so i once again forgot to cross-post onto here after posting on Ao3! my bad. sorry for the wait, finals week was rough

They were grounded. That was Sabo's best word to describe... whatever their current situation was. Garp had plucked them up that first day and all but tossed them inside Dadan's hut, and that was that.

Sabo honestly hadn't been too mad. It wasn't as if he could run around anyway— though the... insistence Garp had when talking to him was… certainly something.

("You're my grandson now," the wolf barked, "I better not catch you calling me shitty old man like Ace does! I'm your grandpa, don't you forget it brat!"

In and out, just like that. Sabo didn't even get the second of breath to think about responding. He was just left blinking, staring at the space Garp had Just vacated before storming out and away. "But I— he hasn't— I've never even told him my name...?"

Ace had just snorted, tugging him down and shifting to curl around his back. "Do you think that'll stop him?"

"Well..." Sabo doubted his own parents even knew his name, sometimes. He knew for sure that his grandparents couldn't be bothered to care. No aunts, no uncles, no challenges to the family fortune— "yeah, kinda."

"Well, better figure it out quick.")

Garp refused to tell them anything. He was barely around in the first place. Despite apparently returning to the Bandit's den for the night, Ace nor Sabo ever actually saw him. Ace said he could smell him, and Sabo didn't doubt that, but…

Even without the nose of a werewolf, Sabo could smell the blood. He was a little sick hoping Garp actually caught Bluejam.

Since the old man had come they had pretty much been jailed. Garp took care of a lot of the hunting, surprisingly, and would growl at them if they took a single step past the clearing around the hut–– Ace had gotten cuffed the moment Garp smelled him past the treeline. Sabo was… kind of okay with that. The restlessness wasn't easy, or the frustration, but Dadan was much meeker with the older werewolf around and Sabo couldn't move around that much anyway to be sprinting through the forest.

...But it had been a week, and Ace was starting to look like he was going to chew off his skin if he was stuck indoors a moment longer. "I need to go outside," He snapped, voice hinging on a whine. "The full moon is coming soon, and I need to run. I need to go out."

Sabo huffed, drawing his legs closer to himself. The thought of the full moon made his heart race, just a little– but none of his worry showed on his face. It wouldn't be the first full moon he had spent with Ace, though that was more of an overstatement if anything– he had slept clean through it. Hadn't even known that night was the full moon; he had woken the next day in a fevered panic when he saw Ace, dirty and scuffed, curled up and dead asleep against his side. He had spent the new moon sluggish and utterly unhelpful in answering Sabo's nervous questions.

Ace suddenly shot upright, ears trained high and alert.

Sabo jerked. Eyes wide, he snapped his head towards the door where Ace continued to stare, confused and wary–

"–me down! I don't want to–"

The door slammed open, making them both jump. Dadan shrieked "Goddammit!" as a broad hand smacked against the edge, leaving a dark bloodstain across the grains. It went completely ignored as Garp hauled himself back into the hut, a child squirming under his other arm. "Of course, brat," he huffed, "You're too young to ignore the pull of the moon yet!"

Ace and Sabo blinked up at him in shock. Garp just casually crossed the room and sat down in front of them, plopping the random kid in his lap with a level of ignorance nonchalance Sabo could only dream of. The boy was growling loudly, swatting at Garp's hand pressing his straw-hatted head down into an awkward bow as he reached for the basin of water Ace had left out from that morning redressing Sabo's leg. "Once you're older, you'll be able to control it more. Go on and run, I've taken care of the trash anyway."

Garp grinned, wide and full of sharp fangs, and Sabo cringed inwardly at the stink of blood. "Just don't go near the Terminal," He cackled.

Ace hadn't moved. Sabo was fairly sure he hadn't actually heard what Garp had even said (or any of its implications. Sabo was pointedly trying to ignore the blood still dripping off the older werewolf's knuckles. Were all werewolves like this, or was Ace's family just really messy?) "Who the hell is that?!" He finally blurted out.

Garp's eyes were practically twinkling. It made Sabo distinctly… uncomfortable. "This is your brother!" He crowed, jostling the boy trying to escape him. "My other grandson– Luffy! Stop being such a pup and say hi!"

His hand finally lifted and Sabo could feel it when Ace physically recoiled. A low growl rumbled out of his chest the moment huge brown eyes met his, fluffy dark-furred ears folded over his hair from under the brim of his hat. "Hi," He chirped. Despite his predicament, he still raised a tiny hand and waved it excitedly.

Immediately, Ace's posture shifted from shocked to hostile.

Oh, Sabo realized, Oh boy.

"Another grandson?" Ace hissed. "Why do you keep grabbing random kids?! Wasn't two already too much?!"

