Sabo almost drops his pen when the lights clicks on.
He turns to look at Ace, his brother looks to have been asleep before coming downstairs.
Smiling, he pushes his glasses up into his hair.
"You startled me."
Ace yawns and rubs his eye. He returns the smile.
"Sorry 'bout that"
"It's fine. What's up, why're you awake?"
He asks and turns to him.
Ace looks at the clock with a worried frown. It's late, just a little past 2 in the morning.
It's not unusual for Sabo to be awake at this time, as he usually spends his nights studying for school and weekends at work to help sustain their small shared apartment.
Ace also works most nights, sometimes he does double shifts into the day, and then goes to bed early. Yesterday was one of those days, so Sabo's a little surprised to see him awake.
"Luffy's not back yet?"
Their little brother doesn't usually spend nights out, but sometimes he and his friends do all nighters watching movies. However on those nights Luffy would text Ace (seeing as Sabo would be doing school work,) from either his own phone or from Zoro, their brother's co-worker and friend's phone.
"He didn't text you?" He says as an answer. Ace shakes his head, before he walks to the kitchen counter where Sabo's own phone lay.
"He didn't text you either"
Glancing at the clock again, Ace unlocks his phone before calling who he assumes is the green haired man.
"Hey, Zoro. It's Ace"
"Yeah sorry about that, hold on for a sec let me put you on speaker,"
"Why are you calling me? Did Luffy forget something?" Zoro asks in a groggy voice, Ace must've woken him up.
"So he left your place?"
There's no talking, but they hear the rustle of sheets, it sounds like he sat up.
"You mean he's not back yet?"
The dread that's been slowly growing inside his gut since Ace picked up his phone grows tenfold.
He dares himself to speak.
"...When did he leave?"
"After dinner"
The sleepiness from his voice is all but gone. It sounds like he's getting up and out of bed.
"I.. I see, thanks Zoro. We'-"
"I'm gonna head out and look for him. Call me if he come ba-"
Neither of the two listen to Zoro's words at the sound of a key in their lock.
"Hold that thought, I think someones at the door" Sabo says and gets up.
Ace watches him from the counter as his blonde brother walks to the entrance hall.
They hear their door open and close.
"Luffy? Is that y-"
Sabo's words die off in his throat.
His eyes widen in terror and his hand flies to his mouth.
"Sabo? What's wrong?" Ace asks worrily, but no one replies.
He walks towards his brother who's frozen in place, worry growing ten-fold as he does.
Nothing could have prepared him for the sight.
"Oh god" Ace lets slip, his own terror consuming him before dropping the phone and running to Luffy.
Luffy, who's standing in front of their door, wearing his favourite yellow T shirt and denim shorts.
Luffy, who's completely drenched in blood.
Ace's knees hitting their wooden floors brings Sabo out of his stupor, who quickly picks up the phone with a 'We'll have to call you back' before ending the call.
His freckled brother is inspecting Luffy for injuries.
Ace is close enough that he can make out Luffy's red rimmed brown gray eyes, and tear streaks on his lightly freckled cheeks.
"It's okay Ace. It's not my blood"
It's spoken so low and carefully, barely a whisper - if Ace hadn't been this close, he likely wouldn't have heard.
"N-not your blood?" He asks, pausing his inspection. Luffy merely shakes his head no.
Ace looks wordlessly back at Sabo - He doesn't know what to do.
Sabo takes a deep breath, putting up a false sense of calm, before he walks closer to his brothers.
"How about you help him clean up? I'll go.. Get some new clothes from his room. Is that alright, Luffy?"
His brother nods mutedly, and lets himself be carefully dragged by Ace to their bathroom.
Standing by the door, Ace heads to the kitchen for a black plastic bag.
Standing in the bathroom, he carefully pulls the sticky clothes off of Luffy's body - his brother doesn't protest or say anything, only looks at the wall in silence.
Ace puts the dirty clothes in the trash bag before turning on the faucet in their bathtub.
As they wait for it to fill, he checks his brother for injuries again. He knows Luffy said it.. Wasn't his blood, but Ace'd rather be 100% sure.
Finding nothing but the blood speckled on his brother's face, neck and along his hands up his arms, he bites the inner sides of his lip.
He's not gonna contemplate further on it - when the time comes, they'll deal with it together but for now, he's going to focus on being there for Luffy.
His brother still hasn't said anything, which is unusual in and of itself, but his brother's dull gaze does nothing to quell the worry consuming his insides.
