"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it."

-Mark Twain

Sixteen years before Luffy leaves, he arrives.

"Ugh...Gimme some rum. My poor old bones aren't up to this." Makino continues to stare at the strange old man, mainly in awe of the fact that wow, someone had actually come to visit her island. Tiny little Fuschia; Outside of random pirate raids, they'd never had too many visitors. So this guy had arrived on a Marine ship earlier that day…and that was about all she knew. The gossip chains she subscribed to hadn't mentioned a word of the scrawny kid that he had propped on one knee or the even scrawnier infant slung across his front like some sort of package.

"What, you need my cash first or something? You island hicks are all pretty paranoid aren't you? Pirate problem I'm guessing?"

Island hicks?! She fumes internally. Who the hell does he think he is?! But instead of roaring out with rage and a slap upside the head, (and if had been anyone else but a shiny new customer, she would've laid the smackdown on him in an instant) she only grins her nice little barmaid grin that Mama taught her for difficult customers.

"Ah, no, no! Sorry. I was just wondering…your children. What would they like?" He pauses in thought at that, looking between the two for an instant as if just realizing that they're there.

"What?" He finally responds, looking utterly perplexed as he returns her stare. "Kids don't drink rum?"

Okay, so sure. She's an only child and has no idea whatsoever on how to take care of kids. It's not really her place to be giving lectures on proper child care.

However, at least she knows to hand the one (His name is Ace, she later learns) a sippy cup of juice. She then spends the better part of that day searching town for someone who still had a baby bottle for the infant. (Called Luffy. Honestly, she wonders, who named these kids?)

Fourteen years before Luffy leaves, Garp begins to train him.

"MAKINO-SAN!" The bartender in question braces herself just in time to avoid being toppled by the three year old as he lunges for her leg. "Hide meeeeeeeeee!"

"Luffy, what-?"

"The sink!" And just as quickly, the boy flies for the fixture in question like a drowning man to a raft. Huddled against the wall and trying to squeeze himself as far into the corner as possible, he brings a chubby finger to his lips as if to shush her. Yeah. Like she's the one who needs to be quiet. Boys. Such odd things. Mama says she never acted like this. She was always polite and quiet and well behaved…when she wasn't wrestling in the pig pen. But that's another story for another day.

Makino doesn't bother asking what's going on, since it's not so much a matter of if she'll find out as it is when.

…Still…she doesn't quite know what she was expecting as an explanation, but Garp dashing down the road like a madman (which he is anyway, so that much isn't too weird) with enough balloons in his hand to throw several parties isn't what she'd imagined.

"Is he in here?!" Out of breath and sweating like a pig, Garp seems to collapse through the doorway. Might have something to do with the cement blocks strapped to his back, might not. (That's gotta be at least 20 kilos worth of cement…)

"Training hard?" She asks, stealthily covering up the squeak that had risen from somewhere beneath the sink.

"That brat…I never had this problem with Ace. Must be all those stupid horror stories he keeps on telling Luffy." Maybe it's an old man's intuition, or maybe it's the highly suspicious fact that she still hasn't answered, but either way, Garp doesn't leave. Balloons and all, he starts checking the cabinets, moving ever closer to Makino's place at the sink.

"Garp…"

"Hmm?"

"What are those balloons for?"

"Flight training." He tells her after a moment of pause, now padding towards the storerooms in search of his wayward grandson. "I figure he'd be a good fit to the paratroops, so I'm getting him in the air now so he can adjust. Sure, we don't have any paratroops yet, but I've heard that we might in a few years, so…" Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense. Sure.

Idly, the barmaid wonders if there're any needles around that she could pop a few of those balloons with. Or maybe she could use the butcher knife she's been washing for the past five minutes? Crude? Her? Never. (But still, she's had her fill of patching up Ace after the training courses of LOVE. And Luffy wines so much when he gets hurt. She'll die from an overdose of headache meds.)

Sighing, the older man makes for the door. But there's a glint in his eyes that tells Makino he's not done yet. Poor Luffy. "He can swim as well as a drowned rat, so I figure I might need to get a little creative with his assignments."

"I CAN TOO SWIM!" Hook, line and sinker.

"AHAH!" Garp dives, but the three year old is faster, clambering out of the way by a hairs breath and not wasting any time to leap over the fallen grandfather and escape through the doorway.

