Chapter Text
It's been a day since the fire and Ace still has very few answers as to what happened. Luffy hasn't woken up yet, which means Ace has planted himself at the kid's side and he's had minimal opportunity to explore wherever they've turned up.
His memory is a little hazy, but he remembers the gun going off, remembers Luffy being very dead in his arms. And then suddenly he wasn't.
That goat was pretty insistent that he was alive, and Sabo is here and Ace would hate himself even more than he already does if he got both his brothers killed. Still, he saw what he saw. It doesn’t make any sense that Luffy is still here.
But Ace is goddamn glad he is.
That dog guy, Ace hadn’t caught his name or hadn’t been paying attention, had been bringing him meals. Even though Ace is pretty sure he was actually a king or something. The only other people coming and going were the goat and Sabo.
Sabo told him, the previous night, that he was just gathering information when Ace asked him why he kept leaving them. Ace hasn’t heard a bit of it, but he has to trust his brother.
The chair that had been brought over so Ace could sit beside Luffy’s bedside is stiff and hard against his back but he stays in it. That’s why he’s the first to hear Luffy stir. A loud grumble escapes Luffy’s bottomless stomach and Ace lets out a laugh at the noise. His own has been rumbling off and on like that all day but unless Sabo or the dog comes by with food, he’s stubbornly held off.
“Luffy,” he urges. “Wake up.”
Which has Luffy blinking his eyes open. A wide grin spreads across his face and it doesn’t take long for Luffy to spring out of bed and throw himself at Ace. Ace makes his protests that he doesn’t mean and Luffy starts to lean more and more into him.
“Luffy?”
“I’m tired,” Luffy whines. “My chest hurts.”
Ace pulls back. “Hurts?” Worry spikes in his head but he looks Luffy over, up and down. Other than being a bit floppy and struggling to hold himself up, he’s still looking as uninjured as before. As much as he doesn’t want to trust that goat who said he was a doctor, he might have to leave this to him.
“Ace!” He suddenly yells and Ace leans back with a frown.
“Luffy, that was my ear!”
Luffy ignores his protest.
“You’re okay?” Luffy asks instead.
Ace gives him the most incredulous look of the day.
“Luffy!” He growls, anger spiking. “You’re kidding, right?! You died!” He’s proud that none of his tears fall and his voice is stable. “Why did you do that!”
Luffy’s expression has fallen. “Do what?”
“You’re rubber, Luffy!” He snaps. “You can deflect bullets! And you shouldn’t have been in harm's way anyway! That was meant for me!”
Luffy pushes him, scowling.
“I couldn’t let you die!” He practically shouted back, large tears gathering at his tear ducts and falling down his cheeks. “If I deflected the bullet it would have hit you!”
Ace freezes. “What?”
Luffy sniffles. “It would’a.”
“That still doesn’t-” Ace huffs but he’s also scrubbing at his own eyes. “You shouldn’t have risked yourself for me. It’s me.”
“Ace!” Luffy scrunches up his face. “Ace is my brother.”
“Luffy,” Ace sniffs, clenching his fists. “You…”
“Nothing is worse than being alone,” Luffy whispers. “If you died, everyone would be sad. I would be sad.”
Ace cringes. “Luffy…”
“Which is a problem we might as well talk about,” Sabo’s voice comes from the doorway and they both look up, finding the blond loitering near their only exit. His expression softens when he sees Luffy. “I’m glad you’re okay, Lu.”
Luffy scrambles up even as his limbs flop around uselessly. Ace is barely able to catch him as he falls and Sabo hurries over to pull Luffy up and get him back in bed.
“Luffy,” Sabo hums. “You don’t feel well?”
“‘M hungry,” Luffy complains. Sabo glances over at Ace before standing and stepping away.
“I’ll get some food brought in.”
Ace frowns, mind flicking back to Sabo’s words from a moment ago. He gives Sabo a look but the other boy shakes his head and nods towards Luffy.
It doesn’t take long before the dog guy has come in with some food and Luffy is gouging himself on it, barely even noticing who brought it to him. Once the guy is gone, Sabo pulls Ace to the other bed where Luffy is out of direct earshot but still in sight.
“Ace,” Sabo whispers. “We were in the fire. We didn’t come back.”
Ace looks away and winces. “You think the bandits think…?”
Sabo nods. “Probably. But, unless we go back, they’ll tell Makino and Gramps.”
Ace feels his stomach drop and the blood leaves his face.
“Gramps is gonna think we’re dead. That Luffy is dead. Fuck,” Ace swears before running his hands down his face.
“Does Luffy have any other family?” Sabo asks. Ace shrugs.
“Dunno. But… uh… I only know about that pirate that Luffy always talks about. Red-Haired Shanks,” Ace explains.
“Shanks?”
They both freeze as the dog has come back. He gives both of them a once over before taking the bowls Luffy has licked clean and stacking them to the side. Luffy’s eyes are wide and his expression has lit up, energy spiking from the immense amount of food he has ingested.
“You know Shanks, dog guy?!” Luffy asks, grinning.
“You know Luffy’s friend?” Ace asks, sceptical.
“I thought that straw hat looked familiar,” the dog guy says. “He used to wear it when we were on the same pirate crew.”
All three of them startle.
“You were a pirate?!” Luffy blurts out. “That’s so cool!”
The dog guy laughs, picking up the hat and plopping it down on Luffy’s head.
“I was,” the dog guy says. “But, maybe introductions are in order?” He woofed softly and Ace struggled to hold a straight face.
“Huh?” Luffy tilted his head. “Oh! I’m Monkey D. Luffy!”
The dog guy blinks for a second before clearing his throat.
“I am Duke Inuarashi, one of the leaders of Mokomo Dukedom, which is where we are.”
“Not home?” Luffy asks, glancing at Ace and Sabo.
“And where exactly are we?” Ace questions while Sabo places a firm hand on his shoulder. “Not Dawn Island.”
“What do you remember?” Inuarashi asks calmly.
“A giant elephant talking to me,” Ace responds, expression blank.
“Oooh, me too!”
Inuarashi is leaning forward, bewildered.
“Zunesha… spoke to you? To both of you?”
“Yup!” Luffy says with a grin. “I was laughing, and then I heard a voice and it wanted to be friends.”
“Does that even matter?” Ace snaps. “Where are we?”
Inuarashi sits up fully.
“The Mokomo Dukedom is located on the island of Zou, that being Zunesha. We are an island constantly moving. When we picked you up, it was Zunesha who went sprinting across the world and over the Red Line to get to you.”
Ace’s hands tighten into fists but Sabo pales.
“Where are we located now?”
Inuarashi is still very, very calm. Too calm.
“The New World, the second half of the Grand Line.”