Disclaimer: So many reviews...you guys are so motivating ;_;


"Did you know? When men drink together, they become brothers. From now on…" Ace finished pouring the stolen sake and raised his hand high, the other two following suit, "…we're brothers!"


"Ace! Luffy! We're going to sail the seas one day! Let's leave this country and live in freedom!" Sabo cheered, excitement welling up from within him. His brothers cheered in compliance, imagining the day when they would become freer than anyone else.


"What did you say? Sabo…" Ace allowed the words a moment to fully sink in. "Don't lie to me, you bastard! That's not something you should be joking about!" His voice filled with rage as his younger brother's eyes swelled with tears. It couldn't be.

Sabo…


Luffy's attention was brought back to the boy hung over his shoulder. At this point he had exhausted himself and was punching the pirate's back with such little strength that it was hardly noticeable. They were almost back to the shoreline so he didn't have long to wait, but even so the Pirate King couldn't help but be distraught over the child's health. He had lost far too much blood. This had been one of the rare occasions he regretted not bringing any medical supplies with him. He rarely did, seeing as his tolerance to injury was inhuman.

After crossing through the trees, he was greeted by the two familiar ships. To his right he saw a large blue man – one of his commanders – leisurely attacking the recruits who remained. One third of them were sprawled out across the sand unconscious. It seems most couldn't handle two hours of taking Jinbei's punches, even when he was going easy on them.

He gently placed the boy against one of the trees nearest to the ship and removed his sash to keep the boy warm. There was a chill in the air once you got close to the water and he didn't need the kid to get even sicker before he got Copper to take a look at him. Lastly, he checked on the boy's wounds once more. Most had closed up, but he had lost so much blood that he was now in a daze. Luffy sighed, both relieved and annoyed with the kid's previous actions. Why would he pick a fight when he had already received so much damage?

"Stay here while I go check on something."

The boy could just barely make out the figure in front of him; there was a large, overpowering man blocking the sun from reaching his eyes. At this point he didn't remember what was going on, but those words registered in his mind: he shouldn't move. After this, the figure reached out to him and adjusted the material he had removed from his waist so that it was cradling most of the boy's body. Then he reached towards his head. He wanted to run but there was no strength in his legs anymore. He'd exhausted himself fighting to break free earlier and now hadn't the energy to do just that. The man ruffled his hair. He hadn't felt something like that before. There was a warmth and gentleness that enveloped him then. He was unfamiliar with those feelings and watched curiously as the blackened figure walked away from him, allowing the sun to intrude on his vision. He shut his eyes.

"Oi! Jinbei!" The Captain shouted, arms flailing cheerily as he headed towards the other pirates.

"Hm?" Jinbei turned at this, continuing to knock out the men who charged towards him.

"How are they?" Luffy asked after taking his place by his commander's side, arms folded behind his head. He then turned to admire the path of destruction the man had left in the form of unconscious bodies.

"Heh," he scoffed, "they're nothing new."

Luffy laughed his usual "shishishi" and his amusement only grew upon seeing the confused looks of the pirates still standing. He'd almost forgotten about the boy. "Oh, right." He placed his one fist in the open palm of his opposing hand in a bout of recollection. "Hey, Jinbei, has Chopper returned yet?"

"Mm," the man grunted, nodding his head as he sent his fist into one of the pirate's faces.

Luffy flashed him a toothy grin and said a quick "Thanks!" before taking off once again.

Boy cradled tightly in his arms, Luffy climbed aboard to the deck. As expected, he found his ship's doctor in the infirmary checking over the various medications and equipment on board. He always did this once a week as a precaution. If anything had been damaged lives could be at stake, so this became his usual routine. When Luffy walked in, Chopper had just taken a book out to read and was reviewing the material within it. When he saw his Captain there, he knew something wasn't right. Luffy didn't like the infirmary – said the smell made him feel strange. He closed his book and stared questioningly at the man.

