Luffy age 10

Sabo and Ace age 13

Taking care of the sick

Luffy sat curled up by the wall of the cave that he and his brothers were currently living in. Dadan and Ace got into a big fight a few weeks ago and the woman had kicked him out saying that he could come back when he learned some respect. Luffy and Sabo followed their brother instead of staying with the bandits.

And now Luffy was in a cave watching his brothers sleep not knowing how he could help them.

Ace and Sabo were sick and he didn't know what to do.

He's never had to take care of someone who was sick before.

For once his brothers needed him to act and take care of them and he didn't have the first clue how to help someone when they were sick. He remembered being sick twice when he was younger. Once Makino had offered to take care of him because Grandpa was out of town and nobody else wanted to do it. She had been really nice and gentle with him. He remembered her putting a wet cloth on his head and making him eat soup. That was really all he remembered.

The next time he was sick was with Shanks. The pirate and his crew had been on the island visiting and instead of spending his time drinking at the bar, like he usually did when he was in town, he had spent his time with Luffy. He had even let the boy on his ship. He remembered that Shanks had just held him almost the entire time and would tell him that everything would be alright. He didn't even make fun of Luffy once.

It had felt nice to have someone hold him when he wasn't feeling all that great.

Maybe that would help Ace and Sabo, but he somehow knew they wouldn't like it as much as he did.

But how could he help?

Especially when they didn't even want him around. Ace had yelled at him earlier to leave and Sabo had said that it was probably a good idea if he did, so that he wouldn't get sick.

Luffy didn't care if he got sick. He really wanted to help his big brothers. They always took care of him so why couldn't he take care of them?

Isn't that what brothers did?

He winced when he Sabo coughed on the other side of the cave. That really didn't sound too good.

His resolved strengthened he stood and decided to go see the one person he knew would be able to help him out.

Makino was always willing to help them out. Ace and Sabo didn't really like letting her help them but she did anyways with a smile on her face so Luffy was pretty sure that she would be able to tell him what to do to make his brothers feel better.

As predicted the woman knew exactly what to do. She said to make sure that they were warm, comfortable, drank plenty of liquids, and above all rested. She said several times to make sure that they stayed in bed so Luffy had to guess that it was really important that they did. Along with the advice she had insisted that he take some soup back to his two brothers, stating that nothing made someone feel better when they were sick than soup.

It smelled really good and Luffy really just wanted to eat it himself but it was to make Ace and Sabo feel better so every time he stopped in his journey back to the cave he reminded himself forcefully that it was for his brothers and it would make them better faster.

But it smelt so good.

Luffy walked faster so that he could just give the delicious smelling food to his brothers before he ate it all himself.

He stumbled into the cave noisily. The journey had taken most of the day and he was tired. Unusually so. He looked over and saw that Ace and Sabo were still asleep. He was hoping that they would be feeling a little better by the time he got back.

He made his way to Ace and reached out to shake him awake. "Luffy? What do you want? I told you to leave."

"I-I brought you some soup," he said holding out the container that held the soup as a piece offering. "Makino said that it would make you feel better."

He placed the soup down in front of Ace before moving to shake Sabo.

"You went all the way to Fuchsia," Sabo asked as he and Ace sat, blankets around their shoulders, gratefully drinking the soup.

"Yeah. I wanted to talk to Makino about something. She gave me some food and I brought it back," he explained.

Ace shook his head. "You probably should have just stayed with her that way you wouldn't get sick too. Plus the roads are dangerous right now after we-"

"You," Sabo interrupted.

"Fine. After I pissed off those thugs last week. They're probably still looking for us."

Luffy just shrugged as he built up the fire a bit. He had seen Sabo shivering a while ago and wanted his big brothers to be comfortable.

"I'll be fine," he smiled at them.

Ace ran a hand tiredly down his face and reached for one of their water skinss and sighed when he picked it up. "We're almost out of water. I'm going to go get some."

"No!" Luffy shrieked. Makino said that they needed lots of rest and getting water was not restful. "I'll get it. You rest. You're sick. When you're sick you're supposed to sleep lots so you go to sleep and I'll go get some water for you and Sabo."

"Luffy, what if you fall in the river again," his blonde brother asked him.

"I won't fall in!"

"Sure you won't," Ace said sarcastically as he stood shakily.

"I won't! I'll stay where it's not too deep."

Ace sighed and shook his head. "Fine just don't drown or anything."

