A/N: Sorry for not updating for a while, I was on holiday and forgot my laptop, then spent forever trying to type this up – my handwriting is atrocious! D:

Summary: Marineford ficlet – pretty sure that its crap – Sabo saves Ace and Luffy in Marineford and they escape in a small boat which later washes up on an uninhabited island.

Care

"They had washed up on an island after the havoc of Marineford and had soon come to the realisation that this tiny island had no human inhabitants…"

"Sabo….?"

"….although the island was filled with a variety of animals…"

"…er….Sabo!?"

"….and a range of different plant life, some unique to the island…."

"SABO!"

Sigh "Yes Luffy?"

"What are you doing?"

"Making a log."

"….you don't have any paper though." Ace shot in.

"Well…."

"…or a pen, not even a leaf or twig." Luffy added.

"Shut up Luffy. What else are we supposed to do; it's so~ boring here."

"It's an uninhabited…" Ace started.

"…by humans…" Luffy added.

"….by humans…" Ace agreed, "…island. It's bound to be boring." He finished, throwing a handful of sand into the waves. It was true, the island was tiny, and he had walked round it in less than half a day. To make things worse he and Luffy still had quite a few untreated injuries, Luffy more so than himself, and the boat that they had escaped on was punched full of holes so they couldn't leave. Add that to the fact that almost no one knew that they were here – or even alive – and you had a pretty shitty situation.

"Then we need to do something to pass the time until help arrives….or a ship that we could steal comes along." Sabo commented.

"Well what do you suggest we do then?" Ace demanded.

"You could tell me what you did after I left or what adventures you had whilst sailing on the seas." Sabo suggested.

"Ok." Luffy chirped, "But you have to tell us how you survived and what you did up until you met us again, and Ace has to tell his adventures too!"

"Deal," Ace and Sabo said simultaneously.

"I'll start!" Luffy yelled.

"Ok," Ace said. "But first I want to know how you got into Impel Down and then Marineford. And I want the full story not just so and so got me there! Got it?" Sabo nodded his agreement – he wanted to know too!

"Yup." Luffy said, popping the 'p'.

"Oh and why your crew didn't come with you to Impel Down or Marineford. When I met your guys you all seemed as thick as thieves, what happened?" Ace asked.

"Well, after you met us Ace, we got 3 new members. Oh, and Sabo, my crew had 8 members, not including me! My first mate Zoro (he's a swordsman ad he uses 3 swords), my navigator Nami (she has a clima-tact that makes weather and she uses it to fight), my sharp-shooter Usopp (he fights with a slingshot and also goes by Soge-King), my cook Sanji (he fights with his feet), my doctor Chopper (he's a reindeer who ate the human-human fruit and he has 7 transformations), my archaeologist Robin (she ate a devil-fruit that allows her to grow extra limbs anywhere), my ship-Wright Franky (he's a cyborg) and my musician Brook (he's a living skeleton!)"

"….a living skeleton?" Ace asked hesitantly.

"Yeah!" Luffy grinned, completely missing the baffled looks that his brothers exchanged. "Anyway we were at Shabondy, looking for a coater so that we could go to Fishman Island, but our friend Camie (she's a mermaid) got kidnapped so we went to rescue her. She was taken to a 'human shop' to be sold….we tried to buy her back…it didn't work. This tennryuubito wanted her and then he shot Hachi (he's a merman) and I got mad…so…I punched him and sent him into a wall."

Ace and Sabo gaped at him; touching a tennryuubito was punishable by death! Luffy had punched one, an admiral would have been called in…..they were starting to see why their little brother's crew had been separated. But…how?

"Anyway," Luffy continued, "We got Camie – we had some help from this guy called Rayleigh, he had this cool power that knocked people out without him even touching them – and we fought off the marines surrounding the 'human shop.' Well me an' Kidd and Law did. They had big bounties like mine, and weird devil-fruit abilities; Law could make 'rooms' where he could chop people up and stick them back together and Kidd could control metal, he could 'repel' and 'attract' it and he could make things with it…but they called me the weird one?!"

Sabo and Ace smirked at this, because, yes, Luffy was (and still is) weird as hell! And a surprisingly good judge of character, he could tell friend from foe with a glance but he wouldn't fight with them unless they gave him a good reason.

