- When We Make Up -

This one is quite long guys ^^

I've witnessed many arguments in my ten years. Even as a child I was always able to understand when something was wrong between two or more people. The atmosphere would suddenly change, becoming hostile and even frightening at times.

I'm so lucky to have such a strong relationship with Luffy, purely because we never argue. Well, I can't say never- we've had our tiffs and fall outs, but it's never been anything serious compared to the arguments I see around town. I will admit however, that most of the times we fall out, it's because of me.

It's definitely hard to maintain a balanced relationship between me and someone like Luffy, who grinds my gears to no end each and every day. Hell, I love him to pieces, but keeping my cool around someone so clumsy, reckless and above all else- a complete idiot is so difficult… I seriously feel like we're overdue for an argument.

After Sabo's death, we had a few… well, disagreements, all the time. I wouldn't call them arguments, because most of the time we were completely fine after each one. Again, these disagreements all spouted from me. He was always talking about how much nicer Sabo was to him, he would whine and cry about his death and I just couldn't keep my head. If Luffy was going to be a pirate, he needed to understand that death was inevitable.

I was also kind of jealous of how much he adored Sabo; even after his passing- do I really need to explain why?

Moving on…

It's been a few weeks since we've had any kind of disagreement and with Shanks coming back into town, I can feel one brewing. I'm on edge, I know either one of them is going to make me snap.

Myself and Luffy were making our way down to Windmill village on the morning of Shank's return. Luffy was rushing off ahead, whilst I was taking my time, easing down the hill. I was in no hurry to see this… this… Shanks guy, who had saved Luffy once, whilst I had saved him many times, do I get a thanks? … Didn't think so.

I didn't even realize that I had started grinding my teeth as Luffy finally decided to walk next to me, only to tell me even moreinterestingthings about this red-haired menace. "Yeah yeah…" I would simply repeat, knowing that he would only want me to agree with him anyway. This was one of the days where I would have to block out everything Luffy had to say to me, but it was in both our best interests- if I listened to him any further I would probably end up doing something that I would regret.

"Oooh! Did you know that Shanks could do that? Isn't it awesome? I didn't think anyone in the world could do something that cool!" He explained, I continued to drop in and out of the conversation, nodding along with whatever he had to say.

"I can't wait to see Shanks! I hope he tells me about all his adventures and shows me any new things he's learned…" He continued to talk; I decided it was about time to do something.

"Listen… Luffy," I began, although he wasn't really paying much attention to me, in fact it actually seemed like he wasn't paying much attention to himself, he was just spouting whatever nonsense was inside his head and spewing it forth. "Luffy…" I persisted and yet he still ignored me, I didn't want to have to do this but he left me no choice. "Luffy!" I partially screamed at him, he suddenly shut up and turned to look at me, a little confused.

"What's wrong Ace?" He asked me ever so sweetly, it almost made me feel bad for shouting at him.

"Can we just not talk about Shanks for a while? You're only making it worse for yourself."

"Huh?" He replied, not really understanding what I was getting at.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, great… I was starting to get a headache. "Look, I understand you like this guy, a lot, but the more you talk about him, the less excited you'll be when you finally see him."

"Oh! Don't worry Ace, I'll be excited plenty enough for the both of us!" He smirked widely, "I especially can't wait for him to meet you!"

"Really?" I replied, so it looks like I wasn't completely sold out for the day.

Luffy nodded eccentrically, "the last time we were together, I was alone and didn't know you- so he'll be really happy to meet the person who makes me really happy." His smile widened, I couldn't help but let a smile creep onto my face.

"You fool..." I replied to hide my embarrassment, Luffy could only smirk in defeat.

As we neared the town, it was clear to tell that Shanks had already arrived, the townspeople had gathered around the dock, where Shank's ship currently rested. It was unclear as to why he had returned on such short notice, but it didn't seem like anybody was too bothered with the reason why, they were just happy to see him. The people cheered as Shanks and his crew de-boarded their ship, waving, smiling, cheering… it made me feel somewhat sick- don't tell me they were big headed as well… letting all this popularity go to their heads, Windmill Village is tiny compared to the entire world!

Luffy rushed on ahead of me again, probably hoping that I would follow- well, I just took my time walking over. Unsurprisingly, like most pirates- they headed towards the nearest place they could see that had alcohol and food, which happened to be Party's bar.

