Chapter Six

Akagami Shanks was having a heart attack.

At least he was pretty sure that the tsunami of memories he was awash in was triggering a forceful squeeze within his chest that was akin to one because Shanks was having a heart attack. He wondered if this was how Captain Roger had felt when he jumped overboard during the Battle of Edd to save Buggy? If so, he had a sudden and acute sympathy for his former captain followed by a strong desire to throttle him because he would not have put it past the man to get his revenge from beyond the grave. That his revenge was a pint-sized bundle of messy hair and burned freckles that was completely ignoring him in favor of chasing an even smaller child around was irrelevant. Gol D. Roger's child had survived.

By all accounts he may have even thrived, looking tall and healthy for his age and with a blonde in a blue top hat and a little girl with raven locks in tow. It was the latter that had reached them first, pinwheeling out her arms to try and gain her balance, before Roger's son ran into her pitching them both forward. Considering that fists were flying and she was only so tall…

"Omph," Shanks kept himself from more than a wheeze as he got inadvertently hit where no man should ever be so. "God damn it, brats."

The little girl scampered back a bit before being forcefully and protectively shoved behind Roger's brat. Slate greys so familiar to one lady he once knew, a graceful woman often full of laughter where this was wary, eyed him up and down in clear mistrust. There was a tint there of unfamiliar emotion that Shanks was unable to recognize but almost seemed expectant to him. The blonde managed to reach up to them by now and had one hand firmly secured around a metal pipe as he stood behind Roger's brat. Huh, he intended to back up his friend. That was sort-of cute.

The raven head poked its away around it's protector's shoulder and a sunny smile was offered. "Hi! I'm Monkey D. Lucillia but you can call me Lucy!"

"Akagami Shanks." Yet even more surprises then. He had seen that smile on two faces before, both men far more formidable than this slip of a girl, but he'd not expected Roger's son to be protecting Garp's… granddaughter? Of course, now that he recalled it, Garp was supposed to hail from a backwards island in the middle of East Blue and he likely had a hand in his former rival's son's existence. Judging from how much effort the government had put into ending Roger's line- all of those women dead, innocent and carrying children and guilty solely of having briefly met the man- they'd not be aware of this. Otherwise Roger's son wouldn't have lived this long, not even for a nefarious plot of their own design. "Who're your friends?"

"Ace and Sabo," was the prompt answer, followed by a tiny wail as the older, dark-haired boy hit her over the head. "Why Ace?"

Ace. He had a name now. He was looking down at Gol D. Ace.

"You can't just give your name out to pirates, idiot," Ace scolded her. "What if they were enemies of the old man?"

"Poppy has enemies?" This question was asked with such innocent confusion, complete with owlish eyes and a head tilt offered, that Shanks immediately believed in its sincerity.

"He's a Marine Vice Admiral, of course, he has enemies!" The blonde was flailing his hands in the background now, trying to get Ace to shut up but naturally, Roger's son kept going on. "He fought a lot of pirates, beat them up and threw them into jail. How else did you think he got that position?"

"Poppy's really nice, so maybe they gave him titles because they liked him?"

"That's… not entirely against the Marine habit of corruption and nepotism, fine, but in this case, the old geezer *earned* his moniker of badassery," Ace said with begrudging respect. "They don't call him the Hero for nothing."

"Well, heroes only beat up bad guys and these pirates are good, right?" Lucillia peered up at him now, all guileless ink-toned eyes and bright, hopeful smiles. "You won't hurt anyone, will you, Mr. Shanks?"

"Nope, the plan here's just to restock and find a decent watering hole," Shanks confirmed, amused. "And drop the title, little miss, I'm a respectable pirate and don't want any of that nonsense."

"Then you have to call me Lucy. I'm going to be a pirate too!" Then, ignoring her friend's complaints, she unerringly reached for Shanks' hand, the much smaller, much softer one almost buried in his calloused palms as she dragged him towards the mainland.

From where Shanks looked back, the rest of the crew was still patiently waiting for Beckman to finish negotiating with the mayor. Due to his relaxed personality, non-confrontational manner and often termed boyish looks, few outside of the Grand Line knew him to be the Captain of the Red-Haired Pirates (Ha! And Mihawk thought he wouldn't be shameless enough to name his crew after his most defining feature). The villagers didn't even look twice as Garp's granddaughter self-importantly led him through the crowd and up the hilly pass towards the village. A few members of his crew did and Shanks just offered nonchalant waves to the rest. Admittedly it wasn't uncommon for a pretty lady to drag him away in a few of the towns they'd docked in but none were quite as adorable or demanding as Monkey D. Lucy. She'd definitely inherited her grandfather's indifference to other people's desires.

