Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alabasta is, in Sabo’s opinion, a horrible, sandy, dusty place.

Wonderful people! Some of the kindest Sabo had the pleasure of meeting, if struggling. Hopefully Sabo would be able to help out with that once he finished scouting the place and hunting down the slimy croc who ran the place.

But – where was he?

Ah yes.

Sandy.

Dusty.

Hot.

Horrible.

Sabo shakes his coat, attempting to get rid of the sand seemingly stuck in every single crevice of his clothing. He would have just taken it off entirely, but he had enough burns without having to deal with the scorching sun of Alabasta thank you very much.

He lets out a sigh at the futility of it all, and sits down in the shade of the tall rocks he’s found just outside of the town – what was it called?? Sandshark? Shark? Sand?

Perhaps the heat has gone to his head. He’s vaguely sure that wasn’t in the mission briefing.

He looks into the distance and blinks.

He is also pretty sure that tiny dust clouds weren’t in the mission brief either – but there one is, tiny, scurrying, and growing ever bigger as it aims in a line straight towards Sabo.

He doesn’t move. What is –

Oh.

Purple scales shimmy into view in the desert heat, as the rider atop it is clothed in black cloth, whipping out behind them. Something bright and orange lilts about the rider’s head, though Sabo is sure the eye scorching color is a trick of the light.

A lizard.

A desert lizard, running so fast as to kick up a dust cloud behind him.

Lizards could get that big?

(He shouldn’t be surprised. There were ducks in this country that could do the same thing.)

Suddenly, Sabo is very, very hungry.  He stands up, aiming to get a better look, tilting his top hat up as he does so. Perhaps if he can get a glimpse of the markings on the lizard he could hunt something similar down later.

To his surprise, the rider begins slowing down, slower and slower, till the dust cloud fades and the stranger is only fifteen feet before him.

(There are legends whispered about in desert alleys, Sabo knows, of encounters held out between sand dunes. When man stares back out at himself, and learns the clarity that the madness of the desert sun brings. It happens when you are hot, and tired, and lost.

Sabo is new to being hot and tired. But for as long as he can remember (which isn’t long at all) he has always been lost.)

Sabo cocks his head at the same time as the stranger.

(Odd, that he doesn’t feel a sense of fear.)

The stranger is bare chested, decorated in a flame detailed black coat and white head scarf. A burning bright orange hat lies atop his head, with twin charms and red beads, wrapped around him. Black cargo shorts and combat boots dress his legs, and now Sabo might be in a suit but he’s pretty sure combat boots aren’t good desert attire.

The red beads are familiar.

The man’s freckled face and cool eyes even more so.

“Do I… know you?” He asks the stranger, who only continues to stare at him. Sabo blinks.

The stranger blinks back.

Sabo takes a risk.

“My name is Sab- “

The stranger punches him in the face, this wonderful stranger with fire and freckles and steel eyes like determination and – oh.

He’s not really a stranger at all, isn’t he?

-

Alabasta is a dead end, quite frankly, but it is literally the best dead-end Ace could ever have. His brother was here, he got to set fire to a whole bunch of marine ships, he got to meet Luffy’s friends, he got free food, Luffy was here, and he had a new friend who was very fast and could take him places on land just as fast as Striker could on water.

Did he mention that Luffy had been here? His brother?

Probably.

Thatch always teased him about that.

Had always teased him.

Ace shakes his head, getting rid of the thoughts of what he had lost. Eyes on the horizon, right? Not on the past

Eyes on the –

There’s a figure in the distance, glimmering over the red horizon. A familiar one, if he had ever gotten the chance to grow that tall. Top hatted with a pipe held easily in hand, dressed in shades of blue and black. Ace blinks, slowly, wondering if the desert is playing tricks on him.

(When he had told Deuce over the Den Den Mushi that he was going to Alabasta, Deuce had told him to be careful. He was immune to heat, but only so much so. And often, the desert didn’t care about your devil fruit. Only your wits.

Ace hadn’t expected to see this mirage again. He wasn’t young and grieving in a forest too big for his small hands anymore. He was older now. More understanding now.

He shouldn’t be seeing this.)

Ace digs his heel into Drumstick’s side, urging the lizard to slow down. Slowly he does, and the figure comes closer and closer.

He stares down at the figure once Drumstick slows to a complete stop. The man before him has bright blond hair and pale skin, prim and proper clothes even in the midst of the desert – and that stupid fucking cravat, didn’t he know what the desert was like? That isn’t proper attire. He cocks his head to the side, same as Ace, top hat shadowing his eyes and the long burn scars running down the side of his body.

(His brother had been taken by fire. Fire, always taking, always, always, always.)

“Do I know you?” The stranger with his brother’s face asks, so familiar even if he’s taller and his hair is longer.

Ace blinks, slow and half-dreaming.

He’s gone mad, hasn’t he? He feels like he can’t move at all

Then -

“My name is Sab- “

Ace finds himself flying off of Drumstick’s back with a punch in the same, familiar pattern he used ten years ago, when he had two brothers instead of one. It hits with a satisfying SMACK! And the person with his brother’s face is sent sprawling into the sand.

Except –

The person with his brother’s face is laughing exactly like his brother did when something too good to be true happened, with a snort and giggle that he always tries to claim as manly. He’s lifting his top hat just like Sabo did, smiling just like Sabo did, and he takes the hit just like Sabo did, with practice ease and a hand always ready to grab a pipe.

He’s-

“Sabo?” Ace chokes out, fist still raised, not daring to believe it.

The stranger looks up and says, voice just as choked but infinitely more hopeful, more happy, more Sabo, “Ace!”

That’s his brother. His voice is deeper now, but Ace swore an oath, long ago, binding him to two boys he loved more than anything else in the world, and he would never forget how his name sounded from his brother’s lips.

He never thought he’d hear it again.

Ace breaks into a smile, tears forming in his eyes, and it’s hardly another second before he’s tackling Sabo back to the ground in a joyful, joyful hug because his brother is alive!

“SABO!”

Sabo goes down and Ace with him, and nothing has ever been better than this.

-

Sabo thinks he must have finally succumbed to the desert’s madness because he can remember now. He remembers Ace, the way they found each other in a trash pit, remembers his parents and the fear of them he never quite forgot, remembers a tree house, a flag and a dream – he remembers his promise.

He remembers his brothers.

Ace. Luffy. I’m back! He thinks, quietly, hands clinging tight to Ace’s back as he clings back in turn, both of their eyes wet and sobbing on each other’s shoulders. I’ll never leave again, he promises, quiet and happy.

He might be mad right now. Insane. Remembering everything with just one punch? It seems impossible. Then again – this is the Grand Line.

Anything goes, after all.

Why should a brother be any different?

He buries his face into Ace’s shoulder, clinging tight as the memories wash over him, and doesn’t even care as all that leaves his lips is you’re back you’re back you’re back Ace Ace Ace.

But, the desert is the worst possible place imaginable and the hug gets uncomfortably hot uncomfortably fast, because Ace has always been the equivalent of a human furnace (he remembers that now!) so they have to let go.

They pull apart, slowly, just… staring at each other. Ace’s face is older now, with a strong jaw, and slanted nose. His smile is lopsided and his freckles must have grown in number. He seems at ease with himself in a way he hadn’t when they were young – Luffy’s doing, no doubt. Sabo just happy he has a chance to see him be happy.

(The memories come back slow, but sure. The frown in Ace’s face, the way he held himself, sharp and weary – it isn’t quite there anymore. Sabo is thankful. He’s so glad his brother is content.)

Ace’s eyes trace the scar over Sabo’s face, the length of his hair and the pipe still strapped to his back, before settling down himself. “Where… where did you go?”

He sounds earnest.

Ace used to always angry at first. Sabo wonders what else has changed.

Sabo shrugs, leaning back to stare at the ever-bluer desert sky. “After… well I’m not quite sure how It happened but Dragon – of the Revolutionaries? He saved me from whatever gave me – “He gestures to his face. “This.”

Ace nods, opening his mouth as he sits with his arms over his legs, but seemingly deciding against speaking. Sabo presses on.

“After that I just… forgot everything. I didn’t know who I was or where I came from. Just… where ever it was, I didn’t want to go back, no matter what. So, Dragon let me join the Revolutionaries and well – here I am! Twenty and already chief of staff.”

Ace snorts. “You always were an over achiever.”

“Ha!” Sabo barks back. “Says you, Mr. I never run from a fight?”

In response, Ace blushes and throws a fistful of sand into Sabo’s face and oh –

It is on.

Sabo doesn’t hesitate, and tackles Ace to the ground in a flurry of limbs and sand and clothes. His fingers dig into Ace’s cheeks as Ace elbows his gut and kicks at his shins, and its undignified, stupid, childish but –

It’s been so long since Sabo could brawl like this. He’s so goddamned happy.

And owowow – What the fuck Ace when did your nails get so sharp. Sabo retaliates with his own claws, Ace’s skin heating up under hand but Sabo never wavering. He curls his legs and shoves, Ace flying off only to bury Sabo in a wave of sand.

Ace is laughing as Sabo springs out of the sand spitting grainy bits out of his mouth. “Oh, fuck off!” He tells him, not even serious.

Ace smiles even bigger. “A draw?”

Sabo gives him a soft smile, reaching a hand to accept Ace’s hand up. “First match out of a hundred.” Then he uses the leverage to tip Ace over, back into the sand. “And that’s the second – one zero, me.”

