I don't know anything about Makino's background so I'm making it up! I also decided to turn the bar into a pub and inn just for the sake of plot ;) Also, about the financial stuff in this chapter- sorry if it's weird or anything. I'm a 15 year old who has yet to worry much about money

One of the things (or people) that Luffy really missed about Foosha Village was Makino. She had been a constant figure in his childhood and the closest thing he had to a mother. Makino ran the pub and small inn (that was usually empty since there were rarely any travellers) in the village by herself. When Gramps brought Luffy to Foosha when he was still a baby, Makino had offered up one of the few rooms in the inn and took care of him when Garp was away. She had been there for a lot of his firsts and taught him how to read, write, and help around the house (she could never get him to cook, though. Every time she tried he ate the ingredients raw).

Luffy was really grateful for everything she did for him and was happy to see her when Gramps dragged him back to Foosha Village. He wanted to see her after he found One Piece and brought his crew to meet her and Dadan and see where he grew up, but he ended up dying before he got the chance to. He's glad the time travel gave him a second shot.

Luffy's memory wasn't the greatest thing. It was easy for him to forget names and faces and events that happened either recently or a long time ago, so it wasn't surprising that Luffy didn't remember Makino having so much trouble with the pub and inn. Of course, most children his age wouldn't have noticed it, anyway.

As far as he knew, Makino had been managing the pub and inn by herself ever since she was a teenager. Her parents who ran the pub originally died early deaths due to an accident and Makino was left alone with the property. With the help of the mayor and the residents of Foosha, she was able to handle herself and take care of the pub.

Even after all these years, though, there were still problems with money and too little customers and other complicated adult business things Luffy never understood (even if he was an adult). And honestly, Luffy never would have noticed Makino was having trouble if it weren't for a small slip up she made with leaving some paperwork out.

She was out on some errands and Luffy was wandering the first floor of the pub when he saw them out on a table. He climbed one of the barstools and picked up the small stack of papers, skimming through it and was about to put it back down since it was boring when something caught his eye. He read it over again, slower this time, before frowning when he was done. There were big words and confusing terms that he didn't recognize, but he got the gist of it: the pub might have to shut down. There were a lot of reasons listed, but it all centered around money. Along with the pub, Makino's parents left behind a huge debt that she was still trying to pay off, and with the money that went into managing the property and stocking the pub, she barely had enough left over. There had been less customers lately and that wasn't doing anything to help, either.

Obviously, Luffy didn't want the pub to shut down. He knew Makino loved the place and treated it with a lot of care. It was her treasure. He wasn't going to let anyone take that from her.

So he did the only thing he could think of to help her.

He was going to make money.

———

Makino knew something was going on. Luffy was acting strange—stranger than usual.

She loved the kid, she really did. He was fun and adorable and she saw him as her own son. She brought him up from a baby to the wonderful and energetic child he was and cared for him like an actual mother. That's why, when Garp brought him back from "training," she knew something was different. She couldn't tell what was different, though, and it was bugging her. Luffy was an open book, his face expressing the exact emotions he was feeling and he always said what was on his mind. When he came back from trips with Garp, he usually told her what happened, complained to her about what "that crazy old geezer" put him through. But when he came back this time, he was quiet. Or as quiet as Luffy could get anyways.

When he stepped through the door with Garp behind him, he practically threw himself at her.

"Makino!" He shouted happily as he clung to her waist.

Makino laughed and knelt down to give him a hug. She weaved her hand through his short black strands and smiled. "Hello, Luffy. How was the trip this time?"

Luffy looked up at her with a wide grin. "Great! I had a lot of fun!"

Makino ever so discreetly raised a brow. That was a different response than usual. Most times, Luffy would loudly complain right off the bat and claim that he never wanted to go again. She'd heard from the boy that he was usually sent to dangerous jungles or forests and left by himself or fought against wild animals, and while Makino had voiced her concerns before, Garp told her that he would be fine and the only thing she could do at the time was believe him. Although Luffy complained, she could tell he was never seriously injured and wasn't too worried, but to get such a different response this time made her wonder what happened.

Instead of showing her confusion, Makino smiled back. "Is that so? I'm glad." She looked up at Garp who had taken a seat at one of the empty tables (there were no customers again, so there were many empty seats to choose from) and gave him a friendly smile as she stood.

"Hello as well, Garp-san. I take it Luffy wasn't too much trouble this time?"

