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Zoro wiped the blood off Enma and smiled, satisfied. The sword also felt quite appeased. It had been a good fight, the navy had regrouped over the years, was coming for them again, and finally with some decent challengers. The captain had a lot of potential, they’d have to write to Coby express their admiration of the guy, make sure he was trained up right.
It was a fun morning. He stretched and looked over at the Sunny. He should head back over soon. But first well, there were supplies to raid. “Hey captain, just going to take a quick tour you mind?” The man was slumped over. Right, the ones that had been left alive had been knocked out.
Well, they really wouldn’t mind if Zoro helped himself the bottles of booze he knew would be stashed away. He went below decks and poked about. Found some orders, Robin might be interested in those, a few schematics, boring but for Franky. He grabbed a duffel bag and stuffed them in. Few medical supplies for Chopper, some dried meats, and yes, a good couple bottles of rum. Decent haul.
He was headed up when his haki flared. Someone was in the room across the way, trying very hard to be quiet. “If I have to come in there and haul you out, it is going to end up very bloody, and I just want to go home. So make my life easy, come out and I’ll tie you up with the Captain, and we’ll be on our way. You get to say you faced the world’s best and lived.” There was a noise and he waited, sure they were just pissing their pants in fear if they had hid down here the whole time. He thought he heard a voice, but it was so quiet.
“What was that?”
“I can’t turn it. Is heavy.”
What the fuck? Zoro grabbed the door and wrenched it open. There was no one at eye level. Or a bit below.
But there was a lot below.
Her hair was purple. “Heavy,” she repeated.
“I bet.” Zoro looked at her. “Shit.” He thought of the blood bath on the deck. “Shit.” He was fairly certain you weren’t supposed to swear in front of kids that young. “How old are you?”
She shrugged. That caused the shirt to fall off her shoulder and he saw the slave tattoo on her shoulder. The Revolutionary army had broken the world nobles a decade ago, but there was a neo noble group starting up the old ways. Including slavery and the navy was just bowing to it again. “Do you have anything at all?” she point to the borrowed shirt.
A fucking baby, branded. And they would return her. Fuck, no. “What’s your name?”
“Girl?” she finally said after clearly thinking. “Brat? Doll?”
Yup. Decision done. “Can I pick you up?” She went passively to him. “When I tell you, I want you to close your eyes until I say to open them alright?” She nodded. “Thank you, little one.” He picked her up. She weighed nothing, hollow like a bird’s wings. “Here we go. Taking you away from a boring navy ship. To ours. It is way more fun, and our doctor is the best in the world. He’s a reindeer.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“The doctor here gave me a lolly when he fixed my owies.”
“Bet Chopper will give you two.” That got a faint smile. He could see light and started to climb. “Eyes closed.” He felt a face press against his neck.
“Where are you taking her?” The captain had clearly come to.
“Away,” was all Zoro said.
“She was safe with us. You’ll do something depraved to her.”
Zoro paused. He put her down on the dock. “Little one, I need you to keep your eyes closed and wait right there. There is a lot of flotsam and jetsam on the deck and you could slip. Still and closed, and I’ll be right back.” He went to the captain and crouched. “More depraved than branding a baby?” He got right in the man’s face. “She doesn’t know how old she is, thinks maybe her name is Girl or Doll. Now why do you think those neo nobles would want a baby that pretty being called doll?” The captain damn well knew why. They both did. “You know what they would do to her, and you were going to take her back to that?”
“We found her, a handful of people, we already returned them to their own -“ the captain proved he was as smart as Zoro guessed by shutting up. “You’re pirates, you aren’t the good guys.”
“Maybe not, but today we’re a fuck lot better than you.”
Zoro went back over to her. “Me, little one, let’s get you safe.” He picked her up, and started to walk away.
“They were just jetsam on the water, we were heroes for saving them!” The captain called.
“You rescued them, but you didn’t save them.” He grabbed a rope and heaved, swinging himself over to the Sunny. Any other kid would have screamed, but she was deathly quiet. He hated it. Once his feet planted, he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “On the Sunny.” He moved quickly into the kitchen. “You can open your eyes now.”
“Mosshead, no blood in the, who the hell is that?” Sanji was staring in shock. Zoro just shifted her a bit, moved the neck of the shirt and showed Sanji the top of the tattoo. There was a look of disgust and hatred that quickly smoothed away. He gave a charming bow. “My apologies for my manners, Mademoiselle. It is clear that Zoro has brought a true lady aboard the Sunny.” She didn’t giggle at that the way another girl would. Sanji gave him a look, and he just shrugged.
