Here I am again writing a One-shot for One Piece in the New Year. I think I'll turn it into a habit. For everyone who liked my previous one-shot, I thank you. I think it's partially your fault for this second piece.
Summary: Ace's crewmates start to wonder what happened to the freckled boy when he starts staring so much in a particular direction. Things only got worse when he starts doing mystery about a secret, but Marco won't let it like that. He will find out what this so called secret is and what it has to do with the direction Ace looks at so much.
Rated: Fiction K
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, it belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.
After All, I'm Your Little Brother
It was a day like any other on the Whitebeard's large ship. The air was filled with loud voices; some telling jokes, others discussing nonsense, but he in particular, looked at the horizon. The calm waves clashed against the hull of the old, but sturdy, Moby Dick, and made the wood creak. The intense and warm sunbeams kissed his freckled skin, while the summer breeze slowly flew through him messing up his hair, and most importantly, soothing the heat. Not that he cared about the heat, though. He was used more than anyone else to have the body on fire, literally.
The sound of a bottle of sake breaking as it clashed against the wooden floor echoed by the place and the young man shook his head, allowing a faint smile came up on the corner of his mouth. It was really noisy and sunny for a day as special as that. As it should be, he said to himself in thoughts.
The young man barely noticed when another person joined him and admired the horizon. And thus, he almost jumped out of his skin when he noticed through the corner of his eye that someone was intensely staring him.
"Hey, Ace," a blond and older man greeted him.
"Argg, when did you get here?" Ace moaned as he rubbed his sore neck for staying so long in an uncomfortable position as he stared the infinite ocean. He should've thought his lone time couldn't last for long. He shook his head, "Never mind. You could have told me you were there, Marco."
Marco took his "could have" as if Ace as saying "should have" instead. The younger man could be frigging dishonest with his words if he wanted to. Of course he didn't say it.
"And I did, I called you more than four times but you didn't hear me," Marco shrugged unconcernedly and walked to the dormitory behind him and leaned against the wall. "Anyway, I've only been here with you for a minute. You didn't miss much, at least not more than I — be sure of that."
Marco offered him a bottle of sake, and a strong one, but Ace simply refused shaking his head. The blond man shrugged again and took a small sip of the alcoholic drink.
"So what happened? You're incredibly quiet today, which is strange. What were you thinking about so serious that you didn't hear or see me?" Marco waved his hands in front of Ace's face and rushed himself. "Wait! Don't tell me; you've a fever or is seasick and don't want to tell anyone?"
Ace gave a long sigh. "As if that could happen. It's nothing like those kind of things, you don't need to worry."
"So what is it?" Marco raised an eyebrow and Ace was wondering how it would be possible, after all, the blond man's eyebrows were already very arched. "Don't tell me it's nothing, because surely there's something wrong with you today, Ace. And you know, if Old Man suspect something, things are gonna be worse for you. Don't forget the last time something like this happened, you know, months ago."
Ace twisted his face as he remembered the old memory. He had forgotten, or rather, he preferred to forget everything that happened on that terrible day.
"You really didn't need to make me remember about that," he hissed back, feeling a knot in his stomach.
"Sorry to bring that up," Marco said apologetically.
They were silent for a moment when the Captain of the First Division decided to clear his throat.
"Some have looked for you," Marco went on and gave a long sigh as he remembered what had happened earlier. "They even messed up my room in an attempt to find you."
Ace raised an eyebrow. "And why the hell would I be hiding in your room of all places?"
"Dunno," Marco shrugged a third time. "But as they didn't find you, I was given the difficult task of finding you. And of course, I knew you'd be here. Predictable as ever, eh?"
The raven-haired young man nodded, grinning. "So what's the matter?"
"It's nothing important; everyone were just wondering why everything was strangely normal and in one piece on the ship. You know, it's definitely unusual, at least strange, not find anything burning at least once in our days."
Ace rolled his eyes with the joke but said nothing. After all, he knew there was some truth in what Marco had said. It had been some time since he acquired the power of a Devil Fruit but sometimes during his irresistible sleep sessions, also known as narcolepsy, the great power made the poor young man accidentally burn something. Last week he had burnt a whole dining table in the dining cabin.
It was fun to see everyone's faces, though.
