Mass x Acceleration

By Dixxy Mouri

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Twin's Father

There were screaming, crying, and laughing children absolutely everywhere.

Nami was surrounded.

The park where Sanji sometime took the twins was the site of the major children's events during the festival. Gala had been roped into dressing up as a clown to pass out balloons (he looked just as tired and frustrated as she did), a few volunteers were painting rainbows and smiley faces on cheeks, and Darryl and Jimmy were hosting some sort of sing-a-long event. Today, Nami was in charge of passing out candied apples.

It was only the third hour and already her wig had been pulled off three times, the screaming was giving her a headache, and an entire bowl of the sticky red syrup they used to make the candied apples had fallen over and on her, ruining her shoes and getting on the skirt of her dress. Ria was going to be pissed, but Nami was assured at least the dress was salvageable.

It was enough to make Nami question her sex life. Sure, she and Sanji were currently both sterile so she wasn't worried about an unexpected new member of their, well, at that point she guessed they'd be a "family", but for the moment she was happy with "couple". And she knew that Sanji wanted children someday, something she'd never thought about much before but decided could be a discussion to have in a few years, once Luffy had found the One Piece and they'd seen their own dreams come true. But that was someday, not anytime soon. No, these screaming children were wearing at her patience and the thought of having one she was responsible for full time (especially when she caught site of the very pregnant Mrs. Honeycrisp and the four spastic animals she called her children) made her want to kick Sanji out of their bedroom if he so much as said the word "cuddle".

Other people's children – Mother Nature's birth control.

"AUNTIE NAMI!"

Nami was nearly brought to the ground by Wendy and Sundae, who slammed into her from both sides, jumping up and down as they told her about their day (something about pony rides and hot dogs, possibly at the same time). Ria took a moment to laugh before calmly telling her girls to settle down. The twins obeyed, going back to their mother. "Sorry about that – they've had a busy day."

"I'll bet," Nami said. She leaned forward. "Would you girls like some candied apples?"

"Yes, please!" they said in unison. Nami smiled – at least they used the word "please".

"What happened to your dress?" Ria asked. Her eyes were locked on the red syrup stains.

"There was an accident," Nami replied with a grimace. "I was told it's washable."

"The candy might be but that dress isn't," she said. "I'm going to need to handle that. Come on."

Nami watched the family start to walk away, but then Ria stopped and turned around and gestured for her to follow, one hand on her hip and her eyes narrowed. "I said 'come on', sugah. We've got to wash that dress and since you're still wearing it, you've got to come with me. I'll get you something clean to wear at the shop."

"I can't – I still have two hours left," Nami said.

"Not if it means my costume gets ruined!"

"But Mac-"

Ria was back in front of Nami, the twins with her and the keys to her shop in hand. "Take the girls back home – I will meet you there. I'm going to explain to Mac that I'm not letting that dress get ruined and you're not to be anywhere near candied applies or chocolate pies or whatever else these kids are going to make into a big mess while you're in that dress."

"How?"

Ria grinned. "You don't wanna know, sugah."

"Are we going to be able to go back to the festival?" Wendy asked. Nami had brought the girls back home, and now the three of them were waiting in the shop for Ria's return. The twins were getting impatient and fidgety after being taken away from the fun. Nami wanted to sit, but suspected Ria wouldn't want the candy coating on any of her chairs.

"I'm sure you will – your mom just needs a few minutes to talk to Mac."

Sundae pouted. "Is this because Mommy's all by herself?"

Nami was surprised by this. "Huh?"

"We don't have a Daddy, so Mommy takes care of us all by herself, and if we had a Daddy we could have stayed with him and played more instead of going home early," said Wendy. She pouted, kicking the checkout counter. "Most of the other kids have a Mommy and a Daddy – except for Adam Pearmain, he has two Daddies, and Belle de Boskoop has two Mommies – so why do we only have Mommy? Why don't we have a Daddy?"

Nami sat herself down and beckoned the girls closer. "I only had one parent."

