Running into a child wasn't on the pirate captain's list of things to do. He'd never had the patience to deal with children; hell, he even killed his own son since he couldn't handle the whining! But this child, the one that had been following the pirate group for around an hour, was the single most annoying thing that anyone on his crew had ever experienced.

At first, they tried to ignore that child's blabbering about being lost and whatnot, focusing on re-socking supplies and hoping that the child would run into his mom or dad and leave. Sadly, no such thing happened so the small boy continued to follow them until the pirate captain snapped, turning around and snarling at the boy. "Don't you know who we are, you damn brat?!"

Instead of flinching and running away screaming like the man expected the child to do, the boy just blinked up at him happily, offering a smile that seemed to split his face in two. "Not a clue!" He said happily. It was almost like he didn't know how to be scared (which wasn't far from the truth).

His crewmates fanned out on either side of him, grinning wickedly and hoping for their evil pirate faces to convince the kid that they were dangerous and should be treated as such.

"I'm a pirate captain!" he announced so everyone on the street could hear. Those who did hear quickly left to find shelter. Not one claimed the brat. "I'm a wanted man, you little shit. We're New World pirates, ya see? Now, scram!"

Again, the brat surprised him. "You have a bounty?!" he was jumping up and down, eye sparkling in the sunlight. "Really?! How much?!"

"Tch," the pirate captain lashed out, aiming to kick the boy to the sand. He missed by only a few centimeters, but he did succeed on making the boy lose his balance and fall on his butt. "That shouldn't concern you right now." He whispered, low and dangerous. A few of his crewmates chuckled, egging him on. "What should concern you is that I've killed before, brat. I've killed men, woman and children. You will be no exception." he unsheathed his sword. "We told you to leave, but you didn't listen. Let me have the honor of learning your name before you become a sea king streaks, hmm?"

Happy laughter rang throughout the air. "I'm Luffy!" the child pushed the sword away from his face without a care. "Nah, is that a real sword? It looks a little different than Haruta or Vista's, but it's still sharp, right?"

"Of course it's real." The pirate captain flicked his wrist, causing the sword to reflect the light. "You like it, yeah?"

Luffy nodded, eye filled with child-like curiously. "Uh-huh! It's really pretty!"

"Get a good look at it, then." The pirate captain advised, raising the sword above his head, ready to chop the child in half. "For it will be the last thing that you'll ever see."

"Luffy!" A new voice rang out through the empty street, causing the pirate captain to momentarily stop mid swing, eyes flashing angrily.

"Ace!" And just like that the child was gone. The pirate captain and his crew blinked in confusion. Where the hell did he go? The turned around just in time to see the child being picked up by young man—he had no shirt on, just an orange hat and some shorts along with combat boots and a knife.

The man—Ace was it? —glared at all of them, sending chills down their spine. "And what," he said in a dangerously low voice as he took a step toward them, hand resting on a knife at his waist. "Do we have here?"

"I found this guy and followed him here." Luffy informed happily, throwing his arms around the man's neck. Ace's glare never once wavered, but his posture did relax somewhat. "He's really funny! He even showed me his sword!"

"Hmm," Ace hummed, shifting the boy so he was handing off his back. Dark grey eye had the pirate captain sweating buckets. "It looks like he was trying to hurt you, Luffy."

"Ehhh? But the were nice to me." Luffy cocked his head to the side as if he was truly confused. The captain had the sudden urge to slam his head against a brick wall. Wouldn't a normal five-year-old be running to their mother crying by now? That's how the captain always assumed kids to be like; snotty brats that completely depend on their mothers.

"I don't think beheading you is considered nice." Ace responded with a thoughtless shrug. "Besides, they look pretty stupid. Maybe they're lost? You'd think pirates would clear out of town as soon as they hear Oyaji's name."

"Oi!" The captain suddenly yelled out, tried of being annoyed and even more tired of being insulted and ignored. "Put the kid down and hand him over or you'll die with him!"

Some dangerous flashed in Ace's eyes. Something feral. He spun around to face the captain with a full-blown glare printed all over his face. The captain had always thought that freckles were suppose to make a person look childish, but nothing about this man screamed childish at the moment. "Never."