"Care to explain why the sudden change?" The blond man's question snapped him out of his thoughts.
So it was all curiosity in the end, it was what he thought as he grinned.
Marco suddenly felt uncomfortable with the mischievous grin on Ace's face and almost swallowed heavily. He knew it was wise not to ask why so much joy, or it was how he interpreted after living a fair time with the youngest on the ship. Whatever made him like that he didn't want to know. But his curiosity had no end; it was as unstoppable as an ambitious man was for money.
"Ace, what're planning?" Marco asked in an alarmed voice.
The freckled young man looked at his hands in a futile attempt to hide the tender smile that played on his lips. "I'm not planning anything too radical today. The fun will have to wait for a while. Just for today, though."
"You've lost me," Marco said, looking really confused. "Lighten things up a bit for me."
Ace's smile widened even more.
"Today is the day."
And that was the clue. Those four words sounded without much meaning for Marco, but he somehow knew how to interpret that something very important should be happening or was about to happen, to be able to make the all mighty Ace smile like that, that is. After all, it was a rare sight seeing Ace smiling like that. For Marco, it gave him the creeps though.
"What's so special about today?" he ventured the question, still fearing to know the answer.
Ace whistled, cynically looking at the sunny sky, which only made Marco get even more curious. It wasn't his nature to poke his nose where it doesn't belong, but the mystery that Ace was doing, as if to invite him to really ask why he was like that, was too much for him to bear silent without asking anything.
"That's a secret," replied the raven-haired man again with a mischievous grin on his face.
Marco froze as he stared the other and just kept looking at him while Ace walked away, whistling a song that he didn't had knowledge about.
The day was even strange after that.
Later, Marco learned that Ace had caught a few minutes of his day and read the daily newspaper. Not that it was somewhat surprising, it was far from that, but Marco knew that Ace had started to dislike reading the newspaper lately. So why in the world would he take it to read? Even more, so single-mindedly as he was?
His curiosity increased when he learned from Izo that Ace wanted to know about any sudden movements on the Navy side. This man, though he didn't look like one, got to tell him that Ace even looked a little sad to hear that nothing unusual had happened. It was as if he were waiting for some kind of confusion, or it was those words Izo used to describe the situation.
For the rest of the day, Marco caught glimpses of Ace looking at the horizon as if thinking of something. No matter what the youngest was doing at the time, he would always take a quick look in the same direction.
Okay, that's it, Marco thought as he got up from his position. Let's get this over now.
It was almost lunchtime when Marco finally got irritated and decided to put a stop to the situation. He would ask again why so much mystery—his crewmates pleads only helped to worsen his curiosity.
Though, when he got there, Marco was greeted by a daydreaming Ace. The young man was resting on the wooden floor and his right hand was supporting his head under his chin. His dark eyes were half opened and he had a deep frown on his forehead. Through Ace's expression, Marco knew he was thinking about something pleasant.
And it was indeed. A gentle and small smile grew on his lips as Ace remembered something from his younger days.
"Ace! Sabo! Look! Look!"
Ace rolled his eyes and stopped. Luffy was standing in front of a store pointing at something he couldn't clearly see what it was, but from the look on the younger boy's face, it was something he thought of cool.
"Huh? What?" Sabo asked as both he and Ace looked at the object. "That's a..."
"It's a red vest," Ace interrupted him and gave a grin when Sabo complained for being cut off. "Ah, that's right. You must really like red, Luffy."
He shouldn't have asked that. A wide smile spread on the boy's mouth and his eyes sparkled as much as possible.
"That's because every pirate king must wear red!"
Ace widened his eyes for a moment and then he burst into laughter.
"You're not a pirate king, Luffy!"
That hit right on Luffy's sore spot. The younger boy's cheeks became red until he couldn't bear anymore.
"BUT I WILL BE ONE SOME DAY!" Luffy shouted with all his might at the older boy's ear.
Ace was stunned for a moment. His ears were buzzing and he felt no ground under his feet. Even Sabo and Luffy's faces seemed blurry. When he regained his composure, Ace took one step closer to Luffy and kneeled a little until he was eye to eye to the shorter boy.
"Luffy..." he said in a low voice.
Luffy blinked twice and titled his head. "Huh?"
