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Makino laughed when she and Luffy were hiding behind a wall on their property. It was one of the only ones they had, and had been claimed by their team the moment this snowball fight had started.
Peaking over the wall, she could see Ace and Sabo rushing from one tree to another, more than time enough to hit them with a couple of snowballs where Luffy handed them to her. The two older boys yelled as the icy snow dripped onto their hair and behind their clothing. Shrieking at the cold now making its way over their backs.
She giggled at the thought of it, getting down when a volley of snowballs came towards her from behind the car. Shanks and Uta’s bright red hair gave away who was hiding behind it. Even if she knew her husband wouldn’t throw with his full force. Not against her at least, Ace and Sabo weren’t as lucky, going by the yelling she could hear as both of them were once again hit.
Grinning at Luffy, she had to stifle a laugh at the notion that Ace and Sabo had gotten themselves into this mess. As the oldest, they had proclaimed to be able to do this all by themselves. They wouldn’t need help from adults, while Uta and Luffy did.
As such, Luffy chose Makino, while Uta chose her dad and the fun began. Both Shanks and her weren’t going easy on the two eldest, something which both Luffy and Uta had picked up on as they let the parents throw the snowballs while supplying them as they grinned at their now soaked older brothers.
As expected, both Ace and Sabo surrendered, with Ace joining Makino’s team, and Sabo sprinting over to Shanks to start this whole thing all over again. More matched this time around, until they were all soaked and Makino called it quits before the children got hypothermia.
Shanks moaned just as loud as the children did when she told them to go inside to warm up. Preparing a bath for the three boys to soak in, while Uta took to the shower. While they were preoccupied with getting back the feeling in their fingers, she and Shanks shared a shower in their master bathroom.
A few fleeting kisses exchanged as they warmed up themselves, getting into warm flannel pajamas before going to make sure the same kind were set out for the children to get into.
Humming as she helped all the kids dry off and get dressed, her eyes catching Shanks as he did the same, so they could pile into their couch with some children’s movie that all of them had seen a hundred times.
Humming as she prepared hot chocolate or tea for all of them, she giggled as arms wrapped around her waist as her husband joined her in swaying from side to side.
“I’ve never been happier running into you that day.”
Makino smiled as she remembered, she had been out grocery shopping with Ace, Sabo and Luffy, her nephews she had been taking care of since Ace and Sabo were 3, and Luffy was 1 years old. She never asked what happened to her aunts and uncles, didn’t feel the need to know and found her heart lost to the three boys that she now called her own.
She had run into a single dad with his daughter, taking in a deep breath when their hands touched over the last box of cereal, and the world suddenly made that much more sense. Looking into gray eyes and falling in love with red hair, she could see herself growing old with this man.
Even more so when he also seemed to have a child of his own. Explaining that he had promised Uta’s mother to look after her and doing so with pleasure. He had hoped that his soulmate would be someone who could understand that.
When Makino shared her own journey of becoming a single mother, he had beamed at her before asking if she'd been willing to go out to eat with her.
Their first date had been at McDonald’s, with the children screaming as they played in the indoor playing area, while she and Shanks talked and got to know each other. Got to see just why this person was their other half, and find out soon enough why they fit together so well.
A couple of months passed as Makino got an eviction notice because the owner of the building she was staying at didn’t like her (or her three boys) and had been looking for a reason to get her out of there. Her one time late payment seemed to be enough.
She had called Shanks and explained the situation, after which he came with several of his coworkers and friends to help her move into his secluded renovated farm that had a large plot of land attached to it for the kids to play in. Makino enjoyed herself by looking after their own children and those of friends and neighbors, while baking with the milk, butter and eggs that came from Shanks’ farm.
Looking into the gray eyes she loved so much as the memory faded, she grinned, “I remember, and don’t, for a moment, regret everything that the meeting brought me.”
Shanks just grinned that much wider, turning her into his arms to press their lips together in a much more heated kiss than they had shared earlier.
Four exclamations of disgust telling them they had an audience.
Grinning, Makino picked up the tray with beverages while Shanks went to chase their children back to the living room. She couldn’t think of a better way to have found her soulmate, to meet the sweet and caring man that was Shanks Leroux. How he took care of her boys as if they were his own, and really that was all she could ask for really.
Looking at the diamond ring on her finger, she grinned at the notion that their first wedding anniversary would be coming soon. Pressing her hand to her stomach, she hoped to be able to tell her husband about the new life they would be bringing into this world a few months after said wedding anniversary.