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Lacey knew the way home.
She didn’t need her aunt to be here with her for this part, though it made her happy to be holding a hand as she walked on the sidewalk towards her house. Snow was piled up on both sides and once or twice her small boots lost traction and she slipped in a way that had her aunt Vivi lifting her completely free of the ground until they were past the patch. That got Lacey to laugh and laugh each time.
Well, she supposes it’s much nicer to walk in the cold with your family.
This had only been her family for a year or so, something brand new to her entirely since before that her family had barely been around. Lacey understood that there must have been a reason for her parents disappearing, but even thinking about it now could make her cry buckets until her dads would wrap her up and snuggle up on the sofa with her, not understanding entirely but knowing she was hurting. It was the only thing that could make her stop.
Until recently she hadn’t had a good way to communicate with anyone, but her daddy had seen to that and now she was learning how! People could understand her if she went slow and now both of her dad's were learning it alongside her, so they could help. And she could help them , which lifted her heart to be good at something. To have them praise her.
Her little chest almost puffed out in pride thinking about all the new signs she’d learned in daycare and from her Daddy. Lacey knew her whole alphabet now and had picked lots of new things since she’d come to live with them, including a new word today! One she wanted to show off just as fast as she could, but sadly it was lost on her aunt, who was still trying to learn for her.
In fact…
Yanking her hand free, Lacey races across the sidewalk and up to a fence threaded with Christmas lights. They were off now, but that didn’t matter for what she wanted to do. Looking up at Aunt Vivi where she had squatted down beside her, one gloved hand reaching out to grab a bright green bulb, Lacey flaps her hands to draw her attention.
-Light!- Her little hands spell out slowly, working through each letter without a mistake despite her thick winter gloves.
Though Vivi’s mouth moves to speak something she can’t hear, the letters are mirrored back to her even slower. One or two letters are incorrect so she signs it again and reaches out to fix the older woman’s fingers when she slips again.
Helping is lots of fun and Lacey is very good at it. Her Papi told her so.
After getting the signs correct on the third try, Vivi copies it back perfectly once more and breaks into a bright smile. Her hands roll into the sign for -Thank you!-
Lacey offers her a smile just as bright and looks back at the light one more time as Vivi takes her hand again. Maybe one day she can live in a house covered in Christmas lights too.
----
Bursting through the door just as her Aunt opens it, Lacey bolts through the kitchen and is headed towards the living room where her toys are when hands grip her. Despite her helpless squirming, Vivi just manhandles her shoes off her feet by flipping her over and tugging. It makes the little girl giggle happily, as she enjoys doing the most when happy, and earns her a tickle to her belly that brings more.
By the time she's back on her feet, she can tell exactly which of her dads is home, the smell of smoke much easier to notice than the medical smell that follows her Daddy around. Papi was somewhere in the house, maybe showering since he wasn't already playing with her. So Lacey spins herself on the tile floor and looks up at her aunt with expectant eyes, pointing to her belly in the hopes that she might be able to weasel a snack out of her before one of her dads can find out.
A mischievous light flashes in Vivi’s eyes and she pats her own stomach in a circle as she stands back up and begins fishing through the giant fridge. If someone had asked her even a year ago if she’d ever seen so much food, she wouldn’t have even been able to tell them she hadn’t. But now that she can just barely peek onto the lowest shelf of the refrigerator above the pull out freezer, using the handle to try and lever herself up even further, Lacey loves it. Loves knowing that she’s allowed to have lots of it if she just asks nicely for it.
She hasn’t been hungry in a year, even her uncles will come over and cook for her and when Uncle Sanji comes by it’s always lots of fun. When he does he’ll pick her up and let her sniff inside the pots that he’s got on the counter, let her lick spoons and bowls clean if she doesn’t get under his feet. So Lacey does everything she can to be very good and only asks for ups when he’s not actively working. Because even her Papi won’t let her in the kitchen when the stove is on.
When it happens that she can’t be in there she just goes and takes a nap on Uncle Zoro. Because he takes the best naps and never gets mad at her for lying on him.