Ignore his mind screaming at him to run away, the pirate raised his sword out in front of him. It was supposed to be threatening, but the man in front of him didn't even flinch. "Is that so? Bring it!"

Ace simply responded by placing the child down by his feet and instructing him not to move before his shoulder's erupted into white-hot flames.

Well fuck. This man was a devil fruit user, huh?

Behind him, several of his crewmates gasped and stumped back. One of them called out, "Captain! Don't fight him! Don't you realize who that is?" while another one cried, "It's him! Hiken no Ace! Whitebeard's second division commander!"

Whitebeard's . . .Second division . . .Commander?!

The sword clattered out of the captain's hands and he broke out into cold sweat. There was no way. No way to fight one of his commanders.

The strongest man in the world has some of the most monstrous people that follow him and one was standing right in front of him, ready to fry his insides. For a moment, his mind wandered back to the kid and he assumed that the brat had some ties to the Whitebeard family.

The pirate captain was extremely glad that he didn't kill the boy.

Without another word, the pirate captain spun on his heels and ran. Ran faster than he'd ever run before. He didn't even glance back when the child shouted, "Bye bye!"

And there was no way in hell he was ever coming back.


It had been a surprisingly hot year for the crew. It hadn't snowed once since they'd basically adopted Luffy into the family. There hadn't been a winter island since . . . well, a long time.

That was, until today.

With a happy smile, Ace nudged the sleeping bundle next to him. Said bundle only groaned and pulled the blanket tighter over his body, trying to conserve heat. He was shivering slightly, but other than that he looked fine. "Cold."

Ace had to muffle his laugh. "Yeah, I know, buddy. But I have a surprise for you so you have to get up, okay?"

A small tuff of raven black hair puffed its way out followed by two big eyes. "A surprise? Extra breakfast!"

Ace stood up and ruffled the child's soft hair. "No extra breakfast, but it's just as good. I promise." the fire user only had a short-sleeved shirt on even if his nakama were basically in bundles of cloth. It had turned out to be colder than they'd expected and most of the time Whitebeard's crew didn't handle cold weather very well. Ace on the other hand, didn't care either way. Being cold had never been a problem for him.

Luffy wrapped the blanket around his small body as he stood up and bounced across the room a few times. He was still shaking and had both of his arms crossed over his chest so cold air would 'attack' him. "What surprise?"

Ace walked over to the place that they kept Luffy's clothes and pulled out a long sleeve shirt, some warm pants and other warm accessories. He then walked back over to the bed and placed them down in front of Luffy, gesturing for him to get dressed.

Ten minutes later, Ace was helping Luffy get his snow boots on and then leading him to the gallery to get breakfast.

"Thatch!" Luffy rammed himself into the cook the moment he saw him, clinging to his legs. He looked up at the commander with those big doe eyes that seemed to be way too adorable for a five-year-old. "Meat!"

Thatch laughed and picked the boy up so that he was clinging to his back now. "Did you see outside yet, Luffy?"

Luffy blinked and tilted his head to the side. "What's outside?"

Thatch threw Ace a dirty look and whispered, "You didn't tell him about the snow?" While Ace just rubbed the back of his head and let out a small laugh. "I thought I'd make it a surprise."

"Ace promised me extra meat." Luffy informed Thatch in the most serious voice that he knew how to do. Thatch just chuckled, deciding to amuse the child, and patted his head. He highly doubted that the fire user did that.

"Oi!" Ace glared at the five-year-old while he was stuffing his own plate with food. "I didn't. You made that up."

Luffy shook his head stubbornly, but there was a sly glean to his eyes. "Nu-uh. Ace promised."

"I promised nothing, you dirty, little liar."

"Can you two not get in a fight over meat?" Thatch said with a sigh, but everyone could tell that he was fond of the boy's antics. "Honestly, it's like you two have the same mindset."

Ace raised an eyebrow, offended. "Did you just compare my mind to the mind of someone who still has trouble speaking?"

