~

Man... sure is a nice weather out there...

"Ace! Pay attention to class!" The teacher yelled, snapping the dark haired freckled boy out of his daze. He was spacing out looking at the sky from his classroom window. He glared at the teacher.

"No thanks. You're boring." The boy remarked and stood up.

"This is the fifteenth time this week Portgas, deten-"

"Detention. I know. That's all this school knows on how to deal with children." Ace scoffed and grabbed his bag, ditching the class mid-session. He shrugged at the whispers of 'son of a criminal,' 'bad blood' behind him.

School was a waste of his time. He didn't want to become the system's slave anyway. Ace hung his bag on his shoulders and jumped through the stairs, making his way out of the building. He knew Sabo would be mad but right now, he didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to leave this suffocating place.

"Portgas, where are you going?" The boy was stopped by the principal but he showed him his middle finger and kept walking. He had no plans of returning to school, ever. Ace thought he would wander around town but he didn't want to drag his bag around as well so headed 'home' first and dumped his stuff there.

They lived in the bad parts of the country Goa in the East Blue. When Ace was born, Luffy's grandfather, Garp, had immediately taken Ace into his custody to avoid the boy being labeled and discriminated just because his father was a huge criminal. His mother had died soon after Ace was born. Garp had handed over the newborn Ace to Dadan, the leader of the small thug group that operated in Goa's lower class society. Dadan owed Garp favors for not ratting her out to the government and have her arrested so she took Ace in - with complaints of course.

Dadan was a bulky woman with curly orange hair, always the elephant in the room as Ace not so nicely put it but he couldn't find her anywhere in the house. He went to the room he shared with Sabo and... Luffy, and threw his bag across, leaving after closing the door even before the mass hit the ground.

Ace was looking around to see where the woman was but he couldn't find her. Dogra, one of the thugs, was watching Ace looking for his boss.

"She's out trying to gather intel from the new comers." Dogra informed. New comers meant the people who would come from out of town, they had information of the other cities in other countries.

"Intel?" Ace questioned crossing his arms and scrutinizing the man before him as he fidgeted.

"About...Luffy-"

"That idiot left on his own! Don't search for him!" Ace yelled in anger and ran out of the house. He ditched the idea of wandering around town and went to the forest instead. It was still untamed and free of human intervention. He already knew which paths to take to avoid running into wild beasts but he also knew the tactics to bring those wild beasts down if he encountered them too - he had been doing this since he learned to walk.

Ace found the cliff that overlooked the ocean and sat there, dangling his legs off the edge. Looking at the ocean and it's wild and free waves, Ace couldn't help his mind wandering to his youngest brother.

"It's my turn on the wheel! Aceeeee! Give me the wheel!" Luffy whined clinging to his older brother. They were playing pretend, being pirates in the tree house that they had built in the forest.

"Wait for a minute, it's not going anywhere."

"Then you wait and give it to me!" Luffy exclaimed clinging to his brother.

"Ace, it's not fair, give Luffy the wheel." Sabo interjected before Ace could say something jokingly mean and Luffy would say something equally bad out of pure retaliation but no ill will. Sabo noticed how angry Ace got with Luffy sometimes, like he couldn't control it all and Luffy being Luffy, liked everyone until he didn't, so whenever Ace lashed out unnecessarily, Luffy would respond in the same manner. It was worrying a bit but the way they both made up some time later dismissed Sabo's worries.

"Fine, fine. Don't gang up on me." Ace said letting go of the wheel and letting Luffy take his place.

"Yay! Now I am a pirate! Nishishishi!" Luffy laughed and just the sound of it was enough to soothe all the tension in the air.

Even after the memory had faded out of Ace's eyes, he could still hear the remnants of Luffy's laugh lingering the air. Ace looked at the passing ships in the horizon and another recollection forced its way in his head.

"Ace! Sabo! Look! It's a pirate ship!" Luffy exclaimed pointing at the ship in the horizon. He jumped and flailed his arms around trying to gather it's attention. "Oi! Oiiii!!!"

