To Raise a Vampire

A Big Brother's Dedication

Enjoy~

"Ace, will you bring me food from the town?" Luffy asked when Ace got up to leave. He uncurled from Luffy's small body, and had woken him up. The boy was still sleepy, as it was in the middle of the afternoon. He still had a couple more hours of sleep.

"How about I bring you some takoyakis?" Ace offered as he put his boots on, which were near the door and away from the fluffy carpet under Luffy's comfortable bed. Luffy grinned and nodded.

"You better," he mumbled and drifted back to sleep. Ace chuckled and said goodbye to Sabo, who had also woken up. It was lucky they could function with only a few hours of sleep. But Sabo stayed in bed with Luffy, thinking of how lucky they were to have Luffy.

"Be safe, Ace," Sabo said, what he always said to him when he left his brothers. Ace smiled and replied with, "Will do." Then he left the room, quietly closing the door behind him. Sabo left not too long after Ace did, unwrapping the young vampire from him and tucking him in gently.

Luffy was used to waking up with his brothers already leaving, so he would be fine with Sabo leaving. Luffy knew Ace and Sabo had stuff they had to do during the day. Luffy had never known any different, but wished he could stay up during the day. He was just always so tired when the sun was up! Always so sleepy.

Ace came back with the rest of the crew sans Sabo and Jojo, carrying all of the supplies they had to get. Ace had some warm boxes of food for Luffy, since the others had gone out to dinner. It was almost time for Luffy to wake up. Sabo met the group and helped load things onto the ship.

When Luffy woke up, he was ecstatic for the takoyaki breakfast. He had woken up later than usual, probably from that day's adventure. Many of the crew had already gone to bed, but Deuce and Ace and Sabo were all still awake, and played a board game with him. Luffy was sharing the takoyaki with Deuce, since he had over three boxes of them.

Luffy's pale skin and red eyes had never bothered Deuce. He was just a normal child that had something happen at the wrong time. Even when Deuce didn't know about Lu's past, he was still accepting to the little vampire, the first human other than Ace and Sabo, so Luffy latched onto the blue-haired man.

"I win!" Luffy declared as he had the most pieces left of the game they've been playing.

"I'll win next time," Ace teased with a smirk. Luffy stuck his tongue out.

"Stingy Ace," the boy accused. Ace looked in mock horror. Luffy was unable to process lies, either just because of who he was or how old he was, and looked guilty.

"Sorry, Ace," he said sadly. Sabo smacked Ace's arm for making Lu upset. Sabo reassured him that Ace was just joking. "Meanie," Luffy grumbled. But, they moved on quickly from this and turned to a card game. Luffy was not good at cards, and bent the rules often, not understanding them so making up his own. And, as wrapped around his finger as they were, the other full-humans let him win and put up with the senseless changes in rules of the games. They could play for real when Lu was asleep.

When Luffy was awake, they let him have the most fun as possible since he was missing so much in life for his safety.

-x-

"Captain Ace, we have a problem," Saber said in concern. Ace was holding Luffy and looking up at the stars, Sabo leaning against the railing and napping. Ace looked to his crew member in concern, wondering what was the problem and would make Saber look so worried.

"What is it?" Ace asked.

"We're out of blood. Aggie had to use the last couple for Zeno after the shark attack," Saber said. The blood drained from Ace's face. Luffy had never been out of blood. If he didn't get any, they didn't know what would happen. But, they also didn't want to have to have him drink from the source. Ace knew the next island was over two weeks away. That meant two missed feedings.