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~*~
forever and a day
that’s how long I’ll stay
~*~
"We're celebrating Father's birthday this weekend."
Ace paused in his efforts of getting the heavy box of clean tankards from the top shelf and looked behind him. Marco was leaning against the door to the storage room of the Moby Dick, his arms crossed in front of him. "You coming?"
Frowning, Ace turned back to the shelf, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. "I haven't decided yet …"
"Yes, that's what Thatch said," Marco agreed, pushing away from the doorway and approaching the dark-haired teen. "I think it would be good if you came along."
Ace grimaced, but refrained from saying anything in reply.
"Pops would really love it, too," Marco carefully added, after a couple of seconds had passed in silence.
The sinking sensation in Ace’s stomach intensified, as he thought about Whitebeard, the man who had given him a decent job and had ensured that Ace and his brothers would remain together, even when Ace had been thrown out of school for getting into one too many fights. The old man was turning sixty this weekend and in celebration the entire staff of the Moby Dick was going to Kyuka Island - a family outing, as Whitebeard had said with a twinkle in his eye. It was true enough. Most of the staff had similar or worse backstories to Ace’s and, in a way, work in the Moby Dick had turned out to be the most stable and loving environment any of them had ever known.
“Yeah?” Ace finally said in a slightly strained voice, standing on his tiptoes as he once again tugged at the box.
“Yeah. Actually, he specifically asked after you.”
It was only through Marco’s quick reflexes that the box of tankards was saved from finding a rather unfortunate end on the floor.
“... Sorry,” Ace eventually said, once he had got his breath back.
“No problem, yoi.”
Taking the box from Marco, Ace led the way back into the main room of the bar and began putting away the tankards behind the counter. He could feel Marco’s worried gaze on his back and even though he knew that the other man was not purposely trying to make him feel uncomfortable, Ace could feel the pressure mounting.
“Look,” Ace eventually said, turning around. “I know you would love for me to come along, hell, I would love for me to come. It’s just …”
“Your little brother,” Marco finished and even though Ace braced himself for having to defend himself, there was only understanding in Marco’s eyes. “You’re right, the trip’s not really set out for little kids …”
“No …,” Ace agreed, sighing. “I’ve been planning to talk to Sabo about it, I just haven’t found the right moment yet.”
That was not quite true. In the two weeks since Ace had first been invited to the party, he had not so much been waiting for the right moment to talk to his blonde brother, as for the problem to magically resolve itself. With Sabo being none the wiser that there was a decision to be made, it had been far too easy to delay the conversation night after night. But Marco did not need to know that - even if he was quickly becoming Ace’s best friend.
The other man, meanwhile, just nodded. “Well, I’ll tell Thatch to reserve a room for you, just in case. No pressure though,” he raised his hands in a calming gesture. “We can cancel until Thursday. Just let us know by then.”
Supposing that was fair, Ace reluctantly nodded. That gave him three more days.
~*~
Of course, any plans of Ace's to once again just ignore the difficult decision that night were immediately shot the moment he arrived home after work.
"Why do I have a message from Marco on my phone, telling me I need to discuss Whitebeard's birthday party with you?"
Grimacing, Ace threw his duffle bag into its usual corner before turning to face Sabo.
"How did he get your number?"
"I gave it to him a while ago in case your narcolepsy hit you at work. And anyway, you're avoiding my question."
Ace grumbled, feeling in no little part that his brother and best friend were ganging up on him. "It's nothing."
Sabo wisely refrained from commenting, even though it was hardly necessary as the raised eyebrows spoke volumes in terms of what the blonde was thinking of the mulish expression on Ace's face.
Finally, Ace sighed, knowing that Sabo was never going to let it go. "They're celebrating Pop's birthday this weekend. The entire staff is supposed to go away on a trip to Kyuka - leaving on Friday, coming back on Sunday."
"Great! Sounds like fun - try not to get too wasted!"
"Sabo …"
Even though Ace could see the sympathy underlying it, Sabo's gaze seemed to have taken on an edge of steel.
