Hey guys, I'm Kayla and I'll try to keep this short as possible since I know you're probably here for the story. I'll try to update every week on Friday but I have a tumblr and I'm in high school so I can't promise. Though, I do promise to finish this story. This story has a moral. A moral that I think is very important to all people who have even been touched by a fictional character before. It's the thought that because something is fictional, that it isn't real. That it is fake. With this story, the moral is that that's not true. Luffy is very real to me, he lives in my heart and that's about the realist place anyone can be. He lives in YOUR heart. His adventures ARE real. YOU were there with him. I was there with him. We are his nakama, there from the very start. It's the same with all series - Harry Potter, Naruto, Sherlock, Super Natural - you name it. So when you're sad and life gets hard, I'll be able to leave this world and disappear in to his. I hope this story allows others to realize just how real fictional can be.

Character One: The annoying Child and his Cat

The power of a child's imagination. We know that kids can have big imaginations but sometimes adults forget just how creative they can be. Sometimes we underestimate just how important an imagination can be and how much joy and hope can be given from it. We also forget just how... dangerous it can be.

Luffy was a young child, a little younger than ten-years-old. He lived a less than pleasant life however. He didn't have many friends and while he did have a rather large family, they slowly had come to resent him. The raven had a strong case of ADHA. One that not even medicine could fully control. He always was too rough and loud. Once he had broken another child's leg while playing soccer in fact. Despite this fact he was small and probably a little too skinny. No one seemed to notice that. The only person in school he really enjoyed was Shanks, one of the teachers.

Luffy was very curious and rather reckless. He once ran in to a lake close to the school, just to prove that he could handle the cold temperatures his teacher had told him about. The red-haired man had run out to save his student, only to be attacked by a Bull Shark. He lost his arm that day. Luffy became home schooled, with only an over sized baseball cap to remember him by. He thought - it sure would be nice. To see Shanks again one day.

His family was not the kindest nor the richest and thus, he found himself feeling alone. He craved attention, he craved friendship, he craved happiness. So he turned to his imagination for that. His tools were simple: cardboard boxes, packing tape, pieces of old clothing. He started to piece together a great adventure for himself to go on. Only... Luffy was only a kid. He wasn't even allowed out of his room for much. So he decided to make himself older. Much older!

He picked 17-years-old. The current age of his beloved big brother, Ace. Ace was who he felt most comfortable with in the world. Sure, there was his Grandfather but that guy was always gone in the marines and the more Luffy grew the stricter and stricter the old man got. He'd take Luffy to doctors all the time who'd give him tests and try to ask him all these questions.

He got past it though. He would sit there on the sick-bed and swing his skinny pale legs back and forward, thinking. He decided that he did not want to be alone on his adventures. He made his first friend.

Zoro. The name was really fun to say, he thought. He gave him green hair too because - why not? Green was a great color! The child thought that everyone should have unnatural hair colors because it was more fun to look at. So, in his world, he decided that was what he'd do. He'd make take colors such as bright red, blue, green or pink and he'd make them common colors! He adored the idea.

Nami was another one of his friends. The girl had orange hair and was sneaky, based completely off his over weight cat that had the same name. Nami the cat was something that Ace had gotten him as an attempt to try and keep his spirits high and it did! The real life version of Luffy finally had a friend! The over weight cat wasn't too happy playing with Luffy and his fake games. He was too rough. He was too loud.

The cat ran away one day.

The 10-year-old openly sobbed.

"BUT SHE WAS MY FRIEND!" the little boy cried, hands clinging to his older brother's pant leg - his tears getting the jeans soaked. "WHY WOULD SHE LEAVE ME!?"

Ace then got down on his knees, height level with his younger sniffling brother and told him. "Nami made has connections with the fishes," he explained. "She - uh," Ace wasn't nearly as creative as his baby brother. "She is working for them! Nami will be back as soon as she pays her debt." The older man then flicked his little brother on the nose. "Don't steal things or your owe a debt too."

Luffy sat alone in his bedroom then. He made up his story, built up his walls, created his world. He got Nami back from those evil fish men himself. He didn't care about Nami's debts in his own world.

In his own world, he was strong enough to get back Nami on his own with the help of his nakama.

In real life... he was just a ten-year-old who couldn't even go find his cat. Ace did it for him. "Guess who I found?~" Ace proclaimed as he entered the house with a big smile on his face. However, the older brother was sweating, nervous. This orange and sightly over weight cat was not the same one as before. This one was specially trained. Trained to put up with the bull shit his baby brother would clearly give it.

"NAMI! YOU'RE MY NAKAMA!" The child was so happy. A job well done in Ace's book.

Life went on. Luffy would spent his whole summer alone in his bedroom while Ace studied hard for college and tests. The raven could be heard all through out the house, screaming and shouting as he jumped on his bed and kicked cardboard boxes.

"ZORO! NAMI!" The meow of an annoyed animal. "THERE YOU ARE! SMOKER IS HERE, GUYS! WAIT FOR ME!" A rubber band shot across the room - almost hitting poor Nami if the cat hadn't jumped out of the way in time. "GUMO GUMO NO!"

"Hey, hey, careful now, Lu," The ten-year-old's head turned and he grinned widely as he noticed his older brother standing in the door way. "Don't get your gumo nos on Nami, she wouldn't like that."

"ACE!" It had been awhile since they last met. Ace was in his last year of high school, about to move to college in town. He was over whelmed with tests and his social life - Marco was breathing down his throat about practice again and coach White beard was being a piece of shit as always. None the less he loved that man. Loved that man a lot more than his real father at least. A lot more than Luffy's uncle. "ACE, ACE, GUESS WHAT I JUST DECIDED?!"

"Hmm?"

"I'M GOING TO MAKE A BIG BROTHER IN ONE PIECE TOO!"

"Oh?" The older man smirked, couldn't help but feel special. Yet, at the same time he was getting concerned. Luffy's state, just how much time he was spending in his own little world - could that be healthy? Maybe Garp was right, giving the child all those experience tests but damn, he was just a kid! Being thrown in to all those painful needles and tests - it would be terrifying even for a full-grown man like himself. Besides, they always got the same answers from doctors.

He'll grow out of it.

"YEAH, YEAH!" The little boy pumped up and down, pumping his arms in to the air, clearly excited. Though, suddenly it faded.

"Hm? What's up, Lu?"

"Well... I really love my crew but... I kind of just want to spend time with Ace too!" This was the first time in the child's life he ever had to pick who he wanted to spend more time with. It was... different.

"Okay then, I'm sure your crew wont mind." Ace was supportive. "I can only stay for a few weeks anyways but you'll always have your crew, right?"

"Right!" Luffy accidentally stepped on the cat's paw, causing Nami to hiss and run under the bed. "I MADE NAMI MAD AT ME AGAIN!" Ace laughed.

That's how they spent the rest of the summer. Just the two brothers. They had hand wrestling contests. They went outside and oh, how Luffy loved it. He wasn't allowed to go outside unless he had an adult with him like Ace. Something about how he'd totally do anything for candy, no matter if it was a stranger.