Raining an Ocean

Ace was waiting for a day like today.

The clouds outside were becoming more and more gray as the on coming rain storm was coming closer and closer. He could already hear the wind picking up outside, it was whistling through the town and heading up to the more grassy area of where their home was amount the farms and ranches. From the window he could see the old but large windmill on top of the mountain begin to stop; the owner always stopped it during big storms in fear that the blades would be torn off.

Ace had been waiting for a rainy day for a good reason. Ever since Luffy had eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi he been getting bullied more from some of the village kids. Not only that but the seven year old was a little down since eating an Akuma no Mi had put the last nail in the coffin for Luffy ever learning to swim. Even though Luffy hadn’t let it get him down by saying he would be a pirate that didn’t fall into the sea, he was still a kid and most kids liked splashing around in the water. This storm today would mark the first one since Luffy had become a rubber boy.

Today would be a treat for his little brother. He pulled his black swimming trunks on and put a few towels on the table for when they got home and then headed up stairs. He came to the door of Luffy’s bedroom and let himself in knowing Luffy wasn’t the type to care if one knocked or not. Walking into the room he was careful not to step on any of the things that were on the floor. Luffy was still asleep since it was still pretty early in the morning. The was curled up under his red blanket with only his black hair sticking out from under the covers, his hands clutching the pillow sheet in his sleep.

This was going to be hard…Luffy slept like the dead sometimes and often it was near impossible to wake him up before he wanted to. Ace walked up to the bed and shook his brother trying to get him to wake up “Hey Luffy” he shook him again and not only a small snore in return. Ace sighed, so this was going to be a game of hard ball was it? “Come on get up” Ace shook even harder; Luffy muttered something in his sleep before he snuggled deeper into the covers and hugged his pillow closer, pushing his face in it and sighing. Ace had to roll his eyes at his brother’s behavior while shaking his head and smiling…Luffy was just too cute for his own good. Oh well…I didn’t want to do this but…

“Hey Luffy…you missed breakfast” Ace was glad that he had decided to move away from the bed before he used that trick. Luffy snapped up; his black hair sticking out in all directions and his eyes still half open from drowsiness. Luffy would have cracked his jaw from the yawn he let lose if he hadn’t be made of rubber and then began rubbing an eye with a fist. He sat there in his red pull over pajama’s with the white border before Ace was in the room. Luffy blinked before cocking his head to the side.

“Ace why are you standing around in your underwear?” he asked innocently and giving the ten year old and even more innocent blink.

“They aren’t my underwear” Ace said blushing “There my swim trunks” Ace watched Luffy look down at the floor.

“Oh…” Luffy’s eyes then went to the window and eyes once filled with sadness now began to fill with confusion “But Ace…isn’t it raining out?”

“It’s a special kind of swimming” Ace said walking over to Luffy’s dresser and pulling out the younger boys red swim trunks “And you’re coming too” Ace threw the trunks at Luffy and they landed on his head. Luffy pulled the red cloth from his eyes and gave puzzled look.

“But Ace…I can’t swim anymore…ever remember what Shanks said?” Luffy said sounding sad as he was reminded again that he couldn’t do something he wanted to do to be a better pirate.

“We aren’t going in the ocean”

“Then how?”

“I said it was a special kind of swimming right?” Ace said smirking and cocking his head to the door “Change into your trunks and meet me down stairs” with that Ace headed out the door smiling, Luffy was going to enjoy this.

A few minutes later Luffy came down the stairs dressed in nothing but the red swim trunks that hadn’t gotten much use since Luffy’s ingestion of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, but even before then it was mostly used for his swimming attempts. The boy still looked puzzled and confused as he looked over at his big brother who was walking to the door. “So…what’s the special about this kind of swimming?” Luffy asked blinking.

“We’re gonna swim in the rain” Ace said opening the door; the wind wasn’t very strong and there was no thunder or lighting but the rain was coming down in sheets.

“How do you swim in the rain?” Luffy asked as Ace grabbed his hand and led him outside and closed the door.

“Like this” Ace said tapping his finger on Luffy’s nose “Tag your it!” and with that Ace went tearing down the dirt path leading to their house before hopping the wooden fence and racing down the path to town. He could hear the sloppy sound of bear feet making contact with the now muddy path behind him along with the giggles of his little brother. Ace smirked; if Luffy thought this was fun he was in for blast. They ran about the muddy paths of the hills around the farming area of their little village before they ended up in the cobble stoned paths of the main square.

They ran around the ally ways and around the towns winery with its fences covered in grape vines, the plants heavy with their purple cargo. They ran about the Party’s Bar that was closed but they gave a wave to Makino who was cleaning inside; the woman wondering why the two D Brothers were running around in the rain, but the younger boy seemed happy so she just smiled and went back to cleaning hoping they didn’t catch cold.

They ran around the fountain in the square a couple of times before Luffy changed his direction and latched onto Ace laughing. The ten year old grinned at his brother who was clinging to him and laughing hard, Ace couldn’t get enough of it and his brother’s good mood was contagious and he found himself laughing just as hard. They stood there; soaking wet from head to toe, their hair plastered to their faces and necks, the mud that was once covering their feet and ankles washed away once they had entered the square. Ace stopped laughing long enough to look at the clouds that were now starting to go away signaling that the storm was to end soon.

“Hey Luffy look!” Ace said pointing to a gray cloud. The seven year old looked up at the cloud his brother was pointing at.

“What?” Luffy asked not getting what his brother was getting act.

“Doesn’t that cloud look like coral?” Ace asked and then pointed at another “That one looks like a fish right?” Ace looked to his brother smiling when he saw the look of wonder in Luffy’s eyes as the little boy pointed to a cloud of his own.

“That one looks like an octopus!” Ace looked up and indeed the cloud looks like an octopus.

“See didn’t I say we were going swimming…we’re looking at the sea right now” Ace said as the rain started letting up. Luffy looked at his brother with a blank look before smiling widely.

“No…an ocean!” Luffy said punching a fist in the air; Ace grinned and ruffled his brother’s soaked black hair.

“Yeah and ocean” Ace said looking back up into the clouds as the rain finally stopped. He let his brother go and ruffled his hair again and turned to the direction of their house. “Come on…we better get home and to a hot bath before we freeze to death”

“Okay…and a snack?” Luffy asked with hope in his eyes; Ace snorted in amusement and then grinned.

“Yeah and a snack” Luffy cheered and latched himself to Ace again.

“Can we do this again next time it rains? I like this kind of swimming!” Luffy asked. Ace laughed holding Luffy close.

“Sure”