We Bathe Together…


It always troubled me when you wouldn't bathe in the tub, not only could I not clean you properly because you were usually still dirty when you were drying yourself off, but I felt like I was leaving you out. Myself and Sabo always loved bath time and you could see how much fun we were having splashing each other and messing around.

It's been a few weeks since Sabo died and bath time since then became an unpleasant experience for me, whilst I was sat in the tub in complete silence, you continued to wash yourself on the stool, still worrying about tipping that water over your head. I do remember coaxing you a few times to join me, but you thought something bad might happen. Not matter how much I reassured him that I would be right next to him, holding his head above the water and making sure he was okay, he still wouldn't join me. I knew he trusted me, but it was obvious that he couldn't yet put his life in my hands… which really hurt me to think about.

A few weeks on and it's the present day, we're only a couple of months older since Sabo's death and by now we've matured a little more. I told myself this would be the last time I'd ask him, if he wouldn't join me in the bath today, then I knew it was never going to happen. But today was going to be different, I had a little trick up my sleeve – I've only just realized after some lengthy amount of time that my little brother is gullible, he believes anything.


"Ace! – A girl in town told me today that if you kiss someone on the lips, they get pregnant!"

I couldn't even reply, in fact I didn't want to reply. I pretty much understand the concept of love, sex and marriage. Even though I'm insanely young, I'm ridiculously mature for my age. How did I find out about all this? –Turn's out Sabo had already learnt all of this crap years before he told me, his parents wanted him to understand all of these concepts from such a young age so he'd grown to accept them and eventually feel that there was no way out of them. Even if I understood, I didn't want to sit hear talking to my seven year old brother about how the facts of life.

"Yeah? Really?" I replied, I just thought that for now it would probably be best to go along with it.

"So who would be pregnant?"

"The woman of course! You can't be that dense can you?"

"Yeah, but what if it was two boys kissing or two girls?"

I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose… I still wasn't up for explaining the truth, so I just continued the lie. Hopefully in time he would understand all this himself; "The one who is stronger, so the kid has a better chance." That being said, I opened my eyes and looked at him, hoping he would leave the subject at that. I could see in his face that he was deliberating what I had just told him –he probably didn't even realize he was thinking.

Luffy abruptly nodded and turned away… it was when he was quite a distance from me that I decided to ask him where he was going.

"I'm gonna get stronger!"

Once again, my eyes shut and the fingers on my hand rubbed the bridge of my nose... "You have got to be kissin- er, I mean… kidding me!"


That particular moment brought back some odd thoughts; it even sent a little shiver down my spine… I thought about what I was getting myself into, if I wasn't careful he'd end up asking loads of questions and all this careful consideration would be for nothing! –Not only that but I was worried that if he suddenly remembered what I told him tonight when he was much older and surrounded by really smart people... then he would be mocked and humiliated! He probably wouldn't care but I would.

As the day reached a close, myself and Luffy were preparing for our bath- the water was perfect and ready to be used, a fresh pair of clothes were set for the both of us and our towels were at the ready. I will admit… I did feel awful but I was willing to do anything to get Luffy in this bath with me.

I jumped in the barrel, whilst Luffy sat on his usual little stool, with the bucket just hovering above his head. He cowered again and I waited…

I smiled and decided it was time just as he was about to pour the water over his head. "Hey- I found out something really interesting today."

Luffy, although a little confused, was very happy to prolong his suffering, his face questioned Ace as he looked at him with some wonder and amazement, even though Ace had yet to tell him what he had 'heard'.

"Well, apparently, when two people with black hair share a bath, they are ninety five percent more likely to fall in love when they're older." That sounded ten times less appealing than when I thought about it before. But love was one thing that always intrigued Luffy, though he never knew what it was or completely understood it. When we were in Makino's Bar a few months ago and she put the idea of us being 'lovers' into his head it continued to pop up in conversations, and sometimes in front of others- I admit, it wasn't really the best choice, but damn! I wanted him to share something that I enjoyed and I knew he would as well if he would just suck up his fear and get in this freakin' barrel!

Luffy's mouth dropped open and before I even had the chance to blink water splashed over my face, he was right there in front of me... after all this time, he was finally in the tub with me. I could see him panicking a little but he didn't look too bad… he need not worry though, since I was right here before him. I was ready to prove myself to him, I wanted him to be able to trust me the same way lovers did, without actually having the lovers relationship.

"Are we lovers now?" He asked excitedly, speak of the devil.

"N-no, not yet…" I said, I was still a little shocked; seriously… it was an incredible moment. "But we will be, one day." I added.

Luffy saddened a little and looked away, messing around with the surface of the water. I felt kind of bad now… I mean, I had no clue what the future had in store for us, and he was really excited about us becoming lovers even though he had no idea what that entailed. I leaned against the side of the barrel and propped my legs up on the other side to hold myself up right.

I wrapped my arms around my little brother and brought him just above my legs and sat him down on them. "I want us to be lovers now though…" He said to me, still a little upset, but certainly enjoying the close attention he was getting from me, I could tell.

I thought about it for a second… and decided, 'hey- why not?' he was already in the tub… so any kind of annoyance Luffy had to treat me to from now on couldn't be soo bad. "We can't be lovers now because you're not ready and neither am I. If we aren't ready then we can't do anything. When you turn seventeen and I turn twenty, we'll be ready and we can do the 'sacred act' that binds us for life." Maybe that was a bit too much actually… ah well, Luffy would luckily leave it at that and concentrate so much on becoming a pirate that he might even forget about this night.

"Seventeen? But that's ages away!" He almost screamed at me… I hoped to God he wouldn't start crying.

"If you don't talk about it from now on, time will fly by, alright?"

He looked at me in realization and nodded cheerfully "Okay, you promise right? We can do that scared act thingy?"

Well I wasn't planning on doing it with him, but the more I talked about it made me wonder how I really felt about doing it with him, not only that but what did I even think of him? There was no doubt in my mind that he was my brother, and I would care for and love him indefinitely, but life has interesting twists and turns that would wait for the right time to spring up… was this fate? Are we mean't to fall in love? "Yeah, of course." I replied.

Why am I even over thinking this? I'm ten! I'll just let my twenty year old self handle this, for now I'm going to enjoy being a child and retain the innocence that comes with the job.

"Hey Ace…" Luffy said with a cheeky smirk on his face… I was suddenly brought back to reality, with worry seeping into my mind as I gazed upon Luffy's face.. "Our wieners are touching!"

Well… maybe I'll come to love it when we bathe together.