Day 23
'Twas like any other day in the Portgas-Monkey household as the inhabitants of the building slowly crept from the depths of their dreams to witness the ever-brightening rays of the morning winter sun as it slowly inched its way up over the horizon of the rotating Earth. It was magical to behold, really, as another human being climbed from their bed, joining the thousands of other people to watch the day unfold itself in pure beauty.
Ace stood by his bedroom window, resting his elbow, and in turn his chin, on the window-sill and smiled as the subtle warmth of the rising sun bathed his face in a pleasant heat. He thought back on how stupid he was to never really realize how beautiful the scene before him was, previous to that very morning, but then knew that he would be up each morning, clear or cloudy, to watch the official beginning of his day.
A small rustle from his bed made the young man smirk and glance back at the sleeping body of his boyfriend and step-brother, Luffy. The boy looked simply comfortable as can be as he literally had his limbs thrown anywhere on the bed, in any position, and slept through it all. Sure, maybe the stopping of blood-flow through one of his pinched off veins might eventully get to him, but he would be fineeee... right?
The older bit his lip as Luffy suddenly was dragged helplessly from his bed and abruptly tossed through the room's other gaping window by an invisble something. Ace just closed his eyes and continued biting his lip, letting a few soft chuckles erupt from his throat.
Ace sat up quickly, cold sweat running down his back and chest, his heart pounding, as he was sure that his second-half of him had just been mercilessly tossed to his death while he... while he laughed?!
Putting a shaky hand to his throbbing chest, Ace shut his eyes tight before looking around in the still-dark bedroom; everything was exactly as he had remembered from when he went to bed last night, except that Luffy was not snuggled up next to the terribly shaken teen. Thinking the dream might have been some sort of warning of impending danger, Ace fled from the comfort of his bed to shakily make his way across the hall to Luffy's room. Upon seeing the warm, snug, content young male in his blankets, Ace put a hand to his face and sighed heavily, letting go the breath that he had been holding.
As his body slowly returned to its normal pattern of breathing and functioning, Ace exhaustedly made his way over to Luffy's bed and flopped down beside the unknowing sleeper, Ace's mind quickly blacking out as he once more returned to sleeping.
The freckled one sat up again and realized that he was now sitting in an uncomfortable position on a cold, hard, earthen floor in some unknown place, yet... he didn't panic, and did not show any fear. It was as if his brain had been tampered with to keep an everlasting sense of calm.
The room the young one sat in was very near the brink of darkness, with a dim light eminating from a flickering, unshaded lightbulb in the middle of the single brick-room's ceiling. Ace tilted his head a bit as he vaguely saw a very weak looking wooden chair directly across from him, up against the opposite wall, in which sat a person. A boy.. with a knife very finely stuck in between two of the male's ribs, blood pouring from the fresh wound and winding down the limp boy's body till the red river emptied itself onto the dirt floor, creating a foul sort of mud. The boy was Luffy. Ace had reacted, finally, his eyes wide in pure horror as many hands grabbed his body from behind and covered his eyes. The last thing he heard was heavy breathing in his ear before a slight noise of a grin, as pain ripped and sliced through his neck.
Hot tears ran down Ace's face as he cried, or more like sobbed, in his sleep. Luffy was by then awake and mortified as his brother, his stronghold, was crying and shaking terribly in his sleep. Wrapping a delicate arm around his beloved, Luffy pulled Ace's forehead to his shoulder to cry on, rubbing the other's back till with a slight shudder, Ace's nightmare momentarily paused for real, nourishing sleep.
It had been a while since Ace had undergone a really terrible night of nightmares, but the one he had just gone through was bad.. It scared Luffy that the strong, protective man named Ace just literally crumbled under his light embrace, and Luffy did not want to see it happen again. It was just so.. unfitting.
So at breakfast, when Ace announced that he hadn't slept well to clarify the reason behind his exhausted expression, Rouge looked up from her fork that was half-way to her mouth to stare at Ace with an intense glint to them. Ace slightly blushed and nodded to his mother, knowing that she was silently asking about nightmares. Truth be told, he used to get them a great deal when he was younger, but since he and Luffy got together, they had stopped altogether, or so they thought.
"Well then, these better not last for days on end.." Ace thought to himself as he shoveled some food into his mouth just a little bit slower than usual, catching the entire family's attention. Luffy frowned at his brother's weary looking face and sighed, rubbing his warm hand along Ace's leg in affection. Ace smiled at Luffy and held his hand tightly for a while, just exchanging silent thoughts and words to his lover just through the uninterrupted lock of their eyes.
