After I showered I went to Ace and Aoi's room, holding the container of healing gel in my hands. I softly knocked on the door, wondering if she was even still awake.

To my relief, the door opened, revealing that the light in the room was on. Ace was no where in the room and guessing by the lap top on the bed, Aoi had been researching a movie role.

"Oh, Ace gave you the scar gel." Aoi said. I nodded and she pulled me in. I glanced at the computer screen.

A: Is it done?

Y: Just planted. We'll be home in a couple of weeks so it doesn't look suspicious.

Aoi closed the laptop before I could read further. She moved the laptop to the desk and then hopped in to the center of the bed, patting the space in front of her. I crawled on to the bed and handed the gel to her before carefully lifting my shirt.

"So you and Luffy were playing in the pool, huh?" She asked. I nodded. She giggled.

"I'm surprised he didn't pop a boner seeing you in that old bikini. But then again, this is Luffy." She hummed. I blushed hard.

"Aoi." I murmured in embarrassment. She laughed.

"I'm kidding!" She said, gently rubbing the gel on to my scars.

"So, I heard Ace and Luffy planning to head up to their old tree house tomorrow, so I thought that maybe you and I could do something together. Just us sisters." She said. I looked at her over my shoulder.

"S-sisters?" I asked. She smiled and nodded at me.

"Yup! Even if you haven't married Luffy yet, you're family now. I finally have a little sister." She said with a bright smile.

"What about Yatsumi?" I asked.

"Yatsumi is my big sister. I'm 24 while she's 28." She said. I nodded.

"Oh." I said softly.

"So, what do ya say? You willing to put yourself up to my little sister treatment?" She asked. I giggled and nodded at her.

"Sure!" I said with a smile. Spending time with my favorite actress after she claimed me as her sister? Why would I ever pass that up? Of course I was going to spend time with her.

"Alright, all done. Make sure you wear good walking shoes tomorrow. We've got quite the distance to travel." She said. I smiled and let my shirt drop.

"Thanks, Aoi." I said softly. She smiled up at me brightly.

"Of course!" She said. I headed back to the room I was staying in with Luffy. He was sitting on the bed, wearing only a pair of light brown pajama shorts, while flipping through something on his laptop. He looked up when I entered the room and smiled at me.

"Hi, cutie~" He said. I blushed and he laughed, turning off his laptop and setting it off to the side to charge for the night. He laid back and patted the open space beside him on the large bed. I crawled in beside him. He reached over and pulled me close to him. I squeaked as I hit his chest. He laughed at me and cuddled me. I rested my cheek against his chest.

"So, Ace and I are going to hike up to our old tree house..." Luffy started. I smiled at him.

"Aoi already told me. She said she wanted to spend time with me tomorrow while you guys did that." I said. He smiled at me.

"Are you okay with that?" He asked. I smiled and nodded.

"You go spend time with your brother. I'll be fine here with Aoi." I said. He kissed my head and pulled the blankets up around me.

"Good night, Ai-chan. I love you." He said. I leaned up and kissed his cheek before cuddling back in to his chest.

"Good night, Luffy. I love you, too." I said. I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of Luffy's heart.

Time Skip

"Alright, just up here." Aoi said. She grabbed the branch of a tree and and started to climb up.

"Come on! You'll love it!" She called back. I giggled and climbed up after her. We climbed high up on the tree until we reached a cluster of branches that were perfectly intersected and smoothed out to sit on.

"And this, is my little secret." She said as she took a seat. I pulled myself up with her.

"Wow." I said with a smile.

"Yup. I found this tree when I was a little girl. Around the time I was first adopted. I climbed up here, found this spot, snapped off all the twigs, stole some sandpaper from Thatch's work shop and sanded everything down and made this my secret place." She said. She reached out and pulled on an old piece of rope. Drooping branches were pulled aside and I was amazed to see the whole lake.

"Wow... I can see the house from here!" I said. She giggled.

"Yup! I called this my summer safe place. I could crawl up here and hide and not have to worry about being found. And if I ever wanted to spy on Ace, Sabo and Luffy. Well, look three degrees to your left." She said. I turned my head and saw a tree house in one of the trees. Through the window I could see Luffy and Ace.

"This is amazing." I said softly. She smiled and giggled at me.

