[Drabble] Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
Title: Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Theme: # 13 Sacrifice - Set 3
Claim: Ace
Words: 502
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: Canon Death
Disclaimers: One Piece does not belong to me. Yet. *works on evil Master plan to take over the world*
The boy wouldn't stop crying. Garp supposed that it was the thing newborn babies did, but there was still an uneasy feeling that the boy knew too much already. He had only been in this world for a couple of hours, but the whole world was against him, and the only one that could protect him from it was dead. Portgas D. Rouge was dead.
Rouge being dead was a disaster, and the whole plan had failed. She and the Pirate King's child would hide on a island somewhere far away. It would acquire help from Garp himself, but only help and not full blown responsibility. It seemed as if that was changing soon.
Roger's words still echoed in his mind as the bearded man accepted the snotting brat into his arms from the nurse. He still cried like a.... baby. Garp sighed. He was for sure never going to be used to this, how ever nice the ring of 'gramps' had in his ears.
He rested the small body against his shoulders, trying to comfort him. Garp was glad that the little boy's head was turned in the opposite direction as the old man looked at the sheet-covered body finally resting after a long struggle.
Hushing the baby, his hand petted the small head. He could feel how vulnerable the little body was. He himself was exceptionally strong, but you wouldn't need to have any real muscle strength to hurt the little fellow. That was one of the other things that Rouge should have done; protect her son.
Garp shook his head at the thought. He had watched Rouge for hours, struggling for two lives, but in the end it had come down to the time where only one could be spared. Yet she had kept going, knowing what it meant. And then for a short time, shorter than it ought to be, bot mother and son had been able to hug each other, both for the first and for the last time.
The baby had ceased to cry for the moment, and Garp used the temporary silence to say his final goodbyes to Rouge. He didn't know yet if the decision to sacrifice herself for her son was the best, but he couldn't stand losing the both of them.
He took a firm grip under the armpits of the boy and held him up in front of his face. Two dark eyes, directly inherited from his father, looked back at him, and a very tiny lower lip pouted. A smile cracked up Garp's face. There was so much of both his mother and the brat's detested father in this little character. He wasn't really sure how this devil would turn out, but hell, maybe it was worth sacrificing a bit of himself for the boy, just as the rest of his family had done.
He remembered Rouge's final words;“If it's a boy; Ace.”
“Well, ain't you gonna be a pain in the ass, Ace.”, he muttered through his smile.