Warnings: Vampires, fluff, possible OoC characters, mentions of violence

Disclaimer: I own only the plot and words. Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece.

Return: Subtle Changes of Life

Ace's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he stared at his family, who was staring at him with the strangest expressions he had ever seen on their faces – that was a long time considering his age. He looked down at giggling and saw Luffy smiling up at him. He grumbled something to the child no one else could hear but Luffy just laughed louder and latched onto his leg.

Ace was absolutely covered in honey and feathers, and they had no idea why. Ace would always hold Luffy to blame for this. The little brat had run off at the smell of food. He had knocked into a shelf and Ace, who had been walking after him lazily, not really caring about the trouble he might cause and not feeling like running, got drenched in the gooey golden liquid that had been knocked over. And then, of all things, the boy decided it would be funny to scare the crap out of the chickens. Ace didn't find it at all when their feathers were suddenly covering his body. But, at the same time, it brought back good memories. It only reminded them of that prank they had pulled on Marco five hundred years ago – they were never allowed to bring that up again. But this might break that rule.

Thatch broke the silence with a booming laugh and Ace glowered at him; if looks could kill Thatch would be dead. Sabo had a hand covering his mouth while Marco just looked at him with amused eyes. All of the other commanders looked at him in varying forms of amusement while everyone else was staring in shock. Pops was nowhere in sight.

"What in the – hahahahaha – hell happened to you?! Hahahaha!" Ace was sure his eyebrow would get a permanent twitch as he continued to glower at Thatch. He looked down when he felt tugging on his shorts. Luffy was whining and miming eating and Ace could faintly hear his stomach growling. With a sigh, he pulled his backpack off of his shoulder and reached into the bag – he shivered doing so and everyone had to wonder what happened to the inside of the bag while Ace wondered why the hell there was a honey covered egg in his bag – and handed some fruit to the toddler after wiping it off on his pants.

Everyone stopped even more then, Thatch even stopped laughing, because none of them had noticed the kid until that moment.

"Ace, where did the kid come from?" Marco asked as he watched the human toddler munch on the fruit he had been given. He only got a grunt in response as Ace stared down at the child, who had finished the fruit quickly and was now latched onto his leg again.

"Where's Pops?" The crowd parted in a path to Pops and Ace sighed before walking through. With a glance between each other, Marco, Thatch and Sabo followed.

Before Ace even knocked Pops door opened. He didn't close it, knowing his friends were behind him, and walked into the room with the three year old still attached to his leg.

"I killed the bastard two weeks and four days ago in a village that he had destroyed. If you're wondering about the kid, I honestly don't know why I brought him here, but something strange happened," The words flowed out of Ace's mouth as soon as the door closed, but all of them had to wonder what strange thing happened to him. They were vampires after all, and strange was hard to come upon.

Ace kneeled down, throwing a glare at Thatch who chuckled when Ace flinched at the feel of honey and feathers, and held the boy out in front of him. He whispered something to the boy and, with a sharp nail, poked his finger.

All of their eyes widened upon seeing the blue blood.

Ace quickly put a bandage over the wound when he was sure everyone had seen the strange color of his blood. He pet Luffy on the head and the child gave him a big smile. Ace then looked up at Whitebeard with questioning eyes. His brothers looked as well, thinking that maybe one of the oldest vampires in existence would have an answer for them. Whitebeard was silent as he stared down at the toddler and spoke only after a few tense minutes had passed.

"I have no idea what this may mean. In all of my years, I have not seen something as strange as this. However, he is welcome here because one should not be shunned for something as petty as blood."

It had been three days since Ace had returned with the child whose name was Luffy. The toddler was something different for all of them and they had to get used to caring for him and getting used to having a human around. They also had to try and not let him see the insanity that they truly were.

At the moment, all of the commanders and Sabo were watching over him as Whitebeard talked with some powerful allies nearby. Izo had made him some new clothing so now he had something to wear that actually fit him – a pair of shorts with white fluff at the bottoms and a tank top with a monkey face on it. He was holding a stuffed bunny in his hands as he stared with wide eyes at Haruta, who was trying to help teach him to speak.

