To be honest guys, I'm absolutely amazed with the response to the first chapter last week. Not only did I get 10 reviews, which must be a record, but they were pretty much all absolutely amazing. You guys seem as excited about this story as I myself am about writing it, which is really awesome. I'd love to see you guys continuing in that way in regards to the number of reviews. I absolutely love hearing what you guys have to say.

Anyway, before we start I would like to give a quick response to "Robin4life". As you can probably tell from the two stories previous to this one, Robin is the main character and Zoro x Robin is the main pairing of the story, but this story isn't heavily romantic, and whilst Robin is the main character, It's not focussed solely on her. This chapter for example is all about Luffy, Ace and Sabo. I'll write about whichever character I want really, so if you want a story completely about Zoro and Robin, it's not going to be this one. Sorry.

Luffy launched forward, practically tackling the blonde teacher into a hug, not satisfied with the offer of a handshake. Sabo didn't seem to mind however, patting a weeping Luffy on the back.

"I… I missed you so much!" Luffy bawled. Sabo smiled gently.

"I missed you too. Man, this brings back a lot of good memories."

Nami blinked, not understanding what was going on. "Uh…"

Sabo, as if noticing that there was someone with Luffy for the first time, looked up. "Oh hey. You must be one of Luffy's friends. I'm Sabo. Luffy's big brother."

Nami didn't know quite what she was expecting, but it wasn't that. "I… uh… what? Luffy's… brother?"

"Yeah. He didn't mention me before?"

Nami just continued to stare at the still crying Luffy. "No, he didn't. Neither did Ace or Garp."

Sabo laughed. "Actually Garp never approved of me hanging around with Luffy and Ace when we were younger, so that doesn't surprise me. Ace, on the other hand… Ah well, it's been so long, so I guess it's not too surprising that Luffy and Ace have never talked about me."

######

"Stop following me!" a ten year old Ace yelled at his five year old brother, who was attempting to hide behind a bush. Unfortunately, what he didn't realise was that his hair was sticking up from behind the bush, giving away his position.

"But why?" Luffy whined, standing up.

"What do you mean why? Why do you have to follow me? Go find some other little kids your age to play with!"

"But I don't know any!" Luffy bawled.

A vein popped on Ace's forehead. "How is that my fault! You can't come with me though, you're still just a little kid! Go home and play with Grandpa or something!"

Luffy pouted, hoping Ace would budge. He didn't. So, the five year old turned around, pretending to go back home, fully intent on continuing to follow Ace when he got going again.

######

Ace took a quick glance around, making sure no one was watching him, before entering the forest in the park. He then took his usual route, leading him to a familiar tree. Crouching down next to it was a blonde boy, around his age, wearing a black top hat. Upon hearing Ace approaching, he glanced up and grinned, revealing a big gap in his teeth. "Hey Ace! You're a little late…:

Ace rolled his eyes. "Sorry Sabo, it was my little brother again. He's so annoying…"

"He can't be that bad…"

Ace glared at him. "You don't know him! He's the the biggest crybaby ever!"

Sabo laughed, before turning back to the tree. Or rather, what was stashed under the tree roots. "So anyway, do you have any more?"

Ace nodded, reaching into his pocket and digging out exactly $2.65. Sabo stepped aside, revealing a small box, 'borrowed' from his his mother. She wouldn't miss it, she had hundreds after all. Ace opened the box and deposited the pocket change. "I had 2 dollars and 65 cents Sabo, how much does that make the total now?"

"Uh… let's see…." Sabo took a moment to compute the sum in his head, before smiling victoriously. "30 dollars and 87 cents. Wow, that's so much!"

"How much do you think we'll need?"

Sabo thought for a second. "Well, the ship will cost at least 50. Then we'll need lots of food and stuff like that. I think if we can collect 100 dollars, we'll definitely have enough!"

Ace grinned. "We can get that easily. I bet by the time we're grown up we'll have double that. So it's settled then, when we turn 17, we'll use this money to buy a pirate ship and set sail from here, away from your evil parents!"

Sabo smiled, honestly feeling himself getting a little emotional at the thought of their plan. "Yeah. Thanks Ace."

######

"Aceeeee!" Luffy yelled, clumsily traversing the uneven terrain of the park forest. He had seen Ace come in here, but had lost him afterwards.

Suddenly, Luffy's stomach growled. "Man, I'm so huuuungry!" Luffy whined. The small boy was so distracted by his hunger that he wasn't paying attention to where he was walking, resulting in him tripping over a tree root.

