Main Character(s): Luffy/Ace/Trafalgar
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
Story Title:Portgas D. Luffy
Genres: Family/Hurt comfort/Angst
Chapter Title: Cannon
Summary: Portgas D. Luffy and Portgas D. Ace were siblings, he hated her because her birth was what caused the death of their mother. However, let's watch as she makes new relations with unexpected people.
Words: 1,741

Portgas D. Ace sits next to his mother on the couch.

Short black hair comes down just long enough to tickle his shoulders and remind his mother how desperately he needs a haircut; his bright green eyes stare across the room as his mother sits down next to him.

His freckled face scrunches up and he shoots a long glare at his mother's stomach; she said that he'd be getting a little brother soon but she's been saying that for a long time now. Rouge wants to wait until the marines are gone but Ace wants it gone now.

All this baby is doing is bringing his mother pain, and Ace could do nothing more than watch.

"I, I don't want a little brother." He never did. Why couldn't it just be him and his mom? Why did she have to have another kid? "You should just get rid of him."

Rouge shoots him a very disapproving look and all he can do is sink further into the couch a bit more to avoid her gaze. Without a doubt, Ace hates this kid and he hasn't even been born yet!

Rouge puts a loving hand on her stomach. "He's my baby, just like you're my baby. You'll be a big brother when he's born and I think, that you'll feel differently when you meet him." She leans over and runs her fingers through his hair, soothing his anger with nothing more than a gentle touch. "Just a little longer, be patient okay?"

While Ace is only five years old, he's not stupid. Carrying a baby for this long couldn't be healthy for either of them; he's seen the looks of pain on his mother's face and the occasional limps that she tried to hide. The baby was hurting her.

"Will you be okay?" Ace finally asks, pulling closer to his mother's touch. There were no words that could express how much he loved his mother; she was always happy, always smiling and parading around with more energy than she had. Ace wonders why now of all times, she was smiling so sadly.

His mouth clamps shut. Her eyebrows furrow and her gaze falls to the floor. When she finally speaks up again, it's as if time stops. For a moment Ace doesn't know what to say. A life without his mother being there in the morning when he woke up and at night when he went to bed was something he couldn't imagine; what would he do without her?

It was bad enough his father had died and now she was intending on leaving him too? He'd be all alone! Flushed and upset, he jumps to his feet and pulls away from his mother's warm embrace. "Why?! Why keep him if it means you go away! Just get rid of it! We can be happy and I won't... I won't be alone!"

Tears form in his eyes and no matter how many times he wipes them away, they keep coming back. He looks upset and frustrated and angry all at once; his body shakes, but all his mother does is watch. "I don't want to be alone."

She shakes her head. "I love my children Ace. He may not be born yet, but he's still alive and a part of our family. Just this once, forgive me for being so selfish."

Ace just doesn't want to lose her.

But he does.

...

On the day of the funeral the sun is nowhere to be found; hidden behind dark clouds and angry pellets of rain that fall in copious amounts. Ace wants to believe that the world itself was crying for the loss of his mother, a death so unfair that Ace didn't want to accept it.

Dressed in black, he holds an umbrella over his head. The people in town had loved her dearly and had clearly helped support the funeral by giving her a beautiful gravestone, with her name engraved delicately into the middle. He bends down to place a red hibiscus on top of it.

It was once her favorite type of flower. She used to wear one in her hair everyday since Roger introduced it to her, telling her how beautiful she looked with it in her hair. It was fresh, picked from the small garden she tended to in the backyard.

She wouldn't be able to take care of it anymore.

It wasn't her fault. It wasn't Ace's fault. The blame fell on the shoulders of a newborn infant who took her life in exchange for his own; the tiny murderer rests in his grandfather's arms.

Out of everything it could have possibly done at a grave, it was giggling!

It was pissing Ace off.

"What the hell are you laughing at?!" He shouts. His fists are clenched tightly in attempt to calm his rage but it does little to help; he knows that the baby couldn't understand him, but that doesn't stop Ace from yelling.

He was angry after all; this kid was laughing at the grave of a person he killed! This was all his fault! The baby's mouth shuts and it looks very confused and scared; the giggling ceases and before long the baby begins sniveling. Crying. Big fat blobs of tears streak down its his red face as it wails louder.

