Hi! This is a story idea I have had for a while and I am finally doing it! Its part of three ideas I have. The first Idea is for the Straw hats to get transported back in time and meet child Luffy Ace and Sabo. They accidentally mess up the timeline and things escalate from there. The other one is a zombie apocalypse AU because there are never enough of those. Anyway the plan was to write and three and see what one flows the best! I am not sure if this is going to become a whole fic or just be a one-shot but I was just going to see what happened. (Also I have to apologize in advance I'm really tired right now but I can't go to bed until I finish this.

Official Summary: Luffy had been a slave for most of his life. By now it had become second nature to him. Such thing like emotion, relationships and conversations were unattainable concepts for him. He was nothing more than an empty shell used for whatever purpose the Tenryuubito saw fit. That is until he meets Ace. On an errand for whitebeard the two accidently meet and instantly bond. Its hard work but eventually Luffy starts to regain the personality and humanity that was taken from him. But it's never that easy and Ace soon finds himself caught up between disobeying his father's orders, the person who saved him or abandoning Luffy.

Luffy stared out the window expressionlessly. The sun had yet to rise leaving the sky dark and grey. Moody clouds covered the early morning stars leaving only blankness in its place. It looked like it was going to rain today. A flash of emotion crossed his face as he imagined its feeling on his skin, but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

Loud sounds from the ballroom floated into the hallway but he ignored them. The Tenryuubito who owned him were hosting an elaborate dinner party. He had been up two nights preparing and cleaning. And now that it was here he was expected to stay up all night to work there. Although slaves were conditioned never to show emotion or human needs he was exhausted. He didn't think he could keep it hidden any longer.

"Hey little boy come here."

He turned around to see two drunk nobles stumble down the hallway. It was an order, he could tell that much. Still he stayed in his spot near the window. This only angered the drunk couple further as they fumbled over to him spilling their drinks in the process.

"What the hell, when we give you an order you follow it." The women screeched slapping him clumsily. Although considering how drunk she was the blow slid off easily.

"Can you understand us?" The man yelled at Luffy. He spoke slowly and loudly as if speaking to a foreigner with limited language skills.

Luffy merely blinked at them, his big brown eyes empty.

"I don't think he can understand us." The man told his wife, still yelling.

She made cooing sounds as she ruffled his hair, acting as if he was a small pet. A sharp contrast towards her angry pose a minute ago.

"Look, he's so cute."

The man scoffed, "You must have drunk way too much, he's a slave remember. There not supposed to be cute, their just there."

She made a face imitating a spoiled child, "but all of ours are old and gross. I want a cute little one like this."

"To do what with?" He threw his hands up in the air staggering a bit in his drunkenness.

"We can probably think of something's." She said leaning closer to him with a flirty smile.

Luffy toned them out instead staring at the wall beyond them. It was going to rain, he was almost sure of that. He doubted the sun was going to rise at all today. That was too bad.

All the higher class lived on top of hill, their elaborate mansions shoved together up here so they could look down on the town. Far below them the poor town's people struggled, scraping together whatever resourced the Tenryuubito didn't take for themselves. It was kind of weird to think about. They were dying of starvation while only a mile away the nobles had so much food they were literally burning it.

In front of him the noble couple fell onto the ground, drunkenly making out.

"What are you doing out here? "A shrill voice demanded. It was the slave station manager, Luffy could never remember his name. Not like he ever tried. Ignoring the drunk couple on the ground he yanked him along by his slave collar. To Luffy's dismay he led him back to the ballroom. It was packed with sweaty rich people and smelled heavily of alcohol. The music made his ears ring.

He was shoved roughly against a wall as his collar was hooked up to a leash tied around the pillar. Ensuring there would be no escape for him now. He did as he was told sitting back against the wall gazing emptily at the crowed ahead. Occasionally a noble would come up to him pinching his cheeks and squealing in surprise when they stretched further than ordinary. It made no difference to Luffy what they did, after all why should it.

"Hi there."

He wondered if it had started raining yet. Maybe the clouds would never go away, they were stuck there forever. That was a scary thought.

"HI THERE!" Spoken a little louder this time causing Luffy to look up surprised.

In front of him stood a young man, teenager probably, Luffy had no idea what qualified as ages. He had chin length black hair and a splatter of freckles across his nose. What really made him stand out were his clothes. While most people were dressed elegantly and appropriately he wore only boots, black shorts and an orange hat. And unlike the other people in this room he didn't seem to be so drunk he undressed himself. In fact he didn't seem drunk at all. He crouched down leaning back onto his heels in front of Luffy giving him a big grin.

"What are you up to?"

Luffy blinked at him confused. Who was he expecting a response from? There was no one around him. After a few moments of silence he spoke again directly at Luffy.

"My names Ace, what's yours?"

Luffy blinked, this time however clearing out the vacant look in his eyes. He was starting to get the uncomfortable feeling he was supposed to do something.

"Not much of a talker huh?" The man continued, "That's okay, luckily for us I can do the talking for both of us." He grinned crookedly at Luffy. "Jump in any time you feel like it." Maneuvering his body he leaned up against the wall next to Luffy. He turned as far as his leash would let him, still confused what this man was going. Did he not know Luffy was a slave? Maybe he was confused?

"This is some party isn't it? Although you look a little bored, I guess when I was a kid I didn't like things like this either. I still don't" He laughed making Luffy jump. Despite all the riches they surrounded themselves with, they didn't tend to laugh very often. Unless it was at other people's misfortune. As the man continued to carry on his one sided conversation Luffy's attention once again began to wonder. The attention was no longer on him, this was back to where he was comfortable with. Outside he could hear the distant rumble of thunder brewing overhead. It sounded close, he wondered if lighting could strike a Tenryuubito's house or if it was too scared. He had heard once that whenever it got really close they made a slave go up there and try to get struck instead to protect the house.

