Chapter Text
“I’m not wearing that,”.
“Pleease~ Kuina-chaaaaan?”
Kuina crossed her arms and glared at the dancer’s outfit being waved before her by a swooning Sanji. Nami and Vivi had already put theirs on and were attempting to sort out the various beads and dangly bits, but Kuina had been adamantly refusing to wear the garment.
“Come on, Kuina, just wear it!” Nami propped her hands on her hips in exasperation as she huffed at Kuina’s apparent disgust.
“They may not be practical for desert travel but it's better than what you're wearing…” Vivi added in an attempt to assist the situation, but it only caused Kuina to retract further and snarl at the outfit. She would be fine without it, her boots were far better than the sandals Vivi and Nami wore, and although her pants were beginning to fray, she could easily keep sand out. Besides, she had never gotten a sunburn in her life.
“At least wear the robe-thingy?” Usopp put his two-sense in, adjusting how his bag hung on his shoulder. Kuina sighed and gave in to that, at least, taking the lightly colored robe from Sanji, much to his delight.
Nami patted down her sides, “Well, now we just have to wait for Luf-”
As if summoned, there was a sudden yelling and Luffy appeared, rounding a corner with a large grin.
Marines behind him, chasing with guns and swords.
“Five minutes! Can he go five minutes without getting into trouble?!” Usopp cried, yelling up at the sky as if any gods would help with their situation.
“Come on!” Kuina grabbed the distraught teen and dragged him behind her as they began to run off, Luffy quickly catching up to them while laughing.
“Is that Smoker?!” Sanji was the first to notice, and Luffy only nodded while smiling.
“Why can’t you do anything without attracting attention?!” Nami yelled as she threw her hands in the air. Vivi just groaned, she was starting to get the thing with their crew. Kuina had gotten used to Luffy’s antics on the first day she met him, she could understand how it may be hard… but that didn’t change that she held the same sentiment!
Smoke extended towards the group of pirates as they ran, the promise of capture all but certain.
That was before a line of fire erupted in front of the billowing white smoke, and a figure made of flames stood before it. Kuina looked back with a skeptical eyebrow as they all stopped to stare.
“What?! When did you get a devil fruit?!” Luffy was the first among them to speak, pointing at the tattooed back of the man. When he finally turned his head to face them, the man only bared his teeth in a smile.
“A while ago! Hey, I’ll hold him back, okay? I’ll catch up to you after!”
Luffy only nodded before turning and doing exactly that, forcing the rest of the crew to catch up while flames reached up to the sky behind them.
“Who was that guy?!” Sanji demanded an answer.
“He’s made of fire?” Vivi spoke.
“It’s too hot!” Chopper whined.
Luffy only laughed and laughed and laughed before finally gracing them with an answer, “That’s Ace! My brother!”
“Brother?!” Was the resounding response from everyone as they processed the new information. Kuina’s head whipped to look at her captain, who looked back and smiled. She remembered their talk on Cocoyashi.
‘Yeah! My brother’s like that! He liked being a boy more!’
Luffy only nodded as if he understood the silent question she was asking. This was the brother, of course, it was.
“Quick, this way!” Nami’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she easily followed her directions toward the Merry. When she finally looked back to see her captain, she froze.
“Luffy’s gone!” She notified the others, to which they all shouted in shock and groaned.
“Fuck it, he’ll find a way back to us! We need to go!” The cook shouted as Kuina climbed up to board the ship. She was quick to pull the anchor up as Nami began instructing the crew so they could leave the alcove of rocks they had anchored in, throwing the large heavy metal across the ledge it was to be tied on. The Merry began to leave the makeshift dock and the crew was quick to handle the different sails abiding by Nami’s orders.
“How’s it going?”
Luffy’s brother stood crouched on the railing of the Merry. There was a lazy smirk on his face as he looked over everyone. He looked at ease, even when Sanji’s eyes nearly burst from his skull.
