"What would you say if Gold Roger had a kid?"
Sabo groaned. "Ace. I. Do. Not. Care. The guy died before we were even born. He could've had a million kids. He could've had none. What difference does it make?"
Ace sat up to stare straight at his friend. Face strangely serious. Eyes slightly desperate.
"But! But - he was a demon, right? So his blood is cursed! If he had children, they're cursed too!"
"So what, we should kill them?" Sabo asked sarcastically. "Ace. We…"
And Sabo stared a little extra long into his best friend's desperate eyes. He sighed, tilted his hat back and lounged against the tree behind him. His coat was off, wings sprawled on either side of him.
"A guy pulled on my wings and called me a bird. King had him shot. Sacrilege or whatever. Who was in the wrong?"
Ace blinked, confused at this sudden shift in topic.
"I guess the guy should've shut up and kept his hands to himself?"
Sabo glanced over. "What if I told you the guy worked in the kitchen and would sometimes slip me treats? And he was only touching my wings to see if they were real?"
Ace tilted his head. "So the guy was nice? Then the king's the bad guy here?"
Sabo waited a long minute.
"What?!"
"I notice in neither answer you said it was my fault for being there."
Ace's face turned angry. "What the hell, 'Bo?!"
Sabo didn't even glance at him. Shrugged. "My fault for being born with wings. My fault for taking the treats. I should have known better. I should have just stayed locked up in my room. You could say I caused the whole situation by being stupid."
Ace was turning red. "You're being stupid now, Sabo! You had nothing to do with it!"
"The guy's whole family was killed, you know. Said they were spreading lies about me."
"Sabo!"
Sabo smirked a bit sadly and tilted his head.
"Don't worry, Ace. I don't regret being born - I wouldn't have met you! It's not my fault the guy wanted to see if my wings were real. It's not my fault the king would kill anyone he sees as questioning the royal line's legitimacy."
It was my fault for taking the treats though, thought Sabo sadly. The servants were not his friends. He knew better. They always wanted something, and the man had wanted to touch his wings. It had hurt when he yanked on them. And the family had been telling people Sabo's wings were fake. But they didn't deserve to die. And that wasn't the point he was trying to make to Ace anyway.
Sabo tilted his hat to shade his eyes. Relaxed like he was about to take a nap. But in reality he kept his eyes trained on Ace, who looked ready to scream.
"Whether Gold Roger was good or bad, at fault or not, who knows. We weren't there. Even if he was bad, what do his kids have to do with anything? It's not their fault he was Pirate King. It's not like they chose to be related to him."
Ace said nothing. Chewed his bottom lip. Hands tightly clenched in his shorts.
"I'm happy you're alive, Ace," Sabo said softly, smiling. "So happy. I don't care if your father was the pirate king. I hope you don't care that my parents are nobles or I'm adopted by a king that slaughters whole families."
Ace ran off into the woods. Sabo just stared up to try find the treetops where they disappeared into the sky. His best friend would be back. He would wait.
Hopefully Ace could forgive himself for being born. He, at least, genuinely wasn't at fault for his father's sins.
(Neither was Sabo. Sabo had his own sins.)
The weeks flew by, and soon the boys figured it should be safe enough to check out the Grey Terminal. Ace wanted a pipe like Sabo's - it was so not fair how much it increased his reach when they trained.
Of course they got into a fight, but they won easily against the petty mugger between the two of them. And turned out the mugger had quite the haul from whoever he'd gone after before them.
The two boys exchanged smirks and helped themselves. But neither quite knew what to do with the gold and jewelry once they got back to the Forest Between.
If they took it back to Dadan's, it could be confiscated. Dadan would probably say it was to cover the expense of raising them, the old hag! (Though they agreed she was secretly a nice old hag.)
If they just stashed it somewhere, it could be found if one of the Grey Terminal residents ventured out, much as Sabo once had. Or maybe an animal or bird might get into it and steal it away. Some of the birds loved anything shiny.
(Ace suggested Sabo fell in that category. The resulting tussle lasted over an hour.)
They would have to hide it. And good!
The two brats chose the biggest tree they could find and made their way up. Ace grumbled when Sabo cheated by taking off his coat and then using his wings for extra balance on his way up. They made their way up to a good fat branch, out of sight from below, then broke out the knives Dadan had given them for skinning their hunts.
Between them, they carved out a hole and even fashioned a lid for it. It was nice and deep, easily large enough for today's haul and then some, and it wouldn't be too hard to make it bigger over time.
Finished, they sprawled over the huge branch and enjoyed the view.
"If we go up higher, I bet we could see all the way to the coast!" whispered Sabo in awe.
"We'd be able to see anyone coming hours before they got here!" Ace added excitedly.
They met eyes, both suddenly beaming.
"Let's build a treehouse!" they cheered at the same time.
Of course their carpentry skills weren't that great at their age. But they managed to get a decent enough fort in place, and figured they could improve it over time. They weren't quite ready to leave Dadan's yet anyway - she roasted a mean crocodile! And she knew where and how to sell the animal skins they brought back. Once they figured out all her tricks, that would be another story.
Sabo and Ace had been a duo for about a year when Garp visited.
Out of the blue, in the middle of one of their fights, Ace froze. Sabo tackled him and cheered his victory, but strangely Ace didn't have any retort of revenge.
Instead he grabbed Sabo and yanked him down, holding a finger to his mouth to hush him. Sabo immediately shut up and listened.
Nothing. Nothing. THUMP. THUMP.
"We gotta go!" shouted Ace, no longer bothering with quiet. Grabbing Sabo's hand and yanking him along towards their tree fort.
