The Things We Lost (in the Fire, Fire, Fire)

by Triscribe

Summary:

He expected to spend more time shivering than sleeping; except, somehow, between one breath and the next, a warmth seemed to spread over him, pressing in with a gentle weight entirely unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Comforted in spite of himself, the boy rolled over to better snuggle down into the warm softness, and fell instantly asleep.

Or: being the Pirate King’s son means a lot of people unknowingly tell Ace he never should have been born. It also means several items formerly belonging to Gold Roger make their way into his possession, whether he wants them to or not.

For instance, a coat. A sword. A rather opinionated ship.

(The Hat considers it. The Hat decides to stay with someone else, instead, but that’s alright, considering the someone else is still family.)

Chapter 1: Coat

Ace could take care of himself just fine, okay? He’s five, only a few months shy of turning six, he’s able to travel the jungle and go down the mountain and make it all the way to Grey Terminal just fine, without Dadan or any of her stupid bandits keeping an eye on him.

...but. Maybe. Maybe Magra was right, when Ace set out that morning, about winter arriving early. And maybe, possibly, he should have skipped going to the Terminal, or at least not spent so much time there playing fighting with that blonde kid.

Well. Too late to change his mind.

The snowstorm sprang up faster than Ace anticipated, and it became clear in short order he’d freeze, trying to make it back to Dadan’s hideout. So, instead, the little boy climbed a tree, and found a decently sheltered nook to huddle in for the night. He expected to spend more time shivering than sleeping; except, somehow, between one breath and the next, a warmth seemed to spread over him, pressing in with a gentle weight entirely unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Comforted in spite of himself, the boy rolled over to better snuggle down into the warm softness, and fell instantly asleep.

 

“...don’t have enough layers for this, did she HAVE to send us out right away?!”

“You keep complaining, and Boss will let you be the one to tell Garp we lost his grandson in a blizzard.”

“Sh-shut up!”

Ace grumbled, and burrowed down deeper into his cocoon.

The voices passed right underneath his tree and kept going, clearly unaware of their missed quarry. But the noise did kickstart his waking up process; after a while, the boy rolled onto his back, arms stretching out with a massive yawn. Whatever blanket he’d found was big enough to be a tent, almost, letting him extend all four limbs with room to spare-

Wait.

Blanket?

Abruptly alert, Ace sat upright, blinking at the red cloth in front of his face. It took some tugging, but he found the edge and pulled it away, for a better look at the big pile of cloth. Or rather- the big coat. Bright red, with gold edging and buttons and shoulder pad thingies. Almost like- well, okay, no ‘almost’ needed, it did look like a pirate’s coat.

And it was warm.

Delighted, even if he had no idea where the thing came from, Ace shuffled around until he found the sleeves, so he could fold up and tie the coat around himself. It didn’t keep him quite as comfortable as being completely covered up, but the arrangement worked well enough as he climbed down from the tree and started traipsing through the snow.

Dadan began yelling the moment he got to the hideout, of course, but Ace ignored her like usual, more interested in shaking off his new coat so it wouldn’t drip too much up in his room. He almost didn’t notice Dadan getting real quiet - not until she leaned in close, staring at the coat with her eyes open really really wide.

“What?” Ace snapped.

“Brat,” Dadan said, her tone lower than usual and- not quite afraid, but something close to it. “Where’d you get that?”

The boy’s scrawny arms instantly hugged the thick red cloth to his chest. “It’s mine! I found it!” If Dadan tried to take it away, Ace would fight her, just see if he wouldn’t!

But no, the woman backed off, grimacing and waving a hand at him. “Fine, fine! It’s yours! But keep it out of sight, alright? Don’t go letting anyone besides us see that thing, you little shit!” Grinning, Ace hauled the whole coat into a bundle, and raced for the rickety stairs so he could stash his new treasure away.

(It kept him warmer than a dozen blankets all winter, and even in the summer months, he folded it inside-out to sleep on top of the soft inner layer, comforted by the touch.)

Chapter 2: Pocket Watch

Over the next few years, Ace kept finding things. Or rather, things kept finding him.

