Chapter 15

There are three things all wise men fear:
the sea in a storm,
a night with no moon,
and the anger of a gentle man.

- Patrick Rothfuss

A few days later, Law found himself in a clearing in the middle of a jungle on a deserted island with Lu, starting a fire for their lunch. The island is so small that it took them less than a day to explore. Ace and Sabo went off somewhere to find something to eat, saving whatever Thatch made for them for emergency.

Whitebeard and the rest of crew had been called out by one of the other Yonko for something and thought it'd be safer to leave them behind in case things went bad. It wouldn't be a good idea for them to get involved in one of their battle. Joker worked under Kaido after all.

They were left there with a small ship that belonged to the kids. Ace and Sabo had put up a pirate flag with Whitebeard's mark and their winged ASL symbol over it. Law was quiet surprised to find a the small ship and two other one-person boat when they opened the randomly placed door near the front of the ship of their undersea room.

It's been two days, and they had no idea when Whitebeard would be back for them.

Law looked at Lu as her head suddenly turned to a direction opposite of where Ace and Sabo went. "What's wrong?"

"Two people. That way. Not strong, very weak."

"They're probably lost. As long as they don't bother us, it's fine," Law sighed as he poked the fire once more.

Lu continued to look in that direction and hummed distractedly.

"Something wrong?"

"Just curious."

"Leave them be. It's not a good idea to cause any trouble on a deserted island with just the four of us. None of us can swim. They could have at least left someone with us," Law grumbled. "So how did the three of you get your fruits anyway?" he asked to distract the girl.

Lu told him the whole story of how they met Shanks and stole his treasure box. Law smiled fondly at the excited way she told the story with her arms waving here and there. She was very animated in her story telling. She even went on to tell him her dream to be a Pirate King.

"So that's how they both have the same power. It's very rare for two people to share the same fruit ability. They're probably the only ones," Law said as she finished.

"Ace and Sabo is special," Lu said proudly. "And Grandpops and Pops and Thatch and all the other commanders."

"Is that so?."

"Uh-huh. They know everything, and they don't hate me. I like them. They're special. So I have to protect them."

Now he was curious. "What is this everything they know?" he asked in a way that sounded like it didn't matter. How can anyone hate you? He thought to himself.

But he didn't get his answer. Lu got up and ran in the direction she was looking after yelling she'd be right back. She didn't look too concerned, so he just shrugged and continued to watch over the fire and wait for their lunch to be caught. There were no animals to speak of, but at least Ace and Sabo can fish something. Law really wished Whitebeard left them with someone who could swim.

Left with nothing better to do, he tested his Observation Haki, stretching it as far as he could. Law had learned a little on his own, but with Marco training him, he's improved much quicker than by himself. He found he could almost cover the whole small island. There was a presence that he assumed was Lu moving towards two other that weren't moving. He couldn't find Ace or Sabo anywhere though. Not that it meant much, they were probably out on their ship, too far for him to reach.

He kept trying to find the two anyway. Lu could do it, so why is it he can't? That thought lead to many more questions about the girl. She could do many things that he had no answers for. How is she always able to find Ace and Sabo when they concealed their presence? How does she know if a person is strong or not and gauge their strength? Was she trained like he was with the Daflamingo family members? No, probably not. It sounded like she would have been much too young for that kind of dangerous training.

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard a yell to run. He looked up to see a young boy wearing only a pair of long shorts running towards him, carrying two much older, unconscious men under his arms. Looks like Lu was wrong. There were three others on the island with them.

Once the boy was within view, he repeated himself. "Run! Fire!"

"Wait. My sis - a girl I'm with is still out there," Law started to run in the direction the three came from, but the boy stuck his foot out and tripped him.

"What are you talking about? There's no one else on this island. Hurry, the fire's spreading fast." The boy gave him a stern look. "Don't make me knock you out too. I don't have enough arms to carry all of you."

