Chapter 28: Return Through the Looking Glass! The World Goes On!
The fall of night brought quiet to the island, like a blanket of midnight velvet holding the battle survivors safe and sound against the scars of violence cut into the very core of Jaya. By then the medical area had expanded to take up the entire beach, stretching from the Flying Pan at one end to the All Blue at the other, with the Thousand Sunny right smack dab in the middle. The Revolutionaries' ships spread out between them acted as a wall from the sea beyond; Hina and Galdino had collaborated to form a breaker of wax and iron strung between the ships to keep the high tide from actually coming in that night. And out of respect for the wounded, the weary, and the dying, celebratory campfires were kept to a minimum.
Shanks had one, the newly awake Dragon and their crews surrounded it. The Neverlands set up one outside Law's tent for whenever Kidd grew too tired to keep going. Not that he would admit that himself, mind, but that was why Killer was there. Two others sprang up further inland, one to the East and one to the West. But in the center, both the beach and the ruins of Mock Town, the night stayed dark; the small collection of Pirates wanted nothing to distract them from their intent listening.
It was just after midnight when they finally heard it.
Faint at first, but growing stronger as a small light made its way down what had once been a wide road. Over the clip-clop of reindeer hooves, and the shuffling steps of four exhausted humans, came the burbling and cooing of one who was seeing stars for the first time. Logically, he wasn't really, babies didn't have that kind of vision, but it seemed like it, with the way the infant babbled, far too alert for someone who'd just been born.
Sabo surged out to meet them on a flow of fire, lighting a few torches around the area on his way. When those had been set up, Luffy didn't know, but he was thankful for them as he stood in the doorway to Zoro's tent. He met eyes with Robin, and the archaeologist also crossed the distance to support their Nakama. Franky gave him a thumbs up with his only working hand, and Brook nodded from his seat on a chunk of broken concrete.
Since his admission at the summit before the war, none of the Strawhats held any doubts about Luffy's position regarding his wife and son. He had acted horribly, believing a vicious rumor over his own Nakama, but he had also realized his mistake almost immediately, even if Nami didn't know that yet.
As they approached, Usopp and Kaya moved off to a clear tent, their heads bent together, foreheads touching without even a breath of space between them. Chopper followed after, giving Luffy a huge grin of pride that only further proved Nami had been telling him the truth all those months ago. Finally, leaning on Sanji, with the baby bundled to her chest like a tribal goddess, his Queen, his life, his world stepped forward until she was positively glowing in the ring of firelight.
He started forward, then stopped when she flinched. His eyes followed her hand as it curled around her child, and met hers, unwavering under the hard, suspicious frown. She chanced a glance up at Sanji, but the cook merely looked away, his head turned so that his cigarette smoke would blow away from the baby. If he had any suspicions about his own lifepartner, he didn't show them in his steady support of their navigator.
"Nami…" Luffy started only to be cut off by a hand held up with the palm facing him.
"I have been kidnapped, humiliated, imprisoned, and tormented on top of being pregnant and just literally hours ago gave birth. This conversation won't be at all rational if we have it now, and so help me, if I'm not rational when we have it, I may let you have it." She hissed.
"I don't care."
Her eyes lit up in rage, "WHAT?!"
The captain was quick to throw his hands up, noticing the others were watching them intently. "I-I-I mean about you being rational! You don't have to be! It's fine! I deserve it."
"What?" Guarded curiosity paired up with her obvious exhaustion made the anger trickle away.
"I deserve it." He repeated, taking another step forward. She flinched back again, so again, he stopped. This time he took his hat off. He looked down at the baby, then back up at her, and for the first time, probably in his entire life, Luffy apologized sincerely. "I'm sorry. I said those things, I was wrong. I don't have an excuse, and I deserve whatever punishment you think I should get. Even if that means…" Again his eyes dropped to the baby, "It's up to you. I'm sorry."
He focused on her feet because he suddenly found himself unable to meet her gaze, but he could feel the others leaning in, almost silently pressuring Nami to forgive him, but at the same time, not wanting to influence her decision. His Haki picked up on most of their thoughts, carefully guarded in some places, but on the whole they felt he at least deserved to know his son.
Then she spoke, soft and intense. "You stupid idiot."
Sanji whipped his head around to her as she pushed away from him, "Nami-swan?"
"You stupid, arrogant, self-centered, naïve, idiot."
