[OP] Of the Good and Bad / AceLu One shots and Drabbles

Failure

/ Angst, drabble /

Luffy was never one to know what failure felt like. He's always succeeded.

He was likeable. Very likeable. And it always brought him the best outcomes.

He's never failed at anything he wanted. It felt like as long as he wanted something, he was going to get it.

Luffy indeed felt anxious and horrified upon the news of Ace's imprisonment. But he wasn't too worried.

Ace was strong.

It was what he'd say when they were children.

It was what he had said to his crew.

It was what he had said to Lola.

It was what he had said to the women of the island.

Luffy wasn't wrong, Ace was indeed strong.

But even a fierce beast can deteriorate say it were shackled and beaten regularly.

Luffy did not understand that there was a process between start to finish. Between a dream and the achieving.

So what went wrong?

It was always strong and weak for the two brothers. There was no in between.

Without such a flexibility, success is not guaranteed.

And unfortunately, Luffy fell from his tower of confidence, and hit his head, hard.

So hard he almost broke.

So hard he almost died.

Luffy was brutally damaged. He had never thought he would lose the person he loved the most. He treated the task seriously, willing to die for Ace as he already did multiple times, infiltrating the terrible Impel Down.

But willing to die for him wasn't enough.

Something was still missing.

And even if he found the halfway, Luffy knew that there will forever be a gap between him currently and himself before the two years of training.

Even if he smiled and continued on, chasing his dream of become the Pirate King. Everything was real. Every bit of the passion and determination were real.

But Luffy understood that he was going to complete his journey. With a huge regret.