Closest Thing to a Brother

Ch. 1. The letter from Obsidian Island

Luffy, Ace and Sabo prepared to set off from the Dadan House for another day of training and hunting. The three brothers were barely out the door when Dogra called out to one of them.

"Hey, Luffy," he said, pulling out an envelope, "this arrived here yesterday; it was addressed to you."

When he saw the envelope, Luffy immediately snatched it away, his eyes widening when he read the front of it.

"Luffy gets mail?" Ace said in confusion as the 7-year-old ripped open the envelope to read the letter inside.

"Apparently." Sabo replied equally confused.

Suddenly, Luffy's expression changed to that of horror and all the color drained from his face. Dropping the letter, he looked up at Dogra and grabbed his shirt collar with both hands.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE THIS TO ME YESTURDAY?!" he screamed.

"Y-y-you ran out of the house before I could get the chance!" Dogra whimpered while the two brothers pried Luffy off of him. "A-a-and when you did come back, you wouldn't sit still long enough for me to give it to you!"

"Luffy, what is it?" Sabo asked.

"I-I-I gotta go; there's something I need to take care of!" he said quickly before running off. "I'll catch up with you guys later, bye!"

Ace and Sabo looked at each other in confusion once Luffy had disappeared.

"What the hell was that all about?" Ace said.

Sabo picked up the letter Luffy had dropped and read it to himself.

'I'll be arriving here tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing you again, I missed you a lot. Meet you at the docks, little buddy!'

"Well, that's weird." He said to himself, handing the letter to Ace. "It doesn't say who it's from."

"'Little buddy'?" Ace said after reading the letter. "I thought Luffy said he didn't have any friends aside from us!"

"That's not all that's unusual;" Magra said, finally making his presence known along with Dadan. "According to the envelope it came in, that letter was sent from Sapphire Village."

"Sapphire Village? Where's that?!"

"On Obsidian Island," Dadan replied, "which is a three day sailing voyage from here."

"Three days?!" Sabo said. "Who is Luffy meeting?!"

"Good question." Ace replied, walking in the direction Luffy had run off to. "Let's go ask him."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Ace? I mean, if Luffy wanted us to know, he would have told us."

Ace looked over his shoulder. "Are you coming or not?"

The blond pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed before following Ace.

"If for no other reason but to keep you from hurting him too much."

As Luffy sprinted towards the docks, the same phrase kept repeating itself in his head over and over again; Please don't be here yet! Please don't be here yet! Please don't be here yet!

Once he arrived, Luffy scanned all the ships and faces at the docks, hoping not to see the familiar skiff with black sails or its owner. When he didn't see either, the 7-year-old looked out across the ocean until he caught sight of a small approaching ship with its sails tied up.

Is that the Shadow? He thought.

Soon after, Luffy saw a young 8-year-old boy running to the front of the ship. Despite how far away it was, he could still make out that the boy was wearing a short yellow vest over a white t-shirt, and had over his dark red, almost brown hair a forest green Robin Hood cap with a quail feather in it, which was what he was looking for. Excitedly, Luffy started jumping up and down, waving his hands in the air to get the boy's attention.

"HEEEEEY! NAAAATIIIIII!" he screamed. "NATI, OVER HEEEERE!"

Having seen and heard the 7-year-old jumping and screaming, the boy on the ship, Nati, smiled and waved back at him before cupping his hands over his mouth.

"LUFFY!" he yelled. "STAY PUT; I'LL BE RIGHT OVER!"

Nati ran off to untie the sails and steer his skiff into port. However, although he heard him, Luffy, being Luffy, couldn't wait that long. Wrapping one arm several times around a nearby post, the 7-year-old cocked his other arm back and launched it at the skiff, grabbing the front of it. When Nati saw this, he quickly ran back to the front of the ship.

"LUFFY, NO! I SAID WAIT!" he tried to say. But Luffy had already started quickly pulling the ship in until it crashed into the docks, causing the boy on it, who was holding onto the front for dear life, to tumble over the side and land next to Luffy, who had stumbled backwards from the recoil of both his arms laughing.

"Hi, Nati!" the 7-year-old giggled. "Welcome back to Dawn Island! I really missed you while you were away!"

