Chapter Text
There were many things in Sabo’s life that he wasn’t able to control. He’s learned to accept it, learned that his life was never truly his to control.
But, despite all of that, he’s longed for freedom.
He had freedom, for a small part of his life. Freedom in the form of three boys running in the forest, either chasing their next meal or being chased. He was free in the way the wind bit at his face, in the way his little brother would wrap his arms around him too many times for a regular human to ever be capable of, in the way bitter sake erupted over his tastebuds as they vowed to be brothers.
His freedom didn’t last long, and at times he wondered if it would have been better if he never learned what freedom ever was, but he never regretted meeting Ace and Luffy. He never regretted it, but once he got a small taste of freedom, he wanted nothing more than to live with that every day.
When he followed his father out of Gray Terminal, he had made a deal. Outlook would leave Ace and Luffy alone and in turn Sabo would be the heir he always wanted. Sabo had tried to break the deal and leave High Town a month later, but Outlook had sent guards out and tried to find Ace and Luffy, even threatened to call the Marines to deal with the ‘trash’.
He had a constant tab on his brothers, so Sabo was the best son he could be.
Sabo wasn’t very liked by his parents, it was his ‘adopted brother’ Stelly that had all the love. It wasn’t like Sabo cared; if his parents tried to pretend that they cared for him, he’d probably stab them with a fork.
The life of a noble disgusted him, nobles in general disgusted him. All he wanted was to be free to sail the seas and live the life he wanted. So when Ace set sail, Luffy disappearing completely from Outlook’s men, Sabo left. He had always planned on leaving when he was seventeen, so he wouldn’t be married off to some snooty noble, but he was leaving a few months ahead of schedule.
He was strong, stronger than anyone in High Town, and now that he was no longer a child, he could fight back. He gave as good as he got and then some. He left High Town with ease, disappearing into the forest he longed to explore again, and headed towards the Bandits.
“Sabo!” Luffy cried, smile wide and eyes glassy, as he launched himself at the older blond.
Sabo laughed as he caught his little brother, holding on and grinning into dark hair.
Oh how he missed this.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Sabo’s ship wasn’t exactly what he had first pictured it would be. Big enough for his relatively small crew, the Top-Hat pirates set sail to the Grand Line just days after getting the beauty they called home. Feathers, a ship with the most unthreatening name was the ship that Sabo called home with nakama he would protect.
At first, he didn’t have a bounty. He wanted to lay low until he made it into the Grand Line because he didn’t want his father on his trail until he knew that they’d be able to officially lose him – even if there was a possibility that Outlook didn’t even bother to find him this time around. Sabo doubted Outlook would just give up, though, given how much ‘time and effort’ he put into ‘raising’ Sabo.
Sabo got his first bounty after taking down several Marine Ships a few weeks into their journey, and he had to say he looked pretty badass. The picture the marines were somehow able to take when they were getting their asses handed to them with just a pipe was a close up to Sabo’s face, his blond curls framing his face and top hat shadowing his eyes, leaving nothing but a sharp smirk to be seen. It wasn’t like they needed to see his whole face to know who he was; the pipe and clothes were a dead giveaway.
When the crew made it to Water Seven, a new ship had been necessary after they fell from the island in the sky, and the Hundred’s Freedom became the new ship of the Top-Hat pirates. Sabo also met a very interesting man there, who seemed to be more than just a shipwright and probably a lot more dangerous than he tried to let on and was probably plotting someone’s death. Sabo gave one Rob Lucci his Den-Den number with a wink and flirty remark anyways.
(The startled blush on the other’s face had been beautiful.)
(Lucci called two weeks later, saying that he was totally just looking for a regular chat and Sabo seemed sane and smart enough. They both knew he was lying.)
It didn’t take them long to reach Sabaody, and it took even less for them to free slaves from an auction house and therefore get ten new members on the ship, and to get it coated. Sure, he might have been unconscious when they were forced to submerge earlier than schedule – the ship’s doctor Vess screaming at him while treating the burns that covered a majority of the left side of his body, but hey, he wasn’t complaining.
Sabo was happy. He was free. It was amazing either way.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Ace blinked the sleep from his eyes as he handed over the belli the News Coo demanded, glowering at the bird as he snatched the paper from its talons. It was the third time that month that the price went up; he really needed to change his subscription, he didn’t have all that much money since half of his earnings went to the food since he ate for about twenty people on a good day.
