AN: if all goes as it should this story will be updated once a week at around Friday or Saturday, just so you know.

Disclaimer: was stated first chapter.

Sabo

Sabo woke to the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of roasted meat. He was lying on a surprisingly comfortable and warm bed that seemed to consist of a spare blanket and a pile of leaves and dirt between him and any rocks. Open eyes revealed a clear, starry night and flickering red and orange to go with the crackling sound.

Open eyes also revealed Ace casually leaning against a rock keeping watch for the night, a pile of clean bones next to him and a sleeping boy with a straw hat curled up asleep in his lap. The sight caused a conflict of emotions for Sabo; on one hand he wanted to hug his brothers and make sure they never left his sight again, on the other hand he would love nothing more than to whack the bloody idiot.

Finally, he settled for whacking and then hugging, he may have woken Luffy in the process.

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The first time Sabo met Ace was soon after he had run away just run away from home, he didn't think he would have lasted long if he hadn't. A few weeks of trying to survive and he had found himself cornered by a few of the stronger beggars that had nasty habit of less begging and more taking from those weaker than themselves. Sabo, being half staved and still cramped from his long imprisonment in his cage, had unfortunately fit that description.

Ace had wondered over, beat them to within an inch of their lives, stolen everything they had had on them, and then wondered off after bowing and saying, "sorry for the trouble."

Confused was a little too mild a term to describe what Sabo felt in that moment. True he had still lost all his things but at least he could still move and forage for more without the inconvenience of a broken bone or two. The dark-haired boy had dressed and moved as if he was savaged born and raised, but he had spoken well and his manners were good, if a little missplaced. As a high born himself who thought that it should be the nobles out here where they belonged the contrast had been more than a little jarring.

All in all, Sabo had no idea what to think about the random stranger, and both wanted to talk to him again and hoped that the stranger stayed as far away from him as possible. He didn't know who to trust yet in this strange place, or really how to live here in general, but he did think that asking advice from someone so obviously disturbed was not a promising idea.

Good idea or not, the choice did not end up being within his control. Before the day had even ended he had slipped on a piece of junk on one of the piles and gone slipping and sliding down the slope, his landing had been anything but graceful.

The person he had landed on had seemed to agree, if the loud groaning was anything to go by.

'That hurt.' The voice was unfortunately familiar, even in pain, and recognisable as the one who had given such a polite apology to his victims. 'Would you mind getting off? You are surprisingly heavy, and I'm sure your cloths don't help.'

Those were not a five-year-old's words, they were especially not the words of a person who had been raised in poverty where 75% of the used language revolved around new ways to curse at the world. Their presence was enough to startle old habits out of Sabo and he found himself leaping to his feet, repressing his own groan, and apologising automatically.

Then reality caught up and he remembered that this was a boy his own age, who had beaten up a group of men that could have killed Sabo in an instant, and was another of the desperate people that called this place their home as they had nothing else to lay claim to.

The boy was looking at him intently, a strange look in his eyes that seemed to confirm Sabo's suspicion that he wasn't all there. Sabo didn't know what the look meant, but he didn't think it was something that was usually directed at strangers, especially strangers that had suddenly come tumbling down to land on top of you.

'I don't think I've seen you around before, how the hell did you end up in this dump?' Sabo froze. If there was one thing he had learned in his short stay here it was that being new was bad. If people thought you didn't know how to survive, or that you were some weak little kid that should still be cuddling up to parents, then you were fair game, something they could take from without fear of their prey biting back.

'Same way everyone else does,' the standard, believable, lie, 'and I am just very good at hiding.'

The boy gave him a knowing smirk. It seemed to suggest that this other kid knew something he didn't, something that he wasn't going to tell him because he enjoyed messing with people.

'Hey, neither of us seem to fit in here, how about an alliance of sorts.'

Sabo frowned at the words, 'alliance?'

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The freckled boy, Ace as he had eventually learned to call him, didn't confuse Sabo any less now than when they first met. He seemed to come with two default moods and nothing in-between; happy and polite or a raging beast that left very little in terms of survivors in his wake. There had been ups and downs in there working relationship over the past year and hints of things that seemed to only add to the confusion that appeared to be a six-year-old boy most of the time.

The first six months after meeting Ace had been both the worst and the best. They were the best because he was now learning how to actually survive, learning how to taste freedom even if he hadn't quite managed it yet. His ability to steel was certainly better than Aces, and apparently why the boy had suggested the alliance in the first place, but Ace was stronger even if Sabo was slowly catching up to him in terms of strength. Sabo was no longer barely surviving; hunting, both beast and man, with Ace he was starting to feel like maybe he could live for the first time in his life.

It was worse because he did not understand Ace, at all. Ace seemed to know things, things about Sabo that were absolutely impossible. Ace never said anything, but something in his eyes at times seemed to say oh so clearly that he just knew.

And then there was the questions. They weren't bad, they were probably just things he would ask anyone he was required to trust to certain extent, but they still felt pointed.

'Do you think a person should be judged for who their parents are?'

'What do you want to do with your half of the money?'

'Where do you intend to go when we finally have enough to get out of here?'

'If we both want a boat, maybe we should consider getting one together, at least until we get off this damn island.'

And then there was the final emotion that Sabo had managed to recognise in Ace's eyes. There wasn't just a look of knowing, there was look of … caring. It was the look that he had always sort in his parents when he was young and always found missing. It was the way a family would look at each other, that love that had nothing to do with personal gain. It scared him to have another look at him like that, it wasn't something you expected to find in people their age, and it was way too intense for a bond of necessity like what brought them together.

