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The first time Dadan sees Dragon is at a forest they are both way too small to be in.
She is hunting for food, for the glass of water and cup of rice the bandits give her daily is not enough for a growing girl, but not even a fast and sleazy thing like herself can outmatch the grown-ups in the fight for meat.
Normally she’d just pickpocket someone or dine and dash, those she is good at, she’s small and fast and it’s easy to sneak away from the losers at Town Center, but she was almost caught by the guards the last time she went there, so it’s best if she doesn’t show up inside the gates of Goa for a while, still Midway Forest hasn’t done much to satiate her hunger that particular day. She was not able to catch anything, all of the smaller prey she'd normally catch were buried and hiding, all because the forest was haunted by a pair of screams.
"I SAID I WAS SORRYYYYYYYYYY." The first voice drags on.
"OH, YOU'LL DEFINITELY WILL BE SORRY AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU, YOU LOUD MOUTH BRAT!" The second voice follows, and Dadan does not envy the poor bastard that is hiding away from it.
Poor thing was probably one of the homeless idiots from Grey terminal that pickpocketed the wrong guy.
Dadan however had no time to wonder about the boy's fate, she was too busy trying to lure out rabbits from a burrow to worry about a stranger...
Except things couldn't be that simple, she'd come to learn that nothing could ever be simple when it comes to Monkey D. Dragon, because the second the screams died down he crashed right onto her, who fell straight into the ground.
"What the fuck!" She shouted taking a look at the wall that hit her, tall was an understatement when describing Dragon. "Watch where you go."
"Sorry miss." He says way too politely for her taste, and his clothes are not beaten like expected from the Grey Terminal's brats, he looks polished and put together, he even offers Dadan a hand to help her up.
"Apology denied." She says, but she does take his hand anyways.
"What's your name? I'm Dragon." He says with a smile that’s missing two teeth.
"Not your business." She snarls, completely annoyed at the fact that mud that got in her clothes.
"Well, there's a D embroidered on your shirt, so I'll call you D." There is in fact a D on her shirt, so the other bandits know it is hers, but the way he says it is too cheerful for a bastard that was being chased a few minutes ago.
"Who was chasing you?"
"Oh, that was just my dad, don't worry about it." He says feigning normalcy, Dadan doesn't really care either way.
"How old are you?" He asks and she considers answering just so he'll leave her alone.
"Eight." She scoffs.
"No way! Me too! Wanna be my friend?" He says and she gives the boy a one over, is he really eight when he is this tall? She would have an easier time believing he was 12.
"As if." She rolls her eyes, friends were a thing that only got in the way.
"C'mon..." but before he could protest further, branches being snapped grabbed his attention. "OH shit he found me!"
"Your dad?"
"YEAH!" He says grabbing Dadan by the wrist and pulling her along.
"Didn't you tell me to not worry about it?"
"Yeah, I kinda lied." He says still dragging her, she tried several times to break free from his grip, but it was pointless, he was way stronger than her.
"Let go of me." she pouted and whined trying to break free.
"Can't, what if my dad finds you and makes you say where I’m hiding? We're in this together now!"
"You're such a brute!" She protested as he dragged her into a cave.
“We should be safe here.” he claims finally letting go of her arm, it’s slightly bruised from his grasp.
“Why are you hiding from your dad? Shouldn’t dads be good to you?” She asks, the few things she knows about parents are that they should care for their children, but she wouldn’t know much about that, having no parents of her own.
“He is kinda good, when he’s not in training mode, when he’s in training mode he’s an asshole.” The swear sounds almost foreign on the mouth of a boy that looks so put together like that.
“What are you training for?”
“I’ll become a marine.” He says with a weird pride in his eyes.
“But aren’t you too young for that? You said you were eight, and the youngest they’ll take is fourteen.”
“I am eight.” He says pissed she’s doubting his word. “And I know, but dad wants me to be ready when I finally enlist.”
“Do you want to enlist?”
“Yeah, I wanna protect people just like my mom and my dad do.”
“Are they marines too?”
“Uhum, strong ones, mom works in the intelligence department, and dad is a vice-admiral.”
“Sounds boring.” Dadan says, she doesn’t really have much appreciation for the works the marines do, it’s just too hard to believe their intentions are good when she sees the things the nobles do.
“You are boring.” He refutes pulling out his tongue, and she throws dirt on his face. “Hey!”
“If you wanna be a marine so badly, why are you running from training?”
“Cause I don’t like dodge training, it hurts when I don’t dodge.”
“Then just dodge.”