"Ow, that hurt!" Luffy rolled around in pain on the ground for a second before noticing a small box hidden under the tree roots. Luffy blinked, his curiosity about the item meaning that he momentarily forgot both his pain and hunger. He crouched down and removed the object, opening it without a second thought as to who it may belong to or what may lie inside. But Luffy never worried about that kind of stuff anyway.

Luffy's eyes widened at the sight of the numerous coins coupled with a few notes inside. Luffy wasn't a fan of Math, but the amount of money in the box certainly seemed like a lot. "Wow! I wonder whose this is! Maybe its a pirate's treasure!"

Luffy grinned, replacing the box and immediately resolving to find Ace, hoping that he would be interested in his little 'discovery', not knowing that the money actually belonged to Ace. Well, partly anyway.

######

Luffy looked around the park. A quick scan of every direction confirmed that Ace was still nowhere in sight. "Oh no… what do I do?"

Just then, Luffy heard the sound of laughing. He turned around to see a small group of kids around Ace's age. Luffy smiled. Maybe they'd know where Ace was!

With that, a beaming Luffy approached the older boys, feeling no sense of danger whatsoever. "Hey, excuse me!"

One of the boys, a tall boy with long whitish blue hair, turned around and scowled at Luffy. "What do you want, kid?"

"Hey, I'm Luffy! I was wondering if you know my big brother, Ace?"

The tall boy stared at Luffy. Did he say Ace? As in Ace, his archenemy? Well, him and Sabo were both equally bad, but still. Ace and Porchemy, the name of the tall boy, had been enemies for a couple of years now, ever since Ace first moved into town with his Grandfather and younger brother. Porchemy and his gang had always been able to bully the other kids in the area into doing what they wanted, but this tactic didn't work on Ace or Sabo, who were able to fight back, usually much harder than Porchemy could.

Not believing his luck, Porchemy grinned at Luffy. "Sure I do! Me and Ace are good friends actually."

Luffy's eyes lit up. "Really! Cool, what's your name?"

"I'm Porchemy. So why do you want to find Ace?"

Luffy grinned. "I found something really cool I want to show him. It's this box I found in the forest."

Porchemy's eyes widened. He knew what Luffy was talking about. "Ace's stash?! You know where it is?!"

Luffy blinked. "Huh? Ace's? You mean it's his?"

Porchemy grinned evilly. This was too good to be true. He'd spent weeks searching for Ace's stash, having overheard Ace and Sabo talking about it once. And now he'd found someone who could lead him to it. "Come on guys, let's take Luffy here to Ace. I know just where he'll be at…"

######

Ace scowled as he turned the corner onto his street, not looking forward to going home to his annoying brother and overly-aggressive grandfather. But it was lunchtime and he had to eat. He'd be able to go out and meet Sabo in the afternoon, and that was good enough for him.

"Ace!"

Ace turned around, surprised by the sight of a panicked looking Sabo running towards him. "What are you doing here? You know your parents will be angry if they find out you've been in our neighbourhood!"

Sabo panted heavily as he reached Ace. "That doesn't matter… It's Porchemy. He and his friends are beating up some little kid!"

"A little kid?"

"Yeah, I saw them in the forest when I was heading back there to put some more money in our chest. Two of them were holding this kid down whilst Porchemy punched him. He looked a lot like you Ace actually…"

Ace's eyes widened. It couldn't be…. "Luffy!"

With that Ace sprinted past Sabo in the direction of the park. Sabo, needing a couple of seconds to catch his breath having run the whole way there in the first place, watched Ace for a couple of seconds, before running as fast as he could after him.

######

Sabo, noticing Porchemy and his friends a little ahead, joined Ace in hiding behind a nearby tree. "Poor kid…" he muttered, too quiet for Porchemy to hear.

Ace watched the scene in front of him through gritted teeth. "It's Luffy. That idiot. I told him not to come here."

"That's your little brother?"

Ace nodded. "Yeah. Why are they picking on him though?"

"I'm not sure… "

Porchemy growled. "Quite playing dumb! I know you know where Ace's stash is!"

Luffy gulped, looking away from Porchemy. "N.. No, I don't!"

Porchemy glared at him. "You're such a terrible liar! It's obvious you do!"

Ace clenched his fists. "So that's what it is…"

Sabo covered his mouth, horrified by what was happening to Luffy. "He's just letting them punch him. Why won't he just tell them…?"

