kailaxaview33: Not all of them are that short. I messed up in the editing for making a chapter that short. This one is longer. Most of my chapters are about the same length, but there's always a few that are super long or super short.


I hope everyone had an okay Christmas! This chapter is kind of depressing. Okay, really depressing. Enjoy anyways~


Both Luffy and Ace were asleep, one arm thrown over Ace's face in a way that would be uncomfortable if he wasn't used to it, when Luffy woke to a presence moving away from their room. He opened the door to see Midoriya leaving. "Midoriya?" he asked with a sleepy voice. "Where you goin'? It's midnight."

"Wha's goin' on?" Ace slurred. The green haired said that he was getting a bit of fresh air. Luffy said "oh okay" and went back in his room and flopped back down, Ace shoving him over to take more room for himself. They fell back asleep easily.

When they woke up the next day, showered and then dressed, they went downstairs to see Bakugo and Midoriya cleaning. They were on house arrest for going outside late that night and fighting with Bakugo. When Ace and Luffy heard of this, they turned and walked away, going to school. So, another lie.

When they walked back to school, it was Ace and Luffy and then the rest of the class. When they got to the entrance of the main building to put their shoes away, they ran into the negative guy in class 1-B. The one who had a bad attitude. He teased them for having two people not pass. When Kirishima asked if he hadn't passed, he turned around and told them the whole class passed.

"Wow! Good job!" Luffy said brightly. "We were so close to having the whole school pass!" he said sadly. Todoroki said he was sorry at the back of the group. They asked how Luffy and Ace had done for theirs. "We did good! We were the first two to pass in the free for all ball game, and we got so close to 100 points on the rescue part. We both swore in front of the kids, so that knocked us down."

Monoma said, "There they go! Always perfect! Stop bragging."

Ace frowned and Luffy looked down. "Why is it bad to be happy about successes?" Ace asked. "We did well, shouldn't we be proud?" he added in a cold voice. It hurt Luffy's feelings, and Ace wouldn't allow that.

His class said, "Leave them alone. You're just jealous. He can be happy, he was the one that encouraged all of us to work as a team. You don't need to be an asshole because you're jealous. We're sorry, Luffy, he has no filter."

Luffy put up a false smile. "Okay, it's fine." Ace was upset because Luffy was upset. They barely paid any attention to the speech in front of the whole school, and were distracted when they went back to class. Uraraka asked what was wrong, seeing their clear gloom.

"Is it about what Monoma said? He's always been rude to us, hasn't he?" she asked.

Luffy said, "I hate it when people say we're perfect. We're not perfect. Should we be ashamed of what we work hard for? I don't understand it and I never have. Just because we're good at school or fighting or making friends doesn't mean we're perfect. I have lots of problems. Ace has lots of problems. I just don't like it." Ace was silent but was agreeing.

Luffy hid it, but he still had nightmares. He was still afraid when all of the lights went off. He was healed mostly from the torture, but he knew all things would never be the same again. It did make him appreciate life and nice people more. But there were still the lingering effects.

Ace hid it, but he was still traumatized from losing Luffy, not knowing where he was or if he was alive for four days. He was terrified of not being in the same room at the same time with him. He hid it as well, not wanting to upset Luffy, who worked so hard to move on as much as he could.

People saying they were perfect or shaming them for being good at things didn't help either of them. They were never normal. They were street rats for most of what they could remember. Their childhood was a nightmare. People didn't know that, but it still hurt them when they were resented for climbing out of that shit hole of a life and forced themselves to be good at things, be ready, be prepared. Be positive.

They were always positive because they knew their life now was worlds away from the hell they'd suffered for 12 years. Maybe they should be people again. But neither of them had the desire to be negative. They liked having friends.

And things got harder when they moved into the dorms. It made sense safety wise, but emotionally, they were still heavily impacted by what had happened, and to be ripped away from someone who offered to adopt them days earlier had been terrible. They wanted to go home, they missed Gunhead. They missed privacy. They had their own room there, but they had to share everything else. They ate together, went to school together. They loved their class and friends. But sometimes it was hard.

