The Archive of Our Own collection and we can watch the stars on the water is a series of One Piece fanfictions written by Authentic Aussie. It’s mostly made up of unrelated fics, although with several tropes occurring in multiple works. The most notable part of the series would be the wide variety of AUs that range in genres from fantasy to crime to romance, along with several canon-verse fics.
You can read it here
This series contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Played for laughs in A Whole New World. Sanji is said to be just as flirty to women as he is in canon – however, he’s a tiger, and not even a Talking Animal. The women tend to be terrified.
- Agony of the Feet: In show me skies on fire Ace is completely unused to walking, and it doesn’t take long before his feet are bleeding.
- All Love Is Unrequited: There is much pining in Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans. Ultimately averted
- All Women Love Shoes: Averted in general, but according to Selective Visibility at one point Nami attempted to convince Zoro to drive across America and back for a shoe sale. They lived in Europe.
- Alternate Timeline: And This Is How The Story Goes isn’t exactly an AU, but instead discusses various ways that Sanji might have died.
- Alternate Universe Fic: So many. Notable examples include Luffy as Aladdin, a Monster Mash where everyone (but Zoro) is some form of monster, a Magical Girl AU, human experiments in a Mad Scientist Laboratory, and a Boy In A Tower fantasy world.
- And Show It to You: Trafalgar Law stole Kid’s heart in Breakfast with the Enemy. Not that he ever did anything other than a light squeeze.
- Armor-Piercing Response: In 1, 2, 3, Run, Ace is furious that Sabo's a noble and after ordering him to leave, talks about it with Luffy.Ace: Why couldn’t he just tell us?
Luffy: Look how well that went. - Badass Normal: Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans involves Zoro, perfectly human among the rest of the monsters he lives with, and yet still carrying around his swords and able to take on anyone else.
- Bewitched Amphibians: Sanji in Something Magical.
- Big Brother Instinct: Ace, in any work that involves Luffy. Particularly noticeable in Above The Waves.
- Bittersweet Ending: A Garden That Will Not Grow finishes with Ace and Luffy reunited and walking free, but Sabo remaining behind.
- Bridal Carry: Played for laughs in Don’t Carry Me Like A Sack of Potatoes. Zoro is injured. Luffy decides the rest of the crew will have to carry him for the moment. Zoro is unimpressed.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Thatch is so sick of this in Bets and their Consequences he makes a bet with a drunk Ace that Ace and Marco will kiss in the week. It works, eventually, and both admit to their feelings.
- Comically Missing the Point: In The Problems of Being (Fe)Male, Ace deliberately invokes this.Thatch (after telling his name): Do I get a name, now, too?
Ace: Well, presumably yours is Thatch but I suppose I can come up with another one if you want. What about Sparklyhead? - Curse Escape Clause: A particularly creepy version in Above The Waves. Luffy must steal Zoro’s heart (it’s presumably Not Hyperbole).
- More amusing in Something Magical, in which Sanji is turned into a frog until he “can find the true gem of his heart”.
- Cute Monster Girl: And boys. Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans is built on this trope, afterall.
- Not to mention, Find The Hat. Luffy makes a fairly sweet ghost.
- Dating Catwoman: Discussed in chapter 12 of Keep You Like An Oath, a superhero au involving Marco, Ace, Sabo.
- Discontinuity Nod: A Whole New World is an Aladdin AU where Zoro is Jasmine and Luffy is Aladdin. In Selective Visibility, it’s a highschool AU in which the school play in Aladdin. Guess who plays who?
- Discreet Drink Disposal: As Three Days Dance is a retelling of Twelve Dancing Princesses, the hero (in this case, Sanji) must avoid touching the drugged drink. Sanji being Sanji, he’s reluctant to waste, but eventually takes the advice of the stranger warning him of poison.
- Downer Ending: You’re My Land Ahoy finishes with Luffy and Zoro being thrown overboard the unnamed pirate ship they joined in this AU.
- Double Take: It takes Sabo a moment to realise that Luffy is floating and transparent in Find The Hat.
- Dragon Rider: The setting for Flights of Fancy is that several characters ride dragons, and Luffy himself is part dragon.
- Empathic Healer: show me skies on fire has Marco taking on Ace’s injuries when he heals them.
- Engagement Challenge: In the Aladdin AU A Whole New World, Zoro pulls this on himself, declaring that he’d only marry a suitor who could beat him in a sword fight.