Without warning the man leaned over and flicked his forehead. Luffy was use to pain but turned his attention back anyways. Pain and abrupt actions were a sign the person wanted Luffy to look at them despite if he was listening or not.

"I was losing you there," The man laughed, but quieter than last time. "Try to stay in present okay? You look like you were a million miles away." He sighed, "Let's try something else, I say something and you nod yes or no."

Once again Luffy fidgeted uncomfortably. It felt like was expected to do something in response. Was this man actually talking to him? Even worse Luffy didn't know how to respond. The first rule of slaves was that they were to stay quiet. If this guy got frustrated would Luffy get into trouble? Fearing the worst he did something he hadn't done in a while. He focused on the man's lips furrowing his brow slightly as he tried to pay attention to what he was saying, stop tuning the words out like he usually did.

"This way you don't have to listen to my endless prattle." He stared expectantly at Luffy.

It was no use, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. What did prattle mean?

However Ace didn't seem angry in the slightest, instead he reached over and gently placed his hands on either side of Luffy's head forcing him to shake his head up and down and then left and right. "See there you go?"

That confused him even further, he didn't see anything.

"This party is pretty boring isn't it?" He stared at Luffy expectantly.

Luffy bobbed his head figuring it was what the man wanted. Sure enough a huge grin broke out across his face as he gave him a thumbs up.

"It smells too much like alcohol in here don't it." He asked crinkling his nose as he stared around at all the drunk party dwellers.

Luffy nodded automatically this time in actual agreement. He hated the smell, it was disgusting and it made people act strange. Without thinking he leaned in closer to him taking a quick sniff . He didn't smell like alcohol, instead he smelt like warmth and meat. He smelt good, Luffy decided.

He raised his eyebrow a smile quickly growing on his lips. "Were you smelling me for alcohol?" He looked amused more than anything.

Luffy didn't meet his eyes and instead stared down at the floor surprised at himself.

"Do you remember my name?"

He shook his head this time, trying out the alien gesture. He had sort of forgotten people had names. Or why they were important.

"It's Ace, Portgas D. Ace. Nice to meet you." He paused for a moment looking Luffy up and down. "And you look like a … Smokey to me." Ace laughed once again at the bazar look Luffy shot him. He put his hands up in surrender, "Okay, defiantly not a Smokey. So what is your name?"

Luffy was unsure if this was a nodding situation or not so he simply remained silent. Ace seemed to understand as he stood up stretching.

"Come on lets go somewhere else, this place is too loud to think." He leaned over and unclipped his collar pulling Luffy to a standing positions. He swayed slightly on his feet as Ace steadied him.

He wasn't used to walking with someone else like this. Usually they just didn't seem to think him capable of walking himself so they would either drag him or if they were in a hurry they would just pick him up and haul him over. They would never tell him where they were going or why. One second he would be standing there and the next they would grab his arm and physically pull him over to where they wanted him to be.

This was different. Ace grabbed the hem of his shirt making sure they didn't get separated as the two of them narrowly squeezed between the intoxicated upper-class. He would occasionally elbow them out of the way if they didn't move fast enough making the corners of Luffy's mouth twitch.

But much to his dismay Ace stopped in front of one of the slave managers. He pointed to Luffy fighting to be heard over the pounding band in the background who had moved from classical to hardcore rock sometime around midnight. Without realizing it Luffy shifted closer to Ace, hiding partially behind his back to avoid the manager. If Ace noticed he didn't say anything.

"What's his name?"

"How should I know?"

"Look it up." Ace insisted as the violinist shattered his instrument behind them in a fit of artistic passion.

He grumbled but flipped through his sheets anyways. "It's Luffy."

Luffy jumped in shock hearing his name again. It had been so long he had almost forgotten it. He couldn't remember the last time it had come out of someone else's mouth.

"Cool thanks," Ace waved as he slipped his hand into Luffy's gently tugging him out from behind his back.

"Where are you going with him?" he man sputtered, "He is supposed to stay there for the rest of the night in case the nobles get bored."

"No way," Ace objected, "That sounds boring, care to stop me." He smirked dangerously at the manager, a very different smile then the one he showed Luffy. The man clearly knew something about Ace Luffy did not as he shrunk back offering no further protest.

Luffy tightened his grip on Ace's hand as the two of them slipped out of the ballrooms doors and into the empty hallways.

Breaking another record for tonight Luffy made a decision. He liked Ace.

Omg I have a final tomorrow and it's like 11 and I haven't started studying yet. But it's for I.B. English and this is kind of like studying right? Plus it's my best subject, cough cough bragging cough cough. But seriously I reserve the right to brag considering math, science, history, French, economics and digital are all my worst subjects! Yes ALL of them at the same time. Sorry (its finals week and I am super sleep deprived) anyways. I really hope people like it. I haven't decided yet if it's going to turn into a full blown story yet of just be a cute little ficlet but if anyone had a preference please tell me

(Also I know I kept getting upper-class, nobles, and Tenryuubito mixed up but I honestly don't really know the difference and I am too lazy to look it up) Please review if you like it, it would make me so happy. Sorry if I kind of got off topic or the story sucks and is riddled with mistakes (like my usual story) I am running on like five hours of sleep every night this week. I will try to have the next chapter up soon.

And Luffy might seem super weird how he's constantly talking about the weather but it's a metaphysical conceit (haha lit term I am studying) like and extended metaphor.

-ooh I also wanted to mention luffy is super robot like right now but I promise he won't stay this way for very long

-oh, also please tell me how old Luffy is! I was thinking Luffy 7 Ace 17