The freckled boy inhaled oxygen and sighed right after. Sabo stepped back as he sensed something bad was coming.
"DON'T SHOUT ON MY EAR IDIOT!"
It was Luffy's time to feel dizzy. But he was quick to react and quickly hid behind Sabo, who panicked a little. That was not the right time to irritate Ace; he knew well how scary he could be when irritated.
"A-Ace…it hurts!" The younger boy cried.
Ace stuck his tongue out.
"Idiot, serves you right!" And he left the two behind.
"Ace...stingy!" As Luffy said that, Sabo trembled. Ace had stopped walking and was slowly turning around to them. It was their end. Even though he wanted to live at least a day without fighting between them, it really was impossible after all.
"Luffy...what did you say?" he asked in an incredibly calm voice.
All that Sabo and Luffy could see before a shadow swallowed them was Ace's smiling a devil's smile.
"Ace? Oi, Ace?" a voice called for him.
The young and raven-haired man snapped out of his thoughts. He looked around and sighed. He was only in the ship's dining cabin and he had just spaced out.
"Hey," Marco called for him a second time.
Ace looked up and gave a head greeting.
"Ah...Marco...what's up mate?" He asked in a hoarse voice.
"Just now you're grinning like an idiot."
Ace shook his head. "How rude. Hmm, I was remembering about something."
"About what?" Marco raised his eyebrows.
The other just scratched his neck and shrugged.
"Things from the past."
The blond man sighed. The conversation wasn't getting anywhere. Ace noticed the pineapple hairstyle man's impatience and indicated to the vacant seat at his side, which Marco promptly took and sat down.
"What do you need, Marco?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink. He realized that Marco was more sullen than usual; his eyebrows were as close together as they could be and his jaw was rigid, making his mouth stay in a perfect straight line. "Something happened?"
Marco twisted the corner of his mouth into a wry smile. "Oh yeah, of course that something happened today. And it was you, Ace!"
Ace raised an eyebrow, not understanding a thing.
"Me? Whaddya mean by that? I did nothing!" he defended himself promptly. It was true; he spent the day thinking. He restrained himself from doing anything at all the whole day.
On the contrary, you did something! The blond man thought.
Marco's eyes narrowed. He didn't know that Ace could be so cynical when he wanted to be. And indeed, he almost believed in the lie.
"Knock it off, seriously," he sighed taking a sip of his own drink. "You know very well what I'm talking about, Ace."
Ace frowned and pointed a finger at himself. "I know?"
"Yeah, yeah. So stop with the act at once and tell me already. We're all curious; it was that what you wanted to hear wasn't it? Come on, spit it out."
Ace looked thoughtful for a moment. "Mmm, you mean about that, am I right?"
Marco nodded in agreement.
"Yes, you've to tell me what's so special about today. Did something happen today, or what, are you only making a fool of me?"
Ace laughed.
"Yes, you could say that," he noticed the look on Marco's face and quickly prepared to fix the misunderstanding. "I mean 'yes' for the 'did something happen today' part. I didn't mean to make a fool of you."
Marco remained in silent.
"You didn't stop looking at the horizon."
Marco realized that a cheery smile played on Ace's lips and it just made his curiosity rise to the sky.
"C'mon! Is there something important in the direction you look at so much? Lemme guess, is it a woman? You bloody bastard! Is that it?"
"Wow! Slow down, would ya? It's far from it…" Ace gave him a mischievous grin.
The older man put a hand under his chin, playing the game of guessing what had made Ace stay that way, and turned pale in a second.
"Ace, don't tell me you've a child out there, you bastard!" he groaned at the thought.
"H-Hell no!" Marco was amused with the embarrassed reaction Ace had, but in an instant his joy ended as he heard the next words Ace spoke, "But you could say it's something in those lines."
His eyes widened. "A-Ace-! What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Ace smacked the old table with a fist and abruptly laid his head on the rough wooden table, laughing his ass off. His actions caught everyone's attention to him.
"Damn! Y-you should have seen your face just now, it was extremely hilarious!" He continued laughing for some minutes, completely ignoring the dark aura that Marco had around him and gave a sigh, regaining some air as he stopped laughing.
"Ahem, sorry. But it was really funny. I assume that you really are curious isn't that right, Marco?" He gave one of his mischievous grins.
