Warnings: Dark themes, lots of mentions of death, strong language, human experimentation, experimenting on children, child abduction, graphic descriptions of experimenting, lots of needles, lots of violence, poor descriptions of panic attacks, descriptions of blood, rated M for safety.

*If I need to add anymore warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!*

Chapter 24: Heated Arguments and Lost Luffys

It was now Thursday. Shanks was scheduled to arrive at the Moby on Monday.

Time was passing too damn slow.

The brothers were in their room per usual, but there was nothing to do in said room. It was empty, bare, with nothing to entertain themselves with. Ace was pacing around in boredom and pent-up frustration, trying to muffle it in case Luffy started getting influenced by it. Sabo was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling in boredom, no distinct emotion coming from him as he stared, making shapes in the wood grain. Luffy was beside Sabo, laying on his side and staring at the wall across the room. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing.

They had spent seven years in a cell, and even that was more entertaining than this room. At least they had been occupied with... other things.

Luffy had recovered after the event at lunch yesterday, and when dinner had come they were sent a lot of questioning looks, but no one asked anything which they were grateful for.

Suddenly Luffy sat upright, nose twitching, already slightly burning at the scent coming their way. Ace and Sabo noticed this and Sabo focused on the sounds coming from outside their room, noticing a familiar pair of determined footsteps heading their way. He stiffened, hoping that the footsteps would turn away from them, that they weren't actually coming their way, but he was proven wrong as they turned to walk down the hallway their room was in.

"What? What's happening? Whos coming?" Ace asked, oblivious to who was on their way.

"Whiskey," Sabo said softly, sitting up and scrambling off of the bed, Luffy moving more to the corner, trying to get as far away from the door as possible. Ace tensed as well at the nurses' name, clenching his jaw as he spun to face the door, fists clenched.

"They told her about yesterday." Ace practically growled out, glaring at the wooden door that separated him from their worst nightmare. Sabo nodded, agreeing with Ace.

"Most likely," Sabo said tensely, biting the inside of his cheek in an attempt to stay calm and grounded. He didn't want to feel too many negative emotions, careful of influencing Luffy.

A knock on the door had all of them tensing even more, Sabo swallowing hard and taking a deep breath as he raised a shaky hand to the knob, preparing himself. When he pulled the door open he was met with a blank-faced Whiskey, giving him no indication as to how the nurse was feeling. She offered the blonde a smile after a second though, waving a little.

"Hello there, I know you guys would rather I not be here but I heard about what happened to Luffy and I wanted to make sure he was ok." Whiskey said, trying to peek into the room, but Sabo was effectively blocking her view of anything but himself.

"We appreciate that, but he's fine, really, he was just tired." Sabo tried explaining it to the nurse as calmly as he could, trying to keep the strain from his voice. Whiskey wasn't convinced though and frowned a little, putting Sabo even more on edge, remembering Haru and how he would smile pleasantly at first until he was denied something. He would frown and then inflict punishment on whoever had denied him of his intentions.

"I just want to do a small check-up. Seeing as I don't have any of his blood we can't be sure that whatever happened yesterday wasn't because of a drug still in his system." Whiskey said, practically standing on her tiptoes in an attempt at even catching a glance of Luffy.

The brothers knew that what happened yesterday hadn't been because of a drug, but they couldn't exactly explain that to the nurse without giving away too much information about themselves and the facility itself, so Sabo was stuck in a predicament. He didn't want to make the nurse mad, but every time he denied her from coming into the room she seemed to get more and more annoyed with them, and that wouldn't be good if she suddenly turned on them and told the pirates.

On the other hand, he couldn't just let her in to examine Luffy, she would probably try to take his blood or do tests, or even worse, send him back to the infirmary. They definitely couldn't be sent back there, that was for sure.

But that left Sabo stuck in a jam, caught inbetween wanting to play the nice patient, but also keeping himself and his brothers safe.

"After the checkup, I'll leave, as long as this really was nothing." Whiskey insisted, and Sabo bit his lip, glancing into the room quickly. Ace was sending glares to the nurse, though she couldn't see them, and Luffy was curled in on himself so much that he looked like a child again. Sabo really didn't want to let the nurse in, but it was their best option.

Turning back to face Whiskey he nodded, although very hesitantly, forcing a smile to grace his lips.

