A/N: Exams are finally over! Yes! Which means I'm starting summer vacation and with it, will have more time for writing! … A little. I'm also in the middle of moving house and starting the single most monumental project in my entire pre-college career… It seems my foreseeable update schedule will be as erratic as usual.
Also, it's interesting to see which characters get the most individual votes from you guys. So far, Kidd has more than any other character with a whopping four votes. Second place is Vivi, which caught me by surprise, because I had been counting her in the Straw Hats for characters I had already given roles to. Something else that makes me feel kind of exasperated are the votes for Zoro (who is, you know, only the longest standing Straw Hat save Luffy).
Ubiquitously, almost all of the events of that Wednesday had been buried in their minds — the one exception being, of course, that Nami enjoyed teasing Luffy over his love of Sailor Moon for a long time to come.
On Thursday morning, Ace awoke to a tickling breath on his abdomen and a pain in his neck. Somehow, they had shifted around enough in their sleep that his upper body was hanging off the bed laterally, and his lower body was anchored only by the bear trap that was Luffy's grip.
He pulled Luffy's arms from his waist like plucking leaches off after a swim in the lake and, careful not to disturb his younger brother's sleep, tucked him soundly under the covers. Only after Luffy made a contented noise and burrowed deeper into the covers did Ace check the clock on the wall.
The second he did he choked on the oxygen in his throat and rushed to get his pants on. He was nearly late.
He hurried out the door without his belt fully buckled or his shoelaces tied. He only had time to scrounge a blueberry muffin and a piece of whole-wheat bread from the kitchen before he disappeared without another backwards glance.
An hour later, Luffy's eyes fluttered open to solitude and dejection.
Luffy was glad that there little flat was only a short walk from the park, at least, because he had always liked the outdoors, even if he had to experience it alone. It was where he went most days when Ace and Law where away at classes (and when he was healthy enough to walk about, of course). The air was much fresher outside than that of the dorm, which almost seemed to stagnate with isolation, and it granted a much-needed reprieve.
This time, he wandered away from the path he usually stuck to. He had chosen it to keep from getting lost — it formed a large, closed circle through the park without any smaller, branching off trails — but it could hardly be called an adventure. So instead, he decided to cut right through the middle and see what was at the centre.
He found a duck pond, sitting as the focal point of four scattered benches. The ducks quacked peevishly at each other and fought for ample footing as the occupant of the bench nearest Luffy, a familiar looking blue-haired girl, tossed them handfuls of bread crumbs.
A grin broke his face at the sight of the ducks' internal quarrel and he couldn't help a laugh.
"Oh!" the girl exclaimed at the sound, turning to face him with an expression that spoke of surprise. "You're… Luffy?"
He paused in his merriment and frowned. "Do I know you?"
"Well, no," she admitted, her eyes turned downwards, "but I see you at the Thousand Sunny often, and Coby told me a lot about you. I'm Vivi."
Luffy nodded; he didn't know Coby very well, they were more acquaintances than anything, but he'd always had the feeling that the boy admired him more than a little bit and wouldn't think it too odd for Coby to chatter about him to his friends.
He took a seat on the other end of the bench and extended his hand, palm open and facing up, to Vivi. She looked confused for a second before he gestured to the paper bag she held in her lap and asked, "Can I have some crumbs? For the ducks?"
She mouthed another 'oh' in understanding and nodded enthusiastically. She offered the bag to him and let him delve his hand in to get the food.
"The ducks here are really quite friendly," she said. "They'll eat right from your hand if you stand still enough."
"Friendly?" he repeated incredulously. At the same time, he tossed his handful into the ducks' midst and watched them fight over it with vitriol. "But they're so mean to each other!"
"Maybe they don't really like one another anyway," Vivi theorised as a particularly vicious squabble broke out between two of the bigger mallards.
"Huh," noised Luffy, his eyes glued on the mallards. "Like, they're neighbours, and that one mows his lawn at odd hours and keeps the other one up at night?"
Vivi tittered. "Or maybe they're romantic rivals, and they're only fighting to impress the apple of their eyes."
They spent probably an hour that way, pointing out individual ducks and giving them increasingly farfetched and drama-riddled back-stories, before Vivi's father appeared to whisk his daughter home.
