Sabo bolted upright out of his sleep, his sweat causing his clothes to cling to him uncomfortably. He blinked as the light from the midday sun filtered in, blindingly bright. Groaning, he rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear away the last vestiges of his nightmare.

Ever since...the war, and getting his memories back, he'd been having nightmares regularly. Especially after the top officers of the Army had been made to go over the footage from the war.

But... it'd been over two years already, and these days, Koala was less inclined to forgive his sleeping in on account of bad dreams. He knew he'd better get up soon; the longer he stayed in bed, the more hell he'd have to pay later. Pushing his covers away, he went to sling his legs off the bed. Only, there was one problem with that.

There was no bed.

He'd slept on the floor. A rather dirty floor at that, too.

He widened his eyes, trying not to panic. Something was definitely not right, because he was certain he'd been sleeping in his bed last night (Koala had seen to that after he'd tried to sneak a midnight snack from the kitchens).

When he thought he'd heard voices, he tried using his Observation Haki to feel around for them…only to find out he couldn't use his Haki for some reason!

Now, he was about to panic. 'What on earth-'

"Oi! Sabo! Are you awake yet?"

He looked up sharply. That voice. He stood up and slowly walked towards where the voice had come from, not particularly paying attention to his surroundings. He looked out the window, and sure enough... there, down below on the ground and waving his arms happily, like the excitable child that he was, was Luffy.

Before his mind could even begin to process what was going on, a blur of red came out from the bushes and towards Luffy.

Bonk!

"Dammit Luffy! How many times have we told you not to go rocketing off like that!?"

He froze at the second voice. This was really impossible. There was no way he was hearing his voice again. Before he could step back and try to go back to sleep (wake up?), Luffy was crying out.

"Oww! Sabo! Ace is being mean!" He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"I am not! You just don't listen!" Ace yelled at him, irritated.

Sabo didn't react to either of them. He was still frozen in shock. The two boys continued bickering for a moment longer, when Ace realized Sabo hadn't said anything at all.

"Oi. What are you just staring for?" Ace asked him sharply. Sabo blinked and finally snapped out of his frozen state. He climbed down to the ground and joined his two brothers. His heart felt warm and ached at the same time, being here with the two of them again.

"Ah. Haha sorry about that. I was just..." dreaming? Luffy giggled and plowed right into him, wrapping him in a very rubbery hug.

"Shishishi! Sabo's acting funny." Luffy was grinning, while Ace groaned.

"Not you too! We already have one air-headed brother; we don't need another." Ace told him.

Luffy laughed at that before realizing what his brother had said, and when he did, he immediately released Sabo and went back to arguing with Ace. Watching them, Sabo could almost pretend like those awful memories had never happened in the first place. That it was all just an awful, awful, dream.

When Luffy and Ace starting arguing about which of them was the idiot, he started laughing. It felt nice; he hadn't laughed like this in quite some time. He hadn't known for a while if he ever would again, either.

But still he felt unsure. The dream was too detailed to have just been a dream, but if it wasn't just a dream, then what was going on? How was he back here? With Luffy and Ace, and more importantly with Ace alive?

He frowned before coming up with an idea. Albeit a dumb one, but still an idea. He walked over to Ace, not saying a word. Ace stopped stretching Luffy's cheeks while yelling at him, to look at Sabo. Without any warning, Sabo reached out and pinched one of Ace's cheeks. Rather hard, too.

Ace felt real. Really real. Sabo stared at his hand in confusion but Ace didn't pay that any attention as a vein on his forehead popped out in irritation.

Bonk!

"Oww! What the hell, Ace!?" Sabo yelled as he reached up to nurse what was sure to be a growing bump.

"That's what I should be asking!" growled Ace. Ace wasn't touching where Sabo had pinched him, but Sabo knew it had to hurt a little bit. There was a red mark showing on his cheek. Before Sabo had to come up with an excuse for his odd behavior, Luffy came up with one for him.

"Shishishi! See Ace? It's not nice when your own cheeks are pinched, is it!?" Luffy was grinning smugly as if he was the one who had done the pinching. Ace's eye twitched in irritation.