He shuffled through the news, and on the second page, something caught his eye. His jaw dropped, sleepiness forgotten, and a large grin split his lips.
“Pops! Pops!” Ace turned on his heel, rushing to the other side of the boat, cheeks hurting from grinning a smile he hasn’t since before Sabo was taken from them. It was wide, stretching his cheeks more than possible, and his eyes were glassy.
He remembered the day that Sabo walked away with his head held down and hands shaking, giving up his freedom so Ace and Luffy would live. Ace wasn’t stupid, he knew why Sabo stayed away. He had tried to get Sabo back when he was sure everything died down, only for the guards to sneer in his face saying, throwing him out of High Town. He hadn’t been quiet when he spoke to his partner about Outlook keeping an eye on their location at all times.
It took him a few weeks to understand the severity of the situation; that Sabo stayed willingly because Luffy and Ace were threatened.
But now, this made the weight on his chest ease slightly, and he hurried over to his father.
“Ace, if something wrong?” Marco asked, eyes squinted.
“Pops, look!” Ace bounded up Whitebeard’s lap, shoving the new wanted poster in his face. “Look, that’s Sabo! That’s my Sabo!” He said cheerfully, “He’s worth a hundred million, and it’s his first bounty too!”
Whitebeard laughed at him, “I can’t see the bounty, son.”
“Oh,” Ace moved back slightly, smile still bright, and allowed his father to take the bounty from his hands. “It says he destroyed five marine ships and escaped from one of their supposedly unescapable prisons. Oh, and he beat up a Warlord, the new guy, uh, the snake guy.”
“And he’s a rookie?” Thatch peered at the bounty curiously, “He looks young.”
“He’s younger than me, seventeen,” Ace said, pride in his voice as he puffed his chest up.
“How do you even know him, yoi?” Marco asked, face indifferent as usual. Thatch snickered behind his hand for some reason.
“We grew up together,” Ace took the bounty back, committing the face looking back at him to memory. He hadn’t seen Sabo in so long, and he couldn’t even see his whole face in the bounty, but it was enough for now. Knowing that he was finally setting sail and free was enough. “He’s my brother!” Ace said cheerfully, pushing down the guilt he always had when he called Sabo as such.
He left his brother to suffer for years, and Sabo had stayed to protect them. Ace blamed himself for not being strong enough.
“Gurararara! He looks like a cheeky brat!” Whitebeard said, grinning.
Ace nodded happily, though he didn’t know if Sabo was still the sarcastic Sabo he remembered. It wouldn’t matter either way, though, because he was Sabo.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“He destroyed a auction house, Pops!” Ace yelled as he rushed into the commander meeting, just a few minutes late.
The new bounty Sabo was rocking even had a different picture, flames dancing around the former noble, clothes on fire, pipe raised and covering the left side of his face, but the smirk on his lips and the amusement in his visible eye told Ace that his brother was fine.
“He’s worth five hundred now!” Ace gushed, presenting the bounty proudly. “I’m worth five hundred too! Look at how awesome my baby brother is! I got a few dozen copies, who wants one!?”
Pops just laughed as the other commanders groaned in unison.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“Yo, Red-Hair Shanks, right?” Sabo asked nonchalantly, grinning cheekily at the Yonko in front of him.
“Ah, the newest upstart.” Shanks’ demeanor was seemingly relaxed but the way he pulled his sword into view from behind his coat said otherwise. “Think you’re tough enough?”
“I wouldn’t fight you even if I thought I was.” Sabo removed his top-hat, dipping his head, mocking the nobles usually gave him a sadistic pleasure seeing as they thought they were better than everyone only for him to be a pirate. Scum in their eyes. “I came to thank you, actually.”
Shanks raised an eyebrow, sharing a look with his first mate, Benn Beckman. “What for?”
Sabo sat without prompt, his crew shuffling nervously behind him with all the swords and guns pointed at them. “My little brother has your straw hat, wouldn’t shut up about you, honestly.”
Shanks blinked in surprise, a grin forming on his lips, “Luffy never told me he had two brothers! Beeeennn, Anchor didn’t tell me he had a brother, let alone two!”
