A/N: It just gets harder and harder to write a one-shot that a) isn't a modern AU and b) doesn't tempt you into turning it into a longfic instead. Maybe the compromise is 30K word one-shots though! Even if this isn't one. But I still didn't expect it to get this long. I also wrote this author's note at like 4K words in… and…

Anyway, Dragon being fatherly with Luffy is something I've been dying to read (so people please write more). I technically have one written before this but this one has more substance so I'm bumping it up.

Please enjoy!

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ONE-SHOT 1: SOFT SIDE

Sabo finds Dragon's soft side the day he meets a younger kid named Luffy.

. . .

Warnings: Short hostage situation

There was a soft side to anyone, wasn't there?

Hack's was when anyone tried to learn Fishman Karate. His patience was endless as long as anyone wanted to learn, and he was always quick to prevent any significant injuries while practicing the art. Koala's was obvious when there was someone afraid; she was always the first to comfort them, to reassure them that everything was okay. Kuma was all soft — it was easier to point out his hard side, which would come out when he saw any of them get hurt.

Sabo knew his own, but did not understand why. Something in him softened when he saw aggressive children, when he saw grinning children. It had to be something in his missing first ten years of life. He had searched for the answer many times before watching the horizon that was never within reach. It never came to him.

He had been trying to find Dragon's soft side for a while now. Of course the man wasn't anything like the terror most thought he was, but where Kuma was soft, Dragon was hard. There was a stoniness and an edge to every expression he wore where the only time it softened was when he was weary.

A soft side was easier to find if he looked into familial relationships, but even Dragon was an exception to this rule despite him having a father of his own. None of their conversations over Den Den Mushi have cracked him.

It was a mystery that Sabo eventually forgot about given enough time, until one day when he was chosen to do a mission with Dragon.

Maybe it was coincidental, maybe Dragon had planned it, because the mission required the both of them to get to the East Blue where Dragon had first found him. Specifically though, they were headed for an island near the one where he came from — Mirror Ball Island, to survey the situation.

Mirror Ball Island had two prominent things going for it, the namesake mirror ball which was perched high above the island, and the headquarters of Doskoi Panda, which caused a quarter of the island to be splattered with Doskoi Panda products — restaurants using their tableware and a theme park, for two — and half of the population to be wearing their shirts. Now, if Dragon had a proven soft side to him, one would think that he came here for the Doskoi Panda Ferris wheel where they sang Doskoi Panda songs in each passenger car.

But the fact was that they were not, as once again proven by Dragon simply walking past the whole of the theme park without even sparing it a glance, but at least Sabo did get to buy himself and Koala Doskoi Panda shirts.

"Aren't you going to buy one?" Sabo joked.

"…No."

And so Sabo proudly wore his shirt, but maybe his shining radiance got to Dragon, causing him to suggest that they split up. Sabo shrugged, either way, maybe now he could go back and check out for himself the more interesting places.

Starting with the Ferris wheel.

Since Dragon had given him an estimated five hours of alone time, it was easy to choose the waiting queue that was sizable but manageable of approximately ten groups of families, six couples and himself. Lined against the queue were vendors selling Doskoi Panda food in their booth-like Doskoi Panda shaped stalls. The jingle from the Ferris wheel passenger cars — perhaps punctuated by speakers around the outside of the ride — was pretty loud even where he was standing, competing with the noise of the crowds around him.

And maybe it was because of all of that which caused him to not be able to hear the kid behind him. (Because in hindsight, the kid was pretty impossible to ignore.)

It took a couple of tugs at his coat and a couple of moments wondering what it had accidentally caught for him to finally turn around and see for himself the interrupter. And it was in fact, not one of the pointy decorations entangling his coat. Even so, Sabo had half a mind to recommend Dragon survey the safety of this theme park because the kid now before him was too bouncy to not get hurt.

"Uh, do you want something?" Sabo asked. The kid wasn't too much younger than him, but young enough for it to be weird that there didn't seem to be any family around that was associated with him. There was a small scar on his face too; what was that implying?

