Greetings all! Shibo here!
First and foremost I'd like to apologize for my absence and slow updates, life unfortunately has gotten in the way of my writing. As I work in an airport my hours are...well unstable to say the least, leaving me with little free time during the week. The only day I have to myself is Friday, so writing has been slow. And I do go through phases where I have no muse and find writing hard.
BUT fear not, this story is not abandoned, just really really slow. Even though I haven't been writing, I still work on this series. As I have stated before I plan on taking this story all the way till the end, which means a LOT of planning, figuring out events, what will change what won't and how Leo develops and how the other characters develop because of her...
I will try to get updates out more regularly, and I just wanted to thank all of you who have stuck around since the beginning...you the paitence of a saint.
as always, I hope you enjoy~
After gaining his footing, Ace pushed himself forward launching himself at the pirates. Swinging his pipe with deadly accuracy he hit one of the pirates over the head, sending him crashing down to the ground. He threw himself at another pirate, rolling as he landed in front of the dangling Luffy, turning his back to the boy he held his pipe with threateningly, daring any of the others to try to get to the boy. Sabo followed suit, driving through the pirates to get to Leo, standing over her limp form protectively.
"That's him! Porchemy-san!" one of the pirates shouted, pointing at the boys
"He's the one who stole our money! Dammit!" another tattled
"What?!" Porchemy growled,turning to glare at the intruders.
"Ace!" Luffy managed a quiet, pained whimpered.
Ace didn't glance back at the dangling boy, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to look too closely at the beaten boy. His stomach churned as his brain ran through all the pain the boy had been through...to protect them! to protect their treasure. The was a moment of silence, where no body moved...the only sound was the fat droplets of blood hitting the ground below where Luffy hang. Like a forest fire, rage burned through his body, consuming him as he ran forward, screaming a battle cry.
He jumped, swinging his pipe towards the pirates skull. Porchemy batted the pipe away, like it was no more than a pesky fly, his arm shooting out to grab Ace by the throat, squeezing,
"Showing up on your own makes this so much easier!" Porchemy grinned,his demented grin only grew as Ace struggled to get out of his iron clad grip, "I didn't know what to do" he continued to talk, like they were just two pals having a casual conversation "Your pal was so tight-lipped! Didn't utter a peep, not even when I started on his precious little sister!"
"Ace!" Luffy gasped out in worry, helplessness clawing at his chest as he weakly struggled against his bonds, he had to try and help!
"L-let me go..." Ace gasped, struggling to get air into his lungs "Sabo!"
Shaking him from his daze, Sabo jumped into action, leaping from behind he swung his pipe at the back of Prochemy's head, managing to actually land a hit! The victory was short-lived when the massive pirate, not even stunned by the blow, threw Ace to the ground, turning on the blond. Ace struggled to push himself up, sucking in as much air as possible while he waited for his vision to clear. All the meanwhile the violet haired pirate had turned his attentions onto Sabo, who took Ace's previous position, standing between the pirates and Luffy, pipe raised ready to break the jaw of the idiot who came too close.
"That hurt pretty bad, you know" he growled, before his demented grin returned, it was really starting to unnerve Sabo "You know what happens when you make fun of grown ups, don't you?" He asked mockingly
Shoving himself back to his feet Ace slammed his pipe on the ground, drawing the attention back to him,
"Your opponent is right here!" he shouted, "Sabo! Help Luffy and Leo!" he ordered as he raised his pipe, ready to kick the arrogant pirates face in,
Sabo nodded, moving swiftly,
"This guy has a sword! Be careful!" he warned.
With his target in site, he sped around Porchemy towards the injured children, it was going to be so easy with Leo on the opposite side of the room. Ducking under swords, he nimbly made his way in the direction of Luffy. One pirate came at him with a knife, Sabo easily disarmed with with a jab of his pipe, literally grabbing the knife out of the air as it was thrown into the air,
"My knife!" the pirate cried as he cradled his injured hand.
Using Sabo's dash towards the two younger children as a distraction, Ace shot forward, readjusting his grip on his pipe before swinging it once again towards Porchemy, but the pirate wasn't as stupid as his underlings, keeping his guard up gave him the precious few seconds to raise his sword, blocking the attack. With a superior strength he pushed hard on the sword, forcing Ace to retreat. For the moment anyway.
