Hello friends, how is that global health crisis going? Good I hope. I found some inspiration to continue this story, I don't have much ready in advance for the next chapter so I hope you'd provide me motivation to write more. Here we go

Ages reminder
Luffy: 9
Ace: 12
Sabo: 12
Zoro: 11
Nojiko: 13
Coby: 8
Deuce: 14

Summary: After the events of the fire of the Grey Terminal, Sabo didn't end up leaving by himself as he was caught by Ace and Luffy. Instead, all the three of them left for their own adventure.

After encountering Coby and saving a village where the boy remained, they went for another adventure. In the bandit island, Roumba, they ended up separated. Luffy befriended Zoro, a wounded young swordsman and Ace was captured by bandits. Sabo having found Luffy and Zoro fought some bandits, stealing their stuff and tried to go after the ship his brother was imprisoned in. Ace managed to escape just to get stranded on a deserted island and meeting Deuce, a hopeful doctor student. Shenanigans later, Zoro led the Freedom, to the small isle, finding their brother and his new friend.

In the meantime, Monkey D. Garp received a letter from Dadan where she explained that his grandsons vanished. As he investigated their whereabouts, Coby encountered his path and managed to get himself a spot on his ship and is working there with Helmeppo as a chore boy.

~ RZ ~

"Zoro you're bleeding." Luffy said when they got on the Freedom and everyone turned to him, noticing the widening patch of red on his side.

The green haired swordsman did the same and sighed, kind of disappointed. He managed to avoid breaking the stitches during the fight but it seemed like going for a swim with his captain under his arm was enough to rip them off his skin. It didn't even hurt that much, the burn of the salt was only mildly irritating. He, of course, wasn't aware that a normal person would be screaming their lungs off from the pain by now. Zoro fortunately knew that he should clean the wound as soon as possible. When he lifted his face again he noticed that the three brothers were staring at a flustered Deuce.

"You're a doctor." Stated Luffy and the blue haired teen seemed ready to protest but Ace slapped his hand on his shoulder.

"Heck yeah he is! He's gonna be the best doctor ever!"

Luffy nodded then suddenly pouted.

"Wait no way, I'm gonna find a better doctor for my crew! The best of the best."

Ace immediately turned to the younger captain to defend his first mate who looked overwhelmed by their argument. Was this guy supposed to patch him up?

"No you won't! Deuce is gonna be the best doctor better than any doctor!"

While Ace and Luffy argued, Sabo gently pushed Deuce inside along with Zoro so they could actually do the healing part.

They didn't have an infirmary on the ship, it was too small but they at least had a first aid kit that Sabo somehow produred. When Zoro asked the first time he got healed, Sabo had told him he got it as a gift from a future marine friend and the green haired teen left it at that.

"Okay er… Zoro right? Could you remove your shirt so we can have a look?"

Zoro complied effortlessly.

"What the…?! How did something like that happen?!"

Deuce looked so surprised and Zoro sighed, it was just a hole in the skin nothing to be freaking out about.

~ NN ~

Nojiko didn't dare try to escape again during the next day, fortunately, the Mayor Sandra didn't visit her either so that might mean that she didn't know about her escapade, hopefully. The young teen didn't know what to do anymore, she thought about going back home, about the Revolutionary Army, about trying to blackmail them into releasing her but she suspected it would have the opposite effect. She pushed herself backwards from her chair, letting it balance on two feet. What could she offer to Sandra for her freedom?

She suddenly slipped and fell back on her chair, hitting the floor.

Ow

Nojiko winced in pain, that was dumb, she rose from the floor, rubbing at the back of her head, her despair went far and she didn't know what to do anymore.

The paper she was given was still hidden in her pillow and she wondered if she should keep the useless object. The king's room has a secret passageway. Please take care princess. She knew those words by heart now and she was annoyed by their uselessness, how was it supposed to help her? Even if she found the right room then what? How would she even find the passageway? One mistake would be enough for the nocturnal visits to stop, she would be more guarded at night and wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

Her gaze went to the only candle of the room, the one shining on her books in the evening when she wanted to read. She slipped her hand to find the paper, better burn it now before anyone found it, she was just putting the kind Ms. Camille in danger by keeping it. As the flame rose to burn the paper she noticed something strange, there another message behind the paper! She quickly stopped the fire by steeping on it, forgetting that she wasn't wearing shoes and burning her foot.

"Ow ow ow…" At least it was successful and she pulled the darkened paper next to the flame again, without burning it this time. There, in elegant letters was a secret message.

"brick 12:20 right wall". She held the paper a little bit longer, astonished then smiled, it was still possible, she wouldn't give up. She dried her tears and rose again, it wasn't hopeless, she could escape! Nami was counting on her as was the village. If the Revolutionaries wouldn't help her, she would escape and figure out something else.

Now it was worth it, she would keep looking for the right room and then hopefully escape.

~ DD ~

Deuce finished stitching up the wound, cleaning it one last time with rubbing alcohol so it wouldn't get infected. He scrunched up his nose, the smell of it was pretty strong. The young man could see the swordsman flinch at the contact but he didn't protest vocally.

