Happy 19th Anniversary to the One Piece anime! Here's a little thing I'd meant to write for Luffy's birthday this year, but life kinda got in the way so uhh. Yeah.

I hope you enjoy!

-shira

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, all rights belong to Eiichiro Oda-sensei. Also, I don't know a thing about bugs, so everything mentioned about beetles in here is entirely fictional. I'm so sorry.

"Ace," Sabo hissed, nearly tripping over a root as he hastily twisted around the tree trunk to get out of the direct line of sight of the guards patrolling by the edge of the school's west building. "Hurry the hell up, we're gonna get caught!"

Ace just laughed at him. Sabo resisted the urge to throw his shoe at the idiot's head.

"Just a lil' more, Bo," he promised. "I've just about—"

Their eldest's voice cut off as stretched his arm out as far as it could go, teetering precariously on the edge of a rather unstable branch high in the treetop.

"Got it!" Ace was crowing and Sabo was going to kick his ass if either of them got into any more trouble because Ace couldn't be bothered to keep his voice down. Still, when Ace flipped out of the tree to land in a crouch by Sabo's feet, he couldn't help hurrying over with his own grin stretched wide in excitement.

"You sure you got the right one this time, then?" Sabo took care to keep his voice low, even if Ace was dumb enough to get them both caught anyway.

Ace scoffed. "Who do you think you're talking to, dummy?" But his voice was full of delight and there was none of the usual biting pride.

He held aloft in his hand the largest beetle Sabo had ever laid his eyes on, and since both he and his brothers spent the majority of their time in the forest next to their house, that really was saying something.

They'd been hunting for the thing for over a week, climbing up precarious looking trees and diving into uninhabited rabbit holes. It had been as fun as it was frustrating to search for so long, but in the end they'd found their quarry in the old tree by the abandoned school building. And just in time, too, because Luffy's birthday was today and they meant to take him out for a celebration of some sort in a few hours. (They had not so surprisingly forgotten to plan that far ahead in the hunt for the perfect present.)

Luffy had gotten obsessed with beetles ever since he became seatmates with that one long-nosed kid and while it was annoying to hear him yell about how cool the things were every other minute, it was admittedly endearing. Like everything else about him.

"Oi, Sabo." He looked back at Ace from where he was watching to make sure no one would see them as the dashed back inside.

"Yeah?"

He made a vague gesture that would have seemed stupid to anyone else but that Sabo understood immediately. Sneaking one hand into his uniform's jacket, he handed Ace a large, empty jar before going back to lookout duty.

The elder grunted as he tried to maneuver the King Kabuto into the jar's smaller opening.

"Sorry 'bout that, Bo," Ace whispered, quiet now that the initial excitement was over. "Thing was starting to squirm and I didn't want it to squirt on me or anything."

Sabo hummed distractedly in response. "Well, yeah, it is your turn to do laundry this week—okay, go!"

At his signal, both boys ran for the fences, easily jumping the five-foot stone wall before scrambling up the metal grates. They landed on the other side with a soft thud, hidden by the weathered cement of the abandoned building. Sabo shot Ace a quick grin before ducking into the nearest window and hurrying down a shortcut he'd found that led to the storage room of the Science Building.

Ace whistled cheerily behind him as Sabo silently ran through their options for a celebration for Luffy that would include lots of meat and cold fruit juice but preferably not ruin their pockets. Makino would probably gladly provide the fruit juice, but that left meat which was going to be the bulk of the expenses. They didn't have time to go hunting, but Shanks had gone on a hunting expedition with Mihawk last he'd heard, so maybe there was a chance that—

"Hey, Bo?"

Sabo paused with a hand outstretched towards the door of the storage room. "Yeah?"

Ace leaned against the drawer beside the shortcut's entrance, playing with the jar and tossing it from one hand to the other. Sabo resisted the urge to tell him to be careful with their gift.

"He's gonna love it... right?"

Sighing, Sabo went to swipe the jar out of Ace's hands and tucked it safely back into his own jacket. Then he turned to Ace with what he hoped was a confident smile. "'Course he will, idiot."

"I LOVE IT!"

Weeks of tension seemed to drain out of Sabo's shoulders as Luffy pranced around with the jar held above his head, the classroom empty except for that long-nosed kid cowering in the corner.

Out of the corner of his eye, the blonde saw Ace do the same, although he tried to hide it with a cocky smirk.

"Usopp! Lookie, it's so cool, right? Right?!" The kid seemed to want to sink some more into himself when the older boys' eyes turned to him but he braced himself and went to look at the beetle Luffy had already allowed out of the jar anyway.

Sabo decided privately he kinda liked this kid.

Uspo whistled. "Holy sh-crap, that's huge!" Luffy laughed delightedly as the King Kabuto crawled up his arm.

Ace scoffed to hide his pleased smile as Sabo grinned openly at Luffy's joy. "Of course it is. It's a King Kabuto and everything, just like you wanted, right Lu?"

"Yeah!" Luffy handed the beetle to his friend before going to tackle Ace in a hug. "It's amazing."

Sabo joined them where they were a tangled mess on the teacher's table and laughed when Ace huffed out a muttered "You're welcome," and patted their youngest's head instead of prying him off like he usually would.

"Happy birthday, Lu," Sabo murmured as the eldest sat up with Luffy still on him, so they could sit next to Sabo and their now-ten-year-old could wrap his arms around both of his brothers.

"Mmm! Thank you so much," Luffy said sincerely. The blonde laughed and teased him about learning manners from Makino. Ace turned an interesting shade of red at that too, surprisingly.

"Umm, guys?" A voice interrupted them before Sabo could call Ace out on it, and three eyes centered on the nervous boy who was holding the beetle upside down and very close to his face. "I hate to break it to you, but uhh. I don't think this is a King Kabuto?"

Sabo feels Ace freeze up next to him and Luffy tilt his head in question. He himself only asked in a soft voice, "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Usopp flinched but held his ground, tilting the beetle up so the other three could see its belly. He pointed at a splotch of white near the bottom and said, "See these? That means it's female. So, if anything, it's a Queen Kabuto."

There's a beat where Sabo's heart sank to his feet and Usopp looked like he wanted to melt into the floor because Ace was glaring at him, but then—

"THAT'S EVEN COOLER?!"

Luffy practically fell to the floor as he rushed to grab the beetle out of his friend's hands, examining the white spots then laughing gleefully as he placed the insect on his head.

He beamed at his brothers and it was like the sun at high noon except the sun is supposed to be setting behind them. "Queens are just as cool as kings, right Sabo? 'Cause they're just as amazing!"

Sabo let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Cautiously, he asked, "I thought you wanted a King Kabuto though, Lu?"

Luffy hummed as he went to scramble back into Ace's lap. "Oh, I dunno, it doesn't matter, I think? That's just a name. Like a girl can be the king of pirates and they'd still be cool, right?"

Ace's arms wrapped tight around their little brother's body as he settled his legs into Sabo's lap. Then he grinned up at both of them again.

"What matters is that this is the biggest beetle I've ever seen! And it came from both of you?! For my birthday? That is the coolest thing EVER!" He threw his hands up at the last word, yelling, and almost smacked Sabo and Ace by accident.

Not that they'd have minded. Because Sabo was grinning like crazy and Ace had his face turned to the light, but he just knew his eldest brother had the same look on his face.

He shoulder checked Ace and the freckled raven finally turned back to him. With wide smiles, they turned to Luffy and said once more, "Happy birthday, Lu!"

Their little brother grinned big and wide, eyes slipping shut as he gave his little laugh, and Sabo knew it had been worth all the trouble.