While you cleaned up Luffy after he entered your home, the little bundle of sunshine retells the events of his journey to your house.
"So first, I made Ace and Sabo-"
Reiju pops up from behind you to stare down at Luffy, who was currently seated on your lap, "who are Ace and Sabo?"
The question seem to make Luffy's eyes shine brighter.
"Ace and Sabo are the best brothers in the world! I made them think I was sleeping, and I even made sure to snore extra loud!" Luffy gleefully tells you, "then, when my brothers went to sleep- oh, I checked if their eyes were closed, so they were definitely sleeping- I just followed your smell and I was walking through the forest and I found some tasty looking deers but they ran away and then I saw an itsy -bitsy human with wings-"
Law thumps his tail against the couch loud enough to catch everyone's attention.
"Stop wasting our time by telling us these trivial details and explain why you even came here in the first place."
You finish patting Luffy's cheeks with a towel before turning around to face Law. The leopard switches his gaze to you in return before he bashfully looks away.
He's probably just concerned about why Luffy tracked me down, but Luffy is practically as harmless as a ladybug.
As Luffy stares in confusion at Law's interruption, you give Law's ear a quick rub before telling Luffy to continue his story. The young boy immediately gets back to his storytelling, mentioning a few mystical occurrences that interested some of the other kids.
"I knew this was your house because the smell got really, really strong and I saw you through the window, and it looked warm and cozy in there so I was gonna ask if you'd let me join you guys. And now I'm here in your arms!" Luffy ends his story while giving you a jittery hug. You placed a hand on his back to show you reciprocated it.
Though you were amused by his travel to your house, a deep concern festers in your heart for Ace and Sabo. Your first encounter with the brothers may not have been pleasing, but you know each of the three harbors a big heart for one another. You can guess that losing the youngest sibling in harsh weather will surely cause panic between Luffy's brothers.
It seems you weren't the only one to come to this realization.
Sanji gasps in shock, "You left your brothers alone? In the cold? Without any warning? You'll make them so worried!"
"I mean, I don't care at all but wow, are you crazy or an idiot?" Ichiji asks with furrowed eyebrows.
"Or both?" Niji snickers.
You abruptly stand up from your seat while Luffy was still snuggled in your arms; the boy merely lets out a giggle and even tells you to raise him higher.
You give a worried smile to the pocket of sunshine in your arms, "I am more than willing to play with you Luffy, but we have to find your brothers first. They must be horribly worried by your absence."
"But I was gonna bring them here after I found you by myself first! I just wanted to prove to them that I'm a strong enough on my own."
Law scoffs. "And you decide to showcase that by running away and barging into our house like a rat? You're definitely proving something."
"And it's not about you being strong!" Yonji laughs.
Luffy frowns at the remarks and before he can escape your grasp to scuffle with his offenders, you coax him to relax by reminding him of his brothers. While he ponders about Ace and Sabo, you tell the other kids to stay in the house and that Reiji was in charge.
Before you fully teleported out of the living room, you catch the smug grin that lights up on the girl's face. The boys give you expressions of betrayal and disbelief.
I can trust Reiju to not cause chaos and cut limbs off of children...
I really need to have a talk with Law about his power.
-
"Luffy, are we any closer to your brothers?" You asked the boy in your arms, who you hugged a little tighter to your chest to provide him a natural heater.
The light snowfall from earlier had steadily turned into a whirlwind of ice. You had created a force field surrounding the two of you earlier, but the most it can do is block out the elements. Both you and Luffy are working together to keep each other warm.
"I can't smell Ace or Sabo anymore..." Luffy whines.
No scents and no tracks... this is going to be tougher than I though. Maybe there's a spell I can recall to help us with the search, but the current weather is being a pain right now...
"Hey, mystery person?"
You hum in acknowledgment, more focused on treading the snow then responding with words.
"Will I ever see Ace and Sabo again?"
You look down to see the pout on the boy's face.
You gently console him. "Luffy, of course you will. Even if we don't find them now, we can always try after the snowfall lightens up a bit. I just thought it'd be better to look for them as soon as possible because I'm sure they must be really worried about you."
"But- but it's been days!" Luffy weeps.
"It's only been 20 minutes, little one."
"What!?" He tightens his hold on your arms, "but it feels like forever now! I don't think I'll ever find them..."
"Hey now, where's the jolly, brave adventurer from earlier? With your strength and my intelligence, we're gonna find Ace and Sabo real soon, I just know it." You smiled as you tapped his red nose.
Luffy sends a toothy smile your way, "Hahaha! You're right!! I'm the strongest in this forest and you're smart with big boy words, so we'll totally-"
Shouts of a certain boy's name echoes throughout the forest.
Luffy suddenly jumps out of your hold, "It's Ace and Sabo! Let's go! Let's go!"
You chase after Luffy, avoiding logs and clumps of snow. You both near a clearing, revealing a field of pure white with two small figures standing in the middle.
The figures quickly face your direction when they hear the crunch of snow underneath of your feet.
A simultaneous cry of "Luffy!" reverberates throughout the clearing and now there was a pile of three brothers hugging each other.
Sibling love truly does warm the heart... but I'd rather be next to the fireplace to heat up my freezing body.
Luffy breaks up the hug first, "Ace! Sabo! Look, it's the mystery person from a few days ago. They helped me find you guys-"
The boy is interrupted when he's roughly pushed behind the two brothers.
"Hey! Why'd you-"
Luffy pauses at the glares he receives from both his brothers.
Ace then turns his gaze towards you and steps up in an aggressive manner, "So you're the one who took our little brother away!"
Sabo then hops in, "How dare you try to steal Luffy away! We were right! You're a bad guy!"
You instinctively raised both of your hands as a sign of surrender and held a neutral expression on your face.
In a calm voice, you explained the situation. "The little one behind you traversed to my house himself, and all by himself with no assistance might I add."
Luffy happily grins at your comment.
You continue, "All I've done was clean him up and immediately went out to reunite him with you two. He also made an interesting suggestion when he visited."
The brothers looked at Luffy to confirm your story. He quickly nodded his head up and down.
Sabo sent a skeptical look at you, "How do we know you didn't do anything to Luffy's brain?"
"I can't exactly prove that I didn't do anything, but isn't Luffy behaving how he usually would around you two?"
"Yeah, they didn't do anything to me! If they did, then I wouldn't remember the time Ace and Sabo almost became popsicles after falling into the-"
Luffy's mouth gets slapped shut by two pairs of hands.
How unfortunate Luffy didn't get to finish.. I'll pry the story out of him in the future, though. Nothing a little candy as an incentive can't solve.
Ace yells, "Okay! Okay! You're our Luffy! We got it!"
Sabo sighs, "Sheesh, don't tell people our sworn secrets, Luffy."
"Then how else was I supposed to prove that the mystery person is a good guy?"
Ace and Sabo turn around to face you and hardened their expressions once more. You remain silent.
Ace asks, "What was that suggestion you made earlier to them, Luffy?"
Luffy excitedly answers, "That we all live together!"
"What?" Sabo gapes at his response, "why would you think that's a good idea? They can't be trusted!"
You flinch a little at that statement.
"What are you talking about?" Luffy asks with furrowed eyebrows, "they helped us before, they didn't even fight back."
"That's just because they pity us." Sabo spitefully mutters.
Well now you feel offended.
Luffy grumbles, "Well, they're the first person who pitied us AND gave us a gift! That makes them a good person!"
You internally awe at that.
Sabo grits his teeth, "No, it doesn't!"
"But they're different! Everybody else we ran into were bad! The mystery person didn't hit us! That makes them a good guy!"
You're suddenly filled with bloodlust.
"But you don't know if they're faking!" Ace shouts.
"They're not! They even helped me come back to you guys!" Luffy cries back.
"Luffy, you don't know what you're talking!"
Uh oh.
"Why don't you guys ever trust me!" Luffy shakes off the iron-like grips of his brothers, running head first into your frozen legs and hiding his face away.
You quickly bend down to Luffy's level, wrapping your arms around his curled form and letting him rub his snot-covered face into your jacket.
You turn your attention to Ace and Sabo, both holding mixed expressions of dying frustration, betrayal, but most prominent of all, guilt.
And you're in the crossfire of it all.