Chapter 36: Christmas

"It's Christmas Eve!" Luffy cheered the first thing in the morning as he woke up "Ace, Sabo, wake up its Christmas!"

"Shut it Luffy we're trying to sleep here!" Ace yelled, punching him on the head. He and his two little brothers were at his house, sleeping side by side with Luffy in the middle like in the good old times.

"Every year" Sabo says as he watches Luffy run out of the room "Can't he let us sleep at least once?"

"Looks like he can't" Ace said "And as much as I'd like to stay in bed we need to get up if we don't want him to eat the whole breakfast."

"Yep" Sabo said "Should we wake up Dadan?"

The brothers look at each other before both of them got up, saying: "Nah."

XXXXX

"You brats; you didn't leave me anything to eat!"

"Stop complaining, you old bat" Ace said "It's not like the three of us were the only ones eating."

"Don't put the blame on us!" protested a bunch of men, Dadan's underlings.

"This couldn't get any worse" Dadan said just before a loud "Hoh hoh ho" was heard from the front door, followed by loud laughter "If there's someone up there he definitely hates me!"

"Hey, that voice..." Ace started fearfully.

"It's-"

"Gramps!" Luffy realized in horror "Quick, let's hide in the attic!"

"Too obvious; we've done that too many times!" Sabo protested "Under the dining table, now!"

"But then we might not even get out of there by lunch!" Ace argued. Sighing, Sabo snapped at his brothers: "Which is worse: getting beat up by the geezer or missing lunch!?"

"Missing lunch" the brothers answered without missing a beat. Sabo's eyebrow twitched before he sighed; his brothers were hopeless.

"Well, few seconds ´till the traditional Christmas Beating. Prepare yourselves, my brothers."

XXXXX

"Isn't it time to open the presents already?" Luffy asked an hour after they'd finished their dinner.

"We're still waiting for boss" Sabo said, making Garp scowl "Do we really have to wait for that useless son of mine? I want to open the presents already!"

"He's worse than Luffy when he wants..." Sabo muttered with a sweat drop.

"The geezer has a point tough and I don't think Dragon would mind either" Ace said "So why not?"

"How about the fact that he's bringing most of the presents?" Sabo said. Luffy and Garp looked at each other, declaring at the same time: "We'll wait for him."

"I suppose their stupidity is useful sometimes" Sabo thought with a sweat drop "This is gonna be a long night tough; bet they'll be complaining the whole time until Dragon comes."

Fortunately it only took two hours for the man to arrive.

"What took you so long, you useless brat?" Garp asked as Dragon stepped in.

"Merry Christmas to you too" was the younger man's dry reply "Maybe I shouldn't have bought all these presents after all."

"Gramps doesn't need his, but I didn't do anything" Luffy told, coming out from behind Garp.

"What was that?" Garp asked, hitting his grandson on the head.

"Do you have to beat up my son all the time?" Dragon asked, not that he was angry, just a bit annoyed.

"Indeed, he should beat up his own son instead, don't you agree?" Robin asks, coming inside from behind Dragon.

"Yeah!" Luffy cheered immediately.

Dragon glared at Robin, saying: "I knew taking you along would bite me in the ass sooner or later."

"Looks like it was the sooner" Garp said, cracking his knuckles with a huge smile "Prepare yourself, brat."

"Have fun" Robin said with a chuckle as Dragon ran out of the house with Garp in tow.

"Dad and gramps left" Luffy said with smile "Let's go open the presents now!"

"Won't they get mad?" Robin asked, but Luffy only answered: "That's a problem for that time!"

Robin chuckled, following the boy to the large combination of living room and dining room where his brothers and Dadan's group already waited at.

"Where are boss and the old geezer?" Sabo asked as he noticed the two.

"Having some father son time outside" Robin replied, making Sabo sweat drop "As in beating each other up and running away?"

"Pretty much" she said "Looks like Ace and Luffy are already opening their presents. Won't you join in?"

"I'd rather sit here and wait than get beat up for opening my presents before the geezer got here" he said with a chuckle "Those two just don't know how to think ahead."

"Indeed, people like them die young" Robin said with a calm smile, scaring the hell out of Sabo once again.

"Can't you stop that at least for today?" he deadpanned "It's Christmas for god's sake!"

"This is just who I am" Robin replied "It's like denying meat from Luffy."

Sabo sweat dropped, saying: "I can see your point, but wasn't that a bit too much?"

Robin didn't answer, just turned to watch the two young men. She recalled being that exited with presents at the age of six last time... or was it five? She couldn't exactly remember. She glanced at Sabo, wondering why he had turned out to be so different from his brothers. Could the main reason be something that happened even before he met them?

"What the hell!?" Garp's voice broke Robin's line of thoughts "You kids started to open the presents without me!?"

The youngest and the eldest of the brothers paled while the third one just sat on the couch, preparing to watch the other two get beaten. Being the smart one did have its benefits.

After Garp had calmed down and the presents had been opened Dragon told Luffy to get up, wishing to speak with him privately.

"What?" Luffy asked after they were out of everyone else's earshot.

"Well you see, at the start of the next year..."

A.N: Was it mean to end it there? Sorry, but you'll just have to wait for the next chapter if you want to know what he said :p