Luffy never meets Shanks (at least not from what he remembers but still ends up with his hat and Shanks loses his arm saving Ace), instead he grows up with Ace and Dadan and they met Sabo early. Sabo's dad's takes him back earlier too, a different fire happens in the Grey Terminal and instead of the Celestial Dragon trying to blow Sabo up it's his family to get rid of the 'shame' that Sabo brings to his family as he tries to escape them to get back to Luffy and Ace. At first, everyone thinks that Sabo is dead (he does write a letter here too but Ace and Luffy never see it) but he has really been saved by a brother and a sister who then kidnap Luffy and Ace to protect/save them from Bluejam who is sent to kill them. So the question now is, where does the story take them now? Especially after somehow the three of them mange to eat and share the same devil fruit and its powers- that of the Mera Mera No Mi. it's why their called the Fire Brothers after all.
Different devil fruit Luffy. OCs and OOCs.
Family/Adventure/Romance. Ranked M for later chapters. [Luffy, Ace] [Sabo, Marco] & more later on. Ace, Sabo, Luffy, OC, Marco, Whitebeard, Whitebeard Pirates.
Chapter 1Ace was three and half roughly (maybe a little older?) when Garp randomly turned up one day with a baby, said his name was Luffy, claiming the child was his grandson like Ace and that the baby was also Ace's little brother. Ace didn't know anything about his parents because Garp hasn't told him anything about them so Ace wasn't sure if Garp was lying or so Ace just accepted it. Ace had no reason to not accept it.
And then Garp left again, like he pretty much always does. He turns up on moment- can spend anywhere between ten minutes to three days, or one time a week, with Ace then he randomly disappears/leaves again.
So Ace wasn't surprised when all Garp did this was tell Dadan and her bandits that they were looking Luffy as well, whether they like it or not.
Ace soon afterwards realises that the bandits are really bad with babies when he left to go hunting and comes back to see Luffy being tied up and held upside by rope while balling his eyes out while the bandits ignore him with ear plugs in. Ace kind of can't believe but can believe it all at the same time. Ace was now wondering how the hell he even survived as baby with these guys.
Seriously, how did he?
Ace throw the boar and rabbits he caught at Dadan and the bandits to cook the food. Ace then unties Luffy and rocks him while humming, since he always dreamed of his mother (he's real mother not guardian) doing it to him. It calms Luffy right down to only small little whines, Ace hears Luffy's growl at him and looks at Dadan.
Ace has no idea what babies eat and just looking at Luffy, but from what Garp said Luffy woud be around four months old (since Luffy was born May 5 and it's September 17) so there was no way in hell he could or be would be old enough to eat meat or anything else.
Dadan just points to the bag that Garp had brought with Luffy so Ace goes through it while humming to Luffy who is just smiling and making baby sounds now.
Ace finds a bottle and so introductions with it. It would really help with Ace could, you know, actually read! Something that Garp didn't teach Ace since he was never there or here and Dadan and her bandits didn't really seem to think it was all that important since they haven't really taught him how to do it.
"What does it say?" Ace asks Dadan.
"What?" Dadan asks back as she brings Ace food.
"I can't read," Ace darkly told Dadan as he glared at her, "What does it say?"
Dadan had completely forgotten that Ace couldn't read.
"Dogma!" Dadan yelled.
The little man ran over while eating.
"Yes boss?" Dogma asks.
"Take care of the baby," she tells him.
Dogma reluctantly nods his head and tries to take Luffy from Ace which results Ace in Dogma right in the gut away from Luffy.
"No!" Ace yells at her and him, "I'll take of Luffy! He's mine! Just tell me how to feed him!"
The bandits all were shocked and surprised to hear Ace say that. Sure Ace wasn't an overly cold child or anything, but he doesn't make or do 'friends' and just gets angry easily because no-one will tell him about parents or who he is. The bandits are leaving Garp to that mountain of problems which they will most likely have to deal with later. But the kid doesn't take to people so Ace taking to someone, especially a small baby, is a big surprise for them.
"Fine, help Ace with baby," Dadan sighed not caring anymore.
Dogma explains the introductions and shows Ace how to make the bottles and feed the baby.
It's been around five, six months since Luffy started living with Ace, Dadan and the bandits. Luffy cries when Ace does hunting which they all hate because it's loud, annoying and somehow very heartbreaking. And it's mid-March now.
