A/N: Hello there! I was pretty happy with my reviewers, and thanks Kosmic and Invader Spyder for answering my PM's! Anyways I have BIG plans for this story, so I hope you stay with it! This chapter is pretty long so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. That brilliant piece of work belongs to Oda-sensei.

Warning: There is slight fluff (though I didn't mean for it to be like that) in the beginning depending on how you look at it.

A small dark-haired boy clutched the rough hand of his older brother. He bit his lip and looked around. This place…it was scary. They were in a completely white room, so white that the light made the intensity of the white ten times stronger. The boy whimpered at the strength of the light and gripped his brother's hand even tighter. His brother looked down at him and gave him a reassuring smile before raising his head to look straight on ahead. The boy was not assured at all. Something was going on…something bad… He could feel it…something cold had settled in his stomach. This was not good at all.

"Nii-chan," he whispered shaking his brother's arm. His brother remained still. "Nii-chan," he whispered more urgently shaking his arm even harder now. His brother looked down on him again a startled look on his face. His brother looked back at him an expression on fear on his face. The older one sighed before kneeling down to face him.

"What is it Luffy?" he asked calmly though inside he felt disturbed as well. When they were called here, he had no idea what to expect. Now, standing here in this cold room, he felt an even stronger feeling of dread. Luffy stared at him with determined dark eyes.

"Come on, nii-chan. Let's get out of here," he hissed clutching his arm even tighter now. His brother's eyes widened and his eyebrows rose.

"Are you stupid or something? We can't just break out! They'd catch us for sure," his brother snapped slightly. Luffy bit his lip before looking dejectedly down at his feet. His brother sighed at the sight of Luffy's crestfallen face. He ruffled Luffy's hair slightly but got no response from him. He got worried now. "Luffy?"

"You're afraid too aren't you Ace?"

He blinked surprised. This was the first time Luffy had ever called him by his first name. It had always been "nii-chan." When did Luffy get so serious?

Ace sighed tiredly, "What do you mean Luffy?" he asked rubbing his eyes. God, he really needed to get some sleep…

Luffy didn't answer. He clenched his small fists and looked down at the floor.

"I-I—" He never got to finish what he wanted to say. The door across from them opened and a large man in black came out. He walked over to them until his menacing form was hovering over them. He smirked before pointing at Ace.

"You. Come. Now." Ace frowned. Obviously this grunt was incapable of speaking in complete sentences. Luffy looked fearfully at the man before turning to look at Ace. Were they going to take his brother away from him?

"No!" he cried quickly grabbing Ace's hand and glaring at the large man in front of them. The man growled. Ace smirked. 'Not bad, little brother,' he thought also glaring at the large brute.
He put a hand on Luffy's head before saying, "Luffy's right. Where I go, he goes. I don't plan on leaving my only baby brother behind." Luffy smiled happily at Ace's words and nodded firmly at the man in front of them. The man growled again before lunging at Ace. Ace quickly dodged the man grabbing Luffy with him.

He smirked triumphantly before looking up at the man. His smirk was quickly washed away and replaced with a look of horror. The brute held a gun and was aiming right at Luffy. Luffy's eyes were wide with fright and he was practically shaking. Ace had to act quickly. He could—would not allow his brother to get hurt.

"I'll go." Luffy turned to look at Ace. A determined look was placed on his face. He stepped forward and the man kept his gun steady. He eyed Ace curiously.

"What?" Ace inwardly groaned. 'Stupid brute…'

"I said I'll go," he repeated loudly. Luffy screamed.

"Ace! No! What if they do something bad to you?" Ace only smiled reassuringly at his brother.

"Stop being such a worrywart. I'll be fine," he stated walking over to the man. He looked at him before saying, "You can put that down now," gesturing towards the gun. The man reluctantly put his gun back in his pocket. Then he grabbed Ace by the collar. Luffy gasped and started forward, but the man gave him a warning look and innocently patted the pocket where his gun was. Luffy stopped in his tracks. Would this evil man really shoot Ace?