I made my way over at the same pace I'd been taking for the past hour. By the time I reached the bar, everyone was gathered inside, surrounding Shanks and the other notable members of his crew. It took me a while to see Luffy, considering the amount of people taking up every inch of space inside the bar. I don't really know why I spent the time trying to look for him, because as it turned out- he was sat right next to Shanks by the bar.

I didn't really want to go over- but then again, Luffy would probably hate me for not meeting him, in fact he's probably telling Shanks about me right now!

I pushed my way through the hoards of people, squeezing between their legs and occasionally shoving people out of the way in order to get to the bar. This has to be the busiest it's ever been! What do these people see in this guy? He's just a drunk with a good swing.

I eventually found myself next to Luffy at the bar, surprisingly, he was happy to see me. He turned around on the stool and smirked widely, "Ace! Where have you been? I've been dying to introduce you to Shanks!" He cheered.

Luffy jumped off the stool and patted the top, expecting me to take his place. "It's okay, you can sit there." I added, I didn't really want to sit next to Luffy's new boyfriend anyway, what if I wanted to make a quick escape?

"We can both sit down; I'll just sit on your knee!" He smiled cheekily; did he just say he would sit on my knee?

"Hnn" I replied, not really caring too much at this point about the seating arrangement, I was just hoping this day would be over in the blink of an eye and Shanks would be on his way.

I jumped up on to the bar stool and helped Luffy up onto my lap, sadly- I was directly facing Shanks, who thankfully was a little preoccupied for now, although that didn't last for long. He eventually turned to face us, he smirk was pretty irritating.

"So Luffy, this is your friend you wanted me to meet?" He asked inquisitively.

"Nooo Shanks! He's my brother and eventual lover," Luffy said smiling sweetly, oh jeez… did he really just say that to an adult like Shanks?

Shank's expression changed, he was still obviously happy, but he was a little confused at the same time. "You two aren't actually brothers though right? I mean, by blood?"

We both shook our heads vigorously, "we drank sake together…" I replied almost instantly to straighten out that misinterpretation. I knew incest was frowned upon, even though we were innocent children, it was still considered taboo.

"So we're brothers by bond!" Luffy added.

"Ohhhh…" Shanks said, finally understanding, "So that's how you became brothers? That's pretty cute…" He smiled widely, ruffling my hair in the process- it only agitated me further, was he patronizing me?

"And eventual lovers?" His smile turned freakishly perverted, "how on earth did you come to that conclusion?"

"Well…" I began, but annoyingly enough, Luffy had interrupted me before I even had a chance to explain the correct side of the story, I was planning on beating around the bush with my explanation and making up a bunch of crap that would make Luffy happy and Shanks hopefully drop the subject.

"-Makino thought we might've been lovers because we were holding hands in a special way..." Luffy said, I had hoped he would leave it at that, but by the look on Shank's face, he was expecting a little more detail, looks like Luffy wasn't as stupid as everyone believed, he was able to understand some facial expressions... "Ace said we could do all these amazing things when we get older, like getting married and have kids together, isn't that great?" He exclaimed, when the hell did I say all that stuff? I only told him that marriage was for grown ups and... Oh wait, he doesn't know that guys can't have kids... well, that's probably my fault then... that's enough anyway Luffy, Shanks doesn't need to know anything else…

"And he said we can do the sacred act thingy that will bind us for life!" He added, just hearing that made my eyes widen to the point where they were almost popping out of their sockets, what the hell was Luffy thinking? Telling someone like Shanks something like that!

"The sacred act?" Shanks replied, thinking about it for a moment, although it didn't take him too long to realize what it truly meant, he was a pirate after all- he was doing this act regularly. "You couldn't possibly mean…" Shank's smile widened to a huge, even more perverted grin, directly aimed at me. "Ace, you rascal."

Why was he making it sound like this was all my idea? Like I had somehow forced Luffy into having sex with my when we're older… I was really starting to hate this guy. Luffy then turned to smile at me, innocently of course, "he's going to take my innocence and I'll forever belong to him…" He leaned his head on my shoulder and sighed peacefully, as though he was already deeply in love with me.

