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SHANKS

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[redforce]

( the next time shanks sees luffy ... well, it's hard to say when the next time will be. that much has been uncertain since the day shanks left the east blue. the luffy he's come to know now has only just begun his journey. one day, they'll see each other again at the end, a promise at last fulfilled. this much shanks knows.

but where luffy's path might cross with koby's ... shanks wouldn't be so cruel to whisper false hope into koby's ear, to tell him it will all work out in the end if he simply believes in luffy. because the truth is, the pieces are still being set, the players awaiting the time to make the first move.

so there isn't much comfort shanks can offer except what exists here, where the rules of their universe don't apply — where a pirate captain and a marine cadet can grieve together for something precious they've both lost: more time with someone neither one of them will see again as they are now.

too quickly, perhaps, dictating to his phone rather than wasting time typing it out: )

Koby, I don't care.
Come here.

( he doesn't have to say where. his aura is radiating through the manor like a beacon. )

[kobes]

[It's brief, to the point, a command that nullifies any negotiation or argument, and Koby's -- relieved to get it, so relieved it makes his head spin, nudges him firmly into the "following orders" reaction that doesn't require any actual energy or thought. He's been told to do something, he'll do it, he doesn't need to actually be present in his mind or body, he can drop what he's doing and obey -- walk right out of the gym, without responding, without saying anything.

The halls pass by in a dreamlike, fuzzy haze, like something on a screen, and though Koby knows logically he's walking, inhaling, exhaling, blinking, alive, he doesn't feel it. He feels very, very far away, and it's -- good, it's so good, it's safe and quiet and nowhere near the building panic and horror and fury at how unfair this is. How stupid he'd been, how stupid he still was, he should cut off everything, everything that makes him bleed and hurt and grieve, he should stay here where nothing can touch him, where he can't feel anything, because the second he looks Shanks in the eyes, it's all going to come rushing back like a tidal wave.

But still -- he goes. He doesn't knock, when he gets to Shanks's door -- he doesn't do anything, just stands there, vaguely aware of a distant ringing in his ears, aware that he's still wearing the sweaty, sleeveless shirt and snug-fitting pants he works out in, that his hair is loopy and curling with sweat, that he's out of breath. Why is he out of breath?

Ah. Because he's been holding it. Because it keeps bursting out of him in shaky, hitchy gasps, and that's dangerously close to feeling, so Koby just: shuts that right down. Turns it numb. Stands there staring at the closed door and waits.]