Chapter 1: Stalker or Guardian Angel?

(Hey guyz~! So I know I should be updating Brother's Returned and Memories of the Past but… Both of those stories are great examples of bad ideas. How? I'll tell you. The ideas are good but the plot… Let's just say, I have no way of ending those stories. I don't know how.

Recently, I've been wanting to read/write either some supernatural (Ace being a vamp kind of thing but nobody updates those), something with Luffy actually being serious, or some AceLu. So here's my first vamp fanfic. Would say my first AceLu, but I have a huge plot that just needs to be divided up and put into more detail. Also, for future notice, I have 15 stories that are just ideas or plots and then three others being this, Brother's Returned, and Memories of the Past. Those are only for One Piece also. Counting DGM, I have another three at least. How about I get to the story? On to the crap!)

He had been walking silently on the rooftops, not a single sound coming from his black combat boots. The sun had vanished beyond the horizon an hour prior allowing him to hide his presence and not be seen. In the dark of night, the only part of him that could be seen were either his orange cowboy hat or his pale complexion, but even those went unseen. For this, he was glad. At this point, he honestly didn't understand why he was glad. He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be noticed.

For two years, he had been going down this path. He knew how many steps he should take on each building before jumping soundlessly onto the next building. He knew who lived in which house and even the daily routines of those people. Especially one in particular.

The boy that he had found the most interesting would wake up at the very crack of dawn, take a shower, then go to school. Some days, the boy would sleep in class, which would result in him begging his friends for the notes they took. Other days, he would pay attention and be able to answer anything thrown at him. But he always noticed one thing about the boy that amused him most. The boys love for history and adventure stories. After school, the boy would usually go to the little hole-in-the-wall burger shack down the street with his friends. For about an hour, they would laugh and tell jokes until they all had to go their separate ways. He had to admit, he was curious where the others went but was more interested in the boy.

On his way home, the boy would always smile causing everyone to have the same expression and greet him. After the first month, he had realized the boy knew everybody and vise-versa. After getting a few treats from the baker and a few samples from the sidewalk vendor, the boy would finally get to his apartment where he lived alone. He knew the boy would get lonely from time to time but he wouldn't show himself. Not yet.

After the boy would get home, he would relax and take a nap. When he woke from his nap, he would go straight to his homework and studying. Much to popular disbelief, the boy would spend hours working. He may have appeared to be a genius, but that didn't mean he could remember everything.

By the time the boy would get home, he was too tired to think which caused his daily naps. When he would finally gather all his homework and notes, he'd stare at them with confusion, every once-in-a-while asking himself how he understood any of it earlier. After hours of working, the boy would finally finish before heating up the samples he got from the sidewalk vendor along with his left overs from the burger shack. After eating his limited amount of food, he'd fall asleep in his bed, not even bothering to change clothes or even get under the covers.

Some would consider this stalking, no most would, but he didn't. He considered himself a guardian angel for the boy. There would be days where the boy would be so out of it that he'd leave everything out and even leave the lights on, sometimes even falling asleep on the couch in his living room. While the boy was asleep, he would silently enter through the balcony and organize everything, putting the notes and homework where they belonged, turning off lights, cleaning up whatever trash there was, and even putting the boy to bed.

This wasn't some random boy. This was a boy he knew very well. This was his little brother. This was Luffy. It was, and yet it wasn't. The boy technically wasn't a boy. He was seventeen years old and a junior in Goa High School. He looked almost exactly like Luffy, the only physical differences were the fact that he didn't have Luffy's scars and he wasn't rubber. Education-wise, this boy was smarter than Luffy, yes, but emotionally, and maybe even mentally, they were the exact same.

Few things differed the two. But he knew. He knew they were different people. The fact that it had been hundreds of years since he saw his brother's death was one of the main things that stopped him from tackling the boy into a hug.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt something flick his forehead shortly followed by a familiar voice. "Hello? Anyone in there? Earth to Ace! Yoo-hoo!" He blinked for a few moments while rubbing his forehead. It hadn't hurt but it was still a simple habit he couldn't lose. It made him feel like a human again.

He looked around and realized he was outside the boy's apartment before looking at the source of the familiar voice with slight annoyance. "Don't do that." He simply muttered.

"Don't do what? This-" the blonde asked before flicking Ace in the same spot. "Or saying 'Yoo-hoo'?"

Ace sighed before taking in his company's appearance. He had on a white dress shirt which was partially covered by a black vest with golden buttons. He noticed the white dress shirt was tucked into a pair of loose white pants which were then tucked into black boots. He couldn't help but notice him wearing his same old top hat with his usual blue goggles over the band. Staring at the goggles, he couldn't help but wonder if the blonde had ever actually worn them over his eyes. They were always around his neck or on the top hat.