Garp chortled loudly, throwing his head back with the force of it. "Another?! This one is my flesh and blood, brat! He'll be staying here from now on, so be good friends!" He nudged Luffy out of his lap, sending the pup spilling off his knee and onto the floor before them with a yip.

"What?" Ace sputtered at the same time Luffy squeaked out a "Really?!"

….I…. don't want to be involved in this, I think. Sabo carefully sat back and folded his hands in his lap.

"Why?!" Ace snarled. "He's just a little kid–"

"You're just a little kid too–"

"–I'm not a damn babysitter! He's just a puppy, he'll either be killed or get us killed!"

"That's not true!" Luffy yipped, fur standing on end. He had finally pushed himself to his feet, ears flat and tail high even when faced with Ace's withering glare. "I'm strong! I'm the best hunter in Fuschia!"

Ace sneered. Both werewolves seemed to have stopped paying attention to anything more than each other. "Oh yeah?! Prove it!"

Oh, I don't like that tone. That tone meant bad decisions, like picking a fistfight in an adult bar. Or arson. Sabo quickly started scooting farther out of range. His yelp, when Garp scooped him up and carried him a ways back, went completely unnoticed by the two. Including Garp. The older man didn't do more than ruffle his hair.

"Gum gum..." the pup reared back, his fist flying far past what it should have and both Ace and Sabo's eyes bulged. "Pist—!" It hit a tree.

They were all left watching, brows high, as it bounced off said tree. Hit another tree. Rebounded back—

"Uh," Sabo started, blinking, and suddenly Luffy was whining loudly, limbs tangled around three different trees at once.

"That..." Ace straightened. For a moment, none of them actually managed to say anything. If Luffy hadn't been whimpering, and Garp not laughing, the clearing would have been stiflingly silent. "...that's so stupid. Are you kidding?"

Immediately, Luffy's head shot up. "It's not stupid!" He shouted. The glare of a 6-year-old was magically even less intimidating when said pup was tied to a tree by himself. "When I get free I'll show you, and you'll have to say that I'm the pack alpha!"

Ace's ears shot down flat to his head, tail raising high and bristling, and Sabo renewed his squirming to be put down. "Pack Alpha?" He snarled. "A puppy like you? Yeah right! Not in a hundred years—" Garp finally seemed to get the hint, setting Sabo down when he pressed meanly into the nerves on his hand (he didn't fool himself, nothing he did could hope to even budge Garp– but it got his attention, at least, and got Sabo got on the ground) he was a little too far— Sabo scooped his pipe off the dirt and carefully hobbled forward. "—and you're not even a part of our pack! We don't even— we're lone wolves! We don't have—" he paused, looking up as Sabo finally reached him. Startled out of his rant, when a pale hand touched his arm.

Dark eyes froze on Sabo's face. For a short moment, the werewolf looked more taken off guard than he had in months. "We... we don't..." those eyes flickered down. Caught on Sabo's hand, on his arm. On his leg still awkwardly lifted off the ground, barely braced by his white-knuckled grip on his pipe.

"...N...nevermind," Ace finally trailed off.

Sabo frowned at him, confused, but ultimately just shook it off. It was just another thing Ace was held up on— if the other boy wanted him to know, then he'd tell him. "Come on," he said, "We should probably get him down." He didn't know Luffy, and wasn't really interested in knowing him— but he wasn't cruel.

...and he doubted Garp would bother. The older man was already gone. Sabo hadn't even noticed him walk off, somehow.

Surprisingly, Ace didn't snap at him. (He had been doing so less and less since Sabo was first injured— but it was still a little weird to see the hot-tempered werewolf just cross his arms and look away.) "He'll be fine," he murmured. It was almost to himself, but Sabo heard it regardless. "We shouldn' hafta deal with such a brat."

You're still a brat, and I have to deal with you daily. Sabo raised a brow.

None of it passed his lips, but Ace flushed scarlet anyway. "Fine," he snapped, "stop looking at me like that! We'll get him down."

Sabo beamed. He started for Luffy, leaning heavily on his makeshift cane— only to jerk back to a halt as Ace grabbed onto the back of his coat. When he looked back, the other still wasn't meeting his eyes. His blush now ran down his shirt. "I'll get him down," he amended. "Sit back down before you trip, or do something else even stupider."

"As if it's ever me doing something stupid," Sabo retorted, rolling his eyes, but he obligingly sat down. His leg was beginning to throb a little too much, after all. It had nothing to do with how nice it made him feel, to have someone who cared about him. Not at all.

Luffy shrieked, high pitched and terrified, and Sabo sighed. "Gently, Ace!"

Ace threw himself past the last of the riverbed and into the undergrowth, and thought, not for the first time, that he shouldn't have listened to Sabo.

