Chapter Text
There is a look on Nami’s face.
There is a look on Nami’s face that Luffy does not like a single bit because his navigator has just come down from being on the comms with his papa and Dragon never called without a good reason, not if they had not agreed on calling before-hand.
There is a look on Nami’s face, something between fear and apprehension, a hesitation that is never there – should never be there – because Nami is his navigator, his brave almost sister that leads them through the weathers of the New World without batting an eyelash, that never steers them wrong, not once and now she looks again like before – when Arlong was still around, when she would curl into herself, hide who she truly is, her dreams simmering under the surface but caged, chained – and that won’t do.
“Tell me,” he asks, his haki wrapping around her tenderly, encouraging her to deliver whatever news papa had shared with her, because it must have been bad enough if she is shaken up, when not even fucking ‘Mingo or Kaido had been enough to rob Nami of her strength.
“Ace and Sabo were kidnapped from Dawn. Whitebeard took them. Dadan just called Dragon to tell him. He’s on his way to Dawn to pick her and Makino up, they want to have words. But he felt you needed to know it first.”
And oh. OH.
Now he understands, rage washing over his features in an instant, eyes going brown – red – brown, before settling down, Nika pushed back in his core – not now, not now, not when it’s not needed, not yet but soon -, his haki bursting with vengeance – mindful of the Sunny, of his nakama, but raging across the Ocean, far enough to make everyone who feels it fear. Sabo and Ace were supposed to be safe, hidden until they were old enough to sail, the Strawhats flag waved high above Dawn island, in Foosha, on Mount Corvo, his home, his family, his and Whitebeard had dared on his territory of all things?
“Set course,” he orders softly, hat pressed to cover his eyes, Zoro waking up from his sleep, hands already settled on Wado’s hilt, Sanji setting a cigarette alight as he exists the kitchen, the same fury in Luffy’s eyes mirrored in the gaze of the other two thirds of the Monster Trio. Because Ace and Sabo may be the younger brothers of their captain, but they are also theirs and everyone respects their decision to set sail at 17, Sabo to join Dragon and Ace to form his own crew, no one would dare disrespect their dreams no matter how much they would have loved to have them on board. Considering them honorary Strawhats is enough for them.
“Aye, Captain,” Nami says, her previous hesitation cast to the wind, Jinbei already at the helm.
***
Stopping on Dawn had been a mistake from the very beginning. You just don’t step on another Yonkou’s – or even other pirate crew’s claimed islands – without permission, not even if your supplies are low and you are in desperate need of booze – it should not be a crisis on this ship but somehow it is. Somedays Marco regrets not taking up Akagami’s offer at least they chaos would have been under a more reliable captain – mutiny talk, perhaps but Pops was getting in on his years and seemed to be caring less and less about them. But stopping on Mugiwara no Luffy’s first claimed island, the one that has his flag flown in not one, but two places, the island where the nobles of Goa were ignoring literal pirates claiming their island was a brand of insanity Marco never thought Pops would have in him.
Sure, it had started as a supply run. It ended up with Pops taking in two teens – feral and mad about being stolen, hissing and spitting, growling like animals almost, demanding to be taken back now – because he had liked their spirit.
Marco had had a bad feeling from the beginning about adopting - stealing - the kids. They were young for one, too young to be on the Seas, especially in the New World, 13 or 14 perhaps, - Ocean help him Haruta had been too young as well, 16 and a street rat, but Pops had decided and they almost lost their brother in the first scuffle they got into – and these kids were younger, still had the chubby fat of childhood. It was also clear they were handling themselves more than well – the treehouse was hideous, but sturdy well equipped with blankets and winter clothes, there were no signs of starvation on their bodies that Marco could see at a cursory first glance and above all, although they seemed to have been left to their own devices, the brothers looked loved. Clothes fit them although clearly well-worn, hand knitted garments were shoved in shabby trunks and shiny bits and baubles were strewn everywhere.
