My Protector, My Hero!
When his nine-year-old younger brother Luffy returns home one day with sucked in lips and decidedly wet eyes, Ace's brother radar is sparked and he feels an overwhelming sense of fury, ready to destroy whatever, or whoever, made his little brother cry.
So when he asks Luffy about why he was crying, Ace's patience is terse and short. "Stop being a crybaby and tell me what happened."
However, because Luffy is Luffy, he takes it the wrong way and gets angry to defend himself. "I'm telling you, nothing happened!"
"Cut the crap!" Ace reprimands loudly, and glares fiercely at his little brother, almost instantly regretting it when he saw the younger boy's eyes get even moister. "Aw, c'mon Luffy, don't be a crybaby!"
Normally, he would have said it harshly, but this time, it sounded more like a plea, a desperate one at that.
But then, Ace's brother instincts were one an all-time high and his brain was only thinking about 'protect Luffy' and not 'save your pride' like it usually was.
And when the first big, fat teardrops start to fall, Ace does not hesitate and falls immediately to his knees to be the same height as his brother, and gently strokes his otouto's black hair.
But that action seems to have broken the dam and Luffy starts sniffling and crying in earnest, but Ace only sighs and picks him up from under his arm pits and hugs him protectively, rubbing circles on his back soothingly.
It takes a few minutes before Luffy calms down again, his pudgy face red and wet with snot and tears, and Ace feels like hugging him again, but stops himself from doing so because he still wants to destroy whoever hurt his little (not-so-much-a-baby) baby brother.
Ace lets his little brother stand on his own, taking one of his little, plump hands and smoothing down his hair with the other, looking at him in the eye. "So, what happened?"
Luffy sniffles a few times before he answers. "W-Well, I was in Foosha Village to visit Grandpa a-and this boy held onto my hand when I was walking past and-and I didn't notice it 'til I was nearly a meter away a-and then h-he said I was freak of nature 'cause he saw my arm stretch so much and said that I should be ashamed for having ever been born and—Uaaaaaaa!"
Ace's mind goes blank with white-hot fury for a minute before calming down, soothing his little brother again. He wants to skin that boy alive, damn whoever the hell he is, because how dare he say that to his little, innocent, childish little otouto?!
Ace almost swears that he can even feel Sabo seething in anger somewhere high up in Heaven and agreeing to cause as much pain as humanly possible on that boy who had dared to say that to Portgas D. Ace's and Sabo's younger brother.
.–.–.–.–.–.–.
The next day, a twelve-year-old boy with black, curly hair and cruel eyes is seen walking through the streets of the Foosha Village, a bō staff almost casually balanced on his shoulder. In the time span of three hours, the boy asks three different brown-haired, hazel-eyed boys if they've met a boy just yesterday, only to move away rudely without saying anything once he got a negative answer.
The villagers hope that he won't find the boy he's looking for, for the boy looks quite murderously at any boy with brown hair and hazel eyes.
Sometimes, the villagers are fearing for the boy's life that the twelve-year-old is trying to find.
.–.–.–.–.–.–.
It is two hours later that Ace hits the jackpot.
"Hey, you!"
A boy with brown hair and hazel eyes, the fifth of that day, turns around and raises an eyebrow at him questioningly. "Yeah?"
"Did you meet a little boy yesterday with a straw hat on his head?" Ace demands harshly, glaring.
"Ya mean da freak? Yeah, what 'bout 'im?" the boy answers arrogantly back.
And then Ace is on him in a flash, the anger drawn into every line on his face, punching the boy in the face. He does not stop, even as the mayor tries to pry him off, because he sees Luffy's crying face in his mind's eye and it just infuriates him nearly to the point of madness.
When the mayor, along with two other villagers, finally manage to rip him off the boy, Ace is sure that he's broken the boy's nose, and maybe even dislocated his jaw, and sees the boy whimpering and crying on the floor, his eyes swelling up and his face black and blue and full of cuts.
"Don't you ever," Ace seethes at the boy, ignoring the mayor as the older man tightens his grip on his arm, glaring harder. "Ever again say that my little brother is a freak, or you won't be so lucky next time! And if you ever lay a finger on him, I will skin you alive, I swear!"
The boy hiccups, still sitting pathetically on the floor, and glares at Ace tearfully. "But I'm right! He's a freak o' nature! I'm feelin' sorry for his mother who had t' give birth to him!"
Ace doesn't notice when he somehow gets out of the mayor's grip (which had grown somewhat slack, he thinks later on), doesn't notice how he knocks the boy back, and he doesn't notice how his fist automatically pulls back, punching him again square in the face.
But he does notice the sheer terror in the boy's eyes, and relishes it, because he deserves it for hurting his little brother.
"I'll kill you," Ace doesn't shout, he doesn't yell or scream. He only hisses it out, like a snake about to strike, and grabs the boy by his collar, pulling him forwards until they are face to face. "I don't care who you are, I don't care what your business is, I don't care if you hate me, but remember this," Ace jostles him once to emphasize his point. "If you hurt Monkey D. Luffy in any way, the punishment is death, simple as that. I don't care if killing you is against the law of the government, because to my law, killing you because of hurting Luffy is more than acceptable."
