Chapter 125: Small steps in the right direction

The sun hadn't been up for long when Kaza woke up from her slumber. She went to bed happy, cozy and warm for the first time in more than a decade and she felt the same with her mind slowly but surely finding its way out of the fog and waking up. She had missed this feeling more than she had thought and dared to admit and in her greed to feel more of it, moved slightly her body to the side. Her head nestled into something pillowy, big and with perfect firmness. She felt a hand pushing her head into it more while another grabbed her hump. Two small, delicate and feminine hands. Her eyes opened on the spot at the realization that it was definitely not Rick she was against. Pulling her head back to have a better look at who she was snuggling too, her mind made a spin seeing it was the very woman she had kept fighting with for the past eight months. Her pulling away had woken up the Pirate Emperess who, thanks to the difference in height between the two, was looking down at her. Blue eyes met green eyes in a silence that lasted a whole minute. There was no anger, no rage and no hostility in either pair. Only a bit of confusion.

“Your ass is toner and firmer than I expected.” the brunette tentatively said.
“And your tits are surprisingly perky despite being so big and heavy.”

That was a weird opening for a conversation, it was weirder knowing that for the first time since they’ve known each other it was compliments and not insults, a curt comment or a barb. After another bout of silence, shorter this time, the two women disengaged from each other and got out of bed. Kaza, who had never been interested in women and still wasn’t, wasn’t unfamiliar with a situation like that. She had been a marine and sometimes the crew quarters on the ship were cramped. Hancock for her part never slept with a woman that way with the exception of her sisters, however she had no problem with it, she was interested in women after all. What just happened was quickly forgotten by both and their mind focused on something more important to them. Rick. He had been quite clear when he came back the previous night that they would all share a bed. No clone would be involved and certainly no sex as punishment for being naughty during the day earlier. They both grumbled but couldn’t do anything about changing his mind and had to resign themselves to sleeping on each of his side.

“Where is he?” asked the redhead.
“No idea. Probably with our daughters.”

Not bothering to put something over her dark red and semi transparent negligee, Hancock left the bedroom for the one with her little girls. Not finding them there she went down the stairs and saw her roomate frozen at the kitchen’s entrance. Walking around her she was shocked then pleased at the sight. One Rick had Corra in the crook of his arm feeding her her milk with a baby bottle. Another was wearing an apron in only his underwear and was cooking breakfast. A third was trying to feed Lynda sitting in her high chair. He was making silly noises and moved around a small spoon full of baby food.

“The train is coming to the station! Choo choo! Open up for daddy!”

Lynda giggled and opened her mouth accepting the food without making a fuss other than clapping her hands in amusement. The Rick holding Corra, put down the milk bottle and pulled her to his shoulder. Making sure she was in a straight position, he began rubbing her back gently. After a while the little blond burped, staining with milk the small towel he had put on his shoulder beforehand. Afterward, he cleaned her face and pulled her back in the crook of his arms.

“Good morning” greeted the cooking Rick who had turned around and saw his two lovers standing motionless at the kitchen’s door. When he got no answer or not even a reaction he asked a simple question. “What?”

““Nothing.””

“... Yeah, okay. Too early for this.” he muttered to himself and put down a plate of pancakes on the table. He removed the apron he was wearing, hung it to its usual resting place and disappeared.

Silently they took a seat at the table next to each other and started to eat.

“Did you decide what you were going to do this morning?” the Rick rocking Corra inquired.
“I’ll go with you. I’m sure Lynda will be delighted to see her uncle again and I want to talk with Robin.”
“I…” Kaza began not sure of her answer but her moment of hesitation continued. “I’ll come too. I want to meet Garp’s grandson.”
“Not the others?” Rick asked.
“Not really but I’ll have to, sooner or later, so I suppose it’s going to be sooner rather than later.”

Rick nodded then stood up. He gave Corra to Hancock and went to take a shower and dressed himself. Both ladies did the same and in twenty minutes everyone was ready to go. At Rick’s request, his four ladies were waiting outside for him when he came out of the house with the big rug of the living room rolled up in his arms.

“What are you doing?” asked Kaza aloud what Hancock was thinking.

Her fiance didn’t answer instead unfurling the rug on the ground and sat in the middle of it. With his hands he tapped the empty space on each of his sides. Seeing the invitation for what it was, both women accepted it, Hancock handing him Lynda.
Everyone now seated, Rick made the rug float and at a reasonable speed for the babies, flew towards Sunny, while whistling a tune that no one but him knew. Or so he thought. Diana beginning to sing was unexpected.

