Hello
Warnings: pretty explicit references to abuse and SA (nothing shown)
"If you are not critically injured, or can walk whatever you have off, get out! We have more important matters as of now, yoi!" Marco sternly instructed, men who had been in the infirmary had begun shuffling around, trying to leave as the man had instructed them to do. Luffy was immediately rushed into surgery, in an attempt to stabilize him and close any big wounds and eternal damage. A breathing tube was secured into his mouth as Marco and other nurses went to work. Up close, Luffy's wounds looked even worse than they already had appeared. An alarming number of them were infected, his left hand, three ribs, and his pelvis were broken. Luffy's heart had stopped beating twice during his time in the Moby Dick's O.R.
Ace and Sabo were waiting impatiently outside of the infirmary. They had arrived at the Moby about five hours ago, and true to Marco's words, he tried to immediately save Luffy's life.
"Ace, Sabo. Luffy is out of surgery, he is now on life support, yoi. His heart stopped twice but he's semi-stable now. When you two go in there, absolutely no loud noises, sudden noises, or freaking out, yoi," Marco explained. Ace and Sabo just nodded and shuffled awkwardly into the space. Luffy was laid on a cot with a multitude of wires stuck onto him that Ace couldn't even begin to explain what each one did. Luffy's heart rate was stable, but slow, like it was beating but didn't want to. The breathing tube he now adorned barely fit onto his small, sunken-in face, his mouth pried open to place the tube. Every single inch of him was covered in bandages, some stained a deep crimson color and other portions stained a light pink.
"Luffy…" Ace finally croaked out, his voice hoarse. Even more rage swelled into every fiber of his being. I will make whoever did this to you die, experience maybe a quarter of the hell you've been through.
It took Luffy another two hours to finally make any notion that he was still alive. He had lightly twitched his fingers and scrunched his face, sweat pouring off his face in beads. Ace hated that all he could do was watch his little brother be in pain and being able to do nothing about it. Sabo had fallen asleep about 30 minutes before Luffy started twitching and sweating. Honestly, Ace couldn't tell if Luffy was twitching from a fever developing or a vivid nightmare. Ace was lost in his thoughts as he heard the door open behind him.
"How's the kid holdin' up?" Thatch asked, concern laced his voice. He had a few bandages on him, but not many, and with a recently made-up dumb pompadour hairdo. He was holding a piece of half-eaten bread.
"He's definitely been better, I can't remember the last time he looked so… small. He's been tortured once before, but that is child's play compared to this. He's so damn hurt and based on what he said in the cell, I bet for some reason he thinks this is all his fault. God, he's such an idiot." Ace was ranting to this man that he did not even know, but he did not care, he just needed to talk, and Thatch listened.
…
Where am I? Why is it so dark and cold? Oh, the master said this would happen. I left him so I'm dying, do I want to die? It would be better than losing my freedom, and as long as my big brothers are out of hell, I don't care. Would death be easier? Ace and Sabo would be sad if I died though, and I don't want to make them sadder. I'm the scum of the earth, not them. I deserve everything. I made Ace remember his birthday. It's my fault.
"At least you realize it," Ace said.
"I'm so sorry! I deserve every hell!"
"Then come back to me, slave~" Ace said as he shifted into Saint Marie. "I never really got my fix of you, and look! You've grown, I wonder how you would entertain me now!" Stop.
"And to me, eh! I still have more work for you to do, eh!" Master said. I know.
"Ohhh Little Cubbb~" Please stop. "You don't want to disappoint your master do you, eh~" Saint Marvin said, his voice still as slimy as it always had been.
"Ace… Sabo… I'm so sorry"
"Your-"
"I wanted… to show Ace that… I loved him."
"I-okay"
"I'm so sorry"
"You have nothing to be sorry about, not anymore at least." That voice, strangely, was so comforting. Luffy just wanted to relax, but he didn't deserve to when he had hurt his big brothers for however long he was away. "Nothing was your damn fault, God, what lies have they been telling you this whole time?" Luffy tried to open his eyes but they were sealed shut it felt like, and when he finally opened them he immediately regretted it. The area was so bright and unfamiliar, faces were out of focus but so vivid all at the same time. Luffy's whole body ached with any attempt to move or turn his head, the breathing mask was still applied securely to his face making it feel uncomfortable and moist. Luffy then finally saw his brother, he was out of focus despite being so close to him.
"A-Ace-" Luffy croaked out, his voice sore and hurting and slurred due to the oxygen mask. His unfocused, haunted, glazed eyes tried to find Ace's face. It took him a moment to find it, but when he did, all he did was stare, as if trying to determine if he was real or not.
"I'm here Lu. And we will never leave you, not again." Luffy searched for his other big brother. It took all of his efforts just to move his eyes around, searching. He finally located what he thought was Sabo, he was sleeping soundly, hunched over on Luffy's bed, his curly blonde hair sprawled out. Luffy willed his hand to move over to Sabo's head, it took a lot of effort, but he did it. He put his bony fingers into Sabo's hair, gently putting a few strands into his fingers. Suddenly, Sabo stirred and Luffy flinched back, staring as Sabo opened his mix-matched blue eyes that were clouded by sorrow. Sabo immediately sat up upon seeing Luffy awake, taking a few breaths to calm himself down. They stared at each other for a time, as if unsure if the other would disappear or not. Sabo suddenly but also gently bent over and wrapped his lanky arms around Luffy's thin body, careful of his placement due to not wanting to hit Luffy's oxygen mask and a plethora of I.V. He had been deemed stable enough to not need the life support equipment, but he still wasn't getting the oxygen he needed. Sabo tightened his arms around Luffy, soft tears running down the scar covering his left eye.