This got the twins' attention. "Really?"

Nami nodded. "When I was a baby . . . something happened on the island I was born on, so it was just me and a little girl not much older than me all by ourselves. We were found by a woman named Bellemere, and she decided to take care of us and be our mother. She brought us back to her village and raised us in a little house on a tangerine grove."

"What's a tangerine?" asked Sundae.

"It's another kind of fruit – they can't grow on this island and they rarely come on the trade ships," said Nami. "They're similar to oranges, but smaller and sweeter. You guys have had oranges before right?" The twins nodded. "Sanji-kun and I look for them whenever the trade ships come in, but we haven't seen any yet."

"So you have a sister?"

"Yes – her name is Nojiko, and she's two years older than me." Nami sighed, and a thought occurred to her – the twins might ask what happened to Bellemere, and that was a memory she wasn't sure she wanted to share with the girls, so she quickly changed the subject. "And Sanji-kun only had one parent, too. He was raised by a man named Zeff who took him in when he was . . . nine, I think? They fought a lot, but deep down they cared about each other, and that's what's most important."

"What're we talking about?" Ria came into the shop, and the twins greeted her.

"Auntie Nami told us she and Uncle Sanji were both raised by one person, too," said Wendy.

"Not the same person – Belly Mare and Jeff," said Sundae.

"That's 'Bellemere' and 'Zeff'," Nami politely corrected.

Ria nodded, but her eyebrow was raised. "Oh? What brought this up?"

"Because you won't tell us why we don't have a Daddy," said Wendy.

The seamstress crossed her arms. "Sugahs . . . I told you I'd tell you when you were older."

Of course not. You can't tell a pair of three year olds they were the result of a one night stand.

The twins pouted, and Ria told them to run upstairs while she helped Nami get changed. They obeyed and bounced upstairs while Ria led Nami into one of the back rooms to find a clean set of clothing for her to wear. "Sore subject for the girls, huh?" Nami asked, taking a seat while Ria tried to put an outfit together for her.

"They ask about him all the time," said Ria. "I can't tell them yet."

"Of course not."

Ria grabbed a pair of jeans, eyed it, and placed it on the table. "Is it true?"

"That Sanji-kin and I came from single parent homes? Yeah," said Nami. "Both of us were adopted, too. My birth parents were killed in a pirate attack on the island I was born on. I was too little to remember, so I don't even know anything about them at all, really. And Sanji-kun? His parents died when he was a baby, too. He spent some time with his biological grandmother before she passed away, but then he got apprenticed off by the relatives who took him in after that. I think the first place he considered 'home' and 'family' was the restaurant he was working at when Luffy and the rest of us found him."

"How do they feel about you two being pirates? Your adopted parents, I mean."

"Sanji-kun's dad was a former pirate himself, so he's fine with it, I'm sure. My mom, Bellemere, was a Marine, but . . ." Nami closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "When I was ten, our island was invaded by pirates. They set up a system where we had to pay them tributes to live . . . a horrible version of what Shanks does here. But when they showed up, she couldn't pay the tribute for all of us. So she was killed. Shot right in front of me and my sister."

Ria turned to look at her in horror. "Oh my God."

"Yeah, and it got worse. They found out I knew how to draw maps really well, and the captain decided he wanted me to make sea charts for them. After he showed me what his crew would do to any Marine ships who tried to come and save us, he made me strike a deal with him. If I could raise one hundred million berries, I could buy back my island, but until then I had to be a member of his crew." Nami pulled up the sleeve of her dress. "You can't see it too well, but the tattoo I have now is covering up the scars of his crew's mark."

Ria walked over to her and embraced her. "I had no idea, sugah." Nami returned the hug, letting the other woman squeeze her. "But I don't get it – if you had such an awful experience with being a pirate, what in the world possessed you to join your current captain? Hell, how did you even manage to get that much money together?" Her eyes widened. "And if that's the system that captain had there, how do you stand being here?"