"Alright," Sabo said simply, slowly stepping away from the door and letting the nurse in. Ace did his best to remove the glare from his face, knowing he had to play nice too, and instead opted to go comfort Luffy who was forcing himself to at least move closer to the nurse, no matter how uncomfortable he was with it. Whiskey stepped into the room, glancing questioningly at the beds that had been moved together, wondering how they had gotten there.

"Did you three move the bed closer?" She asked, genuine confusion in her voice. Sabo, remembering Whiskey telling them not to strain themselves, spoke quickly before Luffy or Ace could say anything, though he was pretty sure they were too focused on keeping their composure to answer.

"No, they were already like this." Sabo managed weakly, knowing it was a horrible lie. Marco had seen the room before when the beds had been apart, and for all Sabo knew none of the rooms on this ship had two beds pushed together like this, but unless Whiskey expected them to have somehow managed to get their hands on tools to remove the bolts in the ground she would have to believe Sabo.

She nodded at Sabo's poor excuse, still looking slightly confused, but she shrugged it off quickly, moving closer to Luffy who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for the nurse to come over and do her checkup. Ace sat beside him, rubbing his back soothingly in an attempt to calm the youngest down, he and Sabo both sending Luffy warm feelings, but making sure to not send too much as to not have a repeat of what got them into this mess in the first place.

"Well, in any case, as I said before, I'm just gonna do a quick check up to make sure everything's ok." Whiskey explained before getting to work, trying to move as fast as she could so she could be done quickly, not wanting to make the brothers anymore uncomfortable then they already were. By the time she finished she found nothing wrong, finding herself agreeing with the brothers that Luffy had probably just been tired and after a good nights rest he was better.

"Everything looks good. Thank you for letting me do the checkup." Whiskey said as she stood back up, some of the brothers' tension easing away, though not completely. Whiskey was sure they wouldn't fully relax until she was out of the room.

"No problem, thank you for your concern," Sabo said in the same polite tone he always used as he walked with Whiskey to the door, Ace wrapping an arm around Luffys shoulder and pulling him close, whispering something to him, probably something to comfort him.

"Marco told me that breakfast would be ready soon, you could probably head there now though, there won't be that many people there and I'm sure Thatch would be more than happy to give you a plate early." Whiskey said, having heard how uncomfortable the brothers got when it came to crowds and attention.

"Thank you Whiskey, we'll head there now," Sabo said, wanting the nurse out of the room so he could make sure Luffy was ok. With a quick goodbye Whiskey finally left the room, Sabo closing the door with a sigh of relief as he quickly returned to his little brothers' side, glancing at Ace with worried eyes.

"Hey Lu, you ok?" Sabo asked softly, not wanting to startle the youngest. Luffy nodded mutely, a small frown on his face as he stared at his hands. It wasn't that the nurse had done anything wrong, Luffy could feel her feelings, could feel that she was worried that she would make the brothers uncomfortable, could feel that she really did just want to help, but just her presence, her smell, set Luffy on edge, reminding him of Haru and the other doctors, and the facility itself.

Neither brother had the heart to say anything else on the matter, both deciding to silently support the youngest through what they knew were painful memories. After a few minutes of silence, Luffy forced himself out of the memories, remembering the nurse mentioning food, which reminded him how hungry he was.

"Can we go get breakfast?" Luffy asked softly, not wanting to talk any louder. Ace and Sabo shared a look before they nodded, standing.

"If we're lucky there won't be too many people there like Whiskey said." Ace said with a small smile. Luffy smiled at the thought, standing as well and following his brothers out into the hall.

"I think she was right, I don't hear too many people in there yet," Sabo mentioned, focusing on the sounds in the galley, blocking out those out on deck or in the kitchen. This lightened the mood between the brothers, happy they wouldn't have to deal with too many people right after the events of both this morning and yesterday.

When they entered the galley it was practically barren compared to how it normally was, only a handful of tables actually containing people. The commanders' table that they normally sat at only had a few people as well, Izo, Jozu, Fossa, and Haruta. The brothers, not quite sure what to do, walked quickly to the table, sitting in their usual spots on the bench.

"Good morning boys, sleep well?" Izo asked politely, smiling to the three. Sabo smiled back, already used to taking the role of talking to the pirates, Ace and Luffy remaining silent beside him.

"Yes, thank you. You?" Sabo replied courteously, his smile never faltering. Izo shrugged noncommittally, sighing slightly.

