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how to split up treasure

Summary:

In which Sabo regains his memories a little later than in canon, Luffy decides to kidnap an unconscious man, and Koala is driven insane.

Notes:

canon is for losers anyway. real sigmas have suspension of disbelief.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

 

The price- or the perk, depending on who you ask- of being a Revolutionary is that every day comes with something unexpected. 

Koala supposes that’s because every day comes with a new life to live, a new face to put on, and each little lifetime will have its own quirks. Today, she wears the work boots of an average civilian who resides on an unremarkable New World island (well, as normal as anything in the New World can be). 

She’s glad at least one thing remains consistent in her occupation; the people who live these many stories by her side. 

Hack is at Kamabakka, holding up the fort while their plan for the Reverie most likely blows itself apart in someone’s face, whether that be theirs or the ugly mug of the World Nobles. She was able to convince Sabo to stay by her side to confirm rumors of rebellion on the little island while the world is distracted. After all, the Chief in Staff shouldn’t risk himself now. In the worst case scenario, the Army needs a leader (and Koala needs a partner, not that she’d say so to his face). 

So, the two of them are trotting along cobbled streets, conversing with storeowners and fading into the background when they hear rumors of an Emperor docking at the village.

In small towns, rumors spread like wildfire, so it’s no surprise that within five minutes of his first mention, the arrival of Straw Hat Luffy seems to be the sole topic of conversation.


 Windows are boarded, stores are closed down, and the air gathers an aura of suspense. The villagers seem an equal mix of terrified and excited to see what’s in store for them. (Knowing the patterns of the Emperors, it’s most likely nothing more than a booze shortage.)

 

Sabo starts over dramatically complaining of a headache, and Koala belatedly realizes it’s probably a good idea to get the heck out of here before the Emperor shows up. 

As soon as she can get the thought out of her lips, Straw Hat Luffy comes flying in, yelling about meat. Koala’s surprised it isn’t booze, but the interaction isn’t too far out of the ordinary. 

Not until Sabo’s eyes begin to glaze over. 

“Sabo, are you alright?” 

Not even Sabo seems to realize what’s happening as he slumps down and falls into Koala’s outstretched hands. Neither notice that they’ve gleaned the attention of Straw Hat Luffy. 

“OI, SABO! WAKE UP!” 

Koala belatedly deems the use of Sabo’s real name irrelevant- it’s something they’d usually avoid, but emotion clouds her judgement. 

She doesn’t notice the quiet that seeps over the streets. 

“Hey, Apple Hat.” 

Apple Hat? Koala knows Straw Hat is talking to her, if the Conquerer’s directed at her is any indication. What a dumb nickname. Not that she’s got much leeway to care, as the air seems to press in on her. 

“What did you call that guy?” 

“Um- Taso!” Koala knows her attempt at recovery is pointless, especially as a force she can only recognize as Conquerer’s Haki pushes in on her harder. 

If she could describe the feeling that overwhelms her as Luffy repeats his question, she would only call it fear itself. The world presses in onto her body, an eternal answer escaping her lips without her consent. 

“Sabo.” 

She only has enough time to process her relief from the Emperor’s chokehold before Straw Hat Luffy picks up Sabo and rushes away. 

As a Revolutionary, Koala has learned to expect the unexpected- but not this. 

Seriously, did Straw Hat Luffy just kidnap an unconscious man? Just what otherworldly force did she evoke the wrath of this time? 

__________

 

“Oi, Luffy. What are you doing with that body? We aren’t that broke.”

 

Pirate Hunter Zoro, with a bounty of over a billion, snaps as Luffy ambles onto the Thousand Sunny, Sabo draped limply over his shoulder, and Koala sneaks over the railing. What the hell is he implying? Are they planning to sell his organs on the black market? Turn him into the Marines? Or- or- she’s not even going to consider that possibility. 

 

“If Luffy wanted to sell him, he wouldn’t be dead.” Nico Robin glances absently up from the magazine she’s invested in. “The Marines give 30% less for… expired bounties.” 

 

“So my bounty, for example, would go down if someone managed to kill me,” Soul King Brook pipes in, “Ah! But I’m already dead!” 

 

“Chopper.” 

 

As Straw Hat Luffy speaks, a hush falls over the Thousand Sunny. The will of a king makes even his crew silent with a single, opaque word. For the umpteenth time, Koala wonders what they could possibly have done to deserve the wrath of an Emperor. 

 

Despite evidence to the contrary, it’s not fury that comes next. 

 

“Take him to the infirmary.” 

