Chapter Text
Blackbeard had run off. Because of course he had. Nothing ever went right in Ace’s own godforsaken life, why would good things start happening now? Admittedly, Ace hadn’t been doing all too well in the fight. He had been… Losing, for lack of a better term. Losing badly enough to the point where Ace was starting to doubt if he’d actually get out of the altercation unscathed.
He could feel the fresh blood on his skin, slowly oozing now that it’s started to clot. Ace had been so close to losing. On the ground, without his devil fruit available-
Then Blackbeard had screamed. A loud, guttural thing pried from the depths of his lungs. Ace would have felt satisfaction if he wasn’t working through the guilt and shame of being damn near beaten by the traitor. The man had reeled backwards, taking his devil fruit with him. Ace had felt the fire return to his fingertips the second Blackbeard was a good twenty feet from him.
Ace had taken the opportunity to send a wave of flames at the man, summoning the last of his energy into a mass of flames and fury, pushing the fire at the cowardly traitor. Blackbeard had shouted something at him. About Ace being a cheater, playing dirty. As if that man had any right to say shit about what was fair.
He had been about to run after him, to chase him down and take his head. It was only fitting. That would have been fair. Instead, Ace’s legs gave out on him and he toppled down into the dirt. Ash fluttered up around him, settling after a moment. He tries to look up, getting a good look at a pair of shoes. They look nice. Ace mentally notes that the guy has to be some stuck up snob. He meets the face of the person who’d so rudely intruded on his fight.
Suddenly, Blackbeard became the least of Ace’s worries.
“You-” Ace coughs, his ribs still bruised from the beating earlier. “What the hell?”
The man is blond, has a stupid top hat on, a stupid napkin tied around his neck, and is dressed like he holds his pinky out when he drinks tea. Ace doesn’t miss the old scar on the man's face. “What the fuck? ” Ace asks, sitting up.
This guy had just… Shown up? Ace assumes that he just showed up. The immediate area was pretty dead before Ace and Blackbeard fought. And the guy… “Did you use fire?”
The man looks so out of place, and incredibly uncomfortable. “I might have,” the man replies-and damn does he sound pretentious too.
“How?” he asks the strange, flaming, noble. Because as far as Ace is aware, he is the only person who specializes in flames. Unless there’s more devil fruit logic he isn’t aware of?
“Devil fruit,” the man says curtly, keeping a suspicious amount of distance between himself and Ace.
"Got it. Thought I was the only person able to… Do that,” Ace shrugs, trying not to feel a little jealous that this guy apparently makes Ace not so special anymore.
Dammit that was his skillset!
“You probably should be,” the man sighs.
“What, you no good at using fire? If you need help I’d be happy to give you a few pointers.”
The guy blinks, slowly. Like a lizard. “I’m alright. Thank you.”
Ace doesn’t really feel like moving all too much right now. He probably should, the traitor just got away, he’s been beaten to hell and back, and on top of it all, some odd guy won't engage in a proper conversation with him. “Alright, whatever. Don’t accept the offer,” Ace huffs, letting his body hit the soft dirt once more. “I’m beat, you wanna go get food?”
The man blinks slowly. Again. “Where?” the asshole asks.
“Uh.” Ace hops up onto his feet, rolling his shoulders back. “Well…”
The town has been decimated by Blackbeard, nothing remains besides the foundation of a few lucky buildings. Which unfortunately means that this guy has made a good point. “Shit,” Ace sighs, crossing his arms. “I’ve got my ship if you wanna get off the island?”
Ace’s weird companion who ruined his fight flinches, going tense and stepping back. “I don’t think that’s-” the guy looks around. “I, ah, think I am quite lost… Actually.”
“Well, I can take ya’ to where you need to go,” Ace offers.
“No-” again the guy pauses. “Well. That would… Be appreciated.”
And then the guy tilts his hat up just a bit.
It’s such a nothing movement. It shouldn’t have mattered, but Ace swears that in that very moment he sees the ghost of someone he used to know. And then he’s really focused on this guy. He’s standing upright with perfect posture, holding his hands in front of him. A practiced quirk that Ace is certain has been instilled in the guy sometime in early childhood. “What did ya’ say your name was?” Ace asks out of morbid curiosity.
“I didn’t” the guy replies easily.
“Can I get it now, then?”
“I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Please?” Ace tries.
The guy's face goes blank. Then, it screws up into a look of disgust. “Don’t say that again,” the man requests. Firmly.
“Don't say what?”
“Don’t-” the guy fiddles with his hands. Another painfully nostalgic move. “Don’t say please.”
Uh. Ace tilts his head to the side. “You want me to tell ya’ to fuck off?”
“Preferably.” The man nods.
“You’re strange,” Ace mutters. “What am I calling you then?”
The guy doesn’t reply. Ace would have an easier time beating the information out of him. “Lizard?” Ace tries.
“Excuse me?” the man scowls.
Not using that one, then. “Come on,” Ace sighs. “Work with me here.”
A few seconds pass, and the man’s shoulders relax just a bit. “Promise you won't punch me,” the man says quietly.