Ace just stares up at him, all adoring and –

Oh.

It’s been ten years since their last match.

(And Sabo doubts that Luffy has been even to keep up.)

Well. Sabo’s just glad their first was a draw – always nice to see that they still kept up with each other, still were equal after all of these years.

It’s just like old times, really.

(Old times. Sabo’s never had those before – always has been young and stupid and forgetful, never having something to call his own, to be nostalgic about. He has those now – a nostalgic warmth that fills his heart and brightens his eyes, makes his soul sing with happiness. He has brothers now.

He never stopped having them.)

“Sap,” Sabo tells Ace with a smile, and Ace laughs back, chucking Sabo off of him and rolling to his feet.

“Missed you,” Ace tells him, still happy, still vibrant, his eyes incredibly soft. Sabo wonders who else he’s looked at like that, and knows, quietly, that its him and Luffy that Ace belongs to. Brothers, bound by drinks and dreams that used to be too big for their little bodies.

“Missed you too,” Sabo says, and grabs Ace’s waiting hand to pull himself up and then pull Ace into a hug. “I’m not leaving again. I promise.”

Ace barks out a short, wet laugh, and buries his face into Sabo’s shoulder, hands clinging to his back. “Like I would let you, you ass.”

Sabo squeezes him tighter as Ace does in turn, then it’s only a moment before Ace is pulling away with a smirk. “Though – I still need to pay you back for fucking ditching me and Luffy for 10 years.”

“I had amnesia!”

“Still!” And Ace flips Sabo onto the ground in a smooth motion, and blasts himself onto his lizard’s back with ease. “Race ya to town!”

Sabo, dazed and on the ground, can only laugh as Ace takes off in a blaze of dust. It’s just like Ace… never running away, only toward adventure.

Sabo can’t wait to follow him again.

-

There’s wind against his face, and a brother behind them. The sand is rough against his body and the sun is hotter than Ace has ever felt it. Still – Ace can almost pretend he’s back home, with little boy dreams and an endless horizon stretching out before him.

Jumping off of Drumstick’s back to dance along market streets to the screams of the people, Ace is almost sure this is Goa again.

It’s been awhile since he caused chaos like this.

(The Whitebeard pirates supposedly had an image to maintain. Bah. Ace was free.)

“Sorry! Terribly sorry!” he shouts as he goes along, weaving in and out of the crowds and snatching food from people’s hands. “Thank you for the meal! Thank you! Please excuse my brother, yes, thank you!” Carts topple over behind him, rageful shouts following as Ace causes unstoppable chaos in the area. In the corner of his eye, Sabo launches himself at Ace, Ace only narrowly dodging. Sabo’s fist creates a crater in the building, as Ace laughs himself away.

Flames kick up in his wake that Sabo shows no fear charging over. Animals start panicking – oops! – and soon the market place is a mess. Still, Ace runs freely, grin on his face and good in his mouth.

Sabo disappears as he turns a sharp corner, and immediately Ace stops. In a smooth motion, he ruffles the hair of two staring children and leaps up to the rooftops, out of the way of the crowds and into open areas to roam.  The little children scream in delight behind him, and Ace can’t help but give another laugh.

He slows down, gnawing on the bone of some desert beast he had grabbed from some stand. Sabo had liked to do this – seemingly drop behind before appearing out of nowhere with a striking take down. He had liked to come from an angle –

Wait.

Ace doesn’t have to say had anymore. Sabo’s alive! His brother is back.

Ace doesn’t even fight the smile stretching across his face.

Focus Ace! Sabo likes to come from an angle which means –

Ace stumbles back, just as Sabo launches up from the alley way, blow hanging in the air.

“Ha!” Sabo says, “I win!”

Ace snorts and pulls down Sabo’s hat. “Yeah right. There’s no way you beat Drumstick.”

Sabo quiets for a moment. “You named your lizard Drumstick?”

Ace shrugs. “He looks delicious?” Across from him, Sabo does that thing where his eyes go just a bit blank, and it’s clear he’s regretting the fact that he had the same exact thought as Ace. Ha! He knew it.

Sabo’s grown older, wiser, stronger – but he’s still Ace’s brother.

Which means –

“I’m hungry.” Sabo says, the same time Ace’s stomach gives a growl.

“I know just the place,” Ace grins, and steps off the side of the building to give another chase.

-

The chef groans when he sees him again. Which, you know, is a bit unfair. It isn’t Ace who put the hole through the wall! It was Luffy and that marine dude! The good thing is the chef doesn’t make Ace pay for anything, and starts serving them immediately. Fun guy.

(It miiiight have something to do with the bounty poster hanging in the corner with his face on it, and the tattoo on his back. Or, it might be Ace’s winning personality and profuse apologies and politeness. You never know.)

Ace and Sabo start digging in immediately, shoveling meat and delicacies in their faces at an alarming rate. Hell. It’s been, what – three years since Ace did this, truly did this? He had been polite with Luffy’s friends because he was no animal (and the adoring look on their faces had been too good to pass up), and before that he had only battled with Luffy for food. And Luffy knew not to steal his food by now. Ace had taught him that painstakingly over ten years.

Sabo? Sabo fought, relishing in the fight the same way Ace did, shoving bones far down Ace’s throat to get a few seconds grab at Ace’s plate. Ace wasn’t any better, but the smile on his face was just as bright.

“So,” Sabo begins, wiping his mouth with a napkin if he hadn’t just been shoveling down food like a madman (Ace is doing the same but shhhh.) “What have you been up to? Fire Fist huh?”

“Yep!” Ace says proudly, shucking off his coat to show Sabo the tattoo that he wears proudly. “Joined up about two – yeah that’s right two years ago.” Ace raises a hand, and suddenly there is a glass of water before him – meager, but it’s all the bartender can afford to sell. “After… After you died, well, me and Luffy made a pact.”

Sabo goes still. Ace pretends not to notice.

“We’d live without regrets – and we’d set sail on our seventeenth birthdays, ready to take the world by storm.” He grins into his glass as he says it, remembering Luffy’s bright look as Ace sailed off, and the way the sun had glinted on the water. That day – it had felt like freedom.

Watch me Luffy! He had shouted to Goa, and Watch me Sabo! He had shouted to the seas.

“I started a crew of my own – the Spades Pirates?”

Sabo snorts. “I heard about you, I think.”

“Oh?”

Sabo hums, toying with the edge of his gloves. “Revolutionary, remember? We keep track of the government, and who the government’s interested in. When you got the offer to be a warlord – heh, it was all we talked about. I bet you would turn it down. Never could place why. Now I know.” The smile on his face is soft.

A warmth blooms in Ace’s chest, fluttering and happy. Even with amnesia, his brother knew him.

(He never had any doubt.)

“So, I guess you know the stories then? How I raced across the sea, all the way to the New World, before I decided to be an idiot and challenge Whitebeard?”

“I wouldn’t phrase it – no I would.  Yeah. I heard.” Sabo teases.

“Well – I thought I could take him. But I had been fighting for five days straight with Jimbe, and well – Pops is the one I want to make Pirate King. He’s the strongest man in the world. I stood no chance.”

“Not Luffy?”

“You think Luffy wants our help becoming Pirate King?”

Sabo gives a laugh, throwing his head back and smiling bright. “Ha! You’re right.”

Ace gives an answering grin before returning bac k to the story. “I tried to kill him for 100 days straight. Tried everything – fire, swords, axes, sneak attacks – none of it worked. The entire time, the crew just… accepted it. They called Pops Pops, called each other family, and I just couldn’t get it. You know the first thing Pop ever said to me?”

There’s disbelief bleeding into his tone. Even now, Ace can’t believe it. Still can’t believe it.

“Sail the seas under my name! Become my son!”

Sabo snorts immediately.

“Yeah – I reacted the same way. But… they were family with each other. And now… I’m their family too.” Sabo’s eyes are wide as he looks at him, with hidden softness. It makes Ace grin.

“And now you’re second division commander?”

“Yep! Beat that, Chief of Staff.”

“So, what are you doing way out here?”

(Blood in the night. A brother gone forever. The sorrow in Pop’s eyes. The rage.)

“A bastard in my division killed one of our commanders. I’m tracking him down.”  He says, shortly, shoving down anything like rage that tries to come up from his gut.

“I’ll help.” Sabo’s answer is quick. Sudden. Expected, in the way Ace had forgotten to expect. “I got the resources, and I can track people better than you ever could. Hell, I’m tracking a warlord right now so – “

Warlord… warlord. Why is that sending up so many alarm bells in Ace’s head. Warlord...

Oh.

Shit.

“LUFFY!”

-

His brother has a father now. His brother, who he thought would die before he even agreed to have a father figure has a father now. And he’s happy about it.

Sabo has never felt more at peace.

(It’s hard, connecting the stories of Fire Fist Ace to the boy Sabo used to know, connecting him to his brother, connecting the fact that he’s followed his brother’s career without knowing he’s his brother.

It’s hard. But Sabo is learning to do it all over again.)

Then –

“LUFFY!” Ace says, panicking, eyes wide. He grabs on to Sabo and shakes him. “Fuck! Luffy’s here!!”

“He’s what!”

“He’s here!”

Luffy – Sabo hadn’t even thought of where he would be, but he’s 17 now, isn’t he? And that means – according to Ace – he set sail.

God.

