A warm breeze teased the pirate captain's hair as he watched the sun set. A beautiful streak of red tinted the blue ocean as it drifted down the horizon. He watched the fiery red which reminded him of his brother.
Ace…
Instantly, the name forced vivid memories of Ace dying in his hands to flash through his mind. Stunned, he watched the scene again, the scene that has been his nightmares ever since two years—
A hand on his shoulder brought Luffy back to present time. He tensed and whipped his head around.
Zoro.
"Dinner's ready." Luffy smiled and quickly jumped to his feet. After shouting out his favorite word, he ran to the gallery leaving Zoro in the dust. There was no need to make his nakama worry about him. Zoro stared after his captain as understanding flooded through him. He furrowed his brow, wondering how he could make Luffy feel better.
…
Dinner was over. Zoro brought over a bottle of sake and two wine cups.
"Want to drink?" Luffy's eyes widened as he realized that his first mate was worried about him. He always did know when the rubberman was feeling off.
Grinning, he reached over to take a cup. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the label.
"Sake?" Luffy stared at the bottle, remembering Ace and Sabo.
"Yeah, why?"
"…do you want to be brothers or something?"
"eh?" Zoro gazed at Luffy puzzled with how he reached that conclusion. Robin explained while reminding the two that the crew was still in the room.
"In East Blue, there's an ancient sailor legend: When men drink sake, then they become brothers."
"Yup." Luffy nodded; the crew wondered how he knew until they realized that Luffy must have drank it with Ace. An awkward silence ensued and Zoro sort of shuffled a bit in his seat. Luffy shrugged the silence away.
"Well, it's fine with me. As long as I'm the older brother." Then, he began pouring sake into the cups and raised his high. Zoro followed while absent-mindedly asking,
"Why older brother?" After they finished drinking the liquid, Luffy replied,
"Cuz the older brothers always die first."
A/N: Product of watching too many tragic flashbacks in One Piece. The older siblings always seem to die first though. There's Kuina (to me, she's like the older sister of Zoro), Sabo, Ace, Thatch (older brother of Ace and maybe a lot more Whitebeard Pirates), and Tom (older brother of Den).