Chapter Text
Luffy smiled all the time.
It was pretty much all the kid did from what I could tell.
His straw hat would sit proudly on the idiot’s face as his eyes smiled along with the scar underneath his left eye and he would look like one of the happiest people in all four blues.
He would run around under the unforgiving hot sun. Telling anything that breathed that he would be the next king of the pirates and then beg me and Sabo for meat. My top hatted brother would laugh at our brother’s ridiculousness, letting the younger boy cling to him and the three of us would go on the hunt for dinner or what ever meal we felt like calling it, at the time.
But the minute the blonde’s eye would meet mine, we would have a silent conversation.
We would silently tell each other about our worry for our baby brother. We all knew pain. Whether it be by a fist to our face or by words of people who knew nothing about us. Words telling us we shouldn’t be alive. That we’re demons, which I think Luffy takes as a compliment at times. But Sabo and I wonder, what could happen in the 7-year old’s life that made him fake a smile.
I admit, I haven’t known my little brother long.
Neither has Sabo, though we knew each other since we’re five. Making us almost inseparable, but Luffy.
Luffy was alone from what we knew. We knew from the pain in his voice when he admitted why he followed me even after all I did to him.
That, “being alone hurt worse than getting hurt,” and seriously what kid knows how much that is true. Unlike Luffy, I grew up much younger than him, becoming an adult when no one would care for me, no one who would love me until we three became brothers. Though Sabo would violently disagree to that statement if I said this thought out loud.
But my baby brother, still is very much a child.
Still believes in Santa. Believes in dreams. Believes in unconditional love. Believes that the old man loves us even when we share the bruises of his love.
So, what child can honestly say how being alone hurts when he has childlike innocence running through his rubber veins, I have no idea. Neither did Sabo.
It just didn’t make sense!
There were other things that Luffy did that made us feel off at times.
He would sometimes look at the sea and his little fingers would clench around his straw hat. His eyes would fill up with tears that he didn’t dare let fall as a nostalgic look would settle on his face. As if there was something broken inside the seven-year-old. As if there was something out there, outside of the shore of this island that he was yearning for. As if he already knew the feeling of sailing the four blues and just missed it more than anything.
Which made no sense to either me or Sabo, knowing Luffy never been anywhere but this island from what we knew.
Sometimes, Luffy was severely insecure.
Which was an odd look on the overly confident boy. His face would fall, and a frown would grace his face. His shoulders sagged and he would hug himself, as to shield himself from the world. He would believe us when we, I, teased for his dream of being the king. He would stare into space to only snap out of it quicker than my narcoleptic attacks and has his fake smile plastered on his face. Every time I saw it I became sick to my stomach with guilt.
He would act normal, or at least try to.
We never would talk about it of course. Because Luffy would hide whatever was bothering him and for me not having the courage to apologize. Though, this led to Sabo being constantly disappointed in me whenever this happened. And this situation happened many times.
But at the same time, Sabo didn’t have the courage to confront our brother either.
On those nights, when we would all be sleeping in our tree house. Our backs touching for warmth and our only light being the moon. I would wake to Luffy’s soft voice. Whispering to the hat, apologizing to it for not being able to keep his promise.
As if the hat meant more to him than something he probably found on the abandoned by the shore one day.
Though when Luffy looked at the darn thing and called it his treasure, we knew it meant more. That it was something special, but me or Sabo didn’t have the guts to ask the questions that constantly ran through our minds.
Then one day we were playing, in our tree house of course.
Pretending to be pirates, boasting about our dreams. Reenacting our goals. Promising each other we would be the freest people in all the blues, in all the worlds we would come across in our futures.
When Sabo just stopped out of nowhere.
His blue eyes widened, he stood there frozen in place. I found myself being consumed with worry, I looked at Luffy and he was staring at Sabo as well.
“Sabo,” I asked awkwardly when suddenly the boy smiled and ran up to the top of the tree house. The place where we could see everything on the island. Luffy and I chased after our brother, to see if he was okay and to find out what shocked the blonde. I made it to the top seconds after Sabo, Luffy behind me still climbing. I looked out to sea and even without the glass piece that was in Sabo’s hands, I could see it with my naked eye.
A pirate ship.
Luffy saw it too and started bouncing up and down. He laughed with joy, and he started to smile, all teeth and rosy cheeks. It was the brightest smile I’ve ever seen from him; I was amazed. Lost in the moment of seeing such an honest and true emotion on my brother’s face that it made me momentarily forget the ship for a moment. That was until Sabo was pushing the glass piece in my hands, telling him to look.
I looked and grinned, a huffing sound leaving my lips as I saw what my brothers and I were hoping for. A pirate flag in full bloom. Swaying to the wind.
“Wow,” I said, “It’s an actual pirate ship.”
“Yeah,” my blonde brother replied.
As my other brother was clawing at my shirt, “Give it to me Ace! I want to see too!”
I rolled my eyes as I passed him the glass. I turned to look at the ship once again in awe. Sabo clapped a hand on my shoulder, silently saying we were seeing a glimpse of our dream. As if it was a sign from the creator themselves telling us that it could be a reality and giving us a glimpse into the future.
The ship itself was huge.
It was all wood and from what I could tell had two floors of canons, which was awesome I must add. It had three huge mases that held huge sails with a skull with a red slash on one of its eyes and swords instead of cross bones. The figurehead was a red dragon looking creature and it was covered with red and gold.
It was a thing of pure beauty.
I got the impression that she along with her crew were a force to be reconned with. I felt tremors throughout my body in excitement or fear, I didn’t know. But I basked in the feeling, imaging if this what pirates felt.
If I felt like this from only looking at the ship, what did it feel like to be on one? To steer one? To have a ship of my own?
