Mama
by JustShotMarvin
Summary: To survive raising Monkey D. Luffy and Portgas D. Ace takes a rather extraordinary woman. (Rampant Speculation abounds.)
Disclaimer: I make no illusions to owning One Piece. Oda's far more brilliant than I could ever hope to be.
--
Portgas D. Jack grins down at his wife, wild and unafraid as always. Because he loves making her blush, he leans down and kisses her rounded stomach.
He'll come home to both of them soon, the Marine says.
And, as the ship shoves off from the docks, Nema believes him.
--
"Mama!"
He says his word and she almost drops her coffee mug. Her heart stops in her chest and she spins around to look at the baby boy with freckles spattered across his pale face standing in his crib. A stupid grin crosses his chubby cheeks, unaware of how happy he's just made his recently widowed mother.
--
Sometimes, she goes into the nursery and watches her son sleep. She doesn't say anything, doesn't even touch him, she just watches him cling to that stupid cowboy hat her husband forgot.
--
He's got dark eyes, wild and untamed like the sea she left behind, and his smile reminds her of Jack. Her two year old thinks he's funny. She has to agree. It feels like she hasn't laughed this hard in a very long time. He jokes and grins about the island he was raised on, calmly shifting the weight of her groceries in his arms.
He says his name is Dragon and he wants to know if she's free for dinner on Sunday.
--
"I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see!" In a bound, a skinny three year old has scrambled on to his mother's hospital bed. The exhausted woman finds the strength to laugh as she watches him fight the urge to bounce excitedly. His arms extend and he doesn't need to even ask. A moment later, she gently rests her newborn son in his older brother's arms and Ace's eyes light up.
"So... what's his name?" he asks, a wide smile stretching across his lips when a tiny hand grabs at his thumb. She gives a tired sigh and leans back, letting her dark eyes fall shut as she watches the three boys in her life. Her husband chuckles softly and ruffles his hair.
"Luffy."
--
"You... wait... wha--?"
"I'd only patrol around here, so I'd only be gone for two, three weeks at a time," she explains in a soft voice as she tugs the baby blanket over Luffy's tiny figure. Ace is already sound asleep in the next room over, unaware of his mother's plans. "But it's still good money, and... I miss the sea."
It calls to her every night while she sits outside and rocks Luffy to sleep. It was her lullaby as a baby and it's become her sons' lullaby as well. The sea's song was what whispered for her to join the Marines when she was sixteen and it's that same song that is bidding her back. It is becoming more and more difficult to ignore that voice.
Besides, she had two new reasons to keep her little part of the world safe.
"If you need me to stay here, I will but..."
"Will it make you happy?"
--
"You're gonna bring me back somethin', right?" Ace asks with pouted lips as his mother prepares for another patrol. He's gotten used to her leaving, and now thinks of it as a chance to get new, exotic toys. In an instant, she scoops her five year old up into her arms, resting her forehead against his.
"Of course. It's not like I don't spoil you or anything," she teases. In the next room, there's a "noooo!" followed by a "get back here, dammit!" They both look at the doorway just in time to see a naked Luffy run by with his father hot on his heels, shouting something about a bath.
"You think I should get a leash for your brother?"
"Uh huh."
"Good boy."
--
There's shouting, a lot of it, coming from downstairs. Someone, probably his mother, is throwing things, too, because Ace keeps hearing glass break. She's calling his step-father all kinds of horrible things, every curse word the seven year old has ever heard, and a few he didn't know until just now. A whimper at the foot of his bed alerts the freckled boy to his little brother's presence. He's got big, fat tears welling up in his brown eyes, and they're threatening to start raining down his cheeks at any moment.
"C'mere..." Ace murmurs and the boy scrambles up on to his brother's bed. He is quick to throw his arms around Ace's skinny body and burst into sobs while his brother pats at his hair. "Calm down, calm down, it'll be okay..."
"--With my best friend!" his mother screams from downstairs.
"Nema, I can explain--!"
"In the bed we sleep in!"
