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The first thing Ace notices when he wakes up is the giggle next to his ear, the next is the wet feeling of a marker on his cheeks. When he opens his eyes, he sees Luffy beaming at him, followed by Sabo stepping into his field of vision with a huge grin on his face.
“Hey sleeping beauty, finally joining us again.”
Wiping his hand over his cheek, he glowered at the red marker that came back with it.
“Luffy…”
The youngest of them just beams brighter before tossing down the marker, turning around and running. Sabo is a second later, laughing out loud when he drops the blue marker before bolting as well.
Getting to his feet, Ace runs after his brothers. Soon forgetting that he was angry in the first place, at least until he looks at his face in the river up the mountain. Glowering at his brothers again as he sees the lines connecting his freckles with red and blue markers.
“Must you do that every time I fall asleep?”
Luffy nods, while Sabo just laughs, before agreeing that they both have to do that as it is so fun to do.
“It’s something that only the two of us are able to do. You would never allow anyone close enough to do that.”
Huffing, Ace looks away, they have a point there. There would never be someone out there who he would allow close enough to do this. Someone he had the same bonds with as he did with Sabo and Luffy.
It would take losing Sabo before he knows what loss feels like. The first time he has a sleep attack after Sabo’s not with them any more, he misses the feeling of wet marker on his face. Looking at his face, clear of any lines, hurts almost as much.
When he finds Luffy, he sees his brother sitting on the other side of their treehouse.
“Lu..?”
Luffy looks up, tears in his eyes that he tries to keep from spilling. Sighing, Ace opens his arms and has them full of a sobbing younger brother. He tries, and fails, to keep his own tears at bay at the loss they are both feeling now.
“Ace… I miss him.”
Ace nods, “Is that why..?”
Nodding against his chest, he has to strain his ears to hear Luffy saying that he couldn’t do that. Not without Sabo there to do it with him. It had been something Sabo, and he had done whenever Ace fell asleep.
He could understand not wanting to do that, there were things like that every day that neither of them wanted to do without Sabo. It hurt to do those without Sabo there at their side.
“If you don’t want to do it again, just… We can find something else to do. I don’t want to do this without Sabo either.”
Luffy nods against his chest, which makes it all the more as this is something Luffy enjoyed doing (Ace did too, but he wasn’t so open about it), which they had trouble doing now as one of them wasn’t here any more.
Clutching Luffy close to him, Ace hopes they can find something else. He loves his freckles, even more so knowing they came from his mother, and loved them even more because of what his brothers were able to do.
The time he spent on the Moby Dick, and the Piece of Spadille before that, no one ever played connect the freckles on his face.
Thatch and Haruta tried once when he was a new official member, and he blew up at that. Told them they couldn’t do that.
Marco took him aside not long after to ask what that was about. He bit his lip at that, looking away before explaining.
“My brothers used to do that, back when we were kids. After… After we lost Sabo, we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it again. I don’t… It’s something Luffy and Sabo used to do, no one else.”
Luckily, he didn’t need to explain it further. Marco more than understood the matter at hand, he even promised to talk to Thatch and Haruta. If he went and apologized for his outburst.
Which he did, getting an apology in return, after which it was water under the bridge.
Marineford had put things into perspective. But the thing that it also bought was that Sabo hadn’t been truly dead. He had suffered from memory loss after getting shot down by a celestial dragon.
The mention of the execution of Portgas D. Ace had made them resurface and made him look for Luffy and Ace again. When they met again in time to go into Wano, Ace dealt a hit before pulling both his brothers close at the knowledge that they were together again. It was the three of them again after so long apart.
Once the fight had been won, and they were recuperating, Ace wasn’t surprised to find that after falling asleep he woke up with the tell-tale feel of wet marker on his cheek. Groaning as he sat up, Marco, Thatch and Deuce started to snicker at the way he no doubt looked now. Looking around to see Luffy and Sabo trying to get away, he gave chase, suddenly feeling like they were kids again and loving the feeling.
They were together again, there was nothing stopping them from being there as Luffy made it to pirate king and after so long they could do this again. When he caught up to them, he pressed Luffy close to him. Feeling the youngest wrap his arms around his too, the hug too tight to be just a hug.
“We’re together again.”
Luffy nodded, before he glanced at Sabo and pulled him into the hug too.
“We… we didn’t do the connect the freckles thing without you, it didn’t feel right. We’re both so very glad you’re here again.”
Sabo’s eyes gained a suspicious shine, before he buried himself into the hug too.
“I missed you too, even when I didn’t know what it was that I was missing. I’m glad I have my memories back, and I get to be here with both of you.”
They go with Ace to the nearest bathroom so he can wash it off, grinning as they make their way back into the hall, where the others were waiting. Looking around to see all their nakama grinning at seeing the three of them together. It felt good too, Ace even didn’t mind the feeling of marker on his skin as long as Luffy remembered not to use the permanent marker again.