Ace stared out at the raging waves below him. he had been sitting at the edge of the steep ravine near the shore, a meeting place he and his foster brother Sabo had chosen to meet at, if they ever got separated, it had happened several times earlier whilst they were running from the crazy old coot for a grandfather.

Speaking of which, he'd heard some of the villagers at Fusha say that they had spotted Garp's marine ship approaching the island.

He'd immediately run for the hills so to speak, but in his case, run back into the thick jungle covering most of the island.

He ran back to the tree house he and Sabo shared and quickly climbed the ladder leading up the large tree, he then proceeded to climb up the rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling. Once he was up at their makeshift lookout tower he pulled down the pirate flag he and Sabo had put up and exchanged it with a red piece of cloth, a message to Sabo that their Grandfather was ether near the island or on it.

After that he had immediately run to their meeting spot, waiting for Sabo to get back from the gray terminal.

"Fuck" he grumbled as he passed back and forth, kicking up dirt as his pace picked up.

The sun descended further down to the ocean as the day progressed to its end hours, yet Sabo had not shown up, and it really started to worry Ace.

"Did the old fart catch him" he wondered out loud, a frown plastered on his freckled face.

"Geez, thanks for the faith bro" a voice chuckled, a blond boy soon stepping out from the bushes "I'm back!" he grabbed his top hat adorning his head and gave Ace a toothy grin, a tooth clearly missing.

"Where the hell have you been!"

"Quite the warm welcoming" Sabo muttered as he watched Ace's face turning a alarming shade of red.

"Shut up!" he punched a nearby tree, making leaves flutter to the ground.

"I thought that the shitty old man had captured you or something"

"No, not this time, though I almost ran into him on my way back"

"So, he's in the forest?" Sabo nodded in confirmation.

"And not only him" Sabo muttered and gripped the white bundle he was carrying tighter "I found 'this' near the shore by the gray terminal" he held out the bundle for Ace to take.

"What?"

"lift the blanket and you'll see" Sabo said, grinning mischievously as Ace swallowed thickly and did as he said.

"The fuck?!" Ace yelled and would have dropped the bundle if it weren't for Sabo quickly grabbing it from his hands.

"Shhhh! Keep it down or you'll wake him!" he hissed and smacked Ace over the head.

"How the hell do you expect me to react?! And why the fuck do you have a baby?!" Ace was once again smacked in the head.

"What did you not understand when I said 'keep it down'" Sabo's voice had taken on a threatening tone of voice "Now look what you did" he sighed, gesturing at the child in his arms.

The baby's eyes were now half lidded and stared at them large sleepy eyes.

"Isn't he just adorable" Sabo cooed and stroked the baby's black hair.

Ace walked closer to Sabo to be able to see the baby better, and his brother was right, the baby was indeed adorable, not that he would admit that out loud.

"So, what's his name?" Ace asked, his eyes still transfixed on the baby.

"Hmmmm, don't know"

Sabo walked towards a large boulder and sat down, back leaned against it.

"Maybe his name is on the blanket he's in" he unfolded the blanket and glanced at Ace before handing him the small black haired child.

Ace spluttered nonsense about not knowing what to do but took the baby nonetheless. Sabo snickered at the stupefied face Ace was making before he started searching for anything to identify the child.

"Monkey D Luffy"

"Eh?"

"The baby, Monkey D Luffy" Sabo repeated once again, holding up the blanket with the name clearly sown into it.