"I missed you so much, you don't even know, Lu! And your back!"
"H-hey Sabo, I missed you so much too," Luffy said hoarsely. Luffy didn't deserve to be missed. Sabo gently brushed Luffy's bangs out of his eyes and planted a soft kiss on Luffy's forehead which was wrapped in bandages that were stained light red from blood.
"I'll let Marco know Lu's awake," said Ace who was simply holding Luffy's bandaged right hand, as his left (which would have been easier to hold) was in a cast. Luffy just stared at Ace as he stood up and trotted out of the room, he lightly cracked the door open to limit the amount of light that seeped through into the room. Luffy's eyes attempted to pull back to his other brother and focus on him, but his vision only got more blurry. As he became more and more awake, the pain became more and more sharp. It felt like every fiber of his being was being burned and twisted, his head was killing him, it felt like his eardrums were about to burst, and his crotch also burned in pain from 3 years of semi-constant work as a pleasure slave. Luffy thought he saw Sabo trying to talk to him and comfort him, but he honestly couldn't hear him.
Luffy could barely see Ace and the Pineapple- head walk into the room, his vision almost completely gone. The next thing Luffy knew was Marco was standing over him giving him some pain medicine. Slowly the pain died back down and Luffy's breathing evened out. The pain dulled and the voices around him became clearer.
"Welcome back, yoi."
"..."
"I'm gonna need to run some tests on you, is that ok? I need to make sure that stitches haven't come loose during that episode yoi."
"..."
"Please, Luffy. We don't want to discover any reopened wounds. Plus, we need to change your bandages anyways, yoi."
"... okay," his voice was a whisper, almost inaudible, but it was consent nonetheless.
"I'll be gentle."
Marco slipped the oxygen mask off of Luffy's small face with little effort and he waited for Luffy to be reaccustomed to natural air. Next, he slipped off the covers that shielded Luffy's body and removed the gown he was wearing, gentle of the I.V. and blood bag attached to his arms and wrist. Ace and Sabo just observed, unable to do anything other than comfort their kid brother. Once his clothes were removed, he was still basically covered head to toe with bandages, revealing no part to anyone.
"You look like a mummy, Lu." Ace joked and made Sabo smile. Luffy just stared blankly at him in response.
"Ok, I'm going to unwrap you now, yoi." Luffy was gently pushed into a sitting position, his body being held up by Ace as Marco began to "de mummify" Luffy as Sabo put it. Luffy's face scrunched up as Marco took off the crimson-stained bandages, tearing off raw skin in a few places, but he never made a sound. As Luffy's bandages came undone his brothers got a good look at Luffy. He was, like they thought, scarily skinny. He was covered in wounds, most of which were a sickening yellow-green color and stitched together. One particular scar that looked quite old adorned his left shoulder and looked like it would kill a normal human as well as one equally bad open wound on his stomach. He had a scar on the left side of his lip, and a large brand on his back, and his manhood looked quite mangled and inflamed.
"Sorry," Luffy randomly said.
"Why?" Marco replied simply.
"I have a lot of wounds, it must inconvenience you. Master would always complain about how many wounds I had when he wanted to use me."
"Use you?" Ace questioned, but he unfortunately guessed the sickening answer. Luffy did not answer, he instead just looked disinterested and uncomfortable. He looked so small and weak to Ace, the world thrust its evils onto an eight-year-old and now what's left is a husk of what should have been a happy 13-year-old. Suddenly there was a knock at the door that made Luffy jump as Marco was cleaning his wounds.
"Yo!" Thatch said as he trotted into the infirmary.
"Quiet down, yoi," Marco said quietly so as to not scare Luffy more.
"Sorry," he said quieter, "I have some food for the kid, nothing too harsh like you said, just some medium warmth chicken broth." Thatch caught Luffy staring at him blankly, as if unsure of the man. His eyes were hollow and empty as his light was stripped away from him.
"Thank you, yoi. Sabo, can you help me feed Luffy?"
"Of course." Luffy continued to stare at Thatch as he approached the bed, soup in hand.
"You need to try to eat as much of this as you can, Lu. It's good for you." Sabo said, trying to coax Luffy into eating the soup.
"I...I don't know if I can.." Luffy said honestly.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure when the last time I ate was," he said simply as if it was a normal thing, and by the looks of it, it was.
"Ok, eat what you can, and either me or Ace will finish the rest, ok?" Sabo said sadly. Sabo then began to slowly feed Luffy small bits of the food. Luffy thought it tasted great, better than anything he's had in years. Marco was cleaning Luffy's wounds and Sabo was feeding him, but he uncharacteristically did not eat much, only half of the small bowl. Sabo then handed off the rest to Ace, who ate the rest in one bite. Marco was done too, and Luffy looked like a mummy again.
"I'm also going to give you some more pain medicine, yoi. I bet all those broken bones and lacerations don't feel the greatest."
"Thank you, Marco," Ace simply replied.
"Not a problem, yoi."
And with that, Luffy fell asleep.
Thanks for reading!
-Thanks for the support! I have currently planned until a little after Marineford, so yes, Luffy will still see the Strawhats and be captain, just less expressive than in canon. Yes, but you'll have to wait to see how :)