Work Text:
Ace does not consider himself a jealous person. He’s worked damn hard for everything he’s ever owned, worked just as hard to survive, and part of that involved tearing down anyone that got in his way or criticized him for his methods.
He can’t want for a better home, because he has a roof over his head, and someone that puts food on the table every night, even if it’s slop. And then, he doesn’t get jealous over the other families in the slums, the children that have friends, the children that have siblings, because he gets Sabo.
What can Ace be jealous for when he has Sabo now? What can Ace be jealous for when he, reluctantly and will never admit out loud, has Dadan and Garp for?
It turns out, a lot.
Jealous only ever for Luffy.
Ace despises Luffy when he first comes into their home, dropped off by Garp with a few words to Dadan who doesn’t come off the front doorstep.
Luffy wasn’t even paying attention at the time, watching a line of ants march single file over the edge of the falling-apart concrete steps while the adults talk. Ace notices that Luffy’s hands stay firmly twisted in Garp’s pant leg.
He’s a baby. Just freshly turned seven years old with big doe eyes and round cheeks and perfect skin. Ace hates him. He looks like he’s never missed a meal in his life. Doesn’t know the first thing about growing up in the slums, doesn’t know anything about struggling to survive and live. Nothing like how he and Sabo have had to do.
Once Luffy joins their home, the only thing Ace has to be jealous of, is his past self and the damn peace and quiet he once had. The time alone.
Luffy clings to him immediately, sticking to his side like a leech no matter what Ace does or says to him. Ace really does try, but the runt always finds a way, left with big bruises or bloody scratches that Sabo will tend to when he’s home. Sabo will ask him what Ace did, and Luffy will always beam bright and wide, even if he’s still got tears on his lashes, and say they went out exploring.
It’s only when Ace is fourteen and Luffy eleven, that he realizes he likes having Luffy around him.
Because Luffy needs him. Luffy has no one else but Ace, he says so himself. No parents to run off to, no friends, only a barely there grandfather and Ace and Sabo. And even Sabo is out often, stuck in school like a good kid.
They grow together, and Ace becomes fiercely protective of his little brother. He won’t admit it to anyone but Sabo (which is only once, admitted in the dead of night) that Ace feels like Luffy is his. Luffy sticks around for Ace, gives him purpose. Ace isn’t just Portgas D. Ace anymore. He’s a big brother, he’s Luffy’s big brother. Luffy’s whole world now, in his small little life.
He and Ace are often left alone in the home together with nothing else to do. So Ace is often the one making sandwiches, fixing Luffy plates with double of everything, chips, slices of apples. Ace always puts down a plate for Luffy first while he fixes his own.
He grows so used to Luffy being with him all the time, that when Luffy first starts going to school, Ace feels weird.
It’s a bad weird.
He waits around the empty house, plays video games all day, skips out on the homework that Dadan piles up on him. He’s only getting through homeschooling because he got into too much trouble at the actual public schools, kicked out and suspended one too many times.
Too much trouble, so now Dadan has to teach him. She nags and nags and nags, says he can’t do anything without a diploma and if he’s going to live here and not be on the streets, he’s got to at least do that.
He does well only because Luffy looks up to him now. Luffy comes home from school with a tired look until he sees Ace at the table doing homework, and then launches himself into a hug and asking Ace to help him with his homework too.
It becomes routine, Ace waiting for Luffy out in the kitchen, getting bored, deciding to at least do a few worksheets to pass the time, and then before he knows it, Luffy is back at his heels and lamenting about how boring school is without Ace there.
The trouble really comes when Luffy is freshly fifteen and starts highschool. He’s excited about starting at a new school, meeting new people, new friends, new things. Always so eager for new experiences.
Ace sends him out the door with a brown paper bag stuffed full of snacks and a double lunch, watching from the front step as Luffy launches himself into the ratty-looking yellow school bus that comes to pick him up. Luffy’s at a fancier school now, a public school just outside of their district, too far to walk, so now he gets to ride to and from.
