Yo! So... how have you guys been. As you can all see, I've finally updated this story...ehehe... It would have been a bit faster, but then MarcoAce week came up, and I had to write stuff for that so... yeah...*starts making excuses*

Thank you to lunarshores for beta-ing!


Ace turned to the next page of the book he was reading and sighed. It had been weeks. Weeks since Marco had left, and he still hadn't heard a word from the man. All in all, it was kind of depressing. For the first time in years, he'd had company. A real, live physical being he could talk to and who would talk back. So unlike all of the books he had managed to steal from various people over the years. Now, though, that person was gone. And contrary to his promises, he would likely never be coming back.


"See you later, mom!" Ace yelled, running out of the house after his brother and slamming the front door shut behind him. He let his legs take him into the crowded streets. It was a week till Christmas, and people were doing what little shopping they could. Windmill Village wasn't very big, so there were only so many things you could buy. All of a sudden, the small boy he'd been following stopped in front of one of the displays. Ace slowed down and walked over to him, curious about whatever his brother was looking at with such growing fascination in his eyes.

"What did you find, Luffy?" The 7-year-old turned his head to look at his older brother for a second, before turning back to the display and pressing a finger to the glass in an attempt to point in the direction of the object of interest. Ace cocked his head.

"A hat?" Luffy pouted.

"It's not just 'a hat' Ace! It's the best hat! Well, Shanks' hat is the best, so that would make this one second best. But look! Look! It looks exactly like Shanks' hat! Isn't it awesome?!" Looking at the expression on his brother's face, Ace shook his head and smiled.

"Yeah. I guess it is." He knew what he would be buying Luffy for Christmas. He once again turned his head to look at the hat on display.

It was nothing fancy. An old, slightly worn straw hat with a red ribbon wrapped around it. But he couldn't see why Luffy took such a liking to it. It really did look like a replica of their idol's hat. Well, more Luffy's idol than his, but all the same, he was a person they both could rely on.

Ace wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders and attempted to pull him away from the display.

"Come on, Sabo's waiting for us." Luffy turned to look at him again, eyes almost watering at the thought of leaving the hat behind. Ace groaned.

"Wait here for a moment." The bell over the door rang as Ace entered the store. He walked up to the shopkeeper, digging through his pockets.

"Can I help you?" The man behind the counter asked. Ace bit his lip. He likely didn't have enough money with him at the moment, but it was worth a try.

"How much for that straw hat?" Imitating his brother, he pointed his finger in the direction of the headpiece. He could see his brother standing outside the store, gazing at the hat with such longing, Ace was almost jealous of it.

"That old piece? Five bucks." Ace dug around in his pockets, trying to find some more money.

"Umm... Four fifty?" he tried to bargain uncertainly. He spared a glance in his brother's direction, to make sure that he was still there. The shopkeeper followed his gaze, a soft smile spreading across his face as he saw the little boy standing in front of his shop.

"Is it a present for your little brother?" Mutely, Ace nodded. The shopkeeper sighed. "Then four fifty it is." A grin lit up Ace's face. He watched as the older man walked over to the display and got the hat, while he took every last penny out of his pocket and put it on the counter. The man came back.

"Do you want me to pack it?" Ace shook his head.

"No, thanks." He took the straw hat from the shopkeeper's hands and almost ran in the direction of the door. "Bye!" The bell rang again as the door was opened.

Grin still plastered to his face, Ace walked up to his brother, hat in tow. He reached out, putting the headpiece on the little boy's head.

"Merry early Christmas, Lu." His brother wrapped his arms around him in a death grip.

"Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Come on, let's go to meet up with Sabo now." Luffy retracted his arms and ran off again, one hand holding the straw hat in place on his head, the other waving at Ace to come follow him. Once again, Ace shook his head and started running after his brother.


"Let him go, damn it!" Ace shouted at the man holding Luffy in front of him, painfully twisting the young boy's arm behind his back.

"What a foul mouth you have. Didn't your momma tell you to always clean your mouth with soap when you say a bad word?" the man taunted. Ace saw red when he pulled Luffy's hand up even farther and his brother let out a cry of pain. Ace spared a glance at Sabo.