"What?" The blonde asked after noticing Ace was staring at his attire.

"Really?" Ace questioned.

"What's wrong with it?" The blonde asked defensively.

"First of all, you do know we're on rooftops, right? Rooftops that are covered in dirt." Ace stated.

"Yeah, and?" The blonde pressed on.

"Why are you wearing white?" Ace asked, getting straight to the point.

"It looks good!" The blonde stated, a small lisp escaping past his missing tooth.

"Whatever. Also, why do you insist on wearing clothes that stand out? You know as well as I do that we'll be killed if we ever get caught before we choose to show ourselves." Ace questioned.

"Oh like black shorts, black boots, no shirt, a green dagger, and an orange cowboy hat is much better?" The blonde retorted.

Ace sat silently for a moment, staring at his long-time companion and traveling partner before squinting his glowing obsidian orbs. "Touché."

"So why were you spacing out?" The blonde asked.

"I wasn't spacing out." Ace defended, turning to the window and watching the young raven scratch his head with a pen before writing down his answers.

"Alright. Then how about, not paying attention? In your own world? In another world? Lost in thought? Thinking about something other than the present?" The blonde listed.

"Sabo." Ace growled under his breath. "Stop."

"Aw~! Is the puppy mad~?" Sabo teased.

"I'm not the puppy here." Ace said with a smirk while turning to the blonde.

"Ouch. Low blow, man. Low blow." Sabo said before his light grey tail curled around his waist, allowing him to pet it.

"Could you stop that? It gets weird." Ace asked, watching his brother pet his own tail.

"And?" Sabo questioned with a chuckle while petting his tail as if he were an evil villain petting their cat.

"Stop." Ace said with a smile while looking away.

"But seriously, what were you thinking about?" Sabo asked, his fluffy tail falling behind him.

"The past." Ace said simply.

"I'm going to need a better explanation." Sabo stated.

"When we were younger and when we would hang out with Lu all the time. How we became brothers. All that stuff." Ace said with a sad smile as he looked at the rooftop beneath his feet.

"Oh… I know what you're thinking Ace, but we couldn't let him live this life." Sabo said sadly.

"So it's better to make him think we died!? He was seventeen Sabo! Seventeen! He spent a majority of his life thinking we were dead and that he was the only one left! If he didn't have his crew with him, he would have gone insane!" Ace argued.

"If he didn't have his crew with him, we would have shown ourselves!" Sabo shouted before letting out a sigh. "Ace… Do you honestly want to see him go through the same pain as us? You starve yourself because you don't want to harm innocents and I have to stay in the shadows. Knowing him, he'd be in pain every day or constantly being captured because he's too social. Ace this would have been torture for him."

"But at least he'd be here with us and not a skeleton in the ground." Ace muttered, looking back to the streets.

Sabo sighed again before looking at the boy who seemed to be working on a very complex problem. "How much longer until we can show ourselves?"

"What?" Ace asked quietly, looking at his blonde brother.

"It's your choice. We can show ourselves whenever you want. Last time was my call and we know how that ended." Sabo whispered sadly.

Ace stared at the blonde for a few moments before looking back to the raven who seemed to have finally figured out the problem. "Soon. I don't want to just… appear in his life. I want it to be almost natural."

"I understand. We'll wait for the right moment." Sabo said before smiling slightly at the thought of his older brother actually thinking.

-x-x-x-

A week had passed since Ace and Sabo's conversation and in all honesty, today seemed off. Ace knew Luffy didn't have a definite routine. It wasn't one of those 'be here for exactly an hour then leave' schedules but it was definitely odd. Instead of being at the burger shack for an hour, Luffy had been there for three and on his way home, he had to take the long way due to construction. Luffy was still walking home when the sun had set and neither Ace nor Sabo liked it.

The street Luffy was forced to take ended up having a lot of low buildings, forcing Ace and Sabo to keep at a distance. With such a distance between them, they couldn't fully watch over the younger raven which caused them to worry more. They knew what went bump in the night, being creatures of the night themselves, but they had never been in this area at night so they had no clue if anything dangerous was around. Their senses were spread far in an attempt to watch over Luffy more carefully.

At some point, Luffy had gotten himself lost and let out a sigh of frustration. "Oh come on! This the third dead-end in the past ten minutes!"

"Hm? Now who's this adorable little thing?" A voice said from the shadows.

"W-what?" Luffy questioned.

"He looks like a new toy for ya, boss." Another voice said from another part of the shadows.

Luffy could hear someone licking their lips. "You're right. I actually like this one. Looks much better than the last kid we found." A third voice said, sounding as if they were grinning.

"What are ya gonna do, boss?" A fourth voice asked.

