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Sabo’s a little weird. Ace tells Sabo this, at some point.
Ace can admit he’s never really had close contact with another person for a long period of time before, other than Dandan and the bandits, which Ace isn’t ashamed of, actually, so he can admit that he didn’t really think anything was off about Sabo when he started doing those weird small twitches when someone offhandedly mentioned something he liked that he seemed to think was floating around in the air, waiting to be snagged and talked about, as if his breath would be twisted and squeezed out of him like a sopping wet rag if he didn’t.
There were other things, too, that Ace noticed—the way Sabo would always sway or rock himself while in their messily built home, the way he’d stare at Ace with wide eyes without blinking for a massive amount of time as if waiting for…something, the way Ace would sometimes stumble in on Sabo stifling sobs and pathetic sniffling after his fingers accidentally brush on something unpleasant, which still confuses Ace, but whatever—and several other small things Sabo would do that Ace never thought to chalk up as unusual or bad, per se, just weird.
Ace knew Sabo was a little weird, hell, everyone Ace knows is weird, but he never really took time to acknowledge that it might be noticeable, let alone a bad thing to other people. Never thought Sabo himself thought of it as a bad thing until he broke down one morning, hands quivering and fingers shakily running over the bumpy, rough texture of the floorboards, sobbing and choking over his snot and sore throat, telling Ace that he’s wrong, that something’s wrong with his brain and he can’t fix it, making a thick lump get clogged in Ace’s throat and forming a heavy feeling in his gut that made it feel like his heart was in a free fall, before shouting that Sabo needs to shut the fuck up— never really dawned on Ace that Sabo apparently had something that was causing all the funny little twitches and things that Sabo did that made him him, never thought that Sabo could ever think of it as a bad thing, so—
Ace thinks Sabo’s a little weird.
Ace decides not to voice this out loud.
“Mm. You know, their hands were starting to annoy me,” Luffy says, practically snapping the calm silence (that really only could’ve lasted for so long) between the three in half, before letting his eyes wander down to the ground they’re walking on and stepping on a bright, orange leaf to hear the crunch. Ace huffs in question while willing himself to ignore the guilt that twinges in his chest, plucking strings that reverberate throughout his whole body as if he’s nothing more than just a silly instrument waiting to be played, and Sabo hums, waiting for Luffy to continue, only for the silence to return. Ace spares a glance back at Luffy, eyebrows furrowed in question as Sabo clicks his tongue, asking “Huh. What’dyou mean, Luffy?”
Eyes shooting back up to look at Sabo, Luffy’s lips stretch into a small grin before grimacing, remembering the way their hands felt, with the rough textures and lumpy scarring, with the stale aroma and the only purpose to their existence being to take. They were greedy and gross, and had no qualms to taking someone’s freedom, and it made Luffy shiver.
Opening his mouth to answer, Luffy hmphs as a ladybug shoots directly in his face before flicking it off, smile waning as he answers, “It’s, like…” Luffy starts, smile slipping off his face completely, hands clenching into fists, “It’s like. Their hands. The only thing they could do was take. And hurt. And it made me feel weird and sick, I think, but I dunno, cuz’ I’ve never been sick before, y’know?” Luffy finishes, face cringing slightly at the reminder, before his eyes land on Ace and an idea quickly ignites within his brain.
Smiling mischievously and letting out a bark of laughter as Sabo’s eyes dart back at him with a response on his tongue only for it to get drowned out by confusion, eyes questioning and mumbling out a small “Luffy? What are you—,” and ignoring Ace’s confused “Huh?” Luffy jumps forward and crashes into the two, sending them all sprawling on the ground in a tangled lump of limbs and loud yelps and angry shouts, Luffy wrapping his own around Ace and Sabo and letting his hands find theirs, softly intertwining their fingers.
“See, see? Your guys’ hands are good, and I really like holding them, cuz’ they’re warm and safe , but. I dunno,” Luffy laughs, as if it’s a reasonable explanation for butting into them like a crazed bull, as if Ace isn’t gnashing his teeth and yelling directly in his face, Sabo’s eye twitching as he sighs.
