A/N: Imagine my reaction when I saw that it's been two years since the last update? Holy. I guess my updating other series led me to falsely believe that I was on top of things. I don't know. I have drafts to prove my non-laziness though… many of them.
ONE-SHOT 5: POWER GONE
Due to being struck with the power of a devil fruit user, Luffy has to navigate a whole day without his own devil fruit. On the bright side, Sabo is here.
Warnings: Just a little bit of angst (which is, uh… kind of inevitable)
"Meat!" came a holler, and the door slammed open. "Eh, no one's here either?"
Monkey D. Luffy, most chaotic of the worst generation pirates, stood in the doorway of a lonely teashop in disappointment. His hand remained on the door as he desperately searched the place with his eyes. The whole island had been deserted, and Luffy believed that if there was no meat anywhere here, they were all going to die, especially him. And maybe Sabo too.
"Shut your trap, I'm right over here."
Luffy looked around harder, this time in confusion. "Huh?"
"Down here!" an elderly voice snapped, and Luffy zeroed in on something that had moved by the legs of a chair.
And it was an old woman, so short that even with her perfect posture she hardly reached the seat of one of her chairs. Luffy stared.
"Old lady, you are so short—" he cried out in pain before he could continue; his head had been clobbered before he could even see her move. "What the hell?" He grabbed at the top of his head, tearing up. "I didn't even see that coming!"
"Tell me what you want right now," the old woman said, unamused, though more than unamused, it seemed that if Luffy didn't answer immediately, she would kick him out just as painfully as she had just demonstrated, if not more painful.
Luffy didn't want to contest that idea so he said, in equal parts annoyance and admiration, "I want all the meat that you have."
That brought upon another fist of pain that sent him scrabbling for his head again, this time rolling on the ground as well as it was directly on top of that previous bump.
"I don't get how you're doing this! You're so—" He sucked his lips into themselves as the old woman loomed over him.
"…Yes?" she said, and Luffy swore he saw a glint in her eye.
"…Nothing…"
The old woman glared for a moment longer and then stepped off. Luffy sighed in relief as he sat back up, remaining on the ground and thinking this was easier to look at her as they spoke but, for once, thinking also that it was a good idea to not say this out loud.
"We sell tea here," she said, almost spitting the emphasised word. "Out." She pointed.
He continued to watch her in disbelief as he said again, "But uh… but we don't have anymore food now and Sanji said we'll starve if we don't find something to eat pronto. And there's no fish around here otherwise Usopp and I could catch 'em."
The old woman certainly didn't suddenly turn sympathetic at that, though she did assess him a bit with a hum before she asked, "How many of you are there?"
He took a moment to count. "Ten— no, eleven! But Nami always says I eat for a hundred people. I guess Sabo's the same…" He closed his eyes to think about it. "Maybe a hundred, maybe eighty… maybe? I've never counted how much he eats and… well Ace—"
Yet another fist struck him, cutting him off, and this time he simply dropped to the ground as the old woman walked away.
She's… too strong… too strong…
But as Luffy wondered how he was going to get back up and report back to Nami and Sanji empty-handed, the old woman walked back to him with two bulging sacks that towered over both her and him. He shot up then, his tongue lolling out.
"Here," she said. "This is half of my reserve."
He sucked his tongue back in and said, "Are you sure?" He stood up, peeking inside one sack's contents. It was a lot of rice with vegetables, fruits and uncooked meat lying around in its mass. "How are you going to get food, old lady?"
"Same as I always have," she grunted. "I'm just going to have to order some more earlier now. Go on." She pointed again. "If that's all you want, leave."
Luffy stared at her for a moment. His face slowly split into a wide grin. "Hey, you're not so bad after all, old lady!" He dug into his pockets and pulled out a pouch, dropping it into her hand. "This is all that Nami gave me. Thank you!"
The woman only grunted again in response as she pointed. He rushed out with the sacks over his shoulders as he waved goodbye.
"I swear she's related to gramps somehow," he said to himself, shuddering.
…Then came another fist that sent him sprawling to the ground. The old woman landed back on the ground by him as he shot up. Still lying on the ground, he whirled around to her. "What the hell? Why are you even still here?! And why did you hit me?!"
