Gorgoro

Ace and Luffy tilted their heads, confusion on their faces. "Hm? What do you mean? Plan for what?" Sabo shakes his head and sighs. "Bluejam and his buddies. They're definitely gonna come after us so we need a plan."

You agreed with Sabo and crossed your arms across your chest before an idea popped up in your head. "How about you take advantage of the mountain bandits?" Sabo thought for a moment before huddling the four of you close. "Great idea! Come here and huddle up everybody, [name] just gave me a great idea!"

---

The next morning in Dadan's shack, a loud yell that sounded closer to an old man than a woman woke the four of you up. "Huh? What's going on?" Luffy groaned as he sat up then fell back asleep. "Not yet, I don't wanna get up yet. It's too early for questions." Ace mumbled as you and him sat up together before falling back asleep with your head landing on his stomach making him let out a small oof before falling back asleep.

Sabo rubbed his eyes as he blinked then grinned while standing up energetically despite just waking up. "Oh, yeah. You must be Dadan huh? I'm Sabo, I'll be living here from now on!" He took her hand trying to introduce himself when she shook it off. "Hey! Nobody said you could live here!"

Sabo just laughs and farts. "Stop farting in my house!" He just answers with another fart and grins widely that she could see his missing tooth. The smell woke you up in irritation and you decided to just wake up and start your day. Then, maybe or not, Ace woke up with a loud groan and yelp when you "accidentally" elbowed his stomach as leverage to sit up. "What the heck was that for?!" He hissed at you before rubbing his eyes and standing up and crosses his arms against his chest.

"Luffy, wake up." You crouched down and nudged his shoulder as you ignored Ace. Luffy's eyes opened immediately and he jumped up. "Morning [name]!" The three of you stood behind Sabo as Dadan finally relented to have the four of you living under her roof.

Sabo let out another fart as Luffy laughed and copied him as you covered your nose and grimaced. "Dadan! I'm heading out!" Without waiting for her answer, you ran out of the shack, zooming under in between their legs.

"Hey wait! I'm not even done speaking–!!" Dadan yelled at the four of you. Luffy, Sabo and Ace soon followed after as they ran outside the shack. "No fair, [name]! Wait up! I wanna come too!" Luffy cried out when all of a sudden, Ace and Sabo went the other way and Luffy skidded to a stop. "Hey! Ah–! W-wait!" He looked back and forth, torn between choosing which path to take before ultimately deciding to go with Sabo and Ace.

"Ace! Sabo! Wait for me!" Luffy ran after them then paused before looking back at you. "[Name]! I'll meet you again, okay?!" He waves back at you as he bumped into Sabo who abruptly stopped and turned to look back to Dadan.

You pouted, hoping Luffy would've at least followed after you but sighed in disappointment when he didn't. So you ran into the forest not bothering to stay and listen to what Sabo had to say to Dadan and decided you'd go on a little adventure of your own.

As you slowly disappeared, Ace's eyes remained trained on the shadow of your disappearing figure before joining Sabo and Luffy who started running ahead of him.

It wasn't long until you arrived at the clearance that stretched out to Gray Terminal, climbing one of the huge trees and hiding within the shadows of the tree. For some reason, there was that heavy feeling in your chest when you remembered what Luffy had said yesterday night.

"𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦... 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘐'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦."

"𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦."

"𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚."

Your back slumped against the tree trunk and you started moping when tears suddenly started to form at the corners of your eyes. Weren't you 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 to him? You were friends, weren't you? So why did it hurt? Why did you feel left out? Was there something different between you and Ace that he saw and you don't?

Shaking your head, you climbed down after pushing down your feelings and ignored the heavy weight in your chest and decided to head inside Gray Terminal and scrounge around for any scrap that would catch your eye. Almost immediately, your keen eyes noticed an abandoned gun just a few feet away from you and picked it up.

