Word Count: 479

Luffy doesn't have a dream or a wish, he has something better. He has a goal. Because he's seen what happens when someone dreams or wishes, they fall. They fall, shatter, and die with a smile on their lips. Luffy doesn't want his end to be like that, to be in a burst of scorching flame that's so hot that it evaporates the tears and blood and regrets.

Sabo and Ace had both gone that way; with smiles on their lips as their dreams and wishes were fulfilled, they died with peace in their hearts, they died. Luffy is not afraid to die. He embraces death in a way that he knows concerns his nakama, he knows that when he finally closes his eyes it will be after finding a family. Finding a group of people that are his. That drive the loneliness away and are there for when the world comes crashing down. Ace and Sabo were once his, but he lost them. Sabo to his dreams and Ace to his wishes. Both to death. Which is why he isn't afraid, because when he greets death it will be with his own smile, because he will a mere step away from seeing his brothers again. From rejoining his first family.

But until then, Luffy has his current family. He has his crew, his nakama. He has Zoro, Nami and Sanji, Usopp, Chopper and Robin, Franky and Sunny, and Brook. He has the people that sail with him, that willingly call themselves his as they shout and proclaim that they are StrawHats.

He remembers the pain of losing his family, of having Sabo and later Ace torn from him, his heart is still bleeding. With every beat his chest twinges, pain shooting through him. It's gotten better, even though it was worse for a while. When Kuma showed him how weak he really was. Ripping his new family away had torn open the still healing wound from Sabo. The wound that Ace was barely able to patch up with his promise, the promise that he broke. Luffy had been able to ignore the ache, he had been able to pretend that his soul wasn't still crying, but then Ace was gone. Ace was taken away by a fist made of magma and his crew was scattered by a bear-man. And that, that broke Luffy.

His heart tore open again. Further this time, the wound so much bigger because he lost the remainder of his first family and all of his second.

Jinbei tried to help. And in the end he did, he reminded Luffy that his second family wasn't gone, they were simply lost; and what was lost could be found.

So Luffy allowed Law to heal his body as he focused on fixing his heart and sharpening his skills. No one would take his family from him again.