Ace looked around, finally finding a hefty looking stick to use as a weapon. "Oi, Sabo…"

Sabo nodded, finding a stick of his own. Ace counted down from three, him and Sabo charging forward at Zero. Porchemy and his group of four friends, startled, were unprepared for the ambush, Sabo and Ace knocking down the two who were just watching before they could blink. They scrambled to their feet and ran away, as did the two holding Luffy down. That just left Porchemy, who knew he was outmatched. Before Ace and Sabo could attack, he bolted after his crew, crying something about 'Bluejam making them pay'.

Luffy, more than a little beat up, smiled weakly. "Ace! You saved me!"

Ace blushed slightly, turning away so Luffy couldn't see his face. "Shut up! I only did that because I hate those jerks. Besides… how could you just let them beat you up like that without fighting back!"

"But… I don't know how to fight."

"So why didn't you just tell them where the box was? They would have let you go if you did."

"If I'd done that," Luffy sniffed. "They'd have taken your treasure and you'd have been sad. You and grandpa are the only friends I have Ace."

Ace gritted his teeth, feeling bad for scolding Luffy now. Sabo, noticing this, smiled first at Ace and then at Luffy. "I think that was really brave of you Luffy. You're a lot tougher than Ace gives you credit for. Thank you for not telling them about our treasure."

"Its yours too?"

Sabo nodded, holding his hand out to help Luffy up. "My name's Sabo, and I'm a friend of Ace's. That box you found was our treasure, and it's really important to us. Thank you for not telling them where it was."

Ace rolled his eyes, clearly not happy with how Sabo was playing good cop. Sabo smiled at Ace. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we let Luffy join our crew?"

Ace glared at him. "Are you crazy? Luffy's still just a little kid, plus he's a crybaby, and he can't fight!"

"You and I can teach him how to fight. Besides, what's going to happen to him when we're not around? Porchemy and those guys will still pick on him."

Luffy's eyes lit up. "Yeah Ace! You're tough so you can teach me how to fight!"

Ace switched his glare from Sabo to Luffy. "No!"

"Please?"

"I said no!"

"Pretty please?"

"No!" Ace yelled as loud as he could, Sabo actually jumping slightly. Luffy opened his mouth, probably to say 'pretty pretty please' or something along those lines and Sabo had to act quickly to get between Ace and Luffy before Ace could lunge at his little brother.

"OK, OK, we can figure out those details later. What's important is that you two get home. Your grandpa'll probably be worried about you."

Ace nodded. "Good point. C'mon Luffy, let's go back."

With that, the three boys headed their separate ways, Luffy and Ace towards their home and Sabo towards his.

######

"Liar!" Sabo's father yelled, slapping his young child fiercely across the face. Sabo bit his lip, desperate to avoid any tears coming out at all costs. The two were currently in Sabo's father's study, Sabo having just returned home. Outside the room, Sabo's mother was waiting, no intention of course of entering the study and helping her son. She looked down at her younger son, Stelly, who seemed somewhat amused at what was happening to his older brother.

"Now see Stelly, this is what happens when you don't obey your parents and mix with… vermin."

Sabo's parents had one golden rule. Their children were never to interact with the 'vermin'. Sabo's parents were wealthy nobles, descendants of the Celestial Dragons in fact. As a result, they looked down on 'regular people' seeing them as beneath them, and so aimed to force this view on their children. Stelly had no problem with this, but Sabo could never think the same way they did.

Because of this, whenever Sabo wanted to hang out with Ace, his best friend, he had to leave the house secretly and get back quickly enough so that no one would notice he was gone. It was a giant house after all. However the incident with Porchemy had meant he'd been gone for too long, and so had been 'discovered'. His father had been waiting at the door when he returned and instantly dragged Sabo to his study for 'interrogation'.

"So what?" Sabo yelled, his rage finally getting the better of him. "Ace is my friend. He's not a vermin or whatever!"

Sabo's father tried to hit his son again, but Sabo avoided it and ran out of the room, past his startled mother and grinning brother.

######

Garp rolled his eyes as his five year old grandson devoured a giant chunk of meat in one gulp, distracting him from the announcement he was going to make. "Anyway, like I was saying, I'm gonna have to go away for a bit for work. Probably the whole summer."

Ace just shrugged, as if to say 'no big deal' whilst Luffy continued eating. A vein popped on Garp's head. "Nice to know you'll miss me… " He muttered. "Anyway, I obviously can't leave you brats here alone, so I'm sending you to live with a friend of mine. She owns a farm a couple of miles outside town. She's called Dadan."

"I don't wanna go," Ace replied dismissively, whilst Luffy still continued to eat.

"Too bad," Garp replied equally dismissively, although his response was partially drowned out by the sound of Luffy chewing.

"I"m not going."

