Chapter 9

Salt For Your Wounds

„Ouch!"

„Hold still, Luffy. This cut is pretty deep …"

"But it stings, Makino!"

The sigh that escaped the bar owner in response was a mix of exasperation and fondness, as she straightened up, drawing the wad soaked in antiseptic away from the wound on Luffy's forehead. They were back in Party's Bar, Makino taking care of all the cuts and bruises Luffy had got in his brief encounter with the pirates. "If I don't clean this up now, Luffy, there's a chance it'll get infected."

Pouting, Luffy folded his arms across his chest. "This hurts worse than when I got the cut …"

"Maybe I'm doing it wrong … do you want me to get Gyoru? He's got more practice in this –"

Panicked, Luffy hurriedly grabbed at Makino's shirt as she turned away, ready to head out the door to look for the fishmonger. "NO!" he almost shouted, "It's fine, I'll be quiet I promise! Don't go!"

Gently, Makino took hold of Luffy's hand, loosening his grip on her shirt and folding it between her own two as she knelt down in front of him. "Alright," she said softly, "I'm not going anywhere."

Swallowing, Luffy nodded, trying to get his feelings back under control. For a moment, his vision seemed to go blurry again, and he had to bite his lip to stop the sob that was fighting its way to freedom from somewhere in his throat.

Eventually, a whisper escaped from the little boy, and Makino had to lean in close to catch the words. "I thought you were going to die."

Her heart squeezing at the brokenness in Luffy's voice, Makino scooted closer, putting a reassuring hand on the boy's back. "Oh, Luffy," she said, her own voice now barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to scare you like that. There was just no way of telling you that we had a plan …"

Hastily, Luffy nodded. Of course he knew that it would have been impossible for Makino to tell him that most of the village had come to their rescue once Makino had raised the alarm, and that by the time she started negotiating with Kakashi they had had the pirates surrounded. It still did not make the horrible, crushing feeling of near loss leave his chest.

Before he could break down into another round of impressively loud sobs, however, the sudden opening of the door saved him. Against the light that flooded the little bar, he could vaguely make out the figure of a boy, wearing a huge top hat. Quickly, Luffy wiped at his eyes.

"Still crying Luffy?" Sabo sighed, as he moved over to the bar where Makino had spread out her medical supplies.

Predictably, Luffy glared at him, although the look lacked its usual ferocity. "Am not!"

Kindly, Sabo chose to ignore that obvious lie. "Everything's going to be fine now. The mayor's just called the next marine base and the captain there said that they'll be along in a couple of days to pick up the pirates." By which time we'll be long gone. "So everything's done now. Nothing left to worry about."

"I know," Luffy said stubbornly.

Sabo gave him an almost sad smile and reached over to ruffle his hair.

"Where are they keeping them now, Sabo?" Makino asked, as she started tidying up her supplies.

"In the wine cellar underneath the mayor's house. Ace is there, too."

"Why?" Luffy asked, shooting Sabo a panicked look. "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"They're not locking him up, silly," Sabo said soothingly. "He's guarding them. Together with a couple of men from the village."

"Oh," Luffy murmured, and then hesitated. Several seconds ticked by before the little boy spoke up again. "Can we … do you think we can go and see Ace?"

Confused, Sabo cocked his head. "Why shouldn't we?"

Timidly, Luffy tugged at his shirt. "He won't be angry will he?"

Well that explained things – both Luffy's timidity and Ace's reluctance of leaving the prisoners to go and see their little brother. 'I don't trust the villagers my ass.'

How both Luffy and Ace could hold onto their grudge through surviving a life and death situation together was beyond Sabo. He was tempted to let his annoyance show, but the sight of Luffy's nervous fidgeting made him stop short.

"He won't be angry, Luffy," Makino broke into the stillness, when Sabo seemed lost for words. "Isn't that right, Sabo?"

For a heartbeat, Sabo was silent.

"No …," he said, and then seemed to come to a decision. "No, he won't."

And gently grabbing his little brother by the hand, he made his way out of the door of Party's Bar.

