Luffy suddenly opens his eyes in the middle of the night and immediately feel that something is not right. He's definitely not in Amazon Lili but doesn't feel like moving yet, sleep still hanging on onto him. The covers feel weird, but familiar, warm, and his body gives the same impression.

He blinks and waits for his eyes to adjust to the darkness while he registers some soft snores, but they're nothing like Rayleigh or Jinbei's and his mind is suddenly alert, finally recognizing in the moonlight the roof of the treehouse he and his brothers made from scraps.

The boy slowly sits up trying out his newly small body and before he could stop himself a movement made him turn right and he found himself looking at Sabo sleeping peacefully slowly move one arm to better cover himself. Luffy automatically grips tight his covers not able to relax as somehow his whole brain was screaming in his mind that no, this is not a dream.

He stopped having nice dreams of his brothers not too long ago. Why would they come back now?

He watched the blonde boy for a couple of seconds, in his eyes the lights of an imaginary explosion out in the sea and he crouched on his knees when he heard some cover rustling behind him. Before he even turned around towards his other older brother, he felt the metallic taste of blood in his mouth and when he did turn there was blood – so much, real blood – on his hands and all over Ace too, his chest fuming and burning with lava.

The vision went away as fast as it appeared but the damage was done: his tears stung his eyes, his hands were trembling and he couldn't breathe right. He needed to get out. He needed his friends.

It's not a dream. He would have woken up by now.

Luffy tried to move as slowly as possible with his trembling limps without making any noises. He didn't know how he ended up here. He didn't know if it was real. And if he could have had fun in another unrealistic situation, being there with breathing corpses of his lost brothers while he had their deaths playing on and on unable to stop in his mind made him feel sick.

He sat down putting his legs outside ready to jump down and put his hands on the cold wood for support as a clear night sky full of stars caught his attention.

"Luffy?" Ace's voice kneaded by sleep made him freeze up and triggered his fight or flight response. In an instant he was down on the ground on his knees, realizing the pain from the cuts he just got before realizing that he got them from the jump he just made. He heard a soft hissed "Hey!" from above and some noises that surely meant that Ace was getting up and ready to follow him. He wasn't really thinking it through, wasn't he? His glazed eyes were locked on the ground beneath him. Always acting recklessly. He just woke up and already hurt himself more than necessary.

Luffy immediately knew he had close to zero chance escaping his brothers with his small body and his hurt knees were shaking way too much, but he still stood up and begged them to work just enough to get out of sight. He needed time to think. Metabolize. He stumbled and fell on his hands and kept running until he felt his lungs burn and legs too tired to keep up to pace, only then the small boy let his legs slow down and come to a stop, panting hard and trying to still his breath to hear out for any noises but his own heart filled his ears.

As soon as he stopped Luffy started to feel the cold of an autumn late night and instinctively curled his bare feet and hands trying to keep warm, but the soaked leaves on the ground didn't make it easier and he was pretty sure the mud wasn't going to do any good on his freshly open wounds either.

He slowly rotated his hands to examinate the scratches and a drop of blood fell on the ground. He felt so numb he didn't even realize the sharp rocks took a tool on his eight years old body. Then the small pot of blood became a red pearl of Ace's necklace, and he was in the battlefield again.

Luffy closed his eyes forcing those images in the back of his mind, focusing on and trying to feel the pain and cold instead. He didn't remember the pain being so intense back when he was a child nor having so much cold – expect for that time in Impel Down. These scratches were nothing – compared to what Ace and the other prisoners went through. He should consider himself lucky being only poisoned and knocked out for a few days.

But now he wasn't a pirate infiltrating in a prison trying to save his brother – and still failing – he was just a child, hurt and cold, out alone in the middle of the night because he ran away from his brothers scared of the memories that hunted him of a future so distant and surreal that made him question if it had happened in the first place or it was only a bad dream.

Luffy knew it wasn't – a bad dream. And out there somewhere his crew is waiting for him to make his way back to them. Waiting for him to fail them just as he did with Ace, making them sacrifice themselves because he couldn't even stand properly on his own, and then running away not being able to deal with the consequences.

The young boy started to feel his legs give out and with unsure steps went to sit with his back against a tree, hugging his knees close. It doesn't feel like too much time as passed when two pairs of frenetic steps got closer, voices almost screaming out something that Luffy just couldn't register as he stayed as motionless as he could, sniffling, and hoping that those steps were his brothers' and not some animals out for a meal. His hope was well met when a punch made contact with his head and made him whimper even though it didn't really hurt.

"Hey! What were you thinking running away like that!" Ace's voice was loud and clear, not having any hint of tiredness for being up late at night in the forest and from all the running around.

I wasn't. I'm sorry. Luffy wanted to speak but he couldn't find his voice.

"Ace! Don't hit him and don't scream like that you idiot!" Sabo's calm yet agitated voice interrupted his line of thought.

"Like hell! Listen, Luffy, you can't just-" Luffy let out a sob and they both went silent, not realizing the other boys' surprise as he tried to hold the tears in, his shoulders terribly shaking and his breath not even close to normal.

Seconds passed and the small one could only hear his own unsteady breath and he almost thought that his older brothers went away, so he slowly raised his head to be met with his older brothers' – confused, worried, almost panicked – weirded out expressions.

Oh. Luffy realized as he let his forehead fall back on his knees. He was always a noise child, especially when crying. He would scream, bawl, and cry out loud until usually Ace would make him shut up and even after that he was absolutely terrible in trying to keep the sobs in. It must be weird for his brothers, seeing him there, just sitting and crying trying to not make a sound with cuts that surely looked like it would make a crybaby go all out. Not to mention he woke up in the middle of the night and apparently tried to run away.