Giving it a few inspection, you noticed a gear slot by the gun's side. A bit peculiar you'd say. Your eyes caught a leather strap and you picked it up, wrapping it around you and buckling it tightly around your waist. You slotted the gun by your side so you wouldn't lose it then hurriedly ran off to grab the gear you saw.

You spent a quite a long while in Gray Terminal, barely avoiding burglars and the desperate who wanted your stash. Thanks to your insane devil's luck, you managed to avoid and dodge them leaving you with your huge haul of trinkets.

Your small hands wrapped tightly around the knot as you hoisted it over your shoulder making you yelp as you almost stumbled but managed to regain your footing. By the time you arrived back at Dadan's, the sun was already coming down.

A few of the mountain bandits noticed you and tried to greet you but you avoided them, running inside to the spare room you know Dadan never touched, just a small room that became full of storage and dust but you didn't mind. At least this was where you could keep your once of mind and use your brain to ponder about what you wanted to do with the trinkets you find.

He wailed and squirmed in the ropes as Porchemy landed another blow to his face. Sabo took your hand and you let out a small gasp of shock as he led you away from the small broken shack where they were torturing Luffy. "Hey! We gotta save him! We can't leave him there!"

Sabo squeezed your hand tightly as he ran back towards the forest. "Shut up! We gotta tell Ace first, that brat didn't say anything." Tears ran down your face as you sniffed your snot back in your nose and wiped your face. "That's because Luffy will never rat out his friends!" You're voice slowly cracked as he let go of your hand and started running faster while you followed behind him.

Both of you arrived at a place deeper in the forest where the trees were larger, it's trunks and roots twisting in different mangled ways but a perfect hiding place for little children like you. Sabo gripped his metal pipe in his right hand before yelling out for Ace.

"Ace! I'm back!" Ace peeked down and frowned. "Yeah? Are the Bluejam pirates still poking around the old place?" Sabo shook his head and took a breath. "No! Luffy... Luffy didn't rat us out! They're torturing him and you know what this means don't you?!" Their faces grew grim while you looked back and forth between them. "What?! Stop talking! We need to save Luffy!"

You yelled at both of them, startling them out of their shocked phase and pointed the other way. "If we don't don't something, they're gonna kill Luffy! The more you talk, the more Luffy bleeds!" Ace and Sabo looked at you, while Sabo looked ready, Ace wasn't. He wasn't sure until he clenched his fist and grabbed his metal pipe.

"Fine! Sabo! Let's go save that stupid crybaby!" Relief washed over you as Ace jumped down from the tree and started running while you ran after them. He looked at you, a bead of sweat dripping down his temple. "You better not hold us back, brat!" You wiped the tears and snot on your face with the back of your hand and wiped it on your shirt before nodding. "I won't! We just gotta save Luffy...!!"

Ace doesn't say anything else as the three of you rushed to Gray Terminal. The sun had slowly gone down painting the skies with a hue of pink and yellows and you could only pray that nothing worse had been done to Luffy. As you neared the broken shack where they held Luffy, Ace and Sabo let out a war cry and jumped, crashing into the broken walls of the wooden shack startling Porchemy before his blade could even touch a nick of Luffy's skin.

"Luffy!" You yelled out, hoping he could still hear you. Blood dripped down his face and cuts and bruises marred his face. Ace jumped and slammed his pipes on one of the pirates, knocking him out. He turned turned Porchemy and tried to jump him only to be grabbed tightly by the neck. "Sabo! Do it!" Behind Porchemy, Sabo took his chance and jumped, slamming his own pipe on Porchemy's head making him let go of Ace.

He hacked a cough as he stood back up, gripping his metal pipe tightly in his hand. Porchemy let out a roar and head his head. "That really hurt you fucking brats! You're all dead meat!" Ace ran at Porchemy and started to fight him. "Sabo! Help Luffy!" Sabo nodded and drifted through the group of pirates, dodging their attacks left and right before he managed to grab a knife from one of them and cut Luffy's rope.

