So many people liked the last chapter, thanks for the reviews! I might not be able to post for a few days since my computer needs to be repaired and I don't know how long that will take. Anyways, this chapter is a bit sad as well. But enjoy~

"We're going to dock at this island for food. We're getting low on meat and produce," Thatch said to everyone in the galley one morning. They were nearing an island with a thick jungle, and one port city.

"That's not necessary," Sabo said loudly, quieting Thatch. Everyone looked at he and Ace, who was nodding. "How much meat do you need?"

"Enough meat for two weeks worth of cooking two meals a day with meat for 1,603 people. Why?" Ace and Sabo grinned.

"Say no more. We'll get you your meat. This island looks like our home island. That means it might have the kind of food we used to hunt for meals," Ace said and then he and Sabo ran out of the room to get their pipes, getting a "have fun!" from Luffy at the table. The other pirates looked skeptical about the boys getting enough meat for so long for so many people.

"No worry! Dey can do it," Luffy said as he drank his milk at the table.

"...I give them three hours before we go to buy some food," Marco said, though he didn't doubt Ace and Sabo were strong. But that much meat was too much for two children to handle. And how would they get it back?

"No, dey can do it," Luffy said again. "I see dem hunt and is scary but cool, too." Whitebeard chuckled.

"I guess we'll see, now won't we?"

"I missed this!" Sabo shouted as they cornered a giant panda. It was their fifth panda, which had been easy to take down. It wasn't hard just to hit the throat and the thing was dead. They were going to collect them afterwards, just leaving their bodies where they had been killed. If something ate the food, at least they didn't have a massive pile of food for them.

"Me too!" Ace laughed as they looked for their next prey. "Hey, look. Alligators! You think everyone has ever eaten an alligator?" the freckled boy asked as he approached the murky pond teeming with alligators.

"I don't know. If they haven't, then Thatch gets to experiment with some food. I'm sure he'd like that," Sabo replied. "I bet I can get more than you," he teased Ace.

"Bring it," Ace said with narrowed eyes as they both jumped for the creatures, beating them brutally with their pipes until they died and sunk down under the water. That was the part they hated the most. Going into the disgusting water to drag out the creatures.

"Ugh, this is gonna take a while getting everything back. I bet they don't believe us and when we get back, they'll already have wasted a bunch of money on food. Jeez, we're pirates. Why don't we just steal?" Ace said, pulling his shirt back on after the last alligator was out of the water.

"You're probably right. I bet Luffy would easily devour a bunch of the animals if there were extra meat hanging around," Sabo agreed.

The two hunted for three more hours and soon almost every creature living in the forest was dead. Even squirrels and rabbits had been caught. The only animals completely untouched were birds simply because you can't throw a pipe like a bow and arrow or gun.

It took three hours to lug the massive amount of dead meat to the coast near the ship. No one had noticed them until they started to throw the small dead creatures on deck. Luffy heard the slap at the moment the others felt the haki of something moving onto the ship. The littlest pirate hurried to the side of the ship, and shouted, "I tell you so!" pointing to the pile of loot Ace and Sabo had promised.

Once the pirates came out to see what Luffy was shouting about and Vista was watching, were surprised and impressed with the amount of animals the children had hunted.

"This should keep us for a while, right?!" Ace called from the cliff.

"Hope you didn't go out and waste some money on food!" Sabo said next. Luffy giggled, causing both brothers to grin.

That night was a feast, and the first time in a while Luffy had had alligator meat, his favorite. He inhaled the meat of three of the six alligators, wanting more but being denied so Thatch could give him some tomorrow.

The amount of meat would have lasted them longer, but there wasn't enough room in the freezer for all of it. So Luffy was the trash can. He ate all of the meat, even if it was just grilled with no flavor. At least the food wasn't going to waste.

Things had been better for Luffy for a while, but then the inevitable happened. They visited a winter island. Luffy's family had lived on a winter island, and they only were in that town because it had a destination Luffy and Usopp had wanted to see for Luffy's birthday. They were taking the sea train from their island to Ace and Sabo's home island.

