So this story is purely fluff, which I've never done before. I tried to make it as cute and fuzzy as possible. Another baby Luffy fic cause I love them! Now, I don't have a child or little sibling, so try to ignore if I have some behaviors that don't match little Luffy's age. Enjoy~
Luffy looked over the top of the side of the box he was put it. It was just a wide open area, and there was a lot of trash. Everything was brown or gray and cold. Luffy didn't like this color scheme. He liked fun and happy colors. He didn't see much of that besides his wings. They had always stood out. He didn't know why he was in a box, or why everyone had always been so mean to him since he could remember. Maybe they put him in the box?
But Luffy didn't focus on that anymore as he instead stared at the butterfly sitting almost on his nose. Luffy's own wings fluttered at the excitement of seeing something happy in this sad place. He played with the butterfly until it flew away and didn't come back. He sat down in the box and watched the tall people who passed by him after giving a glance. They almost all frowned at him. It made Luffy sad, and the butterfly did not come back.
Ace walked back to his apartment building through the park. Not that it really even was a park anymore. Nothing was green anymore, and people only went there to get so somewhere else easier. He looked up at the gray sky. Another gray sky would probably last all day again.
He was pretty sure he was going to get a notice saying he was politely laid off from his job. The boss wasn't too bothered by laying off employees without seeing them, especially those like Ace. The ones who shout and make a big stink out of things. Ace knew he could be an ass, but a lot of it was uncontrollable and immediate. Knee jerk reactions that he'd then apologize for. But obviously, this job was not working out with him, but it payed decent. He just no motivation to do anything, or any drive to attempt to get there.
But he did the best he could with how much energy he had.
The twenty three year old looked ahead to the box that'd been sitting there for a while now. He wondered what was inside, since people who walked past look down in it with a look of disgust. Was it something dead? Or just really nasty trash? He wandered over to the box and looked down at the young child sitting in it. The little boy had to be around a year old. Ace frowned.
This little boy didn't belong here. Ace crouched in front of him. "You're in the wrong part of town, buddy," Ace said to him a bit sadly. When Ace spoke to him, the little one walked to his side of the box, his purple butterfly wings fluttering in happiness that someone talked to him nicely.
Luffy was in the part of town that did not welcome creatures like him. No happy creatures were meant to live in this place. It was desolate, dirty and over all violent. Fights broke out throughout the city. For so long, grumpy and "evil" creatures had thrived in this area. To put this baby in a box like that was offering it up to any fate. The kid could be eaten by a dog and the owner wouldn't bat an eye. Well, Ace would.
"You're coming with me for now," Ace said as he reached into the box and picked Luffy up. He smiled and fluttered his little wings again. Ace held Luffy up with one arm across his back against his chest and the other's hand holding up his little bum. Luffy's wings relaxed until they were flat on his bare back.
Luffy relaxed into the young man's grip. Ace had smiled at him. No one smiled at Luffy! His wings fluttered happily against his back, akin to how a dog's tail would wag. All he was wearing was a pair of blue shorts. No one had put a shirt on him because of the short inconvenience of going around the wings. Ace knew how to alter shirts to fit around angel wings or bat wings, but he'd never come across one with butterfly wings. Those were pretty fragile, weren't they?
"How old are you, little kid?" Ace asked curiously as he walked them to his apartment building. The kid flinched when he heard the angry barking coming from one of the units nearby. "Don't worry about that, he won't be coming over here any time soon." Luffy gripped his shirt tighter and made a soft content noise. Ace smiled down at him.
When they got to Ace's front door, he put Luffy down on the floor gently for a moment to be able to reach his keys and unlock it. Luffy just looked around his tight surroundings. They were the top floor apparently, so there werent any other doors besides Ace's front one. The building was pretty high, but not because of how many floors there were. There were only five stories, but it was so high from the vaulted ceilings of each complex.
"Crap, hang on," Ace mumbled as he walked inside of his unit, baby Luffy in his arms, gazing around the borng space. There were big windows, but it was a bad view. The place was cold, and Luffy shivered.
Ace busied around the room picking up trash and old snacks he'd left out. He didn't want the kid getting sick before Ace even did anything with him. Able to find out where would be best to send him. Ace had a feeling if he'd visited that park again tomorrow, Luffy would have been gone. Not in the good way.
"Alright. Can you talk?" Ace asked after scooping Luffy up and walking with him to the second hand futon couch. Luffy just looked at him with a content face. He didn't know what Ace was saying, he was only under a year and a half years old. "Do you have a name?" Luffy giggled.
