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“Rocinante adopted a son.”
Garp paused in eating as Sengoku sat across the desk from him. Sengoku almost never spoke of his late son, so if that was how Sengoku was opening their lunch meeting… “Did he?”
“The boy with the Amber Lead sickness. The one he was desperate to save,” Sengoku said. “…He succeeded.”
“So you’ve got a grandkid?” Garp asked, ready to let his friend talk as much as he wanted. Goodness knew Garp had subjected Sengoku to enough tales of Luffy and Ace over the years…anyway he was ready for the small talk! Bring it on!
“It’s Trafalgar Law, Garp.”
Garp spat his drink across the room. Sengoku was so deep in thought that he didn’t even complain about it staining the wall.
Trafalgar Law? Their new-now-ex Warlord, the Supernova, the Surgeon of Death, Dr. Heartstealer no-we-don’t-mean-that-epithet-romantically-you-idiot?
“I…not much of his dad in him, then,” Garp said. Rocinante had been a sweetheart, not a creepy grab-heart-and-other-internal-organs.
“He got the ability to lie to the Marines all right,” Sengoku joked dryly.
“So your grandson’s actually my grandson’s new bad influence, huh?” Garp asked before downing another sandwich.
Sengoku patted his lips with a napkin. “Please. Your earth-shaker of a grandson is clearly running the show. I have confirmation from Fujitora and several witnesses.”
“Yeah well my grandkid doesn’t go ripping out people’s organs,” Garp muttered.
“Luffy’s had it…well not easier but less traumatic than Law overall,” Sengoku said. “I fear the lack of any sort of authority figure in his teenage years caused that particular tendency.”
Garp didn’t feel like playing grandson-misery-poker so he didn’t bring up Marinford. For all he knew Law really did have something shittier—oh, right, Rocinante’s death, and maybe there was more than that too. “Do you…do you know what really happened to your son now?”
“His brother killed him in cold blood,” Sengoku said. “After a spy Doflamingo planted in the Marines nearly killed Rocinante and Law both. I…if we’d just caught Vergo…I can’t help but wonder…”
“Don’t. You’ll drive yourself nuts,” Garp said. He’s already done it with Sabo as a kid, with Ace as a teen…with Luffy today, with everything he kept getting into… “You did it how you did it. Vergo fooled a lot of people. But, hey, your grandson killed him, good job…sort of…”
“I’m on the fence about that too,” Sengoku sighed, shaking in head. “I’m just…someone who really knew Rocinante is alive. The person he died to save…”
“How’d the talk go then?” Garp asked. “Good?”
“I don’t know,” Sengoku admitted. “Law is hard to read…wonder if he got that from Rocinante or is like that naturally…it’s been weeks since I spoke to him and I’m still trying to figure out how he felt about it all…”
“You waited weeks to tell me this?” Garp complained.
“You weren’t exactly around,” Sengoku said.
Garp supposed that was fair. He was becoming infamous for avoiding headquarters like the plague, mostly to resist the urge to snap Akainu’s spine.
“Oh. Okay, yeah,” Garp capitulated. “Well…if he didn’t yell at you, better than my brats ever did.”
“Please, like they didn’t love you despite every insult,” Sengoku said, rolling his eyes.
“You think?” Garp asked, smiling softly.
“Yes, I do,” Sengoku told his friend.
“Um, excuse me?”
“Coby!” Garp said brightly. “Good to see you! What’s the occasion?”
“Well…Kaido’s down,” Coby said. “By Luffy and his expanded alliance…”
“No shit?” Garp asked as Sengoku groaned. He did have a point, Garp supposed. An Emperor down now? That was going to throw everything into a tizzy…
“And, well…that’s not all. Admiral Fujitora said he wasn’t sure how to describe it and just had someone snap pictures,” Coby said. “Erm…you’re going to want to see this one.”
Garp could already see Kaido—seemingly dead in the background, no, as the background because his corpse was so large—before the report landed on the desk.
It took him a moment to realize front and center were an exhausted looking Monkey D. Luffy and Trafalgar Law, kissing.
He and Sengoku looked up to meet each other’s shocked gazes and dropped jaws.
Garp recovered first, “This is all your fault of course. Your degenerate grandson clearly-”
Coby ducked as Sengoku sent Garp flying through a wall before quickly making his exit.
“…Damnit,” Helmeppo muttered, passing him ten belli as they walked away. “I was sure Garp would swing first…”