CHAPTER THREE

Ace watched the blondie rushing excitedly from berry bush to apple tree to wild beanstalks. He was safely out of sight, up high in a tree he'd been napping in, gazing down.

The kid was probably going to die. Ace had found bodies before in these woods. Killed by the tigers or bears or wolves or boars or crocodiles. Or bandits. (At least Dadan's bandits preferred to rob and flee. They rarely killed, not like those scumbags in Higuma's group.)

The half-feral brat in the tree frowned as he studied the blond haired kid below him. Looked about his age. Tight curls under a blue top hat with goggles sitting on the rim. Oversized blue coat he must've scrounged up in the dump - nobles tossed out clothing all the time. Boots and slacks that had seen better days. A stupid napkin thing about his neck, like a neckerchief but more flouncy. Carried a pipe tucked under an arm.

Why did he seem familiar? It was itching at the back of Ace's mind.

Why did he strike Ace's interest so much? A tiny part of Ace would actually be disappointed when the kid died.

The blond took off his top hat and began filling it with all different kinds of edibles. Ace dropped down to follow as he moved deeper into the forest, never letting him out of his sight.

Hey, not like he had anything better to do.

The blondie let out a happy gasp at hearing the burble of one of the smaller streams and took off running. At getting to the water, the boy set aside his boots, hat, and pipe, but strangely not his coat, and happily jumped in and began swimming and laughing.

Looked fun. But Ace wasn't about to play with a stranger he'd been stalking for most of the morning.

"You can come out now!" laughingly called out the blond. "I know you're there!"

Ace frowned dramatically. Ugh. But there was no point in hiding anymore. He came out from around the bush he'd been crouching behind. Eyed the expectant look on the blondie's face suspiciously.

The kid laughed. "Sheesh, whaddaya think I'm gonna do?" His smile was absolutely enormous, with a gap where he'd lost a tooth, probably recently. "I'm Sabo! What's your name?"

Ace scowled.

"If you don't answer, I'm just gonna call you wild boy."

Ace's scowl impossibly grew.

"Ok, wild boy. Have it your way!" laughed Sabo, swimming to the edge, near his hat and boots. He pulled his socks off and began scrubbing them.

"I haven't had a bath in ages! I must reek! Maybe that's why you don't want to get close?"

He still wasn't taking his coat off. Ace wasn't stupid. He knew you had to take your clothes off to wash them properly. He understood not wanting to take off your pants in front of a stranger, but why the coat?

He seemed so familiar. An itch in the back of Ace's mind. Almost like a flavor or color he couldn't put a name to. Reminded him of one time when he was watching…

Ace blinked. "Are you that True King kid? You really did run away?"

Sabo froze in absolute shock, which quickly began shifting to terror before Ace's eyes. He grabbed for the length of pipe.

While Ace was always up for a fight, something about this made him sick.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" he exclaimed, holding up his hands to show he held no weapons. Not that he needed any, but Sabo had no way of knowing that. "I don't give a crap that you ran away! I just saw you a year or so ago on this stupid ugly cart thing dressed up in a stupid ugly outfit and remember thinking if I was that kid I'd get outta their first chance! You looked bored out of your mind and crazy uncomfortable!"

Sabo slightly lowered the pipe in shock. This random kid had seen past the wings? And actually seen him, a miserable and lonely kid? Had empathized with him?

Not one person had questioned him or looked twice that day he wandered around Goa Kingdom before escaping to the trash heap. And he'd passed a number of people he knew. Had seen almost every day in the castle.

A kid that had only seen him once in passing had recognized him almost immediately sans wings and dressed like a filthy orphan. When he doubted his own parents would recognize him with his wings covered.

He appraised the wild kid in front of him warily, but couldn't see anything particularly remarkable. A scrawny freckled brunette probably about his own age, shorts and tank top, obviously comfortable out here in these dangerous woods. He didn't look like any sort of government agent in training, here to drag Sabo back.

"I'm Ace," said the kid. "If it makes you feel better, most of Goa Kingdom thinks you're dead. The bandits told me. At first they hoped you were kidnapped, but that was weeks ago."

"I'm not going back!" hissed Sabo, raising the pipe again. "I hate it! Hate them! I won't be a puppet!"

Ace grinned. "Hell yeah!" And plopped down into a sitting position.

Sabo startled and finally lowered his pipe.

"So you gonna wash your clothes or not? Do you really have wings? Hiding the things under that too big coat?"

Blondie suddenly laughed and plopped down next to Ace. "Yeah. You aren't as stupid as you look."

Ace gave a sharp grin. "So?"

Sabo shrugged his coat off, exposing his wings. By now rather bedraggled.

Ace's scowl returned for a moment. "Ugh, they look disgusting! I could've sworn they were, like, white!"

"I haven't bathed since I escaped! Cut me some slack!"

"Can you even reach them? They're kind of small, so how can your arms reach? And what the heck, there's like ribbons or something all knotted up in there!"