"NOOOOOOO! 'DUN WANNA DIEEEEEEEE!"

"LUFFY GET BACK HERE!"

Honestly. Men.

Eleven years before Luffy leaves, pirates come to town.

Damn it.

Damn it.

She'd…forgotten. Been spoiled. Having a Marine Vice-Admiral had let her go soft. Garp only had to look at the bastards and they'd take off running. Five years without a raid. Yeah. It's not like riding a bike, you don't instantly remember how these things go. The fear doesn't subside as quickly as it did before, when she'd been weathered against such things.

For at least the fiftieth time that week, she curses Garp for leaving so suddenly. What was he thinking?!

She'd forgotten how to deal with this. What to do and what not to do when pirates came a knocking. Their island wasn't big enough to be a major port, so it wasn't like she could ward them off with the threat of a resident pirate crew who'd tack their asses to the wall in the name of revenge. She'd been stupid. Forgotten the mantras she'd repeated to herself for the years of her bartending before Garp.

Rule number one: no, you do not deny service to the brutes when they demand free booze. Even if you're trying to set up some stupid example for the two kids behind the counter in the messed up hope that they'll see that bravery is a good thing.

Haha. This is just…what was that word Ace used yesterday? Fail? Yeah. Fail. She's failed. A failure. Because those two kids behind the counter had to watch her get thrown into a table. And that hurts.

"Leave Makino-san alone!" Oh no. No. No no no no.

"Luffy, don't!" Too late. By the time she's hoisted herself to her elbows, there's a six year old on her countertop. And six year olds are invincible to no one but themselves. There's chuckling among the pirates, and this much she remembers. Sniggering, snickering, or mocking laughter of any sort is never a good sign. Ever.

"Looks like we got us a hero on our hands." Something. Anything. She can't let this happen. Won't. Her ribs protest loudly as she gropes around for some form of weapon, fingers groping blindly as her vision swims from the pain. Shit. Shit. Come on…

"W-watch out! My punch is like a pistol!" Pistol punch or no, his reach isn't nearly enough. One of the men hoists him into the air as if he was light as a ragdoll, scoffing as the short limbs try in vain to reach him.

Ace, however, is just big enough to land a kick to the guy's groin. If her ribs hadn't been running a rebellion against the rest of her, Makino would've cheered. Garp's crazy training actually having a point for once! It's a beautiful sight to behold.

But Luffy lands on his brother in a tangle of limbs, and neither one can sort themselves out quick enough to avoid another crewmate's boot. Heads crack against the bar with a sickening clap, and the chuckling resumes.

This is what heroism gets her. A pair of injured boys served with a side of broken ribs.

Of course, what was she thinking? Idiot. Hah, this is pathetic. She's supposed to be the adult here. It's her job to take care of the two of them. (A self-imposed task, but that doesn't make it any less important.)

"Aww, looks like the damsel in distress won't be saved by her knights in shining armor after all. Too bad." Breathe in, breathe out. You can do this. It's your job. Protect them.

And Makino screams.

The chair is closest, so she grabs that as soon as she's off her hands and on her feet. Backswing, backswing, and release! It's not that hard, though it completely misses the guy she's aiming for, but the flying furniture hits one of them and that's good enough. Something pushes her forward, whispers in her ear to strike out with the ball of her fist, and she does so, delivering a brutal right hook to another of the men.

But instead of the counterattack she expects, the second man remains motionless, staring at the fallen man like he's the center of the universe. (And OWWW. Knuckles. Hurting. A LOT. Broken? Yeah, just like her ability to form coherent thought.)

"…Captain…?" He finally ventures, voice a lot quieter than Makino remembers it.

"Hey…hey…he's not moving. That chick took out the captain!"

"But the captain's a monster! No one can do that!"

"THEN SHE MUST BE A MONSTER TOO!" And all at once, there's a mad scuffle for the door, pirate trampling over pirate in the bid for freedom from Party's bar. All twenty men leave. Twenty. Two zero. Yeah. Like she could have beaten twenty men all on her lonesome.

