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Chapter Text

Monkey D. Luffy kneeled on the execution platform in Lougetown, the town of both beginning and end, looking down at the mass of people that had gathered to watch the fall of the second Pirate King.

His crew was strewn out in the crowd, their faces carefully concealed by dark cloaks. But he still felt them, his observation Haki easily making out each of their positions.

Sabo and Dragon were there too, further away on a rooftop.

Their eyes met, and Luffy gave his brother a reassuring smile.

‘It’s okay.’ He tried to convey through his Haki, but Sabo’s tears did not stop. He couldn’t blame him. Watching a brother die in front if you was painful.

Dragon wasn’t crying, but his grip on Sabo’s shoulder tightened, a scowl deeply embedded on his features.

Luffy somewhat lamented the fact he wouldn't be able to be with his Nakama any longer, but he didn't regret the decisions he’d made.

The seastone cuffs on his wrists clattered as he lifted his hand to scratch at an itch on his head. He missed his hat.

He gave it back to Shanks, he remembered fondly, the day he had officially earned the title of Pirate King. Shanks had bawled his eyes out back then, the Red Force anchored at the shore of Raftel, hugging him and telling him how proud he was of him over and over again.

‘Shanks…’

The executioner nudged his back with the tip of his sword. “Any last words, Pirate King?” He asked, not really expecting an answer.

A smile tugged at his lips, and he let it split into his D of a grin.

“I’m hungry! Prison food is horrible!” Luffy said with a dramatic whine, and he heard his crew’s muffled laughter. Even Sabo cracked a smile, if still a bit teary-eyed “Got any meat?” He asked, just in case.

The executioner looked at him dumbfounded.

“Guess not.” Luffy sighs with fake disappointment.

“Silence!” The man seemed to regain his composure, albeit his face was red from embarrassment.

Luffy pouts. “But it was you who asked if I had anything to say…” He mumbles, and the executioner’s face deepens a shade.

Luffy can’t help but laugh at the face he’s making, it just looks too weird!

“Shut up!”

He grunts as a blade pierces his back. The crowd gasps.

“You will die here today, Pirate King!”

Luffy coughs, blood trickling down the corner of his still smiling mouth.

He lets out a heavy sigh, ignoring the pain it causes in his chest. “I know.” He says simply, and a second blade pierces him.

His vision blurs, slowly fading to black.

The last thing he sees is the sun, glaring, bright and warm.

_____

Luffy opens his eyes, and the first thing he sees is the sun. It’s warm, and bright, just like on the day he died-

Luffy sits straight up, eyes blown wide.

Where is he? He isn’t dead, he knows- because there’s no way hell would be this comfortable. Or have a beach as beautiful as this one. And he doubts he’s made it to heaven, considering all that he’s done.

Something, someone on his right breathes a sigh of relief, and Luffy turns his head at the sound of it.

A woman with strawberry blonde hair and freckles looks at him with a concerned gaze.

“Are you okay, boy?” She asks, and Luffy gapes at her.

Maybe he is in heaven after all, because she would never be in hell. Not someone like her.

Leaning over him and gentle, brown eyes filled with worry, sits none other than Portgas D. Rouge.

He's never met her in person, but he’s seen pictures, old man Rayleigh had shown him and Sabo some years after Ace’s death, and this woman in front of him was without a doubt her. Although, she seemed a bit younger than in the photos. Maybe around her mid twenties?

“Boy?” Portgas D. Rouge places a hand on his arm and he flinches. She’s warm. Not like a dead person should be. She feels alive.

“Where are your Parents?” She ask gently, and a sudden sob makes its way out of his throat.

Rouge freezes, and another sob makes his shoulders tremble.

He’s full on crying now, as he realizes how lonely he is. No matter how much he reassures his brother, no matter how much he smiles for his crew, they aren’t here. They aren’t with him right now, and their absence hurts more than the blades that ended his life.

Arms wrapped around his small body, lifting him into a warm embrace.

Rouge rubs soothing circles on his back as she hums an unknown song, rocking him close to her chest.

“It’s alright…” She whispers, as he feels his eyelids grow heavy. “I’m here now.”

And he wants to believe her.

Chapter Text

Luffy wasn’t awake right now. He’s sure, because there was no other explanation for the figure that was standing in front of him.

The figure’s everything was white, blindingly so.

White, how the sun looks, when you stare at it for too long, and your eyes start to hurt.

Pinkish-red eyes curved into crescents, and a smile so wide it almost spanned over the entirety of their lower face.

And Luffy knows that smile.

He knows, because it’s his own smile. He’s smiled like that a million times and more.

Luffy tilted his head in confusion. But Luffy’s already himself, so that person can’t be himself too, right?

As if hearing his inner monologue, the figure laughs, and once more Luffy is wondering why that Not-Luffy sounds so much like himself.

“Ne, Pirate King.” They say after they’ve finally stopped laughing. “I really enjoyed watching your journey.”

The figure put a warm hand on his head and ruffled his hair. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel the need to brush it off. “While I can’t give you my fruit again,” the hand on his head was burning hot now, scalding even, but Luffy still didn’t want to push it away. “I can still give you my blessing.”

And Suddenly, Luffy burned. Fire engulfed his whole body, flickering along with every small movement.

Weirdly enough, it didn’t hurt. The fire was shrinking down now, concentrating it’s heat on a spot on his chest, right over his heart.

The moment the hand left his head, he heard it.

A rhythm, a sound he had come to know very well over the last years of his life.

A steady beat of drums, beating in absolute sync with his heart.

The drums of liberation.

And now, Luffy knows who that figure is.

“Nika.” He says simply, and Nika, for all he is the sun, smiles.

“Goodbye, Pirate King.” 

The world better prepare itself, for the fire of freedom has been ignited once more.

____________

Rouge silently watched the young boy sleeping in her bed. He had fallen asleep not long after she’d picked him up. His chest rose and fell periodically, calmly, but his tiny face was scrunched up in apparent discomfort.

He seemed no older than two or three, and had fluffy, raven black hair.

She ran her hand through his locks, and he instantly leaned into the touch, even while asleep, eager for any kind of physical contact.

It made her frown, because a child, a toddler, should not be this touch starved.

Who the hell leaves a toddler alone on the beach anyway? And so close to the water no less? Had the tides risen just half a meter more, the waves would have swallowed him, dragging him down to Davy Jones locker far too soon.

But… judging by how he started crying the moment she asked about his parents, she had doubts of them being around anymore.

The boy stirred in his sleep, and his tiny hand gripped hers, pulling it as close to himself as possible. The smile that bloomed on his face when he felt her warmth on his skin made her heart skip a beat.

Rouge decided right then and there, that this boy was now her son.

Chapter Text

It didn’t take Rouge long to realize that the boy, Lu, was a D, just like her.

His sheer appetite alone was enough to feed three adult men, and in the first two weeks he had stayed with her, her food expenses had tripled. Her own appetite didn’t quite help in that regard either, and thus, she’d resort to just hunt in the forest near her house, Lu tagging along behind her.

At first, she had tried to make him stay in the house, worried he’d get lost, or worse, injured, but surprisingly, the little boy always managed to catch up to her. Albeit a bit clumsy on his feet, he never tripped or fell. Sometimes he even caught one or two small animals, presenting them to Rouge with the most cutest and proudest look on his face ever. It was adorable.

Although, his ability to get into trouble and cause chaos, unmistakably marked him as a member of the D. Clan.

Just this week alone, he had managed to get abducted by a mountain lion thrice, and every time Rouge rescued him, just babbled excitedly in half-coherent sentences (it was a miracle she was even able to understand his name when he first tried to tell her), smiling cutely, and suddenly, Rouge couldn’t feel angry anymore.

“Just stay with me and don’t run off alone again, okay?” She said with a sigh, and in response, Lu flashed her his signature sunny, D. of a smile.

He was caught by the animal two more times the week after.

Rouge sometimes took Lu with her to the village, introducing him to the others, or just restocking on every day necessities. (Rouge was relieved he didn’t seem to mind when she called him her son.)

Lu was a curious child, exploring everything and asking as many questions as he could, never running out of ideas.

He seemed especially interested in pirates, so Rouge bought him a toy ship, its figurehead a white lion with ram horns.

She didn’t know why, but she felt it was the perfect present for him.

Lu stared at it for a long time after she handed it to him, his obsidian eyes wide in wonder.

“Sunny… Merry.”

He mumbled something under his breath after a while, but Rouge couldn't hear it.

“Lu!?” Rouge startled when he suddenly begun to cry, tears quietly streaming down his face. “Are you alright?”

The boy just nodded, halfheartedly wiping the tears and snot with his sleeve. “.’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Do you not like the ship?” She asked worriedly, wiping away the rest of his tears with a tissue.

“No!” Lu hurriedly shook his head. “I like it!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” The boy pressed the tiny ship to his chest, desperate to keep it, as if his life depended on it.

“Alright then.” Rouge gently patted his head. “Wanna go eat something?”

Lu perked up at that. “Meat?”

“Yep.” She nodded. “As much as you want.”

“Meat!”

Ah, she thought, he really is the most adorable.

______________

“Mama!”

It was roughly six months later, when Lu excitedly ran towards her, just after she had finished dismantling the wild boar they’d caught that morning.

Lu had started calling her ‘Mama’ around a week after she gave him his favorite toy ship, and Rouge hoped he’d never stop calling her that. It made her heart do a triple somersault every time.

Oh, how she loved her little ray of sunshine.

“Mama!” Lu tugged at the hem of her dress urgently, a look of overflowing excitement in his eyes.

“Yes, sunshine?” Rouge smiled as she wiped her hands on a nearby cloth and stood up. “What is it?”

“Pirates!”

Rouge’s smile fell. “What?”

“Pirates!” Lu repeated with more vigor. “On the shore!”

Rouge grabbed her dagger from where it was laying next to the boar, clutching it tightly.

If these pirates were friendly, then alright, Rouge would allow them to anchor.

But, if they were in any way hostile or hurt her sunshine… then well, it wasn’t only boars she could hunt.

__________

Luffy was excited. There were pirates. Pirates! Of course, Luffy had seen a lot of Pirates in his life, hell, he had been a Pirate himself, Pirate King even, but this was the past. Pirates back then were different, rougher, more crueler and more free. The world government wasn’t as strong and technology wasn’t as advanced. It made Luffy curious, he wanted to see the old pirates with his own eyes!

So, with Rouge tagging along behind him, he raced to the shore, eyes blown wide as he took in the massive ship anchored by the pier.

Red sails with black stripes, a white skull with a curly mustache. Two mermaids for a figurehead, along with a forward facing canon. And was that an egg in the middle of the deck??

Oh, Gods, Luffy wanted to explore that ship so bad. However, Rouge’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Wait a bit, yeah?” She positioned herself in front of him, dagger still by her side. “Can you be patient for Mama?”

Luffy nodded. Rouge was worried, that much was obvious. It was pirates after all. But really, she didn’t have to be.

The Oro Jackson was friendly, her Klabautermann happily waving at him from where she was standing on the figurehead. He waved back at her, grinning widely.

Rouge pushed him further behind her, as a man, presumably the captain if his hat and coat were anything to go by, stepped down from the plank.

“What is your purpose for coming here?” She gave the man a withering glare.

The man laughed. “Don’t worry, we’re just here to restock on some things. We’ll be gone as fast as we can.”

Rouge seemed to calm down a bit at that. But she wasn’t naïve enough to just trust the words of some strange pirate. It could be a lie. What if he was planning to rob- 

“Hey, Mustache Man! You’re Oro’s Captain, right?”

Rouge inwardly sighed. Leave it to a D. Child to cause trouble, especially if they were curious about something.

The man laughed. “Yeah! I’m Gol D. Roger!” He then slightly crouched down, until he was at Luffy’s eye level. “And who’re you, little fella?”

Luffy’s eyes grew wide, before his mouth split into his usual D of a smile, a knowing glint in his eyes. 

“I’m Portgas D. Lu and I’ve decided that you’re now my Dad!

Chapter Text

Roger blinked. “What?”

The boy beamed at him and he felt blinded for a moment. “Dad!”

Roger blinked again. “Uh?” he said, very intelligently.

He heard Rayleigh make a strangled sound behind him, perfectly imitating a dying seagull, the rest of his crew joining him.

The Oro Jackson’s Klabautermann giggled, seemingly approving of the lively interaction.

Roger straightened up, his mustache twitching as he processed the words. He hummed, thinking for moment. It didn’t take long before a smile, quite similar to Lu’s own, spread across his face. “Well, well, looks like I’ve got a new son!”

Roger laughed heartily, and Rouge, although still vigilant, couldn’t help but crack a small smile at the scene unfolding in front of her.

“Wanna meet the rest of the crew, kiddo?”

“Yeah!”

Lu excitedly jumped into Roger’s open arms, happily letting himself be carried to the ship.

Roger halted for a moment to ask Rouge: “Is that okay with you, Ma’am?”

Rouge looked at her son, who was practically vibrating with anticipation. She sighed. How could she ever say no that adorable face?

“I don’t see why not.”

Lu let out an excited “Hooray!” and threw his arms up in celebration. “You’re coming too, right Mama?”

And seas, those eyes were a weapon of mass destruction.

______________

As soon as Lu stepped onto the deck, he felt it.

There was a familiar presence on the ship, although far smaller and weaker than he remembered it to be.

Jumping out of a mildly surprised Roger’s arms, he hastily ran towards the direction of the presence.

His mind whirled with a sea of emotions and thoughts.

‘…Could it be?’

It took him barely a minute to find who he was looking for, his short, crimson hair easy to spot, even among the many adults standing in front of him.

Lu squeezed through the legs obstructing his view, ignoring a few shouts of surprise.

He had no time to listen to whatever it was they were saying. This was far more important.

Because. Because,

Shanks.

Shanks was here.

Sitting in the middle of the deck, his side turned to him, was Shanks. It couldn’t be anyone else. He knew it was him.

Akagami no Shanks, a feared and respected Yonko, and a man Lu had come to see as his father figure over the years. A man who had sacrificed much more than just an arm, to make sure his adopted son could stay alive and reach the end of his dream.

But this Shanks in front of him was none of that yet. He was younger, and smaller. His skin seemed soft, a bit chubby even, unmarred, and had no trace of any of the strong muscles he had gained through the countless fights in his past.

This Shanks was still a child, and apparently even younger than Lu himself. Barely a year, maybe. He was playing with wooden blocks, alongside another child with blue hair and a… big red nose.

Oh, right, Shanks and Buggy had been apprentices on Roger’s ship together, hadn’t they? But to see both these former, or rather to-be, Yonko as babbling, drooling babies? Honestly, it felt a bit weird.

Shanks paused in his block stacking activities to look at him, while Buggy made a weird face, then proceeded to grab onto Shanks’ blue onesie, hiding behind the red haired toddler.

“Hi!” Lu sat down in front of the two with a wide smile and pointed at himself. “I’m Lu!”

“Augh.” Shanks responded, with all the eloquent vocabulary of a one-year-old and resumed his prior actions. Funnily enough, Lu thought it sound a lot like he said ‘Ok.’

Buggy continued to hide behind Shanks’ back.

“Seems like you already found someone to play with!”

At Roger’s boisterous voice, Lu, Shanks and Buggy all turned to look at him.

“Ap’n!” Buggy said happily, and Luffy was pretty sure he meant to say ‘Captain.’

“Aww, aren’t you just the cutest!” Roger scooped the toddler into his arms, rubbing their cheeks together, and laughed when Buggy slapped at his face in protest.

“This one’s Buggy!” Roger proudly held him towards Lu. “Since you’re my son too now, he’s your little brother!” He grinned. “Take good care of him, he can be a bit grumpy sometimes.”

Buggy apparently did not like that accusation, and promptly pulled on Roger’s mustache.

The man let out a yelp, hurriedly placing the angry toddler back onto the wooden floor. “My point stands.” He grumbled, rubbing the skin above his lip with a grimace.

“Anyway.,” Roger crouched down to ruffle baby Shanks’ hair. “Little ginger over here is Shanks. C’mon, say hello to your new older brother.”

Shanks looked at Roger, then at Lu. He stared at him for a while, before he finally uttered a quiet “ ‘ello.”

“Well done!” Roger praised, patting Shanks’ head.

The toddler leaned into his hand, enjoying the warmth of it. His tiny face scrunched up in disapproval when said warmth left his head after a while, and Lu giggled at the sight of it. It was kind of adorable. Was this how Shanks had felt when he looked at him?

Lu shook his head to get back to the present. So, Shanks was his younger brother now, huh? What a strange turn of events.

________________

Lu explored the Oro Jackson until sunset, occasionally playing with Shanks and Buggy. The two toddlers were still a bit wary of him, but it wouldn’t take long before they’d warm up to him. (It never did. ‘Luffy-effect’ as Nami had so fittingly called it once.)

Rouge on the other hand was making light conversation with Roger and Rayleigh, and didn’t seem to be as on guard as before. She even smiled once in a while, at whatever they were talking about.

Lu was glad. Parents who shared responsibilities over their children should get along.

Sadly, the feeling ended all to soon.

“Lu!” Rouge called for him only half an hour later, as she made her way towards him, where he was leaning on the ship’s railing, staring out at the setting sun, Shanks and Buggy playing with their wooden toys near his feet. “It’s already late, we need to go home.”

Lu pouted. “Already?”

Rouge gave him an apologetic look. “Yeah. Sorry, sunshine.”

“But we’ll come tomorrow too, right?” And Rouge was damned, if those puppy-eyes didn’t work on her.

She lifted him up into her arms, and pressed a smooch onto his soft little cheek. “Of course, my little treasure chest.”

Lu giggled, and returned the kiss, eager for her affection.

“Well then, let’s say bye-bye to captain Roger and the others, okay?”

“Okay!”

_____________

Lu waved at them as Rouge carried him back home, yelling, “Bye, Bye Dad! See you tomorrow!” and flashed them a bright smile.

Rouge laughed at his antics, and not for the first time that day, Roger’s heart skipped a beat.

After a while, until Rouge was no longer in their line of sight, Rayleigh stepped up next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“You ok there, Capt’n?”

“Rayleigh?” Roger was still staring at the spot where the woman had been standing only a few minutes prior.

“Hm?”

Roger’s heart was beating wildly in his chest.

“I think I’m in love.”

Rayleigh choked on air.

________________

Rouge couldn’t sleep well that night.

She had seen how Roger acted with the two toddlers on the ship, and how they acted with him. They seemed to enjoy his company, and even waddled to him themselves sometimes. Although it could be argued that a pirate ship wasn’t quite the best place to raise a child, they were obviously not treated badly in any way and also had a lot of space to play, along with various toys, of which some even seemed to be hand made. He clearly took good care of them.

But this was Gol D. Roger, a pirate with such a high price on his head, that hardly any Bounty hunter even tried to capture him anymore. And even if they did try, he'd easily defeat them. The man was strong, and she respected that. He was easy to talk with as well. But should she allow Lu to keep meeting them?

The mattress on her side shifted lightly, and she knew Lu was next to her now.

“Mama, what do you think of Dad?” At the question, Rouge turned to look at him. She didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Why do you say he’s your dad?” The question was justified, she thought, but the way Lu looked at her in that moment made her think otherwise.

His eyes looked straight into hers, through her, into her very soul, their obsidian color deep and vast like the sea itself, and Rouge had to avert her gaze to not get lost in them. It surprised her sometimes, how Lu often seemed to know of things that nobody else his age did, or how he could simply look at a person once, and instantly determine if they were good or bad. He could know what someone was feeling, even without them saying anything.

Rouge usually chalked it up to him being a child of D., but right now, she had to wonder if it was something else that made him like this.

“Just like you’re my Mom, in the same way is he my Dad. There’s nothing else to it, he just is.”

It sounded weirdly poetic, the way he said it, like it was a truth engraved in the history of the world itself. (And maybe it was.)

Rouge thought about it for a long time. “And you’re sure of it?”

Lu gave her a smile that was unlike his usual sunny one. It seemed all-knowing, deep and meaningful.

“Yeah!”

There was not an ounce of doubt in his voice.

Chapter Text

Lu was a wondrous child.

Rouge loved her son, no doubt. It didn’t really matter to her, that sometimes, on especially sunny days, Lu seemed to emit an unnatural radiance, the sun rays playing around his young form in beautiful displays of light and color. Lu would then smile, and with the playfulness and glee only a child could have, let the light wash over him. And to Rouge’s surprise, Lu was able to actually touch that light. His small hands wove the strings of light together with ease, constructing all kinds of shapes, varying in size and color. Sometimes, Lu would try to give her one of these lights, but only became disappointed, when he realized that the light would fall apart as soon as anyone other than himself touched them.

“How do you do that?” Rouge had asked him one evening, when her curiosity got the best of her. Lu in turn gave her a warm smile. The sun seemed to shine especially bright in that moment, it’s rays engulfing Lu from behind, giving him more material for another shape of light made solid, which Lu quickly integrated in his current weaving project.

“Nika lets me!” Lu answered happily, and momentarily struggled to connect two strings of light. Once he had successfully tied them together, he continued. “He said he’s okay with it, so I just do it.” He shrugged.

“Nika?” Rouge was sure there was no one on Baterillia with that name. Although, that name sounded somehow… familiar. Just where had she heard it before?

Seeing her confused expression, Lu giggled. “But you know him, Mama!”

That definitely didn’t help lessen her confusion. “How do I know him?” She inquired, curious about this mysterious Nika person.

Lu giggled again, that same light in his eyes that he always had, when he thought she had asked him a question to which the answer was obvious.

“How could anyone not know the sun?” He asked her instead of answering, and continued to play with the light of the gradually setting sun.

‘The sun.’ Lu’s words echoed in her mind, and slowly, as realization settled within her, Rouge remembered a tale her great-grandmother had told her long ago, when she was still a young child.

A tale of a youthful god, who had lived hundreds of years ago, journeying across the seas, bringing freedom and joy wherever he went. His laugh was said to have been so contagious, that every so often, people still laughed, even long after that god had left. His demeanor was bright like the sun itself, casting away any shadows that might plague a person’s mind.

And now, with all the puzzle pieces in place, Rouge knew what made her boy so special.

Lu had gained the favor of a god.

The favor of none other than the Sun God, Nika.

Rouge couldn’t help but laugh at the implications of the god’s blessing.

Even the sun loved her son, it seemed.

***

It was no surprise to Rouge, when Roger came to her one day, Lu and his brothers playing on the deck behind them. Rouge was leaning on the ship’s railing, watching Lu weave another strange shape of light in front of Shanks and Buggy, who stared at his work with rapt attention, sulking when Lu laughed at them, after they tried to touch the light, which in turn only fell apart.

Roger slowly came to stand next to her, joining her in observing the three children playing for a while. After a few minutes of hesitant silence, Roger opened his mouth, seemingly in thought.

"Lu... is quite an odd one, isn’t he?” He murmured then, not taking his eyes off the children.

“…Yeah.” Rouge answered with a small smile, and Roger turned to look at her. His expression wasn’t quite readable, but Rouge thought he seemed a bit conflicted.

“What… about his father?” Roger asked, uncharacteristically serious.

Rouge laughed at that. Was he worried he’d take another man’s child away? Aw, how sweet of him. He didn’t need to worry though.

Roger seemed perplexed by her reaction, and looked at her quizzically.

She placed a reassuring hand on his arm, and he flinched at her sudden touch. Honestly, it was kind of cute how bashful he could be at times.

Gods, Rouge would be a fool not to notice how Roger looked at her when he thought she wasn’t aware. (Grandline Pirates weren’t the only one who knew how to use observation Haki, after all.) Rouge knew she was beautiful, and had thus seen many people look at her the same way. But never had she wanted to pursue a relationship with any of them. Until now.