Dadan tells him that Luffy is a shit student, poor grades, needing a more rigorous teaching style, and this school will be better for him, even if she had to pull some strings to get him applied. She says Luffy can’t be homeschooled.
Luffy comes home differently now. Highschool changes him.
Ace is ready for Luffy’s hugs, ready for the griping and complaining, mop of black hair rubbing against his chest as he gets wrapped up in a crushing squeeze of his arms.
No, when Luffy comes back from his first few days of highschool, he chatters excitedly about the friends he’s made. How cool they are. Blah, blah, blah. Ace hardly pays attention to it all, scrolling through his phone and waiting for his afterschool hug that he doesn’t get.
Ace doesn’t get jealous of Luffy being in a good school, but Luffy is changing, the school is changing him, and Ace doesn’t know how he feels about that.
A year goes by, Luffy turns sixteen, starts his second year of highschool, starts to ask to bring his friends over.
Ace shrugs at it and goes “as long as yall aren’t loud.”
Dadan says “I have enough kids under this damn roof, if you want to have a party it’s not going to be here!”
Sabo smiles and goes “that’d be wonderful, Luffy. We would be so excited to meet these friends of yours.”
Ace is in the middle of applying for jobs, working through the orientation process of a garage where he can get his hands busy. Sabo is off at college, working for a higher education, something about laws and politics.
Ace comes home one day after work and finds Luffy sitting on the couch with two people next to him. Complete strangers in their house.
Some thug looking green haired kid and a pretty ginger haired girl. They both turn to look at him when he shuts the front door. Luffy just beams at him and excitedly turns in his seat, dangerously bent over the back of the couch as he waves Ace over.
“Ace! Come here! Come here! These are my friends I was telling you about! This is Zoro and Nami!” Luffy gestures to each in kind, all but vibrating in place.
The girl, Nami, gives him a pleasant smile. Ace notices the scars on her arms, her wrists, her tattoos. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by his staring though, and tucks a pretty curl of orange behind her ear.
The guy, Zoro, stays much quieter. He’s the least energetic of the trio. Still polite, which Ace can appreciate. Zoro bows his head to him and then says “Hello” plain and simple. His hair is cropped short, trio of gold earrings on one ear, and Ace notices the calluses on his palms and the roughed up scabs of his knuckles.
They both seem… too rough for Luffy. Ace can’t help but compare. Luffy who doesn’t have a single mark on him aside from the little scar under his eye. He’s not got any piercings like the Zoro guy. Doesn’t have any tattoos like the Nami girl. No scars, no signs of being a fighter, no evidence of needing to fend for himself.
Still… they don’t seem like bad kids. Ace is asking them about having a snack while Nami pinches Luffy’s cheek hard enough to make him whine, skin blooming pink when she releases him only after he’s put his nose back into his textbook.
They’re doing homework together. Nami and Zoro are helping him study, stay focused, and Ace can appreciate it. If they’re working for Luffy’s benefit, then he’s okay with them. The three munch through the fruit Ace lays out, and by the time the sun is setting and books are being shoved back into bags, Ace has grown used to the three of them chattering away in the living room.
He sees the three of them together much more often after that.
More than the three together, Ace sees Zoro more often. Like, weekly.
And eventually, Ace dares to say it’s just about damn near every single day that Zoro comes home with Luffy after school.
He still doesn’t have a problem with it. No problem with the green haired kid, because he’s quiet, a little bit of an airhead, but genuinely makes Luffy happy and entertains his every whim.
Luffy barges into Ace’s room late one night, after Zoro and Nami have left after dinner and homework. Luffy bounces on Ace’s bed, grinning.
“Heeey. I have a question.”
Ace glances at him from his phone, rolls over to the side and adjusts the pillow of his arm under his head.
“I just might have an answer.”
“I wanna have a sleepover.”
“You’re too old to be sleeping in my bed with me, Luffy.”
