Chapter 9: A Toast (pt. 1)
It was later on in that same afternoon, after Sabo and Dori had confessed their pasts to the other two boys, when Ace had called all four of them to meet up at the tree stump that Dori knew would forever change her relationship with the boys. The small clearing was enclosed by the large rainforest-like trees that were native to Mt. Corvo and it wasn't so far from the hill where they proclaimed their dreams as Dori could still hear the faint sounds of crashing waves and the salty, comforting smell of the sea.
It was still sunny and a misty rainbow formed delicately above their heads in the canopies of the trees, a warm breeze kissed her skin and ruffled the strands of hair that weren't being pulled back by her red bandanna. Luffy was holding and swinging her hand as he cheerfully bounced on his heals impatiently as they waited for the freckled faced boy. Sabo's arms were crossed in their signature position and his pipe was uncharacteristically lying on the ground beside Ace's, Dori had stuck her and Luffy's into the soft ground behind her to form an 'X'.
Ace finally made his appearance after pushing leaves away from his face as he stepped out from behind the foliage.
"Well, let's just leave it until the time comes. Maybe we'll set out independently." Ace stated referring back to the previous argument the boy were having over who would be the captain of their future crew, as he placed four red sake cups onto the stump and lifted up a bottle full of the bitter alcohol.
"Oh! You stole that from Dadan!" Luffy shouted in surprise as he recognized the bottle of liquor that their foster mother was usually so possessive over.
"Did you guys know!?" Ace exclaimed with a wide-uncharacteristic-smile on his face as he opened up the bottle, "We can become brothers if we exchange these cups of sake!"
Dori let go of her otouto's hand and crossed her arms challenging as she jutted out her hip by leaning against her left leg and raised her eyebrow as Ace began to pour the milky looking contents of the bottle into the cups, "Only brothers Ace? I am still a girl you know? You've seen me naked." She pointed out flippantly.
Ace went red, even after the four of them had been bathing together for a couple of weeks-well it already been two full months-and the ten year old boy was still semi-awkward when it came to her unbashful nakedness and often refused to even look in her general direction when they were bathing.
"I know that you're a girl… it's just easier to pretend you're not sometimes." Ace mumbled under his breath before adding petulantly, "Besides you act a lot more like a boy than a girl…. We'll be siblings!" he amended after seeing her glare intensify.
"Brothers! Really!?" Luffy exclaimed excitedly as he looked at Ace and Sabo, after all Dori was already his nee-chan. Sabo smiled just as happily as Ace continued to pour the drink.
"When we become pirates, we might not be on the same ship but our brotherhood will always be with us!" Ace explained, ignoring his and Dori's previous outburst over Dori's gender... she was beginning to resign herself to being treated as a boy for the rest of her life by Ace, not that it really bothered her all that much to begin with. "Wherever, whenever, we'll always be bonded together!"
The four of them picked up a sake cup enthusiastically, all the while exchanging smiles, "So from now on, we're brothers!" Ace shouted happily as the four of them clinked their cups together loudly with agreeing exclamations of agreement-"OSU!"-and happiness before they downed their drinks.
The burn of the alcohol slicked down her throat; she could hear Luffy slightly choking next to her before he determinedly downed the rest of it. She smiled widely at the other two boys before she started giggling amusedly.
"What?" Sabo asked curiously, whipping off stray droplets of the sake from his mouth with his sleeve-'Pig' she thought fondly-as Dori continued to laugh.
Dori waved her hand as she rubbed some tears from her eyes.
"What?" Ace repeated as an amused smile tugged at his lips as he looked at the nine year old who was trying to stop laughing, she was cute when she giggled.
She looked up at the now three very curious boys, "Do you really want to know?" she teased them coyly.
"Yes!" Luffy blurted out impatiently while staring at her with wide eyes.
"Well…."
"Oh come on! Spit it out Dori!" Sabo whined.
"Alright, well I don't think I've ever sang this song before to you guys but here goes:
Hey brother! There's an endless road to rediscover
Hey sister! Know the water's sweet but blood is thicker
Oh, if the sky comes falling down, for you
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do
Hey brother! Do you still believe in one another?
Hey sister! Do you still believe in love? I wonder
Oh, if the sky comes falling down, for you
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do"
Dori grabbed Luffy's hand and began to spin around in a circle, her voice was unwavering and steady as she continued to sing without pause.
"What if I'm far from home?
Oh brother, I will hear you call!
What if I lose it all?
Oh sister, I will help you hang on!