So quietly, that Ace almost misses it. “Why would I do that?”
The man’s eyebrows pinch together. He looks like he’s reliving a series of memories. “Nevermind. If you do, I deserve it anyway.”
Ace stands there awkwardly kicking his feet in the dirt. The man frowns, tensing his shoulders back up. “Sabo.”
“Hm?” Ace says, mostly out of reflex.
The man… He’s looking at Ace expectantly. Ace is beginning to think he’s concussed. Just a little bit. “Could ya’ repeat that?” Ace smiles, it’s painfully strained.
“You heard me,” the guy- Sabo -says. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I think I misheard ya,’” Ace laughs weakly.
“You didn’t,” Sabo denies.
Ace looks at the guy. Really looks at the guy. The napkin- he knows it’s not called that- is loose around the guy's neck. Just like Sabo’s. The hat is just like Sabo’s too. He talks like him, walks like him-
Well. At the very least, the guy was smart enough to realize Ace was going to punch him. So he does. Ace draws back his fist and swings it right at Sabo’s face.
It doesn’t land.
Which makes sense, since Sabo has..
Oh.
Fire powers.
The momentum of the swing takes Ace’s body forward a few steps. He stumbles just past Sabo, who reaches out and-
Hugs him.
Two arms circle Ace and pull him into a tight hug with haki. He can tell it’s haki, the way it keeps him trapped in one place. “Sabo,” Ace says quietly, an embarrassing lump forming in his throat.
“Ace,” Sabo replies wetly.
Damn. Luffy was supposed to be the crybaby, not Ace. And certainly not Sabo. “You’re not cryin’ are ya’?”
“Never,” Sabo laughs.
Ace can hear him sniffle right after he says that. He turns to face the… The man that is his brother. An adult… Sabo retracts the hug.
“Shit,” Ace sighs, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. “You died.”
“I didn’t,” Sabo answers.
“You did though. You were dead to us for a decade.”
“I’m sorry.”
Ace stumbles back, the soreness in his muscles now becoming evident. “Lets-” Ace throws his head in the direction of the sea. “This way.”
Sabo nods and follows Ace to the shore. Ace watches him the whole way, paying attention to how skittish Sabo seems. Uncertain and nervous. It’s not something he’s often associated with Sabo. Though, he supposes things change in ten years. Ace sits down on the sand, keeping an eye on Striker from where she sits on the shore. Sabo joins him on the sand. “You-” Ace tries and fails to start his sentence. “I don’t get it,” he decides to say.
His brother nods, diverting his gaze out to the setting sun. When Ace doesn't continue, Sabo spares him a glance and motions for him to speak.
"Well, first, you apparently ain’t dead,” Ace laughs bitterly. The reality still hasn’t processed yet, it will later. “Then, you interrupt my fight?” He’s still a little mad about that. “With my devil fruit.”
And there's the real question.
Where Sabo got Ace’s fruit from.
Sure, he could have assumed it was some mythical zoan like Marco’s, or a cheap look alike fruit that wasn’t quite Ace’s. But Ace knows the feel of his fire, the way it burns. That was his fire. He shifts his body to fully face Sabo, getting a good look at his brother's face.
He looks miserable.
“What happened, Sabo?”
And Sabo really doesn’t want to answer that, not with how his mouth pulls into a line and how he looks to be a second away from combusting. “It’s… Complicated.”
Ace laughs at that.
Because if that isn’t the story of his life. Complicated.
Everything, all the damn time. It’s all complicated. Nothing’s ever simple, is it? Luffy made it simple. Luffy managed to make even the most complicated issues so simple. Ace almost envies his little brother for that quality. Sabo has moved closer to Ace now, slapping him on the shoulder. “It’s complicated, Ace. Really complicated.”
“I know, I know,” Ace chuckles, unable to help himself. “You’ve got my fruit. Do you even know what that implies?”
“I was hoping you didn’t,” Sabo tells him. Painfully honest.
Ace gets quiet, letting that settle in. It doesn’t feel real. Nor does Sabo being here, but that’s really besides the current point. “‘Bo,” Ace says, using the abbreviation he’d come to grow fond of only after his brothers…
Well, it wasn’t a passing anymore, was it?
“Talk to me?” Ace asks.
Sabo lets out a sad excuse of a laugh that quickly devolves into repressed sobs. “Fuck,” Sabo says. “You’re so nice. ”
“Ah.”
Ace supposes that would do it. Wherever this Sabo came from, however he got Ace’s fruit… None of it adds up into a pretty story. Ace remembers being happy in the final few days he had with Sabo, but he was a bitter kid. A kid with too much anger at a world that would never love him. “So if I hugged ya’ right now would ya’ freak out?” Ace tries to joke.
“I would,” Sabo says. “Though, I’m surprised you’re not trying to kill me right now.”
Ace shrugs. “I’m mad, but… You look like shit. I’m not gonna beat ya’ up when you can’t even fight me properly.”
“That’s never stopped you before.”
“Yeah, well, you weren’t dead then either.”
Sabo flinches, pulling away from Ace. “I didn’t mean it like that,” Ace tries to mend his words. “I just-”
“It’s weird, right?” Sabo cuts him off. “Seeing the brother you thought was dead?”
