I do not own One Piece or any of the characters.
A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but not by too much. And, I managed two updates in one day, so I feel good about that.
Ace moved around the tiny kitchen of their apartment, pulling out pot after pot for what he was cooking. It was no secret how much his little brother loved to eat, which meant that whenever he cooked, he made a lot of food. Luffy loved to eat all different kinds of food, and you best bet that out of everything, there was more meat than vegetables and such. Ace himself loved to eat as well, but he just could not stuff it down like Luffy could. Where all of that food went, he wasn't sure. When you were the older brother of Luffy, it was essential that you knew the basics of cooking, and you damn well better know how to cook any kind of meat. Ace wasn't the best cook around, but Luffy enjoyed what he made nonetheless.
The reason why he was cooking was because for the past two hours, ever since Zoro had gotten there, he and Luffy had been shut up in Luffy's room working on homework. To Ace, Zoro seemed pretty intelligent, so they were probably still working because of Luffy. The younger just did not grasp most academic content, especially anything math related. And, since they were working that hard, Ace figured the least he could do was to make sure Luffy had something to eat when he finished. Zoro was welcome to join them too if he wanted, there would be plenty of food.
All in all, Ace was very content with living here. It had been a rough start, but it was nice. Luffy had friends, and for the most part, was happy about living here too. If Luffy was happy, Ace was happy. Luffy was the most important person to him, being his younger brother and all, he couldn't help but be overprotective and spoil the kid rotten. Every time Luffy asked for something, he gladly gave it to him. Luffy never asked for much, and when he did, it was usually a little bit of money or food, and Ace was happy to give it to him. That was why when Luffy asked for some money to go shopping the other day, he gladly handed over some.
He kind of had the feeling that Luffy wouldn't plan on using the money on himself, but that was fine. Luffy had his intentions on how he wanted to spend it, and they were most likely good intentions. Ace also noticed the new necklace that Zoro seemed to be sporting today. He wouldn't jump to conclusions, because he could be wrong, but there was always the chance that his assumptions were correct. Luffy may have used that money to buy Zoro a gift because he liked the older teen so much. Ace had to admit, it was amusing to watch Luffy fawn over someone like this. He never imagined what it would be like if Luffy happened to develop a crush on someone, and he was now witnessing it.
If only Luffy would tell Zoro about his feelings. The kid wasn't exactly making a bad choice by not telling him, but Ace just knew that no matter what happened, Zoro didn't look like the type of guy who would blow off a friend because of something like that. This made Ace want Luffy to spill to the guy even more, and he'd talked to Luffy about it numerous times, but Luffy still stuck with that he wasn't going to tell.
Ace couldn't make Luffy tell Zoro, and he wouldn't mention anything about it to Zoro since Luffy didn't want him to. But, he wouldn't lie. Ever since Luffy first told him that he liked Zoro, Ace made sure to keep an eye on the older teen whenever he was around. Not in a bad way, he simply did it to see if perhaps there was the chance that Zoro may do something that would lead him to believe that the teen maybe liked his little brother back, just a little bit. If he could spot something like that, he could always try to talk Luffy into saying something again. So far, he hadn't noticed much.
That didn't mean anything though. For all he knew, Zoro could very well like Luffy back and he was just too blind to see it. Or, Zoro hid it very well. And, maybe he didn't, there was always that chance. But, if there was just the slight chance that Zoro did, Ace would not allow Luffy to pass up on it. He was in on this just as much as Luffy. Zoro was a great guy. He wouldn't want to see Luffy without someone as great as Zoro. The guy just treated Luffy so well. And, Ace only wanted the best for Luffy. In this instance, that was Zoro.
Ace absently began putting everything together that he needed for what he was making. He reached over into the drawer where they kept larger utensils, feeling around for the ladle. When he didn't feel it, he blinked and looked into the drawer, noticing that it wasn't there. Where the hell did he put that thing? Actually, he hadn't used it in quite a while. It could be anywhere, but it was usually in that specific drawer. There was the chance that it had been misplaced, so he rummaged through all the other drawers. After rechecking them all when he came up empty handed, Ace sighed and turned the burner down so their food wouldn't burn. Maybe Luffy knew where the thing was.
"I don't get it. This is too hard!" Luffy exclaimed, glaring down at his math text book.
Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his temper in control. It wasn't Luffy's fault that he was a slow learner; Zoro just needed patience, which was something he found hard to have at times like these. "I just explained it to you five times. What don't you understand?" Zoro now noted that doing homework with Luffy was not the best idea. He'd finished his forty minutes ago, and had been helping Luffy with his ever since.
"I don't understand any of it. Explain it again!"
Zoro sighed. He honestly didn't think Luffy would understand it even if he explained it once more. "Alright, fine. I'll explain it again, but this is the last time." Luffy nodded and focused on listening to Zoro's explanation on how to solve the problem as best he could. He interrupted Zoro every now and again to ask a question if he suddenly didn't understand a part of the explanation. Zoro walked Luffy through the problem completely, making sure not to accidentally skip any step that would end up making Luffy even more confused. "Here. Try this one on your own." Zoro pointed at the next problem in the book, and Luffy wrote it down, desperately trying to remember how to go about doing it.
Math just did not stick with him. He tried and tried to remember, but it just did not happen most of the time. This time was no different. Halfway through the problem, Luffy gave up and groaned, falling backwards on his mattress. "This is stupid. You need to explain things better, Zoro!"
Zoro scowled down at Luffy. "The hell? I explained it six times! By now, you should understand it! It's not my fault your head's so thick that you can't remember anything."
Luffy pouted up at Zoro. "That's not fair. Math is really hard!" The younger jabbed the eraser of his pencil in Zoro's side several times.
"Stop that." Zoro grabbed the pencil from Luffy's hand, and proceeded to poke Luffy back in the stomach. The younger tried to stifle a laugh and squirmed slightly. Zoro lifted a brow at the behavior, deciding to do it again, but harder.
Luffy batted Zoro's hand away. "Don't do that." Zoro didn't listen and poked Luffy once more. Luffy slapped his hand again. "Stop poking me."
"You started it." Zoro replied blankly, poking Luffy again.
"I poked you because you're bad at explaining."
"It's not me who's the problem here. It's that head of yours." Luffy's hand rested on the spot where Zoro previously poked him, so Zoro chose to poke him with the pencil in his side a couple times, like Luffy had done to him.
Luffy laughed. "Stop!"
"What? Poking you? What's so wrong with that? Huh?" Zoro jabbed the pencil at Luffy some more. He was finding so much enjoyment in this.
Luffy kept squirming, trying to push Zoro's hand away. "It tickles, so quit it!"
Oh? Zoro smirked. Luffy probably shouldn't have revealed that bit of information to him. Because there was an idea brewing inside of his head and he couldn't stop himself from wanting to act on it. He poked Luffy with the pencil, watching the other giggle and instinctively grab onto his side. So, Luffy really was ticklish. This was too great to pass up on. He discarded the pencil in favor of prodding Luffy's side with his fingers. Luffy tried to shove his hand away numerous times, but pretty much failed in doing so.
Zoro decided to take it up a notch by moving to swing a leg over the other side of Luffy's body, so that the younger was trapped underneath him and could not get away as easily. The position they were currently in didn't have much of an effect on Luffy considering he was too preoccupied with trying to shove Zoro's hands away from his stomach. "So, you're ticklish?" Zoro asked, a grin taking over his features.
That was when Luffy realized he shouldn't have told Zoro that, but it was too late now to take it back. "Zoro, no!"
"Oh, I'm going to." Without a second thought, Zoro proceeded with his tickle attack on Luffy, who was too defenseless to do anything to stop it.
"Z-zoro! I said n-no!" Luffy erupted into a fit of laugher when Zoro's hands slipped under his shirt to tickle the exposed skin there. Zoro continued his tickle assault on Luffy relentlessly. He wouldn't let up on the kid for even a few seconds. No matter how much Luffy tried to stop him, he kept at it. The younger tried to force words out of his mouth, to tell Zoro to stop, but whenever he did, his laughter kept him from doing so. It's not like Zoro would have listened to him anyway.
By this time, there were tears falling down Luffy's face from the sheer amount of laughter he couldn't stop himself from producing. Zoro couldn't help but laugh with Luffy. The two were so caught up in their own actions, that they never even heard the sound of Luffy's door opening. "Hey, Luffy, do you know where we put-" Zoro suddenly stopped at the interruption, his hands still residing under Luffy's shirt. Luffy turned his head to the door, working on catching his breath by taking in deep breaths.
