Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Home was a mercurial concept for Sabo.

Ever since he was old enough to understand, he knew that he did not have a true home with Outlook III and Didit. After all, how could he have a home with a pack that had rejected him? They watched, apathetic, as he withered away in front of them, nearly dying thanks to the neglected bonds between them. They called him weak, useless, unworthy. They would have left him to rot and moved on as if it were all his fault.

It wasn’t a strange phenomenon for nobles to block bonds between themselves and their pups. It was done under the pretense that doing so would weed out the weak from the strong. If a pup were truly worthy of bearing the title of noble, they would not need to depend upon a biological bond. Nobles, by and large, did not see bonds as more important than the laws and norms put forth by the Celestial Dragons. The Dragons themselves preached that blocking those bonds as soon as possible was paramount to showing that the lesser nobles placed the Celestial Dragons above all else. After all, if someone was still actively bonded to their pups, pack mentality could take over and there was every chance that they may put their pup above the creators of the World. A lesser noble’s devotion was to be to the World first and foremost and not to their own pack. Blocking the parent bond showed that.

However, even amongst nobles, the point at which those bonds were blocked was usually once a pup was 2 - 4 years old. It was at that point that birthbonds had already naturally faded into a standard parent bond, losing the near telepathic nature birthbonds created between a pup and their dam. It also lessened the danger that those blocked bonds would threaten a pup’s life. That was ostensibly why severing bonds were seen as a more radical stance amongst nobles. Blocking bonds had its dangers but severing them too early was all but condemning a pup to death. Nobles still needed their heirs, killing them was pointless so bonds weren’t severed for the most part. Blocking bonds instead did not eliminate the danger. Noble pups would get sick once a bond was blocked as a toddler, but about 70% recovered and the lost 30% were considered the weak, culled from those that were worthy of the title of noble.

Sabo’s was a different case.

His mother blocked the birthbond when he was only a month old and his father didn’t form a proper bond with him. Thus, he had a parent pack, but it did not offer the comfort or care it usually would for a pup. He couldn’t sense his parents, nor could they sense him. There was no nest for him to retreat to in times of stress. There were no arms to embrace him and wrap him up in a protective scent. His parents did not teach him how to tell the difference between scents or how to request tokens for a nest (not that they ever would’ve gifted them to him). They didn’t love him. He was little more than a trophy, an object brought forth to carry their blood and that was all. Sabo survived the first five years of his life through the goodwill of the servants living in the house he had the misfortune of calling home.

The servants were the ones to make sure he was fed and clothed. They were the ones who would gift him shiny things and trinkets to hoard and marvel over, even though he was unable to understand why the small items eased the tension in his chest. The servants were the ones who explained to him why he was so sick all the time, why he felt like his soul and heart were infected masses leeching rot and sickness into his blood, destroying him from the inside out. They were the reason why he knew that his parents’ apathy towards him and inability to love him was literally killing him, poisoning him thanks to the rancid bond which had taken root within him.

Sabo understood he was trapped and on a collision course to an early grave. He wanted more out of life. He lost himself in books of adventure, craving a chance to live those stories. He wanted to see the world, learn things, experience the wonders it offered, meet interesting people. He wanted to travel and record it afterwards, just like in the books he read. He couldn’t follow that dream if he was dead of a broken soul.

So, he ran. He ran fast and far and ended up in a place full of misfits and unwanted souls such as himself. He didn’t expect to survive Gray Terminal as a 5-year-old on his own, but he also wouldn’t have survived the cold opulence of High Town either. Besides, he didn’t have much of a choice. The only way to be free was to run. He’d spend the last few months of his life struggling in squalor if it meant he got a taste of freedom.

The people in Gray Terminal were different from those in High Town. There were many people who were cutthroat thugs that didn’t care if he was a pup. He had to learn to hold his own quickly. But, if one looked deeper, there were gems within the junkyard, people who were simply struggling to get by in a world that made it clear it didn’t want them. Even so, they found a way to survive, in spite of the world. Sabo found a kindred spirit in the people of the junkyard and so it had felt more like home than High Town ever had.

Not completely though. He couldn’t deny the differences between himself and the poor residents, most of whom couldn’t read or write or do much beyond basic math so were often ripped off by those who were more educated than them. His better start in life had given him access to knowledge that the maligned masses of Gray Terminal would never have. It set him apart, made him different, made him an ‘other’ in his new home. Still, it was better than what he had in High Town: a cold detachment that held no hint of love or promise of a better future.

Once upon a time he thought all parents were like his, but even among nobles, there was a closer bond that existed between parents and their pups than there was with Sabo, Outlook and Didit. It was true the nobles were teaching their offspring the same skewed view of reality as they learned from their own families, but they were spending time together and forging bonds that would last even if they were blocked one day. Sabo’s parents left him to teachers and servants and anyone else they could think of to deal with him. He only ever spent time with them during dinners or during events when he was paraded around like an accessory so his parents could play the part of happy family.

That wasn’t to say Sabo didn’t try to get their attention. He tried to learn piano because his mother enjoyed it, but she had told him his fingers were too clumsy on the keys. He tried to take more interest in his etiquette classes so he could impress people at balls in hopes his parents would notice, but instead they criticized him for how he walked, for how he sat, for eating too quickly or slowly. He tried to be more distant and disdainful towards the “lowly masses” but his own guilt from the crestfallen faces of the servants who had become his surrogate family wouldn’t let that last long. Nothing he did worked.

He had gathered the courage once to ask his parents what it was they wanted from him, what he could do to make them see him differently, make them love him. His mother had stared at him blankly while his father tutted.

“Love? What does love have to do with anything? We aren’t on this world to fulfill such a trivial and lowly pursuit as love. We’re here for the furtherance of our family name and lineage. That’s all. It’s precisely such foolish notions as that that are causing your body to fail you. If you aren’t strong enough to survive without something as useless as love, then it’s only for the best that your weakness will likely take you so early in life. Only the worthy survive, son. Hopefully our next pup will learn that much earlier than you.”

Sabo had blinked harshly, trying his best not to cry even as Didit continued to stare at him with a plastic smile on her lips, eyes blank and emotionless.

Sabo had run away two weeks later, determined to make the last few months he had count.

But months became years and before he knew it, he was 10 years old, older than anyone said he’d survive to be. According to Hongo, he likely had Ace to thank for that. Who knew the kid he helped survive an encounter with Edge Town thugs would be the miracle he needed? Not that Ace would ever believe him if he said so. The two lonely pups had stumbled their way into a bond that saved both of their lives for the next five years and carried them to where they were now.

Sabo looked over at the other pups he walked through the forest with as they practically vibrated with excitement.

He hadn’t spent much time in Windmill Village. People in High Town largely forgot the small coastal town existed and it was quite a trek from Gray Terminal to the village. So, he wasn’t familiar with their traditions. However, he could vividly recall year after year sitting on the tallest garbage heap he could find and looking up in awe as fireworks shot into the sky from all around the island, lighting up the night.

The Festival of Lights was held to celebrate the beginning of spring on Dawn Island. While there were also celebrations happening on the rest of the island with Town Center having the largest public celebration and even High Town having a Spring Equinox ball, Uta and Luffy had spent weeks gushing about the festival in Windmill Village. That crazy old man, Garp, had lifted the command on them that barred them from entering the village, so they had the opportunity to attend and wouldn’t shut up about it.

“Damn, can you two talk about anything else,” Ace grumbled as Luffy was going on another tangent about how amazing the festival would be while the four children trekked through the forest towards the village. Dadan had waved them off when they mentioned it, claiming to have better things to do (even though Sabo doubted that). Still, she had encouraged them (yelled at them) to bring an overnight bag and stay with Makino for the weekend for the festival.

“We’re just so excited,” Uta replied with a wide smile on her lips.

Sabo was surprised to see how carefree she looked. It was a rare expression on the young girl he had grown accustomed to hearing Ace complain about. Most of Uta’s smiles were reserved for Luffy and Shanks but Sabo felt gratified to be one of the people on a short list that could make her smile too. He wasn’t sure why, but it made him feel good about himself as much as it made him feel good when he got Ace to relax and see that he was worth people’s time and when he received one of Luffy’s tight hugs and compliments for his intelligence.

“Uta’s right. It’s going to be the best. We’ll get to eat lots of yummy food!” Luffy exclaimed enthusiastically.

“And see all the decorations around the village,” Uta added.

“Makino will make honey cakes and braised lamb and fluffy rice and her herb-crusted fish for the first day,” Luffy continued.

“We’ll get to watch the fireworks and paint our own lanterns to release them.”

“Mrs. Chicken always makes spiced eggy milk to eat with our lemon-butter cookies and Mr. Mayor makes pan-roasted duck breasts with garlic mash for the second day. It’s so good I don’t mind that they make me eat veggies too.”

“The last day we’ll get to dress up all fancy for the beach party.”

“Party!”

“And there’ll be music and dancers in costumes.”

“And a feast with yummy food!”

“Are we only going just so you can eat?” Sabo asked Luffy with a raised brow.

“Nah, Uta’s got to sing her special spring song too.”

The young gamma blushed at that.

“Luffy. I told you, I’m not singing this year.”

“Why not? You sing every year.”

“Well, that was before… before. People in the village won’t want me to get on stage and sing.”

“How come? I poke fun, but you sing well enough,” Ace asked.

Sabo gave Ace a look at that. Sometimes he could be so dense.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you, Freckleface?”

Ace shot her a glare. Sabo could see an argument brewing that would utterly derail them, not to mention might attract the wrong attention in the forest. He quickly curtailed it by smacking the brim of Ace’s hat so it covered his eyes. The boy turned irritated eyes towards him. He gave him a meaningful look before the raven-haired boy grumbled and shifted uncomfortably.

“Do you really think it’ll be that much of a problem? I mean, it’s true they’re dumb and some of them have a whole thing about gammas, but you’ve lived in the village your whole life. It’s not like they don’t know you,” Ace commented.

Sabo smiled to himself sadly. That wasn’t how the world generally worked.

“It doesn’t matter to some people whether I’ve lived there my whole life or not. I’m different so I’m an outsider now. We always were in a way. Our grandfather is Monkey D. Garp, that already set us apart. Being a gamma just made it worse. For some people, that’s all I am and all I’ll ever be.”

“It’s stupid though. It doesn’t matter if Uta’s a gamma. That doesn’t mean she can’t still sing better than anyone else in the village can,” Luffy grumbled.

Uta smiled and ruffled his hair lovingly.

“How about this? I’ll sing my song just for you guys on the last night of the festival. That’ll make it even more special, right? ‘Cause then it won’t be for everyone, just my family.”

Luffy brightened at that.

“Yeah! We can do it at Makino’s and that way she’ll be there with us, Ace and Sabo too. I wish we brought the snail. That way we would’ve been able to call Dad and the crew too.”

Anything else Luffy and Uta were chattering about faded to the background as Sabo focused on putting one foot in front of the other and not tripping over any roots, even as his mind spiraled with their words.

A family? Is that what they were? A few months ago, he hadn’t even known who Luffy was and he’d only met Uta a few times. Ace was the only one he could count as a friend, something approaching a pack, and only in his head because if he ever said so, the other boy would explode out of an inability to accept such a notion and Sabo would’ve lost him. How had that changed so drastically?

Sabo’s fingers went to his face involuntarily, more specifically his burn scar. He got flashes of that night in his head: the pure anger he felt as he listened to his father barter for slaves, the self-hatred as he realized the kind of people he was born from, the indignation as he walked with the men that helped him commit that evil, the pain as he was beaten and listened to the others be beaten as well, the sheer force of will as he refused to give in to Porchemy and his ilk, the fire erupting in the hut, knocking all the walls down and spreading throughout the surrounding garbage piles in the Terminal but leaving the pups untouched and unburned, the screaming of the dying people caught in the blaze, the pounding of Sabo’s own heart as he took in the destruction of the place he called home for 5 years.

A night like that could bind even the worst enemies to each other. That shared trauma and the subsequent recovery from the incident had only made Ace and Sabo closer and made him open up to Uta and Luffy, even to Shanks and his crew. He hadn’t been expecting that when he snuck to Eudora’s mansion that night to help Ace abscond with a devil fruit and get a boat so they could leave the island. But still, would he call what he had now a family?

He knew they were a pack, but he also knew that that was initiated by necessity. Hongo had figured out Sabo was in a bad way immediately and the doctor refused to be deterred from helping him no matter what Sabo said. Then, for reasons Sabo still was mystified about, Shanks had visited him one night while he was still in recovery with Ace by his side and helped them to formalize a pack bond and then, even more mystifying, he’d offered to bond with Sabo himself. The blond didn’t know how to respond so he hadn’t. He moved in with Dadan and the bandits since his home at Pirate’s Cove was turned to rubble during the incident with the Bluejam Pirates.

He thought that was the end of whatever Shanks had been trying to do, but then he started visiting. Sometimes, he had the twins in tow but sometimes he was by himself. When he came by, he never reserved his attention to Ace alone. He always spared time for Sabo. Then he started to give him gifts: books he thought he would like, a new pair of goggles after Sabo’s last pair had burned in the Terminal, a spyglass so Sabo could look out into the ocean from the hills of the island. He liked hearing Shanks’ stories about his pirate crew and didn’t mind fishing with him, but he was still reluctant about forming a bond with a man he barely knew. He could only guess Shanks wanted to do so out of a sense of obligation to Ace and because Sabo had helped the twins during the Gray Terminal incident. He didn’t think he’d done enough for the omega to feel such a sense of responsibility for him. Sabo had been getting by just fine on his own for five years, he didn’t suddenly need some adult to butt in on his life.

He didn’t start to see things differently until after the incident with Higuma and the sea king.

That wasn’t the first time Sabo had encountered a parent willing to sacrifice for their pup, but it was the first time that it occurred to him that a real parent would put their lives on the line for their pup, that they would sacrifice something as crucial as a limb.

“You love them a lot,” Sabo had commented one day when he was on Shanks watch.

Sabo and Ace had taken to guarding Shanks after Beckman had told them to keep an eye out for the twins and the captain. After Shanks woke up, they started alternating shifts while also making sure the twins left the room occasionally. It was Ace’s turn to get them some fresh air while Sabo made sure Shanks didn’t push himself too hard at the behest of Hongo. The blond sat at the red-haired omega’s bedside, staring at the door pensively with his pipe clutched in his hands firmly.

Some of the more curious villagers that liked to frequent the bar with the pirates kept trying to stick their noses into the room to gawk at the captain. The two older boys had already had to bash a few heads in, but the gaggle of onlookers wasn’t easily deterred.

“Hmm?”

“The twins. You really love them.”

“’Course I do. They’re mine.”

“That doesn’t mean you love them.”

Didit and Outlook III didn’t love him and he was as much theirs as it could get.

Shanks had gotten a contemplative look on his face at that.

“No, I suppose you’re right. You know, I don’t know who my biological family is. The alpha who claimed me as his found me in a treasure chest, stinking of severed bonds, at the tail-end of a massacre. I probably would’ve died if Roger hadn’t decided to claim me. When I’m feeling more hopeful, I make myself think my biological parents did that to protect me. Reality is probably something different, but who knows? What I do know is that the people who chose to love me are more my family than anyone else in the world. I think you can choose to be someone’s just as much as someone can choose to claim you, bloodbond or not. It takes more than blood to be a parent.”

“If you love them so much and you claim them as yours, then why’d you ever leave them,” Sabo asked.

He immediately regretted the forward question as Shanks blinked in reply.

“I— I shouldn’t have—”

“No, it’s a fair question to ask and I can understand why you of all people would wonder about it. Me leaving when they were babies had nothing to do with not wanting them or loving them. I sent them away because I want what’s best for them. I was faced with keeping them and having them likely die by my enemies or losing them and knowing that somewhere out there, they were safe and alive. I chose the latter. It may not have turned out exactly as I envisioned, but the alternative could’ve been much worse.”

“You kept the bond between you guys. You didn’t choose to block or sever it.”

“It would’ve been much worse for them if I had. Just our separating so early made them sick for a month, if I had blocked the bond it would’ve made them even sicker. If I severed it, it more than likely would’ve killed them. It was barely a choice that needed to be made for me.”

Sabo had heard the twins mention in passing that they could always feel that there was something out there for them, likely Shanks and the bond they shared. Sabo sometimes felt that way too, but not in the same way the twins did. For him, it was more like there was a roadblock between him and the thing he longed for, an impenetrable wall that would not allow the bond to tether itself to what was on the other side. It left him feeling hollow, empty, rubbed raw. That longing was always tinged with pain even after he ran away. It was a dull sort of pain, one he learned to ignore, but one that persisted nonetheless. In his more hopeful moments, he wondered if his parents felt this way too. If they felt like he was a missing piece of them that their souls wanted to tether to, even if their hearts didn’t want him. Shanks was like them in a way, a parent separated from his pups, though for Shanks and the twins it was literal distance and not the emotional kind that existed between Sabo and his parents.

“How— how did it feel, the bond, sending them away? How did it feel for you?”

Shanks had stared at him blankly for a moment before a small sad smile crossed his lips.

“I won’t get into the weeds of the details, you don’t need to hear all that, but it was miserable and painful, made worse for me because I didn’t block or sever the bond. It’s dulled since I found the twins, but it’s still there,” Shanks explained, tapping over his chest.

“It looms like a shadow over my heart, a reminder of what that loss felt like. But I’m glad I felt it. Feeling that way meant they were out there, somewhere, alive. I’d feel that pain a hundred times over in the face of that.”

Sabo had blinked in return before looking away. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting to hear or even wanted to hear, but he didn’t think he was expecting that. He knew that Didit and Outlook III would never do the same for him. They were actively planning to sever all connection to him so they wouldn’t feel the pain he would be going through when his illness finally ran its course.

“Hey kid.”

Sabo looked over as fingers brushed against his own, which were clenched tight on his pipe.

“For a real parent, when it comes to their pups’ lives and wellbeing weighed against their own, there’s never a real struggle involved. If there is, then they aren’t a true parent to begin with. There are people in this world you may share blood with but that doesn’t make them your family or your pack. You’re not obligated to choose them or claim them.”

“You want me to be in your pack though? Why? You don’t even really know me.”

Shanks had laughed at that, the strange boisterous bright laugh that made Sabo feel a warm flutter in his chest. Shanks had the kind of laugh that demanded attention. It stopped a room and lit up a space. Sabo didn’t understand it. Maybe it was all the charisma the captain had dripping off him in waves or maybe it was an omega thing.

“I know you, Sabo. You’re a boy who could’ve let the loneliness crush you by now but instead you’ve found reasons to live, even while living in the darkest corners of the world. That kind of steadfast spirit and strength of will is exactly the kind anyone can admire, but especially me.”

“You… admire me?”

“You’ve spent five years away from your birth pack, being so strong, fighting to survive in this world, finding people to love, trying to find a place to call home. That’s not weakness, that’s strength, that’s willpower. That’s the kind of spirit that all pirates have to have deep down or they never would survive on the seas. I’ve seen grown men who’ve gone through only half of what you have and wind up broken. But you’re still here. How could I not admire that? How could I not want to claim someone with your strength and will as my own? How could I not want to call that person pack?”

Sabo had blushed at that, unable to say anything. No one had ever complimented him in that way before. Sure, some of the people of the Terminal called him resourceful, strong, a good fighter. Ace saw him as a good partner, but Shanks was talking about his spirit, his soul, and claiming he admired him.

The guy who just gave up his arm saving an innocent pup from an evil bandit and a sea king attack admired Sabo for his strength and determination to stay alive. It sounded both ridiculous and surreal. And Sabo, who had to admit that his own veneration of Shanks had skyrocketed when he learned what had happened and what he’d given up for Luffy, couldn’t help but flush in embarrassment and shyness at receiving any praise from the guy.   

“I don’t have all the answers, Sabo, I’d be a liar if I said I did or that I even know for sure what’s going to happen two days from now, but I know that I would like to show you what a true pack is like. I’d like to help you gain a sense of home even if I won’t physically be here much longer. Luffy and Uta are mine, Ace is mine and I’d like for you to be able to consider yourself mine too one day. I know why that’s difficult for you to imagine but whatever your birth parents did or didn’t do, I know that they weren’t your family, they weren’t your pack. Whether you’d like that to be me or not, I know that there are people in this world who you belong with and who can show you the true meaning of those words. You won’t live your whole life alone. You’ll get the home you deserve. I just hope I can be part of that for you.”

What was he to say to a man who was all but offering to open himself, his arms, his heart, his soul to Sabo? To be his family when he owed him nothing, had nothing but a connection that was several degrees removed from him? It seemed insane and impossible to contemplate. Even after Sabo accepted the packbonds and technically joined Shanks’ pack, he still felt like an outsider. Now, here was Uta and Luffy implying that he was family to them, throwing him in the same conversation as Shanks and Makino.

He looked over as Ace knocked a shoulder against his. The brunette shook his head.

“Those idiots never watch what they say, huh? They just spout whatever nonsense they want and don’t consider how it sounds to anyone else. They must get that from Gramps. Don’t bother dwelling on it. I think Luffy also includes all those beetles he likes to collect as family,” the other boy said brashly.

Sabo deflated just a little.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. It’s all so stupid.”

Ace reached out and smacked Sabo’s top hat right off his head. He shot the boy a glare and quickly scooped it up, dusting it off.

“You’re stupid. You’re supposed to be the smart one so stop acting so dumb.”

Sabo blinked at that, trying to decipher what Ace meant. Usually, he was fluent in Ace-speak, but this time he was stumped. The brunette just grimaced in reply.

“I really hate you, you know that? Trying to make me talk about a bunch of mushy crap. Just get your shit together,” the young fire-starter snapped before sticking out a foot to trip Sabo and speeding up, so he was at the front of the group.

Sabo stared in confusion at the eldest pup before rolling his eyes, chalking the exchange up to Ace’s usual emotional constipation. Maybe he felt strangely about being included in Luffy and Uta’s family too, even though he had a much greater claim to it given his and Shanks’ mutual connection. He decided to put all his musings aside for now and just enjoy this weekend with the other pups.

The village was a wondrous thing to witness, all lit up with decorations and lights. The weekend was just as fun-filled as Luffy and Uta claimed it would be. They stayed with Makino and helped her cook meals for each day of the festival. They got to decorate lanterns and release them and dress up in funny costumes. There was a treasure hunt on the second night and then on the last night there was a party down at the beach where game stands and food stalls were set up along with a concert stage with jovial music playing loudly into the night as fireworks lit up the sky.

It was nothing like spring equinox celebrations in High Town. That just involved a stuffy ball that Sabo struggled to get through while trying to play the perfect part for his parents’ sake.

He had snuck into Town Center a few times during their celebration, but it was never to indulge, it was just to pickpocket unsuspecting attendees.

Celebrations in Gray Terminal were scarce. People rarely ever had enough to celebrate any holidays or felt jovial enough to want to celebrate anything. However, sometimes Thierry would gather other musicians and play music as they watched the fireworks from other parts of the island shoot up into the sky.

Windmill Village was the first he got to really experience this. It was all so fun that Sabo managed to forget about the issue of Uta getting to sing some special song.

He sat and watched as she sadly looked at the stage where several villagers would climb up and sing songs unprompted. Luffy kept poking her, telling her to take a turn, but Uta never moved. She’d just distract him with food or get into an argument with Ace instead. Now that Sabo was in town, he could understand Uta’s reluctance more. It was hard to ignore the looks of several villagers as they made their way through the festival grounds. At first, he thought the disdainful and suspicious looks were directed at him and Ace. They had been to the village before, but they were still largely outsiders, so maybe some people didn’t trust them as a result. It only took a couple whispered comments for him to realize it was Uta that they were staring at.

He watched her try to ignore it all night, lose herself in the festivities, supervising Luffy while Makino worked a drink stall and bantering/arguing with Ace. Still, she stiffened every now and again when they got too close to certain people. She looked down and tried to shrink herself when others stared too long. It was clear there was a divide between her and some of the villagers. It made Sabo feel both sad and angry to see Uta making herself small around these people when it was so antithetical to how she behaved at the bandits’ base, where she often bossed everyone and anyone around and clashed in loud arguments with Ace.

Sabo could tell the others noticed as well because Luffy had taken to hanging off his twin like a limpet and Ace’s scowl was deepening more and more as the night wore on.

“Screw this, why don’t you just go up there and sing already,” Ace burst out after another sidelong glare made Uta flinch.

“I already told you—”

“I heard what you said but who gives a damn what these people think? We’re going to be pirates, that means being free to live how we choose. Cowering in a corner because these dickheads might be mean to you isn’t living free.”

Sabo pursed his lips. He got where Ace had been trying to go with that, but did he need to be that abrasive about it? It’d only make Uta defensive.

Just as Sabo thought, the girl shot the eldest boy a glare.

“Oh, that’s easy for you to say, isn’t it?”

“How’s that?”

“At least they can’t smell your deepest shame on you the way they can with me.”

Ace bristled in return and Sabo quickly stepped in before things could spiral.

“What Ace is trying to say is that we know you have a song you want to sing. It’s probably bursting at the seams trying to get out of you and it’s not like you to not give those songs a voice is all. We know it’s because of these people but we’re here with you. So, if you really want to give it a shot, you should.”

“Sabo’s right. You can sing better than this whole village. They’re lucky to hear you. Remember what I said that night we slipped out of Eudora’s place? You’re strong and good and brave and if silly Uta forgets, then I’ll be there and I’ll believe hard enough for both of us,” Luffy exclaimed earnestly.

Sabo felt an involuntary smile cross his lips as the twins bumped their foreheads against one another after Luffy’s declaration.

The moment was cut short by several derisive snickers from nearby.

Sabo looked over to see three pups around his and Ace’s age standing a few feet away from them.

“Strong, good and brave, huh? As if,” one of the boys said to the others.

“Yeah, what kind of monster could ever be those things?”

“She’s just a demon at the end of the day.”

The three boys laughed to each other as they spoke loudly enough for the group to overhear.

“I don’t even know why she’s here. We’re supposed to be celebrating new growth and life. How can we celebrate life with a monster that got villagers killed,” a blonde boy said.

“How do we know she won’t do that to the rest of us. You saw how close she was to those murderous pirates after all,” a redhead added.

“That’s why she’s a gamma. Because she’s evil. My mom says only monsters become gammas. Their spirits are wrong, so they attract bad people who turn them into gammas and then when they die, they go to hell,” a brunette commented like it was a fact known by everyone.

Sabo clenched his fists at the words. Uta trembled and tried to look smaller while Ace and Luffy visibly grew angrier.

“Hey!” Luffy shouted, stomping over to the boys despite Uta’s protests.

“You can’t talk about my sister that way!”

“Your sister is a curse that brought death to our village and got innocent fishermen killed,” the blonde boy retorted.

“That’s not true!”

“Is so. I heard my parents talking about it. They said your sister is a demon whose aura attracted another monster. Then, your sister lured innocent men to him so they would be killed, like a demonic sacrifice or something,” the brunette boy asserted.

“That’s not what happened! They were trying to save Uta from a bad man. She didn’t kill the fishermen, that meanie Daku did!”

Uta flinched hard at the mention of the name of the man who had abducted her. Sabo put a comforting hand on her slightly trembling shoulder in response.

“She’s just as guilty as that guy was.”

“How?” Luffy demanded.

“Because she was born wrong,” the red-haired boy proclaimed.

“That’s dumb. Uta and I were born together and Dad said we were perfect.”

“Yeah, you were born together and you’re just as wrong as each other. She might be the one everyone knows is evil but that doesn’t mean you aren’t either.”

“Although you might just be too dumb to realize it,” the blonde taunted.

The boys started snickering, pointing at Luffy and Uta and chanting names.

“Demon. Retard. Demon. Retard. Demon. Retard.”

Uta got up then, placing herself in front of Luffy as she bared her teeth at the boys.

“You can say whatever you want about me, but you do not get to talk about my brother that way.”

“And what are you going to do about it,” the blonde boy challenged.

“Don’t test her, Nate. We don’t know what kind of evil powers she might have,” the redhead said, equal parts mocking and nervous.

“Yeah, if she hadn’t brought him here, that guy couldn’t have hurt any one of us. We don’t want her to curse anyone else in the village,” the brunette added.

“Oh please. She’s an evil seductress, sure. But she’s also weak. She couldn’t even hurt the villagers herself. She had to lure someone else to do it, so what can she really do to us?”

“You wanna find out what I can do to you?” Ace threatened, speaking up for the first time as his body practically vibrated with anger. Sabo felt like his own anger was simmering in the pit of his stomach listening to this filth and drivel being smeared against Uta for something that wasn’t her fault.

Nate’s eyes flicked over to Ace dismissively before he looked back to Uta, a devious grin splitting his face.

“I saw you, you know? That day when Vice Admiral Garp brought you back. I saw him carrying you into town like you were some newborn pup, saw Makino fretting over you like you deserved it, saw this idiot crying over you like you being gone was a bad thing. And do you want to know what I realized then? You’re not some all-powerful monster—”

“No way!”

“She’s a gamma and everyone says—”

Nate held up a hand, cutting off his friends’ protests.

“You’re not a monster and I don’t think you’re a demon either. I think you’re something worse.”

“And what’s that,” Uta challenged, her voice unwavering even as her clenched fists trembled.

“You’re weak. You’re just a weak, useless, burden. A burden that got innocent people in this village killed. Far as I’m concerned, whatever happened to you is just what you deserve, especially if you were too weak to stop i—”

Nate was cut off as he suddenly went flying a few feet back, landing on a prize shelf of a game stand amongst a pile of stuffed animals. Sabo looked over at Ace who was huffing air in deep angry gulps as his fist returned to his side.

“If you’re so strong, jackass, why couldn’t you do anything to stop that,” he spat at the boy.

Sabo could see that they were drawing the attention of several adults even as the brunette and redhead with the main bully glared hard at the rest of the kids.

The redhead made to lunge at Uta, but Sabo was there in a second. Using his pipe, he knocked the boy off his feet and then swung him into the air to fly in the same direction as Nate, breaking the table and sending the two boys crashing to the sand before being buried by toys.

The brunette went for Luffy, throwing a punch that sunk into his strange rubbery skin. The bully gaped as Luffy grinned largely in return.

“That doesn’t work on me anymore,” the elastic boy declared happily as Uta moved past him and swiftly kicked the boy in between the legs sending him to his knees.

“I told you, you can come after me but not Luffy,” she spat indignantly.

“Screw that! If they want to keep all their limbs, they won’t come after any of us,” Ace declared, kicking the last boy across the sand to join his friends sprawled out on the floor.

It was clear they had drawn attention as there were several adults approaching the scene, including the mayor, Makino and a policeman.

“How dare you lay a hand on my boy? I want these pups arrested,” a blonde omega woman cried out, cradling Nate to her body.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for all this,” Mayor Woop Slap placated as Makino came to stand amongst the four pups, placing her hand on Uta and Luffy’s shoulders while looking them all over for any sign of injury.

“Yeah, the kid’s a dickhead bigot and he deserved to get his ass beat for it,” Ace stated nonchalantly, staring at the omega woman unapologetically.

“Excuse me? Who on earth could he be a bigot against?” she gasped, offended.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the girl with the rare second gender,” Ace threw out sarcastically.

“The truth is hardly bigotry. The girl is a demoness and a changeling. That’s common knowledge,” she said dismissively.

Sabo clenched his teeth at that, reminded in that moment that prejudice was not reserved for the nobles of the world.

“I’d appreciate it if you kept such vulgar language to yourself. Uta is a good, kind, talented, loving young girl. That’s all,” Makino defended.

“Too loving one might say. It certainly doesn’t bode well for her future that she would try to pursue mateship at such a young age as this. That sort of promiscuity has no place in Windmill Village, Makino. You should know this by now.”

“What I know is that it’s exceedingly ironic for a woman to accuse an 8-year-old child of being promiscuous due to the actions of a grown man and then turn around and decide that children should be absolved of any consequence due to their supposed wrongdoing. Though I guess that rule doesn’t apply when it’s your child’s wrongdoing, does it?”

“How dare—”

“No, how dare you speak about this innocent girl like this. To treat her as if she is the culprit in the horrible crime committed against her and our village? Our fishermen fought bravely against that awful excuse for an alpha who only came to this village to steal our greatest assets, our pups from us. If it wasn’t Uta, it would’ve been someone else. I wonder if you’d be spewing this same rhetoric if it was your Nate he stole. It’s very easy for you to preach your hatred when you get to continue to live in your perfect little bubble, one step removed from the cruelty of this world. It’s easy for you to judge because you don’t have to lose any sleep at night, knowing just what horrors there are in this world. People like Daku, the Bluejam Pirates, Higuma and his bandits, they can remain abstract boogeymen to you, while for my pups they are all too real. Instead of supporting Uta and Luffy, who were faced with that darkness much sooner than they ever should’ve been, all you and people like you do is compound on that tragedy. To teach your pup to do the same is a failure of parenthood. Shame on you, as a mother, as an omega, as a woman and as a member of this community,” Makino retorted, her voice never raising but ringing out strong and firm amongst the gathering.

Sabo stared at the omega bar owner in awe. Makino was soft-spoken but she had a protective streak when it came to the twins. She had been their main caregiver for most of their lives, so it made sense. It was rare for her to get this angry, though Sabo had noticed that hers was a quiet anger, like an eye in a storm. However, once she had a grudge against someone, she held it. Sabo suspected that Nate’s family wasn’t going to be welcome to Makino’s bar any time soon.

“Enough of all this. No one is being arrested. They’re pups. Childish spats are bound to happen. This is a day of celebration, not one meant to be used to indulge in conflict or prejudice,” the mayor declared, looking over both groups with a withering gaze before settling on the bullies.

“Mrs. Velt, why don’t you get Nate home? Travis, Daryl, find your parents and do the same. Uta, why don’t you take the boys and go on a walk, hmm?” Mayor Woop Slap suggested to everyone, though Sabo got the feeling they weren’t suggestions.

Makino leaned down and kissed the top of Uta’s head, rubbing her cheek against the girl’s hair comfortingly and washing her in her personal scent, vanilla, elderflower and maple. Sweet but not sickeningly so.

Makino graced the boys with a smile as she pulled away from Uta.

“Good job defending her, boys. Make sure you keep watching out for her and each other, okay?”

The three boys nodded in reply, accepting the hair ruffles Makino gave the older boys and the big hug Luffy wrapped her up in before they began walking away. Sabo took note of the glare Makino sent to Mrs. Velt, telling him that as he suspected, the omega planned to hold a grudge. Not that he was going to blame her for that.

Uta led the foursome further down the beach away from the party with Luffy snatching food off people’s plates as they went. They walked to a darker part of the beach, lit only by the moon. The pups sat on an outcropping of rocks, looking out into the horizon where the water and sky disappeared into an indiscernible blotch of black.

They were quiet for a while before Sabo looked over at Uta. She was sitting still, staring down at the Log Pose Shanks had left her, her small fingers running over the three glass domes encasing the twitching dials. She was mumbling something to herself that Sabo had to lean in to hear.

“It happened to you, not because of you.”

He bit his lip upon hearing that before he lightly knocked his shoulder into hers.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. That’s nothing I’m not used to.”

Sabo knew that was true but still. He was aware there was no easy fix to this. There was nothing wrong with Uta, it was the world. The world chose to believe a certain thing about a group of people it couldn’t understand and rather than see those people for themselves, they shoved them into a box and refused to let them out. He had seen it many times in his short life: with the servants in High Town, with the people living in Gray Terminal, with Ace and his heritage and now with Uta and her second gender. People saw and believed what they wanted to as long as it served whatever narrative they chose to believe. Even though Uta was only an ordinary girl who was good at singing, enjoyed fighting more than she’d admit and adored her family, that didn’t matter because gammas were supposed to be demons and changelings, they were supposed to be promiscuous seducers, they were supposed to be monsters and so that’s what people chose to believe Uta was.

Sabo wished there was a way not just to make a change in people’s hearts but to make a change in the world. He wished there was a way to fight for true justice, true equality, true reform. He wondered how long the world could keep going on this way, with people deemed unworthy crushed under the spinning wheel of the status quo while the highest echelons continued to profit off their suffering and subjugation. He couldn’t be the only person in the world who saw this injustice and wanted to do something to change it. He couldn’t be the only person who felt a fire burning in his heart, a need to effect change, somehow, some way. There had to be someone who wanted to fight for a bigger cause, a cause that was more than just personal freedom but freedom for everyone. Not just by setting an example of what freedom could be like pirates did, but by actively liberating those in need of freedom. Sabo would like to believe that in this world, those people existed, even if he’d never get to meet them.

Ace stood up on the rock abruptly, his body flaring with fire as he let out a frustrated yell. He was vibrating with energy while fire licked at his shoulder blades and arms.