Suddenly a pair of hands grab her away from the fridge where she’s watching her aunt sift through the drawer she knows all the lunchmeat is in. As she swings up, Lacey throws her hands out to the sides and smiles as large and happy as she can until she’s face to face with her Papi. She knew it! With a giggle her hands flap back in to pat his cheeks and he lets her pull his face in so she can bump her forehead against his. A big smile on his face too.
As he’s kissing her cheek a hand lands on Papi's shoulder and both of them glance over to Vivi whose mouth is moving quickly, pointing into the fridge. With one last kiss he puts her down on the floor and makes the sign he’d taught her for -sandwich- and shoos her off to go and play in the living room, much to her delight.
But she’s only just made it in there, upending the whole plastic tub of her toys onto the floor, when she looks up and sees him walk in after her and point to the speakers. Music! Oh how Lacey wishes she could hear it, know what tune was playing. One of her favorite things is how her Papi gets playful and dances around when music is playing, or the way that it feels when she places her hand on the speakers and feels it all through her body.
Maybe she doesn’t hear music but she can feel it and it brings a fit of giggles as she races over to the man to watch him turn on the speakers and start up a ‘song’. When she splays her fingers over the fabric covering the box the sound comes out of Lacey can feel the pulse down them and up her wrist to her arm.
Just as she’s about to start flapping her other hand to the beat, her Papi scoops her up again and rubs his cheek against her floppy pigtails to make her laugh. When he pulls back he mouths something at her that she can’t hear. But it doesn’t matter.
Smiling brightly, Lacey lays her hand against the base of her Papi’s throat and she can feel the rhythm of his words even if she can’t hear them, knows that he’s singing the song to her, and a laugh bubbles up in her chest as he spins and dips her little head so that her pigtails brush the floor. Squealing, she finds herself tossed into the air and a pair of strong hands catch her just as she starts falling back down again and spins her once more, dipping her so that she’s looking straight up at her Daddy. Her hand’s flex and little fingers spread wide like she could grab for him, only to be distracted when a mouth blows something rude against her exposed belly, making her eyes widen.
-What is he doing to you?- Her Daddy signs down at her lazily, his long inked fingers taking time with each word and letter so she doesn’t miss.
Struggling for a moment with what to respond with, Lacey peers at both her hands and settles with the sliding sign for -Rude!- that she’d been taught recently.
With another surprised expression, she watches as gold eyes crinkle at her and he leans in and sinks his teeth in her Papi’s nose. A rumbling runs through her body and Lacey’s learned that means that someone’s laughing, which she has to remind herself of as her Papi makes a funny face and presses his hand straight into her Daddy’s to push him away. Both of them are smiling at each other though, she’ll take that as a good sign as her tiny body wiggles from his grasp.
Just the second her toes touch the floor she careens to the other side of the room and hops up to the speaker, pressing the palm of her small hand to it. Vibrations pulsing through her fingers and then up her arm to her elbow are her reward, the sharp beats making her jump despite how hard her hand is pressed against the fabric.
When she goes to look back at her dad's she finds them both smiling at her, her Daddy with his arms wrapped around Papi and his chin on his shoulder. It makes Lacey blink and smile back at them, racing to hug both of their legs at once. A large hand ruffles at her hair and then suddenly spins her around so she can look up at her aunt who's holding a plate with a sandwich and some chips.
She squeals and races after Vivi into the kitchen when she runs away playfully.
Though it's a meal, Lacey still knows full well that she’ll get another later, because there’s no way that her Papi won’t be willing to give her a plate, especially with how much he eats. So there’s still excitement for something her Daddy will make later even as she scrambles up on the chair and then onto her little booster, letting herself get buckled in as she pats the table excitedly. All three adults end up joining her before the plate with her sandwich is set down in front of her, so before she takes her first bite she holds her plate up and offers it out to each of them. Because she was taught to share first!
-No thank you.- Aunt Vivi signs quickly, tipping the plate back towards her. Her Papi just shakes his head and Daddy sticks his tongue out and makes a face like he thinks it’s gross.
