You Really Want Me to Join? (One Piece)

Chapter One: Meeting the Little Shit

You stood up, doing your best not to jostle the child, and handed him over to Dadan.

"I need to get going. I'll be back next month for the next payment. Have a good day, all of you." And with that, you left the hut, your soul feeling a little lighter than the past few months.

You kept coming back like this over the next few years or so, getting to watch as little Ace grew. You thankfully managed to avoid his grandfather most of the time.

You knew you weren't doing anything that would warrant a 'grandpa bear' reaction, but you also knew you weren't the most law-abiding person in the hut, so you steered clear.

One visit that you had to the bandit hut, the bandits practically threw the child into your arms, begging you to take him and calm him down. You sort of understood, the little one, "Ace" Dadan had called him, was wailing, tears all over.

You threw a glair right back at them for how rough they were being and started rocking the little one back and forth. You're not sure where this came from, but you felt like you just knew what to do easily.

You shushed the child, bouncing him on your hip, watching him shove his face in your neck, trying to hug as much of you as possible. You slowed down your rocking, opting to rub his back.

His tears slowly come to a stop, looking so tired after who knows how long of crying. The hut of bandits gave a collective sigh of relief before seeing your death glare aimed right at them.

"What. The hell. Happened?" You're not sure why you seem to care so much. You hardly felt so protective of someone. But right now, you felt the need to bury whoever made Ace this way 6 feet under while they're still alive.

Mogra was the first to give a shaky response.

"W-We don't know! We turned away for two seconds, and he started crying and wouldn't let us look at what was wrong!"

You look back at the little boy in your arms, poking him to get him awake again.

"Hey bud, what's wrong?" You tried to have your voice soft, even though you don't think it ever has been.

He wiggled a little before showing his arm that had a little splinter in it. You gently take his arm into one hand, examining the small wound.

"Awww, did someone get hurt?" You never did like the 'babyish' talk that some people did. The kind that made your own words sound weird even to the baby, and he was three after all. He could understand what you were saying.

He nodded his head, moving his arm a little closer. "Make stop, please." He had a little pout almost while he said it. You knew that from then on, whatever this child wanted, you would run a celestial dragon through to get it.

You pet his hair once more with an "of course, bud." You sat down on the ground so you could use both hands, Ace quickly choosing to just sit in your lap. You had relatively long nails from your lack of self care, so getting the little bugger out should be easy.

Actually, now that you looked at it, it looks like it would only take a small pull to get it out. This gives you an idea.

"Hey, bud, wanna see a magic trick real fast?" You give him your widest, most convincing smile.

"Ma-gic?" He tilted his head in the most adorable way that you wanted to squeal for probably the first time in you don't know how long. He nodded his head, a curious look growing on his face.

You held his arm out and slowly brought your hand over where the splinter was. You hadn't made contact with the skin or the little piece of wood in his arm yet.

"Hurt?" He only shook his head.

You brought your arm all the way down to his hand, still not touching him or the wound.

"1"

You brought your hand back up over the injury, bringing your hand down to his in another swift motion.

"2"

You brought your hand back up, having it just a few centimeters up before moving down ever so slightly, using the muscles between your pinky and your palm to quickly grab it, bringing your whole hand back down over his in one last quick move, making it look like the splinter just disappeared.

"3!"

He looked down again, another look of confusion before realizing and smiling so wide his face looked like it might break.

"It gone! You did magic!" He got off your lap and started jumping up and down with excitement. "More! More, please!" You couldn't help but give a little laugh.

You stood up and ruffled his hair.

"Not right now, but maybe later, alright?"

Ace's face quickly took the shape of a frown, hurting your heart even though you knew it would disappear soon. You let him know that you would be happy to show him many tricks later.

You hated having to leave, but you had no choice. Every year for around a month or two, you had to leave your little wonderland to "visit" some unsavory family for a special occasion before returning. You were just glad you never got any questions of your whereabouts as long as you got things done.

You always tried to spend a day or two longer with Ace before and after your departure to try to make up for missed time.

"Alright, bud, ready for our walk?" He nodded enthusiastically, and you two walked right out, leaving a relieved group of bandits until you got back.

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Hey! So, it's been a minute since I've actually published anything. Both on here and on my Tumblr, but I really wanted to write an actual story again.
I have no real plan for this, so your guess of what this will end with is as good as mine.

Chapters will most likely be longer than this, but I wanted to go ahead and get this out to see what people thought of it.

I'll try not to spend too long in the past so we can see what you all will be doing in da future.

Have a good day!