Summary: In retrospect, he really had no one to blame but himself. In which Sengoku teaches Dragon how to play chess, and finds it coming back to bite him in the arse in a few years.

The door slammed open. "Dragon! Wanna go Sea King fishing?"

"Sshhh!"

Garp blinked as he was summarily shushed by his son, the boy not even wavering from his intense regard on the board before him. Baffled, he thudded closer to get a better look. The ten-year-old finally turned to look at him, a frown on his face. And on that young face it was frankly adorable, but Garp got the message and left the pair to their devices.

With a pout, he slid to the side of the room where Tsuru sat reading a book. She glanced up at his approach, smiling slightly. "I don't get it," he complained. What was so interesting about a black and white board with more black and white things on it? His old friend just patted him on the knee consolingly as he sat down beside her.

Across the chess board, Sengoku watched the boy, expression not revealing even the slightest of his thoughts. It was no wonder that he always trounced Garp at poker, really, with that face of his.

Dragon caught his lower lip with his teeth as he decided to move his black queen three steps to the right.

A moment later, Sengoku reached for a piece of his own. "Checkmate," the Admiral announced calmly as he set down his bishop.

"Dammit."

"Language, Dragon," Tsuru reminded absently, turning a page.

"Sorry, Aunt Tsuru." The boy's bright eyes stared at Sengoku. "Another round!"

Sengoku shook his head with a quiet chuckle. "I'm afraid I have work to do, my boy. I promise you another match tomorrow, if you would like? Right now, I believe your father is waiting to bring you out fishing with him."

Reluctantly Dragon hopped off the chair, eyes still glued to the chess board as he evaluated what had gone wrong. "I'll defeat you one day, just wait," Dragon told the older man determinedly.

Sengoku smiled. "I look forward to it."

Sengoku's brow furrowed as he read the report that had been handed in to him. It had been a coup of enormous scale done on a small Grand Line kingdom ruled over by a king that could honestly only be described as a bully of the worst order. In any other case, the news that said tyrant had been summarily overthrown and replaced by an effective democracy would have been worth celebrating over. The problem that lied here, however, was that it was not at all of their doing. Far from it, in fact, and not by choice.

Previously, the Marines had sought to resolve the issue through negotiations with said king, but had encountered the issue of being completely barred from the country and not having the authority to force entry.

A certain other group obviously had no such qualms, for a scant week after the Marines assigned to the task had set up camp at the border of the country, a representative of the newly appointed council had come to them and told them (in a rather polite manner, all in all) that they wanted nothing to do with them or the World Government.

It could only be said that they had been spectacularly outmaneuvered.

He grumbled a little under his breath as he flipped to the next page. The door sliding open made him raise his head to look at the officer who had entered, a questioning brow lifted. The Marine saluted sharply.

"Sir, a note was passed to us from the council of Namina, it would appear that it was left by The Revolutionary."

Sengoku paused for the briefest of moments before he reached out to take the proffered item. Only those who knew him well would have been able to notice it.

The note, as it turned out, was a piece of paper tied around a single black rook. The message written on it was simple, and had no doubt baffled the officers who'd received it. But Sengoku understood it perfectly, and it took all his self-control not to burst out laughing at the sheer audacity of it.

He nodded dismissal of the officer, who saluted again and left the room.

Alone in his office, Sengoku finally allowed himself a short chuckle as he reread the note in his hand. Honestly, that boy…

'15 - 206'

This might have been his win, but it was a hundred years too early for his pupil to think about beating him yet.

This drabble collection started out as focusing on the nakamaship between the three senior Marines, but somehow along the way has turned into the relationship between the trio and Dragon. I have to say that I'm growing very fond of my headcanon of the four of them as an odd little family.

Said headcanon says that even though child!Dragon was close to his father, Tsuru was the one he confided in and he would probably have had a good dose of idolization towards Sengoku. After all, from what we've seen of Dragon to date, he isn't very much like Garp and Luffy. And for a bright, intelligent child, who better to cultivate those properties than Sengoku and Tsuru?

So next time you're complaining about Dragon wreaking havoc somewhere, Sengoku, think about it. Because it's probably very much your own doing. XD