"I knew that was an insult," she said simply. "And I followed you because I forgot to tell you something."
He sighed as he sat back on his knees. "What?"
"I don't have control over my devil fruit powers, and you're that straw boy that's always in the news," she said, "with rubber powers or something stupid like that. Well, I'm pretty sure I've nullified them accidentally."
Luffy blinked. "What's nuffily?"
Graciously, this time she used only words to respond. "It means that you're unable to use your devil fruit powers for twenty-four hours."
"Ah, so that's why she was able to hurt you so much," Nami said, eying the numerous bumps on the top of Luffy's head.
Chopper shook his head as he pulled back his stethoscope and leaned away. "There's nothing else wrong with you, and I can't do anything about that." He drooped for a second. "At least it's only twenty-four hours though, Luffy!"
Luffy groaned, leaning back. "Twenty-four hours! That's pretty much a year!"
Sabo, stood by his head, smiled. "It's not that long. Tell you what though, I'll stay until the effects have worn off."
Though Luffy was only happy to hear that, Nami said, "Are you sure about that though? You were originally going to stay until the evening. I wouldn't want to keep you from your duties."
Sabo waved her off. "No, it's fine. It's only a delay of a few hours. And Luffy's pretty much incapacitated; I'll feel better being here to make sure everything goes well. If no one strong enough attacks, then it'll just be inconvenient for a bit. If there's a threat, I'll lend my strength."
Nami said hesitantly, "If you say so…"
Usopp, only relieved about the protection, muttered to her, "No, this is good."
Robin smiled. "Thank you, Sabo."
Luffy jumped from his bed and tackled Sabo with a hug. "Yeah, thank you, Sabo!" His arms and legs wrapped around him, though with the natural bend of someone who had elbows and knees, and everyone in the room thought they would never get used to it, especially Luffy who looked at them disappointedly as if he was unhappy with the fact that he couldn't wrap Sabo up.
"Yeah," Sabo whispered, holding a suddenly heavier Luffy up to him as he thought back to a seven-year-old little brother who was determined to learn how to properly use his powers, "this is strange."
Only minutes after everyone had dispersed from the infirmary, Luffy encountered a problem. In the galley, where he had instantly run to pretty much after he had jumped down from Sabo's hold, he was dismayed as he gazed at the sacks that he had brought to the ship far above his reach that were now in one of the topmost cubby holes atop the bar. Sanji, meanwhile, was snickering to himself.
The bar was filled with both meals and uncooked food as Sanji was busy with making late lunch for the crew. Luffy only got so far as to touch the edge of a plate before his hand was smacked away. "But I don't want to eat this food!" he protested. "I want—" he said, pointing to above him, then faltered.
"Want what?" Sanji challenged.
Luffy started sweating beads as he whistled and looked anywhere but into Sanji's eyes in the signature way that he lied as he said, "I… I just want to move the plates to the table… for you…"
"Thanks," Sanji said sarcastically, "but that won't be necessary."
Luffy went back to staring at the food before him, then at the sacks above him, then before him, then to Sanji, sinking lower and lower until his chin was resting on the edge of the bar, only daring to rest the tips of his fingers on it because Sanji was watching him very closely and cooking at the same time. Luffy grumbled that he was good at that.
"Of course," Sanji said lazily. "I'm good at making food and also keeping them from rats…" He spun on his heels to catch a sheepish Luffy retracting his hand from a still-steaming dish of steaks stacked on top of each other. "That one is for you but I know if I let you have it now you'll be complaining at lunch later," he said, cursing under his breath.
"Agh!" Luffy suddenly said aloud, jumping up and onto the bench he was sitting on that was a really just a round railing. Sanji only had time to watch as he flailed in the air for what seemed like a million years before he crashed to the floor, luckily away from the food. "…Ow… This is the worst day of my life," he mumbled into the wooden planks.
"And today is probably the best day of my life," Sanji said before turning back around.
Though the fall seemed to have brought upon a short knock on the door. Knowing that there was only one person on this ship who simultaneously bothered to knock and would bother to check in on the commotion, Sanji called out just so that he was loud enough to be heard, "Come in."
