Luffy's POV
Marco was climbing the stairs precariously, the straw-hat captain kept him in his line of sight. He had taken it upon himself to insure his new friend didn't get hurt more, especially after he learned that Sakazuki was the bastard that had burnt him.
The younger teen stumbled after he missed a step, falling in reverse, Luffy grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and tossed him onto his back. That was the last straw, he decided giving him a piggyback would be easier.
The boy couldn't understand why his friend didn't accept the Yonko's offer to carry him. It wasn't like it troubled the young captain anyway. It's not like the kid weighted that much, in fact Luffy found him almost too light.
They joked around until the sky came into view, then Luffy broke into a run, springing over Whitebeard and into the open with a laugh and a grin.
As soon as Luffy and Dragon were on top deck, several things happened.
First Luffy set Marco down, his friend literally just had his feet on the floor, then next thing he knew the blonde was swallowed in a giant hug by a guy. He was chubby with black cornrows, his face was round and childish. It took the raven a moment to realise that he was a just really big kid.
Another boy came running after the young boy, who scolded him for 'bear hugging' Marco, he let go of the fire bird beginning to bow his head and apologising profusely.
Luffy found the situation rather funny, chuckling at Marco's attempts to ease the boys "sorry's".
Marco told him that this kid was his baby brother, this got a small reaction out of Dragon, which was hardly even noticeable. Except to Luffy that was, who was extremely good at reading people.
The boy just accepted that this was Marco's little brother without much care, after all blood wasn't everything. Luffy knew that better than anyone.
Next a small crowd gathered around them, most likely coming to gawk at Luffy and Dragon, the younger raven just ignored them in favour of introducing himself and Dragon to Marco's brothers.
The young captain decided that he liked the other two boys, they seemed nice and Marco was really fond of them. Not to mention Luffy assumed that these were the brothers the blonde was protecting from Sakazuki.
Marco was a good brother!
The little audience was talking in hushed voices, some mean comments were thrown their way, mostly to do with Gramps. Luffy just shrugged them off, not really giving a fly heck about what they thought.
They didn't like Gramps but that was nothing to do with him.
Luffy glanced at Dragon, he was staring absolute daggers, despite having a blank face.
The Yonko shooed them off when he noticed the long haired raven starting to get irritated. He looked a little concerned about Dragon, regarding him thoughtfully.
After a moment the older captain closed his eyes wearily and the way he slumped his shoulders it wasn't just his eyes that were tired. He motioned to Marco's older brother Vista, he came over with the warning to the youngest brother to leave Marco alone or to at least not crush him.
They had quick quiet exchange, with Vista nodding, glancing at Dragon and Luffy. This made the older Monkey stiffen, giving them a suspicious look through narrowed eyes.
Whitebeard wandered off somewhere, leaving the two D's with a awkward Vista who had orders to find them a spare cabin to stay in.
The room that the Monkey's had been given was small, it had very few things in it just a crooked wooden desk, a couple of crates that could be used as a surface area and a single bed in one corner. They had been given a hammock, (which Luffy had claimed) along with a single oil lamp which was going to be the only source of light. That was it, they didn't have anything else.
The young captain wasn't really bothered, as long as he had a place to sleep and he was given food he really didn't care.
Dragon was fascinated with the bed, as soon as Vista, who Luffy thought looked like a magician was gone, the long haired raven flopped on top of the bunk with a blissful expression. The boy preferred hammocks anyway, they were a lot more fun.
The straw-hat captain began setting up his hammock, leaving Dragon fiddling around with the oil lamp, it was going to be dark soon and they wouldn't be able to see anything in their windowless cabin. The man was having problems, he had the lamp clamped between his feet to stop it from moving, while his bandaged hands were completely useless as he tried to switch it on miserably.
Luffy sighed dropping what he was doing and wandered over to help. He crouched down next to a frustrated Dragon and turned it on for him. The man glanced down, looking away out of sheer embarrassment, the boy didn't say anything and went back to working on his hammock.
The time ticked by slowly in silence, the young captain had never been good with the quiet, it made him feel lonely even if he wasn't alone.
"It was nice of them to give us a room..."
Dragon grunted in response, he was perched on the edge of his mattress with his head down and his arms hung loosely on his knees.
"Well... uh? Dragon are you okay?"
He peered through his shaggy hair, the guy looked worn out with dark bags under his eyes.
