HWM: Chapter 26

Summary: Wings!AU. In a world where people born with wings are considered inferior to humans, Sabo does his best to fight for equality. His whole world changes when he meets Ace and Luffy, two Fae living on the wrong side of the law. ASL Centric.

Warnings: canon-typical violence, mentioned or referenced explicit themes, cursing.

Chapter 26 - Shelter

Ace stares out of the window as the sun sets. Streaks of orange and crimson lace across the sky like a watercolour painting, flawless, beautiful. The sun is framed with laces of pale, wispy clouds that trace the distant horizon, and the wide. , beautiful grounds of Wakeshead hall stretch for miles around, gently lit by the golden-red hue of sunset. Of course, it's not really the sun. The sky isn't truly that beautiful. Not really.

Eventually, Ace feels so utterly uncomfortable with the view that he has to look away. Sunsets like this, clear skies and beautiful scenery, used to relax him. He used to be able to appreciate their raw beauty. But after seeing what's out there, after so many years and so much pain and so much grey, it's hard to look at something like this. The city feels a million miles away, and a million years ago. But it's certainly not out of sight, out of mind.

Luffy has given up on watching the view, too. It's been a whole day of waiting, and listening to nurses and Marco trying to convince them to open up, and Luffy telling them to fuck off, and Ace telling them the same but more viciously. Sabo still hasn't even woken, hasn't even stirred. Neither Ace nor Luffy has looked under the covers at his hand, but a horrible, tense feeling stirs in Ace's stomach every time he thinks about it. A part of him wants Sabo to stay asleep.

But a larger part of him is glad, of course, when the blonde starts to stir. Sabo shifts, groaning softly, eyes squeezed shut. Ace practically tumbles out of his seat in his hurry to get to him, and Luffy isn't very far behind him. They might be crowding him but neither of them cares. Luffy climbs up onto the bed and stares down at Sabo, shaking his shoulder slightly, and Ace winces at the swelling and the bruising and the grime. Sabo looks worse that he's ever seen him.

Sabo groans again, and then his face screws up tightly and he murmurs something. Luffy says, "Come on, Sabo, wake up. Wake up. C'mon."

Sabo murmurs something again, mumbling through lips crusted with blood, and Ace catches, "-don't…-"

Luffy shakes him again and that's the trigger - Sabo lets out a strangled little yell and his eyes shoot open, body jolting as though he wants to sit up but he can't. Luffy backs off. For a moment, Sabo stares around wildly, obviously with no idea where he is, eyes darting sightlessly. Then his eyes land on Ace and he breathes, "Fuck."

"Sabo…?"

"Where are we? What happened?!"

"Sabo, I-"

"Where's Blackbeard?" Sabo's movements are jerky and uncoordinated as he tries to get out of the bed and stand, breathing hard, eyes wild. "Are you okay?!"

"Sabo, wait, please-"

The covers fall back from Sabo's hand. All three of them freeze in an instant.

Ace's breath catches in his throat. A surreal kind of shock washes over him, as though he's been drugged, as though what's in front of him must be some kind of illusion. Sabo makes a small, choked noise. Silence wells up in the air, close to overflowing. This can't be happening. It can't. Not now.

Sabo's hand, from the wrist down, simply isn't there.

Bandages are coiled around his wrist, white and pristine and trailing up to cup the stump where the skin should extend to his hand. There's something terrifyingly wrong about the image, about the place where there should be a wrist and a palm and fingers and instead...nothing. There's nothing. Sabo's hand is gone. It's hard to process, hard to look at, and Sabo looks like he's about to pass out he's gone so pale.

Ace's head is spinning. The damage must have really been horrific, if they had to amputate his whole hand. He'd known that it was bad, but not that horrendous, and his heart aches with the feeling of desperate hopelessness; the horrible feeling that comes with pleading for the ability to go back, to change things. Surely this is some kind of dream. Surely this isn't happening. Surely none of this has to happen.

The tears come, and the feeling gets suddenly ten times worse. Because the tears aren't Luffy's. They aren't even Ace's.

Sabo's crying.

It happens slowly. Ace watches with a morbid kind of horror as the blonde's lip trembles slightly. Sabo bites it between his teeth but his whole jaw is shaking now, and then his whole body as his shoulders curl inwards. He blinks furiously, staring at his wrist, clenching it tightly in his hand as though if he holds it with enough force, it will go back to normal. Slowly, painfully slowly, a tear trickles down the inside of his cheek and drips off his chin.

