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: 2,493

Luffy had been hoping for a somewhat normal day.

The fact that her estranged brother was sleeping on the couch in her apartment was enough to tell her that today, was going to be anything but normal. He's still knocked out; limbs dangling over the edge and sprawled out anywhere they could reach.

There's a blanket thrown hastily over his body and he cuddles a pillow so tightly to his chest that Luffy doubts she'll be able to get it from him, not that she wants to though. Right now all she wants to do is stay as far away from him as possible.

But first?

Breakfast.

She had another fight today after all; starting the day on an empty stomach was never a good idea. She silently makes her way into the kitchen; her footsteps are light against the cold wood ground, barely tapping as she moves around.

There's a note on the fridge.

"Hey, found some kid drunk out of his mind at the bar and didn't know what else to do with him. I won't be home until late, so make sure he gets home." T here aren't enough words in the human language to explain how much Luffy doesn't want to deal with this situation.

All she has to do is kick him out when he wakes up then, right?

Right.

She nods in affirmation and throws the note in the trash; choosing a simple breakfast of eight scrambled eggs mixed with sauted spinach and a tablespoon of sugar, a simple breakfast Sanji had taught her to make. Who knew eggs tasted so much better with sugar?

Luffy drinks juice with breakfast.

It doesn't take her long to finish eating.

By the time she's done with her food and the dishes have been washed, the blond haired man on her couch still hasn't budged. If she's lucky then maybe he'll sleep long enough for her to change and get the hell out, but luck was never really on her side.

Bright blue eyes connect with brown ones just as the she's making her way across the room to leave; he stares at her for a good second, still sleep ridden and vision still blurry.

HIs head lulls to the side. "Luffy?" He asks.

Luffy stiffens. "It's Lucy."

He shakes his head as though attempting to wake up; his eyes are slightly pink and there's a good chance that he's hungover. The raven gestures to the bottle of gatorade she'd left on the table in case he woke up to an empty apartment. "That's yours, it should help a little bit."

"Thanks," The blonde mumbles as he presses two fingers into his temple; the beverage is cool in his hands, and just what his dry mouth needs. He downs it as quickly as possible, Luffy watches and takes a small step to teh door.

It wasn't as though she hated her brother.

No, she could never hate either of them.

Perhaps upset was a better word for it.

They left her behind and took her out of their lives, and she intended to keep it that way. There was no reason for them to ever come back; she's survived without them for nearly seven years now! She's got friends and family and she's happy.

She's happy without them.

"Zoro left for work. He won't be back until later; it's not good stay out drinking all the time, you know?"

The blond, Sabo, manages to pull himself up slowly enough to prevent his headache from getting worse. He looks like shit; pale with bags underneath his eyes, Luffy doesn't even mention his hair. "I didn't mean to drink that much... Nor do I make a habit of staying out late."

"Then why did you this time?"

He doesn't answer her question completely. "Personnel reasons." He pauses; eyebrows furrowing as he looks around the room and then meets her gaze again. "You live here alone with that guy?"

"Zoro? Yeah. We're roommates."

Somehow it doesn't sit right with him that this sixteen year old girl is living alone with an older boy. "Where are your parents?"

She shrugs. "I'm heading out but you're free to eat whatevers in the fridge and get a shower or something before you go, if Zoro brought you home then I'm sure he trusts you not to steal anything."

There's not really anything worth stealing in the apartment anyway.

Nothing that he can find easily, that is.

"You should take better care of yourself; you've probably got a lot of people worried about you right now. It's not good to scare them like this."

She's one to talk.

Sabo stares right at her because she's dressed up to fight again; sports bra, gloves, shorts, elbow pads, knee pads, and an unzipped jacket that looks to be a couple sizes too big. "You're going to fight again?"

"Yeah." She zips up her jacket in one smooth motion.

He pushes himself to his feet. "It's not so safe to be getting into fights all the time, is it? You might get seriously hurt one of these days; isn't there something better you could be doing?."

Luffy looks pissed. "You... Are the last person I need advice from."

"Lucy," He breathes; the name is strange on his tongue, and a pit of despair seems to plant itself inside of him when the small raven glares at him. Any hospitatality she was showing before is long gone; even her gaze is cold. "I just..."

"Please leave before I get back."

The door doesn't slam as she leaves; instead it shuts softly, and angry footsteps get further and further away until...

Silence.

Sabo doesn't understand why it hurts so much.

oOo

Ace is out an about on his own when he catches the end of Luffy's fight.

She's got this guy pinned on the ground; much like the first fight he witnessed, but it's clear that she had to put in a lot more effort than before. Ace watches him kick and struggle and finally break out of her grip; she jumps away, holding her wrist as though it was hurt.

Her body hunches over for a brief moment; it's clear that she's tired. The fight must've been going on for awhile but the crowd is still on their toes; eager to find out who the victor will be. The man stands tall and proud despite his injuries; his nose is broken and his lip is busted, it a wonder how he's still standing.

He's off balance; dizzy from one too many strikes to the head.

'Lucy' herself seems to be worse for wear; there's a dark red mark on the left side of her body that will probably turn purple tomorrow. Her eyes are calm and focused; but her body is covered in new bruises and scratches.

She wipes her bloody lip with her arm and doesn't care to look down; she straightnes herself out, and in one swift motion she lunges forward.

He raises his fists and leans back defensively; ready to counter attack depending on her actions, but she throws him off guard.

