'Luffy. His name is Luffy.' Zoro felt relief wash over him at the thought of finally having a name for his captain. "Luffy." He glanced towards Nami, finding a bright smile on her face. "It suits him."

Zoro agreed with the navigator, but scowled as he returned his gaze to the revolutionary. "Why is Dragon interested in his son now? Did he not care about what Luffy had to go through? About all the pain he's suffered?"

Sabo frowned at him. "I don't know all the details, but if Dragon had known about what was going on, he never would have let it continue."

"I thought the revolutionaries made it their priority to know everything that was happening in the world." The revolutionary sighed as he turned towards Whitebeard.

"Contrary to popular belief, the revolutionary army doesn't know everything that's happening in the world. We couldn't possibly keep track of it all."

"Was his son just not important enough to 'keep track of'." The glare Sabo shot Ace was the darkest Zoro had seen from the revolutionary yet, but the second division commander didn't flinch.

"Dragon didn't even know his son was alive until a few months ago when this," Sabo pulled out Luffy's wanted poster, "Came out. The second he saw it, he dropped everything and rushed to find out if it really was Luffy." He turned towards Zoro and the rest, "He's the one who saved you all from Smoker back in Logue Town."

"Then why didn't he show himself to us? Why didn't he let us know who Luffy was?" The cook's voice was angry, but he wasn't yelling. Not yet.

"He couldn't risk it. If the world government found out that Luffy was his son, they'd be after him even more than they are now. After everything he went through, he wasn't about to put his son in even more danger." Sabo paused and smiled a bit at them. "Besides, he could tell that Luffy had already found somewhere safe with people who cared about him. How could he take his son away from that?"

Zoro didn't say anything, but he knew if Dragon had tried to take Luffy from them, he wouldn't have hesitated to do everything in his power to stop him. He didn't care if the man was Luffy's father. Luffy was their captain.

It was quiet for a few moments as everyone digested what they'd been told. Eventually, Usopp asked quietly, "What did you mean, when you said Dragon didn't know Luffy was alive?"

The revolutionary shook his head. "I don't know the details, but from what I know, there was an attack on the previous revolutionary army headquarters fifteen years ago. Apparently Luffy was very nearly killed – Dragon said that's where the scar under his eye is from – so to keep him safe, Dragon sent Luffy and his wife to the east blue where his father – Garp – was supposed to hide Luffy somewhere safe."

"Fuck." Zoro raised an eyebrow at Ace's curse. Sabo seemed to understand what he meant and nodded. The second division commander stared down at Luffy – who Zoro was upset to realize he still hadn't let go of. "He would have stayed with us."

Sabo smiled without any amusement. "Yeah. Garp was supposed to meet them at Windmill Village and bring Luffy to Dadan's. Dragon figured if nobody had found you there after five years, Luffy should be safe their as well." Sabo's voice got soft as he added, "He would have been your little brother."

"So what happened?" Someone from the Whitebeard Crew spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen after that bit of information. Zoro didn't know their name. Had to be on of the commanders, since Whitebeard had sent everyone else away while they talked.

"A huge storm hit while they were sailing. The ship never arrived. After a week, Garp and Dragon both went to search for them. They found pieces of the wreck washed up on a tiny, deserted island a few days from Goa Kingdom. They never found any survivors. Iva told me Dragon and Garp both scoured every inch of the East Blue for Luffy. When they didn't find him, they had to assume he'd died in the wreck."

Ace stared down at the kid – at Luffy – as Sabo finished explaining what had happened. He was supposed to have been Ace's little brother. Ace would have been a big brother. He wondered how different his life would have been, had that storm never hit Luffy's boat. How different would Luffy have been, had he been allowed to grow up with Ace as an older brother?

Ace knew he'd been in a bad place as a child. He'd always been angry, beating up others and trusting nobody. Would Luffy had changed that? Or would Ace have pushed him away? Would Ace have been a good big brother? Would he still have met Sabo?

Feeling a hand on his arm, Ace looked up and found Marco's worried gaze. He tried to force a grin, but it felt more like a grimace, so he gave up and just stared at the first division commander. "I would have been a big brother Marco." His voice was soft, just loud enough for the older male to hear him.

"You still can be, yoi." Marco squeezed his arm reassuringly. "It might be a few years past when you were supposed to meet, but it's better late than never. You said yourself that you didn't know why you were drawn to him. Fate must have brought you two together."

Ace swallowed and nodded, his eyes dropping once more to Luffy. The smaller male still hadn't moved, and while Ace knew he'd eventually have to let Luffy go back to his crew – some of who were glaring at him to try and get him to do so sooner rather than later – he didn't really want to. Something about calling Luffy his little brother just seemed right. The same way taking him back to the Moby Dick had felt right.

