Written for Day 6 of ASLBrosWeek 2016 - Day of ASaboL

At the time of importing this document onto the site, I have yet to finish writing Day 7. I am not to be trusted with a schedule.

As of posting this chapter onto the fic, I have finished Day 7. It's become a two-shot.

Damn it. Don't trust me with a schedule of any kind (exception: school schedule).

He was speaking with Dragon about the whereabouts of a devil fruit was and battle preparations. Then, he was talking to Hack about supplies and necessities before Koala dragged him away to talk about what they should do with Kaido and the 'other stupid Yonko' before the other members – an entire room worth – were calling for Sabo and asking if he knew what in the seven's seas was that large ship coming their way, and the Chief of Staff laughed happily before telling them that it was a close friend that had somehow found them because Sabo forgot to mention the Strawhat Pirates had his vivre card.

He was sitting on the opening of the cove, tinkering with his pipe when he first heard it.

"Sabo!"

A pair of rubber arms rubbed around him multiple times, pulling in a body towards Sabo and crushed him in a hug. "Hey, Lu," Sabo replied, a grin on his face. "How're you?"

Instead, Luffy smothered his face into Sabo's cravat, and Sabo could hear mumbled words of "Safe," and "alive," and Sabo tightened his hug. "Hey," he began softly, "I'm alive, alright? Sorry if I worried you."

"Mmhh…" The pirate mumbled, but eventually dragged his face from the cravat and pulled away from Sabo. "It's fine! We got Sanji and Jinbe and we kicked Big Mam's butt!"

The rebel blinked. "Big… Mam?"

Luffy nodded eagerly. "Yeah! She's really big and fat and she eats a lot of candy!" Then, he crossed his arms and scowled. "But she eats her nakama! That made me really angry so I wanted to punch her but Nami said not to and Zoro agreed! I had to wait a really long time to fight her!"

Sabo huffed lightly, laughing and ruffling Luffy's hair. "Your crew only wants the best, Luffy," he explained, "if you did that, you'd be really badly hurt."

Luffy pouted. "That's what Chopper said! Ah, well. I got to beat her up! I made friends, too! One of their names is Carrot and she's really nice and –"

Sabo grinned as he watched Luffy squirm, pulling his hat up and adjusting it to how it was before Sabo pulled it down. "Calm down, Luffy. You have plenty of time to tell me everything that's happened." He tilted his hat. "If you haven't noticed, your crew's arguing."

Luffy craned his neck to see. "Shihihihi! Zoro and Sanji are fighting! I'm glad; they haven't fought in so long! It's normal!" Then, he turned around and waved to his crew. "Oi, guys! Let's go!" Luffy tugged at Sabo's hand. "Let's go let's go let's go!"

"Eh?" Sabo blinked. "Well. Where do you want to go first?"

"Ooh, ooh! Can I see dad?"

Sabo laughed. "Yeah, let's go."

He released his hand from Luffy's grasp and stuffed them into his coat. They passed through large corridors that Luffy was attracted to due to their bright lights and reflective properties. Robin hurried past them at some point, looking very much interested in their new base – it was inside a cave – and Sabo had to pry Luffy off one of the crystals when he realized it resembled meat. They reached the end of a corridor with a bright, luminescent crystal as it light source and a large door.

Sabo knocked on the door, leaning on it slightly. "Dragon-san?"

"Come in," a voice answered.

Sabo grinned and opened the door, pulling Luffy in with him. "Look, Luffy! It's your dad!"

Luffy grinned widely – Dragon stared, incredulous – and waved, bouncing over towards Dragon's desk and disorganizing all the papers on the desk. Sabo's mouth twitched upwards as his brother began to rant to his father about his shenanigans.

And suddenly, Sabo felt his heart clench.

Were you happy, Ace…? Sabo's tilted his head down, hiding his face.

Did you… did you find what you were looking for?

"Sabo?"

The blonde raised his head, and a sheepish smile grew on his face as he realized both D's were watching him curiously. "I'm fine," Sabo said, forcing a small smile. "I'm fine. Just thinking."

Dragon's eyes narrowed, but didn't press. Sabo counted that as a victory. Luffy, however, was staring intently and looked ready to annoy Sabo until he spilled everything. Luffy opened his mouth –

"If you two don't mind, I need to re-organize this," Dragon stated, an Sabo wanted to collapse in relief as his leader cut off Luffy's words and the pirate pouted.

"It looks fine the way it is!" Luffy stated, and Sabo blessed the way his brother had the world's shortest attention span.

Dragon flicked Luffy's forehead with a bored expression, but Sabo could read his feelings like a book. "To you, yes." Dragon moved his gaze towards the Chief of Staff. "Sabo, if you would…"

The blonde chuckled. "Yep." He jerked his towards the door. "Come on, Lu. Let's go see if we can find Koala and Hack."

Luffy stuck his tongue out like a mature adult, but followed regardless. He shouted a goodbye to Dragon and happily skipped alongside Sabo, who had taken his hat off and adjusting his goggles. "Neh, Sabo?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you look so sad earlier?"

Sabo winced, briefly recalling fuzzy memories and remembering how pointless it was to lie to Luffy once he knew something was really up. "Just thinking. Really." About Ace. About you.

Sabo blinked, then he felt something squeeze him; looking down, he couldn't help but smile when he realized Luffy was hugging him tightly, as if he were to release his older brother, he would disappear. "Luffy…"

"Sabo, it's alright," Luffy mumbled, and Sabo froze, because while Luffy was a moron, he wasn't an idiot. "Whatever you're thinking off, you shouldn't keep thinking about it because we have to be happy now!" Luffy peeled his face off and grinned happily. "Ooh, ooh! I met up with the Whitebeard Pirates and I met the pineapple guy –"

"Phoenix?"

" – he's a chicken! – and he said they've got Kaido done with or something, and Nami said we would meet up in about three months so now that we've seen you again we can team up and destroy Bushbeard –"

"Blackbeard." And oh how did that name make Sabo's vision go red.

" – so we all gotta get ready!" Luffy finished, looking ferociously enthusiastic and devoted, and Sabo dubbed it as Luffy's 'About to kick ass' look. The strawhatted pirate looked at his brother. "You'll help right?"

Sabo grinned and lightly cuffed the back of Luffy's head. "Of course! What do you take us for?" He leaned in closer. "Besides, he's been causing a fair share of our problems as well, so we have more than a personal reason to get involved."

Luffy nodded. "Good."

"I'll see you soon, alright Luffy?"

The rubber pirate laughed, tilting his head left and right happily. "Yeah! Then we can fight together, remember?"

Sabo felt the corner of his mouth twitch upwards. "Yeah, of course." Missing one, of course…

Luffy hugged Sabo one more time before running back to the entrance of the cove. "See ya, Sabo!"

The blonde tipped his hat. "Yep. See ya, Lu." He sighed lightly, shoulders slumping before turning back around.

…

"Ah! Sabo!"

"Hrm?"

Luffy jumped back in front of him and presented a blank, square piece of paper. The rubber pirate was grinning happily. "Take it!" He chirped.

Sabo blinked, but nevertheless agreed, humouring Luffy. "Alrighty then…"

Rubber hands took his normal hands and guided them to his pockets. "Keep that safe, alright?" Luffy said happily, tilting his head, "it's super important!"

Sabo pursed his lips. "Whatever you say, Lu. But, what's it for?"

"Shihihihi!" Luffy laughed, jumping back to his waiting crew. "It's a mystery!" He shouted.

Sabo narrowed his eyes, hand clenching the paper.

That little brat.