Chapter 4
It's been awhile since their waiter took their orders, and the Strawhats were starting to get antsy. The volume level was steadily rising, which would have annoyed Zoro, were it not for the fact that he was one of the main causes.
"Breathe in my direction again and I will end you."
"..."
"I felt that! Get over here damn it so I can pound your face in."
"Try it Shit cook."
And on and on. Zoro's fight with Sanji starts to pick up steam and he finds himself butting heads with an enraged Sanji, oblivious to his invasion of both Chopper and Robin's personal space.
The argument steadily increases in violence until Robin decided that she's had enough and ends their squabble with a sharp shove from the heel of her palms into their chins, snapping their heads back with disembodied arms. Luffy lets out a loud laugh at the display that has Nami grabbing his arm and shaking him lightly as she begs him to quiet down. (They were definitely starting to draw the eyes of other patrons. Though most seemed to recognize that they were pirates and tried to avoid outright staring).
Cracking his neck, Zoro frowns. He looks back at Sanji, who is talking to Nami while absently patting at the front of his suit jacket.
"Oi dartboard, if you light up in here I'm tossing you out the window."
At the statement Sanji starts slightly, as if he hadn't realized he was itching for a smoke. Then he rolls his eyes and waves a dismissive hand at Zoro.
"As if I would in this packed space you idiot. I'm not a wild animal that only follows his instincts like you."
His biting reply is cut off by a quiet crack of knuckles from Robin. She doesn't look at either of them, but the unmoving smile on her face and the crossed position of her hands in her lap indicate that Robin too was starting to get annoyed and the threat of another hit was impending.
Both Zoro and Sanji pale at the silent threat.
Knowing when he's beaten, Zoro huffs and turns to face straight ahead. In doing so he catches sight of a waiter making his way towards them, hands full of two trays stacked with food. He doesn't notice the way the man's eyes trace his face and seconds later fill with recognition.
"Oi," he calls to the rest of the table, which quiets at his voice. Luffy's practically vibrating in his seat. "Food's here."
Sanji gives a quick, "It's about damn time." And it's almost drowned out by the immediate cheering from others at the table that follows.
The waiter moves closer, stopping at the end of the table. He doesn't make a move to give any of them their meals. Noticing his lack of movement, Zoro frowns. The blonde waiter's eyes are locked on Luffy, and it almost looks like he's steadily growing paler. Following the man's gaze he watches Luffy, who bounces in his seat yelling something, before he turns to receive his food.
Zoro watches as Luffy's eyes alight on the food, and his mouth opens to cheer again, before his eyes shift up and focus on the waiter's face. Suddenly Luffy's grin is frozen and he's unmoving, the waiter similarly immobile. Something is happening here that Zoro hasn't caught on to. He's so focused on the exchange that he barely notices as the rest of the Strawhats catch on to the abrupt tension at the end of the table. It's quieter now than it has been the entire time they've been at the restaurant. Usopp is the first to vocalize his confusion.
"Luffy," he begins tentatively. "What-"
Whatever else he was going to say is immediately cut off by a harsh glare from Zoro in his direction. He tries to convey everything he's feeling about the situation along with the warning.
I don't know what's happening either, the look says. But it's important and we need to stay out of it.
At a loss, the Strawhats collectively watch as Luffy scrutinizes the man. His eyebrows furrow and his smile drops in exchange for a deep frown. An expression that immediately has the crew on the edge of their seats.
He looks the waiter up and down once more, the man still frozen in place, looking just as distressed as Luffy. Brown eyes meet blue. Luffy inhales sharply, shoulders rising and he seems to almost fold in on himself. There's a soft, quick exhale and,
"...Sabo?"
The waiter moves then, shoulders falling abruptly and he smiles weakly.
"Surprise…?"
And suddenly there's a million emotions flitting across Luffy's face, to the point where it becomes unreadable besides just plain shock. He's breathing hard now, chest rapidly expanding as Luffy's eyes stay locked on the man in front of him.
"...Sabo?" His voice is cracking, desperate as he asks the name again. It's so broken, so intimate that as Zoro watches the exchange he almost feels as though he shouldn't be. Increasing the strawhats' anxiety Luffy slides back in the booth a couple inches.
The shaky smile slips off the waiter's face and there's a pause, before he nods jerkily. Then he does something unexpected. He takes a small step back from the table, putting the trays down at a vacant nearby table, and bows slightly, miming lifting a hat off of his head and sweeping it in front of him.
At the motion something in Luffy's face breaks. His face crumples and immediately there are tears in his eyes. All eyes at the table are on their captain as he lets out a broken sob. The crew is frozen at such a blatant expression of pure grief that overwhelms his face. Even Zoro is stuck in place, wondering what, or who, on Earth could pull such emotions out of his captain. For once in his life, unsure of the feelings raging on Luffy's face, he sets a hand on Wado Ichimonji. This situation is unfamiliar, it's uncomfortable. Zoro has no clue what's going on, who that man is, or what he means to Luffy. With no knowledge of the predicament he can't gage what action needs to be taken, but he knows that if this in any way puts Luffy in danger, he'll be ready.
So he watches silently as tears roll down Luffy's face and the waiters arms extend slowly, shakily, as though he's unsure of himself. He watches as his captain's eyes squint shut and he launches himself at the blonde, nearly tipping them both over with the force.
Zoro stand up quickly, reluctant to leave him so close to a stranger despite Luffy's clear recognition of the man. The others begin to stand up too, only to freeze once again as Luffy's sobs grow in volume to become more familiar. They relax minutely as his cries shift from heartbroken to full of relief, the same ones they heard when Usopp returned to them at Water 7.
