~ + this chapter is kinda serious-ish ._. i dont like it, and sorry for LawLu fans, 'cause it might be a while till you see some Law n' Lu action. but for ZoLu and AceLu fans, you might get somethin. might. + ~

Chapter 2

Ace sat alone in his parked car, waiting for his somewhat idiot of a freshman brother to get his ass in the car so he could go home. But nooo.. Ace silently watched his brother sight, stalk, and tackle some random guy Ace had never seen before. He felt somewhat like a creep for watching the scene unfold before him, but Ace was really secretly jealous of that random guy... getting more physical contact with Luffy then the older brother. Sheesh... kids these days.

As Luffy hurriedly said his goodbye to the stranger and ran toward the car, Ace had to get into calm-and-awesome-older-brother-mode when the younger quickly opened the passenger-seat car door and sat down, slamming his door closed afterwards.

"Hi Ace,-How ya doin'?-Sorry for the wait!-I hope you'll forgive me-you can drive home quickly if you have something that you need to get done!" Luffy said, all in one breath, with a dark blush covering his face. Ace patted his brother's shoulder, getting a weird look in return.

"Don't worry about it, and slowwww down will ya?" Ace said with a fake-fakety-fakefake smile on his face. Luffy just sighed and sent a quick glance out the window at a suddenly alone Law, who had his hand raised to wave, but then dropped it. Ace looked at Mr. Mystery also except with a subtle glare, and then sped all the way home.

For the next two weeks, all Luffy talked about was Law. How awesome Law was, and how calm he acted, and how cool his earrings looked. When Zoro heard Luffy ranting about Law's gold earrings, he 'absent-mindedly' played with his own tear-drop earrings, hoping to get Luffy to realize that 1. Mr. Roronoa Zoro has earrings too. And 2. earrings really aren't that abnormally awesome.

Meanwhile, at home, Ace's mouth was about to split his face in half from all the fake smiling that he had to cover up his intense hatred for Law with. The teachers even noticed how Luffy would always be staring at Law during class, and always try to have Trafalgar as a partner for every single project. Other friends of Luffy, like Nami and 'Chopper', noticed Luffy's odd behavior and were starting to get just a bit annoyed with it as well.

Law, however, never talked that much to anyone about Luffy.. (other than about how clingy the kid was acting). Luffy seemed pretty cool, weird but cool, at first, but then he just became a mini-stalker. Though, Luffy was helpful when Law needed help remembering people's names or classrooms and such. But Law did not appreciate the looks he got from people when the shorter freshmen hung around him at lunch and on the way to classes. The new kid just wanted an actual friend, or two, not a fanboy!

One day, as Luffy was walking quickly (aka running) to catch up with his hero Law for lunch-period, Ace stepped out of an empty classroom and snuck up behind his brother, covering the boy's mouth and slipping a hand under Luffy's knees to pick him bridal-style. Luffy shrieked muffledly for a moment before he realized it was just Ace and then his expression changed to one of 'What the hell?'. He was obviously feeling a bit awkward in his brother's hands. Ace just shook his head and quickly carried Luffy to the boy's bathroom where Zoro and Chopper were waiting awkwardly. The freckled senior set his younger brother down and took his hand off of the younger's mouth.

"Why'd we pick the bathroom as the meeting place..." Chopper mumbled, crossing his arms with a cute pout. No one responded, but secretly asked themselves the same question. Meanwhile, Luffy was having similar thoughts.

Luffy didn't know which question to ask first: Why was he captured? or Why were they in the bathroom?

"Luffy.." Zoro said, arms crossed, eyes closed, leaning against the wall, "What's so awesome 'bout Law? He's no better than any of us." After a second or two of silence, Chopper spoke up also, brushing his light brown bangs out of his face.

"Yeah, Luffy.. you're making us feel kinda bad; like we're not good enough.. or something..."

Monkey D. Luffy looked at his 3 friends with a very confused look... What the hell were they talking about? All of his friends were very important and special to him, like family. Yet here his family members were trying to tell him that they aren't being loved?

"I honestly have no id-" Luffy's protest was cut short by Ace, who rested his arm on top of his younger brother's head, leaning down to whisper in his ear, sending chills down the younger boy's spine.

"Law doesn't love you like we do...Luffy."

Yeah, he sure cut to the chase.

Luffy's eyes went wide with realization, slowly raising his hand and placed it on Ace's resting arm. The other two looked sideways down at the floor, and Ace had his eyes closed, trying to force another smile as he began to whisper a bit louder this time.

"You're so obsessed with someone who doesn't love you that you don't care how we fee-" Ace was interrupted by Chopper who pointed a finger at him.

"You just hold on a minute! Luffy cares about us, it's just th-"

"Chopper's right, Ace. Don't go making a mountain out of a molehill, here. Luffy just forgot to consider our feelings, Ace, and don't act like it's the first time," Zoro said, stepping in front of Chopper and stood eye-to-eye with Ace who looked like he was about to explode into flames.

"Says the ones who get more hugs and high-fives from him than I do! His brother! He gives me glares when I even put a hand on him! How do you think I feel about you?! What's so good about you guys?!" Ace fumed, pushing his finger harshly into Zoro's shoulder.

