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missmungoe · 1 year

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titles, a little future-fic inspired by a spoiler I saw for chapter 1089. Shanks x Makino & Pirate King!Luffy.

She’d been saying it for so long it had become second nature, from the moment her belly had first started rounding under her hands, talking to the child within, to the mornings she'd work in her bar, her newborn sleeping in the sling against her breast, telling him about the boy who'd used to come running through her doors, leaves in his hair and dirt under his fingernails, and his little hands cupped around a beetle for her; the one who was no longer a boy but a king, although Makino wondered sometimes if he always would be the first, to her.

But she said it often, wanting her son to know him for what he was, ever-growing bounty and long list of monikers notwithstanding, Straw-Hat and Emperor and King. And so it only followed that he would take to saying it, too, the syllables taking shape, first awkwardly as he learned to speak, and then with more confidence, until it became a common occurrence, whenever his photograph appeared in the newspaper, or an updated edition of his wanted poster.

“Big brother!”

“Yes,” she would say, ruffling his hair tenderly where he'd sit on the floor by the bar, his little hands wrapped around the poster, showing her the grinning face on it, the boy she'd once known now a young man, and changed in more ways than just the years that had passed since his departure, his once-black hair bleached the white of a brilliant sun. But even older, and different, she knew the smiling face beneath the black print, and better than most. “That’s your big brother.”

This usually prompted an eager repetition, in the way of children learning how the pieces of their world fit together, mama and papa and uncle, and her son had a hundred and then some, each one as dear as the next. And brother, although she hoped it would be a few more years before he started asking about the specifics of this particular family tree, wonderful and complicated as it was, but Makino would tell him when he did―that brother didn't need to mean by blood, and that no one knew the meaning of the word as well as his own did, the two who lived, and the one she would make sure still did, remembered in the wide brown eyes asking for stories about him.

But accepting their relation was simple enough, the words repeated often, and she quickly learned to distinguish the different inflections and what they meant, spoken to a photograph in the paper, or shrieked at a passerby in a straw-hat in Goa’s market district. And gentler, after tucking him in, the implied request made with those wide brown eyes, “Big brother?”

“Shall we read the story?” Makino would ask, and after a furious nod, she’d read from the latest article in the newspaper, embellishing the sometimes dry journalistic descriptions with the skill of a girl who’d grown up between the pages of books, although the theatrics she’d learned from someone else (his father, who’d tell it better, Makino knew, or at least with more panache, and a flourish that would see their son shrieking with laughter), and glossing over certain segments, included to keep the navy appeased, although she could have read every word verbatim and those wide eyes wouldn’t have changed, the hero in his story untouched by the judgement of the navy and the world press, but then as far as Monkey D. Luffy was concerned, that little heart had already made up its mind about what he was.

And she’d grown so used to hearing the words, babbled to himself as he played, content in his own company as she'd always been in hers, bringing his long-time hero to life with his imagination, the brother he hadn't even met yet, that she didn’t even react, the morning it was suddenly shrieked into the quiet common room of her bar.

“Big brother!!!”

She was in the storeroom trying to focus on doing inventory (it was hard with a hand up her skirt, and she was trying her best to be quiet), when she heard it, pitched with such a shrill delight it made her wonder if the newspaper had arrived with an updated wanted poster, before another voice asked, deeper than she remembered―

“Makino?”

She nearly dropped the bottle in her hands, and only a nimble set of fingers saved it from shattering across the floor of her pantry, and that somehow still had time to adjust her skirt before she fairly threw herself through the door where it sat ajar, a deep laugh chasing her.

A man stood in the doorway of her bar, the bat-wing doors still swinging behind him (she could still remember a time he'd been small enough to walk beneath them, Makino thought, dazed).

Her son had pushed up on his feet, his little hands fisted in the cloak draping from Luffy's shoulders, wider than she remembered, and his own hands lifted to hover around the eager little boy who'd run to greet him.

For his part, Luffy looked like he wasn’t sure he’d entered the right bar.

“Um,” he said, to the toddler excitedly tugging at his cloak.

“Up!"

The demand was answered promptly and without question, but then for all his visible confusion, there were few Makino knew who could readjust as quickly as the young man before her, now holding her son and looking like he still wasn’t sure he’d docked in the right port.

On his hip, Ace was beaming, but then there was no confusion in that little heart of just who’d walked through her doors.

Luffy looked from the toddler on his hip to her, standing behind the counter, his mouth open like he was about to say something, when several more figures appeared through the bat-wing doors behind him.

“Who’s this?” a beautiful young woman with long copper hair asked. Nami, Makino knew her name, but then their wanted posters filled the back wall of her pantry.

“He’s cute,” Nico Robin agreed, appearing on Luffy's other side.

“You’re holding him weird,” Zoro said, his arms crossed, before his one eye swept the common room of her bar. Makino saw it pause on her where she stood, and the sword peeking out from behind her back, slid through the knot of her apron.

“You didn’t mention you had a little brother, Luffy,” Franky said, lifting his sunglasses where he’d ducked through her doorway.

“This must be the enchanting Makino-chan~!”