"He's annoying," he complained under his breath. "Whiny and clingy and stupid." He didn't want a puppy following him. He didn't want anyone following him— and yet every single day, no matter what he did, Luffy kept chasing after his scent like a police hound. All that had been stopping him from finding their hide-out was the river. Ace refused to even let Sabo come near the bandit den in case he wouldn't be able to get them both out before Luffy caught up. "Tiny, stubborn, idiot, rubber brained pup—"

A rock hit the dirt near his paws and Ace yelped, shifting to stand on his feet. "What was that for?!" He said.

High above him, Sabo swung his feet at the edge of their canopy den. "Stop complaining," he yelled down.

"You couldn't even hear me!"

Another rock. "I don't need fuzzy ears to know you're complaining again!" Oh, now that isn't fair. "Stop glaring at me and get up here, Furball!" The head of blond hair vanished for a moment over the edge, coming back to roll their makeshift rope ladder down.

"I'll show you furball," Ace huffed under his breath, and carefully began to climb his way up. "See if I help you when you get stuck with him!" Sabo had the nerve to wait for him to climb up onto the main platform before rolling his eyes. "S-stop making that face!"

Sabo just hummed, completely ignoring Ace in favor of returning to the ragged old notebook in his lap. "You know," he began, "I've been thinking—"

"Oh no."

Thwack. "Shut up!" Sabo laughed through his hiss, unable to help his reaction from the betrayed expression Ace gave his notebook. "As if you ever think. But I really was— and..." Ace went quiet as Sabo frowned, face becoming seriously contemplative. "...you know I can read, even though we don't have a lot of books. But a lot of them are about pirates— I know we had to deal with Bluejam, but I just, I can't help but want—"

"Spit it out," Ace snapped, confused by his anxiety. Sabo didn't even move to hit him for that one, just shaking his head as if trying to throw off water droplets.

"—wouldn't it be nice?" He asked, quietly, eyes distant, "...to be that free?"

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Ace could hear his heart beating in his ears. Could faintly hear it whispering, breathless—

He thinks to be a pirate is freedom?

Sabo glanced up at him and Ace watched his blue eyes go wide. More flustered than ever, he flailed his hands frantically. "N-not that I— I'm—! I don't know! Stop looking at me like that! I just—"

"I'm not mad," Ace choked out. How could he be? He couldn't even muster up annoyance, couldn't even pretend to have any left in the face of the idea that piracy could ever be more than a poisonous legacy. Sabo fell silent, staring at him curiously. His ears flattened. "I'm not. It's— it's a good point, I guess."

"...even after Bluejam?" Sabo asked cautiously. He startled when Ace hung his head and laughed, the sound thin and strained.

He thinks I hate pirates because of Bluejam, he thought, almost hysterical with it— he thinks one Baby Bad was enough to make me— "my dad was Gold Roger," he blurted out.

Immediate regret.

Ace's body went cold and searing hot all at once— like a bomb had gone off in his chest the moment he had spoken. What the fuck, he wanted to scream, what the fuck, why the fuck did— I have to get out of here, Sabo will never want to— He looked up.

Sabo's eyes were practically glittering.

"The king of pirates was a werewolf ?!" He shrieked. "How did I never know that?!"

What.

He wasn't finished. Sabo leaped up as best he could, balancing on wobbly knees before Ace could stop him. "The pirate king was a werewolf," he breathed, "a werewolf! Ace, how did— he must have kept it a secret, I can't believe the implications of—"

Ace couldn't even hear him anymore. Disbelief roared through him like a hurricane, blowing his foundations off its roots. He was left frozen in its wake. Drowning under the rapidly dawning realization of— " That's what you care about?" He asked, bewildered.

Sabo looked scandalized he'd even asked. "He was a fucking werewolf Ace what the hell are you talking about?! How did no one know the fucking pirate king was an entire werewolf?!"

How long had he lived with it? Ace wasn't even a teenager, and yet it felt like forever– felt like he had been born under the weight of his blood, of his knowing. The shock, the disbelief, the rage, the pain, the fear—

Ace stared at his friend. His only friend, the only person he had ever chosen and been chosen back by —

"You're—" his throat tightened, choking and hot. "That's— thank you."

Sabo just shot him a sideways glance, elbow-deep in their random trash and completely oblivious to Ace's inner turmoil. "What the hell are you thanking me for? Hurry up and tell me how it works! You gotta know something, right? I have to write this down, that's fascinating—where is my pen––" Ace just sat there and stared, unmoving on the ragged floorboards.

(His chest was so warm. He was almost worried it would fold and burst into fireflies if he budged an inch.)

He didn't move until Sabo hurt himself trying to throw his notebook at him.

