Chapter Text
Makino is a smart girl, who knows how to listen to what her parents tell her. So when she’s sitting under the tree in the backyard to read and hears her mom yell at her to run, she runs .
Makino is also 5, and beyond their old apple tree there’s no place to hide. It doesn’t take long for one of the pillaging pirates to catch up to her.
Slung over a shoulder, the man’s grip bruising her side, there’s not much Makino can do beyond trying to keep her sobbing as quiet as possible, as they march back past the now-burning buildings towards the beach, where an imposing ship and uncertain fate awaits her.
The conversations between the pirates are a blur, the captain unhappy about the living hostage but recognising a way to make a quick buck, and before she knows it she’s stuck in a cell, surrounded by cold, damp wood and iron bars. They don’t even bother chaining her up.
She doesn’t quite know how much time passes, spending it curled up in the corner interspersed with the semi-regular meals that get thrown her way, until at once it goes from the quiet creaking off the wood to not one but multiple sets of footsteps, along with the clinking of metal.
The flickering light of the lantern paints heavy shadows as the men grunt, hauling open the iron bars before unceremoniously throwing the body inside with her.
This man, and it is a man, dark hair and bright red coat visible even in the limited light of the hold, is chained up, the heavy shackles being the sound she heard earlier, bound hands flopping limply against the floor right next to her pulled-up legs. It makes her flinch, and the movement catches the mean grin of one of the pirates, even as they turn to walk back out.
“I know Boss said we couldn’t touch her, but maybe if this idiot does it for us, we can get some fun in anyways, heh-”
It makes Makino freeze in fear, holding her breath even as the man doesn’t move. For a moment, the ship gets quiet again, until-
A loud snore makes her jump, a full-body flinch combining with a small yelp, and it’s enough to wake the man ( asleep, not unconscious! ) up. He rolls over, hands patting around as if searching for something, and it’s only when he curls one around her ankle and a terrified little whine escapes her mouth that he seems to really come to awareness.
His hand is big, and warm, and tightens only for a second before he blinks up at her, and after a second of blank staring, pulls it back like burned.
Instead, he scrambles upright, leaning against the wall a little ways away from her, still towering over her but far less intimidating as his bound hands come up to scratch the back of his head.
“Shit, kid, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to scare you-” It’s only then that his current situation seems to set in for him, and Makino has to stifle a giggle behind her hands as his sentence cuts off, mouth open in shock as he blankly stares at the shackles around his hands.
It stays quiet for a moment, as he looks between the shackles, then her, curled up in the corner, then the shackles again, before turning to survey the iron bars separating them from the rest of the hold, then back to the shackles again.
“Fuck.” A pause. “Ray’s gonna kill me.” Another pause, before a muttered, “Probably shouldn’t curse around a kid either-”
Finally he looks up again, mustache moving a bit as he finally seems to look at her. Properly look at her, not just stare blankly at. Makino had started to relax a bit at the lack of ill will he seemed to display, but she can’t help but freeze up again as he seems to peer into her very soul for a moment.
Makino is a smart girl, but she’s also 5, and so she stares straight back, taking in the strange ease of the man even as he sits locked up on a pirate ship. He seems to appreciate it, because his face splits open in the biggest grin Makino has ever seen, before being followed by a laugh so loud she can feel it in her bones.
“Girl with guts, huh? Taken just like that by pirates but still looking that bright in the eyes. I’ve seen lesser men break over something like this.” A decisive nod. “Don’t worry though, I’ll get you right out of here and back home.”
Something inside Makino twists at that, remembering the screams and flames. She’s not sure there is a home to get back to.
Now that the man has looked at her he can’t seem to stop looking, because he immediately notices her hesitance. He opens his mouth for a second, hesitating on the wording, and suddenly seems almost small, uncertainty about how to console a child plain on his face. Makino uncoils a bit at it, wanting to return the favor.
“Even if-” Her voice stutters a bit, rough and uneven, but she drives on. “Even if I don’t… If I can’t go home- I’d still like to be somewhere not… not here .”
She’s once again met with a smile as bright as the literal sun, and has to blink a few times as the man once again seems to switch moods on a dime, chuckling as he settles on determination.
“That’s good, kid. The name’s Roger, by the way.” He moves as if to shake her hand, before apparently remembering the shackles again when the chain between them swings back and forth. “Oh right. You wouldn’t happen to have any lockpicks, would ya?”
The question seems utterly sincere, and Makino stares at him for a second, before a hand comes up to carefully tough where the handkerchief around her hair still hangs on stubbornly, pinned down with a dozen invisible hairpins.
Hand pulling back, she shakes her head no, but before Roger can melt down into a puddle of disappointment, she instead stretches out her hand, now with several of the pins lying on her open palm. “Don’t have lockpicks,” she whispers, suddenly quiet now, “but I do have hairpins if you can use those.”
She’s rewarded with another grin, and his touch is careful as he takes the pins from her hand before starting to fiddle with the locks on his wrists. Makino, in the meanwhile, turns her focus back to beyond the iron bars, terrified what will happen if they get found out. The only reason why they haven’t hurt her yet, she knows, is because she’s been easy enough to forget about. Roger is anything but forgettable.
