"Hey, kiddo, you alright there?"
The voice startled Luffy a bit, making him blink in confusion a couple of times until his gaze could focus on the two male figures standing in front of him.
"U-um…"
"You okay, Lu?" asked Sabo again. Luffy could see Ace quirking an eyebrow in a silent question from the other side of the glass counterplot.
"Y-yeah, u-um, just.. Um… I got a little distracted a-a bit. Sorry," apologized the boy, fumbling with the fabric of one of his sleeves and biting his lower lip, nervously. He could sense his cheeks starting to flare up.
God, did he want to just die from embarrassment.
"Yeah, we kind of noticed that," answered Sabo, bemusedly. "Any specific reason? Thinking about some girl from your hometown, maybe?"
Now that really did startle Luffy.
The boy lifted his widened and filled with surprise eyes to look at the other.
"Oh? Did I hit a bullseye?" asked the blonde, wiggling his eyebrows, jokingly.
Luffy's face immediately flushed bright red.
"I-I…"
Sabo grinned at him; his blue eyes, sparkling with amusement. Ace stifled his laughter next to them.
"What's her name?"
"U-um, I…"
"Oh, come on don't be shy! Those are normal things."
"I-I k-know, j-just, u-um… there isn't any girl…" said Luffy sheepishly, trying not to look neither in Ace's nor Sabo's direction.
"His name then?" asked the blonde man.
"W-wait, what, u-um.. No, no! I-I didn't mean, u-um… N-no, I mean I'm not.. I-I…" tried to explain the black-haired boy, waving his arms around and blushing even more.
Sabo started laughing, wholeheartedly,
"Relax, Lu. I'm just messing around with you. It's okay, I got what you mean, don't worry."
The younger bit his lip and once again glued his gaze to the floor in embarrassment. Thankfully, his misery was ended by the ringing of a phone.
Ace pulled out his cellphone from the back pocket of his jeans,
"Yeah? Is everything good?... Yeah, Sabo's here as well… When should we leave?" asked the dark-haired man and looked at his watch. "11?" His eyes turned to Sabo and the other nodded. "Yeah, we're all good… Sure, no problem. We are leaving in a few… Good, see you in a bit then."
Ace stood up from the barstool and stuffed his phone back in his jeans.
"I'm gonna go grab my jacket and some files for Marco. You're ready to go right?"
"Yeah, whose car we are taking? Mine's right outside."
"Doesn't matter, it's not like we are going to use them on our way back," said Ace and laughed.
Sabo grinned in return,
"That's true. Let's go with mine, the bar is close to my place anyway. I might even not take a cab and just walk home afterward."
"Fine, sounds good to me. Oh, and by the way, we need to celebrate your new place sometimes soon," added Ace with a devilish smile.
"No problem, I just have to finish furnishing it, because some of the rooms are stiiill a total mess."
"Yeeah, guess that's the downside of buying a new house."
"Yuuup, it most certainly is but at least in the end it will look exactly as I wanted it to."
"Oh, yeah, it looked damn horrible at first."
"Jeez, thanks, jackass," snorted Sabo.
"No offense, blondie, but that's the truth."
Sabo couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Ace winked at him and left the room.
"Soo, Lu, while we wait for your idiotic brother, why don't you tell me how you like it here so far?" asked the blonde man. He pulled the barstool next to Luffy's and sat down, resting one of his elbows on the counterplot.
"Oh, w-well… um," stuttered out the boy, getting shy once again, when the other's full attention was back on him. "I-It's n-nice, I-I guess."
Luffy rubbed sheepishly the back of his head, not knowing what more to say.
Sabo's features softened and he smiled fondly at the boy, although the younger one couldn't see it. He was really glad that he got the chance to see Luffy after all of those years.
He had missed the pipsqueak. Plus, he was really curious to learn more about the grown-up, now teenage version of the happy-go-lucky brat he remembered from his childhood.
But in all honesty, looking at the kind-of-12-year-old-looking teenager now sitting next to him, there wasn't even the slightest trace of the small energetic goofball from back in the day. He hadn't spent so much time with Luffy, but the younger just somehow looked… sad.
And it wasn't the 'yeah, just now whatever happened that upset him' kind of sad.
It felt more like Luffy in general was just sad.
That made Sabo wonder what the younger has been up to those years.
"…also the house is g-great. A-and the n-neighborhood looks really calm and n-nice."
"Yeah? What about your room? Do you like it? If not, I'm sure Ace won't mind doing some changes."
"N-no, u-um, I like i-it," answered Luffy, shyly.
