#and garp did not pick up the phone

[no1deahow]

Besties and their kids hanging out 🥹💕

[diminuel]

In Stinky Child Au , how Crocodile lost his hand ?

He lost it to Whitebeard.

I know that for sure but I'm still not sure what his backstory with the guy is, that is, if they already knew each other by the time the clash happened.

I don't know if you want to hear my ideas already or if these would be spoilerish for comics or fic to come, so I'm just putting it under a read more. (Also, maybe I should invest in a Stinky Child AU tag X'D I also have a feeling I said some of the things I'm talking about here before but my blog is a mess.)

I think that while Crocodile still did Warlord duties not too long after Luffy was born, he hasn't really been on the Grand Line. Since Dragon involved Garp pretty early on, he kind of "claimed" Crocodile as "his" Warlord, to do missions on his bidding, which gives Crocodile a bit of a cover and a reason to be in the East Blue. (Sengoku allowed it, because it's easier than trying to fight with Garp, though I don't think he suspects there is a reason behind it.)

The first journey back out into the New World, maybe when Luffy's 2 and Ace is 5 (before Dragon picks up Sabo), was not supposed to be anything dangerous. Maybe a bit annoying to do it with "training wheels on" but he's not an idiot. He's got kids at home, he is not taking unnecessary risks. His aim is to gather intel for the RA and take out pirates along the way, usual stuff, a little bit of adventure, a little bit of danger, but not exceeding the levels that are just the New World's base line.

What I'm playing around with at the moment is that he happens to sail into one of Whitebeard's new territories - so new that the information has not reached him yet - and one of the pirate ships attacking him sail under WB's flag. So when he sinks that ship, WB is quick to retaliate. And even though Crocodile realizes his mistakes, gets on the phone to confirm, maybe even tries to fix it, one of his flaws is that he doesn't want to be a coward. He has already given up his plan to become pirate king to protect Luffy, but he's still a pirate, he's still powerful. So he fights but of course is defeated. Maybe not killed because WB miiiiiiight recognize him (as the scrawny kid he left behind?)

He has to beg for his life, admits that he has children that depend on him. And of course WB spares him, would have most likely also spared him if he didn't confess, but he does not spare him the patronizing remarks that people who are this weak and have people depending on them, should not be pirates. And whether he cuts off his hand during battle or as a "stay home" warning I don't know. During battle would be kind of less shitty, depends on how we are all feeling about WB ;3

So yes, he gets away, badly hurt and when he finally makes it home (ashamed, angry, doubting himself, in pain), there is a third child waiting for him?

[thousandsunnywrites]

Serendipity

Luffy & reader; platonic

the origins of Luffy’s smile

a/n: happy birthday king♡

“Ha! Brace face, brace face!” A swarm of middle school kids single out a tiny boy, not above the age of 12, and backing him up to a corner of the cafeteria. It was a Monday my dudes, and you know what that means— it was the start of another dreadful morning for Monkey D. Luffy... or as what the other kids say, Monkey D. Brace Face. 

Growing up, Luffy has had some whack ass teeth and Dadan being the good guardian that she is, forced him to get these metal restrictions on his teeth for a nicer smile.

“Shut up!” A bit of drool peeks out as his words slur together, “leave me alone or else I’ll kick your ass!” The kids laugh even more, nobody daring to help the poor Luffy out of his predicament. 

“Horse face!”

“Beaver mouth!”

“Nerd! What a loser!”

“Metal mouth! Train tracks!”

Out of frustration, Luffy growled as his legs lunged towards them like a ravish beast. Just in time, Principal Garp’s reflexes caught him mid air, effectively preventing Luffy from biting the heads off of the little twerps.

“Boys! Office! Now.” 

After a few phone calls to parents, the endless teasing faded into the distance as Luffy stayed behind in the office.

“Boy, quit getting into trouble will ya? Can’t keep covering your ass forever y’know.” Garp swung his legs onto the desk, leaning against his chair to comfortably enjoy his donut. 

“I know. I know,” he repeated, stubbornly refusing to look at his grandpa, “they started it! They call me brace face and train tracks. They’re annoying so I thought to kick them in the head to shut them right up.”

“You’re liking I’m not telling dear old Dadan.” Shivers run down Luffy’s spine. Nobody likes it when Dadan is mad, especially Luffy. Last time he made her mad, he was homeless for a week. 

“Aight, thanks old man! Well that settles it—“ he turns on his heel, “see ya around!”

“Wait! Keep your mouth shut next time.” Garp exhales a big breath, “and bring me my donut.”

He doesn’t like to smile. There was no reason to smile because every time he did, he always ran into trouble. 

He hates smiling. He hates his stupid teeth. Hates how people are so fucking mean because he’s different. It never really bothered him until now; puberty really be no joke, even if he was a little late to the party.

In amidst his sad train of thoughts, he ran into this girl in the middle of an empty hall, who uhm, had a very interesting fashion choice—tank top over a shirt with some colored leggings, a stack of bangles decorating her wrists all the way up to her forearm and whew don’t let me get started on those leg warmers. 

“Oh, hey! Never seen you around before,” he smiled, the metal protruding from his mouth, “shishishi, you’re weird!” He took a closer look at you, taking you aback from his honesty.

“O-oi! These are cool!” Proudly displaying the matching rings on your hand, Luffy’s smile became impossibly bigger. “And I’m not weird, fish eyes. I just happen to be way ahead of my time.”

“I like you. I’m Luffy!”

You introduced yourself and returned the smile, only to retract it back when he called you the wrong name. This was the start of the strangest friendship, who would’ve thought Thomas the train tracks and ugly Betty McGee would become friends?

—-

“Ha??? What’s this? Ugly Betty and the Ugly Fuckling got together!” The bully boys were back, disheartening Luffy’s new profound confidence. “gRR SHUT UP,” his big mouth says without processing, “pick on someone your own size jackass!”

“Can’t do that since there’s nobody above me, moron.” The boy grabbed the milk from Luffy’s tray and squeezed it, the warm milk splashing all over his face. “Take that, pathetic loser. That’s what you get for getting us in trouble the other day! I’ll rip that shit from your teeth if you test me again, nerd!”

Before the bitchass can do anything more, you stood up for Luffy. “Back off buddy. Luffy was literally breathing and you came over. Stop picking on someone defenseless.” 

He scoffed and commended your retort mockingly. To show his unwavering resolve, he dunked the nearest tray all over your Hannah Montana jacket. “Fucking sucker.”

The kids stopped eating and paid attention to the scene that was about to go down. 

“Leave Y/n out of this.”

“Try and stop me Thomas.”

That was the last straw. A punch was thrown across his face, knocking him down, his cockiness replaced with fear. “You can insult me all you want, you jerk,” he spat out, “but don’t you ever DARE hurt my friend. Because next time, I’ll give you more than a black eye. I’ll beat your ass.” 

Everyone watched in shock. Luffy was on top of the table, fists balled and nostrils flaring. The bully looked so helpless.

“Damn it LUFFYY,” Garp’s voice boomed throughout the cafeteria, causing Luffy to scramble off the desk and run away, laughing, while pulling you along with him. 

—

And from there, middle school was great. It was almost like a fairytale adventure! The amount of pranks pulled and not giving a single fuck of what people thought was what really made it memorable. The laughter and Luffy’s toothy smiles were a bonus. Alas, it was the end of an era when promotion happened and you had to leave, but at that time, Luffy wasn’t alone anymore; he now had the grumpy little moss head named Zoro by his side.

“Are you sure you have to go?”

“I’m sure I’m not tryna be left behind!”

His hands crossed behind his head as he kicked the nearest pebbles on the floor. “How sure are you?”

“Pretty sure I’m leaving with my fam, bro.” You slammed the last of your tunics into your stocky suitcase. “But all the memories we shared... they were all gucci my man. It was the pea to my pods, the fucking yin to meh yang, the apple to my eye,” he had no clue what the hell you were saying and was even more confused when you placed your hand on his shoulder. Your first was balled up into a ball and over dramatic tears spilled down your cheeks.  “I will forever miss you, home dawg. But on some real shit, this be an end to an era.”

“Y/n, you’re leaving, not dying,” he pouts, “speak English not shaker speaker.”

“Shakespeare,” you corrected. “Don’t forget about me you hoebag.” You ruffled his little tangled locks as Luffy nods and holds his two thumbs up in affirmation. You squeeze him in that annoying hug he hates so much. And it dawned upon you: you need a picture. This one is hitting the scrapbooks you’ve been making.

You shuffled around for your Sony camera and flipped it to take a selfie. Luffy hesitates for a moment. 

“Cmon man! Just one for my scrapbooks please.”

You pull him closer to your frame and smile the dorkiest smile you can muster, he does the same. This was for the scrapbooks you treasured after all. You reviewed it with him. It looked perfect, the red-lined braces being the most prominent thing in the photo along with your Nirvana tee and animal-shaped rubber bands. 

“You should smile more bro! You look so good here!”

And maybe for the first time, he does smile at the compliment, ignoring the string of metal wires along his teeth. He was gonna miss you.

Before you departed, he gave you one last fist bump. “See you around, Y/n!” was the last thing you heard before the taxi drove off.

And he doesn’t see you for a long time. And his braces get removed, making high school a bit easier than the years prior. And yes, maybe he doesn’t see you until college, but one thing is for sure, he never stopped smiling.

[alkhale]

Hello hello miss!... Uh, I think that's how you identify??? If not, please tell me!!! I don't wanna misgender you on accident or something Q-Q Anyways, I've been reading Memo, and I! Really love Hoku, and the way she interacts with the world, and her relationships with everyone, it's just really well written. Plus, she sounds REALLY pretty and I'm weak for that. That aside, are you up for getting ideas for Memo!AUs people've had, or headcanons? If not it's cool, just wanted to ask :> ~ Vira

omg u good, dw anon. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU CUTIE, I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD USE AN uwu WHEN ANSWERING THIS ONE HAHAHAHA. Thank you for loving it and thank you so much!! CALLING HOKU PRETTY IS SO SWEET WHEN SHE PROBABLY JUST LOOKS AT HERSELF LIKE HELL YEAH THAT KIIONOHI WAS WORTH IT. 

I’m guilty of already having a lot of AU ideas for Memos and I might just start a story on AO3 for a collection of them so they don’t clutter the actual story or I can go more in depth or explore some other things hahaha. I’ll start putting them in little omakes and stuff, but Memos chapters have been hella long so I’m worried about overbogging stuff but y’all seem chill with these crazy counts so i hope u don’t mind

AUs:

- School AU, this one’s just fun shenanigans and I love modern AUs. School Council President Sabo, Ace being Ace, Hot teacher Shanks, for some reason Kid and Hoku both have the same art class in basic architecture and metal welding because he’s a grease monkey and Hoku likes designs. Straw Hat crew in school, Brook’s a popular soul musician. Franky and Robin are teachers. 

