AN: (yells quietly bc uni is kicking my ass and I only have a single chapter buffer left)

Hi how is everyone I hope you are all Good and I Love You thank u for all your wonderful reviews! /please forgive me if I end up vanishing for a while after the next update bc I don't know when I'll next get time to write for this le weeps

Marco never thought he'd reach the day when he tired of Ace's laughter.

And yet, here he was. Aggravated beyond belief as Ace's uncontrollable laughs bubbled from his throat and into the early morning air.

Then again, Marco mused, grinding his teeth together and listening to Sabo smother chuckles behind his hand, 95% of this is Thatch's fault.

Shoving his hands deeper into his pockets, Marco hunched and tried to hold onto his vague annoyance rather than let himself get distracted by Ace finally bursting into full blown peals of laughter again, sunlight dancing through his hair as though gracing him with a crown. Why did everything seem so much brighter when Ace laughed? Why did everything feel lighter, like the very Earth had released a breath held for much too long?

Why did he feel so-

Marco sighed, feeling his anger burn away like the rising sun was burning the thin threads of mist still clinging to the tree tops. This close to the Lake, the leaves looked shot through with clear jade and the sunlight like wisps of spun gold, magic still strong in the air. It wasn't nearly as strong as it had been years ago, when Marco was a kid, but without the heir it was all the Lake could do to hold onto the shrinking magic.

Every year the circle of healthy, strong trees seemed to grow a bit smaller, and while before the forest had teemed with life, Marco had yet to see anything bigger than a few birds. Magical though they were, they weren't anywhere near the majesty of what used to fly through the forest.

Afterall, he used to fly through the forest.

He shook his head, gritting his teeth again and shoving memories from his mind. This was why he hadn't wanted to come back to the Lake for the celebration of the heir's birthday. For one, fuck the heir. For another….

Well, he had family here, and family always meant tales of how things used to be. He couldn't stand tales of how things used to be. Not when he knew they'd never return.

"How far are we?" he asked, instead of chasing memories better left buried, and Thatch grinned at him.

"Why, afraid I'm going to tell these poor souls how dorky you truly are?" Thatch hopped half way on one foot till he was walking backwards, and said conspiratorially to Ace, "No matter how suave he seemed when he kidnapped you, I bet part of his reasoning was just birdbrain logic. Like 'oo, he has pretty, shiny eyes! I want to look into them foreveeeeer.'"

Marco glared at Thatch, eyes narrowed, but Thatch didn't notice, to distracted by Ace's horrible attempts to muffle wheezes.

"Seven curses to how well you know me," Marco mumbled under his breath, but it only made Thatch laugh even harder, grinning as he shook his hand in front of Marco's face.

"Blood, remember? And thrice sworn too, you giant overcompensator."

Marco grumbled lowly under his breath, shoving his hands into his pockets, and heard Thatch laugh quietly at him. Then, Sabo piped up, curiously asking,

"What does that mean, 'blood'? You mentioned it before, at the inn a few times, and I know thrice-sworn is a fae binding, but I've never heard..."

"Shared blood?" Thatch said, and then hummed, tilting his face to the sun. "Ahhh, it's like...Okay, so you know how earlier you were telling me about the crazy shit Luffy does? And how you get express privilege to kick his ass when he does? It's like that!"

"It is not like that," Marco snapped, groaning and burying his face in one hand. With a sigh, he stopped, holding his hand out flat and calling a blue, swirling galaxy to his palm. It separated into two pieces, one changing colour from blue to deep green before they twined together again at Marco's words. "It's a magical ritual, binding magic and the fae that wield it together in brotherhood and companionship."

