Hello :)

Honestly, life is running me over like you wouldn't believe. This was manufactured in the tiniest of stolen moments and until things calm down, the following chapters seem beholden to a similar fate. But, I reiterate that it is not - and will not be - abandoned. Thank you beforehand for your patience.

Much love,

dee.

Last time: Luffy recalls his first time conscious after Enies Lobby learning about his condition and reconnecting with Sabo, while in the present, he and Shanks board Marco's transport ship.

"I just… don't know how to talk to him, Pudding." The sous-chef, in uniform and still washing remnants of flour off with a kitchen rag, sighs emphatically. It's all been such a blur lately, with Enies Lobby survivors popping up here and there, the marines are in an uproar. Captain Tashigi is not the only person caught in conflicting feelings. How do you handle the walking dead? Adapt to the mourned ones being back? Conciliate this new reality against the guilt and so many sleepless nights that came before it?

"I don't know this man of yours, Captain, but he's certainly had a rough time if all the talk I've heard about Enies Lobby proves true; were I him, I'd just need a friend." Out of all the marines that regularly strike up a conversation with her, the Captain is definitely one of her personal favorites. It makes doing the dishes a lot more interesting if she gets to listen in on gossip while she does it, and Captain Tashigi can be surprisingly loose-lipped.

"That's… part of the problem," the woman continues, looking around the empty cafeteria before slumping over the counter. "We're not… friends, exactly. He's… he's someone I admired, I still admire, but after our first meeting… he's always tried to avoid me, for whatever reason. Coby told me that he held no ill-will towards me, but it certainly looked like that. I… don't think his recovery is any of my business, but - from swordsman to swordsman - I just care that he is well, you know?"

Not particularly, no. Altruistic worry is hardly a feeling Pudding is acquainted with, but she nods her head instead. Crinkling her eyes in a sympathetic gesture as she nods to show Captain Tashigi that she's paying attention.

"I think, Captain, that your heart is in the right place, and for most of our important decisions, that's all we can ask for." It tastes a little like vomit in her mouth, but Pudding is a professional. "Full steam ahead, I say. I'll fix your heart if things don't go well." She pumps her soapy hand in a fist, voice encouraging.

"Pudding!" the marine exclaims abashed, "I do not fancy this man."

"Right, you admire him, yes," The chef replies, amused, setting the last plate out to dry. Her eyes suddenly grow a little more serious as she turns around, and Tashigi avoids her gaze when she catches Pudding fiddling with her wedding band. "Life can be too short sometimes, spend it with the people you care about, yes?"

Captain Tashigi has apologized too many times in the face of Pudding's grief, the reason behind her rejection of suitor after suitor. Faithfully in love with a man who has not been with her for a long time now. She thinks her a widow, and sometimes Pudding feels like one. But those are silly, selfish thoughts. Her husband will come back to her; he always does. The illusion, though, seems to give Captain Tashigi some perspective. The woman lifts her head from where it'd been resting and gives Pudding a determined look.

"You're right, Pudding. I will do as my heart tells me to!"

Pudding offers a sugary sweet smile: "I'll be rooting for you!"

(She can't believe someone likes the marimo head like that, but maybe there really is a significant other for everyone out there.)

Ace's entire body is vibrating with pent-up energy. Through the window of Haruta's dusty office, he catches glimpses of dark sea current as the Whitebeard Pirates await for directions.

His fingers itch, unfinished business clinging to his shadow, and the bitter taste of impotence sours his mouth, like the aftertaste of vomit. Ace isn't a man made for waiting, but now he has no choice. His "promotion" heaped upon him in a hurry, but well-planned nonetheless is nothing he's ever wanted, and he squashes the thrill taking over his veins, shame calcinating his insides. Marco's captured in enemy territory, the Moby's crew is trusting his safe return to one man, and even with that man being Luffy, Ace cannot sit still. This is not the time to be happy about being a commander.

For all his pride, Ace would've refused. Should've, probably. He's too impulsive and immature, too willing to pick a fight and stick to his guns no matter what. He's... the son of the enemy, regardless of how well-hidden the knowledge is. In the face of his hesitation, Haruta and Izou build a concise, fulminating case.

Firstly, they signal Marco's leaving the Moby, his fight against Teach, even his association with Luffy.

I think if he can be our first mate, you'll be fine.

