Guest: Don't worry, more cute Luffy to come!

Jordansdevil: There will be sadness and angst, and I hope I make people cry! MWAHAHA!

DragonFire Princess: Thank you! Hope that was a good "WOW" lol.

sairakanzaki: In a couple chapters the one-sided feelings will begin! I wonder who will like who?

A longer chapter, enjoy~

"What happened, Sab?" Ace asked quietly. They were both sitting on Luffy's bed, holding either one of his little hands. It washed the stress out of Sabo like water washing away something dirty.

"Someone asked about them," the blonde whispered, gripping Luffy's hand slightly tighter with those words. But then Sabo's body relaxed and he laid down next to Lu, kissing the little boy's forehead.

Ace stiffened when he heard that, and all of those bad memories flooded back, but he gripped Luffy's hand, and the memory of their mother begging for death disappeared. Though, the memories would haunt the black haired teen's dreams. Nightmares.

Thankfully, it was just bits and pieces. Their kind mom, so happy about being pregnant with another baby, even if she and he were thrown away like trash again. But then, it was covered in blood and sobs, wishing for death, begging for the life of her unborn baby. The feeling of blood, her blood, flooding along Ace's hands. Of killing that vampire that ruined his family. That evil man, the one who was evil even before turning into a vampire.

"No! I will always love my baby! My Luffy...!"

But, it was like Luffy was a drug, and the second the boy entered Ace's nightmare, it wasn't a nightmare anymore. Not with their angel in it. Could never be a bad dream if it included Lu. Ace hadn't realized he;d drifted to sleep until he woke up not much later, looking at Sabo's miserable face, even when he was sleeping. Ace knew the ordeal had been worse in some ways for Sabo than Ace. Sabo rejected the idea, but Aggie had diagnosed him with PTSD. That was when they recruited him, though Sabo didn't like the diagnosis.

But Ace knew it was true, they just never talked about it, and everyone knew to never mention even the words mother or father. They didn't know what had happened completely, just that it had been bad. And… messy.

Ace knew whoever asked about it hadn't known, but he was irritated that someone would ask something like that without even knowing them. The black haired captain wouldn't leave the room until Sabo awoke and could tell Ace what had happened while he was with Luffy. But Sabo needed some good dreams right now.

Sabo woke up a couple hours later, Ace having been awake the whole time, focusing on the good feeling from Luffy. "Sabo, did you notice he feels… more than usual?" Ace asked quietly. Sabo nodded, knowing what his brother meant. About Luffy feeling "more".

"The sun will be setting soon. The day went by really fast," Sabo mumbled. They both heard Luffy's tummy rumble, and he mumbled a syllabul. "I feel bad for leaving the others, but I don't feel like these guys are going to do anything bad."

Ace frowned. "At least, not yet." Sabo frowned at him.

"Ace, not every vampire is bad. Just cause we've only met one bad one, doesn't mean all of them right?" When Ace didn't respond, Sabo said, in a lower voice, "Luffy is a vampire."

Immediately, Ace snapped, "Luffy's different," though quiet enough to not wake Luffy up. They let him wake up on his own. "Besides, Luffy isn't a full vampire. It doesn't count," the captain insisted. Sabo sighed, but they erased the tense atmosphere when Luffy opened his big eyes.

The boy looked a little confused as to where he was. This wasn't his bedroom… "Where?" he asked with a big yawn, exposing his slightly rounded fangs.

"We were rescued by the bird-man vampire. Remember, then we had some yummy soup? They let us have this room for us to sleep in. Do you wanna go meet some other vampires?"

"Like me?! Right?"

"Very similar to you. But you're more unique. No one is like you, Luffy," Sabo said with a grin, rubbing the boy's hair roughly. Luffy giggled.

"I never get to meet new people!" he cheered, jumping out of bed. He didn't mean to, but those words made the brothers feel guilty. They kept Luffy sheltered for his own safety, but it was true. Luffy didn't get to meet new people since Ace and Sabo hoarded and hid him safely on their ship. "What's wrong?" he asked in concern after seeing his brothers frown.

