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Chapter Text

Luffy struggled weakly--though admittedly it was probably as hard as he could--against his ropes, and Porchemy laughed cruelly as he pressed harder on Ace's head with his boot. He was struggling and flailing against the hard ground, to no avail.

"Well, it seems like that blond brat won't be coming back…"

"He will! And he's bringing bandits to kick your asses if I don't do it first!" Ace spat in turn, trying to look up at Porchemy and avoid looking at the bloody pulp of a kid still dangling from the ceiling.

"Will he now? Well, the way I see it, you need a little lesson on your place." He ground the boy's head into the ground for emphasis.

"Beat me up all you want, I ain't telling you where the treasure is neither'." Ace hissed.

The pirate let out a chuckle, a dark sound that echoed off the walls. "You? Who said anything about hurting 𝘺𝘰𝘶?"

Ace swallowed his bile, keeping up his scowl. "That kid's already passed out, anything else and he'll die. How do you get your answer from him then, huh? Bastard." He insulted, trying his best to glare. Sabo would be here soon and so would the bandits.

Again with the chuckle, Ace felt a dark, sick feeling settle in his gut. He abruptly had his hands tied behind his back by a Bluejam nobody, and was hauled to a sitting position with a gun to his head. The boy tried to glare at whoever held the gun but all he could see from where he was sat was that kid.

It had been hours since he was tied up, he looked like a good sneeze from death, how had he not told Porchemy yet? All Ace had done was try to kill this kid, why was he staying quiet? He couldn't understand, he tugged uselessly at his bonds and watched the blood drip from the kid--Luffy's body. He held his glare but got more and more shivers the longer he looked at the sight.

But then 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘥 was back again, wearing spiked gloves covered in blood in all states of dryness. He pulled back a fist about the size of the boy's torso and punched, cracks echoed and blood dropped, but Luffy didn't make a sound. Ace, however, made plenty to fill the silence as the younger boy rocked back and forth from where he was hung.

"What the fuck?! He's just a kid! He doesn't know shit, even if he did he sure as hell can't say so anymore!" He yelled, but froze when the barrel of the gun pushed harder into his scalp. Porchemy barely paused, going back to hitting him over and over and over. Blood seeped into the ground and Ace yelled about it being useless until his voice went hoarse. Where the hell was Sabo?

Porchemy was breathing heavily when he stopped, and Ace felt like vomiting. "I'm gettin' real fuckin' sick of how quiet you are, kid. I haven't heard you scream in hours." Ace was shaking more than the kid actually being tortured, he wasn't even certain if Luffy was alive anymore.

But then a grin grew on Porchemy's face. "I've been real' wound up since you brats stole our treasure, and this brat's wheezing is starting to really piss me off." And Ace wasn't sure what that meant but it made him nauseous regardless.

"Porchemy…you wouldn't…" The man holding the gun sounded sick, and Ace felt dread slithering up and constricted his chest when the first mate barked a "Shut up!" Before turning back to look at the older kid.

"Don't you see, Ace? This is all your fault. This kid's been protecting you, and if I'm reading this right, the idiot doesn't even get a cut of the gold."

Ace remained silent, which didn't deter the pirate.

"This brat's not going to survive this; you can probably tell. A person only has so much blood, and you haven't said a peep about the gold you stole for yourself." Ace clenched his teeth. He didn't understand. That money was so Sabo and he could be free, Porchemy didn't know him. Luffy was the idiot that didn't talk even though he owed him less than nothing. It wasn't his fault.

It wasn't.

"I almost pity whatever father spawned a demon kid like you." Ace didn't hear if the pirate said anything else, he just blankly stared at the ever growing puddle of blood.

That was something he hadn't heard before.

He always heard that the son of the pirate king was a demon, always hated being the son of the pirate king. But was he the son a father would be ashamed of? Now he was a demon kid and it was because of what he did. His father had nothing to do with it, he'd become a monster all on his own. Self fulfilling prophecy, Sabo might say, but Sabo still 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥.

He got pulled back to reality when he saw the rope that once held Luffy fall to the ground, his head snapped to look at Porchemy grabbing his sword, and felt the barrel of the gun push harder into his scalp. "What are you doing?" He tried to sound accusatory but sounded more shaken, when did he start crying?

The pirate shoved Luffy's bound hands out of the way of his bleeding middle, his wrists made a sound when they hit the puddle. This was it. One of the only idiots Ace had ever seen that actually wanted to know him was going to die. Because Ace wouldn't even give up some stupid berries. "I-I'll tell you!" His voice cracked, in a moment of desperation.

Porchemy froze, turning to look at Ace. "I'll tell you where the treasure is, just let him go!" He could apologise to Sabo later after punching him for how long he was taking.

And Porchemy laughed, and Ace felt like throwing up. "You think it's that easy?" The older boy was shaking, and the younger was limp. "You've given more trouble than you're worth, brat. I'm killing this stupid fucking kid and if you resist then you'll get a bullet through your skull. Then I'll just have to repeat this whole process with the blond brat, we wouldn't want that, would we?" And Ace fell silent. Porchemy put his blade to Luffy's stomach and started slowly pressing.

The first and only pain-filled whimper from Luffy shattered Ace, and Ace couldn't do anything from where he sat tied up and scared like the kid he was, barely rendering whatever Porchemy was saying as he drove the blade deeper.

But then Sabo burst in, with a giant group of bandits behind him, and Ace watched the horror flash across his eyes. A similar look came across every bandit before everyone ran at once.

Porchemy was quickly overwhelmed by the many bandits, and he watched Sabo race over to Luffy, trying to pick him up gently. The second the gun was removed from his head he raced over to join them, tripping a little but not caring.

They were all grouped together, and all the fighting seemed to be happening above them with the adults multiple times their size. Sabo hadn't looked up at Ace yet, now trying to use his jacket to stop any sort of bleeding.

Ace's mouth felt too dry when he spoke. "Is he--"

"Why didn't you just tell him where the fucking treasure was?" Sabo was looking at Ace now, and Ace couldn't have felt more like shit. "It was just treasure, we could have gotten it another way, it wasn't…"

Ace let him talk, not having a rude retort or defence for once. "It wasn't worth this happening. He didn't deserve this." Sabo said, his voice brittle.

He went back to trying to help Luffy. "I tried to, he didn't care." The blond turned back to Ace when he spoke. "Said he just wanted to kill him, like he deserved it." They both held second hand sneers for the pirate.

A sharp inhale had them both snapping to look at Luffy, who's eyes were just barely open. "M' sorry." he mumbled, looking at Ace, who felt like throwing up again.

"Shut up, you got nothing to be sorry for." Ace responded, and if his voice was still a little gravely from crying, the two didn't comment.

"Didn' wan' you to see. M' weak." He slurred, and Sabo tried to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he flinched, and the blond mentally scolded himself.

"Why did you do that?" Ace asked. "Could've told him hours ago, you never owed me shit, you could have died."

"Wouldn't like me if I did." Ace wanted to kick his past self's ass. "M' all alone, that's worse than all the hurt in the world." And Ace and Sabo both looked at the kid with wide eyes.

Ace swallowed his bile. "So, you want me around…?" Sabo looked at him chiding the same way he's done every other time the other boy questioned himself, but Ace was still looking at Luffy.

"Mhm." The response was lagged but not by choice, Luffy held a small comforting smile as he fell back into darkness, and Ace bit his lip.

--

It had been about three days after the incident when Luffy was let out of the bandits' infirmary, and Ace and Sabo were waiting for him. He stepped out of the doors withv- bandages still half-mummifying him, and a giant grin. "HI!" His eyes met with Ace for about two seconds before doing a full turn to look at Sabo. "My name's Monkey D. Luffy, I'm gonna be king of the pirates, nice to meet you!" He said very loudly, putting both his arms in front of him like he was picking up an invisible box.

"I'm Sabo… What is it you're doing?"

"Gramps said you shake hands when you're and adult and 'resect' someone, I forgot which hand." Sabo blushed a little, scratching the back of his head with a gap-tooth smile.

"I think you mean 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵, and I wouldn't quite put myself as an adult yet."

Luffy squinted a little, looking at Sabo, then his tophat, then him again. "You act more like a grown up than Gramps." Ace snorted at that.

Sabo cleared his throat to hide his own laugh before sticking out one hand. Luffy got a giant smile at that, grabbing the boy's hand with both of his before shaking them violently. The blond let out an involuntary quack at the rough handling, while Ace laughed off to the side at the interaction.

"Hey! Does this mean I can hang out with you guys?" Ace looked at Sabo before nodding.

"Just don't get eaten, I ain't fishing you out of gator guts or anything."

They both ended up going back on this statement multiple times.

--

Dadan sighed in frustration at the newest seat at the table. "Sabo, huh? Well, one bowl of rice and a glass of water per day is all I can guarantee you." She said with a sneer that showed off yellowed teeth. "The rest you gotta get yourself."

Sabo nodded from his seat, taking his hat off at the table while all the other bandits were pigging out around him. Luffy saw this and pushed his hat to rest around his neck in a loose mimicry. "That's fair enough." The blond said. "You are under no obligations, I thank you for what you provide." He said with a nod that made Dadan scowl.

"See, see! Told you she was a real nice lady." Luffy cheered, and Sabo raised a skeptical brow while Dadan glared at the boy with a raised fist, before sighing at patting his head roughly.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" The bandit seemed almost fond, which threw Ace and Sabo for a bit of a loop, but dinner continued without further incident so they moved on.

Chapter Text

"Ace!" Luffy called, looking through the woods for his brother. He huffed when he was just met with more trees. He was dragging Sabo behind him, and Sabo was going easily enough even while trying to convince the boy that they didn't need to get Ace.

"You're sick." Luffy stated, and the blonde sighed again, the same as he had the last fifteen minutes.

"I am not." The blonde was indignant, he couldn't convince the youngest of their trio that he was not, in fact, sick. He didn't need anyone to know anything, it wasn't a big deal anyway.

"You are!" The youngest barked, continuing to drag the kid behind him as he looked for his other big brother.

It was another five minutes of aimless wandering when they finally started hearing noises. An odd tapping had them both rushing forward, and Luffy gasped. The boy seemed to have sparkles in his eyes when he saw the partially built structure nestled into the branches of a big tree.

"Ace!" Luffy called loudly, and heard a slightly off tap followed by a thunk and a string of curses.

Eventually a slightly red Ace poked his head out from behind one of the half constructed walls. "Luffy?! Dammit this was supposed to be a surprise!" He groaned.

"And what exactly is 'this' supposed to be?" Sabo asked, eyeing the amateur handywork.

Ace blushed furiously, climbing down a very unsafe looking rope ladder. "You don't gotta say it like that!" He huffed, scratching the back of his head a little once he hit the ground. "Well, y'know, Dadan and her bandits are family, and they've got a place. We don't really got one yet, so I kinda…" Before he petered out looking at his newly founded brothers' expressions.

Luffy seemed to be a second from bouncing himself across the island, and Sabo was looking down at the grass with his hands in tight fists.

The blonde finally raised his head and Ace was taken aback by the glassy eyes. "We could have helped, you know." He said, a furrow in his brow.

The freckled boy blinked several times, before putting a hand on his forehead, making the blonde smack his arm. "I'm not sick, damn it!" He barked, and Luffy was on him in a second.

"Yes you are."

Ace sighed before looking to Luffy for an explanation, betraying Sabo as he scowled.

Luffy had his arms crossed. "His tummy hurted earlier - after breakfast, so he wasn't hungry." And Sabo winced. He didn't mean for anyone to see that.

"So you're sick." Ace stated, and now he had both brothers looking at him.

Sabo felt his cheeks heat up. "That's not it! I'm not--"

"Then what is it?" Luffy asked, and the blonde almost forgot that the kid wasn't just Ace's clone sometimes, he could at least deal with absolute stubbornness. "And you can't say it's nothing because you called it 'it'." Sabo tousled his hair roughly. He needed to learn to watch his tongue.

Sabo was going to stick to his guns, really, but then Ace had to add his own two cents. "We're brothers, you can tell us."

That was the final nail in the coffin, and Sabo sighed. Luffy led the two of them and they sat in the unfinished treehouse, almost making the conversation seem more private even though they were the only ones in this part of the forest.

Sabo made the move to talk, knowing neither brother would talk over him. "I'm… well, I wasn't…" He sighed.

"I'm a man." He said, and two heads tilted, like it was an obvious statement. "Though, I wasn't made like one." He dropped a second later, and both seemed confused.

He sighed, he seemed to be doing that more and more. "I wasn't born under my name, and when I was born…" He trailed off when a fist hit Luffy's open hand.

"I get it!" He said, a proud smile on his face. "You're trans!" Sabo choked on his spit.

He coughed for about two minutes while Luffy laughed at him and Ace sat confused. "Where did you learn that word?!" The blonde squeaked, not at all expecting this to be how the conversation turned out.

Luffy giggled. "Shishishi, Makino's trans." He said, as if it were an obvious explanation.

Ace sat confused and unwilling to ask his kid brother what the word meant. Luckily, Luffy shared unprompted. "It basically means Sabo's body is stupid and thinks he's a girl." And Sabo…couldn't deny that was a decent explanation (he wanted to on principle though, no part of him was stupid, even if some parts were wrong).

Ace also seemed to understand before getting confused again. "Why would your body thinking you're a girl make you sick?"

"I'm not sick." Sabo said for the umpteenth time. "I'm just in the middle of a cycle. It's just something I deal with and it's none of your business." He said, sticking his nose up dramatically and making Luffy pout.

"Fiiiine." Luffy whined. "You're not sick."

Sabo sometimes wondered if this was really his life, stuck between two idiots that were somehow the unstoppable force and the immovable object at the same time. Ace crossed his arms with a scowl. "You guys still ruined the surprise."

And now Luffy was onto a different topic, thankfully. "Lemme help!" He cheered, and of course Sabo was the one responsible for giving him a task that made it seem like he was helping without actually giving him a responsibility to fail spectacularly at.

Such was the life of the eldest brother, even if Ace had taken to arguing otherwise.

--

Ace was having a bit of a problem, one that he'd never had before.

He wouldn't--couldn't--let Luffy out of his sight. It was definitely a weird feeling, but he didn't really tell Sabo or Luffy or anyone he knew, and the list was short. It all started around their first night together in the tree house.

Ace had woken up in the middle of the night after the same nightmare, the same memory, just watching Porchemy bruise and break Luffy, except where Sabo doesn't come and Luffy drowns in his own blood while Ace just watches too scared to move.

He looked up to find reassurance that that was the past, only to find a sleeping Sabo and no one else. The blood froze in his veins because Luffy was supposed to be right there, and he wasn't. His hands were shaking a little as he rifled uselessly through the blanket where Luffy should be. He scrambled to his feet and then down the ladder, pipe palmed tightly in both hands as he crept through the area barefoot, ignoring the tiny rocks and twigs that dug into what skin wasn't thickly calloused.

"Luffy?!" He whisper-yelled, squinting through the dark to look for him, but he wasn't there.

Was the dream right? Had he imagined being saved? Was he too late to move? He glared at his hands for shaking. "Luffy?!" He called, no longer trying to be considerate of Sabo sleeping. "S'not cool! Where are you?!"

He ran in a random direction, praying that Luffy had just gone to take a leak or something. He ran, blood rushing in his ears and wanting to throw up, but he froze when he heard a sniffle. He shot right around, now face to face with a tiny sniffling Luffy.

The younger one laughed a little brokenly when their eyes met. "How come you never get to see me when I'm cool?" He tried to joke, still curled up in himself with tear tracks down his face and sniffling with a shaky smile. Ace felt like a house fell on his back, he dropped to his knees in front of the kid.

