Chapter 3

Three weeks had passed since the festival.

Days were beginning to get shorter and leaves starting to brown, even if the underlying heat of the summer still lingered in the cusp of autumn.

Luffy hasn't appeared since that day, but that doesn't stop him from being on Ace's mind.

The spirit still had trouble grasping the fact that he had met Luffy after all of this time, even if he is in a different body. Ace doesn't mind that; he was just overwhelmed with the fact that she is back.

Had been back.

In the dark, Luffy looked seventeen or so, perhaps a little younger or older, but who knew how many times his soul had been reincarnated since then. It left Ace restless and unable to sit still, pacing his days away as he thinks, feeling powerless and wanting nothing but to track Luffy down so he could explain everything that he has wanted to get off of his chest for millenniums.

"You're going to burn a hole into the ground with your pacing, yoi." A calm, comforting, familiar voice says, literally stopping Ace in his tracks.

The black haired spirit turns on his heel and faces a blond male. His skin is sun-kissed and muscular where the fabric exposes it. Stubble the same color as his oddly styled hair rests on his chin. His eyes are almost golden and as calm as ever. He looks human, but Ace knows that he is anything but.

"Hey Marco," Ace greeted after a sigh, walking up to his old friend and 'guardian' of sorts. He hadn't seen Marco since before he had encountered Luffy but he does't doubt that the phoenix god knew all about what happened.

When they're sitting at the shrine, shoulder to shoulder, the blond god fixes his eyes on the younger spirit who looks down at his hands in his lap, waiting for Ace to speak.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ace asks vaguely, but Marco always is smart so he doesn't doubt the blond knew what exactly he is asking.

"I'm not in charge of him Ace, you know Akagami is. And you know how he is." Marco lips curled up slightly at the thought of the red haired god who continuously tried to 'convince' him to join his ranks, despite knowing Marco's intense loyalty to the god that held even more power than Akagami. Ace couldn't actually tell if the smile on his face is a pleasant one or not. "Even then, he wouldn't be able to tell you, yoi. It's out of our jurisdiction."

Ace had already figured out something similar to that.

"...He has no clue who I am. Why?"

Marco closes his eyes and leans back. "Reincarnation is always a tricky thing. Sometimes they remember, but most times they don't remember. However, even if they completely forget everything they learned before, they can still have their instincts. Do you know what that means, yoi?"

Ace's eyebrows knit in thought, his bottom lip getting trapped between his canine teeth.

"No clue, what are you saying?"

Marco is quiet for a moment before he opens his eyes again and looks at the spirit next to him.

"That's something you'll have to realize yourself."

"What?! Why can't you just tell me?"

"It's a part of your punishment to figure it out, yoi."

Ace sighs and his shoulders slump, defeated. A part of him expected that answer. If it doesn't have to deal with his punishment, then the spirit would've pester the answer out of the phoenix god like he has been doing ever since he was a child.

"How's everyone?" Ace mumbles a few minutes later, sitting up

"Same as usual, yoi. Haruta and Izo have been arguing more lately though."

Ace hums and crosses his muscular arms under his head, still dwelling on Luffy and the fact that there is so much he doesn't know. He doesn't doubt he'll learn at some point - he would make sure of that - but how is another question. After all, he can't ask anyone about it. They'll either not know a thing or refuse to tell him, like Marco. Not that he will, seeing as he has been determined to single-handedly deal with his punishment for the past seven hundred years.

"Thatch?"

Marco's eyes darken and he frowns a little bit. "He's an idiot as usual."

Ace smirks and looks at his friend. "Uh huh."

"What's that supposed to mean, yoi?"

"That's something you'll have to realize yourself."

A day after his talk with Marco, Ace is back in the tree, his eyes closed and arms crossed behind his head as he begins to doze off.

He doesn't expect a sweet sounding voice to pull him from the edge of sleep.

"Are you still in the tree, tree guy?" Ace's eyes snap open and sees Luffy standing wide eyed at the foot of the tree with a stunning smile on his face. He can only just grip the branch to avoid falling flat on his face again.