"Sabo!" he screams, arms winding around 'Sabo' multiple times. His entire torso covers Sabo's face and he struggles to pull away from the rubber man so he can breathe. The blonde's head finally escapes Luffy's embrace and he takes a desperate breath of air.
His face melts into a smile as he unwraps Luffy's arms and lowers him to the ground, all the while not letting him go. Sabo turns to the crew, still embracing Luffy, who looks like he's attached to his torso with how many times his appendages were wound around him.
"Come on Lu, your crew are barely controlling themselves." He punctuates this statement with a light nudge to his shoulders, making it so that their captain faced them.
Sensing the change in atmosphere, Zoro decides to take the initiative.
"So," He starts, when his voice can be heard over Luffy's sniffles. "Who.." Zoro pauses unsure of how to continue. He gestures to Sabo there, knowing they get the gist of his question without him really needing to vocalize it. At his inquiry Sabo smiles wider-if that's possible-and looks down to Luffy, who grins impossibly wide and announces,
"He's my brother!"
…
There's absolute silence at the table as shock spreads through each of the pirates. They're frozen until-no one later will quite remember who- someone drops a glass and with the sounds of shattering glass the trance breaks.
"Brother!?"
"Another one!"
"Oh my..."
"Luffy, you…"
Among the crews outbursts Luffy just laughs. His tears are gone now and his arm is stretching around Sabo's shoulders. Sabo smiles softly at his younger brother and addresses the surprised strawhats.
"Nice to meet you. My name's Sabo and I'm Luffy's older brother." He gives a small bow so he doesn't dislodge Luffy's arm from where it's made its home on his shoulders.
"Thank you for putting up with him." This earns him various vacant replies of 'No not at all' and 'it's nothing'.
Zoro observes the pair of siblings as everyone recovers from the abrupt news. Luffy and Sabo don't look that much alike; Sabo's blonde haired, blue eyed, and has a fairly light complexion, while Luffy has black hair, dark eyes, and far darker skin. From Ace and Luffy's relationship he can assume then that these two aren't blood related either, but he can feel the closeness between them. As they stand together smiling, Zoro sees how Luffy never once stops touching Sabo, and how when Sabo looks at Luffy, his gaze lingers longer each time. The pair moves in tandem, when one shifts the other follows, each adjusting to each others presence and movements. What really draws his attention though is Luffy's quick glances at the blonde next to him. Every time it's a slight glance out of the corner of his eye, as though he's assuring himself that his brother really was there beside him. This draws his attention past the relation revelation and back to their reunion. Which has him frowning. Why would Luffy be so shell shocked seeing his brother here? Why would Sabo be so terrified to see Luffy? Something about this was off.
He clears his throat. The noise itself isn't that loud, but it's a commanding noise that catches Luffy's attention. The rubber man turns to him.
"What is it Zoro?" This redirects the focus of the conversation, corralling it from multiple shocked sentences between one another, to one, solid, group conversation.
"Earlier when you saw each other… What was with that reaction? You both look like you had seen a ghost."
At that Sabo grimaces and Luffy's bright grin slips a fraction.
"Ah, well…" Sabo begins, clearly unsure of how to begin whatever he was going to say. Before he gets a chance, however, Luffy cuts in.
"Because technically I did." He giggles and looks at Sabo. "Sabo was a ghost!" Noting the exasperated look on Sabo's face and recalling their past experiences with Luffy's odd personality, they decide to not take him to literally. Instead they return their focus to the elder brother. Who proceeds to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Well, I suppose to him… to Luffy I guess it was like he'd seen a ghost." Sensing the weight of the incoming story, Zoro gestures to the pirates to take a seat. Luffy all but drags Sabo into the booth next to him, forcing Nami to move over with an impatient hand motion.
When everyone is decidedly comfortable, Sabo begins to speak.
"When I was younger, about 12 years ago, I was involved in an accident." He brings a hand up to the burn scar on his face, which causes Luffy to frown at him.
"It pretty violent. I… Luffy and Ace thought I didn't survive."
Ah. That explains it. Luffy for all these years had thought that he was dead. Had believed that both of his brothers had died and left him behind, left him alone. That's why Luffy was so distressed when Sabo had first appeared. He was seeing his dead brother in some random waiter in some random restaurant. The thought causes more than one strawhat to glance at their captain sadly. Luffy presses a little closer to Sabo's side.
"Wait a moment," All heads turn towards Robin, who spoke up with a small frown on her face. "If you had survived the accident, why wouldn't you try to reconnect with your brothers?"
Sabo's face darkens even more, anger briefly flitting across it.
"The accident was… traumatic, I lost all of my memories up until that point." Another round of shock passes through the table.
"Amnesia?" Chopper exclaims. "It had to have been a very serious injury to have impaired your memory all these years." Everyone pauses as a realization from Chopper's statement hits them.
"You did have Amnesia until recently… right?" Nami asks him tentatively. His response is given in the form of a sharp nod.
"So how did you get it back?"
Sabo's expression becomes grave, anger and sorrow alighting in his eyes as well as a guilt that many of the strawhats recognize after they had seen it every time they looked in the mirror for two years. "I got all of my memories back two years ago." His expression grows even more pained. He takes a slow shaky breath and Luffy gives his arm a squeeze. The crew watches with baited breath as he prepares himself to speak.
"I got them back when I read the newspaper, two years ago, and learned that my brother died in the war."