"Ace is stupid," Luffy offered up his own opinion. "He can't tie his soolace."

"It's shoelace," Ace corrected before he processed what Luffy said. "Oi! I'm not stupid, brat!" They walked over to the table and Ace sat across from Thatch and Luffy who was now happily munching on his breakfast bacon.

"I don't know," Thatch ventured, an amused grin on his face. "You have your moments, Ace."

"Hey! I just—I can't argue with that."

Thatch reached over the table and clasped the younger man on the back, grinning at the small victory. "You're right, you can't!"

It was always like this during snow days. Thatch would always be this happy ball of energy, full of humor and pranks. Kingdew had once joked that snow just turned Thatch on, even if it wasn't quite phrased like that. It was true in a way; snow always put Thatch in a good mood no matter the day.

"Did Ace say he was stupid?" Luffy asked curiously, smiling at both of his parent-like figures.

Before anyone could say anything else to add more heat to the already raging fire, Haruta slid her way right next to Ace and threw a careless arm around his shoulders. "What's up? Ace you look like you're about to burn down a building." She poked his cheek and laughed.

Ace sent a glare towards Thatch and Luffy. "Not a building. Just an annoying five-year-old and a cook."

Luffy squealed and immediately dove under the table, shouting, "Meanie Ace!" No one really cared at the moment since they all knew that he'd be back for his fresh plate of bacon..

"You try it and I'll paint your room pink." Thatch said, pointing a piece of bacon in Ace's direction as if that was supposed to be threatening. "With sparkles."

Hartua raised an amused eyebrow, a smirk playing on her face. "You're just copying Luffy's idea from last year."

Giggles from under the table indicated that the convict in question was still listening to everything they were saying.

Snorting, Thatch slammed his hand on the table (probably to shut up the boy underneath). "That was so not funny."

Seeing where this was going, Ace grinned. "I dunno, Thatch. It was pretty funny to watch you run around the ship with bright pink glitter all over you and your hair." Ace paused, and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, it was more of a nightmare but whatever."

Marco slid in the seat next to Thatch and looked down at Luffy's plate in front of him. "Where's the brat?"

Ace flicked his head towards the table. "He's hiding."

Seeing this as the usual routine, Marco just shrugged and started picking off the uneaten parts of Luffy's plate with a grin, baiting the boy to come out. "Ah, really? That's sad. He sure wasted a whole lot of food that I could eat . . ."

"Don't eat my food!" Came the cry as the boy tried to come out from under the table, for some odd reason, climbing up Ace and using him like a rope and sitting back in his seat.

"Do you know what's outside, Luffy?" Marco asked, taking the boy off the floor and into his arms. Luffy only shook his head. "It's snowing outside."

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "What's snow?"

"What's snow?" Ace scoffed, standing up and taking both his and Luffy's plate to the trash. "The snow is supposed to be your surprise and you don't even know what it is?"

Luffy squeaked and buried his head in Marco's shoulder. "Sorry."

"Ace, cool it," Marco said before turning and walking out of the gallery with Ace and Haruta close on his heels. Thatch had to go help the cooks after the meal so he wouldn't join them until later. They walked around below deck for a while, hearing the shouts and cheers from everyone that was above deck.

Luffy stared at the white wonderland around him. Several of the Whitebeard pirates were involved in what looked like a giant snowball fight that seemed to take over the deck. They were all laughing, and looked like they were really enjoying themselves. It had been a while since they'd had peace like this.

"That's snow?" Luffy asked and unraveled one of his hands from Marco's neck to catch a falling snowflake. "Pretty!"

Marco set the boy down in front of him while a lazy smile. Immediately, Luffy was off, practically diving into the snow laughing all the while. Almost immediately, he had been roped into playing a snowball fight with the rest of the crew. Despite his bad aim, he was doing pretty well.

"He's really grown on us, hasn't he?" Haruta asked, smiling as she watched the boy play.

"I can't believe it's been a year," Ace sighed. "Time just seems to fly out the window."

"Yeah," Haruta laughed and poked Ace's stomach. "You're growing into an old man."