When finished, he started cleaning his hands in the bucket of water Sabo brought. It was the worst wound he's ever seen and Zoro looked barely bothered. He did look away when he started sowing the skin but now it was over, the green haired swordsman looked like he was napping.

Badass. Deuce thought, stupid brave but badass, half worried half admiring.

The blond captain entered the room and was now checking his stitches and whistled at Deuce's work.

"Where did you learn to do this? I thought you weren't a doctor yet."

Deuce rubbed the back of his neck, trying not to look too embarrassed.

"A-ah it was just from a book I read some time ago."

He couldn't tell him that his mother was a tailor and she taught him how to sow very early. His chirurgical stitches were just Connell stitches, meant to fix clothing without showing thread.

The needle was different though, longer, bent around, and he didn't expect the needle to be so slippery with the blood either, would maybe be easier with gloves. He struggled for a couple of minutes until he got the hang of it. Deuce was also containing his excitement at doing his first real medical procedure, his captain's foot didn't count. He still wanted to look kinda cool in front of Ace's brothers. He was proud and this little lie meant nothing.

"Well it's pretty impressive to learn that from books."

Deuce shrugged nervously and diverted the topic to Sabo.

"How did you learn then? I mean you're the one who stitched Zoro up before right?" The old thread that he removed didn't look so bad.

It was Sabo's turn to look embarrassed.

"I… I kinda did what I saw a bandit doing. I'm not any close to being a doctor, really…"

Deuce smiled, glad that he could actually be useful. Before he wanted to be a doctor more for the status, the fame, the pocket money his strict parents didn't allow him. He was good at caring for others too so it helped but now… now he had a new ambition and he was even more sure he could do it this time. But, he remembered, there was still the issue of money…

A dark cloud hovered over his head and he whined internally, how could he solve this issue…

He shook his head suddenly. No he couldn't mope now, he was going to get the money from scratch, find a job and become the best doctor that Ace wanted. For him and for his crew!

When he lifted his face, Sabo was looking at him weird. Deuce felt his embarrassment grow.

"Are you okay?"

"Haha yeah, just figuring out some stuff…"

So much for trying to look cool…

~ ASL ~

Ace was a little surprised by the amount of food left, particularly by the amount of meat, Luffy usually ate everything in a couple of days but now the chicken was on it's way to get rotten and they needed to eat it before it was too late.

"I didn't eat any meat!" Said Luffy by his side and Ace blinked.

"I know my punishment wasn't that long but I didn't feel like eating any until you came back!" Luffy added, eyeing the meat Ace was checking, drooling.

Ace completely forgot about the whole incident if he was honest, he didn't even care if Luffy held his promise or not, he expected Luffy to fail as soon as Ace was out of sight but the fact that he held for so long…

The freckled teen brought Luffy closer by his arm, and pushed at Luffy's straw hat, getting it stuck against his face for a second while he boogied him.

"Silly brother" he smiled while Luffy struggled against his grip.

It meant a lot to him, that his young brother cared so much, he was really pleased but he admitting it was too much. He let him go after a couple of seconds.

"Let's eat all of it now, okay?"

Once Luffy was done checking if his hat wasn't ruffled, he smiled widely and took the barrel his brother handled him.

"Yeah!"

~ NN ~

The next morning she decided to continue her doomed escape attempts with the secret objective to find the king's room. The office she visited wasn't it so she needed to look out for the right possibilities. The teen would disregard the closets and other small bedrooms as not being what she was looking for, she needed to think logically. The castle was tall with its white walls and there was way more floors than she thought there would be but she was pretty sure the king's room must be pretty high up. If invaders attacked, the soldiers must be able to protect him. Plus, the door of the king's quarters must be decorated and big, so she would look for exactly that, it was her best bet at the moment. One of these nights she would find that room, the secret passageway and escape.

"The Lady escaped again!" Nojiko didn't move as a guard passed by the curtain she was hiding behind, she counted ten but at the seventh number a door opened not far from her, she couldn't see who it was but she recognized one of the voices.

"...want the gold from the South East room. It's the only thing keeping the Mayor up here, if she doesn't prove herself at the Summer Festival, there's no saying what would happen. Another revolution would bring this country to ruin and the Marines would take advantage of it to take power back." Said a first voice.

"But what if the gold was stolen? Wouldn't that be…" Another voice answered before fading out, Nojiko didn't know what to think and counted ten again before running around another corridor. There, Sandra herself was waiting with a smile.

"Ah, I was wondering why you didn't try yesterday, you're not sick, are you?." Nojiko groaned under her breath and followed the woman back to her room, she would have to try another time, it was time for dinner soon.

~ ASL ~

They returned to the beach as the night started to fall and made a bonfire from some broken barrels and the dead tree that used to be there. It would help to warm up the meat and start the party.