Shanks took the opportunity here to study where Ace had lived for most of his life as well as Ace himself. The boys had fallen back to whisper furiously amongst themselves and since it seemed to be an elaborate scheme to extract and hide away their youngest friend (complete with treats to keep her willingly in the hiding spot, amusingly enough), the red-haired pirate let them. Instead he noted other details. A few were more positive than others, such as how Ace seemed to know the route being taken but the few villagers remaining in the town continued to give him shifty looks. Or maybe that was to Shanks? It seemed a quiet, sleepy town; nothing like the bustling cities that Roger and Rouge had grown up in but Ace was alive, so Garp must have done something right.

He wondered if Rayleigh knew about this or Buggy. Shanks thought not. The latter at least would have made this an annual visit with his money-laundering operation, that infamous Buggy circus, to keep an eye on Rouge's only son. The woman had gifted him with his very first personal set of knives.

It wasn't a bad little set-up here though. Shanks liked Lucillia. He thought anyone would with that happily burbling chatter and those darkly gleaming eyes that peered up hopefully for stories. They were cute but a little too well-done to be natural. In fact…

Shanks lowered his voice to a stage-whisper. "You don't practice those on your friend, do you?"

"I do," was the beaming response.

"And how often does it work?"

"All the time!" A third voice, this one belonging to the blonde piped up now and ended with a fist crashed into his head by a blushing Ace.

Shanks grinned. Not a bad little set-up at all.

x

Ace was ambivalent about the arrival of Akagami Shanks. He didn't have any particularly strong feelings about the man; even when they had exchanged sake as pirates, Ace had done it in gratitude for the man saving his little brother's life. As so, the dark-haired boy had always associated the red-haired pirate as Lu's pirate, the larger-than-life, party-wild Yonko that inspired his brother to toss his hat in the ring to be Pirate King. Luffy had considered him just one step away from the crown, the final victory to be claimed before he could ascend the ocean throne. In that respect, Ace was a hell of a lot impressed by the man.

In other ways, not so much.

Shanks was supposed to be Lu's pirate. He was supposed to focus his attention entirely on the bright-eyed girl currently wearing him down for tall tales of the seas. While he was doing so, the man also occasionally shifted his attention to Ace with a warm nostalgia in his eyes. The freckled boy hated that look. It always meant someone was thinking back to his no-good father and putting expectations on him because of it. Since he wasn't dead yet, Ace assumed their were positive memories but even then, fuck Gol D. Ace, fuck his legacy and fuck every single damn person that thought Ace's entire life could be summed up as Son of the Pirate King.

He wasn't even aware that he was squeezing the wooden mug in his hand with such force as to crack it into splinters before Lu- and he kept his eyes on her, after Akainu, Ace always kept his eyes on her- scooted off her seat and clambered onto his lap. Selfish girl that she was, Lucillia completely ignored the inconvenience of having to drop his mug, still half-full with watered down ale, onto the table, to wrap his arms around her. Ace buried his face into messy locks and breathed in the scent of strawberry shampoo, fresh air and Luffy.

"Shanks is telling us about his trip to an island shaped like a margarita!" Lucy announced, smiling so widely at him that it was a wonder her cheeks didn't get stuck that way. "Listen!"

"Bossy," Ace muttered, even as he followed her instructions. He sent a reassuring smile to worried-looking Sabo, ignored Shanks or the glancing Red-Haired pirates entirely and awaited storytime. Much to his personal regret, it wasn't even half bad.

The trio ended up spending most of the four days that the Red-Haired pirates spent in Foosha doing the same. Lucy couldn't get enough of Shanks' pirate stories and after Ace learned to instinctively burn away his jealousy for her not relying on him as master storyteller anymore, he came to enjoy it as well. Sabo had even taken a book with him to jot down everything they said, making Shanks laugh and his second-in-command, Beckman, claim that they had a second ship log stored in a safe place then for if their own was ever ruined. Shanks never quite stopped eyeing him differently then the others but he'd become enthralled by Lu and Sabo quickly enough, so Ace forgave him that fault. In the end of it all, the Red-Haired pirates prepared to sail off, dropping out of their life as swiftly as they'd entered it and with as little fanfare and Ace became… concerned.

'Where's the Gomu Gomu no Mi? Where's the famous strawhat and the promise to be the Pirate King?'