"What was that, you little-!" Before Ace could pounce on Luffy and resume his beating, Sabo moved in between them.

"Now, now, you two...I think that's enough." He tried to calm them both down, deciding that his two brothers killing each other certainly wouldn't help him get any answers. Although, he didn't think he'd be getting any answers from them, anyway. No, he was just going to have to figure this out on his own.

Their stomachs growled, signaling their hunger and the end to this fight. They needed food, so he decided to just let things be and figure it out later. For now, he was happy to have his brothers back, safe and sound, alive and together.

Sabo got his chance to figure some things out sooner than he thought he would. Although, he didn't see it as such at the time.

Sabo spent the better part of the morning thinking about the situation. His brothers had been acting the same as usual, so he figured he was the only one who...was like this. And, not wanting to freak the other two out, he kept his mouth shut about it.

He also tried to not to act any different than he did before, which was actually surprisingly easy. He slipped back into the routine of things a lot quicker than he thought he would. It felt so natural to be running around alongside his brothers again.

He knew today wasn't going to be one of those nice days though, when he heard a large crashing sound coming from the forest. The three brothers looked at each other, worried and on their guard immediately. It quickly changed to panic though, when they heard a familiar booming voice.

"ACE! LUFFY! SABO! WHERE ARE YOU BRATS!?"

"GRANDPA'S COMING!" Screamed Luffy in panic and fear.

"Damn! Not that shitty geezer!" Ace said, quieter than Luffy but no less freaked out.

"HUSH, you two or he'll hear you and find us!" Sabo hissed at them.

They took off running, hoping they could get away before Garp could dole out another of his 'training sessions' but it was useless. He caught up with them and soundly conked all three of them on the head.

"YOU BRATS WEREN'T TRYING TO RUN AWAY FROM YOUR PRECIOUS GRANDPA, NOW WERE YOU?" He asked. He wasn't exactly yelling at them, but his normal speaking tone was so close to it, that there really wasn't much of a difference.

Ace jumped in front of them while Luffy was crying. Sabo grabbed Luffy, trying to comfort him, as well as guard him from Garp.

"Shitty geezer…" spat Ace.

"SHITTY?! WHY YOU LITTLE BRAT! FEEL A TASTE OF MY 'FIST OF LOVE'!" He said to Ace, as he beat him on the head again. While Ace was momentarily distracted, Garp gave another one to Sabo and Luffy each, for good measure.

While Sabo sat there dazed, a sense of familiarity nagged at him. But Garp had knocked him so hard, he was having trouble placing it. He soon forgot all about it, though, as Garp spent the rest of the day 'training' the three of them. He finally gave up for the day right before the sun started setting, and only because his stomach growled.

It was kind of strange, but Sabo had to admit, it was also kind of nice, hunting for dinner with his brothers, alongside Garp. When the brothers decided to go after a bear they had spotted, Garp had stayed back and let them handle it. It had been a little difficult to adjust to not having his claws to attack with, but he regularly fought with a pipe anyway, so it was easy to mask his awkwardness.

After they'd defeated it, Luffy started drooling about it while Ace yelled at him that he couldn't eat it right now. Sabo looked over to Garp, and he saw Garp looking highly amused and a little prideful.

But there was also a hint of curiosity on his face.

Dinner was the usual mess of fighting over food, and argument over future occupations.

"YOU THREE ARE GONNA MAKE AMAZING MARINES!"

"Hell no! We're gonna be pirates!"

"Shishishi! I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"

"LIKE HELL YOU ARE. YOU'RE GONNA BE MARINES. AND THAT'S THAT."

"We're gonna be pirates!"

"MARINES!"

"Pirates!"

"MARINES!"

"Pirates! And don't steal my food, Luffy!"

"But Aaaaace!"

Bonk!

"Owww!"

Sabo sighed, tuning the arguing D's out, content to just finishing his meal, hopefully before Luffy could steal it. When dinner finally finished, and the fire was put out, all four lay down to get some sleep.

Garp was staying with them tonight because he was gonna be starting their 'training session' tomorrow at the crack of dawn. All three had groaned at that, and were rewarded with another round of Fists of Love.