"Well," Luffy continued, oblivious to their thoughts, "we escaped, but we were caught by this bear-bastard."

At this Luffy's tone darkened and Ace and Sabo listened intently to his anger coated words – he hated that he couldn't protect them, he hated that they were taken away from him, they were…no are his nakama, his crew, and no-one should be able to tear them apart, he wouldn't let them…not again!

"The bear-bastard was too strong," Luffy ground out, "he sent them away from me using his devil-fruit powers. I watched, helpless, as they vanished in front of me. Robin was the last, I'll never forget her face, he eyes, telling me that she didn't want to go, her arm reached for me and, as I reached her – the second I reached her – she was gone. They were all gone…my nakama…I was alone…"

Luffy trembled, whether from anger or sorrow they would never know, but if they had to place a guess, they would say both.

"After that…well…it hurt, seeing them disappear…I'd lost them before, I thought that they were dead last time…but last time I saved them. But this time, they were gone…and I couldn't save them." He sighed, mentally shaking himself out of his depression before starting his tale again, "I was out of it at that point so…I didn't see it coming…well he hit me with the same attack that made my nakama disappear and I was sent flying, literally. I was in a bubble or something and I was flying across the sea. I don't know how long I was in there. I slept through most of it, but after a while I started to drop, I crash landed on an island…called Amazon Lily."

"Wait isn't that…" Ace began.

"The all women/maiden island?" Sabo finished.

"Yup."

"You are either really unlucky or someone up there hates you." Sabo commented.

"I defeated the guy up there." Luffy stated.

"What?!" Ace yelled incredulously.

"I defeated this 'god' called Enel."

"Really?" Sabo asked doubtfully.

"Yeah."

"We're getting off track here. Just carry on Lu." Ace interrupted before an argument could start up.

"'Kay. So I landed on Amazon Lily and I had a look around, to see where I was, I was surrounded by trees and jungle, so I used a vivre card to get back to Shabondy. The vivre was Shaky's – she owns a bar that was in the section where we left Sunny – I was making good progress, until I came to a mountain. I was too weak from the fight to smash through it, so I ate a mushroom that made me laugh, it was pretty fun so I ate some more. At some point though, I passed out."

"What? You passed out?" Sabo asked.

"Yeah," Luffy shrugged, "Then I woke up in a holding cell, the women of the island had saved me when I ate a weird mushroom that they said would have killed me. They only saved me 'cause they thought I was a girl though."

Luffy pouted while Ace and Sabo snickered; Luffy did look quite slim and delicate for a man.

"Shut up!" Luffy huffed, "Well, I stretched my arm to get my hat back and they saw my balls – they'd stripped me to get off the mushrooms that were growing all over my body after I ate the weird shroom – so they asked me what they were. I said 'kintama' and they asked if I could take them off."

Ace and Sabo blanched 'take them off?!' They winced, 'absolutely not!'

"Yeah I know," Luffy said, noticing their wince. "So then, I shouted at them 'are you trying to kill me?' They looked a bit stunned, and then they gave me some new – frilly and pink – clothes and I freaked out, they took this as me being violent and aimed some weird snake bows at me and said that this was how I thanked them after they'd saved me, so, naturally I said 'thanks.' They then said that they would still have to kill me because there was a 'no-man' rule on the island, and all men that set foot there had to be killed."

"So they saved you only to try to kill you?" Ace asked incredulously.

"Yeah."

"But you're still here (thank god) so what happened?" Sabo asked curiously.

"Well, asking them not to kill me didn't work so I escaped through the roof. Then I realised, while dodging their attacks, that the vivre card was still in my pocket – in my shorts that Margret was holding. So I grabbed her and jumped out of the mountain crater – that's where the village was. We landed safely thanks to fuusen."

"Ooh~. That defence that you were working on around ten years ago? You finished it?" Sabo asked.

"Yup." Ace and Luffy chirped.

"So Margret gave the vivre card back and told me that the island was in the Calm belt, so the only ship they had belonged to the Kuja pirates and it was pulled by Yuda – poisonous serpent sea kings that no other sea kings would go near. After failing to make a raft, and almost getting killed by Haki powered (whatever that is) arrows that Margret shot at me, I decided to go ask this empress if she would give me a lift to Shabondy or at least the nearest non-Calm belt island."