"Oh you know, as well as you can when you've got these barbarians running around yelling all night." Izo huffed, frowning a little and gesturing to the near-empty galley. Jozu laughed beside him.

"By now it shouldn't faze you Izo, after all, when have the Whitebeard Pirates ever been quiet when there are drinks to be had?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking. Izo glared at him, pulling out his fan and covering his face.

"Well, I need my beauty sleep! Couldn't you idiots celebrate in a quieter fashion?" Izo grumbled out, this time making Fossa and Haruta laugh as well.

"What were you guys celebrating?" Sabo asked, genuinely curious. The commanders turned to look at him as if forgetting the brothers had been sitting there the entire time.

"Oh, well one of the groups that had been sent to deal with an issue came back successful. We would have invited you three to join but after what happened we assumed you wanted to be left alone." Haruta said with a slightly guilty look as if he expected the brothers to be upset with him for not inviting them. Sabo held back his confusion and shook his head.

"No, its fine, we turned in early last night," Sabo said, ready to drop the subject. Luffy was taking the time to more clearly determine the commanders' emotions seeing as there were only a few people in the room to interfere with the emotions and make them hard to read. He could only find good feelings in them, and although lady-not-lady was still a little annoyed, it wasn't much.

"That's good, we were worried about you, after all, little one." Fossa said, more to Luffy who spun to look at the man, quickly taking check of his feelings and determining there was nothing bad in them. Because of this Luffy offered the man a small smile, which was enough to tell his brothers that everything was ok so far, allowing Sabo to continue the pleasantries while keeping Ace from glaring suspiciously at the commander.

"He was just tired was all. After he slept he was good as new." Sabo said, ruffling Luffy's hair affectionately, causing Luffy's smile to widen. The commanders smiled as well.

"Thatch should be ready with your food, Ha- ah, Ruta, why don't you go check?" Jozu asked, nearly slipping up with the name but correcting himself before he could. The brothers were grateful for it, relief filling them, and Sabo was glad they were accommodating enough to use the nickname around them. He was nowhere near comfortable with the pirates, and neither were Ace or Luffy, but he was put at ease slightly when they did small things like that to make the brothers comfortable, even if it turned out that it was all under false attempts at making them happy.

"Sure, be right back," Haruta said, smiling as he left the table to go check on the food. Sabo sighed internally. They hadn't even gotten food yet and he was being forced to have pleasant conversation with the commanders. The one bad thing about the lack of people in the galley was there was a lack of distraction for the COmmanders, leaving all their attention focused on the brothers, or more accurately Sabo seeing as he was the one who was actually talking.

Ace and Luffy were doing their best to stay calm and occupied, while also on guard the entire time. With Sabo being the one to talk he was focused on the conversation rather than his surroundings, leaving it up to Ace and Luffy to make sure no threat approached them. Ace was scanning the room covertly, his sharp vision making it easier to detect any and every movement that was made, from a pirate shuffling in their seat to a fly stuck in the spiderweb in the corner.

Luffy was focusing on everyone's feelings, making sure no one had the dark feeling because if there was one thing Luffy knew, it was that someone's emotions could change within a second. If he felt any sort of malice directed towards them he would be the one to let his brothers know.

Not only did Ace and Luffy use their abilities, but they also used their haki, using it to figure out the strength of those surrounding them, as well as how many there were in the room, and how many were outside the door in case they had to make an escape.

These two were on complete guard, leaving the hardest part to Sabo. The talking. If Sabo made one slip up, everything could take a turn for the worse. These friendly pirates could turn around and become bloodthirsty killers if Sabo didn't watch his words carefully. He used his hearing to listen to the pirates' breathing and his natural born skill of detecting moods and reactions to figure out what to say next.

"How have you three been feeling? Better?" Jozu asked, which Sabo nodded to.

"Yes, your nurses here are very good at their job." Sabo complimented easily, though his fists were clenched under the table at the thought that he just complimented nurses. He knew, logically, that not all nurses were bad, that they ran into some sick doctors and not everyone was like them, but that didn't make it any easier on the blonde.

"Pops made sure of it when he asked them to join!" Fossa boasted, raising his drink to his lips as he grinned.

"By the way, did you guys cut your hair?" Izo asked with a raised eyebrow, having noticed it when they had first done it, but not mentioning it till now. Sabo nodded, running his fingers through the much shorter hair on instinct.

