#newpolo

Gram fully and completely realizing that his jokes is not a joke when he watches Newgate and Marco interact over some food Marco refused to eat. Marco always refused to eat winter crab, even if he had to starve because it looked gross. Newgate offers Marco some, and Marco refuses. And Newgate just- shrugs. Casually. "That's true, you're not big enough or old enough for such a taste."

And that makes Marco sit up, because he's seven, a full grown adult you know. And he says, "I'm a adult enough, I want some."

But Newgate just sets his plate higher and shakes his head. "No, no, I don't want to force you."

The entire crew is choking back laughter because they tried that before- but it's different when it's Newgate because Newgate's the tallest and strongest. Marco just starts trying to climb up, but Newgate actually plucks him off and sets him back down on his seat. He wouldn't even do that if Marco was swiping a sip from his sake cup. Now, Marco's really protesting.

And finally Marco looks at him, tears in his eyes, as he cries out, "Daddddddd, I'm a adult enough, right?"

And Newgate is keeping the same grave look as he protests Marco's too young and too little for Crab.

It's Gram who cracks first, and just like he thought- Marco actually quite likes the taste. And over Marco's head, Newgate smiles, a far smaller smile then he has when laughing at the crewmates jokes, and it's far warmer then anything he's seen before.

Gram never jokes about being in love again.

(Newgate actually fell in love far sooner then Gram, and didn't realize Gram was joking for a second. He's a man dense when it comes to love, so all he knows is Gram suddenly stopped flirting with him after getting Marco to eat snow crab. The resulting hurt and confusion is not solved until a island is nearly tipped into the sea.)

😭Oh my gods this mini fic is soo adorable!!! I'm crying!!! thank you for writing it, it made my day!!!!

This is exactly my headcanon. That finally he confesses his dream and Graham is like: why is this a problem, honey? You already have us , it's the beginning of your dream! And we'll adopt so many more!

Graham w/ 7 years old Marco: maps :)

Graham: our child Marco 🌞

Newgate: what?

Graham: congrats on the surprise adoption!

This reminds me that some fans are uncertain about Gram due to the reputation of biological parents in One Piece. Which is fair.

But look at this little boy, everything indicates he's just a mischievous/gremling child.

Oda favours clearly the chosen family/found family over biological one but let's be honest this position is the exception not the norm, it is one of the few series/works of fiction that legitimates alternative ways of having a family over the traditional one. He is brave enough to show something that it is the reality for many people: toxic or even abuse biological families. He shows that that doesn't have to be the end of the story, the end of the possibility of having a family at all (as an example the entirety of the arc of Whole Cake Island is precisely about that). Having said that though, Oda has some bio parents who are good, for example Rebecca's dad Kyros, he sacrifices everything for his little girl and we also have in the case of Fishman Island a very united royal family which are family by blood and they adore each other. In the case of Gram and Whitebeard even if Marco is Gram's bio child they are still a queer family. Even more so if they decided to began an adoption spree.

This is one of the points of Marine Ford!! It's the World Government's abhorrence of pirate families/found families, they declare Ace Gold Roger's son but the one who comes as his father is Whitebeard! One of the things Oda shows us is that he truly was his father and that the phrase Akainu says in disdain: "pirates and their families" represents the hatred that the World Government has to anyone who is out of a normative imperialistic classist and racist way of living. The biopolitics of the World Government was pretty clear and that they won't stand for those who aren't aligned with the traditional way of doing things.

"...No? We're getting married?"

"Captain, didn't you say you just wanted him for his knowledge on the Red Line?"

"Well, yes, but, you know, it takes decades. Using trust built from raising kids together."

"He told you everything you wanted to know over a drink within one week captain."

"Yeah, but maybe that's what he just wants us to think. I think we need to keep him longer."

I can see that maybe Gram began his interest out of admiration in the sense that "he is strong and we need strong people for our crew" and maybe also thought he seemed kind of out of place with the Rock pirates. Gram seems the type of person who wins by calculating the enemy's weaknesses rather than by being extremely powerful. Maybe he also wanted someone already seasoned like Whitebeard (and it also helped that he found Newgate kind of hot, but that's another story 😂)

Nonetheless!!!! I like the idea that admiration turned slowly to friendship and then it migrated to something more until it clicked and he was like: I have to marry this man. And his crew: cap you don't have to. And Gram: nope I absolutely will. So yeah, once that was clear the crew was like: ok so that's happening we kind of knew our captain was queer and I guess we had that coming 😂

The wedding was officiated on Sphinx (of course!!!!) the Roger pirates were invited!!!! (Roger cried like a bitch I will leave to speculation who was the best man)

And considering how much time must have passed since Graham's death? Imagine Jozu trying to reminisce about that time for someone new, but he confuses Gram and Marco, and is met with a shaken look/glare.