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mythplaced_logicChapter 4: Ace and the Long Road to Enlightenment
Summary:
First Flashback- Ace begins his journey of discovery and Sabo is amused. Bonus Luffy omake at the end!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Ace growled as he stomped through the dirt towards the forest and away from the bandit's hide-out.
"Stupid bandits!", he angrily kicked a rock out of the way, not noticing as it pinged off the forehead of a huge tiger about to get the jump on him. He tripped immediately afterward and quickly jumped up and spun around to make sure no one had seen him fall, as he rubbed the dirt from his face.
"Stupid Dadan!", he huffed as he pulled himself over an enormous tree root. His boot scuffed as he pushed up and he just barely dodged a huge wad of dead leaves and moss that his vigorous climb had dislodged, which silently fell down right on top of the snake that was slithering up after him. He did not manage to dodge the second heap of clinging rotten moss that tumbled down right after, catching him square in the face.
"Stupid spiders!" He yelled and squirmed as he shook out the bugs that had crawled into his shirt from the stinking pile that had fallen on him.
Exhausted from an unusually annoying trek through the forest, he stopped and flopped onto his back when he reached the ground again. Looking up at the sky through the leaves, he was too frustrated to notice the storm clouds gathering just on the edge of his vision.
"What do spiders have to do with luck?" He grumbled to himself as he remembered the earlier morning and the annoyance that any interaction with the bandits always brought along with it.
Just as he had begun to calm down, the sky seemed to break open and a massive sheet of freezing rain slammed into him.
"Aaaaghh!" He scrambled up under the force of the falling water and ran towards a crack in the trunk of a nearby tree. Huddling into the tiny overhang, he shivered as the rain came pouring down and a bolt of lightning crackled through the darkening sky.
"This is the worst day ever!" Curling up to wait for the rain to pass, he hoped Sabo had managed to find shelter before the unexpected storm came.
'I'll go find him tomorrow' he thought as he drifted fitfully off to sleep.
###############################
"Saaaaaaboooo!!" The shout echoed off into the distance of the ravine as a blond haired boy looked up from pushing the shirt in his hands under the water of the river.
"Ace, is that you!?" He shouted back towards the small figure he could see making its way towards him down the side of the ravine on a vine.
"Sabo!" The dark haired boy turned his face towards him, " There you are, I've been looking for you for ----" *crack* The branch the vine was attached to snapped and Sabo could see Ace tumble the last part of the way down, bouncing off a rock on the way down. "Oof". Ace rolled over onto his back with a wince.
Sabo rushed over to check on him and stared for a moment while his friend groaned up at him.
"Wow, Ace, that was some bad luck right there." Sabo could only gape as he took in the wet clothes, dirt encrusted hair and the various scrapes on Ace's face, only some of which could be explained by his recent fall.
"What the heck are you talking about, luck?" Ace finally pushed himself up to sit and glare at the sun glinting into his face from his friend's goggles. "There's no such thing as bad luck, just stupid things that happen and people who think they had something to do with it!"
Sabo pulled a face at that and threw himself down to lounge beside his pouting partner in crime,
He sighed and started again, "Ace, I don't know what you've heard, but there is definitely such a thing as bad luck and you look like you got a face full of it." He smirked at Ace's dirty hair and reach up to pull a tiny beetle off of his friend's damp bangs. "Literally, in your case."
Sabo glimpsed Ace's fierce pout growing into a full-on freak-out and quickly stifled his smirk.
"You sound just like those stupid bandits and that old hag, Sabo. There's no such things as luck, bad luck, or stupid lucky spiders!!" Ace shouted and leapt up, limping just a little as he stomped around.
Sabo could feel his face pulling into a grin again. "No such thing as luck huh?" He propped his chin on his hands and just raised his eyebrow. "What exactly were you doing yesterday and why are you ranting about the bandits and spiders then, huh Ace?"
A blush began to creep over Ace's face as he quickly spun around so his back faced Sabo and crossed his arms.
"I didn't do anything!"
Sabo just continued to look at Ace's back. "Really, nothing at all?"
Finally Ace couldn't hold it in anymore and jerked back around to yell, "It was just a stupid spider! Those stupid bandits freaked out for no reason!" He didn't notice the shirt Sabo had dropped to the ground earlier when he had rushed over to Ace and his foot caught on the collar. His subsequent face-plant had Sabo clutching his belly, cackling with laughter as Ace struggled to pull his leg free from the wet shirt.
