Notes:
A big shout out to my new, and FREAKING AMAZING, if I may say so myself xdd, beta reader Akaichi_rin!! XOXO
They did a wonderful job in helping me put this chap together and make it better for you guys, so give them some love 3
Glad to be working with you XOXO
Enjoy!
XXX
Luffy silently watched them leave and after he heard the front door closing, decided that it was probably a good idea to go straight to bed.
The boy gulped down the rest of his tea and went to the sink to carefully wash the cup. Above all, he didn't want to make Ace think he was lazy or a dabster.
Nope.
Being done with that, he went straight to his room upstairs and literally threw himself on the bed face-first.
With a big sigh, Luffy grabbed the blanket with one hand and rolled over, turning himself into a human burrito.
Now that was another level of comfy.
The boy tried to fall asleep but he couldn't stop thinking about Sabo and Ace, and about their shared childhood.
After half an hour had passed, he just gave up and rolled on his back to stare at the ceiling.
Why he couldn't stop thinking about that, for God's sake?
It was all in the past. Neither Ace nor Sabo showed any interest during all those years in contacting him. Sabo went off to join the military when he was 12, and Luffy - 6, almost 7 but still. It happened just before Sabo's 13th birthday - on the 17th of March. He remembered it as if it was yesterday.
They were supposed to celebrate on the 20th of March. Ace and he had prepared everything: planned the whole day weeks before, wanting their other 'brother' to have the happiest and coolest birthday so far. After all - he was officially entering puberty.
Luffy smiled fondly. They were such an idiotic group of friends. Brothers.
The smile suddenly became nostalgic and pained, and the boy brought one of his hands to cover his eyes. He didn't want to cry about that.
What's to cry about?
It was all just memories.
Stupid, stupid memories.
A single tear escaped the corner of his eye, falling next to him on the pillows.
It was all planned out so perfectly - every single second of the day was thought through so Sabo can make the most of his special day. They were going to surprise him in the morning with a big chocolate cake - his favorite. After that they were going to go swimming in their favorite lake in the jungle, then dive off the cliffs of the waterfall. Then go and hunt something together for lunch, play games, steal some booze from Dadan's limited-edition-only special collection that was not so well hidden in the basement.
Afterwards, they were going to project Sabo a film they made with photos and videos of the three of them, watch some movies, drink some more (although Ace and Sabo probably would have switched the one ounce of alcohol that he barely had managed to make them pour in his cup, for some bitter juice so he wouldn't notice the difference… and, of course, he most likely wouldn't have noticed and would have felt like a teenager like them. And they were going to let him feel all-mighty and grown-up because they would have wanted him to just feel happy.)
But then, three days before that Sabo told them about his decision to join the military. He asked them to understand and promised they would keep in touch; that he would visit frequently and that they would never lose their connection; that they would never stop being brothers…
Well, that worked out well, didn't it? thought Luffy sarcastically with a bitter smile.
It actually did, but it did for Sabo's and Ace's relationship. For Luffy's with them on the other hand… Well, we all know how that worked out, don't we?
Sabo left that same night. Ace and Luffy were devastated but it didn't matter. Their best friend was gone.
Soon after Ace started paying way more attention to his studies. Luffy thought that it was some kind of an outlet, a distraction. Something that helped his brother not to think about how much he missed Sabo.
Somehow Ace started taking great interest in physics. Then mechanics. Soon his brother was attending festivals and competitions for Junior Mechanics. He was barely home back then.
He was either training or studying somewhere. He didn't want Luffy around him at all. Said he was a bother.
After Ace told him that they didn't speak for months.
Just like that almost a year passed since Sabo's departure.
Luffy was waiting for his brother to notice that he was ignoring him completely.
It never happened.
Ace was like obsessed with his mechanics projects, preparing for competitions, training at the gym, or in the jungle. He didn't even look at Luffy.
Luffy remembered being heart-broken by this. That's why he decided after months of complete silence and ignorance between them to forgive Ace and to just try and reconnect with him.
There was that one night he set them up a movie night in their old treehouse. With pillows, blankets, refreshments, and snacks. It was supposed to be perfect. They were supposed to restore at least a bit their bond that night.
When the boy had asked him to come at 7 at the treehouse, Ace had responded with a pretty disinterested 'sure'. Luffy had made him promise that he would come at all costs which resulted in his big brother kicking him out of the basement in Dadan's house, where the other used to do his mechanics-stuff and projects. But the raven-haired boy could care less about being kicked out in such a rude manner. After all his brother had promised to come and he couldn't be happier.
He recalled jumping around in the treehouse in happiness for hours that day. He couldn't wait for his brother to come. He was so happy. All that time of loneliness and anguish was about to end.
He didn't care that Ace had been ignoring and being rude to him for the last couple of months. He couldn't care less about that petty stuff.
The 7-year-old boy just wanted his brother there.
But Ace never showed.
Luffy waited for hours and hours; an eternity really, and he eventually fell asleep leaning against the wooden doorframe of the treehouse.
When he woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was look around in the vain hope that Ace might have come but just hadn't wanted to wake him up.
After the disappointment and the pain hit him like a truck, he ran straight to Dadan's house.
