Luffy scurried back into the house to retrieve the three sake cups he forgot to get when he stole Dadan's sake. Sabo sat on a tree stump with a leg crossed over the other, wondering what the brothers were up to with the whole idea of drinking sake.

When Luffy came out with the three cups, he presented it to Ace, excitement making him bounce on the spot.

Ace took the cups with his free hand—the other hand occupied with the bottle of sake—and led the way into the forest. Luffy was jumping closely behind while Sabo was nervous about stepping into the forest.

The nervous feeling, however, was washed away when he heard a familiar soothing sound. He quickly picked up his pace to walk along beside Ace and Luffy. Brushing the final layer of leaves and branches out of the way, a bright and vast scenery greeted him.

"It's the…ocean," Sabo said in awe.

Luffy skipped to stand beside Sabo and laughed. "It's like you've never seen the ocean before Sabo!"

"Well, even if you're used to seeing it everyday, it's always beautiful," Ace said from behind.

The Windmill Village was right by the ocean and so was Makino's bar, but when Sabo went at night, he could barely make out the dark waters, only catching a few glistening gleams. This was it. This was what he longed for his entire life. He wanted to sit at the edge of the cliff and watch the waves of the water move, watch the waves crash against the rocks below—it made an emotion he couldn't quite describe well in his chest.

"What do you think, Sabo?"

Sabo turned to the man with a sloppy lop-sided grin. "There are no words to explain what I think of it," he faced the ocean again, "just it's amazing." A breeze blows his hair, shading his closed eyes. When he opened them again—not realizing how Ace was watching him—he joined the two brothers to sit on the grass.

With the three cups on a tree stump, Ace popped the cork off the bottle and poured the sake into each of the cups.

"Have you heard, Sabo? When you exchange sake cups, you become brothers."

Sabo paused and his eyes lightened up.

Brothers.

"Is that really okay?" he asked in a way it sounded like he couldn't believe it rather in question.

Luffy chuckled. "I want Sabo as my brother too!"

"Me and Luffy already did this a couple years ago. We want you to be our brother. Do you not want to?"

Sabo shook his head, a smile stuck on his face. "I do, if you guys are fine with me I want to be your brother." In contemplation he muttered under his breath, "So you two aren't blood-related brothers…"

"Yeah, but by exchanging sake, we formed a bond that will keep us connected as brothers," Ace explained and smiled. He picked up his cup, Luffy doing the same, and Sabo lifted his cup in the air.

Clank.

"From today onwards, we're brothers!"

They cheered and drank the sake in one gulp.

The rest of the day was spent with Luffy pleading to Sabo to go eat ramen at the town.

"Pleeeease Sabo, the ramen there is super good!" Luffy pulled on Sabo's pants while the blonde was busy picking berries from the area close to the house.

He sighed. "Sorry Luffy, I can't go there. Maybe somewhere else like down at Windmill Village?" Sabo pat the dirt off his pants and stood, grabbing the basket full of berries.

"Windmill Village doesn't have ramen! Why can't Sabo go into town?" Luffy whined. He was still holding onto Sabo's pants.

Not wanting to lie to the boy and knowing that he wouldn't be able to avoid the question—Luffy had been trying to get him to go for the past couple hours—he said, "There are bad people there so I can't be seen or I'll be caught." He felt little hands release his pants and eyes stare at him dumbly.

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "If there's bad people bothering Sabo, then it'll be easy!" He turned on his heels and starting walking away, his arms swinging merrily. "If I beat up the bad guys, Sabo can go eat ramen with us."

"W-wait! It doesn't work like that Luffy!" Sabo threw a hand to lay on Luffy's shoulder.

Luffy faced Sabo and wormed a pinky into his nostril. "It'll work. There's nothing difficult about it Sabo, you're more of an idiot than I thought."

Sabo laughed as he shouted, "I don't want to be told that by you!" He glanced away and back at Luffy and sighed. "Listen Luffy, I—"

A nearby shrub rustled and a man blinked at them.

"What're you guys doing?"

"Ace!" Luffy ran to Ace and climbed up to cling onto his arm. "Sabo said he doesn't want to go to eat ramen with us!"

Ace tousled Luffy's hair and snickered. "I know, hasn't he been rejecting you for the past two three hours? Think it's time to give up."

"No!" Luffy leaped down and stood with both arms on his hips. "Sabo said there are bad guys in the town so he can't go." He pointed to Sabo and Ace glanced over. Sabo gave a small smile.

Luffy continued with animated motions to emphasize what he was saying, "If there are bad guys in there, all we gotta do is beat them up and we can go eat ramen together right?"

Sabo shot a look at Ace, his expression signalling the man to not get aboard on Luffy's plan and not gang up on him. When he received a smirk, he wanted to slap himself multiple times knowing where this was going.

"You can't refuse now Sabo," was all Ace said before hoisting Sabo up on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and racing out of the forests in a matter of tens of seconds. Sabo was dropped onto the ground and slowly got to his feet, the ride to Gray Terminal giving him motion sickness.

It wouldn't hurt to try to escape having lunch with these two…with his brothers again.

