Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece….listen to me, I sound like a broken sound record.

It was a scorching afternoon. Luffy and the others were relaxing in the shade of the large tree in the back gardens. Luffy was leaning against the truck, ignoring the way the rough, gnarled bark irritated his back. Chopper and Usopp were sitting next to him, shoulders slumped and tongues lolling exaggeratedly. Nami and Vivi sat on blankets which Sanji had insisted on bringing for them. Sanji sat close by them, and Zoro laid on the ground, nearly falling asleep in the stifling heat.

"It's hot…" Chopper moaned.

Luffy grinned. "Ace loves the heat, right Ace?" He turned his head to the right. After a few moments, he continued. "What's that supposed to mean? Heat is heat." Again, a pause. "You don't make sense, Ace. Fire is hot, and it doesn't bother you. How is this any different? …Hey, I'm not stupid!" Luffy puffed out his cheeks. "Stingy."

No one but Chopper paid any mind to the one-sided conversation. Ace and Sabo's presence was a norm for everyone by then. Chopper, however, had only met the pair a couple times, and—being an aspiring doctor—was immensely curious. He had observed one of Luffy's occasional bouts of depression first-hand as well, and he had a sneaking suspicion as to what the teen's disorder could be. It saddened him that he could do nothing for his friend.

"How did you end up here?" Usopp asked out of the blue. At Luffy's confused look, he elaborated. "I mean, Shanks said that he met you on a little island next to South America. South America. Why would you come all the way over here? That's, like, five thousand miles or something!"

Everyone turned to Luffy, curious about the answer. They'd never known he used to live so far away. The boy looked up at the branches above him. "Hm, well, Gramps has friends here. He was in the military for a while, and he became friends with Smokey."

Sanji snorted. "Smoker was in the military? That explains a lot."

"Like how he has a stick up his ass?" Zoro responded.

Luffy continued. "So, when Ace and Sabo were told about their disorders, Gramps knew he could trust Smokey to take care of us."

"Hang on," Nami interrupted. "Only Ace and Sabo were diagnosed before you came here?"

With a nod, the male explained. "Ace has pyromania, and Sabo has pescutary delusions—"

"Persecutory" Chopper corrected, automatically recognizing the name.

Luffy paused and looked at the youngest boy confusedly. "Isn't that what I said?"

"Er, no."

"Well, whatever," Luffy decided. "Anyway, they were told that they would need to go to a mental institution. Gramps argued that he could take care of them, but the lady said that their disorders were too dangerous, that their mental state wasn't stable, whatever that's supposed to mean." He frowned. "Ace and Sabo aren't dangerous."

"I'm sure they aren't," Vivi agreed. "Why did they think so?"

Luffy looked at the ground. He watched as an ant scurried across the ground, carrying a crumb, walking over fallen leaves and small pebbles. "Because we tried to kill someone."

Three boys sat in a small room, forming a circle in the center. There was a bunk bed pushed up against the wall, beds unmade and messy. A nightstand stood by it. A black flag was pinned to the wall above the small piece of furniture; a pair of crossbones were printed on it, and the letters 'ASL' were painted haphazardly in the middle. A dresser sat on the opposite side of the room, its surface littered with various photos and knick knacks. The boys were talking.

Sabo's face was red, and his arms were crossed defiantly against his chest. "I'm telling you guys, he's after us. My dad never approved of Dadan taking me in, and now he wants me back. He'll hurt you guys to get to me if he needs to. We need to do something!"

"Calm down, we believe you," Ace responded. "But what can we do?"

Luffy piped up, "Let's prank him!" Ace immediately bopped him on the head with his fist. "That won't work, idiot," he denied. The youngest pouted. "Jerk," he said while rubbing his skull ruefully.

Sabo shook his head at his brothers' antics. "No, we need to do something big. We need to get rid of him, for good." His expression darkened.

"You mean make him move away?" Luffy asked, perplexed.

