XXX

Sabo lay where Ace had put him. Still fast asleep on his bed. Miraculously not even the screaming death match downstairs had woken him.

Luffy climbed onto his bed, clumsily nudging the sleeping vampire with his head to see if he could get a reaction. When the blond didn't even stir he knew it was pretty serious. He sat back on his heels pulling the knife from his boot. He knew there was a better procedure for this that didn't hurt him so much but he was too angry to remember, or care.

Luffy sliced his palm open, much deeper than he had intended. He watched as the cut turned bright white for a moment before quickly staining red as blood poured from the wound. It spilled over his palm onto blankets below. He watched it flow dispassionately for a second before moving back into position.

"Ace is a stupid jerk face." He told Sabo angrily as he pressed his palm against the vampire's mouth. He didn't care anymore that he was already low on blood this month. He would rather his brother used it to feel better, even if it meant being dizzy and tired for a while. No doubt it was a fraction of what Sabo felt like slowly starving without complaint.

XXX

When the other boy finally woke up much of the day had passed. The sun was low in the sky and most of the light was beginning to creep out of the world. It's absence cast long shadows across their bedroom.

Sabo sat up somewhat shakily. He was confused how he had gotten here. The scent of blood was overpowering, making his head spin a bit. Sabo was forced to rest his forehead on his knees when his stomach rolled warningly. He was not going to throw up right now. For one thing throwing up blood was nasty and for another something told him the reason that he was feeling sick was because he had been half starved before this and he couldn't afford to lose what he had.

When it finally passed he flopped back down on his pillow, his head pounding painfully.

"What happened Lu?" He asked.

The small shape of his little brother shifted slightly from his spot on the corner of Sabo's bed. He was laying on his stomach, his head pillowed on his arms with his feet ever so slightly brushing Sabo's hip. Aside from the movement Luffy gave no sign he heard him. He had managed to get blood everywhere. It stained the blankets and both of their clothes and when he reached up to feel the sticky texture of his skin he realized that it was all over his face.

His stomach rolled again as he realized what had happened. Although this time it had nothing to do with his messed up eating habits and everything to do with his messed up psyche as memories of last time accosted him. He closed his eyes with a shiver trying to force those unpleasant memories back down and remain calm before he really freaked out.

"Luffy?" He tried again and some of his panic must have been reflected in his voice because Luffy actually lifted his head to glance over at him.

"What have you done now?"

The younger boy didn't answer, instead turning back to hide his face in his arms.

"You're going to be anemic all month now!" Not to mention he got blood everywhere and it was starting to really stress the Vampire out. As was his brothers odd behavior.

"What happened with the hunter?"

When Luffy once again stayed silent Sabo crawled over to the other end of the bed to lay besides the human. Luffy's left hand was wrapped in an old shirt that was now stained with multiple dark splotches as the wound bled through the fabric. But when Sabo tried to reach for it to see how bad it was Luffy snapped at him to; 'leave him alone.'

Sabo blinked in surprise at his brother. He couldn't remember the last time Luffy had actually snapped at him. It certainly wasn't like him. Even now as he was starting to transition from child to teenager his disposition remained the easygoing happy-go-lucky kid he had always been.

While caught off guard Sabo didn't say anything. He already knew what was going to happen next so he sat back and waited.

"I'm sorry."

He hadn't needed to wait long. Luffy always folded easily. Unlike Ace when Luffy said he wanted to be left alone that was actually the last thing he wanted. Like right now for instance, despite being angry Luffy had waited on Sabo's bed for who knows how long, apparently deciding the company of an unconscious person was better than nothing.

Sabo nodded accepting the apology easily. He held out his hands and Luffy slowly and shakily showed him the bloody hand.

"What happened?" Sabo asked again as he carefully peeled the bloody shirt away. Beneath the cloth the wound was still bleeding sluggishly. It was deep. Far deeper then Luffy should have cut. In fact he shouldn't have cut at all. But Sabo knew the last thing Luffy wanted right now was a lecture and he himself did not feel like giving one.

"Ace is a jerk!" Luffy told him finally turning his gaze back to the wall where he was working on burning a hole through it. Sabo wrapped the shirt back around his hand before laying down beside him. Everything was falling into place in his mind. The two had had a fight and Ace had taken off in his anger while Luffy stayed here with him.

