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It had only been about a week since the Rocks disbanded, and Newgate couldn’t remember the last time he felt so free. There truly was something to be said about not having to watch your back every second of the day. As strong as the Rocks had been, they had also been exhausting. Now as he drifted through the sea on a boat that barely fit his gigantic stature, his smile was genuine for the first time in years. He could finally pursue his dream, could finally make a proper name for himself. And… maybe, just maybe, he could finally have a family.
It was a dream that had been laughed at since he’d first spoken it, and that had therefore promptly been pushed down until it practically disappeared. But now it was a possibility again and he was determined to make it a reality.
Newgate’s eyes narrowed as he spotted land, a bright grin spreading across his face at the sight. It looked like a nice enough island, it was decently large, and the dock was big, several other ships tied down and anchored around. It seemed like it was a decently popular trading spot. Before he had even reached the shore he could already hear the clamoring of haggling and vendors screaming their wares.
He docked a bit away, tying his ship up and dropping the anchor before stepping off onto the shore. He stretched out his arms and legs, feeling the satisfying crack of his back. Not because he was getting old, fuck off Roger.
It seemed like the market would be a good place to get supplies, so he grabbed the berris he’d saved up from the ship and made his way into the noise.
He was grateful for his size at times like these, allowing him to pretty easily part the seas of people. It seemed they were used to oddities as well, as the looks he got were few and far between, and vendors didn’t hesitate to call him over, no fear in their voices. The place was well stocked it seemed, plenty of food, weaponry and other supplies.
Newgate smiled politely when he walked up to a vendor selling dried meats who immediately began to ramble on about his top notch skills. He tuned him out, he could tell that the meat was decent and would preserve well, he didn’t need the man to brag for an hour about it. Next to him another vendor yelled excitedly to a quickly growing crowd, his voice carrying over the others.
“Exotics! Exotics! We got it all! You ma’am, what about this cat? Straight from the New World, it’s the deadliest hunter, no pests will get past this one!” The man beside them bragged. It was enough to turn Newgate’s head towards him, curiosity peaked. It wasn’t often that New World animals made it all the way into Paradise.
Unfortunately he was severely disappointed.
“That’s just a cat,” he deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at the man. The meat vendor snickered behind him at the scandalized expression the man gave him.
“No sir! Not at all! All my wares are genuine exotics!” Newgate couldn’t help but stare, clearly unimpressed, not believing a single word out of the man's mouth.
“Look, if you don’t believe me, recently I got a particularly interesting one! Special price sir just for you!” The man insisted with a grin, reaching behind him to pull out some sort of cage covered by a cloth. Most of the animals being sold seemed to be a bit dirty, but not horribly abused or anything, most happily sitting on leashes or in decently spacious cages, food and water at their disposal. This cage however seemed far too small for any sort of animals comfort. Newgate was immediately on edge. He had a bad feeling about this.
The cloth covering the small cage was removed with a dramatic tug, and Newgate’s bad feeling was immediately proven right.
Inside the cage, lay a small bird. It was a stunning bright blue, beautiful yellow highlights coating its little body. But more importantly, the bird was on fire. No, not on fire, it was fire.
It was a fucking phoenix. A very scared looking, very tiny phoenix.
He heard gasps around him, and distantly the vendor's booming voice bragging about having caught the “beast” on a neighboring island and how it had tried to fight back. But all Newgate could see was the shaking bird in the too small cage. Because the more he looked, the more the realization sunk into him. Because this wasn’t just a phoenix. No… no this was a child. This was a baby. He felt sick to his stomach.
Newgate didn’t even realize it had happened. One second he was staring, feeling like he was going to puke, and the next half of the vendors and buyers were passed out on the floor from a wave of conquerors he didn’t even realize he’d let loose. A child… a fucking child. In a cage.
Even in his blind rage, the little bird hadn’t been hit by his haki, only squawking when the cage fell from the man’s hand and its little body slammed into the floor with a shrill cry. Fuck.