Although fearful, the boy still manages to stutter out, "W-what kind of law is that?"
But Ace only grins ferally, leaning closer. "The law of a big brother, of course."
.–.–.–.–.–.–.
That night, Dadan sends him to bed without dinner. Ace doesn't mind, since he knows he's had it coming. He regrets nothing. The boy had to be sent to hospital with a broken nose, dislocated jaw, light concussion, black eyes along with several cuts and bruises. Ace fails to see where the injustice is in all of this, and despite Dadan's yelling at him, she does not say that he shouldn't have done it.
Ace thinks that it was worth it.
He falls asleep with a smile that night.
–.–.–.–.–.–.–.
Later that night, Ace wakes up to the sound of soft footsteps, timid and hesitant. He hears the owner of those feet wait at the side of his bed, silent.
"Ace?" Luffy says hesitantly after a long stretch of silence, and Ace lifts his head to see his little brother's stare intently at him, jutting out his bottom lip. "Can I sleep with you?"
Ace opens his mouth to say no, but only sighs and gives up because they both know that Ace just can't be bothered to do anything about it when it's so early in the morning (when they wake up, now, that's going to be another story). So, he lifts the blanket and stretches out his left arm in a silent invitation.
The smile Luffy gives him is brilliant and alive and grateful.
His little brother snuggles into his chest, and although Ace rolls his eyes he still drops his other arm over his shoulders and has to smile slightly when Luffy sighs contentedly.
Ace waits for his otouto's breath to even out, but it doesn't and he struggles to keep awake until a small, childish "Ace?" jostles him awake.
"Yeah?" Ace says sleepily, yawning widely.
"Did ya really beat that guy up who said that I was a freak?"
Ace looks at Luffy, who refuses to look up from his chest, but Ace only huffs because damn it, he has to keep at least some face. "Pfft, not because of you."
But something in his voice must have said something else, because he feels Luffy smile against his chest, and hears the smug undertone in his little brother's voice when he says "Yeah, of course."
"No, I really didn't," Ace says quickly, his cheeks feeling hot and he knows he's blushing, and he's glad that Luffy is not looking up. "He's just a random kid I decided to beat up, you hear? Not because of anything you said—"
"Ace?" Luffy interrupts him, the smugness gone and just genuine interest in his voice.
"What?" Ace grumbles, and he does not pout because he's already twelve and Ace does not pout, thankyouverymuch! He's scowling, because scowling is much more adult-like than pouting.
"Thank you," Luffy says gratefully, and Ace blinks confusedly, his brain not really believing what his little, normally ungrateful, insufferable brat of a little brother is saying. "You're like my hero, Ace! Just like Shanks!"
And suddenly, Ace's chest is filled with a fuzzy, warm feeling and Ace embraces it while hugging Luffy tighter, relishing the sound of his little brother giggling delightfully, and smiles quietly to himself.
"Yeah," Ace whispers, and sees his little brother look up from his chest, grinning, and he can't stop himself from grinning back, but scowls quickly afterwards, shoving Luffy's head under his chin. "Now shut up and sleep."
But Luffy only laughs quietly—long used to Ace's grumpy and avoiding nature—and hugs him tighter. Ace does not let go of his brother's head and even strokes it gently, not stopping until he hears Luffy's breath evening out.
Ace falls asleep to Luffy's steady snoring, feeling the slight quirk of his lips against his neck, and thinks that Luffy's worth it, even if he's an idiot.
He is, after all, Luffy's hero and older brother. Somebody had to look after that idiot, right?
And so, Ace promises to himself (and to Sabo, his mind whispers) that he will protect that smile and that laugh, because despite being a fool and annoying and idiotic, Luffy was still his little brother and as his older brother, he had to look after him.
Of course, it did help that Ace genuinely loved Luffy.
...But only a bit!
.–.–.–.–.–.–.–.
Author Note:
I think I made Ace slightly OOC here. I tried to keep as much of his grumpy attitude as possible (because Ace had been a rather grumpy and untrusting kid when he'd been younger, as far as I can see), hence the 'but only a bit!' at the end there, because we all know that Ace would probably never admit to it :P Also, for those of you who ask why Ace reacts so violently to that freak comments, it's because he's usually the recipient of such hurtful comments, so he can relate, and he knows how much it hurts. So, when he realizes that Luffy must not be feeling any better, Ace knows that he's really hurt and I believe that any true older brother worth his salt would get angry at that. Especially Ace, because we all know he's a little bit protective... when he's not pissed, that it XD
I'm thinking about maybe writing a second chapter to this. When there's one thing I love, it's older siblings. Seriously, I turn into fangirl mush whenever an older brother is involved. Especially if it's a protective one.
Any suggestions for the (possible!) next chapter are incredibly welcomed and encouraged, because I have no idea what to write next. Feel free, as long as it's not AU. Although, if you really want me to, I can do a separate one-shot of that setting in an AU. I want these one-shots to revolve around the time after Sabo dies and before Ace goes to sea.
I'll try writing a one-shot next with Sabo, Luffy and Ace together, all adults and all pirates and not fucking dying!Because I have to, simple as that. Ah well, it will all depend on how many reviews I'll get, 'cause I get a lot more motivated when I get them.
Hope you enjoyed, please review!