Title: Our brother
Characters: Marco, Sabo
Pairings: None. Brotherly love only
Warnings: Angst
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Marco the Phoenix stood before the large monuments, flowers, sake, and meat in his hands, ready to lay his offerings before the men he had loved as a father and a brother when the sound of fabric ruffling behind him distracted him.

A young man, about Ace's age, blond, and wearing a blue suit covered by a dark cloak was approaching. Marco felt his shoulders tense in irritation.

"Don't let me interrupt." The blond said, his accent foreign, but somewhat familiar to Marco. The stranger stood before Ace's tombstone, gazing wistfully at the tacky orange hat.

Marco's left eye twitched, but he resumed placing his offerings.

"So, you were Ace's nakama?" The stranger asked after Marco was finished praying.

"Yeah." Marco grunted.

"How was he?"

"Why do you care? Who were you to him?" Marco demanded.

"The name's Sabo." The mysterious blond held out a hand for Marco to shake, revealing a tattoo on his wrist. An S in the middle of a triangle, a line cutting the solitary letter horizontally.

"Sabo's dead." Marco rejected the stranger.

"Not really. I've been travelling for about ten years now. Trying to keep tabs on Ace and Lu. Wanted to meet up with them again, but I guess I missed my chance." The man claiming to be Sabo blinked, trying hard to keep back tears. "I guess this is payback for making Ace and Luffy miss me, huh."

"So you really are Sabo? Ace's brother Sabo?"

"Yeah."

"He was a good man." Marco told Sabo. "He was always trying to be more like you. Even tattooed an S in the middle of his name. Made him look stupid sometimes, but he didn't care."

Sabo let out a choking laugh. "We really are brothers."

"You've lost me, yoi."

Sabo pointed to the tattoo on his wrist. "The corners and line are the A for Ace. Lu is the other side of the triangle and the bottom. I'm the S in the middle."

"You're both weird." Marco commented, raising an eyebrow.

Sabo shrugged with a smile.

"You may not talk much, but I'm glad you were there for Ace. He needed someone to take care of him."

"He was one of my important people."

"Thank you, Marco." Sabo smiled and the younger blond turned to leave. "I know he loved you too."

It wasn't until later that Marco realized that he had been so distracted talking to Sabo that he didn't remember what Ace's brother looked like. Or more importantly, if he had feet…