You caught Luffy mid air as Sabo landed right next to you. "Got him, now let's get out of here!" You were about to run away when Ace didn't move, standing in front of Porchemy. "No. I don't run away from my enemies. Never!" Sabo tried to reason with him but Ace was stubborn. He looks at you and Luffy with an annoyed sigh. "We'll be right back!"

You held Luffy close to you, one leg kneeling on the ground and kept one hand around Luffy as you watched Sabo and Ace fight against Porchemy. The fight took a long time before the four of you, Luffy tucked under your arm, ran back towards the forest until you couldn't see Gray Terminal anymore.

Luffy was wailing loudly while you wrapped bandages around his head. "That was scary, I thought I was gonna die!" Ace and Sabo was talking on the side until he got annoyed and jumped down from the tree root he was sitting on before yelling at Luffy. "Damn, shut up already! Didn't you say you wanted to be a pirate?! I hate crybabies!" Then for some reason, Luffy stopped wailing but tears still ran down his face which surprised the three of you.

"What's the deal with you? Why didn't you just tell Porchemy earlier? They're the kind that kills women and kids without a thought." He pointed at Luffy, demanding an answer from him. "Why didn't you just tell them where the treasure was? It's better than dying."

You didn't say anything, putting the last bandage on Luffy's face as you jumped down and stood next to Sabo. Luffy's lower lip trembled as he clenched his fist. "Because... if I did it I'd be all alone. I wouldn't have anyone."

His words slightly stung you because weren't you one of his friends too? Then he spoke again, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"I have [name] but you're different. I don't like mountain bandits and I can't go back to Foosha village, [name] and grandpa are all I have. If I didn't follow you, then I'd be all alone! Being lonely hurts more than getting punched!"

He sniffles, wiping the snot from his nose as he tears gathered at his eyes.

"Luffy..." you mumbled then Ace turned around, his face hidden in the shadows. "Is it easier for you if I'm around?" Luffy nodded as he jumped down. "Do you want me to live?" Ace asked him one last time before Luffy agreed again. "Yeah! Of course I do!"

You stood next to Sabo watching the whole thing unfold as you both kept quiet as Ace sighs. "I see..." Then he scratches his head before looking back at Luffy. "But you're still annoying. You're nothing but spoiled, weak crybaby and I don't like weak crybabies."

A vein appeared on Luffy's temple as he butted heads with Ace. "Ha?! I'm not a crybaby! I'm strong, you can even ask [name]!" With a small shake of your head and a disappointed sigh from Sabo, the two started bickering while you looked at Sabo and bowed your head. "Hello, I'm [name], I'm Luffy's friend."

He bowed back, which you found unusual since you thought if he lived with Ace he wouldn't know much about manners since they lived in the mountains. You kept your suspicions to yourself for now, after all, they were the ones who saved Luffy. Sabo smiles at you and just nods. "I'm Sabo, I'm probably the only one you didn't know huh?"

You gave him a simple nod and focused back to the two as Sabo stepped up and broke them both apart. "Alright, alright, that's enough you two." Luffy then looks at you, clutching his strawhat to his head and walks over before giving you a hug to which you gave back to him. "Hey [name]!" You smiled even though you didn't say anything back. Those words were enough to know he was still okay and that this time, he gained 2 new friends.

His voice was loud and pitchy that you could've sworn he might've bursted one of your eardrums due to how loud he introduced himself to you. Nodding your head with a small hum, you were about to raise your hand for him to shake but then shuddered when you saw him pick his nose with a grin and decided to lower your hand before you had second thoughts.

"A-ah... I'm [name]..." You mumbled incoherently and he just stared at you dumbly as he continued picking his nose.

"Ha?! What was that?!" He cupped the back of his ear as he leaned in and tried to listen to you again and you had to repeat yourself once more. "I'm [name]...!" You said loudly once more but it wasn't loud enough for Luffy to hear. "Haaaa?! You're a what?!" He continued picking his nose as he leaned in closer.

Your face flushed red as your hands bunched at the front of your shirt and tears gathered at your eyes. "I-I said... I SAID MY NAME IS [name]!!!"