Law could feel the heat from the fire by now. It was getting closer. "And where do you suggest we go? This whole island is going to burn down at this rate." He tried his Observation Haki again to try to find Lu, at the same time keeping an eye on the boy, who looked like he was looking for something.

"This way," the boy said before taking off in that direction, not even looking to see if Law followed.

There was only a slight pause before the taller boy cursed and followed behind them. There wasn't much else he could do but to trust the young boy to know what he's doing. He couldn't find Lu, and the fire was spreading too fast. Hopefully she's noticed the fire and went somewhere safe.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Off the island," was all the answer he got.

Law saw Ace and Sabo on the beach with their ship, looking worried. They were already on their way back to the island and saw the smokes.

"On the ship, now," the boy yelled at them.

They looked surprised at first, but did as they were told. "Right," they both answered as they went to work to get the boat ready to set sail again. They'd just gotten back from fishing and had just unloaded their catch on the beach. Law wondered why they were listening to this random kid as he bent over to catch his breath once they reached their boat.

"Lu-ya," he panted. "Lu-ya is still on the island. We have to find her."

"Later, Trao," Sabo grunted as he pulled the sail in position. "Push the boat off."

"Your sister is still on the island, and you're going to leave her behind just because some random brat says to leave?!" he yelled at them, furious that he had misjudged them.

Ace and Sabo stopped what they were doing to look at him. They gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks for worrying about, Lu," Ace said. "We'll explain as soon as we're far enough that flying flames don't burn our ship. Lu is safe. We promise."

He didn't quite understand why they weren't worried, but if they say she's safe, then he'll have to believe them until they explained.

Once they were deemed at a safe distance, they watched in silence as the island burned.

"Sabo," the boy whined on top of the two still unconscious men, "I'm cold."

"You know this kid?" Law jabbed a thumb towards the kid as Sabo placed his jacket over the boy's bare shoulder.

"Of course," Sabo grinned. "So do you. Look at him very carefully."

Law studied the boy that was staring right back at him with wide innocent eyes and big bright smile. He does look somewhat familiar. Looking the boy up and down, he noticed a very familiar knife and pistol strapped to his thighs. Though, now that he was really looking, how could he have missed the scar under the left eye? "Lu-ya?" he asked in disbelief.

The boy grinned at him and snickered.

"Trao, meet our brother Luffy, also known as Lu," Ace grinned mischievously.

"Please explain," Law moaned in his hands. All the worry and stress finally left his body, leaving him tired and exhausted from all that excitement.

"Oh!" Luffy exclaimed as he peered over the side of the boat.

"Hey, be careful," Law yelled at him as he pulled the boy back. "None of us can swim."

"I have an idea," Luffy sang, walking towards their small than usual cannon.

"What are you doing?" Law asked warily, but it was too late. Ace and Sabo pulled him down as the boat rocked violently. If they hadn't been surrounded by the tall walls of the boat, they might have fallen off the side.

Law's eyes widen in shock as a large sea king surfaced, looking very angry. His voice caught in his throat when Luffy stretched to pull the angry sea creature's whiskers and brought it close to his face.

Law felt an invisible wave of some sort wash over him as the boy demanded the sea king to put out the fire, lest they eat it. The sea king looked at the boy in fear before going back under and swam towards the island. It came back up so quickly that some of the ocean sprayed onto the island, and it flipped its tail a few times, sending large waves over the island, and the fire was put out.

"Thank you," Luffy waved cheerily at its cowering form.

"Conqueror's Haki," Law breathed in awe.

"Look," Luffy pointed at the island, "we can go back now."

"What's with these two?" Sabo asked as he pulled one off the boat.

"Shipwreck," Luffy answered from his seat on a rock. "Floated on a piece of wood and landed here this morning. They wanted to do a smoke signal but messed up. They ran all over the place and wouldn't calm down, so I hit them. Dress caught on fire." He pouted. "I'm hungry."

"Everything we caught went up in flames, and it's too late to fish some more. Good thing Thatch packed us a lot of food." Ace got up to bring back some food from the boat.