“Oh, we aren’t related by blood,” Sabo cut in, “We became brothers after you saved his life, which is the reason why I’m here to thank you. Even if his rants were a bit annoying, Ace and I are very grateful to you.” He bowed his head once more.
“Ah, none of that,” Shanks’ eyes gleamed, “Wanna share stories?”
“Do I ever.” Sabo snickered.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“C’mon, Indigo, loosen up.” Sabo draped an arm over his first mate, his other hand busy shoving a tankard of beer into the woman’s hands.
She was the oldest of the crew, thirty-two, and always acted like the mother. She made them bath more than pirates normally did, keep their hygiene up, made sure they had check ups from their doctor, Vess, every week, and don’t even get Sabo started on how she usually handled the days at sea; eyes like a hawk as she looked out for anyone who could try to approach.
The woman with dark brown hair sniffed at him, “And, Captain, who will cover for your drunk asses?”
“We’re fine here,” Sabo reasoned, and they were. The island they were on was uninhabited, not counting the beasts that were in the forest that kept away because of Sabo. It’s not like anyone would stumble up to them where they were, and it was about damn time the Fist Mate relaxed.
Indigo’s lips curled into a smile, huffing and grumbling as she took the tankard, but Sabo knew better. She wasn’t necessarily a stick in the mud, but a lightweight. One tankard of alcohol usually had her slurring her words and tripping over air, and because she had a reputation in the crew, she didn’t drink often.
Sabo remembered choking on sake when it was just the two of them and his first mate spent the night ranting about her cheating husband and about how she was happy to be a pirate and then proceeded to fall off the boat the first time they decided to drink together.
“Oi, Cap’n,” A-J, one of the newest recruits, called from across the fire.
He had been on Sabaody, chained and being sold to a noble when Sabo fell through the roof and knocked the auctioneer out. After the kid – he was only fifteen then, Seas, Sabo had no idea why people were so cruel – begged for Sabo to save him, Sabo did. He got some gnarly scars because of it, but Sabo didn’t regret saving them.
(Sure, maybe he wasn’t all that indifferent to fire anymore, and maybe the flickering of flames made the burns on his body flare, but he quite liked his new look. He was still hot as hell if he went on what the Navigator, Bindi a fish-woman, told him, all puns intended.)
“What’s up?” Sabo asked, smiling as he snagged a leg of boar off one of his nakama’s plate. He was brave to sit so close when they all knew well that he ate more than all of them combined.
“’ave you heard of Fire Fist Ace?” A-J asked him curiously. He was the type to sit and read the newspaper and then tell the crew all about what he found interesting or what he felt they needed to know even if most of them read the daily paper.
Sabo paused, “Ace? Portgas D. Ace?”
A-J nodded, smiling that creepy smile he did when he found something really interesting. “I read that the Whitebeard Pirates were close in the area, and Fire-Fist took down a rookie ship with one attack. So we gots to be careful, ‘kay?”
“Yeah,” Sabo beamed, “So, how close is the Whitebeard Pirates?”
“Mhm, no,” Indigo glared at him, face flushed, “I know that look. We’re not challenging the Whitebeards.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sabo said, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. “Oi, Vess, what d’you think?”
“Screw it, if you get hurt again, I’m going to make your treatment painful.” The doctor grinned, jutting his chest out while batting his lashes.
“See, he agrees.” Sabo smirked, “Besides, I want to fight Fire-Fist, not Whitebeard.
“You are hopeless, Cap,” Falan, the swordsmen of the crew, grinned.
“Aren’t we all?” Sabo laughed, “Let’s party!”
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“Ship Incoming!” the yell startled everyone into action. The main fighters stood from their easy positions, guns loaded, swords pulled from scabbards, and the captain nowhere to be seen.
“Where is Sabo?” Indigo asked, a frown on her black-painted lips.
“He’s talking to that Shipwright.” Falan answered, “Where’s the ship at anyways?”
“Just talking?” A-J asked, grin lewd and voice teasing.
“Oh Seas, please don’t.” the chef, Tal, grumbled. “I heard enough for the rest of my life that last time that guy called.”
“The ship’s over there.” Bindi said, pointing in the direction and throwing a scope over to the First Mate. It was tiny, not anything that was relatively threatening, but the ship behind it made Indigo’s throat dry.
