I wanted to have published this fanfiction yesterday just after I finished writing it but my laptop had been confiscated because of New Year's feasts. Then, Happy Birthday to Ace and Oda-sensei and a Happy New Year from all of us! I'm sorry for my mistakes, like I said, I finished writing it yesterday and wanted to have publish just after, I hadn't time to fix any mistakes I made.

Summary: Ace hates when someone forget his birthday and that's why he doesn't like New Year. Everything changes when he sees that Luffy was still at his side like always. One-shot.

Rated: Fiction K

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, it belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Why He Loves It

Ace hates the word "destiny". Since when, he doesn't know, probably since always, but that simple word always got on his nerves. It was as if someone else was controlling everything happening in his life. The word itself, destiny, sounded like it could control all bad or good things that happen in everyone's life. And, most of all, it sounded like his meeting with Luffy or be that man's son was all planned by destiny. But if everything has been decided by fate, then why he has been born? What was the purpose of keep living? He wanted to know. Until the day he find a light to guide him, he will seek for the answer.

Not long ago, he made a similar question to that old geezer and he answered in a complicated way that made him curse every day. If an unknown force – the destiny –, causes everything that happens, no matter how minimal it is, then this existence must be incredibly unfair and cruel. Because, since that fateful day, neither he nor Luffy were the same. For better or for worse, the change in them was profoundly noticeable, even someone like Dadan could notices it.

It was their first New Year without Sabo. None of the previous ones were that good though. Dadan and the other bandits were having a small feast with half of the bear meat they had caught during the hunt in the afternoon, and he could swear he could hear the celebrations from afar. From the top of the tree, he could see beautiful lights coming from Fuschia village and happy voices commenting in joy on how much the year had been good and how they hoped the next would be even better.

The resolutions for the next year were all pretty much the same; health, peace, love, money. Luffy, on the other hand, wanted more meat for the next year, which made Ace wonder if he really didn't think of anything else than meat. Oh yes, of course, he also wanted to be the Pirate King. He couldn't forget about that too. There was another thing that Ace had realised; the families seemed pretty together at this time of year.

An unknown feeling to him filled the air.

"Happiness," he said casually as a breeze passed by him, messing up his hair.

Although Luffy and he were far from Fuschia, and on the top of a tree, he could hear that the happy conversations were even louder now. Children should be holding hands with their parents and friends should be meeting up for the feasts while waiting for the New Year.

Children…and their parents. Children who lived happy lives with their parents.

Ace was grateful to have found a new family, no matter how reckless or problematic Luffy was, he still was his precious little brother. But, they say children should not be blamed for their parents' sins, then why he still felt guilty when someone gossiped about Roger? Every time he saw a child being carried on the shoulders by the father or a son holding hands with his mother, a pain struck him directly in his chest.

Ace particularly hated New Year. It wasn't anything like he was being irrational, he had many reasons to dislike it, but the main one is that the first New Year's day was his birthday. The freckled boy never admitted to anyone, much less to Sabo while he was still alive, that damn blond could make fun of him for it, but he always hated when people forgot his birthday. As if being the son of the most the most hated man of the era wasn't good enough, people with whom he lived had to forget his birthday as well.

Ace hated to have been born on January 1st.

To make his humour even worse, his stupid little brother spent the whole day annoying him to go fishing at sea. Was Luffy mad? First, the rubber boy couldn't swim if they happened to fall off the boat, and he would be nothing more than a hammer if that happened. Second, there was a large sea king out Dawn Island's sea. Third, Ace does prefer bear's meat than fish. Simple as that.

Ace knew that Luffy wouldn't give up; the younger one was as stubborn as him.

"B-but, Ace!" Luffy whined, pulling him by his thin scarf, which made him choke and turn blue from the lack of air.

The next second, Luffy was on the ground with his small hands on the growing bump on his head and holding back his tears. He couldn't cry. Even though Ace's punch hurts like hell, he wouldn't cry. Then he swallowed back the tears.

"LUFFY YOU IDIOT! YOU WANT TO KILL ME?" Ace shouted holding his neck and breathing heavily. After a few seconds when his breathing had returned to normal, he stretched out his arm and motioned to Luffy to take his hand and stand up. He had noticed that Luffy was still with tearful eyes and strongly holding back tears. Sighing and giving a small smile he apologised, "Look, I'm sorry 'kay? C'mon! Don't look at me like that Luffy!"