"It's nothing, Lu. Let's go meet some new people," Sabo said and took Luffy's hand, Ace taking the other. "Make sure to tell us if someone makes you uncomfortable, okay? And tell them if you want them to get away."

Luffy wondered why he would need to say that to someone. They were all nice here, right? "Mm'kay," the boy said, moving on from the topic and swinging both his hands with his older brothers'. "I'm hungry, let's go get some food. Jojo is here, right?"

Sabo perked up, shocked that he and Ace completely forgot to talk about what happened while Ace was with Luffy. It didn't take long to summarize, and the three were on their way. They wondered what their crew had been doing while they were all cooped up in one room. Though they went there willingly.

Apparently, dinner was held later on this ship, so people could eat together if they wanted to. Luffy was unused to eating with so many people. He rarely got to eat with the rest of the crew, let alone tons of strangers. He couldn't wait to meet more vampires! Did they drink the same juice as him? Did they like juice candies, too? He hadn't had much time last night to talk to Marco. He was more focused on the bird-man aspect, not that he was a fellow vampire.

The three brothers ended up in the busy galley, with people talking and laughing, the smell of food and blood filling the air. It all smelled good to Luffy, but the thick scent of blood was a bit gross to the human brothers who weren't used to such a potent smell of it.

"Are you Luffy?" a kind looking man asked. Luffy nodded and grinned. "Nice to meet you, kid. Vampires are always welcome here, no matter wha-" and he collapsed the moment he shook Luffy's small hand. Luffy jumped in surprise.

"Are you okay?!" he shouted, crouching next to the limp man. Sabo pulled him away a bit, not knowing what had happened. A crowd gathered around them, everyone looking suspicious. "What's wrong with everyone?" Luffy asked in worry.

A commander had run over, one with a strange water-melon hat, and asked the collapsed human if he was alright. They all looked at the man who collapsed, who was slowly coming to. He had the warmest smile on, and started talking about someone named "Lisa".

"The hell?" the commander asked. "Who is Lisa, Alby?"

"My daughter," Alby said, a smile on his face and tears in his eyes. Luffy looked concerned.

"Is he okay?" the boy asked nervously. "Did I do something bad?" He had no idea what was going on, or why the man had collapsed. Ace pulled him into his arms when the giant man came over to inspect. He didn't look at Luffy suspiciously, just curious and confused as to what happened to Alby.

"What happened, son?" Whitebeard asked the commander. "Lisa? Alby, Lisa died seven years ago. Are you feeling alright?" Alby didn't respond, and Luffy was now feeling guilty. He was about to start crying in shame, because he had to have done something wrong if it made someone sick!

"Thank you!" Alby cried, looking at Luffy with wide eyes. No one knew what was happening, least of all Lu himself.

"Pops, try 'n touch him," the man said, finally coming to his senses, and smiling brightly at Luffy. At his words, Ace pulled Luffy in closer, and growled at anyone trying to touch Luffy. The poor boy was so confused as to what was happening.

"May I?" Whitebeard asked slowly, reaching out a finger to Luffy. Luffy stuck his hand out, which was the size of Whitebeard's thumb. They touched too soon for Ace to yank Lu away. Everyone waited for a moment, wondering if the captain was going to fall down as well. He'd crush multiple people, so his sons had gotten out of range in case he did collapse.

It was lucky no one had drawn any weapons on Luffy. It would just scare and confuse him more. Thankfully, Whitebeard didn't collapse, just let out a sigh and had a pleasant smile on his face. "Ace, Sabo. Do you know what 'haki' is?" When the boys shook their heads (they had only gotten into the Grand Line recently), Whitebeard explained it to them simply. Then he said, "Luffy seems to have unique haki. If you want to call it that. Do you two feel really good after touching him?"

"That's sick!" Ace exclaimed. Sabo smacked his hand to his face.