"I should be telling you that." Luffy looked up with wide curious eyes that gave Ace the quickly stifled urge to hold him close and never let go. "Got angry, thought Gramps replaced me when you came, thought you were just an ignorant crybaby brat that wouldn't stop following me. Guess I was throwing a months-long tantrum, wasn't I?" Luffy giggled a little and the Urge was too strong, he reasoned with moving to sit next to him, not initiating contact because Sabo said that was bad when someone went through what Luffy did. But that distance didn't last, said boy all but collapsed into his side, curling up into him like a lifeline.

The sleepiness caught up to Ace, and he leaned into the contact. "M's'post to be yer big brother, aren't I? Gramps… would've…" and he petered off to sleep after Luffy.

After that, Ace barely ever let Luffy leave his sight. This had had a… bad effect on him. For some reason, everyday Luffy was more insistent on getting away and thus Ace was more insistent on following.

--

It had taken all day, but Luffy was determined to go to edgetown and steal something without his brothers' help. He wasn't stupid, he hated that Ace always followed him because he thought he was too weak to get by.

He wasn't very sneaky, but he was fast. He ended up following someone with tense shoulders and a suitcase that Luffy was convinced was filled with important adult stuff, either money or something Sabo would be interested in. He lined his steps up with the man's, walking right behind him, every time he whipped around to check his surroundings, Luffy had whipped around to stay behind him. It wasn't the most clever plan but the man was alone and the sun was setting, and he was on a bit of a time limit if he didn't want to get eaten by mosquitos on his way back.

Finally the man stopped in the back of a closed alley, and the child made his presence known. "HI! Can I have that?" He pointed at the case and looked up at the man, who blanched the second he saw him.

"Kid what the fuck are you doing here? Go home before you get--" Before he could finish, the light coming from the only entrance to the alley was blocked by a hulking figure with sunglasses and a deep scowl.

"We told you to come alone, who is this?"

"I-I-I don't know, honest! He's just a random street rat, probably followed me because he thought I was his dad or sumthin', he ain't got nothing to do with this!"

"You were trusted to carry precious cargo and you got followed by a tiny brat in flip-flops? For this we may need to… renegotiate our terms." The man sputtered at that, waving his hands around trying to concoct an excuse before accidentally dropping the case right on Luffy's head.

The case broke open and out flew papers, certificates, pistols and a pile of cash big enough to fill Luffy and his brothers' bellies through at least two winters. The man's scowl deepened while the much smaller man went gray-faced.

"Now the brat's seen it - shit, I really didn't want to kill a kid this month." He pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Luffy, who looked down the barrel completely blank-faced.

"Luffy!" Every pair of eyes snapped to see Sabo and Ace running toward him, completely panicked at the gun pointed at Luffy's head.

The large man's scowl deepened as the two boys took fighting stances in front of Luffy with their pipes. The man moved the gun to point at Sabo, and shot.

Sabo felt himself hit the concrete, watching in horror as his little brother's body got flung to the back of the alley in his stead. Ace stood wide eyed, frozen in place and in time, and they both looked at their limp brother, half-curled against the back wall and dreadfully still.

The blond tightened his hold on his pipe, scrambling to his feet while the man's gun clicked into position a second time, pointing at Ace who was still frozen. He felt his voice crack in a yell as he drove the pipe as hard as he could into the man's leg, making a sickening crack sound echo off the walls.

The man yelled profanity while the other man took that as a chance to escape, running out and leaving his suitcase and the boys with the giant man.

Sabo cracked the bottom of his pipe hard into the man's hand, making him release the gun before grabbing it himself. He was shaking hard as he held the gun with two hands to the man's head. His breath was shallow, and Luffy's body limp on the ground still flashed through his mind. "S-Sabo..." Ace sputtered, finally having his head snap to the here and now.

Sabo could feel tears leaking down his face. "He killed Luffy… He killed our baby brother for no reason…" The man looked up and made eye contact, a terrified look in his eye that made Sabo shake harder.

Then the tiniest cough echoed through the alley. Both brothers whipped around to see Luffy weakly trying to sit up. Sabo dropped the gun and they both ran, tackling their brother in a hug.

Both were very confused by the lack of bullet wound, but more concerned with hugging their alive brother. Then they heard the click of a pistol and turned around to see the man from before, leaning against the wall heavily to compensate for the leg still bent in an unusual direction.

"Go to hell, demon!" He growled, shooting three bullets, all at Luffy. The gunshots echoed off the walls, making all three flinch and both brothers looked horrified as the lead sank into their brother's chest.

But then the bullets shot back out, hitting the man in his stomach and legs, and making him cry out. Luffy scooped up all the stuff that still laid strewn all over the alley, roughly crumpling and stuffing it into the case before booking it, being followed shortly by his two older brothers.

The three made it out of the gray terminal before Luffy started laughing. Sabo laughed too, but he was more hysterical, and Ace laughed because laughing was contagious.

The three made it back to the tree house, panting. "Why… the hell… did you run off on your own?" Sabo asked, and Luffy just shrugged.

Ace chuckled a little. "Idiot why didn't you tell us you were bullet proof?"

Luffy laughed. "I didn't know!" But he was the only one smiling anymore.

Sabo blinked. "You… didn't know? So you just… took a bullet for me without knowing you'd be fine." Luffy nodded, giggling a little more.

"I totally thought I was gonna die!" He thought it was funny, not noticing the demeanor of the other two boys.

Sabo grabbed his shoulders, bending down a little to get to eye level and Luffy stopped laughing. "Listen to me, and listen to me carefully. Do not ever try to put my life ahead of yours, okay? I'd rather lose my life than my brother."

Luffy pouted. "That's not fair at all! Sabo's my brother and Ace is my brother and if you guys are dead then I'll want to be dead too." Ace swallowed some bile, and Sabo tightened his hands on the seven year old child's shoulders.

They both got a harsh reminder that, to Luffy, they were practically everything.

Sabo breathed in, and then out. "Well, if none of us want any of us to die, we'll have to get stronger so none of us will, right?" Both boys nodded, nearly synchronized.

Luffy smiled widely. "And then when I have a crew and nakama, I'll save them and fight with them and become pirate king!" Everyone was smiling now.

Ace suddenly faux retched. "When did we become so sappy? I'm going gator hunting, you guys read things or something."

Sabo nodded. "Okay mister overcompensating with toxic masculinity, we should count what's in Luffy's suitcase anyway." He said, intentionally using big words that Ace didn't understand but knew were insulting.

Ace huffed and marched off while Sabo and Luffy climbed onto the tree house.

"Okay, Lu, can you count the berries? I'll read over these papers." Luffy furrowed his brows, looking at the money and then the papers.

"Can I read the papers?" The blond looked surprised, before offering a smile with a tooth missing and handing the other boy one of the papers.

Luffy focused on the words, sounding them out a little under his breath and the two ended up reading them together.

"--and then that one says distribution. It means like trading or giving. Like if someone has three cookies and three friends and gives each friend one cookie they're distributing the cookies evenly." Luffy nodded hard enough for his neck to bounce a little out of shape before moving back to look at the third paper they read.

"So they're distri…buting something." Sabo nodded enthusiastically, excited that at least one of his brothers wanted to learn proper vocabulary.

But while he wasn't looking, Luffy had read ahead with words he knew. "Why do people want to distribute 'adolescents', what's that?" The blond snatched up the paper and hid it behind his back, his skin going pale.

"No-Nothing!"

Luffy looked disappointed, and Sabo caved after he had puppy eyes inflicted on him. "An adolescent is a kid, Luffy. These are receipts and trade routes for child trafficking…" Sabo felt sick with the curious tilt and wide confused brown eyes that looked up at him, looking up to him to tell him all the nasty things of the world.

"It's…" He pulled the paper back from behind him. "They kidnap children, put them on a boat, ship them off to be sold. Once they're sold, they… don't get treated like people. They get marks burned into their back to say that they're slaves, get every freedom taken from them, get used and abused all the time."
He only knew because Gaffer from Gray Terminal told everyone his story to teach them to never trust a noble. Lu's face went blank in a way that unsettled Sabo as he took in the information .

Lu's expression settled on focused, he grabbed the paper and read it again, this time not sounding out words aloud. Sabo could see the frustration grow on his face as his eyes carded through words he barely understood. He finally slapped it back on the wooden floor in front of the both of them with a glare that wasn't directed at Sabo. "Where?"

The blond opened his mouth to say something, anything, about his cute portable baby brother taking on child traffickers, but Luffy interrupted him before he could begin. "Where? I won't let that happen to more people if I can stop it, so where are they?"

Sabo nodded in understanding before carding through the stack of papers. He found the location, a caravel ship on the eastern shore, and read ahead to find when they would be setting sail.

He blinked a few times, before sighing. "East, they're leaving tonight."

Luffy grinned a mad grin. "Perfect."

--

Ace stomped through the woods, twitching every time he felt a mosquito on him. He hated those things, he'd be itchy for a week! He scowled, continuing to march toward the lake most of the alligators resided in. He couldn't get that damn smile out of his head, or that limp form that he couldn't even move toward while Sabo was breaking legs and almost killing that bastard.

But yet again, he froze. He couldn't fucking move and Sabo almost killed a guy out of grief because he couldn't get his shit together and make sure Luffy was alive. What kind of brother was he if he fucking froze every time the going got tough?

He was stopped now, glaring at his feet with fists white knuckled at his side. He's always the slow one, always the one that freezes, always the shitty older brother. Fuck, if it wasn't for Sabo stating the obvious, Ace would have just left Luffy in that warehouse with him until his baby brother bled out, faded out of existence too tired to even make a sound anymore, couldn't yell that he would be pirate king and that he was going to live and all those other uncertainties he always jumped into without any doubt.

He punched the tree in front of him but it hurt his knuckles more than the wood.

Luffy thought he was going to die today, expected it, and openly admitted that he would rather die than have him or Sabo die. What on the four seas did he do to ever deserve that from the future king of the pirates? He could barely read, he wasn't smart or clever or nice or good, he was shitty and he was the son of a devil--

He couldn't say that anymore could he? He wasn't just the son of a devil, he was a devil. A demon who only ever causes hurt and never does anything to make up for it, his father didn't matter, he was a monster all on his own.

"I almost pity whatever father spawned a demon kid like you."

Porchemy's words rang through his mind, and he shook his head violently.

He couldn't go back, he didn't even have dinner yet, the barest minimum of what he could do as an older brother was get dinner.

But then he heard rustling behind him and whipped around, pipe readied, only to see Sabo and Luffy. He quickly made his face neutral, which made Sabo visibly worried but Luffy pretended he didn't notice. That was something the two brothers had learned lately, Luffy somehow always knew how they were feeling, just rarely acted on it. Only doing so when the timing was right (which he somehow always knew, it was almost creepy).

"Ace, we've gotta go, we need you." Said boy did not at all brighten a little at the blunt statement, and was glad the dark hid the ghost of a blush.

Luffy didn't explain further, just grabbed his hand and started running, having full faith that his brother trusted him. Sabo looked worried and eager in equal measure, and kept up with the two with his own pipe in hand.

They left the forest all together, and Ace silently ruled out a big animal the two wanted for dinner. They continued on, and eventually they saw a weird ship docked half behind a cliff, like someone was hiding it.

Sabo dragged the three to hide in a bush in clear view of the ship, and that's when Ace asked. "Are we robbing these guys or what?"

Luffy seemed raring to go, glaring at the ship in a way Ace had never seen before. Hatred, he recognized, the kind he had at Luffy's age, focused on one place instead of the whole world. Sabo kept a firm hand on the youngest's shoulder and looked over at Ace.

He had a look of sad disappointment that wasn't directed at him. "Those guys earlier, we got some of their… receipts, trade routes…" Ace raised an eyebrow, listening because his brother didn't look happy like the trade routes were for valuables.

But Luffy spoke first. "Those bastards are a bunch of Porchemys." He growled, and Ace hadn't noticed the unspoken rule to never bring him up until his little brother broke it. He got that sinking sick feeling in his gut at the thought, and the grim look Sabo now had wasn't helping matters.

"They're child traffickers…"

Okay, Ace now wanted to simultaneously run at the ship and burn it and run the other way with his cute and very easy to steal baby brother in tow. He settled on swallowing, and putting an assuring hand on Luffy's other shoulder.

Ace and Sabo both knew their brother, Luffy would have gone and done this with or without them, they were just gonna make sure their brother was successful.

They watched silently as a visibly drunk man left from inside the ship to the deck, yelling back in and implying the presence of others.

"Whatever!" The man slurred. "I gotta take a piss before we leave, then I'm coming back and showing you shits what drinking games are!" He giggled to himself after the door had closed, climbing down the rope ladder and leaving for the closest tree.

He didn't make it that far. Luffy stood, and cocked his fist back with a glare venomous enough to make Ace feel like this was semi-therapeutic. The punch was direct, a rarity, and Sabo was certain a jaw was not supposed to go that way. The man dropped unconscious like a bag of bricks, pissing himself.

The three looked at each other, nodding before descending on the ship.

They burst in, and the fight was pathetic really. Luffy attacked half of them with a loud yell and a lack of attack names, Sabo and Ace just cleaned up potential attacks from behind. Neither had ever seen Luffy so… vicious, without a smile or a laugh at how the adults toppled. He wasn't fighting for fun, he had a purpose.

When the last of the dozen or so people fell, Luffy continued through the ship without missing a beat, not trying to steal any valuables or food, just searching.

Eventually, the three came across a locked door. No one bothered to look for keys, Luffy didn't hesitate to break it in half.

Inside, there were cages. Three, to be exact. The room had one lamp to light the whole area dimly, just enough that they all saw two of the cages were filled. There was a girl around Ace and Sabo's age glaring, curled up in the corner of one of the cages. The other one held a kid younger than Luffy, with broken glasses and teary eyes shaking violently. Ace felt sick and Sabo wanted to cry because kids weren't supposed to be that small in cages.

Luffy, however, had gone back to the blank face that showed nothing at all, before stepping up and ripping the hinges off one of the cages, and then the other. Neither moved.

The rubber boy nodded before grabbing the wrists of both of his brothers and dragging them out.

Ace would have said he was happy to see the glare gone if it wasn't replaced with his least favorite expression. They left the ship, knowing the two kids could get away fine when they chose to.

They made it about a dozen steps from the boat before a voice hollered. "WAIT!" They turned to see the younger of the two waving frantically from the railing. The girl was a bit behind him glaring, almost daring them to not listen to the boy.

The three stayed as the other two hurried to catch up to them, the girl about three steps behind the boy and never dropping the protective glare.

Luffy got a giant smile that took up half of his face, raising both hands like he was picking up an invisible box before Sabo silently lowered one. "HI! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, nice to meet you!" The boy with glasses raised his hand in turn to shake them but the girl caught it, dragging the tiny boy closer and glaring at Luffy with suspicion, who pouted in turn.

"I'm Nami and this is Coby, if you think we owe you anything, you're dead wrong." Coby looked like he was going to argue, but one look shot and he was silent.

Ace and Sabo both put a hand on either of Luffy's shoulders. "My name is Sabo, this is my brother Ace and we're Luffy's older brothers. We didn't come here to buy favors, we came here because our baby brother doesn't like child traffickers, and we share the sentiment."

Sabo and Nami seemed to be having a protective older sibling staring contest, while Luffy got bored and started making funny faces at Coby, making him giggle a little. Ace got that urge to hug the stuffing out of the kid(s) in front of him again and pouted because Sabo was still trying to out-older sibling Nami.

"Hey!" Luffy shouted, bringing all attention to him. "I'm hungry, let's go get dinner." And he marched off to the forest, leaving both his protesting brothers.

Ace sighed. "We gotta go, he's gonna get eaten by an alligator again. Come with us or go into Windmill village and look for the mayor." He said, pointing in a direction away from the forest.