-That’s for you, Sweet Lacey. Eat up!- he signs instead, pushing her plate back towards her with a smile as well. Instead his hands spell out something complicated. -Are you excited for Christmas tomorrow?-
Tilting her little head, she bites into the peanut butter sandwich and watches her Daddy repeat the signs slower. Making sure to chew and swallow first like she was taught, she nods her head in response and asks -Can we have Christmas lights? They’re pretty.-
The melting expression that passes over both her dads faces makes her blink and even though she can’t hear or feel it because she’s not touching them, Lacey knows that they’re laughing. It makes her smile around another bite of her sandwich. -Of course, we’re putting the tree up tonight. Do you want to help?-
-Can help! Wanna help!- Lacey’s already trying to unbuckle herself to jump down and get to helping when a big hand covers both of her tiny ones to stop her. Pulling at it, she traces the tattoos across it and smiles. - Help later?-
-Eat first and help later.- her Daddy pulls her hands up and puts them back on her sandwich.
As the three of them start talking about something she just watches their mouths move, taking another bite as she does so. Her head full of ideas about what their Christmas tree will look like, about what the lights will look like.
----
Whatever she had thought her tree might look like from pictures, this was so much better! Curled up on the sofa beside her dads, markers in her hand so she can color in her Daddy’s white patches to make him match the tree like he should, Lacey can’t stop her excitement. The tree is huge and the lights actually flicker on and off all over it! Papi had held her up to put strings of popcorn all through it and then little plastic things he called ‘icicles’. Once those were on there were big colorful balls on metal hooks that were put in and little cloth ‘reindeer’ Daddy sat on the branches for her to hunt and find like a game! At the very end her Daddy, really tall, had held her up to put a big star on the very top of it. Once they plugged it in she could barely stop staring at it, until her Papi had pulled out the markers.
Now that she was snuggled up and calming down, Lacey had started yawning. They’d told her that she needed to go to bed for someone named Santa to bring her presents, but how could she!? After finding out that Santa was a big happy man that brought toys to kids that were good, she figured that he would be just as happy that she was too excited to sleep. It was her first Christmas!
Her parents before must not have been good, they had told her she was bad all the time, so that must be why Santa had never stopped by and they’d never had Christmas or pretty lights. Or a pretty tree!
But her dads definitely would get Santa to come, that much she knew. So she had to dress her Daddy up to meet him whenever he came. She could stay up!
-He won’t come if you’re awake.- Papi signs to her as she colors, his arms reaching around Daddy so he’s hugging him when he does it. His fingers are a little slow with the signs, some of them aren’t perfect. But Lacey knows he’s trying and she doesn’t know all her words either!
So she signs back the correct ones first and then responds with -Not tired! Wanna thank him!-
-But he’s shy, so if you stay awake he won’t come.- He tries again, still slow. -So we should stop making Daddy a rainbow and get to bed or you won’t get presents!-
“Nnn!” She grunts out loud for a moment, dropping her marker and turning Daddy’s hand around and over again to see what she’s done. -Not rainbow! Daddy needs Christmas lights too! Dress up for Santa.-
Whatever look passes between the two of them as she looks up from her work isn’t what she was expecting. They’re both talking way too fast for her to make any good sense, and her Papi is rubbing tears away from his eyes, which can’t be good! So she lifts her hands up and puts them on his hands to draw his attention. -No crying. Christmas lights are happy!-
Well that makes the tears come faster and her heart starts hammering, thinking she did something wrong. At least until her Daddy waves his decorated hand for her to notice as he says. -They are happy tears. Your Papi is happy you are happy.- And he smiles as he leans down to press a kiss to her forehead, rubbing the sides of her head with both hands as he does it.
A shift in the cushions has both of them look up to watch Papi disappear, which also can’t be good. Her face falls slightly until he comes back with a box in his hands. It’s a beautiful box, a gold ribbon on one corner and strange designs in bright, happy colors all over it. After her Daddy makes a weird face at him, Papi just waves a hand and points between Lacey and the box, saying something that gets a nod in response. Which is when he hands it to her.
Eyes wide, she touches the ribbon and looks up at him, scrunching her face into her best ‘what’s this?’ face since she’s holding the box and can’t sign. Instead of Papi, Daddy pats the top of the box with one hand and signs slowly, -You’ve been a very good girl tonight and helped us decorate for Santa. So you get a present from us first. Papi got these for you special.-
Placing it down, she tilts her head and signs -The box? It’s pretty!-
A hand rubs over his mouth for a minute, hiding the smile curving at his lips that she just barely catches as the hand falls again and starts the first sign. -Inside the box, baby. Open it and see what you got.-
Oh. That makes sense.
