Got Inspo For "Is This Love?" Chapter 5 And Got A Good Chunk Of It In Already So Once I Finish Writing

Birthday Boy

Shanks x GN!Reader. Mostly Shanks's POV. 1704 words. This is fluff. Comments welcome. :3

Desc: It's Shanks's birthday but it starts to seem like only he remembered, from his perspective.

Shanks’s consciousness slowly stirs as he wakes up, it's his birthday. He thinks it is, anyway. He does actually keep track, especially since it’s also Mihawk’s. “Wonder if I should go visit him…” He mumbles to himself as he gets dressed. There’ll probably be a party for his birthday, right? I mean he’s not exactly super excited for a birthday party but he wouldn’t be against one per say. They’ve had small celebrations of his birthday, nothing grand after 25, but this should be special since it's the one before his 40s, that’s special. You’re here too, extra special. However when he peeks out of his room, no party poppers. Well that’s fine, they could be hard to clean up anyway. He heads into the kitchen and there are no balloons, or cake.

“Looking for something, Captain? You’re up early” Lucky Roux asks him, still not done with breakfast.

“Uh.. err..” Well maybe the cake is too much. He’s an old man now, forcing your already busy cook to make you a sweet treat at his age would be immature. “Nothing.” Lucky gives him a raised brow but goes back to cooking, Shanks settling on the table to wait for breakfast.. which is uneventful too. No one wishes him happy birthday, or gives him extra food, or is nicer. Nothing, but it’s okay. Decorations are childish, giving birthday wishes is too. They’re pirates. There’s only so much you can do for a single person’s birthday on a ship, even if he’s the captain. His birthday wish would be just that today is a good day, and today is a good day, no pirate or marine attacks or anything. That’s all he needs. When he goes looking for you he spots Hongo instead.

“Oh, (Y/n) went ahead. Said that they knew someone on the island we’re gonna dock at and couldn’t wait to see them.” That’s.. not ideal. So you’re not here and they’ll only be at that island once it’s almost dark.

‘At least they’re happy. I wonder who it is.’ Shanks thinks to himself, feeling bummed but still wondering who it is. When they dock the people are friendly and there's no dangerous weather. You’re talking to someone and not to Shanks but the alcohol at this bar seems good. Everyone is happy, enjoying themselves, including you. This is the best birthday present. Eventually he walks outside in the night with his mug, alone and leaning forward onto the wooden railing around the bar.

“Happy birthday.” Well he was alone. Your voice proves he no longer isn’t, his eyes trailing to you. You remembered, though that means you’ve been off with someone else even if you knew it was Shanks’s birthday.

“Aw jeez you remembered something like that?” He chuckles, taking a sip from his mug. Weird, it doesn’t taste nice, even if he can tell it factually is. Maybe he’s just not in an alcohol mood. “I’ve already had almost 40 of them.” That’s right. There are much more dire things in the world going on. In the grand scheme of things, someone like him, and something like his birthday, isn’t important.

“I hope to celebrate many more.” You rustle in your bag and pull out a wrapped box, putting it in front of him. “Sorry I’ve been ignoring you, I’ve been trying to get this perfect.” His eyes widen and he puts down his mug quicker than he intended.

“Is this for me?” So you weren’t just ignoring him, you were getting something for him! His eyes twinkle looking at the present.

“Is there another red headed captain having a birthday today?” He puts his hand to the wrapping, faltering. “It’s okay, just pull the ribbon.” He tugs the ribbon a bit and the wrapping falls apart, he didn’t have to struggle with one hand to get it open. He opens the box and there’s a clip, golden with a yellow flower accessory next to it.

“A hair clip?”

“You can put it on.” You’re right, he struggles a bit at first but the clip is easy to handle and clips his bangs out of his face. One half of the clip for one side, the other for the other side, then they snap together at the back of his head. “The flower is optional, I thought it would look pretty in your hair.” He looks at the flower, then puts it on. You pull out a pocket mirror and he looks at himself.

“It looks too fancy for me.” He mumbles. “And I’m still a pirate captain and emperor, I can't be going out with a flower in my hair.” You try to take it and he pulls back from you. “Hey, no take backs.”

“Relax.” You crack up a bit and he gets a little embarrassed.

“It’s my present.” He pouts, trying to play it off as you take the flower, clipping it onto his shirt pocket instead. “Oh.”

“Is that manly enough for you?”

