【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

"Let's pack up and go back!" Lucci looked at Luffy in confusion but said nothing.

Luffy went back to looking at the small basket where he kept his chalk and noticed that he had blood on his hands, he didn't want to get blood on the chalk, he wiped the blood on his hands on his pants and was about to put one hand over his mouth to prevent more blood from coming out, he bent down and was about to hold up the basket with his other hand when suddenly a hand took his basket up "Lucci?"

"Hey! Let's go, Luffy." Lucci handed the basket to Luffy, then squatted down, facing his back to Luffy, and motioned him to lie on his shoulders.

"Oh oh!" Luffy climbed onto Lucci's back.

Lucci quickly returned to his brothers with Luffy on his back, and they took the few wooden planks they dug out and started heading to their training grounds.

Sabo put the things down at the training grounds and took Luffy to where they kept the bandages and medicines.

"Oh! Luffy, bear with it for a while, okay?" Sabo sighed, watching Luffy trying to fiddle with his bandages.

"I'm hungry" Luffy said, trying to move his bandages.

"It's not time to eat yet, Luffy, so you have to wait a little longer," Luffy said with a smile.

"But I'm hungry and my mouth tastes of blood, it's disgusting!" Luffy protested.

"Well, stop complaining, it's your fault for getting hit by accident" Ace snapped from the rock he was sitting on, he had been very grumpy since he came back from Waste Terminal.

"Ace!" Sabo looked at him and tried to stop him, but Luffy frowned.

"I only got hit once!" Luffy insisted, jumping up to face Ace.

"More than once, but only once did I really hurt you," Lucci said.

"You shouldn't have attacked those assholes" Ace continued, glaring at Luffy "The only sensible thing you did all day was yell for us to help you!"

"Ace!" Lucci stopped him from the side.

"I'm not asking you to help me!" Luffy protested, stamping one of his feet. "I'm letting you know that I want to fight! We all have someone who can fight!"

"Guys" Sabo started, but Ace wasn't listening to him.

"Well, if you weren't an idiot, you would have yelled for help sooner than you did."

"I didn't even intend to yell in the first place! I could have handled it!" Luffy yelled.

"Idiot," Ace muttered again.

"Ace..."

Luffy interrupted Sabo this time "You're going too far!" He stomped his feet and yelled again "I yelled so you wouldn't get mad at me, but you still got mad at me!"

"Luffy..." Lucci looked at Luffy, not knowing what to say. Ace and Sabo stopped completely when they heard Luffy's words.

"What?" Ace asked confusedly "You yelled so that I wouldn't get mad at you, what does that mean?"

"You're already mad at me for messing up your board, I know you'd be even angrier if I didn't let you fight" Luffy explained, some of his anger leaving him, his shoulders slumping "I don't want you to worry about me messing up during a fight and then get even angrier at me."

Ace jumped down from the rock and walked over to Luffy, ruffling his hair "Idiot, I'm not mad at you for messing with us or helping us fight, even if it was just luck, you did take one of them out."

"Besides, we got the boards we needed, and you found us enough chalk, so there's no need to get mad about it," Sabo said with a smile.

With these words, although Luffy didn't quite understand, he realized that they were no longer angry, and he grinned "I'm cool, right?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes, Luffy you are awesome," Lucci smiled and stroked his head.

"Don't push your luck," Ace pushed him.

"Let's go get something to eat," Luffy said excitedly as he put on his hat.

"Hey, is food all you can think about?" Sabo smiled and shook his head.

"Only when I'm hungry" Luffy replied.

Lucci smiled and shook his head, and Ace rolled his eyes.

……

Lucci watched Ace and Sabo leave as they were preparing some firewood for the meat they were going to grill that evening. Lucci looked at the dinner in front of him and thought about what happened this afternoon.

"Luffy, how do you feel?" Lucci asked, staring at the bandage on Luffy's cheek.

"It still stings a little, and I don't like the taste in my mouth," Luffy replied, fiddling with the bandages.

"Luffy, I want you to know that Ace, Sabo and I will never be mad at you. No matter what you do, you will always be my brother, and I will never be mad at you for anything," Lucci said to Luffy with a smile.

"Hey! Why?" Luffy asked in confusion.

"Ace and Sabo are angry today, not because of what you did. We won't be angry because you did something stupid or messed up. The reason they were angry this afternoon is because someone hurt you. We want to protect you. We will be angry at anyone who tries to hurt you." Lucci looked at Luffy and said seriously.

"Just like when those bandits tried to hurt me, Shanks angrily threatened that stupid bandit?" Luffy asked confused.

"Yes, Ace and Sabo are your brothers now, and you are their younger brother, so they, like me, want to protect you and will be angry at anyone who wants to hurt you. We don't want you to get hurt, just like you don't want anyone to hurt your brother." Lucci smiled and ruffled Luffy's black hair.

Luffy thought about what Lucci said and looked up at him happily "Brother, I will become stronger so you don't have to worry about me. If someone tries to hurt you, I can protect you. I also want you to be as safe and happy as me." Luffy said firmly.

"Hahaha! I'm waiting for Luffy. I believe you will become very strong in the future, but for now, let your brothers protect you." Lucci grinned and couldn't help but hug Luffy tightly.

Luffy happily hugged Lucci back, "Hehehe! I can protect you guys now too!"

……

"Ace! You could have killed that guy earlier today."

"Does it matter? That guy pissed me off."

"Next time, be more decisive, especially when Luffy is injured" Sabo stopped and looked at Ace "I'm serious, Ace! Today it was just a cut, but if Luffy is hurt more seriously, you'll be wasting our time if you continue to attack."

"You don't have to stay and fight, Lucci is here too. If Luffy gets hurt, you and Lucci can go somewhere else to save him."

"Ace...!"

"Okay, okay. I get it, I was just a little irritated today, Luffy wasn't seriously injured, okay? I'll notice next time, I just saw the blood on his hands and felt worse than it actually was," Ace sighed.

"I don't believe he thinks we're mad at him for that," Ace said helplessly.

“He didn’t understand the idea that we were crazy about him, we never did that before, if he got hit in a fight, we used to act indifferent or blame him for it.”

"Yeah, well... no one should fight Luffy except us," Ace muttered.

"Yeah, Ace, next time someone hurts Luffy, let me beat him up," Sabo grinned.

"Okay! You go fight next time! Now we should take back the firewood we collected. Luffy can't wait to eat raw meat." Ace said with a smile.