Ace just wanted to catch food and go home to Luffy. Luffy barely cries- only when he is hungry, misses Ace or wet/shut himself and it's been there a little bit. Luffy gets back hiccups, giggles and gets teary with everything and anything else so it was easy to look after Luffy. Sure sometimes Ace would have to get up really early to feed Luffy but once Luffy has been fed, he falls back again easily.
Luffy is the most innocent thing in the world and Ace adores him. Ace loves it most when Luffy is giggling happy and making larger than life grins- as if he doesn't have a care in the world and has no idea how the world works. Which is true, Luffy has no idea how the world works, it's like ten months old.
But what Ace loves the most is that Luffy is trying to talk. He can't really make or say words, yet, but he's close. Dadan is trying to get him to say but he just pulls her hair and laughs and giggles like no tomorrow. The other bandits are trying to get Luffy to say things too, but with no such luck.
The only who has been close to getting Luffy to say something is Ace, which was almost Ace's name but it just call out as AAAAAAAA, lots of giggles.
But Ace will admit, he has been really angry at lot lately and for good reasons- Dogma took Ace how to read and Garp finally told Ace about his father and mother and gave Ace a book to read about his father. Dogma had to help him read it but he was still able to read and understand it.
His father was the man the world hated the most- the Pirate King- Ace hated his name, he hated being called Gol D. Ace so Ace decided to take on his mother's name since she died to protect Ace and bring him into this world. It was the last that he could do for her.
Which is another reason why Ace loves Luffy so much- Ace now understand why the bandits didn't seem to like him. He was the son of the demon, has bad blood in him but Luffy, he didn't know and wouldn't (and can't) say things behind his back about him- especially about him being that man's son. Like the bandits did.
Luffy was Ace's little ray of sunshine and Ace would never ever hate or hurt Luffy because of it. Without Luffy there, Ace would properly to last to his emotion and mad and angry and upset all the time. But with Luffy to brighten up his day, Ace can't find himself to be mad at the world or himself, because if Ace wasn't there to look after Luffy, who would?
Not the bandits! They were horrible!
Ace was so lost in thought he haven't realised that he had come to Grey Terminal, dam it, Ace needs to head back and find something to bring back to eat.
Ace turned to leave when he heard shouting and blonde kid dressed in blue noble looking clothes come out nowhere and take Ace to the ground, the two of them were on the ground and some bigger guys come over to them.
"Thanks kid," one of the said to Ace as he picked the blonde up, "Now you coming with blondie."
"No I'm not, sir!" the blonde told the man, "I'm not going back, you can't make me! I am finally free! I won't let you or them lock me back up in cage!"
Was that kid being polite to someone trying to kidnap him?
Ace flinched when he heard the blonde kid talking- finally free? Cage? Locked up? What if these people try to do that Luffy!? What if they try to do it to Ace and he can't get back to Luffy!?
Ace hit man holding the blonde in the knee. He yelled out and dropped the blonde who grabbed a pipe (like the one that Ace used for hunting) and the bag of what sounded like money as he wracked the other man over the back of his head and back.
Ace grabbed the blonde's hand, even though he has no idea who the kid was or why he was really helping him. Something was just telling Ace that he had to help him.
"Come with me!" Ace said dragging the kid behind.
"Okay!" the kid nodded following behind Ace.
The two men got up and wobbled and limbed behind Ace and the blonde. But Ace lost them too easily in the forest, he knows it better than he knows the back of his hand!
The two of them stopped finally after an hour to catch their breath as they panted.
"Thanks," the blonde panted, "Sorry about knocking you down before."
"No problem," Ace panted, "You stole money?"
The blonde nodded his head.
"I'm saving up to buy a boat then live this dam island," the blonde told Ace, "I'm going to be a pirate!"
"I know where you can hide it then," Ace smiled as he climbed the tree with the blonde following behind, "Here," Ace opened up the hiding place in the tree, "It's my pirate fund. You can add yours to it. I'm going to be a pirate too."
The blonde looked scared at the amount of money in it.
"How…? What!?" the blonde yelled at Ace.
"Been saving since I was two!" Ace grinned, "So for two years now. I mostly stole from the bandits I live with. One of them, Jay, he helped him set this up till died last year. Put extra money in here for me and everything too."