Luffy smiled at his success when Ace threw the skin at him and laid back down. He gathered Sabo's and his water skins and the barrel they kept extra water in and set out to the river. It hadn't been a bad trip. He was able to get all the water without incident.

He smiled to himself when he entered the cave very proud that he had been able to do the chore. His smile widened when he saw that both his brothers were sound asleep.

Good. That meant that he was doing stuff right.

He looked around for other things he could do and noticed that their fire wood was a little low. He'd go get more wood.

He turned back around and exited the cave. He went into the forest and started gathering dry branches and sticks. He was happy with the bundle that he had and was going to start back to the cave when a nasally voice stopped him.

"Oi, aren't you that brat that runs with Ace and Sabo?"

He turned to see a group of thugs starting to surround him. He recognized the speaker as the guy that Ace had beaten up and stole from last week.

This was bad.

He wasn't sure if he could take them all at once.

"What if I am," he asked trying to sound tough.

The man smirked. "I need to send Ace a message." The man started walking towards Luffy. The boy backed up, still holding the fire wood, and hit something that definitely wasn't a tree. He looked up to see a large man glaring down at him and cracking his knuckles.

Seeing no other way to handle the situation Luffy dropped the wood and jumped away from the large man and stood so that he was now facing both of them in a defensive position. The both smirked and advanced on him.

He stood his ground with his fists clenched.

Then he heard something behind him. He turned just in time to see another man about to stab him in the back with a dagger. He quickly turned and hissed when it sliced his arm.

It didn't stop him though.

He swung his foot around and hit the man in the face and Luffy was satisfied when he fell to the ground and slid several feet. Luffy didn't stop though. He turned and with his fist clenched sent a gum-gum pistol into the speakers gut.

The big guy came after him and he jumped up and then brought his foot down on the man's head.

Another thug came out of nowhere with a gun and shot him.

Luffy hated when they used guns. It would always just leave a bruise that was painful enough to be annoying.

He felt his body stretch to accommodate the force of the bullet and then force the bullet out and into the guy who fell back, clutching his now wounded shoulder.

He looked around at the men all moaning in various amounts of pain. He picked up his fired wood and ran the rest of the way to the cave before anyone else could jump him.

He dropped the wood just inside the cave.

"Keep it down," Ace mumbled as he turned over.

"That you Lu," Sabo's tired voice asked and Luffy winced. He hadn't meant to wake his brothers.

"Yeah. Sorry about the noise."

"Okay, glad you made it back with the food safely."

Luffy's brow furrowed. He hadn't gone to get food. Did he need to?

He hit himself in the head. Of course he needed to get food.

Ace and Sabo had to eat.

Not to mention he needed to eat too. He hadn't eaten all day. He had gone to Fuchsia in the morning and then got back with the soup for Ace and Sabo but he hadn't eaten yet.

He turned to go out of the cave again and frowned when he felt something wet on his arm. He looked down. That's right, he'd been cut. He'd have to take care of that first.

As quietly as he could so that he wouldn't disturb his once again sleeping brothers and pulled out a bandage from their supply. He wrapped it around his arm. Satisfied with his job he nodded once and then went to go collect something to eat.

There were some fruit trees not too far from here. He picked up a bag so that he'd be able to carry plenty of fruit back and ran out.

It took about fifteen minutes to find the trees. He took is time gathering enough apples to fill the bag. By the time he started back the sun had begun to set. He picked up the pace so that he wouldn't have to be outside at night on his own when there were still people out there that wanted revenge on Ace.

He froze when he saw a couple of wolves sniffing around the entrance to the cave.

That wasn't good.

Ace and Sabo were sleeping. If the wolves attacked then his brothers wouldn't be able to defend themselves.

He set his bag down and picked up a big heavy stick and charged the wolves. He hit one on the head. The other snarled at him before jumping into the air and attacked him. Luffy swung the stick and caught him in the stomach and sent him flying. He smiled in triumph but his victory didn't last long as the other wolf sank its teeth into Luffy's shoulder.

He wanted to scream in pain but this close to the cave he knew that it would wake his brothers and it was important for them to sleep when they were sick. He took the stick and beat to wolf on the head until it let go of his shoulder.

He continued to hit the wolves until they finally left. He allowed himself a breath of relief before he retrieved his back and finally entered the cave.

Ace and Sabo were both sitting up by the fire and looked like they were finishing off the rest of the soup. There had been extra?

Luffy walked on the edge of the cave, making sure to stay out of the fire light. His brothers got mad when he was hurt and he didn't want to get them worked up so he would just wait until tomorrow to treat his new wound.