Luffy wasn't going to give up. Sabo barely needed to have met Garp to know that. It was obvious just in the set of the kid's shoulders, the glint in his eyes–

–the fact that Luffy had been resolutely chasing both him and Ace down through the forest every chance he got––

"You're not going to keep up," He hollered behind him. Even bogged down by his leg he was still older than Luffy. Ace had quietly worked him back up to something functioning– with a leg that needed just a bit of a brace and not too much work to stay together. It had stopped breaking skin at every move weeks ago. Being human wasn't going to be enough to a tamper on his skills, to let just a puppy of a werewolf catch him. "Give up!"

"No!" Branches snapped behind him. Sabo threw himself to the side just in time to avoid a rubbery set of jaws.

His eye twitched. Dealing with a second werewolf, even if a kid, who also had a devil fruit of all things, was exhausting . Exhausting and weird. The first time they met was barely a warning for the weirdness Sabo had to deal with now. On the bright side, it was a nice sort of easy way to work his body harder in increments.

Still, it was getting close to lunchtime, and he could feel the strain in his leg beginning to pulse into something left manageable. He needed to take a break, catch something to eat– maybe bring some extra back to the treehouse if he could. It would all be faster if he wasn't rampaging through the foliage with the equivalent of a fuzzy hurricane on his heels. Luffy may be smaller and weaker than him, but his much sharper nose and ears meant Sabo had to really work to lose him. He wouldn't be able to hunt if he used up all his energy running.

If this kept up, Sabo wouldn't be surprised if he ended up running forever. He was starting to think he would just be better off if he gave up– it was clear Luffy wasn't going to.

What's the harm, besides Ace being mad? Ace is always mad.

Sabo skid to a halt.

Almost instantly, Luffy's body nearly catapulted itself right into his spine. It was only a quick sidestep that made him crash into a bush instead of his fragile human bones– rising spitting dirt and covered in leaves. Huge brown eyes swung up and narrowed on Sabo with the intensity of a shark smelling blood.

"I caught you!" He roared, jumping back to his rapidly shifting human feet, and launched himself at Sabo with claws thankfully wicked away. Sabo just let it happen. It wasn't the first time he had let himself be caught, and the feeling of rubbery limbs extending to coil around his entire midriff was slowly becoming less and less alarming. He was more weirded out by how Luffy saw fit to rub what seemed like every bit of his face on him. "I-I actually caught you!"

"Yeah, great." Pulling on the other's cheek didn't manage to do more than stretch his face out, not dislodging him off Sabo in the slightest. "Cool. if you let me go, I'll let you hunt with me?" It would keep him busy, at least–

Sabo blinked, caught off guard as Luffy's eyes practically glowed right in front of his face. "Really?!" He yipped. "You'll hunt with me?!" His tail was beating so hard Sabo swore he'd break something. Was that possible? He'd have to ask Ace, though Ace never really wagged his tail much, and not very hard– "Uh,"

"We can eat together like we're supposed to," Luffy rambled on, "and I'll– I'll even share meat with you, if you really wanna, and we can–!"

"Um," Oh, Luffy wasn't touching him anymore. He sure left dark fur sticking up all over Sabo's clothes though, "S-sure, I guess?" A last beaming smile was slingshot his way, almost making Sabo trip over his boots, and then Luffy was on all fours and furry again.

This is. This is fine. "Lead the way, you're the werewolf here." If possible, that made him smile even more. Maybe Sabo was getting better at reading wolf body language than he thought.

(Maybe. Luffy was so excited his entire body was wiggling in place. Sabo was starting to think he'd vibrate straight out of his fur if he could.)

"Let's go, let's go, let's go, I'm hungry and I can smell a boar–" Luffy whined, pawing at the ground, and Sabo quickly moved to leap after him as the wolf launched himself back into the trees.

Ace is going to be pissed, he thought idly, dodging a low hanging branch as he plucked at the tufts of fur still plastered all over his coat, But hey, no problem with indulging Luffy every so often .

It wasn't doing any harm. He wasn't hurting anyone by letting Luffy stick a little closer to eat a meal with him. Ace might be a little mad about it, but it wasn't as if Sabo planned on picking Luffy up by the scruff and bringing him home– he'd get his food, and then while the other was distracted with his share he'd sneak back to the treehouse.

He kept his eyes carefully trained forward, locked onto the now familiar dark silhouette Luffy cut against the vegetation. Never tripping once. His injuries were improving– the scar was pink and ugly like raw flesh, but he was no longer bleeding and breaking. Even several feet ahead, with his head start, Sabo could see the happy rise of Luffy's tail. The perk of his ears, the happy loll of his tongue like a harmless pup instead of a dangerous wolf–

Sabo let himself smile. Just a little; quiet and unnoticed.

He's not so bad, I guess.

one more chapter before we actually get to the parts i started this entire fic for ;)