Characters read Luffy's different Mama AU
By: FunahoMisaki
(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)
"Big Mom was enjoying her snack and waiting on the report she had ordered of Monkey D. Luffy's family. That ballsy brat had claimed to have eaten all of her candy from Fishman Island…and then said he would defeat her."
"I'm ready to rumble if you are!" Luffy said giving Big Mom a feral grin and the woman snorted. Yeah the little ballsy brat took after his mothers side of the family alright.
"We can spar later brat." Big Mom said waving the boy away and making him pout a bit at her apparently dismissing him.
"Now despite what most of the world thought, including some of her own subjects she knew, Big Mom was not easy to anger most of the time."
"Yeah she really isn't. It's easy to annoy her but anger her? Nah." Effiler said recalling her childhood and all the trouble she and her siblings got into that Mama had only laughed about even when they caused damage and destruction.
"A child like Luffy boasting big, she was used to hearing it. Honestly he wouldn't be the first to try and fight her, and he won't be the last she was certain…besides she has 85 children that she raised from birth until now. She was more than used to hearing them boast that they were going to be stronger than her back when they were younger, especially her boys. She never really took offense to someone claiming that they were going to kick her ass, honestly she has heard it hundreds of times before so why would she?"
"I mean yeah…we're all really dumb when we were little." Oven said with a chuckle as he recalled how they had all thought that they'd grow up to be bigger and stronger than their mother but they had learned the truth as they got older.
"What pissed her off the most about the brat was the obvious lie to her about how he had eaten all of her Fishman candy and that he had the missing member of the Vinsmokes that she was going to arrange for her beloved Pudding to marry on his crew."
"Although that last one is because the Germa directed me to him." Big Mom said tilting her head as she thought about that and wondered why the Vinsmoke son had even joined a pirate crew to start with.
"But yeah Mama hates liars." Compote said with a wince as she recalled one incident.
"While she never truly favored one child over the other, although she found it impossible to look at and interact with her daughter Chiffon without flying into a rage thanks to her twin sister Lola's desertion, she did admit that she spoiled Pudding more than the others and gave her more attention."
"Because of all the kidnaping and murder attempts when she was little. Most of us who aren't petty as hell understood that." Brulee said glaring pointedly at Flambe who merely popped a bubble gum bubble and crossed her arms.
"Thanks to her third eye giving her the ability to read poneglyphs,"
"Which is just a rumor that doesn't have any proven fact to it. The only surefire way to read the poneglyphs is to be taught by an Oharan Scholar…and while I can read it and am an Archaeologist I am not really a scholar so I'm unsure if I'd even be able to pass my knowledge along." Robin said tilting her head as she thought of that and wondered how that rumor got started.
"You're a really good teacher Robin! You taught me how to read!" Luffy said brightly and more than a few people were wondering how the hell he made it to nineteen years old and never learned how to read.
"That explains a lot." Nami said sighing heavily as she thought about that.
"the very few who somehow found out about this ability and knew about the Red Poneglyph in her possession, often tried to kidnap or kill Pudding. Especially back when she had been a baby."
"Sucks for them though because when they were caught…well my sisters are vicious." Katakuri said and he definitely sounded proud as he glanced at Amande, Smoothie, and Brulee.
"Dolce! Dragee! What have I told you about pulling Anana's hair?" The voice of one of her elder children, Brulee her beautiful broken inside eighth daughter, demanded snapping Big Mom out of her thoughts and drawing her gaze from the small by comparison pastry in her hand to some of her younger children."
"Broken inside? Luffy can help with that!" Ace said as if it were a given.
"Yeah he's really good at healing our cracks and breaks." Franky said looking at Luffy while Brook gave a 'Yohohoho!' in agreement, the rest of the Straw Hats nodding their heads in agreement.
"Brulee, the proud but scarred mirror user, was holding little Anana, her 37th daughter and a true little terror in the making,"
"Of course she is! She gets it from her mama!" Big Mom said proudly.
"on one rather bony hip and was reprimanding the twins who were holding the remains from their balloons now and looking a bit miserable. Judging by the mirror shards it was obvious that Brulee had popped the boys balloons this time instead of Anana herself, probably for pulling their sisters hair."
"Full mirrors are actually easier to make. But I can make shards to use as weapons if I try!" Brulee said shrugging slightly and Luffy stared at her starry eyed.
"But Bru-nee she's a psychopath!"
