I apparently have a problem letting one shots stay one shots.

CopyCat 2

"Hey mom?" Tashigi visibly winced. She knew that tone. "How did you and dad meet?" And there it was. She sighed and gave her 10-year-old son a long-suffering look. They had been resting from their sword training. Sora seemed to like two swords and practiced daily with them. Whenever Tashigi got time off, she would help Sora with his training. He was fast becoming too good for even her.

"Why do you want to know something like that?" She asked, trying to delay actually telling him.

He shrugged and took a long drink of water. "It's just, you're a marine. He's, well, you know." At least he had enough sense not to actually say it out loud. "You two are kind of on opposite sides of …everything."

Tashigi gazed up at the clouds slowly drifting across the azure sky. "The head might be on the opposite side of the coin but it is always near the tail."

"…huh?" She chuckled at his blank expression. He was looking more and more like his father every day.

"I meet pirates frequently. It's part of my duty as a marine. So even though we are on opposite sides, we actually pass them a lot. I dare say we spend more time with pirates than other people on our side."

"I guess." The boy said, still slightly confused. "So that's how you met him? You were just doing your duty?"

"Sort of." Her mind wondered to that fateful day in Loguetown.

"Eh?" He frowned at her response. "That doesn't explain anything! What do you mean?"

She chuckled again. He scowled. Yep. His father's son. "I meant, it was during my day off. I wasn't actively hunting him or anything. We met by total accident." She smiled nostalgically. "We didn't realize what the other was at first. I had just defeated a couple of thugs and he was helping me find my dropped glasses." Said glasses flashed in the sun as she tilted her head back.

"He broke them." She said with a smile.

"Huh? That was rude of him." Tashigi laughed.

"Very! It was an accident, he said. I just surprised him." Her smile faltered a little. "He had a childhood friend that resembled me a lot." She actually scowled as she recalled all of their arguments about that particular fact. "Called me a 'copycat' woman. Can you believe the nerve! I didn't know his friend! This was just the face I was born with! So what if we looked the same or said the same things! This is just the way I was born!" She shouted the last sentence into the air, her fist raised, gritting her teeth in anger.

"…" She blinked and realized exactly what she was doing. A blush appeared in her cheeks as her son stared blankly at her. She coughed and leaned back against the outside wall of the dojo that they were currently resting against. "I just mean, really, it wasn't fair of him to compare two people that had never met. He actually had a hard time fighting me because of it. Every time we would meet, he would run away, saying that I was the one person he couldn't fight."

"What?" Sora looked surprised. "But some of your battles are legendary!"

A deeper blush graced her face. "Most of those were exaggerated on my part. It was very apparent that he was stronger than me. They don't call him the World's Strongest for nothing. A lot of the time, he was just humoring me."

Sora frowned and shook his head. "I don't get it. How did you go from him running away from you to having epic fights to – er – me?" He asked, a faint blush of his own at his own euphemism.

She smiled. "When the Strawhats passed the Red Line two years after the War of the Greats, he had gotten over his aversion of fighting me. For the most part." Her smile turned into more of a grimace. "He always had a problem with fighting women. He denies it to this day but any swordswoman who has fought him knows. He always avoids a finishing blow that kills. Some stupid sense of chivalry or some other kind of nonsense." She muttered darkly.

Sora looked extremely confused at this. "But – all those battles with women. Some are even more legendary than yours – "

Tashigi nodded. "He fights us, and he defeats us, but he holds back, just enough. You can't tell if you are watching from the outside, but for those that fight him, you can. It almost cost him his life once. That's why you should remember that just because your opponent is a woman doesn't mean that they are weaker or inferior to you in any way." She lectured her son. He rolled his eyes. He had heard that particular lecture his whole life. He could recite the whole thing from heart.

"But that still doesn't explain – er – me." He blushed again and turned his head away from her. She giggled at his obvious discomfort of that particular topic. Boys.

"It was slow going." Her eyes clouded over as various memories flashed before them. "I don't think either of us realized until years after our first meeting. No matter how many times we fought, the line between us was always very distinct, very clear." Her voice softened and a small smile lifted the corners of her lips. "Until one day it wasn't."