Each word was a shaking step towards him, a storm building on her face, and Luffy found himself grateful that she didn't have her Clima-tact with her. Lightning might not have serious affects on him, but it still wasn't all that comfortable!
She stopped inches away from him, shoulders quivering, her free hand in a fist at her side, and he couldn't help it, he flinched. "I'm not gonna hit you, stupid."
"You sure?" His eyes darted between her fist and her face.
"Not right now."
He relaxed a little; even dared something of a smile.
"Things aren't okay here." There went the smile. "You have a lot of making up to do for not believing me. I expect to be paid. With interest! For all of the shit I've had to put up with while you had your head up your ass, Mister." That sounded somewhat hopeful at least. "That means you need to learn quickly how to change a dirty diaper because so help me, Ace won't grow up without his father, but I'm not putting up with any more shit."
She held up the stern expression until her words clicked in his head, then she mirrored his grin, tears in her eyes.
"You named him Ace!" Luffy was ecstatic.
"Of course, you idiot!"
Then he took her in his arms and spun her laughing until little Ace complained. Setting her back down he leaned over her shoulder, supporting her with both arms wrapped around her waist such that he could still stretch a hand up to brush the downy black fuzz atop the infant's head.
"Hey, Ace, I'm your Tousan, and we're gonna have such great adventures together."
It was just as Nami was about to reprimand him for making plans already that Chopper emerged from Zoro's tent. When he'd gone in, nobody knew, but the look on his face had them all frozen. A chill passed through them, and the cook and the navigator looked from person to person for answers.
"Luffy…" Nami prompted.
Chopper cut him off though, sniffling, "San-nji… he's… you should…"
And that was the moment when it clicked in the cook's head.
He dashed off through the ring of Strawhats into the tent behind Luffy, his heart in his throat and barely daring to breathe. The second he was gone the others rounded on the reindeer, but within the canvas shelter, the head chef of the All Blue Baratie stood transfixed, staring at his lover in disbelief.
"Shit for brains, mossheaded, reckless, son of a…" He murmured, stumbling to the swordsman's bedside. "Couldn't just stay out of the way and behave, could you? You had to go playing hero. Don't tell me you didn't, I just know. It was about that Marine girl wasn't it? The one you're always going on about. You fool." He didn't notice he was starting to tear up, "You utter, selfless, idiotic, fool. It's too soon, bastard. We aren't done yet. The shitty eggplant barely has his feet on the ground, and the Sea knows Luffy's gonna need help raising that boy, and fuck… Zoro, no…"
His knees hit the ground, digging into the sand through the canvas floor, and his hands found the closest of the swordsman's. His forehead fell to the rail of the cot, and his shoulders shook in silent sobs.
He could feel the heavy weight of the Marimo's hand on his head, thick, callused fingers combing through his hair, and the rumble of voice that it would be okay vibrated his ears, but no. Not when his beloved's lips were grey-blue in the low light, and the bandages didn't even cover his chest completely. The flicker of aura against his Haki was so soft it felt like a moth's wing.
It wasn't fair. Some malcontent smallfry couldn't take out the Greatest Swordsman in the World! He just couldn't! It was an insult to the title. What would Mihawk have said?!
"NO GODDAMNIT!" Sanji screamed, punching the bed.
His wrath and sorrow was such that he didn't feel or see the shockwave of pale blue that radiated from him.
"SHIT BASTARD! NO!"
Again he yelled, again the pulse ran through the room.
He climbed to his feet, fury making his body shake, and he shouted at the figure on the bed, "WAKE UP ASSWIPE MARIMO! WAKE UP SO I CAN KICK YOUR ASS!"
That time he noticed.
Because the hand he'd been holding twitched. He held his breath, watching it, and repeating the command silently. The fingers curled, and after too many heartbeats, a sound like the rising of a great bear from hibernation rumbled from the swordsman's mouth. His chest rose and fell more deeply, and the flicker of lifeforce hammered harder against the pulse of Sanji's own.
When the eyes under those heavy lids shifted, the cook felt his knees go weak. He sank onto the edge of the cot, taking Zoro's hand again. "C'mon, bastard. Don't tell me you got lost in your own head. I'll really have to kick your ass." Then his voice dropped to barely more than an urgent whisper, "Damnit, Zoro, come home."
"C'ld g't used ta hearin' y'say m'n'me, c'k." Slurred and groggy, the swordsman didn't open his eyes, but he worked his mouth like he'd forgotten how to use it. "Dr'nk?"
