The bar was so quiet, one could hear a pin drop.

Shanks felt horror well up within him as he realized the implications of what Ace was telling him. Now that he knew what to look for, it wasn't hard to see the signs. Ace had Rouge's freckles and eyes, but Roger's strong jaw and cheekbones. He had his mother's curls, but his father's hair colour. There was no one else his parents could have been, and the thought of what he must have gone through for it pained Shanks.

All three children were glaring at him now as they waited for an answer, even the excessively friendly Luffy, so Shanks took a moment to make sure he had the right words before speaking.

Focusing his gaze on Ace, Shanks smiled softly at the boy, obviously catching him off guard. "If Gol D. Roger had a kid," he said, "I would tell him, first and foremost, that he is his own person, and doesn't deserve to be condemned for the actions of a man he never even met just because that man helped conceive him."

Ace's eyes widened then, staring at him in shock, mouth open as if what he was hearing was too good to be true. He looked a bit teary too, his bottom lip trembling as if he wanted to cry.

Luffy was smiling brightly, glad that Shanks really was as awesome as he'd thought, and Sabo looked pleasantly surprised.

"And then I would ask him what people have told him about his father to make him look so sad and angry," continued Shanks. "And I would talk to him however long it took to convince him they were wrong."

Ace was crying now, great, ugly, hiccuping sobs and fat tears rolling down his cheeks making him look impossibly young.

"T-then do you w-w-want me to exist?" he asked between sobs, wiping the tears away with his wrists, only to have more gush forth.

"Of course," replied Shanks softly, reaching out to take his hand gently into his own, tugging him forward. Ace stumbled towards him, wrapping his arms around Shanks and allowing the man to pick him up. "You're Luffy and Sabo's precious brother. And Makino's beloved son. "

Ace's sobs quieted a bit as Shanks carried him to the stairs leading up to Makino's home, Luffy and Sabo trailing after him worriedly.

"I used to be a cabin boy for the Roger pirates, you know," he said, and he knew he was babbling, but it was the only way he could think of to calm the child down. "The world only knows of Roger as a pirate, and not as a person. He was a really funny guy."

The rest of Shanks' crew had gone reluctantly back to their revelry, ignoring them so as to provide an illusion of privacy, though Makino was eyeing her kids and her lover with worry, as if just barely stopping herself from rushing over and sweeping Ace into her arms. Shanks sent her a reassuring half-smile and the barest shake of his head. After a moment, she relented and turned back to her customers, wringing her hands in worry.

Before Shanks turned away though, he noticed Benn start talking to her, trying to distract her.

Readjusting his grip on the nine-year-old in his arms, Shanks began wracking his brain for a funny story to tell Ace, but then he noticed that his young passenger had gotten strangely quiet. Since his head was now resting on Shanks' shoulder, turned away from him, Shanks couldn't judge his facial expression.

"You okay there, buddy?" asked Shanks, patting Ace on the back to get his attention. All he got in reply was silence from Ace, and giggles from his two brothers.

"He's asleep," Luffy informed him, and Shanks raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ace has narcolepsy," Sabo explained, and Shanks' other eyebrow went up.

Luffy nodded emphatically, walking backwards as he led Shanks towards the bedroom he shared with his brothers.

"He gets really sleepy sometimes, and falls asleep in the middle of things," said Luffy. "It's really funny because sometimes, he stops in the middle of a sentence, and then when he wakes up, he continues it like he never stopped! Shishishi!"

They arrived at the boys' bedroom just then, and as Shanks laid Ace down on their large double bed, his brows were furrowed in worry. "Has it always been like this?" he asked.

And suddenly, all laughter drained from their faces, replaced by heart aching worry. Luffy shook his head.

"It used to be worse," he said.

"Sometimes, he used to see scary things that weren't there just before he fell asleep, or right after he woke up," said Sabo.

Crawling onto the bed next to his brother, Luffy continued in a teary voice, "And one time, I wanted to surprise him for his birthday, b-but I surprised him too much, and he lost all his energy and fell to the ground and hurt himself."

"He almost hurt himself," corrected Sabo, going over to comfort his little brother. "And he really liked your surprise, you know. So he'll be very upset if he finds out you're still being a crybaby about something like that."

"I'm not a crybaby!" insisted Luffy, immediately wiping his tears away.

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed as well, Shanks asked, "Does that still happen?"

The question brought a grin to Luffy's face, and he shook his head, saying a cheerful, "Nope! When we came to live with Makino, she had a doctor come look at Ace, and he told us that Ace had narcapepsi!"

"Narcolepsy," corrected Sabo.

"That's what I said," Luffy retorted, before continuing. "And he told us how we can make Ace get better. He gave us two medicines! One is something he puts in his orange juice in the morning when he has breakfast, and it stops him from losing all his energy and falling asleep. And the other one is special candy medicine that he always keeps with him and he has to eat one when he gets tired."