Second, Marco has been prepping Ace for a while now. Unknown to the younger man, Haruta informs, Marco had been eyeing Ace to fill the commander position since he got here. By Izou's sideways look, Ace determines this affirmation to be at least a stretch but, Marco did keep notes on the matter, so at least the sentiment is true.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there's just no time to prep anyone else.

Ace is young and powerful, well-respected, and fearless. He motivates and cares about his comrades. The Moby needs to move, and it needs to move now. If they were going to war, they had to do it at full strength. Marco missing already affected Moby's overall strategy significantly enough, wounds much too raw to consider even replacing Thatch. Been down three commanders would spread them much too thin.

Ace accepts in the rhythm of those who cannot say no.

He has an apology to give to Marco, but for that, Luffy has to bring him home first.

He will.

Ace knows Luffy will.

But.

"I don't understand," Ace complains again, and Haruta struggles not to frown where he's been scouring through reports. Haruta loves his brother, truly, but holy shit could be stubborn and dense. "Why are we not going?"

"Again," Haruta explains, "we are doing something else. One, it's dangerous for the Navy to know that your brother is allying himself with pirates. It's going to raise questions, get it? Second, we have officially entered a treaty -of sorts- with the Revolutionary Army, and we can't show our hand yet."

"But Marco...!"

"Do you really think your brother won't get him back?" Haruta murmurs, "Did you not see him when he was here?" Ace clearly remembers because an almost unnoticeable shudder crawls down his spine. Haruta really only notices because he is shirtless, like always.

"The Navy's powers are split, between the decoy ship carrying an Admiral, and the actual transport ship carrying another one, their HQ is undefended. More importantly, they cannot recall them quickly, not when they're engaged in significant combat."

"So we're going for their throat?"

"Marco's capture will be used as a smokescreen."

"What's the plan?"

"I... am here to explain that."

He's entered Haruta's office like a shadow, or perhaps a ghost would be more appropriate. Dressed to the nines, on silent footstep despite towering over everyone in the room. He's tall, taller than Luffy and Ace both. His skin is lighter, a softer tan than he'd had when they'd spend their days gallivanting across the jungle, cleaved their way through sand raising hell in their wake. This is, Ace can easily tell, a man who does not live at sea. This is not a gap-toothed, tormented child, nor a wannabe pirate. Not a ghost, not the walking dead.

Haruta doesn't blink at his appearance and doesn't notice the way Ace stills, too shocked to even breathe.

"Ace, this is the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo. He arrived this morning and will be working with us on..." Haruta's talking to him. Ace cannot move, he's waiting for the familiar anger to catch, paint everything red and channel the curdling in his stomach, but it never comes. His lungs seize instead, and he's aware but uncaring of the way his jaw has dropped open.

"Sabo." He calls his name, summons him into existence maybe, anchors him to keep his brother in this new world where Ace never lost him at all.

"It's been too long, Ace." Sabo looks regretful. Maybe, if Ace had been in all his sense, he would've paid such a thing more attention. Overthink it like he does every morsel of affection or feeling he can scrounge from people's faces, relentlessly searching for traces of disapproval or rejection he has never forgotten, that he's never grown out of feeling he deserves. But he can't, his mind is too busy superimposing the little shrimp of a brother he cried over and called out for while wrapped in rubbery arms and insincere smiles.

Neither Luffy nor Ace had ever been the same after that day.

Luffy's told him. He has.

That Sabo breathes and lives.

That he's joined the Revolutionaries, and that he's happy.

This man is not the child Ace toasted with. He's broader and jaded, visibly scarred beyond the obvious. He shifts and stands, just as suspended in this moment as Ace. Sabo gave up on their dream. Forgot them. Has known about Ace for years, but stayed tied down to an island trying to bring down the foundations of the world as they know it.

He thought about it when he spoke to Luffy then too, but he hadn't dared uttered the words out loud. They're impossible to ignore as Sabo stands a mere few feet away from him for the first time in over a decade: He's not the Sabo Ace remembers.

But this is his brother, and Ace feels it with every fiber of his being.

His body moves on his own, crosses the space between them - the mourning, the distance, the years, and the secrets - and throws his arms around his brother's slighter frame because he gets to now. His eyes sting with tears, but he tries to reel them back in. He's over been a crybaby, dammit. Sabo's frozen, but his arms squeeze him just as hard.

"...I missed you too, Ace," he tells him. Ace has a million questions for him, but that's good enough for now.

Thoughts?