Disclaimer: "I am not the liable owner or creator of One Piece. I am but a mere humble fan fiction writer."
To be completely honest, she'd never really been interested in becoming a doctor. She wasn't one of those people who'd dreamed of becoming one since they were a child just so that they could either earn a lot of money or just plain out help other people out of the utter goodness of their heart—no, her becoming a doctor was just something she did simply because it was something she found convenient.
She wasn't one of those historians who could ramble on and on about lectures upon lectures of a specific event that'd happened or of a specific place of either little to great importance; she wasn't one of those mad or prodigal scientists who could whip out new mathematical equations right out of their ass or discover a new element that would either lead to the end of the world or bring progress to the evolution of the human race.
No. She was none of those. She was just a plain-old bookworm who just really loved reading and learning. None of her original childhood dreams were even related to medicine in the least—when she was seven, she wanted to own a cute little cafe with cute little pastries, whereas when she was thirteen she wanted to be an assassin who could effortlessly jump across roofs and kill their designated target with complete ease.
Don't ask how she started off with such an innocent dream that turned into a bloody one. Puberty had been a total train wreck for her.
But there was always a reason behind every single dream of hers; for example, if she owned a cafe, she could learn how to manage a business, proper business placement, compute for the standarized menu recipe depending on the amount of consumers, methods of advertising, gaining investors or partnership deals, the ins and outs of interior design, recipes that could either be left alone or personalized, the different styles and kinds of flatware and tableware, efficiency and durability of different kinds of take-out materials, as well as what makes a person comfortable depending on the weather as well as the mood of the atmosphere.
Her dream to become an assassin was also on the same lines as her first dream, because you'd learned the most efficient way of breaking and entering without leaving any evidences, targeting your victim without leaving a trace or making it as if somebody else had killed them, the hierarchy of the underworld, the different types and kinds of weapons available and what were their advantages and disadvantages, gathering information via hacking or either stalking them in real life or through social media, etc.
Each and ever one of her dreams had always involved learning something new.
And anybody who knew her could attest to that; to the point that they always referred to her as the smart one, because she knew a lot of things that she'd mostly gotten through reading books, surfing the internet, or simply observing and/or experimenting to gain first-hand experience. They described her as knowledgeable and curious, interested with everything and nothing in the whole wide world, the one with a bright future ahead of them.
Although there were others who called her weird and freaky and annoying and crazy and a bitch, but she mostly ignored them because who was it that got into Yale, huh? Who was it that managed to graduate from a crappy public school in a rural area and get into one of the most world-known universities out there, huh? And with a scholarship too!
(Who was it that succeeded?)
But anyways, back to the point, she became a doctor because—well, why not? It'd stopped her parents from nagging at her to be serious with her life, and her life as an adult was as stable as it could get right after she'd gotten her medical license; plus, she was learning new things every day as a doctor, so life was good.
But it'd never been enough.
It'd always felt as if there was something missing—so she'd tried to fill that void by dedicating her life to her work, because what else could she do?
So still, that hole in her life remained.
And when she'd died, she'd admit that she was happy because honestly she was just tired of having to follow the same ordinary normal everyday routine.
But then she woke up in a whole new world, and her plans of being able to rest in peace had all gone flying out of the window.
"Luffy!"
She's snapped out of her little daydream once she hears the familiar voice of Makino calling for her, and she raises her head from the book she'd been reading to stare up at the woman who is making her way towards her with a basket of clothes balanced against her hip.
"Reading again, I see?" Makino laughs lightly, bending down to her height to take a sneak peek at the page she's currently on. "Ara?" The young woman blinks, a slightly deep crease appearing in between her eyebrows. "Why are you reading this?" Makino asks with a tilt of her head.
"Poppy gave it to me," She answers easily, feeling a sense of accomplishment swell up inside of her for having not slurred her speech. Marking the page, she closes the book to display its cover to her—which is mostly white with a light blue border and the word, "MARINE," imprinted boldly on it. It'd been a gift from Garp to her before he'd left for work about three months ago, and she'd honestly never expected to ever open it but curiosity had won out and she'd reluctantly opened the book to read it because why not? She'd already read all the books in the lower shelves and she was too short to read the ones up high, so this Marine guide book would do.