“It’s not that easy!” He retorts.
“Sounds like what a whimp would say.” She mocks.
“I’m not a whimp.”, “Yes, you are.”, “No, I’m not.”, “Yes, you are.”, “No, I’m not.”, “Yes, you are.”, “No, I’m not.”, “Yes, you are.”, “No, I’m not.” They argued for what felt like ages, but could have been either five minutes or two hours, only stopping when they heard a loud noise outside.
“Dragon are you here?!” The voice from before called from outside of the cave, and Dragon held Dadan’s mouth shut so she wouldn’t give their location away. “C’mon, the sun is setting soon, just come out so we can have dinner.”
The mention of dinner makes Dadan’s stomach growl, she hasn’t eaten since morning, nearly feeling weak, she chomps down the hand that is holding her shut.
“OUCH!” Dragon screams and footsteps start approaching them.
Dadan didn’t expect the face to find them to be the face that every bandit learns to avoid before they learn to walk, the man that faces them is none other than Monkey D. Garp, a vice-admiral feared by all the underworld of Dawn Island.
“There you are brat!” He says and the way his voice echoes on the cave chills Dadan’s spine. “And who is your little friend?”
“Oh hi dad,” The boy says sheepishly, “This is D., D. this is my dad Garp.”
“H-hey!” Her voice stutters and her knees nearly go weak.
“D? That’s a letter, not a name, girl what is your actual name?”
“Dadan.” She manages to say.
“Dandan?” He repeats wrongly.
“No, DA-DAN!” She tries to correct.
“Whatever you say Dandan,” He says and his stomach growls loudly. “It’s diner time, do you want to eat with us?”
“S-Sure.” She’s not sure why she agrees, but as dangerous as Garp is, the prospect of getting food is too good for her to pass on.
“Great, you coming too brat?” Garp asks Dragon.
“A-Are you not mad I skipped training?”
“A bit, but you made you made a friend, and you never make friends, so I’ll let it go this time.” Garp says. “Just don’t make it a habit kiddo.”
Dinner with the Monkey D.’s might as well be a banquet, there was enough food there to feed an army, huge pieces of meat, whole fishes in skewers, and plenty of fruits all laid down on a picnic cloth to keep the dirt away, Dadan was not sure where she was supposed to begin.
“C’mon, don’t be shy.” Garp says putting a large piece of meat still attached to the bone on her hand, the thing was nearly the size of her face. “Eat away.”
She tentatively ate, it was the best food she ever tried, the meat was tender and flavorful, the fruits were juicy and sweet, and the fishes were flakey and salty like the sea, for the first time in a long while she was able to eat until she was full.
“So tell me little lady, where do you come from? Cause the little girls of Goa rarely step on Midway Forest.”
“I live in Mt. Colubo.” She admits without thinking, too blind by the food to realize what she’s giving away.
“The mountain with the bandits?” Dragon questions surprised and she realizes what she just said.
“Y-Yeah…” She says sheepishly since there’s no way to take back what she just said.
“That’s no place for a child.” Garp remarks.
“They’re good to me, most times at least.” She says. “As long as I do my part they’re okay.”
“Can’t say I understand you.” Garp hums. “But who am I to judge your family?”
“Speaking of which, I should probably get back before it is too dark.”
“Very well, do you want us to escort you? The woods are dangerous.”
“No, thank you, they’d be super mad if I brought a marine back.”
“Oh, makes sense, Dragon go with her then, I’ll meet you back home.”
“Okay.” The boy says before Dadan can protest.
The walk up Mt. Colubo is mostly quiet, the uncomfortable silence filled by the croak of frogs, and the chirp of crickets.
“You should’ve mentioned your dad is Garp.” She breaks it, trying to fend off the awkwardness.
“I said he was vice-admiral, how many of them are there in Dawn?” He retorts, and to be fair the boy has a point.
“I thought he’d be scarier, but he’s kinda goofy.”
“He is both, he was only nice because you were there.”
“The food was really good.”
“Eh, I think he got it at Party’s old bar, decent enough place, I get money from beating the old guys there on card games all the time.”
“I don’t know any card games.”
“I can teach you if you want.”
“It’d be nice.” She agrees and soon after that they’re in her doorsteps.
“It was nice meeting you.” He says sheepishly.
“Same!” She says and it’s more genuine than she expected, she’s almost sad once they have to part ways.
Next time Dragon meets her at the forest, he brings out a deck of cards, the time after that a book to help with her poor reading, then a pair of wooden swords so they can spar, and slowly but surely he becomes the best friend she’s ever had.