Oh, if the sky comes falling down, for you
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do
Hey brother! There's an endless road to rediscover
Hey sister! Do you still believe in love? I wonder
Oh, if the sky comes falling down, for you
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do"
Luffy grabbed Sabo's hand and pulled him into their spinning circle while Dori pulled at Ace.
"What if I'm far from home?
Oh brother, I will hear you call!
What if I lose it all?
Oh sister, I will help you hang on!
Oh, if the sky comes falling down, for you
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do…"
She sang cheerfully and loudly to her pumped audience. Luffy laughed wildly as the four let go of each other's hands and let themselves fall backwards onto the soft grass.
"Hey Brother~" Ace chuckled out of breath.
"Shishishshishi…" Luffy giggled.
"Where do you come up with these songs?" Sabo asked Dori curiously.
Smiling mysteriously, Dori tapped her nose, "That's a secret." earning three groans from her new brothers.
A month after their pledge of brother-sibling-hood the four children became even closer than they were before, Ace and Sabo would look out for Dori and Luffy. They always made sure that everyone had enough to eat and that no one was struggling, the older boys taught the youngest of the quartet how to properly hunt and what wild vegies were healthy to eat and which weren't.
After they learned that wild boars liked to scavenge for food around the bandits' base, deciding to be resourceful, they had dug holes around the bandits' house to catch the boars and camouflaged them carefully so that the animals wouldn't know they were in danger. Training had become a good way to relieve stress and become stronger so the kids trained at the hill four days per week and spent the other three days searching for treasure and hunting animals. They had also begun to fight with other thugs at Edge Town to test their skills and strength on unknown opponents; it's needless to say that they were improving by leaps and bounds.
Dori began to-try to-teach the boys Spanish, as she had realized that the language was either extinct or never existed in the first place in the world. She would sing the boys lullabies every night before they went bed... even if Ace would say it was too childish, despite the fact that he secretly loved then as well as the other boys. She had learned that while Japanese was the spoken language people did know how to speak English, it just wasn't used often, most people wrote in the English language while Japanese was used to officiate important documents.
Sabo had taken to the Spanish language like a fish in the water, he was the most patient of her brothers and it certainly helped that Sabo had actually already known how to read and write in English since they had the same alphabet. Luffy on the other hand hadn't even known how to read or write in Japanese, so she and the boys were trying to teach the very hyperactive and impatient 7 year old. While Ace had been taught how to read and write in Japanese by Dadan, he wasn't very good at writing in English, he knew the language like Luffy, but he was never taught the alphabet so she and Sabo had to teach both boys how to read and write in English. At first the three boys had been skeptical over the importance of learning a new language, but after Dori pointed out that it could be their secret language they had become more receptive to studying and learning the language.
"Sabo, who gave you permission to invade our territory!?" growled out a thug as other men in his group closed in around the small-compared to them-ten year old. Sabo was now backed up against a wall, Dori's eyebrows scrunched up as she looked at her Nii-chan in concern from the ledge where she, Ace and Luffy were watching the confrontation.
"Hey," Ace whispered suddenly, "I have an idea, Luffy do you think that you can stretch your leg long enough so that I can jump into the fight and attack them from behind."
Luffy looked at the distance it was from the roof of the building to the ground, "Unn! Are you going hold onto me?"
"Yea." Ace said as he watched on, "Dori, grab Luffy and make sure he doesn't fall of, got it?" he questioned her without eve looking.
"Loud and clear Ace. Be careful." She whispered softly, moving to help Luffy support Ace's weight.
"You're territory? Ha! You guys are so full of it! Stop talking nonsense and bring it on!" Sabo exclaimed menacingly, his top hat shadowed half of his face but she could still make out a cocky smirk on the blond boy's face as he griped his pipe, readying himself for a fight.
"Alright, get ready for a beating!" the same thug screamed as the other men shouted in agreement.
Ace swung himself quickly and began to beat up the thugs closest to him as Luffy's leg began to stretch back at the two of them at a fast velocity.
"Ace!" One of the thugs screamed in panic when he saw the freckled faced boy.
"Pay attention!" Sabo shouted as he knocked out the thug.
Dori exchanged slightly frightened glances with Luffy as his rubber leg finally stopped stretching and caused him to fly into the air at the rebound of the impact, Dori gripped Luffy's hand tightly as the two of them began to fall to the ground. Stretching out her leg, she kicked a thug on his head as she landed. Luffy similarly knocked out another thug after he bounced off the older man's back.
"You little shits!" a thug screamed as he charged them.
Luffy glared angrily and began to spin his arm to punch him, only for the bandit to reach him first and punch the boy in his face.
"I made a dent!" the thug screamed in panic, not moving his hand from where he had punched in Luffy's face.