“No! I meant! I want to have a sleepover with my friends. Like, bring them here. To stay the night here, with me.”
Oh. Oh.
Does…? Is Ace okay with that? He’s not got any issue with Luffy bringing people over, they can get rowdy sometimes, but are always respectful, clean up behind themselves, treat Ace with respect like they should. Good manners and all that.
But at the end of it all, Ace gets Luffy. His little brother can occupy his time and attention with other people all day long, but at the end of it, Luffy comes back to him. Everyone leaves, and then it’s just Ace and Luffy.
That will be different if there’s a sleepover. Luffy won’t come crawling into his bed. Luffy won’t find a thousand and one excuses to stay stretched out in Ace’s bed and sleep there with him. Luffy won’t giggle and whisper goodnight to Ace in his ear when Ace leans over him to turn the lamp off for bed.
Is Ace okay with not having that? Just for a few days? Oh, come on, it’s a few days. He’s not… He doesn’t need Luffy to be attached to him at the hip. For fucks sake he’s nineteen years old and working for his own money. Practically independent. He doesn’t need Luffy to need him.
“Sure. As long as you guys aren’t loud.”
Luffy practically screeches in his ear, excitement thrumming off him when he launches into Ace’s chest and hugs him so tight Ace feels his head about to pop.
He should have said no.
Luffy invites Nami and Zoro over for the sleepover. But there’s two more that show up in tow. An anxious big-nosed kid named Usopp and a pretty boy blondie named Sanji who Ace first meets outside on the front step lighting up a cig.
Ace offers him his lighter in passing and Sanji offers his thanks, a bit red on the cheeks. Ace tells him he’s too young to be smoking, but his words are hollow. Ace had his first cigarette at ten, he’s not one to talk.
Three was manageable, five is a crowd.
Luffy is fucking thriving in it. It’s obvious right away they’re genuine friends. Ace always makes sure to watch how they’re treating his little brother. Listening out for their banter, the playful hits and smacks and raised voices.
Luffy obviously cares deeply for all of them. Ace is just glad Luffy has people that care for him so much at school. Enough in numbers to be on his side and have his back when Ace isn’t there for him.
The thoughts make him feel weird. Bad weird. Thinking about not being there for Luffy. Because Ace has always been there for his kid brother. Luffy’s always been two steps at Ace’s back, always in reach.
The sleepover goes well, regardless of Ace and his weird feelings about having to….share Luffy.
He comes out to find the living room decked out in a poorly made pillow fort, most blankets and pillows and things on the ground in front of the couch. Nami is the one curled up on the couch all on her own while the boys huddle together on the floor.
Ace checks on them every now and then until it’s three in the morning and the noise has finally stopped completely. His last check of the room makes him smile, Luffy snores loudly on the floor with his arms stretched out and on top of the three boys that flank him. Nami is also sleeping soundly, her hand dangling off the couch, like she’d been in the middle of playing with Luffy hair before she fell asleep.
Something pangs in his chest, tight and odd. Ace doesn’t like it. Hates that it only ever rears its ugly head when he sees how comfortable Luffy is with other people.
He goes to bed all by himself that night, lights carefully turned off in the house as he checks the locks on all the windows and doors, a once over of the house before he gets into his own bed and stares at the ceiling, waiting for a tangle of knobby knees and sharp elbows to climb in with him that never come.
It’s not that Ace is jealous, he’s not. Ace is absolutely not jealous, and he doesn’t care that Luffy fell asleep snuggling up with someone not him. He doesn’t care that Luffy more often than not comes home later and later or not completely alone, and Ace doesn’t get more than a hello and quick hug in passing anymore.
The next few months find Ace being… clingier than usual. He will deny it until his throat is raw and his gums bleed, but the fact of the matter is that Ace spends most of his time waiting up for Luffy.
The rare times he gets to be alone with Luffy is taken like it’s precious. He’s heavy handed with his affection, hoping that Luffy will come to him more when he remembers how much he’s liked Ace’s attention more than anyone elses.