So being told they were perfect made them angry because the people who say that only take them at face value, and didn't see how damn hard they worked to be the people they were today. It didn't help today, when they found out Midoriya lied again. Maybe a small one, but a lie nonetheless.

They would have wanted to stop him from going because he'd get in trouble, but they wouldn't have tied him up and kept him in his room. Maybe they would have gotten in trouble for letting it happen, but they had to find out about it by other people around other people.

"I… I want to go home," Luffy mumbled. "I don't want to do the dorms anymore. I mean, I know I've healed a lot since I was kidnapped. But days after I finally went home, mostly healed, we were forced to come here. And Gunhead said he'd adopt us and then we had to leave. I didn't get any time to be home with my family before we were forced to go somewhere unfamiliar."

The others were quiet. "I never thought about it like that. From your perspective. You didn't get any time to be how you would of course be after something like that, and then you both were forced to deal with it on your own while keeping face with everyone else," Uraraka said. The class was quiet.

Kaminari said, "I'm sorry that I've gotten jealous over your success. I know you worked really hard for it and people shouldn't react to it negatively." The others nodded.

Luffy sighed, "We just wanted to be normal. We didn't get to go to school until we were thirteen. We studied so hard so we could be normal students and do normal things but then everyone started seeing us as perfect. It made us happy at first, that people liked and looked up to us. I do like being happy and making others happy. But I feel like it just makes me look like a shallow airhead."

Ace was holding his hand. "I promise we don't think of you like that," Kirishima said firmly. "Maybe to others you seem like that but after you told us about the torture, and what happened when you were gone, it made you seem really deep, you know? And it shouldn't have been talking about torture that made us see you as imperfect."

"When we saw Ace how he was after you disappeared, we knew things weren't perfect. But we didn't mean to make you feel you had to keep up face of being happy all the time. You're not at a safe home space in the dorms. And none of us get any time to see our families, really. And I know I've always had a family. And you guys just got Gunhead and it's not fair to you," Ashido explained.

Ace and Luffy were nodding. They wanted to have a normal family. "Maybe if I hadn't been kidnapped, everyone would be with their families," Luffy said in a flat voice.

The hall erupted into protests to that, and Ace did as well. "Even if you hadn't been taken, the school would have still acted." Luffy said that if he hadn't made them angry they would have left everybody alone. Ace was worried, Luffy was spiraling downwards. "If we hadn't done well in the school festival, Bakugo would have won and wouldn't have seemed so angry. Then they wouldn't have had a reason to come after him in the first place."

Ace put his hands on Luffy's shoulders. "Lu, please stop. There's no what ifs. We know that. We can only move on and look for a better day, right?" Luffy looked away and said a better day wouldn't always come. The class was worried and Ace didn't know what to do.

"Maybe if we weren't born, mommy and daddy wouldn't hit us."

"Maybe if I wasn't good at my quirk then we wouldn't be homeless."

"Maybe if I could use my quirk better than we could have friends."

"Maybe if we didn't fight back they'd leave us alone."

"Maybe if we were always happy, people would love us."

Ace had tears in his eyes, trying to hold them in. Was he putting on a front this whole time? Was he doing this for everyone else? He knew Luffy loved being happy and loved making others happy. But how much of that wasn't practiced? How much of that was him wanting to be happy, so he forced himself to be happy?

"Luffy, we don't need to be happy all the time."

"I don't know who I am if I'm not happy," Luffy said, painfully honestly. Ace's face crumpled, and the girls were all sniffling, too. The guys were feeling sorry, and they were glad Bakugo wasn't there. Luffy was the glue in the class that made everybody happy. But how much was he stretched thin?

"I'm sorry I made everybody sad," Luffy said.