Sabo and Ace headed toward their treehouse, but noticed Nami and Coby trying to follow them from a distance. "If you're coming, follow close!" Sabo yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to reach them. "The animals here are big enough to eat you whole!"

Nami was jumpy, but was trying to keep a brave face in front of Coby, even trekking through unfamiliar woods at night. Coby was shivering and sticking close to the ginger.

They made it to the treehouse, to see a pile with three alligators and a fourth and alive one chewing uselessly on Luffy's arm. Ace killed the final gator while Nami and Coby stared dumbfounded at the pile of lizards big enough to hold all five kids in a mouthful.

Luffy, who didn't at all look like he was very much almost eaten multiple times in the last ten minutes, was jumping and clapping in excitement. Ace kept swatting at the occasional mosquito while he set up the fire and Sabo set up the cooking apparatus. Luffy was talking to the new kids.

Coby was looking up at the second-youngest with wide eyes behind glasses that were still cracked and too big for his face. "That's… impossible! Going to the grand line, the pirate graveyard, getting the most famous treasure in history, that's impossible!"

"If it was easy, someone would have taken it already. I know it's almost impossible, but I'm gonna do it or die trying, it's as simple as that." Sabo smiled off to the side at how articulated his baby brother had gotten.

"Well that's stupid, you can't survive if that's how easy you think life is." Nami responded, and Luffy got a look that was totally blank, one that kind of creeped Nami out.

"I don't want to survive. I want to live. I won't take anything less than living for as long as I'm alive."

The ginger grit her teeth. "Surviving is all that matters! You survive until you can live, you work your ass off and maybe you can make it, you can't just live like there aren't a thousand things stronger than you that want to see you suffer! Living is a privilege, surviving is the best we can do!" She stormed off, leaving the four boys frozen in silence.

Luffy took off after her without a thought, and only Coby protested because his brothers knew him better. He followed her, and stopped a few metres behind when she stopped to sit on a log.

He waited for a second, and then made his presence known. "Who won't let you live? We dealt with all those Por--...bastards." She scowled, glaring at the younger child.

"That was a minor setback, those idiots were just jerks and I only stayed because I didn't want to leave Coby alone." Luffy continued to just look at her, not making any of the usual queues that he was listening, but somehow Nami still knew she had his undivided attention.

She couldn't talk about Arlong. There was no reason to. The kid was much stronger than her, she could admit, if the alligators were anything to go by, but he still didn't stand a chance against fishmen. But, if they had a few spare berries…

"I need a hundred million berries to buy back my village. Then I can live." She expected some sort of reaction at the giant number, but Luffy didn't really react.

He took on a bit of a thoughtful look. "Well, Ace, Sabo and I have about 19 million saved up, plus the stuff I stole today that I haven't counted but is probably about another million or two." Nami scowl darkened.

"I'm not a charity and I don't need pity."

Luffy crossed his arms with a smirk. "I'm not offering you charity, I'm trying to buy your ship."

The ginger was confused for a beat, before realizing that now that the traffickers were dead, their ship was hers for the taking.

"You want…to buy… For 19 million?!"

"Yeah, my brothers and I are gonna be pirates when we grow up, and seize our freedom, but we need a ship for that."

A grin grew on the girl's face. "Only 19 million? I'd get a better offer from a dog! 30 million and that's discounted because Coby likes you."

"30?!" Luffy whined.

"Yep!" Was Nami's chipper reply. "Of course, I'm sure a certain set of sticky fingers could help you get that faster, but Coby and I would get to live here without pulling our weight for food and such." Luffy thought for a second, before putting both his hands out.

Nami crossed her arms and shook both hands at the same time and the deal was made.

--

Nami wasn't fond of the bandits, they were mean to Coby.

"One cup of water and a bowl of rice each, that's it." Dadan said, clenching a cigarette between her teeth. "You gotta catch everything else yourself."

Coby's eyes watered and his stomach growled as he stared down at his chipped bowl of rice, and Nami slid over her bowl. She was still full from the alligator dinner she had last night, she fibbed.

"See! That's how you're supposed to react!" The woman gestured to Coby curled in on himself and yelled at Luffy specifically. Luffy shrugged and took a giant turkey leg off his plate.

"There's nothing to cry about, giving us food is nice of you." Dadan blushed and Luffy put the turkey leg in Coby's lap under the table and winked. Coby seemed even closer to the brink of sobbing and gave Luffy a thankful nod while he went back to eating.

"You brat! It ain't nice, that's barely anything!" She said, making her best attempt to look menacing. Luffy smiled gratefully at her and she went red in the face.

Nami had to say Luffy was her favorite, he was stupid in an odd way but it never inconvenienced her directly so it was her new favorite kind. But he was more observant than he let on, so she'd keep a close eye on him.

Coby was smiling down at the turkey leg, and then ripped about half of it off the bone and moved to put it in her lap. But she quickly stopped this to keep turkey juice off her blue shorts, taking it in her hand instead. She smiled at Coby and then started ripping off bite sized pieces for herself.

She still didn't know Luffy's motivation to help them, but she'd see this through, especially if it got her a third of the way to her goal.

--

Sabo was planning on going through Edge town with his brothers. This was a simple plan, but then Luffy dragged Nami along and it became a school field trip.

Don't get him wrong, he loved teaching, it's just that now he had to be extra careful because you couldn't just stop someone of the right height requirement in the street and ask if they could have their wallet stolen for practice. He tried teaching Ace with himself as the person he pickpocketed, but it's much different when the subject is twice your size and thus their pockets are harder to get into.

So, now he was in an alley with Ace, Luffy, and Nami, explaining proper pickpocketing.

"Well there's the classic bump-and-run, it's a simple technique and flawless if done on the right people. Unfortunately, these are not the right people. People here get robbed too often to get disoriented by a simple bump, so we need to work in groups." He explained, and Luffy was bouncing on his heels, while Ace rolled his eyes.

Nami crossed her arms. "If you can't do the bump-and-run on these locals, why are we here? Didn't you say something about a Windmill Village?"

Luffy giggled like she was an idiot. "Town's too small, no one really uses money there except with visitors. They do trades and stuff directly."

Sabo nodded. "More importantly, if it's a small town it's easier to get recognized."

"Ooh!" Luffy exclaimed. "I bet I can show you something I made up." He grabbed Ace's wrist and pulled him into the street while the blond sighed with only fondness.

"I think he calls this one the hit and run and run."

Luffy ran through the streets, separating himself from Ace while the older subtly pulled out a switchblade. The younger boy bumped into one of the less distracted looking guys' legs and grabbed his wallet with no grace whatsoever, and the guy yelled and made a fuss. The man was chasing Luffy in circles, attracting a small crowd. Ace weaved effortlessly between the distracted people touching them as little as possible as he cut purse straps and pocket bottoms to keep from touching. Luffy was screaming bloody murder the second the man grabbed him, and was dropped like a too-hot potato, Luffy skittered away through the crowd while Ace casually walked back. Nami tried to follow Luffy with her eyes through the wall of adult's legs but he went into the alley next to theirs and she felt her stomach sink. He went into the wrong alley.

Then he fell from the sky right behind her and she swallowed her shriek.

Luffy looked smug as anything. Nami was blinking in disbelief at Ace holding four purses and six wallets with a cocky grin while Luffy held his one wallet proudly.

Sabo sighed. "That's great and all, but now we have to go somewhere else until the heat dies down."

Luffy smiled proudly, looking to Nami for her reaction. She was looking at the loot.

They went a few blocks away and Nami tried her first bump-and-run on a guy deemed 'probably new around here'. This didn't go well. She managed to do the move flawlessly but she'd stopped to look at the wallet before running and the guy caught her. He seemed ready to snap her in half when he grabbed her by the back of the shirt like a mutt, so Ace and Sabo beat him into the dirt and stole his shoes.

The next time, it was successful all the way through.

--

It took four months before the brothers came to an agreement. They met with Nami and Coby at the old familiar tree stump, stolen sake and cups in hand. (Not Luffy's hands, he couldn't be trusted holding glass things, but he was still there.)

Sabo began with an introduction, holding the bottle of sake. "Months ago, as a few of you may know, on this stump, Ace came to Luffy and I with a proposition." Luffy was bouncing and Ace looked proud. "We shared sake and a promise that day, for brotherhood, for friendship, and for freed--"

"Will you shut up and just get to the point? This meeting is costing you by the minute." Nami interrupted, half teasing, half not.

Sabo scrunched his brows a little in mild indignation, and Ace spoke up, picking his nose.

"We want you guys to be our brothers." Coby seemed to tear up while Nami scowled at being referred to in a masculine connotation.

She crossed her arms. "I'm not a brother, I'm a girl and you owe me a thousand berries for that comment."

Luffy spoke up though, never phased by Nami. "No! Not brother like boy sibling - like a brother-in-arms, a sworn brother doesn't have to be a boy cus' we don't say so!" He cheered, and Sabo was very proud of how much better his vernacular had become.

Nami huffed. "So, you guys wouldn't mind being my sisters?" Ace scowled but Luffy just cheered, accepting that as an agreement.

"So I can be your sister?!" He said with all the happiness in the world. The ginger was suddenly frazzled at the lack of hesitation.

She sighed with a slight blush. "Okay, pass the bottle."

They all clinked cups and from then on, they were brothers(even if Nami insisted on calling them sisters because any hill was one she would die on).

--

Nami was hiding behind a crate, shaking, one hand over Coby's mouth as she held him close and the other covering her own. The sound of trees shattering and pained yelling made her flinch and she tried desperately to not make a sound. Sabo sat next to her, pale, looking almost sick, both his hands over his mouth to muffle his own breathing.

They watched Luffy slide across the dirt to their hiding place, breathing heavily and snapping to look at them with wide eyes.

"Run." He said weakly before going limp.

They were frozen, hearing the loud stomps of the marine get closer and closer.

"Luffy! Playing dead won't get you out of training! Shape up or I'll throw you in the ravine again!" He barked, before finding the three children in their hiding spot. "When did you brats multiply?"

Sabo stood up on shaky legs before bowing a little to be polite. "I'm sorry, I'm Sabo and this is Nami and Coby. We're here with our brothers."

"No! Sabo! You were supposed to hide!" Ace snapped, unintentionally cluing in who their brothers were and ruining Sabo's entire misdirection.

Garp smiled. "Brothers eh? Well welcome to the family! I'll whip you three into fine marines!"

Their dread sank lower when they saw a spark in Coby's eyes, one that Garp also noticed.

"W-I can be a marine? Really?" Nami wanted to hit him but Garp only smiled wider looking down at the smallest kid.

--

As it turns out, if you're an official marine-in-training, you get a proper education, even if you're only a six-year-old.

This was a courtesy only the ex-noble and the daughter of a marine had ever gotten before, so you can understand the confusion when suddenly Coby(6), Luffy(8) and Ace(11) were crowding around the same geography book.

"I don't see why I can't eat soggy meat, meat's meat."

"It's wheat, dumbass, don't eat wheat, it tastes gross."

"Actually, Never Eat Soggy Wheat is just an acronym, just so you remember how the compass goes." Coby emphasized this by pointing at the compass in the corner of the page.

"Well the acronym should be different, Gramps always says to eat as much as you can while you can because you don't always get the next meal when you need it." Luffy huffed stubbornly.

"Ugh, we're listening to what gramps says now?" Ace whined.

"If it gives me a reason to eat Coby's leftovers, yes."

Ace scowled at his second littlest brother before turning back to the book. "Why do we need this anyways?"

Coby smiled a little. "Well if you can navigate, you won't get lost, and you can go on more adventures when you head out to sea." Nami had taught him how to play to people's interests recently, and Luffy and Ace were extremely easy to convince if it had anything to do with adventure, freedom or food.

Luffy had stars in his eyes and Ace was listening to his littlest brother with rapt attention.

"So if we learn this we can travel the grand line?" Luffy asked, never ashamed to know less than his smart baby brother.

Coby squinted at the page a little before flipping to a page a decent way later in the book. "Actually, it seems the grand line has an unstable gravitational field." Both older brothers tilted their heads to the side in unison, and Coby sighed (Another of the habits he picked up from Nami) and pushed up his new glasses. "The normal compass won't work, you need something called a log pose to navigate."

"Eh? I've never heard of that before." Luffy sneezed at the overgrown orange hair that was now tickling his nose, while Nami inspected the page from where she stood over Luffy and Ace. "Guess I should sit in with your lessons if I want to learn about log poses."

Luffy turned sparkly eyes to Nami. "Does that mean you can navigate outside of the grand line?" He asked and Nami blinked.

"Of course I can navigate, I'm one of the best navigators around I'll have you know, I know this forest better than you three combined." She bragged, and Luffy cheered while Ace glared.

"Was that a chall--"

"I read the context!" Luffy cheered, cutting his brother off without a thought.

"Lemme guess, Sabo's still trying to put brain cells in that big head of yours." Nami teased, poking said big head between the eyes. Luffy pouted, crossing his eyes to look at the finger and making his sister laugh.

The eight-year-old's eyes suddenly snapped back to attention, giving Nami a serious look that had everyone in the group focused, because Luffy was only serious when it counted. "Will you be my navigator when I set off to be a pirate?"

Nami blinked a few times, went through about a dozen different emotions before smirking. "Your navigator? Well, what would you be willing to pay me for my work? I'm not cheap, you know."

"I know!" And Nami would resent that if she didn't know Luffy as well as she did. Luffy crinkled his face a little in thought and Ace took the opportunity to poke his cheek. This seemed to help Luffy figure out what he was thinking, because he nodded seriously.

"Half of all the treasure I get, and three quarters of the One Piece."

One ginger brow was raised in amusement. "Oh? And what would you do with all the rest?"

"Well the other half of the treasure would go to Makino because she's the nicest lady in the world and I gotta keep at least a little of the One Piece to be pirate king." He said with all the confidence of a child.

Ace raised an eyebrow and Coby moved to sit by Luffy, having taken to him the most of the three brothers in all those months. "Makino? Who's that?"

Luffy got a smile only achievable through rubber powers, and Nami sat down with her brothers for the story.

"She's the most amazing lady in the whole world--"

"So there's where you guys were hiding." Sabo unintentionally cut off from where he stood at the edge of the clearing. Everyone shot a different look at him except Luffy, and all of which conveyed in some form he was interrupting something.

The blond silently plopped down in the half-formed circle with a curious tilt of his head.

Luffy smiled at his brother. "We were just talking about soggy meat and acronyms then navigation and the grand line and what I'd pay Nami to be my nakama and then I was explaining that half my treasure is going to Makino and now I'm telling everyone who Makino is because she's the greatest!" He rambled, making sure Sabo was as included as he could be before he began his story again.

"So, Makino's the lady that runs Party's Bar in Windmill village down the mountain. That's where I used to live before I met you guys. She's super nice and she fed me even when I was being punished! I always wanted to pay her back but I never could so I asked her to keep a tab and when I'm a pirate I'll pay it all back twenty fold!"

Ace furrowed his brows. "What do you mean punished, Lu?" Everyone else held similar expressions.

"'Punished' means I got a negative consequence for a bad action." He explained, thinking his brother wanted the definition.

"Did… did Garp not feed you if you didn't do well on one of his crazy tests?" Sabo asked hesitantly, concern lacing his tone.

Luffy tilted his head to the side in confusion before scanning the group, seeming to gauge all their emotions at a glance in a way only he could.

"Nah, not Gramps, I wasn't allowed to tell Gramps." He said cryptically, giving just enough that they had no one to pin blame but not enough to work with. Something that he was proficient in even before he started inheriting traits from Sabo.