"We did, after all, it was getting to be unmanageable. This is much easier to handle." Sabo said, wondering how the man would react. He didn't think he would have a problem, after all, they only cut their hair, but what if, for some reason, that set the pirate off and made him turn on them?

Sabo knew these thoughts were irrational, just as he knew not all doctors or nurses were horrible people, but, again, old habits die hard when you were practically raised in a facility where cruelty and punishment were thrown at you for little to no reason at all on most occasions.

"It looks good. Have you had practice cutting hair before?" Fossa asked, taking notice of the brothers' much shorter hair. Sabo nodded again, wondering how much to give away.

"I used to cut these two's hair when we were younger and Ace would cut mine. It was just something we learned how to do over time with practice." Sabo said nonchalantly, shrugging. The commanders nodded in understanding and Sabo sighed internally, already wanting to crawl back to their room, regardless of the fact that they hadn't even eaten yet.

As if on cue Thatch and Haruta emerged from the kitchen, plates in hands as they made their way over to the table with smiles.

"Sorry for the wait, I was a little held up back there!" Thatch said, grinning happily as he set the plates in front of the trio, the brothers immediately digging in, wanting to leave as soon as possible, preferably before everyone started showing up.

"Were fine with waiting, its no big deal," Sabo said in between bites, completely lying through his teeth, not that he would let the pirates know that. Thatch merely smiled in response, sitting in his spot at the table along with Haruta.

"So, you guys gonna come on outta your room today? You've been in there the past few days now!" Thatch said good-naturedly, though the three tensed at the words. Sabo had been hoping Thatch would have forgotten about his apparent want for the brothers to mingle with the pirates, but that was clearly not the case. The blonde cleared his throat, sharing a quick glance with Ace in slight panic. He didn't want to make the pirate mad but he also didn't want to agree with coming out of their room anytime soon, not until Shanks was here, and then maybe not even then.

"I don't know, after yesterday Luffy's been a little tired," Sabo said apologetically, feigning a look of guilt. Thatch pouted a little but smiled quickly after.

"It's no big deal, but you really should try to later! Its supposed to be really nice out for the next few days, especially in Grand Line standards!" Thatch encouraged happily, and Sabo smiled, the expression getting harder and harder to fake as the conversation continued.

"That sounds great." The words were hard to force out and he hid the strain in his voice as he took another bite of food, noticing that Ace was looking his way rather than at the pirates around them. The oldest had picked up Sabo's growing unease and he unconsciously began to eat faster. Luffy picked up on this, as well as the feelings coming from Sabo, and did the same as Ace, shoveling food in a little faster than before in an attempt to finish quicker.

The brothers hadn't needed to use their silent language between each other when eating, all of their communication happening through glances or looks, but Ace was getting closer and closer to using the signal for 'abort mission now.' He knew the blonde could only keep this act up of friendly politeness for so long, and that time limit was closing in.

After Sabo's comment Thatch beamed and the brothers busied themselves with eating as quickly as possible, finishing within record time since they had been there.

"The food was delicious Mr. Commander, thank you," Sabo said, his strained smile still plastered onto his face as he stacked his plate on top of Ace and Luffy's, handing them to Thatch as the three stood up from the table, ready to leave.

"It was no problem! Hope to see you outside soon!" Thatch said as the three began walking away. Sabo hesitated, smile faltering for a split second before it returned.

"Right," Sabo said with false cheeriness, nodding to the chef as he ran after his brothers.

"I didn't think that chef would ever shut up!" Ace growled, annoyed. The trio made their way back to their room quickly with practiced ease, avoiding spots where they knew people were so they didn't have to deal with anyone. Sabo nodded his agreement.

"I didn't think he would be so adamant about seeing us outside of our room," Sabo muttered, also a little annoyed. Thatch probably meant well, or maybe he didn't, Sabo couldn't know for sure, but what he did know was that he and his brothers didn't want to be bothered by anyone until Shanks arrived, even if that meant staying in their room with nothing to entertain themselves with.

"He was disappointed when you said we would stay in our room." Luffy piped in, having been focusing on the commanders' emotions the entire time. Sabo frowned while Ace glared harshly at the end of the hallway they had just turned into.

"Probably because he couldn't get us out in the open where they could attack us." Ace spat out, not trusting any of the pirates for a second. Sabo sighed but didn't disagree with his brother. Sure, the pirates were being nice now, but no one was this nice to strangers without having ulterior motives. The brothers had learned that the hard way, especially when they interacted with Haru more and more.

