Thanks for sticking around, everyone; sorry this took a while!

"Yo," Sabo says to the transponder snail, only half paying attention.

"Is he there?" comes a familiar voice, and Sabo blinks and looks up from the navigation charts.

"Who?" he asks, putting as much innocent confusion into his voice as he can.

The sigh he gets in return is everything he could have wanted and so much more. "Either you have him or you know where he is, yoi," Marco the Phoenix says. "Given that we nearly went to war for him, we'd like to know if he's okay."

Well, fair enough. "He'll turn up," Sabo says cheerfully. "Maybe he just needed a vacation from you."

There's a moment, a quiet breath, and then Marco says, "He's okay," half question, half relief, and it hits Sabo right in his chest.

"Yeah," he says. Anyone who's so blatantly, sincerely thankful for Ace's continued health deserves at least that much from him.

And this is Marco, who has dragged Ace into a family, who has cared for him and watched over him, and when he couldn't anymore, he sent Ace to Sabo.

Ace is a Whitebeard now. He smiles on their ship.

Sabo's never been nice, not like Ace is, but he keeps track of what he owes and he pays his debts. It's easier there alone, even with the den den mushi mimicking him as well as it can. He sweeps his hat off and across his chest, then bows, formal and sincere, and he says, "Thank you."

The line is quiet for a moment, and then Marco says, obviously careful, "For what?"

Ah. Sabo smiles, a wry twist of lips, because of course Marco doesn't know. He doesn't think loving Ace is something to be thanked for; no one on that ship does, apparently. They don't even think it's unusual.

But Marco's still waiting on an answer so he says, "For always being so amusing," but he doesn't bother to put on the lilt, to add the undercurrent of teasing that he really should. It's a lot of effort right now, and he's tired.

Marco huffs and says, "I don't understand you, yoi."

That shouldn't hurt, right? There's no reason it should. "That's fine," he says, closing his eyes. "You don't need to."

There's a silence heavy with a lot of things Marco isn't saying. Eventually, he asks, "Where should I go to see Ace?"

Sabo bites back his first answer because it's childish and his second answer because it's rude. He knew this quiet moment with all three of them together, away from the world, wouldn't last, and he knows it's not fair to keep Ace away from his real life, so he clenches his fist and says, "You know the island Deltora?"

"Yeah?"

"Around there," he says, waits just a beat, then adds, "give or take a hundred miles."

"What?"

He does manage a small grin at that. It's not fair to keep Ace here and there's no reason to keep the Whitebeards away, but he doesn't have to be nice about it.

Being nice is also, apparently, not necessary; Marco finds them that evening when the sun's going down.

Deltora is an hour or two behind them; they're one ragtag crew of escapees lighter and making good time.. Ace had wanted to sell their ship and trade it in for something smaller, but damned if Sabo's gonna give up a perfectly good Marine warship.

It's not even that hard to manage because Jinbe had decided to stay on with them for a while longer. Sabo hadn't asked why, but he's also low-key hoping he can convince Jinbe to meet with Koala and perhaps Dragon and maybe, just maybe, talk of alliances or recruitment.

Besides, if he brings Koala a gift as nice as a Marine ship with Jinbe on it, she may even forgive him.

Jinbe's just finished setting the course, and they're all gravitating towards the main deck. Ace is leaning against a rail, squinting at the horizon, and Jinbe sits against the mast, enthralled by some tale Luffy is telling, which seems to be more sound effects than words.

Sabo leans against the cabin's wall and just lets his eyes linger on the way the setting sun paints them all in reds, not thinking of much at all. If he just feels and doesn't think, it's almost all right.

"Hey!" Luffy yells, breaking off his story. "Hey! It's a bird! A bird guy! He was a bird, and now he's a guy!"

"That's just Marco," Sabo says carelessly, pushing off the wall but staying back.

"Wah!" Luffy says, bouncing over to Marco, who's stepping down off the railing. "Hey, are you a bird who turns into a person or a person who turns into a bird? Hey, hey, do you poop?"

Marco ignores the barrage of questions, eyes cutting across the deck until they meet Ace's, and then his shoulders sag and his face softens.

"It's good to see you, yoi," Marco says softly, and Luffy tugs on one of his arms.

And Ace smiles, lighting up like starlight, and Sabo breathes out slowly. "Marco!" Ace says and comes tearing across the deck. "Hey! How'd you find us?"

Marco laughs, stepping back just enough to brace so that Ace doesn't knock him over. "How'd you think?" he asks, glancing towards Sabo, and Ace laughs.

"Of course," he says, then steps to the side and drapes his arms around Luffy. "Hey, meet my brother!"

