After Us - Chapter 1

New fic! Oh god… okay, to all my lovely HWM readers, I'm so sorry. I haven't abandoned it! Things are going to just be slower. I'm sorry. But I couldn't ignore this.

ANYWAY ONTO THE FIC

Chapter 1 - The Young Hero

Gravel crunches beneath his feet. Luffy yawns absently, skin hot beneath the Texan sun, and glances around. The long road he's on is empty, and it stretches far into the distance, lined with vast, dry fields. There are no farmers left to tend to the crops but nature is a survivor, and the plants are growing out of control, the stalks of the overgrown corn folding over into the road, dusty in color. It's quiet. The smell of smoke is thin on the air.

Whistling, the seventeen-year-old fingers the strap of the shotgun over his shoulder. He's not particularly worried (not that Luffy ever really is - it's not in his nature). But it always pays to be ready. Trooping through the heat, he glances through the wide fields, all-too-aware of what lurks in them. It's pretty creepy.

Subsequently, he finds it all too cool.

It's been, what, ten years since all this started? Too long. But Luffy has to admit - it hasn't been all that rough. At least, not for him. He never lost anybody, mostly because he didn't have anybody to lose - and when it all began, he was fortunate to join a group within the first few days. Luffy was lucky, incredibly so. He wasn't like Nami, who lost her mother and sister, or Brook, who lost his whole family. He was more like Zoro, who only gained a family through all of this.

The only problem is that right now, that family is nowhere to be found. It's been four or five months, no more, since they separated. It was bad planning (Nami would call it recklessness, Luffy likes to call it experimentation). A stroke of bad luck. They ran into a horde and Luffy got pulled into a warehouse in the chase, got caught up there. By the time he regained consciousness in the morning, the crew was gone.

There's always been an agreement within the group - there's always a meeting point. If anybody is ever lost, they're all to head there, no matter what. It changes depending on where they are. When they separated, the meeting place was a lodge just outside of Austin, where they stayed previously. So Luffy picked himself up and started to walk, following his compass north, hoping to run into somebody or something that could help him find his way. It's a warzone, a wasteland, but he's pretty used to it. The only thing that sucks is being alone.

The sun is going down. The bottoms of his feet are aching sharply now, with a harsh, flat kind of pain that makes it all-too tempting to stop. But Luffy doesn't falter, yawning as the night creeps in. Eventually, his yawning tails off. In the sunset, the desert road looks red beneath his feet.

Suddenly, there it is - the sound of an engine.

Luffy looks behind him and says, "Fuck!" There's a small, dark dot on the horizon, speeding towards him, throwing up dust into the darkening sky. With a small yelp, the teen throws himself into the tall grass, rather ungracefully, scrambling to hide himself. A car means people – uninfected people – but he can't know that they're friendly. Many aren't.

Feeling his heart pound in his chest, Luffy holds his breath and listens the car come closer. Every nerve in his body is on high alert, ready to fight. The engine grows louder and louder until it feels like it's right on top of him, and suddenly it cuts out – right there, in the road only feet from him. Cursing, Luffy scrambles backward just as he hears the door of the jeep open, and then slam closed.

A male voice, relatively young, with a British accent. "Is there anything there?"

"Nothing. Look, I'm sure you just imagined it, Sabo."

There's a little, irritated noise and then another door opens, from the other side. Luffy can hear the British man's boots as they hit the gravel and he slowly pulls himself to his feet, still concealed, balling his fists.

"I didn't! Look, if there's another survivor-"

"There isn't. I wouldn't be surprised if it was only us in this whole damn state," the other man grumbles. There's a lilt of something foreign in his voice, maybe Spanish.

"I- Wait!"

Luffy knows in that moment that he's been seen and he stumbles backward, reaching for his gun - but his fingers scrabble and slip on the strap and then there's somebody in front of him, pushing aside the tall grass. The guy is blonde, tall and lean with overgrown hair and tanned skin. He looks as surprised to see Luffy as Luffy is to see him and they stare at one another for a moment, Luffy still clutching at the strap of his gun, the other man's hand hovering over his knife. The silence is short and thick and then the air breaks, and a second man - shorter than the first, with caramel skin and a scowl - is cocking his gun right between Luffy's eyes.