"Oh no." Amande said wincing as she reached forward and gently pulled Brulee into a hug when the woman went stone faced. Her movements were slow and exaggerated so that Brulee could see everything she was doing and stop her if she didn't want the hug. Instead Brulee sunk into her older sisters arms gratefully and let herself be held.
"The twins protested in unison, like they so often did, and making Anana look upset with tears in her eyes and the older siblings to wince since they knew what that word did to their sister and they didn't mean the little one.
"What have I said about calling her that?!" Brulee demanded looking furious and disappointed with the two boys, and Big Mom as well as some of the older children knew why. Brulee had been interested in a rather good looking and wealthy son of a noble back when she had been sixteen but the boy had turned out to be a true sociopath and psychopath and kept it hidden for a few years."
"Honestly after the way my romance-life went? I think I'm done with men." Brulee said dryly and none of her siblings who knew about what happened could blame her.
"Join the club nee-san!" Smoothie said raising a glass of juice to her sister who snorted, as did a few other siblings.
"The day before the two of them were to be married on Brulee's 21st birthday, the boy had snapped and tried to kill his fiancée. He had cut off Brulee's nose and gave her a horrible scar that went diagonally across her face, just barely missing her left eye."
"Which just made the scar from your childhood look much worse. Right when it had started to fade a bit too." Compote said sighing heavily as she looked at her sister sadly.
"Who knows maybe I was always cursed to be disfigured?" Brulee asked shrugging it off but her siblings knew how much it really affected her. Especially her older brothers and sisters.
"Disfigured means you look gross. But you look fine to me. So what if you have a scar? People who think that makes you look ugly are just idiots." Luffy said tilting his head at Brulee who gave him a tired smile but it was full of warmth.
"You know it says something when Luffy is calling someone else an idiot." Usopp said grinning slightly and the rest of the Straw Hats chuckled or looked amused.
"It had only been thanks to luck and her siblings wanting to see their sister one last time before she was married that they had been able to get to her before she bled out,"
"I had a really bad feeling and a need to check on Brulee. So I dragged some of the others with me!" Broye said and she was relieved that she had listened to her gut feeling and went to check on her twin. If she hadn't then…her twin would likely have been…
Broye didn't finish that thought as she curled into her twins' side, the taller sister putting an arm around her comfortingly. Both of them still had nightmares of both the incident and of what ifs.
"and managed to reattach her nose despite the fact that it was discolored now.
He had mutilated one of her babies and nearly killed her the day before she married him.
It was supposed to have been the happiest day of her daughters life and yet it ended up being one of the darkest. Perospero had been the one to get there first and had surprised most of them when his calm if not slightly unhinged personality went full on protective firey rage on the one who had dared to harm one of his baby sisters."
"Yeah I had never seen Peros-nii-san so angry before. It was honestly scary." Angel said glancing at the oldest brother who gave them a sheepish look.
"He dared tried to kill one of my baby sisters. Of course I was angry, I'm just sorry I scared the little ones, peroin."
"It had taken Big Mom (who had been holding back greatly lest she risk crippling or even killing her eldest son), several dozen Chess Peacekeepers, Compote, and the triplets (Compote, Kakuri, Oven, and Daifuku were only assisting on their mothers orders and even then didn't give it their all and she couldn't blame them)"
"Well yeah. That ass deserved everything done to him and worse." Compote said shrugging slightly and recalling with great clarity and glee the way it had felt to break the bastards nose under her fist.
"to keep the eldest child from outright killing his sisters attacker.
He had been very pissed when he had been stopped and had stayed that way for over an hour… right up until Big Mom told him that she was sure all of Brulee's siblings wanted to show their…disappointment…in his actions to the man himself."
"Oh we did! Even those of us who were too little to understand most of what happened knew that he had hurt and nearly killed one of our favorite big sisters!" Galette said her eyes glinting darkly as she recalled getting her licks in on the bastard.
"Once the siblings were done, but left the scum bag alive on their mothers orders, Big Mom drained his soul slowly over the course of weeks to months until Brulee was finally recovered enough physically, emotionally, and mentally to see the man again. She had been jittery, nervous, even outright scared…but she had done it with her two favorite big brothers standing beside her for support."
"Peros-nii-san and Katakuri-onii-chan are the best big brothers." Brulee said snuggling into Katakuri's side while Perospero reached over and ruffled her hair. Cracker pouted a bit at that but had to admit that she wasn't wrong.