Luffy could tell Ace was tired and sorry for worrying him.
And Ace saw the worry and gentleness in Luffy's eyes.
The family all remembered when Ace had, well, to put it frankly, some excruciatingly loud and agonizingly horrendous fits of nightmares during what would seem like the most peaceful of nights. No one knew why Ace suffered these painful nightmares, but eventually gave up the research as the nightmares wore away with time. And look, they came back once more.
Being a kind and considerate brother that he is, Luffy took Ace's plate, which was still half-full of uneaten food that Ace had refused to eat, and ate it himself. If he learned one thing from Sanji, it was not to waste food. And so after the brothers had deemed their stay at the dining room table finished, Ace decided to try and take a nap on the couch to make up for the sleep he had lost.
The youngest of the household then made a very interesting decision to help out his parents and shovel the sidewalk and driveway for them, since Mother Nature had lately been very generous in her offerings of snow. Dragon nearly had a heart attack as his son gave him a wave on the way out to shovel.
"What in the.." Dragon was oh so confused, yet oh so proud of Luffy at that moment. Rouge laughed quietly from her place in the kitchen where she washed the dishes, and wondered if Luffy would maybe decide to help out with the other chores as well, seeing as the boys would have to take over the house again in a few days... Rouge and Dragon were flying out of town again on January 2nd, or, in exactly a week's time, just after Ace's birthday.
Rouge bit her lip as she heard Ace groan and shift in his sleep, wondering how long the nightmares would continue this time. Meanwhile..
While on a dimly lit subway train, littered with old abandonded newspapers and carelessly placed pieces of gum, Ace sat silently, the only person in his car. He was surprised that he was alone, as it was supposed to be a very busy time of night. With a shrug, Ace leaned back in his cold seat, watching the concrete walls outside the train go by, a dull yellow light passing by every few moments as well.
The trains wheels clicked and clacked on the old, metal tracks below, and clattered the metal train cars around with it, creating an anything but silent atmosphere for Ace. The rocking of the car kept him from falling asleep, and he almost began hearing some sort of rythm from this metallic rattling.
The door at the end of Ace's train car slowly and noisily slid open, and Ace jumped a bit at the sound. Turning to face whomever was to join him in his car, Ace was confused to find no one in the metal doorway. Tilting his head as he pondered, a cold breeze blew in from the door and swept Ace's hair back, goosebumps forming on the man's skin. Harsh, loud, and very distinguished footsteps of what sounded like some sort of metal-soled boots approached the dark-haired one, making Ace scoot away from the noise, very much afraid, and soon found himself dashing to the opposite door of his car, only to find that his car was the last one, and that the door, swung open to quickly usher Ace to his bloody death, as he fell from the train to not only break his bones on the protruding metal tracks, but crushed and demolished under the next train that came, throwing him into a world of darkness.
Screaming as he 'fell off the train', Ace rolled off the couch and onto the ground, where a blood-curdling screech caught in his throat. Dragon rose from his seat next to his step-son while Rouge hurried from the kitchen to check on Ace, and help calm him down as panicked on the floor.
Ace wiped the sweat from his forehead and took deep breaths, desperately trying to calm down his racing heart-beat, and Luffy just so happened to come back in from shoveling at that very instant to see his mother and father kneeling next to Ace who was..on the floor. The youngest hurriedly joining the other two and bent down to hold Ace in his arms, successfully calming him down. Ace shakily smiled a little and gave Luffy a peck on the cheek in thanks, not really feeling the need to sleep anymore.
"Ace..?" Luffy whispered, placing a hand on Ace's shoulder.
"I'm okay, Lu, I'm alright."
Luffy smiled and stood up, putting a hand down to help up his brother. Ace got up and shook his head a little, like maybe the nightmares would somehow fly out of his head.
"Hmm... maybe eating some meat would help!" Luffy concluded, taking Ace's hand and leading him to the kitchen where he began shoving all sorts of.. well, meat, into his brother's mouth. And yes.. after an hour or so, the rawness of it all got to the poor boy's stomach.
Rouge comfortingly rubbed Ace's back as he spilled forth the contents of his stomach out into the toilet. Ace couldn't have had a better day.. XD
Meanwhile, Dragon sat with Luffy in the living room, watching the weather channel to see just how cold it really was outside.
"..and right now, it is currently -11 degrees Fahrenheit. 8-12 inches of snow is possible to accumulate throughout the day as well.. blahblahblah.."
