Title: Run Away
Genre: Hurt/comfort/Family
Characters: Ace, Sabo, Luffy, Zoro etc.
Summary: Luffy never wanted to run, but she does it anyway.
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
Count: 2,587
"Luffy!"
Ace's body jerks him awake and the cold chill that runs through him forces him to sit up straight; the blanket falls and exposes his bare chest. Somehow he feels hot and cold at the same time; his heart beats heavily in his chest.
It's hard to breathe.
The bright green glow from the clock across the room is impossible to miss in the pitch black darkness of his room. It's two in the morning and Ace doubts that he'll be able to go back to sleep; there's no point in trying. Everything from his arm down to his fingers shake as he moves his hand to brush the bangs out of his eyes in a bad attempt to calm himself down.
Lying back down would be pointless.
He swings his legs over the side of the bed and leave his room in nothing more than a pair of pajama bottoms on; he never slept while being fully dressed. Hell, he didn't even like being fully dressed in the morning.
There's a light on in the kitchen already; the smell of landward tea lures him in, it's often something Sabo would make for him whenever he couldn't go back to sleep.
Surly enough; there are three cups on top of the kitchen table. Ace counts two cups of tea, and one cup of warm milk.
Sabo's tired blue eyes gaze wistfully at Ace as he pulls up the chair across the table from him. He doesn't dare look at the empty seat with the cup full of milk in the middle. Sabo doesn't look at it either. "You couldn't sleep either, huh?"
"No," He shakes his head and rests his elbows on the table; both of his hands press against the sides of his sore neck. "Has it really been six years already?"
The blond nods; his eyes are focused on a small smudge on the table. The steam from his tea does little to warm him; he reaches for it, and takes a sip. "She shut herself away from us six years ago today. No more calls or letters or pictures that she used to send in the mail, everything just stopped."
"It's because I left her behind." He runs his hands through his hair and focuses his gaze on the table. "I couldn't even wake her up because I knew that I couldn't tell her that I was leaving, I would've fought to stay even harder."
"We both left her Ace."
After Luffy cut herself out the two of them had nothing more than the orphanage director to give them updates on their self proclaimed sister. It was shocking to hear that she was getting into fights all of the time, shutting herself out from the adults, and constantly getting into trouble.
She refused to talk to them; to hear them out, or to just speak to them over the phone. She liked to run away every time they called; all they ever got to hear were the caretakers calling after her, and then?
Silence.
Sabo was fifteen when he meandered his mother into visiting the orphanage; but she wasn't there. The caretaker had smiled and greeted Sabo with a hug, only to then tell him that Luffy was gone.
She was lone gone, but she wasn't adopted.
They had thought it would be a good idea to move her into a foster care system; but by then she'd already been through three homes, and was moving onto her fourth.
She still hasn't been adopted.
Their little sister was being passed around through a system that threatened to destroy her, while her two big brothers managed to receive forever homes.
If that wasn't bad enough; the family that was supposed to be caring about her had lost her, and she was just gone.
Gone; their twelve year old sister had run away and it doesn't seem as though she'll ever be found. If she's even alive anymore in the first place.
To this day, it's been four years since she went missing.
There's an article from a newspaper dated back four years; it's got her face on it. Luffy looks to be about nine years old; meaning that it was before the boys were adopted ahead of her.
She's got a big toothy smile on her face; her hair was braided neatly by Ace's clumsy hands, and her eyes sparkle brilliantly as she stares into the camera.
It's a good picture, but it would've been better in a frame instead of in the newspaper.
"Warm milk, huh?" Ace hums, changing the subject. "I wonder if she still hates tea."
Sabo looks fondly at the red cup. "I wonder if she still drinks milk and honey at night when she can't sleep."
"I wonder if she still likes to pretend that it's tea."
There's silence between the two boys for a long second.
Ace looks up.
"Do you think she's happy, wherever she is?"
"I hope so."
...
"Good morning!"