- Epic Fail: Simultaneous Seduction Attempts has it in the synopsis, regarding Zoro's first attempt at flirting with Luffy.Sanji: Okay, so I may admit that didn't go as well as I thought it would…
Zoro: It didn’t go well at all! He fell in the ocean! - Face Doodling: It’s not technically on his face, but when Ace nods off mid-conversation in Overreaction, Thatch proceeds to paint the Whitebeard insignia on his back, just where the tattoo goes later.
- Failures on Ice: kiss like snowflakes involves Ace melting the ice enough to have his skates stuck.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: There are vampires, ghosts, nymphs, mages, witches, elves, and probably more in Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans.
- Fisher Kingdom: In show me skies on fire the land dies without the true heir on the throne.
- Flowers of Romance: Considering that one of the fluffy romance fics is set in a florist (the aptly named Flower Boy), oddly averted. No-one is handed any bouquets.
- Fractured Fairytale: Above the Waves, Something Magical, and show me skies on fire are all loosely based on fairytales. (There’s also a quick Rapunzel drabble in Keep You Like An Oath, chapter 17).
- Friendly Ghost: Luffy plays this part in Find The Hat. Also kinda Vivi in Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans, but she’s only arguably a ghost.
- Fusion Dance: The Steven Universe crossover Acaronar naturally includes this.
- Girl in the Tower: Technically boy in a tower. Ace is trapped in his tower in show me skies on fire.
- Half-Human Hybrid: In the dragon-riders au Flights of Fancy, it turns out Garp named his son based on the species of his mother. Dragon doesn’t actually turn up, but Luffy reveals to have inherited several dragon-like traits himself.
- Hates Being Touched: Honey, Your Aspie’s Showing has a very poetic description of how a character with Asperger’s reacts to unwanted touches, describing Luffy’s thought process as “his skin is wrong on his bones, like it turned to fire ants instead of flesh”.
- Hurricane of Puns: The synopsis of House of Cards alone has the lines: “Ace lived most of his life with a half a deck and a bad draw,” “a chance meeting gives him an ace to play with”, “his opponents are hiding cards up their sleeves,” “laid his bets,” and “life fall apart like a house of cards”. To clarify, that is a four-sentence synopsis with five card-related puns, not counting the fact the main character is named Ace.
- Hypno Fool: Discussed during Overreaction. Ace falls asleep the moment he gets hit with a paintbrush, so Marco and Thatch consider whether this is a coincidence.
- I Have Your Wife: Ace is forced to grow a garden while Luffy is held hostage in a tower during A Garden That Will Not Grow.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In (never) see you again Sabo blames himself for not being at Marineford.
- Intellectual Animal: In A Whole New World, Sanji is a tiger. Same amount of intelligence as in canon, but a completely tiger body and is unable to talk. It makes his womanising ways difficult.
- Above The Waves has Nami as a seagull and Usopp as a fish.
- And, of course, there are several fics set in cannon-verse in which Chopper turns up.
- Kidnapped by the Call:
- Of a sort. show me skies on fire has the premise that Ace gets kidnapped by Marco.Synposis: Once upon a time, there lived a boy in a tower. Then, he went on an adventure. (Well, truthfully, he got kidnapped).
- Also in A High Society Lady Should Never Rescue Herself.
- Of a sort. show me skies on fire has the premise that Ace gets kidnapped by Marco.
- Living Weapon: Zoro’s three katana are given sentience in Song Of The Swords. It’s a little unclear on the exact nature of the swords, but it is very explicit that they shapeshift into human form as they wish – although a throwaway line implies that it’s somewhat rare, and they only talk to Zoro through telepathy.
- Look Both Ways: Sanji is no sooner cursed than the man who cursed him runs afoul of the car in Something Magical.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: Speechless has human testing.
- Monster Mash: The Semi-Related Shenanigans subseries has the premise that Luffy is a vampire, Nami is a mage, Sanji is a spirit, Vivi is an elf-cursed-to-be-a-ghost, Ace is a nymph… etc. Zoro plays the part of Token Human.
- Mood Whiplash: The series switches from fluff to angst so fast it’ll leave you dizzy. Of course, the fics are completely unrelated, so it’s only a loose definition.
- Of Corset Hurts: Ace is uncomfortable about his outfit in A High Society Lady Should Never Rescue Herself.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The dragons of Flights of Fancy aren’t quite gone into detail, but they’re happy to have bonded humans fly on their backs, they’ve apparently got enough of a language that they can use sarcasm (even if they can’t communicate with humans), and can interbreed with humans.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Above The Waves is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, with inspiration from the Disney version.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: A Whole New World is an Aladdin AU in which Zoro plays Jasmine and Luffy plays Aladdin. Unlike the Disney film, Zoro sees through the disguise pretty much immediately – probably because Luffy kept his trademark hat.