- MODERN AU. I have so many ideas i wanna hash out for different Modern AUs, hahaha, i’m so attracted to these and was this close to writing it out instead as its own kind of story but Memos won over. 

ASL+Hoku living together and their daily life (together its HASL like hassle and that’s exactly what it’s like with these idiots)

Started to live together once Ace and Sabo were in their third year of high school, it’s been awhile now. (Hoku’s family passed away when she was young, Garp was doing marine work stationed in Hawaii and took an interest in her but before he could find her, she went to live with ‘someone else’ until he managed to shove her in with Luffy, she’s technically an emancipated minor)

Ace is a construction worker/part time fire fighter and picks up all sorts of odd jobs and errand runs.

Whitebeard took him in on several occasions when stuff happened. Ace is super close to the group even though they’re lowkey high profile crime bosses. Marco’s a doctor underground and professional, Thatch is a chef (whitebeard’s crew always sends gifts and visits and hooks them up with deals at random places)

“Ace! Can you call Marco? I think Hoku’s anemic again.”

“I swear to god, put down that phone he’s going to give me all those pills and I don’t wanna pay the hospital bill–”

“But it’s free.”

“God damn it.”

Sabo works for a high fashion brand design/political activist group (somehow these two meshed and Dragon runs both so)

Hoku and Luffy are students almost finishing up with high school. 

Sabo is designated most put-together-has-his-shit-ready, if you can’t find your paint brushes Hoku, ask Sabo. Ace, Sabo put ur laundry away already. He’s usually in charge of meals and making sure the bills get paid. (Their apartment is spacious but a little dingy and random stuff breaks or falls apart but Ace and Hoku are really handy and always fixing shit)

Ace can only make pasta and grilled foods. He’s great with the barbecue. Luffy can’t cook. Hoku cooks pretty damn well but she’s clumsy in the kitchen so she tries to cook before Sabo or Ace get home and they scream something about her cutting off a finger and needing stitches again

House is always decorated with flowers or something nice like a painting or photos or tapestries. Hoku always does that.

They have a small garden plot by the apartment complex. Hoku and Sabo take care of it. Ace and Luffy eat from it a lot and run out animals trying to steal the tangerines from the tree Nami’s adopted mom gave them as a house warming gift.

The three of them fill out a lot of her pages in her sketchbooks and easels. “Is that Sabo again?” “Yeah, he fell asleep reading and he looks too perfect so I wanted to draw it.” “That kinda pisses me off.” “Me too, we’ll do something about it when I finishl.”

Her art classmates are always super eager to see her stuff and ask about the hot older guys in her drawings and please ask them to model. Hoku relents. Ace comes in to model because he gets paid. That’s a story for another day.

Hoku has regular poker nights for awhile now with a group of people Ace and Sabo didn’t think about (they always thought it was the girls or some friends like their friend group) until one night Luffy goes to hang out with the others and they’re like?? Hoku??? and Luffy’s like?? Hoku doesn’t do poker nights with us you dummies.

This sends them into a panic attack and Sabo has Hoku’s location at all times because he did something permanent to her phone (Hoku does not know this) and they visit (stalk) her at one of her poker nights. Find out its in some weirdly shady fancy club body guarded by a bunch of ridiculously macho looking guys (it’s actually Daz, Vergo and some others) They stake out and froth at the mouth, nearly dying when they see Hoku walk out surrounded by GIANT MEN DOUBLE HER SIZE AND AGE, HOKU HONEY, WHAT? It’s Crocodile and Doflamingo, usually Mihawk, and sometimes Jimbei comes.

Hoku’s like ?? I’ve played poker with these guys for forever. (They’re big crime syndicates and totally into illegal business and Sabo knows this and Ace is ready to murder) but apparently Hoku weaseled her way in and she’s a good player so they have fun and like gambling with her. They always suggest taking her to Vegas with them because they’re high rollers but Hoku’s always like nah i got school and work.

Sabo and Ace after herding her home try to convince her to stop meeting with them and Hoku’s just like lmao no and takes out huge wads of cash from her pockets. “They’re ridiculously rich and I win a lot.” They also pay for a lot of good food and Hoku’s not about to pass that up. (She sneaks leftovers for Luffy all the time ((but the older men already know and usually just have shit boxed up for her anyway))) 

“But they’re older men and dangerous!”

“It’s not like I’m going on a date with them. It’s just gambling.”

“You like older men!”

“Oh, yeah, huh.”

Law and Kid are classmates and Luffy and Hoku hang out with them a lot when its not with their crew and Ace and Sabo are always like cant you hang out with better people. Kid and Law never feel welcome in their house but Hoku’s just like dw if they bother u i won’t talk to them and then they get upset and yada yada. Doesn’t stop Ace and Sabo from being super mean looking and scary. Kid and Law are hard to ward off, unfortunately.

Law’s studying to be a doctor, well on the way. Kid’s a mechanic and works at a shop and does street racing. Hoku wants to design a car interior for him.

People always say Sabo seems like the prim and perfect gentlemen of the three and he’ll make a good husband and they just laugh and Hoku tells Koala and she laughs because they always wave their hands and say nah nah, Sabo’s secretly the most sneaky and lowkey scary/sadistic/a tease out of all of them, don’t let the pretty face fool you

(and he really is, sometimes he makes Hoku beg for the pretty cakes he brings home from work from clients because he thinks its cute when she’s trying to reach them over his head)

Shanks is a famous traveler/explorer, always known for doing crazy stuff and his team of explorers climb mountains, explore caves, travel all around the world and take beautiful shots and Hoku and Luffy always tune in. Shanks saved Luffy once from a freak accident and he’s his hero and Hoku has such a hopeless crush on him.

Modern AU where Law is Luffy’s partner in college for a project and he goes to Luffy’s house. Hoku’s a TA for Shanks and stupidly stupid for him and Law meets her and feels things.

Modern AU where Strawhat crew goes on a road trip.

Monsters AU. Hoku’s a ghost.

Hanahaki AU. Red flowers.

Marines AU.

Genderbent AU.

Some other ones but i gotta go finish that essay i mentioned hahaha, hope these were fun! the modern HASL one ran away with me

THANKS FOR LOVING IT

[cheswirls]

it’s your extension (let me extend) 2/6

sabo wakes with a start, finds himself on the floor, and groans. 

luffy opens the door, eyes already narrowed in annoyance, to find his brother lying in bed with the sheets tangled in his legs and his hands on his face, elbows over his head. sabo groans again, loudly, and luffy silently closes the door without a word, only shaking his head.

the night before, sabo had read ace’s newest note in his sketchbook, mourning the loss of the page and only slightly mystified by the declaration at the end.

and then he woke up in ace’s body again.

he wasn’t that dense. he could figure it out now.

he had twenty-four hours to spend as ace portgas.

sabo groans one more time before dropping his arms and sitting up, the sun finally rising enough over the crest of the crater to hit his eyes when he does so. he turns away and the alarm on ace’s phone goes off.

minutely, his eyes widen. he abandons the phone in favor of running down the hall. “luffy!” he calls, storming into the younger’s room. luffy looks mildly surprised, but overall unimpressed, by this act. “the ceremony,” sabo stumbles out.

“you mean the one tomorrow?”

sabo bobs his head, already retreating. “yes, that one. thanks.” he shuts the door back and hurries back to ace’s room.

then, after a moment contemplating this fact, he finds ace’s diary and scribbles his own note in the margin.

how did the ceremony go?

-

ace hates this.

he’s dressed in traditional wear, garp had him rehearse the dance twice before night fell to ensure whatever he did yesterday was worked out of his system, and luffy is not helping by telling him how many people were stopping to gather around the short gazebo they’d be performing from.

a ceremony as old as the village. the reason was lost with the burning of the temple records, the fire so much a cursed accident that it was named after the man who started it. only the act, the how, was carried through time.

ace grasps the coil of bells in one hand. tight.

he tries not to think of lami and kidd, probably sitting out over the ridge, looking down, waiting for it all to start. supportive or no, he’d rather them not see this.

gramps sits off to the side. when the time is right, he presses a button on a remote, and from an ancient-looking cassette player holed up in the corner of the gazebo rafters, a low tune begins to play. ace glances over to luffy, kneeled down and holding his own bells, and then they began.

the dance is slow, the movements precise. the music of the bells drowns out what was playing from the cassette tape. ace matches luffy, and luffy him, though mostly him to luffy, covering the slack the nine-year-old left. he sees gramps sigh as he swings his head in that direction for a moment, following the patterns of the dance. before he can catch the old man’s eye, tell him to fuck off for berating a nine-year-old, he has to turn away again.

soon enough, the dance ends, he’s set aside the bells, and his least favorite part comes up.

him and luffy take a seat and unwrap portions of rice from brown paper. ace sighs, just a little, as he pinches a corner of the rice and lifts it to his mouth, beginning to chew slowly. he waits a minute, then adds another corner. then another.

then he sets aside the paper in favor of a wooden box, holds a sleeve to cover his mouth from the gathered crowd, and lets the drool drop down from his lips.

he repeats this until the paper is devoid of rice. the box is halfway full.

he doesn’t check to see how luffy was doing. instead, he lifts his eyes and looks out over the crowd. kidd and lami aren’t there, thank god, though he was sure they were still watching him from somewhere. who is there, though, are a few of his classmates, and they’re all snickering as they watch him.

ace jerks his gaze down sharply. he lets the last of the liquid drop into the box and closes his mouth, leaving his sleeve in place for a moment longer to hide his blush.

rice-wine, gramps called it. or, the oldest sake in the world. he closes the lid on the box and begins to tie a braided cord around it. next to him, luffy does the same, tying the cord ace had personally braided him the week before, against his protest of wanting to do it himself, despite not knowing how just yet. not like gramps would let him, anyway. if you chew on rice long enough, turn it into sludge, you can ferment it and turn it into sake.

kuchikomi-sake, in other words. 

ace sighs, kicking out his feet with every step, knocking stray rocks out of his path. from behind him, struggling to keep up, luffy groans in annoyance.

“get over yourself!” he whines. “so you were put on display. so some of your friends saw you. so what? it’s tradition. it’s one night a year!”

“not my friends,” ace growls, spinning on his heel. luffy stops, huffing, and tightens his grip on his robes packed into his arms. his friends wouldn’t laugh at him. more than that, they understood, they knew how much he-

“-hate this place,” luffy mumbles. ace blinks, snapping out of his thoughts.