"Ace, I seriously doubt he meant it like that!" the blonde snapped, embarrassed by Ace's assumption. At least he had the sense to look embarrassed as well. "You mean feel lighter and happier after coming into contact with him?"

"Precisely."

Ace mumbled, "Yes. I thought it was just with us. No one else feels that. Ask the crew," Ace said, not knowing if all of this was a good thing or something screaming at them to flee. Well, they had nowhere to go anyways.

Marco came up, and reached his own hand out to Luffy, who brought his hand to the bird-man vampire's. Thankfully, Marco didn't collapse either. So maybe it was just something wrong with the original guy, Alby?

"Well, it does look like Luffy has unique haki. Almost like a modified conqueror's haki, though it feels nothing like that. But, it incapacitated Alby. And no offense, but Alby can't handle any king's haki. It's a type of haki that can knock out weaker willed people around you. Your crew probably didn't feel anything like this because they were never exposed to any sort of haki," Marco explained. "Of course, this is all speculation."

Poor Luffy was so confused. "I didn't do something bad?" he asked timidly, wide eyes shiny with oncoming tears.

"No, Luffy. You made him feel nice, like you do your brothers. He just wasn't ready," Whitebeard said kindly. He hadn't been around true children for a long, long time. He called his sons "children" but they were far from it. The oldest being two hundred and eleven years old. The youngest was twenty six. A very long ways from four years old.

"Oh, okay!" the boy chirped, relieved he hadn't done something bad. "Are all new people like this?" he asked his brothers. They were ashamed to say they didn't know. Luffy never met new people, so he could react like this to everyone. It could also have not affected the other Spade members since all of them had been sailing with the brothers for over a year. Maybe they just got used to Luffy's "haki" before it developed more.

That was what Ace was willing to believe, because his crew members were not weak. Hell, this Alby was weaker than their weakest. Jojo didn't collapse from briefly touching Lu, and this man was a Whitebeard Pirate? Ace inwardly scoffed.

"Hungry?" the teen asked, instead of mocking the man Luffy had apparently helped. How thinking of a dead loved one was good, Ace didn't know. Thinking about his mom never felt good, and she was dead.

Luffy nodded, and asked to be put down. Ace hesitated for a moment before he set the boy down. He guarded Luffy as he walked with the boy, Sabo on the other side. The two teens were uncomfortable with all of the curious stares on Lu. At least none of them were hateful or disgusted. Luffy was soaking in the attention, smiling at everyone and willingly touching their hands.

Ace wanted to stop him, but it didn't seem to be hurting anything, and those who touched his small hand had a small smile on. When they finally broke free of the crowd and approached the kitchen, Ace sat Luffy down on the same barstool from the night before. Well, the early morning before.

The chef, Thatch turned around to see the little boy, and just about dropped the massive strainer of pasta. Ace and Sabo looked at him warily, wondering if he would collapse just by looking at the boy. But instead, Thatch shouted, "HE'S SO CUTE!" A few pirates burst into laughter at the reaction. "Aww, my name is Thatch. Did you like my soup last night?" he asked, sounding giddy.

"Yeah, it was yummy! Jojo makes better soup, though," Luffy said innocently. Thatch frowned like a child. They heard a familiar chuckle and turned to see Jojo walking over. She looked very tired. "There's our loyal Luffy."

Sabo frowned at her. She looked exhausted. "Jojo, why don't you go to bed? We're all sharing the same space." The chef just smiled at her captain and waved her hand dismissively.

"I just wanted to make sure there was no negative reaction to Luffy. I ate not long ago, so I'm calling it a night. We'll move the things tomorrow. Night," she said and walked away. Ace and Sabo were about to ask what she meant about moving things. But Izo, the crossdresser explained for them.

He had his fan open, and behind it, said, "You nine will be here for awhile, so you have to move your important items. We wouldn't want you to lose everything if something happened to the small ship behind us. Right?"