“Assholes! Who cares what they say anyway? What do they know? They’re a bunch of babies barely out of a nest who have never seen the world and probably will never leave this island. Uta’s got an actual dream worth fighting for. She’s gonna make a difference. Once Shanks gets back, we’re going to leave this place. Then we’ll be one step closer to being pirates in our own right. We’ll be free. Every dickhead on Dawn Island like Nate can only dream of something like that,” he ranted.

The other three children looked over at the eldest boy with owlish blinks before Luffy grinned widely.

“Ace is being so nice.”

The brunette’s face immediately turned beet red at that as his flames flared up.

“What? Go to hell! No, I’m not!”

Sabo snickered at his vehement denial.

“What a compassionate thing to say. Right, Luffy,” Sabo hedged, grinning wider when Ace glared at him.

“Yup! Ace ate a compass!”

“Compassionate.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Ate a compass.”

“How are you getting that from the word I said?” Sabo wondered aloud.

“Hey Ace, was the compass tasty? Hongo says I shouldn’t eat things that aren’t food because it’ll make me sick, but I’m rubber now so I bet I could swallow all the plates I want without hurting my tummy.”

Ace and Sabo both stopped and stared at Luffy as if he had grown three heads while the boy blinked back innocently and picked his nose. Their staring contest was broken by a laugh that sounded like bells and windchimes. They looked over to see Uta looking at them with an amused glint to her previously downcast eyes.

“You’re all such dumbos,” she declared but her voice was dripping with fondness that belied the words.

“Hey! We’re being nice and Uta’s calling us names. Meanie Uta,” Luffy complained.

“Yeah, Meanie Uta. Forgive me?”

“Of course!”

Sabo watched with a small smile as the twins hugged each other, rubbing their faces together and get their scents all over each other, not that they weren’t practically drenched in each other’s personal scents already. Sabo glanced over at Ace and saw a similar smile on the other 11-year-old’s face, though he was trying to hide it.

“Now that you feel better, will you sing your spring song for us?” Luffy asked once they pulled away.

“What is this spring song anyway? I’ve never heard of it,” Ace pointed out.

“It’s not an official song. It’s more like a song I make up each year based on what the Voices of the world are saying around me,” Uta explained.

“Voices of the world,” Sabo asked in confusion.

Uta hesitated at the question.

“Grandpa says we shouldn’t talk about this with anyone who isn’t family… but it’s you guys, so I guess that means it’s okay,” the girl decided, even though her referencing Sabo and Ace as family once more made the blonde’s heart twist.

“Luffy and I have these special abilities that let us hear things that others can’t hear. Daddy says it’s called the Voice of All Things and it means we can hear voices and thoughts of things and animals that other people can’t or would never be able to hear. We can do a few other things with it too, but it also helps me hear the Songs of the World. There’s music in everything and in everyone and I can hear those melodies, interpret them. It’s part of my dream, to be able to gather all the Songs of the World and give voice to them, write them down so that everyone can understand the world around them and co-exist in it better. A new genesis can only happen if people understand the world we’re living in after all.”

“That sounds… insane. So insane I half think you’re making it up,” Ace landed on.

“Nuh-uh, Uta’s not lying. I’ve always heard the Voice since I was little. There are voices in the world and in people’s hearts. It can get kind of loud sometimes and then sometimes I can’t hear anything at all. Grandpa says it’s better to ignore it all, but sometimes it’s nice to listen. Sometimes, there are cool stories to hear and other times the stories are not so nice,” Luffy tacked on.

“So this spring song is what you hear from the world?” Sabo asked, fascinated.

“It’s my interpretation of what I hear at least. Sometimes, I don’t hear words or sentences from the world, just feelings or images and I interpret it all as best as I can. The good thing is that music isn’t ever just one thing so my songs can change and grow and evolve into something else as I’m listening.”

“How does it work,” Ace asked, cautiously curious.

“I just close my eyes and open my heart and ears to everything around me. I listen to the breeze, the waves, the rocks, the trees, the sand. I listen to the sky and the stars. I listen to everything coming together to sing their songs. Sometimes, the songs are fighting and clashing and some are louder and stronger than others, but if I listen just right, it all comes together to make one single song about that one moment in time.”

Uta was quiet for a long while, her eyes closed, her head tilted back and her face turned up towards the moon as the wind ruffled her hair. She looked peaceful like that in her quiet stillness. Even Luffy didn’t do anything to break her concentration. Sabo felt himself waiting on bated breath to see what her quiet listening would produce. He even felt Ace leaning in beside him, though he was certain the older boy would deny it.

Life is not a highway strewn with flowers
Still, it holds a goodly share of bliss
When the sun gives way to April showers
Here’s the point you should never miss

Though April showers may come your way
They bring the flowers that bloom in May
So if it’s raining, have no regrets
Because it isn’t raining rain, you know
It’s raining violets

And when you see clouds upon the hills
You soon will see crowds of daffodils
So keep on looking for a bluebird, and listening for his song
Whenever April showers come along

Sabo felt an overarching sense of peace overtake him as Uta’s song ended. Her voice was always soothing but there was something about this particular song that put him at ease and he could tell it was the same for the others. The four pups involuntarily slumped into each other, curling around one another on the rock overlooking the ocean, cuddling together for shelter and comfort.

A warmth that he had come to associate with Shanks suffused his chest, spreading throughout him and bringing a smile to his lips. The notion of family with Ace, Luffy, Uta and even Shanks didn’t seem so bad when Sabo let himself think about it.

Chapter Text

Spring went by faster than Sabo expected it to. Time usually dragged for him, a monotonous march of fighting and scrounging to survive in Gray Terminal with the barest glimmers of light slowing things down so he could gain some appreciation of the world. Life felt different with the others. When it was just him and Ace, he hoarded precious moments of calm between them since he knew Ace’s insecurities would cut their time short but now with Luffy and Uta added to the mix, those moments lasted much longer and Sabo had the luxury of basking in their presence.

The four pups were practically attached at the hip and did most things together. They hunted together, trained and fought together, annoyed Dadan together, nested together. It was easy to get closer than they already were as they learned more about each other, special interests and hobbies and hopes and dreams.

This care extended to other people as well. Sabo wasn’t expecting to have grown such a strong attachment to the bandits they lived with. He saw a lot of similarities between them and the people of Gray Terminal that he had come to favor. They were a group that was maligned by the public due to perception of who they were but when you got to know them, they were gems, diamonds in the rough, people with genuine hearts and caring dispositions. Even Dadan, who chose to portray herself as a chain-smoking, uncompromising pack leader who resorted to violence more times than not, cared much more than she let on. Sabo could see it in the way the alpha would indulge Ace in his more aggressive moods by arguing and wrestling with him, though always much gentler than she did when she was wrestling the rest of the pack. He could see it in the way she would paint Uta’s fingernails for her and braid her hair before they went hunting, indulging in the more feminine things Uta enjoyed which Dadan herself never seemed to care for. He could see it in the way she would point out beetles to Luffy while they were walking in the forest even though she hated bugs. He could see it in the way she made sure that Sabo had new books every week, although half the bandit family was illiterate.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t tough though. In Sabo’s experience, gentle and alpha were mutually exclusive.

He laid out on the ground, huffing breathlessly thanks to Dadan’s training. Her training was nowhere near as extreme as crazy old Garp’s (thank the heavens) but that didn’t mean it was light. According to Ace and Uta, she had ramped things up ever since the fire in Gray Terminal. Sabo couldn’t speak to that, but Dadan certainly wasn’t going to let them get away with not being able to hold their own in a fight. Not that that was a problem. The kids could beat most of the adult bandits in a one-on-one fight and they were working on learning how to work together to fight as well, but Dadan still felt the need to put them through their paces, especially when it came to weapons training, which Luffy was awful at no matter what was put in his hand. Ace and Sabo were better with blunt force items: clubs, pipes, bats and the like. Uta was decent with blunt force weapons too, but she took a special interest in blades. She was trying her hand at all types to see what she was most comfortable with. Currently, she was attached to the idea of polearms, liking the range it gave her. Although it was kind of funny to see her wielding the weapon which was three times taller than her. It was less funny to be on the receiving end of said weapon.

Sabo glanced up as Uta held out a hand to help him up after he had taken the shaft of Uta’s staff full force to the stomach. He took her hand and let her pull him even as he felt his ribs smarting at the blow. That was going to leave a bruise. She could hit surprisingly hard for a girl her age. Sabo blamed Garp for that. A kid couldn’t be thrown into the forest and forced to train against monkeys and other dangerous animals and not end up stronger than average.

“You okay,” Uta asked, looking him over. Sabo nodded in reply, getting his bearings.

“That was alright, but next time follow through on your swing. Take advantage of your opponent being on the ground,” Dadan advised.

“Grandpa says it’s not honorable to attack an enemy who isn’t on their feet,” Luffy commented.

“There’s no sense in fighting with honor when your life is on the line. Especially not for your sister,” Dadan retorted.

“Why,” Luffy asked.

“Cause the dangers she’ll face won’t be the kinds Garp does. That goes for all of you in a way. If you manifest as a beta or an omega when you grow up, you’re going to spend your whole life being underestimated and sought after to fulfill a certain role, to be a possession. You don’t want that? You better know how to fight for what you want to be instead. Uta’s already manifested and she’s manifested with all the baggage that comes with being a gamma. She doesn’t have a choice but to be strong. It’s my job to make sure she’s as strong as I can make her so when someone else decides they want to take her and make her theirs against her will, she’ll be able to fight back and win.”

Uta nodded back with a grim expression as Luffy wandered off towards a bright red mushroom that had caught his eye, clearly having stopped listening halfway through Dadan’s speech.

“Don’t you mean if someone else wants to take her,” Sabo asked.

“No, I don’t,” Dadan replied flatly.

“Don’t know why you’re making sure a big deal out of this. The three of us are going to be there if someone tries that crap with Prissy Princess again,” Ace commented gruffly, shooting off small flames from his fingers as he tried to control how much fire he summoned. He was concentrating on it enough that he couldn’t dodge the slap to the back of the head Dadan gave him.

“Ow! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Don’t be an idiot, Ace! You can’t always be there with someone. You can’t protect them from everything that might want to hurt them. How foolish can you be?”

“Isn’t that the whole point of a pack? To fight for each other,” Sabo asked, smacking the mushroom out of Luffy’s hand before he could eat it.

“Your pack is your family, your refuge, your strength, but they can’t be everywhere with you all the time. Is Garp always here? Is Red Hair? Makino’s on this island, but is she always around? No. But they’re still part of your pack. Besides, how can anyone become strong if there’s someone else that’s always swooping in to protect them?”

Sabo couldn’t argue that. He had learned that lesson in Gray Terminal.

“In this world, if you can’t protect yourself then you won’t last. That doesn’t mean a pack is useless. No one can stand on their own without a pack behind them to support them in the places where they lack. A pack’s job is to help you become strong enough to fight your own battles but to also pick you up, whether you win or lose. You and your pack walk through life together, struggle together, hope together, dream together. You fight for each other but if you don’t fight for yourself too, then you’re spitting in the face of your pack and how important you are to them. So, I don’t want to hear that crap about protecting Uta so she doesn’t have to lift a finger for herself. All of you need to become strong in your own right, you hear me?”

Sabo, Uta and Ace nodded their heads while Luffy took the opportunity to snatch up the mushroom Sabo took from him and stuff it into his mouth. The other four watched in horror as the boy chewed.

“You sure you shouldn’t be training this idiot’s brain instead of his muscles,” Ace commented as Uta snatched the spear off her back and swung it at Luffy.

“Sissy?! What’s that for?!”

“Throw it up, now!”

“Nuh-uh, I ate it fair and square. It’s mine.”

“It could be poisonous, Luffy,” Sabo implored.

“How can a mushroom be prisonous? It didn’t look like it was doing anything to go to jail. Why’re you being so mean to the delicious mushroom?”

The three older children looked at each other, coming to a wordless agreement, before they set upon the boy. Luffy proved much less willing to part with the mushroom and took off into the woods.

“Hey! Training’s not done yet, brats!” Dadan protested.

“This is training,” Ace retorted as they took off after Luffy.

The boy was agile and small. He wasn’t very good at controlling his Devil Fruit, but he had recently taken to launching himself.

Gum Gum Rocket, he called it. He never landed where he intended to, but in this case all he wanted was to get away from the other three pups. Sabo looked up and watched Luffy’s body arch through the air and land somewhere off in the distance.

“Damn idiot. I’m gonna knock some sense into him when I get my hands on him,” Ace groused.

“You’re not knocking anything into my brother, Freckleface.”

“You almost beat him with a spear, Prissy Princess.”

“That’s different. It was going to be a hit of love, like Grandpa’s.”

“Maybe if Gramps didn’t hit us in the head so much, Luffy would have a few more brain cells left. Dumbass is probably off somewhere dying to a poisonous mushroom.”

Sabo felt a stab of anxiety lance through him at that. He usually let Luffy’s antics roll off his back, but sometimes, such as moments like this, it was harder to do so. Uta seemed to notice his anxiety and she playfully bumped her shoulder into his.

“Don’t worry. This isn’t the first time Lu’s eaten something potentially poisonous. Either it’s not really dangerous and we’re overreacting, or it is and he’ll have a stomachache which he’ll be miserable about and then be back to tiptop shape in no time. Trust me. I’d know better than anyone else. Plus, if he really was dying out there, we’d feel it through our packbonds.”

Sabo still felt some lingering worry but nodded.

“Let’s catch up with him before he finds another way to kill himself,” Ace ordered.

The other two nodded and ran off in the direction Luffy had gone in. As they ran further into the woods, a thick fog began to set in. This wasn’t overly strange, but given the nature of this forest, it was something to be wary of. Sabo found himself looking around anxiously, feeling like there were eyes on him from somewhere, though that could’ve been his imagination.

Thunder rolled in suddenly and he looked up just as rain drops began to fall.

“Oh no! My hair,” Uta groused as the downpour soaked her red and white locks.

“You’re such a baby, Princess,” Ace snorted.

Uta glared at him and smacked the back of his head in response prompting the boy to knock his shoulder roughly into hers, almost making her slip in the mud if Sabo hadn’t caught her in time. He shot Ace a withering look in response and the older pup had the decency to look at least a little contrite.

“Where’s this coming from anyway,” Sabo wondered aloud.

“Whatever. We’d better run at least. No use just standing around in this.”

The three pups began running towards where Luffy flung himself as the clouds quickly overtook the daylight, plunging the forest in murky gray. After a while, Ace paused in his running as his flames slowly began to die down. His face pinched as he tried to make his fire flicker back to life, but it was a slow-going process.

“Damn it! I can’t keep my flames burning when I’m running. I’m spending too much time focused on not tripping over vines,” he complained.

“We’ll just have to make do with the light we have. We’d better find Luffy before this storm gets any worse,” Sabo replied.

No sooner had he finished his sentence than a loud scream ripped through the trees.

The three pups looked at each other.

“Luffy!” They all exclaimed, running towards the scream.

They all stopped short when they came upon the scene before them. Luffy was backed up against a tree, staring fearfully up at a large tiger. Sabo stared at it wide-eyed, taking note of the scar on his right eye which identified it as not any tiger, but the King of the Mountain. It was the largest, meanest predator living in the forest. None of the bandits or the pups were any match for it and most of the other predators on Mount Colubo weren’t a match for it either. Its only rival was an equally large bear, aptly named the Queen of the Mountain. Sabo was thrilled to have run into either one of them.

The pups had encountered the King once before back when Sabo had first met Garp and been declared one of the crazy old man’s grandsons (victims). The four pups had been put through brutal drills before the man chucked them into the forest for “training” and told them to survive on their own for a week. Things had actually gone smoothly, other than Luffy’s accident-prone injuries. They managed to go up against some of the forest’s toughest predators from crocodiles to wolves, but the tiger had been too much for them. Naguri from the Gray Terminal had luckily shown up in time to save them using what Sabo now knew was called Conqueror’s Haki, but the experience told them all they needed to know about whether they were ready for an opponent of this scale.

“Get up and run, idiot. What are you doing,” Ace hissed under his breath as the three children hid behind a tree.

“He’s too scared. He can’t,” Uta retorted.

“We need a plan to get him out of there,” Sabo announced.

“We don’t need a plan. We just need to kick that thing’s ass,” Ace argued.

“We can’t. It’s the strongest creature in these woods.”

Ace grumbled but didn’t protest Sabo’s point.

“Uta, can you sing it to sleep,” he asked.

“I can do animals, but it doesn’t always work. And I’ve never tried to use my power on something that big before.”

“Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. Ace and I are going to run in different directions to distract it. Once we do, Uta will run straight for Luffy. Once you have him, climb up that big tree to safety. From there, you can try to sing it to sleep. Even if it doesn’t work, at least you and Luffy will be out of its path.”

Ace and Uta nodded in reply as thunder boomed again, barely covering Luffy’s terrified screams. Sabo withdrew his pipe and started flanking the tiger on the left, hollering as much as he could to get its attention while Ace did the same on its right. The tiger looked between the two boys with a low growl, its head swiveling between them indecisively. Ace’s fire flared up on his shoulders, catching the beast’s attention enough for it to decide to charge for him.

“Ace, look out!” Sabo warned as the tiger lunged at Ace. Sabo watched in a confusion as Ace’s body seemed to dissipate into flames, allowing the tiger to pass straight through him, before his body reassembled as if it had never happened at all. Both Ace and the tiger paused in confusion.

Uta took the opportunity to dart across the space, running until she made it to her twin. She snatched Luffy’s hand and made for the large tree, trying to climb up to escape the tiger’s rage. Sabo watched with concern as the two started to climb but the rain-slicked bark didn’t give them enough purchase and they started sliding back down. They gave short exclamations as they hit the forest floor, but it was loud enough to catch the tiger’s attention.

The animal got its bearings back quickly and began to charge towards the tree where the twins lay in a crumpled heap. Sabo’s heart leaped into his throat as the tiger closed in and gave a ferocious swipe of its overly large paw. Uta and Luffy just barely managed to roll out of the way.

“Hey, you dumb cat! Leave them alone!” Ace shouted, his body flaring up as he ran at the giant animal’s feet and began hitting it. His fists, usually devastating weapons, did little more than agitate the tiger along with the singes it was getting from Ace’s flames. It lifted its paw, intent on crushing Ace, but Sabo ran forward and knocked him out of the way. They skidded to a stop across the wet grass and glanced over at the twins. They had taken shelter in a small hollow at the bottom of the largest tree.

A loud growl broke the air as the tiger began charging at the older boys.

Sabo could hear Uta singing something distantly, but the tiger kept coming anyway. They had to do something or they would be killed. Sabo jumped up, figuring that he’d rather draw attention to himself and give Ace a chance of escape. Getting the three of them out alive was the most important thing to Sabo. It didn’t matter if he had to sacrifice himself to do it, he’d do so in a heartbeat.

“Hey! You want someone!? Come for me, I’m right here! I’m the one you want, leave the others alone,” he exclaimed, running straight at the tiger.

The creature paused briefly, taken by surprise.

“Ace! Now’s your chance. Take the twins and get out of here,” Sabo ordered as he swung his pipe at the creature’s leg, knowing it wouldn’t do much. The tiger lifted its paw and swiped at Sabo. The boy dodged as quickly as he could. He managed to get out of range of the tiger but his feet slid against the muddy ground, sending him to the floor. The tiger turned to look at him, all its attention focused on Sabo just as he wanted. The blond blinked as he noticed a familiar hole-ridden white cloth hooked onto one of the claws of the tiger’s right paw.

Sabo’s cravat.

He felt a surge of anger and possessive as he saw it in the predator’s grasp. It wasn’t just a piece of cloth. It was Sabo’s totem, the thing that he was most drawn to and collected as a result. It was a source of comfort for the pup as much as Uta’s journals or Luffy’s beetles or Ace’s rocks. His affinity for cravats was one of the only things his parents ever indulged him in, allowing him to collect as many as he wanted even though they never bothered to explain why he was so drawn to the simple piece of cloth or why it soothed something in him to have them near. He didn’t know what a totem was until Shanks explained it, told him that it was common for pups to become fixated on things, small things that were usually inconsequential, but became a source of comfort. It was an early nesting instinct, according to him. The cravat Sabo usually wore had seen better days. It was ridden with holes and worn down with fraying threads, but it was a gift from his former nursemaid, Maple, and he wasn’t about to lose it to the tiger.

He felt a growl building in his chest as he got to his feet and charged the thing nonsensically. It growled back as it watched him coming, it’s paw lifting to strike at him. Before it could, a fury-laced yell broke through the din.

“Firefist!”

Sabo ducked down as a wall of flame went slamming into the tiger, sending it flying across the clearing. Before Sabo could see it land, a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him towards the hideout Luffy and Uta found. Sabo’s back hit the far side of the tree roughly as Ace shoved him inside beside the twins.

“What the hell do you think you were pulling with that?!” He shouted at him, shoving Sabo harder against the tree.

“Ace, cool off! Let him go,” Uta protested.

“This dumbass almost got himself killed. What the hell was that back there?!”

“The plan didn’t work. I was making a new one,” Sabo answered calmly.

“By trying to sacrifice yourself? That’s not a plan, that’s just you being an idiot.”

Before they could argue more, the tiger got to its feet, gingerly putting weight on its left hind leg which was burned from Ace’s flames. The beast growled before charging at the tree angrily. Ace and Sabo threw themselves on top of the younger pups before pressing themselves as far into the hollow as they could go. Sabo braced himself as the tree shook with the force of the tiger colliding with it. He waited for a moment after that, but nothing happened. He peeked up to see the tiger ineffectually trying to reach its paw into the hollow, but the hole was too small for it to fit in. It attempted to shove its mouth inside as well to similar results. The tiger gave another bellow before huffing and taking a few steps away from the tree. It paced in front of it agitatedly before it sat down across the clearing, staring at the children inside.

“It can’t get in, so its waiting for us to get out,” Ace stated.

“What do we do,” Uta asked.

“We can’t leave. We’ll have to stay here, wait the tiger out until it gets frustrated enough to leave,” Sabo replied.

Suddenly, loud crying broke the atmosphere. The three looked over at Luffy, who had fat tears rolling down his face.

“I’m sorry, guys! This is all my fault! I got us stuck under this tree and almost eaten by a big dumb tiger!”

“Yeah, you did. And you’re a dumbass for it. But, lucky for you, there’s a bigger dumbass sitting in this hollow,” Ace said before Sabo felt a hard punch connect with his head. He clutched the area, cursing under his breath at the pain that bloomed.

“Freckleface, you’re going too far!”

“Like hell I am! You listen up, Sabo, ‘cause I’m only going to say this once. You ever try to sacrifice yourself for us again and I’m going to beat the crap out of you, you got it?”

Sabo glared back at Ace.

“I don’t apologize. It was the right thing to do. I was trying to protect you guys.”

“Trying to protect us? What? You think we’re weak or something? Or do you think you’re so much stronger than us that you need to take on that beast alone?”

“You’re putting words in my mouth. That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Then what are you saying, huh?!”

“I don’t want to lose you guys! You’re the only family I have, the only people I want to call family. You saved me. All of you have, but you especially, Ace. You saved me just by being with me all these years and I wanted to save you. So, yeah, I put myself in front of that tiger and I’m not sorry for it!”

All the others paused at that as Sabo felt his cheeks warming up, embarrassment overtaking him at his own words. Ace’s face began doing something complicated before his lips curled up and he turned his back to the other three, pressing himself into a corner of the hollow and muttering angrily to himself, likely cursing Sabo out.

“We don’t want Sabo to get hurt trying to make sure we don’t get hurt. Pack protects each other. That means everyone should be trying not to get hurt. We can’t be a pack if you’re dead you know,” Luffy said, wiping his tears.

Sabo pursed his lips at that.

“Maybe think about that same thing before you put strange mushrooms in your mouth,” Sabo muttered in reply.

Luffy laughed at that before crawling over to Sabo and throwing his arms around him.

The four pups huddled together for warmth and comfort, their scents mingling together into an aroma that all but acted as a sedative, knocking out the other three pups almost instantly as they remained beneath the tree. The tiger still loomed in the clearing, preying on them. Sabo found himself unable to fall asleep as he stared at it. The creature was sleeping now, tucked into itself. Like this, it didn’t look like the intimidating predator that Sabo knew it to be, but he had learned a long time ago that looks were deceiving. The rain had stopped a while ago too, but the smell still hung in the air. Sabo had come to appreciate that smell in the years he had spent living outside of High Town. He had to learn to appreciate the little things in life seeing as how he didn’t think he would have much time to live.

“Hey, Sabo? Are you awake,” he heard Luffy say in the voice that meant he was trying to whisper. He was really bad at it, but Uta was used to sleeping through Luffy’s snoring and Ace barely ever woke up for anything short of a global calamity, so they didn’t so much as twitch.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking s’all.”

“That could be dangerous.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Nothing. Forget it. What’s up?”

Luffy was quiet for a while before he finally spoke.

“How come you tried to make the tiger hurt you earlier?”

Sabo sighed at that.

“I told you, I was trying to make sure you, Ace and Uta got away.”

“But why would we want to get away without you?”

“Sometimes, that’s just how things go. The whole point of the plan I made was for you and Uta to get away while me and Ace distracted the tiger and that’s what happened. Then, Ace needed to get away too, so I followed the same plan.”

“But then what were you going to do after that to get away from the tiger?”

“I would’ve figured it out.”

“Sabo is pretty smart, but you were being pretty dumb then, almost dying like that.”

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you after you ate a mushroom that could’ve poisoned you or even killed you for all you knew,” Sabo scolded.

“Shishishi, that’s true. Still, Sabo was being dumb. You’re our friend, our pack, our family. You can’t do dumb things and almost hurt yourself.”

Sabo felt a surge run through him again at that word. Family.

It was a strange word for him. He knew that family wasn’t just blood. Family was pack, which could be separate from blood. Family was also choice, which could be separate from both pack and blood. He supposed there was a part of him, deep down, a part that he didn’t like to acknowledge, that still yearned for all three of those things to have been one. It wished that his blood family could’ve chosen to be his pack rather than what had happened. His blood had chosen to let him die rather than keep him and that might’ve had more of an effect on him than he would admit to anyone. He pushed the thoughts down to focus on Luffy’s words.

“Again, coming from you? The kid I’ve watched be swallowed by a crocodile, jump off a cliff into a river, get his head stuck in a hornet’s nest, end up in a copse of cacti and be chased by rabid wolves all in one weekend? The message is a little lost, Luffy.”

“I do things that are dangerous sometimes, but that’s because I’m trying to have a cool adventure, like Dad and his crew.”

“I’ve heard some of those stories from the Red Hair Pirates. I think Beckman would tell us not to follow in Shanks’ footsteps too carefully.”

“Yeah, he probably would. Beck thinks Dad’s a dumbo a lot of the time. Dad can be pretty stupid, but he’s so cool that it’s okay that he’s dumb sometimes. I’m gonna be just like Dad. All my cool is gonna be way bigger than all my stupid.”

Sabo snorted a laugh at that.

“That’s an… interesting way to put it, Luffy.”

“Besides, I only do all those dangerous stuff because you and Uta and Ace are around. I know you guys have my back, like a good pack should. And anyway, if I get hurt it’s because I was trying to do something cool or I was trying to help my friends and family. But you’re not supposed to try and get hurt so bad that you leave your friends and family,” Luffy continued before pouting.

“I hate stuff like that. It’s scary. It reminds me of Uta going with Daku so he wouldn’t hurt me or the village any worse. Or her making all of us leave her in Gray Terminal. Or Dad getting his arm eaten by that dumb sea beast to save me. Uta does stuff like that a lot because she thinks I’m better than her and that she’s bad, but Uta deserves everything good in the world and so do you.”

Sabo blinked at Luffy’s words, opening and closing his mouth as he tried to come up with a response for that.

“I know you probably did that thing with the tiger because you feel like Uta does sometimes. It scared Ace, what you did earlier.”

Sabo made a protesting sound, but Luffy stared at him with that wide-eyed, soul-searching gaze he got sometimes that shook the blonde down to his core.

“Sabo scared Ace. Ace is scared to lose us. It’s one of his big fears. Ace doesn’t want to be alone. Sabo made sure Ace wasn’t alone for a long time. Ace wants to protect Sabo because Sabo is his oldest treasure.”

The blond blushed at that, looking down and away.

“Well, Ace is my oldest treasure too, so I want to protect him. I was alone before I met Ace. I had run away from home after my nanny died. She was an old omega woman. She was the person who mostly raised me from a baby to 5 years old. She was the one who told me why my family was the way it was.”

“Dad says there are plenty of people who haven’t earned their title as parents because of how they treat their pup. I overheard him and some of the crew talking about how your parents were bad people and how they would make sure you didn’t go back to them after your place in Gray Terminal got burned and buried. I know Sabo’s family was mean to him. I just don’t get why.”

Sabo pursed his lips at that. Wasn’t that the million berry question? He spent the first five years of his life wondering that same thing. Didit and Outlook III didn’t give him satisfactory answers, but finally, one day while writhing in his sickbed he asked his nanny, Maple, that burning question.

“I don’t get it,” Sabo had said back then, curled up into a ball of pain as his body ached and shivered. He got sick often growing up in High Town. In the beginning, he tried his best to grin and bear it, to hide his various illnesses from his parents so they wouldn’t see him as more of a burden than they already did. The servants that he spent most of his time with figured him out almost immediately and brought their concerns to the masters of the house. Didit and Outlook III had him seen by a parade of doctors, as was expected of them. After a while, they stopped coming and Sabo was left to deal with the illnesses on his own. Thankfully, the servants of the house would sneak to see him, especially the head maid who doubled as his nanny, an elderly omega with a kind smile who always made time to care for Sabo when these mysterious illnesses took him over.

“I’m theirs, aren’t I? So why won’t they bond with me? Why can’t I feel them? Why can’t they love me?”

Maple ran withered fingers through his hair, the omega projecting a comforting scent over him and purring gently as Sabo laid limply against her chest.

“You are theirs, young master. No one can doubt that. I was there when Lady Didit gave birth to you.”

“Then why?”

“I’m sorry to say but your parents simply don’t have hearts that are able to love you,” Maple replied regretfully.

Sabo had looked at her with bewilderment.

“Lord Outlook doesn’t care for much other than his ego and money. As for Didit… well, I’m not supposed to know this and never supposed to say, but you know we servants hear things, so I was able to learn that your father married your mother for her money when he was near to losing all his due to his father’s gambling debts. Lady Didit had her heart set on another alpha of lesser status and renown, but her father made her marry Lord Outlook instead. Neither are fond of each other and so they did not create you out of love. This is not something that matters much to nobles. Lady Didit’s parents didn’t love each other but they spoiled her rotten. I believed the same was to happen with you. Lady Didit was happy when she learned she was pregnant and not just because she had fulfilled her wifely duties. She was excited to be a mother.”

“Really?” Sabo asked incredulously.

“Oh, yes. She smiled so much during her pregnancy, even though Lord Outlook didn’t care. Her experience on the birthing bed was a rough one. She nearly died giving birth and when she woke, I could tell things were wrong.”

“So… it’s my fault? She would love being a mother if I wasn’t her son.”

“No, no. Your mother… Lady Didit has a sickness of the heart. It happens to some dams after pregnancy, makes it so they can’t form a good bond with their pup. I noticed it soon after you were born, talked to Lady Didit about it. There are doctors for that sort of thing, to help before the sickness can sour the bond between a dam and their pup, before it hurts ‘em both. Lord Outlook wouldn’t allow it, said it wouldn’t look good, it’d make them seem weak. I suppose since Lady Didit has blocked the bond between you two, she isn’t feeling this quite so bad as you are. She knows what’s wrong, she understands, she knows how she can fix it. She just…”

“She doesn’t want to and my father doesn’t care to,” Sabo concluded.

Maple nodded sadly in return.

His family didn’t want him. That was the reality Sabo had accepted when he was only 5 years old and primed to die a slow and painful, lonely death. One he escaped only because of his rebellious nature and refusal to submit to death like some meek sacrificial lamb. He had internalized this reality for five more years living on his own. His family didn’t want him, family was not a thing that Sabo could have, a pack was not something he was deserving of. He was meant to be a lone wolf. Being a lone wolf saved his life even. It wasn’t until later that Hongo told him that it wasn’t just his striking out on his own but finding and making a connection with Ace that saved him. Even if he hadn’t consciously known that, he had always known that he owed a debt to Ace. He took him out of his lonely existence, gave him a companion, a partner in crime, a packmate, a brother (though Sabo would hesitate to say as much out loud). So, it wasn’t strange to Sabo that he would put his life on the line for Ace.

Luffy blinked at him, wide-eyed as he explained what he knew of the reasons for his parents’ rejection of him. He wasn’t even totally sure that his words were understood by the boy. Luffy could be oblivious most of the time. The boy tilted his head to the side. Sabo could practically hear the wheels turning as he thought over everything Sabo had said.

“Sorry Sabo, but your parents sound really dumb.”

Sabo choked a little on air at Luffy’s blunt answer.

“Yasopp says your berri treasure is never more important than your people treasure, so your father was being really dumb there.”

Sabo’s jaw snapped close at that, the words heavy in his mind with its implications.

“And if your mom was so sad that she couldn’t love you and there was a doctor that could fix her, she should’ve just gone to the doctor so that she could love you.”

“I don’t think it was that simple,” Sabo defended weakly.

“Dad was sad and hurt for a long time after he had to send me and Uta away. His heart was hurt so bad that sometimes he couldn’t be happy, not even with his pack. At first, he didn’t tell because he’s the captain and the captain’s supposed to be the strongest on the crew, but his hurt heart was making the pack sad too and he couldn’t be the best captain if he kept acting like he wasn’t hurt. So he told Hongo and Hongo was able to use his doctor powers to help Dad’s heart feel better. Then, he was able to be happy with his pack.”

Sabo sighed. He doubted it was as simple as Luffy made it seem, but he understood the sentiment nonetheless.

“Yeah, maybe she should’ve but she didn’t.”

“They left Sabo all alone.”

“I— they— yeah. Yeah, they did, didn’t they?”

The hollow was silent for a moment before Sabo felt a small hand touching the left side of his face, brushing over the burn scar covering his eye. He glanced over at the young boy across from him. Luffy had a wide smile stretched across his face.

“But that’s okay, because now we get to have Sabo. We’re never going to let Sabo go. Sabo’s ours now. Shishishi.”

The blond boy felt a lance of warmth spread all throughout his body. He opened his mouth, trying to find something to say, but nothing would come out. He found himself throwing his arms around Luffy, pulling the boy closer to him even as the two slumbering pups nuzzled in closer to the other warm bodies.

Sabo tried to find that longing that he usually felt for his family, his blood, their acceptance. It was nowhere to be found, not now, not while he was with the other pups, not while he was living with the bandits, not while he could feel Shanks’ bond nestled next to his heart. That longing wasn’t there. Sabo hadn’t even noticed when it stopped. Maybe that fire in the Terminal had burned away more of him than he realized it had.

~*~*~

Ace wasn’t talking to him.

The four pups had managed to sneak out of the clearing past the tiger at the crack of dawn and hightailed it back to the bandits’ hideout. They had been greeted by Dadan’s bellowing curses, Magra’s stuttering and Dogra’s shaking head before being forced to wash off and then clean the entire hut before breakfast. Well, Sabo and Uta cleaned. Ace argued with Dadan the whole time and Luffy made an even bigger mess, so Uta had distracted him with emergency food and songs to dance to while the two middle children did all the work. After that, Ace grabbed his pipe and stormed off into the woods, ignoring any calls after him.

Sabo felt a surge of both guilt and indignation. Ace had done tons of dangerous things before, frequently risking his life for the most foolish endeavors. Sabo may have knocked him upside the head for it, but he had never given him the silent treatment before. Still, he couldn’t get Luffy’s statement that he had scared Ace out of his head. Ace didn’t do well with emotions like that, Sabo knew that better than most. However, in this particular instance, he was certain Ace’s reaction wasn’t justified.

He held on to anger as much as he could but as it began to pour down again outside and Ace still hadn’t returned, his anger gave way to worry. He sat in the window frame of the pups’ bedroom, staring out into the downpour as the droplets hit the forest floor forcefully, disturbing the tree branches and creating small rivulets that drained into the pots the bandits set up to collect rainwater.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm

Springtime of my lovin’

Mmm, mmm

You are the sunlight in my growin’.”

Sabo glanced back at Uta, having forgotten she was in the room with him. She was lying on her and Luffy’s bed, writing in one of journals and humming to herself while absentmindedly singing random phrases.

