Warnings: Fluff, vampires, violence, blood, murder
Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece but I own my words and the plot!
No more adjusting: I can't imagine life without you; I'll protect you
"Asce! Ace!" Luffy ran up to the man whose name he could just barely pronounce correctly, his favorite person in his so far small world. He hugged one of his legs and grinned up at the very tall man.
"What is it Lu?" Ace smiled at Luffy. His name was Luffy's first word and last night he had said it in front of most of the ship at dinner. The ruckus caused after hearing their youngest speak his first word was great, causing the crew to have a party, and Ace had snuck Luffy some extra food out of pure joy.
He blinked when the toddler pulled another hibiscus out of seemingly nowhere. He realized he never did ask where he found it.
Ace kneeled before the human and took the flower with a gentle hand while the other ran through the younger's hair. "Luffy, where did you get this?" Luffy beamed up at him before poking at Ace's freckles. Ace blinked again before sighing, realizing that Luffy probably still did not understand what he said or couldn't respond. He smiled at Luffy as he brought up two hands to his face, obviously wanting to be held up. Ace kissed his palms fondly, causing the younger to giggle, before hoisting him up and holding him at his side and walked to the deck where everyone else was, listening to him try to talk the whole time with attentive ears.
"Mac! Mac! Fassa! Fassa!" Luffy laughed, pulling on the blond hair that was right before his small hands. Marco sighed as he walked across the deck, making his way to the figurehead.
"We're almost there Luffy. Wait a minute, alright?" Marco said with exasperation. Luffy whined at the response, continuing to mumble "fassa" to try and get Marco to do as he demanded. Marco gave a small chuckle at the toddler's predictable response. The kid was quite the impatient human. Honestly, Marco himself wanted to go faster but the deck was wet and most of the crew was on it. He didn't want to bump into anyone or slip and drop the little boy.
When Marco reaches the figurehead, he lifts Luffy off of his shoulders and slowly sits him down on the painted wood before joining him. Once he is sitting down, he pulls the rambunctious, trouble making toddler into his lap. Luffy whines and squirms, obviously wanting to run around on the wood, but Marco doesn't relent and the boy is forced to stay put.
"Luffy, do you like the ocean?" Marco asks, gesturing out to the large expanse of blue sea. The boy blinks his large eyes up at him before turning his head down to look out at the horizon. He's quiet for a few moments and Marco can feel him relaxing in his lap.
"Puhty," He says with fascinated eyes. Marco gives the boy a soft smile.
"It's very pretty."
They sit there in silence for a while, Luffy just staring out at the ocean in awe while Marco revels in the fact that for once the young boy isn't in any sort of trouble. Not a long time later, though, he turns his head back upon hearing footsteps that he has come to know by heart over the years.
"Don't you guys have chores to do right now?" Marco asked, looking at the three younger vampires. Thatch just grins at him.
"We finished up early."
They join the blond and black haired duo sitting on the figurehead. Luffy doesn't even seem to notice their arrival, which is odd for him since normally he is constantly looking for their company. Ace smiled at the boy's fascination and reached a hand out, running it through the short, unruly locks. Luffy blinked and looked up at him then before grinning widely and crawling out of Marco's lap to hug Ace. Ace chuckled as he slung and arm around the boy, holding him closer as he twisted in his grip to look at the ocean once more.
They were all quiet. The four vampires always found something soothing when they watched the sea, as if the salty water could wash away all of their mistakes, their past...everything. They were all snapped out of it by Luffy's voice, sounding surprised and excited.
"Ace! Ace! Wha tat?" Luffy was pointing frantically at the sky while pulling on Ace's hair. The vampires looked up and were all in confused awe.
"Aurora borealis," Ace whispered, smiling toothily up at the sky. "It's been ages since I've seen this."
"It's been a long time since we've been north, yoi."
Thatch just grinned as Sabo stared up at the sky, awed. It really had been a long time since they'd been north. Sabo hadn't seen it before as well and looked much younger in that moment, excited with a wide smile like Luffy.
"This really is freedom," Ace said, grinning out at the ocean. Luffy looked up at him with curious eyes, causing Ace's grin to grow. "It means you can do whatever you want to do."
Luffy smiled, very much liking that idea.
It had been one year since Luffy had come into their lives, and everything had changed drastically. They would let him play outside in the early morning and late evening, when the sun and moon were both in the sky. They had to childproof many rooms after discovering how accident prone the child was. They always had to have someone on "Luffy Duty" as they called it, so he wouldn't get into too much trouble since trouble was inevitable with the boy. They also had to be careful of their language around the boy because if humans heard him say swears it would cause chaos when they docked. Not only that, but Luffy could very easily pick up words and could never tell a lie to save his life, something they learned through many trial and error mistakes on their own part (especially when it came to pranks).
He could say almost everyone's names now, too. He still got lost constantly and trouble seemed to follow him like a shadow – there was an incident involving flour after he somehow snuck into the kitchen, another involving several barrels of rum and some missing matches (which, really, was their own mistake for leaving some matches in his reaching range), one having to do with the ships ropes, then there was a time he got into the weapons storage room – and the list just continued on.
Luffy had also given them something that was missing for their lives for many years, something that they hadn't felt since Sabo was a kid and even longer before that. They felt accepted by a human, and they were pretty sure that Luffy knew what they were. He had seen them drink blood and didn't shrink back in fear like most humans would. He didn't tremble at the sight of their red eyes and he wasn't scared to touch their fangs. He didn't cry in those moments he saw them hunt, which were often gruesome moments. Even when Sabo had been a child, it took him a solid year or two to not be frightened of these acts. So when Luffy blatantly gave them huge grins even when they were covered in blood and called their names with a voice so full of joy, it was no surprise that their long dead hearts seemed to beat. For that very reason, they all had a silent agreement to hurt anyone who hurt the young boy.
At the same time, they unknowingly gave something back to Luffy, more than a family. They had realized that he didn't seem to like humans and knew that the pirates were not human. He also only ever panicked if he saw them bleed, not a human. He cared for them and only them, something they enjoyed but didn't quite understand. They learned why one unfortunate day when he went missing on a small, nameless island they had docked on; it was something they wished had never happened but also opened their eyes to what the humans really thought of the ever mysterious toddler with blue blood.
"Luffy! Where are you?" Thatch yelled out, cupping his mouth with his hands. He didn't hear any laughing that would normally be heard when Luffy was coming - wobbling steps, giggling, garbled "Thatch!" - and he sighed, walking at a faster pace and expanding his senses. They had landed three days ago on this island and today they had brought Luffy to the small town on the other side of it. He had gotten injured once in town and the people had been slightly more hostile since seeing his blood. The vampires didn't expect anything to happen - the boy was with vampires after all and messing with vampires was utterly stupid. But, sometime in the early night when they had been talking with the villagers or spread out in the bars, the boy had gone missing.
Right now, it was a wild search for him. Normally, they could find out where he was when they heard sounds that just sounded like it would be comic trouble, but after three hours and no such sound, they realized that something was seriously wrong.
Thatch was the only one on this part of the island, the other side of the mountains that were spread around it. That was because they doubted he could get that far. But Thatch had a feeling, and whenever he said that they let him do as he wished. Some of the others had offered to go with him, but he said he wanted to go alone. Reluctantly, they allowed him to do so. They were left to search the human inhabited parts of town while Thatch scoured the part inhabited by animals, full of predators like themselves. It wouldn't be a problem for the man though.
Thatch was about to call out Luffy's name again when he heard a pitiful, pained cry. He froze in place, trying to make sure he had heard right. Then he heard voices of some adult humans - laughing, jeering, sneering, taunting - followed once again by a cry belonging to a child.
His instincts heightened; his eyes turned red, his nails sharpened and his fangs bore themselves to the world. He allowed every single scent within a mile to enter his nostrils as he tuned in to every single sound – the buzz of a fly's wings, some animals in heat in the distance, the rustling of trees in the wind and worst of all, the sound of metal on flesh and scared, pained cries.
He traveled the half mile distance in two seconds, seeming to have disappeared and reappeared again from thin air. He stood on a short cliff, staring down at the sight below him. There were some humans there, ones that said they had work to do four hours prior, hurting Luffy. Fists, kicks, metal pipes, flaming logs and a bucket of water. He watched a middle aged, grotesque man grab the four year old by his hair and stuck his head in the water. The humans just laughed.
Thatch pulled out his swords and attacked. It was bloody and the scent of iron filled the air as, with one strike, he chopped the head off of one of them. Blood was splattered across the dirt ground as the other men looked up, horrified, upon seeing a vampire standing there, crouched and furious. The blood was making his senses run wild, but right now his protective instinct overrode it all.
He had to kill, kill, kill.
Make them pay.
"THATCH!"
He heard several screams and shouts of fear, some yelling out "Monster!" as he ruthlessly attacked. He turned around and with a quick jab stabbed a human in the gut. The rock the human held above his head fell to the ground with a dull thud. Thatch retracted his sword and allowed the man to do the same as the rock.
He ducked and easily avoided a few bullets aimed at his head and ran at the man who shot at him. He was shaking as he dropped his gun to the ground, brought his hands up to protect himself and loudly begged for his life. Thatch took no mercy on him and instead chopped his arm off. He ignored the man's screams, inwardly finding delight in them, as he began to attack the others.