On a random weekend, Ace takes Luffy’s first kiss. Luffy had crawled into his bed, and in a moment of weakness, Ace confessed that he’s missed this, missed Luffy, missed having his little brother. They’d curled up on their sides, nose to nose, Ace’s hand rubbing Luffy on the side while Luffy listened to him with wide eyes.
He doesn’t know how it happened, just remembers Luffy’s lips on his, rough, bitten, chapped. Luffy had told Ace over and over and over that he loved him, his big brother, loved him so much.
The ugly, prowling beast in Ace’s head settles with that. Every hissing, green flinch upon seeing Luffy tucked into his friends rather than Ace has been forgotten in that instance.
It snowballs from there. For good or bad, once Ace has allowed the kisses, Luffy wants more, all the time. He gets a peck on the lips in the morning when they wake up, a lingering, wet kiss before Luffy snatches the bag of lunch from Ace’s hands and bounces out the door, kisses when he gets home from school, tired and melting into the couch but still turning into Ace’s hands like a flower.
Luffy is greedy with attention, greedy for affection. He loves kissing, loves making out even more. It’s messy and hot and feels good, Luffy tells him, Ace’s spit still drooling off his chin.
Apparently, everyone at school is at that stage where they brag about who they’ve fucked, blowjobs in the bathroom stalls between classes, dating, holding hands. Ace doesn’t get the hype, but Luffy is surrounded by the talks, surrounded by other kids that seem to find it all so important to know who’s a virgin and who’s not.
Ace entertains Luffy with just the kisses, tells him he’s not really old enough yet for dating, not old enough for sex. Ace will let him know when it’s time. Luffy whines at him about that, says it’s not fair, says everyone else in school is doing soooo much more than just kissing.
Ace tells Luffy that no one should know Luffy kisses his brother. Luffy doesn’t understand that either, but agrees after Ace drills him on it.
For a while, that seems to be it, and Ace forgets easily.
This is until summer break between Luffy’s second and third year. No more school for a few weeks means a lot of free time. Lots of free time means Luffy stuck at home bored. Which means more friends over, more sleepovers.
Ace keeps seeing Zoro over. Sleepover after sleepover.
Ace doesn’t get jealous of Luffy’s free time fully occupied all the time now. No.
It’s a Friday night when Luffy tells Ace in passing that Zoro will spend the night. Ace thinks nothing of it, and plans to make a little bit more for dinner to accommodate the extra mouth. The two of them can put away some food, Ace doesn’t know where it goes.
Zoro shows up coming through the front door with a packed duffle slung across his shoulders. Keys tossed in the bowl by the door. Shoes off. Luffy gave him a key last week with Ace’s approval. Zoro was Luffy’s best friend, and Ace was comfortable enough with the guy to not be bothered by his easy coming and going in their home.
They eat dinner together, Ace puts together some leftover chicken and mac and cheese, forces both Zoro and Luffy to get a spoonful of broccoli each on their plate, despite their complaining.
Ace is turning off stray lights across the house when he nudges open Luffy’s door down the hall, just to check on the two and make sure they were either getting ready for bed, winding down, or already asleep.
They are asleep, but Ace’s blood runs cold and his feet stop dead in his tracks.
He knows Luffy is a cuddler, there is no getting away from him and his need for hugs when he’s going to sleep, no matter who it is.
They’re both in Luffy’s bed, blankets pulled up to their shoulders, but their proximity is obvious. It’s not like it’s inappropriate by any means, but Luffy has Zoro against him in a way that’s intimate.
Both of them are on their sides, facing each other. Even though Luffy is shorter, Zoro’s head is tucked under Luffy’s chin, face practically smooshed into Luffy’s bare chest. Luffy is drooling on the top of Zoro’s head, right into his hair. One of Luffy’s arms is around Zoro’s neck, keeping him held there close. Ace can see one of Zoro’s arms, bare skin on bare skin, laid loose around Luffy’s waist, holding him close. Their legs tangled together.