They always showed up in the jungle, in trees he climbed or underneath rocks he kicked over. Sometimes they were obviously valuable, like a gold chain with a ruby in the middle, the kind of thing fancy nobles in High Town used to clasp an open coat in place when they didn’t want to button the whole thing. Other times, Ace would just find a random, useful object, like a plain-looking hairbrush made of dark wood and thin bristles, which he wouldn’t care about keeping, except that it felt nice against his scalp when he used it to tug loose a particularly annoying tangled knot.

And then there came the watch.

It showed up the day he turned nine years old, washed up on the edge of a creek where Ace stopped to drink. Sunlight glinted off the silver metal, catching his eye; not a speck of rust showed itself when he went to pick it up. The latch and hinge still worked just fine, as did the ticking hands inside, even if Ace didn’t know what they meant, pointing at different numbers. But the detail that really caught his eye was the picture.

The main heft of the watch came from the actual mechanism, inside one half of the casing - the main reason Ace kept it was the photo carefully placed inside the lid of the other half, a portrait of a woman with wavy blonde hair. She smiled warmly at whoever must’ve been holding the camera, eyes crinkled at the corners, a big flower tucked over one ear. And it wasn’t like Ace knew her or anything, but... But his heart still kicked a little harder, looking at her face.

He didn’t let Dadan or any of the other bandits see the watch when he took it to his room; they’d all gotten twitchy about his growing collection of cool things, and he just- he didn’t want to see any bad reactions to the watch, and the photo inside. He just didn’t.

Sabo had helped him scavenge and fix up a decent trunk from Grey Terminal a couple years before, which Ace kept most of his things inside. Everything except the first item, the coat, which he still slept with on the floor. After a moment’s hesitation, Ace decided to put the watch inside one of the coat’s big pockets, the one sewn on the inside, where it could sit over his heart whenever he finally grew big enough to properly wear the huge thing.

He went to sleep that night cocooned inside the red cloth, curled around the lump made by the watch, one hand resting on top.

Chapter 3: Sword

Summary:

Telling Sabo to get rid of the sword didn’t work.

It doesn’t click until he’s ten. By total coincidence, that’s also when the sword decided to show up.

Ace once again got to tease Sabo over bringing a bigger haul of loot back to their hiding place; the carefully carved hole in the tree branch is starting to look more than halfway full, a welcome touchstone to how close they’re getting to their shared dream. Coins, trinkets, paper currency, the amount of berri constantly growing higher - all of it destined to buy a proper pirate ship, and then Ace and Sabo would really be free, of Dadan, of Grey Terminal, of Dawn Island as a whole-

“Hey, what’s that?”

The question made Ace pause, halfway down the trunk. He squinted upward, and then followed the direction of Sabo’s pointing finger, towards some bushes nearby. Towards where something emerged from the bushes.

Wary, Ace nonetheless finished dropping to the ground, and crept closer. A muffled thump and steps heralded Sabo hurrying to join him, which should have meant a touch of warmth curling into Ace’s chest, the reassurance that he wasn’t entirely alone against the world. But the sight of a sword handle sticking up from the thick leaves makes a different kind of heat flare instead.

(“That stuff, Ace...” Magra hesitated, glancing over both shoulders before leaning closer. “Dadan says, well, says that stuff is magic. Cursed - that they’re showing up looking for you.”

Too startled to know better, Ace went and asked, “Why?”

“Because... because those things belonged to the Pirate King.”)

He’d yet to try throwing any of it away. He- couldn’t, honestly. Yeah, the stuff all belonged - probably all belonged - to his piece of shit father, but- but they’d become Ace’s treasures way before he knew that. So the hairbrush and the chain and the watch and the coat all got stuffed into his trunk, and shoved into a corner, and as long as Ace refused to look at them it was fine.

But that did not mean he needed to pick anything else up.

“Useless junk,” Ace said coldly, before turning on his heel and stomping away.

Sabo didn’t follow. Sabo apparently went closer to the sword, close enough to make a sound of surprise, and called out, “H-hey! Ace, wait, This- this thing has your name on it!”

What?

His feet paused.

