Title Attatched
Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort
Characters: Ace/Luffy Brotherly
Summary: Ace was always convinced that he was better off alone.
Words: 3,410

Ten year old Ace was always convinced that he was better off alone. His father was a convict who had only wanted to live his life as free as the birds in the sky, and his mother was on her deathbed. Dying.

The few people who didn't scorn him for being a criminal's son, would pity him because they know of his dying mother. People would look at him through and through, only seeing his parents. Not him. Never Ace.

Whatever, he thinks. He doesn't need them. He doesn't need anyone.

Being alone was better than being with people who would never understand you. Even his grandfather Garp is distant; coming home only to restock the shelves in the house, bring Ace a new toy that he didn't want, and then he was off again. The ten year old boy is happy to have adjusted to this way of life, and had no intention of changing his mind anytime soon.

This time is different. Garp comes home with a child, a baby. Though tiny and unbelievably skinny, nothing stops him from smiling. Wait, Ace thinks. Is this because he asked for a puppy last Christmas? If so, then this wasn't funny.

Jokes aside, Ace was pissed.

His glare intensifies. Just who did this man think he was, bringing some snot nosed baby back with him? What did he expect Ace to do? Welcome the idea with open arms and suddenly cheer up? This wasn't an orphanage or a foster home, this was Ace's house! The same one he used to live in with his Rouge and Roger!

He'd be damned if he let this crybaby ruin it. "This is Luffy; he's three. He's going to be your little brother from now on."

Hell no. "I don't need a little brother. I don't want one."

Garp gives him a look that says 'too bad,' and leaves the child there anyway. Ace stands straight across from kid; big round eyes stare back at him. It feels like a showdown, the same one cowboys had in the movies he used to watch with his father. 'Bam,' He thinks as one of the cowboys shoots the other. He would be the winner.

Ace brings all his fingers to his palm, lets his thumb lie across them, and tightens his newly formed fist until his nails dig into his skin. "I don't want you here."

Luffy doesn't say anything. He looks down at his feet and his smile falls; compared to the hopeful look on his face, now he just looks devastated. His face becomes stunningly blank; Ace feels a bit guilty, but he pushes it into the back of his head. "Just stay there and leave me alone." He growls, and the smaller child obeys him without the slightest bit of hesitation. Weird.

He really does stay there, much to Ace's amazement. Just against the door, sitting with his knees brought into his chest and his head down just as it always was. Ace doesn't pay him much attention throughout the day, or even when he's getting ready for bed.

Luffy's there in the morning, never moving away from the spot Ace told him to stay in. Honestly, Ace isn't sure why he's so annoyed about this. "Why are you just sitting here? Can't you just leave?"

Surprisingly enough, he reaches for the door.

Ace feels a pit of unease quench in his stomach. He doesn't like it, he doesn't like Luffy. The freckled boy clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and points to the steps. "There's a bedroom up the stairs, to the left. Use it until Gramps comes back and takes you away."

Again, there's no response. The three year old silently grabs at the strings on his backpack as he climbs up the stairs with little difficulty; Ace watches him make a left down the hall, just as instructed.

The sound of a door squeaking open and closing with a barely audible click echoes through the empty house. Good, Ace thinks. He won't have to look at him anymore.

Ace is stubborn and mean sometimes, but he's not cruel. By the time afternoon comes by, Luffy still hasn't left his room. He hasn't asked for anything to eat or drink and it would seem that he spends all his time in the corner of his bedroom, or on the bed that has been pushed up against the wall for reasons unknown. If this brat died on Ace's watch, Gramps wouldn't let him live it down.

Wouldn't it have been better to just get him a dog? Ace has been asking for one since Christmas and when he said 'dog,' he didn't mean 'Child.'

Reluctantly, Ace tells him that he needs to eat when he's hungry. Luffy can't reach the shelves to get food, so Ace puts the simpler things that he could probably handle by himself on the lower shelves.

Things like the bowl of fruit that sat in the sun, ripening. Or little snacks that he could munch on throughout the day. Somehow this turns into Ace making enough food for two when he cooked, and leaving a step stool by the sink so he had access to water. After Luffy falls off the step stool twice in the same day, Ace takes it away and tells him to ask if he wants something.

Eventually, Luffy does.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" At first, Ace wants to yell at the insufferable brat for daring to wake him up in the middle of the night. After all, Ace really enjoyed sleeping. At the realization that Luffy finally spoke with actual words coming out of his actual mouth, Ace feels compelled to say yes. This was the first time Luffy's talked to him within the month that he's been here for.

The sight of the tiny brat in the doorway with messy hair and hopeful pink eyes is kind of hard to say no to. "Just tonight!" The corners of Luffy's lips twitch in what he guesses is an attempt to smile, and before long the small child with incredibly cold feet is pulling himself up onto the bed and snuggling far closer to Ace than the older would've liked.

Ace pushes him away at first.

He remembers sleeping with his mother when he was younger. The way she would welcome him with open arms every time he had a nightmare, anytime he wanted a hug, or just because he wanted to sleep with her that night.