"I see," said Shanks thoughtfully. "But he still falls asleep sometimes?"

"Yes, but not very often," Sabo answers. "There are other things he has to do too to decrease the symptoms of his narcolepsy. He has to have small meals with lots of snacks in between instead of big meals; he has to exercise regularly, which we do anyways; he has to eat at the same time every day and sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time…"

He counted each item off on his fingers, eyes narrowed in thought.

"Oh! He also has to take naps!" Luffy chimed in. "But he doesn't like naps much because he says they're for babies. So me an' Sabo nap at the same time as him, so even if he doesn't sleep, he'll be all by himself, so he ends up sleeping anyways."

Shanks felt the corners of his lips quirk up in a soft smile.

"That's a very nice thing to do for your brother," he said, ruffling Luffy's hair affectionately. "When do you guys usually have nap time?"

"After lunch," replied Sabo. "But we left before breakfast this morning and even though the Mayor gave us something to eat when we bumped into him in town, Ace didn't get to drink his medicine so he fell asleep early. But he gets really cranky if we wake him up, so we'll just take our nap now."

"I see," said Shanks, getting up. "I guess I should stop bothering you guys then, huh?"

"Yes, please," answered Sabo politely, pulling the covers up under his chin.

"Sweet dreams then," said Shanks, turning to leave.

Before he could get more than a few steps though, Luffy's tiny voice called out, "Hey, Shanks?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around.

Luffy smiled sleepily at him, and said, "Thanks."

"For what?" asked Shanks, confused.

"For what you said to Ace. You're the first grownup that ever told him that."

Luffy's expression was almost worshipful as he said it, making Shanks feel distinctly unworthy.

"I was only telling the truth," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away awkwardly.

"Thanks anyways," said Sabo, from where he was snuggled on Ace's other side.

"It was no problem," Shanks finally relented with a smile.

He turned to leave again, and only got another few steps before being stopped again.

"Hey Shanks?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around again to see that this time it was Sabo that had called out to him.

"Were you really on Gold Roger's pirate crew?"

Shanks' lips twitched in amusement.

"I was."

"Will you tell us some good stories about him?" asked Sabo. "I think Ace would like that."

"Of course," replied Shanks.

Sabo smiled widely, and Shanks waited for his eyes to slip closed before turning to leave.

This time, he got to the door before he was stopped.

"Hey Shanks?" asked Ace's sleepy voice.

Shanks turned to see the oldest of the three boys was barely conscious.

"Yes?" he asked softly.

"Will you still be here later?"

"Of course," answered Shanks, finding he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at the boys.

Ace smiled sleepily, his eyes slipping closed again, and Shanks waited a few moments, to make sure they weren't about to stop him again, then left, gently closing the door behind him not to wake them up.

He headed back downstairs, to where the ongoing party was still rather subdued.

Yasopp was the first to notice him, eyes widening and calling, "Captain!"

All noise ground to a halt then as the rest of his crew turned to look at him.

"Where are the kids?" asked Roo.

"Ace fell asleep," Shanks told him, meeting Makino's gaze as he went to reclaim his seat at the counter. "So they decided to take a nap now."

Satisfied that the children were okay, the good cheer returned to the crew and they went back to their partying, albeit quieter than before.

Makino looked worried for a split second, probably realizing Ace hadn't taken his medicine, before a smile spread across her features.

"Did they explain Ace's condition to you?" she asked.

"Aye," answered Shanks, taking up the bottle he'd abandoned earlier.

Makino's smile widened.

"He hardly ever falls asleep anymore," she told him matter-of-factly. "And when it does happen, it's only ever when he feels completely safe."

"Oh really?" asked Shanks, eyebrows raised.

"Mmhm!" hummed Makino, grinning fit to burst. "That means you've gained his trust!"

SkyGem: That's it for this chapter, loves! What'd you think? In canon, I doubt Ace ever got to see a doctor about his narcolepsy, considering he was raised by bandits, so he was lucky it wasn't severe enough to endanger his life. The incident Luffy explained in this chapter, when Ace collapsed, was an example of cataplexy, which can happen when the person experiences strong emotions, such as surprise, joy, or sadness, and it can be really very dangerous. Makino, of course, would want to make sure she could help her son as much as possible.

His medicine is dissolvable in juice so that he won't have any tantrums about taking it, and of course, it's the same with the candy (which is an amphetamine-like stimulant), which the doctor made sure tasted sweet so that he wouldn't hesitate to take it when he needed it and wouldn't risk an episode. I'm not sure if this exists/is possible irl, but considering this is the world of One Piece (where they likely have different medicinal herbs and other ingredients than we do), I decided to take some artistic license.

Anyways, please do leave a review and let me know what you thought, yes? See you all next time!