Within five minutes, he stood surrounded by human bodies. Some were alive and some were dead, but then he remembered why he was there. He cursed to himself for letting his predator instincts fog his mind and ran over to Luffy, who was curled up in a trembling ball on the ground.
"Luffy, I'm here Luffy. I got you," Thatch whispered to the boy as he slowly picked him up into his arms. Luffy's blue life supply fell slowly from the cuts and wounds on his body. He was covered in bruises and dirt and dried blood. Thatch kissed his forehead and held him close as he sobbed.
"Thatch…Thatch…hurts…hurt…" Luffy whimpered between sobs and hiccups. Thatch gently shushed him and rubbed his back, hoping to calm him as he quickly left he bloody scene behind him and headed straight for the ship. Small hands gripped his red stained shirt as wet tears and blue blood stained the once immaculate white material, turning it a dark purple.
"Don't worry Luffy. I got you," Thatch murmured in his ear as he began to hum, hoping it would calm the boy. He hummed for a long time, until they reached the ship. But still, it worked and eventually Luffy was only shivering once in a while with the occasional hiccup or sniffle. Thatch also knew he was the last one back, since they had agreed to meet a half hour ago if they didn't find him.
The second he stepped onto the ship and everyone saw the state that him and Luffy were in, chaos ensued. Part of the crew began to prepare to set sail with orders from Pops while several others crowded around the two of them. Normally they would go get revenge, but the blood on Thatch's body was all they needed to know it was unnecessary. Then the other commanders intervened and quickly brought them downstairs, out of the overwhelming crowd which was quickly distressing Luffy.
They entered a small meeting room in the lower decks of the ship. Izo ran in last with clothes for the both of them. Thatch tore off his blood stained shirt and let it fall to the ground. He sat down in a chair as Kingdew brought him a wet towel for him to wipe his face. Nearby, Marco and Ace were trying to clean and calm Luffy.
"What happened?" Sabo asked as he slipped into the room. Everyone looked at Thatch as he put his face into his hands. He could remember clearly what one of the men said to him right before he killed him.
"Why would even you monsters defend a blue blood? He's more demonic than you creatures of the night could ever be."
"His blood. It has to do with his blood. They called him a demon…" He trailed off as he let the towel fall to the ground and took a shirt Izo handed him with a quiet thanks. Everyone was serious now, as this was the second time something having to do with his odd blood color had happened – earlier, Ace had told them what had happened two weeks after he found Luffy as a forewarning of the possibility of something worse happened. They just never thought that it would happen.
"Marco," The eldest and strongest commander looked up at their father. "Find out why the humans fear the blue bloods." Marco merely nodded and then disappeared in a flash of blue.
Later that night, Ace closed Luffy's door behind him quietly. The young child was in his arms, on the verge of sleep. Ace moved to sit on his bed as his ears tuned into the rain falling on the ocean outside of the thick ship walls. He hummed to the boy quietly and rubbed his back, hoping to lull him to sleep. He leaned his head down and kissed the mop of black hair. Luffy snuggled deeper into him then, and Ace could faintly hear him mumbling his name in his sleep. Ace gave a small smile and carefully put him under his covers. He softly moved some of his bangs out of his face as he thought back to the day he first met Luffy. Maybe, instead of tearing him from his loved ones that day, Luffy was saved from the other humans.
Ace pulled the blankets to his chin before quietly walking out the door. When Marco returned that evening and they asked about his findings, they were dismayed when he said that no answers had been found.
AN: Hello! So, this was definitely more violent than the other chapters. I hope the fluff somewhat made up for it. But, now you all have a better idea of what the red blooded humans really think of lil' Lu. It'll all make sense later!
Just thought I'd say this about the vampires now. As you can see with Thatch, he's scared by his past. They all are and they aren't the most sane of people out there. It becomes much easier to tell when they're violent, as Thatch was here. And the scream was not Luffy, it was one of his siblings who was killed all those years ago. He has flashbacks and all of the vampires may have small ones from time to time.
youshouldn'tneedtoknow: Hahaha, he is being mysterious. He has a reason though, which will be coming up soon. I'm glad you think that - I love writing cute Luffy. You'll start getting an idea of who he is in upcoming chapters, but it won't be entirely clear for a while, just hints.
luffylova: Thanks! It's hard, but I like the challenge and updating fast. Keeps me motivated. :) hehehe, that makes me happy. I hope you'll like the answer when you learn what he is.
shadowmarialove: Hahaha, thanks! And yes, it does. You get an idea of why here, but it'll become more apparent why later on. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. I don't wanna spoil it for you. I hope you like this chapter! :)
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review! I love knowing what you guys think! :)