“Perhaps.” His eyes twinkles as he looks down at the accessory, pleased. His hair is out of his face and now he’s got a pretty flower on his chest.

“It’s true you may not look fancy enough for the occasion though. Missing just a little something.” He looks back up at you when you speak, then feels something placed on his head.

“That’s better.” Shanks looks up to see Beckman, who adjusts the birthday hat strap under the captain’s jaw. Limejuice peeks out from inside the bar, blowing a party horn and wearing a party hat.

“Come in, Captain Birthday Boy.” He says and you watch as the redhead’s eyes widen and he runs inside to see that the bar he was in before has now been decorated with balloons and streamers. His cheeks are tinted with wonder and he gasps lightly.

“We knew you’d start moping outside when you thought everyone forgot your birthday, so we took the chance to decorate.” Beckman explains, pulling a chair open for the captain to sit on.

“I was not moping.” He states with a huff, sitting down. “I just needed some air.”

“You were moping.” You pull up beside him, rubbing your cheek against his affectionately. “Just a tiny bit. It’s okay.” Lucky sets down a large cake in front of the captain, decorated and with candles lit on top. You clap and then everyone starts to sing happy birthday, Shanks immediately getting embarrassed.

“You don’t-” He turns to Beckman, who’s also singing, then to you. “I..” You give him a warm smile and he sits there until the song is done. Once it’s ended everyone claps and he fidgets sheepishly before blowing out the candles. Yasopp sneaks behind him and reaches over to Shanks’s head until his wrist is gripped harshly and he turns to see your murderous gaze.

“Don’t.” You mouth to him and the sniper quickly backs off once he’s released. Shanks is given a nice slice of cake, it's wet.

“What is it?” He asks. It smells good, a twinge of alcohol. You motion for him to try it and he takes a bite, his eyes shining. The flavor of cake, sweet milk, and rum exploding in his mouth. He shouldn’t like sweet things, but this is good. Plus has alcohol so it’s not childish at all, that’s what he tells himself as he scarfs more down. You stare at him, pleased. He looks cute like this, happy, like he’s a boy again. A day where he’s the focus as different crew members give him their presents and he eats his favorite foods. Right now the world revolves around him, he’s the birthday boy. Your clip ends up helping a lot too, no food or cream in his hair; and no one made fun of his flower. They weren’t even allowed to think of making fun of it, ‘less they incur your wrath. By the end of it he’s wearing a comfy sweater, warm socks, his birthday hat is a little off center, and his heart and stomach are full. It isn’t much long after that he yawns.

“C’mon. You’re getting tired, right?” You lean beside him. It’s his party, his day, he doesn’t need to keep drinking or entertain the crowd even if he’s tired.

“That’s..” He hesitates, this party is for him. Shouldn’t he have to enjoy all of it? The food isn’t done and there’s still a good chunk of people that are lively.

“It’s your choice, Shanks. Do you want to go to bed?” You look him in the eyes, understanding. You look so comforting, it’s making him sleepier. “It looks like a yes.” He hums, almost looking behind him as if for approval from the rest until you stop him with a hand on his chin. “It’s you.”

“Me..” This is hard. For him? For him. This is his choice that he makes for him that isn’t in thought of anyone else. He slowly stands up, still hesitant until you grab his hand and lead him away. This bar must be connected to an inn, but he doesn’t think much about it as you bring him to a room. He trusts you, you must've prepared this beforehand. Once he’s inside you lay him down on the bed and wow.. it's like his body immediately recognizes all its tiredness and relaxes. He lets out a content sigh, closing his eyes and feeling you lay beside him. His face is peaceful, but you can do more. Your arms wrap around and hold him, cuddling him, and as you thought you feel him metaphorically turn to mush. “Thank you.” You hear him mumble quietly and you kiss the top of his head.

“I love you, Shanks, my birthday boy.” Your words, your heartbeat, your warmth, all of it has him slowly falling asleep, feeling warm all cozy inside and out. This is bliss. His last thought as his mind goes to sleep.

‘So cute..’ You think to yourself as you hear his breathing stabilize and feel his head roll limp onto your chest. He’s held onto you vulnerably like you’ll protect him from everything. You plant a kiss on his forehead, because at least for this night, you will.

I know this is late since his birthday is on the 9th of March but I wasnt in a writing mood so i wrote this late. Isn't Shanks a cutiepie? We need more cutiepie characters, if i do say so myself.