Finally, with Ace free of the malicious shirt fabric and Sabo having caught his breath again, he grinned at his unlucky friend.
"Look Ace, I don't know what you're thinking is going on, but I bet I can guess what happened yesterday."
"Oh yeah?" Ace glared at Sabo, too exhausted to jump on him and punch his grinning face. He knew Sabo was still laughing at him in his head.
"Yeah, I'll bet you two shifts of laundry duty that I can tell you exactly what happened yesterday."
Ace ignored his instincts screaming at him when faced with Sabo's smug grin. "Fine, two days of laundry duty, you have no idea what I've been through!"
Sabo put up his hand with fingers spread. "First off, I'll guess that you found a spider yesterday, sometime during the daytime at the bandit's place." He ticked one finger on his hand. "Sound about right so far?"
"So, I already told you about the stupid spider, just now, so that doesn't count!" Ace cried as Sabo ticked his second finger.
"Now, now, I'm just getting started! Secondly, I bet you tried to kill that spider you found, and one of the bandits freaked out and stopped you." Sabo quirked his eyebrow at Ace as he began to settle into another glare.
"So what if I did?"
Sabo ticked a third finger,"Thirdly, I'll bet the bandits then told you that you can't kill it, and told you that it's bad luck, right?"
Ace turned an odd face at his friend, squinting at him. "How could you possibly know that?"
Sabo simply ticked another finger as his grin took over his face, "Next, I'm gonna say that you ignored them and killed the spider anyway. Am I right so far?"
Ace just glared in silence as Sabo ticked his thumb and continued, "Lastly, I'll bet that those bandits shoved you right out the door. And as a bonus, considering the way you look right now, you must have had quite the eventful trip back. Scrapes, dirt, bugs, and I'm gonna say you even got caught in that freak storm last night, didn't you Ace?" Sabo had started to laugh again as Ace jumped him, and they began to tussle as Ace cursed at him.
After a few moments, Ace's night in the cold caught up with him and he fell back to the ground, caught in Sabo's headlock.
Letting him go, Sabo rolled over to look at him."Look Ace, that's some serious bad luck, you're gonna have to do something about it before something worse happens."
"I don't know what you're talking about Sabo, there's no such thing as bad luck!"
Knowing his friend wouldn't be convinced at this point he continued
"You'll see Ace, it'll only get worse from here. And don't forget," Sabo jumped up and sauntered past Ace towards the river,"it's your turn to do laundry now."
Sabo laughed at Ace's frustrated cry and the sound of Ace tripping again, right into the river this time.
He needed to rinse off anyway, right?
******************************************
Omake- Luffy, Ace, and Learning About Luck.
"Hey Ace, come look at this!" Luffy cried behind Ace as they continued their trip into Grey Terminal to do some 'shopping'.
Ace peered around back towards his smallest brother, squinting in the harsh light of the midday sun. He jumped towards Luffy with a cry as soon as he got a look at what was in his brother's hand. "Luffy, no! You can't kill it!"
Luffy turned a confused look at Ace as he pulled his hand back from his brother, spider held more gently than you would expect of the hyperactive boy, in his hand.
"Why would I kill it? It's a mysterious bug with 8 legs! So cool....". He returned to staring with huge eyes at the spider crawling over his fingers as his brother leaned over with his hands on his knees, huffing from his sprint to stop Luffy from doing something he'd regret forever.
"Just trust me Luffy, be sure you don't hurt that spider. I'll get Sabo to explain later, ok?" He ruffled Luffy's hair as Luffy leaned over to let his mystery bug back onto the ground.
"Whatever you say Ace!" Luffy grinned and bounced on down the path.
Ace shook his head as a shiver ran down his spine at the memory of his own fateful encounter.
"It was lucky that nothing happened this time!"
Notes:
Hope you enjoyed that side story with Luffy! Don't worry Ace, Luffy loves bugs! Especially mystery bugs!
Please review and let me know some luck traditions where you're from, good or bad. I would love to have some inspiration from around the world!
Ace strikes me as the type who would need something knocked into his head to believe it, especially something as ephemeral as 'luck'. Don't worry, we'll see more of Ace's journey towards enlightenment as the story goes.
