Life was peaceful in East Blue village. The people were happy, free and just living life quietly.

"Ace! Look the butcher is having a sale on grouse!"

"Really?! Then what are you waiting for, let's go!"

Well, as peaceful as it could be with the two brothers Luffy and Ace living there. They didn't really fit in with the soft atmosphere, they were always loud and up to stupid pranks with members of the village.

Outcasts, pariahs, two sore thumbs in a crowd. The villagers called them anything that matched up with their personalities, most of the time crude language followed after.

Though the duo didn't care, they were just as free as the villagers were. They lived life differently, for example, Ace was an inventor. He never used to be, but after the accident a few years ago, he took up the position. Nobody said a bad word about that, but they wished that Ace would stop causing such a ruckus at night with failed experiments.

Mainly fiery ones that woke up the men of the village at night to put out the fires.

"Hey ace! Can we go see the pirates at the docks today?"

"Sure thing! You really like that Shanks huh?"

"Mhmm!"

Another thing about them that was genuinely disliked by all citizens. They adored the pirates that constantly visited the neighboring port city, Grand Line. Sure the pirates technically didn't bother them, but having them so close to home was worrisome.

The villagers never said a thing to them, they just thought and gossiped such words about them.

"Shishishi, Yassop is so cool! Did you see his pistol he brought from the New world? It's super awesome!"

Luffy was riding on Aces shoulders, recounting their visit with the red haired pirates. Ace grinned and shook his head.

"I was there Luffy, of course I seen it he let me hold it remember?"

Luffy pursed his lips and hummed.

"Oh yeah, that's right. That's not fair though he didn't even let me go near it!"

Ace chuckled and bumped Luffy up to get him in a comfortable position again.

"Pssh, you would've killed someone!"

"Nu-uh, I would have been really careful!" Luffy pouted and leaned his chin on Aces head.

"Uh-huh yeah, right." Ace said sarcastically.

"Would too!"

The brothers bickered the entire way, Ace ended up letting Luffy drop to the ground when he finally managed to get on his nerves. The younger boy got revenge by tripping the older over a fallen log in the bush trail they followed.

Once at home, Ace dug the grouses he prepared a few hours ago out of their icebox. Then he grabbed his invention, which he called the fire-fist, and aimed his palm at the bundle of wood in the hearth. Just one roll of his wrist and the contraption ignited, setting the logs alight without much trouble.

"Hey! I think I finally managed to get this thing right."

Ace marvelled at his hand for a bit. He took too long for Luffys liking, so the younger took charge and yanked the birds from his brothers hand and tossed them into the cast iron pot.

"Luffy, you're supposed to wait for the water to boil! I didn't even put the water in yet!"

Luffy shrugged, which earned him a punishment, tending to their horse Thousand Sunny. It was a name Luffy came up with, just like he named their goat Going Merry.

Tending to animals was the worst thing ever in Luffys opinion, they needed to be brushed, fed and groomed. The boy hated the last one, Thousand Sunny always kicked him away and trotted off to the open field behind their home, which meant he had to chase the horse and round him up.

"Get. Over. Here!"

Luffy launched himself at thousand sunny with a battle cry when Ace popped his head out of the side window.

"Dinner is ready!"

Thousand sunny looked at luffy, who looked back at the horse as well. They mentally agreed on a truce and walked back to the small cottage.

In the distance, a pair of eyes glinted with mischief. The blonde man smirked and leaned over to his redheaded friend.

"There he goes. Interesting isn't he?"

The red head grunted and crossed his arms.

"The little runt barely looks his age, why are you so taken with him?"

The blonde man looked at his reflection in the window of a bakery and licked at a speck of meat on his teeth.

"Eustass, may I remind you that I am the greatest looking hunter in this town. I deserve the greatest looking lover don't I?"

Eustass rolled his eyes and huffed.

"I'll never understand you, you creep."

The blonde man laughed, a loud boisterous one that screamed obnoxious.

"Come Eustass, it's the day I Bellmay win the hand of that Monkey idiot."

The redhead frowned but followed his friend anyways. He held some respect for Luffy, the kid was fearless and if he had to be honest, quiet pretty in a feminine way. His soft skin and face were envied by all women of the village, even Boa Hancock, the aristocrat that lived a few villages away. She ended up being wooed by the young man but was immediately shot down when Luffy said he didn't fancy women. Yet another reason the villagers were wary of him, openly declaring his taboo sexuality was a sure way to be shunned.