"Big Mom had left just enough of the man's soul in his body for him to be alive and knowing full well who had finally ended his misery and killed him.
Brulee had even been gracious, or cruel as some would say, enough to have used the very same knife her former fiancée had used to slash her face open and nearly blinded her in one eye."
"Good. He deserved it." Ace and Sabo were in agreement on that and Luffy nodded his head as well. Brulee winced as she reached her hand up and covered her eye. As she got older it was getting harder and harder to see out of her eye but she kept that a secret between her and her twin.
"They had never really told her that while the rest of the siblings old enough to take part tortured the man who had dared harm one of theirs, Amande and Perospero had been in such a towering rage that just torturing the man hadn't quailed their fury and desire for blood."
"Damn right it didn't. How dare that filth hurt my baby sister." Amande hissed out a bit as she glared at nothing, her pupils becoming slit. Brulee looked confused and surprised, this was the first she was hearing of this after all.
"To keep them from accidentally finishing the job that was Brulee's right to finish, Big Mom had given the two of them a new mission. Destroy that noble son's family and kingdom and make it part of their own as…payment…for the damage done to her daughter."
"Most of their kingdom wasn't useful at all but at least it gave us a new island for people to live on!" Big Mom said and Brulee looked up at her mother stunned for this.
"By the time the two were done they were covered in blood and hadn't left a single one of the man's family members or those who tried to stop him alive."
"Damn right we didn't. There were a lot of candy corpses that day and Amande had a field day with those who got near her, peroin." Perospero said with a dark and twisted grin on his face while Amande let out a small plume of smoke.
"I made them scream for hours before they finally died." Amande said and Brulee was looking at them both stunned and in disbelief. They…they had really avenged her like that?
"Sorry Bru-nee." The twins said looking shamefaced and upset once Brulee finally was done reaming them both a new one for what they had called their younger sister and how they had been treating her. None of the youngest siblings liked the eighth sister being upset or mad at them."
"Of course not! She's one of our favorite big sisters and she acts like Mama does most of the time!" Anana said and Brulee winced but smiled at her little siblings.
"Am I a psychopath?" Anana asked quietly, looking up at her favorite big sister scared and tearfully. Brulee immediately began bouncing the little girl and rocking on her feet slightly as everyone watched, not that the eighth daughter cared in the least as she focused on the child in her arms."
"Not at all sweetheart." Brulee said looking at her sister who crawled into her lap and was immediately cuddled.
"No sweetheart. You're nowhere near being a psychopath. You're just a little bit…sadistic…or perhaps a little more twisted in the mind than some of the rest of us but that's okay. We're all twisted in our own ways and some more than others."
"Yeahhhhh that's mostly because of me." Big Mom admitted with a wince and a sheepish apologetic smile to her kids.
"So what you like to cut things or pop their balloons? Maybe that means you'll take an interest in swordsmanship or at least knife wielding as your fighting style, or maybe you'll be more interested in being in the medical field like a surgeon." Brulee quickly began to softly sooth her little sister, well one of the littlest ones that is.
Despite being vain and arrogant around outsiders, seeming as if she only wanted to carve up every pretty face she met,"
"Ha! If I did that there wouldn't be any women in Tottoland! And I'd end up hurting my sisters! After all look how cute my sisters are!" Brulee said motioning to all of her little sisters who blushed or scowled at their sister embarrassing them.
"she was actually very gentle and understanding with her siblings. All of the Charlotte siblings from 9th to 85th looked up to and had a bit of a soft spot for the 8th daughter, some of the littlest ones like Anana even saw her as a second mama."
Anana and the littlest ones all nodded their heads in agreement while Brulee went wide eyed and blushed.
"Katakuri may be the favorite big brother, and Compote may be the eldest sister…but Brulee was the favorite big sister."
"You bet she is!" The decuplets cheered and Brulee went even brighter red and buried her face in Katakuri's scarf.
"Often times she had used her Mirror Mirror powers to check on and keep an eye on her siblings who all had small mirrors in their possession at all times, and all of her siblings and even her mother knew that if they needed her to be there and simply said her name into a mirror…then she'd hear them and be there in less than a minute."