 

The little tanuki in question morphs into a tall, muscular man of sorts, taking Sabo from Straw Hat’s shoulder and laying him on a sunny patch of grass (seriously, who puts a lawn on their ship? Who kidnaps an unconscious man?) 

 

“There’s no physical damage, but he’s running a fever of 41 degrees! Someone, call a doctor!” 

 

“YOU ARE A DOCTOR!” God Usopp yells back.

 

“Oh yeah! He needs a diagnosis and treatment right now!” With no questions asked, Chopper carries Sabo inside the ship, making sure to retain a gentle, balanced hold on him. 

 

“Now then, if that’s taken care of,” Cat Burglar Nami smiles as she cracks her knuckles and murderous intent incubates just behind her teeth, “WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY? WHERE THE HELL DID YOU FIND HIM?” 

 

“It’s Sabo!” Luffy and Robin say in unison.

 

“Wait, Robin, you know Sabo?” 

 

“I do,” she beams as she adjusts her sunglasses. It’s so nonchalant that Koala starts to wonder how she didn’t see that Nico Robin is just as insane as the rest of her lot. Maybe the craziness of one was drowned out by that of her partner’s during the two years they worked together. “His passing is truly a shame.” 

 

“HE’S NOT DEAD! WHO CARES ANYWAYS? LUFFY, DID YOU JUST KIDNAP AN UNCONSCIOUS MAN?” 

 

“No,” Luffy blatantly lies.

 

Whistles turn to screams as the surrounding Straw Hats wince, and Nami pummels her captain into the ground. 

 

Koala’s been on the Thousand Sunny for five minutes, and she already understands that the Straw Hats are collectively more insane than Koala thought possible. That is an incredible feat, seeing as she’s spent the past decade with Sabo of all people. Seriously, how did they get a calm and collected man like Jinbe to join them?  

 

(Cat Burglar, of course, is an exception to the rule. She’s doing good work here.) 

 

________


Koala’s managed to find a crack in the floorboards just over the infirmary, where she can watch her comrade with ease (and possibly figure out WHY THE HELL THE STRAW HATS WOULD KIDNAP AN UNCONSCIOUS CIVILIAN-) 

 

Seriously, it makes no sense. According to her studies of the Emperor's movements, this occurrence is far from predictable. 

 

Straw Hat Luffy’s behavior has never exactly been predictable, sure, but from her understanding, it’s got one common through line: liberation. 

Reports from the East Blue posted after Arlong’s defeat show that he had taken control of the Conomi Islands. The Revolutionary that came to check the area after Arlong’s defeat noted that the civilians praised Straw Hat Luffy for his service to them. It doesn’t make sense, but the only other story comes from the Marines, and she’d trust anything before them.

 

Crocodile was revealed to have plans of obliterating Alabasta and its people. Nico Robin has regaled her again and again with a tale of the burning flag, the island, the ball and chain that turned to ash with them, left to become a relic of history.

 

The Celestial Dragon Straw Hat punched was attempting to buy a young mermaid, and Hody Jones was the jerk who killed Otohime, apparently. Koala really wishes she could have seen those smack downs.

 

Seas know it was time for Donquixote Doflamingo to be usurped. She didn’t get the time to thank Luffy for doing their job for them (and now she doesn’t exactly feel like giving any gratitude to the man who kidnapped her partner.) Nobody knows exactly what happened in Totto Land or Wano, but based on the fact that both were Emperor territories, it can be assumed that their dismantling followed a similar theme. 

Sometimes, she wonders why Straw Hat never joined the Revolutionary Army. He’d have been an incredible freedom fighter, and she’s sure Dragon gave him the opportunity. 

Maybe if he was a Revolutionary, Koala wouldn’t be so furious about the gaze he gives Sabo as he walks into the infirmary with uncharacteristically gentle footsteps. 

(He looks at him like he’s treasure.) 

Straw Hat Luffy doesn’t get to do that. 

He’s never met Sabo, after all. 

Koala acknowledges the possibility that Straw Hat was a part of Sabo’s story before its beginning. However, that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t get to look at Sabo like treasure. 

He’s never met the blank canvas of a boy with only an old top hat and a broken telescope to his name. Straw Hat Luffy wasn’t there on sunny days, exploring the halls of Baltigo, laughing as they dashed into a corner to hide from their superiors. He wasn’t there on the nights, raiding the refrigerator before Koala could drag him away. 

He wasn’t there to watch him grow from a burnt piece of parchment into a beautiful creation that almost seemed to wield the fire it was conceived by as if it was his own. To laugh at the cracks in his voice, hold his hand straight as he watched it turn a shining obsidian. 