“These are the seasons of emotions.

Hmm, oh, no. hmm mmm

Upon us all, upon us all,

Just a little rain must fall.

A little rain must fall…

Hmm, hmm.”

Sabo smiled to himself hearing Uta’s songs, even one that wasn’t finished yet.

“Is that a new one you’re working on?”

Uta startled at the question before looking over at him.

“Hmm?”

“The song you’re singing? About the rain?”

“Oh, I didn’t notice I was singing. I was just listening to what the rain was saying, trying to make sense of it.”

Sabo tilted his head curiously.

“The rain is speaking?”

“Kind of…”

“Is it that Voice thing you and Luffy were telling us about?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if it’s the rain talking or the world still, but the songs I hear when it rains are different. Sometimes, it’s hard to get all the words. It’s like they fall down with the droplets and get lost in the ground once they hit the floor so I can’t hear them anymore.”

Sabo hummed curiously, glancing back at the downpour.

“Can you hear what it’s saying now?”

“You… you really want to know?”

“Of course.”

“You don’t think it’s weird?”

“We’re all a little weird, Uta.”

The girl chuckled in response.

“That’s true,” she conceded before coming to sit next to him on the window frame.

Sabo watched the younger girl tilt her head back and close her eyes as if she was concentrating deeply or listening intently. Perhaps both. After a moment, a small smile broke out on her lips.

“What,” he asked.

“The Voice is singing to me.”

“Isn’t it always?”

“The world usually doesn’t speak directly to us unless we talk to it first.”

“Oh. What is it singing to you?”

“They are the sunlight in your growing
So little warmth you’d felt before
Now, it’s not hard to feel you glowing
We watched the fire within you grow so low

It is the summer of your smiles
Flee from you, oh keepers of the gloom
Sing to us with your gentle eyes
It is to you, we give this tune

We felt the coldness of your winter
We never thought it would ever go
We cursed the gloom that set upon you
Just know that we love you so

Upon us all, upon us all, a little rain must fall

A little rain must fall
Just a little rain, oh, yeah.”

Uta’s eyes were a little wet by the time she finished the song. Sabo took in the words before responding.

“Is… was that about…?”

“You know, after Daku took me and made me eat the Sing Sing Fruit, I thought Mother Ocean hated me. I could always hear her whispers before that, but it was faint. When he took me, and I could hear Her so much clearer. She would sing songs to comfort me and… maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like She was using Her waves to rock Daku’s boat sometimes when it was hard for me to sleep. All that stopped when I ate the Devil Fruit. I can’t hear Her at all now even though I can still hear the rest of the world. I thought She hated me.”

A familiar shadow crossed Uta’s face before it was chased away by a light smile.

“But then She brought Grandpa to rescue me. She gave us good weather so I could get back home to Luffy quickly. She brought Daddy and the crew to the island. That led us to being here with you and Ace. I wish all that stuff with Daku didn’t happen, but this isn’t such a bad thing to happen after all of that.”

“You’re pretty strong, you know?” Sabo commented.

Uta glanced up at him with a slight blush on her cheeks.

“You think? Well, you’re strong too.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Uta raised an eyebrow at that.

“You and Ace were taking down fully grown men in Gray Terminal and Edge Town before I could swing a proper punch.”

Sabo looked down and away, not wanting to admit a thought that had been lingering in the back of his head lately. Uta knocked her shoulder into his pointedly.

“Just… sometimes, I wonder… I just wonder what things will be like when we grow up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… forget it. It’s stupid.”

“You’re the only one around here I can rely on to not be stupid.”

Sabo chuckled in agreement before biting his lip.

“Don’t let Dadan hear you say that,” he warned.

Uta lightly chuckled in response before a contemplative look settled on her face.

“Does… whatever you don’t want to talk about have to do with what happened with the tiger yesterday?”

Sabo slumped a little at the mention.

“Is what happened really such a big deal?”

“Ace thinks so. He’s mad at you. I get it though. You wanted to protect us. That was more important to you than yourself. It just sucks for us is all.”

Sabo thought of Uta in Gray Terminal making them leave her behind. Maybe she did get it.

“Sometimes, I feel small. Especially compared to you guys. You’re all so… you’ve got your great powers and great dreams, I’m not… I don’t have anything that big.”

“You want to write a book about the world for other kids, so they know the truth about it. That’s not small. It’s actually bigger than you know. Grandpa told us that there are some things the World Government doesn’t want everyone to know and they’d punish people for learning about. I’d bet there are secrets out there in the world that only someone like you can discover and teach the world about. That’s not a small thing.”

Sabo supposed that was true, but still...

“As for our powers, so what? Luffy can’t even throw a punch right thanks to his stretchy arms. Ace can’t control whether he makes a spark or an inferno. Their powers are pretty useless compared to you right now. And my powers aren’t really for fighting.”

“I’m on par with Ace’s strength right now. It won’t always be like that though.”

“Well… it’s a good thing we’ve got Grandpa then. He doesn’t have any Devil Fruit. He’s going to make sure we’re strong enough to fight anyone no matter what. Daddy doesn’t have a Devil Fruit either or anyone on the Red Hair Pirates but they’re still super strong. We’ll all have to train hard so we can be strong like them. You’ll do the same thing. We’ll all be powerful when we grow up and none of us will see you any differently whether you ever get a Devil Fruit or not. You’ll still be pack and family.”

There was that word again. Family.

“I don’t even know what family is. I’ve never had one,” Sabo confessed.

“Family… family is the people who lift you up, who make you the happiest, make you feel the safest. They’re the ones who encourage you to follow your dreams, the people whose dreams you believe in just as much as your own. Family is where home is. And you know you’ve found home if when you’re away, you miss it the most. That’s family. To me anyway.”

“And you see me as family?”

“I do. Even though Daddy’s not here or Makino or the crew, being here with you, Ace and Luffy? You guys make this place feel like home for me.”

Sabo looked down, a blush coloring his cheeks.

Home was a concept he was a little more familiar with, if only for the impermanence of it. He called High Town home for five years but never really felt like it was a home for him. Maybe because of what Uta said. He didn’t have a family there. He had the servants, whose goodwill saw him through his early days, but they were more friends than family.

He called Gray Terminal home for the next five years, bouncing between the garbage heap and his hideout in Pirate’s Cove. He didn’t have family for a long time there either, but he had felt free. He gained a level of affection for some of the residents and disdain for others. He learned how vast the wealth gap could be even within the same island let alone in the world. He had gone from being unwanted by his parents to being seen as little more than living trash by the kingdom of Goa. Yet, Sabo had accepted that in exchange for freedom. That had been his goal in the end, freedom and a chance at adventure before he succumbed to his illness. He wasn’t looking for home or family, but he found both with Ace. After he met Ace, he supposed Gray Terminal did start to feel a lot more like home, even though Ace didn’t live there with him.

Then the fire happened and he was briefly forced to live in Windmill Village. That had been an culture shock. He was moved from a city to a small coastal village. Everything was so much smaller, slower and quieter. It had been nice the first few days as he recovered but he quickly grew antsy, especially being surrounded by people he didn’t know who seemed to know more about him than he was comfortable with. Windmill Village was nothing like home and he didn’t see it as such either.

Moving to the bandits’ hideout was another big change but closer to what he experienced in the Terminal. He had a level of freedom here and he also wasn’t alone. He had a pack, which was new, and people who were willing to look out for him, which wasn’t new but still something he was getting used to.

Still, even with all that, the most relaxed he had ever felt were those small moments when he got to climb into his nest with Ace, Uta and Luffy, surrounded by their combined scents with tokens smelling of other packmembers he had come to accept mingling in the air around them. He found peace cuddling with the others in a cocoon of safety and trust, something he hadn’t ever experienced before. He supposed then that he had found a home and if that equated to family, then he guessed he had that too.

Somehow, impossibly, even without Didit and Outlook III, he had a home and family, people who wanted him. It was a scary prospect, but Sabo wanted to hold onto it with both hands as tightly as he could.

“You know, Luffy used to tell me that if I couldn’t believe in myself or love myself that he’d do it for both himself and me until I’m ready. I’d do that for you if you need me to. You just have to ask.”

Sabo blinked at her in response, surprised by the offer and the kind words. Uta had enough on her own plate. Sabo didn’t think he warranted any of her attention, especially not for something like this, but still, he nodded in reply and gave her a small, shy smile.

“Thanks. I think I could use your help every now and again.”

Uta smiled in response and knocked her shoulder against his before turning back to face the rain. Sabo watched her face fall as she gazed out into the storm.

“Oh, that idiot,” she groused.

Sabo blinked at her, wondering what prompted the response. Uta’s face was a mask of exasperation and concern. He followed her gaze and reared back in shock as Ace came limping out of the tree line towards the hut. Rain beat down on him, coming away red from blood, black from soot and brown from dirt. Ace seemed unaffected by it all, trudging ahead single-mindedly.

Sabo and Uta shared a look before they bolted towards the front door, meeting Ace just as he stepped inside, ignoring Dadan’s shouting after him.

“Where the hell did you go?! And what did you do to have you coming back looking like this?!”

“And you’re trudging dirt and blood through the hut that we’re going to have to clean up,” Uta complained. Sabo could hear the undercurrent of worry underneath her indignation.

Ace glanced up at the two with a glare set on his dirty face. His eyes lingered on Sabo for a moment before he threw something at him. The blond boy snatched the item out of the air and opened his hand to see what it was. He squinted in disbelief at his bloody cravat. It was still stuck on one of the tiger’s claws which Ace had somehow managed to rip out.

“Damn thing’s still alive. Stupid fucker won’t die that easy. Burned it real good though. Knocked it out with that Haki thing Shanks says I have and got back your dumb rag. You’re welcome,” the brunette boy explained before promptly falling over and passing out.

Sabo stared down at him with alarm while Uta shook her head and Dadan cursed lowly.

“Damn brat. Couldn’t have chosen to give something a lot less dangerous than that for a gift,” she grumbled before snatching Ace up and carrying him to the bandits’ medic.

Ace was tough so Sabo wasn’t overly surprised that, despite being covered in wounds from claw marks and bites, Ace did little more than sleep his harebrained encounter with the tiger off and go back out the next day to try again, all while strictly forbidding the younger pups to join him. Of course, none of them had any intention of listening to him but Ace could be elusive when he wanted to be and they all had trouble tracking him. Add to that that Ace was still refusing to talk to Sabo and the blond was finding himself constantly wrongfooted. Ace was never usually this mad at him.

That being the case, Sabo was surprised when Ace hesitantly approached him out of the blue one day. The boy looked nervous, frustrated and unsure all at once.

“Ace,” Sabo asked.

Ace bit his lip before nodding jerkily towards the pups’ bedroom and then all but running off towards the room, not looking back to see if Sabo was following.

The blond glanced over at Dogra who was sitting in the room with him.

“Think that’s Ace talk for ‘follow me’. Sometimes I think Pochi has more of a developed vocabulary.”

Sabo huffed a small laugh before walking towards the kids’ designated room. He paused briefly outside the door, wondering if Ace wanted to fight him or something. Then again, if he had, he would’ve just attacked him no matter where they were. He’d done it before to all the pups. With that in mind, Sabo walked into the bedroom. Uta and Luffy were off with Dadan, so it was just Ace in the room. Well, Ace along with the transponder snails.

The duo was sitting on the nightstand between the two beds. The white snail had recently acquired the name Dumpling, one they’d compromised on after Luffy wanted to name it Polar Snail Tofu Snail Dumpling Snail. It had also recently been decorated so the snail’s shell was painted with a flame pattern and sported a small top hat in homage to Ace and Sabo just like the pink transponder was decorated to resemble Uta and Luffy. The pink snail also had a name. Strawberry, short for Princess Strawberry, ruler of Shortcake Island according to Uta who liked to act loftier than Luffy but was just as bad at naming things. All of Ace’s suggestions had been summarily vetoed and were better forgotten. Sabo had left the naming to the other three and focused more on actually keeping the snails alive. Communication devices or not, they were still living things that required maintenance.

Dumpling sat as nonchalant as ever on the nightstand, munching on a leaf of lettuce that Sabo kept in the drawers while Strawberry notably had acquired three distinctive scars on its left eye stalk.

Ace had a strange look on his face as Sabo sat on the bed near him. The slight scent of distress hung in the air along with fear, anger and frustration. It wasn’t an unfamiliar mixture where Ace was concerned but he was usually better at suppressing such things, not allowing his scent to give away how he felt so easily.

“Shanks? Is everything alright? This isn’t your usual day to call.”

“Don’t worry, Niteowl. Everything’s alright here. The crew just passed a lightning island. It’s constantly raining down purple lightning. You need special umbrellas just to stay here. You’d love it. I’ll tell you all about Raijin Island during our regular call.”

Sabo’s interest was piqued by Shanks’ description, but he was equally curious about the origin of Shanks’ call. Ace was still looking cagey, his arms crossed over his chest while he refused to meet Sabo’s gaze, his hat pulled low over his face and shadowed his eyes.

“The twins aren’t here. Dadan has them helping her collect water.”

“That’s alright. I’m here as a mediary of sorts. Ace wanted me on the line as moral support because there’s something he wants to discuss with you.”

Sabo’s eyes went to Ace. The boy’s shoulders were hiked up high to his ears and a scowl took over his lips.

“Not that it’s important or anything. Why don’t you just forget it? I don’t want to look at your dumb face anymore anyway. I’ve got better things to do than waste my time talking to you,” he snapped.

Sabo, used to Ace’s moments, didn’t take it to heart and didn’t bother leaving.

“Now, Firefox. We just had a lengthy talk about not covering your true feelings with anger and resentment. I’m going to feel like an idiot if everything I said went in one ear and out the other.”

“You’re an idiot either way,” Ace grumbled.

Shanks chuckled in reply.

“Maybe so, kid. But in this case, I think I know better than you. Sabo can’t know how you feel if you don’t tell him. No one can read your mind, and you can’t go around thinking you know what anyone else is thinking either. You’ve gotta talk.”

“Tch,” Ace huffed before glancing at Sabo hesitantly. The blond stared back expectantly.

Talking was decidedly not Ace’s strong suit, unless that “talk” involved insults, shouting and anger. It said something that he was aware of this, reached out to Shanks for help and was trying to have this conversation with Sabo.

“It’s okay, Ace. Whatever it is, I’ll listen,” Sabo assured him.

Ace still looked hesitant, but he turned to face the other boy anyway.

“I’m mad at you. I am. I am. What you did was dumb. It was stupid. You didn’t have to do that. We never do that. We’re a team, we always have been. We fight together, always. If one of us is bait, it’s on purpose and it’s never because we think one of us isn’t going to get out of something. We don’t do sacrifice plays, not us. So, yeah, I’m mad.”

“But not just mad, right kid?” Shanks hedged.

Ace bit his lip and nodded even though Shanks couldn’t see.

“I am mad, but… but I was also… I was… I was scared,” Ace admitted, as if it was a dirty, shameful thing.

“I wasn’t expecting you to… we always know what the other is going to do when we fight and then you were doing something I didn’t expect, something you don’t normally do. I couldn’t control it and I got afraid. I wasn’t even thinking when I made that firefist hit the tiger. I just knew I had to… I had to protect you and Luffy and Uta.”

Sabo took in all Ace said, processing all of that.

“I felt the same way. I wanted to protect you guys. When it was just the two of us fighting guys in Edge Town and the Terminal, I wasn’t as worried. I was confident in our combined abilities. With Uta and Luffy, it’s different. I just feel like they need more protection, even if they’d hate to hear that. I know you feel the same way.”

“Of course. Luffy’s an idiot who puts himself in danger cause he’s stupid and brave. Uta… Uta needs us. I don’t care what Dadan says or how Uta feels. As long as we’re around, nothing that happened before is ever going to happen again,” Ace declared.

Sabo nodded in agreement before continuing.

“But I also know that you don’t feel like you’re worth as much as them.”

Sabo’s words stopped Ace up short.

“You are to me though. You’re the reason I’m here at all. Here in this hut, here in this pack, here alive.”

Ace looked down, his cheeks turning red at that.

“S’not totally true. Leaving your folks did that.”

“Yeah, but I still would’ve died if I didn’t find you.”

Ace ducked down even more, shrugging a little.

“You saved me that day. I bit off more than I could chew in Edge Town. Those guys would’ve roughed me up pretty good if you hadn’t shown up,” Ace admitted.

“I may have saved you that one day, but you’ve been saving me ever since. When I saw that tiger going for the twins and you, what else could I do but put myself between you guys and it? It was the right thing to do to protect you all.”

“I don’t need you to protect me. I’m the oldest, I’m supposed to protect you all.”

“You’re only two months older than me, I’ve got just as much responsibility to look out for the twins and for you.”

“If I could cut in here, I’m happy you all have each other’s backs, but you’re also still pups. Making a sacrifice play for each other is way beyond the scope of you getting to just be kids. Feral jungle kids, but kids nonetheless. My sanity would much prefer it if neither one of you were running around thinking you had to sacrifice your lives for the twins or each other,” Shanks commented.

“That’s rich coming from you,” Ace retorted.

“Yeah. Didn’t you sacrifice your arm for Luffy a few months ago?” Sabo asked dubiously.

“That’s totally different. I’m an adult with fully functioning cognitive capabilities.”

“That’s debatable,” Ace muttered.

“Oi, here I am backing you up and all I’m getting in return is insults. I’m starting to feel unappreciated. Just for that, there’s something else Ace wanted to say, even though he’s dragging his feet about it. Isn’t there, Firefox?”

“You said you weren’t going to say anything,” Ace hissed.

“That was before you made me feel bad.”

“Ugh, you’re such an ass. You act more like a kid than we do.”

“Dahahaha. I know quite a few people who’d agree with that actually.”

Ace huffed again, cutting his eyes to Sabo hesitantly.

“I was thinking. I know you have your dream of writing a book about all your adventures and you know I have my dream about going to sea, beating the World’s Strongest. We had our whole plan of saving up to get our ship and sail out of here, but we never really talked about how things would look, how we’d be, as a crew I mean.”

Sabo blinked at that, surprised at the turn of conversation.

“Shanks says we gotta wait until we’re 17 at least to sail out, although we should be with him by that time. Luffy and Uta are set on sailing out together with Uta as his singer. They’ll be together. I guess I… I just always thought… I thought we’d be together too, you and me. So I… I was thinking maybe, when the time is right, maybe we could sail out together. Officially, I mean, and you could be my navigator. If you want, I mean. You don’t have to… maybe you’d rather be captain and it’s stupid to ask anyway. Just forget it. I—”

“Ace,” Sabo said, stopping his rambling as he turned redder and his posture became more defensive.

“I did originally think I’d want to be the captain of my own crew, but that was partly because I figured I was alone anyway. I didn’t have a pack so I’d have to start my own. After the fire and being here with you guys… I don’t think I’d like to be away from my entire pack when I set sail. I think it’d be better if we sail out together. Which is not to say I’ll never want to have my own crew, but I think it’d be best if we were together, at least in the beginning. Besides, you’d pick a fight you shouldn’t within the first day you went out to sea without me.”

Ace looked over at him, surprised.

“You mean…”

“Yeah, I’ll join your crew, Ace.”

The brunette stared at him for a moment before completely surprising Sabo by throwing himself at him. At first, he thought Ace was trying to tackle him, but the contact quickly resolved itself into a hug. Sabo relaxed into it, wrapping his arms back around Ace. He found himself instinctively nuzzling into Ace’s neck where his scents glands were, rubbing his nose against the area as he squeezed Ace tighter. Ace tensed slightly before a low rumble began emanating from his chest. Purring was extremely rare from Ace. He rarely felt safe or vulnerable enough to do so. Growls were much more frequent, even though most pups their age were just learning to use that ability. Luffy and Uta hadn’t even started growling yet, but life had made it necessary for Sabo and Ace to be the kind of pups who growled rather than purred. A purring pup was a vulnerable one, a relaxed one, a pup who let their guard down. That kind of thing would’ve likely gotten the two of them killed by now as it had done to so many other kids in the Terminal. In this hut, that wasn’t a concern.

He jumped slightly as he felt Ace nuzzling against Sabo’s scent glands and drawing a rare purr from him as well. It was an uncommon moment of quiet and peace between the two of them, one that Sabo was loath to have broken, but Luffy clearly didn’t feel the same way.

“Hey! No fair!” The boy exclaimed before his rubber weight was unceremoniously slamming into the older pups, sending them toppling off the bed in a tangle of limbs. Sabo groaned as his head hit the floor and he found himself on the bottom of the pile.

“You little twerp! What the hell is wrong with you?! Plus, you’re wet,” Ace griped, smacking Luffy upside the head with a fiery fist. Luffy rubbed his steaming head as he pouted.

“You’re big meanies. Why didn’t you tell me we were having a cuddle pile?”

“Awfully rude of them, isn’t it, Anchor?”

Luffy’s head popped up with a gasp at that.

“Daddy!” He exclaimed, popping up off the floor and approaching the snail, allowing Sabo to breathe.

“But it’s not call day. I know ‘cause Dadan says I’m extra annoying on call day and she only yelled at me five times today.”

“Dahahaha. That sounds like her, alright. But I was just helping the boys with something.”

“Oh, then I get to tell you all about the cool beetles I found today. Dadan screamed so loud when I showed her my giant Hercules beetle. I named him Koushi. Dadan says he can’t stay in the house and I need to choose something less gross to be my totem, but Uta convinced her to let me keep him if I get a teranodon.”

“Terrarium,” Uta corrected, stepping into the room.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Luffy answered absentmindedly.

“A beetle named veal, eh? Only you, Anchor.”

Uta blinked in surprise at hearing Shanks’ voice before she settled close to the older boys.

“Daddy? Is everything alright?”

“Why does everyone think the sky’s falling just because I called early?”

“You said our schedule had to be strict to make sure we didn’t take any chances, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but my boys needed me, so here I am.”

Sabo and Ace glanced at each other before both turned scarlet. Uta and Luffy both began to snicker.

“Ace and Sabo are blushing,” Luffy teased.

“Shut up! Am not,” Ace protested.

“They’re as red as toadstools,” Uta pointed out, poking Ace’s cheek before dodging out of the way of his slapping hands.

“Honestly, anyone would think you boys are embarrassed of me or something,” Shanks said, a pout obvious in his voice.

“That’s because you’re embarrassing,” Ace retorted.

“You’re so mean to me,” Shanks whined in reply.

Sabo chuckling hearing it. Shanks acted like such a big kid sometimes.

As the blonde settled down with the other pups and Shanks, listening to the others go back and forth, teasing each other and sharing interests and anecdotes of the time they’d spent since they last talked, Sabo couldn’t help but remember lonely days in High Town, shivering alone in his room while all the bonds inside of him shriveled and decayed from a lack of love, care and interest in Sabo as a person. He had always known that wasn’t a life that he wanted but in this moment, with these people, he found that maybe, just maybe, he’d actually found a family after all.

~*~*~

“Where are we going, Freckleface?” Uta asked as the four pups trekked through the woods, following behind Ace.

The four had fallen asleep in a pup pile to the sound of Shanks singing a song he’d claimed was an Alabastan lullaby, an island at the beginning of the Grand Line he promised to take them to one day. When Sabo woke up in the wee hours of dawn, he had noticed that Ace was awake and staring down at the three of them with an unusually soft expression. His face had gone through a complicated mixture of emotions when he noticed Sabo had caught him before he settled on determination. Then he was ordering Sabo to get his shoes and doing the same to the twins after he woke them up. After that, he went out into the kitchen and returned with a sack that he wouldn’t let any of them look into, no matter how hard Luffy tried, before ordering them to follow him into the forest where they had been walking with seemingly no direction ever since.

“Are you getting us lost,” Uta pushed.

“I’ve lived in these woods longer than you have, Princess, I know my way around,” Ace defended.

“How close are we? I’m hungryyyyy,” Luffy whined.

“You’re always hungry,” Sabo pointed out as Luffy’s belly let out a rumble.

“Daddy says it’s on account of us being a D. Luffy’s stretchy stomach just makes it worse,” Uta replied, pulling out a piece of foil paper from her pocket and opening it up to reveal strips of bacon which she handed to Luffy one by one so he wouldn’t eat the foil paper too. Sabo shook his head a little. Uta knew her twin too well, but another thought popped into his mind.

“What’s it mean, the D in the middle of you guys’ names?”

“Huh,” Ace replied absentmindedly.

“Monkey D. Luffy, Monkey D. Uta, Portgas D. Ace. Even Gramps has the D in his name and so did Roger. What’s it mean?”

“Hmm. I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it,” Uta replied.

“I don’t know why, but who cares about a name anyway?” Ace added flippantly.

Names had always been important where Sabo came from. Family names whether it was last names or first names, were passed down. Sabo didn’t have a family name but there were names passed down. His father was Outlook III and Sabo was technically Sabo IV, not that he would ever walk around calling himself as such.

“You want a “D.” too, Sabo?”

“Huh?”

 “Oh yeah! Sabo needs one too. Sa D. Bo,” Luffy exclaimed.

“Don’t put it there,” Sabo protested.

“Your name’s Sa D. Bo now,” Luffy declared as Ace and Uta chuckled.

“Well, I do call you Bo anyway,” Ace shrugged.

Sabo shook his head but couldn’t help but chuckle too as the group came upon a clearing leading to a hill. Ace took them to the edge of the cliff where a tree stump sat. He plopped himself down on the ground and brought his satchel around, pulling out four small red bowls and a familiar green bottle.

“Is that Dadan’s sake,” Uta asked, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

“Yeah, but before you start complaining, Prissy Princess, just listen to me first. Yesterday when I called Shanks for advice he was telling me about sakazuki.”

“Sakazuki? What’s that,” Uta asked, tilting his head curiously.

“Well, it’s kind of a secret.”

Luffy perked up at that.

“A secret? Ooh! Ooh! I wanna know! Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell—”

“Alright, idiot! I was gonna anyway!”

Ace huffed as he uncorked the bottle and poured sake into the four bowls.

“There are different kinds of sake cup ceremonies. There’s Kobun Sakazuki. That’s for followers to pledge loyalty to their leader. All the Red Hair Pirates drank sake together when they pledged themselves to Shanks. There’s Oyako no Sakazuki. That’s Parent-Child Sake Cups and there’s more of a ceremony with that. But there’s also Kyōdai Sakazuki. That’s for brothers… and sisters too I guess. Either way, all it takes to be siblings is to drink some sake together, pack or not.”

“Whoa, really?! That’s so cool! I wonder if Uta and I drank sake when we were babies.”

“No, Lu. Ace means that this ceremony can bind people who aren’t already blood siblings,” Uta explained, ruffling Luffy’s hair.

“Shanks said he and Buggy did it when they were kids. That’s what gave me the idea at all,” Ace explained.

Uta got an impish look on her face then.

“What happened to all that posturing you do with Grandpa? Thought we weren’t your siblings and anyone saying so was crazy.”

Ace, surprisingly, didn’t get angry.

“That was before. I know that you guys, Gramps, the bandits, Shanks and the crew… you guys are my family. I’ve known for a while now. Just didn’t wanna admit it. But I won’t let any of you idiots get yourself hurt or killed while thinking that I don’t care about you, that I don’t see you as mine and me as yours. Drinking this sake together just makes it official s’all.”

The three younger pups blinked in surprise before looking over at Ace with a trio of wet eyes. The brunette instantly scowled.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. S’not that big of a—”

Before Ace could finish his sentence, the three pups rushed him and immediately began scenting and cuddling up to him.

“Okay, okay. Jeez, now I regret all this,” he grumbled but notably didn’t push any of them off.

After a few minutes, the pups released him and gathered around the tree stump in front of their respective sake cups.

“This will be our vow. No matter what sea we end up in. No matter what crew we find, what packs we join, what ships we sail on or what goals we have, we’ll always be siblings, family, pack. Nobody can take that away,” Ace declared, picking up his sake cup.

All the children followed along and lifted the red bowl into the air before clinking them together and drinking the whole bowl.

“Yay! I have brothers now!” Luffy exclaimed once they finished their sake and placed their bowls down.

“Guess I’m not the oldest anymore,” Uta commented ruefully.

“Yeah, I’m the oldest now. I get to tell you all what to do,” Ace declared.

“But I’m the funnest, so I should tell everyone what to do,” Luffy protested.

“What? That doesn’t even make sense. And you almost kill yourself every day, who’d listen to you?”

“Nuh-uh, I haven’t hurt myself yet today.”

“The day’s still early.”

“Plus, I’m gonna be king of the pirates, so I should be in charge.”

“No one wants the crybaby in charge.”

“Hey, what’d you call me?”

“You heard me.”

“Well… well, no one wants the sleepy baby in charge.”

“Sleepy baby?”

“Yeah, cause you’re always falling asleep at funny times so sleepy baby.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Sleepy baby! Sleep baby! Sleep baby!”

“You little twerp! I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Sabo and Uta glanced at each other as Luffy and Ace continued bickering before the two middle children gave each other a knowing smirk. Let them think whatever they wanted. Sabo and Uta would be there to bail the two of them out of whatever harebrained plots they got mixed up in or be there right beside them, creating mischief. They were siblings now, so whatever one of them went, the other would follow whether physically or in spirit.

In that moment, Sabo made a silent vow to himself.

This is my family. This is where I belong. I won’t let anything hurt them. No matter what.

Chapter Text

“Ah!!!”

“Again, Lu?”

Sabo didn’t immediately move when he heard Luffy’s exclamation or Uta’s exasperation. Living with his baby brother for a full year now had taught him well enough that he could get himself into trouble effortlessly and trying to stop him was a losing battle. Eventually he did make his way to the window and peered down to see what was wrong. He rolled his eyes as he saw Luffy had fallen into their boar trap again.

“You’re lucky Ace isn’t here to see you down there, Lu. He’d smack you in the head if he was,” Sabo pointed out as he climbed out the window and down the ladder of the pups’ treehouse.

They had taken up near permanent residence in the getaway they had all crafted together. It was initially meant as a hideout from Garp, whose training got worse after the pups had made their sake cup promise. Nowadays, they spent twice as much time here as they did the bandits’ hut. Dadan had explained that their desire to create a space just for the four of them was a part of their nesting instinct. The sake cup promise had made their bond stronger. Their nesting instincts drove them to protect that bond by building a den together where no one who wasn’t pack could breach their space. Sabo could admit privately that he was comforted by being in a space filled with the scents of his siblings mingling together as a constant reminder that they were always close. Even the annoying siblings who constantly forgot the hole he himself dug near the tree.

Sabo’s feet thumped against the ground as he approached the hole and peered down. Luffy was a tangle of limbs and indignation, staring up at him with bewildered eyes.

“You know, we dug this hole to satisfy your impossible stomach. You’d think you’d remember where it was,” Sabo pointed out as he grabbed a rope Uta dropped down to him from the lookout perch and lowered it to Luffy.

“I can get out on my own. I’ll use my rubber powers,” the boy declared, standing up.

“Every time you try, you just hurt yourself more.”

“Nuh-uh! I’ve been practicing.”

Sabo could attest to that much. Garp was doing his best to whip Luffy and Ace’s Devil Fruit powers into submission, even though he wasn’t a user himself. Both boys were creative in trying to use their power’s defensively, though both still lacked the control to use their powers constructively. Garp had also discovered Ace’s Conqueror’s Haki to which he had given a long laugh before declaring it wasn’t a surprise given that Roger was a Conqueror as well.

Sabo hadn’t known how Ace was going to react when Garp had casually stated that Ace was “a chip off the old block”. Ace was still mercurial when it came to Roger. He wasn’t as blindly rage-filled about him or blamed him as much as he did before, but he still struggled with the legacy of being his son. Ace might’ve been exposed to a different side of the Pirate King but the world’s opinion hadn’t changed. However, Ace had surprised Sabo.

“Shanks has this Conqueror thing too, doesn’t he?” He had asked.

Garp had blinked at that before answering.

“Yeah, Red Hair’s got it. Damn strong too, that brat, much as I hate to admit it.”

“Guess it’s alright that I’ve got it then,” the boy had said and left it at that.

Garp had blinked again before looking at Sabo who had simply shrugged in response.

Ace was calmer ever since their promise. He still sometimes gave lip service to his aversion towards affection, but they could all feel the protective energy he constantly gave off around them nowadays and the way his scent clung to them.

Sabo had heard some talk amongst the bandits that they thought Ace was going to manifest as an alpha. As it was, all the boys were too young, but Ace and Sabo were the closest given that they were 11 years old and manifestations started as early as 13. Sabo didn’t think too much about what it would mean when they manifested. He didn’t foresee it changing much about them as a group, but it would change how they were perceived by people, not that any of them really cared too much about that.

“Bo, if he’s trying to convince you to let him get himself out, don’t let him!” Uta shouted from above, breaking Sabo from his thoughts.

He glanced up at her where she sat in the lookout perch above their tree, their rudimentary flag waving above her declaring the tree as the territory of the ASUL Pirates.

“Don’t think Luffy’s in a listening mood.”

“When is he ever?”

Sabo stepped back as Luffy’s arm shot out of the hole and latched on to a tree.

“Gum Gum…” he started.

“Frog!” He declared, clearly having just come up with the name.

Sabo was sure his intention was to crouch down and use the momentum from his stretchy powers to leapfrog out of the hole but as he ascended, his arm retracted too quickly and it left him flailing midair over the hole, looking like he was about to fall right back in. Before he could, a disembodied hand swooped in and snatched him out of thin air before setting him down next to the tree trunk.

“On the list of things Shanks has done to annoy me, having you chaotic gremlins has got to be at least top three,” Buggy grumbled as he trudged into view alongside a giggling Eudora and a scowling Ace.

The two adults had arrived a week earlier, laden with gifts from the Red Hair Pirates and stories of their exploits since the pups had last seen them over a year ago. Uta in particular was ecstatic to see Eudora again given that she was the only other gamma she knew of and their shared love for music.

“Ow,” Luffy exclaimed as Ace punched him on the head.

“Idiot. What have I told you about falling into that trap?”

“It’s not my fault. I can’t remember where it is,” Luffy whined, rubbing the tender spot on his head.

“Ow,” Ace exclaimed, as Uta dropped down from her perch and punch him on the head in the process.

“Be nice to Lu, Freckleface,” she warned, saddling up to her twin’s side and inspecting his head before she smacked the back of it.

“Owwww! Not nice, Sissy,” the rubber boy whined.

“I’ll be nice when you be more careful,” she retorted.

“Oh, so you can hit him, but I can’t,” Ace grumbled.

“Yup,” Uta replied shortly.

Eudora’s musical laughter rang through the air then.

“You pups are an endless source of joy,” she commented, her purple curls bouncing with her chuckles.

“That’s not exactly how I’d phrase it,” Buggy muttered.

“Those two’s bickering has got to be one of the main lowlights of this little excursion of ours.”

“My grandmother always said that bickering is just the love language of true siblings. That must be why you and Shanks argue so much.”

Buggy reddened at that, as did Uta and Ace. Sabo snorted at the sight of the spluttering trio as Luffy and Eudora laughed.

“They’re so red! They must be so embarrassed.”

“You don’t have to point it out like that, brat,” Buggy shouted.

Luffy laughed even louder in reply.

Sabo shook his head in amusement, used to the shenanigans by now. He looked down as he noticed the bags the newly arrived trio had with them.

“What’s all this?”

“Just some things we picked up while we were in Town Center. Buggy wants to set up a training ground for Ace and Luffy’s Devil Fruits.”

Sabo nodded in reply. Buggy had stated that was one of his main goals in coming to Dawn Island, now that they were over a year removed from Shanks’ visit. Apparently, he had an agreement with Shanks to watch over the pups but hadn’t wanted to come back so soon and draw suspicion to the island or catch the attention of Garp. Eudora still had her house in Town Center and Buggy was well liked in the city for his show (and all the money it generated), enough that his pirate status was a secondary factor.

Still, the pups had all been surprised to see the adults and a little wary (mostly Ace), but Ace and Luffy did need to train their fruits and who better than another Devil Fruit user? Eudora was helpful too given that she knew so much about Ace’s fruit and her noble status even gave her access to a Devil Fruit encyclopedia that she let Sabo read.

“Did you only go to Town Center?” He asked hesitantly as Buggy began setting up the training grounds with the assistance of Ace, Uta and Luffy (though from Buggy’s shrieking, Luffy was doing more harm than good).

Eudora blinked before giving him a sympathetic smile.

“We visited Edge Town as well, checked in on the former residents of Gray Terminal. They’re as well as can be expected. The buildings are still run-down there, but they’ve been repaired as much as we could to allow them to live inside and anyone who hasn’t managed a space in a building has been sheltering in some huts the more industrious people have built. Crime is still an issue. There are many vulnerable people there and many people looking to take advantage of them. The situation is as stable as it can be at the moment, but hardly sustainable.”