Sabo didn't waste any time on he reached Luffy, slicing the rope holding him high in the air, throwing the knife to the ground he reached out just in time to stop Luffy from crashing against the ground. He then tucked Luffy under his arm, there was no time to cut through the ropes binding him, and it kept the boy from flailing around too much. Sabo tried his hardest to ignore the warm wetness that had begun to soak where the younger boy was pressed against him. He glanced across the hut to where Leo lay in a bleeding mess. Fuck. There was no way he could get across the room with only one arm free, especially not when he was trying to hold onto to Luffy. Crouching down the blond grabbed the knife he had previously thrown, quickly slicing through Luffy's bonds. Fuck it, he'd just have to make the time.
"Luffy can you wrap your arms around my neck?" It was a long shot but maybe the boy had enough energy to do just that.
He really didn't, every part of his body screamed in agony, just moving his arms was torture. But he moved anyway, slowly wrapping his arms around the blonds neck, and then forced his legs to wrap around Sabo's waist, his skin burned as the cuts were stretched. Every muscle screaming out,it took all of his will power to hold on to Sabo, to keep his limbs from falling limp. He had to stay strong, so Sabo could pick his little sister up.
His stupid, reckless, brave little sister. Sabo leaned down, scooping her up and tucked her under his arm like he had with Luffy only moments before, although he moved decidedly more gentle with her than he had been her brother. If the pained pain that scraped from her throat was anything to go by, not gentle enough.
"Let's get out of here, Ace!" he shouted at his friend, quickly making his escape,
"You go on ahead!" Ace shouted back
"You idiot! C'mon!" Sabo swore in frustration, not this again,
"Once I've chosen an opponent...I won't run!" Ace stood his ground as he bore his teeth at the large pirate,
"What?! You brat!" Porchemy had had it up to his eyeballs with these brats,
"Don't!" Sabo warned, urging Ace to for once use his head, "He's on a completely different level than the delinquents in town!" a completely different level to them.
"Don't you get it?" Porchemy spat, pointing his sword at the boy, "Playtime ends now! You stole our money! You will obediently return it to us, you insolent brat! I'm sure you realize that you've done a bad thing, I won't hurt you if you give the money back" a bold faced lie if they had ever heard one.
Ace hitting the sword away from him was all the answer Porchemy needed to know the boy wasn't buying it,
"We're gonna make much better use of it!" Ace shoulder back
"Wha...What did you say?!" Porchemy was very quickly losing his weak grip on his tempre,
"You...wait just a minute!" Sabo let out a noise of frustration, shrugging Luffy off his back, he carefully dropped Leo onto her brothers back. Luffy instantly wrapped his arms around his sister, rolling to the side with his back to the fight "You're being too reckless! Why are you always doing this?!" he scolded Ace as he ran to stand beside him, pipe raised.
"I never back down!" Ace defended himself,
"Don't be ridiculous!" Porchemy growled swinging his sword at the boys, Ace countered with his pipe. The sword cut clean through it, sending the top half flying, landing with a clatter in front of Luffy,he clung tighter to his sister, doing his best to shield her. Ace swore as blood poured from the thin cut forming across his forehead.
"If I lose to a pair of kids, I'll quit being a pirate!" Porchemy scowled
"Then we'll make you quit!" The boys shouted as they attacked together, both aiming for the pirates skull. Sure he was skilled enough to fight off one of them, but both at the same time? He stood no chance.
"I'm going to slaughter you!" The pirate screeched at them.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It took some time for Leo's consciousness to return to her fully. She had faded in and out of the world of the waking, catching glimmers of the world around her. Arguing, hushed whispers, being jostled around painfully as she was pressed into a warm firm body-not her brothers her hazy mind identified. She vaguely remembered calloused hands wrapping coarse bandages around her wounded limbs.
It was Luffy's high pitched sobs that anchored her in the world of the living, she blinked, confused as her brain tried to catch up with where she was. They were in the forest, the inky blue black sky was obscured by a canopy of trees...so yes forest. Forest was good, forest was safe. She tried sitting up, her arms shaking with the effort. She immediately decided it was a mistake as sharp pain shot through her stomach. And her legs. And her arms. Just everywhere really.