Ace blinked, pulling his attention away from Marco's small display of magic to look at Thatch. "You're fae too?" he asked, and Marco watched as Thatch's expression darkened momentarily. Then his grin returned, and he said,

"Only part one, which I gotta be thankful for!" he laughed loudly, hands moving to the straps of his backpack, and Marco saw Ace glance to Thatch's hands and his white-knuckled grip. "It's hard enough for normal fae to get jobs, let alone dark-aligned ones. If I was full fae-"

Thatch laughed again hoarsely, and Marco let his magic evaporate, going to Thatch's side in two short strides. He laid his hand over Thatch's and bent his head to whisper,

"You didn't have to tell them, yoi."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Thatch's grin turn sharp, the edge of a calculating side to him not many knew existed. "You trust them. It's enough for me."

Marco sighed heavily, hand slipping from Thatch's knuckles to look at Ace and Sabo.

They blinked at him, and Ace made a motion as though to encourage him to continue.

Marco raised one eyebrow, staring at him in confusion.

Ace repeated his gesture, more insistently.

Thatch's head tilted to Marco, a silent question in his eyes, and Marco shrugged back, before finally breaking the silence and demanding, "What?"

"What 'what'?" Sabo asked, frowning at him.

"Why are you looking at us like that?"

"Aren't you going to finish?"

"I- did?" Thatch said, looking from Ace to Marco and back again. "What- do you need me to finish?"

"You can't just be dark-aligned fae, if they're not giving you a job." Sabo said, half-squinting at Thatch, and Thatch shook his head, taken back.

"I- what?"

"Well Earth isn't light," Marco said, arms folded and ready to jump to Thatch's defence, or forcefully educate them on how wrong it was to assume someone's alignment based on their personalities, but Ace and Sabo merely looked at each other, expressions mimicked.

"What's- that got to do with anything?" Ace asked, looking more confused than ever. "Like, I know covens and shit have affinities, but Thatch is fae."

"Oh my Gods," Marco said, finally realising where the confusion came from, and dropped his head into his hands. His next words came out muffled, but still obviously exasperated. "Luffy."

"Luffy what?" Sabo asked, blinking; then, understanding dawned on his face. "Ohhh!" he said, and Ace turned to look at him, expression concerned.

"Luffy what?" he demanded, and Sabo patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"'Kay so remember how Marco mentioned Luffy being shit at remembering and explaining magic? He's shit at explaining things too."

"We knew that," Ace grumbled, and Sabo patted him again, more insistently.

"Yeah but really shit. Like, explain it by saying dark-aligned were all monsters and scary-"

Thatch flinched, and Marco grit his teeth as he glared at Sabo. "What the hell do you-"

"Rather than something a fae can be too. It's just a fae's way of differentiating Courts and elemental alignments." Sabo turned to look at Marco, his expression flat, the hint of an accusation in his narrowed eyes. "Because we learnt about it as Courts instead of alignments. And so when Luffy talked about alignments, we thought he was talking about actual dark monsters. The ones by the coast and in the mountains. Demons, like Zoro, or Covens, like the one Nami used to belong to."

"So you just-"

"Ohhh," Ace went, finally catching on. "They're the same thing, instead of the monster thing?" Sabo nodded just as another thought appeared to occur to Ace. Marco watched him frown, then turn to Thatch and say, "Wait- what do you mean that it's hard for dark-aligned fae to get jobs? Or- for any fae? I thought that-"

He stopped, gaze dropping, and Sabo glanced to Ace for a moment before he stepped forwards, refusing to look at Marco. "Weren't there laws put in place by King Roger to stop all of that? To explain it so that people would stop equating the Unseelie Court with 'bad' magic?"

"How well d'you think that went over when the Council came to power?" Marco said, and Ace glanced up from the forest floor to look at him, pain in his eyes.

"So they- for twenty years, you've all been dying, and everyone's been to afraid of you to help? The Council's encouraged everyone to think that magic's this awful thing? "

Marco folded his arms, throat tightening. "Yeah," he said softly, before snorting. "Make everyone think that being connected to magic is why anyone gets sick - and they're probably right, too, because without the heir the land can't keep the magic moving through everything like it should. The royal family was like...the epicentre of the water cycle. Without them...everything's stagnant. Everything's dying."