“We gotta get out of here, we can’t fight.” The woman said, “That’s the Moby Dick! Bindi, get us the fuck outta here!”
The door to the captain’s room opened, Sabo looking a bit flushed and hat not on his head. He was usually put together, cravat around his neck and tailcoat fluttering behind his knees, but right now he was relaxed. They all were relaxed, not expecting to find anyone like the Whitebeard Pirates nearby. Sabo turned to the snail in his hand, grinning and winking.
“Oi, I got to deal with this, call you later babe.” He said, nonchalant and maybe a bit teasing like they weren’t getting closer to their inevitable doom.
He hung up when Lucci started to reply (yelling at Sabo for being an idiot and telling him to get out of there, thank goodness their Captain’s boyfriend was relatively sane unlike their captain.) and turned back to his room. He emerged a moment later with his top hat atop blond curls, tailcoat over his shoulders and cravat in the process of being attached.
“This is so cool.” Sabo beamed at them, jumping over the railing the separated those on the top floor from falling over during storms, and walked over to them. He twirled his pipe a few times, and by the time he walked over to the tense crew, Fire-Fire Ace was already in front of them.
He was shirtless, hand flowing in the wind and a hat shadowing his eyes, a smirk on his lips.
“We’re dead.” Bindi whined, hands tugging at blond locks, “We’re so dead! Captain, why are you so insane!?”
Sabo just laughed, “Nice tattoo, Acey!”
Fire-Fist Ace flushed in the face, barking a “Oi!” at the snickering captain, and the Top-Hat crew accepted the fact that they were so dead.
“Shut up, Sabo!” Ace jumped up, balancing himself on the railing, “You still haven’t gotten a better style yet? Lame.”
“At least I’m not walking around shirtless,” Sabo laughed back, and then the next thing they knew, the two of them were hugging.
“Uh, do you see that too?” Vess asked, med kit in hand as everyone thought they’d need it, if they lived.
A-J laughed loudly, and everyone shared looks.
“Oi, shitty Captain!” Falan barked, “What the hell?!”
“Oh, this is Ace,” Sabo said, pulling the shirtless pirate upright and holding him by his shoulder.
“WE KNOW!” Everyone yelled.
“What is going on?” Indigo asked instead, “How do you know him?”
“Ace’s my brother.” Sabo beamed.
“Oi, Sabs, what’s with your face?” Ace asked, touching the burn over Sabo’s left eye.
A-J perked up, he loved telling the tale, seeing as he was the one that Sabo saved from a fire-covered support beam. He saw Sabo as the coolest person to ever live and practically idolized the man. Before he could start, there was a yell from the Moby Dick, which had approached them quicker than expected.
“OI, Ace!” Thatch yelled, waving a hand, “You ran away! No fair, we want to meet this little brother of yours!”
“Little?” Sabo squinted at Ace.
“Yeah, I’m older,” Fire-Fist said.
“Says who?”
“Says logic.”
“Ace, does that mean your baby brother saved your ass?”
“…”
Sabo smirked, wiggling his eyebrows, and Ace tilted his head back in a proud manner.
“Yeah, my little brother saved us.” He said simply, “But it’s not going to happen again, damnit!”
“Fufufufu, whatever you say~”
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Marco knew that look. Pops only got that look when he wanted to adopt/kidnap himself a new son, and Marco couldn’t really find himself disagreeing with his choice. The Top-Hat pirates were a rowdy bunch, all of them different in many ways.
The First Mate was obviously a mother-hen and didn’t trust anyone. She kept her black and oak colored staff – which Marco noticed turned into a sword from how she pointed it at him when he landed onto their ship without warning – in her hands, golden eyes wary. Then there was the doctor, who they learned the hard way was stronger than his appearance would tell.
When one of Marco’s brothers cat-called the man, he had delivered a strong right-hook at his nose and said “I am a man, don’t forget it.” Sabo had laughed cheerfully, wrapping an arm around the doctor, and said, rather loudly, “You’re one hot guy, at least.”
Vess had suffocated the captain in his breasts in turn, snickering when the man cried mercy, the word muffled by flesh.
“Oi, don’t do that to Cap’n!” A-J was perhaps the oddest of the bunch, Marco would say.
