Kira494: Lol, thank you! I remember Slender Man, I used to attempt to play the first game and it freaked me out.
Passer-by: Wow thank you for the long comment! I try to make my young Luffy characters and fluff cute by not overly cute. Done a lot of baby Luffy fics over the years. Many of my stories are ASL Whitebeard. I try to keep them each distinct and not all the same even if the base is the same. AKA kids/younger ASL and Whitebeards. Though the relationship between them aren't always the same. One story I have Luffy hates the Whitebeards. I won't be adding anything or changing what's written in this one since I always finish my stories before posting because I'm not gonna be someone who just leaves the story hanging forever if I don't finish it. But thank you for your insight, and I was not offended. I hope you stick around even though it's not too mysterious. More a story of fluff and some lovely angst sprinkled on top.
Phew, just got back from my first day of my last semester! Teacher seems really nice. I finished a very long story that is currently being edited, so it will be out by next week probably. Maybe sooner. Anyways, sorry for the super long A/N at the top. Enjoy~
"That guy! I hate him!" Ace hissed to Sabo as they all walked to the galley for food, Ace in a sour mood from the grumpy and rude commander. Sabo wasn't happy with it either, but he kept his anger cold and collected. Luffy was walking in a more subdued gait, head down and a deep frown plastered on his face. An expression that should never be worn by him.
"I'm not happy either, but you can't be so loud. Vampires are out right now, we don't want anyone knowing that you hate one of their leaders," Sabo reasoned. He smacked Ace's arm to stop him from ranting some more what Thatch entered the room from another doorway. Ace scowled but not at Thatch, who had scolded Kingdew (stupid name…). Thatch was one of the ones Ace liked the most, if he liked any of them.
When they reached the bar counter, Luffy climbed onto his usual seat. He was still looking sad. Ace and Sabo sat next to him. He was quiet, and didn't ask for food like he usually would. The boy then turned to Sabo, and asked sadly, "Sabo, am I bad?" Ace and Sabo both stiffened at the question. How could Luffy think he was bad? He was perfect, that damned commander!
"Luffy, don't worry about Kingdew. He's always been a stick in the mud," Thatch said from across the counter. "You didn't do anything wrong or bad, we just want to make sure nothing bad could happen." Luffy frowned at this.
"I wasn't alive back when Marco first got his fruit, but he'd accidentally set the original crew's ship on fire and it had burned to nothing, leaving the original members stranded on an island in the Grand Line. He's still here, he didn't mean to do anything wrong. It had been pure accident. They happen, but the best thing to do is to forgive and move on. No one would blame you if something out of control happened. Not even Kingdew, though he would definitely be grumpier than usual. So, don't worry too much about it," the cook finished, setting a steaming bowl of stew in front of each brother. Luffy seemed a bit more cheerful after that, but was still droopy.
He really missed his bedroom and home. Sure, he liked new and more people and vampires, but he did miss the little ship now. Were there others on the ship that would be mad at him about his powers? Should he not use them anymore? But the thought made him sad. He liked his powers, they were fun and cool! And they didn't even last that long, so what was the problem?
His brothers noticed his quietness and frowned, still irritated with Kingdew, no matter if he was like that with everyone. But, the story about Marco helped little. Marco had already been part of the crew. The longest member as far as the Spades knew. Of course they wouldn't kick him off for an accident, even if it was a huge one. Luffy wasn't part of the crew, just a temporary passenger.
Ace was thinking differently than Sabo, though. Sabo already knew whitebeard wanted to keep them, and based on what he had said and not said, he didn't feel any different than before Luffy projected a bad dream. And they didn't even know what the bad dream had been of. They couldn't ask with Luffy around, and they hadn't asked the boy about it yet. If Luffy wanted to talk about it, he would have brought it up himself.
The brothers would ask another time.
The rest of the night, Luffy was still pretty quiet, making Ace and Sabo worried. "Luffy, are you still upset over the commander?" Sabo asked gently after they were all done with their food.
Luffy shrugged. "Will my powers hurt people?" he asked quietly. Ace gently took him into his lap while the rest of the Spades and their captain looked at one another, not wanting to lie but also not wanting to upset the boy.
"Well, if they were used in the wrong way, it's possible," Sabo answered truthfully. Luffy looked back at his hands.
Then, with more determination than Ace or Sabo had ever heard, Luffy said, "I promise I'll learn how to use them good! You hafta help me, though," the vampire added. Everyone nodded with a smile. Luffy did what he set his mind to do, even if it ended up being trouble for others. However, this was necessary for the safety of the Spades and the Whitebeards, who were kind enough not to kick them off and leave them stranded once they found out Luffy might be a liability.
"I'm sure you can all do it," Thatch said kindly, leaning his forearms on the kitchen counter. He looked at Ace in slight puzzlement, still wondering why the vampire commanders and captain had reacted like that, and why Marco had been so flustered, something none of them had seen for years.