They both heard her stomach rumble. “That is a problem I can solve. Let’s get you a snack.”
“Swats or sweat?” she asked.
“I don’t understand,” Sanji replied. He crouched in front of her and smiled. “Is that the name of a snack you like, describe it and I bet I can make it.”
“Food at not your one food time a day means choose,” she looked at them in confusion. “Five swats on the bum, or five clean things until you sweat, then you get the cracker. Is clean in here, so swats?”
Never mind the potential he had thought the captain had, he was going over there and killing them for wanting to return her to that. When it was clear she was about to bend over, Zoro stopped her. “No little one, on the Sunny the rules about food are a little different.” He felt helpless but Sanji gave him an encouraging nod. “Are you good at following rules?” He got a furious nod and she stood, hands behind her back, head down. “The rules are this. When you are hungry, you ask Sanji for food. You always say please and thank you. You offer to clean your plate when you are done.”
She peeked up. “And?”
Sanji had stood and moved back to the counter. “That’s it, beautiful. See I have rules I live by, and they are that if you are at sea, you eat. Whenever you are hungry.” Sanji looked at her. “I had to swear a super secret chef oath to make food readily available to anyone who walks into my kitchen, no questions, no tricks or demands. If belly rumbles, I have to fill or I will slowly turn into a Sea King.”
Her eyes got huge. “You will?”
“It’s true, I will. So please miss, will you be so kind as to let me feed you?”
“Yes, sir. Please,” she added swiftly. Zoro lifted her onto one of the stools at the counter. He sat on one next to her. A plate was put in front of him with a hearty sandwich. “That’s big.”
“I’m a lot bigger than you and I was just fighting. Need the calories. Where’s the captain?”
“Your husband is in the infirmary. He’s fine, dumbass saw something in the ocean and jumped in after it.”
“Fuck’s sake,” Zoro groaned. “Little one, never eat a devil fruit.”
“Actual good advice. Who knew you could do that?” Sanji had a plate, and put it in front of the girl. “How’s this look?”
“Apples?” She gasped. Reached out, but didn’t touch. “I really can? No tricks?”
“No tricks. Keeping it simple right now, slowly give you more food, don’t want to overwhelm your stomach. Later we’ll get you some broth, maybe crackers.” She picked up a slice and when no one took it jammed the whole thing in her mouth.
It bulged her tiny cheeks adorably. Zoro heard Jinbe call to Franky and felt the ship move, they were off. “Little one, going to leave you with Sanji while I go let the captain know you are aboard.” He stood up and looked at her. “Back in a few.” But she grabbed him.
“I’ll go tell him, you stay make sure she eats those slowly. Watch for cramping. Fuck knows the shit the neo nobles were serving her, or what she’s gone through.” Sanji went and Zoro sat back down next to her and finished his sandwich while she managed to eat three more slices. There were a few left, and Zoro put them in a container in the fridge.
“They are on the door there for you. The door is usually locked, but ask anyone but the captain and they’ll get them for you.”
“The captain doesn’t let you eat?”
“No, he just isn’t allowed to know the combination, because he has a habit of eating too much. And when he does he balloons up like this huge.” Zoro held out his arms and he swore she almost smiled. “Takes him longer to go back down to his normal size that it did when we first met. He gets annoyed when we roll him around the deck like a ball.” He mimed pushing and got a proper smile.
A good victory. He was about to say more but the door flung open and Luffy was there, and he burst in. “Sanji says you looted a girl! Hi!”
No one expected the shrill scream she gave as she pointed at Luffy.
They all stayed very still as she climbed to her chair, and kept pointing at him. “Pirate King, Pirate King, sails the seas free. Pirate King, Pirate King, please come for me. I’ll be good and strong, fast and true. Hear my prayer, make me your crew!”
Luffy looked lost, and Zoro was too. “Uhh, okay, you can be my crew?”
There were more screams and she jumped. Luffy’s arms snapped long and caught her. “If you’re on my crew, I need to know your name.”
Zoro was about to explain to Luffy that she didn’t know if she had one, but she beamed at him. “Jetsam. My name is Jetsam.”
Sanji behind Luffy was giving Zoro a look. “It’s not my fault!” Though he guessed it was a bit.
“Hi, Jet, I’m Luffy. Welcome to being a straw hat.”
Jet cheered, and said the rhyme again.
Zoro didn’t comment on how perfect he thought Luffy looked with a little girl in his arms.