Straw Hat Luffy does not know Sabo. 

(But he has the audacity to look at him as if he loves him, and it makes Koala sick.) 

________

There are an obscene amount of secret passageways in the Thousand Sunny. 

Seriously, are the Straw Hats trying to get spied on? So far, Koala’s found three doorways hidden in paintings, five in mirrors, two trapdoors, and three cabinets with connectors to the tunnel system of the ship inside. And those are just the most obvious ones! 


In the library, she’s discovered five levers disguised as books. Five! Who needs that many secret passageways? It’s excessive, unnecessary, and honestly insane- though Koala supposes she can say that about anything the Straw Hat Pirates do (ESPECIALLY KIDNAPPING THE CHIEF IN STAFF OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY.) 

 

Well, she can’t exactly complain. It makes her job easier, after all. 


At the moment, she’s just above the door to the galley, in the passageway just behind the seemingly decorative wheel that hangs over the dining table. 

The Straw Hats crowd around their insanely large meal in an awkward silence. The absence of Luffy is felt by his  crew, but he’s been insistent on staying by Sabo’s side. 


Koala couldn’t stand to look any longer at  the reckless Emperor of the Sea staring down at her partner with a golden, gentle gaze. It makes her want to beat the crap out of Straw Hat Luffy, but she knows for a fact that she’s far too weak (and has far too much self-preservation) to take on an Emperor.

 

If Luffy kills him, it’s Sabo’s fault for fainting over dramatically in the middle of the street. 


(And if she wanted to see Jinbe, who could blame her for leaving Sabo’s side?) 

 

The great blue Fishman in question is clearly in the half of the crew with reasonable manners. Tony Tony Chopper eats like an animal (is he an animal? What exactly is he?), Cyborg Franky doesn’t bother with silverware, God Usopp stuffs pasta into his mouth while polishing his slingshot, and the worst offender of them all, Pirate Hunter Zoro, wipes sauce on Black Leg’s suit pants as he lets booze dribble onto his shirt. 


Seriously, why did Jinbe join these ruffians? He’s drinking his wine quietly, wiping his face with an appropriately placed napkin- 

 

-until his drink blows out of his nostrils. 

Crap. 

How did she infiltrate the ship of an Emperor without planning for the fact that there would be multiple Observation users on board? Is Sabo rubbing off on her? No. Please no, not that-

 

”KOALA?” 

“Ah, Koala! I was wondering when she’d show up.” 

“A lady,” Black Leg says as his face steels. 

Pirate Hunter slams his giant bottle of grog against the table, letting it splash all over God Usopp’s overalls. He glares directly at her figure, focused as the walls begin to crack around her and the passageway is split open. Koala, who was leaning against it, flies out and faceplants into a plate of spaghetti.

 

Nami, the only person she can trust to have a reasonable reaction here, screams “SPY!”

 

When she pulls herself up from an undoubtedly tragic position, she’s met with Black Leg Sanji, who wipes the red sauce off of her cheeks and- licks it? What in the- 

 

Black Leg can probably see the frustration on her face, as he puts a rose in her hair (where he got said flower? Nobody knows. Any semblance of logic left in Koala’s mind has been destroyed by the insanity that is the Straw Hats.) and says “We don’t waste food here, my love.” 

Koala’s never been more tempted to smash an Emperor’s Commander into a bowl of soup and tell him to stuff his face. That’s not saying much, seeing as the conditions to do so are fairly rare. 

Jinbe’s gone white- more of a baby blue, really. She really does pity him. This is not how she wanted to see one of her saviors for the first time in seas know how long, and she’s sure Jinbe feels the same. 

Tony Tony Chopper asks if she- the spy that just fell onto their dining table- needs any first aid, and Koala’s patience is wearing thin. Seriously, for all Chopper knows, she could be a CP0 agent or something! Maybe expecting them to take her threat seriously was expecting too much of the Straw Hat Pirates. 

“I’m just glad someone’s finally using my super secret passages,” Franky comments amidst the hollering of the crew. 

 

“THERE ARE SECRET PASSAGES IN THE SUNNY? WAIT, USOPP, IS THAT WHY YOU ALWAYS WIN HIDE AND SEEK?” 

“Of course not! You know, recently, I discovered a portal from the Sunny to the great Island of Hiding Places-“ 

 

“I wonder if there are any decomposing bodies in there.” 

“Nah, that’s just the mosshead’s stink.” 

“Your perfume smells like a rotting corpse, Golden Ratio.” 

