Title: Someday
Fandom: One Piece
Characters: Portgas D. Ace
(- the greatest pirate in the world, says Luffy, just watch, someday I'll be -)
.
Don't resist this, repeats Ace; the chains clink together with the slightest shift of a muscle, eerily loud even in the chaos of steel and gunpowder and betrayal with the call of 'father'.
I can't do anything says his Garp's broad shoulders, his frame bent and defeated for once. When he was a young boy, he'd fantasized about this moment, but there is no strength to boast of, no weaknesses not ignored. Duty or family, honor or love. And none of them will cry because there is still something salvageable in pride, when the swords cut off his head and Garp wipes his cheek with a rough palm; it will not be his tears.
Luffy yells and trashes and crumples to the floor. Don't resist this, he repeats; don't.
.
He remembers hunger; he remembers blood. He remembers the smell of burning corpses, of a stubborn slip of a boy who pretended he was a man with something worth protecting. He remembers two brothers and a nagging old coot and a girl who smiled like she meant it.
He remembers Luffy with his stupid grin. Luffy who cried like a girl and shared sips of wine with Sabo and Ace and who he should have protected, Luffy who was not his brother by blood but was still his brother, all the same, and all big brothers protect the younger ones to make them suffer less, to make the hurt wane.
He remembers.
.
The key is lost; Ace would laugh if he could. There's an answer in the smallest mistakes, like being caught, like not being strong enough, like following blind anger.
Was I a good father, asks Whitebeard, and Ace hangs his head, shouting yes like his life depends on it.
- but he will not regret it. He will not let anyone stain his father's name.
.
(And he will not let anyone hurt his brother anymore, not while he still stands.)
.
This is your someday, said Sabo, a long time ago, and Ace falls to the floor, ash and fire, skin and bones.