You know how you have one of those days you just know is going to be bad and you wish you could just stay in bed until that feeling goes away but, you can't because you're an adult with responsibilities. Yeah, I had one of those days a little over a month ago and it hasn't got much better.

My dog got sick, he's better now. But, almost as soon as we got over that hump and I could get back to writing, a pair of my neighbors dogs were loose and attacked (tried to kill) my cat. Top that off with some family issues and a boss that could care less and wished all his employees were robots, I'm now looking for a job too. Good news is my cat has recovered and is now a strictly indoor (rather than indoor/outdoor) cat weather he likes it or not.

::sigh:: This chapter was originally going to be at least twice as long, in fact I held off publishing it to see if I could get back into gear but, I just couldn't get there. It's not really finished so, think of this as part one.

I really have no idea when I'll get to the next part out, right now I just feel so drained. Maybe when the stress of finding a new job and getting settled into it is out of the way my creative spark will be back. Right now it's more like the weak spark you get from an empty lighter...

Thank you, thank you my wonderful reviewers, followers (over 300 now! ::Squeals and faints::) and favs.

I would say that I don`t have the time to reply to all of you individually like I have been if I wanted to lie to you guys and take the easy way out of an explanation.

Truth is I just really don't feel up to it, it wouldn't be me personally taking an interest and replying to you all on an individual level, it would just be me 'going through the motions'. That's not fair to any of us.

I know what this means, it's an early warning sign that my depression is starting to wake up and say "oh, you're having a bad patch are you? Here, let me make it worse."

Just know that I read each new review, several of you made me smile. That counts for a lot right now. Hopefully next time I post, I'll feel more like me and can reply back to your reviews. Cookies and milk for everyone!

I don't own one piece

One vulnerability that everyone, even the vampires agree upon is how easy it is to get close to a vampire while they are asleep without detection. Ace could only sense what was going on around him from a radios of about five feet away from him.

It is perhaps why vampire's tend to have homes in remote places. Although, that could easily be more attributed to the human tendency to wave about torches and sharpen bits of wood whenever they hear of a vampire in the area.

Not knowing any other half-vampires or even any vampires, Sabo and Luffy did not know if many of Ace's habits was normal for one of his mixed heritage or if it was something that was uniquely Ace.

Ace was able to sense who or what was near him and if the person or animal was deemed friend, Ace was more difficult to wake up than a grizzly bear in mid winter. His waking process during these times is slow, it takes Ace's brain several minutes to engage and take itself off of auto-pilot.

However anyone unfamiliar who was incautious, ignorant, arrogant, stupid or otherwise unlucky enough to try and approach Ace while he was asleep would be in for an instant attack once they came into range. The instinct to attack any threat apparently required no brain power to operate. There was at least one tiger that had learned this fact the hard way and still ran from Ace whenever it caught sight of Ace.

Knowing this explained a lot about Ace and why he felt morning should be banned as a general rule. It went a long way towards explaining why Ace is the way he is at the moment of waking up.

Ace twitched, trying to figure out which brain cell decided to get active and whether it was important enough to wake up for.

Salty... The word floated around in Ace's inactive brain, trying to find a clue as to why it was drifting around in there. Finding nothing to link it up with, the word settled back down to the depths.

In a way that was second nature to Ace, he could sense Luffy's presence lying on his back. It was the only place where Ace felt any warmth. He was vampire enough not to suffer any ill effects from the cold but, human enough to hate being cold and apparently vampire enough not to be able to generate his own heat. Ace had to use his brothers as heaters or drink someone's blood in order to not feel cold.

Wooden... A new word drifted up into the level of Ace's awareness. That word seemed... important somehow...

Ace twitched again when a part of him realized he couldn't 'feel' Sabo near him. That thought nagged at him enough to kick some extra brain cells into gear. On his back, Luffy mumbled something incoherent and shifted himself back into a comfortable position.

Ace couldn't feel Sabo... But, that wasn't unusual... unless he was very close Ace wouldn't. So, why did that bother him so much this time...

With a higher brainwave activity going, Ace also realized that he and Luffy were both wet.

Slowly, like an out of focus picture coming into view Ace began to piece together the clues his brain had been trying to get him to notice.

Salty... wet... water...No Sabo... on a wooden object... water... No Sabo...

Ace's eyes slammed open with the urgency of a late night party-goer who couldn't remember if they got home or not.

Ace remembered how Luffy had managed to stretch enough to reach him just as the lightning hit the mast. It was to quick and to bright to be certain but, Ace was pretty sure Sabo was alright.