Sabo nodded, where Ace was looking around them with narrowed eyes. Everyone was watching Luffy and it made Ace extremely uncomfortable. Lu didn't seem to notice anything strange, and if he did, he wasn't bothered one bit. Thatch was in the kitchen, cooking up something specific for the boy.

For all of the brothers, really. Ace and Sabo hadn't had lunch, but were distracted enough during the day to not notice, and Sabo spent a great deal of the day asleep. Man, their sleep schedules will be so messed up now. They wouldn't leave Luffy vulnerable and asleep all alone on this ship swarming with strangers, many of them vampires.

The trio were served a dish with rice and octopus, lots of vegetables included, with Ace and Sabo having water. Luffy was served blood, the pirate assuming Luffy consumed it more regularly than he did.

When Luffy smelled the contents of the lidded-cup, he said, "Mr. Cook, why you give me juice? I don't need it for more days." The pirates around them looked puzzled, before it clicking that Luffy didn't know he drank blood. He was told it was juice.

"Oh, sorry about that, Luffy. Would you like some water?" Thatch asked helpfully, giving Luffy the glass of water when he confirmed that was what he wanted. Some of the vampires watched Luffy eat with a frown. Was it really that weird for a vampire to eat human food? Ace bristled under the attention.

Sabo turned to the side, smiling politely at the vampire commander who judged them first, Haruta, and asked where the rest of their crew was. Apparently, they were given free reign of the ship. These pirates sure trusted them. Though, vampires had much better senses than humans, so they must have been able to tell the Spades were good people, and wouldn't turn on their helpers.

Aggie 68 was in the infirmary, apparently in love with it. The nurses, because they didn't have a doctor, were keeping him entertained with equipment in the much more advanced infirmary. The others had visited the training room, and the twins had been escorted to the weapons room, just because they were curious.

Apparently, Deuce had been guarding the hallway that held the spare room they'd all be sharing while the brothers were asleep. He was extremely loyal to the captains and their little brother. It really made the pirates wonder why he was so damn loyal that he'd play the watch dog all day.

"Many of them have probably retired for the night. After all, they'd been up all day and the night before. They must be exhausted," Haruta replied. Luffy was listening while he chowed down, Ace doing the same next to him. Sabo was eating like a normal person. Not like his two brothers. Luffy was fine, but Ace's eating was embarrassing him.

"Are you a vampire, too?" Luffy asked after he swallowed his food. Haruta nodded with a smile. "There are lots here?" The vampire nodded again. Luffy grinned, little specks of rice around his mouth. Sabo took the napkin placed next to Luffy's plate and wiped his mouth gently.

"Do you go outside in the day?" the boy questioned. When Haruta shook his head, Luffy said, "I get sunburned when I go outside and it's itchy and hurts! I don't like it."

Those around them looked surprised. The vampires on their ship can't be outside in the sun or they'd quickly grow ill and die. Marco was the only exception. Even the captain had to stay in the shade at all times or he'd grow ill himself. His chair had a room around it with tinted windows, so dark the sun didn't get inside, but he could still see through them.

The crew had originally all been vampires, and then the humans started joining. The family accepted any who would fit with them, human or otherwise.

Suddenly, Ace turned to the captain slightly suspiciously. "Why were you awake all day? aren't you a vampire, too?" So why wasn't the man only just now waking up?

"Gurarara," he laughed. "I'm many hundreds of years old. I don't need too much sleep. I can sleep for a night and be able to stay up for the next two days. Then I get to spend time with all of my children." Luffy looked at him in surprise.

"You have lots of babies!" he exclaimed. Being four, Luffy had no idea how reproduction worked, but he knew babies turned into adults. Whitebeard laughed again.

"My children are not blood related, like you are with your brothers. I've adopted them, meaning they are my children in name, but we share no relation," the captain explained patiently. Luffy didn't understand much of what he said, but he got the gist of it. This was a big family. Sooo many people! Were they all siblings? Brothers, like Ace and Sabo were to Luffy?

