Hey everyone, I know I know, I should be focusing on one fic instead of putting out another, but I couldn't help myself.. This fic is an AcexLu I promised to CaptainOfShips for being so awesome and supportive of His Grief, anyway, hope you enjoy!
I own nothing in One Piece, nor other referenced media.
"Listen to me Lu-" The sound of a heavy thud resounded in the swordsman's ear effectively cutting of whatever he was about to say.
The distinct sound of receding sandals slapping against the tiled floor underneath followed after the immediately, before the final sign of a door being banged open confirmed the one thing Zoro was fearing most.
"Luffy! Damnit LUFFY! Get back here you idiot!"
Ending the call the green haired man stuffed the phone into his pocket and rushed out of his house after taking his three swords with him of course, and headed towards his parked car… at least he thought that's where he was headed.
After several minutes of searching for the vehicle Zoro gave up and sprinted in the nearest direction allowing instinct to carry him through the desolate streets. He just hoped that he would make it to Luffy in time.
The heavy panting of the teen only interrupted by the striking slap of his sandals on the concrete ground were the only sounds of the night as the teen ran as fast as he could into the all encompassing darkness.
Ace... ACE! AAAAACE The one name kept repeating in his mind again and as he ran.
Tears blurred his vision, as Luffy stumbled nearly falling face first on the floor under him, were it not for the extensive training his grandfather put him through as a child, Luffy wouldn't have gained the reflexes that saved him the trip to a scraped up face. However, that was the least of his worries that night.
"Luffy..." there was a pause as the gruff voice took a deep breath, "I just got a call from Mihawk..." Zoro explained, which had risen a brow from the raven, but he hadn't seen it as odd then, the intimidating man was his father after all.
"Luffy he tells me Ace fell on the job." Zorro finished.
"Fell? Ne Zoro, your dad knows about his narcolepsy, there's nothing to worry about remember. Shishishi." Luffy chuckled as he thought the call was nothing more than his brother sleeping on the job again.
An audible gulp could be heard on the other line as Zoro hardened his voice. "No Luffy, Ace did not have a narcolepsy attack, your brother was seriously injured... dad says the wound is fatal."
'fatal... Fatal... FATAL.' that single word drilled into Luffy's mind, each time the word appeared in his thoughts he would flinch away. That word, that ugly disgusting word should never ever be applied to his brother. Not his Ace!
Before Luffy knew what he was doing he flung the glaring device onto his floor disregarding the voice that called to him from the other end.
Luffy ran.
"No...no. NO! ACE!"
The anguished cry shook the quiet world around him, causing curtains to shift in nearby buildings, though no one dared step out of their houses, not tonight. No one should be so stupid to step out tonight, yet there was this teenager speeding by and heading to the closed off section of the town.
Rushing past warning signs and barred entrances, Luffy sped deeper into the darkened streets, hopping over spilled heaps of trash, the crumbling remains of buildings and occasionally stepping over decomposed.. were those corpses? Luffy didn't want to find out, not tonight.
Slowing his thundering steps, Luffy panted heavily trying to give his screaming lungs the oxygen they craved and giving his body the rest it demanded after the sudden marathon it was forced to go through.
Over the loud breaths of air he took, the rushing of his blood through his ears, and the beating drumming of his own heart Luffy could faintly make out feverish whispers.
He was at the threshold of the other dimension...
Clenching his fists at either side Luffy strode forward took a deep breath and exclaimed. "I WANNA MAKE A DEAL."
At that the shadows around him withered and seemed to lift off of whatever surface they clung to, the temperature around him began to plummet substantially, in mere seconds his breath was coming out in rushed puffs of smoke, though Luffy didn't feel the cold, he was still to dense to feel it just yet.