She always smelled of flowers, like the pink hibiscus she loved so much. Ace felt warm with her, and though he didn't want to admit it, he felt warm with Luffy too. Only Luffy didn't smell like pink hibiscus flowers. He smelled like he needed a bath, badly.

"You're getting a bath in the morning."

He's already asleep.

When morning comes and breakfast passes, Ace walks Luffy to daycare before heading off to school himself. On the way back Ace will pick Luffy up from daycare and head home, but today there's something preventing him from going home.

There's a bruise.

There's a bruise on Luffy's face, forming right on his left cheek. It's turning an angry blue, and might even turn purple later. Whoever hit Luffy, hit him hard.

Ace wants to know who it was, but Luffy keeps his mouth clamped shut.

Whatever, he thinks stubbornly. If Luffy didn't want to tell him then he wouldn't force it out of him, it had nothing to do with Ace and he would like to keep it that way. His mood sours and he doesn't hold Luffy's hand as they walk home; the younger of the two struggles to keep up with Ace's long strides, even if he does slow down every time Luffy falls too far behind.

It almost feels like they're fighting. It's silly, stupid really. Ace reasons with himself, but then the next day Luffy comes back with a bloody knee and another bruise on his shoulder. Luffy bites his lip, clenches his fists, and does everything he possibly can to make Ace believe that everything was okay. That he was okay. Ace sees past him.

Ace sees the way Luffy cowers away from his best friend Sabo's little brother, Stelly.

He nearly gets in trouble for threatening a five year old child that day. He doesn't regret it. "I told you. If you ever need anything, just ask me. It'll cause problems if you don't." Little three year old Luffy looks up at him, eyes full of understanding and thousands of unspoken apologizes. Ace puts a hand on his head and everything is fine again. "I'll always protect you, okay?" It's a promise.

Maybe Luffy was better than the dog he wanted after all.

Gramps comes back for his eleventh birthday; he sports gifts of all kinds, Ace's favorite is the cake. Luffy's eyes light up like nothing before when he takes the first bite; Ace doesn't care that the icing gets all over his face and fingers, let alone Luffy's complete disregard for silverware. He feels happy watching Luffy; all his other new toys and games are left off to the side as the day ends.

Wait, Ace forgets. When was Luffy's birthday? He stares at the small toddler for a couple long seconds, trying to figure out how old he might be. Had Luffy ever even actually told him? "Luffy how old are you?"

Eyes shifting timidly towards Garp and then right back to him, the youngest of the bunch holds out four icing covered finger and gives a half smile. "Four! Already? Your birthday was awhile ago, wasn't it?"

"When is your birthday?"

Luffy shrugs his shoulders and looks down. Ace wonders if it's because of the lack of familiarity with Garp that Luffy feels so timid around him. Garp pulls up his phone and runs his finger across the screen a few times, it doesn't take him long to find whatever he's looking for.

"May fifth. Children's day." Ace wants to yell at Luffy for not saying anything, but he keeps it to himself. It wouldn't do anyone any good to make the kid more uncomfortable than he already was.

Within four months he'll be five. Ace decides that he's going to save his allowance and use it to buy Luffy a cake. "Next week we're going to take Luffy back to the orphanage. I know you don't like living with-"

Ace slams his hands onto the table and stands up, looking a bit flustered with his own sudden outburst. "I- Um, If he wants to he could stay a bit longer."

Garp raises an eyebrow. "Is that okay with you, Luffy?"

The tiny five year old nods furiously, messy hair flying everywhere as his head bobs up and down in acknowledgement. When Garp leaves, he leaves behind a sense of relief. Luffy wasn't going anywhere.

Ace doesn't know when he got so attached.

Maybe it's because they're both prone to nightmares that they end up sleeping together again. Ace because of his dying mother and criminal father, and Luffy because of whatever went on inside his head that he never seemed to want to talk about.

Ace drags Luffy's bed into his bedroom; they the two beds together and sleep together every night. Because of the nightmares, of course. Because of the nightmares. Luffy is clingy. He's always so close to Ace that it feels like he's going to get tripped on; it's annoying at first, but Ace gets used to it.

Just like he gets used to the three am morning confessions, where Luffy will wake him up just to declare his fondness for Ace and then go right back to bed as if it had never happened. Ace feels almost as if his family had gotten bigger; it wasn't just him and his parents anymore; it was him, his parents, and Luffy.

Luffy was his... Friend? Acquaintance? Accomplice?

Luffy was his brother.

Ace tells him that on his sixth birthday, Luffy never looked happier. Ace couldn't be happier. Now all he needed was his mother to get better and his father to be released from the hospital and everything would be okay again. Things would be better than ever, but life wasn't that easy. Nothing was that easy.

Luffy is six when he meets the woman Ace loves more than anything in the world. She's beautiful, when Luffy looks at Rouge he sees Ace. Ace's freckles, Ace's smile, Ace. Ace. Ace. Luffy wonders if Ace is going to grow up to look like her, to be as pretty as Rouge is.

Ace flushes a deep scarlet red and hits him over the head while Rouge laughs like a bell, a delicate hand over her mouth for politeness.