Sabo hadn’t even heard of him – he’s been stuck shadowing Dragon and dealing with Warlords and –

Wait.

Loguetown.

Oh my god he saw Luffy and didn’t even realize and Luffy was going to be executed and he didn’t even realize and he was just going to let his baby brother DIE to a CLOWN–

While Sabo is panicking, Ace keeps talking.

“He’s here! Oh my god, he’s going to lose his shit when he sees you!” His hands start flapping, nearly dragging Sabo up by his lapels. “We have to go see him – “

Sabo snaps out of it with a hard shake. “Wait – Ace! Ace Luffy’s here?”

Information runs through his head under the now constant thought of holy fuck my brother almost got executed by a clown.

Alabasta is a red zone right now. A civil war is brewing and Crocodile has it all under his thumb. They don’t have the resources to save it – not with the finger Crocodile has on the nation’s pulse. Sabo’s job was to grab information about the war lord and get out.  This was a man who had reportedly been on a crew that rivaled the Pirate King. He was dangerous.

“Yeah!” Ace smiles. “He was chasing after Crocodile for a princess? The princess was nice though. And a bounty hunter.”

Sabo’s brain is going to short circuit. He’s sure. He’s absolutely sure.

“He’s what.”

Ace gives him a look. “Helping a friend? The princess?”

“I- “

“He’s gotten stronger.” Ace shrugs, and suddenly, Sabo is ten again and watching Ace tease Luffy for being weak, and refusing to be proud of his little baby brother. “We all have. He’ll be fine.”

He’ll be fine. Ace’s smile is easy going, his shoulders relaxed, his face bright as he leans against the bar. There’s faith in those eyes.

“Yeah. He’ll be fine.” Sabo forces his body to lose his tension. These are his brothers. Of course, they’re strong.

There’s a glint in Ace’s eye as he circles back from reassuring Sabo. “You’ll see! He’s going to freak when he sees you – oh fuck.”

Oh hell, what now, Sabo spares a moment to think.

“He’s going to punch Crocodile! Then he’s going to leave.”

Sabo raises an eyebrow.

“We’re going to miss him and he doesn’t even know that you’re alive!”

That gets the panic going back in Sabo’s veins, and suddenly he’s surging up panicked.

Luffy, his baby brother, who he just learned he has – he’s going to be gone?

“Do you know where he went?”  Sabo asks, shoving the last of his meal in his mouth.

Ace shrugs. “Towards Yuba I think? They wanted to meet up with the rebels there.”

“Shit – Crocodile’s been targeting that place. The Rebel Army moved weeks ago.”

Ace looks at him, eyes wide open. “Then we better go catch up before it’s too late.”

All it takes is a second for Ace to shove the rest of the meal down his throat, a second for him to grab Sabo’s wrist, and a third for them to dash out the door, sparks in their wakes and chaos spreading on the streets.

We’re coming Luffy! Sabo thinks happily as he and Ace kick up dust as they sprint through the city. We’re coming!

(“Huh,” Sabo mentions as they leave, sunset before them, Sabo clinging tight to Ace as he steers Drumstick, “I think I’m forgetting something.”

He can’t see Ace’s face but he can feel the eyebrow raise. “Is it me or Luffy?”

“No.”

“Then you’re good.”

“If you say so!”

Behind, in the city, an auburn-haired girl stares at the mess the whole place is in.

“Excuse me, mister?” She asks sweetly, asks dangerously, “Can you tell me who caused this?”

The vender gulps in fear.)

-

Okay.

Ace is… starting to get why Sabo grumbled so much about the desert on their way over here.

Starting to- not all the way! Just… getting very, very tired of sand in his boots.

They had traveled all night, racing through the cool desert air, banking on Sabo’s maps and Ace’s knowledge of the stars to get them to a way point.

(“I thought I was supposed to be the navigator.”

“I had to learn a few things after you died.”

“Oh.”)

There, they had slept in a dusty cave during the day, slouched together so they could both be in the shade. Ace is vaguely sure he might have gotten a sunburn. He’s still not sure how it happened.

(Sabo, not dressed for the desert, definitely got one. The back of his neck, exposed to the sun as he slouched on Ace’s shoulder, looked like a Lobster. Ace told him as such, and got more sand shoved down his back.)

Then – another journey through the night, to Yuba, where Ace falls into a massive whole, gets sand everywhere to Sabo’s laughter and learns –

“He’s WHAT!”

“He’s not here!” The old man says, sorry but with an odd cheerfulness to his tone. “He and Princess Vivi left for Nanohana last night. They should be there by tomorrow morning – that’s where the Rebel Army is.”

The old man grins again, then goes back to digging in the hole. Sabo and Ace trade a look before bending down to help, scraping more out so that the old man can have some help.

“And you’re sure he went there?” Sabo pushes, and Ace can see him running calculations in his head.

“Positive,” The old man confirms, and gives a delighted sound at the water that trickles up from the dirt. “You’ll find him there – though the sun is supposed to rise any minute now… and you boys won’t make it through the desert.”

“We can stand a little more heat to catch up.” Sabo says, traitorous hand rising to hover above his sunburn.

The old man shakes his head. “It’s more than heat. It’s… It’s Crocodile himself and these desert storms. He sends them out, though people just chalk it up to the lack of rain. Sandstorms whirling about the sea of sand, destroying everything in its path… even my beloved home.”

There’s something sad in the old man’s eyes. It makes Ace’s heart clench. It’s the same look Marco and Izo have when Ace mentions Wano, the same look Blenheim has as he runs his hands over Moby’s broken planks, the same look Deuce gets when he looks at medical tomes and great novels. It’s a look of regret. A look of accepted regret.

But then something changes.

“That boy – your brother, you say? – if you wait for him to bring the rain back, to defeat Crocodile… I’m sure you’ll be able to get through the desert with ease.”

It’s – well.

Ace remembers himself changing after Luffy charged in, full of hope and dreams, and confidence.

This look doesn’t make him hurt. It makes him smile.

“Of course, old man! Luffy’s going to kick Crocodile’s ass.” Ace tells him, proud of his little brother. Sabo shifts uneasily by his side, but that’s fine. He hasn’t met Luffy again yet. No one meets Luffy and walks away without faith in him. No one!

(Except maybe the people Luffy leaves in the dirt, but that’s fine. They don’t matter much anyway.)

“But we want to meet up with Luffy as soon as possible.” Ace continues. “So, we should probably get going.”

“At least stay the day?” The old man pleads, mustache thin and face haggard. It’s still welcoming. “The sun’s about to rise, and this way you’ll move faster.”

Ace and Sabo trade glances again. An eyebrow raise, a tilt of the head, a faint smile because it’s so good to be able to have the wordless communication again, and Ace is turning back to the old man. “I guess we can stay till tomorrow.”

-

They stay till tomorrow, Ace and Sabo helping the old man dig when they aren’t napping, and even going out to grab him some food which Ace so helpfully cooks.

The fire is bright.

(But – It’s Ace’s fire, and Sabo has spent a long time getting used to the way his eye widens at fire and his hands start shaking. Now that he knows this fear is not all he ever knew, he’s become better. Steady.

This fire is safe.

His hands don’t shake.)

Sabo finds himself gazing into it, letting the heat wash over him as the desert sun sets. It’s… peaceful, in a way.

Or maybe it’s just the way his world is recentering itself, finally finding its axis along his brothers and no one else. His brothers, the reason he had the determination to chase freedom. His brothers, who accepted him. His brother’s, who loved him, love him still, even as he can’t quite remember everything about them.

(Ace’s favorite color, the way he likes his food, the true strength of Luffy’s smile, his dream, what was Luffy’s dream, what made him laugh -)

He knows who he’s fighting for now. He knows why he wants to live now.

There are unanswered questions now, still. Sabo’s hand traces up to his cheek, his burns, hands tracing over the left side of his body, along scars trailing underclothes.

The old man has gone inside.

“Ace?” Sabo calls, hesitant.

“Mm?” Ace answers, from where he’s putting some last-minute supplies on Drumstick's back, meager as they are.

“How did I die?”

Ace freezes.

Sabo watches him closely, the way his arms lock up and his throat attempts to swallow. His eyes rise up to meet the horizon and back down again, the same way he looked when he talked about his dad.

“… You don’t remember?” Comes Ace’s soft reply.

“Dragon pulled me out of the water. People pieced some stuff together but we could never… never quite figure out why I was there in the first place, and why I was burning.”

Ace is quiet. Very, very quiet. His hands drop from the saddle and he turns to Sabo, something tragic in his eyes. “You… I’ll…”

He trembles.

Sabo opens his mouth.

Ace cuts him off. “Can I tell you another time? I – when you died, it…”

Sabo remembers death. Not his own, but of revolutionaries who got caught on missions, revolutionaries who raised him but didn’t return home at the end of the day.

Those times were hard.

(And Ace – back then, Ace had Luffy and Sabo, and no one else. And before Luffy, all Ace had was Sabo.)

“Yeah.” Sabo answers. “It’s alright. I can wait.” He forces a smile to his lips that becomes real as he looks at Ace, his brother. “What’s some more time, huh? We got all the time left in the world now.”

Ace’s own returning smile is blinding.

“Yeah!”

Sabo’s hands leave his scars, and he’s centered again, centered on his brothers, ready to hunt down the last one so finally – finally they can be three instead of two (instead of one) again.

-

They reach Rainbase.

Luffy isn’t there.

Marines are.