The shadows continued their dance before Luffy's eyes before they finally peeled off of their respective places, swirling around the spot before him, spinning wildly until they formed a humanoid figure. Luffy watched in undisguised amazement as the shadows formed an extremely large and plump looking man with ashen gray skin, the largest teeth Luffy had ever seen, and as sharp as they come. The thing's neck was grotesquely stretched to hold in place a chinless face with pointed ears and the weirdest hairstyle of two pointed like hills of a deep purple; but the feature that stood out the most were the two protruding horns from the man's forehead.
"Kishishishi! A deal you say, do you even know what a deal is boy!" the shadow man asked of Luffy as he sized him up, maniacal grin in tact.
Pushing past all the sirens in his head, Luffy stepped closer to the large man "I don't have time for that shit, are you going to make a deal with me or not!"
"Kishishishi, feisty one.. I like that, so what is it that you want boy, money? Fame? A girlf-?"
"My brother... he's dying. Save him and I'll give you whatever you want!" Luffy asked cutting off the demon before him. "I want my brother to live." he added meeting the soulless eyes of the pale man.
"A life eh... Kishishishi. Lucky for you boy I am the right man for the job, though, such a big request will cost you."
"Yeah, whatever, just save him! How do we seal the deal." Luffy growled not heeding the words and pushing the shadow man.
"A life for a life boy. Lucky for you, since he isn't dead... yet. Then the contract won;t require you to give up your soul... a shame really, but you will have to give me your life in a sense... the details are in the contract, and I rather not get into all that, bottom line is, if I summon you, you show up no questions asked, and this arrangement will be in place until I see fit."
"So I'll be your errand boy?" Luffy asked tilting his head.
"Among other things, clock's ticking boy, and I don't think you have enough time left." the man cackled pulling out a wickedly large knife. "Now, do we have a deal."
"Fine. Yeah, deal." Luffy answered quickly, shifting his gaze between the knife in the man's hand and the man himself.
"Kishishishi. Great. Now you'll feel a small pinch, ready?" no sooner were the words out of his mouth when the blade struck Luffy's chest, easily sliding past flesh, bone and the delicate tissue of his heart.
A choked sound escaped Luffy as blood was coughed out, coal eyes widened as he looked up accusingly to the man with the wicked manic grin.
"Kishishishi, I'm not going to kill you boy, this is part of the ritual... I am Gekko Moriah, master demon of shadows, of life and death.. this sword won't kill you but embed you with one of my shadows, did you think demon's sign contracts? No we seal them with blood and with out life essence. Now speak your name, and the name of this brother of yours."
Luffy took a painful breath working hard on not flinching for it only disturbed the lodged blade. "I... I am Monkey D. Luffy, and my brother is Portgas D. Ace."
At the name Moriah's eyes widened in shock before a cackle was brought to his frame. "What are the odds! Monkey D. Luffy, I own your soul now. Enjoy your brother while he lasts." the demon hissed before roughly pushing Luffy off his blade and dissolving into the shadows.
"LUFFY!" The sound of his name shifted lowly lidded gaze to a running mass of moss.
"Zoro... I did it Zoro, I saved Ace." Luffy called out as his body lay sprawled on the filth ridden street.
Cursing under his breath Zoro scanned for the demon that had been there moments before, expanding the senses his father had taught him to make out the beings. Receiving no response, Zoro growled and sheathed his two drawn swords promptly kneeling next to his best friend. "Fuck Luffy, what the fuck did you do!"
"Shishishi, Zoro don't worry I'm fine." Luffy assured him as his hand came up to show his friend, "See no blood, it doesn't even hurt anymore, stupid Gekko man." Luffy grumbled as he sat up and Zoro growled, landing a hard blow to the teen's head.
"Luffy that's beside the point! Look at what he did to you." Zoro breathed as Luffy cried out and held the back of his head.
"Zoro why would you that for, that hurrrt!" the teen whined rubbing at the sore spot before gazing down to his chest. "Woah! I got a cool scar!"
This comment only got him another smack to his head, though Zoro was the one to sooth out the pain this time. "You fucking idiot." he chided, "Ace is going to kill you, you know that."