“Hey… hey little one,” Newgate murmured, crouching down before the cage. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay?” He tried to make himself as small as possible, a hard thing considering his size. He went slow, large hands reaching out to the cage and quickly snapping it apart, metal bars clattering to the floor around the little phoenix.
Beady little bird eyes stared up at him, and he could have sworn he saw tears in them. The poor thing was still shaking, a tiny little puff ball of a creature, tucked into itself, its flaming feathers ruffled in the same way he’d seen other avians do when scared. He hated to admit that despite the horrible situation, it was rather adorable.
“I won’t hurt you. My name is Edward Newgate,” he introduced himself, keeping his usual booming voice as low as possible. “Would you be able to tell me your name?” The little bird stared at him, its eyes somehow narrowing, suspicion painted all across its face. Newgate didn’t blame it, its experience with adults clearly hadn’t been great.
“You can talk little one, I know you can,” the little eyes widened from their narrowed suspicion for a second before they went right back, little clawed feet stepping back, what could only be described as a glare firmly placed on its face. “You ate a Devil Fruit, isn’t that right? I’ve seen plenty of them, some rather similar to yours,” well not exactly similar but close enough, mythical zones weren’t exactly common but in the New World the uncommon was more than often the norm.
The little bird paused its retreat, and Newgate was glad to see that it was clearly listening to him. He wasn’t sure how old it was, from its size it had to be very young, but still, it was old enough to understand him, and he’d take that as a win.
“Y-You won’ hur’ me…?” The words were so quiet he almost didn’t hear it at all, and it immediately broke his heart into pieces. Its voice was rough, disuse clearly taking its toll on the little one. Newgate wanted to burn this place to the ground.
“No, I would never,” the last word dripped with haki, firm and fierce, a promise he would die before breaking.
It seemed that was enough, because in a burst of flames, suddenly there was no longer a little fiery bird before him, but a boy that couldn’t be older than four, naked as the day he was born and barely holding back tears. A little tuft of blond hair sat atop his head, unblemished skin an almost concerningly pale shade. While he seemed unharmed, he was far too skinny, Newgate could see every single one of his ribs, and when he hiccuped out a sad little sound he could swear he could see his fucking insides. He was so small.
“‘m Marco,” and just like that, he had a son.
. . .
Marco had been with him for only a couple of months but Newgate had already learned quite a bit. The kid was actually six, which broke his heart all over again because he was far too small for a six year old. He was shy and didn’t have full control of his powers, occasionally bursting into flames when scared, replacing himself with the little bird he’d first met. He had accidentally eaten his devil fruit a few years back due to hunger and had apparently been running since, chased by who he’d only described as “scary people” which didn’t help Newgate's need for revenge. He also seemed fully determined to give him a fucking heart attack. With the amount of times that the little thing had tried to jump off of the crows nest to try and fly and simply plummeted down Newgate was pretty sure he was going to go grey early.
Still, things were going pretty well, Marco had mostly warmed up to him, and he’d even gotten a couple smiles from the little one recently when he’d offered him some pineapple. He was determined to get more pineapple soon. Thankfully they were docking at an island now, so hopefully he could get the kid his favorite fruit. They probably also needed some more clothing, and maybe some book about avians? Clearly the boy wanted to fly, and even more clearly it was not going particularly well. He didn’t think any book would explain how to fly but well… it was worth a shot.
Newgate hadn’t even fully tied up their boat when a second, very, very familiar ship came into view. Well fuck him.
Marco spotted the giant thing soon after, it was hard not to, and very quickly Newgate had a child shaped anklet. Just great. The Roger Pirates weren’t bad people, and Roger himself was rather fun, but he really didn’t have it in him for a good fight right now, not when he had a scared, shaky kid clinging on to him.
“It’s alright Marco, we’re just going to go into town and then leave,” he really couldn’t bother dealing with the chaos that were the Roger Pirates today, so he turned his back on the Oro Jackson, letting his little one cling onto his leg as he carefully stepped forward.
He didn’t even make it two steps before his haki screamed at him.
