"This is what Grandpa brought over for me before. There aren't that many colors, but it should be enough."
Carrying a stack of drawing boards and a wooden box full of paints, Cain walked up to the grassy cliff where they hung out the night before.
Garp was never cheap when it came to raising his grandsons.
In his eyes, the more the boys learned and the more hobbies they had, the easier it would be for them to join the Marines in the future.
But in the end, out of all the books, paper, and expensive ink, only Cain ever used them.
Luffy never showed any interest in those things. He would flip through two pages of a book at most, get bored, and throw it away.
The three children set up their drawing boards on the grass and began thinking about what to paint.
Simple-minded Luffy lost his patience first.
He grabbed a thick brush and started scribbling wildly across the paper.
Uta soon found her idea too. Her face was locked in deep focus, and every brush stroke was careful and serious.
Only Cain sat still, resting his chin in one hand, thinking things through slowly.
Even though he was supposed to be the judge for this drawing contest, he really enjoyed this rare bit of free time.
After some thought, he finally picked up his brush, mixed his paints, and began sketching lightly on the paper.
"Oh, that's so pretty! Is this me?"
Cain was lowering his head to add shade when Uta suddenly snuck up quietly beside him.
She pointed at the mix of red and white on the page, her purple eyes sparkling with hope.
Those were clearly the famous colors of her hair.
Caught off guard by the girl leaning in that close, Cain jumped in fright. His ears turned bright red at once, and he waved his hands in a panic.
"N-No! Th-That's not—! It's me! I'm painting myself!"
As he stuttered, he quickly smashed his brush down.
He blended the two colors together into a messy blob to hide the evidence. He forced himself to explain calmly.
"Look! Red plus white becomes pink, which is the exact same color as my hair, right? Just like I told you before, red plus yellow becomes orange, and—"
"Alright, alright, I get it. It's you~" Uta smiled, looking away to casually tease him. "You love yourself too much."
"I'm not!" Cain argued in a small, embarrassed voice.
Uta didn't push him any further.
She only looked back down at her own painting, unable to keep the smug smile off her lips.
'Dummy. Did he really think I wouldn't notice? Since when do boys wear dresses?'
…
"Ahem. To sum it up... Luffy, you lose."
Clearing his throat, Cain announced the result of the contest.
"NO WAY!" Luffy's jaw dropped, and he shouted in anger. "Uta's is good, sure, but mine has way more feeling and detail!"
"What part of it has feeling or detail?" Cain struggled to hold back a laugh. "That weird gourd you drew is way too strange."
"IT'S NOT A GOURD! IT'S SHANKS'S STRAW HAT! A STRAW HAT!" Luffy stamped his feet in extreme anger, his cheeks puffing out.
"No matter how I look at it, it's a crooked gourd. Right, Uta?" Cain turned to ask her.
"Mm-hmm." Uta nodded.
She clamped a hand over her mouth to try and stop herself from laughing, but in the end, she couldn't hold it.
"PFFT—HAHAHAHA! If Shanks wore that weird thing on his head, he'd probably get a headache!"
"Ughhhhh..." Luffy pouted sadly, looking very pitiful.
Cain reached out and rubbed his brother's messy hair, comforting him gently.
"Alright, it's fine, Luffy. Like I told you before, drawing is something that shares true feelings. Your thoughts, your goals, and the feelings you wanted to show... I received all of them perfectly. And so did Uta."
"Yeah," Uta agreed warmly. "Even if the shape is a little rough, we definitely felt what you were trying to say!"
"REALLY?! THEN I'M GOING TO SHOW SHANKS RIGHT NOW!" Luffy's eyes lit up like stars.
Without another word, he ran off toward the Red-Haired Pirates resting near the harbor.
This time, Uta didn't stop him.
She only watched his happy, running figure, letting the cool sea breeze stir her two-toned hair.
Sitting quietly to one side, she watched as Cain seriously helped her fix the rough edges of her painting.
She spoke softly. "Sometimes, you really do take very good care of him, Cain."
"Well, he's my little brother." Cain's hands didn't stop.
His voice sounded very tired, but the deep love in his words was impossible to hide. "He runs ahead and does whatever he wants without ever worrying about causing trouble or getting hurt. In the end, the one who always has to worry and clean up the mess is me, the older brother."
Uta paused for a moment.