Uraraka replied firmly, "It's not your job to make us all happy." Luffy said good heroes make everyone happy. "Is Aizawa-sensei always happy? He's never happy but he's still a good hero."

"Are you guys just going to talk out there or come in?" Luffy apologized for making them stop and walked inside, a blank mask on until it disappeared and his bright smile came on. Like an off switch. Ace was still crying. He felt he'd neglected Luffy for so long. He was his brother. He should have realized you don't go through the things they'd gone through without a touch of trauma. He should have realized nobody can be that happy all the time.

He should be a better brother. He should have kept Luffy safe. They were two minutes apart but he was the big brother. He shook his head. Ace couldn't fall into despair when Luffy was like this. He wiped his eyes when he entered, and everyone else was in terrible moods as well. They felt guilty and selfish. Ace could see it.

And it was bad for Luffy. He was seeing, right now, that him being sad made everyone sad. Him being happy made everyone happy. Maybe they should get counseling like Aizawa had offered in the beginning. Aizawa saw the mood of the class, saw the tears and red faces. And he pretended it wasn't happening. But that was what Luffy wanted. He didn't want others to be sad because of him.

"Okay then, we'll be continuing regular class sessions starting today. A lot of unprecedented things happened, but you'll need to switch gears and focus on your duties as students. We'll be staying inside the classroom today, but this semester you'll have even harsher training than before."

Ace glanced at Luffy, who was watching Aizawa talk with a blank expression. Talk about the hero work studies that were like the hero internships but more like the real thing, that they'd be working outside of class and not as a school activity. They all went in a roundabout way of saying it, but all it was was spending time with pro-heroes as interns instead of guests. They had provisional licenses and were being considered to be used as so much villain activity had started since first years usually weren't included.

Luffy was panicking inwardly. His selling point was that he was happy. He and Ace were happy kids. Why… Why wasn't he feeling happy? He was always happy, but now he was really sad. He wasn't being himself. He would be strong. He would force his weakness down, bury it under thinking about good times, being with Ace, being a hero with him.

He had never been kidnapped. He'd never been tortured. He was normal. He wasn't afraid of the dark, he didn't have nightmares. He never cried. He was happy. Luffy was happy.

He was happy.

Ace could tell Luffy was not feeling well, and simply reached his hand over and held it securely. "We'll be okay, as long as we're together," he said quietly. Luffy nodded, and squeezed Ace's hand back. But would the class accept that, or would they baby him? Would they all be sad after this?

He wouldn't make everyone sad. He wanted to be a hero that made people smile. That was who he was.

When classes were over, Luffy walked straight to their room, Ace following after.

Luffy stared at the mirror in their bathroom. "Am I broken, Ace? I always feel happy, but now I'm just sad and don't feel good."

Ace brought Luffy to the bed. "I'd say you were more broken if you only ever felt happy. That's not true, right? You enjoy being happy, everyone enjoys being happy. But 'happy' isn't a personality, Lu. It's just a state of mind. You are Luffy. You're not happy, you're not sad. You're you and you can feel any sort of emotion you want at any time you want."

Luffy smiled sadly. "I want to be a hero that makes everyone smile."

"And you can be that and anything you want. I think you'd feel much better if you weren't happy all the time. I don't know how much you force yourself to be that way, but a hero can't make others happy if he's not truly happy," Ace said.

"I'm happy when we do fun things and don't have to think about bad things," Luffy said.

Ace replied, "You can't ignore the bad things forever, neither can I. I can't be happy all the time either, Luffy. You are not alone. We're both a little messed up, and the timing of leaving home right after returning was cruel to you and me, but especially you." Luffy nodded, agreeing that it wasn't fair.

He said, "I miss Gunhead. I only called him dad once and it was an accident, but he didn't get upset. Then we were taken away from him. I thought he'd be a good dad, but now we can't see him or be with him." Ace nodded, agreeing with that.