With a quick movement she pulls the ribbon off of it and runs her little fingers under the lid to jerk it off. But, box open, Lacey’s head tilts to the side and she looks up at her dads, even more lost than before.
-Let me show you.- Papi reaches out and picks both of the strange purple and silver things up, spinning one in his hand and shaking them both sharply. Naturally it doesn’t make a noise, but she knows there must be something more to it if he wants her to use it.
Spinning them both in his large hands so the big ends are in his palms and the handles are towards her, the strange things are held back out towards her and Lacey places her hands on them nervously. When her fingers close tight and he lets go something shifts inside them. It feels a little like the rain when it comes down really hard on top of her, splattering on her coat. Glancing up at him, she sees her Papi making a sharp shaking motion with one hand and copies him.
Instantly her world lights up as the vibrations sing along the handles of whatever it is that she has in her hands. A smile so wide it seems to split her face ear to ear spreads and spreads and keeps growing as she shakes them over and over with joy. No, of course she can’t hear them at all, but she can feel them.
She can make music with them!
Shaking them violently, Lacey realizes that she can feel how they bounce around and move and after a few moments tries to get them to both do the same thing. It takes a few tries, but she ends up able to get them to do exactly what she wants to, giggling and dancing around with them in circles. From the grins on both her dads’ faces she can tell that she’s doing something right and hops over to them both, shaking them as she spins in another circle.
-Those are called maracas. Your Papi grew up somewhere that uses them in music. Now you can make your own!- Daddy signs with a smile.
-Merry Christmas Lacey!- Papi signs.
Now she understands happy tears. Lacey rubs the ones flooding her big green eyes away with the backs of her hands and tackles their legs, jostling the maracas into rattling out of rhythm as she hugs them both. Her Daddy reaches down to take them from her, which lets her sign back -Love you! Love you love you!-
But she can only let him have them for a second or so, because they’re the best thing ever. So she leans back and holds her hands out for them instead of snatching them back. When he hands them over she runs up to the tree and kisses one of the big green balls and rattles the maracas for it.
To thank it.
----
Head hitting the back of the sofa, Luffy huffs out a sigh like he'd been holding his breath all evening. "I thought she was gonna be scared of 'em."
An arm wraps around his shoulders and pulls him tight, attention split between his husband and the rattling noise of their daughter making music with her maracas for their Christmas Tree.. Law's head tilts to lay on top of his own, soaking in his body heat and attention.
"Most kids don’t feel vibrations quite as well as she does. You just gave Lacey a way to make her own music to dance with. You're amazing, Papi . She’d never be scared of anything you give her." He snorts and nuzzles his way further beneath Law's arm.
"Just wait til she shows 'em to Olivia and Tom tomorrow at dinner."
" Those do not leave this house. Franky and Robin would skin us both alive." Law grumbles, “Besides, she’ll end up with a bunch of toys she can take with her instead, I’d rather keep those from getting lost or broken as long as we can.”
Luffy’s head nods slightly, mindful of Law’s cheek pressed to the top of his dark hair but his eyes locked on Lacey dancing and finally getting a good rhythm going into a constant little tune. “I hope she loves them for a long time. She always loves touching the speakers and feeling music or feeling someone sing for her. Maybe she can make her own music someday?”
“Beethoven was an amazing musician and he lost his hearing later in life while still composing symphonies. There are a few artists that perform with hearing loss or entire deafness. I’m sure if she has talent for it, she’ll be able to do anything she wants.” His husband presses a kiss to the top of his head.
“She’s only four.” He can’t keep the chuckle out of his voice just thinking about her becoming a musician.
The arm wrapped around him squeezes tightly. “Lacey’s smart, if she wants to she’ll learn how, look how excited she is. If she keeps at it we can try another instrument.”
“True.” Brook and all the instruments crammed in his apartment come to mind when Luffy ponders over it.
"... what about a drum set?" Law asks seriously, mischief in his voice and expression. "Brook could probably teach her how to play."
“Next Christmas we’ll make the neighbors hate us.” Luffy responds with a feral grin as Lacey twirls and comes running back to leap on them with her little maracas, excitement and love all over her small face.