Take My Love, Take it Down
By: Liete
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of the characters portrayed.
A/N: This takes place some time before Dressrosa (and Sabo's reveal). If you were to ask me which relationship I like more, ASL brothers or Straw Hats, I would spontaneously combust before I could give you an answer.
Luffy acted on instinct. If it felt right, he did it. He wasn't much for careful planning or subtlety.
Similarly, he didn't like getting lost in his thoughts.
There, on dark and quiet nights deep in his thoughts, was Ace and Sabo. It was the same reason he chose not to talk about them.
When he had reunited with his crew, they hadn't brought up Ace, something he was grateful for. Two years hadn't healed that wound any more than twelve had healed the Sabo wound. He hadn't ever brought up Sabo to them and wouldn't bring up Ace if he could help it.
It wasn't that he didn't love them. No, he'd love them until the day he died and beyond.
If he talked or thought about Ace and Sabo, he'd just be reminded that they were gone. Forever. That he'd never be able to beat Ace in a fight or show Sabo how strong he'd gotten. That he'd never be able to tell Ace that he'd never once been worthless. That there was a hole in his heart where Ace and Sabo should have been.
He knew, though, that they lived on in his heart, and he'd carry on their will for them. Somehow, somewhere, they were watching over him.
More than that, he didn't want to show that kind of weakness in front of his crew. He depended on them for many, many things—everyone knew that—but they depended on him just as much. He was allowed to need his crew to help him out, save him, give him strength, but they couldn't know that he was utterly lost and broken without them. They looked to him for guidance, so he needed to be strong for them.
Maybe one day as they sat around the fire they made on an island somewhere, he'd tell them. He'd tell them about Ace and Sabo, how his heart had been broken twice, but they, his crew, had mended it for him.
Maybe he'd be able to tell them, as he'd told Ace and Sabo, that he didn't fear pain or death or anything like that. He feared loneliness. He feared losing the people he loved to pain and death. He feared having to once again endure the consuming agony he'd felt after losing Ace.
It was why he didn't let himself get lost in his thoughts. His instincts were enough to carry him, and certainly enough, after what he'd been through, to make sure that his precious crew was always going to be safe with him.