"That's a Navy ship Luffy." Sabo pointed from his seat on the cliff at the back of the forest, overlooking the sea.

"What? It's not a pirate ship? How boring." Luffy pouted and slumped on the grass. Ace and Sabo both noticed how out of energy he seemed. Maybe this had something to do with the stomachaches Luffy complained about yesterday.

"Luffy you feeling ok?" Sabo asked when Luffy was quiet for more than five minutes. Ace just assumed he was sleeping. When Luffy didn't answer, Sabo got up from where he was relaxing and walked to Luffy. He put his hand on the younger boy's forehead and frowned.

"What?" Ace asked, now concerned.

"He has a fever."

"But Luffy never gets sick."

"I know but he is definitely feverish. Maybe something he ate?"

"Well he does eat anything he lays his eyes on." Ace agreed rolling his eyes but squatting so he was closer to Luffy. He pushed some hair out of his baby brother's face.

"Let's take him back to the house for the time being, maybe Dadan knows what to do." Sabo pointed and Ace handed him his pipe, angling himself better to pick Luffy up in his arms. He was definitely burning.

They rushed through the forest and got Dadan to see Luffy. She deduced that Luffy was, indeed sick. Ace and Sabo found it exceptionally hard to believe as did Dadan and her thugs.

Luffy was never sick.

Everyone was out of their depth in this case because the thugs weren't sick often, just injured. Ace and Sabo weren't sick either so when somebody was, they didn't know what to do. The most medical person in the thugs thought this was just a fever and would wear off in a few hours.

Luffy was sleeping for a while and when he woke up, he was clutching his abdomen and sobbing. Ace and Sabo were torn. Their brother was suffering and they didn't know what to do or what was even wrong. But they made up their minds when Luffy started vomiting non-stop for five minutes.

"I think we should call Makino-san. She might know something." Sabo suggested and Ace agreed. It was better than doing nothing but watch Luffy cry in pain. Dadan had to leave with a few of her men in an emergency so the boys were left on their own and in Luffy's condition they didn't think it would be safe to carry him to the hospital. They couldn't take him to the hospital even if they wanted, they lived with the thugs that the government would no doubt be after them if they found out and they needed a legal guardian to sign all of Luffy's paper which they didn't have. Dadan was their guardian only by word of mouth, Garp never made anything legal on paper. This situation sucked.

"Makino-san, Luffy's sick, can you help? Dadan had to leave and now Luffy's vomiting and we don't know what to do." Sabo got to the point as soon as the line connected.

"But he's never sick."

"We know but this time it's looking bad."

"I will be there in ten minutes. If he has a fever, wrap him in a blanket and put cold watered rags on his forehead." She hung up with that and Ace and Sabo got to work. They informed Dadan via text that Makino would be coming and that Luffy was not getting better.

"Luffy," Ace called lightly to see if the boy was awake, he was if the nasal whining sounds were anything to go by. "Makino-san is coming to help. Based on your situation we have to take you to a doctor-"

"No!" The once all-out-of-energy-and-in-pain Luffy jumped out of the bed and away from Ace. He looked frightened.

"Shouldn't have told him about the doctor part." Sabo said as he neared Luffy with a blanket.

"Why not Luffy?" Ace asked. The said boy was having a hard time keeping his small frame standing and soon collapsed on the ground, once again holding his abdomen.

"You're not well Luffy. You need to see a doctor." Sabo tried reasoning with him, slowly advancing towards the small boy and wrapped him in a blanket.

The horn outside the house brought the boys' attention and Sabo went to get Makino while Ace kept Luffy in bed. He was awfully fidgety ever since he heard the word doctor. Ace just assumed that Luffy disliked doctors but couldn't understand why. They had been together for most of their years together so when Luffy displayed such a fear, Ace was confused.

"Oh poor Luffy." Makino arrived in the room and sat beside Luffy's bed, caressing the burrito's cheek. "When did this start?"

"Just this morning." Ace answered and Makino nodded. "He's causing a fuss about going to a doctor, not like we can take him to one anyway."

