the forgotten and the forsaken

by fanficguuuuurl

"Be careful, Luffy," Makino would chide, fearing for him every time he stared into the sea too long. Her hands would shake as she dried the seawater from his skin and wiped the sand from his feet, "If you aren't careful, the sea gods will take you." a series of au drabbles/oneshots that will be updated sporadically and in no particular order

5. extinguished or eaten

Once more, I do not own One Piece.

Sabo's fire dies at sea because a dragon ate him.

That is what Luffy understands from the explanations of Sabo's disappearance. It is ridiculous. Dragons are monsters of fire; therefore they worship the fire gods, even wild ones. A dragon wouldn't attack Sabo.

But Sabo doesn't come back and Luffy doesn't know how to find dragons because Ace is the fire one between them, but Luffy once belonged to the ocean and can still feel the lingering tide in his bones. He walks to the shoreline one day like he hasn't done since Ji-ji brought him to the bandits in the first place. Being so close to the water feels like coming home in a way the treehouse never did. He can almost hear the ocean hiss welcome back.

He asks the sea if Sabo fell in and extinguished himself, his cold body settled on the ocean floor. He gets no response, so he asks if the sea has seen the dragon that ate Sabo. He waits but hears nothing in return. Frustrated, he shouts at the water's edge, disgruntled at being forsaken. It wasn't long ago that the waves had crashed against themselves to grant his wishes. He fumes for a while before ultimately sitting on the sand. He sits all day in quiet contemplation before voicing the question that has haunted him ever since Dogra stormed to the hut with the news. Is Sabo dead, he quietly whispers to the water, almost like he used to whisper his devotion.

He gets no response.

Luffy lays on the green summer grass atop the cliff and cries. He weeps for a lost brother, gone by dragon or by sea he will never know. He weeps for a god (the tide in his veins and the salt on his skin and the forever pull he'd always known) forsaken. He had felt pain before, but that was sea salt pain. It was the kind of hurt that rubbed wounds raw so they wouldn't fester, so that better things would come. This loss is new, a gaping and void-like pain that he doesn't know how to heal. Once he would have poured the ocean into it, as vast and eternal and utterly endless as it is, surely the sea would have filled it. Now, by himself and removed from the loving gaze of the water, Luffy feels alone in the world.

It is a new feeling. One he does not like.

Yet another chapter that i hope you enjoyed! I will see you again next week