"Did anyone have the bad feelings?" Sabo asked Luffy, knowing the youngest had been cataloging everyone's emotions the entire time for the feeling. Even though he knew Luffy would tell them the second he noticed a bad feeling he still couldn't get over the fact that no one had the feeling yet. These were pirates, and Sabo wasn't going to allow himself to be naive enough to believe that no one here had any ill will towards the brothers.

"No, some of them were annoyed, but not at us, at the other guys," Luffy said softly. His abilities allowed him to feel where someone's emotions were being directed, like anger directed at the person someone was talking to or happiness directed toward food someone was eating. Sabo and Ace took in the information, wondering just when things would turn bad. It was too calm, too peaceful, too... safe.

It was like an oxymoron, for the brothers to be safe on a pirate ship, and that was why Sabo and Ace weren't going to let their guard down.

"I wish they would just turn on us already." Ace said in frustration as they entered their room. It was unnerving and exhausting for the brothers to constantly be on their toes, to constantly watch everything they said so they didn't upset anyone. Ace just wished the pirates would attack already so they could get out of here.

"Don't wish for things that you don't truly want Ace. If they do turn on us we'd still have to figure out how to get to an island without anything to guide us there." Sabo said pointedly, causing Ace to pout and cross his arms as he made his way to the bed. Luffy decided to go to the desk and start making patterns out of the wood, tracing the surface with his fingers as he listened to Ace and Sabo.

"Who says I don't want that? At least we won't have to double check every step we take around those pirates!" Ace spat out, the pent-up anger and frustration beginning to show its ugly head. All the stress that was being put on the three didn't help either.

"I know you don't want that because it would be worse than now! We wouldn't have any food or fresh water, and what happens when the weather starts changing and we're stuck in a tiny lifeboat, huh?!" Sabo almost shouted back, voice rising as anger began taking hold of him too. Luffy lifted his head from the desk, turning to look at his brothers with wide eyes, looking at their waves that were virtually vibrating with their anger. He knew he should stop his brothers from arguing, because they were brothers and they were on a scary ship with scary people and if they got angry with each other it wouldn't be good for them, but when he opened his mouth to talk nothing came out.

"How do you know what I want?! Did they give you special mind-reading powers in the facility too?!" Ace shouted, voice rising to an equal volume as Sabo's as he stood up from the bed, glaring at the blonde.

Luffy could feel the anger and frustration coming off his brothers, making his chest tighten and his blood seemingly start to move faster, his breathing becoming heavier.

"Don't be an idiot Ace, of course I didn't get mind reading powers, but if you would stop to think for once you'd see what a bad idea it is wanting the pirates to fight us is!" Sabo countered, the shouting match between the two becoming more and more heated. Suddenly Luffy could feel the red-hot anger in him as if it were his own, his lips thinning and his fists clenching.

"Oh, so now I don't think either, huh?! Why do I bother living if you seem to know me better then I know myself?!" Ace questioned, practically butting heads with Sabo at this point.

"Don't you even go there!" Sabo growled out harshly, voice lowering dangerously.

"Oh, you mean question why I'm even alive to begin with? Why not, I should have never been born-"

"ENOUGH! Both of you, SHUT UP!" Luffy screamed, voice louder and angrier than the brothers had ever heard it before. Ace and Sabo immediately stopped their arguing, eyes going wide as they realized what they had been doing.

"Why can't you two just GET ALONG?! I'm sick of it!" Luffy continued, voice only marginally lower than it had been the first time. It didn't take long for Ace and Sabo to realize that they had just been feeding Luffy their anger and frustration, influencing the youngest to feel just as, if not more, angry than both the brothers had been combined only moments ago.

"Luffy-" Luffy didn't even let Ace start to say anything as he turned on him, glaring.

"Why can't you just be happy to be alive like Sabo and I are?! We love you and without you, I would be really really really sad!" Luffy shouted.

"Luffy, we-" Again, Luffy didn't let Sabo speak.

"And you! I know you want us to be safe and happy, but fighting with Ace and ignoring how he feels doesn't help us! It only makes things worse! Stop ignoring each other and just LISTEN!" Luffy finished, turning on his heels and nearly stomping out of the room, flinging the door open and slamming it shut behind him, leaving his brothers to stare after him in stunned silence.