With Roger, she gradually felt herself enjoying his company. He treated her like an equal, and could make easy conversations with her. She loved it when he told her tales of his adventures, even though she was pretty sure he was exaggerating at some points.

His crew respected him greatly, and despite his careless personality, he could be a great leader. Although, Rayleigh seemed to be more of a babysitter tasked with preventing Roger from accidentally killing himself, most of the time. Rouge herself had also been very tempted to throw him over the railing on numerous occasions, during the five months he and his crew were already staying at Baterillia, for endangering the children a few too many times. (Honestly, what kind of idiot thought that knives of all things, were a safe thing to give to kids who weren’t even able to properly hold a cup without difficulty?)

“Lu decided that you’re his father. He doesn’t care what anyone else says.” She chuckled as his eyes widened in surprise, when she took his hand in her's, his eyes darting from her to their intertwined hands in disbelief. Rouge continued, tactfully not mention the bright blush that was slowly spreading across Roger’s face. “He’s decided the same for me, and honestly, he’s the best thing to have ever come into my life.”

“What do you-? Oh.” Roger’s eyes lit up with realization.

Rouge nodded. “Yeah. I found him almost a year ago, here on the beach.”

“His parents…?” Roger started, but Rouge shook her head.

“No one was there when I found him, and when I asked about them, he started crying. I can only assume…” Rouge left the last part unsaid, but Roger understood.

Rouge squeezed his hand, and drew closer to him, their arms touching.

“You know,” she said, after a long while of comfortable silence, a mischievous smile tugging on the corner of her lips. “when I first got to know you, I thought you were a reckless, senseless idiot with no self-preservation. And quite honestly, I still do.”

At Roger’s indignant gasp, she laughed, and laughed even more, when he abruptly closed his moth, the moment she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“But, I’ve realized something.” Looking up at him, she could see the way Roger’s pupils shook with mix of anxiety and anticipation. She shifted her body, until she stood in front of him, their faces only a few centimeters apart.

“I love you, Gol D. Roger. So, will you allow me to kiss you?”

Rouge closed her eyes as Roger’s lips came crushing down on hers almost painfully, but just as quickly as they connected, they parted. Rouge had hoped he’d kiss her a bit longer, but well. When Rouge opened her eyes again, Roger was wearing the biggest smile she had ever seen the man make, despite the tears in his eyes. Rouge belatedly noticed that the corners of her eyes were wet too. Oh gods, she really loved this man didn’t she.

“I love you too!” he almost yelled as he hugged her, and begun to spin them in circles around the deck, his joyful laughter attracting the attention of a certain ray of sunshine.

“Mama? Dad? What are you doing?” Lu’s curious voice, along with Buggy’s and Shanks’, momentarily startled Rouge, but Rouge didn’t have enough time to respond to him, before Roger scooped the three children up into his arms and laughed heartily.

“Your mom is officially together with me now! Isn’t that great!?”

Buggy and Shanks made delighted noises at being hugged, while Lu threw his arms in the air, stars in his eyes.

“Really?!” When Rouge nodded in confirmation, Lu let out a triumphant shout, and quickly jumped out of a surprised Roger’s arms, running over to the middle of the deck, where Rayleigh was leaning against the mast.

Lu started to insistently tug at Rayleigh’s shirt, who seemed to pretend not to notice the boy. Lu then climbed up Rayleigh’s shoulder, who still looked anywhere but his direction, which only resulted in frustration on Lu’s end.

“Uncle Ray-Ray! I know you heard Dad! You lost the bet, so pay up already!”

“Bet? What kind of bet?” Roger asked Gaban, who was standing nearby.

Gaban grinned. “Lu bet Rayleigh that you and Miss Rouge would get together by the end of this month, and Rayleigh promised he’d buy him 50 pieces of crocodile meat if he won. And as you can see, Lu won the bet.”

The crew erupted into laughter, as Lu continued to assault Rayleigh’s eardrums by screaming at him to ‘pay up’, while climbing his body like a jungle-gym.

Rayleigh looked about ready to throw himself overboard any moment.

It took two more hours, before Rayleigh finally relented, and promised to buy the meat first thing in the morning. Lu still complained that he didn’t buy it right that second, but Rayleigh, competent Babysitter as he was, reasoned that he couldn’t buy any right now, since it was already night. Lu sulked a bit, but at least found Rayleigh’s explanation logical.

Rouge looked at the spectacle, still in Roger’s arms.

‘Yes,’ She mused inwardly, a content smile on her face as she leaned back into his chest. ‘This is what home feels like.’

Chapter Text

So, as two nice comments have pointed out to me, someone has stolen and copied my work, and posted it on Wattpad. While I'm mildly flattered that this person thinks this work is good enough to be worth posting somewhere else, I absolutely fucking DO NOT tolerate such behavior.

It is disrespectful to me, and all the other people on here, who put all their efforts into making these stories.

Therefore, if you see this work on any other site that is not AO3, please tell me in the comments and I'll do my best to report them, or have them take it down. 

Another thing. Due to recent stress factors in my life, I'll be at the hospital for probably around the next two months, starting tomorrow. Cell phone usage there is somewhat limited, so it might take longer than usual to update. 

That is all, and I wish all of you non-plagiarizing lovies, a wonderful day/night!

Chapter Text

Roger looked down at his oldest son.

Lu looked back up at him, blond hair practically glowing in the sun, even more so than it usually would.

“So…” Roger scratched the top of his head, raising a brow. “How did this happen again?”

Lu shrugged. “Dunno. Jus’ made a hat, and when I put it on, the light went ‘poof’ and now it’s like this.”

“Hm.” Roger carefully inspected the newly colored hair. It looked like normal hair to him. Just with light inside it, apparently. “And you don’t know how that worked either?”

Lu shook his head. “Nuh-uh” He shrugged again. “Maybe Nika thought it was funny?”

“Well,” Roger thought about it for a moment. “Does it bother you?”

Lu beamed at him. “Nope!” he then giggled. “I kind of think it looks like Mama’s hair, so I like it!”

“Alright then,” Roger felt a fond smile creep onto his lips and gently ruffled his hair. “Wanna go show it to her?”

Lu’s eyes lit up, and Roger readily opened his arms to catch him, as he jumped up to him.

“Yeah!” Quickly, he climbed up Roger’s arm, seating himself on his shoulders, tiny hands gripping at his hair for support. “Let’s go Dad!”

Unsurprisingly, Rouge laughed when she saw them. She laughed to the point of tears in her eyes, and when she calmed down again, there was a bright smile on her lips.

“Well then,” She laughed lightly, as she took the hibiscus from her hair and pinned it behind Lu’s ear. “If you’re going to look like me, then you can’t forget this one, can you?”

She could almost see the light around Lu’s form brighten at that moment, in sync with his own mood.

“Thanks Mama!” He laughed, and vaguely, Rouge thought she heard the sound of drums.

Roger seemed to have heard it too, because he was looking around with a confused expression. But when he didn’t seem to find anything, he just shrugged and continued as he was doing.

But Rouge couldn’t shake the strange feeling that something was going to happen soon.

Unfortunately, she had no idea what would happen.

For now, she could only wait and find out.

Hopefully, it wasn’t too bad.

________________

It was a few days later, that Lu started to hear Nika’s voice in the back of his head.

At first, it wasn’t particularly loud, barely a whisper, just an echo of his laughter. He didn’t really mind it.

But right now, it felt different. Louder. Stronger. Brighter.

Nika’s laughter was rumbling in his head like a thousand drums, making his head hurt.

‘The forest! We need to go there! Hurry!’ His voice conveyed loudly in his head, and Lu had to hold onto the wall next to him to not stumble at the intensity of these words. He wanted, needed to go. It was important. He could feel it.

“Lu! Are you okay?!” Immediately, Rouge and Roger were by his side, the worried looks on their faces slowly blurring in front of his eyes. The world started to tilt sideways, but before he could hit the ground, he felt Roger scoop him up into his arms, placing one of his hands on his forehead.

Lu thought he heard Roger’s hand sizzle upon contact, and the man pulled his hand back quickly, as if burned. He could make out the shocked look Roger’s face for a moment, then his vision blurred again.

“You’re burning up! You definitely have a fever!” He heard him say, although barely. The drumming in his ears was getting stronger by the minute.

Lu didn’t have time for this. He needed to be in the forest. As fast as possible. Wriggling himself out of Roger’s arms, he staggered over to the side of the ship, somehow managing to avoid the arms trying to pick him up again.

“Lu! You need rest, come back!” And that was Rouge’s voice, wasn’t it? He felt kind of bad, ignoring her like this, but he needed to go.

When Lu finally reached the side of the ship, he didn’t hesitate for a second. He climbed over the railing, and before anyone could stop him, jumped.

He heard the crew’s shocked outcries behind him, but Nika urged him on again.

‘Hurry!’ He laughed, his voice a mix of excitement and anticipation. ‘The sun’s just right today!’

Before he could actually fall, the sunlight solidified under his feet, building golden steps for him to go down on. It was an act purely on instinct.

He hazily registered someone jumping and running after him, calling his name. It could have been Roger, maybe even Uncle Rayleigh.

Lu didn’t turn around to look.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, he ran into the woods, faster than his small legs should allow him to.

He let Nika’s voice guide him, the drums a constant sound in the back of his head, fogging up his mind.

He jumped over roots, crawled under and through fallen tree trunks, deeper and deeper into the woods.

He didn’t stop, even when he almost lost his footing on the slippery stones in a river while trying to cross it, almost being dragged along by the raging currents, barely avoiding falling in, nor when the call for him from the person behind him seemed to get more desperate the deeper they went.

‘Almost there!’ Nika said, still very excited for a reason Lu didn’t know.

His name was called again, but so close to his destination, Lu wouldn’t stop.

A while later, after crawling through a particularly bug-infested, rotten tree trunk, the drums suddenly gained in volume, and Lu felt Nika’s excitement grow.

Looking up, there was a tall, purely white, house-like structure in front of him.

Lu held his head in pain, as Nika let out a shout of joy, almost shattering his eardrums in the process.

Finally, they had arrived.

‘My last Shrine.’ Nika mumbled then, somewhat sadly. ‘In your timeline, it got destroyed.’

Lu felt Nika’s mood dim slightly at the thought.

Three white stone walls held up an equally white roof, the front was open, giving a clear view onto the almost empty interior, a worn-down stone tablet inside of it.

Letters that might have been engraved on it were now made unreadable by time an weather, only the depiction of the sun still recognizable under it. Its outlines had probably been laced with gold once upon a time, but now only tiny specks of the precious material were left.

Under Nika’s instructions, Lu went up to the stone tablet, hand reaching out to touch it.

The moment his fingers touched the surface of the stone tablet, Nika seemed to let out a sigh, entirely content.

His voice grew fainter and quieter, and when he spoke again, there was an unmistakable hint of fondness in it.

‘Remember, Pirate King.’ A pause. ‘The sun is not just light. It is also fire.’

In an instant, orange flames surrounded his vision, flickering in front of his face.

With awe, Lu noticed that the fire wasn’t burning him. It was coming from himself, from somewhere deep within him. And something that was his wouldn’t hurt him.

Lu’s heart clenched painfully in his chest, as he realized it reminded him a lot of Ace’s fire. Although he knew it wasn’t the same, it felt just as warm and gentle, stroking his face like one would when trying to soothe a child. And yet, Lu could feel the danger radiating off of them, eager to destroy and to protect.

Then suddenly, as if they had never been there, the flames disappeared, only the lingering heat he could feel near his heart, and the smell of burnt grass in the air, proving their existence.

“…Lu?” And finally, Lu could properly hear the person calling for him.

The drumming was gone, his mind wasn’t foggy anymore, as if the fire had burned the pain of it away.

He turned around to face them.

Lu felt a weak smile tug at the corner of his lips.

Roger seemed out of breath, sweat beading down his forehead, glistening in the sunlight that now surrounded them both.

How long had they both been running? Half an hour? Two hours? Lu didn’t know.

But he was tired now. So, so tired. He wanted to sleep so badly.

He took a shaky step towards Roger.

“…Dad” He called out, and Roger’s eyes lit up. Before he could walk much further, he stumbled, and instantly, Roger reached out, easily catching him.

“’m sleepy…” Lu mumbled against his father’s chest, already half asleep. He felt Roger hug him tighter.

“All’s good sunshine. Just sleep, I’ve got you.” Roger’s somewhat shaky, but comforting voice was the last thing Lu heard, before his eyes fell closed.

            _____________________________

It had been four days.

Four days, since Roger brought Lu back to the ship.

Lu still hadn’t woken up.

It was unnerving for Roger, to see that boy, his son, be that quiet.

Lu was never quiet. Never. Not even in his sleep.

Most of the crew was gathered in Lu’s room, a tense silence weighing heavy in the air.

And even Rayleigh, who usually pretended to not care, was now restlessly pacing back and forth. Everyone was on edge.

Rouge was sitting with Roger, leaning on his side, resting her head on his shoulder. The dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than the day before, and her eyes were bloodshot form crying. She looked pale. But her eyes never left Lu’s bed.

He felt his own eyes grow heavy from the lack of sleep, but he couldn’t rest right now. Not when Lu could wake up at any moment.

Something tugged at his pants, and Roger looked down.

It was Buggy.

He looked as close to crying as Roger felt, and with teary eyes, he made a grabby motion at him.

Roger picked him up wordlessly, and Buggy buried his face in his chest. “Big bwo’ther?” He sniffled, and looked up at Roger.

Roger swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Lu’s just sleeping,” he said, and barely managed to give the toddler a strained smile. “He’ll wake up soon. Don’t worry.”

He wasn’t sure if he was saying it for Buggy, or for himself.

“Sleepin’?” Buggy asked, and Roger nodded, not trusting his voice anymore.

He heard the tip-tapping of tiny feet coming closer, and saw Shanks walking up to Rouge, face scrunched up with a frown, obviously trying not to cry.

Rouge took the boy into her arms, hugging him, and Shanks’ small body shook with silent sobs.

She hummed the tune to a song only she seemed to know, and slowly rubbed circles on his back, trying to soothe him.

After a while, he fell asleep in her arms, eyes puffy and red from the crying, small hands still tightly gripping the fabric of her dress.

Buggy on the other hand, was just silently staring at Lu’s sleeping face, brows furrowed.

“Too quiet, isn’t it?” Rouge whispered, voice slightly shaking.

“Don’ like it.” Buggy grumbled, frown deepening.

“Me neither.” Rouge sighed, as she momentarily closed her eyes. Shanks slightly shifted on her lap and she instinctively adjusted her arms to better hold him.

“Don’. Like it.” Buggy said again, this time with more intensity.

Roger startled as Buggy suddenly jumped out of his lap, a determined look in his eyes.

“Buggy?!”

Buggy was climbing onto Lu’s bed, using the blanket to pull himself up.

Then he sat himself next to Lu’s head, and raised a hand.

“Wa’e up!” He yelled, as he slapped Lu right in the face.

“Buggy-!” Roger felt his heart skip a beat. He was about to scold the blue haired toddler, when he heard a quiet rumbling.

Rouge’s eyes shot open, intensely looking at Lu now.

She heard drums.

She knew she did.

That could only mean one thing.

Her heart fluttered, as Lu groaned, slowly moving his head to look at the one disturbing his sleep.

His eyes opened, and he took a moment to figure out who was in front of him.

Rayleigh made a strangled sound, and hurried off to get a doctor.

“Buggy?” Lu yawned. “Why’re you bein’ so loud?”

Buggy frowned. And promptly slapped his face again.

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” He yelled, as he hit Lu over and over again.

“Wha-?? Why’re you hitting me?!” Lu asked, trying to protect himself from the onslaught of Buggy’s fists.

Rouge felt a choked cry leave her throat, and with a shaky smile, gently nudged Shanks awake.

“Uhn.” Shanks mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“Shanks!” Rouge laughed, as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Lu’s awake!”

In an instant, Shanks was up, looking at her with wide eyes. He turned towards the bed, where Buggy was no longer hitting Lu, and within a second, he was up on the bed as well, hugging Lu along with Buggy, crying as he tightly grabbed onto his older brother’s shirt.

“Shanks??” Lu looked positively confused now. “What happened?”

Roger rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “You were asleep.” He explained, and at Lu’s tilted head, he clarified. “For four whole days.”

Lu’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape, and he looked down at his brothers. He returned their hug, and gave an apologetic smile.

Roger found it looked unusually mature.

“’m sorry,” he whispered, and pulled the two toddlers closer to himself. “Had to help Nika, was important.”

Rouge was by his side now too, and ran a gentle hand through his hair.

“It’s nice of you to help a friend,” She made a pleading expression. “But please tell us first. Okay?”

Lu nodded. “Yeah. Sorry again.”

In that moment, Rayleigh came back, with a somewhat flustered, short statured doctor in tow.

Rayleigh shoved him into the room, and he stumbled towards the bed.

“Uh- so, which, which one’s the patient?” he asked nervously, adjusting his slightly crooked glasses, and looked between the three children on the bed.

Lu raised a hand. “Me, probably.”

“O-oh, ok. Alright then.”

It was a struggle to get Buggy and Shanks to let go of Lu, so the doctor could do a proper check-up on him.

When they finally managed to pry their hands off of his shirt, said shirt was torn apart in the process and they had to get him a new one.

A pity, Lu lamented, it was one of his favorite shirts. Oh well, it wasn't that important anyway.

The doctor’s hands shook as he checked Lu’s condition, obviously intimidated by the amount of pirates surrounding him.

Lu tried to give him a consoling smile.

The doctor looked hardly reassured.

“S-so, aside from a mild fever, there, there seems to be n-nothing wrong with him.” The doctor stuttered, flinching as Roger’s tall figure loomed over him.

“Are you sure?”

“Y-yes!” The doctor was visibly shaking, sweat running down his forehead. “A-all he needs now is a bit of r-rest,” he swallowed dryly. “And s-some nutritious food to get b-better.”

Roger stared at the doctor intensely. “He was asleep for four days, and you tell me there’s nothing wrong with him?”

The doctor hiccupped, and looked close to passing out.

“I’m hungry!” Lu yelled then, his stomach loudly agreeing with him.

The doctor looked at him gratefully, and Roger instantly turned his attention to him instead.

He carefully took Lu into his arms, Rouge taking Buggy and Shanks.

“Then let’s eat now, shall we?”

Rayleigh threw a satchel with some berries to the doctor, which he clumsily caught. “For your troubles.” He said, and pushed him out of the room. “Now scram.”

The doctor didn’t need to be told a second time, and within a minute, he was gone.

“Yeah!” Lu laughed. “With lots of meat!” he added excitedly, and Roger felt a weight drop off of his shoulders. He had missed that smile so much these last few days.

But now, it was finally back.

He would do everything he could, to not let anything happen to any of his sons again.

When his eyes met Rouge’s, he saw the same kind of fire in them, and he knew she would do the same.

They were bearers of the will of D.

Come hell or high water, they would protect what was theirs, no matter the cost.

Chapter Text

It was about a month after Lu had woken up, and Rayleigh was on babysitting duty (again). Lu’s condition had gone back to normal, and if anything, it had even improved. All it had taken, was for the kid to eat twelve gigantic servings of meat, and soon after, he was as good as new.

Strangely, his control over light had seemingly increased, as others could now touch his weavings as well, even if it only lasted for about half an hour in their hands. When Miss Rouge had taught Lu how to braid a few days after, a lot of the crew members had light braided into their hair or beards daily, for the next couple of weeks as a result. (Even Rayleigh had been subjected to it a few times, and despite the fact that he would never admit it out loud, he actually thought it looked pretty amazing.)

Aside from that, Lu’s aura appeared to have become even brighter than before. If Rayleigh squinted his eyes, he could actually see the golden shine that had formed around the boy’s body. And although Rayleigh wasn’t exactly sure, it somehow felt as though Lu had become more… tangible? Just, more here.

…As if he had finally been made complete.

He had no idea why it felt that way, but the kid was a tad strange anyway, so Rayleigh choose to just ignore it.

Today, Miss Rouge and Roger had gone out to the market to get some things, a.k.a. on a date, while the rest of the crew had traitorously abandoned him, opting to visit one of the local bars (again). Bastards. All of them.

Rayleigh had only left the kids alone for five minutes, for a quick toilet break.

When he came back, it was to the smell of fire and smoke, and he momentarily panicked. He rushed back towards the kids, fearing something bad had happened, but the sight that greeted him instead, was… hard to comprehend.

“What the fuck,” he asked politely, as he stared at Lu, who innocently blinked up at him, Shanks and Buggy cuddling up to the younger blonde on each side, as the two did a lot lately, probably to reassure themselves that their older brother wouldn’t suddenly leave again, while all three of them sat in front of a bonfire on the middle of the deck, grilling some kind of meat. “-are you brats doing?”

“Barbecue?” Lu offered, and Rayleigh felt his hand twitch for the flask on his belt.

“I can see that.” Rayleigh pinched the bridge of his nose. “But why?”

Lu tilted his head to the side, his brothers copying the action. “We were hungry?”

“Hungry!” Shanks echoed with a laugh, and Rayleigh felt a headache build up in the back of his head.

“For fuck’s sake-“ Rayleigh took in a deep breath. ‘Calm down, don’t hit them, Miss Rouge will personally decapitate you if you do.’

He breathed out. “This is a ship, you understand?” He narrowed his eyes at them. “A wooden ship.”

Lu tilted his head to the other side, and again, two small heads moved along.

“Why is Uncle Ray-Ray saying something so obvious?”

Rayleigh glared. That brat. “Because a wooden ship burns, you moron.”

Lu made an expression of understanding. “Oh! Uncle Ray-Ray is worried Oro’s gonna get hurt!” He giggled. “But it’s okay, I wouldn’t hurt her! I like Oro too much for that!” He said, as if that explained everything.

“It’s fire, dumbass.” Rayleigh growled. “You can’t control it.” Unless he had a devil fruit, of course, but the kid did that shaping thing with light, so he obviously already had a devil fruit.

“But I can?” Lu said, and Rayleigh raised a brow.

“What?”

“I can control fire.” Lu repeated, and Rayleigh scoffed.

“Yeah right.” As if. No one could have two devil fruits.

Lu pouted. “But it’s true!” He reached his hand towards the fire, and before Rayleigh could properly react and pull him away from the flames, Lu’s hand went into the fire, and pulled out a buring piece of wood. He held it up towards a baffled Rayleigh, a triumphant grin on his lips.

“See? Not burning.” And really, the fire continued to merrily flicker on Lu’s hand, without leaving a single scratch on him or his clothes. Then, Lu fixated the flames with a concentrated look, and slowly, the flames moved, forming the shape of a… hat? A Strawhat, if Rayleigh wasn’t mistaken. It looked a lot like the one Roger usually wore.

“Just what the hell kind of devil fruit do you have?”

Lu blinked at him. “Devil fruit?”

Rayleigh sighed. Right. Lu was just a kid, how would he even know what a devil fruit was?

“So, a devil fruit-“ He tried to begin his explanation, but Lu interrupted him.

“Don’t have one.” He said, and Rayleigh was taken aback.

“You don’t have a devil fruit?”

“Nuh-uh.” Lu shook his head and placed the piece of wood back onto the pile, transferring the flaming Strawhat to his free hand, where it hovered a few millimeters above his palm.

Rayleigh stared. Shanks and Buggy laughed, making grabby motions at the fiery hat. Lu easily held it out of their reach, and with a smile, he sent it floating into the air, towards the sun, where it exploded a few meters above them, into a impressive show of tiny fireworks. To Raleigh’s growing unease, it looked oddly much like he was giving it to someone as a gift.

When it was done, the light around Lu seemed to glow brighter for a few moments, and distantly, Rayleigh thought he heard the sound of laughter, almost like the rumbling of drums. He shivered.

