Idoray: Thank you! They are indeed now in the Grand Line and things are going to change for them very much.
Jordansdevil: Luffy is everything to Ace and Sabo. In a flashback chapter in the future it'll show why that is. I'm excited to post that one! Hope you stick with it!
And here we have another chapter. I posted a new story that is an Ace/Marco romance if you want to check it out. This chapter we get to see someone new! And then the chapter ends! Sorry about this, will have to wait another week to see more of him! Enjoy~
The Grand Line was terrifying for Luffy. Multiple days, on their way to the first island, Luffy was awoken from a sudden storm. Even being secure in his bed, it was scary. Especially the first time, when all of his books fell off of the bookshelf with a loud thud, startling the boy awake.
He had cried, the baby monitor picking it up. Luffy cried a lot now. Things were scary, and he wasn't in awe of the creatures in the Grand Line waters. Most of the time, the animals he did see were Sea Kings. Terrifying monsters that made Luffy want to go back inside.
The ship was sturdy, but Luffy was still afraid that it would break apart from a storm or Sea King attack. There had been no attacks from the monsters, and they mostly passed the ship after taking a peek at it.
Even here on the dangerous Grand Line, one of the brothers often slept with Lu for some of the day. Especially on days there was a storm. And they happened at night sometimes, too, so everyone would be tired waking up at 3 AM to the shouts of the captains and littlest one. To say the Grand Line sucked would be an understatement.
It took over a week to reach the first island. An island with a lot of cactuses, which Luffy thought was funny. Sabo stayed on the ship with Luffy while the others got provisions. Ace and those who embarked on the land learned that it was an island that was populated by bounty hunters. But, not being pirates or having wanted posters, the residents left them alone. Were friendly, even.
The Spade's sailor crew declined the offer to throw a party politely, and that was that. The ship was allowed to dock, and was unbothered, until the log pose set in less than a day. Luffy had wanted to stretch his legs and go on a walk, but his older brothers rejected this and kept him on the ship. Bounty hunters might see him and take him in.
They knew that was an unlikely scenario, but the brothers had become even more paranoid of Luffy's safety as they sailed in the dangerous waters. Luffy wasn't happy with this. He was the most grumpy he'd been his whole life. All because Sabo and Ace let go of the damn wheel. It was their fault they were in the Grand Line. Not Jojo's for telling the two about Luffy being upset.
The crew made it clear they didn't blame either of the captains, which was a relief. But they still blamed themselves. Luffy was their weakness and strength at the same time. Everyone on the ship knew that.
It was their fourth week on the Grand Line that the first pirate attack happened. It had been during the day, so Luffy was thankfully asleep, and the pirates were quickly taken care of without the boy waking from the noise.
Ace had been merciless. No one would scare his baby brother. He'd burned the ship to ash, Sabo and the others besides Aggie 68, who was guarding the entrance to the interior of the ship, beating the pirates senseless. They would protect their ship - their home - and keep Luffy safe and unafraid as best as they could. It was a relief to know that the crew had been able to easily handle a pirate attack. They didn't know or care if any of the pirates died by their hand. If not, they had probably been eaten by Sea Kings. Served them right, trying to raid a ship that wasn't even enemy pirates.
It was more stressful to pass a Marine ship than it was a pirate ship. But, the Marine ship passed harmlessly. After all, the Spades didn't fly a black flag. So they were thankfully left alone and sailed right past each other. Sabo had offered the marines at the side of the ship a polite wave, and said, "Have a nice day!" Best to seem like a good person than someone suspicious, even if they had no reason to be inspected by the Marines.
Storms continued to plague them, and would ruin Luffy's "night" often. He had trouble sleeping sometimes, and was only able to sleep the whole night when one of his brothers slept with him the whole time, or at least stayed in the same room. The captains' room was barely used at all anymore. At least one of them was always awake, with the other spending time with their baby brother.
