Makino runs a bar – this is common knowledge to anyone who has ever visited Foosha.
She's always behind the counter or at serving drinks, all with a kind smile and a laugh at hijinks. No one misbehaves, and there's a shiny new gun behind the counter for any unwanted visitors.
(Rumor has it a pirate taught her how to shoot.)
She a barmaid and a bar tender and a bar owner – anything really. The Party Bar is her pride and joy.
And left over from her mother, a generation previous, it is her information hub as well.
People come in from all sorts of places for the taste of beers delivered directly by Vice Admiral hands and homebrews from the other side of the island. With them they bring stories, and tales, and wanted posters, secrets about criminals Makino has never known and praise for villains she never wants to meet. Alcohol loosens lips, and it's an easy task to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
Makino's smart. She knows the power she holds with all the information locked tight in her brain. She sends letters to Garp, sometimes, to warn about an upcoming raid on some poor island, and smiles at the news of the Hero of the Navy saving yet another place.
(She calls Shanks sometimes, to hear his voice, and to tell him that some upstart is planning on challenging him, to tell him that the Marines are planning some ambush but its only rookies, really, to tell him that she misses him and Luffy isn't in Foosha much now a days, so can't he come visit?
He doesn't. But that's okay.)
Wanted posters find their way onto the Party Bar's walls, for one reason or another. A nice young man who tipped well, off to becoming a pirate, or a couple of scoundrels smacked down by Garp the Fist himself. Shanks is there, serious faced over a hefty bounty, with the rest of the crew smiling alongside him.
(A spot is reserved on the other wall for the bounty of three young to-be pirates – she can't wait to see how high their bounties soar.)
It's not often Makino looks through them, but then she meets Ace, whose face is so similar to one she has known before – one who smiled at her and gave her a hug when her mother didn't bother paying attention to her.
Makino visit's Luffy's brothers, and cries, just a little bit, when she gets home.
Luffy is so happy but someone dear is gone.
Garp keeps secrets when he wants to but Makino knows how to get them out of him. A drop of knowledge here, a drink there, a smile, a private place with no prying ears, and the mention of grandsons is all it takes for the tears to well up in his eyes and for the words to spill out.
Ace, his first grandson's name is, adopted or not, Portgas D. Ace –
All the information Makino wanted, really, but Garp keeps on talking –
Gol D. Ace, son of the Pirate King –
And Makino's heart shatters.
(Like any bar, the Party Bar receives its fair share of unruly customers, those with cruel words on their tongues and hatred for people they have never met.
The Son of the King? They say, referring to the only king that ever really mattered. Hope he doesn't exist! Should kill 'em if he does, sins of the father, right? Drown him at birth, noose around the neck, whatever works! Kid will turn out to be just as bad as his bastard father!)
Ace has demons in his eyes. Makino knows why.
Ace proudly calls himself Portgas D. Ace, so Makino has hope, and she loves this boy because he is Ace, the one who Luffy calls brother and the one who makes Luffy less lonely, and because Ace is a child and deserves love no matter what she thinks.
She works past the lump in her heart, when she gets home from that conversation from Garp, and opens the chest in her room.
(Tears drip from her eyes and the Party Bar is closed for the day, but that doesn't matter.
Whatever has, in the face of this bloodline?)
Makino was seven when the woman came into town. She was the most beautiful woman Makino had ever seen, gliding into port with hair the color of morning skies and a dash of freckles across her cheek. A flower rose in her hair, vibrant and beautiful, and her smile changed her face into something different, something Makino wished she had. She was pregnant but didn't stumble under the weight of her still small belly, and instead stood tall and imposing, almost as tall as Garp.
Portgas D. Rouge came into port like a storm and exited like a whisper
"Child," she had said to the only one at port that day, Makino, playing in the waves. "Where is everyone?"
"At the bar," Makino told her blindly, because Foosha was small and had no need for anyone to be wary of strangers.
(The era of pirates was beginning today after all.)
"The Pirate King is being executed – everyone's watching it."
It was strange, how people's faces broke at the strangest things.
"My name is Rouge," the woman introduced herself. "Will you take me to the bar?"
"Sure." And Makino did.
