Author's Note
_________________
(Hiii! Sorry for not updating in a while! I honestly lost some motivation, and since school started already, I was busy with my assignments! :'D But I'll try to upload more if I can! So, anyways, enjoy this new chapter! >:D)
_________________
As Ace and Sabo broke into the hideout, Ace proceeded to hit one of the men with his pipe. But both Ace and Sabo seemed to notice Porchemy bleeding. It looked as if something bit him. Hmmm.. I wonder what could've done that..
"Porchemy, it's that damn kid!"
"He's got the money! That brat!" One of the men said as he growled.
"ACE YOU'RE HERE!" Luffy cried.
Ace lunged himself at Porchemy to land an attack but instead got grabbed by his neck.
"Thanks for showing up, kid. You saved us some trouble. Your friend ain't squealing. He's pretty tough. But I think you'll talk." Porchemy stated.
"Ace!" Luffy yelled.
Ace wad struggling in Porchemy's grip. "S-Sabo! Do it!" Ace shouted. Sabo then lunged at Porchemy from behind and hitting him with his pipe in the process. Porchemy let go of Ace as he got hit by Sabo.
"That kind of hurt. Who hit me?" Porchemy asked as he turned around to see Sabo. "You?" He asked while looking directly at Sabo.
"You punks don't get who you're messing with. You're all dead meat!" Porchemy exclaimed.
"Shut your mouth and fight!" Ace said as he was now back on his feet. "Sabo, help Luffy!" He ordered.
"You guys!.." Luffy sniffled.
Sabo nodded at Ace's words. "One thing, that ugly dude has a sword. Be careful!" He warned.
Once again, Ace leaped into the air, trying to deliver an attack at Porchemy. Both their weapons clashed against each other as he did that.
Meanwhile, Sabo sprinted towards Luffy while dodging the attacks from the other men. He then counter attacked one of the men, which caused him to drop a knife. Sabo then picked the knife up with his free hand.
"No way!.. Porchemy, that other kid got our knife!" The man said.
After Sabo picked the knife up, he cut the ropes that Luffy was tied to. He then picked Luffy up and carried him. As he did, he looked around, as if he was trying to find something or *someone*..
'Where is she?.. I thought she'd be here by now!' Sabo panicked as he didn't see the (H/C) haired girl anywhere around.
"You guys go ahead." Ace said.
Sabo widened his eyes and turned around. "Huh? What are you talking about, Ace? Let's just leave!" He stated.
"I don't run from my enemies. Ever. Got it?!" Ace hissed while looking at Porchemy's direction.
"And I don't go easy on *MY* enemies." Porchemy responded.
"C'mon! These guys aren't just thugs. They're Blue Jam pirates!" Sabo exclaimed.
"Yeah, you got that right. Now, I'm done playing games here! You've got something that belongs to us. Be good and give it back, you brat!" Porchemy barked. "You're just a kid, and I don't blame ya for acting stupid. But fork over the cash, or you'll regret it!" He said while pointing his large sword at Ace.
Ace angrily hit the sword away with his pipe. "We got better plans for it. That's our money now!" Ace stated.
Porchemy growled as he looked at Ace. "Then you are dead!" He yelled.
"Hold on a sec, I'll be right back" Sabo told Luffy as he dropped him on the floor while heading towards Ace's side. "Aw, great. Not this again. You really like to dig your heels in, don't ya?"
"Shut up. Let's fight." Ace retorted.
"That's enough of this crap!-" Porchemy yelled but soon got interrupted as something attacked him from behind. Both the boys widened their eyes, seeing what happened.
"What the!-" Sabo exclaimed.
Ace and Sabo then realized what attacked Porchemy. I seemed to be a..
"Wolf?.." They both said in unison. Confused as to what a wolf would be doing there.
"Dammit, not you again! I thought I had dealt with you already!" Porchemy yelled in anger while yanking the wolf off his back and throwing it in the direction of the two boys. They both got out of the way and saw the wolf laying on the ground. It seemed to be pretty beaten up.
Luffy noticed the wolf and widened his eyes. He was about to say something, but the wolf shaked its head, as if it knew what he was going to say. Luffy then covered his mouth with his hands. The wolf then turned to Porchemy's direction and limpily walked towards Ace and Sabo. They seemed to be in a fighting stance as it got closer, thinking it would hurt them.
The wolf walked towards them and stopped as it was now in the middle of them. They widened their eyes as they saw it having no intention of hurting them. They figured that it was after Porchemy.
"Looks like we're getting some extra help here today, Sabo." Ace said.
"Fine by me." Sabo responded.
All three of them were now in fighting stances. Porchemy stood there, angry. "I'm not gonna lose. You hear? I'd rather just kill myself!" He yelled.
"Not if we do it first!" Both Ace and Sabo said in unison. While all three of them leaped into the air, trying to strike an attack.
"Come at me, ya pricks!" Porchemy exclaimed.
___________________
It was finally nighttime, and everybody was safe now. Ace, Sabo, and the wolf stood victorious as they finished the fight with Porchemy. The wolf suddenly disappeared out of nowhere, and the boys couldn't seem to find it anywhere. They also tried looking for a certain (H/C) haired girl but saw no sign of her.
As they were headed to the forest, they ran into her. But something they noticed about her was that she had scars and bruises all over her body. They carried her somewhere safer, along with Luffy.
All of them were now bandaged up and seemed to be talking..
~ First Person POV ~
"Ace, that was really not cool. Those guys were actual pirates. Next time, we run. Whatever your deal is, it's not worth dying over. " Sabo said while crossing his arms. Ace paid no mind to what Sabo said and was just checking his pipe.
