Chapter Text
Brother Complex and How It Traumatize Others
It was all going good and disturbingly as planned. Ace was freed by his adorable baby brother and was absolutely happy for reuniting and being side by side with his baby brother again after so long.
The bad thing is, Whitebeard had ordered his children to all retreat whilst he himself will stay. To say Ace is sad and unwilling would be like saying Luffy is cute and adorable. An extreme understatement. But even so, as a son Ace could only honor his Pops' last order and retreat from the battle.
That's it until the Admiral of Marine, the believer of 'Absolute Justice', magma bastard, Akainu just had to insult Whitebeard.
Now, Ace is a bit happy for having Luffy, sad and unwilling to leave his Pops, and downright angry to the point of insanity toward the magma bastard. Ace had stopped running and turned to face the tyrannical marine. Itching to start a full blown argument about how even Whitebeard's moustache (which is really amazing, mind you) is waaay even greater than Akainu and he will start a fight if Akainu doesn't agree.
"Ace!" Luffy desperately yelled for Ace and Ace immadiately hesitated. No matter what, even if he's Whitebeard's son and second commander, he's still a big brother first, years before. But ultimately, Ace's ego won as usual.
"How dare you! Take that back! Whitebeard is not a coward!" Ace growled menacingly as fire dances on his shoulders. He glared at Akainu, though in all fairness looking at Luffy's face is much more pleasing, it's not like Ace got a choice... He has to look at the face first before destroying it after all.
"Ace! Retreat!"
"Ace, goddammit!"
"Ignore the magma bastard, Ace!" Cries from his ship brothers all fell in deaf ears, as Ace chose to hear Akainu's insult.
"Why? I didn't say anything wrong." Akainu smirked. "He is a coward. Years had sailed the sea yet never have he claimed the throne! Why? Because he's weak and a coward, that's why! Whitebeard will always be the second. He never will be a king."
"Bastard, take that back." Ace growled darkly and his ship brothers are getting desperate to get Ace's attention, and tell him to just bail out.
Luffy is unhappy, as a little brother who grew up alongside as well under Ace's care, he knew his brother the most to know he'll never back out. But, that doesn't mean he'll let it slide.
"Aceee!" Luffy yelled, his whiny tone indicating that he's close to throw a tantrum and Ace's ears twitched at that. Ace stilled. Despite his ego, Ace is very much aware that he would even turn a whole island upside down just to please his baby brother.
Noticing Ace's struggle, the Whitebeard pirates remember how acute Ace's brother complex is and decide to do a different approach.
"Ace! Listen to your cute brother!"
"Look at him! He's close to tears!"
"Ace, your brother must be very tired! Don't let him wait for you!"
"Poor Luffy! Ace, how could you leave your cute brother hanging like that!"
"Are you truly our Ace who keeps going on and on about his cute baby brother for days that it almost made us go deaf!?"
"Go and take your cute baby brother out before the marine is out for him!"
That did the trick. Ace's brotherly pride is poked and it flared even brighter than his earlier ego, he can't let his baby brother in this hell anymore, Luffy had been through alot in Impel Down and Ace is not willing to let him wait for a well-deserved rest (And Ace is gonna be there to cuddle with him, yup sounds like a plan). Ace took Luffy's hand in his and turned around, starting to run again, ignoring Akainu's continuous attempt to reel him up again.
"Mugiwara? Cute? That kid is not cute at all," For some reason that comment pierced Ace's ears in the midst of the pirates' cheers and the marines' enraged shouts. The culprit is none other than one of the top-tier Vice Admirals whom Ace had decided as the bane of his existence at that very moment.
Without missing a beat. Ace released Luffy's hand, turned around, and lurched toward the voice's source, slamming his flaming fist into the offender. Everyone was left gaping.
Not stopping only there, Ace punched the Vice Admiral's face again and again, screaming like a maniac all the while. "Fuck you! Screw you motherfucker! HOW DARE YOU! Son of a bitch! I'll kill you, Dammit!" Ace hollered at the top of his lungs as he kept punching and burning without an ounce of care for his victim.
"Luffy is CUTE! You're blind if you can't see that! How dare you to blemish it, you motherfucker! He's the very definition of cuteness! He's adorable! And absolutely, the cutest boy to ever born in this century!" Ace's crazed attacks stopped as he yanked the Vice Admiral up and chucked him to the ground. Breathing savagely after, before letting out a high-pitched maniacal laughter.
Ace's crazed attacks and laughter stunned everyone... 'Scary! He's scary!' everyone cried out inwardly.
"Now this should teach you all. Luffy is cute, and whoever said otherwise will have to fight me." Ace lowered his head and spoke out hauntingly, his eyes were covered by shadow.
There's a limit to being unreasonable you know?! Everyone cried out in their hearts.
"As expected, a demon would always be a demon!" Akainu glared and jumped towards Ace, magma fist ready to smother the young fire user, forgetting his initial plan to target Dragon's son first.
Ace looked up, "DID YOU ALL HEAR ME!?" Ace hollered. A blast of powerful conqueror aura spread through the battlefield courtesy of Ace. Only Luffy was specifically isolated from it. Several hundred people immediately fell unconscious and even Akainu had to take a step back in instinct to bow down before the King.
Haoshoku Haki...
Everyone who was still conscious gulped nervously. But Marco still focused on his goal and safely reached the brothers to kick Akainu back. Conqueror or not, Ace was in no condition to fight against an Admiral.
"Ace, go back-" Marco warned his pyromaniac of a brother.
"You hear me!" Walking back to Luffy's side, Ace pulled him close "Look at him! How could you not think he's cute!?" The Whitebeards bite back a groan. Oh no... Here they go again.