When the tub is filled and the water warm, he guides Luffy to sit down in it. His brother goes along with it.
He takes a washcloth from under the sink and wets it with the tub water before putting dollops of soap on it - Strongly mint scented, Luffy's favourite. Ace hopes it'll distract him enough from the stench of iron still present.
He carefully washes the blood from his skin, scrubbing lightly to make sure he gets all of it, before wetting it again and moving onto his brother's face.
Taking great care to not get soap in his eyes or mouth, Ace cleans it thoroughly.
It strikes him how much like their mother he looks like right now.
While Ace looks like Rogue a lot more than Roger, his face, hair and eye shape takes more from his dad. Luffy's face looks more like Rogue than Dragon, but his eye shape comes from their grandma.
Funnily enough, Sabo's eye shape resembles Luffy's a lot more than his own despite being adopted. Their blonde brother takes great pride in that, even if he won't say it.
He wonders how their parents are doing.
Finished with the cloth, Ace throws that in the black bag too.
Using the shower head, he rinses the soap off of Luffy's body, before getting some shampoo (this one's menthol) and carelly washes his brother's black strands.
Luffy very carefully keeps his eyes off the pink tinted bath water.
He turns off the shower and unplugs the tub. Helping Luffy out, he takes a black fluffy towel and dries his brother off.
Sabo enters their bathroom holding some clean clothes. Ace doesn't ask him before helping him get dressed.
Now sporting a red tee shirt and yellow and blue pajama pants, Luffy lets himself be pulled to the living room where he's sat down between his brothers.
It's completely silent in their small shared space, Sabo's masked worry getting less and less covered up.
"Do… Can… What happened, Luffy?" He attempts, a hand in his blonde locks keeping it out of his face - it's a nervous habit.
Luffy's eyes don't leave the carpet where he's been staring holes, but he blinks a couple times. His eyes are wet.
"I… I don't know"
Sabo shoots him a panicked look over Luffy's shoulder.
"What.. Do you mean?" Ace asks.
"I.. I don't remember. I-Did. Did I-"
Their brother's fists clench as his breathing picks up. Sabo's quick to react and gains Luffy's attention to get his breathing back under control.
"Luffy, what's the last thing you remember?" He asks gently, keeping a hand on top of Luffy's clenched one.
"I.. Zoro and I had eaten some food Perona had cooked. I.. i must've blacked out or something I don't know, but next thing I know I… I blink and there's.. There's blood on my hands."
He stops to take several deep breaths. When he's breathing normally again, Ace reaches out to brush the tears that'd leaked from his eyes away with a thumb. Luffy doesn't notice.
"There was a knife in my hand, I.. I was standing above someone. I threw away the knife and ran"
"Did-Did I.."
"Of course not Luffy - we don't know what happened. What do you say about taking a nap, and then we call Gramps first thing in the morning?"
Sabo suggests, tone steady. Ace can see the clear hidden distress, though.
When Luffy doesn't answer right away he begins to wonder if his brother heard or zoned out.
"Can.. Can I sleep with one of you?"
Right. Ace doesn't blame him, he doubts if it'd been him that he'd be able to sleep.
"Of course - what do you say, sleepover here on the couch?" Sabo suggests.
Luffy just nods.
They pull out their couch, and Sabo gets their duvets and pillows from their respective rooms.
Arranging it so Luffy is between them, they turn off the lights before heading off to sleep.
Ace doesn't fall asleep, and he doubts either of the other two do.
When he feels someone prod at his arm, he turns to lay on his side and meets his brothers eyes.
He opens his arms, Luffy accepts the invitation.
Sabo turns around to watch them, crawling closer and lets his arm rest between Luffy's shoulder blades.
He looks worried, not bothering to conceal it - his mind must be going through a million things right now.
"Stop thinking idiot. We'll tackle this in the morning, okay?"
Sabo searches his eyes, before nodding mutedly, letting his hand glide into Luffy's still wet hair and ruffle it.
Only when both his brothers are asleep does Ace find solace.
When Sabo wakes up, the first thing he does is turn on the TV.
He doesn't worry about it waking up his brothers who're still entangled and asleep, and turns on the subtitles.
He stops on the news channel, waiting for the segment to begin anew.
Hearing rustling, he turns to see Ace slowly sitting up, trying his best not to disturb Luffy who's using the man as a pillow.