"Fuck!" She whimpered, tears springing to her eyes as she leaned forward, waiting for the pain to ease,
"You sure do swear a lot for a little kid" Sabo commented,
She carefully turned her neck to confirm that it was the blond talking to her. Her eyes snapped towards where Luffy was kneeling on a rock, sobbing his heart out. Tension flooded from her body when her brain finally caught up. They were safe, the older boys had saved them. Glancing down at her heavily bandaged body, she then ran her eyes over Luffy taking in every bandage and band aid that now covered his skinny body. Saved them and treated them.
They were safe.
She didn't realize she had started crying until the tears started to soak into the top of her shorts, wrapping her fingers around the dirty and bloodies sash around her waist she let the painful sobs escape. They survived.
"That's a real bad habit you got , Ace..." Sabo turned to scold Ace "Refusing to run when you're up against real pirates. Why are you so eager to die?" Sometimes dealing with Ace made him want to rip his hair out in frustration, he was just so bull headed!
Ace ignored him, inspecting the quick mend job to his pipe which was being held together with medical tape,
"This doesn't feel quite right...it was better before" he muttered as he gave it a few test swings. Sabo let out a noise of frustraion, breathing heavily through his nose, before letting go of the frustration building in his chest, they had bigger worries,
"After this, Bluejam's crew will never forgive us. They'll be after us from now on" He ran a hand through his short hair, which wasn't good for any of them.
"That was so scary!" Luffy all the while had been crying while the older boys talked among themselves, "I thought I was gonna die!" So had Leo, now free of the threat of being beaten to death she could let everything gush forward, all the terror and desperation spilling over in her chest.
The sound of their combined sobbing finally pushed Ace over the edge, unable to ignore them any longer
"You're so fucking annoying! Shut up!" he snapped at them, "How long are you gonna keep crying?!I really hate weaklings and crybabies!"
Both Ace and Sabo blinked in surprise when both of them fell quiet, not completely silent as they bit their lips, trying to keep the whimpers from escaping. Luffy seemed to be doing a better job of it than she was.
"Thank you" Luffy whimpered out as he bowed his head low to the ground, Leo did the same, leaning further until her forehead was pressed into the ground,
"Thank you" she sobbed out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" she chanted like a mantra,
"Thank you for...for.." Luffy continued over her quiet chanting, "For saving us!" Tears started to stream silently sown his face.
Ace grew more irritated, getting to his feet to once again lash out against the two younger kids, Sabo immediately place a hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him back down onto the rock he was sitting on,
"Come on now" Sabo soothed, "They're just thanking us" he reasoned.
It did little to soothe the bubbling pot of confusion and anger within Ace. The whole situation had his seething, unfamiliar feelings of guilt were not helping his mood in the slightest. He couldn't understand these two, everything they did...it made no sense, he couldn't figure out why and it was really pissing him off. So he did the only thing he was able to do with these feelings. He continued shouting at them
"Why didn't you tell them?!" he demanded to know "Those guys would kill women and children without a second thought!" he turned his glare to Leo, who had managed to move herself into a sitting position, leaning heavily against her brother who had wrapped an arm around her waist, which only served to fuel the anger within him, "And you! You have no powers! No weapons! No way of fighting You were running to your death!"
"Why?!" He demanded finally, desperately wanting to know why, if only to ease the gnawing guilt in his chest that just wouldn't fucking go away,
"If I'd told them...if we'd told them..." Luffy glanced at Leo, who nodded, she wasn't sure she had the energy within her to talk right now "We could never be your friend"
"That'd be better than dying right? Why do you want to be my friend so much anyway?" Luffy's questions raised more questions than answers, he turned to Leo, maybe she''d make a little more sense, "And you hate me! Why would YOU want to be friends?!" ...actually she made even less sense that Luffy!
"I don't hate you..." She softly admitted, Ace recoiled not expecting the answer, sure she thought he was an ass who needed to pull his head out of his ass, and sure she wanted to often punch him in his stupidly pretty face...but she didn't hate him. She never really did.
"After all the stuff I put you both through..." Ace tried pulling the words together, trying to pull sense together, "Why did you still follow me out here?!"
"Because..." Leo glanced at Luffy, they both knew what needed to be said...but gods it hurt to admit it, to finally put those feelings into words, to give them name and reality.