"Well you are going."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you… " Garp stopped, Luffy putting a whole orange in his mouth, chewing it seemingly as loud as he could. "Yes you are."

"No. I'm not." Besides Ace, Luffy had returned to his meat, putting way too much in mouth, as he always did.

"Yes, you… for God's sake Luffy, could you stop eating for one god damn second!"

Luffy gulped down the half chewed food, terrified of his angry grandfather. Unfortunately, since the food wasn't fully chewed, he began choking, some of the food too big to go down. Both Garp and Ace rolled their eyes, with the old man finally getting up to give Luffy the Heimlich.

"Th… thanks Grandpa…" Luffy weakly gasped.

Garp nodded equally weakly. Sometimes he worried about Luffy. Genuinely. "So anyway, you two will stay with Dadan for probably the next couple of months. I'll be back in time for the start of school though."

Ace was about to respond, but Garp silenced him with a genuine glare. The older brother groaned loudly and got up. "Fine, whatever. I'm going now." He began walking towards the door before stopping and turning to Luffy, who expecting him to tell him not to follow him, as usual. However instead, he nodded towards the door. "C'mon. Just to be clear though, if you're gonna join our crew, you have to do whatever Sabo and I tell you to do, got it?"

Luffy gasped, jumping up from the table and nodding happily. "OK! Thank you Ace!"

Garp lazily watched as Luffy ran off after a reluctant Ace, not caring enough to figure out what he meant by 'crew' or who exactly 'Sabo' was.

######

Sabo sniffed, his eyes wet with tears. Now that he was away from his father, his pride didn't prevent him from crying. He was at his and Ace's usual meeting point, safe in the knowledge his father wouldn't even dream of leaving their spotless mansion, let alone wandering around a dirty muddy forest.

"Sabo? What's wrong?"

Sabo looked up from the ground to see a genuinely concerned looking Ace and a surprised looking Luffy. "Ace. Luffy."

Ace clenched his fists. "Your dad again huh? That jerk. I want to kick his ass so bad…"

Sabo smiled slightly. "Thanks for that."

"I'm serious. If he hits you, why don't you just hit him back? If he's just some spoilt rich jerk, he probably doesn't know anything about fighting. I bet you could kick his ass easily!"

Sabo shook his head. "It's not that simple. He's my father, I can't do anything to him."

Luffy blinked. "Your dad hits you too? Does he hit as hard as Grandpa does?"

Ace glared at him. "Idiot! The way Sabo's dad hits him is different to the way Grandpa hits us!"

"How? A punch is a punch, right?"

"The difference is Grandpa does it when you act like an idiot. Sabo's dad hits him for no reason."

"Grandpa hits me all this time though."

"That's because you act like an idiot all the time! Because you are an idiot!"

Sabo chuckled slightly at the two brothers bickering. Even though they didn't seem to get along, he'd take their relationship over the one he had with his brother any day. Ace glared at Sabo.

"I'm serious though! Why don't you just kick that jerk's ass the next time he hits you?"

"Because if I did I don't know what would happen. Father would be terrified of me. There's no way he'd let me stay in the same house as him."

"And that's good, right? You hate it there!"

Sabo looked sadly at Ace. "I'd have nowhere to go Ace."

Ace thought for a second before gasping, an idea coming to his head. "I know… you could stay with us!"

Sabo blinked. "What?"

Ace grinned. "Grandpa's leaving tomorrow, so me and Luffy are going to stay with some stupid farmer or something. You should come with us!"

"How could I do that. This farmer would know I'm not one of your grandfather's grandchildren."

"No she wouldn't! She's never met us before. Knowing grandpa, he'd probably have said something like 'look after my brats' or something. I bet we could convince her you're our brother!"

Sabo looked sceptical. "You seriously think that would work?"

Ace sighed, annoyed at Sabo's disapproval. "Well we won't know unless we try, will we? What do you say? Starting today… the three of us will be brothers!"

Ace held his hand out. Luffy grinned and put his hand on top of Ace's. The two brothers looked expectably at Sabo, Ace's expression grim and serious, Luffy's goofy grin a pretty amusing contrast. Sabo stared at the two before smiling slightly, putting his hand on top of theirs.

"Brothers!" the three yelled in unison, lifting their hands up to the sky.

So yeah, back story time. Sorry if it's not your thing, but it is necessary in my opinion. I really do hope you liked it. I know everyone was excited about the new characters, but they will be back soon.

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please do leave a review if you can. You guys did incredibly well with that last chapter and I'd love more of the same this chapter!

As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you all next week!