"How many engagements with your friends have you missed these past few weeks without telling me?"
Ace bit his lip and shrugged, trying to avoid Sabo's eyes. It felt like he was being x-rayed. “One or two …”
“Really? Because you’ve been home every night,” Sabo said in a sceptical tone of voice and then sighed. “Luffy will be fine, you know. You can let go a bit again.”
Now it was Ace’s turn to look at Sabo with doubtful eyes, but the blonde shook his head. “No, you really can. And should. And anyways, I’ll be here. Or don’t you trust me to take care of our little brother?”
“Of course I do! It’s just-”
“Then there’s no problem, is there?”
Ace scowled at the tone of finality in Sabo’s voice. “It’s the entire weekend, Sabo!”
Trying to stop himself from rolling his eyes at his stubborn brother, Sabo sighed again. “If it was me, wouldn’t you want me to go?” he asked much more gently. “I know how much you want to. This is important for you - and you’ve earned a break. You have ,” he added at the expression on Ace’s face.
There was silence for a couple of moments as Ace seemed to fight some internal battle. “I’m just worried, Sabo.”
“I know,” Sabo said and put a comforting hand on Ace’s shoulder. “I promise, if there’s any sign of trouble, I’ll call you and you can come back right away.”
It was another couple of moments before Ace’s features finally relaxed. “Alright …,” he sighed, but then gave his brother a tentative smile. “Thanks, Sabo.”
Sabo grinned back in relief. “Anytime.”
~*~
Once the decision had been made, there was only one challenge that remained and it came in the form of a little brother as yet unaware of his elder brother’s plans. Taking pity on Ace and his nervousness about possibly disappointing Luffy, Sabo was the one to break the news to the little boy at dinner.
“Kyuka Island?” Luffy echoed, his head tilted to the side. “Where’s that?”
“Not too far away. Ace will need to get the bus to get to the port and from there there’s a ferry that goes directly to the island.”
Luffy’s face immediately lit up. “A ferry? How cool is that! Sabo, can we go too?”
Seeing Ace’s wince out of the corner of his eye, Sabo gave the boy an apologetic smile. “Next time, Luffy. It’s Whitebeard’s birthday party, remember, so only Ace can go.”
Lowering his eyes to the few remaining meatballs on his plate that had survived the initial inhalation of food, Luffy seemed to take Sabo’s words in for a few moments. “Only Ace is going?”
“Well, Ace and the rest of the people working at the Moby Dick,” Sabo carefully explained and threw a worried glance at Ace, who seemed to be on the verge of breaking down and denying that there ever had been even the idea of a trip.
“Oh,” Luffy muttered and then to Sabo’s relief looked up with his customary smile in place. “That’s good! So pineapple man is going too! I like him!"
“Pineapple …?” Ace repeated, his eyes widening, before an amused grin appeared on his face. “You know his name is Marco, Luffy.”
“Is it?”
Ace just laughed.
“Anyway, Luffy,” Sao said, drawing the little boy’s attention back to himself. “We’re going to be far too busy this weekend to come with Ace anyway.”
Confused, Luffy tilted his head again. “We are?”
Leaning his chin in his hand, Sabo slowly grinned at Luffy. “Yeah. We’re going to the beach.”
Sabo was sure that the resulting cheer could be heard throughout their apartment block.
~*~
If there had been a way of harnessing it, Sabo was sure that the excited energy coming off of Ace in the succeeding days would have been enough to power all of Dawn City for a week. Much to the blonde’s amusement (and eventual annoyment) their freckled brother spent the days until Friday relaying every detail of the trip to Sabo and Luffy - with promises of what he was going to bring back with him once he returned.
Although Sabo did not have the heart to stop him, he did worry about whether Ace’s intention of including his brothers as much as possible was not slowly backfiring on him. Even though on the surface Luffy responded to each and every one of his brother's promises with enthusiasm, there was something about the way Ace's infectious excitement failed to carry over to his typically easily excitable little brother that did not sit well with him. Luffy's smiles never lasted.