“How the hell do you know what a Golden Ratio is?” 

“I know more than you think, dartboard!” 

“You don’t even know how to use a map!” 

“IS ANYONE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE  SPY THAT JUST FELL ONTO THE TABLE???” 

The spy in question’s patience wanes thin with every word any one of the Straw Hats says. They’re insane, rowdy, and they’ve got her partner captured on their ship, which has an obscene amount of useless secret passageways. 

 

However, when she turns around and stares into Jinbe’s terrified eyes, she’s too young, too afraid, too tired to care. 


“Thank you,” she gasps before letting the little bit of insanity she has acquired take her in its salty grasp, jumping off of the dining table of an Emperor and into an old friend’s startled yet eternally gentle arms.

 

(She really hopes he doesn’t mind his kimono being stained with marinara and tears.) 


________

 

A lot of explaining, a lot more apologizing, and an amount of hollering larger than her senses were made to handle later, she’s in the infirmary staring down at her partner once again. She’s wearing one of Robin’s old tank tops (which would work well as a dress on Koala,) and simple work shorts. Her hand is pressed against Sabo’s burning forehead as she tries with an intense focus not to take a glance at the Emperor adjacent to her. 

He's quiet. 

Though Koala doesn’t know Straw Hat Luffy, one thing is certain to her; that the captain of a crew so rambunctious, so powerful in its presence, the man who punched a Celestial in the face without hesitation, should not be quiet. 

She’s heard the sounds of war, the screeching and banging of tanks and guns, tasted the pungent tang of a life taken far too early. She knows the screams of mourning and oppression like the back of her hand, her mind, the time she doesn’t ever want to remember the full extent of. 


Nonetheless, the silence of Straw Hat Luffy might just be the loudest thing she’s ever heard. 

Their doctor works steadfastly even under the pressure of his footsteps being his only company, placing wires and tubes on Sabo’s body with steady hands (hooves?).


He’s taking on the weight of such tension without hesitation, and watching him makes Koala start to understand. No matter how loud and annoying Monkey D. Luffy is known to be, how overwhelming his very existence is, it’s his silence that only the Straw Hats are able to handle. 

”Chopper.” Luffy speaks, and Koala exhales a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “How is he?” 

Chopper doesn’t know how to respond. “When did he attain that- the-“ 

 

“Head injury? He’s never been right in the mind since I’ve met him.” (In many ways, Koala thinks idly.) 

“Has he showcased any signs of memory loss while you’ve known him?” 

“He doesn’t remember anything from before we found him twelve years ago.”

That statement seems to get the Emperor’s attention, and Koala takes a little bit of pleasure in the way he sits up straighter. 

“His hippocampus is showing a lot of activity,” Chopper continues, oblivious to his captain’s probable toil, “I’ve never treated an amnesia patent before, but I can say there is a good chance that something triggered his memory. His brain could be letting the subconsciously stored memories flood into his system, or he could be suppressing the memories he’s made since the trauma due to the trigger. Every patient is different, so there’s no way to know.” 

That news makes Koala sick to her stomach. The idea that Sabo could simply forget everything he’s built- everything they’ve built- is utterly horrifying (and though she’d never admit it, the idea of him regaining memories from the first ten years of his life is just as scary). 

“All of that’s boring,” Luffy says, shattering Koala’s sense of superiority. “Is Sabo gonna be okay?” 

 

“Yes,” Chopper replies. “He should wake up within the next 48 hours.” 

 

“48 hours? Isn’t that 3 days?”

 

”2,” Koala responds absent-mindedly, and  Straw Hat Luffy twists his neck to meet her eyes. 

“You’re here too, Apple Hat? WAIT, 2 DAYS? THAT’S 14 MEALS!” Straw Hat Luffy, as urgency is painted over his face, shakes his captive intensely. “SABO, YOU GOTTA WAKE UP! YOU’RE GONNA MISS 16 MEALS!” 



(His screaming is almost a relief. She’d never say that aloud, though.) 

 

"IDIOT!"

 

Rubber cheeks are surprisingly fun to stretch out, and the sound they make as they snap back is incredibly satisfying.

_____



Jinbe is awake just early enough to savor the dawn on the second morning. 

Webbed hands clasp onto Sunny’s helm, slipping into subtle grooves as if it was made for him to hold. 

As Koala walks up to the wheel, teacup in hand, the first cracks of golden sun reveal themselves.

 

She doesn’t know where to start, how to thank him for taking on a little girl who barely fit in his palm and enabling her to become the woman she was (whatever that was, having been lost among a thousand lifetime, was free.) 

