Chapter 19

Worrying is a waste of time.
Have faith and don't worry
about the things you can't
control or change.

- unknown

This was the first time in over a year that Garp had come to visit his grandsons and Whitebeard, also the first time he'd be meeting Trafalgar Law.

Law's first impression of the old man wearing a Marine uniform was suspicious at best. Especially after the Fist of Loves he sent to Ace and Sabo and was thoroughly confused when he dotted on Luffy.

That was until Ace and Sabo introduced him as their adopted grandpa and Luffy's blood grandpa. He still wasn't comfortable with the fact that Garp seemed to somehow know about his relationship with Cora-san just after hearing he willingly joined the Donquixote Pirates when he was a young suicidal kid and that he was from North Blue. Why did Ace and Sabo tell him?!

"Did you happen to meet a man by the name of Rosinante?"

"Yes," Law answered cautiously. While he knew Cora-san worked as an undercover marine, he didn't know how much the Marines knew. On the other hand, this man was his brother's grandpa. "He was an undercover marine, the second Corazon in Joker's family, and the psychopath's blood brother. Why do you ask?"

Garp laughed and patted the teen's back a little too hard. "You're that kid with the Amber Lead Syndrome Rosinante ditched his duties to save. Glad to see you made it, kid." He laughed some more before sobering and looking to his grandsons. "Ah, that gives me an idea. You boys think we can meet somewhere away from all this pirate business? There's someone I like you to meet."

A month later the boys were on the same island that burned down just over a year ago. They came as often as they could to plant new greenery on the island that they've claimed as their own. It's not much, but there are some new bushes and small trees growing. They're working on making it as green as it used to be.

-*/-*/-*/

"Dammit, Garp, where are you taking me?" Sengoku complained from his seat on their unmarked ship. He watched as the only other person on the ship looked down at a vivre card and adjusted their course accordingly.

"Just sit tight, Sengoku. We're almost there."

"That's what you said two days ago," the Fleet Admiral grumbled.

"I think that's it," Garp pointed to a small lump in the distance.

"You think? What do you mean you think? Do you even know where we're going?"

They were close to the tiny island when a loud roar was heard and then a familiar voice. "No. They're okay, Mr. Guardian. The one with lots of gray hair is Grandpa. Hi, Grandpa," Luffy waved at them from atop a very large sea king.

"Luffy! What are you doing in the middle of the sea?" Garp yelled at him, not in the least intimidated by the sea king. "Did you forget you can't swim?"

Luffy laughed. "It's okay. I have this," he held up the bubbly coral he'd gotten many years ago from Fishman Island, "and Mr. Guardian won't let me drown. Right?" He looked down on the sea king he sat on. It gave a small growl before tossing Luffy into the air and diving underwater and catching the boy before he hit the ocean.

"Get off that thing this instant!" Garp roared.

Sensing the intense worry from his grandpa, Luffy jumped off the sea king and onto the small ship.

"Well?" Garp looked his grandson expectedly.

"Well, what?"

"What were you doing in the middle of the sea?! You didn't answer my question!"

"Oh," the boy drawled out and smiled. "Waiting for you. I wanted to make sure Mr. Guardian doesn't eat you."

"Mr. Guardian, huh?" the Vice Admiral eyed narrowed his eyes at the sea king swimming alongside them.

"Yeah! He's awesome! He protects our island and waters our plants!" As if to showoff, the sea king swam ahead of them and flapped his tail, sending a wave large enough to engulf the island, where the three humans could hear some shouts.

Luffy laughed and cheered when the sea king came back to tow the ship to shore.

Three angry and wet teenagers ran up to them and each one of them bopped the young teen on the head. That was then followed by the Fists of Love.

Law stumbled as he wasn't excluded like last time. "What hell was that for, you crazy old man!"

"That is punishment for hitting Luffy," Garp laughed.

Sengoku sighed at Garps usual antics. "Garp, please tell me why you brought me here, wherever here is."

"I have no idea where we are," Garp said with a finger up his nose.

"Used-to-be-green Island," Sabo answered.

"Huh? What kind of name is that?" Garp asked.

