Guess who's somehow not dead?

I. Somehow, Miraculously. Managed to churn out a chapter. Adoption is still fairly likely, but fuck man I got something! That's better than I've done in months.

Thank you so so so so so much to all the people who reviewed this and stuck around, and thank you in particular to ChiakiAngel, who had the incredible luck and timing to send a review at exactly the right time to coincide with my motivation to Do Shit.

Which uh. Usually happens in the middle of the night. It's like two o'clock in th' morning and I saw the review at twelve.

But it got all of you something so YAAAAAAAAAY!

And now, we return to our very dusty barely-revived irregularly scheduled viewing of For Love of A Brother.

Which has not been remotely beta'd. So like. Grammar/spelling corrections and janky phrasing notes are appreciated. I wrote this at midnight.

Koala was shaking.

She wasn't sure how visible it was, but she, at least, felt herself shaking as Fisher Tiger - her savior, her father-figure, her inspiration - turned around.

His expression was vaguely annoyed; there was no instant recognition. A part of her had thought there would be, and the lack of it sent a pang through her gut. "What?" Tiger said, his tone the same as his face; vaguely annoyed, and with a sharp, almost wary edge.

Koala swallowed hard. She was shaking harder. He didn't recognize her after all, didn't know her didn't know her didn't know her - but - "Tiger-san? Do - do you remember me?"

Tiger blinked, the annoyance in his face shifting closer to confusion as he looked carefully at her. "I don't think I…" he paused, the light of realization flickering in his eyes. "Wait...it couldn't be Koala?"

Koala felt her face light up, her heart swelling with joy. He did know her! "Yes! Yes, it's me!"

Tiger laughed, loud and strong. It lifted Koala's spirits even higher - she remembered her time with the Sun Pirates, the first time in years it had felt like she'd had family, surrounded by the warmth and laughter of the fishman, and Tiger laughing so loud she could feel it in her bones - "You've gotten big, haven't you?" He said.

She laughed with him, the memories making her laugh louder and her heart lighter. "I guess so!" Remembered the promise she'd given him so long ago. "Tiger-san - I told the - I told them about you. I told them how good you were!" They hadn't all listened, but she'd told them anyways, and when they still wouldn't listen to her, "I joined the Revolutionary Army, Tiger-san, I'm working, working to make a better world-"

There was a strange look in Tiger's eyes. Koala forced herself to bring her rambling to a stop, and waited for him to speak.

She…wanted him to be proud. More than anything. Sabo still burned at the back of her mind, a constant simmer of this is why I am here, do not forget, but oh, she'd missed her first found family so much, and Sabo had waited nearly two weeks, he could wait for them a little bit longer.

Tiger smiled at her, gently. "I'm glad, kid," he told her, "it sounds like you've found your own way to bring our two species together."

She laughed again, relief and pride and joy pooling together inside of her before rising like a bubble. It suddenly occurred to her that Ace was still waiting behind her.

She turned to see him smiling at them. The familiar twinge of pain at the incongruity of Sabo's face with Ace inside shot through her heart, but she brushed it off. Koala reached back and took Ace's hand, pulling him forwards. He stumbled slightly as he moved, surprised.

"Tiger-san," Koala said, turning back to him with a beam, "this is Ace, my brother." (Her heart sang again - her second found family, meeting her first, it felt right) "He's not, um, quite himself at the moment. We're here to find someone."

Ace and Tiger gave each other the well-practiced pirate gaze of sizing someone up before Ace bowed to Tiger. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, grinning, "Thanks for takin' care of my sister."

Tiger grinned, all sharp teeth, but Koala felt comforted by the old, still familiar sight. "Brother, huh? Has she grown out of her old habits yet?"

"Tiger-san!" Koala yelped. The answer was 'yes, mostly,' but Ace didn't need to know about her old compulsive cleaning issues. Tiger held up his hands.

"Alright, never mind. I'm sure she's done fine."

"She has," Ace answered, grinning at Koala. She grinned back at him.

"I'm glad t'see you again, kid," Tiger said after a pause, smiling again at Koala.

She smiled back, happiness thrumming in her chest. "You, too."

Ace shuffled his feet and tried not to look impatient. At least, Koala assumed he was trying, because he was failing pretty badly. "Sorry, Tiger-san," she said, taking pity on him, "we should go. It was so, so good to see you again."