As a father of two boys who had just entered their teenage years, Gyoru could certainly claim to have ample experience with the pig-headedness that typically accompanied the intermediate years between child- and adulthood. At least, he had thought that to be true until he had met the black-haired boy who was currently glaring at the group of pirates behind the wooden bars of the wine cellar.

"Hey …," he tried for what felt like the thousandth time. "Don't you think … you should lie down for a bit?"

Again, his question was met with a stony wall of silence, as the boy continued to fix his gaze on the pirate leader, a picture of total alertness. Gyoru was not fooled, however. Despite the tenseness in the boy's body, he could see that he was teetering on the brink of absolute exhaustion. Likely, it was only a question of time until his legs would collapse under him.

Gyoru shook his head. "You know, you could've gone with the blond kid," he continued, sighing, in spite of the fact that he had been effectively talking to himself for the past fifteen minutes. "I'm sure Luffy would love to see you. And we've got everything-"

"No!"

It took a sheer gigantic amount of willpower not to come out with a sarcastic comment at the angry, one-word reply. "What do you mean, 'no'? Come on, I can see you're exhausted from here. At least sit down …"

The darkening expression on the boy's face did not bode well for Gyoru, but it was at that moment that the door on the stairs above them swung open. If Kenchiro had come to relieve him of his guard duty, Gyoru would only be too happy to leave his post. He had nothing against watching the pirates across the room, but babysitting the raven-haired brat was turning into a bit of a nightmare.

"And what in the world are you still doing here?"

The annoyed question made Ace finally look away from the prisoners to zero his scowl in on a new target.

"Didn't Makino say she wanted to take a look at that cut in your arm?" the mayor asked, as he descended the steps into his wine cellar.

"… I'm fine."

"No, you're not." And the elderly man stuck out his cane and poked Ace's right knee with it. The effect was immediate: with a grunt of pain the boy fell to the floor, cursing.

"Mr. Mayor!" Gyoru cried out disapprovingly, dropping to his knees next to Ace, who was clutching his leg.

"Twisted knee," the mayor observed helpfully. "That's got to be painful."

"You don't say!" Ace pressed out between clenched teeth. "What the fuck was that for?"

"Just driving a point home," the elderly man said, and then leant down to fix the boy with a stare. "Now, go and let Makino take a look. Or do you want me to point out your other injuries to you?"

Glaring, Ace slowly rose to his feet, ignoring Gyoru's proffered hand.

"Oh, and stop that scowling nonsense. It makes you look like a rowdy. Honestly, the state of today's youth … no manners!"

"Manners?!" Ace barked, with the appropriate outrage of someone who had just been rudely knocked to the floor.

The mayor raised his cane threateningly. "Yes, manners! You can start improving them by stopping this shouting business!" he yelled. "Troublesome kid …"

Warily, Ace kept a close eye on the cane. "If we're so troublesome, why the fuck did you come and help us?"

The mayor glared at Ace, obviously taking issue with the expletive. "What a ridiculous question is that? You boys were in trouble, weren't you?"

Ace clenched his teeth. "We're not your responsibility!"

The mayor snorted. "Of course you are. Luffy may not live with us anymore, but we'll always come to help him. He's still a part of our village." He paused for a moment. "And so are his brothers."

Ace's eyes widened fractionally, as he stood there, frozen all of a sudden. "… I'm …"

Exasperatedly, the mayor scratched his cheek. "They do say it takes a village to raise a kid and I doubt that Dadan is equipped to deal with you. Besides, we can't have the three of you turning into mountain bandits. Then our reputation will be ruined for sure!" He huffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"… I never asked to be part of your village."

The quiet uncertainty in Ace's voice gave the mayor pause and he slowly unfolded his arms again. "No, you did not," he agreed, somewhat gruffly. "But … let me ask you this …" He paused, making sure he had Ace's full attention. "When you met Luffy and you started to get to know him … at what point did he actually ask you to be his brother?"

The silence on Ace's part seemed to be all the answer that the mayor needed.

"So, what makes you think that you get a choice now?"

The nearer they got to the mayor's house, the more Luffy started dragging his feet. Once again, Sabo tugged on his little brother's hand, as he seemed to be slowing down again.

