This is kind of a belated birthday-tribute to Luffy, but I posted it the day after for two reasons. 1) I wanted to avoid the rush of all the Luffy fics that would be going up yesterday and 2) May 6th is significant to the story... so, yeah, I tried to be clever about it... probably failed, but oh well. lol.

EDIT: I feel I must say that the grammar issues in this story are done purposely, for I fear someone may turn away simply because the grammar is not top notch (or what I usually write). The reason for that is because I have written this from Luffy's point of view as a child. So, yes, there will be a few run-on sentences (like a kid trying to fit everything he has to say in one breath) and things like that. Now that that's out of the way, on with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or its characters. I only have the OCs I create.

"Why do we have to get the spices, Nii-chan?" I was bored and didn't want to go shopping in town for Dadan. I wanted to go play.

"Because if we don't get the spices, the meat will go bad over the winter," Ace answered, adding a punch to the top of my head.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Ace didn't answer and only laughed instead. I crossed my arms and pouted, trying to ignore his laughs.

It was a sunny day in early autumn, and all the trees were starting to change colors. The air wasn't cold yet, so we didn't have to wear jackets or shoes. The big oak tree that marked the edge of town had already changed colors so the leaves were red and yellow and orange. It looked kinda like it was on fire, especially when the wind blew. As Ace and I were walking under the oak, I heard Ace grunt and he fell down.

"Gotcha this time, Ace!" a girl yelled. I turned around and saw Ace wrestling with a girl that looked like she was eight, like me.

"In your dreams!" Ace yelled back and turned so he was winning the fight. He had her flat on her stomach in no time at all. Ace was sitting on her with the girl's arm twisted behind her back. She struggled a little, but couldn't make him budge because she was too small.

"Alright, I give."

Ace grinned and got off her so she could stand. The girl was only a little taller than me and really skinny. How'd she knock Ace down? I looked up at the oak tree and guessed she jumped from a branch. Her hair was short and blond, and she had blue eyes. Her knees were skinned and she had some cuts on her face, and dirt smeared all over her, but she was smiling as much as Ace.

"Who're you?" I asked, looking her over.

"Luffy, this is Lily. She's my friend," Ace answered.

"And the only girl in town who's not afraid of you," she added and pushed Ace's shoulder.

Lily started walking with us into town and I found out she was actually ten. But she was so skinny and short! How was she already ten? I figured her being the same size as me wouldn't be a bad thing, though. If she wrestled with me like she did with Ace, it'd be more even.

From that day on, Lily became my Nee-chan.

It was May 6th, the day after my eleventh birthday and the day after Lily's thirteenth. I thought it was pretty cool that we had the same birthday, but we never got to spend it together. That was why we always went to see Lily on May 6th.

Me and Ace were walking to Lily's house with her presents in our pockets. We knew she was going to like them, and I couldn't wait to see what she made me. When we were almost halfway to Lily's house, we heard some people yelling and saw a bunch of kids standing in the middle of the road.

"What's going on?" Ace mumbled and started pushing his way through the kids.

I followed behind him, but I just wanted to hurry to Lily's house. Why did we have to check out what these guys were doing? When we got to the middle of the group, I was kinda glad we'd stopped after all because there was Lily and she was throwing a punch at some boy that lived in Fuschia Village. He punched her back, but she didn't fall. I was surprised because even though she was thirteen now, Lily hadn't grown much.

Ace looked really angry and his hands clenched into fists at his side. It was because Lily was all beat up from that kid from the village. She had a lot of bruises, a black eye, a split lip and her knees and elbows were all scraped up and bleeding. Lily was shaking really badly, but she still held her fists up like she was gonna keep fighting. Whatever she was fighting for, she thought it was worth it. Just like Shanks fought to save me when he gave me his straw hat.

The kid was gonna hit Lily, but Ace and I ran forward to stop him. Ace tackled the kid to the ground and I went to help Lily. She leaned almost all her weight on me; good thing she was light. Ace was sitting on the boy that hurt Lily, punching him repeatedly. He was furious. Lily tried to take a step forward, but would've fallen if I didn't keep her standing. She was still shaking a lot.

"Ace, stop it!" she yelled while Ace's fist was raised to hit the kid again. He kept it in the air and looked over his shoulder at me and Lily. Ace only got this mad when I was hurt, because he never let Lily get hurt this bad. He used to tell me I couldn't fight hard with her because she was a girl and wasn't as strong as him or me. Lily shook more and I looked over to see that she looked really tired, like she was gonna pass out or something.

"Nee-chan," I whispered, kinda worried about her. I didn't like seeing Lily looking like that. Ace hated it more and he scowled.

"You should see yourself!" he yelled, but stood up and let the kid go anyway.

"It's her fault!" someone else yelled while the first boy ran away. Ace got a really dark look on his face and all the kids ran away. They were always afraid of Ace.