They had been ambushed by a few members of the local gang while on their way to go play in the mountains. Now, both of his brothers were being held captive by some had a knife put to his throat, which was being pressed harder and harder to his skin with each passing second. Ace might have imagined it, but the blade seemed to have drawn some blood. Sabo, meanwhile, had a gun pointed to his head, cold metal caressing blond locks. Ace was standing across from them, metal pipe in hand. He had no idea what to do.

"Come with us, brat, and we'll let these two go." Ace glared at them, fist clenching around the metal in his hand. He had no idea what they wanted to do with him. He had no idea why it had to be him. But if it meant keeping his brothers safe, he would go with them. His hand loosened around the pipe.

"Promise me," he demanded. The criminal looked at him disoriented.

"Huh?" Ace's glare turned darker.

"Promise me you'll let my brothers go, and I'll come with you," he clarified. The man holding Luffy looked at him, obviously amused.

"Ya got yourself a deal, kid. Now put down that pipe and come over here." Slowly, Ace did what he was told. His heart was pounding, threatening to burst from his chest. He kicked the pipe away and took a step toward the man, who meanwhile handed Luffy over to one of his friends. Ace stood in front of him, not daring to take his eyes off the criminal for even a second.

"Let them go now," he whispered. The man grabbed his arm and pulled the young boy towards him. Ace tried not to flinch in disgust as he was assaulted by the smell of alcohol and cheap cigarettes. The man turned his head and nodded to the person holding Sabo. The blond was released. He staggered forward.

"Sorry, kid. Never trust the world of a criminal. We were told that there can't be any witnesses."

A shot was fired. Ace watched in growing horror as his brother collapsed. The snow near him started losing its pure white color and started slowly turning ruby red. Sabo wasn't moving.

"No!" Ace screamed. He saw someone else move from the corner of his eye. The man holding Luffy had taken out his own knife. His brother was looking at Sabo lying motionless on the ground, not having noticed the blade coming closer and closer to his neck with each passing second. Ace watched with growing terror, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

There was an explosion. All of a sudden, everything turned various shades of red and orange and yellow. When the man holding his brother fell backwards, screams of agony tearing from his throat, Ace launched himself towards Luffy. He looked him over for any sign of harm. When none were found, he hugged him tightly. He felt his shit get wet as Luffy started crying.

"S-Sabo… he…" Ace didn't speak, and instead tried to hold down the sobs that were trying to tear apart his chest. He looked around.

They were both surrounded by flames that were climbing higher and higher into the sky as they stood there. There was no way out.

"A-Ace! You're shoulder's on fire!" Ace let Luffy go and turned his head. His brother was right. His shoulder was on fire. But Ace didn't feel anything. Not the heat radiating from the flames, not the pain that should have accompanied them. Still, he wished they weren't there, just in case they burned Luffy.

And just like that, they all disappeared. Ace looked around for the thugs, ignoring the warmth that was starting to fill him from the inside. Two of the three men were lying on the ground, and the third one was limping away as fast as he could, leaving his comrades behind. Ace's eyes stopped roving when they landed Sabo. Not sparing the fleeing criminal another glance, the 10-year-old rushed towards him. He turned his brother around so that he was lying on his back in the pool of blood underneath him instead of face down.

There was a bullet hole in his head.

Ace lifted one shaking hand to his mouth. He could hear Luffy crying silently behind him. He got up and hugged his brother again, blocking his view of Sabo. Or rather Sabo's body. There were shouts coming from behind them. Ace didn't bother turning around to see what was happening, too immersed in grief. His own tears were quickly rolling down his cheeks, and making tiny craters where they fell in the snow.

He didn't remember much of what happened after that.

He knew that when they both finally got home, their mother enveloped them in her warm embrace. He knew that she stayed with them for hours, trying to comfort them. He knew he eventually fell asleep sometime during the early hours of the morning, when his exhaustion and the emotional pain simply became too much.

He had nightmares.


About two weeks had passed since Sabo's death, and a mere week since his funeral. Ace couldn't help the ever-present feeling of guilt that was slowly beginning to overwhelm him.

For some reason, those men had wanted to hurt him. His brothers had been collateral damage.

