"What a tiny island." Whitebeard noted as he saw the small place. "The East Blue is so small… Are you sure that Shanks was near here?"

"Aye." Thatch said as he squinted against the sun's glare. "Pretty sure. Doesn't look like much… maybe the information was wrong? Red hair spending more than a month in one place seems pretty strange. If the rumors were true then what could have caught his attention?"

"I dunno." Marco joined them and gave the island a long, hard look. "Maybe he found a girl or something and he fell in love?"

Immediately, the three snorted at the idea. "Ha, right!" Whitebeard laughed at the mere thought.

"But still…" Thatch cast the island a long, hard look. "I wonder what it could possibly be that kept him there."

"It's probably nothing." Marco replied dismissively. "If we're desperate enough to come to the weakest of the islands just to ask him how to get to Skypia without damaging our ship all over again then…" He paused. "Why do we want to get up to Skypia again?" He asked. "I mean, we almost died last time…"

"I think it was because Eiichiro wanted to fight that bubble guy again." Whitebeard replied, looking deep in thought, then burst into laughter. "Oh well, it doesn't matter! We just want to ask him for advice!"

"He probably doesn't know how to do it." Marco replied, sweat dropping a little.

"But the adventure will be worth it!" Thatch replied with a grin.

"Yeah, probably." Marco gave the small island in front of them a long, hard stare. "I wonder what this place will be like. Oh well. We need to restock on some things anyways."

"Yeah." Thatch agreed. "But it's such a small place. I bet that it doesn't have that much of a variety of food… we've been running low of fruits, too. We should've gotten some at the last island but I got distracted by the weaklings that tried to attack us…"

"Like five million beli was something to be proud of." Marco agreed. "This sea is totally different from the Grand Line."

"But it's nice to relax once in a while, right?" Whitebeard asked cheerily as the two commanders turned to him.

"Yeah." Marco agreed, slightly dubious. "Relax. Isn't there some navy Vice Admiral that lives on an island near here?"

"Nonsense!" Whitebeard replied dismissively. "There's no way that someone strong enough to be a Vice Admiral could live here! He'd be all the way off in the Grand Line!"

And then the news came to them that this was the home island of 'Hero' Monkey D. Garp.

And obviously, Whitebeard proceeded to go full steam ahead.

0o0o0o0o0

"I knew you were suicidal, but I didn't know that you were this suicidal." Ace grumbled as he pulled Luffy away from the Great Tiger. "I mean, it took all three of us to beat this thing up last time. Did you really think that you could take it on alone?"

"But I wanted it to teach me how to get big and become stronger!" Luffy protested. "I wasn't going to fight it!"

Sabo face palmed with a groan as Ace proceeded to yell about how stupid Luffy was, thinking that he could get fighting lessons from the Great Tiger, the King of Corvo Mountain.

"Do you want to die or something!?" Ace finished, punching Luffy on the head with a groan of annoyance. "Seriously, looking after someone as weak as you is such a pain!"

Luffy's bottom lip quavered. "Does—does that mean that you don't want me around?" He asked, looking like he was about to cry.

Ace freaked out as he realized what he had done. "No! What the heck is wrong with you!?"

"How did you get the idea that we wouldn't want you around?" Sabo asked, eyes narrowed. "You've been with us for a really long time, Luffy! Why wouldn't we want you around?"

"Well…" Luffy stared at the ground. "I went to visit my village today to get some stuff and the kids said that nobody would want a freak like me and… the adults said that the kids were being stupid and lying but adults have to be nice, you know? And I just thought that…"

"You're a total idiot." Sabo deadpanned as he allowed Ace to hit the youngest of the brothers on the head.

Ace cracked his knuckles, eyes murderous. "Who are those little brats?" He demanded angrily. "Who called you a freak, huh? I'm going to beat them up!"

Sabo attempted to calm Ace down… but… well, let's just agree that 'attempted' was the key word, because in the end the blond had somehow also been in agreement that Luffy's bullies should be beaten up.

Luffy raced in front of them, waving his hands and shaking his head wildly as he called that he really didn't need them to only to discover that they had already left ahead of him. With a pout, Luffy chased after them screaming that he didn't need them to do this for him.

Ace replied by calling him a total idiot and Sabo just grinned as he informed Luffy that they were going to do this whether the youngest of their trio liked it or not.

"B-b-but… it takes all day to get down there and back! It'll be midnight before we get back up here…" Luffy trailed off with a slightly hopeful look, even though he knew that it would be futile to try to stop his brothers.

Ace finally stopped, turned, and gave Luffy a long, hard look, eyes dark in irritation. "Don't you have a house in Fuusha village, Luffy?" He asked, finally seeming to reach the end of his rope.