"I'm honestly surprised that your fingers didn't freeze out there, Luffy," Dragon half-praised, ending his statement with a whistle. Luffy just grinned and laughed a little, as he rubbed his hands together to comfort himself.
"Hasn't gotten this cold, or this snowy, for a longggg time.." Dragon mumbled, raising his newspaper to read once more. Upon seeing the date, December 26th, Dragon looked up from the newspaper and stared at whatever was directly across from him. It was 6 days till his step-son's 19th birthday. However, the more the adult thought about it, he really didn't want to go out and shop for a gift that might not even please him.. so with a relieved sigh, Dragon decided in his head that he would just give Ace money instead. Yeah, that would do..
Miraculously, after Dragon had thought his thought, Rouge and Luffy began thinking about the upcoming birthday as well..
"Hmmm.. I could finally get him his own sex toys maybe..hehehe" Yes, that's what Rouge was thinking, and meanwhile..
"What should I getttt.. hmm.. 19 different types of something..hm. Of course I could give him a kiss, duh, but.. Oh! We could see a movie! Yeahhh.." Luffy was currently sitting on the couch, thinking very hard, and what was Ace thinking..?
"..." Yep. Blank minded. But after this blank-mindedness came a thought, "Damned food.. Tch. After I clean myself up, Luffy and I should go upstairs. So we can talk.. and have quality boyfriend-boyfriend time together.. wow that sounded really gay... well, maybe 'cause it is/was...? Oh screw it." And with this thought in mind, Ace proceeded to indeed clean himself up and right himself before he grabbed a water bottle out of the refrigerator and grabbed Luffy's hand on the way upstairs.
"Ace..?" Luffy asked as his brother led him upstairs and into the other's room, without any apparent reason..?
"Sorry, just thought it'd be nice to have some together-time, up here," Ace answered, sitting down on his bedroom floor. Luffy didn't question and plopped down in front of his brother, crossed legged, his back against Ace's chest.
"So, whatcha wanna talk about then?" Luffy questioned, leaning his head back against Ace's shoulder while Ace groped in his mind for a conversation topic, taking a quick gulp of water to try and wash out the bad taste in his mouth.
"Hmm.. Kidd and Law scare me," Ace mumbled, putting down his bottle and absent-mindedly rubbing Luffy's shoulder, thinking about the night before at the Christmas party. The younger remembered too, thinking about how Kidd was touching Ace, in a bad way.
"Yeah, Kidd is kinda scary, but Traffy isn't bad, he just looks scary," Luffy stated, going over a mental picture of Trafalgar Law in his head. Ace sighed and would definitely agree with Luffy if he hadn't noticed the disappearance of both Zoro and Law at the same time, and later on Zoro and Law beaten up by Bartolomeo, who usually doesn't just beat up people for no reason. With this in mind, Ace then elaborated his dislike for Law.
"Well, Luffy, I think that Law and Zoro drank a little too much last night, and got a little drunk, and Law may or may not have.. had sex with Zoro."
Upon hearing this news, Luffy's jaw dropped and he turned his head to face Ace and just stared, stared till Ace closed Luffy's jaw with a finger and gave him an uneasy smirk.
"Yeah.."
"But..but why would Zoro do that?! Didn't he like me..? But, wait, and why did he.. do that with Law?!" Luffy was so confused, and little angry, and a little sad too. I mean, it's not like he was even a little bit jealous of Law..
"Zoro just probably just.. drank too much. Yeah.."
Ace was fumbling, fumbling badly. He didn't want to say 'Well his loneliness probably just got to him', because, well, then Luffy would feel responsible right? It was the case that Zoro liked Luffy.
"I mean, he probably did drink too much too, but…"
Luffy wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, a pout starting to appear across his facial features.
"Well the next time I see Zoro, I'm gonna ask him, and tell him not to drink so much," Luffy decided forcefully, nodding his head in agreement with his own plan. Ace paled slightly at the thought of what Luffy was going to ask the green-haired teen, and then shook the thought out of his head.
"In fact, I'm gonna text him right now!"
Ace shivered a little.. on the inside.. as Luffy jumped up to get his phone out of his pocket, and then sat down on his bed, his fingers flying over the cell phone's keyboard.
To: Roronoa Zoro From: Monkey D. Luffy : 11:39 A.M. EST
Zoro! Did you.. did you do that with Law last night?!