*
Later when Jet was having a check over by Chopper who she had fallen instantly in love with, they called Sabo to get information. The new slave trade was quiet, very underground and they were doing their best to smash it but it was hard track, harder to find. The navy wasn’t backing the neo nobles all the way, only certain factions were, and Coby was working hard to stop it from going too far. But it would always go too far.
“Hey, Sabo, she said a weird nursery rhyme about the pirate king?” Zoro wanted to know what that was about.
“The slaves tend not to believe in God anymore, but they know that once long ago the Pirate King stood up and punched a celestial dragon. They have a nursery rhyme to give hope to the children, that maybe the pirate king will save them.”
“When you find where and when to stop them, Sabo, you let us know, and we’ll save them all,” Luffy swore. “In the meantime, see if you can find out if she has any family.” They gave Sabo a description of Jet, and he promised to look into it. They hung up and the crew looked at each other. “So where to next?” Luffy asked them.
“Wouldn’t mind if we took me to my wife, like we were planning, Luffy,” Sanji smiled at him.
“Were we doing that?” Luffy grinned. “Whoops.”
“Uh-huh. Cute that you still get jealous that I spend half my year with my beloved on the Baratie instead of with you.”
“You were mine first,” Luffy muttered, and cross his arms. “But fine, we’ll continue our course. Slowly. Jet needs lots of good food. The food only the best chef in the world can create.”
“Luffy I personally trained the cook that travels with you when I’m not there. For five years.”
“Still not you.”
“Love you too, Captain. You know if you don’t find her family, we’ve been talking recently about starting one.”
Zoro who had been dozing during the conversation, went very still. He hated the idea, but couldn’t say why. He kept quiet as Luffy said he was sure that Sabo would find her family. Zoro stood up. “I’m going to go workout.”
Perhaps he made sure to check on the infirmary on the way. “How’s it going in here?”
“Well, Jet is the best patient ever,” Chopper said. “Certainly better than some swordsmen I know.”
Zoro grinned at Chopper. “Yeah, Traffy is the worst.”
“Zoro!” Chopper sighed. “All good?”
“Looking into things. Now what to do about you?”
“She can stay with me,” Chopper offered, but Jet had already hopped down and was holding her arms up. “Or she can go with you.”
“Bye, Chopper,” she said as Zoro picked her up. “You’re Zoro.”
“I am.”
“You are the most loyal man in the whole wide world. Story says so.”
“Does it?” Zoro decided she could come work out. He was already doing so at her age. “On my back, little one.” He adjusted her and adjusted her again when her grip choked him. He climbed up to the crow’s nest. “What else do they say?”
“You are the devil!” she didn’t sound scared, “but when I said that to Chopper he laughed, said devil’s don’t let you cuddle against them at nap time.”
“I serve the right hand of the captain, sometimes maybe had to do devilish stuff, just a bit,” he said. “And one of my swords tends to be a bit grumpy.”
She leaned forward. “Which one?”
“Enma.” He could work out later. Instead he sat on the ground with Jet across from him and taught her the names of his swords, all their different parts, showed her how he cared for them. She was paying attention, right until she fell over asleep exhausted from everything. Didn’t even wake up when her head bounced on the mat. He looked around, but not a lot of blankets in the crow’s nest. Well there were a few, but they were the ones that he and Luffy fucked on, which even if they were clean, he wasn’t putting those on Jet.
He took off his haramaki and it covered her a bit, better than nothing anyways. Actually. He checked the locker and sure enough there was a spare gi in there. Good. That covered Jet well. He went to the other side of the nest and began to quietly work out. He kept an eye on her as he did reps, and sure enough a nightmare was clearly coming. He dropped the weights gently because he didn’t want to scare her more, went picked her up. “Shh, you are safe with the pirate king,” he whispered to her as he rocked her against his heart. “You are on his crew now, and you know he’ll fight the heaven’s themselves for his crew. You are safe Jet, the pirate king and his vice captain have you safe.”
“I don’t want to go back,” she said as she woke up. “Zoro, please don’t make me go back.”
“Never.”
“They’ll come, the scary things in the dark always come, what will happen?” she began to cry, and he wiped her tears away.
“Jet. Not girl or doll or brat. Your name is Jet and you are a straw hat crew member. Not a slave. We’ll paint flowers or whatever you want over your arm to hide the mark. You’ll be fed, and clothed, and you’ll learn to read, and whatever else you want to learn. You owe us nothing for this. And if they come for you, they won’t get you.”
“How do you know?”
Zoro looked her dead in the eye. “Because the things in the dark are scared of me.” He smiled a smile that he knew made grown men piss in fear.