"Anyways! Makino's also in love with Shanks and Ben! They loves her too but they're pirates so they couldn't stay with her, which I think is stupid because Makino's an adult so she could have gone with them instead of staying here." He said, and all of his brothers --and sister/brother-- blinked at the mention of romance from the boy, something previously unheard of.

Luffy looked down at the dirt. "I think she stayed because I only had her at the time, but then Gramps dragged me here and now she's only got the mayor. I wanna visit her but now that I can go down the mountain myself, I don't know if I wanna leave."

A firm punch to the head snapped him out of it. Nami scowled with watery eyes. "Idiot! You don't need to leave us to see her, and you don't need to leave her to be our brother. Visit her, she's probably worried sick!" She scolded, absentmindedly holding her sleeved shoulder, and only Luffy could tell she was internally scolding herself the same way. He was curious, but said nothing because it was her business.

He nodded instead, and his sister smiled.

--

A tall woman with dark green hair stood behind the bar, fidgeting with her fingers before hearing a telltale jingle of the door opening. "Welcome to Party's Bar, how--" But she was cut off when she focused on the small group of children that entered the bar, and more specifically, the one in the front with the straw hat and the watery eyes.

"Luffy?!" She ran out from behind the bar, scooping up the child she hadn't seen in a year and hugging him tightly. She didn't know when she started tearing up only that she was crying and so was Luffy, her boy.

"I was so worried, Garp looked so mad when he took you and he didn't even tell me where." She rambled, the hidden emotions over a year of not knowing reflecting when she fell to her knees and Luffy tried to stretch his arms as far as he could to wrap around her a dozen times.

"My little Lulu, where were you?" But Luffy was busy hiding how much he was crying on her shoulder.

Sabo stepped forward. "Garp took him to live with our brother Ace in the bandit camp on the mountain, all five of us are sworn brothers." He bowed perfectly in front of the crying woman. "He said you were there for him when no one else was, that you saved him. Thank you." The other three children also bowed, albeit with a bit less practiced grace than Sabo.

Luffy pulled away then. "I have brothers now! They're the coolest people ever! Sabo's super smart and clever and is teaching me social queues and how to talk like an adult, Nami's the best navigator ever and she's super good at math, Coby's gonna be a marine, but it's okay because he's got guts even if he's more of a crybaby than me, and Ace is super strong and he gives me hugs when I can't breathe sometimes, they're all the greatest brothers a man could ask for!" He rambled, making all the other kids blush a little at the unabashed and specific compliments.

And Makino smiled a gentle smile that took the breath out of Ace's lungs. "Well, are you kids hungry? Any brother of Luffy is a friend of mine." She stood, still carrying Luffy on her hip like a child, and led the others to sit at the bar.

Nami and Sabo both sat on either side of Ace, giving him the same devious grin that made his cheeks heat up further with a scowl. "What are you looking at?" He grumbled.

"I think I'm looking at someone who's become smitten with our little brother's --mph--" Ace smacked a hand to cover Sabo's mouth, his whole face red and not being helped by Coby giggling from two seats away.

A hand rested on his shoulder, deceptively comforting in a way he would know blind and deaf. "It's okay, Ace, we can keep a little crush hidden easy…for a price, that is." Nami purred, and Ace was already far into this ridiculous girl's debt, so dread pickled the back of his neck thinking of the monetary hole he doesn't think he'll ever get out of.

Makino came back, a smile still resting on her face as she held Luffy's hand, and Sabo and Nami managed to look perfectly innocent sandwiching their half-flushed-half-pale brother.

Luffy plopped himself down on the seat next to Coby, and Makino brought out five plates of food, skillfully balanced on two large trays. The kids dug in, always grateful for a meal they didn't have to catch, the 'teasing' temporarily forgotten as all of the brothers fought off rubber grabby hands.

To everyone's surprise except her boy's, she kept up with both Ace and Luffy's appetite, replacing an empty plate with a full one before washing and filling the empty one just in time to replace. Ace and Luffy both looked at each other with a challenge after everyone else had tapped out.

Luffy won, his rubber powers simply giving him that extra edvantage of never really being full, and Ace groaned from his seat at the bar, holding onto his stomach and glaring at Luffy like it was his fault. Luffy smiled victoriously before his expression turned to a thinking one, which looked kind of funny with his entire body stretched out like a balloon.

He sucked in a breath, and then the entire group watched the kid snap back to his original size in an instant.

Ace needed to know this magic. "Where the hell'd you learn that?!"

And like every odd discovery Luffy made, he gave a smile. "Sabo taught me." Said blond didn't, actually, said blond rarely did teach him at this point, only answering questions and giving Luffy every odd book he found in Grey Terminal. But Luffy managed to always Luffy his logic until everyone was looking to Sabo to explain whatever in the four blues just happened.

"It seems he's figured out how to use his rubber powers to enhance his metabolism on command." Just because he absolutely did not teach his brother that, doesn't mean he still couldn't make a good educated guess. When confused, blame the rubber powers.

Luffy nodded, before chattering excitedly to Makino about how he made all his brothers, gently grazing over the Porchemy incident as he always does.

Ace was now trying to get him to teach him how to 'super metabolize' as he so eloquently put it.

--

There was a tiger in front of her.

And Sabo was bartering pelts in edge town.

And Ace was with Sabo.

And Coby was quivering at her side.

And there was a tiger in front of her.

And she couldn't fight back.

She didn't know if maybe, perhaps her brothers' sheer insanity had started to rub off on her or not, but she couldn't find it in her to be scared for herself.

The cat crept closer slowly, shoulders up and tail flicking back and forth in interest.

She tucked Coby a little further behind her, he was crying.

She did the first thing that popped into her head. "Hey!" She yelled shortly, and the tiger growled. "Go away, you're scaring Coby!" A small part of her laughed at herself for the awful plan, but that small part of her along with the rest of her was about to die so it could shut up.

The tiger crept ever closer, and Nami stomped forward a step. The cat startled slightly at the odd move, but growled with bared teeth not a second later.

"I'm not kidding!" She yelled. Maybe she was trying to call Luffy? Would she even want to bring her other little brother into this?

She couldn't die. She wouldn't. Not until she saved Cocoyashi, not until she drew her map.

The beast lunged, and she grabbed Coby's hand and dragged him to faceplant into the ground along with herself. The cat missed them by a hair, flying forward but only a little, and they were now under the tiger.

Nami looked up at the exposed stomach and did yet another stupid thing. She bit it.

The tiger yelped, whipping around but it didn't dislodge her. The thing turned mad eyes toward Coby instead, who was shaking like a leaf.

The ginger bit harder, grabbing the cat's skin and fur in an unrelenting grip and kicking it as hard as she could with her legs. The cat yelped again and dropped itself onto its side in a vain attempt to shake her off. She felt her grip slipping so she grabbed higher, dislodging her jaw for only a second before biting into orange fur and rough skin.

She screeched around her mouthful as the cat rolled around the ground, and grabbed at every available clump of fur to keep herself on.

Her fingers ached and her jaw was almost numb and her throat was coarse and raw and her knees were shaking where they still tried to deliver kicks.

She shook as she dropped for only a second, and the beast rolled on top of her upside-down, and she grabbed at the closest thing. She got a better handful of the beast, more skin and less muscle keeping it taught, and she bit into oddly soft flesh but that didn't really matter.

But then the tiger rolled and she was on top of it, a death grip in the back of its neck making it pause.

She could have laughed, more hysteria than anything. She remembered aunty Hinata had a house cat she would pick up by the back of his neck when she was scolding him.

Her grip didn't loosen at all, and she looked down and realised she was very far from the ground actually. Coby was on the ground though, a decent distance away from the fight, and still crying.

She let a deep breath in, and then out, trying to calm herself without releasing the tiger from its odd trance. She didn't dare lower her guard, but the shaking wouldn't do when she was trying her hardest to be stable.

"Coooool!!" She heard and all her tension was back because now her other baby brother was here. His eyes were wide with wonder, almost like stars shimmering in the deep colour, and he seemed to be gawking at her riding one of the lords of the forest.

Huh.

She was riding one of the lords of the forest.

And then Luffy scooped Coby up (they'd all taken to picking up their littlest brother, he didn't seem to mind) and then stretching to grab the tiger. The cat snarled and Nami tightened her grip harder, not having to worry now that her hands were numb.

"Luffy." She said as calmly as she could manage. "Getting closer to the tiger is not what you do." She said, not really caring that the words weren't really clear. She didn't actually have to say most things out loud, it just made her feel less like she was being read all the time.

But Luffy just laughed, absentmindedly bouncing Coby on his knee like a toddler even though he was just two years younger. Coby had stopped crying, but was still shivering a bit and clinging to Luffy's shirt. "But you're riding it, I wanna ride a Lord too!"

Ah. She was indeed riding it. Technically. Wait, no! "This isn't me riding the tiger, it's me holding it in place while you get Coby and run as fast as your stupid tiny legs will carry you." She hissed, tightening her grip and making the cat twitch.

"But Nami~, when's the next time we can ride a Lord?" He whined.

"Never!" She yelled, and Coby giggled a little. "Not you too!" She turned to Coby and he started snickering more.

Snickering turned to full bodied laughter and now she had two little brothers thinking this was a game.

She knew her brothers were stupid for laughing, she did! But she was in fact high on a lot of adrenaline and a post-fight still-fighting-for-this-shitty-control-for-my-life high, and she was very bad at not laughing when other people were laughing.

But then the tiger started moving again, and Nami stared horrified at the bruised and shaking hands she could no longer control well enough to hold the tiger's scruff. Luffy laughed even more and wrapped one of his arms around Nami and Coby before shooting the other arm off through the foliage to his left, and Nami was almost more eager to stay with the tiger. She'd seen how bad Luffy's aim was. She couldn't say anything, however, because not a second later they were zipping off the Lord and roughly into several treetops, breaking twigs as they went before Luffy landed on the side of a tree face-first, and his cargo landed on him.

She then took them to Dadan's house, because it was far and it was safe.

--

It's funny, Sabo had almost forgotten his past when it came back to haunt him. A name he had almost forgotten was bellowed down the street, and all the blood drained from his face, his stomach lurching so hard he didn't even need to turn to look.

He ran from where his father stood, closing his eyes and pretending he didn't hear that name being called until it faded from the distance, dragging along Ace and Luffy who were thankfully the only of his brothers with him.

He ran into the forest, his brothers just behind him, and fell to his knees once all the sounds of Goa were replaced by cicadas chirping and birds calls. He was breathing heavily, his chest ached and he finally let go of Ace and Lu.

"That weird stuffy guy knew you from before, who was he?" Luffy asked, and the blond winced because he promised his brother he'd always answer a question to the best of his ability. Of course, the context was different, more questions on science and language than this, but still.

"He…" He tried to catch his breath and his brothers moved to crouch in front of him. "He was…my father. I…used to be a noble." He held his head down and waited for the hurt accusations, the anger, the betrayal, anything, but he was met with silence.

Against his better judgment, he looked up and saw both brothers picking their nose with a disinterested look on their face. "So?" They both asked at the same time, tilting their head in a way that made it hard for someone to convince Sabo they had no blood between them.

Luffy took his finger out of his nose then. "If he's your Porchemy I bet I could kick his ass." He said, and Ace nodded like he had suggested crocodile for dinner and not beating the noble that had been terrorizing Sabo's existence even after he ran away.

The backs of his eyes suddenly felt hot, and he couldn't keep a smile off his face. This was his family, this is what a family did. Ace squawked and Luffy giggled when their blond brother tackled them into a hug.

This was his family, them and Nami and Coby, no doubt about it.

--

Strategy was, depending on the context, Luffy's greatest strength and greatest weakness. He wasn't one to plan ahead, only being able to think strategy while high on adrenaline and the intensity of a good fight.

The thing was, strategy was about estimating factors, and Garp had beat into him that underestimating an opponent would be a fatal mistake, so he just didn't estimate people at all. If he wanted to kick their ass, he'd do anything in his power to do so, simple as that. He could and would think on the fly, accommodate weaknesses, but he needed to see, to know to some degree.

So when the three brothers regrouped with their other two brothers, after they ate dinner and counted their earnings and went to sleep, Luffy got up with one plan.

Go into High town, find that jerk that scared his brother, and kick his ass.

He had learned quickly how to leave the tree house unnoticed, not having to work much because usually Luffy did everything in his power to be noticed, so no one was really subconsciously looking for anything.

He grabbed his pipe, and he went.

Goa kingdom didn't really sleep as much as the forest or Windmill village; it seemed half the shops were still open even when the moon was high in the sky. He decided he didn't like all the lights still on, they hid the stars from him.

He didn't really have difficulty getting into the nicest part of the town, where he assumed that nobleman lived, the path was beaten in by Ace, Sabo and him. He was sure Nami would have a field day if she saw all the things she could steal, but, all brothers abided by the rule that if you couldn't hold in a fight with Garp for one minute or more, you couldn't go past edge town, too dangerous.

He wondered how Coby would react to him marching into the richest part of the island ready to kick someone's ass. He'd probably get stressed and confused before it clicked, then he'd understand, he might have even helped.

He heard a distant laugh familiar enough it made his stomach drop. He slipped into an alley and watched Bluejam walk by, Porchemy right behind him. His breath caught in his throat, it was him. He swallowed his bile, now wasn't the time for that Porchemy, he still had Sabo's Porchemy's ass to kick.

Bluejam stopped in front of a house, knocking on the door and quickly being met by a very skinny man in a suit, who bowed and let them in. He snuck up once the door clicked shut, peeking out the window, and his eyes widened.

There was Bluejam and his first mate, discussing something with that man Sabo didn't like. He tuned out every ambient noise and focused on the voices.

"--fair price, you sea scoundrels should be able to find and capture a twelve-year-old."

Bluejam grit his teeth before showing a devious smirk. "Not just any twelve-year-old, this one's got a whole pack of brats with him, you'll need about 30 percent extra if you want them…dealt with."

The man scowled. "15 percent, they're children, if you take away my daughter, the only rat with an education, the other ones will be left scrambling for someone with half a brain before they do anything."

"20 and you'll get your kid and your pest control."

"Deal."

Luffy was now put in a place where he needed strategy.

Chapter Text

Ace woke up to find Luffy gone, which, while it wasn't a completely uncommon occurrence, usually he'd wake up to him stumbling around sleeping bodies trying to go out and take a breather. So when he woke up to his brother just plain gone, he knew something was wrong.

He grabbed his pipe and got down the rope ladder before he heard leaves shifting. He turned to see Luffy walking back to the tree house, head down with his straw hat shadowing his eyes.

Ace moved to meet him halfway, holding his shoulders and crouching a little to try to meet his eyes.

One sentence was spoken, and Ace felt the air escape his lungs. "Bluejam's hunting Sabo."

"How…What do we do?" He asked the air, not expecting his brother to answer.

"We're gonna call Gramps, we're gonna tell him everything."

Ace felt his stomach sink. Did 'everything' mean what he thought it did? Luffy hadn't told Gramps about Porchemy, he didn't actually tell anyone, never talked about it, only the friendship forged that day.

What would Gramps do? He'd definitely come as soon as possible, would he try to train Luffy more? Punish him for being weak enough to get captured? Would he take him away? Would he leave Ace and Sabo and Nami and Coby together? Would he separate them all?

He was snapped out of it by Luffy pinching his elbow lightly, and giving him a smile that was smaller than his usual, softer. "We need to wake everyone up, it'll probably take a few hours to get a search party, but we'll probably be surrounded if we wait till' morning."

Ace gave a soft smile, a sad one, and ruffled his little brother's hair. "Good thinking, Lu, I'll wake up Sabo and Coby, you wake up Nami, she's only nice to you.

Nice was a bit of a stretch, but Luffy nodded anyway.