Luffy froze, comprehension dawning in his eyes. "I—well—yes—but—no—I…" He blinked at them, steam coming out of his ears after a moment of Luffy attempting to think of a lie. Evidently, he wasn't very good at cooking up lies. "It's old and dusty." The boy finished lamely.

Ace smiled triumphantly. "You see?" He asked cheerily as he puckered his lips in a happy whistle.

Sabo shivered slightly when he saw Ace so happy. The smile was eerily… he didn't quite know how to describe it, to be honest. But it also gave him a nostalgic feeling.

The blond stopped in his tracks when he realized just when Ace started to smile like that.

Luffy. He thought fondly, a smile finding it's way to the ex-noble's face as well. I can't believe I'm so used to this after such a short time… it's only been a year or so since Luffy's been here and already…

The reluctant youngest had gotten over his two-second indignant reaction and was now bouncing around the trees (to Sabo's distress, it was quite literal) and occasionally letting out a cry of pain and crying (which ended up with Ace yelling and Sabo trying to calm both of them down) when he caught some part of himself on a sharp rock or on the more painful end of a creature's teeth.

They reached the end of the trail tightly clenching their metal pipes and looking around with shifty, suspicious eyes.

"We're here." Sabo breathed as they finally reached the end of the trail. He raised his eyes, frowning slightly as he realized that it was getting dark though the sun had yet to set. "So, Luffy, where are those idiots who insulted you?"

The effect was instanous. Luffy looked away, puckered his lips into a light, nervous whistle, and started to sweat bullets. "I don't know." He mumbled croakily.

Ace's eyebrow twitched. "Don't lie." He muttered. "You're horrible at lying."

Luffy stuck out his tongue. "Am not!" He declared angrily, crossing his arms together with a small pout.

"Are too." Ace said, his attention already travelling to the small village.

"Am not!" Luffy said angrily.

"Are too." Ace was bored of the argument by this point and his eyes swept over the near-barren streets in an attempt to find the idiots who had dared to hurt his little brother's feelings.

"AM NOT!"

A scream penetrated the air as Luffy gave a red faced shout. "PIRATES!" A woman's voice screamed and the sound of rushing footsteps and the slamming of doors followed.

There was a loud groan as the sound of quick footsteps followed up and two men walked into the village. "He's not here." The first, a redhead muttered.

"Of course he isn't." The second, a blond, sighed. "Should've been obvious enough that Red Hair wouldn't have come to a far off place like this… he's probably somewhere in the Red Line, partying without a care."

"Why did we come here then?"

"How the heck would I know? Red Hair was saying something before about going around the world again, but who can take that guy's word for anything?"

"I think we can trust him."

"That's only because he joined you in pranking Division 1."

"Ah, one of my greatest achievements. Oh…" The redhead trailed off as he took note of the three boys watching him talk to the blond. "Some kids are still here. Guess they haven't heard of us, eh? Nice! Hey, what're your names, brats?" He crouched down and held out his hand with a cheery grin.

"None of your business." Ace hissed angrily and gave the redhead a firm kick to the shins. "Get off Dawn Island right now and leave us alone."

The redhead backed away with a grin still lit up on his face as he held up both hands in a sign of surrender. "Hey, I'm not here to hurt you guys or anything…"

"Yeah right." Ace muttered.

"Shut up." Sabo hissed. Whether to Ace or to the two men though was hard to tell.

"Who're they?" Luffy wondered, disinterestedly.

The blond got impatient. "Come on, Thatch. We won't find Red Hair here anyways…"

"Hey, maybe we will! You're so pessimistic, Marco." The one dubbed 'Thatch' turned to the three. "Have you seen someone called Shanks around here, kiddos?"

Luffy's mouth dropped open. "You guys know Shanks?" He asked, sounding bewildered, then grinned. "You're friends with Shanks? Then you must be good guys!"

Marco jerked back in slight surprise. "Huh?" He asked. "You know Shanks?"

"Yeah!" Luffy nodded and grinned. "He's awesome! One day I'm going out to sea and I'm going to be an even greater pirate than he is!"

Marco froze in realization as he gave a not-so-subtle stare at Luffy's head. "That's… that's Roger's hat…" He murmured, looking stunned.

Ace hissed at the name 'Roger', but otherwise was dutifully ignoring the two men.

Sabo shot Ace an unreadable look, appearing mystified as to why these two men would want to find the man who had saved Luffy's life.

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "Roger?" He repeated, furrowing his eyebrows together in confusion. "But this is Shanks' hat! He told me to keep a hold on it until I became a great pirate." He gave the two a proud grin, which they returned with amusement.

"What are you doing here?" Ace finally cut in coldly. "If you're looking for Shanks he isn't here. You can leave now."

"Oi, Ace, that's rude." Sabo muttered. "I thought Makino was teaching you manners?"

Ace turned slightly red at that. "I quit yesterday when she called me hopeless." He replied.

