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Sabo puts on a show when he arrives on Luffy’s ship, darting forward as a phoenix before materializing on the deck. Koala is on the neighboring ship and laughs hard enough to be heard.
Sabo knows he’s showing off, but he can’t help it. Luffy’s jaw always drops in amazement. Leaping off the post, he runs up to Sabo with flushed cheeks and bright eyes. Sabo’s chest explodes with heat that the Flame-Flame Fruit cannot possibly provide.
“That was so cool.” Luffy clutches Sabo’s broad shoulders and shakes him. “Do it again.”
“If you insist,” Sabo says, gently pushing Luffy’s hands away. He leaps into the sky and bursts into flames.
“You know, it was neat the first time,” he hears Usopp mutter to Nami, who’s sipping a drink with a sunset gradient. “But this what, the eighth time?”
“Yeah,” Nami agrees. She sets down her beverage, ice cubes tinkling in the glass, and cups her mouth. She shouts at Sabo. “If you set our sail on fire again, you’re reimbursing us double! No, triple!”
Sabo flaps his wings. He compresses himself into a small bird and flies around Luffy’s head, circling it three times before diving into Nami’s cup and melting the ice cubes. She releases an indignant squawk. Luffy’s laughter drowns it out.
“That’s highway robbery,” Sabo replies once he returns to flesh and blood.
He takes off a glove and ruffles Luffy’s hair. It’s sweaty, probably from sitting out in the sun all day, and greasy. His little brother still doesn’t shower consistently, but Sabo wouldn’t change a thing about him. “Did you enjoy the show?”
“Yeah,” Luffy says. He leans into Sabo’s touch. “Do it — “
“No!” Nami and Usopp exclaim.
Nami picks up her drink and frowns at it. She takes a sip and wrinkles her nose. “It’s all diluted and gross now. Sanji, can you prepare another one for me?”
“Me too, please,” Robin requests, looking up from her book briefly.
Sanji lights up from his position on the top deck. A few feet away, Zoro is exercising. “Absolutely.”
“And a cola,” Franky adds, tinkering away at a gadget. He grins at Sanji, who scowls in return.
“What am I, your servant? Get it yourself,” Sanji turns to the women. “However, for you two ladies, I'll bring it over,” he exhales a plume of smoke. “Mosshead, you’re in my way.”
“You can just walk around me, eyebrows,” Zoro snaps, continuing his deadlifts.
“It’d be faster if you moved. Nami and Robin are dying of thirst, just look at them.”
Zoro doesn’t look.
“Mosshead — “
“Sanji,” Nami reminds. “Our drinks.”
Sanji leaps over Zoro and lands on the bottom deck swiftly. He collects Nami’s ruined drink. “At your service.”
A smile curves Nami’s lips. “Thank you.”
Sanji swoons and disappears into the kitchen.
Amusement curls in Sabo’s chest. Luffy’s crew is as energetic as always, complementing their captain.
He retracts his hand from Luffy’s head and allows it to hang at his thigh. It feels empty. “Did anything interesting happen when I was gone?”
“A lot,” Luffy chirps. “We went to an island, helped a city, and came back with a ton of treasure. Wanna see?”
“I’d love to.”
Luffy links their fingers together, small digits fitting against Sabo’s larger ones. They’re two puzzle pieces; they were made for each other.
He guides Sabo to the treasure room, beaming as he goes into detail about the adventure that had transpired. Apparently, princesses were involved. Again.
“You better not steal anything,” Nami huffs, a dragon protecting its hoard.
“I’m not you, Cat Burglar,” Sabo answers, falling easily into the rapport. Nami releases a ‘harrumph’ and looks away.
Sabo runs his fingers over Luffy’s hand as they walk and grazes an unfamiliar scar. It's a small silvery streak. Sabo traces it with his thumb, stomach churning and chest tightening. “How did you get this?”
“A knife,” Luffy answers promptly, guiding Sabo to the treasure room. “I beat them up, though.”
Personally, Sabo would have done worse. Luffy can take care of himself, but he shouldn’t have to. He should only have to focus on exploring, eating well, and becoming Pirate King.
