Chapter Text
The outcome justifies the deed, the specious claim made by marine alike to lighten the burdensome blood stained upon their hand and sword. While many would agree that the outcome of dead pirates is justified by the few gold coins that the common folk may temporarily hold, Ace would beg to differ that his aspirations should not result in his untimely demise; his argument however does not apply to the hellish blood running through his veins, so instead he will spit on the children who do not have to suffer from crimes that are not their own; children with tight black coils for hair and darkened bronze for skin.
The glob of salvia collected on his tongue is spat on the boy, landing directly on his youthful face and twisting his bored expression to one of anger.
Internally Ace smirked, watching the boy wipe the spit from his skin and stare at the residue on the back of his hand.
His lip curled up in disgust, exposing teeth that looked much like the crocodile Ace had hunted this morning.
“Hey, you!” He shouted, voice still very much scratchy. “Say sorry, That’s gross!”
Taken from his ‘conversation’ with the bandits, Garp approached too nonchalant for Ace’s liking. His hands were hidden in his deep pockets and his face was covered with an easy grin.
He called out Ace’s name with glee and introduced “Luffy”, announcing his permanence within the Dadan family’s hut.
Ace scoffed, looking down from his perch upon the mountain boar at the boy beneath his feet; no taller than Garp’s hip he was, a small shadow condemned to be the creation of a larger tree.
Bronzed skin, black coils and crocodile teeth; freakish in the ways that didn’t matter enough to be freakish but enough to contrast the appearance of his fellow.
His radiance was odd, brighter than the sun but only simmering in this present time. Worn was clothes too good for him, well mended by careful hand and although not free from dirt were certainly in better condition than Ace’s own.
Attention was drawn to the crown upon his head, yellow and gold straw with a weathered red ribbon stitched tightly to the hat’s skin; odd, even more so when the too big hat would stoop down to cover the boy’s eyes.
He felt his own lip pull up to flash his teeth. It didn’t deter Luffy from his stare, the younger maintaining eye contact and his own bared teeth.
With his face hardened in disinterest, Ace left from his kill and paid no head to the boy, simply walking past him and into the safety of the jungle, leaving behind the runt.
The trade between Marine and Bandit concluded; safety for patronage, Garp had left not long after with a wave of his hand and an empty promise to visit as much as he could.
Luffy was left to the devices of the bandits, standing lone in the middle of what could be considered the front yard with the addition of a stick he had picked up out of boredom.
He was faced with three bandits, two bearish creatures and one short bald mite. He rocked on his heels, drawing in the loose dirt with his stick until the three finally moved.
They disappeared back into the hut, the door left open behind them for Luffy to follow. Luffy scoffed, throwing his stick into the bushes.
“Everyone here is stupid.” He muttered.
Annoyance festered in his chest, bringing a pout to his lips as he tracked his way from the front yard and into the hut.
“Stupid Gramps, Stupid bandits, Stupid Ace.”
The hut was more of a house, large than Makino’s bar but certainly less warm. The floor didn’t cream in welcoming and the tapestries didn’t flutter.
The front room was a large open space that housed only an indoor fire pit with two large straw mats either side of it, the floor was clear of anything else and the windows were covered with fur hides to keep the sunlight out.
Luffy could peer through the darkness enough to recognise the absence of bandits but not much else.
His eyes are covered by two hands and the chill of metal greets his neck, “Give me all your valuables.” A voice hissed.
His shoulder jump in fright and he struggled against the hands, “let go!” He yipped.
The hands are removed and he spun around with his fists clenched.
A group of men are behind him all dressed in dark shirts and khaki trousers, they wield cutlasses precariously with grinning snarls bared upon their faces; Luffy has no ‘valuables’ apart from his hat.
The very thought of it leaving his head feeds his temper, twisting his expression to bare his teeth at the men.
They sneer back at him for the name of his sire, the one ahold of his “wealth” yet balk when the mite from before utters “Garp-san” and reveals their new status as guardians to the marine’s youngest grandson.
They cry out in disbelief and criticism of their “boss” who Luffy will assume the orange bear who had been the target of his grandfather’s revelations.
The boy pursed his lips, mindful of his latest wobbly tooth before peeking up at the smell of meat. A large platter filled with different cuts; slabs and thin slices amongst bone and cartilage; fur.
He salivates at the sight and yet he is denied. The men attack like it was a fresh carcass left to the birds with mention of a “dog eat dog world”.
And Luffy can feel the way his teeth clench.
Never before had he been warded off of a meal nor given one even when he does not ask, the seafarer would have delivered one of their finest on return, the grieving would beg him to chew the bread drenched in the ichor of their sacred.
He had been served both the flesh and the marrow, never pushed away. Yet here he was, hungry and shunned and condemned to “die like a dog” in this “dog eat dog world” with only a bowl of rice for his puny meal.
Perhaps he was the Dog that would eat both other dog and his own hind legs; dragged from the metaphorical chariot like Hector in such manner that his grandfather may not even lay him on his death bed.
Theatrics aside, he comes to the quick conclusion that, “I hate mountain bandits!” At his comment a knife is logged into the space in front of his crossed legs, the bear who he is yet to have a name for seethed it’s own distaste for him, stating that they were annoyed by having a kid like him around.
“If you don’t want to stay here, that’s fine!” It shrieks, brushing off the other bears protests.
“I want to eat more…” Luffy sulked, licking the remnants of the plain rice off of his chopsticks. “I want to have meat, too.” He prickelnd at the sight of ‘Ace’.