"Brother?" Marco and Luffy both ask at the same time and Ace huffs.

"You'll like him," Ace promises them both, and Sabo stays out of the way and watches the introductions happen. It's nice to see them getting along, and besides, there's an ache in his head that's not worth exacerbating.

"Hey, Sabo," Ace says. "Why didn't you tell me he was coming?"

"Forgot," Sabo says, aiming for blithe and missing. He stays where he is.

Ace rolls his eyes. "No you didn't," he says, stepping towards him. "You don't forget anything unless it's convenient. Or names. Sometimes you forget names."

"I don't forget names," Sabo says, offended.

"Sure you don't," Ace says. "C'mere." He reaches out for Sabo's wrist and Sabo jerks his whole arm away and takes a step back. He is not going to join the happy knot of idiots over there and even Ace can't make him.

Ace looks at him for a moment, eyes narrow and considering, then he pushes Luffy towards Marco and says, "Give us a sec, yeah?" He turns, slinging an arm around Sabo's neck to drag him a few steps away. "Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing," Sabo says, baring his teeth. "Why would you think something's up? Everything's fine."

"Why're you being like this?" Ace says, soft and close. "I thought you liked Marco and them all right."

"I can't just—" Sabo says, and it's too much, doesn't Ace get that? There's been so much lately, so close to the surface, and then Ace's eyes roll up, his knees buckle, and he goes down.

Sabo blinks, frozen. He didn't hear any shot, there was no food here they hadn't both eaten, no one was in range, he knows it—

Marco sighs and leans over to haul him upright, draping him over a shoulder. "C'mon," he says, "you can't stay there; you'll catch a cold, yoi."

"Catch a cold," Sabo repeats, eyes still stuck where Ace had landed.

"Did Ace fall asleep again?" Luffy asks, leaning over to poke Ace's cheek. "Shishishi, can we draw on his face?"

"Fall asleep," Sabo says. There's a rushing in his ears that's maybe his pulse and maybe his nerves screaming.

"Yeah, he does this," Marco says, propping Ace up against the mast next to Jinbe, just as Ace lets out a loud snore. Jinbe glances over at him and smiles but doesn't seem surprised.

"Ace falls asleep sometimes," Sabo says, and it's not a question but Luffy's squinting at him anyway.

"Ace has always been like this," Luffy says, and it must be a lie, but Luffy doesn't lie, but—"Didn't you know? Didn't you ever see?"

"No," Sabo grinds out, and his fingers are clutching in his hair now; when did that happen, how does he even—

"How—" Luffy starts, reaching out, and there's worry in his eyes and no smile on his face and it's Sabo's fault, it's Ace, and Luffy is worried and he didn't know, he never knew, because—

"Because I was dead, Luffy," he says, and it comes out hard and sharp and the pain points on his scalp are flashing behind his eyes, bright lights to fill up the blank spots in his life—

Luffy grew up without him, and Ace—this is such a part of Ace that Marco and Luffy and even Jinbe had heard about it, but Sabo, he—he didn't know, he's missed so much, he's always known he's a failure as a brother, but he didn't even know this—

His knees hit the deck and his world is a blur of panic and his lungs are so far out of pattern that he's gasping for any shards of control he can and there's noise and yelling but he doesn't hear it, he didn't know—

"Sabo," says Luffy's voice, and Sabo tries, he tries to drag the gaping chasm inside back together enough to stick a bandaid over it again because Luffy doesn't—he doesn't need to see this. He never needs to worry about—he's the one they have to protect and Sabo tries, he tries but he can't—

Rubbery arms wrap around him and tug him forward, and it's been too long and it's too much and he's really trying, but all he can seem to do is follow, leaning against Ace and dragging Luffy in to hyperventilate into his shoulder for a long damn time.

He's missed Luffy's entire life, and that's something no amount of stalking can make up for. He tried to protect Ace, but Ace came to him with murder in his eyes and grief in his heart, and he couldn't stop that, either. He's always been the strong one because they couldn't afford for him to be otherwise, but they—he died, and they grew up, and they didn't need him to protect them.

They never had, not really.

Who is he, without that? Who can he be, when what he thought he knew was so wrong?

"Sabo?" Luffy asks, and Sabo's grip tightens, squeezing Luffy a bit more, but Luffy doesn't protest. "You're okay, right?"

Sabo opens his mouth to say yes, to say of course, but what comes out is a ragged gasp, sharp and painful. He's been okay for a long time, but maybe—just maybe—

"It's fine," Ace says behind him, and one of his arms comes up over Sabo's shoulder to mess with Luffy's hair. "You don't have to be okay."

Which is good cause he's not, not hardly. "I can't—" he gets out because they should know, they ought to know—

"You're safe," Ace says. "We're safe. You can do this right now."

