A/N: Hi! Thought I'd go ahead and give a warning now. This story is going to be dark and sad for a while. Ace, Luffy, and Sabo are going to be traumatized and OOC for a solid chunk of this story, but they will get better. Through hot chocolate, hugs, and Papa Thatch's and Mother Hen Marco's worrying, they will get better. This will also be a purely familial fic, so no romance at all. Enjoy :)
Chapter 1
There are bad things in Goa's jungle. Everyone knows about the tigers and bears and alligators with their sharp teeth, powerful jaws, and ravenous bellies. Most know better than to eat any of the strange mushrooms or brightly colored fruits. The few who venture deep into the towering trees and tangled vines know to watch out for the deep ravines that cut into the earth, the jungle swallowing their edges and making it difficult to see. There are people to watch out for too—bandits, thieves, pirates, and people with something to hide.
Hidden away from the jungle's dangers inside a lavish, multi-storied house, a little boy cries.
"Lord Sabo..."
The tiny boy burrows deeper into his blankets, the movement jostling the welts on his back. He doesn't understand. All Sabo had wanted was to see if the jungle's trees looked even bigger up close. He hadn't planned on the lemon-yellow butterfly flying by, leading him towards a bush with ruby red fruit. Or for there to be spider webs taller than Father stretched between the fruit bushes and colossal trees. Sabo hadn't meant to go that far into the jungle, honest.
But Father didn't care. The second Sabo had knocked on their house's massive wooden door, Father had been nothing but sputtering rage and flying hands and belt buckle clangs. He didn't care that Sabo had fallen and busted his knee, or that the trees were even bigger up close, or that the butterfly's wings shined brighter than any of Mother's jewels, or that the spider webs flowed and swayed in the breeze, dancing with freedom in a way Sabo had never even tasted.
No, Father didn't care about that. He cared about the dirt and sweat staining Sabo's clothes, about how frazzled his curls were, how undignified, and what if someone saw you, what if they thought that this was how I raised you.
"My Lord, please calm down," Penelope, a maid of the Outlook family for the last decade, pleads. "You'll only make him more upset."
"But I didn't do anything!" Sabo cries. Penelope checks that the doors are shut before sitting on the edge of the cushy mattress and resting a hand on the boy's shoulder. Lord and Lady Outlook don't approve of familiarity, even if it's directed towards a child she's helped raise.
"Lord Outlook was just worried."
Sabo turns his head away from the pillow and levels her with a gaze that is so despondent, his eyes look like smoldering smoke instead of deep ocean blue. At five years old, he knows Penelope is lying.
"It's true, my Lord! The jungles aren't safe."
"There was nothing but butterflies and trees!"
"Listen to me, young one. My family has lived on Goa for generations, and not always inside these fancy walls. We've lived in the Terminal, in the mountains and the jungle. There are things out there. Things you can't understand. Things much worse than scraped knees and beatings. Things that want to eat little boys like you. Your father is right to worry. There are bad things out there."
"Bad people?" Sabo asks, voice muffled by bedding. Mother warns him about other people all the time, of the poorly dressed and freely spoken, of people with callouses on their hands instead of jewels. She said they were bad. But the only person Sabo had seen was a shaggy haired boy with a pipe strapped to his back, and he'd disappeared inside the brush the second they made eye contact. Mother would say he was of the bad sort, but how did she know? How could she know that just by the way the other boy looked?
"Those too. Plenty of those."
He turns back to his pillow with a scowl, thoughts of sneaking away from High Town and back into the jungle, to dancing spider webs and endless sky, already teasing his mind.
There's nothing scary out there.
Just like his mother, Penelope is a liar.
Sabo learns many things when he runs away from High Town. He learns what an empty belly feels like. What a punch does to a soft cheek. He becomes well-acquainted with the way fear builds in your chest and fills your throat, threatening to drown you in its essence. He knows what it feels like to sleep in the dirt, the cold, and the rain.