So, it was with slightly thinning patience that Sabo accompanied Ace to the bus station on Friday, Luffy swinging between them, as their elder brother gave them a final rundown of his schedule. Thankfully, Sabo was saved from saying anything he knew he would come to regret by a joyful Thatch who came over to sweep Ace in a lopsided hug the moment the three brothers rounded the corner to Dawn City Central Bus Terminal.
“Ace! I’m so glad you decided to come along! Now the entire family is going!” the brunette exclaimed with a grin, before turning to Sabo. “You must be Sabo - glad to finally meet you! Thanks for persuading him!”
“No problem,” Sabo replied, tightening his hold on Luffy’s hand, which had briefly given a strange twitch. No doubt his little brother was none too amused at being ignored while the grown-ups talked. However, he did not have to wait for very long, as the bartender with the pompadour bent down to Luffy’s level. “Hi, there, Luffy! Been a while since you last followed Ace to work - here to see your big brother off?”
“Yeah!” Luffy agreed with a smile. “Ace is going to have fun this weekend!”
“That he is,” Thatch agreed, ruffling the little boy’s hair, before getting up again to tug Ace over to the rest of the Moby Dick’s staff who had gathered around a coach with quite a sizeable sperm whale painted across its side.
“Wait, Thatch,” Ace said, freeing himself from his friend’s hold after his initial stumble. “I’ll be over in a sec.”
Reminding Ace that the coach would be leaving in five minutes, Thatch gave a cheerful wave to Sabo and Luffy before hurrying over to join the rest of the staff.
“Well,” Sabo said with a smile, “they’re waiting for you. Go and have fun!”
Ace grinned back and then reached out to envelop Sabo in a hug. “Thanks again. Remember what we agreed though.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“What’s that?” Luffy’s voice piped up.
Chuckling, Ace stooped down to his little brother’s level. “That you’d have fun, too, of course.” Ruffling Luffy’s hair, Ace drew him into a tight hug. “Be good for Sabo. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Sabo frowned as unbeknownst to Ace a slightly worried touch entered Luffy’s expression. “I will! Sabo is going to have the best weekend ever!”
“We both are,” Sabo agreed, before drawing Luffy out of Ace’s arms. “Go on now.”
“See you Sunday - four o’clock!” Ace called over his shoulder, as he finally hurried away.
Waving their goodbyes as the coach pulled away, Sabo turned to Luffy with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, before hoisting the now slightly despondent seven-year-old onto his hip. “Now, let’s get our weekend started, shall we?”
~*~
While in Sabo’s mind both going to the cinema and spending the afternoon in Goa Shopping Centre’s arcade were equally thrilling places to be for a little boy, there was no doubt as to what Luffy viewed as the highlight of their weekend, as he excitedly tugged his elder brother down the beach on Saturday afternoon, eager to throw himself into the waves. It took no small amount of patience on Sabo’s part to successfully cover the little body in enough sunscreen - or the icky, sticky, white stuff, as Luffy called it - before the young boy made a dash for the sea, his blonde brother following closely behind.
Even though he put on a slightly exasperated front, in truth Sabo barely minded, as for the first time in days, Luffy appeared to be genuinely happy. It was strange, but with the way Luffy almost continuously stayed cheery and tried to keep a constant stream of conversation going, Sabo was starting to get the feeling that instead of him entertaining Luffy while Ace was gone, it was actually the other way around.
They spent the good part of an hour splashing in the shallow parts, jumping over waves and chasing one another around, before Luffy decided it was time to build a sand pirate ship. (Apparently, castles had gone out of fashion years ago and Sabo was so old .)
Watching his little brother get started on the hull, Sabo remembered the shovel and bucket they had taken along and quickly headed to their bag to get them. As he was rifling through it, his phone once again chimed and he rolled his eyes, firmly regretting the agreement his brother had wrangled out of him on Friday morning. It could wait.