They used to do this all the time when they were kids. Ace always stormed off into the woods while Luffy would stomp away to go find Sabo. He would never want to talk afterword's and instead liked to sit in angry silence. Although it seems he didn't trust them enough to sit in anger alone out of some small fear at the back of his mind telling him that if he got mad and stormed off as Ace had they might not be here when he got back.

"Is this about the hunter?"

"Shanks," Luffy corrected automatically.

"Is this about Shanks?" Sabo corrected himself. There weren't bullets raining from the sky or blazing pitch forks in the distance so for now he was going to assume that part worked itself out.

"No!" Luffy scowled into the bed sheet. "Yes…I don't know. He told me that he thinks I should go live in another human town."

"Oh," Sabo said the topic totally blindsiding him. "Ohhh," He said again as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.

"And you said…"

Luffy sat up so quickly he looked like he had been slapped. The look he gave Sabo suggested he felt like he had been. Sabo put up his hands quickly in surrender. "I'm just trying to understand," He promised, "No judgement."

"You think I would say yes?" He sounded hurt now.

"No," Sabo promised him quickly. "But I think you said something that set Ace off."

"I told him no!" Luffy said firmly. "And then he asked me to think about it."

"And you didn't say no?"

"I didn't say anything!" Luffy said defensively. At the time he hadn't thought he needed to make a huge deal out of rejecting his friend's idea completely. Especially when he knew Shanks was only asking because he cared about him.

"When Ace asked me if I was going to I told him no like a thousand times. He wouldn't listen. Then he got really mad and left."

Sabo sighed. "You guys don't pay me enough for this," he decided.

Luffy held out his bloodied palm in an out-of-character gesture that made the vampire smile.

"Fine but a tip for next time, don't let it get everywhere alright." He rubbed at his face uselessly. "This is never going to come out and now it looks like we really are torturing you."

"Sorry," Luffy said as Sabo waved his apology away.

"What do we do?" His voice was small and childish.

"About what?" Sabo pressed. "Ace? Nothing he will come back when he is ready." Although Sabo figured that it was going to be a while this time. No way was Ace working through this any time soon. With how Luffy was acting Sabo could take a guess about what that outburst had been like. It would surprise him if the wolf returned before the week was done.

"Should we…go look for him."

"We can't." Sabo reminded him. "Thanks to you now we are both anemic."

Luffy didn't think that was very funny.

"Besides when he gets like this it's best to leave that idiot alone for a while. If it's longer than a week then I will go find him alright."

The two fell into silence again both wrapped up in their thoughts. This brought up something Sabo had been thinking a lot about lately. Well he had been thinking about it for a long time but after what happened with him losing his soul he had begun to seriously think about it. He had been hesitant to bring it up to Luffy mostly because, like Ace, he didn't like to think about it. Never the less it seemed like he couldn't put it off any longer.

"Lu," He said gently.

"Hmm?"

"I need to tell you something and it's probably going to upset you." Luffy's dark eyes met his own and Sabo fought the urge to look away from the questioning gaze.

"I'm banking on the fact that you have already had a really bad week and nothing I do can make it suck more."

"Okay?" He was confused now.

"You know I want you and Ace to be happy more than anything right?"

Luffy nodded still confused.

"Try to keep that in mind before you get your feelings hurt by what I am about to say okay?"

There was another nod. Sabo sighed knowing if Ace overheard this he would kill him.

"Well I think you should think about what the hun- Shanks said."

He watched the hurt flash in his younger brother's eyes despite his best attempts to stop it.

"You-," Luffy tried his voice breaking, "you don't want me here?"

Well this was off to a good start. Leave it to Luffy to go straight to that.

"Shhh little one." Sabo comforted him as he pulled him into a tight hug. "It's not like that at all. I love you to bits. You have to know that by now."

Luffy nodded slowly in Sabo's arms.

"If this was about what I wanted then we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But this isn't about what's best for me it's about what best for you and I think that this time those aren't the same things."

"Huh?"

He had lost him. Sabo sighed as he tried again.

"Sometimes when you love someone it means that you have to put their needs over your own, even if it really really hurts."

"Oh. Wait what? What do I need?"

"I don't know." Sabo told him truthfully. Nobody can answer that but you."

"So your saying it's my decision?"

Sabo nodded.

"Then I can stay here right?"

"It's not that simple."

"But it's what I want?" Luffy argued.

As temping as Sabo was to say 'great talk that about settles it!' He knew that he had to keep pushing. He needed to get Luffy to understand, at least a little bit.

