Summary: Ace is drunk, Sabo is crashes into his room, their cat, Sunny, has been sitting by the doorway for days, and Luffy forgets the answer to (wh)y. (In which Luffy tries to find the value of y as well as the reason behind his brothers' and Sunny's mundane behavior, and the TV makes him remember the answers). Modern AU. Brotherly!ASL.
Author's Notes: I was supposed to write Ragnarok and then The Science of the Boy Named Luffy but then something happened to me a few days ago which threw me out of whack, and I had to crawl away from that mess and fix myself as soon as possible. Anyway, I'm recovering, my muse is to, which is why I wrote this one-shot in hopes to get the good ole mill running. I had fun working on this fic because there are so many word plays! As a Japanese language student, I was able to apply what I learned, and I tried my best explaining the whole point of the fic in the end. So, I hope you guys like this!
Warnings: Japanese word plays, minimal grammatical errors. This is written in Luffy's point of view, but it will switch in the end. Explanation at the end.
(05/07/16): Purged some grammatical errors.
(Wh)y = 45
y ＝四十五（＝死後）
"I am sparkling light dancing on streams,
a moment of warmth in the fays of sunbeams.
The coolness of rain as it falls on your face,
the whisper of leaves as wind rushes with haste."
― Eternal Song, a requiem by Avian of Celieria from Crown of Crystal Flame of C.L. Wilson*
Tap. Tap. Tap. A small dot forms from the insistent tapping of the pencil lead to the paper. Tap. Tap. Tap. The space beside the Y= sign remains vacant. Tap. Tap. Tap. The pristine sheet of paper of an Algebra homework becomes an unfinished mess of pencil marks and numbers.
No matter how many solutions and equations are used, the value of y of question number four persistently remains a mystery.
Luffy sighs, throws his pencil to the air and lies down on the floor. The pencil drops on his face and the sharp end hits his skin. He rolls and holds his injured cheek. He winces in pain, then in resignation.
The 17-year old boy ponders what went wrong in his solution.
Only illuminated by a bright sheep-shaped nightlight, his room falls into silence. Luffy thinks and thinks, shaded by the eerie glow of the nightlight, but he does not reach a conclusion. He gives up. He's going to ask his brothers for help, only if they're already at home.
Luffy exits his bedroom and is greeted with darkness. He frowns. Did Ace forget to buy a light bulb again?
He marches quietly to the foyer. Sunny is sitting at the doorway again, back turned against him while it sits on his worn-out sandals. Luffy groans but does not make a move to remove Sunny. As much as cat hair will make his sandals (more) unbearable to walk in, Sunny looks cute doing that. According to Sabo, this is Sunny's way of telling them that he wants to go to the park and play. Sabo explains that Sunny has somewhat associated the park with Luffy's sandals because the latter always uses them to go the park.
"We'll go to the park soon," Luffy says as he brushes his fingertips on Sunny's head. Sunny doesn't make a move. "My brothers are just a bit busy. Boring work stuff to do."
Sunny does not make a move that he understands what Luffy said. Doesn't matter, Luffy thinks, Sunny is a smart cat. He can figure it out!
Light snoring comes from the living room and Luffy lits up. Ace is finally here, and now, he can help Luffy finish his damn homework! Ace doesn't look much, but he's actually smart. Luffy knows that Ace is a super important accountant in a super big company and he's actually popular among his workmates. He remembers Sabo explaining that it's because they find Ace 'hot' ― which is true because Ace is Sunny's personal heater when the nights are too chilly. That's why, he doesn't understand why Ace has to smack Sabo afterwards.
Luffy carefully walks into the room so he won't accidentally trip on Ace, and sits next to his older brother. The room is dark but Luffy can see Ace's figure very well, and Luffy pouts ― his older brother is fast asleep, bent over their coffee table. His drool is staining some mystery documents. Luffy doesn't bother to read it. It's probably work documents and work documents make his head hurt. Six empty cans of beer littered across the table. One is already lying on the floor, trickling its left-over juices on the rug. Luffy concludes that Ace is clearly not in the condition to help him with his homework ― and it's not because his older brother is drunk!
Ace looks disheveled and tired. Really, really tired. His older brother must also be working on these mystery documents until frustration; the cans of beer is a testament of that. Ace doesn't drink this much unless he's frustrated about something. Sometimes, Ace is funny when drunk, but he becomes annoying when he begins to do a drunken rambling. Also when he throws up afterwards.
