Disclaimer: I still do not own One Piece. But enjoy the story.
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Ace continued to run his fingers through his little brothers hair as he switched the television off. Luffy had fallen asleep as soon as the pair had come home from lunch. Ace, on the other hand was busy researching a gift for Luffy online. Not exactly a gift, but something Ace thought would help Luffy if there was ever a situation where Ace wasn't there for him.
It was something that Ace thought was necessary for Luffy to have, because Ace was starting to see that he couldn't be there for his brother 24/7 and what with Luffy's blindness, Ace was worried. So while Luffy was asleep, Ace quietly let his brothers head rest against his shoulder as he brought out his laptop to do some research. Luffy needed a companion that he could have with him always, to watch over him when Ace or one of Luffy's nakama weren't there.
So Ace started his research on Guide Dogs.
There was an organization called the 'GDGL'-'Guide Dogs of Grand Line', which sounded trust-worthy enough. Ace's eyes narrowed as he copied down some information and looked through the application forms as well as write the phone number and adress for the place down on a piece of paper.
He knew from when they were kids, that Luffy's fear was being alone, and now he could have a companion even when Ace was at work, not to mention Luffy would have an easier time going around town. Ace always got angry when Luffy would walk around town with noone but himself, and even with his cane, Ace worried, though he had reason to.
When Ace heard an incoherent mumble come from his little brother, he immedietly closed his laptop and put it on the table so Luffy wouldn't see what he was planning. Ace watched in amusement as Luffy blinked the sleep from his eyes and yawned. He unwrapped his arm from his brothers shoulder and nudged him so he'd wake up a bit more.
"Ace?" Luffy blinked and looked in the direction that the nudge had come from and frowned before putting a hand on Ace's shoulder. Ace smiled encouragingly even though his sibling couldn't see it. Ace knew from the look on his brothers face that this was one of those moments where he felt lost, something was bothering him.
Ace's heart clenched as Luffy's face lit up, the boy was smiling brightly at him, even after all that Ace had done in the past, the boy still loved him and looked up to him. Ace's mind always screamed at him, the words 'your fault' floating through his head, as well as 'unforgivable'. But Ace pushed them all back, because they were unimportant, right now he had a brother to comfort.
"Finally, I thought you were going to sleep forever, you zombie." Ace chuckled as Luffy playfully pushed him and stretched out, cracking his back and sighing in content. "Have a nice nap?" Ace smiled as his brother used his lap as a pillow, and used the back of the couch as a leg rest. Ace's smile faltered a little when his brother didn't answer him. He tried again.
"Did you dream about anything?" Ace asked curiously, knowing that Luffy never told him about his dreams, if he had any good ones, or nightmares, he kept them to himself. It was only natural that Ace wanted to know. Once again, Luffy was silent, but this time he shrugged his shoulders. Ace waited a few moments, the silence scaring him a little. This was Luffy.
"I don't dream much... anymore." Luffy mumbled and closed his eyes, Ace let the smile fall off of his face. He should have expected that, but it also meant that Luffy still had dreams. He wondered many times what it would be like, to be in his little brothers shoes. To be the one with a be the blind brother. It was something he didn't like to think of. Ace could protect Luffy if he still had his vision. But still, he would do anything for his little brother to be able to see again.
"What do you dream about?" Ace murmured quietly, watching the facial expressions on Luffy's face. Ace wondered, what kind of dreams do the blind have, did they see color? Did the people in their memories never age? What did Luffy think of when he thought of Ace? Luffy was silent for another few moments, thinking about how he should respond.
"I... hear voices, and sounds. Stuff that I remember. But most of the time it's dark.. Sometimes I wake up scared, because I don't know if I'm still sleeping or if I'm awake. It's ... confusing, Ace." Luffy opened his eyes and looked down at where his hands would be. Ace ran his fingers through his brothers black hair soothingly.
"I wonder a lot, about what you look like now. I want to see, Ace. I want to see you smile. I want to see my friends faces. I just..." Luffy stopped talking when the fingers running through his hair stopped. "It's frustrating, Ace." Luffy whispered quietly and sighed before rolling over and burying his face into his brothers leg.