Almost immediately Luffy and Ace were out like a light and he presumed Garp was too, but Sabo stayed awake, once again mulling over his dream/memories. He silently rubbed his head, already aching from today's 'training' and he was not looking forward to tomorrow's.

Damn that Garp. Why did he have to hit them so hard? He was even hurting Luffy with his-

His eyes flew open. "Haki!" He breathed the word out.

Of course! That's what that feeling was earlier! Garp had to have been using Haki on them - Garp had been using Haki on them!? - That bastard! They were just kids!

"What was that, squirt?"

"Ah. Umm..." Shit. Garp was still awake, apparently. Wait. Shit. He'd heard Sabo say 'Haki' out loud. He sat up, looking around for the older man, hoping he didn't look as panicked as he felt. He found him sitting on the log, staring at the fire pit that had long since gone cold.

"Can't sleep, huh?" Garp asked him softly. He motioned for Sabo to come over, and so he did. He took the spot next to him on the log.

"Not really...my head hurts too much." He shot Garp a pointed look, which he just chuckled at.

"I see."

They sat like that, in companionable silence, for a while. Eventually Garp spoke up though.

"So...did I hear you right? You said 'Haki', did you not?" His tone was quiet, and Sabo couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Ah...that was...Umm." Shit, he needed an excuse, and now. Wait. He knew! "Well, I'd come across the phrase before in some books during my studies, and I was just wondering about it..."

He hadn't come across it before when he had been forced to study by his parents, but Sabo felt proud of himself. That seemed like an entirely plausible excuse...except he couldn't remember if Garp knew about his lineage. Shit. Ah, well. He'd already started with this excuse, might as well see it through to the end.

Besides, if it was Haki, then he'd be able to confirm it, that he wasn't making things up. That it wasn't a dream and it had all, in fact, been memories. It also confirmed that Garp was, in fact, an ass for using Haki on kids.

If not, then Sabo was simply nuts and Garp was still an ass for using so much force on kids.

"Do you know anything about it, Garp?" He continued. Garp stared at him for a moment before his brows furrowed.

"Grandpa." He said quietly. Sabo blinked, not sure where that response came from.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sabo was confused.

"If you three are going around calling yourselves brothers, then that means you're my grandson, brat, and you damn well better call me Grandpa. You got that!?" Garp said roughly.

Sabo was a little taken aback by that, but his expression shifted into that of a warm smile.

"Alright...Gramps." Sabo smirked, while Garp 'hmphed'.

"Better than 'shitty gramps' I suppose…" Garp mumbled. "Anyway...Haki, huh... Suppose I shouldn't be too surprised you'd come across that info, being a noble and all." Sabo looked at him. So he did know, then?

"Don't look at me like that, brat. Sengoku may call me an idiot, but I'm not stupid. It really ain't that hard to figure out." Oh. So Sabo hadn't told him, he'd just guessed as much. Sabo felt a little disgruntled that it was that obvious he was noble-born though.

"Anyway, don't go worrying about Haki right now. You kids are too young to be learning it right now. You'll learn all about it, once you lot are marines." Sabo snorted. Pfft, learn all about it? Sabo already knew all about it. Garp thought his snort was about the marines remark though.

"You're gonna be marines, you got that?" Garp told him softly. Sabo smiled, saying nothing. He brought a hand to his mouth to help stifle a yawn that had worked its way up.

Garp chuckled, and told him "Go get some sleep kiddo. You'll need your energy for tomorrow's training.

Sabo shivered but complied nonetheless. He looked over at his brothers, sleeping peacefully. He smiled sadly, the images of Marineford flashing across his mind. He went back under his blanket and scooched closer to Luffy, who was currently wrapped around Ace.

The audio quality hadn't been amazing, but he'd been able to pick out his brother's voice amongst all the sounds of the war waging around him. Luffy's anguished cry alone had left him with sleepless nights for several weeks.

He had one last thought before he completely drifted off to sleep.

Not this time.

x x x

A/N: I'm not 100% decided on my "posting schedule" because this story is almost fully written. I don't want to post it all at once but I also don't like the idea of waiting once a week? Idk. I'll probably just post every few days as I see fit.