After a moment, leaves rustled and Sabo grunted, and then the other boy hurried over to Ace, arms wrapped around a cutlass easily as long as they were tall. “Look! See? Right there on the crossguard-” Sure enough, when he let himself glance down, Ace could just make out a set of faint lines etched into the metal, on the piece that separated blade from hilt. A bit of dark paint clung to the edges in flecks, and he could just picture how it must have looked once, Ace spelled out for all to see-

He grit his teeth and looked away. “So what? It’s just another one of Roger’s stupid cursed shit trying to haunt me.”

“...but it’s got your name on it-”

“I don’t care!” Ace exploded, whirling on his friend and shoving the sword away. “Go drop it somewhere in Grey Terminal, I don’t want the stupid thing!” And with that, he hurled himself off through the trees, sprinting deeper into the jungle, far away from yet another reminder of a parent he didn’t fucking want.

 

Telling Sabo to get rid of the sword didn’t work.

It showed up again the next morning, propped against a tree close enough to Dadan’s place that Ace knew his friend hadn’t hiked all the way up Mt. Colubo to leave the blade where he’d find it. Grumbling, Ace reluctantly grabbed it, and detoured on his way to the Goa Kingdom so he could toss the shitty thing into a ravine.

That didn’t work either.

The sword reappeared again, laying across the path Ace usually took at the end of the day. He bit his tongue and didn’t touch, didn’t even look as he hopped over the sheathed weapon and kept going.

For the rest of the week, the stupid sword kept showing up. Twice while Sabo was around, and Ace very firmly ignored the concern aimed in his direction. The final straw came when the two of them were beating up some thugs in Grey Terminal, and one managed to get in a lucky hit, knocking Ace straight into a pile of garbage that nearly fell down around his ears. His pipe dropped, and in the scramble to dig himself free and get back into the fight, the boy’s fingers closed around that damn sword hilt. But another of the goons punched Sabo, making him cry out, so instead of jerking his hand away like it’d been burned, Ace gripped tighter and threw himself forward, howling.

Suffice to say, the thugs went down.

Even sheathed, the sword practically crackled with some kind of power, and Ace swore he’d moved faster, hit harder, while swinging it around.

Sabo didn’t say a word. Just dusted off his hat, carefully watching Ace from the corner of his eye.

After a long, long minute of indecision, too many years of anger and self-loathing won. Ace picked his way through the Terminal towards the scent of saltwater, and when he reached the cliffs, he hefted up his father’s sword and flung it as hard as he physically could into the sea.

 

It didn’t come back.

 

A different annoyance showed up instead, three days later, when Gramps visited to deliver his other grandson, an annoying little twerp named Luffy, who set about dogging Ace’s steps with even more delusional determination than the stupid sword. Almost immediately, Ace found himself half-wishing he was still dealing with the weapon instead of the dumb little kid, because at least the sword didn’t talk incessantly at him.

Multiple attempts to scare Luffy off didn’t work. And eventually, he somehow managed to follow Ace all the way across the jungle to Grey Terminal, and of-fucking-course to his and Sabo’s hidden treasure trove.

Four of the Bluejam pirates showing up was just one more thing to make a bad day worse, at that point, and Ace felt so furious he honestly did not care in the slightest when they caught and carried Luffy off. The stupid kid would tell them everything, and then they’d let him go and he’d be fine, but before then Ace and Sabo needed to run like hell to relocate their stolen loot.

Luffy would be fine.

He would.

He’d talk and he would be just fine.

 

...he didn’t talk.

Basking in the glow of successfully re-hiding their treasure didn’t last long, not when Sabo came back from checking on things at the Grey Terminal, and anxiously calling up that- that the Bluejam crew were still looking for him and Ace. That the biggest guy, Porchemy, still had Luffy.

That the other Terminal residents said he’d been screaming for hours.

And Ace. He. He couldn’t-

He couldn’t not go.

By the time he slid down to the base of their new tree, his father’s stupid big sword was back for the first time in months, leaning against the bark. Too caught up in the moment to think about what he was doing, what he was choosing, Ace just grabbed it and ran.

(Admittedly. The look on Porchemy’s face when Ace leapt high and brought his sword down and it sliced clear through the pirate’s blade was priceless. And afterward, after he and Sabo won and scared off the other guys and hauled the beaten-to-shit Luffy out of that damn torture shack, Ace could, in a corner of his mind, reluctantly admit his pipe probably wouldn’t have done near as good a job.)

