Chapter Text
Makino knows that children babble, it's what they do as they learn new words and how language works. Growing up in a small village meant that even if she didn’t have children yet she had helped care for others.
Then came Garp and a small child with a bright and wild smile that babbled to everyone and everything that would listen.
She struggled to adapt to this small bright thing and sometimes even Garp was left confused and speechless, but he had to leave wishing Makino luck as he sailed away from the docks.
It was a week later that pieces started to come together.
Monkey D. Luffy was mixing languages. His sentences came out as a garbled mix of Goan, Eastern Standard and maybe a trade language. Makino knows enough of the local trade language to get by in her bar, but the fishermen and dockworkers know more. she takes Luffy by the hand and marches down there for answers
Kai, one of the older fisherman, let out a short bark of laughter, “That’s not just any trade language you find that out closer to the Line. Most marines speak it and it’s pretty common ‘round Loguetown. But it’s not what we typically speak here.”
Makino briefly tightened her hand around Luffy’s, set her shoulders and sighed. He needed to be able to communicate with people, and while it’s great that he could talk, understanding was of more importance.
“An exchange. I bring lunch a few times a week. You help teach us both the trade languages.” She looked the older man in the eyes and then cast a wider glance at the other workers that had stopped during the conversation.
“I think that’s a perfectly fine arrangement, Miss Makino.” Kai replied.
Thus began the language lessons, and slowly but surely Luffy’s babbling became more understandable and Makino was able to hold more conversations with those visiting the bar. Which in turn made it more popular, keeping her busy and less able to watch Luffy as closely as she should.
He liked to wonder and more often than not he could be found down by the dock listening to the stories the men brought in and passively learning more and more the language.
When Garp came to visit almost a year and half later to give Luffy some more “training to be a damn fine marine”, he was pleasantly surprised to see the brat was as fluent as a child could be in both the more local and Line inspired trade languages.
When the pair returned from wherever Garp had taken them, Luffy had acquired yet another language, or at least something coming up to that standard.
“Gramps says some people can’t hear like me. And sometimes the boat is too loud to hear.” Luffy says when Makino finally asks him about the hand gestures and facial expressions he had been clumsily practicing in the mirror behind the bar. “He says we can use our hands instead-and it seems kind of like a secret.”
With that declaration, Makino found herself once again walking down to the dock Luffy in tow to look for someone who knew at least a little bit of this new language he’d picked up with his grandfather.
Kai pointed them towards a middle aged man down the docks closer to the market. “Bridger was a marine before he fully lost his hearing, he’ll know.”
Makino once again found herself straightening her spine as she walked over to Bridger, tapping on his shoulder to get this attention. She brought out her small notepad and stylus and held up the message:
-do you know the marine hand language?
“Yeah, why do you want to know?” Bridger answered his voice carrying down the small docks, causing a few of the merchants to look in their direction.
-Garp was teaching Luffy-he wants to learn more. Can you?
Bridger looked at the note then down at Luffy who had grabbed on Makino’s skirt and was watching the two of them. He smirked and nodded.
“I can teach him more than that.” Bridger said and looked over his shoulder to a younger woman behind a stall. He waved at her trying to catch her attention. When she looked up he made several gestures at her, that looked similar but also very different from what Luffy had been doing. After a couple minutes of the two going back and forth, Bridger looked back at Makino and Luffy.
“That’s Mary.” He explained, pointing to the woman, “I can teach you what the marines and the common signs in the Line, but she can teach you what we use here. Miss, you’re welcome to learn too. Least that way you can make sure the little one isn’t rude.”
Makino looked at Bridger and then Mary.
-how do I say ‘thank you’?
Bridger smiled and put his right hand up, fingers resting on his chin, then brought them away pausing part way down.
Makino mimicked the action first to Bridger and then Mary. She then knelt down next to Luffy and helped him make the same motion. Manners, She thought, matter no matter the language.
So once again, Makino found herself learning alongside her small charge, with a lot more difficulty than him it seemed. But she smiled and laughed along with him, Kai, Bridger and Mary.
By the time Luffy turned six he was able to have at least brief conversations in both of the signed languages, and didn’t mix his spoken ones as much anymore.
Which ended up working in everyone’s favor the day the pirates docked at Foosha’s port.