Rating: G
Characters: Ace
TW: None
Notes: A take on Ace after Sabo's 'death'.
He has never been as good at laughter as Luffy was, never been as adept at smiling like Sabo, but with Sabo-
with Sabo swallowed by the sea, he has to force himself to keep his lips stretched wide, drawing on the muscle memory of hours spent in the sunshine with both his brothers.
He breathes and laughs and reminds himself that Luffy is afraid of being lonely, so he can't just leave; can't sail away from every painful memory attached to every tally point of wins and losses, every piece of wood that went into making their tree house. He reminds himself that the sea is vast and the sky is wide and that his feelings are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but-
But it does little to help the fact that his chest aches whenever he sees a gap-toothed grin, whenever they run across something Sabo had marked as his.
It's like playing with a timebomb, seeing how long it takes for the ache hurting his heart to fade verses how long it will take for him to break; but feelings aren't easy to make into equations and hurt divided by the number of days in the year doesn't equal anything but constancy.