Sunlight filtered gently through the open wooden windows of the Walker household, casting golden rays on the polished floor. A breeze wandered in, bringing with it the scent of the sea, the chirp of distant birds, and the promise of chaos.
A small blur darted past the kitchen entrance.
"Allen—!" Serena's voice was half a laugh, half a warning. "Put your father's coat down!"
Too late.
Allen D. Walker, two and a half years old, self-proclaimed lord of the house, came skidding into the living room wearing Hades' massive black cloak like a king's robe. The hem dragged several feet behind him as he puffed his chest, stood on a chair, and declared with a dramatic point toward the sky, "I am the pirate emperor of eggs and fish!"
Serena blinked. "...The what now?"
Hades appeared in the doorway, shirtless and soaked with seawater, his hair dripping, a freshly caught tuna slung over his shoulder. "I leave for twenty minutes."
Allen turned toward him with an exaggerated scowl. "Intruder! This island belongs to the mighty Eggfish King!"
Serena nearly dropped the tray she was carrying from laughing. "Eggfish King? Really?"
From the floor, a little voice squeaked, "Me too!"
Lumi, Allen's one-year-old little sister, had wrapped a towel around herself and was crawling after her brother, a wooden spoon held like a staff. "Eggfish Queen!"
"You're not queen," Allen huffed, hopping down. "You're my first mate."
"Mate-mate!" Selene parroted proudly.
Hades sighed and walked past them both to the kitchen, muttering, "At least she's not claiming to be Empress of Shrimp again."
Allen followed him like a puppy, still in the cloak. "Papa! You promised sword training today!"
"You're two," Hades deadpanned. "You still think hitting things with a stick makes them cook faster."
"But I'm strong!" Allen flexed dramatically. "Mama said so!"
Serena, now at the table, winked. "I also said you shouldn't use your Haki to steal cookies."
Hades raised an eyebrow. "Wait. What?"
Allen grinned wide and suspiciously innocent. "Cookies? What cookies?"
"Little flame," Serena said sweetly, "don't make me use the look."
Allen immediately stiffened. "N-No, Mama. Not the look."
From under the table, Selene whispered, "She gonna stare into your soul…"
---
Breakfast, when it eventually happened, was a circus.
Allen insisted on pouring the juice himself, which resulted in orange liquid cascading across the table.
Selene tried to eat eggs with her hands. Then her face.
Hades tried to explain something about sea currents and devil fruit behavior to Serena while simultaneously catching flying utensils Allen had launched into orbit with his "training Haki."
At some point, Selene climbed onto Hades' lap and declared, "Dada warm pillow."
Allen, not to be one-upped, dove across the table and latched onto Hades' other side. "Now you're a beanbag!"
Serena, watching the scene with folded arms and a smirk, commented, "My terrifying warlord of a husband, feared across oceans, reduced to human furniture."
Hades looked at her with a long-suffering groan. "Help."
"Hmm…" She sipped her tea. "No."
---
Later, outside, the family gathered under the giant tree by the cliff's edge. The ocean stretched endlessly before them, blue and unknowable.
Allen stood near the edge, arms spread, wind brushing through his hair. His back was to his family, unusually quiet for once.
Serena's brows furrowed. "What's wrong, my little flame?"
Allen didn't answer right away. He just stood still, squinting at the horizon. "Mama… does the sea call you too?"
Serena blinked. "What do you mean, sweetheart?"
"I dunno…" Allen looked down at his tiny hands. "Sometimes… when I look at the ocean, my chest feels funny. Like it wants to cry and laugh. Like something's... waiting."
She moved closer and knelt beside him, placing a hand over his heart. "It's okay to feel big things, even if you're small. The sea has that effect. Especially on those meant to sail it."
Allen leaned into her. "It feels like it remembers me."
Serena didn't reply immediately. Her smile faltered ever so slightly, touched with a quiet fear.
Hades, who'd been silent nearby, finally spoke. "The world has tides… and so do we. Sometimes we remember things not with our minds, but with our bones."
Serena glanced at him, eyes soft.
Allen tilted his head. "Does that mean I'm a tide?"
Serena smiled again and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "You're more like a storm, my little flame. Calm now, but one day… you'll change the whole ocean."
---
That night, as Serena tucked Selene in and Hades dozed with a book over his face, Allen crept from bed and walked to the stone door beneath the house.
It was hidden behind a shelf, sealed tightly. No key. No handle. Just stone.
But it called to him.
His tiny palm pressed against it. Warmth. A low hum, like the thrum of a distant drumbeat, pulsed under his skin.
The same pull from his dreams. The same whisper that curled in the wind. The same feeling that something forgotten... remembered him.
Inside, buried beneath layers of time, the Devil Fruit pulsed faintly in its stone cradle. For the first time in decades… it stirred.
---
Far across the sea, in temples swallowed by time, ancient ruins lit with sudden, unnatural fire.
Stone guardians groaned as though waking from slumber. Words long buried shimmered on forgotten walls:
> "The First Flame Stirs. The Sea Remembers. The Sky Watches."
A cloaked figure stood before the flickering glyphs, one hand trembling. "He's awakened... the child of fire…"
---
Back in his bed, Allen dreamed of wings — not feathered, but forged of light and shadow.
Of voices that whispered without sound.
Of flames that burned not to destroy, but to remind the world that it had forgotten something precious.
He slept with a smile on his face.
And far beneath the house, in silence older than memory, the First Devil Fruit pulsed once more.