He learns that the world is not a safe place for a lonely little boy.
But he also learns how much better fresh game tastes than meat served on cold, gold-lined plates. The rush of victory when he finally lands a hit with his metal pipe or fist quickly becomes one of his favorite feelings in the entire world, right alongside the sound of sought for, bled for, earned treasure clinking as it falls through his fingers.
Most importantly, Sabo learns what family is. He learns what it feels like to have brothers. First one—playful sparks, welcoming hearth and protective inferno—then another—sunshine and smiles and solid faith even when he shouldn't, even when it doesn't make sense. They teach him more than the Outlooks ever had. How to defend and eat your dinner simultaneously. How to apologize and not only soothe hurts but fix them. How to sleep with two other bodies pressed against yours despite the jungle heat. How to plan and delegate, present ideas and listen to others, to work towards a goal with other people in mind. How to dodge Fists of Love and tossed sake bottles. How to accept head pats and hair ruffles and hugs—easy affection the Outlooks never partook in.
He also learns how wrong his old family is. Blood doesn't make one person better than the other (that would mean Father and Mother are somehow better than his brothers, his stupid, reckless, precious brothers.) Berries are in fact just a currency and not something to be cherished (not like belly shaking laughter, or smiles so wide they could split the earth, or stretchy armed hugs.) Power and status aren't what makes life worth living (the way the wind whistles through his hair, the ocean crashing against the shore over and over and over, how the sky stretches from horizon line to horizon line completely untouched.)
Sabo learns just how wrong his old family is.
He also learns that Penelope is not.
Sabo is ten years old and running through Goa's jungle with a backpack full of rope, flashlights, and treasure on his back.
"Down!" Ace shouts, shoving Luffy down with him as they fall to their bellies. A sword taller than all three boys stacked together sweeps over their heads, slicing through the surrounding trees and creating a symphony of cracks and groans. Trees fall around the boys with an explosion of bark, broken vines, and leaves.
"Get back here!" One of their pursuers shouts as he draws his monstrous blade back to take another swing. They're pirates, and what was once their treasure currently rests in Sabo's backpack. They'd overheard some shady folks at Makino's bar talking about a pirate ship docked on the far side of the island. They were the Wind Cutter pirates, and, supposedly, they'd just come from the Grand Line.
The three boys had scampered out of the bar with barely contained energy because where there's pirates, there's treasure, and their future pirate ship isn't going to pay for itself. Sabo had barely convinced his brothers to wait, survey, and plan their theft instead of just charging towards the pirate ship with nothing but their fists and metal pipes in hand.
As more trees rain down onto the jungle floor, Sabo can't help but think they might've had more luck charging in blind.
"We've gotta hurry!" Sabo says while him and Ace shove Luffy over a fallen tree trunk. The older boys scramble after the youngest, following his yellow straw hat as it disappears inside the emerald jungle. Footsteps and heavy pants fill the air. Thorned vines catch against their skin and clothes as they run past. Sabo scans ahead, trying to find some way to lose the sword-wielding pirate. There's nothing but trees and tangled vines and even terrain, nothing they can use to give him a slip until there! A downward slope, and just visible through the dense foliage, a rushing river.
"Ace! Lu!" Ace's steel eyes snap towards him and follow the gesture, understanding lighting his face almost immediately. The two of them tear ahead even faster, catching up to Luffy and clenching one of his tiny hands in each of theirs. Luffy can't swim, but if they could get across the river or let the currents carry them away, maybe they'd have a chance at escaping the hoard of pirates.
More and more of the river becomes visible as they approach. Sabo's eyes sweep across the riverbank, checking for a way to cross or if the currents are weak enough to risk taking Luffy in.
He's so busy looking, that he doesn't hear the tell-tale whoosh of blades slicing through the air. Ace shouts, yanking Luffy down and hoping Sabo will fall with them. And fall they do, all the way down the slope—the one Sabo had seen but hadn't realized was more of a hill than a gentle slope—and straight towards the river.
