Chapter Text
“Why can’t I drink too? I want to be a brother!!” You protested loudly, puffing your cheeks out in frustration. Your three best friends blocked your path, Sabo staunch, Ace teasing, and Luffy confused but following the lead of the older boys.
“You can’t be our brother, stupid! You’re a girl!” Ace said with a snort, poking the air out of your cheeks. You pouted and glared at the three boys.
“Fine, sister, whatever!! Let me drink it with you guys!” You grasped for the sake cup that Ace held tauntingly out of your reach, laughing. You jumped, trying to reach it, and he danced away with a grin at the cute expression of determination on your face. As he was about to relent and let you “steal” the cup from him, Sabo interjected.
“I don’t want to be your brother!”
You both stopped and stared at the blonde, and you felt confusion overriding your irritation. These boys were the only family you had. Or at least, the only family you wanted to have.
“What are you talking about?” you demanded, putting your hands on your hips.
“I SAID, I don’t want to be your brother!” Sabo repeated, looking you straight in the eye. “I don’t want you as a sister!”
The honesty in his face was a bigger blow than the words themselves, and you felt tears collecting at the corners of your eyes. He had been your first real friend, the only one you’d met who didn’t enjoy the chains that came with nobility, the one who had convinced you to run away with him. You two had been partners in crime before meeting Ace, then Luffy. And now here he was, saying he didn’t want you to be his family. Hurt and anger welled within you, and all you knew at that moment was that you were not going to cry like a sissy girl in front of him. Ace and Luffy stared at the other boy, mouths open in shock.
“FINE THEN! I DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR STUPID BROTHERHOOD ANYWAY!” you screamed. Before anyone could react, you spun and sprinted into the forest where you could sob in private.
~~~
“Geez Sabo, what was that about?” Ace asked in uncharacteristic concern, watching your small figure flee.
“Yeah, she’s basically our sister already anyway,” Luffy added with characteristic unconcern, picking his nose. “Even if you don’t want to be her brother, I still do.”
“Because,” Sabo explained, looking down to hide the heat rising in his cheeks, “brothers and sisters can’t get married.”
Luffy, being Luffy, didn’t understand.
“Married? Who cares about that? Ace, let’s go find her.” He looked at the older boy expectantly, but was surprised to see him looking thoughtful instead.
“I don’t want to be her brother either,” Ace said slowly, a tinge of pink gracing his ears. He sent a slightly challenging look at Sabo, who glared back.
“I’m the one who’s gonna marry her!”
“Yeah right, as if she’s gonna want to marry you after you made her cry!”
As they faced each other down, Luffy once again diffused any possible tension by being himself.
“Is marriage really that great?” the rubber boy asked in confusion. “Okay! Then we’ll all marry her!”
“She can’t marry all three of us!” Sabo and Ace snapped in unison, glaring at their idiot counterpart.
“Why not?”
“It’s against the law!”
“But we’re gonna be pirates! Why does the law matter?”
The older boys stared at Luffy, then at each other, dumbfounded. He... had a point. The four of you were practically a family already, after all.
“Then... could we still marry her even if she is our sister?” Ace mused, glancing at the sake still waiting on the tree stump. Sabo frowned, as deep in thought as a ten-year-old could manage.
“I don’t think- “ he was suddenly cut off by a yell of rage.
“YOU LITTLE SHITS! IS THAT MY SAKE?”
It seemed the passage to brotherhood would have to wait for the time being.
~~~~~
After the beating of their lives, the boys returned to find that you had “moved” out of their treehouse back into Dadan’s house. The woman had given them another beating for making you cry, and refused to let them in to see you. So they waited until the next day to ambush you when you went fishing for your lunch, only for you to march past them as if they didn’t exist. Like kicked puppies, Sabo and Ace followed. Luffy, on the other hand, was caught by the scruff of his neck and forced to explain what had happened to a group of bandits who were very angry on behalf of their sweet little hellion. When he explained why they didn’t want you to be their sister, their anger turned into guffaws. Dadan laughed the hardest of all.