Garp nodded, his arm propped on the table and his chin on his hand. He looked somewhat thoughtful as he stared at his grandson. "I left him alone in a forest again and before I left the brat was whining again," he said, huffing somewhat, and Makino could imagine it clearly. "But when I came back he latched onto me and said he missed me. He even actually trained this time, too. It was weird."

Makino hummed and looked back down at Luffy, who was clinging to her leg and looking up at her with a curious expression. "Did anything happen?" She asked softly.

Something flashed behind his eyes, so fast that Makino almost thought she was seeing things. Luffy gave her his usual bright grin. "Nope! Just had a lot of fun! I got stronger, too!"

Makino almost frowned, getting the feeling that something was off, but she waved it away and reached down to ruffle his hair again. "That so? I'm glad."

She turned to Garp once more with a grateful smile. "Well, thank you for taking care of him."

The man laughed, grin wide and head thrown back. "I should be saying that to you! Thanks for taking care of the brat in my stead, Makino!"

"Of course! It's no problem at all." She said kindly. "I assume you're heading back out again?"

Garp nodded, still grinning wide, though it looked a bit more apologetic. "Yeah, the work's been piling up lately back at HQ. Vacation time was cut short."

Makino nodded, understanding, even if she couldn't exactly relate. "I see. I wish you the best, then."

He stood up and crouched in front of Luffy. "I'll be back in a few months, Luffy, so don't forget my promise!" He flicked the boy's forehead lightly before ruffling his hair fondly. "Stay healthy and get stronger!"

Luffy pouted a bit as he rubbed his forehead before grinning up at the man. "You bet, Gramps! And when you get back, I'll be so strong I can beat up a bear!"

Garp smirked, hand stopping on Luffy's head only to turn into a noogie. "Oh, really? I look forward to that then!"

Luffy whined as Garp laughed and Makino watched them with a smile.

In the following days, Makino tended to the bar as usual and served the few customers who still came. She noticed Luffy leaving more often, either wandering around the village or scampering off into the mountain. He always came back around mealtime with a happy grin, even if he was covered in dirt or scratches. Again, Makino was a bit worried but he seemed fine so she didn't ask questions.

One day, though, Luffy came back around lunchtime with his fists covered in drying blood and bruises on his legs. When he stepped into the pub Makino almost had a heart attack.

"Luffy! Oh my goodness, are you alright?!" She shouted as soon as she noticed him. She abandoned the food on the stove (making sure to turn the fire off) and rushed to him with a first aid kit she pulled from the cabinet. "Luffy, sit down on one of the chairs! Don't move!" She set down the kit and ran back to the kitchen to grab a bowl of water and a clean rag before moving back to him and kneeling in front of him.

"It's not that bad, Makino!" He whined as she wet the cloth in the bowl. "I swear! It doesn't hurt that bad!"

Makino only tutted and dabbed the cloth over his hands. "Luffy, what did you do? You have to be more careful when you're playing!"

She cleaned the dried blood off as Luffy said, "I wasn't playing! I was training!"

"Training?" Makino asked as she glanced up at the boy before looking back down at the wound. She winced at the sight of torn flesh and gave Luffy a sharp look. "Well, training shouldn't cause you to hurt yourself like this."

She saw him gulp for a second before responding. "It was an accident! I was trying something out and I almost had it but I lost concentration and hit a rock with my bare fist." Luffy pouted as he said the last part, looking disappointed. "I was so close."

Makino looked at him, baffled. "You punched a rock? Luffy, what were you thinking? Even if you're training, you shouldn't go punching rocks, of all things!" The cuts were deep and jagged and Makino didn't have enough medical experience to keep them from scarring. She could only clean the wound and keep them from getting infected.

"Well," Luffy said, expression completely oblivious and tone dismissive, "it was more of a boulder than a rock. It was twice as big as me! But I'm small so that doesn't really matter."

Makino gave him an incredulous look as he kept speaking. "I was trying to break it in half! I can break smaller rocks in half—the biggest was as tall as me!—but I guess I need more training before I can break one twice my size." Luffy was pouting now, his expression contemplative and Makino couldn't tell whether or not he was making it up.

She cleared her throat as she put some ointment on the cuts and asked, "How did you get the bruises on your legs?"

"Bruises?" He asked and looked down at his legs. They were covered in purple splotches. "Oh! I was kicking trees!"

Makino stared.

"I was training haki in my legs! Oh, and that's also what I was doing when I was punching the rock, but in my arms! 'Coz I'm not strong enough to break stuff with just physical strength yet. It's easier to use Armament Haki in my arms than my legs, so I can only make dents in trees instead of punching them down. I'm getting really better, though! I bet, by next week, I'll be able to kick it down! And then I can try rocks!"

