(A/N: This is a far cry from my usual style, so please don't hate me if you hate it. C: It's an idea I've been sitting on for awhile, and no matter what I try it doesn't get any better than this, so.

This is an AU. It diverges a little bit from the canon timeline; takes place somewhere between Fishman Island and Dressrosa, and establishes that the Straw Hats have been reunited for a lot longer than in the manga. Not a huge deal, and definitely still easy to follow, but as I wrote it I thought, "I can't make this make actual sense canonically." So AU.

Also- it's my birthday today (the 5th)! I'm 21. owo)

About a year before the Corrida Colosseum in Dressrosa, Sabo met one of Luffy's nakama.

Well, they didn't actually meet. They spoke, but names weren't exchanged; other things were.

He'd been walking down a sidestreet, aching for fresh air and the ambiance of a busy city afternoon, when a shadow passed over him that made him stop short. One part paranoia and two parts insatiable curiosity had him shading his eyes and peering up at what he expected to be a News Coo, or maybe a balloon.

It wasn't either.

When the hat landed near his feet, he thought, That looks familiar.

The longer he looked at it, the more he couldn't leave it alone, until he was snatching it up and turning it over in his hands; unable to blink or to breathe because it was every bit that hat.

This is-

"Excuse me, that's mine."

Sabo turned, already curling possessive fingers around the brim, because that voice was not his baby brother's and so they couldn't possibly be telling the truth.

Luffy must be near here, Sabo found himself thinking, this is hat so he must be-

"Hey. I said that's mine."

It was a tall, lean man with blond hair and an eyebrow that curled where it met the line of his nose. He had a cigarette between his teeth, and his mannerisms were becoming less polite with every moment Sabo held the hat in his hand. At this point, he was downright glaring.

Sabo glared back.

I've seen this hat in my dreams for the last twelve years.

"No, it's not."

He turned away, and he wasn't expecting much of a fight over a battered old hat, but found himself dodging a roundhouse kick that would have sent a lesser man flying into the brick wall a yard or so away.

A Haki user? Sabo thought, startled, and realized the stranger's hand was clenched resolutely around the hat; he took the shot only to get closer. Bastard.

"Let go," the revolutionary gritted, unwilling to yank or pull; strangely, the blond seemed unwilling, too. "It's not yours, so just- "

"I'd die before I let you have this hat," the man snarled in very real rage, and out of wonder, Sabo met his eye and stared.

There was nothing he could read in the man's face aside from anger and a thin sheen of desperation that Sabo couldn't make sense of.

But there was something tugging in the back of his mind; something like nostalgia or deja vu. Eyeing the man one more time, Sabo let go. He never doubted his intuition, never. And if he was wrong, he'd bring a whole army down on this man' s head for the sake of that hat.

The blond snatched it away the moment Sabo released it, glaring with one sharp cornflower eye, and holding it close the way some people might hoard secrets or riches.

When it was apparent Sabo wasn't going to make a move for it again, the stranger looked away, eyes searching the street; and then left, without another word.

Luffy's hat, Sabo thought, and followed; but only a few short moments later, the man stopped and lit a cigarette; tucked away his lighter and took a long drag. When he put out his arms, Sabo wasn't sure what to expect-

and then suddenly, Luffy. Hurtling down the street and flying into the man's arms, perfectly distraught in his wailing, and with his big brown eyes.

"Sanji, I can't find it anywhere, not anywhere. I was sure it landed around here somewhere, but I absolutely can't find it anywhere!"

The scar on Luffy's chest filled Sabo's vision for a long moment, and it was all he could do to keep breathing. The stretch of ruined skin was almost impossibly wide, a pockmark of living proof that there was evil in the world, and that somehow it hadn't reached far enough to stop a precious heart beating. Luffy's jacket was bright red and eye-catching, and hung open on his shoulders to display the scar proudly.

He was older, and taller, a slim gangly thing, and Sabo never wanted to hold someone so much.

But Luffy's rubber arms were wrapped in a human way around the blond man's waist, and his face was screwed into a very sincere, unhappy pout, and Sabo thought, This is a man worth four hundred million.

The blond had a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, and he didn't waste time pulling the hat out from where he'd stowed it away.

Sabo thought a person could fall in love with the way Luffy's whole face lit up like a star and his hands flew up to grab the rim of the old, well-loved thing when Sanji plopped it on his head.

"You found it! Thank you, Sanji, thank you! You're the best! Thank you!"

"Don't be an idiot." But he looked really pleased.

It was about a year before the Corrida Colosseum in Dressrosa, and Sabo watched Luffy walk away with that man and that hat; without the courage to call his name.