A/N: You all sounded very somewhat surprised from the last chapter, well, I think this one is going to put more shock into you as well. Just a fair warning to you guys. Enjoy, SUCKERS!

Disclaimer: One Piece and its characters belongs to Oda-sensei, my OC belongs to me!

It was an honest mistake on my part. I had been too busy with my panic attack to notice something off about the man sitting in the middle of the kitchen while waiting for his cup of tea. I was still blown away that I was an infant born into a world I've only ever known printed on white paper and shown behind a television screen.

'How was this possible?' my mind frantically demanded. 'This isn't possible!'

I stood at the door frame of the kitchen, not-quite-hidden but not trying too hard either. Slowly, my fragile mind began to calm itself and that's when I took in something I hadn't realized before; did Mihawk have gray strands in his hair?

I know its been over a year since I last read One Piece, but I was pretty sure that Mihawk didn't have a Napoleon III Imperial beard (giving the man a semi-devilish appearance sans the pitchfork and horns). The more I looked at him, the more I took in things that weren't apart of Mihawk's appearance from the manga and anime. Despite the uncanny resemblance, this man was not Dracule Mihawk.

So it begged a new question, 'Who was this man?'

"Ginette!" I heard Bridgette, my birth mother, call me with my new name. "Won't you come say hello to papa?"

I ducked behind the wall of the door frame, flinching when the older look-alike had narrowed those hawk-like eyes on me. I heard a giggle followed my a low grunt, my curiosity piqued and, despite my rattled nerves, I looked around the corner once more to spy on my parents. Bridgette giggled again when my big head peeked from behind the door frame, she gave a playful wink in my direction before settling a tea cup before the dark individual.

It was so odd, seeing two opposites that deeply contrasted one another get along so well. The whole thing was baffling and I nearly gawked when my mother stole the hat off the man's head and tossed it somewhere in the corner of the kitchen. I almost expected the man to suddenly be angry and pull out a sword but my father barely bat an eyelash at the stunt.

"Mon amour, you shouldn't look at her like that. It's no wonder she won't come to you, you scare her." my mother chastised my father jokingly.

The man remained silent, not giving inclination that he heard my mother's words. In fact, he hadn't spoken a word since he entered the house unannounced (scaring the crap out of me in the process). He sipped his tea quietly while my mother moved around in the kitchen to keep herself busy, and I was still hiding and spying on the Mihawk look-alike.

"She's doesn't fuss around." I almost jumped when I heart a foreign voice fill the silent void.

His voice was very baritone, it was deep and heavy like a great weight was resting on his vocals, and it made him sound alluring. If there someone who I could compare this man's voice then I would say the closest to it would the guy who voiced Master Chief. Anyway, his voice startled me and I flinched again when I see his eyes narrowed on me once again.

"Oh no, she's surprisingly very quiet." my mother replied, pausing from her work to observe me as well. "She barely cries. I asked one of the women if it was normal but they too found it odd."

"Hn." the man leaned back on his chair yet remained focused on me. "That is strange. My son was noisy around that age..."

His last words made me suddenly fall back on my rear end, another wave of surprise washing over me when the puzzling mystery began to piece itself together and form a single picture.

The dark man sitting in the kitchen was not only my father but also the sire of the infamous swordsman of the world, Dracule Mihawk.

My brother.

~+~+~+~oOo~+~+~+~

Dracule Vladus was my father's name. It was... very fitting.

It had been awkward at first to be around the man that was the father of Mihawk, thousands upon thousands of questions bouncing against the walls of my cranium but I refrained myself for many reasons. The main reason being that I was just a toddler and I probably shouldn't know things that any normal toddler wouldn't know until they were older.

I was living a new life with a clean slate, so I might as well do what seemed right.

It was very tempting I'll admit, to be standing before someone who Oda hadn't created and was related to the infamous pirate warlord of the World Government.

Over the time he stayed in the house I tried to do baby things so not as to arouse suspicion from Vladus, or Bridgette in particular. I didn't want to make them any more concern about my strange, quiet behavior than they already were.

Sometimes Vladus would take off and wouldn't come back for a long while and only appear when we were least expecting it. The dark man seemed to have this aura of coldness in him, however, Bridgette would receive letters from him and would set me on her lap and read them to me, saying how much my papa missed me and how he was looking forward to coming home. I remained skeptical, though.

The gap between me and Vladus stuck through us for a long time... until my second birthday came.

At the time, my father had gone off at sea, his last letter was from somewhere in the North Blue when he had been taking care of business (whatever that meant). This was the longest time he had been gone, so I truly believed that he wouldn't come to my second birthday.

My mother and I were walking through the small plaza that had been constructed on the small island we lived on. There weren't any Marines and pirates rarely ever come across the island, so we were practically left mostly alone. We didn't need to go out of the island to gather supplies because we had farmers and craftsman, the point being that we had everything we need on the island to make it bearable.

Anyway, me and my mother were window shopping, minding our own business, when I suddenly felt something touch the crown of my head. The feeling made me jump and instinctively reach for my mother's skirts. That startled the woman from eying those silly little frilly dresses she was no doubt wanting to dress me up in, whirling around to face what the source of the scare was only to give out a shocked laugh.

"Mon amour!" my mother exclaimed when she saw her lover standing behind us.

My racing heart calmed when I realized there was no threat and it was just the dark man sneaking up on me from behind to tap me on the head. I had a sinking feeling that he got off on the idea of scaring the panties out of me, just for his own sick, twisted amusement. The gleam in his yellow eyes told me much.

"What is this?" I heard my mother ask as I felt her hand touch the same place on my head where my father brushed his hand against.

I looked up and was met face to face with a red ribbon.

"That is it? That's all you got our chéri for her birthday?!" Bridgette demanded when she waved the ribbon in Vladus' face.

"You seem to think that this was your gift rather than the little one..." Vladus said with a cool tone, shoving his callous hands into his dark trousers.

"You are a lousy father to Ginette, you feather-brained fool!" my mother shot back, becoming more irked with my father's aloof nature and bluntness.

"Little girls like to wear ribbons in their hairs, do they not?" Vladus deadpanned with a blank loot on his pale face.

Before my mother could have a chance to say something nasty, no matter the children present on the streets (including her own daughter), the woman felt a tug on the ribbon she was holding. Both parents looked down to see me pulling at the end of the ribbons.

"Mon chéri," my mother knelt down until she was at eye level with me. "Do you like these ribbons papa brought you?"

I never really liked ribbons, they were just frilly, silly things, and even as a child from my Other parents, I rarely ever wore them. But when I saw those ribbons and heard my father say that he got them for me, I had another moment of revelation happen to me; Dracule Vladus was a human being, and he was a father.

And my father wanted to give me something for my second birthday.

The guilt that came down on me because of my coldness and my nervousness around him made me feel stupid and angry at myself. I had been hiding away from him while he had been trying to reach out to me, to be a father to his child.

I pulled on the ribbons again, conveying to my mother that I wanted those ribbons and I would like to wear them in my hair. She caught the message and immediately went to work on securing the red ribbon. In no time, I was wearing a braid with the ribbon tied at the end in a cute bow.

I looked up to my father, and for the first time without fear hanging over me, I took a step forward and reached for his arm sleeve.

"Papa," I called out to him.

And at that moment, a heavy weight seemed to have finally left Vladus' shoulders and there was a softness in his eyes when he looked down at me, his daughter; little Dracule Ginette.