Chapter Text
Makino plopped down next to Ace, the platter of steaming buns still held just out of reach. Ace frowned at the offending gap between his hands and the food. Maybe if he jumped for it—
The door slammed into the wall with a bang that thoroughly interrupted their game and he scrambled to crouch next to Makino’s stool to watch from cover as a huge man stepped into the bar with a beaming grin.
Behind the counter, the kitchen door opened and Makino’s mama asked in her I’ll-hit-you-with-a-broom voice, “What is the meaning of this racket, Vice Admiral? The bar is closed this early in the morning, you know.”
“Came to drop off something,” the man laughed, one hand raised in surrender. His other hand tucked a cloth bundle close to his chest.
“And just what are you dropping off?”
The man stepped up to the counter and held out the bundle to her. “I need someone to look after him. Can’t exactly keep him at Marineford.”
A heavy silence followed and Ace leaned out from his hiding spot to try and look at the bundle, but the man turned his head at the same moment and met his gaze. Ace glared at him.
“. . . Huh.” The man handed the bundle to Makino—who yelped softly and tucked it against herself carefully—and moved to scoop Ace up before he could blink or bite (not that biting did him much good when he did get the chance). The man held him at arms length and stared at him a long while.
“Vice Admiral—” Makino’s mama warned, edging around the bar, but it was too late. Mama was already behind him.
“Garp. Care to explain yourself?” Mama asked. She didn’t sound scary but Ace knew the look on her face.
Garp—Ace didn’t know what ‘Vice Admiral’ meant but ‘Garp’ sounded like a name—turned a big smile her way, not at all afraid (was he stronger than Mama?). “Rouge, this little rascal really takes after you! Has the stink-eye and everything!”
“Indeed, and you still haven’t answered my question.”
“Looked everywhere for you, even asked old Silvers about it.” He handed Ace over to Mama and ruffled his hair and still didn’t do more than smile when Ace bit him again on principle. Hmph. “How’d you make it out of that mess?”
Mama raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth but a baby started fussing. Ace had heard the sound a number of times when Mama visited the ladies in the village, so he knew it was a hungry sound rather than a hurt one, but where was it coming from? There hadn’t been a baby in the bar earlier.
“Garp, where did the little one come from?” Mama asked, walking over to Makino and the bundle, which had started moving and crying. Makino’s mama ran back to the kitchen, probably to get food.
Garp laughed and pulled out a bottle from his pocket to hand to Makino. “He’s my grandson! His name’s Luffy.”
Ace felt it when Mama stopped breathing. He looked up at her and patted her face. “Mama? Are you okay?”
She blinked and took a deep breath before smiling down at him. “Yes, sweetheart, I’m alright.” Shaking her head and turning back to Garp, she asked, “And are you leaving him here? Where is his mother?”
“Hmm, dunno. My boy didn’t say who she was. She might be dead for all I know.”
Makino gasped and Ace tucked himself closer to Mama. A world without her sounded like a terrible place. If the baby didn’t have a Mama anymore, who would love him? Mama rubbed her hand over his back and asked, “Ace, do you want a little brother?”
Ace blinked and looked down at the bundle again. The chubby face gnawed on the bottle, already emptied in the time he’d looked away, but then he turned and looked up at Ace. The baby laughed and the bottle went tumbling toward the floor. Mama caught it, but that just brought Ace closer to the baby who stuck out both hands to him and laughed again when Ace reached back.
Mama smiled at them and Ace heard some more talking overhead, but he wasn’t listening. He was watching as Luffy chewed on the fingers he’d taken captive. His gums were hard, but Ace was tough like the stupid big guy so it was fine. Besides, the warmth that bloomed in his chest at the sight of the baby’s smile made him smile back.
Sabo stared at the cottage, unsure. Ace tugged at his arm with a crooked smile. “Come on, it’ll be fine!”
Sure, easy for him to say. It had been a shock to discover his wild best friend had a family, especially since it was obvious Ace had a lot of suspicious skills even aside from his distrust of adults. Or rather, it was strange that someone who would just as soon try tearing a grown man’s throat out with his teeth as help Sabo find dinner had a loving family. Stranger still that he’d opt to drag Sabo into the jungle to meet his mom and little brother.
Sabo took a breath and followed along. They passed through a well-kept flower garden, lined with some herbs he recognized as medicinal, and Ace shouldered the door open with a loud cry of “I’m home!”
Two voices replied, “Welcome back!” and a toddler came careening around the corner with a giddy laugh to tackle Ace to the floor. The little menace must be Luffy then. Sabo had heard the stories of numerous misadventures but never met him in four months of playing with Ace because ‘Mom says he’s too little to play in the jungle with me.’
“Lu, this is Sabo,” Ace said, hoisting himself up even with the kid wrapped tight around his middle like a koala. “Remember me telling you about him?”
“Yeah! Ace said Sabo was strong and smart!” Luffy chirped, whipping his head to look starry eyed at Sabo. “Sabo found the glass that makes things look big, right? Thanks!”
He blushed a bit and dipped his head in a nod. “No problem.” A few weeks ago, he’d helped Ace find a present for Luffy’s last birthday, since scouring the trash of Grey Terminal was best done as a team for both safety and efficiency. The magnifying glass had been rusty, but still intact, a rare find.