"How many people are on this ship?" Sabo questioned curiously.

"Sixteen hundred, not including you nine or the captain," Marco answered. Luffy commented on how it was a big family. And then that he liked having a smaller family, because he knew each of them more. "Well, at least with a big family, there's always someone around to talk to or play with," the phoenix said to the child.

Luffy chirped, "Ace or Sabo is always with me! Even when I sleep, though sometimes they leave but come to wake me up and then we play and eat at night," the boy explained happily.

Marco turned his gaze to Ace and Sabo. "They sound like good big brothers, Luffy." The boy nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Then Luffy changed the subject.

"Is there a bathroom here? We are all smelly cause we can't take showers cause it runs out of water and that would be bad."

The pirates around them chuckled. Looked like Luffy was very honest, though Ace and Sabo took no offense. Even when Lu was honest, or blunt, it was never to hurt someone's feelings. And the two already knew they weren't the best at singing. Luffy had inherited the good voice from their mom, and it was probably enhanced due to him being part vampire. "Yes, we have a bathroom with a very large bathtub that I'm sure you'll enjoy. You'll be on this ship for at least three more weeks, and maybe even longer depending on what island we reach. We never went on this route through the Grand Line, so the islands are surprises," Izo explained.

Sabo asked, "So you are New World pirates?" The longhaired man nodded.

Luffy raised his hand high and asked Thatch for seconds. The cook gladly served him another heaping bowl, along with Ace, whose bowl was also empty. Sabo was still working on his first bowl, and the crew wondered why Sabo ate so much less than his biological brothers. Marco thought it could be because Ace seemed to have a devil fruit.

"So, Ace, you have a devil fruit?" the phoenix vampire asked. Mouth full, Ace just nodded. He explained what it was after swallowing the delicious food he had yet to give proper compliments. "It was smart to create a signal out of fire, though you're lucky you ran into us and not some other pirates."

Ace scoffed. "All the pirates we've come into contact here were easy to get rid of," the teen said. "Our crew is designed to be able to protect. Their character and specialized skills came later."

The pirates saw Ace glance to Luffy, and they knew what was needing to be protected. And it was true, that even if they weren't closely tied to Luffy, he was very valuable. He needed to be kept secret or sick vampires might try experimenting, finding out that Luffy was possible.

But, the circumstances had to have been very specific. How was Luffy delivered? How did Ace and Sabo know how to take care of a vampire baby, something that had never existed before. At least, that one of the oldest vampires "alive" hadn't heard about. Surely, if it had happened before, Whitebeard would have heard it somewhere in his hundreds of years of being a vampire.

"Was it hard rasing a vampire baby?" Thatch asked curiously. He wasn't asking about the brothers' family past, but they were all curious about how the two teens raised a baby vampire. Sabo had just finished his food, and ran his hand through Luffy's slightly oily locks.

"Luffy rejected any baby formula. And it was expensive. He got sick from not having his juice, so Ace snuck into a hospital on the island and stole some. We started feeding him regular food when his teeth came in. He didn't drink regularly, which we had trouble with, since a human baby had to be fed all the time, but Lu would get sick if we fed him too much juice. So, we settled on two feedings a week, the rest regular food. Now he feeds once a week, every Sunday night. Other than that, Luffy was like any baby. Alive, breathed, used the bathroom, cried, etc."

"Ace and Sabo say I'm special," Luffy added, now asking for thirds.

Thatch replied, "Well that's very true." Luffy beamed at him and then the food, which seemed to not be running out despite pirates coming and getting seconds and thirds. Then again, this crew needed to have tons of food to support the hundreds of humans that ate food.

Sabo turned to Marco, and asked, "How often do normal vampires drink?" The brothers knew practically nothing about how full vampires lived. Besides how they were taught as children by their island. They'd killed that vampire before they knew anything about how he was living, besides attacking humans. The two brothers wondered how the pirates would react if they knew that Ace had killed a vampire, and a human. A very special human to them, that he'd killed in cold blood. Asked to or not.