"Come on now, we're nearly there …"

He stopped suddenly, as he realised that his tugging had only produced a lengthened arm, while Luffy had dug his feet firmly into the ground. "Luffy …"

"But-"

Whatever his objection might have been, Sabo never found out as at that moment Ace rounded a corner ahead of them and promptly succeeded in making Luffy fall silent.

There was an awkward silence as the two brothers held each other's gaze for a moment, before hurriedly looking away. Uncomfortably aware of the tension in the air, Sabo tried to think of something to say. It was strange how he had been so bent on finding Ace that he had completely forgotten to think about how best to approach this conversation. "So … how are the pirates?" he finally settled on saying.

Ace quickly glanced at Sabo, before dropping his gaze back to the ground. "Locked up."

"Who's guarding them now?"

"The geezer and Gyoru."

"The mayor, you mean?" Sabo asked, silently wondering how the old man had managed to get Ace to change post with him. Intending to close the gap between Ace and them, he took a step forward, tugging on Luffy's arm, and was dismayed at the resistance he felt. "So, where were you going just now?"

"Makino's."

"Finally getting patched up, are we?" Sabo said wryly. He sighed at the predictable look that earned him. "Come on. We just left there."

In silence, they made their way back to Party's Bar, Sabo wisely taking the middle. After a while, he said, "We should probably spend the night now. It's getting late and I don't fancy travelling through the forest at night." Especially after the day we've had.

Ace grimaced, but didn't say anything. It seemed that even he could see the folly of their trying to cross the forests of Mount Corvo, exhausted as they were.

"Makino can probably put us up."

"We can stay in my old room." Sabo felt almost surprised at the little voice that suddenly piped up to his left.

"You've got a room at Makino's?" he asked, turning to look at Luffy. "Did you use to live with her, then?"

"No," Luffy said. "I used to live with the mayor. But Makino always had a room for me. She was always nice."

Trying to ignore the jealous stab that gave him, Sabo nodded. "Alright then."

"Why did you leave then?" Ace asked, and Sabo was worried at the suppressed anger he heard behind the seemingly innocent question.

Obviously confused, Luffy finally looked into Ace's face, although he unconsciously slowed his steps to hide half his body behind Sabo. "… But you know that. Gramps took me away."

Sabo winced at the wording, as Ace's jaw clenched. "To Dadan's."

"... Yes," Luffy agreed, a slightly hesitant note in his voice. It was obvious that he had picked up on the strange vibe in the air, even if he had no idea how it had come about.

Suddenly drawing to a stop, Ace turned to face Luffy fully. "So, why didn't you go back?!"

"Go back where?"

"To the village! To Makino!" Ace finally broke out into a shout. "For months and months you followed me, almost getting yourself killed! Don't tell me you were too scared to find your way back!"

Stunned, Luffy could only stare, wide-eyed at the outburst of his brother.

"Ace-" Sabo tried to interpose, but the older boy was not done yet.

"The old geezer was gone almost the minute he dropped you off – you could have taken your chance and run back almost immediately and nobody would have cared-"

"Shut up!" Sabo shouted, grabbing Ace by the collar of his shirt in his sudden fury, but it was too late. There were tears welling up in Luffy's eyes and the young boy looked ready to bolt.

"You wanted that, huh?" Luffy shouted back, his voice cracking. "I knew you didn't want – you've never wanted me! All those months I tried to get close to you … you were the only thing I had!"

"You had Makino!"

"But I wanted you!"

And just like that the little boy burst into uncontrollable sobs and made to run away - and he almost would have managed it, too, if Sabo had not grabbed the back of his t-shirt in just the nick of time. Ace, useless idiot that he was, was too stunned by the last declaration to do anything more helpful than stare at their little brother as if he had just grown a third head.

"No," Sabo said decidedly, keeping both of his siblings now firmly in place. "No more running away. We're going to talk about this - now! Let's go inside."

And he dragged both of them off to Makino's, the one sobbing, the other apparently deeply lost in thought.

A/N: I don't even know what to say ^^ If anyone is still reading this, I'm both grateful and immensely surprised! And not to mention honoured! We're nearing the end now though - only one or two chapters to go! And I WILL finish this - if only to have written one multi-chaptered completed story in my life! :)