Parenting the Right Way

Trauma

Luffy knew what he'd heard, but it would be awful if it had all been untrue. But when the hostages came out, Katakuri was there, looking broken, pale, panicked. Luffy sprinted to him and jumped him, crying. He was shocked at how Luffy got outside. But he didn't ask, and just hugged him tightly.

Many of the cop cars put their sirens on and headed towards the hero capital building. Only a few minutes later, a massive explosion was heard, and they all looked up to see a huge plume of smoke and debris. Luffy cried harder, and Katakuri held him close. All of the former hostages, which were only twenty or so, were brought to the police station to be questioned.

When Katakuri and Luffy drove there, Luffy was tired, all cried out. Zoro must be extremely panicked. When they got there, the bird hero man was waiting, his flaming blue and gold wings on his back. Katakuri was holding Luffy as they headed inside. "You!" the hero called, surprising Katakuri.

"Marco Phoenix," he said in surprise.

"Luffy!" he said as he walked up to them. He was very tall, but shorter than the mochi man. "You saved thousands of lives. We managed to evacuate the whole building," he said brightly, a grin on. Luffy sniffled, relieve that people didn't die, but he was the most relieved to be with his papa again. Getting separated was so scary!

"What are you talking about?" Katakuri asked his son and the pro-hero, Marco. Marco walked them inside, to the more comfy area, and got Luffy some food to eat. He wasn't hungry, though. For him, Marco explained to Katakuri about Luffy climbing down the side of the building and giving them crucial information.

Luffy was sure his papa was angry at him for being reckless, but he didn't show or say it. He just ran his fingers through Luffy's hair, and simply said he was very brave. "It was scary! I was all alone, an-and the bad gu-uys were there!"

"I'm very proud of you. All I could think about was getting you back safely. I couldn't think of anything else, and yet you were able to climb down and get help that I was unable to," Katakuri said kindly. "Very brave and selfless, Luffy."

"It was indeed very impressive," Marco said patiently. "How old are you?"

"Six..."

"Did your quirk help you down?"

"I don' have a quirk. I'm a vampire," Luffy replied. Marco whistled, that he hadn't had any quirk help him. Luffy had managed to completely suppress any abilities that were unwanted. He was fine being quirkless, really. He didn't need things only to make him thirsty and violent. But Luffy was thirsty. "'M thirsty," he mumbled.

"I'll get you some blood to drink. Wait here." While they waited, Luffy finally fell asleep, emotionally and physically exhausted. Marco came back, but didn't wake Luffy up. They both stayed quiet and let him sleep.

-x-

To be honest, Katakuri was furious with himself, and angry that Luffy resorted to such a dangerous tactic to get out. Of course it was the only one that the father could think of to work as well, but it was still so reckless. If he'd fallen, who knows if he could have healed from that? If he'd hit his head, his boy could have died, and the last thing Katakuri had seen was his terrified expression as the elevator dropped, leaving him alone on the third floor.

Marco didn't recognize Katakuri, even though he'd met him before. In hero school, Katakuri had interned at the Whitebeard's agency, and had met young Marco. That was when he was a young child. Katakuri remembered what kind of kid he was. Obnoxious and loud. He was much calmer now, but he'd aged over 15 years since then, after all.

While Luffy napped in his lap, Marco was on the phone with his agency, trying to figure out what to do now. Katakuri was so glad he got out of the hero industry. It looked absolutely exhausting and stressful. He'd never envied Dragon's career, and hadn't ever regretted turning to helping children in a way other than heroes.