Luffy greets the couple working in the diner; it's her favorite place to go after a workout. The food is cheap and it's never too crowded; the owners know her by name and greet her with two smiles and offer her the usual booth she sits in.
The one right by the front, but also by the window.
She bounces in her chair for a moment and makes sure to thank the waiter as she's brought a large glass of water with no ice, and a crazy straw to drink it with.
No one brings her a menu; but she's quite used to it.
"Surprise me!" She likes to say to them; asking for at least two different meals from the menu, as well as a desert.
They bring her a plate full of pancakes and waffles, a fruit bowl, two omelettes, and a chocolate fudge sundae with a brownie. Her stomach rumbles at the large proportions of food; the cook says that she's his favorite customer, so he's always sneaking more food onto her plate.
Not that Luffy had anything to complain about.
She was hungry; food was food, the more food she had the less hungry she was. Things just worked like that.
"You're not very ladylike, are you?"
"Shouldn't you be in school or something?"
Luffy manages to shove one more spoonful of ice cream into her mouth before swallowing it all down, and turning to face the man attempting to talk to her. She doesn't look happy with the fact that her meal has been interrupted, and she intends to make sure he knows that too.
"I'm home schooled." She responds, not missing a beat.
The man doesn't seem thrown at all from the glare she's sending him; instead of backing off, he sits down across from her and rests an elbow on the table.
She stares at him for a good moment; spoon still hanging from her mouth as she takes in his piercings and bright red hair and she seems to recognize him immediately.
The spoon drops out of her mouth. "Kidd!"
The smile on his face looks more like a smirk; he's got two snakebites on his bottom lip that weren't there the last time she saw him. "Long time no see, brat. Glad to see you haven't changed a bit."
"It's been like a week." She cocks her head to the side as though he were a child that needed to be corrected. "I think it takes longer to change."
Kidd deadpans. "It's been nine months."
"Oh really?" She frowns. "Are you sure?"
"Do you understand how time works?"
"It doesn't work, it passes."
The two of them stare at each other for a long moment before they break out in laughter; their heads are thrown back and Kidd reaches across the table to put a massive hand atop her head. "It's good to seeya kid."
"Are you moving back in?"
"Of course, I've got a shop waiting for me anyway." He pauses, eyes flickering around Luffy's body in attempt find any visible tattoos. "Who else is going to make sure idiots like you get proper tattoos and piercings?"
She sticks her tongue out at him in a 'bleh' motion, but she's grateful for his return nonetheless.
"Are you still fighting?"
Her head snaps to the side and her eyes stare up at the ceiling; there's a crack running down the wall, and one of the lights is a bit dimmer than the others. "No," She lies, pursing her lips slightly.
"You're such a shitty liar."
"Thanks!"
"It wasn't a compliment."
Though to be honest, it just goes to show how honest of a person Luffy is. In itself, that's a compliment. Kidd gives a defeated sigh as he stands from the table, leaving a small sum of cash to pay the bill and then some. "Make sure you stop by my shop sometime, got it?"
"Yup," She bobs her head up and down, leaning back in her seat as she watches him go. "See you."
He's gone.
Luffy leaves shortly after.
..
Ale is seriously the best thing in the world.
At least Zoro thinks so.
He slams his empty glass on the counter and wipes his mouth with gusto; there are five, six, seven empty glasses left on the counter in front of him.
"Gimme another!" He calls out to the bartender; the man already has his glass prepared, and is quick to slide it across the counter. Zoro catches it with ease. "Thanks, Silvers."
"You sure know how to take it, kid. That's your eighth glass."
Zoro leans back in his seat; his shoulders are slumped, his whole body is relaxed. "Of course, I though you knew that already."
"You always surprise me, kid." The man pauses; it's a Sunday night, the bar is practically empty. Zoro himself doens't visit very often; but the lacking crowd is pleasing to him, so he tries to come on the least crowded days. "It's good to have you around."
