Hello everyone, first of all, thanks so much for the awesome support over the latest chapters! I really appreciate it.

So as a thank you, here it is,

As if Sent from the Sky
Kaoru L.O.P

"Edd! EDDD!" the woman screamed as she trashed wildly on her bed, kicking and screaming while still deeply asleep.

Luffy took her from her shoulders and shook her.

"Nami! NAMI WAKE UP!"

She woke with a start, her confused eyes met Luffy's in the dark.

"Luffy! Its Arlong! HE HAS EDD!" she sobbed hysterically on his shoulder while her whole frame shook. Luffy sighed and pulled her against his chest.

"Nami, Arlong can't hurt anyone anymore... calm down" he said as he cradled her head on his chest. Her crying started to weaken as Luffy's calming presence calmed her down a bit.

Later that day, when the crew saw her walking around the ship with Luffy's hat, nobody commented on it.

Two days later, Cocoyashi's shore was finally on sight, and the woman paced back and forth in anxiety, no new attacks had been reported by the newspaper on any nearby island, but that didn't mean anything, because if a bounty hunter or any other underworld figure had gotten to Edd first it wouldn't' come out in the paper, at least not at first.

They didn't dock at the main port, instead docking in the shore nearest to Nami's home, Luffy was about to rocket himself as soon as he was within range but Nami clutched his shirt in desperation.

"Please, take me with you" she asked, and of course he couldn't say no. He surrounded her waist and stretched his right fist as far as he could, grabbing a random tree and pulling them both at full speed. When they landed he started to sprint at full speed with Nami trying to keep up behind him, but his legs were faster and his worry and anxiety great so he couldn't help getting ahead.

He ran up the path behind the mandarin grove and approached the small house's back door... and his heart stopped..

There, just sitting on the garden and playing quietly with some toys stood a little boy, yes, his hair was darker than when he was born... but he was without a doubt, Edd.

Luffy stood there, awestruck for a moment and a smile quickly was born on his lips as he approached the small boy.

"Hey" he said kneeling in front of the child. The small boy, eyes wide, glanced at the stranger without showing any fear and with curious eyes suddenly started to laugh.

"Shishishi here, toy" he said offering a small wooden cart that the child was playing with.

"Eddie, what are you laughing at?" Nojiko asked while glancing out the kitchen's window. She was washing dishes while keeping an attentive eye and ear on the child. Her mouth opened in surprised when she noticed the newcomer.

Edd's small eyebrows frowned, looking very thoughtful for a moment as he glanced at the stranger in front of him, and suddenly, with a wide grin and childish baby voice, he shouted

"DADDY!" as he pointed at Luffy.

Luffy fell on his butt out of shock and surprise, mouth agape... how? How did he know! It was all just so overwhelming... Seeing the kid after so long and then... hearing him speak... calling him dad... but he recuperated and sat cross legged in front of the child...

"yaahh... I'am" he simply acknowledged, very elated. He moved forward and picked up the boy.

Right at that moment Nami appeared on the garden, out of breath and desperate... her eyes widened when she noticed her child in Luffy's arms... at first glance perfectly healthy and smiling at his dad.

"Luffy! Nami!" Nojiko said coming out the house... she was a little slow, as she seemed to be about six months into pregnancy, looking very heavy but beautiful.

"Nami!" Nojiko hurried to her sister, halting her midway to her son and clutching her sister's arm.
"Nami! I'm so glad you guys are here! It was Nezumi! I know it was him that started the rumors... we were always so careful". She hurried to explain.

But Nami's eyes were fixed on her small child, her whole expression was of sheer happiness as she glanced at the small happy toddler.

"Its okay Nojiko..." Nami whispered, a hand stroking her sister's shoulder and then she started to walk towards her small son.

"Here Nami, your baby" Luffy said with a grin. He passed the child to the anxious mother and Nami clutched the small boy to her chest, tears of happiness and relief running down her face.

Nojiko shed tears of her own while she watched the happy reunion.

"I haven't taken him out the house ever since the incident with Nezumi... and in the Village everybody is very discreet" the woman explained..

"Its not your fault Nojiko" Luffy said, "And you can't keep him hiding in the house forever..."

"Look how big he's gotten" Nami said pulling a little apart from the child to glance at his features. He was absolutely perfect, small little round face and soft dark chocolate hair with chocolate eyes.

The boy glanced at Nami with questioning eyes, he didn't like that the pretty lady was crying so much and his chubby hand touched her cheek.