"I agree with the blond." Thatch said loudly. "You should be more polite to your elders, you know."

Ace glared at them. "Who's going to make me?" He asked in a challenge.

Luffy tugged at his sleeve. "Ace." He stage whispered. "They're Shanks' friends, so they have to be good guys. You can't be mean to good guys or friends! You're only supposed to be mean to mean people, like Bluejam."

"How do you know that they're nice people?" Ace asked.

"They're friends with Shanks." Luffy replied. "Shanks wouldn't be friends with bad guys, right?"

"How the hell would I know!? I've never met him!"

"You can trust me!"

At that Ace slumped a little. "…yeah, you can't lie… but…"

"We're going to restock and then leave anyways." Marco interrupted. "And stop talking about us like we aren't here. It's kind of weird, yoi."

Sabo gave them both a slightly funny look, as though he was trying to find out what their intentions were. In the end he turned to Luffy. "You like them?" He asked hesitantly.

Luffy gave a firm nod in response.

"They don't give you any bad feelings?"

A quick shake of the head.

"You think that we can trust them?"

Another nod.

Sabo let out a light sigh. "Fine. Luffy's instincts are the best. You can always trust them." He turned to the two Whitebeard 2nd and 4th Division Commanders. "The Grocery Store's the one with the loaf of bread in front, and you can get drinks at Makino's Party Bar. The traders will come in on Wednesday, two days from now. If you want to properly restock that's when you should do it."

He gave the two another queer look, then quickly shook his head and turned to Luffy.

"So, where are those idiots that were bullying you again?"

Luffy puffed out his cheeks. "I already told you that I don't want to say it! You don't need to do this for me!"

A slightly murderous (okay, downright terrifying) aura began to surround Ace. "Tell us. Or else."

"I'm not letting you beat them up!" He sounded pretty determined. It was too bad that Ace always got what he wanted.

"Luffy… would you like some meat?"

"…They live on my street." Luffy mumbled, caving in to the bribe.

Marco frowned slightly at the three. "That's right. Do you know where we could live while we're staying here? We…"

Luffy brightened and cut him off with a cheery invitation. "You can live at my house!" He exclaimed happily.

There was a loud thumping sound as Ace hit Luffy on the head. "You idiot!" Ace yelled. "You can't just invite random strangers into your house! Let alone murderous pirates!"

Luffy scowled. "I'm going to be a pirate when I grow up anyways!" He replied. "And when I do I'll be the King of the Pirates, so I'll be their king, right? And you can't hurt the king."

Sabo face palmed at Luffy's logic. "Yes, Luffy, but you're not the King of the Pirates yet, right? So they can hurt you at the moment."

"But they're good guys!" Was the slightly frustrated response.

Marco frowned at the three children. "I think that they forgot that we were here…" He muttered to Thatch, who's reply was a loud laugh. In a hasty attempt to change the subject, Marco turned to the boys. "So, you said something about us sleeping at your house, brat?" He asked, turning to the child with the straw hat.

The boy turned to him and grinned a grin that didn't quite seem to be able to fit on his face and nodded. "Yeah! Well, it's technically grandpa's house but that doesn't matter because he's never home anyways and he said that it was my home as well."

"Your grandpa works on the other side of this island?" Marco asked, curious about a boy who was willing to help a pirate and wore the hat of Red Hair Shanks.

Luffy gave him an odd look. "Of course not!" He exclaimed. "Grandpa's a…" He paused and shivered slightly. "Grandpa's a marine." He informed them in a quiet voice. "If he comes you have to hide, okay? He'll kill you…"

At that the other two children nodded empathetically, eyes wide in fear.

Thatch returned their fears with a cocky smirk. "Your old man can't hold a candle to us, brat." He informed the child. "I'll bet that he's just some old no-name captain. Who is he?"

Luffy opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by a punch by Ace. "Oww! What was that for, Ace?" The child whined.

"Stop telling them so much." Ace hissed angrily. "You're giving out personal information like it's meat."

Luffy's eyes widened. "DON'T TOUCH THE MEAT!" He screamed. "IT'S MINE!"

Sabo sighed. "The meat's metaphorical, Luffy." He informed the youngest of the brothers, though he knew that it was futile. "It's not real. The meat's all yours, 'kay?"

Instantly Luffy brightened up. "Yeah! It's all mine!" He agreed amicably.

Sabo sweat dropped and turned to the pirates. "How much of you are there?" He asked seriously. "Because we're taking five to sleep at Luffy's house maximum. I don't want too much trouble for him."

Marco and Thatch exchanged glances. "Just us." Thatch lied. "The others prefer the ship."

Once the others find out they are sooo going to kill us.

But it was better safe than sorry.

After all, who would be able to resist the thought of a comfy bed and actual silence instead of the normal hecticness of the Moby Dick?