Maybe he could convince Luffy's crew to join the Whitebeard Pirates. It would guarantee that Luffy was safe, and he would gain the little brother he was always supposed to have. Turning back to Sabo – who'd kept this from him, the bastard – he interrupted whatever the revolutionary was saying and asked, "How old is Luffy?"

Sabo sent him a small glare for interrupting, but Ace didn't care. The revolutionary sighed but answered. "He turned seventeen back in May." Ace stared at his brother, wondering if Sabo was joking with him, but the revolutionary just stared back.

Ace turned his gaze back to the small male in front of him. He was too small to be seventeen. "His growth was probably stunted from malnutrition." Ace turned to look at the blond cook on Luffy's crew. "When I first saw him, he was skin and bones. I've been reintroducing food to him slowly. I started him on solid food this past week, but it'll still be a while until he's able to eat the same thing as everyone else." Ace wondered if that was why Luffy had refused to eat earlier. If so, he felt a little guilty. He and Marco had put so much food Luffy couldn't eat in front of him when he was obviously hungry.

Thinking about that, he frowned and turned towards Luffy's crew. "Why was Luffy wandering the town alone?" He had a bounty on his head, and Ace had seen the Marines wandering around earlier. Although Ace wondered where the bounty had come from. Was it because he was the captain?

The Lost Pirates all glared at the one with a long nose, who seemed to shrink and stared at his feet. "I was giving our ship her weekly check to make sure there were no repairs that were needed. I thought Luffy was asleep, but when I went to check on him afterwards, he was gone."

The green haired swordsman crossed his arms and turned towards Luffy, his features softening slightly. "I'm glad that he's finally starting to move about on his own, but I hope he doesn't make a habit of wandering off like this. He gets into enough trouble when we're with him. I don't want to know what kind of trouble he'll find when he's on his own."

Ace couldn't help but smile at that as some laughs swept through his siblings. He didn't have to lift his head to know multiple were staring at him. As much as he wanted to be insulted, he knew better than anyone that trouble seemed to follow him around wherever he went. It was something he was teased about constantly.

Sanji wanted to smoke, but he couldn't. Not with Luffy so close. He didn't want to put his captain's health at risk from second hand smoking. But it was grating on him to have Luffy right there, but not with them. That commander, Ace, still hadn't let Luffy go. He wanted to make him let go, but knew the second he tried the rest of the commanders and possibly even Whitebeard himself would retaliate. So he was stuck waiting until Ace decided to let Luffy go.

His hand twitched towards the pocket with his cigarettes in them, but he refrained from actually taking one out. He watched as the blond guy next to Ace, Sanji thinks his name was Marco, leaned over and said something to Ace, who frowned but eventually nodded and finally let go of Luffy. Sanji smiled as their captain made his way over to them without anyone having to prompt it. It really showed how much he'd grown in the past few months.

Sanji expected him to go straight to Zoro – Luffy was attached to him the most, probably because Zoro had been the one to save him. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised when Luffy came to him, one hand reaching up to grasp his jacket. Putting one hand on Luffy's head, he smiled down at his captain. "I'm glad you're alright." He heard a slight rumble and felt Luffy's grasp on his jacket tighten. "Are you hungry?" He hadn't been expecting any sort of response, so he was amazed when Luffy actually nodded. It was slight, but he'd responded to a question for the first time.

Sanji's heart soared. His captain was slowly but surely starting to open up to them. "Is that why you left the ship?" Sanji turned his head towards Nami. "You were hungry, so you wanted to find Sanji and have him make you something?" Sanji's smile grew larger as Luffy nodded again.

"Once we get back to the Merry I'll whip you up something to eat, alright?"

"You can use our kitchen." Sanji looked up at the man with a pompadour who'd offered and raised an eyebrow. "If he's hungry, he shouldn't have to wait to eat. You can use our kitchen and the rest of your crew can bring your ship here."

As much as Sanji didn't trust these pirates who'd taken Luffy, he agreed that Luffy shouldn't have to wait to eat if he was hungry. Especially not after having gone to look for food himself for the first time. Looking back down at his captain, he sighed softly and nodded towards the red head. "Lead the way."

Sanji gently took the hand Luffy had grasping his jacket into his and made his way towards the pompadour man. Said man just smiled and headed towards the kitchen. "My name's Thatch, fourth division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and the head chef."

"Sanji."

So here's the next chapter. Not my favorite, but we're slowly moving forward. And Luffy is finally responding! At least a little! Let me know what you thought!