The child only grinned. He began furiously pointing at the vendor beside them, asking, "Hey, Burn Scar, can you get me some meat? I'll pay you back with my treasure tab."

Sabo halted. "Burn Scar?"

The kid's grin slowly fell into a frown. "You don't like that? Sorry."

Seeing his sunny disposition fade like that made Sabo somewhat guilty. "It's— it's alright. But my name's Sabo, so it's better that you call me that."

The kid's eyes widened at that, weirdly enough, but he quickly recovered and smiled again. "Hi, Sabo! My name's Luffy!" Sabo smiled, but he couldn't do much more before Luffy continued, "Can you bastard please get me some meat?"

Sabo almost laughed out loud at that. "S-Sure."

"By the way," Luffy added, "I think your burn scar's really cool." There was almost a sparkle to his eyes the way he said it.

Sabo smiled genuinely. "Thank you."

Once Sabo had paid and they were waiting for the food, Luffy turned around to rest his arms on the stringy fence and Sabo finally noticed the straw hat hanging around his neck. There was a short pang of familiarity, then nothing. Sabo shook his head and forced himself to focus back on the vendor. It was just a straw hat, a really old one at that.

The vendor yelled at Luffy to wait again, so Sabo spoke. "What are you doing on your own anyway, Luffy?"

"I thought this spinny thing looked fun."

"It does, doesn't it? It's almost taller than even our base… um…" Sabo didn't know why he said that — with this kid everything just came spilling out naturally. He was supposed to be secretive, that was one condition Dragon impressed on him to remember every time he was out. And he normally was…

"You have a base? So do I!" Luffy turned to him, excited. "But ours is way smaller than this thing because it's at the top of a tree. But the tree's still really tall." He gestured with an arm that stretched incredibly long and almost seemed to snap back. "And I also have another base, which is right outside of our hut, and it's called Luffy's country, because it's my country and it's better than Ace's."

"Really?" Sabo laughed a little. Luffy's excitement was unmatched. "Sounds really fun."

"Of course it is! Because our treehouse is also a pirate ship and we're going to become pirates!" Luffy pumped up both of his fists.

"Pirates?" It definitely sounded a lot more fun than what he was doing, but… "I'm a revolutionary. It's my dream to take down… corrupt bastards."

Luffy nodded sagely. "And you're gonna do it. I'm gonna fulfil my dream too! To become Pirate King!"

It was a rather muted declaration, right in the middle of the chatter and the music all around them, but it was a long moment where Sabo stared at the kid shorter than the height of his own shoulders. And Sabo didn't know why, but he fully believed him even if he couldn't stop himself from laughing at his own ridiculousness.

"Yeah! I believe it."

Luffy's grin widened even further, striking him with another pang of familiarity.

The food finally came, and the queue moved forward and forward until they were finally at the ticket seller. "Alone?" the bored older teen asked.

Luffy thrusted up a peace sign. "Two tickets!"

Sabo smiled politely. "Two tickets please."

The older teen shrugged. Sabo let Luffy grab the tickets and pull him along to the closest passenger car, and soon enough the ride started along with the jaunty music. Luffy was quick to climb onto the seat opposite Sabo and he kneeled there, face and hands pressed up against the window. Sabo smiled and turned to the window himself. They were slowly getting further and further from the ground, buildings getting smaller and children getting tinier.

"Wow! So cool!"

Sabo pointed at a shining sphere in the distance, situated atop a massive dome sending it high above most of everything in the island. "Look at that! It's the huge mirror ball."

Luffy called out in awe. Sabo's gaze drifted soon after. The Doskoi Panda headquarters was not too far from the mirror ball from their perspective, and it was lined with plenty of big balloons and streamers. The theme park was extremely crowded now; one kid was throwing up in a trash can from the rollercoaster, a woman was puckering her lips towards another woman — Sabo turned away blushing at that — another child was pointing up at the Ferris wheel they were in and crying, and there was a man who looked familiar—

Oh, Sabo realised, that was Dragon. The Ferris wheel was slowing to a stop with their passenger car sliding into the topmost point of the ride, and just as slowly Dragon was lifting his gaze towards them. His gaze met Sabo's own, with Sabo raising his hand in a sheepish smile. Then Dragon's eyes flicked over to Luffy, where one eye seemed to narrow before his mouth fell slightly open.