"Not really, if I'm being honest."
The teen give him a small smile, hoping that his friend would elaborate without having to ask.
"I guess things are- Well you see the thing is- It's complicated."
"What's complicated?"
"This whole thing is..."
Dragon gestured with both hands in a circle motion, his shackles rattling loudly as he did, this caused him to glower at the things.
"Why?"
Luffy really couldn't understand what his problem was, the crew had been nothing but nice to them, what was so complicated about that?
"It's just- I don't know! It just feels wrong!"
The older shouted, he fell on his back clutching his face or trying to anyway, this seemed to aggravate him more. He kicked his feet in the air, growling almost like a beast.
"They shouldn't be like this!"
"Who shouldn't?"
"This whole damn crew!"
Luffy frowned causing his face to wrinkle, his mouth was pulled into a long straight line. He crossed his arms, letting his head fall to one side in puzzlement .
"What's wrong with the crew? They're really nice to us."
"That's the problem!"
"Uhhhhh? I don't get it."
Dragon jumped up from his bed, beginning to pace back and forth, his posture was rigid and his expression troubled.
"Neither do I... but what you and I don't get are two completely different things"
Luffy gazed at the aggravated pacing man, he wasn't sure what he could say to make him feel better. He wished he could though.
"Hey Luffy? You know Whitebeard and that blonde kid, right?"
"Yeah"
"Do you know them well?"
"No..."
"Then how many times have you met them?"
"Once"
Dragon stopped on the spot, gapping at him with shock.
"Only once! But the way you talk to them is so familiar, you know stuff about them too. You said that Whitebeard was a good person, when you've only met him once, how can you determine that just from one meeting."
Luffy was soundless for a moment, his eyes falling on his chest, he lightly touched his scar. Sadness swelled inside, a scene played in his head, one that still gave him nightmares to this very day.
Thank you for loving someone like me...
"Because they tried to save my brother..."
Dragon's eyes went wide, he turned to face Luffy fully.
"You have a brother, is he my -"
"No, but he was still my big brother..."
The man walked over to the young captain, lowering himself into a crossed legged position next Luffy.
"He was your brother?"
"He died two years ago... Sakazuki killed him-"
Luffy's voice trembled slightly, but he refused to cry. Ace would've called him a cry baby.
"-Because he protected me..."
Dragon placed a hand on his shoulder, he tired to rub his back but he ended up sucking in a painful gasp.
"Lu, I'm sorry-"
"It's fine, it was two years ago."
"Yeah but that doesn't stop it from hurting, when I lost my mom I couldn't stop crying, I still miss her to this day and even now I still want to cry..."
"You lost your mom?"
"Yeah when I was 10..."
"I lost mom too, but I never met her..."
Dragon looked down sadly, leaning on Luffy's shoulder in an attempt at comforting him.
"So you don't know your mom either...?"
Luffy shook his head, he wrapped his arms around his knees, bringing them up to rest his chin on.
"I'm so, so sorry..."
Dragon bowed his head low to the ground, his words dripping with sadness and even a little pain.
"What for it's not your fault..."
The other raven laughed humourlessly, he placed his head on the floor. Luffy frowned at him with worry.
"Of course it's my fault, I should have been there for you... I should have been there..."
"But Dragon it isn't your fau-"
"YES IT IS! THAT BIG BROTHER OF YOURS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY RESPONSIBILITY TOO! YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT! WHEN HE BECAME YOUR BROTHER THAN HE SHOULD HAVE BECOME MY SON! WHICH MEANS THAT that th-"
Luffy was taken back, he honestly had no idea what to say.
"It wasn't your fault your brother died, he was protecting you when that should have been my job... I should have protected both of you."
"But you didn't even know Ace"
"It's not like I knew you either!"
Dragon was panting, face blushed with anger. He curled into himself, his shaking shoulders were full of tension and he whispered
"I don't want to be like the old geezer..."
"You're not like Gramps, you're nothing like him. He used to give me and Ace such a hard time, every time he came to visit he would chase us with his 'Fists of Love', but you never did that so I think I like you better already."
"I didn't do anything..."
Luffy shrugged indifferently, putting a hand on his back. Dragon flinched.
"Shouldn't I be the one comforting you."
"You already tried."
He smiled little, raising his gaze half-heartedly.
"What was Ace like?"
