To Raise a Vampire

Surprising Improvement

There's more development in Luffy's powers this chapter. Enjoy~

The two days after Ace's feelings were revealed were surprisingly uneventful. Marco acted like nothing had happened, and Ace did his best to, too. Luffy hadn't had another melt-down, and though everyone knew about his powers now, no one seemed to shun him about it. Quite the opposite, actually. Luffy started putting on shows for pirates, creating various creatures and things to impress them. He had a lot of fun with this, and the Spades were very glad it hadn't made everyone hate the boy.

The brothers and their crew got to know many names from the pirates that weren't commanders. Ace had thought things would be more stressful after Luffy's episode and Ace's awkward moment, but it was the opposite. He didn't feel embarrassed about being around Marco, even if he didn't go out of his way to talk to him. None of the pirates had said anything to him about his crush on Marco, because the teen recognized that was what it was.

He now knew the vampires could tell when he blushed, which was still embarrassing, but they were nice about it and didn't comment or laugh. Thatch was happier, too, as he got to spend some time with Jojo after he failed miserably with making the blood candies, to his humiliation. But Jojo was nice about it and showed him how to make it. They had become quite popular among the vampires.

Luffy had been made more new clothes, and Ace and Sabo had a feeling it was the crew trying to tell them, inadvertently, that they wanted the Spades to stay forever. Sabo and Ace had both been told that they were wanted, but neither had told the other, thinking the other might be upset by it.

But neither brother knew if they wanted to stay. There were definitely pros and cons, but they both enjoyed being captains. If they joined, they'd be the regular "nobodies". They doubted either one of them would be made a commander. They would miss the freedom of making their own choices about where to go or what to do.

The major pro, though, was safety. None of the Spades had been ready to enter the Grand Line, even if Ace and Sabo were both very strong. Luffy was still so young. But, with the Whitebeards there to protect them, Luffy would be able to go onto an island safely with the vampires there with him.

It was a lot to think about, so they did their best not to at all. They didn't want to stress when Luffy was so happy. They did, however, become a bit jealous when Luffy would let go of their hands and run off to one of the commanders to talk to or show them something. He constantly went to Marco to ask to be flown, and the vampire was perfectly fine with it, humoring Luffy by flying a few meters up in the air.

Marco's willingness to go along with Luffy's requests just made Ace have a bigger crush, but he tried his hardest to ignore it. Just because Marco wasn't upset with him about it didn't mean he wanted to feel like this. Besides, Marco was a vampire. It would never work out.

That's what he did his best to convince himself of. Luffy hadn't brought the topic up again, to Ace's much thanks.

-x-

On the mark of the second week of the Spades residing on the Moby Dick, Luffy leapt forward so far in his abilities that everyone was shocked and even a bit worried. Whitebeard had to be the most excited one out of each person on the ship, besides the little boy of course.

Sabo and the Spades were bathing, Jojo in the kitchen baking with Thatch and swapping recipes, and Ace and Luffy were out on deck. The big brother played games with Luffy, playing with a ball, tag, and tossing Lu up in the air.

"I wanna play duck, duck, goose, Ace," Luffy said suddenly.

"Well, we can't right now. There aren't enough people. Everyone is busy at the moment. Why don't we wait a little bit? I'm sure they'll want to play with us once they're done with their tasks," Ace replied with a smile. Luffy frowned, wishing he could play right now. Who knows how long it'll take for the others to all finish?