Luffy said this all with bright eyes and a determined look and Makino sat there trying to process his words. She had no idea what he was talking about—what was haki? Armament Haki?—and thought that, maybe, just maybe the boy hit his head somewhere. As she wrapped his hands in bandages she peeked at his black hair to check for a bump.

"Um," Makino said, not really knowing what to say, "well, just try not to hurt yourself like this again, okay? Be careful. I don't know what I'd do if this happens again." She'd forbid him from doing this self-training, that's what. She would have fussed over him more if it weren't for Luffy's odd explanation that threw her off. Training was fine as long as someone was there to watch him, and while Makino trusted Luffy, after seeing this she wasn't so sure anymore.

To her relief, Luffy nodded. "Sorry, Makino. It won't happen again." He looked honest and apologetic. Good.

Makino sighed as she set Luffy's treated hands down and put away the medical supplies. "Alright. I believe you." After quickly treating his bruises as well, Makino stood up with the used bowl of water and cloth (that was red from the blood) in one hand and the first aid kit in the other. She walked behind the counter as she said, "I'll have to reheat lunch, so go upstairs and change into clean clothes, okay Luffy? Put the dirty ones in the bathroom and I'll take care of them later."

She saw Luffy jump off the chair from the corner of her eye as he shouted, "Okay!" and ran to his room.

Makino sighed again.

Unknown to her at the time, it was the first sigh of many.

———

Although Luffy never stopped leaving for his so-called "training," he didn't come home with any big injuries like the last one, much to Makino's relief. He had scratches and scrapes and bruises from time to time and always came home covered in dirt and dust, but as long as she never saw too much blood she didn't worry too much. Luffy healed quickly, too, so by the next morning any signs of roughhousing were usually gone.

But she was still worried and kept a closer eye on him when he was home (and sometimes she even considered following after him into the forest to find out what the hell he was doing. She didn't though). She didn't notice anything at first. Luffy was still his loud and usual energetic self and Makino always smiled when he ran down the stairs for breakfast and whined when he wanted to eat more but was too full to. She'd laugh whenever he stuck his chopsticks in his nose over dinner and tell him to put them down and eat properly a few moments later. She shook her head in amusement when Luffy helped with chores and made a game out of wiping down the floors or doing the dishes.

Nothing seemed wrong until Makino started noticing the smaller things.

Sometimes Luffy would stop whatever it was he was doing and stare off blindly with a distracted look in his eyes. Makino didn't think anything of it until she saw him doing it more often and at random times. It happened once when he was eating lunch. Normally, Luffy would scarf the plate down as soon as it was put in front of him, but he stopped in the middle of it and stared at the food for a few seconds. When Makino asked if anything was wrong, he blinked and shook his head before eating again and speaking enthusiastically about the things he did as if nothing happened.

There was another instance when Makino was helping Luffy take a bath. She was rubbing shampoo in his hair as he was reaching into the tub and playing with the water, telling her about some things he heard around the village and about a couple of wolf pups he saw in the forest when he tampered off and his hand stilled in the water. Makino looked over to see what was wrong and saw his face unusually blank. When she asked if he was alright, he only blinked, nodded, and then smiled brightly and continued to ramble off.

Most times, though, Makino saw him looking out the window at the ocean with an odd look on his face. He would do it at random times in the day, but mostly when the sun was setting over the ocean and turned the sea dark blue and orange and red. There was always a strangely somber expression on his small face that would never fail to make Makino feel the need to hug him, even if she didn't know why.

Another thing she noticed was that Luffy was strangely clingy. Of course, he was clingy and touchy before, never bothering to acknowledge personal space, but somehow it was different now. Whenever he got the chance to, he always tried to have some sort of physical contact with someone. He would glomp people loudly or quietly reach up and slip his hand into Makino's without a word of acknowledgement. He hugged her a lot more often as well, and while Makino didn't mind at all she couldn't help but wonder what brought them on all the time. When Garp came back to visit and take Luffy out again ("How was beating up that bear?" "..." "Haha! Couldn't do it, huh?" "Shut up!"), the boy even climbed him like a tree and settled himself on his shoulders. He wouldn't get off even after Makino watched them leave on the ship Garp came on.

Then there were the nightmares.

It was fairly normal for children to have nightmares from time to time—she had them as a child as well—but Luffy's nightmares were often. Truthfully, Makino hadn't noticed at first. Luffy's room was directly beside hers and the walls were thin so if he ever shouted she should have heard. But Luffy never did. He never cried or made any sort of loud noise so she hadn't expected anything at first.

