Reading What If
By: FunahoMisaki
(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)
The book flashed to Koala's hands and she happily opened it up to read the next chapter while Luffy was curled up in Ivankov's hair giggling.
"The reason that Amande, Brulee, and Smoothie were all staring at Stussy, while occasionally looking at Luffy and Pudding flying around and cooing over how cute they were, was simple. Hachee and Effilee."
"The hell did I do this time?" Effilee asked raising an eyebrow while Hachee just lit another cigarette.
"Check out Stussy. She looks like Compote-nee did whenever she's watched her kids play." Hachee said nodding at Stussy and catching the soft fond, almost maternal, look in the womans eyes.
"And she looks like Hachee whenever she sees her own rugrats running around." Effilee said referring to Hachee's triplet children who were only turning three in four months."
Everyone glanced from Stussy, who's attention was mainly on her son, to Hachee who smiled a little sadly.
"Her children who were currently back on Nuts Island with their daddy because Hachee knew that Mama didn't like her husband and didn't want to give her mother a chance to kill him."
"I…" Big Mom was going to defend herself from that accusation but found she couldn't. She probably would kill him given the chance if she really didn't like him…and she didn't like Hachee's husband at all. How could a simple tea shop owner catch the attention and affection of one of her oldest girls? It never added up to her.
"She looks like a mother watching her kids play." Mondee said softly and Amande stared hard at Stussy then, seeing a fond maternal look in her eyes that she sometimes saw in her mothers eyes whenever she had a new sibling.
"We don't know anything about Luffy's mother except that he doesn't know who she is or what she looks like or even if she's alive. He didn't even know he had one…" Brulee said thinking about it as she watched Stussy as well while the woman seemed content to watch Luffy and Pudding fly around."
Stussy flinched at hearing that and Dragon wrapped her more securely in his arms, pulling her to rest her head against his chest.
"She is the queen of whores. I doubt she got that title by being celibate…and it might have had a result."
"Excuse me? I'll have you know that I never once whored myself out! All I did was protect the girls!"
"Smoothie agreed as she glanced at Stussy as well but was mostly focused on Zeus and his two cute passengers.
"If it did then how did he end up in the custody of his so called grandfather in the East Blue?" Hachee asked although she had a feeling she knew the answer as she blew out a plum of smoke.
"Well a baby wouldn't be good for business in her department…so giving him away I could understand and see happening. Him ending up in East and with Garp I don't know."
"Good for business or not if I had any choice then I would have never gave up my son! I'd have raised him myself if I could have!" Stussy seemed to be getting furious at their thoughts and they all raised their hands placatingly.
"We're just going off of the most likely scenarios that we can think of at the moment. We don't mean anything personal by it." Hachee said trying to calm her down a bit.
"Amande said blowing out her own trail of smoke as she kept her eyes focused on the blond woman. She noticed that Mama was watching the woman closely as well.
Big Mom was staring curiously at Stussy, having noticed the look in her eyes as being the same as Compote and Hachee had when they had their children. It took a mother to recognize a mother and while she had known Stussy for three years now…she hadn't known much about the woman or knew anything about her past before she became the Queen of the Pleasure District, or the Queen of Whores as some called her."
"That's true. I don't even know how you got into that position or got that title." Big Mom said nodding her head in agreement with that part.
"The look in Stussy's eyes however as she watched Luffy, the Sunshine of the Charlotte family and Linlin's adorable grandson in everything but blood, was that of a mother watching their child have fun and play with a friend.
A look Big Mom had never seen in Stussy's eyes in the three years she had known the woman, not even during the tea party where they had welcomed Hachee's triplets to the world and Stussy had held one of the children with all the experience and gentleness of a…of a mother."
"That must have been hell for her. Not being able to hold or be around her own son and yet seeing all of us with out children." Compote whispered and she looked so upset for Stussy.
"Big Mom looked at her daughters who were watching Stussy closely which included all three of Luffy's mamas, Compote, Hachee, Mondee and Effilee. She gave them a stern look that told them not to bring it up today, they'd keep an eye on Stussy and bring it up with her later perhaps. After all for all they knew the Whore Queen could have just had a child of her own or was expecting one soon. There was no reason to jump to conclusions just yet."
