"So, you're gonna stand there and tell me that I've gotta help you build this thing, but I'm not allowed to live in it?"

Despite our slight moment of understanding in the bath a month prior, Ace still treated me like crap. Not as bad as he had done before Makino's little intervention, but still crap. The boys had unanimously decided that they were going to live on their own, and now I was helping them slave away to build a tree house.

"Well, duh! It's our pirate base! No girls allowed!" He replied, as though it were an obvious answer. Glaring absolute daggers, I dropped the plane of wood I was carrying, pretending it didn't hurt like hell when it landed on my foot.
"Then I'm not helping you."

Dropping down like a spider, using his rubber powers, Luffy pouted.
"No fair! (Y/N) should live here too! She's like a sister!" Hearing Luffy say that made me grin happily. We had become much closer in the past few weeks, so much so that he would even start fights with Ace to defend me. I'd be proud to call him my little brother.

"She ain't no sister of mine, that's for sure!" Ace grumbled, starting to climb back up the large trunk of the tree, hammer in-between his teeth. Leaning over the partially constructed window, Sabo smirked down at him.
"Aw, why not? Cuz you wanna marry her instead? Either way, she'll still end up as mine and Luffy's sister. Just in law instead!"

Choosing to ignore the ridiculous teasing comment Sabo made as he ran screaming from a hammer-armed Ace, I decided to continue helping Luffy lift planks, then put my braiding skills to use to make a ladder.

Two days, it took. Even though each and every time Ace told me I was banned from entering I insisted I wasn't going to help, I still did. For Luffy and Sabo's sake, since they asked so politely. By the time it was complete, dark clouds loomed above, threatening more than just a little rain.

"But Aceeeeee! If we leave her down there she might drown!" Luffy relentlessly pawed at his older brother with one hand, pointing down at me with the other.
"Nah, she's tiny. She'll float." He replied nonchalantly, returning the favour when I flipped him a very passionate bird.

Feeling the first drops of icy rain, I grimaced, knowing there was no way I'd be able to make it back to the Dadan House in time before it began to pour.
"Just let her in, man. It's two against one, and it's starting to get way too cold." Sabo reasoned, and I could see Ace beginning to wear down.

"I'll keep to myself, okay?! At least let me crash here for the night?!" I called up, flinching when a rumble of thunder rolled through the mountains. Sweeping a hand through his hair, Ace's shoulders slumped, motioning his hand for me to climb up.
"Fine! Just for tonight! You can sleep in the corner or something!"

Honestly, I didn't even care in that moment. I just wanted to get inside before getting soaked to the bone. Once I was up, I was wet, but not completely dripping like I would have been if I had taken any longer.

The sky broke open with flashes of lightning, the horizon blurred by torrential rain as it came crashing down. I just hoped our tree house could take it.

"We...didn't catch anything for dinner, did we?" Sabo piped up, causing Luffy to start wailing almost instantly.
"But I'm so hungry! We're gonna die!" He whined, clutching his bottomless pit of a stomach and rolling around across the floorboards.

Sighing, I reached into my pocket, pulling out my snail friend before retrieving the handful of berries I'd picked earlier that day. I only knew they were safe because Magra had taught me which were edible and which were very much not.

"Here, Luffy. It isn't much, but it's something." One moment the berries were in my hand, the next they were already paste in the boy's mouth as he hugged me.
"See?! Best sister! Better than you, Ace! You almost made me go hungry and die!"

Muttering something likely offensive under his breath, Ace began laying out the blankets and pillows they had stolen from Dadan in the middle of the room.
"Not a sister. Hurry up and swallow so we can go to sleep. We can hunt in the morning."

I knew better than to ask for a blanket. There were three, and there was no way he'd let me use one, so I curled myself up in the corner, the baby transponder snail deciding it would much rather make its way up to the top of a crate we had turned into a bench after booping my nose with one of its eyes.

Staring up at it, a new kind of cold washed over me, which had nothing to do with the wind, or the rain residue that still clung to my clothes and skin. This type of cold was a bitter breed of loneliness, and I hated that the one face I thought of was his.

If I was honest, Doflamingo had never hurt me. Not physically, anyway. When I did what I was told, he was always kind and gentle, always trying to gift me with toys and clothes, doting on me almost relentlessly.