"That kind of reminds of that old Easy Blue legend of the woman in the mirror who was covered in blood…what was her name?" Ace asked trying to remember that old scary story that Dadan had told them once when they annoyed her
"You mean the story of Bloody Mary? I remember hearing about that too." Usopp asked and he remembered being scared of so much as looking at a mirror for months after hearing about it.
"It's possible that this Mary woman was someone who had the powers of the Mirror Mirror fruit before her death and it became Brulee-san's but her actions with the power in that sea caused her to become myth and legend…" Robin said thinking about it and wondering what that woman had done.
"You'll have to tell me that story later." Brulee said wondering what the woman had done as well and if she could somehow mimic it, much to the more cowardly peoples horror.
"Surgeons have to cut people up to fix them, maybe that's what you'd be into when you're older. But for now it's too early to tell and that's fine. You like cutting things, then you keep cutting things but don't kill anyone or anything living until you're at least thirteen alright?" Brulee asked bouncing her sister a bit more and earning a small smile and a nod from one of the youngest three girls in the family."
"Yeah I try to enforce that rule too. Fighting? Fine have fun. But killing? No I try to keep the kids away from that until they're at least thirteen or fourteen. It usually works now but sometimes…it hadn't…" Big Mom said and she stared sadly down at some of her older kids, recalling how Hachee had taken her first life at the age of ten and how Amande had killed her first person at the age of five when they tried to hurt her little sisters.
"Mkay." Anana said cuddling close to her favorite big sister, making Brulee smile warmly at Anana while Big Mom smiled fondly at her daughters.
"You'll make a very good mother one day Brulee." Big Mom said not for the first time, making Brulee's eyes widen and she blushed brightly as she looked away from everyone…but they all saw the small sad smile on her face even as her reaction caused them all to laugh a bit except for a few who looked guilty."
"She's really easy to fluster! Sometimes we fluster her on purpose because she starts acting funny." Citron said grinning as she recalled doing that.
"She was so easily flustered by compliments, even back before she had been scarred she had been easy to fluster.
Sometimes her siblings would say different things or compliments just to watch their clumsy, ticklish, broken sister blush bright red and flounder about a bit. It was one of the less damaging but still a bit sadistic things the siblings liked to do, sadistic according to their targeted sister of course."
"It is!" Brulee said pouting at her siblings who didn't look the least bit repentant.
"Brulee has cursed her siblings out more than once when the younger ones couldn't hear for it while stumbling over her feet in embarrassment."
"She's even said some things before that I've never heard, although at least she keeps it away from the little ones unlike some of you." Big Mom said and she was frowning pointedly at Daifuku.
"Mama!" Tamago came rushing into the room as fast as he could, only ending up crashing into Brulee. The two of them went down in a swirl of growls, yelps, and curses while the rest of the Charlotte siblings in attendance either busted out laughing…or tried to hide the fact that they were laughing."
"That's just your luck sister." Amande said but she was smiling slightly.
"Leave it to their clumsy accident-prone sister to have that happen to her, although it seemed her Observation Haki was getting a bit stronger. Not many of her siblings had noticed it but Big Mom and the older siblings had. Just before Tamago had entered the room, Brulee stopped blushing as she looked at the door and quickly but carefully tossed Anana to the closest sibling who would catch her. In this case it was Amande, the third born daughter, who had reacted in a surprisingly fast pace and caught the tossed girl in her arms."
"I usually move slow because there's no use to rushing, not when it makes the chase more fun. But for my siblings? I'll be moving at top speed."
"Tamago you have five seconds to separate yourself from Brulee…and three to tell me why you were in such a hurry that you disturbed my time with my children." Big Mom said glaring at Tamago who hastily scrambled off of Brulee and away from the tall woman. Big Mom didn't often spend a lot of time with her family all together unless it was a Tea Party…and even then most of the time a few of her children couldn't make it due to attacking pirates and other such things."
"Yeah not to mention trying to keep the islands running and afloat." Smoothie said with a wince although she was curious. Were all of them really there?
"When she did spend time with all of her children, even though Katakuri was away at the moment retrieving a present for Brulee's birthday next week, she guarded it fiercely and jealously."
"I've had Broye's present ready for a week and a half, Brulee is happy with anything though which makes it actually harder to get something for her." Katakuri said and most of the siblings agreed with him on that. Brulee wasn't picky but that just made it even harder to get her something she would like that she hadn't already gotten.