Dori leaped up and wacked the thug with the top of her pipe and knocked him out before looking up to the opening of the alleyway where two policemen were blowing their whistles while running towards them.
"Here comes the sheriff! Let's go!" Ace shouted, dropping the bandit he had been punching to the ground, and running away with Sabo at his heels.
Dori grabbed Luffy's hand and began to run after them, as the poor seven year olds face was still smashed inwards into the dent that the thug had made with his fist.
The older boys jumped on a crate, as if it were a springboard, and launched themselves over the ally wall, "Dori, Luffy! Hurry up! Over here!" Ace shouted from his perch on top of the wall when he realized they were lagging behind.
Luffy stretched his hand over to where he heard Ace's voice and wrapped around his other arm over Dori, after Ace grabbed the younger boys arm Luffy launched himself to the wall. Dori was caught by an amused Ace as Luffy's hit the top of the wall head-first causing his face to revert back to normal.
"It's back!" Luffy screamed in relief as he fell on top of the ground on the other side of the wall.
Ace let out and amused chuckle as he jumped off the wall with Dori clinging on his back like a baby monkey and continued to run. Dori enjoyed the piggyback ride that Ace was giving her up until they reached the edge of the forest. The three boys stopped running and looked back at the giant wall surrounding the kingdom, Dori slid off Ace's back with a grateful 'thank you' and a small hug as she stared at the now setting sun.
"Let's get a deer for dinner!" Sabo exclaimed happily as he stretched out his arms.
"Ehh! I love venison! Let's go hunting!" Luffy shouted excited at the prospect of food.
Dori giggled at Luffy's wide grin as the boy began to run into the forest, "You'll always think with your stomach, huh Luffy!" she teased chasing after him.
"You two! Wait for us!" Ace and Sabo screamed as they ran to catch up.
Thankfully, it hadn't taken them too long to successfully hunt down a buck from the herd. Dori was tired and she couldn't help the happy/relieved grin that stretched across her face when they arrived at mountain bandits home.
"We're home!" Luffy shouted as they ran toward the house.
"Don't come home, annoying brats!" Dadan screeched only to have the deer they had killed thrown in her face.
"That's for dinner." Sabo stated as he walked by her.
"Cook it now." Ace commanded.
"It's time to eat!" Luffy sing-songed.
Dori giggled amusedly and poked the falling older woman causing her to lose her balance and fall on the floor with the venison now suffocating her face. "Hurry, hurry! We're hungry!" she teased before getting up from her crouch and going upstairs.
Dori weaved through the throngs of ravenous bandits and snagged a cut of the meat, she began to chew her meal slowly and savor the taste of the venison in peace from where she was sitting next to Ace. She probably wasn't going to be eating another cut, her stomach was still pretty small from her previous enforced starvation and she knew she'd just throw it up if she decided to be greedy/glutinous and eat more than she was able to. As she savored her meal she took in the sight of the 'battle for food,' as she had dubbed every meal with her family in her head, 'Pigs.' She thought fondly.
Sabo and Luffy had been thrown in different directions of the room by bandits as they all tried to eat the delicious meat served in front of them, a bandit decided to try his luck and grab a cut from the enormous plate only to have Ace grab his hand and glare furiously at the now panicking man and get thrown backwards as Ace began to eat again. Dori looked up at Dadan who was sitting across the room and serving herself a cup of sake, as she tried to ignore the chaos. She snorted as cuts of meat began to hit a twitching Dadan in the face from all angles until an empty sake cup hit and shattered over her face. The angry woman marched over and kicked the plate of meat causing it to go flying, as bandits ran to try and grab the flying meat, Sabo leaped in the air and snagged as much venison as he could, Ace continued to stuff his gullet with meat not bothering to let Dadan's interruption stop him.
"Don't waste food!" she screamed only to stop what she was doing when Luffy chomped on her head after missing the cut of meat he was originally aiming for. Dori giggled amusedly as munched on her meal as Dadan began to run in panicked circles, in pain, as Luffy just wouldn't let go of her head. "He's going to eat me!" she screamed terrified, Dori quickly finished eating before she started to chase after Dadan to help her get Luffy off from chomping on her head. The boy was like a piranha.
As soon as everyone had finished eating Dadan had angrily stripped the four of them and threw them in the bathroom, "Don't come out until you've count up to 10,000!" she shouted and slammed the door shut.
Ace and Sabo dunked each other in the barrel filled with warm water as Dori washed Luffy's hair from where she was sitting on the small bench, before she dumped some of the warm water on top of his head.
"Hey! Stop it!" Sabo complained as Ace mischievously began to splash him with water. "You jerk!" he screamed with a war cry as he began to splash back.