Meanwhile, I was comforting Luffy by hugging him and rubbing his back as he cried.
"This sucks, I liked my old one better. " Ace muttered, still looking at his pipe. Sabo just sighed, seeing Ace not paying attention to what he said.
"We made a huge mistake.. Pissing off pirates like that, man, they probably told their captain. What are we supposed to do now?.." Sabo spoke in a worried tone.
"That was scary! I thought I was gonna die!.." Luffy wailed as he was holding on to me.
"There, there.. you're safe now.." I told Luffy while rubbing his arm in a comforting way.
"Would you shut up?! You're not hurt that bad! So stop crying already! When are you going to stop being a baby??? Don't you wanna be a pirate?!" Ace exclaimed in an annoyed tone. The last sentence quickly caused Luffy to stop crying. This made Ace, Sabo, and I a bit taken aback.
"T-Thank you.." Luffy said while looking down and trying to hold back his tears. I smiled softly as he thanked them. Ace and Sabo then looked at each other in a bit of a surprised way. "You... you saved me.." He said as tears started spilling out of his eyes.
"Stop it!" Ace shouted both angrily and annoyed.
"Calm down! He's just happy, okay?" Sabo stated as he tried calming Ace down. Luffy was sniffling as he stopped crying again.
"Alright, what gives?! Why didn't you tell them what they wanted?" Ace asked Luffy in a harsh tone. "You think they wouldn't kill you cuz you're a kid?? Those guys don't give a damn!" He exclaimed.
Luffy stayed quiet for a bit before responding. "I was afraid.. that.. you wouldn't be my friend!.." Luffy mumbled, but still loud enough for us to hear.
'Yeah? Well, so what? That still beats dying, right? Besides, why do you wanna be my friend? It's dumb!" Ace asked while pointing his finger at Luffy.
"Cuz.." Luffy muttered while having his eyes covered by his strawhat.
"It's not like I've been nice to you. In fact, I've been giving you hell ever since we met. It's been months. Why haven't you just giving up?" Ace question. Luffy didn't respond and stayed quiet for a bit.
"Well.. although (Y/N) is my best friend, we don't get to hang out as often anymore. Since she's too busy doing chores that the mountain bandits give her. And when she does try to make time for me, the mountain bandits stop her and give her even more chores to do! I'd be all alone if I didn't follow you! Getting beat up hurts, but being lonely hurts more!.." Luffy exclaimed while having tears in his eyes.
Ace's expression seemed to soften a bit while hearing that. "You feel better around me?.." He asked calmly.
"Uh huh!" Luffy nodded.
"Otherwise you'd feel lonely?.."
"Uh huh!"
...
Everything went quiet for a moment. Ace didn't say anything for a few seconds and then turned his attention towards me.
"What about her? I've noticed her following you when she has the time. Not to even mention I've seen her approach me sometimes as she wants to say something but never does." Ace asked while crossing his arms.
Luffy looked at me before looking at Ace and answering him.
"She also wants to be friends with you! But just isn't good at socialblizing-"
"Socializing."
"Yeah! She isn't good at socialdlizing with people." Luffy stated.
I bite my lip as I try not to smile since I found it pretty funny he mispronounced it still. I proceeded to nod my head as I agreed with Luffy.
"Really? She seemed to have socialized pretty well earlier. Considering the fact she did yell at us.." Ace said in a bit of a mockingly way. I glared at him. He seemed to notice and glared back.
Tension filled the air as both Ace and I glared at each other. Sabo sighed before speaking up. "Alright, cut it off, you lovebirds."
We both widened our eyes as we heard Sabo say that. I felt my face warm up and frowned.
"WE'RE NOT LOVEBIRDS!" We yelled in unison. Both of us looked at each other in surprise. After a few seconds of staring, we looked away.
Sabo sighed again while Luffy giggled at the scene. Soon, Ace spoke up.
"..Do you two.. think I deserve to live?"
Suddenly, everything was quiet for a moment. The tension filling the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. But soon after, both me and Luffy answered Ace's question.
"Of course we do!" We exclaimed in unison.
Ace kept quiet for a bit and didn't say anything for some seconds and had just held his head low.
"I see.." He muttered. "Even if you two do want to be my friends, you're still annoying. Not to even mention weak, little crybabies like you, *Luffy,* piss me off." Ace said while turning away from us and scratching his head.
Luffy then jumped down. "Nuh uh! I'm not weak, I'm really strong!" Luffy stated.
"Ha, you think you're really strong? You were crying your eyes out the whole time you were tied up." Ace snarled.
"And have you ever gotten hit by a spiky thing that big?! I'm just seven years old! Wait till I've turned ten years old like you guys, and then I'll be stronger and won't cry anymore!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Age has nothing to do with it, you brat! Hell, when I was seven, I was tough!" Ace barked.
They both kept arguing with each other. I sighed as I sat there and watched them argue. Soon Sabo broke the fight, I jumped down and grabbed Luffy by the shoulders and backed him away from Ace.
"Geez.. now listen. In case you guys forgot, we got a problem here." Sabo stated.
"A problem?" Luffy asked.
Sabo nodded. "Blue Jam and his buddies are bound to come looking for us after what happened back there. And like you said, they don't care if we're kids. They'll kill us without a second thought."
"Yeah, probably." Ace said.
"This forest where I've been living is awfully close to their hideout. Their cove of pirates. What if one night, I'm a little too tired? Sleep a little too hard, and they sneak up on me?" Sabo questioned as his back was facing us.
"You're dead." Ace said.
"Mhm, way dead." Luffy nodded.
"Super dead." I said.
"Right." Sabo said while turning around to face us. "So, I need your help. Here I've got an idea." He stated as we all huddled up together..