"You just like hearing me talk, don't you?" Luffy's wings fluttered. "Well, even if you have no name, I can take you to the police tomorrow and get you a home somewhere other than here. You're very lucky I came along when I did." Luffy fluttered his wing happily again. "Heh, you're a weird one."
Ace just looked at Luffy as the little boy sat on his chest. Ace heard Luffy's noisy tummy rumble and it made Luffy pout. He was really hungry. The young man sat himself up with Luffy and brought him to the kitchen with him. They had to have something edible for him.
He glared at the contents of his fridge. He really needed to take that produce out, like a week ago. He had nothing Luffy could eat healthily. He scowled at the beer cans and messy take out leftovers. Ace looked through the cupboards, but the only thing he could find that would be truly healthy for Luffy to eat or drink was tap water.
"Well, looks like I'm going shopping," Ace said simply, not upset he had to leave. At least he had a pretty successful distraction from how crappy today had been. The man picked Luffy up and got his keys, starting the long walk to the supermarket, Luffy wrapped in a loose blanket to keep him warm in the cool evening air.
There were many noises outside, from fights, to the wind, to dogs howling, but Luffy was afraid of nothing. He just looked over Ace's shoulder as they walked to the market to get Luffy some food. He'd be spending the night with Ace, and then taken to the police department in the morning, but Ace had a nice laundry basket he could turn into a crib. He was glad he'd been forced to baby sit as a teenager, not that he was very good at it, but he was younger then.
Ace kept Luffy very close to his chest since he could see others staring at Luffy in slight disgust, since his wings could be seen just over the edge of the blanket. Little kids pointed at him and laughed, but Luffy didn't understand they were being deliberately mean. He just heard laughter. Everything was so interesting to him! There werent many bright colors, but he was seeing new scenery for once.
"Hmm… I wonder how old you are -," Ace began, only to realize this little kid didn't have a name. "Well, you'll have a name tomorrow probably," Ace said with a shrug, making Luffy giggle from the movement. Ace smiled. He saw a mother with her young son and sucked it up enough to go ask for help.
"Uh, excuse me?" he asked. "Do you know what kind of food I should buy him?" Ace didn't want to explain that the kid wasn't his, even if she probably wouldn't say or do anything about it.
"Baby food," the woman said shortly, seeing Luffy's tip of the wings and walking away with her child gripping her pant leg. The boy just looked curiously at Ace and Luffy, who had his thumb in his mouth as he watched what was going on around him with interest. Ace frowned at the woman's back as he adjusted Luffy's blanket.
When Luffy gave a big yawn, and looked sleepy, Ace went back to the front of the store and got a shopping cart for him, and set him in the kids' seat near the hand bars, keeping the blanket wrapped around his small body. "Well, if I do get fired tomorrow, at least I'll get my last paycheck," Ace said quietly as he got a few different flavors of baby food and a child's shirt that was much too big for Luffy, but would have to do. He didn't want to have to go to another store that day.
He paid for the small amount of items for that night with the small amount of money he had left until tomorrow, and was almost out the door when Luffy woke up. He looked to the side sleepily and made a loud and excited sound that startled Ace.
"What's wrong?" Ace asked, but then looked to what Luffy was reaching towards. It was the plant section just outside the doors. Flowers. Ace rolled the cart closer to the stack of small red flowers, smiling while Luffy reached his small hands towards them. He picked up one of the packages and handed it to Luffy, who "ahh"ed at it and lightly touched the petals.
"Well, butterflies do like flowers, so I guess it's natural," Ace said to himself, a little amused, and went back into the store to buy Luffy the little package of flowers.
Ace ended up stealing the shopping cart since he had nothing to carry the bags and Luffy with. Luffy stared at his flower the whole way home, through busier streets and not the dark park, not that Ace couldn't easily defend them both if need be.
Luffy had done well to not get upset about his rumbling tummy while they were at the store, but once Ace got through the front door, Luffy started whining. Ace had forgotten why he'd gone to the store in the first place until Luffy began to make upset noises. "Hang on," Ace said, sitting Luffy in the laundry basket he'd gotten on the way into the living room. He put the baby food in the fridge and got out a plastic spoon before sitting in front of the little boy.
"Don't make a mess now," Ace said before he started putting the spoons of soft applesauce into Luffy's small mouth. He was thankful Luffy didn't eat too much, and fell asleep in the little crib on his back, his wings resting flat against him. Ace covered him in a light blanket and brought him into the area he kept the bed.
Considering he only had one job, he had a nice place, even if it was in a crappy area and he had to walk up many stairs. The young man kept his watch on Luffy until he became tired as well. He got under the covers but kept the light on on one side of the room in case he had to be able to see Luffy if he woke up for something. But Luffy slept quietly and peacefully, only waking up when rays of sunshine hit his face.
