The Yonko's Kids

A/N: I'm going through a weird writing phase where I'm half working on this, half working on another ongoing OP story that I haven't posted yet because I keep changing the beginning, and really not frequently updating either. I'm honestly more of a person that sits down, writes three or four chapters, then doesn't touch the story for like six months. I'm trying to be better about that, but between that and my junior year of high school starting soon, I can't promise frequent updates. Plus I literally started writing this at like 3 am because one of my friends on discord started talking suicide again, and I really needed something fluffy and angsty that I could channel my "Mom-Friend" into. So, Enjoy?

Summary: During his last visit to Foosha, Shanks thought everything was fine. Luffy was just some goofball kid that he really liked, and whom Makino sometimes kept an eye on. He and his crew were expecting to come back and find roughly the same thing-a goofball kid and some good drinks. What they did not at all anticipate, was three beaten-all-to-hell kids getting treatment from Makino, and saying that their grandpa did it. The trio's tales of caretakers who barely feed or clothe them-and apparently treat Ace like a plague demon, which is a big no-no in his book-, hunting tigers, and almost getting eaten by crocodiles makes him immediately want to scoop the three of them up and take them away from here. He resists because Benn was right last time they talked about this, and the Grand Line is really no place for kids.

Then Sabo talks about his biological father wanting to kill Luffy and Ace in attempts to bring him "home" and, well. Benn really can't blame him for acting on it, especially since he looked about two seconds from doing the same.

Chapter One

Shanks Pov:

Foosha village is the same as it always seemed to be when the Red Haired pirates arrived. Calm, quiet, and full of good booze at Makino's bar. Probably with a certain rubbery child ready to bombard them with questions and shows of "strength".

"Ah, it's good to be back here!" I exclaimed, causing several of my men to chuckle.

I really did enjoy our time here, it was easily my favorite island in the East Blue. Unfortunately, we didn't get to dock here too often-or anywhere outside of the New World really. It made the marines too antsy, and antsy marines made for a pissy Sengoku. Pissy Sengoku liked to sic Admirals on him more than usual. He really didn't like Pissy Sengoku.

"Hey, cap. Is it just me, or does something feel a little off to you today?" Yasopp muttered close by, just within earshot of me and Ben.

Except, it seems, today was not a "usual" day in Foosha. Yasopp wasn't the only one who noticed-everyone in the crew immediately noted the change in atmosphere in their favorite pub town. Normally peaceful quiet had turned into a tense kind of silence. Like an instant before a storm hit in the New World, turning the air into tense static just before a downpour. In the East Blue, that kind of tenseness in the air only served to unnerve us all.

The walk into, and through town was quiet as well, no one came out of their houses-not even the mayor, who normally liked to yell at him.

"Damn, what's with this place?" Lucky Roo muttered, glancing at the house that the normally boisterous mayor lived in.

It was weird. It was really weird, and it made him uneasy.

The bar was quiet when they arrived too-though that wouldn't be too strange, considering that it was probably ten o'clock in the morning, and most people in town wouldn't start drinking this early.

Except, the door was open, but it seemed Makino wasn't there.

"Maybe we should come back later?" Maverick mused. "She might not be open yet."

The bar's back room opened, and revealed Makino, carrying several towels, and a first aid kit.

"Makino! Is everything all right?" I asked, worrying that some small time idiot might have started something around here while I was gone.

The barmaid turned around in surprise. "Shanks! No, well, yes. Eh…" She trailed off, looking somewhat frazzled.

Kincaid stepped forward kindly. "If someone is injured I might be able to help."

Makino looked somewhat relieved. "That...that would be wonderful actually, thank you. The boys are in the back room-I imagine Luffy will want to see you Shanks."

"Luffy was hurt?" I asked sharply.

She grimaced, "His brothers too. They'll live, I think, but they were all a bloody mess when they came in."

I gave a worried glance over to Benn, who pursed his lips and nodded.

"Yasopp, you're in charge for a bit. Hang tight out here. We're gonna go see the kids." I called over my shoulder, following the green haired woman and our doctor to an upstairs room, Benn following right behind me.