"Don't move," he commands. "I won't hesitate."

Luffy closes his eyes for a moment, sure he's going to die, sure that the world is going to black out. When it doesn't, when the silence only stretches on and on with seemingly no end, he makes a split-second decision and suddenly swings his leg up, knee sinking into the second man's crotch. The guy falls with a shout and then the blonde has his knife out, and he's swiping at Luffy like a cobra, movements quick and precise. Luffy flips back onto his hands and rolls to his feet in a swift movement, heart pounding, and makes to sprint into the corn - but suddenly his ankle jerks inwards on itself, twisting roughly, and a lance of pain shoots through his leg.

The teen falls to his knees, and then his torso slaps down to the ground roughly. With a mouthful of dust, ankle throbbing, Luffy twists over and swings his gun over his shoulder - but then the second guy is there, apparently having recovered, and he yanks the gun from Luffy's hands with such force that the strap snaps. Defenseless and injured, Luffy curses desperately and shuffles back on his elbows, dry grass scratching his skin. His own gun his being pointed at him by the shorter one and he scowls, looking right up into his grey eyes. His mind rebels against it. He can't die here. Not now.

Silence. Then, the blonde sighs and shoves the other man away, and the tension breaks.

"Don't shoot - look at him, he's just a kid." The man kneels down and extends his hand slowly towards him, like he's approaching a wild animal. He's the British one. Luffy realizes vaguely, mind foggy, that he has very blue eyes. "You alright? Sorry about Ace - he's a tad trigger-happy."

"Oi!"

"You're the one who tried to cut me into pieces," Luffy tries to joke, but it comes out accusing. He coughs, and gravel is thick in his throat. His whole body is aching.

"Well - you hurt Ace. And... I might be a little quick-to-act, too."

"A little?" Ace asks irritably. He's messing with Luffy's gun, flicking the safety on and off. "Talk about a lot. You're worse than me!"

"Whatever you say," the blonde shoots back airily. He turns back to Luffy. "Look - I'm Sabo. This is my… friend, Ace."

"I'm Luffy." He tries to stand but his ankle feels like paper, like the joints aren't lined up properly. Sabo catches him under the arms when he slips. "Look, give me the gun back-"

"Like hell!" Ace frowns.

"Lay off," Sabo shoots back. "Look - it's getting dark, and you can barely walk. We're headed north. Ignore Ace - how about you come with us? At least for now. It's my recklessness that you got you hurt."

"God, you're a sap," Ace mutters under his breath, but he doesn't look too upset about it.

"I…" Luffy hesitates.

If, miraculously, they're telling the truth, then it could be the stroke of luck that he needs to get to the lodge. But as careless a person as he is, a knife in the back in their car wouldn't be pleasant, either. Still…

"Sure." Luffy smiles and accepts Sabo's hand, and lets the older man support him into the jeep.

It's silent in the car and Ace keeps his eyes on the window, watching the dark fields flash by. The kid is in the back. Ace knows that he isn't asleep - he can feel his gaze on his back. Sabo is driving, doing his best to maneuver the faulty vehicle, and doesn't seem concerned about the stranger in the back of their car. It took a long time to get hold of this car and Ace hopes, inwardly, that Luffy doesn't do anything foolish. He would rather not get more blood on the seats than there already is.

He and Sabo have been lucky for the last few days - this is a barren area, and they've only run into a few of the infected. Southern Texas is hot, swelteringly so, dusty and choking, but at least they aren't dead. Getting the abandoned hunk of a jeep to start was a miracle in itself, as the thing seemed to be on its last legs. It's been a good few days for them, better than most. At least - until now. Until Luffy.

Hands taut on the wheel, Sabo is staring straight ahead. Ace stares at the moonlight framing his face and bites his lip and looks away, back towards the window. It's dark in the car - all the lights are shattered or dead - but Sabo's eyes still seem kind of bright, and Ace stares down at his hands, scratching at some grime on the kid's gun with his fingernail. He's determined not to stare, not to make this more complicated than it already is.

"I'm hungry," Luffy suddenly complains from the back. "Hey, Ass, do you have any food?"

"It's Ace!" Ace growls, while Sabo stifles a laugh. "And no, we don't - you're gonna have to wait until we stop for the night."