“what?”

“you hate this place,” luffy repeats, grumbling. “i know that. it’s stuffy and small and there’s nothing here, and you’d sooner move away, but-” he breaks off, looks away. “i-” he swallows, blinks, tries again. “i don’t want you to be like dad. i don’t want you to go too.”

ace’s breath catches and his clothes fall to the ground and luffy jumps in surprise but then ace is knelt down and his arms come around his little brother, holding tight. 

“i’m not leaving you,” he murmurs. “i’m sorry you feel that way. i’m not leaving. i’m not going to be like dragon. i promise.”

luffy grips him tight, letting his clothes be held between them. he might have tears in his eyes, but he’ll never admit it. and ace will never ask.

they stay like that for a long time.

-

sabo pulls out his sketchbook and writes on the page of his own volition, for once.

if we’re going to keep doing this, we need to set some rules.

he picks out his current log book and flips it open to a fresh page, lying it out beside the sketchbook. several days had already been skipped, blanks in his notes, and he couldn’t stand it anymore.

i need you to set my alarm before you go to sleep. at least a couple. it’s impossible for me to get up without them.

you don’t have to get everything, but try and summarize the day in this book. date it, too.

please don’t patronize koala.

i’ll leave a work schedule on my desk for the week. follow it.

he went on and on, filling the page and deciding not to leave another. should be enough. he draws an arrow in the sketchbook over to the notebook, asking ace to look at it.

he scribbles in the margins, before he can forget.

reference this book for what you need to know. i keep good notes. just read them from the previous day, and you’ll be set.

-

“triste!”

a loud call of the surname is enough to have ace flinching back, and he glances over his shoulder as he’s finishing tying his apron strings, spying an older man speeding towards him.

he grabs ace by the shoulders. “i heard you almost fought with a customer last night.”

ace averts his eyes. “uh, i did, huh?” way to go, sabo. the man’s eyes narrow further. ace sighs. “sorry. won’t happen again.”

his shoulders get shaken. “don’t lie!” the man growls. “just tell me it was for a good cause, at least!”

“uh-”

“it was, zeff.”

ace blinks, and tips his head back to see robin approaching them, tying her hair up. zeff nods and releases ace, stepping back. 

“good. that’s all i wanted to hear.” he jabs a finger to ace’s chest. “don’t let it happen while i’m around.”

he moves away, back to the kitchen, and from behind him, robin snorts.

ace turns sharply on his heel. her arms are crossed. “what?”

“you really should be more careful,” she muses. 

ace wraps his own arms around around his form, nodding, growing sullen. not my fault, he thinks. “i’ll try,” he says aloud.

“there’s a toothpick in my food!”

sabo deadpans. he blinks, looking from the toothpick indeed lodged between the crust and cheese of the pizza, then back to the man swirling wine in his glass, looking like he should be sitting on top of the world.

“we don’t serve toothpicks,” he says, matter-of-factly. the man’s smirk turns into a snarl.

“huh?!” he growls, voice raising. other patrons turn from nearby tables to look at them. sabo doesn’t back down.

“that’s not our toothpick. you-”

“are you insinuating i’m lying?” the man nearly yells. sabo opens his mouth again.

robin lays a hand across his chest, pushing him back. he begins to protest, but she turns her head quick, gives him a look with sharp eyes that has his mouth snapping shut.

“sorry,” she mutters to the men. “what seems to be the problem?”

sabo huffs, but lets himself be guided away by another waiter. 

“cool it,” he mutters, and sabo lets his shoulders slump. he’s pushed into the kitchen without a backwards glance, sure that robin could handle the problem. when he looks down, he sees the serving tray he’d had cradled to his chest has a crack in it.

“you can fight off the property,” zeff tells him, passing him by. 

“not a very good business prospect,” he retorts.

zeff only laughs. “not if its inside my restaurant. if they deserve it, though, who am i to care? kick his ass as he’s leaving.”

“you’re a terrible influence,” sabo mutters.

“thank robin instead of berating me. she’s saved you from another scuffle.”

he does. thank robin. she wacks him on the head, but it’s nothing he doesn’t deserve, so he only frowns and lets her do it. 

“i’m taking the next dish you break out of your paycheck,” she threatens, and sabo gulps, knowing she meant it.

-

ace wakes up to find ‘idiot!’ stamped across his forehead in black marker. he takes off his shirt and growls, finding more words all the way up his arms.

“alright, i get it,” he growls, scrubbing the ink off under the sink. “i’ll help with your stupid schoolwork!”

-

sabo wakes up to his laptop on his stomach. his fourth alarm had gone off, which meant he didn’t have enough time to deal with all the writing scribbled on his face, revealed by the blank screen in front of him.

he tumbles out of bed and to a proper mirror, glancing to the clock. “i don’t have time to read your fucking essay,” he mutters, snapping a picture instead and running off to scrub the ink from his face.

he deciphers the text on the train ride to school and rolls his eyes. “what do i care about the election,” he mumbles.

-

sabo closes his eyes, pencil paused on the easel, and listens.

“-same as always, right? only one person’s been mayor for as long as i can remember.”

“hey, shh! there are some kids that depend on that-”

“they’re talking about me, aren’t they?” sabo mutters, leaning to his other side, where lami sat. she froze up, but as he peels his eyes open, finds her reluctantly nodding. sabo sighs.

the muttering continues. 

well, he doesn’t have to put up with it.

so he reaches his leg out, presses it up against the empty desk sat beside him, and shoves it over. it topples with a crash that has the entire room’s attention focused on him. he crosses his arms. good.

“if you’re going to talk about me,” he says, glaring over at the girls. “then do it to my face.”

-

why am i getting confession letters from other guys? at least, i assume that’s what they are. kidd rips them up before i can read them. lami just stands back and watches.

luffy got into another playground fight. i don’t think your gramps appreciated that i congratulated him. or, well, that you did.

braided cords are so hard to make! i don’t understand how you do it so well. garp keeps yelling at me, but i feel like luffy can do a better job, at this point.

you should really stick up for yourself more.

you work too much! seriously, it’s driving me insane. the only good thing about it is robin. why do i always feel like i’m being talked into shaking down customers?

i really don’t understand these lessons, but i am trying my best here.

makino is disappointed in you again. you really did it this time.

koala says you’re not very strong, so why are you so quick to snap? you should take better care of yourself.

-

ace wakes up as himself.

he blinks, eyeing the familiar ceiling, yet tossing his legs over the futon like he expected there to be a drop.

instead, his legs slam into the wood. his hisses in pain, curling them forward, and his eyes blow wide.

wait. but that wasn’t right. he’d already been himself for a day. they were supposed to switch. why didn’t it-

he slowly moves his legs back under the covers, slipping the blanket over his head. he was dreaming. he had to wake up properly, and then he would be sabo.

luffy comes in to yell about him oversleeping and ace bolts up again, just catching the door as it slammed shut. he blinks. still in his own body.

no, no. he settles back down again. that wasn’t right. something happened. he hadn’t gone to sleep. that’s what it was. he’d been dreaming, sure, but he wasn’t fully unconscious, so the switch hadn’t happened. that explained it. if he just went to sleep now, he’d wake up-

the door opens again and luffy is flinging the covers off, leaving ace shivering. “get up!” he yells.

ace tosses his hands in the air. “okay, okay! i’m up!”

he panics. not too bad, nothing noticeable. this had never happened before. think, think. was there something that could have triggered it? anything at all?

he makes it through school for the day before he realizes, and slaps a hand to his forehead, hard, when he comes to that conclusion. lami and kidd eye him funny, but he ignores them, muttering to himself.

“that’s it. the test. that must be it.”

lami and kidd exchange glances.

“what test?” she asks.

ace raises his head up. “oh, his-” he freezes, words halfway out his mouth. their shared expressions grow pinched. “nothing. nevermind,” he mutters. “i’m going home.”

he opens up his notebook at home, scribbling the date out. his eyes move up the page, where sabo had asked about a project due the other day. his own reply is still underneath, written neatly. he picks up the pen again, sighing. 

the blond had been working hard as of late. maybe ace could do something for him, for a change.

-

spring takes a bit to settle, this far north. it’s cold until it’s hot, and summer slams into the valley full-force.

sabo forgoes the uniform jacket for the simple short-sleeve shirt. he brushes out his hair, searches for the band, and works the hair up into a high knot before seeking out the diary.

it was fine. ace wrote. below that, he has yesterday’s date printed. it’s slashed over in a hurry, and a new date is printed below that, in shaky script. 

sabo knows what that’s from.

he’d had a test the previous day, so he’d stayed up all night to study for it. they couldn’t switch bodies if they didn’t fall asleep. sabo had remained as himself for two days in a row, and ace had recalculated at the end of the day, when he realized the switch wouldn’t be happening.

sabo takes the pen resting inside the notebook and taps it against the paper, thinking. finally, he sets it down face-up with a sigh, and opts to venture downstairs.

he stops in the doorway to the main room, looking out the open shoji doors to the landscape below. luffy pauses in working through his rice bowl, eyeing sabo with an odd look. “what’s with the uniform?” he asks, and sabo nearly drops his shoes.

right. the weekend. “testing you,” he says, the words a bit awkward. “you passed. i’ll be back.”

he retreats quickly, and behind him, luffy and garp share a look.

it’s hot outside. he ditches the stuffy button-up for a loose tank, shorts for the pants, high-tops in place of school shoes. he grabs a thin jacket on his way out and throws it around his shoulders, because if they went any higher upground than they currently were, the wind would catch them.

an hour later, he’s glad he did so, hiking up a mountain further from the crater-village than he would’ve thought. luffy is behind him, hands on the straps to his backpack, and he doesn’t miss an opportunity to jump over a stray branch or pebble or whatever ends up in their path. behind them both, garp ambles along, slow but insistent that he walk by himself, without aid from his grandsons. sabo keeps glancing back, but he doesn’t have the courage just yet to toss the old man over his shoulder and continue their hike.

“why is our god’s shrine way out here?” luffy asks, turning around to face their grandfather as he speaks. he continues walking, and sabo turns his head to keep an eye out, make sure he doesn’t trip.

“well, i don’t quite have that answer. it was lost in the same fire that destroyed all the records,” garp grunts. 

“fire?” sabo murmurs. luffy spins back around and they share a look, like he’s supposed to know something, but he doesn’t, because he’s not really ace.

they cross a short river, just little enough to step over -sabo helps luffy across, though, not trusting the boy to miss the landing- and then the golden hues of the leaves around them change. the trees morph into tall, tall conifers, blocking out most of the sun’s light and casting a myriad of shadows on the forest floor. soon, sabo begins to see shimenawa wrapped around the tree’s trunks. it’s so out of place here, he’s only ever seen it at select temples in goa. but, if this really was a holy place they were approaching, he could see why. they were getting close.