Ace stared at the scene in front of him, unsure of how to exactly react to it. From his point of view, it looked like he had just walked in on something he shouldn't have. He had no idea that what had really been going on was simply innocent, because he hadn't heard any of the laughter. What he was seeing in front of him was Zoro straddling his innocent little brother, with his hands somewhere under the boy's shirt, while Luffy seemed to be panting for much needed air with a slight tinge of pink covering his cheeks from his previous laughter. Overall, the position they were in hinted that this was far from anything innocent, to any outsiders that is.
The last he knew, Luffy was still pining over the older teen. What the hell had he missed? He cleared his throat awkwardly. What was he supposed to say in this situation? Suddenly a thought popped into his head and his big brother instincts took over, when he realized that in this position that Luffy and Zoro were in, it kind of appeared that Zoro may be taking advantage of his poor little brother, which he could not let happen! Luffy was to remain innocent until… well, he didn't know when. Until he said so! Yeah, he was Luffy's guardian, so it was his decision. Right? Right. "What the hell, Roronoa?"
Zoro glanced down at Luffy, who looked back up at him. The sight of Luffy still gasping for air like this, while underneath him sparked a bit of embarrassment inside of him, as well as some shame at being caught, by Luffy's older brother no less, in this awkward and questionable position. "Look, what you just saw isn't what you're probably thinking it is." Zoro stated, chancing a look back over at Ace.
The elder brother crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "Uh-huh. Why don't you get your hands out of Luffy's shirt?"
Zoro hurriedly tugged his hands back at that remark. So, he'd forgotten that they were still under there. Why did he get the feeling that he was in some deep shit now? "Ace, Zoro was just-"
"I don't want to know what Zoro was doing, Luffy. I do know one thing though."
Luffy blinked, unfazed that Zoro was still on top of him, or, rather he just wasn't paying attention that Zoro was still on top of him. "What's that?" Luffy asked.
"Zoro, get off Luffy." It was stated in a calm manner, but Zoro didn't want to chance pissing off an older protective brother, so he did as such, sitting back on his legs. "And, this door stays open from now on. You got that?"
"But, Ace-"
"It stays open. I'm just going to pretend I didn't see anything and go back to the kitchen, but I will come back to check."
Luffy opened his mouth to reply, but Ace walked away before he could say anything. Luffy and Zoro looked from the previous spot that Ace was standing at to each other for a few seconds. Well, their fun couldn't be ruined by that interruption, could it? The second Luffy grinned at him, Zoro found himself pouncing on the younger to resume his tickle attack once more. It wasn't like they were doing anything bad, Ace just jumped to conclusions too quickly. Luffy let out a loud laugh. "Haha, Zoro! S-st-hahaha-op!"
The sound of retuning footsteps caught both of their attentions and they each leaped away from each other at the very last second Ace's head rounded the door again. "What did I-" Ace cut his sentence short. He was not expecting to see what was before him. Zoro was sitting cross-legged on one side of the bed, his elbow resting on his knee, and his chin propped up by his hand, looking in the opposite direction of Luffy. The younger was on the other side of the bed, absently swinging his legs back and forth as they hovered slightly above the ground, and he too looked off, innocently, in another direction other than Zoro.
Neither said a word to Ace and he frowned, feeling a bit skeptical. But, decided that the food he was currently preparing was more important to worry about than these two idiots. "Nevermind." He turned around and walked away again, this time for good.
Luffy slowly turned his head toward Zoro, who did the exact same thing. The older teen suddenly grinned and reached out an arm, poking Luffy in the side. The younger giggled, poking back at Zoro. Luffy didn't have time to think before Zoro jumped at him once more, the rest of Luffy's homework temporarily forgotten.
Ace scowled down into the food be was making. Forget about the stupid ladle, he didn't need it that much anyway. That first sight he walked in on was the complete opposite of what he was expecting. Those two were supposed to be doing homework, dammit. When he'd said, or thought rather, that he was in on this as much as Luffy was, he didn't mean that he was all for Zoro practically molesting his brother. That was not what he was trying to accomplish here!
Ace sighed again. Maybe he had overreacted just a tiny bit. Perhaps Zoro and Luffy had been doing something innocent all along. Or, and Ace's hand tightened considerably around the utensil he was using at the moment, what he saw was exactly what it looked like, and Zoro wasn't the guy he had first thought him to be. But, there was that time when he was sick and Zoro helped out considerably with that. Ace's gripped lessened. This is what you got when you were Luffy's older brother. You became overprotective, quick to assumptions, and stressed out a lot worrying about the kid and what he may or may not be doing. Oh, and you were stuck cooking a meal that could feed multiple families at once. When was it that he agreed to become Luffy's older brother? Because he didn't remember ever being asked about it.
