【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Ace didn't know how long he had been sitting on his sleeping mat, Sabo's words kept echoing in his mind, he wondered when Sabo had thought of all that, in the beginning when the three of them were acting together Sabo was the one who really analyzed the situation and understood them, Lucci was the one who discussed and made battle plans with Sabo, Ace was the one who acted on his instincts, which was why their fighting styles complemented each other.

Ace usually acts as a distraction with pure violence, Lucci supplements or ensures that the plan goes ahead, and if anything goes wrong, Sabo already has a backup plan or solution to their dilemma, it has been like this since the beginning of their partnership, if Ace thinks a lot, then does Sabo think even more?

Despite his aloofness, Sabo was always the more receptive of the two, and recalling the day they met, Sabo had taken the initiative to talk to him, the first one to welcome him, even if it was for the benefit of both of them and not just out of the kindness of his own heart, at the time, Ace would not even have paid attention to him.

He realized early on that unconditional love and trust were things only idiots would give, something he constantly expressed to Sabo.

Neither of them had ever received unconditional love and trust, or given it, not even Lucci.

It was impossible for either of them to put aside their past experiences, but they simply accepted it now and wanted to protect him, which was different.

Ace knew that Sabo had never revealed his father's guilty conscience and only told them such things a few days ago. Ace thought that at that time Sabo would think that Ace, Luffy and Lucci would be angry and betrayed by him, thinking that he was not an orphan like them or they would criticize him because of his noble status.

Luffy was too dumb to think like that, Lucci didn't overthink things and Ace, he always overthink things and it was kind of sad that it took Sabo so long to tell him.

But at the same time, it's kind of comforting, it means Sabo is just like him, with similar insecurities, Sabo always looks so confident, so well-educated, but he's still a kid like him. They're both kids, but Sabo always knows what to do with Luffy, he solves Luffy's problems like a real big brother.

He hadn't really thought much about what the word 'little brother' meant, they were already close and he felt like they were no different than they had been the day before, but the word gave him a strange feeling, although he couldn't quite explain how it was, had it really changed that much to make them brothers?

For Sabo, he always had a soft heart towards Luffy, maybe this was more of an excuse for Sabo to stop backing down, if he hid behind the word "little brother", he could justifiably argue with Ace about how much he doted on Luffy, just like letting Luffy skip a well-deserved scolding so that Luffy could feel accomplished over a stupid fish.

Ace fell back onto his sleeping mat and sighed, should he really change his behavior?

He didn't know how to solve this problem by himself. He didn't know what a brother was, nor did he know how to be a brother. He had never paid attention to the interactions between other children, nor did he have time to observe how Lucci and Luffy got along with each other.

Ace sighed again and covered his eyes with a hand, if he didn't fall asleep soon he would be in a very grumpy mood tomorrow, Luffy's antics would irritate him more easily, and Sabo would disapprove if he snapped at Luffy for something like this.

Ace didn't know when he finally fell asleep, he didn't seem to get enough sleep to cope with the new day, suddenly something heavy jumped on him and then grabbed him tightly.

Apparently, Luffy had decided that the best way to wake up his freckled brother was to throw himself at him, give him a big hug, and excitedly yell "It's a good morning!"

"Ah! What are you doing!" Ace looked at the heavy object on his body, tried to push him away and complained.

"Ace, wake up!" Luffy gave Ace a big smile, not realizing that Ace was trying to push him away.

"Okay, I'm awake now, you can come down!" Ace complained, covering his ribs that were hurt by Luffy's knee. "Why did you jump on me? You're too heavy."

"I want to give you a hug," Luffy shouted excitedly and hugged Ace tighter.

"Huh? I don't..." Ace was about to say.

"Luffy, do you want to have breakfast?" Sabo interrupted Ace.

" FOOD! " Luffy let go of Sabo and gave Sabo a big hug instead, Sabo caught him and hugged him back.

Lucci was already dressed. He took Luffy out of Sabo's arms and asked Sabo to put on his clothes. Lucci helped Luffy put on his shirt. They had to get ready as soon as possible. Dadan had heard Luffy's wake-up call. They had to rush out before Dadan asked them to do housework.

"Weird," Ace muttered, shaking his head as he put on his shoes.

"Let's go before Dadan notices us," Sabo said as he slammed Luffy's hat down on the little boy's head.

Ace walked to the windowsill and peered out, observing Dadan's movements. "If we time it right, he won't be able to catch us."

Lu Qi nodded and said, "I'll count to three, and we'll charge together."

Sabo and Luffy nodded.

As soon as they counted to zero, all four boys jumped, Ace and Sabo, Lucci landed easily but Luffy screamed and messed up his landing, causing him to bounce, Dadan turned and lunged to try and catch him, but Luffy reached out very quickly and managed to grab Ace's hand.

Feeling a slight pull, Ace jerked forward and pulled Luffy with his hand, freeing him from Dadan's lunge, Luffy chuckled as Luffy's arm suddenly regained its original shape, causing him to crash into Ace, causing him to stumble briefly, but Luffy quickly adjusted himself and kept up with his brothers' pace.

"Well done!" Sabo praised them and watched Dadan getting farther and farther away from them.

Ace grinned, suddenly feeling completely awake.

"Let's go have breakfast," Lucci said with a smile.

"Does it still bother you?" Sabo asked.

Ace blinked and realized that Sabo was talking to him, today was like usual, grabbing the morning and then fighting each other, Luffy still lost miserably, even though Lucci comforted him and Sabo encouraged him and praised his strength, while Ace just made fun of his devil fruit power.

It was still a little early for dinner, but Luffy was already complaining about being hungry. Even though they had just finished lunch, they still hunted some game and grilled it before dinner.

"When did he fall asleep?" Ace asked with a frown.

"Just now, I thought he could take a nap until we find something to bring to Dadan." Sabo said with a smile as he looked at Luffy who was sleeping soundly on Lucci's lap.

"Hmm... I didn't notice" Ace shrugged and looked at the fire in front of him.

"Anyway, Ace you're just trying to avoid my questions" Sabo said looking at Ace.

"so what?"