The two started another playful argument, but Marco tuned them out. Had it really been a year? It didn't feel like it. It seemed like just yesterday they were on that island, facing down the giant tiger trying to save a boy they didn't know.

Marco was immensely glad that they did though. It was hard to imagine life before Luffy's constant noise and cheerfulness.


"Ace should wear this one," Luffy said, holding up a black cape and some fake fangs. "Vampire."

Ace bent down and picked the boy up. "You want me to be a vampire, huh?" Luffy giggled in response making Ace smile even wider. "What are you going to be then? I thought you wanted to be a vampire."

Luffy seemed to think about this for a second before he laughed and threw his arms around Ace's neck. "Imma be a pirate!"

Ace couldn't help it; he laughed. "You can't be a pirate when you already are one, Luffy." the boy pouted and untangled himself from Ace's neck. "Don't give me that look, you're suppose to dress up as something different from what you really are. How about a mummy?"

The boy shook his head. "Too old." he pursed his lips in an adorable way that only Luffy could pull off. "And dead."

"Pumpkin?"

"Too girly."

"Lion?"

"I'm not a baby."

"Zombie?"

Luffy stuck his tongue out. "They smell bad."

"You've never even met one before," Ace sighed. "What about a . . .cat?"

"No."

"You're impossible, you know that, right?" Ace said as he carried Luffy (the boy was still so small…) and the vampire costume over to the counter where a very pretty cashier waited patiently for them. Ace had to give her some respect—she knew that he was a commander but she didn't look scared at all. She had simply told him that any paying customer was welcome with open arms and that if he didn't pay, she was going to kick his ass.

Ace had simply laughed and told her that he'd be paying if he found something.

"Find everything alright?" The cashier asked with a smile as Ace set Luffy down on the counter and handed her the vampire costume that Luffy had picked out for her.

"Kind of," He flashed her a smile and nudged Luffy. "Luffy here wants to be something that he already is and refuses to be anything else."

"Pirate?" The woman guessed as she rang up the costume. Ace nodded with an eye roll making the woman laugh. "Hmm. I might have some other costumes in the back. He'd look cute in a dinosaur costume."

Luffy puffed put his cheeks in denial. "I'm not cute."

The woman ruffled his hair. "Okay, okay. No dinosaur costume. How about a knight?"

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "What's a knight?"

"Knights are brave and noble. They'd go around protecting others by slaying dragons with really cool armor on," The woman tried to explain to the boy whose attention span was worse than a fly's.

"But I don't want to be noble." Luffy said, pouting. "I want to be fierce! Like Oyaji."

Ace sighed, knowing that this argument would take all night. "Luffy, knights have really cool swords."

Luffy's eyes immediately turned into stars. "Swords? Really? Nah, Ace! I wanna be a knight. Then I can have a cool sword like Vista, right?" The boy mimicked a swinging action.

"Different kind of sword, but the same idea." Ace said, running his hand through the boy's hair. He smiled once more at the woman. "Could I get the knight costume too? If its not too much trouble, I mean."

"No, no. It's perfectly fine." the woman said before disappearing behind the counter to fetch the costume.

Ace looked at Luffy who was practically vibrating in his seat and said in an amused voice, "You happy now? This is your first Halloween you're spending in a town, after all."

"Yeah!" Luffy cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. "Ace is best. Shishishshi!"

"Here you go," the woman reappeared and placed the styrofoam costume on the counter table. "Is that all, sir?"

"Yeah," Ace nodded and threw her a large bag of gold coins before she told him the price, which would've been a considerably smaller amount. He picked up Luffy and the two costumes and started walking out the door. "Keep the change!"

The woman was too flustered to reply.


Almost two hours later it was dark out. Lights loosely hung around the houses and gave the street an eerie glow. Luffy was running all over the place, demanding candy, with Ace and Thatch following closely behind. Marco was going to come, but Ace refused to let him leave his room unless he had on a pineapple costume on.

Marco wasn't very happy.

But at least Thatch had dressed up with him. He wore a bright poke-dotted clown suit and a matching wig (that was Vista's idea because Thatch had refused to mess with his hair at first). No one was sure why he chose a clown, but no one really care, either.