"Maybe give 'im the 'special' treatment?" A fifth voice asked.

Luffy was scared, no he was terrified. These voices sounded like they were surrounding him and he felt like there were more people but they weren't saying anything. Hoping for an escape and a way to avoid the so-called 'special treatment', he started backing up only to back himself into a corner, literally.

A voice laughed. "'e's just makin' it easia fo' ya, boss!" A new voice shouted causing a roar of laughter.

Luffy was right. There were far more than just those six people. There were ten at the very least. 'Someone… Help me…!' Luffy thought to himself as he felt the owners of the voices come closer to him.

Soon, a fat man had appeared in the small light that came from a lamp post a few feet away. The man had tanned skin and a messy black beard along with old torn clothing, missing teeth, and a nearly bald head. Luffy didn't like the looks of this man and tried to move further away only to press himself further into the corner of two brick walls.

He kept his eyes on the fat man who looked to be the boss. He saw other people immerge from the shadows, all of them grinning at him as if he were some kind of prize. With each person that showed their ugly and beaten face, Luffy got more worried. Within a matter of seconds, there were easily fifteen people. Half of the lackeys faces might as well have had the words 'Gang bang' on them. The other half looking as if they ready to murder him in the worst ways possible. The boss looking ready to do both.

"So what first?" The fat man questioned slowly, an evil grin crossing his features.

"Cut 'im up!" A lackey yelled.

"No! Give 'im somethin' good first!" Another lackey shouted.

"Yeah! Fuck the poor bastard!" A group of lackeys shouted before cheering.

"If you insist." The boss said with a smirk before stepping closer to Luffy.

Luffy watched the boss with panicked eyes. He knew all means of escape were blocked off by the gang so the only thing left was to fight or give in and he wasn't about to be raped then killed. But, if he tried to fight, then he'd be killed as well. Then he chose. 'I'd rather go down fighting. Huh. Never thought I'd say it for real… Weird.'

Luffy was pulled from his thoughts when he felt large hands grab his wrists and pin them above his head. He looked at the man holding him and saw it was the boss. His eyes widened at the fact that it was now too late to even try a real escape.

Soon the boss had started unbuttoning Luffy's shirt, showing his tanned and toned chest, causing a few of the closer lackeys to whistle. The boss leaned forward and kissed Luffy's neck, biting it hard enough to leave a mark and draw a little bit of blood causing Luffy to wince. Slowly, the boss left more marks along Luffy's left shoulder and chest after the shirt was fully taken off and on the floor.

While trying to ignore how disgusting this was, Luffy realized the man had left himself wide open. Quickly, and with much force, Luffy kneed the man in the stomach causing him to cripple over slightly and lose some strength. Sadly, he never lost his grip on Luffy.

"That ain't nice ya brat." The fat man growled while pulling out a knife. "Now, you're gonna let me do what I want to ya or else I might hafta damage that nice body o' yours more."

"More…?" Luffy questioned quietly.

The fat man grinned from ear to ear as he quickly lifted the pocket knife to Luffy's face and stabbed him just below the left eye. Luffy tried not to scream as any movement from his cheeks had caused the blade to scratch his cheek bone, causing more pain. The boss, finding this amusing, chose to move the knife around and even push it in deeper. After a few seconds of this, Luffy couldn't hold it back any long and let out a loud scream when the man stabbed further.

The boss took the knife out of Luffy's cheek and licked the blood off the blade as he watched hot liquids, both clear and a beautiful crimson, stream down the boy's face. The look of sheer pain and terror aroused the man.

Just as the boss was about to undo the button on Luffy's denim shorts, a growling voice interrupted him. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing to him!?"

The boss, and all his lackeys, turned to look at the source of the voice but saw nothing. Not even an outline of a figure was to be seen. Soon enough, every lackey had a weapon out, ranging from a crowbar to a pocket knife to a pistol. "Show yourself you coward!" A lackey yelled.

"Coward? Is that what you called me?" The voice scoffed. "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be. Oh and, you suggest I show myself, how about you come to me?"

"Excuse me?" The boss nearly growled.

"Let go of the boy now and I'll leave you with a slight chance at living." The voice said, echoing off the walls confusing the gang members of its origin.

"If you're so tough, why don't you come get him?" The boss said before turning to face the rest of the alley, pulling Luffy in front of him, pulling the boy's hands behind his back, and holding his knife to the boy's neck.

"Don't you fucking dare harm him further! I was going to kick your asses for just troubling him, but now I'm really pissed!" The voice growled.

"Tell me who ya are before I get rid of my toy." The boss ordered.

"You can call me 'Fire Fist'. You aren't good enough to know my name." The voice, Fire Fist, said, anger still evident in his tone along with annoyance.