Sanji searched the tent, but nearly came up empty except for a small wineskin that looked like it had been dropped by someone much earlier. It had something in it, but it certainly wasn't water. Not by the way it burned the cook's nose hairs.
"All I have, but I dunno if you want it, shit bastard." He lifted the rim to Zoro's lips.
"S'gud'nuff."
Whatever the alcohol happened to be, it didn't affect the Marimo's ability to swallow, at which Sanji privately marveled, but it did lend him some strength it seemed. As the second he finished it off, both arms came up sluggishly to pull his lover down next to him on the cot.
"Know yer 'xhausted. Sleep, S'nji. M'not dyin'. Not t'day. Gotta b'there fer th'brat wh'n'e g'ts 'ld'r." Then he was snoring, his cook's head pillowed on his chest so that the blond could hear his heart beat like the anxious sap he was without worry.
And surprisingly, Sanji went along with it.
"You know, you didn't have to do this."
"An' make ya come through all this shit on yer own? HA! Not on yer life!" The redhead crossed his arms over his chest, scowling out at the sea.
His lifepartner leaned into his arm as well as he could manage, "And I'm certain seeing our godson has nothing to do with it, ne?"
Kidd grumbled and turned to pull Law into his chest, his natural hand drifting down to palm the swell of their child unconsciously. His scowl never changed. "Mebbe it does. Mebbe it don't. It's th' kid's birthday. We should be there."
"Papa! Chichi! I can see it!" Their daughter cried out from the prow of the ship before darting back towards the co-captains.
Five years old, and already as precocious as her parents, the tiny redhead nearly slid into Bepo as the navigator was coming down from his cabin. The bear hopped on one leg into Wire, and Shachi only got out of the way because Heat pushed him after Penguin squeaked. Killer, at the wheel, shook his head, a low chuckle hidden beneath mask and the sounds of the ship itself.
"Gwendolyn, be more careful please." Law chuckled at their firstborn's antics, but moreso at the way his lover tensed behind him.
The dark-skinned little girl grinned in a way that was far too similar to her sire, and clasped her hands behind her back, "Sorry, Papa."
At that moment, Jade, a young panda from Bepo's home island, slid down the mast from the crow's nest. He was brought on as a cub for two reasons. One, he'd been orphaned in a raid by Bellamy's Cards before the Wonderland War, and two, he was close enough in age to Gwen to serve as both friend and babysitter. Much as Bepo had done for Law after Vergo's betrayal at Rubeck Island.
However, the panda shared something else with his foster father.
He let go of the mast a second too soon, crashed to the deck, only to bounce back to his feet and scuttle over to where Law and Kidd stood atop the aftdeck. Then he bowed and mumbled something neither could hear.
Gwen elbowed him, "Speak up, stupid."
"Gwendolyn!" Law chastised.
But Kidd laughed loudly at her brash motions… which earned him an elbow in the solar plexus, and he grinned, wheezing laughter still hissing through his teeth even as he rubbed his gut. Like father, like daughter.
Jade yelped, however, bowing again. "Sorry! Land ho, Captains."
"I said that." Gwen crossed her arms over her chest and sniffed.
"Nuh-uh." Jade challenged. "You said you saw it. That's not right. The proper call is—"
She cut him off with a growl, "Yeah, and yer s'posed to do it from the crow's nest. Not come runnin' all the way down here to whisper it."
"I can't yell from up there!" The panda whimpered.
"I can! Bet I can do it better too!" Not giving him a chance to answer, Gwen took off for the ladder to the rigging with all the balance and coordination of a child born on the high seas.
Behind Law, Kidd whimpered, tense and watching both children like a hawk. They knew what they were doing but it didn't stop the big redhead from worrying about falls and such. And the knowledge that Law's Room responded unconsciously to his daughter being in danger was little help for the master of magnets. He still ignored everything else when it came to situations he could see as potentially dangerous for his daughter and the panda cub.
Not that he let on when he could help it.
Still, it made his lifemate chuckle and squeeze his arm reassuringly. Unlike his previous pregnancy, without the trauma of the Kuja woman's death and the stress of impending battle, Law's Room was entirely under control this time. Oh it still responded to threats against his person, but it no longer registered his boisterous crewmates, allies, and Nakama as threats. For which the surgeon was quite grateful.