The older twin said, "I want to make him proud, but I think he'd be upset with us. Both of us, for burying our problems under a mountain of happiness. I do think you are naturally happy, a social butterfly. I think you make others happy just by being around you. That's you. You're kind and accepting and encourage others.

"But you have to forgive yourself for having weak moments. You're human, Lu. And no matter what happens, we go through everything together. We'll always be together." Luffy nodded and then fell apart, crying heavily into his pillow, letting everything out. Sobbing over pent up fear and stress and humiliation.

He was kidnapped so easily. He was tortured, but he'd stayed strong for Ace. It was all for Ace, he had only thought of him. Never himself. He loved Ace with all his heart, and all they'd ever known was suffering and being together. The suffering was gone, far behind them, but Ace was here. Would always be here.

Ace rubbed Luffy's back as his sobs turned into sniffles. There was a knock on the door. "Not now, Midoriya," Ace said. He was angry. Learning another lie had come from him probably didn't help things that day.

"Oh, okay," the other said, sounding sad. Ace couldn't care less right now. All he was thinking of was Luffy.

Luffy sat up and wiped his eyes. "I feel better now. I needed to cry." Ace nodded saying he needed to as well. They stayed in their room the rest of the night, and were so thankful when dinner was brought to them, which was a large pizza. They didn't know how they somehow snuck pizza into the dorms, but they were happy with it.

A card was on it. "Be happy when you want to be happy," with a smiley face. The back was signed by all of their classmates. They ate the whole pizza and then went to bed. Work would start tomorrow. And maybe that would be helpful. They couldn't believe it had only been summer. So many things happened it was hard to think that it was all over summer break. The summer camp that ruined everything for everybody.

The next day, Luffy was chipper. He felt much lighter. A different happy. He wasn't smiling brightly. He was smiling with a content smile, and multiple people in their dorms commented on it. They said they liked this smile more than his usual one.

Nobody had said a thing about his moment of weakness. But they did promise to not put them on pedestals again. It had been eye opening and almost refreshing, seeing Ace and Luffy not with that facade of "everything is wonderful, we're the best". They felt closer as a group now after they all saw the pain Luffy was in and hadn't known.

The pain had flowed out, but it ebbed away again. Summer was over. That nightmare was behind them, and they were starting a new semester. Ace and Luffy held hands on their way to class the next day and nobody said a word. The class because they knew about what had happened the day before.

And the rest of the school as they knew the two were close based on first hand accounts or second hand sources, and knowing that having your family kidnapped and tortured would make people close.

At least they finally had a reason to without people thinking they were weird, or too old to hold hands. So it was nice. Everyone seemed content. A different kind of happy, but a type of happy nonetheless. The atmosphere was relaxed. Not bubby, but it still felt nice. A new nice that Luffy liked a lot.

He didn't feel any pressure on him to be cheery. He was positive, and upbeat, but he wasn't abnormally perfectly sweet. He was still kind, but he felt anger for the first time in a long time. At Monoma. Ace felt anger at him for being how he was. How he ruined Luffy's day the day before and made him show that part of him in front of everybody.

But, nobody mentioned it other than the note with the pizza the night before. He'd burned the pizza boxes for good measure.

In class, Ace rolled his chair to Luffy's desk and they shared it that day. None of the teachers said a thing, and the twins were starting to think the teachers knew and understood more than they let on.

Aizawa began class by telling them he wouldn't be talking about the hero work studies, but three students would. The big three, one blonde man with a bright smile that was similar to Luffy's current content one, that still rested softly on his face, one girl with long blue hair, and another guy with black hair and ears with a slight point at the tip. They were the three top of the class, and Ace and Luffy could tell the most powerful was the blonde one with a bright face.

Amajiki was the first who was supposed to talk, but he looked really scary for a moment, making Ace and Luffy curious until he started to shake, saying he was imagining them as potatoes but still couldn't speak.