"Aw," whines Luffy. There's a distinct little rumble from the back. "My stomach is mad at me!"

How stupid can this kid be? Ace asks himself, but there's a little bit of fondness there, despite himself.

Sabo snickers and points out, "We're all hungry. You're gonna have to wait."

"Sabo's mean…"

"You get his name right!"

"Of course! It's easier to say!"

"How the hell is it easier to say?!"

Sabo keeps his eyes on the road, but it's obvious that he's holding back a laugh. "You're an interesting guy, Luffy."

"Thanks!" When Ace shoots a look behind him, he's met with a wide, sunny smile that makes it hard to hide his own. He turns away, trying and failing not to let his lips quirk up.

"I wouldn't take that as a compliment," he warns.

"It sounds like one," Luffy defends. Then, "You guys seem cool. Thanks for the lift!"

"Thanks for not shooting me earlier," Sabo responds dryly. "Seriously, it's okay. Anything we can do to help other survivors, we will."

"Speak for yourself," Ace mutters. "Not all of 'em are all that friendly, Bo."

"Yeah, well, it's worth a try," Sabo shoots back. "There aren't many of us left. We have to try to help one another."

"Sure…"

Luffy watches the conversation silently, then interjects, "I've got a group I need to reunite with - we got separated a few months back. We've been together since the beginning. We're gonna meet just outside of Austin."

"Austin? Ace and I are headed there." Sabo struggles around a sharp left turn - the roads are getting harder to maneuver. "You can join us, if you want."

"Why are you going to Austin?"

"We heard there's a stronghold there," Ace responds, "Heard another group talking about it in a shelter a few months back. We figured that we could settle there for a while, get our bearings, y'know?"

Luffy nods, grinning. "Well, it'd be awesome to come with you guys!"

"Then it's settled," Sabo decides.

There's still a little mistrust in Ace's chest. It was so quick, such a sudden decision to let the guy come along with them. Ace finds it hard to trust; he always has. The only person he's ever truly trusted is Sabo, even before the outbreak. Inviting the kid along could be their downfall, and they barely know him, but… something about it feels right, somehow. So Ace doesn't protest.

They end up talking about the past - about where Luffy came from, about how his group got separated, about his life before the outbreak. The kid is sixteen, so he was only six before it started, and he doesn't remember much. He tells Ace and Sabo, forlornly, that he only remembers his grandpa after the man had turned. Luffy was seven. Something in Ace's chest twinges at that, but he doesn't say anything.

The conversation lightens after that. It turns out that Luffy, like Ace, is originally from Brazil - Luffy whoops when he finds out and challenges Sabo, from Fenny-Bentley, in England, to a fight. All three of them moved to the states when they were kids, before the outbreak, and ended up with no way of getting out. Sabo laughs and says, "You're on."

"He'll tear you apart," Ace warns, laughing. "The only person who can beat him is me."

"Like hell you can! We're neck-and-neck, at the most."

"I'll beat both of you!" Luffy says confidently. Ace glances back again and sees that the kid has curled up on the seat, legs tucked up to his chest, and looks very small. He's young, only sixteen. Only a kid.

Suddenly, taking him in doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

They drive on. The engine of the jeep gives in just as morning light is showing. Ace is half-asleep, taking his turn to drive, and Sabo is passed out in the back. In the front seat, Luffy is yawning and rubbing his eyes, and looks like death warmed up. He jolts when the car stops, and he and Ace look at one another for a moment.

"We're walking," Ace decides, holding down a yawn. "C'mon, I'll wake Sabo. Do you think you can walk?"

"Of course I can!" Luffy opens the door as Ace reaches back to shake Sabo awake, and then promptly collapses the second he puts weight on his leg.

Sighing, Ace calls, "You alright?"

"I'm okay!" Responds Luffy's voice, from out of sight. "Nothing broken!"

By now, Sabo is stirring slightly, face scrunching up. His hair is sticking up everywhere and his eyes are bloodshot but Ace doesn't take much notice of that. When Sabo wakes, the pair stare at one another for a moment, half-obscured by the low light of morning.

"You alright?" Ace asks quietly.

The burn scars, fresh and deep red, stretch as Sabo yawns. "Yeah, 'm okay. Sorry for falling asleep - I should've stayed up-"

"It's okay." Ace grins playfully. "I'm holding you to it, by the way - we're totally sparring later."

