"This," Ace said, pointing out people who often waved back, "is Izo, Thatch, Marco, Haruta, Rayuko-,"

His voice continued, listing off people with the ease of long practice, but Sabo soon found himself completely lost, unable to connect names with faces. Even parties with his parents rarely had this many people! And even if there were that many, usually Sabo could get away with not learning everyone's name – here, Sabo desperately wanted to impress Ace and Luffy, but there were so many more people than he expected.

Though it'd taken a few days of begging from Luffy, Ace had finally given in and decided to introduce Sabo to their extended 'family'. Luffy had been regaling him with tales of their adventures since Ace had agreed, and though Sabo was slightly terrified (one of them apparently knew how to defuse a bomb using twine and a plastic knife, for God's sake!) he couldn't help but feel excited at the thought of meeting Ace and Luffy's family.

He hadn't even realised one person could chose their own family, and though he tried to quash it, knowing that if he ever told them where he was actually from, they'd likely hate him – considering Ace's loud opinion on the subject – longing still rested in his chest.

His head swivelled as he tried to take in everything that was going on, and for once he was silently thankful that Luffy hadn't decided to bound away as soon as he'd seen someone he was friends with. It meant that he could hover around Luffy's side, hearing Luffy slip strangers' names into his conversations so he could later join.

While the room was filled with people and noise, as the night went on more and more groups became obvious, as people settled down with soft drinks or alcohol and a deck of well-worn cards.

Ace had disappeared into the crowd long before, and though Sabo could see him weaving his way through conversations, he hadn't deigned to return. Luffy had dragged him around to meet at least a hundred different people over the last few hours, but had finally settled for drifting from group to group. Sabo dutifully followed, still uncomfortable with all the strangers he'd met.

Currently they sat next to a group of people who all had biceps bigger than his head but still grinned at him like he'd become their best friend in the past two seconds. This entire situation was way, way too confusing for him to even think about making sense of it, so he instead tried to work out the rules for the card game they'd been playing for the past half-hour.

"How do you even play this game?" he mumbled to himself, frowning again as the lady next to him did something completely confusing.

Luffy looked at him in confusion, before asking, "You don't know the rules of poker?"

Afraid that he'd accidently revealed something about himself that most normal homeless people would know, he quickly blurted, "No-one let me play."

"You have played Twister, though, right?" Luffy asked, and he looked so earnestly worried that Sabo felt bad for answering negatively. Luffy's expression twisted in horror, and then he leapt up from his chair, shouting, "SABO'S NEVER PLAYED TWISTER!"

Sabo reeled back, surprised by the sudden volume change in Luffy's voice. His shock meant that it took a little while for him to realise that the crowd around them had grown silent. When he realised that the people nearest to them were staring, however, he could help but subconsciously shift, an embarrassed heat coming to his cheeks.

"What?" he demanded.

"I BAGS LUFFY!" someone suddenly yelled, and Sabo was shoved out of the way by a man with a gravity-defying hairstyle. He tripped over his own feet as the crowd erupted into a flurry of movement and noise, various people claiming partnerships or teams, and he would have been sent sprawling had it not been for a manicured grip on his arm.

"Thanks," he mumbled, brushing off his sleeve, and …(Haruta? Vista? he mused rather hopelessly) nodded.

"It's no problem." Sabo's saviour said, surveying the crowd, and then suddenly he moved forwards and pulled Ace from the throng.

"What Izo?" Ace said, while Sabo mentally went ah-ha! Izo!

"Don't leave our poor little newbie without a partner, now." Izo tutted, and though Sabo could easily see a refusal on Ace's tongue, obviously this Izo had some sort of power over Ace, because he only groaned and stomped away, dragging Sabo to a brightly coloured sheet.

Well, several brightly coloured sheets.

Sabo was pretty sure he'd seen them before, but he couldn't place where. The sheer size of the sheet could be what was confusing him too. Though he was unsure about how they were all going to fit on that thing, it was still much bigger than any carpet he'd ever seen – even when his mother had forcibly bought him shopping in an attempt to teach him how to co-ordinate furniture. That had been a boring week.

"Left foot red!" someone called out, and the groups of two stationed around the mat quickly found the easiest position to put their feet in.

"Just listen to the instructions and don't fall over," Ace ordered, leaning over the plastic sheets and finding a red. "If I've got a colour you don't need to get it. Okay?"

Sabo nodded, and obediently placed his left hand on blue when it was called. This doesn't look to bad, he thought, watching everyone find spots easily.

A few turns later, and he was intensely regretting that thought. His arm was twisted under Atmos' body, and Luffy was leaning over him, somehow managing to stay balanced though his feet were entangled in two other people's.

"Isn't this fun?" Luffy asked, grinning at him, and Sabo grunted, sliding his left foot to blue when he saw Ace couldn't reach it without crushing someone's hand.

"Yeah," he said, attempting a smile, and Luffy laughed.

"Get your ass out of my face!" Ace suddenly yelled, as Haruta wriggled underneath Namur and shoved Thatch's hand off a blue spot, making three people tumble to the ground with loud yelps.

"Get your face out of my ass!" Haruta shot back, and Ace growled.

Sabo pressed his lips together to stop himself from laughing, and Luffy grinned even wider. "Ace gets really aggressive when he plays," he whispered to Sabo, and Sabo snorted.

"I couldn't tell," he replied.

"Right foot green," Izo called, and Sabo groaned quietly, trying to see if Ace was going to move. Luffy merely shifted, wriggling his way through the gaps, and Sabo couldn't help but gape.

"Do you have bones?" he demanded, and Luffy giggled, grinning. Everyone else around him groaned.

"No-one's sure if he does," someone said by his ear, blowing a long strand of persistent fringe from their sight. "It's why everyone demands he be on their team."

"I like twister," Luffy declared proudly, and someone nudged him in the shoulder, as though to say 'no duh'.

The movement, however, sent him rocking back onto Sabo's arm, and he found himself swaying, his balance affected by his weird position and by Luffy's not-so-gentle shove. As Ace shifted his foot to the green circle, Sabo found himself slowly tipping, and watched in horror as he bought down ten people – Ace and Luffy included – on top of him.

Someone's elbow landed in his stomach, and he was pretty sure three knees hit his leg, but though in pain everyone's laughter at the sudden tumble made him smile. If he'd been with his parents this ridiculously silly game would have been turned into something with twenty different rules, and if he'd failed he would've been only met with scornful looks instead of amused laughter.

When Luffy reached out a hand to help him up, Sabo couldn't help but tentatively ask, "Can we play again?"