"Oooh! That was cool!" Luffy applauds delightedly when Ace's feet touch the ground after he swung deftly on the branch. "Do you fall off from trees a lot, tree guy? Does that mean I have to call you something else?"

"The falling is kind of a new thing..." A new thing that started the moment Ace had seen Luffy. "And my name's Ace."

"That's a really cool name, but I like calling you tree guy!" Luffy nods, completely sure of himself and Ace can't find it in him to care about the nickname.

Flustered, Ace rubs his neck and stealthily looks the teen over. Luffy's dressed in a blue and gray uniform that looks good on him; Ace recognizes it as the one from school a few blocks away from the hill. A pair of sandals adorn his feet and his straw hat sits proudly on his head.

Ace jolts in realization because that's the old hat Akagami used to wear years ago. He knew that Akagami has been in charge of Luffy since Ace's punishment began, but why did Luffy have the yonko's hat that Ace knew the red-haired god cared for greatly.

"Ne, I wasn't expecting you to be here again! Do you always hang out here?" Luffy asks brightly.

"Yeah, I'm here pretty much all of the time." Not being allowed to leave the shrine kind of insured that.

"Ahh, that's so cool! It seems really nice here! I can't believe I've only been up here once!"

Ace shrugs, but on the inside he can't really believe it either. "Not a lot of people come up here; only during festival seasons."

Luffy nods in realization. "Oh, I didn't know that! I moved out here with my big brother a few months ago!"

It's Ace's turn to nod in realization, his eyes widening fractionally. That explained why Ace had yet to run into Luffy.

"Ahh, I've lived here for a long time. Where are you from?"

Luffy sways and looks at his feet. "Me and my brother were born in Brazil, but we moved to the States when I was 8. Then we moved out here! We went back to Brazil right after the festival, actually!"

"Brazil? Is it nice?

"Yeah, I had a lot of fun! You should go someday! My big brother Sabo thought it would be cool to go back and I'm glad we did!" Luffy says, beaming.

Ace feels his stomach drop and forgets how to breath.

Sabo?

Did Luffy just say Sabo?

"He's always really busy with stuff so we haven't really gotten a lot of time to hang out a lot! I was really happy when he told me we were going back to Brazil!" Luffy continues speaking, cheerfully unaware of the way Ace's expression started to twitch and change. "He'sin college and he likes it a lot, but I don't get why because isn't that just more school?"

Ace can't answer, too shocked to even breath because of the mention of his old best friends name.

When the blond man came his way, his kimono in tatters, his arms and chest covered in scratches and bruises that hadn't been there earlier, and his eyes rimmed red from tears, Ace expects to be killed. He feels like he should be killed because she wasn't living anymore and it was all because of him.

If anyone had the right to kill him, it was her brother and his own best friend. He hoped that Sabo wouldn't kill him quickly; that he would let him suffer and slowly bleed to death but - he doesn't.

When he reaches Ace, sobs shake Sabo's shoulders and he wraps his arms around Ace's head, cradling the freckled man in close.

"You idiot," he whispers brokenly, his tears staining the front of Ace's kimono. "You stupid idiot."

Ace is unable to hold back his own tears any longer and cries into Sabo's shoulder, whispering apologies that he hopes Sabo never accepts.

Notes: Marco and Past!Sabo in one chapter! This is also the longest chapter so far whoa! (I'm not good at writing long things but chapters might continue to get longer as it goes on.) And next chapter... Well you'll see!

So, I might of written out one of the last scenes to this story... I might have gotten upset while writing it, but I also got a little upset writing the last scene of this chapter.

I'm keeping the term yonko - they're the four ruling gods in the afterlife/other realm that are in charge of keeping things moving.

Whitebeard is the one with the most power. He has 15 lower level but still very powerful gods underneath him (and then ones that answer to both them and Whitebeard)- Ace is not one of these gods, seeing as he's in punishment.

I made a writing tumblr where you can see my progress for things/read drabbles/etc. the url is sullycrab if you're interested 8)

It's really rainy right now and it's making me want to curl up in a ball... It was sunny and warm a few days ago I want it back *claws at floor*

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and feel free to leave a review before you leave ;)