"It depends on how old they are. Pops and I can go a few days without blood, where younger vampires need to feed daily or multiple times a day," the first mate replied honestly. "Some enjoy drinking more than others, and they even mix blood and rum to make 'bloodwine'."

Ace looked at the table very darkly, not making eye contact while asking, "And do you drink from the source?" in a very cold voice.

"No. We drink donated blood. Never from someone unwillingly. Some of our human members donate, but it is voluntary and no one is required," Whitebeard assured. "We've told you we have control. All of us," the captain insisted. Ace nodded his head. He had always had a harder time trusting people. He refused to make the same mistake as their mother. Over time, not trusting people made him suspicious of strangers. And all of these pirates were strangers he didn't trust. Ace wanted to go back onto their own ship. Their safe space. He didn't like how many people were focused on Luffy. These strangers he didn't trust. He wanted all of them to get away from Lu.

"Alright, everyone disperse," Marco said, clearly noticing Ace's discomfort. It made Ace uneasy that he had been so easy to read, but he didn't say anything about it. He reached to the side, unconsciously, and put his hand on Luffy's. The one that wasn't patting his finally full belly.

The humans and vampires alike left and the crowd dwindled until it was only a few commanders and Whitebeard around them. Some were seated at the counter, like Izo and Haruta. Izo was rapidly growing tired and finally said goodnight. It had been a long day, and it was coming close to ten. So, he bid everyone goodnight after handing Thatch the dirty bowl to wash.

Him leaving seemed to trigger many of the humans taking their leaves to go to bed. Ace, Sabo and Luffy were so used to being alone while Lu was active. But there were so many vampires on this ship that there was no way they'd be alone. It was uncomfortable, but only for the older two. Luffy was excited to be meeting new people and other vampires.

Luffy suddenly frowned, gaining Ace's attention. "What's wrong, Lu?" he asked the boy.

"I want my books," he replied with a pout. "I wanna read a story before bed."

"Luffy, it's not even close to bed time for you. But, I can go get the books if you want. To read later," Ace offered. Luffy nodded. But, Marco stopped Ace.

"I can go get them for him. It's dangerous for a human to go get on the ship in the middle of the night. If vampires go get it, we can just jump from the back of this ship to yours. If you're okay with that," the phoenix offered. Luffy nodded his head, liking the sound of Ace being safe.

Sabo agreed, too, to Ace's irritation. "Why don't you make a list of all the belongings you'd like us to retrieve?" Marco asked. A sheet of paper was handed to Sabo, with a pen. Sabo turned to Luffy, who began to list all of the toys he wanted. The pirates had to wonder how much this boy was spoiled with love and toys. Sabo had to put a limit on what toys he wanted because there probably wasn't enough room in the dressers in the spare room for them.

Most of his story books were also proposed, but Sabo had him limit these, too. They were going to go back to their ship, it wasn't going to sink while attached to the large Moby Dick. Sabo requested his journals and ship logs. Ace didn't have many personal belongings besides photos of him and his family or crew. He didn't want to seem like he was the only one who had nothing, so he just wanted the photo books on the side of his room. There were still lots of photos on the walls in the ship, but many of them were duplicates of the ones in the photo books.

Marco gathered some of his vampire brothers to go on the Spade's ship and retrieve some things. The other members' weapons and personal artifacts in their dressers werre requested as well. They told the Spades they would be on the ship for only a minute so as not to intrude in their home more than necessary, which the three brothers appreciated.

After Marco left, Luffy turned to Sabo and asked, "Can we take baths? We don't have to save water anymore, right?" The two older brothers looked to the nearest commander, who took them to the bathhouse with a friendly smile.

As the four went down the corridors, passing many vampires (Ace was stiff the whole time), Luffy commented on how big the ship was. That he would get totally lost. "That's not true, Lu. I'm sure you'd be able to find the kitchen and the crew," Sabo said with a bright smile, bringing one to Luffy's face as well.

