"Neee, Old Man."

The man in question, one Edward Newgate, glanced from the corner of his eyes at the brat balancing on the lower end of his bisento as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Why does everyone call you 'Oyaji'?"

Whitebeard swallowed a large gulp of sake before lowering the tankard, pausing. That certainly was an unexpected question, especially coming from the kid. "Because they are my children."

"Hmm," the brat frowned harshly as he curled his lips in thought, apparently considering what Whitebeard said. (The act looked comically painful.)

Watching the kid swing back and forth and not losing his balance all the while, Newgate wondered what brought this issue up. Most of the time, it looked like the entire seriousness of his brothers being stuck on the Moby Dick blew straight over the kid's head with airy disinterest. His mindset wasn't all that difficult to understand, though (once one got used to the Spade-siblings' twisted logic) since as far as the strawhat brat was concerned, he was only hiding from Garp. Officially, Whitbeard had heard, the brat was still in the East Blue, so since he wasn't (with the sole purpose of hiding), he tried (as much as he could) to fall under the radar of his grandfather. (Not a totally unreasonable act either; Whitebeard was familiar enough with Garp.)

He was broken out of his thoughts by the kid, who was now sitting cross legged on the end of his weapon, a surprisingly serious puzzled expression on his face. "What is a dad anyway? What's so important about them? Everyone is making such a big deal about it, but I don't get it."

Whitebeard lowered his mug a bit more, directing more of his attention at the kid. He had seen a lot of things in his life, but the blunt curiousness with which the brat asked a usually sensitive question was rare. (Which was good but also bad. On the one hand, not a life where a father would be missed, but on the other- )"...a dad is family," Whitebeard decided to explain, knowing enough about the kid that everything needed to be told as simply as possible even as he still wondered where the hell this questions where coming from. From Luffy no less.

Elaborating, he waved a hand at his children playing rough on deck, laughing, hoping seeing would get the point better across. "Children can rely on their fathers, fathers love their children, fathers protect their children, catch them when they fall, children can come to their fathers with their worries if they want to and fathers will always help their children and fathers give children a home."

The brat had followed his eyes, but it didn't hold and he frowned again quickly enough, biting his lip in deep (or as deep as possible for him; which wasn't saying much considering his face was turning red from the effort) thought for a moment before he abruptly said, "I get it." Then he continued, oblivious and just stringing his own conclusions into reality. "So dads are like big brothers. But not as awesome as Ace an' Sabo." The brat grinned, delighted at his success before a thought occurred to him. "I don't really need a dad, though..."

Whitebeard raised an eyebrow, when the kid suddenly beamed at him. "But I suppose you aren't so bad. If you have soooo many children and even Ace thinks you are cool. Oh, but I didn't say that. It's a secret," he stage-whispered, making the nurses in earshot smile secretly. "Anyway, thanks Old Man!"

With that the snot nosed brat jumped of his special place on Whitebeard's weapon, grinning, and mingling with the rest of the crew with no effort at all. Ball of energy, that one. With great ambitions, a big mouth (in more sense than one) and the absolute confidence of a dreamer. Would be lying if he said he wasn't fond of the kid, he thought as he ignored the disapproving glares of his daughters and drowned a rest of a West Blue sake, his thoughts turning to the (most likely) reason behind the conversation.

Ace and Sabo had a brother complex. That wasn't easily forgotten, but what was more often than not slipping everyone's mind was that they weren't the only ones. Luffy was very much the same if not even more so; it just didn't show that easily. He adored his brothers to high heaven. The brat wasn't the sharpest, but when it was about his siblings, very little escaped him.

Therefor, Whitebeard was confident to assume that the assassination attempts were not going to last forever.

It was a few days later when the next brat came to talk to the Captain. Sabo was the most levelheaded and reasonable of the three, actually possessing a (small) amount of common sense (which sometimes took leave of absence).

"Can I talk to you?"

Whitebeard raised an eyebrow in obvious invitation and Sabo entered the cabin, closing the door behind him. The brat had a determined expression on his face.

Though Newgate couldn't tell if he simply forgot or decided to forgo it for this conversation, he spoke without his accent. "I was wondering why everyone is calling you their father." The brat stared at him unblinking and intense. "Or rather, why did you gather so many misfit men and women under your wing? Call them your children? Not a single one is connect to you by blood, right?"

That was an unexpectedly odd question, given the seriousness and what the brat was like. "Blood doesn't matter." He gave the blond a very pointed look over his last mug of beer that day. "You aren't related to your siblings by blood either. What would it matter to you?"

"It doesn't!" The kid's eyes flashed with fire and a dark edge of emotion that was quickly pushed away. "But that's us. You are Whitebeard. Roger's" -a foul closing of expression-" rival, strongest man alive, Yonkou. You are the man people think of when speaking of pirates. You can have everything you want, all the respect in the world you want, or fear or whatever. Out of all those things, why are you happy with just having a family?"

Ah, that was making things clearer. It wasn't the first time he was asked this. Many did, in fact even if not all were as vocal or daring to say it to his face. The strongest man alive knew very well that only few people would agree with him in choosing family over power. But this was not an enemy or an opposing acquaintance who was asking. It was a son. "There is nothing more valuable than family on the seas. You know this, everyone can see it. What is up, son, why bother asking me?"

Sabo's expression twitched at the word 'son'(at this point more out of habit than true dislike), then fell into a grimacing frown. "Luffy likes you a whole lot and Ace is- well, Ace is...you are making Ace consider things he had never thought he wanted. I think you are a really great man, too. Worthy of being called father." At that word, he grimaced painfully, eyes sliding somewhere to the left of Newgate's head before dropping, unable to hold even that. "But we all have daddy-issues," the boy admitted in voice that was not less determined, but a lot flatter and in just in hearing how painful it was even to talk about this, Whitebeard saw the truth of that very statement.

The brat continued, listing. "Luffy doesn't even know he has a father, never mind that he is at all supposed to feel or think just something of the man or his absence. I'd prefer it if the bastard and bitch I share blood with died a long, painful, dirty and humiliating death. And Ace-," he broke off, clearly unwilling to say anything on that and irritation seeped into his posture, before sighing and running a hand through his blond hair. When he finally managed to meet Whitebeard's eyes again, there was a lot of well guarded emotion. He shrugged helplessly. "But well, since you are a real good father, so that even we can see it - I guess I just wanted to warn you."

Whitebeard grinned. "My children are my children. I don't care for more."

Sabo came from a noble background, Whitebeard knew even if the boy did his very best to erase all traces of it on his person, but occasionally things leaked through. Something vulnerable crossed the brat's face and the way it was hidden behind an expertly stony expression was telling as well as how he held his composure when as he left when it was clear he was reeling.

"Oh, yeah, Oyaji. Since you don't mind mine, Luffy's won't bother you, but well, his is the one currently on top of the list. Just thought you should know."

Whitebeard laughed.

Part of my Moby Dick's series with slight AU setting.

I wanted to publish this on Father's day, but I somehow couldn't get Sabo's part down.

Thank you for reading and please leave your impression.