Luffy made a giggle when he saw a fly buzz above him. It was making a strange noise. Ace woke to the noise, startled, until he remembered he had a small roommate with him that morning. Luffy had trouble sitting himself up, and made a pouty face as he wriggled in the makeshift crib.
"Morning, kid," Ace said with a smile when Luffy smiled at him. "We're gonna try and find a home for you today. Hungry?" Ace asked, knowing Luffy had no idea what he was saying. Luffy whined as he wriggled to sit up. Ace saved him and lifted his upper half up for him to sit. Then Ace saw Luffy's little shorts slide down to reveal a messily written thing on the tags of the blue bottoms.
"Luffy, huh? That's a unique name. Let's go get breakfast," the man said, picking Luffy up. Ace was very surprised he found that taking care of Luffy was relaxing and made him busy enough to not just sit on the couch and waste time. He'd call work that day, and if he wasn't fired, ask for a day off. Surely his boss would be nice enough to let him have a day off for this kind of situation.
When Ace took Luffy into the kitchen, Luffy made a very happy squeal when he looked at his flower resting on the kitchen counter. "Ah, I forgot about that. Do you want to water it?" Luffy just smiled, his wings fluttering on his bare back. Ace got a small cup of water and poured it slowly into the container, making sure a paper plate was under it. Luffy clapped his hands happily.
"Have you ever seen a flower before?" Ace wondered. Maybe it just had something to do with his wings being butterfly wings? Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, it was cute. "Let's eat some food now," the man told him after setting him down on the crib he carried out in the middle of the living space, still in eyeshot.
Ace brought out a banana flavored baby food jar and made himself some toast. He ate his toast with one hand while he fed Luffy through the spoon with the other. Ace found himself talking to Luffy a lot, even though the baby couldn't talk back or understand what he was saying. Plus, he thought it was cute when Luffy's wings moved when Ace said something to him.
"I haven't had breakfast with someone in awhile, you know," he said through his toast, giving Luffy the last spoonful of baby food, which he thankfully liked. Ace brought Luffy the only thing he could think of as a toy at the moment that he could see, which was a wad of paper. It was like a ball, right? And he wouldn't choke on it. It turned out that Luffy was very interested in it, and scrunched it with his hands and played with it happily.
Ace got his phone and called his boss, ready to be told he was fired. After all, he'd made a big stink yesterday.
"Hello?" the old man answered on the second ring, sounding grumpy, like always.
"Heeyyy, boss. It's Ace." Newgate grumbled on the line.
"Whad'ya want, brat?" he asked. "I'm surprised you even called, since it's clear that your behavior is unacceptable. Even if you're a good leader and physically strong. And that wasn't meant to be a compliment." Ace laughed awkwardly.
"Yeah, sorry about yesterday. I was just starving, and when Thatch stole my food, I kinda lost it. Anyways, I need a break today, if I'm not fired," he said nonchalantly. "I sorta found a baby in a box in the park and am going to turn him in today." Newgate made a surprised noise on the other end.
"Ace is gonna help a baby?" Thatch asked in the background before beginning to laugh. Ace did his best not to yell at his boss to not have him on speakerphone while at the office. He said nothing.
"Why did you decide to help a baby? And why the hell would he be left in a box at the park?" the boss questioned. Ace took a deep calming breath, realizing that, if he shouted, he might freak out the baby observing him with the now slobbery wad of paper in between his joined hands.
Ace smiled at him. "Well, I felt bad for him and it was getting dark. I think he was probably abandoned because he sorta has butterfly wings, and you know how people react to that kind of thing around here." Ace knew his boss would sympathize with Luffy. "He's pretty well behaved, so I think today would be easy to take him in." He paused. "So… can I take today off?"
Newgate grumbled again. "Yeah, but only 'cause I feel bad for the kid. He got a name?"
"Yeah. Luffy," Ace answered. He could hear people laugh at his choice of name in the background and snapped that he came with the name, and they needed to stop laughing at him. This only made the others laugh harder and even his boss was chuckling.
"You sure you want to give him up?"
"What are you talking about, I can't just keep a kid I found on the street!" Ace countered loudly, making Luffy frown, and lower lip wobble. When Ace shouted again for them to shut up, Luffy started crying.
Ace immediately set down the phone and hurried over to him. "Oh, I'm sorry Luffy. I didn't mean to scare you. I won't yell again, okay? I promise. I'll be right back," Ace said kindly and hurried over to the phone, where he could hear laughter. Crap, they heard him make that sweet voice.