Sabo let out a heavy sigh.

That night haunted him in more ways than one. The scar on his face was a daily reminder of what had happened, one that would never fade. The bond between himself and the twins had been forged in the same fire that burned away the place he called home for five years. Sabo still felt guilty for that night.

Gray Terminal itself was back to being used as a garbage heap and had been renamed the Goa Refuse Station in an effort to further distance it from its recent past. The gates were guarded by royal guards who would not allow the people who had claimed it as home before to return upon threat of arrest or death. King Sarie Furanshisu declared that all former residents of Gray Terminal were to be considered illegal immigrants since they were stripped of citizenship when they “chose” to live in the Terminal in the first place. Under his logic, they had no right to aid from the government and crossing Goa’s borders subjected them to arrest.

Sabo knew the nobles of Goa were corrupt, he had seen it with his own eyes. Hell, he’d lived it. There was a part of him that still held on to naïve hope. It was that part of him that was constantly disgusted the more he learned about the depths of depravity possible for the people he’d been born into. Sometimes it made him want to claw his own skin off just to be rid of the stench of them.

He looked up as Uta knocked her shoulder into his, obviously having noticed the dip in his mood. She gave him a smile of commiseration and understanding.

“That’s not fair. Those people live on Dawn Island too. Those meanie nobles should be helping them,” Luffy declared.

“You’re probably right, kid. But that’s not the way the world works. The last thing most nobles want to do is part with their berri, especially if it’s to help someone they see as beneath them,” Buggy pointed out.

“Most nobles,” Eudora reiterated.

“Luckily, I am very familiar with the mind of nobles. Most of them will tighten their purse strings at the mere mention of helping others, but there are also those who like to indulge themselves from time to time in what I like to call egotistical altruism.”

“What’s a eagle alti-mism,” Luffy asked.

“There are nobles who like to think of themselves as saviors. They see people of lesser means as an opportunity to stroke their ego by swooping in to save them from their situation. Narcissistic? Sure. But valuable if you know how to sway people like that to your side.”

“Sounds like politics. I hate that stuff. Gramps is always trying to force it down my throat even though he hates it too,” Ace dismissed.

“Yeah, sounds boring,” Luffy agreed.

“Diplomacy isn’t as thrilling as the pirate adventures you’re after. However, politicians are more like pirates than they’d ever admit and strong pirates use diplomacy more than any rookie realizes,” Buggy stated.

“Eh, if you say so,” Luffy replied breezily, picking his nose.

“Why do I even bother,” the clown muttered.

“Hey, Uncle Buggy. Can me and Ace practice our powers now? I wanna punch something,” Luffy whined.

“At this point, I’d be satisfied if you could hit a damn target with your powers,” he replied, waving Luffy towards a target they set up.

“I can so! I’m super strong now. Watch! Here I go! Gum Gum… Pistol!”

Sabo watched Luffy jump into the air as he threw his arm forward. Instead of going towards the target though, his arm stretched out until it hit the ground and then turned on an angle to punch Luffy in the face.

“Ouchie,” the boy whined as he laid out on the floor, rubbing his cheek.

“Loser,” Ace teased.

“Why don’t you hit the target then!?” Luffy jumped up, stomping on the ground furiously.

“Fine, watch me.”

Ace’s hand lit up in a ball of flame.

“Firefist!”

A column of fire went shooting at the target and incinerated it immediately upon contact. The fireball was so large that it set several bushes behind it ablaze and scorched the grass beneath it.

“I wanted you to hit the target, not turn it to ash!” Buggy complained as Eudora used her own Devil Fruit to create a space around the fire and freeze time within it, stopping the fire from spreading any further.

“You might be able to hit a target, but you need to moderate how much fire you’re producing at any given moment. If you want your Devil Fruit to be useful as a strategic weapon and not just a glass cannon, causing indiscriminate destruction, then you need to learn the value of control,” Buggy advised as his hands detached and went flying up to the treehouse before coming back with a bucket of water which he poured over the fire to extinguish it.

“And you, you little loudmouth brat, need to learn the value of patience. Rushing in without thinking is part of the reason you can’t hit straight,” Buggy continued, turning his attention to Luffy who pouted in reply.

“Come on. Let’s keep practicing.”

Luffy hopped up and trotted towards Buggy.

“I’m hungry though.”

“When are you not, you bottomless pit?”

“Can we practice while hunting?”

Buggy let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Fine. Less chance of you annoying me with your whining that way.”

“Hey, I don’t whine,” Luffy protested with a pout.

Ace didn’t follow the duo right away. His eyes were locked on the extinguished flames and the aftermath of his powers. Sabo could smell Ace’s scent becoming slightly stronger. A mixture of uncertainty, guilt and anger.

“I do hope you guys can help the people of Gray Terminal. What happened to them… what I did—”

“It doesn’t do to dwell,” Eudora advised in a soft tone.

“I won’t ever forget the cost that came with me getting my powers or this pack… my family. So, if you need me to do something, I will. I’m not smart enough for any political stuff, that’s more Sabo and Uta’s speed, but I can still help in any way you need me too. Luffy can too. He’ll be a disaster at it, but he can make those people smile at least.”

“I have no doubt of that. I’ll let you both know next time I visit so you can join me. Your powers would be quite helpful around there. Heating can be a problem, a boy who naturally makes flames would be a godsend.”

Ace didn’t look like he totally agreed but he nodded his head before going off to join Luffy and Buggy.

“Can you really sway those people to your side to help the people of Gray Terminal,” Uta asked.

“Yeah, the nobles I know never cared to help anyone,” Sabo added.

“But they do care about appearances and accolades. They like the attention that taking up a charity case will give them. That’s what I play off of without letting them know as much. Diplomacy requires a subtle hand. But it’s one I think you two in particular would be good at. Buggy was right. Pirates use diplomacy too, the pirates that aren’t interested in raiding every place they go at least. Ace and Luffy are trouble magnets. It’ll be up to you two to negotiate that chaos for them. You can’t keep it all away but at least you can learn to recognize the good trouble from the bad trouble.”

Sabo opened his mouth to speak but before he could, something wrapped around his and Uta’s waist, pressing them together. He looked down and his eyes widened when he realized it was one of Luffy’s stretchy limbs.

“Come on, slowpokes! We need to catch some crocodile meat!”

“Lu! Don’t you dare!” Uta warned, before the two children found themselves flung through the air anyway towards the other group in a uncontrolled manner, leading the two middle siblings to barrel into Buggy’s back, drawing a surprised exclamation from the man as his body dissembled into multiple pieces from the force of the hit before Uta and Sabo finally crashed onto the forest floor in a groaning heap.

The two pups twitched on the ground in pain as Luffy’s raucous laughter coupled with Ace’s mocking one filled the air along with Eudora’s light hum of amusement.

“Like I said, chaos and trouble.”

~*~*~

That night found the small group eating around a bonfire outside the bandits’ hut along with the Dadan family. Mealtimes were always loud, chaotic affairs with Luffy stealing food off people’s plates and Ace cursing and chasing him whenever he managed to steal any of his food. The three Ds of the group would pack away nearly half of all the food, despite still being pups, while the bandits would squabble and fight for the other half. Sabo would do the same, not about to let himself go hungry either. Buggy and Eudora were clearly unused to such a spectacle if their faces were anything to go by. Still, Buggy used his abilities to ferry food towards the couple before they were left out of dinner service as well.

During and after meals, the bandits would usually begin wrestling with each other. It was their way of showing affection to one another.  Through wrestling they could scent and claim one another without the intimacy that came with an embrace or touching each other’s scent glands in a soft way. The kids joined them simply because they liked fighting and it was good training.

Sabo sat back and watched Ace wrestle Magra and Dogra at the same time. Ace’s agility and natural strength usually had him winning against grown men. Sabo usually did too but he still lost more times than not against Ace. He usually won against Uta and Luffy rarely ever won at all if he used his Devil Fruit. However, if he relied on his natural abilities, he stood a better chance. Luffy was proving that now as Uta managed to evade his stretching limbs and get clean hits in easily.

Buggy had also been convinced to join the wrestling matches and was showing how much better he was at controlling his Devil Fruit as he easily disassembled and reassembled his body at will, using flying body parts to his advantage to attack the bandits who were fighting him. It was freaky to say the least, but effective.

Sabo felt content as he watched the scene. It was utter chaos, no doubt about it, but he felt at home here. More than he ever had in High Town. It may not be the prim and proper upbringing his parents wanted him to have but who cared about something like that when in return, he got to feel safe, wanted, loved, a part of something that didn’t see him as a bargaining chip or a burden. He’d rather be here in this forest in a thousand lifetimes than marry some royal just for the sake of his parents’ upward mobility. At least he still had his dignity and pride. His parents couldn’t say the same.

Sabo looked up as Luffy let out a war cry followed by Uta’s giggles and Ace’s mocking jeers. Luffy and Ace were on Buggy’s back, seemingly trying to wrestle him to the ground while Uta danced around his feet, trying to trip him up. Buggy’s face showed both annoyance and amusement as he contended with the trio. Sabo let out a lighthearted laugh at the spectacle before getting up to join them.

This was where he belonged. He never wanted to find himself living within the walls of High Town again.

After a few hours of wrestling and feasting, the four pups were ready to retire to bed. Rather than go back to their treehouse, they decided to stay at the bandits’ house after Dadan’s gruff non-invitation/demand that they do so.

“Besides, I wanna make sure you brats actually take a bath every now and again so you’re not leaving this hut until you’re clean.”

The bandits had a single bathhouse that was split into two rooms. In one room was several drums that could be filled with water and fit a single grown man or a couple kids and in the other room was a larger wooden tub that could fit four or five grown men. Uta and Eudora skipped towards the room with the larger tub while Sabo, Ace, Luffy and Buggy stayed in the smaller room. Luffy was resistant about getting in a drum due to his Devil Fruit, as was Ace, so Buggy filled wooden bowls with water and soap and instructed them on how to get clean without their Devil Fruits getting in the way. Sabo enjoyed a soak in a drum of his own.

The pups would be back to sleeping in their old bedroom for the night. It was a nostalgic feeling to do so. A few months ago, he felt so embarrassed about his instincts that he created a nest and hit it in the closet for fear he’d be made fun of and now he openly shared a nesthome with his siblings. It was strange how quickly things could change.

Sabo was making his way towards the bedroom where his siblings already were. Uta, Luffy and Ace were all cuddled up on one bed. Eudora was there as well, reading a book to them. Sabo recognized it as a gift from the twins’ alpha father, a man they’d never met before. He was about to join them, but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Buggy approaching him, his disembodied hand still hanging on Sabo’s shoulder. He cringed a little at the dismembered limb as it reattached to Buggy’s arm with a weird ‘pop’ sound.

“Wanted to talk to you alone for a minute, kid.”

Sabo blinked in surprise but followed Buggy outside and up to the lookout. Sabo could see the stars peeking through the branches of trees from this vantage point. He couldn’t help but compare it to the unrestricted view he got in the Gray Terminal. Some nights he would climb to the top of the trash heaps and stare up at the starry skies, imagining his life free on the seas away from his family and all the baggage that came with it. He still wanted to go out to the sea, but he had found his own kind of freedom here on Mount Colubo.

The two stood side by side quietly for a moment. Sabo glanced over at Buggy curiously, wondering what the man wanted. He didn’t think he’d had a single conversation one on one with him since they’d met months ago.

Buggy glanced over at him and met his eyes. If Sabo didn’t know any better, he’d think Buggy was nervous about something.

“Shit, I don’t… um… I wanted to ask you a question.”

Sabo blinked in return.

“Just… how you doing, kid?”

Sabo blinked again, tilting his head in confusion.

“… fine?”

“I meant, fuck… I know that most of our attention gets drawn to the others. They’re louder no doubt.”

Sabo shrugged at that.

“I don’t mind.”

“It doesn’t mean there’s no reason to be concerned about you too.”

“Me? Why would you be concerned about me?”

“Well, for one, you don’t complain about it, but you’ve had to compensate for the loss of vision in your left eye thanks to that burn.”

Sabo’s fingers went to the pink, raised skin on his face.

“It’s alright. I got used to it pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, you don’t complain about much, do you? I know how it feels to be in your position though, so I’m checking in, making sure you’re alright.”

“What position is that?”

Buggy glanced over at him contemplatively for a moment.

“I was an abandoned pup too before I ended up with the Roger Pirates.”

“Oh.”

“My birth parents abandoned me when I was three. The headmaster at one of the orphanages I ended up in said it was because of my nose. They thought it was weird, made me a freak and so my birth parents didn’t want me anymore once they got tired of looking at it. I wandered for a while before I met Shanks.”

“How’d you meet?”

“I stole Captain Roger’s watch if you can believe it.”

“Really? Why’d you take it?”

“Nesting instinct. Made me want shiny things. Didn’t have a pack to gift me what I wanted so I started stealing things instead. The watch caught my eye. In hindsight, I think Roger let me take it. He could’ve stopped me if he wanted to.”

“What happened after that?”

“Shanks went chasing after me. The watch got stolen by some other thugs and we went after them. I gave back the watch in the end after Shanks agreed to take me to the ship and let me choose whatever shiny thing I wanted. He and Roger decided they’d rather I stuck around after all. It was the first time anyone did. Hard to say no to that.”

Sabo thought of the relationship he grew with Ace in the Terminal, the way Luffy instantly wanted him in his life, the way Uta had slowly warmed up to him, how quickly he became comfortable around Shanks and his crew as well as Dadan and the bandits, even how fast Garp accepted him as his grandson. It was such a stark contrast to the cold, hollow life he led in Hightown with his birth parents.

“Yeah, I get that.”

“It took a while for me to get better from my parents’ abandonment. There were things that still lingered even after I got better. Low moments, lots of second guessing myself. You ever feel that way?”

“Sometimes. Not as much lately. Mostly…” Sabo trailed off, unsure of himself.

Buggy gave him a nod of encouragement.

“I’m happy the way things are right now. It’s just that sometimes, I wonder why. Why didn’t they choose me? Why wasn’t I enough for them?”

Sabo’s brows furrowed at the thought of days of confusion and loneliness, a life of rigid noble indoctrination coached as education, long nights of crying and wishing for a warm embrace from his mother and father that would never come.

“It’s not worth dwelling on things like that. The people who chose to love you are more family than anyone else in the world. You can choose to be someone’s just as much as someone can choose to claim you. It takes more than blood to be a pack.”

A small smile alighted Sabo’s lips at those words.

“Shanks said something just like that to me once.”

“That’s not a surprise. Our mother said it to us. The words ring true to me more and more the older I get. You’re creating strong bonds in place of your parent bond and that’s good. My bond with Shanks was the first real one I made, even before I bonded with the rest of the crew or my parents. It’s probably what saved me. That and spite.”

Sabo giggled a little at that.

“Still, if you’re ever feeling low, need an ear or someone that understands, I’m around.”

Sabo nodded in reply.

“Thanks, Buggy.”

The beta patted his shoulder.

“Good. Let’s end this conversation here before someone accuses me of being sentimental.”

Sabo chuckled again at the words before following Buggy back into the hut and towards the pups’ bedroom. Eudora still sat, reading her book to the trio. Sabo trotted inside and made himself comfortable on the bed, cuddling up to the other three children. He leaned back against Ace as Luffy sprawled out over Sabo’s lap and Uta rested her head on his shoulder.

Eudora smiled at him as Buggy took a seat at her side, throwing an arm over her as she continued reading the story.

Sabo smiled to himself and settled in comfortably with his family.

~*~*~

Dawn Island had always been a little strange to Sabo.

Granted, he’d never left the island before so his gauge for strange places was limited to books and stories from well-traveled people like Garp, Shanks, Buggy, or former pirates who’d settled in Gray Terminal like Naguri. He had still always known that the rigid segregation that the island lived under was unfair and he had dreamed of a better way, a fairer life for the people of Dawn. He had not imagined this though.

Objectively, the settlement that was built by the former residents of the Terminal in Edge Town was better than what they had in the trash heap. In Gray Terminal, there were towers of garbage with scant lean-tos and huts made from any salvageable material that could be found. At least in Edge Town, there were actual buildings and structures that could be repurposed into something resembling a home. 1000 people had lived in Gray Terminal and of them, 60 people had died. Many more may have perished if Uta hadn’t used her powers to make people evacuate towards the gates.

As Sabo walked with the others through the streets of Edge Town, he could see the scars left from that night. Some people had burns, like him. Some people coughed as they walked, their lungs still not healed from the acrid and toxic smoke that the fire had generated. Some people had a slope to their shoulders that spoke of weariness and trauma. However, as he walked, he could also see a spark in the eyes of the displaced people. It wasn’t a new phenomenon. It had been part of what drew him to Gray Terminal in the first place. These were people who knew what it meant to survive against the odds, who knew what it was to be alive in a world that was indifferent to your existence and sometimes outright scornful towards it.

He could relate. He had lived in the lap of luxury, yet had spent his life in an emotional desert, devoid of love and affection, acceptance or belonging. He knew what it was to be rejected, unwanted and abandoned. He had found kindred spirits in the people of Gray Terminal. He still saw that fighting spirit in them even now. It gave him hope.

Eudora was another spark of hope. She walked through the streets with an air of elegance and a warm smile on her lips, stopping to greet people by name and easily strike up conversations, listening to complaints and commiserating without being patronizing, using her Devil Fruit to entertain children. Sabo was surprised. In his experience, nobles weren’t like Eudora. He couldn’t help but say as much as they made their way through the sheets. Eudora gave him a knowing smile in return.

“I have a similar experience. Nobles can be the most selfish, irresponsible, clueless group of people in the world. Their ignorance and lack of empathy coupled with the near unlimited power they wield is a recipe for disaster if you are a common man, just trying to survive. However, their cruelty affects all those who are vulnerable and when I was a child, I couldn’t escape being a victim of that and learning it firsthand. Ever since then, I’ve resolved to be better than the nobles who hurt me.”

Sabo nodded in reply, understanding that resolution.

“I decided that too when I left home. I decided that I’d be better than my parents.”

“A goal I can confidently say you’ve reached.”

“You don’t even know my parents.”

“No, but I know you. I doubt the alpha and omega who left you abandoned with no packbonds beyond the decayed one they failed to nurture is anywhere near as kind, understanding and wonderful as you are.”

Sabo looked down and away, a blush coloring his cheeks.

Eudora let out a warm tinkling laugh before patting his head and moving towards another group of people. There was a familiar sort of warmth to her, like she knew what it was to be displaced and without a home. Sabo remembered that she was a gamma. That doesn’t happen by accident. Maybe she understood more than he was giving her credit for.

Sabo couldn’t help but study people as they passed, looking for familiar faces. He recognized some, people he knew in passing but weren’t the closest with. He was looking for several faces. Thierry. Tegann and her baby. Naguri. People he’d grown close to. People who it would crush him if he didn’t see, if only to confirm they were still alive.

He found his body tensing up the longer time went on without seeing those faces until a familiar tone caught his attention. He glanced at the group ahead of him. Eudora was discussing something with a tall man garbed like a member of the royal guard, serious looks on their faces. Luffy was playing with two other kids nearby with Ace supervising. Uta was sitting next to an elderly woman and chatting amicably with her. Sabo turned back to where he could hear a cavaquinho being strummed to play a mid-tempo song. He walked down an alleyway to an open door that had a cross painted on the wood.

A church?

He peered inside cautiously. There was a large open space with several cushions set up in rows. A makeshift kitchen was off to the left side of the room with a chipped wooden table. Sitting on one of the chairs inside was Thierry, the cavaquinho clutched in his hands, his dark fingers picking at the strings as he sat back with his eyes closed. Tegann was sitting on a small stool next to him, her baby strapped to her back as she painted on an easel in front of her and swayed back and forth to the music.

Several other people, mostly children, were sitting down watching the beta man. The scene was familiar to Sabo. There were days when Thierry, an exceptional storyteller, would sit by the bonfire playing whichever instrument he decided suited his tale best, crafting and weaving whole worlds through his words. Sabo had been inspired by him from a young age and it only fueled his dream. He had wanted to create the same sense of wonder that Thierry did. He wanted to create his own stories and hoped that somewhere there would be a child like him reading his words with the same sense of awe.

He leaned against the doorway, listening to Thierry’s story.

“He was a being of incredible strength. His power was only limited by his imagination and as his imagination was as wild and free as a child’s, he could create the most ridiculous circumstances, fight in the silliest ways. It seemed insane and yet his power was unmatched. You see, he chose to act the fool to make others laugh. To him, laughter was his greatest prize. In his eyes, laughter meant freedom and so that’s what he brought to everyone. He was the white-haired warrior, freeing the oppressed and enslaved from their chains with a smile on his face, fighting back against those who would take away their freedom with a wave of laughter at his back. All those who took away the will of others cowered as they heard his heartbeat. It beat out a rhythm that meant a new dawn, a new age of freedom. It was called the Drums of Liberation. It was a simple rhythm.”

Thierry paused then, stopping his strumming to stomp on the ground to a peculiar rhythm.

Doom dut da da doom dut da da doom dut da da doom dut da da

“It brought light to the hearts of his followers. He made a promise to them to bring them out of their chains and into the light, so they may chase him across the seas which gave birth to him. He is the Sun God, Nika.”

“A god? But I thought the gods live on top of the world far far away in a distant sea,” one child pointed out.

Thierry’s music changed then. Sabo didn’t quite know how to describe it. Uta would’ve been better at finding the words, but it took on a distinctly darker tone.

“It is true, there are those who live in a distant sea on top of the Red Line which divides the world in two. Those people call themselves gods and content themselves to be worshipped as such. But they are only human, just like you and I. They are flesh and blood and bone. They are the ones Nika fought against for us. He didn’t fight alone either. Races all over the world came together under Nika’s flag to fight for the dawn. From the sky, the earth and the sea. Warriors big and warriors small.”

“So, where’s Nika now,” another child asked.

Thierry’s song took on a somber tone.

“Many fierce fighters came together to help win the day, but alas it wasn’t enough. Nika was betrayed, ancient weapons were used that threatened the entire world and ultimately Nika was lost. But legends say a piece of his will still exists in the world. So long as it does and so long as there are people who spread his name and the ideals of freedom, then there is always hope for a new dawn.”

Sabo looked around the room as Thierry’s words rang in his ears. He didn’t know if he would call the lives that the former Termites was living a new dawn, but it was a new beginning, it was a chance to maybe live a better life than they did before, if the king could be convinced to help them anyway.

On a personal level, Sabo thought he might understand this new dawn. He had gone from a lonely life in High Town, to running for his life and scrounging for scraps to survive in Gray Terminal alongside Ace to now living with his brothers and sister in their very own nest-home. However, he didn’t think he’d ever be fully satisfied as long as he knew that there were people who lived unjust lives simply because of how or where they were born.

Nika sounded like a dream, a nice story for kids who were naïve enough to believe it. Sabo wondered if there was a real man, a real person that was flesh and bone, who would rise up against people like Porchemy and Bluejam and King Furanshisu and fight for a better world for everyone.

He looked up as sounds of wonder and excitement filled the room. Tegann had revealed the painting she had been making. The drawing appeared to be a silhouette of a laughing figure with flame-like hair holding a spear in one hand and a sword in the other. Nika, Sabo assumed. He didn’t look like much from the drawing, not like the heroic portraits nobles often commissioned of themselves to look more regal. Still, there was a certain power that seemed to exude even just from this picture that made Sabo wonder.

He jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up to see Thierry had approached him and was smiling down at him. Sabo’s eyes immediately went to the burn scar on the right side of his neck and shoulder, feeling a wave of guilt at the sight.

“Sabo! Our little demon! We haven’t seen hide or tail of you anywhere. I confess, I feared the worst for you.”

“Hi, Thierry. It’s good to see you,” Sabo said in a small voice, suddenly feeling shy.

“What’s all this? Where’s the feisty little boy I know?”

“Just… I’m sorry,” Sabo said, unable to say anything else.

Thierry blinked in return.

“For what?”

His eyes went back to the burn scars and Thierry’s eyes widened in realization.

“Oh, this? It’s not your fault. The Terminal was due at any moment for a fire like that one. And I can see you haven’t gotten out of it unscathed either,” Thierry replied, waving a hand at the burn on the boy’s face.

Sabo didn’t want to get into specifics, it wasn’t just his tale to tell anyway, so he quickly moved on.

“You’re still telling stories.”

“People need a little distraction every now and again. More than that, they need something to believe in.”

“Something like Nika? How’d you come up with that?”

“Me? Oh no, Nika is a legend that’s been told for generations, passed down by people in secret so he couldn’t be erased by those on top of the world. My family has a long history of griots, that’s storytellers, who have seen fit to keep his name alive. I’m afraid I was neglecting that duty for a long time. I think I lost my belief, but after everything in the Terminal, I came to find it again. I believe in a new dawn. Maybe there won’t be a figure like Nika who ushers it in, maybe it’ll be someone who’s heard his story and was inspired by it. Nika didn’t fight alone after all, he made friends along the way and inspired others to fight for freedom. The least I can do in service of that is make sure his story is told.”

“Do you think freedom is possible in this country?”

“I think it’ll be even more impossible if we don’t try. There are men and women in the world who are fighting for the liberation of others.”

Thierry pulled out a few papers from his back pocket. They seemed to be clippings from newspapers. He handed them over to Sabo. He looked over the headlines with interest.

The Hero of the Slaves! Lone Fishman Attacks the Holy Land and Frees Hundreds From Captivity

Overthrown! The Revolutionary Army Dethrones King Bekori of Sorbet Kingdom

Tumi’s Civil War Ends! Rebels With Support of Revolutionary Army Defeats King

Incarnation of Love! Queen of Fishman Island Given Audience with the World Nobles, Preaches Harmony Between Humans and Fishfolk

Dragon, Leader of the Revolutionary Army, Officially Named the World’s Most Wanted Man

“There are people out in the world fighting, young Sabo. I hope that when it’s your turn to inherit this world, we can make it just a bit better for you.”

Sabo smiled at that before a commotion outside caught his attention. He looked over just in time to be pushed into the room by a forceful hand. He caught himself before he could fall and pulled out his pipe before getting into a defensive stance. The room was quickly filled up with men wearing the uniform of royal guards. They surrounded the area, taking up positions by the exits.

“What’s the meaning of this,” Thierry demanded.

“By order of King Sarie Furanshisu, the royal guard will now take up occupation of this lawless area to ensure no non-citizen of the Goa Kingdom crosses the border into his territory.”

“He can’t do that!” Sabo exclaimed, ignoring Thierry’s calming hand.

“And just where is this border? The gates I assume,” Thierry asked.

“It’s been pushed further back actually. Just past the abandoned pet shop.”

Murmurs instantly filled the room.

“The river is past the shop. We use it to fish and we trade for goods by the gates. If the border is pushed further in then we face the risk of starvation.”

“The king’s concern is his citizens, not outcasts who can’t figure out how to survive without a handout.”

“The king’s job is to protect his people and take care of them when they need help. The only reason the people of Gray Terminal aren’t citizens is because he decided they shouldn’t be,” Sabo protested.

“As is his right, brat. As far as I’m concerned, it was an act of God that the Terminal burned down. We would’ve been better off if you trash all burned with it.”

Sabo gritted his teeth, wanting nothing more than to hit this man.

“Any of you found outside the border will be treated as an invader and disposed of as such. You’ve been warned.”

~*~*~

Sabo was practically crawling out of his skin, though he didn’t let it show. He was used to putting on a face for nobility, acting as if everything was okay when it was the opposite. He knew what was expected and he knew how to play the part.

He sat inside a resplendent room alongside Uta, Eudora, King Furanshisu and Princess Nantokanette. The room was decked out in silks and satins, draped in red, gold and white and filled with the trappings of nobility. It made Sabo feel like there were ants crawling under his skin. It was too familiar, too much like the house that had never been a home.

Coming back to High Town at all felt strange and dangerous. If he did not have such an interest in making sure the people of Gray Terminal stood a fighting chance, he wouldn’t be here at all. He needed them to be alright, he needed them to survive. They deserved to chase freedom and walk in the sun with a smile on their faces and full stomachs of food. Sabo was no god like Nika, he wasn’t a revolutionary like Dragon, he wasn’t a diplomat like Queen Otohime or Lady Eudora, he wasn’t a hero like Fisher Tiger, but he could still fight for the freedom of others, even if he had to fight Eudora’s way.

Eudora’s way, apparently, included smiles, laughter and polite conversation. This pleasantry wasn’t anything new to Sabo, he had had to play this role for years, but it still chaffed to have to put this back on. Uta seemed to be taking her cues from Eudora and was doing the same: polite smiles, polite conversation, polite agreement with whatever the princess and king said. It rankled Sabo, but he followed along.

“…the South Blue is a good deal warmer than here in the East and good deal more restless. This ocean is quiet. I don’t find myself too eager to leave it just yet,” Eudora was saying.

“Yes, well. I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting any other Blue, although I have left for the Grand Line to attend the Reverie. I hardly see the need to leave at all when the East has been so good to my people. Did you know that Dawn Island is considered the most beautiful island in the East? My family has worked very hard to make sure that the Goa Kingdom is the jewel of this Blue.”

“The Sarie family weren’t the original rulers of Dawn Island, if I remember correctly,” Eudora prompted.

“Indeed. Centuries ago, this island was a lawless place which refused to submit to the World Government thanks to the former leaders, an unnatural pack of only alphas led by a man of the D Clan.”

“The D clan?” Uta questioned curiously.

“I’ve met several members with the name D. They’re often a willful people,” Eudora commented.

“Savage, more-like. Unruly, unwilling to follow social mores. More beast than man. The Ds are said to take more after our animalistic ancestors who gave into the urges and whims of their second gender rather than learning to live above such things and show restraint. Those lot are the enemies of the gods for a reason,” the king derided with an upturned nose.

His display drew a giggle from the princess who was sipping her tea with a raised pinky. Sabo glanced at Uta who shrugged lightly in reply, clearly clueless about whatever the king was talking about.

“There are all sorts of ways people can be viewed as lacking restraint. Giving into the urges of ruts or heats may be one way. Similarly, giving into the lure of greed is another. It is considered a sin for a reason,” Eudora replied innocently.

Sabo could read the double meaning in her words. He wasn’t sure if the king could.

“Yes, well. You’re right, of course. Some of my fellow alphas, I’m ashamed to say, give into the lure of greed and lust. But you know that even better than I.”

Sabo narrowed his eyes at that, not liking the implication in the king’s words about Eudora and gammas.

“Might I just say how gratifying it is to see you’ve risen above your own… delicate nature to be such a fine young woman. Many here in High Town are amazed at how well-spoken and well-mannered a gamma can be. Not many here have ever met a gamma, you see? It is quite the experience to do so. I dare say you’re something of a celebrity. Though, your association with that pirate clown leaves something to be desired. I can’t deny his presence provided a steady flow of income through Town Center during his last show, so I suppose I will permit him to remain here for the time being with your endorsement.”

“A gamma? Is that why this girl smells so weird,” Princess Nantokonette said, a curious cock to her head as she stared at Uta.

“Now, now, dear. That’s singularly poor manners to say something so bluntly.”

“My apologies.”

Uta shifted uncomfortably before pasting a smile on her lips.

“It’s okay. Miss Eudora is a kind woman for helping me to become the best gamma I can be. I am very lucky to have her. So many people are. Like the people in Edge Town.”

Sabo glanced at Uta. He could tell the princess’ words bothered her but the smile on her face made it hard to tell. It reminded him of the fake smiles many nobles wore. It was strange to see that on Uta’s face and he found he didn’t like it.

“Ah, those poor wretches. I must say, though I admire your tenacity Lady Eudora, I do find it odd that you’ve taken up such a banner for those lost souls. I’m aware that the South struggles with an overly large number of vagabonds and layabouts who often take up arms to rebel against their rightful rulers. Perhaps this has softened your heart to such people as the Termites. However, they never brought anything of value to our country. The trash heap was exactly where they belonged. If they couldn’t figure out how to live amongst us before that fire, why should I believe they could learn to live amongst us now?”

“The good thing about that is they don’t desire to live amongst you. Edge Town has long been abandoned and left to ruin. These displaced people simply wish to live there in peace and continue as they were before.”

“Yes, well. Beyond that, you also wish for me to pour financial aid into restoring this area that will not even benefit my kingdom.”

“You were the one who said that Dawn Island is the most beautiful of the East. I’m sure that seeing the dilapidated nature of Edge Town when compared to Town Center and High Town doesn’t make for the most pleasing sight. Restoring Edge Town would benefit this island just as much as it would the people living there.”

“That is a good point. I was quite happy for Gray Terminal to burn to the ground. It has been an eyesore on our coastline for far too long. Be that as it may, as far as I see it, Edge Town has been occupied by refugees who now seek to force my hand and drain my pockets.”

“Speaking of pockets, I’m sure the markets in Town Center might’ve mentioned that there was quite the steady flow of exchange going on between the people of Gray Terminal and those in Town Center. With one half of that flow being gone, that trade and the profits from them have been disrupted. The people of Town Center were well-positioned in the beginning. As you said, Buggy’s show generated quite the revenue stream during his residence here and it created a cushion for the businesses that benefited from it, but we are almost a year removed from Buggy’s last show. You might’ve noticed the struggle those outside the gates have had in the past few months with paying their Heavenly Tribute.”

“Hmm. I did hear fussing about that. Still, the benefits seem to outweigh the costs. I trust they will balance out in the long run. The pirate clown’s return will help.”

“Momentarily, but a permanent solution and replacement for that revenue is needed.”

Sabo felt a burning in his chest as the king maintained a look of polite interest hiding a lack of care and he couldn’t stay quiet anymore.

“Is this why you sent guards into Edge Town to bar the people from leaving that area,” Sabo asked, speaking up for the first time.

Eudora shot him a warning look which he ignored. The king turned his attention to Sabo.

“Hmm, you look familiar, boy? Do I know you?”

Sabo stiffened a little, wondering if the king could truly remember him after five years away.

“Your scent certainly isn’t familiar, but your hair, your eyes, I could almost swear…”

“You don’t know me. I grew up in Gray Terminal actually. I know what it was like living day in and day out in a place where your life was always on the line and your survival depended on your strength.”

“He’s one of the trash people! I thought he’d smell worse,” the princess piped up, staring at him with her head cocked to the other side, a curious glint in her eyes.

“Nanie, such poor manners!”

“My apologies.”

“We lived for years in fear of men like Bluejam and even royal guards and nobles who would take us and sell us into slavery. Or kill us outright for just trying to survive. Or take all we own because there wasn’t much we could do about it anyway. We live on this island just the same as everyone else. The people from Gray Terminal didn’t choose to live in a trash heap. If they had a chance to live outside of it, they would. There was no protection for us, no help. No one cared. You’re the king. Isn’t your job to help and protect your people?”

The king shook his head and turned back to Sabo, a strange look in his eye.

“Yes, well. How to explain this? You see, there are people born in this world who are chosen by the gods at birth to live a certain life and other people are chosen to live another. Take, for example, our second genders. An alpha’s lot in life is to be a strong leader. Nature has willed it so. Afterall, alphas are usually larger, more dominant, more powerful, stronger, smarter than other second genders. In contrast, omegas are smaller, gentler, weaker, submissive. They are to raise families for their pack, keep a pack’s nesthome maintained. I do not believe, as some alphas do, that their sole purpose is to procreate. After all, an omega can add a lighter touch to the rougher edges of an alpha. There is value in that. Betas are meant to bridge those two, to act as a support for both the alpha and the omega. Then there are, of course, special cases like gammas and deltas but that’s another matter entirely. If we were to apply that thought process to the Goa Kingdom, Hightown would be alphas: chosen to rule at the top of the food chain. Town Center would be betas: existing to help Goa Kingdom by paying their taxes for the Heavenly Tribute and entertaining the idea that the residents of Gray Terminal provide an intrinsic value to the kingdom. Gray Terminal would be omegas: useful for a time, existing with a certain purpose but weaker than their counterparts, bringing nothing that another couldn’t also provide. Afterall, betas can procreate too. Then I suppose our villages on the outskirts such as Windmill Village would be the gammas and deltas in this little metaphor, but the point is, Gray Terminal served a purpose for a while: housing the… undesirables of the kingdom. Fate showed its divine hand and burned the place to the ground, telling us exactly what was to be done with those… people. There is simply no place for them in this kingdom anymore.”

Sabo clenched his teeth angrily.

“I have an alternative viewpoint,” Eudora piped up, placing a calming hand on Sabo’s shoulder.