And sure enough, the door opened wide just to stop at Sabo blinking at Luffy's back. "What just happened here?" He glanced around, took note of the feast spread out on the bar. "Luffy, are you okay?"
Luffy mumbled something incomprehensible.
"Well." Sanji gestured towards the food. "You probably know his appetite well. He comes here for food pretty much every hour, if not directly to me. Have you had breakfast?"
"I can…" Sabo trailed off, looking over to Luffy. "I wouldn't mind having a dish now."
Sanji gathered some food onto a single plate, looking at Sabo suspiciously before he handed it over.
"Thanks." Sabo walked over to Luffy. "Come on." He wafted the plate under his nose, and Luffy scrambled to his feet while Sabo took to his heels out the door.
"…I fucking knew it."
Luffy spoke in between bites, "It's… bwilly terrbule… I can't… sgwesh…"
Sabo, fluent in Luffy-with-a-full-mouth speak, nodded sympathetically as he ate the one piece of meat he had been able to swipe. "I'm sorry, Luffy. But lunch is in thirty minutes or so, you can wait, right?"
Luffy finished swallowing right then and sadly licked his empty plate. "No."
Sabo couldn't remember the last time he saw him so downhearted from something so small, and he couldn't help but laugh, ruffling Luffy's hair with a grin and his cheek resting on his fist as he watched him. "I'm sure we can think of something else to do in the meantime."
"Like playing with water guns!" Luffy said, his face lighting up again, and then all of a sudden, he was on his feet once more. "Hey, Sabo, if I can't use my devil fruit, maybe I can swim!"
Sabo frowned lightly. "From what you've told me, I don't think that— Luffy!"
He was barely on his feet with his balance all over the place with how fast he moved when there was a large splash. He hastily got to the railing nearby and was just about to jump over, but an unexpected punch on his head was so strong that he whirled back at the distraction instead with his hand grasping the pipe behind him.
It was Nami and she had her hands on her mouth. "I'm sorry!" she nearly squeaked. "I got too used to hitting idiots!"
He didn't have time to even react when someone jumped the railing right by him. He spun back around. It was Zoro, and he was already closing in on Luffy who could barely be seen with how far the ship's deck was from the water. Sabo sighed and said to Nami, "It's fine. I forgot Luffy had a good crew." He paused. "And that I had a devil fruit this time."
Nami nodded in understanding. "I guess you were doing this since about ten years ago."
Sabo nodded. "I would've done it for ten years. I guess Luffy's spent enough time with you all to compete with me, huh? But not enough to blow me out of the water, because you were all separated for two years. Speaking of, I heard he was on Rusukaina with Silvers Rayleigh, the previous pirate king's first mate. I've been to that island; it looked a lot like the forest we grew up in back in Goa. I just wonder if Luffy was reminded of that too? Maybe he thought of us? Of me? As kids? After I got back my memory—"
Sabo cut himself off when Zoro and Luffy dropped back onto the deck while Nami speedwalked away, quietly grateful for the escape.
"Shanks… Zoro…" Luffy mumbled.
Sabo nodded at him too. "Thank you."
Zoro flung his coat over one shoulder as he continued to drip water onto the grass. "I do this every day," he said with no hint of irritation. "Though sometimes Jinbe does it now."
Sabo chuckled at that. "I see you do take good care of him."
Zoro shrugged. "It's just what I do, and he is the man I chose to follow."
"I can respect that," he said genuinely.
Zoro assessed him for a moment. "And you're a good brother to him."
He walked away and Sabo had to whip his hand to his face to shield it when Luffy suddenly spouted up a lot of water like a fountain. When he was done, he had his tongue out as he stared up at the sky wearily. Sabo grinned and said, "So which one was it? Did you sink or you just couldn't swim?"
"…Both," Luffy said, and Sabo laughed. "Shanks…" he continued, still heavily breathing, "…always called me anchor."
"Then why did you try?"
Luffy craned his neck to him. "'Cause I got excited…" he whined. "Now I'm an anchor for no reason at all!"