"So you have good senses?" Haruta asked the little vampire. Luffy nodded his head while looking bashful at the same time. He wasn't used to people other than his crew complimenting him. Well, actually, he wasn't used to people at all.

"Luffy can pick apart me and Ace out of everyone else by scent and sound," Sabo bragged for his little brother. Haruta smiled brightly, and told Luffy that it was quite impressive, bringing a brighter smile to Luffy's face.

"Thank you," he said shyly. It was a new behavior for his big brothers. Well, he'd rarely been around new people before, and why would he be shy around his long time family? Ace and Sabo felt another stab of guilt at this. They were realizing how sheltered and trapped Lu was with how they were all living. Trapped on a ship, or when he was a baby he'd never once left the house that he was "born" in. The brothers just wanted to protect him, but he'd been missing out on so much.

But at the same time, it was all to keep him safe and secret. Did they do wrong? Or were they doing what was best for him? It troubled both greatly, and the duo were confused and lost about it. "What is wrong?" Luffy asked his brothers. They realized they'd slipped and both, simultaneously, conjured their Luffy Smiles.

"Nothing is wrong Luffy. Ace here is just jealous of you."

"Really?" Luffy asked in disbelief. "But Ace gets to do so much stuff! He can go outside in the day and leave the boat!" he exclaimed, not understanding why anyone would be jealous of him. He didn't know that that was a nail in the coffin of Ace and Sabo's guilt. They would both be talking to Luffy about this in private.

When they reached the bathhouse, it was an entrance next to the men's bathroom and across from the women's. The Spade's ship didn't have separate bathrooms from the bathhouse. The bathroom was the sink, toilet, and bath tub. One of the three only had a shower. So, Luffy had never taken a bath in a huge tub, and when he saw it, he gasped and ran to the side.

"Ace, Sabo, it's like a pool!" Luffy exclaimed. Ace stopped him from ripping his clothes off and jumping into the warm water. "But I wanna go inside!" he complained, tugging at his shirt. Ace smiled at him fondly.

"Don't you want to know the rules? This isn't our ship, remember?" the raven haired captain said patiently. Luffy blinked once and then nodded in understanding. The three brothers turned to Haruta in question.

"Feel free to bathe as long as you want. The water will stay warm the whole time. Luffy is old enough not to soil himself, so the only rule is to not knock the majority of the bathwater out. Some is fine, just not most or all of it," the vampire pirate said before closing the door behind him. Ace locked it the minute it closed. He turned to see Luffy ripping off his shirt and bottoms and jumping into the water.

Sabo undressed after him, and said, "Luffy! This tub is big right? Do you think I'll fit?"

"Sabo and Ace will fit!" Luffy cheered, walking deeper into the water. "But Ace can't sink, okay? No sinking!" the boy warned, pointing his finger at Ace, who had settled with sitting on the edge of the giant tub.

Sabo lead Lu back to the side of the tub where Ace was, and said, "You're not going to drown in a foot of water propped up. We won't let Ace drown, will we?"

"No!"

"See? You can relax in the water, we're here. Besides, when was the last time all three of us could take a bath together?" Luffy honestly didn't remember ever being able to. "Last time was when you were a tiny baby, Lu. Me and Ace were in a normal sized tub with you. When you would cry from being hungry and we didn't have enough juice, we'd take you to the bath so you'd fall asleep so one of us could go get juice," Sabo explained, running water through Luffy's dirty hair.

The three relaxed in the tub, Luffy floating on his back and staring at the bright ceiling lights. Ace was looking at hands while he sat in the water, completely limp and helpless, but Sabo was there to help him, and Luffy would never let Ace be hurt on his watch.

"Hey, Lu? Do you resent us for keeping you on the ship?" Ace asked timidly. "Resent means to be mad. You never get to leave the ship because we say so. Do you hate that?" Luffy looked up at the ceiling again, thinking.

