Chapter 42: 00042. Sharing a drink.
After the boys took off from the marine base they headed for where they stashed their loot. Once it was collected they took off and headed towards Foosha Village. About half way there, they detoured into the forest and went towards their secret base.
It was hidden pretty well in the dense forest and it took them about an hour to trek all the way there. Once they arrived they prepared to hide the treasure and bounty money they collected down inside the cave underneath the tree.
Luffy was the first one to open up the bigger treasure chest and said, "Oh wow! Look at all this stuff! There's even a bottle of sake."
Marcus glanced over to look and after a moment pulled the sealed bottle of sake out. He looked it over for a few moments before he set it off to the side and started to help unload the chest. It took them a while to transport the money to their hidden stash. But after they finished they went up to their base to relax for a while.
Once they were settled down in the base Ace noticed the bottle of sake Marcus kept and asked, "Are you gonna give that to Makino?"
Marcus shook his head as he pulled out some cups from their kitchen area and said, "I was thinking we should share it and become brothers."
"Aren't we already brothers?" Luffy asked as he looked at everyone.
Marcus let out a sigh as he dropped his head down into his hands and then said to himself, "Are we really going to have this conversation again?"
Sabo laughed as he patted Marcus on the back as he said, "It's Luffy. It would be surprising if he remembered what he ate for breakfast."
"Hey! I remember eating breakfast."
"And what exactly did you eat?" Sabo asked.
Luffy took on a thinking pose as he said, "I had meat and uhhh… More meat?"
Sabo shared a glance with the others before they burst into laughter together. Luffy looked around at each of them in confusion as he asked, "What's so funny?"
"It's because the only thing you remember about breakfast is you had meat…"
Luffy nodded in agreement as he said, "Because that's what we ate."
"We had some bacon, but we mostly ate pancakes!" Marcus said as he started to laugh again.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" The other three boys said in perfect sync.
After a few moments Marcus picked up the bottle of sake as he said, "I heard that when men share a drink together they become brothers. I already consider you my brothers… Luffy included."
Ace and Sabo chuckled a little as Marcus opened up the sake bottle and said, "So I figured let's make it official and share a drink."
After he poured a drink for everyone he set the bottle down and picked up his cup. The others moved closer and each picked up a cup of their own before Marcus said, "From this moment onward, we'll officially be brothers… I think I speak for everyone when I say, "I personally can't think of anyone else in this world I would rather share this bond with."
The others nodded in agreement as they clinked their cups together before they each downed the contents of their cups. For a moment everything was fine before they all started to cough and their eyes started to water.
"What the hell, why is it burning!" Luffy said as he pounded on his chest.
Sabo nodded in agreement as Marcus asked, "Why the hell do people drink this stuff?"
Ace with his eyes still watery said, "Makino said it's an acquired taste and takes time to get used too."
Marcus lifted up the mostly full bottle as he asked, "What do you guys wanna do with the rest of it?"
"Should we finish it or maybe give it to Dandan or Makino?" Sabo asked.
Marcus shrugged and looked at the others as he said, "Up to you."
"Let's drink it as we head back for dinner." Ace said.
Luffy glanced at the bottle as he said, "But it burns and doesn't really taste good."
Ace grabbed the bottle and took a drink from it before he coughed a little and then said, "We just need to get used to it."
Sabo followed up and took his own drink followed by him coughing. Luffy quickly followed along and Marcus could only sigh before he took another drink himself. Afterwards the boys left their base and headed home as they shared drinks from the bottle.
While it normally took the boys about an hour to make it out of the forest and back to the village. With them becoming drunk they ended up taking over two hours. Before they even stumbled into the bar they're off key singing was heard by the people inside.
"You got mud on your face…You big disgrace!" The boys belted out.
Makino heard them singing and moved towards the door as they continued, "Kicking your can all over the place, singing… We will, we will, rock you!... We will, we will, ROCK YOU!"
As Makino opened the door and walked outside Marcus sang out, "Buddy you're a young man, hard man, shouting in the street, gonna take on the world some day!"
The boys stumbled as they walked together with their arms over each other's shoulder and their faces flushed red. The others joined in singing as Marcus continued, "You got blood on your face… You big disgrace, waving your banner all over the place… WE WILL, WE WILL, ROCK YOU!"
Makino took one glance at them and narrowed her eyes as she asked in an icy tone, "And what exactly have you boys been up to?"
Marcus tried to focus on Makino as the boys stopped singing. Marcus smiled like an idiot as he said, "Singing."
"I can see that… What were you doing before that?"
"We drank sake and became brothers!" Luffy blurted out.