Just as the children's voices started to actually reach them down on deck, the blossom of the Mecha Lotus appeared off the port bow, followed quickly by the rise of Raftel to the front, and the sea breeze carried the scent of Sanji's famous All-Blue Chowder. They made port quickly, hungry with the thought of the Strawhat chef's cooking. Not that Shachi and Wire blamed them, even they were happily salivating at the thought of someone else's food after being at sea for so long.
Music drifted down the hill from the Pirate King's house, where most of the town had gathered to celebrate the prince's birthday. Pipes, drums, flutes, and a signature violin carried the tune through the warm, sunny air. Laughter announced that President Dragon and Shanks were there beyond the garden wall, and from the streamers and party decorations adorning the whole village it was obvious that Iva had lent his hand in the designs. A certain flower motif repeated through the whole thing. From the bazaar set up in the town square all the way up the winding drive that opened out on Luffy's home.
Kidd balanced Gwen and Jade on his shoulders behind Law, and followed by Killer, who was leading the others in hauling a massive metal something up the road from the harbor. Heat and Wire fended off the pack of town children that clamored at either side to get a peek at the prince's present.
As they rounded the gate, Sanji emerged from the house proper, plates balanced on his arm and a bowl of something brightly colored on his head.
"SANJIISAN! SANJIISAN!" The birthday boy spun around his legs, long dark hair flailing out behind him in a tail that caught the sunlight. "I WANNA SEE!"
Seated at the table where the foodstuffs were being defended from the boy's father, the chef's husband laughed almost as heartily as Dragon, "Patience, Ace. Let him put it down."
"BUT ZORJII!" The freckled boy whined and pounced his uncle with all the exuberance expected of Luffy's son.
"But nothin', if yer dad has to wait. So do you." Zoro flicked his nose gently.
Almost on cue, the shout came from the other side of the garden, "SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANJIIIIIIIIIIIII FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"
And was chorused by every person under the age of ten in a single voice!
"HOLD YOUR SHITTY HORSES YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!" The chef returned, shaking his leg to try and dislodge one of Robin's foundlings.
Gwen leapt from her father's shoulder in a swan dive that had Law wincing even as Kidd's breath caught in his throat. Hands blossomed from the ground to ensure a safe landing, and Franky, from his position against the wall of the house, saluted the new arrivals with his cola.
A small girl, about four, came up to Law then, hugging him around the hip, and blinked big, cerulean eyes up at him, "When's the new baby coming?"
"Soon, Olivia. We must have patience." He smiled, petting her hair, and let her guide him to a chair between Kaya and Nami.
Chaos reigned then as Luffy returned, dirt-smudged, and laughing as the pack of children tackled him. His hat was missing, but that was probably a good thing considering the level of violence involved in their play. He rolled and bounced off the ground, only to be smacked in the face with a balloon full of paint. Jade took advantage of the distraction to pounce the Pirate King, covering the sniper and his son as they retreated from the top of the garden wall.
"Who wants to play Hide and Seek!" The voice of the Marine Fleet Admiral broke through the din, and the mob disappeared over the hill, led by Gwen, who had Olivia in hand.
The rest of the Strawhats, the Neverlands, Dragon's contingent from Ryuunosu, and a collection of other extended Nakama relaxed in the sound of happiness ringing from all corners of the island. Six years ago today, they fought and defended the world against an evil that nearly destroyed it. The Pirate Queen, as regal as her predecessor, had ensured that the tragedy of that day would forever be overshadowed, and as she sipped her mikan-flavored drink, she smiled.
How it had come to this? She inhaled deeply, from her diaphragm to her shoulders, her hair pulled up in a messy bun and the sun warming her face. Around her the chatter of her various Nakama and family touched a dream she hadn't dared to hope for since she was a small child. And it was all because of him. He'd flung himself into her life like a cannonball, and even now, his promise echoed in her mind, pounding with the beat of her heart.
"Luffy! Let the children have some! Honestly, all you ever think about is yourself!"
A/N: So you've made it! Thank you so much for sticking with this story until the end, even if I did disappear there for a while. I figured it's New Year's Day and I just got around to reading and responding to a couple of the messages I've gotten on here, and well... this had been sitting unfinished on this site for literally almost 2 years. It's about bloody well time I updated it. If you follow me on AO3, this is nothing new, but it's something posted at least. That's in the hope that I can get back into posting semi-regularly, if not here then over at AO3. Check my profile for the links.
Ja na!