"Tamago had been in service to the Charlotte family for a long time, since a year or so before Brulee's ex-fiancée tried to kill her in fact. He knew that although they didn't often show it openly, especially around others, most of the Charlotte siblings numbers 16 and up were very protective of the 8th sister to the point where some of them seemed to have a sister complex of sorts."
Here everyone looked at Katakuri, Perospero, and Amande pointedly but the three made no excuse and no apologies.
"The younger siblings were a bit protective too and very possessive, but they were that protective over all of their loyal siblings…the older ones were more protective of their broken sister than they were their other siblings.
"The information you asked for! On Straw Hat Luffy's family!" Tamago panted out making everyone pause for a moment and look at him while Big Mom's eyes narrowed and Smoothie helped her sister up with a small smile while Brulee scowled at her siblings who were still chuckling or giggling at her."
"Thank you Smoothie-chan." Brulee nodded to the Sweet Commander who merely smiled at her and nodded back.
"Hurry up and spit it out." Big Mom said even as she had picked up her youngest daughter to sit on her lap when the little blond girl held her arms up towards her mother. Big Mom smiled softly down at her youngest as she handed the girl a small tea cake that was about the same size as the child's head, but the little girl had her mothers appetite as she devoured it in less than a minute."
"Is she related to Luffy?" Nami asked completely serious as she stared at the little girl who was happily eating a cake now.
"Could be! After all Luffy can eat twice his own body weight in food and still be hungry!" Ace said from where he was proudly wearing a shirt with Luffy's face on it.
"Where did you get that?" Zoro asked eyeing the shirt and Ace grinned as the shirt adjusted to read 'Founder of Luffy Protection Squad' on the front.
"I just wished for it." Ace said and all the Straw Hats looked at each other as Sabo got a shirt as well that said 'Founder of Luffy Fan Club' on it.
Almost immediately the Straw Hats aside from Luffy had similar shirts on. Zoro's proudly declaring him the Main Bodyguard of Luffy Protection Squad and Robin's proclaiming herself as the personal assassin of one sunshine captain.
The rest of the Straw Hats were similarly designed with their own private slogan or something but all of them proclaiming their loyalty and admiration for their beloved captain.
The Grand Fleet soon had shirts that matched as well and even Brulee ended up with a shirt.
Hers said Proud Mother of one Rubbery idiot son. Big Mom had a similar shirt that said 'Proud Mother of 85 little terrors' on the front and 'Proud Grandmother of dozens of little dumbasses' on the back.
Luffy just laughed from where he somehow ended up in a shirt that said 'I love everyone!' on the back and 'I'm going to be King of the Pirates' on the front.
"His father…Like they said at the War of Best! It wasn't a lie to aim the Marines at him!" Tamago hurried to rush out while Big Mom looked at him annoyed a bit, why should she care about the damn War? All she cared about was the fact that Whitebeard had died during it which had left Fishman Island ripe for the taking, and took it she had."
"Pops…" Ace said sadly and shocked, his pops died trying to save him?
"That bastard Blackbeard. No one kills a former Rocks Pirate but another Rocks Pirate! I ever see him and he's dead on the spot!" Big Mom said scowling. She was the only one allowed to kill Whitebeard and the other idiots she used to sail with! And they were the only ones allowed to kill her! That was how it was!
"They had delivered the sweets on time ever since she claimed the island, right up until that damn Straw Hat had the gall to claim he had-
"His father is Monkey D. Dragon the Leader of the Revolutionaries!" Tamago said causing most of the elder children to jerk slightly as they stared in shock, a few turning towards Brulee who was frozen at that."
As she was now although she was staring at Luffy now while he tilted his head.
"Damn Straw Hat….Had…Straw Hat…Dragon.
Everyone could tell when the information processed in Big Mom's mind as her eyes slowly widened her mouth dropped open a little bit as her gaze swung towards Brulee in an instant.
"Dragon…but wasn't that?" Smoothie trailed off staring wide eyed at her siblings that had been old enough to remember when the man had visited their home.
"The one who stole our nephew." Oven said his face set into a scowl as the floor heated up slightly underneath his feet at the reminder. That was one of his only and worst failures. Being unable to protect his newborn nephew and keep his sister from breaking."
"Well that's mean of him. Why steal a baby?" Luffy asked confused and his crew were staring between him and Brulee shocked as the pieces fitted in their heads immediately.
"Stole our nephew?" Anglias, the youngest son, asked confused as he looked at his elder siblings. As far as the younger ones knew there weren't any nephews other than Chiffon's newborn son with her husband Bege."