Turning around on his knees, Sabo was about to call out to Luffy - when his heart definitely stopped. For instead of finding a happy seven-year-old building his ship, his eyes only took in the sight of an empty beach, the waves rolling in slowly from the ocean and spilling gently onto the almost white sand.
‘What the- ’
Panicking, he was half-way up, frozen in a crouched position and scanning the beach for any sign of his little brother. If he’d gone into the sea again - Luffy could still barely swim-
He nearly screamed when all of a sudden a wet mass threw itself at him from behind.
“Got you! Shihihi!”
“Luffy …”
Sighing in relief, Sabo carefully tugged his little brother from behind his back into his lap, and then grinned at the bits of seaweed and sand stuck all over the little boy's body. “... or is it a baby seamonster?”
Laughing at the answering roar, Sabo reached for one of their towels and proceeded to clean off the worst mess. “I won't even ask how you managed to get this dirty so quickly …"
It was impossible to stay mad at the little boy for scaring him like that. Deciding that tickling would be punishment enough, Sabo proceeded to send Luffy into squeals of pain - definitely not delight - as he mercilessly attacked his little brother's sides, only stopping when his phone sounded again. Giving up, Sabo carefully settled Luffy back against his chest and fished for the device which had been safely hidden away in their beach bag.
"Look, Luffy," he smiled, showing the little boy the picture Ace had just sent them. Judging by the big grin on his face, their elder brother had finally been convinced to actually have some fun on his trip away with his friends. He was half-slung over Marco's shoulder, who had a long-suffering look on his face, as he stupidly pointed at the admittedly gigantic tree behind them both - Kyuka Island's most famous attraction.
"Woah," Luffy gasped, eyes going wide. "That tree is huge!"
Chuckling, Sabo put his phone away and tugged Luffy closer. He then bent down so their heads were level, pointing to an umbrella-shaped speck a few miles out at sea. "Yeah, it is - you see that dark spot over there? That's it."
If possible, Luffy's eyes got even bigger. "Wow …," he whispered in wonder. "It's this close!"
It was silent for a while, as Luffy stared off into the horizon. "Sabo, do you think we could go and visit Ace?"
Realising his mistake, Sabo tried to suppress a wince. "He'll be back tomorrow, Luffy. Besides, shouldn't we let him have some fun with his friends?”
“Of course!” Luffy immediately agreed fiercely. The tiny edge of anxiety to his voice was impossible to miss though, and Sabo hugged his little brother tighter in response, resting his chin on the boy’s head. It was hard for him, he knew. Although Luffy would be the first to send Ace off with a smile, if he knew it was something his elder brother really wanted and needed, he was also the little boy who had followed Ace to work for the entire first month he had taken on his new job at the Moby Dick. It had driven both Ace and Sabo to distraction and had only really stopped once Luffy had seen how well Ace had settled in at Whitebeard’s place.
“Sabo …,” the little boy spoke up again after a while and his elder brother hummed to show he was listening. “Does Ace have a new family now?”
Pausing for a moment, Sabo carefully turned Luffy around, so he could look him in the face. “What makes you ask that?”
Luffy gnawed at his lip, as he stared down at his toes. "They really love him, too."
Sabo nodded. "Yeah, they do."
"And Ace loves them."
"Yeah."
"More than us?"
Pursing his lips, Sabo gripped his little brother's shoulders tightly. "Luffy," he started saying forcefully, before gathering the boy close. "It doesn't work like that."
"B-but," the little boy argued, a tremble in his voice, "they're so much more fun and Ace doesn’t have to w-worry about them all the time."
Taking a moment before answering, Sabo rocked the boy against his shoulder, where he could feel a wet patch forming. He wondered how long Luffy had been carrying around that burden with him.
"Ace loves you," he finally said, pulling back to look into Luffy's eyes. " We love you. It's not a competition. You're our little brother and we'll always be here for you."
Sniffling, Luffy still looked much too unsure for Sabo's liking. "B-but I've been so much t-trouble-"
The way Sabo resolutely shook his head broke Luffy off. "Doesn't matter. No, listen," he said, before Luffy could interrupt him. "Even if that were true, it wouldn't matter. We're your big brothers and it's our job to take care of you. It says so right on page one of the Big Brother Rule Book."