Luffy didn't really know where he was going, all he knew was that he was too angry to care and that, as long as he was away from his brothers, he would be fine. He marched down the hall where their room was and took random twists and turns throughout the inside of the Moby Dick, walking without any care for where he ended up. The longer he walked the more he calmed down, his fists slowly unclenching, glare falling into his natural expression, stomping becoming soft steps once more.

It was only then that he realized his mistake in leaving the room.

He didn't have a clue where he was, but he was near a lot of pirates judging on the smells. He was still in the maze of hallways and he couldn't remember how many turns he had taken in his haze of anger, or whether or not he had passed any pirates on his way here. Surely he had to have passed at least a few, he could smell them behind him, and this only caused fear to start rising in Luffy.

He couldn't go anywhere now without running into a pirate. He was alone, lost, and scared, a combination that Luffy definitely did not like, and even though he could just follow Ace and Sabo's waves he would still have to pass at least one pirate on his way back to them.

Suddenly he could hear talking behind him and turned with wide, panicked eyes to see two people rounding the corner. Luffy didn't even have a chance to try to hide by the time they spotted him, both giving him slightly confused looks. If Luffy wasn't on the verge of hyperventilating he would have tried to gauge their emotions, look for the darkness, but as it was now Luffy was barely able to keep it together enough to keep his breathing under control.

"Luffy? You ok?" Thatch was the one to speak first, he and Marco having been talking before they had spotted the youngest of the trio alone in the hallway.

"Are you lost, yoi?" Marco asked, noticing the panicked look in Luffys eyes, like a deer in the headlights. Luffys mind was racing just as fast as his heart as he tried figuring out what to respond with. He knew these two were good souls, and they kept their promises, but Luffy's mind was clouded with fear and uncertainty, any reason he had flying out the window. It took everything within Luffy to just nod, still too petrified to move any more than that. Thatch and Marcos expressions softened at the nod as they realized the situation.

"Hey, its ok, why don't we get you back to your brothers, yeah? I know I said I'd like to see you out of your room more, but I didn't mean for you to get so scared while doing it." Thatch said good-naturedly, giving Luffy a small smile in an attempt to calm the boy down. Luffy could only nod again in response.

"Why don't we go check your room, yoi? If they aren't in there we can go to the galley if you like and have a snack until someone finds them." Marco suggested. Again, Luffy nodded, beginning to calm down slightly, enough for the tenseness to leave his body and for him to get his breathing fully under control.

"Alright! Well, come on, your rooms this way!" Thatch said cheerily, turning to face the way Luffy had come from. Luffy hesitated for only a second before he walked behind Thatch and Marco. He didn't want to get too close to the pirates, but he didn't want to get too far back either. Thatch tried making small talk with Luffy, but when he noticed the boy wasn't going to talk back he opted for making jokes instead, keeping a conversation going with himself to fill the air with something other than silence.

"And then this other guy walked into the bar and said, 'Ow, who put that there?!'" Thatch said, lowering his voice to imitate the guy in his joke. Luffy couldn't help but smile a little at the joke, finding it funny.

"Oh, and there was this one joke I heard on the last island we landed on before yours! How do all the oceans say hello to each other?" Thatch asked, pausing for effect, but also to see if Luffy would answer him. He glanced at the boy expectantly, grinning widely and raising his eyebrows in anticipation. Luffy had a smile of his own, both from the jokes and because he could feel Thatch's happiness and joy beginning to fill him as well.

"They wave!" Thatch said, delivering the punch line with an exaggerated wave of his own.

"Get it, because there are waves in the ocean, and you wave to say hello?" Thatch explained happily. Luffy saw Marco roll his eyes at the explanation, but the man was smiling a little none the less and he could feel Marcos own happiness radiating inside him. Luffy hadn't even noticed that he was completely relaxed with these two, even though they were pirates. He wouldn't go as far as to say he trusted them completely, but Luffy could feel that these two were good people, that they wouldn't hurt Luffy or his brothers like the doctors at the facility had.

"And there was also this one joke-"

"Luffy!" Whatever joke Thatch had been about to say was cut off when they heard Luffy's name being called, all three turning to see what was happening. Luffy's eyes widened as he realized he'd been so caught up in Thatch's jokes that he hadn't even realized that they weren't even following Ace and Sabo's waves anymore.

