Work Text:
(1)
This story did not begin with guy in straw hat, a blond man in a boat, and big smile.
This story did not begin with child with dreams higher than the clouds and soul wider than the ocean.
This story did not begin with the Sun God and life far, far behind today, no.
In fact, it began much later.
(2)
Monkey D. Roger is the child of some ignorance of his father, who laughs while rocking him in his arms, and the simple-mindedness of his mother, who has disappeared into the skyline in her personal adventures.
Monkey D. Roger is an unexpected child, but extremely beloved. He is the child of storms and misunderstandings, of seas and sunshine, of blizzards and tornado. Named, rather after the flag than that-so-Roger.
(And he finds it ironic many years later).
(3)
His father and his crew are not an ideal place for a child, so he lived with his uncle until he was ten. (His grandfather looked rather dumbfounded when he was handed a three-year-old grandson; being the only sensible one in the family, Monkey D. Dragon did his best: that is, he entrusted the child to Sabo.) His uncle is a very intelligent man, and he teaches him to count and write, he teaches him literacy and basic manners of human society. He also teaches him how to pick locks, be stealthy, and wield any weapon he likes (he likes swords because Zoro's uncle instilled in him a love for them before he could even remember anything).
His uncle is also a very busy man, but he will always make time for his nephew and brother. Any time of day or night. Literally.
Roger grows up in the hands of a lot of people, knowing a little bit about everything; he's not as smart as his uncle or grandfather, but he tries to the best of his ability.
They also say they love him — and he loves everyone back, because there is as much love in him as there is in his father — most of all Grand Line.
(4)
He is told about Ace, and Roger thinks the man was much loved.
He learns that it's been nearly twenty years since his death and it still hurts his uncle and his father enough that Roger changes the subject as tactlessly as possible because he doesn't know how to help translate the conversation any other way.
His father laughs softly shi-shi-shi, and his uncle exhales with barely visible tongues of flame, looking at them fondly — Roger loves these moments.
(5)
Roger knows that he hears the Voice of All Things differently than his father. The voice repeats the same thing, asking him to go somewhere. Saying that he needs to be somewhere.
But Roger — is child of freedom, as free as the sea wind and as indomitable as a natural disaster.
He does not follow his destiny, running away from it for a few years, staying with his family for a day or two.
He runs and rushes through the years when he is nineteen, and fate catches up with him in the face of a ridiculous coincidence because the world has decided so.
And Roger hates it.
In front of him is the child who ate the Fruit, which appeared a second before the boy took a bite of the apple. The child chokes and coughs, and Roger couldn't help but pat him on the back. One touch of skin to skin was enough to make Kenbunshoku Haki squeal louder than aunt Nami when she got ripped off.
Damn it, he thinks before he heads off to where he should be.
(6)
Monkey D. Roger — is man born to do great things.
But not in this era, not in this time, not with these people.
And not even with this name.
(7)
Roger was twenty when he learned to live his life anew, taking a different name, lifting himself up from the knees of grief over people he hadn't met, and trying to look to the future.
(A future that, more than ever, is far away.)
He wants to leave town, and the port docks are his best stop. There's a guy there, blond hair, glasses, smart eyes — Roger smiles as he removes the hat he found among a pile of garbage. A red thread of fate wraps around the moment Roger tugs on it, and the sea can only tremble once.
"Swim with me", he says, and the sun kisses his cheeks as he pushes back his hat, "I need company. Ah yes", he grins, forgetting all the manners his uncle drummed into him, "I am Gol D. Roger."
Silvers Rayleigh raises an eyebrow skeptically, but agrees, as if this encounter were carved into the depths of the ocean.
(8)
When Monkey D. Garp first meets this pirate, his first thought is: He's an absurd idiot. Which is saying a lot, because Garp is not the smartest person. But Gol D. Roger was even less normal than he was.
Roger was a man who was followed by the seas and followed by the stars. A deadly wind danced in his gray eyes, and the hot sun sank into his hair as this man laughed, and the world held its breath, listening. Fate and defiance melded together as strong men looked on, as another man's Haoshoku Haki floated before his own.
Garp thinks Roger is a strange and dangerous man. Not dangerous in the sense of destruction and a thousand deaths, but in the amount of change and inevitability going on around them. It was impossible to explain to anyone else but D., and all Garp knew was that he should catch this man to avoid whatever it was. Well, it's a lot harder than it looks.
("You're all under arrest", says Garp, looking down at the pirates as the captain of the newfound crew looks caught off guard.
The guy smiles, wide and bright, laughing and holding up his hat in the gusts of wind.
"Forced to give up", he laughs, as if he's met the best day of his life; gray eyes full of challenge and excitement as he looks at the marine, "try to catch us, old man".
And it's a mockery, because Garp is only a couple of years older than him — Roger still calls him that decades later).
(9)
Roger knows that the world, the marines, even the top nobles of the world want to bind him, curb and stop him.
But Gol D. Roger is the son of his father, the freest man in the world, and his dreams are also unattainable, especially for this time.
The Age of Pirates hasn't even arrived yet and he can't remember who started it, frankly, it was fifty years before he was born and twenty from his present moment. But frankly, he doesn't care.
His nakama only groans when he says he wants to reach the top of the sun and the end of the seas.
Roger laughs when he realizes that his father never took him to an island made of salt and laughter.
(10)
The world wants to take him away just as it gave him this adventure, full of people he might never have met in another time. (Though he will never forget the pain of who he lost because his family hasn't even been born yet.)
He meets the woman with her secrets and slyness in her brown eyes, hibiscuses adorn her head in a wreath and a sharp grin stings like a sharpened blade as she tries to kill him. She gives him only one chance to answer what he forgot on her turf and why he decided to dare steal apples from her trees; the morning sun framed her soft pink hair and the eye-catching freckles stood out clearly on her skin. Ah, perhaps he finally understood what uncle Sanji had told him decades ago.
Roger is in love, and he makes no secret of it, despite the horror of his team, who think he's terminally ill. (They're not far from the truth, but they don't need to know that.) His time is running out and he feels it in his coughing and weakness, but those little things don't even spoil his mood.
But everything ever comes to an end. That includes the adventure. He couldn't keep it up as long as his father did.
He thinks of his child, left behind and never knowing him, as his feet pound the steps to execution.
(And Roger thinks, from the stories of the tenderness of his uncle's voice and the softness of his father's touch, for a long, long time, all his life and beyond, that Ace is synonymous with love.)
The Pirate Era begins, and the underwater snake bites its own tail.