Warnings: possible OOC characters, serious!Garp, mentions of bullying, fluff, minor coarse language

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda. I own only my words.


The Scary Man (Luffy 5, Ace and Sabo 2)

Luffy yawned as he gripped tightly onto his Mommy's hand. It was early autumn; they had gone on a walk that day and he had been taken in by the colors of the leaves. He had jumped into several leaf piles with some other kids while his Mommy talked with some other people and his Daddy played with his brother's.

But now, it was night. It was nearing six o'clock, which was Luffy's dinner time.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," Luffy whined, tugging lightly on her hand. She gave a small sigh before smiling down at him.

"Daddy's making dinner tonight. And don't worry, there'll be a lot of meat too," Luffy grinned and giggled, making Rouge smile. Luffy looked behind at his Daddy, who was pushing a stroller with his two very tired little brother's. He was talking to them, trying to entertain them. He wondered if they knew they were going to be having meat tonight as well…

Luffy, not having paid attention to where he was walking, accidentally walked into someone. He gave a small yelp as he was knocked back. He felt hands – large and unfamiliar – pick him up. He realized he was staring into the eyes of a very tall and intimidating man. He gulped, putting on a brave face, and mumbled, "I'm sorry."

The man chuckled. "You have quite a cute kid here, Ma'am." Luffy heard his mother reply positively yet shakily. Luffy stared at the man – he did not like this man at all. Something about him was...off.

Very slowly, the man returned Luffy to his mother. Luffy immediately latched onto her, feeling scared. He watched as the man walked away with nervous eyes.

"Mommy," He looked up at Rouge, who looked anxious. She looked back at her son and gave an uneasy smile.

"It's alright, Luffy. Mommy's here," She soothed her visibly frightened child, making soothing shushing sounds and rubbing her hand in circles on his back. Despite this, he still had a death grip on her jacket and even began to shake.

"What happened?" Roger came up on Rouge's other side, staring at his oldest son in concern. Ace and Sabo stared up from their stroller with confused expressions on their faces.

"Luffy ran into that man, and he seemed very…pleased, for some reason. He unnerved me," Luffy heard his Mommy say very quietly to his Daddy.

"I'm sure it's nothing. But, if this happens again or we see him too often, we'll call the police," Roger replied, putting his hand on Rouge's waist and leading her down the sidewalk.

Only Luffy noticed how the man had stopped further up ahead at the street curb, staring back at him with a malicious smirk.

He buried his face in his Mommy's shoulder to make it go away.


"I've found it! The thing Dragon wanted to protect!"

The tall blond man threw two pictures onto the table, grinning with glee. The look in his eyes, framed behind pink sunglasses, was crazed. It would have terrified anyone who could have seen it.

"Sir, you already killed Dragon. Is…is there any p-point in ki-killing the boy?" A man standing along one of the walls of the room shakily asked. The blond turned and glowered at him, pulling a gun off of the table and shooting the man in the head. He fell with a thud, no one else in the room moving to help. Not a sound was made for a few tense seconds.

"Any more questions?"

No one replied.

"Good. Get that fool out of here – I don't care what you do with the body," The blond growled, turning back to the table. There were two pictures of five year old boy's on it – one was of Dragon, and one was of the boy he had run into a few days ago. They almost identical, save for the different hair styles and slightly different eye shape . And, by stealing the DNA tests - which were pleasantly already hidden away and lied about because of the child's criminal heritage - he was positive this was Dragon's son.

"That bastard Dragon destroyed me in the underground after he released all of that information about the drugs. Then Garp has been suspicious ever since that murder case six years ago that I barely got away with, and that was because of a damn expensive bribe. I don't care if he's dead or alive – I'll make his son's life a living hell! Anyone with the name Monkey will die!"


Opening a Can of Worms (Luffy 5, Ace and Sabo 2)

Garp closed the storybook he had just finished reading and looked down at his grandson. He was in a peaceful sleep, sprawled on his bed while drool was dribbling from his mouth as he mumbled about his dreams. Garp chuckled, tucking the small child in and kissing him on the forehead before he walked out of the room.