Makino continues to stare at the door, wondering if it's really possible to be that stupid. But then her ribs give out on her and she collapses in a heap, blood dribbling from the corners of her mouth. Right, she'd forgotten about that. And now her knuckles are giving her hell too. She's not even gonna get into the headache pounding against her head. At least…it's over?

And it shouldn't be that easy. There's no way it's that easy. She spends the rest of the day watching over the brothers with her father's rifle less than an arm's reach away at all times. There's no way they wouldn't come back. Revenge is a pirate thing. They're all gonna die because there's no possible or plausible way that it could be over. Can't be that easy.

But it is.

Ten years before Luffy leaves, even more pirates come to town.

"Ah, easy there lass. You might poke your eye-OOOKAY. I get it. No funnies. No need to get violent…" Yeah, she'd sharpened the end of her mop into a pretty nasty point. Yeah, that probably made her a little paranoid. But, well, such was the cost of keeping up appearances. Nobody messed with Makino the Mauler. (Apparently, word traveled fast when you took out a pirate captain with a chair. Even if he didn't have a bounty worth mentioning.)

"We're not here to cause trouble! I swear! Just need to restock!" The point jabbed a little further into the newcomer's chest. (If she'd been paying attention to her surroundings, she might've noticed the fat man suddenly disappear from his captain's side and pop back into existence behind her with a gun to her head, just waiting for the signal.)

"We'll pay! We'll pay! We were planning to pay all along!" Suspicious, since the tactic had been tried before, she raised an eyebrow. "Ben, she don't believe me! Get the cash already, would ya?!" There's a chuckle from the ponytail guy next to the redhead, and it suddenly strikes her that neither one looks very worried.

It's around that time she wonders if she's bitten off more than she can chew here.

But Luffy's grip on her pantleg tightens at the laughter, and she remembers the point of this. Protection. Nothing more, nothing less. (Both boys fall asleep without warning nowadays. Doc C says it's an aftereffect of the concussion. Should fade with time.)

"Hey, hey! Ben! Don't just laugh your ass off! There's a chick pointing a mop at me! Give her the Berri already!"

"Okay, okay. Here ma'am. This should be enough." With a flick of the wrist, the bag of gold is flung to her feet, and there's not much else she can do. She can't keep the mop up while serving them, and if they plan to take the cash back as soon as they're done here, then it's her own damn fault for being such an obvious target.

Of course the pirate thing would come back to bite her in the ass. Of course. Well, the year-long reprieve from raids had been nice while it lasted.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Well, lesse. Our rum, for one, is loo-"

"MAKINO-SAN!" Not again. Please not again. Before she's even turned to face Luffy, she's already imagined a dozen scenarios, none of them pretty. A gun to his head. A sword at his neck. His feet in the air.

But, when she glanced between her legs, there's only an overly excited (and perfectly unharmed) seven year old between them.

"Look at all this stuff! It's like…from all over the world! Wowwwww…Hey, Mr!" The redhead looks left, then right, then points to himself in bewilderment. "Yeah! You! I command that you tell me all about your adventures!"

"Adventures…?" He repeats weakly, momentarily at a loss. Make that two of them. Makino wonders what happened to the boy who'd been clutching her skirts with white knuckles whenever the Jolly Rodger came into view. It couldn't have been…no, possibly…

"Oh! My adventures! Well, erm, take a seat young…"

"Luffy!" the child supplies. "Monkey D. Luffy!"

"…young Luffy! And I will tell you all about my amazing tales of bravery on the wide open seas!"

"Coooooooool!"

This is going to be a long day. Makino just knows it.

Nine years before Luffy leaves, Shanks makes a mistake.

"Oi…" Ace pokes at Luffy's arm experimentally, half expecting his finger to be swallowed up by the rubbery substance that feels nothing like skin.

"What?" When poking produces no results, the older brother moves onto pinching and frowns slightly when he finds that the eight-year-old's skin is now…stretchy. Weird. Really, really, weird. Which means that Shanks probably had something to do with it.

"What happened to you? You feel like you're…"

"Made outta rubber?" Ace nods, still marveled by the elasticity. Stretch! Shrink. Stretch! Shrink. Though, at least it explains how Luffy had managed to wrap his arms and legs three times around his brother's body. "It's 'cuz I ate the Gomu Gomu Fruit! Shanks told me aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall about it. It's a devil fruit, so I can't swim anymore 'cuz the sea hates me now, but that's okay, 'cuz now I can stretch and it's really cool! I can be the stretchy pirate from Fuschia! AND GUESS WHAT?!"