The older boy, bandaged and barefoot much like a wild child, sat closer to him than before, devouring his own serving of meat feverishly. Though hindered with blunt teeth, unlike his own Luffy thought, he managed to tear the flesh and muscle away easily, sucking the liquid fat from his hand and the bone.
He spares no scraps for the ants, throwing the bones next to him like a satisfied cat moving onto its next meal. If he had fur, it would stand up.
Meat waved in front of him before it’s pulled away quickly and bitten into by the orange bear. “Bison” the bear calls it, to Luffy it made no difference; meat was meat.
And the way to obtain meat, the bear revealed, was labour. Though all would not matter if his grandfather was involved.
He’s rationed to one bowl of rice and one glass of water a day, something that makes him sneer. “Okay.” He said much to the bear’s shock.
This is not foreign to him, before has he split the earth and tasted the ichor on his teeth. Before had he indulged in his capacity outside of the land. He had plunged his hand into the sea and plucked a fish, he had clawed at the bark of trees to obtain their fruits.
He had plundered from the Goans’ and crept through the shepherd’s paddock; bitten the hand that fed. As he tells the bear, he had been faced with the jungle before, savoured her small gifts of frogs and snakes to feast upon.
“I’ll be a pirate one day.” He says, a practiced sentence that drew a wide smile on his face. “I must be strong like that.” The bear is shocked enough that it tips over and Ace leaves without a word, Luffy can only wonder where he is going before he chases after the older boy.
The absurdity that that flea could be anything but a burden, Ace thought.
His stomach was full and his grip tight on his pipe, he fled from the hut, not even the squeaky “hey!” Behind him stops his venture into the trees. “Wait for me!” The flea demands. Staring down at the younger boy from atop the hill felt right.
Like looking down at a lesser being; though lesser, the village brat was disturbing to look at.
From his close study of the boy, Ace had discovered more disturbing facts. His unnatural teeth and curved scar were accompanied by eyes that were too expressive and would faintly glint red under different lights; Ace was not intimidated, not by his eyes nor by their all knowing gaze.
“My name is Luffy! I’m not mad about you spitting on me anymore!”; The nerve. “It’s nothing worth getting mad over. Let’s become friends!” Strike him down.
The rest of his day is spent evading the flea, kicking down trees and wobbling the bridge.
It’s worth something when the younger boy falls down into the gorge, perhaps he will split his head open and the wolves can drink his spilt blood.
He returns alone to the bandit hut with a net full of fish that he will later feast upon and then use the remaining bones to dig their scales out from his teeth.
The absence of Luffy is a question that he brushes off his shoulders with a simple
“I don’t know.”
Which, in part, is truthful. That night, Magra and Dogra will stand atop the hut with a spyglass and look for any sign of their youngest charge.
They will return inside to a drunken horde of bandit men and an equally drunk Dadan who will also brush off the child’s absence.
Dadan will say words, that she perhaps will regret, unaware of the ears that listen out of sight. The week will pass as it always does, the men busy with chores and Ace somewhere in the jungle.
Barking will wake Dogra up and he will open the door with Magra and Dadan behind him to the sight of a small, familiar child wounded and tired. Dadan will take him by his face and stretch his cheeks to lengths that shouldn’t be possible.
“Where were you?!” She shouted. “I’ve been chased by wolves at the bottom of the valley,” the boy responded. Dadan will pick him up from the nape of his torn shirt and bring him inside like a wolf pup.
The first night in the bandit home was strange, though shoved into a smaller separate room that probably operated as a storage room before it was half cleaned out and padded with furs and blankets, Luffy could still hear the snoring and grumbling of the other men outside his door.
His hands, small and dirty from playing during the day, clench the furs underneath him anxiously.
Before this, he had always slept with Makino in her bed, gladly taking up the space and soaking in her warmth, here, it was cold and lonesome even with the blankets that should’ve been more than enough to keep the chill away.
He rolled onto his side, humming the song he had heard the Akagami’s holler and sing all night long during their last visit; he hoped that Shank’s would come back soon, though the straw hat laid over his chest said otherwise.
Besides, he remembered, they made a promise.
Still humming, he traced the pattern of the wood’s grain with a bitten down nail before deciding that enough was enough and sat up.
With a huff he climbed to his feet and wrapped one of the furs; a large grey wolf, around his shoulders and crept out into the main room.
The floor was covered in bandits, all snoring loudly and drooling in their sleep, in the centre laid Dadan, the orange haired beast that Gramps had introduced him to that smoked foul smelling sticks and smelt like the rest of the men who would crowd Makino’s home during the day.
He scrunched his nose up with a wet sniff and tread through the men, unapologetically stepping on some faces and hands, not that it mattered as none of them woke up.
As he made his way over to the orange beast, he inspected the floor, looking for the black haired teenager who had spat on him earlier in the day; no luck, he frowned.
After treading on one more bandit, he finally reached Dadan.
Laid down on her back, her chest and stomach expanded with every breath that she took and her open mouth released an accompanying snore.
Dressed in her white button down and red bead necklace, she hadn’t made much of an impression of him; She was no Makino but for tonight she would do. Nodding to himself, he set himself to climb.
Clenching her shirt in his hands and pulling himself up, Luffy laid down on her stomach, giggling when he rose and fell in time with her inhales and exhales.
Wrapping the wolf fur around him tighter, he curled up and closed his eyes, allowing the faint beat of her heart to lull him asleep.