"no cry mommy" he said. Nami's eyes widened in surprise and her crying, of course, intensified and once again clutched the boy to her chest. Luffy was grinning side to side. He didn't mind if Nami cried happiness tears after all.

Nojiko was very moved as well and had to clean her eyes, "Come inside, Togashi is in town but he will be back soon"-

"Ohh Nojiko! Look at you!" Nami said, finally noticing her sister's heavy state and smiling.

Upon entering the house, the child started to struggle on Nami's arms and his mother had to put him down, because he had turned very anxious. The toddler began to run around the room with his childish baby steps right to a chest full of toys.

He grabbed a dinosaur toy and quickly presented it to Luffy

"here!" the baby said.

"Look Nami! Like the one we saw in little garden!" Luffy said as he took the tyrannosaurus and started to make monster noises to Edd who started to laugh. Nami just sighed in happiness...

"Look at them, they already get along" Nojiko said while sitting at the table.

"Yeah, they are the same mental age" NAmi teased, but she too, was mystified as she watched father and son play.

After a moment however, Nami just HAD to ask...

"Nojiko, I don't understand, how come he recognized us so quickly"

Nojiko just leaned on her hand and smiled, "Nee, Edd-chan, bring auntie the photo of your mommy and daddy".

The boy stopped playing and glanced at his aunt with smart, knowing eyes and immediately went to his chest and rummaged there looking for something. He finally pulled out a photo frame and ran to Nojiko, and looked very happy as he presented her the item.

The proud aunt smiled, "Thank you sweetie... you see Nami, he doesn't talk much, but is very smart"

"Look auntie, Mommy and daddy!" He said pointing at the picture and then at Nami and Luffy. He was exited to meet the people in the pictures that Nojiko had talked to him about so much.

The aunt smiled.

"I hope you guys don't mind, but I been talking to him a lot about you two for the past month or so, and been showing him that picture every day. So I think he is really excited to finally meet you guys" she said winking.

Nojiko just KNEW , when the attacks started and the rumors spread, that her sister would come back for the baby any moment now.

"Thank you Nojiko... you are the best" Nami said trying to hold her tears, once again the boy glanced at Nami and frowned.

He definitely didn't like to see the pretty lady crying. "No-cry mommy" he repeated, going to her. Nami just had to smile and picked him up once again, offering a big smile.

"I promise I won't cry anymore" Nami said, and in response he got a Luffy trademark smile that almost disarms her all over again.

A while later... while the adults talked Edd and Luffy kept playing with the toy dinosaurs.

"Togashi, Nojiko, I can't thank you guys enough for all you have done" Nami said while clutching a glass of tangerine juice.

Nojiko nodded, "Don't mention it... more importantly. What are you guys going to do now? I understand Edd can't stay here anymore..." Nojiko sighed... "I...love him so much but..." she had to clean a tear, "I know his safety comes first"

Nojiko made a pause and recomposed herself, "I now understand how hard it was for you back then, when you had to leave him here... "and then she paused, clutching her belly, "No, I'm sorry, I know it must had to be even harder".

"We will take him with us" Luffy said standing up with a very serious expression on his face. Nami gasped,

And Luffy continued, "Aren't I supposed to be the freest man in the world? What kind of Pirate King would I be if I can't protect the people I love. What kind of freedom is that" he said.

Nami's hand flew to her mouth, very moved... relieved.. and a little scared.

"Nami, everyone agrees, now that the world knows about him, there won't be a safer place to him than with us" the captain said, very sure of himself.

Nami nodded.

"Nami..." Nojiko began, but it was Togashi who spoke first, "With his face, it will be impossible to hide him anywhere for long... I hate to see him go but.. I think this is the best for him".

Yes, it was hard for the aunt and uncle, but ultimately, they loved Edd enough to let him go. Nami and Luffy stood there for a few days, so the boy could get used to his new guardians, and friendly as he was, the baby bonded with his parents very quickly.

They packed his belongings, took many pictures with his uncles and promised to visit as soon as they could..

Nojiko was very sad, but after months of living in terror and anguish at the news that kept coming from the surrounding islands... she knew in her heart it was the best for the child.

Genzo of course, didn't know whether to punch Luffy in the jaw for making his girls cry so much, or embrace him for making him a grandpa. The poor man had a difficult time separating for the baby that, even if people swore looked like Luffy, he saw Nami clearly on his beautiful smile.

In the end, as he watched Nami playing with the baby, Genzo knew it was best for Edd to be with his mom.

Upon returning to the Thoussand Sunny, all the crew's attention when to the adorable mini –Luffy, and even Zoro, who liked to play hard, couldn't help to grin at the small, cute little baby.