“….” ‘Fuck this.’

Finally giving into his instincts, Raleigh grabbed the flask on his belt, basically ripping off the lid, and downed whatever alcohol he had in there in one swift motion. He could not deal with this shit sober.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and with a tired sigh, flopped down on the other side of the bonfire, in front of the kids.

If he could not stop their insanity, might as well just join them.

“If you could do this the whole time, why haven’t I seen you do this before?” he asked, and Lu scratched the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed.

“’Forgot I could.”

Rayleigh blinked. “You what?” Was this kid serious?

“I forgot.” Lu looked to the side, still embarrassed. “Nika had to remind me.”

And there it was again, that name. Nika. Rayleigh had heard Lu talk about him multiple times to his mother before, who would then proceeded to laugh, as if it was the funniest thing in all of the Blues. He had asked Rouge about it once, because she was the kid’s mother, so surely she’d know more about it, but she had just laughed, and with a mischievous and amused glint in her eyes, told him, that “the sun just really likes him”, which, yes, was obviously the case, but did not answer any of his questions in the slightest.

It was frustrating, but if she said she wouldn’t tell, then she wouldn’t. Rouge was very stubborn when it came to things like these, a personality trait she seemed to have passed down to her son as well. Unfortunately.

“Who’s Nika?” Rayleigh tried, and Lu looked at him as if he was stupid. ‘This brat.’

“My friend.” He said simply, apparently deeming it enough of an answer.

“Right. Got it.” Rayleigh sighed. Why was he even expecting any clear answer from this kid?

“Uncle Ray-Ray looks sad, do you want some meat?” Lu offered after seeing his expression, holding a skewer with meat towards him.

Defeated, Rayleigh accepted it. To his surprise, it actually tasted good.

“What kind of meat is this?” He asked Lu, who was currently turning over the other skewers, to properly grill all sides.

Rayleigh had no idea where the boy had acquired the meat during the five minutes he was gone, and at this point, he didn’t even want to know. Besides that, how did he even know how to cook meat? He was like three, right? Had Rouge taught him?

“Crocodile!” Lu grinned. “Yummy, right?”

Rayleigh nodded. “It’s…edible.”

Lu just laughed his usual ‘Shishishi’ at that, and bit off a piece of his own skewer.

In sync with his laugh, there was the almost inaudible sound of drumming, the same laughter that Rayleigh had heard when Lu had sent the flaming Strawhat into the air only a few moments prior. And again, Lu’s aura seemed to brighten for a moment.

“Really,” Rayleigh sighed and dragged a hand over his face. “What the fuck.”

________________

Contrary to popular opinion, Roger was aware of how strange Lu’s behavior was at times.

Once in a while, the boy had this odd air of maturity around him, unfitting of his usual childish personality, like someone who had already seen their life’s end.

Logically, Roger knew that Lu was only a child and therefore could in no way have lived long enough to have that kind of aura. But somewhere, deep in the back of Roger’s head, a quiet voice told him he wasn’t that far off.

And then there was that new thing with controlling light and fire.

Of course, he had asked Rouge about it, but all the answer she gave him, was that ‘the sun just really loved him’. Obviously, none of that cleared up any of Roger’s questions, so he was stuck trying to come up with an answer himself.

Unfortunately, Lu had said he didn’t have a devil fruit, but frankly, Roger didn’t know how else to explain Lu’s abilities.

If this was the Grandline, Roger would chalk it up to one of it’s strange mysteries. However, this was one of the Blues, and as far as Roger knew, the South Blue was relatively normal.

Well, Rouge had said she had found Lu on the beach, all alone, without anything but the clothes on his body to him, so that in itself was strange enough.

How had the boy gotten there? Had he been abandoned, or even kidnapped and brought to the water to get rid of him?

There were a lot of potential theories running through his head, but at the moment, none of them seemed to fit.

Roger sighed.

“I’m starting to understand why Ray looks so tired all the time.”

“Did you say something, dear?” Rouge looked up from where she was sitting on one if the boulders behind her house, expertly cleaning her daggers, tilting her head at him in a way that strongly resembled Lu.

Roger shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Rouge raised a brow at him, but ultimately let it go. She placed the cloth to the side and stood up, walking towards him.

“Well then.” She smiled sweetly at him and Roger felt a shiver of excitement run down his back. “Ready for our next spar, Gol D. Roger?”

Roger felt his lips twitch into a grin.

“More that ready.”

The laugh that came from her then, made a comfortable warmth spread in Roger’s stomach.

“Think you’ll win this time?” She sneered, lifting her arms into a fighting stance.

“Obviously.” Roger laughed, and with that, they begun anew.

Their blades clashed, playful waves of Conqueror’s Haki rippling around them.

Roger jumped back as one of her blades came too close to his neck, and quickly, Roger aimed his own weapon at Rouge’s side.

She skillfully evaded his blade, pushing it aside with the back of her right dagger. In an instant she had closed the distance between them, jumped up, twisted her left dagger in her hand, and with surprising strength, hit the side of his head with its hilt, making Roger’s view blur for a short second.

There was a black gleam in the corner of Roger’s eye, and he knew she had coated it with Armament Haki. A smart move.

It had been quite the surprise for Roger, to find out Rouge was able to use all three types of Haki.

Haki wasn’t particularly common knowledge in the Blues, so to find someone from there, who was able to use it, was quite unusual.

While her Conqueror’s Haki wasn’t on par with his own, she was equally matched with him when it came to Armament and Observation Haki.

Roger turned his body to dodge her blade aiming for his side, blocking the other coming for his chest, with Ace.

Rouge’s eye twitched, and she jumped back, quickly moving out of Roger’s range.

“You’re getting better.” She grinned, and sprinted towards him. He raised Ace to guard his front, expecting Rouge to attack him head-on like before, but instead, Rouge crouched down only a few meters in front of him, and with an impressive leap, jumped over Roger’s head, softly landing behind him. Before Roger could turn around, he felt the tips of her blades press into his back.

With a defeated sigh, he lowered his weapon.

“I lost.”

Rouge lowered her daggers as well, sheathing them back into the holsters on her belt.

She pat his back in a consoling gesture. “Just keep trying, dear. I’m sure you’ll win next time.”

“You said that last time too.” Roger grumbled, as they made their way back to the ship.

Rouge only laughed at him.

And again, a comfortable warmth spread in his stomach.

Oh, how he loved this woman.

Chapter Text

Lu looked at his father, as Rouge tightly held him in her arms, most likely to console herself.

“And you’re sure you’ll be back in 3 years?” He asked Roger teary-eyed, and Rouge’s hold on him tightened.

Roger nodded, a shaky smile on his lips. “I promise.”

Lu’s eyes widened that, and Roger had the illusion the boy’s eyes glowed red for a second.

“A promise…” Lu whispered, but instead of the drums that Roger had expected to hear in that moment, he heard a laugh.

It was quiet, barely audible, and for a moment, Roger couldn’t breathe.

He startled when he felt Lu’s hand touch his face, as the boy leaned towards him, a wide, almost too wide grin on his face, obsidian eyes staring deeply into Roger’s.

“You just made a promise, Dad.” He said calmly, and Roger felt the skin, where Lu was touching him, heat up. “So don’t break it.”

“I won’t.” Roger said without hesitation.

Lu retracted his hand at that, giving him a satisfied nod.

Roger could still feel the warmth of the boy’s fingertips on his cheek, and subconsciously wondered if they had left a mark.

“Bring us back a some souvenirs, will you?” Rouge joked then, and Roger laughed.

“Sure! I’ll get whatever you want!”

Lu’s eyes sparkled. “I want something cool! like a weapon!”

Roger ruffled the boy’s hair. “Of course! What do you have in mind?”

Lu thought for a moment. Then, the light around him brightened, and Roger knew he had found an answer.

“A pipe!” He grinned at Roger, who looked at him somewhat skeptical.

“Are you sure you don’t want something else? A sword maybe? Or daggers?”

Lu shook his head. “Nope! I want a pipe!” If he couldn't use Nika's devil fruit, he should at least choose the weapon he was most familiar with, shouldn't he?

With a resigned sigh and a smile, Roger turned to Rouge. “And what would you want, my dear?”

Rouge gave him a soft look, that made the butterflies in his stomach go wild.

“More than anything, I want you and the children to come back safe and unhurt.”

Ah, if this went on, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to leave at all.

He flinched slightly as Rouge’s hand reached up to gently wipe away the tears he hadn’t realized were falling from his eyes.

“Oh my,” Rouge chuckled. “Was Gol D. Roger always such a crybaby?”

Roger’s lips pulled downwards, and he grasped her hand.

“I’ll miss you.” He sniffled, and Rouge laughed.

“You can write us letters, you know?” She said and leaned up to give him a quick kiss. Lu giggled as he was momentarily squished between the two.

“Ah!” Roger had completely forgotten about that.

He felt his cheeks turning red and tried his best to hide his face in his hands. He was such a fool, wasn’t he?

“Dear, how about you bring me a hat when you come back?”

At that, Roger raised his head. “A hat?”

Rouge nodded. “An orange one, if you can.”

Roger laughed. “Of course! I’ll bring you the best hat you’ll ever see!”

“Thank you, dear.” And like an afterthought, she added; “Oh, and please don’t cause Rayleigh-san too much trouble. At this rate his hair will turn grey before he turns 40, from all the stress you’re causing him.”

Roger grinned mischievously. “I can’t promise that.”

With that, Roger gave her one last kiss, and hurried to the Oro, where the rest of his crew was already waiting for him.

He didn’t look back.

Otherwise, he would have stayed without a second thought.

He took a deep breath. Just three years. He could do this.

He breathed out, a strong resolve settling within him.

When he came back, he’d take Rouge and Lu with him out to sea.

This way, his family would be complete.

He would bring them.

Absolutely.

_________________

Dragon wasn’t one to believe in gods.

In his opinion, they were made-up beings, meant to strike fear into the minds of their believers, invented by power-hungry people who needed an excuse to control those under them.

Over the course of his childhood, his father had told him a lot of stories about those supposed ‘godly beings’. Still, Dragon thought all of it was just pure nonsense, exaggerated tales to scare weak-willed people into not acting up, in fear of incurring the wrath of these almighty ‘gods’.

But right now, as he stood in front of that shrine in the middle of the forest, injured and bleeding, he wondered if they actually existed.

He warily glanced at the strange… child? Looking at him from where it sat atop the stone tablet inside the shrine, curiously watching him.

Golden, glowing hair, that softly swayed in a non-existent breeze, along with a pink flower pinned behind their ear, as well as a ring of light that seemed to sit atop their head, illuminating a small area around them.

It felt so surreal, and Dragon wondered if he was hallucinating due to the blood loss.

He glared intensely at the child, hoping to scare it away, but the child just tilted its head, as if wondering something.

“Who are you?” he snarled, instinctively reaching for his pistol, only to remember he’d lost it during his escape. He inwardly cursed.

The child didn’t seem to be intimidated in the least, and tilted its head to the other side.

“Hi,” It smiled then, and Dragon shivered as two voices seemed to come from its mouth. “I’m We’re Lu.”

How was that possible?

The gears turned in his head, and he took in the child’s bizarre appearance once more, as well as the Shrine it sat in.

It… just didn’t feel human.

Dragon shook, as a thought, a possible answer, made it’s way into his acing head. Perhaps it was the blood loss, that was currently tampering with his logical thinking skills, but…

Maybe it wasn’t human.

Dragon had never really believed in any kind of religion, and even though his father had told him about these things before, he hadn’t cared much for it. Until now.

He swallowed dryly.

…If this child really was who he suspected it to be, then doing this could potentially save him.

He momentarily struggled to fish a piece of dried meat and a few berry coins out of his coat pocket.

He gave the items a worried frown. Would this be acceptable enough? He really hoped so.

Tossing the meat and coins in front of the Shrine’s offering altar, the giant stone tablet that the child sat on, with strange, undecipherable letters, right under the sun engraving, he shakily kneeled down in front of it, and folded his hands in prayer.

The child was still quietly observing him, and Dragon took that as a good sign.

“I know-” he looked up at the child. “-that this might not be enough for you. But please… help me.”

__________________

Lu looked down at the young man, who he knew, would one day be the Leader of the Revolutionary Army, as well as ‘Luffy’s’ biological father.

Dragon was kneeling in front of him, his hands folded together in a strange manner.

‘What’s he doing?’ He asked Nika in his mind, and the God giggled. ‘He’s praying! He even gave an offering!’

Lu raised a brow. ‘An offering? What’s that?’

Nika hummed. ‘It’s something you give to a God, so that they’re willing to help you.’

Lu stared at Dragon for a moment, then at the dried meat he had ‘offered’ him.

‘And why is he giving that to me? I’m not a God, you are.’

Nika was oddly quiet for a moment.

 ‘…I’d need to touch the offering to accept it. But I don’t have a body.’ Nika gave a somewhat strange laugh. It sounded… nervous? Lu wasn’t sure what to make of it. ‘And since you have one,’ the God continued, ‘you can accept it for me.’

Lu raised a brow. Was that how that worked?

He shrugged. Oh well, Nika would know better than him, he supposed.

“What do you need help with?” He then asked, and Dragon’s eyes widened.

A hopeful look overcame his features, and he gave a sigh of relief.

“I-, I’m being chased,” he stuttered, and Lu frowned as he saw the dark spot on Dragon’s uniform. A gunshot wound?

Fortunately, it only seemed to be a graze wound. Still, he’d need medical attention soon.

“My former comrades want to capture me, so they can use me to keep my father in check.” Dragon continued, “He’s a high-ranking Marine.”

Lu’s frown deepened at that. They were trying to control Monkey D. Garp, of all people? They should know that that would be impossible.

He jumped down from the stone tablet, softly landing in front of Dragon. He bent down to pick up the piece of dried meat, ignoring the berry coins, and Nika laughed softly. Thankfully, over the years, Nika had learned not to yell in Lu’s head anymore. It saved him a lot of headaches.

‘So you accept his offering, Pirate King?’

‘Of course.’ Lu felt his heart drum in excitement. ‘I would help him even without it.’

Lu swallowed the piece of meat in one bite, licking his lips.

Nika laughed again, as Lu felt a strange warmth spread through his body. He decided he’d like this new feeling.

 He grinned at Dragon, reaching out a hand for him to grasp. “Don’t worry! I’ll help you.”

______________________________

Dragon warily took the hand the God was holding out to him.

The God laughed, and pulled Dragon with him.

“Come, I know who can treat your wounds!”

“Ah- Hold on-!” Dragon winched as the sudden motion pulled at his side.

The God halted, and gave him a concerned look.

“You can’t properly walk like that, can you?”

Dragon shook his head. “I don’t think so, no.”

The God squinted his eyes, as if thinking about something, and soon after, he raised two fingers to his mouth, and whistled.

A few moments later, the bushes next to them rustled, and Dragon gaped at the gigantic cougar that had now entered the clearing. It was at least two meters tall.

“What…?”

The cougar gave a curious chirp, and tilted its head at Dragon.

“Hello Goldie!” The God happily greeted the feline, and held out a hand towards the cougar, who gently rubbed its face against it.

“Goldie, can you help me bring my friend home? He’s hurt.”

The cougar, no, Goldie, turned to look at Dragon, who startled when the feline suddenly started sniffing him.

After a few uncomfortable seconds, the cougar let out a strange huff, and laid down in front of him, mustering him with a stern gaze, tail swishing side to side in an apparent impatient manner.

Confused, Dragon looked at the God, who he dimly noticed had yet to let go of his hand.

The God was grinning up at him, and motioned at Goldie’s back.

“She’s telling you to get on.”

With an uneasy feeling in his stomach, Dragon climbed onto Goldie’s back, the God easily seating himself in front of him.

“Alright!” he said then, and Dragon instinctively grabbed tightly onto Goldie’s fur, as she stood back up. “Let’s go!”

_________________

“Who is this?” Rouge asked Lu with narrowed eyes, and the boy beamed at her.

“A new friend!”

She raised a brow. “Really?”

Lu nodded. “Yeah!” Then suddenly, his expression became serious, and subconsciously, Rouge tensed. “But he’s hurt, can you help him, Mama?”

Rouge let her gaze wander over the young man that Lu and Goldie had brought to her.

He seemed to barely be an adult, maybe not even twenty yet, had shoulder long, spiky, black hair, and subliminally, she noticed that his eyes were the same shade of obsidian as Lu’s.

Her eyes halted at the torn-up Marine uniform he was wearing, and for a moment, she wondered if it was okay for the son of a notorious Pirate to be friends with a Marine, but she soon discarded the thought, when she saw the dark red spot on his side.

She sighed. “Come in.”

____________________

Dragon glanced at the woman, Portgas D. Rouge, as she had introduced herself as, while she was carefully cleaning out his wound.

They were in the guest room, where Dragon had been instructed to sit down on the bed, for easier access to his wounds, according to Rouge.

The God, or rather, Lu, was still staring at him with worry, and Dragon averted his gaze from those big, puppy-like eyes.

Rouge was a beautiful woman, and he somewhat wondered if she too, was not human.

But then again, Rouge didn’t quite give off the same energy as her son. Maybe she was something like a foster parent? Lu didn’t seem to be very old, after all. Perhaps he had chosen her as a guardian, until he could care for himself?

He sucked in a sharp breath, cursing as Rouge suddenly begun threading a surgical string through his skin, sewing his wound shut.

“Hold still.” She gently reprimanded him, and he grit his teeth, letting her continue.

A few minutes later, Rouge disinfected the stitch one last time, and with a satisfied smile, wrapped Dragon’s lower torso in gauze.

“So, what’s your name?” Rouge asked, and Dragon hesitated.

Many people were looking for him right now. And not for good intentions. His former comrades had falsely accused him of being a traitor, and as a result, there was now a bounty on his head.

Even if Rouge seemed to be a kind woman, who knew what would happen if she found out about him. There was a chance she would turn him in for the money, and Dragon definitely didn’t want to meet his father. Not when Garp had so miserably failed to see the true face of the ones he oh-so loyally served.

He couldn’t help but think about it.

If Dragon were ever to be captured and send to execution, would Garp fight for him? Or would he silently watch on, as his son’s life was ended right before his eyes?

He startled as he felt a warm hand carefully tapping his arm.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Rouge asked softly, and Dragon swallowed dryly.

“Uhm. Yeah…” Rouge tilted her head, and Dragon frowned. Could he tell her? Would she really not call the authorities on him?

Coincidentally, his eyes met Lu’s, and the little God gave him an encouraging nod.

Right. Rouge was someone who Lu had chosen to be his caretaker.

He could trust her.

“I’m… Dragon. Monkey D. Dragon.”

Rouge nodded in understanding, and a look of recognition flashed across her face.

“Dragon, is it?” She said, and Dragon knew she had realized who he was.

But against all his fears, Rouge only gave him a good-natured smile, and gently ruffled his hair.

“You must be tired.” She bent down to pick up Lu, and sat him down next to Dragon on the bed. Said boy looked at him with sparkling eyes, and Dragon felt blinded for a moment.

“Get some sleep. Sunshine here will keep you company.” She gently pushed at his chest, until he laid down on the bed, and pulled the blanket over him and Lu. “When you wake up, I’ll have some delicious food ready for you.”

Soon after, Dragon felt his eyelids grow heavy, and Lu pulled himself closer to Dragon.

“Sleep well.” The little God whispered, and like on command, Dragon’s eyes fell shut.

Chapter Text

Dragon woke up with a yawn, stretching his arms as he sat up in bed, carefully prying the small hands on his chest off of him.

Lu’s face scrunched up in disapproval, and Dragon couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising slightly.

If Dragon hadn’t know that this child was a literal God, then he might have even found it cute.

As quietly as possible, Dragon moved to the side of the bed, letting his feet dangle over the edge for a moment.

He then placed his feet on the ground, careful not to disturb the bandage on his side.

On the nightstand next to the bed was a new set of clothes, that most likely Rouge had laid out for him. After a short moment of consideration, he put them on, and made his way towards the kitchen.

Around a week had passed, since Dragon had arrived at Rouge’s and Lu’s house, and most of his injuries had recovered to a point where he could move without any significant pain.

Although he had somewhat gotten used to the little God’s presence, he still felt a bit uneasy, whenever Lu looked at him with those bright, seemingly expectant eyes, as if he knew something about Dragon, that even Dragon himself didn’t know.

Rouge was already seated at the kitchen table, some kind of soup slowly cooking behind her on the stove. Dragon’s nose identified it as chicken soup.

She held a slightly crumpled letter in her hands, that she was looking at with a fond expression.

When she noticed Dragon’s presence, she looked up, and gave him a smile.

“Did you sleep well?” She asked, and still somewhat groggy, Dragon nodded.

“What’re you reading?” He asked her, more for the sake of making conversation, rather than actual curiosity, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and Rouge patted the chair next to herself, motioning for him to sit down.

Dragon complied, and glanced at the letter Rouge was holding his way, so he could better see.

‘To my dearest Love’ Dragon read, and raised a brow. Was it Rouge’s Lover?

‘I hope you and our little sunshine are doing well. Only one more year, then we’ll see each other again. I already miss you, and so do Blue and Red.’

His gaze fell onto the bottom of the letter.

It was signed with the initials ‘R.D.G.’, and next to it, two squiggly lines in red and blue ink.

Dragon averted his eyes from the words that had clearly not been meant for him to see, and gave Rouge a look of uncertainty. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to read this? ”

Rouge nodded, a gentle look in her eyes. “You trusted us enough to tell us your full name, so I think it’s only fair that I show you the same amount of trust.”

Dragon frowned. “But just by being here, I’m putting you danger. Why don’t you just tell the Navy where I am?”

Rouge didn’t answer for a moment, and instead gave him a reassuring smile.

“You’re not the only reason why I’d rather not have any Marines near me.”

At Dragon’s confused expression, she laughed.

“Lu isn’t really a normal child, you know?”

Dragon nodded at that. True, Lu was a God. So of course he wasn’t a ‘normal child’. The navy would undoubtedly want a child like that in their research facility. Thinking about it, Lu probably wasn’t a child at all. Did Gods even age the same way as humans did?

Since it seemed like Dragon understood the meaning of her words, she continued.

“Besides, his father isn’t exactly friends with Marines either.” She added with an amused chuckle, as if she knew something crucial, that Dragon didn’t.

“His father?” Dragon’s eyes briefly fell onto the letter in Rouge’s hands. Perhaps that man was also Lu’s guardian?

Rouge, having followed Dragon’s gaze, nodded. “He’s a Pirate.”

Dragon understood. A Pirate obviously wasn’t on good terms with the Navy.

Rouge carefully brushed her hand over the crumpled paper, smoothening it out. “Two years ago, he set sail with his crew. I’m sure he’s very busy, but he still manages to send us a letter every week.” She said, smiling fondly. “This one came last week, a day before Lu found you.” She added as an afterthought.

“He must really love you.” Dragon couldn’t help but say, and distantly wondered if his own father had had the same relationship with his mother, before she’d passed away.

Rouge laughed.

“Oh, he does. He even cried the day he left, thinking we wouldn’t be able to contact each other at all.” She stared into empty space for a moment, as if remembering something nostalgic, a small smile tugging at her lips. “And I love him just as much.”

Dragon furrowed his brows. “But if he loves you so much, why did he leave in the first place?”

“’Cause Dad's the sea’s favorite person.”

Dragon flinched, as Lu’s head suddenly popped up between him and Rouge. The boy had squeezed himself in the gap between the two chairs, and was currently trying to climb onto Rouge’s lap.

Dragon had not heard nor seen him approach. At all. Even his Observation Haki hadn’t picked up on him. It was terrifying.

