Savior -Luffy-

- 35 -

I woke up on a bed I didn't recognize only to find it was near where we would split up for the raid. Luffy was passed out next to me, obviously tired from training, but I was missing something on the bed with us.

"Ace?" I called out, sitting up immediately and frantically looking around. "Ace!" Luffy woke up after the second call for our son echoed in the room. I threw the blanket off of myself, rushing through the room to look under the bed, table, and chairs, but I didn't find a sign of our son anywhere. Panic settled into my gut.

"May, what's wrong?" Luffy asks as he rubs his eyes to wake up better.

"Ace is gone," I answer with a panicking tone. He gets up with a serious expression before approaching me and placing both hands on my shoulders.

"Calm down," He commands flatly. "We will find him. For now, let's go ask the others. Maybe they took him."

"He's a newborn, Luffy!" I remind him. "He can't walk or talk!" My heartbeat was in my ears and throat with tears brimming my eyes.

"I know that, but we have to still think of the other options." I take a deep breath and nod, trying to calm myself as Luffy takes my hand and leads me out of the room towards the others in the clearing outside of the ruined home.

"Have you guys seen Ace?" Luffy calls as soon as we are in earshot. Robin smiles brightly and I can see something in her lap, relieved immediately. As I begin to rush over to her, though, I pause and stare in shock.

"A-Ace?" I whisper. The child sitting on Robin's lap looked at me with a large grin that had at least three teeth in it. His hands clapped together and curly dark brown, nearly black, hair bounced as he did. "Ace..." I slowly walked over and lifted the baby from Robin's lap. He wore a bib with a meat chunk on it, a dark red long-sleeve top, and a pair of white socks.

"We figured it was related to the fast pregnancy," Robin speaks up. I blink a few times as the baby begins to slap my cheeks gently with giggles to follow. "It seems he is growing faster than he should. Kin'emon dressed him for you."

"W-what?" I squeak. "How?"

"Maybe because of you." My eyes wander to Zoro as he is resting against a rock with his eyes closed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He peeks an eye open and rolls it before closing it again.

"I mean that you aren't from this world and you can skip time. Maybe he can, too."

"But when I skip time I stay the same age," I remind him.

"My mother had the Time-Time fruit and could do so as well," Momonosuke mentions. "Is that what you have as well?" I shake my head with a lopsided frown.

"It's a long story." As I lean down to speak with Momo, little Ace leaps from my grasp and falls to the floor in a belly flop. I gasp and go to pick him up, but his butt shoots up into the air and he pushes himself upright. He suddenly toddles forward toward Sanji, hands balled into fists as he stares at the blond.

"Ace?" I ask. I see Luffy walk past me and over to our son, but he doesn't say or do anything. "Luffy, what's he doing?" Still no response. I sigh and get up to investigate, but I see immediately what's happening. Luffy and Ace glowered at the sizzling meat that Sanji was making over the campfire. I smacked my hand to my forehead with slight annoyance since I was seemingly the only one worried about the sudden aging of our kid.

"Luffy, we need to talk about this," I mention while trying to drag him away. Ace, however, ignores me and rushes forward, clinging onto Sanji and pulling at his pants to try and climb up his leg.

"Hey, Buddy!" Sanji greets. You watch closely and stop pulling Luffy away when Ace babbles at the cook. Sanji chuckles and swoops a hand down, pulling Ace up and onto his hip while cradling his body close to him. "You wanna watch me cook, huh?" The child babbles again and I can see the joy behind Sanji's smile as he explains unnecessarily how to cook meat to the baby. My eyes slowly wander over the rest of the crew as they begin talking to him, telling him how to do things and stories of our adventures. Ace was awestruck and listening with a slab of meat being chewed on with his few teeth.