“ace, luffy. have you heard of musubi?” garp asks.

“misubi?” luffy questions. sabo shakes his head.

“musubi,” is garp’s correction. “in the olden language of our village, it’s the name of our guardian deity.”

sabo blinks, trying to recall if he’s ever heard the name before. he doesn’t think so -not as ace, and not back in goa, either. “what does it mean?”

“joining thread. joining people, too. even the passage of time. just look at the braided cords we make.” garp gestures to ace’s hair, and sabo raises a hand to it out of instinct, touching the band with his fingerpads. no, that wasn’t right. the cord. a braided cord.

“those are musubi’s art. they represent the flow of time, too. twisting, tangling, coming undone, breaking off, reuniting, retaining shape and form and meaning. that’s musubi.”

sabo knows he’s come to a stop when garp overtakes him, turning to look back with a wink, and only then does sabo begin to move again.

“that’s time.”

they’re stopped on an overhang, a patch of rock just smooth enough for sitting around, when garp brings it up again.

he’s uncapped the thermos from luffy’s backpack and pours a good amount of tea into the lid, passing it to sabo. he takes a sip, hums at the taste, and then luffy starts bouncing his leg.

“i want some, too!”

“sure,” sabo murmurs, passing it along.

“that’s another musubi,” garp says across from them. sabo looks up with interest, and he continues speaking with a sparkle in his eyes.

“water, tea, sake. whatever you put into your body binds to your soul. musubi is all about binding.” he gestures to the backpack. “which is why our offering today is so important. it’s binding our god to our people.”

there’s a dip at the top of the mountain. luffy breaks into a run, reaches the crest before the other two, and turns to assure them they had made it.

when sabo steps up to look for himself, his breath catches in his throat.

there was a small valley, a plateau sloped down from the crater made of rocks. once you cleared the sides, greenery covered the plateau. water set out everywhere. in wide pools, in streams, in thick puddles. and, at the center, it formed a looping circle, like thread, sabo thinks, and surrounds a lone, squatty tree. he can see something similar to cement set up near the base. the entrance to the shrine, probably.

tears pool at the edges of his eyes. he’s never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

at garp’s protest, luffy stays close to them instead of bounding ahead. him and sabo both help garp down the sides of the crater, and then they all steadily make their way to the center, coming to a stop at the edge of the river-circle.

“this is the edge of the other side,” garp tells them. he only smiles at their curious looks, then gestures across the stream. “the next world.”

luffy’s eyes brighten and, gripping his backpack tight, he quickly moves across the stream, using the rocks set into the flowing water to avoid getting wet.

sabo looks back at garp and then down at his shoes and thinks, well, ace will forgive him.

he steps down into the water, cold but not too much, barely reaching his ankles. he helps garp onto the first stone, only a grunt in thanks coming from the old geezer. he walks him across, then helps him onto the next stone.

“in order to return to our world, you two must leave behind what’s most important to you,” garp says, nodding to sabo once they were both safe across.

sabo touches the cord in his hair. garp minutely shakes his head.

“the kuchikame-sake.”

“the stuff from the ceremony?” luffy pipes up. garp nods. sabo is no longer paying attention.

it wasn’t cement.

instead, set up from the ground, is a huge slab of limestone. the tip of it juts out sharply, moving into the trunk of a massive tree, leaves fanned out to cover past the stone on one side, and near touch the grass on the other, bent so far over. on the edge of the stone, he sees a crack, an opening. a collection of rocks on one corner balance the stone, leaving the opening free to explore.

“yes.” garp sets a heavy hand on sabo’s shoulder, pulling him forward. as they get closer, sabo can see the gap is far wider than he imagined, and big enough to walk under, crouching only becoming necessary the further they went down. “you’re offering it to the god’s body. the sake is half of you, after all.”

sabo remembers. though he hadn’t performed the ceremonial action, he had gotten lectured on what to do. to ingest rice, to spit it back out, to let it ferment. 

anything that went past your lips binded to your soul. became musubi.

sabo understands.

as garp hands him a wooden bottle, bound with a red cord, garp’s words come back to him. half of ace. half of his soul, here in sabo’s hands.

“there’s not actually a body down here, right?” luffy asks.

garp’s laugh is quiet, for once. “no. it’s a shrine, luffy. setting the bottles at the shrine will be enough.”

“how come it’s only us?” luffy turns back to look at garp and sabo steps forward quickly, worried about the boy tripping down the stone steps. “how come you don’t have to do the same?”

he already has, sabo thinks. if it was tradition. if it was their family, upholding this tradition.

“once is enough,” garp tells luffy, confirming sabo’s suspicions. luffy’s mouth opens as he begins to catch on.

the sun is setting as they venture down from the mountains.

“it’s half-light already,” luffy hums, eyes open in wonder as they both turn to admire the lake from above. 

“half-light,” sabo hums, recalling what ace’s teacher had said that one time. he doesn’t think it’s quite time yet, but he’s too busy to correct luffy.

ace’s diary is opened in his hands. he’s been writing in it, detailing what he’d done that day in ace’s body, like they’d agreed to do. came down from mt. corvo at half-light, he notes, then scribbles a word out. near half light, the correction reads.

“think we can see the comet?” luffy asks, spinning on his heel to face sabo.

sabo lifts his head, confusion marring his gaze. “comet?”

“oh?”

garp’s voice comes from right beside him. sabo pauses in his writing, glances over to find garp watching him.

“ace, you’re dreaming right now, aren’t you?”

[neverwatchedonepiece]

648-649: "Making a Sortie! The Legendary Hero Usoland!" and "The Fierce Battle Coming to the End! Lucy vs Chinjao!"

*looks into the camera like in The Office*

The fight between Luffy and Don Chinjao is finally over! I think after what happened, Luffy might have found a new friend. Law also made a stressful phone call to The Krusty Krab Sunny and ordered delivery of one ship to Green Bit.

Zoro and Franky have teamed up with Sol at Resistance HQ in Flower Field, and if Usopp keeps perpetuating his fantastic bullshit, the entire Strawhat crew will be elevated to God status in the Tontatta tribe.

Slightly worried about Law and the Strawhats stuck on Sunny but I’m seventy percent certain they will pull through and won’t be captured by any Donquixote family affiliates. (The thirty percent left over remains a huge, nagging doubt.)

Luffy’s Tough Love Fight Therapy

The Colosseum showdown between Luffy and Don Chinjao picked up at the start of episode 649.

The action was fast and furious. Luffy pulled out all his quick moves: jet pistol, jet gatling, jet stamp gatling. All defended against by Chinjao. The crowd went wild. It was one of the greatest matches the Colosseum had ever seen! Some cheered for Lucy. Others cheered for Chinjao. The atmosphere was electric.

“You’re quite a fighter,” Don Chinjao said.

“Yeah, you’re strong too, as I thought,” Luffy answered. You know. Being honest as he is.

Don Chinjao totally overreacted. “WHAT U SAY? STRONG? U TRYIN TO INSULT MEH??”

Luffy was, quite rightly, bewildered. ���Wtf, all I said was that you’re strong?”

Apparently, this was a grave insult to Don Chinjao. A huge kick in the ego. Chinjao had been much stronger before.

“I’m no better than a wolf without its fangs now. A skin-headed man without his drill. A brat like you can’t understand how miserable I feel living my life like this. I’m frustrated, disappointed and sad. But you can never understand.”

I laughed when Luffy yelled, “How can I understand? You keep messing with me without explaining anything!” (He’s just saying what we were all thinking, right?)

“You really want to know why I’ve become like this?”

“No, I’m not that interested.” (Lmao! We meet again, harsh Luffy.)

“Well, I’ll tell you before you die, since you insist.” 

Don Chinjao is one of those old dudes that is TELLING you that long and rambling story even though you have showed zero interest and have been glancing at your watch for the past half hour.

Suddenly, Luffy the Fight Therapist was unwilling and open for business.

According to Chinjao, Garp punched his head in thirty years ago. Literally. As in Don Chinjao once looked like Dan Akroyd from 90s sci-fi comedy, Coneheads. 

That was until his resplendent, pointy napper met Garp’s fist.

The whole flashback was hilariously weird. Turns out Chinjao’s drill-like bonce was the only means to access his remote family treasure vault under an ice sheet. Once Garp took away the key, Chinjao fell into a deep depression. Heartbroken, he retired from piracy, a lifeless shell, just idling away time.

That was kind of sad. I felt for Chinjao then. He’s like the model of the old, proud working man who suffers a physical injury, can no longer work and slips into anger and depression. Since Chinjao knows and values nothing but strength, wealth and power, he cannot and will not see another way forward. Unlike Luffy, Don Chinjao got his ass beat and never found the strength to crawl out of the gutter and retrain.

Instead, he decided to lay the blame for his misfortune squarely at Luffy’s feet.

Luffy, naturally, was outraged. “Wtf are you talking about? Grandpa and I are different people. Look, mate. I’m busy. I’m gonna win Ace’s fruit at any cost and become the Pirate King. I have no time to be your therapist.”

Then Chinjao made two Big Mistakes.

Wow, Chinjao has Really Specific Taste

Mistake #1?

Chinjao laughed off Luffy’s chances at becoming Pirate King. The reason was typical crotchety old man talk: “the media lionised you worst generation squirts and it emboldened you. But none of you are strong enough to sail across the sea *we* fought on. After Whitebeard’s death, I ain’t expecting much. The only guy who looks good is Blackbeard Teach.”

At the mere mention of Teach, Luffy’s eyes became two circles.

“If I had to pick one, it’s him. But anyway, if you’re only good enough to compete against me, just give up!”

Oh, Chinjao, I thought. Ohhhhhhhh, you just goofed. You goofed big time. You do not mention Teach in a positive light within Luffy’s earshot. You just do not. Teach was the asshole who captured Ace and handed him to the Marines. He shares Public Enemy Number One status with Akainu. Tell Luffy you believe Teach will become Pirate King and your fate is sealed.

Mistake #2?

Chinjao’s fighting style is kinda lame. People who spin during fights in shounen anime are always fodder (the one that sticks out is that spinning top guy in the HxH Heaven’s Arena arc.) This was not his mistake. It’s just a side thought.

The Teach comment pushed Luffy’s buttons. But what Chinjao said next was even worse.