Sabo patted him on the arm as he looked up at the sky with him. It'd been only an hour or so since the incident, and he didn't know how Luffy was going to get through this. "Well," he finally said, "any other way of getting on the water? …If I could swim…"
Luffy brightened and sat up once again. "Mini Merry! I gotta show you that!"
"Alright." Sabo smiled. "What is it?"
Before long, they were standing in front of a large painted number two in the bowels of the ship as Franky stood beside it.
"Behold," Franky said behind a pair of sunglasses with hair that he had just changed into a pompadour, "one of my most super inventions."
The pillar before them parted to reveal a small steamboat, the figurehead of it being a lamb. Upon seeing it, Sabo finally realised why the name Merry sounded familiar — it was the name of Luffy's old ship. "It's a faithful recreation," he said, bending down to look at it closer.
"Of course," Franky said. "Shipbuilding is my super passion. Recreating ships is a cinch." He patted the lamb. "Though I must admit, it's a shame I couldn't see the Going Merry in her full glory."
Sabo nodded. "It saved Luffy's life. I couldn't even thank it."
"…How do you know about that?" Franky asked.
"Let's go!" Luffy cut in. He was hugging the figurehead, grinning widely.
They exited the Mini Merry II in high spirits after, though Luffy was now significantly more worried about missing lunch, which was what they were doing. He slammed open the door, yelling out, "Food!"
Luffy sprinted towards an empty seat while Sabo hurried to take the one next to him. Everyone was already quickly digging in, many of them actively guarding their plates as well, but Luffy stretched his arm and… it hovered in the middle of the table. Everyone was so surprised at that that the clanging of plates and cutlery stopped just so they could watch the marvel that was Luffy not stretching when food before him.
Usopp was the first to break the silence. "We forgot… he can't stretch…"
"He can't stretch…" Nami whispered-repeated.
"He can't stretch!" Brook said through happy crying. "Yohohoho!"
And Sanji bestowed a large grin. "Eat up, everyone!"
There rang an anguished wail in the galley before lunch ended— Ah-hem. Sabo watched as Luffy finished the rest of his food and slowly looked up at him, raising his plate as if he were a poor homeless child on the streets.
And Sabo, of course, being a good revolutionary, number two to the leader, handed him his whole plate and convinced the others as best as he could to donate some of theirs to him.
Today, Sabo was a good Samaritan.
Everyone disappointedly filtered out from the galley after all with Luffy bounding after them right alongside Sabo.
"It's not so bad!" Luffy was saying, though at that moment his expression completely changed as he stopped and tapped a foot, glancing down at himself. "But it feels weird…"
"Why? …I guess something about you does look weird…" Sabo said. "Well, not now, when you jumped just now. Though…" Sabo's eyebrows knitted together. Luffy had hard bones now.
"So you feel it too?" Luffy frowned. "I don't bounce." He jumped up and down again to demonstrate, and Sabo crossed his arms as he nodded. "I'm not bouncy," Luffy added, almost to himself.
Sabo hummed. "But it's not important outside of combat though, is it? You're only walking…"
"Only walking?" Luffy said, aghast.
"No," Sabo said quickly. "Well, you know what I mean…"
"And look!" Luffy said, turning his elbow to him as he squished it. "It pokes my skin!"
Sabo laughed lightly. "Yeah, bone does that."
"But I don't," Luffy said, gesturing wildly. "You're bony, but that's fine! I'm supposed to be rubber!" He sucked in breath to fill his mouth and then let it loose. "I can't even balloon anymore!"
Sabo's smile dipped into a frown then and he put his hands on his shoulder. "Alright, Luffy, calm down before you make yourself panic."
It was almost disconcerting for him to watch. Luffy looked very uncomfortable in his current body at the moment, and Sabo only realised then it was entirely reasonable. Luffy had been rubber since he was seven or so — he'd spent almost twice that many years as a rubber man. To have his whole physiology flipped on its end like that would be nothing short of like a fish having to adjust to life on land.