Zoro was currently in the middle of a lecture from Bartolomeo, in the kitchen, when Zoro's phone vibrated. The younger brother yawned and held up a hand to signal 'time-out' as he opened, read, and blushed at the text-message. Being extremely annoyed at this, Bartolomeo plucked the phone out of Zoro's hands and grimaced, shaking his head as he replied back to Luffy.
Reply; To: Monkey D. Luffy From: Roronoa Zoro : 11:42 A.M. EST
This is Bartolomeo typing and yes, yes my younger brother Roronoa Zoro did in fact have sex with Trafalgar Law last night. He's been a very bad boy.. x_x
After reading this reply, Luffy sighed heavily and flopped over on Ace's bed, rubbing a hand over his face in dismay.
"Ace, Zoro really did do that with Law! I can't believe it," Luffy groaned out, remembering when he had first told Bartolomeo and Zoro that premarital sex is a no-no is his book. He thought he had made that clear..
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Monkey D. Luffy : 11:45 EST
Tell Zoro to stop drinking so much..
With a sigh, Ace stood up and then walked over to sit on his bed at Luffy's feet, rubbing the young one's leg affectionately.
"Luffy, people can be stupid. And more commonly, men are stupid, and even more stupid are male teenagers like us. We aren't mature or experienced enough to make all our decisions right, or moral, but I totally understand why you are upset, since your moral is a right and correct one. So yeah, you can be mad at Zoro and you can tell him he was wrong, but don't be surprised if he does something stupid.. again. 'Kay?"
With a slight frown, Luffy nodded in response to this, trying to take in Ace's words like a sponge.
"I'd still think that Zoro would be smart enou-"
"Luffy, from what I hear, Zoro isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, 'kay? Don't expect too much of him, buddy. And besides, Bartolomeo already gave him his lesson."
At this statement Luffy looked at Ace with a questioning expression, to which Ace answered.
"In other words, Barto beat up Zoro for being an idiot again.. that's one way to do it…"
"One way to do what..?"
"Oh… nothin'," Ace mumbled with a smirk as he layed down next to Luffy and pecked his cheek. Luffy grinned and sat up a little to attempt to really kiss Ace, to which he recieved a hand to the mouth.
"Uh... you might not want to kiss me right now," Ace explained sheepishly, rubbing his empty stomach. Luffy made the connection and sighed, taking Ace's hand off of his lips.
"Then go brush your teeth and then come back and let me kiss you," Luffy decided firmly. Even though Ace had his worries and doubtfulness as to whether the taste would be completely gone, he still went to the bathroom to brush his teeth anyway, ready to tell Luffy 'I told you so'.
Later on that evening, Luffy had recieved a reply from his green-haired friend, the younger one.
Reply; To: Monkey D. Luffy From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:36 P.M. EST
...im really sorry luffy. i just, idk. im just stupid ok? ill try not to let something like that happen again. well.. not like bartolomeo would let it happen either.. tch. so, im sorry, and i hope that youll forgive me.
(ps. ill try to stop drinking so much, but no promises... :P )
Ace and Luffy tilted their heads to read the message then sighed in unison. Then, for some odd reason, Ace took out his own phone to text someone.
"Who're texting?" Luffy asked, trying to look at his brother's terribly cracked phone screen.
"Zoro."
"Why don't you just use my phone then..?"
"Because I'm not sure you'd want anyone else to see my message on your phone history."
Luffy sat back and pondered the meaning of that while Ace typed out a quick message to Zoro on his own phone.
To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:38 P.M. EST
*cough* so.. how was it..?
Zoro looked back at his phone at the alert sound of a new text, and he read Ace's message several times to check if he was reading/understanding it correctly.
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:42 P.M. EST
u gotta be kiddin me..
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:43 P.M. EST
nope :P i just wanna know~
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:45 P.M. EST
...hurt like hell.. at first.. but it got bett- why the fuck am i telling u this?!
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:45 P.M. EST
...hehehehe cuz i asked~
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:46 P.M. EST
damn it.. oh and hey, is luffy really mad at me..?
Ace pushed his phone screen to his chest to avoid a very curious Luffy from reading their conversation, and then put out a hand and held Luffy's face still by his chin, looking over his boyfriend carefully.
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:48 P.M. EST
he was earlier, but now all traces of anger are gone
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:49 P.M. EST
sounds like u no him inside and out, eh?
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:50 P.M. EST
...in the emotional aspect, yes. XD
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:50 P.M. EST
god damnit ace, id hope so.. and dont figure the physical aspect out till if/when u guys r married, damnit!