The three boys tumble down with dozens of tree trunks rolling after them. There's bursts of pain as they roll into stones, splintered wood, hard-packed earth, and each other.
But Sabo has Luffy's hand. He has it, and he holds it so tightly, his nails dig into rubbery flesh. He can't let go, he can't. What if Ace loses his grip too, and they fall into the river, or they get separated by the tree trunks or worse, trapped between them. No. That can't happen. They cannot become three lonely boys again, left in a world that wants nothing more than to chew them up and spit the gnawed remains out to fester.
They can't let that happen.
But sometimes, choices are taken away from you.
It's taken away from Ace first, when he smacks into a boulder, stilling his fall and his grip, while Luffy and Sabo continue spiraling down the slope.
Sabo's choice is taken away by a crashing log. His world is pain and dirt and, finally, darkness.
Luffy doesn't have a choice when his momentum carries him down the slope, over the riverbank, and straight into the rushing river. Another choice is taken too, when his worn straw hat gets caught on a branch and is torn off his head.
It won't be found for a long, long time.
Raindrops dust Sabo's face. He blinks the water away blearily, wondering why his head hurts and his back feels numb. He swipes the rain away from his face and wonders why his hand comes back scarlet.
Oh. He's hurt.
Sabo's heart thumps like racing thunder as he remembers why he's hurt.
The pirates.
Ace. Luffy.
With a groan, Sabo tries to push himself up. The numbness in his back is immediately replaced with fire. He glances behind him, and for the first time, truly takes in his surroundings.
Logs, leaves, and branches lay in broken heaps all around him. Mud and wet grass press against Sabo's front. Over his bottom half, a tree trunk rests.
Sabo tries to pull himself out from under it, and even though he aches from his tip toes to his mid-back, he can move. Which shouldn't be possible. Not with a literal tree pinning him down.
It's the backpack, the one loaded with ropes, flashlights, and piles of golden doubloons and goblets. The weight of the tree rests on the treasure, creating a pinpoint of pressure on his back. He's sure the trunk is caught up inside the mess of debris too, otherwise, he'd be dead. Still. Without the treasure there to create extra space, Sabo would never be able to wiggle free. Which he does, being careful to keep enough pressure on the backpack so the tree won't fall until after he's free.
He slides out from under the tree with a groan and explosion of pain in his back. There's a clatter as the trunk falls into place. He lies in the mud, concentrating on his breathing through the fire racing across his body. When he feels slightly better, Sabo raises his head. It takes a second for his vision to settle, and when it does, it's to the sight of his backpack squished beneath the trunk. He doesn't need to look. The golden goblets are surely squished.
A dazed laugh escapes him at the thought of how outraged and disgusted the Outlooks would be at the sight.
Yeah, he's disappointed. They need treasure to accomplish their dreams, but no treasure, not even hard-earned treasure, is worth his or his brothers' lives.
The reminder makes him shout out his brothers' names, but his voice is warbled and quiet. Sabo forces himself onto his knees, bit by painful bit, and wonders why it feels like his brain is tumbling around in his skull. He crawls towards the backpack. Two of the flashlights are squashed to bits, but the rope slips free with a tug. A handful of doubloons fall out with the rope. The last flashlight's lens is cracked, but Sabo pockets it anyway.
Now to find his brothers.
Sabo's knees wobble before he's fully risen. His brain continues cartwheeling in his skull, making his vision sway. He staggers down the slope like a newborn foal, not only because he thinks Ace and Luffy are down there, but because he doesn't think he could walk uphill anyway.
His feet tangle on each other, and he falls. His stomach joins his brain in their gymnastics routine, and it's so bad, he hurls. Panting, staring at the remains of last night's roasted alligator, Sabo wonders if maybe, he hit his head harder than he thought.
