【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Sabo stared at Luffy for a moment before he couldn't help but laugh "Technically, Ace beat him" which made Luffy look frustrated "But if you hadn't lured it out, we wouldn't have caught such a big fish!" Sabo added with a grin.

This instantly made Luffy happy, cheering excitedly, Luffy picked up his hat from the ground and plopped it on his head, pulling it down over his eyes.

Sabo noticed that Luffy did this whenever he was excited or shy, and now it seemed like he was both, and Sabo couldn't help but hug Luffy hard.

Luffy, who had always been full of energy, now seemed motionless in this hug, and Sabo wondered if he shouldn't be hugging him, but before he had time to think, Luffy hugged him back so hard that he almost threw him to the ground.

"Luffy...!" Sabo laughed and managed to steady himself. "What's wrong with you?"

"You never hug me" Luffy smiled sheepishly "I thought you didn't want to hug because that's what kids do, and we're not kids anymore!"

"Well, but we are brothers, and brothers can hug each other!" Sabo said with a smile.

"Hehehe! Okay!" Luffy hugged Sabo tightly again, and Sabo hugged him back with a smile.

"Luffy, I'm going to help Ace, can you help watch the fish?" Sabo said with a smile.

"Yeah!" Luffy nodded happily, looking at the fish excitedly, while Sabo followed Ace with a smile.

When Lucci came back, he saw Luffy looking at the fish intently. He walked up to Luffy and touched his hair with amusement. "Luffy, how about helping me process the fish!" Lucci said to Luffy with a smile.

"Lucci!" Luffy looked at Lucci excitedly, then jumped into Lucci's arms and gave him a big hug. "Lucci, I helped catch this fish!"

“Luffy…!” Lucci steadied himself and luckily was not knocked to the ground by Luffy. “Hahahaha! My Luffy is so awesome!” Lucci hugged Luffy tightly. “Luffy, let’s go prepare the fish. When Ace and the others come back, we can grill it directly and we’ll be able to eat it soon!”

"Food! Food!" Luffy shouted excitedly, watching Lucci excitedly as he processed the fish, and occasionally turning the fish over according to Lucci's instructions.

Sabo called after Ace "Hey! Ace, wait a minute!"

"What's the matter? If we don't start quickly, Luffy won't be able to wait and will want to eat it raw!" Ace said impatiently.

Sabo smiled softly at Ace's words "It won't take long, don't scold him about the fish then, okay?"

"Don't you want to scold him? He shouldn't have pulled that fish up!" Ace frowned at the thought, "This is why I don't want him to help!"

"Well, yes," Sabo agreed "He should let go, but with the three of us there, we can protect him, he's not that dangerous, and he's happy that he caught us for breakfast. I know you're a little mad at him and want to yell at him, but why don't we just let him stay happy now?"

Ace sighed "What's wrong with you, Sabo? You're acting weird."

"I don't think I acted any differently..." Sabo asked confused.

"You're not acting any different, you're just acting weird." Ace said, looking at Sabo.

"Why am I acting weird?" Sabo asked with a frown.

Ace rolled his eyes and handed some wood to Sabo, asking him to help hold it "No matter what, even if I scold Luffy, that guy will still be happy when he eats!"

"Because he is proud of himself now and wants us to be proud of him, if you scold him, he will be in a bad mood," Sabo explained.

"So we should just forget about him doing something stupid and him not listening when we asked him to let it go…why? Sabo" Ace asked as he glanced at Sabo as they walked back.

"Ace, he's our little brother now," Sabo explained with a smile and a shrug, "We sometimes forget that."

"Okay," Ace sighed.

Sabo was satisfied that Ace remembered his words, and he now wanted to return to Luffy as soon as possible.

When they came back, they saw Lucci and Luffy waiting for them in front of the processed fish.

"Sabo! I protected our morning!" Luffy proudly announced to Sabo.

"Well done Luffy!" Sabo praised with a smile and then he went to the rock where the clothes were hung to dry with a grin to see how their clothes were doing. Sabo looked at the clothes which were still a little wet and planned to put them on after dinner.

Lucci smiled gently as he watched the interaction between Sabo and Luffy, then walked over and took the firewood from Ace's hand to start a fire. After Ace handed the firewood to Lucci, he silently helped him start the fire.

"Hey! Luffy" Ace looked at Luffy drooling and ready to get the fish "Next time you encounter this situation, listen to us, okay?"

"Okay!" Luffy looked at Ace with a big smile.

Ace quickly turned his head to the side, glaring at something. Lucci clearly saw a faint blush on Ace's cheek. Ace quickly cut off a quarter of the fish and threw it to Luffy. In Lucci's opinion, this was the best part. Lucci looked at Sabo curiously. Sabo smiled brightly at him, and then looked at Ace's actions with an even bigger smile.

"Hey! Sabo" Ace called Sabo softly in the dark.

"Hmm?" Sabo, who hadn't fallen asleep yet, responded to Ace in a low voice.

"Earlier today, I didn't think much of it," Ace said softly.

"What are you thinking about?" Sabo turned and stared at Ace curiously.

"When you told me that Luffy is our little brother now," Ace kept his back to Sabo, "I really didn't think about being a brother."

"So you were quiet after we exchanged sake, you really didn't think of that?" Sabo looked at Ace with amusement.

"I don't think so." Ace scratched his hair. "I never had a younger brother. I don't know how family and brothers get along with each other."

"Me neither, but everyone knows that older brothers protect their younger siblings, that's why they were born first" Sabo replied.

"Everyone knows about this?" Ace's voice was filled with doubt. "Why haven't I heard of this?"

"You didn't observe much, but when we first met Lucci, we discovered that he had a younger brother. When he mentioned his brother at that time, he was full of protectiveness." Sabo said simply, "And anyway, this is exactly what I thought. You don't have to feel the same way as I do, but we are a family now, so I decided to be the older brother I think I should be."

"What about me?" Ace asked confused.

"You should do the same thing, figure out what kind of brother you want to be, and then do it" Sabo replied.

"I guess, maybe we're overthinking it, Luffy might not have thought about this" Ace said with a sigh.

"But after exchanging sake, it did change something," Sabo said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Ace turned to look at Sabo.

"I think the fact that we have a family... a family that I chose, not one that I was forced to be a part of... makes me happy"

Ace remained silent, but his expression was gentle, a kind of gentleness that few people could see.

"Good night, Ace," Sabo said to Ace after covering Luffy with the blanket.

"Goodnight, Sabo," Ace replied calmly, staring at the ceiling quietly for a moment with his eyes open before curling up and falling asleep.