"Because there isn't anybody else!" Luffy finally blurted,Leo squeezed her eyes shut as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks "We can't return to Windmill Village, and we hate those mountain bandits!...If I didn't chase after you, we'd be all alone!..."
"Being alone..." Leo continued, "Is worse than being hurt"
"But you have each other!" Ace pointed out,
They glanced at each other, it hurt more than any wound to put into words,
"We do but..." Leo frowned, "It's not...It's just..." she puffed her cheeks out in frustration, unable to find the words to describe it, the feeling between them. Yes it was true, they did have each other...but it wasn't...it was less like having another person around, it was more like...having another part of her around. She knew Luffy felt the same, without the other they were incomplete. But even together they somehow felt...lonely, craving outside human contact...friends, companionship they couldn't offer each other.
Ace watched as Luffy and Leo's face distorted with emotion, he didn't know what was going on through their heads...but he let the question die, recognizing when to leave the topic alone.
"...What about your parents?" Ace asked, his anger fading,
"Don't have any." Leo bluntly shot down
"Just grandad...nobody else" Luffy continued, his hand reaching for Leos, "Only Leo...but even then..." his face scrunching as he tried to find the words, unable to find them.
"It isn't so bad when I'm here?" Ace asked quietly, Leo frowned...what an odd question
"Right" Luffy nodded
"And it'd be bad if I wasn't here?" Ace continued on almost...cautiously, like he was almost afraid of the answer...
"Yeah" Leo answered slowly,
"You want me to live?" Ace finally asked, bracing himself unknowingly.
"Of course I do!" Luffy shouted back.
It was then the pieces clicked into place, and it was like a punch to the gut for Leo. Ace was hurting, a bone deep ache that spread to every corner of your being, swallowing you whole...a pain she knew well. Guilt bubbled within her, all of the cruel words...the harsh glares...he really hadn't deserved any of it.
"But still, I hated spoiled kids like you" And he had to open his mouth and ruin the moment... which of course set Luffy off,
"I'm not spoiled! I'm strong!" he shouted as he jumped down from where he was sitting, as if his injuries didn't bother him the the slightest,
"Strong? How are you strong?!" Ace scoffed.
Leo groaned, but find she couldn't fully commit to the annoyance...the normalcy of it was comforting,
"You're supposed to be a man but you keep crying all the time!" Ace mocked,
It made sense, Leo mused, men had this weird...macho thing about feelings, finding it easier to express themselves in actions rather than words, uncomfortable with opening themselves up and making themselves vulnerable,
"Have you ever been punched by a spiked glove?!" Luffy shouted back, "I'm only seven! I won't cry when I become a ten-year-old like you! I'll become much stronger!"
Then again, she mused, women were the same...it was a weird person thing...one she was guilty of as well.
Leo then leaned towards Sabo, who stood beside her with arms crossed,
"...On second thought maybe being alone isn't so bad" she muttered, getting a giggle out of the boy,
"I didn't cry when I was seven either! You moron! Don't compare yourself to me!" Ace shouted
"I'm gonna be stronger than anyone else!" Luffy shouted back
As they continued to shout back and forth, Leo could feel her own strength beginning failing her again,she could feel herself literally deflating,
"Can we please just go home" she quietly whimpered to herself, not realizing Sabo could hear her, "I just want to go home" and sleep, fuck she felt like she could sleep for a month.
Gazing at her Sabo took in her exhuasted and defeated slump, exhaustion seeping into her body and her voice. Straightening himself, Sabo set to work,
"Okay, That's enough" Sabo declared as he stepped in between the arguing boys, gently pushed the two apart, "Oh, by the way, I've got a problem here"
That caught everyone's interest, Sabo mentally congratulated himself at the flawless de-escalation of the situation,
"Because of what happened today, Bluejam's crew will be trying to find and kill all four of us, right?" He turned his head to both boys
"Oh fucking brilliant" Leo swore again, seriously when would this day end?