“You yourself admitted that omegas have a place in society. I believe the people of Edge Town do as well. I understand your position, King Furanshisu. I agree that we shouldn’t expect charity, not without an exchange or proof that Edge Town can provide a service and be a benefit to this kingdom if given the chance. The people in Edge Town are already skilled in the art of recycling, turning all that trash that ends up in Gray Terminal into something functional. We both know the kingdoms garbage will pile up again, but there are gems to be found, young Sabo can attest to that.”

“So, what are you proposing?”

“Allow the people living in Edge Town to pass the gates and borders into Gray Terminal for the purposes of recycling. Not just finding the odd valuable items that others might discard, but I mean something more. There are people there who are able to turn some of the materials found there into jewelry, bags, clothes even. If they can do so, they could sell their wares and eventually make enough that they would be able to contribute to the kingdom through a Heavenly Tribute. They would even be able to trade with those in Town Center to reopen that line of revenue between those people again and help ease the burden of the Heavenly Tribute the citizens of Town Center need to pay. In exchange, you would restore Edge Town so they might open up actual shops and stores. It will be an investment into a future where Goa Kingdom is richer and happier and certainly more equitable for everyone. In time, the revenue made by Edge Town will surpass whatever funds you put into restoring the area.”

“Hmm. That is quite the vision you have. Ambitious, some may even say foolish.”

“It’s like you said. I’m from the South Blue, I’ve seen countless times how disgruntled and disenfranchised people can rise in anger. They usually outnumber those sitting at the top of society on any island. I simply wish to stop a cycle I’ve seen repeatedly too many times. On my very own island, I saw nobles’ homes burned to the ground. It’s part of how I became a gamma. I have also seen that a rebellion that grows large enough can attract the attention of the Revolutionary Army. I doubt that it is a force you would want to invade this island. I may not be my place, but I just want to suggest a peaceful resolution to a problem that plagues too many islands.”

“You are a generous soul, I will admit.”

“Thank you. I know it is a difficult decision to make, so perhaps it is something you can bring before the nobles of Goa. There are monthly council meetings in which issues are brought before the people. Perhaps my proposal is something that I can present there.”

“Yes, well. I believe it would be the best forum. After all, any funds put forth would also be coming from the great families of Goa. I shall have them vote on the matter, but whatever decision is made will be subject to my approval or rejection.”

“Of course.”

“Now, let’s move on to happier matters, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s.”

The trio spent another hour making small talk about nothing with the royal family. Sabo still felt like he was crawling out of his skin the whole time, especially with the way the princess stared at him and Uta like they were zoo attractions rather than people. By the time they left, he had to stop himself from running out of the room.

The trio was silent as they left the castle and walked towards the gates leading to Town Center. Sabo waited until they were past the gates before rounding on Eudora.

“You didn’t say anything about the soldiers,” Sabo pointed out.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Why not,” Uta asked curiously.

“Because the king wouldn’t budge on it.”

“You don’t know, you didn’t even try,” Sabo exclaimed.

Maybe Sabo was wrong about Eudora, maybe she was just like all the others. Uta placed a calming hand on his shoulder, moving closer to Sabo before turning to Eudora.

“I thought we’d mention it to the king,” Uta commented.

“If he felt emboldened enough to send them into Edge Town in the first place, he isn’t likely to withdraw them. In truth, he isn’t likely to take my proposal either.”

Sabo stopped up short at that.

“Then why bother at all?”

“Because I was able to put the thought of bringing my idea up to the other nobles during a council in his head. When I do so, I’ll be able to gauge the temperature, see who is likely to support it, who I can flip, who will be a problem.”

“How do you know any of them will care? I know those people, they won’t do anything to help anyone else if they don’t get something in return.”

“Of course they won’t, which is why I was sure to make my idea appear as profitable for Goa as possible. If the king thinks he can get money from the people living in Edge Town, he might allow them to trade and move freely through the cities. He’ll come to see their value, even if it is only in how they can serve him.”

“And maybe one day he’ll let them be declared as citizens again,” Uta realized.

Eudora smiled at the young gamma.

“Exactly.”

“By playing things his way,” Sabo retorted.

“By making the game work in our favor. It may not be a plan that will break the status quo, but it will make those people’s lives easier. I meant what I said in that room. Rebellion has its place, but it is an option that isn’t easy on the people who are at the bottom of the food chain, even if they’re the ones rebelling. It’s a bloody business and without proper support, it will lead nowhere. People are selfish, they won’t part with what they view as theirs for nothing in return. It won’t be a fast process, Sabo. Bureaucracy never is, but at least this way the people will be in less danger.”

“But the people are in danger now. There are guards posted everywhere, not letting them move so they can’t even get food for themselves.”

“The king believes so, yes.”

Sabo stopped up short at that.

“What do you mean?”

Eudora smiled mysteriously at that.

“Remember what Buggy said, ‘politicians are more like pirates than they’d ever admit and strong pirates use diplomacy more than any rookie would realize.’ I use diplomacy more than any other tactic, but I also recognize that sometimes a heavier hand is necessary. I’m not a pirate, but Buggy is. A well-placed threat here, a little shove there, a word, some berri and you’d be surprised about what results you’ll get. The guards are still there since they have to be, but Buggy and his crew are making sure people are able to discreetly go fishing in the river and come into Town Center if necessary.”

Sabo stared at Eudora, not finding words.

“I may play within the confines of the system sometimes. I compromise where I must, but I know where I stand always. Make no mistake young Sabo, I’m aware that the system the World Government has put in place is broken. It benefits the few rather than the many. I was once one of the few privileged in this world to be on top and found myself crashing to the bottom through circumstances not my own. Now I find myself floating in the middle. I bear a name that still has prestige but a second gender that is maligned and stigmatized. For this reason, I have no compunctions about coloring outside the lines when I must, especially if it’s for a cause that I care about or for people whom I love. If I’ve taught you nothing, at least remember that much.”

~*~*~

The wind blew hard throughout the forests of Mount Colubo. Strong gales whistled through the branches and shook the leaves from the trees, bending the weaker saplings to their will while it howled down the paths like a living thing. Rain beat down against the ground, kicking up dirt and leaves. However, laughter and childish glee also floated on the wind from one tree.

“Hold on tight! The storm’s starting to pick up!” Ace shouted from his position within the treehouse, twisting the decorative wheel attached to a wall as he stared out into the storm with a grin on his face.

“It had better be! I’m bored anyway,” Sabo declared, standing next to him.

“I see big waves just ahead! Turn two degrees starboard,” Uta ordered, giving the log pose on her wrist a look of concentration.

“No, no. Three degrees back to port!”

“Is it starboard or port,” Ace demanded with annoyance.

“Sorry, Captain. The storm is really strong. It’s pushing the ship all over. Just listen to your navigator, I’ll guide you through,” Uta retorted.

“Hey, guys! It’s getting windier and windier up here!” Luffy added. 

“You just hold on to that flag tight. It’s our jolly roger. Buggy says it tells everyone that this place is ours, so don’t you dare let it go. It’s your job as lookout to keep it safe,” Ace warned.

“Real pirates can’t have some storm blow their flag away,” Sabo added.

“Gotcha, Vice Captain Sabo. Come on, stupid storm!”

“This is nothing!”

“Do your worst!”

“Yeah! Bring it on!”

Perhaps they were being a little too eager because just then the storm blew hard, sending gales bursting through the treehouse and disturbing the nest the pups had built inside.

“Ahh!”

The three older children paused before their eyes widened.

“Luffy!”

They ran to the window to see their brother’s arm stretched out as the wind blew him, his rubber body, taken by a gust.

“You okay,” Ace asked.

“Do I look okay to you,” Luffy retorted in panic.

Ace and Sabo glanced at each other before they both smirked.

“Actually, looks kind of fun.”

“Yeah, maybe we should leave you there,” Sabo joked.

The two boys started chuckling and instantly regretted it as Uta punched them both on the head.

“Dumbos! Get Luffy back in here!”

“Ow, we were just kidding,” Ace grumbled as he grabbed a rope and threw it to Luffy.

Once Luffy was inside the four pups huddled together in their nest, riding out the storm in their home. Sabo couldn’t help but wonder about the people in Edge Town and hope they’re okay.

“The sea must be mad to make a storm like this,” Ace commented.

“The seas don’t make the storms, the sky does,” Uta corrected.

“The sea is mad though, She usually is about one thing or another,” Luffy said offhandedly, half of his attention on his totems, his beetles which were crawling around the large terrarium Dadan had procured for him with funds that Shanks had sent.

(Sabo had heard Dadan cussing out Garp at length about not sending any child support for Ace all these years when the damned omega pirate was sending money for the four pups in her care. All to herself of course, she’d never say as much to Garp’s face, at least not without apologizing right after. Dadan was a funny alpha that way. Then again, Garp scared everyone no matter their second gender.)

“Why’s She mad all the time,” Sabo asked.

“Because they stole from her,” Luffy replied distractedly.

Two of the beetles had begun to fight. Sabo recognized them as the Hercules beetle Luffy had named Koushi, claiming Koushi was his “spirit beetle”, and the rhino beetle, Kasai which was Ace’s spirit beetle. Kyoku, Uta’s spirit beetle, a sabertooth longhorn, came up behind Kasai as he rolled Koushi on his back and began ramming her horn into the smaller beetle. Meanwhile, Koshikoi, the elephant stag beetle Luffy assigned as Sabo’s spirit beetle, was busy flipping Koushi back onto his feet. That was quite fitting of the four siblings so maybe Luffy was onto something.

“Who stole from Her,” Ace asked skeptically.

“People from a long time ago. They stole Her sunlight and ate Her soul.”

“She told you that?” Sabo asked.

“Uh-huh, I don’t know what that means though. The sun looks fine to me and souls don’t sound real tasty to eat.”

“You ate a whole Devil Fruit and those things are gross. I don’t trust your stomach to care about what tastes good,” Ace retorted.

“It was pretty gross,” Luffy replied with a chuckle.

“Do you hear the sea talking about this too, Uta?” Sabo asked, curiosity burning in his heart.

“I have, yeah. But I don’t understand it any better than Luffy. We can hear the Voices and Heartsongs of things that don’t talk but they don’t talk like normal people do. Sometimes they talk in riddles and we can only guess what they mean. Daddy calls it the Voice of All Things. He said Roger had it too, but he thinks ours is stronger since Roger could never get the things he heard to talk back to him.”

“If Roger had it then it must be a pretty strong ability,” Ace admitted, sounding both reluctant and curious.

His biological father would always be a touchy subject but at least Ace could mention him without blowing up.

“I guess. Not as strong as my Devil Fruit. Hey Bo, you should’ve seen how close I was to hitting the target during practice today,” Luffy said enthusiastically.

“You hit Buggy instead and made him fall to pieces,” Ace deadpanned.

“Oh yeah, Uncle Buggy got so mad, shishishi. But I still almost hit the target, it was great. I wish you and Sissy could’ve seen instead of doing your boring polynis thing with Eudora.”

“Politics,” Uta corrected.

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

Sabo shook his head briefly before answering.

“It probably would’ve been funner to go to training with you guys, but this was more important.”

“Are the people from Gray Terminal going to be safe now,” Ace inquired.

“They live on Dawn Island. I don’t think they can be 100% safe, not with a king like ours who promotes segregation based on money. But Eudora’s trying.”

“I wish I could just punch the king in the face. Everyone would be happy then,” Luffy declared.

“I don’t know if it works that easy.”

“It could be easy without all the stupid polynics.”

“Politics,” Uta corrected again.

“That’s what I said.”

Uta rolled eyes while patting Luffy on the head.

“I wasn’t hoping for much in the first place. I know this island too well to hope. You two are lucky you grew up in Windmill Village. The king and the nobles basically forget that place even exists,” Ace pointed out.

“If they remembered, the whole village would probably be bankrupt and in ruins by now thanks to being forced to pay the Heavenly Tribute,” Sabo added.

“What’s that,” Luffy asked.

“Nations under the World Government have to pay a tax of get their protection. The money really goes to the World Nobles so they can waste it on who knows what.”

“Dad has mentioned the World Government before. That’s who keeps telling everyone that omegas are weak even though Dad is super strong. He’s going to show them who’s boss and then they’ll make him an Emperor. Then Dad will come back for us and we can finally be pirates! I hope it doesn’t take too much longer. Dad’s been gone forever.”

“It’s only been a little over a year.”

“So loooong.”

“It’ll take time, Luffy. It’s like you said, those dumbos think Daddy’s weak. It’s stupid but he’s gotta show them he isn’t first. Then he’ll come for us. Be patient.”

“Alright,” Luffy groused.

“Maybe by the time Shanks gets back, you’ll be able to throw a straight punch, but I doubt it,” Ace quipped.

“Hey, no fair! Your fire can grow big, my powers can’t do that.”

“Not my problem, idiot.”

Sabo smiled to himself as Ace and Luffy started squabbling and Uta started hurling abuse at Ace for beating Luffy. Politics had its place and he’d always care about the freedom of others, but seeing his family like this made him so glad that he was still alive. If he had died 5 years ago as he was meant to, he wouldn’t have them. He didn’t know that there was anything he wouldn’t trade to be here with them like this.

~*~*~

Sabo and Uta did not join Eudora when she visited the palace for the nobles’ council meeting, Sabo didn’t want to run the risk of running into anyone he wouldn’t want to. He hung out in Buggy’s tent instead, watching Buggy get more and more frustrated as he trained Luffy and Ace’s Devil Fruits. Buggy was the histrionic sort. Loud complaints and whining.

Sabo had always heard that betas were supposed to have a calming presence. Buggy was anything but. Still, Sabo felt a sense of calm watching the chaos.

“Ugh, okay, let’s try this again,” Buggy groused, running a hand down his face as he stood in front of Luffy and Ace.

“I’m trying my hardest. I don’t mean to keep missing,” Luffy whined, stomping his foot. He had been getting increasingly more frustrated the longer it took him to get his powers under control. Buggy’s lack of patience and Ace’s teasing probably didn’t help the situation.

Sabo glanced at Uta who was watching the scene with concern.

“Lu’s feeling helpless,” she commented.

Sabo glanced over at the boy. He looked angry more than anything else but, being his twin, Uta would likely know better than him.

“It’s not like people learn to use their powers overnight, is it?”

“Lu usually learns fighting quickly. He ate the Fruit because he wanted to be stronger to protect the people he loves. He thinks because he can’t control his Fruit, it makes him weak.”

Sabo glanced over at him in contemplation. Usually, he’d be right beside Ace, teasing Luffy as well, but he also understood when to stop, unlike Ace. Sabo sighed as he stood up, aware of the powder keg forming.

“Hey Luffy, c’mere,” Sabo called.

Luffy glanced back and stomped his way over to Sabo and Uta.

He and Uta locked gazes for a moment, a silent conversation passing between them. Whatever was communicated made Luffy’s shoulders drop a little from their tense hunch, but his lips jutted out in an even bigger pout.

“Hey, remember when we were hunting those moles,” Sabo asked.

“Yeah, they were pretty yummy.”

“Well, we had to be patient and wait for them to come up out of the ground before striking. That’s what you have to do for training.”

“Huh? But the targets are already above the ground.”

“I meant you have to wait for the right time to strike. Stop trying to rush to hit the target. Stay in one place like we did then and then strike when it feels right.”

Luffy took a moment to think this over before nodding and trotting off towards the targets.

“Okay, I’m ready to try again.”

“You sure,” Buggy questioned.

Luffy nodded in reply. Buggy stared at him for a moment more before shrugging and resetting the target.

Luffy stood on the mark Buggy had placed on the ground and took a deep breath. Rather than running at the target as he did before, he shifted his body, putting his right leg behind him, and bent his knees. He took another breath before he threw his arm back.

“Gum Gum…”

Sabo and Uta ducked as the arm went stretching above them.

“Pistol!”

Luffy’s arm snapped back and then went flying towards the target which shattered upon impact with his fist before his arm retracted back to its original size.

“Whoo! I did it!” Luffy cheered happily.

Sabo and Uta clapped for him as Buggy patted his head.

“Nice job, kid.”

“Hey! When I broke the target, you got mad,” Ace protested.

“You didn’t break it, you turned it to ash. Besides, you hitting the target was never the issue.”

Ace grumbled before knocking his shoulder into Luffy’s.

“Congrats, I guess,” he said begrudgingly.

Luffy threw himself at Ace, hugging around his waist, before he ran at Sabo and Uta and did the same.

“I can’t wait to tell Dad all about it. He’ll be so happy,” Luffy gushed excitedly.

“Yeah, I’m sure he will. He’ll probably even cry for joy about it,” Buggy muttered.

“Maybe. Dad cries for stupid reasons sometimes. Once, he cried because the straw hat fell on the ground, but Beck said it was just ‘cause he was drunk,” Luffy giggled.

Buggy stared for a moment before shaking his head to himself.

“That is unfortunately entirely believable. Anyway, just because I didn’t flip shit about you breaking the target doesn’t mean I’m just going to let you get away with it. You better go make a new one. I’m not spending anymore berri on it.”

“For the record, I’m not going just because you told me to. We needed some wood to repair the treehouse anyway after that last storm,” Ace defended.

“Noted,” Buggy replied in a flat voice.

Sabo and Uta shared an amused look as the four pups filed out of the tent.

“Where are we going to find wood anyway? We don’t have money to buy any,” Luffy pointed out.

“Could just take it from somewhere,” Ace suggested.

“Really, Freckleface,” Uta snapped with a glare.

“Oh please, don’t act all holy when you dine and dash with us all the time.”

“That’s just because keeping Luffy fed is a full-time job,” she justified.

“Well, getting wood will keep a roof over his head, so get over it.”

Uta sighed but didn’t protest anymore.

The four pups slipped into Town Center as stealthily as they could. They were building a bit of a reputation thanks to all the dining and dashing plus fighting any thugs that recognized Ace as the kid who used to beat them up in the bars. The four peeked around the corner at the woodworkers shop. There were pallets with wood sitting right outside on display along with people milling around, choosing between different kinds of wood as well as wooden figurines.

“So, how are we going to do this,” Uta asked.

“Sabo and I are the biggest, it’ll be easier for us to carry the wood. You two need to make a distraction for us.”

“I can do that,” Luffy grinned.

“Trust me, we know,” Sabo said.

“I have an idea,” Uta declared.

She glanced over at Luffy, having a moment of twinspeak, before she grabbed his hand and pulled him out towards the crowd. The two stopped a few feet away from the woodworks shop before Uta suddenly gasped before falling to the ground dramatically on her back.

“Wah, Sissy!” Luffy screamed in surprise.

His shouting drew the attention of people close by who immediately flocked over to the little girl seemingly passed out on the floor.

“Oh no! Is she going to die? My sister is dead,” Luffy wailed loudly, drawing even more attention.

“I’m sure that’s not true, little boy.”

“Look at her! She’s so pale. Or is she too hot? Maybe she didn’t eat enough? Does anyone have any food? Get my Sissy some food!” Luffy rattled off.

“Food,” a man asked.

“Yes! Get my sister some meat!”

Sabo and Ace glanced at each other before shrugging and slipping through the crowd towards the wood stacks. They filled their arms with a couple of beams each before swiftly jogging away from the chaotic scene.

“Oh no! I don’t wanna be all alone!”

Sabo glanced back to see Uta’s eyes pop open before she sat up.

“Oh, I’m all better now,” she declared.

“Uta! You’re okay,” Luffy exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.

The crowd blinked in surprise.

“Are you sure, dear,” a woman asked.

“Yup. Thank you for being concerned,” Uta replied, flashing the crowd a charming smile.

Everyone seemed to be disarmed enough. Luffy’s eyes locked on a man who had returned with the requested meat, but Uta hopped up and grabbed his hand before trotting towards Ace and Sabo.

“Nice performance,” Ace complimented.

Uta smiled and did a little curtsey while Luffy laughed.

“Shishishi, I wasn’t sure what was going on. Sissy just told me to go along with whatever she did.”

Uta look slightly contrite before holding up a finger to indicate for them to wait. Sabo watched her slip back towards the loitering crowd and snatch a kebab from the man who had brought her food.

“Thanks,” she said politely before skipping away back to the boys and handing the kebab to Luffy.

“Yay, meat! Apology accepted,” Luffy declared before stuffing the whole kebab in his mouth and swallowing the roasted meat in one go.

“Let’s get these back to the tent before Buggy flips shit,” Ace decided.

The four began their trip back with their haul at a leisure pace.

“We can probably get away with using one beam to make a new target and use the rest on the treehouse. Those repairs are more important,” Sabo suggested.

“Yeah, we can—”

Whatever Ace was going to say was cut off as a man stepped out in front of them, causing Ace to bump into him.

“Hey, watch where you’re going,” Ace snapped.

“It’s filth such as yourself that needs to watch where you’re walking. I hardly want your stench on me.”

Sabo froze as he heard that voice. He was afraid to look up but the scent that wafted under his nose was unmistakable: brandy, cloves, rosemary and apricot. He glanced up reluctantly and felt his blood freeze as he found himself staring at Outlook III.

He immediately felt panic gripping his heart as it rabbited in his chest. His stomach felt like a huge stone was in it and his head was light and woozy. He was certain his distress was overwhelming his scent, making it impossible for anyone not to know what he was feeling.

He felt a nudging warmth tugging on his chest, a reminder of his connection to Shanks and a question about his wellbeing. Sabo couldn’t find it in himself to acknowledge it or the worried looks Uta and Luffy were giving him. Ace stepped in front of him, covering him from view.

“Who the hell are you,” he demanded.

“You dare speak to me in such a manner? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you’re fraternizing with such ruffians, Sabo.”

“You know this guy, Bo,” Luffy asked curiously.

The blond opened and closed his mouth, unable to find an answer.

“I am Sabo’s alpha and his father, Lord Outlook III. I am having a conversation with my son now so you thugs can find somewhere else to be.”

“Hell no. You aren’t Sabo’s alpha and you sure as hell aren’t his father. You chose that when you abandoned him,” Ace snapped angrily.

“Abandoned? He was the one who chose to leave home. And for what? For this gaggle of ragamuffins? Well, it’s been long enough. It’s time to come home, Sabo.”

The blond stiffened at that. His father wanted him to go back to High Town? But why? They didn’t want Sabo. If it were up to them, he’d be dead by now. Maybe they had changed. Maybe in all his time away, they missed him. Or maybe that was wishful thinking, the lingering wishes of a child who didn’t know better.

“Sabo has a home with us. He belongs with us,” Uta protested, glaring up at Outlook.

The dark-haired man stared down at her imperiously.

“I certainly want no lip from a girl of such ill-repute as yourself, gamma. I dread to think what manner of evil your association with my son has done to his impressionable mind.”

That snapped Sabo out of his stupor and he stepped up so he was standing beside Ace in front of the twins.

“Don’t talk about my sister like that. The only evil here is you,” Sabo said with a sneer on his lips.

“Sister?”

“I have a real family now.”

“A family? Living a life of debauchery and wickedness with these whelps have fooled you into believing that this is a family?”

“It’s more than I ever had with you or Mom. You guys didn’t want me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. What noble wouldn’t want an heir?”

“I didn’t want to be your heir, I wanted to be your son! I wanted you to see me as your pup, not your trophy! You wouldn’t bond with me properly, you wouldn’t nest with me or scent me. You watched me get sick because of it and you never helped me! If I stayed with you, I would’ve died and you and Mom wouldn’t even have cared.”

“Yeah! Sabo’s ours now. He doesn’t need you,” Luffy declared angrily.

“Sabo is my son, which means that he’s obligated to live on the path that I’ve prepared for him. You should be ashamed, steering him towards the life of a petty thief! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have the king himself come to me and express his concerns and suspicions that my own son was gallivanting around, claiming to be trash from Gray Terminal? I’ve let this farce go on for much too long. You are coming home now, Sabo.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“I wasn’t asking you,” Outlook warned.

Sabo stiffened as several noble guards melted from the shadows, surrounding the children.

“Come with dignity, Sabo. If you do so, I won’t have these wannabe thugs arrested.”

“Arrested? For what? They didn’t do anything!”

“For tempting you into this life of delinquency of course.”

“No one tempted me to do anything. I made my own choices. I ran because I wanted to.”

“You wanted to? Your personal desires are irrelevant when it comes to securing the legacy of your family. I’ll do my best to drill that into your head this time around.”

“Sabo, ignore him! We can take these guys, easy,” Ace declared, his hands flaring with fire.

“I heard that these whelps had Devil Fruit powers. I came prepared for such things. Unlike this thug, I see no need to resort to violence. Negotiation is a much cleaner tactic.”

“Negotiation?” Sabo asked.

“I’m aware that you seem to have a vested interest in this business with funding Edge Town’s restoration. Lady Eudora managed to charm some of the nobles, but the vote was still a near even split, causing the king to postpone the official vote for both sides to continue to lobby for support. If you come with me of your own volition, not only will I leave these brats and whatever pack claims them alone, but I will lend my support as well as all the support of my business partners to Lady Eudora’s cause. That’ll turn the tide in her favor and those… people will find themselves with the king’s aid after all.”

Sabo stopped up at that, shocked.

“You… you wouldn’t. You don’t care about the people living in Edge Town.”

“Of course I don’t. But I do care about the reputation and legacy of my family. For that, I will make certain concessions. It’s up to you though. What will you choose?”

Sabo’s mind was a mess of thoughts. His own guilt over what happened in the Terminal, his affection for the people of Gray Terminal, his love for his siblings who were being threatened as well as the bandits who Sabo knew Outlook III would find and harm just to get to him. Possible even Buggy and his crew. The pirates could probably hold their own but the bandits he had less hope for.

“Sabo, don’t you dare,” Ace warned, turning to him with a sneer.

“You don’t get to leave us. You don’t get to make that choice. You belong with us! No one is taking you!”

Ace lashed out with a stream of fire towards one of the guards, but another came up behind him and managed to sling him down to the ground. Two others did the same with Luffy and Uta. The children began to squirm and fight against the arms holding them down. Sabo drew his pipe but didn’t move forward. He watched in confusion as the three guards withdrew a short rod from their belts and pressed it into the backs of the pups.

“What did you do to them,” he exclaimed as he watched the three children sag and begin groaning lethargically.

“Sea stone. An export from Wano. The government is looking to make weapons of this. I managed to procure some material when I heard you’ve been consorting with Devil Fruit users. The effects are similar to that of the sea, though without the drowning.”

“You’re hurting them! They’ve done nothing wrong. All they did was love me!”

“Love? Haven’t we had this conversation before? We aren’t here in this world to fulfill such a trivial pursuit as love. We exist to further our family’s bloodline and nothing less. Certainly not for something as lowly as love. That’s what was killing you before, nothing your mother or I did, but this weak notion that love means anything in this world. Only power means something. Power comes from lineage and money, something these vagabonds know nothing about. I will give you some credit for surviving this long on your own. The gods above know I didn’t think you would last a month let alone years. Clearly you are strong in some regard, but you still have much life to live and much to learn. You won’t survive to do so on love.”

“That’s not true. I know better now.”

“Clearly not. I will rectify that. Now, the effect of the seastone will abate once I give the order to remove it from making contact, but I need your word first that you’ll come with me.”

“No.”

“Sabo…”

“Don’t… go….”

Sabo glanced down at his three siblings who, even weakened, were still protesting his departure. But what else could he do? He wasn’t as strong as them, wasn’t as important as them. They would get on just fine without him. He couldn’t be the reason anyone else was hurt.

“If you don’t hurt my siblings and if you help Eudora and the people of Gray Terminal, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll live whatever life you’ve mapped out.”

“Then come home. You will never return to this place again. You’ll cease all contact with these lowlifes, you will break whatever bonds you’ve seen fit to forge with them and you’ll never think of leaving your life in High Town again.”

“…Bo, no…” Uta groaned.

“Don’t… do… it,” Luffy moaned out.

“Run… away. Be… free,” Ace ordered through gritted teeth.

Sabo’s lips quivered as tears formed in his eyes. He wanted to be free. He didn’t want to leave his family or abandon his dreams. He wanted to live his life with them and for them, but if he had to make this choice to keep them safe and to give the people in Edge Town a chance, then he would do this.

He looked up as Outlook placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned Sabo and led him down the street. His shoulders shook as he tried to suppress his sobs.

This was what he could do, this is what he was strong enough to do. He had made his choice, and for better or worse, he had to live with it.

Chapter Text

High Town hadn’t changed at all.

Sabo didn’t know why he had expected it to have. The people who lived here never wanted things to change. They liked stagnation because if things stayed the same, then they stayed in power. Thus, High Town was not different from when he last saw it, perhaps a bit smaller. Or maybe that was just because he himself was bigger.

He found himself grimacing as he walked down the street with Outlook’s hand still on his shoulder, a gesture meant to guide but felt more like a leash. He sneered at all the pompous nobles walking by, their noses turned up to the air as they looked down at the world. All of them were so perfumed that Sabo could barely catch their scents and discern whether they were alpha, beta or omega. It was common practice among nobles to show off their own wealth through artificially curated scents, masking much of their own personal scents when in public, scents that were partly influenced by their parent pack. Nobles were expected to sever all connection to their parent pack once they reached seventeen and make a pack of their own or marry into a separate pack. Masking their scent was a symbolic way of showing that severance. Of course, the contradiction of this was that the wealth of a person’s parents still passed down to their heirs as well as the benefits of their family name. The irony seemed lost on the people around him.

Sabo grimaced deeper as he noticed a couple walking by, the taller man clearly an alpha thanks to the pin on his lapel showing off his family crest while the shorter man was an omega given the collar around his neck.

Sabo had been shocked when he left High Town to find that not only did others not mask their scents in public, but claimed omegas were not required to wear collars around their necks. That had been reality all his life. While sentiments outside the walls of High Town were not as progressive as a young Sabo dared to dream, it wasn’t as rigid as nobility’s stance on things. Outside High Town, omegas weren’t always treated like property. Some were free. Some were loved. Some were pack leaders.

He couldn’t help but wonder what Shanks could’ve expected living in a place like this. He would’ve been caged, sold off as soon as he was old enough to be married off, stripped of every bit of individuality he had. That was to say nothing of what gammas could expect. Uta and Eudora had visited the palace before and the king had treated them as if they were circus attractions. What about the rest of the nobles? If an omega was treated as the bottom of the social ladder, what cruelty would a gamma, or even a delta, face?

Outlook tugged him sharply, steering him toward the manor gates. Sabo stumbled slightly as he looked up at the place he had once had the displeasure of calling a home, even though it had never been anything even remotely close. A chill settled in his bones as he looked up at his former prison, gilded and immaculate as it was.

He had walked right back to this willingly, but he would make that choice again, a thousand times over. For his family, for his siblings, he’d walk through hell without a second thought.

The sound of the doors opening felt like a seal of doom yet the opulence that lay behind the doors spoke otherwise. He barely paid heed to the line of portraits on the golden walls as he walked past them, his steps echoing on the marble floors. Outlook led him to the parlor, decorated in red and gold. Didit sat inside, her posture perfect, her smile brittle. Beside her stood a boy Sabo didn’t recognize.

“Oh goodness, is it really Sabo? You’ve grown so big since you’ve been gone.”

Sabo stared back at the blonde woman, his chest a mix of conflicting emotions. She wasn’t as outwardly cruel to him as Outlook, but she had also chosen not to claim him, she’d also been complicit in letting the bonds within him fester until they almost killed him. Yet, a part of him felt guilty that his birth had caused her to be sick in her own way. He didn’t know how to reconcile that.

“… hi, mom,” he greeted in a noticeably subdued tone.

“Oh Sabo, you’re filthy. What have you been doing out there?”

“Hanging around with vagabonds and hoodlums who filled his head up with nonsense,” Outlook answered for him.

Sabo’s jaw clenched. His siblings weren’t nonsense. They were everything.

“I was with my family when you forced me to come back here,” he spat back angrily.

Outlook glared at him while Didit looked confused.

“Your family is right here, Sabo. In fact, say hello to your brother,” Outlook countered.

The boy stepped forward, smiling politely and giving him a courteous bow.

“Nice to meet you, big brother Sabo. I’m Stelly and I’m eight. How about you?”

Sabo stared at the boy. He was too old for Didit to have had another child in the time Sabo was gone.

“We adopted Stelly a year after you absconded. He’s a promising young man from another noble family. For reasons beyond understanding, his parents suddenly became neglectful. It was known we had lost a pup ourselves and with him no longer having a parent pack, the match was made between us. So far, he’s fit in extremely well. I imagine if things don’t work out with you this time around, Stelly will continue to be our chosen heir.”

Sabo stared up at Outlook in reply before looking back at Didit and Stelly who were holding hands. His eyes stuck on their conjoined hands for a long moment. He didn’t think there was ever a time where his mother had given him that simple act of safety and security.

He could smell Stelly from where he was. There was no scent of decay, no rot. He wasn’t suffering from neglected bonds or fragile attachments like Sabo was when he was with his parents.

They had claimed him.

They had scented him.

They had done for Stelly what they never did for Sabo.

He didn’t know whether to laugh, scream, or cry. Suddenly, he needed to get away from them desperately.

“I’m going to my room. I need to shower.”

He turned to leave the room briskly, not looking back at the happy family that had formed in his absence.

He didn’t belong here.

He never had.

~*~*~

His shower felt cathartic in many ways. It felt good to wash the lingering stench of Outlook off himself, but he also found himself wondering how long the others’ scents on him would last. How long would it take for Ace’s smoked orange, wild cedar, hibiscus and woodsy scent to fade? How long until Uta’s sea breeze, vanilla and floral scent had completely gone away? How long until Luffy’ ocean breeze, cinnamon and meaty scent was only a sense memory?

He found himself back in his room afterwards, not wanting to go out and risk running into Outlook, Didit or Stelly. His room had been wiped clean of Sabo’s personal effects, though he supposed he never had much marking it as his in the first place. There were some things though. His cravat collection, his journals, his maps.

He didn’t see his totems anywhere, even after he had ripped the drawers out of the chest and checked the room from top to bottom. He still had the one he arrived with, his most sentimental cravat. The one gifted to him by Maple before he finally ran away days before her death. It was moth-bidden, hole-ridden and more yellow than white nowadays but he would never part with it no matter how degraded it became. He suspected he was going to cling to it even tighter now.

“Sabo! Where is that boy? Sabo, come here this instant!”

The blond boy sighed at the sound of Outlook’s voice booming through the house. He reluctantly answered the summons and found his father pacing in the parlor, his face red with anger.

“Would you care to explain to me why there is a group of pirates lingering at my doorstep? Have you any idea what this looks like? Think of what others will say!”

“Huh,” Sabo replied.

“Pirates! That clown who made a spectacle of himself downtown and his band of freaks, along with your so-called siblings.”

Sabo’s heart skipped a beat at that. It had been mere hours and they were here already? He didn’t know why he didn’t foresee this. His siblings were stubborn Ds after all and self-proclaimed pirates to boot. They were never going to let him go so easily.

“Do I need to remind you of our deal, son? You are here to keep those wretched curs out of the hands of law enforcement.”

“For the last time, they didn’t do anything. I left on my own. I didn’t even know them when I ran.”

Outlook kept ranting as if Sabo hadn’t spoken.

“Beyond that, there’s that gamma woman’s charity case where the Gray Terminal refuse is concerned.”

That stopped Sabo short.

“Oh, that’s got your attention, has it? Figures your heart would bleed for filth such as that, not even fit to be called human. What is it they’re named? Termites? That’s fitting. Insects, the lot of them.”

A flash of righteous anger flared in Sabo’s gut.

“Don’t talk about them that way. They’re worth more than all the nobles in High Town combined.”

“I’ll ignore that treason this time only because there are more pressing matters at hand. I’d choose wisely how I want this to go if I were you, Sabo. Lady Eudora will need all the votes she can get if she wishes to convince the king to pull those ingrates out of the slums. I suspect my vote will help immensely in that as well as those of my friends and investors. If you want me to cast in her favor and convince my constituents to do the same, I suggest you come with me to rid ourselves of this problem once and for all.”

Sabo swallowed harshly but nodded all the same.

As he stepped outside, steered by Outlook’s hand on his shoulder, he found them all standing just inside the gate, squaring off against the manor’s security detail.

Ace stood with his arms crossed, jaw clenched. Uta was beside him, her eyes wide and shimmering. Luffy bounced on his toes, trying to peer past the guards. Buggy and Eudora flanked them, calm but tense. The Buggy Pirates were a little way back with Richie pacing up and down, Mohji on his back. Cabaji was at the helm of the group on his unicycle, sword drawn with the assorted mess of pirates with guns and blades out behind him.

“You have no right to be here. This is trespassing and I won’t have a band of filthy pirates showing up on my doorstep over nonsense,” Outlook barked as he stepped forward furiously.

