Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece. Though I do long to be in Japan atm...

One of the rare times that Sabo visited Ace's grave was on the first of January of every year. The tradition started shortly after his sworn brother from way back when had died and he hadn't had the heart to stop anytime soon on the Januaries thereafter. With the War of the Best half a year in the past, Sabo dared show his face again in front of his sworn brother's grave for the second time after he'd come to find out it was true – that his brother had really died in that blasted war back then, and he hadn't been able to do anything because of his stupid amnesia.

Bittersweet an occasion that it was, he hadn't failed to bring three well-worn red cups and a sake bottle with him, along with a present – wrapped with a bow and everything, it rested in his left hand, held up as though he'd wanted to present it to nobility. Halting a few steps away from the graves, his faithful top hat managed to hide them from his eyes for a single moment of denial, before his head bravely lifted, letting them come into his sight and filling his heart with a heaviness that settled like an old comrade.

He'd been prepared for that, though, for in the last half year he'd had multiple occasions where he'd find himself comparing his own accomplishments to any of Ace's that he could get his fingers on. Every time, he'd then come to the realisation that he'd no longer get to compete with Ace, no matter if his heart hoped differently.

Sabo'd wake up from dreams filled with adrenaline, needing to check if Ace was said to have been able to jump as high as that any more or if Ace was said to have been as much of an instigator of fights as he remembered. He'd hunted down – with tremendous interest and hunger for more knowledge – every single thing the Revolutionaries had managed to scrounge up about the Whitebeards' Second Division Commander, just to see if the Ace from nigh a year ago could be compared to the mental picture he had of him.

The fact that after Ace had died, Luffy had gone and quite literally disappeared from the world had made him feel as though the ground had fallen out from underneath his feet. Both of the only brothers that he'd known and acknowledged – gone from his life, seemingly forever. He couldn't help the shudder that went through him at the prospect of a future without them, even if he'd managed to live out the past ten years (oh gods, had it already been ten years by then? Ten years.) without them – when he hadn't even been able to remember a thing about their time together!

"Hello, Ace. Whitebeard." Almost an after-thought, he inclined his head towards the bigger of the two gravestones briefly in acknowledgement. That had been the one Ace had called "Oyaji", and willingly, at that. He deserved his respect, for that alone. "I brought the sake again, this time. Dunno where Luffy is – but I'm sure he's chaos personified for whomever is with him, currently." Or, he hoped so, gods, he dearly hoped so. "Energetic as he is, he'll need a caretaker. I'm sure his crew thought of one to give him to keep him in line, these days." And it was telling that not even the Revolutionaries had found out where the Strawhats had gone, at all. Not a whisper, no news.

Swallowing heavily, Sabo took that to mean that Luffy was still up and kicking, wherever he was. He'd done that every time he thought of their youngest brother in the last half year.

"I'm gonna be twenty-one this year, Ace. Who's the older one now, of the two of us?" Oh, how much he didn't want to be. A quirk of his lips, an almost-there smile, before it settled into something fond, "Guess I'll have to be the one to take care of Luffy now, huh? Once I can find him, that is."

Nimble hands, clothed in white gloves, poured the sake into the three cups. "Cheers, Ace! Happy Birthday. And a happy new year, too! Cheers, Luffy, wherever you are right now! I'll come and meet you as soon as I know where!" The atrociously coloured cowboy hat drifting in the breeze was his only answer.