Chapter 4: Free as the Pirate King
"Should we get something to eat?" Ace asked. One of his hands still wrapped around his little brother, pressing him closer, while the other rested on his shoulder, thumb moving up and down soothingly.
He was careful not to get too close to the center of Luffy's back, where the burned mark was hidden under the t-shirt. It was old and healed, the boy wouldn't have felt pain even if he touched it, yet instincts told Ace that he should refrain.
No reply came. Ace looked down, wondering if his brother had fallen asleep. "Luffy?"
Luffy shifted, arms unwrapping from around the teen, and finally sat up, curling his legs underneath him. "Will you come back?" he asked.
It felt wrong. All of this. Luffy's quiet voice, stiff posture, expressionless face, and that he wasn't even mentioning food, much less demanding itafter sleeping for so long.
Ace took a beat longer than necessary to answer, and Luffy's knuckles turned white where he grasped the edge of his t-shirt. "Just to the door," the teen mumbled, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the exit. "I won't leave the room; I'll just call Dadan to bring food here." Ace watched those white fingers uncurl as his little brother nodded. He stood up, but the sudden silence suffocated him, so he began blabbing to fill it. "The bandits will be so happy to know you woke up. Everyone was so worried, you know. I swear, they should just stop being bandits already and officially become nannies."
Before opening the door, Ace flashed a cheeky grin at Luffy, and his heart fluttered when he got a small smile in return. Just a tiny quirk of the lips, but it was infinitely better than that vacant and unreadable expression from before.
"Anyone's there?!" Ace yelled into the hallway.
In an instant, Dogra popped up from around the corner. "Everything alright?"
"Luffy woke up," Ace said. "We need food."
The man's face lit up, concern giving way to happiness. He swiveled on his heel and ran off, shouting, "Guys! Luffy woke up!"
Ace shook his head with a smile. He left the door open and moved to sit by Luffy's side. A couple of minutes later, the bandits jammed the hallway outside the room, talking over each other and radiating worrycareexcitment—
Ace was about to slam the door into their annoying mugs, but one glance at Luffy changed his mind. Whatever was going on inside the boy's head, his expression brightened considerably as he listened to the ruckus the bandits were making.
Ace smirked. Nannies, the lot of them.
"Move, you morons!" Dadan's voice rang throughout the hallway, and the bandits parted, letting her and Magra enter the room with trays of food and drinks. Dogra snuck in after them and closed the door before anyone else could tumble in.
Luffy's demeanor changed from content exhaustion to tense weariness with more people in the room. Ace instinctively patted his brother on his knee, and the subtle reassurance worked, if only slightly.
"How are you feeling, brat?" Dadan asked, putting food trays in front of the two boys.
Magra kneeled beside Luffy with the med kit in his lap. "Ma, ma, Luffy, your bandages have loosened up," he cautioned, reaching out toward the boy's neck. "Let me—"
Luffy flinched away from his hand. While he didn't move from his spot, he turned his body away and was purposefully not looking at Magra. Ace winced when steely fingers suddenly wrapped around his wrist in a death grip.
One would need to be blind not to realize that Luffy was deeply uncomfortable with the man's presence.
Magra dropped his hand, not sure how to proceed. "You don't want me to touch you?" he asked finally.
There was a tense, silent moment before Luffy made a tentative head shake.
Magra sighed, fiddling with the med kit. "Will you let Ace do it?"
Luffy's head snapped up to look at his older brother, eyes pleading.
Ace frowned, not quite understanding what exactly his brother wanted. "You want me to do it?"
Luffy nodded.
Anxiety settled deep in Ace's stomach like a bad dinner. He wasn't good at that, his hands might tremble, and Luffy couldn't afford to get his medical care all messed up because his brother was so useless. He was hurt enough without Ace screwing something up and—
"You're not."
Hushed words cut Ace's thoughts off, halting every nasty thing eating at his mind. 'Useless' was something Luffy didn't say, but it was definitely there.
You're not useless.
Any retort Ace might have had got stuck in his throat when Luffy's grip on his wrist tightened to a point of pain. The boy stared at him, a disapproving scowl plastered across his face.
After a second to collect himself, Ace bit out, "Fine," before snatching the med kit from Magra. Damn it all, it wasn't him who needed comfort, but Luffy ended up comforting him instead anyway. The least he could do for his long-lost baby brother was to take care of his injuries.
Ace redid the bandages on Luffy's neck with some pointers from Magra. Once he finished, Luffy gave him a fond smile, still small and shy yet stunningly genuine, and suddenly all of this became worth his best efforts.
Ace pushed Luffy's straw hat down on his eyes and grinned at an indignant yelp.
"Get some food into yourselves," Dadan ordered. She and Dogra had been watching them the whole time, and she sounded the same as always, but there was undeniable concern underlying her rough voice. "And then sleep. You both need it. Yeah, including you, Ace."
Ace clicked his tongue before he leaned forward and pulled both trays closer. "We don't need babysitters to watch us eat," he muttered, making a little shooing gesture.
Dadan scoffed and turned to leave, the other two bandits following suit. At the door, she paused. "Luffy, welcome back home," she said. They could hear a quiet sniffle from her direction, and Luffy tilted his head to the side, staring at her. "I-It's not like I was worried or anything, but… I'm glad you're okay."