Luffy was left with the ducks' squalor and his own loneliness.
Ace's jalopy sputtered as it came to a stop at the intersection. His fingers drummed impatiently on the steering wheel as he watched for the light to turn green.
In the passenger seat, Luffy's eyes tracked his brother's tense form in concern. Ever since Ace returned from class that day, something had obviously been bothering him and seeing it made Luffy feel anxious.
Ace caught him looking, out of the corner of his eye, and sent him a quick smile. Luffy returned it uneasily.
Eventually, the signal turned, and the car accelerated to just under the speed limit. Inwardly, Luffy wished that Ace would drive slower, because the faster they went the less time he could have with his brother after a long day alone.
Five minutes later, Ace turned off of Water Road and onto Seventh Street. The Thousand Sunny was waiting for them right at the corner.
The jalopy came to a stop at the curb in front of it. While Luffy reached into the back seat to grab his bag, Ace surveyed the colourful structure warily.
"What kind of classes do you take here?" he asked.
His bag now held in his lap, Luffy's hand stopped before it hit the door handle. "Today I have a drama class, but I have music and art classes here, too."
Ace frowned pensively. "Then where do you, ah, take academic subjects?"
"Well…" Luffy glanced at the watch on Ace's wrist. He was going to be late, but he was in no hurry to go anywhere. "The Centre had lessons for maths and languages, but for other stuff you had to go somewhere else."
"Right…" Ace's brow furrowed. "But as long as I'm taking care of you, you're going to need some kind of education. I'll see what we can find, okay?"
Luffy nodded, finally opening the door and slipping out. He looked up at the Thousand Sunny and then turned back one last time; Ace's shoulders were slightly hunched, and he had brought his right hand up to rub his forehead. Luffy bit his lip in concern.
"Ace?" Ace's eyes moved to meet his, and yet Luffy couldn't help but feel like the older wasn't really seeing him. "Are you– Are you all right?"
Ace blinked a few times, as if the question puzzled him, but then he gave a rueful smile. "...No. No, I'm not all right."
"Oh," Luffy said simply. "Can I help?"
Ace's smile became less rueful and more honest as he reached out to take Luffy's hand in his. "You can help," he said, giving a reassuring squeeze, "just by being you. Alright? My precious little brother."
Even while Franky admonished him for being tardy, Luffy was still preening from his earlier conversation with Ace. When he went to stand with his classmates — only two that day, Coby and Helmeppo — he was practically glowing, and not even the obvious contempt Helmeppo held for him could bring his high spirits down.
"First thing first, let's give Luffy a warm welcome back!" Franky cheered, at which Coby applauded earnestly while Helmeppo gave a few half-hearted claps. "And second–"
The door was thrown wide, accompanied by an, "I'm sorry I'm late, sir!" as another student hurried in. A wisp of light blue followed her as Vivi scurried close.
"Sis, how many times do I gotta say it? Don't bother calling me sir, or mister, or anything like that," Franky said. "This is a friendly environment, get me?"
Vivi nodded. "Sorry again, s- Franky."
"Now you're catching on!" Franky clasped his hands and rubbed them together. "Okay kids, this week you guys are working on…"
Franky set them some guidelines for the scene they were to create, and then let them discuss with one another the particulars. Fifteen minutes later, they had characters; Vivi was a cynical fortune-teller, Coby an unlucky assassin, Helmeppo an arrogant prince, and Luffy an eccentric king. All that was left was to construct the actual scene and practice it.
"So our countries are at war," Helmeppo suggested, gesturing between himself and Luffy, "and we go to Vivi to have her predict who the winner will be."
"Separately," Coby put in, "and she gives you both different answers."
"Oh! And while you're there, you meet Coby," Vivi continued excitedly, "who Helmeppo hires to kill Luffy."
The three turned to Luffy, expecting him to make a contribution, but instead they were met with the sight of him gazing wistfully at the clock.
"Luffy?" Coby asked, startling the older to attention.
"What?" he said, a bit more snappishly than he meant to. "What is it?"
Coby and Vivi shared a glance, and Helmeppo gave Luffy the same disdainful stare he always did.
"We were wondering if you had any ideas for the scene," Vivi said mildly. "Helmeppo pays Coby to assassinate you, and then?"