"Really? I thought I got all of that garbage out!" whined Sabo, stretching his wings as much as he could and trying to comb through the feathers. Not very successfully. He couldn't really reach past the primaries. "Think you can get it?"

Somehow the conversation continued from there, now with Ace taking over picking strings and stuff out of Sabo's feathers and then moving on to basically preening them, while Sabo went ahead and continued his washing in the river.

Ace showed Sabo how to use the gritty sand on the bank to scrub. Sabo shared the food he'd collected.

Ace told Sabo about life on Mt. Corvo, which was way more wild than this measly forest. Sabo eagerly lapped up the stories, asking questions mixed with comments about things he'd learned from his books.

They spent all day together. Later Ace showed Sabo his favorite spot to watch the sunset and they gazed out towards the horizon together.

"I want to leave someday," sighed Sabo. "See the world. Write a book about my travels. There's so many islands out there! Hundreds, thousands, all so different! Isn't it amazing?"

"I'm gonna be a pirate," stated Ace decisively. "Make a name for myself. Want to come with?"

Sabo laughed. "Why a pirate?"

"It's that or a Marine. And Marines suck."

They both started laughing, then shared feral grins.

"Let's do it!" they shouted together.

They collapsed down laughing and found themselves staring up at the sky. They stayed on the ledge for a long time, gazing at the stars, as comfortable with the silence as they'd been earlier with the freely flowing conversation.

"You shouldn't go back to the Grey Terminal," Ace said softly, reluctantly breaking the peaceful sounds of rushing waves and birds settling down for the night.

"Why?" asked Sabo curiously.

"I heard the nobles are getting desperate to find your body. Dadan was saying they're gonna resort to searching the dump soon. They suspect Bluejam. That he stole you for ransom but screwed up."

Sabo sat up, twisting the pipe in his hands. "I have nowhere else to go, Ace."

Ace's next words were spoken so easily, as if they'd skipped his brain altogether.

"You can stay with me."

Sabo's smile and reply came just as naturally.

"Ok."


Of course things ended up being a touch more complicated than that. It's not like Ace had his own house. Though honestly, Sabo had more than half been expecting a cave, so an actual bedroom for them to share was a nice surprise.

Ace's caretaker was a bandit named Dadan, and her hideout was a cabin that housed her entire gang plus Ace. Ace didn't really like hanging out with them, but he did bring home some big beast every evening for dinner in return for his room and clothes.

The bandits spent almost every night drunk. So it was really easy to sneak Sabo into Ace's room, the two giggling once they got in and shut the door. They totally could keep this up!


They, well, didn't keep it up very long. Got caught out the next morning with Dadan screaming something about when the hell did Garp drop off another one. Thankfully Sabo slept in his coat, so his wings weren't blown.

Ace, thinking quickly, slammed the door in Dadan's face, shoved Sabo's pipe and hat into his arms, then jumped out the window. Sabo, laughing hysterically, jumped after him. The two ran, barely able to breathe between the running and laughter.


They tried for a repeat the next morning, but this time Dadan played dirty and managed to grab Sabo by the back of his coat. (Not that she knew that was a dirty move, but anyway.) The huge intimidating bandit lady ordered Ace back into the house to explain himself.

"I ain't that hungover," she griped. "I would've remembered Garp visiting. So where'd you get blondie, Ace? And why you keeping him?"

Ace scowled and glared, looking fully ready and willing to pull the silent treatment for hours.

Sabo would much rather get this over with so they could run off to play.

"Good morning, ma'am! Thank you so much for your gracious hospitality!"

Dadan blinked at this alien creature, smiling brightly and tipping a top hat at her, as if she wasn't carrying him around by the back of his too big maybe stolen maybe scavenged coat.

"It's… nothing?" Dadan grumbled in reply, flummoxed how to respond to this weird weird weird little boy. (And she raised Ace. Plus it really was nothing. Literally a roof, walls, a floor, and maybe a sheet or blanket - whatever was reasonably clean this week.)

"My name's Sabo! It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance! I'm an orphan from the trash heap who whooped Ace's -"

"YOU DID NOT!" roared Ace.

"So he just begged me to become his sensei and teach him all my secret -"

"LIAR!"

"Seriously though, I think I'm like his first friend ever, but he's like mine too, 'cause we're both anti-social little feral monsters who just want to run around a mountain killing things and we totally deserve each other. So we'll just be on our way, yes?"

"NO!" shouted both Ace and Dadan, to their mutual embarrassment.

Dadan was so embarrassed (and confused), that her grip on Sabo loosened enough for him to twist free. He immediately took off, Ace at his side. Within seconds they were out of sight.

"Anti-social little feral monsters," commented Mogra behind her. "Kinda fits. I mean, those childcare books you bought were totally useless for Ace."

"The puppy training manual was a bit better," commented Dogra. "Maybe I should pull it out for what to do if it brings another pup home."


A/N: I have now created a head canon that Dadan and her bandits used a dog training guide to raise Ace, because the baby books said nothing about picking fights with tigers and dragging home dead animals. The no biting chapter was especially helpful!