Luffy cleans the empty beer cans and throws them at the garbage can. He grabs a blanket from Ace's room ― it looks messier than it should be ― and drapes it over his elder brother. Ace grumbles. Luffy skims over Ace's mystery documents and finds that they still might be unfinished. Ace will probably wake up later and work on it, but the room is too dark to work in. Luffy doesn't want to turn on the lights because he doesn't want to ruin his brother's power nap and Ace is cranky when he is forced to wake up. Luffy thinks, and hatches an idea.
Luffy goes back to his room and unplugs his nightlight whom he named 'Merry'. He manages to go back to the living room without stumbling and plugs the nightlight into a socket near the table. The room brightens just enough for Ace to see his documents without harming his eyes, and Luffy smiles at his achievement.
Merry's light bounces off the glass pane of the clock. The light makes the hands of the clock visible to the naked eye. Luffy screams but cuts himself off before he gives a sound. It's almost 7:30. He's going to be late in his night shift of his part-time job at Wapoldonalds! He turns to Ace, who seems to be waking up.
"Sorry Ace, gotta go! I'm going to be late at my part-time job!" he says as his brother's eyes starts to flutter open. He leans and kisses his brother's forehead ― a special kiss only share between him, Ace and Sabo. No-one else. Ace hums at the contact and Luffy gives him a quick hug. "I'll be back past 10. Good night and don't forget to sleep in your room! You might catch a cold here if you don't."
Luffy hurries to the doorway and puts on his shoes. "I'm off!" he shouts, and he opts not to wait for Ace's answer. He opens the door of their shared apartment. Sunny stares at him inquisitively. At the sight of Sunny's green eyes, Luffy smiles. Sunny is always nervous when they leave. Luffy believes their cat doesn't think they're coming back. But they do. He will.
"I'll be back." Luffy says and he leaves.
The door closes and clicks shut.
Snore. Snore. Snore. Pop! Luffy jolts from his slumber and the Algebra homework unsticks from his cheek. It lands safely back to his desk. Luffy sighs in relief and briefly wonders how is his nightlight back in its original place in his room. He shrugs. Must be Ace. He hopes he's done in whatever mystery documents he's been working on. Speaking of which, he should be trying to finish his homework.
Luffy tries an equation. It fails. Tries another. He fails again. Tries again. He gives up. Luffy lies on the ground with a sigh, and the pencil he'd thrown into the air drops back at him with a painful vengeance. He rolls and winces. Then sighs again. His homework is too hard. He needs the help of his brothers. Luffy wonders if they're home already.
Something stumbles and marches and crawls; Luffy has withdrawn to the farthest wall because that is not the sounds Sunny does when he plays. The door to his bedroom opens and to Luffy's pleasant surprise, Sabo comes in. He stumbles, trips, and comes back up. He feels the objects inside Luffy's room before he finds Luffy's bed and crashes into it. Luffy watches his older brother in bewilderment while Sabo descends to soft snores.
His older brother must be really tired from work to actually mistake his room for Sabo's.
"Sabo?" Luffy calls as he timidly approaches his brother. His brother does not reply. Sabo looks disheveled and really tired. Really, really tired. He looks like he hasn't eaten in days. Sabo's work as an important professor in this university downtown must really be taking up much of his time.
Luffy removes Sabo's shoes from his feet and loosens Sabo's necktie so the latter won't accidentally choke himself. He tries to find his blanket. Weird. Where did it go? Oh well. He'll just get Sabo's then.
He exits his bedroom and frowns as darkness covers the entire apartment. Did Ace forget to buy the light bulb again? He thinks as he carefully maneuvers through the hallway, trying to feel Sabo's door. His hand spots a door knob and Luffy enters into the room. He turns on the lights. Sabo's room gets illuminated by light, but to Luffy's surprise, it's messy ― like a storm hit Sabo's room and left it in ruins.
Luffy concludes that Sabo must really, really be exhausted from his work if he lets his room be like this. He avoids the mess of papers on the floor and approaches the bed. He picks up Sabo's blanket. For some reason, it's wet.
He goes back to his room without a word.
Sabo is still the same as Luffy has left him. Luffy drapes Sabo's figure with his blanket, tucking the corners where cold air might enter. Sabo stirs and mumbles, and Luffy can't help but smile. Sabo looks so cute like this. Luffy kneels by his bed and brushes the blonde strands away from Sabo's face to get a better look of Sabo's peaceful look. He spends the minutes staring at Sabo.