--

"Okay, so, plan is, we go to Dadan's, get the den-den mushi straight to Gramps, and leave Luffy to do the talking." Ace explained as they made their way there, not running but certainly not strolling.

Nami's eyebrows pinched. "Are you sure Luffy should be doing the talking?"

"Yes." He remembered watching the blood seep from his brother's still form, the screaming had stopped hours ago at that point. "Luffy knows what we're up against best." He said no more and Nami asked no more, settling with looking worried.

They saw Dadan's hut in the distance and started collectively speeding up a little, going through the door without a lock, stepping over bodies asleep on the floor after a night of drinking a small village's worth of booze.

They made it to Dadan's room, where she kept the snail, and carefully shut the door behind them.

Four of them sat on the bed while Luffy set his hat down on the dresser before picking up the receiver off the snail on the dresser.

"Puru~Puru~Puru~Puru--Kachak--" The snail voiced before it's face contorted into a tired scowl.

"Wh' the hell?" The snail said in Garp's voice. "Dadan? Why are you calling me this late?"

Luffy turned away, took a deep breath, and then turned back to the receiver. "G-Grampa…" He said in a wet voice that instantly had everyone alert. Luffy may have been a bit of a crybaby, but he never cried in front of Gramps, never showed that weakness if he could help it, so doing it now was…

The snail instantly shifted to concern. "Lu?"

Luffy sniffed. "Th-The pirate's, they're coming back grampa, I don't know what to do, they want Sabo now, I don't want them to hurt him…" He was speaking quietly, meekly, like a scared child.

"Pirates? Is it Shanks?" The snail barked out, concern and anger in its eyes.

Luffy was shaking, half curled in on himself and if Ace had a fraction less willpower he would have intervened by now, but Luffy wanted to do the talking, he'd do the talking. And that meant Ace holding Nami's knee to keep her from getting up like he also desperately wanted to do.

"No…Bluejam…" He let out a sob that broke just about everyone that could hear it. "H-His first mate Porchemy's scary, he tied me up and kept hitting me over and over, he used spikes so they'd hurt me, I don't know what to do grampa." He started sounding hysterical, desperate. "I don't want them to hurt Sabo, please grampa, he doesn't deserve that, I don't know what to do." Ace felt bile rise in his throat, he felt evil for now holding down Sabo with one arm, Nami with the other and Coby with his leg. He was just grateful they were staying quiet.

The snail couldn't quite properly depict the amount of rage Garp was expressing, but didn't have to for long because a deep breath was taken and then the den-den started hushing the crying child.

"Sh, Sh, it's okay Lu, I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise, I won't let those pirates lay another hand on my family." He swore with a protectiveness that Ace had to respect.

"Is Ace there with you? Could you put him on the phone?" The Vice-Admiral requested gently, and Luffy nodded before looking at Ace.

Ace nearly crumbled when his eyes met big teary ones. He had fifty alarm bells ringing at the same time because his little brother wasn't this meek, this still, this sad.

He got up, picking up the receiver before sliding to sit on the floor against the dresser where the cable could reach, pulling Luffy to his side in a half hug while he held the phone. "Gramps." He addressed, without its usual bite.

"Boy, how much danger are you and your brothers in right now?"

"Well, by morning they'll probably be sweeping the forest, they're looking for Sabo but if they find any of us they'll probably try to kill us on sight. I'd say we have half a week max until they find Dadan's hut and our tree house."

The snail hummed. "Maybe you kids should stay with Makino until--"

"No way, old man, we're not putting Makino in danger if we can help it, when is the fastest you can get here?"

The snail paused for a second, calculating. "A week."

"That's bullshit, old man. If you can't drag your ass here to help us, I'll see that we set sail ourselves. I'm not leaving my family in danger. We don't have a week."

The conflicted look on the snail was unseen by the boys on the floor. "I'll have someone pick you up in three days, it won't be me but he'll be able and willing to protect you." Ace gave a relieved sigh, he really didn't want to try to sail with a pack of kids, don't get him wrong, he trusted them with his life, but he didn't trust himself with theirs.

Without proper goodbyes, both decided to hang up at the same time, and Ace was left looking baffled at a definitely not broken down Luffy. His little brother giggled. "I can't lie, but acting is easy." Ace didn't know to feel more relieved or annoyed, seeing as he was the last to know it was acting.

Unseen in a hotel in Paradise, Garp looked from the den-den on his bedside table to the file he left there. He opened the yellow paper to reveal a map of the east blue with a red dot right at the edge of it. "You better look after them, you owe your son that much." He muttered, looking at the shaky pictures of shadowy figures with glimpses of a recognizable tattoo.

He would still take a week to get there, but he would get there. He was on a pirate hunt now.

--

"How am I gonna take the Windseaker with us? What if we leave the island?" Nami asked, still stubbornly using the name she thought up even though every brother thought up their own name for the ship.

"Ace and I can help you sail her!" Luffy offered, and Ace nodded, because he never truly disagreed with Luffy.

Nami crossed her arms. "No way! You don't set foot on that boat until you have the 30 million to buy it off me. That was our deal. Coby can because he doesn't want a pirate ship but you guys can't." She stubbornly stated.

"But if you lose the boat, you lose the chance to get 30 million berries." Ace argued.

"No." Nami shot.

"Yes." Ace shot back.

The back and forth happened about a dozen more times before Sabo snapped. "We can buy the ship!"

Four sets of eyes turned to him confused and shocked at his outburst.

The blond took off his top hat to fidget with the brim. "We have 30 million, we've had it for a while. I'm sorry I just…" wanted you to stay, knew you would leave once you had your berries, wanted us to stay a family a little bit longer was left unsaid.

Nami took a breath. "Well, if you can pay for the ship, then get it. You can't have your dream if you hold back…" She couldn't hide her immense disappointment from anyone. She knew she had to leave, she held the unseen tattoo on her shoulder wondering why it never quite stopped hurting.

That was a lie, it didn't hurt when she was with her brothers. But she had a sister who was hurting worse than her, and she had to save her and the whole town like any of her brothers would have done for her.

--

Luffy was the first to set foot on the ship, studying the somewhat faded navy blue detailing. It was kept clean, the whole thing, Nami wasn't one to leave her property to drop in value.

"Those pirates will probably be searching the forest for a few days, probably won't start looking in this area for a while." Luffy said, helping Coby up because his arms were too short to easily climb the rope ladder.

Ace and Sabo nodded from where they stood on the deck, while Nami climbed up the ladder with practiced ease. "Those traffickers were scumbags, but they did a good job of hiding our boat."

"So, we sleep here for three days, then start looking for whatever navy captain Gramps sent."

Everyone was in agreement.

--

A giant cloud of smoke rose from Grey Terminal, they were too far away to see it but the smoke was enough to tell that everything was burning. Luffy had been watching the smoke disappear into the sky since he'd woken up, one by one his brothers all woke up to watch the smoke.

The smell was awful, and could reach every border of the island. A fire that big…

"We… we need to help them." Coby broke the silence, and Luffy looked down to listen further to the shorter kid. "They're burning Grey Terminal, what if people are still in it? We gotta help them!" He got more and more frantic, looking between his brothers. They all had a grim acceptance, except Luffy who was blank.

Coby took the empty expression as close enough to agreement and grabbed his hand, leading him toward the edge so they could go, and Luffy followed because you couldn't really drag him anywhere with his devil fruit.

"Wait, no!" Ace sputtered, snapping back to reality, Sabo close behind. "You can't go, neither of you are immune to fire!"
"You won't be helping others, only endangering yourselves!" Sabo finished.

Coby sniffled a little. "Those people are stuck in a giant fire. If I were in there, would you rescue me?" He was crying a little but Luffy rubbed his hair with a reassuring smile.

Nami sighed when no one else spoke. "I guess that settles it then, we're going to go to make sure our idiot kid brothers don't get killed."

Coby cried a little harder, Luffy got a big smile, and they all grabbed their weapons before storming to Goa.

--

Fire was everywhere, the air was heavy and barely breathable, and five children watched a man crawl out of the flames, only to get shot in the head by what was assumed to be a hired pirate.

This fire wasn't an accident, it was a purge. Coby was shaking violently as gunshots periodically rang out, and Luffy tightened his grip on his pipe, glaring at the one not five meters from where they were hidden.

Ace beat him to it, sweeping the guy's legs before bashing him into unconsciousness with his pipe.

The victory was short-lived though, the only guy who could see him just had to turn around at that second, and Ace had a gun pointed at his head from 30 meters away.

He froze, god, why did he always freeze? His brothers were scrambling to reach him but the gun fired before they could.

The bullet missed its target, clipping the side of his left ear with a loud noise that made the world ring. He blinked heavily, holding his ear and struggling to keep balance with the sudden loss of a sense.

The guy called for his buddies, five of them ran at them. Ace felt himself being dragged into the fire, running, the world still buzzed obnoxiously and the fire all around him made him sweat.

Luffy was running beside him, carrying Coby on his back. Ace looked ahead, seeing he was being dragged by Nami, Sabo in her other hand. He couldn't hear anything but Sabo's expression was terrified and Luffy was angry. He couldn't see Coby's face but he assumed the kid was crying. A small, dark part of him wanted to yell at Coby because this is what he wanted, and now he was weighing the rest of them down because he didn't think. He couldn't even focus on the thought around the ringing in his ears.

They seemed to have lost the pirate's in the flaming dump, as they slowed down a little.

But then they stopped suddenly, and Ace froze a second after everyone else once he saw Bluejam towering over them. Flames licked in a circle around the kids and the pirate, and Ace's hearing slowly returned to him.

"--with you brats." He stated with a sneer, looking down at the children before picking up Nami, making her drop her sledgehammer.

"Gumu Gomu No…" Ace heard muttered, and felt Coby now holding the back of Ace's shirt for dear life. "Pistol!" Luffy barked, punching the man right in the jaw and making him lose his grip.

Bluejam turned his eyes to Luffy, wild eyes, angry eyes, scared eyes. "You must be the brat Porchemy talked so much about - I have to say, you're smaller than I imagined." Ace felt sick suddenly, the smoke not helping anything, and went to stand in front of his baby brother but froze when those eyes turned to him.

They heard the cocking of guns behind them and turned to see the five guys from before, now covered in soot, burns and anger.

They all moved at once, guns pointed at everyone and a large dagger digging into Luffy's chest. He couldn't breath the smoke filled air, he couldn't move, everything was moving and he was frozen in place.

"...s-stop..." He muttered, watching a boot push Sabo to the ground and disarm him.

"...Stop..." Luffy's straw hat fell to his back.

"... Stop..!" A barrel pressed against Coby's pink hair when he tried to go back toward Luffy.

Bluejam shifted to push the blade through Luffy's chest entirely.

"STOP." He yelled, he couldn't do anything, couldn't move, all he could do was yell. He wanted to cry.

But then the shooters all fell, and Bluejam stumbled backward.

Luffy grabbed Coby and dragged them both behind Ace and Sabo, a silent plea to hold him off for a second.

He bent a little to make eye contact with the youngest boy. "Hey, hey. Listen, we need you to run that way and don't stop until you reach Dadan's hut and get help, okay Coby?"

The pink haired boy sniffled, clinging onto Luffy's shirt and shaking his head. "N-No, I'm not running, I'm not leaving you guys..!" His eyes widened when he felt a weight on his head. Wide eyes behind wider glasses looked up at the brim of the straw hat he was now wearing.

"Promise to give this back to me when we get back, okay? We can't die here, we're gonna sail the whole grand line someday, remember?" Coby's jaw clenched but he nodded. "Good, now run!"

And Coby ran as fast as he could in the direction they came from, and Luffy reached for his head out of habit before remembering his straw hat wasn't there for comfort.

He turned back to look at Bluejam, who was fighting off Ace and Sabo while Nami stood back.

Luffy joined, his rubber fists hitting more marks than missing after months of practice, Ace went for heavy swings, Sabo was more agile, they complimented each other well, but Bluejam had experience.

The youngest boy tried to ignore the pain in his chest from where he was lightly stabbed, but the carbon in the air made him cough, hesitate, and Bluejam jumped on the sudden weakness. Suddenly the stretched fist was grabbed, and Luffy had to hold his shoulder to keep from snapping toward it.

It didn't matter though, the arm blocked Ace's heaviest attacks and Sabo lost some of his speed to gain precision because they wouldn't ever hurt their brother if they could help it. Luffy tried to throw another punch but it missed and Bluejam caught it. With both arms resisting he went flying toward Bluejam, and was then shoved under his boot while the brothers hesitated. A gun was pointed at his head from where he choked on ash and blood.

The brothers hesitated before moving again, and that's when Nami made her presence known, to Luffy at least. She was shaking like a leaf, looking at the gun with far away eyes like she was in a different place and the only thing the same was the large pistol. She sneakily bent her knees, grabbing a large piece of shattered glass in a grip tight enough to make her bleed. She was looking at Luffy now, terrified, like he was the dwindling embers of a fire halfway through a freezing cold night, ready to leave with the smallest gust of wind.

Brown eyes looked at her, then the glass, then gave a smile like this was a devious prank and not a rescue plan. He nodded as much as he could with his head under a distracted Bluejam's boot, making said boot grind him down harder and he held the ragged coughs in his throat for Nami's sake.

Her knees were shaking, but she looked at the fight closely, studying patterns, and Bluejam. She saw her chance when Ace made a swing for the gut and Sabo made one for the head, and she ran forward.

She embedded the dirty glass into the back of the captain's knee, making him yell out, drop to a kneel, let Luffy go and notice her at the same moment.

Her little brother got out, but now the gun was pointed at her head and, as far as Ace and Sabo knew, she wasn't bulletproof.

Sabo sent a look to Luffy and they both moved at the same time, Sabo yanking her leg and Luffy jumped in front of her, and the gun fired.

The ginger watched from where she fell in the dirt, Luffy got shot twice, in the shoulder and in the stomach, and the sight was too familiar. Ace and Sabo both snapped to the cut off cry of pain, hesitating at the sight of blood on their rubber brother.

"What? You really think I'd hunt a cursed devil fruit brat without coming prepared?" The captain sneered, and Ace froze entirely because his baby brother was bleeding. He was hurt and he didn't bat an eye and let it happen.

The pirate showed his gun cockily. "Seastone really is a gift, good thing your daddy dearest invested, or I'd need Porchemy to handle the rubber one." He jeered, looking directly at Sabo who just encouraged his brother getting shot and was now feeling nauseous.

Ace was frozen, Nami was frozen, Sabo was frozen, and Bluejam laughed at Luffy's attempts to stand. "Are you seeing it now? That it doesn't matter how hard you fight me, Sabo's going home and in five years he'll forget your sacrifice! That's what nobles do. They burn down their weakness, throw out everyone who dared be born without their privileges. No matter what you do, blondie is a noble and we are noth--" He got cut off with a small fist to the jaw, hitting with all the force of a Monkey D., and suddenly all attention was on Luffy, now standing again.

"... Coward… that's the word I was looking for." He panted. "You try to kill us, then try to make yourself sound like a victim. But no one forces your finger on the trigger, that's not your burden, that's your choice." He spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up to glare at the pirate with all the rage a child shouldn't have. "You shouldn't ask for pity for what you did, and you will never talk about my brother like that while I'm still breathing, coward."

He threw another punch but Bluejam scowled, throwing one of his own, throwing the kid back to the edge of the small clearing and reveling in the wet coughs as flames licked the kid's back. But then, pipe in hand, Ace and Sabo charged, Luffy trying to follow.

The man still couldn't stand, even trying put too much pressure on the gash in his knee, he couldn't breathe properly, no one could, and he sat like a coughing target while the two preteens knocked him out.

Luffy fell backward but Nami caught him, a watery frown set in her face.

