Sabo wake up with a start, even drooling a little bit, as he quickly realized he overslept way too much watching the late morning sunlight seeping through the cracks in the ceiling.

"Crap, we missed breakfast…" He instinctively turned around, expecting to find both of his brothers still fast asleep and limbs all over the place, but instead was met with only Ace soundly sleeping with something stuck under his cheek, an empty space between the two of them where their little brother was supposed to be and he felt his heart sunk down at the realization. Sabo was luckily active enough to notice the card Ace was drooling on, and took it without much grace, causing the other to slowly move and stir awake as he read the words scribbled on the worn-out piece of paper.

This, it happened all the time. All three of them at some point woke up by themselves as the others were out hunting for breakfast or lunch, and that's the reason they one day made some cards so that they could know each other's whereabouts – with Makino's help – so that they could reach the other and help out.

But somehow today it felt different. After what happened last night, he can't help the feel that Luffy was purposefully avoiding them, while on his side Sabo feel the urge to be near him, especially since last night. Sabo still felt a lot shaken up by that, and he was also pretty sure Ace was going to feel just the same if not even more than him given how overprotective he could get, especially with their little brother.

Sabo sighed heavily. Scratch that, Ace's gonna be pissed. The blonde rubbed his head thoughtfully, looking at his brother who had his eyes half-opened, slowing sitting up.

"Hm." Ace grunted as a way of greeting him, and Sabo smiled nervously, the other quickly noticing it. As if reading his mind, Ace looked down to his right, where Luffy was supposed to be, his expression immediately changing into a scowl.

/

Luffy enjoyed his grandpa's hug as he was carried by the old man deeper into the forest, keeping his eyes closed and feeling on his skin the warmth of the sun and the coolness that came with the shadows of the many trees surrounding them, almost drifting off to sleep.

He doesn't remember much from these tender moments with his gramps, but always knew they happened at some point, it's just that, somehow… The memory of it fades away with time.

"Oi, brats! Come out or I'll get up there first!" Garp at some point yelled tossing a punch into the air while keeping the other arm around the little boy's body, who suddenly opened his eyes at the call, realizing they just arrived at the tree house.

"Gramps, what the hell!" He turned around from his grandpa's shoulder just in time to see Ace's head poking out from their 'door' with still a bedhead, Sabo quickly behind him who at least looked decent.

"What?! Where you still sleeping?!" Their grandpa popped out a vein while the two children up in the tree locked eyes with their little brother, who in exchange not even half of second later quickly liberated himself from the older man's hug, jumped down and ran away back into the deep forest holding tightly his hat on his head.

"Luffy!" Ace screamed indignantly and almost jumped down from their house ready to give chase, but Sabo abruptly stopped him by grabbing his collar shirt.

"What?!" His brother barked turning to him, and the blonde only shook his head. The other boy stiffened as realized what Sabo meant, and instantly deflated, looking beat. Ace knew Sabo was right, getting angry wouldn't help them at all, but still.

"He's totally avoiding us!" Ace grumped out and huffed crossing his arms. "Why don't we go after him?"

"…Maybe, he needs some space and time to think about whatever is messing with him." Sabo tried to reason out loud, but sounded too unsure to even convince himself that he wasn't worrying like crazy.

"But he doesn't like being alone!" Ace hissed and messed his hair out of frustration. The blond opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it shut and sighed, because really there's no way to disagree at that statement, and Ace puffed out some hair satisfied with the lack of answer.

"I'm going." He said confidently and immediately went to climb down their tree house, but Sabo grabbed him by his shirt stopping in with his body still half-inside. "Wait! Listen to me first."

Of course Ace grumped in annoyance but didn't try to escape, instead looked up at him with a scowl.

"Be nice." Sabo did nothing but command his brother and raised one hand before Ace could bark something definitely not nice at him, quickly continuing.

"He's never been like this, and you know it. Luffy needs to feel safe with us to talk about anything, so, please! Don't do anything rush and scold him heartless the first chance you've got." Sabo spoke without a pause in order to not lose too soon the other's attention. Ace was keeping looking at him with a scowl, but it softened, and this time it was him who didn't know how to respond at that, mouth hanging open and then shutting up, eyes diverting somewhere else, and Sabo sighed in relief.

"Now we can go and search for him." He let go of his hold on Ace letting him go down the ladder and quickly followed him behind.

"What have you been blabbering about?!" A sudden and booming voice made them stop midtrack as they climbed down, and they immediately started to sweat in fear.

Crap, they forgot about gramps!

"Nothing, just- Uh… Boys things, yo-you know?" Sabo told shakily prompting Ace to go down with his foot, and they quickly got down on the ground, facing the marine's hero who was standing confidently with his hands on hips.

"Now we got to go, see you later!" The blond kept talking nervously as he started to walk away and drag Ace with me, before their gramps' voice stopped them.

"Who said that you're skipping training too?" Ace and Sabo paled in fear and started to run as Garp yelled at them.

/

"No fair… He let Luffy get away." Ace grumped as he was laying down facing the floor.

"Gramps must have noticed something's off too." Sabo sighed tiredly, leaning on the wall while sitting with crossed legs.

/

Luffy spent most of the day out in the forest. He really wanted to go at Makino's bar but he's also afraid he'll see his brothers too soon. At some point he found his way back to that one cave they all usually take cover when it's raining too much and were away from home. He rubbed his eyes frustratingly as he pictured Dadan and all the bandits waving at him tearfully as he left for his adventure earlier that year, from his perspective.