"What do you think might be wrong?" Sabo asked, keeping his voice low because Luffy was starting to doze off and it was better that way.

"Hard to say anything." Makino said and shook Luffy a little. "Luffy." She called and the boy opened his eyes. She took Luffy's distracted face as an opportunity to press on his abdomen to see if he would react in pain, he didn't and it wasn't inflated either so Makino safely ruled out appendicitis.

"Makino..."

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"...bad..."

"Can you tell me if you ate anything weird before this started happening?" Luffy huffed and closed his eyes only to open them again after a few moments.

"Just the purple fruit in the forest. It tasted real bad too-" The boy let out a pained groan which was deafened by the simultaneous smacks to the forehead by the two brothers.

"What's this about?" Makino asked the boys.

"This idiot..." Ace started.

"There is a fruit in the forest that we don't eat because it's just bad. I looked it up in one of our books and it had no nutritional value as well and it just causes this to happen so when Ace accidentally ate it last year and got mildly sick, we made it a rule to not eat it." Sabo explained and shook his head. "But Luffy..."

"Now that I know what's wrong, I can help." Makino turned to Luffy. "Don't worry Luffy, you will be better in no time." She assured the boy and went to her car. She kept different kinds of medicines there and found her bottle of ipecac syrup. They stopped making this a while back but it was still safe to use.

Makino fed Luffy one tablespoon of the syrup and made him drink half a glass of water immediately after it. She sat him up and rubbed his back. Sabo placed a bucket near Luffy to vomit in as he was instructed. Sure enough in half an hour, Luffy was throwing up everything in his system.

"What did you give him?" Ace asked concerned at the amount of stuff coming out of his brother's guts - he ate a lot so...

"Ipecac syrup. It's supposed to make you throw up the bad stuff you have in your stomach, if any."

"And how do you know this would work?"

"I was fed this by mistake once. So I know the proper protocols." Makino pointed, her hand not leaving Luffy's back. "You're doing good."

"Hurts..." Luffy mumbled before continuing to throw up.

"What happens after?" Sabo asked.

"Plenty of fluid intake, light diet for a few days should do the trick. Knowing Luffy he would be running way before that." She chuckled in the end.

"Shishishi." Luffy laughed despite the vomit surrounding his mouth.

"What are you laughing about you idiot!" Ace was furious. "Making us worry like that!" Luffy continued to laugh and throw up.

When Makino was sure the boy's stomach was empty, she cleaned him with a wet towel and changed his clothes as well. Luffy laid down after drinking more water than he had ever drank. He felt better but he had trouble sleeping. Makino was staying the night to keep a hold of the situation.

Ace and Sabo brought their blankets and hopped on Luffy's bed, laying on his either side - Luffy was small so he didn't take up much space. Makino smiled warmly when both brothers took each of Luffy's hands and tucked him closer to themselves.

"He can't sleep otherwise." Sabo explained with a sheepish scratch on the forehead. Makino shook her head.

"You brothers have something special, treasure it."

Ace remembered how Luffy was jumping the very next day but shouted insults at Makino when she told him he couldn't eat meat yet. He was angry at his baby brother for being an idiot and eating the fruit they all decided not to touch when Ace got sick but Luffy just...

This wasn't even the worst of it. It all really went downhill after that, when Luffy got lost in the bad parts - worse than the ones they lived in - of the city and almost ended up with his organs cut out of him.

"Sabo! You look there, I'll search here!" Ace yelled as he and Sabo split up in different alleyways, looking for their brother, who was lost, again. But this time wasn't the same as any before. They couldn't find Luffy anywhere! Not in the good parts of Goa, not in the mediocre parts, not in the bad parts where they lived in. All that remained was to look for the dumbass in the extremely bad parts which even the older two avoided.

Luffy had ditched school because he said he didn't like it. When both the brothers were called in the principal's office to be informed about this development, they just sighed and went along with it because they couldn't really force Luffy to do anything, he was too 'my pace' kind of person, always doing what he wanted, when and how and he wanted. So when they both arrived home to give Luffy a short lecture - especially Sabo - the troublemaker was nowhere to be found.