The Spades spent the night outside that night, on a more secluded part of the deck and had Luffy practice creating things, but they soon found themselves stumped, and unable to come up with a solution. How would they have Luffy practice not making anything while asleep? Would they just wake him up every time? They didn't know how to progress.
After a while of sitting there and trying to come up with some solution, Haruta walked over and asked how the training was going. The Spades were surprised to see this one talking to them. He wasn't one of the pirates that Ace and Sabo trusted, despite being nice so far. At least, after he knew the full story about why they had a child vampire.
"We're having trouble with something," Sabo answered politely, and honestly. Haruta asked what the problem was.
Luffy turned to him and questioned, "How I practice not doing it when sleeping?" Haruta could see why they were stuck with this.
"How about you just try to go to bed and think about not having anything happen?" It wasn't the best advice, but it wasn't like the Spades had any other ideas. Luffy cocked his head and turned to his brothers, wondering if that would work.
"Well, we can try that. We don't exactly have any other ideas at the moment," Sabo reasoned.
"Hey, Haru! I wanna make wings and fly like Marco," Luffy said suddenly. Sabo corrected his name politely and with a smile. Haruta smiled at the boy. It really was different interacting with a child after all these years of only men older than him.
"I'm sure you can do it," the commander said nicely, earning a toothy grin.
"Ace, Sabo let's practice that," Luffy announced. The rest of the night, before dinner for Luffy, they practiced making wings. The other Spade's played card games or cleaned and took care of their weapons, Sparky and Zeno the most.
-x-
"So… Ace, huh?" Haruta teased later that night. Marco glowered at him, hating that his fellow vampire commanders had all gone up to him and teased him in some way. "Well he is pretty cute for a human," the commander said with an amused grin.
"I told you not to say anything about it," Marco grumbled as he turned back to the log he was writing of the meeting they'd had and what they had all talked about after the Spades had left the room.
"C'mon, it's funny, though," Haruta taunted, thoroughly amused with Marco's irritation. "Why don't you talk to him about it?"
Marco scoffed. "And make him hate our guts? No thank you. We don't need him disliking more of us even more. Besides, he clearly doesn't like it. I can tell the other times it's happened. He hates it, and his brother teases him about the whole thing. He doesn't need more people taunting him about it."
"Hmm. Well, doesn't it feel nice to have someone like you, though?" Haruta asked, not dropping the topic anytime soon.
Marco took his glasses off with a sigh. He wouldn't be doing any paperwork while his brother purposely annoyed him to no end. "He's much too young and doesnt even like vampires in the first place," Marco reasoned. "Besides, he could just be reacting to my appearance and vampirism. Lots of humans grow flustered around vampires."
"Yeah, but as far as I've noticed he doesn't react like that to other vampires on the crew," Haruta pointed out. And he had a point. Ace was only reacting like this to Marco, none of the other vampires.
"Maybe it's because of how I've been with Luffy. He's just glad someone is looking out for the kid," Marco suggested. "Now can you get out so I can finish my report?" Haruta pouted at him.
"Fine. The sooner you're done with your paperwork, the sooner you can seduce Ace some more with your sexy haircut- ahaha!" Haruta shouted as he dodged a shoe thrown at his head. He ran out of the room laughing, leaving a seething Marco. Though, he couldn't bring himself to be angry with Ace. Kid couldn't control his human body like vampires could control theirs.
Another issue that Marco had was that he wasn't comfortable being in any relationship. It had been a very, very long time since he'd had any romance in his life, and he wasn't looking for any. Especially with a human, who would grow old and die before him. Ace clearly didn't want to be a vampire, which was fine and no one judged him for it, but even if Marco was looking for love, it would be preferably permanent.
But that didn't matter, as the bottom line was Ace was too young, and Marco wasn't looking. Plus, Ace was unhappy with how he was feeling. Marco wouldn't do anything to piss him off or offend him and cause him to never open up with any of them, which was what the commanders and many of the crew wanted.
-x-
The night, Luffy didn't have any nightmares, which was good. The Spades all went to bed at the same time, with one person taking "watch", and making sure no unwanted apparations would appear. If some did, they were to wake Luffy first and then Ace and Sabo. But, Jojo and then Zeno didn't need to wake anyone up, as it was uneventful.
In the dark, there was a couple minutes of something glowing floating around the room, changing shape and color, but it faded relatively quickly and Jojo had to wonder if she had been seeing things.
As long as there weren't any nightmares, it wasn't a big deal for dreams to manifest inside the room. There hadn't been such a massive dream like the first in the last couple days. They'd only been on the ship for a few, and almost immediately Luffy developed the powers. It was interesting and confusing at the same time. A strange coincidence.