“We’re not here over nonsense, we’re here for Sabo,” Ace declared, voice low and furious.

“Yeah, Sabo’s ours. You can’t just take him!” Luffy shouted indignantly.

“Kidnapping as well? I’ll have you arrested!”

“We didn’t come to steal him, we’re taking him home,” Uta clarified.

“He is home, here with his real family,” Outlook spat.

“You’re not his family. You assholes were going to let him die,” Ace hissed back, just as venomously.

“I did nothing more than test Sabo’s strength. All nobles must learn to stand on their own without a parent pack to prop them up.”

Ace scoffed derisively at that.

“Lord Outlook, is it? Sabo has become a valued member of this pack. He chose to stay with his siblings months ago. Surely this matter can be handled differently, and a much more important perspective can be considered before anything rash happens,” Eudora tried to mediate.

“And whose perspective would that be?”

“What about what Sabo wants?”

Outlook sneered at that, dismissing the thought before he looked down at the blonde boy with a raised eyebrow.

Sabo’s throat tightened. He could feel their bonds tugging at him, warm and familiar. He ached to run to them, to collapse into their arms and breathe in the scent of safety. But he saw the guards standing like a hostile line against them, saw Outlook’s hand twitch toward his pocket, thought of the downtrodden group of people trying their best to survive in Edge Town.

“I’m… I’m staying,” Sabo said, voice barely above a whisper.

“Don’t be a dumbass. You don’t have to stay with this dickhead, you can come with us,” Ace protested, ignoring Outlook’s outrage at the insult.

“Yeah, we still have all our adventures to go on and stories to hear and memories to make. What about your dreams? You can’t just leave us,” Luffy protested.

“You’re ours and we’re yours. You don’t have to give up your family for this,” Uta added on.

“I chose this. I’m free to make that choice,” Sabo retorted.

Uta’s lips parted, but no words came. Luffy looked like he’d been punched. Eudora stepped back, her expression unreadable.

Buggy moved close enough to settle a hand on Sabo’s shoulder.

“Kid, are you sure about this?”

Sabo looked up at Buggy, feeling a lump squeezing in his throat at the rare, earnest look on the beta’s face. He couldn’t speak past the emotions clogged in his windpipe, so he simply nodded resolutely.

Ace growled in frustration before charging at Sabo and knocking him down to the ground. He grunted as his head hit the floor with Ace’s body weight settled on his chest. The boy clutched a handful of Sabo’s white dress shirt before dragging him forward to smash their heads together angrily.

“This is bullshit! We’re a pack, a family, whatever you’re fighting, you’re not supposed to do it alone. We’re supposed to fight with you, dumbass. You can’t make me be part of this family and then just walk away from it! Stop trying to run away!” Ace shouted in his face before rearing back to punch Sabo.

Before he could land the hit, a disembodied hand grabbed him by the back of the shirt and lifted him off Sabo, ferrying him back to the group where he continued to shout and curse angrily.

Sabo looked up when a hand was offered to him. He took Buggy’s palm and let himself be lifted to his feet and dusted off.

Outlook scoffed at the scene.

“What did I tell you? Hoodlums, the lot of them. Say goodbye, Sabo. You’ll never see any of them again.”

As Outlook dragged him back toward the manor, Sabo’s legs felt heavy. His chest throbbed, the ache sharp. He didn’t look back, but he could feel them — Ace’s fury, Uta’s sorrow, Luffy’s confusion. The bonds tethering them together pulled taut the further away he walked, like the threads were trying to pull them back together.

Bile formed in his throat but Sabo swallowed it down.

He had made his choice.

And now he would live with it.

[It wasn’t until much later in the day that he found the mini den den mushi along with a phone number for Buggy’s transponder snail in his pocket, likely slipped there by the clown using his Devil Fruit. Sabo tucked it away for safekeeping, just in case.]

~*~*~

Life in High Town returned to normal quickly, or as normal as it ever was.

Sabo was forced back into lessons, listening to sanitized versions of history and forced to study arts and etiquette and whatever else was needed to turn him into a worthy heir. In the beginning, he challenged such things, but Outlook wasn’t above using the leverage he had on Sabo every chance he got and that would quiet the boy easily enough.

Stelly had dropped the act of politeness within days. Once he realized what Sabo’s hierarchy in the house was. Once he understood Sabo’s place in the household — unclaimed, unbonded, unchosen — he became cruel. He mocked Sabo’s burn scar, his life in Gray Terminal, his siblings, his lack of a bond with Outlook and Didit. He was everything Sabo’s parents had wanted: shallow, obedient, and hollow. It was strange to see what path would’ve laid ahead of Sabo if he had chosen to be who they wanted him to be.

Ace would’ve hated him if he had been like Stelly. He would’ve never been his friend and then eventually his brother. If he was like Stelly, he would have looked down upon his siblings, thought they weren’t worth dirt on his shoe. He would have been one of the people saying Ace didn’t deserve to live. He would have been judging Uta for being a gamma. He would look down on Luffy for being the son of a pirate, for wanting to be a pirate himself, for caring so much about other people. He would’ve scoffed at their moral compasses, their compassion, their love for each other.

Though, hadn’t he spat in the face of it already by leaving them? Ace seemed to think so. But no, Sabo had done what he had to do. He did it to protect them. Any of them would’ve done the same thing.

His eyes caught on the place where he had hidden the mini den den mushi Buggy slipped him. He ached to call just to hear their voices. Ace would probably still be cursing him out and Luffy would be asking all kinds of dumb questions while Uta silently supported him while also making sure he was okay.

He missed them so much and it had only been days. He could still feel them inside of him, a constellation of souls that had claimed him as one of their own. He still had a place amongst them, could still feel the warmth of them thrumming inside him even if he couldn’t get emotions from them without haki. The most he could get was through Shanks, but it was mostly curiosity and concern. There wasn’t anything Sabo could do or say about that.

He remembered Shanks’ den den number, had rehearsed it in his mind. Ace and Luffy never would so at least two out of four pups knowing it was better than none.

But he didn’t call Shanks, or Buggy.

He had made his choice, he had to live with it.

Outlook, however, seemed determined to make that harder than it needed to be.

Sabo sat on the edge of the bed, shirt collar damp from the shower. His fingers trembled as he watched Outlook prepare a needle with clinical detachment.

“You want me to do what?” Sabo croaked out in disbelief.

“Your bonds with those people, we’ll block them. Suppress them to make them less of a bother.”

“No.”

Outlook gave him a harsh glare at that.

“It’s not a question, Sabo. We are re-introducing you into society tonight and you still reek of them. I won’t present you to our peers smelling of a pack that isn’t your own. Besides, so long as the bonds remain they’ll know where you are. I won’t take the chance that they use this gala as an opportunity to snatch you. I would’ve preferred that we sever the bonds entirely, but that’s much too messy. It would leave you out of commission for too long and you’re needed at the gala. Blocking it is the more logical option.”

Sabo’s eyes switched over to where Didit stood in the doorway with Stelly. The boy had a gleeful expression, his eyes tinged with malice and curiosity. Didit’s face had nothing more than a plastic smile.

“Will this hurt Sabo, Father,” Stelly asked.

“It will and I expect it won’t be any more pleasant for the others he’s deigned to bond with.”

Sabo flinched at that.

“Hold still. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

The needle pierced his skin just below his collarbone. The suppressant spread like ice through his veins, numbing and stinging all at once. He gasped, clutching the edge of the mattress as the warmth in his chest began to dim.

He thought of the treehouse that they had made their nest in.

He thought of Ace’s totems, his rocks, lining the walls or stacked in neat towers as the boy obsessively counted them and inspected them for the smoothest ones.

Uta’s sheet music fluttering in the breeze and her journals open in front of her as she hummed unfinished melodies to herself.

Luffy’s awful drawings taped to the walls and his ever-growing beetle terrarium where he kept their soul-beetles.

He thought of the newscoo articles about Shanks and the Red-Haired Pirates that they kept tucked away, using them to track the crew’s whereabouts on a map of the Grand Line Sabo had stolen from the public library.

He thought of his own totems, his cravats, draped around various spots of the treehouse. He thought of the nest they built together, their various scents mingling to mark the space as their own, as the flagship of the ASUL Pirates.

He thought of the way Makino would visit monthly with clothes she had made for them and gifts that the Red Hairs had sent.

He thought of Dadan’s blustering attention, the way she liked to pretend she didn’t care but always made space and time for each of the pups.

He thought of the bandits, their rough exteriors hiding the softness beneath.

He thought of Eudora who read them bedtime stories even though they claimed they were too old and had once scented Sabo after a nightmare.

He thought of Buggy’s rough expression of care, the way he looked out for them, the way he taught them about piracy in subtle ways, how he sometimes let his beta scent out to calm them when they were panicky.

The pack he made was messy and loud. It was full of people who weren’t the best at being soft or showing that they cared, people with big dreams and targets on their backs. It wasn’t perfect, but it was his.

“I don’t want to hurt them,” he whispered.

“We’re far past that, Sabo. It doesn’t matter one way or another now,” Outlook replied coldly.

“Be ready in an hour.”

Didit walked past the doorway, holding Stelly’s hand. She didn’t look back. Stelly laughed at something she said, the sound sharp and hollow.

As the suppressant spread through his veins, Sabo gasped. The warmth in his chest dimmed, and with it, the constellation he had cherished. He reached for them instinctively, but they were gone.

He collapsed to the floor, clutching his chest. The silence inside him was deafening.

He was alone.

~*~*~

The gala had hollowed him out.

His skin felt clammy, his veins were on fire, his chest was empty, a void within it spreading through his whole body until his fingers and toes tingled with the invading numbness. The suppressant still pulsed beneath his collarbone, numbing everything except the pain. He barely remembered most of what had happened. He vaguely recalled being paraded from party to party, forced into polite small talk. He hadn’t contributed much to the conversation as Outlook spun some tale about Sabo being kidnapped and held by criminals who tried to brainwash him before he had finally been found.

Everyone Outlook talked to smiled and nodded as if they hadn’t smelled the rot on Sabo before he had run away from High Town. The boy himself didn’t even have the strength to protest the characterization.

By the time they returned to the manor, he felt dead on his feet and ready to collapse. He was shaking as he climbed the steps slowly towards his bedroom. He had to clutch the wall for support as he swung the door open.

He paused upon entry. There was a box sitting on his bed. He squinted at it suspiciously, wondering if it was some dumb prank from Stelly. He approached with caution, as if it were a bomb waiting to explode. He lifted the lid hesitantly and blinked in surprise at what waited for him inside.

It was his cravats, neatly pressed and laid inside with care. His old totems.

He reached into his pocket and pulled on the one Maple had given him. Outlook wouldn’t let him wear it inside of the gala. He clutched it to his burning chest like a lifeline. It didn’t smell like Maple anymore, no sun-warmed wood, no ink, no violet or honey, but it was still a source of comfort all the same.

A creak at the door made him whip around. He blinked at seeing Didit standing there. Part of him wanted to dive in front of his totems protectively, growl at her to stay away, but he didn’t think his body could handle that much.

“The servants were able to retrieve them then. That’s good.”

“This was you?”

“Mmm.”

“But… why?”

Didit stared at him in reply before her eyes flickered down to the cravat he was holding in his hands.

“You really should get rid of that one. It’s not appropriate anymore.”

“Maple gave it to me.”

Didit’s lip twitched at that.

“I know. It’s seen better days all the same and won’t see them again. It’s better to let it go.”

“Maple was the one who tried the hardest while I was here. She cared about me. She raised me more than either of you ever did.”

“She was a nursemaid. She was paid to raise you. She wasn’t your mother, I am.”

Sabo wanted to throw that title back in her face, wanted to ask her why she never acted like it then, wanted to know why she never bonded with him, why she let him waste away, why she almost let him die.

He didn’t bother, told himself the answer didn’t matter.

“She loved me,” he said instead.

“She pitied you,” Didit countered.

Sabo’s fingers curled around the cravat.

“Is that what you think love is?”

Didit stepped into the room, her heels clicking against the floor.

“I think love is a liability. Especially for people like us.”

“People like us?”

“Nobles. I hear you were gallivanting with pirates. They have the luxury to do things as they please like children with no impulse control. They have no sense of duty, no legacy to protect, no responsibility, no higher calling. Their love of the sea blinds them to the greater picture. Love is the death of duty. We can’t afford such things. We have our name. Our legacy. Our gods.””

This rhetoric wasn’t new to Sabo, what was new was the awareness that Didit said the words like she was reading a script. There was no belief there, no passion. She was little more than a hollow shell regurgitating words that she had heard from her parents and then passed down to him. His eyes were drawn to the silk and leather collar around her neck, marking her as a claimed omega. His mind drifted to Shanks and Makino, unclaimed, free, independent omegas who wouldn’t have to wear collars even if they were claimed. He wondered what his mother would’ve been like if she wasn’t born a noble.

She reached into the box and lifted one of his cravats out. It was his favorite one other than Maple’s. It was one of the first things he’d stolen. It had been from a noble who had been cruel to the house staff. Sabo had taken it in quiet defiance. Most of that staff was gone now, replaced by people who knew to keep their distance from him.

“You used to wear this like a badge of honor, like it meant something,” she recalled.

“It did.”

Sabo remembered what Shanks had told him about nesting instincts and totems. He had collected more totems living in High Town than he had anywhere else, desperately trying to fill the hole his parent pack left in him, trying to build a nest out of scraps and failing to do so. He wondered if they knew that that was what he was doing before deciding that they wouldn’t have cared one way or another.

Didit looked at him then, really looked, and for a moment he saw something flicker behind her eyes. Regret maybe.

“You’re not that boy anymore. You've changed.”

Sabo took the cravat from her hand and tied it around his wrist with slow, deliberate movements.

“I survived.”

Didit didn’t respond to that. They stood in awkward silence before Sabo finally spoke up again.

“I’m tired.”

Didit latched onto his words as an escape.

“You should rest then. You have a busy day tomorrow. Your father is bringing you with him to work.”

Sabo’s fists clenched at that before a wave of exhaustion hit him with all the force of a sea king. Didit turned and walked away without another word, her footsteps echoing down the hall.

Sabo sat alone, pressing Maple’s cravat to his face. He inhaled deeply and let the memories wash over him.

The treehouse. Ace’s snide comments and protective fire. Uta’s melodies drifting through the air. Luffy’s laughter on the wind.

He wasn’t allowed to feel them anymore, but he could remember them. Outlook couldn’t take that from him.

~*~*~

The ache in his chest hadn’t gone away.

It pulsed beneath his ribs like a second heartbeat, slow and heavy. His lungs felt tight, his breath shallow. He coughed into his sleeve as he climbed the stairs to Outlook’s study, the silk fabric coming away damp and tinged with red. He shivered despite the warmth of the manor, the chill settling deep in his bones.

Two weeks back in High Town and the symptoms were creeping in again.

He knocked once he reached the study before stepping inside when he was permitted to enter. Outlook was seated behind his desk, surrounded by ledgers and correspondence. The room smelled like ink and old paper with a faint trace of brandy lingering in the air. A fire crackled in the hearth, but it felt more decorative than comforting.

“You wanted to speak with me,” Outlook stated without looking up.

Sabo coughed harshly and cleared his throat, wincing at the rawness.

“I wanted to ask about the vote for Gray Terminal.”

Outlook waved a hand dismissively.

“What of it?”

“You haven’t mentioned anything about it.”

“You expect me to?”

No, not really but still…

“Has it happened yet at least?”

“The king has yet to make his decision. Furthermore, I don’t appreciate being harassed over this.”

“By this you mean the thing you used to blackmail me?”

Outlook looked up finally at that.

“I said what I needed to say to secure your cooperation, as any good businessman would.”

Sabo’s fists tightened in reply.

“I wouldn’t dwell on it if I were you, son. There are more important things to discuss. You’re back now. We can begin rebuilding your reputation. I’ve already spoken to the Sarie family. Princess Nantokonette is of age and her father is eager to secure a match. A union between our houses would elevate us into royal status, so naturally, when the time is right, you’ll marry her.”

Sabo blinked. Outlook continued, voice smooth and practiced.

“I would’ve preferred Stelly, but you are my blood and that will secure our position more than an adopted pup ever could. You’ll attend the gala next month and begin courting her publicly. She’s charming enough and her lineage is impeccable. With your blood and her title, we’ll secure a seat at the king’s table. Wealth, influence, legacy. Everything your birth entitles you to.”

Sabo coughed again, harder this time. Outlook didn’t pause.

“You’ll need to adjust your wardrobe. I’ve arranged for a tailor and you’ll continue etiquette training. We’ll need to polish your speech, your posture, your scent—”

Sabo’s gaze drifted as Outlook’s words began to fade into the background of his awareness.

On the far wall, half-obscured by a velvet curtain, was a map. The East Blue and the Grand Line inked in sweeping curves, dotted with islands and trade routes. He stared at it, eyes tracing the path from Dawn Island outward, imagining the sea beneath him, the wind in his hair.

He imagined Shanks, laughing on the deck of his ship, red hair whipping in the breeze. He imagined Ace beside him, fire crackling at his fingertips, daring the world to challenge him. He imagined Uta singing to the stars, Luffy challenging sea kings, Sabo standing at the helm learning how to navigate.

He imagined freedom.

And then he remembered the ache in his chest. The cough. The chill. The silence inside him where his bonds used to live.

He looked back at Outlook.

“I understand,” he said quietly.

Outlook nodded, satisfied. Sabo didn’t argue or protest. He just stared at the map a moment longer, letting the dream flicker behind his eyes before he buried it again.

He had made his choice and now he would live with it.

Or die by it.

~*~*~

Outlook didn’t bother to keep Sabo updated when it came to the Gray Terminal vote, not that he should have expected anything different. Instead, Sabo was forced to go back to being a noble, day in and day out of lessons, training, being force-fed bullshit rhetoric he knew well enough not to believe, going to balls and soirees and slapping fake smiles on his face while he played the part of perfect son. Through it all, his body was going through its own breakdown.

Sabo knew something was wrong with him.

It started in his chest just minutes after he’d been forced to suppress his bonds. It was a dull ache that bloomed into something sharp, like glass shards grinding between his ribs. His lungs felt tight, like they were being squeezed by invisible hands. Every other breath was stuttered and stilted. Dry coughs wracked his frame and soon, his coughs came with flecks of blood staining his hands.

He kept a handkerchief tucked under his pillow. Silk, white, embroidered with the family crest. It was the only thing Outlook had ever given him directly. He used it to catch the blood, folding it carefully so the stains wouldn’t show.

His hair was falling out. Not in clumps, not yet, but enough that he noticed it on his pillow, in the sink, tangled in the bristles of his brush. He stopped brushing it. He stopped looking in mirrors.

His skin was growing pale in some places, gray in others. His face was getting sallow and dark circles were forming under his eyes from sleepless nights, slumber disturbed by nightmares and terrors that kept him jumping awake.

His bonds were suppressed, so none of his family could feel what he was going through to offer him comfort and he could only feel the silence of a void inside him where they had once been. His soul screamed out for them, but the sound was lost in an abyss. Ace’s fire, Uta’s melody, Luffy’s joy, there was nothing. Just static. Just cold.

Outlook didn’t notice.

Didit didn’t ask.

Stelly laughed.

His “family” didn’t scent him. They didn’t nest with him. They didn’t gift him totems or tokens. They didn’t touch him unless it was to adjust his posture or straighten his collar. They didn’t wrestle or comfort or claim. They didn’t act like his pack. And so, his body began to die.

He knew the signs, he’d lived them before. The ache in his joints, the tremor in his hands, the way his skin felt too tight, too thin. The way his thoughts slowed, like they were wading through molasses.

He was eating less, speaking less. Sleeping more.

He stopped hoping.

That hurt the most.

He curled up on the floor of his room, wrapped in a blanket that didn’t smell like anyone. The marble was cold against his cheek, giving him some relief from the fever burning through him. He pressed his fingers to his collarbone, where the suppressant had been injected.

He imagined the treehouse, the bandit’s hut, even Makino’s bar. He imagined Ace, Uta, Luffy, Shanks and his crew, Dadan and her bandits, Buggy, Eudora, his real family, his friends, his pack.

He thought of fighting side by side with Ace, sitting with Uta watching the rain fall, catching bugs with Luffy.

He imagined being held again. He didn’t need words, just warmth, just proof he hadn’t disappeared.

He imagined being wanted again, being seen and known.

He imagined being back home with his pack.

And then he remembered the vote. The promise. The people of Gray Terminal.

If this was the price, he would pay it.

Even if it killed him.

~*~*~

Sabo was dying, slowly but surely. Even so, Stelly was a trial of his own.

He was vain, stupid, vapid, shallow, cruel, petty and above all, present. He was here when none of Sabo’s true siblings were. He was constantly calling Sabo “big brother” in that insufferable tone of his or some stupid nickname he made up, likely one making fun of Sabo’s burn scar, trivializing it without knowing even an ounce of the trauma behind it. It made Sabo want to punch him across the face, if he had the strength for something like that. His body was failing him much quicker than it had when he had first lived in High Town. Maybe it was because his body knew now what it was to have healthy bonds, to have a real pack. Being forced back into the place he was before was making his illness accelerate faster than he knew what to do with.

He retreated to his bedroom after a shared lesson with Stelly, escaping the boy’s presence as soon as he got the chance. There was a cup of steaming tea waiting for him when he reached his bedroom, left there by a maid at Sabo’s request. He sat in his chair heavily, his legs shaking beneath him with the effort to hold him up. He sipped at the tea slowly to soothe his aching throat. It was momentary relief at best, but it was something. He stirred in more honey and lemon before placing his spoon down. It slipped off the edge of the table, clattering to the floor.

Sabo sighed as he stared down at the metal wearily, debating with himself whether to spare the energy it would take to pick it up before ultimately kneeling down to retrieve it. His fingers brushed against the edge of a warped board causing him to pause before pressing down. The board gave way with a soft groan, revealing a hollow space beneath where a dusty journal sat innocuously.

Sabo hadn’t thought about his old journal in years.

It was wrapped in oilcloth, bound with twine and it smelled faintly of cedar and ink. His hands trembled as he unwrapped it, the leather cover cracked and faded with its edges curled like dried leaves. His name was etched on the front in uneven strokes that spoke of a child’s handwriting.

He opened it to a random page and let his fingers brush over the dried ink.

“Someday I’ll go on my own adventures. I’ll find a real family, one that wants me, one that sees me.”

The words blurred as tears stung behind his eyes. He blinked hard against them as his lungs tightened. The pain was constant now, sharp and grinding like something inside him was splintering. He coughed into his shirt sleeve, ignoring the bloom of red across the fabric as he kept turning pages.

There were old drawings, cut out and pasted maps, lists of places he wanted to visit. There was a sketch of a pirate ship with sails shaped like wings along with a stick figure labeled “Me” standing beside four others. “My real pack”, he’d labeled them.

“I want to be free. I want to laugh all the time and get hugs when I cry. I want to be happy.”

He pressed the journal to his chest. Everything hurt. His ribs ached, his skin felt too tight, his hair was falling out in strands. He curled around the journal, knees drawn to his chest as he made himself small.

He remembered the treehouse, sleeping in his shared nest with his siblings.

He had been loved. He had been chosen and he had walked away. Not because he stopped needing them, but because he thought he had to, because he wanted to protect them, because he wanted to help make a better world for the people who he’d lived with for five years of his life, because he felt guilty for taking their home away from them, as unstable of a home as it was. Because he wanted to believe he could make a difference in an indifferent world.

And now he was dying. His hopes, his dreams, they were dying with him.

He sobbed.

Not the quiet kind. Not the kind that could be swallowed or hidden. He sobbed like the boy who wrote those words was clawing his way out of him, desperate to be heard. He sobbed until his throat burned and his chest seized. The journal slipped from his hands, landing open on a page that simply read:

“I hope they find me.”

He reached for his fallen journal with shaking fingers. He traced the words like they were a lifeline, like they could anchor him to something real, something warm, something like home.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

The journal didn’t answer, but the ink didn’t fade.

Somewhere inside him, the boy who wrote those words still believed they could be true.

~*~*~

The den den mushi sat in the palm of his hand, small and warm, its tiny shell painted red like Buggy’s nose. The beta’s number was scribbled on a folded scrap of paper, tucked beneath the snail’s base. Sabo stared at it, thumb hovering over the buttons.

He was curled up in a corner of his room, wrapped in a scentless blanket. The silence inside him was almost as unbearable as the pain. His chest ached and his lungs felt like they were filled with smoke. He’d woken up to bile in his throat and when he ran to the bathroom to throw up, it was nearly all blood. It had scared him enough to immediately dig out the den den mushi, intending to call Buggy for help, but then he’d paused, wondering if his call would really be welcome.

Buggy had slipped him the snail because he wanted Sabo to reach out, but that was before he suppressed the bond. It had been over a month since Sabo had left his family behind. Maybe they hated him, maybe they didn’t want to hear from him at all.

Still, would it hurt them if he died?

Their bonds weren’t severed, just suppressed. He heard that to lose a packmate was like feeling one’s soul be ripped to shreds and then being forced to carry the tattered remains for the rest of your life. Sabo couldn’t do that to them.

Plus, he needed to hear the voice of someone who cared. Just to know if they still cared. Maybe Buggy would curse and complain, but he’d come. Maybe he’d bring Ace and Uta and Luffy. Ace would probably punch him and Luffy might do the same just to not be left out, but maybe they’d scent him again. Maybe they’d invite him into their nest again.

He pressed the snail to his ear. The dial clicked once as he got ready to key in the phone number.

Then the door slammed open.

Stelly stood in the doorway, eyes gleaming with malice.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

Sabo scrambled to hide the snail, but Stelly was faster. He snatched it from his hands, holding it up like a trophy.

“Trying to call your little pirate friends? How pathetic.”

“Give it back,” Sabo said, voice hoarse.

Stelly turned the snail over in his hands.

“This thing’s disgusting, just like you. How do you even live with that face? You look like a failed experiment. And don’t get me started on your obsession with those trash people. Gray Terminal? Really? You care about a bunch of rats living in garbage?”

“They’re people,” Sabo shot back.

“They’re nothing. Just like you,” Stelly declared with a cruel smile on his lips.

“Oh, and in case you were still clinging to that little fantasy, Lady Eudora’s vote? The nobles actually voted for her side, but the king vetoed it. So all your suffering? It doesn’t matter. You’re dying here for nothing. How pathetic.”

Sabo’s breath caught as Stelly laughed maliciously before he dropped the snail to the floor and crushed it under his heel. The shell cracked and smeared across the torn paper, taking away Sabo’s chance at a connection.

“No one wants you, you ugly failure. Not them. Not us. Not anyone.”

Sabo moved before he could think. He tackled Stelly to the ground, fists flying, rage pouring out of him like fire. He didn’t care about decorum, he didn’t care about consequences. He cared about the ache in his chest, the silence in his soul, the broken snail on the floor.

Stelly screamed in terror as they rolled across the marble, Sabo landing a punch to his jaw before Stelly clawed at his face ineffectually. Sabo was in pain daily, a couple of scratches meant nothing. Blood smeared across the floor as a tooth was knocked out of Stelly’s mouth, but Sabo didn’t stop, not until Outlook stormed in.

“What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed, grabbing Sabo by the collar and yanking him off the other boy.

Stelly scrambled back sobbing, his face red and swollen.

“Father, he attacked me! He’s insane!”

Sabo didn’t respond, he just stared at the shattered snail.

“Stelly!” Didit exclaimed as she rushed into the room, wiping the boy’s tears away.

“Sabo hurt me, Mother,” the boy sobbed.

“Sabo, how could you hurt your brother like this?”

Sabo stared at his mother’s accusing eyes and his father’s disdainful gaze and felt something inside him snap.

“Liar,” he bit out, looking at Outlook.

The alpha rose an imperious eyebrow at that.

“You knew the king vetoed the vote.”

Didit blinked, lips parting slightly. Outlook didn’t even bother to look surprised that Sabo knew.

“You let me believe it mattered. You let me hope. You let me fight for something that was already lost.”

Outlook sighed in reply as if this was well-trodden ground that he was annoyed to have to walk on again.

“It was never your place to fight, Sabo.”

“Then what is my place? To sit here and rot? To die quietly so you don’t have to be embarrassed by me?”

Didit flinched at his words minutely, but Sabo ignored it.

“You lied to me,” he repeated, his voice rising in anger.

“You lied about the vote. You lied about caring. You lied every time you looked at me and didn’t say anything while I coughed up blood. You watched me almost die once and you’re watching it happen again.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Outlook dismissed.

“Dramatic? I’m dying and you don’t even care,” Sabo snapped.

“Just admit it. You hate me, you always have. You hate that I care about people who aren’t nobles. You hate that I chose to live in Gray Terminal. You hate that I made a family outside of you. You hate that I survived.”

Outlook took a step closer, his voice deliberately calm.

“You are weak. You’ve always been weak. You cling to sentiment like its strength. You chase pirates and trash and call it family. That’s delusion.”

Sabo’s breath hitched.

“You want to know why we don’t bond with you? Because you don’t belong here. You never did. Nobles stand on their own. You’ve never managed to do so. Instead, you seek out every bit of riffraff that pays you the slightest attention with no sense of what it means to be a true noble in this world. It’s why you were dying before and it’s why you’re dying now. It’s your own weakness, your own fault. Blame no one but yourself.”

Didit blinked at her husband’s words, looking down and away as she remained silent.

Sabo stared at them both before he laughed, quiet, bitter and broken.

“Then what was the point?” he whispered.

“Why bring me back? Why keep me here? Just to watch me suffer?”

Neither of them answered.

Sabo turned away, intending to leave the room altogether but he was startled at a siren sounding throughout the room. He whipped around, looking out the window where the noise was coming from. People were running back and forth outside towards buildings. There was a mass of clouds forming in the sky but strangely enough it seemed to be mostly concentrated on the castle, a downpour falling over the structure.

He turned as boots ran across the ground before the security detail found them.

“What is going on out there,” Outlook demanded.

“The king has declared a state of emergency.”

“Why?”

“Dragon the Revolutionary has been spotted in the city.”

Sabo blinked.

Dragon.

The man from the headlines. The ghost of rebellion. The one who fought for the forgotten.

He remembered wondering if there was someone who would care enough to try to stop the corrupt systems of the world. It seemed like Dragon’s group did, but Sabo had never considered they’d actually come here.

“The king has ordered that everyone find a safe room and shelter in place until the threat has passed."

~*~*~

The manor was too quiet. The sirens had stopped 15 minutes after the news had come and the occupants had retreated to the drawing room.

Sabo sat curled into the corner of a velvet settee that smelled like dust and perfume. The fire crackled in the hearth, but it gave no warmth. Outlook paced near the window, his expression tight, his fingers twitching against the folds of his coat. Didit sat stiffly beside the piano, her hands folded in her lap like a statue. Stelly was sprawled on the rug, playing with a set of carved wooden soldiers, occasionally glancing up with a smirk. His face was beginning to bruise and his lip was busted. Sabo shot him back a vicious grin whenever the boy looked his way. He was cowed enough by it to keep his distance.

Outlook’s den den mushi periodically rang in the hour since they’d retreated to the room. Sabo only got fragments of his conversation, but it was enough to piece together a picture.

The Revolutionary Army had made contact with the king’s court, demanding a reversal of the veto on Eudora’s proposal. The vote had passed among the nobles, but the king had struck it down. Now, the Revolutionaries were here and they weren’t asking anymore.

Sabo took a moment to wonder if Eudora had a hand in this. She had made the veiled threat to the king during their meeting with him. Sabo couldn’t say one way or another if she would go this far, or if the revolutionary simply had some interest in this island for some reason. Guards had been dispatched to every noble estate, the gates were locked and the streets were silent while the king was negotiating with the army.

Outlook, for his part, was furious.

“This is an outrage,” he snapped, turning from the window.

“To allow a known terrorist to walk freely through the capital? To entertain his demands? It’s weakness. Cowardice!”

“Do you think he’ll burn the palace down,” Stelly asked absentmindedly.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Sabo didn’t speak. He felt the tension in the air like static. He remembered the stories. Dragon, the ghost of revolution. The man who defied kings and gods. The man who believed in freedom more than bloodlines and crowns. Sabo wondered what it would be like to meet him, to stand beside him.

Outlook resumed pacing.

“We’ll remain indoors until this farce is resolved. I won’t have our name dragged into this.”

Sabo looked up as Outlook’s den den mushi rang again and the man retreated to a corner to speak into. Stelly went back to his toys and Sabo settled into the couch again, a wet cough shaking his body, leaving flecks of blood on his hands.

He looked up when a handkerchief was offered to him. He found Didit standing over him, her face neutral. He hesitated before accepting the cloth. He stared at her as she sat down beside him. The woman didn’t say anything as she remained at his side. Sabo looked away and didn’t say anything either.

Didit stayed next to him for hours, long after Outlook had stopped pacing and settled into his chair, long after Stelly had fallen asleep on an adjacent couch and Outlook’s own breath had smoothed out.

The fire had burned low by then, shadows stretched long across the polished floor and flickering against the silk wallpaper. The streets were still empty, windows shuttered and air thick with the scent of rain.

The silence between them wasn’t hostile but it was fragile, like glass that had cracked long ago and was one stiff breeze from breaking.

“I know you never loved me,” Sabo said softly, voice quiet but steady.

Didit flinched but didn’t deny it.

“I wanted to,” the omega woman admitted quietly.

She sighed before getting up to stand by the window. Rain tapped softly against the pane, a rare hush settling over the manor. Didit’s posture was perfect as she gazed into the drizzle, her hands clasped in front of her and the skin tight at the corner of her eyes.

“I was promised to Outlook when I was six,” she started, her voice low.

“I didn’t meet him until I was seventeen, but I knew his name long before that. I knew what he liked, what he expected of me. My parents were sure to drill that much into my head and mold me into what they thought his ideal mate would be. My favorite food used to be plum tarts. Then it became roast duck, because that was his favorite. I liked lullabies, soft ones and I hated piano, but I learned to sing opera instead and to love playing the piano because he said it was more dignified.”

She turned slightly, her gaze distant.

“I used to read romance novels, the kind with messy endings and imperfect people, but Outlook prefers political treatises, so I read those instead. I told people my favorite color was gold. It never was, it was violet.”

Sabo’s fingers curled around the edge of the blanket.

“I thought… I thought the one thing that would be mine in this marriage would be my pup. The birthbond would be ours. Not forever, but still, it is something only omegas and birthing betas can feel. Something even an alpha can’t touch, can’t pervert, can’t twist into their own. When this collar was put on me after I bonded with Outlook, the only thing that made it worthwhile was my dreams. I dreamed of a son who would be like me. Clever. Composed. Someone I could share a secret language with, someone who I could teach and mold. Someone who would understand me without words.”

She turned back to look out the window, her voice low.

“But when I had you… it was a difficult birth. I hemorrhaged. I was unconscious for hours, and when I woke up and held you for the first time, I felt… nothing. No joy. No awe. No bond. No warmth. Just dread.”

Sabo watched her, unmoving.

Her voice cracked slightly.

“I told myself it would come, that I’d feel it eventually, but I didn’t and I hated myself for it. I hated you for it.”

Sabo looked up, eyes unreadable.

“I couldn’t tell anyone, not in High Town, not with Outlook watching. Weakness isn’t permitted, not if you want to retain your status. So I buried it, I buried everything.”

Didit took a trembling breath before continuing.

“I pushed the bond away, held you at arm’s length and told myself it was mercy. Maple noticed everything and she intervened to protect you and help me. It seemed like it would be enough.”

“I asked Maple once why you guys didn’t love me. I used to think something was wrong with me, that I was broken. That maybe if I tried harder, you’d want me. But that wasn’t my fault. You were sick, but so was I. You never got any help for yourself or me and I had to live with the consequences. You let me rot and almost die because of it, and now it’s happening again.”

“I know,” she said again, voice cracking.

“You could have tried to help me, even just once. Or yourself.”

“I didn’t want to be seen as weak. I thought if I ignored it, it would go away. I told myself you’d be strong enough to survive a fragile bond. Some pups do. But I never did anything to help. Not then. Not now.”

“I could’ve been yours if you had tried, if you weren’t so afraid of being seen as weak.”

Didit’s lips parted, but no words came. Sabo looked at her for a long moment.

“I don’t hate you, but I don’t forgive you either.”

Didit nodded, tears unshed.

“I don’t expect you to.”

She stood up and began ruffling the folds of her pink dress before she produced a small velvet pouch from a hidden pocket. She opened it and withdrew a mini den den mushi. It blinked sleepily, antennae twitching. Sabo stared at it in surprise.