"Remember last week when I went crazy and tried to kill you?" He pushed forwards trying to ignore the painful memories that came with that.

"Yea?"

"And then earlier that day when you had to invade city hall and ran into your grandfather then he helped you escape so he wouldn't turn you over to torture you."

"Yea- ,"

"And then last month when you guys ran into the hunter group and you freaked out. And then coming back we had to fight all those vampires."

"Sab-"

Sabo continued on cutting him off. "And right before that you almost got all your blood drained by a pure blood? And the month before that starving group of wolves tried to eat you."

"It's been a fun year!" Luffy agreed happily completely missing his point.

"Lu I'm trying to say that it's dangerous here."

"So? It's dangerous for you guys as well."

"It is," Sabo agreed. They couldn't really do anything about that. But Luffy wasn't like them. He was fragile by comparison. Sabo could see the red marks on his wrists from where Ace had gotten a bit too mad and lost control for a second. It wasn't that he thought they couldn't protect Luffy. After all they had done a decent job so far. And it's not like he had been much safer in the human town. But still Sabo couldn't shake the feeling that if something happened to Luffy because he was being selfish, well he didn't know if he could live with that.

When Luffy spoke again his voice was small. "If I left I would miss you guys too much."

"You have attachment issues," Sabo reminded him patiently. "When you were little some really bad things happened to you so you have what they call insecure attachment to people now. If you didn't then you might feel differently about this."

"But I don't feel differently."

Sabo tried a different angle. "You have human friends now don't you?"

Luffy nodded.

"You like them a lot don't you?"

He nodded again.

"So maybe now you can realize that not all the humans are as mean as you remember them being. If you were to live in the town then you would meet a lot of humans like them."

"I don't care about that. Not if you guys can't come."

"I'm not saying you have to decide right now." Sabo told him hugging him tighter to his chest. "Just that one day, maybe when you are a bit older and… different, you might change your mind."

Luffy was silent for a second before he said, "Okay…but I'm not going to change my mind."

Sabo lay his cheek on his little brothers hair with a sigh. "We'll see Lu."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Me neither," Sabo agreed. "Let's stop."

Luffy nodded as Sabo lay them both back down.

"Ace is going to be mad." Luffy mused more to himself.

"Don't you dare tell him I said that!"

"Shishishi."

"I mean it Luffy!"

XXX

Sophia Mendes-Coruja: Aw thanks. Me too! And that's still a secret. It hasn't been said yet. They will get into it with the other half of Luffy's backstories. Soon I promise! Thank you for the review.

Yukino76: Yep!

Vongola10: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. The village teens will be back next chapter with the return of the straw hats.

Guest #1: Yea…They have some issues to work out. Working on Defenders right now!

SeaLacuna: He will be back.

Guest #2: Sabo did indeed have his hands full with their drama. Yea! Thanks for the review. I will try to post again soon.

Watching the rain fall: Yea he is : ( he needs his family.

AnimeAngel2692: Aw, it's good to know I'm not the only one crying at these. Haha thanks. Hopefully the next few chapters aren't that sad.

lostdog200: I'm glad to help! Yea they were on semi-good terms at least for a bit. Of course I always love your questions. No, Shanks was already gone at this point to another town. I guess it never really came up in the story but in his younger days Shanks worked under Roger (sort of like in the canon) but by the point of Rogers murder he had started his own group somewhere else. When he found out about Rogers death he was angry but there wasn't anything to do. It was best for Roger supporters like him to keep that quiet or risk treason accusations. No, Dragon isn't concerned about Shanks enough to track his movements. And it is normal for hunters to patrol/hunt in the woods.

So do you!

Guest #3: Thank you! Sabo will be okay soon. I will try to update soon again! Nope I am still okay! Just a little busy. Thank you though haha. I am writing Defenders 22 and 23 right now so hopefully they will go up soon. And I will get to Dolls after that. (But TOTS might be a bit). Thanks for the review!

AnimeAngel2692 (for 28): aw thanks! That's nice. Hopefully this one was okay as well. Don't worry. That's still a Long way off. I just now have to start to slowly set it up so this fic doesn't go on forever.

Fluffypuppies: He will be back and he does have a role to play in the end. I'm still working out the kinks of the ending though. But Shanks is going to stick close by for a while to keep an eye on things. Ace and Luffy will find a way to work it out though! Thank you for the review!