So, as mentioned before, the previous chapter was just a pilot. And since I got such a great response from it that I literally cried, here you go; the lovely in depth first official chapter!


Ace pulled back, releasing the child in his arms and gazing at the boy's face. He wiped the tears from his own eyes, trying to clear his vision, as if his tears were making him confuse this person before him for some one else. A sob escaped the man's lips when he confirmed, with out a doubt, that this was Sabo.

He touched the boy's cheek, looked into those big blue eyes, noted the missing canine tooth. Ace, really was dead. He had to be, for Sabo to be here. Just the same as he was 10 years before. He thought with a smile, 'what good did I do to deserve seeing him again?'

Sabo couldn't take it anymore. He let out a loud cry of his own and threw himself into his big brother's chest. Well, now he was his big brother, seeing as he's grown to be 2 feet taller than him. "Ace," he squeaked, "I missed you."

"I missed you too." he sniffled and nodded, clutching the boy like he might float off into the ocean.

"So, are we... dead?" Ace already knew the answer, but he wanted a confirmation. Turning to look at the kid seated next to him. They both were now leaned against the large boulder, overlooking the receding tide as the sun started to set.

"I..." Sabo looked at his crossed knees, "I guess. What other explanation is there?" Ace let out an amused snot beside him. Truly, there wan't any. They sat in silence again for a minute or so.

"And you've been alone here? This whole time?" Ace's voice was pained, if he's known Sabo had been waiting for him, he might have let himself die sooner... no, he wouldn't have. Even now he desperately wanted to go back, make sure Luffy made it out, drink with his brothers, talk with Oyaji, but, now he couldn't. For as every one knows, people can't come back from the dead.

"Not entirely alone." He bit his lip, thinking. "There's a boy and a girl who come here sometimes, usually they only stay for a few months, last time they stayed a whole year. But otherwise, yeah. I've been alone." He then turned up to smile at the freckled face. "But it's not all that bad! I built a tree house up on the inland," he pointed to a forest at the end of the beach, "And I don't need to eat, so I'm sorta friends with the animals here."

That eased Ace's heart a bit. He hadn't left his brother to wallow in lonliness after all. "That's good." he ruffled his curly blonde hair. But the sadness still lingered, just because he wasn't alone didn't make it okay that they were apart.

"Well, now you've got me too. And I'll never let you leave again." He lightly punched Sabo in the head, then wrapped his arm around his slim shoulders. "Got that?"

"Haha, yeah." Sabo grinned, leaning into Ace. "How the hell did you get so big? It's not fair."

Ace chuckled, retorting; "Cause I ate plenty of meat."


Okay, I know this is super short, but I had a really hard time with my computer loosing everything and I rewrote this like 5 times so... I had been hoping to upload this, twice as long, 2 days ago. But well, yeah... My goal is to update every other day with chapter much longer than this one. Tune in next chapter for some Luffy and the gang action! :D *cries because this chapter is so short*