Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, the god of epicness Oda-sama does.

Family Affairs

Episode 2

Ace's life could be summed up in various words. However, none could mean more than his brother's name. Luffy was the source of all kinds of problems in Ace's life, and it seemed that, as he grew up and got older, those problems just pilled up more hastily than ever. In fact, not only did they multiply, but they started to bring all sorts of feelings attached and that was when Ace's long time trouble began to really ache in non tangible ways.

Rational as he was, it was nearly impossible not to think about it, though Ace tried. Ace tried with all his might, and most of the times it worked. His apathetic self managed to get hold of his body and, more importantly, of his mind. He almost felt proud of himself, if not for those obnoxious times when his feelings overwhelmed any kind of reason and took over his soul. Aside those, he was a generally good-natured brother, a generally good-natured brother with issues nonetheless.

A loud clanking noise interrupted Ace's musings from the corridor of the apartment. He sighed with some desperation and turned his head slightly to the right.

"Luffy?" he yelled from the kitchen. His younger brother must have slipped clumsily somewhere as usual.

"THE SOAP!!" Luffy shouted back with something akin to anger in his voice. Ace could not help but laugh.

He finished making the breakfast quickly and as soon as he placed the plates on the table Luffy rushed into the kitchen, sitting in his chair immediately. Knife and fork in each hand ready to dig in. It was all positively acceptable, if not for Luffy being just fresh out of the shower and wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. His hair was drenched wet and plastered all over his face, letting a few drops fall to the table. A vein threatened to throb in Ace's forehead.

"What is this?" Ace growled. Luffy looked up at him with a frown, his mouth full.

"Breakfast time" Luffy replied blatantly after swallowing an insane amount of food. Ace smacked him in the head diligently.

"Decent Luffy! Be decent!" he chided irritably, running a hand through his hair. Luffy groaned between other forkfuls of food and nodded with his head forcefully. Meanwhile, Ace walked up to Luffy's room, with quick steps so as to determinedly shove away inconvenient thoughts, and opened the windows to let some air in. He then tidied up Luffy's futon and threw the sheets to a corner. He would have to deal with them later. He left the room and closed the door behind him, though a certain detail spurred his curiosity. He returned to the kitchen and perked his head inside.

"Did you sleep with your night lamp on?"

SPURK!!!

Ace's question was met with shocking surprise. Luffy spurted out all liquid content in his mouth.

"W-what? N-no, I just-" Luffy stuttered a few words, fidgeting nervously with his fingers "I forgot to turn it off!" he said triumphantly, though not that persuasive. Fortunately Ace's attention had been diverted elsewhere.

"Idiot! Look what you have done! Now I have to clean that mess too!" Ace shot Luffy a furtive glance "And why are you still half-naked here? Go get dressed, we're late!"

Luffy got up rapidly and fled the kitchen with a last piece of bread in his mouth, before Ace could proceed to more violent displays of impatience. He entered his room, now carefully cleaned up, and took out of the dresser his school uniform. He didn't get why Ace was so mad. He was hungry, so clothes could wait, his stomach couldn't! Luffy dropped the towel over the pile of dirty sheets in the corner and left the bedroom to search for his school bag, which should be somewhere in the living room. He walked past Ace's room quietly and a sudden amusing comment popped in his head as he did so. He peeked inside and there was Ace, changing into his clothes as expected. Weren't they brothers, Luffy might not have made it in time.

Ace was sliding into a pair of comfortable-looking slacks and pulling a loose-fitting shirt over a smoothly bare muscled chest. Luffy smirked.

"Aah… Ace is not being decent either" his retorted seemed to travel around the room for a century. There was a momentarily awkward silence and then Ace turned around at speed of light, hitting Luffy with the nearest object at hand, which ended up being his pyjama's t-shirt. Luffy laughed loudly and grasped the thrown t-shirt hanging on his shoulder.

"I'm keeping it!" he stated goofily and zoomed out of sight; happily strolling inside the living room, where his belongings were scattered everywhere, and grinning stupidly with a fluttering feeling nestled inside his chest. Ace sighed deeply and shrugged off any shade of red that might have clawed its way onto his features.

"Are you ready Luffy?" Ace complained minutes later from the narrow hallway just outside the front door.

"I can't find my walleeeet~~~"

"Hurry up!"