Sabo forces Ace to hide his hat and drags him through the city, searching for information. Sabo can’t get caught here, not if the Marines are here, not if information will spread about revolutionaries getting involved in Warlord business – and that means Ace can’t get caught.

Because Ace doesn’t understand what undercover means.

(Sabo… pretends to. He’s not that good at it but he tries!)

Miraculously, despite Ace and Sabo getting into a brawl half way through the town, no Marine spots them. They do eavesdrop on what seems to be the commander, however.

Sabo stands on Ace’s shoulders as they try to get closer to the back-alley window.

“…. Any word on Captain Smoker?”

“No sir!”

Ace shifts under him and Sabo gives him a tiny stomp on the shoulder.

“We do have word on the Straw Hats, however sir. Lieutenant Tashigi is following a trail towards Aluburna!”

“The Palace?”

“Sir Crocodile should be there to hold them off!”

“Idiot! Crocodile is our enemy now! Smoker confirmed it!”

There’s shouting, but Ace and Sabo don’t hear it as Sabo accidentally kicks Ace in the face trying to readjust, and Ace retaliates by slamming him on the ground.

“You know,” Sabo says, dazed from the ground as Ace extends a hand to help him up. “I think we’ve gotten more violent.”

Ace snorts. “Nah. Just older. And we aren’t sparring, so we have to make do. That’s 10-9 me now, by the way.”

Sabo gives a quick laugh – “You sure about those numbers?” before there’s shouting from the streets.

The Marines must have heard their crash.

Oops.

“Aluburna?” He asks Ace.

“Aluburna.” Ace nods, and off they go, silently tipping over carts and starting distractions and maybe – just maybe, not definitely, and not quite silently – throwing rotten tomatoes at pristine white uniforms.

Just maybe.

(Okay, no, it was a definite, and Ace gave Sabo the biggest high-five for his toss.)

-

Drumstick is missing.

They still have their maps and supplies, but Drumstick is missing.

“DRUMSTICK?” Ace calls, half frantic from the half collapsed, sandy building he found. “DRUMSTICK? WHERE ARE YOU?”

Sabo stares up, wishing for a shower, wishing for the sand to be gone, and wonders what his life is coming to.

“ACE!” Sabo shouts from below. “I DON’T THINK WE’RE GOING TO FIND HIM!”

“BULLSHIT!” Ace calls back, but he’s sliding down the side of the building, smooth and secure. “He was here when we went to sleep!”

Sabo shrugs. “Well he’s not here now! We have to go. With him gone, we might not make it to the next outcrop before dark.”

Ace takes one more lonesome look at the place where Drumstick was sleeping just that morning, and turns to Sabo, shoulders slouched and depressed. He gives a lone sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. We need to get to Luffy.”

He slings his bag over his shoulder and starts walking, Sabo following close beside him. Sabo gives him a friendly bump to the side. “He’ll turn up,” He reassures his brother.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

-

Drumstick does not turn up. Sabo is a dirty, dirty liar. Ace almost forgot that part about him, in the long years they have been apart.

(Almost. He’s forgotten other things, like the way Sabo smiled so wide when he looked at the sky, and the exact shade of his eyes but – he’d thought he had forever to memorize them.

He didn’t.)

He lied about having enough to eat when Luffy was still hungry, lied about wanting to go back to his fucking bastard family when his real family was his brothers, and now he lied about Drumstick.

And they are in the middle of the desert, sun about to rise, and they don’t have a lizard.

Drumstick was so cool.

Now he’s nowhere to be found.

Ace gives a heavy sigh, and picks up the pace to keep up with Sabo, who’s moving steadily and lying about not being tired, the idiot.

Ace looks up to the sky, then back down to the map in Sabo’s hand. “Are we still moving in the right direction?”

Sabo looks down. “We… should be. Maybe. The map was a bit off last stop, probably from the lack of rain and the sandstorms so I can’t quite tell for sure but – we should reach the outcrop in an hour.”

Ace glances at the horizon and gives Sabo a look. “We don’t have an hour.”

“We don’t have a choice, Ace.”

He gives another sigh, and agrees. They trudge onward, slowly, slowly until –

“Ace.” Sabo says, carefully. He sounds just like he used to when they were on hunts and spotted tigers. When you had to be very still least the giant beasts gnaw into you. “What is that.”

Ace looks up – and is met with his very first sandstorm.

It’s a howling thing, moving closer, closer, closer faster than Ace can comprehend, and it’s a second before Ace is tackling Sabo to the ground.

(He lost his brother once. Not again. Never again.)

Sabo screeches something near his ear as he collides with the sand, but Ace is too busy trying to protect him with his body, tucking his face inn so that the sand doesn’t whip at it, feeling sand tear at his clothes, his boots, his skin until –

Peace.

It’s over. The storm is over, just as quickly as it came, dust settling. Ace spits globs of sand out of his mouth and rolls over onto his side to stare up at the sky.

He really wishes Drumstick were here. Then he could have run far, far away from the dumb sandstorm.

“Crocodile’s doing?” Ace says hoarsely, and doesn’t wait for Sabo to respond. “Luffy better hurry the fuck up and beat his ass, or I’m doing it for him.”

Sabo just groans, laying spread eagle on the ground just like Ace.

Ace continues groaning, swiping sand off of his hat even though it’s a futile effort. “I hate sand.”

He will always thank Alabasta for bringing him both his brothers – but the sand?

Fuck that.

He really wishes this – the sandstorm, the sand, the long treks – were a mirage. He could use the ocean right now.

Sabo still hasn’t said a word. Ace turns his head over to the side. “Sabo?”

Sabo is just staring – up, up, up into the brightening sky.

Ace says his name again, becoming a tad more worried. “Sabo?”

“I lost the map.”

Ace pauses.

“You… what?”

“I lost the fucking map.” Sabo raises his hands up to the sky. “I had it in my hands and then – bam! The sandman took it away.” He brings his hands back down to the dirt with a collapsing sigh. “We’re lost.”

Ace stares wide eyes open at him, before turning to lay more comfortably on his back. “Lost.” He repeats.

“Lost.” Sabo confirms.

Well, Fuck.

-

They lay like that for another five minutes or so, before deciding that the sand is really hot even for a man made of fire, and they should probably attempt to find the outcropping huh?

So, they trek.

And trek.

And trek.

By the end of it – how long, Ace isn’t sure – Ace thinks his callouses have callouses and his blisters have blisters.

But – by some miracle – there’s an outcropping before them. Sabo and Ace dash towards it before colliding into the shade, knocking into each other and then back on the ground except –

There is no shade.

“A mirage?” Sabo moans, hand dragging over his face.

“This sucks.” Ace says. It isn’t even like when he was stranded with Deuce – there, at least, he could see the sea and had fish to eat.

“Yeah.” Sabo says, grudgingly. “We should be able to navigate by the stars though. Hopefully. Maybe.”

Ace snorts. “We can try.

Sabo doesn’t answer his derisive train of thought, and Ace is left to think to himself.

It’s… well. Mirages.

(They can trick people, if you’re not careful. Ace is just glad he’s sure Sabo isn’t a mirage.

He doesn’t think he could take it if Sabo disappeared again.)

He wants water. And food. And shade. And Luffy, and cups of sake, and a nap.

(It’s a miracle he hasn’t fallen asleep since the bar.)

The sun beats down hot, and Ace doesn’t want to move. Thinks he can stand the little bit of daylight that’s left as long as he can rest here, next to his brother. It’s quiet. A still kind of quiet.

A dangerous kind of quiet.

Ace opens his mouth to speak.

“Do you remember your parents?”

Sabo gives a noncommittal hum. “Only a little. Bits and pieces. When I woke up the first time, all I knew is that I didn’t want to go back to them. I knew they were noble – Dragon was able to piece that together by the clothes I wore.”

“Mm. They were dicks.”

“Wow.”

“You’re only a little bit of a dick though, so it’s okay.”

Sabo gives a yawn, throwing his arm over his face to shield himself from the desert heat. “Thanks.”

“They’re the reason you left.”

Sabo’s already quiet. But he does still.

Ace keeps talking. “You made a deal with them to keep us safe, and then me and Luffy ended up in the Grey Terminal fire because of my own stupidity.” Self-resentment slips into his voice there. “We got separated, and when I finally got back to Luffy at Dadan’s hut – Dogra had news.” His voice chokes up, and not because of the sand. He blinks back his tears, precious liquids, and does not look at his brother.

He’d start crying for real then.

“There was a Celestial Dragon coming – why the Terminal Burnt was down. And, when the Celestial Dragon sailed in… you were there. You – you got shot down. Because you were in their way.”

Sabo makes a strangled sort of noise, but Ace can’t focus on anything but the blinding grief inside his chest, a grief, an anger that hasn’t abated even as his brother returned home.

“I couldn’t believe it at first. They tied me to a tree to keep me from lashing out. And Luffy he just – he wouldn’t stop crying. He didn’t eat, hardly slept, and I didn’t even notice because I was too wrapped up in my own head. I cried.”

It seems futile to mention that, here in the desert, where there’s no water. It seems futile to mention it when he’s fighting back tears.

But it’s true.

Ace sobbed on that cliffside, letter in hand, grief spilling out of his chest and into the open air, grief sinking deep in him and flooding out in heart-wrenching agony.

Losing Sabo – it hurt. Like a knife to the chest that burned.