"Oi, Chopper!" He began, giving his friend a cheerful wave. Chopper did the same but waited for Luffy to continue. "I have a patient for you." It was then that the doctor became aware of the small bundle in his arms. Still wrapped in Luffy's sash, he managed to see the boy's tiny appendages. His eyes widened. A Child?

Luffy placed the child on the infirmary's bed and removed his sash for the doctor to see. First his eyes scrambled to the many cuts and bruises covering his arms. And the blood. After watching for a while longer, he felt a familiarity wash over him while studying the boy's face. He put the thought to the back of his mind and rushed to the patient's side. This wasn't the time for things like that. He gently picked up the small human's frail arm.

"Luffy, had me the disinfectant. There should be some bandages and ointment in the bottom draw over there; I'll need that as well." Luffy nodded and did as he was told. Then Chopper continued his inspection, removing the child's shrunken shirt. His face went blank when he saw what Luffy had before – the boy was starting to become thin. His stomach was flat, almost creating a concave dent in his frame. As Luffy placed the medical supplies, including some extras that Chopper hadn't asked for, on the table next to him, he awaited his next instructions. "Luffy I need you to go find Sanji. Have him prepare something to help treat his malnutrition." Luffy nodded and rushed out the door to find his comrade while Chopper started with the treatment.

"Someone this young shouldn't have to go through this. Just what happened to make him so sick?"

As he applied the disinfectant to the wounds he noticed some things he had dismissed earlier. Among the fresh wounds were ones from long ago that still hadn't healed. Some left scarring and others were so horribly infected that putrid pus escaped them at the slightest touch. Chopper cringed. This was going to take a long time to heal. The malnutrition would slow the process even further and, until he was cured, he would be susceptible to illness. There was no doubt that his fever was a result of his compromised immune system. How long has he survived like this?


His eyes slowly peered open to white walls and a white ceiling. Not only did he not recognize the place, he seemed to be inside something. A room, maybe? That was strange. He lifted himself into a sitting position and a sharp pain ran throughout his body. Now he remembered: he had been hurt again. Then a strange man had come to the island. He got scared and tried to fight the man, but he lost. Then what?

He rubbed his head only to be met with something cold and wet stuck to it. After feeling around it for a while, he tried to peel it off.

"You shouldn't do that," a high voice rang from the other side of the room. The boy jumped to attention and flung his gaze over to the sound. He blinked a few times in disbelief as he watched a tiny tanuki-like creature walk nearer to him. "You have a high fever. That's going to help bring down your temperature, so don't take it off yet."

The boy backed away, alarmed by the creature's strange appearance and ability to speak. Chopper kept walking closer, a glass in hand, and the child grew more worried. His eyes widened.


Luffy stretched out his hand to open the door to the infirmary when he heard a shrill scream from within. He stood there for a few seconds, trying to take in what he had just heard.

"Hm?"

When he entered the room, he saw a rather interesting sight. The boy was standing on the bed with his back to the wall and mouth agape. He looked as if he'd seen a monster with his eyes as large as they were. On the floor in front of the boy was a puddle of water, glass shards scattered around it. Then across the room stood his doctor who was trying – and failing – to hide behind his desk. Both were breathing rather heavy and neither moved from their positions. Luffy looked back and forth around the room to get a feel for the situation.

Suddenly the Captain broke out in laughter. Both pairs of eyes slowly made their way to his amused figure. "Looks like fun! Mind if I join?"

"Oi! Luffy! We're not playing around," Chopper announced in a bit of a shout.

"So you were scared by the brat over there?" Chopper's face flushed red in embarrassment. "Shishishi!" Luffy laughed again as he walked into the room. He placed a tray of food on the table and prepared it as Chopper hurriedly cleaned the mess he made. He grumbled a few things under his breath, took one last look at the child and left to go fetch another glass.

"Glad to see your energy's back." Luffy beamed at the child in an effort to calm him down. The boy slumped into a sitting position, still going over what he saw. He recognized this man, though, from their previous encounters. The memories of that time were starting to come back, but he hadn't the slightest clue as to how he got there. He remembered the stranger's odd behavior from before he'd passed out; despite being attacked, the man said that he would help him with the wounds. Was that why he was there?