Except for Bellamy, he was a charismatic man who could get away with just about anything and everything. If he wanted to marry a man, then who was to object that?

Eustass stopped his nonsensical thinking when his leader rapped on the old wooden door. They waited a few moments when Luffy opened the door with his cheeks puffed out and pieces of meat sticking to his face.

"Oh! Ich you freachs." The boy said.

Bellamy flicked away the pieces of meat that reached him while Eustass grimaced.

"Charming." The redhead said to his friend.

Bellamy sneered at him which made him instantly stop with the remarks. If there was anything he feared more, it was an angry lunatic that couldn't be rivaled with his sharp shooting. Eustass could fight, but he was mainly bulked up because he was the town blacksmith, and no man could take a bullet in the heart and live.

"Monkey D. Luffy, as cute as ever I see." Bellamy returned to his slimy self and leaned on the threshold, lowering his face down to the ravenette. Luffy gave him a blank look and let his gaze flicker to Eustass.

"Luffy! Who's at the door?" Ace shouted from somewhere in the house, his voice getting closer with each word.

His freckled face appeared, looking friendly at first until he seen just who it was.

"Oh, it's you."

Ace held onto Luffys shoulders, showing his protectiveness for the boy. He didn't trust the man one bit, he heard of how he snapped at the littlest of things.

"Don't be so hostile Ace, I come baring good news."

The elder brother raised a skeptical brow, pulling Luffy back a bit away from the door. Luffy looked up at his brother and let go of the door handle.

"What do you want."

Bellamy smirked and looked down at his object of twisted affections, he licked his lips before saying,

"I've decided to take your brothers hand in marriage."

Ace bared his teeth and pushed Luffy behind him, the boy was asking what he meant and what was going on, but Ace didn't answer him. His sole focus was on Bellamy, he was cast in a red light as anger flared through his body.

"No. Fucking. Way." Then without waiting to hear what Bellamy would say, he slammed the door and yanked Luffy away from it too.

"I'll let you think it over again Ace! I'll be back for the answer in 2 days!" Bellamy's muffled voice shouted through the door with a swift kick following behind.

When the shadows blocking the door finally vanished, Ace declared it safe to speak to Luffy now.

"Listen, that man is a lunatic, don't ever go near him alright?"

Luffy thought about it for awhile and decided to listen to Ace, he was the smarter of the two afterall.

"Okay, but what's marriage? Is that like a death duel or something?"

Ace snorted, he was truly thankful that Luffy remained this innocent for so long. Even after they lost everything on that fateful day, he still smiled his brightest for everyone to see. Nothing would ever break that spirit of his.

"Well, what is it? C'mon Ace you gotta tell me! Or I'll keep asking!"

The elder brother shook his head to wake himself up from his momentary daze and smiled down at Luffy.

"Marriage is kinda like an agreement, but you have to do it with a priest around and wear fancy clothes. They also have a feast after that and party for days on end." Ace explained with a wide smile, it quickly fell however when Luffy opened his mouth.

"Then why can't I do marriage with Bellamy? Thay sounds pretty fun."

Ace clenched his fists and grit his teeth.

"Because." He seethed out. "That man doesn't love you, he wants to use you. Marriage needs love to work Luffy, and Bellamy doesn't know the meaning of it."

Luffy nodded in understanding and dropped the subject. Ace looked at Luffy with sad eyes and sighed.

"I thought disguising you to look like a boy would make everyone back off."

"But I'm not a boy.. " Luffy started but Ace quickly cut him off.

"Just, pretend a little longer until we can make enough money to move. Promise me something though, that you'll marry for love, okay?"

"Okay."

While Luffy went to bed a few hours ago, Ace snuck off to the cellar to tinker with his fire fist gauntlet. It just needed a few more things to pretty it up then he could set off with Luffy as soon as possible to Edward Newgates inventor symposium. It was happening next week but he needed to get out of the town right away, Bellamy wasn't someone Ace needed hanging around his little brother.