At the top of the stairs was a little wooden door, which looked mostly unused-particularly with the layer of dust around the opening. Makino hurriedly pushed it open, still balancing the blankets and towels in one hand, with the red bag hanging from her arm.

"Hey boys, I'm back, and look who else showed up!" She exclaimed, seeming a little more cheery than strictly necessary about our visit.

"Shanks…" a tiny, very hoarse voice croaked out.

No. No. Nope, nononono. Someone did not hurt anchor so badly that he can't yell and scream and bounce around like a tiny, rubbery lunatic. No.

They better fucking not have.

When the barmaid and doc had moved aside enough for me to see, my heart fell into my stomach. Luffy and two other boys were laying in cots lined up in the frankly too-small room. Luffy had bruises covering the entirety of his face, and arms, and legs, and-everywhere. Every part of him seemed to be turning some shade of ugly purple, blue, or greenish-yellow. He had small cuts all over his body too-ranging from paper cuts to something that looked a bit more like claw marks, and there was definitely a bit of tree bark stuck in some of those too. He looked exhausted, and his throat was hastily wrapped in bandages too, under which I could see some heavy bruising, and a bit of blood.

The other boys didn't look much better-hell, they looked worse. The other dark haired kid had a very broken arm, and just as many bruises as Luffy, and probably twice the cuts. There was a half-dressed wound on his forehead that looked worrying too-very bloody, and probably enough to cause a nasty concussion.

The blond boy was in the middle of the three cots. One ankle was either badly sprained or broken-it was hard to tell from the swelling. Small cuts ranged all over his body, and there was a swath of burns across his chest, shoulder, and face that looked bad.

The guys had always teased me about being a "papa bear" when it comes to kids-luffy in particular I had always been quite fond of. Benn, being my partner, also knew of my more domestic side that wished that our lives weren't so dangerous that we couldn't have kids around. So, having to shove down the protective urge to find the fucker that hurt these brats and make them hurt was really nothing unexpected to me. However, that didn't mean that it was easy. Benn shot me a look out of the corner of his eye that clearly read 'don't, idiot. You know we can't take them with us.'

The blond kid's whimper of pain made that part of me that listened to him waver just a bit.

"Hey, anchor. What happened to you? Looks like you boys saw some action recently huh?" I smiled at him, trying to mask my worry. No need to freak the kid out any further with my protective stress.

He coughed weakly, something rattling a bit in his lungs as he did so, and catching doc's attention with a frown. "Gramps was training us."

I stilled, absently forcing the smile on my face to remain easy. "Gramps?" I knew that Benn heard the slight steel in my tone, and Doc too, with the way they both stiffened. My anger is not easy to rile up-I'm known as a very easy-going guy for a reason.

Kids are my weakness. Kids hurt, kids sick, kids scared, I've dealt with them all over the years. It thankfully wasn't something that was well-known about me-god forbid if my enemies tried to use it against me-, but one of the few sure-fire ways to piss me off rapidly was to hurt a child.

Somebody just made my shit list. And apparently, that somebody is called "Gramps."

Luffy nodded, "Survival training. He wants us to be marines, so he beats us up to make us stronger."

Tick. There goes one shard of my restraint.

"Then he left us in the really confusing part of the forest and told us not to die-he even took our pipes! That's the part where the kings of the forest live! He said he's come get us in a couple of weeks."

Tick.

"But then he said we needed more training so he beat us up again and told us to get back to the mountain or something from there. 'Cause learning your surroundings is important or something. I didn't get it. And Ace's arm was hurting real bad, and Sabo couldn't walk right, and Dadan probably wouldn't give us bandages anyway unless we said we'd become bandits to pay for them, so we were gonna go to Makino instead."

Tick.

"We don't wanna be bandits. We don't wanna be marines either, but Gramps won't listen! Then this stupid guy came down from High Town and said that Sabo's shitty dad wants him back for some reason, but Sabo doesn't want to go!"

Tick.

"Then he was gonna steal our treasure that we stole to pay for our boat to leave, and he tried to beat me up to make me tell him."

Tick Tick.