"You can't sw-!?"

"I CAN LICK MY ELBOW! ISN'T THAT COOL!?" But instead of the awed state of shock that he expected, Luffy receives only an eerily silent brother who's intently focused on watching the rubbery skin move against nature's intentions. Skin stretch…skin shrink. Stretch, shrink.

"Ace?"

Streeeeeeeeeeetch.

"What, are you jealous 'cuz you can't?"

Snap.

"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

"Ace! Calm down!" Makino didn't need to bother, after all, Luffy's limbs had left Ace immobile in their rubbery grip. He flopped on the floor like a fish out of water, yelling and cursing up a storm with all the words that he'd learned from the docks over the years. If Makino hadn't tended to use them on a regular basis herself, she would've stuck a bar of soap in his mouth.

"AS IF LUFFY WASN'T HARD ENOUGH TO KEEP TRACK OF! IT'S GONNA BE DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE NOW! I'M GONNA GO BALD FROM THE STRESS! LUFFY, LEMME GO! LEMME GOOOOO! I'VE GOTTA KILL SHANKS! THE BASTARD PROBABLY THINKS THIS IS FUNNY! LEMME GO!"

Five years before Luffy leaves, he attends a funeral.

Her little black dress is not of the sexy kind. It's a hand-me-down from some cousin who's a bit wider in the hips and arms than she is, and if not for some last minute hemming, Makino would have found herself tripping over its length.

But for now, it's perfect.

Her mother was old, she knows that. And it's not her place to question the world on the why's of it all. But still, her chest aches knowing that the little white cottage they shared will be empty. She won't come home from a long night at the bar to the smell of that godforsaken radish soup that her mama liked so much. No random fights over the boys she brought home (ugh, the headache from the Shanks fiasco still gave her a shot of pain whenever she thought about it)

"Damn it…" People have died before. She knows its okay to cry. It's healthy to cry. So why does she feel so ashamed doing so? She tries telling herself that she should be happy, that Mama's in a better place now, that the pain in her old joints has finally picked up its bags and left her alone.

But all she can coax out of herself is a dull wish that she'd had more time.

"Makino-san?"

Who's going to help Luffy with his reading now? She wonders.

There's a thump as one of the brothers takes up a spot next to her, and a flop as the other lays out in the grass as if planning to take a nap. For a while, none of the three speak, and whatever question Luffy planned to ask goes unvoiced. That is, if he even had one in the first place; the rubber boy seems to be content making himself comfortable against her side. She doesn't realize until after the fact that she's snaked an arm around his shoulders and buried the other one in Ace's hair.

The elder boy's eyes flicker to meet Makino's for a brief moment, before he turns away, pink dusting his cheeks and clashing nicely with his freckles. I didn't want to be here. He seems to say. It's all Luffy's fault. Blame him. But he doesn't get up to go anywhere, despite the fact that anyone who discovers them like this would be forever doubtful of Ace's claims to be "super manly."

Time passes. The sun treks across the sky, using it as its own canvas along the way and painting the blue ceiling with streaks of red and gold.

"Your Mama was really nice." Luffy eventually tells her, eyes at half mast as he curls further into her side like some sort of burrowing creature. "I'm really glad I met her."

"I'm sure she's glad she met you too, Luffy." Hard to choke back the tears on that one. Ma had always wanted grandchildren.

But instead of the happy giggle she expects at such praise, the boy remains on a low volume setting. "I like to think," he whispers into her side, "my mom was like that. Really nice. Ace said she was nice." He snorts halfheartedly. "But that's kinda dumb, 'cuz I don't think he remembers her either."

"Your mom?" This…is a surprise.

"Mmm. I don't remember her."

"Oh." This is the point where she's supposed to say something comforting. Be a pillar of support. That's what ten-year olds need, guidance and a healthy dose of advice; maybe a shoulder to cry on if the mood suits.

"But I think," He adds in a tired mutter, "You make a great mama, Makino-san."

Now if that isn't just the sappiest thing she's heard in a long while? Hah, and she's crying again.

