Boy With a Scar

Chapter 2: Free as the Pirate King

Chapter rewritten in February 2023, betaed by The Patient One.

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"Should we get something to eat?" Ace asked. One of his hands still wrapped around his little brother, pressing him closer, while the other rested on his shoulder, thumb moving up and down soothingly.

He was careful not to get too close to the center of Luffy's back, where the burned mark was hidden under the t-shirt. It was old and healed, the boy wouldn't have felt pain even if he touched it, yet instincts told Ace that he should refrain.

No reply came. Ace looked down, wondering if his brother had fallen asleep. "Luffy?"

Luffy shifted, arms unwrapping from around the teen, and finally sat up, curling his legs underneath him. "Will you come back?" he asked.

It felt wrong. All of this. Luffy's quiet voice, stiff posture, expressionless face, and that he wasn't even mentioning food, much less demanding itafter sleeping for so long.

Ace took a beat longer than necessary to answer, and Luffy's knuckles turned white where he grasped the edge of his t-shirt. "Just to the door," the teen mumbled, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the exit. "I won't leave the room; I'll just call Dadan to bring food here." Ace watched those white fingers uncurl as his little brother nodded. He stood up, but the sudden silence suffocated him, so he began blabbing to fill it. "The bandits will be so happy to know you woke up. Everyone was so worried, you know. I swear, they should just stop being bandits already and officially become nannies."

Before opening the door, Ace flashed a cheeky grin at Luffy, and his heart fluttered when he got a small smile in return. Just a tiny quirk of the lips, but it was infinitely better than that vacant and unreadable expression from before.

"Anyone's there?!" Ace yelled into the hallway.

In an instant, Dogra popped up from around the corner. "Everything alright?"

"Luffy woke up," Ace said. "We need food."

The man's face lit up, concern giving way to happiness. He swiveled on his heel and ran off, shouting, "Guys! Luffy woke up!"

Ace shook his head with a smile. He left the door open and moved to sit by Luffy's side. A couple of minutes later, the bandits jammed the hallway outside the room, talking over each other and radiating worrycareexcitment—

Ace was about to slam the door into their annoying mugs, but one glance at Luffy changed his mind. Whatever was going on inside the boy's head, his expression brightened considerably as he listened to the ruckus the bandits were making.

Ace smirked. Nannies, the lot of them.

"Move, you morons!" Dadan's voice rang throughout the hallway, and the bandits parted, letting her and Magra enter the room with trays of food and drinks. Dogra snuck in after them and closed the door before anyone else could tumble in.

Luffy's demeanor changed from content exhaustion to tense weariness with more people in the room. Ace instinctively patted his brother on his knee, and the subtle reassurance worked, if only slightly.

"How are you feeling, brat?" Dadan asked, putting food trays in front of the two boys.

Magra kneeled beside Luffy with the med kit in his lap. "Ma, ma, Luffy, your bandages have loosened up," he cautioned, reaching out toward the boy's neck. "Let me—"

Luffy flinched away from his hand. While he didn't move from his spot, he turned his body away and was purposefully not looking at Magra. Ace winced when steely fingers suddenly wrapped around his wrist in a death grip.