Stumbling over the twisted roots and fallen branches from the trees, Luffy ignores his heavy breathing and speeds up. He will catch this beetle, he swears—it keeps just barely flying out of his range and carelessly landing on random tree stumps for a little while, just for it to shoot up into the air again once Luffy gets close. It’s a rare one, usually only found in colder climates, so the fact that it’s here near Foosha is already something akin to a dream. It’s a dark green color with blends of silver, teal and gold splattered across its wings, and Luffy thinks it might be the most gorgeous beetle he’s ever seen.
He needs to show it to his brothers, too—they’d probably freak out!
The thought of showing his brothers the beetle and being able to talk as much as he wants about it with them just stirs Luffy on further, and he feels his heart leap and titter in joy as his lips stretch out into a wobbly grin. He’s so excited—he really wants his brothers to see this.
Tracking the beetle and seeing it land on yet another stump, Luffy slows his pace a little, breaths coming in heaving pants. Wiping his forehead, Luffy stumbles forward, arms stretching slowly and heart caroling loud enough for his fingertips to tingle to the beat in anticipation—he’s so close, he’s almost there, and—
He lets out an embarrassing yelp as he trips over some thick tree roots, falling and face planting directly into the dirt littered with pebbles.
Feeling his eyes water, Luffy huffs and hurriedly pushes himself off the ground, eyes searching for the beetle, just to see it flying off, probably spooked from his loud fall. Luffy feels his mouth waver and tremble, and he stomps on the sob yearning to climb out of his throat—he was so close, and he’s been chasing after this stupid but so awesome beetle for so long and he really wants to show Ace and Sabo and he really wants to hold it and feel it’s wings and horns and properly fawn over it, but it just keeps barely avoiding his hands, and it's exhausting—but it’s such a cool beetle and he wants to be able to hold it and swoon over it with his brothers, so—swallowing thickly, Luffy ignores the trembling of his fisted hands and tightness of his throat and chest as he struggles to get a proper mouthful of air in and starts running after the beetle. Again.
——
“Ace! Ace, Sabo, Sabo, Sabo!” He shouts, voice shaking with unadulterated excitement. His cheeks feel like theyre on the verge of cracking and splitting apart because of how wide his smile is, crooked teeth and gums on full display, and his whole face hurts but he’s so happy. He feels his heart quivering and his ears are loud and bumbling with the echoes of his heartbeat, and his palms and face are sweaty and his whole body is shaking and sparking with nerves as if butterflies are sinking into the creases of his skin, but he doesn’t spare how his body feels any thought—he's just so excited. He finally managed to catch the beetle after so long of chasing and stumbling after it, and Luffy can feel its spindly legs crawling around in his clasped hands, and it makes him cough up delighted giggles.
Finally reaching and rushing into the clearing where he hears Sabo and Ace’s haggard breaths from fighting, Luffy thinks for a second that it probably wasn’t smart to go rushing off the moment his eyes spotted the beetle, but—it was worth it, so he doesn’t really mind the danger that could've came from it.
“Ace! Sabo! Look, look! Look at this! It’s so cool!” He shouts, face red and sweaty from overexertion, unveiled excitement tumbling through his bones and causing his body to tremble as his smile widens until his eyes are forced shut.
Slowly opening his self proclaimed hand-cage, Luffy ignores Ace’s loud curse and thump as he gets thrown to the ground and Sabo’s triumphant laugh, eyes zeroing in on the beetle.
His brother’s words flow through his ears in a jumbled mess, and Luffy offhandedly recognizes Ace’s voice shouting “That doesn’t count! Luffy distracted me!” and Sabo’s teasing in response, “You’re such a sore loser, Ace…” as bright sparkles adorn his eyes and he runs his warm fingertips over the beetle’s hard shell. It’s so much more beautiful up close, and Luffy’s eyes run over every single detail, every single vibrant color and pattern.
He exhales shakily, body still trembling with excitement as he feels a sensation similar to getting shocked by static. He ignores his brothers as they walk over, breathing heavily from the fights, peering over his fingers to look at the beetle held in his palms.
A breathless ”Whoa,” leaves Sabo’s mouth, eyes widening as he sees the silvery, vivid colors on the beetle, and Ace can only hum in agreement—it really is pretty cool.