“You’re not too bad but if a guy like Rayleigh chose a brat at this level as the flag bearer for this generation, he’s not as smart as he used to be. The Marines were smart when they squelched the most evil one of the lot: Ace. That man had demon’s blood in his veins. Do you think you can beat the Marine admirals, the Yonkou and surpass Roger? That’s impossible!”

Demon’s blood? Most evil one of the lot?

*cue Kill Bill red-mist music*

“Stop whining over one punch!” Luffy yelled, as he wound up a Thor Elephant Gun attack. “I can’t count how many times I got punched by Grandpa!”

When the attack connected and that spike popped back out of Chinjao’s head, I laughed like a drain. Luffy hit Chinjao so hard, he turned the clock back thirty years.

I’m sure Chinjao will be ecstatic. Take the L with good grace, mate. Your conehead is back! Go and wreak havoc on the high seas again. Recoup that treasure. The world is your oyster!

Up on the balcony, Bartolomeo still has not revealed his connection with Luffy. Cavendish is still throwing a strop. Bellamy is lurking in the shadows, clearly in two minds about his new assassination mission. And Burgess, thanks to Cavendish and his big mouth, knows that Luffy is Lucy.

Thanks, Cavendish.

(And Burgess really does walk around chortling and flexing all the time. He’s like an evil All Might.)

Thus the Legendary Heroes of Green Bit were Born

This cast reunion based on Usopp’s total bullshit was so much fun.

I loved Usopp and Robin’s expressions when the Tontatta took them to their airport. They were starry-eyed. And so they should’ve been. It was a miniature version of a proper, fully-equipped modern airport. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place had Duty Free, passport control and Starbucks concessions.

But it was not a holiday destination Usopp and Robin were flying out to. The entire airport had been overtaken by a military operation. Cub, the yellow bee squad leader, and Bian, the pink bee squad leader, reported for duty. Usopp picked up the bee planes and kept saying, “I wanna show this to Luffy.” (They are such good pals, it warms my heart.)

Unfortunately, Usopp and Robin were too big to travel by bee plane, so they had to take the local number 20 bus to Dressrosa. The buses were cute, vulpix-like foxes with huge, fluffy tails you can sink right into for a comfortable ride.

While they made their way through the tunnel, Master Roshi - the pervy little Tontatta chief - emerged from Robin’s cleavage. He bore dire warnings. “I should tell you because you will risk your lives for our cause.”

Usopp was thinking, “I ain’t gonna die for you but go on...”

“Doflamingo has been causing our tribe a lot of pain recently, but our connection with him goes way back before the last decade. Nine hundred years ago!”

Then the narrator interrupted and I was like, “So you’re just going to leave it there when I was about to get Doflamingo family history? I am not at all mad about this. No, sir. Not one bit.”

The action cut to Flower Field, where Franky and Sol descended a secret stairwell. Said stairwell led to the Resistance Army HQ! Some soldiers ran up to Sol and addressed him as “Captain”, so Sol is a Big Deal in the Resistance.

Franky was like, “Why are all these small people swarming me?”

Sol explained. The Tontatta people were called fairies in town, how they moved faster than the human eye could detect and how they were immensely strong. Franky put two and two together and realised one of them stole Zoro’s sword!

And guess who reached Flower Field before Franky? Before any of the other Strawhats!

That’s right. It’s our boy Zoro. (So proud he learned to follow directions.)

Zoro, hilariously, had made himself at home and was watching Luffy vs Chinjao on the big screen TV. He was absolutely fuming. Why hadn’t Luffy told him there was a fighting competition? THE BETRAYAL. Will he get over it? Probably.

He must’ve been distracted by the fight, as he completely forgot 

Then some intelligence scouts ran up. They had a report for Sol. “We already know what our enemies and Sugar are doing!” (Sugar? Who dat?) “And with the battle close at hand, some legendary heroes have appeared at Tontatta: Usoland and Robiland. They have brought with them Luffyland, Zoroland, Namiland, Sanland, Chopperland, Fraland and Boneland.”

Franky and Zoro exchanged a Look. They knew instantly Usopp was on the bullshit wagon again.

“Um, I think I’m Zoroland,” Zoro said. (Lmao, better get into character quick.)

“And I’m Fraland. Nice to meet you!” Franky added.

It was round about then that Zoro remembered that Nami, Chopper and Brook were in serious trouble back on Sunny. He now wants to skip the battle (he doesn’t yet know about) and rescue the other Strawhats.

I wonder how this will go? Wicka did say she would let Zoro go back to Sunny once he’d taken her back to Resistance HQ. But Leo and the others back on Green Bit were suspicious of Robin and Usopp escaping. Will they let Zoro go or will he have to fight the battle first? Hmmm... I’m fifty/fifty about this.

God damn it, Caesar

*curb your enthusiasm music kicks in*

Meanwhile, back on Green Bit, Law was under heavy bombardment. Fujitora took a step back in this episode and Doflamingo stole the limelight. The cool music from Enies Lobby (as I call it in my head. I have no idea what the real title is) played as Doflamingo pursued Law. 

As Doflamingo was about to land a finishing blow, Caesar shrieked, “OI, JOKER! Before you kill Law, I need you to take something back for me. Law took my heart and I don’t know what he’s gonna do with it!”

Doflamingo looked round like, “Wtf... are you talking about?” And while he was distracted, Law shambled his way out of trouble.

Doflamingo was furious. FFS, CAESAR. I bet he wanted to say that but couldn’t. Gotta keep your cash cow scientist happy..

Please send help. Our art teacher has locked us in class.

Unfortunately, Law didn’t have time for a breather. He had an urgent phone call to make.

While Nami, Chopper and Brook were brought up to speed on the Humans Turning Into Toys situation by Giolla, the ship’s DDM rang. Chopper hilariously ignored Giolla and answered the call (she was maaaaad).

It was Law. He said, “Is that Nami-san?”

To my disappointment, Chopper did not answer, “No, this is Patrick.”

“I don’t care what’s going on over there,” Law said. “Listen carefully. I need you to sail Sunny to Green Bit right now. I wanna leave Caesar with you guys. No time to explain. Bye!”

Okay, so I added in the “bye” part. Law abruptly hung up.

I like how he has faith that Nami, Chopper and Brook will be able to handle the situation, but their weapons have been rendered usless by Giolla’s Art Art Fruit power. I have no idea how they’re going to get out of this one (and I’m keen to see Oda’s creative solution).

The shitshow that is Law’s current existence continued once he hung up. Doflamingo is Doflamingo. He caught up with Law again near the end of episode 648. With that slasher smile, he shot Law with a string bullet and demanded to know who Law had called for help.

Doflamingo must be confident he has Law where he wants him because he spilled the beans on his diabolical plan to snare Luffy. “Give me back Caesar’s heart already. It’s so meaningless for you to keep hanging on here. Strawhat has already walked into the trap I set. He’s fighting in the gladiatorial contest at the Colosseum. Tough contenders from all over the world come to fight in it. Outlaws only. It’s a deadly competition. When someone loses, it’s a one way ticket to hell! He will never come out of the Colosseum alive! It’s the end of your alliance, Law. Just give up!”

I wonder if Law will use the heart as leverage. Maybe he’ll give up Caesar’s heart to escape, regroup and stop Doflamingo the old-fashioned way: with Tontatta military might. (Doflamingo better not kill him off...)

Don’t worry, Chinjao. Luffy will beat you until you feel better! :D

[wordsdrippinginink]

If you're taking prompts/want a prompt in the future -> MAS [or MarAce or SabAce] raising a kid together or when one of them have a bad day (and cuddles) or nsfw (first time? anniversary? spontaneous? Oo. MarAce or SabAce are fooling around and the other walks in and joins?) Or anything you want to write that tickles your fancy whenever. There's no time limit to this prompt so if you just want to keep it in your askbox you can(or delete it if there's no inspiration from any of these ideas)

I wasn’t taking prompts, but it’s was so nicely worded and I needed something to write today, so i give you this. (thanks also for letting me know the lack of time limit, because that was really nice to know too.)

“This is ridiculous,” Sabo whispers staring at the toddler asleep on their couch. “He’s a baby, we’re not responsible enough to care for a baby! Did Garp at least wait until you were there to leave him?”

Ace frowns at Sabo, “You think Garp stuck around? I went to the park and got tackled by all thirty pounds of toddler that called me his big brother. Garp apparently dropped him off just after noon and left him there.”

“You think Dragon would be smart enough not to leave his kid with his dad,” Sabo mutters dropping his head into his hands. “I’ll call him, see if we can’t get this straightened out.”

(More under the cut)

“Already did. Dragon’s headed out of the country for a research dig for the next three years. He said that he would be grateful if we took in Luffy for the duration of the dig. I told him that he would be lucky to get the kid back from us by that point and he had adoption paper couriered over.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Luffy said that I looked much nicer than his other dad and that he wouldn’t mind having three dads, but he couldn’t call us all dad because that would get confusing.”

“Have you told Marco yet?”

“I sent a text, he’s in meetings for the next couple of hours,” Ace glances at Sabo nervously. “I don’t think this was part of the deal when we got together.”

“Me either.”

Marco is use to Ace’s urgent texts.

They could be about a flat tire to being out of meat to Sabo was in the hospital. Which is why when he finds one on his phone after his meeting, he calls.

“What’s wrong?” Marco asks when Ace answers.

Ace sighs, “Remember Garp called and asked me to visit with him?”

“Yes?”

“Well, Dragon decided, I have this three year long dig to go to, let’s leave my toddler son with my dad. Well Garp decided that I would be a perfect sitter.”

“So we’ve got,” Marco isn’t sure of the name, he has never been as close to Dragon as Sabo or Ace, who was close only because he was forced to be.

“Luffy. It gets worse.”

“I’m not going to like this am I?”

“I called Dragon and said that if he left for three years, he wouldn’t get Luffy back from me. He, well, he took me up on it. I have adoption papers for the kid.”

Marco takes a slow deep breath, “We have a kid?”

“Congrats, it’s a three year old boy?”

“Who’s last name does he use,” Marco asks finally after a long moment of silence.

Ace laughs, “I think he likes Monkey. Sabo is helping clear out the spare room so we can set him up in there. I thought we could start looking for a bigger place? Our apartment isn’t exactly the most kid friendly.”

“We can start when I get home. What about day care and school?”

“Taken care of.”

Makino has a soft spot for Monkey D Luffy, even though she is suppose to treat all her students fairly. He’s a good kid, for all that his father is a little absent minded and his grandfather was rather, Makino wasn’t sure she had a polite word for him.

Which is why she pauses when Luffy mentions his new family.

“What happened to your old one,” Nami demands snatching her crayons back from Usopp with a frown.

