: Present:
You had confessed to killing your brother, but you didn't explain why or what happened. At first the boy's didn't believe you, but then they saw the look on your face. It became so apparent that you were telling the truth, that they were stunned by this new bit of information. They weren't sure how to respond, and had eventually settled for avoiding you. They didn't understand what happened, and you weren't about to sit there and explain it.
It has been two days sense then, and Ace was ready to go home. But being unable to speak he was to stay home for the rest of the week. You had just finished taking Luffy and Sabo to the bus stop on Wednesday morning. You walked into the house, greeted with the thick silence that you were slowly growing use too.
"Ace..?" You call out softly, you know he won't answer you but you would at least try to talk to him. You hear someone climbing the steps and you sigh.
"You guys can't live here avoiding me." You said, your voice shaking a bit. It's not like you wanted to tell them, why did you have too. Why did Shanks need to make it their business? You sigh again and walk over to the bottom of the steps. He looks down, glaring at you.
"You wouldn't understand if I told you..." You said, giving him a sad look. He turns around and crosses his arms. You thought for a moment, if you didn't explain yourself they would eventually leave. But if you did would they even want to stay.
"It was...an accident, something I couldn't control..." You whisper the words that have been shoved into your head sense Cole died.
"I couldn't control..." You pause, taking a shaky breath.
"I couldn't control my own fruits power and it cost him his life..." You whisper, staring at the floor. You started to cry again, like you did so many times after Coles death. You pushed it into the back of your mind, but whenever you think about him it would surface all those terrible feelings.
You hear Ace walk down the steps and stop in front of you. He shifted his weight from one foot the the other, looking away from you before sighing. He opens his mouth trying to say something, but shuts it when he still can't form the words properly. Another deep breath he tries again.
"iths opet." He says, trying to say 'It's okay.' He frowns and bites down on his tongue. You over at him and give him a small smile, it took you a minute but you figured out what he said.
"No...It isn't..."You sigh, frowning again. Ace glares at you but you just smile again.
"But thank you..." You tell him, hugging him. He wiggles around.
"Staaaaafp!" He whines, trying to get you to stop. You giggle, you found the way he spoke too adorable.
"Your so cute Ace.~" You said letting him go, his face was red and he pouts.
"Ey an mut coot." He huffs, he only ever really tried to talk when it was just you and him. You giggle again and give him a small grin.
"You hungry?" You ask, already knowing what his answer will be. He gives you a 'Duh.' look before hopping off the steps and walking into the kitchen.
"What do you want?" You ask him, he thinks for a minute.
"Wofil!" He yells, you pause for a moment.
"Waffles?" You ask, just to be sure. He nods excitedly.
"Okay!" You said getting out the waffle iron.
You sit there making waffles, you look over to him after making over twenty five.
"Is this enough?" You ask, but his glare told you. No, No it was not. Sighing you make about thirty more.
"Okay! This is enough, I mean seriously kid! This is a lot of waffles!" You said, putting the large plate on the dining table. He pouts a bit before shrugging.
"foom emuf!" He says digging in. You watch him eat and cringe, watching any of these three would make you not want to eat. You sat at the table as he scarfs down his food.
"Good?" You giggle when he looks up at you, syrup dripping off his chin. He shrugs and keeps eating, it's good enough I suppose. After he's done eating he runs off and heads up stairs. While you clean up you think about some things.
"What does he do when his brothers aren't around..?" You muse glancing over your shoulder in the direction of the stairs. You hear him moving around, but you have no idea what he could be doing.
Ace pulls out the box you had bought them during the week they were here. You had taken them to a toy store and let them grab however much they wanted. And with a grin the throws the lid to the box somewhere behind him. He digs around until he finds Luffy's toy car. With a evil smirk he pulls out the coloring books that old man gave him. Some of the stickers were too girly for his liking, but now he had a use for them. If they were going to leave him behind at home and run off to school without him then he was going to make sure they payed for it!
He pulls off some of the flower stickers and decorates Luffy's car, by the time he was done it was so girly it made him want to throw it out the window. Which meant it was perfect! But now it was Sabo's turn...
He sits on the floor with both his legs and arms crossed, frowning at the toybox he realizes that Sabo didn't get that many toys, he didn't want any. So there wasn't much Ace could mess with, he looks around and see's Sabo's hat. He couldn't wear it at school so he was forced to leave it at home, Ace's smirk comes back. He takes the hat out of the room and looks around, now where would he put it? He needed to put it somewhere where he didn't need your help to reach it, because surly you would frown upon his actions right now! Not that he cared any.
He walks to one of the vacant rooms, he frowns at their emptiness. It's been a week, maybe he should have his own room now, he's never had that option before. He walks into the room directly across from yours, behind the stairs railings. He opens in and see's it was mostly empty, aside from a few boxes you put in there, making it a small storage. If he does decide to get his own room, he'll take this one! He decides, a big grin on his face. He walks to the closet and see's it had a bunch of shelves in it, perfect!
He drags a box over to the closet and climbs on top of it, having to wear Sabo's hat so that his hands were free. He takes it off and shoves it onto the top shelf. He'll have a hard time finding it here! Ace smirks again before climbing off the box and pushing it back to where it was before.
Walking out of the room he stares at your bedroom door before walking over and opening it. The room was pretty neat, it had a big bed with a blue blanket and black and white pillows. It looked really soft, he climbs up onto it. It was very soft! He bounces on it for a few minutes, it was very springy too! He laughs to himself as he jumps so high he pats the ceiling before falling back down onto the plush bed. It was really comfy, he snuggles under the blanket. It smelled like that shampoo you bought a few days ago, the kiwi stuff.
Ace yawns a bit and rubs his eyes, laying down he pulls the blanket over his head. Time for a little nap.