When they reach the door outside the treasure room, Luffy raises their interlocked fingers. He flips Sabo’s hand and examines it. “You don’t have any new scar,” he focuses on a line of raised skin. “But you still have this one from falling out of a tree.”
Luffy runs his finger across it, scraping it gently with his nail. A shiver wracks through Sabo. The touch is feather-light.
“And you still have the one from being bitten by a crocodile,” Sabo replies, prodding Luffy’s side with his other hand. Luffy squirms, ticklish as always.
“So the treasure?” Sabo prompts, gesturing to the entrance of the treasure room with his head. It looks like any door on the ship, deceptively inconspicuous.
“Oh, right!” Luffy exclaims. He slams the door open and tugs Sabo inside. Sabo shuts it, confining them together.
Mountains of coins are heaped upon each other. Some slide down the slope, rattled by the door’s impact. There are chalices and crowns and gems of every color, glistening beneath the ceiling light. It’s a sea of gold.
Luffy drags him to a corner and rummages through a pile, indifferent to the priceless treasure that clatters to the ground. “This is my favorite one. Look!”
He yanks out a helmet with a bright red feather attached to the top.
“It looks like what you wore at Dressrosa,” Sabo comments as he inspects it. It’s a little worse for wear, a product of its age, but no less valuable.
“You wore it too,” Luffy says.
He raises his arms to place it on Sabo’s head. Sabo bends his legs slightly, helping him, and chuckles when his vision goes dark. “It’s a little bit too big for me.”
“Let me try,” Luffy slides off the helmet, restoring Sabo’s eyesight, and places it on his head. It lolls to the side, crooked. “Wow, it really is big.”
“You didn’t try it on when you took it?”
Luffy shakes his head, helmet rattling. “I was waiting for you.”
Something purrs in Sabo’s chest. Before he knows it, he’s tilting Luffy’s chin upwards and sliding their lips together. Luffy’s breath hitches. He kisses back with too much saliva and too much tongue.
Sabo loves it.
He lifts the helmet off Luffy’s head and tosses it into a pile of riches. Sabo grabs the back of Luffy’s neck and pulls him closer. Luffy sighs into his mouth. His hand snakes behind Sabo’s head and he clutches the roots of Sabo’s hair, squeezing tightly.
A dull pain shoots throughout his scalp, but it only makes Sabo hungrier. He hasn’t seen his little brother for an entire week. He needs to make up for the years they spent without each other.
Sabo nips Luffy’s lower lip, then catches it between his teeth and bites it. Luffy moans and Sabo draws back to gently shush him. “Your crew will hear you.”
“So?” Luffy responds. “I don’t care.”
He slams his lips against Sabo’s once more and Sabo is drowning. In the scent of Luffy, a boyish musk. In the feeling of Luffy, full of lean muscle. In the taste of Luffy, roasted meat.
He loses himself, eliciting small gasps from his little brother, but never provoking a moan. He’ll devour Luffy once they achieve proper privacy, but for now, he’s content with skimming his fingers across Luffy’s sides and clutching his bony hips.
They pull apart when someone knocks on the door and gently pushes it open.
“Sanji says lunch is ready,” Chopper informs. His eyes roam over their flushed cheeks, messy hair, and swollen lips. “Are you two sick?”
“No,” Sabo says. He tugs on his collar. “It’s just hot in here.”
Chopper pauses, then agrees. “It is.”
He trots away and Sabo releases a relieved sigh. It’s good that Chopper is covered in fur. It means he’s sensitive to heat.
Luffy licks his lips, replacing Sabo’s saliva with his own, and grabs Sabo’s hand once more. He releases a loud cheer and drags them both to the kitchen. Sabo quickly surpasses Luffy to pull out a chair for him.
“Thanks,” Luffy says. He plops down and tears into the food Sanji had prepared.
Sabo quickly removes his other glove and tucks it into his pocket. “Thank you for cooking, Sanji.”
Sanji grins. “It’s my job.”
Sabo helps himself to a large portion. He places a napkin on his lap and cuts his meal into smaller pieces. Eating a devil fruit had increased his appetite, but his upbringing as a nobleman, then the Revolutionary Army, prevented him from eating like his brothers: utter slobs.