 

Thankfully, Jinbe begins for her. 

 

"I... cannot convey how grateful I am."

 

"What do you have to be grateful for? You're the one who saved my life." 

 

"I'd beg to differ. Truly, you have done an incredible deed." 

 

(However, they both know the truth. It's not his life Koala saved; it's his morals. It's the hundreds of children, human and fishman alike, who stare into her eyes through ash and rubble and see her as their savior. It's the cycle that began with a little girl lost amidst a thousand deceiving smiles and a man who saw a little girl tied down by the restraints of a vengeful God who saw the pleading eyes, the plastered smiles of children and caged them all the same. It's a man who finally, wholeheartedly, looked into the eyes of children, human and fishman alike, and saw no difference.) 

 

It's a man who is finally, terrifyingly, allowed to live for himself. 

"Stop being such a selfless idiot and accept my gratitude, alright?"

 

"I will not," he replies. "On behalf of my nation, the work you've done is-" Jinbe tilts his head down in preparation for a bow. Koala won't allow it. 

 

"Are you gonna keep being such a sap or am I gonna have to beat it into you?" Jinbe’s finally getting the chance to live selfishly, and Koala won’t let him waste it.

 

As his figure falls further to the ground, Koala receives her answer. 

 

(Armament Haki can't break through Adam Wood, right? Well, she hopes so. Otherwise, she's going to be in so much debt.) 

 

As Koala builds up force in her palm, Jinbe's face splits into a wild grin.

 

"You don't even know what I can do, Jinbe." The fish man in question is unmoving as she comes in for the hit. 

 

Her Shark Brick Fist doesn't land. Instead, she's thrown over Jinbe's body with an incredibly powerful gust and plummets straight into the floor. As Jinbe goes in for the finisher, Koala props her body up in order to push him back with a single, well-timed kick. 

 

As she reenters a fighting stance, wiping sweat off of her forehead, she glares directly at Jinbe and smiles. "By the way, Hack said hi. He also wanted me to tell you to stop being such an altruistic fool." 

 

"So you've become a revolutionary? At least that’s what I heard Hack was doing last." Jinbe's urge to express gratitude radiates on the deck. Koala’s urge to beat his face in raises with it. “You have no idea what a beacon of hope you’ve become, do you?” 

Koala bends her sweat into a Water Shot that nearly sends Jinbe overboard.


“I’ve become what I wanted to be.”

The sunrise illuminates Jinbe as he guffaws, face tilted back over the railing. His laughter is completely genuine, and his joy couldn’t shine brighter in Koala’s eyes. She’s become what she wanted to be, and Jinbe has finally, undoubtedly, done the same.

(Damnit. She really didn’t want another thing to thank Straw Hat Luffy for.) 

 

“Thank you,” she murmurs, facing towards the open sea, the golden tint of sunshine that ripples throughout it. 

After living so many little lifetimes, it’s surprisingly easy to forget just how impactful they can be. How a single salty tear, a kind word, a gasp of golden sun can be enough to begin a ripple, a cycle, that liberates the world. 

“At least thank both of us,” Koala corrects.

It really is beautiful, how perfectly they slip into a mold of freedom. How an endlessly smiling little girl became a woman with a thousand little lifetimes to live, each one free of the muzzle placed upon her. 

How the hands of a man raised, carved to fight for freedom at any cost, fit so perfectly into this moment- one on Koala’s hip, the other firmly on the wheel. How a man once hesitantly willing to sacrifice the freedom of one child for that of others began to look ahead towards the place where the sea reaches the sky, a mirror for the rising sun. 


It’s just a surprise that that place is the Thousand Sunny.

 

Koala should probably be used to surprises at this point, but she does appreciate her shock- it’s the only thing keeping her tied to sanity. 

 

“Straw Hat better be an incredible man,” Koala thinks aloud. “Otherwise, I’m not forgiving him.” 

Because the mold for a life built so beautifully, so selflessly, better be nary a form at all. She won’t say Jinbe’s earned his freedom- after all, that should be a right- but if anyone deserves it, it’s him. 

“He is,” Jinbe replies as he inhales salty sea breeze and Koala leans in closer. “You don’t have to worry about me- or your partner, for that matter.” 

“His captive,” Koala corrects. She’s got a right to be anxious, after all. 

“His friend,” Jinbe argues, “I’m sure of it.” 

“A stranger.” 

