Chapter Text
Fifteen years had passed since they had been here and everything seemed the same. Nothing had changed. Returning to the island of their origins was something they had wanted to do for a long time, but the captain refused each time.
Bepo smiled in his seat breathing in the clean air of the island, he decided he would take a break to lie down in the comfortable, cold snow while they got everything ready to return to the small house that had been home to him and his first three nakama for three years.
The cold harbor air was very soothing, it took him back to his first good memories he had after his life fell apart at the age of nine, and he found himself in a new world that for some reason hated him.
But now Bepo considered it a positive experience. He had been through worse in these years and after all, if all that hadn't happened , he wouldn't have been able to meet his captain or his crew on this same island.
“Hey Bepo! Stop lazing around and help us!” Penguin shouted, as he loaded a box of food for the people.
“I'll go get the captain out of his room” He replied. Penguin yelled back that he could do it later and now they needed physical help, but Bepo ignored him.
He entered his submarine and went directly to the captain's room and knocked on the captain's door several times. He didn't hear a “come in,” but he did hear a grunt, so he decided to go in. He was sitting on his bed reading a regional newspaper, exclusive to North Blue. There were several more on the little table next to him, and more on his desk.
"Captain, we're in Plessure Town's harbor."
“I know” He said without looking away from what he was doing or bothering to give any indication that he was going to leave his room any time soon.
“Captain...”
“I'll come out when I'm done reading this.”
“Aye aye, Captain. Have you eaten?”
“Sure.” He replied nonchalantly.
Bepo left the room for the kitchen. Everyone else would have eaten by now, and Clione must have been out helping the rest, so when he entered the dining room it was completely empty. He went to the fridge, and as expected, his captain's food was there, untouched and intact. Liar.
He frowned and added some of the leftover rice for dinner, as revenge. The captain didn't comment when he brought her the plate and set it down on the small table.
Out of curiosity, he picked up one of the newspapers he had already finished reading on his desk.
“Captain...”
“I just wanted to make sure.”
There were a lot of articles relating to him, all the things he'd done on the grand line, with the occasional appearance by another crew member.
The press was considerably worse than when they were still sailing the North blue, in the newspaper Bepo had picked out, they had accused him of destroying Dressrosa, ignoring all of Doflamingo's role, and in the one his captain was reading, they had slightly altered the Rocky Port incident to make it look like he stole organs from innocent people.
He supposed the reporters didn't expect him to come back alive and no longer feared reprisals.
It made some sense, because in the next article they claimed they were defeated and slaughtered.
“Where did you get them from?”
There was a collection of newspapers from different years, surely you couldn't buy them at the first store you passed.
“Lvneel's tavern keeper compiled the news of the North Blue pirates.”
“And he gave them to you, Captain?”
“We are pirates, Bepo.”
Yes, right. Sometimes he would forget. Even though he'd literally been at it for more than half his life.
The captain folded the newspaper and exchanged it for another and grimaced. Bepo was sorely tempted to snatch the paper out of his hands and force him to eat, but he literally only needed a wave of his hands to retrieve it.
“Hey, Bepo.” The captain called. "Do you think Wolf will want to meet me?"
He said it in a tone that seemed indifferent, but Bepo hadn't spent thirteen years of his life with the man in vain. There were tinges in his voice that reflected vulnerability.
He understood, of course, when they were teenagers, the locals had grown very fond of them in just three years. No one knew where he came from, nor their captain, but they treated them as if they had been there all this time. They knew that Shachi and Penguin had been extremely troubled teenagers, but when they discovered the truth beneath their actions, they welcomed them with open arms. Law was just a doctor's assistant back then, he had helped many people with their health problems and even helped protect the island once.
But now? He's an infamous pirate, with a reputation for being especially cruel, with several unpleasant stories behind his back, and, with these stories, it's only natural that the people of Swallow would think he'd become an emotionless monster.
Then there was the issue of Wolf and the Polar Tang. Bepo was saddened and lowered his ears just thinking about the Polar Tang. In that sense, coming back also became somewhat bittersweet for him.
That's not to mention the story of the man with sons who become despicable pirates.... Yes, he certainly understood being afraid to face him.
Fear.... Amazing how a man who stood up to emperors of the sea would be so afraid of an island's approval, isn't it? Wolf, being the last protective figure his captain had before he assumed that role for the rest, was perhaps the only man outside the crew whose approval still mattered to him.
“I don't know, Captain.” He replied, lowering his head. “I'm sorry.”
He wanted to think he was, but it had been too long, there was no way of knowing. They had hoped Wolf had remained skeptical of the news, but sometimes they could be very convincing.
“Never mind, it's a stupid question.” He said.
“It's not... “ He whispered.
Then someone was heard knocking on the door. The captain grunted and the person entered.
Sure enough, it was one of his nakama. It's not like it could be more.
“There's someone waiting for both of us outside.” He said cheerfully, then frowned as he saw the plate on the table. “Captain, haven't you eaten?”
He rolled his eyes. “Go ahead, Bepo.”
Bepo obeyed, closing the door on his way out and trusting that he would be made to eat.
He stepped outside, meeting Wolf directly. Wow, that was fast.
He was having a conversation with Shachi and Penguin, and some nakamas were trying to eavesdrop as they walked by.
“Hello, Bepo.” Said the older man, with a small smile. “You've gotten very tall.”
The mink walked over and gave him a big bear hug. Wolf patted his back with laughter. It looked like they had nothing to worry about.
“Where's the little menace?” he asked.
“He'll be along later.”
“I see his bad manners are still present” He muttered.