He was moving so fast that he couldn't even recall the brief time he spent running through the jungle. The only thing he remembered was his heart drumming in his ears, the excruciating ache in his chest that was becoming worse and worse with every second passing. The fear of actually being forgotten by his most favorite person; the person he looked up to the most in the entire world. Of being abandoned.
When he finally had reached the house, Luffy went straight to their shared bedroom only to find Ace tinkering at something. Another one of his mechanics projects. What a surprise, really.
He was so hurt and angry with the other, he had thrown his pillow at Ace's face, startling him. The wringing sound of metal dropping on the floor resonated ominously through the room. Luffy had already stormed out from there, not being able to see his brother's enraged face.
Ace had followed him suit out from the room.
They got into a huge fight with which they managed to wake up every single one of the 20 residents of the big house.
Long story short - Luffy tried explaining why he was so upset with Ace's behavior since Sabo had left but the other wouldn't listen to him and wouldn't stop screaming and telling him he was being a brat and that he needed to grow up.
Lots of insults had been exchanged in the heat of the moment.
And every single one of them stung horribly, shattering his already broken heart. At that moment the last thing the younger wanted was for them to fight. Unfortunately, it didn't matter how much he wished for them to just sit down and calmly talk things through - all of his many pleadings fell on deaf ears as Ace wouldn't stop shouting, and shouting, and shouting at him…
"The world doesn't revolve around you!"
"Grow up!"
"Stop being such a whiny annoying brat!"
"You are so bothersome…"
"You can't always expect everyone to be there to pamper you!"
"…so needy…"
"Broke my promise? For God's sake, I have my own shit to deal with, everyone does, stop whimpering and get your shit together!"
"I can't baby you all the time, Luffy!"
"…can't do a single thing alone…"
"Miss Sabo? I miss Sabo too but I don't bitch around, bothering everyone!"
"Just grow up already, damn it! It ain't that hard!"
And so on, and so on…
In the end, Luffy reached a moment when he just couldn't take it anymore and with a broken and raspy voice he told his brother that he hated him; that his biggest regret was being connected to someone so immensely selfish and that he wished that he was an only child; that he wished Ace had never been born.
The first thing Luffy registered after seeing the other's shocked expression was the sudden, pulsating pain in his cheek.
He didn't.
The boy saw the fury and the animosity, distorting his brother's face.
He didn't.
Luffy then saw Ace's menacingly raised fist.
.
.
.
He did.
It was the first time his brother had actually, full-on hit him.
Luffy had fallen backwards, right down the staircase. He remembered his head landing straight on the edge of one of the steps, an ominous cracking sound, and then everything went black.
When he woke up at the hospital, his brother was nowhere to be found.
Dadan and Makino were there, waiting for him to wake up, and they told him Ace had gone to New York to take part in some competition. Apparently, he had made it to the finals of some really big competition, which was strange because Luffy didn't recall his brother, having any upcoming contests. Well, at least not before the end of February.
When he asked Dadan and Makino about it, they had exchanged those strange looks. That was when he learned that it was already the end of May and he had been in a coma for three months.
He hadn't even known what to respond to that.
What are you even supposed to respond to that?
His face had just gone blank, his mouth hanging open.
A few days later Makino had told him that Ace had won the contest. The grand prize was a summer training camp. The boy asked what the contest was about and was then that he found out that it was some kind of military contest. Special operations forces, to be more specific. Seemingly, the last round of the competition wasn't just about simple mechanics like fixing-a-car or creating-a-robot kind of thing. It was about gun prototypes.
The special forces were recruiting new candidates and the final of the competition was to help them decide who is the best fit for their teams. All of the other challenges from the other rounds had been about some kind of physical activity.
That had at least explained why Ace had been training so hardcore for the past year. It wasn't about appearances. It was about him being fit and strong enough to advance to the finals and win the competition with some prototype of a machine-gun he had been developing for the past months.
Makino told him that at the end of the summer camp, the head of the forces was to select the best from the best of the boys. What made this competition so special and different from others was that the ones selected could join the official training program right out, although they weren't of age.
That was what Ace had wanted all along. And Luffy knew he was going to be selected. Knew that he has going to win and that he probably wouldn't be seeing his brother anytime soon.
Not that Ace seemed all too interested in Luffy anyway. Already a few weeks had passed since Luffy had woken up and his brother didn't even call to check upon him. Ask him how he was. The now 8 years old boy didn't even want an apology for Ace hitting him, although it had resulted in him falling down the stairs and falling into a coma. Ace might have been really mad at him and hit him - something Luffy had probably deserved - for all the crap he had said to his big brother, but the younger boy knew that the other wanted nothing of what had happened next.
But why Ace hadn't called or even told Makino, Dadan, or someone else to pass some kind of a message to the younger, if he was so busy?
Luffy didn't want to accept the reality at first. He was telling himself all kinds of different lies and imagining all types of various scenarios - that all of their mobile phones at the camp had been taken and that the boys weren't allowed any sort of communication with the outside world; that Ace was doing so well that he had already been sent on a mission to some remote place and that was why he couldn't call or write him… That was way easier than accepting things as they were; than accepting the simple and obvious truth…
Ace didn't care about him.
Notes:
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P. S.
AN: The frequency of the updates is up to you. Every review/comment gives me the energy to write the next chapter sooner.
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