"Can you say that? Bunny?" She pointed down at the toy in his arms but he only smiled and hugged it tightly with a giggle.

"It's going to take a long time, Haruta," Ace said from his seat at the nearby table. Everyone looked at him as he continued to talk about the boy. "I don't think anyone has ever talked directly to him before I met him. I don't even know how he survived since I don't think he had any family there." Haruta sighed as she looked at the toddler before her. He was looking at them all with curiosity before he looked up at the ceiling. A small spider came down and landed on his nose but he only laughed.

"He's a strange kid," Haruta said. Ace merely grunted.

"I think it's even stranger that you took the kid with you," Thatch said as he moved to sit on the floor since Luffy was trying to climb up his leg to reach something. He grinned at the kid when he began to play with his goatee. When he saw Ace flush, he teased him, saying, "You embarrassed that you care for a human now?"

"Shut up Thatch."

Stefan, the dog, suddenly ran into the room through the open door and they watched as a game of what seemed to be tag ensued between the three year old and the extremely old dog.

"I find it strange that he wasn't killed," Vista began to speak and everyone looked over at him as he divulged his thoughts to them. "That bastard never left a single human alive on his rampages. The fact that he missed one, and a child at that, is strange."

"It is weird, but we can't ask now. He's dead now," Ace stated as he was handed some rum to drink to stave off any bloodlust that was starting to make itself known through dilating pupils and trembling hands. After all, even for him, days without blood wasn't all too healthy or easy to control.

"Did he say anything odd before you killed him?" Sabo asked while leaning back in a chair and putting his feet on a table. Ace thought for a few moments while everyone was quiet before he blinked in remembrance.

"He said something about a monster, but he was actually pretty delusional. I think he was high off of blood, so he could've just been seeing things."

"We can't downplay anything odd he said, yoi," Marco said while moving from leaning on the wall to sit at a bench. "We don't want to run into any trouble with underestimating anyone again."

"Marco, you're being so serious. Lighten up!" Thatch said with a grin while Stefan padded over and began to drink out of his mug of rum, causing his fellow commanders to smother snickers when he didn't realize it. Ace had a hand over his mouth, holding back laughs when Thatch finally realized what was happening and began to whine and yell at the dog in an amusing manner while Stefan continued to drink his rum, when he felt some tugging on his shorts. Ace looked down at Luffy, who was grinning up at him. His eyes widened when he pulled out a flower, a pink hibiscus to be exact.

"Where did you get this, Luffy?" Ace asked as the toddler held the flower for him to take. All of the commanders looked over at him with confusion.

"What's with the flower?" Jozu asked, voicing everyone's question.

"I don't know, but there's no hibiscus' near here, I know that for sure, and we don't have any flowers growing inside…where did you get this, Luffy?" He repeated his question as he looked up from staring at the flower. Luffy merely smiled at him before latching onto his leg again and sitting on his foot. Ace sighed while the other commanders gave quiet chuckles. He decided to ask where the flower came from later.

Ace watched from his seat as Thatch let Luffy try some of the food. The human was held up by one of Thatch's arms, held off of his hip. Thatch would blow on the spoon of steaming soup or the fork of hot meat before letting the toddler try some. Thatch was always like that with kids, caring and kind – he loved kids.

Thatch, Fourth Division Commander, was 863 years old. He was always a smart ass and he loved to play jokes and pranks, most often on Marco. When he was a human, that was how his younger siblings and the kids he adopted would cheer him up – with pranks. But after what had happened to them, he began to pull pranks. He always pulled them when he thought Marco or anyone on the ship was stressed.

Around 830 years ago, Thatch lived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. He lived in a house on the outskirts of town with his siblings who were all ten or more years younger than him. Occasionally, when he would travel from one town to another, he would find an orphaned child. Being the kind man he was, he would bring them home with him. He was sort of like an orphanage owner. He had been doing that for ten years and somehow, through a miracle, was able to keep food in the mouths of everyone – at one time, twenty people were in that small house. So, to cheer him up, the kids and his siblings would pull pranks on him. He loved his life because he had everything he ever wanted.