Ace approached the rail of the staircase and looked down. Makino-san was chatting lively with old man Wood Slap and both seemed pretty worried. What could they be talking about? Ace furrowed his eyebrows and leaned slightly on the rail in order to catch some words. However, with excellent timing as always, Luffy came out of the apartment and reclaimed Ace's whole attention to himself, unwillingly of course.

"It was under a pillow that was under the kotatsu…" Luffy muttered moodily while eyeing his wallet "Under the under… mysterious hiding wallet…" he kept rambling in his usual odd common-sense while Ace locked the door. Then the two of them walked down to the ground-floor and greeted their two neighbours who fell to a petrified silence as soon as they heard Luffy drag his feet on the stairs.

"Good morning boys" Makino said cheerfully. Wood Slap just nodded with his head acknowledging the two brothers.

"Good morning" Ace replied.

"Morning Makino-san, morning ossan!" Luffy greeted, only to receive a soft elbow jab on the side. He glanced at Ace with a pout and followed his older brother. They left the little condo and resumed their walk to school.

"Did you notice something weird about Makino-san and the old man?" Ace asked when they were a safe distance from home. Luffy stopped his humming and pondered for a bit.

"No, not really. Why?"

"Nothing… it must have been my imagination" Ace lied. Of course Luffy wouldn't notice. It was Luffy after all, dense Luffy without a care in the world. Ace sighed and took a turn after his little brother. The high school and college buildings could already be seen from a distance.

"Ooh! There are Usopp and Nami! Oiiii!!" Luffy shouted. Some meters ahead both friends looked backwards and waved.

"Morning!"

"Good morning!"

"Oi Luffy you're not late today?" Usopp retorted perplexed.

"Hehehe. No, but I almost did not find my mysterious hiding wallet!" Luffy replied with a serious look.

"Eh? What?" Luffy began explaining in detail his earlier adventure to both Usopp and Nami, though the latter did not seem to find it that interesting, and the four kept walking cheerfully towards their destinations.

"Then I thought! It must be all burned under the kotatsu! But it wasn't! And-" they had finally reached the high school gates and Ace bade his goodbyes, startling Luffy. It felt like a wall of comfort had crashed down around him.

"See ya later Luffy"

"Y-yeah, later!" Luffy managed to grin widely and after loosing his brother from sight he began retelling the story to Usopp, mainly to shrug the feeling away.

"So, it was not only under, it was under the under…"

By the time they reached their classroom's corridor, Usopp was already boasting about one of his own stories with Luffy, and Nami was fuming with all the stupidity and Sanji's adoration until, of course, Zoro arrived and Sanji was forced to start a fight with the sleepyhead.

"Eeeeeh, found your way to school today marimo??" Sanji sneered amused.

"What did you say!!! Wanna die?" Zoro bellowed grabbing the collar of Sanji's uniform reflexively. The blonde twitched in annoyance.

"I'm gonna beat the shit outta ya!" The two glared at each other, uttering scornful curses but before any of them could even rise a finger a couple of slaps hit theirs heads like thunder.

"Shut up you two!!" Nami hissed hysterically. She felt like killing them herself "Get inside the classroom, now!" she followed them with her gaze until they stepped inside entirely and then she turned to Luffy, who was running away in the opposite direction.

"Where do you think you're going?" she queried angrily "Sensei must be coming at any minute!"

"I forgot to switch shoes!" Luffy replied, his voice almost inaudible because of the hordes of students entering their respective classes.

"How could you forget something like that idiot?" Nami asked outrageous. However, the only things she managed to hear after that were along the lines of 'Usopp…story…beams…crazy…cool…forgot', and she shrugged her shoulders in defeat. He would eventually be back, late.

Luffy raced towards the entrance where the rows of cubic lockers stood in parallel. There were still a few students changing into their inside shoes and Luffy rushed to do the exact same task. Although, as he crouched and took off his sneakers a hand came to rest suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched. The sort of fear that had overwhelmed him not just a week ago came back with a jolt and he felt his insides screech. Luffy got to his feet and turned around fiercely, grabbing the wrist of the person behind him.

"Ah..! Are you okay Luffy-kun?" A turquoise blue colour shone all around the fragile girl's face as she gasped. There was a pleading look in her expression, clearly meaning Luffy's grip was too tight. He immediately released her wrist with an apology.