"WHERE'S THAT GRANDSON OF MINE? BWAHAHAHA!" bellowed a deep voice, somehow heading straight in their direction despite Ace and Sabo's knowledge of the mountain that should've thrown anyone off.
Sabo would've asked who that was, why they were running, but he had the feeling that, one, he would soon find out, and two, he probably should conserve his breath for said running.
Not only were they not losing him, but somehow the guy was catching up.
Something, someone, someone huge, came leaping out of nowhere and got Ace. But not before Ace managed to shove Sabo well out of the way.
Sabo watched in horror as the absolute monster of an old man hefted Ace in one hand and started laughing at his attempts to escape.
Then Sabo freaked out, launching himself at Ace's captor. Screaming and biting, kicking and clawing and punching, desperate to free his best friend, but all for naught.
Garp was quite confused why he was being attacked by a feral blond child. (The feral brunette child attacking him was normal, cussing him out and refusing to call him Grandpa.) To be honest, he had been a bit stunned in the first place that Ace's haki signature hadn't been alone.
Ace got a friend?! He was so proud! They can both be Marines!
Of course the kid seemed to be close to having a trauma attack at Garp's complete nonreaction to any of his attacks. (Which actually were more than decent.) Even as he thought that, the kid dropped to his knees and began begging him not to hurt Ace.
Well. This was uncomfortable. He couldn't laugh at this.
"Just what do you think I am?!" exploded Garp, somewhere between bewildered, worried, and offended. "I'm a Marine!"
He meant that to mean he was a hero! A protector of the weak! A defender of the unfortunate!
Blondie had a different reaction.
Started shaking. Eyes glazed in defeat. The brat had already been pleading on his knees for Garp not to hurt Ace. Now he completely groveled, head to the ground.
"Don't kill him! Please - I'll do anything!" the child pleaded. "I'll go back! I won't fight! Just don't kill him! Please!"
"Sabo! No!" screeched Ace, ripping his way out of a suddenly loose grip. The brat ran forward and placed himself firmly and protectively with his back to the groveling child. "You're not touching him, old man! I'll kill you!"
Without thinking, Garp slammed a Fist of Love onto Ace's head. "Don't threaten to murder your grandpa!" he ordered the brat, now laid out on the ground.
(Sabo's scream reminded him immediately why that had been stupid.)
Instead of complaining, hunkering down and nursing his head, Ace scowled and got right back up. Even as a now sobbing Sabo grabbed at him and tried to pin him down, obviously terrified.
Obviously still thinking Garp was actually going to kill Ace. And what a thought for such a small child. Especially when he'd repeatedly referred to himself as Ace's grandfather.
Someone had hurt this child. Badly. And like hell he'd return a now happy child to whatever nightmare he'd escaped.
Garp groaned and sat on the ground, well out of arms reach of the kids.
"I'm not gonna kill Ace, Sabo," he announced, strong and clear so the boy would hear him over Ace's fighting and cursing. "He's a disrespectful and violent grandson, but I love him."
The blondie stared at him with big blue eyes far too grateful for someone saying they weren't going to murder a child.
Ace still glared at him with suspicion. Well, it probably was his duty to return runaways. Especially noble runaways. (Going off that almost laughably formal outfit, complete with cravat and top hat even.) But nope, Garp was on vacation! He didn't have to do anything!
"And Ace, calm down. I'm not gonna force your friend back to whatever abusive home he escaped."
"Don't touch him!" Ace shouted for the umpteenth time, stepping backward and thus pushing Sabo, still clinging to him, back as well. Further away from Garp.
For once, Garp conceded. It hurt too much seeing Ace eye him with such blatant suspicion.
He set a hand over his heart. "I vow on my life not to set a hand on or against Sabo in any way that could cause him harm or force him anywhere he doesn't wish to go."
The two boys blinked at him. Ace slowly lowered his fists.
"And since he doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, I declare him Grandson Number Two! Welcome to the family, brat! Bwahahaha!"
(Luffy wouldn't mind being demoted to Number Three. Not that he would ever tell him. And it just made sense to go by age instead of when they became his grandchildren.)
Sabo relaxed slightly. Ace was still tense, but that was normal apart from just after meals.
"It's too late to train," and Ace growled at that but Garp pretended not to hear, "so let's grab a couple crocodiles for dinner. Sound good?"
The boys glanced at each other, sharing an entire silent conversation in less than a couple seconds, then looked back at him with identical firm expressions. They nodded in sync.
Yeah, these brats were already brothers. It was adorable.
Dinner had been delicious. Garp was passed out across the campfire from the boys. Or at least faking it pretty well, and Ace reluctantly believed Garp meant his vow and wouldn't hurt his new grandson.
"Don't do that again!" Ace growled at Sabo, who had been drifting off himself, curled up next to Ace. They hadn't really been further apart than a couple feet since everything.
"Hmm?" asked Sabo sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"Don't you dare say you'll go back! Not for me!"
Sabo fumbled into sitting up, blinking at Ace's angry face. Tried to figure out which half of that had hurt Ace more - the Sabo offering to go back, or the trading himself for Ace's life.
In the end, Sabo just sighed and leaned against Ace's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said softly.
"Then don't do it again."
"I'm sorry I hurt you, Ace. But I can't apologize for doing anything to save your life."
"But -!"
"Ace, listen. Please. It's not like I planned this out. I thought you were being attacked by someone sent to bring me back. I thought we had no chance and you would be killed. The words just came out, and I meant them. You don't like that, I get it, but I would do it again." Sabo rubbed his face sleepily.
"I probably will do it again," he whispered, deep exhaustion and too much raw honesty for Ace to deal with. Sabo probably wouldn't have admitted this if he'd been more awake. "Sooner or later. This can't last forever."
Sabo snuggled back down. "And you would do the same for me. Idiot."