The second island they visited had been called Kyoko Island. It was a snow island, while the last had been a summer island. Luffy was finally let off of the ship once they found it had one small town on it, with no Marine base. Luffy was let off during the night with Sabo. They built snowmen and snow-castles together in the snow at a secluded area. Zeno and Sparky kept watch for any wild animals. Luffy was distracted by some fun, finally, so he might not notice something coming towards them. Better safe than sorry.
It took three days for the log pose to set there, so the crew went hunting for food. Luffy strictly drank human blood. They'd tried animal blood when he was a child, but it gave him the equivalent of food poisoning. So, they would stock up on blood at the next island with a city. But, they might have more trouble with stealing while being in a much stronger sea than the East Blue.
When Ace stepped foot on the next island, Sabo staying behind this time, Ace was wearing a hat and scarf around his mouth. He wore a shirt and some of Sabo's pants, which he hated. Too confining from his usual shirtless attire with shorts. He went to the blood bank, which was quite large, with a pocket full of money.
He saw no vampires, as it was during the day, and purchased eight bags of blood. It was expensive to say the least, and used up all of the money he'd brought. They even had them organized by blood type and the age of those who donated the blood. Ace just choose one of each type, since Luffy didn't discriminate what type he drank.
They were happy to find that no one bothered them when buying blood. There were no hostile glances, though he did get some strange looks, as he was clearly not a vampire, but was purchasing blood. He chalked it up to it not being often that blood was purchased during the day, so the citizens don't often see people buy from the blood bank.
But no problems were caused by this, and things progressed smoothly. No one bothered them on this island. Really, the worst thing about the Grand Line was the weather. The Spades had expected quite a few more pirate attacks. But, the pirates they saw or fought, which were only two altogether, were easily beaten by the crew. Even just Ace and Sabo could defeat the entire enemy ship.
Saber had a feeling that it would be different if they ever sailed to the New World, which they weren't planning on doing anytime soon. Not in the next decade at least. They were more likely to settle down on an island than to sail into the New World with a tiny crew and a ship that could not handle such waters. It was strong, but they knew it couldn't handle a place like the New World.
-x-
Ace was awoken by the ship shaking. He assumed it was another storm, and hurried outside to assess how bad the storm was, and if he needed to wake the entire crew. He knew Sabo was still with Luffy. It was early morning, and the sun had already risen, so they were most likely both asleep.
But it wasn't a storm that had caused the ship to rock. It was a pod of dolphins. The only problem was that they were massive. The waves from their leaps out of the water shook the boat, and Ace could tell some were swimming under them. To say it was very uncomfortable would be an understatement.
He was thrown forward and face first onto the deck when one must have bumped the ship from below. He ran down the bottom of the ship, where the storage was, and inspected the walls for any holes. He found none, and went back up to the deck, looking over the sides to see if there was any damage. There was none, but he was positive that they were hit.
He heard Aggie 68 come out to ask what had happened, still very sleepy. "A giant dolphin ran into the ship, but I can't find any damage," Ace said, running his hand through his black hair. "I'm sure one of them hit us, though." Then he noticed the ship was turning slightly to the side. He hurried to the wheel to right the ship back to forwards, when nothing happened as he turned the wheel. He grew pale.
Aggie seemed to understand what this meant as well. "Come help me go over the edge and see the rudder," Ace ordered, running to the side of the ship to pick up a coil of rope and run to the back of the ship.
The doctor helped tie the rope around Ace's waist tightly and helped him repel down to the water, to look at the rudder, which they were both sure was damaged. Ace gasped and then swore colorfully, saying words he hadn't said in a long time, when he saw the rudder was barely attached to the ship anymore. It was bent to the side, some of the wood broken off.
"Aggie, pull me up!" Ace called. He was easily pulled back up by the large and strong man. "The rudder is ruined," the captain said with closed eyes. "We still have a lot of food, so we won't starve any time soon." Ace was trying to find something not terrible about this situation. "But we're stranded otherwise."