Behind him, Ace and Sabo were running toward him, relief washing over their faces. A quick check told Luffy that the two had been feeling panicked before, but after seeing him they had been filled with happiness and relief. Sabo was quick to pull Luffy into a hug, and Ace would have as well, but he noticed they were with company so he opted to stand guard, moving to place Sabo and Luffy behind him while he glared at the two.

"Oh, hey, we've been looking for you two! We were just headed to your room to see if you were there but it seems you've found us!" Thatch said happily, either not noticing or completely ignoring Aces glare as he laughed without a care. Ace looked ready to snap something at the chef but Sabo stopped him, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder and smiling gratefully to the pirates, this time not faking it.

"Thank you for finding Luffy for us, we were worried," Sabo admitted, gazing softly at Luffy and ruffling his hair, causing Luffy to laugh and swipe at Sabo's hands.

"It was no problem, he told us he got lost so we were just helping out. Moby's pretty big, I'm not surprised he couldn't find you two, yoi." Marco said, waving it off as no big deal.

"Either way, we're grateful, right Ace?" Sabo practically hissed the words at Ace, elbowing the fire user in the side, causing Ace to glare at him, but nod.

"Yeah, thanks," Ace muttered, moving to look at Luffy.

"You ok?" He asked, quickly scanning his baby brother for any injuries that hadn't been there when he had left. If there was even one hair out of place Ace wouldn't hesitate in fighting these two pirates right then and there. Luffy beamed at Ace though, nodding.

"Mm! Mr. Chef told me lots of jokes, and even though I didn't know where I was or where you guys were I didn't cry at all!" Luffy said, beaming proudly to Ace who looked at Luffy a little longer, to make sure his brother really was alright, before sighing, ruffling the youngest's hair the same way Sabo had.

"Good job Lu." Ace said, straightening up slightly and turning to face the two pirates again, giving them calm, calculated looks. He didn't know what to think, seeing as these two had their perfect opportunity to hurt Luffy, yet they hadn't. Maybe they were taking him somewhere else before they hurt him? Ace didn't know what to believe, just wanting to get back to their room where they could talk this all over.

"Thank you again, we know the way back from here. Sorry for any inconvenience Luffy was." Sabo apologized, bowing politely, tapping his leg.

'Bow.' He knew if he didn't tell Ace to then his brother would continue to stand defiantly. Luffy always did what Sabo did, so he wasn't worried about the youngest. Besides, he could already see Luffy imitating his bow from where he stood slightly behind him and Ace. It was a little awkward and Luffy looked off balance doing it, but it got the message across. Sabo would have to teach him how to properly bow later.

Ace huffing quietly beside him brought his attention back to the present as he watched the stubborn oldest brother finally begin to, begrudgingly, bow to Thatch and Marco.

"Thanks." Ace muttered, and Sabo was going to beat some none sense into Ace later too. Didn't the idiot understand yet that they had to be nice here?!

No, he wasn't going to get mad. Getting mad is what caused this mess to happen in the first place. He and Ace let their emotions get out of control and it could have lost them their brother had Marco and Thatch attacked Luffy rather than helped him.

"Really, it was no problem. I guess we'll see you at lunch?" Thatch asked, waving off their gratitude. Sabo smiled, putting on his mask of politeness.

"We will. Goodbye Commanders." Sabo said, he and his brothers turning to head to their room, moving almost stiffly as they felt Marco and Thatch watching them for a minute before turning and walking away, continuing on with the conversation they had been having before they'd found Luffy.

"I swear Kingdew knew that the damn fish was still alive when he gave it to me!"

"It's your fault for not expecting it, yoi."

"Who expects a fish to suddenly resurrect itself in your hands and slap you in the face?!"

"Smart people."

A little bit of bonding there, eh? Thatch and Marco were the first ones Luffy met and was able to get an impression of, so naturally, they'll be the easiest to gain the brothers' trust. They did, after all, help them get out of the facility with no questions asked at the time.

Just to reiterate from before, whenever there are strong emotions around Luffy he can end up... absorbing them for a lack of a better word, and then he will end up feeling that emotion himself, like the anger he got from Ace and Sabo. Sure, he wasn't angry before, but once Sabo and Ace started arguing and feeling mad, Luffy did too. Different emotions cause him to do different things, like the warmth nearly putting him to sleep and anger blinding him to the point that he completely forgot about his fears for a moment and was able to freely roam the halls of the Moby.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and also thank you for all the amazing support you guys give me! None of this would be possible without you guys!