Chapter Text
Makino steps outside for a second to take a breath. The fresh spring air is nice, and she gives herself a moment to stand in the grass, lean against the backdoor and watch the sun slowly meet the sea in the horizon.
The evening is calm and quiet - quite the contrast to the party going on inside her bar at the moment.
Makino doesn't mind.
She can't mind, really, because it's her job to have people visit her and spend their money at her counter. But the occasional parties, along with visits from Dadan and her bandits makes up for some of the silent ache that has settled in Makino's heart ever since Luffy left.
She has her baby, of course, a joy she wouldn't trade for anything, but there is a Luffy-shaped hole in her life.
(A hole made bigger by two other boys that she'll never see again.)
She thinks of him from time to time. Imagines what he might look like, now, when it's been almost five years since she's seen him last.
She proudly displays all his wanted posters on the wall in Party's Bar, alongside Ace's. She cuts out all the pictures of the Strawhats from the newspaper, carefully places them into her picture book already filled to the brim with photos of all the important people in her life. People far and near, some gone and some she's still waiting for.
Makino sighs and takes another deep breath before she turns around and gets ready to plunge back into the heat of the party.
As she reaches for the doorhandle, something crashes into the ground behind her hard enough to make the earth shake. Makino yelps when she stumbles and barely manages to right herself, spinning back around with wide eyes.
Where there had previously been a grass lawn spread with small, pretty flowers now lies a smoking crater from something that has, presumably, just fallen out of the sky.
She moves a step closer, slowly and carefully, freezing again when she spots a foot. There is a person lying on the bottom of the hole.
"Hello?" she calls, "Are you alright?"
There is no response.
Suddenly worried that the stranger might be dead, Makino steps over the edge of the crater to get a better look. Her foot slips and she almost falls down the slope in surprise when she sees a face.
"Luffy?"
It can't be.
Shouldn't be, because he is busy sailing the world with his crew and-
Luffy groans and scrubs a hand over his face.
Makino drinks in every sight of him, from the greasy black hair and the straw hat that is planted on his head just as safely as when he left five years ago, to the new scar crossing his chest that she read about in the paper but hasn't seen yet and the silly vest-and-shorts outfit that only Luffy would wear, now combined with a sash and cape, and all the rest of the new scars.
There's more years on his face and he doesn't really match the latest wanted poster - but it doesn't matter.
Because Makino could recognize Luffy anywhere, and now he's here, crashing into her backyard when he should be miles and miles away, and oh, how Makino has missed him.
Luffy is slowly getting to his senses, shaking his head as his eyes crack open. Makino is filled with absolute delight, and she giggles a bit as she leans forward.
"Luffy," she says, happy and joyful like she's been given the greatest gift in the world (and she has, she really has), smiling when his eyes immidiately falls on her.
They widen almost comically, and his mouth drops open in a gape only a rubberman can manage.
"Makino?" he says, sounding just like the kid who used to sit at the counter in her bar, demanding a real pirate drink like Shankses, just this one time, please please pleeease Makino, and Makino just giggles more.
"MAKINO!!" Luffy hollers in excitement, a grin splitting across his face, and she catches him when he shoots up and towards her like it's second nature. (And isn't it, really?)
Strong rubber arms wind around her, again and again, and Makino just laughs and laughs because Luffy is here.
He's laughing too, and talking, saying her name over and over and telling her how he's missed her as he squeezes her tight and Seas, he's taller than her now, able to put his chin on top of her head and tuck her against his large chest, where they stand for almost a minute just taking in each others warmth.
"Man, Makino, what are you doing here?!" Luffy asks, holding her out at an arms length to look at her again, beaming. "I think the question should be what you are doing here," she laughs. "This is Foosha village, Luffy!"
Luffy blinks at her, before he actually turns to take in his surroundings. The houses of the village clustered together on either side of the dirt path that is their main street, the windmills on top of the hill, the waves distantly splashing against the docks.
Makino watches his gaze linger on the climbing forest of Mt. Colubo, watches his eyes go clear as he looks towards where she knows Dadan's bandit hut to be, hidden among the trees.
"Luffy," Makino says again softly, lifts her hands from they had been resting on Luffy's back to caress his cheeks as he looks at her, "What are you doing here?"
Luffy's brows draw together, his bottom lip sticking out in a thoughtful pout as he tries to remember.
"I was with my crew," is the first thing he says, because of course it is.
Even just from the small glimpes Makino gets through wanted posters and newspaper clippings, she sees how much the Strawhats love each other - how much Luffy loves them.
"We... were fighting? And there was this woman, an' Usopp was screaming that she had a devil fruit and he was right 'cause suddenly there was like, a lot of light, and then..." Luffy falters and Makino opens her mouth again, though she closes it when he looks at her.