Luffy gets an urge to look at the clock. He gasps. It's almost 7:30. He's going to be late on his night shift at Wapoldonalds again!
When Luffy gets up from his cross-legged position, Sabo mumbles once again. "...Lu...ffy.." he begins. "Don't...go…"
Luffy chuckles as he combs his fingers through the blonde locks. "No can do, Sabo. I have work. And you know how work is important right? I can't miss it, it's what you always tell me after all!" he says. He kisses Sabo's forehead ― a special kiss he, Ace and Sabo only share between them. No-one else ― and puts a strand of hair behind Sabo's ear. "I'll be back past 10. Good night and don't forget to go back to your room! Ace will get mad at you if you don't. You are the one who imposed that 'sleep in your own room' rule after all, shishishishi!"
Luffy quietly leaves his room and marches towards the foyer. He blinks in surprise when he finds Sunny curled up on his sandals. Luffy can't help but smile.
"You really want to go to the park, huh?" Luffy says. Sunny always sits on his sandals when he wants to go to the park; Sunny has associated his sandals with the park because Luffy always wears sandals to the park. Sunny is such a smart cat! "Sorry, my brothers have been really busy. Maybe this coming weekend! Sabo and Ace might be free."
Luffy pets Sunny a bit before he slips on his shoes, and when he is about to leave the door did Sunny suddenly wake up. His green eyes stare at Luffy's very soul.
Luffy smiles. Sunny looks nervous. He probably doesn't think he'll come back ― like he always does. He's a smart cat but he worries a lot. Luffy hopes that one day Sunny realizes that no-one will ever leave him anymore. Because he always comes back. Always.
"Go to sleep, Sunny," he says, and he hears the rustle of sheets room. Luffy does not wait for Sabo to stir as he opens the door. He smiles. "I'll be back." And he leaves.
The door closes and clicks shut.
Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter. Rain drops hammer against his window. His algebra homework remains unsolved; the value of y is still a mystery. Luffy groans and throws his pencil up to the air, only for it to land on his face on its sharp end.
Luffy winces, rolls and sighs. He recently feels that his life is mundane. Like its on repeat ― he tries to do his homework and fails, his brothers come home at night but they're in not state to help him out, he leaves for work at 7:30 even though his shift starts at the same time and the pattern will repeat itself the next day. Luffy finds this set-up a bit boring, and his brothers are not making it easier. They're always too quiet and too tired when they come home. They also look like they haven't eaten properly in days.
Maybe Luffy should suggest that they take a break so that they can have a beauty rest and have time to take Sunny to the park. The poor cat is still on his sandals and tries to stay in place.
Sunny is really determined to go to the park, huh. What a persistent cat.
Luffy blinks and rolls on the floor, waiting for the familiar sounds of his brothers to come. They don't. There is no sound of entry from the entrance door or heavy footsteps, which means that his brothers aren't at home yet. Odd. They're supposed to be at home right about now.
Curious, Luffy leaves his bedroom only to find an eerie darkness in the hallway. He frowns. Did Ace forget to buy the light bulb again?
He carefully walks to the living room, but trips on the hallway. He groans and feels the object that is blocking his way. He tilts his head in confusion when he recognizes the object to be a box. A line of boxes to be in fact. Why are there a lot of boxes at the hallway? Luffy shrugs. Must be Sabo's. It's to no surprise that Sabo comes home with boxes of papers and projects to be graded.
Luffy gets up and reaches the living room. He feels up the remote to find it. He turns on the TV and streams to a bunch of channels. He frowns he finds a TV program where Sanji seemed to be cooking is about to end. Awww, he just missed his friend's show! Ugh. He should probably ask Usopp if he recorded any of that.
The pretty TV host asks a bunch of questions to Sanji and Sanji, clad in a professional chef uniform that he has always dreamed of wearing, looks tired and too quiet than usual. Just like his brothers. Odd. Maybe Sanji's homesick? He should probably fire up the computer and send an email to Sanji to see how he's doing. Living afar from your hometown can take tolls even to the strongest man, Ace says. Maybe that's what happening to Sanji right now.
The pretty TV host bats her eyelids and Sanji doesn't even swoon. She asks. "So, this dish is an original of yours, correct?" she begins, to which Sanji nods. "What was your inspiration to make this dish that is now a home favourite by millions of homes around the world?" The audience claps and cheers; some fangirls even shout Sanji's name.
Sanji must be loving the attention, but he he looks like he isn't.
A weird look crosses his face. "It's actually a dish I made for a friend," he says, and the blonde pockets his hands ― a gesture indicating that Sanji needs his lights.
