It was a normal day, the brat was suppose to be hunting with Dogra and Magra. Dadan grimaces as she spots Magra and Dogra drunk and asleep with cards laying out in front of them, that brat's never suppose to hunt by himself! Or wonder around the forest without someone trailing behind. He's a ball of sunshine and destruction, he could demolish the forest by accident.
The sun breaks through the trees steady. She shields her eyes from the offending rays that fall into her face, the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot with the wind in her ears as she looks for his tracks, she only spots one. "The brat's improved..."
(Dadan ignores the swell of pride in her chest.)
The tall women crosses under a tree, boots getting splashed by the clear water running from the stream. She grumbles at the ache in her legs while stepping on the rocks, never losing her footing. (To many years prowling rougher territories than just a break-your-ankle forest). After passing a clearing that's as familiar to her as the freckles stretched across her skin from wrist to shoulder, she lets the sweat stay on her brow. The working strain on her legs with a small grin tugging up her lips as she admires the view of the forest laid out clear to her eyes.
Huffing another time, Dadan places her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes for any movement or sign of a straw hat, she comes up empty with the sound of birds chirping to one another in her ears. The burly women begins to wonder how well Ace taught the brat to pull something like this off. (She ignores the name that instantly reminds her of books and blonde hair.)
She continues to wander the forest. By the way the sun slinks further, it tells her that it's half past four, meaning she's been wandering this damn jungle for about three or four hours now. Dadan curses her family members, loud and proud until a snapping twig makes the curses die down to a murmur.
She hears the huffing, can see how dirt blows up from the ground in dust, hears the heavy thuds of hoofs meeting ground, it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's angry. Its horns peek out first, the tips of them as it trudges slowly, but not languidly to the clearing in between two large trees that Dadan distinctively remembers as the way towards the village.
Dadan grips her club, swinging it over her shoulder at the sight of its angry eyes set on her. It lunges first. She gives a growl of her own, keeping the club in front of her so its horns don't pierce her chest like the wild thing so desperately wants to do. Its animal instinct is to kill, so is hers.
She strains the muscles in her arms, staring down its big and blaring golden eyes as it uses its hind legs to run more into her. Dadan gives a low cry, keeping her grip even as blood runs down her face from the head butt the animal gave her. With a sinking yet exhilarating feeling, she realizes that this damn thing is going to kill her, the animal almost steps back at the grin she gives.
"You wanna kill me, ya good for nothin' but eating beast!? I'll give you a real damn good fight if this'll be my last! Then you'll just be an appetizer at my funeral!"
It doesn't happen that way. Something- no, someone, is on top of the thing before she can blink; jabbing it in-between its shoulder blades, they don't stab it again as the beast gives a cry, beginning to buck out in wild pain like the beast that it is.
Dadan lands on her back, looking up past the haziness; she sees something that strikes fear within her, giving a sinking feeling in her heart like the time she seen the Pirate Kings blood running through a squealing babes veins.
There's her brat- one of her brats, Luffy, with a wild and cold look in his eyes that only one man can possess. Dadan swallows, remembering that conversation with booze and a fireplace as her and Garp played poker when the boys' were hiding in the woods from the legendary marine.
Garp's eyes, narrowed and sharp- sharper than usual with his voice scruffier than usual. Everything that day seemed unusual, it made the hair on her arms stand on in. "He's Dragon's son." She felt her eyes widen as he waited for her reply. She knew that was his way of letting her keep the little brat, or taking him away.
Dadan shrugged, gathering her chips as her eyes flickered up to his, "It means we got another one with too much damn strength." She ignored the grin on his lips after saying that, in favor of sake and another cigarette dangling from her lips.
Dadan refocuses her eyes, sucking in a breath as she checks over her brat for any injuries as he pulls the metal pipe out of the beasts shoulder blades. "Oi! Where have you been at? Ya brat!" Luffy looks at her, eyes big and stunned as she huffs before a grin breaks out on his lips, rubbing the back of his neck with the beasts blood splattered on his vest and tan chest.
"Shishishi! I wanted to get some fresh meat for tonight's dinner!" Dadan huffs a final time, itching for a cigarette with the aching pain in her back (she knows it's bruised). She narrows her eyes at a bloody thumb he hasn't noticed yet, can tell by the nick that it was caused by the sharp edge of something. Her eyes find the pipe in his hands and she struggles to stand, glancing over at her club before attempting to reach for it.
"Here you go!" The brat says, grinning and laughing while picking it up for her. She wonders when she raised such cheeky brats (not little anymore, one out at sea and another gaining muscle and losing the roundness in his cheeks. Not to mention the magazines of naked men and women tucked under his bedroll). Dadan scowls, already turning into his grandfather.
She holds her back, club in the other hand. "We better get this home, Magra and Dogra'll burn the damn house down by accident if we don't." Dadan struggles to lift the beast, she groans and grabs her back. The brat frowns at her, looking like he's actually thinking for once.
The brat doesn't say anything, only throws the beast over his shoulder with ease. Luffy- her brat, smiles at her. "Ready to go? I'm starrrvvviiinng!"
Dadan scowls half-heartedly. "Alright, you damn impatient brat! But you have to help with cleaning duty!" Luffy laughs at the obvious false-threat, she knows she'll miss the extra help the brat provides.
They begin walking back home in silence, bumping shoulders once in a while as Luffy hums and she grumbles.
(No one has to know that she was looking at him, that they smiled at each other. No one has to know that Dadan years from now, remembers this day like she remembers first seeing a little brat running back and forth and calling her home a 'crappy shack!'. No one has to know she cries herself to sleep with the memory of bright eyes and a smile that resembles the sun with a laugh that could cross seas. No one has to know she mourns someone still alive. No one has to know that she cries for three sons that weren't hers by blood.)
No one has to know that three brats, two the named 'son of the devil' and one from another world entirely, stole her heart and shatters it with each breath two don't take, that one pieces a part of it back together with each breath, smile, and laugh.
No one has to remember her as the one who raised three legends in history books (the one who didn't make it to a bounty poster a legend in her heart); No one has to know that she cries with each birthday and the sight of photos taken long ago; No one has to know Dadan's her name.
Just that she's a mother- who isn't exactly a 'mother', who lost two of her sons while one aches millions of miles away in a place she's only ever dreamed of.
And Dadan can live with that.
I'm sorry for any mistakes and please review! I always thought Dadan's name was Dandan. Whoops~ ^-^ I hope you liked the story. I have to have surgery near the end of the month, so hopefully everything will be fine.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.
-Monkey D. Anea