Rouge pulled back her chair a bit, giving Lu more room to move. Once Lu had found a comfortable position, he looked up at Dragon with a somewhat sad expression.

“The sea kept calling for him. Really loudly. It hurt my ears too, almost as much as Nika did before.”

At that, Rouge began to gently pet Lu’s head, running her fingers through his hair in a soothing manner. Lu happily leaned into her touch, closing his eyes.

“Dad is really special to the sea.” Lu continued, eyes still shut. “But he’s special to us too, so I made him promise to come back for us in three years.”

Lu then opened his eyes, staring straight at Dragon. He felt a shiver run down his spine, as the little God’s aura seemed to intensify.

“And no one can will break a promise with me.” And there it was again. That strange, drumming second voice overlapping with Lu’s normal voice.

Dragon didn’t say anything. Couldn’t.

He startled as Rouge suddenly pulled on Lu’s cheek, a scolding look on her face.

“What did I say about using Conqueror’s on people weaker than you?”

In an instant, Dragon felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, and he took in a deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“To not do it…” Lu pouted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “But it wasn’t on purpose! I swear!”

Rouge raised a brow at him. “We’ve been training all this time, how can you still not control it?”

Lu stared at her with a look, that said he wondered why she was even asking him that.

“’Cause I’m small and there’s lots of it.”

“I know, I know.” Rouge said with a sigh, finally letting go of Lu’s cheek. “But wouldn’t it be bad if your future friends fainted just from meeting you?”

Lu seemed to understand that. But soon after, his mood dropped. “But it’s gonna take years until I can see my crew again!” he whined, and Dragon felt a multitude of questions rise in his head.

Rouge nodded, as if what Lu just said had made any sense, ruffling his hair. “You’ll meet them again, don’t worry.”

“What does he mean by that?” Dragon voiced one of these many questions.

“I have no idea.” Rouge said with an unbothered shrug. “But honestly, it’s not the strangest thing he’s ever said.”

‘Yeah,’ Dragon thought, as he looked at the young God’s black, yet frighteningly bright eyes. ‘that sounds about right.’

He stared at the God and Mother duo, a tired sigh escaping his lips.

“How long do you reckon it’ll take for my wounds to heal completely?” He asked, desperate to change the topic.

Rouge hummed. “Around two more weeks, I’d say.”

Dragon nodded at that. “Is it okay for me to stay here until then?”

“Did you think we’d kick you out, now that you’ve healed up a bit?” Rouge asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Somehow, Dragon thought she sounded offended. But why?

He furrowed his brows in confusion. “Isn’t that normal? I’m an intruder in your family, so of course I should leave.”

Before Rouge could open her mouth to answer him, Lu grabbed Dragon’s sleeve, making the older man look at him.

There was that strange look in his eyes again, and Dragon shifted in his seat, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“Uhm. What?” He asked after a while, as Lu still hadn’t said anything.

Rouge, apparently sensing how serious Lu had gotten, naturally didn’t say anything either, and waited for Lu to speak.

Lu frowned at Dragon, and unexplainably, Dragon felt like he had said something wrong. He just didn’t know what it was, that had earned such a reaction from the little God.

Lu’s grip on Dragon’s sleeve tightened, wrinkling the fabric.

“Dragon-nii.” Lu said sternly, and Dragon flinched.

“…What?” Dragon was an only child, and had thus never heard anyone call him ‘brother’. It felt… strange. Especially since the one calling him that was Lu.

“You’re family too now.” The blonde scowled, lips pulled downwards in dissatisfaction. “We’ll take care of you.”

Dragon nervously licked his lips, that suddenly felt very dry. “But…why would you…?”

Lu’s aura brightened, and with a strangely meaningful look, gently placed his hand on Dragon’s own, and he flinched at the warmth it exuded.

“Because we decided to.” The second voice overlapped with Lu’s again, and at that, Dragon knew that he couldn’t refute the little God’s words.

“…Okay.” He said, as an odd sensation spread in his chest, warmth blooming in his stomach.

…Somehow, he didn’t mind it. It felt… nice.

As he looked up, he coincidentally locked eyes with Rouge.

Her gaze was gentle, and Dragon suddenly realized what exactly had happened just now.

He’d been claimed.

Claimed as family.

_____________________

Lu lazily dangled his legs over the edge of the bench, feet not yet quite reaching the ground.

He held and ice-cream cone in one hand, his other keeping a tight grip on the bag of groceries Rouge had asked him to get a few hours ago.

Lu knew they wouldn’t spoil easily, as it was mostly vegetables anyway (much to his dismay) and since he had some spare change, he allowed himself to indulge in a sweet treat for a moment.

He stopped licking his ice-cream when a shadow suddenly blocked the sun, and looked up.

The man standing in front of him was tall, muscular, and his white coat hung over his shoulders in a careless manner.

There was a stitched, crescent scar on the left side of his face, going down from his brow to the outer corner of his eye.

“Hey, boy.” The older Marine said, and subconsciously, a smile bloomed on Lu’s face.

Another familiar face.

“Hm?” He tilted his head in apparently childish curiosity (really, Nami would be super proud of the current extend of his acting-skills), and for a moment, the Marine startled.

Soon after, he seemingly caught himself again, clearing his throat.

He took out piece of paper, leaning down a bit to hold it at Lu’s eye-level.

“Did you see this man here in the last few days?” He asked, and Lu’s smile fell.

Garp was holding picture of Dragon.

It wasn’t from a Wanted Poster, as far as Lu could tell, but rather had most likely been taken out of a frame, which meant, that Garp had a framed picture of Dragon, and had apparently taken care of it quite well, if the only minimal scratches and folds at the edges meant anything.

In the picture, Dragon was looking at the camera with a sour expression, his hair messy and standing up in a few places. It seemed to have been taken only a short while after Dragon had woken up. Perhaps it had even been Garp himself who'd taken the picture.

Lu made show of studying the picture, like he was trying to remember something, feeling Garp’s gaze bore into his head.

“Yeah, I did.” Lu said after a while, and Garp’s eyes lit up.

The older man grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him, a sense of urgency in his voice. ”Really?! When?! Where?!”

Lu grimaced, doing his best to stop his ice-cream from escaping his grip. “Last week, in the forest by the beach.” He said, and technically, he wasn’t lying.

“Is he still there?” Garp asked hopefully, but Lu shook his head.

“He didn’t stay long, said he was in a hurry. But I think I saw him take a boat eastwards a few days ago.” Now that one was a lie.

Garp visibly deflated. “I see.” He sighed, and plopped down next to Lu on the bench.

“Who is he?” Lu asked nonchalantly, and licked the melted streaks of ice-cream off of his hand.

Garp leaned back, draping an arm over his eyes, shielding them from the brightness of the sun. His ‘voice’ sounded like a thick mixture of sadness, anger and helplessness. But as he spoke about Dragon, there was a hint of fondness in his words.

“He’s a troublemaker, absolutely refuses to take orders from anyone, even from his own father,” Garp huffed out a laugh. “Though I guess he’s just like me in that regard.”

“So did he do something bad? Is that why you’re looking for him, Marine Gramps?”

Garp lowered his arm, giving the five-year-old a tired smile.

“In a way.” He ruffled Lu’s hair with a look of parental affection. Perhaps a habit he’d developed when Dragon was still a child? Who knew. “So I have to bring him back home and give him a good scolding!”

Lu paused for a moment. “But you said he never listens, will he even want to come home, especially if he knows you’re going to scold him?”

Garp seemed surprised by that question. His brows furrowed. “I’m his family. Of course he’ll come home.” He said with absolute conviction.

Lu hummed. “Is that so?” With two more bites, he finished his cone, and brushed the leftover crumbs off his pants.

“Hey, Marine Gramps, can you buy me another ice-cream?” He grinned up at Garp, who looked at him with a confused expression.

“What?”

“Can you buy me another ice-cream?” He repeated, when Garp just stared at him dumbly.

“No. Why would I do that?” Garp raised a brow at him and Lu pouted. “Ask your parents for that. Speaking of which,” He looked around the vicinity, seeing if any adults were coming over to pick up their child. No one even looked at them. “Where are they?”

“Dad’s been at sea for the last two years.” Lu answered, and Garp seemed like he wanted to say something, but Lu continued. “So it’s just me and Mama at home right now.”

Garp stared at Lu for a moment, then his eyes fell onto the grocery bag. “She sent you on an errand today?”

Lu nodded. “Yup!” He jumped down from the bench, taking the grocery bag with him. “But I gotta go home now, Mama’s waiting for me.”

At that, Garp stood up. “Want me to accompany you? To make sure you won’t get lost?”

Lu shook his head at that. He felt a bit weird, having Garp worry over him like this. The older version of Garp was loud, boisterous, and wasn’t the type of person to be so… gentle. Perhaps it was because Lu looked like a child right now, but still, when Lu had been a child the first time, the man wasn’t like this. “No thanks. I know the way.”

Garp nodded. “Alright then. Stay safe, boy.” He said and ruffled Lu’s hair again. “Don’t make your Mom worry.”

Lu studied Garp’s face. The man looked tired, the heavy bags under his eyes evident of many sleepless nights, and his short hair was messy, as though he hadn’t had the energy to comb it properly.

And Lu… he’d seen that expression on Garp’s face before.

Roger and Rouge had worn the same expression, when Lu had been asleep for four whole days, after the incident at Nika’s Shrine.

It was the expression of a parent worried for their child.

Just as Garp was about to turn around and leave, the boy grabbed the hem of his coat, pulling. “Hey, Marine Gramps.”

“Hm?” Garp looked at the blonde boy, and for a moment, his dark eyes shone in a way that reminded Garp eerily of Dragon. He flinched.

“Wait a moment. I wanna give you something.” He said, placing the grocery bag on the ground.

Then, to Garp’s immense surprise, grabbed rays of sunshine out of the air, and begun to twist the strings of light with practiced ease, weaving it, and a few seconds later, held a golden hibiscus towards Garp, who stared at it with wide eyes.

“This is…” Was it a devil fruit ability?

“It’s a gift for you! So you can sleep better!” The boy beamed, and placed the flower in Garp’s hand.

“…Thank you.” Garp mumbled, still not quite sure how to react.

The boy picked up his grocery bag and smiled. “You’re welcome! But It’ll fall apart after a day, so take good care of it until then!” He said, and subconsciously, Garp nodded.

Then, he looked at the boy again.

“What’s your name?” He couldn’t help but ask. Just who was this kid?

The boy tilted his head side to side, as if thinking about his answer. “Well,” He said after a few seconds, giving Garp a mischievous grin. “Mama and Dad always call me Sunshine. So if we ever meet again, you can call me that!” ‘Sunshine’ then left, presumably to go home, waving at Garp until he was no longer in sight.

Garp stood there a few more minutes, the flower now carefully cradled in his hand, it’s warmth gently brushing over his skin.

“…Sunshine, huh?” he whispered, a small smile on his lips.

He wondered if he’d really see the boy again some day.

He had a feeling he would turn out to be someone great in the future.

_________

“Hurry up, Dragon-nii! The sun is gonna set soon!” Lu called, and with a sigh, Dragon picked up the pace, running after him, deeper into the woods.

A strenuous 10 minutes of running later, they finally stopped, and Dragon flopped onto the ground, taking a moment to catch his breath.

“What- gah, are we doing here?” He asked still somewhat breathless, as he took in the familiar white Shrine in front of him.

Lu grasped his hand, and Dragon let himself be dragged closer to the Shrine, not bothering to try and fight it.

Lu wordlessly reached into the bag he’d been carrying until now, pulling out a bottle of… sake? As well as two sake cups.

He placed them on the ground between him and Dragon, filling each cup.

He then pushed one cup closer to Dragon, and picked up the one in front of him.

“Did you know,” Lu started, and Dragon felt like whatever was going to happen, would change the course of his life drastically. “that if you exchange sake cups, you can become brothers?”

Dragon looked down at the sake cup in front of him, then at the one Lu held in his hand.

With a look of determination, Dragon picked up the cup, raising it to his lips as Lu did the same.

The sake burned in his throat like liquid fire, causing him to cough violently.

Lu gave him a sympathetic smile as he took a sip from his own cup.

“Ew.” He grimaced, but nonetheless reached for Dragon’s cup, downing the rest of it.

Dragon followed suit, and really wished he could wash the taste away somehow.

Suddenly, Lu reached his hand towards him, his eyes glazed over with a strange light, touching Dragon’s face. The left side of it, where Lu’s fingers slowly trailed from his forehead to his jaw, seemed to burn under his touch, like flames licking at his skin, and with a pained yelp, Dragon recoiled.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled, holding the affected side of his face.

The dazed look in Lu’s eyes disappeared, and he looked at Dragon with a sliver of uncertainty.

“Oh… Sorry. Nika asked me to.” He murmured, and he could see the want for answers in the older man’s eyes. However, even Lu himself wasn’t sure what just happened.

The moment he and Dragon had exchanged cups, Nika let out a laugh, excitement rolling off of his presence in waves, a singular word loudly ringing in the link between them.

‘Ours.’

And somehow, Lu couldn't help but enjoy the wave of euphoria that came with it. 

'Yes.' He thought, staring at the red marks of burning fingertips on his new brother's face, a sense of happiness washing over him. 'Ours.'

Chapter Text

Roger couldn’t help but laugh, as he read Lu’s and Rouge’s latest letter.

As always, the first few paragraphs were in Rouge’s handwriting, mostly telling him what she’d done over the week, as well as informing him that they were fine, and that they missed him and the others.

The rest of the letter was obviously written by Lu, his messy handwriting easily distinguishable from Rouge’s.

 However, it was specifically Lu’s part of the letter, that made the corners of Roger’s mouth rise up like this.

“Another one, huh?” he laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Captain?” Rayleigh walked up to him from behind on the deck, throwing a look at the letter he was holding. “Did something happen over there?” He asked, a tinge of curiosity in his voice.

Roger turned his head to look at his first mate, still smiling.

“Sunshine seems to be collecting again.”

Rayleigh raised a brow. “Collecting? What, is he hoarding ‘cool’ stones in his room again?”

“Not this time.” Roger shook his head with an amused expression. “He’s caught himself an older brother, it seems.”

“What?” Rayleigh looked at him incredulously, as though he thought he’d misheard him. “How even?”

Roger tapped Lu’s section of the letter, holding it towards Rayleigh. “Seems like he found him in the woods. Sunshine’s got quite the knack for finding lost things, doesn’t he?” Roger said, a proud glint in his eyes.

Rayleigh took a moment to read it. “Lu found a person in the woods?” He pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling another headache coming in. “Does he just go around claiming random people?”

“I doubt it’s just random people.” Roger said, looking unusually thoughtful, rubbing his chin. “For him, we all probably fit a certain criteria. I mean, I take the people I find interesting. Like you for example.” He playfully winked at Rayleigh, earning an unimpressed look in return.

Rayleigh then narrowed his eyes at him. “Are you sure he’s really not your biological child? He’s awfully similar to you for that not to be the case.”

Roger hummed. “I’m pretty sure I’d remember making a mini-me?”

Rayleigh sighed. “Even though I kind of doubt that, the timeline with Lu’s age doesn’t really match with our route of the last five to six years anyway. We weren’t even close to the south blue, when Rouge would’ve had him.”

Roger briefly wondered if he should tell Rayleigh that Lu and Rouge weren’t actually blood-related, but ultimately figured it wasn’t that important of a detail anyway.

“Maybe I just made an impression on him? Like a child copying their parents as they grow up?” Roger mused, and Rayleigh grimaced.

“It wouldn’t be as bad, if you weren’t the parent he’s copying.” He sighed. “At least Miss Rouge is the one training him right now. Seas know what crazy bullshit you would have done in the name of training.”

Roger pouted. “I’m not that bad.”

Rayleigh gave him a look.

“You are.” He said, and ignored Roger’s sulking expression in favor of reading the rest of the letter.

At some point, Rayleigh frowned, squinting at the paper in his hands, like he was trying to solve a particularly tricky puzzle.

He contemplated for a moment, then looked at Roger.

“…Say, that ‘new brother’ Lu is describing… doesn’t he sound kind of familiar?”

Roger tilted his head, as if wondering why Rayleigh was asking something so obvious.

“Yeah.” He said, and Rayleigh felt a sense of unease wash over him. “It’s Dragon.”

And Rayleigh really wished he hadn’t heard Roger say that.

“Are you saying he’s talking about Dragon? As in Monkey D. Dragon, Garp’s son?” Rayleigh asked, a twinge of desperation making its way into his voice.

“Yea.” Roger confirmed to Rayleigh’s great dismay, all the while picking his nose with his pinky, looking like this wasn’t a big fucking revelation.

As calmly as he could, Rayleigh folded the letter, and carefully placed it in his pants pocket.

He breathed out. Holding himself back from punching his captain and committing mutiny, he asked: “Are you not worried? Your almost-wife and her son are currently with our greatest rival’s child. I’d think you’d want to make sure they’re safe."

Roger hummed. “As a parent, I’m obviously worried.” He nodded, rubbing his mustache absentmindedly. “But I also trust Rouge to keep Lu out of harms’ way.”

Then, a knowing grin spread on his lips . “Though, I think he’ll still manage to get into trouble, no matter how much we try to prevent it.”

Rayleigh sighed, tiredly dragging a hand over his face. “The worst thing about this, is that I think you’re right.”

There was a few moments of silence between them, before Roger tilted his head, seemingly having thought of something.

He then made a contemplating noise, and Rayleigh immediately knew that whatever he would say next, would be the most headache-inducing thing ever. “Wait. So, if Dragon is Lu’s brother now, doesn’t that make me Dragon’s Dad by default? Do I have to fight Garp for custody?”

He seemed to be seriously thinking about this, and Rayleigh groaned, utterly done with his Captain’s bullshit.

“You know what,” he said, hoping this would get him to finally shut up. “Why not just both of you be his father. There’s lots of kids with two fathers or mothers these days, and I’m pretty sure Garp’s not going to care.” He gave Roger a sarcastic smile that obviously undermined his words as a joke.

“Besides, the more Dad’s, the better, right?”

Roger nodded, a rare expression of understanding on his face. Rayleigh was pretty sure he didn’t understand, but he honestly couldn’t care less at this point.

Roger didn’t say anything after that, and Rayleigh took that as his cue to leave, deciding that he’d already lost too many braincells during this barely ten minute exchange.

Just before he could turn around and plant his face into a pillow to scream, Roger grabbed his shoulder, an odd expression on his face.

“I don’t have to marry Garp, now that we’re both Dragon’s Dad, do I?”

Rayleigh felt the desperate need to be drunk. As in, right now. “No.” He rolled his eyes, hoping to maybe pass out, just so he wouldn’t have to engage in this ridiculous conversation anymore. “You’re not married to Miss Rouge either, and yet you’ve got three kids with her. It doesn’t matter.”

At that, Roger heaved a sigh of relief.

“Ah, that’s great. I really couldn’t see myself marrying him.”

“Yeah. Wonderful.” Rayleigh said, and finally, finally left to fall face down onto his bed, hoping to forget this whole conversation had ever taken place.

He in fact, could not forget about it.

Chapter Text

The moment Roger’s feet hit the sandy beach beneath him, he stopped for a moment, staring into the thick forest in front of them, at the unexpected ‘voice’ coming from deep inside of it.

His pause was minimal, barely a second, but Rayleigh still noticed it, and walked up to his captain with a slightly worried look.

“Captain? Is something wrong?” Raleigh followed Roger’s gaze, his brows furrowing.

“Is there something in there we should worry about?”

Roger seemed unsure what to say, scratching the back of his head. “I don’t think so, but…” He closed his eyes, apparently focusing his ears on something Rayleigh couldn’t hear. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes again, a strange look on his face. “I should still go see what the reason for all that misery is.”

“Misery?” Rayleigh raised a brow at him. “What do you mean?”

Roger didn’t answer him, and instead turned to the rest of the crew.

“Everybody, listen!” He called, and instantly, all the attention was on him. “I’m gonna go scout the forest for a while, and in the meantime you guys stay here.”

There were multiple shouts and murmurs of ‘Aye-aye Captain’, and Roger nodded in satisfaction.

“Should I come too?” Rayleigh asked, but Roger shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I can handle it.”

Rayleigh didn’t look all that convinced, but didn’t object.

“Well then, I’m off!” Roger announced, making his way towards the edge of the forest.

“Ah, and Gaban!” he momentarily turned around to look at the man. “Make sure Buggy and Shanks don’t run off on their own, okay?”

“You got it, Captain.” Said man nodded, placing a hand on each of the children’s head, who were already making their way towards their father, efficiently stopping them from going further.

They grumbled in frustration, but otherwise didn’t seem too adamant on following along.

With that, Roger disappeared into the dark thicket of the forest.

________________________

Garp gently ran his fingers over the edge of Dragon’s photo, smoothening out the slight crinkles that came from always keeping it in the inner pocket of his coat. His brows were pulled together in a frown, his voice quiet and sad as he spoke, unlike his usual boisterous volume.

“Where the hell did you go, brat?”

Garp sighed, silently staring at the picture he was holding, the flame of the bonfire casting flickering shadows on his face, his expression unreadable.

An impressive amount of empty sake bottles laid by his feet, strewn around like fallen enemies, but Garp couldn’t bring himself to bother cleaning them up properly, eyes solely focused on the paper in his hand.

His thumb gently traced the face on the photo again, his eyes gleaming with tears not yet shed, and he felt his nose sting.

“…Just where are you, my boy?” He mumbled, voice raspy, shaking ever so slightly.

Garp didn’t immediately notice the presence approaching him. When he did, he didn’t move, even as he heard the sand crunch under heavy boots, a pair of footsteps making their way towards him.

He looked up when a hand placed itself on his shoulder, and a familiar voice reached his ears.

“Garp? What are you doing here?”

Garp’s face scrunched up in annoyance, though it was somewhat less hostile than usual.

“Ugh.” Garp huffed. “Right back at you.”

Roger’s face did a weird thing, twisting with a mix of confusion, apprehension, and if Garp had cared to look further, worry.

Roger sighed at the state the Marine was in. “I didn’t take you to be a senseless alcoholic, Garp. That’s something you’d normally associate with pirates.”

Garp rolled his eyes at him. “Shut up. I don’t care right now.”

“Drinking alone is also very unlike you.” Roger added after a few moments of awkward silence, and unceremoniously sat down next to him.

“Care for some company?” There was a grin on his face, wide and cheerful as always, and Garp shrugged, tossing him one of the few still full bottles.

“Suit yourself.”

Roger caught it easily, pulling out the cork with a soft ‘pop’.

“So,” Roger started after taking a few sips. “What has you moping around like this?”

Garp eyed him skeptically.

“Why should I tell you?”

Roger’s smile decreased a bit in size, and a look of hurt flashed across his eyes. “Because we’re friends, are we not?”

Somehow, the word ‘friend’ made something fuzzy and warm spread in Garp’s chest.

Normally, he would’ve pushed the feeling down, down and down, until it wasn’t there anymore, but somehow, tonight, he felt like it wasn’t actually that bad to be friends with Roger.

Garp licked his lips, unsure what to say.

“…It’s about Dragon.” He said after a while, and Roger looked at him in surprise, as though he hadn’t expected Garp to actually talk. To his credit, Garp hadn’t expected himself to either.

“What about him?” Roger asked, unusually gentle, opposing to his normally unabashed manner.

Garp sighed, dragging a hand over his face. “The brat’s gone missing.” His voice was shaking, but Roger didn’t comment on it. “And… And now I can’t find him. It’s like he completely disappeared.”

Roger hummed. “If things are as I’ve heard, then it’s very likely he hid somewhere.”

“What?” Garp squinted at the Pirate Captain. “Do you know something?”

“Well,” the man shrugged. “I get around, I hear things. Besides, I gotta look out for our Dragon, don’t I?”