The boys were staying at his house for the weekend because Roger and Rouge had to go on a weekend long business party for Roger's work. It was the first time any of the kids had slept away from home, but Ace and Sabo didn't seem to mind. Luffy was a little upset at first but he seemed to get over it quickly.

Garp also had other things on his mind about Luffy.

He had gotten an anonymous email the other day, one that, for some reason, had extensive information about drugs in the making. He had read some of it this morning and was horrified. The drugs had been tested on children and their affects were horrendous, resulting in death, permanent disability, or injury.

And now he was going to finish it.

He opened his email and began reading through the documents, taking in every detail he could. He knew what chemicals were dangerous, how they could affect children, and the poisons given. He was a police officer and had come across quite a few murders in his day involving chemicals and such, so he was not oblivious to their damaging qualities.

And then he came to the bottom of the page, where the undercover agent who had done this report had written his name.

Monkey D. Dragon.

He looks at the pictures of his deceased son hanging on the walls of his office. There is a picture of his first birthday, them playing catch when he was learning how to throw a ball, his son's graduation from high school and college, Dragon standing next to his seventeenth birthday present - which had been a ratty old car that the boy had loved; shooting guns at hunting grounds, learning to swim…Roger had never met his brother who was twenty years older than him since Dragon was a drunken but welcome accident and his mother had monopolized him after their divorce. It was something he regretted, never introducing the two boys to each other. And then, after Dragon's mother died, followed by Dragon's disappearance - only to show up dead years later - Garp regretted it even more so.

After almost five years of no leads, he finally found his own. Maybe he could solve the mystery to his son's death.


A Little Comfort (Luffy 6, Ace and Sabo 3)

Luffy did not like school.

He had been excited to go at first but he didn't want to go anymore. The teacher wasn't nice, half of the kids ignored him and the others were mean! They began hitting him and when he hit back, they cried and said he started it. His Mommy and Daddy got mad at him for starting a fight too. He didn't tell them what really happened since they seemed real st…strus…straz…stressed lately.

After dinner, he laid on his bed, pouting over the days' events. His legs and arms had bruises on them, he was pretty sure one kid bit him and there was a big boo-boo on his tummy.

He really, really wanted his teddy bear but he gave it to Sabo and he wouldn't take it back – that's mean. So, as his brothers played in the room, he held his pillow and sulked, trying not to cry about how his tummy hurt. Big brothers weren't supposed to cry.

"Luffy?" Sabo asked.

Luffy pulled his face out of his pillow and looked up at his three year old brothers, noticing they had climbed onto his bed.

"What wrong?" Ace asked this time. Luffy sat up and smiled.

"Nothings wrong. I'm fine!"

"Lying," Sabo pouted at him and Luffy pouted back, looking down at his lap. He didn't want to tell his brothers – he would be worrying them and he didn't want that. There was shuffling on the bed, and he though they were going to go play again, but instead two pairs of small arms hugged him. "Feel better!"
"Be happy!"

Both brothers exclaimed and Luffy did feel better with those words. He hugged his brothers back with a huge grin.

"Thank you!"


AN: Sorry this is a little later in the day than normal. Updates will be erratic during weekends since my house is like a hotel Friday through Sunday. But updates will be everyday (hopefully) and hopefully before one in the afternoon. Today, I also had a little writer's block while adding a scene, which did not help.

Now, moving on! So, we're getting into the more serious stuff right now. There's going to be more fluff but for now, this is the introduction of the bigger plot. I hope you liked this chapter and for those of you who like fluff, there'll definitely be more next chapter!

spoons-are-evil: Hahaha, nope, the poor kid can't swim. He'll always be an anchor. And I love the hats that babies wear on the beach, and I've played with my neighbor's grandkids before. They love looking for shells and making sand castles. And making Luffy give up Sunny made me sad, but it had to be done! Thank you for your review - your reviews make me very happy :)

Thank you for reading! Please review and tell me what you think of the story or if you see grammar errors!