Because Luffy’s brother didn’t have top surgery as Johnny had. Luffy’s brother didn’t bind like Zoro did, in fact, he forwent a shirt altogether. Ace just…let them hang.
“You- you- but- you- wh-” Sanji stuttered, visible eye twitching as he openly stared at Ace’s chest. Kuina narrowed her eyes at him.
“Hey,” Ace addressed the confused cook, “My eyes are up here,”.
Sanji just about lost his mind, turning and quickly walking away while fiddling with his lighter and desperately placing a cigarette between his lips as he left. Ace only started to laugh, putting a hand to his gut and sitting down so he could be more comfortable.
“Ace, you broke Sanji!” Luffy pouted, crossing his arms. Ace only shook his head and put a hand up.
“Sorry about that, I've got a robe in my bag if that helps?” The older offered, and Luffy shrugged at that. It wasn’t his choice to make.
“I’m…confused…why did he react like that?” Vivi asked, looking off towards where Sanji had retreated.
“Well because-” Nami looked over at Ace and hesitated. Ace wore a calm smile before shrugging nonchalantly and leaning back.
“I’m trans and he probably likes tits. I’m willing to bet he's never seen a dude let them exist before,” Ace explained, “It’s not the first time I’ve gotten a reaction like that,”.
Kuina could only blink at him, to which she got a confused headcock from Ace in return. She averted her gaze and searched the ground in thought.
“Oh, are trans people not as common in the East Blue?” Vivi finally realized.
Kuina looked over at Vivi, her gaze intense, but the girl didn’t seem to notice as she continued, “I’m not sure about the further islands on the Grand Line, but in the Sandy Island, it’s rather common for trans people to express themselves in a way others may traditionally be unable to,”.
Ace made a sound of realization, “So that’s why I didn’t get as many stares as I usually did! Hey, that’s pretty cool! Neat country!” he whistled. Vivi smiled before her face fell slightly at the reminder of her country and the memories of its predicament came back.
“Well…I guess the East Blue could be a bit more conservative in that regard…” Usopp murmured, rubbing the back of his neck.
Kuina agreed with that thought rather heartily. Asking the wrong questions at the wrong pharmacy in search of estrogen got her furrowed brows and disgusted looks, it was why she had struggled so much with getting her hands on it in the earlier days of her transition. She still had plenty stocked up on the Merry from Cocoyashi, which was a blessing she supposed. Though, if the Grand Line was more accepting than the East, she could probably get a regular supply of it…
“Oh man, it definitely is!” Ace grinned. That was right, Ace must have grown up in the East Blue with Luffy, he probably knew the struggles as well. He knew what it was like. Ace knew what it was like to get odd looks, though something told her he didn’t care as much as she did.
Kuina sat with her back against a rock as the shadows cast by flickering flames danced around her. She sat a bit further away from the group, not wanting to get mixed up in the fight to snuggle against Chopper for warmth.
“Hey,”.
She looked up to her right, where Ace stood. He was relaxed with his hands in his pockets, a flame-patterned robe covering him, mostly for the sake of preserving Sanji’s sanity.
“Mind if I sit?”
That was probably the biggest difference between Ace and Luffy, Ace was polite. He used ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ for fucks sake. The closest Kuina got to hearing Luffy say please naturally was when he was sleep-talking for food.
She grunted and motioned her head as a reply, yeah, he could sit there. She didn’t mind. Ace did so, sighing when he leaned back and stretched his arms over his head. She could feel the warmth radiating off him and found herself unconsciously leaning towards it. If he noticed he didn’t say anything.
“So…Luffy said we have something in common, but he wouldn’t tell me what,” Ace told her. His voice was calm with a hint of curiosity and she looked over at him before looking back at Luffy. She was thankful he hadn’t told Ace outright, and even though she wasn’t fond of Luffy saying even that much, she knew she wouldn’t have said anything to Ace about it either.