His long leg comes down to sweep her off of her feet; but she jumps. There's a smile on her face as she looks down on him in mid air, right hand reared back and ready to shoot forward.

He looks horrified and surprised all at once.

It seems like forever before her fist finally makes its way to his face and knocks a couple of teeth into the back of his throat; he tries desperately to stay on his feet, only to fail and fall to the ground.

'Lucy' is the only one standing.

The crowd goes wild.

"Winner! StrawHat Lucy!"

She sways as she stands, and smiles as she shoots a thumbs up to someone in the crowd. Ace squints, but it's too hard to pin point the exact person she's looking at with so many faces in the crowd.

Ace has his own small smile; it's mainly out of relief. The people she keeps trying to fight are grown men; if she keeps going like this then one day she might just get herself killed.

Her moment of glory doesn't last any longer before she's knocked down from behind, shoved into the ground, and held at knife point.

Ace screams in horror as the knife burries itself inside her shoulder.

"LUFFY!"

He's pushing and shoving people just to get to the very front of the crowd; using enough force to leave bruises until finally he gets there.

By then she's already knocked the guy out with one switf jab to the punch; he's lying on the ground unconcious, with a nose that is much more broken than it was before.

She looks very unamused as she reaches for the knife to pull it out; blood drips down her bare shoulder, staining it in a way that Ace didn't like to look at. "Luffy," He breathes; the wrong name exits his mouth again and he's not sure why he keeps saying it.

"I'll take you to a doctor, okay? So, so don't just pull it out."

Her eyes narrow as they shift towards him; clearly upset by the fact that he keeps using the wrong name when talking to her.

He's not sure why it seems so right to call this random girl on the street by the name of his deceased or missing little sister, but he does. Twice. She's not a fan of it. "It's 'Lucy' not 'Luffy."

She pulls the knife right out of her shoulder and drops the offensive, bloody object to the ground. The metal clangs off the ground and a young boy around Luffy's age approaches with a gauze; he hands it to her and simply tells her to put pressure on it.

Luffy looks up at the slightly taller boy. "Where's Kaya?"

"She's collecting your prize money." He gestures over towards the crowd that was slowly disapating; the betting was over and the fight has ended, there was nothingleft to see. There was no reason fo them to stay. "Are you okay to make it home by yourself?"

Ace wants to say 'no,' absolutely not, but Luffy nods as thought nothing is wrong. "Yeah, I'm fine." She reaches for the zip up jacket her friend had been holding for her and easily slings it around her shoulders; it covers up all the wounds and bruises on her midsection. "Thanks Usopp."

The kid nods and dismisses himself.

Suddenly it's just Ace and Luffy.

"Look, your hurt, I'm not going to leave you alone until you get some help."

Luffy doesn't want his help. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine."

It's hard not to roll her eyes but somehow she manages; moving a bit further apart from Ace as though she didn't want to be near him. "I don't like Hospitals."

"Then I won't drag you to the hospital; if it's just on your shoulder then I can stitch you up. Just come with me, okay?"

Somehow it seemed as though he wouldn't leave her alone even if she said no.

"I'll leave you alone after, I promise."

Somehow it felt as though he was making another promise that he wasn't going to keep.

Luffy falls for it anyway

...

...

"Can you stop calling me Luffy?"

He's done it five more times ever since they arrived at his apartment; it's big and clean and expensive looking, but none of that matters to Luffy. Right now she in the danger zone; far too close to the very thing she's been trying to avoid. This was a bad idea and she knows it, but there's no going back now.

He looks up after finishing the last stitch; his gloved hands are bloody just like her abandanoed jacket. He slides them off and drops them into the trash. "Yeah, sorry, you..., You just make me think about my little sister."

Luffy's offically screwed. "Oh, okay."

"Her name was Luffy." He says, as thought it wasn't obvious enough. "She ran away from her foster family a couple years ago, but we're still looking for her."

Again, Luffy's not sure what to say. "How am I like your little sister?"

Luffy doesn't wince in the slightest as Ace washes her wound, dries it, and sanitizes it as though he's done it millions of times before. "I don't know really; it's just a feeling." He laughs a bit; it's short an brief and a bit hollow.

She doesn't laugh with him.

"Luffy wanted to be a fighter in a world full of princesses." Luffy does her best not to flinch and pull her arm back when he takes it, carefully placing a gauze over her stitched wound. "Sabo used to say that one of us needed to become a docotor so we could look after her properly.

"Is that why you're good at fixing wounds?"

He nods. "I suppose so; but neither of us are planning on becoming doctors. We just learned the basics."

"Thank you." She takes her bandaged arm away from him and lets it drop to her side; he stands and shuffles through his drawers for a moment to find a shirt for her to borrow.

The idea of her walking home in a sports bra wasn't something Ace thought was a good idea; injury or not. "It's Sabo's and he doesn't wear it, ever, so just keep it okay?"

She doesn't bother fighting with him about it; her heart beats a bit faster as she slides it over her head and lets it drop down. It stops just above the ends of her shorts, and even falls off her shoulders a bit. "I... I'm going home now."

Ace watches her until she leaves.

Somehow, it felt as though everything is going to be okay.

It's a good feeling.

Everything is not okay.

A/N: I'm going to send the last chapter to reviewers via PM, it will be posted normally awhile later.

Q: Why didn't they say goodbye? A: Sabo did, and Ace was afraid to.

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~CrimsonBlood