Chapter Text
Shanks had never really fit into any school before, mostly because none of his classmates had the same passion of becoming a pirate, in fact, he got kicked out of many schools just from uttering his dream.
Honestly, when Roger signed him up for another college, he wasn’t expecting much, and didn’t even try to make friends. However, when he walked into the classroom filled with all those new faces, people came to him instead.
“Yo! Your hair’s sick, I’m Yasopp.” The man outstretched a hand to him, Shanks grinned immediately at the sign of friendship and grabbed his hand back, shaking it gratefully. “Shanks.” He responded, then found his smile growing when a couple more people surrounded him, all friendly and welcoming. Most people in the class were saying hi, introducing themselves, showing him round.
All except a few clowns.
There was a dude with half of his hair shaved light green, the longer part was a darker green. His hair was particularly interesting in its design, long on one side and a parallel shaved design on the other. He was wearing a large blue and white checkered scarf that covered the lower portion of his face, he was talking with another man.
This man had a muscular torso and thick lips. He wore a white fur vest that covered the area of his chest, blue pants held up by a yellow sash, and shoes in the shape of animal white fur feet. He looked rather odd, his hair styled into animal ears.
There was a very beautiful woman too, long dark hair and rosy lips, a stylish hat and low waisted jeans, Shanks almost whistled at her.
Then—
…
Woah.
“Who’s that?” Shanks whispered to Benn, one of the friendliest men there. Benn furrowed his eyebrows then peeked over his shoulder to get a glance at the man.
“Him? That’s Buggy.”
Long, true-blue hair up in a messy ponytail, a few bumps that looked beautifully intentional, though it was still slick. It looked incredibly well taken care of and groomed.
He had dazzling blue eyes, lighter than his hair, and the makeup around his eyes made them pop insanely bright, Shanks swallowed just at the sight of them.
He had two hoop earrings on his left ear, a sign of uniqueness and expression, they were gold and glimmered in the light.
Long bottom lashes, doused in mascara, his eyes seemed captivating.
He had interesting style, he wore a sleeveless stripy shirt in the colors red and white, his pants were a turquoise color that almost matched his hair.
He wore bright clown face paint, and bright red lipstick, going past his lips and halfway across his cheeks, he kept reapplying it every minute, smacking his lips together in a way that sent a shiver down Shanks’ spine. There were two blue lines either side of his eyes, and white crossbones across his forehead.
And a large red nose.
“Buggy, huh?” Shanks muttered under his breath, feeling something bubble in his chest. The woman caught him staring in their direction and Shanks quickly looked away, feeling his heart start to pound. Then he got another quick look. Wow.
“He’s a weirdo.” One of the rando’s spoke up, stepping forward. “You see his nose?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s real.”
Shanks did a double take and looked back at Buggy a couple times more.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Weird, right?”
“Yeah…” mumbled Shanks, yeah, it was weird, but not bad weird. It was unique weird, it was interesting weird, it was attention grabbing weird. Shanks liked weird.
“You don’t wanna talk with him, he’s a devil fruit user. Cheated his way into powers.” The person spat, and Shanks’ eyes widened further. This ‘Buggy’ dude didn’t seem half bad at all.
“What’s his ability?” Shanks was fighting the urge to look over at Buggy for the fifteenth time.
“Chop chop or whatever he calls it. He can separate his limbs.” They whispered, and a couple other people started to stare at Buggy. The gang of clowns had noticed by now and the others were glaring back.
“That’s sick…” Shanks mumbled, his eyes shining with admiration.
“Right? Gross.”
Shanks took another look at him. He was sitting in his chair weirdly too, as if he owned the place, the other classmates didn’t seem to like him that much, and were all fighting to get a seat the farthest away from him.
It wasn’t an intimidation thing. It was more… he was the weird kid. No one wanted to sit next to the freakazoid weird kid. Well, no one except…
Shanks mustered up enough courage to walk over, and he grabbed the chair next to Buggy, acting casual, though his knee was bouncing rapidly.
“You can’t sit there.” Buggy’s voice came at him, catching him off guard, he gasped and turned around to face him, he was frowning at Shanks, leaning back on his seat with his feet up against his desk. Shanks’ stomach dropped, it dropped to his feet. His heart stopped beating and he couldn’t exhale.
“That’s for my friend.” Buggy simply stated, his voice was raspy and cracked from high to low constantly, Shanks fought the urge to smile just at how he sounded, he let out a small, shaky, unnoticeable breath.
“Yeah, move it, redhead.” The man with the white fur crossed his arms and stood behind him, trying to intimidate him. When Shanks stood up though, he towered over the man, who immediately sunk back.
“Sorry, didn’t know.” Shanks spoke to Buggy, he didn’t even look at the other guy, he just kept his eyes on Buggy, trying to make their conversation last longer. His eyes raked over every detail on his face, before he moved over one seat, next to Mohji.
-
“She’s HOT, we think she’s with them for money.”
“They’re all freaks together, it’s not about looks.”
“She’s beautiful, she’s not a freak.”
“Maybe she’s a freak in another way?”
“Gross!”
“Hahaha!!”
“No but seriously, what do you think they blackmailed her with?”