She smells like the pink hibiscus flowers that Ace said she loved so much. Ace sits by her bedside and tells her stories of all the silly things they do at home, or what he learned at school that day, or even what he watched on television earlier.

Rouge uses her thin, frail arms to pull Luffy onto her lap and hugs him tight right before they leave. "It's been a pleasure, Luffy. I've always wanted a second son."

Luffy feels a warmth bud in his chest. It accelerates even faster as the woman presses her lips to his forehead and kisses him affectionately; his eyes sparkle and his mouth is wide, he turns to Ace as if looking for his approval.

A small smile and a nod is all he needs before he wraps around the woman and hugs her tight. The two of them stay until the hospital closes, both hesitant and scared to leave but Rouge bids them farewell and tells them to visit again next week.

Ace thinks that she's getting better. The doctors agree.

They go home with high spirits that day; the two brothers silently walk home and enjoy the sunset that graces the sky as night falls.

Rouge doesn't make it. Ace is fourteen years old when they go to visit Rouge on her birthday. She was doing a lot better; putting on weight, eating more, sleeping more, and she hasn't had a cardiac attack in months.

The doctors said that she would be able to go home soon, but things always seem to get better before they get worse. It's like Yin and Yang. There's always something bad in the good, and always something good in the bad.

Ace can't find anything good about this situation.

The doctors are stumbling over their own feet as Rouge goes into cardiac arrest; there's the sound of rushing footsteps every where as the EKG goes out of control. They're loosing her. Her body jolts every time she goes into cardiac arrest because they don't know how to cure her and they don't know what's wrong.

No one knows what's wrong.

She's dying. That's very wrong.

The line goes flat.

The next few days following the funeral and memorial service seem to bleed into one. Ace changes, drastically. Seven year old Luffy tries to tell his brother that everything will be okay; he's here, and things will get better!

He feels proud of himself for providing some sort of comfort to the one person who comforted him when he needed it, he keeps his chin up and tries to look confident.

Luffy had only known Rouge for a year, but that didn't make her death any easier on him.

Ace thinks the opposite. Right now the last thing he wants to hear from Luffy are words that make it seem like he understands what Ace is going through right now. It was his mom!

His mother who raised him and lived along side him and loved him more than anyone else in the world, whereas Luffy had only known her for a year! What the hell did he know?! "What do you know?! She wasn't even your mom!"

That hurts. Luffy flinches, a hand on his chest as he feels a twinge that tears at him for the briefest of moments.

Truth be told, Luffy wanted to keep crying too. He wanted to curl up in a ball, go hide in the corner, and lock himself away from anything everything that might hurt him.

He couldn't, though. He'd changed. He's no longer the scared three year old that he once was, he's Ace's little brother! He had to be strong, for Ace. "Ace," He begins, hesitant and scared.

Ace rages. His eyes light up with anger and hate so strong that even Luffy takes a step back. "Shut up! Get the hell out of my room! Leave me alone!" Ace shoves him out of the room, it's a push hard enough to make Luffy's back slam against the wall and his breath escape forcibly through his lungs.

Luffy stands up and reaches for the door, but it's slammed in his face. The sound hurts his ears, but it doesn't hurt as much to see the doorknob move in a way that tells him that Ace is locking the door. They never locked doors here.

Luffy doesn't like locked doors.

He tries to be patient, he really does. It just doesn't seem to be working. Ace is getting worse; he reverts back to the way he was when his mother was first diagnosed to be terminally ill.

He secludes himself, yells at everyone, and nearly bursts with anger. Ace just wants to be alone, he decides. It's better to be alone. He didn't need anyone else.

He tells himself this, but really it's just a repeat of what he used to say.

Ace moves Luffy's bed outside of his room, and right back into the empty guest room next to the stairs. Luffy doesn't like it at all; he feels lonely and empty and as if he didn't belong anymore.

He wonders how he'll be able to sleep at night when his brother wasn't sleeping beside him. Wait, were they even brother's anymore? He cocks his head to the side in thought, staring straight at Ace's locked door.

He reaches out to touch it. Does Ace... Still want him?

"Go away, Luffy!"

Probably not. "I don't need you Luffy."

They don't eat together anymore. They don't hold hands going to school; there are no more piggy back rides, games, hugs, or anything that used to make Luffy happy. In a way, it feels like there's no more Ace. Suddenly the house becomes nothing more than a home that once was. Luffy feels as if he does't belong anymore.

"You're not my brother!"

He's alone again, it would seem.

Luffy walks home from school by himself, a week after Ace has stopped talking to him completely. He's dragging his feet because he knows that when he gets home, nothing will change.

Ace might yell at him and tell him to go away again, to get out and never come back. Luffy wonders if he actually should. If Ace didn't want him anymore, then what was the point of staying?

He takes one long look at the dark house and keeps walking.

Ace wouldn't know that he's truly lost everything until morning comes.

Anger shifts to guilt and Ace doesn't know what to do anymore.

He's alone.

A/N: Possible Twoshot depending on feedback. Letme know what you think :) Constructive criticism is welcome.

~Crimsy