“I keep this for emergencies. It’s unregistered. Private.”

She crossed the room and held it out to him.

“I’m not helping you, not really, but I’m not stopping you either.”

Sabo took it gently, cradling it in his palm. The den den mushi blinked up at him, then nestled into his touch.

“Thank you,” he said.

Didit nodded, then turned away, retreating to the window once more.

The fire gave one last crackle before dying completely. Sabo tucked the den den mushi into his coat, stood and left the room without another word.

~*~*~

The manor was asleep as Sabo slipped through the hallways as quietly as he could, suppressing his coughs so he could slip past guards undetected. He climbed out the attic window and onto the slate rooftop, the city sprawling below him. The wind was sharp, carrying the scent of salt and rain. The storm clouds still loomed overhead with the downpour concentrated over the palace and light drizzle falling everywhere else. Somewhere in the distance, the harbor lights flickered as the streetlamps swayed from the heavy wind. Sabo ignored the chill it sent down his spine as he sat cross-legged on the tiles of the roof, the mini den den mushi cradled in his hands. He shivered against the brisk breeze, his skin feeling feverish and clammy as the snail blinked up at him, antennae twitching.

Sabo exhaled slowly, feeling the breath rattling in his lungs. He had been resolved to make this call for a while now, had intended to call Buggy. His number was ripped up now but there was another number that Sabo knew by heart.

“Who’s this? How did you get this number?”

Sabo paused slightly at the unfamiliar voice, wondering if he had dialed the wrong number after all.

“Sh— Shanks?” he asked in a small voice.

“Who wants to know,” the unknown man replied, his tone cautious and suspicious.

“I’m— my name is Sabo. Can I… I need to…” he trailed off, his breath catching in his raw throat.

“Oh, you’re one of Chief’s pups, right?”

“I’m not…” Sabo trailed off again, abandoning that sentence. He didn’t want to finish it.

“Never got to meet ya, I’m Rockstar. I’m new to the crew.”

“Oh… alright.”

“You ok, kid? You sound rough. Do you want me to get the boss?”

“Yes, please,” he replied, his tone quieter than he would have liked.

“Hang on.”

Sabo bit his lip as he looked out over the city, his eyes tracing the rooftops and alleyways, places he used to run to when he was smaller and wanted to get away. He adjusted the mini den den mushi and kept his ear out for anyone approaching. He jumped when a familiar voice finally sounded through the snail.

“Hello? Sabo?” He heard Shanks ask.

“Yes,” he replied, still quiet with the words struggling to get past his throat.

“Are you alright?”

The blond boy opened his mouth to answer, but to his horror, all that came out was a sob. Even worse, more sobs spilled out. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stuff it back inside. He had been holding it all inside for a month now, but it hurt, everything hurt, his heart, his soul, his head, his entire body. It was rebelling against him again. No, not his body, his bonds. The ones that he suppressed as well as the withered ones that once connected him to his birth family. He thought he could run away, become a street urchin and then he thought he could make a family, a pack, with the people he had come to call his siblings and everyone else attached to them, everyone else that inexplicably wanted to become a part of his soul, but now he was right back here again, surrounded by these awful people again and reminded just how powerless he had always been against them.

He stuffed his fingers in his hair, gripping the strands tightly. He paused as he felt brittle locks coming away in his fingers.

“Sabo? Sabo, is someone there with you? Is anyone hurting you,” he heard Shanks say.

And how was he supposed to answer that? He was alone but no matter where he went, his former family would always be hurting him, literally killing him, turning his own body against him and there wasn’t anything he could do.

“I’m— m’alone. Shanks, I…” Sabo trailed off in a pain-filled sob as his lungs seized, making it hard to breathe even as his sobs kept coming.

“Okay, let’s not talk right now. Focus on breathing. I can tell that you’re in pain and I want to help you, but first I need you to focus on breathing, in and out. I’m going to count breaths, and I want you to follow me.”

“I c— can’t.”

“Yes, you can. You’re strong, Niteowl. One of the strongest pups I know. I’ll show you what to do, just breathe with me, in for eight counts and out for four counts. We’ll do it together, okay?”

“O— okay.”

Sabo found it difficult to follow Shanks’ breaths for a while, but eventually he managed to do so. His lungs still hurt and his throat still felt dry and raw, tears still slipped down his face, but he could breathe better.

“Alright. Now tell me what’s happening. Songbird says you’ve been gone for a month and you disappeared from my awareness. Where are you?”

Shanks sounded concerned, like he cared, like he was worried about Sabo. He had never heard his parents sound like that for him, only for their status and for Stelly.

“I… I went home to my parents, in High Town.”

“Ace told me about that, said you talked about being a noble again.”

“I didn’t mean it! I just wanted them… I didn’t want Ace, Uta or Luffy to be hurt and I wanted the people in Gray Terminal to have a home again, that’s all.”

“Why would the others be hurt? Why did you need to go away to help the people in Gray Terminal?”

“My father was embarrassed when he realized I was still alive and living on Mount Colubo, he said rumors were starting and it made him look bad. He wanted me back to save face. He said Ace, Uta and Luffy corrupted my mind and he was going to have them arrested or worse. I went with him so he wouldn’t hurt them. Then, he promised he’d support Eudora’s cause to the king to help the people in Gray Terminal and in exchange, I had to close off my bonds to the others and stay here to be a part of his pack, but… but I… I’m sick again. Everything hurts and my hair is falling out and I can’t breathe sometimes and I’m coughing up blood. The stupid king vetoed the vote to help the people from Gray Terminal anyway and now Dragon the Revolutionary is in the capital negotiating with the king. The nobles are on lockdown. Outlook’s mad and Didit gave me this den den mushi. I think to say goodbye, I don’t know. I don’t care why anymore, I don’t want to stay here anymore. I wanna go back to the treehouse! I wanna go home! To my brothers and sister, I want to be with my real pack!”

Sabo’s sobs came back with a vengeance, his lungs seizing around his cries.

“You will be home soon, Niteowl. I promise you will be. You’re so brave for trying to help your siblings, but sometimes you need help too. That’s what your pack is there for. I’m proud of you for calling me and reaching out for help. You don’t have to do everything by yourself, you’re not responsible for keeping everyone safe all the time. That’s why you have me, Buggy and Eudora, Dadan and her family, Makino and my crew. We’re your pack too. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you’re safe and loved.”

Sabo cried harder at that.

“But I can’t feel you anymore! I’m sorry I suppressed the bond. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, hey. I’m not angry at you.”

“But I don’t know how to open it again. Outlook made me take some drug. What if it’s gone forever? I don’t want you to be gone!”

“The bond is blocked, not severed. It can be restored with the right medicine, don’t you worry about that. In the meantime, I’m going to get some help to you.”

“How?”

“I have a friend in the area. Just stay exactly where you are. I’m going to go on the other line to call them and then I’ll be right back with you, I promise.”

Sabo wanted to beg Shanks not to go, to stay on the line, but he bit the words back and silently waited until the man returned.

“Sabo, one of my friend’s acquaintances will be there soon to take you somewhere safe before getting you home. I’ll stay here with you, okay? Don’t worry, they’ll take care of everything.”

Part of Sabo wanted to worry and fret but most of him was just relieved to hear that soon he’d be on his way back to where he belonged. Shanks stayed with him on the line, talking him down through his crying fits, coaching his breathing and distracting him with stories as Sabo remained on the roof, waiting for his friend to come for him.

He gasped and jumped in surprise when a large man suddenly appeared in front of him. He was huge, wearing a spotted hat with what looked like bear ears poking out the top and paw pads on his hands.

“Is someone there, Niteowl?”

“There’s a guy…”

“Dragon sent me,” the man said by way of greeting.

Sabo blinked at that.

“Dragon? The Revolutionary?”

“Dragon’s a friend. He’ll get you home for me, you can trust him,” Shanks reassured.

Sabo wanted to ask how he knew a man like Dragon but he was more eager to get away from this place than he was curious so he accepted being lifted into the bear man’s large palm. The wind howled around them as the bear man launched into the sky, the city shrinking beneath them. Sabo clutched his chest, breath rattling, eyes wide as the manor receded into the distance — a gilded cage growing smaller and smaller until it was nothing but a speck.

He didn’t cry or scream, just watched.

The rooftops he used to run across, the alleyways he used to hide in, the window he used to stare out of, wondering if anyone would ever come for him.

They had.

He thought of the treehouse — Ace’s rocks, Uta’s melodies, Luffy’s beetles. He thought of Buggy’s rough care, Eudora’s bedtime stories, Dadan’s gruff affection. He thought of Shanks, still on the line, whispering tales of his adventures to keep him steady.

He thought of the journal beneath the floorboards.

I hope they find me, he had written.

They had.

The wind stung his face, but he didn’t flinch. His lungs still hurt, his body still ached, but something inside him had shifted. The silence was still there, but it wasn’t empty anymore. It was waiting.

He looked down one last time.

I’m not coming back, he vowed to himself.

He was going home.

To the pack that chose him.

To the life he built.

To the boy he used to be.

And this time, he wouldn’t leave.

Chapter Text

Sabo had met quite a few Devil Fruit users in his short life and seen some weird things. Luffy’s rubber body, Uta’s song powers and Ace’s fire still didn’t prepare him for how he felt flying through the air while in the grasp of the bear man who had picked him up. High Town was a blur of darkened structures as they made their way towards the palace, which was lit by torches and sconces swaying in the wind of the strange, localized storm. Their landing on the palace roof was hard enough to leave an imprint of a paw pad on the concrete. Sabo tilted his head curiously at it.

“Niteowl?”

Sabo jumped, having forgotten he was still on the line with Shanks.

“We’re at the palace where Dragon the Revolutionary is,” he explained.

“I will be taking the boy to the infirmary,” the bear man explained as he walked towards the entrance.

“Infirmary?”

Sabo wouldn’t admit it, but his heart warmed at the concern in Shanks’ voice.

“He is weak and visibly ill. He also has a fever. I think it would be best if he gets some rest and hangs up now. We have doctors who may be able to help him.”

Sabo felt a jump of anxiety at the idea of hanging up the phone, but he did feel awful and exhausted, drained emotionally and physically.

“Kuma the Tyrant, was it?”

“Some call me this, yes.”

“I’m trusting you because you’re Dragon’s ally. Be sure that Dragon calls me once he has Sabo. I expect a full update on his condition.”

“Of course,” Kuma agreed easily.

“Niteowl,” Shanks called in a softer tone.

“You’re going to be alright. I’m proud of you for reaching out for help when you needed it.”

An adult having pride in Sabo was such a rare thing. And for something like this? He didn’t know how to respond after a month of dealing with Outlook and his brand of insidious disappointment.

“You do as Dragon says and call me when you get home, okay?”

“I will,” Sabo promised, his voice hoarse and his throat raw.

The snail clicked as the line disconnected before the mini transponder retreated into its shell. He tucked it away in one of his pockets and took a moment to reflect that it might be the only real thing his mother had ever given him. A shiver went through his body as a sharp tug of pain radiated his chest, prompting him to bend over himself as Kuma walked him to the infirmary.

The room was small and out of the way. The walls in the infirmary were gray stone, lit by candles throughout the room, giving everything an orange glow and filling the air with the scent of wax alongside faint whispers of antiseptic and rain. Sabo was placed on a cot where he curled up, his breath shallow and his skin clammy with fever.

Kuma stood nearby, his massive frame blocking half the doorway. He hadn’t said much since they arrived, only that someone would be along shortly. Sabo didn’t mind the silence. It was better than the brittle politeness of High Town, better than the hollow speeches and the empty rooms. He tried to turn his mind away from the pain, trying to latch onto something to think about.

His eyes drifted back to Kuma. He had never seen a man like him before. He was taller than anyone he’d ever met, even taller than Porchemy and Garp. He was broad shouldered with a large torso and skinny legs, spots on his hat with tufts of hair peeking out resembling a bear’s ears and there were the paw pads on his hands. The most notable thing was his lack of a scent. There was nothing denoting him as an alpha, beta or omega. He didn’t have a personal scent either. It wasn’t like his scent was suppressed. There was a chemical odor that accompanied those who took medicines to suppress their scents. This wasn’t that, there was a distinct lack of any scent having existed at all. As far as Sabo knew, this only happened with people who were of a race other than human. Fishmen, Merfolk, Giants, none of them had second genders or personal scents. Hybrids either manifested as deltas, like his old friend Akane who was half-human and half-Fishman, or they never manifested at all, lacking a second gender entirely. Sabo wondered what Kuma was if he wasn’t fully human, but he didn’t have the strength to try and sate his curiosity.

The door creaked open and Sabo blinked as a beta stepped into the dim room in a swirl of lavender, silk and perfume. Their hair was enormous, their presence larger still, with a personal scent that was a mixture of rose, champagne, violet, black tea and smoked vanilla. That was more scents than usual but for this visitor it didn’t clash as Sabo expected it would.

“Iva,” Kuma greeted in a subdued manner.

“Kuma, dearest friend, I was wondering when you would return. I had heard Dragon-boy sent you off on a special assignment, and apparently not a moment too soon.”

Sabo looked up as he was approached by the newcomer, their eyes softening as they took him in.

“Oh darling, you look like you’ve been through a meat grinder and then some.”

Sabo tried answer but his lungs seized and he coughed violently into his sleeve. Iva winced and waved a hand toward the hallway.

“Get a doctor in here! Now!”

A Revolutionary medic entered, already pulling gloves on. He knelt beside Sabo, checking his pulse, his temperature, the pallor of his skin. Sabo didn’t resist. He was too tired to pretend he was fine or fight off any concern. He flinched and couldn’t stop a whine from crawling up his throat when the doctor pressed against the injection site of the suppressant, causing a wave of cold to radiate from the area followed by a wash of pain that left him winded and sprawled weakly against the sheets.

“The suppressant’s still active,” the doctor said grimly.

“Suppressant? On a pup of this age? The cruelty of this world truly knows no bounds,” Iva commented with anger.

“It’s attacking his system. He needs the reversal compound, but I don’t have it with me. It’s stored at our base in Baltigo.”

Kuma stepped forward, his voice low and resonant.

“He’s in pain.”

“Yes, severe systemic pain along with several other troubling symptoms. It’s almost as if he’s rejecting the suppressant. That only happens if he was securely attached to his pack before his bonds were suppressed. We can stabilize him, but—”

“I’ll take it,” Kuma said simply.

“Take what?”

Kuma knelt beside the cot, placing one massive hand over Sabo’s chest. His paw pads glowed faintly and Sabo felt a strange pull, like something heavy was being lifted from inside him. He looked up in confusion as a red paw shaped bubble appeared from his chest before floating into the air away from him. The ache in his ribs dulled, the fire in his lungs cooled and his body stopped screaming. He gasped, blinking up at Kuma.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Kuma didn’t answer. He just stood and walked from the room, the red paw bubble following behind him. Iva watched him go with a grim frown on their lips.

“He doesn’t do that often nowadays. Only when he sees someone who reminds him of someone important.”

Sabo didn’t ask what that meant, he just laid back against the pillows, breathing easier than he had in days. The doctor adjusted the blankets around him then turned to Iva.

“He’ll need the reversal compound soon, but for now, he can rest.”

Iva nodded, then turned to Sabo with a wink.

“Rest, darling. You’re safe now. Soon, you’ll be home.”

Sabo closed his eyes, the scent of antiseptic fading into the background as warmth settled over him from the quiet presence of people who seemed to care.

~*~*~

He wasn’t sure how long he slept for, but he knew he slept soundly for the first time in weeks. He wasn’t woken with his lungs on fire or coughing up blood, his muscles weren’t seizing in pain as his heart clenched around the cold void where the tethers to his packmates and family had been. Instead, his nap was a dreamless slumber, free of the pain, anxiety and grief that had been plaguing him.

When he woke up, he was still in the dimly lit infirmary. There were a few more oil lamps lit, the flame flickering and creating long shadows on the walls. The air smelled of ink and parchment, rain damp leather along with notes of oak, rum, juniper and cedarwood. More than that, there was another smell that concerned Sabo.

There was an alpha in the room.

Sabo’s eyes popped open to surveille his surroundings even as he tried not to let on that he was awake. There was a man standing at the desk in the room, reading from a document. He wore a dark green cloak with a dark blue suit beneath it. His face looked shadowed and weathered. Even in the dim light, Sabo recognized him.

Dragon the Revolutionary.

He was taller than Sabo expected him to be, broad-shouldered and still as stone. The pup’s breath hitched in surprise, drawing attention to him. He felt his heart jump as Dragon’s eyes met his, calm, clear and sharp brown orbs that were eerily familiar.

“You’re the boy. The one called Niteowl,” Dragon said by way of greeting, his voice low and even.

“Only Shanks calls me that. My name is Sabo.”

Dragon nodded before looking up as a younger purple-haired woman stepped into the room.

“The fully signed forms. We’ll have someone linger in the city to make sure the king stays true to his words, but he’s signed off on our terms,” she said.

“Thank you, Betty,” Dragon nodded as he took the forms.

Sabo stared at the papers so hard he thought they’d combust.

“You came here to help the people of Gray Terminal, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“I… I used to live there, before the fire. Now I live on Mount Colubo while everyone else moved to Edge Town, but…”

Dragon studied him for a long moment, his eyes heavy as they took him apart.

 “The king has agreed to our terms. Edge Town will be restored. The nobles will fund the reconstruction and local groups will oversee the wellbeing of the residents. If they fail, we return.”

“He really agreed? Just like that?”

“He was given a choice. He chose the one that didn’t end in fire and the loss of his crown.”

There was no triumph in his voice, only certainty.

“Did Lady Eudora… was she part of this?”

“She made the case to us, though she wasn’t the only one. There are several grassroots groups here in the Goa Kingdom, quietly fighting for a more equitable kingdom. We made the threat so they wouldn’t have to.”

Sabo nodded slowly, his fingers curling around the edge of the blanket. He didn’t know what to say. Gratitude felt too small and relief felt too fragile, all the same both emotions were there along with lingering anger towards the king. He had wondered for a long time if a man like Dragon existed and now here he was, storming into the palace of a corrupt king and forcing him to protect the people he was sworn to. Sabo’s heart was full seeing the proof of what he had thought was a childish dream made manifest in the man before him.

Dragon took advantage of his silence to turn toward the den den mushi on the desk which had a white snail attached to it, just like Strawberry and Dumpling back home. Sabo had learned that the white snails were to prevent calls from being recorded or tracked by the Marines. It made sense Dragon would have something like that. The alpha picked up the receiver and dialed with practiced ease. Sabo stared at him with confusion and slight concern.

“Don’t worry. I’m just getting in contact with Shanks. I promised I’d call him when I see you.”

Sabo wondered how well Dragon and Shanks knew each other for him to have Shanks’ number memorized.

He felt a stab of anxiety even though he knew realistically that nothing had changed in between when he’d last spoken to Shanks and now. His nerves were too frayed for him to consciously believe that.

“Who’s calling?” came Shanks’ voice.

“The man from Shakky’s,” the revolutionary said simply.

There was a pause.

“Is this line secure?”

“I’ve taken measures. All the same, given the situation, we shouldn’t make any assumptions.”

There was another pause before Shanks answered.

“Understood. Do you have my owl?”

“I do.”

Another pause. Then a breath, audible even through the static.

“Is he safe?”

“He’s with me. He’s ill. He’ll need medicine to reverse the effects, but he’s alive.”

Shanks exhaled slowly.

“Good. Get him to the mountains. There are people who will know what to do.”

“I’ll get him where he needs to go.”

“Watch him,” Shanks said, voice firm now.

“He’s precious to me. He’s a treasure I’m entrusting you with. You guard him with your life.”

Dragon’s gaze flickered towards Sabo who was pretending not to listen as his fingers curled tightly around the edge of his blanket.

“I swear I will.”

There was another pause before Shanks spoke again.

“Tell him I’m proud of him. Tell him he doesn’t have to earn love. He already has it.”

Dragon nodded, even though Shanks couldn’t see it.

“I’ll tell him.”

“And thank you. I owe you one,” Shanks added, voice dipping low.

Dragon didn’t reply right away. He looked at Sabo, who was staring at the snail like it might vanish if he blinked.

“Consider our debts paid.”

The line clicked off. The snails blinked then settled into sleep. Sabo didn’t speak. He just sat there, eyes wide, heart thudding. Dragon turned to him.

“He meant every word. So did I. I will take you back to your pack.”

Sabo shifted in the bed, suddenly reminded of who this man was.

“Don’t you have more important things to do than bring me home?”

“The Revolution isn’t stopping because I take a break. Besides, Shanks and I have an understanding.”

“How do you guys know each other anyway?”

Dragon stared at him for a moment before shrugging.

“We’ve both spent our lives watching over the same stars. Sometimes from opposite ends of the sky, but we watch all the same in our own ways.”

Sabo’s brows furrowed at that. He wasn’t quite sure what he meant and he didn’t think he was going to get a clear answer even if he asked.

“I’ll have some food brought for you. Ivankov will be cross if I let you leave without eating. After that, we’ll head out. You’ll be back home by the morning,” Dragon decided before abruptly turning and walking out of the room.

Sabo watched him go before deflating into the mattress. Come morning time, he’d be home again with his pack, his family, his siblings. He wasn’t sure of what reception he was going to get but at this point, all he wanted was to see them again. He’d beg for forgiveness on his hands and knees if it meant getting to be with them again and take any amount of anger thrown his way.

~*~*~

The rain had eased to a mist, soft and steady against the palace’s stone balcony. Sabo stood with his arms folded over the railing, the wind tugging at his coat and hair, blowing through the holes in his cravat. Below, the city glistened with the drying rain. Rooftops were slick with water, lampposts dripped with it and alleyways stood wet, dark and quiet. The storm had passed, but the tension lingered.

Sabo had already eaten at the behest of Ivankov. He had had more of an appetite than he had in a while with the pain being magically gone, though he was warned it wasn’t permanent. Still, he had had enough energy to leave the infirmary of his own volition and go wandering around the castle. He had been sure to stick to places that were being occupied by the Revolutionary Army. The blond pup looked at each member he passed with interest, taking note of their differences in appearances, the diversity of second genders, the balance of both men and women and those who seemed to be one gender but presenting as another. There was something illuminating in the way they interacted with one another. There was no obvious pretense of division based on race or first and second gender or country. He had even passed Fishmen and other races he didn’t know of among the humans. He didn’t want to idealize what he was seeing, but it made something in his chest ache with hope to see people like this existing and fighting to make a change in the world.

He eventually found himself on the balcony, staring out at High Town and Town Center beyond the gates. The former Gray Terminal was now a darkened mass, no lights or smoke from bonfires and huts to speak of the people who had been inhabiting the trash heap, no garbage towers to the sky, blocking out some of the stars. Edge Town was barely visible from High Town, just a shadow of misshapen and dilapidated buildings left to rot and crumble over time. Sabo wondered about the islands outside of Dawn, if they were just like this or something different. Shanks’ stories told them about the wonders of the world and though he warned them sometimes, he never got into some of the horrors that existed out there. Sabo figured if there was a Revolutionary Army that had to be created, the rest of the world was probably just like the Goa Kingdom. Maybe even worse in some cases.

He didn’t know how to feel about that.

Dragon joined him without a word, his cloak rustling faintly as he stepped beside Sabo. They stood in silence for a while, watching the clouds drift by in the night.

“I read about you before, in newspapers. I never imagined you’d come here,” Sabo said eventually.

“I don’t go where I’m wanted. I go where I’m needed.”

“You helped the people in Edge Town. You made the king listen.”

“I made him choose between dignity and destruction,” Dragon corrected.

Sabo glanced at him sideways.

“But why?”

“Because no one else would.”

“That’s what the Revolutionary Army does, right? Fight for people no one else will?”

Dragon turned toward him, the wind catching the edge of his hood.

“We fight for the forgotten and discarded, the ones who were told they don’t matter, the ones who were abandoned by those who sit at the top of the world. We fight for the ones who are crushed beneath the boots of those who choose to hoard power and use it as an excuse to reign as cruel gods. We fight because someone has to, because the world will never change if we don’t rebel against the broken system that built it.”

Sabo looked down at his hands, trembling faintly from nerves.

“I thought I was helping by coming back here. I thought if I gave up my bonds, if I played the part, I could make a difference for the people in Edge Town and protect my siblings from the nobles here.”

“You were trying to fight in your own way. We can only do what’s in our power and that’s what you did,” Dragon said.

They stood in silence again, the wind brushing past them like a whisper.

“I still want to be a pirate. I want the sea. I want freedom. But... but I also want to help people. I want everyone to have a chance to be free in a world that’s fair.”

Dragon’s mouth twitched, almost a smile.

“Freedom isn’t a uniform, it’s a choice. If you choose to fight for others, you can have a place among us one day if that’s what you wish, whether you wear our crest or not. There are freedom fighters all over the world who may not officially affiliate themselves with us but fight for the same ideals. Pirate crews are no exception, though we may have our differences from time to time.”

“Ace won’t say no to fighting corrupt kings,” Sabo said to himself.

“Ace?”

“My older brother. We’re going to go to sea together after we both turn 17. He’s going to be the captain and I’m going to be his vice captain and navigator. Our younger siblings, Luffy and Uta, are going out to sea when they’re 17 too. We’re all going to chase our dreams. Ace wants to be the strongest man in the world and make sure his name rings out all over the seas. Uta wants to sing her songs for the world and change people’s hearts by bringing them together. Luffy wants to be King of the Pirates.”

“And you?”

“I want to write a book to show other kids like me what the world is really like. The good things and the bad things.”

“Then do it. There are many ways to rebel. Remember that.”

Sabo took a quiet moment to reflect on what would come next.

“I don’t know what happens when I get home,” he admitted.

“Don’t dwell, just return to the people who love you. The rest will fall into place.”

The sky was clearing as they prepared to leave the palace. The clouds were beginning to break apart, revealing slivers of moonlight that shimmered across the rooftops. Sabo stood near the edge of the courtyard, his coat pulled tight around him, the mini den den mushi tucked safely in his pocket.

Dragon was speaking with a few aides nearby, finalizing the terms of departure. Sabo didn’t listen. His gaze was fixed on the horizon, on the distant outline of Mount Colubo, visible beyond the city walls.

He was going home. The word felt strange in his mind after a month away. What would they say when they saw him? Would Ace be angry? Would Uta cry? Would Luffy forgive him? Would they scent him or would they hesitate, unsure of what he’d become or if they wanted to accept him back into the pack and nesthome? He knew he technically was still pack, that the bonds were only suppressed and not broken, but it had been so long since he felt them nestled next to his heart that he didn’t know what that warmth felt like anymore. He didn’t know what the suppression had done to them in turn. Had he hurt them, like his parents had hurt him all his life? Sabo never wanted them to experience the same pain he had, to feel that absence, that silence. He hoped that while his body was failing, shutting down and turning against him that they felt none of the backlash.

He remembered the journal beneath the floorboards, the words he’d written when he was still small and hopeful.

“I hope they find me.”

They had and he had left them. He had to work up the courage to face them, not just as the boy who ran away, but as the one who would come back more broken than when he left.

He pressed a hand to his collarbone, where the suppressant had been injected. The pain was dulled now, thanks to Kuma, but the ache lingered in other ways. The bonds were still blocked and the silence was still there. He didn’t know how long it would take to heal. He didn’t know if he’d ever feel whole again, but he knew this: he wanted to try. He wanted to be held again, to be scented, to be nested with, to be wanted.

He wanted to be home with his family.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as Dragon approached, his cloak billowing slightly in the breeze.

“We’re ready.”

Sabo nodded, pulling his coat tighter. He took one last look at the palace, the representation of the gilded cage that had tried to reshape him, suppress him, erase him. Then he turned away and followed behind Dragon.

He didn’t look back.

~*~*~

The forest was damp and thick with the scent of moss and pine as Sabo and Dragon walked through it. The wind had softened, rustling through the leaves like a lullaby. Sabo found himself wondering what songs they sang. Uta would randomly sing while they trekked through the brush during their hunts. Sometimes it was her own songs and others it would be songs from the trees and the wind. He had missed that. He was thinking of all the things he’d missed as they made their way towards Sabo’s home.

He missed Ace’s blustering and rough care, the way he’d curse them out and do something sweet in equal measure. He missed the way he’d shape the embers of his fire into different things to entertain them. He even missed Ace randomly falling asleep when he ate too much and scaring the life out of anyone who didn’t know about that trait of his.

He missed the way Uta would force them to judge her outfits and press them into tea parties. He missed how she would make flower crowns when they sat on the cliffs and place them delicately on their heads. He missed her competitive streak and how she wasn’t above cheating to win, always claiming immunity because she was a pirate.

He missed Luffy’s bright grin and infectious laugh. He missed his silly mispronunciations and misremembering of names in favor of ridiculous nicknames. He missed the way he’d use his stretchiness to wrap himself around a person for a hug, even when it resulted in him nearly suffocating you.

He just missed them.

The treehouse loomed ahead, its windows glowing faintly with firelight. Sabo blinked at it, heart thudding. He hadn’t realized how much he missed the creak of the boards, the smell of wet bark, the sound of laughter echoing through the canopy.

The treehouse was silent at the moment. Sabo bit his lip as he could still see the ASUL Pirates flag flying above the lookout post. He stepped forward and pulled on the rope hanging from a branch. It was rigged to a bell inside the treehouse that would alert anyone inside to guests.

“Who the hell is it and what do you want,” he heard a belligerent voice grouse from above.

Sabo glanced up and met Ace’s eyes as he leaned past the window. The two stared at one another for a long moment before Ace disappeared. Sabo felt a flash of disappointment before the sound of a cacophony sounded above, quickly followed by his siblings scrambling down the ladder towards the ground where Sabo waited.

Ace was first, barefoot and wild-eyed, his t-shirt backwards and hanging off his shoulder. Uta followed, her hair loose around her shoulders, her eyes wide and shining. Luffy came last, missing the last few rungs and falling to the ground before bouncing back to his feet effortlessly.

They froze when they turned to look at him, staring like they couldn’t believe he was real. Sabo was a bit in disbelief himself. He had expected them to look drastically different. It had been a month after all. But it was like no time had passed for them. Sabo knew the same couldn’t be said for him. He started to feel self-conscious, wondering what they thought looking at him now and how sickly he’d become.

Ace reached him first, grabbing Sabo by the collar. The blond pup flinched, ready for a punch or a similar hit to show Ace’s displeasure with him. Instead, he was pulled into a crushing hug. Uta wrapped around them both, arms trembling. Luffy barreled into the pile, knocking them all to the ground as he wrapped his arms around them several times, laughing and crying all at once.

Sabo’s body responded before his mind could catch up. His arms clutched them back, his nose buried in Ace’s shoulder, his fingers tangled in Uta’s hair, his arm around Luffy’s neck.

And then the scent hit him.

Smoked orange, wild cedar, hibiscus and something woodsy from Ace.

Sea breeze, vanilla and something floral from Uta.

Ocean breeze, cinnamon and something meaty from Luffy.

Faint traces of Dadan’s sharp pine, smoke and citrus, Buggy’s teakwood, lemon and lavender, Eudora’s pineapple, chocolate, hibiscus and rose, Makino’s vanilla, elderflower and maple, even Garp’s sun-warmed driftwood with hints of rum, ginger and iris.

It was the scent of his pack, the scent of home. His body trembled, starved for the familiar smells of his family. The silence inside him cracked open and something deep in his chest surged forward, reaching out for a connection.

They scented him in return. Ace rubbed his cheek against Sabo’s forehead, Uta’s face was pressed to his collarbone and Luffy’s into his neck, right near his scent gland. They murmured nonsense and nicknames and apologies, their voices overlapping over one another so he could barely make out what they were saying.

Before he knew it, tears were streaming down his face. Not from pain or grief, but relief. Sabo pulled back slightly, blinking through tears.

“I missed you.”

Ace snorted.

“Idiot, you shouldn’t have left then,” he snapped, but there were tears in his eyes too and no heat in his voice.

“Sabo doesn’t smell like us anymore,” Luffy pointed out with a pout.

“We’ll fix that,” Uta smiled as she rubbed her cheek on his.

Luffy grinned at her words.

“We’re gonna nest so long you’ll forget all about those dummy nobles.”

Sabo laughed, breath hitching in his chest.

“Yeah, sure,” he agreed.

He didn’t know what his siblings saw in his face, but it made them draw him back into their arms, holding on so tightly he was briefly concerned about his bones breaking. He wasn’t sure how long they held him before Ace pulled back slightly, eyes narrowing.

“Wait, how did you get here?” he asked, scanning the clearing.

“You were in High Town. How’d you get out,” Uta inquired.

Sabo turned and gestured weakly toward the edge of the clearing. Dragon stood there, half-shadowed beneath the trees, his green cloak damp from the morning dew, his gaze steady but unreadable.

Luffy tilted his head at the sight of the man as Uta and Ace quickly scrambled to their feet, standing protectively in front of Sabo and Luffy.

“Who’s that,” Luffy asked, helping Sabo stand up. The blond boy swallowed, his voice hoarse as his throat was starting to ache again.

“This is Dragon. He’s… he’s a friend of Shanks’.”

Ace’s eyes narrowed further.

“A friend of Shanks? Here, in the East Blue? That guy?”

“Mm-hmm. I called Shanks from High Town when things… they just got to be too much for me. Shanks sent him to help me get back home.”

Dragon didn’t flinch. He stepped forward slowly, hands visible and posture calm.

“I’m not here to hurt him or any of you,” the revolutionary declared.

Uta’s brows furrowed.

“Why would Daddy send you?”

Dragon met her gaze and for a moment something flickered there that Sabo couldn’t quite decipher, but it was something like recognition and pain.

“Because he trusts me,” Dragon said simply.

The pups stared at him skeptically for a moment before a large smile stretched over Luffy’s face.

“I think he’s a good guy. Plus, Dad trusts him so he must be alright.”

Sabo felt a fond smile cross his lips. He had missed Luffy’s simplicity, his innate ability to decide whether a person was good or not. It was so different from Stelly’s entitlement and superiority over everyone else. His joy was cut short as his vision suddenly swam and he felt his knees buckling. The pain hit like a wave, sharp, grinding, suffocating. His lungs seized, his chest burned and the silence inside him roared back to life. He gasped, clutching his ribs, eyes wide with panic.

“Sabo!” Ace lunged forward, catching him before he hit the ground and helped him down the rest of the way.

Uta dropped to her knees beside him, hands trembling.

“Bo, what’s wrong?”

“It’s an effect of the bond suppressant. My colleague took the pain earlier, but it was only a temporary measure,” Dragon explained as he approached them.

“Suppressant? Is that why we can’t feel him properly? Why we’ve all not been feeling well,” Uta asked.

“Most likely, yes.”

“What do we do?” Luffy asked as he hovered, eyes wide with fear.

Dragon knelt beside them, voice low but firm.

“Get him inside. He needs warmth, familiar scents. He needs a nest if its available.”

The siblings didn’t hesitate. Ace scrambled ahead of them up into the treehouse as Luffy and Uta lifted Sabo between them, guiding him toward the pulley system that they had for deliveries as he shivered violently, breath coming in ragged gasps. Luffy and Uta held him steady as Ace lifted the trio up.

The nest was nearly the same as it was when Sabo left except there were more articles of his clothing, his scent clinging heavily to their shared space. Uta and Luffy lowered him into the bundle of fabric. It was soft and smelled of his siblings. Sabo shivered as he settled into it with Luffy diving in after him and wrapping his rubbery body around Sabo, holding on tightly.

Sabo weakly glanced up as he heard heavier footsteps on the wood. Dragon was inside the treehouse. He noted that Ace didn’t growl at him and Uta didn’t launch into a lecture on proper nesthome etiquette and pirate ship etiquette given their treehouse doubled as both, the children merely stared down at Sabo worriedly, fussing around with the nest and moving things around to make him more comfortable.

“You should get the adults in your pack. They’ll know how to care for him. He’ll need a doctor as well.”

“I’m fastest. I’ll go get Dadan,” Uta declared before running towards the exit and leaving the treehouse entirely.

Sabo wanted to reach out to her, wanted her to stay, but he didn’t have the strength. He settled himself into Luffy’s embrace as Ace anxiously bustled around, layering blankets over him and scenting him with quiet urgency. Sabo clung to their touch, his fingers curled into Ace’s sleeve and his face buried in Luffy’s shoulder.

Dragon lingered in the doorway, hesitant. Luffy glanced over at him.

“Are you staying,” he asked, his voice small.

“Until help comes.”

Ace didn’t speak, he just watched Dragon with wary eyes, one hand resting protectively on Sabo’s chest. The silence stretched between them. Dragon didn’t step further in, but he didn’t leave either.

