Title: Run Away
Genre: Hurt/comfort/Family
Characters: Ace, Sabo, Luffy, Zoro etc.
Summary: Luffy never wanted to run, but she does it anyway.
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
Count: 1,982

Luffy's been on the run for awhile now.

It's not necessarily her fault, it's not anything that she ever wanted to do in the first place, and it's definitely something she would've tried to prevent if she had the chance. It wasn't everyday that your family gets ripped apart and shoved in all different directions; to this day she wonders if it was ever really a family in the first place.

Her parents had abandoned her the day she was born.

They tried to get an abortion; they tried to burn her out and killed her with a saline solution but she'd survived and made their lives more difficult than they ever could've imagined.

It wasn't a surprise that they decided to put her up for adotption ont he day she was born; signing away her life and discarding her as though she were nothing more than an unwanted mark or blemish on their perfect record.

Luffy doesn't think about it like that though.

Instead she thinks that she's lucky. Her parents brought her into this world and allowed her to try and see all different kinds of things; she lives in an orpahange now, but it's not as though she's unhappy with her situation.

She's got two brothers.

They're not blood related and they live alongisde a bigger group of other children but out of everyone else there, Luffy feels closest to them. Their makeshift brotherhood was the closest thing to an actual family that they could get; they made it work.

Their bond was bigger than anything else.

Sabo was the oldest. His parents put him up for adoption after their business went under and they were forced into a life of poverty; but he wasn't close to them at all, so it was a situation he was better away from.

Luffy thinks of the sun when she sees him; his bright blue eyes look like the ocean and his hair is the sun gleaming above it. He liked to start the day by kissing her cheek and brushing her hair, something she never did on her own.

She was heartbroken when he left.

They called it being adopted. They took him off to a new home with parents and maybe a sibling or two; maybe he'd have his own room and a family pet to take care of, and a hot meal on the table every day.

She wonders why they can't just all get adopted together. It doesn't seem fair but life's not fair either, Luffy knows that better than anyone. Sabo had only been thirteen years old and he was going to get moved to a different orphanage anyway, but that doesn't change the fact that he's gone now.

Sometimes he sends a letter, other times he calls them to let them know that he's doing okay; that he's happy and that he hopes they are too. The three of them make promises to meet up one day in the future and Luffy feel happy to think that one day, they'll all be together again.

Her second big brother is Ace.

He's a bit more upset with the fact than Sabo is gone compared to her; the two of them have known each other the longest, and probably understood each other more than Luffy did. Luffy likes to think that it's because they both had families before this; they knew what life was like outside the orphanage, Luffy didn't.

Sabo gets angry when he talks about the way his family used to put him on a pedastool and treat others like trash, he seems happy that he doesn't have to put up with it anymore.

Ace looks sad whenever he thinks about his parents.

He doesn't talk about them much but awhile ago he mentioned that his father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was five. Luffy knows that he loved her a lot because his eyebrows furrow and the smile on his face is warm, but painfully sad.

With Sabo gone, Ace is Luffy's lifeline.

Somehow Luffy is Ace's lifeline too.

It's like that for awhile. They were attatched at the hip; sharing every little bit of information that the other might've missed out on, and even skipping school classes just to stick together.

Most of the time no one seems to care about how she would sneak into the boy's room every night just to leep by her side, how she would sit in his lap for comfort, or how she would hold his hand everywhere she went.

People would get jealous and whisper behind their back; they'd get teased and laughed at but neither of them cared.

They were just happy.

Luffy was happy.

Until Ace was gone too.

He's thirteen when they take him away; Luffy is just shy a couple months of her tenth birthday.

She'd woken up in an empty bed with the lingering smell of her big brother but nothing more, everything else was gone.

He was gone.

At first she wasn't sure what to do or how to react; she'd been living in this orphanage for her whole life and the boys had taken her in when she was just three years old. In her mind they were family; Sabo was like the mommy and Ace was the daddy, but now they were both gone.

She was alone and it didn't feel right at all.

