"Ace! Ace! I'm back!" Luffy called out. Ace smiled as he heard his six year old brother come in. He also heard heavy footsteps following the small boy. That sound was accompanied by the swish of hair against a stiff shirt.
"Hello Luffy, Dadan." Ace said. He smiled, but didn't turn towards them.
"How the hell do you do that?" Dadan groused. Ace heard Luffy laugh at the woman. He could smell her perfume. It was light and fruity, an odd contrast to the large woman he knew her to be.
He heard light footsteps approaching, and seconds later felt a small hand on his shoulder, "Come downstairs Ace. You promised to spar with me." Luffy said. Ace reached out a hand and ran his fingertips over Luffy's face. His brother was smiling. Ace turned towards his brother, and smiled. He stood up, and held out a hand to Luffy, not because he needed it, but because Luffy liked helping him.
When Luffy was leading him he didn't need to click. He had to admit that it was nice to be pampered sometimes. As they traveled down the stairs, Ace's ears picked up the sounds of the bandits, and above all of that he could hear Sabo laughing. He smiled wider as the sound of his curly haired brother got closer. "Oi! Ace! Ready to spar with me and Luffy?" Sabo asked as he fell into step beside his brothers. Ace nodded, and hummed in agreement.
He heard the sound of something moving through the air, and lifted his hand. A bread roll smacked into his palm and he closed his fingers around it, quickly, but gently. He turned his unseeing eyes toward the direction it had come from, and clicked twice before throwing it back. He heard a whump as the roll hit its target. He could hear the bandits laughing at the one who'd been taken out by a blind nine year old. He could hear Luffy and Sabo laughing, and for one brief moment he wished that he could see what they looked like. He knew, through words, what they looked like, and through touch as well, but he didn't know what the color blonde was, or the blue of Sabo's clothes. He didn't know what orange was, even though Luffy told him that it looked good on him. He did love wearing the hat though.
He dropped his thoughts as they exited the house, and the warm sun hit his face. A light breeze ruffled his hair. He snatched his stick out of the air when Sabo threw it to him, and immediately engaged the curly-haired boy.
Luffy watched his brothers' spar, as always, he was amazed to watch Ace move. Ace's dark eyes were always focused, and never strayed from their target. If Luffy hadn't known that his brother was blind, he'd never have been able to tell. Ace's blind eyes were nothing like Old Man Satoru's milky blind eyes, or the unfocused blind eyes of the Mario kid who couldn't do anything, claiming that it was because he was blind. Luffy really didn't like that kid. He was the same age as Ace, but Ace could fight, and explore, and hunt, and do all sorts of things. He had asked Ace why he thought that the Mario kid was so helpless, and Ace had said, "Perhaps he is afraid of the dark." Luffy thought that Ace had to be right.
Lu knew that Ace was strong and kind, and smart, no one could tell Luffy any different. Garp had told them that Ace got it from his dad, Roger. Ace had just smiled. Luffy could remember a time when they had first met, that Ace had hated his father, but Luffy had wanted to hear more about the man who had achieved Luffy's dream, and so Ace had listened, and started to understand. Luffy personally thought that Gramps had understood Ace's subconscious desire to know his father, and so hadn't spread the lies that the Marines had been telling for years.
Ace heard Luffy cheer as he beat Sabo for the fiftieth time, but he didn't know if it was because Lu was glad that he'd won, or if it was because now Luffy could spar. It didn't really matter to Ace so long as Luffy was happy. Ace heard the crunch of the rocks and dirt beneath Luffy's feet, and he clicked just to make sure. He could feel where Luffy was. He could always feel human and animal presence, and when they were about to strike, just like he could click, and identify everything else. It was a weird sort of perception of the world around him, at least, that's what Dadan told him when he'd tried to explain it to her. To him it was more natural than breathing.
Ace shot his foot up to kick Luffy away, even as his stick blocked Lu's. Sabo's voice rung out, "That's fifty wins for Ace, and zero for Lu."
"Ah man." Luffy grumbled, then laughed. Ace clicked his way over to Luffy, and rubbed him on the head.
"You're getting stronger Luffy." Ace said, and smiled. The rubber kid definitely was, but he still needed to work on his accuracy. He turned to where he could feel Sabo, "Let's go hunting for dinner now that all three of us are home." He said. His brothers cheered. Ace moved to the small store shed beside the house, and grabbed their metal pipes, handing his brothers their own, and then he led the way into the forest, his clicks growing more frequent as they moved further inward.
They brought down two wild boars and a crocodile. As they walked back, they talked about their pirate funds, and their plans to become pirates. Each was determined to captain his own ship, and have the others as their crewmates. They were still arguing about it when they arrived back at the house, and Dadan took their catch away so that she could cook it.
They washed up, and then sat at the table where they always did while waiting to eat. Ace loved chow time. It was always a fun battle royale. At first the bandits had left him alone because he was blind, and then he'd shown them he could handle himself just fine, and that hadn't been an issue anymore, and he'd been able to join in the fun. He heard Dadan come in from the kitchen, and the smell of meat invaded the air, and Ace grinned, let the games begin.