Oh look, I decided to begin the family AU series sooner than I thought I would. All of these are inter-connected one-shots based on prompts. Updates will be sporadic and based on timing (consider it like a one-shot dump). This first one is the request I posted on tumblr a couple of months ago since I decided to keep to that 'verse' for the one-shots. Hope you guys enjoy some endless fluff and Kid's attempts at being a semi-decent father.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or the characters, they belong to Eiichiro Oda.
Painted Walls and Tattered Maps
To say Kid freaked out when he first heard she was pregnant, was an understatement. They had barely been dating for two years by that point, hadn't discussed a future beyond that. The first few weeks were the roughest time of her adult life. Kid was keeping her at a distance, at most she'd get an awkward call to see how she was doing and what she had planned, but he was cold and detached. If she saw him, he didn't look at her for more than a second and he didn't stick around long. His reaction hurt more than she thought it would, and her out of control hormones only made it worse.
It took her breaking down into uncontrollable sobs in front of him to finally find out what he was thinking.
He proposed right then and there, and all her tears dried up when she saw the small box held out to her. She had to pry his fingers open to get to it, and he refused to look at her as she lifted the lid to see the thin gold band and simple diamond.
It turned out that after a day of thinking, he knew he couldn't abandon her. He didn't want to lose her and, while having a kid had never been in his thoughts of the future, she always had been and he refused to see that change. If it meant he was going to have a brat with her, then he'd do right by her and make it official. The reason he was avoiding her was because he picked up extra hours to pay for the ring and start saving up for a deposit on a house. His coldness was because he was exhausted, and also trying to keep his decision a secret until he had the ring. He was also terrified to touch her in her condition. There was a fragile little leech of some sort growing inside her and he knew he wasn't the gentlest of guys, so in order to fight his usual need to touch her, he just avoided her like the plague.
For about a whole minute, as she showered him with affection, Kid looked like the happiest guy in the world. And then he panicked when she pressed close to him. His starved body reacted as it always would under her touch, but his mind held to some reason that clashed with his desires and he was out the door a second later. She didn't see him again for two weeks.
By her second trimester, Kid had adjusted and made a bigger effort in being there. He went to her doctor's appointments if he had time, and if he didn't, he sent his best friend with her so she wouldn't be alone if one of her own friends didn't go along. Kid still wouldn't touch her for more than a fleeting second, but once the doctor's reassurances sunk in and he knew it would be fine as long as he was careful, their relationship found a warm balance that it didn't have in the past.
The balance was tossed out during the last trimester when she was just so very done with being pregnant. She was fat and tired and everything swelled and Kid was just such an asshole. They fought every day, which was more normal, but they couldn't make up like they used to, so most of the time they went to bed angry and hardly spoke the next day until the next argument ensued. It was like every fight they didn't have for the three months she was happy in her pregnancy, compounded into a three month long fight that ended with her screaming every obscenity she knew at him while nearly ripping off his hand as she gave birth to their beautiful baby girl.
Kid was on his knees, trying hard to stay conscious when her grip relinquished his hand. Apparently he was dizzy, his ears were ringing, and he couldn't hear anything for two days straight. The staff in the room with her were permanently blushing at the specific nature of what she yelled at Kid, most of all what she intended to do to his dick if he ever got her pregnant again, and the nurses had a very hard time looking her in the eye as they handed over her baby. She also learned later that the entire hospital came to a standstill at the sound of her giving birth, their very annoyed friend Trafalgar Law coming by to inform her of as much. Even he had a hard time tuning her out while in surgery.
Seeing Kid's bandaged hand and temporary deafness was apparently worth the disruption for him, though.
It didn't matter to her. None of it. She had her perfect, sweet, innocent baby girl in her arms with her thin tuft of dark orange hair, all her fingers and toes, and the faintest hint of reddish brown eyes for the brief second she opened them for the new mother to see. Nami took full credit for how cute her baby was. She did all the hard work, after all. Kid didn't argue it, but he couldn't actually hear her when she said it the first few times, and later he still wasn't inclined to – not after seeing her go through labor.
They named her Mary.
Nami hadn't expected Kid to be a perfect father. In fact, she was not surprised to have Killer around helping her for the first few months while Kid kept a safe distance from their daughter. The most he touched her during her infancy, was when he'd run a gentle finger over her chubby cheek or through her soft hair, or let her grasp onto his pinkie to suckle it while she was in her bassinette. He never held her, barely managed to change one diaper with Killer's help, and spent most of his time at home with them watching Nami play with her from the couch.
Kid was actually afraid of her.