"And then…" he trailed off, his eyes gaining a far-away quality for a second, before he shook himself back to earth. "I hire Vivi to… to scare Coby away with a bad fortune?"
Vivi and Coby nodded and returned to their discussion, but Helmeppo's narrowed eyes remained on Luffy. Luffy paid no heed to it, going back to watching the time tick forward all too slowly on the clock. Eventually, Helmeppo, too, abandoned his scrutiny of his classmate to provide more ideas to the scene. They did not bother to interrupt Luffy's reverie again.
After Franky dismissed the class, Luffy was the first one out the door. He beat the others to the shoe rack by a few minutes and was almost finished lacing his runners up by the time Helmeppo approached.
"Monkey," he spat. "Eager to leave?"
"Portgas," Luffy corrected with a grin. "I'm gonna have it changed."
"Really." Helmeppo scowled, but conceded. "Portgas, then. You think you're better than us, do you?"
"Better than you?" Luffy reiterated, blinking in confusion and shock. "Why would you think that? Why would I think that?"
"Don't play dumb." He glared. "It's obvious. So we're not good enough to work with you? Is that what you think of us?"
"It isn't!"
"Of course it is," Helmeppo said. "You've never bothered to make friends with anyone except that Usopp kid, and you don't even talk to him much. And now you can't even be troubled to participate in class–"
"You're wrong," Luffy protested, to no avail. "I just– I don't…"
"Save it for someone who'll believe you. My best friend might admire you, Portgas, but I certainly don't. You've done nothing to deserve it."
Helmeppo turned on his heel and stalked away, slipping his shoes back on as he went.
Luffy was left with nothing but his own shame and loneliness.
That evening in the car park under Ace's building, the jalopy rolled in noisily, breaking the previous silence. The vehicle's passengers, however, were not so loud.
Ace and Luffy endured the drive from the Sunny to home in a tense state of quiet. Ace focused on the road, while Luffy inspected his own fidgeting hands relentlessly. Ace parked the car in its usual spot expertly and exited as soon as he had pulled the keys out of the ignition. He waited a few seconds for Luffy, but when the boy stayed seated, he rounded the hood and opened the door for his brother.
Luffy looked up, startled, as if he hadn't noticed that the car had stopped. "Ace?"
"Come on, then." Ace reached to undo Luffy's seatbelt for him, but Luffy caught his wrist before he could.
"Ace," Luffy implored in a small voice, "…I don't think anyone is better than anybody else," he stated, more for his own ears than Ace's.
"Of course you don't," said Ace. "I know that."
"Yeah," Luffy whispered. He let go of Ace's wrist and let his older brother pull him out of the car and to his feet. When he was upright, he slumped into Ace's arms limply.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, no…" The silence dragged oppressively. "…I'm just tired."
"Do you want me to carry you upstairs?"
There was another long pause; slowly, Luffy nodded, and Ace shifted the small boy onto his back easily.
As the thumps of Ace's footsteps came to be a predictable, comforting pattern, Luffy stretched his neck forward a little and planted an absentminded kiss below Ace's ear. Drifting off to sleep, he couldn't help but think to himself that what he told Ace was a lie; he really did think there was someone better than everyone else.
Luffy was lucky enough to be that someone's brother.
A/N: I got a shiny new Paranatural icon! YES! (Well, not so much new; it's from the end of the second chapter. But still.) Getting it made me decide to see if there was a Paranatural section on this site, and what do you know… there wasn't. Why can't there be? I would love it and fill it with brainchildren!
(Those of you who haven't read the webcomic Paranatural, what are you waiting for? Go on! It will change your life!)
I also made a shiny new FAQ on my profile. Only one of the questions is about WYGFAMC, regarding whether it's AceLu or brotherly, and the answer basically just says that I intentionally made it so it can be interpreted either way, but if you read my other stories you might want to take a look. It's also pitifully small, so any more questions would be helpful.
Why was Vivi at the park on a school day? I feel the need to address it here, because it's not going to come up in-story for a while yet. Her family has a lot of money, so instead of attending school like most kids, Vivi's father hires private tutors for her. We'll see her around again.
I swear I didn't plan to make Helmeppo so mean... I just meant for him to be mildly antagonistic, and then I guess I got carried away with the prospect of putting Luffy through more unpleasantness.