"Makino," he says, eyes wide and worried, voice brimming on shaky, "I don't know where my nakama are."
And oh,
oh.
When Ace died, Luffy was alone, despite the fact that Makino had recieved eight new bounty posters from the News Coo just weeks before, all belonging to the Strawhats who declared war on the World Government.
The last time he was without them, everything fell apart.
And now he's looking at her with big, trusting brown eyes, like she holds all the answers to his situation.
"So, uh," she starts, to give herself some time to think, "You got hit by a devil fruit and sent back here."
She hesitates for a moment, before she mentally reprimands herself and adds, "Back home." Luffy nods. Makino copies the motion slowly, biting her lip. "Were the rest of your crew also hit by this fruit?"
Luffy hums, closes his eyes in an attempt to remember. "I think so," he says. "Everyone was in the light."
"So," Makino says, meeting Luffy's eyes when he opens them again, "maybe they got sent back home too?"
Luffy thinks about this for a moment. Then he suddenly tenses, and Makino barely has time to register it before something crashes into the ground right next to the hole where they're still standing, shaking the earth so hard they both fall over this time.
Luffy catches Makino when she lands on top of him, but he quickly lays her down on the side so he can climb up the slope. Makino follows behind him on slightly shakier legs, uncaring of the dirt smudged on her dress.
Their new arrival turns out to be some kind of robot.
It's big (much bigger than Garp, the tallest person Makino knows), with large metal arms and hands that could probably destroy Party's Bar with one punch.
It resembles a human, in the skin of it's chest and parts of the legs, and the bits of a face Makino can spot from where she's standing, but she can't help but feel anxious at the thought of something so big, so possibly dangerous, lying in her backyard.
Luffy is standing comfortably on the robot's big chest, crouching to get even closer to its face.
The robot's eyes snap open so quickly Makino jolts, but Luffy doesn't react, other than to grin down at the wide eyes that meet him there. The robot stares at Luffy for a second before it grins too and rises, bringing its hands up so Luffy can stand in them.
A large pompadour of blue hair flops into place on the robot's head as it comes to its full height, and Makino finally recognises it- no, him.
Cyborg Franky, the Strawhats' shipwright.
Luffy snickers and stretches his arms, winding them around Franky again and again like he did with Makino just minutes ago. Franky realitates, squeezing Luffy tight (tight enough for any normal human to break) until it releases another gaggle of laughter from the rubberman.
Luffy's words are muffled against Franky's big chest, but they still (barely) reach Makino, who hears him say,
"I thought I'd lost you again."
Makino sees the cyborg's eyes flash in pain, his big shoulders stiffening slightly. "We would never," he reassures Luffy, who's still hugging him tight, and then he lifts his head and spots Makino - who suddenly feels out of place, like she's the one interrupting a reunion.
"Oh!" Cyborg Franky says, and then he looks at the houses and the trees, sees the windmills on the hill above the village. "Ooohhhh."
"Hey Luffy," He clamps his big hands around Luffy's middle, holding him out like one would a cat or a toy, "You gonna introduce me to this pretty lady?"
Makino allows the compliment to bring a smile to her face. She knew that Luffy's nakama were good people - he has chosen them himself, after all - but it's something else when she sees it for herself.
"Why?" Luffy tilts her head. "Can't you introduce yourself? She's standing right there!" Franky sighs. Makino giggles.
Franky looks at her, and then he climbs out of the crater to stand on level ground, so that Makino has to tilt her head up to see his face. The cyborg reaches out a large hand, and Makino watches in fascination as a hatch opens in his palm and a smaller hand emerges for her to shake.
She takes it slowly, relaxing when Franky grips her back gently. "Yo," he says, "The name's Franky. I'm the Strawhat's shipwright, and builder of the best ship ever, the Thousand Sunny."
Luffy, who has climbed up and around and is now sitting on Franky's shoulder, echoingly crows "Best ship ever! "
"Nice to meet you, Franky-san," Makino answers. "I'm Makino, I run the local bar. I've known Luffy since he was a baby."
Franky's eyebrows rise and he grins. "Then I guess it's you we have to thank for keeping this guy alive long enough for us to meet him," he says, and Makino laughs.
They all jump when the backdoor slams open and Hiko and Nura stumbles out.
"Heyyy, Maki!" Hino says, leaning on his sister and giving Makino a wave. "Where'd you go? The party ain't over, y'know!"
"Holy fucking shit."
Nura is staring at Franky and Luffy, eyes blown wide. Hino notices her surprise and swivels his head in the same direction. His jaw drops and the bottle in his hand falls to the ground with a clatter.
Then he screams.