Chapter 4: Telescope

Summary:

The telescope in his hand was the first thing to have shown up in months.

Ace knew there must be some kind of magic involved for Roger’s stuff to keep turning up on Dawn, but he didn’t for a minute believe Magra’s old insistence that the items came ‘looking’ for him. At least, not until the day he and his brothers went scavenging in the Terminal for some stuff to fix up their treehouse, and not five minutes after Luffy and Sabo talked about their hope of finding a telescope, one tumbled out of a heap when Ace pulled a plank of wood away.

He blinked, staring down at the ornate contraption. It looked just the right size to fit in a long skinny pocket on the inside of his coat. And it felt warm to the touch, too, when he bent down to pick it up.

For a moment, Ace continued staring, hesitant. The sword had been one thing; he’d shoved it away as long as possible, and then only picked the weapon up when he needed to, for an emergency. Since then, it had stayed with the rest of his stuff, first at Dadan’s hideout and later in the treehouse.

The telescope in his hand was the first thing to have shown up in months.

Ace rubbed his thumb along the side, over etched and elegant designs in the metal casing. Biting his lip, he turned it over a couple of times, debating. Then, the boy took a deep breath, turned, and yelled “CATCH!”

Sabo’s head snapped up, and a split second later he yelped, even while successfully catching the telescope before it could collide with his hat. “Ace! Not funny!” Grinning, Ace waited. After a few seconds of glaring, Sabo realized he was waiting for something. As soon as the blond actually looked at what he’d caught, his jaw dropped and both eyes popped open wide. “Hey! You found one!”

“Just showed up,” Ace drawled, grinning wider when Luffy promptly darted over, demanding to see. Sabo fussed back, and climbed higher to the top of the nearest pile, fending off stretchy fingers. He finally managed to kick Luffy away, sending the smaller boy down in a bouncing tumble, and earning maybe half a minute of peace to actually use the scope. Ace watched with a warm feeling in his gut as Sabo beamed, the small end pressed to one eye.

That feeling lasted right up until his brother turned in place, sweeping the horizon from the jungle to the ocean, only to freeze and gasp, his already pale face turning stark white. “Sabo?”

“...we need to go,” the other boy said. Ace frowned, started to open his mouth to ask why, what’s wrong, but Sabo abruptly jumped down off the pile, telescope gripped tight in one hand while the other latched onto Luffy. “We need to go now.”

Alarmed, Ace did as he said, abandoning the wood they’d been gathering. Luffy whined a little, but even he seemed to catch on to the sense of danger, and soon enough all three of them hurtled at full speed towards the treeline gap where they could most easily enter the jungle.

A few shouts went up at one point, and someone tried jumping out from behind a heap of trash to grab at Sabo. Ace threw himself forward with a growl, kicking the guy in the face and springing off of him. A quick glance backward while in midair revealed a bunch of men coming after them, including a couple Ace recognized. The Bluejam pirates.

He almost stopped.

Almost.

But Sabo screamed his name, “Ace, hurry!” and it snapped crystal clear in Ace’s mind, these guys weren’t what his brother had seen. They weren’t running because of Bluejam. Sabo had spotted something else, off in the direction of Edge Town’s gate, that scared him so bad he’d insisted on dropping everything to flee. Whatever that was, it would catch up if Ace and his brothers stopped to fight.

So.

Even though it burned, Ace looked forward, and kept going.

 

The telescope got put to immediate use, back at their treehouse. Sabo climbed straight up to the crow’s nest, even though it was half falling apart after the previous day’s storm, and refused to stop peering down at the jungle around them for anything. He didn’t even come down to eat, which sent Ace’s concern to a whole new level of fear.

When sunset arrived, smothering Luffy with the big red coat was the only way to get him to stay put; with that accomplished, Ace climbed to the crow’s nest himself. “Oi. Dumbass.” Sabo twitched, but didn’t look at him. “Hey. What the hell has got you so spooked?”

White-knuckled fingers slowly lowered the scope, though Sabo didn’t stop staring down at the rapidly darkening jungle. “...I saw him. My father. With a bunch of the city’s guards.”

