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The day started like any other by the docks of Foosha Village. In the haze after last night’s party, the Red-Haired Pirates had, as usual, drunk until they couldn’t tell Bonk Punch from Monster.
And boy, was Hongo glad he had decided not to join in on the bet that his idiot captain had started when Yasopp said he could drink more than Shanks.
There is a comfortable silence in the ship’s infirmary as he mixes the ingredients for a hangover cure for the crew, a concoction that he could probably make blindfolded and with his feet, with how many times he has made it over the years of being a part of the Red-Haired pirates.
It’s in quiet moments like this when Hongo slips into his mother tongue while humming old lullabies that he had long forgotten who sang them to him.
His back is to the door when it suddenly creeps open. He chuckled softly, hearing the light pitter-patter of sandals against the wooden floor of the ship. It seems their resident Anchor has paid them a visit, alone, he might add, since neither Beckman nor Shanks, who are the ones who normally bring him onto the ship, were accompanying the boy. The latter most probably still passed out on deck with the others.
‘Luffy, you know you're not allowed on the ship without the chief's permission,' Hongo says, turning to the boy after putting the pestle he was holding down. Luffy looks at him with a prideful but sheepish expression ‘He said it's fine if I came looking for you.’ Hongo smirks at the boy’s retort, ‘Yeah, if you're hurt, then it's fine. But you look right as rain. Anchor’ Luffy looks somewhat offended by that, but then holds up his hand to Hongo.
Hongo raises an eyebrow at the boy before crouching down and taking the small hand in his bigger, calloused ones. Looking closely, he sees that there is a small wound on Luffy’s pointer finger. One that, in his professional opinion, doesn't even need a band-aid, maybe a little ointment, though.
He hums thoughtfully, deciding to humour the boy, ‘Now, Anchor. How did you get this?’ Luffy looks up at him with those big brown doe eyes before pouting and looking away. ‘A beetle bit me,’ he mumbles.
‘A beetle bit you?’
‘Yeah, and ‘Kino always says that when that happens I have’ta get my hand cleaned’, while Hongo does agree with the young barmaid, he knows that Luffy would never actively seek out medical help unless he was dying, even then maybe. So the boy was definitely using this as an excuse to be on the ship.
‘Well, I agree with Makino. Let's get your hands cleaned up.’ Hongo scooped him up and playfully flipped him upside down. A delighted squeal echoed through the room. Still giggling, their little Anchor was plopped onto an infirmary bed while Hongo turned to the cabinets, rummaging for the cleaning solution and some ointment for the bite.
After having cleaned and, unnecessarily, wrapped the small finger in a soft bandage. Hongo returns to making the hangover cure, after making sure that Luffy promises to stay in the infirmary until one of the others comes to get him.
‘What was that?’ Luffy asks suddenly, looking up from the spare paper and pen that Hongo had given him to keep himself occupied. ‘What was what, Anchor?’ he asks, not stopping from sorting out one of the cabinets with the new stock of medical supplies that Makino had so graciously ordered from the Goa capital for him.
‘That thing you were humming, it don’t sound Eastern to me. Or Grand’ Hongo smiles softly at that, ‘You’re right, neither Eastern nor Grand. That is because it’s Northern, more specifically Flevish.’ Luffy frowns, ‘Fefish?’
Hongo chuckles at the horrendous pronunciation, ‘Fle-vish, Anchor. Not Fefish, it's a language, not food.’ Hongo laughs as Luffy perks up at the word food, at the same time the boy’s stomach growls. Seems it is time to find Lucky for some breakfast, most probably Luffy’s second breakfast.
☆
Hongo hadn't thought much of Luffy's initial curiosity about the language he hummed in. It seemed like the typical, fleeting whim of a six-year-old. So colour him surprised when Luffy cornered him about it a few days later.
‘Why don’t you speak Flefish with the others?’ The pronunciation was an improvement, though it still made Hongo wince to hear his mother tongue so thoroughly butchered.
‘Well…’ Hongo set down his tankard. ‘No one else on the ship speaks it. That’s why.’
Luffy nodded solemnly, eyes closed as if absorbing a great truth. Thinking the interrogation was over, Hongo took another deep gulp of beer and immediately choked when Luffy gasped.
‘So it’s like a secret language, then?!’
‘It’s not a secret langua-’ Hongo sputtered, but Luffy was already in his face, shielding his mouth with a hand to deliver a stage whisper, ‘Can you teach me your secret language?’
Hongo blinked, looking down at the kid whose eyes were practically sparkling with excitement. He let out a heavy sigh, running a hand over his face as he realized there was absolutely no convincing a six-year-old that a regional dialect wasn't a secret language.
‘Look, Anchor,’ Hongo started, leaning back slightly to give himself some breathing room. ‘It’s just called Flevish, not ‘Flefish.’ And it’s not secret. It’s just from an island far away from here.’