(She grabbed Makino's outstretched hand when Makino lead her to the bar, and didn't let go when they were inside. Makino didn't mind (her mother never held her hand anymore). Eventually, the woman, Rouge, lifted her up and placed her on her hip, so she could see the Pirate King.
(He looked big, up on that stage. Who could ever kill him?)
They stood in the back of the bar as Roger shouted his last words – You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you'll just have to find it! – and an era was born with the death of one man.
Rouge cried when it happened, and Makino didn't know why. She was smiling though, still smiling that beautiful smile she gave Makino, so she figured it was alright even as tears dripped from her face onto Makino's hair.
She clung tighter to Rouge, hoping to give her some comfort.
(Hoping she could make this woman happy again.)
It worked, as they left the bar where people were cheering, screaming, at the death of a King. Rouge smiled and her tears mixed with the salt spray from the beach, as she and Makino played in the sand.
Rouge stayed for a week, playing with Makino and giving her more attention than anyone else ever did. She left a flower in her hair when she left, whispered secrets of men and women Makino had never known, and kissed her forehead when Makino went to sleep on her shoulder.
Makino loved her, didn't you know?
(She left, and never came back.)
Makino knows the path to the bandit den like the back of her hand by now. She makes journeys up there in the middle of the week, when the bar is quiet, to give boys a well-cooked meal and some bandits some booze. Its tradition, at this point.
This isn't her usual day, so it's a miracle the boys are even at the bandit den (she had heard from an excited Luffy that they were hiding out in a tree house now.) They cheer at her presence and the meal she brought while Dadan gives her a curious look.
They are covered in bruises, a blessing from Garp before he visited Makino, but are still running around, screeching and wrestling in the mud.
Makino doesn't mind, and in a quiet moment, takes Ace away to talk to him.
"Ace," She starts, kneeling down to be at his level. "Garp told me about your parents."
Ace locks up, body freezing as his eyes go wide. There's terror in them, and Makino feels her heart break. His mouth opens and shuts, words not coming out, but that's okay.
Makino knows his question.
"I don't care, Ace, I still love you."
His eyes well up and he bites his lip, like he can't bear to believe it. He's trying to stay strong, and Makino can't help but wonder at how similar he is to his mother.
(The freckles are a spitting image of Rouge, and Makino can't help but wonder what he would look like if he had his mother's hair.)
Ace sniffles and she draws him in. He's too flustered to fight back, to unused to hugs to hug back, but that's why Makino drew him away from everyone else.
Her shoulder grows wet from his tears as she gently brushes his hair back. "Shh. It's okay, Ace. It's okay." When he grows quiet, eyes dried up, just a little, she says what she truly came up here to do.
"I have a present for you."
He lifts his head up, face curious. "More clothes?"
"No, silly." She laughs and then laughs again at the redness of his face. "Do you know what your mother looked like?"
Ace shakes his head, stilling. "No. Shitty Gramps told me stories though…"
And by the tone in his voice, it's probably stories of his birth – not the ones Rouge told Makino on Foosha's beaches twelve years ago. She's going to have to fix that.
Makino pulls the old and faded paper out of her pocket. "Here"
Ace takes one look at the poster and promptly breaks again
Two weeks after Rouge left Foosha, the News Coos brings another round of papers. Everyone scrambles for one, eager to hear what has happened since the Pirate King fell, but Makino is lucky enough to grab her mother's copy.
Her reading isn't the best now, but she likes looking at the wanted posters that come with them. There are so many new pirates now
The wanted poster that falls out is a new one, an updated one, with a face Makino hasn't seen on a wanted poster before - but has seen in reality, cupped in her hands and counted the freckles of a stranger's face
'SEA STORM' PORTGAS D. ROUGE - WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE: 1.5 BILLION BERRIES
Rouge... the pregnant woman who laughed and dance with Makino as if she was her own child. is wanted? is a pirate? Why?
Makino can't fathom it and worries for the woman who she had known for a week.
She hopes she's alive
She hopes she comes back
(She asks Garp about the woman, once, and some strange happenings run across his face, like worry and concern and anger all at once. He curses then interrogates Makino about everything she knows about the woman, which she tells him, trembling. Her mother scolds her for being dishonest but Garp thanks her, tells her she's keeping her safe. That Rouge will be safe.