And the small one, rather than be scared at the huge man in a thong, or a terrifying talking skeleton, or at a talking raccoon, perverted cook, talking marimo man and a woman of darkness, a freaky tengu nosed man, just grinned at them with a happy chubby face that had them all going gaga for the child.

"So... were to now captain?" Nami asked with her child on her arms while the others prepared to set sail.

"To fulfill a promise with Makino and Dadan" he said, grinning.

.-.-.-

Nami was a strong woman, a woman who had overcome the adversities of life at a very early age and that had even recuperated after being forced to leave her small son in the care of her sister.

Of course she would think of her child every day and only her strong resolution and absolute love kept her going strong, while still being able to enjoy her life of adventures while at sea with her nakama and family. But there was always that hole deep inside, that longing...

So now, as Luffy watched her while she cuddled her boy to her chest while singing him a lullaby he couldn't help to smile.

Everything was back as it should be, their lives were full again.

.-.-.-

A few crazy days later they docked at Windmill village without a care in the world, because Robin had suggested that it was best, if people knew about the boy being back with his parents and sailing with the straw hat crew, that way, bounty hunters and dangerous Pirate crews would leave the innocent people of the East Blue alone.

Luffy walked in the middle of his home village street with the little boy riding on his shoulders, and the villages that knew him since childhood just stood with mouth agape and impressed... yeah, so it was true, LUFFY WAS A DAD! And the Pirate King was strolling casually with his son without a care in the world.

"MAKINO!" Luffy shouted as he entered the Partys bar. The woman dropped the rag she was using to clean the bar and her hands flew to her mouth.

"Luffy!" She smiled, eyes full of happiness as she glanced at the small boy on Luffy's shoulders.

"Look at him! Its like seeing you at that age all over again!" the woman said very happy, of course she had to admit there was a little Nami thrown in too if you looked.

"Look Edd, she is Makino" Luffy said grinning.

"Mkinooo!" Edd reapeated, offering his arms to the nice lady.

"Ohh! Look how friendly he is!" she said as she took him in her arms, "Come here Edd-chan, I'll give you something yummy to eat" the woman said.

"meat!" the baby boy said happily. And of course Makino just had to laugh, "Of course sweetie" she said totally enthralled. Luffy just sat on the bar with a smile.

"Sorry Luffy, I have a new favorite" The woman said as she carried the baby with one arm and with the other served food.

"Hahaha..." Luffy laughed at first and then pouted childishly... "Yeah... you are not the only one..." all his crew was ignoring him in order to tend to the baby, even Zoro.

"Ohh Luffy I almost forgot to tell you" Makino began, worry written all over her features, but before she could continue a big booming voice irrupted into the bar.

"LUFFY!"

Luffy's hair stood up, he almost forgot he was the Pirate King, considered the strongest man on earth, and suddenly he felt eight all over again, he paled and shrunk on his seat.

"Grandpa!" he shouted when he saw the enormous man enter the bar. Garp was using a Hawaiian shirt, his beard had grew and although he still was an impressive man, he looked old.

"Luffy... what I wanted to say is that your grandfather is in town" Makino whispered.

The Pirate King swallowed.

"LUFFY, YOU JERK!" Garp growled approaching his grandson and giving him a good blow on the head, poor Luffy even forgot armament haki and a good seaming lump appeared on his head.

"Grandpa, what are you doing here!" he groaned clutching his head.

"I LIVE here you idiot! I retired from the marines earlier this year, but of course you wouldn't care. You never cared a damn about your poor grandpa!" the former marine growled.

"How would I care! All you do is hit me!" Luffy snapped with shark teeth.

"And what is this nonsense I heard about you having a son!" Garp demanded, and then his eyes stopped on Makino... with the cute little boy on her arms... his jaw fell on surprise.

Edd wasn't a fearful child and he tended to trust strangers very quickly, always smiling for everyone , he was a friendly child, but he didn't like Garp the moment he saw him hitting Luffy, and he was glancing at the big bearded man with serious, almost frightened eyes and was clutching Makino's dress with all his strength.

Garp walked toward the boy with resolute steps, "Ohh, and what do we have here huh?!"
of course the old man didn't mean any harm to the child.

But Luffy instantly jumped in front of him and clutched his shirt, and in a swift violent and powerfull movement overpowered his grandfather and cornered him against the wall, his eyes full of anger and years of child abuse behind his quick, instinctive reaction.

"Don't you DARE laying a finger on him OLDMAN!" he roared furiously, his pupils shook with rage and Makino took a step back, he had never seen the violent side of Luffy before, she wasn't afraid of him of course, but she could clearly see how powerful Luffy had become.

