1 Piece AU Luffy Charlotte
By: FunahoMisaki
(AN: I own nothing and read last chapter)
"The news was spread to Morgans mama. He says that the material we gave him was enough to last three days even if they don't exaggerate or drag it out for a while." Perospero said reporting that to his mother who nodded her head to show that she heard. He wouldn't show it but he was a bit scared. After all there were no homies other than Napoleon, Zeus, and Prometheus in the room. Whenever there were no homies…well…that was never a good sign.
"Perospero…am I a good mother?" Big Mom asked her son quietly and he blinked once, and then a second time.
"Eh? What brought this on Mama?" Perospero asked thrown for a loop at the sudden question. Was it a trick of some kind? If he answered wrong how much lifespan would she take from him? What even would be the right answer?
"That boya. He spoke of his grandfather using Haki on him…he's just a child the same age as Yuen. And yet his grandfather used haki on him and mercilessly tried to train him to the point where he must have come close to death several times. I…Was I that bad? Am I just like him, using my haki on my children to get my way or force you all to be close to death?" Big Mom asked and Perospero was thrown for another loop. His mother was…she was seriously thinking about this wasn't she? Worried that she was just like the little boya's grandfather, a man whom Perospero would cheerfully slaughter even without his mothers encouragement.
"I…I think that you're similar to him but not like him. Yes you use your Conquerors Haki but you also know that most all of us are strong enough to withstand it. You make sure we grow up strong but you don't starve us and beat us to do so, you see to it that we are properly trained. Not just throw into a ravine or forced to fight animals without instruction or food. You never use Armament Haki on us like Garp has on Luffy-kun. Sure if you were personally training us you would hurt us pretty bad but we're usually trained a good deal already by that point and escape having broken bones. It's also because you can't help the fact that you have iron skin, peroin, whereas Garp intentionally uses Haki to beat his grandson. You're…I can not say you are the best mother, that would be an ignorant lie that I'm sure you don't want to hear right now. I can definitely say however that you're a better mother than Garp is a grandfather, and better than several other mothers I've heard of." Perospero said finally after a moment of trying to organize his thoughts and hoping she didn't kill him for this. He hoped that if this was a test then he passed it.
"And you absolutely love Compote's kids, you're great at being a grandma to them. Do I think you could be more active and supportive of your children? I will admit that yes I think so. However we all know that you have a large kingdom to run along with the crew to keep running and your underworld contacts to keep with so you don't often have a lot of time for each and every one of us. We know that and understand it and accept it. Garp doesn't have that excuse. He's a Vice-Admiral and is known to be good friends the Fleet Admiral." Perospero continued on with his mother didn't say anything.
"He has plenty of opportunity to ask for time off to properly raise and train a kid, he just doesn't do it. I'm at least eighty percent sure that if he asked then the Fleet Admiral would approve of Garp raising his grandkids on Navy HQ so that they could grow up around marines, being trained and raised by marines, and likely become marines. However that's not what happened. Instead Garp left his grandkids on an island alone a lot of the time with strangers, and only came back occasionally to try and 'train' him. Then he just dumped the boy off with mountain bandits of all things, hoping that somehow that would make him grow into a marine." Perospero pointed those facts out to his mother who was looking at him intently now.
"Unlike Garp, you didn't ditch your kids on an island or with mountain bandits. You've kept and just about raised over fifty children mama. A good many of us are old enough to have families of our own now too and help with our younger siblings, but you still raised us first. Unlike Garp you haven't intentionally beaten any of us nor have you used your Haki in a pain inducing way." Perospero said and he left the 'yet' at the end of the sentence unspoken. After all he wouldn't be surprised if his mother had started beating them one day.
"So…yes you're better than Garp. The only reason you'd be worse than him is because, like I said, you don't spend a lot of time with any of us but as I also stated we understand why." Perospero finished and held his breath now, waiting to either be dismissed by his mother or be struck down by her.
He saw her get out of her throne with her hair shading her eyes from view and he tensed up, preparing for the worst and mentally apologizing to his younger siblings for being killed.
He wasn't expecting his mother to drop to her knees in front of him and then, surprisingly gently, pull him into a hug. Perospero blinked a few times in disbelief before his eyes widened when he felt his mother trembling a bit.
"Mama?" Perospero asked lost, he hadn't heard of or seen his mother upset like this before. He had never heard of her being moved to tears before either.
"I'm sorry. What good is a paradise land where all the races can come together when I can't even keep my family together?" Big Mom murmured softly and her voice was thick with emotion. Mother Caramel had been her mom, had taken in her and the other children and loved each of them the same. She had wanted that dream to come true but had still loved them all, all the orphans that had called her mother.
She thought that by having her own kids and making her dream of a land where all races could come together in peace…she'd be like mother Caramel but…she had failed. She hadn't thought about loving her kids for years now. She hadn't shown them the love that Mother Caramel gave to her.
She had failed to be a good mother to her kids like Mother Caramel had been to her.
"I promise I'll be better now. I'll do my best to be a better mother. To be for all of you what Mother Caramel was for me. I promise." Big Mom said and Perospero was trapped in her arms completely befuddled and lost. What had caused this change in his mother? Then again…he felt he knew the answer. That little boy with the straw hat and bright grin and his large innocent smile and eyes.
"I know Mama. I know." Perospero could only wrap his thin arms around his mother in return, as much as he could at least, and let her hold him for a while longer until she regained her composure.
Only time would tell if she truly changed but…
Perospero had a good feeling that Luffy had genuinely changed his mother, and not for the worst either.
If that was true…if Mama kept to her promise then…well Perospero would owe Luffy more than he could ever repay.