“Dragon-dad had a trip, so he sent me to Grandpa, but Grandpa is real busy so he gave me to my new dads!” Luffy says happily coloring in his picture. “They’re real nice and they like meat!”

“What do they do?” Zoro asks.

Luffy frowns, “Marc-”

“You’re not suppose to call your parents by name,” Usopp states ducking when the table looks at him. “You aren’t.”

“My dads said that I could, cause they don’t want me to feel like they ‘spect me to call them that. They said I could use their names.”

Makino doesn’t doubt most of Luffy’s story, but she does hover around him when it’s time for his pick up and the door slams open.

“Luffy, sorry I’m late,” The man has something black smeared on his cheek and looks like he’s about to die as he gasps for breath. “Sabo had to stay late and we had a fire called in just before the end of my shift.”

“Ace!” Luffy shouts colliding with the man’s knees. “You’re here way sooner than Dragon-dad!”

Ace’s face spasms, Makino thinks it might be with disapproval, but he easily moves Luffy and picks him up.

“Luffy, who’s this?” She asks smiling.

Luffy grins, “Ace, this is Makino, she’s my teacher!”

“Nice to meet you?” Ace says slightly out of breath. “Sorry, Garp dropped Luffy off with us yesterday, we would have picked up the paperwork to change his information then, but Sabo was running late to school and Marco had a meeting.”

“It’s not a big deal. I can get you that paperwork as soon as I get some documentation?”

Ace nods, “Alright buddy, think you can reach into my bag and get that for me?”

“Yeah!” Luffy shouts scrambling over Ace’s shoulder enough to grab the papers that were inside. “Here you go!”

“Thank you, Luffy,” Ace kisses Luffy’s forehead and misses the way that Luffy’s eyes go wide and he sits still for a moment, handing her the papers.

They check out, everything is stamped and approved.

“Let me just,” Makino stops when the door slams open again and Shanks stumbles in with Benn on his heels.

“Makino!”

“Oh no,” Ace whines, Makino and Shanks jerk to look at him.

Shanks grins, “Firecracker! What are you doing here! Lu!”

“Shanks!”

“My Dragon-dad read books like that,” Luffy says holding a stuffed whale that Sabo knew use to belong to Ace. “The real big ones.”

“Did he?” Sabo asks, shifting the seat to make room for Luffy to slide into his lap. The kid was extra clingy once he seemed to realize that Dragon was actually gone. “That sounds like a lot.”

“He read lots more of them before he left. Are you gonna leave too?”

“I’m not going to leave,” Sabo promises. “And if I do have to leave, I’m gonna bring Marco and Ace and you,” He taps Luffy on the nose. “With me. You won’t be left behind, okay?”

“Okay!” Luffy pauses. “Why do you and Ace and Marco share a bed?”

“Because,” Marco answers from the couch, looking half asleep. “You share beds with people you love when you are a grown up.”

Sabo raises an eyebrow but says nothing as Luffy nods slowly.

“So you love Ace and Sabo? And Sabo and Ace love you?”

Marco nods, “Ace loves Sabo too. We all love each other.”

“Oh!”

“And we love you too. You’re our kid now, you know.”

Luffy freezes and Sabo wonders if Marco said something wrong, “I am?”

“Of course you are,” Marco says yawning. “We signed all the papers and you’re our son. Besides, we like you. You’re a sweet kid, you know.”

“I like you too!” Luffy shouts scurrying off of Sabo’s lap to throw himself on Marco. Marco yawns, letting Luffy curl into a ball on his chest. “You’re really nice dads.”

“You’re a really nice son too.”

[cheswirls]

it’s your extension (let me extend) 4/6

he has the old ramen chef take him back out to fuusha. or, to an area of the corvo mountains east of it. the sky is overcast, the sun barely rising, and the man is obviously not happy about driving all the way out to his birth town yet again. but he couldn’t deny sabo’s money.

sabo drums out a rhythm on his thigh, looking at his phone, at a spot where he suspected the shrine to be. he’d only been out there once. and there were higher mountains. but he didn’t think any plateau’d out like this one had, and sabo was fair with his geography. 

he had to trust his gut, too, in this case.

the chef takes him past the winding road leading through the wreckage of the twin lakes. past the first of the torii gates outside the village. past some of the lower mountain paths that he definitely remembered from his spontaneous mountain hike one early summer morning.

there’s thunder rumbling, when they reach sabo’s stop. he pulls his jacket tighter. it was rainy season, after all.

before he can open the door, the old man has plopped a wrapped bento into his lap. sabo glances over, surprise marring his features.

“eat that on your way up,” the man grunts, starting the car back up again. sabo slides out of his seat. “that drawing you did, of fuusha . .” he nods, staring back out the front window. “it was good.”

sabo can hear the hidden words. i liked it. it felt good, to see home again. to see home intact.

“thanks for the food,” sabo mutters over the wind, then slams the car door shut. it pulls away, back down the road, before he’s properly started up the path.

-

sabo’s hood is up before too long. puddles collect beneath his feet.

he walks for hours, it feels like. when the rain gets too heavy, he finds shelter, takes out the bento. he eats while he works, finding his place uncharted on his phone’s map, and using the trail guide on the paper map to figure how far he’d come. he traces the path with a pen, marking it over. halfway. almost halfway.

with the cloud cover, he can’t figure out how much time has passed. had he made good time? was he going to end up stuck here past dark?

he finishes the bento and packs up again. no time to waste thinking about it. best he just get moving again.

when he makes it to the summit, the rain has stopped. it’d slowed to a drizzle as he crossed the trees wrapped in shimenawa, protective charms weighed down by the water, unable to float along in the breeze. he’s taken it as a good sign, then. it’s definitely a good sign, now.

he hurries down the side of the crater. careful, because of the slick, but fast, too.

it’s foggy, on the plateau. bits of mist stir up all around him. he can see the tree, though, the limestone underneath. his legs tremble beneath him.

so this, at least, was real. this was never on the news. that he knew for sure.

this was the place he knew. luffy had never been. if ace had, it had been a long time. 

this was the place he drew over and over, captivated by the scenery, devoted to the meaning. 

to musubi.

he blinks, and then he’s running, and tossing the hood from his head, and flicking the dewdrops from his lashes. he runs until he hits the edge of the river circle, swelled from the rain, stretching far wider than a few stones across, and far deeper than they were standing.

he stands at the other side, breathing heavily from his run, and looks down at the cord on his wrist.

“it’s real,” he breathes, voice lost to the rain, picking up again. “i’m not crazy.”

sabo steps forward and underestimates how deep the river is now. he trips on the slope, gasps as he falls. the splash he creates is louder than the rain, and he gasps again, sitting there, water up to his chest. 

then, he picks himself up, shivering, stumbles across. in the middle, in the deep, the water is back up to his chest. he’s lucky his backpack is sealed, water-resistant. 

he makes it to the limestone and the steps and slows down, not wanting to trip here, remembering the uneven stairs and the long fall and the dim lighting and the pool of water below, depths unknown and contents questionable. 

he stumbles over to the shrine in the back, tossing aside his wet pack and kneeling before the shimenawa strung across the wall. his eyes catch on the stone bottles resting there, covered in moss, a testament to the time they’d spent there. 

“the left one is luffy’s,” he murmurs. “the right one is mine.” the one he carried up. him and luffy and garp. one early summer day, where the wind was still chill enough to bite, where it was still cold enough to drink tea from a thermos, this high up.

his. no, that wasn’t right. he’d made the pilgrimage, sure, but-

“ace made the contents,” he mutters, picking up the bottle. it slides a little in his grasp, the moss slick. he sets his phone down, just enough juice left for the flashlight to work, to illuminate the small space that the outside shine couldn’t reach.

ace made the contents three years ago. the ace he knew was from . .

sabo frowns.

he moves from a kneel to a proper sitting position. “so our timelines . . were offset?” he mutters. “by three years?”

he unties the cord around the bottle. uncorks it. lets hope three years is enough time to ferment.

he pours some of the sake into the cap, holds it near the light. looks clear. this is half of ace. 

half of ace.

he breathes in, deeply.

“please,” he whispers, clenching his eyes tight, bowing his head to the god of the shrine. “this sake is musubi. time. if it can unravel, then please, please, give me one last chance.” he ignores his trembling, the tears slipping from his cheeks. “please.”

the sake tastes terrible.

he slips, coming to a stand. his gasp is audible, a small, panicked thing that echoes in the enclosed space. he thinks, for one moment, this is how i die, by hitting my head, and no one will ever find the body way out here.

then he thinks, in the next moment, gaze now on the ceiling of the cavern, visible from his phone’s light, oh, that’s the comet.

drawn there, somehow, in colored something. chalk, he thinks. stars and sky and comet, clear as day, one whole nucleus, one long tail, but right before his eyes it shifts, breaks apart, and he chokes, reaches a hand up to stop it-

his thread dangles in front of his face, unbound from the clasp at his wrist.

-

there’s a woman. she has light, beautiful hair, and ace’s freckles. there’s a hibiscus flower tucked into their folds.

sabo stares. he feels light. his eyes see. 

she doesn’t acknowledge him.

he sees a kind mother. a doting father. a baby brother. 

a hospital room. 

an absent father. ace, pressed into the corner, listening to the screams but hating it. garp pressuring dragon. dragon leaving, finally, for the last time.

who are you?

sabo? no, that’s not good enough! who are you? what’s happening?

this isn’t a dream, y’know.

i don’t wish i was him.

i wish i was robin, there with him.

“luffy, i’m going to goa for a bit.” ace pushes past his brother, tosses on a jacket over his uniform shirt. “cover for me, okay?”

“what?” luffy blanches, behind him. ace doesn’t turn around. “wait- why?”

he stops.

“if i don’t leave now, i won’t make it,” he says. then he hurries off, and luffy is left stammering, not sure what to make of it.

“hey, gramps,” ace mutters. garp turns away from the open shoji and his eyes slant. ace’s gaze is turned the same direction, down below, where his braided cord dangles in his loose grasp. his hair falls around his shoulders. “ . . i need a favor, okay?”

ace stands in front of the mirror. luffy’s forced him into a yukata, but he doesn’t mind. he fingers his hair, short now, barely brushing his neck.

it crashed during the festival.

“no!” sabo shouts. he reaches out. “ace, no! you have to get out, you have to leave!”

ace stands on the slope, his eyes caught onto the splitting comet, getting lower and lower. sabo dashes through him, reaching out. he tries again, spinning around. “ace! you have to leave!” he screams. bits of the meteor split off, crash into the lake, into the surrounding hills, shards of red cast into plumes of smoke. sabo’s vision goes blurry. ace’s gaze is fixed on the sky above.