He wonders what would happen if Gramps came around now. Last time he saw him in his perspective, he had to punch him in order to get to Ace. Strawhat Luffy. His Gramps called him by his pirate nickname. The thought made a new wave of fresh tears fall silently along his cheeks. What a disaster. And he thought that he stopped being a crybaby years ago.

Luffy was once again distracted from his thoughts by some rustling and soft noises around him just as his brothers settle down on each side of his small figure so that he was between them again.

"What Ace wanted to say…" Sabo paused surely to give the other one a good look before continuing "Is that you really, really scared us to death running away like that in the middle of the night". If only Luffy wasn't so tired and sad he would have found funny Sabo's choice of words, but now it just made it all worse and he must have started trembling really bad because he felt both of his brothers protectively shifting closer to him but not yet touching him, and he was glad for that. He would probably break down in tears the moment he made contact with his brothers' warm – breathing, alive – bodies.

"You didn't even take your hat" Said boy felt his heart sunk even more as he remembered himself stopping believing he will fulfill the promise, but Sabo's soft and worried voice somehow reassured him. They cared about him enough to know how to understands when something was really, really wrong. Another couple of seconds passed before the blonde spoke again.

"Luffy, please talk to us…"

The smaller of the trio sniffled and gently shook his head, refusing to look up. Seeing his – dead – brothers looking at him worryingly would break his heart.

They all fell silent again, only Luffy's small sob and occasionally sniffing interrupting it. He was starting to feel really cold and from the way he was starting to fidget with his feet he was sure Ace and Sabo will notice soon.

A warm hand covered his small ones resting on his knees and he involuntary kept his breath in for too long, trying to steady it. He recognized Sabo's soft touch.

"We can't stay out here, let's go home" The blonde's voice was even softer than ever if possible. Luffy locked on the word home. Into his mind fleshed images of the three of them playing in the treehouse, sleeping and hunting together. He gave a small nod and let Sabo take his hand with his one only to hear two small gasps when the two boys took notice of the condition of his small hands. He was unconsciously hiding the worse scratches and cuts but now he had let his defense go down.

Luffy wanted to tell them that it's not so bad as it looks, and that he had worse. Don't look at my feet, you'll get more worried. He'll walk on his own, they don't need to hover around him like that.

"Let's go get you patched up" This time Ace spoke, cutting it short and saving Luffy from having to speak, his tone not leaving any space to even try to complain.

He felt cold again when Sabo removed his hand but after he heard some more rustling Luffy felt something warm being wrapped around his small shoulders and all over his back, gentle hands. Sabo's blue coat finally blocked the cold air, even if it didn't cover his legs and arms properly.

Luffy was glad that his brothers were giving him some time to put himself back together. He was already feeling a little better and was starting to feel touch starved as the realization of having both of his brothers there for him sank in. He never needed this kind of comfort and he knew this situation was new to them too, if not straight up uncomfortable.

He finally started to raise from his crouched position and still keeping his head down he wiped his nose, feeling fresh air on his cheeks wetted from the tears and on his eyes puffy and red from crying. After a few seconds and some more wiping his nose and cheeks with his sleeves he dared raise his eyes to meet his brothers' gazes.

Ace's face was all scrunched up probably trying to not show his worry and he almost made him laugh seeing the difference with Sabo's relaxed and saddened one. It was the first time he could look at them properly and he started to notice so many details he already forgot about them – Ace's freckles were so much more than he remembered and Sabo's face round and gentle even if rough.

He thought he already used up all of his tears but yet he sat helplessly as his vision got blurry again and he bit his lower lip trying to keep his breath steady and preventing more hiccups and sobs to come out.

Not really succeeding Luffy brought his hands closed in a fist up to cover his face still trying to stop the tears from falling and when he felt a pair of arms circling around his back pulling him forward, he let out a wrecked sob. As he recognized Ace's scent, he couldn't help but cry harder, pressing his forehead against the older brother's chest trying to listen closer to his heartbeat.

"I'm picking you up" Ace warned giving him a squeeze while he waited for his little brother to adjust his hold, even letting him hide his face in his neck as his small arms went around his shoulders in a clumsy yet desperate hug.

As he felt his older brother stand up Luffy tightened his grip and rested his cheek on Ace's shoulder so that he could see Sabo walking right next to them. As they walked he let his eyes close, letting himself be cradled by Ace's steady steps and wondered just how much far he ran. Even the occasionally sniffs quieted down by the time they got back to the treehouse.

Luffy didn't realize he was about to fall asleep until Ace tried to carefully lay him down on his mattress and he instinctively tightened his now loose grip on his shirt and opened his eyes.

"Lu, we're here, it's all right" He let his eyes close again as he felt a hand gently stroke his head. When the motion stopped he opened again his eyes only to see that his hands and feet were cleaned and bandaged where needed. It's weird how he didn't even notice them doing it but then again he still felt somewhat numb and sleepy, he thought looking at his hands and trying to move his fingers.

He looked up and saw his brothers moving their blankets next to his so that he could sleep between them and Luffy was so glad he didn't have to ask even though he was extremely conscious of the fact that he still hasn't said a word to them, and well, it was fair since he didn't think he could trust his voice to be steady enough to be understandable but it was yet another reason for his brothers to be worried sick for him, and watching them move their stuff and clean up with those saddened and tired expressions made him want to cry again.

"A-Ace… Sabo…" Luffy called out softly to them and the effect was immediate as both of them turned to him somewhat relieved and waited for him to continue. He wanted to say something and so he told the one thing that was stuck into his mind since when he woke up together with battle sounds of a war and of a boat exploding while at sea with the best brightest smile he could come up with.

"Thank you for loving me".

I wrote this as my comfort fic, and will probably continue it in the future.

Crossposted on . See you next time!

Disclaimer: don't own One Piece.