But, no matter how much Luffy caused him to want to tug out his hair from worry, stress, or frustration, he still loved the kid to death. And, he could trust that Luffy wouldn't let Zoro do something like that. Well, maybe. Okay, so he really needed to stop thinking about things this much and focus more on finishing up dinner more than anything.
Luffy was lying on his bed, attempting to refill his lungs with oxygen. He was sure he had never been tickled that much in his life. Zoro picked up the abandoned math textbook. "Do you think you'll be able to finish all of this?" He asked Luffy, peeking at the boy over the book.
The other shook his head and pushed himself up. Now, his sides were hurting from too much laughter. That would be Zoro's fault. "I'll get it done somehow. It won't be right, unless I ask Ace." Luffy's attention was caught by the slight sparkle of something shiny coming from Zoro's neck. He looked closer, noticing that it was the necklace he'd bought for Zoro yesterday. Zoro's shirt must have prevented him from noticing it until now. He grinned, happy that Zoro was actually wearing it. He pointed at the necklace. "Do you like it?"
Zoro looked down, pulling the necklace away from his neck to look at it. "I'm wearing it, aren't I?" He wasn't very good at giving straightforward answers, but the fact that he was wearing it, did mean that he liked it a lot.
"I'm glad you like it. I saw it and thought of you, so I bought it." Luffy decided not to say anything about that he had planned on buying Zoro something anyway.
Zoro still wasn't sure why Luffy would buy him something. And, to think he had never gotten Luffy anything before. "Why'd you spend your money on me?"
Luffy grinned. "Because I wanted to. Zoro's my friend, and you've been really nice to me too."
He had treated Luffy like a friend should, but that didn't exactly warrant a gift in return, in his book. He wouldn't question it further. He'd come to know that Luffy did certain things for certain reasons, and sometimes it was hard for others to understand why he did some of the things he did. This was one of those times for Zoro.
Luffy suddenly pushed himself on his knees and sniffed the air. Zoro thought it was a pretty random thing to do until Luffy spoke. "I smell food! I wonder if Ace is done cooking!" The younger jumped from the bed and turned to Zoro. "Do you want to stay and eat with us? Ace makes great food!"
Zoro wouldn't mind staying, he hadn't eaten in a few hours, but he was a bit hesitant after that whole thing with Ace before. Would the guy hate him now? He honestly had done nothing wrong, but it sure didn't look that way to Ace, that was obvious. It wouldn't be a good thing to be on Luffy's older brother's bad side.
"Zoro? You coming?" Luffy's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he nodded, following the boy into the livingroom. "Ace!" Luffy yelled out the elder's name as he and Zoro neared the kitchen. "I smell food!" Luffy ran over to his brother, peeking curiously into the all of the pots on the stove.
Zoro hadn't noticed it before, and why he didn't was probably because he was too shocked earlier to take notice, but when Ace turned around slightly, he could see that the guy was wearing a black apron with flames rising up on it. Odd, but not necessarily that strange. This was where Luffy lived.
"Is Zoro eating with us?" Ace asked Luffy, finishing up their meal.
Luffy nodded. "Yeah, can I have all of that?" He pointed to one specific pot and Ace pushed him away.
"No, you can't. There are other people here too, you know."
The other pouted. "Fine, but I want most of it."
"Shut up, you'll get plenty." God, the things he had to go through with this kid. Ace hurriedly finished up and it wasn't long before they all were sitting at the table. Luffy and Zoro sat next to each other, and Ace sat across from them. Honestly, Zoro felt a bit awkward. Ace hadn't said a word to him yet, and Luffy didn't seem to notice, for he was too engrossed in eating everything.
Ace happened to catch one of his stares at one point and sighed. He knew why Zoro was acting this way. It was all because of the events from earlier. He decided to say something so that Zoro wouldn't look as uncomfortable. "I trust that what you said earlier was true, Zoro. So, stop looking at me like that."
Zoro was kind of surprised by that, and Luffy looked up from his food, curious about what Ace was talking about. Zoro glanced down at his food. "I didn't mean for it to look the way it did."