“NEWGAATEEE!!” A familiar, far too enthusiastic voice screeched. Marco screeched at his leg, a sudden burst of blue flames signaling the panicked transformation of his new kid. Newgate was going to kill that stupid man.
“Roger, if you attack me right now I will sink your ship to the bottom of the ocean,” he growled, imbuing his voice with enough haki to make sure the man knew he was very much serious.
Thankfully, despite popular belief, his rival did know when to stop. So, instead of immediately launching ace his way, Roger landed firmly on the shore and sheathed his sword, his grin replaced by a curious look, much like a particularly intrigued puppy. Why exactly the gods had given this man as much power as they had was beyond him.
Marco trembled, his tiny claws dug into the sand, little noises of distress leaving him. Now that the threat was neutralized, Newgate wasted no time crouching down and carefully coaxing the little bird to perch on his finger, bringing him close to his chest, one giant hand hiding the little ball of feathery flames from sight.
“Holy shit is that a phoenix?” Roger, the man with the least tact on the Grand Line, exclaimed. Newgate wanted to punt him.
“This is a child, and his name is Marco,” Newgate shot back, glaring at the man who had enough of a conscience to at least look a bit guilty.
“Right, sorry, hi Marco,” the man waved, his grin right back. The bird didn’t move from his spot against his chest, but the little panicked chirps died down and that was probably as good as it was going to get for now.
“Roger, next time you launch yourself off the ship can you please not knock Spence over,” came a familiar voice from the Oro Jackson that had been steadily approaching since their conversation began. At least this one of the men was his favorite. Silvers Rayleigh was reasonable… mostly.
“Silvers,” he greeted, nodding up at the vice who nodded back and hopped down onto the shore to stand next to his husband who quickly took a step back at the glare that was shot his way, clearly fearing the scolding he was surely going to get. Good, he deserved it.
“Didn’t expect to see you here Newgate,” Rayleigh hummed, giving his captain one last look before seeming to let him go for the time being. His eyes however promised a proper beat down once they were alone. Newgate was a bit sad he couldn’t see it, but he also knew it would scare Marco, so he’d rather not.
“I did not exactly expect to see you either. What are you doing on this side of the Grand Line?” Newgate raised an eyebrow, last he’d heard the Roger Pirates were in the New World making a name for themselves. Then again he hadn’t really seen or heard of them much since the whole God Valley thing.
“Ah… we’re taking a little break it seems, gonna go around the Blues for a bit,” Roger shrugged, looking anywhere but at Newgate. For a feared pirate the man acted like an absolute child sometimes. He looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Rayleigh looked absolutely done with him, and Newgate had to sympathise, he didn’t know how the man did it.
His curiosity about the Roger Pirate’s apparent new secret was quickly erased when the little bundle in his arms shifted. A small burst of flames warmed his palm, and then a small child curled against his chest, big blue eyes curiously peeking over his protective hand. Marco quickly ducked back down, before risking another glance, and Newgate couldn’t keep the absolutely smitten look off of his face. His son was so cute. It seemed like Rayleigh and Roger couldn’t help but agree too, because despite the wide eyed surprise, they both seemed just as endeared as Newgate felt.
“Well, I hate to say this, but seems like we’ve got a hell of a similar situation going on,” Rayleigh said, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. Which was not exactly the response Newgate was expecting, because what? Similar situation?
“Hey cap! If you don’t get your ass up here and take the kid I think Scop’s gonna remove your head from your shoulders,” a sudden voice called from the now very much docked Oro Jackson.
What.
The kid?!
Which fucking insane moron gave a child to the Roger Pirates?!
“I’m going, I’m going!” Roger grimaced, but wasted no time jumping back onto the ship and hurrying off, much to Newgate's surprise. Since when did Roger ever listen to what other people said?
Newgate watched as the man disappeared onto the ship, staring for a moment in disbelief before he turned back to Rayleigh. The Dark King’s gaze was also on the ship, and it was softer than he’d ever seen. His silver eyes were practically sparkling with affection, a little, sweet smile on his face that made him look years younger. Well shit.