Dadan said that he came home and went out so Ace and Sabo had a lead on where to find him but he wasn't in the forest, or on the cliff, they searched the town then and asked Makino if Luffy was around, he was nowhere. Ace and Sabo got worried when they realized that they didn't know what had happened that caused Luffy to drop school in the first place. They both knew he didn't like being there but he tried his best for Sabo who always told Luffy that he somehow just had to get through high-school then he could do whatever he wanted so Luffy always tried - but never quit. This realization brought some desperation in both the brothers' temperaments.

"Can't find him." Sabo said between breaths, hands on his knees.

"That idiot!"

"All that's left is the really bad parts..." Ace clenched his teeth and started marching towards the said area.

"I swear if he's there..."

Ace and Sabo sneaked in through the back. This particular area was lawless enough that even the military and navy people deemed it a lost cause. Nobody who was sane wanted anything to do with the people there. The politicians had once tried to clean the 'filth' as they called it but not even a blinking second later, the whole area was back to how it was before.

All the worst kind of criminals lived in this part and nobody lifted a finger to do anything about it. Sabo was particularly disturbed about it all and wanted to change it but there was only so much a kid like him could do so he pushed his sentiments aside and decided to bide his time, focusing instead on his education so he could become someone who would make a difference.

Both the brothers sneaked around alleys, keeping hidden from the eyes of the criminals that pranced around. Looking all through the area and risking exposure, they were about to give up, thinking that even Luffy had the good sense to not come here after all but as soon as they turned their backs and started their sneaking back towards the lesser bad parts, they heard it.

"So you just need a little blood right? And your sister would be ok?"

It was Luffy.

"What is that idiot-" Ace started.

"Sshhhh!!" Sabo quietened him and they both peeked from the edge of the wall they were hiding behind. There was a big man, who definitely looked up to no good and there was Luffy, who looked a little beat up but overall fine.

"Yeah, you said you were type F right? She is type F too, that is hard to come by and we don't have any money so we can't go to the hospital either. If you don't spare us some blood, she would die." The man fake cried and any idiot could tell it was a bad act.

Any idiot but Luffy. "Ok! I'll help you!!"

Ace and Sabo nodded to each other and first scanned the area for other thugs and criminals. They found just two other men who looked they would be easy to defeat. Both the brothers nodded to each other and sprung to action as soon as the big man started leading Luffy inside the breaking-cabin that stood a few paces away.

"Hands off him!" Sabo yelled and jumped to hit the man with his weapon of choice - a steel pipe. It hit its mark but did little damage. "Luffy! Run!"

"Oi oi! What are you children doing here?!" One of the two hidden men made his appearance and tried to grab Luffy before he had a chance to run but was deflected by Ace.

"Luffy you idiot!"

"Ace, Sabo! What are you both doing here?" Luffy asked, as clueless as the day he was born.

"We will explain later, for now let's just get out of here!" Sabo started and grabbed Luffy's arm, starting to run with him, leaving the cover to Ace who hit the approaching men with his pipe in their heads to stop their advances.

They stopped for a moment, grasping the situation that they were being attacked by children. While it made them angry, they decided to not give chase since the kids seemed too well-versed in running and fighting. They did regret letting go that type F though.

Ace followed Sabo to the forest. Sabo chose to go to the forest because the three of them knew every corner of that place and if they were chased into it, they could easily turn the tide in their favor. They reached their treehouse and Sabo let go of Luffy, slumping against the wood and catching his breath.

"Looks like we weren't followed." Sabo wondered looking over the edge of the window to the forest for any distant movements.

"What were you thinking?!" Sabo jumped in his place at the intensity of Ace's voice.

"What do you mean? That guy needed blood for his sister, she was dying and my blood is the same type or something he said so I was helping him." Luffy said with a tilt of his head like that was the most obvious thing in the world and his brothers were idiots for not noticing.