Ace swallowed. "No, Luffy." He looked at Sabo incredulously. "You can't mean…Sabo, that's crazy! We can't kill him! That's—"

"No!" Sabo shouted and stood. His fists were clenched tightly, and an angry fire burned in his eyes. His posture was defensive, his tone adamant. "Don't you see?! If we don't do something drastic, he'll keep coming after us!" There was a wildness to his expression that Ace and Luffy couldn't understand. "We need to kill him, or he'll kill us. I can't lose you two!" At this point, the blonde seemed almost desperate.

"Sabo…"Ace tried to appease him. "There are other ways to—"

"We can burn him." Sabo interjected bluntly. His face was blank.

Ace froze, and Luffy blinked. The younger boy trembled. Sabo was scaring him; he'd never seen either of his brothers act this way. Sabo was talking about killing someone. Now, he'd become frantic enough to bring up Ace's fondness of flames. They'd known for a long time now that Ace had a strange delight in watching a fire burst to life. Still, they never really cared enough about it to say anything. Until now.

"We can burn him," Sabo repeated. "Come on, Ace. It's the only way he'll leave us alone."

The surprised look remained on Ace's face. It was soon overcome by one of excitement. "Okay. I'm in." A grin spread across his cheeks. The boy was already eager at the thought of making flames come to being.

"Wait," Luffy protested. "You aren't serious, are you? We can't kill someone!"

They turned to him, already overcome by the illnesses they had yet to discover they possessed. "Luffy," Ace said. "You don't have to help us if you don't want to. Just stay here with Gramps."

"Yeah," Sabo agreed. "We'll take care of everything. I'll make sure my dad never comes after us again."

Luffy hesitated. He was terrified; he didn't want anyone to get hurt. But he was even more frightened of the thought of something happening to his brothers. Something could go wrong; they could get caught, get hurt. That speculation alone steeled Luffy's resolve. He couldn't let his brothers be harmed.

"I'm going with you."

The two elder siblings looked skeptical. "Are you sure?" Sabo asked. "It'll be kind of risky…"

"No," he insisted. "I'm going."

-.-.-

A few days later, they carried out their plan. The idea was that they would burn down the house of Sabo's father. They'd staked outside to see when the man was home and when he wasn't. The boys came up with a schedule of the times the occupants of the house were present. They finally found a time when the man was the sole presence in the building.

It was an early Saturday morning. Sabo's mother was taking his adopted brother, Stelly, out to shop like they did every other week. His father was staying.

The fire started off small, barely a flicker. It soon grew, and grew, and grew. Shortly thereafter, the entire home was engulfed in flames. However, the three young boys had forgotten one simple thing: it was in the nature of a human to run. Sabo's father had rushed to the first floor at the smell of smoke, and was shocked to see flames licking up the walls. He ran through the kitchen, which had not yet been consumed by fire, and out the back door. Then, he'd caught sight of the brothers.

Sabo and Luffy were trying desperately to get Ace to move. Soon after the fire had crawled up and covered the first floor windows, Sabo had come to his senses and panicked. What was he thinking?! They were killing someone. They had, well and truly, just committed murder. How could he have been so stupid?

He began to run, and Luffy followed, but Ace remained. He was staring, transfixed, up at the bright tendrils of heat and smoke. The other two hurriedly went back, but Ace wouldn't budge. He didn't even seem to notice their presence.

Sabo's father stalked up to them, sirens wailing distantly, and grabbed Luffy's arm roughly. Ace finally snapped out of his trance. "What the hell are you boys doing?!" the man demanded furiously. "You did this, didn't you?!"

"Let him go!" Ace and Sabo shouted in unison.

The man turned to them. His eyes landed on Sabo. "You. I knew that family would be a bad influence on you. Look what they've made you do! You burned down my house! All of my money and possessions were in there! I was in there! You could have killed me! I should've never allowed you to go with them!"