(Sure, Luffy probably won't remember a word he's just said, but him in a half-catonic state is probably the closest to pulling the truth out of him that she'll ever get.)

Eventually, when the bar turns enough profits, Makino figures she'll get one of those fancy stone markers for her poor mother. It's not right that Pa and Mama have mismatching graves, his carved slab against her wooden cross. Unless…

In the end, she sells the cottage to some rich couple from the island next over who're looking for a summer villa. She lives above Party's Bar, Ma gets her stone, and that's that.

Three years before Luffy leaves, Ace says goodbye.

"Luffy's going to miss you." Ace snorts over his drink.

"That's a given. I'm more worried that he's gonna starve, or that he'll try to go swimming again or something. That's why I'm asking you to watch out for him." Liar, Makino accuses mentally, he's going to miss you horribly and you already feel guilty about it. Otherwise you would've just left without a word like Garp did. Since when had the freckled boy become such a stereotypical teenager, acting cool and delivering dramatic lines like it was his born gift?

"I've been watching the two of you since your grandfather left. Why would I suddenly stop?" Hah. She wants to see him try and return that.

"Mmm." Makino: 1. Ace…well he'd racked up a fair number of points by making her even consider letting him go. She leaves him untallied for now.

"Why do you have to leave now? Even if Luffy's a grown boy, he still needs you." You still need him, she mentally adds. Forget him missing you, you're going to circle back as soon as you hit the open waters. She could see it now, Ace would complete some feat of amazing skill, he'd turn to lap in the praise, and lo and behold, no Luffy to clap and cheer. Men and their egos.

"He doesn't need anybody to live, Makino-san. He's a survivor."

"He's a highly-social creature. He needs someone to talk to."

Ace shrugs slightly, the very picture of indifference. "So he'll make new friends. Kids flock to him like he's the Pirate King already."

"Yeah. Sure. A bunch of toddlers. Luffy will be fine hanging out with a bunch of toddlers."

"There're some older kids…" Apparently, her unamused stare reminds him that no, there are no older kids on the island. Flustered, the teen retreats for a moment. "They'll grow up." He finally amends. A weak defense if she's ever seen one.

Shaking her head, (honestly, how will he get along in that big wide world? Luffy's not the only reason she wishes he'd stay) she tries again.

"Ace, I'm just asking you to think about it. I'm not making you stay, but I just think it'd be better if you two stick together, at least until Luffy's old enough to take care of himself." For a few moments, there's silence; Ace doesn't answer her directly.

In those few moments, she dares to hope. It's not her place, to impede on either boy's dream like this, and at a later date (maybe when one of them comes home waving the title of pirate king behind him like a flag) she'll be shocked at her own audacity. But for now, she's…

…well, she's not their mother.

…But it's as close as they've got.

The door chooses that moment to slam wide open, courtesy of Luffy.

"I'm not a baby, Makino-san, I can take care of myself." And it looks like he's been listening in.

"Luffy!" The fourteen-year-old standing in the doorway is not smiling. Shank's hat, too large for his adolescent head, darkens his eyes and hides them from view. She can't see if he's looking at her or not.

"…Maybe it's true that I can't cook or swim or even take a bath by myself. I forget to brush my teeth a lot, and sometimes I can't remember where I put my shoes, and when I try to wash my clothes they end up dirtier than before." Among other things. She seems to remember handing him clean laundry and having to patch gaping holes in said laundry not an hour later.

"So Ace takes care of all that boring stuff, 'cuz he says it's his job to make sure I don't kill myself or something." He shuffles closer, sandals scraping against the floor like a petulant child. Half expecting the puppy-dog treatment, Makino steels herself. Luffy's not nearly as good at the face as he thinks he is, and if she keeps her mouth set just so…

But in an instant, he's suddenly someone different. Shoulders straighten, his head flies up, and Luffy's eyes meet her own.

"But I can't be Pirate King if Ace is always right over my shoulder! When I find Shanks again, I can't face him if Ace has been protecting me the whole time! I don't need Ace, and I know that doesn't need me!" Stare unwavering from hers, Luffy's fist slams down on the table, rattling plates and cups like an earthquake.

"If Ace doesn't leave, I will!" And he means it. Somewhere, something tells her that she'd wake up tomorrow and find Luffy gone and never hear from him again. He might get hurt or swindled or killed and she'd never know because the world out there is very, very, very large.