It was three months after Luffy returned from that training trip when it happened.

Makino was in her room/office working on some paperwork. It was a few minutes past midnight and the light of her lamp was the only thing illuminating the room. It was quiet and calm and the only sound in the room was her relaxed breathing and the light scratching of her pen on paper.

She set the pen down and pushed the papers back when she was done, still frowning at their financial situation, when a loud THUD sounded from the wall behind her. She jumped, startled, and turned to look at the wall. A few seconds later, another thud followed.

"Luffy?" She called cautiously. There was silence and then another thud, louder this time.

"Luffy? Are you alright?" Makino called, raising her voice.

Again, no verbal confirmation and only a loud bang on the wall. She stood from her chair and left her room.

In front of the door, she knocked a few times. "Luffy, I'm coming in!"

She turned the knob and looked into the room. The first thing she noticed was the thrashing figure on the bed.

Makino quickly ran to his bedside and grabbed his arms. "Luffy! Luffy, wake up!"

Luffy didn't wake up and kept thrashing instead. One of the arms she was holding back almost hit her in the face and Makino was slightly surprised by the strength and slight muscle he had in the short limb.

Makino squeezed him and shook him a little. "Luffy! Luffy, it's just a dream! You're alright! Luffy, Luffy, it's okay! Wake up!"

He only kept thrashing and Makino finally noticed that Luffy wasn't making a single sound. He was sweating and his brows were furrowed but his lips were pulled back in a grimace and he seemed to be biting back his screams. There were small grunts but nothing beyond that. His whole body was shaking and Makino quickly pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Shh, it's okay, it's alright, you're safe, you're safe," she said into his hair, rubbing his back and trying to calm him down. "It's just a dream, it's not real, you're alright. You're alright, Luffy. You're safe."

She stayed like that for a while, sitting on crumpled sheets with the shaking child in her arms. She muttered softly in the quiet of the room, repeating her words over and over and rubbing soothing circles on his back.

When Luffy's thrashing stopped and his shaking calmed, Makino felt hands fist into her clothes as Luffy pulled himself closer. She looked down as he looked up, eyes dazed and red but no tears.

"Makino...?" He asked, his voice quiet and hoarse, even though he hadn't been screaming.

Makino's fingers threaded through his black hair as she smiled softly. "I'm here, Luffy. Are you alright?"

Luffy turned his head down and curled into her. She felt him nod.

"Are you sure?"

Silence. A nod.

Makino sighed, still petting his hair, and said quietly, "You wanna talk about it?"

He shook his head immediately.

She sighed again, softer this time. "Alright. You want me to sleep here tonight?"

She heard a small exhale of breath as Luffy nodded slowly.

Makino smiled. "Alright."

———

After that night Makino became more aware of the bags under Luffy's eyes. They weren't very noticeable but led her to believe that nightmares weren't entirely uncommon to the boy. She never heard anything, though, so she assumed that that time had been the first with the thrashing. When she asked in the morning Luffy responded with a simple, "Sometimes," and promptly changed the subject. Makino had sighed but didn't ask any further.

As Luffy ate his pancakes, Makino held the stack of papers she had been working on the night before in her hands. She glared at them a bit before sighing and setting them down. She wandered the kitchen and bar and took note of the things she needed to restock on.

Luffy finished eating moments later and stood with his plate, making his way to the kitchen. Makino passed him as he went and grabbed her purse from the bar counter. She glanced over at Luffy as he stood on his tip-toes to dump the plate in the sink. She chuckled softly.

"Luffy, I'm going to get some groceries! Could you wait and watch the pub until I come back? You can run off to train afterwards!"

"Okay!"

She shut the door behind her, forgetting about the papers she left on the counter.

When she came back, Luffy wasn't there.

———

When Luffy reached the end of trees and saw the vast wasteland of the Gray Terminal, a huge grin broke out on his face. He took in the sight of trash and smoke and more trash, breathed in the nostalgic stench of garbage (it wasn't that bad), and broke into a run down the slope.

When he came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, he threw himself into the nearest pile of junk.

Luffy absolutely wasn't crazy and had a perfectly good explanation for this. When he found out that Makino needed money, he remembered how he and Ace and Sabo used to make money for their pirate fund (or how they are making money? Because he traveled back in time? But he's not with them yet so cross that out). They would dig around in the dumped garbage from Goa Kingdom and look for anything good to sell. Sometimes they'd even steal from other guys with good stuff. Ace and Sabo made tons of money that way before he met them and they collected even more until Blue.. Blue-what again? It's been awhile. Until whatever that guy went and stole all their money.