It seems to last an eternity, Makino shooting nervous glances at him every so often, before the clicking of the lock gets her to jump, only to be met with another reassuring grin, Roger waving his now-free hand.
He seems to evaluate the other lock for a second, face thoughtful, before he shrugs and shoves the loose end simply into his pocket. The chain is long enough that as long as he doesn’t raise up his arm too far, the other shackle stays in, and with a decisive nod he turns towards the lock on the iron bars.
He shoots Makino a look, motioning with his head, “Try and stay back, alright? Don’t want you to get hurt now.” before he rolls up his sleeves and simply pulls the bars open.
They strain for a second, during which Makino moves a bit as if to hide behind Roger’s frame, before they give in and bend, the lock connecting the door to the rest of the bars shattering into pieces as the bars creak under the force.
Roger moves through the newly formed opening, completely ignoring the actual door part, and sticks out his hand. “Stay close by now!” He says cheerfully, not concerned by the yells coming from upstairs now. Makino takes a split second, before sprinting forward. She almost trips when passing the iron bars, but his arm sweeps her up and before she knows it they’re moving.
He’s fast, not even stopping as he punches the first guy they come across on the way up, bowling him over into three others as he jumps over them, laughing all the while and never letting go of Makino for even a second, even as she clamps on and buries her face in his coat.
He bursts through the door up onto the deck, dodging a sword and swinging the loose shackle to ram several people over.
Makino peeks up as he gives a pause as well, and immediately flinches back down when she sees how far they are from the shore. Not jus that, but there’s not one but two other ships approaching, both clearly on a course to clash with the ones they’re on.
Roger comically switches his staring between the two ships, clearly trying to think of something, before his face scrunches up as he peers suspiciously at the white ship on their right. Whatever he sees delights him, grin returning to his face before he switches Makino to hold her out in two hands.
Her feet dangling in the air, Makino stares at him with wide-eyes, but her scared expression doesn’t seem to deter him, nor do the pirates charging at him from behind.
“Now I promised to get you out of here, alright? But I’m a pirate myself, so it’d be difficult to get you home myself, but if there’s anyone I trust to get a kid to a safe place, it’s Garp, okay? Don’t think you’re much of a troublemaker in general, but be good to him now. I’ve got to make sure to pick something up real quick before I can get out of here.”
Makino isn’t given a chance to reply. One moment Roger shifts his grip on her, the next she is flying through the air, scream ripped from her throat as she stares at him waving at her from the railing.
Curling in on herself and scrunching her face, Makino prepares for a hard landing. When her dad taught her to swim last summer, some of the older boys had jumped off the little cliff next to the beach, messing around and complaining about how much it hurt to hit the water from taller heights. Makino is going a lot faster than those boys were going.
She needn’t have worried, it turns out.
Instead of the harsh landing into the sea she’s expecting, someone catches her. He doesn’t even need both hands, one big palm curling around the little ball her body is forming as they land back on the deck of the ship.
Immediately there’s yelling all around her, both at her savior and towards the ships they’re chasing after. Makino simply finds herself placed onto an arm, clutching to his dark suit and staring up with wide eyes. The man frowns at her in return, taking in her dirty clothes for a second before turning back to the pirate ships.
Just in time, it seems, because when Makino follows his gaze, Roger seems to have finished his business, and she can see him jump over to the third ship just as the original ship seems to break apart, large parts shattering into pieces as the pirates literally jump ship.
Garp, because she’s pretty sure this is the Garp that Roger mentioned, has gets a lot of expectant looks from the people around them, including several questions about who to aim for. He just pauses, however, seeming to consider the ship now making a rapid turnaround while Makino’s former kidnappers tread water among the floating pieces of wood.
He takes one more good look at Makino, before giving a boisterous laugh. Still with a little girl on his arm, a fact that seemingly nobody phases, he starts barking orders to round up the pirates in the water.
Makino watches the men around her jump into action, readying shackles not unlike the ones Roger had been stuck in as they start pulling men out of the water. She looks up once more when Garp moves to the railing, and together they watch as the other ship gets away, one man in a bright red coat looking back at them.
To her surprise, even from here Makino can make out his voice when Roger yells. “I’M RELYING ON YOUR HONOR AS A MARINE HERE, GARP! MAKE SURE THAT GIRL GETS HOME SAFE!”
Garp doesn’t bother with a reply, just hoists Makino up a little higher before single-handedly grabbing one of the cannon balls laying next to them. In one smooth move, he swings it back over his shoulder before throwing the thing rapidly at the escaping pirate crew. It misses just barely, plunging into the depths behind them, but it gets a laugh so loud it rings out over the ocean all the way to where Makino still has her fingers curled into Garp’s suit jacket.
Makino is a smart little girl. The two men don’t like each other. Or at least Garp doesn’t like Roger. But maybe more importantly, they do trust each other. And as Makino gets handed off to a doctor to get checked over, she can’t help but think that that’s got to be worth something as well.