The ship that pulls into dock is intimately familiar to Makino but she can't help but wonder why he had returned and at such a late hour.

When Mayor Wood Slap had come stomping into the bar and grumbling that the pirates were coming back she had taken the first chance she could to go outside and investigate using a set of binoculars to get a better view of the ship slowly moving closer.

She had estimated by how far out the ship was that they wouldn't be docking until the next morning so it was a surprise to her that out of her bedroom window upstairs of the bar she could see the lanterns on the ship illuminate it as it slowly pulled up to the rickety docks.

It was well past midnight so she knew she was probably the only one in town to notice the arrival of the pirates, hurrying to but on some appropriate clothing to go outside with, trying not to look like she spent almost ten minutes deciding on a burnt orange skirt and deep red long sleeved shirt topped with a yellow bandana looking like autumn personified, she had just reached the point where the dock met land to see Shanks walking down the gangplank; alone and with a somber look on his face.

She had to do a second look, a shocked expression coming over her face no doubt when she realized that he was not carrying a purple coloured sack but a small child wearing purple clothing tucked against his good side and the child's face tucked into his neck so that their identical red hair blended together and half covered by his black coat.

This, this had to be his Wren. His little girl that he would always go on about saying how proud he was to be a father to such a talented little girl and how he would do everything he possibly could to keep her safe until she was old enough to defend herself drunkenly proclaiming that she was never allowed to date until someone found the One Piece earning laughs from everyone sober enough to still be awake after a Red-Haired Pirates party.

Bringing one hand up to cover her face as it all starts to click in her head.

His somber expression, showing up in the dead of night when barely anyone would be awake to see her bring the little girl to land, no one else from the crew making any motion to join them on land, the fact he is carrying his daughter who is still sleep even after probably being removed from her warm bed.

He's leaving her here. He's leaving his daughter here and leaving before she wakes up to save him the heartbreak of leaving her behind.

"Hi Makino." His voice is soft but neutral betraying none of the emotions he must be fighting with on the inside as all parents would at a moment like this. Gone is his usual carefree smile that pulls people in or his care-free attitude as he tells stories of fantastic weather on the Grand Line that never made any sense. In its place is a father trying to shelter his little girl from the horrors of life.

"Shanks." She greets back just as quiet as he stops mere feet away from her trying to give him a reassuring smile, being strong for him in this moment because he might not know how she feels for him and that's fine by her she'll be the rock he needs in moments like this when he doesn't have anyone else to lean on. "Is this Wren?"

"Yeah, this is her." It's small but Makino knows she heard his voice finally crack with emotion but she doesn't mention it, it's not her place and right now Shanks could start crying and would be no less of a man for it in her eyes. "Do you have some place I could put her down?"

She can only nod and motion for him to follow her catching the sight of some of the more senior members of crew watching them from the dock deck as she leads Shanks and Wren further into town.

It's quiet between them, only the soft sound of their foot step breaking the silence of the moment and even the door to the bar that always had a squeak in the hinge never made a sound as they pushes through. Or maybe it does and she just doesn't catch it because her mind is far away and her body is only going through the motions of walking back to her apartment above the bar and it is only through habit that she pushes open the door to what used to be Luffy's room until Garp came and collected him a month or two before.

She looks so peaceful, that is the first thought that crosses Makino's mind when Shanks steps back from laying his daughter down on the bed, and though she knows that Wren is only a child it isn't until that moment when Makino can see just how chubby her cheeks are with baby fat she hasn't grown out of that she wonders how anyone could want to harm a child like her.

The marines never hid their hunt for Roger's child from the public, it was general knowledge that anyone harbouring his child would be executed alongside the child and soon enough it became not just Roger's child they were hunting but the child of any know pirate or enemy of the marine's to date. Up to that point in her life, Makino never had to worry about that fact but looking down at the little red-haired girl asleep on the bed all wrapped in deep purple she couldn't help but wonder how anyone could follow such heartless orders and watch silently as children lost their lives over something they never got to choose.

