~~~Chapter One~~~

~~The Call~~

Great spirits have often encountered

violent opposition from weak minds.

- Albert Einstein

Water Seven was a well-known town, famous for good schools and friendly people. The village, with a Population 44,910, thrived as people went about their daily business of a friday afternoon. Some men were just getting home from work while others were shopping at one of the many small shops the lined the streets. The sound of car horns and chitter-chatter was mingled with flute music coming from a group of street performers. The slanted afternoon light gave everything a homey look as a sight wind passed through the moist air.

In Water Seven, down a rather quite and narrow residential street was an apartment called 'The Galley-La'. Not many folks living in the village knew of the housing, that is, in less you went One Piece Academy. Every signal student at the school lived, or knew someone who lived in one of the apartments. Since the building was so close to the school, it was very popular and convinced to live at.

Among everyone who lived in Galley-La, were two teenage boys who happened to be very close brothers. The first and oldest, was a lean yet tall blond-haired man. He had blue eyes and was well-known for a small gap in his white teeth and the fact that he always were a blue top-hat. He was known to his friends and brother as 'Sabo'. The younger brother, at 19-years-old and only younger by a few months, name was Ace. He was quite muscular with a full six-pack and a strong built. He had dark eyes and matching black raven hair that framed his freckle covered face nicely. He was well-known by the ladies as a man who never wear a t-shirt and loved to play with fire.

Sluggishly, Sabo made his way up the staircase of the apartment building, working his way up to the small upstairs apartment that he and his brother shared. The blond teen had a very hard day at school but none the less he was happy. Why? Because it was friday and that ment two whole days where he could put schooling and becoming a famous writer to the back of his head.

Opening the maroon door to enter the building, the blond noticed he was not the only one home. The livingroom was set up by the blond himself, a few bookshelves on either side of the heavy-armed black sofa that was found in the center of the room. Across from it was a large Tv, hooked up with a DVD player, Xbox and Wii. Between the Tv and Sofa was a circular coffee table that the two brothers offend ate dinner at, since the two didn't have a very large kitchen. Sabo chuckled as he noticed Ace dead asleep on the sofa, the man's face had fallen on to the coffee table, into some now soggy cereal he had eaten.

Suddenly, the younger teen's cellphone went off 'Yeah, when I'm at the mall, security just can't fight them off. And when I'm at the beach, I'm in a Speedo trying to tan my cheeks'

"Ace, wake up you damn meat head." The blond ordered as he repeatedly poked the younger male with his fingers, though, to Ace, his brother's fingers felt like knifes.

"Humm?!" The raven brother asked as he shot up from his bowl, splashing milk on to the floor and table. Upon noticing that it was just the blond who had woken him up, he wiped his face. "Thanks...Narcosply, what can you do?" Ace asked nonchalantly as Sabo chuckled.

"Your phones going off." The blond said kindly, sliding off his backpack and turning on his Xbox. Yup, nothing got the weekend going like killing some pixel ass on Halo. Ace yawned and took his phone out of his pocket, not bothering to look at who was calling as he placed the electronic to his ear.

"hello?" He sleepily asked.

"Good afternoon sir, this is CPS calling." A rather business like women's voice explained.

"Oh." The raven student said indifferently as he picked at one of his toe nails. "What's CPS mean?" He asked, the blond brother turned from his game and gave Ace a confused look, clearly, he knew what CPS stood for.

"...Child Protection Serves." The women's voice said "Anyways, you and your brother's former caretaker was your grandpa, Monkey D. Garp, correct?" The freckled teen pushed his brows together in confusion.

"Yeah, why?" Ace asked.

"We'll, I'm sorry to say that Garp passed away a little over a week ago." The women informed him

"Whose calling?" Sabo whispered, sightly concerned that some government angst were going to start stalking the two.

He was ignored by his brother, who gasped. 'G-garp is dead?' Ace wondered to himself, feeling slightly sick. It wasn't as if he cared much, after all, his grandpa was getting older and the man hadn't always been the nicest of family to him and his brother. 'But that means... Luffy...' Was the teens next though. You see, there once lived three close brothers. One was Sabo, one was Ace and the last was Luffy, who was much younger than his two older brothers, around five-years-old. Neither of the brothers had seen the youngest since the boy was two when the older family members had left for college but still, they loved him a lot.

"H-How did Garp die?" At Ace's words, Sabo turned off his game and crawled on to the couch, putting his ear to the phone so that he could hear as well.

"Cancer." The women said indifferently and simply. The blond was now gasping. Their grandpa had never told them about any sickness. The two were completely taken by guilt and suprise.

"What about Luffy?" The blond teen asked and Ace repeated his words into the phone.

"That's why I'm calling." The CPS member explained, growing irritated "Luffy is fine but we have evidence that states that his grandpa has been abused him lightly within the past few years and is suffering form a bad case of Malnutrition."

"Oh god..." Ace muttered to himself, horrified while his brother bite his lip.

"Yes, it's very sad." The women noted, not sounding the slightest bit sad herself "But, do not worry, for he's being put on a special diet as we speak at the orphanage."

"Orphanage?" Sabo asked, pulling the orange cellphone out of his frozen classmates hand and putting it to his ear.

