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The House That Your Papa Built

Summary:

The house that your Papa built is made of dreams, your Papa says.

Notes:

Second-person POV from Robin and Franky's kid (so obviously implied Franky/Robin). This was probably too much fun to write.

One Piece is not mine, ect.

Work Text:

The house that your Papa built is on the tippy-top of a hill on a pretty little island where no one else lives for real. Sometimes people stay in the little house at the bottom of the hill, but they never stay for more than a month. That's okay. When people stay there Mama and Papa and all of your uncles and your auntie are busy and can't play with you.

 

The house your Papa built is super big, and he built it just for you and him and Mama and your little brother Tom and your auntie and all of your uncles. It doesn't look like houses in picture books - the walls are all curved and the roof has a great big sail and a tower with a crow's nest. "It wouldn't look right otherwise." says your Papa and you believe him because Papa knows EVERYTHING, and all of the stuff he doesn't know Mama knows or one of your uncles or your auntie. Besides, you agree with him - the jolly roger that grins down over the island with the straw hat that matches the one one your uncle's head just /needs/ to be there.

 

The house that your Papa built is full of rooms. There are rooms to play in and a room to eat in and rooms to train in and rooms to sleep in and rooms to do everything else, too! None of the rooms are ever private or locked. Your Papa says that's because he built this house for everyone to trust each other, but your Mama just laughs and says it's because old habits don't really ever die. The only spaces you aren't allowed in are Auntie Nami's treasure room (but neither is anyone else, so it doesn't count) and the training room when the light is red. Sometimes, though, when the light is green one of your uncles will teach you how to fight. Auntie Nami tried once, but then she started talking about how much humidity it took to make good lightning and the only cool part was when she let you blow heat and cool balls from the original climatact.

 

The house that your Papa built always has space for more people, its just that some others don't get to stay. There's a pond in the backyard where sometimes mermaids or fishmen  visit, but all of the bedrooms are out of the way of water so that no one who can't swim accidentally falls in. Uncle Jinbe, when he visits, sleeps with the rest of your family in the house, but Auntie Sirahoshi can never stay the night, but that's mostly cuz she wouldn't fit. Your favorite visitor is Auntie Vivi, though - she never stays for less than a week and you get to ride on Carue's back and go super-fast! But sometimes visitors aren't Nakama, or even really close like Auntie Nojiko or Uncle Bon. People like Marco or Magrat don't really get to stay in the house that your Papa built, they sleep in the little house on the bottom of the hill. Uncle Sanji insists on feeding absolutely everyone, though, so the dining room and kitchen are huge! Sometimes there are so many people that you have to give up on the dining room all together and eat outside in order to fit everyone, because eating alone just isn't any good. Sometimes there's just Uncle Luffy's crew, your famlily, and maybe one or two other people like Auntie Kaya, who stays for a long time because she lives so far away in East Blue, and everyone just eats in the kitchen.

 

The house that your Papa built is made of dreams, your Papa says. He finished building it a year and a day after Uncle Luffy was named Pirate King in the newspaper clipping that sits in a gold frame over the couch that is the very first thing you see when you walk in the door. Surrounding the newspaper clipping are other equally big and golden frames that give "proof" Mama says.

There's  a copy of the precious map Auntie Nami made that only a select few have access to ("It's the best map in the world!" she says, "and it will tell you everything about everywhere"). It's one of the first drafts, and it's her pride and joy to continue to perfect the ones her Nakama navigate by. 

A huge sword, shaped like a cross hangs on the wall near the ceiling. Uncle Zoro takes it down to polish every time he cleans the rest of his swords, which is everyday (he let you hold Wadou just once, on a day that he was sad and you tried to get him to cheer up. "I did it." he told you as you sat in his lap and traced over the worn white leather, "But it hurts she didn't get to be there.")

There's also a picture of the prettiest stretch of ocean in the world ("Just one spot," Uncle Sanji tells you every time you help him in the kitchen by stirring soup or peeling potatoes, "but it's paradise.") where you can find any fish you could imagine.

There's a worn sheet of paper, in your mother's familiar handwriting (if you look closer it's a napkin, because that's what she says she had when she finally put it all together) that she takes down and shows you when she tells you about the history of everything ("People might want to harm you for knowing this," she says quietly before starting some parts, "but I can't bear to not tell you.")

Uncle Usopp's bounty poster sits proudly framed with that of Great-Uncle Yasopp, who visited once and was really cool ("Eight thousand followers," reminds Uncle Usopp with a wink, and you grumble and get into bed and fall asleep to the stories he tells you. Your favorite ones are about Elbaf.)

Uncle Chopper sometimes takes you into the fields behind the house your Papa built to help him collect the plants he grows so no one stays sick. He points at the small pink flower pressed and framed along with all the other memory-treasures and tells you proudly that it can cure almost anything ("I found it!" he grins, which has never looked out of place on a reindeer's face to you having grown up with it, "He would be so proud.") 

There's a picture of Uncle Brook and a huge whale, right at the start of the Grand Line ("I go visit every so often," he chuckles as he tucks you into bed and tunes his violin to play you to sleep, "maybe you can come next time. Ah, but only if your mother agrees~!")

You asked your Papa once where his was, but he only laughed and turned you around, away from the wall and pointed at the ship moored on the beach, clearly visible from the door ("I don't need a picture to remember how far the Sunny's gone," he tells you, "I was there.") 

 

 

 

 

The house that your Papa built is a safe place at the very end of the Grand Line, a base to rest before your family returns, as they always will, to wandering the seas in search of their next adventure. And next year, Mama says, you can go, too, and you're gonna be the best shipwright-musician-doctor-sharpshooter-historian-cook-swordsman-navigator-Pirate-King there ever was!