Chapter Text
Tick tick tick
“I’m going to surrender myself to the marines,” Rouge stopped stirring the soup. The retired pirate’s crimson gaze drifted to Roger’s exhausted but stead eyes. The silver streaked his hair more than his obsidian hair that once was covered by his straw hat many years ago. There were smile lines still at the corner of his eyes as he searched for her reaction – gauging.
“I see,” Rouge pressed her lips into a thin line. Roger was dying. She knew he had Crocus prolonging his terminal illness for years. The miracle doctor managed to keep Roger alive for decades. However, Roger’s lifespan was merely an ember. The spells of fatigue, his strength dissipating and days he even struggled to keep his lunch in. Rouge and Roger had decided they would spend the rest of his days together at Baterille.
The island they first met.
“When?”
“In two months,” Roger observed Rouge’s demeanour. His wife wasn’t sure what she wanted or how she felt about this. She didn’t say anything except return back to her food. She knew this was going to happen or at least something akin to this. Roger was never the man to die at home. He lived his best life and even in his dying days he was filled with power and life. So, she had expected him to go out in spectacle.
Rouge wasn’t sure how she felt about this.
Tick tick tick
She was numb. She couldn’t allow herself to do anything except exhale deeply and keep stirring the bubbling pot.
The chair scraped against the wooden floor, the heavy thud of footsteps across the kitchen. Large arms wrapped around her waist, his head finding the crook of her neck. “Sweetness,” He murmurs against her neck “Say something. Please.”
“There isn’t anything to say,” She sighs, leaning further against him. She closed her eyes “I just… I thought we had more time.”
“Sweetness,” His lips brushed her neck, taking the spoon from her hand.
“I-” She swallowed thickly, “I told you, didn’t I?” Rouge tilted her head towards him and gave him a heavy smile “I will spend the rest of my days with you. Whether it is a day, a year or ten.” She cupped his face “I will be with you until the end.”
Her lips met his gently, brushing a thumb against his jaw.
He lifted her up deepening the kiss.
Tick tick tick
Her heart wasn’t in the kiss.
It was dying with him.
Heavy coughs reverberated through Roger’s chest, shaking both himself and his wife awake. She sat up quickly, holding Roger and helping him sit up straight and handed him the inhaler Crocus had prescribed. He inhaled heavily while forcing himself to breathe slowly.
He hated the difficulty in breathing.
He hated the effort it took to breathe.
He hated seeing the worry in Rouge’s eyes.
He hated being sick.
“I’m here,” Rouge smiled softly at him, her callused fingers steadying his grip. She was warm. He hated concentrating on his breathing. It was difficult to breathe and tell his lungs to follow his own commands, but his body trusted Rouge.
His soul trusted her.
He lowered the inhaler and held Rouge’s hand in his. She deliberately breathed slowly. His body mimicking her breathing pattern like a song they mastered at years at sea, piracy and domesticity.
His energy was focused on her. His Haki reached out to hers and she smiled softly at him as her Haki held him too. He kissed her fingertips, still mirroring his wife.
He loves her.
His Haki knew hers like it was his own. It was familiar. Grounding.
Roger tilted his head in confusion earning a quirked brow from her.
What?
She felt different. Not completely different but different.
He held both of Rouge’s hands staring at them intently. He closed his eyes, allowing his Haki to expand towards his beloved, sensing, tasting the different flavour of her energy. His illness had corroded the sharpness of his Haki but he knew hers. His hand reached to her belly and the small kindling embers there had him stare at her in shock “You’re pregnant?”
Rouge stared at him in surprise but smiled softly, her hand placed on top of his “Yes. Well, I suspected it.”
“We are having a child,” He stared at her, a grin spreading on his face.
“We are having a child,” She grinned nodding her head.
“A baby!” Roger’s booming laughed reverberated through the walls as he pulled her into his arms, pulling her as he fell back against the mattress. Rouge pressed against his chest, her blonde hair splayed around them “We are having a baby!”
“We are, Beloved” Her eyes softened. She brushed her thumb against the corner of his mouth. Memorising his grin, the feel of his jaw and his stubble beneath her fingers “We are having a baby.”
“I am so happy,” Roger kissed her.
Rouge smiled but her gaze was distant, “But you won’t be here to meet our little one.”
“I know, I wish I could.” He placed a hand on her flat belly.
“I will not be staying here” Her pen tapped against the table – staring at the list of groceries.
“Where will you go?” He would be a liar if he had not expected Rouge to leave.
“I don’t know yet,” Rouge sighed putting the pen down. “You will be surrendering yourself in three days. It will be suspicious if we both disappear simultaneously. But after you leave, I will follow in a few weeks. The marines are not as dumb as I would like them to be. Especially not their intelligence agency. They will find us, and they will try and kill anyone we may be affiliated with.”
“I was going to send Garp to keep you safe,” Roger admitted.
Rouge released something akin to a snort, “Garp’s obsession with you is akin to closeted unidentified homoerotic sexual attraction towards you. He wants to fuck you but disguises it as a need to fight you.”
Roger cackled at her acclamation, “Too bad I have no interest in Garp.” Rouge joined him in his laughter “But he would come to keep you and the baby safe.”
“He would,” Rouge nods “While Garp is rebellious with the marines, he is more likely to choose his duty over our child.”
Roger didn’t say anything for a minute, “What do you have in mind then?”
“I’m going to see Shakky and ask her to find Chuallang”
“Chuallang?” He blinked in surprise, recognizing the name “You mean… the…?”
She nodded “The Dimension Hopper.”