To Raise a Vampire

Meeting New People and Discovering New Things

A longer chapter, enjoy~

"What happened, Sab?" Ace asked quietly. They were both sitting on Luffy's bed, holding either one of his little hands. It washed the stress out of Sabo like water washing away something dirty.

"Someone asked about them," the blonde whispered, gripping Luffy's hand slightly tighter with those words. But then Sabo's body relaxed and he laid down next to Lu, kissing the little boy's forehead.

Ace stiffened when he heard that, and all of those bad memories flooded back, but he gripped Luffy's hand, and the memory of their mother begging for death disappeared. Though, the memories would haunt the black haired teen's dreams. Nightmares.

Thankfully, it was just bits and pieces. Their kind mom, so happy about being pregnant with another baby, even if she and he were thrown away like trash again. But then, it was covered in blood and sobs, wishing for death, begging for the life of her unborn baby. The feeling of blood, her blood, flooding along Ace's hands. Of killing that vampire that ruined his family. That evil man, the one who was evil even before turning into a vampire.

"No! I will always love my baby! My Luffy...!"

But, it was like Luffy was a drug, and the second the boy entered Ace's nightmare, it wasn't a nightmare anymore. Not with their angel in it. Could never be a bad dream if it included Lu. Ace hadn't realized he;d drifted to sleep until he woke up not much later, looking at Sabo's miserable face, even when he was sleeping. Ace knew the ordeal had been worse in some ways for Sabo than Ace. Sabo rejected the idea, but Aggie had diagnosed him with PTSD. That was when they recruited him, though Sabo didn't like the diagnosis.

But Ace knew it was true, they just never talked about it, and everyone knew to never mention even the words mother or father. They didn't know what had happened completely, just that it had been bad. And... messy.

Ace knew whoever asked about it hadn't known, but he was irritated that someone would ask something like that without even knowing them. The black haired captain wouldn't leave the room until Sabo awoke and could tell Ace what had happened while he was with Luffy. But Sabo needed some good dreams right now.

Sabo woke up a couple hours later, Ace having been awake the whole time, focusing on the good feeling from Luffy. "Sabo, did you notice he feels... more than usual?" Ace asked quietly. Sabo nodded, knowing what his brother meant. About Luffy feeling "more".

"The sun will be setting soon. The day went by really fast," Sabo mumbled. They both heard Luffy's tummy rumble, and he mumbled a syllabul. "I feel bad for leaving the others, but I don't feel like these guys are going to do anything bad."

Ace frowned. "At least, not yet." Sabo frowned at him.

"Ace, not every vampire is bad. Just cause we've only met one bad one, doesn't mean all of them right?" When Ace didn't respond, Sabo said, in a lower voice, "Luffy is a vampire."

Immediately, Ace snapped, "Luffy's different," though quiet enough to not wake Luffy up. They let him wake up on his own. "Besides, Luffy isn't a full vampire. It doesn't count," the captain insisted. Sabo sighed, but they erased the tense atmosphere when Luffy opened his big eyes.

The boy looked a little confused as to where he was. This wasn't his bedroom... "Where?" he asked with a big yawn, exposing his slightly rounded fangs.

"We were rescued by the bird-man vampire. Remember, then we had some yummy soup? They let us have this room for us to sleep in. Do you wanna go meet some other vampires?"