It must feel amazing, I thought to myself. I closed my eyes and imagined that the wind that flew through my hair was the same feeling on a ship.
When a crash snaped me out of my trance.
Breaking Sabo’s concentration on the ship as well.
We turned our heads to the sound. We looked at Luffy, who dropped the glass piece. I became enraged. Sabo looked sad as we looked at the tool we manage to scrap together in Grey Terminal with the endless piles of junk. I was about to yell at Luffy, ring him a new one.
That was until I looked at him.
The first thing I noticed besides the tears running down his race, was that he was shaking.
Shaking so bad all throughout his body that I knew that he didn’t even notice the glass piece not being in his small hands anymore. His eyes were wide, filled with shock. Filled with the look of sadness that he tried to hide from Sabo and I so often.
“Lu?” Sabo said worried, trying to get the attention of our little brother. “Are you okay?”
Luffy ignored him.
Or didn’t hear him it seemed. He just continued to look at the pirate ship.
I put a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder, and he flinched. Jumping a few inches from the floor, seeming to snap out of whatever was going on in his head. He looked at Sabo and then at me. He looked terrified and on top of all of that he started to hyperventilate.
I backed away from him, wondering if I was the one scaring him or the ship coming into the port.
“Luffy,” I said, my voice shaking not knowing what to do. It seems that my little brother decided for me as he grabbed the railing and stepped back.
Sabo’s eyes widened in fear, like when he realized what our little brother was about to do.
“LUFFY!” He yells when Luffy’s body suddenly flies and falls to the ground.
Me and Sabo run over to see if he’s okay, if he is even alive at how fast he managed to rocket himself. The boy is fine, scaped arms and knees but he ignored it. He just pulled himself up and ran.
Towards the port to our horror.
“LET’S GO,” I yelled at Sabo as we grab our pipes, running after our baby brother.
I’m scared out of my mind, knowing Sabo feels the same with how tight he’s clutching his pipe. The trees pass us, and soon the trees turn into sky and then into buildings. My chest is tight, and my breath is being forced out of my body, but I force myself to run even faster when my eyes finally find the form of my baby brother. His arms are stretched out, flowing through the wind. Luffy not seeing to notice past his screaming and his tears.
“LUFFY,” Sabo and I yelled.
Trying to get his attention. He doesn’t hear us. He just keeps running faster and faster.
And I can’t keep up.
It’s strange. A very strange feeling when the person who devotes their entire lives trying to catch up to you is instead in front of you, too far out of reach. Far beyond your grip. I bite my lip hard at the thought, blood oozing out of the cut. Running down my face, my anger clear on my features no doubt.
“ACE!” Sabo yells.
I turn my head, looking at my brother. His eyes hold fear as he points to the ship, which is moving towards the docking point, minutes away from anchoring down, settling into the bay.
A horrible feeling fills my gut. But then I notice a man swimming from the boat, as if he jumped off the ship. The closer I look I realize the man is screaming, and his path is towards my brother. Who has now stopped running at is standing on the stone steps of the port screaming, his arms now their normal length again, holding his hat to his body. We’re almost there when, the idiot decides to turn around.
AND MAKE A RUNNING START TO JUMP INTO THE WATER. MY IDIOT BABY BROTHER WHO IS A DEVIL’S FRUIT USER IN WATER.
Me and Sabo scream, being miles away still. Screaming, endlessly screaming knowing by the time we get there our beloved baby brother will have drowned.
Tears fall from my face, I keep running. My eyes become blurry; I keep running. Sabo breaks, sounding broken from the inside out. We keep going. We finally make it the port.
And either to our horror or prayers Luffy’s okay.
He’s soaking wet but alive.
He’s being held by the man, I then realize, jumped from the boat. His red hair covers most of his eyes, though they don’t hind the three-clawed scare on his eye, the same eye Luffy has his scar. His white shirt is now transparent, and I notice he’s only one armed, and he’s on the ground holding my baby brother to his chest.
In just as much of hysterics as Luffy.
Crying and shaking, pulling Luffy to his chest as if to absorb him. Luffy is clutching the man’s shirt and sobbing. And that’s when I finally register what my brother is waling.
“DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!” Luffy cries over and over again. And the man, his father I ask in my head, has the boy in his lap. He’s rubbing his back in soothing motions and nuzzles his soft baby hair with his stubbled jaw.
“Oh Luffy,” he keeps saying over the echo of Luffy. “I’m sorry.”
After he utters his apology the man starts sobbing and Sabo grabs my wrist with his free hand. And I feel like were intruding on something private.
Something I feel, shouldn’t have something like me, tainted around. I take a step back, I step on a rock, as it skips and cackles to the ground the man seems to freeze. A shudder runs through his body, he looks up. Eyes filled with none of the strife from before as he looks for a possible threat, his eyes fall upon us and his eyes loose its coldness. Softens as he smiles. He looks down at the precious bundle in his lap.
“Luffy,” the boy pulls back from his hiding spot in the man’s shirt and look at the man.
The man makes a goofy smile. He points to us and Luffy turns and spots us. The boy mirrors the man’s smiles as he flings himself at us. Hugging us, as soon as his body connects to mine, I feel relief.
And I start crying. Thinking my baby brother had died only moments before. Sabo cries too, after hitting Luffy in the head, seeming to take a page from my book. We hug, reunited like were supposed to be until we pull back after a minute or too.
Luffy smiles and grabs our hands and drags us to the man. “ACE SABO MEET MY DADDY! DADDY MEET MY BROTHERS!”
And then what our baby brother said finally hits us.
“DADDY???” Sabo and I yell together in shock. And the moron we call our little brother just nods. Nods like it was a fact both of us should have been aware of.
What if the heck is going on here?