“ACE!” he screams. “PLEASE!”

ace’s gaze is caught. he doesn’t see sabo.

then he doesn’t see at all.

-

sabo wakes with a sputter. his eyes are dry, but his heart is heavy.

he gasps, rolls over, feels his head for signs of blood. then he blinks.

it’s bright. his hair is warm and thick.

he brings his hands down. they’re a familiar tanned shade.

“i’m . .” he breathes.

he starts crying for real, burying his face into his hands. that’s how luffy finds him, hunched over, sobbing, when he finally opens the door.

“at least you’re not toying with your hair,” he mutters.

sabo turns quick. “luffy!” he gasps. “my little brother, lu-!”

luffy’s face grows from shocked to pained to bewildered. the door is shut in sabo’s face before he can crush the boy into a hug.

“i’m ace,” he mutters, still in wonder. he stalks over to the mirror. “hair’s short,” he mutters, eyes narrowing.

no, this is fine. the comet hasn’t struck yet. you still have time, day of or not.

“luffy already left,” garp tells him. “says you’ve finally lost it.” he squints. “i don’t see it.”

sabo hums, gaze fixed on the television in the corner. the reporter was rambling, oh tonight was the night! the climax! the brightest peak of the comet!

perfect. he still had time.

eight pm. that was the deadline. he glances to the clock. just over twelve hours.

sabo turns, takes a seat at the table across from garp, and picks up a bowl of rice. he’d need energy, if he was gonna do this right.

garp’s brows raise as he gets a good look at sabo’s face. “you,” he grunts. “you’re not ace, are ye?”

sabo sits up straighter, so fast his legs bang into the table. he winces, caught in surprise by the pain. “you knew?!”

“nah.” garp waves him off. “just . . seeing you act so strange brought up some old memories. i used to dream about a different life too, you know.” he squints. “actually, i think dragon did, too, back in the day.”

oh. “so it’s inherited?” sabo mutters. then, louder, “maybe it was all leading up to this.” he nods, looks garp straight in the eye. “hey, gramps, listen. a comet’s gonna hit fuusha tonight. everyone’s gonna die, unless we do something.”

garp gives him one moment. one. then he twists his face into a look of utter bafflement and betrayal both. “what now?”

-

“guess i can’t expect an old person to have the best reaction,” sabo mutters, running up the road, rubbing at his head. “sure can hit hard, though.”

-

“ace!” lami gasps. “y-your hair!”

sabo pauses, twisting his expression from determination to confusion. “oh, yeah. it did look better long, right?” he slaps himself, shaking his head, and both kidd and lami perk up at the action. “no, no, that’s not the point! listen, if we don’t do anything, everyone’s gonna die!”

lami and kidd exchange looks. again. sabo’s eyes narrow. he wasn’t gonna let the doubt settle. he needed them.

he slams his hands on the desk, and they both jump. “let’s get to work!”

-

kokoro stops in her scanning of the items, a stray thought crossing her mind. “oh? lami dear, why aren’t you at school?”

the brunette freezes, then laughs, sheepish. “ah. well. just saving the town.”

kokoro frowns. “ah?”

-

“there are early warning systems all over town,” kidd says, typing away on the old laptop. “we could activate those. everyone would hear it then.”

“oh, great! that’s genius, kidd!” sabo’s smile stretches wide over ace’s face. he bounces in his seat, then pushes kidd over, hitting ‘enter’ to his search and glancing at the results. “i knew i could count on you for this stuff!”

“hey, scoot over!” kidd barks, though it’s not nearly as rough as it could be. “give me my space! geez.”

“ah, what? worried about getting close now?” sabo tips his head, smile stretching into a smirk. kidd’s face turns red.

the door bangs open and lami stalks in, arms full of sacks filled with sugar and junk food. “ahhh!” she complains, loudly. “granny kokoro thinks i’m nuts now!”

“she’ll be thanking you later!” sabo retorts, leaning over the back of the ripped couch to take the bags from her. lami huffs.

“yeah, yeah. tell me that once this works.” she tosses a roll of bills next to the computer. “there’s your change. so? what plan did you hatch?”

lami blanches. “a bomf?!” she yells around a handful of candy, cheeks stuffed like a squirrel. she holds her hands in front of her lips to keep them from spilling out. on the couch, sabo and kidd cackle, taking swigs around their sodas.

“yeah. there are some water-gel ones out at the warehouse dad owns,” kidd says, digging through one of the sacks again. 

lami chokes on her candy, gasps until she’s cleared it with water. “broadcast hijacking?!” she yells, near hysterics.

“i know the frequency for the early warning system,” kidd boasts.

“plug it in, and we can broadcast from school,” sabo adds. he sets down his sugar snack, brings the map he’d brought closer. a broad area of the town is circled in red. he points to their location, outside the border. “high school’s out of the blast radius. it’s the perfect evacuation site. oh.” he nods to lami. “also, you do the broadcast.”

“m-me?” she squeaks, falling back in her chair. “i-i-i’m gonna be a criminal. wait, why me?!”

“you’re in the broadcast club,” sabo deadpans, popping a piece of shortcake into his mouth.

“i’m explosives guy,” kidd pipes up, grinning.

“and i’m talking to the mayor,” sabo mutters around his next bite.

lami’s expression turns pensive. “eh?”

“we’re not gonna get everyone out without city hall’s help,” kidd moans.

“i’m his son, after all.” sabo shrugs. “i’ll convince him.”

lami still looks entirely unsure. “well, it’s good to have confidence . .”

sabo stares at her until she gives.

“fine, fine! this is still all some fantasy you have cooked up. right?” her brow cocks. “i’m not dying at seventeen, right?”

sabo deadpans. “uh-”

“well, it’s not entirely impossible.” kidd spins around, laptop in hand, and holds it out for lami to see, pushing sabo to the edge of the cushions. “fuusha’s lake was formed by a meteor in the first place, y’know?” sabo’s eyes widen as he catches sight of the diagram on the screen. lami stops chewing to lean forward, squinting.

“oh,” he breathes. “so the comet at the shrine . .” his face brightens. “yeah! kidd, you’re right! that’s exactly what it was!”

he pushes back, so the laptop isn’t in his face, then offers his fist. kidd grins, bumps it, sets the laptop down. lami frowns behind them.

“since when did you two get so close?” she mutters.

sabo and kidd turn back in unison, and kidd throws his arm over sabo’s shoulders. i’ll allow it, he thinks, still feeling the adrenaline. maybe it was all the sugar, actually.

“let’s do this!” they say to lami. after a moment, she sighs in defeat.

-

sabo’s confidence plummets.

he clams up.

dragon leans heavily on his desk. he’s not amused.

“you can’t be serious.”

he feels his breath catch, but then the fire lights again. he had to do this. he had to. he knew it’d be-

“we have to evacuate the town,” sabo says, near frantic. he tries to steady himself again. “if not, everyone-”

“will die?” dragon finishes, brow raising. sabo slams his jaw shut so hard his teeth rattle. he nods, expression firm. 

dragon sighs.

“we have to evacuate, hm?” he mutters. sabo’s heart skips a beat at the indifference.

“the comet is going to split? and crash? and then, boom, five hundred dead?”

dragon speaks so calmly, denouncing everything sabo has said, has warned him of. he speaks in a way that demands a response. sabo can only nod.

dragon sighs and closes his eyes for a long moment. sabo’s boiling blood freezes.

“you’re not serious,” he repeats. “if you are, then you are sick.” he opens his eyes, reaches a hand for the phone on the corner of his desk. “must be from your grandfather,” he mutters. “i’ll have someone drive you to a hospital-”

sabo’s boiling again. he snaps, stepping forward the last two feet, slamming a hand on the desk before dragon’s touches the phone. it works, catches his attention. sabo grits his teeth and lashes out, swiping his hand across, knocking the phone and a bunch of papers to the ground. “screw you!” he spits. he leans forward across the desk, grabs dragon by his tie, and tugs him forward, eye-to-eye with him, with ace. “you arrogant bastard,” he snarls.

then he sees the surprise in dragon’s eyes. his fire dies. he makes a noise in the back of his throat, releases him, moves back.

“ace?” dragon murmurs, frozen in his spot. then, slowly, his eyes narrow the tiniest amount. he leans back in his seat. “no.”

i think dragon did, too, back in the day.

sabo’s eyes widen.

“who are you?” dragon asks, voice no longer calm, composure shaken.

“i-” sabo’s lips tremble. “i-”

-

he stalks down the street, back to where home was. he tosses his arms above his head, yelling in frustration. tears still prick the corners of his eyes.

“hey, hey, let’s meet up for the festival later tonight!”

he drops his arms, heart heavy, and watches some kids break apart from their conversation. before he can think it through, he reaches out, snatches one by the arm. “no, you shouldn’t go tonight!” he begs. “you should leave! and tell all your friends, too!”

a hand comes around his arm, tight. the kids run off. he looks down. luffy is glaring up at him, but it’s not one of anger. more of concern.

“ace!” he says, urgency in his tone. “what’s wrong with you?”

sabo starts blubbering. “i can’t do it. it’s not me. ace could though, right? if it were ace, he could convince them.”

luffy starts shaking his arm. “ace!”

“luffy!” sabo lunges, knees on the ground and then scoops the boy up. “you should go! take gramps and skip town!”

luffy wriggles in his grip. “what are you on about?” he shouts. “lemme go!”

sabo does, luffy finally wrestling from his hold. he huffs once he’s hit the ground. “honestly! yesterday you suddenly decide to go off to goa, and then you come back all moody, and then this! ace, what happened?”

sabo blinks, all his panicked thoughts sliding out of place and tumbling somewhere out of view. “goa?”

“heeeey! aceeee!” lami calls, her and kidd rounding a corner on his bike. 

“why was he . . ?” sabo mutters.

lami frowns when she gets no response. her and kidd stop before luffy. “hey, what’s wrong with your brother?”

luffy just shrugs.

oh.

sabo looks up. far, far up, past the ridge, past the house, to a distant mountain. “are you there, ace?” he mutters.

he jerks his gaze away. it lands on the bike.

he pushes kidd off. “hey. i’m borrowing this, okay?”

“wha-?” kidd makes to grab his arm, but sabo dodges, maneuvers the bike around, climbs on. “ace! where are you going?”

he pushes on the pedals, takes off. 

“what about the plan?” kidd calls.

sabo’s head whips around. “get ready! make sure everything is ready!”

he pushes off again, hard, and speeds up, rounding the corner. the sun is high. “i’ll make it, i’ll make it,” he mutters, over and over and over.

