The rainforests of the Amazons were definitely no place for a child. Home to flesh eating fish, feline predators, bird eating spiders, poisonous frogs, deadly snakes, alligators and crocodiles, vampire bats, electric eels, and sixteen foot anacondas, it was most certainly not a place for the children of responsible parents to ever be.
Which is how Ace and Luffy, ages 9 and 6 respectively, found themselves wandering through the Amazonian rainforest… alone.
"Ace! Wait up!" The younger of the two pleaded.
"You're too slow! You should have just stayed behind!" Ace snapped back as he ducked beneath a vine, eyeing the surface to make sure that it was safe to the touch before using his hand to move it just a little out of his way.
"But Ac—oof!" a crash interrupted Luffy's next whine as he tripped over a vine, landing face first into the underbrush. "Ouch."
Ace let out an exasperated sigh and ignored him as he continued on his way. It wasn't long before the patter of smaller footsteps resumed behind him. "Dadan said not to wander in the forest alone." Luffy's voice, damped by distance, reached him.
"Who cares what the old hag says." Ace retorted, choosing that moment to stop and take a look at his surroundings, wiping the dripping sweat from his forehead. The sound of footsteps behind him grew louder as his cousin drew nearer. "Damn it's humid." Ace sighed, taking a deep breath. "There's so much water in the air I might as well be drowning."
"Ace look at what I found!"
Ace turned a disinterested eye towards Luffy to find an iguana perched on his arm.
"Ew! Put that back! It's gross." Ace scolded.
Luffy's bottom lip stuck out in a pout as he pet the iguana with a single finger. "It's okay Greenie, Ace didn't mean that. You're not gross at all."
"You named it Greenie!? That's so lame!" Ace snapped "Now, put it back!"
"No!" Luffy protested.
"You can't keep it so put it back!" Ace refused, steeling himself against what he knew was coming. You can do it Ace. You can say no.
Luffy's large eye seemed to grow larger as he tilted his head down and glanced up at Ace, his bottom lip slowly pushing out to maximum pout.
"I said no!" Ace averted his eyes against what he knew would follow, but after just a second his eyes flickered back in Luffy's direction. Luffy sniffed and small tears sprung in the corner of his eyes, looking more and more like a pathetic wounded puppy by the second. Ace gritted his teeth. That's it. Pathetic. He looks pathetic. Nothing else. Just absolutely pathetic and nothing to be sympathetic towards. "No. You wont be able to take care of it and you or Dadan and the others will just end up eating it anyway. Now come on. I think the ruins I found are somewhere up here."
Luffy's momentary disappointment disappeared in an instant at the mention of the ruins. "Sorry Greenie I guess I can't take you with me. I tried my best." He apologized as he put the iguana back down on the tree branch. "Let's go!"
Ace rolled his eyes and turned, hiding the soft smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth. If anyone pointed it out to him, he'd deny it to his grave.
