Where I Will Be
“Come on!” Luffy hollered as he dragged a giggling Atlantis by the tight grip he had on her wrist. Sabo followed close behind with a delighted grin, Ace followed close behind with a strangled shout as he shot forward as fast as he could.
“Wait!” Ace skidded to a halt in front of the running duo, only for Luffy to ram his body into Ace’s since he was unable to slow his momentum in time to stop. Ace grabbed a hold of Luffy on top of him to shake around while yelling in his face. “Where the hell are you going with this girl?!”
“Um,” Luffy tilted his head with a confused expression on his face as he rubbed his forehead, “To see Dadan?”
“Wha? Luffy why would you in your right mind ever go see that old hag?” Ace spluttered out as he grabbed Luffy’s head with his hands to shake him more while continuing to yell at him.
Behind them, Sabo nodded with a thoughtful expression, “Is that where we are going?”
“Who is Dadan?” Atlantis asked as she watched Ace continue to yell at Luffy, about something.
“She’s the old hag that takes care of us. Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?” Atlantis questioned as she moved her eyes from the fighting brothers to the blond who blushed from the newfound attention on him.
Sabo sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with a shrug, “Yeah, sometimes. It’s hard, I guess? To raise three boys.”
“Uh-huh.” Atlantis narrowed her eyes before moving to intervene between the two brothers in order to pull Luffy back up on his feet and she made sure to flash a charming smile to distract Ace before turning her attention back on Luffy. “I want to meet this Dadan person.”
“Come on!” Luffy once more grabbed ahold of Atlantis’ wrist and took off with a gleeful shout, dodging Ace’s attempts to grab ahold of Luffy’s arm.
As they began further up the trail, an older home began to come into view at the top of the view. A large woman was already staring down the trail towards the approaching with her arms crossed.
“What, and I mean what the hell are you gremlins doing?” Dadan tossed out the stub of her previous cigarette in order to light a second as she caught sight of Luffy dragging along a fourth child. “I’m not taking in anymore strays ya hear me?”
“That’s fine ma’am.” Atlantis shook her head from side to side as she met Dadan’s eyes. “I’m just checking up on Luffy. You can not label Garp as a sensible man, going off and leaving his grandson with some random mountain dwellers, no offense to any of you good folks.”
“It doesn’t sound like you mean no offense child.” Dadan blew the smoke from her cigarette in Atlantis’ direction in hopes to annoy or distract her only to sweat as the child keeps direct eye contact without blinking.
...Thank Davy Jones for her extended exposure to Smoker. ‘I guess you can pick up nifty skills from just living in the same house as the man, although I wish he would smoke outside - he’s drowning the walls.’
“Typically people only take offense if they know they’ve done something wrong.” Atlantis kept her eyes open, unblinking even as they began to burn before tacking on a polite, “Ma’am.”
Before the woman could bubble up and attack Atlantis for her words, Luffy got impatient waiting on her to finish talking. “Cocooooo. Let’s go! You met Dadan, now you gotta see the Treehouse! I wanna show you everything. We don't have time to stop right now.”
Luffy got behind Atlantis pushing her with his shoulder as Atlantis held eye contact before she sighed and started moving in the direction Luffy was pushing her. “Okay. Okay. Let's go.”
“Wait a minute Luffy!” Ace objected as he ran in front of them with a glare, crossing his arms in front of him. “Are you about to invite a girl into our hideout?”
“What girl?” Luffy curiously tilted his head in confusion turning Atlantis in a circle to look behind her. “I don’t see any girls around here. Ow.”
Atlantis pulled her fist back with a pout as she stared Luffy down, “I’m a girl and what exactly do you have against girls? Huh?”
Ace avoided eye contact as he looked around nervously with a blush rising on his face, “No ones allowed in our treehouse. Especially girls. It’s the rules, I don’t make them.”
“...Yes you do,” Sabo muttered as he finally joined the conversation.
“Regardless! Those are the rules!” Ace grunted as he raised his voice with a pout.
“Ace!” Luffy shouted in his face with a pout, crossing his arms.
“Luffy,” Atlantis called to Luffy with a smile. “It’s okay. I’ll be here tomorrow, too. I would never leave without saying goodbye first. First thing tomorrow morning I’ll be in the village. Come find me, okay?”
Atlantis brushed her hand through his hair before passing by the boys to walk back down the path, throwing her hand over her shoulder in a wave. “See you later, Sabo. Ace. Goodnight!”
"Goodnight Coco," Luffy yelled back with a smile before rushing to the treehouse. "Hurry up we gotta go to sleep so it can be tomorrow!"