At that very moment Nami rushed inside the bar while shouting, "Luffy I heard your granp... oh... he is here"

She stopped when she saw the intense scene happening in front of her,

Garp, while still a terrifyingly strong man, was too old and his spirit too tired to even try to fight Luffy who was at the peak of his condition. The former Marine lowered his gaze and avoided his grandson's yes... but Luffy didn't change his hateful expression.

"Luffy... " Nami said softly standing next to him, "You are scaring Edd.." she whispered.

And automatically, Luffy let go of Garp, but continued to regard him with cold, hard eyes...

The former Marine just sighed and sat in the bar, holding his head.

After a moment of silence, he simply said, "All I wanted was for Ace and you to become good marines... strong men of good" he sighed again.

Nami's eyes softened... "Garp-san, leaving children to be raised by mountain bandits... perhaps it wasn't the best decision to achieve that goal"

Luffy sat in a stool a the end of the bar, the farthest of the one his grandpa was occupying as Makino poured a glass whisky for the old marine.

"... what was I supposed to do?... even within the Marines, there were those that wouldn't have hesitated for a second to kill Ace and Luffy the second they learnt about their parents..."

"I don't care about any of that" Luffy said coldly.

Nami took Edd from Makino's arms and approached Garp.

"Look Eddie, this is your gramps"

"Edward huh... a pirate's name" Garp said disapprovingly... yeah, and inspired by Whitebeard, without a doubt. Luffy kept regarding him with cold eyes, but allowed the interaction.

Of course he cared about Garp... in a strange sort of way of course.

"Granpie" Edd repeated, as he was in that age where he would parrot almost everything he was said.

"Aww... look at him! Its like looking at Luffy at that age all over again! Come with jichan Edd! Do you want a ride in the horsie? Of course you doooo!" the old man said with a sweet voice and mounted the child on his shoulders.

Of course Edd started to laugh and Luffy... just stared at the bottom of his drink, his expression softening, a small smile appeared on his lips, the few good memories he had about Garp returning all at once.

Later, when Nami had the opportunity, and only for Garp's ears, she approached the old man and she firmly said, "Contrary of what you may think Garp-san... Luffy IS a strong and good man" and she left without any further word. The old marine shed bittersweet tears and sought solace in a bottle of liquor.

The next day, as promised, Luffy insisted on going to Mount Corbo with Edd, so Dadan could meet Edd... it was to be the first trip of father and son and Nami couldn't be more anxious.

"Luffy, don't let him drink dirty river water, here's the canteen with fresh water, and don't let him wander away by himself, he is just two! And for Oda's sake, don't feed him half cooked meat!"

"We will be fine Nami~~~" Luffy whined.

"May Oda hear you" she sighed as she watched them walk away...

"Why don't you just go with them?" Robin asked.

Nami sighed... "Dadan and Mount Corbo... I think those memories are complicated for Luffy, and if he didn't ask us to go along with him on previous occasions we 'been on this island, I don't think he wants us there. Right Robin?"

"Certainly"

.-.-.-

And so Luffy arrived at his old home just shouting, "Oi! DADAN!"

And Dogra opened the door, just to meet face to face with... LUFFY?

"LUFFY SHRANK!" he screamed.

"Hahaha Dogra, up here!" Luffy said smiling, and Dogra just screamed his head off when he saw Luffy with his little offpring.

"DADANNNN!"

The woman came to the door and her jaw dropped when she saw the visits,

"A WITCH!" Edd shouted as soon as he saw the enormous woman.

"YOU BRAT! NO WAY! " Dadan shouted.

It was a shout session for a while until everyone calmed down. They enjoyed a nice day, where Edd would suddenly wander off and climbed the roof, almost giving a heart attack to Dadan, only for the child to wander off again, almost getting eaten twice, he had fallen in a river once and by the time the day was ending, the poor woman had her nerves wrecked...

But of course, she couldn't been happier about the visit and enjoyed every minute of it, doting on the toddler as much as she could, and complaining about old age making her a softie.

She blowed her nose loudly as a flood of tears fell from her eyes,

"Come back to visit sooon!" she shouted as she waved her hand with the other bandits.

The last light of day lit with warm red tones of the two figures approaching over the distance. Sleeping in the back of his father, Edd was snoring peacefully after a day full of adventures.

Nami shook her head when she saw his son. He had a bandage on his forehead, one on the nose, scraped knees, totally dirty and destroyed clothes and hair stiff with dirt ... and a big smile on his asleep little face.

