Chapter Text
The first to notice was Makino.
Garp had dropped the baby off
Like a sack of cannonballs,
Grumbling something about
“training him early” and
“no safer place than this sleepy village,”
Before disappearing back to the Grand Line.
The baby, Luffy, had been a bundle of wild smiles
Louder laughs, all fists and gums and sunshine.
Makino had fallen in love with him almost instantly.
He was easy, mostly.
Ate everything, played with anything,
And slept like a log
Except when he didn’t.
When the first spring storm fallen over Foosha Village,
Luffy wouldn’t stop crying.
Makino tried everything.
She cradled him, fed him,
Bounced him against her chest until her arms ached.
She hummed lullabies her mother used to sing,
Rubbed gentle circles on his back,
Even brought out the old rocking crib she had
But the moment she laid him down,
He shrieked louder,
Tiny arms thrashing against the blankets
Like he was fighting the air itself.
She felt a knot of helplessness in her throat.
Then, thru the open window
The wind shifted.
It was soft.
So soft it might’ve gone unnoticed,
If not for the way it brushed her cheek
With the tenderness of a ghost’s kiss.
A green-tinted breeze slid through the windowpane,
Swirling into the room in a spiral too slow,
Too smooth to be natural.
Makino froze.
The crib abandoned in her helplessness
Began to rock.
Not wildly, not randomly,
But with rhythmic, cradling pulses.
Like ocean waves lapping at a dock.
Luffy hiccupped once.
Then again.
And then… silence.
His eyes, red-rimmed and wide,
Blinked up toward the ceiling,
As if he were watching something no one else could see.
His fists unclenched.
His breathing slowed.
Within seconds, he was asleep.
The wind stopped and disappeared
Makino didn’t move for a long moment.
She stared at the crib, at the baby,
Then at the window where the breeze had entered.
The night was still.
Not even a neighbor heard.
A chill climbed her spine, but not from fear.
Because it felt… warm and protective.
She stepped closer, leaned over the crib.
Luffy’s lips were curled into a faint smile.
She whispered.
“Who’s watching over you?”