When the invention looked clean and usable, Ace stuffed it in his tool box and climbed the cellar stairs. Looking around to make sure nobody was walking about, he unlatched the gate where they kept their animals. Slowly one by one the animals escaped, thinking it were feeding time until he shooed them away. The next to come out was their horse and goat.

Ace led Thousand Sunny to their wagon and hitched him up, he tied the horse to the fence and went back to the cellar to pack up everything he needed. Once that was done he proceeded to pack up the things inside their cottage, things that they really needed. Not so much clothes, the worn out ones, since they'd probably never need to be seen in such raggedy things when Aces invention was bought.

The wagon was full, save for a space where Luffy could lay down and sleep. That reminded Ace, he had to wake Luffy and try to quietly bring him down. They lived a few meters away from the village, but that didn't stop Luffys loud voice from reaching them.

Thankfully Luffy complied and snuggled into his older brother, relishing in the warmth of being rocked back to sleep when his brother walked to the wagon. He didn't even wake up when he was laid on the flatbed with straw and a blanket.

Being reminded once again Ace ran back into the cottage for Luffys strawhat he was given a few days ago, then he finally set his plans into motion and poured oil all over the house. Reaching for his gauntlet he snagged before coming back into the house, he rolled his wrist and faced his palm at the trail of oil.

Slowly, flames licked their way across the floor of the house. Ace didn't want to wait for help this time and made a mad dash for Thousand Sunny, he untied the animal then mounted it. With one finally look at the fresh smoke billowing out of an open window somewhere, Ace kicked his heels on the horse to get it to move. There was no more looking back, not when danger lurked in this village.

"Come on Sunny, faster!"

The horse let out a loud gruff and trotted faster to the forest trail that led out of east blue village, towards the North Blue castle ruins. He would have to travel through that area just the make it to where Edward lived. Hopefully Bellamy wouldn't catch onto them.

"Where are we going?"

"Why is all of our stuff in here?"

Luffy couldn't stop with the questions, he kept asking about everything. Why they left, when they would reach their destination, how will they buy food when they had absolutely no Beri at all. Luffy ate the food as soon as he woke up, that was yesterday.

"I don't know Lu, we just need to keep moving, we'll be in a village soon."

Luffy pouted but remained silent.

It had been a whole day since they left east blue, and another 3 days until they would reach whitebeard estate. Hopefully nothing would deter their schedule.

Crack.

Ace slowed the horse down, feeling the wagon wobble a bit on the dirt road. So much for hoping. The wheel was cracked where the bolt held it onto the wagons body. He could fix it but there was no guarantee it would last much longer seeing as the crack was deep and lengthy.

"Fuck, just fucking great."

Ace pulled over at the crossroads they arrived at. He hopped off of Sunny and walked over to the wagon to assess the damage further, the outcome was not pretty.

"Hey Ace, is it broken?"

"Yup."

A moment of silence fell. Ace was brooding, angry at the fact that he failed to remeber that the wagon needed repairs months ago. He had all summer to do it, but it was now fall, curse his reluctance to do such an easy task.

"Hey Ace."

"Hmm?"

"I'm hungry."

Letting out a long groan, the older man ran hands through his dark locks and paced back and forth.

"I told you not to eat all the food!"

That wasn't what Ace was worried about, he was mostly worried about Bellamy catching up to him. He knew for a fact that the crazed hunter would by now catch onto his last minute plan. He was known to get what he wanted, most of his ploys were done by brute force. People went messing when Bellamy was involved, but they couldn't do a thing since he was a good friend of Donquixote Doflamingo. A very shady aristocrat that was apart of the royal family, of course he was banished from the castle years ago by his own brother Rocinante. Ace didn't know the whole ordeal of what went down, he just knew.

Speaking of royalties and castles, they weren't that far from the abandoned palace. He didn't know how it got abandoned either, the place just suddenly fell into ruin many years ago. He remembers the day, but not the reason.

"Let's go to the old castle and see if we can find a wheel. Or a new wagon."

Luffys face brightened up, the mention of an adventure always made him happy.

"Okay!"

Ace took the hitch off of Sunny, then hauled it over to a deep brush off of the road. They'd come back for their things later, hopefully with a new wheel or wagon in tow. He covered the wagon with branches he broke from birch trees then approved of his work.

"To the castle then."