And, Sabo thought, if that Trafalgar Law were here, he'd be able to put Luffy in another body temporarily and dispel this discomfort. Entertaining that thought, he tried to remember the last location he remembered that Law had been spotted in and wondered if it'd be too far to make it there in time, eventually concluding that their chances were bad even with the assumption that he would still be in the area. Discarding that idea, he moved on to another…
"Luffy-san! Unfortunately, only I can do that now. Yohohoho!" Brook's voice cut through the air and Sabo broke from his thoughts to see Luffy practically trying to break his neck.
Well, technically, Luffy was only trying to turn his head more than ninety-something degrees, but with the amount of determination that he possessed, or perhaps it was stubbornness, it might have actually led to a broken neck.
Once Sabo got over his near-heart attack, he sat Luffy down on a deck chair that Robin had generously offered, and they both stood over him wondering what to do. Luffy certainly did not know. He was pulling at his skin and unsurprisingly, it was still as elastic as normal skin.
"If she doesn't have control over her devil fruit then why did she even know it would last twenty-four hours?" muttered Sabo a little annoyedly.
Robin, meanwhile, was able to think of something that would draw Luffy away from his worries. "Luffy," she said with a smile, "would you like to fly? I can" —she gestured with her arms— "do this for a couple of minutes."
It worked like a charm. Luffy jumped up to face her, ecstatic. "Really?! Do it!" He raised his arms up to the sky as if ready to take to it himself.
Sabo, remembering a time when he and Koala had both been shocked to find Robin flying in the sky at a critical point in a mission they were doing, stepped back and watched in wonder as Robin worked her magic. Arms began sprouting from Luffy's back, growing in number and density as they sprouted from each other, joining and interlinking until two blobs formed shape as that of two usable wings that flapped once and sent forward a gust of wind, taking Luffy from the floor.
"It's still incredible to see," Sabo said, and Robin smiled.
Luffy was soon in the air higher than the Sunny's crow's nest, gathering the attention of everyone on deck.
"Luffy?!" Chopper called out, jumping up and down as his arms flailed.
Jinbe was laughing. "He might have lost his devil fruit, but at least he can fly now!"
"What's that idiot up to now?" Sanji squinted up at the sky. "Robin-chan's flying him…?" He continued complaining under his breath something along the lines of 'lucky bastard' before spotting Nami. "Oh, Nami-swan!"
Nami took a drink from him with her eyes still trained on Luffy. "That idiot better get down soon…"
Luffy, though, had other ideas. "Faster, faster!" He was going in wide circles above the ship, laughing loudly.
Usopp winced and pulled down his goggles to peer at their surroundings. "No marines…"
Robin was starting to sweat though, and her expression pinched as her arms tensed. Sabo noticed and he said lowly, "Robin, are you alright?"
She gave him a forced smile. "I'm fine."
"Sit down," Sabo encouraged, holding her gently and leading her back to the deck chair, supporting her as she did, and she softly thanked him in return. He watched Luffy just a bit longer though, and checking in on Robin it seemed that she was pushing herself. He called up to Luffy, "Let's come back down, alright?" He had noticed Usopp keeping watch too. "This might catch the attention of other ships," he added.
Luffy shielded his eyes as he looked around, a bit of his tongue sticking out to concentrate. "I don't see anyone!" he shouted back down, then almost immediately jolted as the wings faltered.
Nami glimpsed Robin then, and she cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling, "Luffy! Get down now or you won't get any dinner!"
Though this made Luffy cry out in panic, forget for the nth time that day that he couldn't stretch and he swung his arm out in an attempt to land on the crow's nest himself, failed, put too much exertion on Robin and the wings completely disappeared.
At that, Sabo thought that Luffy was fine, he was made of rubber, then immediately after, remembered again with a start that no, in fact, he wasn't fine. And Luffy was hurtling towards the ship. Sabo took off towards him, arms out, jumped, caught him in the air, couldn't stop his momentum and straight cleared the railing into the arms of the ocean.
A resounding splash after, both Zoro and Sanji dragged themselves and two deadweight devil fruit users back onto deck, who remained pathetically on it.
"Two dumbasses," Sanji was muttering to himself as he got to his feet.
