I'M SO SORRY! THERE ARE NO EXCUSES FOR MY LONG HIATUS! Really there are no excuse for my long hiatus. All I can say is that I'd lost most of my inspiration for this story and just needed a long break. Besides, this isn't my main account anymore either. I think most of you who have read my profile has seen that this account was hacked some time ago and I have another account which I write on mostly now. But I will finish this story – if I can find the inspiration and energy – but I can't promise when or how often I will update this seeing as I have a lot of things going on in my life right now. Nothing overly important or secretive, just school and maybe even work soon, too. It isn't easy being a teen these days you know...

Disclaimed_ I don't own anything

– Monke~ey SLAP! –

East blue, Dawn Island, Mt. Colubo – 4 weeks since Ace arrival

There was two things that Ace hadn't expected to happen that day when he went into the forest to meet Sabo. The first was that monkey that slapped him straight across the face, twice(!) and the other was the ship with white sails in the horizon.

The morning had started fairly normal, and fairly normal for Ace was waking up wondering why his many brothers and sisters weren't walking the corridors of the Moby Dock complaining about Marco's wondrous daily wakeup call. When he'd realize that he wasn't on the Moby Dick he'd already walked all the way over to the door asking if anyone'd seen Thatch or Jozu, or anyone close to the phoenix to see if anything was up, or not, facing confused mountain bandits wondering what the hell he was talking about. After that he disappeared into the forest before anyone could ask who the hell Thatch or Jozu was, or Marco. For a D skipping breakfast wasn't one of the best things with their trait for a bottomless pit for a stomach, but lucky for Ace he, who surprisingly had two D related parents, hadn't inherited that many traits of a D and that he was thankful for mornings like this.

He'd been running through the forest when he'd ran into that monkey, or maybe the monkey had been following him? Ace wasn't really sure. He hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings after becoming re-accustomed with Mt. Colubo rather quickly after his unhappy return to the place.

Ace, the polite bastard he was, had stopped to see what the animal wanted. After some many days and nights spent in the jungle of Mt. Colubo and plenty of other places, Ace had long ago learnt that animals wasn't always as stupid as they appeared and could have a purpose for most of the things they did. This didn't scare him off from eating animal meat obviously.

It hadn't taken Ace more than a few seconds to stop, turn around and then freeze in place as the pain started burning in his left cheek and the realization of what just happened had sunken into the young man-turned-boy's mind. The monkey had slapped him. The MONKEY had SLAPPED him?! The fucking bastard had fucking slapped him!

Something bubbled in Ace stomach. Anger, he realized quickly. He'd had a lot of anger in his youth and the memories he'd tried to forget was slowly coming back to him. A vain pulsed across his forehead and his head was pounding. He could hear his blood rushing in his ears as the anger flared and he raised his fist and aimed a well-placed punch to the monkey's chin. The problem was just that Ace had miscalculated the distance between him and his... opponent(?) and the length of his own arm and had therefor missed with plenty of space between his fist and the furry chin.

Standing there and blinking like an idiot for a moment, he almost missed how the monkey raised its hand above its head to most likely slap him again. This time, however, his well-trained reflexes kicked in and he easily dodged the attack and gripped his staff in his hands. He'd been getting better at fighting in his body's new size but there were still the fact that some attacks didn't work or weren't exactly at good terms with his new size. This made Ace a target for most of the animals which had seen the boy's new problems and took the chance to pounce. But Ace wasn't that out of practice and with minor (plenty) troubles defeated all of his animal opponents. Which would have been the case with the monkey if the thing didn't have way longer arms than Ace and could stay out of reach for the boy but still hit him plenty.

It was also in that situation that Sabo found him, blue and purple across his cheeks and the worst of glares that Sabo hadn't seen on Ace for the last couple of weeks.

"Oi, Ace!" Sabo shouted getting his brother-in-everything-but-blood's attention.

"Sabo!"

*SMACK*

Sabo made a face at the sound, clearly seeing the red spreading over Ace left cheek and the vain that was bulging dangerously over his forehead. "That's got to hurt."

"Bastard..." Ace growled and leaped at the monkey. He raised his staff and wacked the animal across the head hard enough that the animal was sent flying wards over the dirt before coming to a stop when his head hit a tree trunk. "Like hell I'm losing to a monkey!"

Sabo wasn't sure if he should be worried or relieved over the result. Worried because his brother had almost been beaten by a monkey just now or relieved because Ace still fueled his strength with anger and fury like before. Maybe a mix of both was in place.

"Ace," Sabo said and jumped down. "Let's get going. I heard there is a new load of money railing through Edge Town."