Dragon's surprise shocked Sabo. Was there something wrong? "Luffy," Sabo asked hesitantly while Dragon still watched the kid, "do you know who that man is?"

"Where?"

"You know, the man that's really tall in a green cloak and a hood over his head… not there… over by the… do you see the trash can? No…? He has a tattoo on the entire half of his face… No, not that one… Never mind, Luffy."

Luffy was far too distracted with everything else. It was impossible to point out without making it obvious that Sabo was discussing Dragon in front of the man himself, so the Ferris wheel continued on its ride with Luffy marvelling at everything else and Sabo getting more nervous because even if Dragon was no longer watching them, he still stood there in the exact same position. Maybe Sabo was now at the centre of a crime without even knowing it, which would be really bad because he was supposed to have lain low.

Then it was over and Luffy was groaning as he climbed out, but he turned back to Sabo, expectant instead of running off. There wasn't much opportunity to dawdle so Sabo got off slowly as well, and walked out of the ride area with Luffy beside him.

"Let's go to the rollercoaster now!" Luffy was saying.

At least it sounded like it. He was pointing at the rollercoaster so it was a very fair assumption. Sabo was too distracted with the other noises and mostly watching out for Dragon. "Luffy, I don't think we can go…"

"Why? We can go somewhere else? The haunted house? It looks really fun! Or the circus? Are you hungry? I am! Oh, the waterslides look really fun too, but I can't go down the waterslides." He turned and stared at them longingly despite his words.

Sabo chuckled. "You won't drown in them—"

"Sabo," Dragon's voice was suddenly close, and Sabo nearly jumped.

"Dragon-san!" Sabo said, whirling to him.

Dragon was now standing just a bit away from them, his hood pulled down especially low. Sabo could still see him though, because Dragon was very tall, as he had described to Luffy. He was opening his mouth and turning towards Luffy, but in a second he had closed it again and turned his back to them. "Take… the child with you."

Then Dragon started walking. Luffy was scratching the back of his head at Dragon. "Well," Sabo said nervously, "I think you gotta come with me."

"Huh? But can I at least have some food?"

Sabo was beginning to think this kid had a stomach as big as his. "Later, okay?"

Luffy grinned. "Okay, you promise!"

"Yeah." It was a promise, but the question was who could fulfil it. Someone would, that much was for sure.

Sabo tried his best to keep up with Dragon — at some point he had to hold on to Luffy's hand — and it was much easier once they were out of the theme park. But still Dragon didn't stop walking, and it wasn't until the coast had come into view that he realised Dragon was walking back to the small ship they had come in.

"Dragon-san?" Sabo dared to ask. "Why are we taking Luffy with us?"

Luffy perked up. "I'm coming with you guys? Great! I should really go back to Ace and Dadan and the bandits! I live in a forest, by the way! And that place is really cool, because it has a huge tiger."

"How big is it?" Sabo asked.

"Way bigger than Green Cloak Guy!" Luffy said, turning to him with his arms wide to indicate. He looked past Sabo and lit up. "A restaurant! I'm so hungry!"

"Wait…" Sabo trailed off. Luffy was already through the door.

Now it was just him and Dragon on a rather empty part of the road. Dragon turned to him and appeared to stand there for a good moment speechlessly before he followed through the door. There was a suspicious low growl as Sabo hurried behind him which made him grin.

Luffy was already seated with a fork and knife in each hand proudly attacking the table. A waiter was by him, scribbling furiously. Sabo was more worried about the fact that of the apparent two empty tables before, Luffy had chosen the one that was right by a very rowdy group of pirates, and to top it off, his seat was adjacent to one that looked more dangerous than the rest. Dragon was already taking the closer seat to the pirates, so Sabo took the other seat beside Luffy.

"And what would you gentlemen like?" the waiter asked them, looking more than a little worried.

Dragon had the menu, so Sabo asked, "Could you tell me what has already been ordered?"