None of them looked like they really knew what a pirate party was though. Luffy said he did but Sabo wasn't one hundred percent sure his young brother knew what it was actually about. After all, they were too young to drink and didn't have any drinkable alcohol anyway. They sat in a circle, the half moon bright above them, the three captains sitting all next to each other with Ace in the middle. To his right, Luffy was eating his food as fast as he could and attempting to steal Zoro's next to him. To Ace's left Sabo was focused on cooking the food right, most of the meat on the grill was already cooked but just needed some warming up and the blond captain took care of checking on it with Deuce next to him just watching everyone with awe, he'd never had a party with friends before!

Ace started by telling them about what happened to him, mumbling quickly about the way he got caught and explaining in great detail about how he set the bandit's ship on fire and escaped. Deuce was the one who talked next, he was a little shyer, unused to having an audience but in the end he mostly told about their stay on the island they were partying on, how he made a fishing rod and how Ace broke it the previous day.

"Wasn't my fault the fish was too big!" Sabo was mostly throwing some glances at Zoro, he kind of wanted to apologize for his behavior the day before but doing it with everyone around would be weird. He guessed that the green haired kid didn't even blame him for anything but he still felt kind of bad.

Luffy took advantage of the discussion to steal some food from Ace's plate and bit into it, his brother noticed and tried to pry him away only for Luffy to jump back and run away, the meat still in his mouth. Ace started to chase after him with the laughs of Sabo and Deuce. When they came back, Ace still nooging his young brother under his arm, Deuce suggested something interesting.

"I think pirates sing when they have parties…"

"Yeah yeah! We need to sing and drink!" Added Luffy trying to bounce on his spot, struggling against his brother.

"Sing?" Blinked Sabo.

"That's a good idea, bandits did that too, remember Sabo?" Ace told him, his fist falling on Luffy's head in realization, this one finally managed to get away and scrambled next to Sabo.

The blond remembered, they often left Dadan's house whenever that happened, it was too loud to sleep after a hunting day.

"Do you know any pirate songs though?" He asked.

"Er… no not really…" Deuce mumbled turning to his right where the green swordsman yawned.

"I don't." Said Zoro, laying down on the sand, seeming ready to nap again. Still feeling sorry, Sabo left him at it and turned to Ace who shook his head, Luffy jumped proudly.

"I know one! Shanks taught me! I don't remember all the lyrics but it goes like this…"

He cleared his throat and started singing.

"The islands in the south are

Warm〜

Heads all a-swoon-swoon"

Ace was the first one to break into laughter. Both brothers remembered hearing Luffy singing it in the forest when he was bored and they both started singing too. Deuce simply clapped along while Zoro was still lying peacefully, apparently deciding not to participate.

"Buncha fools〜

The islands in the north are

Chilly〜 "

The night was warm and Luffy stood up and danced around the fire as he sang.

"Heads all a-brr-brr

Buncha fools〜 "

Sabo joined him and Ace pulled Deuce with him and they all danced and circled the fire.

"The islands in the west are

Stormy〜

Heads all drop-drop

Buncha fools〜 "

Luffy tripped on Zoro's face who suddenly found the will to wake up and chased after Luffy around the beach.

"The island in the east are

Easy〜

Heads all light-light

Buncha fools〜 "

Zoro caught up to Luffy and they wrestled in the sand while Ace cheered for his brother. In the end Zoro surrendered to avoid his wound opening again and Luffy sprung on Ace to fight him too.

"Deuce, so you said you wanted to be a doctor, where do you need to go?" Asked Sabo, sitting down to eat more food and watching his brothers play in the corner of his eye.

"Erm… Oykot Country, they have the best Medicine Academy, I just need to work for money, they won't let me in for free." He lowered his eyes, frowning while Sabo hummed, mumbling something about a castle and a map. Zoro laid down again but wasn't sleeping and was simply watching the sky.

"That's where we need to go then." Sabo continued "We have a treasure but we need to turn it into berrys first, what do you think?" Deuce blinked, understanding.

"You would..?"

Sabo put his hand on Deuce shoulder and smiled.

"You're part of this crew now, your captain will gladly pay for you." They both heard Ace's muffled protest in the distance and Sabo laughed.

"With those three and Ace as your captain, we will need a doctor as soon as possible, you can't imagine all the trouble they get in."

"And you too!" Said Ace, managing to tie Luffy's limbs together then freeing him when his brother finally surrendered.

They ate some more and danced and sang again until they dropped, Ace first in a bit of narcolepsy then Luffy followed along, falling on his brother. Sabo wondered if they should return to the ship for the night but decided against it seeing Luffy asleep so fast as well, Zoro didn't take long either, sleeping not far away from them and Sabo laid down on the sand, near the fire, looking at the dark sky littered by stars. Tonight was a precious night he wanted to remember. He heard Deuce do the same, yawning and lying on the sand.

It was a peaceful night.

Made a peaceful chapter here, next crewmember incoming soon I guess. I also made up the rest of Luffy's song because I wanted to.

The posting rythm absolutely depends on the reviews, thanks for reading this story

Bye