It was a while before Sabo heard other familiar voices coming towards the treehouse, their voices urgent.

The treehouse door slammed open with a gust of wind and boots on wood. Dadan stormed in first, eyes scanning the nest with intensity. Dogra and Magra followed close behind, flanking the bandits’ doctor, Kori, whose satchel clinked faintly with glass and metal. Makino came last, calm and composed but worry clear in her brown eyes. Uta slipped in behind the adults and immediately got into the nest where Sabo lay curled up, pale and shivering, attached to Luffy while Ace stood guard.

Dadan’s eyes landed on Dragon still standing near the doorway and her posture shifted instantly. Her shoulders squared, chin lifted, her alpha scent flared sharp and territorial.

“What the hell is he doing here?” she snapped, stepping between Dragon and the nest. Dragon didn’t move or rise to the challenge.

“I brought him back,” he explained simply.

“You’re an alpha that I don’t know from fucking anywhere. You don’t get near my pups without permission, especially not now,” she growled.

Makino stepped forward, placing a gentle hand on Dadan’s arm.

“He’s not here to claim anyone.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I know him and I trust him.”

Dadan hesitated, her scent still bristling, but she didn’t push further. She stepped aside, just enough to let Kori through. Dragon glanced at Sabo one last time then turned to Makino.

“I should go.”

Makino nodded in response.

“I’ll walk you out.”

Dogra and Magra exchanged glances.

“You sure, Makino?” Dogra asked, voice low.

The barmaid smiled faintly in reply.

“I’m sure.”

She stepped outside with Dragon, the door closing behind them with a soft thud. Inside, Kori knelt beside the nest, her hands already moving. She checked Sabo’s pulse, his temperature, the pallor of his skin. Her expression darkened.

“It’s bond suppression. The symptoms from his earlier neglect have also resurfaced. The suppressant reactivated the damage. I had a feeling this was the case when we all stopped feeling him. I gathered what I need when I first had the suspicion. I just have to compound the medicine.”

She stood, already moving toward the exit.

“Keep him warm and scented. I’ll be back soon.”

The door closed behind her and silence settled over the room, thick and fragile. Dadan stood near the nest, arms crossed, jaw tight. Her eyes flicked to Sabo, then away, then back again.

“He looks like hell,” she muttered to herself.

Dadan shifted, her fingers twitching towards Sabo before he felt rough fingers brushing through his blond locks, pausing on some of the sections where his hair had fallen out.

“Didn’t think I’d miss you, kid.”

Sabo looked up at her weakly.

“Y— You did?”

“Don’t get mushy. I just… I kept expecting you to come back. Every time your brothers did something dumb, I thought maybe you’d show up to either help them or scold them. Stupid, I know,” Dadan grunted.

“It’s not stupid, boss,” Magra corrected, stepping closer. Dogra nodded in agreement.

“The Dadan Family sticks together, always.”

Dadan’s jaw clenched.

“Yeah. And we’re not about to let anyone take you again.”

“I— I chose to—”

“Shut up, brat. We all understand why you did what you did. Doesn’t change anything,” Dadan dismissed.

She turned to Dogra and Magra then.

“We guard the pups. No one in or out until Kori’s done making that medicine.”

The men nodded before retreating to stand by the door. Dadan turned back to the nest, eyeing the pups wrapped around him. Ace looked up with fierce eyes.

“We’re not leaving him,” he declared as Luffy and Uta squeezed Sabo tighter.

“Good. Then we’re all on the same page.”

Dadan sat down beside the nest, not touching, but close enough for Sabo to get her scent. Her presence was steady and grounding. The silence had settled into something a little less tense by the time Makino stepped back into the treehouse, her expression unreadable. Sabo stirred at the sound of her boots on the floorboards. His eyes fluttered open, glassy and red-rimmed.

“Makino, can you… can you come here?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

The omega didn’t hesitate. She knelt beside the nest, her scent already blooming, soft and familiar. Sabo reached for her with shaking fingers and she folded into the nest without a word, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply. His body shuddered, starved for comfort and the feeling of being surrounded by people who loved him.

Ace pressed closer, scenting his temple. Luffy curled around his legs, murmuring nonsense words and half-formed promises. Uta pressed her face into his chest, her ear over his heartbeat. Makino stroked his hair, whispering soft reassurances.

Sabo rode a thin line between pain and comfort as he waited for the bandits’ doctor to return. It took a while but soon enough, Kori stepped inside, her satchel clutched tight and her expression focused. She crossed the room quickly, kneeling beside the nest and setting out her tools with practiced ease.

“It’s ready.”

Sabo blinked up at her in a daze.

“Will it work?”

“It’ll unblock the suppressant. Your bonds will come back. All of them.”

Sabo swallowed hard but nodded wordlessly.

Kori drew the dose into a small syringe, then paused.

“It’ll hit fast. You might feel overwhelmed.”

Sabo nodded again, barely breathing.

Kori administered the injection with gentle precision at the same site as the suppressant injection, just at his collarbone. For a moment, nothing happened and Sabo had enough time to panic before suddenly it felt like a bomb exploded in his chest.

He gasped, sharp and ragged, like the first breath after drowning. His body arched, his fingers clawing at the blankets as heat surged through his chest, his spine, his throat. The silence inside him shattered and the bonds came rushing in.

Ace. Uta. Luffy. Makino. Buggy. Dadan. Dogra. Magra. Even Shanks, far away as he was, came back. It was too much.

Sabo sobbed, loud, unrestrained and broken. He clung to Makino, to Ace, to Luffy, to Uta, his body shaking with the force of his cries. Tears poured down his cheeks, soaking into the nest, into their clothes, into their skin.

“I feel you. I— I feel you. I missed you. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Makino held him tighter. Ace whispered his name. Luffy kissed his cheek. He could vaguely feel Uta’s tears wetting his shirt as Dadan turned away, blinking hard. Kori stepped back, giving them space while Dogra and Magra stood silent.

Sabo continued to weep, not from pain but from relief, from the confirmation of his family’s love, from the unbearable joy of being found by them again.

~*~*~

The treehouse was warm.

Sabo hadn’t had any real warmth in what felt like years. It had been a week since he’d been back home. The siblings’ nest had been rebuilt, blankets layered with care, pillows scented and arranged in a loose spiral the way Sabo liked. He had spent the majority of the week lying in the center of the nest, swaddled in scents and softness and his siblings’ embrace, his body still aching but no longer screaming.

He was home. Yet, the heaviness hadn’t completely left. It wasn’t the weight he felt on his chest when his bonds were suppressed, not the weight of illness, it was something else. It clung to him like damp wool, persistent and inexplicable. He was happy to be home, he knew it. He felt it in the way his chest loosened when Ace laughed, in the way Uta’s humming made his heart feel warm, in the way he relaxed when Luffy curled around him at night. However, beneath it all, something in him was still hurt.

He didn’t know why, didn’t know what to name it and he didn’t know how to make it go away no matter how much he tried. His mood didn’t go unnoticed, it would be naïve of him to believe it would. His siblings brought it up first.

He had been ensconced in the nest, watching the others move around the treehouse. Ace was sharpening a stick with a pocketknife. Luffy was staring into his beetle terrarium, comparing the newest Atlas beetle he had caught with the pictures in his book. Uta was folding laundry with quiet precision. They weren’t hovering, but they were close. They were always close nowadays, not that Sabo minded.

He rubbed his chest, fingers tracing the spot where the pain used to live. It was quieter now but not gone. Uta glanced over.

“You okay?”

“I think so.”

Ace looked up sharply.

“You don’t sound sure.”

“I just… I still feel heavy, like something’s sitting on me, even though I’m here and I’m safe.”

Luffy crawled over, resting his chin on Sabo’s knee.

“Is it like when you’re sick but the fever’s gone and you’re still tired?”

Sabo blinked in return.

“Kind of, except I don’t really think it’s my body that’s sick anymore.”

Uta sat beside him, folding her legs beneath her.

“It’s okay if it doesn’t leave right away.”

Ace nodded in agreement.

“You went through hell. You don’t have to bounce back like nothing happened.”

Sabo looked down, picking at a loose thread on his shirt.

“You don’t have to be happy all the time for us to love you.”

Sabo’s throat tightened.

“You’re not mad at me?”

Ace snorted.

“Mad? You think we’re gonna get mad because you’re sad?”

Uta leaned her head on his shoulder.

“We’re here together, that’s what matters.”

Sabo didn’t speak, he just let them hold him.

All the adults noticed next.

Makino said something to him first. She had been spending more time in the woods than in the village lately. She visited the treehouse every day, bringing food and clothes and joining the kids in the nest while reading stories or humming softly.

Sabo was awake and out of the nest during this particular visit, which was a rarity. He spent more time in the nest than he did out of it lately. The morning light filtered through the treehouse windows, soft and golden, catching on dust motes and the edges of old drawings and maps taped to the walls. Sabo sat at the table, a half-eaten bowl of rice cooling beside him, his spoon idle in his hand.

The nest behind him was quiet (or as quiet as it ever was when his brothers were asleep). Ace and Luffy were snoring, tangled in blankets and each other’s limbs. Uta had gone to fetch water and left Sabo to stare down at the table, his fingers brushing over his chest.

He could feel all his packmates tugging on him, letting him know that his family was still there with him. A familiar burst of warmth that he had come to associate with Shanks flooded his chest briefly, stronger than it usually was, before it settled down. He was home. He was safe. His bonds had returned, strong and steady. He could feel his family nestled in the home they’d made right next to his heart, and yet, the sadness hadn’t left. It wasn’t sharp anymore, but it felt like a stone tucked beneath his ribs. He didn’t understand it.

Makino stepped into the room, her basket full of folded laundry. She paused when she saw him, her eyes softening.

“You’re up early,” she said gently.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

Makino set the basket down and poured him a fresh cup of tea.

“Nightmares?”

“Kind of.”

Most of his dreams had disappeared during the day, but there was one scene that lingered, a worse-case scenario if Outlook III had been cruel enough to force him to sever his bonds rather than just suppress them.

“Unbind yourself from them. Cut your ties at once or I will ensure that they are no longer around to cause me such headaches anymore,” Dream Outlook had said.

Dream Sabo had trembled, but he closed his eyes, turning his senses inward to the bundle of warmth nestled beside his heart. Sabo could feel all the people who made up the tapestry of his life like individual strings connected to his heart, thrumming with life, vibrant with love and care and trust. Some of the strings felt warmer than others, his siblings’ strings shining the brightest of them all, but they told of all the attachments he had made ever since he had left High Town. He clenched his teeth as he thought of cutting each one of them off. He jolted, clutching his chest as he felt each one die away.

He had woken up then and stayed that way until Uta woke up too and convinced him to eat something while she went to get water.

“I thought it would go away,” Sabo admitted.

“The sadness. I thought once I was home, once I felt everyone again, it would disappear.”

“Sometimes the soul takes longer to heal than the body does,” Makino advised, stirring her tea.

Sabo looked down, ashamed.

“But I’m not alone anymore.”

“No, you’re not. Your heart just needs a little more convincing of that. Give it time.”

Dadan stomped into the treehouse then, boots muddy, a towel slung over her shoulder. She glanced at Sabo, then at the untouched rice.

“You’re not eating,” she said gruffly.

“Not hungry,” Sabo murmured.

Dadan frowned in reply.

“You used to eat like a starved raccoon.”

Sabo tried to smile.

“Must’ve been nice for your food stores to not have one of us around.”

“Don’t even joke about it, brat,” Dadan snapped.

Sabo’s face smoothed out.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

Dadan didn’t respond, she just walked over and ruffled his hair with a rough hand.

“You’ve never been a chatterbox, but you’re still too quiet. When you do speak, you’re talking nonsense like that,” she muttered.

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, but you will be. Kori’s coming by later to see you. Don’t give her a hard time.”

She walked off before he could reply. Dogra and Magra passed through next, carrying firewood and trading jokes as they entered with Uta on their heels. They paused when they saw Sabo, their smiles dimming just slightly.

“You need anything?” Dogra asked.

Sabo shook his head. Magra tilted his head inquiringly but Sabo waved them off. Kori did come to visit, her satchel clinking with glass and metal, her voice calm and steady. Sabo had told her haltingly that the sadness hadn’t left, that even with his bonds restored, even with his siblings curled around him in the nest, something still felt wrong.

She’d nodded, unsurprised.

“It’s common. Reversed bond suppressions can leave lingering depression. Your body remembers the silence and so does your heart.”

She encouraged him to try and go back to previous routines. Sabo thought about it: leaving the nest, going out hunting with his siblings, raising some hell in the jungle, joining the bandits for wrestling nights. It all felt like so much effort, like trying to swim with weights tied to his ribs. It felt safer to retreat into the nest and stay there, wrapped up in the familiar scents that he associated with home.

The guilt was the worst part. His siblings never pushed him. One of them always stayed behind while the other two hunted. They brought him food, tucked him into the nest, scented him gently. The bandits visited often. Makino came daily. Buggy and Eudora stopped by with stories and sweets. He still saw everyone in his pack, but the fact that they were being so accommodating made him feel even more guilty for not at least trying to feel happier.

So, he tried. He’d gotten up that morning, dressed slowly, strapped his pipe to his back, and stepped into the doorway just as Ace and Uta were preparing to leave.

“Bo,” Uta asked curiously.

“I’m coming with you guys,” he’d replied simply.

Luffy stared at him with wide, inquiring eyes while Ace’s narrowed.

“You don’t have to. You can stay here with Luffy while Uta and I go hunting.”

“I know but I want to go. Kori says I should try to get fresh air anyway.”

His siblings still looked hesitant but then Luffy suddenly grinned before running at him and pulling him into a hug.

“I’m so glad! I get to show you all my new moves. I’ve gotten even better with the Gum Gum Fruit!”

Ace rolled his eyes.

“If by better you mean hitting yourself less, then sure.”

“Right? Thanks, Ace,” Luffy chirped, oblivious.

Uta smacked Ace’s shoulder.

“Progress is progress, Freckleface. Don’t be mean.”

Sabo felt a small smile tug at his lips as he watched his siblings’ antics, he had missed this.

Hunting wasn’t so bad. His body remembered the rhythm. Uta and Luffy played bait, darting through the underbrush with laughter and squeals. Sabo and Ace flanked them, silent and swift. They foraged wild vegetables, caught two large alligators, butchered them with practiced ease. The meat was skewered and roasted, the bones simmered into stew.

Now, they sat around the fire, bowls in hand, the stars beginning to peek through the canopy.

Sabo took a bite. It was good. Smoky and tender. He looked at his siblings. Uta’s braid was loose, her cheeks flushed from the firelight. Luffy was already on his second bowl, humming between bites. Ace was sharpening a stick again, his eyes half-lidded, his posture relaxed.

“Can I ask you something,” Sabo said, breaking the quiet.

The three other pups looked up at him curiously.

“I want to know what it felt like when you couldn’t feel me.”

The fire popped as Uta’s hand stilled where she was spooning another bowl of gator stew into a bowl for Luffy. The rubber boy blinked owlishly at Sabo while Ace’s jaw tightened.

“Why,” the eldest boy asked with narrowed eyes.

“I just… I need to know.”

“You’re not going to use it to punish yourself, are you?”

Sabo opened his mouth but couldn’t answer that question. Ace continued to stare at him before he let out a sigh.

“It was like someone took a bite out of me. Just… a chunk missing,” Ace said finally.

“It was like a piece of my heart went quiet. Not gone, but quiet,” Uta added.

Luffy curled closer to Sabo as he spoke.

“I kept thinking you were hiding, like maybe you were just really far away and I couldn’t reach you.”

Sabo’s breath caught at their descriptions.

“Did it hurt,” he asked.

Ace sighed and rolled his eyes before answering.

“Yeah. It was like being sick and not knowing why. Everything was duller, quieter.”

“I stopped singing,” Uta mentioned quietly.

Sabo blinked in surprise.

“You did?”

“I couldn’t hear the music the way I used to.”

Luffy tugged on Sabo’s sleeve.

“Uncle Buggy said it was because your bond got squished. That it was still there, but it couldn’t talk to us.”

“He said we were feeling what you were feeling, but you were feeling it ten times worse than us,” Ace added.

“That made it worse, knowing you were hurting more than we were and we couldn’t do anything to help you,” Uta commented with shimmering eyes.

Sabo stared down at his bowl. His appetite had vanished. Ace nudged him gently.

“We weren’t mad at you. We were scared and sad. We missed you so much it made us sick.”

Uta leaned her head on Sabo’s shoulder.

“We didn’t know what was happening. We thought maybe you were mad at us or that you didn’t want to be our pack anymore.”

Sabo’s throat tightened.

“I never stopped wanting that.”

“We know,” Ace assured him.

Sabo looked up at the stars.

“I thought I was protecting you. I thought if I went back to High Town, I could make things better for you guys, for the people in Edge Town. I even thought… I even thought maybe Outlook and Didit would see me trying and… I don’t know, give me a chance. If that was going to be my life forever, it’d be easier if they at least wanted me for something other than just using me but... but they…”

Uta’s hand found his.

“They didn’t,” the girl finished.

“No, they didn’t,” Sabo confirmed in a whisper.

Luffy pressed his face into Sabo’s side.

“They’re stupid.”

Sabo looked at the fire.

“They adopted a boy while I was away: Stelly. He gets their name, their legacy, their pride. He gets their love, even if it’s twisted. I never got any of that.”

“You deserved it,” Uta told him softly.

“I know that now, but I didn’t get it from them. And I think… I think part of me is always going to be sad about that, even if I don’t want it anymore. Even if I have you guys. I’m sorry for being so weak.”

“That’s not weakness,” Ace shot back.

“It feels like it. I should be over it, I should be grateful and happy and whole. I shouldn’t be sad like this anymore, especially about them.”

“I still wonder what life would’ve been like if my mom lived, if both her and Roger were around to raise me. I know I probably wouldn’t have you guys like this if they did live. If I ever said I felt guilty for missing a life I could’ve had with them, you would knock me upside the head and tell me I’m being dumb and that it’s okay, so you don’t get to beat yourself up over this,” Ace explained, his voice rough but caring beneath the grit.

“We’re not mad at you,” Uta reassured him.

Luffy nodded in agreement.

“You can be sad and still be ours.”

Sabo’s eyes burned with tears.

“I just hate that it still hurts.”

Ace reached over and grabbed the back of Sabo’s neck, pulling him forward until their foreheads touched. Sabo closed his eyes. The fire warmed his face and his siblings’ scents surrounded him, reminding him that he was home.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Uta kissed his temple.

“You don’t have to be.”

Luffy wrapped his arms around all of them.

“We’re always gonna be here. We’re just happy you’re back here with us too.”

Sabo let himself be held. The sadness didn’t vanish, but it didn’t feel so heavy anymore.

~*~*~

After that, Sabo tried to go back to his old life as much as he could. He started hunting with his siblings again regularly. Kori had encouraged it with reminders that routine could help. At first, it had felt like dragging himself through molasses. His limbs were heavy, his chest tight, his senses dulled, but the jungle was familiar, the rhythm of the hunt was muscle memory and his siblings were patient, way more than Sabo had ever thought they’d be capable of.

Now, Sabo stood and walked toward the tangled mess of Luffy and a boar they’d been hunting, helping untangle his fingers from his Gum Gum Net. The boar was stunned but alive. They’d roast it later, maybe make stew if Uta felt ambitious.

Ace clapped him on the back.

“You’re getting faster again.”

“Still slower than you,” Sabo replied.

“Only just,” Ace assured with a grin.

Uta looped her arm through his as they walked back to the treehouse with the boar slung between Ace and Luffy. Their nesthome was warm and Makino had left a basket of herbs and bread on the table. Sabo helped skin the boar, his hands steady, his breath even as he listened to Luffy’s ridiculous stories and Uta’s song quietly but attentively as they ate.

Later that night, they went to wrestling night. The bandits had cleared a space near Dadan’s hut, ringed with torches and logs for seating. Dogra and Magra were already sparring, their shirts off and their scents strong. Kori sat nearby with a notebook, taking bets from the other bandits. Dadan barked orders from the sidelines, her voice sharp but fond.

Sabo sat beside Ace with Pochi’s head laying in his lap, watching Luffy bounce in place, waiting for his turn.

“You gonna wrestle tonight?” Ace asked.

“Maybe,” Sabo answered hesitantly.

“You don’t have to win. It’s not about that,” Ace said.

“I know…”

“Come on, Bo! It’ll be fun,” Luffy encouraged.

“I… I’ll try.”

“Don’t force yourself. It’s up to you,” Uta advised.

“I know. Still, I should try.”

When his name was called, Sabo stepped into the ring. His opponent was one of the younger bandits, a beta with quick feet and a cocky grin. They circled each other, testing weight and speed. Sabo moved slower than he used to, but his instincts were still sharp. He feinted left, ducked a swing, and swept the beta’s legs out from under him.

The crowd cheered.

“Still got it, brat,” Dadan snorted with approval.

Sabo grinned, breathless. His chest ached, but not from sadness this time. It was from effort, from the burn of exercise and exertion and adrenaline.

He didn’t win the match, but he still was smiling when he went back to his seat.

The next morning, Buggy arrived.

He was loud, as always, his scent a riot of teakwood, lemon, and lavender. He brought snacks, insults, and a new training schedule.

“You’re late. I’ve been waiting for you to stop sulking,” he told Sabo as the blond exited the treehouse with his siblings.

“I wasn’t sulking,” the pup muttered.

Buggy raised an eyebrow.

“You were holed up in your nest like a broody teenager. No shame in it, but it’s time to move.”

Sabo rolled his eyes in response.

“Yeah, yeah. Fine.”

They trained in the clearing, Buggy barking commands, Sabo moving through drills along with his siblings. His body protested, but his mind was clearer. Buggy didn’t coddle him. He teased, corrected, and pushed. Sabo appreciated it more than he expected. They took a break midway through to drink some water and munch on dried fruit. Sabo watched Luffy hopping after a frog while Ace and Uta bickered with one another to the side. He glanced up when Buggy sat besides him.

“You’re doing better,” the older man said.

“You think? I still feel… off.”

“That’s normal. You were suppressed, hurt and grieving.”

Sabo looked down.

“I thought coming home would fix it.”

“It did, but healing isn’t the same as fixing. It’s more like rebuilding than anything else. That’s what you’re doing, kid.”

“What if I don’t like who I’m rebuilding into?”

“Well, you’re free to change it. That’s your choice to make now, without the influence of your birth pack.”

Free. Sabo liked the sound of that. They went back to training easily, the pups running through drills and Ace and Luffy flexing their devil fruits.

“I have to say, seeing you altogether is a welcome sight.”

Sabo glanced over as Eudora walked into the clearing, her violet hair shimmering in the sunlight. Luffy and Uta ran over to her and hugged her legs tightly. Eudora walked over and ruffled Ace and Sabo’s hair before pressing a kiss to Buggy’s cheek.

“It’s about dinner time, dear. Dadan’s family is having a bonfire. I think training should be coming to an end,” Eudora advised.

Buggy nodded along but seeing as how Luffy was already running ahead, crowing about meat, with Ace on his heels, training was over whether he liked it or not. Buggy rolled his eyes before following after them, Uta grabbing his hand and walking off beside them. Sabo and Eudora pulled up the rear, walking side by side towards the bandits’ hut. Sabo hadn’t seen much of Eudora since that day she and Buggy had shown up trying to get him from High Town.

“You looked quite strong out there,” Eudora commented.

“I’m trying. It feels good to move.”

“Movement helps. Especially when the heart’s still heavy.”

They walked in silence for a while before Eudora spoke up again.

“I’ll be leaving soon. Not far, but I won’t be around as much.”

Sabo blinked.

“Why?”

“Edge Town. Dragon’s agreement with the king is real. The nobles signed off. But someone has to make sure they follow through.”

Sabo’s brows furrowed.

“You mean they might not?”

“They might try to shift the burden: raise taxes on Town Center, cut corners, delay funding. I’m going to be there to make sure they don’t.”

Sabo nodded slowly, looking down at his hands.

“Thank you. For helping. You didn’t have to.”

Eudora’s gaze softened.

“I did, actually. Not because anyone made me, but because I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.”

Sabo swallowed.

“I want to help people too. I want to make things better, even if I do it as a pirate.”

“Then do it. Your path doesn’t have to look like mine. Or Dragon’s. Or anyone else’s,” Eudora said with a smile.

“Is it okay? To want to fight for people, but not be part of the Revolution?”

“It’s more than okay, it’s sacred.”

“Sacred?”

“That moral code of yours, the part that wants to protect, to uncover truth, to make things better, that’s sacred and you have to guard it.”

Sabo looked at her, eyes wide.

“People will try to take it from you. They’ll tell you it’s naïve, childish, that the world doesn’t work that way. But it does, or it can, if you hold on,” the gamma woman advised.

“I want to write a book. For kids like me. To show them the world. The good and the bad.”

“Then write it and live it. Be the kind of pirate who makes the world better just by being in it.”

“I will.”

Eudora reached out and ruffled his hair.

“When you’re older, you’ll have the power to act on those ideals. To shape the world. And I can’t wait to see what you build.”

“Me too,” Sabo smiled, small but steady.

“Oi, Sabo! Catch up if you want to eat tonight!” Buggy shouted across the clearing.

That evening after the bonfire, Sabo watched his siblings chase fireflies.

Uta twirled with a net, her hair flying around her. Luffy stretched his arms to catch them midair, giggling as his fists lit up from their glowing. Ace sat beside Sabo, sharpening his knife and muttering about how fireflies weren’t edible. Sabo laughed. It was soft and brief, but it was real.

Later, the treehouse glowed with light from the jars with the twins’ captured fireflies. Outside, the jungle hummed with night sounds from crickets, frogs and the distant rustle of wind through the trees. Inside, the pups were gathered around Strawberry and Dumpling, the two snails blinking sleepily as they waited for the call to connect.

Uta sat cross-legged on a pillow, her hair damp from a recent wash. Luffy was sprawled across her lap, his straw hat askew as he idly kicked his feet in the air. Ace leaned against the wall, his arms folded. Sabo sat cross-legged on the floor next to him, his journal open on his knees, a pencil tucked behind his ear.

He hadn’t touched his journal in weeks, not since before High Town. Usually, he catalogued things Shanks or the crew told him, things he wanted to experience for himself one day, things he was certain he’d write about when he finally started writing his book. He didn’t bring it with him to High Town and since he’d been back, he hadn’t found the motivation to write anything. Tonight though, something tugged at him. Curiosity maybe, perhaps something deeper. He wasn’t sure.

Strawberry perked up, its features morphing until it acquired scars on its left eye stalk.

“Hey, brats.”

“Dad! We missed you,” Luffy shouted, grinning.

“Missed you too, kiddo. How’s the nest? Still full of chaos?”

“Maki helped Uta make new pillows for us because Ace burned a bunch of them,” Luffy reported.

“A rat got in, I got overzealous. It was a tactical error,” Ace muttered.

“Sure, it was. You’re all in one piece at least?”

“Yeah, we’re okay, Daddy,” Uta assured.

“Good.”

There was a pause and then Shanks spoke again, his voice noticeably a little softer.

“Hey, Niteowl. You there?”

Sabo cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“I’m glad. Anyway, I’ve got stories for you. Want to hear about Dressrosa? It’s a country that has living toys.”

“Living toys,” Luffy asked, stars in his eyes.

“Mm-hmm. Creepy little things to be honest. One tried to bite my boot off.”

“Did you kick it,” Ace asked.

“Politely,” Shanks confirmed.

Ace snorted at that as Uta giggled.

“What else happened,” she asked.

“Well, I went there for a perfectly normal vacation. It’s the country of love and flowers after all. I just wanted to enjoy myself, but I ended up having a duel.”

“With who,” Ace asked with interest.

“Only the World’s Strongest Swordsman. Nothing special.”

All the pups perked up at that.

“Warlord guy,” Luffy asked for confirmation.

“Yup. Not a full fight, more like a dance. We were both bored and waiting on someone else to show up, so we passed the time.”

“Who won,” Ace asked.

“Depends who you ask. Hawky says it was a draw. I say I won because I got the last word,” Shanks chuckled.

“What was the last word?” Uta asked.

“‘Nice hat’. He didn’t like that. ‘Course, it could’ve been because I cut the feather off it. Who’s to say?”

Sabo smiled, faint but real. He picked up his pencil and began to write. His handwriting was slower than it used to be, but steady. The page was familiar beneath his fingers and the act of writing made him breathe a little easier. Uta glanced at him, her eyes soft. She didn’t say anything. Neither did Ace, though Sabo could feel his eyes on him. Luffy leaned against Sabo’s shoulder, watching the snail.

“Tell us more,” he demanded.

Shanks kept talking about a coliseum, the food stalls, dancers in the streets, fairy thieves, a strange man who sold cursed dice. The pups listened, wide-eyed and grinning. Sabo kept writing, filling the page with fragments and phrases, little pieces of the world beyond the jungle.

It felt good, not perfect, but good.

“I’ve got to go soon, Benn’s getting antsy, but I’ll call again soon. Maybe next time I’ll tell you about the time I got stuck in a barrel for three hours.”

“Was it your fault?” Ace asked.

“Absolutely,” Shanks said.

Uta smiled.

“We’ll be waiting.”

“Take care of each other. I need to talk to Sabo alone for a minute, yeah?”

Sabo looked up with surprise and the siblings glanced at one another before the three of them slipped out the window towards the roof of the treehouse, leaving Sabo alone. He bit his lip, staring nervously at the snails before scooting closer.

“Wh— what’d you want to talk about,” Sabo asked.

“Just wanted to check in, make sure you’re alright. How are you feeling?”

“I’m… better than I was before. My body doesn’t hurt all the time, I can breathe easy, I’m not coughing up blood anymore or getting nosebleeds and my hair’s growing back,” Sabo reported.

“I’m glad to hear it, though Dadan’s doctor told me all that already. How are you really feeling?”

“I…” Sabo trailed off with a sigh.

“Different, strange.”

Shanks didn’t speak right away. The snail blinked slowly, its eyes soft and patient.

“Strange how?” he asked gently.

Sabo rubbed at his collarbone, fingers brushing the spot where the suppressant had been injected. It wasn’t cold anymore and it wasn’t unnaturally warm from the antidote, it felt normal and that in and of itself was strange to him for some reason.

“I feel… quiet. Like I’m underwater. It’s like everything’s muffled. I’m not hurting, not really, but I’m not… right either.”

Shanks hummed thoughtfully.

“That makes sense. You went through something big.”

“I know. I just thought… I thought once I got home, it would all go away, that I’d feel normal again.”

“And do you?”

“Not really. I mean, I’m going outside more like Kori said I should. I’ve been hunting with Ace and Uta and Luffy. I even went to wrestling night last week. Buggy made me train again and I didn’t hate it. I smiled yesterday and even laughed a little. And today, when you were talking about Dressrosa and dueling, I picked up my journal. I wrote things down.”

“That’s good,” Shanks said warmly.

“But it doesn’t feel like enough. I’m not getting better fast enough. Everyone’s being so kind, and I’m trying, I really am, but I still feel heavy. I just feel like I’m letting everyone down,” he admitted.

“Sabo, you’re not letting anyone down. Healing isn’t a race. It’s not about how fast you get better, it’s about making sure you get better at all. You’re being honest about how you feel and where you are, you’re showing up, you’re trying. That’s more than enough,” Shanks said, voice firm but kind.

Sabo blinked hard, his throat tightening.

“But I should be stronger.”

“You are strong, not because you’re tough or fast or clever — though you are all those things — but because you keep going. You keep trying, even when it hurts.”

“I don’t feel brave.”

“You don’t have to feel brave to be brave. You just have to keep choosing to live, to love, to keep fighting.”

Sabo pressed a hand to his chest hesitantly before speaking the words that had been weighing on him the most.

“I think part of why I’m still sad is… I know now. I know that my parents don’t want me and they never did. I mean, I knew but… I thought maybe something would change. Maybe they’d see me trying and… I don’t know. But they didn’t. They won’t.”

There was silence for a moment. Then Shanks spoke, voice low and steady.

“That’s grief, Niteowl. That ache you’re feeling — it’s mourning. Even if they’re still alive, even if they’re out there somewhere, you’re grieving the loss of what you should’ve had, what you deserved.”

Sabo’s eyes burned.

“I wanted them to love me.”

“I know and it’s okay to want that and to mourn it, but I need you to remember something.”

“What?”

“You are loved. You’re loved by the family that chose you. By Ace and Uta and Luffy. By Makino and Dadan and the bandits. By Buggy and Eudora. And by me.”

Sabo’s tears spilled over. He didn’t try to stop them.

“You are ours and none of us will ever abandon you, not for being sad, not for struggling, not for being who you want to be, not for anything. You’re our family and real family chooses you no matter what.”

Sabo sobbed quietly, his hand curled around the receiver, his journal forgotten in his lap.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You don’t have to be. You just have to keep being you.”

Sabo nodded, even though Shanks couldn’t see it.

“I’ll try,” he promised.

“That’s all I ask.”

The snail blinked again, its eyes soft.

“I love you, Niteowl. I’m proud of you. I’ll call soon.”

“Okay, I love you too,” Sabo whispered.

The line clicked off. Sabo sat in silence for a long time, tears drying on his cheeks, the fireflies lights flickering on and off. His journal lay open, half-filled with notes and fragments. He picked up his pencil and wrote one more line.

Family chooses you.

Then he closed the book and climbed up to the roof, where his siblings waited in the starlight. Sabo found the three of them laying down on the roof of the treehouse, staring up into the stars. Sabo silently joined them and laid out beside them, staring as more and more stars blinked into view. Ace wordlessly knocked his elbow into Sabo and raised a quiet eyebrow at him. Sabo waved him off and Ace seemed to accept that as an answer.

The jungle below was quiet, save for the rustle of leaves and the distant chirp of crickets. Above them, the sky stretched wide and endless, scattered with stars like spilled sugar. Luffy pointed upward with both hands, limbs sprawled like a starfish.

“That one’s the Hat constellation. See? It’s shaped like Shanks’ hat,” he declared, knocking his knuckles against the straw hat.

“That’s not a hat, Lu. That’s the tail of the Dragon’s Spine,” Uta corrected.

“Nope, definitely a hat,” Luffy cheerfully disagreed.

 “You said the Dragon’s Spine was a fish last week,” Ace snorted.

“Yeah, and now it’s a hat.”

Uta sighed and gave up, flopping back onto the roof with a dramatic groan.

“You’re impossible sometimes, Lu.”

Sabo chuckled, the sound soft but real.

“Let him have his hat constellation.”

“See? Sabo gets it,” Luffy beamed.

Ace rolled his eyes but didn’t argue further. He lay back beside them, arms folded behind his head, eyes scanning the sky. Sabo sat up slightly, his gaze drifting across the constellations. He hadn’t done this in weeks, not since before High Town, not since before everything cracked open, but tonight, the stars felt close again.

“There, that one. It’s the Polestar,” he said, pointing.

Uta followed his finger.

“The brightest one?”

“It’s constant, always in the sky and always pointing north. Before there were logposes, sailors used it to find their way. They could always get where they were going thanks to that star.”

They were quiet for a moment, the fireflies blinking below like tiny echoes of the stars above.

“I’m gonna chase that star all the way to the end of the sea,” Luffy said suddenly.

Uta smiled at his words.

“I’ll be there with you. I’ll sing under it and make people listen.”

Ace grinned.

“I’ll burn brighter than it.”

Sabo looked at them, his pack, his family, his home.

“I’ll write about it. About all of it.”

They reached out, hands overlapping in the dark.

“Promise?” Uta whispered.

“Promise,” the boys echoed.

Sabo lay back again, the Polestar steady above him. He let his breath slow, let the quiet settle into his bones. He thought of the world, vast, mysterious and full of secrets. He thought of the maps he hadn’t drawn yet, the stories he hadn’t written, the truths he hadn’t uncovered. He thought of the children out there, curled in nests that didn’t feel safe or living nestless and unloved, dreaming of escape, of freedom, of something more.

He wanted to find them. He wanted to help them understand what a real pack felt like, what it meant to be held, to be wanted, to be chosen. Maybe his book would reach them. Maybe his stories would light a path. Maybe, like him, they’d be found.

He thought of Outlook and Didit, of Stelly, of the cold rooms and the silence and the ache of being unwanted, the complete lack of love while trapped in opulence and abundance. And he thought of this moment now with his siblings, of laughter and constellations and promises whispered under stars.

He would keep being himself, just like he promised he would and he’d keep chasing his dreams, no matter what his birth family thought. His dream was one worth fighting for. His ideals were worth protecting. And his story was just beginning.