"I suppose that way of thinking makes sense given the limited information and evidence you all had at the time." Stussy said with a small nod of acceptance to that theory.
"Shishishishi!" Luffy's laughter was coming from just over the table as Zeus flew over the table. Big Mom looked up just in time to see Luffy jump off of Zeus, earning a small shriek from Pudding and a startled noise from most of the others."
Everyone jolted at that and looked worried while Luffy laughed.
"Big Mom reached her hand out to catch the boy, despite knowing that he was rubber and wouldn't be hurt by the fall, and she noticed how Katakuri and Perospero both sent waves of their respective powers to catch him as well. What really stunned everyone was Stussy.
She had immediately, faster than Big Mom or either of her sons had reacted, jumped from her seat and onto the table before jumping into the air and caught Luffy mid-fall before backflipping and landing with ease right next to the table with Luffy in her arms and not a hair out of place."
"…" Everyone stared at the woman in disbelief for a long moment while none of the Revolutionaries looked the least bit surprised by this.
"That sounds so cool!" Pudding broke the silence as she stared wide eyed and starry eyed at Stussy who smiled softly at her and stole the kid from Sabo to cuddle her.
"Why thank you little one."
"You should be more careful little one. That fall could have hurt you." Stussy said softly as she set Luffy down and dusted off her dress while Luffy laughed.
"Nope! I'm rubber! Shishishishi!" Luffy thought it all good fun and hilarious naturally while Zeus quickly lowered and let Pudding scramble off as she ran to Luffy and hugged him."
"Don't scare me like that again!" Pudding said puffing up her cheeks to pout at Luffy who just laughed and grinned.
"I swear we're going to have heart attacks before Red Hair even gets here, peroin." Perospero said relaxing at the sight of Luffy being okay and that he was rubber. Plus the boy had fallen from higher heights than that without a bruise on him so he shouldn't have been worried to start with. It was just an uncontrollable reaction to seeing the boy who called him Papa Pero, or if he was honest any child really, fall from a large height."
"Fair. Not every child is immune to falling from heights like he is." Brulee said nodding at hearing that.
"How about for everyone's sake you keep both feet on the ground for a while hm?" Stussy asked smiling at Luffy who looked at his mamas and papas who were all calming down and how upset Pudding was and he nodded.
"Okay!" Luffy said as he patted Pudding on the back sort of awkwardly."
"That would be a new experience for him since we usually were jumping from trees and all and we jumped with him." Ace said recalling how often they did crazy and stupid and awesome things and Luffy had followed right behind his two big brothers.
"I think that's enough cloud rides for one day. How about we start eating instead? I'm a bit hungry." Big Mom said and Luffy's grin was wide, him and Pudding reacting at the same time.
"Food!" The two cheered as they scrambled into seats near Big Mom, making the woman laugh while Stussy gave a fond chuckle as well. So her son still had his large appetite huh? And it seems as if he was rubbing off on the tri-clops girl who he claimed as his twin."
"It's harder to tell who he gets that from. Me or you." Stussy said smiling slightly at her husband who chuckled and nodded a bit in agreement.
"Well at least they'd fit right in with Big Mom and her kids then.
"We're already planning on making sure he has a large serving of his favorites on his birthday. We just haven't asked him when it is yet." Amande said from behind Stussy as the blond moved as if to go back to her seat.
"March twentieth."
"Busted." Sabo snickered at that.
"I thought his birthday was on Childrens Day." Ace said frowning and tilting his head slightly at that.
"Dad probably changed his birthday to keep anyone from piecing together just whose child Luffy is." Dragon said although he was smirking slightly as well at how his wife had slipped up.
"Stussy answered automatically and then she froze, cursing herself for letting her guard slip slightly.
Amande's hand settled on Stussy's shoulder heavily, her words even heavier.
"Thank you for telling us that but I think we need to have a talk."
"You're not going to try and threaten her or anything right?" Yamato asked looking at the Big Mom pirates who were staring heavily at Stussy who smirked slightly.
"They can try but I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeves." Stussy said staring back at Amande and her body was relaxed in a way that meant she could react at a seconds notice.
"I'll read next." Zoro said and the book flashed from Koala's hands to his own.