‘A whole new wooooorld! A new fantastic point of view!’
‘Morning, Diana. I see you found my Disney memories.’
‘Oh, yes! I wanted a break from your manga so I searched for western things and I found this. I’ve not been disappointed for now.’
‘Wait a bit, there was a period of time when all those animated movies sucked.’
‘The next on my list is Hercules.’
‘Love that one. Best songs ever. Speaking of. Nice voice.’
‘Thank you. I used to sing for my people from time to time when the mood took me. They all stopped what they were doing to listen.’
‘I understand why.’

When they landed on the deck Eri was already sparring with Zoro. She was aggressive but not mindlessly attacking.

“You lend it to her.” Kaza whispered watching her daughter making a diagonal slash aimed at Zoro’s neck.
“First of, Ryusei is a her not an it. Second, I’m not lending her, I gifted her.”
“... She hasn't been so enthusiastic in practicing in months.”
“Perhaps she needed a different sparring partner. Zoro said she was really good. Better than he was at her age. A lot of potential.”
“...”
“You did an excellent job in raising her.” he praised and took her hand in hers. “Wish I’d been there to help you.”
“Me too but things are what they are.” she replied sadly.

The crew exited the ship to start the day and Luffy Immediately went to Hancock at the sight of the baby in her arms.

“Wow, she got smaller and she’s blond now!” he said in bewilderment, making the pirate queen laugh.
“That’s Corra, the new addition to the family.”
“Lynda is here, Luffy.”

“I’ve got another other niece! Awesome!”

He took Corra in his arms when Hancock handed her to him and started to play with her. Rick had a smile on his face and saw behind his captain Nami and Robin. For a moment he didn’t know what to do with Kaza and decided to flee. He walked towards his wives pulling with him his redhead lover, handed Lynda to Nami and made a quick escape without saying a word. He grabbed Ranky on his way and both went down the dock system.

“Not the best move to make.” said the Cyborg.
“I know! I just… That was so awkward! I mean… Hancock came into our relationship after. She knew what she got into so there weren't any problems there but Kaza…She did not.”
“Despite how pretty they all are, I don’t envy you.”
“Aren’t you and Baby-5…”
“We are but she’s one, not four or more. Now, why did you bring me here?”
“To bring the portative pool up. I don’t know how any of this works and I’d rather not touch anything.” Rick replied, waving his arms around. “I also wanted to know if you could create a harness and a stroller for two babies. Hancock didn’t say anything but she’s struggling. I had to create a clone this morning to deal with my daughters and that was just for breakfast. Moving around? More than complicated.”
“That’s an usual request. Not impossible though. I’ll make it all terrain, that way they can go anywhere.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”

Franky spinned the docks to make it so the one containing the pool would be open to the sea. Since the pool was too big to go through the door and instead of deflating it, Rick simply made it float and landed it on the deck. Turning around he saw all the women he was involved with minus Reiju, sitting around a table talking. Sanji was serving them snacks and drinks, doing his usual thing but Rick did notice that he was crying anime tears.

“They didn’t fight. Yet.” Reiju said joining his side.
“I don’t think they would fight at least not Robin, Nami or Hancock.”
“You really know how to pick them. They are all beautiful.”
“What a backhanded way to flatter yourself. Well deserved though.” he replied at the smirking princess. “On a totally unrelated subject, did you eat the fruit?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“This is a weird experience. I know instinctively… no rather it’s like something was nagging subtly at my mind on how I can do things with my new powers. I tried the humanoid transformation and I felt… Powerful. More than I’ve ever did. I put trying the full transformation on hold. Kaido was huge and I don’t think anyone would be ready to see a hundred meters long dragon popping out of the blue.”
“Good call.”

On the side, Robin had snatched Corra from Luffy’s hands. The captain had dragged Usopp, Chopper and Eri into a game of tag as promised and they were having fun running around. Rick wondered for a moment if his three friends were not just kids in adult bodies but let the matter drop. His daughter was having fun and that was all that mattered.

Back to the girls, the conversation had been difficult at first. Kaza not really participating until Nami, being her usual outgoing and charismatic self, roped the older redhead in by asking questions about Rick’s childhood and time as a marines.

“He really faced Shiki when he wasn’t even a teenager?” inquired a disbelieving Nami.
“Not face, no. He stayed far back behind a wall and used as much of his gravity as he could on him. That gave Garp and Sengoku a bit of an easier fight.”
“Can’t believe he was telling the truth.”
“He always does.” interjected Robin, rocking Corra slowly.