Summary:
First Flashback- Ace begins his journey of discovery and Sabo is amused. Bonus Luffy omake at the end!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Ace growled as he stomped through the dirt towards the forest and away from the bandit's hide-out.
"Stupid bandits!", he angrily kicked a rock out of the way, not noticing as it pinged off the forehead of a huge tiger about to get the jump on him. He tripped immediately afterward and quickly jumped up and spun around to make sure no one had seen him fall, as he rubbed the dirt from his face.
"Stupid Dadan!", he huffed as he pulled himself over an enormous tree root. His boot scuffed as he pushed up and he just barely dodged a huge wad of dead leaves and moss that his vigorous climb had dislodged, which silently fell down right on top of the snake that was slithering up after him. He did not manage to dodge the second heap of clinging rotten moss that tumbled down right after, catching him square in the face.
"Stupid spiders!" He yelled and squirmed as he shook out the bugs that had crawled into his shirt from the stinking pile that had fallen on him.
Exhausted from an unusually annoying trek through the forest, he stopped and flopped onto his back when he reached the ground again. Looking up at the sky through the leaves, he was too frustrated to notice the storm clouds gathering just on the edge of his vision.
"What do spiders have to do with luck?" He grumbled to himself as he remembered the earlier morning and the annoyance that any interaction with the bandits always brought along with it.
Just as he had begun to calm down, the sky seemed to break open and a massive sheet of freezing rain slammed into him.
"Aaaaghh!" He scrambled up under the force of the falling water and ran towards a crack in the trunk of a nearby tree. Huddling into the tiny overhang, he shivered as the rain came pouring down and a bolt of lightning crackled through the darkening sky.
"This is the worst day ever!" Curling up to wait for the rain to pass, he hoped Sabo had managed to find shelter before the unexpected storm came.
'I'll go find him tomorrow' he thought as he drifted fitfully off to sleep.
###############################
"Saaaaaaboooo!!" The shout echoed off into the distance of the ravine as a blond haired boy looked up from pushing the shirt in his hands under the water of the river.
"Ace, is that you!?" He shouted back towards the small figure he could see making its way towards him down the side of the ravine on a vine.
"Sabo!" The dark haired boy turned his face towards him, " There you are, I've been looking for you for ----" *crack* The branch the vine was attached to snapped and Sabo could see Ace tumble the last part of the way down, bouncing off a rock on the way down. "Oof". Ace rolled over onto his back with a wince.
Sabo rushed over to check on him and stared for a moment while his friend groaned up at him.
"Wow, Ace, that was some bad luck right there." Sabo could only gape as he took in the wet clothes, dirt encrusted hair and the various scrapes on Ace's face, only some of which could be explained by his recent fall.
"What the heck are you talking about, luck?" Ace finally pushed himself up to sit and glare at the sun glinting into his face from his friend's goggles. "There's no such thing as bad luck, just stupid things that happen and people who think they had something to do with it!"
Sabo pulled a face at that and threw himself down to lounge beside his pouting partner in crime,
He sighed and started again, "Ace, I don't know what you've heard, but there is definitely such a thing as bad luck and you look like you got a face full of it." He smirked at Ace's dirty hair and reach up to pull a tiny beetle off of his friend's damp bangs. "Literally, in your case."
Sabo glimpsed Ace's fierce pout growing into a full-on freak-out and quickly stifled his smirk.
"You sound just like those stupid bandits and that old hag, Sabo. There's no such things as luck, bad luck, or stupid lucky spiders!!" Ace shouted and leapt up, limping just a little as he stomped around.
Sabo could feel his face pulling into a grin again. "No such thing as luck huh?" He propped his chin on his hands and just raised his eyebrow. "What exactly were you doing yesterday and why are you ranting about the bandits and spiders then, huh Ace?"
A blush began to creep over Ace's face as he quickly spun around so his back faced Sabo and crossed his arms.
"I didn't do anything!"
Sabo just continued to look at Ace's back. "Really, nothing at all?"
Finally Ace couldn't hold it in anymore and jerked back around to yell, "It was just a stupid spider! Those stupid bandits freaked out for no reason!" He didn't notice the shirt Sabo had dropped to the ground earlier when he had rushed over to Ace and his foot caught on the collar. His subsequent face-plant had Sabo clutching his belly, cackling with laughter as Ace struggled to pull his leg free from the wet shirt.