"Cool! Okay, thanks!" Sabo nodded putting his money in there, "That could help me a lot. Oh! Right! I'm Sabo by the way."
"Ace," Ace grinned, "I'm four, you?"
"Turn four soon," Sabo sighed realising that Ace was older, "Do you have somewhere where I can stay? I can't go back, those men will mostly try and take me in my sleep."
"Sure," Ace nodded then pointed at the pipe, "How good are you at using that?"
Sabo sighed, "Not very good. I've only been running… I mean, I only just picked it up at new years and so only a few months."
"But you can hit hard right?" Ace asked.
"Enough to break bones, yes, easily, why?"
"I got to go hunting before I go home. Hey, Sabo?"
"Yes Ace?"
"What are you like with babies?"
"No idea, only child. Why?"
"Well I have baby brother, he's not normally loud or nosy for no reason. Giggles and smiles lot. Cutest thing ever. What do you know about babies?"
"A bit. I read books on them. I use to read books a lot."
"You can read?!"
"Yes…"
"Can help teach me then!?"
"Sure…"
"So do you know a lot about babies?"
"I guess."
"Then you can help with Luffy."
"Who?"
"My baby brother."
"I guess…"
"Think of it like this. You help with Luffy and teach me how to read and I teach you how to fight and hunt and protect you from the people that seem be after you. Deal?"
Sabo thought about it for moment.
"Or you can go back to Grey Terminal and hope those guys don't find you," Ace grinned.
"Deal!" Sabo said very quickly.
"Great!" Ace said as he hide the treasure again and the climbed out the tree, "Let's start with you hunting lessons!"
Sabo and Ace had managed to catch three boars, a deer, a small bear (which was still big) and eight rabbits while on their way back to Ace's home. Sabo caught on pretty quickly when Ace showed him what to do for hunting and fighting against the unusually large animals in the forest, seriously, these things are so much bigger than Sabo thought the books said they were meant to be!
Sabo and Ace also were able to talk about pretty anything- Ace was telling Sabo all about Dadan and the bandits which only took about twenty minutes, talked about someone called shitty gramps and then for the rest of the time till now, Ace has been talking about his 'little way of sunshine' aka Luffy.
Ace didn't really say anything about his parents and Ace didn't say or ask Sabo anything about his parents so neither of them say anything about to each other. Since Ace didn't ask Sabo about his parents he thought he should at least do the same for Ace so Sabo never asked or said anything about them to him. Why screw up the one friendship that Sabo was able to make by himself without his parents focusing him to friends with the person?
"I'm back!" Ace shouted as kicked down/open the door.
Ace threw the kills that he carried at the bandits who all just stared at the blonde boy, the new kid, the kid they have never seen before till now, who was now here, with Ace.
"Just give the kills to them," Ace told Sabo, "We hunt and kill, they cook."
"Okay, thank you for cooking!" Sabo smiled throwing the kills that he had with them.
"A! A!" Luffy cheered and giggled as he crawled on the ground to Luffy.
"Hey Lu!" Ace breamed at the baby as he picked up, "This is my new friend Sabo. I saved him from bad guys. Say hi."
Luffy made some sounds that Sabo was guessing meant to a 'hi' and waved at Sabo. The baby was wearing a smile while too big for his face. Oh god, the kid was adorable! He can see how the baby had all of Ace's attention and why Ace couldn't stop talking about him. The baby was too cute!
"Hi Luffy," Sabo smiled as he lightly shook his hand which made Luffy laugh and giggle, "I'm Ace's friend Sabo. Can you say Sabo? How about Ace? A-CE."
Sabo slowly sounded out name for baby as he tried to copy Sabo with no luck. Only really saying A again.
"Luffy can't speak yet," Ace shrugged, "A is the closest thing I can get him to say to a name or any word really. Which I think is meant to be my name. I'll show you how to make Luffy's bottles and the introductions."
"Okay," Sabo smiled.
Luffy kept copying what Sabo did to say Ace's name right- both the sounds and the mouth movements. Dadan and the bandits were about to ask Ace who his friend Sabo was and where the hell the kid come from plus ask why he was here but they didn't get a change because they were all in shock as Luffy said his first words, his first clear words.
"A-ce! Ace!" Luffy giggled hugging him.