Ace swore inside his head. If Luffy kept up his stupid antics, he would get himself killed! "Oi," he called referring to the man who held him in his grip. The man raised his eyebrows. Ace offered him a lazy smile before jerking his head towards the door. "Shouldn't we be going?" The man paused before nodding and began walking towards the door dragging Ace along with him. As they passed Luffy he whispered, "Be safe Luffy."

And then he was gone.

Luffy stood there frozen, his eyes staring at the place where his brother was. 'Why?' he thought the beginning of tears starting at his eyes, 'why do I feel as if that's the last time I'll ever see Ace?' He sank down to his knees gripping both of his shoulders with his hands.The once brilliantly white room seemed so dark now. He wouldn't cry. But…

"Nii-chan," he whispered hoarsely allowing his nails to drive deeper into his skin. What was he going to do? What if those people did bad things to him? How was he supposed to live without his big brother?

Luffy was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice the other door open again. He didn't notice another man in black come inside holding the arm of another person. He didn't notice when the man shoved the person into the same room as him. He didn't notice soft footsteps walking towards him.But, he did notice a feather like touch on his shoulder. He jumped violently and turned to see who touched him.

He looked right into a pair of crystal blue eyes that adorned a tanned face. Raven-black hair flowed straight down and ended at shoulders covered in cuts. Now that he looked at her closely he realized cuts and bruises covered her entire body. Yes, her. It was a girl. A girl, who looked a little older than he was but younger that Ace, was staring right at him. Dark hair and tannish skin. Her bright blue eyes didn't seem to be the sort that would be placed on a person with looks like hers. But, for some reason it seemed to suit her.

Silence graced them for a bit. They did nothing but look at each other, unspoken words exchanged. Finally she spoke.

"Why are you crying?" she asked in a soft voice her gaze unwavering. Luffy blinked. Crying? What was she talking about?

"I'm not crying," he responded stubbornly crossing his arms. No girl would tell HIM off. The girl said nothing but leaned over and touched his face gently with her fingers. Luffy felt like backing away. He had never been touched by a girl besides his mother. He closed his eyes as if he were afraid she would hurt her. As if reading his mind she spoke softly.

"I won't hurt you." Luffy's eyes flew open and he stared at the girl his mouth slightly open.

"Are you a mind reader or something?" he blurted out loudly. A small, amused smile tugged at the stiff lips of the girl. She shook her head and showed Luffy her fingers. They were wet. Luffy blinked. "Why are your fingers wet?" She smiled the tiniest of smiles once again at his innocence.

"They are wet because of your tears," she stated leaning back and sitting down on the ground. Luffy frowned again.

"I'm not cry—"

The girl gently grabbed Luffy's hands and led them to his face. When his fingers made contact with his face he realized that he indeed was crying. He stared at the girl.

"I am…" he gasped out, "I'm crying…" More tears sprang into his eyes. Not wanting the girl to see him cry he buried his head into his knees. The girl watched him cry softly into his knees. He was trying so hard to keep them in. She felt her heart go out to him. She went over to him and lifted his head up. His tearful eyes looked into her impassive ones.

"It's okay," she said. "You can cry all you want. I won't tell anyone."

Luffy's face broke out into tears and he threw himself at the girl wanting to hold someone warm. The girl froze for a moment; she didn't expect him to throw himself at her. But, listening to his sobs she relaxed slightly. She lifted her worn hands to rub his back comfortingly.

Luffy didn't understand why someone would do this. He didn't understand why a stranger would offer such kindness to him, another stranger. Her shoulder was so warm and she offered her warmth to him. He still didn't understand, but he suddenly wanted to be like her. He would offer others kindness as well. He would be like this girl…

They remained there, how long they didn't know and didn't care.

Luffy groaned. His head hurt like hell. Where the heck was he? He blinked sleepily as his hazy surroundings became clearer. He found that he was in some sort of run down room that had a broken bar stand across from him. Was he in some kind of inn?

Well, Luffy's simple mind refused to think any more, for his head started to hurt even more. He tried to move. His elbows hit something soft. Luffy blinked and looked down. There, right under him, was a girl with dirty hair and wide angry eyes.

BONK!