Sanji had barely made it two steps into her bar before Nami yanked him back by the jacket of his suit.

"Makino-san," greeted the skeleton politely, his cane tucked beneath his arm as he swept her a bow, even going so far as to take off his top hat. Then as he straightened back up, "Might I be so bold as to ask you―"

"No," Nami cut him off.

“Apologies for not calling ahead,” said another voice, as Makino's eyes widened, moving up the towering fishman who'd appeared behind the others, the words directed to her as Jinbei inclined his head in a bow. Then with a grin at Luffy, “Captain wanted it to be a surprise, although it seems he’s been beaten to the punch."

Still holding her son, his wide brown eyes taking in the crew around him, Luffy didn’t seem to know what to say.

"Why are you so shocked?" Usopp asked him. "Dad told me before they left. Didn't Red-Hair say anything?"

Luffy looked at him, his eyes wide, just as calm footsteps drew their collective attention to the tall figure who’d emerged from her pantry, coming to stand beside her as a warm hand brushed over her back. To Luffy, “There you are,” Shanks said, picking up a dish towel to throw over his shoulder. “Took you long enough. We've been here for weeks and we set sail from Laugh Tale after you.”

There was a long pause where Luffy just stared at him, his arms still around the cooing toddler reaching for his straw hat. Then, shrilly, “Shanks?!”

“You didn’t tell him?” Makino asked, and batted his hand away when it not-so-discreetly tugged her blouse into place. He hadn't even bothered buttoning his shirt back up.

That grin knew where her thoughts had gone, but all Shanks said was, “And miss out on this opportunity?”

“Is this why you had the others take the ship to Goa today?” she asked, as he blinked innocently. “So they wouldn’t see it coming into port?”

“Hm?" Shanks asked. "I don't know what you're talking about. That was to pick up our shipment.” When her look wasn't convinced, his grin only grew, and placing his hand over his heart, told her very seriously, “I swear on my honour as a pirate.”

"Not your honour as a barkeep?" Makino parried.

"I think I left that in the pantry with your underw―mmpppfh!"

His filthy grin was too wide for her hands to cover, and ignoring it―and her incriminating blush, which wasn't any more subtle―she primly turned to the Straw-Hats, observing them with amusement, and just in time to catch Brook as he bent his head to murmur to Nami, "I suppose that answers my question."

The girl had enough grace to avert her gaze, although the grin she failed to hide with her cough was less discreet, Makino thought.

For their captain's part, he hadn't moved, his expression frozen where he stared at them behind the bar, the toddler on his hip babbling eagerly.

“He’s processing,” Nami explained.

“Give him a minute,” Robin agreed.

“You’re still holding him weird,” Zoro said, just as Ace made another grab for the straw hat, nearly tumbling out of Luffy's arms, which saw them all scrambling to catch him.

It was what snapped Luffy out of his daze, his arms stretching, grabbing their son before he could hit the floor, to loud objections from his crew, and the shrieking delight of the little boy in their midst, made the sudden centre of attention.

"You almost dropped him!!"

"He's not made of rubber, Luffy!"

"What are you doing? Don't bounce him like that!"

"But he likes it!"

Their voices had risen to fill her bar, although louder was the laughter of the two at the centre of the chaos, as Luffy lifted him up as high as he'd go, his earlier confusion forgotten under that infectious joy.

A big hand brushed her back tenderly, his voice pitched beneath the din as Shanks bent his head towards her ear to murmur, "This is why I didn't tell him."

Her grin couldn't be helped any more than her tears, as Makino tucked her brow to his shoulder, and heard his chuckle as Shanks kissed the top of her head.

Luffy was watching them now, a different look in his eyes, one that belonged to the boy who'd stood there once, his little hands cupped around a beetle for her (a red one to cheer her up, because she'd been so sad, the day he'd left), not the king who'd returned in his place. Their son was back on his hip, the straw hat he'd sought now in his possession, so big it obscured his whole head. Without it, she could see Luffy's face clearly, older than she remembered, his cheeks without their youthful pudge and dusted instead with a dark scruff. They’d have to update his wanted poster soon if he kept this up.

Smiling, the quaver in her voice held years in it, of missing teeth and dirty fingernails and endless gifts of beetles to make her smile, a pride that ached in her chest now, as, “Welcome home, Pirate King,” Makino said, although she'd barely spoken the words when their son turned his head towards the bar, a little hand pushing up the brim of the straw hat as he said, this time with an entirely new inflection, not requesting confirmation or a story but offering a correction.

“Big brother!”

And while she might have thought once that nothing could ever surpass the importance of the first, and the dream he’d held onto so fiercely, seeing the grin that lit Luffy’s face now, Makino didn’t need to wonder which title held the greatest value, at least not to the one who knew, and perhaps better than anyone, the meaning of those two words.

#opspoilers #One Piece 1089 #Shanks x Makino #Monkey D. Luffy #One Piece Makino #Makino's child #Straw-Hats #Straw-Hat Pirates #Shanks #Red-Haired Shanks #One Piece #opfanfic #One Piece fanfic #One Piece fanfiction #mungoe writes

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