Chapter Text
To say Sabo was surprised would be a severe understatement as he watched Trafalgar Law and Luffy interact after all was said and done in Dressrosa.
At first, it was little things that barely made him raise an eyebrow—Law checking on Luffy’s injuries by hand when he just scanned everyone else with his power. Luffy rolling over on the bed to drape himself over Law’s shoulders where the surgeon was sitting next to him on the floor. Eye contact that lasted a little bit too long…
Things that could be explained by doctor’s care for the most severely injured person around, Luffy’s naturally touchy-feely personality, an understanding between two allied captains who had faced death together.
But then, it got positively weird.
Sabo may have lost his memory and he may have missed good twelve years of Luffy’s life, but he did know one thing.
Luffy did not share.
And he most certainly didn’t share food.
And yet, here Sabo was, standing in the doorway of Kyros’ tiny house and staring with an open mouth at the scene before him—at Luffy ripping off a part of his meat to drop it on Law’s plate, no one else even pausing as if this was normal.
Looking around in desperation for someone who would share his bewilderment, Sabo only found Robin, who was looking at him with an undeniably amused look on her face. Upon seeing the twisted expression he was undoubtedly making, the woman giggled quietly before she excused herself from the table where the rest of her crew, the two samurai, and Kyros were eating, walking over to stand next to him.
“They’re quite cute together, aren’t they?” she asked with badly suppressed amusement in her voice.
“What am I even looking at? Who is that and what did they do to my brother?” Sabo could only ask in return, gesturing vaguely in Luffy’s general direction.
At that, Robin laughed. “It surprised me too. But it seems Luffy is just following his instincts as usual.”
“And him?” Sabo’s voice broke just a little bit as he pointed a shaky finger at Law.
“I didn’t think you were blind, Sabo,” Robin teased.
Sabo sighed deeply, rubbing at his face for a lack of things to do with himself. Because he wasn’t blind. He saw the soft expression on Law’s face, saw the look in his eyes, and he saw his damned hand on Luffy’s knee.
Seriously, what the hell was going on? Before today, Sabo would have sooner expected to find out Luffy was the reincarnation of some god than… this.
“He’s going to corrupt him…” Sabo groaned, his voice muffled from where he still had his face buried in his hands, making Robin giggle once more.
“You’re underestimating him.”
“No, Robin. I know exactly what I’m talking about,” Sabo hissed.
“Sabo! Robin! What are you guys doing over there?” Luffy called, waving a hand that was still holding a meat bone. “Come join us before the food is gone!”
“And whose fault will that be?” Sabo asked no one in particular but he still sighed before taking a step forward. He forced a smile on his face as he approached the table where everyone was busy stuffing their faces, and pulled out the chair next to Law.
Automatically, he grabbed the plate Kin’emon had handed to him and started putting as much food on it as he could before Luffy got to it. He wasn’t sure why he did so; he wasn’t even planning on eating since he already had breakfast with Koala… but he supposed even after ten years of amnesia, some survival instincts simply didn't disappear.
It was actually kind of funny, now that he thought about it.
But that wasn’t important right now.
“Why are you staring at me?” Trafalgar Law finally asked with a sigh, shooting Sabo a look.
The revolutionary didn’t say anything for a moment longer, as he studied the annoyed scowl on Law’s face as well as the way his shoulders tensed when he subconsciously shifted so that he was partly shielding Luffy.
How pointless, Sabo thought.
“So…” he started slowly. “You and Luffy, huh?”
Law’s eyes narrowed the slightest bit, his guard going up even more. “What about it?”
“Yeah, Sabo! What about me and Torao?” Luffy called curiously as his head popped up above Law, just a split second before he dropped his entire weight over his… boyfriend’s back.
Law’s loud, angry protests went largely ignored while Luffy tilted his head to the side, peering at Sabo questioningly, and Sabo…
Sabo could only wince guiltily at the sight.
Turning his gaze back to Law—the man who was now sitting bent over in an awkward angle with his hat nearly falling off his head, gritting his teeth as he fought against the raw, stubborn force of nature that Luffy was—and Sabo took a deep breath.
“Trafalgar Law. About you two…” Sabo paused, his eyes darting up to take in Luffy’s oh-so-innocent face, before he looked back at Law with a crooked smile on his lips. “Good fucking luck.”
Stunned silence settled over the room for a moment as everyone simply stared at Sabo until Robin apparently couldn’t hold her snicker in anymore and the spell broke.
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Luffy asked loudly, leaning over Law even further.
“You know exactly what it means, Luffy! You’re a goddamned menace!” Sabo shot back while poking Luffy in the middle of his forehead. “And get off the poor man or you’re going to break him in half.”
“Torao~” Luffy whined, his arms closing dangerously around Law’s neck as he hugged him closer from behind. “My own brother is bullying me!”
“He’s just stating the truth. You are a goddamned menace,” Law retorted, shoving Luffy’s face away from himself in a half-hearted attempt to get him off of himself.
“Now you’re bullying me too?!” Luffy cried, offended. He did finally let Law go, however, returning to his own chair only to cross his arms over his chest with a large pout on his lips.
Sabo couldn’t help his laughter at the sight, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by everyone present in the room—except for Luffy, who just grumbled to himself about how everyone was bullying him now, these jerks. That only made everyone else laugh harder.
And watching Law chuckle before he reached out to ruffle Luffy’s hair, a soft smile on his lips as he leaned over to press a kiss into Luffy’s hair—and seeing how Luffy melted against him even though the pout stayed as he kept sulking—made Sabo feel very grateful to be alive, and to remember his life. Because, as confusing as this whole ordeal was—after all, neither him nor Ace would have ever been able to imagine Luffy in a romantic relationship up until this very moment—seeing his brother happy was the best thing he could have asked for.