"Luffy, do you remember what I told you about doctors who never went to doctor schools?" Sabo started, giving Ace a look to shut up.

"Hmm." Luffy nodded. "You said they would take my organs and throw me in the garbage."

"That man was trying to do the same."

"What? His sister didn't just need my blood but my organs to? She was that sick?!"

Sabo wanted to face-palm himself. Luffy was sometimes a little slow on the uptake but Sabo was patient. "No Luffy. I don't think he even had a sister. He just wanted your organs. The people in that area are mostly black market sellers, it's dangerous that's why we don't go there."

"So he was like those bad doctors?"

"Yes." Luffy hummed in understanding and Sabo sighed in relief. "Do you promise to not go there again?"

"Hmm!!"

"Good." Sabo slumped further in his place, knowing that Luffy understood now. It was partly their own fault that they didn't explain the dangers of that place to Luffy properly and Luffy being Luffy, the boy who wants to help everyone indiscriminately, of course he would fall for a trick like that.

"It's not good Sabo! You're too lenient with him!" Ace started and Sabo wanted to tell Ace to be quiet that they would both come up with a plan to deal with this problems again later but Ace went up and asked what he wanted to ask. "Why were you even hanging in such a place where that guy found you?! Why were you even out there?! Are you an idiot?! After so many times of us telling you to not go there, you still did! What kind of an idiot would agree to giving their blood to shady people like that?! Are you that much of an idiot-"

"Shut up! Stop calling me an idiot! You and everyone in that school! Everyone keeps calling me an idiot!! I know I am an idiot! It takes me time to understand things! I know! They don't have the time to be patient with me at that school so I'm not going back! You won't understand! You are smart Ace! But even you don't have patience! I left school! I'm not going back-"

"You can't even manage five minutes alone-" Ace was still yelling.

"Fine then!! I will show you! I will live on my own!"

"Oi! Ace! Luffy! Stop!" Sabo intervened but it was too late. Both the boys walked in the opposite direction of each other and it was the start of the strife that ran deeper than any had anticipated at that moment.

After that fight, one thing led to another and the anger between the brothers kept increasing. The three would still share a room but Ace and Luffy would not look at each other, let alone talk. Sabo was worried and he tried talking to the two separately. Ace didn't budge but Luffy did. Luffy was young and as much as he didn't like to admit it, he understood that he could not do everything alone so he agreed when Sabo suggested that he try talking to Ace himself.

Luffy sucked in his pride and approached Ace on one fateful day. Sabo decided to be present to act as a buffer if things didn't go right. What both of them did not anticipate was that Ace was having a particularly bad day that time.

"Ace, can you help me with something?" Luffy asked, hands behind his back and eyes on his feet that kicked the ground in a nervous way.

"What?" Because Luffy was looking down, he didn't see the 'leave me alone right now' look on his brother's face and spoke again.

"I need your help with something."

"I thought you wanted to live by on your own. So why are you asking for my help?!" Ace questioned letting his temper get to him.

"Oi Ace that's not nice-" Sabo decided to step in because Luffy was trying and he did not deserve this shit for being the bigger person.

"You heard him too right Sabo? He said he wanted to be able to live alone so he should learn to do things by himself!"

"I am sure he didn't mean it like that." Sabo turned to Luffy who looked on the verge of crying. "Luffy-"

"Fine then! I will leave and live on my own! I don't need your help!" Luffy yelled getting equally angry as Ace who was ready to throw hands with his younger brother. He had agreed to try but not to grovel.

"Fine!"

"I hate you!" Luffy yelled and turned on his heel to leave.

"He was trying." Sabo gave Ace a look then followed Luffy. Luffy's go-to place was always the forest but this time, he was too angry to think straight - if he ever did that - and he marched towards the harbor, getting on a random boat that was leaving. He was angrier than he had ever been and he wanted to be away from Ace so he could prove that he was able to live on his own.

Ace was guilt ridden when he finally came to his senses in a few minutes and he tried finding Luffy with Sabo to apologize and make things right but by the time the thought crossed their mind that Luffy could have gone to the harbor, it was already too late.