There was something strange about Ace, but Sabo knew he would have died or been caught long ago without him.

A year turned into two and then three. Their alliance had turned into true friendship and Sabo had found himself learning to accept Ace's quirks and work with them. He was used to watching his friend beat up men he had no right being able to beat with a smile on his face and managing to keep his words and voice polite. He was used to watching the other take down several boars because he felt like a snack and treat the woods like an extension of his own back yard. Sabo had even adjusted to watching Ace meet abuse with consideration from people they knew, only to break someone else's arm when the fool thought to try the same thing.

He had gotten use to Ace's behaviour, but a small voice in the back of him mind whispered that something wasn't right.

It wasn't something as drastic as the feeling like Ace was going to betray him, it wasn't uneasiness or a feeling of falseness from Ace's oddities, it was something that made Sabo wonder if he was a little odd himself.

Like how when Ace was polite Sabo got a feeling of being thrown off balance as if the other should have reacted differently. Whenever they walked into a bar to rob the patrons blind he would feel this itch like he was waiting for Ace to do something, say something, that always remained incomplete. A feeling of relief whenever Ace smiled, like it was something rare that needed to be treasured.

As their fourth year of knowing and planning together came to an end Sabo wondered if Ace's oddness was contagious, it would certainly explain why Sabo seemed to eat so much more than what he would once have considered normal.

When Ace was about ten things start to get a little … different.

It was slow at first, and it took Sabo a while to notice the increase in fights that Ace would pick, the violence he would respond with. To see the way his friend was always tense, always wanting to move and hunt and steel.

Something had Ace on edge, it seemed to be eating away at him and making his temper get shorter and shorter by the day. Sabo wanted to be angry as his friend would start to snap at him for the most random of things, but for some reason he wasn't surprised. He didn't like it, and it made him feel sad in way's he couldn't describe, but that traitorous voice in the back of his head seemed to suggest that this should have been normal and it was his behaviour before that had been odd.

And just when Sabo had been about to confront Ace about whatever the hell had him so worked up, he had wondered out the forest with someone following behind that had made Sabo's world swirl sickeningly, though he had no idea why.

Ace had always been familiar yet unknown. Like looking at someone you thought you knew only to realise they just shared a face. But this person, this seven-year-old with a straw hat, watching him stand beside Ace like he belonged there had his mind screaming at him to look up and notice, to remember something that he wasn't even aware he had forgotten.

Ace was talking, but Sabo couldn't hear him over the banging in his head as something yelled at him to realise something. A single crack and something slipped through.

'Luffy?'

And just like that the flood gates were open and Sabo blanked out as a whole heap of horrifying memories rushed in like a tidal wave.

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Sabo glared down at his (older? Younger?) brother after he had finally caught a hold enough of himself to let go of the lying little bastard, not that anyone could blame him but still …

Remembering his past life had been much like the time he had regained his past memories from before the accident after ten years of living with amnesia. They were his, he knew they were his and that that had been his life, and he had no idea how he had managed to forget them. They just settled nicely in the waiting gap from before his memories of now began.

Apparently, he had been reborn after his last life had ended. It just so happened that his last life had been the exact same as this one, with only a few minor differences that could all be traced back to one person.

Luffy had fallen back asleep soon after the tangle of limbs had finally separated, Sabo was very happy about this as it meant less witnesses to his soon to be very insane looking behaviour.

After all, he was about to accuse one Portgas D. Ace, son of the pirate king, of having lived this life before and screwing with the timeline rather majorly (or not so majorly, yet). While it was technically possible that this Ace didn't remember and was just legitimately different from the one from his last life, Sabo didn't believe so for a second.

After all, Ace remembering would explain more than it wouldn't. The weird knowing and strange tension would all make sense if Ace actually did know and had been tense because he was waiting for someone, Luffy; their little brother, and the one Ace would give his life to protect.

Realising that there was no way in hell he could out stubborn the older D, Sabo continued his glare but resolved himself to having to ask questions if he wanted to get this story straight.

'How long was I out?' Sabo was mildly impressed that Ace only looked slightly uncomfortable under his heavy stare.

'Two days? Give or take a few hours. I carried you on my back to the forest when it became clear that you weren't going to wake up anytime soon, Grey Terminal wouldn't be safe with you like that. You had a fever, Luffy was really cute looking after you.'

Sabo had to fight the smile that wanted to spring up at that. He was mad god damn it, and he wouldn't be side tracked just because their youngest brother was adorable.

'And you have remembered your past life how long? Or should I say "future"?'

Ace winced. 'Ah, about that … always? Just kind of woke up in mom's arms knowing everything as if I had just drifted off instead of dying.'

Sabo blinked. On one hand he had been lied to for five years, on the other it would be pretty weird reliving everything rather than just getting random feelings before getting hit in the head with it. He could understand someone not wanting to tell anyone what they knew.

Not to mention Ace had probably been worried about stuffing something up and not meeting Luffy if he told, not that he seemed worried now about what might change.

'So, what, you died in Luffy's arms at Marineford and then woke up in your mother's arms as she died immediately after? That sucks.'

Ace was suddenly frowning at him with a considering look.

'Sabo, if you died at ten in a boating explosion then how do you know exactly how I died at twenty, ten years later?'

Sabo froze, that was not something he had meant to let slip quite like that …

Silence, then, 'Sabo, you bastard!'

And that was the second time that night that they managed to wake up Luffy.