Ace stopped, stood still and looked at Luffy in his arms, in complete and utter shock. Luffy not only said his first word but it was Ace's name too. Twice!
"What did you say Lu?" Ace said with a blush clearly on his face.
"Ace! Ace!" Luffy cheered.
"Try Sabo now Luffy," Sabo smiled, "Sa-bo (more coming out as So-bow)."
"So-bow," Luffy slowly repeated, "Sabo! Sabo! Ace!"
Ace could help but hug the hell out of the little ten month old as Sabo smiled and ruffled his hair, "How did you do that?" Ace asked Sabo. Luffy wasn't able to speak, well, not clearly enough that anyone understood him till now. Then suddenly Sabo appears and suddenly Luffy can say two words! Ace and Sabo!
"The baby books," Sabo answered, "I remember they say to slowly speak so that the baby can copy your mouth movements and sounds. Luffy already had them, just need a little help to put them together. It's no big deal."
"Ace! Ace!" Luffy cheered again then he made his hungry sounds.
"Oh god he's so cute!" Sabo smiled, "But I think he might be hungry. Hey Ace? Can I hold him? Please?"
"Yeah he is," Ace nodded, "It'll make it easier for me to make his bottle up if you hold him."
Ace handed Luffy to Sabo without a second thought as they walked to the kitchen- leaving the bandits there in shock. First, Ace made a 'new friend' and brought them here, second, Luffy spoke his first words, third, Ace was trusting someone else with Luffy and fourth, Luffy was fine with someone that wasn't Ace to hold him.
What other surprises was today going to bring?
"Brat!" Dadan yelled at Ace while he made up Luffy's bottle, "Who's the new brat? Why is he here? You know I'm not running a day-care right?"
"He's my friend, old hag," Ace told Dadan not even looking at her, "And here to stay because I said so. Otherwise you can hunt for your own food."
Dadan said nothing else. She liked having Ace hunt for them, less work for them to do.
"Hi, nice to meet you Dadan," Sabo smiled and bowed all while holding Luffy who thought it was fun so he giggled and laughed, "Thank you for allowing me to stay here."
"Whatever," Dadan sighed then she looked at Luffy, "Say Dadan brat."
"Ace! Sabo!" Luffy smiled, "Old!"
Ace cracked up laughing as Sabo was trying hard not to snicker as Luffy called Dadan 'Old' instead of Dadan, properly because Ace called her old hag so Luffy properly thought that old was her name.
Dadan had a hissy fit about it so her bandits tried to calm her down while Ace just ignoring it since he was sure to it. One of the bandits put food in of Ace as he sat down and Sabo followed and sat down with him. Ace glared at the bandit so the Bandit put another plate down but in front of Sabo which Ace nodded to, happy that his message was received.
Ace took Luffy and gave him his bottle. Luffy sat/laid in Ace's lap by himself sucking on his bottle and finished. Luffy stared at the meat with adorable puppy dog like yes, where the hell did he learn that from!?
Ace sighed as he took the bottle out of Luffy's mouth and gave him a little bit of meat to suck on. Luffy looked like he was happy and having fun sucking on the meat.
"How old did you say Luffy was again?" Sabo asked.
"Ten months, he's a year on May 5th, why?" Ace asked.
"Well around now is when he should start teething and can try sucking on and maybe start to eat more solid food like bananas and other soft foods," Sabo explained.
Teething maybe a bit of annoyance. If Sabo remembered correctly, it upset and annoys the baby a lot which means that Luffy might get annoying if it's really bad.
"Meat fine?" Ace asked a little worried about giving it to his baby brother now.
"Should be," Sabo nodded, "But only a little."
Now long after they finished eating.
"If your brats are done go have a bath!" Dadan told them, "Or I'll thrown you there and drown ya myself!"
Sabo looked at Ace, was she seriously? Well, Sabo did need a bath so he got up and smiled at Dadan.
"Sounds like a good idea," Sabo nodded, "Luffy is a little messy from the meat juices and we're a little dirty from hunting… where's the bath?"
"Follow me," Ace said getting up and taking Luffy with them.
Dadan sighed as the boys left then smiled softly and fondly towards where they had walked off to go take a bath. She was happy to see that closed off boy making a friend, even if it meant another mouth to feed.