Too many people love toxic people and rough sex and grr and rah and maybe its the soft pure gentle maiden heart inside me but there needs to be more loving sex. More sex scenes that you read and feel warm in the heart and go "heheheheh" in a good way. Stuff where they make love not just fuck but again maybe its my angelic maiden heart talking.

If you want something to laugh/get mad over there are somehow trumpies in this comment section getting mad at their own lies they made up. Straight up denial not even joking. Like some of these gotta be ragebait

Trump voters on tiktok are EXTREMELY mad about the following:

They just found out what tariffs are

They just found out what denaturalization is

They (particularly black and Hispanic trump voters) just found out that other trump voters are racist

Leftists and liberals don't want to be their friends (they are furious about this)

Leftists keep telling them they hope they get what they voted for (they are really mad about this too)

what if his mom was just short

tell me im wrong, you wont. Luffy having stunt growth and several other underlining problems outside of the 10 years off the life thing.

I always do really well in a game and then i get stuck on one part and just drop it because i'm too proud to search up a guide when I was doing just fine. It's happened with 3 games now and it's rather unfortunate

When i was itty bitty my brothers would watch one piece and i always thought it was kinda cool but it was boring. Then one day i saw my brother watching fishman island and i thought it was so beautoful and shirahoshi was so cool that i finally pushed through just watching the first 10 episodes and catching up

Why did you start watching One piece?

I started because I saw a picture of Ace. . . . . . . 😅 I was like, yeah I'm gonna simp for this guy. "Better start watching."

Even though I knew he wouldn't show up until a couple hundred episodes or so. 🥲

And now I can't stop simping over him, it just dosen't get over. (I'm not complaining though. 😏)

"Did anyone start for a different reason?"

No one is more annoying than you tagging your hate. Seeing how you guys act, only Shuggy fans will get my support and other Shanks ships get nothing but my hate. Shuggy fans are truly the only tolerable Shanks shippers. The rest of you need to get your act together or find something else to do because you don’t even understand the story or the characters.

I literally wrote this whole thing about the problems with Shuggy but i got distracted and accidentally closed the app so im just gonna say if you really think that I'm not understanding the point or the story or the characters then you need to reread/rewatch one piece because everything Oda has put out has not been shy or subtle in showing that Buggy is toxic. Buggy stomped and stabbed Luffy's treasure, tried killing him multiple times, then in impel down Luffy forgave and struck a deal with him and Buggy tried to fuck him over again despite acknowledging himself through inner dialogue that Luffy is incredibly trusting and only a monster would betray him, and then shamelessly trying to betray him.

The whole point of his character in Impel down/Marineford is that Buggy is horrible and his karma is that he's forced to help in order to save his own ass since at every corner he's ready to betray, just like Shanks and the Roger Pirates. Shanks tried to be brotherly friends, Buggy felt inferior so he constantly picked fights, The Roger pirates raise Buggy with love, Buggy tries to steal a treasure map and devil fruit so that he can sell the fruit off and go find the treasure for himself and blames Shanks despite the reason Shanks approaches him is to check on Buggy, but Buggy still blamed Shanks despite it being his choice to be an idiot and stuff the fruit in his mouth to hide it while letting go of the map. When the Roger crew disbanded and Roger died Buggy made it about him. He said he was willing to give up "everything" for Shanks or whatever and then Shanks betrayed him and thats the whole reason why Shuggy lovers coddle Buggy and demonize Shanks but Shanks also sacrificed everything basically. He stayed behind for Buggy when Buggy was sick and missed the last of the adventures with his father figure and being able to go to the last island. Shanks sacrifices everything. Buggy was mean to Shanks even before the "betrayal" which was just Shanks saying he didn't want to go for the One Piece.

Then he blames everything on Shanks and leaves Shanks at his most vulnerable time since as the story goes on we're learning more and more that clearly something traumatizing and burdening happened to Shanks that made him give up the One Piece at that time. It was his dream too. He was always so bright and happy and hopeful and he always tried his best yet Buggy was the one who actually betrayed Shanks, running away like a coward because of his inferiority complex when Shanks was doing everything in his power to lift Buggy up. But Buggy doesn't want to be lifted up. No matter how much Shanks tried Buggy always would rather drag Shanks down with him. Now Shanks is alone, he had to go through everything alone and clearly is not okay mentally because of it from his random bouts of melacholy and burden. He longs for some sort of companion but has nothing because Buggy left and he didn't give chase, sacrificing his want for a friend in order to let Buggy leave since Shanks felt that Buggy really must hate him and would be happier leaving, he sacrificed his dominant arm to save Luffy, severely weakening himself, gave what he had left of Roger to Luffy in order to cheer the boy up, another sacrifice. Then you'd think "oh he still has his daughter" and you'd be right, he took care of her when he found her in the chest, sacrificing his youth to take care of a baby on the ship, but he had to leave her. He made himself look like the bad guy to leave her, losing the last bit of compassion in his life.