"Thank you." Shank's never lifted his eyes up from Wren, watching as she snuggled deeper into the lone pillow on the bed turning her back to him and letting out a soft hum of contentment. "For everything Makino." He met her own eyes, a lone and silent tear slowly trailing down his cheek and she couldn't help but bring her own hand up to gentle wipe it away and leaving her hand against his face. "I know I shouldn't ask this but-"

"I'll look after her." She doesn't need him to finish his sentence, she already knew what he was going to ask and that moment he appeared at the bottom of the gangplank with his little girl Makino knew she would take the child in like she had Luffy with no questions asked.

A soft set of lips on her forehead pulled her from her thoughts, so soft she almost never felt it until the firm feel of Shank's lone hand on the back of her head was there pulling her own closer to his.

"Papa loves you Songbird." Shank's voice was soft, trailing his hand down from the back of Makino's head to thread his fingers through her own giving him that extra distance needed to kneel down and brush the red locks out of Wren's face and pressed a kiss against her forehead. "I will come back for you the first moment I can. This isn't forever."

For all that Makino had known about Shanks, never had the man told her about how he could sing even such a somber song, clearly one he had sung time and time before to his daughter if the small smile that pulled at her face even in her sleep was anything to go off of.

"Leaves from the vine. Falling so slow. Like fragile, tiny shells. Drifting in the foam. Little pirate girl. Come sailing home. Brave pirate girl. Comes sailing home."

She gave Shanks as much time as he needed in the room, keeping her silence as she stood beside him and just being the rock he needed giving his hand a squeeze back when he finished singing to Wren and continuously holding his hand tight as they backed out of the room together and never letting go until the last possible second when he started up the gangplank to his ship.

Makino might not be cut out for the pirate life and may only have a bare understanding of the world outside her little village and her little island but she could understand plain as day that Shanks had just left her with his most valued treasure worth more to him than all the gold in the world.

She would protect that little girl with all her might.

This was not the bed she had fallen asleep in last night.

The fact her room was not rocking slightly with the current of the ocean was the biggest tip off when she had opened her eyes in the pitch dark room and it was only when she had sat up and seen the window directly above her bed that she quickly parted the curtains on did she see that she was no longer on her papa's ship but instead on land, in some strangers house.

There is no sign of the Red Force at the docks, not even a dingy or the silhouette of the ship on the horizon.

Did... did she do something wrong?

Wren couldn't help but pull her legs up to her chest, worrying her lip with her teeth as she poured over everything that had gone on while she had been on board the Red Force. Had... had this been because she had sat on his paperwork that one day and made him answer her questions, even if he didn't give her an concrete ones. He never gave any physical sign that he was annoyed by her line of questioning and seemed more amused than anything else.

Maybe... maybe she had read him wrong but that couldn't be true, her mother had taught her how to read people with some offhand comment about the ability to read people being in their blood. Claimed it had to do with their eyes, they unnerved people which was a benefit to them.

There were footsteps outside of the bedroom she was in, a boys bedroom going from the colour scheme and few toys still scattered around and piled in a small wooden box in the corner painted a light blue by flaking to show the blonde wood underneath, but Wren never picked her head up from digging her knees into her eye sockets as the door creaked open and light footsteps, unfamiliar ones and that tore at her even more, crossed the room before someone light but still heavier than her sat down the bed beside thankfully not touching her as she didn't need sympathy from anyone at the moment.

She didn't know how long she sat there for in silence, the faint sounds of birds chirping outside muffled by the walls, before she finally pulled her had up enough to now rest her chin just staring at the wall opposite of her and pointedly ignoring the woman, and it was clearly a woman from the choice of dress she could see in her peripheral vision and how slim she was, sitting beside her. There beside the door and half hidden by it's shadow was her ratty old bag so at least her papa had been kind enough to leave that behind with her and seeing as she always put everything back in it at the end of the night she didn't need to worry about her notebook being left behind.

The shadows in her room had grown shorter when the other woman finally broke the silence and honestly, Wren would have preferred it if she never had opened her mouth and just let her keep pretending that her papa who told her he loved her and would always be there for her and protect her from harm, would walk through the bedroom door and take her back to Gaul.