"I think it'd be a good idea not to go you know." He took a step before the back of his coat was grabbed.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Ace proceeded to drag Sabo along, the heel of the blonde's boots scraping against the scrap and dirt. Luffy jogged to keep up with his brothers, pleased that Sabo would join them for an extremely late lunch—it was more of an early dinner in the evening.

As the three grew closer to the wall that separated the town and Gray Terminal, Sabo noticed that they weren't going through the gateway.

"The gateway isn't this way," he stated.

Ace grunted. "Yeah, we know. We can't just waltz through."

"Right." Sabo may or may have not forgotten that only citizens of the town and people who wanted to sell goods could go in. With the amount of time of his life he spent within these walls, in this town, he probably did forget and now he was going back. He shivered, dread sinking his heart.

Ace stopped and took a peek over his shoulder at Sabo. "…What's wrong Sabo?"

His mouth opened, yet no sound came out. Sabo clamped down on his lips to stop his shivering and opted to shake his head.

Ace turned around and gripped Sabo's shoulders. He craned his neck to get a better look at Sabo face—the blonde's downcast eyes were shielded with his hair.

"Sabo?"

Luffy who was further up ahead, realized something was wrong and stopped. With a hand gesture from Ace to wait, he stood in place staring at the two from afar.

Ace didn't want to shake Sabo too hard, the man looked too fragile at the moment and so he waited. His brows crinkled in concern. He could hear Sabo's shaky shallow breaths and his attempt to hide them.

Sabo couldn't face Ace. If he lifted his face, he'd know what a wreck he was judging from Ace's expression and he didn't want that kind of look on the man's face. To know he was the one who caused Ace to wear such expression would stab him in the gut with guilt. He shook his head again, reluctant to lift his head up. Where was his hat when he needed it.

Ace sighed deeply. He immediately regretted the action when he felt Sabo flinch.

"Sabo? What's wrong, look at me," Ace said softly but firmly. A sharp intake of breath could be heard and he could see clear liquid running down Sabo's cheeks. Ace moved one of his hands up to brush against the other's cheek. He gently urged Sabo to lift his head.

The knot of uneasiness untangled in his stomach one knot at a time as Ace brushed his cheek. He wanted to lift his head, he wanted to look into Ace's eyes and find out what was there. With how careful and soft the man's touch was, he was sure Ace was worried.

Worried about me?

Sabo let a tiny snigger leave his throat. He shook his head at the thought. A low, familiar voice brought him to attention.

"Sabo…" He could hear his name echo in his ears, the tone resounding wholly in care and concern.

Sabo lifted his head with another nudge from Ace's hand resting on the side of his face. His eyes fluttered as the man swept away his hair blocking his sight.

"It's the town isn't it? We don't have to go if you don't want to." Ace was a bit ashamed to have let his joke go as far as to make Sabo tremble in fear. He didn't think it was this bad.

"Sorry, it's nothing serious." It came out raspy.

Ace narrowed his gaze. How was this nothing? Sabo's blue eyes were watery and he was still shaken up.

Don't lie to me.

"Sabo, come on, we should get you back to Dadan's." Ace nudged the shoulder he had in his grasp—his other hand already brought down from Sabo's cheek. He frowned.

"The ramen place is at Town Center right? If so, it isn't really a problem." Sabo couldn't hide the unsteadiness in his voice. He bit his bottom lip and looked to the left. "See, Luffy's waiting and—"

"Sabo." Ace nearly growled his name and took ahold of the man's shoulders again. His fingers dug into the thin coat. He stepped closer to Sabo and stared into his eyes for a while before pushing the man back. He turned around and began striding towards Luffy, sighing.

Sabo stood there simply watching Ace's back—the tattoo on his back as well—distance itself from him.

"Thank y…" he tried to call out, but it faded into a mumble. Sabo walked forward, the mix of dirt and gravel crunching underneath his boots. Ace peeked behind his shoulder, seeing Sabo catch up.

"Thank you," Sabo repeated, this time Ace listening, if eye contact was a clear indication. The man didn't respond and said the other thing he wanted to say, "I like it when you call my name."

It makes me feel like I'm right here.

Ace blinked and tapped Sabo's shoulder with the back of his knuckles. "You're welcome," he said and Sabo laughed.

"But tell me when you can't stand it, if you don't, I'll make sure you don't get to eat any of that delicious ramen." Ace sang the last part, returning to his usual spirited self.

"I will, promise. I won't scare you like that again. But that's rude if you take people's portion of food, you're going to starve me." Sabo wiped his damp cheeks with his coat sleeve and saw Luffy fuming up ahead.

"Hah! I was not scared and no one said I was gonna starve you," Ace retorted.

Sabo smiled, he'll give Ace that. He might have not been scared, maybe worried…His smile broadened as he became aware that the man had said he wasn't getting any ramen if he broke his promise.

"Geez, you guys took so long! I'm so hungry I could eat the whole island's food stock!"

Sabo apologized while Ace threw his arms behind his head, teasing Luffy. The three walked side by side in their usual bickering kind of peacefulness.

"What did you guys talk about?" Luffy asked and the two older brothers replied with a nothing much.

A/N: Okay, more dramatic than what I thought which was no drama. I swear this just gets longer than intended. Finished this today in 3 hours praise me ahaha! Please excuse the mistakes, I haven't checked through this yet. As always, hopefully this chapter was an enjoyable one for you guys.