The summer night's sadness
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, it belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
„You better keep holding me down like that, Sengoku. Because if you don't, I will kill Sakazuki! ", Garp cried out. „You fool! ", scolded the fleet admiral. As Ace fell to the ground, all he could do was watch and curse Akainu and himself for letting this happen.
Some time passed and Luffy already paid his visit and honoured the death as Garp was sitting in his office. Suddenly he raised and turned toward the exit, for he needed some time to think about what happened. He went to the garden behind the still badly damaged Marine Headquarters and sat below a tree.
He thought about Ace and Luffy and secretly hoped that at least Luffy would be safe and sound. The memories of their fights in the past flashed in his mind. He always enjoyed being around this two little troublemakers and would have loved to spend more time raising them to be fine marine soldiers. But now, why did it come to this? At some point he understood, that they wanted to become pirates and he couldn't stop them, but he didn't think they would both become so famous. The whitebeard pirates, the strongest they were until recently the lost their captain. When he had heard of Ace's capture, he hated being a marine, for he would have to let them execute the boy he saw as his own grandson in front of his eyes. And then he had to try to stop Luffy, his family was now really shattered to pieces, since his own wife died many years ago* and he didn't stay in contact with Dragon.
He sighed heavily and didn't notice the single tear that was running down his cheek until a warm hand wiped it away. Garp looked up to meet the worried eyes of his old friend Sengoku. He didn't move and Sengoku sat beside him and watched the trees and flowers as the sun started to set, the light summer breeze playing with their hair. „I'm gonna quit the marines", stated Garp calmly. "I understand. I will also step back, it is a new age and the ones of the old should leave the future to the younger ones." answered Sengoku. "You never told me about your family, Sen. What are they like?", asked Garp after a while. "I don't remember much of my parents, they died when I was still a boy, and I don't know other family. Why do you ask?" replied he. "Well, you know I just thought about how impossible it is to gather up the scattered pieces of my family and be happy again all together. Luffy must hate me now, and Ace…" another silence followed his words.
The sun settled by now and it was dark, but still warm, as Sengoku wrapped his right arm around his friend and pulled him close. "You still have me, Garp", he whispered. Garp leaned in to the comforting warmth and sighed contently. Within less than five minutes he was asleep, totally spent after the events that happened lately. The fleet admiral smiled at his dear friend and leaned back at the tree to watch over Garp's sleep. He would never tell Garp how much it meant to him to held and comfort his friend like this, because he feared to destroy their friendship. He kissed Garp on his forehead and tried to savour the moment.
*I don't know about that, I found no information about Dragons mother and just made it up for my story^^
This was my first attempt at fan fiction and English isn't my mother tongue, so please show mercy and forgive me the mistakes. I hope you liked it and well, there are too few Garp/Sengoku stories so that's why I decided for that pairing ^^ and I liked to let Garp think about Ace