"Nah, Ace!" Luffy ran up to him and tugged on his cape. "How come the other kids have so much more candy than me? It's unfair!"

"You have to go to more houses," Ace suggested. "And be really cute while saying trick-or-treat!" not that the boy needed any help with the cute part. Luffy was just naturally adorable.

"Or go steal the other kid's candy." Thatch offered his own input to his pupil. "Then take off running if they start to chase you."

"Really?!" The boy bounced around Thatch's leg, clearly happy. "And they won't be mad?"

"Kid, they'll all be utterly pissed. That's why you have to run fast. Think of it as training, all right? If you can outrun an angry mob of brats, I'll go buy you a very large bag of candy, 'kay?"

"'Kay!"

Yes, Thatch did end up buying Luffy a very large bag of candy that night.

But really, who expected anything else?

"Alright, brat." Atmos said as he carried the currently limp child around the deck. He dropped the boy to the ground, only for him to bounce right back up again. "It's training time."

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "But I already did training today?"

Atmos grunted and ruffled the boy's hair. "Different type of training! Today, you will learn something new! Something strong!"

"Really?!"

"Of course!" Atmos grinned. "Today, you will be learning Haki!"

"Wow!" Luffy looked amazed, barley containing his excitement in six-year-old body. "Haki! Is that what Marco uses when he's like bam! and pow! and makes his fists all black and cool?"

"It is!" Atmos demonstrated, turning his entire arm black. "Haki is essential, especially when we go back to the New World. There are three types of Haki. Armament Haki, which is what I just showed you. This allows you to hit logia devil fruit users, like Ace!"

"I can hit Ace?!" Luffy said in excitement. "Really?!"

"Yes!" Atmos said. "It is very satisfying. There is also Observation Haki, which allows you to see others attacks before they hit you. Those are the two types which you will be learning."

"What about the third? You said there was three types, right?"

"I did!" Atmos agreed in his loud, booming voice. "But only certain people have the last type of Haki, King's Haki! Oyaji does and so do Marco and Ace but no one else! It's extremely powerful and very dangerous. Only the chosen ones have it! The conquerors!"

"Ehh?!" Luffy bounced between the large man's leg. "That's so cool! I'll definitely have it!"

Atmos chuckled, "We will see, brat. But for now…" he paused and got into a fighting stance. "Let's begin!"


"Hey, Oyaji?" Whitebeard looked down at his youngest son sitting on his lap. The boy was staring at the mast of the Moby Dick, seemingly deep in thought. "Whats a, um, klaberton? Wait, that's not right… klaberstien? Klaberman?"

"Klabautermann?"

The boy nodded with a grin, tearing his eyes away from the ship. "Yeah, that! Blamenco was telling stories about them the other day with his division and I didn't understand 'cause I didn't know what they were…"

It's a story all the old sailors used to tell to pass the time," Whitebeard laughed. "The myth of the Klabautermann."

"What are they?"

Whitebeard smiled. "That depends on who you ask. Some say they're water spirits that board ships. Others say they're the incarnation of a well-loved ship. They're said to warn their crew of danger and protect them."

"So," Whitebeard followed the boy's eyes as they drifted around the deck of the Moby Dick. "Does the Moby have one too? She's loved! I love the Moby!"

"I don't know," Whitebeard said. "I've seen many things on the Grand Line, but a Klabauternann is not one. I can't say if they exist or not."

The boy visibly deflated at the news, clearly hoping for something else. Trying to cheer up his son, Whitebeard continued, "Though Roger swears he spoke to his ship, the Oro Jackson, once."

"Roger? The Pirate King?"

"Yes," Whitebeard said.

"What was he like, Oyaji? Y'know… the Pirate King?"

"Hmmm," Whitebeard turned to look out into the ocean, recalling memories from long ago. "Gol D. Roger. He was an interesting man. The first to make it to the end of the Grand Line. That man… he had a will like no other."

"Really?!"

"Of course!" Whitebeard laugh. "To sail to Raftel, you have to. Have I ever told you of that one time…"