“Our Dragon?”

Garp grabbed Roger by the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer and glaring at him with newfound intensity.

“The hell do you mean by our Dragon?”

Roger let out a hearty laugh.

“Can you believe it?! One of my boys exchanged sake cups with Dragon!” Roger grinned at Garp, who slowly seemed to come to a horrifying realization.

Like a scalded cat, Garp released his grip on Roger’s shirt and sprung up, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“No!” He yelled, instantly feeling himself sobering up. “No way in hell am I marrying a pirate of all things! Much less you of all the possible options!”

Roger waved him off. “Oh, don’t worry, I already asked Rayleigh about this! We don’t have to get married, even if we share a kid!”

At that, Garp visibly calmed down. “Alright, then I guess It’s okay.” He said, as he sat back down next to Roger. “Thank the seas, I really didn’t want to marry someone like you.”

Roger nodded in agreement, apparently not bothered by the underlying insult.

They were quiet for a few moments, before Garp spoke up again.

“So,” He said, eyeing Roger with unhidden curiosity. “What do you know about the brat? Have you seen him?”

“Not directly,” Roger answered. “But an… acquaintance of mine met him some time ago.”

Garp’s eyes brightened. “Really?”

“Yeah. Last time I heard, he was somewhere in the South Blue.”

Garp frowned. “When did you hear that?”

“Roughly half a year ago?” Roger said, noticing Garp’s shift in tone.

The Marine sighed. “Then it seems like your ‘acquaintance’ has wrong intel.”

“What? Why?”

“Because the kid I met on Baterillia said he only stayed for a few days, and then took a boat to the East Blue.”

Roger paused. “A kid on Baterillia?”

Garp nodded, and a small smile spread on his lips.

“Yeah. A little boy, maybe around five. Seemed very bright for his age.”

Roger thought about that for a moment. ‘…Could it be?’

“Really?” he asked, trying to get more information about the mentioned child. “What was he like?”

“Hm, well.” Garp said, trying to remember the boy’s exact features. “He was blonde, with black eyes, and overall pretty lively. Said he was out grocery shopping for his mother.”

‘So Garp met him, huh? Small world we live in. But it seems he didn’t tell Garp where Dragon is. I won’t tell him either, then.’

“Pretty cheeky kid.” Garp continued, unaware of Roger’s inner thoughts. “He wouldn’t tell me his name, but asked me, a complete stranger, to buy him ice cream! Can you believe it?”

Roger grinned. “Seems like you’re really fond of the kid. Haven’t seen you talk about anyone like that since Dragon was a child.”

“Can you blame me?” Garp laughed heartily, sadness momentarily forgotten. “He looked a lot like Dragon did when he was younger, y’know? Same eyes, face and all. I Thought I’d gone back in time for a moment!”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah! Sunshine even gave a me a present when he left! Wanna see? I took a photo of it!” Garp turned around to search in the pockets of his coat that had been discarded onto the ground some time ago.

He pulled out a small picture, holding it in front Roger’s face.

Roger took it, smiling as he recognized it as one of Lu’s ‘sleep-well flowers’. Roger himself had been gifted a few of these before, and he knew well about the effect it had on a tired mind.

While Roger wasn’t exactly sure how Lu did it, but whenever he gave somebody one of these flowers, their soothing warmth would spread through the body, calming them down greatly, ensuring a comfortable night of sleep.

Roger looked at Garp for a moment.

…If Lu thought it was necessary for Garp to have one of his flowers, then he must’ve been in quite bad shape before.

‘At least he seems better now.’ Roger mused, and handed the photo back to Garp.

“It looks warm.” He commented, and Garp nodded in agreement.

“That night, I had the best sleep in decades.” He sighed, remembering his encounter fondly. “I hope I see him again some time.”

Then, he seemingly caught himself again, clearing his throat in embarrassment.

“Ahem. Anyway, you said Dragon had a reason to hide. Can you tell me more about that?”

Roger sighed, and gave Garp a pitying look.

“So you really didn’t know about it.” He said, and Garp looked at him in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“Apparently Marines ambushed him when he was on a solo mission.”

“What…?” Garp stared at Roger with wide eyes. But before he could tell Roger to stop with this bullshit nonsense, the man continued.

“They tried to capture him and keep him as blackmail material. Against you, Garp.”

Garp couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But he didn’t say a word, and let Roger carry on.

“They want to keep you, the great hero of the Marines, in check, so you don’t act out. They want to control you, keep you as their loyal dog for the rest of your life. And they needed Dragon for that. Because they know, that you’d do anything to keep your family safe.”

Garp stared at Roger with uncertain eyes.

“Are… are you sure that that’s what happened?” Garp asked in a quiet voice, and Roger gave him a sad look.

“I’m sorry Garp.” He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder, a silent consolation. “But my acquaintance heard the story from Dragon himself.”

That seemed to be the last straw for Garp, as he let out a choked cry, burying his face in his hands.

“God damnit, Roger. What the hell am I supposed to do now?! I don’t know if I want to go back, now that I know what they’re planning to do with my boy!” He cried, wiping angry tears out of his eyes. “What if they find him before me?!”

“Garp. Calm down.” Roger said, grabbing the man by the shoulders, turning him to look him in the eyes. “If you, the greatest Marine there is, can’t find him, do you really think the others will be able to?”

Garp sighed at that, a tired smile making its way onto his face. “I guess you’re right.” He said, looking at Roger thankfully.

There were a few moments of comfortable silence between them, before Roger opened his mouth again.

“You could join us for tonight, if you want.” He said, playfully nudging Garp in the ribs. “We actually came here to get some fresh meat before we hit the Grandline again, but I think that can wait until tomorrow.”

Garp stared at him in surprise for a moment, and then scoffed.

“You know what, sure. I think I won’t feel all that great sleeping in a Marine Boat’s bunk tonight anyway.”

“Okay.” Roger nodded in understanding. Then his eyes fell onto the mess of empty bottles scattered around them. “But I think we should clean all of this up first.”

Garp followed his gaze and sighed. “Yeah…. I guess we should.”

__________________

Dragon sat in the backyard of Rouge’s house, leaning against Goldie’s soft fur, the raise and fall of her stomach as she breathed a calming sensation against his back. Unbothered, she gnawed on a giant bone, letting Dragon use her as a makeshift cushion while he watched Rouge train with Lu.

Although, he wasn’t quite sure if ‘training’ would be the correct term for what they were doing.

It looked more like a playful yet dangerous fight; Lu and Rouge were exchanging heavy blows, daggers against iron pipe, small waves of conqueror’s Haki rippling around them, washing over Dragon and Goldie like a warm summer breeze.

Lu was using plates of light, or ‘sun steps’, as he liked to call them, to get to Rouge’s height, making it easier for him to attack.

Yet, Rouge only laughed heartily whenever she avoided yet another one of these no doubt dangerous swings, obviously enjoying herself.

“Good! Very good, Sunshine!” She yelled, easily side-stepping a spear of light threatening to embed itself in her side. “You’re doing great, keep going!”

Lu beamed at her praise, the light around him brightening with his mood. Wasting no time, he continued his attacks, crashing down a rain of solidified sunrays over Rouge, who quickly jumped out the range of Lu’s pipe, and expertly deflected the thin and needle-like fragments with her daggers.

The deflected shards embedded themselves into the ground around her, slightly burning the grass they touched.

Then, in a quick moment, so fast Dragon could barely see him move his hands, Lu shot one singular shard towards Rouge, who was still distracted by the other fragments.

It grazed her upper right arm, leaving behind a small burn, and she momentarily stumbled in surprise, and at the same time, Lu’s smile grew impossibly wide.

The rain of light stopped, and with a flick of his finger, the shards of sunlight gathered in his hand, forming a ball roughly the size of his head, hovering a few millimeters above his palm. He then tapped the ball with his free hand, and in less than a second, the ball scattered, reverting back to its non-solid state, steadily raising back towards the sky.

Dragon was still trying to comprehend what he’d just seen, as Lu excitedly ran to his mother.

“I did it Mama!” he laughed, using a few pieces of light as a stepping stool to hug her shoulders, yet careful not to touch her fresh burn. “I finally managed to land a hit on you!’”

Rouge hugged him back, an equally as bright smile on her lips.

“Yes, you did well.” She said, and gave him a peck to his cheek. Lu giggled, returning the affection by doing the same.

Then, a set of dark, but sparkling eyes turned to him, and he involuntary flinched. Even after half a year, he still hadn’t gotten used to their unnatural brightness.

“Dragon-nii!” Lu called, now making his way towards him, arms spread wide to give him a hug as well.

Dragon accepted it, letting the remnant warmth of Lu’s light wash over his skin.

“Did you see?! You saw, right?! I won against Mama!” he laughed, looking up at him. And like always when he was especially excited, the quiet rumbling of drums accompanied his voice.

“It looked awesome.” Dragon nodded, ruffling Lu’s hair, and the boy giggled, leaning into his touch.

Things like these didn’t feel awkward at all anymore, and Dragon had warmed up to the reality of being Lu’s older brother by now.

“Are you done for today?” he asked, looking up at Rouge.

“Yea.” She nodded. “We’re waiting for another letter today, so we’ll finish early.”

“Okay.” Dragon said, standing up. “I wonder what it’ll be about today.”

The letters from Lu’s father were always incredibly entertaining to read for Dragon, even if he didn’t know whether the man was exaggerating his stories sometimes or not.

“I think he’s met another funny person again.” Lu said, grinning. “I just have a feeling that that’s what it’ll be.”

“If you think so.” Rouge smiled, ruffling her son’s hair, who was still hanging onto Dragon’s waist.

“Then let’s go, I’m super excited already!” The boy laughed, climbing from Dragon’s waist onto his back, wrapping his arms around the teenager’s neck, his legs around his torso, easily keeping himself in place.

Dragon didn’t mind the slight extra weight, and like that, they went back into the house. Except Goldie, who was content to stay behind and continue gnawing on her bone. Not that she’d have fit inside anyway.

Rouge, Dragon and Lu were seated at the Table in the kitchen, a window already opened for a News Coo to come in. Usually, they didn’t deliver letters directly to people, but in exchange for some extra Berries they were always happy to help.

It didn’t take long for the News Coo to arrive, landing on the window sill.

Lu immediately jumped up from his seat, running over to the bird. Rouge stood up too, handing the bird the money, who let out a squawk, and then rummaged in his bag for a moment, before finally giving Lu the letter.

Lu thanked the bird, and begun rummaging in his own pocket, somehow managing to pull out a completely clean piece of meat, and proceeded to hold it up towards the News Coo.

“Here, for you!” He grinned, holding the meat even closer. “Since you always bring our letters on time!”

The News Coo looked at the meat suspiciously for a moment, but then apparently decided it wasn’t against a little snack and leaned down to devour the piece in one bite.

“Squawk!” The bird then said, and Lu nodded seriously.

“If you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll give you something every time you come here.”

With that, the bird seemed satisfied, and held out a wing towards Lu, who grasped it, and like that they shook ‘hands’, sealing whatever kind of deal they had made.

After that, the News Coo let out one last squawk, giving Lu a small salute, and took of again.

Lu used his sun steps to close the window, and triumphantly sat down on Dragon’s lap, placing the letter on the middle of the table.

Rouge sat back down as well, taking the letter into her hands.

She took out one of her daggers, carefully opening the letter with it, before sheathing it again and then placed the unfolded paper back onto the table.

Rouge read the letter extra slowly, letting Lu finish it before she made any comments.

Dragon read through it too, but as time went on, his complexion paled, and he subconsciously wrapped an arm around Lu’s midsection, pulling him closer to his chest.

Lu obviously noticed, and threw a questioning glance at his older brother.

“Dragon-nii?”

Dragon didn’t answer, and continued to stare at the letter intensely. There was a panicked look on his face, and Lu felt Dragon’s arms shake.

Rouge noticed as well, and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

“Hey,” She spoke softly, gently shaking him. “What’s wrong?”

That seemed to break Dragon out of his trance and he sucked in a sharp breath.

“Garp. My father, he didn’t know. He didn’t know why I was gone. What they did. What they were planning to do-!”

He suddenly stood up, Lu still held in his arms.

“I have to tell him! I have to tell him that I’m okay!”

“Please.” He looked at Rouge desperately. “I need to tell him.”

“First of all, you should calm down.” She grabbed his arm to guide him back down onto the chair. “Panicking like this won’t help you right now.”

Then she stood up, going over to one of the kitchen drawers and took out a new pen and paper.

She placed the objects in front of Dragon on the table, sitting back down and pulling her chair closer to him. “I’ll help you write it, okay?”

Dragon looked at her gratefully. “Thank you. Really.”

Rouge smiled at him. “No problem.” Then her gaze fell onto Dragon’s lap.

Lu looked back up at her, still held tightly in his older brother’s arms.

"But I think you should let go of Lu first, I believe he wants to see too.”

Dragon’s eyes darted down as well, and embarrassment spread on his face.

“Ah, sorry!” He sputtered, immediately releasing his grip on the boy. “I forgot...”

“It’s okay!” Lu beamed at him. “I didn’t mind.”

Dragon still seemed embarrassed, but focused his eyes onto the blank paper in front of him.

“Okay.” He said, voice filled with determination as he took the pen into his hand. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter Text

The Roger Pirates were still docked on the island a week later.

And not all that surprisingly for Rayleigh, Garp was still on their ship, currently sitting together with Roger, eating breakfast.

Both D’s sat across from each other, eating their gigantic servings of breakfast food in an unusually unhurried way.

Rayleigh had been with Roger for long enough to know the man was deliberately slowing down his eating pace, silver eyes flickering between Garp’s almost still full plate and his face.

Whatever it was that Roger noticed, he didn’t seem all that happy about it, his brows furrowing in dislike.

Garp’s back was turned to him, so Rayleigh had no way of knowing what it could be.

Still, aside from Garp’s general presence, there was something that bothered Rayleigh on this particular morning.

It was quiet.

Neither Roger or Garp were saying anything, not even a singular word had been spoken between the two since the moment Garp had seated himself in front of Roger almost an hour ago.

Even little Shanks and Buggy were oddly silent, sitting on Rayleigh’s lap, quietly eating their own breakfast.

Shanks did a annoyed little huff when Buggy shifted beside him, seemingly as uncomfortable with the silence as Rayleigh, and pulled the blue-clad toddler closer to himself, rubbing their cheeks together in what was for the two of them a soothing manner.

Buggy’s face scrunched up momentarily, but didn’t do anything to stop Shanks from doing it, instead tightly gripping onto the other’s shirt.

If he were in a more enjoyable setting, Rayleigh might have found the time to find it cute.

The rest of the crew was tactfully giving the two men a bit of space, sitting a few benches over, easily having noticed the strange tension in the air.

“Hey…Roger?” Garp said after a while, absentmindedly poking around in his mountain of scrambled eggs.

It took everything in Rayleigh not to jostle the two toddlers on his legs in surprise.

At that, Roger looked up from his breakfast plate, mouth still full of food, and the Marine shifted in his seat across from him.

Garp hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure how to voice his thoughts.

“Hm?” Roger hummed, raising a brow.

“You actually know where Dragon is, don’t you?” Garp said ultimately, his words sounding more of a statement rather than a question.

Rayleigh took in a sharp breath, as did the crewmembers around him.

Roger stopped chewing for a moment, staring at Garp with unblinking eyes.

A few seconds later, he resumed chewing the rest of the food in his mouth, and swallowed.

“I do.” He answered honestly, studying Garp’s face again.

Surprisingly, the Marine just sighed, slumping in his seat.

“I figured as much.” He said, finally taking a bite of his eggs. “And I guess you won’t tell me where he is?”

At that, Roger smiled apologetically. “I can’t. I’m sorry Garp.” ‘Unless Rouge or Sunshine decide otherwise, I suppose, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for now.’

“It’s fine.” The man sighed again, taking another slow bite of his food. “It’s probably better like this anyway.” He laughed humorlessly. “Can’t really tell them about something I don’t know.”

Roger seemed in thought for a moment. “But maybe…”

Garp’s head whipped up in surprise.

“In roughly six months,” Roger started, something strangely soft in his voice as his eyes momentarily flickered to the children’s crayon drawing on the wall.

A small, yellow blob with legs and arms and something that looked suspiciously lot like a halo, as well as two smaller, similar looking blobs without halos, one in red, and one in blue, both of them holding hands with the yellow blob in the middle.

Shanks, Lu and Buggy.

“In roughly six months,” Roger repeated, “We will make a short stop on an island In the South Blue. Once we’ve collected everything we need from there, I’ll notify you. If you want, we can meet up again after that. To catch up on things, so to say.”

He looked at Garp expectantly. “How about it?”

Garp blinked at him, surprised at the offer. “I… I’d like that, actually.” He said after a moment of hesitation.

Roger grinned at him. “Great! Do you have a spare Den-Den?”

“I do!” Garp laughed in response, his voice seemingly having regained his usual boisterous volume. “I’ll give you one later!”

And just like that, the gloomy atmosphere dissipated, and Garp started devouring his food with renewed vigor.

Roger chuckled, and resumed consuming his food in the same manner.

Rayleigh looked at the two D’s with a woeful look on his face.

“We just restocked last week.” He whined, and a nearby crewmember patted his shoulder sympathetically.

Then suddenly, like it had waited for the perfect moment to arrive, a News Coo flew in through an open window, squawking loudly, immediately gathering everyone’s attention to itself.

“Oh. It’s you.” Roger said as he recognized the bird that was the usual carrier of their letters. If he remembered correctly, Lu had recently said it’s name was Markus.

Markus easily seated himself on the Roger’s shoulder, tugging at a few locks of his hair with apparent intent.

“Did you bring us a letter?”

Markus let out a series of shrieks and squawks at the question, and Roger’s brows rose up.

“Really?”

Another squawk.

“Hm.” Roger seemed to consider something for a moment, his eyes falling onto the last scraps of food on his plate that he had yet to eat. “Sure, you can have it.” He said with a shrug, and the bird wasted no time, all but throwing himself onto the bits of food, wings fluttering excitedly, eager to eat.

“Whoa!” Garp laughed, eyeing the strange behavior of the News Coo. “Looking at that appetite, you’d think it flew for a week straight without rest!”

At Garp’s voice, Markus looked up for a moment, beak and face smudged with food, squinted at him as if trying to remember something, before going back to eating.

The crew had by now gathered closer to their Captain’s table, and Garp grumbled a bit as Rayleigh hoisted the two toddlers over his shoulder to better let them see the bird, but otherwise didn’t make any move to shake them off.

“So, does it have a letter or not?” Rayleigh asked after a while, and Markus jolted up, eyes wide, like he had just remembered his actual purpose for coming here.

He hurriedly rummaged in his bag for a short moment, before triumphantly pulling out a slightly crinkled envelope.

“Squawk!” He said, and to everyone’s surprise, held the letter towards Garp.

“Uh?” Said man looked at the envelope dumbly. “For me?”

Markus nodded decisively, shoving the letter into Garp’s hands, before ignoring the man completely, and happily continued to eat his fill on Roger’s plate, who placed a low cup of water near Markus, so he wouldn’t choke.

Markus greedily drank a few sips, and then immediately went back to eating.

Rayleigh plucked the two toddlers off of Garp’s back, and made his way over to Roger, sitting down next to the man, handing Buggy over to him, while he himself kept Shanks, whose face immediately soured when he was separated from his brother.

Rayleigh couldn’t help the small smile that spread on his face, softly chuckling as he smoothed out the frown lines on Shanks’ face.

Shanks leaned into his touch, his soft baby cheek squishing against Rayleigh’s hand.

‘So cute…’

Meanwhile, Garp was inspecting the envelope carefully.

“How would anyone know where I am? I was careful to hide my tracks since last week. ” He wondered aloud, but as he read the signature on the envelope, his eyes widened and he hurried to open the wax seal.

Dear Father,

Before anything else, I want to tell you, I am alive and well.

Garp’s hands trembled as he held the letter, and he had to use every bit of his strength to avoid smudging the ink with not yet fallen tears.

Roger looked up at him, his annoyingly soft eyes drifting from Garp’s face to the letter.

Roger smiled knowingly.

Garp ignored him in favor of reading the letter.

By chance, or who knows , maybe even by some Godly interference, I met a boy.

He’s young. A child, technically. At least in human standards. Although I don’t quite know if those apply to him. And at this point, I don’t think it’s worth asking anything about it, because I’m pretty sure he’ll just laugh, and probably say something cryptic and confusing.

Aside from him, I also met his mother. She is wonderful, sweet, and very kind.

She’s not the same as her son, but they are without a doubt family.

(And also, she’s crazy strong. I wonder if she could best you in a fight.)

Her son found me when I was injured, and brought me to her. She took care of my wounds, and let me stay inside her house, even when she knew who I was.

So as of now, I’ve been staying with the two of them for a quite while. It’s… something, to say the least.

They’re chaotic, and strange in many ways, but I like them a lot.

Funnily enough, the boy, I’m not sure if I can give his name yet, has taken to calling me ‘Dragon-nii’ some while ago.

It's a strange and new feeling, having a younger brother, especially one as… different as him, but it’s not bad at all.

Garp could only stare wide-eyed at the words. Was this real? Had Dragon really found a safe place to be? Away from those who wanted to hurt him?

Garp ignored the way the people, perhaps aside from Roger, seemed to stiffen up at the sudden tears that ran down his cheeks, and kept reading.

In a letter from the boy’s father, (to be honest, I haven’t met his father yet, nor do I know his name, but I assume he's equally as odd as his son) I found out what had happened.

That you were searching for me.

That you didn’t know about what the World Government tried to do by capturing me.

And that you were worried.

There were dried tear marks under the row of letters, and Garp felt a new surge of his own tears come forth.

In all honesty, I was angry.

Angry at you, that you let it happen, and angry at myself, too, because I wasn’t strong enough, for them to not use me as something to chain you to them indefinitely.

And then, I felt scared. I felt scared that they would eventually manage to find me, that they would hurt me, solely for the reason, as I’ve by now realized, that I am someone important to you.

And that in turn, they would hurt you as well, that they would make you do things you’d never want to, unspeakable things that I would think of in my nightmares.

But right now I’m in a safe place, where it’ll be hard for the Marine to find me, for at least another six months.

I don’t know how long it will take until we meet again.

I hope it’s soon.

Still, take care of yourself, and don’t worry about me too much.

Love, Dragon.

And under the last line, there were two, tiny little drawings, barely bigger than a two year old’s hand.

The first one was a pink hibiscus, with neat and clean pencil strokes, obviously by someone who was proficient in their art, and had a lot of experience. It looked pretty.

The second one was of a sun, round and yellow and childishly drawn with a smiling face in its middle. It didn’t take much for Garp to know who drew which.

Garp stared at the letter, reading it again and again.

“…He’s safe.” Garp choked out after a while, pressing the letter to his chest, sniffling a bit.

“That’s great, isn’t it?” Roger smiled softly, handing him a tissue.

Garp muttered a thanks as he wiped his eyes, carefully pocketing the letter afterwards.

He then looked at Roger intensely, sadness making way for suspicion. “And this is a secure line?”

“One hundred percent.” Roger said confidently, patting the News Coo’s back, who in turn let out a satisfied squawk. “Markus here is very reliable.”

Markus puffed up his feathers proudly, letting out a smug little huff, and then hopped to the side and out of the way, when he noticed Buggy making grabby hands at him.

“That’s good!” Garp laughed, reaching out to pat Markus’ back as well. “Reliability is very important in his line of work!”

Markus regarded him with narrowed eyes for a moment, but ultimately let him pet him.

Buggy frowned at Markus’ blatant avoidance of him, and turned towards Shanks with a sulking expression.