Luffy fell back and held his nose in pain. Ouch! Why the hell did that girl bonk his nose for? He turned and glared at her. She defiantly returned that glare.

"Why did you hit my nose?" he demanded angrily. She narrowed her orangey eyes dangerously.

"Why were YOU on top of me?" she snapped angrily her hands curling into fists. Luffy blinked clueless.

"How am I supposed to know? I woke up and you were there!"

"You were trying something pervert!"

"P-pervert!"

"Yeah!"

"But, YOU hit me!"

"I did it in self-defense!"

"But I didn't even attack you!"

"I bet you would have if I didn't hit you!"

"Uwah! I'm getting a headache!" Luffy raised his hands and clutched his head, squinting his eyes shut. His hands gripped his hair…wait…Hair? His hands searched his head. Oh crap. Where was it? Luffy opened his eyes wide in panic. He got on his knees and starting crawling around obviously looking for something.

Nami looked at the crawling boy her eyes twitching. What was with this guy? First he storms into the pub, then falls on her, yells at her, now he's crawling! ….Okay she'll admit, it was her fault that he fell on her. Maybe she shouldn't have hit him so hard…

"OI!" Nami blinked to see Luffy's face right in front of hers. On instinct she blushed, she had never been so close to a boy, but Luffy didn't notice that. He looked determinedly at her. "Where's boshi?"

"Boshi?"

"My hat!"

A look of realization dawned on Nami's face. "Oh you mean that old thing." She pointed to where the battered straw hat was. Luffy rushed over to it, picked it up and screamed.

"NOOO! BOSHI!" he wailed sinking to his knees anime tears flowing from his eyes. Nami rushed over to where he was sitting.

"What's wrong! Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. Luffy looked up at her, his eyes watery.

"There's a…" he started but choked on his words and started to wail again. Nami looked at him uncomfortably. 'What's with the waterworks?' she thought rubbing her head slightly. She sighed.

"There's a what?" she asked raising one eyebrow. Luffy stopped sobbing and shoved his hat into her hands.

"IT"S BROKEN!" he moaned miserably. Nami looked down at the hat and saw a huge gaping hole in it. She gulped. That was where she stepped on it…

"Sorry," she whispered meekly looking down. Luffy paused and turned to look at her.

"YOU did that?" he asked incredulously. Nami nodded weakly. "But why?" Nami opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when she realized she had nothing to say. 'What's wrong with you Nami?' she scolded herself. 'It's just a stupid old hat. Nothing special.' Even though she was thinking that, she felt immensely guilty for some strange reason.

"IT'S MY TREASURE!" he yelled all his anger finally showing. He raised his arm towards her as if to strike her. Nami closed her eyes. She deserved what she was going to get.

………..

Nothing.

Huh?

She opened her eyes and gaped at what she saw. The boy's arm (They still don't know each others' names!) was stretched! Stretched! She stared in fascinated horror as he stretched his arm back towards him. Luffy rubbed his head. Then he turned and saw Nami with her mouth wide open. Luffy laughed.

"You look funny!" he laughed happily. Nami stared at him in shock.

"What are you?" she asked breathlessly feeling slightly dizzy. Luffy laughed again and pulled his cheek. It stretched out. Nami yelped.

"I'm a rubber boy!" he said. Nami nodded weakly.

"Oh," was all she managed to say before losing consciousness. She slumped onto the floor and lay there. Luffy stared at her.

…….

"Why are you sleeping?"

A/N: Well there you are! Please review! Constructive criticsm will probably be best, though compliments bad either... Anyways, can anyone guess the mystery girl in the beginning of the chapter? I thought I made it pretty obvious. PLEASE REVIEW!

P.S. I just listened to Sayaendo by NewS! It is so awesome!

BRAVO! BRAVO! Oira taichi meruda SAYAENDO

BRAVO! BRAVO! Tomo ni wakachitta namida

BRAVO! BRAVO! Oira taichi kyo mou SAYAENDO

BRAVO! BRAVO! Kake gaenonai ONE PIECE!

Yeah...that's just a little of it. Listen to it, it's awesome!