"It's good to be around."
"Where's the rest of the crowd today?"
The green haired man shrugs; a sly smirk stretches across his face, his white teeth shine brighter than his golden percings. "It's Sunday night. They're at the Bartie."
"They've got everything there, don't they? Good food, good music, good wine."
"Nah." Zoro cares to disagree. "The best place has good food, good music, and good ale. Wine can't even compete with a cold cup of ale."
The silver haired man laughs; it's deep and hearty and loud enough to rattle the glasses. "I guess you've got a point there, but that place is too stuck up for me."
"You've got a pretty fair point there as well." Zoro nods, resting his elbows on the table. "I'm sure it wouldn't be so special if they didn't have Sanji's cooking or Brooke's music."
Again, the man seems to agree. "Didn't Robin start working there too? I'm sure she fits right in there; in a good way, of course."
"Yeah," Robin does a lot of things; she helps Luffy with her homeschooling whenever she can, teaches kids about history the libary on the weekends, has a part time job at the children's museum, and preforms at the Bartie Sunday nights. "To this day I still don't know how she manages to be in so many places at once."
Silvers grins, it's not a surprise. "Perhasp her love for mysteries has made her a mystery herself."
"I couldn't say it better myself."
"Yoouu know wha's a myssery?" There's a blond haired man who's been lying face down on the counter for the past half hour; Zoro has been ignoring him the whole time, but he seems to be awake for the most part.
Zoro raises an eyebrow, and exchances a quick glance with Silvers. "I'll bite," He finally says, shifting his weight on his side to get a better look at the blond; he looks as though he's had one too many shots of vodka or whatever it is that he's drinking.
He takes two sniffs.
Tequila? "Well, what is it?"
The blond grins; it's lopsided and somehow he doesn't seem to be completely in control of his actions. His head sways and his pupils remain unfocused; Zoro can't tell if he's looking at him or looking past him, or if this kid is even seeing anything at all. "Giraffes."
"Giraffes?"
"Yknoow, the things with the looooonggg necks."
There's a deadpan expression on Zoro's face; he wonders if this poor guy is okay, because he sure as hell doesn't seem like it. "I know what a giraffe is."
"What's so mysterious about giraffes?" Silvers asks, his own amusement luring him into the conversation. "
"That's what I thought too," The lopsided grin on his face shifts. "but juss think about it for a second."
The blond reaches for an empty glass and hands it to the blurry figure as though he were asking for another drink; Silvers gives him back a cup of water with a lime in it.
The poor kid doesn't even know the difference.
He throws his head back as he downs the water; only to then slump over the counter and remain there for a good five or six minutes.
For a moment it seems as though he's asleep.
Or unconcious.
Then he looks up from his folded arms and stares right at them. "Still don't get it?"
"No, what is it?"
"Their necks."
"Their necks?"
"Their necks." The kid repeats, dead serious. "Think about it, just think. If a giraffe wore a necktie; would it be on the bottom of their necks, or the top?
"What?"
"It's a mystery! If you saw a giraffe wearing a necktie at the top of it's neck, how do you know if it's right or wrong?"
Silvers takes this moment to carefully and slowly dismiss himself from the conversation.
Zoro stares straight at the blonde and decides to change the subject all together. "Buddy, are you here by yourself?"
"Aren't we all?" That's depressing.
His eyes roll and his head drops; he's asleep again, but this time Zoro's not too sure he's waking up again anytime soon.
"Just my luck." Zoro swears.
Silvers just laughs.
...
"I'm not coming home tonight."
Ace rolls his eyes at the text on his phone; somehow he feels impatient, angry, and annoyed all at once.
Sabo was supposed to be the smart one, after all.
"And you say I do stupid shit."
...
A/N: Hey. Leave your thoughts? .w.)
Q: Who's Silvers/Where is Zoro at? A: 'Silvers' = Silvers Ragleih, he and his wife Shakky run the bar.
~CrimsonBlood