"No," Sabo murmurs. Then, louder, "No. No, no, no no no no. Nononono-"

"Sabo-"

Sabo looks up, meeting Ace's eyes with a desperate, pleading kind of look, eyes bloodshot and wet and then the second tear falls, tracking a trail beside the first, and Ace breaks down. Sabo slumps back against the covers and Ace wants, desperately, to hold him but he doesn't want to hurt him and he's terrified that he's going to make it all worse and his vision is blurring, his eyes are stinging-

Luffy, as always, has no inhibitions. He throws his arms around Sabo's neck even as the blonde's knees curl up and his body shakes like a leaf. Sabo's still holding onto his wrist and it seems impossibly small without the hand, like a bone wrapped in bandages. His eyes meet Ace's over Luffy's shoulder, and there's patchy bruising around and under his eye, as though somebody has taken the blood in his veins and spilled it in little patches just under his skin. Tears wet Luffy's shoulder.

Ace's body moves in without his allowing it to. He ends up behind Sabo, one wing wrapped around him, clutching him hard. He tries not to touch the stump because he's afraid that the scream brewing inside of him will escape if he does. Afraid that it will all suddenly become real if he does. Sabo is shaking, heaving with sobs, utterly defeated. It's horrible to watch the hopeful one, the teen always so full of fire, like this. Ace can feel his pain as though it's his own and it seeps into the air, through the room, across his skin.

The sobs don't stop for a long time.

Marco is coming up the corridor to check on them when the door finally opens and Ace steps out.

Marco stops in his tracks and looks at him properly for the first time, now that he knows that he really is Ace, taking in everything that's changed. Ace is tall. Not as tall as Sabo, and stockier, with more muscle - but not stocky enough that it hides the toll that living with not quite enough food has on the body. His wings are huge, bigger than Marco could have ever imagined they'd grow, and he's got a hard-jawed face and a long nose and he looks quietly livid. Even from here, Marco can take in for the first time the pale scars that dot his dark skin like freckles.

Ace turns to look at him and for a moment, they stare at one another from opposite ends of the corridor. Ace keeps his facial expression the same but Marco can sense that it's a tough feat.

"Are you alright, yoi?"

Ace takes a step towards him, closing the door to the med bay behind him. "I've got questions."

"So have we."

"My brother has lost his hand." Ace's voice is shaking.

The word 'brother' makes Marco flinch. Because out of all of the scenarios he's imagined for all these years, Marco's never even considered the possibility that Ace could get new brothers. That he could replace them. It hurts, more than he could have ever imagined, that Ace could have forgotten them.

"I trust our medics. You should, too. And our head doctor informed me that amputation was necessary-"

"Did you ask Sabo? Did you inform him?" Ace's voice is as cold as ice. "Did you even bother to get his goddamn consent?"

"I-"

"Sabo just woke up, terrified, because it's the day after he went through shit that you can't even imagine. And then he tries to stand up and finds that his hand just ain't there anymore. What do you think he does?" Ace answers the question for him. "He panics. Of course he does. Who wouldn't?!"

"But it was-"

"Shut up! He's in there, barely able to breathe, and my little brother is trying and failing to calm him down. He's scared. He's terrified. He's lost a goddamn hand and you didn't even bother to ask for his permission to take it - you didn't even bother telling him!"

Ace is obviously angry and obviously scared, and Marco tries to convince himself that the teen is only lashing out because he's been through a lot and he's stressed and he's not really that upset. At this rate, Ace looks like he wants to leave, which Marco prays won't happen anytime soon. Or ever. They just got him back. They can't lose him again.

Ace takes a deep breath. "Luffy is locking the door behind me when I go back in. No way in hell are we letting you near Sabo, you got that?"

Mistrust. Great. Marco tries to keep his tone even as he nods and says, "Okay, yoi. We can deal with that."

Ace turns back towards the door and Marco's heart falls into his stomach. Last chance. He has to say this now.

"Ace, yoi."

Ace freezes, hand hovering over the doorknob. Even his wings go still. For a moment, nothing moves. Marco can't see his face, can't gauge his expression, but he can make a few guesses as to what he's thinking.