"Yes, once again, that's why I'm calling." The women said in an annoyed voice "Would you consisted taking him in. Understand, that your under no oba-"

"Of course, I mean, yes!" The top hatted male cut her off. Sabo was rarely rude but this was different, this was life changing.

"...Okay then." The women's voice growled. "In that case we'd need you to come to The Going Merry Home on E. East Blue street with in the next seven business days." And with that piece of information, the women hung up. Not bothering to answer any other questions the two teens might have had.

Ace and Sabo sat there for a few moments, facing the Tv which played an episode of Full House, though neither were paying much attention to it. No one broke the silence for a few minutes though it felt longer.

"That asshole..." The raven teen muttered under his breath "Why would he do that to Luffy?" He wondered aloud. Sure, their grandpa wasn't the nicest guy but he would never go as far as to under feed the brothers in till they starved. The man would hit them now and then but only if they had it coming.

"I'm not sure... Maybe it was his illness." The blond whispered back. Was it possible that his grandpa had gone a little nuts, knowing he was going to die and took it out on his youngest brother. "I can't image what it most have been like for those two..." He adds as an after thought.

"Come on, Luffy, please eat it?" A young women with dark green hair that went just above her shoulders pleaded. She wore a yellow kerchief around her head, an orange blouse with black sleeves and a long light blue jean skirt with orange sneakers.

"B-but I don't w-want to." A short and skinny 5-year-old said though sobs. He knew that this excuse would probably get him a fist of 'love' but he couldn't find the right words in his limited vocabulary to explain himself. He had messy unkept black hair and large brown eyes that were raining wet tears. He didn't cry much at all since his grandpa had tought him otherwise but in this one case, perhaps his granddad would have allowed him to cry. For the man was dead now and he felt very alone.

He didn't have any friends since his grandfather never took him out of the house much and he wasn't old enough to go to school yet. Their had been a few other boy his age around a store he went to many times but those boys always had made fun of him because of his clothes. For some reason, the old man had always forced him to wear two or three jackets when every he left the house, even in the summer time. Though, now he was wearing a white short-sleeved t-shirt and blue jean shorts even though he was outside his former house. All these changes, all the people who tried to shove foods down his throats and this place... he didn't like any of it!

The boy sat with the women known as Makino in a small sick bay room. The walls and flooring were white and depressing while the beds were as comfortable as sleeping in the bathtub. (1) No pictures hung on the walls, though the was one window that let the suns ray give a little light to the space.

"Please, Luffy? It would make me so happy if you tried my cooking." The women begged in a sweet mother-like voice, one that the 5-year-old had never known. He really like Makino a lot, in the week he had stayed at The Going Merry she was by far his favorite.

"It will make you happy?" The child asked, making sure he heard her right as he wiped the tears and snot away from his chubby face with the back of his hand.

"It would make me that happiest girl in the world." She chuckled and once again offered the young boy a plate of food that included Mac n' Cheese and two dinner rolls. Luffy blinked, Garp hadn't ever given him this much. The green haired women had probably messed up and somehow given him a meal for a larger person, though he wasn't about to turn down the yummyest looking food he had ever seen, and better yet, it was hand-made by his first real friend.

"Okay, I'll do it then." Luffy muttered and took the meal into his lap and started slowly eating it with the plastic folk and spoon his friend had brought him. "It's really good, you're a great cook Makino." The child snickered as he took another bite. He wasn't sure why, but seeing the growing smile on his friend's face made him over-joyed and for a moment, he forgot about his granddad.

The weekend went by slowly for the two brother's. They had spent Saturday and Sunday mopping around their small house, feeling bad for both their dead grandfather, who had raised them, yet also hating the man for what he had done to their little brother.

As Sabo picked up his blue Iphone and called a number, he couldn't help but feel nervous and anxious. The blond wasn't sure if he had made the right choice. After all, could two 19-year-old guys really be good parents and raise an abused 5-year-old all on their own? Where would they get the money to buy things they would need for the kid and where would they put it? Like a bed and clothes, hell the two men were barely making enough money as it was, the last thing they needed was another mouth to feed. As the blond though this, he hit himself in the face, that pun was not intended by any means.

Ace was looking deep into his laptop, his pink tongue sightly sticking out of his mouth in concentration as he typed in to google, 'How to raise a 5-year-old?' He read the random blogs and pages for as long as he could. He would be the awesomest big brother ever, way better than Sabo. Yes, the raven brother was making this into a competition of sorts. He knew that they would find a way to make everything work, after all this was Little Lu, his cute baby brother that he use to tickle for hours and hours back home. Even if they became poor, no, even if they went bankrupted it would be worth it to have his baby brother back.

As the two spent the rest of their week explaining the situation to their friends, pulling together any savings they had and talking over what they planned to do once their little brother arrived, they were sure of one thing. If Luffy came with them, he would get all the love he could ever ask for.

(1) Owch! I done this before, hurts like hell in the morning.

I was thinking about some ideas for pairing in this, I'm thinking about SaboxRobin and MarcoxAce. Anyothers that you think would be better?

Edited On 3/4/2013 at 4:37AM for Spelling Mistakes and Other Reasons