"Sorry Vivi, I…" he began, without knowing what he was about to say, but it did not matter; Vivi had already pulled him and dragged him along with her.

"We're so late!" she exclaimed after glancing at her watch. Luffy stumbled a few steps behind her, still trying to put his shoes on, and took a deep sigh of relief. He just did not have a knack for excuses. How was he supposed to say he was being haunted by creepy images of a pervert? Vivi and the others would surely say it was another one of his crazy visions or ignore him because he had strange moods. Luffy could at least predict that. They could also laugh about it, which would bother him somehow, and there was also the terrifying and unacceptable chance that one of them might believe him and tell Ace. A shrill ran through Luffy's spine at the thought. He looked to the seat next to him and saw Nami giving him an apprehensive look. She knew. She knew something wasn't right. Luffy averted the gaze towards the window and kept silent throughout the rest of the class, evading her meaningful stares. He might as well do it, since it was stupid Smoker-sensei lecturing today, reeking tobacco out of every pore.

"Hey Luffy! Usopp! Wait up" Nami yelled at the end of the day after class. They were leaving the school entrance and walking up to the gate while complaining about Aokiji-sensei. Luffy could tell what she was planning.

"Yeah I don't know about that guy…" he nodded after a nasty remark from Usopp.

"He is cold!"

"Yeah cold guy!"

"Sleeps in class when no one is watching!"

"Sleepy guy!"

"Stop that you two idiots" Nami interjected fiercely "Anyway Usopp" she turned to him with a devilish expression" "I thought you were going to visit Franky's today" she said, though Usopp could tell she was almost commanding him.

"Y-yeah, sure, I was, I was" he replied quickly.

"Then what are you still doing here?!"

"Nothing M'am! I'm on my way" Usopp said and then strolled away in a quick pace, muttering to himself.

'Nami-devil, onibaba…'

"I CAN hear you!!" Nami shouted angrily. Usopp flinched sturdily in the distance and ran away, with reason. Then, Luffy took the opportunity to slip away from sight, but the red haired girl was quicker. She grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him backwards.

"Don't even try to run away this time Luffy" she said. Luffy groaned in disapproval and crossed his arms childishly.

"You've been staring at me all day. Scary!"

"I'll tell you who's scary!" she shook him by the neck furiously, making him emit strange gurgling noises "I know you have been acting weird these past few days. Weird in a negative way!" she added. Luffy just kept ignoring her with a disinterested pout.

"Nojiko saw you rushing to Shabondy some nights ago. She told me" Nami's words pierced Luffy like knives. Nojiko had been there? Where? A cold sweat broke along his forehead.

"I-I just went to see Shakky" Luffy replied honestly.

"Of course you did!" Nami said sarcastly "But what happened? Did she say something to you?" her question met stony silence.

"Is it Rayleigh-san again? Is he back? Or is it about Shanks? Is he okay?"

Luffy straightened up and scratched his neck tiredly. It seemed he was safe. Nojiko had not seen anything suspicious, nor did Nami suspect anything along those lines.

"They're all fine. Don't worry"

"What about you? Are you fine?" she asked less ironically now. Luffy gave her a big grin.

"Of course I am!" he exclaimed. Nami finally cracked a smile after a heavy sigh.

"I suppose you are" she nodded "Well, see ya tomorrow then"

"Bye Nami!" Luffy beamed and waved her good-bye. She returned the gesture and walked away, though not truly convinced.

When Luffy arrived at home a nice, delicious smell was tingling in the air. His recent worries were forgotten for instants and his feet lead him automatically to the kitchen were Ace was preparing dinner. Luffy had not even stepped one foot inside when a palm pressed against his head threw him out.

"Just one bite, just oneee~~~" Luffy begged.

"You wish!" Ace replied shortly.

"Pleasee! It smells so good, I'm dying heree"

"You just got home! Go do your homework and let me finish this" Ace said and turned around to the stove.

"Don't-" he was prepared to shout a third, forth, fifth, sixth, millionth time as usual but Luffy did not sneak from under anywhere or appear behind him silently to steal any food. He had done as he had been told. Ace peeked outside the kitchen and saw Luffy enter his room quietly.