He didn't hate Ace and Sabo. He could never hate his brothers. While he did want to go places and meet people, he knew it was for his own good. Well, that was what they said. Luffy didn't know what bad people were like. Maybe they were really everywhere and Luffy would be in danger if he ever step foot off their ship.

"Not hate Ace and Sabo. I want to explore, but Ace and Sabo say it's not safe. So I stay with them. But it is fun meeting new people!" Luffy explained with a bright smile. The brothers felt lighter after hearing Luffy say those things, though they didn't know if their bright star was even capable of feeling hate.

"We'll take you off the ship more once we leave here," Ace decided strongly. He didn't need to ask Sabo because he could practically feel the guilt and shame radiating off of him. Luffy's face lit up. "Really?!"

"Really. Promise," Ace replied, putting his pinky out. "It's not fair to trap you on the ship. We'll just make sure you have a lot of body guards." Luffy beamed and splashed in the water happily. He got to go on land! In a couple weeks, but he could wait that long. He was so excited now, though!

The brothers washed each other, Luffy scrubbing Sabo's hair messily, while Ace bathed the little vampire. By the time they left the tub, they were all cleaner than they had been in weeks. Now, they didn't smell bad anymore. They rummaged through drawers and found brushes to untangle their hair.

Luffy's hair was the most cooperative as it was straight and shorter than the older brothers' hair were. Ace's was wavy and had a tendency to get tangled when he ran his hand through his hair when nervous or stressed, and Sabo's was naturally curly and got in tangles by itself.

The brothers dressed in the clothes they'd been brought in, in which case was Luffy in his mismatched pjs and Ace and Sabo in regular clothes. Luffy was barefoot, which he usually was as he was either sleeping or walking around his home, which had no splinters. When they came out, a passerby told them Marco had moved their things to their crew's shared room, which the others besides Aggie 68 were sleeping.

The co-captains wondered if this would be a problem. If they all had separate and opposite sleep schedules. There was absolutely no way that Ace and Sabo would leave Lu alone anywhere on this ship, even if it was him sleeping peacefully in a bed all day. They wouldn't leave him so vulnerable. Especially now that he was everyone's special interest. The boy didn't notice everyone staring at him as he jabbered away to his brothers about how nice taking a bath with them had been. And they had to agree. Not taking a bath together since Luffy was a baby… it had been a long time.

Ace and Sabo had no trouble with bathing together with Lu, but neither of them would take a bath with just them in a tiny ass tub. They had a feeling that that might make them seem a bit creepy, but Luffy was only four. It was fine, at least the them and their small crew.

After awhile of being out on deck and watching the stars move, Luffy talking happily about being around so many people like him, he yawned, the tell tale sign of dinner time. They arrived in the galley, dozens of greetings from other vampires or humans who chose the opposite sleep schedule, and went to the kitchen, where Thatch was. Did he ever leave the kitchen?

"It's time for our dinner," Sabo announced. Apparently, this wasn't unusual, but they were having it later than most of the others. So, they were served some very delicious spicy chicken and buttered, freshly baked bread. Luffy loved it. And of course, had multiple servings, before it was bed time.

They quietly entered the bedroom, where someone had unscrewed one of the bunk beds and pushed it against another, making a single bigger bed for the brothers. They wondered if the pirates would be upset with that.

"Okay, Lu, we have to be quiet so we don't wake the others up," Sabo whispered as Luffy pulled out one of his books he liked. Of course he couldn't read the titles, but he recognized the cover. He nodded and put a finger to his lips. It appeared their clothes had been brought as well, and the three changed. Sabo and Ace into their own pyjamas, while Luffy changed into his regular t-shirt and some comfortable shorts.

Ace laid down next to Luffy while Sabo sat on the other side, reading the book to Luffy quietly. Like always, Luffy fell asleep quickly. And, knowing they were all safe in a room full of their crew, the two captains fell asleep quickly as well, all under the two blankets draped across them.

A little peek at that dreaded and depressing chapter. It's a tearjerker. Review!