Closest Thing to a Brother Ch 3
just in time for Sabo's upcoming debut! sorry it took so long. Also keep in mind, chapter 2 has been modified and added onto so read that one first. other than that, enjoy!
Ch. 3. Oops
The next morning, when the three brothers left the Dadan House, Luffy for once bolted ahead of Ace and Sabo into the forest.
"Luffy, wait for us!" Ace yelled.
"Where are you even going?" Sabo called out.
"The river!" Luffy replied. "Nati's usually there this time of day!"
The two 10-year-olds looked at each other before Sabo looked back at Luffy smiling.
"In that case, lead on." He chuckled.
"You're not serious, are you?" Ace murmured. "You actually want to see him again?"
"Of course I do! Who wouldn't want to see him again; I mean, don't you want to?"
Ace only scoffed and turned away from the blond.
"C'mon, Ace, even you have to admit, Nati's as much of an interesting kid as Luffy is."
"Tch, whatever. The only reason I want to see him again is so that I can fight him."
Sabo couldn't help but chuckle at his brother's response.
He's so interested in him.
When they arrived at the river, Nati was nowhere to be seen, so they decided after eating a large breakfast of fish, to wait for him to arrive. However, although Luffy was still sitting quietly, after waiting for an hour, Ace was starting to get impatient and Sabo was starting to get a little worried.
"Uh, Luffy…" he began to say.
"Don't worry, Sabo," Luffy replied, "he'll be here."
"Yeah, right." Ace growled. "He probably chickened out because he doesn't really want to fight us."
"No, Nati'll be here."
"Luffy, it's been over an hour, how can you still be so certain?" Sabo asked.
"Because Nati promised he'd fight you guys; and no matter what, Nati never goes back on a promise."
Sabo looked at his little brother for a moment. "Well, if you say so."
"Oh, please," Ace scoffed, "if that red haired rat never goes back on a promise, then where is he?"
At that moment, the three brothers heard a commotion in the forest that sounded like branches snapping, hoof beats, and someone yelling excitedly, and it was getting louder. Suddenly, a large boar charged out of the bushes towards them and riding on its back with a huge grin across his face was Nati, who was lying on his stomach across its spine, holding onto one of its tusks with one hand and keeping his cap in place on his head with the other, which was also keeping his seabag in place across his back. At first, the three of them didn't move from their spots out of complete surprise at what they were seeing, but when Nati saw them, his smile disappeared and he immediately grabbed the boar's ears and pulled back.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY! THIS THING DOESN'T STOP ON A DIME!" Nati screamed.
Having finally snapped out of their surprise, Ace and Sabo dove in one direction while Luffy went the opposite way. As the boar skidded then crashed to the ground exactly where they had been moments ago, Nati used the momentum to jump off its back and tucked into a tight roll on the ground, ending in a sitting position, smiling widely.
"What the hell was that about?!" Ace yelled.
"Breakfast!" Nati replied, but then his smile faded into confusion. "Uh… Where's Luffy?"
"HEEEELLLP!" an all too familiar voice screamed.
All three looked over to find Luffy in the river holding onto a crocodile's snout for dear life, screaming his head off.
"Oops." Nati murmured.
"LUFFY!" both brothers grabbed their pipes but before either could make a break for the river, Ace found himself back on the ground after getting a familiar brown seabag thrown at him, which was surprisingly heavier than it looked, and Sabo found himself blinded by a familiar yellow vest being thrown at his face and when he could see again, noticed an equally familiar forest green Robin Hood cap ringed on his pipe.
"Hold these!" Nati yelled before turning towards the river. "I'M COMING, LUFFY!"
As the crocodile dove back under the water, Nati dove in after it. The two brothers scanned the river for any sign of them and were about to jump in when suddenly, the crocodile reared up out of the water with Nati holding onto the top of its head and Luffy still holding onto its snout screaming. Then it jerked its head upward and tossed the 7-year-old in the air, opening its mouth to catch and eat him, but before it could, Nati punched the crocodile in the eye, causing it to close its mouth early and Luffy to land back on its snout, wrapping his arms several times around its mouth before it dove back underwater.
Moments later, the crocodile resurfaced again with Nati holding onto its snout and Luffy wrapped tightly around his midsection. The second it broke the surface, Nati jerked the crocodile closer to the river's edge and jumped off with Luffy still holding onto him. While in the air, the maroon haired boy pulled Luffy off his back and hugged him close to his chest, turning so that he hit the ground first with a loud crash. When the dust kicked up settled, Ace and Sabo saw Nati lying on his back breathing heavily with Luffy clutching his friend's today black t-shirt trembling. What surprised them the most was, now that he was sitting still, they saw that the 8-year-old had bandages wrapped around his head and on his cheeks as well as several wrapped around his arms when yesterday, he didn't have a scratch on him.
"Are you alright, Lu?" Nati panted.
"Mmm-hmm." Luffy whimpered. "But that was so scary."
"No kidding," with Luffy still in his lap, Nati sat up to wring out the side of his shirt, "those crocodiles are fierce. We could've died!"
Suddenly, the crocodile exploded out of the water towards them. Luffy yelped and ducked behind his friend. Caught off guard at first, Nati quickly recovered, grabbed Luffy and in one swift movement, pivoted around the crocodile as it snapped at the air, using his momentum to land a powerful punch to the side of its jaw. The sickening crunch they heard told them all they needed to know about the condition of the crocodile. After taking a minute to recover from the surprise, the 7 and 8-year-olds looked at each other for a moment then suddenly busted out laughing.
"How can you two be laughing after that?!" Sabo exclaimed.
"C'mon, Sabo," Nati began, "I'm alright, Luffy's fine, no one except the crocodile got hurt, and more importantly, I have a snack for the trip home!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Ace roared. "Sabo and I accidently knocked Luffy into a crocodiles mouth once and he was pissy at us for the rest of the day until I told him he could eat as much of it as he wanted when we cooked it!"
"Yeah, well, Luffy knows it was an accident."
"Mmm-hmm, Nati would never hurt me on purpose!" Luffy said.
Nati looked over at Sabo and held out his hand, a slightly annoyed look in his eyes. It took the blond a moment to realize that he wanted back the vest and cap that he was still holding onto.
"So, where the hell did you learn to ride a boar?!" Ace said.
"From the same person who taught me how to wrestle a crocodile;" Nati said as he snatched his seabag from Ace. "My father."
"Nati, you've got to teach me how to do that too!" Luffy demanded excitedly.
"Luffy, you know you can't swim." Sabo said.
"Not that; boar riding! I wanna learn how to ride a boar!"
"I'll tell you what," Nati replied as he placed his Robin Hood cap back on his head, "the next time I come to Goa, I'll teach you the basics of boar riding."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Not that I like the idea, but what's wrong with teaching him now?" Ace asked.
"It's our agreement; one new trick per visit, and I promised Luffy last month I'd do some target practice with him, remember?"
At that moment, Nati's stomach made a loud rumbling noise and he wrapped his arms around it, chuckling in embarrassment.
"But first…" he began, looking over at the still unconscious boar. "Hey, Luffy, how long has it been since you last ate?"
"About an hour."
"That long?! You must be starving! C'mon, after I get this crocodile on my ship I'll split the boar with you!"
"Can you split it four ways?"
Nati looked back in confusion at the 7-year-old, who motioned over to his brothers. The maroon haired boy smiled in amusement and nodded.
"Hey Ace, Sabo," Nati called out, "looks like Luffy's inviting you to join us!"
Two hours after they finished, the three brothers watched as Nati tightly wedged two of their pipes deeply into the ground.
"Uh…what are you doing?" Sabo asked.
"You'll see." Nati simply replied before he looked over at his friend. "Hey, Luffy, could you go get a few dozen small stones?"
"Okay!" Luffy replied before running off.
"What do you need stones for?" Ace said.
"You'll see." Nati replied again more firmly before walking over to his seabag. He opened it and pulled out what looked like an elastic band that would belong to a large slingshot, with a leather strap in the middle of it.
"What is that?" both brothers exclaimed.
"You'll See!" Nati snapped a little as he looped either ends of the band around both pipes. At that moment, Luffy came running back, his straw hat filled up with chicken egg-sized stones.
"Will these work?" he asked.
Nati looked over at the pile of stones in Luffy's hat and smiled.
"They're perfect."
Nati walked over to Luffy and putting his hand on the 7-year-old's back guided him over to a spot in front of his 'slingshot'.
"Now, just stand here…" he said as he drew an 'x' in the ground with his heel. He then slowly eased his straw hat out of his hands.
"Be gentle with it." Luffy whimpered.
"It's in good hands, Luffy, I promise." Nati smiled.
The 8-year-old walked back over to his makeshift slingshot and emptied the stones into a pile next to him. Then with a flick of his wrist, he tossed Luffy's straw hat back to him and ringed it on his head.
"Thank you!" he yelled.
"No problem, little buddy!" Nati replied before loading a stone in the makeshift slingshot and pulling it back as far as he could.
"Okay, Luffy!" he strained. "Whenever you're ready, just yell 'pull' at the top of your lungs!"
"Okay!"
"I fail to see how this is going to help with Luffy's aim." Sabo finally said.
"That's because I'm not working on his aim." Nati replied.
"But you said you were going to do some target practice with him." Ace said.
"Yeah; Luffy's the target!"
"WHAT?!" both brothers yelled.
"PULL!" Luffy screamed.
Right on cue, Nati released the stone, sending it flying toward the 7-year-old, who tried to catch it, but instead ended up getting hit in the middle of his forehead and falling backwards with a surprised and pained yelp.
"Luffy, I told you last month, catching comes later." Nati chuckled. "Right now we're working on dodging first, remember?"
"Right, I forgot. Sorry." 7-year-old mumbled as he rubbed the quickly forming bruise on his forehead.
"It's alright, little buddy." Nati picked up another stone. "Give yourself a second to recover your bearings before you try again."
"Okay."
"Are you out of your mind?!" Ace yelled.
"What?" Nati said as he reloaded the slingshot.
"What do you mean, 'what'?! You're firing rocks at our little brother!"
"Oh, relax; I know what I'm doing."
"Are you sure?" Sabo asked.
"Yeah, my father used to do this with me all the time!"
"He did?"
"How else do you think I got such perfect timing?"
"PULL!"
"I almost can't believe it." Sabo sighed while Nati wrapped a bandage around Luffy's forehead. "Half an hour of getting stones fired at him, and Luffy was only able to dodge 6 of them… out of 47."
"And that's not counting the three he tried to catch." Ace snickered.
"OWWW! That hurts!" Luffy shrieked.
"Oh, stop whining, Luffy, I've done worse to you on accident." Nati said as he fastened the bandage.
"It still hurts!"
"What do you mean, you've done worse to him?!" Ace demanded.
"You don't want to know, trust me." Nati replied.
"Something tells me you're right." Sabo chuckled.
The maroon haired boy nodded in agreement as he ruffled Luffy's hair playfully and placed his straw hat back on his friend's head.
"Y'know, Luffy's never trusted his straw hat with anyone," Nati looked over at Sabo, "not even us."
"Says a lot about how much he trusts me, huh." Nati replied.
Admittedly, Sabo knew he had a point, but…
"No, it's not just that;" he mumbled. "The way he looks at you and acts around you, and the way he was holding onto you when that crocodile was trying to eat you two, it's like he sees you as more than just a friend."
Nati smiled warmly at the blond, understanding what he was getting at.
"There is a reason for that." He said softly. "Y'see, I was there for Luffy first. Before he met me, he really didn't have anyone to look up to or to look after him."
"I've been on my own since I lost my mom the year before." Luffy added sadly.
Ace and Sabo looked at each other, unsure how to respond after that. As Nati wrapped his arms softly around Luffy, Sabo knelt down and placed his hand on his little brother's shoulder for comfort. Ace rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, trying to think of what to say.
"Luffy, I…" he tried, but that was as far as he got.
The 7-year-old looked up at his older brother and smiled. "It's okay."
"I've always taken care of Luffy as best I could." Nati continued. "I try and keep him safe when I'm here, and I do what I can to make sure he can handle himself when I'm not around. To be honest, before he met the two of you, I was the closest thing Luffy had to a brother."