Ace and Sabo frowned slightly – Luffy could be quite naïve sometimes.

"So I went back to the village, and the empress was back so I went to the tallest building – which is where I thought the empress would be. And…I kinda…misjudged my fall…and crashed through the roof, into her bathroom–"

"What?!" Sabo yelled, "Luffy!"

"– while she was bathing."

Ace and Sabo blinked before simultaneously pinching themselves and thanking the heavens that their little brother was so innocent and naïve.

"Anyway, I saw this symbol on her back – they referred to it as the 'Gorgon's eye', that it was a curse that turned anyone who saw it to stone – she didn't like the fact that I had seen it, around that time her sisters ran in. the empress attacked me with this pink beam – I thought that it was like a guy called Foxy's power, which slowed things down – so I froze…but nothing happened. So she tried again…and nothing happened. The sisters yelled something about 'it being impossible to resist their sister's beauty – especially after seeing her naked – so my fear must be what was stopping the beam from working.' Why would seeing a girl naked make you like them more?"

Ace and Sabo smiled – only Luffy could see the empress Boa Hancock naked and then have no reaction whatsoever – Luffy was so innocent.

"Then I tried to escape but she (the empress) shot me in mid air with this bullet that my rubber powers couldn't rebound. The shot brought me down and – after tying me up with snakes (weird) – they took me to the arena to be eaten alive by this giant panther as punishment for setting foot on the island. Then Margret and two others – a tall giant lady called Alphelandra and a medium sized, slightly fat lady called Sweet pea – jumped down to the arena and tried to take the blame for bringing me onto the island. The empress used the pink beam again and turned them into stone."

Ace and Sabo looked horrified at this – how could she do that to her own crew members – the ones that had done everything for her. Their second thought was 'thank god Luffy is so innocent; otherwise he would be a statue right now.'

"After that I got really mad. So when Bacura (the giant panther) was released…I knocked it out with one punch. I then screamed at the crowd and the empress, asking how they could cheer and laugh when their nakama had been turned to stone. The empress then stood up and said 'because I am beautiful.'"

'Geez' Ace thought, 'how arrogant is she?' Sabo was thinking along the same lines, with an added 'Luffy's not gonna like that.'

"I told her that she pissed me off and she swayed and said something about 'not standing my existence' and told her sisters to get rid of me."

Ace was furious 'How dare she?!' he thought, 'Thant's our little bro! Leave him alone you witch!'

Sabo's thoughts were very similar but also had aspects revolving around 'how to prevent Ace from killing her' but 'making sure that the witch knew not to mess with their little bro.'

"So then they came down and revealed their zoan snake forms while I mover Margret and her friends out of the battle zone. Anyways, the battle started and I couldn't land a clean hit on them. They could predict my attacks and block all of them. It was a little like what happened on Skypia. I was trying to remember what I did back then when Sandersonia – the green haired sister – go Margret. Marigold – the other sister – had caught me and Sandersonia went to drop Margret, I kept on shouting at her to stop and then there was this…wave of power thingy and she stopped."

Sabo gaped – Luffy has the King's Disposition! Ace had a smug loon on his face because Luffy had the King's Haki just like him!

"A lot of people in the arena randomly fainted – weird right – and Sandersonia and Marigold put me and Margret down. I laughed and said that they were nice people after all. After I'd moved Margret out of the way again, I decided to get serious; I went into gear second."

"What's that?" Sabo asked, with Ace nodding in his agreement of the question.

"A power up. I get faster, stronger; all of my moves become more powerful in general. So I went into gear second and I could hit them – they couldn't keep up with my speed and strength. So they pulled out their strongest attacks - -Sandersonia's hair turned into snakes and Marigold's lit on fire like a salamander! They tried to hit me with their moves but I jumped backwards and did 'Jet Gatling' and their attacks were stopped and put out. Then I tied their tails together and they fell into each other and Sandersonia's clothes were set on fire. She fell towards the pit of spikes that surrounded the whole arena – between the stands and the fighting area – but she managed to catch onto the edge, but her cloak that hid her back had burned off. So I jumped onto her back and hid the mark with my body, the arena was then evacuated and Marigold helped Sandersonia get back up. Then the empress offered to either give me a lift to Shabondy or to turn Margret, Sweet Pea and Alphelandra back to normal. I said 'really you would turn them back – thanks.' But they looked really shocked for some reason."