"I'll get 'em later," he muttered.

"I started the fight. They were saying stuff about you guys. I couldn't let them get away with it," Lily insisted.

Ace rolled his eyes and knelt down in front of her with his back facing her. Lily wrapped her arms around Ace's neck and he lifted her onto his back, putting his arms under her legs to keep her up. Lily put her head on his shoulder and she made a sound like she was hurting but didn't want us to know.

"You don't have to fight for us, Nee-chan," I said as we started walking back to Dadan's house. "We can fight for ourselves." Lily looked over at me and her eyes looked like she was still going to fight that kid.

"They won't say it when Ace is around because he can beat up the adults. Someone's gotta stop them, so it might as well be me." It was quiet for a while as we walked and the only thing I could hear were the leaves crunching under our feet on the dirt road home. Lily still looked tired and her face was pale. After a while, she said, "I left Luffy's present at home… Don't forget to pick it up for him later." And I knew she was talking mostly to Ace.

"We'll get it after we get Dadan to fix you up," he answered. He didn't sound half as tired as Lily did, even though he'd carried her all that way.

"M'kay."

She was quiet again and so were we. Lily probably wanted to sleep after fighting so hard for us, so I tried to keep especially quiet for her. It wasn't easy, but after about ten minutes, I saw Lily's arms fall from around Ace's neck and hang in front of his chest. After that, Ace had to keep hoisting her up so she wouldn't fall off and I smiled. She fell asleep on Ace's back. She probably wasn't gonna be happy when we had to wake her up, but I was glad she could rest.

Then Ace started tripping a lot, stumbling over his own feet. He started walking faster too, and I had to pick up the pace to keep up with him. And why was he tripping so much when he was looking down at his feet now anyway? All of a sudden, Ace started running up the road to Dadan's house, and I wondered why he did that if Lily was trying to sleep.

When we got to Dadan's house, Ace didn't wait for me to get inside before running where Dadan was. She looked at us like she was wondering what we were doing. I finally got to stop and catch my breath, and I saw Ace shaking. When I looked up at his face, I saw that he was crying. Why was he doing that? Ace never cried.

"Nii-chan, what's wrong?" I asked. He ignored me and still stared at Dadan. Now she looked almost sad, which was weird. What was going on?

"Tell me she's not dead, Dadan!" Ace yelled and my head snapped back to look at him. He was crying harder now. My eyes moved to Lily and she looked really pale, except where the bruises were, and she didn't look like she was hurting anymore. I burst into tears in an instant and grabbed Lily's hand. It was cold.

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!"

Lily died that day seven years ago. She would've turned twenty yesterday if she'd lived. Just like Ace had said, we went back to her house and got what she'd made me for my eleventh birthday. She had drawn a picture of herself, Ace and me together on a piece of fabric, and then put some kind of coating on it so the ink wouldn't fade. Lily was a good artist and used to practice drawing a lot. I always kept the picture with me and had Nami sew it into my hat the first time she fixed it after fighting Buggy.

After Lily died, Ace and I still gave her the presents we made for her. Ace had used purple twine and regular twine, and twisted three pieces together to make a necklace for her. I used what was left over to make a matching bracelet. We didn't use beads or anything girly because we knew Lily didn't like that kind of stuff. We tied them on her the day she died and she was buried wearing them.

I still remembered what Ace told me after Lily's funeral. He said she was "born sick" and had something wrong with her heart. That was why she was so small and always looked younger than she was. Her heart problem stopped her from growing like a normal person. That was why I couldn't be too rough with her, as I later understood. It wasn't because she was a girl, but because her heart made her weak. That fight she was in was too much for her and her heart stopped. Ace knew she died while we were walking because she stopped breathing and he couldn't feel hear heartbeat anymore. That was why he started stumbling on the way to Dadan's house. At least, that's what he told me.

As I stared out at the sea from the figurehead of the Thousand Sunny, I kept looking down at the straw hat Shanks gave me and the picture sewn inside it. In my other hand was a purple flower I found on the last island we were on. It was kind of wilted now, but it kind of reminded me of Lily in that way. Besides, purple was her favorite color.

I always knew that Lily wouldn't have died if she didn't fight that kid seven years ago. She found for me and Ace because she felt like she had to. I knew I had to get strong after that, so my friends wouldn't feel like they had to fight for me. It was my job to protect them.

I let the flower go and watched it drift down into the sea. Every year since Lily's death, I would bring something purple either to her grave or set it to sea. This year, it was a wilted purple flower that reminded me of her. I smiled as it hit the water.

"Happy birthday, Nee-chan."

The End. I hope you enjoyed it. I may or may not be making this a twoshot, where the second part would be memories in Ace's POV... it all depends on if I can think of something worth-while. lol. Anyway, please R&R.