Then, slowly, Ace turns to face him. His face is perfectly blank, but his fists are clenched and tension runs through him so thickly that it's as though he's being electrified. "That's not my name."

"Luffy told Shanks everything, yoi. We know about what happened. Shanks told me the whole story - you finding Luffy, being homeless-" (Ace flinches at the word) "-Being in a gang, and then what happened with Sabo. Ace-"

"I don't want to talk." Ace's voice is sharp and clipped, each syllable spoken as though he wants it to be his last. "About any of it. I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, yoi. We don't need to. But-"

"They told me that you hated me. The people who kidnapped me."

Marco shuts his mouth. Silence reigns. Ace is staring at the ground, shoulders hunched, and tension builds in the corridor until it's hard to breathe through it. Marco is just about to break the silence when Ace goes on, still staring at the ground.

"They said that I was worthless. That you didn't care that they were hurting me, trying to sell me. They said that you guys were glad I was gone." Ace takes a deep, steadying breath. "And I guess after you hear something for so long, you start to believe it."

Marco's heart is breaking. "How long were you with them, yoi?"

"Not too long. Not long enough that I started to break, if that's what you mean. But when I did manage to get away I was young and scared and alone and… none of you were there. Nobody was in the city. Nobody was looking for me. I searched and searched and the police hadn't heard anything from you, not even a missing person's report. And I started to think that maybe you didn't care-"

"We did, yoi. We always cared. I swear we did," Marco gets out in a rush. "We never stopped looking. Ace, losing you damn near broke us. People threatened to leave, we all missed you to hell and back-"

"I know you did, I know, but-" Ace swallows. "But it's hard to adjust. It's hard to change what you've thought for eight years. I… I've got people I care about more than anything and I've missed you guys, I have, but it's been so long and so much pain and I can't… I can't just go back to being your brother. Not after all this time. I can't abandon the people I love just because I'm back in my childhood home-"

"Your home, Ace, yoi," Marco says, trying to find words. "This is your home. You're back home now, you don't ever need to go back-"

"But Luffy's got a life back there. My little brother wants to back at some point. And Sabo is scare as hell, and he's hurting and he's lost something that's fucking terrifying to lose. And if they want to leave, then I will, too."

"You're family, yoi."

Ace takes a step forwards, and another, and Marco steps forwards too. They meet in the middle of the hallway and Marco pulls Ace into a strong embrace, tension in his body releasing all at once. Ace doesn't hate him. Ace is here, alive, in his arms, clinging back tightly. They hold one another for a minute and Marco again marvels at how much he's grown. He can feel his ribs beneath his hands.

Eventually, Ace pulls away. Marco abruptly feels cold, but he steps back too, meeting Ace's eyes. They're just as sharply grey as they've always been, boring into Marco like they're x-raying him.

After a moment, Ace turns back towards the door and the moment is over. Marco backs off. Ace's frame is still rigid - he's still on guard. Marco wonders vaguely how hard it must be to drop your guard after living on the streets. Ace turns the handle nods at Marco, curtly, before stepping inside and closing the wooden door behind him. After a moment, the lock clicks.

Marco doesn't move for a while, listening to the faint footsteps inside making their way to the area where the beds are. He feels slightly shell-shocked, reeling like he's taken a blow to the head. Ace really is back. He's real. He's all grown up. But he's spent years in the city, fighting just to stay alive, and he's got a new family now; new brothers.

And Marco has no idea how he's supposed to feel right now.

Ace approaches the bed slowly, pocketing the key. Luffy glances up at him as he comes closer and Ace mouths, 'I spoke to him'. Luffy nods, glancing back down, and both of them look at Sabo. The blonde is still leaning back against the headboard, eyes closed. His skin is bloodied in patches and he seems particularly grimy as he lies back against the white sheets. Everything about him screams that he's not meant to be there. That he doesn't belong here.

Ace tries to ignore it, sitting down on the bed and shaking Sabo's shoulder gently. "Sab? You awake?"

"Sorry," Sabo says. He sounds slightly ashamed. "For freaking out like that. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have."

"You lost your hand," Luffy says, "I would've been freaked out too."

"Yeah. You gotta stop doing the thing where you blame yourself for stupid shit," Ace says. "Seriously."

