Title: He's not there
Genres: Angst, Family, Hurt
Summary: Ace simply pretends he's not there. At least, until he leaves.
Words: 929
Author: The Dark Crimson Blood
A/N: In this story I kind of left a lot of questions answered; like what happened between Ace and Luffy, why does Ace ignore Luffy, and what happened to Luffy at the end. Well, I'm going to leave you to answer those questions yourself. Hope you enjoy the story:)

Ace simply pretends he's not there.

Sitting alone in the kitchen of house, Ace takes yet another sip of burning hot coffee and turns the page of a calculus book he just can't focus on right now. He puts the cup down in silence, barely registering the sound of the glass cup gently hitting the wooden table with a soft thud. He doesn't dare look up from his book, not even as his right hand lets go of the book in favor of jotting something down in his notebook mechanically.

"Hey," A 'disembodied' voice suddenly says, Ace has no idea where it's coming from and simply jots it off as his imagination. The only sound he registers completely is the sound of the multiple raindrops hitting the ground outside and the single branch from the large tree outside his house scraped against the glass window again and again.

"Hey,"

He should really get that cut off or something.

"Ace…"

He takes the last sip of his coffee and puts down his book. He stands up and leaves the table to quietly pour himself another cup. For some reason (un)known to him he feels the eyes of a child on him, curious eyes that are questioning him…

Why are they questioning him?

What did he ever do?

"Aceeeeee…."

"Oh, that's right." He mutters outloud, but it's an accident.
His heart beats painfully from his chest and he swallows deeply, deciding to take a dose of Advil before returning to his studies. He sits down again and it's silent. He doesn't really feel like going out, yet he feels… guilt… for just sitting there. Why would he feel guiltily for that?

He presses a finger against his temple and puts down his book; trading it out for the newspaper that somehow appeared on the side of his seat. He does(not) hear the soft footsteps across the hard wood floor before the sound of a chair being moved slightly follows. It's nothing, he supposes with a forced sigh. 'There's no one there' he says to himself in a way that's supposed to reassure him, but it really doesn't.

A few minutes pass, and the twenty one year old man's eyes widen when they come across an article circled in red. He doesn't want to, but he finds himself reading the title of the article anyway.

'Boy rescued from abusive family.'

He crumbles the newspaper and slams it onto the table, and he sees somethingsuddenly jolt across the room but he takes no notice and passes it off as his imagination once again.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry"

Something

is shaking from fear across the room but again, he doesn't say a word.

There is no one there.

He's alone in this house; he's sitting alone in the kitchen.

There is no one there.

He takes a deep breath, and then releases it. He carefully rises to his feet and leaves the room.

Surly, the light footsteps following him are his imagination too.

He drops himself onto the couch and sighs from relief as his tired body hits the soft and welcoming embrace of the furniture. He lazily picks up the remote and switches the television on while ignoring the figure of a small ch—thing that curled itself up in a ball against the wall and stared.

"H-Hey,"

He switches on the news to find the weather forecast but freezes on the spot when he hears, "Escaped from abusive family-" he switches the television off in an instant and drops the remote to the ground. He growls from frustration and forces himself off.

This has been going on for a month now, and it's time to end it.

He turns to the other person in the room whose existence had been ignored and denied for the past four and a half weeks.
"Hey Ace,"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up already!" Ace yells angrily, his face contorting to match his mood. "Leave me alone! You're ruining my life, you're making me miserable! It's because of you that I can't live a normal life anymore, it's because of you I can't sleep at night, and it's because of you that I feel so guilty every fucking day you come!"

He sighs, the child whimpers but he doesn't hear it.

"I get that you're curious, I get that you want some sort of explanation; but you've got to stop. Find some other person's life to ruin or something, just leave me alone!"

The room goes silent; the only sound that's heard is Ace's ragged and quick paced breaths.

His eyes widen when he sees the child's wide eyed expression with big fat tears leaking down his face.

It's then that he realizes how big of a mistake he's made.

"Luffy,"

Ace continues to talk to a child that is no longer there.

"I'm sorry."

End?