had caught him staring.
Coby quickly looks away and he feels his cheeks flush with embarrassment as he hears the man chuckle. “Calm down, kid. I’m not going to bite.” The man says before lifting his bottle to his lips. Coby can’t help but follow the motion, staring at the bottle. The alcohol inside the bottle swirls and Coby frowns as he tries to remember why he was here again.
The man sees his frown and raises an eyebrow before lowering the bottle. “What’s the frown for?” He asks as he looks at the marine next to him. The man smirks as he places the bottle on the ground. “I’d offer you some, but it looks like you have enough on your plate.” The man offers and Coby frowns harder.
“I’m fine.” Coby says but the man just gives him a look. “Usually people around your age don’t sit outside a closed dojo in the middle of the night. Much less when they’re too drunk to recognise anything.” The man points out and Coby huffs with frustration.
Coby looks away and ponders on the words. He knew that he wasn’t okay but he had to be if he wanted to.. What did he want to do again? It was getting harder and harder to stay coherent as the drinks started to kick in. His Haki had simmered down which had been the one thing keeping him somewhat aware.
It couldn’t hurt to tell this man some things, right? Coby must look differently to the image that civilians had of him after spending so much time locked up. He hadn’t even gone to shower yet. He hadn’t found the strength to leave his crew for even a minute before they had gone into the bar.
“I guess..” Coby starts, hesitating before taking a deep breath. “I never expected this to happen. He was never supposed to be there. They were never supposed to be there. I should’ve been strong enough to get out on my own and now-” Coby realises that he is crying and starts to frantically rub them away. “Now he might be dead because of me!”
The man had fallen silent, staring at Coby with something that he couldn’t pick up in his intoxicated state. “A-And who knows what they’re even doing to him there? They kept me alive because they wanted something, what if they want something even worse with him? He was worth so much more and I just don’t understand-” Coby is spiralling as the dam finally breaks.
Spending so much time locked up in an isolated space with people who wanted something from him was just too familiar. He’d already had two years of that. While he should’ve expected something like that to happen when he offered himself up to Blackbeard, there hadn’t been much going through his head other than that he couldn’t let so many marines be captured like that. Not when there was a better option.
A warm hand lands on his shoulder and Coby’s breath hitches as he looks to the side. The man was looking at him with a sad expression and that only makes Coby sob harder. “Just let it out kiddo.” The man softly muttered as he carefully pulls Coby upright. The kid had started swaying sometime into his outburst and it wouldn’t be good for him to take a tumble.
Coby cries and shrinks in on himself as he realises how pathetic he must look right now. “I-I’m sorry-” It was a marine’s job to bring hope to people. Seeing someone with his title cry wasn’t a good look for the marines. Yet the man doesn’t seem to mind and Coby finds himself sinking into his warmth. When did his body start feeling so tired?
The man shifts to support the weight pressed against his side. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Coby.” The man’s voice was soft and quiet as he lets the boy hide his face in his side. Coby can feel the man rubbing circles on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down and Coby doesn’t want him to stop.
“I get that you feel like you need to become stronger to do whatever it is that you need to do. But you don’t have to be strong today.” The words are filled with intent and something within them coaxes Coby to just give in for a while. Coby keeps crying, his body shaking as he sobs.
“Don’t be strong, Coby. Give yourself a moment to process it all.” Because the man knew damn well that he hadn’t. “You didn’t give yourself that moment after Marineford either, hm?” The kid had been in action too soon after that whole clusterfuck for him to have had any time to process the war he was a part of.
“Just rest for a while, alright?” Coby feels his eyes close as he slumps against the man. “My crew..” He slurs but it’s a futile effort to fight against the exhaustion that has dug its way into his bones. With that, Coby drifts off against the man that he would’ve recognised on any other day.
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Shanks hadn’t expected to come across the young marine that he saved from Akainu back at Marineford. He especially hadn’t expected the kid to be drunk as a skunk. He’d been walking back to the Red Force when he felt the familiar Haki signature. It still burned just as bright as that day, but it felt different. It was still filled with desperation but it was accompanied by a worrying amount of self-loathing.
Shanks sighs as he looks down at the sleeping child who was using him as a pillow. He must’ve really been out of it if he was willing to fall asleep on an Emperor. Though one look at the swaying and dazed kid had given that away when Shanks had approached the bench.
