Soliloquy of the Broken Soul

Meetings and Eating

Sabo sighed once more, releasing all tension from his body and snuggled close to Luffy, following his little brothers lead as he drifted away into the inky black of his own self conscious.

***

Ace woke up to a strange buzzing noise coming from nearby.

"Pssst! Acccceeeee!!!!!"

He groaned as he shoved his head under the covers in attempts to block out the noise.

"Don't you ignore me you idiot! Ace wake UP!"

Ace sighed and raised his head to look at Sabo.

"Okay what!?" Ace whispered apprehensively at his blond brother.

He blinked when he saw Sabo's sheets all messed up with Luffy snoring loudly.... On top of Sabo.

Ace giggled quietly and slid off his bed, walking over to help Sabo with the predicament.

"What happened? Why is he in your bed anyway?" Ace questioned in a hushed voice as he slowly slid Luffy off of his brother.

Once Luffy was off of Sabo and under the now fixed covers with Sabo sitting on the edge of the bed, he took in a deep breath with a slight frown on his face.

"He climbed in at around midnight last night. I think he had a nightmare or something and didn't wanna wake us," Sabo said sadly.

Ace's smirk shifted into a lopsided frown. "That idiot. Doesn't he know that he's supposed to come to us for that kind of stuff!" Ace ranted.

Sabo was about to respond when they heard the sheets on the bed shift from beside them.

They turned to see Luffy sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Morning, Lu!" Ace and Sabo greeted cheerily, inching a little closer to their brother.

Luffy sat there a good five minutes before he even seemed to acknowledge that his brothers were in the room. He slowly looked up and a wry, forced -looking smile laid upon his face.

"Hi," he remarked, soft and sleepily.

Ace knocked his head (although it was really more of a tap) and began lecturing a confused and tired Luffy.

"Why didn't you wake us up when you had a nightmare!?" Ace asked with slight offense in his tone.

Luffy bowed his head somewhat shamefully and fiddled with the sheets, staying silent.

Sabo flashed a glare at Ace that practically screamed "wow, gentle much?".

Sabo sighed and patted Luffy's head, who jumped at the sudden contact and looked up and around with large panicked eyes.

"Whoa," Sabo exclaimed, pulling his hand away, "slow down Luffy. Look, we're right here. It's us."

Luffy seemed to be having a hard time finding them, and it was another thirty seconds before the was able to fully focus on his brothers faces.

Luffy didn't reach out to them like he had every morning before today, didn't even try to touch their hands. In fact, he was flinching and pulling back from almost every moved they made. This was new, and it worried them.

Ace and Sabo tried to stay still, almost as if they were dealing with a frightened animal instead of a child.

"Sorry," Luffy finally mumbled with his head down.