"Oh, well…" The waiter skimmed through one page, two pages. "One of every meat that we have, pretty much… sir."

"I didn't get all of them?!" Luffy asked.

"No, sir…" the waiter said.

"Make it all of them!" Luffy demanded.

"Make it double," Dragon added, passing over the menu. "And add two sides of mixed vegetables. Whichever one would do, thank you."

The waiter bowed with the menu in hand and hurriedly left. Sabo tried his best to keep up with Luffy in mostly one-sided conversation while his mind wandered to the possible connection between Dragon and Luffy. It was impossible not to when the man was right there, watching them with his arms crossed and undeniable scrutiny, especially towards Luffy. But Dragon was going to tell once they were finally alone… maybe. That was why he had wanted to immediately get to the ship, right?

"So who the hell are you, Green Cloak Guy?" Luffy finally asked the question Sabo had been somewhat expecting.

The random cusses still surprised Sabo, but if he was raised by bandits maybe that explained it. …Speaking of which, was it fine that Luffy lived with bandits in a forest that apparently had a huge tiger and possibly bears as well? Luffy did seem well-adjusted enough… But that scar on his face probably came from the animals, so maybe it was dangerous.

Dragon still hadn't answered. Luffy this time had only growing interest, moving his head around to see the tattoo better so maybe it was Sabo's silent cue to speak. "He's…" Sabo had already said his name, multiple times. But this time it was easier for them to get eavesdropped on, and Dragon's eyes on him made that clear. "He's… just a guy who… teaches me."

"So he's a sensei?" Luffy asked cluelessly.

Sabo's eyes flicked between a Luffy with owlish eyes and a stoic Dragon. "…Yeah?"

"Sensei!" Luffy greeted. "What do you teach?"

Maybe this was the reason Dragon had brought him on this mission — to be placed under an impromptu test of how good he was able to do improv. "Uh… he teaches me how to fight." Surely that wasn't too odd?

"Cool!" Luffy's eyes were getting a sparkle to them again. "Teach me!"

Sabo was still stuck on what to do when Dragon finally spoke again. "…Later."

Dragon had finally taken pity on him, it seemed. Sabo barely breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Luffy was now pulling at Dragon's sleeve when he caught Dragon's expression again. And this time, it was something he had watched out for before, for a long time. A crack in the edges — a peek at the elusive soft side. His eyes, they had unmistakably softened.

Sabo didn't know he was holding his breath until the waiter returned balancing dishes on his arms, and the scene broke away with Luffy stretching his arm for the most filled dish and upturning the entirety of its contents into his mouth.

Well, that explains why he didn't want to go down the waterslide, Sabo thought with slight wonderment as Luffy grabbed two chicken legs and ate them with gusto. Dragon reached for his own food and Sabo shook his head to follow suit.

Another waiter came along, dropping five various combinations of meat and gravy along with the two mixed vegetables that had been specifically ordered. Sabo continued eating, picking a bit from one bowl in between all the meat. The other remained quite untouched, leading to a brief curiosity as to why Dragon had ordered them in the first place, until the man himself revealed his motive.

Dragon was discreetly taking from the bowl and putting them on Luffy's main dish, who in all his feverish attack of every meat on the table failed to discriminate and devoured even them. It went on until the bowl was empty and Sabo finally realised the chicken leg he was holding was dripping gravy into the shallow slits between the wood of the table.

And there it was again — that indisputable softening of features, even down to the smile which was so slight but so terribly obvious compounded with everything else.

There was hardly time to think on it. Chair had noisily scraped against floor with Dragon on his feet before Sabo processed anything. Then Sabo realised the pirate behind Dragon had turned around with a malicious smile.

"Come on," Dragon was practically growling, his hand clutching his hood.

"What's going on?" Sabo asked in a state of confusion as he got up as quickly as he could.

Meanwhile, another pirate was speaking calmly over the slowly-dimming noise in the restaurant. "Power level is quite high." He had a finger raised before glowing white numbers, to Sabo a reversed 1,375. "Our little getaway has gotten himself a… bodyguard."