"We're sitting ducks, then," the doctor said, sounding surprisingly calm. He was at least fifteen years older than Ace, so he could just be better at pretending. Ace wasn't, and was pacing back and forth, running his hand through his hair over and over.
"What are we gonna do?" Ace asked quietly. He knew he needed to calm down, and the only way to do that was to go to Luffy. Without another word, he left Aggie 68 and went to Luffy's room. He was still asleep, thankfully, but Sabo was awake. The doctor knew where Ace was going and didn't follow.
Ace sat down and laid next to Luffy, taking deep and calming breaths. Sabo looked at him in concern and confusion. His brother was acting strange. "Go ask Aggie," Ace whispered before gently massaging Luffy's head. They both heard a quiet sigh. Luffy had always liked that feeling, almost as much as the "goobums". The raven haired brother stayed in bed with Luffy, soaking in the calm that his brother brought forth.
When Sabo found Aggie 68 on deck, the others were already out, all looking worried and upset. Sabo became nervous. What was wrong? Why did Ace have to seek out Luffy to calm himself? "What's the problem?" Sabo questioned worriedly, though his voice sounded strong. He was a captain, and he needed to be strong for his crew.
"The rudder was hit by a giant dolphin. It's ruined. And we don't have a shipwright," Deuce explained. All of them looked exhausted. It was dawn, and pretty early and had to wake up quickly. Sabo's jaw dropped in horror, before he calmed himself with a few deep breaths.
"Go get some more sleep, guys. There's nothing we can do about it now," Sabo said. The others thanked him and went back to their rooms, though they probably wouldn't be able to sleep any time soon.
Sabo followed after, but to look at what they had stocked. How long they could last. He went to the storage room and inspected their remaining provisions besides food that was already in the kitchen. He knew they had six blood bags left. Six weeks until one of the crew would have to donate for Luffy to continue being healthy.
They still had tons of toiletries, and he knew they had a lot of medical products since there had been no injury in a long time. They had a lot of remaining water. The non-perishables wouldn't expire for the next two months at the soonest. He then left the storage room and went to the kitchen.
The meat would not go bad for another four months, since most of the meat was fresh and frozen. But, that wasn't considering how much Ace, Luffy and Deuce ate. So, maybe a few weeks at most with the three monster stomachs being happily fed. They would just need to ration, which none would be happy with.
Vegetables and fruits would go first. There was enough flour left for tons of bread, the milk and juice would expire soon, though. They had enough provisions for at least another month. Then they were in trouble. Hopefully the wind would carry them to an island, but Grand Ling islands were far apart. They'd be sailing blindly. They really should have a shipwright. At least they had a doctor, though. That was the least they could ask for now.
The odds of another ship finding and helping them were small, but maybe a ship like theirs would come along, not pirates, and help them out. They did have wood, but most of that was used messily to patch any holes in the wood. Not to redesign and set up a new rudder. They could just make it worse and lose what was left of the rudder completely. Damn dolphins!
-x-
The crew kept the secret from Luffy for a few days. He wouldn't know they were going nowhere, since he was awake at night, when they were stationary and the anchor down. He wouldn't know they were stuck, and didn't understand time enough to realize they hadn't reached an island in a long time. That was the best they could hope for at the moment. A stressed Luffy would be stressed co-captains.
The whole crew used Luffy as a stress relief, many of them staying up at night and playing with the boy. They had fun helping him with his "training". The thing that they could all take part in was Luffy blindfolded, trying to differentiate the humans' different sounds of walking. Like usual, he could pick out his brothers more than the others.
It was the third week that Luffy realized something was wrong. His hearing had been getting better, so he could hear through walls if he focused enough. "Do you think we'll die out here?" he heard Jojo say. It was easiest to pick her out as she was the only woman.