(He’s encased in darkness as Fire Fist is led to his doom. Even the footsteps- no, the drumbeat of a man he’s only now fated to meet are music to his ears after hours of cursed, scraping silence. When he finally makes out a boy in a straw hat, glares into his eyes, searches for his judgement, it is not a stranger that stares back. It’s not his destiny, nor is it the sunlight he’s been searching for. It’s simply a silver stare that promises a single thing; that swears an oath in Jinbe’s heartstrings before he can even react. When he sets eyes upon Straw Hat Luffy for the first time, he sees, at the very least, a comrade.) 

 

“A label that superficial doesn’t matter to Luffy,” Jinbe replies. “He’s decided to take him in, and my captain nearly always gets what he wants.” 


“That’s not his decision!” 

“You’re right. It’s your partner’s,” Jinbe responds, certain in his conviction, his freedom, the place of his hands on the helm. 

“But is there really any other choice?” 

“The choice to stay sane,” Koala says, but that argument fell apart a while ago.

 

_____

 

Koala has always loved the stars.


When she was a little girl, they were a symbol of freedom; something she’d never actually laid eyes upon, yet something that she, in the deepest reaches of her childlike heart that fire and chains could not reach, hoped to see someday.

Once she could finally see the blanket of night, the curtains of a stage she could finally dance upon, Koala fell in love. The sea would always be her home, her world, the place she’d always come back to, and freedom would always be her calling, but the stars were her romance. 

They were specks of light amidst a world of darkness. Perhaps they were the light at the end of a long, winding tunnel. Their patterns would always lead her home to the sea, to the revolution, to kick her feet against adobe as she and Sabo watched a meteor rocket past. 

 

On the Thousand Sunny, the night, though clear, is far too eerie for Koala’s liking. 

The Straw Hats are so clearly a crew made for the dawn, so uncomfortable in the absence of the sun that the blanket of stardust is reduced to a place to drink with ghosts. 

In the galley, Black Leg Sanji prepares ingredients for the next day’s meals, cutting and portioning with far too much care for a man with a mind solely on cooking. Pirate Hunter Zoro is in the crow’s nest, chugging a bottle of sake, hand firmly on the white hilt of his sword. Around ten o’ clock, Cyborg Franky climbed up the winding ladder, basket of cola in hand, to join him in a toast to everything they’ve left behind. 

On the deck, God Usopp murmurs stories to the wind, perhaps hoping that somewhere in the distance, across the open sea, someone receives his message. Soul King Brook does the same with a somber tune on his violin. 

Koala lies wide awake on a makeshift mattress in the women’s dormitory, watching the open sky through narrow cracks in the ceiling. 

(Koala has always loved the stars, but watching them without Sabo by her side only makes the night darker.) 

 

She peels off the face mask forced upon her by an overexcited Nami, apparently ebullient to have another girl onboard (Koala really shouldn’t have expected a single ounce of sanity on the Thousand Sunny) and quiets her footsteps as she makes her way to the infirmary. 

What she finds there is only expected in hindsight. 

(At night, Straw Hat Luffy drinks with ghosts.) 

 

“-Ace was so mad! I still don't know why, I was fine afterwards-"

If Koala was perfectly sane, perhaps she’d give the Emperor the privacy that the moment she’d walked in on required. She’d understand that she shouldn’t bother Luffy while he laughs with the dead, leave the tension inside the room lower than Koala's ever experienced it. 


She, at the very least, will give Straw Hat the respect of not inquiring about the stories he tells. She will, however, ask why he’s telling them in the first place- why he has the audacity to look at Sabo like he’s treasure. 

(Perhaps Koala isn’t perfectly sane, especially when her best friend is involved.) 

 

“You know he can’t hear you, right?”

 

Luffy looks up at her, silver eyes engraving themselves into her soul. 

 

“You know he doesn’t remember you, right? Or anything about the first ten years of his life? You know he’s not whatever Sabo you want him to be, right?” 

 

“Yeah,” Luffy replies. “Why should I care?” 

Koala begins to sputter, but she finds herself asking if she would care if she slipped away from Sabo’s mind. She would care- it would shatter her heart like a bottle of booze, leaving her insides, the love that’s aged so beautifully spilled on the wooden floor, leaving her with nothing but shards of glass to pick up one by one as her hands bled.


She would care. She would care too much- but she’d like to think she’d stay.

 

So, Koala places herself at the foot of Sabo’s bed, sighing as she replies. “I don’t really know.” 

“He’s going on his own adventures, right? That’s what matters.” 

Koala looks down onto her callused palms, made of layers upon layers of floors scrubbed, of rubble dug through, of slaps given, of skin and flesh that peels as it regrows. They tell a very different story than they once did, but nevertheless they contain the imprint of her dreams. 