"We were fighting. Like normal. He defeated me stupidly easily. Like normal." She grumbled a little. "At that point, there was a lot of confusion. The revolutionary army was in full swing and pirates were everywhere. The line between right and wrong was not the same as marines and pirates. There were good pirates and bad marines. Lines were …blurring. Smoker and I had been following in the Strawhat's wake and because of that saw, not only the good that they did, but uncovered a lot of secrets about the World Government. Things like Absolute Justice made it hard to know exactly what side we were even on."

Her head dropped low, her eyes shadowed by her bangs. "He knocked my sword away. Effortlessly. Again. I shouted something. I don't even remember. Probably nagging him about his unequal treatment of swordswomen again." A rueful smile could be seen. "And then the next thing I knew, we …weren't fighting."

"Ew." She looked up to see the look of disgust on her 10-year-olds face. She laughed loudly.

"We didn't jump straight to that." She did have the decency to blush at the insinuation. "It was just kissing! At first." The last sentence was mumbled, her blush deepening. "I didn't get pregnant till almost a year after that first kiss." Her eyes clouded again, her expression turning somber. "That was a particularly hard time, for everyone. It was the middle of the War. The possibility of either of us dying at any time was very real. Emotions were high." She snorted, breaking the somber mood. "It definitely wasn't planned."

She laughed at her son's expression again. He was obviously regretting the initial question now. He was not old enough to hear that particular talk.

"Next thing I knew, I was pregnant and had to leave the front lines. I did go back shortly after you were born to help for a little but when things calmed down I came back here for the next two years. Smoker and I didn't make any type of fuss about it so I don't think it was really noticed. We gave the excuse of taking a break from all the fighting when people asked without going into too much detail."

They sat in silence, Sora pondering the information that he had been given, Tashigi lost in memories. Sora was the one that broke it.

"Wait… you said your absence wasn't noticed? Did he notice? Does he …know? About …" His question faded away, his expression surprisingly vulnerable. Her heart broke as she looked into his brown eyes that spoke of silent worries and sleepless nights pondering his origins.

She didn't want to answer. More than anything, she didn't want to tell him. But she had to. He needed to know.

"No. He doesn't know. I haven't told a single soul, not even him. Smoker only knows because he figured it out himself. Most people don't even know I have a son. Not that I want to keep you secret because I'm ashamed or anything." She hurried to explain. "It's just-"

"Absolute Justice." His own head was bowed, his eyes hidden in shadow.

She sighed. This statement needed no further words. The silence dragged on.

"Hey mom?" She looked up in surprise. His head was still downturned. He lifted his head and she was taken aback by his expression. It was full of determination. Unwavering.

"I'm going to find him. And I'm going to defeat him. I'm going to become the World's Strongest Swordsman." He grinned and Tashigi couldn't see any difference between father and son. "And then he'll know. Then he'll see me and realize." He looked up, reaching a hand to the sky. "I won't rest until I beat him. Then he'll have to recognize me as his son. When I've surpassed him."

Tashigi's jaw had dropped in astonishment. His grin was huge, splitting his face in a mix of pure delight and determination. Then she smiled, her eyes watering slightly.

"Yeah. Then you can arrest him."

"Huh?" Sora's expression was total confusion. "What do you mean?"

"When you defeat him, the marines can finally arrest him. And you'll lead them!"

"…" His expression deadpanned, his previously outstretched hand falling limply down. "You think I'm going to be a marine?"

"Eh? Of course you are! Why do you think I've been training you?"

He laughed and stood up, brushing off his pants. "Don't be silly, mom. I wouldn't be able to chase after my dream if I become a marine." He started to walk away, his arms crossed behind his head. Tashigi scrambled to her feet and jogged to catch up with him.

"You're not?" She gasped and froze mid-step. "Don't tell me you're going to become a- a-"

Sora turned back and grinned up at her, his grin taking on a slightly feral look. "That's right! I'm going to become a pirate!"

Of course he is. He's his father's son. Poor Tashigi. Thanks a lot people's. Now this one shot will probably become a three shot. I'll probably write Sora meeting Zoro next. Only because I got reviews asking me to! *hint hint*