The moment Luffy saw snow on the island they were approaching, he locked himself in his favorite closet. He didn't want to see the snow. It hurt to see it, and still have the urge to go to Usopp so they could play in it. Usopp was gone, and Luffy couldn't play with him again. He didn't want to be reminded of it.

No one knew why Luffy became so withdrawn, except Whitebeard, remembering something Luffy had babbled about the first night they spoke.

He and his brother played in the snow.

Luffy ended up coming off the boat when everyone on the ship decided they'd have a snow day, and Luffy couldn't stay on the ship by himself. So he reluctantly went with the rest of the crew, unable to help looking at the pretty sights of the white covering everything.

Ace and Sabo held his hands while they walked through the snow. Neither had gotten any answer out of Luffy as to why he was upset on the island. They kept him close, and told the rest of the crew that they'd be all going off to play in the snow, away from the noise of everyone else. Ace and Sabo were trusted to go places on their own, and the crew knew they were perfect at protecting Luffy and not getting him into trouble.

Luffy didn't take part in the snowball fight. He only watched as Ace and Sabo ruthlessly pelted each other with hard balls of snow. Snowball fights werent supposed to be violent like that. They were supposed to be fun, and playing, not hurting. Luffy eventually turned away from the scene and doodled in the snow with his fingers.

"Luffy, do you wanna build some stuff out of the snow? See who makes the best snowman?" Ace offered kindly.

"Yah."

Luffy began his clumsily made, short snowman. At first, it was going to be a normal snowman, with a stick for a nose and some rocks for the eyes and mouth. But, after putting the long stick in for the nose, Luffy found himself making something different. He didn't notice what he was making. Not the bushy shrubs for the curly hair, or the multiple sticks he made into sloppy wings, each one poking out of the snowman's back.

Once he was finished, he looked at his creation with a blank face, before realizing he had been making his brother. He stared at it, seeing Usopp as if he was standing next to it, telling Luffy he'd done a poor job. Luffy's eyes started to burn until he felt hot tears stinging his face from the sudden warmth on his cold cheeks.

He hugged the Usopp snowman before he then created mommy and daddy. He made it so he sat in the middle of the three snow figures of his lost family, and just sat there for a while, crying silently.

He missed them everyday, but tried to be strong and not cry, even when he felt he'd burst if he didn't. But some things set him off, then he would wander away just long enough to either cry and try to get the tears to go away by making himself a time limit, or just to try and calm himself down before he thought anyone noticed.

Despite the fact that Luffy was a terrible liar, a lot of the crew didn't notice his acting. Acting and lying were very different to Luffy. The ones he was sure noticed were Ace and Whitebeard. Neither said anything about it because Luffy was trying to hide his feeling for a reason and knowing that he wasn't doing it good enough would upset him.

Ace and Sabo didn't know what to do about what was happening then, how to help him, other than going over to him and sitting down, but not inside his little circle. Just close enough to him that they could both touch his gloved hands. It was quiet for a while.

"I made mommy and daddy and Usopp," Luffy suddenly said. "I did no good job, though. Usopp laugh at me cause is no good… Can we leave dis island? I no wanna be here anymore…"

"Sure, Luffy. Let's go back. Here you go," Sabo said, wrapping his soft scarf around Luffy's lower face and giving his beanie to his little brother so it hid most of the evidence he'd been crying. "In case you don't want anyone knowing you were crying."

"It's okay to cry, Luffy. It's not a bad thing that needs to be hidden," Ace told him gently.

"No one else cries. Only me," Luffy replied sadly. "I just miss mommy and daddy and Usopp… I do try hard to feel better. It no work a lot. Just make me more sad."

"I'm sorry Luffy. No one I know here has any reason to cry right now except you. And we all understand why you do," Sabo said. "And we love you, even if you sometimes get sad or lonely or just want to cry. You're still Luffy. No one sees you as a crybaby or anything like that." Ace nodded in agreement.

Luffy teared up a bit. "I love you guys," he mumbled, gripping both boys' hands tightly. "You da best."

"And we love you, too, Luffy. We'll always be here to protect you," Ace said kindly. "Always."

Luffy smiled and nodded, his tears drying, as they walked to the large group of people who had mostly tired themselves out. To his new family. It wasn't the same, it never would be the same, but it was a different kind of family.