"But I wouldn't tell him and he got mad, then Ace and Sabo showed up and beat him up and got our treasure back. But they got hurt real bad. Then Sabo was gonna leave the island 'cause if he left then his shitty dad would leave me an' Ace alone."

Tick Tick.

"But we wouldn't let him leave alone, so we snuck on his boat and made him let us stay with him-he can't hurt any of us if we aren't there. So he said fine and we got in the boat. But then this really big ship with lots of fancy things on it showed up. They were assholes, and fired at our boat even though we didn't do anything! We were a long way away too! Sabo called them "Star Dragons" and said that they were here 'cause of his dad. The boat blew up and Sabo got hurt 'cause the fire was real close to him. Then Ace had to swim us both back to shore 'cause I can't and Sabo was unconscious. Then he brought us to Makino and she kicked everyone out so she could fix us."

Tick.

"And she says we'll be better soon, but Gramps will come back in a few weeks an' Ace and Sabo won't be all better by then, and he's gonna train us again. I don't wanna get beat up again if they are still hurt bad."

Snap. Oh look, there goes the last of my restraint.

I took in the tired, and slowly becoming frantic stream of words until the tiny boy finished rambling with large, scared eyes that watched his unconscious brothers. Distantly, I was aware of Benn trying to get my attention, probably realizing that I had been set off.

One, someone hurt the kid I like, and maybe sort-of-see-as-a-son-that-I-won't-ever-have, and the two boys who are apparently his brothers. Two, one of the people who did that was their grandfather. The other was on orders from "Sabo"'s father to harm or kill the other two to force the child to comply. Three, they tried to escape the island that was supposed to be their peaceful home in order to avoid both Sabo's father and their Gramps out of fear of death and further pain. Four, they were thwarted from their escape by a Celestial Motherfucking Dragon that blew up their tiny goddamn boat with only three kids and probably no supply's on it.

And now Luffy, tiny, normally brazen to the point of stupidity Luffy, was looking at me with eyes that reflected fear. Fear of this bastard Sabo calls a father, and fear of this "Gramps." I can hear the blond kid-Sabo probably, going by the ankle, making tiny, heart-wrenching sounds of pain while Doc and Makino cleaned the burn that covered so much of his body, and Ace is uncomfortably still, only the slight rise and fall of his chest assuring me that the kid is actually relatively alright.

No. No. No. Fuck this. I did not become a motherfucking yonko of the Grand Line so that I would turn my back on a couple of terrified and injured children. I'm the captain of one of the four recognized "strongest" crews on the seas. I go toe-to-toe with Whitebeard for fun. I can protect a couple of kids on my ship. Benn can deal. He wants kids too anyway, he's just more rational than I am. Besides, it wouldn't kill us to spend a little more time in paradise over the next couple of years. Sure it might piss Sengoku off, but I can handle a few Admirals when he throws them at me.

The kids are coming with us.

"Shanks." Benn is trying to use his reasonable-boyfriend-that-knows-what-I'm-thinking-and-thinks-its-a-bad-idea voice on me. It would work a lot better if I didn't know that he was barely keeping himself from wrapping Luffy in a massive hug and already plotting how to kill the bastards that did this.

I gave him a look.

He faltered for a moment, trying to retain some sort of stubborn-and very logical-reasoning as to why it was a bad idea for us to adopt a couple of kids. I didn't waver, and set my jaw for good measure.

He sighed, and slumped his shoulders. "You need to ask them first."

I turned to Luffy, who looked very confused by the whole exchange, and I could see Doc out of the corner of my eye giving Benn a look of 'What the fuck is that idiot doing now?'. "Luffy, this is kind of a strange question, but if I gave you boys the option, would you still want to leave Dawn Island?"

He looked at me with very wide eyes for a minute, and answered very quietly. "Yeah."

I nodded, now for the real question, "We will be done restocking in a few days, that will give you boys some time to recover. If you still want to leave at the end of those few days, we can pack your things onto the ship and have you far, far away from here in only a few days time. Long before your "Gramps" gets back."

He gapped at me with so-wide eyes that were just filled with hope and oh god I just wanted to smother these kids in love that they so obviously hadn't gotten enough of.