- Playing with Syringes: It’s mostly offscreen in Speechless, but there are human subjects in a Mad Scientist Laboratory.
- Poor Communication Kills: Marco really should have mentioned that healing factors weren’t the same as being fireproof in Conflagrate.
- Power Incontinence: Gestures That Are (Somewhat) Affectionate is based on this trope – Luffy punches someone despite them being out of arms length, and is immediately distressed.
- Also, Ace sets a bed on fire in Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans, entirely by accident.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Nefetari family in general. Implied in A Whole New World, and made more explicit in Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans in which Vivi was desperate to go help her country.
- Red String of Fate: Soulmates can be recognised when the world lights up in colour during Colour In The Roses. Luffy sees a different colour every time he sees one of his future crewmates for the first time.
- Sparks is also a soulmate au.
- Runaway Fiancé: Sabo in 1, 2, 3, Run has no desire to get married.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Charcoal Roads was a marine/pirate switch AU. Smoker was the only one who began as his canon morality, starting off as a marine – and when the Straw Hats enlisted as trainees he quit and walked off to become a pirate. Added in a
Funny Moment when it turned out that Pirate!Tashigi had been desperate to have him as a captain, despite him being a marine – she apparently obeyed all orders except ‘surrender’ and cheered at his Heel–Face Turn. - Shipper on Deck: Several examples, most prominently Simultaneous Seduction Attempts, in which several Straw Hats team up to get Zoro and Luffy together. (Not to mention they are literally on a ship’s deck).
- In Flights of Fancy, Nami explains their matchmaking attempts as “We just want the two of you to be happy. It’s only you being the stupidly stubborn one, and Luffy forgets that he has feelings sometimes.”
- Also How to Fall for Nico Robin… Koala is this for Sabo/Robin.
- Shout-Out: In ‘‘Something Magical’’, Sanji has been turned into a frog.Nami: I am not kissing you. Are you kidding? With how our luck goes I'm probably going to be the next one who's a frog!
Zoro: That, and she ain't no princess. - Slipping a Mickey: Three Days Dance has Sanji given a drugged drink. He knows better than to drink it, but it’s the thought that counts.
- Song Fic: You’re My Land Ahoy is based off Yo Ho Sebastian/Gay Pirates.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: In-universe in Counter Melody. Ace hums a cheerful song (the same one Luffy sung in Skypeia), while in Impel Down.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Izo interrupts in 1, 2, 3, Run.Izo: He doesn't want to get married. So we're committing a marriage jail break.
- Take a Third Option: In a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Sanji has to choose between exposing the secret of the princesses and losing his head. Instead he chooses just to stay in the land the princesses dance in.
- Talking to Plants: The plants in A Garden That Will Not Grow not only need to be spoken to, but also need love.
- There Is Only One Bed: Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans involved Ace setting fire to a bed, and causing Luffy to share with Zoro. Zoro was more pleased than he admitted.
- The Time Traveller's Dilemma: In (never) see you again, Sabo worries what’ll happen if he stops Ace confronting Blackbeard. He also worries about Marineford happening anyway.
- The Speechless:
- Ace in the appropriately named ‘‘Speechless’’. Of course he was telepathic.
- Also, ‘‘Above the Waves’’ has Luffy mute, as usual for The Little Mermaid.
- True Companions: As befitting a One Piece fanfic, many examples. Honey, Your Aspie’s Showing and Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans are fics which specifically focus on the types of nakama.
- Under the Mistletoe: The fantasy-romance Semi-Related Monster Shenanigans has a Christmas chapter. Mistletoe was only to be expected.
- Unwanted Gift Plot: Luffy gives Zoro a homemade knitted hat (Zoro and the Hat). Zoro appreciates the gesture and at the end admits he might like it just a little, but that doesn’t lessen the fact it is Roronoa Zoro is walking around with a brightly coloured beanie with the word ‘Luffy’ stitched on.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Sabo reflection on Luffy and the gum-gum fruit during Gestures that are (Somewhat) Affectionate concludes that it’s a stupid power.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Sabo and Koala in How To Fall for Nico Robin (and how not to let her figure it out.From [Sabo's] experience, when Koala wanted a heart to heart, it was usually while she was whooping his butt. Pleasant conversation was exchanged when they did practices on hand to hand stances, even if Sabo did end up with more bruises thanks to her converted version of Fishman Karate.
- You Have Failed Me: Sanji is desperately trying to avoid this fate in Three Days Dance, as the king promises to execute any suitor who could not explain the princesses’ worn shoes.