Luffy didn’t look deterred at all. In fact, the correction only seemed to fuel the fire. He leaned in even closer, his nose almost touching Hongo’s. ‘Flevish,’ he repeated, actually getting it right this time. ‘So if I learn it, we can talk without ‘Kino or Shanks knowing what I’m saying? We can plan secret meat stealing missions!’
Hongo couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him. Leave it to Luffy to turn a piece of his homeland into a tool for grand larceny against a kitchen’s pantry.
‘I don't think Makino or the captain would appreciate us conspiracy-planning in the middle of the bar,’ Hongo said, tapping Luffy lightly on the forehead to get him to back up. ‘Besides, it’s a tough language. Lots of tricky words.’
Luffy puffed out his cheeks, crossing his arms determinedly. ‘I’m gonna be the King of the Pirates! I can learn a secret language. Come on, Hongo! Just one word!’ Hongo strains a smile at his determination.
Then his savior, clad in an unbuttoned shirt and straw hat, came to liberate him from the clutches of an excited six year old child.
‘What are you two talking about?’ Shanks asks with a smirk, which turns into a laugh when Luffy jumps in surprise. And that causes the boy to glare at the red haired man, ‘Nothing you need to know, stupid Shanks’
Shanks gasps and slaps his hand over his heart at that, always one for the theatrics, then grabs Luffy and starts tickling him asking who’s stupid now. Anchor’s laugh fills the bar as Shanks starts trying to take bites out of his boy’s face.
Hongo laughs along with the rest of the crew at the scene, when he looks over to the bar Makino has a fond expression on her face. An expression that makes him think of white building, laughter and warm embraces.
Maybe teaching the kid a few phrases wouldn’t hurt.
☆
Hongo had come to realise that teaching a kid anywhere below the age of ten a complex language is difficult, especially if that kid was Luffy.
By the Seas, the kid had the attention span of a puppy. So far he was only able to teach Luffy how to introduce himself, it was the kid’s idea to learn the language!
And of course the rest of the crew found out about the language lessons, so now there was a bet floating around whether their little Anchor could actually retain anything that Hongo had been trying to teach him.
Hongo groans, banging his head on the bar counter top, causing Makion to look over at him in pity as she refills his tankard with something stronger than beer.
Come on Luffy, just one coherent sentence that doesn't revolve around food!
Wait….
That’s it!
Food!
Hongo’s eyes snapped wide open as the realization hit him.
If Hongo wanted to get Luffy to properly understand what he was learning and bag all the berri he could, he needed a different approach to this. A Luffy approach, and that involved food.
Food. It was so blindingly obvious he felt like a fool for not thinking of it three days ago.
Luffy’s entire worldview was filtered through his stomach. Yeah the kid liked beetles and was a sucker for stories, but food was the most important thing in the universe to him. Trying to teach him basic conversational grammar or standard greetings was like trying to teach a sea king how to play the fiddle.
But if Hongo weaponized the kitchen? He’d have the kid fluent by the weekend.
And weaponized the kitchen he did, after having easily swayed both Makino and Lucky to his side he was able to control the flow of food into the boy’s stomach. Was it kind of cruel? Yes, but come on there was money to be won, and he’s a pirate and pirates don't play by the rules.
So everytime Luffy wanted a snack or drink he would have to ask for what he wanted in Flevish with perfect sentence structure, pronunciation and grammar.
And by the end of the next week, because no matter how much food was involved one week was not enough time, the little ball of sunshine and chaos incarnate could ask for a slab of Sea King fillet or Mountain Boar roast without stumbling over his words and using the correct grammar.
Hongo was so proud he could cry.
And of course this meant that his pockets were full from all the betting money that he won.
‘I have to admit H, it is quite an accomplishment that you have achieved’ Beckman says as he settles down next to the doctor. The bar has quite a few moods floating around with the depression of the crew having lost their money, but also the pride for their Anchor who now knows three languages.
Hongo huffs, preening in the praise from the first mate. ‘Well all those hours of hard work were definitely worth it’ he says with a grin spreading on his face.
‘Of course you would be happy Hongo, you just won over a thousand worth of berri!’ Limejuice snaps from where he is seated next to Yasopp who looks royally dejected from having lost over two months worth of berri. All because of a bet he started over a six-year-old.
Hongo laughs at his crewmates complaining, he looks over to the bar where his money maker is with the chief. He expected Shanks to be as dejected, or even more so than Yassop, since he was the one who lost the most money.
But there is not a trace of disappointment or sadness on the Red Haired captain's face as he looks at Luffy. No, the only expression on his face is one of pure unfiltered pride.
Yeah, anyone would be filled with pride if their kid learnt how to speak a language in less than three weeks.
☆
And if one evening in one of the fields by the shore a small boy who was looking for beetles asked him what uncle was in his mother tongue, and proceeded to call him that for the rest of the Red Haired pirates stay in the little village.
Well, that would be between him, the sea and that special little boy.