Ace’s throat dries up once Sabo says that. “You-”
“Yeah.”
Damnit.
Ace knows he’s made his promise to Luffy, but now… Knowing that he wouldn’t be leaving behind just one brother? His stomach twists into knots. “Is Luffy-”
“Luffy’s fine.” Sabo waves him off. “And he’ll continue to be fine. Honestly, you have no respect for your own life, do you?”
The way Sabo says it makes it sound like he’s mad at Ace. A disappointing tone that Ace is certain he’s heard from Marco at least once or twice. “I love my life,” Ace tells him.
Sabo stares at Ace and…
Yeah, Ace deserves that look. “Okay, maybe I don’t love it-”
“You tried to kill Whitebeard. More than twice. Allegedly, it was a hundred, ” Sabo snaps. “That within itself is already pretty suicidal, but then you decide to chase down Blackbeard,” Sabo spits out the name venomously.
Like he’s got history with the traitorous bastard.
“You’re a lot more angry than I remember,” Ace sighs, trying to not think too hard about the apparent hatred Sabo has for Ace’s current mission.
“I have my reasons,” Sabo says wearily. “I am sorry for how… Difficult, I will likely continue to be.”
“It’s just payback, isn’t it?” Ace shrugs. “I was a mean bastard to you and Luffy. Only fair.”
“No.” Sabo flicks the side of Ace’s face. “Quit talking about yourself like that. You were an angry kid, you didn’t know any better. We loved… Ace, we love you regardless of that.”
Ace doesn’t miss the slip up, but doesn’t comment on it either. This Sabo probably needs a hug. A Luffy hug, specifically. “Alright, I’ll watch my mouth.”
Sabo gives him a small smile. The sun is just barely keeping above the water now as the sky continues to darken. “We should get going in the morning,” Sabo decides. “We’ll rest for the night and head out after Blackbeard at dawn, sound good?”
“I can live with that.” Ace agrees.
They set out on Striker before the sun has even risen. Ace definitely didn’t get the best sleep of his life last night, but knowing Sabo wasn’t dead helped to ease his mind. Thinking about his brother helped to alleviate the current issue of Blackbeard.
“You know,” Ace says as Sabo makes himself comfortable on the single seat of Striker. “It’d be pretty bad if I flipped her right now, wouldn’t it?”
Sabo’s eyes go wide, and while he doesn’t look like he fully believes Ace, Sabo still grabs onto the sides of Striker cautiously. “Don’t you dare.”
“No, seriously.” Ace grins. “We’re two devil fruit users on a ship that’s just big enough for one person.”
“Ace, I’ll bite you,” Sabo growls.
“Will you?”
“Yes, ” Sabo replies. “I’m not drowning before I-”
Sabo stops talking, his words trailing off in the wind. Ace looks back at his brother, raising a brow. “You gonna finish what you were saying?”
There’s a moment where Sabo looks like he’s considering it, but he ultimately decides against it. “No, I don’t think I will.”
Ace shrugs and leaves him alone, using his fire to propel his boat forward. Sabo helps out, letting his own flames mix with Ace’s. It’s odd. Strange. Maybe a little bit magical?
His flames and… And Sabo’s flames. He knows what it means. He wishes he didn’t, but Ace isn’t that big of an idiot, he knows how devil fruits go around...
Sabo.
Ace hadn't even thought of that. Luffy would be so excited to know his brother wasn't dead. He'd be a teary mess of a person but it'd be worth it. Ace with both brothers again. Even if one has his fruit...
Maybe he’d feel a bit better about it if Sabo had denied it, had tried to say that it wasn’t the same fruit. That it was a different fruit. But Sabo hadn't done that. He hadn’t even made a single excuse, just let Ace fill in the blanks. “Blackbeard’s heading for Marineford, I believe,” Sabo tells Ace after they’ve been sailing for a little while.
“He is?” Ace asks, curious. “What reason does he have to be in there?”
“He's on his way to…” Sabo pauses. “Oh. I guess that didn’t happen.”
Well, Ace can’t say he’s loving Sabo’s use of cryptic language, but he can figure what Sabo’s hinting at. “Blackbeard got me, didn’t he?”
“He did.”
“What happened after?”
“He turned you in, acquired Warlord status, and broke into Impel Down in order to recruit prisoners… Among other things.”
“Is that how you ended up with my fruit?” Ace stops Striker dead in the water, crouching down to eye level with Sabo. He doesn’t dare to touch the sea, avoiding it as it hits the side of their little boat. “I die in Marineford, right?”
Sabo gets a look on his face that Ace recognizes from so many years ago. The one he gets when he’d rather eat rocks than tell Ace something. “We’re not going to let that happen.”
“Hell no.” Ace grins. “We’ll kick his ass before he can even think about threatening me or Luffy again.”
Sabo nods, extending a hand to Ace. He takes his brother’s hand and firmly shakes it. For a moment, all's right with the world.
Then Sabo’s eyes widen.
“What do you mean Blackbeard threatened Luffy?”