For those of you wondering… Eustass Kid will not be introduced UNTIL later. (Sorry about that)

ChIbINeKoChWaN- Thanks. :)) I tried to make it similar to their past, yet different at the same time.

Orrahn- I liked your criticism very much xD. I'll try to improve my characterization. Lol, and it's hard to slow down!

YEAH. I love criticism, and I don't care if you're mean about it. Although, I'm mainly writing this story for my readers and my entertainment, but this is also meant for me to improve my writing lol.

Thanks in advance, guys x)

Disclaimer- One piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda. But, the rest belongs to me:))

It had been a little over a week since Ced and Eru started taking care of the baby, and they were having a hell of a tough time. The first few days hadn't been so bad. The baby was quiet and playful, and was almost always smiling. And when she wasn't, well, Eru learned quickly that the only way to shut her up was to give her the blanket which somehow comforted her. But, as days passed on, they both noticed that they were slowly getting exhausted, both mentally and physically. Every day, they seemed to be stuck in a routine that revolved around the baby. In the morning at exactly 3 AM, they would wake up to hear her incessant cries. Either Ced or Eru would be forced to get up and rock her slowly to sleep. It seemed like the baby was checking to see if the two were still by her side. It was clever, but they did not like that it happened at the WORST possible time of the day. After that, they would wake up around 8 AM, to search for breakfast. Eru would strap the baby across his back by her blanket, in order for both his hands to be free. Yet, both didn't have the slightest notion of how to take care of a baby. On the first day, they found out they would have to give her liquid foods only. They learned the hard way when they tried to give her a piece of fish, because about an hour later, she threw up all over Eru. From that day on, they fed her small amounts of liquefied berries and LOTS of water (even the berries had been hard for her to digest). Around noon, they would have been finished eating. After that, the baby would sleep till dinner. The boys had to be extra careful not to disturb her too much while adventuring, otherwise she would wake up and throw a fit. By the time they ate dinner and fed the baby, it would be around 7PM. They then took one hour shifts, to find or make future supplies for the girl. One would be watching the girl, while making supplies, and the other would be hunting for possible supplies. But even though the boys were quite resourceful, they couldn't help but stress over the immense amount of time spent caring for the baby.

"Ced." Eru said dryly.

"Eh?"

"We need help."

"Uh..." Ced started. "Where are you going with this?"

"I'm saying maybe we should go ask h-"

"NO! We are not going to ask him for help! Not now..."

"Ced. We don't know how to take care of her. I mean, look at her! She's a mess." he pointed to the smelly baby girl covered with specks of dirt.

"NO! I absolutely will NOT go. We made a promise not to." he glared intensely. "I don't want to see HIM until we can prove to him..." he broke down into a barely audible whisper. "we aren't kids anymore."

A long silence took over, as Eru silently fumed at Ced. "Bull shit." Eru glowered. "Right now, that's not important! Can't you see we are wasting our time raising her up?"

"You're just being selfish!" Ced yelled out ignorantly.

"I...No."Eru stared at Ced, long and hard. He didn't want to go to HIM, either, but they couldn't avoid it any longer. They had long outgrown that innocent and naive stage in life and faced the hard cold truth of their reality. They both knew the feats they had accomplished over the past two years, and they certainly did not feel like the helpless, sheltered kids they were before. This was a now or never situation, because this had been the only time HE had been brought up since they had ran away. Both of them had to do this."I…I am doing this for her, and for us. Face it, Ced. We can't raise a baby alone. We don't even know how to. And, we have to face him sooner or later... why not now? We are more than ready." he paused hoping for Ced to respond. "Please, Ced. Please think about our situation."

After a few seconds, Ced finally gave in. "Fine. But JUST because of her." Ced trudged away to pack for the journey.

The boys headed towards the heart of the Outlawed Area carrying the sleeping baby. The journey was extremely unpleasant for Eru, since Ced was fuming in silence the whole time. Not to mention, the terrain was a muddy mess from the nonstop rain occurring in the area. Sometimes, Eru wished he could go to Shine District, where he heard it was rocky, and humid. The land was mostly barren except for a couple of cactuses, but in certain places, there were these beautiful oases surrounded by wild plants of all shapes and sizes. Over here, there were just trees. Too many, in fact. Although that left plenty of resources, he wished the idiotic rivalry between the areas would cease.

After a few hours of silence, they had finally reached the heart of the Outlawed Area, where most people stayed together. About two years passed since they had last been here, and the population had increased dramatically. Men huddled together to polish and sharpen their weapons, while women were either watching children or cooking food. The area was a small, and covered in numerous huts, which were homes for its inhabitants. The boys headed nervously towards a big hut covered in a variety of leaves.

"Hello?" Eru called, trying to hide the fear in his voice. Meanwhile, he slowly put the blanket covered baby down on a soft chair. The hut wasn't much different from the last time the two were here. There were two small rooms, split by the hallway in the center. They seemed to be two bedrooms. One was occupied, and one was bare, except for two tatami mats. The room they were standing contained pots hanging on the left wall, and a fire pit to complete it. A few chairs, and a huge bookshelf lay in the right hand side. What had changed, were two small notes hanging on the right and left side of the hallway. Eru couldn't figure out what was written on them, and eventually gave up.

An old, tall, hunched back man appeared before them from the hall. Even though he was old, he still appeared to be muscular and tanned. He wore a cream colored robe and straw sewn sandals. He gripped tightly onto a walking stick to give him support for his bad leg.

Eru gulped. "Uhm.. Hi, sir."