"Lu-ya named it. It really used to be green until it burned down. We're trying to grow back the plants," Law answered.

"We didn't do it!" Both Ace and Sabo yelled at their grandpa's look.

"Right," Sengoku sighed again. "So why am I here?"

"Why, to meet your grandson, of course," Garp beamed.

"Garp," his superior heaved another sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. It was all he does around his old friend nowadays. "You and I both know I have no children to have any grandchildren."

"True, but you, O-tsuru, and I all know that you thought of Rosinante as your own son."

Sengoku snapped his head towards the boys, then looked at Law, who spoke with a scowl, "I'm not calling you grandpa."

"Come on, boys. Why don't you show your grandpa your island?" Garp lead the other three away.

Sengoku dropped himself on the sand were they stood and looked pointedly at Law to do the same. "What's your name?" he finally said after a moment of them gauging each other.

"Trafalgar Law."

The marine sighed and dropped his head, relief clear in his voice. "I'm glad Rosinante's death wasn't in vain. Tell me. Tell me about those six months that he disappeared off our radar with you. Was he happy? Were you happy with him? How did you get along? Tell me anything. It's been far too long since I've heard of him. You know, he told me about a crazy kid with Amber Lead Syndrome joining his brother's gang. Then all of a sudden he calls to tell me he's going to find a cure for the damn kid and disappears for half a year. The last I heard from him, he tipped us off about Doflamingo wanting to steal the Op-Op fruit. That was also the first time he's lied to me. He said he wouldn't be there. I told him to not go, since I knew it would be dangerous. He shouldn't have been there," he pounded the sand in anguish.

Law took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. He could hear how much the old man next to him cared for Cora-san and realized he's talked about himself more in the last year or so than he has in his entire life. He told Sengoku everything from those torturous six months, to the spy, the first Corazon. He told of how the man who cared for him laughed and how clumsy he was, of his many times of burning his own coat and tripping over nothing. He left nothing out, even things he hasn't told anyone else, yet, because of how close he wanted to keep them to himself. And yet, he felt he should tell this man who morns the loss of a person who thought of him as a son.

Sengoku laughed sadly. "So he died with a smile, did he? I'm glad. I'm glad that he died doing something that made him happy. But Vergo … I'll keep an eye on him. It wouldn't do to out him yet. Doflamingo may send someone else to infiltrate the marines. Now, tell me about yourself. How have you been avoiding Doflamingo, and how the hell did you end up with Garp's grandsons anyway?"

"I've been island hoping and keeping an ear out for Doflamingo-ya's men. As for those three…" Law trailed off, not knowing how to explain that he'd join Whitebeard. Gard did specifically request this meeting to be away from the pirates.

"They're with Whitebeard," Garp said seriously, as he walked towards them without the three boys. He held out a hand before his boss could chew them out. "They're safe there. It's why I willingly left my precious grandsons with him. Sengoku, Newgate saved my boys when the marines couldn't do anything."

"How did you end up with Whitebeard of all people?!"

"Lu – I mean Luffy-ya found me, knocked out two of Joker's men that were after me, even though I didn't need the help, and dragged me off to their birthday party. One thing lead to another, and I stayed?" Law looked confused at the turn of event. "Let's just say I got kidnapped by the kid. It's been almost two years since."

He then had a horrified look as their ship came to view. This caused the two marines to turn their heads to look behind them.

"Garp?" Sengoku growled as the boat with a black flag with the ASL symbol over Whitebeard's expertly came to a stop right next to their smaller ship.

"Before you say anything, it's just my three. Law has nothing to do with it, and they have a very good reason for attacking that base. They took Sabo from them just because some noble paid them to," Garp explained. "Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, and that's their own personal ship, Flight for Freedom."

Sengoku sobered, remembering what a distraught Garp had once said years back about his missing grandson and again a year later with the same news about his other two grandsons. All he ever wanted was for them to live freely. "Is what Blackbeard said about you true? You work for pirates?"

"Sengoku, my job is important to me but so is my family, especially those three. If by the off-chance they're ever caught by the marines, it's because they're stupid for being caught. That will be their own fault. I won't do anything to help them. Just know that Whitebeard nor my grandsons would never attack anyone unprovoked. So what will it be, Fleet Admiral?" Garp said challengingly.