One of the men groaned and sat up with a hand to his head. The first thing that caught his eyes was the black pirate flag. It was the flag of the notorious ASL monsters. This was the first time he'd heard they were affiliated with Whitebeard though. He'd heard what they did at that one marine base. He squeaked and looked to his left, where three boys watched him with varied amusement.

"Hello there," the blond waved at him, "how nice of you to wash up on our island. Though it wasn't very nice of you to burn it down." The man turned to see the rest of the island behind the boy. There was nothing left but burned down stumps and twigs.

The man tapped at his companion, waking him up in the process, just as Ace came back with food.

"We don't have enough food for them too," the boy said to his brothers. "Looks like we only have enough for four more days, if we don't catch anything."

"I can share," the youngest offered.

"No," the other yelled at him, causing the boy to flinch.

"But they're hungry too," the boy pouted.

Ace and Sabo sighed. "Fine, they can have some of ours. You have to eat everything though," Ace said as he split the food. "And? What happened to you?"

"We…we were on a cruise ship when a storm capsized the ship," one explained nervously.

"A civilian?" Law asked.

"Not only that," Sabo muttered darkly, "nobles. They're the only civilians that can afford to board a cruise ship. Just take a look at their clothing, and you can tell."

"Looks like something you would wear," Law stated.

"Exactly," Sabo spat as he stood up. They all watched as he slowly walked over to the two men and pointed his staff at them. "Don't even think of trying any funny business. I know how you people think. If I feel that you are a threat to my brothers, I won't think twice of killing you."

"Want to tie them up after they finish eating?" Ace asked once Sabo went back to his seat between him and Luffy. He knew that having nobles near them upsets his brother.

"If," one of the men stuttered, "if you could just drop us off at an island with civilization, it would be much appreciated."

"Can't," Law said.

"We'll pay you," the other joined. "Your small boat is big enough for us all. We'll even pay you any amount you want. We can even pay for the damages to your island."

Luffy gave them a sad look. "Money isn't going to bring the plants back. Not our island anyway. We're just here waiting."

"If you don't want money, what do you want? We'll give it to you," they were sounding desperate at this point. "All you have to do is take us to the next island."

"I just said we can't," Law bit out before sighing. "We don't have a Log Pose. All we have is an eternal pose that's set to go back to the main ship." Law still doesn't how that was possible. "I don't think you'd want that, especially if they left us here because they're doing something dangerous. You'll have to wait until they come and pick us up."

That had the men quiet. No, they did not want to meet the strongest man in the sea. They were going to have to find another way off the island themselves. They eyed the youngest, who had started eating before the food was finished being divvied, as an idea formed.

Luffy put his drumstick down slowly and turned his head to the two men with a glare, just as Ace was handing them their plates. "Ace, don't waste food," he said with a serious voice. "Greedy people don't deserve to eat."

"Huh? You were the one that didn't want them to starve," Ace said as he turned to look at his brother.

Before anyone could say anything, one of the noble lounged at Ace, only to pass through flames and catch himself on fire.

"Well, what do you know?" Sabo grinned at the other man who had a horrified look as he watched his friend scream and roll around to put himself out. "Their true colors didn't stay hidden very long, now did it?"

"Should I put that guy out his misery?" Ace asked no one in particular as he eyed the flaming man in the sand. He held his hand out with his thumb up and pointing finger aimed at the guy.

"Yes, please," Law said, perturbed that the three brothers weren't put off by the bloodcurdling screams. "If you don't, I will."

They watched and waiting for Ace to put the guy out of his misery, only to find out their brother fell asleep before he could.

"Ace," Sabo moaned with his hand to his face, "you have horrible timing. Trao, could you take care of them while I wake Ace up?"

The oldest hesitating a moment too long for Luffy. Getting tired of the noise coming from the burning man, Luffy took his pistol out of his holster and fired at the man, killing him instantly.