“...We do…” She finally said after a few seconds. Her hand drifted to Sokushi’s hilt and she rubbed the kashira absentmindedly. Ace looked at her questioningly and she sighed before looking around. Sanji was attending to Vivi and Nami, Usopp was wrestling with Luffy for the right to cuddle Chopper, and they were all focused on their current goings-on. They wouldn’t overhear.
She focused on the smooth cool metal of Sokushi’s kashira as she spoke.
“I’m trans too. Born a guy…but..” The topic made her uncomfortable and she leaned further against the rock, raising her shoulders as she watched Ace’s face morph into a few expressions before settling on a calm happy one.
“Now I get why you seemed a little shocked when Vivi mentioned how trans people were more accepted out here…The East is rough,” He chuckled as he shook his head.
Kuina released a huff of amusement, “Tell me about it,”.
“One time, I went to this island, and I entered the first building I came across to ask for directions, you’ll never guess what kind of building it was,”.
Kuina thought for a moment, “A church?”
“...Okay maybe you can, but yeah, a church. And it was full, too! Everyone was dressed conservatively and clutching crosses and everything, so when I walked in half-naked with my tits hangin, they thought I was possessed by a demon and tried to exorcise me!”
Kuina couldn’t help but laugh at that, “Back in my bounty hunting days, I traveled with these two guys, Johnny and Yosaku. One time, we were in some no-name place. This guy comes up to Johnny and me and starts waving around a stick, saying we were monsters that had killed people and stolen their skins!” She grinned as Ace began laughing next at her story. When it had happened, she remembered being more hung up on it. Still, she was glad she could laugh about it now.
“The East Blue is crazy,” Ace tutted with a smile. Kuina agreed, nodding her head. She finally looked away from their conversation to survey her crewmates and spotted Luffy smiling at her. He was resting his head atop Chopper’s and had his limbs wrapped around Usopp. He grinned, big and proud, and she smiled back.
“How’d you two meet?” Ace asked.
“Hm?”
“You and my brother?” Ace clarified as he took a small sip of water.
“Oh,” She thought for a second, “He blackmailed me,”.
Ace choked on his drink, putting a hand to his mouth to stop spitting out the valuable resource before swallowing and looking at her incredulously.
“What do you mean he blackmailed you?”
“I mean it was either join him or die,” She shrugged.
Ace just looked at her and waved a hand around to signal her to keep talking. She rolled her eyes but did so.
“I was going to be executed by the Marines, and Luffy said he would free me if I joined him,”.
Ace visibly relaxed, “I thought you were meaning that he was going to kill you if you didn’t join him!”
“What?! No!” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“I didn’t think that was what you meant, but It was the first thing that popped into my head…” he admitted.
“I don’t think he could ever be capable of that..” Kuina murmured after a moment while she watched Luffy rub his head against Chopper’s fur, much to the little reindeer’s chagrin.
Ace hummed in agreement before the hum was suddenly interrupted and his head hung downwards with a snore. Kuina only grunted before sliding down the rock and wrapping herself more in the robe Sanji had picked out for her.
A man made of steel.
She stood opposed to the one thing she couldn’t cut. A man made of steel. Vibrations still plagued her hands from the first time metal met metal. Mr. 1 laughed and she scowled.
“No matter the level of your skill, you simply cannot cut steel. It’s a fact of life! Steel is stronger than any body!” He smirked, arms shifting into blades once more. Her grip on Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri tightened, and she clenched her jaw tighter around Sokushi. She had to admit it to herself, he was right. Cutting steel was impossible, and she just wasn’t able to do it. But then again, she was never one to give in to the impossible.
Surrounded by the rubble of buildings that surrounded her on all sides, rubble that had nearly squashed her as it fell around her, Kuina remembered the words of Zoro’s father. At the time, she had been confused as he spoke. The words felt like they had some meaning to them, but she hadn’t been able to figure out why at the time.
