Here the Bird Sing
Chapter 02: A Mother's Love
Ace watched in complete awe as his mother stood in place, the humongous roaring lightning dragon behind her bursting to electrify the surrounding Navies in a backlash wave.
With just one move, his mother had stopped Akainu's attack, cut off the bastard's limbs, beheaded Teach and disarmed the Marines surrounding her.
Ace just gaped.
"Holy shit." Sabo said, pausing from where he was bandaging Ace's ribs.
"Mama is so awesome." Luffy said, utterly starstrucked, quiet and fighting to stay awake.
Ace and Sabo absently nodded in unison, watching their mother bat away Borsalino's laser beam attack and reflecting it back to him, moving at lightspeed and parrying the Admiral's infamous light saber. All the fighting had stopped to watch the two seemingly teleport in clashing yellow and blue lights.
Ace knew that his mother can fight, for goodness' sake, she's the one who taught them Haki, knows that she can fight with a sword and one of the main reasons why Hawkeyes kept making cow-eyes at her.
But holy fuck.
Meanwhile, Law remained nonplussed, hissing at Luffy's attempt to wriggle away from his prodding hands.
"Right, this is the first time you've seen Osen-san let loose." He sounds so utterly bored that it's offending, because that's there mother right there! Keeping up with an Admiral, utterly trashing the other and killing Teach with one attack.
"That's how she saved Cora-san and I."
Rosinante sighs like a lovesick bastard from where he is patching up one of Ace's brothers, Ace would have turned back and burned the man's ridiculous coat, but he does not want a pipe to the face.
"Hey! Stop moving already or I'm telling Osen-san!"
Luffy stops struggling, conking out once he noticed Shanks presence. And huh? When did he get here?
"They never really believed me when I said there's another kid in Roger's crew. Then again, I did report you as 'a cute little girl who's hair turned part yellow when she got struck by lightning, very good with a sword'. Too fictitious, they said."
"It's nice to see you again, Borsalino-san. I see that you still like yellow."
"And I see that you grew up real well to be a beauty. Want to spar again some other time? I know an island,"
What the fuck?! And was that monkey hitting on his mother?!
Uncle Red makes his presence more known and decides that that was enough by unleashing his Haki, if looks could kill, Borsalino would be dead thrice over. Uncle Blue is being held back by his fellow escapees, parts trying to fly out from their hold as he yells obscenities against the Admiral.
("What the fuck you trying to pull you flashy old bastard?! Yellow is fucking off limits you—")
From there, the war was finished.
His stubborn Oyaji was immediately ushered by Marco and the others, from his view on the Polar Tang, his Mom was there with them. Ace has a gut feeling that she's the reason the old man actually listened because nobody with a heart can say no to one Agatsuma Senritsu when she decides to be convincing.
The two standing Admirals tried to stop them from leaving, but with a siren call from his Mom had ginormous Sea Kings rising from the water with a battle cry.
A while passes and they sail away from the wrecked Marineford unhindered and carted by Neptunians at his mother's gentle request, the escaped prisoners being headed by Uncle Blue had sailed away to who knows where, but before that, his clown Uncle made sure to visit and yell at him for endangering himself and Luffy and then berating Luffy's stupidity and gall for storming Impel Down.
Ace lands on Moby Dick's main deck and once he did, a yellow blur scooped him up in the mother of all hugs but careful not to jostle his injured ribs. He still fits inside her arms, still taller than him with her being over two meters, and still to this day, her hugs never failed to make him feel protected and loved.
"Firecracker!" His Mom bawls at the crook of his neck already drenched after only a few seconds.
Shit.
He made his mother cry. Again.
Ace felt like he had his torso punched right through.
Fuck.
He messed up, bigtime. The heated glares from his brothers on his person is very much deserved. Sabo and Luffy would most likely beat him up once they learn of this, and Law, who is present and treating patients on deck, is silently dissecting him with his eyes and would most likely retaliate by stealing his liver later.
The Whitebeards that were all immediately taken by his mother when they first met her are giving him the stink eye, some older members who already knew her from his old man's crew she used to sail with before were grumbling threats at him.
Ace promised to never make his mother cry again, he vowed this when his mother cried when she learned about his excursion to the Gray Terminal's seedy bars to ask a stupid question, knowing well what they would answer.
After all these years, Ace still feels like he doesn't deserve her kindness, not one bit, sacrificing her freedom and her youth to take care of him, to raise him.
Mom lifts her head up and Ace felt the guilt claw at him. Hard.
"Have I ever made you feel unloved?"
"No!"
He felt like he just received Akainu's magma fist right through the chest.