"Ace! Lu!" The words are audible, but Sabo's going to have to shout louder if—
"Over here!" Sabo's heart soars at the sound of Luffy's voice. It's far away, further downhill, but it's there. And there is all Sabo needs.
"Luffy!"
"Hurry, Sabo!"
I'm trying, Sabo thinks as he fumbles back to his feet and stumbles towards the voice, falling from trunk to trunk, using them like crutches.
"I'm scared!"
The words send a burst of energy through his legs. He follows the voice, not sure what he could do in this state, but sure that, long as they're together, they can do something.
He walks. And walks. And maybe it's his head wound, but Sabo swears the voice doesn't get any closer.
"Where are you, Luffy?"
"Please!"
And Sabo's never heard that word from his baby brother's mouth, so he keeps going, even when his legs give out and he has to crawl. His knees and palms quickly become a shredded mass of raw flesh as he picks his way over sticks and stones.
"Please! Don't leave me, Sabo! Don't leave me, don't leave me, don't leave me!"
"I'm not." Sabo means to shout it, but he doesn't have the oxygen. He'd never leave them. Never ever. His vision is a mishmash of green and brown. Sweat and rain drip off his forehead, and even though it's summer, he feels awfully cold.
His arms give out. Mossy stone kisses his cheek.
Sabo doesn't mean to fall unconscious, but it's just another choice being swept away.
Ace growls at the Wind Cutter pirate who dares to get back up, who dares to stop him from looking for Sabo and Luffy.
The pirate swings his stupidly long sword, and Ace ducks beneath it. The power from the strike makes the boy's clothes and hair flap, makes his eyes water, but the sword is big and heavy and takes time to redirect. And in that time, the pirate's guard is wide open. Ace closes in on the pirate and punches him in his unprotected side so hard, Ace's knuckles burst. He doesn't stop moving though, because the pirate is stumbling back, trying to suck in air, and unprepared for Ace's foot to meet his chin. The pirate falls to the ground and is still. Ace stares, making sure the pirate is down for good this time. After a moment, he huffs and turns away.
He's got little brothers (and Sabo is a little brother, those couple months counted, damnit) to find, and God be with whoever decided to get in his way.
"SABO! LUFFY!
His voice echoes between the trees before falling away. There's no reply.
Whatever. He'll find them the old-fashioned way.
Ace stomps down the slope, wincing when his busted elbow brushes a tree. Of course, his left elbow, or The Elbow as Sabo dubbed it after the third time he'd damaged the joint, had been the one to smash into the boulder at top speed. It couldn't have been any other limb, or even just his right one. No, it had to be the one part of Ace's body that was determined to not be a functioning part of the team.
Too damn bad. He had a job to do, and no stinking elbow was going to stop him. Ace almost welcomed the teasing he'd face once Sabo saw the bloody, crooked thing—I knew I should've got you that elbow pad, he'd say with a crooked grin while Luffy cackles behind him. It'd be worth it cause at least they'd be together and not scattered to kingdom-come with enemy pirates on the loose.
"Ace!"
He immediately tears through the jungle towards the sound of his littlest brother's voice. It's further down river, away from the pile of logs that'd collected across the riverbank from their tumble downhill.
"LUFFY!"
"Ace! Help me!"
Their little brother was one of the stubbornest little shits Ace had ever met. He didn't ask for help. Ever. Not even when he was being swallowed by an alligator.
"LUFFY!" Ace goes even faster, stumbling over river stones and fallen trees that had washed ashore. The river races alongside him, a pretty jade color topped with white lace where the currents build. Boulders line the river, and lily pads as long as Ace's arm float in the shallows. The river narrows as he follows it deeper into the jungle until it looks like it disappears. Ace stares at the cliff face before him in confusion. Rivers didn't just end. They went to the ocean or a lake. They didn't just stop.