Her eyes dropped to the grass before she finally asked the question on her mind. "But your last names... He's Monkey D. Luffy, and you're Chad Cain...?"
Hearing that, Cain let out a soft sigh, his voice becoming even gentler. "The truth is, I was taken in by Luffy's father when I was just a baby. Even though we don't share the same blood, Grandpa Garp has always treated me like his real grandson. Everyone in Foosha Village has taken good care of me too. And then there's that idiot little brother of mine who's always causing trouble... I already think of them all as my real family."
"Actually..." Uta's eyes softened. Swinging her legs over the cliff's edge, she spoke quietly. "I was adopted by Shanks too. I don't really remember much from when I was little. I only remember one specific moment... a treasure chest opened, and the very first person I saw was him."
Uta spoke calmly about her blurry past, then paused, her voice becoming very firm.
"Anyway, Shanks is my real father!"
"Alright, let's not think about that stuff anymore." Cain smiled and broke the serious mood. He handed her the finished painting.
"Take a look. What do you think of the changes I made?"
The painting showed the main members of the Red-Haired Pirates.
Uta originally felt she hadn't drawn them well enough, so she asked Cain to help fix it.
Pointing to the corners of the picture, Cain scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "Sorry. The paper was too small, and there were some background crew members I couldn't quite remember, so I could only paint them as blurry color blocks. And I added Luffy and myself in there too, without asking. I hope you don't mind."
"That's fine! It looks amazing!" Uta's eyes curved like happy half-moons as she spoke with real joy.
"If you have time, will you teach me how to draw? As payment... I'll teach you how to sing! Now that I think about it, I've never actually heard you sing before!"
"Sing?" Cain scratched his head awkwardly. "I've never learned how to, i can read sheet music perfectly fine, but I've never actually tried singing out loud."
"That's perfect, then! I'll teach you!" Uta clapped her hands with shining excitement.
"O-Okay," Cain agreed, a little shyly.
"Then let's start with the easiest notes! Do—Re—Mi—Fa—So—La—Ti—" Uta sang the notes lightly, telling Cain to follow her pitch.
"DO!! RE!! MI!! FA!! SO!! LA!! TI!!" Cain sang them out with all his might—but the tune had long since wandered off a cliff and crashed into the woods!
"STOP! STOP! STOP!" Uta waved her hands quickly, laughing so hard she could barely stand straight.
"You're so off-key! Just like Luffy, you really have no talent for this!"
"Really?" Cain rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "I guess music really doesn't suit me."
"Then how about this?" Uta's eyes lit up as a great idea hit her. "You teach me drawing, and I'll be your personal model! Sound good? But you have to make sure you paint me beautifully!"
"Huh?" Cain froze, and warmth quietly crept into his cheeks.
"What, are you pausing because you don't want to paint me?" Uta lifted a brow, her voice teasing and playful.
"N-NO! IT'S NOT THAT!" Cain shook his head so fast it blurred. Even the tips of his ears turned bright red again.
A light sea breeze blew by, catching the corner of the spare paper Cain had carefully hidden under his bag.
The lifted paper showed a hidden picture sketched beneath.
On the paper was Uta herself.
She was sitting in the faint pink glow of the sunrise, frowning slightly in deep thought over how to begin her drawing.
The gentle look in her brows and eyes had been drawn with perfect, loving detail.
…
The next day.
"CAN I BLINK?!" Lucky Roux shouted around a massive mouthful of meat.
"IDIOT, YOU'RE WEARING SUNGLASSES! YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT AT ALL!" someone quickly shot back.
"Can I turn my head a little?" Yasopp asked, trying hard to stretch his stiff neck.
"THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM TAKING A PHOTO!" one of the crewmen couldn't help shouting in pain.
"Can I lower my arm?" Benn Beckman had one arm raised in a cool pose, but it looked like his shoulder was about to give out.
"You should be more worried about making that monkey stop moving around! Wait... that's not the monkey! That's Luffy!"
"I'M SO TIRED, CAIN—!" The last cry came from Uta, sounding almost like she was crying.
The Red-Haired Pirates had seen the picture Uta drew of the crew and praised it a lot, but they were also sad that not every member fit into the picture.
Later, after learning that Cain had fixed it perfectly, they wanted him to paint a huge group picture of the whole crew.
And just like that, one of the famous pirate crew in the world became a seven-year-old boy's personal models.
Each of them held a cool pose and painfully forced themselves not to move a single muscle!