They informed whoever would listen that Luffy was missing. Dadan dismissed it as Luffy being Luffy and that he would return in a few hours but he didn't. Makino was worried but didn't think Luffy would just run away so she tried to do what she could while tending to her bar but when one day became two and two became five, they rang up Garp, who just laughed and said that boys need their space and that Luffy was his grandson, he'd be ok.

That did not erase anybody's worries and the more days that passed, the more everyone started making sure that at least Ace and Sabo were not deviating too since they tried to go off-country to look for Luffy. Dadan would have someone pick them up from school and accompany them there too because as chill as Garp was, she did receive some warnings about neglect.

When the one month mark passed, everybody knew in their bones that Luffy wasn't coming back, either by choice or by circumstance. Sabo took the responsibility of drilling it into Ace that the most they could do now was wait and go on with their lives while keeping up with the interrogation of the newcomers as well. They were by no means capable of navigating the seas themselves and nobody was going to help them and they didn't even know where to start looking. So they should wait.

And waiting they had been, for two years.

Ace tossed a rock in the open sea and watched the ripples amount to nothing in the grand, deep ocean. He felt himself like that rock in that moment, a small existence that couldn't even cause note-worthy ripples.

He was worried about Luffy, he finally admitted to himself. He had been guilty from the day they couldn't find the youngest, thinking that he had been the one who drove him away. If he had been a big brother like Luffy deserved, if he had been patient like Sabo, if he had just listened.

Ace put his hands in his hair and yanked. Was Luffy ok? Was he eating well? Was he sleeping well? Hell he couldn't even sleep without holding hands! Is he even alive...?

Ace was worried for his brother and in his worry and distracted state, he didn't notice when Sabo arrived and sat beside him.

"So you finally ditched school too huh?" He wondered out loud.

"What's the point? I can't focus on anything, it's a waste of time, theirs and mine, both." Ace answered, not looking away from the ocean that was starting to turn dark because of the setting sun.

"Well, don't worry, I will stay in school for the three of us and create a better life too so that-"

"Three of us? Us who? Luffy isn't here, I drove him away and I sure as hell am not going to stay any longer either."

"It's true that if you both hadn't fought that day, Luffy wouldn't have run away but you need to learn to forgive yourself too. Luffy isn't a kid who can't look after himself. Sure he would have trouble but he can always fight his way out of it. He always has too. Even when we were there to hide him behind us."

"That doesn't change the fact that he isn't coming back."

"We don't know that yet. But we can hope. So let's wait for him and when he comes back, lets welcome him with open arms, none of our differences in the way. You're the only two brothers I have in the world and I am not letting you both get taken away from me."

"You also have Stelly." Ace mentioned the adopted brother Sabo's real family brought in after Sabo ran away for the first time.

"Thinking about that creep gives me shudders. He might be my natural family but I chose you both." Ace smiled a little at that. "Ace, Luffy will come back. Then you can apologize but for now, get your shit together."

"Ah."

~

In the Marine Headquarters, near the Sabaody Archipelago and Marie Jois on the Red Line, sat a big man with an equally big afro and a braided beard. His round glasses reflected the mission report he was reading, pleased with the performance of Aokiji - the Admiral - who had been sent to give hell to some outlaws and arrest a few as well.

All was quiet and serene, even Baarbara was not chewing on his old mission reports, sleeping on the sofa that was in his office. Sengoku sighed, his eyes were reading the report but his mind was going back and forth between the report and the mission marine captain and that captain's son by extension as well.

The room was too quiet and peaceful so the sudden ringing of his phone, startled him and Baarbara alike.

"Puru puru puru puru...puru puru puru puru..." Sengoku hesitated to pick the phone. There was no caller ID displayed so he was vary of the connection. He pressed the button on the recording and tracking system and picked the receiver.

"Crackers." He said as a way of greeting like he always did with these calls to know if there was one of his agents on the other end.

"Cookies." For a minute Sengoku stopped.

"Identification."

"Marine Code 01746. I'm alive, dad."

~