If it wasn't so frustrating having to do all the work, Nami might have thought it was adorable, but it mostly made her want to pull her hair out. By around seven months, once their daughter was able to sit up on her own and was more aware, and Nami was fed up with Kid's avoidance, she plopped the baby in his lap and stood back to watch the show. He freaked out, as she knew he would, but refused to move as the girl sat there looking around. He wasn't even breathing while panicked eyes landed on Nami, silently begging her to take the baby back. She pointedly refused with a shake of her head, Killer at her side, stubbornly refusing to help his best friend, too.
Kid was out voted. His wife and best friend against him. He had no choice but to hold his daughter.
A minute passed, and Mary began to teeter on his thigh. Kid's instincts kicked in, and he steadied her before she fell. The little girl looked up at him, openly confused as he shifted her to lean against the side of his broad chest. Kid's eyes met their daughter's; Mary blinked, then smiled, and then gurgled happy bubbles as she shrieked with laughter, her hands reaching up to point at her father. Nami was biting her lip to keep from making any noise that might disturb the moment, even latched onto Killer's arm as if seeking for him to hold her back.
To see the exact moment Kid fell in love with their daughter was the cutest thing she had ever seen. She was glad she thought to have Killer record it.
His daughter wedged under his arm, Kid looked up with the widest grin she had ever seen on him, and from that day on, hardly a minute went by where he wasn't holding the girl. He even did most of the work teaching her how to walk. He still refused to change a diaper, though.
Three years later, and they were a happy family, living in a beautiful home… and had a second child on the way.
Four months into her pregnancy, and Nami was feeling great. She knew it wouldn't last, but for now, they were enjoying the calm before the storm and preparing for the once again unplanned addition to their family.
The news of her expecting came with Kid freaking out again, but it was tempered and focused on where the hell they were going to fit the newest brat in their three bedroom home. The entire den was claimed as 'adult' space that was mostly used by Kid and his friends. The main floor with the living room and kitchen was mostly shared space, except for the small bedroom they converted into her office. Upstairs were their two bedrooms, with no room for a third.
Nami didn't mind giving up her office as long as Kid created a space in the living room for her to work, but she hated the idea of having either child, or themselves, sleeping in the third bedroom, so far from the others. Their only options were to move into a bigger house, or find a way to create an additional room upstairs. Neither wanted a bigger house, at least not when it came with a bigger mortgage, so that left renovating as their only option.
It was a good thing Kid was skilled in construction.
They enlisted the help of most of their friends to see that the addition was finished in two months. Franky had friends at the assessor's office, so he got the permits and inspections rushed through. Between Killer, Heat, Wire, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Franky, Kid had more than enough manpower available to keep the time table moving along while only sparing a few of his days off in the week to actual construction work. As long as she kept Luffy far away from the house during that time, nothing was going to hinder its progress.
In hindsight, the amount of money she put into taking Luffy out to dinner probably could have gone toward a reasonable down payment on a new place.
But, halfway through her pregnancy, the addition was up and they were almost ready to move into their new master bedroom.
The plan was to build a new master and bath on the opposite end of the top floor, leaving the two original rooms for the children on the other end. It meant they would have more space to themselves, and Nami could finally get that massive jetted tub she dreamed of, while keeping the kids nearby. Their old room would be redecorated for Mary, and her old room would go to their new son or daughter.
The weekend Kid dedicated to painting their new bedroom, as well as their old one, meant Nami could not be in the house. She tried to convince Kid to let her at least stay to help keep an eye on Mary, who was adamant about helping her papa make their new rooms pretty, but her husband stubbornly refused.
Apparently Law told him the fumes were bad for the baby and Kid actually listened to him for once.
Nami left early in the morning, deciding to take advantage of the break from life as a mother and having a girl's day with Robin, Vivi, and her sister Nojiko. They went shopping, spent a few hours relaxing at the spa, had their nails and hair done, and topped it off with dinner at Sanji's restaurant. It was a day of pampering that Nami did not get nearly as often as she used to. By the time she was ready to go home, she was in a relaxed state of bliss, looking forward to curling up with her husband and daughter for a movie before bed. Nothing could bring her down….
Until she walked in the front door and nearly screamed at what she saw.
Paint was streaked across the walls and furniture of the living room. There was purple mixed with splatters of fuchsia that she knew were the colors for their daughter's room. Footprints in the metallic blue she and Kid had agreed on for their room, covered the carpet, seemingly in pursuit of purple and pink footprints. She could hear screaming and squealing upstairs as she stared in dumbfounded horror at the state of the main floor. She was terrified to see what their rooms looked like.