"Hope not," a deeper voice said, not either of his brothers. "But, if another ship doesn't come and save us, we're goners. Still haven't spotted any island, or even gone into one's climate. We might just sail blindly past them all." Luffy's red eyes widened and he got out of bed earlier than usual.
"Ace, Sabo?" Luffy asked over the baby monitor.
"On my way," Ace's voice said. Luffy was nervous, were they really stuck? What had happened? Why didn't he know about this? They couldn't die, though. That sounded stupid, they wouldn't die. Silly Jojo.
Ace opened the bedroom door to find a troubled looking four year old. "What's up, Lu?" Ace asked with a smile. Luffy frowned at him.
"Are we in trouble? I heard peoples saying we're stuck," Luffy said in concern. "I heard through the wall," he added. Ace gave a sigh, and ran his fingers through Luffy's hair. He hadn't even really noticed the less frequent baths to conserve water.
"We are stuck, but we'll find our way to another island. Whether somebody else comes and helps us, or we're lucky and find an island to fix our ship at, we'll all be okay. We just are having to cut back on our food." Luffy was confused. He'd been eating his normal amount. Ace sighed, knowing what Luffy was thinking.
"Everyone has been keeping a secret about it because we didn't want to worry you. Which you don't need to do. We'll be okay," Ace promised. They had two more weeks until Lu ran out of blood bags.
Luffy's face brightened. "Okay! If Ace says so, we'll be okay," he said with a grin. He trusted Ace so much is made him feel warm.
"We'll always protect you. I promise," Ace said, running his hand through Luffy's hair. "It's still day time, so why don't you go back to bed? I'll wake you in a little bit. Okay?" Luffy nodded and snuggled back into his bed, the covers tightened by Ace, and he fell asleep.
When Ace exited the room quietly, Sabo was standing against the wall. He'd been listening to Ace speak through the open crack between the door and wall. "We should try putting up an SOS sign," Sabo said simply as they walked back out to the deck and away so Luffy couldn't hear them.. "Use your fire or something. I doubt we're going to just luckily sail to an island. If we do see one, we'll sail right past it." They were now speaking in whispers, making sure the youngest couldn't hear their pessimistic opinions on what was going to happen. Or not happen.
"I will. Just gotta hope someone good comes along. If not, we'll take their resources and burn their ship down. Deal?" They weren't abandoning their ship.
"Sounds good to me."
-x-
Ace laid on the deck on his back, Luffy resting his head on Ace's stomach. It was cold outside, and Luffy was wearing a little jacket with his pyjama bottoms on to keep warm, with fuzzy socks on. Ace, like always, didn't have trouble with the cold. The others besides Jojo were asleep. The chef was getting more and more nervous every time she opened the refrigerator and saw the dwindling food.
They had started to restrict even Luffy's food, just slightly. Because he had two meals a "day", he was one of the least ones to consume food. The blood he drank also helps with hunger for human food.
Ace had one finger up, which lead to a large, flaming SOS, high above the ship. Luffy was just entertained by watching the flames. It was the third night of doing this. Ace only stayed up doing it during the darkest hours of the night, when the ship was barely visible in the darkness, regardless of moonlight.
Ace was nearly asleep when Luffy heard a loud sloshing noise. He stood up, waking Ace more, and hurried to the side of the ship. There was a big shape slowly coming towards them. Luffy gasped as a blue and gold light came hurtling towards them and landed right in front of him on the railing, lighting the deck up with blue light.
It was a person! Luffy was in awe of the blue fire before Ace rushed forward and yanked the boy away and behind him, smooshing Luffy's face against Ace's side to keep his eyes not visible. It had just barely worked.
"Luffy, go back inside," Ace said quietly.
"But, it's a bird-man!" Luffy protested. But he ran back inside when Ace said, sternly, "Inside, Lu. Get Sabo." Ace was rarely stern, so Luffy knew it was a good reason. Was the bird-man a bad guy? He'd go get Sabo, like Ace had asked.