Because she stated it as an honest to God question, and not at all a way to guilt trip him. It did the job anyway.
"No." He repeated, firmer, quieter.
Because it's true. This woman loves him, never once made him feel otherwise. And he knew, he knew that she loved him not because his father was her former Captain, she loved him for him.
(She loved him enough to sacrifice a life away from sea. She loved him enough to take him as her own child despite knowing the consequences it would entail. She loved him enough to tell stories about his biological parents despite the pain of recalling memories of them. She loved him enough to make a home with him, going so far to let him tag her surname to his name. Loved him so thoroughly that he never felt the loss of his parents.)
Portgas-Agatsuma D. Ace felt like he's the shittiest motherfucker for making his mother doubt herself. Again.
"Then why?" Calloused hands cradled his face gently, thumbs already moving to clear Ace's tears.
"I don't know." He just felt he didn't deserve it. "I was being stupid."
("Yeah, very, very stupid." Law states flatly from the sideline.)
The hold on his face tightens. "What do you mean you don't deserve it?!" His Mom squeaks out in incredulity.
Ah shit, he forgot about his mother's mind reading/empath powers.
"Of course you deserve it!" She yells, amber eyes trained to his eyes. "All my love and more! You're my son! And you might have not come from me but you're still my child!"
"But I'm putting you in danger!" Ace finds himself yelling too.
"I've always been in danger!"
She was a former member of a legendary demonized crew so it's understandable, and her association to Uncle Red alone is a fuse in her life.
"But I plunged you to even more!"
He knows she wouldn't have come here if it weren't for him.
"You sacrificed so many things already, your freedom, your youth. I don't," Ace's voice hitched. "I don't want to take more from you." And certainly not your life. He finishes off quieter, unable to look more into her eyes.
"Oh Ace," Lips touches his forehead, a familiar feeling and Ace looks up.
His mother is looking at him with the same eyes he had seen on her countless of times. Ones that are equally freely given to his siblings. There is so much love, so much warmth and so much care that he can't believe that it is directed to him.
"It was my choice to take you." She starts carefully, smoothing back his unwashed hair. "And it was my choice to love you, to care for you, to become your mother. It was hard I'm not going to lie," She smiled that smile that made her rival the sun. "But it was my choice, so who is to say that I gave up my freedom?"
She kisses his forehead once again, Ace's tears had never stopped itself from falling, there is snot in his nose yet his mother ignores it and presses there foreheads together.
"I love you Ace, I love you like I love Luffy, Sabo, Law and my ridiculous brothers. I love you like I love Makino, Dadan, Mayor, Dragon, Garp and the others. I love every single one in our family and I would do anything to keep them safe, to keep you safe. And,"
She distances her face, eyes still on him.
"And if it means fighting the whole world to do that then I'll do it. If it means waging war against Gods, I'll still do it. If it means signing my name to the Flying Dutchman, then so be it. There's nothing in this world that I wouldn't do to protect every single one of you."
She smiles again, all wide that her swollen eyes slides shut, cheeks red and all her being sunshine yellow set ablaze by the dying sun.
"I love you Ace." She says one more time.
Mom sings to him his favorite lullaby as he continued to bawl his eyes, cradling him close like she always does when he was still a child. He notices later that Sabo and Luffy joins the cuddle session, Law a steady presence near them as he hums along Mom.
"Wandering child of the earth
Do you know just how much you're worth?
You have walked this path since your birth
You were destined for more
There are those who'll tell you you're wrong
They will try to silence your song
But right here is where you belong
So don't search anymore
You are the dawn of a new day that's waking
A masterpiece still in the making
The blue in an ocean of grey
You are right where you need to be
Poised to inspire and to succeed
You'll look back and you'll realize one day"
"Ace, do I look old?"
"No! Who gave you the idea?! Who called you a hag and I'll roast them extra crispy."
"Huh? But you said I gave up my 'youth' for you."
"It's a figure of speech Mom!"
"Oh."
"That's right Osen-hime! You still look like you're twenty!"
"Yeah! Still youthful!"
"As lovely as a Neverwilt Rose!"
"Sexy!"
"Can I get your den den number?"
"Gorgeous!"
"Utterly one badass motherfucker!"
"That Kuja Empress got nothing on you!"
"Smoking hot is more like it!"
"I'll show you guys what's smoking hot!" "I think that's enough." "Guess I have to sew your mouths shut too." "Shishishi."
"Ah! Fire!"
"Ow! What the fuck strawhat!"
"My dick! I still need it attached to my body!"
"You're no gentleman, Sabo."
"Just be grateful Shanks-san isn't here."
"Gurarararararararara!"