-x-
Izo got a call on the den den mushi from Shanks, who was in the area, which was strange that both yonko crews were in Paradise. He wondered why Shanks was there. It was a weird thing they had in common. He requested meeting up with the crew and sharing some good sake Shanks had gotten from the East Blue. Considering they had a crew from the East Blue with them at the time, it was a strange coincidence.
Shanks wasn't a bad guy, even if he annoyed some of the crew (Marco), so Izo accepted the offer, knowing that Shanks was almost always welcomed. Pops was asleep, as it was during the day, so Shanks always came at night when he could interact outside with the vampire yonko. Whitebeard was the only vampire in the yonko or warlord statuses.
When Izo found and told Marco, he looked uncomfortable. "What do we do about the Spades?" Marco wondered. Izo hadn't even thought of that. And, even if they hid the small crew during the visit, their ship was not easy to miss at all. And Shanks, the nosy guy he was, would no doubt pester them about the reason they were towing another ship.
"As long as he doesn't hear about Luffy, it should be fine right?" Izo replied. Marco "hum"ed before saying that they would just have to see. But keeping Luffy away would be the best option.
Shanks would be there in a few hours, when it was night time. When the sun set, Marco headed to the captain's room to inform him about their approaching guest, and also asked what they should do about the Spades. Mostly about Luffy. Shanks might react strongly to seeing a child vampire and assuming he had been changed at his age like most of them had assumed at first.
"Even if Luffy does pop out on deck, I doubt anything negative will happen if we explain briefly about his situation. However, we should ask Ace and Sabo what they want to do about it. They should all be getting up around now," Whitebeard said. "Were there any aparations today?"
Marco leaned against the bedroom wall and said, "Actually, there was nothing."
"Good."
"People are still asking what has been going on, even if we've all told them it's nothing to worry about," Marco added. Many stuck with the thought of the ship being haunted. But no one had made the link between the weird happenings right after the Spades cam aboard.
"Well, we're not going to go into details yet. Maybe after Luffy and the rest get to know more of us better, then we'll say something. But, we can't claim to not know what the cause of all of the illusions are. Or all the puppies Luffy had made," Whitebeard said. Marco nodded, agreeing with that. Whitebeard was planning on keeping these kind people, and he didn't want anyone wishing they would leave before the captain and commanders got them to agree to stay.
"So, what are you going to do about Ace?" Whitebeard asked with an amused grin. Marco scowled at him. Now, everyone who knew about the damn one second of Ace blushing had pestered or teased him. It would be so much worse if Thatch or Izo found out. Marco would never live it down and those fools would probably start matchmaking. Well, then Marco could retaliate with Thatch about his crush on Jojo, which everyone could see.
"I don't know. Just ignore it for now. He doesn't like it and I'm not going to bring it up. After all, he doesn't know that the full vampires can tell," Marco answered honestly. He never lied to Pops, but he sometimes did hide things. Like his theory that Ace killed his mother to save Luffy.
"But how do you feel about it?" Whitebeard pressed.
"He's too young. And I'm not interested to be honest. It's been too long since I was with someone, and I have no desire to be again." Whitebeard nodded, knowing what Marco was referencing to. And he didn't admit another reason he didn't want to have anything with Ace was because the kid was a human.
Marco had no issue with most humans, and tons of his brothers were humans, but he wouldn't be in a relationship with one. He didn't want to risk having things go bad because of differences between them.
They both left to head to the galley, where both of them could sense Luffy, who had a different feeling than both full vampires and humans. A very unique feeling that they hadn't encountered before. No one had encountered before.
-x-
Luffy scarfed down pancakes, wondering why so many humans were still up and about. Many times, some were getting ready for bed. Thatch was talking with Sabo about Luffy's candies and if he could give a few to other vampires to see if they liked them. Sabo turned to Luffy and asked him, since they were his candies.
"'Kay," was his reply through a mouth full of syrupy pancakes.
Sabo pat his head and praised him for sharing with others. Luffy beamed and giggled, mouth finally not full. "Deuce says sharing is careful." Thatch chuckled.
"You mean 'sharing is caring'?" he asked.
"Yeah, that!" Luffy exclaimed before starting on another pancake. Ace was not in as good a mood as his brothers. The Spades were doing various things, either eating or bathing or Aggie 68 working with the nurses again. They liked him very much, which his captains were proud of. They really collected a good group of people.
But, despite that, Ace was sour and had a pinched face on. He noticed that many of the commanders were looking at him and chuckling. He felt like punching them, but it would do nothing to the vampires and he didn't want to set a bad example in front of impressionable Lu. Sabo noticed of course, but Luffy didn't and the brothers didn't want to bring attention to it for Luffy would probably make a big deal out of it, worried for his brother.
After the three brothers were finished with pancakes, bacon and sausage, Marco and Whitebeard entered and made a b-line straight to the brothers. Sabo turned around in the stool at the bar counter, Luffy moving to sit in his lap and wondering why Marco and the captain were coming to see them. Luffy was told he didn't make any bad things.