"Wren, my name's Makino. It's a pleasure to meet you. Your dad has told me-"

"Papa." She is surprised at her own tone and how sharp it is when she snaps at Makino even though she knows the woman is not who she is really angry at and she finally turns her gaze on the older woman dressed in a red plaid high collared shirt and cream coloured skirt with free flowing green hair framing her face and highlighting her red eyes, the colour of drying blood but Wren will keep that comparison to herself. "Papa has told you about me." Because Shanks was still papa and was not dad, dad never abandoned Charlotte like Shanks did to her. He didn't even say goodbye, just dropped her off and took off.

She has to give Makino some props though because the woman never faltered, "Sorry," she apologized giving Wren a small smile, "Your papa has told me about you." Makino got up from the bed, smoothing down the front of her skirt before kneeling in front of Wren, that friendly smile still on her face. "I know you must be confused right now but how about we go down stairs and I make you some breakfast. Any requests?"

Part of her, and it was a small part, really wanted to hate her. Wanted to hate Makino for just existing at that moment and wanted to hate her for some how with one sentence being understanding of just what Wren was going through internally because she was right, Wren wasn't mad now that she had some time to think, she was just confused and was mistaking that confusion for anger or annoyance.

"Scrambled eggs and bacon?" Wren offered back using one thumb to rub away the slight pain from where her teeth had been digging into her lip.

Makino offered her hand and Wren, though hesitant, slowly placed her own hand in the older woman's noting just how soft her hands were compared to her own, having been roughed up because of calluses that built up from her own training, and compared to how she remember her mother's were even after she used her homemade lotion that smelt of lemons.

There is a calendar on the wall behind, the right year unlike the one on the Red Force, with days crossed out showing it is now halfway through July and it had been the beginning of March when she left Volca with her papa. So she had spent almost five months at sea and to be truthful, it never seemed like that long.

Well, she now knew that she was nine. Happy birthday to her.

She couldn't help but spear her scrambled eggs with her fork, shoving the mouthful into her mouth, her legs swinging back and forth on the stool Makino had helped her jump up into as she watched the world pass by out the window giving Makino a small smile herself as the woman set a small glass of the lemonade she had asked for.

"After you finish up I can take you for a walk around town, get you acquainted with the town. It might not be what you're used to but I think you'll come to like it." Making leans across the bar from the opposite side that ever present smile on her face as Wren watches her still munching on the scrambled eggs, she had quickly inhaled the bacon strips, and wonders how she can be so happy.

She has been left to care for a man's daughter, a girl she has never met from a woman she has never met. Not to mention, who knows what kind of relationship Makino had with her papa, it was never out right stated in the Before so she can only hypothesize and watch the woman's body language.

What bothers her the most is the lack of loud monkey, from what she could recap of Charlotte's memories Luffy was never far from Makino's side and the fact she has yet to see him is nagging at her.

"Whose room was I in?" Wren sipped at her lemonade she can already hazard a guess but to her someone confirm it can give her a better sense of where the world stands. If Luffy was just staying the night with someone else, like the mayor, then she might get to go up to where the bandits are with him the first time but if he's gone already then who knows what had happened and that left Wren with the task of having to find him in the forest.

Like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Oh," she can't tell if Makino is surprised by her question like she had been expecting her to ask about the town or the people who lived in it or if it was something else entirely, Wren would have to sharpen her skills later it should have been easy for her. "Why, that's Luffy's room." And her suspicions were confirmed.

Pushing her hair back out of her face with her small hand, Wren brough that same hand up to her lips placing her finger between her teeth and lightly clamping down as she slowly created a game plan.

Find Luffy, that was step one and something she was planning to do even before her papa had asked so now it was just a matter of following through. Then there was the matter of leaving town without Makino worrying, the other woman didn't need to think that she lost a child a literal day after being given custody of her. The final step could come after getting to Luffy if she got to Luffy, and that was making sure the kid survived living in the woods.

It was almost two in the afternoon so there were only so many hours left in the day by the time she got out from under Makino's watch and had a chance to go through her bag and make sure she was only bringing the bare necessities as there was no reason to go trekking through the woods weighed down, that could be the difference between life and death.

"Where is he?" Her question was worded innocently enough that Makino wouldn't be able to see the hidden meaning behind it.