The other children are quick to turn on her without her big brothers to protect her. They're not afraid of the beatings Ace liked to dish out whenever someone got too close, or the backlash that came when someone messed with Sabo. They tease her and laugh about her and make fun of her and it doesn't bother her at all; she's strong. She holds her head up high and ignores them all.

The like to call her annoying. They say that her voice is too high pitched, that her laugh gives them headaches, that her face is annoying, and that her smile is ugly. No one steps up for her because they're too scared too; Luffy decides to ignore them all.

She doesn't talk to people anymore.

It's fine.

Luffy's okay with being just fine for now. They can talk behind her back and shove her around all they want and she'll be just fine.

Just. Fine.

Then someone says that she's been abandoned.

Someone says that her brothers abandoned her for something, someone better.

They call her a nuciense that they were happy to get rid of.

She believes them.

They hurt her so she wants to hurt them back.

No one cares enough to help her.

No one cares enough to stop.

Suddenly she's getting into fights with other kids and about ninety nine percent of the time she gets her ass handed to her.

But she gets up.

Again, and again, and again, and again.

They knock her down but she never stops getting up.

She's ten years old when she starts running. (Ace and Sabo are thirteen and fourteen now, she likes to pretend she doesn't know when their birthdays are anymore but she nows.)

Running from her emotions, from her past, from the two teenage boys who keep trying to contact the orphanage in some sort of messed up attempt to talk to her. She doesn't understand why; they left her behind, after all. Wasn't that enough? What else could they possibly want that they haven't taken away from her already?

Luffy decides that she doesn't want to find out, so she never answers the phone.

She doesn't read the letters they've been sending her either.

It takes another year for her to be adopted. It's not a real home quite yet but it's a foster home; a temporary home that's supposed to be similar to an actual family. On the outside the couple is loving and happy and cheerful and for the first time in a long time, Luffy feels excited.

Is this what Ace and Sabo felt when they were taken home?

Is this really why they haven't come back?

Did ten minutes of bliss outweigh the fact that they left her behind?

The switch flips the second they walk through the door and they turn on her.

They're not smiling anymore.

Instead they're yelling and barking ordes; raising their voices at her if she even dares to breath wrong. It's a bit strange; Luffy's not entirely sure what a family is supposed to feel like, but somehow this doesn't feel right.

They like to put her down a lot.

Constantly.

They talk about money and the possibility of taking in another child and getting paid for two kids instead of just one; they don't even try to hide the fact that they adopted her for money. They're getting paid to put up with her.

It doesn't take Luffy long to understand why they adopted her.

She doesn't want to be with them anymore. She misbehaves on purpose and makes messes and ignores their word; they yell and beat and curse her out but in the end they prove to be no match for her misbehavior.

It's not long before she's moved into another family.

This one locks her into a room all day and tells her not to leave. She's never had a problem with small, dark spaces before but now the idea of getting locked in the closet is enough to make her shake.

The third home is the last one.

They welcome her with open arms and warm smiles but on the inside, Luffy knows that they're not any different from the rest. Sooner or later they'll want nothing to do with her and they'll get rid of her just like everyone else did.

Everyone leaves her eventually.

Her parents who tried to kill before she was even born, her brothers who managed to pretened that they loved her for eight years, her foster families who never wanted her around in the first place, and even the stray cat that used to visit her were all gone because of her.

There had to be something wrong with her.

The forth home is cramped and crowded. There are six other children who all stay in the same room; they fight for food and room and space, Luffy doesn't mind fighting back. They're all skinny and dirty and bruised, and a bit older than her but they seem to have already resigned themselvs to whatever fate this was supposed to be.

Luffy doesn't agree with them.

One day twelve year old Luffy decides that this whole foster care thing isn't for her, and then jumps out the window alongside a boy with bright green hair and not a single sense of direction in his body. Neither of them have any idea where they're going, let alone where they'll end up but that's okay.

After all, you can't start an adventure without getting lost first.

Sabo16/Ace15/Luffy12/Zoro17

A/N: Let me know what you guys think, I don't now if I should stop here or not and just leave it as a one shot.

Hope you enjoyed it.

~Crimson Blood