Luffy raised his hand, "You could turn around and plug your ears so you don't know we're here but you can still talk," he suggested. The three looked at him, and Amajiki turned around and tried it. He was able to say his name and explain some of his quirk before he fizzled out and just put his forehead against the wall.

"Wow, it worked a moment!" the blonde sad cheerily. The class chuckled. Aizawa said, "Luffy likes to speak his mind, but it's always pleasant so please forgive his rudeness." Luffy quietly apologized.

When Hado Nejire spoke, she was quite chipper. It reminded Ace of Luffy on his extremely hyper days when he drank too much soda. She bounced from person to person, question to question without really giving anyone time to answer. So she was weirdly hyper and the Amajiki was weirdly shy and awkward. Interesting!

They both wondered what the blonde one was like. "Alright, I'm going to be the last to wrap things up." He put his hand around his ear like he wanted them to say something and asked, "The future's gonna be…?"

"Fun," Luffy suggested, the only one to reply.

"Wrong! Grim! That's what you were supposed to say, right?" Luffy mumbled that that wasn't very encouraging, and Ace shushed him, though he was smiling fondly. "Alright, my call and response was almost a fail. I guess fun woulda' been better, right?" and then he started laughing loudly.

Luffy said, "I like him," very quietly. Not loud enough for anyone else to hear. Ace nodded in agreement.

After a moment of monologuing, the guy, Mirio, they'd heard his friend say, said it would be easier to fight them than explain. Luffy looked intrigued and so did Ace, though they knew they'd get their asses whooped. He said that experience fighting him would show the experience he'd had. Aizawa agreed, and they all got dressed in their gym clothes and walked outside.

Ace and Luffy were excited for what was gonna happen, see how this guy was strong. The students asked him if he was serious, and he confirmed he was while he stretched. When Amajiki and Hado started saying that people who lost to Mirio were upset after that, the students began bragging about their successes.

Ace and Luffy shook their heads. They felt that Mirio was watching their reaction even if it was hard to see where he was looking. "You can come at me at any time!" Mirio said.

The twins did not attempt first. Instead, it was Midoriya. "Here I come!"

Mirio said, "That's good! You really are energetic!" Then Midoriya attacked and his leg went right through the guy. And his clothes also fell off, but the twins were more interested in the former than the latter. They looked at one another and covered themselves in armament haki where it wasn't visible. After all, that worked against multiple quirks so far. Maybe it would this one.

They didn't attack for once, and waited to see what he'd do. They knew he was strong, and werent hot headed right now. They weren't like the rest of the class, they weren't cocky, even if they were at the top of it.

All of the attacks from behind when he was distracted did nothing and went right through him. Then he attacked from behind, the brothers knowing where he'd go. He went at the guts of each student so quickly they didn't see it. Besides Ace and Luffy, who jumped out of the way, the only ones left standing. Everyone else was on the ground.

They both had their arms up in a fighting stance. Looking uneasy. He looked at them in curiosity. "Wow! I've never had anyone dodge me like that! You two seem strong! Top of the class and winners of each round of the sports festival, right!"

"You're giving us too much credit," Ace said simply. He and Luffy were ready, Luffy having his invisible armor on.

"Hmmm," he said and sunk into the ground. They jumped away before he resurfaced right next to them. They dodged some more and he kept coming up from behind. They dodged easily each time, and when he tried punching Luffy, he pulled up his shield, deflecting his fist. The big three were all staring at them now.

The twins didn't know what to do. Everyone was watching and they didn't want to fail. Mirio was grining, and was clearly going to do a special move on Luffy, probably going to go right through him until he blocked his arm and punched him in the face, jumping back. He looked shocked.

"Wow, wow! How'd you do that, how'd he not go through you!" Hado asked excitedly.

Luffy weakly said he could harden air and put a shield up. Everyone was silent. "What, we were supposed to fight back, right?!" he asked loudly, not understanding their reactions. Mirio sunk back into the ground but instead of coming back at them, he went for the others. They knew what he'd do but didn't have haki to sense where he was coming from, so they all got punched in the gut, too.