"Of course they would Lu; you made a selfless decision in less time than it takes to blink." Sabo said, while Ace smiled fondly – Lu always put others before himself.

"After Hancock turned them back to normal we all went back to their palacy-thing and they had me sit and wait for a little while in front of this curtain. When they told me to go in Hancock was naked again, then she turned around and showed me the mark on her back again – I don't really want to describe it but it looks like a hoof – she asked me where I'd seen it before and ' said that I'd seen something similar but it wasn't the same. She told me that the mark was that of a slave of the tennryuubito."

Sabo and Ace grit their teeth – they hated the tennryuubito in general, but mostly for spitting them apart as kids.

"They were freed by someone – can't remember who, something to do with a fish and a tiger – and they came to Amazon Lily. I can't say anymore 'cause they asked me not to. Later we had a big party and there was lots of dancing and meat, really really good meat. Soon after that I learnt about your execution ace and decided to go to Impel Down and break you out. Hancock offered to help – she got me into Impel Down."

"Wait," Ace held up a hand, "Boa Hancock – man hater – helped you?!" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah – she kept blushing and mentioning love and fate around me as well. Weird."

Ace's mind was screaming, 'Paedophile alert! Paedophile alert! Hancock is 30, Luffy is 17! There's a 13 year age gap!'

Sabo's wasn't much better – he locked his gaze with Ace's and they both made a silent promise to give Hancock a talking to if they ever saw her again.

"Lu?" Ace asked in a small voice, bringing Sabo out of his 'Paedophilic Hancock' thoughts, "Why did you try to rescue me?"

"Your vivre card was burning," Luffy said, looking down at his hands, "You were hurt, your vivre card was barely the size of my thumb print – you're my brother – I couldn't let you die! Not after–"

Luffy's voice choked slightly and tapered off – even though Sabo hadn't died 10 years ago, the pain of his 'death' couldn't just be erased or forgotten that easily.

Sabo frowned and gently wrapped his arms around Luffy's waist, pulling his little brother flush against his chest; Luffy simply fisted his hands into Sabo's coat and nuzzled into his shoulder. Ace smiled and joined the hug after a few seconds – wrapping his arms around his brothers, leaning into Sabo and resting his head on Luffy's.

The comfortable silence was soon filled by Luffy's soft snores. Sabo and Ace shared a small smile at their little brother's ability to sleep almost anywhere, before settling down on the sand to follow Luffy into the Sandman's domain. Sabo was lying on his back, with one arm firmly wrapped around Luffy – who was sleeping on his chest – and the other around Ace – who was lying on his side and using Sabo's shoulder as a pillow. One of Luffy's hands was fisted into Sabo's coat and the other was intertwined with Ace's. Ace had his other hand linked with Sabo's, which was resting on Ace's hip. Their hats lay discarded in the sand next to them as they dreamed of the many childhood adventures that they'd had together.

0000

Ace and Sabo woke to the sound of vomiting, it only took them a few seconds to confirm just who the vomiting sound was coming from, and they quickly scrambled to their feet, running in the direction of the noise, looking desperately for their little brother.

They found Luffy doubled over within the tree line, his thin form trembling as he attempted to throw up his stomach. Ace and Sabo were at his side in an instant, gently holding back his hair away from his face, while rubbing soothing circles on his back and stomach.

After Luffy had finished trying to throw up his intestines, and everything in between, Ace gently and slowly lifted his – still trembling – little brother into his arms to rest, comfortably, against his shoulder. He was about to carry Lu back to where they had left their stuff – hats and random bits – when Sabo stopped him and ran off with a shout of, "Wait there!"

He reappeared less than a minute later and was holding all of their random bits, along with all three of their hats, Sabo then motioned for Ace to follow and headed into the trees. After a few minutes of dodging and weaving through the trees and various shrubs, they came to a small fresh water stream, running along a rocky cliff side and ran into a large pool of water. After adjusting his hold on Luffy, Ace followed Sabo around the pool and under some thick vines overhanging the cliff side, and into a cool and uninhabited cave.

"How did you find this?" Ace whispered, slightly in awe.