Makino blinks. "Garp did?"
She nods, before she opens the book to her most favorite page—the one that shows the Marine rankings. "This is Poppy's," she says proudly, pointing at the symbol for Vice-Admiral. "And this one is Poppy's friend's," she says with a dash of mischief as she points at the symbol for the Fleet Admiral.
"Ohhh," Makino says, her feigned interest sounding believable if not for the fact that she was technically older than the young women in terms of mentality and knew better. "Your grandpa and his friend are really strong, huh."
"They are!" She says with a nod as she beams brightly at Makino; although in her head she's pessimistically thinking, of course they're strong, they HAVE to be or else the Marines would just be a joke to the pirates.
"By the way, your grandpa sent you another letter," Makino says as digs into her pocket to bring out a folded envelope that she accepts eagerly.
She's careful to open the envelope, because she doesn't want to destroy it—call it a pet peeve of hers—and she smiles as she brings out the letter within it that's written in terrible calligraphy with sharp curves that can only belong to her grandfather; she'd honestly expected her grandfather to command one of his subordinates to write to her, but nope, every single letter of his had that same terrible calligraphy as the ones on the papers scattered about the desk at their shared home.
It's a warming thought. That he'd made time to write her a letter by his own hand.
"What does it say?" Makino asks her with her ever present smile as vibrant as ever.
She pauses at that, before her eyes scan over the letter to see if he'd written anything new.
"It just says the usual," she answers, though she feels a little disappointed at that because she'd expected her grandfather to write something new—like about his past adventures, or his new journeys, or maybe how his crew is doing. She really misses his crew, especially Bogard—but nope, he'd always written the same old 'How are you? Are you being a good girl to Melissa and Makino? Have you read that book I gave you? I don't know when I'll get back, but I'll be there before you know it! So just wait for me, okay? Stay safe for me, Luffy, and don't get into much trouble! Remember not to talk to any strangers, especially pirates. Granpda loves you and is always thinking of you.'
It'd been sweet for the first few times, but then she's starting to get tired of the same thing over and over again.
She's starting to think that maybe he's not writing this by his own hand anymore, but is instead photocopying it. This thought replaces the warm, bubbly feeling inside of her with something dark and bitter that curdles deep within her gut, but she pushes it aside because at least he's sending her letters.
Her past grandparents had never really been able to send her letters because they'd died right before they could even carry her.
"Oh," Makino says, and the look on her face says that she knows she's disappointed in the letter. "It's ok, Luffy," Makino tries to comfort her by rubbing her back with soothing circular motions. "Why don't we go get something sweet for you, ne? You like sweet things, right?"
"...Yes," she admits, feeling a little ashamed that the very thought of sweets manages to wash away her bad emotions. She gets up from her seat, book tucked underneath her armpit, and she reaches for Makino's hand to grasp it.
Makino's smile is softer than before as she leads her back to the bar.
When Garp is away, she's not allowed to stay the night in the little house outside of the village, because, according to him, who knows what could happen to her if she's left unsupervised for more than an hour. Instead, she sleeps over at the bar, right next to Makino who isn't reluctant to wrap her arms around her much smaller body and bring her closer to her warm chest. At first, she wriggles away from the older woman's grasp—because it's awkward, and it's the first night she's spent without Garp's protective shadow hovering over her like a comforting blanket, so she wants to feel sad and lonely all by herself for just this night—but eventually, she accepts Makino's affections because it's cold in the night and she's just accepting the inevitable much sooner anyways.
She knows Makino will be an important person in her life—just as she'd been for Luffy. She has the choice to either accept her or not—to change or not to change. But she's already accepted Garp—her warm, funny, and incredibly loving grandfather who never complains when she wakes up at the middle of the night because of dreams of either memories of the short time she'd spent with her parents or of flashes of her death that's starting to become a little bit traumatic to her, and is patient enough to even read her any book she chooses until she's lulled back into a deep slumber with his deep voice bringing inked words to life—so what's one more character? Makino is kind, friendly, and very considerate of her needs and wants; always willing enough to carry her wherever she wants to go if her mistress permits it, and always making sure that she's behind the safety of the counter whenever there are customers in the bar as to try to prevent her from seeing or hearing any inappropriate manners or vulgar words that she could copy.