"Over here, Ace!" Luffy's voice sounds from the right. Ace turns to it, eyes scanning the cliff face for Luffy. There's a bend in the rock, and he stumbles in his rush to look around it. For just a breath, Ace freezes at the sight that greets him.
It's Sabo, fallen onto his stomach, inside the narrow opening of a cave.
It's not Luffy at all.
"Luffy?" Ace calls, spinning as he searches for their youngest brother. There's no way he mistook Sabo's voice for Luffy's. No way. They sound completely different, which meant that Luffy had to be somewhere nearby. A pained groan distracts Ace from his search. He falls to his knees beside Sabo, frowning at the blood oozing from his brother's head.
Tearing a piece of his shirt off, Ace gently presses against the wound to stop the bleeding. Sabo whines, but doesn't wake up, leaving Ace to play doctor inside a damp cave alone, wondering where their littlest brother could've gone.
Luffy spins inside the foggy forest, looking for a familiar landmark or, even better, one of his brothers. He wraps his arms around himself, shivering and incredibly weak from his dip in the river. He still has splinters dug into his fingertips from how tightly he'd grabbed that tree trunk. It was so, so hard to hold onto it when he was drenched in water, but he'd done it. He'd held on even when the river had sucked the trunk back underwater, under what Luffy swears was the river's end. It hadn't been the end though, and he'd had to hold on in complete darkness as the river disappeared beneath rock. He thought he was gonna drown, the darkness lasted for so long, but just as spots danced across his vision, the log had popped up to the surface again. Luffy thinks his brothers would be proud.
He's just gotta find them first.
"Ace? Sabo?" His voice is not wobbly. There are absolutely no tears in his eyes. Because Luffy's not a crybaby, and if he wants his brothers to be proud of him for thinking of grabbing the log, then he'd better not start crying. It's not manly, and he's one of the big boys, not a baby.
So, there are no tears, even if Luffy's been searching for hours. Even if his feet ache from walking so long and his tummy rumbles with hunger and his knees are scraped and his nose is bleeding and his whole entire body is sore from the stupid river water and Hat is not on his head and he doesn't know where Ace and Sabo are, and he doesn't know why they haven't found him yet.
Luffy is alone for the first time in a long time, and he is not crying about it. It's just sweat. Yeah. Sweat and rain.
He follows the river. It's the only landmark he sort of recognizes, even if the forest looks nothing like it did when they were running away from the pirates. The trees are dark and sparsely leafed. The grass crunches beneath Luffy's sandals. The bushes are nothing more than tangled branches and thorns, and Luffy hadn't seen a single animal since his log had popped out of the water and floated to the bank. Part of Luffy wonders if it's even the same jungle. He wishes Sabo was there to ask.
"Ace? Sa—!" Luffy's shout turns into a panicked cry as the ground crumbles beneath his feet. Dirt and stone cascade around him. He can't see, he doesn't know how far the fall is until he lands with a solid umph. There's no pain. He's rubber, so it's more jarring than anything. But it's scary, having the ground fall out from under him. He blinks through bleary—not teary—eyes to see that he's fallen into a cave.
Gray-cast sunlight penetrates the cave from way above Luffy's head. It's so high up, it barely lights his surroundings, but he can pick out rocks and pitch-black tunnels punched inside the stone walls. It's cool-looking, but there's no way Ace and Sabo are in there, so he starts searching for a handhold that will get him above ground. With his devil fruit powers, it'll be easy to reach that high. And even if his aim is, according to Ace, "trash," he'll be able to pull his way out. Eventually.
Luffy stands, shaking dirt off of himself. Just as he winds his arm back, a voice calls from deep inside the cave.
"Lu?"
The seven-year-old jerks towards the sound so quickly, he trips over himself. That's Sabo! He's in the cave!
"Get back here, Luffy!"
And Ace! Both of his brothers are here! Beaming, Luffy crawls towards one of the dark, seemingly endless tunnels. He follows the sound, not thinking of any of the bad things that lurk in Goa's jungle.