"Yeah I guess so.."Ace answered, the realization sinking in
"I've been living in this forest, but it's close to their base, the Pirates Cove. What do you think would happen if I fell asleep somewhere and they attacked me?" Sabo continued on,
"You'd die" Ace bluntly replied
"You'd definitely die" Luffy nodded
"Slow and painfully" Leo added unhelpfully
"Indeed" Sabo nodded calmly, not letting on how much the situation was freaking him out,
"So I got to ask you something, hear me out" the boys formed a circle, arms around shoulders as Sabo asked what he'd wanted to ask for quite a while now.
"Of course you can!" Ace exclaimed,
"This is gonna be so much fun! Like a sleep over!" Luffy cheered,
Sabo grinned at them before realizing they were missing a member of their little group, he turned to Leo who was still sitting on her rock...she hadn't moved an inch...
"Leo...why are you all the over there? What do you think?" He asked her, frowning slightly.
"Huh?" Leo blinked as she looked up at the sound of her name, her head was starting to spin...it almost made her feel pukey. She frowned as she tried to
"Can't move" she finally yawned, "Too sore...too tired... will move later"
Luffy was beside her instantly, his hands reaching to grasp her knees, then her wrists and elbows bounced over to her,
"You took quite a kicking imouto..." he frowned sounding worried as his hands ghosted over her bandages.
She smiled tiredly as him, lifting a bandaged hand to pat his cheek
"I'm just a bit sore, Niichan" that was a bit of a white lie, but she didn't want to worry him more than need be, "I don't bounce back as quickly as you do"her sentence was broken by a wide yawn,
"Can we go home now?" she finally voiced, sounding desperate, "Sabo you best come as well, probably not safe here for you now"
The boys chuckled, while she didn't hear them, she was at least on the right track.
"I'll carry you!" Luffy declared, going to wrap his arms around his sister, his attempts were halted by Ace slamming his pipe against the boys head. To his impressed surprise the pipe held together,
"No you won't moron! You're too weak! You'd drop her!" he shouted
"I would not! I'm strong enough to carry my baby sister!" Luffy rubbed his head as he shouted back
"Hah! You're barely strong enough to-" Ace started again,
"PLEASE" She cut them off, "Luffy just let Ace do it" she muttered, "Save us the trouble" Plus she wanted to talk to Ace, and this would probably be the only opportunity she'd get to talk to him alone. Luffy paused, picking up on the tone in her voice, he narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, before nodding, dropping the subject. The older boys were slightly suspicious about the sudden change, that is until Luffy decided he had a new important mission. Getting to know Sabo. He attached himself to the older boys side, and was not letting go.
"Right up you go" Ace muttered as he crouched down, helping Leo scramble onto his back,wrapping her arm around his neck, her legs hanging loosely by his side. Ace wrapped his arms under her legs, supporting her.
"You're a lot lighter than you look" he muttered
They followed between Luff and Sabo, Ace moving at a slightly slower pace than usual, despite his declarations of their weakness and need to harden up, he didn't want to jolt the injured girl more than he needed to. Against his back he could feel just how small and fragile she really was, it was amazing the pirates didn't break anything,
"Ace..." she finally spoke up
"Tch what?" he muttered back
"...I'm sorry..." she whispered,
Ace was stunned. Sorry? Sorry for what?
"What the hell are you on about?"
"For calling you a monster" she continued, "And for all the other cruel things I said"
His grasp on her thighs tightened, it was the only evidence that her words actually struck him,
"I know what it's like" she continued quietly, "To be the child of a monster..." Ace stopped completely in shock, before a soft jab to the side got him moving again, "and to be a freak of nature...I didn't always live with Luffy ya know...I don't remember much of my time living with Gramps, I was just a baby...but I remember enough...and he'd occasionally take us to visit the marine headquarters...they're not as quiet or as subtle as they'd like to think"
She let silence fall, allowing the boy to digest her words,
"I was angry, and I was hurt...but I should have never said those words" her words became more slurred as she began to slowly drift off to sleep, "I thought you were taking Niichan away from me..."
She didn't speak again for awhile, Ace went to speak up, but a quiet snore alerted him that the girl had finally fallen asleep. There was still a part of him that wanted to be angry, to hate her and never forgive her but... glancing back at her bruised and bandaged face against his shoulder, now so...open... and trusting...he just couldn't.
Sighing he readjusted her, before quickening his pace to catch up with the others, feeling lighter than before...because for the first time probably ever, he didn't feel so alone.