Sabo’s probably got a different dream than he did all those years ago, when he was someone else. No, not different. It’s the same dream, the same hands, marred with scars and burns, flesh and skin that tears as it regrows. It’s the same heartbeat, in the end. 

In the infirmary, under a curtain of stars, three hearts still beat for liberation. 

She can’t recall the day when freedom for oneself became freedom for all in her heart, her hands. She wouldn’t be surprised if neither Sabo nor Luffy could recognize the same. Perhaps it wasn’t a single day. Maybe dreams are allowed to grow, to change, to morph to fit the molds of separate people. 

Perhaps the sea can be all of their homes, freedom all their callings, the stars all their romances. Maybe, just maybe, it never mattered who exactly someone was, as long as they all could see the same sky, could reach for the same blazing sun. 

Perhaps… that is freedom. 

“Yeah,” Koala replies as a warmth settles in her chest and back. “That’s all that matters.” 

Luffy laughs. Sabo could be forgetting Koala’s name for all she cares. 

Koala looks outside the infirmary’s window, watching the starlight filter in. She’ll murmur tales of lost sailors who turned to the stars above to lead them wherever they needed to go, and neither Luffy nor Sabo will likely listen. 

She’ll fall asleep here, brushing through Sabo’s golden locks as Straw Hat Luffy drinks sake out of a broken bottle, a toast to the ghosts who dance among the stars. 


When the dawn shines through the window, she’ll take on whatever comes with it. After all, no matter what, the tides will keep flowing, freedom will keep calling, and the sky will always be there to unite them. 

________________


Koala’s in the kitchen blowing steam off of her morning cup of tea (made by Black Leg, who was already in the kitchen when she stumbled in at 5:30 AM on the dot, with love, apparently. Said ‘love’ tastes more like chamomile, but that’s besides the point) when she hears a cacophony that sounds suspiciously like a series of unsavory ramblings, followed by the breaking of glass and something like a bouncy ball hitting the floor with insane force. 

“That’ll be the idiot you kidnapped. I’ll go ahead and take care of it.” 

“Oh, our parting is such sweet sorrow!” Black Leg’s loony ramblings fade into the distance as Koala rushes back into the infirmary, tea left behind. 

She stops at the door to find Straw Hat Luffy rubbing his eyes as if to confirm reality, while Sabo pauses, one foot out the window. 

Nobody makes a sound for a drawling moment. 

Then, Sabo slowly creaks back, standing tall on the mattress, arms opening and back straight. 

“Is it you? Sabo?” Luffy takes the oppurtunity to break the torturous silence with a question that makes absolutely no sense. 

Koala would assume he’s asking about the man’s memories, but he’s made it perfectly clear that he cares about every lifetime of Sabo, even the ones he wasn’t there to see. Perhaps he’s just confirming the man’s identity. Even after three winding days, he could still feel as if he’s in a daydream. That assumption is confirmed by the look in Luffy’s eyes- as if he’s waiting to wake up at any moment, but he’s begging the world to let this be real.

 

”Are you still the rubber idiot I swore brotherhood with that day?” 

And- oh. They’re brothers. Suddenly, the final piece falls into place. After all, having lived a thousand lifetimes, Koala understands better than most that the sake flowing through one’s veins perseveres through just about anything. 

Wait, if they’re brothers, wouldn’t that mean Fire Fist- 

 

(Screw Sabo for tugging at her heartstrings). 

Her train of thought is interrupted by Sabo’s next words, clouded with ink and tears. 

“Just… don’t go easy on me, okay?” 

 

Luffy interprets this as permission to embrace Sabo in a rubber hug so tight Koala thinks she can hear bones cracking as he’s knocked down. Good. 

“Finally beat me, huh?” 

“This one doesn’t count.” Their words become more and more jumbled by tears as they twist into one. 

“You’d have totally taken that victory when we were kids. You’ve- I bet you’ve gotten a lot stronger, huh? I’m proud of you.” 

“Not strong enough,” the Emperor of the sea murmurs, finally falling apart, and if Koala could make a single sound her knees would be crashing to the wooden floor. “I wasn’t strong enough.” 

“Crap,” Sabo says as grief crashes down upon him like a tidal wave, “The war. Ace. He’s-“ 

 

I wasn’t strong enough,” Luffy continues, picking up the pieces. “But I am now! I bet I could beat you now that I’m finally strong enough to protect my crew! To protect you!” 