But she tries to ignore any of the customers' lewd language, for not only Makino's sake but for her grandfather's as well. And though it is incredibly tempting to see her grandfather's reaction when she says fuck or cocksucker right in front of his face, she doesn't want the bar to be given a bad reputation for kids (even though kids shouldn't even be in there in the first place).
So Makino is someone she's willing to accept as another precious figure in her life, because she's worth it.
But it's Melissa that she's most worried about. The elderly woman may be cold and critical to the point that there isn't a day where she doesn't yell at Makino at least twice for even the tiniest of mistakes, but even she's not made out of ice. There are times when she lets go of her uptight personality that's similar to a mask that needs to be removed after its use to take a breath of fresh air; like when at the end of the day Melissa never fails to pat Makino on the back for a job well done with a small grin, or that time when she herself had accidentally knocked over an entire mug of beer because she'd been too engrossed in a new book and all Melissa had done was sigh and ruffle her hair and told her to be more careful next time before telling Makino to quickly clean up the mess.
But she most definitely can't forget about that one time when Makino was being sexually harassed by a particularly drunk customer who just wouldn't back the fuck off and got even more angrier when Makino had denied him. Melissa had thrown a literal bitch fit—screaming like a banshee as she continuously smacked the man in the face with her cane until he ran out with a collection of bloodied bruises on his face, arms, chest, and back. It'd only taken Makino to calm her down, but even then Melissa had told the mayor to to tell that man to stay away from the bar or else she'd kill him for sure the next time she sees him.
That particular incident had definitely been...memorable, and because of that it was pretty obvious that Melissa really, really loves Makino no matter how many times she denies it to the mayor and claim that she's just properly taking care of her ward.
But it's not Melissa herself she's worried about. She's worried about what would happen to Melissa, because the elderly woman hadn't appeared even once in the series, hadn't even been mentioned, which means that—
—that Melissa wouldn't be here anymore once Shanks arrives.
...
She doesn't want to delve in that train of thought, because she already knows its outcome.
Even so, she can't help but accept Melissa in her fold of important people.
Because you can't stop what the heart wants.
"LUFFY!" Someone screaming for her name immediately jolts her our of her sleep, and she shoots up so fast that she accidentally falls off the bed with the thin blanket tangled up around her. She wriggles restlessly out of the blankets, but instantly freezes up once the door to the room slams open and in walks in Makino who's expression is as bright as the sun "Luffy! Quick! Your—" Makino stops talking once she takes in the sight of her on the ground. "...Luffy?" Makino says, sounding bemused and bewildered. "What are you doing on the ground?" Makino asks as she walks towards her and bends down so that she could help her out of the blankets captivity.
"I fell off the bed and got tangled up in the blanket..." is her almost timid answer as she blushes slightly out of sheer embarrassment for having been caught in such a ridiculous position.
Makino stares at her blankly for a moment, before her lips turn up into a smile as she giggles. "You're such a silly child, Luffy," Makino says to her, bringing a hand up to her face to gently make circular motions on her cheek with her thumb. "Be more careful, okay? You could've really gotten hurt there, so try to take better care of yourself please," Makino tells her.
"Yes, Makino-san!" Is her exuberant reply as she grins up widely at the older woman, any trace of embarrassment gone and easily replaced with eagerness because she remembers that Makino had promised to her last night that they would be having pancakes for breakfast. "Pancakes?" She asks, practically vibrating in place.
The smile Makino gives her has a tad bit of mischief on it that makes her pause. "Oh, there's something even better waiting for you downstairs," is all Makino says before she gathers her in her arms to carry her out of the room.
She rests her head against Makino's shoulder as they descend down the stairs, wondering what could possibly be waiting for her as she politely covers a big yawn with her hand. It seems like she's still drowsy from staying up a little late at night to continue reading some of Makino's well-hidden smutty novels while the barmaid herself was still cluelessly in dreamland.
She's a woman, okay? Child body be damned, because her brain needs the stimulation to keep her from dying of utter boredom.