The pirate was staring straight at Luffy, who was getting pulled out of his chair by the wrist by Dragon. "What?" Luffy turned his head to the pirates. "Ah! You guys!"

"Luffy?" Sabo asked before he remembered. Luffy had never told him why he was here, apparently in a completely different island from where he lived. "They took you here?"

There was panic bubbling in the restaurant now. Someone pushed the main doors just to find that they were not budging. This is bad, Sabo thought. There was no knowing what the pirates could do. Dragon stood like he was rooted to the spot, appearing almost calm, but Sabo knew the clouds darkening outside spoke more truth about his emotions.

"Yes!" The pirate cackled. "The doors are blocked up — even the back exit! Now, not even you can escape," he spat at Luffy. "Stupid little thing. Think you're smart, aren't ya? If you wanted to escape us Pith Pirates, you should've left on the first ship you saw. Just wait until we get our hands on you, brat, you'll be losing your fucking toenails the first instance we get."

"If you wanted me to take you on you should've just said so!" Luffy retorted, but he was barely able to swing a fist in intimidation before Dragon blocked him with an arm. There was still some fear in Luffy, Sabo could somehow tell, but even so, he had barely seen a braver kid. Who knew what the pirates did to him when he was still in their hands.

Dragon's movement shifted the pirates' attention to him. "And you," the pirate said dangerously. His mouth curled up nastily. "Just what do you have to hide, I wonder? You're strong, very strong. Why are you wearing that cloak? Is there something you'd like to tell the audience?"

Sabo made his way over to Luffy as he spoke. He pulled Luffy away from Dragon, ignoring his protests. "Leave it to him," he whispered.

"It's my fight," Luffy said, not petulantly.

Luffy was still struggling against him so Sabo said, "We're friends, right? And Dr… sensei helps his friends. We're important to him." Sabo pointed at the window. "And look. Sensei made that happen."

"…Gist, is it?" Dragon was saying, voice low. "How brave of you to strut in a room full of defenceless civilians." Already the pirate's ugly smile was dipping into a scowl. "And how powerful you must be to have abducted a child. For a twenty-two million Belly captain who hightailed it out of Paradise to the weakest sea, this is a very commendable feat indeed."

No one dared to laugh but Gist still turned red, veins popping out on his right fist. He and Dragon stared each other down for a moment before the red faded and Gist leaned forward, the pretence of an uncaring smirk sitting on his lips. "And you," he whispered, "are a saint yourself, eh? You'd like to take that little shit from us by your own dainty little hands?"

Dragon wasn't answering. From where Sabo stood, he only saw the back of the green cloak. It wasn't hard to imagine the challenging look he must be giving, his eyes narrowing to the point where the iris could only catch the light and pierce into the other man. Perhaps if they were alone, Gist would back off. But Gist himself had turned the room into a weapon of pride.

Half of Gist's face was in shadow now. The dark clouds had their reach extending all the way to the mirror ball that basked in sunlight only it knew. Raindrops that fell every couple of seconds were audible in the pin drop silence, the only other thing Sabo could hear aside from Luffy's fidgeting right beside him. Sabo was still holding Luffy's hand, he just realised. The soft hand was seizing his, and Sabo gave it a little squeeze.

"Not going to answer? Then let me ask you a question. Would you prefer I take what's mine, or would you prefer to reveal your face?" The half that was cloaked in shadow hid a confident quirk of the lips and his gaze was steady.

Too confident, Sabo thought. Something about it…

"…I think," Dragon said, "I prefer my own terms."

The moment he finished speaking, a few things happened at once. Lightning crashed right outside of the main doors accompanied by screaming, Sabo blinked away the light that nearly flashed directly in his eyes, Dragon was blocking a halberd from Gist with his Haki-coated hand, and something tall had closed in on Luffy.

"Luffy—!" Sabo's eyes widened.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dragon was whirling back to them while Sabo was reaching out for Luffy. But Dragon was a step too far, Sabo was swiping at nothing and now there were beads of blood forming on Luffy's neck, who was still struggling at an arm more than big enough to pin down his entire body even when there was a knife pressing down on an area far too close to his jugular vein. Sabo caught Luffy's eyes; they were a window into striking fear.