He started coughing violently, the smoke in the air and the blood in his lungs making for a nasty coughing fit. Sabo put a hand on his shoulder with a concerned look, and Ace and Nami looked at each other in a rare moment of agreement.

Ace, still being the most physically strong, picked his baby brother up without protest. They started looking around but it seems in the fight with Bluejam they got turned around. The fire was bigger now, consuming, they were surrounded so they needed to pick a direction and hope the wall of fire between this and the next pocket was thin. Nami was trying to remember which way they came from, she usually had a handle on direction, but that fight scared her and she lost her way.

The smoke was thick, she couldn't look for the sun, and she began to panic because knowing her direction was the only thing she knew she could rely on.

They ran in the direction Bluejam came from, Sabo going first, then Nami, then Ace with Luffy, they jumped through the flames and landed on the other side, and Nami felt tears in her eyes because there was a dirt path without any garbage in it and thus untouched by flames.

Luffy began coughing more violently, and Sabo pulled the neck of the kid's shirt to cover his nose, doing the same for himself with Ace and Nami following almost immediately. They proceeded to run through the path, hoping beyond hope that there was something good on the other side, like an exit.

Ace saw the ocean in the distance, and could have cried. He could feel how shallow his brother's breathing was against his back, and one frantic look sent to Sabo and the three were running.

A ship was docking at the beach, one without a marine or a pirate emblem, but 'R A' written on the sails with a dragon's head in between the letters. A cloaked figure with a hood that hid the top half of his face beckoned the children. "We have doctors, get him up here, he won't make the trip up the mountain."

Nami and Sabo were suspicious, but Ace honestly didn't care, as long as this stranger helped Luffy.

Because Luffy was quiet and bad things happened when Luffy was quiet.

Sabo tried to grab his brother, but Ace wasn't even slowed down by the attempt to stop him. "That shitty gramps sent you, right?" Ace hollered, his voice cracking a little and looking up at the mysterious cloaked figure while mentally counting every beat in his brother's weakened pulse. He let his shirt fall from his nose while he moved to hold Luffy in front of him by the armpits. "He's his blood grandson, if you don't save him gramps'll kill you." The threat held merit but was weakened by the obvious desperation.

The cloaked figure took Luffy, cradling him gently before rushing off to some part of the ship with the expectation that the others would follow him. Sabo swallowed before speaking up. "Okay, Ace and I will go on the ship, Nami, we need you to bring Coby and Dadan here, but not the whole camp, we need to be discreet." Both brothers nodded before Nami ran in the direction she knew the camp was.

Ace climbed the rope ladder onto the ship, Sabo close behind, and they were met by a tall woman with thick eyelashes and curly purple hair. "You must be the brats, where's the other two?"

Ace scrunched his face a little in what he hoped looked intimidating but probably didn't. "Where'd you take our little brother?"

"Ha? Why should I tell you, for all I know, you lot are the ones that shot him." But then both faces shifted to desperate and worried and the woman sighed deeply. "Who am I kidding? He's in the infirmary, but you aren't getting in there until they're done fixing him, no matter how much like kicked puppies you boys look." She put a hand on her hip and looked down at the two boys before bending to look at them closer.

"Dragon made the right call, you brats are panting like dogs." She poised a hand, and the nails sharpened like long swords, and both boys went defensive. "If you had stayed in that fire another minute or two, your lungs would have stopped working entirely. You'll be fine if you stay on the ship, but a few healing hormones can go a long way~." She purred the last part, pointing her extremely sharp nails right at the two boys.

"H-Hormones?" Sabo asked, looking at the needle-like point that was pointed directly at him.

She smiled, one that looked somewhat devious. "Why yes, hormones make the world go round', boy, and I happen to have a devil fruit that let's me manipulate them. Man to woman, woman to man, sick to healthy, healthy to sick, sad to happy, happy to sad, I control it all with a single poke." She bragged, before pointing two fingers, one at each of the boys' chests.

"I could change every line of DNA in that body of yours, or I could heal your lungs and let you breathe. Care to gamble?" Sabo and Ace shared a look before nodding.

Two needles poked them and suddenly they could breathe again, the fog exiting their minds and feeling better than they have in a while. They looked up and the question came from Ace's mouth before he could really think it through. "Can you do that to Luffy?"

The woman smirked. "Of course, I can and I will, but I have to wait for them to finish patching him up first." This confused Sabo, and he said as much.

"Human bodies aren't perfect, boys. I increase the body's healing, but something healing if it's shifted and not in the exact right place means permanent damage." Sabo nodded thoughtfully.

"Speaking of which, they should be calling me right about--" She was cut off. "Iva!" was called and she frowned. "--now. Stay here."

She disappeared behind a door and appeared about thirty seconds later. "Oi!" She called and Ace and Sabo came running. They went through the door to see their brother lying in a cot, arguing with a nurse about the healing properties of meat.

Sabo's eyes felt hot and he ran at his brother, Ace right behind. "Sab--!" Was all Luffy got out before he was pulled into a hug. Ace wrapped the both of them in a hug bordering on uncomfortably tight but they didn't mind.

"I'm so sorry Lu, I should have been more cautious, I never should have--" The blond stopped when he felt a forehead on his. Damn it, he was so close to losing this, too close.

He felt tears fall down his face and buried his nose in coal black hair to hide them. He felt rubbery arms wrap around them both about four times before the hug got even tighter.

"Gahhhh! I thought he was gonna take Sabo away!" He cried, and both brothers laughed almost synchronized. Ace put a hand in Luffy's hair and Sabo pinched his nose. "Crybaby."

The man from before let them have a moment before clearing his throat. Three pairs of eyes snapped to him and Luffy looked at the man curiously.

He lowered his hood before looking directly at the youngest boy with a small smile. "Nice to see you in good health, Luffy."

"Ah! Thank you for saving me, weird tattoo guy!" He said with a smile bright enough to almost forget the insult.

"You're welcome. I hope you don't mind but I'd like to speak with Luffy alone for a moment." Sabo scrunched his eyebrows and Ace openly glared.

The man's expression didn't change, but Luffy nodded, not really seeing a problem.

"Are you sure, Luffy? He's not a marine, we can't be sure Garp sent him." Sabo whispered, eyes not leaving the strange man.

"He saved us, why would he hurt me right after? That would be stupid." The blond really didn't have an argument, but he thought for a second to try to find one.

But then Sabo sighed, grabbing Ace's arm and dragging him out, leaving Luffy and the man in the infirmary.

The door clicked and Luffy moved to look at the man. "What's the most wanted man doing taking favors from a vice Admiral?" The boy asked bluntly.

"I'm surprised you recognize me, but that's not what I'm doing. I'm just doing my part as Garp's son, little as I may use that title." A distinct thump was heard against the door, but it went ignored.

"Well, I didn't know I had a dad. Nice to meet you." They both nodded while a second distinct thump was heard against the door, again ignored.

Luffy was silent for a moment before adding. "Willow left." At that, Dragon's eyes widened a fraction before resting to look tired.

"I'm not surprised, Garp didn't really give her much room to breathe. I'm sorry she left you, though, I didn't expect her to do that."

Luffy shrugged. "She was my mom when I was a baby, I was probably most annoying then so I'm thankful Makino didn't have to deal with me." Dragon nodded, and Luffy nodded back, and then the door was flung open by an openly pissed Ace and an openly concerned Sabo.

"Who the hell are you?!" He was barely held back by Sabo by the elbows. "Most wanted man?" Said blond tried to ask, still being the only thing keeping Ace from a large amount of violence.

Dragon turned to the two boys unbothered. "Monkey D. Dragon of the revolutionaries, and Luffy's father." This seemed to make all colour drain from Sabo's face while Ace's got five shades redder in anger.

"What, big shot?! You think you can just waltz up and claim Luffy's your kid after doing jack shit to raise him?! I'll kill all you shitty fathers, how dare you even try to claim he's yours!" He spat, and the Monkey D.'s let him speak, while Sabo seemed to know exactly who Dragon was.

"Ace." He whispered. "Shut the fuck up." His eyes never left Dragon but Ace visibly halted at Sabo's terrified tone. "That man has a higher bounty than the pirate king ever did." All the colour in Ace's face drained as well.

"It seems I'm not welcome, I'll leave you three to settle." He said briefly, leaving the infirmary with a sweep of his cloak before Luffy got up and walked right up to Ace.

"How…how are you okay with this?" Ace asked, looking down at his baby brother, the one kid he'd never expect to be even remotely in the same boat as himself.

Luffy shrugged. "Something Willow taught me, I'm owed nothing, not from my family, not from my island, not even the air I breathe. Living is selfish, so thank people for what favors they offer because the air in my lungs could leave anytime and I could never argue for it to come back." If it weren't the most concerning sentence he'd ever heard, Sabo would have praised his eloquence.

Ace grit his teeth. "You know, all that wisdom- s' really starting to piss me off." He cracked, all but falling into the younger boy's arms. "You're makin' me soft. The world may not owe you, but I sure as hell do, okay?" A small nod in confirmation.

Sabo stood off to the side, fidgeting, clearly bothered, but not saying anything. Eventually the hug broke and Ace wiped his eyes and complained about how 'mushy' he was getting.

That's when Sabo spoke up. "If you don't mind my asking, was…was 'Willow' your mother?" The air in the room changed and Luffy sighed.

"Yeah, she isn't anymore though, but that's fine." He shrugged, and Ace was back to angry.
"It is absolutely not fine, what kind of person does that?" Luffy shrugged.

Suddenly the door was being burst open again, (seriously, the poor door couldn't handle all these dramatics) and revealed the trio's two favorite gingers and future marine. Coby had fat tears rolling down his cheeks, and was clutching the straw hat on his head for dear life.

He ran straight at Luffy, knocking him down in his rush. He sobbed loudly, hugging his older brother tightly. "Nami said you got shot! That weird cloak guy said you almost died!" He yelled, and the two eldest brothers noticed that both gingers in the doorway were a little teary.

Dadan pulled Ace into a headlock, telling him how stupid he was while furiously rubbing her fist in his hair, and Nami hugged Sabo with a lot fewer pretenses.

With that, the conversation was over, all that needed to be said was said, and they headed back to the bandit camp to celebrate, Iva coming with them because she was bored and Dragon also joining because he was avoiding paperwork (though he wouldn't admit that).

Chapter Text

The party was large, with booze flowing like water and more rowdy bandits than could comfortably fit in the hut, as always. Luffy beat six people in six eating contests and then passed out when he learned there was no more food, uninterested in the still plentiful booze. One by one, the bandits passed out on the floor, Iva going off somewhere by herself in a drunken stupor to pet the lord of the forest, which she dubbed her new pet, and Dragon disappearing mysteriously in a way the brothers suspected was common. Ace fell asleep and Coby fell asleep on Ace, Sabo fell asleep on Ace, Nami almost fell asleep on Ace, he was very warm.

She blinked her bleary eyes before looking around. She bit her lip, because the perfect opportunity arose sooner than she'd hoped. She stood up, feet feather light as she snuck away from the hut, toward the dinghy she knew was at the dock. She grabbed the savings, thirty-two million in gold and cash, hidden in a small cave by a bunch of bushes, entirely invisible to the untrained eye.

The cloth bag that held her treasure was heavy, she turned her head to ask one of her brothers to carry it for her but was met with empty woods. She clenched her fists and made her way toward the dock alone.

She walked toward the boat but froze when she saw a familiar figure looking back at her. "Luffy."

"I'm not strong enough yet." The voice was solemn and quiet. Nami made a hesitant sound of confusion, being caught red handed.

"Not strong enough to beat up what's scaring you yet, but I'll get there." It was a fact. "I'll sail when I'm 17, then I'll kick their ass and then you'll be my navigator, okay?"

Nami felt tears pickle her eyes. She nodded, before putting the bag in the boat, and then herself. "Hopefully by then you won't need to."

Luffy nodded, watching her row away, the starlight reflecting in the water as he watched her silhouette fade. "You'll live free one day, I swear."

--

"She did what?!" Ace was a little louder than he meant to be, but for good reason.

"She left."

"Why?"

"Because we're not strong enough to help her yet." Luffy was dead serious.

Coby spoke up. "So…it's our fault?"

"I won't accept this! How can we know we can't beat them when we haven't even tried? This is unlike you, Luffy." Sabo stated.

The boy with the straw hat sighed. "If we could, then Nami wouldn't have snuck out alone. She's not in immediate danger but she's in trouble and we need to get stronger if we want her back. She's our brother, we owe her that much."

Ace swallowed thickly, nodding. Coby gripped his shirt, a determined scowl in teary eyes. But Sabo still felt off balance.

"No, we can't…she can't just leave." The blond muttered, and all eyes were on him. "She just left, went back to what was scaring her, didn't even say goodbye she can't just do that." He clenched his fists.

"But she did." Luffy said and was met with a fist to the jaw.

"No! She can't just leave us!" Sabo yelled in his younger brother's face, feeling his only family start to crack, and his brother punched back.

Sabo fell into the dirt, not expecting the hit. Luffy stood over him and reached out his hand, which the blond smacked away before pouncing at the smaller boy with a yell.

He straddled him, punching him over and over, tears blurring his vision. He knew punching the rubber boy wouldn't hurt, but then again, didn't he 'know' he was bulletproof too? He stopped punching, glaring down at his brother.

A fist sank into his cheek and sent him flying back, and he quickly rolled out of the way so a rubber fist collided harmlessly with a tree, denting the wood. Luffy said nothing, waiting for Sabo to go on the offensive again.

The blond picked up a pipe-sized branch to even the playing field before running at Luffy again, teeth grit and eyes full of rage that wasn't really pointed at the target of his violence. Sabo faked out and Luffy went for a block that left the real target open, and the branch hit him full force. The boy was sent head first into a tree, and the blond followed him.

"You just let her leave without even trying, does brotherhood mean that little to you?" The blond hissed, dropping his stick.

He held his brother against the tree by the neck. "If she's in trouble why didn't you even bother to wake us up?! Get someone who cares about her sailing off toward her abuser?!" Small hands held his arms, a glare undeterred by the choke hold meeting his own evenly.

Sabo cocked a fist back and hit the tree right next to Luffy's head, cursing and glaring down at the ground like it offended him. "That can't be an option…just going back because your brothers aren't strong enough to fight…it can't be an option."

"It doesn't matter, she made that her choice." Luffy finally spoke.

Sabo punched the wood next to Luffy's head again. "No! Because if…if that was an option, I would have turned myself in before Grey Terminal burned, before we almost lost you in it." A rubber fist collided with his face.

"Shut up! We all survived that, and we're gonna keep surviving, because that's what we do. We're gonna get stronger and we're gonna break Nami's chains because she expects no less." He panted, looking down at his brother expectantly.

The blond sighed. "When did you get so smart?"

"When you started teaching me." Luffy held out a hand and Sabo grabbed it, pulling himself up.

"Okay, we'll start getting stronger from today."

Unseen, Dragon smiled from the shadows.

--

Garp was there as promised and not a day later, his ship empty safe for himself and a deep scowl marring his features. His shoes hit the ground and the earth trembled, and he instantly stormed up the mountain, uncaring for the trees unfortunate enough to get in his way.

He walked through the door (Which was closed, he left a Garp-shaped hole in the wood), marched down the hall and zeroed in on Luffy giggling from where he stood on the dining table, looking down at the ground and hopping from foot to foot with his bare feet. He looked young like this, and for once Garp was silent because he couldn't recall the last time his grandson looked so...unabashedly childish. Of course he was always childish in the eyes of a stranger, he was Garp's blood, but it was always watching him drag himself back from the depths of the forest with more wounds than could be counted, only really looking at his grandfather when said grandfather made dinner.