Makino is thankful.)
Raids start for the pirate Kings son the next week. Makino stays at home, afraid and hidden as soldiers interrogate every woman on the isle, how long they been there, if any people visited port before the capture of the king.
She hopes Rouge, regnant and tall and bold, escapes it.
Her bounty comes in again with a New Coo a year later, when raids have died down, and Makino is sure she's alive.
1.7 billion, and she's smiling.
Rouge survived. Makino can't wait to see her again.
(That is the last picture she ever gets of Rouge. It's not put up with the others when Makino takes over the bar at 16. It's much too precious for that. instead, she hides it in her chest of precious things in her room, taking care to make sure the paper doesn't crumble or fray. It's a treasure she doesn't admit to having, and dream she doesn't say to the world but keeps close to her heart.)
Makino sees ace and knows Rouge didn't survive for that woman, who played with her when no one else would, would never abandon her child willingly.
The wanted poster is faded but the picture is still clear through meticulous care. a woman stares out from in, angled away from the camera but with her face fully visible. her hair flows in the morning light of the picture, pink against the sea in the background, and freckles dash across her face. she's closed mouth but smiling eye amused but with one eyebrow raised. A hibiscus, pink and blooming, is nestled in her hair. Her skin is warm and glowing and she looks like an older Ace.
Its Rouge, queen of the seas.
Its Rouge, Aces mother.
In the wanted poster he takes gently from Makino, he sees his mother for the first time.
"Mom?" he croaks out, voice shaky and so, so hopeful. Makino hums, and settles in, guiding Ace to sit next to her as they stare at the wanted poster.
"Yes. When I was girl she visited this island... you look just like her, you know? I knew it was her the moment I saw you."
"What... what was she like?" Aces voice is soft and hopeful as he traces the bounty number, so unbelievably high for someone he has never heard of.
Makino smiles. "She was kind, so unbelievably kind, to me at least. Just wandered into Foosha one day and took my hand – I think she was pregnant with you at the time, isn't that fun?"
Ace gives a tiny smile, eyes wide and big as he stares at her. He hangs onto every word, trying to show that he isn't lest she decides not to tell it, which she never would, but it's endearing all the same.
"But to others," Makino continues, "She was the storm at sea. Sea Storm Rouge, the papers called her, a legend known by the burning flower in her hair. She would appear like a maelstrom at sea, suddenly there before you could blink and taking down ships at a speed no one could rival save for a select few. She would free slaves from nobles in the same breath she took off with all their loot. She took nothing lying down."
Sabo and Luffy sneak in to their tiny clearing and find their place next to Ace, knowing there's a story to be told and not willing to miss it. She laughs at their curious expressions, and continues wither her tale of the woman she might have called mother as Ace pulls his brothers in close.
"She told me once of how she stared a sea king the size of an island down because he was bothering her morning meal…"
Rouge leaves in the quiet moments of dawn, when the sun is only barely rising and all is quiet save for the fishermen already out in the waters.
She takes Makino with her, out to the shore, taking her by the hand and leading her out as the girl rubbed sleep from her eyes.
There's sadness in Rouge, Makino notes as they leave, passing by houses and towards the abandon beach half a mile from Foosha.
She doesn't like the sadness there, but she senses it's not her job to get rid of it – it's the selfish kind of sadness, the kind that comes with loving some great.
(Makino's young, but all the children of this world know that feeling.)
They watch the sunrise together in front of Rouge's small ship, and lean into each other. Rouge's hand braids Makino's hair as she plays with the sword handle at the woman's hip.
"Rouge," She asks, quiet. It's not the time for loudness. "Why are you leaving?"
Why are you leaving me?
(Makino's mother runs the Party Bar and doesn't leave time for anyone else. Her father isn't around and the closest she has is Garp and Woopslap, and it should be enough, but it isn't. Not next to this stranger who has told her of legends and let her hold her hand and dance under the stars. It's not enough to the raging storm of Rouge's love.)
Rouge smiles, face softening as she finishes tying off Makino's braid. "I have to, to keep those I love safe. If I fight, I can win, but others won't. And I won't hurt them for their selflessness."
"But what if its selfishness?"
What if I want you here for me?