These were no children needing a guardian, no lost souls Pops could gather under his metaphorical wing and although no adults seemed to be around them it was clear they had family, one that dearly loved them if the empathetic "fuck you" they received when his captain had asked them to call him 'Pops' was any indication. A family that would surely miss them.
The problem was, Marco could have never in his wildest dreams imagined who that particular family was. Perhaps he should have put one and one together, because that was Luffy’s island. Luffy bragged about his brothers to his friends – never named them or where he hid them – and Marco was somehow considered a friend, something that still humbled him over.
Perhaps, in hindsight, he should have realized they fucked up monumentally. The furious wave of haki that hit them from hundreds of miles away should have been an indication. After all, there were just two individuals capable of such a feat and neither was in particularly good relationships with the Whitebeard Pirates. The youngest, in particular, seemed to have a bone to pick with Pops that would not be settled anytime soon.
And if anything, the blaze of haki was definitely not the already familiar one of Akagami no Shanks.
***
Izou had not agreed with Pops' decision of taking the two boys.
He was, perhaps the only one of his siblings, who knew exactly what Dawn was – Marco suspected of course, because Marco had also been on Wano, but Marco did not know the details, but Izou knew. He knew whose home it was, knew what precious treasures had been hidden there until they were old enough to set sail. He knew, because a boy of only 19 had liberated his country when Pops hadn't - wouldn't, when the then just a supernova making waves had taken a look at his starving brethren, at the homeland Oden had bled - died - for, that Pops had forsaken and had liberated it with a laugh, dragging his fellow supernovas in a war they had no reason to fight and even less chances to win. He knew because Luffy entrusted him with his most precious secret – with the location of his treasures.
When Monkey D. Luffy, Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kidd had dragged two Yonkos from their thrones, kicked them in the depth of the abyss and established a new rule in the New World, Pops had just scoffed saying they had become complacent, weak and deserved it - Pops had as well, Izou knew, Marco knew, they all knew, but they were trapped, chained by the bonds of family dragging them down harder than sea stone cuffs ever could. They loved Pops even when he made mistakes, loved him because he had saved them, given them a family, a home, but now his love was more of a shackle than a hug and sometimes Izou just yearned for before. When he could go to his father when he was nervous or afraid, when Pops would listen and offer advice, when he didn’t just scoff and call him weak for not figuring it out alone.
But instead Izou, wounded and barely alive, hiding his presence in Wano with a paper thin lie of being on a missions somewhere else, had wept in his sister's arms because Wano was free, Wano would thrive and a mere stripling of a boy had done what hardened, New World veterans hadn't been able to. Izou had broken in Marco’s arms because of course Marco had been with him every step of the way, his excuse even more atrocious than Izou’s and had broken anew when Luffy had looked him in the eye and asked him to join, simple as rain.
“Jinbei joined pretty guy. You could too, shishishi.”
He had declined them because he had a Captain and a family, sisters and brothers waiting for him, but oh he had yearned. Yearned to remain home with his sister and watch Momonosuke and Hiyori flourish, yearned to join a crew that allowed dreams to bloom instead of stifling them. And if there was now a bounty poster among his most precious belongings, a white haired savior laughing over a bounty of 3 billion berry, that was for him and Marco to know and Pops to never find out. They had left Wano, of course they had, but they had left a piece of their hearts with Mugiwara no Luffy.
So when Pops kidnaps the kids, when he locks them in a room and calls them his, when Izou realizes who they are – freckles and a glare that could kill you, blonde hair and dimpled cheeks, they’re so cute aren’t they Izou, the photo shoved in his face the only time the newly minted Yonkou had been drunk, before Trafalgar had dragged him away with a sigh - Izou doesn't need more than a moment to decide. Making the call to the Thousand Sunny is the easiest choice he had ever made. They know, of course they know, he had felt the burst of haki as well, but they need to know everything.
***
Thatch isn't an idiot.