"I'll win," Sabo warns.

"Bring it on!"

Outside, Luffy is sitting in the dust and staring at his swollen ankle with a frown, as if trying to will it to heal. "My leg is being stupid!" he whines.

"Come on, idiot," Ace says. "I'll carry ya. But only until we find shelter!"

Luffy whoops and it takes a little effort, but they eventually get him onto Ace's back. Wandering down the road, the trio don't speak too much - they all feel too tired for that. Ace glances at Sabo occasionally - he can't help it. The blonde is looking at the ground a lot, and picking at the loose threads of his cargo pants. He's carrying both his and Ace's packs and dragging his feet with fatigue. His arms are bare and Ace traces the scarring with his eyes, taking in the deep red trails that lace his skin, taking in the lean muscles that come from years and years of living like this.

Sabo and Ace have known one another for a very long time - since even before the outbreak. They were both the new kids where they lived and they bonded over it. At nine years old, both of them, they were teased relentlessly for being from far away and they stuck together like glue because of it. Ace taught Sabo about his home and Sabo found a refuge, a shoulder to cry on when his parents were particularly bad. It was only natural that when the world was suddenly coming to an end, they stuck together - they always had. The pair traveled with groups for a while, staying protected by people who really thought that they could rebuild. But by the time Sabo was celebrating his fifteenth, they'd both seen so much betrayal and sabotage that they traveled only with one another, not trusting anybody else.

Until now.

"Hey - check it out." Sabo guards his eyes against the morning sun and points out across the fields, towards what looks like a farmhouse. "Reckon it's empty?"

"Probably, 'cept for a few infected."

"Let's explore it!" Luffy beams. He tries to jump off of Ace's back and promptly crumples pathetically to the ground. "Ow…!"

"Moron," Ace mutters, letting the younger climb back on as if he's been doing this his whole life.

"We might as well try," Sabo reasons. "We all need a break."

It's decided. Sabo, Ace and Luffy trek through the tall grass together, swatting away tics. The farmhouse is small and wrecked, ransacked by survivors who must have come across it before them. There's only one of the infected in the house, a rotted hunk of flesh scrambling across the floor towards them with its hacked-up arms when they walk in. Sabo pushes its head into the ground and then stomps down, hard, hard enough to break through the rotted skull and crush the brain. Thick, congealed blood leaks onto his boot. The thing goes still.

Luffy winces. "Ouch."

"Glad you're not squeamish," Sabo responds, wiping a little blood off his boot. "Alright - let's search the house. And Luffy, for the love of god, stay put."

Sabo and Ace search the whole house, while Luffy hobbles around and falls over and knocks shit over. The walls are covered with grime, coated in layers of the stuff. After ten years, most evidence of the life of the family who used to live here are gone. There are a few pictures lined up along the mantelpiece. They're covered in limescale and cracks lace the glass, and the photos are faded but Ace can make out the faces of the people in them. An old man with a kippa and a kind smile. A girl with very red hair grinning at the camera. A blurry ultrasound picture of a baby. The lives of people who are most likely dead now, most likely wandering through empty cities as the infected.

Ace can't look at them for long - he has to glance away. Sabo can barely keep his eyes on them, too. It's harrowing, to look at snippets of the world before all this. People like Luffy are lucky - they grew into this. Their lives have always been hard, and they always will be. But Ace can remember a better time. He knows that somewhere, something good exists. Or, existed. And pictures like this, evidence of the dead, only make it seem worse.

(At some point, Ace's hand finds Sabo's as they look at the mantelpiece. It only lasts a moment but when he pulls his hand away, the palm burns like fire.)

Ace is too tired to cook anything, too exhausted to eat. With a yawn, he warns Luffy not to try anything, and troops upstairs to one of the bedrooms. He doesn't take time to observe the room and pointedly looks away from the photos on the not to take in how grimy the sheets smell, Ace collapses onto the covers and closes his eyes, and tries to let his mind come down from overdrive.

When Sabo joins him a little while later, slipping into a familiar position against him, Ace doesn't even have to think about it as he adjusts to the change, slipping an arm around the other, avoiding the areas that he knows are burnt the worst. It must be midday by now, and Ace has no doubt that he'll probably wake in the middle of the night but he doesn't care too much. All he wants is sleep.

