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Ace is feeling ecstatic right now.
Luffy knows at least that much. He always knows what makes his brothers happy. It's normal, you just had to be interested enough to care about the people you love, right? Makino taught him that when you love someone and truly care for them, you must listen to them properly. She told him that listening to them would surely tell you what is their treasure. Like how Luffy treasures Shank’s hat and their promise!
Surely, Makino is never wrong. She's always right, and kind. Luffy knows someone as kind as her would never lie.
Makino told him that lying is bad. And their Makino is never bad to anyone, so Luffy trusts all her words no matter what. Not even when Gramps could ever make him do otherwise. Especially not Gramps.
Luffy knows Ace loves drawing his flowers and finding his flowers around the forest. Ace always talks about them with great pride and joy booming in his voice. See? Luffy listens! All the time.
Both he and Sabo always stop whatever it is they're doing just to listen to Ace’s great tale, detailing how he acquired his precious and beautiful flowers and plants and what made all of them unique. Sabo certainly joins in because he read some of them in his books. His brother is smart, and he likes reading. Luffy doesn't want any of that, but he hates not being included in the fun. He always beams and congratulates Ace instead, that's more like his thing.
It's fine, Ace doesn't mind. His older brother never said anything bad because Luffy doesn't understand. In fact, when he and Sabo get themselves involved in the conversation, Ace would really smile so brightly. Luffy knows he's having fun.
So, of course, he also understands that Ace is feeling giddy right now. He just came back from his hunt, the one where they all find beautiful flowers to make Makino the best flower crown! They all gathered around under their treehouse to inspect the flowers Ace picked. It has purplish dots near the bottom of the petals, and it's so pretty, so white. Luffy doesn't know what the name is, but it's alright. Whatever Ace brings, he’s sure it's pretty and looks like something that they have never seen before.
Now, he watches silently as his brother is drawing something on his notebook. It's Ace’s treasure, and he even lets Luffy and Sabo look through it every time he adds something new!
Luffy is so excited to see the latest addition to his brother's growing collection. Sabo is mirroring his expression when he looks over at him. They caught each other’s gaze, and somehow Luffy understood.
Sabo places a finger to his lips, making a hushing motion. He nods, and without disturbing Ace, quietly walks away trailing behind Sabo.
“Let's go to Makino, I'm sure she'll bake us cookies when we tell her what Ace is doing right now!” Sabo suggested, to which Luffy eagerly agreed. “Yeah! Cookies! C'mon Sabo, hurry up!” He shouted, bolting through the trail down the mountains to the Party’s Bar.
Sabo laughed and reminded him to be careful before shooting a quick glance over his shoulder. Ace is happily singing something while working on his journal, totally unaware of the chaos. He smiled warmly before running fast, catching up to Luffy in no time.
Makino will surely be happy once she hears about this, Sabo knows.