"Mary! Get back here!" She could hear Kid yelling, his feet pounding through the carpeted hallway over her head. "Damn it, you brat! Yer mother's gonna tan yer ass when she gets home!"
She wasn't going to do anything that harsh, and Kid knew it, but he seemed frustrated enough to let the empty threat out. Mary didn't seem to believe him, either, judging by the squeal of laughter and pattering feet running around.
Taking a deep breath, Nami finally found the courage to shut the door and go further into the house, dropping her bags on the floor along the way. Now that she was further into the house, she could see the full extent of the damage.
Their living room had a large vaulted ceiling with stairs leading up to the second floor hallway that overlooked the area, and the rungs of the handrails were coated in painted hand prints, the carpet runner covering the wood stairs were covered in more foot prints. The wood floors and expensive rugs in the living room were probably beyond repair. The open concept kitchen wasn't spared from the onslaught of painted hands and feet, and she frowned at the package of cookies sitting on the counter. Kid was in more trouble than Mary because of that. Her eyes swept toward her office and she was even more livid at the hand prints on the door that should have been closed, but the coat of purple on the knob told her Mary figured out how to open it. She was tall for her age, thanks to her father, and she knew that was going to catch up to them soon.
She finally screamed when she saw her office completely destroyed. Maps, log books, carefully organized research on the ocean floor and atmospheric patterns - all of it thrown around and ruined, trampled and covered with paint.
Kid stopped running upstairs. He had never been more terrified in his life.
"Mama!" Their daughter squealed, not seeming to notice Nami's thinned temper.
She heard Kid start running again, shouting after Mary in an attempt to warn her, or maybe save her from her mother's wrath. By the time she made it downstairs and tackled her mother's legs in a hug, Nami was so pissed off, she was calm.
"Hi, sweetie," Nami smiled down at her daughter, despite the tick over her eyebrow. Her attention went to Kid a second later as he crashed into the doorframe of her office, wide eyed and gasping for air. She smiled at him, too.
"Shhhhiiitttt," he cursed.
"Kid." Her smile was so wide, that her eyes were slits. To anyone else, she would seem completely happy and at ease. Kid knew better and inched away. "Why is our three year old daughter and half our house covered in paint?"
"Uh…" He glanced down at Mary who had gone to play with one of Nami's maps, only further damaging it as she found a pen to scribble over the surface with.
"Why were the cookies out in the kitchen?" Nami questioned further, not missing Kid's short look out to the house behind him, likely searching for an escape route.
"Umm," he frowned at her. "She wanted a snack before we started on our room."
"Oh! Of course. And cookies are certainly the easiest thing." She cocked her head to the side. "Unlike the already prepared fruit salad and yogurt I have in the fridge for her normal afternoon snacks."
Kid swallowed thickly. "She wanted the cookies."
"And you're her father," she bit out, all feigned amusement gone. "You can't just give her everything she wants."
"But I wanted the cookies, too." He glowered at her, crossing his arms in a stubborn show of defiance.
Her eyes narrowed on him, but before she could say anything, a tug on her skirt drew her attention back to their daughter.
"Mama! Look what I drew!" Mary said, holding up half of a map to show Nami a picture of three people drawn with exaggerated ovals for bodies and limbs. One was tall with wavy, chin length hair and a huge, thickly outlined grin that was obviously Kid. Another, much shorter, had long hair down her back and a sweeter smile that Nami guessed was her. Between them was a little girl, holding both their hands, while Nami's image held a little bundle that was probably their future child.
Nami smiled more sincerely and crouched down to be at Mary's height. She gave the girl a pat on the head and praised her art. "That's very pretty. We'll have to frame it and put it in the baby's new room before they come." Mary grinned at the kind words, but it was lost in a startled shriek as Nami took her by the ear. "That does not get you out of trouble for destroying my office, though, young lady!"
Her daughter screamed and tried to escape, but was scooped into Nami's arm and hauled up. Mary thrashed in her mother's hold while Nami stormed toward the door. Kid wisely moved out of the way and stiffened under her sharp glare as she walked by.
"I'm going to give Mary a bath, and afterward you both will be cleaning this mess up. And no, you will not call Killer for help," she informed.
She heard Kid's sigh of relief from the stairs, and shot him another fiery glare.
"And you're sleeping on the couch for a month." She snapped, prompting him to jerk his head toward her in surprise. "And if you value your testicles, I recommend you buy a good cup for when I go into labor. A broken hand is nothing compared to what I have planned for you this time around."
A/N: And for those that didn't read this originally on tumblr - I picked the name Mary for the pirate Mary Read, and also because one of the meanings for the name is 'rebellious and obstinate' and that just fits the name of their child too well not to pick.