The older woman only smiled picking a white apron off the hook behind the bar and tying it behind her, "His grandfather took him up the mountain a month ago. It's been quiet in town since he's been gone, he would always light up my day with stories of what he was going to do when he became a-"

"I'm going after him." Her gaze is steel meeting the slightly shocked gaze of Makino but can only hold it a few seconds before looking away and one hand coming up to run her fingers through her hair that now sits at her shoulder. "Papa asked me to look after him and I promised him," herself, "that I would." She mumbles out with that simple of an explanation, Makino doesn't really need to know more and it might be better if she doesn't.

A hand that is not her own runs over her head and through her red locks, jerking her from her thoughts as that was something her mother would do with Wren when they would sit on the couch in the living room back on Volca and watch the sunset over the trees.

The smile Makino gives her is a hesitant one, a smile that screams apprehension and that she is unwilling to let Wren leave do set out on her journey. "I don't think it's such a good idea for a little girl to go running through the woods alone. It's dangerous and we wouldn't want to worry your papa would we."

"I'm going to find him. I promised papa I would look after him and I never break a promise to papa. He wouldn't have asked me if he didn't think I could do it." She might not know just what kind of relationship Makino has with her papa but she is not above using whatever it is, even if it is just a friendship to get what she wants. Nothing is standing between her and changing the world.

There is conflict in Makino's ruby eyes, the only physical sign being when she bites her own lip. Wren can see why the woman is hesitant to let her go but at the same time she also grew up on the Grand Line where pirates roamed and had even seen various groups come to her home island of Gaul and going after one kid in the forest isn't any more dangerous then waking up each morning the child of an Emperor.

She can see the moment Makino gives in.

After not seeing her own reflection for almost five months it's almost like looking at a stranger and not looking at her own reflection staring back in the bathroom mirror after wiping away the steam that fogged up the glass after she finished her bath.

Showers, or at least baths, everyday for the rest of her life. No more going five months without a proper washing and not even the excuse of being on a boat was going to stop her.

Her skin now had a healthy tan to it, no longer pale like her mother's but more like her papa's from being on board his ship for all those months. And her hair had gotten longer the curls starting to be weighed down by the length but still not heavy enough to be completely rid of said curls. At least her wouldn't have to deal with the main of curls that Charlotte had to her whole life, now that was a pain in the ass to deal with.

She pinched her cheek with one hand, was she ever going to lose this baby fat? Yes, she knew it would leave when she started to hit puberty but how long until that bag of wet cats wanting out popped up and started it's reign of terror. Especially if she was having to deal with boys going through it as well.

If, she made it.

No. There was no more thinking like that. She was here, she was alive and she would make a difference in the world.

Shaking her head, it was a simple matter to pull on the clean clothing Makino had laid on the countertop, clearly a boys and so obviously clashing with her natural colours; yellow and green did not go with red. The second she could get her hands on some purple clothing she would be so much happier and less of an eyesore.

She blew a stray back back out of her face with a hard and quick breath narrowing her eyes when it fell back down with it started.

First thing was first, she had hair that needed to be dealt with and seeing as her last elastic to hold it all back had broke on the Red Force she was hoping that Makino would have another one or at least something that would do in place of one for the time being.

Picking her bag up off the tidy bed, one last check to make sure that she still had her notebook, picture of her mother and some provision to last a few days because who knows how long it would be until she could get a home cooked meal again, Wren quietly closed the door behind her shoulder her bag as she headed down the hall to where Makino had pointed out her own room was the night before.

It was a simple room, nothing extravagant or expensive, but it matched her personality to a tee. There was a window also above her bed, this one pointed out over the town and away from the docks unlike the one in Luffy's old room had been. A potted plant sat on the window sill, it looked to be a single stalk with numerous flowers in full bloom growing up going from a wider base to a pointed top and a violet-blue colour. Clearly Makino had gone to great lengths to take care of the plant as it didn't look to be new and there was a set of small pruning shears sitting beside it.

Speaking of the woman, she was sitting at a desk with a pen in her hand lightly tapping it against a lone mug sitting on the back corner as she had a far off look in her eyes that Wren could see in her profile.