"You took too long," the youngest explained at the look Law gave him. "He was noisy."

The sound of gunfire woke Ace up, and he fired as if he didn't fall asleep, causing his fire bullet to go right through Sabo. "Opps, sorry, Sabo."

"Lucky it was me," Sabo smacked Ace on the back of his head. "You fell asleep again."

Too shocked to do or say anything, Law just gave up and ate his lunch.

The other man just sat there, shivering from fear, and watched them go on as if the smallest kid hadn't just killed someone. This time Sabo walked up to him with a scowl and a plate in his hand. "I'm only giving you this because I feel sorry for you, but this is all you get," he said and dropped the plate, causing everything to fall off the plate and onto the sand.

The man couldn't believe it. He's a noble. There's nothing to be afraid of. He's a noble, and everyone should bow down to him. His friend didn't make it because he didn't use his status right. His friend didn't deserve the title of noble.

"You know, kid, I can give you everything you'd ever wanted. I can even make you a noble, where you'll be rich and wouldn't have to work for the rest of your life," man sneered, knowing that most people would fall for it. "All you have to do is take me home, and I can give you everything."

Sabo turned around slowly and gave the man the most pleasant smile he could muster. "My former status had me up there to marry the princess of my kingdom. I have no need for your sorry excuse of a status. Anyway, I gave up my noble status a long time ago. What would I do with riches? Money can't buy me a warm family. Sure, I'd always have food to keep me alive, but what about my freedom? I don't like going around watching how I walk or talk. A golden cage is just a cage. Besides, being a pirate is better than being a noble any day. If there's anything we want, we take it." With that Sabo turned about around to walk away.

The noble man was pissed that his plan didn't work. He was even more sore about the fact that this pirate child's noble status was much higher than his. But the kid gave up his status, right? That means it wouldn't matter what happens to the kid. With his anger clouding his thoughts, he picked up a broken branch that was laying next to him. Before he could even lift his arm to stab the blond teen, a knife came for his throat.

Law looked down to Lu next to him and saw cold furry in the boy's eyes.

"Thanks, Lu," Sabo said, ruffling the kid's hair, "but I could have handled it."

The cold look left Luffy's eyes, and he went on eating happily.

"You owe me a lot of explanations," Law said as he set is empty plate to the side, now satisfied.

"Not much to explain," Ace said.

"We let Lu wear what he wants," Sabo continued. "Sometimes he likes to wear dresses. Other times, he wears our old clothes. We decided to have some fun and see how long it'd take you to figure him out. We like pranking new members, so it's not the first time we've done this. The other prank was to pretend we were ghosts haunting the ship."

"And the whole ship was in on it?"

"Yup!" they both grinned. "And we lost the bet."

"There was a bet going on?" Law scowled. "How long did you bet on?"

"A week," Sabo sighed as he fingered the dirt. "Thought you were smarter than that, but then you had to go and hide on bath days."

Law remembered the first one. Someone covered his eyes from behind him when he heard the boys yelling and running around. It was an odd sight once he was released. Almost half the crew on deck had some sort of dress or towel in their hands. He shook his head when Lu yelled at the brothers for forgetting clothes once again. After that, he just stayed in his room until he was sure they were done.

"Does he always do that, or did you let him run around naked to win your bet?"

"He always does that," Ace sighed as he got up to clear their plates. "Not sure how he forgets his own clothes. The first thing he does is put on the stupid hat and runs out, as if that's all he needs to wear. It's to the point that most of the crew carries clothes and towels on bath days."

"Lu-ya," Law turned to Luffy, "you do understand that dresses are for girls, right? You're a boy. You shouldn't be wearing a dress."

"They are?" Luffy tilted his head. "But I like them. I can't wear them anymore?"

There was a pause as Law looked into Luffy's watery eyes and sighed. "Never mind. I was lying. You can still wear them."

Luffy let out a cheer as Ace and Sabo chuckled at him. "It's hard to say no to him, isn't it?" they both said.