“Just what happened to you, kid?” Shanks mumbles to himself as he gets a closer look at Coby’s face. It was covered in bruises, some which looked as if they had been there for a while. Shanks hadn’t heard any news about the young hero lately but that hadn’t been too unusual. His network could only gather some of the more public news and placing spies when Garp was around is never a good idea.
Shanks can sense his first mate’s Haki before he can hear his approach. He looks past Coby with a smile as Benn approaches the bench. “Found a stray marine, Captain?” Benn calls out as his eyes flicker to Coby. Shanks chuckles before nodding and looking back at Coby. “Yeah. Seems like he wandered a little far from his crew.” Shanks muses before frowning. “Something happened to him, Benn.” Benn already knew where Shanks was going with this. “You want to know what.” He says in a flat tone and Shanks laughs.
The sound jostles Coby whose eyebrows pinch together at the sound. The two pirates fall quiet as they look at the slumbering teen. They stay like that for a moment before Benn speaks up. “There’s a crew of drunk marines running through the town looking for a missing crewmate. They looked pretty desperate.” Benn’s eyes flicker to the plaza. “Reckon it’s him they’re looking for?” They both already knew the answer.
Shanks huffs and spans his Haki out. Sure enough, he could sense a bunch of panicked signatures rushing around the town. It wouldn’t be long until they reached the bench. “It’ll be bad if they spot the Red Force.” They had docked away from the main port after seeing the marine ship. They could’ve easily destroyed it but there was no need for such unnecessary conflict.
Shanks stands up, carefully positioning Coby to lay down on the bench. “We best get back to the ship before they get here. I don’t want to spoil the evening by fighting a bunch of drunk marines.” Shanks smiles as Coby tries to find where the receding warmth had gone to. “Although it would be funny to-” “We’re not fighting a crew of drunk marines, Shanks.” Benn cuts the idea off causing Shanks to pout before chuckling.
He picks up the bottle and steps away from the bench. The marines were just around the corner. “Something tells me that he’ll be in good hands.” Shanks mutters before he walks away from the bench with Benn soon following, leaving Coby to be kept company by the night sky.
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Coby wakes up to someone shaking him. “Huh?” He groans and cracks his eyes opening. Helmeppo and Hibari were hovering over him. He can see the relief in their eyes as he wakes up before Helmeppo lightly knocks him over the head. “You idiot! Why would you leave the bar without telling anyone!” Helmeppo shouts but Coby can hear the fear in his voice.
Hibari helps Coby carefully sit up. “We were really worried about you. We turned around and you were just gone!” She says and Coby can feel his heart dropping to his stomach. Of course they were worried. He had been gone a lot longer than what he intended to be and they freaked out. They had just gotten him back and for him to suddenly disappear on them? Just what had he been thinking!
Coby frantically waves his hands around but the motion just makes him dizzy. “I’m alright guys! I just needed a breath of fresh air and lost track of time!” He says as he tries to reassure his friends. The sound of hurried running quickly approaches the trio as Tashigi and Grus come around the corner.
Helmeppo looks over at them before waving them over. “Hey! We found Coby! The idiot fell asleep on this bench and forgot about the time!” It was a poor attempt at giving the situation some levity but it works nonetheless as Tashigi’s shoulders slump in relief while Grus’s concerned expression turns into something akin to fond exasperation.
“If you needed some time away from the bar, you could’ve just said so.” Grus says as he moves to stand next to Hibari. He points his thumb to the corner that they just came from. “You’ve got the entire crew in a drunken frenzy. Everyone was clambering to get out of the door when they realised that you had gone missing.”
The words make Coby’s heart swell. They really cared that much, didn’t they? He gives them a sheepish grin as he stands up only to almost fall due to the alcohol in his system. Helmeppo catches him and puts an arm under his shoulder. “Damn, was this your first time drinking or something?” Helmeppo teases but his smile falters a little as Coby nods. “Ah. Yeah maybe you’ve had a bit too much.”
Coby snickers before looking at his group, his crew. “Let’s let the others know that I’m fine.” Tashigi nods as she pulls out a mini Den Den Mushi and starts making a call. Hibari looks at Coby with worry as her eyes flicker over his swaying form. “Are you sure that you’re fine, Coby?” She hesitantly asks, giving Coby pause before he smiles and shakes his head.
“I’m not.” The admission has his friends looking at him. Coby looks up at the night sky, staring at the moon and the stars. “I need to become stronger so that this can never happen again.” He looks back at his friends again who are hanging off his every word.
“But I think that I should save that for another day.”