"Crying won't bring her back! You killed her! You're a murderer!" His grandfather shoots him a disapproving frown, but that's not surprising. What's surprising to Ace is how the man hasn't yelled or hit him over the head for his outburst.

He turns away from the annoying child. "You should just die, monster."

The baby only cries louder.

oOo

"What was my mother like?"

A five year old with tussles of messy black hair sits patiently at the boardwalk; her eyes staring up at her grandfather with curiosity and wonder. It's been a whole two years since she's seen him; maybe it's because he's avoiding her or maybe he's been busy, either or it doesn't matter.

Luffy barely remembered his face. His voice. Everything about him was a blur but then he showed up and smacked her hard enough to knock her over, and the memories seemed to flow right back. Somehow.

The man stares down at her with a gruff expression. His eyes become unfocused, almost as if he's reliving whatever memories he had of the woman. "She was beautiful. Probably one of the most amazing people you would've had the chance to meet, if you had the chance to meet her."

"What happened to her?"

Garp's eyes harden as he stares down at the child; everything about her screamed childish obliviousness, and god he didn't want to hurt her more than she already was. Yet the heartbroken look on Ace's face that day when Luffy was born and Rouge died, just wouldn't stop appearing in his head.

It really wasn't her fault, but that doesn't stop Garp from talking. "You killed her. She died giving birth to you. Your brother was never the same."

The smile on Luffy's face falls and her shoulders drop; honestly she looks as if she''s about to cry, and it's Garp's fault. Awkwardly stumbling back in attempt to avoid the situation; he quickly straightens himself and leaves her behind.

Luffy wasn't expecting to learn about her mother's death at all, let alone the fact that she had killed the woman just by being born. She wanted to hear stories of her mother's favorite foods or what she liked to do, or even what characteristics that she shared with her children but instead...

This is too much. She sniffles; her eyebrows are arched and she puts her hands roughly on either side of her head. Just how could she have done such a thing? Why did she have to be born if it meant the death of her mother and the end of her brother's happiness?

For the longest time Luffy had always thought that she was the lonely one. Garp never visited unless he absolutely had to, she had no friends in town, the adults avoided her, and she spent most of her time on her own. No, she's not the one who's suffering.

It's her brother.

The boy who's life she ruined.

"You should just die, monster." The words ring through her head; the voice is distorted and broken, disembodied and just as lost as she is. The weight that she's been carrying for so long now, finally makes sense.

Now it felt twice as heavy.

A week later Luffy meets a red haired man named Shanks. He sits next to her in the bar talks of things like pirates and sailing and the ocean and freedom; her eyes sparkle with life that hasn't been there for days. Shyly, she speaks up. "What's a pirate?"

His eyes shine and he grins cheekily before reaching for her and wrapping a warm arm around her shoulders; Luffy leans into his touch naturally, she's starved of touch and doesn't even realize it. "Well, I'll tell ya."

Shanks is a light in the dark world that Luffy's been living in. Meeting him and his crew at the bar everyday made it so she wasn't lonely anymore; even if she still had to return to a empty house at the end of the day, she could still see them again tomorrow. That's all that mattered.

For a couple moments, she forgets her problems.

Until the mountain bandits come, boasting about their bounties and making messes in Makino's bar. They laugh arrogantly; it's loud, especially for Luffy who can only try and block it out with her hands. It doesn't work; somehow she finds herself getting angrier and angrier. Why was their laughing so awful?

'What the hell are you laughing at?!'

"Why the hell are you laughing at?!" She yells, and no matter how hard they tried to explain why everything was alright and why they weren't angry; she simply decided that she was pissed off. Childishly letting her anger get the best of her, she shoves past them and runs out the door. They let her go.

The next time she runs into the bandits, they're terrorizing the civilians. Standing up to them was the right thing to do, right? She puffs her chest out and fakes confidence to hide her nervousness; they're attention is fully on her, and the older kid who bumped into them before runs off before they can grab him again.

Luffy had no chance of winning since the start.

Shanks loses an arm when he saves her.

The list of things she was guilty for was growing.

Murder. Shanks' arm. Living.

Feeling nothing more than a helpless little girl who couldn't do anything at all, Luffy cries. She felt like the burden no one would recognize her as.

Then; he gave her his hat.

And then problems seemed to disappear again.

...

A/N: Leave a review! They're like cookies. I like cookies.

~Crimsy