He felt Thatch's hand brush his shoulder and tried to force his tense muscles to loosen, pushing down his anger till he could turn on his heel and say softly to the road ahead, "Get why we hate the heir, now?"

Marco set off down the path, hearing Thatch follow. A moment later, he heard a tiny, almost inaudible sigh, and Sabo and Ace's footsteps behind him.

Ace hadn't stopped looking like part of him had caved in, and Sabo was about two seconds away from attempting to punch Marco again, hopefully flooring him.

Or making him stumble into a tree. That'd be good too.

Fuck the general calm that had descended upon them since the- incident at the bar, Marco deserved to be punched every time he implied that Ace wasn't trying as hard as he could to find a solution that would rectify twenty years of pain and doubt. Fuck Marco for every time he made Ace feel guilty for not being there, even when Ace'd thought he would die if he left the tower.

Sabo didn't why he hadn't punched Marco already, actually, bar the knowledge that Marco's confusion might lead him to questions neither Sabo or Ace could answer, and that even with Marco basically pulling out his heart, Ace still cared about him.

Ace cared, and sometimes Sabo hated that fact about him. How much easier would their lives be, if Ace could just let go of caring about other people? He had them, and Luffy's crew, and it would be so much simpler to have convinced Ace to return home, to safety, if he would just-

Stop caring.

Stop getting so attached to anyone who smiled at him or bid him good morning as they traveled, stop falling deeper and deeper in love with the land and all the people who lived on it-

His people.

Could Sabo really ask him to stop caring about his people?

Ace'd been doing it for so long, he probably barely remembered anything different. Had let himself stayed locked up in a tower for years because he believed his absence would be better. Believed the Council's lies that the Fae were happy, and then tried to stop Luffy from trying to incite a revolution in case people got hurt.

But he'd been caring for others for so long that he barely had enough energy left for himself, and Sabo would always hate the fact his people were the ones that'd driven Ace to that.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked when Marco and Thatch were finally far enough ahead to miss their conversation, and Ace froze momentarily, before he swallowed hard.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ace said softly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. The brim of his hat shadowed his eyes, and Sabo gave a quiet sigh, feeling his face knit in concern.

"Ace-" he said, and saw Ace's jaw clench.

"No, why wouldn't I be okay?" he demanded, looking up and stopping in the middle of the path. "Why wouldn't I, when they have every right to hate me? I'm killing them, Sabo. I'm killing them all." His face seemed to crumple, defiance dying and pure desperation invading. His breath came in a shuddering gasp, and Sabo almost stepped away at the sharp glitter in the corner of Ace's eyes. "I'm killing them, and I don't know how to fix it."

Impulsively, Sabo grabbed Ace's hand, lacing their fingers together and pulling Ace closer till he could rest his forehead against Ace's and his lips against Ace's knuckles.

"Don't you know what forever means?" he said, instead of demanding why Ace was the one who had to fix it, why Ace was the one who was supposed to save everyone, all the time, why Ace was the one who'd been locked in a tower for twenty years without understanding the crime that was being committed against him. "Every time, you're the one saying it, saying yours, and I always finish with forever, and I think you don't know what forever means."

Ace's wide, startled eyes stared into his own, and Sabo's resolve only hardened when he saw a tear track escaping from the corner of Ace's eye."I'm here for you, Ace. Forever. No matter what." He tightened his grip on Ace's hand, feeling Ace's fingertips spasm before he returned the favour, knowing the steps of their ritual almost better than Sabo. Almost instinctively, Sabo's eyes fluttered closed and he pressed his lips harder against Ace's knuckles, kissing them like he wished he'd be able to kiss Ace, if he were ever brave enough to kiss Ace.

He barely wanted to stop to breathe, like if he did then somehow he'd found himself waking a thousand miles away, the past few months only a dream and Ace still as untouchable and broken as ever, trapped in a home that would never feel as such. His lips dragged against Ace's skin as he breathed out, and he let his eyes open slowly, barely moving away. "I'm yours." he whispered softly, as much of a confession as he could ever give, as much of a promise he could ever give, as much of a vow he could ever give, when Ace already had all of him and more. "And you don't have to fix this alone."