Dori giggled before she pulled Luffy up and jumped into the other tub, "Come on Lu." She patted the warm water invitingly as the younger boy stared at the tub distrustfully.
"Nee-chan what if I drown?" he asked suspiciously.
"I won't let you drown Lu." She told him confidently.
Luffy smiled widely and climbed in with her, he helped her wash her own hair and back like she had done for him and the two of them played gently in the water as Ace and Sabo's water fight began to escalate. Sabo threw the bar of soap at Ace, only for the boy to duck under the water and hit the unsuspecting Luffy in the head, in revenge Luffy threw the wooden bucket that Dori had used to pour warm water on him at Sabo… it hit Ace who had resurfaced from the water…. Dori laughed as she chased after the three boys out of the bathroom who were wearing only their towels around their waists, she wrapped her towel around her body and came into the bandits' house dripping water all over the floor.
"Luffy! Wait, you bastard!" Ace screamed angrily as the rubber boy stretched his hand and grabbed the chain connected to the pot that hung from the ceiling over the small-unlit-fire pit he sung himself over to the other side, avoiding Ace's tackle, as the ashes in the pot spilled over in cloud of dust.
Sabo fell on the ground with an "Oof," as Ace glared angrily at the culprit.
"Yay, yay! Hehe! You didn't get me!" Luffy cheered happily. Ace ran around the mess and started to chase him, Dori watched over the scene from the doorway as she laughed at the chaos that was the 'D. brothers'. She only stopped laughing when she heard a giant 'crack' sound coming from the now broken in half broom in Dadan's twitching hands, the woman had a creepy smile on her face as she laughed emotionlessly at Dogra's inquiring look.
Dori winced in sympathy as she looked at the mess her siblings had made and chased the boys upstairs so that they could get dressed and leave the poor bandits alone in peace.
Dori sat on their shared futon as she stared tiredly at the poised boys before sighing, "I don't really think this is a good idea… Dadan wasn't very happy with us earlier…"
"It's fine Dori!" Sabo tried to placate her.
"This is the last training of the day." Ace stated confidently.
"I'll win!" Luffy chirped determinedly.
"You'll never learn." Sabo scoffed.
"Here we go!" Ace said as he launched himself at the other two boys.
"Okay!" Sabo and Luffy exclaimed in unison.
Dori yawned, "I want nothing to do with this. Goodnight." She mumbled as she pulled the blanket over her head and turned her back on them. She could her them rough housing behind her before she jumped up in fright when a loud crash, caused by Ace throwing Luffy through the ground onto the once sleeping Dadan, startled her out of her cocoon of blankets.
"Damn!" Luffy complained through the hole in the floor. Dori put a hand over her startled heart as she tried to calm her breathing.
"Luffy! Are you alive?" Ace asked as he peered over the edge.
"What crappy floors." Sabo commented.
"You bastard!" Luffy shouted at Ace in indignation, after all this wouldn't have happened if Ace hadn't kicked him through the floor.
"HEY!" Dadan screamed angrily, as she attacked a now laughing Luffy.
"Should we just go to sleep?" Ace calmly asked Sabo.
"Yeah." The other boy agreed.
As soon as they sat down beside her she thumped the two of them on their heads lightly, "You guys scared the shit out of me." She grouched.
"Sorry!" they sheepishly said in unison as they pulled the younger girl down between them.
"Hmph," she sniffed, "You're forgiven. Luffy! It's time to sleep!" She called him; the seven year old launched himself through the hole in the ground and jumped on top of Sabo's chest to cuddle.
"Sing us a song, Nee-chan." He asked as Dadan continued to rage from inside the hole.
"Hmm, you don't deserve it." She mumbled sleepily.
"Please!" he whined.
"Only if Ace and Sabo don't mind." She conceded
Ace wrapped his arms around her midsection and pressed his face against her back, "It's fine… can you sing the Song of the Sea?"
Dori smiled softly and nodded.
"Hush now, mo stóirín
Close your eyes and sleep
Waltzing the waves
Diving in the deep
Stars are shining bright
The wind is on the rise
Whispering words of long lost lullabies
Oh won't you come with me
Where the moon is made of gold
And in the morning sun
We'll be sailing
Oh won't you come with me
Where the ocean meets the sky
And as the clouds roll by
We'll sing the song of the sea
I had a dream last night
And heard the sweetest sound
I saw a great white light
And dancers in the round
Castles in the sand
Cradles in the trees
Don't cry, I'll see you by and by
Oh won't you come with me
Where the moon is made of gold
And in the morning sun
We'll be sailing
Oh won't you come with me
Where the ocean meets the sky
And as the clouds roll by
We'll sing the song of the sea
Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling
Oh won't you come with me
Where the moon is made of gold
And in the morning sun
We'll be sailing free
Oh won't you come with me
Where the ocean meets the sky
And as the clouds roll by
We'll sing the song of the sea
Grá go deo….."