Shanks laughed in his usual way, this situation was just getting worse and my cheeks continued to burn with embarrassment, damn... in front of sooo many people as well! "Luffy's only eight years old and he's already found himself a husband!" He continued to laugh, along with his pirate buddies who had overheard the conversation- I genuinely wanted to not exist at that point, why was everybody laughing so hard?

Luffy was the only one in the bar who wasn't laughing, but he was too busy falling in love with me to think about anything else, hell he thought all of this mumbo jumbo was actually going to happen! I mean… yeah, I've made some promises and as harsh as it may sound, I'm hoping he'll just forget about them over time- he needs to start focusing on training soon anyway if he's gonna survive out there in the world… without me. But the more he talks about it, the more my mind considers it… If we were together in such a relationship, it would give me a reason to stay by his side, right?

For now though, the laughter was driving me crazy; I couldn't take any more of their perpetual annoying laughs... It was like they were mocking me or patronizing me in the least. I still wasn't sure about what the big deal was, or why it was soo funny… I guess I'll never understand adults until I finally become one myself. As time went by I couldn't stand to stay in the bar any longer, they continued to talk about mine and Luffy's future relationship, making fun of me more than him. I abruptly pushed Luffy off my knee and ran out of the bar, heading back towards Mt. Corvo without looking back.

I don't know exactly what Luffy did after I left, or how he felt about my sudden departure- but he was soon chasing after me, and for a moment I felt a little sympathy for him- knowing he would never catch up to me, what if I had really hurt his feelings or upset him? But now that I had some time to think, since I didn't have any annoying laugher filling my ears, I realized that he couldn't be upset with me about anything but my sudden exit… then again, Luffy was the type of person who got so easily upset over nothing… and then when it came to death he would turn into a mindless zombie who could only think about crying… this situation could turn ugly.

"Aceeeee~" He called out to me. After a while of being chased, I decided to slow down enough for him to catch up and at that point I'd decided to stop entirely.

"Why'd you leave me Ace?" He asked innocently, I wasn't really in the mood for his stupidity or innocence today… I just wanted to go home and forget about Shanks ever coming into town, or knowing anything about mine and Luffy's future. If Luffy wasn't careful with what he had to say, he'd really get an earful off me…

"Because…" I paused, there wasn't really anything I could come up with without hurting Luffy's feelings- I guess honesty was all I could use at this time. "Shanks was annoying me"

"Annoying you?"

"The guy's a moron! He just laughs and drinks all the time, what kind of pirate life is that?"

"He is not a moron!" He screamed at me, "He's my friend and I hope to be like him one day, or even better than him!"

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, I was expecting Luffy to give a huge speech about how great Shanks was and how the life he had was obviously glamorous. "Right…" I sighed afterwards, empathising with him a little. "I know there aren't many kids in town and the kids in Gray Terminal are idiots, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to be telling adults likeShanks the kind of things we talk about in private." I said.

"You mean like the lovers thing?"

"Yeah, Luffy- It's supposed to be between me and you- Shanks was pretty much just mocking us and you didn't even realize."

"Shanks wasn't mocking us! That's just how he reacts to good news! He loves laughing!" He retorted; I could sense a hint of rage building up in his voice, like he was protecting Shanks from my verbal abuse, what was seriously so good about this guy that I wasn't seeing, but the entire town was?

"It doesn't matter anyway, everything you've told him was supposed to be a secret, between me and you. He's an adult Luffy, he interprets things like that differently, he doesn't think like a kid! What if he remembers the things we've told him today when we're grown up and he reminds us about it? We're gonna be pretty embarrassed aren't we? You're telling Shanks all this is gonna happen when it probably won't! You're lying to him!" I exclaimed, I hadn't realized that our argument was starting to attract attention.

"But…" He added, sniffling a little and gripping the edges of his hat tightly, it was clear that I was upsetting him but I just couldn't stop yelling at him, by the second my voice got louder and angrier and tears rolled down his cheeks. "-Shanks understands! He is like us! He's a pirate and we want to be pirates too! He knows we want to be together like that in the future and he doesn't care, so long as we're happy… we're not lying to him at all." He sniffed a little louder, "I thought you wanted us to be together as lovers in the future…"

"No, Luffy, you've gone too far this time. I expected you to keep this to yourself because you were so happy about it happening in the future… I just want you to stop telling people that we're going to be lovers, because it's not happening Luffy, you need to stop this charade and move on. We're just brothers."

