Summary: Garp decides that Ace—newly dubbed super rookie—is in need of a Fist of Love.
Disclaimer: Nope, One Piece ain't mine folks. I'd rather not have that responsibility either, to be honest.
A wordless roar rocked the ship of the famous Marine hero Garp the Fist, and exactly none of his recruits were surprised. Their temperamental officer was permanently some form of loud and, quite frankly, they were used to it. They could only hope it didn't mean another one of his hellish training sessions while they were smack dab in the middle of the sea.
Garp, for his part, was severely unhappy. He stormed into the navigation room, scattering the handful of marines in the hallway with the sheer force of his anger.
"Men! Make to change course, we're going somewhere else for a bit!"
He stomped over to the map on the wall and zeroed in on an island about a week from here—the Rizen Isles. He jabbed a meaty finger at the spot and snapped at his men about the new heading. While most scurried to obey, one brat with eerie orange eyes stood her ground and eyed Garp warily. "If you don't mind me asking, sir, why are we heading in the opposite direction from G5?"
Garp was very aware of Senny's orders to head directly for G5 so he could smack some respect into the heads of the unruly brats there.
He paused to study this brat (second in command of the navigation squad, if he remembered correctly) and decided, Good. I like brats who can think for themselves.
"Bwahahaha! I like you, kid. You'll make a fine marine; I will train you myself!"
He ignored how the little shit blanched at his declaration as he pondered how to explain. Then, brandishing the crumpled up newspaper in his fist, he yelled, "There's another unruly brat there that I need to beat some sense into first. G5's not going anywhere, and this particular shit needs a special Fist of Love!"
Five days later and they were coasting off the port of Rizen, coming up on the side of the Royal Flush. They were early because he'd pushed his men to the limit in sailing there, his gut telling him he'd miss his shitty brat if they were even a day late.
He knew the second his men realized what—or who—they were here for.
"Holy shit, the Royal Flush? We're going after the Spade Pirates?!"
"Fuck isn't that Fire Fist Ace's crew?"
"Ohhhh god the super rookie. We're all going to die."
Garp ignored them, because for all their whining, they still followed all his orders to a tee. Anyone on Garp's ship knew better than to disobey a superior's orders. He saw the moment the pirates realized who, exactly, was at their tail end. Garp imagined something like the conversation here was happening on the other end as well.
He smirked with satisfaction at the normal hurried pace to get away from the Marines. If they weren't panicking, that meant Ace didn't know he was here yet. Probably asleep. Or eating.
Fifty meters away from the other ship and Garp jumped. He launched himself across the distance to land on the other deck with a distinct crash that sent the ship rocking. With a pleased smile, he watched as the crew scrambled to block the route to where he assumed was either the galley or the sleeping area.
He begrudgingly admitted to himself that he didn't dislike their loyalty to their captain.
"Get out of my way," Garp growled. Grandson's crew or not, they were still pirates. "I'm here for Fire Fist Ace and no one else."
Amongst the pirate's outraged roars and threats and firm declarations that he would get to their captain over their dead bodies, Garp spotted the Running Dog pulling alongside the pirate ship and gestured to his men to hold their fire. Then, with a fist pulled back, he slammed the nearest man into the rest of the crew, toppling them all into the wall. He proceeded to march belowdecks and hesitated outside the door of the galley.
With a shrug, he smashed the door clear off its hinges and watched as a smaller form startled into waking within the dust. Grinning maniacally, Garp blew on his fist carefully before flying into the room with a roar.
"FIST OF LOVE!"
A yelp of alarm and Ace very nearly avoids his attack, but Garp knew his grandson well. Ace crashed through the tables and straight through the floor.
"WHAT THE FUCK YOU SHITTY GEEZER!"
Garp guffawed as Ace scrambled to his feet, glaring at him and rubbing the lump on his head. Garp hit him again for good measure, then began yelling at Ace about becoming a pirate. Ace, for his part, accepted the new Fist of Love with a grimace and held his ground, screaming back at him about how he was never going to be a marine in the first place.
Seeing the fierce protectiveness in Ace's eyes as he yelled about his crew and the sheer joy evident in his voice at his newfound freedom, Garp's chest swelled with pride for his boy even as his heart sank in it knowing his grandson had made his choice about the path he would walk—there'd be no turning him away from it now. No matter how awful the consequences might be.
And then, since he had absolutely no intention of expressing any of this (nor did he have any idea how he might go about doing that, but Ace didn't need to know that), Garp hit Ace upside the head once more.
"OW! Dammit, how the hell'd you even find me, you shitty old geezer?"
After a somewhat hysterical bout of chortling in response—and, of course, a couple more Fists of Love and reminders to "call me Grandpa!"—Garp finally got himself under enough control to wipe away the tears of laughter and reply:
"Instinct, boy. Instinct."
Three years later and that instinct was once again put to the test as Marine Headquarters shook with a roar of "LUUUUUUFFYYYYYYY!"
Sengoku calmly lifted his glass of water from the table to keep it from drenching his papers, and exchanged a glance of resignation with Tsuru, who had done the same with her tea. Seconds later and an irate Garp stomped into his office, snapping, "Senny! A certain brat is in need of a Fist of Love and I'm going to deliver so don't you dare stop me!"
Rubbing his temple to alleviate his headache, Sengoku merely waved Garp away and told him not to bring more than one admiral with him, if he could help it. ("No, Garp, you can't bring the new recruits either. You'll traumatise them, dammit!") Tsuru simply wondered out loud if perhaps this was a good test to determine promotions: efficiency and competency in dealing with the unpredictable nature of the Monkey Ds.
Eyyo all! So this is gonna be a bunch of ficlets for all the D folk and their particular "homing instincts" and it'll be marked as complete once I've covered all the existing D characters. I'll add new chapters if any more are introduced later on though, and there'll be a few bonus chapters for non-D characters that I just had to write for.
Enjoy and please review to tell me what you think!
-shira
PS. I can't remember where I read the headcanon that the Spade Pirates' ship is called Royal Flush and I LOVE it but I can't remember where ugh someone please tell me :(((( edit: ohhhhh found it! From Kitsune Foxfire's fic, "Fire Fist Ace? Ann?" which I adore so check it out and to Kitsune-san, if you ever see this, hope you don't mind I borrowed the name.
