-Dominoes -
A One Piece fanfic by Digitaldreamer
-Prologue-

Okay…sooo…this is my new project while I wait for Constable to feel like writing again. It's actually a challenge my dear friend Kaya gave me.

The challenge was: What if Luffy didn't have his Devil Fruit power? In the fic, Luffy can't have his power. It can be a one-shot, it can be multi-chaptered, I don't care how he loses it and he can get it back at the end if you so choose, but for the duration of the fic he has to be without it.

So, this is me doing the challenge. I basically took two incomplete fic ideas that I already had, and linked them together.

So…you're probably wondering…why is the fic called "Dominos"? Well, reading this prologue should give you a hint, and hopefully things shall become clearer from there.

The pairing shall of course be Zoro/Luffy, and as for the warnings? Um, let's see here...

WARNINGS: Torture that can be seen as mild to graphic depending on your level of endurance for this sort of thing, angst, and a bit of fluff. Yes, this is rated for torture, you shan't find any lemons or rape here m'dears.

Anyway, assuming I haven't driven you away, I hope you enjoy the fic.

Disclaimer: If I owned them, Luffy and Zoro would have made out by now.

---

"ACK! Luffy! You weren't supposed to knock them down yet!" A twelve-year old Ace cried, throwing his hands up in the air as the four tiny dominoes toppled over.

"But it's cool to watch em' get knocked down!" The eight-year old Luffy replied with a laugh, the light from the overhead lamp casting all sorts of shadows around the small room as it swung overhead.

"Yeah, I know! That's why you gotta wait to set them all up first, so it looks cooler when you knock them down!" Ace said pointedly, placing the first domino upright once more.

"But setting them up is boring!" Luffy whined, kicking his feet in the air. His sandaled foot connected with the bottom of the table, jarring the wooden surface and sending the three dominoes Ace had set up toppling.

"LUFFY!" Ace cried, glaring at the younger boy.

Luffy blinked back, clearly oblivious to the fact that he had been the cause of the fallen dominos again. "What?"

"You gotta stop knocking them down!" Ace cried. "We can't make it look all cool if you keep knocking them over!"

The younger boy opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a loud clap of thunder that seemed to shake the entire house. Luffy jumped, eyes widening.

Ace sighed as he watched his younger brother cast a terrified glance towards the window. The brothers normally liked rain, but not a storm like this. That was why he had been trying to get Luffy to focus on the dominoes in the first place, to distract him.

Their parents weren't there to do it anymore. So now it was Ace's job to try.

He stood up and walked around the table, sitting down next to his younger brother on the bench and pulling him close. "Relax, 'Touto-chan. Come on, look at the dominoes, they're fun, remember?"

Luffy swallowed and nodded, glancing back at the table.

"Now look. We put down one domino…that's like how the clouds came in today, remember?" Ace said as he placed down a single domino. "Next we put down another one, which is when the clouds got all dark and scary. Then comes this one, where it started raining. Then it thunders, and it gets louder and louder, and then it gets quieter and quieter…the rain stops, and the clouds go away." Ace finished he put down a tenth domino.

"See? One thing always leads to another, maybe it gets worse and worse as things go, but eventually things start getting better and the whole thing ends." Ace said, flicking the first domino. The entire stack seemed to ripple as one by one the dominoes fell.

Luffy smiled.

"So….a lot of things are kinda like dominoes, then…" He said as he reached out and picked up the dominoes, and began placing them in a rather crooked looking line. "See, here's where I start being a pirate….and here a bunch of cool adventures happen…and at the end I become King of Pirates!" He declared as he placed the last domino and tipped them over.

Ace laughed. "Sure, why not?"

"I wonder what'll be between the beginning and the end…..I guess I'll just have to see." The boy said.

"Yeah…guess you'll just have to see.."

"Yeah…okay, let's knock em' over again!" Luffy cheered, grabbing as many dominoes as he could get his hands on and began to set them up once more.

"Oi! Luffy, you're setting them up all wrong!" Ace cried, the little moment of seriousness already past.

The two brothers played well into the night, storm and serious discussion forgotten.

---

To Be Continued…