There goes another sigh. Why is it so tiring to deal with this man? "I can't let you go, Garp. You know that. You're too valuable to the marines, even if you are a pain in the ass. What can I do? It seems I also have a pirate grandson." He ignored Law's protest of not being his grandson. "I guess we old people will just have to watch over them the best we can and hope for the best. Got anymore senbei?"

Garp took a seat next to his old friend and held out his opened pack of rice crackers, as the three of them watch the three boys get off their ship and argue with each other.

"You know, I'm glad my grandson isn't as idiotic as your three," Sengoku said.

"For your information, Law thought my Luffy was a girl for a good two weeks," Garp said smugly.

Sengoku spat out his senbei and turned to give Law an incredulous look. "How can you mistaken that for a girl?!"

"It was a prank the whole ship was on. They introduced him to me as a girl. He was wearing a dress, and it actually looked good on him," Law defended himself. "Watch. Lu-ya, come here." He waited for the boy to come close to them and opened up his travel bag to hand over a dress. "Try it on."

Luffy cheered at receiving a new dress and took of his t-shirt and held his arms up, waiting for Law to put it on for him. "See? Cute," Law pointed to Luffy, who was spinning in his new dress. The crossdressing boy soon dragged Law over to where Ace and Sabo were, leaving the two Marines, one smug and one baffled.

"Garp, please tell me he isn't Dragon's son."

"I can't."

"There's no way. How did that happen?"

"I have no idea."

"Are you even sure that's your grandson?"

Garp shrugged. "They say his name's Luffy, and he's around the right age. Too many coincidence. What am I to say? I think he is. He even looks a little like his dad when he was younger."

The both sat in silence, watching the boys argue with wild gestures with Luffy laughing at the three of them. Then the three older boys were on top of each other, throwing punches, kicks, and rolling around the sand.

"How old are they supposed to be?"

"Law's 18 and the other two are 16. Luffy's 13," Garp grinned at the sight of the boys being boys.

"Are you sure they're not 8 and 6?"

"Leave them be. Those three haven't had much of a normal childhood. Not that it's normal now, but at least they're able to relax."

They sat in comfortable silence until Ace and Sabo held up both of their fiery fists as the three of them stood in a light blue circular like room and Law held up his sword at them.

"Think we should stop them?" Sengoku asked, slightly surprised at the fire being produced by two separate persons. Never in his very many years of working in the Marines has he ever heard of two people with the same devil fruit powers at the same time. But right now, he's more worried about the kids harming themselves. He can ask about their powers later. Who knows, maybe they were two different fruits with almost similar powers.

"That might be a good idea," Garp said as he furrowed his brows and got up. "My two older ones tend to get out of hand, or so I heard."

The two got up to walk to the teens. They saw Luffy, who was laughing at his brothers, turn his head to wave at them with a grin, but the grin dropped and he looked back to his fighting brothers and back to the older pair and back to his brothers. The next thing they knew, Ace, Sabo, and Law were sent sailing out towards the middle of ocean.

"Law!" Sengoku screamed as he ran towards the beach, but they were too far away for him to swim or get the boat to them in time. Not that he could remember that he couldn't swim either.

Garp, on the other hand, stomped right to Luffy, who had grinned at him but then looked terrified, and gave him a haki infused fist right on the head.

The boy clutched his head in pain and looked up to his grandpa with tears in his eyes. "Grandpa hit me," he sniffled. "That hurts."

Sengoku had walked up to them and placed a hand on Garp's shoulder. "They're fine," the Fleet Admiral said in relief.

Garp turned his head to look over his shoulder and gave his boss a look of confusion. "Of course they're fine. Why wouldn't they be?"

"Your grandson just sent your other two grandsons and my grandson flying out to the middle of the ocean and none of them can swim! Why aren't you more worried? That confirms it. He's defiantly your grandson. No one else would be stupid enough to do something like that!" Sengoku felt the sudden need to throw the man into the ocean. "As a matter of fact, why wasn't your first reaction to swim out there to save them?"