Finally, with Ace free of the malicious shirt fabric and Sabo having caught his breath again, he grinned at his unlucky friend.
"Look Ace, I don't know what you're thinking is going on, but I bet I can guess what happened yesterday."
"Oh yeah?" Ace glared at Sabo, too exhausted to jump on him and punch his grinning face. He knew Sabo was still laughing at him in his head.
"Yeah, I'll bet you two shifts of laundry duty that I can tell you exactly what happened yesterday."
Ace ignored his instincts screaming at him when faced with Sabo's smug grin. "Fine, two days of laundry duty, you have no idea what I've been through!"
Sabo put up his hand with fingers spread. "First off, I'll guess that you found a spider yesterday, sometime during the daytime at the bandit's place." He ticked one finger on his hand. "Sound about right so far?"
"So, I already told you about the stupid spider, just now, so that doesn't count!" Ace cried as Sabo ticked his second finger.
"Now, now, I'm just getting started! Secondly, I bet you tried to kill that spider you found, and one of the bandits freaked out and stopped you." Sabo quirked his eyebrow at Ace as he began to settle into another glare.
"So what if I did?"
Sabo ticked a third finger,"Thirdly, I'll bet the bandits then told you that you can't kill it, and told you that it's bad luck, right?"
Ace turned an odd face at his friend, squinting at him. "How could you possibly know that?"
Sabo simply ticked another finger as his grin took over his face, "Next, I'm gonna say that you ignored them and killed the spider anyway. Am I right so far?"
Ace just glared in silence as Sabo ticked his thumb and continued, "Lastly, I'll bet that those bandits shoved you right out the door. And as a bonus, considering the way you look right now, you must have had quite the eventful trip back. Scrapes, dirt, bugs, and I'm gonna say you even got caught in that freak storm last night, didn't you Ace?" Sabo had started to laugh again as Ace jumped him, and they began to tussle as Ace cursed at him.
After a few moments, Ace's night in the cold caught up with him and he fell back to the ground, caught in Sabo's headlock.
Letting him go, Sabo rolled over to look at him."Look Ace, that's some serious bad luck, you're gonna have to do something about it before something worse happens."
"I don't know what you're talking about Sabo, there's no such thing as bad luck!"
Knowing his friend wouldn't be convinced at this point he continued
"You'll see Ace, it'll only get worse from here. And don't forget," Sabo jumped up and sauntered past Ace towards the river,"it's your turn to do laundry now."
Sabo laughed at Ace's frustrated cry and the sound of Ace tripping again, right into the river this time.
He needed to rinse off anyway, right?
******************************************
Omake- Luffy, Ace, and Learning About Luck.
"Hey Ace, come look at this!" Luffy cried behind Ace as they continued their trip into Grey Terminal to do some 'shopping'.
Ace peered around back towards his smallest brother, squinting in the harsh light of the midday sun. He jumped towards Luffy with a cry as soon as he got a look at what was in his brother's hand. "Luffy, no! You can't kill it!"
Luffy turned a confused look at Ace as he pulled his hand back from his brother, spider held more gently than you would expect of the hyperactive boy, in his hand.
"Why would I kill it? It's a mysterious bug with 8 legs! So cool....". He returned to staring with huge eyes at the spider crawling over his fingers as his brother leaned over with his hands on his knees, huffing from his sprint to stop Luffy from doing something he'd regret forever.
"Just trust me Luffy, be sure you don't hurt that spider. I'll get Sabo to explain later, ok?" He ruffled Luffy's hair as Luffy leaned over to let his mystery bug back onto the ground.
"Whatever you say Ace!" Luffy grinned and bounced on down the path.
Ace shook his head as a shiver ran down his spine at the memory of his own fateful encounter.
"It was lucky that nothing happened this time!"
Notes:
Hope you enjoyed that side story with Luffy! Don't worry Ace, Luffy loves bugs! Especially mystery bugs!
Please review and let me know some luck traditions where you're from, good or bad. I would love to have some inspiration from around the world!
Ace strikes me as the type who would need something knocked into his head to believe it, especially something as ephemeral as 'luck'. Don't worry, we'll see more of Ace's journey towards enlightenment as the story goes.