Luffy smiled again, a little wider than before. "Thanks, Dadan," he said. "Magra and Dogra, too."
Dadan whipped out a handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose into it, tears streaming down her cheeks freely now.
"Ma, Ma, Boss, calm down, don't cry."
"Shut up! Who's crying!" she yelled through tears as she yanked the door open and stomped out.
Magra heaved a sigh. "Get some rest, Luffy. You too, Ace," he instructed and then walked out, shooing the bandits still crowding the hallway away.
Dogra wiped the happy tears. "Welcome home, Luffy," he said before exiting and closing the door behind him.
Ace rubbed his temple, mumbling, "Annoying as always…" under his breath. His head whipped to look at Luffy when he heard a soft 'shishishishi'.
"They haven't changed at all," Luffy commented. He seemed to hesitate after reaching for a piece of meat but then grabbed it and bit into it, eyes closing in bliss.
Ace harrumphed around the mouthful of his own meat. "Dunno if that's a good thing or bad."
"It's good," Luffy replied, nibbling at his food.
There was a knock, and one of the bandits poked his head in. Grinning annoyingly, he waved, pushed a futon with a blanket in, and hurried to flee because Ace was glaring daggers at him.
No one disturbed them after that, and they could eat in peace. Until Luffy pushed his plate away, indicating that he was done.
Ace's brow furrowed, shooting a glance down. His brother barely ate a third of an already relatively small portion. It made alarm bells ring inside his head. "Luffy," he called. "Eat more."
Luffy sent the untouched food a longing stare. "I can't," he murmured, tearing his gaze away with a sharp jerk. "It's been a while. If I ate more, it'd make me sick. I don't want to be sick."
Ace's mind stuttered momentarily, and every cell in his body went on hold while his thoughts tried to catch up with everything he heard.
It's been a while.
A while since Luffy ate.
Ace's appetite vanished, leaving his stomach churning. He forced down the bite inside his mouth and put the unfinished piece he still held back onto the plate.
"Hey, Luffy?" he called again, jumping to his feet and collecting both trays. "Remember that time we three snuck into the ramen restaurant?"
Luffy's forlorn stare at the food Ace carried to the door transformed into a bright-eyed stare at his brother. "Yeah," he said, another smile tugging at his lips at what was a happy memory.
"I can't believe those idiots didn't notice something was wrong until the ninth order." Ace shook his head in disbelief, unrolling the futon next to Luffy's.
"Good thing they didn't," Luffy responded. "Ramen was great."
"It sure was!" Blanket in hands, Ace padded to the corner and kicked the pillow, aiming to land it on his futon, but it flew over it and hit Luffy instead. "Ah, sorr—" The same pillow smacked him straight into his face. "—oof."
Luffy laughed.
Free and honest and breathless in the way that left Ace stunned.
Still far from his usual laughter, loud and jubilant and ringing in the ears for minutes after, but it lingered in his eyes, in the lines of his features, brightening them up with relaxed joy.
In a face of such unrestrained happiness, Ace couldn't help but grin. Sacrificing a little bit of his pride to lighten up the mood and make his little brother laugh was a fair trade.
"Reminds me of the pillow fight we had once on the tree house," Ace reminisced as he dropped the pillow on the futon and laid down himself, draping a blanket over himself.
Luffy followed his lead, sliding under his own blanket. "You and Sabo were both so mean, ganging up on me," he muttered.
Ace barked out a laugh.
They spent the next few hours recalling adventures and fun times from when all three lived together and got in trouble together. The light gradually drained from the room as the sun set, leaving only shadows.
They were lying on their sides, facing each other. Luffy kept talking, half-asleep, his hand resting on the brim of the straw hat he placed beside his pillow. Occasionally he brushed his fingers across the straws as if to reassure himself that it was still there.
Ace was still wide awake despite feeling exhaustion deep in his bones. Extending his arm, he touched the side of his brother's face. His alive brother's face. "You should get some sleep, Luffy," he murmured, stroking the boy's black strands gently and soothingly.
Luffy blinked slowly. "I don't want to." He would have sounded almost petulant if he wasn't so sleepy.
"Why not?"
In the dim moonlight spilling through the window, Luffy looked sad and sorrowful but mostly defeated when his gaze locked on Ace's face. "I don't want to wake up from this dream."
"Dream—Luffy, this isn't a dream," Ace said as he cupped his hand around the boy's head and carefully pulled him closer until their foreheads touched. "I'm here. You're here. And neither of us is going anywhere."
Luffy huffed. "You and Sabo always say that in my dreams."
The dread made Ace's blood run cold in his veins. "Luffy, I—" A hand on his face cut him off. A thumb brushed the tears from his eye that he didn't feel gathering.
"That's okay, Ace. Don't cry," Luffy whispered. "It's not the first time. I'm glad you didn't send me back in this dream." His lips curled into a wistful smile. "I had fun. I missed you… so… much…" As he spoke, his eyelids started to flutter closed. Eventually, he lost his fight against exhaustion, voice trailing off into silence.
Ace caught Luffy's limp hand into his own and squeezed it, promising to never let it go again.
He was going to fix this. He was going to protect Luffy this time. Even if it cost him his life.