"Back then, when he was seven, he once got kidnapped after we saved him from being eaten by an alligator, my cute little brother did not and still doesn't understand the concept of Stranger Danger. So he got kidnapped and we almost lost him but luckily everyone noticed and remembered his cute feature and that made it easier for us to track him. One time too, Luffy was given an oversized shirt by our caretaker and he was so cute that even wolves wanted to keep him and..." Ace launched to his tale, forgetting this place is in the middle of a war and is not exactly ideal to display his brother complex. "Not to mention--"
"AAAAHHHH NOOO! SHUT HIM UP, OH MY GOD! STOP HIM!!!!!!!!" Surprisingly, Vice Admiral Strawberry immediately keeled over, covering his ears, crying for mercy. Literally.
"OH DEAR GOD! DON'T LET HIM TALK! PLEASE! GO AWAY ALREADY!" Vice Admiral Stainless cursed and urged them to go, all too willingly.
"No, no, no, no, no, no... This is only a nightmare NOOOO!" Vice Admiral Dalmatian sobbed uncontrollably, curling up, and started rocking himself back and forth on the ground.
"MEDIC! I NEED MY ASPIRIN!" Vice Admiral Momonga demanded. One by one the Vice Admirals fell, crying and moaning for mercy. Having no will to fight anymore. The sight was so baffling that everyone around the world was left gaping incredulously.
It had been a story, years ago, these Vice Admirals had been dispatched to catch Fire Fist Ace, In the end, they all come back not only with failure but with groundbreaking life trauma as well. Let's just say, Ace had lovingly shared his joy as a big brother with them and they would always run for the hills whenever Portgas D. Ace is mentioned ever since then. When it was said that Portgas D. Ace was to be executed, many of them cheered like kindergarteners.
Marco kicked Akainu away again, and took the ears muffler from Izou, before engaging the magma user in a fierce battle. Kizaru was being held by the other commanders and Aokiji was somehow sleeping on some corner- no one bothered him as long as he stayed out of this.
At this moment, Ace had reached 'Luffy's tenth year' and the surrounding marines were all lowkey traumatized, none of the Whitebeards stopped him. Third-degree burns might be earned if they tried.
Sengoku fumed, "GARP! Control your damn family!"
"Bwahahaha, his brother complex got more severe huh?!" Garp laughed and Sengoku's eyes twitched. That damn Aokiji, where was he when the Marine's name would be tarnished? If it became like this, Sengoku would be forced to interfere, there was no way Sengoku would let the Marine's good name fall into the dirt.
Garp looked thoughtfully at Ace, who was currently traumatizing the entire battlefield. "That makes me remember that one training trip with Ace and Luffy. My cute grandsons were begging me to let them take out a giant phyton to snatch the eggs, bwahaha. I let them and they succeeded in defeating the phyton, we cracked the eggs, and turn out they were all ready to be born! Everything except one was filled with blood. One was a baby snake, Luffy begged to keep it and Ace also begged to let them to. They were all so cute. But then..."
"Oh sweet mother of Sea, SOMEONE STOP HIM!" Sengoku covered his ears and yelled desperately. It wasn't the Vice admirals to Portgas D. Ace alone... Sengoku also had his trauma.
*Omake*
Some moment later, Red-haired Shanks arrived only to find the marines were all mourning and crying to each other, the top-ranking officers were all busy, and the Shichibukai were all minding their own business (Though, Boa Hancock looked suspiciously paying an incredible amount of attention to something) whilst Whitebeard is sitting to the side drinking stolen booze that his sons had stole for him to amuse himself with, after his intended heroic sacrifice failed in the moment Ace started to talk about his 'baby brother'.
Benn Beckman, Shanks' firstmate felt a foreboding feeling about it but said nothing. It wasn't until they heard the supposedly to be executed Portgas D. Ace, is cheerfully telling everyone his baby brother's little adventures in childhood- with Luffy himself, sleeping on his lap, out cold from from extreme tiredness. Benn knew shit is going down.
"Really!? He did that!? DAHAHAHA! It makes me remember back when he was six, he was so cute and determined and one day he visited Red Force and..." Shanks suddenly starts to talk himself, and the surrounding marines looked at him with more horror than they had done earlier. Oh no, not you too! Was what they thought.
In the end, the Whitebeards finally retreated just because a person from Worst Generation, Trafalgar Law the Surgeon of Death, emerged and told them Luffy really needed some help. Under the Red Hair pirates' cover, the Whitebeard pirates all retreated safely. Not like the Marines would block them anyway as they were all too happy to watch them leave.
Suffice to say, despite all the odds, the Marine happily offered Trafalgar Law a place in Shichibukai as a thank-you for "Bringing that Noisy brocon away from them". Law accepted it, as one hundred pirates' hearts is a tiring plan anyway...
The marines still had nightmares of those happy reminiscing voice babbling about 'Luffy, Luffy this, Luffy that, Luffy, Luffy, Luffy cute, Luffy blah blah, Luffy, Luffy back then, Luffy' for several nights after the war though...
As for that marine Vice Admiral who said Luffy was not cute... He was demoted and accused as the one who is responsible for the mental damages in the war. He was sent on 'leave'.
...
In the secret base of Revolutionary, Baltigo, every revolutionary was cheering for the heavy damage to all three government's treasures. They were all savoring the bliss of the Government's as well Marines's suffering, by listening to the reply of the War, especially Portgas D. Ace doting on their Boss' son, who is admittedly really cute ("He looks nothing like Boss!")
In the midst of all, a blond revolutionary was intently listening to the 'tales' when suddenly he collapsed.
When he woke up, the young Chief of Staff of Revolutionary immediately set out to the sea. Grinning all the while, whilst cooing on Monkey D. Luffy's bounty posters.
Lo and behold to the world, there are two doting brothers now...