"I'm going to kill him!"

The monkey, as on cue, sat up while rubbing the large bump forming where Ace's staff had made contact, tears forming in its eyes. Ace made himself ready to leap at the animal but never had a chance as the monkey stuck its tongue out at him before disappearing into the woodwork behind him leaving the two boys behind looking after him with big eyes and a long stretched silence. And then...

Sabo fell over laughing on the ground pointing at Ace cheek that was on the way to swollen. It was bulging out unnaturally from his face. It didn't help much either that the right cheek looked almost as horrible, if not as swollen but still painted faint blue and purple with a tinge of yellow in the mix. It was hilarious when accompanied by Ace' trademark I'll-kill-you-all glare.

"What's so funny, you asshole!" Ace exploded angrily at his brother who was laughing his ass off at the ground. He had a strange feeling of déjà vu washing over him at the situation. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared a hole in a tree trunk instead, though with his two swollen cheeks it looked more as if he was pouting than glaring. Or, maybe he was?

After Sabo had stopped laughing and the two had gone over the plan to steal the money from the truck, under slight snickers and laughs from Sabo who was doing his best to not find Ace face as hilarious as it was and while Ace was wishing himself away to the time when the Flame Flame fruit prevented him from ever looking like an overblown air balloon in the face, they made their way towards Edge Town.

Following Sabo who had a fresher memory of how to get into Edge Town without being spotted by the guards than Ace, the two quickly found the truck going through the thief-and-gang filled streets. It was driving quick enough to not seem suspicious or off-put but also slow enough to grab onto if you pushed yourself, which was no problem for Sabo and Ace.

"This way," Sabo said running into one of the many alley ways, making some sharp turns before they came out in front of the truck, both kids smirking. Looking at each other they nodded and Ace darted out into the middle of the road, right in front of the truck.

The driver's eyes widened and the truck came to a squeaking half, but not before it had bumped over what the driver believed to be Ace. Ace was lying behind the truck, red tomato sauce staining the pavement and his staff next to him, a large dent visible if Ace' hand wasn't currently covering that particular area.

"Oh my Lord!" the driver shouted terrified as he opened the side door and saw Ace. He hurried over to his red covered body. The impact on having killed a child was probably what kept the driver from noticing how Sabo was currently stuffing his and Ace' bag with as much money as the two kids could carry or the fact that Ace body was completely intact with no indication that he should have been driven over by a truck almost ten times his size just seconds ago. "What have I done? What have I done? Oh, what have I done?"

Ace gurgled saliva in his throat which to the driver sounded a lot like the kid trying to breathe.

"He's alive?!" the driver shouted. "What should I do? What should I do? Hey kid, do you hear me? Anyone, what should I do?"

"Somebody call a doctor!"

"Doesn't that kid look familiar?"

"Hey, you can borrow my den-den mushi."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" The driver ran over to the guy who'd spoken and grabbed the mini den den mushi.

Sabo's head exited the back of the truck and he blinked at Ace who in a second bolted up from the street at the same time as Sabo sprinted out of the truck and across the street. Ace grabbing one bag and Sabo the other as the two ran over the streets of Edge Town with angry shouts and cries behind them as they exited the gate easily without any superstition by hiding under one of the carts driving by at the moment. All the while the two laughed as they easily made an escape from the Grey Terminal and into Midway Forest.

They didn't stop until they were underneath the tree that hid their pirate treasure and had secured the money inside the hidden space and released a long breath. Ace was smiling the whole time as he looked up at the green leaves above. The thrill, the adrenaline and the memories made it all worth the sweat. Sure, Dadan would probably flip a coin when she saw the red staining him but she probably wouldn't complain as long as he said that he'd just killed another boar or something.

It was then that he saw it, the white sails on the horizon. At first he thought it was just a trick of the light but when the ship came closer to Dawn Island the contours of the vessel became even clearer to Ace. He'd seen those ships enough times in his life to know what they meant, what they represented and probably also what it meant this time. He sucked in a breath as he watched as the marine ship come so close he could read the words displayed on the sails.

Okay, so here we finally are! Now the story will finally get so much easier to write(!)... or not. Who knows until we get there, right! But one thing is sure, you who asked for Luffy? Here Luffy comes! In about one or two more chapters. But now we are here!

And please tell me what you think about the intro, the explanation of where they are and how long Ace has been in the past. Is it a good idea? Or do you find it just annoying to have there? Seeing as it's been quite a while since the last time I wrote on fanfiction my writing has changed and this is something I tend to have in most of my stories to clear everything and not cause confusion on where and when the story takes place.

Please R&R