AN: I absolutely adore the Luffy-Ace-Sabo backstory, so here's my contribution. This'll be a collection of ficlets set during the time Luffy lives on Mt. Corbo.
Disclaimer: I do not own these brilliant characters.
In All But
Planning and Pitfalls
Three boys huddled together, heads close and whispering. The one with the large top hat and goggles scratched some letters and arrows into the dirt with a stick.
"Okay, so Luffy, you run at the old man head on," he traced the straight arrow from 'L' to 'G' deeper into the dirt, "Use your pistol move –"
"Right, he does it all the time, so Gramps won't be suspicious at all."
"Yeah! …Hey!"
"—Use your pistol move, and lead him over to the edge of the clearing, where that big tree is."
Luffy puffed out his chest and thumped it once. "You can count on me."
Next, Sabo tapped the stick onto the 'A'.
"Ace, you run around them and attack from the other side. Keep his attention." Ace nodded, and Sabo moved to the 'S' written on a doodle of a tree. "Me, I'll climb up and jump down when I see a good opening, and then…"
Luffy was no longer listening, but instead was winding up his shoulder and glaring down Garp. Sabo pinched Luffy's cheek and pulled him back into the huddle.
"Focus! The plan is to distract the target into stepping here," Sabo gouged a big 'X' on the ground, marking where they'd dug out a hole and filled it with loose soil and water. They'd also sprinkled some leaves overtop as extra camouflage. "Got it?"
"Yeah, haha! Gramps is going down! Ow!"
Sabo rolled his eyes as Luffy rubbed the back of his head, under the straw hat.
"…On the count of three."
"One…" Luffy flexed and stretched his arm.
"Two…" Ace crouched in the sprinter position.
"Three!"
(In the end, Luffy fell into their quicksand trap and needed rescuing.
"BwahahaHA, you brats are a hundred years too early to challenge a marine like me!")