"You better bet I do!" Marco exploded.
"Sorry."
"Doesn't matter," Marco shook his head wearily. "Mind telling me what happen or is to happen today, Mr. Flames?" he joked making the other laugh.
Ace scratched his cheek and grinned. He didn't know exactly why, but that was a day that brought him so much happiness. He was away from home, but when that day comes, Ace always felt like he was even near from where he grew up. He felt again surrounded by the wild nature of Mt. Corvo and he could sworn he could even listen Dadan complaining as if she was there by his side. Even the breeze that messed up his curly black hair looked the same as from that he felt in his thee house he had built with his two brothers. That's it; it was because of one of his brothers that he was feeling that way.
"Today is Luffy's birthday," he responded once again with a big grin on his face as he remembered the younger boy and his loud voice. "It's his 17th birthday; he's probably jumping like a monkey everywhere while doing the preparations to set sail."
Marco raised an eyebrow at the name, which wasn't strange to him. He was sure to have heard it somewhere, and from Ace himself.
"Luffy? Ah, your younger brother of whom you speak so much about, isn't so?" He asked, remembering the absurd stories Ace had told him of the time when he still lived in his homeland. The boy with a scar under his left eye and an inseparable old straw hat, as Ace had described him, was always in his childhood stories.
Ace shook his head and crossed his arms.
"Then he'll finally walk the same path of his older brother, huh?" Marco chuckled as he imagined the boy Ace had described to him; if he was all that of what Ace told him, then the world once again would feel the strength of a rookie.
"For the whole morning I was waiting for some disastrous news on East Blue, but so far nothing. I suppose he hadn't sailed yet, or the news are really slow here."
"So that's why you were reading the newspaper this morning and even asked Izo if he knew something unusual happened on the Navy's side?" Marco asked, remembering the events that had made him got more curious.
"Yeah, I just wanted to know something new, whatever it was," Ace said, eyes shining with excitement. "I bet that the first city in which he docks, the Navy will chase him down and he will get his first Wanted poster. But before that happens, I bet he will engage in a problem on the high seas," he sighed, "He is an air-headed person after all."
Marco felt himself smiling as he noticed that Ace's eyes were shining with pride. There was nothing wrong with Ace, he was just happy that his little brother would finally step into the same waters where he was, and as a pirate too.
"Since when do you have this arrangement?" He asked. "I mean, did you agree with this whole thing of letting your little brother become a pirate just like you? Didn't you never felt bothered with the idea that he might get hurt or even worse, die one day?"
The freckled boy only shook his head, still with a tender smile. "It is not like I never thought about it at least once before, but I know I don't need to worry."
Marco raised an eyebrow. "And why is that? Why you don't need to worry?"
Ace sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair. "Luffy can be stubborn sometimes, well, almost all the times, and a very hot-headed person when it comes to something he is sure to be the way he thinks. But I know that Luffy is not as weak as he seems to be, and I also know that he'll end up getting good companions who will fight beside him as hard as him."
There was a silence.
"After all, he's my baby brother!" Ace gave a bright smile that made Marco feel infected by his happiness.
"Yeah, I can even imagine how he must be similar to Mr. Flames here," Marco laughed and decided to leave the freckled boy alone. He looked back and realized that Ace was already looking through the small round window in the same direction as before, the east, where miles and miles away, there was an ocean called East Blue in which there was a small island called Dawn Island. And it was in that little island from that 'weak' ocean that in a peaceful village called Fuusha, Ace's younger brother, Luffy, weigh anchor to enter the same path as his older brother and become a pirate.
'But it's not any pirate isn't that right, Ace's younger brother?' Marco thought smiling, turning back and walking away.
But before he could get out of the cabin, something clicked in his mind.
"Hey Ace? I need to ask you something."
The younger man turned his head around. "Hm?"
Something has been bothering Marco ever since he found out why Ace was so mysterious about today.
"So, that's it?" he asked.
"What?" Ace asked, as he didn't understand what the other meant. "What's that's it?"
Marco shook his head as if excusing himself for being short with words.
"It's just that? It's your little brother birthday and you were making mystery for all of us of this ship just for…?"
Please don't say something insane again, he pleaded in thoughts.
