A/N: Written for the Day 8: Tears prompt of the #20yearsatsea challenge on tumblr.
Written for that time Luffy was injured by the bear in chapter 589 of the manga (which I believe was expanded in the anime, since is twas only, like, 4 panels tops in the manga). Unbeta'ed, so apologies in advance for any mistakes!
In the ten years he'd helped raise Portgas D. Ace, Magra had never seen the boy cry. Well, sure, he'd cried when he was a baby, but Magra felt that could be discounted, because babies are babies, and every baby cries when it's cold or hungry or needs a change. But from the time Ace had grown out of infancy and learned to talk (and scowl, and scoff, and glare at the world with hate-filled eyes), Magra had never seen the child shed a tear.
Until today.
"I'm not good enough," Ace gasped, the hands covering his face doing nothing to hide his tears. "I'm not good enough at all!"
"Ace…" Magra murmured, shocked and - even though he felt bad for the boy - oddly proud, as well.
Ace had grown up a lot since Luffy had come to live with them. The Ace of six months ago would have been more likely to injure the boy himself than cry over him, so to see him so distraught over Luffy at all was touching.
"Now, now," Magra tried to soothe, though Ace didn't seem to hear him over his own sniffles.
"I'm sorry, Luffy," he warbled, face still hidden in his hands. "I'm sorry!"
Magra moved to comfort the boy, but stopped with his hand hovering over Ace's shoulder when he caught sight of Dadan standing in the doorway, an unusual expression on her face. Her mouth twitched, once, when Magra made eye contact, before she beckoned him over and away from Ace.
"Leave him be," she said lowly, once Magra was within earshot.
Magra frowned and looked back at Ace, who was now hugging his knees. "But-"
"Leave him be," Dadan repeated gruffly before turning away, her mouth in a thin line. "Sometimes, a man's gotta cry in peace."