"Oh. That's because Luffy would never intentionally hurt those boys," Garp stated.

"How can you be so sure of that? Who knows what kinds of things he's been learning from living with pirates!" Sengoku pointed an accusing finger at the young teen.

"You wanna fight?" Luffy asked with his fists raised and ready for the irate marine.

"Luffy!" They all turned to look towards the ocean where the voices came from. Law, Ace, and Sabo were standing on the head of the sea king Luffy had been on earlier. The three of them jumped off as soon as the sea king brought them close enough. Ace and Sabo both hit Luffy on the head as Law stood protectively between them and the marines.

"Don't fight him!" Ace and Sabo said as they both sent their fists down.

"But why!"

"Because he's the marine boss!"

"Yeah, but -"

"No!"

"Lu-ya," Law cut in tiredly, "Why did you hit us with your bazooka?"

"Hm? Oh, because Grandpa's friend wanted you to stop fighting," Luffy said proudly with a smile.

"So?" His three brothers asked with their arms crossed, as if the response was stupid.

"He was worried for Trao!" He raised both hands happily in the air in a cheer. "Your grandpa was worried about you."

Law turned to give Sengoku a glare. "So you think I wouldn't be able to beat those two?"

Sengoku pinched the bridge of his nose. "Here I thought you were the older, more responsible, more reasonable of the group."

"Believe me, I am," Law deadpanned.

Garp smacked the older teen on the back with a laugh. "Don't be like that. Senny, here, was worried about you boys using your devil's fruit and things getting out of hand."

"But we do that all the time. How else are we supposed to train?" Ace and Sabo argued.

"There's no arguing that," Garp said to his boss.

"That didn't mean the little one had to throw you into the ocean to get you boys to stop," Sengoku sighed.

"Lu-ya wouldn't have done that if you weren't needlessly worried about us," Law crossed his arms as he glared at Sengoku.

"Must have been really worried if Luffy had to resort to sending us out to the guardian," Ace said with a grin.

"That must have made him worry even more, Ace," Sabo smacks the back of his brother's head before turning to Luffy. "Lu, if you knew Trao's grandpa was worried, why did you bazooka us out to sea?"

"Because that was the fastest way to stop you," he said with a smile before he frowned. "I didn't think it'd scare him though."

"Lu-ya," Law moaned with his hand on his face, "three devil's fruit users getting tossed into the ocean, who wouldn't be worried? We can't swim," he explained when the boy looked confused. "Normal people would be worried about us drowning. They don't know that the sea king out there would save us."

"Ooooh."

"Now that you understand, apologize for scaring the old geezer," Sabo said. The Fleet Admiral sputtered at his new title.

The thirteen-year-old walked up to the fleet admiral and bowed, "Please accept my humble apology for, um … scaring you shitless." He got up from his bow, ignoring the two older men's look of surprise, to look at Sabo. "Did I do that right?"

His three brothers were stifling their laughter the boy's wordings.

"Almost," Sabo said breathless from holding in his laugh. "It's not 'for scaring you shitless.' It should be 'for startling you with my thoughtless act.'"

"Oh, okay." Luffy turned back around to bow at Sengoku once more. "Please accept my humble apology for startling you with my thoughtless act." He looked back up to see both men looking baffled.

"Why?" Garp finally managed to ask.

"Why what?" both Ace and Sabo asked back with twin grins.

"Why did you do that to my Luffy?!" Garp yelled at them.

"Why not?" Law smirked. "I don't see any problems with it. I find it quiet amusing. A pirate with the words of high nobility."

"Sabo," Garp said threateningly with his fist raised.

"There's a very good reason for this, I swear," Sabo quickly defended himself from Garp's Fist of Love. He heaved a relived sigh when Garp lowered his fist. "I thought it'd be a good idea to teach him and Ace some manners, since, you know, they both were never taught any. And you do have to admit, Ace did have the foulest mouth you could ever find on a kid. You really did, Ace. It's just not as bad now. And well, Luffy needs to learn too, right? Wait, wait," he covered his head with his arms when Garp raised his fist once more. "Trao and I thought it'd be funny to teach Luffy to be super polite!" He risked opening his left eye to see what Garp's reaction was.