His hands dig into the sand as he remembers digging his hands into Luffy’s back in crushing hugs, never wanting to lose another brother again.

(He doesn’t think he could take it.)

Sabo makes a low mournful noise in the back of his throat, caught somewhere between comforting and needed to be comforted. To have a name for your killer after all these years?

Ace reaches out a hand as Sabo sinks.

He clasps back, gripping tight, grounding himself in Ace.

Underneath the desert sun, lost but not alone, Ace is content to let it happen.

-

They get up eventually. Their faces are dry, and the sun is hot, but they tread forwards, hoping for this to be the right direction. It’s quiet.

Sabo is doing that thing he always does when he’s thinking about something he doesn’t want to think about, tugging on his sleeves and fidgeting with his pipe. He’s biting his lip, only barely, but it’s enough to make his face crease.

Ace wishes he could help.

(But he hasn’t – he hasn’t told Sabo about the letter, or the hallucinations, or the way he and Luffy swam out and grabbed his flag from the waters. He hasn’t told Sabo about the way he almost got Luffy killed and the way he was a shitty big brother until Sabo fucking went and died.)

He can’t.

(The guilt presses on.)

Instead, they walk side by side, shoulders and hands occasionally brushing, too hot for anymore contact than that.

The heat presses on.

And on.

And on.

Till there is an outcrop, lost and familiar, and they have shade.

They collapse there, squeezing in tight to the tiny space, and Ace barely has a moment to think about how familiar it all is (like sleeping inn a tree house, alone in the woods, just him and his brothers) before he falls asleep, sudden and fast.

-

Ace wakes to Sabo rummaging through his bag.

“Bastard,” Ace sleepily swipes at him, lighting his other hand so he can see his brother better in the dark. “That’s – “He yawns. “- My stuff.”

Sabo bats away his hand and keeps on rummaging. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Just wanted to get a snack – Don’t make that face at me I know you have them!”

Ace continues making ‘the face’ at Sabo, a sleepy, betrayed glare. “They’re for me!”

“Yeah, and I just got a memory that says that anything you have is mine.”

Ace makes another face at him, even as Sabo smirks. The face this time is full of disbelief. “That’s a lie.”

“So?”

“Bastard.”

“Heh – yeah, I – “Sabo voice cuts off as he pulls a piece of paper from Ace’s bag. It’s folded neatly, the creases done with care, and Ace knows exactly what it is.

It occurs to him, then, that Sabo doesn’t even know what Luffy looks like now. That he doesn’t see how much his smile has grown, the way his face seems to sharpen when he gets serious, the brightness in his eyes when Luffy looks out to sea or at his crew.

Ace has seen Luffy grown up.

Sabo hasn’t.

Before him, his brother carefully unfolds the poster in the dimming light of the sun. His hands tremble, ever so slightly as Luffy’s wide smile grins back at him.

“Oh,” Sabo says softly. “It’s – “

“Luffy?”

“Yeah.” Sabo’s own smile begins to grin. “He looks happy.” He lowers the paper down into his lap, carefully tracing the lines of ink and the Dead or Alive at the bottom. “You know, I saw him on the execution stand.”

Ace chokes.

“You what.” He’s wide awake now, no bluster or sleepiness to be seen. “Where?”

The words Luffy and execution don’t belong together. Ever. At all.

Sabo seems carefree though, even if there’s a tenseness to his shoulders. “Yeah, in Loguetown. He was getting executed by Buggy the Clown. I was in the crowd then, just trying to chill because Dragon wanted to be there for some reason. Never explained why.” His voice drops just a bit in the middle, the tenseness belying the guilt in him. “I was just watching, then – bam! He was saved by lightning.”

Ace gives a relieved sigh that leads into a laugh. “lightning doesn’t work on him does it?’

Sabo chuckles. “Nope! Worked on Buggy the Clown, though.”

Ace gives him a smirk as he lays back down, watching Sabo carefully refold the poster and place it in the safest place in Ace’s bag. “He didn’t tell me any of that,” He whines.

His brother gives him a surprised look as he packs up the bag. “He didn’t? Luffy – who always talked about Shanks and whatever went on in the village – he didn’t say anything?”

Ace rolls to his feet and simply shrugs at Sabo. “You know Luffy. The past doesn’t matter – he didn’t even ask much about me and the Whitebeards, you know? His crew followed his lead, only a few mentions of anything that when on in the East.” He wrinkles his nose and slings his bag on his shoulders. “Something about a shark-teeth guy? And a Don Krieg?”

Sabo’s face pales in the dim light and rips Ace’s bag off of him to get at the wanted poster again, still with the same care he had before.

“Hey – watch it!” Ace cries, to no avail as Sabo shoves the paper in his face.

“ACE! Luffy has the highest bounty out of anyone in the East Blue!”

“Yeah – pretty cool right?”

“NO!” Sabo looks like he’s going to tear at his hair. “WAIT YES! It is cool! But that means Luffy went against the toughest people in the East Blue and won! Don Krieg and his Armada! Arlong of the Sun Pirates!” His hands point to the little subscript on the bottom of the page, where the Luffy’s crimes are written out.

Ace whips his head to look at Sabo. “Sun Pirates?”

Sabo nods empathetically, and Ace looks back down to the wanted poster, of his little brother innocently smiling.

“He’s so stupid,” Ace whispers, all the while meaning his little brother is the coolest and the future Pirate King. “Of course, he did this.”

“No wonder he thinks he can take down Crocodile. Sun Pirates, Ace, Grand Line Pirates.”

“I told you he’s gotten stronger! Higher starter bounty than me!”

“SUN! PIRATES! ACE!”

Ace finally gets tired of his shouting, and shoves him into the sand, setting off in what he can only guess is the right direction before Sabo catches up.

-

Sun.

Pirates.

Sabo keeps on repeating it in his head – Koala had said that Jimbe sent one of them away. That they were the strongest people that she ever met – that they were her heroes. Her family. The people who took her away from everything bad in the world.

And Luffy defeated one of them, sent him flying far enough away that no Marine could track him down. His crew probably taking on the others – his crew of what – Sabo tries to count in his head.

Huh.

How many people does Luffy have on his crew? None of them have bounties yet, he’s sure.

Hell.

His little brother is insane.

(Then again, Sabo always knew that, from the moment the brat followed them through the woods and went through torture just so he could be their friend. He’s incredible like that.)

He feels like he’s walking through a daze, trying to content the boy from his long-forgotten memories, to the boy on the execution stand, to the boy on the wanted poster with DEAD OR ALIVE written underneath his blinding smile.

He can’t wait to meet Luffy.

He can’t.

-

The desert days go by slow and fast all at once – or rather, the nights do. Ace and Sabo spend the days attempting to find shelter from the hot sun, their skin burning.

Sabo’s not quite sure how many days they wander. Only that they pass, and that he relearns his brother all over again.

-

“Hey Sabo.”

“Hm?”

“Do you think a devil fruit could make mirages real?”

“Probably. Wouldn’t make them mirages anymore though.”

“But I’m hungry.”

“You don’t even have that devil fruit!”

“So?!”

-

“One, two, three… four, five…”

“What are you counting?”

“Lizards.”

A burst of flame. The tiny lizards Sabo had been counting go up in flames.

“HEY!”

“Snacks, Sabo. Snacks.”

-

“You know, I’m almost glad you’re made of fire.”

“Almost?”

“Well, you’re a good heater, and a good flashlight, but it’s so hard to hit you without Haki when everything goes through you.”

“Of course, that’s the thing you hate about it.”

They don’t mention the scars along Sabo’s face.

-

“So, Who’s on Luffy’s crew again?”

“Uh. The Princess.”

“Vivi, right.”

“And her duck.”

“Supersonic Duck Squadron, probably.”

“Why are you asking if you know everything?”

“I don’t know everything! Just intel about Alabasta! Tell me about the others!”

Ace gives him a look that says sure you don’t know everything, heavy on the sarcasm, but continues anyway. “Well, there’s the swordsman, Zoro. I think he’s the first mate but no one really said anything about it. Luffy’s not much for hierarchy anyway.”

“Roronoa Zoro?”

“I thought you said you didn’t know everything!”

“He’s famous in the East!”

“Huh. That’s cool. Anyway, there’s the Navigator – Navi? Name? – Nami! That’s it. She’s terrifying. She was able to get us all through the desert no problem.”

“Wish we had her.”

“Yeah. She makes her own maps.”

“Huh.”

Ace looks forward. “Then there’s the cook, Sanji, he’s cool. Sap for women though. And the sniper, who’s a bit of a coward. I think his name’s Usopp? He started talking about his dad was on an Emperor’s crew.”

“Of course that’s who Luffy picks up.”

“Wait till I get to his doctor.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s a tanuki.”

“What the fuck.”

“Just kidding! He’s actually a reindeer.”

“Ace I am going to murder you – get back here, what the fuck.”

-

“I’m tired.”

“Same.”

“Carry me.”

“Fuck you.”

-

“What do you think Luffy is doing right now?”

“Beating up a warlord.”

“Maybe he did it already.”

“Partying then.” Both Ace and Sabo give twin sighs at that.

“Wish that were us,” Sabo says, and Ace agrees with the nod of a head.

-

“Hey. Hey Sabo. We should have stolen a crocodile from Rainbase.”

“Fucking Hell, you’re right. We’ll go back with Luffy. It’s been ages since I had crocodile.”

“Mmm… Crocodile stew…”

“Crocodile barbecue….”

