Dragon looks up when he hears the yelling. His people are standing around him, turned towards whatever is causing the commotion, but he can't see past their backs from where he is still seated by the child, bandaged at his feet.

He stands in time to see one of his men go flying, right over the edge of the railing and splashing into the ocean. Ivankov starts, standing as well, but Dragon only waves him back down. "Stay with the child," he orders, and steps forward. Almost immediately, he catches sight of the problem.

A blond man is marching directly onto their ship with a familiarity as if he owns it, eyes hard and mouth set in a firm line.

He carries no weapon, but the one man who had rushed him was clearly tossed aside with an ease that betrays the strength he carried under his fire scoured coat and charred top hat.

He halts before Dragon, eyes having not left his as soon as they met. It's only when the path he's cleared in the growing crowd begins to close back up that he hears the warning snarl and looks down to see two children. They stand close to the man, clutching with hands white onto the stranger's coat. The smallest, a little boy with a straw hat, eagerly peers around the older child past Dragon.

"I see him!" He calls eagerly to the other two, "Sabo's right there! Old Sabo was right!" But Ace just corrals him closer with a hand over his mouth.

While unsure what that comment means, Dragon would be a fool to not recognize his own son, even years after he had last seen him.

"Are you here for the child?" He instead asks the blond man, who has not yet spoken a word. "Old Sabo" tilts his hat with a slow hand in place of a nod.

"I'm here to take him home," he says quietly, and while the words are quiet and tired, his eyes have yet to even blink away from Dragon's.

He refuses to allow his mouth to twitch into a smile. He had never heard about someone so interesting looking after his son, before. Maybe it's time to give Garp a call.

"I cannot leave the boy with a stranger," he says, and watched curiously as Sabo's mouth just barely twitches. Contained, controlled. Nothing about this man is not calculated, even with his clear exhaustion.

Both boys frown at this, looking particularly offended. The older boy even pauses in his glaring at the revolutionaries around them to snap at Dragon that "he's our brother what the hell are you talking about old man!" And Dragon sees, from how the man's blue eyes dart towards Ace, that he clearly would have preferred neither to have said anything.

"Interesting," Dragon says aloud, because nothing about this situation isn't. If there wasn't a child injured behind him, it would have maybe been amusing.

He levels a look at the blond again, but the man doesn't seem ready to offer any name just yet.

"Let us take Sabo home," he says instead. Both boys immediately refocus on the child, Sabo, still unconscious behind Dragon.

There are multiple protests when Dragon steps aside without a word. His men are confused and agitated, nervous with the appearance of a strong adversary who knew who and where they are. But Ivankov must see something in his face, because the okama is silent and serious where he still sits at Sabo's bedside. Luffy immediately darts out from behind the blond man to Sabo's side. Ace follows after with a wary glare at Dragon, hissing for his brother to stay in arms reach and with a hand still tightly wrapped around the stranger's coattails.

The man steps forward with the two boys but Dragon steps smoothly back in front of him. With the children focused on each other, the stranger is alone to be questioned.

Surprisingly, he does not tense. He does not move to defend himself, posture remaining loose and unassuming.

Either he is a brilliant actor, Dragon decides, or knows he is safer than he pretends. They are not about to attack children nor their guardian after all— and though Dragon does not recognize this man, his son clearly appears familiar to him. It's a very telling reaction, how closely the trio watch after each other.

The man finally blinks, head cocking ever so slightly. Something nearly bittersweet flashes on his face. It's gone long before Dragon can do more than wonder. "How is he?" The man asks in place of whatever he really seems to want.

Dragon only stares him down for another long moment before answering. "He's going to scar," he eventually begins, "we have saved his eye, but only just so. The burns stretch across most of his left torso down to mid thigh. But he will survive," he adds, and narrows his eyes a near imperceivable degree when the stranger's face again twitches into something almost amused.

"Yes," is all the stranger says, and Dragon is again left to wonder.

"...What is your name?"

All he gets is a smile for his question. What would be infuriating from most only managed to make him chuckle. "I see."

They both turn when the boys begin to call out for the man, frantically whispering "he's awake! He's waking up—" and the child still bundled on the bed groans quietly in pain as his eyes squint open.

Immediately the stranger is by the bed. His gloved hand slowly reaches down to cradle the boy's face. He has an expression that dragon can't even begin to decipher, something amused and conflicted and anxious and afraid all at once before shuttering fiercely. "Good morning," he tells the boy casually. Sabo only blinks up at him, eyes wide and confused.

"Who are you?" Dragon instinctively twitch closer, all previous impressions wilting in the face of this blatant lack of recognition– but all suspicion is gone the moment the man smiles.

"I am here for you," he says in place of anything that would truly fit. "Your brothers are here, with me. Ace and Luffy." Sabo blinks uncomprehendingly up at him and Dragon exhales quietly in realization. Rage bubbles, familiar and simmering. Damn the nobles, he swears, damn the celestial dragons and the false royalty of this rotting government.

They're all disgusting, he reaffirms to himself, watching these children fall apart in face of what has been taken from them.

Regardless of this, the man only continues to smile appeasingly. His hands are more gentle than Dragon had seen before, surrounded by his men, and cradle the child carefully to allow him to sit upright. "We are your family," he says again, quietly. "You have lost your memories of us, in the explosion, but we are here for you, for whenever it returns." Ace and Luffy, crowded onto the bed and tiny fingers ripping into the bedsheets, only nod furiously. Tears and snot get everywhere but they ignore them in favor of their brother.

"Brothers," they declare quietly. Firmly, resolutely, as if tied by the heart with invisible, unbreakable thread.

Dragon turns away. He's seen enough.