Then there was the fire. One day, he returned from one of his trips and saw his village set ablaze. He heard the screams as he saw men going through the village, slaughtering everyone and anyone there. He ran for his home, hoping they hadn't seen the house. When he got there, the house was destroyed and his family and the kids had been burned to ash. He went into a rampage then, going to kill the men who had destroyed his home, only to find out they were vampires. He lost that fight and was turned and ever since, he has been looking for those culprits who had managed to hide for all of those hundreds of years.

Now, Thatch was the prankster of the ship. Anything strange that made people laugh and made Marco angry was likely the work of Thatch. Missions were the only exception. On missions, he was cold and calculating and at times sadistic. His sadistic tendencies frightened Ace at first, but he got used to it. This, however, the tender side he was showing to Luffy, was rare. Ace had to wonder how bringing Luffy home would change their family's dynamics.

"Sach! Sach!" Ace looked up from his small meal when he heard Luffy whining. He was trying to reach for some food that Thatch was withholding from him. Ace held back a laugh as Thatch didn't give in and told him to wait, resulting in the boy pouting. The man was making dinner. Not that all of them needed it, but meat kept the blood lust at bay.

"Reminds me of you when you were a kid," Ace said as he ruffled the blond hair of the teen sitting on the floor next to his stool. His hand was swatted away and he only laughed at the expression on the others face – it was a pout but the teen would always say it was a frown.

"I was not whiny like that."

"Whatever you say, Sabo."

Sabo was the youngest vampire in their group, only around 150 years old. They found him abandoned when he was five and took him in because he knew about some vampires they were hunting. They never expected to grow attached to the blond human but they did and he stayed with them. He was never going to be a vampire – none of them had good stories behind their turning – and he didn't want to be one. He enjoyed being human, even if his family didn't age with him. But one day he grew deathly ill and he didn't want to die. They had agreed to turn him.

His first few months were rocky and Ace can remember having to force him to feed since the younger a vampire is, the more blood they need. He would have terrible mood swings and would sometimes lock himself away in his room. But, over time, he managed to accept it and now somewhat enjoyed life as a vampire. He was glad to be away from humans, too, as he remembered several things from his early childhood after a few weeks and came to detest most humans, mainly his parents.

"Ace, is it weird for him to have blue blood?" Sabo asked as he listened to Thatch cooking while Luffy babbled to him in a non-understandable gibberish.

"I can tell you I've never seen it before. Did you find anything about it in your books?" Sabo was one of their top information finders. He knew just about everything about anything. He always started (and ended) rumors and gossip within their family and within just minutes or even seconds of a battle he could find his opponents weakness.

"Nothing in old books, but books with no date go off ranting about blue blooded devils, bloodless demons, monsters with wings, and inhuman bastards. I couldn't find anything really substantial. I was thinking we could maybe find Nico Robin for help."

"That's a good idea. We'll have to bring it up to Pops at the next meeting."

Ace looked back down when he heard an 'oof' and saw that Luffy had jumped into Sabo's lap. He smiled when Sabo pat the younger on the head, causing Luffy to giggle and squirm.

"Doesn't matter who he is though," Sabo said and Ace nodded in agreement, finishing off the last of his meal. No matter what Luffy really was, he would stay with them.

AN: Hello again! This chapter was mostly all fluff and talk and not much happens, but it's necessary. (Plus I like writing little!Luffy.)

luffylova: Thank you so much! All will be revealed in due time, do not worry. :)

Callie982: Thanks! I'm glad you like it! :)

spoons-are-evil: I'm so sorry that you already have an essay. That's just evil of your teacher. Who does that?! Anyway, I'm glad you like the chapter. I love writing their interactions because I adore little!Luffy to bits. I can't say anything about your theory, but that's a good theory. You'll see everything later and it will (hopefully) make sense then. And no, that was a lullaby by Vienna Teng. I forget the name but it's written in last chapter's disclaimer. It's much longer, but I was lazy. Thank you so much! :)

Alrighty. I'm really happy today again like yesterday. But I'm also exhausted. I'm gonna go be lazy and eat for the rest of this lovely evening. Thank you so very much for reading this story! Please leave a review! I love to hear any thoughts you have! :D (And, once again, please tell me if you see any errors whatsoever in the story.)