"When we were out looking for any signs of civilisation." Sabo answered, as he dumped the stuff he'd been carrying on the floor, hats included, and started to rummage through his small duffel bag. He pulled out a large blanket and a spare set of clothes along with the medi-kit, which he set to the side for the moment, before laying the spare clothes on the cave floor and arranging them into a weird mattress/nest hybrid. Ace, catching on, set Luffy down on the improvised bed and draped Sabo's blanket over his little brother's small form.

"Ace," Sabo whispered, reaching for the medi-kit, "sit Lu up and face him this way please. And do it as gently as possible."

Ace complied – Sabo had always been their improvised doctor when they were little – he sat Luffy up before shuffling behind him, so that when he let go Luffy would lean against his chest and stay upright. Sabo then shuffled over, with the medi-kit in one hand and a thermometer in the other. It hadn't taken him long to find it, nearly all of the supplies that the medi-kit had previously help had been depleted, having been used to bandage and cover up most of Luffy and Ace's bigger injuries.

Luffy blinked blearily at his brothers, eyes trying to see through his fevered haze, slowly wandering between their worried faces and the thermometer in Sabo's hand. Sabo took this opportunity to gently tilt his little brother's face upwards, pressing the thermometer wordlessly against Luffy's lips, and silently asking for Luffy to be obedient for once. Luffy silently complied, opening he mouth and the closing it around the thermometer.

Sabo counted to 100 before removing the device and inspecting the reading. He swore under his breath. Luffy leant back into Ace, who gently covered his ears before leaning towards Sabo and whispering, "How is it?"

"Bad," Sabo replied, "104°"

Ace's eyed widened before staring worriedly at his little brother, whose breathing was laboured and coming out in short ragged gasps. He gently removed his hands from Luffy's ears and wrapped an arm around his waist, placing a cool hand on Lu's forehead, and turning to Sabo mouthing 'what do we do?'

"Keep him stable," Sabo whispered, "a cool cloth on his forehead for a start. Maybe some food, something stodgy that he can keep down. But first we need to ask him some questions."

"Questions? Why?" Ace whispered back.

"I can't treat him until I know the cause, and whether he's had treatment before. If it's an infected wound though...then we'll have to cauterise it."

Ace flinched, they'd had to cauterise one of Luffy's wounds before, when Luffy was little, he did not, under any circumstances, want to repeat that experience.

Sabo, aware of his brother's turmoil, turned to Luffy, who was restlessly dozing in Ace's arms. He gently shook his little brother awake – shushing Luffy's sleepy bitching – and began to quickly and softly question his fevered brother.

"Ok Luffy, answer a couple of questions for us and I promise you that you can sleep for as long as you want as soon as we're don. Okay?" Sabo asked gently, not wanting to push Luffy when he was vulnerable.

"'Kay." Luffy mumbled.

"Lu, have you come into contact with any bad food or poisons at any time in the near past?" Sabo asked.

"Yeah…in 'mpel d'wn…M'gdell'n was a pois'n man." Luffy murmured, curling into Ace for warmth.

'Shit,' Sabo thought, 'Magdellan's ruthless, he would've hit Lu with the strongest poison he's got!' He did not voice these thoughts; Ace would've gone nuts if he did, instead he asked "Lu, did you get treated for the poison?"

"Yeah," Luffy yawned, "Iva-chan treat'd me."

"Did he say anything about any after effects?"

"…said th't tha pois'n's not all g'ne…'e said th't I migh' be s'ck for a while…"

Sabo and Ace sighed in relief; Luffy was only getting the tail-end of the poison…he could just sleep it off, but they couldn't give him anything, lest it make him worse. They just had to make Lu as comfortable as possible and wait it out.

He exchanged a relieved smile with Ace, linking his hand with Luffy's and gently told the sleepy teen that the questioning was over and that he could sleep now.

Luffy was out like a light, silently snuggling into Ace whilst holding Sabo's hand in an iron grip. Ace merely smiled at his (admittedly cute) little brother and wrapped Sabo's blanket firmly around Luffy's shoulders, sending another small smile towards Sabo. He smile was returned – Luffy wasn't out of the woods yet, but he was okay not okay okay but okay, and right not that was all that mattered to them.

END

A/N: So, how was it? Please review…oh and for all those waiting for the sequel to 'ITTAI NANI GA?!' Please be patient, I hope to get it to you as soon as possible.

Tenebrae