“Shanks. Come back, the bird’s boring.” He grumbled, and immediately, Shanks lit up with a wide smile, climbing from Rayleigh’s lap into Roger’s arms, who laughed, and shifted Buggy in his arms so Shanks had more space to make himself comfortable.

Shanks wasted no time grabbing onto Buggy once he was next to him, calling out his name excitedly, hugging him. Buggy let it happen without any complaints.

Garp stared at them for a moment.

“That reminds me,” Garp suddenly said, squinting at the toddlers in Roger’s arm. “You said Dragon exchanged Sake cups with ‘one of your boys’, right?”

Roger nodded.

“But these ones look too young to even understand the concept of that action.” Garp frowned, looking back up at Roger. “You wouldn’t happen to have found another one, would you?”

Roger grinned at that. “I didn’t find him. He found me.”

Garp looked at him incredulously. “What? How?”

“Well,” The grin on Roger’s face widened. ‘Saying something like this should be fine, right?’ It wouldn’t hurt to mess with Garp a little bit.

“We coincidentally anchored at an island to restock on some things, and suddenly there he was, saying I was his father.” Roger chuckled fondly. “Can you believe it? It was one of the first things he said to me, too.”

Rayleigh side-eyed his captain. ‘Saying it like that is bound to cause misunderstandings.’ He grumbled internally, but immediately stopped himself from saying anything about it when he saw the flash of mischief in Roger’s eyes.

He let out a resigned sigh. ‘If that’s what he wants, who am I to stop him?’

“His mother wasn't all that happy to see me at first, but after a while she warmed up to us.” Roger continued, smile still stretching his face.

“I can’t believe you actually managed to hit it off with a woman.” Garp said with a amused scoff. “I always thought you’d settle for Rayleigh in the end.”

“Excuse me?!” Rayleigh yelled aghast. “No way in hell, would I end up with that reckless idiot!”

Roger hummed thoughtfully. “I mean, I do like blondes, but Rayleigh’s not really my type. Nor am I his.” He said, ignoring his first mate’s outburst.

“Oh well. Not my place to judge anyway.” Garp shrugged, letting the topic go.

“Aside from that.” Now it was his turn to grin at Roger.

“Does that mean I have another son too now?”

Roger’s smile went so impossibly wide, Garp thought the man’s face was going to split in half.

“Of course it does!” He laughed loudly, hitting Garp’s shoulder good-naturedly across the table with his free hand. “He’ll be overjoyed to know he has another father! You can never have enough of those!”

“Please be quieter.” Rayleigh murmured, but was thoroughly ignored, when Garp laughed just as loudly, causing him to grimace.

“That’s good, very good!” He hollered, his smile equaling Roger’s now.

Rayleigh enviously wondered how Shanks and Buggy could be so completely unaffected by all of this, still comfortably being held in Roger’s arm.

“So,” Garp started after they had calmed down again, in a thankfully far more normal volume. “What’s that boy of ours like? If he’s a D. too, I can only imagine the things he does.”

Roger chuckled. “Oh, he’s a troublemaker, that one. Y’know, there was this one time where he…”

And like that, the morning went by quickly, Garp and Roger exchanging stories about their children, trying to beat each other in the craziness of their antics.

Yet, around noon, Garp decided it was time to leave. He couldn’t afford to be gone for longer that he’d already been, or else the Higher Ups would get suspicious of him.

When he told Roger as such, the man sighed sadly, but nodded in understanding. “It’s fine. You’re a Marine after all. You have work to do.”

Garp grimaced at the thought of what said ‘work’ entailed. “Don’t remind me. I still have to give a detailed report on the reason I was gone for half a year anyway.”

Roger laughed at him. “Why not switch sides then? It’d be less paperwork.” He said more or less as a joke, but for a fraction of a second, Garp considered it.

Could he do it? Abandon his work in the Marines, and become an outlaw, a criminal, a pirate?

The World Government had betrayed his trust greatly by hurting his son, and they made it clear they weren’t shy to use any means possible to keep him tied to them.

…

He… He couldn’t. Not now. Perhaps in a far away future. Maybe. He wasn’t sure.

But for now, he’d work to chip away at the growing corruption in their ranks, to do his best to prevent any others from being exploited and blackmailed into doing their bidding.

When Garp didn’t react to his words, Roger tilted his head at him. “You’re awfully quiet. Are you okay?”

Garp sighed. “Honestly? Probably not. But I’ll have to make do, don’t I? He gave him a wry smile, but in Roger’s opinion, it looked more like a grimace.

“Here.” Garp then handed Roger a suitcase he’d previously taken from his ship, who took it with a confused look. “My spare Den-Den is in there, as well as my number. Take good care of it, alright? Its name is Salad.”

At Roger’s raised brow Garp scoffed amusedly. “Don’t look at me like that. The name was Bogard’s idea, said it’d be the closest I’d ever get to touching a vegetable, even if only in name.”

Roger laughed at that. “Don’t worry, I will. Take care of yourself too, old friend.”

Garp waved him off with a smug grin. “Bah, I’ll outlive you, I bet.” But then his expression softened. “Still, it was nice staying with you lot. Give our boys a great big hug for me if you see them before I do, okay?”

“Count on it.” Roger said seriously and waved as his friend made his way back to his own ship, his eyes following him until the ship had completely disappeared on the horizon.

 A smile easily made its way back onto his face as he walked towards the Oro Jackson, where the rest of his crew was already waiting for him.

“…Seems like it’s time to finally bring them back to us, hm?”

______________________________

Six months later, early in the morning, when the sun had risen only an hour ago, Lu felt something familiar ping at the outmost range of his Observation Haki, waking him up.

He raised his head from where it was laying on Dragon’s chest, and groggily sat up.

Carefully, he climbed over him, yawning as he quietly landed on the wooden floor.

Lu rubbed his eyes, slowly trudging over to the window.

Almost subconsciously, he willed the light to shape into stairs for him to go up on, and opened the window, letting the fresh morning breeze brush over his skin.

Nika greeted him, gently stroking Lu’s face with his light, making the boy giggle at the tickling sensation.

“G’mornin’ to you too.” He whispered, playfully tugging on the rays until Nika relented with a soft laugh, and ruffled his little King’s hair.

Granted, he couldn’t fully materialize yet, only partly, but for something like this, he’d manage.

Lu rested his arms on the windowsill as he stared out of the window for a little while longer, letting the cool air fully wake him up.

The presence was still at the corner of his Observation Range, but it was steadily coming closer.

Perhaps three more hours, and they would be here.

“I should tell Mama.” He murmured still somewhat sleepy, stretching as he walked down the stairs again.

‘Don’t forget to wake up our little World Changer as well.’ Nika chuckled, throwing a fond look at Dragon’s sleeping form.

Dragon was still sleeping peacefully, arms and legs spread out on the bed starfish style, snoring softly, and Lu laughed.

“It’s okay! He can sleep a bit more. It’s gonna be an exhausting day for him.”

Nika gave a confused hum. ‘Why?’

“Dad’s coming soon!” Lu’s eyes gleamed with unhidden joy as they shortly drifted out the window, towards the open sea, where Roger’s immense presence was coming closer and closer. “But Dragon doesn’t know who Dad is. Mama and I never told him, nor have we ever mentioned his name in our letters.”

‘Oh?’ Nika raised a brow, amusement clear in his voice. ‘Then let’s hope he takes it well.’

Lu shrugged. “It’s fine. He’ll be okay.” He said with a smile, then took one last look at Dragon, before making his way towards Rouge’s bedroom.

_____________________

Rouge was woken up in a not at all gentle manner by someone jumping onto her stomach.

Hard.

She coughed as air was forcefully pushed out of her lungs, and grimaced before she looked at her son in confusion.

“Lu?? What’s going on? And did you just use Armament?”

Lu was rivaling the sun in its brightness as he smiled at her, and she could see the golden glow around his body that he’d always have, whenever he was especially excited.

“Dad’s back!” He beamed, and it took Rouge a moment to understand what she’d just heard.

“…What?”

“Dad. Is. Back!” Lu repeated happily, and then let out a surprised ‘oof’, when Rouge sprung out of bed, accidentally knocking him down in the process.

“Really?! Are you sure!?” She asked in disbelief, picking him back up.

“Yes!” He confirmed, and immediately, Rouge pulled him into a hug, smothering him with kisses.

“Oh, that’s wonderful! I can’t wait to see him and the boys again!” She laughed as tears sprang to her eyes, and she gave Lu another kiss.

“How far away are they?” She asked, knowing Lu’s Haki reached way farther than hers.

“Three hours, I think.” He said, and Rouge gasped.

“Three hours?!” Oh dear gods, was that even enough to pack everything they’d need? And then there was Roger’s present! The jeweler said he’d wanted to make some last minute adjustments yesterday, and that he wasn’t sure how long it’d take. Would everything be ready in time?!

Oh, she really hoped so.

_______________________

The second the Oro Jackson dropped anchor at Baterillia’s shore, Roger heard them.

The sound of drums, far louder and excited than he ever remembered them to be, and it was purely their sound that let him know to expect the armament covered pipe heading for his head.

Next to him Rayleigh let out a shout of surprise, quickly side-stepping the incoming confrontation, taking Buggy and Shanks out of the danger zone via the scruff of their shirts, ignoring their very vocal protests.

Swiftly, Roger pulled Ace out of its’ sheath, blocking the attack with a wild grin.

“Sunshine! Look at how you’ve grown! And you’ve gotten stronger too!” He laughed, and his son’s lips pulled into a wide smile.

“Yeah!” The boy laughed as fire suddenly engulfed his leg. “Mama taught me and Dragon-nii a lot!”

Caught by surprise, Roger was momentarily pushed backwards, but he soon found his footing again, quickly blocking Lu’s flaming kick with the flat side of his blade.

They exchanged hits, Conqueror’s playfully flashing between each blow, red lightning against golden, father versus son.

Then, after a last firery hit from Lu towards Roger’s chest that just barely missed him, they shared a look.

Instantly, Lu’s fire receded back into his body, and at the same time Roger pulled back his blade.

Lu softly landed on the Oro’s deck, strapping his pipe back onto the holster on his back, while Roger sheathed Ace again.

“How’ve you been, my boy?” Roger asked as he pulled his son into a tight hug, who smiled up at him.

“Great! And even better now that you’re back!” He said happily, smile widening as he saw Shanks and Buggy run towards him.

He let go of Roger, crouching down a bit to allow his two brothers to tackle him to the ground.

“Brother!” "Lu-nii!" Buggy and Shanks cried loudly, smearing tears and snot all over Lu’s shirt as they pressed their faces into his stomach, small fists tightly gripping onto the fabric.

Lu gently stroked their backs, pulling them closer to himself. “I missed you too.” He whispered, and Roger could see tears glistening in the corner of his eyes.

“Where’s your mother?” Roger asked after a while, once the two toddlers had properly calmed down, and were no longer crying.

Lu turned his head to look at him. “Oh, she was at the jeweler with Dragon-nii when I left.”

Roger raised a brow at that. “The jeweler?”

Lu nodded. “Yeah. But I can’t tell you more, it’s supposed to be a surprise!” He giggled, obviously enjoying the look of blatant curiosity on Roger’s face.

“And you’re sure you can’t tell me?” Roger asked with big eyes, but Lu only shook his head, the joy clear in his eyes.

“Can’t and won’t! Sorry dad!”

Roger pushed out his lower lip, openly sulking now. “Do you at least know when she’ll be back?”

Lu tilted his head to the side in thought. “Soon, I think. They should be done by now.”

And like on cue, Rouge’s voice carried from the beach below, up to them.

“Permission to board, Captain?!”

“Always!” Roger answered easily, and soon after he could see Rouge’s figure leaping onto the deck, carrying someone under her arm.

Said someone let out a surprised yelp as Rouge dropped him onto the floor next to Lu, before she quickly strode over to Roger.

And before Dragon even had time to comprehend what was going on, she kicked the man’s feet out from under him, gracefully catching his backwards falling body, their faces now at equal height.

“Hello sweetheart.” She gave him a quick peck to the lips. “Missed me?”

Roger stared at her wide eyed for a moment, before his face lit up with a crimson red, and Rouge laughed, kissing him again.

“I missed you as well, my dear.” She said, helping him up again, her hand easily intertwining with his own.

Dragon looked at all of this with no little amount of surprise. He slowly turned to Lu who was sitting next to him, the two toddlers still stubbornly holding onto his shirt.

“This,” He pointed a shaky finger at Roger. “Is your father?” He asked in disbelief, his voice heightening at the last word.

“Yeah!” Lu grinned at him, and Dragon blinked. He turned back to the couple, flinching when he noticed said man looking at him.

“Whoah!” Dragon startled when Roger appeared directly in front if him in the blink of an eye, a wide grin splitting his face. He was then picked up by his waist, and to Dragon’s immense surprise, was pulled into a hug.

“It’s nice to see you again too, my boy! Your other father asked me to give you a hug in his stead, so I’m giving you both our hugs at once!”

“…Uh?” He looked at Roger perplexedly. “...What?”

“He was very happy to receive your letter!” Roger continued, not really paying attention to Dragon’s growing confusion. “He’s glad you’re safe.”

He then let Dragon back onto the ground carefully, gently ruffling his hair before turning towards Lu.

“Garp’s your Dad too now, by the way!” He said casually, and without hesitation Lu gave him a thumbs up and a jolly ”Okay!”.

“Dear.” Rouge called, bringing Roger’s attention back to herself.

“Hm?” He tilted his head to the side as Rouge pulled out a small, velvet box out of her pants pocket.

The crew around them gasped in surprise, and Roger’s eyes widened.

“…Honey?” He called out with a shaky voice, and Rouge opened the box, revealing two silver rings of different size, each having a band of gemstone imbedded in the middle. The smaller of the two was a glittering, milky gemstone that Roger recognized as moonstone, while the bigger one had a band of gleaming, orange colored sunstone.

Roger looked between the rings and Rouge. “You can’t mean…?”

“Gol D. Roger. You are the love of my life, and I’d want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Rouge looked at him lovingly.

“Will you marry me?”

Roger wasted no time pulling her into a kiss, breathless, and when they parted again, there were tears in his eyes.

“Of course!” He sobbed. “Of course I do!”

Rouge smiled, but she too was crying.

“Put it on me then, would you dear?” She gently placed the box in his hands, and Roger felt his hands shake as he carefully took the smaller ring out of it.

Rouge held her hand towards him, and Roger slipped the ring onto her finger, Rouge completing the ritual when she slipped the other ring onto Roger’s finger.

It fit perfectly.

After they kissed one more time, the crew erupted into cheers and congratulations, and the surrounding crewmembers quickly started to prepare everything for the impending party that would no doubt last deep into the night.

All the while, Dragon was sitting next to Lu, Shanks and Buggy on the floor, a thoroughly exhausted and resigned look on his face.

“Y’know what, at this point, sure. Why not.” He murmured, rubbing his face with his hands. “I’m currently at Gol D. Roger’s Wedding, who says he's my father too, and that apparently my actual father is your father too now. What the hell has my life become?” He groaned, and Lu just laughed at him.

There were far more crazy things waiting for him in the future, after all.

Chapter Text

The sun had already set by now, but the party was still in full swing, and no doubt would it continue to be until early morning.

Rouge was leaning against Roger’s side while the man in question was deeply engrossed in a conversation with a crewmember she wasn’t paying attention to, nursing her drink as she watched Lu and the other children standing near the railing.

Lu was sending small flames into the air above Dragon and the other two boys, willing them to form into various shapes, before letting them explode into tiny fireworks above their heads.

As always, his younger brothers were incredibly amazed by the display, even giving their own suggestions for new forms, that Lu happily included in his pyrotechnics.

Dragon looked at said fireworks with a strange mixture of reverence and awe, their orange- golden sparks reflecting in his dark eyes like burning embers.

Seemingly subconsciously, he raised a hand to trace over the scar lines going from over his eyebrow and eyelid, down to the bottom of his jaw, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Rouge wondered what he was thinking about. Perhaps he was remembering how he got the scar?

But then, Dragon’s eyes drifted from the fireworks towards Lu, the boy’s glow softly shining in the dark night, reminding Rouge of a gold coin glimmering in the warm summer sun.

And suddenly, Dragon’s smile widened, like he had come to an incredible realization.

It was the most genuine, joyous smile Rouge had seen on him so far, and she felt her chest fill up with warmth.

But before she could think about it any more, Roger suddenly sprung up from his seat on her right, his drink sloshing dangerously in its mug, threatening to spill.

“Ah! The souvenirs!” He yelled aghast, quickly handing Rouge his mug, before hurrying off to head under the deck.

Rouge’s dumbfounded gaze followed Roger’s disappearing back, and for a few moments, all she could hear was him rummaging through what she assumed to be various crates, before he let out a triumphant shout, and swiftly made his way up.

Once he was back on deck, Rouge noted he was carrying something.

Seeing her curious look, Roger smiled widely.

“Remember what you asked me to bring you when we’d meet again?” He pulled out a hat from the bundle of fabric he was holding, offering it to a surprised Rouge.

She set down the mugs of alcohol she was holding onto the floor, accepting the object with wide eyes.

The hat was a bright sunset orange, and around its’ middle was a band of red wooden pearls, as well as two blue face-like circular pins at the front of it, one smiling, one frowning. A thin leather string was tied to the inside, preventing it from falling off completely, if it ever were to be knocked off of its wearer’s head.

Rouge laughed in disbelief. “You actually found one!”

Roger gave her a smug look. “Of course I did! It’s even fireproof!” He then turned towards his two oldest sons. “I also got something for Lu and Dragon!”

At the mention of their names, said boys shifted their attention towards him, curious.

Lu let one last flame explode into the air, before scurrying over to his parents, his audience following him.

“Really?! What’d you get?” He asked excitedly, trying to see what exactly his father was holding in his arms.

“Here.” Roger grinned, pulling out a long iron pipe from under the fabric, handing it to Lu. “What do you think?”

He turned it in his hands, surprised at how light it was, despite its size. It was taller than Lu himself, reaching at least 50 cm above his head. He brushed his fingers over it, frowning. Was it coated in something? It felt familiar in a way, like he’d held it before.

Experimentally, he let his flames run over the material, delighted to note it easily kept its shape, neither burning or melting under the heat of his fire.

He flinched as he momentarily felt a slight pulsing go through it in response, and instantly, Lu remembered what it was.

He knew the energy it exuded. He just didn’t think he’d be able to touch it. Without losing his strength, that is.

“Where’d you get this?” He looked up at Roger in surprise. It was seastone.

“I wasn’t easy to get, you know?” Said man pushed out his chest in pride, rubbing a finger under his nose. “The merchant who sold it is traveling exclusively in the Calmbelt, so it was kind of a pain to find him. Also, the guy almost didn’t want to sell it to me. Said something stupid about how ‘it’s not a toy,’ and ‘not something a child would be able to handle anyway’. Bunch of bullshit, if you ask me.” He then gave Lu an expectant look. “So do you like it?”

Lu couldn’t help the bright smile spreading on his face. “I love it!” How could he not? It’d be the perfect weapon against devilfruit users!

Roger’s face lit up with an equal amount of brightness, obviously satisfied at the positive reaction, before turning his attention towards Dragon.

“And while I was there, I got something for you too, Dragon!” He grabbed the fabric the two other presents were previously wrapped in, unfolding it to show that it was in fact, not just a piece of cloth to keep precious cargo safe, but rather a long, olive green cloak, that looked a lot like a raincoat to Dragon’s confused eyes.

“Thank you…?” Dragon murmured, as he accepted the unexpectedly heavy cloth Roger was holding out to him. The fabric felt… strange? As Dragon held it. Despite its outer coat’s smoothness, obviously for repelling rain, the inside of it felt rough and uneven in comparison, like small, very thin wires had been woven into it.

Upon closer inspection, Dragon noted that exactly that seemed to be the case, the mix of thread and wires forming a surprisingly tight-knit, sturdy mesh, and Dragon was sure that most bullets and knives would have trouble penetrating it.

“Amazing…” he whispered, looking at it with wide eyes. “And you’re sure this is for me?”

Roger huffed, and placed a hand on his head, ruffling his hair.

“Obviously. Who else would it be for?”

Dragon’s lower lip trembled, and he barely managed to give a shaky smile. He then seemed to hesitate for a moment, before apparently steeling his resolve, and looked up at Roger. “Thank you, Pa.”

Rouge could see the exact moment the words registered in Roger’s brain, his eyes widening for a split second, before a smile, easily rivaling the sun in its’ brightness spread on his face and he pulled Dragon into a bone crushing hug.

“You’re welcome, son!” He laughed, squeezing Dragon tightly one more time, making him let out a choked gasp, and set him back onto the floor.

Roger then crouched down a bit to properly be at Dragon’s level, his eyes glinting with something that Dragon guessed to be excitement.

“There’ll be another present for you later tonight!” He whispered, smile unmoving on his face. “So look forward to it.”

But before Dragon could ask any questions, the man turned around, towards Rouge, and seated himself back at her side, seamlessly picking up the conversation he’d been having prior to his impromptu gift-giving.

Dragon threw a confused look towards Lu, hoping to get at least some kind of explanation, but the boy was completely engrossed in experimenting with his new weapon, letting light and fire run over it alike, his eyes shining excitedly.

Dragon sighed. Seems like he’d have to wait until tonight to find out.

___________________

It was late at night, when Garp received a call on his personal Den-Den.

He was back at Headquarters, going through the last of the written reports he’d gotten today, and he was tired.

So in his defense, it wasn’t really his fault that he didn’t immediately recognize the voice on the other line.

“Hello Garp!” The voice greeted him, and it took him a moment to link it to a specific person.

“Roger?” Garp rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand. “What has you calling this late?”

On the other line, Roger gave small laugh.

“Oh my, did I wake you up?”

Garp shook his head in answer, only to belatedly realize the man wouldn’t be able to see it, and cleared his throat in embarrassment.

“…No. Just, it’s a lot of paperwork today.” He said, and Roger hummed.

“Should I call you back tomorrow?”

“No, it’s fine.” Garp waved him off with a sigh. “Any distraction is welcome right now.”

“Well, in that case,” The smile was audible in Roger’s voice, and Garp rose a brow.

He heard rustling over the line, perhaps the Snail’s receiver being passed from one person to another, and then,

“…Dad?”

Garp took in a sharp breath, blinking at the Den-Den in disbelief as its face vaguely morphed into the person on the other side.

“Dragon? Is that you?” He asked breathlessly, not believing his hearing for a moment.

“…Yeah.” Came the hesitant answer, and Garp felt himself let out a sigh of relief, a year’s worth of tension leaving his body all at once.

“How are you doing, my boy?” Garp asked with a mall smile, wiping away a stray tear from his eye.

“I’m… I’m doing good.” Dragon answered, and if he had heard the shaking in Garp’s voice, he didn’t comment on it. “How about you?”

Garp laughed softly. “It’s better now.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, only the sound of Dragon’s even breathing telling him that he hadn’t hung up yet.

“I’m sorry, Dragon. I really am.” My Garp said after a while, and he heard Dragon take in a sharp breath. “I should have been there for you, with you when they were coming to take you.”

“It’s. It’s fine Dad. You didn’t know.” Dragon murmured and Garp felt his throat tighten.

“But I should have.” Garp insisted, his grip tightened on the receiver.

“Dad…”

Then there was silence again and he heard Dragon swallow nervously.

“…If we give you coordinates for a place in the Grandline, do you think you can come within the week?”

Garp felt his breath hitch.

“Just tell me where. I’ll come as fast as I can.”

“Then. Roger- no, uh,” Dragon coughed in embarrassment. “Pa will give them to you. Here.”

There was another shuffle as Dragon gave the receiver back, and Roger’s amused voice reached his ears.