"Feeling better?" Luffy asked as he removed the lid from the soup bowl and stirred. The boy tilted his head with a look of confusion. The pirate's eyes narrowed at this. He hadn't thought about this. Just how well did this boy understand him? When he looked back on it, he realized the boy hadn't said a word. He hadn't responded much, either. He remembered him responding to body language and certain words, such as "wounds", "die", and "shirt", but aside from that he hadn't paid much interest to what Luffy had said to him. This is annoying.

"Hey, brat." The child looked at him, responding to the sound, but didn't seem to realize he was talking to him. "How much do you understand?"

No response.

"Ah, so frustrating!" he burst out, scratching his head in annoyance. The boy gave him a strange look and Luffy gave him a dull glare in response. This caused the boy to sweat a little from nervousness. Clearly he still wasn't comfortable there.

Luffy scolded himself inwardly. He should have known there was something wrong with the boy when he first attacked him. The island had no villages; he was clearly alone. He looked to be around 10 but was unfamiliar with verbal communication. At this point there wasn't much he could assume the kid would understand. Getting any information out of him would be quite a challenge. All he could do was sigh and be grateful that his brother wasn't like this when they had first met. Well, he still didn't talk at first…

"Hey," the pirate started again, eliciting the same response as before, "wounds?" While saying this he pointed to one of the boy's arms. He saw a flash of recognition appear on his face before he pulled up his arms to look at them, noticing that they were now bandaged. He tilted his head, wondering where the wrappings had come from. Now that Luffy had gotten his attention, he could try to find a word associated with "better" to see how the boy was feeling. Hopefully he would understand.

"Good?" There was another flash of recognition. The boy put the words together in his head and had a look of wonder on his face as he began to understand what he was asking.

"Mm," the boy mumbled, nodding his head. Luffy sighed in relief. Something told him that the boy was smart enough, but just didn't understand how to verbalize his thoughts. This whole thing was confusing for the Pirate King because he, himself, was rather unintelligent. He was more of a physical kind of guy and was bad at understanding some of the complicated terms his crewmembers would use, but he was also a little rusty with this kind of communication as well. It required him to think before speaking, another one of his weaknesses.

"Good." Luffy applauded the boy with a smile and his eyes lit up. It seems he was amazed that they could both understand each other. He was fascinated.

"Are you hungry?" The question was dropped when the boy gave him a blank stare. "Food?" Again the boy understood the word and nodded a little, still marvelling at this strange way of communicating.

Luffy's smile broadened into a large grin, "Good," and he placed the tray of food on the boy's lap before leisurely taking his place in a chair need the bed. He had to watch this, too, in order to understand the boy further. He watched his reflection in the soup and drooled over the smell. He looked up questioningly at the man who nodded. Then he grabbed the spoon and began quickly devouring the meal. "Slow down a little," the pirate commanded, given no response. Really, he shouldn't have said anything. Every time he was faced with Sanji's cooking, he wolfed it down in seconds, always breaking his own record.

Looking at the kid he felt nostalgic. Not only did he look like Ace, his mannerisms were identical to those of his deceased brother's as well. Ace never did have good table manners, even after Makino had given him lessons. He and his brothers were always like that. Maybe it was a part of how they grew up, but it was one of the things that connected him to them, as strange as that sounded. Dadan had complained about it a lot when they lived with her. The mountain bandits acted the same, though.

He was brought out of his nostalgia when he heard muffled sobs. He raised his head from its relaxed position in his palm and watched as the boy cried into his soup, still trying to eat it in the process. What kind of life had this boy lived? How long had he been alone on that island? The more Luffy was around him, the more he wanted to know. Maybe it was just because of his semblance to Ace but he wanted to know more about the boy.

