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Can ye no hush your weepin’?
Buggy can't get the sight out of his mind. His captain’s son–Roger’s own blood–dead on the battlefield. Luffy’s screams of grief, so much like the ones he felt inside him when his beloved captain died, ringing in his ears long after Trafalgar took him.
All the wee lambs are sleepin’.
All the years between Lougetown and here, and yet he still feels like the helpless boy he was back then. Looking at the covered bodies on the ship, he's wracked by a wave of loss that he hadn't had the chance to prepare himself for; no one knew that Captain Roger had a kid. Softly, voice breaking, he begins to sing.
Birdies are nestlin’, nestlin’ together.
He wonders if Portgas ever got to hear this song. Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban used to sing it to him and Shanks when they were young. He remembers curling into his hammock, Shanks by his side, both of them trembling when the ship would pitch during storms. One of their crewmates would come to check on them, soothing their fears with a steady hand and calm voice.
Dream Angus is hirplin’ oer the heather.
Blankly, he places a hand over the cloth covering Portgas. The last living vestige of his captain and mentor: gone before he even knew what he had lost. And the straw hat kid… he isn't sure he'll ever get that look out of his head. Despair doesn't suit the boy, and for just a brief moment, he understands what Shanks saw in him all those years ago.
Dreams to sell, fine dreams to sell.
Buggy isn't sure when he began crying, choking on the words of the well-loved lullaby. He isn't sure when he started rocking, steadying his hand against the lifeless shroud of Portgas D. Ace, a gut-wrenching mimicry of the placating gesture of the man he considered a father, that Ace never knew.
Angus is here wi’ dreams to sell.
He feels a pressure at his back–a hand–as an all-too-familiar presence sits at his side, red-rimmed eyes matching the red hair and look of sorrow so foreign on his scarred face. Shanks puts his arm around Buggy's shoulders and rocks with him, joining in with his own lower, trembling voice.
Hush my wee bairnie and sleep without fear.
Buggy wipes his eyes with his free hand, thumb stroking over the shroud. What he would have given to know… to see even just a hint of Captain Roger in the man. To have been able to do more when the time finally came. To have been strong enough to save him. He can feel the guilt coming off Shanks in waves threatening to drown both of them–if they'd been stronger, if they'd gotten there sooner…
Dream Angus will bring you a dream, my dear.