“And, how’s that for a distraction?”

“The best.” Garp said with a wet chuckle, wiping his eyes again. “Now tell me where you are, I need to prepare to leave.”

Roger hummed affirmatively, giving him a string of numbers that Garp quickly wrote down on a nearby slip of paper, trying to burn them into his memory. He’d need to get rid of it later though.

“Thank you, Roger.” Garp said then, and at Roger’s questioning hum, clarified. “For letting me know where he is. I don’t think I would’ve found out until it was too late.”

“No worries. And like I said before; I have to look out for our Dragon, don’t I?” Roger chuckled. “Besides, I think my boys want to see you again as well.”

“Yeah, me too.” Garp smiled at the thought, but then his expression hardened. “Still, I’ll have to hang up now, I need to tell Senny I want a vacation.”

“You do that. Oh, and Garp?”

“Hm?”

“You might wanna bring a cameko.” After that, Roger hung up without another word, leaving Garp to stare at the now silent Den-Den, puzzled.

_________________

“…Do you really think he’ll come?” Dragon hesitantly asked Roger, who nodded confidently at his question.

“Of course he will. He loves you.”

Dragon shifted in his chair, eyes still on Salad, who by now had fallen asleep again.

A year ago, Dragon might not have believed Roger’s words.

But now, he couldn’t help the warm fuzzy feeling spreading in his stomach, as he remembered the way Garp’s voice had shook with emotion.

He could tell the man was really, genuinely sorry, and it threw Dragon for a loop.

“But what if-”

“He’ll come.” Roger waved him off with an air of finality. “I promise you, he will.”

“That’s right! Pa was very worried about you!”

 Lu’s voice suddenly sounded next to the two of them, startling Dragon so bad he fell out of the chair he sat on, landing flat on his behind.

He glared at the younger boy with his heart beating frantically in his chest.

“How the hell do you keep doing that!?”

“Doing what?” Lu tilted his head quizzically.

“That!” Dragon yelled, exasperatedly pointing at Lu’s everything. “You just suddenly appear, without even releasing a shred of your presence!”

“Oh, that.” Lu scratched the back of his head. He shrugged. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

“What does that even mean?!” Dragon groaned, as Roger laughed, offering him a hand to pull himself back up on. He gratefully took it.

“By the way Sunshine, isn’t it far too late for you to be up at this hour?” Roger wondered as he gave his son a judgemental look, and Lu averted his eyes.

“…I wanted to hear Pa’s voice again…”

Roger sighed, and gently patted his head. “As much as I understand, you still have a bedtime, young man.” He then rose a brow, and Lu sweat-dropped. “And does your mother even know you’re here?”

Lu shifted nervously. “…No?”

As if summoned by the mere mention of her, Rouge suddenly burst into the room, the door slamming loudly into the wall, her hard gaze immediately zeroing in on Lu.

“Portgas-Gol D. Lu.” She said sternly, and Lu flinched. (It simultaneously amazed and scared him how much her demeanor reminded him of Nami’s sometimes.) “Back to bed. Now.”

Lu let his head drop dejectedly, and muttered a unenthusiastic “Yes Mama.” And shuffled out of the room, back towards the bedroom he shared with Shanks and Buggy.

Once she was sure he was really back in his room, Rouge’s gaze landed on Dragon, and she smiled.

“How was the talk with your father?”

Dragon swallowed the lump in his throat. “He… apologized.” He said wetly, wiping at his eyes. “It was honestly the first time I’ve ever heard him genuinely apologize for anything.” He added with a chuckle.

Rouge laughed softly. “I’m quite excited to finally meet him.”

Dragon sighed, an exasperated but fond smile on his lips. “Yeah, me too.”

________________________

When Garp finally arrived at the island barely four days later, Roger was already waiting for him at the shore.

“Hello Garp! Glad you could make it!” He greeted, and Garp nodded.

“I’m glad too.” He then looked around, mood visibly dropping once he realized Roger was alone. “Dragon’s not with you?”

Roger laughed softly. “No, he’s with his brothers right now. But don’t worry, we’ll go meet him. Follow me!” He said, waving Garp after him, as he made his way towards the forest of the island.

They had walked for maybe around twenty minutes, when Garp started to feel numerous presences a bit further ahead of them.

He strained his senses, curious to know who it was.

To his great delight, one of the presences undoubtedly belonged to Dragon, making a small smile break out on his face.

There were a lot of others too, most likely Roger’s crew, as well as two very small ones he figured were Shanks and Buggy.

However, there were two more among them, that Garp didn’t recognize.

“Did you get new crewmembers?” He asked Roger, and the man grinned, a flash of mischief crossing his eyes.

“You could say that. You’ll be surprised, I bet!”

A few more minutes later, Garp could hear voices coming from almost directly in front of them.

He pushed aside the thick foliage obstructing his view of the sunlit clearing behind it, surprised to see that apparently the entirety of Roger’s crew had managed to set up camp in it.

He gave Roger a raised brow.

“Was it necessary to have all of them here?”

Roger nodded seriously. “Of course. We’re throwing a party after all!”

“Aha, so you’re… throwing…a party…”

Garp stopped dead in his tracks, having spotted the one person he’d wanted to meet all this time.

“Dragon!” He yelled, and the boy in question flinched, turning to look in his direction, eyes wide.

“Dad?” Dragon sprung up from where he was sitting on the ground next to blonde boy Garp didn’t care to look at right now, and with only two large steps Garp was in front of his son.

Dragon didn’t have time to react when Garp pulled him into a hug, pressing him tightly against his chest.

“I’m glad you’re safe, my boy.” Garp sighed, patting Dragon’s back, who awkwardly returned the gesture.

After a few more seconds Garp let go, ruffling Dragon’s hair.

Dragon seemed only slightly annoyed by the action, and let his father do as he pleased for now.

But the moment Garp took his hand off of Dragon’s head, he was immediately knocked onto the ground, a small figure barreling into his torso with a frightening amount of force.

Garp let out a ‘oof’, wheezing as the air was pushed out of him. He heard Roger laugh heartily next to him, and the child, as Garp belatedly realized it was, joining the other man with a cheerful ‘Shishishishi’.

“Hi!” The boy’s strangely familiar voice said, and Garp lifted his head to look at him.

“Sunshine?!” He yelled in surprise, quickly standing back up, said boy giggling as he rolled down Garp’s chest at the quick movement.

“What are you doing here?!”

“Waiting for you, obviously!” Sunshine laughed, much to Garp’s confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asked, but before the boy could answer him, Sunshine was being picked off of the ground by a woman Garp didn’t recognize, and seated on her shoulders.

Sunshine gently grabbed onto the woman’s hair, positioning himself in what Garp could only describe as familiarity towards the sudden action.

“Didn’t we tell you to stop doing that?” The woman reprimanded, but there was no real bite in her words. Sunshine, obviously noticing that fact as well, smiled.

“But it’s fun!”

“C’mon sweetie, we talked about this.” She sighed with the demeanor of someone who has had to explain something for the millionth time already. “Not everyone has the strength to take you head on like that.”

Sunshine crossed his arms in front of his chest, pouting. “But Pa does…” He grumbled, but didn’t seem to plan on arguing further.

The woman patted his leg in a half-hearted consolation.

Garp looked at the woman curiously.

She was quite pretty, he noted.

She had strawberry blonde hair, pale skin and freckles, as well as a pink hibiscus pinned behind her right ear, matching to the one Sunshine was currently wearing.

He looked back and forth between the two.

“Who are you?” He asked. “Are you members of Roger’s crew?”

The woman nodded. “We are. Oh, but I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?” She smiled apologetically as she held out a hand towards Garp, who easily accepted the handshake.

“My name is Portgas D. Rouge and I’m this little troublemaker’s mother.” She chuckled, pointing at Sunshine. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Monkey D. Garp.”

“Likewise.” Garp nodded.

He then looked at the boy still sitting on her shoulders. “So, are going to tell me your actual name now, ‘Sunshine’?” He asked with a raised brow, and Sunshine nodded, a grin breaking out on his face, and Garp felt a strange sense of foreboding.

“My name’s Portgas-Gol D. Lu! Nice to see you again, Pa!” He said cheerfully, holding out a peace sign.

Garp felt like someone had hit his head with a frying pan.

“What?!”

Lu giggled. “Should I repeat it?”

Garp whipped around to stare at Roger wide eyed, who was wearing a similar grin.

“This is your son?!”

“Our son,” Roger corrected. “But yes, he is.”

Garp looked back at Lu, narrowing his eyes at him. “I feel like that’s something you could have mentioned earlier, kiddo.”

Lu shrugged. “Maybe. But that would’ve ruined the surprise, don’t you think?”

Garp let out a huff. “It’s a surprise alright, I’ll give ya that much.”

“He was also the one who found me when I was first injured.” Dragon added, and Garp took a moment to process that particular piece of information.

“So Dragon was with you when we first met?!” He pointed a accusatory finger at the boy. “You should’ve told me!”

“No way!” Lu laughed at him. “You would’ve just dragged him back without listening to him!”

Garp’s argument died on his tongue. He sighed, wiping a hand over his face. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re probably right.”

“I’m more often right than people think.” He heard the boy murmur, and Garp rolled his eyes.

“Sure, sure.”

He then turned back to Roger.

“Shocking revelations aside, you said you were throwing a party, right? What for?”

“Well, first of all, we’re obviously celebrating you and Dragon finally reuniting.” He explained, pointing at the two of them.

“But,” He started, pulling Rouge and Lu closer to himself. “We’re also celebrating Rouge and me getting married!” He grinned, holding up his left hand towards Garp, showing off the silver band on his ring finger.

“You got married?!” Garp gasped, grabbing Roger by his shoulders, and started shaking him back and forth in disbelief. “And you didn’t tell me?! How could you!?”

Roger just laughed at Garp’s outburst.

“Ah, I only proposed to him five days ago,” Rouge interrupted after a while, once she'd had enough fun watching her husband getting manhandled like a anti-stress toy, placing a placating hand on Garp’s arm. “He didn’t have enough time in between to tell you.”

“That’s right!” Lu agreed, “Dad even said we should wait until you’re here, to properly start the party!”

“Hm. Is that so?” Garp said, suddenly releasing his grip on the Pirate Captain.

Roger stumbled back a few steps, feeling like his brain was violently bouncing around inside his head. And who knew, maybe it was.

“’m so’ry,” he slurred. “Wasn’t ‘tentionally.”

“All’s good, don’t worry about it!” Garp laughed as he hit his back, really not helping Roger’s jostled brain.

“Hey, Pa!” Lu called suddenly, drawing Garp’s attention to him.

“Did you bring the cameko?”

“The cameko?” Garp took a moment to remember he’d actually brought it with him. “Ah, yes! I did!” He reached behind himself, picking up the backpack he’d accidentally dropped when Lu had knocked into him.

He pulled the snail out of the protective case he’d thankfully put it in before, holding it up so Lu could properly see it.

Fortunately, the snail seemed only mildly confused, rather that outright scared, when Lu grabbed it out of Garp’s hands, immediately using it to take a few photos.

To Lu’s immense excitement, the snail had a instant picture function, printing out small photos soon after Lu clicked the shutter, and Garp absentmindedly wondered if the slight golden glow around Lu was an illusion caused by the light streaming through the treetops.

"The party can officially start now!" The boy laughed then, spurring everyone around them into action.

There were currently five D's in one place, and with the appetite to match, too. 

They'd have a lot of food to prepare.

Chapter Text

“Dragon.” Garp called softly, waving his son over, motioning for him to sit down next to him.

Dragon obliged, giving his father a curious look.

“You…” Garp started, not sure how to begin.

“…You don’t plan to go back to the Marines?” He asked after a while, but it sounded more of a statement, rather than a question.

He grimaced at the whole-body flinch the words caused in his son, he too, no doubt remembering all the times Dragon had mentioned his dislike for staying with the Marines, only for Garp to hit him with a Fist of Love in anger and dismissal, over what he back then thought to be no more than the rebellious words of a young teen.

“I don’t.” Dragon said with a decisive tone, looking Garp straight in the eyes, as if daring him to try and convince him otherwise. “I will never go back.”

They stared at each other for a few more seconds, before Garp let out a heavy sigh, being the first to break eye contact.

He leaned back a bit, head tilting up to momentarily look at the cloudless, vast blue sky above them.

He then looked back down at Dragon, his precious, lovely son, who was so obviously full of life and the desire for nothing else but freedom, that it would only be cruel to keep him tied to a system Garp knew firsthand, restricted that very freedom the higher you climbed its’ accursed hierarchy of so called justice.

“I think…It might be for the best that way.” He said then, giving Dragon a somewhat resigned smile, who stared at him with wide eyes.

“I shouldn’t have made you join them in the first place.” He continued, ignoring the growing lump in his throat making it harder for him to speak. “I tried to teach you how to be a great Marine, as well as their way of justice.” He swallowed. “But you’ve had your own ideals from the start, your own way of justice, and I was too stupid to see that.”

He didn’t care for the wetness on his cheeks, nor the way he felt his hands shake.

“I am so sorry my boy, for what I made you live through.”

His trembling hands found Dragon’s, who let Garp hold them without protest, silently listening.

“Please, can you forgive me?” The words left his lips in a choked whisper, his hold on Dragon’s hands tightening minimally.

Dragon looked at his father.

His father, who had been looking for him non-stop for a whole year, without rest. Who’d only seemed to properly relax once he knew that Dragon was safe, and with someone who would take care of him.

His hair, that used to be completely black, now had one or two grey streaks, making him seem older, more tired.

Still, his eyes were full of hope as he looked at him, and then shook with anxiety and dread, when Dragon let out a sigh.

Dragon took his hands out of his father’s, reversing their hold, so Garp’s larger, scarred ones, were now being held by his own.

Dragon squeezed his father’s hands softly, making him take in a sharp breath.

“You weren’t always a good father.” Dragon started, shaking his head when Garp opened his mouth to say something, making him close it again. “But, you tried to be. I know that.” Dragon let out another sigh. “I can’t say that I’ll be able to forgive you for everything…But just like you did, I’ll try.” He said, giving Garp a small smile.

That was all it took for Garp to pull Dragon into a hug, sobbing as Dragon stroked his back soothingly. And if his own tears were wetting the fabric on his father’s shoulder as well, then it was nobodies’ business but his own.

When they finally separated, Garp’s eyes were red, and Dragon raised a brow in amusement.

“Were you always such and emotional person?”

Garp scrunched up his face. “Probably not.” He then shrugged. “But well, I did have an awful lot of time to think.”

Dragon gave a small laugh. “Then I guess that’s another good thing that came out of this whole mess.”

At that, Garp sighed. “It really is, isn’t it?” He then gave Dragon a hesitant look.

“What are you planning to do now?” He asked, curious. “You’re not going to join Roger’s crew right?” He added, perhaps a little nervous about that particular option.

Another laugh escaped Dragon, and to Garp’s great relief, he shook his head.

“No. Pa and his crew are great, but they’re not the people who I need to achieve my goal.”

At Garp’s questioning look, he moved on to elaborate. “What they want is an adventure. And while they do help people on occasion, I want to actively help change the lives of others. To bring them peace, and make it so they don’t have to fear the World Government anymore.” He looked at Garp with unwavering determination. “I will have to sail on my own for a while, but I know there are many who think the same way. And together with them, I’ll work for a better, freer world.”

Garp smiled. “It’s a great goal.”

Dragon seemed embarrassed by the praise, and he averted his eyes.

“By the way,” Garp said after a moment, his eyes trailing Dragon’s face, specifically, the scar lines over his eye. “Did you get this one when you were on the run, too?” He asked, pointing at said scar.

Dragon couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face. “No, I didn’t.”

Garp tilted his head. “Then how’d you get it?”

Dragon’s smile widened. “What do you know about Lu?” he asked instead of answering, making Garp raise a brow.

“About Lu?”

Dragon nodded.

“Well, first off, he’s a D.” Garp started. “He’s Rouge’s and Roger’s son, and he can manipulate light into being solid.” He thought for a moment. “Yeah, I think that’s about all I know so far.”

Dragon chuckled. “That’s really not much.”

“I mean, I’ve only met him once before. There wasn’t a whole lot to find out in the maybe 10 minutes I talked to him. And I only found out who his parents are today.” He defended himself, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“True,” Dragon conceded. He then gave his father a strange look. “But did you not notice anything else?”

Garp blinked at him confusedly. “Something else?”

Dragon nodded. “Isn’t he strange?” He glanced at the blonde boy who was standing further to their right, out of earshot, playing around with a random stick he’d picked up, waving it around like a sword. “He doesn’t only manipulate light. He also controls fire.”

Garp tilted his head. “Isn’t that just his devilfruit?”

“It’s not.” Dragon said, and Garp raised a brow. “He doesn’t have a devilfruit.”

“He…doesn’t have a devilfruit?” Garp echoed in disbelief, and Dragon nodded.

“He apparently can talk to animals too.” He added, and Garp gave a thoughtful hum.

“Well, Roger can too, to some extent, so that might just be a hereditary thing.” Garp mused, and Dragon shrugged.

“Maybe. But could Roger use all three types of Haki by the time he was six?” Dragon asked, and Garp frowned.

“Uh, well, I didn’t know him when he was that young, but I don’t think so?”

“See? He’s strange.” Dragon repeated. “And don’t you think he’s a bit too intelligent for his age?”

Granted, Lu didn’t really act particularly smart most of the time, but at the same time he also showed a level of maturity that you wouldn’t expect a child to have. It wasn’t something usually noticeable, but if one spend as much time closely observing Lu as Dragon or Rouge had, it was obvious.

While Rouge didn’t seem to be bothered by it, for Dragon, it served as a reminder that Lu wasn’t exactly what he seemed to be. Well, not that he really minded it either.

“Rouge’s genes?” Garp offered, and Dragon shook his head.

“I don’t think so. Remember the letter I sent you? When I mentioned I wasn’t sure if human standards applied to the boy who’d found me?”

Garp blinked. “You mean…”

“Yes.” Dragon confirmed with a nod. “I don’t think Lu is really human.”

“But…” Garp started, unsure what to think of that. “Why?” He finally said after a moment, looking at Dragon for further explanation. “What makes you think that?”

“When I first met him, he was sitting in a shrine, right on top of the offering altar.” Dragon begun. “I was injured, and perhaps loosing a bit too much blood than was good for my logical thinking skills. But he looked so… inhuman at that moment.” Dragon gave his father a meaningful look. “He couldn’t be anything other than the owner of that shrine.” He paused. “He had a halo too, now that I think about it.” He added as an afterthought.

He then looked at Garp for a moment, studying his face. When Garp didn’t seem to plan to interrupt, he continued. “I then gave him an offering in exchange for his help. It was just a bit of dried meat and some coins, and truth be told, I didn’t think he was going to accept it. But he did. And when he took it, he glowed, Dad. Glowed. Still does, actually.”

The scene where Lu was holding the Cameko, illuminated by light that logically couldn’t have surrounded him in the way it did, briefly flashed through Garp’s mind and he swallowed.

“What happened then?” He asked, and Dragon shrugged.

“Not that much, to be honest. He called for one of his animal friends, and had her carry us to Mo- uh, Mrs. Rouge’s house. And I’ve been staying there until now.”

Before Garp could voice the question that rose in his head at that, Dragon dismissed it with a shake of his head.

“I don’t think Mrs. Rouge is like Lu. Their energy is completely different in that aspect.”

Garp’s gaze wandered over to Lu, who had by now managed to coat his stick in a faint glow of light, and when he swung it, a shard of light separated from it, cutting through the air with a swoosh, and imbedded itself in a nearby tree.

No, correction, not imbedded, but went through the tree, Garp noticed not soon after, when said tree begun to creak loudly, tilting backwards, before ultimately crashing to the ground, taking down the tree behind it as well.

Lu threw his arms up, letting out a shout of joy, excitedly running over to the aftermath of his apparent success.

Garp looked away, sweating. He was not going to intervene with whatever the kid was doing over there.

“Right. So what does Lu not being human have to with your new scar?”

The smile was back on Dragon’s face, and Garp flinched. It looked so… genuine. So free.

“It happened the day we exchanged sake cups.” Dragon said. “Lu seemed somewhat out of it, afterwards. Then his hand was on fire, and before I knew it, he’d burned me.”

“What?” Garp couldn’t believe it. Why was Dragon saying that with such a happy smile?

“It didn’t hurt as much as I expected it to.” Dragon admitted, ignoring the troubled look his father was giving him. “At the time I didn’t know why he did.” He chuckled. “But now I know the reason.”

He looked at Garp, his eyes shining with an emotion Garp couldn’t quite place. “I’m his family. His brother. And as weird as it sounds, I think this mark is proof of our connection.” He raised a hand to his face, gently stroking over the scar, almost fondly.

“Also, I’ve only noticed this recently, but whenever Lu uses his powers, I feel it heat up a bit. I’m not sure if it’s because he used his own flames to do it, or something else, but it feels nice, in a way. Comfortable even.”

“You… you don’t mind that he did it?” Garp asked after a while, studying Dragon’s face intensely.

“Not really.” Dragon shrugged, a bit surprised at how well Garp seemed to take all of this. “It only hurt for a few seconds. Besides, I think he did it more on instinct, rather than on purpose.”

“…Is that so.” Garp murmured, eyes zeroing in on Lu, who was still inspecting the fallen tree.

“Dad?” Dragon asked, slightly worried about the dangerous glint in his father's eye.

“Alright.” Garp said as he stood up, cracking his knuckles ominously. “Just because you said you don’t mind, doesn’t mean I’ll let him off easily.”

“Oi! Sunshine!” Garp called, and Dragon looked on with horror, as his father begun chasing his -still very likely not human- second son around the clearing, yelling at him to ‘face retribution for his actions’ and ‘to hold still and accept his fate’.

His only relief was the fact that Lu seemed to be able to easily dodge Garp’s punches, always jumping or twisting out of the way in the last second.

Unfortunately, that only served to make Garp more hell-bent on landing at least one (most likely Haki-coated) punch, completely disregarding the chaos their game of chase left in their wake.

He threw a hopeful look towards Roger and Rouge, thinking that maybe they’d be able to put a stop to the two, but was thoroughly disappointed when he noticed them cheerfully watching from the sidelines along with the rest of the crew, and instead of preventing the duo from causing more destruction, were yelling encouragements and even tips on how to improve their attacks.

Especially Roger seemed to enjoy himself, laughing whenever Lu formed his fire or light into blades, promising to teach him how to properly use real ones someday.

Rouge was no less enthusiastic, giving pointers here and there, even yelling at Garp to try and concentrate Armament on his feet for a speed boost, which earned her a contemplative hum from the man before he tried it out, and then a surprised yelp from Lu, when said man managed to almost catch him.

Still, to Dragon’s great dismay, the two continued to run around wildly, laughing far too happily whenever they almost hit each other.

In a last-ditch effort, he looked at Rayleigh, and was promptly disappointed once more when he saw the man lovingly hug his alcohol bottle, looking at it like it was the last thing that kept his sanity together.

And honestly, Dragon couldn’t fault him.

He sighed, letting himself fall onto his back, completely intending to ignore the world today.

Garp and Lu could fight the whole day if they wanted to for all he cared, but right now, Dragon would ignore them and sleep.

Chapter Text

Sengoku squinted at Garp, as well as the new hole in the wall the man had made with his entrance. He was beginning to think he should charge Garp even more for continuing to break his wall like this.

Just when he wanted to tell him as such, his gaze fell onto the small boy standing next to the menace of a man.

Sengoku blinked at him in surprise. The boy, maybe a bit older than ten, blinked back, tilting his head to the side.

His short blonde hair shimmered strangely in the light that fell through the window, and Sengoku wondered if he was imagining the faint golden glow the boy exuded.