Ace's breath brushed the back of his hand as he exhaled, and when Sabo met his gaze, he couldn't help but notice that Ace hadn't moved, still frozen in surprise. His head bobbed as he swallowed, and Ace asked quietly, almost in confusion, "Mine?"

Sabo nodded shortly, refusing to take his eyes from Ace's. "Forever."

Even if you don't want me - need me - for that long.

He felt more than he saw Thatch bound up beside them and announce loudly, most likely in his own world, "We're having lunch now guys!"

Ace jumped, his hand dropping from Sabo's, and Sabo felt the ache in his chest like a physical wound when Ace turned away.

"Do you need anything?" Ace asked, managing a strangled smile at Thatch, and Thatch gazed at him in confusion, almost seeming to realise something was off. Thatch's eyes flicked between them, but Sabo let his hand drop and quickly moved away, mumbling as he did so,

"I'll go see if Marco needs help. What's he doing?"

"Uh- the fire! Just, you'know, uh- setting it- up?" Thatch said, fumbling for words, but Sabo could only see Ace's fist clench, his hand folding over his knuckles as though trying to wipe off the memory of Sabo's lips.

As though trying to replace it with something else.

"Right," he mumbled, "I get it."

He turned on his heel and quickly found the clearing ahead that Thatch and Marco had obviously staked out. Marco was clearing the few fallen leaves and twigs from the forest's floor, and Sabo stood back, leaning against a tree as he watched Marco work his magic.

Marco flicked his wrists with deceptive ease, blue sparks flying out and whisking branches away to clear a space. When that was done he dumped his bag on the floor and rolled his shoulders back with a sigh, easing out the stiffness in his neck as he did so. With another flick of his hands, the bag unfolded and unpacked itself, setting up everything they'd need to make lunch. Sabo snorted before he pushed himself off his tree. "Honestly it doesn't seem like you need my help at all."

Marco jumped, whirling around, and Sabo saw him fight between relaxing and tensing. He seemed to find an uncomfortable midground by leaning back on his foot and crossing his arms, like he was trying to make himself look calm. Sabo almost laughed, but had to swallow it back when he remembered why Marco was acting this way around him.

"So…" he drawled when it became obvious Marco was struggling hard for a topic that wouldn't end in disaster should they start talking, "If Thatch is of the Unseelie court, does that mean you are too?"

Marco jumped again, just slightly, and then made a low noise in his throat like he was processing Sabo's question. "Ah, no, I'm- I was- air. I'm part of the Seelie court, yoi. If you're going to classify it like that." He shook his head and snorted, adding under his breath, "Courts."

"What's wrong with Courts?" Sabo demanded, and Marco held up his hands in surrender.

"Nothing, nothing!" he said, then grinned almost wickedly, "If you're like, three thousand years old."

"What?" Sabo demanded, folding his arms, "As if, I'll barely get a hundred, I haven't got a lick of fae blood in me."

"Of course not, you'd be prettier if you were."

"You certainly thought me pretty enough to start preening me the other day," Sabo shot back, smirking triumphantly, and Marco's mouth snapped closed, red painting his cheeks.

"I- that- I wasn't-" Sabo laughed at Marco's spluttering, and Marco shut his mouth again, glaring. "Oh shut up, yoi. Fae can only handle a certain amount of alcohol before we make dumb decisions."

"But I thought every decision of yours was dumb?" Sabo asked innocently, blinking his eyes at Marco and almost pouting, "I mean you did decide to kidnap your friend's older brother."

"I didn't know you were related!" Marco protested, throwing his hands up in the air and growling, "For the Gods' sake, let that one go! None of you look alike. You're not even all fae!"

"To quote Luffy, 'Ace is part fae Marco, come ooooonnnn.'"