Now though, as she was laying on her back, nearly squashed by the rubble surrounding her and listening to the sound of Mr.1 breaking through stone to get to her, his words clicked. She could make out the near-silent sound of the rock surrounding her, the breath of the world. She focused on the sound before her eyes widened.
She got it now.
Kuina walked away from the body of Mr.1 with a limp and missing a large portion of the blood in her body, but she walked away. She knew Koushirou was a smart man, but she couldn’t help but wonder how he knew about that. Had he gone to the Grand Line before? He must have, to have known what he did. When she could contact him, she would have to ask how he got that information.
“Come on Kuina, Vivi says the baths are this way!”
Fuck.
“Oh, I don’t really need to bathe..” Kuina fiddled with the bandages wrapped around her arm as Nami scoffed, propping her hands on her hips.
“The baths arents for actually bathing, they’re for relaxing! God knows you need to…” Nami grabbed her arm, beginning to drag her off towards the baths, but Kuina quickly pulled back.
“No! It- I just- I don’t need to, alright?”
“Yes, you do! Seriously, sometimes I wonder if you're going to snap in half, you look so tense all the time!” Nami huffed, crossing her arms.
“Look,” Kuina sighed, “Nami, just drop it. I don’t need to relax, alright? I’m fine,”.
“No, you absolutely are not!” Nami threw her hands in the air, “Can you at least tell me why you don’t want to?”
“Nami-”
“And I want a real reason, too! Not something like ‘I need to train’,”-
“That’s”-
“Or, ‘There’s not enough time!’,”
“Listen-”
“I want the straight truth! I know there's a reason, you never do things like this!” Nami’s face was furrowed in a look of concern and what looked like genuine hurt. Did she think Kuina was avoiding her? Shit, she had been too wrapped up in herself to see that maybe Nami was hurt by it. Kuina and her were the only girls on the crew, for fucks sake, she probably thought they’d be closer by now.
Kuina’s posture became anxious and unsure, something uncommon for her. She had to tell her.
“Nami…listen. I’ll tell you why, okay?” She finally agreed. Nami’s face lightened up a bit more but still maintained a concerned look.
Kuina looked around the room they were in, despite knowing full well that they were the only ones in it. She absentmindedly rubbed her thumb on Yabashiri’s hilt, the calmer blade’s presence helping her nerves.
“I’m…I’m not…I…” Fuck, why wasn’t it always so hard to say? Could she not just live without ever having to confront the subject? It was so much easier to tell Luffy, maybe because she had already felt like he wouldn’t care. Not only that, but Kuina didn’t want Nami thinking differently of her, possibly her greatest fear.
“I wasn’t…born a woman…” She finally spoke, shutting her eyes and hunching her shoulders. She really didn’t know what to expect. Nami wasn’t saying anything or making any noises, had Kuina even said it out loud? She feared Nami’s response, and wasn’t that just awful? She knew hundreds of people must believe she experienced no fear, but something as simple as coming out made her heart beat faster and her hands clammy.
Maybe she really hadn’t said it out loud? She still didn’t want to open her eyes, so she prepared to say it again, but only gasped.
Two arms tightened around her shoulders, a head resting in between the junction of her right side.
“Oh, Kuina, was that all?” Nami’s voice sounded watery. Kuina felt tears gather in the corners of her eyes and she ducked her face into Nami’s shirt, nodding into the soft fabric.
“Thank you for telling me, I shouldn’t have pushed. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but I still think you should,” Nami pulled back from the hug and was smiling.
“You…still want me to come…?”
“Of course I do, you’re my friend,” Nami brushed green strands behind Kuina’s ear. Kuina took a short shaky breath in before smiling on her own, mutely nodding her head.
“We’ll be in the baths. Can you find them without getting lost?”
Kuina barked out a mix between a laugh in a scoff, blinking away the emotion from her eyes.
“I’ll find it. I think I need a few minutes,”.
“Alright, come if you want, okay?”