Worry stirred in his gut. In his selfish desire to see his little sibling again, had Ace screwed the future up irreversibly? Guilt and concern compelled him to, for there could be no other reason, ask his question. "You're coming back, right?"

Shanks looked surprised by the question before a warm smile blossomed across his face. "Of course, I am, Freckles." Ace masterfully did not twitch at the newfound nickname. "We stayed for a day longer than planned but this was a great watering hole and we're still sticking around in East Blue for the year, so it's not the end! I still have more stories for you, Anchor and the Blue Owl over there!"

"Good." The time traveler looked at him warningly. "Lu will be upset if you stay away too long, so don't."

Instead of being intimidated, Ace received a bright grin, a hair ruffle and a squeezed cheek for his troubles and immediately took out his pipe. Shanks' eyes glittered and his laugh burst out loud and free as the man easily dodged each attack and then ran for the pier. Ace gave chase, of course, but it wasn't long before he was leaping into the ship and waving an exuberant goodbye to them all.

Lucy waved back with just as much enthusiasm. "Bye, Shanks! I'll miss you so much! Be safe and come back here soon!"

'No wonder this is the man Lu took for a mentor. They're equally awful.'

Keeping true to his promise, Shanks returned a fortnight later for a second visit and a third and a fourth. He continued offering a litany of stories to the children, all the while batting his eyelashes for more beer from a flustered and laughing Makino and dodging Sabo's retaliatory pranks for 'stealing his woman'. He never spoke about his knowledge of Ace's parentage directly, to which the dark-haired boy was mildly relieved. Sabo already knew and Lu wouldn't care but however kind Makino-nee may be, he didn't want the green-haired woman to learn of this yet.

Ace had thought he'd kept the time stream moving as it should be when Shanks started mocked Lu's dreams and dodging his attempts at payback and the girl had stumbled into the Gomu Gomu no Mi. While he had warned her against devil fruits this time around, it seemed that either Lu's memory failed her- a perfectly reasonable argument- or it was just destiny for the troublesome girl to become a rubber human. Sabo has been fascinated by it and whisked away Lucy at once for experimentation with electrical sockets that Ace probably should've stopped. Eh, they'd done stupider things before. Shanks took this opportunity to draw him outside. Or pick him up by the scruff of his shirt, declare that they were both in need of fresh air and ignore Ace's attempts to hit him to get back down.

"So…" Shanks said as he dropped him unceremoniously down on the floor. "You exist."

Landing with catlike grace, Ace shot a glare at the man. "Yeah, no shit, genius."

"I'm going about this the wrong way," the redhead acknowledged, sitting down and letting Ace have a few inches of height advantage over himself. Ace didn't bother to let it reassure him. This was a freaking Yonko. If not now, then in a handful of years certainly and Ace hadn't been able to stand toe-to-toe against his Pops even before he'd died. "Do you know who your parents are?"

As the man already knew, Ace bit out, as curt as he could. "Portgas D. Rouge."

"And your father?"

"I don't have a father."

"Everyone has a father," Shanks answered firmly. His expression gentled. "Not everyone wants to claim them perhaps but there's never been a child I've known that's been born without."

"It's a wide, wide world out there," Ace shrugged. "Just because you haven't seen a child with only a mother doesn't mean it can't be done."

Shanks chuckled. "I suppose you're right but if you ever do find out how, tell me. I'd be able to dangle it in front of Big Mom for years."

Ace bit his lip before he could add his own amusement to the air. He shouldn't be aware of any knowledge of the Grand Line after all. "Are we done here?"

"Not yet." The famous pirate plucked his hat off of his head and turned it around between his hands. "I wasn't always a captain on my own ship. Once I sailed under another flag beside your mother… and your father as well. We were a pretty well-known bunch. Ever heard of the Roger Pirates?"

Ace warily nodded. "I don't want anything to do with my father's legacy or One Piece."

"No," Shanks agreed, his eyes distant. "Roger's throne is for another to claim and I think it might just be Anchor in there that claims the final prize. For you…" The hat spun around balanced precariously on one finger. "Your father entrusted this to me when I was still a cabin boy serving under his command. It's not as famous or valuable as other Pirate King artifacts but I'd never seen the Captain without it and I think he'd be proud if you were the next one to wear it. I know you don't want to live under his shadow but this hat's a subtle enough acknowledgment and I'd like you to think about keeping it."

Ace thought about it. "No, thanks. A crown belongs to a future king and that's just not me."

"Fair enough." He thought there might just be a glimmer of respect in the red-haired pirate's eyes now. "If you don't want to be a king, what will you be?"

"Easy. I'm the King's Guardian."

x