"You are a menace, yoi," Marco said, stepping forwards to poke Sabo in the chest, but Sabo only gave him a wide, cheesy grin, ignoring memories of what'd happened the last time Marco had been this close.

Ignoring the phantom sensation of careful hands carding through his hair, soft and gentle and-

"Hey, it was your fault for kidnapping me too. Like, honestly! How well were you expecting that plan to go? I was travelling with a caravan of fae! Obviously I was important to them, and they would've tracked me - and you - down!"

"Oh leave me alone," Marco grumbled, crossing his arms, "It wasn't my fault he had stupid shiny gold things and stupid, shiny hair!"

Sabo watched as Marco snapped his mouth closed in horror when he realised what slipped out, but it was already too late. He couldn't help but stare at Marco with wide eyes and a wide open mouth before his face morphed into a grin that was decidedly wicked.

"You thought his hair was shiny. You kidnapped my brother because his hair was shiny." Sabo plastered his hand against his mouth, trying to hold back laughter but failing badly as he doubled over, clutching at his stomach and wheezing. "You loser! You really aren't suave at all!"

"I never claimed to be," Marco mumbled grumpily, but Sabo could see that his shoulders were up by his ears and said ears were red all the way to their pointed tips. The sight made Sabo laugh even more, his stomach starting to hurt, and he barely managed to get himself under control, his fingers digging into his side.

"I can't believe you kidnapped Ace because you thought he was pretty!"

Marco turned even redder, defending in a yell, "I didn't think he was pretty!"

"Didn't?" Sabo said teasingly, and watched as Marco spluttered again before finally managing to spit out,

"Didn't, don't, still do not, what does it matter?"

"It matters," Sabo said sternly, but his joking reply died in the back of his throat as he remembered how Ace had turned away from him. How his promises to stay by Ace's side were never returned. How easy it would've been, for Ace to have said something after the incident with Marco, instead of- instead of-

"It- it matters, because I- I spent so long protecting him….And even now, I don't want to see him hurt-" his voice dropped and he had to swallow hard before he could get the words out. "I was afraid you would hurt him."

"Sabo, I-"

Sabo held his hand up, stepping even closer and shifting to stand up as tall as he could, staring Marco down. "I know now that you won't. And- I know it's dumb but I'm- I'm glad you kidnapped him. That you were the one who showed him the world. That you protected him and helped him, and- well, there are- there are- worse people to care about. And- I know you'd never hurt him, now. I know you'd do anything you could to heal him."

The flayed skin on the soles of Marco's feet were more than proof of that, but hesitation still curled tight and uncertain in Sabo's chest. Would Marco really still try and protect Ace if he knew all of Ace's secrets? If he knew everything that Sabo knew of Ace, would he still care? Would he still try? Ace could be hard to deal with sometimes, and Sabo was already used to dealing with Ace's infrequent bouts of anxiety and his inability to concentrate or motivate himself, but would Marco?

Would Ace be safe? Would he be happy? Would he-

Life, he reminded himself, thoughts jolting to a stop as he remembered how afraid he'd been about Ace staying outside the tower and exploring. Even with all Sabo's fears, Ace had still managed to live and thrive and delight in the world outside, captivated by the land he'd loved but never been able to see or experience.

And this?

This was an experience, and Sabo wouldn't stop him from it. Would always be there, if Ace needed it - forever was a long time, after all - but life needed to be lived, and Sabo couldn't be overprotective any longer.

"I- I'm glad you're his friend. I'm glad that you- care about him. And I'm sorry I was such a dick to you before."

Let go, he told himself, heart aching, but had to close his eyes to breathe out before he could add,

"Just be good to him, yeah?"

He turned on his heel and left before Marco could come up with a reply, feeling his heart twine itself tighter and tighter until it felt hollow, to small to even exist.

But if it were truly gone, would it still hurt this badly?

AN: Please R&R! I really love seein all your comments and ideas and what parts hurt your hearts!