"Hey Luffy," Sabo greeted casually.

"Hey. You feeling any better?"

"A bit," Ace responded.

"That's good." Luffy dropped the bag, happy that his brothers were feeling better.

Taking care of people was hard.

It had been a very long day for him. His shoulder really hurt now, so did his arm, and he was really tired. He also had a headache and really just wanted to lie down.

"Do you need anything else," he asked his brothers.

"No Luffy we're fine," Ace said watching him from where he sat by the fire.

"Okay. I'm going to sleep now. Let me know if you need anything."

With that Luffy was out like a light.

Sabo stretched as he woke. He felt much better than he had been. He got over whatever he had rather quickly. It had helped that he was able to just lay down and sleep and not have to worry about anything. Luffy had been surprisingly helpful since they had gotten sick. Sabo had somehow caught a cold and passed it onto Ace. They were both struck surprisingly hard but he was thankfully feeling better now.

He stepped out of the dank cave they had been staying in and took a deep breath. It sure was nice to be able to breathe through his nose again.

He smiled as Ace ran to him from down the road and joined him. "Where were you," he asked his brother.

"Just checking to make sure those thugs weren't anywhere around here." Ace shrugged. So he was feeling better too. That's good.

"Want to go hunt for breakfast," Sabo asked grinning at his brother.

"Sounds like fun but there are some apples that we can eat. Then we'll start looking for something good for lunch. It'll be nice to stretch my legs after spending all day asleep."

Sabo shook his head fondly. "Luffy really got a little crazy didn't he?"

"Yeah. It was just a cold. It's not like we were dying or anything. We could have handled the day to day things."

"We could have. But he didn't want us to have to worry about anything while we were sick. He did a good job. He really stepped up," Sabo stated.

"He really did," Ace agreed smiling fondly.

"We'll have to take him to get some of that soup he brought us to say thank you. It was really good."

"If you say so," Ace shrugged. "Is he still asleep?"

"Yeah. I think so."

Ace smiled evilly. "I think I'll just go and wake him up."

"What are you going to do," Sabo asked.

Ace didn't say anything. His smile just widened.

Sabo shook his head as Ace ran into the cave and waited for Luffy's scream.

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Sabo's head snapped around when it was Ace's voice he heard and not Luffy's. He ran to see what was wrong. Ace was leaning over Luffy who was weakly trying to push him away.

"What's wrong," He demanded dropping to the ground next to his brothers.

"He's bleeding!"

"I'm fine," Luffy said trying to once again push Ace's hands off.

"No you're not!"

Sabo put a hand on Ace's shoulder and calmly asked. "Why are you bleeding Luffy?"

"Wolf."

"I'm sorry did you just say wolf? You were attacked by a wolf?" Ace asked.

"I attacked some wolves," Luffy said sitting up.

"W-why would you do that?" The older brunette demanded. Sabo shook his head in exasperation. It was one thing to fend yourself from a wolf and another to attack one.

"It was going to attack you guys while you were sleepin'."

"I think you better tell us exactly what you did while we were sick, Luffy," Sabo said.

Fifteen minutes later Sabo was outside with his brothers tending to Luffy's wounds where he could see better. Apparently he had a very exciting day yesterday.

Luffy was happily munching on an apple as he watched Ace pace back and forth angrily muttering to himself.

"How dare they do that to my little brother? If they wanted a fight they should have come after me. I'm the one that messed with them. Not Luffy."

"Why's Ace so mad," Luffy asked looking up at the blonde.

"Because those guys tried to kill you to get to him," Sabo said as he finished wrapping the cut on Luffy's arm. It was pretty deep and it might need stiches. He'd have to keep an eye on it.

"They didn't try to kill me."

"They came at you with a knife and shot you," Sabo pointed out.

"But they can't kill me with a gun. I'm made outta rubber."

"Yeah but they didn't know that."

Luffy sneezed in response.

Sabo frowned. "You're not sick are you?"

Luffy shrugged and Sabo put a hand on his forehead. He gave resigned sigh. "You're sick. Come on let's get you into bed."

Sabo put an arm around Luffy's shoulder and led him back into the cave. They would deal with the thugs later. Right now he had a sick little brother to take care of.

I hope you liked it. Thanks to those who gave me some ideas. I'm working on some of them right now.

Let me know what you think.

P.S. Anyone who was interested in the prequel to Farewell and hasn't seen, it's up now. It's called Somewhere to Belong.