I don't own any of the characters in this story, or the anime/manga One Piece.

Ace was mostly aone before Luffy came along.
He wasn't alone all the time, though. Garp came home from work occasionally, but even when he was home, they barely talked. It was mostly a loud and cheery greeting from Garp, and an annoyed glare from Ace before he would go to the forest until Garp left again. It wasn't because Ace didn't like his adoptive grandfather. He simply thought that Garp was an annoying, obnoxious idiot, and therefore preferred not to be around him as much as possible.

Ace hated the city. The city was filled with people who would stare at him with anger and disgust wherever he went. When the citizens looked at him, they didn't see a ten year old who didn't really have anyone to go to. No, when they looked at Ace, they only saw the blood in his veins, his father's filthy traitorous blood. In the start when people would look at him like he was better off dead, it would make him sad. He would feel abandoned and lonely, and at times, when he was alone at home, he would be inconsolable. But as time went on, he grew older, and people got meaner. And the affliction he had felt before, turned into ice cold hatred for the world. He hated his father for giving him the life he had. He hated his mother for dying at his birth, abandoning him. He hated his grandfather for always working with the marines. He hated the people in city for being judgmental jerks. And he hated the world. He hated the world for being cold, cruel and unfair.

Once, before all the people in the city knew who he was, when he had asked the people in the local bar; "What if Roger had a son?" The reactions had been immediate. An older man with a big, greasy and overall disgusting beard, had laughed at him, and said that any child of a pirate would be better off dead. The rest of the bar had calmly agreed, and there were even a few comments on how they gladly would put the child out of the misery off living themselves. Ace didn't have an answer for that, and when he walked out of the bar, the frown on his face was deeper than when he arrived.

Ace didn't go into to the city again.

But, for some strange reason Ace didn't even bother to try and figure out, Garp dropped off a little hyperactive seven year old at Dadan's doorstep, saying that she was to take care of him. When the boy had introduced himself as Luffy, and started restlessly following Ace wherever he went, Ace started to get seriously annoyed. He just didn't understand why the boy followed him. Ace had thrown a tree at him for goodness sake. He had pushed him over the bridge making the boy run around lost in the woods for a week. Yet, the boy never stopped running after him every day, asking if they could be friends. If he was honest with himself, the constant pursuing made him feel extremely disgruntled, and a little worried. There was no way in hell that Luffy was right in his head. Everybody would have stopped running restlessly after him after they had tree to the head, but no. Not Luffy. If anything he became more eager to catch up to him. But Ace kept on avoiding, and Luffy kept on seeking.

And then suddenly he and Sabo stood before a crying Luffy who was covered with sloppy bandages, wondering just why the stupid boy didn't tell the pirates what they wanted to hear. Ace couldn't help but blame the boy for the wounds he'd gotten. Honestly, Luffy probably could have avoided almost all of his injuries he had just told the damn pirates what they wanted. And as Ace stood there, watching Luffy cry so loud, he wondered just why in the world Luffy had been following him too. Ace knew Luffy had been hurt while he was chasing him. He had seen Dadan put bandages on Luffy when he got home several times.

The answer to Ace question was answered, and surprisingly it made sense.

Because being alone is much worse than being hurt.

This is the first one-shot I have ever written about Luffy and Ace. It's also the first fanfiction I've ever posted on this website.
I apologize if there are any grammar mistakes, but even though I'm really trying to do it right, there is, and will probably always be places where I'll never get it right.

Thank you.