"Hello commander, Whitebeard," Sabo said politely, like usual. "Is something wrong?" Marco shook his head and made sure not to make eye contact with Ace, who was doing the same. He hated the blushing and wouldn't let Marco, of all people, see.
"There's nothing wrong, we just wanted to inform you that another yonko is approaching the ship for a visit to see Pops. We're sure he wouldn't be upset about Luffy if he knows the brief truth, but that's up to you three to decide, whether you want Luffy known to another crew or not," Marco explained.
Ace and Sabo were wary, not particularly wanting another strong crew to know of Luffy, but said boy thrust his hand up in the air. "I wanna see more peoples!" he declared loudly. It brought some attention to the three from the others in the galley, but it wasn't negative.
"I am sure he'd be glad to meet you, Luffy. After all, we pirates don't come across kids much," Whitebeard said after a hearty chuckle. "Ace, Sabo, we're sure he will be nice about the whole thing. I think Shanks would be perfectly fine with him. And even if he wasn't, there are enough of us to stop him from doing anything negative." The Whitebeards all knew Shanks would never do such a dishonorable thing. Luffy was very likable, even if he was a full vampire.
"Pleeasssee?" Luffy asked, puppy-dog eyes wide as can be. "I wanna meet him!" Ace and Sabo couldn't deny him; it was impossible.
"Fine," both Ace and Sabo sighed. Luffy beamed, showing his very slightly pointed canines. "Does he have any vampires on his crew?" Sabo asked the pirates. Marco shook his head and said that the Whitebeards were the only yonko crew to have vampires in it. Other ships just didn't have enough members to live the way that these pirates did.
After some more talking and Luffy telling Marco his plan to be better with his powers, (It was a simple, "I'ma try hard") the pirates with haki felt the ship approach, and left the room to go outside on the dark deck and greet the fellow yonko. Luffy held the hands of both of his brothers, having trouble seeing through the crowd of legs in front of him.
The three pushed forward a bit until they were nearer to the front. The commanders were all on one side of the ship next to Whitebeard, who was now sitting in his massive chair. Luffy peered to the side to try and see the other ship, and looked amazed with it. It looked so cool! And was bigger than his home ship.
The man that Ace and Sabo assumed was Shanks came aboard, when people started collapsing. Luffy was alarmed and looked around. Soon, everyone but the commanders and a few vampire pirates were unconscious. Only a small handful were still awake, including the three brothers, Deuce and Jojo. They all looked quite shocked and alarmed, never having heard of haki like this.
"Damn it, Red Hair, stop doing that!" Haruta shouted. The commanders were all surprised to see who was still standing from the Spades. Mostly shocked that little Luffy was still awake. "What happened?!" he asked, looking around in shock and worry.
The boy gained Shanks's attention. He looked at Luffy for a moment before clicking that Luffy had red eyes. He glanced at Whitebeard in confusion, setting down the massive bottle of sake. He clearly didn't think that Whitebeard would do something so heinous as changing a child. "Does this have anything to do with the ship you are towing?" he asked in curiosity.
"Yes, these are the Spades. We're giving them a ride to the next place they can get their ship fixed up at. And before you ask, Luffy is not a full vampire," Whitebeard explained.
"Oh?" Shanks asked in interest, looking at the little boy. He did feel different to those with haki, like Shanks had, so it made sense that he believed the man.
"Certain circumstances caused him to be born part vampire," Whitebeard said, and didn't explain any further. Shanks accepted this just fine with a grin at the boy.
He walked towards the still standing Spades, and crouched in front of Luffy. "Don't worry Luffy, I just put them to sleep. It's all good," Shanks said in a very friendly voice. Luffy looked relieved that they weren't all sick.
Suddenly, he asked, "Hey, mister, wanna see a magic trick?" Luffy was grinning, and when Shanks said "sure", Luffy took his hands from his big brothers' and cupped his hand together before holding it up to Shanks and releasing a butterfly that flew away into the darkness.
The yonko looked very interested. "That was a very cool magic trick, Luffy," Shanks replied with a warm smile. Since it was mostly those who already knew Luffy's powers, only a few vampire pirates looked very confused. They said nothing when Marco gave each of them a look. "I'm gonna go talk to captain Whitebeard now," Shanks told the little vampire boy.
When he walked away, they all heard Luffy ask his brothers if his trick was cool. "It was very cool, Lu," Sabo replied and ruffled Luffy's hair. "Want to go and practice? I think Shanks-san will start drinking with the captain."
"Kay," Luffy said happily, gripping Ace's hand again as Sabo, Jojo and Deuce slung their other members over their shoulders and walked to the back deck to practice with Luffy. Everyone heard their conversation fade the further away they got.