“Oh, so you’re Sabo. Welcome in,” said a freckled woman with long blonde hair, braided down her back with flowers woven in at the base. Her smile, accompanied by sharp eyes, was an exact mirror of Ace’s. “I’m Ace and Luffy’s mom, Portgas D. Rouge.”
He bowed politely. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me visit.”
Rouge chuckled, “Think nothing of it. I’m glad Ace found a friend. Most of the village kids are scared of my boys, for some reason.” Her voice betrayed that she knew why and found it funny, in spite of everything that came with it. Sabo raised an eyebrow at Luffy. Ace he could understand; after all, most six-year-olds (even if they fought dirty) weren’t capable of brawling with adults. Sabo himself was no slouch, but he had to fight smart and use a weapon. Luffy was tiny and smiled like he’d never hurt anyone.
She ushered them further into the house, to a sitting room with a low table laden with snacks, and Sabo paused at the door even though Ace and Luffy descended on the food like piranhas.
Someone was singing. There wasn’t anyone else in the room, or even one of those fancy music boxes some Nobles flaunted, but a man’s voice filled the air with a song Sabo had never heard before.
Rouge leaned against the doorway and explained, “It’s a folk song from South Blue. An old friend recorded a few of them for me.”
“Where’s it coming from?” Sabo asked.
Luffy answered with something unintelligible through his mouthful of food. Ace shook his head and told him to swallow first before translating, “It’s from the shell on the mantle.”
There indeed was a spiral shell, about the size of a man’s fist and white with age, sitting on the mantle. Rouge picked it up and showed him the piece on the top that turned it on and off. “It’s called a tone dial. It’s from an island on the Grand Line that not many people believe exists.”
All three of them snapped to attention. Ace breathed, “You never told us that.”
“You never asked.” She smiled and snagged a plate full of food before Luffy inhaled it, handing it to Sabo.
“Was your friend from that island?” Sabo asked, stuffing the mini sandwiches in his mouth.
“No, he was from. . . West Blue, I’m pretty sure.” She sat down on the couch and continued, “The tone dial is from Skypeia, an island that floats in the sky.”
“Huh?” Ace frowned, asking the question on Sabo’s mind, “Aren’t islands too heavy to float?”
“Depends on where they are. Over the Grand Line, there are two layers in the sky called the White Sea and the White White Sea, and they have islands just like the Blue Seas do. Though Skypeia is the only one that’s actually made of earth, even in part. Most of them are made of a stronger type of cloud that you can walk on.” Rouge ran a thumb along the spines of the shell. “Not many people are brave enough to go there, and most, as I said, don’t even believe it exists anymore.”
“How do you get there?!” Luffy asked, bouncing in place.
Rouge grinned at him. “Well, there’s one path that will cost you a crewmate or two, and one that is an all or nothing shot. My friends took that second path since their captain refused to sacrifice any of them, and since he had the devil’s luck they made it up safely.”
Sabo mulled all of that over. “If your friends made it up there and brought stuff back, doesn’t that prove it exists? How come people still don’t believe it?”
Her smile turned a bit wry. “Well, stories told by pirates tend to be disregarded as extremely exaggerated or outright fictitious.”
“Fictiu—?” Luffy asked, tilting his head.
“It means people think it’s a lie.”
“Your friends were Grand Line pirates?” Ace asked, looking at the shell with something approaching awe. “Are they ever going to visit again?”
“Hmm. I’m not sure.” Her eyes filled with something wistful as she looked at Ace. “I hope I get to meet them again, though. I’d like to hear the rest of their story someday, and tell them how grateful I am that they saved my life.”
Ace straightened up like lightning struck him. “How’d they do that? What happened?”
“I’ll save the full story for another time, love, but they ran down a fleet of Marine ships and got me out of a dangerous place.” She reached over to the bookshelf and pulled out a frame box with shiny beetles of all kinds. Luffy’s eyes lit up and she let him hold it. “These were a gift from the captain. They were the ones Ace liked best, so he kept them.”
“Wait, I met them?” Ace asked, frowning. “How come I don’t remember?”
Rouge laughed. “Sweetheart, you were barely four months old when they left. But you spent all of those first four months with them, and they loved you like we’d been part of the crew since the beginning. I was never short on helping hands when we were on board.”
Sabo couldn’t even imagine that. His old home could not even compare to what Ace and Luffy had here, let alone a pirate ship full of people. He spent the rest of the day wondering if he’d be welcome to stay but didn’t have the courage to ask.
Luffy took the dilemma out of his hands entirely, asking, “Is Sabo staying? Ace said Sabo stays in the Termite-place, but it’s stinky there so Sabo should stay here!”
Rouge sighed at her youngest and knelt down to Sabo’s level. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but there will always be a bed here for you if you want or need it.”
“I. . . If you don’t mind. Thank you.”
(Rouge remembered when the pirates built her home a little larger than she’d expected, telling her to expect two extras later down the line. It explained so much, when Garp showed up with a very familiar baby in arms, and she’d spent three years worrying about finding the third, only for Ace to bring him home of his own accord. When Sabo finally moved in, the house felt complete, even if it meant subjecting the poor boy to Garp’s terrifying version of ‘welcome to the family.’ At least Sabo seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Ace and fell upon the giant menace like an unhinged hyena right alongside his new brothers.)