Sabo could barely breathe. He was now crouched down on the floor. His head was hurting him again as he shakily watched the blood roll down Luffy's neck and into his collarbone. Don't move, the man was saying. Sabo didn't think he could even if he wanted to. He gritted his teeth. This pirate must have waited away from where his crew ate, watching until it was his time to jump them.

Sabo cursed, hitting the floor with a fist. Taking him down himself would have been so easy, instead, Sabo had to play by his rules and wait for an opportunity while he let Luffy continue bleeding from the neck.

An ear-piercing scream reminded him that they weren't alone. It broke a spell in the restaurant and people began stampeding for the doors. They were open now because Dragon had taken care of the people blocking them, and Dragon…

Sabo sucked in a breath.

Dragon was stricken. His hands limp, his eyes wide and almost-unseeing where they were fixated on Luffy, where knife met skin and blood dripped like water from a faucet. It was an image that seemed to last for an eternity but Dragon must have felt his gaze on him and panic receded into a twist at the edge of his mouth, his eyes turning from saucers into slits, and his body shook just visibly. It was bubbling fury like Sabo had never seen, and it instilled in even him an unrestrainable sense of fear.

Gist was laughing. "We've learned our lesson too well about bullets not working. But even rubber isn't impervious to a sharp edge. Eh, Shark?"

The pirate holding Luffy chuckled darkly. "There will be much to do once we are back," he mock-whispered the last into Luffy's ear, whose eyes widened even more, but then clearly bit back his fear to glare at him.

"Feisty, feisty," Gist said. "Brat, you could be dead if you even just moved the wrong way. And that would be a shame, wouldn't it? I've already prepared a wonderful cell for you. Though I am wondering… if it would be worth it to lose a devil fruit user to learn more about you," he spoke to Dragon's back.

Dragon was motioning discreetly. Sabo gave him a minute nod.

Dragon stepped forward and Shark stepped back, the knife digging in deeper. "Don't come any closer." Dragon took more steps forward and each time the pirate matched him until he had his back up against a wall. "Do not come any closer. You want him to die?" His voice was like venom, but he was sweating now.

Gist had stepped towards Dragon too, apparently ignoring Sabo as a threat. Sabo had slowly pushed himself into position, still crouched.

"Luffy," Dragon said, his voice a calm wind, "brace yourself."

Again, lightning struck, this time right outside the window Sabo hadn't realised was now hanging open. And this time, Sabo was punching Gist to the floor while Shark dropped to the ground twitching. Sabo glanced up — Dragon had caught Luffy — before he had to dodge a swing of the halberd. Then a split second of warning from Dragon right before Sabo wrenched for himself the halberd and planted it onto the ground and the doors burst open with a wind that sent all the pirates flying and threatened to generate a cyclone right there in the building.

"Come on!" Dragon said, grabbing Sabo's wrist. They booked it out of the restaurant while the pirates were still yelling and trying to push back against the wind.

Now that they were out of the brunt of it all, Dragon let him go. They ran for just a moment more before Dragon found them an empty alleyway and set Luffy on the ground with a hand supporting his head, himself blocking most of the wind from reaching him. Sabo kneeled down by Luffy. He had passed out and he somehow looked worse, his complexion pale and breathing slightly shallow. Sabo took over the job of supporting Luffy's head, and, after a second of hesitation, acted on an urge to grab his hand.

Dragon ripped off a part of his cloak and began stemming the bleeding with a hand large enough to engulf part of Luffy's face. His other hand was spread flat on the ground, tense, his mouth tightened into a thin line. Sabo would speak if he thought Dragon could listen. At this moment, it was as if Dragon had no thought for anything else. His entire world seemed to be hanging on the balance that was Luffy's life.

Dragon reached for Luffy's wrist in a manner that was almost fearful. He brought it into his hand with his own that looked to be especially coarse compared with Luffy's, and pressed two fingers onto his pulse. A frozen moment, then Dragon breathed deeply. It was then Sabo wondered if Dragon had truly been seeing something different than him, perhaps an unmoving Luffy, deathly-pale.