“Torao, you’re not going to finish the bread, are you?” Luffy asked before, without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Law’s entire plate for himself.
Sabo shook his head, barely sparing a thought to wonder why Law thanked him. Instead, Sabo stood up and took his own untouched plate and placed it in front of the bottomless pit he called his baby brother. “Here, you can have mine, too.”
“You’e not hoin’ to eat?” Luffy asked around the food in his mouth, making Law wince in disgust.
Not for the first time in the past fifteen minutes, Sabo silently pitied the poor surgeon for getting stuck with… this.
“Yeah, I need to go meet my guys or Koala will bite my head off,” he sighed.
Taking a second to gulp down whatever was in his mouth, Luffy grinned, raising his hand in a wave. “Okay! See you later!”
“Bye, Luffy, Robin, guys,” Sabo said with a smile, nodding at the people in the room.
“Nice to know we’ve been reduced to ‘guys’,” Usopp noted in fake offence.
Sabo laughed as he easily apologised before he shot one last look at Luffy… and at Trafalgar Law. He studied his exhausted looking face for a moment before he sighed. “Sorry in advance for whatever my brother puts you through.”
“Hey!” Luffy cried in protest but then he burst out laughing. “Torao likes me so it’s fine!”
“Says who?” Law muttered, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “What the fuck did I sign up for…”
With one final laugh, Sabo turned on his heel, waving to everyone as he left Dressrosa’s heroes, and the small house they were in, behind.
Once he was well out of earshot, Sabo pulled out a baby transponder snail. Before he could so much as wake it up, however, the tiny thing started ringing and Sabo frowned. Who could it be now of all times?
“Hello?” he barely managed to ask before Koala’s frustrated voice came from the other side of the connection.
“Sabo?! I’ve been calling you for an hour! Where are you?!” she asked loudly and Sabo could just picture her angry face without even having to look at the transponder snail glaring at him.
“Get ready to set sail,” Sabo ordered without bothering to acknowledge her questioning.
“We’ve been read— gacha.”
Sabo huffed in amusement after he hung up. Hopefully she would calm down by the time he made it to the ship.
But that was a problem for later. Quickly punching a number into the snail, Sabo waited while the snail rang and rang and rang.
“Purururu… Purururu…”
Pick up, man, come on, Sabo thought to himself, tapping his finger impatiently on the snail’s shell.
“Purururu… Purururu… Pururu— gacha.”
Oh, fucking finally.
“Who is it?” a man’s voice came from the snail. It sounded slurred, as if he just woke up.
Typical.
“It’s Sabo. You’ll never believe what happened,” Sabo said, forgoing all pleasantries.
“Oh, about that admiral getting on his knees and apologising? I saw!” the man laughed. “I really wanna see Akainu’s face when he found out.”
Sabo snorted, joining his conversation partner in his amusement. “Honestly same. It had to be amazing,” he agreed, struggling to not burst out laughing at the mental picture of the great, scary fleet admiral absolutely losing his shit at Fujitora doing whatever the hell he wanted like his paycheck didn’t depend on it. “But that’s not it. It’s about Luffy.”
The reaction was immediate. The laughter died down as if a switch turned off and even without seeing him, Sabo knew he had his full attention.
“Of course your brother's name wakes you right up while me kicking you off the patient’s bed doesn’t do shit, yoi,” someone else said on the other side of the connection, sounding very quiet and far away and Sabo could only assume he spoke from the other side of the room.
“Ace, are you bothering Marco while he’s working again?” Sabo asked with amusement.
“No.”
“Yes.”
The answers came at the same time and Sabo could only shake his head in disbelief. Was he really the single one responsible person between the three of them? “Whatever. Ace, Luffy’s dating Trafalgar Law.”
“I’m sorry, who is doing what?!” came a high-pitched question from his brother.
Sabo nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”
Silence settled between them, hanging thick in the air and almost suffocating them both.
“What timeline is this? Did I die and wake up in some alternate dimension where nothing makes sense?” Ace asked finally after what felt like hours.
“Hell if I know,” Sabo said with a small laugh. “But it looked consensual. I don’t think it’s just Luffy dragging him along. Honestly, Law looked pretty damn smitten. It was cute, actually.”
“My god, don’t ever say cute and that creep’s name in the same breath again, it sounds so wrong,” Ace groaned.
Sabo snorted, a smirk pulling on his lips. “Trafalgar Law was blushing all cutely while Luffy stuffed his face with Law’s leftover bread.”
“Stop,” Ace begged desperately. “Man, I feel bad for him.”
“Me too,” Sabo sighed. “But hey, what can we do? Hopefully he doesn’t regret this. Because if he breaks Luffy’s heart, he will definitely regret it.”
The snail’s face twisted in reflection of Ace’s own disturbed expression before he replied, “If that ever happens—one hundred on Mariejois burning down.”
“You're thinking too small. A hundred on Luffy breaking the entire Red Line.”
“You’re betting a hundred beri on the exact way your little brother destroys the world?” Sabo heard Marco ask in disbelief.
Both Ace and Sabo laughed at that, exchanging a look through their respective transponder snails before they replied in unison, the words an exact echo of what they always used to say whenever Luffy, Dadan, Makino, Dogra, or anyone asked this exact question, “It’s all from the shared pirate stash anyway.”
"The amount isn’t really the problem…"
Sabo wished he could see the weirded out look Marco undoubtedly gave Ace.