“Obviously she can’t be with them for… them.”
Shanks blocked out the sound of his new friends talking and gossiping, he was still thinking back to ocean haired guy. Buggy.
He spoke to him.
Shanks held back a smile, feeling an insane amount of adrenaline run through his body, he felt like he could fly or run a hundred miles. Shanks didn’t know what to do around Buggy, he was so… cool. That’s the only word there is for it. He was cool, and Shanks wasn’t cool enough to say hi yet.
He wanted to speak to him more, but he didn’t know how. He just wanted to watch him, admire him, take in every single detail on his face.
“Hey, what do you know about Buggy?” Shanks cut in, asking Benn, who raised an eyebrow slightly. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be messing around with him.” He responded, narrowing his eyes as if trying to read Shanks’ mind and know his intentions.
“Just… what do you know?”
Benn crossed his arms and grabbed his homework for Yasopp to copy. “Er, he created his own drama club sixth year.” He grabbed his bag and shoved it onto the table. “He only transferred a couple years ago, about… what? Sixteen? Fifteen?” Benn dug through his bag and found his pencil case.
“How old is he?” Shanks questioned, eyes glimmering with all of this information.
“Nineteen, I think anyway. Don’t ask for his birthday, I don’t know that either.”
Yasopp started to copy Benn’s work while Shanks stared at the ceiling, taking in everything.
So Buggy and him were the same age, awesome. Buggy had his own drama club, well he’s a clown, so that makes sense. Shanks smiled at the memory of their one interaction. He craved more, he was hungry for more, he needed more.
“Don’t think about it.” Benn looked up at him, chuckling, though you could tell he was serious. Shanks sat up straighter, ripping his eyes away from the ceiling and looking back towards Benn. “About what?”
“Interacting with him? He’s bad news, Shanks.”
“Why? You said it yourself that you don’t know him well.”
“Rumors. He’s not a very popular guy, they say he slept around in his last school, he’s a homosexual.”
Shanks’ eyes widened so far he could hardly contain his excitement. “He’s gay?”
“Rumored to be.”
Sweet.
-
“God, don’t you just hate people?” Alvida slumped down in her seat, groaning as Cabaji helped her sit up. She gently took her hat off and placed it on her desk, rubbing her head. “Why did we go out drinking last night again?”
“Celebration! Not our fault you drank so much.” Cabaji responded, sitting down in his own seat and pulling his bag out.
“God, ‘Vida, you look like you’re gonna be sick.” Buggy grinned, trying not to laugh at the state she’s in. He was leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up onto the desk, crossed over. She sent a glare his way and he chuckled loudly, not being able to contain it anymore.
“Don’t know why you didn’t drink that much, Buggy. We all know you’re a sucker for alcohol.”
“Haha. Not funny. You know I’m cutting it down.”
“The only thing you’re cutting down is the amount of fun you’re having.”
“Oi, watch it! I’m plenty fun!”
The door opened and everyone’s heads in the class automatically turned to it. Every student was here, right? Buggy did another count and then looked back towards the door, so who was that? then he plainly rolled his eyes and looked away, trying not to look like the other mindless sheep in the crowd.
Bright red hair, straw hat with a red ring, basic old outfit, black eyes. Insanely attractive.
Whatever.
“Don’t be a sheep! Don’t just follow them.” Buggy grumbled when Mohji went to walk over, then Mohji nodded quickly at the order, standing still. Alvida raised her head and looked over at the redhead, then back to Buggy. “He’s quite attractive, ain’t he?”
“He’s alright.” Buggy held his tongue, rolling his eyes.
“What do we do? They’re all looking at us!” Cabaji quickly blurted, and Buggy swallowed, feeling his face burn. He hated people seeing him for the first time, the first thing people always noticed was his stupid nose, and he’d be the joke of the week again.
“Scare ‘em, be intimidating.” Buggy muttered something quickly, and Cabaji and Mohji shot them all dirty glares. Buggy never meant for them to make an enemy out of this new person, he just did.
They kept looking over.
“Must be you.” Mohji said to Alvida, who snorted and tossed her hair behind her, grabbing a drink from her bag. “What can I say, a woman’s beauty.”
Buggy scowled.
-
“You can’t sit there.” Buggy crossed his arms as this newly introduced ‘Shanks’ guy sat down in MOHJI’s seat. Cabaji was glaring at him from behind, and Alvida was smirking at him, assuming he was there to get closer to her.
When Shanks just stared at him and didn’t say anything, Buggy narrowed his eyes, feeling his cheeks burn with insecurity. “That’s for my friend.” He made sure to put emphasis on the word friend to get the point across.
Mohji grunted from behind, the look he was giving Shanks was undeserved, but there. “Yeah, move it, redhead.” He snapped, playing into the ‘intimidation thing’, but when Shanks stood up, Mohji immediately sunk back. This Shanks guy was taller than they thought, Mohji got intimidated by height.
Buggy immediately looked away, trying not to let his cheeks burn too much. “Sorry, didn’t know.” Shanks spoke softly to Buggy, Buggy just nodded once, refusing to make eye contact. Instead of fucking the hell off, Shanks sat in the seat next to Mohji, who was squeezing his fists incredibly tight.