“At the gates?” Ace asked sharply.

“Coming through the gates,” Sabo corrected. “They- Ace, they wouldn’t just do that. Not without a really good reason.”

Like coming to retrieve a runaway noble, Ace realized, his gut sinking. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” his brother choked out, finally turning a sideways glance in his direction. “Understatement.”

Sabo’s father spotted them dine-and-dashing ages ago; Ace didn’t know why he’d picked now of all times to come looking, but like hell would that stuffy bastard get what he wanted. “We’ll stay out of the Terminal for now,” Ace decided, thumping Sabo on the shoulder with a light punch. “And any time we do, from now on, one of us will keep watch with that thing.”

Sabo lifted the telescope higher; it caught the last few rays of sunlight and gleamed, as if in full agreement. And Ace also decided, in the privacy of his own mind, that he’d start carrying the stupid big sword around, slung over his back.

Just in case.

Chapter 5: Ship

Summary:

Sure enough, when Ace looked up, there was a ship out in the water, drifting towards them. A big ship. A pirate ship.

Two nights later, the Grey Terminal burned.

Ace and his brothers would’ve slept right through it, if not for Dadan sending Dogra to the treehouse to check that they were there. The short man stumbled right into one of Sabo’s latest booby traps, and his shrieks woke the boys up.

“Hi Dogra!” Luffy called down from their window. “What are you doing?”

A series of strangled noises drifted up, as Dogra fought his way free from the weighted net and started picking bits of wood out of his turban. Just as well he was so short, Ace figured, heading for the ladder - any taller, and the splinters would’ve been flung at his face instead.

“You’re all here?” Dogra demanded, not looking twice at the sword Ace brought with him. “Sabo too?” The blonde promptly came down the ladder as well, and Dogra heaved a huge sigh of relief. Ace opened his mouth to ask what’s going on, but before he got that far, the scent of smoke hit his nose.

 

They spent that first day searching the edge of the jungle, but if any survivors made it out of the Terminal, they were hiding too well to be found. Didn’t help that guards from the city kept sweeping back and forth, also searching; Ace heard one mention ‘fewer bodies than expected’, and hoped a bunch of people made it out, one way or another.

Afterward... he and his brothers avoided the scar of ash and soot that had been the Grey Terminal. They didn’t play. They didn’t spar, either, and only did a bit of subdued hunting. For the most part, Ace picked a direction to wander towards, and Sabo and Luffy followed. They went up and down and around the lower mountains, beat up some other bandits, helped an old farmer get his wobbly cart of melons to Foosha Village - just, random things to fill up their days, until the three of them started feeling normal again.

Luffy reached that point fastest, and soon took over racing on ahead to lead Ace and Sabo in new directions. He was the one who found a ‘path’ down to a hidden beach (which the others took a lot more slowly as they didn’t just bounce off solid stone), and discovered something waiting at the bottom of the last steep twist and drop. “Hey! Ace! Sabo! Come look!”

“Look at what,” Ace grumbled, shoes skidding on the loose scree as he tried to make it down without falling. Sabo took a somewhat safer if more uncomfortable route of sitting on his butt and scooting forward.

“At the ship!”

Tied to a wide belt that went across Ace’s chest and over one shoulder, his sword suddenly turned warm.

Wary, he sped up, leaping the final distance and pinwheeling his arms to keep from toppling over when he hit the sand. Immediately, one of Luffy’s smaller hands latched onto his wrist and started tugging; sure enough, when Ace looked up, there was a ship out in the water, drifting towards them. A big ship. A pirate ship. As it got closer, Ace could see underneath the long pointy bow a double figurehead: two mermaids on either side of a cannon, which, honestly, seemed way more useful than most ships. Three masts loomed high overhead, each one with a crow’s nest, but weirdly, no flags to be seen.

Sabo stepped up alongside Ace, one hand swiping at his coat to brush away the dirt gained from his sliding, the other shading his eyes as he peered at the ship. After a moment the blonde grunted, and reached for the pocket where he’d started keeping the new telescope. “Well?” Ace asked, after his brother had a few moments to study the incoming vessel.