But why? What did he ever do to anyone?


They came in the middle of the night. Ace was startled awake when someone started banging on the door. He quickly got out of his bed, and walked over to the open door. Hesitantly, he peeked outside.

At the end of the hallway was a staircase. His mother was already at the bottom, dressed only in her nightgown. He heard quiet footsteps coming up beside him. Ace turned to his younger brother, who was drowsily rubbing one of his eyes, and put a finger to his lips. Luffy tilted his head to the side, but didn't say anything. Ace looked out the door once more.

By now, Rouge had walked over to the front door. She unlocked it and looked outside. From where he was standing, Ace could make out a bright light illuminating her face, making her brown eyes shine.

"Where is he?!" a gruff voice demanded. Ace could have sworn that he knew it from somewhere

"Excuse me?" Rouge inquired, obviously annoyed.

"Where's the witch?!" the man shouted.

"What witch?" Rouge countered coolly, but Ace could see that she visibly tensed at the words. He had told her about his powers the day after Sabo's death. She had told him what he was. It was all about him again.

Why did everything bad have to happen because of him?

"Don't play games with me, woman! I want your son!" He put one of his hands on the door when Rouge tried to close it. He took one step into the house, the dirty, melted snow from his boot leaving a visible stain on the doormat.

"How dare you! You barge into my house, in the middle of the night, and demand my son! Just who do you think you are?!" Rouge shouted, furious. The man paid her no mind and instead pushed her away and took a few more steps into the living room. When Rouge attempted to stop him, he backhanded her. She fell to the ground, hitting her head against the edge of a nearby coffee table. She didn't get up.

"Mom!" Ace shouted terrified. Luffy tried to get past him to see what happened. Ace pushed him back into their shared room.

The man turned to look at him. Ace only now noticed the rough features and the scowl he wore. He had a pitchfork in his hand. They had to get away. Ace slammed the door shut and ran over to the window.

It wasn't a far way down. The roof beyond the window sloped downwards, so they could slide down it without much trouble, and after that they would most likely land in a mound of snow.

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs told him he didn't have much time left to think about this. Ace pulled the window open. The wind hit his face. It wasn't cold, though. Not to him. Not anymore.

"Luffy, get over here!" he called to his brother, who was still standing by the door, eyes wide with fright. Fortunately, he did as he was told. Ace climbed out the window and waited for his brother to follow, before placing him on his lap against his chest and pushing off to slide down the roof. He knew that the shingles sliding against his legs and lower back should have hurt, possibly even caused injury, but he felt nothing except that warmth. The same warmth from back when they'd been attacked.

As they fell from the roof, Ace curled up around his brother, to protect him from any harm in case he'd been wrong and they would end up landing on the hard ground. Fortunately, he wasn't. Both he and Luffy dug their way out of the snow and started running towards the woods behind their house. Ace looked back. The man from before, the one who hurt his mother was standing at the window in his room. And he finally remembered where he knew him from. It was Akainu, one of the wealthiest and power hungry men in the village. Seeing him made Ace's blood boil. He had half a mind to let Luffy run away while he stayed and fought the people off. But there were more of them. At least 15, from what he'd seen. So he couldn't. He didn't stand a chance against so many people, and the thought of leaving Luffy to his own devices made him feel sick.

Luffy wouldn't survive a day on his own.

So the boys raced through the woods, not stopping until they came out on the other side. They made their way straight to Makino's bar. She would be there. She always was.

They didn't bother knocking, instead opting to burst through the door. Luffy was shivering. Ace was pretty sure he'd be sick. Running barefoot through the forest in the middle of the winter in nothing but pajamas tended to do that to people. Well, unless they were Ace.

The barmaid jumped as Ace shut the door behind them. She whirled around to face them, hands on her hips and a scolding look on her face.

"What are you boys doing here? It's the middle of the-" she started, but stopped when she saw their expressions. "Wait here." She walked to one of the back rooms. When the barmaid came back, she brought a thick, warm blanket with her. She told them to sit down at one of the tables and wrapped it around them. Both boys were crying, although Luffy was worse off than Ace. Seeing that the younger boy was in no state to talk, Makino turned to Ace.