"Shanks is not like Arlong – at all. He was very up front with me about what his deal with Apple Island is and his willingness to let things go if there's a bad harvest year. If a single person couldn't pay the tribute or tried to rebel, Arlong would kill everyone in that village. I saw at least three villages get massacred because of it. As far as I know my village was able to keep on top of their tributes, or Arlong went 'easy' on them to keep better control over me," said Nami.
"How'd you get out of it?" asked Ria.

"Well, I spent the next eight years learning to rob pirates – I actually got my hands on most of the money I needed to buy back my village that way. But towards the end of it I ran into Luffy and even though I hated pirates, I found myself starting to like him and his crew. Of course it was really small at the time – it was just him and a famous pirate hunter from the East Blue, Roronoa Zoro. Not long after we picked up Yasopp's son, Usopp, and pretty soon after that we met Sanji-kun."

Ria pulled herself out of the hug and looked at Nami with wide eyes. "Say that again?"

"Uh, there was Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji-kun," said Nami. "Luffy was-"

"No. Roronoa Zoro," Ria said flatly. "Green hair? Three swords? Loves booze?"

The navigator's eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't like Ria had described something only a close friend would know (green hair, three swords, and a penchant for alcohol was the kind of thing you could figure out about Zoro after about five minutes) but certainly enough that she'd believe they'd at least met before. "You . . . you know him?"

The seamstress closed her eyes. "Yeah. I do."

"Well, how do you know Zoro?" Nami asked. Ria backed away from her, looking like she didn't quite know what to do with herself. That was unlike the seamstress. Normally the woman was brimming with confidence and poise, but now she resembled a scared little girl. And, considering what they'd been talking about before, a thought popped into Nami's head. "Ria . . . he's . . . not . . ."

". . . yeah. He's the twins' father."

Meanwhile . . .

Sanji was running through the woods, trying to find the blacksmith to confront him about what had just happened at the fishing hole after he'd been pulled out of the water. Braeburn knew the island better, but the sensitive hearing he had from his Zoan Devil Fruit was helping him track the other man, so he hadn't lost him yet. It still felt surreal, but he knew what he saw and as much as he didn't like it, it HAD to be true.

Baroque Works.

The tattoo across Braeburn's back was huge, with the entire wingspan of the organization's jolly roger stretching from shoulder to shoulder. From discussions with Robin and Vivi on the subject he knew not all of the members had tattoos, but a lot of them did as a show of loyalty to the organization. Neither the princess nor the archaeologist had one, but to try and keep their cover, Igaram had gotten one of his left bicep.

Sanji wasn't sure what to make of it all. Baroque Works had definitely done a lot of bad things, but depending on where Braeburn had been in the rankings meant that he didn't necessarily know the full extent of what his bosses were up to. Maybe he didn't know about their involvement in the Arabasta Civil War. Maybe he was just a paper pusher or something. Maybe he was . . .

The cook thought back to the night he'd first met the blacksmith and felt a pit in his stomach. "I see you've found Rosalie. Relax, I'm not going to attack you or anything crazy like that – I like you and I don't hurt people I like. I haven't had a need to use her in a long time and, God willing, I won't for a long time to come. Maybe never if I'm lucky. But she's still a lovely hammer, isn't she?"

Rosalie.

Sanji remembered Braeburn's war hammer. It was obvious the hammer had been refinished at some point to cover . . . something . . . up, and now it was starting to look like it was another Baroque Works symbol. That had been his weapon while he was with the organization, meaning whatever he'd done it was more than just "paper pushing". But where in the organization was he?

The cook was liking this less and less – they hadn't met all of the Frontier Agents. They'd met all of the Officer Agents (the Mr. 0 pair, the Mr. 1 pair, Mr. 2 Bon Clay, the Mr. 3 pair, the Mr. 4 pair, and the Mr. 5 pair) but only about half of the rest. The Mr. 13 pair were those animals he'd beaten up in Little Garden. Vivi was part of the Mr. 9 pair, and Igaram had been part of the Mr. 8 pair. The Mr. 7 pair were the idiots trying to detonate the bomb in Alubarna. That left the 12, 11, 10, and 6 pairs . . . although Sanji realized it was possible that he could have been replaced by someone else so maybe he'd been Mr. 8 before Igaram or something.