Ace all but runs out of the room, successfully not slamming Luffy’s door shut in his haste. There’s a vice-like grip of emotion in his throat, heat on his ears, ice in his veins. Hot cold all over.
That should be him. That’s his fucking spot. Holding Luffy in his sleep, that’s been Ace’s responsibility for years now.
He doesn’t handle it well. There are probably so many ways he could have approached this.
Ace all but corners Luffy on Sunday night after Zoro has gone home after lunch.
“When did you and Zoro start dating?”
Luffy pauses what he’s doing at the sink, a foamed up scrubber sponge and a fork in hand. His eyebrows pinch, a deep furrow in his forehead.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Ace takes a deep breath, tries to control the writhing, green snarling creature that pulls under his skin.
“You and Zoro. Dating, together, fucking, whatever you kids call it these days.”
“Huh????” Luffy turns to actually look at Ace now, looks at him like he’s grown two heads.
“I’m not stupid, Luffy.”
Luffy face scrunches. One of those stupid, judgy looks. He still has the audacity to look flabbergasted and confused.
“Zoro is my best friend. I’m not dating him.”
Ace hates it when Luffy lies. Ace wants to lash out. Luffy is a horrible liar, and it’s so obvious when he does it. Ace just has himself so caught up in his emotions right now he’s oblivious to the signs of Luffy speaking the truth. Ace opens his mouth again, anger bubbling up in his throat. Luffy cuts him off with a loud clatter of dishes back into the sink.
“I am not dating Zoro. Or- or fucking him, or whatever you’re thinking! What is wrong with you?!”
“I’m just pointing out the fucking obvious! You two are all over each other.”
“What the hell are you even talking about? We aren’t together.”
But you never want to be with me anymore. You only want Zoro. Ace holds his tongue, beats down the fragile emotions with mental fists and feet. Finds himself offended that Luffy is getting offended.
“He’s here literally every single day. All you talk about is Zoro this, Zoro that! You’re always all over him! He’s too touchy with you. You’re always texting him, always on the phone with him.”
Luffy’s eyes just get wider, confusion turning into incredulity. The sink water runs loud behind him, steam rising slow as the hot water runs and runs and runs.
“I just told you, Zoro is my best friend. That’s it! We’re friends.”
“Friends don’t act like that.” Ace doesn’t think about Luffy’s other friends, Nami who is just as happy to snuggle up with Luffy on the couch during a movie, bare legs kicked up in his lap. Or Usopp who happily lets Luffy crawl all over him. Sanji who gripes about Luffy being so handsy, but ends up tucking him under his arm more often than not when they’re relaxing.
Zoro doesn’t get handsy with Luffy unless they’re alone. When the real affection turns into something warmer, soft eyes, soft hands. Ace gnashes his teeth. He knows how Zoro looks at his little brother. He knows what that is.
“Well think whatever you want. I’m not dating Zoro. We aren’t together or fucking or whatever. He’s my friend.”
“Has he kissed you?”
“What?”
“I’ve seen how you two have been acting this weekend. All over each other. Sleeping together. I’m not an idiot, Luffy. Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not! Oh my god, you literally are an idiot!”
“Hey,” Ace warns.
“No! You’re a huge idiot! The biggest stupidest dumbest big brother ever! I’m not together with Zoro!”
Luffy slams the water off, throws the fork into the sink with a clatter, and stomps off past Ace with a huff.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Luffy shoves his shoes on by the door, angry puffs as he moves, snatches his house key.
“Away from you! This is so stupid! You’re stupid! Stupid, stupid Ace!”
The front door slams so hard the pictures on the walls rattle.
It’s the first time Ace has felt utterly alone in the house. He’s been here by himself plenty of times but… he’s never had Luffy leave like that. He’ cant even remember the last time Luffy genuinely raised his voice at him.
Fine.
Fine.