“Crocodile steak…”

Their stomachs growl and unison, and they shake their heads at once.

It does no use to imagine food in the desert.

Or water.

Or –

“Ace?” Sabo squints. “Is that – “

Ace looks up, following Sabo’s gaze and opens his eyes wide.

It’s –

“Rain,” Ace breathes out, elated, and soon it comes pouring down on them, a miracle in the desert. “Guess Luffy defeated him already.”

It’s a miracle brought by Luffy of course. Ace can’t believe it comes from any other source.

He starts laughing, then, tilting his head back so that the water pours down his face, a welcome reprieve in the midday heat, a welcome reprieve in the desert. His mouth lolls open and he stretches out his tongue to catch the water droplets falling from the sky.

Besides him, Sabo takes off his gloves and reaches up towards the sky, innocently spinning around like they’re children again.

Ace can’t help but copy him, spinning and spinning till both he and Sabo are celebrating, laughing, not crying but joyfully shouting.

(It reminds him of thunderstorms spent at Dadan’s, when they didn’t have to worry about keeping a treehouse together and instead all three of them ran out and splashed in the puddles, kicking up frogs and rainwater and laughing as thunder rained down along the mountain.

It’s like that moment captured in time, missing one person but – this time Luffy brought the rain, so it’s like no one is missing at all.)

The sand squishes beneath their feet as they sprint across the desert, rain bringing new life to everything, rain giving energy, giving smiles, giving joy. Ace is soaked, but he’s not hot, and that’s better than what he was before.

Sabo’s smile is just as bright as his as he grabs on to his brother and pulls him forward through the rain.

This –

This –

This is happiness.

Ace laughs with the rain, and lets his worries wash away.

-

Its four days after the rain fell that finally, finally Sabo sees something that’s not stone or sand.

Well, technically it’s both.

The palace’s walls are made of sandstone.

But it’s civilization.

Sabo takes one last swig of his water, and starts sprinting with Ace towards the city, a race of two exhausted twenty-year old’s.

They crash through the gates, stumbling on the ground half dead. Sabo hadn’t realized how tired he was until he was in an actual place where he could sleep.

He could sleep on the pavement.

That’s okay.

Right?

Ace groans and hauls Sabo forward, so apparently not.

The city bustles around them, everyone giving odd looks to the true oddly dressed folks passing through.

That is – until they get to a wall in the street, people lining up and blocking their way.

“Come on,” Ace grumbles as Sabo slowly rises to his feet, done with being dramatic for the day. “What’s the hold up?”

Before Sabo can answer and say something stupid, the crowd starts hushing down to a whisper, peering down the left of the street. Ace and Sabo follow them, gazing out and –

“Hey I know her!” Ace shouts, right in Sabo’s ear, loud in the street before using Sabo’s shoulder to get a boost up. “VIVI!!! VIVI OVER HERE!!”

Vivi – Nefertari Vivi? Wait she was traveling with Luffy wasn’t she?

Suddenly very amenable to helping Ace catch her attention, Sabo dips and hauls Ace on to his shoulders so he can be seen above the crowd.

Ace doesn’t stop waving. “VIVI! VIVI!! OVER HERE!!” 

The crowd is giving them dirty looks, but those stop as who can only be Princess Vivi turns to look their way with a joyful, albeit confused, giggle. “Ace?” She calls, and steps off her duck. The crowd parts before her, and Ace slides down Sabo’s shoulders. “Oh, it is you! I thought you left already – what are you doing here?”

Ace gives her a friendly look before shoving down on Sabo’s head. “Looking for Luffy! Ran into our other brother here, so we’d thought we track him down.”

Something warms in Sabo’s chest, something small and bright and formerly forgotten, when Ace calls him his brother so carefree. It’s like freedom in a single word.

(Ace had said that their bond would never break. After this, Sabo is starting to believe it again.)

With the warmth in his chest blooming, Ace swipes away Ace’s hand, and makes himself into a casual bow. “Hello Princess Vivi, my name is Sabo! Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Ace shoves at him again, but the princess only keeps up her cheery laughter.

“Oh! The pleasure’s all mine – and please! Call me Vivi! Any friends of Luffy’s are friends of mine – especially his family.” Her eyes are kind as she stares at them, her beautiful, regal dress not making her look pompous but rather simply stunning, simply compassionate. She looks at home, here amongst the desert sands.

(Her eyes rake over them with the thirst for something new, something grand, something exciting however – And Sabo wonders why Luffy hasn’t stolen her away yet.)

Her eyes catch on the haggardness of their faces, even as her guards stand behind her steadily, even as the crowds press in on these strangers that Vivi welcomes. “Come! Follow me – you can rest at the palace.”

And that is the best news Sabo has heard all – how long was he in the desert again?

The days really do blend together.

Ace gives him a tug on his wrist, stirring him out of his thought, and off they go towards the palace.

-

Sabo is in heaven.

Heaven!

He gives a moan around the food in his mouth, already reaching for the next piece. Ace snatches the hunk of meat before he can, so Sabo takes the time to talk to the hostess of their lovely meal.

“This is really good!”

It sounds more garbled than that, due to the food, but the idea gets across. Vivi smiles.

“All Terracotta’s cooking! And she has had practice by now – Luffy had quite the appetite.”

“Explains the lack of shock,” Ace throws a thumb at the guards, who are looking at them with a vague look of disinterest. Sabo nods along with him, then looks more carefully at Vivi.

It’s been an hour, and hour where they got to use the royal baths and drink all the water they wanted – but they still haven’t gotten an answer.

“So – where’s Luffy?”

Vivi brightens at the name of her captain, then looks alarmed, smacking a hand to her head. “Right! You’re looking for him!” She gives them a sad frown. “He and the rest of them left a day ago – the marines were scrambling for them so they had to leave.”

“And you didn’t leave with them?”

Ace’s question comes out of the blue, and Sabo remembers what he thought when he first looked at her – disbelief that she wasn’t a Straw Hat yet.

(Luffy had a way of snatching people up, taking them from all they loved and bringing them to something greater. He respected dreams and little else. And Vivi?

Sabo can see it in her eyes.

She may be a princess, but she was born for the seas.

Why hadn’t Luffy taken her?)

Vivi looks mournful, a little rueful as she lifts her arm up and thumbs over the faded black ink on her wrist. “They asked me too.” She says, soft and loving. “But – my heart belongs to my people, to my country. I cannot leave them now. Still – “Her eyes water even as she blinks those tears away. “They still vowed to call me their crewmate.” She laughs, bright. “How wonderful is that?”

The guards behind her are smiling, the odd man that looks like Terracotta smiling as well.

Something in Sabo goes aha!

This is why.

(Luffy is selfish. He drags people away, makes them care or forces them not to. He calls people to adventure, to leave all their worries behind and –

Vivi loves her country. She loves her crew.

Luffy let her choose, let her be true to her duty and heart.

(But one day, Sabo knows, he’ll be back. Vivi hasn’t been true to her dream after all.))

Sabo gives her a smile. “It’s Luffy.” He shrugs easy. “He’s the man who brought the rain back. He’s always amazing like that.”

Vivi only answers him with a laugh, but it’s enough to know she agrees. “I – I was fighting a civil war here. Or trying to stop one at least. I was so concerned about my people’s lives, that I was so hesitant to go to the head of the problem. But Luffy just… he said he wanted to kick Crocodile’s ass, and he did.”

There’s more to that story – more than Vivi, rubbing at the X on her wrist can say. There’s pride in her voice, but Sabo sees the scrapes still healing, cuts scabbing over, scars beginning to form.

He can wait to get it from his brother.

(Or rather, his brother’s crew, because fuck if his little brother has actually learned to explain anything in his life.)

“It’s Luffy,” Ace echoes Sabo. “Do you know which way he was heading?”

Right.

They fell behind Luffy.

Again.

If only they hadn’t gotten lost. Fucking sandstorm.

“Oh! Yes, they went for the next island. I believe its Jaya, right Igaaram?”

“Correct Princess Vivi!” The man with the weird hair – Igaaram, Sabo supposes, confirms. “It’s about a week’s journey, with clear weather, more if you factor in Grand Line weather.”

“Do you need a ship?” Vivi questions and oh, yeah, they need to leave, and Sabo took a bird to get here.

Huh.

“Nah,” Ace says easily, turning to Sabo with something dangerous in his eyes. “We can take Striker.”

“Striker?”

Yes. That is a dangerous look.

Sabo’s excited. Whatever Striker is – it’s no normal ship.

“You’ll see.” Ace smirks, turning back to Vivi. “We should probably leave in the morning, if you have any rides we could take back to Nanohana?”

Right.

Drumstick ditched them, the –

Something crashes through the dining hall, coming after shouts and screams.

Wha- Sabo has time to think before Ace is exclaiming with joy.

“DRUMSTICK!”

And there the giant lizard is, standing on top of the table, looking only a little lost as to how he got there.

Ace doesn’t care, and is quick to jump on the table and join him. Sabo takes only a moment to contemplate why before he’s joining them to give Drumstick head scratches.

“Good boy! Good boy, yes you are! Who ditched us in the desert but came back! Good Drumstick! That’s it, good boy.” And Ace is now feeding the lizard. Sabo gives Drumstick a final scratch on the head, before turning to look at Vivi.

“Uh... I don’t think we need that ride anymore.”

She smiles. “I figured.”