There was also a pipe strapped to his back, and honestly a bit too big for his size, in Sengoku’s humble opinion.

But then his dark, void-like eyes met Sengoku’s own, flickering red for a fraction of a second, seemingly staring straight into his core, searching it for something, and frowning slightly at whatever it was he found.

The boy sighed heavily, in disappointment or relief, Sengoku didn’t know. He swallowed, inexplicably feeling like had just been judged, invisible scales over his head threatening to tip to one side or the other.

Pushing his discomfort to the side, he turned back to the main cause of his current headache. It was way easier to deal with Garp, than whatever the hell that had been.

“Who is he?” Sengoku asked Garp suspiciously, really not liking the implications of his friend bringing a child (was it really though?) to Marine Headquarters.

A wide smile broke out on Garp’s face, and immediately, Sengoku knew nothing good would come out of that damned man’s mouth.

“My son!” He said with far too much enthusiasm, considering the words he’d just slapped Sengoku in the face with. “Say hi to Senny, kiddo!”

Said kid cheerily smiled up at Sengoku, a complete opposite to his eyes, still cold and dark like the deepest part of the seas, sending a chill down his spine.

“Hi.”

Sengoku most definitely did not enjoy the way this boy looked at him, like he was a particular though piece of meat, and wondering if he should try chewing through it as is, or rather just hack at it with knife and fork.

Sengoku turned away from the boy, opting glare at his friend instead, decidedly avoiding any more eye contact with the child.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had another son?” He asked almost sulkily, barely able to keep the hurt out of his voice.

Garp had the decency to at least look a bit embarrassed, scratching the back of his head.

“Uh, honestly? I didn’t know either.” The man said to Sengoku’s immense surprise, shifting on his feet nervously.

“I didn’t immediately know he was my son when I met him and his mother, especially since she was married to another man by that point.” He shrugged.

Sengoku gaped at his friend, barely believing what he was hearing.

“Garp, did you have an affair with a married woman?!”

“No!” Garp yelled aghast, apparently appalled by the mere thought of that.

“What kind of man do you take me for, Senny?! She wasn’t even married when she had her son! I would never do something so disrespectful!”

Sengoku sighed in relief. Apparently Garp had at least some semblance of common sense in that area.

“Good. Anyway, why did you bring him here? This is hardly a place for a child, you know that, right?”

Garp’s lips pulled into his signature D of a smile.

Sengoku frowned. That was never a good sign.

“To teach him all a Marine needs to know!” Garp said, ruffling the boy’s hair, who for some godforsaken reason, kept staring. It was highly unnerving.

Sengoku couldn’t help the tired sigh that escaped him. Why were Monkey D’s always so exhausting to deal with?

“Garp. The kid’s what, ten years old maybe? He can’t become a marine yet.” He half tried to reason with his friend, half to hopefully get him to leave, and be out of the damn kid’s line of sight.

Garp just waved him off. The bastard.

“He’s thirteen!” He argued, like that made it any better. “And it doesn’t matter, because I’m gonna teach him anyways! It’s useful information!” He said stubbornly, leaving no room for debate. Not that Sengoku expected there to be any.

Sengoku sighed again, dragging a hand over his face. “Do what you want, I guess.” If Garp wanted to get his kid to be a Marine, sure, he could try. Sengoku just had the suspicion it wasn’t going to be an easy feat, considering his track record in that regard.

He then turned to glance at the kid again.

“…And what’s your name, boy?”

The kid looked up at him again, and for a moment Sengoku’s heart tripped, missing a life-sustaining beat as the boy’s lips stretched into a wide smile. Sengoku would have found if cute, if it wasn’t for the fact that it looked downright terrifying, the boy’s teeth bared like a snarling beast, ready to pounce it’s prey.

“You can call me Sunshine! Nice to meet ya, old man!”

Sengoku stared at the boy for a long second, then turned to Garp with wide eyes, terror momentarily forgotten.

“Please tell me that isn’t his actual name.” Because if it was, Sengoku was going to throw Garp out of the window. With zero remorse.

The man blinked. Once, twice. Before breaking out into a fit of annoyingly loud laughter.

“Don’t worry, Senny! It’s just his nickname!”

The boy gave a low laugh, something that just really didn’t fit his young appearance.

“Mama did tell you it could be confusing, Pa.” He said, making Garp purse his lips, apparently not at all disturbed by how distinctly not-childlike his son was acting.

“Sunshine is a perfectly normal name, and I stand by that.” He said, obviously pouting.

“It is if you named your first son ‘Dragon’.” Sengoku pointed out, and Garp grumbled, but didn’t say anything to refute it.

“So…” Sengoku chanced a look at the boy again, thankful to notice the red glint in his eyes was gone now. “…Is there another name I should call you by?”

The boy tilted his head, eyes shifting up and to the side as if listening to someone talking behind him, which, again, was creepy.

“…Sol. Monkey D. Sol.” He answered with a small chuckle, obviously amused at what he’d said (heard?).

To the side, Garp made a strange noise, but Sengoku didn’t have the mind to pay attention to him right now.

An unseen weight was suddenly pressing down on him, heavy, threatening to suffocate him.

Sol’s eyes were narrowed, observing him thoughtfully.

Just when Sengoku thought he was going to be crushed, the moment was broken by Garp slapping the back of Sol’s head, a harsh frown on his face, almost scolding in its nature.

“Oi.” Was the only thing he said, but the boy seemed to get the message regardless, and the heavy pressure in the room disappeared.

Sengoku suppressed a sigh of relief, doing his best to ignore the shaking of his hands.

He looked at Garp. The man seemed to be completely unaffected by whatever the hell his son had just done, only looking a bit miffed, if anything.

“Sol.” Garp called again, and Sengoku saw the boy flinch, looking slightly embarrassed.

“I told you to behave, didn’t I?” He said with the tone of a scolding parent, and that was really strange, because Sengoku didn’t think he’d heard Garp use that kind of tone with Dragon. Ever.

Garp used the moment of Sengoku’s stunned silence to herd Sol out of the door. Which honestly didn’t do much, since there was still the giant hole in the wall, giving a perfect view of the inside of the room.

“Go look around a bit, brat. Explore, or something.” Garp gave his son a stern look. “But don’t break anything. Or anyone.”

Sol pouted, the first, actual child-like expression on his face.

“But that’s boring! Can I at least talk to people?”

Garp huffed, patting the boy’s shoulder, shielding Sengoku from his view for a moment. “I guess that’s okay.”

At that, Sol beamed, speeding off to god knows where.

“Thanks Pa! See ya later old man!” He yelled with a last cheery wave, disappearing into the long hallway.

Once Sengoku was sure the boy was properly out of earshot, he turned towards Garp, eyes filled with a mix of relief and anger.

“What the fuck was that, Garp?” Sengoku asked, hands clenching into fists under his desk.

Garp looked at him with slight surprise.

“You couldn’t tell? That was Conqueror’s Haki.”

“Conqueror’s Haki?!” Sengoku repeated aghast, looking at Garp with wide eyes.

“But he’s a kid! He shouldn’t have something like that!”

Garp just shrugged. “I developed Haki at a young age too, remember?”

Sengoku idly wondered how much strength he’d have to use to strangle Garp.

“You were sixteen, Garp! Sixteen! He’s like twelve!”

“Thirteen.” Garp corrected, before waving him off. “And so what? It’s not like it’s hurting him or something.”

Sengoku was going to be fully grey before he’d hit sixty, he just knew it. With someone like Monkey D. Garp as his best friend? Definitely.

“…To hell with you.” Sengoku murmured quietly under his breath, but judging by the way Garp was grinning at him, he wasn’t quiet enough.

Damn bastard.

_________________

Four hours earlier:

Lu tilted his head, listening to Oro’s Voice.

It was a warm, sunny day, as it often was when Nika was in a good mood these days, and the sea was playfully spraying a bit of salty water on his face as the Ship cut through the waves.

The Oro was mentally nudging him now, trying to bring his attention to a deeper part of her belly, the room where their lone Den-Den Mushi usually slept.

A call for you, Sunchild.

She whispered, her red and gold-cloaked Klabautermann appearing next to him on the figurehead, gently tugging on his shirt.

Your loud Father is calling you, Sunchild.

She tugged on his shirt again, insistently, and Lu let himself be dragged along as she pulled him towards the aforementioned room.

When they arrived, Salad was already awake, shell quietly vibrating, giving him an expectant look. Had someone accidentally left him on silence-mode?

Take it already! Salad groused, his tiny face scrunched up in an almost cute expression.

Lu easily took the receiver from the impatient snail as Oro retreated back into the body of the Ship.

“Hello, Pa.” He greeted, a smile instantly spreading on his face. He gently stroked Salad’s head, who leaned into the touch with a pleased wiggle and a exasperated huff.

“Hello Sunshine! How are you?” Garp’s loud voice sounded through the line, true to Oro’s nickname for him, making Lu laugh, carefully scratching the space between Salad’s eyes.

“I’m good.” He eplied , earing a small hum of approval in return. “How’re things on your end?”

“It’s getting kinda boring, in all honesty.” Garp grumbled. Then there was a pause, Garp hesitating to say the next words.

“Say, would you… like to come visit Headquarters today?”

Lu sucked in a sharp breath.

“You sure it’d be okay?” He asked, eyes wide in surprise.

Garp had never been the one to instigate their visits before, since normally, Lu just showed up on his Ship when he felt like it.

(Speaking of, Sea Kings were very practical for traveling without a boat. You just had to pressure them with a bit of conqueror’s Haki and they took you wherever you wanted to.

He might also have accidentally set fire to a few sails and wooden crates the first few times he was there. ‘Firecracker’ was then added to his growing list of nicknames as a result.

Garp himself had found the new nickname immensely funny, but stuck to calling him Sunshine most of the time, saying that it was still the most fitting one.)

The Marine let out a short laugh.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. It’s gonna annoy Senny a bit, if nothing else.”

“That sounds great!” Lu said, looking forward to that particular aspect.

Until now, Garp hadn’t allowed him to meet Sengoku, being unfortunately aware of the man’s strong loyalty to the World Government. While Garp’s had waned over the years, concentrating himself more to training new recruits and teaching them a broader worldview, (which was surprising, because Garp pretty much sucked at teaching anything that didn’t have to do with fighting), Sengoku’s conviction had stayed steady and unwavering, completely believing that following the Gorosei’s orders was always the right thing to do.

“Are you gonna pick me up, or should I come to you?” Lu asked, feeling his heartbeat excitedly drum in his chest, and Garp hummed.

“You can come to me.” He said, amused with his son’s enthusiasm. “We’re near the Grandline right now anyways, and a few of the newer recruits haven’t met you yet.” He added with a chuckle, obviously looking forward to their reactions when Lu would inevitably show up on their ship.

“Just tell your mother before you leave, okay? Roger I could handle yelling at me, but I’d rather not take my chances with her again. She’ll come beat me up, no hesitation.” He murmured, and then more or less to himself; “And not in the fun way.”

“I’ll definitely tell her, don’t worry Pa!” Lu laughed, a wide grin splitting his face.

Garp sighed, and Lu could imagine the older Marine dragging a hand over his face in a mix of tiredness and exasperation.

“I’m sure you will, Sunshine.” He rumbled with an amused huff.

“On another note…” Garp started, and Salad conveyed his conflicted expression expertly to Lu.

“There’s… also slomething I might need your help with.” He said, and Lu looked at the snail in intrigue.

“What is it?”

“We… recently captured a pirate.” Garp said, and Lu tilted his head.

“Isn’t that normal for you?”

“It is.” Garp agreed easily. “But… that one in particular definitely shouldn’t be in a cell.”

Lu made a confused noise.

“Why?”

Garp let out a sigh. “His captain isn’t one to easily fight off once you’ve angered him. I mean, I could obviously beat him, but I’d like to avoid confrontation if possible. It’d be too dangerous for the younger recruits, since they’ve barely had any real battle experience so far, but Senny doesn’t think the same.”

Lu hummed. It seemed to be quite bad if Garp was the voice of reason in this situation. “You want me to help break him out?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Garp confirmed. “But let’s get the details when you’re here, alright kiddo?”

“Okay. See you later, Pa.” Lu said and then hung up, giving Salad one last good scratch, before making his way towards his parents’ bedroom.

Even if Garp had said it as more of a joke, there was a very real chance that Rouge would actually hunt Garp down for not informing her that Lu was visiting him.

It had happened before, after all.

But well, he had a feeling today was going to be pretty fun anyway.

__________________

Back to the present:

Lu grinned as he read the letter Garp had slipped into his chest pocket a few seconds ago, along with the small iron key.

This key can unlock seastone cuffs.

Read the first line in Garp’s semi-legible scribble, straight to the point.

I’ve also drawn a map of our prison on the back of this letter, so use it well. It should be easy for you to get through there, and I trust Rouge to have taught you proper lock-picking skills for anything else.

I’ll distract Senny for a few hours, so do what you need. You can leave with the chicken once you release it, and I’ll tell Senny your mother came and picked you up or something like that.

Ps: If you meet that chicken’s idiot of a captain, slap him for me will ya? Get some sense into him, for letting his crew member get captured like that.

Oh, Lu definitively would. He still had a bone to pick with that one.

But he’d help the young crew member escape anyway, they deserved at least that much.

He giggled, smile widening as he felt the familiar Haki Signature sitting just a few floors below him.

“Well then.” Lu said as he studied the map once more before folding the letter, and placing it in his back pocket. “Off to let the chicken out of its’ cage, eh?”

_____________________

Marco was really not having a great time.

He’d honestly just been minding his own damn business, trying to buy himself some snacks to bring back to his room on the Moby Dick.

Admittedly, going out without a disguise of any kind had been his own fault, a rookie mistake that he was honestly a bit embarrassed about. Of course he hadn’t told any of the crew either, because apparently he was an idiot.

They had caught him off guard, surrounding him with guns and blades before he could take off without hurting any innocent civilians.

In the end, they’d stuffed him in a cold, damp cell, that didn’t even have a single window.

The Seastone shackles on his wrists and ankles didn’t just seal his devilfruit powers, but also hindered his movements, making it harder to find a good sitting position on the hard stone floor.

They had provided him with a mattress at some point, having tossed it in the corner of his cell, where it still laid pitifully, completely untouched.

It had a few suspicious dark brown spots, and while unsure if it was dried blood or something…else, Marco definitely didn’t want to chance getting any kind of disease from it.

“Hell, even we have more comfortable cells.” Marco grumbled to no one in particular, eyes closed to rest but not sleep, his arms shifting to be in a slightly more comfortable position. Not that it really did anything. It still sucked.

“Maybe they’ll give you a new mattress if you ask them nicely.”

A young voice suddenly said in the quiet of the hallway, causing Marco’s eyes to snap open, and he did not flinch thank you very much.

And if anyone were to ask him if he really let out a startled bird-like squawk instead, he would deny it to the day he fucking died.

A boy, maybe a few years younger than Marco himself, with blond, sunlight-golden hair, smiled cheerfully, casually standing in front of Marco’s cell, looking right at him. He also had a long metal pipe strapped to his back, but there were other things to worry about right now.

After all, Marco hadn’t heard or felt him come closer at all.

“What the fuck.” Was his very intelligent response to that, because honestly, how the hell do you respond to something as terrifying as someone who didn’t have a presence?

“Who the hell are you, kid? And why are you here?” Marco asked once he’d come down from his initial shock. Because there was no way even the Marines would allow a literal child to walk around their prison completely unsupervised.

 With a start, Marco realized that it was quiet today.

Too quiet.

Where were the guards? The other inmates? Had something happened to them? Why was he the only one seemingly unaffected?

And why hadn’t he noticed?

Something cold settled in Marco’s stomach, and he instinctively shuffled backwards, away from… whatever it was that made him feel like this.

Apparently amused by Marco’s reaction, the young boy laughed.

It was a weird sound. A drumming ‘Shishishi’ that made Marco shudder.

“You can call me Sunshine.” The boy said, and despite the shivering cold that was creeping up Marco’s spine, he couldn’t help the deadpan stare he directed at the strange child.

“There’s no way that’s your name.”

Something funny seemed to be happening on Marco’s face, making the boy laugh again, that strange shishishishi quietly echoing in the seemingly empty hallway.

Marco wasn’t sure what to make of this.

“No, it’s not.” The boy shook his head. “It’s a nickname Dad and Pa always call me by. Mama does too, since she usually only calls me by my full name if I’m in trouble.” He said, then tilted his head to the side, thinking.

“Actually, a lot of other people call me Sunshine too, so I’m pretty sure they think it is my actual name.” He shrugged. “Not that I mind. Nika says it’s pretty fitting anyway.”

Ignoring Marco’s incredulous expression, he continued, smiling fondly. “But Pa’s crew calls me Firecracker, and his best friend now knows me as Sol. So there’s a lot of names to choose from!”

For a moment, the boy paused as if remembering something. Then he shrugged, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“There’s my first ever name too, but I don’t use that one anymore. It’ll belong to someone else eventually anyway.” He ended his tirade with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“…Right.” Marco rolled his shoulders, not sure what to say to that strange influx of information, the seastone cuffs on his wrists clacking, instantly gaining the boys attention.

Black eyes narrowed slightly, eyeing the offending object with visible distaste.

The pressure in the room increased, pressing down on Marco’s shoulders uncomfortably.

‘Conqueror’s Haki!’ Marco realized with a sudden feeling of dread.

He clenched his jaw, ignoring another shiver running down his spine at the intensity of that gaze.

“How did you even get into this prison?” He asked, trying to get the boy’s attention away from the cuffs, since that seemed to be what had offset this unleashing of Will in the first place. “From my understanding, the way to here is arranged like a maze, and you’d need a map of it to not get lost.”

“Oh,” the boy said quietly, like he’d just remembered where he was.

“I used the map my Pa made of it.” He answered, looking back up at him, and Marco blinked confusedly .

“Your… Pa?”

“Yeah.” Sunshine nodded. “It would’ve been a pain to get here without it!”

“Who’s your Pa?” Marco couldn’t help but ask.

Because what kind of irresponsible parent would let their child get near the unofficial map of a goddamn prison? And a marine prison no less. Marco had a few choice words he’d like to say to them. Also, he was curious. Sue him.

But the cheerful smile that was send his way at that moment made Marco involuntary flinch.

A mouth was not supposed to stretch that wide.

“Monkey D. Garp!” Sunshine declared proudly, puffing out his chest, and Marco could feel his heart drop into his stomach.

“Oh my god.” Marco wanted to cry.

Of fucking course.

Monkey D. Garp seemed to be exactly the type of parent to let his child run around a prison, unsupervised.

Marco had the misfortune to have met the Marine a few times before, specifically whenever Roger wasn’t available, and Garp had to find someone else to chase around. Which was usually Whitebeard.

While Marco could respect the man for his immense strength, the way he’d recklessly throw himself into any ‘worthwhile’ battle, forcefully dragging his crew along with him, had Marco feeling a slight bit of dislike towards him.

Although, Garp had rarely come around in the last five to seven years, which, thinking back on it, had started in the year after–

Suddenly, Marco remembered a certain fact about the Monkey D. family.

Specifically, who else was in that family tree.

In the back of his mind, there was a flash of spiky black hair and a green cloak.

A distant memory of an accidental meeting during a supply run on a small, unassuming Island.

A wild grin that no doubt belonged to a member of the D. Clan, with teeth bared in challenge towards anyone who dared to come too close, who wasn’t ally or friend.

And Marco could see that same wildness in the eyes of the boy in front of him.

‘Fucking hell.’

“So… Your father is the Hero of the Marines, goddamn Monkey D. Garp and your older brother is fucking Dragon?” He asked, not caring that he was swearing in front of a child, feeling slightly hysterical.

What the fuck.

How the hell had Garp managed to bring two insane monsters into this world?

Because there was no doubt in Marco’s mind that his boy was also stronger than he let on, if the animalistic instinct screaming in the back of his head was anything to go by.

“Yeah!” Sunshine beamed, and oh wow, that nickname was starting to make a lot of sense now.

“You don’t need to worry,” Sunshine said with an unnatural glow to his eyes.

(There were no windows for any light to fall through. Only a few torches were hanging on the wall behind Sunshine, but not enough for them to have such an effect. So how?)

Marco wondered if should worry.

“Nika said that Phoenixes come from the sun anyway, so I would’ve helped you break out even if I hadn’t been asked!”

That stopped Marco dead in his tracks.

“Someone asked you to break me out?” He wheezed, chest feeling strangely tight with worry.

The boy gave him an enthusiastic nod, either not knowing of Marco’s internal turmoil, or just ignoring it.

“Yup!”

“Who made the request?” He asked desperately, trying to stand up, only to be held back by his shackles.

“Not saying.” The boy answered with a shake of his head. “If I tell you who it’s from, I’d put them in a bad spot and I don’t really want that, y’know?”

Put them in a bad spot? Was it one of their undercover crew members they’d smuggled into the Marines?

Had his crew found out he was gone after all? But if they had, why would they ask a literal child for help, and even one who was the son of a high-ranking Marine. What was going on?

“Why?” Marco grit out, making Sunshine tilt his head at him.

“Why what?”

“Why would they ask a child to get me out?!” Marco snapped, earning a thoroughly unimpressed look from the boy.

“’Cause I’m strong and no one would think it was me.” He said so casually, that for a moment, Marco didn’t know how to respond.

Sunshine rolled his shoulders, taking a step back. “Anyways. I’m here to get you out, so let’s get to it.”

Without waiting for Marco’s reaction, Sunshine grabbed the pipe on his back with his right hand, pulling it out of its’ holster.

Marco’s eyes widened as the pipe begun emitting a golden glow that concentrated on its' tip, forming itself into a sharp blade.

Sunshine spun it between his fingers in a show of obvious experience, before raising his arm to reach higher up. Tapping the upper part of the bars, he dragged the blade horizontally across the whole row, doing the same to the lower one.

For a moment, Marco thought nothing had happened, the bars still without a scratch.

But then, with a shuddering creak one after another, the bars fell, landing on the hard floor with a dull thud and Marco forgot how to breathe.

Sunshine easily stepped over what little of them was still imbedded in the ground, coming to a stop in front of Marco’s spot on the floor.

He strapped the pipe back into its’ holster, the golden glow dissolving like smoke in the air.

The boy then crouched down in front of Marco, making him blink as an object was suddenly held in front of his face. He leaned back a bit, trying to properly focus on it.

When he did, he took in a sharp breath.

It was a key.

A simple, unsuspecting iron key.

But Marco had seen that type of key before. Had seen the same kind lock the shackles on his limbs.

“How… How do you have that?!” He almost yelled, unable to take his eyes off the key.

“It’s from the same person who asked me to get you out.” Sunshine said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, like he was privy to secret Marco wasn’t, which obviously was the case here.

“…Okay.”

Marco took a deep breath to calm himself.

It didn’t really work.

Fuck Marco wanted to throttle answers out of this kid so bad right now. Alas, his hands were literally tied behind his back.

“Just. Get these damn cuffs off me first.”

Not needing to be asked twice, Sunshine made quick work of the locks, clicking the key into place, and the iron rings clattered to the ground, no longer scratching at his wrists and ankles.

Marco stood up, stretching his sore limbs, wincing when his muscles protested the action.

While in reality, Marco had only been held captive for maybe two or three days, the strength-draining Sea Stone had made it feel like a whole week instead, and the awkward position he’d been chained in hadn’t helped either.

Marco lowered his head to look at his ‘savior’, who by now had gotten back up, and was directing an incredibly bright simile at him.

(Yeah, Sunshine seemed like a very fitting nickname.)

“So… what now?”

Sunshine held a hand out to him.

“We’ll leave.” he answered, and without thinking, Marco grabbed the offered hand.