"You have to, too," Sabo says lamely. His voice is scratchy. Then, "You spoke to Marco?"

"Yeah."

Sabo opens his eyes slightly. "How did it go?"

"Same as I'd expected. He talked about how this is my home and I should stay here and I'm family…"

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him that you two are family to me, and that I care about them but a lot of stuff has happened and if you two want to leave, I'm leaving too. I also might'a chewed him out a bit about… about the operation," Ace settles on saying.

Sabo sighs. He looks unhealthily pale, with bloodshot eyes and a slightly tremor in his voice and in his frame. "You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. They should have told you. They should have at least asked for you permission or something-"

"If it was necessary, they had to do it, Ace. No matter how… unpleasant it was to realise." Sabo cups the stump again, as though he can still hardly believe it.

"I've never seen you so wrecked. It wasn't just 'unpleasant'," Ace fumes, before sighing. "Look, maybe yelling at him was just letting off steam. I don't know. But...what they did sucked. And it hurt you, waking up like that. And even if that hadn't happened, I had to tell him that we might not stay anyway."

"How'd he take it?"

"Not great. I guess he'd been happy. Thought now that I was back, things would go back to the way they were." Ace lies back against the covers, beside Sabo, and rubs his eyes tiredly.

"Do you want them to?" Luffy asks, flopping onto Ace's stomach, and for a moment in time, it feels as though they're back home, curled up together on the couch. Ace blinks, and it's over.

"I don't know. I can't imagine it - staying here, with people I barely remember, in a place so…"

"Fake?" Sabo suggests.

"Fake," Ace agrees. "And it's hard to go back to pretending that everything's fine when I've seen that it's not, it's really not. Everything's fucked up. And I can't just… forget about the city. Not now."

Ace's wings ruffle with agitation. They all lie in silence for a while. Sabo keeps playing with the bandages around his wrist, feeling around the stump as though it's new territory of his body that he been able to explore. Eventually, Ace grabs his inact hand - his left - and traps it between their bodies, so Sabo can't do it anymore.

"Sorry. It's just… hard to get used to," Sabo explains. "Hard to process."

"Don't be sorry. It's just-"

"Hey, wait!" Luffy says suddenly, sitting up. "We're matching! Look!"

"What?"

Luffy points to his left shoulder, where his missing wing should be. "I got my wing am-u-tated-"

"Amputated."

"-And you lost your hand, too! We're the same!" Luffy says proudly.

Ace winces, wondering if it's the best time to be making jokes about it, and glances at Sabo. The blonde stares at Luffy for a moment, blankly, before his lip quirks upwards slightly. His eyes seem suspiciously wet. "I guess… I guess we are. Thank you." He glances at Ace. "You, too. Thank you. For sticking around, for being my brother. Thank you for everything."

"Don't get emotional," Ace says dryly. "There's enough on my mind anyway. Come on, let's get some sleep."

Ace stands up, stretching, and moves to pull the curtains across the windows. Sabo watches from the bed as he flicks a lamp on in the corner, making the room feel warmer and cozier than it already is, and checks that the door is properly locked. Luffy shifts to lie on Sabo now. It hurts a little (a lot), with how much of Sabo feels like it's broken, but he doesn't complain. When he's done, Ace clambers into bed too.

There are six beds in the room altogether but even when there's no need to, all three of them share, simply because it's natural. The low light is comfortable and the room is just the right temperature and Sabo should feel comfortable, should feel safe, but he doesn't. There's a fever stirring beneath his skin, a kind of panic that he can't suppress, and now that everything is so still and quiet, he can't stop replaying everything that happened in his mind. Blackbeard's face flashes before his eyes every time he closes them.

"Stop thinking so hard," Luffy mumbles after a minute.

"I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"No, you're thinking about Blackbeard," Luffy corrects him matter-of-factly.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know you."

Ace buries his face in the pillow. "Quit arguing."

"No. Not until Sabo stops thinking."

Sabo snorts, turning over so his face is pressed against one of Ace's wings. "I'm fine, Lu. We're safe. Don't worry about me - we're far away from the city, at least for now, and we're gonna be fine."