Sabo's eyes widened. He knew it. His father wanted to get him back. He'd hurt his brothers as revenge, he'd hurt them, no, no, no…

A fire truck parked by them, men quickly disembarking to put out the scorching flames. Police cars and ambulances followed close behind. The next few minutes were a blur of people and questions for the three boys. The regret was suffocating.

Everyone was silent as Luffy finished. "Ace and Sabo were diagnosed with their disorders then. They were too young to go to a juvenile detention center, and I was considered too small and stupid to know what I was doing anyway. I was seven. Their disorders are the only reason they would ever do anything like that, and so the counselor lady told Gramps to send them to a mental hospital. He only trusted Smoker for that kind of job."

"Then what about you?" Nami asked softly. Everyone was still a bit shocked at the story. "Why did you come?"

Luffy gave a small smile. "I didn't want to be left alone. I had Dadan and Gramps, but Dadan likes to pretend she doesn't care—even though she really does—and Gramps was always away. Ace and Sabo kept me from being lonely. I told Gramps I wanted to go with them and he said I was stupid." He chuckled and looked up at the branches again, his head resting against the tree's wood. "I told him I was going anyway. If he didn't let me, I'd just sneak in after them. I wore him down. I was let in for ADHD, which confused the hell out of the employees. Like you said, Nami, no one gets admitted just for that."

The wind blowing through the leaves was the only sound made. Luffy continued to look up, and the others remained either too surprised or too anxious to say anything. Eventually, Zoro spoke up.

"Before I was adopted by Koshiro," he began. "I tried to rob a bank. I didn't care about the money or anything, I just wanted to see if I could. A test of my skills. Of course, I failed and got caught by the cops."

With a snort, Sanji responded. "Just as expected of the stupid moss-head." He sighed, greatly wanting to light a cigarette. "I beat up one of my costumers once. He wasted food. I kicked his face in for it. Of course, with my luck, he turned out to be a policeman and got me arrested."

The others took a moment to take in those revelations. Usopp caught on to the other two men's tactic. Luffy was still staring blankly up at the sky, and it seemed that Zoro and Sanji wanted to comfort him in their own roundabout way. Luffy wasn't the only one with regrets.

"I snuck into a house, once," he tried feebly.

Nami continued. "I've stolen from countless people. Innocent people, sometimes, if it was unavoidable."

Chopper's face lit up. He saw what they were trying to do. Finally, a way to help Luffy. "I helped my godmother scam people. She was one of the only doctors in the town, and she charged a whole lot of money for little things, more than they were worth. I'd go with her and help her convince them."

"I haven't done much," Vivi admitted. "But when I was a young girl, I snuck out of the castle to see a friend of mine. It was stupid of me. There were rumors going around of someone who wanted to assassinate members of the royal family. I scared everyone half to death."

For a while, Luffy said nothing. Then, he gave them all a smile. It spread over his face, brightly and joyfully growing to take over his cheeks. "Thanks guys!" He exclaimed. He seemed much lighter than they had ever seen him. Relieved, even. They smiled fondly at the boy who had somehow become such a big part of their lives.

"Don't mention it," Zoro stated.

They'd do anything to keep that smile on his face.

…That flashback turned out more morbid that I meant it to, but I think it turned out pretty well. I know it seems strange for three young boys to actually consider committing murder, let alone executing an attempt, but Ace and Sabo's disorders are particularly strong in their cases. It clouded their judgment. As for Luffy, he was only seven. He didn't quite understand the full meaning of death, and it didn't help that he was worried about something happening to Ace and Sabo if he wasn't there. He already knew he'd never be able to convince them, not when they were like that.

To my guest reviewer, UnknownStranger, it typically refers to wolves in fiction. However, the actual medical condition of clinical lycanthropy can refer to any non-human animal. Hope that clears things up. :)

Thank you all for reading! ^^

-Spoons