The youngest swallowed his food and smiled. "It's fine, Ace. Zoro was just tickling me, that's all."
Ace gave Zoro a weird look. He hadn't thought about that. It would make sense if they were in that position. "What brought that on?"
"Luffy can't seem to understand math no matter how many times you explain it to him." Zoro replied.
Luffy frowned. "That's not true! I understand it when Ace teaches me! That's why I said you suck at explaining."
"And, I told you that it's just your head!"
"If it was 'just my head,' then why can I do it right when Ace shows me, but not when you do? Your explanations are confusing!"
Zoro's eyebrow twitched. "Maybe if you didn't fall asleep all the time in class, no one would have to explain it to you again."
"It's hard to stay awake in a class that boring! You're the one who's supposed to keep me awake!"
"I never agreed to that!"
"If you did, then you wouldn't have to give me sucky explanations."
Ace busted out laughing at the two arguing teenagers, effectively causing them to stop arguing with each other over something so pointless. Once he had his laughter under control, Ace looked up at the two who were staring back at him. "You're arguing over something so stupid, it's funny. I guess Luffy never finished his math then?"
"Nope! Ace, will you help me with it since you're not as confusing as Zoro?"
"I explained it clearly to you six times, Luffy. It's not confusing."
Ace smirked at Luffy. "Six times, huh? I'm thinking it's not because you don't understand it."
Luffy glared at his brother and decided to stuff his face instead of commenting on that. First Shanks and now Ace was going to start teasing him too? Zoro didn't say anything either, picking up on the underlying hint in Ace's statement as well. He didn't want to mention it in case he was wrong, but he had an idea. He mostly figured that maybe it had to do with how Ace found them earlier.
They finished up their meal, and shortly after Zoro packed up his things and left. It was beginning to get late and he had abandoned working out long enough. Being able to get home and do that would surely make him feel better overall. Not that he didn't have a nice time with Luffy, working out just seemed to relieve him from everything, and that was a part of why he enjoyed it so much.
Recently, he had been trying to figure out some thoughts and feelings that were confusing him slightly about Luffy. The kid had managed to change him quite a bit without him even realizing it at the time. Luffy was different than any other person he'd met for many different reasons. The number one reason being that Luffy was able to make him feel so many different things, most of which were good things. He was happy around Luffy for the most part, which wasn't something he could say he felt around a lot of other people.
He didn't know what it was exactly, but there was something, or maybe multiple things, about Luffy that made him like the younger so much. Perhaps it was simply that Luffy was his closest friend, dare he say, his best friend, and best friends did usually have stronger bonds than normal friends. That had to be it. It couldn't be anything else other than that, could it? Like, nothing more, right? It could, but Zoro found it slightly hard to believe. There was just no way.
After Zoro left, Luffy had closed the door behind him. He went to his room and picked up his text book, feeling a small emptiness now that Zoro wasn't around any longer. But, that was okay, because he needed to finish this homework for tomorrow and Ace was still here to help him with it. He retreated back into the livingroom, taking a seat next to Ace on the couch. He put the text book on the table and flipped to the right page. "This is what Zoro was trying to teach me." He pointed to the problems on the page, and Ace glanced over at them. He didn't exactly remember these too well, but there were always things inside of the book that could help him show Luffy how to do that work.
Ace looked through the examples on the previous page, and once he understood how to do them, he went over one of the problems in Luffy's homework to show him how to do it correctly. He actually only had to explain it twice before Luffy tried it once more and got the answer right. Luffy was pretty proud of himself for finally being able to do it. He didn't know why, but when Zoro attempted to teach him, he could not grasp it. Maybe he did get distracted or something, who knows.
The older brother smirked once Luffy completed the problem correctly. "It took Zoro six tries and only two for me. You sure that you weren't paying attention to something else?" Ace teased, laughing at Luffy when the younger's face colored slightly because of that remark.
"I was not distracted! You make it less confusing."
"Really? And, what exactly do I do different from Zoro? Not distract you?"
"I told you that's not it!"
Ace leaned closer to Luffy's face, his smirk still in place. "I don't believe that."
"Fine." Luffy looked away from Ace and back down to his homework. "Don't believe me. I don't care."
Ace chuckled and watched Luffy, making sure the other did his homework correctly. It was one thing to do it, and another to do it right. Where would this kid be without him around?
