This is a fanfic is for xLiliumxAricox on deviantart, since she requested it :D I hope that you enjoy it! :D It is an AU, but with several things that ties it with the event of the manga/anime ;D You'll know what I mean soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was a very late Wednesday night. By late I mean very late Wednesday night. I had no idea what I was doing awake at the hour, just that I had barely managed to finish that extremely important coursework that I had to give tomorrow to the history teacher and that had been done very badly. I blamed Marco and Sabo, my best friends, entirely for this. They had been the ones responsible for distracting me all the time from doing my work all the time during these last months of school, not me!

I turned around in my bed, nervously. It was extremely hot inside my bedroom, and all of the covers that I usually slept with now lay discarded on the wooden floor of my disorganised room. I turned around several times, trying in vain to fall asleep while I silently cursed my now disappeared narcolepsy, which had caused me so many problems in the past. I knew that in a few hours I would have to go to school, and I needed to fall asleep now if I wanted to at least seem like I was awake and it wasn't blatantly obvious that I was asleep in class.

"Damn" I cursed inwardly as I suddenly started remembering the coursework that the teacher would surely fail with a D, if I was lucky enough to get that grade.

Three knocks very quiet knocks were suddenly heard on the door that led to my room. "Ace?" I heard my younger brother Luffy then say.

I groaned, annoyed, and wondered just what the hell he could want right now. I surely wasn't in the mood to deal with his antics right now.

"What do you want, Luffy?" I quickly asked him in the nicest voice that I could possibly speak in right now, as I sat on the bed.

He just rushed in to the room and literally jumped on my bed, explaining nothing, and burying his face in the pillow that I had been using bare minutes before. I noticed that he was grabbing quite tightly his favourite monkey plushy.

"Luffy, what do you want?" I asked again in an obviously annoyed tone of voice.

I just groaned as I realised that I wouldn't be getting a response, and I was about to shout something when I noticed that Luffy was, in fact, crying quite gently.

"Luffy…" I said with a gentle voice, saddened by the fact that my little brother was crying and wondering immediately why. Had someone hurt him during the day? Why was he crying? "What has happened?" I asked him then.

The younger boy remained silent again for quite some time, until he managed to calm himself enough for him to speak.

"I-I had a nightmare" He just said with a sad tone of voice, evidently scared.

I almost laughed at this. Almost. "Aren't you too old for those?" I asked him.

I didn't receive a response, again, and instead Luffy just buried his head in my chest and hugged me tightly.

"There was this horrible man that was fighting with you, and he suddenly attacked you and h-he…. He killed you! And I wasn't able to do anything, I just …!" He said, now crying quite hard.

I sighed, understanding what Luffy had just dreamt about. I hugged him gently, and patted his head in a comforting manner.

"It was only a dream, Luffy. Don't worry, I'm here" I just whispered.

Luffy hugged me even tighter, and as he finally managed to fall asleep I knew that I wouldn't have the same luck this night. There were too many things in my head.