“...there’s no one aboard. Or- I don’t think so, but-” Ace made an impatient noise, and Sabo grimaced. “I dunno. It’s like there’s a presence, but no people.”

“How can you see a ‘presence’ through a telescope?”

“Don’t complain to me, this is your old man’s weird telescope! It just- can tell! Somehow!” The sword laying against Ace’s back rippled with warmth, repeatedly, like it was laughing. He scowled, but didn’t argue any further.

Soon enough, the ship’s bow scraped against sand, and the whole huge thing shuddered as it came to a stop on the beach, listing a little to one side. Luffy, who’d been hopping in one place the entire time, instantly tried to launch himself closer. Ace, expecting this, caught the back of his little brother’s shirt and held on tight. “We go together, Lu.”

“Okay okay, but come on already! Let’s go!” They moved forward as a group, cautious but- not wary. Not really. Not when the telescope didn’t see anyone, and the sword felt happy, and Ace had a sneaking suspicion he didn’t quite want to say out loud yet.

The criss-cross lattice across the front of the bow might not have been easy to climb for most people, but the three brothers swiftly clambered up just fine, and eased themselves onto the front deck at the top. Something... quivered, in the air, like the air pressure when a big storm pressed up against Mt. Colubo, but gentler, as if- waiting for something. Ace and Sabo put themselves on either side of Luffy, each holding onto him with one hand, just in case the eager seven year old tried darting off again. And slowly, sticking close, they explored.

The wooden decking was all dark, and kinda shiny, but didn’t look like it had been washed at all lately. Ropes were coiled neatly, and most of the sails folded up and lashed to their yardarms, while a pair of rowboats sat at the edges of the center deck, pulley systems tucked out of the way. There was also, to Ace’s confusion, an enormous white egg with reddish-pinkish spots. Just, sitting in the middle of the ship, on a nest of dried straw that had clearly seen better days.

Luffy made a noise in the back of his throat, leaning as far forward as he could, getting almost nose-to-shell with the thing. “...huh. It’s sleeping!”

“If you say so,” Sabo muttered, tugging on Luffy’s arm to pull him back again. Ace gave them both a nudge, and the trio went around to a set of stairs leading to the rear deck, and the steering wheel. Approaching it, his sword got really warm, almost burning hot. Biting his lip, Ace thought about all the stuff he’d picked up over the years, the items that came to him, spirited along by whatever magic Gold Roger must’ve left behind after the bastard died.

He didn’t have to like them.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use them.

So.

Ace let go of Luffy, and stepped forward alone, to reach up and rest his hand against the center of the wheel.

Everything moved. Ropes snapped through the air, pulleys spun to fling dried salt out of their wheels, every single red and white sail flung free of their ties - and that waiting pressure bloomed, a presence pressing against Ace’s mind, delighted and gleeful and welcoming, a wish fulfilled, a hope realized. It made his head spin, the sheer sense of happiness filling him up from head to toe. The closest comparison Ace could make was the feeling he got the first time he ruffled Luffy’s hair, prompting the younger boy to beam from ear to ear.

And speaking of Luffy.

Smaller fingers curled into his free hand and tugged; when Ace looked, his little brother’s eyes were shining. “Can you feel her?” He asked; on his other side, Sabo still gazed up at the rigging, face alight with his own awe. “Ace, can you feel the ship?!”

“...yeah,” he answered, softly, no little amount of awed himself. “Yeah, I can.”

Luffy giggled and bounced in place. “She’s saying hi! And welcome home! Ace, if we can’t fix up the treehouse, can we stay here instead?”

Another rippling wave of warmth, and for the first time in his life, Ace didn’t mind his father’s legacy one bit. Not if it meant somewhere safe for him and his brothers to stay, where they didn’t need to worry about grown-ups taking away their hard-won treasures, or telling them what to do or how to feel - where Sabo didn’t have to stress about maintaining booby traps, and no one would try to hurt Luffy, and Ace could just be himself, without fear.

Free.

They could be free.

“Yeah, Lu,” he murmured, palm still pressed to the center of the ship’s wheel, the wood practically alive and singing against his bare skin. “I think we can.”

Chapter 6: and the Hat

Summary:

The Hat wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh.

The Hat wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh.