"Strange"

After dinner both sat in front of the TV silently; Ace reading some school book and Luffy trying to squeeze his entire body under the kotatsu.

"Don't cover your head" Ace scolded. He had been trying to figure out Luffy's earlier behaviour to no avail. Luffy never gave up on food. There had to be something bothering him to bring him to that length. He seemed pretty normal in the morning, or was he already strangely strange and Ace had missed it? He had no idea. When it came to Luffy it could be anything really- Wait! Now, that he thought about it, there had been something out of place: the night lamp in Luffy's bedroom. He had not given Ace any explanation about it either.

"I'm not covering it. I just wanted to see what was touching my butt" Luffy said earnestly "Could you move your foot?" he then asked amusingly. A sting of mild rage mixed with irrational embarrassment stabbed Ace.

"You're the one laying there!" he snapped, kicking Luffy underneath the small table. Luffy giggled happily and slid a hand inside the kotatsu. It travelled carefully towards Ace's lower limbs and soon the elder D. was forcing himself not to laugh.

"Bwaha - stop that Luffy – haha – come on! Hey stop-" When Ace finally burst out in laughter Luffy stopped the tickling and emerged totally from under the kotatsu.

"Hihihihi!"

"You think it's so damn funny, don't you?" Ace asked devilishly before reaching Luffy's leg and tickling him back. He rolled on the floor laughing loudly and gasping for breath.

"No more – hahaha –please – nhahaha – you win, you win"

Ace grinned at his victory and seized the moment to refresh his ideas. It was the perfect time to ask Luffy about what was bothering him. Yes, because Luffy's problems, were Ace's problems too. He loosened his grip on his brother's arms and looked at him seriously.

"So, Luffy what's with you today? I still don't know why you left the lamp next to the futon this morning" Luffy's grin faded away. He was speechless.

"Hm? Don't you think you're too old for that?" Ace asked jokingly, though Luffy remained silent.

"Well, if you don't want to tell me I understand, but turn it off before falling asleep. It will be troublesome if it stays on the whole night" Ace said with a sigh. Then he got up and headed to the narrow corridor of the apartment.

"Ah by the way, I need that t-shirt you took this morning-"

"No!" Luffy's immediate response surprised Ace. He took a few steps back to look at his brother.

"What are you saying? I am going to sleep in it. Did you left it in your bed-"

"No!" Luffy jumped from his seating position in a flash. He ran past Ace towards his room and blocked the entry with open arms.

"Luffy, you have hundreds of t-shirts better than that one!" Ace reasoned. But Luffy still shook his head.

"I'm the one who needs it, so I'm keeping it"

"You're being stubborn Luffy" Ace mumbled desperately "Why do you need it anyway?"

"To sleep!"

"So do I. It's my shirt!"

"But you don't let me use the lamp anymore!"

"What does that have anything to do-" Ace left his sentence unfinished. He had just figured that this was not some typical fight between brothers. Things were starting to make sense. After a few seconds Luffy's defiant look became one full of panic and it gave him away. Luffy had messed up.

"What were you saying?" Ace queried curiously.

"N-nothing. The t-shirt is mine. Period!" Luffy's hand reached for the doorknob and he prepared himself to stagger inside.

"Hey, hey, no one is going anywhere before you tell me what's going on" Ace said this time much more serious.

"I already told you it's nothing-" Luffy repeated averting his gaze.

"Are you having nightmares?" Ace asked.

Luffy flinched slightly and for a moment both brothers remained silent. His heart was thundering hard enough for his chest to burst. This was it; Luffy was facing the terrible unacceptable chance of Ace finding out about his awful paranoia, about his scary dreams where Law appeared and things simply got out of control. What the hell was he going to say? How was he going to explain that? At first, Luffy had just ignored the occurrence. Then memories of that night began flashing vividly in his mind unprompted and he tried to forget them. To make those visions go away. But it was all very useless and he decided to revoke sleep. It had become too frightening to go on. Luffy even tried to get rid of any superficial evidence by showering every morning but now, despite all his insanely rational efforts, Ace had discovered everything. Almost everything, but he would soon put all the pieces together. He wouldn't swallow a petty excuse at this point.

"Are you having nightmares Luffy?" demanded Ace once more, heat pouring into his maelstrom of ill-constrained emotion, regardless of the truth of his brother's answer. He could practically foresee the root of Luffy's discomfort.