"But... It's not all bad, you know? I mean I get to spend more time with you. Shishishi." Ace could feel Luffy smile into his leg and breathed out in relief, though he knew the boy's heart was not in the laughter. He didn't think he could handle how much his heart hurt hearing Luffy worry about such things. The boy truly sounded lost when he spoke like that. Ace hummed in response and glanced at the laptop, wondering if Luffy would llike his present. Ace was interupted from his thoughts when his phone started vibrating.
"One second, Lu." Ace pulled out his phone and saw a text from Thatch once more.
From: Elvis
Heads up! On our way over.
Brought food.
At the same time, there was a knocking on the door. Ace barely had enough time to open his mouth, as Luffy shot up and used his stomach as a launch pad, once again to jump over the couch. Really, the boy had to stop doing that. A moment later, he heard voices, and some laughter.
Ace stood up and walked to the door to see Thatch and Marco barely visible behind carrying bags of groceries. Ace chuckled and stood behind luffy, placing a hand on his head, and ruffling his hair. It was weird how the kid could go from being serious to the cheerful happy bunch of energy that he was right now. Ace smirked when he thought he caught a lingering stare coming from Marco and opened the door wider for the two to come inside.
"Hey guys, just got your text, could have given me a better warning though." Ace complained and walked in front of the duo, all the while keeping a hand on Luffy's shoulder lightly, leading him. It was instinct. Ace still surprised himself sometimes by the small things that he did, the things he did out of habit from when he was still helping Luffy adjust.
"Yeah, but than it's not a surprise, you know?" Thatch countered and started taking food out of bags, and setting it on the kitchen counter. Luffy just laughed and clapped his hands at all the food with a big smile on his face. If Ace looked closer, he could see the boy was tense, something was still bothering him. Ace frowned at that and was about to question the boy when an arm settled around his shoulders. Ace turned to see Marco an inch away smiling as Thatch struggled to keep Luffy from eating all of the food at once. Ace let a smile tug its way onto his face, his worry fading away momentarily.
"So Ace, I heard from a certain someone that you thought what happened earlier to me was ... dare I say, brilliant?" While Marco faked anger, Ace let a smirk find it's way on to his face.
"Something like that, yeah." Ace laughed as Marco whacked him over the head, with a motherly tone of voice, asking Ace not ecourage Thatch to do such things, and if so to direct it towards one of his other brothers.
"Oi! Luffy slow down on the eating buddy, you're gonna choke!" Thatch said as Ace rushed in to save his portion of the meal. Luffy was impressively gorging down on any edible substance he could get his hands on. Ace stood opposite of his little brother taking food and guarding it for later while he talked with Marco.
"Anyways Ace, we were wondering if we could steal you for the night, if that's alright with Luffy, of course." Marco said nonchalantly leaning against the door frame leading into the kitchen, an amused expression on his face as he watched Ace almost growl at his brother if he got too near his food. The D brothers were always amusing to witness.
That seemed to get Ace's attention though, his back straightened as he faced both Thatch and Marco.
"What for? You guys better not kidnap any Santa's again, you know, it's getting to be winter soon. People need those Santa's. Besides, todays my day off, I want to spend it with Lu, you guys can have me during the week when I'm working. I mean don't you see me enough? I work for your dad and all." Ace said taking a bite out of his sandwhich and smiling at Luffy as the boy was playing with Thatch's hair, the older man trying to get away.
"Well... Yeah, but this is important!" Thatch interrupted as he pushed Luffy's hands away from his face and wrapped an arm around Marco's shoulders and grinned mischeviously at his adopted brother, while Marco just sighed and crossed his arms.
Luffy blinked and sat down again on the stool, and tilted his head to the side.
'Was his brother going to steal Santa's without him?' Luffy frowned, but kept to himself as he ate, not really bothered by it at the moment.
"Knock it off, Thatch. Ace is right, this is his one of his work days off, so of course he'd want to spend it with Luffy." Marco rolled his eyes at Thatch's disappointed 'aw' and shrugged his arm off of his shoulders before strolling up to Ace. "I was just thinking me and you could go out to dinner, the two of us." Marco's voice still calm, but Ace could see from the look in his eyes that the man was a little uneasy.
Ace didn't care what anyone said, the eye contact between Marco and him was something he had always cherished. Hell, the building could be collapsing around him as they spoke, and he would not even know, Ace being entrapped in Marco's gaze of course. There was something about Marco's brown eyes that got to him everytime. There was something there.