Luffy sighs. "Okay…"

A few minutes of silence trickle by. Sabo tries to distract himself but it doesn't even come close to working. After a while, Luffy's breathing evens out, and Ace turns to look at Sabo in the semi-darkness. Sabo meets his eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing… nothing. I'm just trying to think about what to do next."

"Don't think too hard," Sabo murmurs quietly. "We can figure it all out in the morning."

"I know, I just… nevermind. Let's sleep," Ace says, looking away. After a moment he adds, "Oh, but, Sabo?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm never going to let that happen again. I'm never going to let myself be held back when somebody hurts you. I'm never going to let somebody do something like that again. Okay? Blackbeard can go screw himself."

"Alright, I believe you," Sabo agrees with a small laugh. "Go to sleep. We can deal with it all in the morning."

"Goodnight, Sabo."

"Night, Ace."

"Wait, what?!"

The whole room falls silent in an instant. Zoro stands, fists clenched, eyes wide as he faces Law. The man standing in the doorway doesn't even flinch, staring Zoro down with hard eyes. "You heard me."

"No… no way. Blackbeard trusted Ace. Ace never betrayed him. Why would he-?"

"Don't ask questions I can't answer." Law seems in a bad mood. He has been for days. "All I know is that Blackbeard is promising anybody who can bring him Ace Portgas and his brothers a huge sum. Larger than what he would offer for most large-scale heists. More than any murder. This is important."

"He knows about Sabo," Nami mutters. "That must be it. Come on, let's go check their apartment!"

"I've already checked," Law says shortly. "There's nothing there. Only some blood on the wall and on the floor. But whatever happened, I assume that all three of them got away- Blackbeard wouldn't have asked for all three otherwise."

Usopp puts his head in his hands. They only came to meet up with Law, maybe form an alliance against Blackbeard and gain some form of protection. Instead, they arrived when he was due back soon and when he did arrive, it was with bad news.

Zoro swears viciously. "Where would they have gone?! What the hell could have happened?!"

"Let's scout out the grey district?" Sanji recommends, stubbing out his cigarette and standing up. "We can meet with Trafalgar another time. If they're dying in some alleyway somewhere-"

"Alright, alright, let's just go," Zoro growls. "Come on. We have to find Cap'."

The strawhats stand and on his way out, Zoro tells Law, "Sorry. But this is an emergency."

"I know, I know-" Law seems to hesitate for a moment. "If they're hurt, bring them here. I can help."

Zoro raises an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were close with them."

"I'm not. Now go - your crew is going to leave you behind. Don't want you getting lost," Law says, with little bite in his voice.

Zoro flips him off and takes off after his crew, leaving Law to stew in his own thoughts.

YJV, Chapter 25, Dec 15:

Oh Gosh! Please sleep yeah? Anyway, great chapter again XD very nice!

I will i promise! And thank you so much! Ily!

Guest, Chapter 25, Dec 15:

I really liked this chapter, we got the proper Shanks and Luffy reunion and I loved how Shanks behaved and we got Marco determined to try with Ace which is all I wanted in that department. Take care of yourself and rest don't worry about reviews *big hugs*

Thank you, im so glad you liked it! And thanks so much, i will! *huge huge hugs*

Alana33, Chapter 25, Dec 15:

Finally they're safe, I'm so relieved. Although ugh Ace if you wanted to kill Blackbeard anyways why didn't you while he was down…

Me too! And yeah, dont worry, hell be asking himself that sometime soon ;)

luluMAIN chapter 25 . 18h ago

This chapter filled my stomach with happiness and fluffy butterflies... if that makes any sense ;. (it does! And thank you!) I wanna give the ASL brothers a big hug and tell them, "Don't worry, if the author hurts you all anymore I'll punch em'". (get your fists ready wink wink) At the same time, I'm grateful for this fantastic AU. (thank you so much!) So idk, I'll just give everybody hugs! (fuck yeah!) yayayayayayayayayayayayayya~~~! Also, Law needs a SUPERR big hug! (totally…) Things seem to be turning up now but... I think things will spiral downhill soon. (WINK WINK)
-Thank you for updating pretty frequently 3!(thank YOU amazing reader!)

Sesshomarusama3, Chapter 25, 17h ago:
Good gooooood these boys have been through so much the poor bbys! Wonderful chapter hon! BUT DID SABO LOSE HIS HAND? !

Yeah i know! And thank you!
mwahaha….