Reply to Anon(Guest): Thanks. Any specific part of it that was cute, or is it just all cute?
Reply to DD(Guest): Thanks! Yeah, Luffy is the sweetest. I feel bad for Ace too, but he's getting better. Do you really want me to spoil what will happen to Ace when Sabo 'dies'? What are you thanking me for? I ought to thank you for taking the time to read.
Reply to Guest: Well, thank you very much for reading this. (At the risk of sounding arrogant, but I'm honestly just curious...) Is there any particular reason that you wanted to thank me?

He eyed Ace, before swinging upside down from his position on the tree. "So what if you're broken?" Sabo asked wryly. "We're all a little broken."

"But I'm unfixable!" Ace snapped, fingers unconsciously rubbing against his wrists. "You and Luffy are so sure that you can fix me, but you know what I am, you know that I'm..."

"That you're human?" Sabo cut in, raising an eyebrow. "Ace, every part of the human body... other than teeth... can fix itself, and from what I can tell, you're human, so you can be fixed."

"Teeth are unfixable." Ace pointed out stubbornly, arms crossed over his chest. "You just said that. So what if I'm like teeth? What if when I get broken, I can't get fixed?"

"I never said that teeth are unfixable." Sabo swung back up into a sitting position, then curled forwards and reached up for the next branch, leaping onto it with a hesitant landing. "I just said that they couldn't fix themselves. Teeth need help, but with help, they can be fixed." He grinned down at Ace as he pulled an egg from a bird's nest, and tossed it down, unable to keep the smugness from seeping into his voice. "Just like Lu and I are going to help you."

Ace caught the egg deftly, somehow managing to keep it from cracking as he fumbled with it midair. "What if I'm not human, then?" He asked quietly, turning the egg over as Sabo shimmied down the tree trunk.

"Well, you don't look like a bird or a worm." Sabo laughed as he plucked the egg from Ace's fingers, "So what else could you be?"

Ace's shoulders lifted in a shrug as he pushed his fingers into his pockets, eyes lowering, "I dunno." He replied, voice dulling. "Just..."

"A demon?" Sabo knelt down to pick up a berry. He rubbed it lightly against his shirt, and then handed it to Ace before taking another one to eat himself. His voice had darkened, cool yet angry. "Like how they say in the bars?"

Ace nibbled at the berry's skin, sucking the juice out hesitantly. "...Maybe." He admitted.

Sabo laughed, though it sounded forced, strained. "Ace, if you were a demon, then you'd have fire powers or something." He bumped his shoulder against Ace's a light laugh escaping his lips. "Then maybe you'd be more useful with cooking the food, hm?"

Ace flushed, "That was one time!" He snapped, "I didn't know that fire could spread!"

"You burned down the whole hut!" Sabo snickered, a more genuine sound this time, as though he couldn't quite help himself. "Talk about clumsy."

"Oh, like you have a right to judge me." Ace huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "If I recall correctly, you didn't even know that food had to be cooked when we first met!"

Sabo's face turned as red as Ace's at that, and he retorted, "I didn't know! I always was just given..." He cut himself off, eyes widening as his blush crept across his face and onto his neck. "I... I never cooked myself."

"You always were just given food that they found in the trash?" Ace prodded, pulling a few more berries off of the bush and cupping them in his hand. "Hey, do you think that we can use these to lure a bear?"

Sabo peered distractedly at the berries, "Yeah," He nodded, seeming relieved that they weren't talking anymore about his lack of ability to cook in the past. "Bet we can get a big one, too. These kinds of berries are really well liked by bears."

"Perfect." Ace grinned, an odd sense of relief that they weren't talking about him anymore swelling up in his chest. "I bet that I can take a bear down faster than you!"

"No way!" Sabo laughed, and with that, the tension seemed to be gone.

Maybe I am fixable. Ace thought, Just like teeth.

A/N: Sorry for the late chapter? And nothing really happened either, but I thought that it was kind of important that they kept coming back to this. Repetition can be helpful for when someone doesn't believe that they're worth anything. Anywho...