All three stood in an uncomfortable silence until the man spoke. "You two..." he quietly stated. "IDIOTS!" he roared. "HOW DARE YOU RUN OFF! AND NOW YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO COME BACK?"

Ced winced. 'Dang it. I KNEW this was a bad idea.'

After another awkward silence later, the old man started again. "Why...did you run away?" he questioned trying to act calm.

The silence was killing Eru, and it didn't help that Ced was refusing to speak."Because..." Eru stared intensely at the floor, hoping that he wouldn't have to make eye contact. "We... wanted freedom."

"FREEDOM?" he roared losing his temper, again. "I took you in, even though your parents had abandoned you. I gave you shelter, and I let you have fun! What more could you ask for?"

"You only let us play as long as we were within your sight! And you're practically blind and handicapped!" Eru retorted, furiously glaring at the old man right in the eye. "We wanted to explore! After all those stories you told us about." he motioned towards the bookshelf. "We wanted to have our OWN adventure."

The old man sighed. "You two still have that stupid dream of going out to sea?" he mocked.

Eru only stared deep into the man's eyes. Ced still hung his head down, in fear.

"Both of you will never be able to get off this land." the old man continued. You and I both know that us Outlaws, can never escape from here. Ever." he said intensely."

"It's better than rotting in this hell house!" Eru shouted. "As you have been aging, we have been getting stronger and stronger! We are both going to out to the ocean someday! You just wait, OLD man!

"Give. It. Up."

Finally, Ced cracked. He could deal with the old man's temper. He could deal with him mocking their dream. But, he could not stand this any longer. He would never give up his dream, and he wasn't going to let a senile man stop him. No matter what."I promise you." Ced chimed in angrily. "We will escape. We will be free. And, we WILL do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING to sail the oceans. We will have our own adventures, and they will be so fucking awesome, people WILL HAVE TO write a book about it." Ced raised his voice after each sentence.

"Hell yeah!" Eru agreed wholeheartedly. Ced had finally come to his senses.

"Is that a challenge?" the old man questioned.

"HELL YEAH." they both yelled angrily.

"BWAHAHAHAHA." he barked out suddenly.

Ced and Eru were confused. Like, really confused. They were waiting for the moment the old man would crack and kick them out; to tell them to never come back again. But, he was laughing? "The old man is really senile." Ced muttered under his breath.

When the old man had finally calmed down, he stared warmly at the two. "You two are still the same." he smiled. "Now…" he said seriously. " What the hell are you two doing here. I'm sure you two didn't come here just to preach about your dreams."

All anger faded, as Ced slowly picked up the blanket covered baby sleeping soundly.

"Uh..." Eru started embarrassingly. "Well that was part of it… but we need help."

We don't know how to take care of this kid." Ced whispered revealing a sleeping baby hidden underneath the cloth.

"Ehhh?" the old man exclaimed. "A baby? Gosh, dang it. You two idiots are really trying to kill me." he closed in on Ced and realized the sleeping baby was a girl. "Wow. She's cute." he muttered as his face contorted into a mixed expression of greed and affection.

"That looked so pedo..." they both stared.

"Shut up." he retorted. A few moments later, he ordered. "I'll take care of her."

"What? No! We found her first!"

"No. She's not built to be out in the wild." he said strictly. "You two can take her when she's six. That's when you left, Ced. Fair enough?"

Eru pondered on the old man's suggestion for awhile. 'The kid would only be a burden to us.' "Alright. Fine. But we are checking up on her once a week!"

"Yeah!" Ced retorted. "You might do something funnny!"

"Have some faith in your old man!" he exclaimed as he snatched the baby away from Ced, and set her in the empty room. A few minutes later, he came back out with a plate of food, and smiled. "Now, shouldn't we celebrate on your return?"

"Oh yeah! Speaking of which, it is almost Eru's ninth birthday!" Ced exclaimed.

"And almost your birthday." Eru added. "You'll be turning eight, Ced!"

"Well then!" The old man exclaimed. "Let's grab the fruit juice and party!" he roared happily, and pointed to a room the baby was in. "Check your room out."

Ced and Eru rushed to their old room, careful not to disturb the baby. Everything seemed to be the same, except they saw a newly built contraption that seemed to be built to preserve food and drinks. "Wow." they muttered together.

"Eru." Ced said as he pulled out the nearest barrel of fruit juice. "You were right. That felt so good."

"Of course." he replied triumphantly.

They both grabbed the small barrel of fruit juice and ran out in excitement for their first home cooked meal in a long time.

Long after the old man had gotten drunk, and passed out, the boys had finally decided to leave before the old man could stop them. That is, until Eru noticed the two pieces of paper hanging from before, and stood astonished.

"Hey Ced! Look." Eru motioned him towards the papers. "He… kept them." he stared silently, unable to say a thing.

"What?" Ced walked up, and read both notes carefully.

Old Man,

I don't care if you say it is impossible! I have decided to become a pirate, no matter what you say, you stupid old man! And don't even try to stop me!

-Ced

Hey Old Man,

Sorry about this. Ced and I will be going off to become strong, so we can set out, and make our dreams reality. We're going to escape this island someday, and I'm going to become a marine no matter what it takes.

Thanks for taking care of us,

-Eru

"I was so…" Ced started.

"Rude?" Eru interrupted.

"HELL NO! I was freaking bad ass!" Ced stated proudly. Moments later he stopped gloating and looked confusedly at Eru. "But…He still kept this after all that?"

"Guess so." Eru said as both of them looked sincerely at the old man for the first time in a long time.