AN: This is a a little exploration of Sabo and Ace's early relationship set a few months after they teamed up for the first time posted as a
birthday gift for the lovely ScarletteSorceress~ You should really check out their stories and leave reviews and feedback because they're absolutely amazing~!
"The Pirate King's son? That child should just die! He should regret ever being born and apologise!"
Ace clenches his fists. They're just some people, right? Not everyone can think like they do, right? But they aren't the first ones to say that, are they? The thought makes him growl and kick the side of the leader of the gang a last time. They're just some thugs. They know nothing.
He turns his back and leaves the gang of drunken and beaten thugs lying on the floor of the bar, resolutely walking out the door. He keeps his mantra running through his head the whole time as he makes it out of Low Town and through Grey Terminal. They know nothing. They know nothing. But it doesn't hold. It never does. Half way through the huge dumpsite the bad thoughts start to crawl up from their nooks and crannies. Can that many people really be wrong? It's not the first time he has confronted people from Low Town about it, about his father.
Why would a demon like Ace deserve to be born? Someone with Roger's blood can be nothing else. He clenches his fists tighter and looks down when he feels liquid slide from his arm down across his knuckles. Blood. Most of what's on him comes from the thugs, but some of it is from a long gash on his right arm. He must've scratched himself on a broken table or something. Serves him right.
Not paying the injury any further heed he continues trudging on through the scrap heaps. As he does the rush from the fight wears off at last and the feeling of all of his injuriess come crashing down on him. His ankle is throbbing painfully and he thinks he might've twisted it, and he's got a huge, bruise in the shape of a hand blooming on his left arm. He bites his lip - swollen already, most likely from a grazing strike that he almost didn't manage to duck - to keep the pained whimper that wants to escape in. He's a demon and he desrves it. But he's also strong, and crying is for weaklings.
It's not the first time he's walked on a twisted ankle, but it doesn't make the trek back to his and Sabo's tree any less painful. It slows him down a bit, and by the time he reaches the treeline the sun is much lower than it usually is when he gets back. He curses to himself and hopes that Sabo won't notice, but the hope is futile, he knows, because Sabo is the most observant person he has ever met.
He makes it back to their tree at last and is just about to start climbing up when he is startled by a sound from above, making him lose his foothold and fall flat on his back.
"Ace!" It's Sabo. Of course it is. He glares up at the other boy, getting to his feet grumpily. His vision is blurry and for a moment he almost loses his balance again, but a hand placed against the trunk of the tree lets him steady himself.
"You're late!" Sabo shouts from above and Ace just knows that he's grinning his smug grin. Stupid bastard. He doesn't answer the other, instead opting to try to climb up again. His movements are sluggish and he feels faint, but he blames it on not having eaten. He knows that that can happen, and he hasn't eaten since breakfast, when Dadan gave him a cup of rice.
He starts a slow climb upwards. He doesn't have anything with him today, having forgotten to rob the thugs in the bar in favour of asking the question that so often clouds his mind. Sabo will probably notice that too, but he can stuff it. Ace can't bring himself to care. Unfortunately Sabo is really bloody observant, and he notices Ace's unusual speed soon enough.
"Ace," he calls, frown in his voice, "are you alright?"
"I'm fucking fine," Ace growls out, just loud enough for his fellow aspiring pirate to hear.
"No need to get snappy," Sabo comments lightheartedly, and suddenly there is a hand right in front of Ace's face, offering help up onto one of the biggest branches. Ace begrudingly accepts the hand, coming to stand next to the crouching Sabo on the branch. He sways a bit as vertigo assaults his senses but straightens up. He normally doesn't have any trouble with heights and blames this on his hunger too.
"Hey, Ace, are you really al- whoa!" Sabo's exclamation comes suddenly and unexpetcedly. Ace is just about to ask what he's seen when he tips over, and suddenly he is weightless. He's falling falling falling.
"ACE!" He hears before he impacts and everything goes black.
When he wakes someone is shaking him, shouting in panic. He mumbles a bit in the hopes of shutting them up. Normally he would be on high alert, but he figures that someone out for his blood would've taken the opportunity when he wasn't conscious.