It really felt unfair, wanting to see them while he was actively avoiding his brothers. So he opted to not go see anybody, sighing defeatedly.

Seeing his grandpa has been surprisingly nice. He thought while moving to hug his knees closer to his chest. Luffy knew he couldn't just disappear all day and had to go back and face his brothers at some point, but, tearing up as he thought about it, he didn't think he was ready.

He was really weak.

As harsh as that was initially, Ace and Sabo were right, he is just a crybaby who needs help with pretty much everything. He thought that growing up things would change, but instead he still needs to rely on others, on his friends. More tears fought their way up as Luffy became even more aware of their absence.

No crew.

No brothers.

Expect… His brothers were actually there, somehow. What is he thinking?! His brothers are right there, and he wants to go back to them, even if just to get scolded and yelled at for crying all the time. Luffy roughly rubbed his running nose and eyes. Better to see them and suffer by experiencing his memories than staying here all alone, hoping he would magically wake up with Rayleigh.

Luffy got himself up and gripped his hat for comfort as he made his way back to their tree house, just in time to see his gramps not so gracefully tossing the two children in the tree house and sweated with fear. So much for a nice moment.

He waited for Garp to get completely out of sight, watching the way he walked off always confident and clapping his hands together to get the dirt off of them, and slowly made his way up on the ladder and as soon as his head popped up inside he saw his brothers sleeping carelessly on the ground, dirty and with scraps all over like they all did every time they trained with their gramps. Luffy munched on his own lip as his eyes watered again and felt his nose drop a little, quickly cleaning it.

Sabo was sitting against the wall, hands in lap and lightly snoring as he rested peacefully. Ace was splattered on the floor with his stomach down, face turned towards the entrance where Luffy was standing right now, drooling slightly on the floor.

Luffy walked on the point of his feet trying to not make any noise, taking a blanket that was tossed aside with both hands and kneeing down near his brothers, trying to slowly cover with it Ace first. Ace suddenly moved his arm out and grabbed his shirt and Luffy almost screamed out in surprise.

"Got you!" Ace stated with triumph and his little brother bit the insides of his cheeks, slightly blushing out of embarrassment for being caught doing such a sweet thing, even if Ace seemed to not have realized it, blanket still held up by his small hands. Before he could even react and say something Ace quickly sit up and trapped him in a hug, the blanket getting caught between the two of them in the process. Ace started to fiercely rub his knuckles on his little brother's head as he whined and kicked his feet in vain.

"Acee!" The smaller boy grabbed the arm around him, but the blanker prevented him from raising them further.

"Don't care what Sabo says, I won't let you wander away on your own anymore, got it?!" Ace angrily yelled at him, before actually stopping. During the short and one-sided fight, they both ended up tangled in the blanket, Luffy half laying on his lap crying loudly while apologizing, and Ace holding him tightly as he sighed heavily.

"I won't do it again, I'm sorry!"

"That's what I- Ow! Sabo?!"

"Ace, what the hell! None of what I said got through your thick skull?!" Sabo launched himself at Ace's shoulders, sending all of them screaming on the ground in a mess of limbs, the blanket only making it worse for everyone. They hit their heads, gave each other the elbow in the guts and feet on face, and ultimately gave up in trying to get free and just stayed there laughing.

The three brothers could only stare up at the ceiling, smiling for their little friendly fight. The two older brothers were immediately alert by the little one's sniffs. Luffy was smiling shakingly, with big crocodile's tears streaming down his face.

Ace and Sabo exchanged a worried look, a gesture they were doing too often these days, and tried to scramble around and untangle themselves from the blanket just enough to be able to lay down at their little brother's sides, loosely hugging him.

As soon they got close, Luffy went to rub the tears away with his small arms, and when his brothers hugged him he giggled happily and took their arms with his hands keeping them close, before speaking shakily but smiling brightly.

"I wanna take a walk with my big brothers."

/

Later that day, when they were happily running out of the city and into the Grey Terminal after a dine and dash – despite the rush of emotions that included nostalgia, happiness and sadness and so much more at the same time – Luffy felt the familiar pull on the back of his neck that happened when someone was looking at him and stopped altogether, his brothers still running ahead.

That's weird, Luffy thought. He wasn't supposed to be able to feel this yet, right? He just started his training with Rayleigh, and almost always failed miserably at spotting him blindfolded.

Turning around, the small boy locked eyes with a cloaked man, half hidden by the street's shadows. Luffy blinked just one time, and the man disappeared into thin air.

He blinked again, realization setting in.

Luffy turned his whole body towards the spot the man was seconds ago hoping to catch something more but found nothing and was left feeling a little disappointed and confused.

He just knew who he was, even though he never really had seen even a picture of him yet. So weird!

A tug on his hand made his head whip at his side to look at his big brother, his eyes going big realizing it was Ace that took his hand, the latter looking down at him with an unreadable expression and Sabo not far behind.

"I felt someone staring." Luffy quickly admitted and both his brothers raised an eyebrow and looked at the spot he was turned to. He felt Ace's hand tighten around his protectively and him tugging to make him move along with him.

Luffy looked at that spot for a little longer as he was dragged along, finally giving up when it wasn't visible anymore and taking Sabo's hand in his too, a content smile on his small face.

To TopSpartan216, Wishfull-star and qasreenhumairasharif, thank you for commenting and supporting my story!

See you next time.