Disclaimer: One Piece is obviously too good a story to belong to anyone but Oda-sensei.

A/N: I promised snippets forever ago, I've been working on this one for three years, trying to add things and whatnot, getting stuck and angry at this story that didn't want to get written… Only to read it again today and realize that it's already got everything it needs. So, enjoy this one!

Letters to the Dead

Despite being branded a pirate, Ace didn't consider himself as such. He had no crew to speak of, no flag to wave around – his only banner being the name etched on his skin. He was simply an adventurer, travelling around the seas and lands and committing the new landscapes to memory before drawing them in bold charcoal streaks and soft brushes of aquarelle. He would then fold the pieces of papers in crooked cranes, like he had seen Rayleigh do a long time ago, letting them float on the vast body of water, hoping that in some way, they would reach his mother.

It was dumb and useless – Rouge had been dead for years, and the cranes would soak up the water like sponges before sinking and disappearing in the depths of the seas. But it was cathartic in some way – it felt like he was sharing something with his mother, a secret of some sorts. And each time, he felt a bit closer to the woman he never got the chance to know.

"It's my way of remembering them," Rayleigh had once said, folding his own crane and setting it out to sea.

They had stuck together since Ace sought him out a couple of months ago, and it was the first time the young man had dared ask what the old pirate was doing, puzzled by the action. Ace didn't ask who the crane was for, though – it wasn't a drawing, and words were hidden in the soft wings of the paper bird. A glance at his uncle's face was enough to understand though. The wrinkles were smoothed out, a soft smile stretching thin lips and eyes glistening with happy memories.

The letter would never reach its addressee, he had haughtily pointed out. The ink would be washed away in seconds, the paper shredded by the waves in minutes. "So what's the point?" had finished Ace, scowling at the little crane bobbing on the water, the paper already beginning to cave at the bottom.

Rayleigh had leant back on his hands, eyes following the bird's course, watching as it slowly drowned, only the beak still visible before it too disappeared.

"There's none, really. It just makes me feel better. A burden lifted off my chest, if you will." He had then looked at the boy he'd raised for all these years and grinned. "Want me to show you how to make one?"

There had been a stretch of silence before Ace had sat down grumpily, snatching a piece of paper out of his uncle's hand. "I'll make better ones than yours, just watch!"

And so Ace took up the habit too, even when apart from his uncle, little cranes drifting in the trail left by his raft.

Prompt me for more snippets on Ace and Luffy's alternate lives? :D