Ace was standing on a chair and jumped up to the table, Coby on his back, while Sabo tried to use his pipe to drag a pillow closer to him. "Oi! Stop shaking the table." Ace scolded lightly, and Luffy froze and stood at attention with a pouty serious face before they all burst out laughing.

But then Ace caught his grandfather in the corner of his eye and froze, subtly getting defensive in a way he always did around the marine. All four boys were looking at him now, and Garp felt a pain in his chest at the wary looks.

He was about to swallow it down so he could scold them for…something. But then Luffy started giggling just as excited as before, stamping his little feet against the table. "Gramps! The floor is lava!"

The Vice-Admiral blinked, looked at Luffy, looked at the floor, looked at where his shoes were planted on the floor, then looked at Luffy again. He had to fight the corners of his mouth from turning upward before he put on a face of mock-horror.

"Gaaah!" He yelled theatrically, falling to his knees and leaving three of the four boys looking shocked while Luffy was kneeling on the corner of the table, stretching out his hand with an equally theatrical horror. "The lava! It's swallowing me whole!"

"Grandpa!" Both Monkeys were trying really hard not to laugh.

He fell to the floor, one hand raised toward his son's son. "Be…great…marines…" His arm fell and he closed his eyes, sticking his tongue out to accentuate the deadness.

"Nooooooooo!" The straw-hated boy yelled, and Ace put a solemn hand on his shoulder, Coby still on his back, now with a hand over his mouth to stop from laughing. Ace looked serious, the only tell he was in a similar state of barely stifled laughter was the dimples next to his tight frown.

"I'm sorry Luffy, but we have to keep going, it's what gramps would have wanted." Sabo finally made it to the table as well, vaulting gracefully with his pipe. "He's right, we need to get out of here so we can be pirates." Sabo had no tell he was enjoying this, but they knew.

Suddenly the lump of grandpa on the floor shifted at the mention of pirates, and the two eldest brothers tensed, thinking they may have gone too far with this game, but the two youngest looked at the marine with an excited glint.

Garp got up slowly, before putting his arms out in front of him like a zombie. "Blargh! I am the lava monster of this lava floor, and I eat pirates for breakfast!" He lurched toward the table full of his grandsons and the two youngest shrieked while the two eldest tried extremely hard not to laugh.

Coby scuttled off Ace's back before standing at the front of the group. "Jokes on you! I'm the marine in these parts, I'm gonna stop you!"

The youngest blushed then, realizing what he said and curling in on himself a touch before Luffy subtly tapped his back and made it straighten again, and the game almost paused because Garp looked close to crying for a second before returning to the 'monster face'. "Haha! A fellow marine?! Well, then that makes you a lava monster too!" He said, picking up the pink haired kid and plopping him on his shoulders.

Coby smiled widely, four baby teeth missing, and put his arms out like Garp. "Rawr!" He exclaimed, and Luffy shrieked again before jumping onto a chair in an attempt to flee the 'lava monsters', Sabo using his pipe to vault himself the opposite direction, no longer hiding his smile.

Ace almost couldn't run, looking between Coby's best attempt to look menacing and Luffy furiously giggling while jumping around the room and mentally banging his fist against the table because his baby brothers were so damn cute.

Garp's arms made a grab for him and he jumped away, landing on top of the icebox. "Blargh!" Garp yelled.
"Blargh!" Coby imitated with enthusiasm.

Ace jumped between the pieces of bandit furniture, silently thankful all the bandits were out in Grey Terminal for the day. He stuck out his tongue at Coby before he slammed face-first into a wall, making everyone in the room laugh while he blushed but kept moving. But suddenly Garp smirked. "Now!" He yelled, and Coby jumped off his shoulders, tackling Luffy to the ground from the (probably stolen) end table he was balancing on.

"Gaaaah!" Luffy yelled dramatically. "Curses! Betrayed by my own brother!" Coby was a giggling mess where he straddled the older boy. "I accept my fate, for I am a lava monster now."

The performance was beautiful, but distracting, before he knew it Ace was struggling to get out of his grandfather's arms. But then Garp poked his side and he started laughing because dammit that old man knew he was ticklish. He was assaulted by scratching fingers on his sides and all he could do was writhe on the floor, laughing like he hadn't in a long time. "Oh-hoh-kay! I'm a la-ha-va monster! Sto-ho-p!" And the tickling stopped but he didn't stop laughing, tears beading in the corners of his eyes, hearing his baby brothers laughing, probably at him but he didn't mind.

The giggles died down and Sabo stood above them, leaning on his pipe on a chair and looking down at them with a frown. "A tragedy, three of my brothers and my grandfather, lost to lava before their time."

All four on the floor shared a look, before zeroing in on the blond. "Blargh!" They all yelled in unison, tackling him into a dog pile and making him squawk as he fell off his victory chair.

All five of them were laughing, and a tiny corner of Luffy's brain wished Nami could be a kid with them. No, not yet.

But soon.

Chapter Text

Garp had decided to take the boys out into the woods to camp out for the night, hunting dinner himself as they made their way to a decent clearing. They set up a fire, cooked, ate, and the two youngest of the group were out like lights, Luffy holding Coby's hand as they slept, an assurance he always needed that someone was there.

Garp, however, was leaning against a tree, holding half a bottle of sake and watching sparks float into the air before flickering out. Ace got up from where he was attempting to sleep, sitting down on the opposite side of the tree from Garp. Close enough to hear but not see.

"I'm not trying to force you to choose the marine path, you know." Garp muttered, going straight to the important stuff, the two never talked when it wasn't.

Ace sighed, pulling his knees to his chest. "Sure feels like it."

"I'm not, I just…" The man sighed, feeling his age grating on his bones.

"I was friends," He said instead. "with your father." He knew Ace flinched, he always did when the man was brought up. "I know, hard to believe your pirate-hating grandpa was friends with the most nefarious pirate of them all." He watched another spark fizzle into the night sky. "But man did he get my heart racing."

"Ew." Ace snarked.

"Not like that!" He paused for a second. "A little like that, but everyone's a little gay sometimes, kid, that's a fact of life."

Ace had his nose scrunched and his hands over his ears while he made gagging noises. The now empty sake bottle was planted in the dirt and he removed his hands from his ears cautiously.

"He was dying." Garp said, again solemn and morose. "S' the reason he asked me to turn him in. Didn't want to fade away, he could barely breathe on his own by the time he came to me." Ace's breath hitched, but Garp continued.

"He always wanted to tear the world apart, his death did just that." He almost sounded amused in a sad way.

He took a breath. "But I was there. I was getting pats on the back as I watched him get dragged down the street in chains, like he was less than a man, everyone trying to take pictures, reach him, touch the pirate king like he was some exotic endangered animal. He got dragged onto a stage like his death was a performance, like he was the villain at the end of a storybook." He glared at the fire like it was the plasma's fault.

"I watched the life leak out of that man's smile, and I couldn't move because of my pledge to justice. I will not do it again with you if I can do anything to stop it. My loyalty is to the marines, but it's to my family as well."

Ace was quiet, not knowing if he wanted to hug or punch his grandpa so staying where he was.

The two were silent for a while.

"I just want to be free." The statement cut through the mournful silence with a knife. "I want to be free, to make my own name instead of being shadowed by his, I want to have a family I get to keep." He said, quiet but it didn't matter.

Ace sighed, rubbing his fist against his blurry eyes. "I'm never gonna make a promise I can't keep, and if Luffy was on that stand, chained like an animal and smiling like it was his last, I would never not save him. And he's gonna be the Pirate King." Everything was fact, and it made Garp's chest burn with more than alcohol.

The old man was silent for a long minute. "I'll never stop trying to make you and your brothers into marines." He stated. "But…" He grit his teeth, thinking about how genuinely happy Luffy was, just playing a silly game with his brothers, he shone like the sun against the ocean. "...keep Luffy smiling for me, he needs people to stay in his corner, and I can't be, not where he's going."

Ace nodded, Garp didn't see but knew anyway.

The rest of the night was quiet, only filled with the uneven chirps and shifts of nature.

--

Dragon had been staying on the island for two weeks now, appearing and disappearing like a phantom, watching the boys, especially his son.

Safe to say, his son was the only one that didn't mind.

Ace had been glaring at the man every chance he got, probably not having a good frame of reference for fathers in general, let alone one that did practically the same thing his own father did except without the excuse of being dead.

Coby seemed off-put by the man's presence, always sneaking closer to one of his older brothers when he noticed him.

Sabo had enough, and instead of trying to ignore the revolutionary, he walked right up to him. "Is there a reason you've found the creepiest way to get to know us that you could think of?" He asked, over the revolutionary status now that he realized, since he wasn't a noble, the man wasn't a threat.

The man drew his lips in a tight line, it would have almost looked like Luffy's 'this is awkward' expression, except without the baby fat to hide the definition in his face.

Sabo sighed, why did he think that somehow, the line between Garp and Luffy wouldn't be…well…

Somewhere in the background, Luffy sneezed so hard he bumped into a boar before falling in a tiny creek and going limp face-first in the water in the literal only position he could drown in.

…like that.

Coby dragged his brother out of the only water in this part of the forest, and Sabo squinted, looking for more physical similarities between his brother and the revolutionary. The man had eyes the same shape as Garp, same nose too, but not like Luffy's eyes or nose. Actually, the man didn't look much like his son, Garp didn't really either but personality more than assured everyone in the area that they were related.

The man sighed. "If you're looking for similarities between Luffy and I, you won't find much. Most of the Monkey D. genes won't kick in until he's middle-aged, and besides, he looks more like his mother." Sabo refrained from making a face but somehow Dragon read it anyway. "Although I can't forgive her for leaving our son, I'm no better, so don't judge her more harshly than myself."

Recognition flashed in the blond's eyes. "That's what's so similar! You two both have that weird emotional telepathy, you guys both read people better than books." His smile turned into a tight frown and he squinted. "It's kinda creepy."

Despite himself, Dragon let out a surprised laugh at the blunt statement, smiling widely in a way he usually didn't. He liked this child.

"He's got your smile too."

"Really? I'd say it gets more use on him, with brothers like you." The boy blushed a little at the compliment.

"So, what do revolutionaries do?"

--

Coby was dragging Luffy away from the water - really, he had a talent for finding ways to die just so he could do them and not die. He dragged them away from the clearing toward the tree house where Ace was, trusting Sabo to be safe with Luffy's dad alone.

Ace was currently punching a tree over and over again, his hits light jabs in comparison to his normal blows but still slowly eating through the tree. "Oi!" He barked as soon as he noticed his baby brothers, turning to them with a determined glare. "Both of you, spar with me, right now."

Coby dropped the foot he was using to drag his older brother and not a second later said brother jumped up, excitement barely contained. "100 rounds?"

"100 rounds." The eldest confirmed, and Coby made a 'T' with his hands. "Wait, wait, wait, both of us?"

Ace nodded but Luffy made a noise. "You're right, Ace and I and then the loser fights Coby, and the winner fights the loser and Coby. 300 rounds." Ace nodded more furiously and Coby cringed at the thought of fighting someone 200 times.

But then Luffy said the magic words. "You want to be a marine, don't you? Marines fight thousands of people." And now Coby was gonna fight 200 spars with his brothers.

The first round seemed to be going in Ace's direction, Luffy on the defensive with his arms in front of him while the elder assaulted with his pipe over and over. It became almost a rhythm, block, block, step back.

But then just as Ace went for another swing, Luffy dropped to his knees, making Ace's momentum push him off-balance. Wasting no time, the younger grabbed him by the waist and used his inhuman flexibility to slam his head into the dirt.

Luffy jumped back to his feet, whooping in victory as Ace groaned and held his head. The boy growled before getting back into his ready stance.

The next spar, Ace attacked more furiously, his hits sloppy but strong, and Luffy was put on the defensive simply because he could only dodge. "Come on!" His brother urged, and Luffy threw a punch, whizzing right by his brother's head.

Ace clenched his teeth harder at the miss, not noticing that Luffy had grabbed a smaller tree before it was yanked from its roots and nearly fell on him. He moved out of the way of the main trunk, but couldn't move fast enough to miss the branches entirely and got smacked to the ground.

"Damn it!" He grit, getting up off the ground and making the score 0-2.

The next round went to Ace, Luffy tripped on a rock and his brother punched him so hard in the gut he went into a tree. This seemed to only anger Ace further, however. "Get up!" He barked, his entire face twisted in what Coby comprehended was anger.

But Luffy didn't look angry, didn't even react to the two-syllable orders, just followed them. He looked calculating, studying, the same expression he wore in his fight with Sabo the other day, and Coby understood.

Something was wrong, and Ace needed to tire himself out before he talked about it. Sometimes Coby wondered if anyone in his family actually talked about stuff unless they absolutely had to, and he reflected on all four of his brothers, and thought no, they do not.

It was 27 rounds in, the score was 15-12, and Luffy was on a five-loss streak when Ace decided to say something more than two syllables. "What?! You think you can be the Pirate King if you can't even win against me?!" He jeered, and oh Luffy was not going to take that lightly.

Luffy's calculating look remained, his nose twitching the only indication the words hit. "I will be Pirate King." The common declaration without any of the foreboding excitement, it was almost droned; cold, final, fact.

The next round was harsher, Luffy was proving a point and he did, he slammed Ace's head into the dirt in six different ways and brought the score up 15-18. Every time Ace kissed dirt, he got up with his teeth grit tighter. There was no way this fight wasn't going to end with Ace in a rage.

The spars after that were almost like watching a bull fight a monkey, Coby thought. Ace attacked fast, harshly, with a strength Luffy was closest to matching but still too far to defend direct blows. Luffy used the surroundings and his rubber powers to slip away, hitting his brother in the side with a still monstrous amount of strength when he got the chance. The fight would either go to Ace when Luffy didn't dodge fast enough or Luffy when Ace was too slow. Coby watched enraptured from the sidelines, honestly in awe and horror at the strength of the two.

But then, something strange happened.

Luffy punched Ace, and Coby knew there was enough force behind it to break boulders, but Ace didn't move. He punched again, but Ace was still unaffected. Their eyes met, and then Luffy disappeared.

Coby watched on, baffled as his brother seemed to teleport behind the other, punching him in the head, and his punches worked that time, and Ace was on the ground.

Now that the spar was over, they both locked eyes, all past serious pretenses forgotten. "Mystery Power." They both whispered in sync with stars in their eyes.

"What in the four blues was that?!" Coby yelled, and both older boys looked at him at the same time. "Mystery Power." They answered, and now Coby wanted to slam his own head into the dirt.

They both continued to spar, now trying to get a hold of their 'Mystery Power' as they fought, and with Ace seeming to forget what he was angry about, and Coby went to get Garp.

"Bwahahaha! You brats' already learning the six powers? Love the enthusiasm! You'll become fine marines in no time!" He announced, cutting off their 98th spar short so they could both pout.

"I can't be a pirate if I'm a marine, grandpa." Luffy explained as if the old man were stupid, and said old man punched him on the head, somehow always able to make it hurt even though the kid was rubber. "Then don't be a pirate!"

"What are the six powers?" Ace cut in before that ship could sail.

"Ah, some powers the marines teach you so you can be a CP agent, at least while you're in paradise and don't know haki yet." He chuckled to himself a little, and Luffy shot Ace and Coby a quick look that made dread rise in their stomachs before putting on innocent eyes. For someone who couldn't lie for anything, he sure could act.

"Ne, grampa, what's haki? Is it one of those superpowers you have?" And Garp took the bait because he was never the brightest bulb and he had a weakness to being called 'grampa' by adorable children who couldn't quite pronounce 'grandpa', a role Luffy played well.

Garp was beaming when he knelt down closer to the boy's height. "That's right! It's a superpower every marine should have when they make it to the second half of the grand line, that's where all the big evil pirates live and rule because there's only so many us marines strong enough to make it up there."