Ace then let out a sigh as Sabo to glared at the two dead men. "Lu, could you bury those guys or maybe toss them somewhere far from here? We're going to wash the dishes."

Luffy bounced up to grab the two bodies up to their ship, "I'm gonna feed the big fish. He put out the fire for us."

"I would love an explanation for that also," he said, pointing to Luffy's retreating back.

They looked at him with wary expression. Then they looked at each other before getting up and walking over to where the bodies had been.

"Help us cover that up," Sabo waved at the blood stained ground, "and finish the dishes. We have time before Lu gets back."

There was a moment of silence as they set about kicking the sands around the blood before Ace spoke. "Lu doesn't like it when we're being threatened. He's so clueless as to what is going on around him, until that happens. It's like half the time his mind doesn't even register that he's danger, but if he's being used against us, that's when he snaps. It's what they used to do. They punish Lu in order to punish us. Lu's always the one they turn to in order to get us to listen to them."

"We try to run, and they punish Lu. We try to protect him, and they punish him. We mess up on our assignments, and they punish him. It was always him, and Lu knows it hurts us even though he's the one in physical pain," Sabo said with a heavy sigh.

Law was silent as they set about to finish the dishes after they were sure the blood was no longer visible, unsure where this was all going.

And then Ace resumed talking, "You know, we thought he was just some annoying brat they dropped on us at first. But he grew on us, and we couldn't help but to want to protect him. Raise the kid, they told us. How did they expect us to raise a kid when we were kids ourselves? We could barely take care of ourselves, let alone a crybaby."

"When they first sent the toddler out on a mission with us, we thought we were doing the kid a favor and protected him from everything. Of course when things got rough, he saved our asses. I still remember that day. There were too many of them, and we were surrounded. Then Luffy jumped right in front of us and bit a man's hand and stole his gun. We didn't do much but watch that whole battle. He didn't even need us to back him up. He just went around gunning them one after the other, never wasting a bullet. After emptying the pistol, he picked up a sword from a dead body," Sabo shuddered.

"We don't know what Doflamingo did to him, but Luffy's able to imitate any fighting style he's seen. It doesn't matter if it's sword, gun, or hand to hand, he can imitate them after watching them use it once. He wasn't good with hand to hand until recently because he had no muscles to back it up, but he was good at imitating the moves. And he never misses with a gun." Ace looked at Law with a strained grin. "Do you understand yet?"

"Joker-ya wants Lu-ya," Law surmised after he thought about what he's heard.

"That's right," Sabo nodded as he rinsed his stack of dishes. "You have nothing to fear of those monsters you talked about to come after you, because we're finally free. After hearing all that, are you scared? Of us? Of Lu?"

"No. Though I'm curious as to Lu-ya's ability," Law said thoughtfully.

"Lucky you," Ace softly. "He scares us. We've known him since he was tiny, but he scares us. Not scared that he'd do anything to us, but scared that we wouldn't be strong enough to stop him if we have to."

Sabo placed a hand on Ace's should in comfort. "That's why we have to get stronger. Strong enough to stop him if he should ever need us to. Everything we've told you, only Whitebeard and the commanders know. No one else knows. Everyone else just thinks that Luffy is a talented kid. Most of the crew knows we were once slaves, and that's it. It's what I like about this crew. They don't ask questions."

"You know," Law said after they finished and sat around waiting for Luffy, "everyone's going to think you two did this." He gestured to the burned island.

The two boys moaned just as Luffy sailed back, acting as if nothing had ever happened.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: My allergies...I think it's trying to kill me. No amount of meds are working. I'm already taking everything my allergist prescribed to me, and he said that's the most I can take. On top of that, I feel like allergy shots are not working. Bah. Allergy season this year sucks! And my allergy is year round. T_T

On another note, Law finally learns about Luffy. Sorry it wasn't as funny as you'd hoped when Law found out Luffy wasn't a girl. 。७﹏७ 。