~~~~~
“I said I’m sorry!” Sabo asked in desperate tones as you steadfastly set up your fishing line and pretended he didn’t exist. You were still fuming and holding desperately to your anger to avoid the hurt from the night before. Ace hung back, though he too wore an expression of guilt and pleading. There was less anger towards Ace and Luffy, but it still hurt that no one had even bothered to come find you. You had thought the four of you were friends, but as it turned out you were just a girl they let tag along with the real group.
The small voice you had managed to shove away, the voice drilled deep into you by your parents and tutors, came back in full force. Girls and boys were different. A woman’s place was to be graceful and beautiful and to do what she was told. Your wants and desires would always be secondary to marrying a husband of higher status and keeping him happy. You touched your cheek, feeling the ghost of a slap that had been your reward when you had asked to learn how to fight like Sora, the Warrior of the Sea. The slap had come with an angry reminder to remember your place, and that your only worth came from what you could do to improve your family’s status. And it seemed they were right - they didn’t want you to be a part of their family, they just let you tag along out of pity. If you weren’t wanted here, maybe you should go back to your parents. Maybe you really were only good for being a pretty little trophy put on a shelf, gathering dust while other people did things that mattered.
Your downward spiral into misery and self-doubt was interrupted by a high-pitched screech. The three of you all glanced up to see Luffy flying towards you.
“ACE! SABO! DADAN SAYS IT’S JUST BAD TO MARRY A SIBLING IF YOU HAVE THE SAME BLOOD! SO IT’S OKAY IF (YN) IS OUR SISTER!!!”
The grinning rubber cannonball crashed into the three of you with enough force to almost send everyone tumbling into the river. Untangling yourself from the boys, you stared at them, trying to decipher the words that Luffy had been shouting. Ace and Sabo avoided your eyes, faces now beet red.
“Marriage?” you asked, dumbfounded.
“Yeah!” Luffy responded, completely unembarrassed. “Sabo said that brothers and sisters can’t get married, and that’s why you couldn’t be our sister, but then Dadan said it’s fine because we have different parents!”
You just stared at the trio, face flat as you processed what had just happened. This was why they didn’t want you to be their sister? This was why you spent the whole night crying? Why you had considered returning to your miserable old life? Because these morons wanted to marry you? The older boys stared back with embarrassed but hopeful smiles, while Luffy continued to wear his trademark grin.
“You IDIOTS!” you finally screamed, and kicked them all into the river.
~~~~~
“Starting today, we are brothers!”
“And sister!” you added, raising your sake cup in a clink with the other three boys. You took a large gulp and grimaced at the burning sensation as the liquor went down your throat. Luffy choked and spluttered, earning jeers from the older boys. You just laughed, feeling joy in the fact that you finally had a real family, one that you chose for yourself.
Standing up, already swaying a little - maybe there was a reason children weren’t supposed to drink - you cleared your throat for an announcement. The boys looked at you expectantly, no doubt waiting for some sort of speech about friendship or camaraderie.
“I’m glad you’re my brothers,” you began with a grin, and the boys cheered and raised their glasses. “But we’re not getting married.”
“Huh? But -”
“I don’t ever want to get married,” you continued, ignoring Ace’s interjection. “Being a wife means having to do everything your husband tells you! That’s lame! Plus I’m not having kids, you have to do really gross stuff for that! I’m going to be a pirate and do what I want!”
“Shishishi, that makes sense!” Luffy agreed with a laugh, completely oblivious to the confused disappointment on the older brothers’ faces.
“But you can be my lovers!” you finished with a flourish, raising your cup and taking another gulp.
“What’s a lover?” asked Luffy, though he raised his cup anyway.
“They’re people who love each other, duh,” you explained patiently, pitying the young boy for his lack of worldly knowledge. “People who are married spend their lives together because they have to. People who love each other spend their lives together because they want to! And I love you guys!”
The boys all nodded - that made perfect sense. Everyone cheered again, and the night quickly passed in a haze of laughter and sake that children certainly shouldn’t have finished. The four of you marched back in a woozy but merry tangle dragging a passed out Luffy, and Dadan almost didn’t have the heart to scold you for stealing her sake. Well, until you proudly announced that the boys were your lovers.