If that’s how he wants to be.
Ace stomps to the front door, flips the lock, chains the door, and kicks the frame for good measure, ignoring the feeling that maybe he did something wrong. No. No, this is all Luffy, hanging out with that green-haired punk. Getting too cozy.
He spends the first hour alone seething, grumbling to himself under his breath as he picks up around the house in anger. More things to fuel the ire directed at Luffy. Dishes left undone. Dirty laundry left everywhere, empty plates not taken back into the kitchen.
By the third hour, Ace feels silly, for holding onto his anger for so long, but it feels like losing if he lets it go. What does that say about him? If he got angry for no reason, like Luffy accused him of.
How stupid, for him to get angry that Luffy, notoriously tactile and unaware of what personal space is, is close with a friend. Shouldn’t that be what any older brother wants? Their sibling to have safe and caring friends that are there for him whenever he needs?
But… but Ace has…
Luffy has always needed Ace.
And now he doesn’t.
It’s a sour, bitter acid in his throat.
Luffy doesn’t need him anymore.
Luffy doesn’t follow him around all day asking what they’re gonna do next. Luffy doesn’t run errands with Ace anymore just because. Luffy doesn’t ask Ace what he’s doing every thirty minutes.
Timing horrible, Ace remembers the old hag. Dadan who fussed over him and Sabo one night when they were little. “I’m here to watch you and raise you, not be your friend. What you do with who isn’t my business.”
Isn’t that… is that how he is supposed to be as an older brother. There for Luffy, to be family, not a friend? There are lines that cannot be crossed. Lines that family cannot go near, but friends can jump over any time they like.
Ace has always been everything for Luffy. What the fuck is he supposed to do?
It’s almost one in the morning, and Luffy hasn’t come back. Ace stares at his ceiling, anxiety gnawing at his insides. His phone has been dead silent. Is he okay? Is he safe? He can’t just sleep out on the street.
He waits and waits and waits, checks his phone like a man possessed, peeks out the window at the front street. Nothing.
Luffy slinks his ass back home at 9 am sharp.
Ace guiltily stares at him from the hallway, doesn’t say anything, because what can he say? Luffy glares in his direction before he sighs.
“What now?”
“Where were you?”
“A friend’s house.”
God damn it. He’s really messed up, hasn’t he? Still, Ace cannot bring himself to apologize, the words get caught up. Because he still feels bitter, still feels that weird feeling in his chest thinking about how close Luffy is to someone that isn’t him.
Who was it? Who did Luffy go stay with? Ace already knows, but he doesn’t want to know. Wants to ask, but knows it will only incite him.
Luffy keeps looking at him. Like, looking . Like he knows what’s going on with Ace. He’s always been attuned to people's feelings. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, and not the best with social rules, but Luffy is smart when it comes to people.
“Ace… Are you jealous ?” Luffy shoots, a quickdraw that Ace cannot dodge, a spray of buckshot right into his chest. Bingo. “You’re jealous of Zoro?”
Fuck.
What the fuck?
Ace is jealous of Zoro.
Ace is jealous.
“I–” You don’t know what you’re talking about. He’s just a friend what do I have to be jealous about? You haven’t kissed him. He loves you, but you only see him as a friend. I was your first for everything. First friend, first brother, first hand to hold, first shared bed, first kiss, first hug, first ‘I love you’.
Luffy suddenly barrels into his chest, arms around him in a crushing hug. Ace stiffens.
“You don’t have to be. I’ve told you already, like a thousand times, but Ace is dumb, so. Zoro is just a friend. I don’t like him like that, like you think I do. Zoro likes me, but I like him only as a friend. You don’t have to be jealous.”
Ace doesn’t want to be. He can’t fucking help it. Ace wants to smack Luffy in the head for speaking so… like Ace is the kid now and Luffy knows better.
Luffy’s arms hold him tighter and Ace knows he’s fucked.
Ace is jealous. And he won’t be getting over it anytime soon.