"Oh!" His youngest brother suddenly exclaimed, almost falling out of Ace's lap a second time. Luffy scrambled off of him and Sabo before sticking the beetle back into its jar and turning to them with that dumb smile.

"Okay, okay, now it's my turn!" He sang, hopping around on one foot in excitement, flapping his arms in a desperate bid to stay upright. Ace made a grab for his wrist to keep him still, but Luffy expertly wriggled out of the way, still obnoxiously chanting 'my turn, my turn!'

Sabo, sensing correctly that his brother's temper was nearing its limit, immediately stepped in to diffuse the situation before Ace could blow his top. "Your turn at what, Lu?"

"My turn for my present!"

The duh was implied.

Sabo's eye twitched.

Ace stepped around the blond to smack a fist on Luffy's head for the both of them.

"That was your present, you idiot. What are you talking about?"

"Nooooooo." Luffy had fallen into a crouch on the floor, whining under his breath about Ace being a meanie (most likely out of habit—Ace hadn't hit him that hard; it was the kid's birthday after all). "It's my turn to give my present."

The usually eloquent Sabo looked torn between laughing and crying from sheer disbelief. "You... you got yourself a present?"

"What? No!" Luffy shot up in indignation, crossing his arms and staring his brothers down. "Why would I do that?"

Ace sighed and mimicked Luffy's position, crossing his arms and glaring back at the ten-year-old.

"What the hell are you talking about then?"

Sabo poked him in the back like a warning, and Ace growled at him too. But Luffy's eyes had lit up and he was off, running for his desk and pulling the top open to rummage inside the desk's compartment. He pulled out two objects intimately familiar to the other two occupants of the room.

"My hat!" Twin yells of relief warring with annoyance resounded and in an instant, the hats were whisked out of his arms and Luffy was crouched on the floor again, whining about being hit. Sabo mournfully picked at his slightly flattened top hat while Ace clicked his tongue in annoyance as he looked over his own cowboy hat from where he stood over Luffy's sulking figure.

The two older brothers shared a glance before Ace whirled to around to yell at Luffy for taking their hats without permission. They'd been missing for a week, and no one had even tried to approach Ace and Sabo the entire time because of their menacing and moping auras, respectively. Ace had hissed at anyone who so much as looked at his bare head, and Sabo would fall into some sort of grieving lethargy whenever asked about it.

Only Luffy's upcoming birthday had minimized the backlash of their attitudes, keeping the two focused on a specific task that they needed to accomplish within deadline.

Luffy was pouting extremely unhappily and still hadn't let go of the back of his head—Ace had hit him for real this time, so it wasn't like they could blame him. Ace hesitated as he twirled his hat around on one finger before sighing and letting his hand fall into a light tap against Luffy's hair, stroking where he'd hit maybe a little too hard, considering it was the youngest's birthday.

"Why do you even need to get us presents, idiot? It's your birthday isn't it?" Sabo was quiet so Ace didn't ask the following, And how the hell are our own damn hats considered presents, anyway?

Luffy leaned into Ace's touch and shifted around until he was latched around the freckled boy's left leg like a monkey clinging to a tree.

"Well, 'cause I'm ten now," he answered matter-of-factly.

Like that made any sense to anyone except himself.

Sabo was still staring mutely at his hat, so Ace answered for the both of them again. "How does that even make any sense?"

Luffy wrapped himself more comfortably around his leg before proudly answering, "See, when you and Sabo were ten, you found me and made sure I would never have to be alone again. So now that I'm ten, I wanted to do the same thing for you guys!"

His baby brother's sunshine smile made it a little hard to breathe, but Ace still went and tried to ask Yeah, but how the fuck does giving us our own stuff back do that? because he was an emotionally damaged human being who didn't know how to do anything except act like an asshole in the face of such affection, he knew as much, and—

"Ace." Sabo's voice interrupted the vicious tirade before it started, but judging by its strangled and wretched quality, he wasn't much better off than Ace was.

The brunette met Sabo's eyes, swallowing hard against all the nasty words trying to force their way out of his mouth. Ace didn't trust himself to talk right now, so he raised an eyebrow in question instead.

All he got was a wordlessly raised top hat in response, and a vague wave to Ace's own cowboy hat as an explanation.

He checked his hat anyway—

—and suddenly lost his ability to stand. He fell back onto the chair nearest him, careful not to jostle Luffy, and buried his face in his hands. He heard Sabo walk over and settle down on the side of the chair opposite from where their youngest was still on Ace's leg, and the warmth of his back seeping slowly into Ace's side was a comfort.

There, on the inside of both their hats, were clumsily embroidered letters in three colors: A, S, and L. The stitching was messy, and the L was a little hard to identify as a letter, even, but there was no doubting who'd made it.

"—so I had Makino teach me," Luffy was saying, and Ace had no words left. "Because she's a girl and she likes stuff like that, but the needles are so sharp! I kept messing up on the practice cloth, but it turned out great in the end, right?"

Sabo picked it up from there.

"Yeah, they're amazing, Lu. Can't believe you did it." He sounded together, but Ace could feel the slightest tremor run up his back telling him Sabo was barely keeping it together, too. He dropped one hand away from his face to grip at his brother's shoulder. Encouraged, Sabo took a deep breath and continued, "Can I see where yours is on your hat, too?"

The answer was instantaneous. "Oh, I don't have one."

Both the older boys suddenly turned to the youngest, one in confusion and the other in a surge of hurt.

Luffy laughed like he couldn't believe they didn't get it. "I don't need one, silly!

"You... don't need one?" Ace didn't know how to respond to that.

Luffy nodded in all seriousness, like it was the most solemn thing ever. "Yeah, because I always know I'm not alone, you see? But you and Sabo are really strong, right, so sometimes you forget that you don't have to deal with it by yourselves and that I'm always here, too! So those are for you to see whenever you feel sad because you're lonely!"

There was a beat of silence before Sabo let out a shaky laugh, moving so he could face the other two while still leaning against Ace's side. "So, you never forget that, huh? That we're here for you?"

"'Course not! I know it right here!" Luffy patted a hand against his chest, right over where his heart was, grinning wildly.

Ace cuffed him over the head with a scoff, managing to keep his voice even when he said, "Idiot. Like we'd ever forget."

Never ever, Ace promised himself later when the three of them finally walked out of their school, Luffy in the middle and their shoulders brushing with each other's, excited just to get back home.