When Sabo next managed to pry open his eyes, he's sore and stiff beyond belief.

Full conscious awareness takes a moment longer than he's comfortable with.. He jerked in startled confusion when the blurry images in front of him sharpen into trees and dirt and his own scuffed, dirt smeared and ashy boots— and the little boy.

Ace is as familiar as his is in every dream, staring at him with the same grey eyes he last saw printed in the newspaper that ended and started everything. His dead brother stares at him exactly like in his old memories, when he was Sabo the ex-noble meeting a feral little boy in the forest. He's standing, pipe brandished threateningly at Sabo, but his hands tremble from exhaustion and his legs are dirty and shaky from where they had clearly falling asleep waiting for Sabo to wake. When he slumps enough to the side he can make out where Luffy, behind Ace, is curled tightly into a ball. Both his tiny hands were white knuckled around his knees and hat low over his face.

Slowly, Sabo tore his eyes from the mirage in front of him. He glanced down at his torso, surprised by the sheer amount of rope restraining him to the tree trunk.

If he weren't still reeling from what was going on, Sabo knew he would have snorted. He could tear through seastone with his bare fingers— some thick rope couldn't hope to manage containing him for longer than milliseconds.

Still, he allows his head to loll and assess his situation. This is a new circumstance, even for his dreams. A new shape to my traumas, he supposed, but one unexpected and surprising all the same. It's never turned out like this, restrained and sitting before his two phantom brothers.

Then again, he considers distantly, they also never live past the fire, in these dreams. He's slowly reawakening back into feeling, numbness retreating with every second he breathes in and exhales without issue. Pins and needles squirm under his skin up to his shoulders. He can barely see his fingertips, blue as they are, under the amount of tightly wrapped roped there is pinning him down.

Sabo hums noncommittally as he subtly tests the restraints. "Hey," he began, and swallowed thickly when he heard how rough his own voice has become. He cleared it painfully before trying again, meeting Ace's eyes carefully. "Are so many ropes really necessary?"

Ace noticeably stiffened the moment Sabo spoke. Every muscle is tense and coiled, his hand wrapped tightly around his pipe. It hasn't lowered even a centimeter despite Sabo's slow and non threatening maneuvers. "...Do you think we're stupid," he snapped. "We saw what you did to Bluejam."

His eyes flickered towards Sabo's hands.

Even with the clear amount of rope on him— even with Sabo's lack of aggression, his posture and tone still badly hid the anxiety under anger. The pipe in his hands nudged closer to cover the brief lapse of vulnerability. "Don't think we're just going to untie you after you— you snapped his neck with your bare hands."

Sabo tried not to sigh. The edge of his coat, frayed and charred from the fires and the lab, itched against his skin irritably. But to scratch at them required free movement, and he wasnt about to risk it with how on edge the boys are. Even Luffy, despite being open and trusting compared to the steely indifference of ace, looked positioned to fight or flee the moment Sabo makes a bad move.

"...Are you a noble?" Ace asks. His eyes trace over the burnt remains of Sabo's coat, his dirty shirt, his cravat, his heeled boots and top hat. "You... you're dressed like one," he says, but his brow furrows. "...You don't act like one." Sabo blinks. The burnt gaps in his clothing allow a clear view of his arms and torso and expose glimpses of defined musculature lost in most nobles. Ace looks distinctly uncomfortable. "No noble could kill like that."

Sabo hummed again, remembering distantly the numb feeling of Bluejam's throat collapsing under his hands, of bones crunching beneath his fingers.

I will do it again, he decides, over and over.

Every time this dream comes back to torment me.

The moment overlaps with every other time he's thought about it— about pinning the pirate to the dirt, about ripping him apart— about leaving him to writhe in the flames he started. Maybe one day it'll be enough to satisfy whatever part of me keeps this dream coming back.

Ace doesn't look happy with Sabo's lack of answer. He glared heatedly when the blond only stares at him in return and snaps, "What are you then?!" He tried to push it down but couldn't help stepping back. Nothing about this situation was normal and he hated how out of his depth he felt. He'd never even seen this guy before but he had been weird from the start, bursting out of the flames from nowhere, grabbing them the way he did— what is wrong with this guy? Is he just a damn idiot?

Ace will never admit how terrified he had been.

Luffy raised his head just enough to meet Sabo's eyes. "...I don't think he's a bad guy." Ace stilled, turning to look back at his little brother. Luffy ducked away from his glare for a moment only to stare back with equal intensity. "I don't," he declared again, firmer.