"Blah blah blah, look who's jealous!" Zoro said, turning away while rolling his eyes dramatically and waving his hands for emphasis. Chopper looked at the two and frowned.

"Isn't jealousy the main reason us three are even here?!" Chopper said loudly, pushing the two taller students away from each other before bones would be broken. They looked down at Chopper and sighed; he was right. If they weren't so jealous, Luffy would be happy, and maybe Law might even change his mind about Luffy. But no.. their jealousy got the better of them.

Luffy had taken his hand off of Ace's arm and backed away against the wall, looking down at the floor while having some deep thoughts run through his head, which didn't happen often. His friends would argue occasionally, like Zoro and Sanji always do, but nothing like this, and it was all his fault. And maybe Ace was really right.. Law didn't show any interest in him, when his best-friends, and brother, had patiently listened to him rant on and on about blah-blah-blah Law. Now, Ace brought up another good point though; why did Luffy hate contact with his brother? It's not like Ace had a disease or anything. The only problem was that Luffy didn't know why he had grown so distant. The feeling that Ace felt neglected especially cut Luffy deep. So as Chopper made his final point, Luffy let a few rouge tears fall onto his cheeks and hugged his three friends tightly. They hugged back as much as physically possible and small genuine smiles graced across their faces.

"I-I'm so sorry!" Luffy wailed, burying his face in Ace's chest, clinging to his shirt. Zoro rubbed his back, and Ace ran a hand through Luffy's hair while pressing his lips to his brother's head. Chopper stood back smiling at Luffy's understanding, happy that maybe the brothers' relationship would improve a bit after that day. However, after a minute of comforting silence, Luffy pulled back from Ace and let his brother wipe the tears off his cheeks, and then grinned and started laughing.

"Y-Ya know what? We should all hang out a-after school today!" Luffy suggested happily, still slightly recovering from his tears. The three nodded in response, patting Luffy on his back. Luffy noticed that Ace's shirt was really, really wet then, though.. so he started laughing really hard and pointed at Ace's shirt. Ace blushed, embarrassed, and decided just to take off his shirt. He had an undershirt on anyway.. So the four walked down to lunch, Ace's arm on Luffy's head and Zoro's hand on his shoulder while Chopper led the pack for once, ready to eat lunch.

Meanwhile, Law sat at their lunch table, alone, eating his sandwhich while reading a book, completely unaware of what had just happened.

And so, after school that Thursday, Luffy, Ace, Zoro and Chopper all went to the park and talked, had fun and played games.

Yes, games.

Ace couldn't help but feel so happy actually doing something fun with his little brother again, like they were kids. Now, of course, Ace tried to hold back since he didn't want to constantly beat Luffy at everything.

So, when Chopper suggested that the older 3 race each other, Luffy nodded excitedly, reminiscing about all the races he had when he was little, always getting beaten by Ace and Sabo. Well damnit, he was gonna win that time!

"On your marks...!"

The three crouched.

"Get set..."

Back legs straightened, eyes on the prize.

"Go!"

Off the three went, bolting at the line that was drawn on the sidewalk with a dark rock they had found. Ace was tallest, he had longer legs, and found himself winning, but tried to be somewhat more fair by falling back a little. Luffy saw his legs ahead of Ace's and knew victory was his. Zoro didn't care and ran with hands in his pockets, his upper body not moving much at all. Ace sent a grin to Zoro who gave him a stuck out tongue, and Luffy shouted in triumph as he crossed the line, jumping around and pointing a finger in Ace's face.

"The prize goes to Luffy," Chopper announced, passing the 'prize', a piece of beef-jerky, to the winner. In a flash, it was gone. Luffy grinned.

"I can't believe I beat you," Luffy boasted to his brother, hands on hips while Ace ruffled his hair hesitantly. Upon finding no flinch or glare, Ace clapped a hand on Luffy's back.

"Good job, Lu. I still don't see why Uncle Shanks calls you 'Anchor'," Ace mentioned, making Zoro raise an eyebrow and Chopper looked up at the brothers hopefully awaiting a story.

"Oi.. that's 'cause I used to not be able to swim," Luffy pouted, remembering all his failed attempts as a child, trying his best to please his ship-captain Uncle Shanks.

"You can now..right?" Ace asked nervously, not really sure if his brother could swim since years had passed since then.

"Duh!"

"'Kay, just makin' sure," Ace chirped, a genuine grin gracing his face. Luffy looked up at his brother for a second in awe. That wasn't the usual grin he knew.

Ace looked back down at Luffy who looked... off.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Your smile.." Luffy whispered, putting hands on the corners of Ace's mouth and pulling his face in different directions to try and replicate the grin. Zoro covered his mouth with a hand while Chopper didn't know what was going on.

"Hmm? You like? Now that you seem to like me again, I allow you to see it," Ace explained casually, trying not to let a smirk appear. Zoro grinned at the pout on Luffy's face then, seeing again a hint of blush on the boy's cheeks.

"Ace is a meanie!"

The other three scrunched their eyebrows in obvious confusion.

"Why?! What'd I do now?!" Ace muttered, staring wide-eyed at his brother who threatened to rip a hole in his being.

"Why would you hide something so damn pretty from me?!" Luffy yelped, jumping into Ace's arms, or, in other words, tackled Ace. The four of them laughed, and they all let their grins show out and proud, once and for all.