No one had ever made you yell this loudly before. In fact, no one ever made you repeat your name twice. You were too shy, too cowardly to even initiate conversation and not too good at talking with new people so this was a first for your, well, introverted self.

"Oh! Hahahaha! You should've just said so!" He removed his finger from his nose and slammed it on your back a few times making you cough just slightly and a small shiver went down your back as you narrowed your eyes at his hand.

"Don't touch me with your booger fingers!" You yelled at him and he just laughed at your face, slamming his hand on your back again. "Shishishi! I like you [name]! Let's be friends!"

You stuttered, sputtering out incoherent words before you gave up and nodded. "Just don't touch me with booger fingers." You squeaked and jumped out of the way when his hand almost slammed on your back once more making him laugh and clutch his stomach.

"Hey, let's go bug hunting!" He doesn't even wait for you to agree with him before he's grabbing your hand and dashing off into the forest with you being dragged by him cheerfully.

From then on, you and him became friends.

You became inseparable since then, just following where he went, did what he wanted to do, got scolded by Makino whenever you followed his naughty antics and had fun together until the time came when Garp took Luffy to be raised with the bandits in Mt. Corvo. You've been raised with nothing but books and silence surrounding you in the orphanage home and meeting Luffy had changed your whole life.

So when Garp dropped him off with Dadan and the other mountain bandits, you followed after him. You were only an orphan, plus you didn't want to go anywhere without him because he was your only friend. As for Garp, the old man didn't mind much. Probably thought you'd go running off once you get tired of Luffy.

When you met Ace, you didn't like him. The stoicism on your face didn't hide your annoyance for the older boy as you stood behind Luffy. After all, whoever tried to be rude to Luffy, you deemed them to be an enemy to both your friendships especially when his first introduction was him spitting on Luffy's face and that was something you'll never forget.

When Garp told Luffy he was going to be Ace's brother, she internally grimaced while running after Luffy as he headed inside the shack without a care in the world. "Luffy! Wait for me dumbass!"

Once you were inside, it was a whole battle for food while you tried to squeeze in through the small gaps just to get to Luffy and sat next to him. Nothing around you made sense as you zoned out and almost fell asleep, head lolling backwards and your own snore bubble popping you awake.

When you woke up, Luffy was already running towards the door and you sat up awake, ignoring the mountain bandits as they tried to talk to both of you. "Hey! Luffy! Wait up!" You ran after him with a grin as he headed out to chase Ace while you chased after him.

You'd followed him and stopped, eyes bulging out of your sockets as you screeched when you saw a huge tree rolling down the path and Luffy running away from it. You barely managed to jump out of the way before it crashed into Luffy and trapped him under the tree. Thank God for his rubber ability.

You glared at Ace at the top of the hill and watched him leave as you tried to pull Luffy out from under the tree. "Hold still Luffy! Let me get you out of here first!" The moment you got him out, he bounced back and started running after Ace once more making you sigh in frustration and run after him.

"Luffy! Wait for me! Stop leaving me alone god damn it!"

You've always had the devil's luck on your side when it came to surviving things so when Ace made you and Luffy fall off the bridge, you survived with a few bruises and injuries on your body. From then on, it became a routine. Luffy would run after Ace and you'd run after Luffy, getting injured over and over and over in the process until you started to go after Ace too and everything started to change.

Then, 3 whole months had passed where you two kept chasing Ace.

You followed after Luffy as he kept yelling "Ace! Where are you, Ace?", meanwhile you just followed after him, barely speaking unless you got annoyed at him because anywhere Luffy went, you followed. Then you arrived at Gray Terminal, unlike Luffy, you knew about this place due to the newspapers you've read along with a few rumors in Foosha village.

You grabbed Luffy by the back of his shirt before he could even step foot in the garbage ridden land. "Hey, Luffy how about we stop for today?" The look he have you was out of confusion and curiosity and it hit you hard because you knew he loved finding new things and he was hellbent on going after Ace and befriending him. "Why, [name]? Ace went here so I'm sure it's fine! We'll find him for sure!"