Bit by bit Kaza felt more at ease talking and began asking questions about his time as a pirate. Meanwhile Rick was in his swimsuit with Eri on his shoulders. She was wrestling Luffy who was on Chopper’s shoulder in his humanoid form while Usopp was being both a referee and commentator. The rubber’s man was going easy on her of course but decided to play it dirty and wrapped his arms around her and picked her up in the air before jumping into the pool. Once free, Eri began to chase him all around for pay back and secured Chopper’s help for that.

In the afternoon after a morning of fun, Rick, on the invitation of Koala went to R.A. main building. She was shamelessly piggybacking as he walked there.

“You really did well with the island.”
“We just built on what you already did. Without you, the place wouldn’t look so good.”
“I noticed that there are more civilians than members.”
“That’s because O’Hara is not really the HQ anymore but where the family members of agents live. Dragon decided a few months ago to relocate to Okama island, the actual HQ. We’re almost completely cut off from the world. No one visits so this place can be kept safe. We do receive news via den den mushi and it’s actually here that all information ends up. That was the problem with Baltigo. It was centralized. Now if the executive wants to know something or need something, we provide the information and where to get what they want or need. If Okama island is attacked, the only thing we might lose is people.”
“That sounds… sound. Did Robin tell you why we visited?”
“No. We didn’t have the time to talk much. Do you need something?”
“We needed information on Hancock, since Wano is completely cut off from the outside world. So when we learned of the attack on Amazon Lily we were worried. We also wanted to know if you knew anything about Vivi’s disappearance.”
“Vivi Nefertari?”
“Yes, she’s a very important friend of ours. Her father was a personal friend of mine.”
“Sabo didn’t do it!”
“Never said he did. Never made sense. Cobra was a good king, putting the well being of his own people before his own. There was no reason for the R.A. to assassinate him. My money is on the world Nobles.”
“I… don’t know for sure. I’m not high enough in the hierarchy to know what really happened but I know that he didn’t do it. I also know that the princess is not with us.”
“I see. Thank you nonetheless. We also were curious about Eternal Poses. Do you have any that you could loan us?”
“Plenty! We have a whole room of them! One of our members is a former marine and nicked some of them just before he quit. We send agents on each island and made more”

“Good.” he replied. He could of course have bought the eternal poses from the shop  but that would have raised many uncomfortable questions that he didn’t want to answer. He was already playing with fire regarding the devil fruits… “Do you think you could teach us how to make them?”
“I’ll have to ask but it’s possible.”

At the same time they reach the R.A. 's main building, Robin and Nami were in a small restricted part of the island. The forest. Walking hand in hand with flowers in the other the wed couple visited a grave. Robin was silent and lost in her thoughts and Nami patiently waited.

“Hi, mom. It’s been… a bit more than a year now since I last came to visit. Lots of things happened. I reunited with my friends again and we went to the new world. I… met many friends of yours. All were more than happy to tell me about you and they were all really nice to me. It’s always a surprise. They all looked like hard old war veterans but when they saw me they all softened on the spot. You must really have been important to them. I… I’m close to my dream. We found three of the rio poneglyphs and are searching for the fourth. More importantly I found love again. The man I told you about came back from the dead and we married. That cute kitten with me is also my wife. I wonder what you would think about that. Both make me very happy.” She finished and put her flower in front of the tombstone.

“Hi! I’m Nami. Like Robin said, I'm her wife. That something recent actually but that has been long in the making.” she didn’t know what to say after that but it didn’t matter to Robin. She simply put her own flower next to the others and both women stayed silent.

~~~~~

The rest of the crew’s stay on O’Hara lasted a week. Koala got permission from Dragon himself to give a few Eternal Poses to her friends. Most notably, Dressrosa, Okama Island, Water Seven but more importantly to Hachinosu (also known as Fullalead) and Karai Bari island. Blackbeard's and Buggy’s lair respectively. While the former was asked since that was where Garp was being detained, the latter had been a bonus.

When it was time to leave, Rick couldn’t let go of his two youngest while Eri was nowhere to be found. He thought that after the week they spent together they were in a good enough place that she would be here to see him leave. Depiste Kaza assuring him that their daughter wasn’t mad at him but just couldn’t bring herself to see him leave he still felt hurt. After one last hug and one last kiss Rick got on the Sunny and left for Sabaody.