Sabo smiled,
"That's nice but don't hesitate to tell Ace if there's anything. Although the house is nice and well-designed and furnished, it doesn't feel a lot like a home, you know? It's modern and what-not but well…" The blonde looked around, "I always tell your dickhead of a brother to spare a day or so of his precious time to frame some photos and hang them up. Or dunno - buy some plants and decorations to make this place look a little bit more welcoming. Sometimes I feel like I am a guest at a bougie TV-show. Ace probably hasn't changed even one thing since the designers decorated here."
Luffy smiled slightly at that. At least he wasn't the only person who thought that. Plus Sabo was right - there weren't any pictures whatsoever around the house.
"By the way, have you started school or not yet?"
"No, n-not yet. I t-think maybe in a week or s-so?"
"That's nice. The school Ace signed you to is really good from what I know. Although, I remember how much you hated any type of studying activities," added Sabo with a grin.
Luffy flushed a little bit at that. He still wasn't too fond of school, but it used to be his safe place. A break from Garp, who used to make every day a living hell for him.
Don't think about that. Don't think about that.
"What class are you in? They specialize in different subjects right?" Sabo's calm and cheerful voice distracted him a bit from the bad memories that were just about to start flooding in his head.
The boy realized that he had started clenching his fists and slowly relaxed his hands, before answering,
"I-I think h-history, some languages and something more but I-I don't remember w-what exactly."
"Yeah, Ace told me something about there not being much of an option because the school year has already started," said Sabo in thought. "I recall him saying about history and I think your other subject was either chemistry or biology. I remember they weren't exactly going together."
Luffy made a face,
"I hope it's not chemistry. I hate it."
Sabo laughed out loud,
"I'm gonna pray for you. I hated it at the time too. It was my least favorite subject when I was younger. Plus, I definitely do not envy you for having to study it parallel with history, and what was it? Ancient languages, I think?"
"A-aren't they just languages? Like Spanish or…" asked the boy in confusion.
"No, I think, you study 3 or 4 languages and only one of them is a still spoken language like Spanish or Italian, for instance. The others I think are ancient languages like Latin, for example."
Luffy subconsciously scrunched his nose at that, making the other chuckle softly.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you're gonna do great. Just pay more attention during class so you wouldn't have to try and understand things on your own at home. And even if you do have problems with something, Ace can get you a tutor, okay?"
The boy nodded but he really hoped it wouldn't come to that. He probably was enough of a pain in the ass for his brother already. He was going to do his best at school. It was the least he could do at this point.
The door of the kitchen opened, interrupting Luffy's train of thought. His brother entered the room, trying to get his jacket on, without dropping the big red folder and all the other things he was holding.
"Want any help with that?" asked Sabo with a grin, clearly very amused by Ace's struggles.
"I won't… deny some," grunted the other, in the same exact moment, his car keys fell on the floor, followed by his wallet and a… comb?
Sabo stood and walked up to him, taking all the things Ace was holding and laying them on the countertop.
"Come here," said the blonde and made a gesture for the other male to come closer and to turn around. Ace did as he was told, thanking the other, while Sabo was helping him to put his jacket on.
"You are welcome, milady," he responded, while mockingly took off an invisible hat of his head and bowed. Ace rolled his eyes in annoyance,
"Ha-ha, aren't you just hilarious, you jackass?"
"I most certainly am, we going?"
"Yeah, grab the folder and my car keys, while I fix my hair," said Ace and pocketed his black wallet.
"First, a comb? Seriously? And second - we are taking my car, did you forget?"
"Oh, yeah…" muttered the dark-haired male. "We are… And what's wrong with the comb? My hair is a mess."
Now it was Sabo's turn to roll his eyes,
"Okay, princess, prettify yourself as much as you want but start dragging your ass towards the door, because we will be late. Again."
"Jeez, fine. Stop bitching around."
"I'm not bitching. You are just dumb as shit and moving with the speed of a snail, now come on."
"Okaay, Jesus Christ. You are annoying," said Ace with a snort.
"Yeah, sure," grunted out the blonde, something that received him a not-so-gentle kick in the ass, while he was heading towards the door.
He looked in his best friend's direction, his eyes throwing daggers at the dark-haired male. Ace didn't seem to notice that, though, because he had turned around to talk with Luffy,
"We are leaving, take the tea to your room if you want, and when you drink it go straight to bed. Understood?"
The boy nodded and mumbled a shy 'bye' and 'have fun' to both men, who had once again resumed their bickering.
Hope you enjoyed the chap!
If so leave some kudos and a comment to share your thoughts about the chap with me, I appreciate it a lot ^^
I have a question for you:
Do you like it when I update more frequently but I split the chap in different parts like I did to chapter 15 (There are 3 parts of it) or wait more for the whole piece?
Because for me it is better like that - I am definitely waay more motivated when I can publish more frequently.
But yeah, I want your opinion as well: so what do you think? Do you prefer it when I upload like that? More frequently but I divide the chap in a few parts?
Love you all XOXO