Again, Kuina nodded.
It took her around ten minutes to breathe and not feel like she was going to start crying, and a few after that to actually locate the bathes. She stood outside the entrance for a few minutes, hyping herself up. She knew that Vivi was supportive, and Nami had even still wanted her to come, but it was still a lot for her.
She entered, finding herself in a small changing area. Nami and Vivi’s clothes were folded on the bench, and there was a towel next to them with a small note. Kuina picked it up and smiled, her nerves settling a bit more.
‘For you!’ was written on the paper in Nami’s swirly font.
Kuina carefully undressed, quickly covering herself with the towel before folding her clothes. She briefly wondered about her bandages and about how they would get wet before shrugging and taking them off. It wasn’t like she needed them or anything, all her injuries were scabbed shut.
(If Chopper were there, he’d be screaming his head off about how that ‘wasn’t the point, damn it!’)
She exited the changing room and slowly entered the baths. The room was large and filled with steam, it was warm, and the feeling made her relax. She could hear the raucous noise of the boys on the other side.
“Kuina! Come on in, the water’s great!” Vivi grabbed her attention, waving her over with a big smile.
Kuina didn’t hesitate this time, walking over to the side of the bath before dipping her foot in. The water was a perfect temperature, just feeling it already made her want to fall asleep.
She slowly unraveled her towel before quickly slipping into the water, ducking down to her neck before nervously looking over at Vivi and Nami. The other women were soaking serenely, face up and sighing in bliss as they sat on the bath’s installed bench. Kuina allowed herself to relax a bit more, shoulders appearing from under the water as she unhunched her body. She still kept her legs crossed, more out of habit than anything else, but her muscles loosened and she joined them in sighing.
“Nice, right?” Nami turned her head to look at Kuina. The green-haired woman nodded in response.
“Yeah, this is great..” She smiled, closing her eyes to fully appreciate the way the water soothed her aching body.
“I missed this…” Vivi sighed.
“I haven’t been in a bath like this in a long time,” Nami hummed as she too shut her eyes to enjoy the warmth.
“When was the last time you did?” The princess questioned, small talk starting to unfold.
“I’d say a few months before joining the crew? There was this great natural hot spring on an island that I was able to relax at,” she answered with a lazy wave of her hand.
“What about you?” Vivi looked over towards Kuina. The swordswoman blinked dumbly before looking off to the side.
“This is my first time at a public bath,” she admitted.
“Oh! How are you liking it, then?”
“Its…” She thought about how nice it was to not feel totally insecure about her body, how the relief and stress of telling another crew member had made her relax beyond belief. She sighed and smiled. “Perfect,” she answered.
Vivi grinned before seeming to remember something, “Oh, you two are going to love this!” She got out of the water, nonchalantly walking to the nearby wall and locating a lever. Kuina raised an eyebrow before nearly jumping out of the water when a jet of water rumbled against her lower back.
“Oh, Vivi! Are these pressured jets?” Nami practically squealed with excitement.
“That’s right!” Vivi walked back over, sliding into the water and settling into the bath with a smile full of mirth, “It’s been so long, I almost forgot they were here!”
“Damn, this feels good,” Kuina chuckled as she relaxed back into the jets. Her lower back felt better after even just a few seconds under the stream from the jets.
“You can say that again,” Nami chimed in, stretching her arms up and resting them behind herself on the bath ledge.
Kuina was very glad for Vivi’s stays in these moments, she had never experienced such a relaxing thing as getting to sit in a bath, unworried, with others, and with her own personal massage for her back.
“I’m glad you two like it!”
“Of course we do- god this is seriously the best. I wish I could live here!” Nami hummed and smiled at Vivi, receiving a smile in return.
Kuina shut her eyes, soaking in the feelings and warmth of it all.
Yes. This was perfect. This was something that she had needed. Not just the soak, of course, but the acceptance. The crushing weight had been lifted a little more, allowing for peak relaxation.