"Oh, shut up…" Ace grumble quietly as he walked back to a sniffling Luffy to pat his dark hair affectionately, which made Luffy giggle.
"If you act that understanding and polite by being with that kid, I'll give you a couple days off. See if you can at least keep him temporarily. Good luck," and his boss hung up. Ace looked conflicted as he looked at Luffy, who was now tearing the soggy wad of paper into pieces with a smile.
He sighed. "Let's get dressed and see what to do with you," Ace said, getting Luffy's oversized shirt and cutting the back with some scissors. Luffy made a surprised noise when the shirt was pulled over his head gently and wrapping the hole for his wings into a tie above them. "It's too bad I don't have any shoes for you. But at least it's not too cold, right?" Luffy fluttered his small purple wings at Ace talking to him. Ace smiled at him.
"Let's go, Luffy. Hold onto your flower, okay?"
Ace stared in disbelief at the officer who just brushed off Luffy's situation with a grossed out look at the little boy. He just told Ace no one had time for Luffy. He wasn't part of their jurisdiction, and Ace could either deal with it himself or take Luffy to where "his kind" belonged. Ace fought the urge to punch the man, but he was holding Luffy, who was looking around at the interior of the busy building with interest. Ace scowled at the asshole's back and walked out of the building and sat on a bench across from the double doors.
"What now…?" Ace wondered. Ace noticed that Luffy's wings reacted to his mood. When he was happy, they fluttered quickly, and when he was sleepy or had to use the bathroom, they drooped. When Luffy had cried quietly earlier, his wings widened more.
Ace couldn't just take care of Luffy by himself. He was only 23! Plus, he never wanted to have a kid. He could never see himself being a father. Maybe an older brother, but he just didn't have the experience for raising a baby. He did really like Luffy, and he didn't want to leave him anywhere in this area, or trust any place to take care of him. And he had to work, too.
He was sure, if he behaved, he'd have enough money for them both, just making sure he didn't overspend. He wasn't sure what to do. He also didn't know how his family would react. Would they disapprove and shun Ace for caring for someone that most people who he was related to looked at with disdain.
Luffy was looking at Ace with a content smile, his tummy rumbling loudly. He made a whining noise and touched his tummy with a frown. Ace couldn't help but smile at him. "Well, it looks like you'll be staying with me for now. Guess we gotta go shopping don't we? Well, after I cash my paycheck that just came in. We'll go on a baby shopping spree. Doesn't that sound fun?" Luffy smiled at the happy tone of Ace's voice.
Ace walked with Luffy to the bank Ace was part of. He ignored the surprised looks that were given to him for carrying a child with butterfly wings when Ace was clearly not one of the happy creatures. Some frowned at him, but he just glared at those with a challenging look. As long as Luffy wasn't looking at his expression, Ace could look as hostile as he wanted to.
"Well, we're here," Ace said to Luffy as the little one sat at the front of the shopping cart of the baby's store. He looked at the list he'd found on his phone with things that were necessary for very young children. They started at the food section.
"Well, you seem like you don't need a bottle, so I'll just get you something called a sippy cup," Ace said mostly to himself as he piled cups and food and bibs into the cart. Next he went to toys and got a bunch of small toys for Luffy, which were nothing specific, like an older kids' would be. It was things for Luffy to hold in his hands and little puzzles Ace knew the little one would never be able to solve. He also got him a stuffed bee.
He bought a lot of clothes and shoes, actually liking the prospect of dressing Luffy up. Gah, it was all so weird to him! Luffy babbled as they walked around. Ace was able to find more happy products for him. Rainbow colors and light tones that could match his cute little wings, pressed against his back as he leaned into the seat keeping him up and looking at Ace.
The shopping spree ended up costing over $200, but Ace wasn't done even when they left the store, things much easier with carrying Luffy in a baby carrier, which Luffy found fun, and giggled everytime it swayed slightly.
Ace called a cab to get all of the things home, which the driver was not happy about. The entire back seat area was crammed with baby supplies. Plus, Luffy kept giggling quite loudly, annoying the man. Ace was going to get the crib and high chair delivered to his home.
The little kid was ecstatic when they entered a flower shop. He was clipped into the carrier, but reached towards every flower he saw. A few shoppers smiled at him, since they couldn't see his wings. After all, it was rare to have a bubbly baby where they lived.
Ace got Luffy a little pail with three flowers planted inside. He chose the flowers Luffy reached towards the most.
Finally, they got home, and It took Ace four trips up the stairs to get everything up. He had one nice neighbor who made sure none of his belongings were stolen while Ace made his way up and down the stairs, carrying Luffy and the bags at the same time.