The younger D. nodded mutely, struck dumb with fear and anticipation.

"It's because of what happened the other night, isn't it?" Ace added bitterly. Boiling anger began to spread throughout his body just remembering it. He had failed to prevent that twisted contempt from engulfing his mind. Hitting his head off a wall had to be better than dealing with the thoughts presented to him right now.

"It's fine, it will go away" Luffy said swiftly, mind flooding with dismay and hastily suggesting ways to patch things up.

"It's not fine" Ace managed to slow his breathing down, suppressing more or less all of the anger that had poured into his system. He looked softly at Luffy "You can tell me what upsets you very once in a while" he said gently, a lingering trail of irony in his words.

"I'm not exactly upset…" Luffy spoke uncertainly. He watched Ace carefully, almost as if he didn't think it were appropriate to speak to him. Ace fought not to roll his eyes.

"I thought I had made it very clear that you didn't have to worry about that creep anymore" He shot a sidelong glance at his younger brother, mouth twitching in a small grin. Luffy gave a giddy smile in response.

"I know"

"Well, I guess I'll have to let you wear that shirt then" Ace said blandly.

"Yeah you do!" Luffy beamed cheerfully "Can I sleep with Ace tonight too? Pleasee. Just tonight!"

That weird, oddly warm itch had started again. It was crawling under Ace's skin and in his stomach, blinding his reasoning. How degrading.

"Please, please, please, please, please, please-"

"Yeah, yeah ok, stop pestering" Ace said with a hand over his forehead. Luffy jolted excitedly and disappeared into his room, returning seconds later with his pillow and Ace's shirt under his arms.

"Let's go!" he chanted happily while marching to his big brother's room. Ace sighed. This was going to end terribly for him. He just knew it. He followed Luffy to his room and saw him glide into the bed ecstatically. Curiously, he was not wearing his shirt, but one of Luffy's own.

"What about that?" Ace questioned confused, pointing to his t-shirt hanging on a chair. Luffy glanced at it with a flat look and then turned to Ace again.

"I don't need it anymore" he said blatantly "I have Ace all to myself tonight"

Bad answer. Bad, bad, bad. Why must his mind torment him so? Why? Not just his mind… Ace's extremely dense little brother too with those insanely alluring words! Ace wanted to smack himself in the head. He mumbled a few patronizing sounds and put on his t-shirt. The worst part was just starting.

"It's been a while since we slept together, hehehehe" Luffy jeered with giddy giggles. Ace tired to remain calm and passive, working hard to shut his thoughts away.

"We're sleeping Luffy, not playing" he stated dully. Luffy groaned sadly beside him and fell loudly into his pillow. Ace ignored him and turned off the lights.

"Goodnight"

"'Niiight"

The room became silent, yet not still. The silence was oddly alive, excluded from deathlike ambience by the faint rustle of blankets and the slumbering inhaling and exhaling of light breaths. Ace was not yet asleep and he wondered if his little brother was as well. Could he be feigning sleep afraid of possible nightmares? Ace hesitated. If he turned around, he could be faced with one of several options. Worst-case scenario: Luffy would be awake and staring back at him creepily. Best-case scenario:… good question. He hadn't thought that far ahead, and wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to. Ah well. He was relatively sure that Luffy was asleep. There was a noticeable snore murmuring behind him.

Tentatively flexing his sleepy muscles, Ace slowly, gently manoeuvred himself around, twisting to lie on his stomach. Then he angled his head so that he could stare towards the centre of the bed.

Luffy was asleep; he had guessed correctly. Mouth ajar and eyes peacefully closed. Thick black locks spilled freely over his face, stark against the pale blankets. One fist clutched a handful of the sheets, as if afraid that someone would tug it away from him. Typical. But at last he was sleeping quietly, with no trace of haunting dreams. Ace smiled weakly, sleep debt fidgeting anxiously in the corner of his mind, and teased a strand of Luffy's hair away from his face. Then, as he finally succumbed to sleep a feeble hand came seizing the front of his shirt and it clung there throughout Ace's slumber.

AN: Thanks for the lovely reviews everyone. It was really fun to write Ace's thoughts this chapter! I hope you will continue to read. Thanks!