It hadn’t known what happened to the Others for the longest-longest time - could still feel them, distantly, the other bits and echoes of the Pirate King’s soul, but unless Little Red ever found any of them, those distant traces would be all Hat could ever get.

(Didn’t matter how big he grew or how impressive his crew, Hat would only ever think of Captain’s First Boy in one way, and that came from the very first time its golden straw dropped down over a tiny head of bright red hair. Same for the other boy, Little Blue, should they ever cross paths again, and now for the Little Monkey too.)

But oh, now the Hat wasn’t alone anymore, and it wanted to dance and sing and laugh with sheer uncontained glee. Didn’t matter that it hadn’t been Claimed by Captain’s Little Son like the others - Little Monkey got Claimed instead, and named little brother, and whatever else their futures would hold, Hat could be content in calling that Close Enough.

Besides. Captain’s Little Son could insist he would be his own captain and build his own reputation even greater than his father’s legacy, but Hat felt the self-doubt that ate at his deepest inner self, and much as it might like the child, might hope for his success, a true King in the making needed a deepest self that could rebuff the doubt, not let it remain and fester. For that, Hat would remain with Little Monkey, who bounced and laughed and already emitted bright bursts of sunlight from the center of his whole being.

 

Oro didn’t want to let the boys back off so soon. Only Hat’s reassurances, and Sword’s too, that the three of them could handle themselves kept her from sweeping the little ones below deck and setting sail right away.

Well, that, and Little Monkey promising they’d simply retrieve some things and come right back.

Clearly, Oro had also missed the far-flung bits and echoes of their Captain, because she allowed a gangplank to emerge and slide down to the beach. By the time the boys scrambled down, racing with excitement, the ship behind them was already beginning a new shift, a change to signify her new loyalties. Dark maroon sails and paint began to brighten, turning a vibrant red, while sections of royal blue and sunny yellow crept in to complement. Captain’s mustachioed skull and crossbones faded, stitches in the stiff canvas undoing themselves, along with Gol D. Roger’s name where it had long sat across the mainsail.

The Little Flame had already accepted her, Claimed her, but clearly, Oro wanted to do her best to welcome him further, and let the boy choose his own flag to fly under.

Hat approved.

 

Soon enough the boys reached their Treehouse, and began hurriedly packing. Little Flame threw open his trunk that held most of Captain’s old belongings, and quickly stuffed Coat inside, double checking that Lady Rouge’s Watch still sat safely in the right pocket. Little Monkey grabbed up their usual blankets, as Little Storm carefully got down their sake cups off the wall.

Not much to take, truth be told. The three boys made do with very little. Hat expected that Oro would enjoy spoiling them a bit, when she opened up her treasure hold.

Rather than go straight back, however, the trio went in the opposite direction, closer to the local kingdom. Hat remained a bit confused, until they arrived at a well-hidden hidey-hole, where the two older boys produced a small fortune of their own. Captain’s Coat came back out of the trunk, and Little Flame wrapped up most of their other possessions inside the garment, giving it to Little Monkey to hold onto. Then he and Little Storm climbed up to the hole in a tree with the emptied trunk, and hastily filled it with their loot.

Captain’s Spyglass did hum a warning at one point, of others in the jungle nearby, searching and potentially dangerous, but the boys were able to finish their task and begin the journey back to Oro in short order.

 

The second round of exploration lasted much longer than the first.

Up into the rigging, down into the holds, in and out of cabins and bunkrooms and everywhere else, the boys gleefully exclaimed over their discoveries, constantly finding something new to be delighted over. Hat enjoyed every single moment of it, and so did Oro, if her shining warmth were anything to go by. All of the items that still carried bits and echoes of the Captain felt warm, actually, each and every one of them content to be home, reunited, with the Little Flame finally where he should’ve been all along, and two extra wonderfully rambunctious children as a bonus.

Whatever other challenges lay in store for them, they could all gladly look forward instead of behind, ready for the Adventure to continue.

Notes:

And that's a wrap for this fic! I expect there will be more Oro Jackson adventures to come, though, as I've got a few ideas in the works branching off from this one :3

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 11 of Help, I've fallen into One Piece hell and can't get back out