4.

-Found-

The future may be set in stone, but some things are harder than stone.

Like my head.

"Hyah!" Ace's right fist scraped my left ear. 'Shoot, too close!' "Ow!" His left did connect to my cheek, though. "Hah… hah…" I stepped back, took a deep breath and schooled my features into a blank look, ignoring the pain of a forming bruise.

"Give up yet?" He smirked. My nonchalant demeanor soon paid off when he scowled for a moment. 'Now!' I sped towards him, feinting when he moved his hand to parry a punch. I spun on my right foot and kicked his temple hard enough to disorient. He stumbled, and I seized the opportunity to glomp him, laughing maniacally as I held him in an armlock and gave him a very thorough noogie.

"Geroff!"

"Yay! I won!"

"No, you didn't!" He quickly flung me to the ground and reversed our positions. "Don't celebrate before making sure the enemy is out cold."

"Okay, okay! I surrender!" I raised my free arm and mumbled, "Sore loser."

"It's not that I'm a sore loser. You just suck that much."

I slapped his head in mock outrage. "Just because you're two victories ahead–" and faltered at his wince. "Hey, you alright?"

"You kick harder than a mule," he said, rubbing his head. He paused for a second and added, "You look and act like one too."

I resisted the urge to punt him in the stomach. 'He probably has a concussion.'

"All the good looks went to me, so it can't be helped."

It was very hard.

"And I'm also stronger and–"

"Dear brother," I closed my eyes and smiled. His eyes widened and he started inching away from me. "If you value your balls, you'd better run," I growled."Right." Stomp. "Now."

Ace sprinted away, never looking back. When he was out of sight, I plopped down on the ground and started laughing. "He always falls for that!"

I wonder if he ever found out I'd never really do that. After all, I'd always wanted a ton of nieces and nephews to spoil rotten.

…besides, had we ever fought for real, he'd kick my behind. Probably. Well, no; Gramps would appear out of nowhere and kick both our behinds. All the while ranting about improper behavior.

I shuddered. 'Knock on wood, knock on wood; lest the devil appears!'

Between training, hunting and studying, we barely noticed the passing of time. Well, the seasons were noticeable enough, but their significance was lost to us. Spring only meant pollen allergies; summer brought the mosquitoes and scorching heat; autumn gifted us with soothingly cool wind and food. As for winter… it delivered harsh coldness, but more importantly… snow cones! The treats lowered the body temperature, but they were so worthy it! And cuddling under a thick blanket was just a perfect way to fall asleep… that is, until–

"Wake up, birthday duo!"

SPLASH!

"Gah!" Shiver, tumble and roll; bang ("Ow!"), turn and fall ("Oof"!).

Drowsiness forcefully expunged by a bucketful of cold water in a winter morning, we got up, got a new change of clothes and mournfully glanced at our bed. Sighing resignedly, we rubbed the last few traces of sleep from our eyes, yawned, scratched our bellies and headed to the bathroom. In perfect synchrony.

"After all these years, your twin-ness still creeps me out."

What he didn't know (and we weren't telling) was that this wasn't an innate ability–it took painstaking amounts of training (and stumbling) to give off a properly creepy 'twins vibe'.

"Now, now, Dogra," Magra chided, "That's not very nice." With an expert flick of his wrist, the pancake somersaulted and landed back on the frying pan. If Dadan saw him cooking for us, she'd whack him silly–fortunately, she always slept in during winter.

The taller man wiped his hands on a pink apron and set the fluffy pancake on a plate. He was about to pour another ladleful of batter on the frying pan when the front door was kicked so hard it sailed over the table and crashed on his head.

"Happy birthday to you!"

Shivering, we turned to look at our worst nightmare.

The beating that followed was actually quite mild… by that, I mean we only got some yellowish-purple bruises and, in my case, a sprained ankle. Although the sprained ankle had nothing to do with Grandpa–that happened because I tripped on brother's unmoving form as he recovered from a particularly nasty kick to the stomach (and promptly made him shout profanities as his wound turned a few shades darker).

"Hm… you need new clothes," Grandpa muttered (read: didn't shout too loud), inspecting the frayed sleeve of my coat. Fishing for a leather pouch in his white coat's inner pocket, he handed me a wad of cash. "You can use the change to buy something nice," he patted my head and slapped Ace's back.

My eyes widened when I finished counting the bills. 'Gramps… you're giving us a small fortune…!' I quickly donned my best disarming puppy smile and curtsied, kicking brother's shin so he'd bow and (force a) smile. When Garp opened his arms, I jumped and hugged him, "Thank you, grandpa! You're awesome!" What can I say? It made him happy to have a cute, delicate and loving granddaughter with manners. And if reminding him I was his 'fragile, sweet little girl who wants to be a nurse' meant he'd pull his punches, well… survival of the fittest?

I regret nothing.

The next day started with us trekking down the trail to Edge town. More precisely, I was cheerfully dragging a protesting Ace to go shopping while humming a merry tune–same thing, really. When we crossed the gates, I ran to the closest second-hand store–no use buying new clothes when we'd outgrow them in a few months–and started rummaging through their sales bin. After my pile of possible acquisitions was taller than me, I proceeded to screen the clothing articles more carefully. "What do you think? Anything you like?" I turned to brother and asked.

"Just get over with it," he sulked.