Rouge rests a hand on her stomach and one on Makino's head, and the world seems to still. There's a pressure from Rouge, one that seems to make the light from the sun flicker under the force from it. It relents, after a moment, but Makino feels safe.
Secure.
Rouge loves her.
"Then you must live with that selfishness, like I do mine." Her voice is soft. Makino takes the words and keeps them in her heart. It's hers.
The sun is half over the horizon now. Rouge gets up, and lifts Makino from the railing where they sit to put her on the sandy ground. They are both barefoot, now, having run in the sand half an hour before, and their toes sink into sand as water runs over their toes.
It's a peaceful kind of ending.
Rouge kneels, soaking her pants in the shore to look Makino in her eyes. She pulls the flower out of her hair, still immaculately pristine and beautiful, and places it behind Makino's ear. "A gift," she says, and kisses Makino on the forehead, "so you don't forget me, alright?"
Makino nods and knows she never will.
No one but Makino knows the Maelstrom of the Grand Line was on Dawn Island, but as Rouge sails off into the raising son, one child left behind and one yet to be born, she finds that's quite alright.
She was there, and that was enough.
(Never, her selfish heart whispers, never enough.)
Ace is the only one still awake by the time Makino tells the last of her few tales. He's tired, clearly, resting heavily on Sabo as Luffy rests in his lap, but he keeps on blinking his eyes open. The sun is setting now, and Makino must really be going, but she has one last thing to show him.
"Come on," She says, pulling Ace up and leaving his brothers to collapse on each other. "I have another gift for you."
Ace looks at the wanted poster still held so gently in his hands, and follows into the woods.
There's a field on the west side of the island, the cliffside above the shore half a mile from Foosha. Its filled with beautiful hibiscuses the shades of vibrant pink.
Ace had seen it before, on his ventures.
But now, Makino shows him the truth.
"Your mother gave me her flower, one of them at least, that was in that poster. It started wilting after a few days, so I found a way to replant the seeds and pressed the original… they quickly spread over the valley…"
The sun makes them burn like fire, and Makino sees the love of a mother reflected in Ace's eyes.
Saltwater falls down her cheeks as she sees Ace take a flower like it is the most precious thing in the world (like Makino had treated the flower Rouge gave her) and place it in his hair. It's just long enough in the step that it nestles gently in his hair, and he smiles, so happily, like she hasn't seen him do unless he's with his brothers.
Tears mirror hers on his cheeks and suddenly she's staring at Rouge on the day she met her.
He gives her a flower next, and they walk under the setting sun to Dadan's hut with Rouge's love intertwined in their hair.
Makino is a bartender, which means she keeps information, and it means she inherited the place where she met a woman who changed her life.
She sees Ace off on the same shore she saw Rouge off, and cries and waves with joy in every moment. He sails into the sun, brilliant and bold, as flowers float around the waiting crowd, and she's so, so happy.
She is a bartender so she gets the wanted posters two months later first: information is key, after all.
The poster is put up on the reserved wall, a place of pride for three two boys.
Fire Fist Ace, it declares, Captain of the Spades Pirates WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE!
The picture on it is a smiling boy on fire, freckled and smiling. His hat has two charms around it and a wreath of beads is around his neck, a gift from his bandit mother. Expected, for a runaway pirate.
Intertwined in the hat and in his hair, however, are brilliant pink hibiscuses – a tribute to a woman forgotten by the world.
(The rumors Makino hears tell of a boy who doesn't care what you do to him, but if you harm his crew or the flowers on his ship and hat, there will be hell to pay from a boy made of fire.)
Makino thinks Rouge would be proud.
"Rouge? What are you going to name your baby?"
"Ann if it's a girl. I would name her Makino, but I think the one I know is great enough!"
"Sesesese! And if it's a boy?"
"Then Ace! That's the name his father loved – it's a good name, don't you think? I love him already."
"Can I be his big sister?"
"Of course."
(Makino is a bartender, and that mean Makino has connections.
She asks Shanks to fill Ace's grave with pink hibiscuses, and for Rayleigh to give Luffy a bouquet of them to give to the cracks in the Earth at Marineford.
It's not nearly enough, but she will be selfish, just this once, and will cry about it.)
She names her child Ann and calls her my little sea storm, my little flower.
She knows Rouge would be proud.