I'm sure I'm not the only one who's falling more and more in love with the idea of Sabo x Koala. Can't you just see those two growing up together on Baltigo, starting out as best friends and gradually moving on to something more as they grow older?

This fic is set sometime prior to the two year timeskip. I would say that at this point, their relationship is somewhere along the transition of friends to lovers.

Koala dashed through the hallways of the Revolutionary Headquarters, turning corners with the ease of familiarity as she headed towards her destination. A bright, happy smile split her face. Sabo was back! Finally! He'd been gone so long, off on an undercover mission who-knows-where.

Fellow officers chuckled and carefully moved out of her way to avoid getting bulldozed by the speeding girl. Some called out teasing words as she passed, to which she just spun on her heel to stick out her tongue at them before rushing on her way again.

She skidded to a stop automatically when she reached, not having to look at the number and nameplate on the door to know that she was in the right place.

"Sabo!" she greeted cheerily as she burst unceremoniously into the room. Her friend had a tendency to forget to lock the door, something that he had credited offhandedly to a childhood in the wilderness and a little brother with no idea of personal space bubbles.

The blond was pulling off a coarse cream-colored shirt, his back to the door, and at her sudden entrance his head spun around, eyes wide.

Her wide smile suddenly felt frozen and unnatural. A phantom pain flared on her back in response as her eyes fixated on that horribly familiar hoof-shaped mark, despite the fact that hers was more than a decade old.

"Koala." She faintly heard him calling her name, but it seemed much further away than it should be. She registered that he had moved, but her eyes were unfocused, unable to draw away from the memory of that mark on his back.

"Hey, Koala, look at me. And listen." Gentle hands cupped her face, guiding her eyes to meet his. "It's okay," he said soothingly. "It's a not real brand, I promise. Just painted on, for the disguise. Do you hear me? Now breathe."

Sabo looked relieved when she finally took a long shaky breath. His hands left her face to wrap around her chilly ones, and he blew against them to bring some warmth back. She melted against him, forehead falling to rest on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, cheek against her hair as he rubbed soothing circles onto her back.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. I was going to change out of the disguise before I went to see you."

Koala shook her head, hating the fact that she was still trembling minutely. "It's my fault for not knocking." She took another deep breath. "So that was where your mission was? Mariejois?" she attempted to inject some nonchalance into her voice, but the effort was poor even to her own ears.

Sabo watched her worriedly.

She made herself look up to meet his eyes. "I'm fine. Really."

The blond decided not to push her. "Yeah. We managed to bust twenty seven of them out of there. Not as many as we would have liked, but it's progress. Most of them are in the infirmary for checkups and stuff, then they'll probably be staying in the empty rooms on the fifth floor until we can arrange to get them home safely."

Koala knew why he was telling her this, so that she could avoid the freed slaves if she wanted. She wanted to say that she would be fine, but if she were to be honest she wasn't entirely sure how she would react. To see empty eyes, hollow windows to hollow souls, and know that it had once been her in that position.

"Koala," Sabo's gentle voice roused her from her spiraling thoughts, bringing her back to reality. Her arms curled tighter around his torso, fingers running over warm muscle to touch the mark on his back. It was true; while it had looked frighteningly real from afar, it lacked the scarred, uneven texture of a real brand.

She realized belated that he was half-naked and she was essentially feeling him up, no matter what her true intentions were. Sabo looked almost amused as she leapt away, face flaming. He had the nerve to chuckle as she glared at him reproachfully.

Raising his arms in a placating gesture, he turned away to rummage through the bedside drawer. She still couldn't help but wince slightly at the sight of his back, but he returned to her side too quickly for her to dwell on it, taking her hand to drop a glass bottle of some clear liquid into it.

She blinked, looking enquiringly up at him.

He grinned disarmingly at her. "Could you help me remove it? Please? It'd be such a hassle to do it myself."

Taking a proper look at the bottle, she saw that it was an alcohol-based solvent, presumably for the body paint used for the fake mark.

She knew what he was trying to do. It was a distractor, something for her to do to keep her mind off the memories that the sight of the symbol had triggered. But there was more to it as well, he knew that she needed to see for herself that it was just paint that could be washed away.

She was grateful for the effort, but it didn't stop her from rolling her eyes at that stupid puppy-eyed stare though.

"Fine, so sit down and stop looking at me like that."

Still sporting a shit-eating grin, he pulled a chair away from his desk and straddled it backwards, giving her access to his back.

She snatched the discarded old shirt (a horrible, standard-issue thing that she was tempted to burn right there) off the bed, poured a liberal amount of the remover over a corner of it and set to work.

After a good ten minutes, she stepped back to look over her handiwork.

There. His back had a pinkish patch from her vigorous scrubbing, but the hideous red mark was gone.

Sabo turned his head to pull a face at her. "You could have been gentler."

"Oh shut up you big baby," she said, punching him playfully on the arm. He made a big show of whining and complaining about it, which make her laugh more. After a moment, though, she sobered. They stared at each other, not speaking.

"Hey…" he said softly. She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

Sighing, she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, her body slumping to lean heavily against him. "I'm glad you're back," she finally murmured into his hair.

He let his head fall back on her shoulder, eyes fluttering close. His lips curved into a sweet, genuine smile. "It's good to be home."

Don't you just love those two? I have absolutely found my newest OTP for One Piece.

Still... I don't know about you, Koala, but I'm developing a nosebleed by the thought of shirtless Sabo alone. Gah.

Thank you for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated!