Closest Thing to a Brother Ch 5

After much longer than I wanted, another chapter uploaded, and just in time for Sabo's approaching reveal. Enjoy

Ch. 5. Lessons, Explanations, Escalations

Luffy sat on the docks huddled in the blanket he had grabbed from the Dadan House. As he looked out across the ocean under the still dark, moonlit night, Nati's words echoed in his head; "Don't worry, little buddy, we'll clear everything up with them when I come back. I promise."

The 7-year-old looked down at the letter in his hand that he was given when he came home yesterday and read it for the ninth time since arriving at the docks two hours ago.

'I'm on my way little buddy. I should be there by tomorrow morning, just hold on a little bit longer.'

Luffy looked back out over the horizon, hoping to soon see the black-sailed ship on approach to Goa with his best friend on board. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and when he opened them again, it was daytime and he was on someone's ship, wrapped up more comfortably in his blanket.

" Y'know, I was a little worried when I didn't see or hear you try and flag me down, more so when I was able to dock the Shadow without you damaging it." A familiar voice said. Luffy looked over and saw Nati sitting on a barrel, fiddling with a piece of rope. "I was even more worried still when I found you sprawled out across the docks asleep."

"Sorry." Luffy yawned as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"It's alright, little buddy, I'm just glad you're okay." Nati jumped off the barrel, putting the rope down on top of it. "So, how long were you waiting there for me?"

"I dunno, it was still night when I fell asleep."

"I see…" Nati walked up to the raven haired boy and crouched down in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Luffy, do your brothers know you're here?"

"No…" Luffy replied quietly. "I didn't tell them."

"Have you talked to them at all since I left?"

"Not really…" the 7-year-old looked down. "I didn't want them to get more angry at me."

"Since when have you cared about that?"

Despite it being said in a playful way, Luffy still winced at his friend's words, remembering Sabo had asked him the same thing last night. Seeing his reaction, Nati moved his hand under Luffy's chin and tilted his head up.

"Are you really that nervous about talking to them about last month?"

"Mmm-hmm." Luffy nodded.

Nati looked down with a long sigh before looking back up at Luffy and lightly ruffling his hair.

"I'll tell you what," he smiled softly, "I normally wouldn't do this, but how 'bout after getting a quick bite, you and I start your boar riding lessons early?"

"Really?"

"Yeah." Nati stood back up and held his hand out for Luffy. "And after we're done, we'll go look for your brothers and tell them together, I promise."

Luffy looked at his friend's outstretched hand for a moment before finally taking it and pulled himself onto his feet.

"Thattaboy. And I know the perfect place to start hunting." the 8-year-old placed Luffy's hat, which was dangling loosely around his neck, back on his head. "Just let me go grab my bag and we'll be off, okay?"

"Okay, Nati."

Luffy waited until Nati was ready to go and soon the two friends left the maroon haired boy's skiff behind and headed off. And although he didn't show it, throughout the entire walk, Nati was a little edgy about his decision to begin Luffy's lessons so soon and with him still as upset as he clearly was.

I really hope I know what I'm doing. He thought as he put his arm around Luffy's shoulders and led him to the forest.

"Are you sure this is the right ship?" Ace asked after looking over the skiff.

"Of course I'm sure!" Sabo replied. "It's in the same place as last time, it's the same length, height and structure, and more importantly, one of the blankets from the Dadan House is here! We must have missed them."

"Oh, great." Ace plopped down against the railing. "So, now what do we do?"

"I don't know." Sabo sat down next to his brother. "If it were just Luffy, I would say we should go check the places he knows to be waiting for us at."

"Except he's with that Nati kid, and we have no idea where those two spend all their time. And not only that, Luffy's been all but avoiding us all month, so even if he wasn't with him, he still wouldn't be going somewhere he knows we'd find him at."

The two 10-year-olds were silent for several minutes until Sabo thought of something.

"What about the river? That's where they went the first day last time, maybe they went there again."

"Well, we've got nothing else to go on." Ace stood back up. "We may as well start there."

Sabo nodded in agreement and stood up as well before the two of them jumped off the skiff and headed for the river, both hoping that their brother was there and that he was alright.

"Now are you sure you feel up for this, Luffy; I mean, if you don't, we can wait a few more days."

"No, I can do this;" Luffy replied. "I wanna do this."

Nati sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe it'll help get his mind off all this.

"Well, if you say so." He murmured before spotting two boars in the distance. Smiling, Nati dragged Luffy to a hiding spot behind a tree and pointed to them.

"We'll start with those two." Nati whispered. "I suggest you start with the smaller one; you'll be able to get a better grip on it."

Luffy was about to complain that he wanted the bigger one when Nati continued.

"And more importantly, the small ones are always the meanest."

Upon hearing this, Luffy immediately lit up with excitement.

"What do I do first?!" he grinned.

There's the smile I was missing." Nati chuckled. "Alright, first thing you need to do is come at it from either behind or from above; that way it doesn't see you coming when you jump on its back."

"Above?" Luffy interrupted. "How do I do that?"

Nati pointed to a tree branch almost directly above the boars and Luffy nodded in understanding.

"Okay then," the 8-year-old continued, "once you're on its back, get a firm grip on whatever you can; the tusks, the ears, the bristles on its back, it doesn't matter. Just grab on and hold tight because those things will try and buck you off. I suggest you lay on your stomach across its spine so you get better leverage, okay?"

"Okay."

"Now, as soon as you get the chance, kick it as hard as you can in the ribs or as near to the tail as possible to make it go forward. But make sure you have a firm hold on it before you do, because it'll take off like a shot, and it will still be trying to get you off. Pull on the left ear to go left, the right ear to go right, both to stop, and kick the tail to go faster. Got all that?"

"Yup."

"Good, now let's get started. And don't worry; I'll be right there behind you to help whenever you need it."

Luffy smiled and nodded before he started climbing the tree.

"Oh, and Luffy," the raven haired boy looked back at his friend, "one more thing; if you start to scream, or laugh, or if you try and talk, make sure you have your teeth clenched so you don't bite your tongue, okay?"

"Okay."

With that, Luffy continued climbing up the tree while Nati snuck up quietly on the larger boar from behind. Then once they were in position, both jumped.

Ace and Sabo continued walking through the forest. They didn't find any trace of Luffy or Nati at the river so now they had to figure out what to do from there.

"Maybe he went to Gray Terminal." Sabo suggested.

"Even Luffy knows better than to go there alone." Ace replied.

"Yeah, but that Nati kid would be with him, right?"

"What reason would those two go to Gray Terminal?"

"How the hell should I know?!" Sabo snapped. He then recoiled from his actions and sighed. "Sorry, I'm just really worried about Luffy."

"I know…" Ace sighed, looking down.

I'm worried too.

"Ace this doesn't make any sense;" Sabo continued after a minute. "I mean if I didn't know any better, I'd think he's actually scared of us!"

"That's impossible! Luffy wasn't even scared of me after I threw him over a bridge!"

"Exactly. So what could have possibly happened during that argument that would cause him to act this way around us?!"

"The sooner we find him the sooner we'll find out the answer."

"True, but we don't even know where he is!"

"Didn't that Nati kid mention something about boar riding lessons last month?"

"That doesn't exactly help us, Ace; those lessons could be happening on the other side of Mt. Corvo for all we know."

Suddenly the two brothers heard an all too familiar shriek of terror from behind them. They turned around in time to see a wild boar charge through the clearing and dove to either side of it. As it barreled past them, Ace and Sabo saw on its back the source of the screams.

"That was Luffy!" Sabo exclaimed as he rejoined his brother.

"I know, Sabo, I saw him." Ace groaned as he stood up. "So, where's the kid we both know put him on its back?"

"INCOMING!" another familiar voice screamed.

The two boys looked over and saw Nati charge in on the back of another boar, which stopped suddenly and tossed the 8-year-old over his head at them. As he flew past them and tucked into a tight roll, Nati slammed into a tree upside down and could only watch as the boar he was riding took off.

"Found him." Sabo said.

"I'm not blind, Sabo."

"Could've fooled me!" Nati growled as he got back on his feet and dusted off his tan pants. "And now thanks to you two, I've lost my only chance to catch up with him!"

"Don't blame us; you're the one who put him on that thing!" Ace yelled.

"Hey, it's not my fault he accidently got it going too soon! And I gave him the opportunity to back out, but he said he wanted to do this!"

"And you listened to him?!" Sabo yelled.

"Under normal circumstances, I would've had him wait a few days, but I could tell he needed something to get his mind off the argument you two decided to put him through!"

"How's that our fault?!"

"You shouldn't have yelled at him! You had no reason to!"

"Don't try and pin this on us; we had every reason to!"

"He's right!" Ace replied. "Besides, it's his own fault; Luffy's the one who told you-"

"Absolutely nothing about Sabo being a noble!"

Both brothers stopped arguing at this and stared at the maroon haired boy in shock.

"If Luffy didn't tell you, then how did you know?"

"Askes the boy who looks like a blue penguin wearing a top hat!" Nati motioned to the blonds outfit. "C'mon, I sneak into High Town twice per visit, I think I know what a noble looks like; especially one wearing a noble crest on his belt buckle!" Sabo instinctively looked down at his belt buckle. "Unless someone High Town owed you a favor, which I seriously doubt, there's only two possible ways you could've gotten that outfit, and you are too nice of a kid to have stolen it. What amazes me, though, is that you two would decide that telling a simple secret is enough of a reason to disown Luffy!"

"What?" Sabo exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?!" Ace said. "We'd never do that to him!"

"Well, you wouldn't be able to tell from the fact that that was the longest I've ever seen Luffy go without so much as smiling, after you two screamed at him! You know Luffy was upset for the entire time I was here last month; he didn't leave my ship once up until I started loading the last of my supplies and he was too out of it for me to even continue target practice with him. To be honest, I had every reason to believe I had made a terrible mistake leaving him here for you two to bully him, even though what happened wasn't his fault!"

After readjusting his Robin Hood cap firmly onto his head, Nati grabbed his seabag, which had landed next to him, and turned to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me, that boar Luffy's riding is headed for Gray Terminal, so I've got a best friend to save; and you better not follow us." The 8-year-old glared back at the two brothers. "Either of you."

As they watched Nati run off after the boar, Ace and Sabo felt their hearts drop into their stomachs.

"Luffy thought we disowned him for nothing;" Sabo muttered. "No wonder he's been so upset and distant from us."

Ace dropped to his knees trembling; Nati's words hit him the hardest because they were the same ones he had used on them last month.

"Sabo, what did we do?" he whispered.

The blond placed a comforting hand on Ace's shoulder, the latter of whom looked up at him.

"I think the better question is what are we going to do?"

To be continued

Things are about to get very interesting very fast. Unfortunately, although I've already started on it, I have to do a lot of thinking for the next chapter so don't expect it anytime soon (but then again they haven't been coming to me as quickly as I wanted in the first place). But until then, I hope you liked this one.