“That’s my job, Lu,” Sabo whimpers, and the sound of three hearts shattering is probably loud enough to wake the sleeping Sea Kings underneath them. “That should’ve been my job.” 


“Your job is to be free.” Luffy looks up at his older brother, and Sabo does his best to hide his tears. “Are you?” 

“Yeah,” Sabo gasps as a thousand little lifetimes merge into one. His completed image is something beautiful, terrifying, mesmerizing, and Koala can’t do anything but stare. 

“But you’re gonna be the freest.” 

“The King of the Pirates!” three brothers say as one. 

“I can’t wait to see it,” Sabo says, pulling Luffy in. Their silence isn’t as loud as it would usually be. It’s much more musical, more ethereal, the perfect soundtrack for the sunrise that fills the room. 


It probably helps that it’s not silence, truly, that comes. It’s two boys sobbing all over each other, both too cocky to admit it. 

Koala steps back with grace, because she can recognize she’s not needed here. 


(She’s… not needed.) 

 

And where that should make her feel hollow and sick, like a bottle of sake whose contents have been spilled onto the floor, a mess for her to put her head down and clean up with a plastered smile, it doesn’t. 

Because when she looks at Sabo, she’s faced with a stranger who’s lived a thousand little lifetimes without her. 

Because Sabo looks at Straw Hat Luffy like he’s treasure, and for that, Koala can hold back her sickness.

 

Because- 

 

“Koala!” Sabo says, opening his arms for one more after wiping his snot all over the sheets (seriously, how unsanitary can he be), “I’ve been wondering where you were!” 

Because Koala can’t help but notice that Sabo has enough love to span a thousand little lifetimes. Because Sabo looks at her and she finally sees that she’s treasure to him, too. 


“I’ve been making sure these lunatics don’t get you killed, idiot!” 


Because one fact is undoubtedly true; the Straw Hat Pirates are completely and utterly insane (but she’s just as crazy as they are, isn’t she?) 

 

After all, a woman made to apply a thousand faces, to be a part of a thousand stories, could never exactly be normal. This is the expectation- and the price- of a revolutionary lifestyle. 

She’s going to have a thousand people by her side; even those who live little lifetimes with her now will probably leave her someday. However, that doesn’t mean she- her own self, her own life, lost at the center of it all, won’t have a lesser place in their hearts. 

But, Koala thinks, allowing herself to be selfish as cracks of sunlight shine through the Thousand Sunny’s windows, there’s no life she’d rather be living. 


Of course, like all things perfect in her life, the moment is ruined by the growl of Sabo’s stomach. 

“I’m hungry.” 

Luffy bounces off of the little bed, excitement in his eyes. “Wanna raid the fridge?”

“Do you even have to ask?” 

 

“STOP RIGHT THERE! A LOT OF THINGS SHOULD TAKE PRIORITY BEFORE YOUR BOTTOMLESS PIT OF A STOMACH! LIKE, I DON’T KNOW, THE TEN YEARS OF-“ 

 

“Food always takes first priority!” Koala decides not to ruin their excitement by telling them Black Leg is most likely preparing a meal at this very moment. Sabo flashes her a cheeky, golden grin, and she falls behind them as they run towards whatever the future holds. 

“Greedy bastards,” she mutters fondly. 

(Though on that matter, she can acknowledge she’s a bit of a hypocrite.) 

Notes:

Firstly, to the readers of Dos Fleurs:

The next chapter is going to be the big one. It will most likely be longer, crazier, and more emotional than any other part of the story. Thus, I really want to get it right. So, it will probably be a week or two before it’s ready to post, but I promise it’ll be out by the new year. In the meantime, enjoy this absolute treat of a oneshot! (P.S. 1133 fixed me, so if anyone wants to rant about it in the comments I am happy to oblige)

Secondly, the results of this:

-Sabo ends up staying with the straw hats for the next week or so. Koala discovers Sanji is an amazing punching bag.
-Chopper is incredibly exasperated for the course of this week.
-So are the rest of the Straw Hats. After all, there are two of them now.
-The Straw Hats took the Flame Flame Fruit for safekeeping in Dressrosa. They decide to give it to Sabo. Koala takes on the role of official anchor retriever, and she despises it with all her being (or so she says)
-Nami’s lesbianism is out of control. Does she end up charming yet another girl? That’s up to your interpretation.
-The WG ends up pinning Cobra’s murder on Dragon instead. Does anyone care? About as much as the deadbeat cares for his son (basically not at all, lmao)
-Jinbe attempts to apologize many more times. Koala punts him into the ocean many more times.

Your support always makes me smile :]

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