He doesn't question the TV being on, simply gives Sabo a look before wordlessly waiting.
They don't have to wait long as the news starts over.
"Good morning, I am your host Morgans.
This morning police were called in to a murder site on Red line st. The victim has yet to be identified, but murder weapon and cause of death has clarified."
The screen shifts to show a white-haired police officer with a cigar in his mouth. Next to him is a familiar woman. Sabo doesn't remember her name right now, but thinks he's seen her with Nami, one of Luffy's friends.
"Ah, sir!" The woman chastises her boss, before turning to look at the camera and mic.
"Sergeant, do you have time for a word? Have you identified the victim?" The street reporter asks.
"Not yet, but we're working on it.""What about the cause of death?""We've confirmed it to be deep lacerations. The victim, a male believed to be in his 30's, had been repeatedly stabbed in the chest, face and abdomen. The attacker used a dull knife, and likely kept going even after the victim had passed."
The screen shifts again back to Morgans.
"This just in - The security camera caught the attack, which we won't be showing here, but we have a description of the attacker and a picture of their face."
The screen flashes, before showing some black and white sketches of Luffy's face, and some pictures of their brother on the security cam. He's smiling in the photos.
If you know this person, please call the police on this number-"
Ace turns off the TV abruptly.
Neither of them know how to feel, or what to do.
"Should we.. Should we call Gramps?" Ace asks.
"No. No, we can't. His loyalty lies with the force. He'd.. He'd bring Luffy in."
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"I.. I don't know."
"You don't seriously think he'd-"
"Of course not! This is Luffy we're talking about!"
They're both careful so their whispered argument doesn't wake up Luffy.
"We could call mom? Or one of the dads?"
"I don't think that'd help. Besides, if they've already set their sights on Luffy, they could track down our parents and possibly rule them in as accomplices."
"There's no way Luffy would do something like this - can't.. Can't you do something?"
Sabo brushes his hair from his face.
"No - Even if we were to plead insanity, they'd still lock him up, either in prison or in a mental facility. That is if they'd even be willing to listen to us that is"
Sabo looks down at their brother, peacefully sleeping in Ace's lap with an arm slung across his waist. He reaches down and tangles his fingers in his dark locks - something he used to do to calm down when he was younger.
Luffy and Ace are his brothers. Rogue, Roger and Dragon are his parents.
They gave him a home.
He doesn't remember it, but he knows he and Ace were present the day Luffy came into their lives as Roger rushed them to the hospital to greet him.
He doesn't remember his life before them with the people who made him - doesn't want to, if his scars have any say in it.
Luffy's always been able to read people easily without even knowing it, he always saw through Sabo's insecurities and helped him, he's strong, the strongest he knows.
He's like the sun, and Sabo won't let someone put out his light and let it be wasted behind bars locked up somewhere.
Having made up his mind, he leaves their makeshift bed.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to pack some essentials. Check the latest news update on my phone and see if they've confirmed Luffy's identity."
"Pack-?" Sabo doesn't let him say anything else as he throws his phone to Ace.
Wondering what's going on in his curly haired brother's head, he dutily checks the news on his phone.
"WANTED - 19 YEAR OLD COLLEGE STUDENT CONVICTED FOR MURDER-"
Right beneath it is a photo of Luffy, not a sketch, but a photo. Ace would know, he was there when they took it in highschool. It's next to the security cam pictures. He spies Luffy's name on the paper, before closing the phone.
"Sabo!" He yells as quietly as possible, his brother sticks his head out of his room.
"We have a problem"
He doesn't know if its his tone or facial expression, but Sabo nods with a determined air around him.
Barely a minute later he walks into the living room with a duffel bag in tow.
"Get yours and Luffy's bags, pack some clothes and other essentials."
"Where are we going?"
"Away from here, we have to leave. If we don't they're gonna arrest him. I'm not gonna sit and let them prosecute our innocent brother. Are you in?"
"Sabo you're a law student-"
"Right now this doesn't matter! If you don't want to leave that's fine, but I'm taking Luffy with me."
Ace searches his brother's eyes.
He's completely serious.
"If we do this, there's no turning back. We might have to be on the run forever, we might even be branded as criminals ourselves. "
"I know. But for Luffy, I'd become the devil himself if it kept him safe."
As he says this, his eyes fall onto their brother. His gaze softens and fills with adoration, and Ace finds there wasn't ever any doubt in him that he'd do this for Luffy.
"Alright. Let's go"