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Ace can't remember the last time he held a baby, if he ever held one before. Small children he had experience with. He had practically raise Luffy since Luffy was 7. Otama had been five when they met. But a baby that can't walk or talk, Ace didn't have much experience with those.
He never thought he would either. Most people don't feel comfortable leaving their baby with a wanted criminal, and the Whitebeard crew didn't have many small children in part because Pops didn't allow women to be part of the crew, nurses and affiliated crew only. Ace had never wanted kids himself. Growing up the son of the pirate king, he could never image inflicting that on some poor kid. Luffy wasn't going to have a kid. The most beautiful woman in the world had basically thrown herself at his brother and he didn't look twice. And Sabo was dead...until he wasn't.
Of course, Sabo would be the one out the three of them to have a kid. The shock was that Sabo was alive. Once you got over that, who he chose to associated with was much less of a big deal. Now granted, Ace could never see himself warming up to Dragon the way that Sabo did. Ace sees too much of Roger in Dragon, has too much resentment on Luffy's behalf. Koala through... Ace can see how Koala and Sabo work perfectly together. He is glad his brother has found a woman that can handle him so well. A woman that loves him so deeply because you can see the way that Koala loves Sabo.
Ace remember the beginning of the day that Sabo told him that Koala was pregnant. He was too drunk to remember the end. He is a pirate after all. What use is it being a pirate if you can't have a party and get completely wasted drunk over the news that you are soon to be a uncle.
Now as his brother passes over a small baby with tiny wisps of strawberry blond hair, he is struck again by the concept that he Portgas D. Ace is now an uncle.
Everyone babysits Tigerlily.
After all it isn't like Sabo and Koala can just stop being revolutionaries now that they have a kid. With the whole world knowing that Luffy is Dragon's son and Garp's grandson, they can't be like Dragon and just leave him with Garp. As though having seen how Garp raised Luffy and Ace, Sabo would ever let Garp raise his kid. Although Boggart might have conveniently left it out if his report to headquarters any news of revolutionaries in the area leaving a little girl on their ship for an afternoon once every couple of years just so the kid knew her Great-Grandpa. The last time Ace ran into his shitty grandpa, the old man proudly bragged how his great-granddaughter had the making of a great marine. Given how she was currently being raised by revolutionaries, Ace doubted Garp's convictions, but given how close he had come to losing two of his grandkids, Ace understood why he kept trying.
Dragon and Hack end up watching her the most as they are the closest to Sabo and Koala. Ace had even once caught Dragon loving singling to Tigerlily when visiting his brother. Ace and Sabo had a somber conversation after that.
"You can tell that he thinks about Luffy sometimes when he watches Lily. He gets that same kind of sad face. Maybe it is regret or longing, I don't know. But apparently it is the same face he would make when he would just stare at East blue back when Luffy was little or when he saw Luffy's wanted posters back when Luffy first went out to sea." Sabo explained with clear sympathy for Dragon.
Sympathy that Ace did not have.
"What so he wants to raise a kid now? Or what, he is only comfortable raising kids that aren't related to him?" Ace responded venomously.
"Things are better now...Koala and I...we could never have raised Lily the way that we are without Dragon. What he has done for us isn't just watching her now, but all the work and sacrifice to build up the revolutionary army so that it isn't just one person. Dragon built up a network strong enough to protect a child. I might not know when this war against the Celestial Dragons will end, but the Levely scared Koala and I into realizing how short and precious our lives and our time together are. Lily might not have been planned, but she is loved by not just Koala and me, but everyone around us as well. When Luffy was born, Dragon was just starting out, but Koala and I. We have you, Luffy, Dragon, Hack, Betty, Katsu, Lindenberg, Morley, Ivankov, Inazuma, Dadan, and so many others. We will forever be in everyone's debt for giving us the opportunity to see our daughter grow up into whoever she wants to be." Sabo ended his spell with a slight sigh that made Ace think that Sabo had had this weighing on his mind for some time.
Watching Luffy with Lily was surreal. No matter how old Luffy got, it was weird to think of him as being mature enough to watch a kid. Of course, Luffy had a whole crew to help him and help they did. Luffy had the cook and the doctor and the musician all on call to whatever his niece needed. Ace might have had limited interactions with kids, but Luffy it seems runs into them much more frequently it seems or at least they started to once they got to the New World.
It was weird to think that he might have less experience with babysitting than his baby brother. Although Ace wasn't sure if started a war with Kaido, counted as babysitting even if Oden's son had been just a boy. Otama told him that she hadn't believed that Luffy was his brother when Luffy first told her that, but over time she saw the resemblance.
The first time he is left with Lily, without Sabo or Koala or Luffy or Dragon, he freaks out just a little. He also gets nostalgic. By the end, he is telling his whole life story to this baby that don't understand anything but that his voice sounds pretty enough and his hat string is fun to play with.
The first time he held her Ace fell in love. He knew that he would die for his brother's child just like he would die for either of his brothers. Lily was tiny and full of unlived adventures just waiting to happen and Ace just wanted to make sure that she got to live them all. He wanted her to know how loved she was by everyone. He wanted to make sure that she never doubted whether it was a good thing that she existed. As her uncle, he was so glad that she existed. Otherwise, he would not have a wonderful niece.
A wonderful niece that smiled like her mother and looked exactly like her father when she slept
that grew up meeting all sorts of interesting people and was always interested in meeting more
who had learned from multiple teachers how best to defend herself
who learned compassion and displayed it so freely and fully
who loved all her family whether they were pirates or bandits or revolutionaries or marines, fishmen or human, former nobles or former slaves.
Kids grow up and it was like a blink of an eye before Lily didn't need a babysitter anymore. But from time to time she would still visit Uncle Ace, and so Ace figures that must of meant that he hadn't been that bad at it. She would come and tell of her adventures and leave off with her friends and comrades, and eventual the family of her own. She visited him until the end, and maybe past that, hard for him to tell what happened once he died. His relationship with her like that with his brother had been one of his greatest treasures.