"Ah, Makino." The older woman jumped in her seat, green hair flying as her head spun so quickly Wren was sure she pulled a muscle in her neck. "Do you have a hair tie or something I could have. My last one broke on the ship." She scuffed the for of her shoes on the hardwood floor eyes following the rings left over from the trees the wood had come from.

The older woman sat back after getting over her initial shock of Wren sneaking up on her, a lone and dainty hand coming up to gentle hold her chin as her gaze went to the pale coloured ceiling above and a quiet but still audible hum echoed in the room.

"I don't have a hair tie," she spun the chair around, gracefully standing up her strides, though shortened because of the skirt she wears, were quiet even though the shoes she wears have hard wooden bottoms as she travels to a lone white door and pulling out a dust covered box with a small padlock keeping said dust out and off whatever is inside. "But I'm sure we can find something in here."

Hats. The box was filled to the brim with multiple hats and what looked to be the tails of variously coloured and patterned bandanas.

Wren had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Makino had a box filled with hats and bandanas but didn't own a single hair tie she could part with, not even a strand of twine. But, what the Hell, in for a penny in for a pound.

The barmaid couldn't help but purse her lips as she stood back up with her hands on her slender hips as she inspected yet another hat, this one a white beanie that had needed to be reshaped after losing its form at the bottom of the box.

No matter how well white and red usually go together, it seems like this is just one of those times they want to clash.

Running a hand through her hair, eyeing the large pile of hats and bandanas they had gone through. So many different styles, so many different colours, and so many different patterns but nothing seemed to work.

Not even the various plaits and updos seemed to work, Wren wrinkling her nose at each attempt and shaking her hair back out.

As much as it pained her to think about it, when Wren turned those pupil-less and the light hit the eerie colour just right, it was clear that those very eyes were the reason that nothing was working.

Red was hard enough to find a complimenting colour for, but to add in the uncommon coloured eyes make it almost impossible to find a colour or pattern that would complement the girl's natural colour both now as a child and when she grew older.

There was not many choices left in her box; a black beanie, another white beret with red polka dots, a tan fisherman's hat Mayor Wood Slap had left behind one day and never asked to have returned, and a royal purple bandana.

Purple like the little shirt she had come wearing just two nights ago that antagonised neither her red hair or seafoam green eyes.

It was big on her but given time it would grow it fit the young girl as she grew into a young woman. But for now Makino pulled out the large fabric square, folded in such a way that it became a thin rectangle with two pointed ends.

Gently maneuvering Wren's hair to have the middle of the folded bandana sit under her thick red hair, she carefully tied the pointed ends in a knot just off centre and holding back the few stray short wisps of hair.

Seafoam green eyes stare innocently up at her, the colour softened, if possible, and her red hair popping with the dark cloth.

It looks even better than she had hoped.

Shouldering her bag higher over one shoulder, Wren had to resist the urge to scratch at the new hair piece Makino had given her. She wasn't used to wearing a bandana but she wasn't going to undo the carefully arranged piece. It had taken almost two hours before they had both agreed that the royal purple bandana was the best choice out of all the items in Makino's box.

She was staring out at the vast forest, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as she focused deep in her own mind to stretch out her senses using Observation Haki to try and she if she could get a sense of everything living in the immediate vicinity.

It wasn't like there was a high possibility that anyone or anything on this island being able to suppress their aura like she could. According to her papa, during the trip to Dawn Island, he revealed to her that the ability to suppress one's aura was not a common but not rare ability for those who have a natural affinity for Observational Haki to have. It was supposedly an advanced technique but she had picked it up so naturally.

Something she could focus on later, right now she had a little kid to find.

Flicking her eyes open, she shock off her nerves pushing aside low hanging branches as each step she took brought her deeper into the unknown and hopefully closer to either Luffy's location or at least the bandit's house.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, wasn't that how the saying went?

And honestly, how hard could it be to find one loud kid in a silent forest.

A/N

I debated with myself for a few days about whether or not to post this on the 23rd or wait for today and, obviously, I picked today.

I was originally going to call this chapter 'Remember Me' from the fact I had that song from the Disney movie 'Coco' in this chapter instead of my version of 'Leaves on the Vine' that most people know from 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season and don't forget to comment.