However, when I defied him, he terrified me. When he yelled, it felt like the walls shook, and I felt so much smaller, even when I barely reached below his knees. Not once had he struck me. He just scolded me in that angered voice, and punished me using forms of isolation.

I hated that I missed him so much.

He wasn't a father, or anything close to a father figure, and he and I had both always been adamant with that. I was, in his choice of term, his ward. He owned me, mind, body and soul, for almost as long as I could remember. It made sense that I would miss him, despite my fear.

Doesn't it..?

"Oi." Blinking myself out of my thoughts, I looked over to Ace, who was staring at me through the darkness, his face periodically lighting up with each flash of lightning. "You're freezing, right? Get your ass over here before you, I dunno, die or somethin'."

Confused, and rightfully cautious of his sudden act of kindness, I took my time deciding whether or not I should, but once my body truly registered just how cold I was, I caved. Noticing that both Luffy and Sabo had already fallen asleep, I tiptoed over and slotted myself in between Ace and Luffy, having to muffle my squeak when Ace pulled me into his side.

He was warm, and I really didn't like the fact that it felt nice. I especially didn't like that my body seemed to move on its own, seeking that heat he offered with his arm loosely wrapped beneath my neck and over my shoulder.
"This...is just so I don't get sick and die, got it, Pepper?" I mumbled, both of us flinching when Luffy rolled over, throwing an arm over my middle and pushing me in even closer.

"Yep...got it..." Ace replied quietly, a finger tapping against the skin of my arm, in time with his pulse, which I could feel as my head rested on the front of his shoulder. "Your hair's wet." I wasn't sure if I was comfortable or not. There were very few people I was used to being physically close to, and the boy who bullied me day in and day out was not one of them.

"Sorry..." I went to move, but he held me in place, his chin moving against my hair, despite his comment.
"Nah, s'fine. If you don't get warm you really will get sick, and I don't wanna have to look after you." Screwing up my nose, I thought about his words before pinching at a bunch in his shirt.
"But you're looking after me right now?"

I could feel the quiet, exasperated groan rumble through his chest to his throat, but he didn't snip back at me, which was surprising. Sabo shifted on the opposite side, curling into Ace as well, his arm reaching over, hand narrowly missing my face.
"You always stare at that damn snail. Why?"

The question came out of nowhere, and I wasn't sure how to respond at first. I hadn't realised he had been paying attention to me at all, let alone so closely.
"I'm just...not used to anything else, I guess..." Not much of an answer, but I couldn't tell him how I was really feeling.

"You mean besides that Doflamingo guy?" Instinctively, my hand curled tight around the bunch of material I had been toying with, and he of course noticed. "You're dumb as rocks if you're considering going back. You're free here, aren't you? Isn't that better than whatever's back there?"

You don't get it...but...

"I mean, yeah, but...you don't want me hanging around you guys all the time...and I get it, but...I don't really have anything else at the moment...It's you guys...or him..." I whispered, feeling his tapping finger come to a halt. Long silences had seemed to become our thing, as for the next long while all that could be heard above the pounding rain and crashing thunder were Luffy's snores.

"Then I guess...I could think of a place for you on my crew...maybe..." I almost didn't hear him with how quiet he was, but I did, and I had no idea why that made me feel warmer than I should have.
"N..nobody voted you as captain, dummy..." I muttered, feeling it necessary to pick a fight to hide how I was really feeling.

"Oh, I'm captain. I'm the strongest. Doesn't need a vote." It may have just been me, but he sounded almost amused, and I clicked my tongue.
"Tch, Captain Mega Forehead. Super lame." Ace gave me a pinch in response, causing me to muffle my yelp into the crook of his shoulder, and he flinched.

"Sh..shut up and go to sleep, Pancake. You're keeping me up." He growled, but there was no real bite to it.
"Pancake..?" I questioned, my head rocking a bit when he chuckled.
"Yeah, Pancake. Cuz you're as flat as one."

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"Yeah...no, they definitely have a thing for each other..." Sabo mumbled to himself, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he watched the tangle of blankets roll around the room, fists flying and curses shouted whilst the pair fought.

"Big-ass forehead looking pepper face!"

"Pancake chested, runty little bitc-"

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***Ah, young love.

The whole Doflamingo situation is going to be really strange, and possibly controversial. Hang tight.

It is 1am and I wish to perish.

Next Time: Call From Home***