-

They spend a night in the palace, letting the cool breeze from the specially made buildings sweep over them. It’s odd, sleeping under a roof after so many days under the sky, but it’s only one night. Sabo can deal.

(Memories resurface, quietly in the night as he stares up at the ceiling. He remembers switching from mansion, to garbage heap, to bandit hut to treehouse, all the way back to the dumb palace.

He slept easiest at the treehouse.

He hardly slept at all in the mansion.)

Ace’s snoring is a familiar tune, a lullaby that he never thought he had, and the past week or so under the desert sun has made him fall into an easy rhythm with his brother. It’s hard to sleep at night again, when they’re so used to traveling in it to avoid the late of day, but…

Soon Sabo will be sailing the open seas with his brother again – neither of them captain, both of them the navigator, chasing a dream none of them thought they had.

(That Sabo didn’t think he had. Ace and Luffy probably wished to be reunited with him at some point. Sabo just didn’t get the memo yet.)

The adventure tugs at him as he tries to sleep, calling him to move rather than lay down, so he shifts, turning to face Ace…

And the giant lizard also in his bed. Drumstick is snoozing happily, curled up to the furnace that is Ace. It makes Sabo crack a giggle, remembering the time they attempted to get a tiger cub as a pet, until it grew too big for the treehouse as all Goa wildlife tended to.

His memories are fuzzy, but they are returning, bit by bit.

(He still can’t remember his parent’s faces. He remembers their names and what they sound like, but nothing else. He’s almost thankful for that, if the gaps in what he should know didn’t bother him so much.)

It’s amazing how he can connect things from his past to his second past. The way he already knew how to fight, his affinity with pipes, the way he was so confused at Koala-

Koala.

Fear strikes through Sabo in the night.

He was on a mission holy shit he forgot to rendezvous with Koala.

He was a dead man.

Dead.

Completely dead.

She was probably tracking him right now. But he got information, right? He did his mission. Yeah. He’s safe.

Definitely.

Totally.

Sabo looks over to where Ace is peacefully snoozing, pet in arms, and wishes he could as be as worry free as that.

Maybe he can say Ace kidnapped him?

Nope.

Only choice is to run, find Luffy, and then find Dragon and hide behind him till Koala is done being pissed, and then do whatever it takes to apologize and earn her favor again.

He sighs.

What is his life?

-

He falls asleep sometime in the late night, but still manages to wake up first.

“Ace,” Sabo groans, shoving at his brother – (and there, that little elation even after two weeks that he has brothers again), “Get. Up!”

“Mmph.” Ace answers, and rolls back over.

Idiot.

Sabo reaches over and pours water on his head before pushing Ace off the bed.

“Get up!”

“FUCK!” Ace shouts, scrambling to his feet and getting caught in the blankets. He tips forward before righting himself. “I’m up! I’m up!”

Sabo rolls his eyes and starts to leave the room. “I’ve been trying for hours. Now come on – we got to go catch up.”

“Eh – Striker will be faster than their ship.” Ace dismisses, rolling his shoulders and leaning over to put on his boots. Sabo tosses his hat him, “The Going Merry - Luffy’s ship, by the way. Apparently, he got it for free.  I had to raid a Marine base to pay for mine. Anyway, she’s a sweet ship, but she’s not that fit for Grand Line weather. She’ll be slow.”

“It’s Luffy. He’ll find a way to fly on his ship if we aren’t careful. We gotta go.”

Ace raises an eyebrow at him as he finally tips his hat up. “What’s got you in such a rush?”

Sabo is a liar. Sabo is a spy. Ace can’t tell. He can’t.

“Just worried for our little – OW, cut it!” Sabo screeches as Ace pinches his face, trying to get him to talk.

“I can tell when you’re lying! Spill!”

“No!”

Ace twists.

Sabo bites his hand.

Ace jabs into his side, sending Sabo down to the floor.

“Fuck! Fine! I maaayyyy have leftmypartnerbehinndandshe’sreallymeananndprobablylookingfornesoweshouldgo.”

Ace gives him a blank stare, and twists his cheek again.

“Fucking hell, stop it!” Sabo tries to bite him again but Ace has learned, and drags another hand to twist his other cheek.

(His hands avoid the sensitive scar tissue.

His brother truly does care.)

“I mean – Ugh. Okay, so I’m a revolutionary right? And I was on a mission.”

Ace nods. “I’m following.”

“So normally,” Sabo continues, rubbing his red cheeks. “I have a partner on each mission. Her name’s Koala and she’s fucking amazing. She knows fishman karate – and she’s a human.”

Ace gives out a low whistle. “Damn.”

“Right? She’s so cool. But also I kind of ditched her when I ran into you because of, well,” Sabo makes an aborted gesture between the two of them, trying to emphasize the whole long-lost forgotten brother business. Ace nods again, so he gets it. “Yeah. And uh. She’s not going to be happy.”

“So…”

“We got to leave before she catches up.”

“Too late.”

Sabo turns.

Ace turns.

Ice runs down Sabo’s spine.

There, standing next to Princess Vivi, is Koala, who has what can only be described as a deadly smile on her face.

Sabo turns to Ace. “You are my brother and I love you and please don’t let me di- “

A rush of air, and Sabo’s words are choked off as Koala slams him out the window with a blast of Fishman Karate.

Well, Sabo thinks as he hits the ground, I only somewhat deserved that.

Then, he blacks out.

-

“YOU MET YOUR BROTHER?! YOU GOT YOUR MEMORIES BACK?” Koala cries, tearing up and lunging at Sabo to give him a hug. “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!” Her snot gets all over his shirt as she clings but honestly?

Sabo doesn’t mind.

He hugs Koala back, blinding smile on his face. “Yep! Meet my brother, Portgas D. Ace! We grew up together on Goa in a bandit hut and a trash heap and a jungle!”

Koala pulls back, slowly, inch by inch to stare at him.

“You… what?” She trades looks between Sabo and Ace, who has a sheepish grin on him, before finally settling back on Sabo. “This explains so much. No wonder you were so weird!”

“Hey!”

“She’s right though.”

“HEY! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Says who?”

“Me!” And with that, Sabo kicks at Ace’s shins, letting themselves fall into a brawl of poking fingers and biting teeth.

He thinks he hears Koala saying something, before she’s pulling the both of them apart. She sets Sabo on the ground then Ace, the both of them grinning only a little maniacally

“Now – Pleased to meet you! My name is Koala, and congratulations and my condolences on finding Sabo as your brother again.” Koala reaches out a hand and Ace clasps it with his own with a grin.

“Pleasure’s all mine! Thank you for watching after my brother for all of these years. I’m thankful that you have made him so happy!”

And oh – this is new. Ace bows, deep and respectful before Koala, the image of politeness and honor.

Sabo doesn’t think Ace was ever polite. Not even to Makino.

Holy shit.

Makino is the answer.

(Makino, who’s face is only becoming a little less blurry in Sabo’s mind, but who’s hugs are something he holds dear now.)

She has to be. She’s a miracle worker.

Koala catches Sabo’s eye above Ace’s head, with a look that clearly says: your brother is better than you. Take lessons.

Honestly? Sabo’s in too much disbelief to disagree.

Koala gives a smile at Ace, who gives one back, and that’s trouble, before she addresses the both of them. “So why are you really trying to leave? And why were you running across the desert in circles?”

“We weren’t running in circles – “

Koala raises an eyebrow and Sabo’s protest dies in his mouth. “I’ve already been to the next city and back – thanks to Dumpling here - in the time it took for you just to get here. You got lost.”

“We- “Sabo starts to say, but then is cut off again by Ace –

“DRUMSTICK?”

Koala gives him a look. “His name is Dumpling.”

“No, it’s Drumstick. And he’s my lizard! Who fucking ditched me!”

“For me! And his name is Dumpling! He came up, out of the blue, showing up at Toto’s place and took me on my way!”

“His name. Is. Drumstick.”

“Dumpling,” Koala says, clearly addressing the lizard. He perks up.

“Drumstick,” Ace says, and the lizard perks up at him.

Ace and Koala share a look over the lizard’s head.

“Stir-fry?” Sabo says, and the lizard looks at him.

They all go quiet before Vivi speaks. “I think he just likes food?”

Another beat of silence.

‘I’m still calling him Drumstick.” Ace mutters before Koala whirls on him. 

“Dumpling! Wait – stop distracting me – Sabo tell me why you ran off like an idiot!”

Sabo shrinks under her glare. “Uh. I have one more brother?”

“YOU WHAT?!” Koala shrieks in glee. “Who?”

“Monkey D. Luffy,” Vivi touches her arm. “He’s the one I was telling you about – who took down Crocodile?”

Koala stares at her with wide eyes.

Sabo nods in agreement. “We were trying to get to him before he left. Too late for that now, I guess.”

“Off to the next adventure,” Ace says mournfully. “Without us.” Drumstick leans into him a little, and Ace makes a delighted noise in the back of his throat. Idiot.

“Which is why we need to leave now before it’s too late, and Luffy figures out how to make his ship fly or something.” Sabo implores her, this close to getting on his knees and begging her to let him go.

Koala looks between them both, and glances over to Vivi who gives her a rueful grin. She turns back, and places her hands on her hips.

Ah.

There’s the dangerous look again.

Strangely, Sabo feels a bit of… hope? Staring at her?

Odd.

“So where are we heading then?”

Sabo stares at her. “We?”