Luffy, meanwhile, was grinning like a drunkard. "That was fun…"
Sabo got out of the ship's bath fresh once more along with Luffy who he had coerced to join after learning that it had been about a week since he had touched water that wasn't directly from the ocean. Luffy had been lulled to sleep from that and the events of the day, so Sabo had him piggybacked as he smiled at old memories.
Since Luffy was asleep, Sabo thought it a good thing. Though he had wanted to catch up more, this would do better to keep Luffy sane while he still wasn't rubber, and that was more important to him. But he wondered then if he'd be able to get away with calling Luffy more in the future, since the last time they met it was technically for work purposes. And that was the first time they had seen each other since they were kids.
It was tough being both adults now.
A loud sigh echoed among the walls as Sabo continued lumbering down the hallway. He found the men's quarters and put Luffy down on one of the lower hanging bunk beds, sitting down on the opposite one himself. Luffy clung to the sheets as if recognising it in his sleep, and seeing him still sprawled just like when he was a kid pressing his feet against their faces made him laugh.
Not really wanting to leave, Sabo first took off his top hat. Then he sat down more comfortably, then he was lying down on the bed entirely and watching Luffy sleep soundly before him as his eyes slid shut.
When he suddenly woke up again, it was to cannons firing and people shouting.
They both hurried out onto deck into a mess. Luffy was shouting to be heard both over the distance and among the commotion as he held onto the railing, "What's going on?"
Usopp, being the closest one around, shouted back, "The marines came! There're three vice-admiral ships!"
"Three?" Sabo's eyebrows furrowed.
"Alright!" Luffy revved up his arm, thinking it was rubber again… He stopped there at how unnatural it felt. "I still don't have my powers back!" he shouted, running around in circles and grabbing at his head.
"Don't worry," Sabo said as he hopped onto the railing, crouched, and took his pipe in one fist. His eyes hidden under his hat, he scanned around them. "Where are they?"
Usopp looked around quickly. "Zoro's dealing with one, Jinbe's dealing with another… Sanji! What are you doing?!"
Sanji, in fact, was declaring that one marine woman was the love of his life, the angel from his dreams, and just one kiss from her could bring salvation—
Sabo found the third vice-admiral. "There he is."
With the power of his flames rocketing him forward, he flew towards an enemy ship. It was only then Luffy finally remembered that Sabo was here. "Sabo!" He ran towards the railing and gripped it as he watched him leave in surprise.
"He's gone to help us! Don't worry about it!" Usopp said, giving him a thumbs-up.
Luffy still continued to watch Sabo, conflicted. "Sabo's really strong, but… the marines are attacking us. I should be fighting that guy."
Usopp frowned towards him. "But it'll be alright. It's not like you've lost your powers forever, they should be back tomorrow at noon anyway! It's just sitting back for one fight." Luffy still unconvinced, he continued, "Besides, I know your Haki is more than enough to fight one of those guys, but if you're still not used to not being rubber, how are you going to fight properly?"
Luffy was nodding slowly. "You've got a point, but—"
Usopp jumped at a blade swung at him from behind. "Or you could help me!" he almost screamed, darting behind Luffy.
"Shishishishi." Luffy prepared a fist to swing, ignoring for now the discomfort that came with it. He tried to remember how to punch normally, flexing his arm as he worked through it.
The marine swordsman before them gulped at the sight. He forced himself to push down his fear and, getting into position, warned, "I wouldn't fight if I were you, Straw Hat."
Luffy only grinned. "I don't need rubber to fight you."
The marine's eyes widened at that, then fear turned into anger as he brought his blade down. Luffy dodged it, keeping his feet on the ground. Just like Dressrosa, he thought, he just had to pretend that he was hiding his powers to conceal his identity just like then, and he leaned in, punching the marine when he had an opening, his body having to follow his arm. It caused him to narrowly dodge a blade that was swinging for his neck, and he backflipped out of the way, landing awkwardly.
Usopp was busy behind him, having to shoot someone who was aiming for Robin. Luffy blocked another swing that came down at him with his Haki, and gripping it tight, broke it easily then. He whooped at that, grinning at the swordsman who looked at the remnants of his sword in shock.
"Thanks for the warm up!" Luffy said happily, getting his attention, and delivered a punch that knocked him right out. He whirled back to Usopp. "Usopp! You can handle things around here, right?"