"A special friend perhaps?" The TV host humorously adds, chuckling. "How did she find it? Of course she should find it delicious, if not then she must have no tongue!" And the audience laughs.
Sanji smiles, but it's far from being a real smile. "He...did not get a chance to taste it."
The light of the TV glows eerily on the wall clock that's standing on one of the boxes littering across the living room instead of hanging on a wall. He pales.
Shit. It's 7:30. He's going to be late from his night shift at Wapoldonalds!
He tries to get up from floor, but hits his knee under the coffee table. He groans in pain and slips; his butt lands on the TV remote that he placed at his side. The TV streams to a bunch of channels as Luffy's weight presses the buttons on the device. Luffy curses as he removes his heavy weirght from the TV remote from the floor and checks to see if it's alright. Ace is going to kill him if he breaks the remote. This remote costs like $100!
His attention goes back to the TV when a news station returns from its break. The screen shows Nami ― whoa when did Nami became a news anchor! Luffy thinks ― sits on the anchor desk, shuffling her papers to get ready to deliver tonight's news. She looks prim and proper and pretty, as always, but her eyes look dead and dull.
She looks tired. Like his brothers and . But then he shrugs. Must be her work. She easily gets stressed. Better fire up the computer and send Nami a message to cool off then, like Sanji!
A video scene of a fat, curly-haired man being hauled off by a lot of police officers ― "Hey, that's Smokey!" ― plays in the screen. "Police have found the suspect, Marshall D. Teach, this morning at the East Blue City harbour. He was trying to make a quick getaway by hijacking into a private yacht owned by the Nefertari family. Thanks to the quick actions of the Nefertari family, the police were immediately alerted and Teach was arrested in the scene," Nami says. The screen then shifts to Smokey, who seems to look annoyed as flashes of cameras go left and right, and microphones crowd his breathing space. A reporter asks what the police had recently found.
He speaks. "My men found the murder weapon and the tools used to dispose the victim in the junkyard the suspect owns this morning. His attempt of a quick escape and the remains of his crimes are enough to prove that he's guilty of murder. That is all I can say." And Smokey walks away, with a bunch of reporters trying to ask him some questions.
The camera returns to Nami. A weird look crosses her face before she retains her stoic expression, and a picture of him appears beside her. Luffy remembers that picture. It's Nami's selfie with him, but in the TV, she is cropped off. "The Monkey family is determined to press charges against Marshall D. Teach, who is alleged to have killed Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year old student of East Blue High school, two years ago. He was suspected to have been kidnapped on his way to work and never have been seen for four months until his body was found in a cemented plastic drum, wrapped in barb wire, gagged and sustaining forty-five stab marks. Reasons for the crime is still unknown but the police are suspecting it is personal attack against the Monkey family. Here is what the Monkey family has to say,"
Ace appears in the screen. He looks drenched from the rain, emotionally exhausted and angry. So, so angry. There are embers in his irises, but he looks pale and cold. "Luffy was a good kid. A little odd, but definitely good. Never harmed a fly in his life. That's why we're definitely seeing that bastard in court," he says. "We won't stop unless he ends up in maximum security jail. W-we're not going to―" his voice breaks a bit and a tear glistens in the corner of his left eye. "―stop until we get justice. It's been two long years. My brother deserves to rest."
The camera shifts to another news anchor, one with long curly blonde hair and an aura of vanity in him, as he tells another depressing story about a terrorist attack in some distant country. A lot of people died. A picture of the scene flashes in the TV. It's blurred because it's too gory.
But, Luffy sees through it all.
It's 7:45.
Luffy (remembers) knows the answer to (wh)y now.
Shoot! It's already 7:45. He's boss is going to kill him! And no matter how fast he runs, he's still going to end up late!
But…
Luffy looks at an alleyway and smirks.
Good thing there's a shortcut.
"Hey, aren't you Portgas' and Outlook's brother?"
Silence. "Who're you, and why do you know my brothers?"
"Let's just say your brothers owe me something."
"You're not coming back."
Tap. Tap. Tap. A small dot forms from the insistent tapping of the pencil lead to the paper. Tap. Tap. Tap. The space inside the bullet point boxes remains vacant. Tap. Tap. Tap. The pristine sheet of paper of a list becomes an organized mess of check marks and circles.
The movers pick the last box inside the living room and Sabo checks the last unchecked box on the paper.
