Prequel to Promise. Sort of. A way Ace could have not died at Marineford. Aka my wishful thinking. Oh well.

Characters: Ace, Luffy

Genre: Family… Drama? Maybe?

A/N: Trying for something a little happier. Not sure if it will work out, though. By the way, for those who won't check out my profile (even though I still have that poll going on and I still appreciate the votes) this story currently has 25 chapters planned but I am taking requests.

Priorities

Luffy couldn't understand where it all went wrong. They were fine, Ace was free and they were finally going to get away and then this happened. Somehow. Really, Ace. Sabo was right. That's a really bad habit you got there.

So now Ace was fighting that Admiral, who was seriously one hung up dude. Their families couldn't be that important. It's not like either of them had ever met their fathers. Why did he care so much? Either way he was a jerk and Luffy wanted nothing more than to grab his brother and get out of there. But his brother was also a stubborn idiot who put his pride in front of everything and thus had put them in this awful situation. Fantastic.

"Ace!" Luffy screamed at him, but was ignored. He kept walking towards Akainu and the young boy knew it was not going to end well.

He tried to go towards his brother, to stop him, yet his feet could no longer hold him. Luffy fell on his knees and a new sort of desperation took hold of him. Dread settled in his stomach and once again he feared for the fate of his brother. There had to be something he could do… What would Ace respond to? No matter what?

It was then that he realized that to save Ace from his pride, he'd have to cast aside his.

"Ace…" he called weakly, unwillingly. Honestly, the last thing he wanted was to appear weak in front of his brother. However, he had no other choice. "Ace!" he called again, letting some of his fear seep into his voice. Luffy's resolve strengthened when he saw the man he was calling pause a little in his step. "Ace, I can't…" I can't walk. Damn it, I can't walk. "HELP ME!"

And it didn't matter who Ace was fighting, why he was fighting or how difficult the fight was, because the moment his brother called, asking for help, Ace would always come for him. There was nothing more important than his little brother. Akainu's words were just that. Words. Oyaji would understand. So, the man turned to find Luffy on his knees, looking at him worriedly, his eyes lighting up once he saw him turn.

Forgetting all about the admiral, he ran back to the boy, grabbed him tightly and helped him up. "Lu? What's wrong?" Some of the other Whitebeard pirates were staring in awe at the sight before them. Ace had abandoned a fight. Ace had turned back from a fight. What in the world…?

"I… I can't walk…" Luffy whispered, embarrassed but the smile was evident in his voice. "I'm sorry…"

"Shush, don't worry about it. You've been through a lot to get here, didn't you, little brother?" He smiled at him, all previous anger forgotten. Not seeing any other options, he placed the kid onto his back, albeit a bit roughly and… well… made a run for it.

Akainu for his part saw this as the perfect opportunity to get rid of them both at once. As he tried to attack them though, Whitebeard and Luffy's allies stepped in front to fight, buying the brothers precious time. Normally, both the boys would have been appalled at the thought of friends getting hurt in their place but Ace had more important things to worry about and Luffy was frankly too out of it to notice.

The hardships he had been through were truly starting to take their toll on his body and it was leaving him tired, in a haze and in a lot of pain. Ace could feel his brother slowly going limp on his back and could hear the whimpers of pain every time he jolted him a little bit too much. Once again he wondered just how hurt the boy was.

"Luffy? Lu, you ok?"

"Uhh… Yeah… I'm fine…" His speech was slightly slurred.

"You don't exactly sound fine." Ace frowned, worry settling in his stomach. They should have left earlier. Actually, Luffy shouldn't have come here in the first place. "Luffy?"

Luffy by this point was almost asleep, his head resting on his brother's shoulder. It was impossibly comforting, the feeling of being so close to the brother he had thought he'd lose for a moment there. "Huh?"

Ace sighed, realizing Luffy was incapable of staying awake any longer. "Go to sleep, Lu. You deserve it."

"Ace…" Despite how sleepy he was, he sounded hesitant to lose consciousness.

"I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Don't do anything stupid," he ordered, his mind going back to the incident with the Admiral.

Ace chuckled. "You're the one to talk." Feeling his brother's weight against him, he realized he had one more thing to say. "I have my priorities straight."

A/N: That was a bit short. I wanted to write a little bit more, to take it to the exact moment Promise picks up from, but this was a good place to end and if I kept it going it would lose its somewhat happy not and go more into angst. Since the next chapter (and almost every next chapter in fact) will have lots and lots of angst, I figured I should let this one end here.

As usual, please leave a review :D Thanks for reading!