"-ce! Com- Ace!" The voice is familiar. Does he know them? But they sound young. Everyone he knows are old, like the shitty geezer and the old hag. They're both old as dirt, and no one else even knows his name, so who is it?
"-ake up! ACE! Wake up!" Sabo. The realisation feels like being hit by a bag of bricks. Of course it's his new companion. Who else would it be? He sounds worried. Ace opens his eyes, gazing up at his frantic partner in crime.
"Ace!" he bursts out, "I'm so relieved! You hit your head pretty hard, I thought you were dead for a minute!"
"'Course 'm not dead, idiot," Ace mutters, blinking for a moment to clear his blurred gaze. Sabo places a hand on his arm and Ace winces away as the other boy puts pressure on his wound. Sabo looks up at him, startled, and snatches back his hand. When he gets a good look at it his jaw drops as he stares at the sticky red mess no on his hands. Of course. Ace's blood is dirty, after all, he has that man's blood runing through his veins.
"Ace, you're-" the blond interrupts himself in favour of ripping his white cravat from around his throat.
"Wha' are you-" Ace starts confusedly when Sabo ties the fabric around the wound and gets up.
"Stay there, and stay conscious!" he commands before rushing off at full speed towards Grey Terminal.
The sight of the other boy running away gives Ace a stabbing feeling in the gut. Maybe the other has finally realised that he's no good? It's an irrational thought, one he wouldn't have had otherwise, but his mind is muddled and messed up, and he can't quite think straight.
But still he does as Sabo said and tries his very hardest to stay concious. If nothing else he isn't going to let something like this defeat him. In that moment he vows that he isn't solely going to be a pirate who sails the open seas; he's going to be the strongest pirate. The strongest of all, and the world is going to know his name. They're going to speak in hushed whispers and loud shouts of Portgas D. Ace, the Strongest Pirate in the World, not about the Pirate King's son, about Ace.
He doesn't know how long he lays there, but eventually Sabo returns, out of breath and with a box full to the brim with what looks like white fabric in his arms.
"Sab-Sabo?" He's almost surprised that the other boy actually returned.
"You're still alive!" he pants, setting the box down and dropping to his knees at Ace's side, "I didn't think I'd make it!" Ace opens his mouth to answer, to ask a question, or something along those lines, but Sabo interrupts him.
"No, no, don't talk! You've lost a lot of blood, you need to rest," he says with a determined nod, pushing Ace down and back to the ground as he tries to sit up. Ace doesn't like to be ordered around, and he'd like to protest, but he finds himself too weak to do so. How shameful.
Sabo starts to rifle through the box, coming up with a bottle of something clear and what Ace recognises as a roll of bandages, he's had a lot of experience with those. Sabo gently unties the cravat from around his arm and pours some of the opaque liquid over the wound, rinsing the blood away.
"Disinfectant," Sabo mutters, and he must already have known that Ace wanted to ask, "it'll get infected otherwise," Ace really wants to know how Sabo knows this, but he doesn't ask. His business is his business, and Ace trusts him enough for this. It's a new feeling; trust. He's never really had anyone to trust before, nor has he had any friends his own age. He wonders if that's what they are - friends.
"Where did you get those?" he asks, ignoring his own thoughts, they should go to hell.
"I robbed the apothecary down in Low Town," Sabo says with a toothy grin, "I think it'd be best if we started keeping a stock, 'cause you'll probably get hurt again!"
"Oi!" Ace growls menacingly. Sabo just laughs him off.
"There," the blond says satisfiedly as he ties a knot on the bandage to make sure it doesn't fall off. "As long as you get enough rest and food you should be fine," he says confidently, "and I'll make sure you do," he adds with a stern look as he starts to pick up the discarded bandages and band aids.
"Why…?" Ace asks, "why are you doing this for me?" He doesn't understand, what good will it do Sabo if Ace is healthy?
Sabo gives him a strange look, as if he's the unreasonable one.
"We're friends, right? Friends look out for each other." He says without a touch of hesitation in his voice. He is completely sure of his words, despite the rhetorical question.
Ace is silent, but he can't help it when his usual scowl melts away for a moment. Friends, huh? He likes the sound of that more than he thinks he should.