She smiled and sighed, now she will have to bath the two of them.. These men.

And so with tailwinds they departed towards new adventures with a small nakama that every day grew more and more, he amazed everyone with his antics, and frightened them to death with his daring attitude when climbing guardrails or disappeared from in view all of a sudden.

There were no boring days at the pirate ship, definitely.

.-.-.-

Five years later in the New World ...

They had visited Shanks and ahead of them was the adventure of freeing a poor young woman trapped within a locket containing a dangerous devil fruit ... but being in a certain area of the New World they couldn't help to make a stop.

The Captain smiled upon hearing the news, it was time for Edd visit his other uncle.

They arrived with the warm lights of the evening, the boy skipping behind his father, totally excited ... yes, he had heard many great things about his uncle Ace and was sad he couldn't actually met him.

"Woahh look this grave is HUGE!" Edd exclaimed looking at the huge tomb that stood proudly with a halberd and a captain's jacket...

He read the inscription, "Edward New-g-a-te? look dad! This dead dude is called like me"

"Hahahaha! Of course Edd, Withebeard was a great pirate, Ace's Captain, and he was huge and a great guy!"

"Really ..." sighed the boy, impressed while looking at the tombstone with wide eyes, he swallowed, because suddenly he felt somewhat dwarfed by the towering monument, but after a moment smiled,

"Dad, I'm sure you are cooler" and he grinned. Luffy could not help but chuckle,

"Really?" and then he turned to Ace's tomb.

"Did you hear Ace? If he says so it must be true," he joked.

Edd approached Ace's grave and read the inscription quite quietly and with respect, Luffy placed his hands on his shoulders and stared silently with a smile,

"I'm sorry I haven't visited before Ace ... as you can see ... we were kind of busy ..." he smiled.

"You want to say something to your uncle Edd?" Luffy asked after a moment. The boy looked thoughtfully for a moment and then smiled,

"Yep!... thank you for looking after my dad uncle Ace!"

The boy had heard many stories about the adventures of his father with Ace ... and many of those ended up with his uncle saving his dad.

Luffy smiled and sighed, "You got that right ..." and after a while of comfortable silence Nami's voice was heard over the distance.

"Sanji says dinner is ready!" She called from the foot of the hill, she looked very beautiful with her hair floating around her and a dress red straps that fell on his knees and fluttered in the wind.

Luffy smiled, "Ace! See you soon!" And he started to run down the hill,

"The last to get to Sunny is a sea slug!" he shouted at his son.

Edd's jaw dropped in shock; "YOU BIG CHEAT! YOU STARTED TO RUN BEFORE!" and a moment later he began to run after the dust cloud that Luffy had left ...

"Edd ..."the boy heard a voice behind him, he stopped and turned around,

"..take care of your old man for me, will ya?" and the boy blinked, there dancing in red sunset colors next to the grave of his uncle, he could swear he saw a very muscular bare-chested man, a big smile on his face and a cow boy hat on his head.

"EDD! What's wrong YOU SEA SLUGGGG" Luffy shouted at the foot of the hill, the boy blinked a few times and the figure next to the grave was gone

...but he smiled, "Of course!" He shouted to the grave.

"YOU ARE A CHEATER YOU BASTARD!" and he ran down the hill and when he reached Luffy he jumped on him hitting him playfully, they rolled on the grass while Nami watched them with a soft smile, a tickle fight soon ensued with Edd giving up quickly with tears on his eyes.

"HAHAHHAA DAADD I'll PEE MYSELF STOPPPP PLEASEE!"

Luffy stood up and placed him on his shoulders, all the while grinning happily.

Nami sighed and turned one last time to the tombs that stood proudly at the end of the road and gave one last thought.

Thanks for everything .. Ace ...

~ End ~

Oh... so I hope you liked it, I gave my best and enjoyed this journey both times, first back when I wrote it in Spanish and now sharing this version with you guys. I'm thankful for your support.

This fic has a sort of continuation, in the Spanish version is called "Growing up with the StrawHats" and it's the small adventures of the crew as they raise Edd, since age twp and onward, and the Spanish version has reached age 7 and is still ongoing strong with 520+ reviews as of today.

If you are interested, I could upload some chapters of that fic as epilogues of this fic, I might not translate ALL the chapters of that fic since those are too many but I might publish the most popular ones, such as Sabo and Vivi Meeting Edd, Boa Hancok finding out about Edd, and so on.

So if you really are interested tell me so and I'll consider publishing it.

Thanks again for everything, you guys are the best! And if you liked the ending of this fic, please review
Kaoru~