Chapter Text
Makino was wiping down the bar when the shutters to enter the bar clattered loudly. Makino looked up to see one of the villagers clasping a newspaper with a tight grip, face set in a grimace and tears in their eyes.
Makino’s heart fell into her stomach, dread at the hurt in her fellow villager's eyes. They sniffled, tears freely falling down their face, sobs in their throat. Makino walked slowly to the villager, not wanting to know but having to ask.
“What happened, Howey?”
Howey looked up into Makino’s eyes, and more tears fell. He looked down at the newspaper and gave it to Makino with trembling hands. Makino unfurled it, trying to find what Howey was so distraught over.
The air left Makino’s lungs, and Makino put a hand over her mouth, sobs threatening to leave her throat. She slid to the ground, chest shaking, lump in her throat, and tears in her eyes.
Tears misted her eyes, barely able to see the newspaper through her tears, but she saw the picture. Of her boys bloodied and hurt, one of them, the one she loved like her own, dying in the other’s arms.
Makino felt a pair of arms pull her up, but Makino didn’t care. She didn’t feel like she was all there. She was certainly in shock, everything feeling numb except for the grief. She felt her body sit down at one of her tables, the paper in her hands fluttering to the tabletop. It only made her see the sight that would surely appear in her nightmares.
Makino always knew this could happen, but she never believed it would happen so soon. She knew that being a pirate was a dangerous occupation, but she believed, with her whole heart, that Luffy would survive. Luffy was filled with determination and cheer, his heart stronger than the fists he was so proud of. When Makino heard about Luffy’s dream, she was afraid. Afraid for the boy she raised like her own, cared like one of her own. This boy didn’t understand how much danger his goal would lead him to but was determined all the same. That determination kept Makino silent, only smiling softly to the young boy even though all she felt was fear in her chest.
Makino wanted Luffy to be happy, so she stayed silent. She couldn’t even curse Shanks for he didn’t do anything. He may have encouraged it, but Makino knew Luffy would have tried all the same without Shanks giving him his straw hat. Shanks gave Luffy more determination to achieve his goal, and Makino couldn't say anything.
She knew that life as a villager didn’t call on Luffy.
He wanted to be free, wanted to explore foreign lands. He would have never been satisfied as a villager staying on land. If he didn’t become a pirate, he would have been a sailor, maybe not a marine, but a sailor all the same.
She only wished Luffy didn't have to die for the life he chose. A pirate is a criminal, and she knew as a fact the marines would gun for the bright boy she practically raised, but she never even dreamed he would die at their hands. Garp would have surely stopped the death of his grandson, but the picture was seared in Makino’s head.
Makino sobbed, tears falling on the newspaper she was curled over. Her body shook from her sobs, hands curled into fists through her grief.
Her boy. That was her boy. That was the son she raised, the boy she changed diapers for and witnessed his first words. That was her son. That same son was killed saving the one he loved with all of his heart.
Luffy and Ace loved each other with their whole hearts. Makino might not know Ace as much as Luffy, but she knew enough. Every time Ace gazed at Luffy, Makino saw the love in his eyes. She saw how Luffy hung the stars for the freckled boy. How Luffy was the center of his universe, and that if Luffy disappeared, he would collapse in on himself, that his reason for living was gone.
That Luffy and Ace were the same sides of the same coin, and if one was gone, the other would surely follow.
Ace, from what Makino saw in the ten years of knowing the boy, was not weak, but even the most stable castle could fall without solid foundations. Makino read the article through misted eyes, absorbing everything on the page. Once Makino was down, eyes more bloodshot than before, audibly cried out.
“Luffy… You saved your brother...”
Makino sniffed and cried into her chest, hugging the newspaper.
Makino knew what Luffy was thinking the minute the execution was published, that he had to save his brother. She wanted to do the same when she heard the news, blood-chilling at the thought of any of her boys dying. She saw how destroyed the brothers were at Sabo’s death, the crack in their souls realizing that they would only be a duo for the future, not the trio they wanted. That they would always be missing a brother. Makino hurt thinking of the time after Sabo’s death, the brothers so absorbed in grief, they wouldn’t even smile. Luffy cried for days, and Ace was so furious he had to be chained to one of the largest trees in the forest. The boys were too young to live through death so visceral they hadn’t even processed it to this day.
Makino put a palm to her eyes, pushing in to stop the tears. She put her elbows on the table, both of her hands on her face, crying out louder.
“But why did you have to die?”
Makino cried louder, sobbing her lungs out, tears streaming out of her eyes, but it didn’t help the soul-crushing absence in her soul.
“That was my son! Why did you have to take him?!!"
Makino sobbed into her arms, mumbling to herself, barely able to get her words out from the uncooperative throat. The lump in her throat was getting larger, and Makino didn’t care.
“That was my boy. My precious boy…”
Makino didn’t sleep that night, only hating herself for living in a world without the boy she loved more than herself.