A-J obviously looked up to Sabo and perked up like a happy puppy whenever Sabo trusted him with something. He laughed randomly, smiled creepily, and asked the most disturbing questions Marco had ever been asked – which made him a little off-putting. But when he started to tell the story of how he and Sabo met, it was clear that the kid wasn’t all that bad – especially with how he started to sob and declare he’d kick Sabo’s ass one day to repay him.
(Ace had looked at the kid with a proud smile for some reason, and Sabo had teared up about how he couldn’t wait. Marco would assume that was some family thing between the two brothers that he didn’t know and frankly didn’t know if he wanted to know.)
“Oi, Oi!” Falan waved his tankard around, “Sabo, why didn’t you tell us you have connections!” the way he said it made it seem dirty, and Marco couldn’t even say why.
“I thought you all knew Lucci was part of CP-9?” Sabo asked, tilting his head.
“I was talking about Ace – w-wait! What do you mean Lucci is a part of CP-9!?”
Everyone stopped, looking at the Captain of the Top-Hot pirates in surprise. CP-9 wasn’t the strongest CP unit, but they were still strong and very deadly. To have connections in one of the CP units was unheard of – for a pirate, at least.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN LUCCI IS A CP OFFICER!?” the Top-Hats cried. A-J burst into laugher at the end, shock on his face.
“Oh, you didn’t know, then.” Sabo sipped at his sake nonchalantly, “He’s the leader of CP-9, though, not just an officer.”
“NO WAY!?”
“Oh my Seas, Captain is banging a assassin!” Bindi yelled.
“Oi, we don’t bang–” Sabo looked offended.
“Captain,” Indigo cut in, grip on the teen’s shoulder tight, “When were you going to tell us that shipwright was actually a assassin?”
“Uh, I thought you knew?” Sabo asked tentatively.
“Sabo.” The woman smile was sharp, “We obviously didn’t know.”
“He didn’t seem like one,” A-J said curiously.
“Yeah, he helped us pick what type of ship we wanted.” Tal said, taking it better than most of the crew.
“He put a tracker in the dining room.” Sabo deadpanned.
“I mean, he has a nice smile.” Vess winced, “And – and he was really kind.”
“He literally had ‘I’m going to kill someone’ energy,” Sabo dryly said, “I’m pretty sure he is planning on killing someone, though.”
“Why the hell did you give him your Den-Den Mushi number if you knew this?” Indigo snarked the captain.
“I flipped a coin, said fuck it.” Sabo shrugged.
“Captain, this isn’t helping your case.” Bindi said slowly, “Everyone knew you had a few screws lose, but wow.”
“He’s so hot though,” Sabo whined.
Ace jumped up, shaking his head quickly, “No, nope! Sabo, I forbid it! Nope, you are not fucking a CP officer!” he wrapped the blond in his arms, “What’s his name, big brother will get rid of him for you!”
“We don’t fuck,” Sabo said dryly.
“Captain, we hear you.” Falan said dryly, “If you don’t fuck, are you trying to kill each other?”
“What we do is a lot more passionate than fucking, thank you.” Sabo flicked a strand of hair from his eyes, sipping at his tankard of beer.
“Captain, we literally heard you screaming the last time you met up with him.” the shipwright, a cheetah Mink named Zene, said dryly. “You know the walls aren’t all that thick.”
Sabo went to open his mouth, but Ace yelled about his precious brother being targeted by CP-9.
“He’s my spy, I’m not being targeted.” Sabo said thoughtfully, “He’s technically part of the crew, I honestly thought you all knew.”
And there was the love-sick grin that the crew hated.
“NO WAY CAPTAIN, YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”
“Sabo, what if he’s trying to murder you!”
“At least I’d be killed by a fine piece of–”
“Sabo!”
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“Pops, Ace!” Sabo yelled, burst through the door. He wasn’t technically supposed to go into the room with the commanders meeting as they were discussing whether or not they should make a new division with him, of all people, leading it, but it was important.
“What is it, son?” Whitebeard looked alarmed, knowing full well that it had to be important for Sabo to interrupt the meeting.
Sabo skidded to a stop, breathing heavily, and then he perked up with a bright grin, holding a wanted poster in the old man’s face. “Look, look! This is my little brother! Look! His bounty is higher than Ace’s first one was!”