To his surprise, Garp sighed and ran his hand over his face in resignation. "Whatever. It's not like I have much say in how you raise the brat. How's his studying going anyway?"

"Great," Law ruffled Luffy's hair, causing the boy to giggle. "He's even reading some of my medical books. He doesn't understand a thing in them, but he's reading them."

"That's because he doesn't pay attention to what he picks up," Ace groaned. "He just reads whatever he gets his hands on, and then someone has to explain whatever he doesn't understand. It's so annoying. Most of the time, the explanation ends up being a mystery."

"Yeah, but at least now everyone's learned to hide their personal stash," Sabo laughed. "Once, he picked up one of Vista's porn novel. We told Luffy to go read it to Grandpops. That was so funny. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to him read it until Vista finally realized it was his book that was being read out loud and took it from him."

"How far into the book did he get, and when was this?" Garp moaned in his hand from here he slumped onto the sandy beach.

"Far enough that even Grandpops was blushing," Ace and Sabo grinned.

"A few days after that," Law said. "Someone told Marco-ya when he came back from a mission, and the man chewed everyone off for not stopping the kid earlier and for everyone to make sure there aren't any more inappropriate things laying around."

"How did you boys manage to tame a sea king," Sengoku asked as he watched the sea beast swim away quickly when Luffy's stomach gave a loud growl.

"We have food at the house," Sabo said as he picked up his cross-dressing brother and walked away without waiting to see if the others followed.

"Lu-ya promised the sea king that we wouldn't eat it if it protect our island and water the plants while we're away," Law explained as they all followed the blond.

"But how did he even get a sea king to listen to him?"

"Easy," Ace shrugged, "he fed it. It even sometimes brings friends."

"Please, don't ask anymore," Garp sighed resignedly. "The kid is strange. It's what happens when you let kids raise a kid. Just wait to you see their 'house.'"

Law trailed back to walk with the older men. "Speaking of strange kids, the three of them don't have any sexual drive. All their hormones are directed to their metabolisms and Luffy's endless stamina. Kobato-ya and Izo-ya sat them down for the talk already. None of them seem interested."

"Not interested?!" Garp gasped, then thought of something. "Great-grand kids?" he nearly whimpered.

"Might not ever happen. They don't even give beautiful women a second glance," Law shrugged. "Not even good looking men. They do seem interested in each other though. Did you know they still sleep together?" He's going to leave out the fact that he sleeps with them.

Garp stopped in his tracks, trying to get his thought process back in order, while everyone else continues on without him. He remembers when he was their age he was ogling women left and right. Ace and Sabo are sixteen. They should at least be curious about the opposite sex.

Sengoku raised an eyebrow at Law's evil grin.

"Revenge for hitting me," Law huffed.

"So you lied to him?"

"No," Law mumbled before stalking off towards the trio in front of them.

Once the 'house' was in view, Sengoku paused in his steps to study the skeletal building. It's a decent sized home for the four teens, but it was the shape that was beginning to take shape that stopped him.

"Luffy wanted a castle, like the ones in the fairy tale books," Ace explained, knowing full well how strange it looked. "He wants a moat and a drawbridge to top it off. We're lucky that he doesn't really know how big castles are supposed to be."

The fleet admiral couldn't only shrug and go along with it. He's given up. He's been around Garp long enough to deal with strange things. He's also heard the man bawl his eyes out when the kids were taken and his loud boisterous cheer when he found out they were still alive. His friend never did tell him how they were rescued. Seeing that the boys were with Whitebeard, he supposed it's best that he didn't know. Ignorance is bliss, after all. Or is 'plausible deniability ' more appropriate? Now he wished Garp hadn't told him they were with Whitebeard.

Who was he kidding? He'd still want to know where they were staying for his own peace of mind. Better Whitebeard than any other pirates.

That brings up another question, "Who's Grandpops?"

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: And Garp didn't really say he is or isn't working with pirates.

My life schedule will be back to normal this week, but I will try to update as quick as I can. Just less than 10 chapters left.