Title: In Another Life
Characters: Ace, Luffy
Rating: PG
eiliem wrote
In Another Life in
naye´s
Chaos Thread Party, which you should go read right now.
I got carried away thinking about it, and then
serrende came up with an idea that wouldn´t leave me alone. (I love your people´s creativity &hearts )
So I expanded on it and here is the result. There might be more eventually... maybe? It includes the first three paragraphs of
eiliem´s snippet (sorry!) and a few lines from chapter 574 (translation from
here).
In Another Life
In another life, Luffy never meets Shanks.
Six years before Shanks arrives in Fuusha, Garp leaves his grandson with Dadan. Luffy's first word is "Ace"; his second-through-fifth words are swears. Luffy learns how to walk from Ace, how to run from Dadan, and how to be really, really quiet from his Grandpa.
Luffy grows up worshiping his older brother, as Ace loves him.
“If Gold Roger´d had a kid? Then he oughta be executed!”
Luffy knows that he should leave the restaurant. Ace will be looking for him, and Ace will be angry if Luffy doesn´t come soon. Anyway, people are stupid and wrong.
“Oh, I´ve got a good one! How about sticking one needle in his body for every person in the world with a grudge against Roger!”
Unbidden, the picture of people sticking needles into Ace comes to his mind. Luffy balls his hands into fists.
“No, he should be burned at the stake! That way the whole world could watch and laugh as he went to his death! They´d all be saying the same thing, you know? Serves you right!”
“Shut up!”
Luffy doesn´t remember standing up, but he did, and he is trembling. The men at the bar are staring at him in surprise. Then one of them sneers.
“Shut up, kid. You´ve no idea what we´re talking about.”
“You shut up! You´re all wrong, and you´re lying. Ace isn´t…”
“Luffy, there you are.”
It´s Ace, standing in the doorway. Luffy slumps a bit in relief, but then he notices that Ace´ face is pale and his eyes are darting through the room as if looking for an escape.
“Let´s go,” Ace says, and Luffy runs after him.
“I´m sorry,” he says miserably as soon as they´re out of town. “But they were saying horrible things about you!”
“It´s alright,” Ace says and smiles at him, but it´s not a real smile.
One week later, the Marine ships arrive.