The waves crashed softly against the small ship, and the setting sun created vibrant colors splashing along the horizon.
Luffy just sat there on the helm, staring into the endless sea, his shirt and that damned straw hat blowing slightly in the weak wind. Almost normal for the occasional time when he was actually silent. Still.
However, the problem was he had been like this ever since Ace had rescued him from that hell hole, reduced the place to ashes, and carried him back to the temporary ship he had acquired from Whitebeard after explaining the situation.
He had almost expected Luffy to bounce back like always, to brush off the traumatic event and smile like every time something like this happened, not to see the hollow shell of the carefree, loving teen he once knew. It almost physically hurt to see him this way.
Ace was determined to get his brother out of this funk, and would do anything to do it. He'd even told the younger so.
Perhaps that was his mistake.
It was the third day Luffy actually spoke, around the time Ace was starting to get second thoughts about bringing him home in the condition he was in.
"Burn it."
The words had effectively torn the nineteen year old out of his thoughts, and for a moment, the older of the two just blinked. "...What?"
The sudden declaration was quiet, a hoarse whisper, really, but it held such determination and a unwavering tone of finality that for a moment, Ace didn't understand what his little brother had said. Whatever he had expected his first words to be after this ideal, it certainly wasn't those, and definitely not so firm.
"Burn it," the rubber teen repeated, slipping the shirt off and discarding it, revealing the dreaded mark literally carved into the skin of his back. He was hunched over, hands shaking, and eyes shadowed by the hat he held onto so fondly.
"No." The answer was immediate, but not nearly as sure as he would have preferred.
"Ace, please." Never before had the male heard his little brother beg like that, and honestly, all it really made him want to burn was those bastards that had the nerve and heart to do this to his baby brother. No doubt, they deserved to be set aflame a second time. And a third. And no one could forget the forth...
"No, I can't!" The words come out choked, forced, because he couldn't believe someone he cared about so much would ask him to purposefully hurt them, to be irreversibly scarred.
"As long as I have this mark…" The sixteen year old tensed, his voice beginning to waver as he continued. "...I'll belong to them. You promised… You promised you'd help me! Please… Burn it."
Wordlessly, tears spilling over his cheeks, Ace raised his arm. For his brother...only for his little brother. The familiar warmth spread through his being, and he concentrated it on his hand. I'm so sorry, Luffy… "Mera mera no…"
"...Hiken."
Alright, yet another one-shot that may turn into a full out story depending on popularity and my ideas for it
If it actually is longer than a one shot, here's the basics. Obviously it would start before canon, a year to be precise. In case it wasn't clear, Luffy was a slave for a little while. How he became one and how Ace found out would be explained, a little of his life as a slave and the breakout, plus some healing from everything he went through, and maybe his crew plus random other people he knows finding out about it.
So yeah. Not sure where this came from. Not sure where it's going. But for now, it's a one shot, I guess