"I just didn't want anyone to know," the fire first shrugged. "It's a special day and it connects me to my past."
Marco stared at him for seconds before sighing heavily.
"Have I ever said to you that you've got a serious brother complex?"
Ace managed to smile. "You bet. No one meddles with Luffy before me."
After that, Marco decided that he had to take a rest for the rest of the day.
Ace walked out of the dining cabin after finishing his meal and let the breeze mess up his hair. He gave a last look at the horizon before turning around and joining the circle of laughter in the middle of the ship's deck.
"At this time he should have already received what I ordered for him," he whispered to himself, giving a toothy grin at the thought of how happy Luffy would be when opening the package he sent to him. "I'll be waiting for you, Luffy."
He spun around and went to join his crewmates.
"Oh, my," Makino giggled while looking at the smiling boy in front of her. She put a hand on her cheek and tilted her head, still looking at him. The boy was so grown up and was in the same spot as his older brother was three years ago. "What a lovely red vest you're wearing, Luffy." She commented, flashing a smile.
Luffy opened a huge smile and pointed to his chest, puffing his chest with a staggering pride.
"It's a present! Ace sent me!" He spoke with the huge smile still on his face. "When it arrived early this morning, I knew I'd to begin my journey with the clothes he sent me!"
Makino nodded and examined the boy one last time. She felt something warm about to get out of her eyes and laughed at herself; she was about to cry of emotion. She wiped the single tear running down her right cheek and sniffed.
"It's perfect," she said shaking her head approvingly.
Luffy gave another huge smile and jumped into his boat. "Then, I'm leaving."
"Take care of yourself, Luffy. And don't forget to always have fresh water with you while at sea!" Makino shouted when Luffy landed on the boat. The boy just nodded and adjusted his old straw hat on his head, which was entrusted to him by an old friend, and looked up to where most citizens of Fuusha Village were to give him a safe trip.
Some commented that the boat would sink at anytime, given the state it was in but mainly because of its size—it could carry a maximum of two people, including the old barrel that Luffy carried along. But the boy, not caring much, just said that everything would be fine, after all, he wanted to start his journey that way.
"He's finally leaving, Mayor," Makino said, putting her hands on her hips watching Luffy's departure. She gave a sigh and smiled brightly. "I'll miss him."
The old man beside her just frowned. "Jeez, it's a disgrace to the village to become the cradle for a pirate!"
Makino just laughed, covering her lips with a hand and looked at the old man beside her, smiling.
"What's wrong with that, Mayor?" She asked, turning to look at the black-haired boy leaving for an unknown place for her. "Look at Luffy's face and you'll understand. He's going after his dream!"
Luffy was surprised at the sudden explosion of water in front of him and came to understand when the Lord of the Coast, the Sea King who managed to bite off Shanks' left arm, appeared before him as aggressive as ever. He promptly knocked it out with a Gomu Gomu no Pistol, which was the blow he had spent so much time training. He was proud of his work when he saw the ugly animal knocked out, floating in the sea.
"I'll start looking for a crew!" Luffy said to himself, a fist pointing to the horizon. "I want to have 10 crewmates," he smiled at the thought. "And I'll need a pirate flag too!"
His smile widened with excitement. "Very well, let's go!" he shouted to the heavens, throwing his arms up in the air, like a spell to give him luck. "I'm gonna become the Pirate King!"
His cry echoed and reached the young woman's ears. She giggled and wiped another tear running down her face.
Luffy looked down and touched his chest. His fingers traced the path between the gold buttons of his sleeveless red vest and smiled, he could swear he felt his older brother, Ace, was there with him at his side, wishing him good luck and saying how proud he was.
"Just wait for me a little more, Ace. I'm going to the seas too!" he whispered to himself and adjusted his straw hat on his head.
Luffy looked at the sunny sky and gave his distinct laugh.
"Soon I'll be there, after all, I'm your little brother, right?"
Well...it was supposed to be posted on Luffy's birthday as you might have noticed, but I didn't have time at the time. Just deal with it. Did you like it? Any thoughts? If there's any grammar mistake, typo or anything of the sort just tell me and I'll promptly fix it. Then, I suppose I'll see you again next year. Happy New Year for you all. See ya.