With different eyes

Brothers

My brothers wait until the car is parked before they rush to my door and drag Ace out. "Lucia who is that?" Ace asks me, I just moan while my brothers pass Ace around like he's a doll. That's what happens when you're short and all your brothers are taller than 1,85m.

"Lucia?" Ace asks me irritated. "My completely idiotic brothers. They still think I'm the little five-year-old girl who needs to be protected," I explain to Ace. My parents are just getting off the bus, but I guess Ace has had enough of being passed around like a doll. He grabs my oldest brother's arm and throws him to the ground with a skillful shoulder toss. My other two brothers look pretty stupid. I laugh and say to Ace: "Ace, I love you for this action. So much for small and defenseless! I'm strong enough to send you to the mat!" Ace grins and then says to me: "But you realize that it was me, don't you?" "Shut up and let me enjoy the triumph, I've been allowed to listen to how small I am since my birth," I reply laughing. Ace just shakes his head while my mother is already with my brothers, dragging them into the house by their ears. The third one follows willingly with his shoulders hunched. Ace has to laugh because of the picture: A 1,60m tall woman drags two giants by the ears into the house while the third follows like a kicked dog. "I think your mother is great!" laughs Ace and follows my mother into the house.

As we enter the living room we see my three brothers sitting on the couch being folded he by my mother. "That you guys can never behave! You're old enough, at least try to act like you're adults and not toddlers in men's bodies! And that too in front of visitors!" "Why visitors? That's just Lucia." Says my oldest brother Mark. "What do you mean just? I can just give him a kick in the ass!" I hiss. "Can it be that you are much bitchier here than at home?" Ace asks me amusedly, while my mother explains the situation to my brothers. "Survival reflex with three chaotic brothers, otherwise you'll go down," I admit.

My mother had finished telling and my brothers look stunned at first. Then they burst out laughing and Nico, the youngest, says or pants a lot more: "You've got her all fooled, Lucia. Hats off to you, the story is ingenious. Where do you come up with such nonsense?" The other two howl with laughter and my mother is about to start complaining when Ace simply raises his hand and makes her burst into flames. My brothers' mouths drop open. My mom walks around the couch grinning winking at Ace and smacks my brothers in the back of the head one after the other while saying "Close your mouth." I laugh at my brothers. Ace is grinning too. "You were serious." says Luka aka Loki. "Wait a minute Ace, One Piece Ace? Firefist Ace?" pants Nico excitedly. "Well great it's starting!" I think. 

Ace sends a questioning thought my way, but too late Nico has already jumped up and moved in close to Ace. Loki and Mark just look confused, the whole anime madness just bounced off of them, in other words they have no idea. Unlike Nico who watched One Piece with me and is a little fan of Ace. Let's put it this way, with him it behaves with Ace like Shanks with me, at least before I met him. You're just not supposed to meet your heroes. My brother, however, sits next to Ace and adores him. He doesn't quite seem to understand what's going on. "I'm your biggest fan! You're the coolest pirate ever and also the best big brother there is!" he flatters Ace. "HEY!!!" Loki chimes in as Mark strokes his forehead. "Didn't you forget someone?" asks Loki now promptly.Nico looks at him cluelessly and asks, "Who?" Loki growls and wants to go after Nico but before that can happen they both get a huge head butt from Mark. "Can you two please stay on topic. THERE'S SOME STRANGE THING INSIDE OUR SISTER AND YOU TWO ARE JUST FULL OF BULLSHIT. WE HAVE TO HELP HER, WHO KNOWS HOW SHE IS!" he yells towards the end.

"Thing?" asks Ace irritated, while I say, "I'm very fine here and Ace is not a thing!" My mother comes out of the kitchen and is already hitting Mark on the head again while she says, "Don't yell around here and leave the poor boy alone. He didn't do anything to you!" Mark rubs his head furiously while the other two laugh. "Mother stop it I'm not a little boy anymore! How can you stay so calm while your daughter could be in danger!" "Mark and Marco really need to have a talk. At least then they would have found a friend each. Both of them are miserable killjoys!" I say. My mother puts her arms on her hips and looks as critical as only a mother can, before she says to Mark: "First of all, it doesn't matter how old you are, you're still my son. Second, Lucia has already proven to me that she's in there. Besides, the pirates took Lucia in lovingly, from what he told me." She then snorts and turns away. But my brother won't admit defeat and says, "He can tell you anything. I'm not convinced!" With that, he turns back to Ace and says to him, "Prove to me that my sister is alive and well!" Before Ace can ask, I tell him a story: "I was six, totally looking forward to going to school but got sick that day. I don't remember why, but we were alone at home. Everything hurt and I was just crying. To comfort me Mark wanted to play with me. And don't you dare tell Marco later, Ace, I wanted to play princess. Since I was not allowed to leave the bed, Mark grabbed a dress and the make-up of my mother and I was allowed to dress him up. I don't have to mention that he looked more like a clown than a princess, but the red lipstick suited him!" At the end of the story I had to laugh and so did Ace. He got a critical look from Mark. Then Ace tells the story and Mark's face turns red while Nico and Loki roll on the floor laughing. "Now I think Lucia is in there!" he grumbles. Ace laughs again.