He lost his heart the way he lost it so long ago to Luffy’s smile, when she wiped away her tears and tried to copy Zoro's battle grin. Zoro wasn’t letting Jet go.
He just had no idea how to tell Luffy.
*
It wasn’t easy having a child aboard, especially one that had a lot of trauma, but they all coped. Sanji got her up to weight, Chopper figured she was almost four, and Robin began to teach her to read. She was in awe of the pirate king from the stories she had been told.
Luffy had to be reminded how much you could actually fling children around. That they didn’t bounce quite that much. Franky made her toys, and once she got over being scared of Brook, she could be found in his lap every day when it was nap time as he sang her to sleep.
If she had a nightmare she only wanted Zoro.
More than once in their tiny quarters, he and Luffy had woken up, her beside their bed until one time she got tired of waiting for permission to climb in with them and just started getting up and flopping on them.
Zoro had woken up more than once with both her and Luffy’s feet on his face. He would grumbled and tickle making them both squeal until they joined forces and attacked him. They had been carefully avoiding sea battles, but inevitably there were upstart pirates, or ambitious navy.
They saw the fight coming. “I’ll take it to them,” Luffy said and rocketed to the other ship, Sanji sky walked over as well. No fair them having fun without him.
“We got her, bro,” Franky promised.
“Papa,” Jet clung. “No. Don’t go.”
Franky managed not to shout, but Zoro saw the tears fall down his face and he was probably biting back saying how super that was.
Zoro looked at Jet. “Papa has to go, you know why?” Everything in his heart shifted at calling himself that.
“Why?”
“Because Daddy is an idiot and needs the back up. Uncle Sanji can’t do it alone.”
“Aunt Robin can send her hands.”
“I can,” Robin agreed. “Want me to send a really huge one that crushes the whole ship so that your Daddy comes home right away?”
“Yes!” Jet clapped. “I can do the hands too! It helps, when I shout it too.”
“It helps so much,” Robin agreed. “Ready?” Jet nodded and Zoro died a bit at how she crossed her arms like Robin. “Mil Fleur!” They both called and Zoro saw the big hand swat down, taking out a good bit of the crew.
“Want me to send a rocket little sis?” Franky asked. “Hold down my nose, give me some cool hair to make the shot.” Zoro held her so she could press until Franky had hair she liked, which seemed to be a starfish. “Here we go.” A rocket was launched and tore into the hull. “Bingo!”
“Jinbe, sail us close, get our captain back aboard!” Jet shouted, and they all stifled their laughter at the tiny order.
“Yes, miss,” Jinbe swung the wheel and the Sunny danced under his hands. Sanji and Luffy hopped back over, most of the fun already over. “Orders?”
“We should -“ Luffy began and Jinbe cleared his throat pointedly looked at Jet.
“Sail us away, once back on the current continue our trajory to the Baratie,” Jet said. “As we pass, Franky, another rocket, make sure they can’t follow us. Those scalliwags don't deserve to sail the seas anywhere near the pirate king!”
“Aye aye,” they both declared. Zoro wondered if scalliwags was enough of a swear to correct her and decided it was probably fine.
“Isn’t it my ship?” Luffy asked.
“You weren’t aboard.” Jet stared at him. “Were you?” She went over and stomped on his foot, and then scampered up the crow’s nest.
“What did I do?”
Zoro was so proud of her. He was almost crying like Franky. “I’ll go talk to her.” He went up to the nest and Jet was sitting on the bench holding her practice kendo he had had Franky make her. “Hey, little one.”
“He could have died.”
“A crew like that, nah,” he reassured.
“He could have.”
“True, he could have, but he wouldn’t have.”
“If you two fight the same fight, you might both die and then what would happen to me?” She began to sob. “Papa, what if you aren’t there to keep the scary away?”
He picked her up as he had done every time she had been scared since he found her. Rocked her. “If the worst were to happen and the pirate king and the world’s best swordsman were taken down at the same time, you would have options. Sanji, Luffy’s brother Sabo, his wife Koala was once like you, Franky and Robin. Our old navigator Nami. You have a huge nakama now, my love, that if the worst ever happened would keep you loved your whole life.”
“But they aren’t you. They are strong, but not you strong.”
“And that’s why some pissant pirates wouldn’t take me down. No one is as strong as your Papa okay? Whose going to get Luffy huh? Believe in him. Always. I do. I always will.”
Jet nodded against him. “Can we sometimes be on land for a bit? Longer than the quick island stops?”
“Yeah, we got lots of family to introduce you to out there, spend a good time with each of them. Lots of exploring on land as well as sea.”