. . . wait a second.

Sanji nearly tripped over a rock, but instincts from the other fruit suspended him in mid-air long enough to regain his boundaries, and he landed gracefully on his feet. Pairs. The Frontier Agents worked in pairs – male, female pairs. The only exception to that rule was Mr. 2 Bon Clay. If Braeburn was one of the other Frontier Agents that meant he'd had a partner at some point. And Sanji knew EXACTLY who that partner would have been.

Ria.

Braeburn and the seamstress had arrived on the island at the same time. Both of them were capable fighters and were the island's second line of defense (in the event a pirate crew was ballsy enough to disregard Shanks' flag).To this day they were still fairly close – the blacksmith was the twins' godfather and he checked in on the small family fairly regularly to make sure they were doing okay.

She HAD to be his former partner.

Son of a bitch.

Meanwhile . . .

Nami's jaw dropped. "No way."

"He's the only possible one – I wasn't with anyone else anywhere near the time I got pregnant, so it has to be him," Ria said. She was emoting more now, maybe a little relieved that she'd just come out and said it, but she wasn't back to her old self. She was pacing a little, looking concerned. "And he's on your crew. Seriously? He's one of the Straw Hat Pirates?"

"Are you upset the girls' father is a pirate now?" Nami asked.

Ria paused. "No, no, it's not that . . . although that's going to be a fun pill to swallow later and I've got a bottle of wine upstairs I'm going to use to help me with that one, but . . . son of a bitch." She leaned against the counter, her head lowered. "If I tell you a secret, will you promise to hear me out and not lose your cool if I tell you the whole story?"

"What do you mean 'the whole story'?" asked Nami. "You told me it was a one night stand and I believe you, so I don't see what else there is to tell." She thought about who she was talking with, groaned, and covered her forehead with her palm. "And I'm not really interested in hearing about the 'details'."

"Not that part of the story," said Ria, though she did giggle and look away with a blush.

"Okay, then what exactly is this 'whole story' business?" asked Nami.

Ria sighed, finally picking out a shirt for Nami to wear and handing the outfit to her friend. "Here's the thing, sugah. When Zoro and I met, I wasn't exactly working for the most savory group of people, and I was tasked with getting him to join. That didn't exactly work out, but I don't know if they tried again with someone else. But when they found out I was pregnant . . ."

Nami had an awful feeling in her stomach. "You were in Baroque Works, weren't you?"

The seamstress' face paled. "How . . . how did you know that name?"

"A lot of reasons," said Nami. "A big one being that Luffy and the rest of us were orchestral in taking them down, and considering that it sounds like they wanted you dead I'm going to assume that this is probably a good thing for you. Still, I think we need to talk – especially before the rest of my crew arrives on this island."

"Yes," said Ria. "Of course, sugah."

Author's Notes

Today (July 31) is my birthday so, as I (try to) do every year, y'all get a present! Also big thanks to Misha for getting this beta'd, as usual

Remember when I thought I had 28 ready to go? Yeah I did a rewrite after I posted 27 because I realized some things weren't working and then it decided not to play nice . . . you know the drill. Plus we're in the middle of a move so there's that, too :/

Oh wait there's an elephant in the room now isn't there? Namely that Zoro and Ria hooked up at some point roughly eight to nine months before Wendy and Sundae were born (twins are often born early). Well, although there will be more detail in the coming chapters as to how that happened, well, they aren't likely to hook up again. Ria made it pretty clear that all she and the baby's father had a one night stand and that she doesn't have any feelings for him - I don't think she hates him or resents him but she isn't pining for her long lost lover.

Until next time!

Dixxy