"I got that from the way you pulled in the Shadow." Nati stood up to examine the damaged hull of his skiff, looking down with a sigh when he was done. "Honestly, every time I come here, it's at least a three day extension to what's supposed to be a one week stay."

Ashamed and a little guilt-ridden, Luffy tilted his head down, hiding his face under his straw hat until he felt Nati place his hand on top of it. He looked up to see the maroon haired boy looking down at him, smiling playfully.

"Not that I'm complaining." He chuckled. "It's good to see you too, little buddy."

Luffy instantly launched himself at his friend, tackling him in a tight hug. Nati gave out a loud 'Urk!' sound and toppled back to the ground from Luffy's momentum. Eventually, he hugged the 7-year-old back and smiled slightly until he realized his lungs were burning.

"GAACK! Luffy!" Nati wheezed. "Luffy…can't breathe!"

Luffy let go of Nati and sat back on his hands, grinning widely while the 8-year-old took several deep breaths.

"Sheesh," he panted, "Bouncy as a ball with a squeeze that could rival that of a python's."

"Sorry."

"For what? It just means you're agile as well as strong; in fact, I don't remember your hugs hurting that much!"

"I've been fighting a lot of big and dangerous animals."

"I'll bet you have." Getting back up, Nati held out his hand for Luffy. "How 'bout you show me how much stronger you've gotten after we eat; I'm starving!"

Luffy took his friend's hand and pulled himself back onto his feet. "I'm gonna beat you this time, Feather-Head."

"Keep dreamin' Stretch!" Nati jumped back onto his skiff. "Now, just wait here while I go get my bag, okay?"

"Okay!"

The raven haired boy sat down on the post he had grabbed earlier and waited patiently until Nati jumped off his ship, a brown seabag slung over his shoulder, and bounded off after him.

"So, what are you in the mood for?" Nati asked while they walked. "Deer? Fish?"

"Crocodile!"

The maroon haired boy looked down at Luffy a little surprised at first, but then smiled and shook his head in amusement.

"You've really gotten a lot braver too since my last visit."

As he wrapped his arm around Luffy's shoulders, Nati noticed a swift movement out of the corner of his eye. Not wanting to worry his friend, he pretended not to have seen it, but still noted the fact that they were both being watched…and by two sets of eyes.

Luffy bounded from one foot to another while he waited for Nati to finish cooking the crocodile he had just caught.

"Natiiiiii, how much longer?" he whined.

"Hang in there, little buddy, it's almost done." Nati replied as he looked over, noticing once again two forms quickly disappear from sight. Once the crocodile was done, Nati sat down and called Luffy over, who quickly and excitedly bounded over and sat next to the maroon haired boy, snatching the first few bits of meat he could.

"Whoa, slow down, Luffy! Give it time to digest!" Nati exclaimed.

"Sorry, I just really want to show you how much stronger I've gotten."

"I'm sure you do. But could you save some for me? I'm hungry too!" Nati wrapped his hand around a nearby stone. "Hey, do you think our guests will want some?"

Luffy looked over at him and tilted his head in confusion. "What guests?"

Nati threw the stone into the bushes behind them.

"OWWW!" a voice cried, causing Luffy to jump a little.

"They've been following us since we left the docks;" Nati said, not looking over. "I wouldn't be surprised if they've been following us since you pulled in the Shadow."

Not long after, a freckled, raven haired boy reluctantly stood up, a clear look of defeat and annoyance on his face, followed by a well-dressed, top hat wearing blond with a gap in his teeth, nursing a bump forming in the middle of his forehead.

"Ace! Sabo!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly.

"So you know them? Well, for their sakes, I hope they're friends of yours; otherwise they're both in for a world of hurt." The last part Nati said with a firm, growl-like tone.

"We're his brothers." Ace replied equally cold-toned.

Nati glanced over at the freckled boy, his dark green eyes connecting with the glare from Ace's grey eyes, Sabo's eyes darting between the two, unsure of what was going to happen next. Then after what felt like an eternity, Nati finally looked back down and smiled.

"Well, in that case," he motioned to a spot next to him, "why don't you come and join us; there should be plenty for everyone provided I can keep Luffy at bay."

To be continued

For those of you wondering and/or worrying, I haven't discontinued the scars run deep arc; I'm still working on the next story for that one in fact. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one