"Yeah!" Usopp said, busy aiming. "I've got this guy right in the head!"
"Alright," Luffy said, turning back around. "I'll handle the rest of these guys." He glanced over at Sabo before he dashed off.
Sabo, over on the other ship, was fighting the giant vice-admiral Lacroix. He had glanced back once to see if Luffy was following, and once he saw him fighting the weaker marines, had been relieved and turned back to focus. And about ten minutes into the fight, Sabo nearly had the vice-admiral defeated.
"You know," Lacroix huffed, looking down towards him, "I never got to ask why the revolutionary number two is fighting his brother's fight for him."
Sabo's grip on his pipe became tighter at that, wanting to just deal the final blow. "An older brother always protects the younger," he simply said.
"Heh," was Lacroix's equally simple answer. He continued, "Don't bother. We'll be on our way, and lugging a giant like me around is inconvenient for this lot. I can hardly move as it is."
Sabo raised an eyebrow in surprise, and he dropped his pipe back onto his shoulder, examining Lacroix to see if he was telling the truth. He nodded when he was done and turned to leave, surveying the area to try to find Luffy. Zoro and Jinbe were finishing up their own fights, while Luffy was surrounded by a crowd. Narrowing his eyes at the scene, he flew over.
"Sorry for being late, Luffy!" Sabo shouted, sending a blazing trail of flame down one line of marines before landing in it.
"Sabo!" Luffy said. He pouted, "I've got things under control!" Saying that, he had to dodge a bullet that nearly hit him right in the head, though it seemed to be more out of instinct than anything.
Sabo grinned. "I'm finished with my fight anyway, so I've got time to help out around here!" He took down another marine as he spoke.
Unthreatened by the marines running towards him, he sometimes looked over at Luffy to see how he was doing. The marines seemed to never stop coming, and though at first he looked unsteady on his feet, occasionally overestimating the range of his punches, over time he looked less and less like someone still learning to fight and more like the fighter that he was, just rubberless. Though, since it was Luffy, who bragged about being rubber since he was a child, that made it, even now, uncanny to watch.
Sabo ended up getting too careless, though, as he got caught up in watching, and Luffy who had turned around had his eyes widened upon seeing him. "Behind you!"
Sabo, sensing only then the heavy blade coming down towards him, weaved around and sent a flaming punch at the marine, driving him to the floor. With no more imminent threats, he looked back again at Luffy and saw, his heart leaping to his throat, his little brother hunched over on the floor and clutching his chest, his face twisted in pain. Blood was coming from the spaces between his fingers.
"Luffy!" He rushed towards him, but the marines were still surrounding them like ants crowded around an unclosed jar of honey.
And it was at that moment, when Sabo was unable to control his anger that he, only taking note of where Luffy was crouched, engulfed that part of the ship in a blazing inferno.
Luckily, that was the enemy's ship he destroyed.
"I remember," Zoro mused as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, "when I first found out he was rubber. I thought he was insane for shielding me in front of so many pistols with just his body."
"You should've been using Haki, Luffy," Sabo reprimanded for the hundredth time. He sighed, as Luffy looked completely unrepentant, only embarrassed.
"I had to dig out so many bullets, Luffy!" Chopper said, still scared.
"How on earth did you survive that?" Nami asked, looking at Luffy and thinking he was a monster, for the hundredth time as well.
"Shishishi." Luffy was proud at that one. "I could've continued fighting if Sabo hadn't done that."
Sabo poked Luffy's forehead until his head was pressed up against the top of the medical bed for that. "No, you could not have," he said with an air of finality. "Or, you shouldn't have," he added as an afterthought, "because I was there."
Luffy pouted when he let go. "Couldn't have, shouldn't have, whatever. Let's party!"
What for? Nobody knew exactly right then, but they all cheered anyway, except Sabo, who sighed again. Looking down at his younger brother, he thought back to it again and remembered Luffy warning him before it happened. Something must have shown on his face then because Luffy chose that moment to try to escape confinement.
"Luffy! Get back here!"