Luffy blinked up at his grandfather with wide, curious eyes. Speak what you will for his practical intelligence, but he played with emotions like strings of a harlequin. "So if I learn that superpower I'd get super strong like you? Can you teach me?" He asked, genuine fire in his doe eyes he could crumble cities with, and an eager childish tightness in his lips that made his cheeks look chubbier.

Ace was dying, it was sad, really, how easily he was hypnotized just as much as Garp, even though he knew exactly what his brother was doing. Coby was holding his arm to keep him from interfering, if he did, they'd probably have to find someone to teach them haki while they were more desperately in need of it. The youngest wasn't doing it for himself, he had no doubt he'd be taught eventually at a marine base (because he was going to be a marine, an admiral that would keep the bad pirates at bay and the good pirates safe to be free.) but his brothers, who planned to be outlaws, should know any and all advantage to go down the road they're going down.

"There are three types of haki, two of them, anyone with a strong heart can learn, and the last one only certain people have. The first one is observation, it lets you see where people will attack before they do, some can even see the future--." Luffy got sparkles in his eyes, bouncing a little on his heels with rapt attention on his grandpa. But then Sabo's conversation, previously just out of hearing range, began to pick up with a loud exclamation of shock from Sabo that echoed over the treeline.

"EEEEH?!" Echoed over the tree line and four sets of eyes snapped to the birds flying away from the noise. Garp then blinked. "I shouldn't have told you that." He said, laughing at himself and rubbing his second-youngest grandson's hair. "Forget I said anything." Coby almost fell over from shock alone. How was he that oblivious?

"Anyway, if you brats are learning six powers on your own, I might as well teach you how to use 'em right." His mouth tightened in annoyance. "Once a weird cat pirate figured out how to use Shave but couldn't control it and ended up becoming an invisible dreidel with knives on it. It was annoying."

--

In another part of the forest…

"EEEEH?!?! So Iva-san's a man?"

"Yes, today, although he changes into a woman sometimes to feel more comfortable. Is this an issue?"

"N-no! No! I just… didn't know that was something someone could just do." He felt somewhat sheepish now, applying the noble bigotry and limited knowledge he was raised with instead of the logic that seems to be working for Luffy and Ace; the 'so?' opinion.

The revolutionary leader took on a grin though. "Technically speaking, it isn't yet. That's what revolutionaries do though, we go against such outdated standards and fight for issues until something gives."

That sounded…amazing. Being free, but freeing others also. If Sabo had encountered any of these people before he took his life into his own hands, well, he'd probably join them the first chance he got.

But not with the way things were, he made a promise to be a pirate to his brothers. He couldn't just ship off with the man that abandoned his son, Luffy, and abandon Luffy and Ace and Coby. This wasn't Nami, if he went, it would be his choice.

"I could see a fine revolutionary in you, maybe even one to take over when I retire, but I will not force your hand; I have no place to."

Sabo picked at his fingers and looked down at the ground. "Thank you, but I have a promise to keep." He walked away stiffly, an ach in his chest he hadn't known since he sat staring out the window in his old bedroom, when he had no callouses in his hands or dirt in his nail beds.

He went to get dinner, because there was never too much food for dinner. It was simple, distracting him from all the arguments in his mind.

--

Luffy waited for Ace near the cliff, knowing Ace would come there eventually with whatever his mind was stewing in.

He didn't know if he could help, but getting stronger seemed to be something Ace was a lot more desperate for. He would understand if it was for Nami's sake, he wanted to get stronger for the same reason, but it was more than that. Luffy intended to find out before Ace did something he would regret.

He sat and stared at the horizon and didn't think too hard about it because he was never great at 'plans'.

Ace saw him and immediately turned around to find somewhere else to sulk. Luffy put on a petulant frown. "Hey! You were mean earlier, why are you so grumpy?" He whined, and it pushed all the right buttons. Ace whipped around with a scowl, his fists clenched, his teeth grit and an insult on his lips.

"You think that's mean? You baby, you don't know shit." He spat. "Grow a pair, I thought you were finally growing up now!" He continued, fuming with nowhere to go but head-first into the first thing that moved like a bull in a cage.

"I don't need to be grown yet." Luffy said, crossing his arms as Ace stormed closer. "What are you, an idiot?!"

"Yup!" Luffy responded and was smacked across the face. His head stayed jerked to the side but his eye was now firmly on Ace, not unlike how he looked at Garp. Ace still had his hand out and his teeth grit before he felt the sting in his open hand and the indifference in Luffy's eye, waiting for more violence.

His hand closed and he turned on his feet, but then Luffy spoke up again. "I won't understand what you want unless you tell me." He said, and Ace was annoyed at the use of 'won't' instead of 'can't'.

"Fine! You want me to spell shit out," He said, turning back around. "you're a dumbass! You can barely fight for yourself, you can't read a map for shit, you can't even tell when you're eating raw meat, and you can't lie to save your life! Literally! You're gonna die before you can even hit the next island, you're useless!" Luffy stared at him the whole time, his eyes reflecting nothing and his body language the same as it's been since he came to the cliff. "And another thing! You're either a crybaby or a fucking statue, why can't you just be normal? You're a disaster! I--..." Ace stopped himself.

Luffy leaned back on his hands. "I know." He said casually. Ace's entire face twisted.

"No! You're--... It's… you aren't…" All the blind anger was gone, replaced with confusion and frustration and worry.

Luffy leaned forward. "I know. That's why I'm gonna get a crew, and that's why I'm gonna get stronger, and that's why I'm gonna get smarter. I still have time though, and I want to be here now."

Ace's face made several different expressions before landing on frustration, the easiest. "You don't get it, if you die--"

"I'll die as pirate king, trying to be pirate king, or for the sake of someone I care about more than that. You won't stop me, I want to be free."

Ace gripped the hem of his shirt tightly. "Just… just don't die without me." don't die before me, I know it's cowardly, don't let me live without my family.

Luffy smiled, bigger than the world. "Of course, we've got to be free first."

--

The four boys laid still in their tree house, snoring, but even with the familiar sounds, Sabo couldn't get to sleep.

Luffy scrunched his nose up, and he whined softly in his sleep. Automatically, Ace rolled over to flop half on top of him while Coby grabbed his leg, both still deep in sleep, and all signs of distress vanished.

He lightly placed his hand in his brother's, knowing the contact wasn't necessary but needing it all the same. He wouldn't abandon this, not for all the freedom in the world.

But then his brother gave a little huff and opened his eyes, brown eyes met green for a minute, and Sabo could feel himself being read, before the raven let out another huff.

"We want to be free, Sabo, it doesn't matter to us what you want to do with that because that's freedom. You don't have to be free the same way we are as long as you're free. That's all that matters, and if you somehow take the freedom out of being free, Ace'll punch you." He tugged his brother closer to the impromptu sleep pile." I will too…" He trailed off before going back to sleep as if he had listed off a soup recipe and not made his poor older brother cry.

Of course Luffy made it simple, Sabo could have envied the ability to simplify everything until the decisions weren't difficult anymore. He wanted to be free and he wanted to free others, and he wanted to train with the revolutionaries, even if he'd have to go away from his brothers for a while.

--

It was the day Garp departed, when Ace walked up to the revolutionary and told him point blank his opinion.

"I don't like you."

"I don't expect you to."

Ace clicked his teeth. "What kind of dad leaves a kid alone in a dangerous shadow like yours."

"Someone with enough enemies to garner such a shadow, enemies that target family, even infants." He responded, a small frown tightening his lips.

Ace huffed. "So you were scared, is that it? Why didn't you think about that before you had a kid, huh?" Dragon knew this was not just him the kid was talking about, but got a sour taste in his mouth anyway.

"I do not regret any part of how Luffy came to be. I will admit he could have been raised better, but he's beyond that now." He said, more stone cold than he meant before he softened (although it was hardly noticeable).

"I loved his mother, and I love him, but a revolutionary gives up their family so they can protect it, this meeting was simply a fluke, I have no desire to take my son from where he belongs."

Ace glared down at his feet, knuckles clenched until they went white. "Sabo ain't gonna give up his family. I won't let him."

"Giving up family is an option most revolutionaries choose, but it's not a mandatory one." He said, before his eyes turned sharp. "But don't make him regret his choice by dying."

I can't die, Ace thought, my brothers need me, and I won't do that to Gramps.

He nodded.

--

It had been a month since Sabo had left with the revolutionaries, and Ace realised he hadn't quite thought of something.

He was the only older brother left.

He was…not prepared for this responsibility. Don't get him wrong, both his baby brothers were smart, smarter than him, at least. But they were also kids, and easily distracted.

By the tiger lord of the forest, for example, because apparently they wanted to test him.

Luffy had somehow gotten his arm stuck under a rock, and was just spaced out looking at the feline, while Coby was trying to defend his older brother without a pipe. Safe to say, Ace got distracted just watching the show.

The tiger didn't seem perticularily hungry or mad, it just lied down in that way cats do where they tuck their limbs into their fur and look like a loaf, watching dumb and dumber.

Coby had moved to pull Luffy out from under the boulder, which just succeeded in Luffy's neck stretching 6 meters before snapping back into place. Ace laughed a little to himself, moving out to tell his brothers that that was enough goofing off.

Luffy, in the same moment, yawned comically. "Okay, I'm bored now." He said, making Coby fall forward in exasperation.

"Luffy, please be a little more aware of the lord of the forest." He muttered, and it was muffled by dirt.

Luffy shrugged, getting his arm back by launching the boulder into the sky. Really, even before his devil fruit and training, his strength just wasn't normal to anyone but Ace and Garp.

The rock went in an arc upward before landing straight on the lord's tail. All three boys froze wide-eyed as they saw the startled frantic rage encompass the giant tiger.

Ace was frozen in place, why did he always freeze, as the tiger went to take a swipe at the closest kid. The closest kid just so happened to be Coby, who was equally frozen.

It was like that day all over again, he was frozen, useless, and his brother moved. Luffy harshly threw Coby out of the way, the frantic momentum putting himself right in the line of fire. Ace watched unmoving as the blood seeped out of Luffy's back while he struggled to get up off the ground.

And he couldn't move.

And Luffy went against the tiger single-handed.

And he couldn't move.

And Luffy snapped its neck.

And he couldn't move.

And Coby had to hold Luffy up.

And the world went fuzzy.

And he passed out.

Chapter Text

Ace woke up propped up against a wall, and instantly zeroed in on his little brother, curled up, sobbing and covered in blood. "Hey. Hey, hey!" He scrambled to get the kid's attention, scanning for any injuries he could see. Him waking up seemed to make Coby cry harder.

"S' not mine, it's Luf-fy's" He sobbed, and Ace was reminded of the events before him waking up on what appeared to be the wall dividing the infirmary from the rest of the hut.

He's been here before. He's been here more times than a big brother should. He pulled the younger boy into his chest and let him cry it out, not commenting on the crybaby behavior for once.

"You dragged both our sorry asses here yourself, didn't you?" He finally asked when the sobs turned to sniffles.

All he got was a small nod in return.

Mikey, the only sorry bandit in these woods with any decent medical training, stepped out of the room with a tired look. "He's all patched up, if he makes it through the night, he makes it."

But then time froze. What was Ace expecting? The same exasperated 'I need some of whatever magic your brother has, he's bouncing off the walls.', for Luffy to just bounce back from an injury that would have killed Ace or Coby in an instant?

He really was stupid, he almost forgot Luffy was able to do anything but grow up and become pirate king.

The room was cold and both watched the bandit silently as he sighed, explaining all the diseases one could catch from a tiger's claws.

"Anyway, you're up Ace." He said, and the eldest stood.

The two entered the infirmary and Coby was left alone outside.

--

"Narcolepsy. You're gonna need to take some stuff unless you want to pass out in the middle of a fight again. You're grandpa's got it, guess you got yours a little younger." He sighed without bringing up that the only relation between the two was the 'D' in their name.

On the bright side, Luffy was up and at em' the next day, not dead, thank the blues.

--

"Something Willow taught me, I'm owed nothing, not from my family, not from my island, not even the air I breathe."

Ace couldn't sleep. He tried, but he couldn't. So many things had happened in the span of a few weeks, he was still processing everything.

"Something Willow taught me,"

The words echoed in his head.

"I'm owed nothing,"

It was stupid, really, but he just couldn't shake a feeling.

"not even the air I breathe."

He knew it wasn't his business, he knew pasts didn't matter, he knew no matter what, he and his brothers would be free, that was all that mattered.

"Something Willow taught me,"

But tonight, he wanted to know. So he shook his brother awake.

Luffy whined, curling more around Coby like a rubber snake, and Ace flicked his nose. He turned his head to glare at the eldest but then all the petulance and sleep vanished from his eyes when he saw his brother.

He carefully slid away, it being much easier now that the sleep pile was just two.

He leaned against the opposite wall of the treehouse. "What's up?"

Ace sighed, moving to sit next to him. "Can you…tell me about your mom?"

"I don't have a mom."

A sigh. "Willow, can you tell me about her?"

Luffy went from legs stretched to legs crossed. "I don't know." He said, not looking at his brother, just into space in front of him. "Why do you want to know?"

Ace bit his cheek. "That thing you said on Dragon's boat… What… Can you tell me about her?" He asked again, not sure how to put his thoughts into words.

Luffy rested his head against his shoulder. "You're warm." He said, a hint of drowsiness slurring his words.

Ace sighed, but then Luffy spoke again.

"She was never warm." and all attention was on him. "Her hands were always cold, like mine are."

He started talking slowly, weighing words on his tongue, like he was judging what he should give away. "She didn't talk to me a whole lot, when she did, she said I was annoying, stupid, a waste." He droned the insults like a bored mantra, and Ace wrapped an arm around him.

"She was kind though. She spent all day at home, she fed me sometimes, she'd let me outside, she even got me a first aid kit for when I got home from training with gramps."

He sighed. "I wasn't a good son, though. I was selfish and I cried too much over everything. I would ask her for more food until she kicked me out for the night, I'd ask her about Dragon's wanted poster on the wall, and I hid from her."

Ace was gritting his teeth, but he looked down at his brother in a wordless question. "I was a coward. I hid because I got in trouble and didn't want her to punish me."

"That doesn't sound like you, you never hid from gramps." Ace said before he could think it through.

Luffy chuckled a little. "No, gramps doesn't punish. He trains us, he loves us, he's a bit mean about it but he does." His smile faded then. "Willow didn't love me. She might have loved Dragon, probably why she put up with me for so long, but she didn't love me. She used to hold my head underwater until I almost drowned, then she'd yank my head back up long enough for me to get a breath before doing it again, for hours until I fell asleep." Ace's grip on his brother tightened more and more with every word, but the rubber boy didn't mind.

"Makino started feeding me more and more as I got older, then one day I spent the weekend at Party's Bar and never saw Willow again. She left a note, saying I wasn't her son and that I was better off not wasting air by breathing, but that's okay because she put up with me long enough."

Luffy sounded resigned, accepting, and that didn't sit right with Ace. "She was wrong."

"Doesn't matter, it happened a long time ago, and now I have Makino and Shanks and you and all my brothers and the mountain bandits." He said, and began dozing off on Ace's shoulder.

The elder sighed. "I won't take back what I said though, I owe you the world." Luffy chuckled lightly.
"No, I'll get the world myself, you just owe me you." He said before drifting off easily.

And damn it, Ace didn't cry.

Not even a little.

Both his brothers were asleep anyway, no one saw.

And it was nice. It was really really nice, just sitting in a treehouse covered in bedding, with papers all over the walls with maps of dawn island, and the letters of the alphabet that they hadn't needed in over a year, with five pipes leaning against the wall telling him Nami and Sabo would be back.

He felt loved.