His grin was wide as he tried squirming out of your grip before you relented and released him. He started running after Ace once more making you sigh and follow after him, jumping from scrap hood to scrap hood of garbage while he yelled for Ace. Meanwhile, you wandered off, avoiding the crowded places filled with scavengers and rummaging through the scraps before you pulled out a pocket watch.

It would've been a beautiful shade of golden brown if not for the rust that had settled making it look like a dirty olive green with a brown tint of color. It had no life but the gears fascinated you so you pocketed it in your shorts as you jumped to another pile, scavenging through another garbage dump for anything interesting until you realized you'd lost Luffy.

Standing up immediately, you jumped and looked around you with a slight worry in your chest. Then you spotted an opening you've never been to towards the forest and started heading there. You kept looping around tree after tree until you heard the familiar pitchy voice of Luffy making you smile.

It disappeared once you realized he was crying and... begging not to be killed?? You started running faster towards the voices and a vein popped out of your temple.

"Stop. Bullying. Luffy!!"

You jumped at enough distance and slammed your foot on Ace's side, kicking him and a blond kid out of the way. They yelped more in shock than in pain and immediately recovered on the spot and pointed at you.

"Who are you?!" "We're not bullying him!!"

Both Ace and the blond spoke at the same time then the three of you started yelling at each other, teeth bared as Luffy cried, still tied up around the tree. When he saw you he stopped crying and smiled, shaking his feet back and forth.

"[Name]!! You're finally here!"

The three of you stopped fighting and you looked at Luffy smiling. "Yeah, I got sidetracked sorry about that Luffy. I'll get you out of there now."

Before you could even untie him, Ace and the blond kid grabbed the back of your shirt along with Luffy's and hid behind the bushes when you heard deep voices coming closer.

"Wh-wha–?!"

You glared at Ace before looking over and zipping your mouth as the four of you popped your eyes just above the bushes you were hiding in. It was the bluejam pirates. Trying to keep yourself hidden, you rolled your eyes when you heard the blond slightly scold Ace for stealing from the Bluejam pirates.

"Damn it! If I'd known, I wouldn't have stolen from them." Ace huffed out in annoyance but not before giving you sharp glare. The roll of your eyes didn't go unnoticed to him.

Looking back at the pirates, the three of you internally gasped in shock as your eyes bulged out of their sockets when you saw Luffy in the hands of the Bluejam pirate, Porchemy.

"We have to help him!" You hissed before the two beside you pulled you down and shushed you. The Bluejam pirates turned their heads to the bushes you were hiding in before focusing back on Luffy who was struggling in Porchemy's hands.

"Ace! [Name]! Help me!" Porchemy laughed, squeezing his hand tighter around his throat. "[Name]? Ace? Hm, so you do know where Ace is."

Ace and Sabo kept their hands over your mouth as you struggled watching the pirates leave before letting out a breath of relief.

You pushed them away and pointed a finger at them in anger. "How could you let them take Luffy?!" Ace glared back at you and pushed you to the ground. "It's not our fault he's stupid and a loudmouth! It's his fault for getting caught!" He turns to Sabo and grabs his pipe. "C'mon, let's move our treasure before those dumb pirates come back."

"Wait! You're just gonna let them take him away?!" Ace just shrugged at you as they started running back to the tree. "He's your problem, do it yourself!" Your face turned red in anger before running after Luffy. "Fine! I'll rescue him without your help!" You rushed to follow the fading voice of Luffy, ignoring the other two who was busy with moving their treasure to another safe place.

Sabo looked at Ace and frowned just slightly. "You sure we shouldn't help them?" Ace shook his head as he focused on the treasure more and just kept quiet. Sabo let out a sigh and continues to help Ace, his eyes glancing back to your figure that slowly grew smaller in the distance as you ran after the Bluejam pirates.