"If you'd stop throwing things for five fucking seconds--!"
"Who the hell was watching the kids, Dragon!?" More glass breaking. Luffy cries louder as Ace rocks back and forth gently.
"It'll be okay... it'll be okay..."
--
"How come daddy left?"
She freezes in the kitchen the morning after and looks at her four year old. He's biting at the inside of his cheek, eyes still puffy and red from crying the night before. Ace just looks tired and very suddenly angry with his little brother. Luffy asks the question again.
"Shut up, Luffy!" Ace shouts. Luffy doesn't listen and asks her a third time, his voice growing steadily insistent. Before Ace can say another word to his sibling, she chokes out a little noise. The impact of what happened the night before seems to hit her all at once and she buckles under the weight of it. As much as she tries to stop herself, Nema bursts into tears in front of her sons. A horrified look suddenly crosses Luffy's face. Ace has never been so angry in his entire life.
"Now look what you did!"
"I-I'm sorry...!"
--
It's two weeks since Dragon left and she's trying to figure out what to do. Her sons fight all the time when they think she can't hear them. When she is in the room, they walk on eggshells, doing everything they can to not upset her. The woman gives a miserable little moan from where she sits on their front porch, covering her face with her hands.
"Mama?"
She looks up and finds herself staring right at her four year old. His big eyes are watery, like always, and he tugs nervously at the shorts he's wearing.
"What are you doing out of bed, baby?"
"...I'm sorry..."
Her heart breaks at the feeble tremor in his voice and she wants to cry again. She hates that she's done this to her kids, she hates that they're afraid of raising their usual caine, and she hates the bastard that left her alone to deal with this by herself.
But she loves her kids and she's tired of scaring them. So her arms open up and she lets Luffy crawl into her lap, pressing a kiss to his forehead.
"It's okay, baby. It's not your fault, okay? It was never your fault..." she whispers, rocking him gently. The waves beyond their house echo through the night sky and calms whatever tears either were about to shed. Behind her, there's another tap of feet. She smiles weakly and pats the space next to her on the deck.
Without another word, another sound, Ace is tucked under her arm, clinging to her. Her boys don't cry, they just hang on to their mother without another word said as she rocks them. The sea echoes and sings to them and long after Ace has fallen asleep, Luffy's still awake and staring out at that wide, blue expanse, hypnotized.
There is something behind her youngest son's eyes for a moment. It's not a flickering candle, but a wild fire, burning out of control in four year old eyes. It's bigger than himself, bigger than life. She doesn't understand what it is, she won't for a very long time, but something about it makes her smile again.
"Hey... You wanna go on a vacation? Go visit Grandpa Garp?"
--
Luffy sits at the edge of the docks, watching the Marine ship his mother is on sail away. The five year old kicks his feet dejectedly, chin resting in his hand, when his brother comes up to prod him with a foot.
"C'mon, quit your moping," Ace laughs, leaning down to ruffle his hair. "We never get to see Grandpa and Auntie Makino's makin' dinner." The younger boy just continues to stare out at the vast expanse of the sea, arms folded across his chest. After a moment, Ace sighs and sits next to him, pushing the far too big cowboy hat he always wore out of his eyes.
"Mom'll be back soon."
"Yeah, I know."
"So then how come you're bein' such a baby?"
"'Cuz I'm worried." Ace lifts an eyebrow at this. Their mother had come back from a hundred patrols before and the worse that had ever happened to her was messy hair.
"Worried? Are you kidding?" Luffy shakes his head a little and his brother sighs. "About what?"
"...I left my chocolate in her bags."
"..."
"It's gonna melt, y'know."
"..."
"And get all over her stuff."
"...She's gonna kill you when she gets back."
"That's why I'm so worried!"
(fin)
--
Author's notes: Lots of rampant speculation. I think I'm gonna write more of these because it's fun to daydream about the woman Luffy and Ace's mother might have been. Me and some friends joke that the fight between Dragon and the World Government is actually just the messiest divorce in history. And you know the D. Brothers' mom has to be a badass to deal with them.