SO- I know know I said I'd post them all but I finished this one so fast I felt guilty for forcing you to wait SO HERE JUST TAKE IT ALFSHHDL.
Its rather short but that is because we are getting to the end, don't worry!!!! Our Garp meet up chapter is coming!!!! But yoi know, plot, sequence yada yada.
I hope you all enjoy thus chapter because though it is short its kinda suuuuppper sad. I think? Idk man I've lost all emotions at this point why do you think I write this stuff.
Anywho thank you all for always as reading and I'll see you soon!! Hopefully with more than just one chapter!!! We'll see!
Bon à petit
***
"Yo Captain!!! Mail's here! You got a letter!"
Shanks ran a hand over his face. He hasn't been this tired in a long time. The government wasn't happy with him, not that they ever were, and Garp was breathing down his neck.
Makino was sending letters weekly, asking if he'd found out anything, anything at all.
In three years, he's only ever been able to tell her that he had nothing.
Three long years of nothing.
He sighed, pulling his hand up and slicking the red hair out of his face.
His foot falls were heavy, slow. It's been like that lately. Ha, lately.
It'd been like that since Luffy was taken. Since his hope of a better future was stolen by those wishing to destroy it.
That was why Shank had been disrupting and uprooting every slave auction he caught wind of, from Sabaody to the Four Seas.
Garp was working through Shanks, using him for any means necessary to find their boys, while using his military power to do any legal action possible.
Nothing worked. They were on the brink of hopelessness.
But he knew Makino, and she wouldn't stop hoping. Even if the news birds came and announced the three dead, she'd call it a lie.
So here Shanks was, three and a half years layers, still looking.
"Caapptttiiaann!!!!"
"Alright, alright I'm coming!" He shouted back up, standing and walking out of his quarters to the deck.
He walked gracefully over to Lucky, who was holding the mail hostage and ignored the look of his concerned crew mates.
Mail. He could handle that. Yeah.
"Give me that," Shanks said brashly, but with no real bite. He couldn't yell at his crew even if he wanted to.
He shifted through the letters and stopped on a thick white one with the Whitebeard insignia garnishing the cover.
He quirked a brow, wondering what his fellow warlord was messaging him about. It was almost always the other way around.
"Hmm."
"What's that, Cap?" Yassop pried, trying to peer over his shoulder.
Shanks batted him away with the letters, focusing back on the one on top.
The crew quieted.
He passed the rest of the mail back to Lucky, shoving it into his hands as he carefully unsealed the letter.
Two pieces of paper fell out, each one folded to fit the envelope.
Okay, weird.
He undid the first one, and began to read.
"Shanks,
Hiiiiiiii!!! It's Luffy!!!"
Shanks froze. He didn't know what Whitebeard was pulling. He didn't like what Whitebeard was pulling.
He was going to kill that man if he ever saw him.
Yet, because deep down he hoped, he read on.
"Marco is writing this because he and Sabo say Ace and I are illiterate, but I don't know what that means.
We are sending letters to everyone so they know we are okay! I thought Makino might be worried and then I remembered you and Dadan and I had to tell you all!
I don't really know how long it's been, a long time I think. The nurse lady here says that's because I have something called Psychosis. Marco says I'm saying it wrong but I don't think that's true.
Anyway, I think physco whatever is dumb so it can just jump ship!
Me and Ace and Sabo got rescued by the Whitebeard Pirates when they raided the ship we were on a little bit ago. I don't know when. But Marco is pretty cool and so is Whitebeard!! I can't join their crew of course because no way am I gonna follow orders I'm gonna be captain! King of the pirates!
Sabo says that saying stuff like that makes him happy, but I'm not sure why.
Oh yeah!!! Ace and Sabo are my brothers! I don't think you got to meet them ;-; I hope you get to. I love them a lot, they saved me too. They didn't leave me alone.
They always keep their promises."
The ink began to get thicker, as it seemed the pen stopped more frequently.
"Shanks, I'm sorry for giving up. I didn't think I'd be able to be the King in the big box. But now there's no way I'll ever give up!! I can do anything!! Screw that lil voice in my head!