He grinned, sharp teeth on display once more. "It was good to see you too. I'll see you around, kid."

Koala wavered - right, he'd have to think she was dead. She wanted to correct him, to reassure him, to explain why she wouldn't be around, but…she wasn't sure if she could find the words.

"Probably not," Ace said for her, and she nearly punched him for lack of tact. "We're not staying around long, gonna leave once we find our brother."

Tiger paused. "Oh, I see. One of those situations. Well, I'm heading back out myself before the day's end. Glad I could catch you."

Koala and Ace exchanged startled glances. 'One of those…?' But the gate guard had said there weren't heroes, so...whatever Tiger was talking about must be different from what Ace had meant.

Koala decided that, with only three hours of sleep, she didn't have the energy to figure out what it was, and instead devoted her mental energy to thanking all the gods she knew of for letting her meet Tiger in a nearly-impossible stroke of luck.

...Suddenly, she understood what Ace had meant by 'Luffy Senses.'

"Goodbye, Tiger-san," she smiled, and waved as Ace gave a little sigh of relief and started to walk off.

They went their separate ways.

"...We're not going back into the hotel?" Koala asked after a pause, "I could use more sleep."

Ace jerked. "Oh, right, yeah," he said, and did a one-eighty back towards the hotel plaza, "sleep would probably be good."

Koala laughed. "Good thing you aren't narcoleptic right now, huh?"

Ace's responding laugh was awkward and stilted, and Koala quietly cursed herself for trying to make light of the situation. "Probably."

She reached out after a moment, and patted him on the arm.

And then someone tackled Ace out of completely nowhere, and Koala's returning drowsiness vanished in a flood of adrenaline.

Thatch had seen some shit in his afterlife.

Course, he'd seen a bunch of shit in his life-life, but being dead just made everything so much more surreal, y'know? At least at first.

Like, c'mon. Some-odd months ago he'd been stabbed in the back and found himself at the city arches, and they'd set him up with a job as a cook, and that job had led to befriending a bunch of odd characters at his job, coworkers and customers alike.

This included-but-was-not-limited-to the guy who regularly flirted with him, the one-handed cook who could serve up dishes better than his as long as she had backup, the prince who decided he'd rather join up with a pirate crew to cook, the weird guy who kept lighting himself on fire by accident, and the Pirate King.

That one had been kind of a shock. It didn't help that Thatch had met him because the King's wife had punted him through a wall. She'd apologized and said she'd pay for it, then dragged him out by his ear, the man whining the whole time. Ace's mom had definitely passed on her fight.

Thatch's job was pretty great.

Even better - well. Not better for the living, but fantastic for him - Pops had finally kicked it. Management had gone around and told all of Pop's children that Whitebeard had arrived (at least they were good for something). Thatch was sad for the brothers and sisters his father had left behind; but on the other hand, it was Pops. Thatch could never say he was sad that his father was back with him.

Plus, Pops showing up meant the Whitebeard pirates of Sailor's Refuge were going to throw a party for a week straight, minimum.

Or...they'd been prepared to (party, and get the whole 'war' story figured out), when someone had asked where Ace was, and the barely-budding party had crashed to a screeching halt. Not only was Ace (their dear, adorable freckle-faced little brother) apparently dead, he was apparently missing. Management should have gotten him to Pops and the party otherwise - someone had gone in and taken it up with them, but they were still stubbornly insisting there was no Portgas D. Ace in the Afterworld.

That gave Thatch hope, but the eyewitnesses were entirely and totally certain that Ace had died in that war, and the eyewitnesses included Pops. So they started searching themselves, on foot. So far, it had been close to two weeks, with no luck.

Luck came to Thatch as he caught a flash of orange from the corner of his eye. The orange of Ace's hat. He spun on his heel, heart beating double-time as hope curled in his gut.

Hope curled, rose - and died, because those were Ace's beads, Ace's hat, Ace's knife, worn by someone with blond hair and a scarred face and too-nice clothes.

Not Ace. Definitely not Ace. But carrying his things. Wearing them like he owned them. Like...

'Like trophies.'

Thatch saw red, and charged him.

I'm going to bed now good night

Edit: Read over the chapter and made corrections now that it's not the middle of the night. Still unbeta'd.