serpents of smoke | ASL Fic

Kefi - Four

Ace pushed Luffy along, his face set in a neutral expression, but by the twitch of his eyebrow, Luffy knew the other was agitated. Luffy scowled, put off by Ace's earlier actions—he didn't necessarily understand Ace's gripe with Sabo.

The trail they walked was dense, the path itself spirally and uneven—every few metres or so, the walk up would become steep and Luffy would have to crawl at the ground to keep his balance, lest he fall on Ace. To his luck, several rugged rocks were protruding from the ground that he could grip onto, pulling his body up the occasional steep path. Eventually, however, the ground levelled out, revealing the growth of the forest. He heaved with the effort it took to climb Mt. Corvo, the mountain in which the Dadan Family, Ace and Luffy resided. Though, Luffy was its newest resident.

Treading through the bushes, Luffy sighed: "Why couldn't we have taken the easier path?" He found himself more prone to whining when Ace was around. It came naturally, for whatever reason. The trees were as imposing as ever, but they were more of a welcome image as Luffy had begun to associate the sight with home. Their leaves were bright green and swayed in the wind, like a dance of nature.

"Because Blondie could've followed us," Ace sneered from behind him, urging Luffy to continue with a poke of his pipe. "And I don't think he's taking the path we took with ease, his arms were the size of sticks." Luffy didn't reply, watching the ground with a disinterested hum.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Ace paused in his steps, not daring to meet Luffy's prying gaze. Sometimes, when Luffy met his eyes, it felt like the boy knew—knew it all. And Ace hated—didn't hate it. He didn't hate it—wow, how horrible that thought struck him, like lightning, it shocked him, the shiver falling upon his body with little control—he didn't hate it. Chancing a glance at the boy in front of him, Ace frowned, not sure how to respond.

Why had he done what he did? Had he been that ticked off by the fact that Sabo had been stealing his marks? No, it was deeper than that—

"You don't steal a guy's mark, Luffy." He shrugged, shoulders lax despite his spiralling thoughts. He didn't want to consider why he had done what he did—because Ace knew why.

He was being selfish, again.

-

"Wait, wait—" Luffy halted them in their steps, regarding Ace with such genuine joy, that the older flinched back. He wasn't used to being on the receiving end of that look. "I get to go up to your treehouse? Really? Really!" Luffy was jumping in one spot, beaming up at Ace—and Ace had half the mind to smack Luffy across the skull. So, he did, subduing Luffy enough so that he would listen to him, rather than vaulting around like an overly animated frog.

"I said, if you can manage to climb the tree to the treehouse, you can stay the night. I don't want to risk you getting followed and leading that blue-eyed freak to Dadan's." Excuses, excuses. Ace disregarded his internal monologue, gesturing with his free hand up to the building built into the tree. It had been a lengthy project and had been filled with several mistakes—and as loath as he was to admit it—Dadan had been a major help in the process.

Luffy's eyes practically sparkled in awe, as he turned around to glance at the bark of the tree with a determined chant—Ace softly snorted, turning away to grab a piece of vine from one of the smaller trees nestled into the groove of the forest. Tugging at it, it fell to the ground with a snap. He carefully used it to tie his pipe to his back—he had intended on finding rope at Grey Terminal, but he had been shit out of luck—and then the mishap with the blonde had happened and that plan had been thrown to the gutter. Shifting to peek at Luffy, who had found an unstable foothold in the bark, Ace hesitated—this was new. And Ace didn't like new.