By the time Dori had finished the song the boys were fast asleep and she was on her way, she could hear Dadan shifting below her as the woman made herself comfortable once more. "Night, night Dadan." She mumbled hearing a grunt in return before she drifted off in a peaceful sleep.
Dori woke up to the sound of chirping birds and noisy insects…. and of Dadan shouting about something in the distance. Dori yawned while she stretched, rubbing her eyes she crawled out from underneath the blankets and carefully made her way down the ladder onto the ground floor, she quietly made her way into the kitchen and served herself a cold glass of water. She looked outside into the deceitfully peaceful looking jungle; Dori was surprised to notice that they had slept in for a change. It was already past noon… than again they all went to sleep later than usual because of the boys idiotic idea of late night training.
"Excuse me. We heard that Luffy and Dori live here." She heard a familiar sweet, soft voice ask. Dori's eyes widened, she knew who's voice that was. She bolted out of the house as she heard Luffy throw himself off the second floor.
"Makino!" they shouted at the same time happily as they both ran together into the kind woman's arms.
"Luffy! Dori!" she exclaimed happily as she hugged both of them tightly.
"You two look great." The mayor of Fooshia village said happily as the two kids looked at him joyfully, happy to see two familiar faces, "It's already been six months so we came to see how you guys were doing."
"Hey, mayor!" Luffy greeted chirpily.
Makino laughed nervously before pulling the two of them away from her hug and looking at them in the eyes, "Don't tell Garp-san we were here, it's a secret." She mock whispered, her pointer finger was in front of her lips as if she was saying 'shush'.
"So you two really are living with mountain bandits…" the mayor stated in slight wonder and disdain.
Dadan scowled angrily, "You got a problem with that?"
"Yes! A big one! You're a bandit- don't give me attitude!" the mayor screamed lifting his cane in the air 'threateningly'.
"What?! Are all people from Fooshia Village annoying!?" she asked rhetorically as she lifted her fist in a threatening manner as well. They looked like an old married couple, at least to Dori they did.
"I have some presents for you!" Makino said chirpily clapping her hands, effectively getting Dori's and Luffy's attention off of the arguing pair.
Luffy and Dori looked at each other excitedly and grinned widely at the older woman as she kneeled down to where she had placed a large brown picnic basket on the ground beside her. "I assume Garp-san wouldn't think about these things…. Here! New clothes!" she presented with a smile pulling out a t-shirt with a purple star on it.
"OH! Great!" Luffy cheered.
Dori lowered her head trembling as tears began to stream down her face.
"Oh, Dori-chan. What's wrong?" Makino asked her softly in concern as Luffy looked at his nee-chan confusedly.
Author's Note:
Hey, hey, hey~ I'm not dead! How are you guys? It's been almost a complete year! Hopefully it's not going to take this log to update the next chapter! Anyway I had to split this chapter into two since it was immense! I know- I know, I'm splitting chapters again… trust me, I almost cried when I realized I had to do this again. Oh, before I forget:
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Hey Brother' by Avicii and the lullaby 'Song of the Sea' by whomever wrote the song; you can listen to both if you follow these links (they go in order): ( watch?v=YxIiPLVR6NA) and ( watch?v=J5P2-9YY7qU)
Anyway (I'm going to advertise these every single time I update since this is the story that has the most fav's and follows) if any of you have seen bio or read my new story "Across the Sea we Found It" and "The Spare" (it's an OHSHC and Naruto fanfic respectively… no I'm not using this fic as a way to advertise my other one… alright, alright… maybe a little bit), you would know that I've decided that it's easier for me to update monthly since I'm busy with reality breathing down my neck…
Anyway, I wanted to know if you guys want me to do a side story portraying Dylan's POV. It would go from his death up until he meets up with his sister again… remember he would be falling into the Naruto Universe. In this fic I'm making the Naruto Universe an island in the New World, I'll also probably make the hidden One Piece hidden somewhere in the Elemental Countries….. Yup! So tell me what you think, I'd be willing to hear suggestions as to what part of the Time line Dylan lands in and what kind of ninja he'd end up being… (though him being a part of Konoha is something I won't change, he could come from another village but he needs to end up at Konoha)….
This Chapter is Dedicated to:
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter… and I'll see you next month! Maybe….
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Love, Mara-Chan (o l l o)