“So, are you going to explain?” He asked, because just saying that there was a kid that was apparently in their care was absolutely not enough context. Rayleigh chuckled lightly, turning to him with a tired sort of grin.
“Might as well just show you, I’m sure you and the kid could use a good meal anyways,” Rayleigh shrugged, gesturing towards the ship as an invitation. Newgate really didn’t see any point in refusing, and the man was right, they didn’t exactly have a proper kitchen on their ship, he was sure they’d both appreciate a warm meal. Still, it would be quite a bit of excitement, certainly more than his little bird had had since the market, which was not something he wished to be reminded of any time soon.
“Is that okay Marco? There are quite a few people, but they will not hurt you,” he kept his voice as quiet as he could get it, watching as the child seemed to consider it. If Marco said no, they wouldn’t go, even if the food would be useful and his curiosity over what child Roger had managed to kidnap was strong, if Marco didn’t want to, they would not be boarding the ship.
Thankfully, after a moment of pause, the little one nodded his assent, giving one last peek out over Newgate's hand before turning and fully clinging to his chest. The kid really was adorable.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” he gave Rayleigh a smile that was easily returned. Yep, definitely his favorite Roger Pirate.
Hopping onto the deck revealed just as much bustling chaos as he had expected. It could kind of be heard from the shore, but on the deck the clamor was ten times louder. People were everywhere, carrying empty and full crates around, yelling at each other to pass items and rope and supplies. All in all it was pretty average pirate ship behavior, and Newgate didn’t even give it a second glance, only offering the occasional nod to the men who waved his way. The child in his arms stayed firmly out of view, tucking himself against Newgate's chest to hide.
“Leighhh,” a voice whined, before a mass of messy black hair and ridiculous glasses burst through the crowd and right into Rayleigh.
Scopper Gaban practically draped himself over the poor blond, dropping his considerable weight on the significantly smaller man with a whine that he’d expect from the six year old Marco more than the grown ass man before him. He really, really didn’t know how Rayleigh did it.
“Leigh I’m so tired, please, can we go to bed? My sweet, my love, light of my life, please let me go to bed. I need a nap like n— oh hi Newgate —ow please I’m desperate, come cuddle me,” the man complained, voice muffling at the end when he buried his face against Rayleigh’s shoulder, shamelessly hanging off of him as if he weren’t about to topple the poor man over.
“Gaban I swear it was one night and it’s not like Roger and I got much sleep either,” the poor first mate huffed, and Newgate couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow once more. He knew that the three had quite an active “night life” so to speak, but surely not even they could exhaust themselves like that.
It seemed Rayleigh caught onto his expression, because from one moment to another he was beet red, his face burning. “Not like that Newgate fuck off,” the man hissed under his breath, much to his amusement.
Unfortunately, it was then that someone dropped a hammer, a loud crash sounding across the deck as it hit a toolbox, scattering tools everywhere with the screech of metal on metal that made even Newgate wince. And of course, poor little Marco, already on edge from the noise, immediately burst into blue flames with a screech. For the second time in the last half hour, Newgate was left with a little ball of shaking fiery feathers instead of a child in his arms.
“Oh! Well what do we have here?” Gaban’s attention immediately turned to the little blue glow behind Newgate's hand, untangling himself from Rayleigh with ease to come closer.
“He’s not used to so much noise,” Newgate made sure his voice carried across the deck, a subtle threat to his words. Please shut the fuck up and stop scaring his child.
“Ah, right, it’s pretty overwhelming at first, huh?” Gaban’s smile was kind as he began to walk over. To Newgate’s surprise the man grabbed at his glasses, taking the familiar shades off and tucking them into his shirt. Soft copper eyes crinkled at the corners, and before he knew it, the man was glancing down into the cradle of his hands where the little one sat, trembling ever so slightly.
“Hello little bird,” Gaban’s voice was soft, kind in a way that he’d never heard before. Surprisingly, it seemed like this wasn’t his first experience with children. He’d never really expected it from the man, Gaban was just as much of a menace as Roger was on most occasions. He hadn’t exactly talked to the man much, but with his wild hair and pair of axes he made an imposing image. Right now though, he was anything but imposing, with a gentle smile and warm eyes.