Soon, only Ace and Luffy were left standing, both fists up and wondering what to do next. "Wow! You two have a lot of potential!" Mirio said excitedly. Luffy grinned. And Ace smiled a bit, too. One of the top three had acknowledged them. "As do the rest of you, you're just not there yet!"

People started getting irate before Tsu said, "Remember, everybody?" And they all stopped, nodding. They wouldn't be jealous or put the twins on a pedestal anymore. Ace and Luffy were thankful for that.

Mirio got dressed and then apologized for being naked in front of the girls. He said they must get it by now. Everybody but Ace and Luffy were holding their stomach in pain. They both felt lucky they didn't have to go through that. They were fast enough. But was haki cheating? It was another ability, right? So it was theirs to use if they wanted to.

And they couldn't turn it off like armament haki. It was always on, always alert, though it wasn't distracting anymore.

Mirio said, "Did you all think my quirk was strong?"

Luffy and Ace said a definitive "no". Everyone stared at them. "I mean, if he's going through stuff like the floor and walls then wouldn't he not be breathing underground? So he has to hold his breath? Wouldn't that be challenging to use? Or when he slipped through his clothes. And, he seems stronger physically, right? He didn't hurt you by using his quirk; he just used it to his advantage and then used his physical and strategic skills. I doubt he can hurt you with his quirk directly as he'd gone straight through Midoriya's face and it didn't harm him. It was a fake. Maybe he can solidify his arm in your face and rip you apart, but that seems more like from a horror story than reality," Ace explained. Then he added quickly, "I could be wrong."

The big three were interested in them, and it made Ace and Luffy feel a bit awkward. Like they were under a microscope. They hadn't felt this way in the sports festival in front of millions of people around the country. But they did now.

"That is close! I do not breathe, but it's because I go through everything. I can't see or hear or smell. Everything goes through me." Luffy raised his hand.

"If you can't see when you're doing that, then how could you see when you were half in the ground?" He replied that he couldn't see, but predicted beforehand. "Oh."

Mirio then explained everything about his quirk, and the difficulties it caused. Then he said he had been dead last since his quirk was so troublesome, so he had to be smarter and faster than everyone. And his predictions came from experience. That was why he fought them to show them.

"And I met some interesting people, as well!" Someone mumbled that it was good Bakugo wasn't there. He added that they would be treated as sidekicks during the hero work studies and might go through scary things and see people die, they would have experience that they wouldn't have from school.

He changed the experience he got through the work studies into power and took the top spot! "That's why I think you should do it even if you're scared first years!" Luffy started clapping first and everyone followed.

Ace muttered, "We've seen enough shit that we won't be bothered by any of it." Luffy nodded in agreement. They'd seen murder and dead bodies often when they were street rat in that unregulated hell hole. "But we'd become stronger. Stronger than we are now, hopefully."

Luffy said, "Hopefully smarter instead of stronger, right?"

Mirio asked, "You two? What are your names?"

Ace answered. "I'm Ace, this is my twin, Luffy." He asked for their last names. "We don't have one, so on paperwork we just put Gunhead afterwards. He's our guardian." Mirio asked what their goal was.

Luffy responded, "To be a hero pair that makes people smile when we save them. We don't need to smile when saving people, we want them to smile." That showed how they were distinguished from All Might and Midoriya, who want themselves to smile when saving someone.

"That's a wonderful goal." And he left after they all said thank you.

After getting back to class, and changing out of their gym clothes, Aizawa told them that even though they were just shown about it from the big three it hasn't been decided whether or not you'll be sent to work with a pro-hero. "We need to determine that at a faculty meeting, and if we do it, we have to think about how to handle the media, too. We'll see how it goes for now."


So, there are friendship problems between Ace and Luffy and Midoriya. Not everything goes perfectly in my stories. ;) See you next week (or tomorrow depending on if you read more of my stories!)