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:52 P.M. EST
says you.. you who does not follow the 'no premarital sex' moral :P and yeah yeah, i know.. tch, its really hard tho..
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:53 P.M. EST
i no u r.. *rolls eyes*
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:54 P.M. EST
...you did not just say that.
In that instant, Ace shifted around a bit, unfortunately taking on a new problem.
"Ace?"
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:54 P.M. EST
i did just say that. and if ur feeling what im feeling then im guessing im correct?
Reply; To: Roronoa Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:55 P.M. EST
...youre correct... and yeah... this is awkward..
Reply; To: Portgas D. Ace From: Roronoa Zoro : 8:56 P.M. EST
..ya no what.. how bout we just..
Reply; To: Rorono Zoro From: Portgas D. Ace : 8:56 P.M. EST
...yeah.
With that, the two men set their phones aside, coughed, and got up to go take care of their problems.
And so, back to Ace and Luffy time!
Stepping back into his room, Ace was a bit -that's an understatement- surprised to see Luffy standing up as tall as he could to look at the top shelf in his closet. Eyes wide and cheeks blushing, Ace swiftly rushed over to pull Luffy's back against his chest, and put a hand on Luffy's crotch.
"Yeah, works every time," Ace thought to himself as Luffy became flustered and completely forgot his closet-searching-mission for the time being. Kissing and licking on the side of Luffy's neck with a smirk, Ace pulled his brother over to his bed and pushed him down onto it, standing with his arms crossed as he stared down at his boyfriend.
"Why do you want to know what's up there so badly?" Ace asked, still a slightly amused tone in his voice.
"Well, I found your cock ring and so I wanted to see if there was anything else up there," Luffy explained, rolling over onto his back.
"...So that's why..." Ace mumbled bashfully, remembering his cock ring was out in the open one day when he got home, "Well geez, if you really wanna see, then fine, you'll see."
With this statement, the older stepped to his closet, swept everything on the top shelf into his hand and threw each item back onto his bed behind him. At each 'thud', Luffy found himself examining the said embarrassing things his mother had mentioned. Yeah, Luffy didn't need any explanations.
Turning back to his brother with a very, very red face, Ace crossed his arms again and slightly pouted, "There ya go."
Luffy had a lot of questions.. not anything about what the things did or were used for, but.. just normal question, or as normal as questions in that situation could get.
"Doesn't that... hurt?" Luffy asked, pointing to one of the objects.
"At first," Ace replied quietly, biting his lip and tapping his foot, never expecting to actually get caught with that stuff.
"Hmmm...isn't this kinda cheating?"
"What?" Ace said in a bit of shock at the word 'cheating'. Did Luffy mean he felt like he was being cheated on?
"These.. things, if it does the exact same as sex does, then.. it's like the same thing! So... that means that using these is bad... right?"
"Oh no..." Ace thought, his skin turning pale, "yeahh.. that definetly makes sense, but... damn it all." Rubbing a hand over his face, Ace sighed and then gathered up the items of the conversation into his hands, and then found an empty shoebox under his bed. Shoving the things into the box in disgust, Ace put the lid on and then made a make-shift bow out of a single shoelace, placing it on top of the box like it were a gift, and then silently placed the shoebox in front of his parents' bedroom door.
Luffy watched this all in slight confusion, his cheeks beginning to lose their tomato-red color. Ace sighed again on his return to his room and literally fell down in front of his bed, his head turned to avoid a broken nose. Luffy sprang from Ace's bed with a yelp, falling to his knees in front of his brother, asking if he was okay. With a laugh, Ace just waved him away.
"That's just a punishment for myself, Luffy, for cheating on you. I'm fine, don't worry."
Giving his brother an odd look, Luffy started laughing as he layed down next to his brother, their eyes locked with each other for a while before Luffy stretched to give his brother a quick kiss.
"'S okay, since I love you!" Luffy grinned, putting an arm around his brother's waist. Ace closed his eyes happily, letting out a sigh of relief. Pulling Luffy closer to him, foreheads touching, Ace made sure to rest his hand on Luffy's ass just a little longer than neccesary.
"God, I can't wait to get married."
~ + wooooot! sorry for the late update hehehe... _ XD and Happy New Year to everyone! oh oh oh, if you like my stories, then go read Homecoming Hill and Dramatic Differences. they're not finished, yet, but wow... good writing and great heartfelt plots! now GO READ THEM XD and...
NO NEW CHAPTER TILL I GET ANOTHER REVIEW lol XD + ~
= )