He took it hard too, Oda drew in a little sbs thing im pretty sure of Shanks despairing over it. Then, canonically, Luffy is Shanks's last hope, for everything. Shanks doesn't have a companion, no little daughter to cheer him up, no lover because he likely doesn't want to bring them into what he has on his shoulders, nothing. Yet Buggy tried to kill that hope, multiple times. And only helped Shanks with Luffy when Shanks had to trick him into it (oh the horror what a devil that redhead/s). Shanks is just a broken Luffy, he was bright and sunny and had hopes but from likely learning about the prophecy or whatever that he was not going to be JoyBoy, so he gave up his dream for the world. All of this. All of these terrible things Shanks has gone through for everyone and everything and how Buggy tries to destroy every single one of it and somehow Shuggy shipper STILL manage to coddle Buggy and treat him like some cute tsundere that was wronged by Shanks and Shanks is the one that needs to chase after Buggy because evil Shanks betrayed him. That Shanks is the stupid longing ex husband that needs his wife back and that he messrd up when Buggy is a terrible friend at the VERY best and an abusive one at worst. That is why i "hate" Shuggy. I don't tag my hate post as Shuggy because i'm some sort of ragebaiter or slanderer trying to take away the happiness that is Shuggy its because I need Shuggy people to realize that the way they portray the ship is so utterly unfair to Shanks. The story goes on and on and you find out more and more about how Shanks sacrificed so much yet you're telling ME that i "don't even understand the story and characters" like the whole dynamic of Buggy isn't that he's horrible and its funny to see him get karma while somehow surviving and that Shanks's role is to be the sacrificial lamb to everything while having no one to take atleast some of the burden off.

Shuggy people and the way they portray it is toxic. Its not just they treat Shanks like the longing ex husband for the comedy, every artwork and fic and story i've seen its always Buggy needing to be apologized to and they're serious in that being the good and what should happen option and not, i don't know, the literal bad guy abusive person being the one to go "oh shit i need to change my ways and I have to apologize and help the friend I abandoned". No its always just adding more shit to Shanks's already about to break apart plate. It's maddening seeing it. It has so much potential to be an amazing ship that can explore the relationship between someone that used to be abusive learning that they arent the victim and atoning while finding love in eachother's comfort but instead its just victim blaming 101. Shanks could end up fucking dying horribly in One Piece while Buggy watches and goes "serves you right" and somehow Shuggy lovers would go "oh nonono its actually just him being a cute tsundere and look he feels bad deep inside so its all forgived and Shanks just dies ig idk anyway poor Buggy." There is so much wrong with the ship and how its treated that all that shit about shuggy haters trying to debunk it using some shitty half assed excuse like its "emotional incest" when theres so many other problems is if i looked at a history book and was like "Yeah the colonizers of the America were definitely wrong because their wigs were weird" like thats completely insignificant! Shuggy and the way its treated as if Buggy is the wronged one and always the loved and longed after while he has his poor hurt heart closed off from years of trauma like abandoning his friend and pillaging and killing innocent civilians while using their wealth to flaunt and pretend like he's big and strong.

Shuggy should not be a fix it via victim blaming Shanks and treating him like some dumb dog that loves Buggy so much it should be using the fact that Buggy has an inferiority complex and that he longs to be in the spotlight that he slowly learns that theres a reason why he's at the bottom. That is my issue. I'm not ignoring the story i am looking st the story with everything i possibly can because I even used to be kinda alrighy with Shuggy. It is literally now that we are learning more about Shanks and that im rereading One piece and remembering how horrible Buggy is that I'm realizing how horribly its treated. I mean look I started this off that I would try and summarize it but its so hard to summarize when theres so much wrong. I'm okay with shipping, i really am, but the ship is toxic, and the "fluffy" stuff is even toxic because its just making Shanks's misery worse. I need yall to realize that. This is not mindless hate.

Wow feminist king