Well that's all! I hope we meet soon!
The future King of Pirates,
Monkey D. Luffy"
There were doodles at the bottom of the page. Shanks had no idea what they were meant to be, but he knew at this point one thing.
This wasn't a dream. It wasn't Whitebeard being a villainous soul. Whitebeard wasn't like that.
Luffy, his Luffy, was alive.
Tears appeared on the letter, and Shanks realised they were his.
Benn put a hand on his captain's shoulders, the whole crew looking on in worry.
"Shanks, what is it?" Benn asked curtly.
"Luffy's alive," Shanks said, a mere murmur, not loud enough for anyone to hear.
Shanks sunk to his knees, his entire crew calling out in worry. A choked sob escaped the red haired pirate's lips, and he shouted to the skies.
"LUFFY'S ALIVE!"
Silence. And then realisation.
The crew gasped and cheered, and after passing the letter around and an ocean worth of tears, Shanks set course for Whitebeard's ship.
He needed an explanation, and the newspaper made it very easy to find the man.
Shanks just needed to set sail and find some more saki for the visit.
He also had to make a few calls.
*****
They'd been away from Razkatoon for some amount of time now, and the sky was sunny and clear. Nearly a perfect blue bird day but for a few stray cloud whisps casting colourful sun dogs into the sky.
The three boys were rolling around the deck like the rascals they were, Mimosa watching them lazily from the side lines. It was almost startling how quickly things fell back to normal.
And not normal normal. But a new normal. A normal where the three kids weren't terrified that by rebel-rousing on the open deck they'd be abused. A normal where Luffy smiled and it was the biggest and brightest grin on the four blues.
A normal of peace.
A normal with a cat, apparently.
The Whitebeards had almost forgotten how nice the peace was.
It was only made better as Marco called the boys up to the higher deck for mail call.
They each had a letter addressed to them from a "Makino and Dadan Bandits".
Marco didn't think he'd ever seen them happier, or Ace blush that much.
He handed out their respective letters, teasing Ace as his freckles popped pink.
Ace stole Sabo away and they ran off somewhere so Sabo could read Ace the letter without being judged.
Marco figured that was fair.
But it left him with Luffy.
He glanced down and saw the kid staring up at him with those big round chocolate eyes, a smile adorning his face, and a nervous pattering in his hands as he clutched the letter.
Mimosa tended to follow him where he went, and was sitting down diligently next to him, licking a paw and running it over her ear.
Marco kneeled down to the kids eye level, offering a smirk of reassurance.
"You need someone to help you read that, yoi?" He asked gently.
The salty sea breeze rustled their hair slightly, making Luffy's hat waver a little on his head.
Luffy nodded and carefully passed the letter to Marco, as if giving it to him would mean it was gone forever.
Marco stored that away for later, and figured the answer as to why was in the letter.
He unfolded it with more care than he would his own precious maps. A few dark spots adorned the slightly yellowed paper, ink blurring and swirled with the greyed dots.
Marco quickly recognised them as tears.
There was a second paper, with much less writing and brief quick scribbles. But the bottom was marked with those same grey spots, and an amber colour as the smell of strong booze wafted from the parchment.
Marco looked at Luffy. "You ready, yoi?"
Luffy nodded ecstatically, running around to Marco's side so he could see the letters as well.
Marco cleared his throat, and began.
"Luffy!! Oh dear sweet Luffy you're okay!!! I was so worried, it's been so long I had almost given up hope. But I knew!!! I knew the sea couldn't claim you that quickly, Dragon's be damned!
Luffy. Luffy I'm so sorry. If only I hadn't taken you to the village that day. If only I could have kept you and Ace and Sabo safe.
I know it was probably hard. I can't imagine what you've endured, but I know you're destined to be King of Pirates, and I'm proud of you.
You shouldn't have had to been taken. I should have kept you safe. Apparently Whitebeard had done a better job at that than me, so thank him for me, will you?
I owe him a great debt now.
Luffy you should have seen the town when they heard the news! We threw a party!!! And when you come back, well, I hope you come back… but if you do we'll throw one with you as well! The mayor was overjoyed.