“I won’t let you get lost.”
“Thank you, little one. Now are you going to apologize to your father?”
She stood up and looked him square in the eye. “A pirate spits in the face of apologies.”
“If you are a pirate, you owe fealty to your king,” he pointed out.
“Oh.” She pouted a bit. “Fine” He hadn’t known you could put that many syllables into fine. They went down and she apologized, and Zoro had to snort when Luffy praised her for such a good stomp. But he noticed she didn’t call Luffy daddy, like she had to them, and was careful not to call him papa, or say Uncle Sanji, Aunt Robin in front of Luffy.
None of them were sure how Luffy would feel about that.
Zoro was terrified what would happen if Luffy didn’t want them to keep Jet. What he would do. Twenty years he had walked beside Luffy. He touched the hoops in his ear because soon sixteen of those married to him, but this might change his path. They arrived at the Baratie and Sanji disappeared up to the family quarters to greet his wife and Luffy was running because Sabo and Koala were there.
Jet clung to him as she did every knew place, but one look at Zeff’s mustache and she was off with him for ice cream treats. He tried to say not to spoil her, but it was hopeless. Zeff was a sucker for kids no matter how he pretended to be gruff.
They settled at a table with Sabo. Zoro noticed Koala wasn’t drinking alcohol and gave her a look and she blushed a bit. Well then. “No family that we could find Luffy,” Sabo explained after they talked about various other things.
Luffy was eating one of Zeff’s stews. “Huh? Whose family?”
“Jet? Near as I could tell no missing child reports that match her.”
“Jet isn’t missing, she’s in the kitchen with Zeff.”
Sabo sighed and Zoro grinned a bit at that long suffering noise. “Luffy, Koala is pregnant.”
“You’re having a baby!” Luffy shouted and flailed around a bit. “That’s so cool.”
“It is,” Sabo agreed. “And family is important.”
“Duh, I know that. You are important to me. And Zoro is important to me. It’s great.” Luffy ate more. “Don’t drop the baby, they don’t bounce.”
“Thanks for the advice. We’d be happy to take Jet.”
“Take Jet where?” Luffy looked at Zoro. “Do they mean like to practice not dropping a kid? Won’t work, Jet’s reached bouncing stage. You drop her, she thinks it is funny.”
She did think it was funny.
Zoro swallowed. “They mean they would raise Jet, if we thought that was best.”
“But we’re already doing a good job,” Luffy protested. “Why would we stop?” He frowned. “Oh wait, I get it! You mean like family sleepovers, because Jet is going to be the big cousin to your baby and teach them cool stuff, like you taught me, Sabo.” Luffy nodded. “We’ll absolutely come visit you lots, so Jet can be a big cousin.”
“Luffy, are you sure? Raising a kid is a lot of work.” Sabo was looking at them. “Do you understand what being a parent means?”
“I tossed her into the air too high last week and she puked on my face. It got in my mouth Sabo.” Luffy was looking at him. “And I just laughed it off. What else is there to understand?”
No one at the table had an answer for that.
Jet came running through the restaurant. Threw herself at Luffy. “Grandpa Zeff let me have three flavours with two sauces. I had so much, I’m going to throw up.” She giggled. “I’m not supposed to tell you that.”
“Why not? Warnings about puke are helpful.”
“Grandpa Zeff said parents aren’t supposed to be told about what grandparents indulge in. But I said shh couldn’t say that I wanted you to be my parents - it was a secret.”
“It was?” Luffy looked at her. “It’s a secret I’m your dad and Zoro is your papa? I didn’t know that.”
“Oh.” Jet smiled slowly. “Daddy, I ate so much ice cream, I’m going to puke.”
“No fair. I’m going to get so much ice cream I puke too.”
“No you aren’t,” Zoro held him in place. “No one is puking.” Because he knew Zeff wouldn’t have over filled her. “Sit and tell your Uncle Sabo and Aunt Koala your favourite things about the Sunny.”
Jet rambled and fell asleep mid sentence full from the ice cream and when she listed to the side, Luffy’s arm was there, ballooned a bit to make a pillow for her.
Zoro looked at Luffy who was looking at Jet with pride and awe. And so much love.
He guessed they were fathers now. He kissed Jet’s head, and then Luffy’s. “Yeah,” he said.
“Yeah what?” Luffy asked.
“Yeah this is right,” was all he could say.
“I know, knew the second I met her. Said she was on the crew didn’t I?”
“You did, Captain. You did at that. I can take her, you go get that ice cream.”
“She’s comfortable, food can wait.”
And Zoro knew they were never letting go.