Ace emerges from the living room, Sunny's cage and scratch marks on hand. In the corner of Sabo's eyes, he spots Luffy's sandals inside the cage with Sunny.
"Darn cat didn't want to leave the sandals alone," Ace explains.
Sabo blinks. "We'll pry it off of him, later." he says. There is a pregnant pause before Ace stands beside Sabo.
"How do you feel?" Ace asks.
Sabo sighs. "Tired. Moving is always tiring."
Ace frowns. "That's not what I meant…"
Sabo sighs and leans on Ace's shoulder. His brother wounds an arm around him as a way of comfort. They stare at the crippling wallpaper of the living room and remember the times when this room felt alive. When Luffy was still ―
"It's just you and me now," Sabo begins.
"I know."
"Do you think we can get through with this?"
"...I don't know."
A pause. "Do you think...Luffy is alright now?"
"His killer is in jail. I suppose Luffy is cheering for us...wherever he is."
Sabo hates to think where Luffy might be right now. Luffy should be with them. He should have been here. "Hey, do you know what I found in his room?"
Ace raises an eyebrow. "What?"
The blonde brother pulls a folder piece of paper from his breast pocket and unfolds it. The paper makes a crinkling sound. The sound and sight of the unfolding paper makes Ace's eyes water a bit. Sabo's eyes also do, too.
"His homework." Ace simply says.
"It was due two years ago," Due three days after the day Luffy was kidnapped, to be accurate. Sabo's voice breaks. "He didn't finish it. Look." the blonde points a shaky finger at the vacant spot next to the Y= sign of number four. Ace purses his lip in a thin line as his grip on Sunny's cage tightens.
"Give me that," Ace says as he snaps from his stupor and snatches the paper from Sabo's hands. The freckled brother kneels to the floor as he puts the paper and Sunny's cage down, and grabs a pen from his pocket. Sabo watches as Ace uncaps the pen, then proceeds to write a sophisticated equation and formula set. In seconds, Ace arrives to an answer and places the number beside the vacant spot. He stands up and looks at the ceiling, takes a big breath and shouts: "HEY, TWERP! THE ANSWER TO Y IS 45! WE'RE GOING TO SUBMIT YOUR LATE HOMEWORK TO YOUR TEACHER SO YOU BETTER BE HAPPY NOW OR I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!"
Sabo is sure Ace's scream can be heard in the entire floor. "Geez, what the hell was that for!?" He asks as he removes his hands from his ears. His ears are still ringing.
"A farewell." His brother simple says before he picks up Sunny's cage like nothing happened. "Come on. We're going to Luffy's math teacher's place."
Sabo blinks. "Nico Robin, you mean?" Ace nods. "Why?"
His brother shrugs. "Would be a shame if Luffy worked hard on this only to be forgotten, don't ya think?"
Seeing the number of erasure marks and messy handwritings tug Sabo's heartstrings, a little. "I guess so." And he smiles.
"Great! I think I still have her address," Ace says as he opens the door to leave. In a distance, Sabo sees that the movers are already set. "Let's go."
Sabo nods and leaves. He closes the door behind him.
And the wind pulls the door out and clicks it shut.
Explanation:
The number 45 in Japan has two meanings. One, it means the number forty-five, which is written like this: 四十五 and pronounced as Yonjyuugo. Two, 45 can mean 'after death' (pronounced as shigo) since the word for 4, pronounced as shi, is a homonym of the kanji 死 which means 'death' and the word for 5, pronounced as go, is a homonym of the kanji 後、which is a character used to denote 'after' ( i.e. after the birthday party, after lunch). Combining shi and go can produce the word 'after death', which is written like this 死後. That's why 45 is an unlucky number in Japan.
Thus the answer to (wh)y is 45 (after death). The whole point of the fic was to show Ace and Sabo's recovery after Luffy's death (where the whole 'after death' concept comes through) and Luffy finally remembering the answer to (wh)y (the reason why his brothers are quiet and tired ― they're still mourning for him ― and the value of y of his unfinished two-year old math homework ― which is 45)
The title is actually some sort of word play:
四十五 = 死後 looks/sounds like shi plus(the character for jyuu or ten looks like a plus sign) go equals shigo (after death)
*Why did Teach ask if Luffy has brothers named Portgas and Outlook?
Ace and Sabo are adopted.
Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed the word plays! XD I hope the explanation gave some clarity behind the whole point of the fic. Anyway, belated happy birthday Luffy! Don't die!
*quote retrieved goodreads.c-o-m /quotes/tag/passing