-

ace wakes up to cold and quiet.

he sits with a gasp, hands wandering up to scar tissue, to stringy hair, to baggy clothes. “sabo!” he breathes, sharp and deep. 

he breathes in again, rougher this time, on the verge of crying. he wraps skinny arms around sabo’s wiry form, and sits there, in front of the shrine. 

why am i here?

wait.

he pushes himself out of the cave. the sky is cleared, sun shining through. he pushes himself across the bloated river, up to the edge of the crater, onto the lip. he stands there, and his breath catches as he sees the two lakes.

“fuusha,” he breathes. gone. gone.

and then it all comes back.

he collapses. his legs just give out, and he falls hard to the rock underneath, wincing at the impact. he puts his hands on his temples, gasping.

“i . . died.” he shakes his head. “i died. i’m dead. i’m actually dead.”

but he wasn’t. he was here. he was here, right? he wasn’t dreaming.

then. then!

where was sabo.

was sabo-

-

sabo pedals faster. he’s almost to the base of the mountain. the sun is sinking.

-

“wait, ace!” luffy finally calls out, and then he’s running to catch up. “at least tell me why! what’s in goa?”

“a date!” ace insists. luffy comes up short, nearly faceplants into the ground.

“you have a date?!” he cries out. “you have a boyfriend in goa?”

“no!” ace shakes his head. “it-it’s not my date!”

luffy’s face twists. “what?”

this is stupid! ace curses, huddling into himself in the empty train car.

how are you ever going to find him? he thinks, shuffling onto the next car.

this station is huge! he’d seriously underestimated the size of shinjuku. it was after ten, though. he wouldn’t find sabo here.

maybe this one? but the footbridge is empty. he knows he’s early, so he waits. and waits.

it’s near sunset when he sighs, gives up.

“this was a waste of time,” he mutters, set on one of the benches outside a train stop. not the one he needs to be on, but he wants one last chance-

a car speeds by and he glances up.

his breath catches in the back of his throat.

ace moves up so fast he knocks his bag to the ground. he grabs it in a rush, sprinting to where the train is rolling to a stop. he’s panting as the doors open, letting a few people off. he wastes no time in pushing his way in, towards where he saw-

ace stops. he’s still breathing a little hard.

sabo is right in front of him.

-

sabo crashes the bike. he leaves it, bent and broken, and sprints the rest of the way up the mountain.

“sabo?”

ace’s lips quirk up. sabo had some notes in his hand, reading over them. as studious as always. he tries again.

“sabo?”

the blond blinks, casts a glance up. ace’s smile grows. sabo’s expression becomes guarded.

“uh . . it’s me,” ace says. damn, he had this whole speech prepared. and then he decided he didn’t need it, that they would just know when they saw each other. he knew, at least.

sabo folds his notes to his chest. “sorry? have we met?”

ace’s smile becomes crooked. “uh, yeah?” it downturns. “wait, you don’t remember?” becomes a proper frown, though more of a pout. “seriously?”

“who are you again?” sabo asks. there’s slight annoyance in his tone. it stings.

now it’s a proper frown. ace bites on his tongue, resists all the words he wants to say. “uh, sorry to bother you,” he says instead, turns his head away.

sabo continues watching him. he blinks, again. ace’s blush grows in embarrassment.

god. what had he been thinking.

didn’t dragon tell me a similar story, a long time ago?

wait. why am i thinking about him again?

he huffs. the train screeches to a halt. the crowd shifts. he bumps into sabo. “uh, sorry!” he mutters, blush reaching his ears now.

stupid, stupid, stupid!

he should just get off here. transfer to his line. make it back to fuusha by the night. the door opens and he turns, guided by the crowd.

“wait!”

ace blinks. he moves his head and sees sabo staring at him. his heart skips a beat.

“what’s your name?” sabo asks. ace is turned again, forced by the crowd. he makes a panicked noise, nearly out the door. sabo isn’t going to get off. it was now or never. he was going to lose his chance-!

ace thinks quickly. he reaches into his hair, unties his braided cord. as he’s finally pushed through the door, he lashes out with it, and miraculously, sabo catches it. “ace!” he calls, over the bustle of the more-crowded station. “my name’s ace!”

he lets go. sabo latches on. the train door slides shut.

-

“you idiot!” sabo huffs, sprinting through the underbrush, tearing his face up. he wipes his eyes again, trying to make his vision less blurry. “you idiot!” he calls out again, louder.

“that was three years ago!” he screams, loud in the quiet forest. “i didn’t know you then!” i only knew you when you were gone, he cries, silent, and lets out a wail aloud. 

-

ace comes to a stand, on the crest. he can feel-

“sabo?” he shouts.

he turns his gaze from the twin lakes. “sabo!” he shouts. “you’re here, aren’t you?”

and then- there! in the far distance, and he turns, looks down the crest, but it stretches for miles around, he can’t run around it-

“ace!”

there. another shout, his name, barely audible but there nonetheless.

he starts running. “sabo!” he calls. “sabo! i’m here!”

“ace!”

louder, this time. closer? louder. but closer?

he stops running, turns. “sabo!”

“ace?!”

he turns, sprints the other way. “sabo!” he calls, voice growing hoarse.

“ace!” sabo calls, and it’s close, so close this time-

ace spins on his heel. he stops entirely. there’s something . .

“sabo?”

he walks forward a few paces. he’s facing the lakes again, where fuusha used to sit.

“ace?” sabo’s voice echoes, and he halts, because it’s right in front of him. 

“ace,” sabo breathes, because he can feel it. he reaches forward, one hand carefully extended.

but it swipes through the air.

“you’re here, aren’t you?” ace asks, lowering his own arm. sabo hums in affirment. ace chokes back a sob. “i knew it.” he lowers his gaze. “but we can’t . .”

“we’re still in different times,” sabo breathes. but they were talking, somehow. was it the musubi? that had to be it, right?

it grows dark. he turns towards the lake, towards a big cloud hiding the last of the sun’s rays, casting the area into-

“twilight,” he notes, faintly.

“half-light,” a voice corrects.

his eyes widen.

sabo turns, slowly, to find ace there. oh. so the old man had been right, he thinks faintly. twilight. where all the funny stuff happens.

his eyes slip close. when he opens them again, ace is still there. there are tears in his eyes.

“you’re crying?” sabo teases.

“my face is already wet,” ace retorts.

sabo laughs. it’s a short, quiet thing. it holds a lot of weight. “yeah,” he murmurs. “i-”

ace crashes into him, arms wrapping around his waist, head pressed into his chest. he had a few inches over him. well, he is older, in this moment. 

“i can’t believe it,” ace mutters. “i can’t believe you’re here.”

sabo hiccups. his arms go around ace, as well. “it took a lot of work, to come find you,” he chokes. “you live out in the middle of nowhere!”

“i know! i hate it!”

“i know,” sabo echoes, quieter this time. ace moves his head back, and he stares into grey eyes.

“but how?” ace says. “how is this possible? didn’t i . . that day . . .”

“ah,” sabo starts. “aheh.” his gaze moves to the shrine. “i . . drank your sake.”

ace shudders against him. “m-my kuchikame-sake?” he stammers. sabo looks down to find his face completely red, and ace stumbles away from him. “that sake? that’s actually kinda sick, sab, who’d wanna drink that? seriously!”

sabo huffs. “it’s the meaning that’s important! y’know, musubi?”

“musu-what?” ace’s face screws up. sabo sighs.

“you have a lot to catch up on. seriously,” he groans. “why’d we have to switch on one of your most important days?”

“huh?” ace tips his head. “what are you on about now?”

“nevermind.” he reaches out, catches a piece of ace’s shortened hair between his fingers. “still can’t believe you did this,” he mutters.

ace snatches it back, affronted. “i was!” he stops, blushing again. “well you!”

sabo’s brow raises. “and whose fault was that, coming to see me that early?”

“i didn’t know!” ace’s gaze catches on something low. “oh. that’s . .”

sabo looks down, blinks. “ah.” he raises his wrist. “your braided cord,” he notes. then, without wasting another second, he unhooks the clasp, unravels it from around his wrist. “here,” he says, holding it out for ace.

ace blinks. “you sure?”

“yeah.” sabo shrugs, setting it down in ace’s outstretched palm. “i’ve had it for three years now. it’s time you have it back.”

“okay.” ace clenches his hands. sabo drops his own, but he doesn’t step back. 

ace reaches up, wraps the band around his neck, over his hair. he ties it down the side, where the spiked ends hide it a little, then knots it shut. “there. how’s it look?”

sabo blinks, then looks away. “ah, fine.”

ace’s eyes widen. “liar!” he laughs, smacking sabo’s arm. sabo laughs with him.

“yeah,” he murmurs. “it looks great.”

ace’s lips purse. this time, he turns away. “oh.”

sabo follows his gaze. “the comet,” he notes. then, to ace, “you’ve still got time.”

ace nods. “okay. okay! right. i can do this.”

sabo pushes his hand into ace’s dark locks, rustles them a little. “yeah. you’ve got this.”

ace doesn’t move his head away. they stay like that for a long moment.

it gets darker.

ace turns away first. “half-light’s almost over,” he murmurs.

“twilight,” sabo corrects.

ace rolls his eyes. “whatever.”

“hey.” sabo removes his hand and ace visibly pouts. he slides it into his jacket and pulls out the marker he’d used to draw on the map, trace his path up. “i have an idea.”

“i’m listening.”

he upcaps the marker. “so we don’t forget, when we wake up.” he smiles, takes ace’s hand. “let’s write our names, okay?” 

ace’s eyes widen. he glances down, but sabo’s pressing the pen over his writing, and half-light is fading fast. “okay. okay!” he grabs sabo’s hand, reaches out, draws the first diagonal for the ‘A’.

the pen drops.

sabo stares at the pen. it’s grown dark. “oh,” he says, because he doesn’t know what else to say.

he blinks. maybe they just couldn’t see each other. “hey, ace. i wanted to say, to tell you, that i’ll find you. wherever you end up. i swear i will.” he clenches his fist, covers up the stray ink mark. “and i won’t forget you, okay? you name is ace. i won’t forget.”

there’s only silence. 

“ace?”

he sighs.

“no, that’s okay. you have to hurry.” he shakes his head. “i won’t forget, okay? ace! your name is ace! ah!” he bends down, snatches the pen. he starts tracing the stray mark, then pauses.

his hand trembles.

“wait,” he breathes. “who . . ?”

“no!” he argues. “i came all the way out here! i came to save him! i lo-” his words catch. he bends over. his legs give out. the pen falls from his grasp.

“no,” he whispers. “why can’t-? what?” he shakes his head, stares at the stray mark.

“your name . .”