Dragon tore off another piece and wrapped this one around the wound. He then brought Luffy into his arms and stood up, Sabo following. They continued running towards the ship. The wind was still blasting them and Sabo held his arm over his eyes to look to his side. Luffy was all but swaddled in Dragon's arms, the cloak shielding him away, and Dragon was watching him.

"He's going to be okay," Sabo said, maybe comfortingly.

Dragon's head raised and he focused on the ship. "He will be," he said in a voice that was barely audible over the raucous wind.

They sort of floated on the ship for a couple days after. There was no destination to be had, not with Luffy with them. In the many hours Sabo had to simply wait, he fancied the idea of Luffy coming back with them to Baltigo. He had the guts, he had the heart, and for some reason after Luffy nearly died, Sabo didn't want him to leave his sight either.

But Luffy had a place he belonged. He had people he loved, apparently a bandit of a guardian and a loving older brother. Bringing Luffy with him wasn't right, no matter how much he wanted to keep seeing that bright smile.

In the days that they floated, Dragon stuck close to Luffy. He was by his bed until he first arose from unconsciousness, and after, more than Sabo and Luffy, it was Dragon and Luffy, Dragon who followed along and tried to have him stop bouncing around as much, tried to keep him lying down by reading one of the few books they kept on this ship to him. Most of the time Luffy wouldn't have it, but sometimes it was like even Luffy knew about the eyes that often travelled to the bandage around his neck.

Dragon had cared before. Dragon had cared for Sabo when he had his arm broken, when he had a bullet deep in his leg. But Dragon had cared less for more, and now that Sabo was seeing Dragon trying to convince Luffy to stay away from the railings and worrying himself sick over the neck wound, now that Sabo was seeing something even in the touches of when Dragon checked the progress of his injury to when he pushed him into bed — there was nothing gentler, nothing more tender — Sabo found that he had stumbled across the answer. And it was a secret of the kind that could not be told to anyone else even in the revolutionary army.

So even when Luffy was fully healed, Sabo did not ask Dragon. Dragon did not speak to him about it either.

The wind rushed them forward as Sabo and Luffy remained inside the entire time, and it was only after half a day that they reached an island. An island that Sabo recognised too well the name of, Dawn Island. To think that they lived so close to each other…

Their ship was unimpressive, so few looked towards the dock where they stopped especially in the night that was darkened by clouds which preceded rain. Luffy rushed out like he was about to run off into the village, but then he turned back to face them where Sabo leaned against the railing and Dragon stood with his arms crossed and his hood safely hanging over his head.

"You can't stay for a while?" Luffy asked. His happiness seemed to have diminished as realisation came to him, now looking up at them without a smile.

Dragon was silent again so Sabo said sympathetically, "We gotta go back, Luffy. Even sticking around here for a bit would be dangerous."

Luffy was quiet for a long moment, like he was trying to remember their features. Luffy turned to Dragon, and his look then was almost studious. "Even though I don't know anything about what you guys do and even though we're not gonna be pirates together… we're not going to be enemies, right?"

"…No," Dragon said, "I don't see the need."

Luffy nodded, his smile returning. "Then we're gonna become allies and we'll meet again someday!"

Sabo grinned. "That's a promise!"

Luffy flashed a grin towards Sabo, then he bounded up and hugged a stiffening Dragon around the legs. "Thank you for saving me!"

There was a beat, and then Dragon was crouching down with an embrace suddenly full of Luffy and a hand stroking the child's hair, the fondness deep in his touch. Sabo smiled to himself. Yes, this was it, alright.

Luffy finally broke away and continued on to hug Sabo, then he was off the ship and the ship was following the wind again and Sabo and Luffy were waving towards each other across a growing distance.

"Next time, I'm going to be stronger so that won't happen again," Sabo declared.

Dragon hummed noncommittally.

"And Luffy's going to come with us again to Doskoi Panda Island and we'll ride all the rides together at the theme park."

The island crossed the horizon before Dragon responded. "It's Mirror Ball Island."

Dragon didn't stop looking in that direction until they returned to base.