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Sabo could feel the scars on the left side of his body, it happened at times. Especially when it was colder, they’d tighten and it would hurt.
He had known that when he accepted a mission on a winter island, hadn’t want to let this task pass by him and taking into account everything that had already been going on, he wanted to make sure this mission came to a good end.
The Revolutionary Army was making progress, especially since the chaos that was left after Marineford and even more so once both the Whitebeard Pirates and the Strawhat Pirates started sailing again. More than willing to rub it into the faces of the World Government that despite it all, they had survived.
Clenching his fingers, he didn’t want to think about the burns right now.
No, that was a lie. He didn’t want to think about how he got them in the first place.
Setting out at the age of ten, to flee for a father who wanted to present the perfect family life to the visitation Celestial Dragon. The same father who saw Sabo as a failure and which had made the then child-Sabo choose to flee in the middle of the night to a better life. Which he found. He found his better life at the side of two other children, his brothers, who had been heartbroken when Outlook found him again and took him away.
Brothers that meant the world to him, so finding out after Marineford that said brothers were Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy was a shock.
News of the war, of the losses, and the injured, kept flooding in even past the end of it. To the point that Sabo was confronted with what had happened. But more importantly, what he had lost. He had forgotten about his brothers, and had asked Dragon-san to take him away from Dawn as he didn’t want to go back there. After the report came in that they didn’t know if either had survived, their names and pictures are what jolted his memories. It’s also when the guilt sets in.
Huffing to try and deal with the cold around him, he took a deep breath before marching on. Still clenching his fist to deal with the cold and the pain on his left side. The mission had been done, investigating a slave ring that was supposed to operate here. They had been taken care of before he arrived, by two Pirate Crews, if he had to believe relieved locals.
“Just my luck too,” he couldn’t help but mutter, “Doing a mission like this, while knowing it could get me in pain, only to find that there is no mission left to do.”
A laugh pulls his attention away from his injuries to look at where he had arrived. It was where the locals had pointed when he asked about the crews, a large cave system had been present and they had taken refuge in there to warm up and to wait out the most of the storm.
But it was the laugh that caught his attention. Bolsterous and joyful, just like he remembered it being.
Biting his lip as he knew he needed to let them know. Ace and Luffy deserved to know he survived, maybe Robin would be there too. She had spent some time in Baltigo, so that might be nice to see her again. If Ace, or Luffy, didn’t break his skull with the hit they’d deal him.
His mind whirls, but his feet take him closer to the opening of the cave. Seeing the moment he has the attention of several of the people inside. Most notably Marco the Phoenix and Ronoroa Zoro, both first mates to the respected crews. Their eyes narrow and he holds up his hands in the universal signal of surrender, only to wince as it pulls at his scars.
Marco is the one who steps forward, the obvious choice as he could take whatever hit was dealt. His devil fruit would ensure it, and going by the way he angled his body he was protecting both his own crew and the Strawhats, “It isn’t often that the Revolutionary Army pays us a visit -yoi.”
Nodding, Sabo agreed, “I know, you dealt with the target before I arrived so I first wanted to ask about any information that was retrieved from their location."
Roronoa is next to them in a second, “First? Then what’s the idea now?”
Looking at both first mates, and really it’s quite the feat on Ace’s behalf to be chosen as the successor of Edward Newgate and have a crew like the Whitebeard Pirates listening to him. He settles on just being honest and taking whatever comes next, “Now, I just want to tell my brothers that all of us are too stubborn to die.”
Robin appears, no doubt having recognized his voice, “Sabo!”
“Sabo!?, two voices echo in tandem and he winces at the volume. Looking past the ones in front of him to see both Ace and Luffy making their way to him. Eyes wide as they take in his appearance and the way he looks almost exactly the same, except taller and without the missing tooth.
He tries to smile, but it turns out more like a grimace with the way his scars pull. Not a lot of people know that except for his eye, they start at his neck and move down to halfway his thigh, covering his shoulder and most of his left flank.
Luffy looks like he’s about to cry, which is honestly the worst. He hates himself for making that happen, for not being there, for forgetting.
Preparing himself, he turns to Ace and finds him looking lost. There is no anger, not as he had expected. Just as there was no temper flaring or a fist coming his way.
Swallowing, he notices Marco, Zoro and Robin inching to the side. Although the first two never take their eyes off of him. Allowing him closer to his brothers, only for him to hesitate, “I… Ace, Luffy, I…”
There is nothing he can say to make this right and that’s the worst of it all. Robin, knowing him quite well now, interfered, “Captain, Sabo was one of the people who looked after me in the Revolutionary Army. He’s chief-of-staff, Dragon’s right hand man. He also, up to the aftermath of Marineford, suffered from amnesia due to an accident he was in as a child.”
Luffy’s sobbing now, “You survived!”
Rubber arms wrap around him, in a way he can’t even lie about missing, before his younger brother is slamming into his chest to hug the stuffing out of him. Yet, Sabo’s eyes trail back to Ace, who stands there shocked. Until he too moves forward, expecting the hit to come now, Sabo tries to prepare to take it. Only to find wrap arms wrapping around him and Luffy, pulling him to a strong, warm, chest before a voice speaks, “I’m so glad you’re here.”
It takes him a moment to gather his bearings, bring his own arms up and wrap them around his brothers. Ducking his head to hide in Ace’s neck as tears start running down his own cheeks at the notion that they didn’t hate him.
“Ace, he’s shivering -yoi. Let’s get everyone to the fire and talk about this later once Sabo’s warmed up,” Marco’s voice came as Sabo shivered even more. Groaning at the pull it gave to his scars. Whining as the cold just hit differently, until something warm pressed against them and, as he opened his eyes slightly, he could see Ace pressed there acting as a heating packet.
Snorting, he leaned into the embrace before slowly pulling away from Luffy’s hug and grabbing a rubber hand to let the younger lead them to the fire. He had been so scared he would lose this upon finding it, so he’s happy that at least it didn't happen. He’d deal with everything else later on, once he is indeed warmed up again.