“‘m a phoenix… not a bird,” Marco’s petulant little voice came from the little ball of feathers. Newgate had to resist the urge to laugh. The child had been very insistent that he was not a bird since the moment he’d felt safe enough to talk back, and it never failed to amuse him.
“Oh! Right, my apologies little phoenix,” Gaban easily corrected, the smile never leaving his face. “I’m Gaban, I have a feeling the others didn’t exactly introduce themselves did they?” At the bird's little head shake Gaban let out an overly dramatic sigh. “How rude of them! Well, the loud one you saw earlier is our captain, his name is Roger, and the one back there is our vice, Rayleigh, he’s my favorite. Pretty, isn’t he?” Gaban winked while behind him Rayleigh’s face all but burst into flames, blushing so red that Newgate was afraid he was going to start actually burning up.
“Can you please not use my son to flirt with your husband,” he sighed, earning a laugh from the man. It was so loud it almost drowned out the little giggle that came from his hands. Almost. But Newgate heard it, the littlest of laughs from the tiny bird cradled in his palm. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. Okay, he took it back, Gaban was officially his favorite Roger Pirate and could use his son to flirt as much as he wanted to. As long as he laughed like that again.
Gaban seemed to have heard the laugh too, his own eyes seeming to light up, grin widening. Newgate couldn’t help but grin right back, sure that his own eyes were just as bright as the copper ones before him.
“Weren’t you tired or something?” Rayleigh huffed, arms crossed and face hilariously flushed.
“Well not anymore! We got a little phoenix to entertain!” Gaban exclaimed, clearly excited to see the little one, a sentiment that Newgate appreciated, especially when Marco became a little burst of flames once more and was soon replaced with the little one he’d become so endeared with. A smile was on the child's face, and while he was still clinging onto Newgate's hand, he was no longer hiding, instead looking up at Gaban with big curious eyes.
“GABAN! HELP!” Screeched a familiar voice from the insides of the ship, followed quickly by heavy footsteps and the slamming of the door.
The moment the door was open, a wail tore through the deck of the Oro Jackson, and several men flinched, a couple even running off as if they’d dropped a bomb. The bomb in question was Roger holding a little, screaming, flailing bundle in his arms. A baby.
“No, Roger, it’s your turn, you figure it out!” Gaban hissed, scrambling back to practically hide behind Newgate, the eyes that had been so soft and endeared now wide with what could only be described as fear.
Well, now Newgate knew what had been keeping them all up.
Roger looked positively desperate as he hurried over, the baby in his arms fussing endlessly, its little face scrunched up, tears staining the poor things little chubby cheeks. Marco, nestled in his hand, gave a hilariously disgruntled look at the sight of the baby, as if it had personally offended him.
“Fuck Gaban please! He only calms down when you’re with him! Why does he hate me?!” Roger all but sobbed, holding the fussing baby out with a wail that almost matched the little ones. The greatest pirate crew around, defeated by an infant. If only the navy could see them now.
The baby flailed, hiccuping out another loud screech that had Marco and several crew members covering their ears. The kid had a good set of lungs on him that was for sure. He also clearly had no qualms in using them to torment his new parents.
Marco’s little eyes narrowed down at the small thing, borderline glaring at him, clearly displeased by the noise. Another loud screech had the poor boy wincing, blue flames instinctively appearing around his ears as if to try and protect them from the noise. Newgate didn’t know if they worked like that but well, he didn’t really know how anything of a phoenix worked so who was he to say.
As the blue flames fluttered and faded, to the shock of everyone, the baby went abruptly quiet. Big brown eyes, wet with tears, blinked open, staring directly at Marco, who stared right back.
“Oh thank the gods,” Roger whispered, and Newgate couldn’t help but laugh.
“So, I’m assuming this is the reason you’re going to the Blues?” He hummed, raising an eyebrow at the three men. The baby couldn’t even be a year old, eight months at best. It made perfect sense for them to go to the Blues when they had someone so young with them.
