Our New Home

Chapter 11 (Revision Complete)

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

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"Sabo please tell me you're joking," Ace asked as he paced in their temporary living quarters.

"I'm dead serious," Sabo said with a grim look on his face but his eyes shown with desperation. "We should gather more information on Teach."

"Why? So that jerk can find even more of a reason to kill us?" Ace hissed. "I'm not gonna risk your lives for something as stupid as that."

Sabo sighed, "We'll be careful. Besides it's not like we're going in blind. We'll ask a few people here and there."

"This is insane! We could get in some serious trouble."

Sabo shot Ace a glare. "Since when have you been known to be responsible? Look, this will be easy. In and out."

Ace clenched his fists as he met Sabo's glare head on, "Since it involved the safety of my brothers."

Sabo smiled teasingly, "Aww, you really do care. You're such a big softy under all that intense rage, aren't you?"

Ace turned away in embarrassment, "S-Shut up! What about Luffy? He'll give this whole thing away!"

Sabo smiled thinly, "Luffy's scheduled for another surgery today. While that's happening we make our move. Before you say anything, we'll make sure to be back before he's released."

Ace glared, "Luffy never left our sides when any of us where in the infirmary. Why should we? What kind of brothers our we if we do that?"

With a sigh Sabo responded, "Both of us are trying to do what is right for our small pact, but Ace I really do think we should do some recon of our own."

A conflicted look flashed on the freckled boy's face for an instant before he reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Fine, let's do some research."

Sabo smiled in relief, glad to have Ace on board with his plan.

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Of course things don't always go as planned. The two older boys should not have been surprised when Luffy's surgery was moved back a day due to a returning crew member's more urgent injuries. Now they had to either wait or take Luffy along for the ride.

"I still want to try today," Sabo whispered to Ace while Luffy chased around the dog, Stefan, all over the deck.

"Yea, well what do we do with him?" Ace whispered back as he gestured to Luffy with his left hand.

"Leave him to wander?" Sabo suggested.

"Why so he could possibly be vulnerable to anybody attacking him?" Ace said with a glare.

"It was just a suggestion, sheesh." Sabo looked around aa if the answer would be found somewhere on the deck for everyone to see. "Do you want to try and dump him on somebody?"

Ace paused as he pondered on the suggestion. "Who would take him though?"

Sabo shrugged his shoulders, "Marco maybe? Or Haruta? Izo? Whitebeard? Even Thatch will do."

Ace frowned, "Maybe, but then we won't be able to ask whoever takes care of Lu about any of the information that we're looking for."

"You're right," Sabo said as he thought about the problems with the idea. "Plus, if we do ask questions about Teach won't somebody notice us? What if they tell him?"

Ace chewed his bottom lip absentmindedly. "We'll just have to make it seem like pure curiosity I guess."

"That's gonna be tough," Sabo said.

"Can't be too tough," Ace shrugged before turning to Luffy. "Hey Luffy, how do you feel about staying with Whitebeard real quick?"

"Yay! Story time!"

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"Okay, step 1: distract Luffy is complete."

Ace groaned from where he was seated on the bed the three brothers share , "how many steps are there?"

Sabo grinned, "well I currently have planned out 5, this includes the list of people we have to visit."

Ace sighed already knowing how Sabo was so he wasn't surprised that the blond had a list ready.

"What's first then?"

"Well step 2 is find Teach," Sabo asked while lowering his voice so nobody could hear.

Ace tensed up, and clenched his fists. Sabo grimaced, "I hate it too, but we have to make sure that where we start searching he's not there."

"Fine, let's search the galley first."

The two left their shared room and headed toward the galley. When they got there, Ace and Sabo found Teach talking to a member that looked to be taking a break from kitchen duty.

Before the two could leave the area, Thatch came out from the kitchen. He noticed them standing at the door, and his face brightened. The man wiped his hands with a hand towel as he called out.

"Ace! Sabo!"

The two froze before Sabo smiled as he forced Ace to go up to Thatch with him.

"Hi, Thatch." Sabo said.

Thatch grinned, "How are you two doing? Where's Luffy?"

Ace shrugged, "Fine. With Whitebeard."

"You guys hungry? I could whip you guys up a snack?" Thatch asked as he looked between the two of them.

"No, we're good we just had a quick question," Sabo said slowly.

"Sure, what is it?"

"How are people placed with sleeping arrangements?" Ace asked feeling stupid and awkward about asking. 

Thatch thought about this before answering, "Well people roommate together in large rooms. Like four maybe five to a room? Why?" 

"No reason," Sabo answered quickly. "Just out of curiousity how would someone be able to tell who is in what room?" 

Thatch grinned, "We have these labels on the doors each one has the names of who reside in what room. Each hall has a division number on each end. After that it's all in alphabetical order in deciding who sleeps where." 

"Makes sense, keeps things very organised," Sabo answered absentmindedly. 

"Glad you two are becoming interested in our home," Thatch said sincerely. 

Sabo nodded, "It's not too bad here." 

Ace sighed, "Okay well thanks for helping us I guess. We got to go check on Luffy. Later." 

The freckled boy dragged the blond away before he started making small talk. They left the area and ran off in search of Teach's room. 

AN: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! See you next time Luckies! ~^-^~