She's snapped out of her thoughts when she hears a very familiar voice, and she immediately looks up to see the terribly missed hulk of a figure that could only belong to her grandfather who's now grinning sunnily at her as if he'd never left. Joy and relief are the first two emotions that swell up within her chest, the former because she's missed him dearly and she just feels so glad that he's finally home and she can finally ask him to reach that big, thick book at the very top of the shelf that even Makino can't reach with a stool; and the latter because he's here and he's safe and he looks the same as when he'd left her.
"Poppy!" She nearly squeals, reaching her arms out for her grandfather who blinks dumbly at her designation for him.
"Poppy?" Garp parrots, looking towards Melissa for an explanation.
The elderly owner of the bar has an amused look written all over her features. Whilst leaning against the wooden bar counter, Melissa snorts, "That's you, you buffoon. Makino tried teaching her to call you Grandpa, but she didn't want to call you anything else but poppy, apparently."
Realization and astonishment settles over Garp's features once his gaze returns to her, and her smile only grows bigger when he takes her into his beefy arms and cradles her close to his chest. "I'm Poppy?" He asks her, and there's something akin to wonder in his voice.
She nods vigorously. "Aye! Poppy is Poppy," she says, and she has to admit that no matter how cutely and childishly she says it, she feels a little ridiculous and stupid for even saying it in the first place. "And I read the book you gave me too!" She says, before pointing at the counter where the book should be resting underneath one of its shelves.
"Really?" Garp asks her with wide eyes. "You read the whole thing?"
"Aye!" She confirms, grinning.
"Pretty surprising considering she's your granddaughter," Melissa slyly butts in, downing her daily medicine with a gulp of water and a deep grimace. "Hard to imagine a Monkey interested in reading a 'bunch of paper and ink,'" she seems to have quoted.
"Hah!" Garp chortles. "Just goes to show you that us Monkeys are both brawn and brain," he says smugly, but Melissa pretends not to notice as she orders Makino to go fetch a pail of water from the well outside. "But did you really read the whole book, Luffy?" He asks her, peering down at her with doubtful eyes.
Feeling a little insulted, she furrows her eyebrows at him and gives him the best unimpressed look that she can give.
The amused grin he gives her doesn't make her feel any better; in fact, she feels like pricking out the hair of his beard. One hair at a time, of course. "Sorry, sorry. It's just that when I was your age, I'd rather set a book on fire than open one! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" He boasts with a cackle of gleeful laughter, and she can't help but feel horrified at the very notion of somebody burning book, and enjoy it, and she's even related to such an arsonist. "Your father was like that too, you know, but your grandmother beat that kind of thinking out of him before he started burning anything," he says, smiling fondly as he most likely reminisced about the good old days. "So it's a wonder why you like reading," he says, peering down at her with scrutinizing eyes.
Internally, she's sweating a bucket-full of sweat; externally, she puts her acting skills to use and beams innocently up at Garp after a momentary pause of, what the fuck should I do, oh fuck, am I screwed, AM I GOING TO DIE, whilst hoping against hope itself that her grandfather would be persuaded by her adorable facade.
Fortunately for her, Garp easily falls for her charms and proceeds to mush their cheeks together, cooing at how adorable of a brat she is and how he's going to make her absolutely terrifying in the future.
And so, with her worries having been placated, she leans her head against his chest and closes her eyes, allowing herself to be lulled back to sleep with the familiar sound of her grandfather's heartbeat thumping beneath her. She doesn't care if she'd just woken up—because there's a difference between sleeping in her grandfather's arms compared to Makino's. In Garp's arms, all the tension that'd been coiled tightly within her body just snaps, and all the worry, all the concerns, all the fear for the future that's been prepared and set up for her—it just vanishes.
She doesn't know if it's because of the shared blood they have coursing through their veins—that sings prettily and loudly right here and right now, with her so close to him—or maybe it's because she just prefers his company over Makino's for some strange reason.
Her train of thoughts disperses once sleep claims her as its most willing captive once again.
Thank you once again to all those who've favorited/followed/reviewed this story :) It makes my heart just swell up with joy hahaha. I'd like to apologize if I'm not replying to any reviews but it seems like therr is a technicality with ny laptop and I'll have to get it fix. Don't worry! By next week it should be fixed and I'll be able to reply to every single one of your questions :)