"Well there's also mine, Monder, and Amande's kids but they're all long since grown." Compote said glancing at her two oldest younger sisters who smiled slightly as they thought of their own kids.
"Quite a few of us have kids but I guess that he's just thinking of within the time frame of him being born and old enough to remember, in that case Chiffon's the only one with a newborn that could be stolen." Cracker said making a couple of his siblings nod their heads in understanding and agreement.
"Monkey D. Dragon. Almost twenty years ago he had shipwrecked on our island. Brulee was the one to find him in the remains of his ship and bring him here for medical assistance. The doctors said that Brulee saved his life by doing that."
"I'd say you should have left him to die…but if you did that then…" Hachee trailed off as she and the others understood the unspoken words. If she hadn't had saved Dragon then Brulee would have never gotten pregnant and had her son.
"Daifuku said scowling darkly as well although most of the older siblings and Big Mom herself were looking at Brulee in worry.
The Mirror woman was still frozen in place wide eyed.
"Over the course of a few months Brulee had fallen for him, and it seemed he had fallen for her as well and thus Mama allowed them to be married. He wasn't bothered by her scar, in fact he had said it just made her look better since it meant she was strong enough to survive."
"And yet as soon as he got what he wanted from me he was gone. Gone and took my baby with him and I doubt he ever meant anything he said to me." Brulee said her voice tinged with betrayal and bitterness. Amande leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her little sister again, pulling the tall mirror user to be cuddled between Amande, Broye, and Katakuri all three.
"Amande said softly, looking at her younger sister in worry even as she set Anana down on her own feet.
"But then he left. He left all of a sudden and abandoned us. Because of something to do with the Revolutionaries. He promised he'd be here by my side, especially right then but he just up and left without a single word!" Brulee said clenching her eyes shut tightly as she tried to fight back the memories. The memories of the man who she had fallen for, even though she really should have known better after her first attempt at love backfired so horribly."
"Like I said. I'm done with men. Nothing but trouble." Brulee said and Smoothie started snickering.
"Hear hear!" Nami raised her mug of rum as well, making Sanji pout.
"Not just that but when he had come back…it was only so that he could steal his newborn son, Brulee's newborn son, right from the cradle. He stole your nephew, Brulee's son, and my grandson and then vanished off the face of the earth before we could find him and get the baby back."
"Oh so I have another brother then right? I think that's what happens when we share a dad isn't it? Well that and if we share sake." Luffy said tilting his head and making Brulee sigh slightly but smile at her son.
"No Lu-chan. We're talking about you. You're the baby he stole from me." Brulee said and Luffy blinked for a second at that.
"Okay! I guess that makes sense too!" The rest of the room face palmed about how easy he was accepting that.
"Big Mom scowled darkly at that, her powers beginning to surround her in a miasma of rage. Brulee would have been a great mother, she had been looking forward to the baby so eagerly even after Dragon had left. She had been so happy to have a baby of her own to love and care for like she did her little siblings."
"It's one thing to take care of the little siblings. It's another entirely to take care of your own child." Amande said and she smiled softly as she remembered taking care of her own children, her two daughters and one son who were all grown up now and two of them were married and starting to give her grandchildren! Her youngest daughter Pixie though wasn't getting married, not to a male at least, but Amande smiled fondly as she thought of her youngest daughters girlfriend. The woman, a librarian of all things, was a good fit for Amande's rambunctious baby girl and a good influence on her. Amande wouldn't be surprised at all if her daughter proposed soon.
Yes…taking care of her children had been a lot different than taking care of her siblings.
"Tamago! Find out all information you can on Monkey D. Luffy immediately and then fetch Katakuri!" Big Mom ordered making the man run from the room immediately.
"Don't worry sis. We'll get your baby boy back and welcome him to the family with open arms." Compote was trying to reassure and sooth her younger sister who still had her eyes screwed shut and her arms wrapped around her own stomach where her scar was hidden by her dress."
Brulee traced the scar through her dress now while her siblings tightened their grip on her, recalling how they had come so close to losing her.
"Brulee had been very thin even while pregnant, dangerously so. They had to cut open her stomach to get the baby out so that both of them had survived the birthing."
