As swaths of people moved through the Goa Kingdom capital, three boys stood wondering what all the fuss was about. Every shop was filled with children purchasing small gifts, every restaurant packed with families celebrating some aspect of their lives together. It wasn't until they finally paused in front of a storefront advertising a sale that they finally realized why.

"Mother's Day Tomorrow! Pick up the perfect gift here!"

Sabo was the only one of the group with any experience of what Mother's Day entailed, though his memory was marred by thoughts of his overbearing (to put it nicely) mother, and he kept his thoughts to himself. Ace and Luffy couldn't quite wrap their minds around it though.

"They gave a whole day to moms? What'd they do?" Luffy asked.

"You idiot," Ace told him, stretching out his cheek until tears pooled in the corners of his eyes. "You wouldn't be here without a mom!"

"Owwww, Ace stop it!" He cried, not listening to Ace's "Crybaby," muttered under his breath

. A small family walked past them, ignorant of their argument. Their voices floated over to the group as the young child smiled up at what was most likely her mother, pulling her into the shop.

"Come on, mommy! I wanna buy you some flowers with the money daddy gave me!"

As the mother giggled at her daughter, the boys stopped their fighting and contemplated the holiday presented to them.

It seemed as though all the families in the city that day were enjoying the festivities they planned for themselves, the various mothers smiling with pride at their children who looked at them with such love and adoration it was almost blinding.

Ace, Sabo, and Luffy decided they wanted in on that, but how?

"What do moms even like?" Ace asked no one in particular. They couldn't get flowers, that'd be ridiculous. They'd probably die of embarrassment on the spot. So what to do?

"You know, we did steal that sake from Dadan a while back..." Sabo piped up. Ace groaned. Luffy picked his nose.

These are the events that led to Ace, Sabo, and Luffy standing on each others' heads, hidden in a trench coat, trying to buy a bottle of sake from a shady vendor with their meager amount of coin. If the vendor knew who he was selling to (he did) he didn't let it on. Coin was coin, regardless of if it came from kids or adults.

Running through the Gray Terminal holding their new purchases, the boys raced back to the top of Mt. Colubo, pausing before the entrance to the bandit camp so they could prepare themselves. Ace was chosen to sneak inside to steal a piece of paper and some ink so they could write their note. It didn't take him long, and when the three finished their preparations they strolled inside, casual as ever, hiding the items behind them.

If anyone saw what they were doing (they did), nobody commented. It seemed the mountain bandits were curious to see what the young wanna-be-pirates were up to. They wouldn't find out until the morning though, when the boys had long run off back to their antics, and Curly Dadan's yelling woke up any straggling sleepers.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

There smackdab in the middle of her room lay a rather large bottle of sake next to a note. The bandit leader tried to hide proud tears as they spilled from her eyes as she read it, smiling to herself. When she caught site of the other members of the Family staring at her she snapped out of her reverie.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GO MAKE YOURSELVES BUSY!"

As they scurried from her wrath, she popped the bottle opening into her mouth and took a big swig, the note floating to the ground as she turned to go about her day. As the note hit the ground, the sun from the open window illuminated the words written on the paper."

"Happy Mother's Day"