Marcus slapped Luffy on the back of the head as he tried to whisper and failed miserably as he basically yelled, "We're not supposed to tell her that!"
Luffy's eyes went wide before he looked at Makino and said, "I wasn't supposed to say that… Forget I said that."
All the other boys nodded in agreement as Marcus said, "Yeah, forgot Luffy said that."
Makino smiled at them as she asked, "Oh, so you were drinking sake uh? Did you eat dinner yet?"
The boys didn't seem to notice what she said as all of them shook their head no. So Makino smiled again and none of the boys noticed the evil glint in her eyes as she said, "Alright, come in and I'll make you boys dinner."
Luffy cheered and stumbled away from the group as he said, "You're the best, big sis!"
Ace and the others quickly went to follow behind him. But Marcus stopped in front of Makino before he went inside and said, "Have I ever told you, I think you're beautiful and I love the color of your hair?"
Makino shook her head and pushed Marcus into the bar as she mumbled to herself, "No wonder that little girl is so smitten with you."
A little while later Makino brought the boys dinner and a large pitcher of something to drink. The boys didn't really notice it since they were already drunk and the drink was so sweet. But what Makino gave them to drink was full of alcohol and she refilled it a few times as they ate dinner.
The rest of the night was basically a blur for all of the boys and the only thing Marcus was sure about was that everyone puked at least once. In the morning hours they all awoke to the hard wooden floor of the bar and the morning light as it flooded the bar.
Marcus grabbed his head with a groan before he asked, "What the hell happened last night?"
Sabo winced as he said, "Not so loud my head is killing me."
Ace and Luffy nodded in agreement before the sound of two large pots slamming together entered their ears. They all attempted to cover their ears as the sound continued and Makino walked into the room banging the pots together.
The boys all groaned as she continued for almost a minute before she finally asked in a loud voice, "Are you finally up?"
"Yes big sis Makino." Marcus said as he gently rubbed his temples.
"Big sis, my head hurts." Luffy whined as he held his head.
"That's what you idiots get for drinking!" Makino said with a raised voice.
All the boys winced in pain as they flinched back from the sound of her voice. Makino glanced over each of them as she said, "What you are experiencing now is a hangover and it's what happens whenever you drink alcohol."
"First it burns when you drink it and then you feel like this afterwards… Why do people even drink then?" Sabo asked in a low voice.
"Who knows… But it doesn't matter to me because that's how I make my living."
Makino slammed the pots together again before she dropped them to the floor and placed her hands on her hips as she said, "What does matter to me is all of you drinking! You're all underage and under my care!"
Makino leveled a glare at all of the boys as she said, "You better not drink again until you're old enough or so help me…"
The boys audibly gulped and quickly nodded their heads in agreement before Makino pointed towards the kitchen door and said, "Since you understand, I want you to clean the kitchen top to bottom. And once you're done there, you can clean the bathrooms before you head outside and clean the roofs and gutters."
"But I'm hungry and my head hurts." Luffy whined as he rubbed his temples.
Makino picked up her pots and slammed them together again before she said, "Once you're done here, you are going to the mayor for more work."
"But we're supposed to train today." Ace said.
Makino slammed the pots together again as she said, "You aren't training for at least a few days… At least until I am satisfied with how much you help around the village. Now get going!"
The next few days we're not fun at all for the boys. Makino and the mayor had them run ragged with the amount of chores they were forced to do. Some of it was simple cleaning or painting, but other things were down right tedious or gross. Needless to say, none of the boys even wanted to look at a bottle of alcohol let alone drink one, once they were done.
Once Makino was satisfied with all their work, she allowed the boys to start training again. The boys quickly switched back to their training routine after the impromptu week-long 'break'. About a week after they started training again, Marcus and the others gathered together to spar.
Once they finished sparring at their normal spot for the day, they sat around chatting like normal and an interesting topic came up. Ace was the one who started it as he asked, "Do you guys have dreams for the future? Well besides Luffy since we already know what he wants to do."
Sabo glanced at the others as he said, "I wanna travel the world and write a book about my adventures."
"I wanna travel the world too and see everything this world has. Good and bad." Marcus said as he looked off the cliff they were on out to the open sea below.
Ace was on his back as he laid on the grass and said, "I want to be famous and have everyone know my name…"
Luffy, excited to say what his dream is, was cut off as Marcus said, "We know, you wanna be king of the pirates."
Luffy pouted as he said, "I plan to be king of the pirates, but that's not my dream."
Everyone turned to look at Luffy as if he had just grown another head. Luffy smiled at them as he said, "My dream is…"
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