Luffy nabs a few pieces of bread from Nami before Sabo springs into action, serving Luffy before he can even think about stealing more.
Nami shoots him a grateful smile and Sabo sends one back. He uses one hand to scoop food into his mouth and the other to pile food onto Luffy’s plate. His arm is a blur, matching Luffy’s flailing limbs as Luffy gobbles everything in sight.
Luffy gradually expands, stomach swelling to accommodate everything he’s shoving down his gullet. Eventually, he reaches a peak. After belching, Luffy rubs his inflated belly. He picks out a piece of meat trapped between his teeth and swallows it. “That was awesome.”
Sanji preens but Sabo’s attention is on Luffy’s glowing, satisfied face.
“Luffy, you have something on your chin.”
Luffy’s tongue stretches, licking the area, but he doesn’t capture the morsel. “Did I get it?”
Sabo plucks a napkin from the table and pats Luffy’s chin. His lips are shiny with grease.
“There,” Sabo says, setting the napkin down. “Now it’s all gone.”
Luffy’s crew doesn’t bat an eye, used to their behavior.
Sabo finishes the last of his meal just in time for Sanji to add a giant bowl of ice cream to the pile. He distributes waffle cones to everyone. “Dessert.”
“Thank you, but I’ll pass,” Sabo says once it’s his turn to receive one.
Luffy returns to normal size and scoops several balls onto his cone. He laps at it like a dog, beaming. “Try it!”
He sticks the ice cream cone in Sabo’s face and Sabo obeys, giving it a small lick before drawing back. “It’s great, but I’m too full to properly eat one.”
“We’ll share,” Luffy replies. “You need to have at least some of it. Sanji’s cooking is the best.”
He hooks his arm with Sabo’s and drags him outside, onto his perch on the figurehead of the Sunny. “C’mon, let’s eat it here.”
The balance is precarious, not meant to fit two people, much less one person, but Sabo and Luffy manage. Sabo isn’t worried about falling in. Someone would rescue them. Sabo trusts the faith Luffy has in his crew.
Luffy leans his head against Sabo’s shoulder and links their fingers. The waves are mighty, lapping at the full of the Sunny, and spraying them with mist, but the ocean doesn't intrude. Luffy periodically gives Sabo a lick of the ice cream and they chatter.
Luffy has a lot to say, still catching Sabo up on all that he missed, while Sabo listens. He has little to say. The Revolutionary Army is strict with its confidentiality. But even if Sabo could share his experiences, he wouldn’t.
No need for Luffy to know how dirty he’s gotten his hands for his ideologies.
The sun creeps down the sky, sinking into the horizon. Luffy’s ice cream cone is long gone, disappearing into the bottomless pit of his stomach. Sabo steals several kisses before his Den Den Mushi rings.
“Sabo — “ Koala’s voice begins.
“Coming,” Sabo sighs. “I’ll be right there.”
Luffy frowns and clutches Sabo’s sleeve, preventing him from rising. “You have to go again? Stay here and join my crew instead.”
“I would if I could, but they need me,” Sabo says. He pecks Luffy’s lips. “I’ll come back next week. I promise.”
Luffy raises his finger. Sabo locks it with his own.
“Pinky promise,” Luffy says as they press their thumbs together, stamping it.
“Pinky promise,” Sabo confirms.
Grudgingly, Luffy allows Sabo to stand up. Before Sabo can leave, Luffy crushes their lips together. Sabo swallows as much of Luffy as he can before pulling back.
“I’ll see you soon,” he says. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Sabo leaps and bursts into another phoenix. He playfully pecks Luffy, quick enough to not leave a burn, then flies back to his ship. Koala is on deck, flipping through a file.
“You miss him already, don’t you?” Koala asks, eyes flickering to Sabo’s face.
“I always do,” Sabo replies. His lips are warm from Luffy’s touch and he clings to that heat, wishing it would stay forever.
“You’ll see him soon,” Koala soothes. She calls to the navigator to alter their course, diverging from the Sunny.
“I know,” Sabo murmurs, watching Luffy’s ship grow farther and farther away. His chest aches. “I know.”