With that said- Luffy burst into tears and ran back towards the bar, I realized then that the whole town had heard our argument and to save myself from any more embarrassment, I ran away.

Ten Days Later

It was getting to the point where I could no longer stay away, from both the hideout I had built with my brothers and my original home with the bandits. I had actually ran away after the argument with Luffy back in Windmill village, but I hadn't gone too far away from home. I hadn't the slightest idea what had happened to Luffy after I left, but I'm guessing he's probably at the hideout, waiting for me to come back.

After making a rather successful kill by myself out in the forest, I returned back to the old shack where Dadan and the other bandits lived. I wasn't expecting all of them, including Dadan herself, to be sat outside waiting for me to return… I couldn't help but smirk knowing how much trouble I would be in for running away- she hated having to deal with Garp when something happened to either me or Luffy.

I jumped out of the trees, pulling my rather large kill with me, Magra and Dogra we're very happy to see me, although Dadan remained emotionless, as always.

"Aceee!~" Magra cried out as he ran up to greet me with a touching hug, "now, now, where the hell have you been? We've been worried sick!"

Dadan and Dogra then walked up to me as well. I expected them to be going berserk at me for being gone for over a week, but if Garp had shown up during the time I had been gone, they would've been in deep trouble, even more than I could be right now.

"Well, at least one of them has shown up," Magra said, as though he was relieved about something.

"Yeah- that's good enough for me." Dadan added.

One of them? "What do you mean by that?" I asked, I had a feeling I knew where this was going…

"Luffy's missing as well…" Magra said, sounding pretty worried. "He never came back after seeing Shanks last week."

Dadan shrugged her shoulders, "he'll turn up eventually- let's just hope Garp doesn't show up in the meantime." She said as she walked back inside the shack. Dogra and Magra soon followed her back inside, dragging my kill with them. I on the other hand, was left outside- shock still overwhelming all my other emotions… It took a while for me to fully comprehend what was going on…

Luffy was missing.

This wasn't like when we first met, when I didn't give a crap about what might have happened to him… I needed him now and he so obviously needed me… what the hell have I done?

Without giving much thought as to where he might be, I quickly made my way back into the forest, searching every nook and cranny for him. I checked out every ditch, every swamp, even in the tree tops and after hours of searching I wasn't able to find him, or come up with any leads.

I stopped and decided to think this one through… it was obvious that I was never gonna find him if I just rushed around the woods aimlessly. The best place to check first was Windmill village… I just hoped Shanks had left town.

I quickly rushed down to Windmill village. Once within the town limits; I could see that Shank's ship was no longer at the bay, which meant he had thankfully left the island. I checked around town, asking many of the locals if they had seen him within the past week or so, but none of them had seen him since Shanks first arrived in the town ten days ago.

I checked Partys Bar, as Makino was a good friend of Luffy's, so it was likely that he had been with her all this time. As per usual, Makino was cleaning up and serving drinks by the bar. Since I couldn't already see Luffy once I was inside, I figured he might not have been here after all… so instead of appearing panicked and worried, I decided to ask as though nothing was wrong.

"Makino-san?"

"Hm? Oh! Ace-kun!" Makino replied, cheerful as always. "How can I help you?" She asked politely.

"Well, I was wondering if you had seen Luffy?" I didn't make myself comfortable at the bar; I knew I wouldn't need to stay too long; I didn't really have time since the sun was beginning to set and as soon as it goes dark, it would be much harder to find Luffy if he was somewhere on Mt Corvo.

"No I haven't, not since last week when Shanks was here, is something wrong? He was very upset after you left last week…" She replied, sounding very worried.

"It's okay, we sorted that out. We were hunting together before, but he just decided to wander off on me…" I replied, I really desperately wanted to find Luffy and apologize. Above all else though, I wanted to find him alive- I don't care if he hates me for the rest of his life, knowing he's alive is good enough for me.

"Ahaha," she smiled, all her worries now thankfully lifted, "that's Luffy for you! If I come across him I'll let him know you're looking for him."

"Thanks Makino-san, I best keep looking then." I smiled calmly, hoping she hadn't seen through my lie, because underneath this calm, sophisticated face was a worrying big brother who was on the verge of a break down if he didn't find the single most important person in his life.

