Luffy has made plenty of promises in his (relatively) short life.

Luffy thinks that Ace is dead, Ace is dead and Sabo isn't coming back.

The smell of ash and fire, and burning flesh invade his nose and the bandits all give him a wide berth, except for when they try and feed him, food that remains untouched.

And then Ace is alive!

But…

Sabo is dead, Sabo is dead.

That's all he can think, one of his brothers are dead.

And it's all his fault!

The guilt is always present, they should have tried to save Sabo, or even if Ace said no, he should have done it anyway.

The guilt eats at him until he cannot eat.

He doesn't move from his spot on the cliff, he is slightly considering throwing himself off it, he would most definitely die from it, he knows because there is water at the bottom of it and sharp rocks. It would be so easy to just tumble off the top and never have to think that one part of him is dead.

Ace and Sabo were his brothers. And that was why he couldn't do it, he couldn't kill himself because Ace would be all alone and he doesn't fully know, but he thinks that Ace would kill himself too.

And he doesn't want that because Ace means the world to him, as much as Sabo doe-did.

So, after sitting on that cliff for three days, with his hat which, he doesn't deserve, he's too weak, Sabo is dead because of him.

Ace stands beside his prone form and slams a fist into his head, he tries his best to quell the pooling tears in his eyes.

"Luffy…" His brother murmurs softly, there's still a certain hardness to his voice, but it has been softened for him.

He can't stop crying though, Ace must hate him, he didn't save Sabo. He didn't save Sab- "Oi!"

Ace growls and suddenly there's a bop on his head. "Stop thinking about stuff like that, I don't hate you." That makes him pause, did he say all of that aloud?

"Yeah… Luffy, I don't blame you, if anyone would be to blame, it would be Sabo's family." And Luffy can't help but think, the me was left unsaid.

"Ace…" He finally murmurs, his voice is hoarse, throat raw from crying continuously and not drinking too much. "I want to get stronger and stronger and stronger, I want to be the strongest in the world! And then, I'll protect everyone, I won't lose anyone I care about again! You gotta make me a promise, don't ever die Ace!"

"Baka!" Ace yells and punches him again, "If anyone has to make that promise, it's you. Listen Luffy, I will never die!"

"Luffy, we have to live life without regrets!" Ace declares and he cautiously glances up to his older brother, his face is set in determination. "We'll set out to sea when we're 17 and sail with nakama!"

"Mn!" He nods, straw hat still covering his face.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat." And Luffy pulls himself up and follows Ace into the forest.

Ace doesn't tell Luffy to help him like he usually does, instead he catches three alligators on his own and cooks them up.

All the while Luffy remains quiet, he isn't used to how weak he feels. It might be because of the lack of food over the last few days or the weariness that has settled into his bones. But either way, he doesn't attempt to help Ace.

Ace won't admit it, but it unnerves him, how quiet Luffy is, he hates that Sabo is dead, he hates this godamn world but Luffy… Luffy hadn't ever cared what the world thought about him.

And the fact that he hasn't been eating too much is extremely worrying.

He knows that there's something weird about Luffy's body due to the akuma no mi he ate.

To not eat anything for three days must be agonising for his body.

So, he dishes up the better of two alligators to his brother and watches as Luffy blankly stares at the food before taking tentative bites, and not once does he make for Ace's own food.

It's worrying, and he'll deny it until the day he dies, but he wishes that Luffy was his jubilant self. Despite how much the boy annoyed him, it was awful to see him like this.

When they're inside Dadan's hut he refuses to be without Ace. "You can stay here on one condition, you have to take a bath."

Ace bites back his protests, neither of them are in the mood to be cleaned.

He can tell that Luffy's mood unnerves the bandits too because Dadan tries to force extra food into him that he pushes away.

Ace takes them both to the bathhouse and fill up the larger of the baths, he climbs in, not expecting his brother to.

Luffy still has that awful blank look on his face as he glances at the smaller pail next to him and Ace sighs.

"Oi, you won't be able to stay here if you still smell like ash." Ace says and climbs out of the bath.

He tips the pail over Luffy's head.

After both are clean and Luffy has yet to utter a word after the cliff Ace pulls the smaller boy onto his mat, he doesn't usually give out hugs, but Sabo's death hit Luffy the hardest and it is simply devastating to the younger boy.

(He doesn't admit that it hit him hard as well, he craves his little brother's contact as well)

"Goodnight Luffy." He mutters.

It is not a good night, he is woken up twice by Luffy clinging tightly in his sleep, silently mouthing words that Ace has a general understanding of.

In the morning, the pair are more tired than they were going to sleep and the bandits give them food wordlessly. They might deny that they loved them, but Ace knew the truth.

Eventually the brightness returns to Luffy and everybody lets out a heavy sigh they didn't know they were holding.

Years later when Ace's last dying breath spills out of him, he can't help but regret that he was repeating what Sabo did to them all those years ago.

"Luffy, everyone, thank you for loving me." And Ace knows no more.

And Luffy screams.