"Fire Fist? As in the pirate from hundreds of years ago? Ya make me laugh! Ya know what? I don't care anymore! You're just some piece o' shit who thinks he can do anything if he sounds cool right?" The boss said with a smirk.

"You wanna test that out?" Fire Fist questioned and, for a split second, a spark of fire could be seen.

"Come out and we will!" The boss yelled in annoyance.

"Tsk tsk tsk. And you've returned to the first argument." Two voices said in unison, one belonging to Fire Fist while the other was unknown.

"Oi. 'Fire Fist'. I've got Lu. You can get the rest." The new voice echoed quietly, followed by a light chuckle due to the old name.

"Sounds good to me." Fire Fist said while sounding as if he were smirking. Within seconds, the alley was filled with screams of pain, shooting, swinging, stabbing, and even sucking and hissing.

The boss was shocked. What the hell was happening to his men? It was only two men, wasn't it? Hell it was only one man! Why did it sound like they were dying and maybe even eaten!? Suddenly, his train of thought was cut off when he felt something around his neck. Slowly he looked and saw an arm, covered by a white dress shirt sleeve wrapped round his neck.

"How does it feel to have something at your neck now? Not fun, right?" The owner of the second voice whispered into the boss' ear from behind.

"What are you-?" The boss attempted to question only to be stopped when his neck was broken, killing him instantly.

"To answer your question, you don't want to know." The second voice owner said before taking the knife out of the boss' still, somehow, clenched hand and dropping him. "Tch. Can't even get a good knife. What's with thugs these days?"

"W-who are you…? Y-you aren't like them… Are you…?" Luffy questioned with fear as he rubbed his wrists.

"Of course not. I'm Sabo, and the one calling himself 'Fire Fist' is Ace." Sabo said with a kind and trusting yet small smile as he slowly walked to Luffy and checked his wounds. "These are pretty bad. We should get you home to clean you up. But… Your cheek is gonna need stitches. Any other wounds he gave you?"

"N-no…" Luffy muttered.

"Good. Now how about you put on your shirt before Ace sees those and mutilates that man's corpse?" Sabo suggested, pointing at the bite marks on Luffy's neck.

Luffy reached a hand up to his neck and winced when he touched the still fresh wounds. Slowly and carefully, never taking his eyes off of Sabo, he grabbed his shirt and put it back on. By the time he was done buttoning up his shirt, the screams and other background sounds were gone.

"So? How'd it go?" Sabo asked, turning towards the shadows with a smirk.

"They tasted like shit. Worse than any murder, rapist, thief, or pirate could ever be. I didn't think someone's blood could taste so rancid!" Ace said as he walked out of the shadows, wiping a drop of blood off the corner of his mouth.

"T-thank you… For helping me, that is." Luffy thanked.

"Dude… No." Sabo said simply as he turned back to Luffy, confusing the boy.

"What?" Luffy questioned.

"We knew a guy who… Looked almost exactly like you. Let's just say, he was an idiot and it's really weird to see you all nice, polite, and all that." Ace said with a playful smile and matching chuckle.

"Oh… Then um… Can you help me get home? I live in the apartments on the corner of-"

"We know." Sabo said, cutting off Luffy.

"What…?" Luffy muttered, getting nervous again.

"Don't worry. We're only hear to help. We know more about you than you think. But it's only to protect you." Ace stated sadly.

"What do you mean?" Luffy questioned.

"We had a little brother who looked exactly like you. We watched him die and couldn't do anything. When we saw you, we decided to make it up to him and to protect you. Think of us as stalkers. Think of us as Guardian Angels. Think of us as brothers. I honestly don't care what you claim us to be." Ace said with a sad and small smile.

Luffy looked at the two for a while before smiling. "Ace-" he said while pointing towards said raven before pointing at the blonde next to him "and Sabo, right?"

"Correct." Sabo said with a smile.

"Cool. I trust you guys. I don't know why but I feel like I should." Luffy said with a smile before swaying only to be caught by Ace.

"Relax. We'll get you home and cleaned up. You'll be up and runnin' in no time flat." Ace said with a small smirk.

Luffy stared at Ace for a few moments before nodding slightly. Luffy was surprised with how easily Ace had picked him up. He was strong but gentle at the same time. Luffy couldn't help but think of how weird that was, almost as weird as the fact that Ace wasn't wearing a shirt. Soon enough, Luffy's thoughts washed away as he unconsciously snuggled closer to the warmth that was Ace before falling asleep in the older raven's arms.

(Aaaaaand there's chapter one! Not how I originally planned but hey, still good enough. I actually have nothing to say other than this. Fave, follow, read my other stuff, and review! Bai~! c(X )

Start Time – 5:30 P.M.

End Time – 12:30 A.M.