Ace broke off the contact, and glanced over at Luffy, noticing how the boy was staring at Thatch, saying something about Santa's and pooping. Ace chuckled darkly and put his sandwhich down, staring back up at Marco.
"I don't know, I should really stay with Lu and everything." Ace paused. "Make sure he doesn't destroy the apartment." Ace jokingly added, though he admitted that he would really love to go on that dinner date with a certain blonde. But his first priority was Luffy, it would always be Luffy. Family came first. He needed to look out for his little brother. Thatch slumped over in disappointment at Ace's answer until suddenly he snapped his fingers.
"Ah! Hey, how about this? I look after the little squirt, while Marco and you go out tonight! It'll work out perfectly!" Thatch looked quite pleased with himself for suggesting that, but Ace could see the glint of mischief in the red-heads eyes. Luffy stuck his tongue out at Thatch and laughed at his expression.
"Well... I don't see anything wrong with it. I just don't know if I should trust you not to pull any shit on me when I return, prank-wise-Don't give me that look, Thatch! Hey Luffy, are you okay with that?" Ace smiled when his little brother grinned, though a bit weakly and cheered, all the while questioning if he and Marco were gonna go see if Santa pooped or not. Ace sighed, he really had to wonder what thoughts ran through his brothers head and why.
Marco smiled and put a hand on Ace's shoulder squeezing it lightly before letting go. Ace got the message. 'Thanks.' "Alright, well it's early evening yet, so I say we can leave any time now." Marco smiled and took the sandwhich away from Ace and gave it to a happy-looking Luffy. "Don't want to spoil your dinner now." After a moment, Marco glared lightly at Thatch and Ace when the freckled teen suggested him being a 'mother hen.' Really, he was not a mother hen. At all. Whatsoever.
"Alright, Mama Bird, I'll see you back at the house, see you later Ace, man!" Thatch winked at the former and turned back to Luffy who had already eaten all of Ace's share of food. The teen seemed to notice Ace getting ready to leave and jumped up from his seat.
"Ace!" The kid followed the voice of his brother and jumped on his back piggy back style, to which the former grunted and tried to turn around, but the boy was latched on tight, almost like a monkey. Luffy sure did live up to his surname. Luffy rested his chin on his brothers shoulder grinning. "Thanks for today Ace! I had so much fun! And tell me if you find out about Santa and his pooping techniques! Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed as his brother sighed in resolve and waited till Luffy climbed down to turn around and pull him into a lazy hug.
"Yeah yeah, I'll ask if I see a Santa, though it'd be way too early at this time of year. So I doubt it'll happen, lil bro." Ace stopped to think for a moment before leaning in closer. "Sorry I'm not spending the whole day with you, Lu." Ace mumbled quietly and kissed his little brothers temple, who squealed and laughed before pulling away. "Yeah! But Ace, we had an adventure today! So it's fine! Besides, Elvis will be with me! Shishishi." Ace barked in laughter as the red-head grumbled that his name was in face, Thatch, not Elvis.
"Alright you two, break it up. Ready to go Ace? See ya, Thatch, watch out for the brat for us, will you?" Marco said this while getting on his coat and shoes. He watched as Ace let go of his little brother and began to get his jacket on. Marco knew the two brothers had a close relationship, but sometimes he wondered about the two of them. He still had yet to know the reason for the two to be so clingy of one another, and have trouble trusting others. Well actually, maybe that was just Ace. It was definitely not Luffy. That boy was like a puppy, trusting everyone that stopped by.
Marco held the door open for Ace, but not before the freckled teen grabbed a small sheet of paper from the coffee table before leaving. Marco raised an eyebrow in curiosity as the two walked to his car. Ace just told him that he'd tell him about it later, so Marco shrugged and got into the drivers seat. He had other things to fret about, like how tonight was going to go. Marco sighed and buckled his seatbelt. Hopefully all would end well, it was with Ace after all. Marco smiled as he felt someone latch onto his hand in the car.
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Authors Note: Sorry to end it there. Alright, hey guys! Sorry for the late update. It took forever to write this for some reason, mostly because I'm just writing it off the top of my head, with some ideas floating around. Also, this chapter was not going to end here, but I cut it short because I just really wanted to update. Hope you like it! I know it's not the best, but oh well. Review and tell me what you think so far, I like feedback. We'll get to see more of Luffy next chapter, as well as his blindness and what he's currently going through. I'll have the second part up soon!