Thatch knows taking the kids is a monumentally bad idea. But Thatch is also very much scared about going against Pops, about telling him how bad it is to have children so young on the ship - Haruta had almost died, gods save him Haruta had almost died and Haruta had been 16 and jaded, had wanted to be on the Moby, not like these kids who fought and struggled, who bit and clawed, who got hit by Teach who claimed it was self-defense just because they wanted to remain home, who watched each other’s backs like they were in enemy territory and perhaps they were - Thatch is afraid to lose the only family he had had for two decades now so he swallows the words, the discontent - the rage, how could Pops just lock them in a room, how, how, how, trap them, they are children who just want to go back home why doesn’t he understand - and tries to do his best by them.
Thatch feeds them in that Ocean forsaken room until they manage to break free, one of them picking the lock – probably the blonde one, Sabo, he seemed to have the patience his twin lacked -, finds them in the nook they hid, tells no one - not Marco, not Izou, not Haruta, but somehow they all know and understand and help - promises to try to get them off the ship at the first island they stop at but the problem is Pops does not stop. He demands they sail and sail and sail until his brothers and sisters are exhausted, until they need to restock urgently, their stocks too low to be safe. They need to feel land under their feet again or they will go mad.
It's then that Mugiwara no Luffy's furious haki reaches them, makes the Moby rattle, shake, crack and Thatch suddenly understands the fear in Izou's eyes, the apprehension in Marco's, the knowing darkness in Haruta’s. Because Pops had somehow stolen another Yonko’s treasures. A Yonko that was known to be fiercely protective of his own. Ennies Lobby at 17, Punk Hazard, Dressrosa and Wano at 19 and he hadn't stopped since.
***
The Sunny was catching up fast, the coup de burst enough to put them in close range to Whitebeard's fleet. Luffy had called his mamãe and papai, asked for their blessing because he did not need their support, had smiled at their proud smiles that showed on the den den when they said 'give him hell Anchor.'
Ace and Sabo might not belong to Shanks and Beck, Makino and Dadan – who were following Luffy with a fury, papa had called to tell he had gotten them, but they were also coming from the East Blue, the journey long, longer than Luffy who was just in reach - had long claimed them, but that does not mean his parents don't care. The control he had over his haki was getting tenuous as they got closer, frayed at the edges when his gaze locked on the Moby, his brothers’ Voices hidden - subdued - afraid and that could not stand. Not when he was more than capable to go toe to toe with Whitebeard, not when the old man's commanders were now his – some of them anyway - without the aging Yonkou even knowing, not when he dared take what was his.
Luffy had taken one Yonkou down for a lesser offence, had liberated a country for friends and a ball of rice, had placed smiles back on gaunt faces that had not held hope in decades. For his brothers, his treasures, who should be whatever they chose and never chained, never cage, freedom singing in their veins, Luffy would and could do worse. Nika was itching to take another, rattling in his bones, demanding freedom - but not yet not yet not until they are safe. Marco had sent word, distressed squeaks giving a location, his phoenix form flying as close as he dared to in order to not alert Whitebeard of his doings. Izou had risked calling them, the den den short and to the point, letting Luffy know his brothers had been hurt, hit, mistreated. Haruta and Thatch had protected the boys as well as they could – Luffy did not know them but Izou promised and Luffy trusted Izou.
The rest of that crew? Well Luffy would just have to see. But at the end of the day there would be one Yonkou short in the world either willingly or unwillingly. Perhaps Torao would like to take over; he'd do a better job anyway. His lover should have been Yonkou since he had helped take down Big Mom, but Luffy could not begrudge Tio Buggy being appointed – much.
The hysterical screeching his tio had done over den den when the papers had reached him had been hilarious. Nami had somehow recorded them and was now playing them on a loop whenever the crew had a down day.
Come to think about it, he should also give Buggy a head’s up about what transpired. His tio was fiercely protective of the younger brothers and would make Whitebeard’s life hell if Luffy left any piece of him still standing.