Sabo reaches out his hand and lightly touches the wings, Luffy’s shaky fingers moving to make room for him. Sabo hums and asks “Hey, Luffy, do you know what beetle this is?” and he can only smile as he sees Luffy’s head shoot up, cheeks straining from his smile somehow widening even further, and Luffy giggles before immediately rushing to tell Ace and Sabo the name of the beetle...among other things.
They end up sitting there for hours, just listening to Luffys endless charade of compliments and random beetle facts.
“Yea, yea!” giggling, Sabo feels his grin widen as he instinctually waves his hands around in an excited manner, feeling small sparks of excitement shock his body into jerking, and he can’t help but absentmindedly let his thoughts be filled with pure gratefulness for someone finally not pointing out how weird it is, how weird he’s being right now, practically leaping up into the air simply because of a small chat that has to do with something he’s particularly interested in, but—he can’t help it, he swears, and of course Ace wouldn’t point it out—he’s his brother, and Ace knows Sabo doesn’t quite enjoy the twitching and tickling he feels poke his whole body into practically dancing and making him blurt out a jumbled mess of half-thought out words when something he likes gets brought up, and Ace isn’t as brash and mean as he tries to make himself look, so— “Also! Also! Ace, Ace, let me—let me show you this, you’re going to like it so much— it’s like the one thing, the—the—!” voice slowly rising in pitch and stuttering over his own words as if they weren’t already stumbling and tripping over each other, Sabo barks out a laugh, cutting himself off as he hears Ace say nothing except exhale a small sigh, as if he already knows what Sabo is about to say, and really—he probably does, considering Sabo has already mentioned this several times before, but he can’t help it, not really.
He spares a singular second to wonder if Luffy would be enamored with the things he’s about to practically throw up onto Ace, wondering if Luffy’s eyes would be filled with twinkling light and if his voice would warble like it always does when a beetle is near whether in mind or reality, and Sabo feels a small spark of hope instead of excitement trip up his spine, hoping Luffy will get back from his bath before Sabo gets to his personal favorite part, before, well—throwing up on Ace.
“Both of you guys are so weird,” Ace complains, sighing loudly as both of them practically clamber on top of him, wincing as Luffy’s foot juts into his stomach, before the two of them clasp one of his hands and intertwine their fingers, and Ace decides to ignore the happy giggles that stream from their mouths, to ignore the wretched fondness that trickles into his chest at the delighted sounds. He feels embarrassed and exasperated, finally knowing what the warmth invading his chest means every time his brothers do something like this, but he doesn’t find himself wishing for anything else. The feeling isn’t uncomfortable, so he can live with it.
Wrapping his free arm around both Ace and Sabo, Luffy huffs in response, burrowing his face into Ace’s neck. Ace swallows down a yelp as Luffy’s head jerks and bumps his chin, causing a loud clack noise as his teeth smash together. “You’re stupid, Ace, cuz’ you’re even weirder than us,” Luffy states petulantly, sniffing.
Sabo hums, and Ace sighs because he knows where this is going—they always do this every time Ace calls them weird, and it’s so annoying.
“He’s right, Ace…you are pretty weird,” Sabo tacks on, head resting against Ace’s chest, over his heartbeat, and Ace wills them to hurry up and get their scripted teasing over with.
“Mhm, even Sabo agrees! That means I’m right,” Luffy laughs, “You’re even weirder than us!”
“Exactly, Luffy. See, Ace, even Luffy knows I’m the smarter one,” Sabo sighs, patting Ace’s shoulder in mock pity. “It’s alright, though. You’re still our brother, even though you’re really weird! And stupid!”
“God, just shut up and sleep already!”
Ace feels a chill run up his spine as he slowly turns, hair pricking up in anticipation, and—
All he sees are his two brothers.
Staring at him.
He stares back, thinking they’d blink eventually, but they just…stare. They’re not even doing anything—they’re just sitting there, holding hands. He thought he’d be used to the staring by now, but it still unnerves him a little.
…They’re so weird.
"Stop staring at me like that you motherfuckers!"