At the party-slash-feast, Sabo and Chopper took turns forcing Luffy to rest instead of doing things like dancing and jumping that aggravated his bandages. But Chopper did learn that with Luffy not being made of rubber, his bandages were harder to mess up. This fact alone caused Chopper to join Sanji along with several others on the side of 'today was probably the best day of my life', the several others being Nami, who was there because Luffy was less troublesome than usual, and Sabo, since he had had a sudden excuse to stay with Luffy a little longer.
(The revolutionaries, namely Koala and Dragon, had reacted to Sabo announcing his delay through the Den Den Mushi with the respective replies 'leave that ship this instant' and 'alright'. Sabo had reacted to Koala continuing to yell at him through the snail with aborting the call abruptly.)
But the party had to come to an end, and it happened once Straw Hat after Straw Hat dropped off one by one until the whole ship was soon asleep, except for Jinbe, who remained awake for night watch. The night was quiet, so he turned his gaze onto the guest they were currently having.
Sabo was holding Luffy to him, Luffy snuggled close, under the gentle wash of moonlight.
The next day opened to another disappointed breakfast, and Sabo and Luffy whiled away the time with the whole crew for once, since Sabo was leaving soon. But that was cut short when they spotted another island and Luffy pretty much annoyed Nami into going directly towards it, and then did nothing but run in circles with Usopp and Chopper in an attempt, it appeared, to burn off his entire breakfast.
Sabo, abandoned, spoke to Robin, "I guess he always gets like this when you find a new island."
Robin, smiling, replied, "Indeed. He wouldn't be Luffy if he didn't."
Sabo thought about it. "I guess it only makes sense. From what he's said, he's pretty much never left his island even before he met us. I mean, kids normally don't sail the world, but with how he's like, you'd think Makino and all those other people who were taking care of him would at least let him go to nearby islands. Especially that old man, I guess. And Shanks. Though, there was a Sea King nearby that nearly ate him, so maybe that's not a good idea after all. But—"
Seeing no end to this monologue, Robin interrupted, "I'm sorry. I think I need to go get a drink."
Sabo returned Robin's polite wave and resigned himself to counting down the hours and ruminating over it. Soon, the buildings of the island were in sight, and in reach, if Luffy was rubber. However, he had forgotten again and had latched onto the railing, went as far back as possible and, bent all the way over, let go of the railing and lost his balance, slamming into the deck. Usopp and Chopper laughed so hard they were rolling on their backs, while Nami sighed with a facepalm, having unfortunately witnessed the whole thing.
Even Sabo couldn't hold back his laughter as he neared him and Luffy, jumping back up, shouted at them all in protest.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Sabo said as his laughter trickled off.
Luffy stared at him a bit longer, then dropped his anger. "You're leaving soon! It's only been a day. Even Ace didn't stay that long… well, he didn't stay long at all."
Sabo hummed. "He only visited you once?"
Luffy racked his brain. "…Yeah. And the one time he did, he only said hi, and then he was gone again. To be fair, he was busy at that time…" He seemed to have happened upon an unpleasant memory, because his fists were clenching.
The Straw Hats around them uncomfortably stood listening. Nami turned to face the water, Chopper hugged Usopp's leg and Sanji, leaning against the galley door, had his head bent as he watched his cigarette burn itself down. Zoro still sat in the same position he always did, eyes closed as if he was still sleeping.
Sabo patted Luffy's hair, and, in the same motion, gathered him into his arms, noticing that he was lighter again, his skin a familiar texture. He smiled. "I'll carry you to the island."
"Eh, Sabo?!" Luffy cried out, quickly latching on as they both flew away from the ship on the flames of Sabo's feet.
"He…" Nami said slowly as she made a face as if she didn't know what to make of what just happened, or maybe of Sabo, "…truly is a good brother," she decided to finish. Now she couldn't really blame Luffy for going off on his own and causing trouble before they could even catch up. That looked like a marine base in the distance, too. Oh well… she thought, trying to convince herself that she didn't really care all that much.
Chopper was nodding vigorously, tears streaming down his face. So was Franky. And while they cried, Sabo laughed, because Luffy had just found out that Sabo had kept from him the return of his devil fruit powers.