That gave Luffy pause. "The Big Brother Rule Book?"
"Yeah," Sabo said with a serious look on his face. "You get into all sorts of trouble if you don't follow it. But Ace and I don't mind, because we'd be following all the rules anyway, even without it. We love you."
He stroked a hand through Luffy's hair as the little boy contemplated his words.
"And as for Ace’s new friends … Do you love Zoro and Sanji and Nami and all the others more than us? Are they more fun?"
"Of course not!" Luffy immediately protested and then paused as understanding dawned in his eyes. "You're all different …"
"Yeah," Sabo agreed. "We're all different and you love all of us differently - but there's no more or less, is there?"
Eyes wide, Luffy slowly nodded, as Sabo fished for his phone again.
"It's the same for Ace - and me. He's not going to forget about you or stop loving you, even when he's away. Look …"
And unlocking his phone, Sabo slowly scrolled through his conversation with Ace over the last 24 hours. Luffy's eyes widened as he took in the various iterations of Ace asking after him - and the sneak pictures Sabo had taken of him throughout the day.
"Oh," Luffy said and Sabo breathed a sigh of relief as finally the beginnings of a genuine smile stole back onto his little brother's face.
"See?" he said and tightly returned Luffy's hug when the little boy threw himself at him. They stayed like that for a little while, before Sabo gently drew back. "Now let's go and build that pirate ship, huh?"
"Yeah!"
And taking Luffy's hand, Sabo led his giggling little brother back to the ocean.
~*~
From the moment the returning coach on the main thoroughfare could be discerned as Ace’s, there was simply no holding Luffy, as he excitedly tugged Sabo every which way in his impatience to see his big brother. Wincing at the pain in his arm, Sabo nevertheless kept a firm grip on his younger brother’s hand, only releasing him once he could see Ace stepping off the bus with a big grin on his face.
“Luffy!”
Letting them have their moment, Sabo watched as his two dark-haired brothers met halfway, Ace immediately picking up Luffy and enveloping him in a big hug. Although he could not see it, he was sure that the smile on Luffy’s face would be stretching from ear to ear, as the young boy wrapped his arms tightly around the elder’s neck.
“Did you have fun?” Sabo asked, as he walked over to join them at a more leisurely pace.
“Yeah,” Ace said, looking up with a grateful smile, before drawing Sabo into the hug with Luffy. “But I missed the two of you!”
“I never would have noticed …,” Sabo chuckled, exhaling slightly but nevertheless returning the embrace.
“And we are chopped liver again, Marco.”
In spite of the statement, there was only amusement in Thatch’s eyes, as he and Marco approached the three brothers. “Were we ever not?” Marco drawled with a smile on his face, as he held out Ace’s bag. “Here, you forgot this.”
“Thanks guys,” Ace said with a sheepish grin, as Sabo took the bag from Marco.
“Me and Marco were going to grab some dinner, if you’d like to come along? Sabo and Luffy are welcome to join, of course!”
There was no mistaking the way Luffy immediately perked up at the mere mention of food, his eyes widening in anticipation. Looking from Sabo to Luffy, Ace however shook his head.
“Thanks, but next time guys,” he said, before waving at his two friends. “See you tomorrow! Thanks for all the fun this weekend!”
And to the tune of Luffy’s whining, the three brothers turned around to head home.
“I wouldn’t have minded, you know,” Sabo said, carefully studying Ace’s face as they walked along. “You didn’t have to say no for us.”
“I didn’t,” Ace said, letting Luffy slide to his hip, so he could sling his freed arm around his blonde brother. “There are only a few hours left to this weekend and there are two important people with whom I haven’t had a chance to spend any time with yet.”
“... You’re such a dork …”
Keeping a tight grip on both his brothers, Ace led the way home.
~*~
together forever, no matter how long
from now until the end of time
~*~