The next thing Ace knew, he had his arms full of Luffy and he was trying to keep both of them afloat. Sometime during the storm something solid and buoyant had come close enough for Ace to grab hold of.

Ace could now see that he and Luffy wound up on the mast from their boat. Ace attempted to sit up without dislodging Luffy from his back, an easy feat considering the number of times either brother carried a sleeping Luffy on their back.

The sun had just finished setting in the west, the last glow of it's rays gracing the horizon. So, they had been out cold lying on their broken mast for a whole day.

Well, Ace could understand why he was asleep for it. Daytime was a normal sleep time for vampires and it usually took considerable effort on his brothers part to get him up and moving before sundown. But, Luffy... Ah, well the seawater probably had something to do with that. It weakened devil fruit users and both he and Luffy were soaked.

Ace let out a sigh.

He hoped Sabo was fairing better then they were. Of the three of them, he usually had the best luck. Luffy had the worst luck of the three with the uncanny addition to having the best luck possible in getting out of the situation his bad luck put him in. Ace well, he would be the first to admit that his luck was usually fell somewhere in between his brothers, sometimes really good up at Sabo's level while other times it could be as bad as Luffy's without the edition of being his own bad luck fix.

On the whole, Ace supposed it balanced out somehow. Although on what kind of scale was anyone's guess.

For now, Ace would just have to look after their littlest brother for the both of them and that meant getting Luffy somewhere dry. Ace could see a darker shape on the horizon where he was looking earlier to the west and knew it to be an island.

Ace carefully shifted Luffy around to his front. "Luffy, hey Lu. Come on, time to get up."

Luffy mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'meat' and tried to turn over in Ace's grip, causing Ace to tighten his grip on his little brother. That finally caused Luffy to stir.

"Ace... waz gon' on..?" Luffy asked, his voice sounding muzzy and his words slurred. That was wrong, all wrong. Luffy went from dead asleep to bouncing around like someone who just finished their tenth cup of coffee faster then someone could blink.

Ace swallowed his panic at the sound of Luffy's voice, even though his insides turned to lead at the sound. It would be fine, Ace kept on repeating to himself. Get Luffy dry and he would be free of the seawater's negative effect on him... Ace hoped, oh how he hoped that was all he needed to do to make this better. If it wasn't... Ace didn't know what to do.

"We were in the storm, remember Lu? You tired to pull me back to the boat and then it got struck by lightning..." Ace trailed off as he saw comprehension dawn on his little brother's face.

Luffy looked around in a frantic, yet sluggish panic. "Where's Sabo!?"

"He's still on the boat." Ace smiled or at least hoped that's what it looked like. "I'm sure Sabo will figure out some way to attach our small jib sail and make the boat go again. I'm going to fly us over to that island." Ace tilted his head in the direction of the island.

Luffy still looked doubtful, worried and Ace couldn't blame him. "Sabo will be fine Lu, he's the thinker of the three of us. Hell, he'll probably find us but, just in case I'll make a few search flights to see if I can spot him first."

Luffy nodded his head slowly.

"Good. I'm going to shift now so, I want you to stay still Luffy. We don't need you falling into the sea right now." Another nod from Luffy as his little brother moved forward to lie down on the mast was all the signal Ace need to go through with the shift.

As Marco flew closer to the object he spotted, it became clear to his keen eyes that it was a small boat in distress. His blue flames flared brighter in Marco's sudden urgency to get there faster.

On the deck he could see a blond kid working to put together a raft. That must be Sabo, Marco thought. He was the only one of the brothers who was blond. There was no sign of the other two and that didn't settle well with Marco.

The boat was sitting low in the water, clearly sinking, her mast missing. It was unlikely that the other two kids would be below... Marco really didn't care to finish that thought but, his treacherous brain had other ideas. The horrifying image of the other two kids adrift in the ocean kept on replaying in his mind.

Marco circled the boat once, on his second loop the kid must have noticed his shadow for he looked up at Marco flying somewhat low above him. The kid, Sabo paused in his raft preparations for a moment to watch Marco. Marco was hesitant to land, fearing his extra weight may be to much for the sinking boat and also not wanting to scare the kid, that would make a great first impression.

Marco let out a trill, hoping that it might be seen as some kind of a good sign by the boy, before leaving the area and heading back to Thatch to set a course directly to the kid.

He flew a little off a direct path, in the hopes that he may catch sight of the other two brothers but, with no luck. They could have been tossed anywhere by that storm, even a fifty miles away by now with the currents...

If Marco could sigh in his current state, he would do so. The odds of the two brats surviving for any length of time on the open water was slim. The only hope they would have is if the storm brought them near enough to an island.