The boy tried to hide his crying but it was too hard. He didn't remember ever eating something so good. He didn't remember anyone caring enough to help him before. He hadn't ever been understood, either. Then he felt a warm pressure at the top of his head. He looked up to see the man towering above him. His hand ruffled the boy's hair. "It's okay." The boy didn't know the words but he understood the tone and only cried harder in response. He waited for the sobs to subside before grabbing his attention once more.

"I'm not sure you'll understand this but my name is Monkey D. Luffy." The boy gawked at him with broad eyes, tears slowing as he watched the man. The pirate pointed to himself to emphasize this. "Luffy."

The boy blinked a few times, but he was starting to understand. If it was something like this, then he could try. His free hand rose and he pointed towards the man who stared curiously at him, not expecting a response.

"Luffy."

The man in question was surprised by this and stayed silent for a moment. He let out a big, hearty laugh. His hand pushed the hair from his face as he hunched over from the laugh. "Yeah, that's right! Good!"


A/N: Please don't hurt me! The boy being in this state is important to the plot, I swear!

I hope you guys don't mind that it's going by slow. It'll pick up (eventually) but I'm having a lot of fun writing this which is why it's taken a prologue and three chapters to get this far. I just wanna make sure I don't miss anything. If it's bothering you then just tell me but it's going to be a long, long story anyways so I thought it'd be ok.

Now onto reviewers...you guys are the best ;A; I'm so glad you're liking this story and that you seem so interest into it. Seriously, I finished this chapter last night and was going to post it later tonight but when I went online and saw all of the reviews I just had to check it over and post it. You really have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you so much.

And for everyone who requested Marco (which was basically every reviewer) yes, he will be in it later on. And yes, he will be in it a lot :D

XxSaorixX: *shoots you* Never say that name in my presence! :O But yeah, don't worry, Marco will be in here! How could I leave him out? And it's going to have both, I was more focused on which one you wanted more of XD

RoXaS707: You'll see! (eventually...) I'll definitely be putting the rest of the crew in as much as I can once the story settles (though it's still going to have more of Luffy and the boy since they're the main characters after all) I didn't expect anyone to mention Coby, but now that I think about it I have a few ideas on how he could show up. Definitely a yes! Yes, fluff and angst are awesome . And if you want some good ones I'm reading a few, just send me a PM and I'll send you a list of titles.

Stelra Etnae: So glad you like it! And yes, Chibi Ace is epicness! Marco is a definite yes, and of course if Marco appears the remaining Whitebeard pirates will probably follow. I've noticed a lot of people like Makino. I definitely want to give her a few scenes at some point. Fluff it is! Well, partially ;) And here's your update! Was it soon enough? XD

Lily Noir: Yeah, I kinda wanted Adult Luffy to be a little like Shanks since he looks up to him and all. I'm hoping to flesh out his character more though and show that he hasn't changed as much as it seems :P Is him reminding you of Shanks a good thing or a bad thing? Wow, lots of suggestions! Shanks is a must! I forgot about Garp but he's such a fun character I might as well. Aokigi and Sengoku is a definite possibility (though they and Garp will be pretty old at this point) and I'm going to try to put most of your other suggestions to use. And I'll get working on the other fics sometime this week, though this story is always 1st priority!

angelrider13: Don't cry D: But yeah, that'll be explain (eventually) and it's gonna be fairly important, so you will get nothing out of me ;) Glad you like it! (2nd review) I'm so happy you find it exciting ;A; I love your stories so that means a lot to me. And yes, I thought it would be adorable too! It's going to be like that, mostly AceLu but then the crew is involved a lot too. (3rd review) Yeah, I know, I'm trying...I wanted him to be a little less eccentric since he's 27 now and I tried to make him a little more mature. He'll be showing more of his usual personality. And sorry about the mistakes, I'll go fix them now T^T I have a bad habit of messing up when I type and since it's been so long since I wrote any fanfics it's even worse. There were a lot more mistakes before I corrected it, but it seems I still missed a few. And there was a page break between the two POVs but for some reason it disappeared and I didn't notices it. Sorry. Please tell me if you find any other mistakes as you read! Thanks for the feedback!

...This is WAY too long for an Author's Note...