So now Luffy was doing what he did all those years ago (or what didn't happen yet—god, time travel is confusing) and would give the money he earned to Makino to help with the pub and inn.

He also decided that he'd keep it a secret from Makino and hide whatever he earned under his bed until he had a lot to completely cover the money problems. He wanted to surprise her because surprises were cool and he loved them so she would too! He'd split the first half of the day between training and making money and the last half would be spent helping Makino around with whatever she needed. She was always doing a lot for him and Luffy wanted to repay her somehow, so he didn't mind stalling his training. He had years until he set out to sea or anything big happened, after all.

He was in a good spot with his training now, too. It had only been three months but his physical strength was strong enough to lift one of Makino's beer kegs (which are about as tall as him) and carry it down to the cellar without straining himself. His increased stamina let him run halfway up Mount Colubo without breaking too much of a sweat and he could swim multiple laps in the croc pond easily (the crocodiles were good for Conqueror's Haki training). He could almost use his Observation and Armament Haki to the same level it had been when he was halfway through his haki training with Rayleigh and Luffy couldn't wait to get his Gomu Gomu powers back to train those, too.

After digging around in the trash pile for a few minutes, Luffy didn't find anything interesting and decided to go further into the Gray Terminal to look for things to sell. He wandered around the area, eyeing the scattered garbage for anything that caught his eye. Occasionally he'd see a few people digging around as well and would say hi to them. Sometimes he would recognize some people and waltz up to them and chat them up like they haven't seen each other in ages (which was technically true in Luffy's case) (the other guys were usually very confused).

As he searched the multiple mounds, Luffy couldn't help but smile at the familiarity of the place. He had so many good memories (and bad, but he wasn't thinking about that) in the Gray Terminal and he couldn't help getting a bit nostalgic. He remembered running around with Ace and Sabo in the fields of trash and having so much fun. Life before he met them seemed unthinkable and boring and he didn't know how he'd have ended up if he hadn't met them. (Shanks, too. And Makino and his crew. There were a lot of people who held so much influence in his life that he couldn't imagine without.)

Honestly, Luffy wanted to see Ace and Sabo and become brothers with them right away. There were a few times in the forest when he was training his Observation Haki that he'd sense them. It was always only for a moment and their presences were small and felt different from what he remembered (though he never sensed Ace's before with his haki since, well...) but it never failed to give him the urge to run off after them.

He never did, though. Part of him wanted to meet them after he got stronger. He wanted to be able to fight by their side like he used to and have fun spars with them. He wanted to win those this time, too. He wanted to be able to protect them when those Blue-guy pirates came and tried to steal their money, and he especially wanted to protect Sabo when the guys his dad sent to kidnap him came.

The other part of him just somehow knew it wasn't time to meet them yet. He didn't understand, but he'd grown to trust his instincts over the course of his life. They'd never really been wrong and he wasn't going to doubt them now.

A few hours passed and Luffy had found a few cool things to sell and went home with 500 beri. It wasn't a whole lot, but it was a start.

As he made his way back, he admired the colors of the trees gradually turning red and orange and brown for the fall season. There was a light, cool breeze that drifted through the forest and lifted the bangs of his hair a bit. Luffy breathed in the autumn air, letting it out with a content sigh.

While he loved loud and energetic gatherings with his friends and nakama, Luffy had always cherished the rarer, quieter moments he had alone. It gave him a moment to just stop thinking (though he didn't do much of that), breathe in, and... relax. He could enjoy and appreciate the smaller things, like the bright stars covering the night sky or the gradually changing colors of the leaves and the few that fell from their branches.

Luffy loved these small moments, but he always found them even more enjoyable with someone to share them with. No one would speak and it wasn't ever uncomfortable. They'd just sit or stand there and take everything in.

Moments like those with Torao were the best.

Luffy breathed in again, letting the air out softly.

The rest of the walk home was made in silence.

Note: 100 beri roughly equals 1 USD

I actually forgot Bluejam's name and when I remembered I'd already written that 'Blue-what again?' bit so I went "yeah okay that's good that's fine" lmao

I'm definitely open to any ideas for this fic! I've got a lot of things in mind for the plot but I'm more lost for the things in between... Sorry if I don't end up using them tho!

This fic is also being cross-posted on Archive of Our Own! (Under same username) Thanks for reading!