"I always loved coming up here." She said. I leaned back beside her.

"I can see why. It's so peaceful. It's the perfect place to sit and read a book or even just enjoy the view." I said. She smiled and stared out over the lake.

"You know... Each of us that Pops adopted has a different story of why we were adopted." She said. I looked back at at her.

"Abuse, mostly. Vista, Thatch, Sabo, Me. We were all abused by our birth parents. Vista, Thatch and Sabo were all pulled from their abusive parents. Because of my birth father being a Mafia Boss, the law couldn't do anything for me until another Mafia Rat broke in to my home and killed my parents." She said. I stared at her. A small breeze kicked up and carefully blew her hair from her face, showing her scar.

"Ace's parents died when he was very young. He doesn't know who his father is, he barely remembers his mother. Yatsumi and Luffy... Their cases are sort of similar." She said. I continued to watch her.

"When Yatsumi was about ten, her mother died in a fire and her father couldn't bare to take care of her. Yatsumi still refuses to talk about her father to anyone and won't even meet him even though she knows exactly who he is."

"And Luffy?" I asked. Aoi sighed.

"Well... We assume its abandonment, but... we don't know for certain. He got here just before I did. From what I'm told... he was left on the door step. Only a few weeks old. Barely a newborn, only his birth-certificate in the basket with him. But, the birth-certificate only had his mother's name signed on it. Not his father's. Pops searched for his mom, but what we found was that she died giving birth to him. As for any information of who his father was or any possible siblings... We only hit dead ends. It was almost like his father dropped off the grid and didn't want to be found." She said. I looked over at Luffy in the tree house.

"Does he know?" I asked. She nodded softly.

"As soon as he turned fifteen, we told him. Sometimes I wonder if that's what caused his relationship with Nami to fail. He was afraid that she would abandon him, too." She said.

"That's why he's so clingy with me." I said.

"Does that bother you?" She asked. I shook my head.

"No. It's not a suffocating type of clingy. It's more of a 'please don't leave me' type of clingy. Some times the kids at school say he's overly affectionate with me. Nami says he wasn't affectionate towards her. I think that where we are is fine. I mean, It's not like we said 'I love you' on the first date. We didn't say it until... well.. that day... People say it uncharacteristic for Luffy to be all clingy and affectionate, but I think he just doesn't want to be abandoned again. How can you abandon someone that's so loving and caring and lovable?" I said and shrugged. She chuckled.

"Funny.. I always thought the same thing." She said. I smiled. Then something occurred to me.

"What about Marco?" I asked.

"What about Marco?" Aoi asked. I stared at her.

"Well, what's his story? What happened that caused his adoption?" I asked. Aoi giggled.

"Oh, actually... Marco is Pops' natural born son." She said. I stared at her with wide eyes.

"Really?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. I don't know the whole story, but I guess his mom had always been weak in health, so she died a few months after giving birth to Marco. Pops realized he couldn't raise Marco on his own, then he adopted Vista. After Vista came Thatch. If I remember the story right, Vista was a pre-teen and Thatch was about 8 or 9 when Pops adopted them. Then came Yatsumi, Sabo, Ace Luffy and Me. In order of age it goes Vista, Thatch, Marco, Yatsumi, Ace, Me and Sabo, then Luffy." She said.

"I've met Thatch, Marco, Ace, Yatsumi and Sabo, but I've never met Vista." I said.

"Vista is married to his job. No one sees him any more. We get letters. That's about it." She said. She sighed softly. I looked back at her.

"Do you ever miss him?" I asked.

"Sometimes. Never saw much of him. He's the oldest of us. Even when I came in he wasn't around much. Always on the clock." She said. I looked back over the lake to Ace and Luffy's tree house.

"Were you close?" I asked.

"Vista and I were the original Ace and Luffy. We were inseparable." She laughed.

"When he was home from business, he loved playing match maker. He's the reason Ace and I ever got together. He even helped Ace find my ring. Though he told Ace to get a sapphire and gold. Ace said I'd like a garnet better. First time Ace was ever able to correct Vista and was right." She giggled.

"Aoi..." I said. She looked at me.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked. She laughed.

"Because you're family. Duh." She said and ruffled my hair. I laughed.