"And that's why he's so close to you." Ace said.
"Mmm-hmm." Luffy replied. "Like I said before, Nati was my first friend."
"Well I'm glad you have a friend like him, Luffy." Sabo smiled. "And I'm even happier that I got to meet you, Nati."
"Hey, I just consider it a privilege to be this close to a noble without getting the cold shoulder."
Sabo froze and looked at Nati in panic while Ace looked at him in shock, then both looked over at Luffy in rage.
"YOU TOLD HIM I WAS A NOBLE?!" Sabo roared.
"Dammit, Luffy, don't you ever shut up?!" Ace yelled.
Luffy ducked behind his friend, trembling in fear.
"Wait," Nati looked down at the 7-year-old, "that was a secret?"
"Yes, it was a secret!" Sabo yelled.
"Oops."
Sabo groaned loudly. "I can't believe you, Luffy; of all the things to tell your friend, why did you tell him that?!"
"B-b-but I-" Luffy whimpered.
"Because he's an idiot who doesn't know when to shut up!" Ace growled.
"Now, just calm down, you two." Nati tried to say.
"YOU, STAY OUT OF THIS!" both screamed.
"But if you just let me explain-"
"Shut up!" Sabo yelled. "You think I enjoyed living in that suffocating High Town?! You think I liked that my life was decided long before I was even born?!" At this point, Sabo was fighting back angry tears in his eyes. "You think I was happy that my parents only cared about using me to elevate themselves to Royals?!" Getting back on his feet, the blond turned his back to the three of them to hide the tears now streaking down his cheeks, his entire body vibrating from anger. "Without a doubt, the greatest day of my life before the three of us became brothers, was the day I decided to run away from home and live in Grey Terminal. And believe me, you're going to have to find me a really good reason to go back to that life." After wiping away the tears, Sabo looked back at Nati, a strong glare in his eyes. "You will never understand anything that I had to go through up there, Magnus D. Nati."
With that, the blond walked off without another word, his pipe slung over his shoulder.
"And there's the cold shoulder I was waiting for." Nati said under his breath.
"Nice going, Luffy," Ace said, "this has to be the biggest blunder that oversized mouth of yours has caused since Porchemy captured you because you screamed my name."
Grabbing his pipe, the 10-year-old began to follow his brother.
"Hey, where are you two going?!" Nati called out.
"Hunting; and you better not follow us." Ace glared back at Luffy. "Either of you."
Out of panic, Luffy tried to chase after his brothers but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"Let them go, Luffy; trust me." Nati said.
"But, Nati," Luffy started crying, "they're my brothers. They have to know the truth; otherwise…"
At this point, Luffy was curled up on the ground as if to try and hide himself inside his straw hat, crying non-stop. Nati only sighed and looked in the direction the two 10-year-olds had disappeared to, taking off his Robin Hood cap and running a hand through his hair.
Why do I get the feeling those two just disowned him? Nati thought before placing his cap back on his head and crouching down in front of the 7-year-old.
"Listen to me, Luffy," he said softly, "as long as they're like that, Ace and Sabo aren't gonna listen to either of us; we just need to give them time to calm down a little, then we'll explain everything to them, okay?"
Luffy looked up at his friend for a moment then nodded.
"Thattaboy." Smiling, Nati pulled his friend into a soft embrace.
"Nati…" Luffy whispered after a minute.
"Yeah, Luffy?"
"Can I stay on your ship while you're here?"
Nati pulled away and looked at the 7-year-old, a little surprised at first, then smiled and flipped back his straw hat to ruffle his messy hair.
"Sure you can, little buddy." He helped Luffy onto his feet and guided him back to the docks.
"Luffy?" the maroon haired boy began, "I am so sorry; I swear, if I had known, I would never have said anything."
"S-Sabo never liked the fact that he was born a noble." Luffy sniffled. "… And that's why I never told you."
To be continued
As Nati put it so well, oops. anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and I've already got a fair amount of the next chapter done, so hopefully it should be up soon (with any luck, by the time Sabo makes his reappearance, although I doubt it).