"What happened?" the barmaid asked. Ace swallowed the lump in his throat before attempting to speak.

"S-some men c-came to our h-house, an-and they h-hurt m-mom, a-and I h-had no idea what to d-do, so I came here, a-and I think that t-t-they might be after me." He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Portgas D Ace did not cry. Makino hugged them both. It reminded Ace so much of his mom, that it made him want to cry harder.

"I-I have to get out of here. Mom s-said that if anyone finds out about my p-powers, they'll kill me!" If they did that, Luffy would be left alone. Ace couldn't let that happen. "I'm going to run away, j-just promise me you'll keep Luffy safe. He has nothing to do with this." Ace's voice slowly got steadier after the initial wave of shock had passed. He knew what he had to do.

"What are you going to do?" the barmaid asked, her face full of worry. Ace swallowed audibly.

"I'm going to run away to the mountains," he said turning his head away from Makino. "I'll survive. I don't feel the cold anymore, and I know how to hunt. I'll survive." His voice cracked at the end of the repeated sentence. Luffy finally looked up.

"You're going to leave, Ace? Don't leave me all alone… I don't want to be alone!" Ace couldn't look at his brother.

"You'll still have Makino, right? I'll come back someday. I promise." It was a promise he would most likely break, but the younger boy didn't need to know that. "It's the only way to keep you safe, Luffy. You're going to be okay." Makino let them go and hurried to the back room again, leaving the boys alone. Ace wrapped his arms around the trembling form of his younger brother. "I'm so, so sorry. I love you more than anyone in the world, I can't lose you too," Ace whispered. Luffy hugged him back.

"B-but you'll be alone, Ace. All alone in the mountains. And I'll be all alone here. And being alone hurts so, so much! Can't I go with you?" Ace shook his head.

"You know that's impossible, Lu. You'd freeze to death. Just… just be safe, alright?" Luffy nodded and started crying harder. Ace rubbed soothing circles into his back. "It's going to be okay." He was the older brother. He had to take care of his younger sibling, no matter the pain it caused him. Caused them both.

Because in the end, it would be worth it. Luffy would be safe.

And that's all that mattered.


When Makino came out in a few minutes, she gave Ace a large backpack.

"It's filled with what you'll need. There're some clothes, a blanket- and I know that you don't feel the cold, but I'll feel better if you have it," the barmaid added when he tried to protest, "food, a handkerchief, a pair of shoes. There should be caves in the mountains. You can settle in somewhere there. I… I would tell you to come visit us sometime, but I know you won't be able to. I promise, Ace, that we won't stop trying to make it possible. One day, you'll definitely be able to come back here. I just hope that that day comes sooner rather than later. Go. There's not much time left Ace. Those men can be here any minute. I give you my word that Luffy will be fine."

"Thank you, Makino. For everything." Ace turned to his brother. "Bye, Luffy."

"G'bye Ace. Don't die," the younger boy pleaded, his eyes full of tears.

"Don't worry. I won't." At least he wasn't planning to. Who knew how it would turn out?

"I promise I'll see you again."


It was only now that he'd realized how wrong he'd been. More or less eight years had passed since that day. It was hard to keep track of time when you lived away from civilization.

There was no way he would see Luffy again. Not Luffy, not Marco, not anyone else. Well, unless they came after him in an attempt to kill him.

He thought he may have started something with Marco. After all, the man hadn't been exactly kind to him at first when he found out Ace was a witch. But he'd become accustomed to the situation eventually, when it became clear that he couldn't do anything about it. They had even become friends, as odd as that sounded. It was the first human contact he'd had in years! And, even though Ace hadn't felt that great about letting some random human live with him for that long, his loneliness had spoken for itself.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time or the possibilities to change everyone's mind like that, and Marco would undoubtedly become ostracized if he started trying to convince people that witches weren't evil, if not to be killed on sight. Maybe one day in the future they could coexist peacefully. But not now. Definitely not now.

Ace sighed and turned to the next page of the book he'd already read a hundred times.


For all those interested, I have a Tumblr. The link is on my profile page. I might post previews of upcoming chapters or stories or maybe eventually some drawings.