We all heard the news of what happened to that Celestial and we're all glad to say we have no guilt over it.
Luffy I do hope you visit soon. I love you and your brothers very much, and I hope that you are doing well and are healthy.
Dadan was so happy she stared crying, though I'm sure her letter is short and sweet.
Good luck on your journey little King!
With all of my love and care,
Makino"
M
arco looked up from the letter and over to Luffy.
He was taken aback to find tears silently dripping from the boy's face, a wide smile just below his shiny eyes.
"Luffy?" Marco asked carefully, sitting down fully and gesturing to his lap.
Luffy wiped his eyes on his sleeve and plopped himself down in Marco's lap.
It was a quiet moment, Luffy sniffling every few seconds while Marco helped anchor him.
Luffy broke the silence, soft and quiet from like when they first met, and yet strong and happy.
"I'm glad Makino's okay. I thought maybe she forgot me," he said quietly down to his lap as he breathed a small but heavy breath, "Makino is the best."
Luffy twisted to look up at Marco from his lap, a glimmer in his eyes.
"Marco, do you think I could go home and see Makino again?"
And darn if that didn't hit Marco hard. Because yes of course you can how selfish of us to not ask that from the very beginning. Sure they'd been found as slaves but they were so young they guessed… no. It was no excuse. They should have asked if the boys had a home to go back to. Because the Sea knows that a familiar face would have helped them so much.
Marco grinned down at Luffy, burying the guilt.
"Of course, I am our navigator after all, yoi," he said in a happy sort of dead-pan.
Luffy clapped, and then pointed to the second letter.
"That one's from Dadan right? She raised me after Makino," the raven questioned, curiosity and hope in his eyes.
Marco laughed. "Well I don't know but it is signed by that name so I can assume yes. Want me to read that one too? It's a lot shorter, yoi."
Luffy nodded vigorously once more, and so Marco began.
"Monkey D. Luffy,
Good to hear you're safe, your gramps won't get off my back.
I missed you kid. It's not the same around here without you three causing trouble.
We kept the treehouse as clean as we could so come back whenever. If you want, I know you got that dream of yours.
Drop by and maybe we can throw a shindig or sum.
Hope to see ya soon, kid,
Dadan and the Bandits"
Luffy giggled at the end of that one, standing up from Marco's lap, the Phoenix himself following suit.
He was really getting old, the ground was starting to become an unwelcome place of rest.
Luffy leaned down and picked up the lightly snoozing Mimosa, who gave a little tril of surprise as the boy picked her up and nuzzled his nose into her soft fur, holding the large creature tight to his chest.
The cat looked up at Luffy with eyes of sea ice before giving a quick meow and purring, making herself comfortable in Luffy arms.
Marco smiled down at the scene, and Luffy looked up and gave a sunshine smile right on back.
"I'm glad you let us keep her Marco, I think she's happier here," Luffy said looking out to the sea as Marco tucked the letters in his pocket.
"Yoi, Luffy I think you might be happier with her here too," he said calmly, placing a comforting hand on the boy.
They stood there a bit, looking out to sea as the waves whispered on its hopes and dreams, dipping the ship in her salty magic.
Marco enjoyed the view and the breeze, happy Luffy had gotten some closure.
Now, all he had to do was turn the ship around and get the kids back home.
Marco knew they'd have to live their own lives eventually, but he was also hoping maybe, just maybe he could keep the chicks safe in the Moby Dick for a little while longer.
Funny, how family bends and twists itself into knots like that.
And yet he knew that over all else, he was happy to learn the boys had a home.
***
Just in case anyone was curious, this is my dearly departed Mimosa and the funny lil cat in this story, a small gallery:
May she rest in peace, I haven't looked at these pictures in a while haha, kinda sad now TvT
That's all for now tho, I'm gonna go lick my wounds while snuggling my current bug of a cat anndddd reading BunnyBlade fics.
If you know, you know.
(And if you do know then be happy knowing I'm working on a 20k+ dsmp fic rn ;>)
Chão!
Word Count: 2300