And that's what it comes down to, isn't it? Funny, that after the past few years, it's this that breaks him. It's funny, and he manages a short, ragged sound that's almost a laugh, and then he curls into his brothers and breathes as his world collapses.

It doesn't last long, just the short side of forever, but then Luffy starts squirming in his arms. Sabo looks up, looks around, and tries on a smile that's not big, sure, and not bright, but also not fake.

"We got any meat around here?" he asks, not because he's hungry but because he needs a distraction. He needs a second where no one's looking to pull himself back together.

"Meat!" Luffy cheers predictably, bouncing up. "Yeah, there's a whole lot of food in the kitchen!"

"Marco, can you help him bring it out here?" Ace asks, arm still draped over Sabo's shoulder, and Sabo doesn't shrug it off.

Marco nods and offers a hand to Jinbe, hauling him up to his feet, and the two follow Luffy belowdecks.

Sabo draws in a breath to say something like sorry, or maybe more like you shouldn't have had to see that, but he's starting to realize that's his problem. It's not his place to decide what's for Ace to see, is it?

"I'm going to be okay," Sabo says instead, leaning back against Ace's shoulder.

"I know," Ace says. "You're the strongest person I know. You're gonna be fine."

Sabo laughs, sharp and involuntary. "No," he says, because that's not why at all. "You're the strongest person you know, Ace. I'm going to be okay because you're here. You're both here, and I'm gonna lean on that."

Ace breathes behind him and finally says, "Good. We'll always be here."

Sabo opens his mouth to says don't make promises you can't keep, but—trust. He trusts Ace, and if Ace says they'll always be here, then he can believe they will. Can't he?

A door slams open and Sabo's head jerks hard enough that he smashes the back of his skull into the front of Ace's and they both fall over in different directions but mumbling similar sentiments.

"Meat!" Luffy cheers, and he's got something in his mouth and his hands full. Marco follows, holding a large shallow bowl on one hip and a platter balanced on his other arm, and Jinbe's behind him with his arms full of bottles and napkins.

"Alcohol," Sabo says, bouncing up and making grabby hands at Jinbe. "Yes. Mine; gimme."

Jinbe eyes him warily but Sabo just steps closer and plucks a bottle and a stack of cups out of his arms and Jinbe secures his place as Nicest Guy Ever by not stopping him.

Sabo returns to where Marco is attempting to set the food down and Luffy is attempting to eat it all before it touches the deck. "Be patient," he says fondly to Luffy, then glances over at Marco.

Marco meets his gaze calmly, and Sabo stares back, but he's too raw to muster up the bright big grin he usually wears. Marco nods at the bottle in his hands and says, "That's not a great brand of sake."

"Don't care," Sabo says, sliding back down to sit next to Ace. "M'not drinking it for the taste." He opens the bottle, then his eyes flick back up, past Ace's shoulder to where Marco is leaning against the railing.

"To those absent," he says, and pours a cup's worth to hand to Ace.

Ace's face crumples in on itself but he takes the cup and echoes it before twisting around and handing it to Marco.

Marco looks between them and nods. "To Thatch," he says, and pours the sake out over the railing.

Sabo hands over another cup, this one for Ace to keep, and Ace says, "To Thatch," and throws back the sake in one go, so Sabo takes a cup for himself and echoes the gesture.

Then Luffy comes bouncing over and there's a smile on Sabo's face he didn't put there on purpose. "Hey!" Luffy says. "Hey, it's sake!"

"Yeah, Lu," Ace says, snagging Luffy and pulling him to sit beside them. "C'mere a moment, will ya?"

Sabo hands him the bottle and wipes out his own saucer. This is how it should be, he knows, and looks at the cup in his hands and makes his own promise. He's gonna get to know his brothers all over again and trust them both more.

And maybe, just maybe, a little bit of that awful rage that lives curled around his spine is burning itself out, and if it aches, at least it's clean.

Maybe he's a bit lighter for it. Maybe he's a bit calmer, a bit more sane—but then again, maybe not. He's still broken open and jagged at the edges, though; he knows that.

But he also has a purpose, and he has his brothers, and a future he can actually look forward to, so one thing he's not is lost.

Ace has given another cup to Luffy and starts pouring for all three of them. "To brotherhood," he murmurs, and Luffy bounces in places and cheers, "To us!"

"To family," Sabo says, putting his free hand on Luffy's shoulder, and Ace's eyes snap to him.

"To family," Ace repeats, and the three of them tink their cups together.

It may not have been good sake, like Marco said, but Sabo was telling the truth. He's not drinking it for the flavor, and it tastes like freedom and hope anyway.