Luffy grinned, wiping his watering eyes. He loved to talk about Ace, even if it made him sad.
"He was really cool and strong, but kinda grumpy, he was really stubborn and he would never back down from a fight. He was funny too, he would fall asleep every where, especially when he was eating. The amount of times he would head-butt his food, it always made people stare. But he was a good big brother"
Dragon looked away distantly, he had a wit full look about him.
"He sounded like a fun, I bet he was nice guy if he was your brother"
Luffy bobbed his head in agreement, a wide smile plastered it on his face, thinking back made him want to laugh and cry.
"He was the best"
Dragon gave him sideways glance, he looked interested to know more.
"So was he a pirate too?"
"Oh yeah he left when he was 17, he had his own crew for a while"
"What happened to them?"
"I think they all joined this crew"
Dragon gave him a sceptical look, a light frown formed on his face.
"Why would they do that?"
"Don't know I guess they liked it here"
The boy threw his arms in the air, he didn't know the answer.
"Wait didn't you say they tried to save hi- Sorry I shouldn't ask that, forget it Lu. I bet it's a touchy subject."
He sighed, he didn't mind telling him after all he was trying to understand and that's was a good thing.
"It's okay, I don't mind telling you're trying to understand stuff so it can't be bad"
"Yeah, but I don't want to make it worse"
His friend started waving his hands in front of him, his face was full of guilt.
"Really it's fine I don't mind, I'm happy you're interested in Ace"
He still didn't look particularly happy about it, but he gave in.
"Ace got caught by somebody called Blackbeard. He gave him over to the government and he was locked away in Impel Down. So I went there and tried to break him out, but I got there too late and he got taken to Marineford"
Dragon was listening hanging on to every single word, seriousness oozing from him. He was staring at his shackles with disgust, they obviously reminded him of his time with the Marines.
"At Marineford they wanted to execute him, this big huge war happened because of it. I went to save my brother, and so did the Whitebeard Pirate's with their allies."
The boy was watching Dragon with interest, his reaction was one that he wasn't expecting. He looked confused and bewildered, his mouth drawn into a harsh line and his eyes were narrowed.
"They did that for one single member? That's insane, I mean it's not a bad thing obviously, but it's still crazy did you- why?"
"Because he was part of his crew..."
The man was shaking his head not understanding, he looked over at him, gaze sharp and uneasy.
"Why would Whitebeard bother with that, no offence, he's got so many crewmembers, would one even matter to him?"
"All my crew matter to me, I would go out of my way to save anyone of them"
Dragon took in a sharp breath, aspirated.
"Yeah but that's you that isn't him"
"He wanted to save my brother then he couldn't have been a bad person, also Ace didn't just take to anybody, he liked the old guy."
The long haired raven still distrustful, his eyes half lidded and full of cynicism.
"If he's anything like you, then I don't know, you like everyone."
"Actually there's lots of people I don't like"
"Oh really who?"
Luffy thought hard, a long list of people popped into his head. After a moment he decided not to think about it anymore. There is no point in proving a point. So instead he put his brain to better use and continued his story.
"Anyway I made my way to Marineford, I was convinced I was going to save him. And I managed to get all the way to execution platform and I even managed to free him-"
That's where luffy's story ended he didn't want to talk about it anymore, he didn't want to remember that particular moment.
Dragon seemed to comprehend and he didn't push him anymore, instead he decided to pat him on the back again. He grimaced at the pain that he was in, but he continued anyways.
For a while they sat there next to each other without saying anything, a solemn air between them, neither of them knew what to say or what to do.
"Hey Dragon?"
"Yeah what's up?"
"Thanks for listening"
"It's really no problem, thanks for telling me, must have been hard, Thanks for trusting me too, it's been awhile."
Luffy smiled lightly. Of course he trusted him, why wouldn't he?
"Luffy I promise I'm gonna make things different this time. I'm going to make sure that ace is alive and I'm going to make sure that you're okay too. I'm gonna make sure that I take care of you when you're a kid I won't forget you, it's a promise!"
"Dragon..."
That made Luffy happy more than he could ever express so he just sat there and looked away, fiddling with his fingers. Maybe having a dad would be nice, especially if it was this Dragon and not "His Now" Dragon. Luffy liked this one a lot.
They sat in the quiet for a while, the silence was comfortable this time. The young captain thought back on his childhood, the smiles of his brothers well etched into his mind.