Sabo stared at him, barely able to connect this quiet, tiny child to the rubbery menace he has gotten used to.

Luffy raises his hands and grips the edge of his straw hat to pull it further down. It completely shaded his face, muffling the quiet "He saved us. From Bluejam and the fire."

Ace scowled, glancing between his little brother and Sabo.

He doesn't want to think about what happened. Not Bluejam, not the fire, not Sabo and his sacrifice, not this damn stranger who showed up out of nowhere and basically kidnapped them both. But he doesn't have an option here, not with the familiar-not familiar noble weirdo tied to a tree in the middle of the forest.

"It's not as simple as that, idiot." Sabo quietly restrains a chuckle as Ace huffs and paces in a tight circle. "No one ever just helps someone."

Sabo's amusement vanished as quickly as it came. Flickering out into the cold.

With every dream like this he's only reminded of how much his dead brother seemed inclined to hate, to distrust.

Luffy said he died smiling. I wonder if he really found his reason to be alive in the end.

Ace is glaring him down again, that same complex mix of I-don't-understand-you and you're-crazy that nearly has Sabo amused again. "I'm no noble," he finally answers, pleased when Ace relaxes just the slightest amount. "I'm a revolutionary. Farthest thing from a noble one can be," he assures with a wink. It's nowhere as playful as he tries to make them, but he's still mildly offended when neither boy reacts to it.

This is far too serious an atmosphere for two bandit-feral-children and an over cooked revolutionary.

Luffy's face has scrunched up adorably. "A rev-revo-rebolune-airy?" He frowns. "That doesn't sound very tasty, mr. not-noble." Sabo grinned at the warm fondness he feels against the chill in his chest, like stirring campfire ashes.

"Revolutionary," he corrects patiently, already knowing it's a lost cause. "I fight against nobles and the government." He nodded to Luffy but his eyes remained on Ace. "I work with your dad."

He didn't expect a lovely reception to the idea, but the vehemence to which Ace reared back was still slightly startling. "You know Luffy's dad?" He hissed out, temper flaring, ignoring Luffy's incredulous "I have a dad?" behind him. "Then why hasn't the scumbag ever come see Luffy? Why is Luffy here if he has a dad who hates nobles too?!" Sabo blinked.

"Dragon is..." he paused, wondering what he could and should say.

It's a dream. None of it is real.

"It's complicated," he continues. "It's for Luffy's own safety that Dragon stays far away from here." A horrible idea sparks and Sabo just can't help himself. "That's why I'm here." Both brothers perk up at that, staring at Sabo incredulously. "I'm Dragon's right hand man," he said quickly. "He sent me to check on you two, which is why I helped you. That's my motive, so can you untie me? My mission isn't to hurt you, after all," he chuckled. "Rather the opposite."

Ace shuffled uneasily, but it's Luffy that frowns. "I didnt even know I had a dad," he says, "why would he send you?"

Sabo closed his eyes for a moment, forcing back the familiar burst of frustration with his boss. Dragon had saved him, practically raised him, but he wasn't sure he would ever be able to let go of that thin stream of fire that burned over how Luffy was left in Garp's hands, and eventually to the bandits.

He wasn't sure the thought would ever stopped smoldering, even in these dreams.

"He must care a little," Sabo eventually managed. "To bother to send me." He opened his eyes and met Luffy's, then Ace's. "Even if I'm not him."

Neither boy speaks for a long moment.

Ace startled when Luffy abruptly rose to his feet and trotted closer to Sabo, tiny fingers tugging at the knots. "What are you doing?!" He hissed. Luffy determinedly struggles with the ropes, mouth set in a firm line.

"He's telling the truth," he decides with absolute certainty. "We should let him go, he just wants to help." Sabo is left staring at his brother, lost all over again in how Luffy always manages to bowl everyone else over with his sheer will. Ace is tense in front of him, stance defensive and tight, but though his eyes linger worriedly on Luffy he does not pull his brother back like he clearly wants to.

Any attempt at freeing Sabo is cut off prematurely as the foliage bursts open, startling all three occupants of the clearing towards the small bandit stumbling out of the undergrowth.

He barely pauses from the confusion of what he's walked in on— instead barreling over the scene he's just interrupted to announce something that has Sabo's insides go familiarly cold.