Aiden's Point Of View

"Can I travel with you?" I ask calmly but on the inside, I was shaming myself. 'Why didn't you say it? It just a simple question! He's a pirate you can trust!' The thoughts rush into my mind but I couldn't deal with them right now. I irritably shove them away as the guy replies with a, "Hm?"

"I asked if I could travel with you?" I ask again, more hesitant than before but I don't think he noticed.

"You basically want to join my crew, right?" He asks straight out and I shake my head furiously. "No, you got the wrong idea, I just-" I start but I'm cut off. "Your my first member! Hurray!" He shouts out happily and I quickly start back tracking my words. "No, its just-I mean, like, I don't really-Well, things are complicated and-"

But he's not paying any attention and I sigh. I gave up on even trying to tell him, his celebration covering up most of his common sense. I realised I had never gotten the young boy's name. "Hey, I never caught your name."

"Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy." He says proudly and I reply with my name. "Aiden Ka...R. Kando." My real last name was actually Rin Kaede and I almost said it. But on that close call, I used the name of a shop I saw earlier nand changed it a little.

Luffy didn't notice me hesitate when I said my name, obviously 'cause he's so un-observant, so he just smiled and laughed. "What's so funny?" I raise an eyebrow at my laughing 'captain' and he managed to speak inbetween his chuckles.

"Kando, it sounds like the meat shop in town, Mochai no Kanyo.." He trails off, suddenly sputtering random things about his favorite meat place. I doze off a little bit, considering the fact that it's really late. But Luffy wakes me up again when just shouts out, "Meat!"

"What?" He stares at me and replies, "I want some meat," He informs me. "Let's go get some!" Next thing I know, Luffy is dragging me across the cliff to normal land and we rush through the town. 'Where are we gonna find a place to eat at this hour?' I wonder as Luffy suddenly stops running. By the impact of the stop, I'm flung forward by Luffy's arm. I land in a heap on the floor, Luffy's hand still holding my arm.

"Oops," He giggles. "Sorry." He pulls his arm back and I stand up to dust myself off. When I look at where he brought me, I realise that it's the same resturant I'd eaten at today. The food here was actually pretty good and pretty low prices, now that she thinks about it.

She wanders inside where Luffy is already sitting at a table. She shakes her head as she joins him at the table. I examine the place and realised it closes in about an hour. "This place is awesome!" He exclaims as an old walks over, holding a huge plate filled with humongous pieces of steak, beef, etc.

I stared at the massive mound of food that lay before me. 'I never had enough beli to get even this much food...' I thought greedily as Luffy immediately stabs a piece of meat and shove it in his mouth. That was a whole steak! "Jeez, someone's hungry." I mutter, grabbing a slice of meat for myself.

Luffy smiled as he shoved more meat in his mouth. "Hey, you still haven't told me why you're here." Luffy manages to mutter through the lumps of meat that filled his mouth. "I just happened to stop by because I needed a place to rest." He nods and for a while, we just sit and enjoy the meaty food in our mouths. In less than an hour, we managed to finish the whole platter of meat, with even a little room to spare.

We payed and thanked the man who was closing up for the night. Next up, sleep.

Luffy was really lazy and I was too tired to walk to an inn. We found a small alleyway inbetween a few stores. Luffy fell asleep as soon as his bottom connected with the pavement. He was snoring away as I fell asleep across from him, the thought of following a pirate clouding my mind.

'Stop it, I'm not following him, he's just my ride to the grand line.' I think harshly as I too, fall asleep.

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Thanks for reading, sorry for such a short chap.