“What!?” Ace squished himself next to Whitebeard, eyes wide in wonder as he snatched the poster. “Pops! Pops, look at his bounty! And he looks so happy!”
“Oh no,” Marco sighed, there was so going to be a replay of the last time a new bounty for a little brother popped up.
“What did he do?!” Ace asked excitedly.
“He took down Buggy, Don, and the Arlong Pirates!” Sabo gushed, “Our little brother is so strong!”
“How many copies did you get!?” Ace demanded, hugging the wanted poster.
“All of them, obviously!”
“Obviously,” Marco sighed, stacking the paperwork in front of him. Judging by Whitebeard’s amused and curious gaze, the meeting was over. “Okay, everyone, we’ll finish this next week.”
Two hours later, the captain and the two brothers emerged from the meeting room. The next morning, the entire dining hall was covered in Monkey D. Luffy’s wanted poster.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“Oi, look what I found!” Thatch said cheerfully, dramatically showing the Devil Fruit in his hands to the people on the deck.
“Oh, cool!” A-J cheered; eyes wide as he took the fruit in. “What does it do?”
“I don’t know!” Thatch grinned, “You figure it out when you eat it, though.”
“You should eat it,” Indigo said, gaze intense with a dry twist to her lips.
“You’re just upset your fruit is weird.” Sabo jabbed at his former first mate.
“Shut it, Commander,” Indigo jabbed him back, “My fruit is cool enough.”
“I didn’t know you ate a devil fruit.” Thatch said curiously.
“Yeah, what does it do?” Ace asked.
Indigo lifted a hand, and bubbles left her palm with a ‘pop’. Everyone looked at it intently, waiting for something to happen, before Ace broke the silence with a loud laugh.
“That’s even worse than rubber!” He chortled.
Indigo reached out, touching his shoulder, and the next thing he knew, he was stuck in a bubble. The woman’s painted lips turned up in a smug grin.
“It’s not all bad.” She said, “Works well for prisoners and breathing under water.”
“Fufufu,” Sabo poked at the bubble as his brother tried to break through it, “That’s why people try not to anger her.”
“Shut up Sabo!” Ace yelled from inside the bubble.
“Anyways,” Sabo pulled the knife from under his tailcoat, “Are you going to eat it, Thatch?”
“Hm, I’m not sure yet.” Thatch said, watching as Sabo thrust his knife down into the top of the bubble, watching as it popped with a loud noise.
“Well, those are worth a ton,” Indigo said, “You could always just sell it.”
“Yeah,” Thatch nodded, “I’ll just sleep on it, I guess!”
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“Oi, Thatch,” Sabo knocked on the Commander’s door, fighting down a yawn. He was hungry but he knew better than to just go make himself something, especially after Tal and Thatch placed locks on the fridge, high-fiving one another while lecturing him and Ace.
Thatch usually answered on the first knock, but there was nothing. Sabo could sense two people in the room, and normally he’d turn around when someone was obviously busy but his hairs stood on end and he had a really bad feeling.
Sabo opened the door, hand already grasping his pipe. Teach stood with a knife in his hand, the blade mere centimeters away from Thatch’s throat and his other hand trying to grab the Devil Fruit Thatch had on the desk. Sabo didn’t think, rushing over to the man and throwing him off of Thatch, Haki coating his pipe as he knocked the knife from Teach’s hands.
Teach shoved past him, rushing for the Devil Fruit, and Sabo grabbed it in turn. The fight for trying to grab the fruit ended when Teach tried to trip Sabo, the blond falling onto the fruit and taking a large chunk of the swirly fruit.
It was silent in the room, before Teach exploded, anger evident in his movements as he reached for his knife and moved to stab Sabo. Thatch’s blades were quicker and Teach fell with a thump.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
“I can’t believe I ate a devil fruit.” Sabo said glumly, pouting into the table. “Sorry about that, Thatch.”
“Nah, I wasn’t going to eat it anyways.” Thatch said, still shaken from his own brother trying to kill him, “Besides, you saved my life, it’s fine.”
Sabo sulked, “I never wanted to eat a Devil Fruit, I like swimming.” His finger drew circles in the table.
Indigo rubbed his back in comfort. “It’s okay, Bindi will be happy to fetch you from the water.”
Sabo whined.