"In that case, you won't mind wearing this pink shirt, right? It's too big for me, but will fit you just right until I grow a few centimeters!" I beamed, shoving a pink monstrosity with more frills than a princess Lolita outfit. 'And it's so cheap too!'

He stared at it, then turned away and made to run. Before he could cross the dilapidated door, I grabbed his hand, "Nuh uh, you're staying, unless you really want a pink wardrobe. With purple polka dots." I grinned as Ace sighed in dismay and resigned himself to my special brand of torture.

Red t-shirt with black sleeves. "No."

Brown wool coat. "No."

Orange shirt with a blue stylized cat. "…yes."

Black pants with more pockets than fabric. "Hell yes."

Purple 'Okama Way' bandanna. "Why did you even… never mind." I discreetly added that to the 'yes' pile anyway.

Plain blue jacket. "So so."

A pink scarf with fuzzy white fringes and a heart-shaped clip. "No way–" "Sorry, that's for me." Weird look. "What? I'm a girl!" Disbelief. "Jerk!"

And on it went for twenty minutes or so. After that, we headed to the counter and dropped our purchases on it. The clerk, an average looking woman in her middle twenties, put her book down, counted the clothing articles and mentally calculated the price. "That will be three hundred beli, dears."

'Three hundred? Not bad. Still…'

I removed some money from my pocket and made a show of counting it. Widening my eyes in the best puppy pout on that side of East Blue, I bit my lower lip and lowered my head. "B-but… hm… I only have two hundred and eighty!"

Her brown eyes softened and she smiled apologetically, "Sorry, those are already at half price. Maybe you could ask your parents?"

I forced some tears out (easy, as I just had to remember that time Ace spilled boiling soup on his lap) and sniffled. Ace took his cue and took my hand, holding back his own fake tears (invoked by the same memory). In a practiced heartbroken tone, he whispered, "Auntie told us mommy and daddy are waiting in Heaven." He tilted his head, "Is heaven too far, miss? Maybe if I call them, they'll come see us?" He rubbed his eyes and looked down, "I miss them." 'Damn, he should be an actor.'

By that point, the shopkeeper was wiping tears with an old handkerchief. Shakily exhaling, she tried to smile, but it came out as a pained grimace. She packed our stuff, carefully folding everything and covertly adding the yellow sundress I had eyed before, as well as a few extra beli. Faking cheerfulness, the woman grinned, "Oh, look here! I think you dropped some money. With what you already gave me, it's more than enough." She handed me twenty beli back and some candies.

I gave her a wobbly smile and bowed. "Thank you!"

"That's ok. Now, off you go!" She patted our backs.

Ace smiled hesitantly, wiped his face and waved, "Bye, pretty lady!"

In our rush, we 'forgot' the bags. Sighing fondly, the shopkeeper stashed them under the counter and sat down to finish her book.

"See? Playing our cards right, they will pat our heads and smile," I grinned triumphantly.

"Humph, so you were right. Big deal." Ace stuck out his tongue and continued shoving meat into his mouth. "But it's not like everyone's this nice."

"Oh, that's why we have to get a feel before trying anything, brother dearest."

We had stopped at a small family restaurant, right beside the shopping district. The walls were a comforting shade of orange and the old wooden chairs were well cared for. The food was pretty good and the owner kept bringing more and more; all it took was a small question ("Miss, I don't have much money… can I work here for some food?").

"Oh, you're such a polite and responsible young lady! Here, try my special chicken pie." The wrinkled old woman handed me another plate and poured one more glass of fruit juice.

I beamed, wiped my mouth with a napkin and said, "Wow, everything tastes so good!" I took another bite and looked down. "Kinda like mommy's…" Trembling voice: check; abandoned kitten look: check; vict- I mean, owner's favorable reaction: triple check!

After stuffing my stomach, I got up and started piling up the plates. A small kick (gotta love them) to his shin assured Ace did the same with the remaining tableware. We walked into the kitchen and carefully deposited them on the sink. "Acey, can you get that?" I pointed to the corner, where a single stool rested at the foot of a small table. He nodded and put it by the sink. I climbed, opened the faucet and grabbed the sponge. "Can you dry the dishes? Just pile them up on the table."

And so, the woman ("You can call me Auntie Marie!") found us doing the dishes. As 'payment', she packed an enormous meal for us to take home. We smiled politely and thanked her as the little twin darlings we were.

"The nice lady in the restaurant gave us some food, but it's too much for us." I shoved a vegetable pie in the bewildered shopkeeper's hands.

"Ah, and here's a slice of cake for dessert, because dessert's important too!" Aw, Acey… so ridiculously huggable.

The shopkeeper smiled, patted our heads and handed us our clothes (and another handful of candies). "You're so sweet! Thank you."

"See, brother? If we suck up to them, we get discounts, a lot of freebies and they won't chase us off. Everybody wins!" I bounced happily as we traversed the Gray Terminal.

Ace frowned, "Stop gloating already!"

"You're no fun at a–oof!"

"Watch where you're going!" A blond boy shouted, rubbing his back.

"You were running like mad so it's your fault! Meanie," I snapped back, crouching to gather the bags I'd dropped. I was reaching for a top hat when a hand rested on mine. I looked up and froze.

'I can never be free here!'

Oh.

Found end_

Next chapter, canon will be officially scr*wed and stuff happens.

Disclaimer: Still don't own.