"Night, Sabo."

"Goodnight, Ace," Sabo sighs in his familiar accent. They fall asleep as one.

Luffy wakes up in the middle of the night, panting hard, harsh red images flashing before his eyes in the dark. The couch is lumpy and hard beneath him. He does his best to slow his breathing and manages it eventually, teeth gritted. He finds himself pacing at some point, near the door to the main room, trying to work off the excess energy. His leg is close to giving out and it feels fragile and he uses a broken board of wood like a crutch. The house is dark and the sky outside the window is scattered with thousands of stars, and Luffy can taste them in the air, can feel the emptiness. The area is so still, so quiet. It's eerie.

When pacing in the small main room runs out of appeal, Luffy wanders upstairs, into the only bedroom in the house. Sabo and Ace are sleeping in the same room, packs in bed with them too, probably to ensure that Luffy doesn't steal them. It's dark but as Luffy stands in the doorway he can see their forms - blonde and black hair are splayed over the same sheets. The burns on Sabo's face are dark on his pale skin. Ace's arm is thrown over him and Luffy can't tell whose legs are whose.

Scratching his head, the teen limps back down the stairs and back to the couch he was sleeping on. It's only really now, in the silence and the stillness and the dark, that he realizes how much he misses them. Luffy and his group have been together since the beginning. He can't remember being away from them for this long, not since before the outbreak. He wonders what they're doing.

Zoro is probably asleep, Luffy decides. He is most of the time. And Sanji is probably cooking, or scavenging for food supplies, or nursing a black eye after getting punched by Nami. And Nami… she's probably punching Sanji. Robin is probably reading - she always manages to find books somewhere - and Franky and Usopp are probably trying to build some kind of cool gadget out of leftover parts. Chopper is probably with Zoro; maybe they're asleep together. The only one missing from their mix is Luffy.

He wonders if they miss him and decides after a minute that they do - they have to. Maybe they're already at the lodge, waiting for him.

"Please just wait a little longer," Luffy says out loud, flopping back onto the couch.

"What was that?"

Luffy jolts upwards and Sabo walks into the room, pushing his hands through his messy hair. "Ah, sorry, I was talking to myself," Luffy explains.

"Whatever you say." Sabo yawns. "I found some instant meals under the floorboards upstairs - come on, tonight we feast like kings."

"Yay!" Blues fading away, Luffy throws himself upwards, staggering on his injured leg. "Should we wake Ace?"

"No - let him sleep. It's been a tiring few days."

"Aren't you tired too, then?"

Sabo wrinkles his nose, opening the door to the kitchen. "Nah. I'm more used to missing sleep than that nerd. I'll be okay."

The kitchen is dark and so Sabo lights a candle, carefully using a match from a box in his pocket. Matches are rare nowadays, incredibly so, and valuable too. With no electricity, the world is run by the next tier of technology. He and Luffy sit down opposite one another at the kitchen table, candle burning between them, and Luffy nurses his throbbing ankle with his hand.

"Why are you more used to it?" he asks.

"A few months back, I got these-" Sabo points to the gruesome scars on his arms and face. "Hurt like a bitch. And I couldn't lie down, so I stayed awake for most nights for a long time. Soon Ace just couldn't keep up, so he'd sleep and I'd stay awake and keep watch."

"That sucks."

Luffy watches Sabo rip open a sachet of instant noodles, chin on the table. The twenty-year-old stands and moves to the sink, turning the tap - a glob of a brownish-black goop drops from the facet, making a wet sound as it hits the metal of the grimy sink. Sabo grimaces and covers his nose, stepping over the crushed zombie corpse that he killed only hours ago.

"How'd you get them?" Luffy asks. "The scars, I mean."

Sabo's shoulders stiffen for a moment, and he pauses. Then, he says, "There's some water in my pack upstairs, and some fuel tablets. Look around for some kind of travel stove. I'll grab the stuff."

The older man leaves the room, and Luffy watches the tight set of his shoulders as he walks away. Sighing, Luffy stands, supporting himself against the table. The conversation is decidedly over.

Sabo and Ace definitely have their fair share of secrets.

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