"First time that's had to happen for one of my children and it scared me worse than anything else ever had." Big Mom said closing her eyes and trying to will away the memories and images. Seeing her already broken daughter who was so skinny being cut open by the doctors in order to try and save her and the baby both when the birthing had been too hard.
Brulee had been in labor screaming for well over ten hours before the doctors had cut her open after all and Big Mom, and most of the siblings who had been there, could still recall every minute and scream that had left their sisters lips and those horrifying words they had heard.
"Get me a scalpel! We have to operate to save her and the baby!" A doctor had yelled for a nurse to bring him a scalpel and the entire family had felt their hearts freeze.
"I don't care about me just save the baby!" Brulee's screamed words had their blood freezing in their veins and more than one of the siblings had hit their knees and prayed for the first time wishing for her to be okay.
"No matter how strong you are, how many children you have…nothing nothing will ever prepare you for something like that." Big Mom said taking in a shaky breath as she opened her eyes and her children nodded grimly in agreement, most of the older ones reaching out to touch Brulee somewhere as if to remind themselves that she was alive and here.
"You should be proud of your son Brulee. The Charlotte blood seems to run strong in him." Big Mom said softly to her Mirror Daughter who looked up at her confused and with tears in her eyes, causing her siblings and mother to be upset. They never liked seeing one of their own cry, especially not a strong if not clumsy woman like Brulee."
"While some of us might be stronger physically and emotionally…mentally Brulee is the strongest of us." Smoothie said as she recalled learning about each thing that had happened to her big sister, recalling each thing that had happened that she had been there for but powerless to help.
A lesser or weaker person might have given up or killed themselves years ago, but no…Brulee was strong enough to keep going.
"He's only nineteen at the moment and he already has a 300 million Berry Bounty. I think that's a record for our family isn't it?" Amande asked looking at the others who tried thinking about it for a moment. They weren't sure what all of their siblings bounties were at the age of nineteen but their nephews bounty did beat most of theirs at that age."
"Especially since most of our bounties had higher prices on them than they otherwise would be because of Mama." Galette said as she thought about it, her nephew's bounty greatly dwarfed hers at nineteen.
"Although since he's a member of the Charlotte family then maybe he really did eat all of that candy from Fishman Island." Big Mom said thoughtfully and making Brulee snicker a bit although it was kind of watery. She was obviously trying not to break down in front of everyone."
"You can always cry in front of me Brulee. Don't forget I can always feel what you feel. We're twins after all." Broye murmured to her twin as she hugged the taller sister tightly while Brulee buried her face in her shorter twins hair, careful of her crown.
"She busted out in hysterical watery laughter at Perospero's next sentence then.
"Looks like our nephew has a sweet tooth then. He'll fit in just fine."
"Eh I like meat more. Never really ate candy before." Luffy said tilting his head and making the Charlotte family stare at him in wide eyed horror and disbelief.
"Wait never? What about for Childrens Day?" Nami asked frowning at that, even after Arlong came and ruined their lives the adults in her town had still did their best and managed to give each child at least one or two pieces of candy for childrens day.
"Most of the adults in the village didn't really like me. Makino and Mayor Woodslap would give me new clothes cause my old ones were too small or worn out and the bandits would give me some extra shares of the meat! Ace-nii and Sabo-nii would give me some of their meat too and help me hunt crocodiles since they're my favorite!" Luffy said and he saw absolutely nothing wrong with that. The Straw Hats had dark looks on their faces even as they internally planned to make the next childrens day all about him and Chopper.
The Grand Fleet were already whispering about where to get the best candy for their commander to try out, Bartolomeo already trying to find the best places to find high quality crocodiles for Luffy-senpai.
"I'm giving you at least one or two dozen of each type of candy and I want you to try them all." Big Mom said sternly to her grandson who merely blinked at her while the rest of her kids were already planning to try and somehow get him some of their specialties for the ones who cook, or some of the islands best chefs specialties for the ones who didn't cook.
"They never celebrated your birthday?" Brulee asked sounding heartbroken as she stared at her son while the Straw Hats and the Grand Fleet's heads whipped towards her.
"His birthday!?" They all asked in a large cacophony of noise.
"Well we tried to tell him about how Childrens Day was special for him because it was his birthday…the fact that all the other kids got candy and stuff and that the Bandits never really celebrated birthdays before kind of made that fall flat. Especially after we thought Sabo died since he's the only one of us three who had birthday parties and stuff before." Ace said shrugging his shoulders while the Straw Hats were scrambling to grab their captain.
"You shitty rubber idiot why didn't you tell us!?" Sanji demanded as he grabbed Luffy's vest tightly, the rest of the Straw Hats circling their captain and holding onto him in some manner.
"We just celebrated my birthday not that long ago didn't we? Usopps and Franky's too!" Sanji demanded and Luffy blinked confused innocent eyes up at him which just made everything worse to the crew.
"Sorry Sanji! I would have told you if I knew you wanted to know!" Luffy said with a bright smile and his crew nearly deflated and Nami even had tears in her eyes as did Chopper.
"Luffy…" Zoro said and he didn't have to say anything else as Luffy looked at him and they had entire silent conversation within a few seconds.
"Shishishishi. Sorry. I just didn't think mine counted since it was a holiday!" Luffy said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and the Grand Fleet were planning one hell of a birthday party to make up for it, for all the birthdays he must have missed.
"Oh it most certainly does Luffy. You deserve cakes and candles and balloons…maybe even a global holiday." Robin said and there was a soft almost motherly look in her eye as she reached forward and brushed some of his hair behind his ear.
"Shishishi! I don't want none of that stuff! As long as I got my Nakama I'm happy!" Luffy said brightly and he was immediately being pulled into a ten way hug by his crew while Boa Hancock and the Amazons joined the Grand Fleet in planning the best birthday in the world.
"But we could have a huge cake. We could have had a party and we didn't. That's such a waste isn't it?" Sanji asked and he separated enough to spread his arms wide as if to show the size of the cake and he wasn't exaggerating at all. It was a cake for his beloved captain, for his King, and Sanji would make it the best in the world.
"We aren't kids anymore captain so none of us really celebrate Childrens Day…we could have had a party for you and there would have been treasure maps and fireworks…" Usopp trailed off and Nami whipped her eyes.
"I'd even give you some of my mikan without charging you for it." Nami said and Luffy's eyes went wide like they did whenever the crew were telling him stories.
"Okay! Next year let's celebrate my birthday! But on two conditions!" Luffy said and his crew all looked at him curious about the condition.
"One! We have to help Brook pick a day for his birthday too! He needs to have one!" Luffy said and he didn't even care about the lost years he never got to celebrate as he latched onto the skeleton who began sobbing and agreed while the Straw Hats smiled.
"And Two! We have to celebrate Zoro's too!" Lufy said and the crew as one glanced at Zoro who hadn't cared at all about his birthday.
He stared at Luffy though and Luffy stared back and then he smiled a bit and shrugged.
"I don't really care about mine but if it'll make you happy Captain then I don't mind." Zoro said with a small smirk to Luffy who laughed and jumped to hug Zoro now.
"Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed as Zoro caught him with ease and let the rubber boy stay wrapped around him without a single issue.
"Luffy-senpai is so kind!" Bartolomeo said wailing at how kind and caring Luffy was of his crew.
"Your son is weird for a pirate little sister…but he definitely is one of the better ones I've seen." Katakuri said smiling behind his scarf at how Luffy hadn't even cared much about all of his missed birthdays and happily let his crew promise to celebrate his birthday next year as long as everyone else's was celebrated as well.
Most pirates would be greedy and selfish and demand money or things that were expensive for their birthdays if they celebrated it…he only demanded that his crew celebrate as well.
"My baby boy…" Brulee was so proud of her son as she stared at him as his crew passed him around for hugs and apparently the Pirate Empress was promising to give him a lot of food that was a specialty of Amazon Lily's for his birthday which also earned her a hug that nearly made her faint.
"Don't forget us commander. We'll definitely be celebrating your birthday too!" The Grand Fleet captains were promising and the littlest one was even promising to tell someone named Rebecca and Viola about it as well while they all got hugs. Which nearly caused the person the Charlottes recognized as Bartolomeo the Cannibal to nearly pass out from happiness.
"Shishishishi! We need to celebrate yours too then!" Luffy said and the Charlottes could see each of the fearsome veteran pirates hearts melt in their eyes at that and how they all seemed to be completely under Luffy's thumb willingly as they scrambled over each other to agree and then tell Robin their birthdays so she could keep track.
Finally after everything had calmed down the book appeared in Monte-d'Or's hands while Luffy was in the middle of a large Straw Hat cuddle pile with his brothers cuddling him as well and the Fleet Commanders surrounding them protectively.