She smirks, the same easy smirk she gave when she blew up that one building on Sabaody, the same easy smirk she gave when she conned Sabo out of all his money, and the same easy smirk she gives when she wins.

For as much as she cried about losing Sabo and being happy for him, she’s never one to back down from a challenge.

“What? We’re still on a mission! Your brother might have gotten Crocodile out of the way, but that just means there’s an open spot for anyone to take! We can multitask.” She flaps her hand dismissively, all the while bending down to add her bag to Drumstick’s back. “Besides – you got lost without me.”

While Sabo stares in shock, Ace takes the time to bluster. “We found our way out! Eventually!”

Koala rolls her eyes before her eyes soften as she turns to Sabo. “That’s okay with you – right? I know memories are new and all, but – I don’t want you to have to do this alone.”

Sabo gives her a wry grin. “I won’t be alone. I have him,” He points to Ace. “And I have you.”

Koala tackles him to the ground in a hug, but it’s worth it to see her smile and hear Ace laugh at his brother’s misfortune.

-

They leave only an hour after dawn. Ace is sure to keep a careful eye on the sky as they finish gathering supplies for three people, and figuring out how to put three people on a lizard's back. They make it work, eventually, even if it’s a tight squeeze and has Koala pressed between him and Sabo like a furious pancake.

Vivi waves them good bye, her entourage waving with her as they set off from Aluburna.

“Let’s go, Dumpling!” Koala has time to shout before Ace can say Giddy-up, Drumstick, and maybe’s he’s a bit mad and kicks at her knees but she kicks back and yep –

Mistake.

She’s fierce.

(Her name is Koala and she has a familiarity with Sabo that Ace is only beginning to relearn. With Koala, no longer can he and Sabo just settle into long lost brother.

They’ve found each other.

They’ve got to forge something new now. Ace is excited for it.

He just can’t help but be bitter that Koala got this time with Sabo –

And Ace didn’t.)

The wind against their faces quickly distracts Ace from his naming feud with Koala, the torrent nearly ripping his hat off his head. He ducks down, shielding his eyes against the sand and air, and off they go – faster than ever.

They pass familiar outcrops, some not so familiar, and wow they really did get lost.

(Really, really lost.

Ace doesn’t regret shoving Sabo down in that storm, however.)

It’s a blur of heat and sun, the three of them hardly feeling it due to the wind caused by Drumstick’s speed. They pause once for water, an out of the way oasis that Koala finds through what she claims is sheer luck, and then they’re off again.

Ace is pretty sure he falls asleep at some point. He’s… mostly sure.

He at the very least dozes off, because he falls off of Drumstick’s back and both Koala and Sabo laugh at him as they turn around to grab him.

Bastards, the both of them.

(Ace is warming up to Koala, only a little bit though.)

-

They reach Rainbase by night-fall, and somehow avoid the entire marine presence to sleep in an inn.

“Where… did you guys sleep?” Koala asks when she’s Ace’s bewildered face at the alligator themed room.

“Outside,” Ace and Sabo say in unison, poking around.

Huh.

Maybe paying for room and board was a good thing?

(Maybe – if Ace understood how it worked.)

Koala dismisses them both, turning to snooze in her own bed. Ace and Sabo hold their breath until her breathing evens out, and then they share a look.

Rainbase.

There were crocodile’s here.

And not the mob boss kind.

They escape through the window, swift and silence, and maybe trip a few alarms, but how were they supposed to know it was a casino too?

They’re running through the city, chased by guards and civilians alike, and yes, Ace may have swiped a jewel or too to go with his crocodile skewer but can you blame him?

He had to rush cooking crocodile because alarms were being raised all over! He deserved something extra.

Sabo gives a little giggle as they tumble into their hotel room, both of them with mile wide smiles and –

SMACK!

Twin bruises from Koala’s furious fists.

“Really? Really?” She looks at both of them.

Sabo offers her a skewer in what Ace thinks is an extremely diplomatic move. “Crocodile?”

Koala very carefully takes the skewer. Carefully - as if it might bite her.

Ace may be very tired, but he’s sure he took all the teeth out.

She takes a single bite and nearly melts.

“Crocodile!” Sabo tells her, and she nods empathetically. “It’s good.”

She swallows her piece. “I see now why you wanted Chef to make it when you were eleven.”

(Ace’s heart clenches – like it does anytime Sabo’s memories come up. He remembered that? Their shared favorite food?

He’s…

Hell. He has his brother back. He has his brother back.

He’s going to burst with joy.)

“It’s the best!” Ace tells Koala, instead of mentioning the warmth in his chest. “Though – “

Shouting breaks outside their window.

“We should really get going. Really.”

Koala looks out the window with the look of someone who is regretting everything. “You two are the worst.” She declares, right before shoving them outside the window they just crawled through. “The WORST!”

Sabo turns to look at Ace from where they are sprawled on the floor. “That just means she likes us!”

Yeah, right.

-

They get to Toto’s at daybreak, their impromptu crime putting them ahead of schedule. He’s happy to see them, happier to see the water they bring him, and even happier to send them on their way in the evening with promises that they’ll return someday, when the business comes back together.

Nice old guy. He reminds Ace a bit of the mayor, if only in age and not in attitude.

(He cries when they tell him they’re still after Luffy. He’s so happy.

“He did it,” Toto says. “He really did it.”

There’s a kind of faith you gain in the desert, a kind of conviction that has you grabbing on to hope and hope along.

Ace isn’t surprised his brother has become these people’s hope.

(Why would he? He’s Ace’s after all.))

With the snacks they get for Drumstick, they reach Nanohana at dawn.

They took turns napping on Drumstick this time, one always awake to make sure no one else fell off, so Ace is significantly more rested, and less likely to make dubious decisions.

Like raiding an ex-warlord’s casino for crocodile meat.

(He still doesn’t regret it.)

It’s… nice being by the sea again, with the wind in his hair and freedom drifting out in salty sea breeze mixing with desert sand. The sand is damper, the heat lighter, and oh, Ace can’t wait to set sail again.

(Sabo might be content – as much as Ace can tell – with not being a pirate, but Ace?

Ace is a child of the sea.

He lives for the open waters and endless horizon. It’s all he wants, for the most part.)

“Come on!” He shouts to Koala and Sabo as they all pile off Drumstick to tread to the shore. Drumstick follows, footsteps soft against the sad.

Soon, they find themselves before a tiny alcove, defended by none other than Kung Fu Dugongs. They chatter and cheer when they see Ace, clambering about him and calling for his attention.

“Hey, hey!” He says, placating them with a few gentle hand waves. “You’re good! You’re good! I’m back, don’t worry – did you keep Striker safe for me?”

They chatter some more, and Sabo gives a snort at the way they seem to nearly tackle Ace deeper into the cover. He sends him a glare, but he’s quickly distracted by –

Striker.

She’s just as gleaming as he remembers, yellow and bright, Whitebeard Jolly Roger pristinely kept.

“Nice work, guys!” He tells the Dugongs, offering them a fist bump as he sets to hauling Striker out of her hiding place. “She looks great.”

It’s a moments work to place her in the water, less with the Dugongs help, and she’s just as steady in the water as she ever was.

“I present to you,” Ace says with a flourish, showing off Striker with a wave of his hand, “Striker!  Isn’t she beautiful?”

Koala and Sabo look on appreciatively, Sabo even giving a low whistle, but Koala looks concerned.

“Are you… sure that’ll fit all of us?”

Ace takes another look at Striker before raising a hand. “Oh! Right!”

He dives into Striker’s storage package, till he finds the button for the extenders, added graciously by Blenheim who took pity on Deuce who – when he and Ace took trips to shore – was always forced to cling to Ace for dear life.

“Tada!” Ace shows off Striker again, now with the edition of two side cars. “Now she’ll fit all of us!”

Koala still looks unimpressed, but Sabo is not a traitor, and dutifully throws his bag in his new seat and settles down for the long haul with and easy jump.

“Well?” He raises an eyebrow at Ace and Koala, still on the shore, and they have no choice but to jump in as well.

The landing rocks the boat a little bit, but it does nothing more than to ease Ace.

He grew up on land, grew up in the mountains – but this? Waves rocking beneath his feet, unsteadiness of a boat, log pose pointing straight ahead?

This is home.

“Which way?” He asks Koala, who takes out her log pose.

“Next island is dead ahead! Jaya, I think.”

“Nice. Sabo you ready? Koala?”

“Yep!” They give answering cheers, Koala hunkering down in her seat with a death grip while Sabo leans forward, eager and excited.

“Then- “Flames burst to life under Ace’s feet. “Let’s go!”

And they start soaring, across the waves, to the cheers of Dugongs and the cries of his passengers. The sea breeze whips across his face, so much better than the sandy winds of Alabasta, and hell –

His brother is beside him, his other brother ahead of him, horizon stretching out, and this?

This is freedom.

Ace gives a Whoop! As they jet over a wave, leaping into the air for a precarious second before crashing down, and a smile breaks across his face, shared with Sabo beside.

Yeah.

Freedom.

-

(“Hey Luffy? Why you pouting?”

“I think Ace is having fun without me.”

“He’s tracking a murderer, Luffy.”

“Still!”)

-

(On a distant shore...

"Any word?"

"Sentries report Crocodile has fallen."

"ZEHAHAHAHA! Then it's our time, men! To the seas!"

"Aye!"

"Zehehahahaha!")