Write For Me

Counting Monkeys

"Yo!" Sabo blinked at the small boy, looked to Ace's glowering face, to the man who claimed to be Ace's grandfather and concluded that, yes, this was real; even if none of it made any sense.

"Ah! Ace! Meet Monkey D. Luffy, my other grandchild!" Garp, as Dadan had called the old man, shook the boy he held by the back of the collar in Ace's direction, before dropping him unceremoniously to the ground at the sight of Sabo.
"Who's your friend, Ace? A new grandchild?" The man was already quickly making his way over to them, neither had any time to react as Garp picked Sabo up with two hands and started tilting him this and that way, examining him like a new toy.

"Hey! Put Sabo down, Old Man! He's my soul m-!" Ace did not even manage to finish his sentence before Garp used one of his hands to scoop Ace up, none to gently, and practically crush him and his soul mate in a bone breaking hug. Garp was sobbing something about being 'so happy the brat has someone to help straighten him out for the role of a marine'; well, he was until Sabo put a stop to that nonsense by biting Garp's hand, hard.

Sabo swore his had whiplash from how quickly he had been dropped and hit on the head, affectionately dubbed the Fist of Love.

Soon enough, Garp had left, leaving the Dadan Family alone; plus one overly chatty child, Luffy.

It took the kid taking his eyes off of the two soul mates for him to lose them as abruptly as he had met them. Of course, not being the brightest candle flame, Luffy did not get the memo of why they had left him alone in the first place.
The two boys had their soul mate by their side, the other was all they needed.

-----

Luffy was frustrated, sad, but mostly frustrated. The two kids that his grandfather had introduced him to kept leaving him behind, ignoring him and generally being really mean; or at least Ace was, Sabo just did the first two things, he did not seem like the mean sort.
Shanks had told Luffy that he should learn to let the behaviour of others go, to stick up for himself and his friends only when times truly called for it; he was finding following that advice hard.

He had wondered why the two refused to play with him, why they did not seem to mingle with anyone outside of the bandit group, including him; even then, the two spent more time with each other than anyone else.
Then he remembered what Ace was saying during their first time meeting. While he had not been able to complete his sentence past saying Sabo's name, Luffy was pretty sure his last two words were 'soul mate'; that meant that Sabo was Ace's soul mate.

Honestly, Luffy was not entirely sold on soul mates. He had seen his previous caretaker, Makino, find her's. She had simply laid eyes on the red-headed pirate captain, Shanks, before practically falling over herself to greet him like she would an old friend. (Their explanation of having met in another life made no sense to him, so he regarded their relationship as a mystery; there were a lot of mysteries, he thought.)
Then Yasopp, a member of Shank's crew, had often told Luffy of his son and wife; when he had asked if he and his wife were soul mates he had simply shook his head.

"We may not be soul mates, my heart will always belong to the sea, but I love her none the less!" This only served to puzzle him more, how were you meant to love someone the way Yasopp loved his wife if you were not soul mates? Eventually he decided that soul mates did not dictate who you loved or should spend your life with, they could be used as more of a suggestion if one wanted; he knew not everyone saw them as that, though.

As he sat at the front of the Dadan Family's base, legs drawn up to his chest with his arms resting on them and watching the backs of the other two children, he thought back to the dream he had the night before. For as long as he could remember, Luffy had been able to meet people in his sleep; the number was small and he never saw anyone else, but the people he did see were quite kind to him.

Last night, he had seen a boy called Sanji. Sanji was a bit odd, as he could only see the colour blue, but, despite the bullying the other said he suffered because of it, Sanji was kind, one of the kindest people Luffy had ever met. He had told the blond, Sanji, of Ace and Sabo whilst they were drawing in his dream; Luffy had suggested drawing and had done a picture of the ocean for Sanji, as the other loved the sea.

"I think, you should show them why you want to be their friend. Don't let them walk all over you, but don't be a prick about it." Luffy clearly saw how Sanji's eyes had darkened when he talked about not letting Ace and Sabo 'walk all over him'; he did not really get it though, why would they walk on him in the first place? He never got to ask as Sanji had offered to show Luffy the latest dish he had learnt to make and as everyone should know, food trumps all.

Getting up he set out after Ace and Sabo, determined to find out where the two were always going and to finally become their friend. Then, even when awake, he would never be alone again.

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Author's Note:
-Luffy's soul mate connection is a nod to the One Piece fanfiction 'The Dream' by Aliahra.
- Sanji only being able to see blue is in reference to  chapter six of the One Piece fanfiction 'Of Birthrights and  Dreams' by Angyield. (The prompt for the chapter being blue.)