No answer. Luffy just continued wiping his nose, ignoring the popped vein on the older boy's forehead.

"It was your fault anyway!" Ace protested furiously.

Luffy wiped his catarrh, as well as the stubborn tears that insisted on rolling down his face without his permission. Shortly afterwards he grinned as if nothing happened.

"No problem!" He laughed, standing up.

Ace sighed tiredly. He shouldn't have worried so much about him. You see, Luffy was already fine.

If there was one thing he didn't hate about the New Year was having Luffy at his side. Making rain, snowstorm or thunderstorm, Luffy always wore a wide smile to ensure that 'everything was fine'.

They stood there looking at the stars and waiting for the time to pass. It was exactly 00:01 a.m when the older one noticed that the sounds coming from Fuschia had increased. Ace looked around wondering if Luffy had fallen asleep as he was quiet for more than a minute now, which was very strange. He was surprised to see that Luffy was still staring at the sky, with a bright glare and focused on something far away as if asking for something. Whatever it was, to have made Luffy make a face as serious as that, it shouldn't be a good thing.

'It's probably about meat, since this is such a serious matter to him.' Ace pondered, slightly agreeing with himself. 'I love meat, and who doesn't? But Luffy's a meat freak! He should think of other forms of diet…No, I've tried that once and he almost killed me!'

Ace was so deep in thoughts he didn't notice that Luffy was staring closely at him, making funny faces. When Luffy noticed that Ace didn't pay attention to what he said, he had the brilliant idea of doing funny faces in front of the other.

The freckled boy continued mentally talking to himself for some time and when he was finally snapped out of his thoughtful moment, he looked up, just to see Luffy making faces at him right in front of him.

"Luffy," he began calmly, stopping the urge to shout. "What the heck are you doing?"

The other raven-haired boy only smiled happily and stopped to stretch his cheek, which flew straight to its place. "Oh, Ace~! When I noticed that you were making a funny face as you looked straight and didn't answer me, I decided to make funny faces too!"

Ace's right eye twitched and he make an effort to not give an evil grin.

'He's making fun of me!'

Before he could say anything, Ace was caught in surprise as Luffy hit a fist in his other hand and his smile was even wider than the one he had given earlier, smiling from ear to ear. Ace arched an eyebrow at that.

"Hey Ace! I just remembered about one thing!" Luffy exclaimed overjoyed. "Today's your birthday, right?"

Ace's jaw dropped slightly.

'Oh, that's right! It's already January 1!' Ace thought. He had forgotten about it. 'I was so absorbed in thinking about the New Year that even I forgot my birthday!'

Luffy smiled when he saw Ace's reaction and hugged him, making the freckled boy look at him completely surprised since he had been caught off guard.

"Happy birthday Ace! I'm glad you've been born!" he said, tightening their hug with his rubber arms around Ace's waist.

Seeing that genuinely happy smile and see that Luffy hadn't forgotten his birthday, made Ace extremely happy. It doesn't matter if he doesn't get a birthday gift or if other people don't consider his existence, or even if he still feel unlucky for being Roger's son. If his naïve little brother remembered about his birthday, then everything was worth it. That was enough and the best gift he could ever receive. And that made him love his birthday. And above all, that was his long waited answer.

Not that he would admit it aloud, of course. He, after all, was still very stubborn.

Ace clenched his teeth and turned his face away from Luffy, blushing furiously. Right after, he punched Luffy on his head.

"S-shut up, idiot!" he shouted, pouting. A small and gentle smile played on his lips.

Affection wasn't one of his strengths, but he has his own ways of showing it and giving a punch on Luffy's head was one of them. Maybe he had inevitably caught this side of Garp.

A sob. Oh, Luffy.

It was the second punch Ace had given Luffy in that day. It hurt him as soon as he realised that tears were formed again in Luffy's large eyes.

Before the rubber boy could cry, he gave a pat on his head and gave a wide and bright smile as the younger boy looked at him wiping his tears.

"But thanks."

Then, did you like it? I'm not used to write One-shots, specially when it has less than 2k words (1638 words on Word). So, please be gentle if you felt like it was rushed and do leave a review :3

Edited and revised by me on: 07.16.2012