Silence hangs over the room as Makino struggles to coax her voice out of her throat. It's hard work. After all, what do you say when your boys grow?

"Makino-san," Ace begins after a moment, "We'll be waiting at the dock if you want to see me off. The boat to Loguetown doesn't leave for another hour."

Finally, she just settles on letting them leave in silence.

(The trip to the docks is short, but it's still unusual for Luffy to be silent for more than a minute at a time.

"Y'know," Ace starts, "you looked so serious that I almost believed you myself. That was some damn good acting." Luffy doesn't respond, and after a moment or two of silence, the older brother sighs and casually loops an arm around the rubber-boy's shoulders.

"You idiot. Don't give speeches about how you're a man and then start crying.")

Six months before Luffy leaves, the Marines update their bounty listings.

Lately, as the departure date of her favorite dishwasher approaches, Makino has been observing a steady decline in his contribution to chores around the bar. Tables have gone unwashed, sometimes he "forgets" to milk the cows, and every time when she has to go Luffy-hunting, she finds him sweating it out at the not-so-secret training spot that Ace left behind.

Operation Hard Work is green for go.

"Hmmm…Luffy?" There's a grunt of acknowledgement from the corner where the rubber boy is washing dishes with all the excitement of a lion watching a rock. The fact that Ace has changed his name sometime in the past three years hasn't helped his mood any.

"D'you think if I were to blackmail Ace into submission, I could turn him in for his bounty? I've still got the photos from the last fall festival…I'm pretty sure I remember him saying he'd rather die than let those get out…"

"…" Luffy's jaw hits the floor with a dull thunk and it's all she can do to keep from chuckling evilly.

"…You know? This place has needed a new coat of paint for a long while…I think a quarter of a billion berry is more than enough for some paint. Don't you?" The pure picture of innocence, she clasps her hands beneath her chin and hopes that the light from the window is giving her the right sense of coloring to pull this off.

"Oh if only Ace had actually done his chores before he'd left! I wouldn't be tempted so..."

"T-tempted?"

"To blackmail, or not to blackmail, that's the question! Whether 'nobler in the heart to suffer the slings and chips of cracking paint, or to take arms against a sea of piracy, and by blackmailing one of them, end it…!" She cracks open an eye to gauge her audience's reaction and is pleased to see the signs of brain breakage. She's not so pleased to see the plate breakage that goes along with it. But alas, the sacrifices we make.

"You know," She whispers conspiringly, "if I were you, I'd finish those dishes; And the rest of the to-do list. I seem to remember a certain story about Shanks, you, and a cow?"

This time she does chuckle evilly.

"You could be next."

There are no further issues.

The day Luffy leaves, Makino hands him a bento and a boat ticket to Loguetown.

He eats the bento on the spot, and tears the ticket in two.

"I'm gonna be the Pirate King." He says as if stating a fact. "I'll find my own nakama and get to the Grand Line myself."

She whacks him over the head for being such an idiot, but the matter isn't pressed after that, and he, the hammer, sails off in his little boat, unchallenged.

Monkey D. Luffy is seventeen years old, 172 centimeters tall, afraid of nothing but Makino's super-radish casserole, eats enough in a day to feed a couple of horses, and a pirate captain. (Sure, he doesn't have any crewmembers yet…but…details, details)

"WHEN I COME BACK-" he calls over the ocean even as his dingy fades into the horizon, "-I'LL BRING MY NAKAMA WITH ME AND WE'LL HAVE A HUUUGE PARTY! LOTS OF MEAT!"

The words aren't the most inspiring…

…but, well…

…it's the thought that counts.

(Because it's a promise that he won't die. And she believes him.)

So…I had fun making a Makino voice. It was supposed to be a voice that matured from beginning to end, but I don't quite think it made it. Oops?

Still, it was fun. There's so very little Makino, and obviously she's pretty cool if Shanks decided to hang around her bar for a year XD Maybe she's actually more polite…but I like her this way. But somebody tell me if it's really horribly out of character.

Beware the mushy mush from planet Fluff-E.

And why yes. This is vaguely related to Connect the Dots. Well, a few things might make more sense in anycase. And the title kinda builds off of it :P