“This is Shanks, Roger found him in a treasure chest after God Valley,” Rayleigh responded with a sigh, which was not what Newgate was expecting. A baby? In a chest? In God Valley? He cursed under his breath, and if the dark looks from the rest of the crew were any indication, they all shared the sentiment. Who the fuck left a baby like that? He wasn’t at all surprised that Roger and his bleeding heart had claimed the kid. He wasn’t one to judge anyways, he wasn’t a hypocrite.
A happy giggle left the baby, completely at odds with the screeching that he’d just been doing. Chubby little hands reached out towards a rather confused Marco. Apparently just the simple act of showing his flames had been enough for little Shanks to become attached. Adorable. And it gave Newgate an idea.
“Hey Marco, you want to meet Shanks? He’s a bit little now, but when he grows up I’m sure he would play with you,” Newgate smiled, he had a feeling it could work, it wasn’t as if he and Roger wouldn’t see each other again, and while the two kids did have a bit of an age gap, it wasn’t too large that they wouldn’t be able to get along. It seemed like Roger agreed, if the bright grin and enthusiastic nodding was anything to go by. Or maybe he was just looking for any excuse to stop the baby from crying.
“Okay… I guess,” Marco finally said, after a bit of hesitation. It was good, the kid could use some socializing.
Newgate carefully set his charge down, letting the little one hold his pant leg, seemingly not wanting to go far. Thankfully Roger didn’t seem to mind, simply plopping himself down in front of them, baby cradled in his arms.
“Look Shanks! You got yourself a friend!” Roger cooed, his grin only widening when the baby giggled. His big brown eyes had never left Marco, and when Shanks was carefully set down, he immediately began to crawl towards him, little arms and knees carrying him with surprising speed up to the six year old.
Shanks’ little hands reached Marco in no time, clutching at the boy's pant legs with a big gummy grin. Unfortunately, Marco didn’t seem all that amused, looking down at the happy baby with distrust that was somehow both hilarious and heart breaking.
Slowly, Marco let go of Newgate, and plopped himself down on the floor in front of the baby. His blue eyes seemed to inspect the tiny one. Shanks stared right back. There was silence as the two kids seemed to size each other up, and all parents practically held their collective breaths.
“We’re friends?” Marco said after a moment, his voice small, unsure, and Newgate had the realization that Marco had never really had a friend before. He wanted to cry.
“If you want to be, it seems like Shanks likes you too,” Newgate said, pushing down his grief and instead crouching down to place a comforting hand on the tuft of blond hair atop Marco’s head. He watched as the child seemed to consider his words, before a little smile spread across his face, soon matched by a happy squeal from Shanks.
Before long Marco had a baby in his lap and a plate of food before him. Newgate sat nearby, watching as the kid, his son, reached over to grab a piece of meat and laughed when Shanks went to grab it, holding it out of the baby's reach with a grin. The little one pouted, reaching out, and Marco only laughed harder. He was happy. Fuck his son was happy. Newgate couldn’t be more proud.
Around them, the ship was bustling with activity, people yelling and bouncing around, drinks flowing and food passed around. Roger sat before him, Rayleigh sipping at a beer by his side and Gaban sprawled out on top of them, somehow fast asleep despite the noise, snoring softly. That poor man must have been exhausted. Newgate himself had a bottle of some good sake, listening to the sounds of chaos, no longer familiar now that it was just him and the kid. One day he would have this noise though. He would have the screams and laughs and the flowing drinks. He’d have a family, sons surrounding him, playing free.
Marco shoved the piece of meat into his mouth triumphantly, and Shanks pouted up at him, causing the boy to giggle. Despite the noise, Marco seemed at ease, happy teasing the baby in his lap. Newgate could already see it, his little one would be a great big brother one day. He couldn’t wait.
For now though, he was happy for it to be them. He was happy to watch Marco grin and play, already having grown so much since he first found him as a scared little bird in a cage.
Marco would never be in a cage again. Marco would be free, he would be happy, and he would be surrounded by family. He would make sure of it.
Newgate couldn’t wait.