He seemed all ready to say yes, but hesitated when he looked at his brothers. "I wanna go...but I gotta ask Ace first. If Ace says ok then Sabo will be ok with it too. We listen to him 'cause he's the oldest. We can't go if Ace says no."

I groaned internally. Of all the times for anchor to listen to an authority figure, it has to be when said authority figure is his probably-younger-then-twelve-year-old brother who is unconscious and very likely concussed. Great.

I pursed my lips, ok, this is playing kinda dirty, but it's for their own good...plus if that "Gramp's" comes back early that could be problematic. Luffy isn't known for being good with timelines. His "a couple weeks" could actually be in just a few days, so the sooner we got going the better. I'm sure we could handle it, but i'd rather not get the village or the kids involved in a marines versus yonko showdown in the East Blue, and from the sounds of it "Gramps" was a pretty high ranking marine. Now that I was thinking about it, I probably knew who he was too…

That just pissed me off more. Nope. Pirate. I can play dirty if I want.

"Doc, how soon do you think Ace is going to wake up?" I ask, giving him a sort of pointed look in the general direction of the dark haired boy.

The heavyset man pursed his lips and glanced between me, Luffy, and the other boy. "It's hard to tell, head wounds are tricky. Probably in about a day or two? Maybe sooner, maybe later."

Well shit, that was actually reasonable. Damn.

"But, he is likely to be quite inebriated with the painkillers I'm going to give him. So he won't be of decision-making mind for a good few days after that at least. I'd put him as being mostly conversational and probably remembering it in about a week or so." He finished, turning back to the other child and finishing the salve application on the burn.

Now that I could work with.

I turned back to Luffy, who was biting his lips in agitation. Shit ok now I feel really bad about this. "Luffy, how do you think that Ace would react to my question?"

He looked at me and croaked quietly, "Suspicious. He doesn't trust strangers. But I told him about you before and he knows that you saved me from the bandits last year so he might be ok."

Well shit. The kid is paranoid. Sounds about right with how they were raised.

"But he really wants to get us off the island. And I trust you, and Ace usually thinks my people-judgment is ok…"Luffy wavered for a bit, croaking indecisively. "I think he'd be kinda mad at me if I just said "ok", but….he'd probably be ok with it later. Sabo would like you anyway. Or at least Benn. So he'd probably help convince Ace if I asked him to….So, I think it would be ok."

Bingo. I can feel Benn's disapproving stare boring into the back of my skull. I'm gonna ignore it and deal with that later. Preferably after the kids are safely patched up and getting settled on the ship.

"Ok, how about this, when you feel a bit better in a day or two, you can lead us to where your stuff is. We'll take your stuff back to the ship and get it ready to leave as if you boys are gonna sail with us. If Ace is conscious, and Doc says he's not too drugged up to think clearly, and he says no, we'll take your stuff off the ship and put it back. If he isn't awake enough, or he says yes, then we keep it there and bring you three with us when we set sail next Friday. That sound fair?" It wasn't. It really wasn't, because I know that Doc and Benn both caught on to my subtle request to keep the kid slightly medicated enough to where there was no way he would be awake enough to make those decisions himself until we were safely out to sea and I could simply refuse to turn around if he flipped.

At the very least, I could drop these kids off on another quiet, safe island. Maybe Syrup. Give Yasopp an excuse to visit his kid. Or I could try to convince both the kids and Benn that we could handle being caregivers and parents to them. Either way, they will be safer there than they are here.

Luffy thinks it over, but nods slowly, not at all catching on to my little ruse. "Ok."

Benn sighs, "I'll go tell the crew to make preparations."

Makino stops him before he gets to the stairs. "If you do take the boys with you, a quick word of warning: Luffy can and will eat more than Lucky Roo in a sitting, and Ace is almost as bad. Sabo eats about like a normal child who burns a lot of calories should, so you don't need to worry about that, but the other two will need accommodation in that respect."

Benn nodded and turned to me, "I'll tell Lucky Roo and Maverick to make a separate allotment for that. Thanks for the heads up."

Oh boy. I am going to catch hell for that tonight when I get back to the ship. At least Benn is mostly supporting my protective streak.