Relaxing into the soothing hand, Luffy sniffled as new tears formed in his wide eyes. "What else could have I done?" he asked as his friend helped him up and draped an arm around his shuddering shoulders.
"Yeah, I know." Zoro whispered, leaving him away from the place. "So what did you give up?"
"My free time." Luffy answered wiping away at the tears that had formed, his smile returning as they left the area known as Thriller Bark.
After a very loud, on Zoro's end, phone call Luffy was finally on his way to see his no longer fatally wounded brother.
"I never heard Mihawk so angry..." Zoro mused as he began to turn his direction for no reason.
Luffy automatically reached out his pand to pull the back of Zoro's shirt and back on their course, "Waddya mean Zoro, he sounded the same."
Zoro chuckled, "Nah, there was definitely anger flaring off of him, though if you ask me, he's more worried about how he'll explain all this to your Godfather."
At that Luffy gulped and managed to hide his own uneasiness over the matter with a laugh. "Ah, yeah, then it's a good thing he's out of town." he stated knowing there were only so many hits he could take to the head, between Zoro and Ace, Shanks would surely be the death of him.
"Well this is the place." Zoro said after a few minutes of silence, which startled Luffy out of his thoughts, looking at the run down warehouse. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped in, immediately coming into eye contact with the piercing yellow gaze of Mihawk.
"Hawkey, hey. Shishishi." Luffy chuckled hiding the underlying nervousness, the other said nothing, raking his eyes over Luffy, settling on the scar on his chest, before glaring at his son and turning to lead them inside.
"He's over here."
Anticipation built up in Luffy quickly, until he could acutely feel everything around him, he could feel his own nervous energy waiting to be released, along with the stoic anger that was Mihawk beside him, and the ball of calm rage that was Zoro.
They continued like this for a few more agonizing minutes before he was lead to a closed door. Luffy's wide gaze then went from the door and to gaze up at the impassive Mihawk, "Can I see him... alone?"
With a nod, Mihawk sent a look towards his son and turned to presumably meet up with the rest of the group.
Glancing back, Zoro too left his friend and followed after his father.
'Well this is it.' Luffy thought to himself, opening the door and stepping into the room only to slam into the palpable wall of so many emotions, the main one being barely suppressed anger. Luffy's eyes blinked in order to adjust to the low light, though even with the single candle that lit the room, he could still make out the figure within the space.
There standing by a window was Ace, with his back to Luffy.
Closing the door behind him, Luffy stepped in and closer to Ace, he opened his mouth to speak before a growl stopped him.
"What the fuck did you do Lu." Ace whispered harshly causing the teen to flinch from the hardness of the voice.
"I made a deal, and it saved your life, Ace."
"Life isn't a game Luffy!" the raven haired man yelled then spinning around to glare at his younger brother and meeting the saddened gaze.
"I know! I just. I didn't want to loose you Ace..." Luffy whispered lowering his gaze. "I can't."
Hearing the thinly veiled threat of tears Ace sighed, he never really could be mad at Luffy. No matter how much he tried.
Closing the distance, Ace's strong arms circled the younger man, pulling him into a comforting hug. "Shh, it's done now, Lu." he whispered in soft murmurs while a gentle hand rubbed along the teen's back.
The tears he had tried to keep back since the call that night flooded Luffy now as he held tightly onto Ace. The entirety of the situation crashing into him now as he allowed himself this small comfort. Though happiness soon flooded the teen as he realized that he had made the difference, he had managed to keep his Ace.
Tilting his head up, Luffy pressed his lips to the older man's lingering within the sweet kiss they shared. Slowly the two pulled away, Ace murmuring under his breath. "Damnit, Lu, you're too reckless.
"For you, I'd do anything." Luffy whispered leaning in for another kiss.
Well there you have it, my first shot at an AceLu, hope it wasn't too bad for my first try. I was honestly going to write something else involving bubble wrap XD but I was watching Supernatural and well this happened.
Please let me know what you think! Until next time.