Shachi and Penguin went back to their duties and left them time alone. Bepo and Wolf sat on a large rock on the beach covered by cold rocks and snow, watching the sea and turning their backs to the distinctive swallow-shaped rock formation.
“Shachi and Penguin have told me about most of your trip, but there are things I want you to tell me.” Wolf said. “You made it to Zou, what's it like, were you able to meet up with your brother?”
Bepo's eyes went wide. Right, Zepo. He hadn't thought about Zepo for a long time.
“Zepo... He died a long time ago.” He said, lowering his ears and head. “I'm sorry.”
Wolf grimaced and moved closer to him. “I see your habit for apologizing for no reason didn't change either.”
Although Wolf didn't ask for the continuation of the story, Bepo wanted to give it to him anyway, however, now there was something hovering in his head that made him shudder. He took a deep breath.
“When we got to Zou, he was going through a lot of stress. All of us.” He began to count shakily, Wolf listened intently without saying anything. “I wasn't even thinking about Zepo.... When his nakama told me he had died, I cried for two nights, after that, all I could think about was that I needed the captain to come back alive and safe.”
“Wasn't he with you?” the old man interrupted, frowning, Bepo shook his head. “Was it when your alliance with the boy in the straw hat was announced, the Dressrosa attack and you went to defeat those emperors ?”
Bepo nodded, not surprised that he had guessed, but grimaced. He was about to rectify the incomplete information he would have read about the destruction of Dressrosa, but Wolf interrupted him.
“I can still imagine what you're thinking” He laughed. “But I don't want to hear it, whatever happened in Dressrosa Law will tell me.”
Bepo closed his mouth, nodding. “But we were already gathered when he defeated the emperor.”
Wolf laughed, imagining a polar bear kicking a giant woman, a penguin pecking at a dragon, and an orca half the size an orca should be spitting water at him.
“Wolf, do you think I'm a bad person for forgetting my brother?” Bepo asked. Wolf looked him in the eye without saying a word. “I went out to sea to find him, but when I found out he died, I couldn't even grieve properly.”
“Tell me something, Bepo. Your brother became a pirate because he wanted to, didn't he?” Bepo nodded his head. “In that case, you shouldn't worry, he chose his priorities and you chose yours, that's just the way things are.”
Bepo looked away and focused on the ground. He couldn't even remember Zepo, he imagined him as a mustachioed version of himself, taller, in pirate clothes and cooler, because that's what big brothers are supposed to be like.
From what Bepo learned from humans, they sometimes tended to ignore their blood ties a bit. He has known several cases in his travels of parents abandoning their children to go to sea or even parents outright mistreating them. But at the same time, the need for a family was written in their genes so they sought out a new one.
Choosing your family... It seemed such a strange concept, yet so natural at the same time.
The Mink had looked at him with pity ever since he got the news about Zepo, but at the same time, he wasn't the one he'd been mourning the longest, and he never dared to rectify them.
“Bepo?”
“I got lost in my thoughts, sorry.” He patted his face and shook it. Right, he wanted to tell his whole experience on Zou. He had to focus.
“The dukes of Mokomo Dukedom welcomed us without objection when we arrived. Some older minks still remembered me.” Bepo began to recount everything he experienced on Zou's back.
For a while he was worried about not fitting in, when he arrived in North Blue they saw him as a strange creature, and of course, he understood that, he understood that people were afraid of him, they stayed away from him, the violent, maybe extremely violent reactions, he was not like them, he behaved like what he was, a Mink.
Now, he had acquired human habits, while he was losing Mink behaviors, he had not interacted with others of his kind, except Faust, but he doesn't count (Sorry, Faust!) being more of an outsider to the other Minks than Bepo himself.
He recalled how Pedro almost pounced on him with a garchu when Nekomamushi announced that they would be his guests, and the next day he himself accompanied him to see Inuarashi.
How the Duke thanked Shachi and Penguin for taking care of one of their own, while he watched in amusement as they became nervous when the Duke asked how they met.
How the rest of his nakamas were accepted so easily.
“Just like that, they didn't care that you were pirates?”
Bepo denied. “The dukes were pirates too. Minks are warm towards their own kind, and towards humans who treat them well.”
“Sounds like you.”
Then came the storm. Jack and the Beast Pirates.
"I ordered them back to the submarine without me."
He fondly remembered everyone's protests, Shachi telling him he wasn't allowed to act like the captain because he was never going to be one. “They did, but they came back soon after, only obeying to get weapons.”
Later, when the Straw Hats came and settled the whole thing, he apologized, and Penguin remarked that it was the first time I had ever meaningfully apologized because it was such an unreasonable order, looking back, he must have seen it coming.
“The two of them haven't changed at all either” Wolf hummed. “I have a feeling Shachi will want a party, then.”
Bepo smiled, he wasn't wrong. Maybe, if they had decided not to spy on them, they would already be preparing it. He concentrated on his surroundings to listen to the ambient sound.... He heard nothing, too quiet to be Heart Pirates, so clearly they were eavesdropping.
“One of them picked up an axe, and he dropped it because he hadn't used one in months and it was too big for him.”
“Bepo!” Hakugan's voice rang out from behind some giant rocks, then several commanded him to shut up. He wasn't sure how many were there, but his bet was nineteen.
“Sorry.”
The poor man went back into hiding, with no intention of giving them any real privacy. Wolf let out a big laugh.
“And then?”
“The captain came back.” He smiled, but then his expression suddenly changed. “And he didn't properly introduce us to his new allies.” Bepo folded his arms and frowned. They had practiced their presentation a lot....
But he forgive him, he would always forgive his family.