I really hate myself, why the hell did I scream at him like that and say all that stupid stuff? Was I really that angry at him? He was just being innocent and carefree, as always- and yet I was jus too jealous of his nature to even try to understand his true feelings, god I hate myself.

I made my way back up the main path to the top of Mt. Corvo, I know Luffy would also take this path if he was heading back to the bandits house, at least this way I can also visit the hideout just to make sure he hasn't been there for the past ten days.

I had already decided that as soon as I find Luffy I'm going to apologise and give him a little… well, I could say treat, or surprise, just to make up for all the horrible things I said- I know he'll be very pleased with it.

As the sun quickly set on the mountains, it became much harder to see and although I wanted to keep my presence concealed in case there were any animals lurking nearby, I had to find Luffy no matter what. "Luffy!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I can't believe all this was happening, and all because of a meaningless argument!

"Luffy!"

I continued to pace my way through the woods, calling out his name over and over again… but as time went by and the night grew colder, darker and kind of scarier, I was starting to grow tired and I couldn't help but shut my eyes every once in a while.

Luckily, pinching myself whenever I got the urge to fall asleep was enough to keep me going a few more minutes each time. "Luffyyyy!" I cried out again, there was no way I was going to give up on finding him, even if it took days, weeks, months, the rest of my life- I will find him.

"Ace-suuuu?"

I recognized that innocent cry anywhere… "Luffy?" I called out once more, stopping in my tracks and looking around frantically. I wasn't anywhere near the hideout, so it was clear to me that he hadn't been hiding out there, which meant he's been outside… hopefully not for over a week. "Where are you?" I added.

"Oh-over heree…"

I followed the sound of his voice and found myself at the edge of a gully, with a small stream running through it. The gully itself was quite steep and covered in massive rocks, trunks and rubbish that had been chucked into it by the townspeople. At the very bottom was Luffy, who was covered in scratches and bruises and by the looks of it, had seriously injured his leg. "Luffy!" I cried out in immediate shock, I quickly hurried to the bottom of the slope, without causing any injury to myself and was by his side instantly, comforting him- my worries quickly vanished, but some remained present.

"Ace-suuu…" He smiled peacefully, he looked, -more than anything else in the world- happy to see me. I quickly pulled him up onto my lap and comforted him.

"Are you okay? Have you broken anything?" I was still panicking, even though I had luckily managed to find him. I must calm down…

"I'm hungryyyy~" He whined, yeah… he was fine. "And I think my leg is broken…" He added, like it was no big deal.

"Your leg can't be broken, you're made of rubber you fool... I guess you're alright then..." I paused, wondering something else, I probably shouldn't bombard him with questions, but I was really keen to know. "How long have you been down here?"

"I dunno, I think since we… fell out…" He saddened crap- I needed to apologize… this was gonna be a tough one.

"Listen Luffy… I'm really, really, sorry about what I said; I was just… having a bad day. I didn't mean any of it. "

Luffy looked up at me from my lap, smiling like he usually did. "It's okay Ace, I should've kept what we talked about a secret, it would be special because nobody knows about it, except us."

I smiled comfortingly. It was then that I leaned down slightly and kissed my younger brother gently on the forehead for the first time. That was the little treat I had planned for him, I knew it would make him happy. Luffy blushed a beautiful shade of pink and smirked, "Ace loves me too~" I pulled Luffy up to give him a tight and loving hug, I was so happy to have found my brother. "Ace?" Luffy said after a few minutes of silence, although it had been a very comforting silence and I was now able to relax and sleep very peacefully tonight with my brother by my side.

"Yes?"

"Can we not fight anymore? I hate it when we're not together and happy…"

"Of course- without you, my life is meaningless."

Luffy pulled back from the hug, but my arms remained wrapped around his waist. "I also take back what I said, about us becoming lovers, whatever happens- happens, and we can't control that." I smiled.

I gave Luffy a quick Eskimo kiss and proceeded to pull him up onto my back and take him back home. It was going to be a pain getting up that hill, even so- I was just happy to be re-united with little brother.

"When I went back to the bar after our fight, Shanks said that you might be my soul-mate, what does that mean?"

I quickly in defeat, he was never gonna let this lovers thing go, was he? Although he might cause me a lot of trouble, I was just happy to be reunited and on peaceful terms with my little brother.

I like it when we make up, Luffy... lets never fight again!