An Unexpected Reunion

A tall man wearing a black top hat over his curly blond hair was walking down the corridor that lead to Dragons quarters.

He had been called there by Dragon to discuss a mission.

As he walked, his mind wondered back to the article that had been in the newspaper a few weeks ago 'The Straw hat Pirates returned!' After 2 years of worrying he finally knew the baka was alright.

'It's been 12 years already huh' he sighed. 'I wonder how long I'll have to wait to see you again...

Luffy.'

/2 weeks later aboard the Thousand Sunny/

"ISLAND!" Luffy yelled at the top of his voice.

"We heard you the first 20 times you shit head!" shouted Sanji. "Quit shouting dart brow, it's not like he listens anyway." said Zoro, who up until now had been sleeping at the base of the mast.

"What was that marimo?!" Sanji growled back. This of course turned into a fight. "Oi oi don't wreck my super ship!" shouted Franky.

"Nami! How long till we get to the island?" asked Luffy. "About another hour, so go and entertain yourself with something other than shouting your head off!" replied Nami with growing irritation.

"But Nami! An hour is soooooo long!" Luffy whined. Usopp, sensing that Nami was about to explode said "Ne Luffy! Want to play hide and seek with me and Chopper?"

Luffy thought about this for a moment before running off with Chopper and Usopp. "And don't make a mess!" Nami shouted after them before a loud crash was heard. "Oh why do I even bother" said Nami with exasperation.

"Hmm this is nice weather for a cold drink" commented Robin, immediately followed by a shout from Sanji from the other end of the ship, effectively stopping the fight; "I will make you a cold drink Robin-chwaaan!"

"Ano, Sanji-san?" asked Brook "May I have a cold drink too? My throat is getting dry." "YOU DON'T HAVE A THROAT AHO!" Sanji yelled at him.

An hour later with the Sunny safely docked in the harbor the Strawhats were deciding what to do next.

"I want to explore the island!" "I need some more bandages!" "I need to stock up on the food sup- EXPLORE!" "I KNOW ALREADY!" Nami yelled while punching Luffy in the face.

"Alright, Zoro, Luffy your coming with me." said Nami "Brook, your guarding Sunny and the rest of you do whatever the hell you want and meet back at the ship for dinner."

"Oi Nami why are me and Luffy with you!?" asked Zoro annoyed. "Because you two are the only ones that need watching!" Nami replied, equally annoyed. "Tch, you just want the two strongest with you." Zoro muttered.

The town itself was relatively normal. They wondered around and got dragged into a few clothes shops by Nami, but there really wasn't anything interesting in the whole town.

At some point Luffy had started whining about how this was the most boring island ever and that he wanted to go on an adventure in the forest behind the town. He was just about to complain to Nami that he was hungry, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and stopped dead in his tracks, eyes widening.

He had seen- but it couldn't be.

Zoro had been thinking that maybe he should have stayed on the ship, rather than be dragged around a boring town by the witch when Luffy suddenly stopped. "Oi Lu-" Zoro began, but fell silent at the look on his captains face.

Nami was walking in front of the other two and didn't notice Luffy stopping, but when Zoro stopped in mid sentence she looked around to see Luffy looking utterly shocked.

"Luffy are you ok?" Nami asked, slightly worried. At this Luffy seemed to snap out of his trance and flash Nami his usual blinding smile. "Ah sorry, I thought I saw- never mind" his smile faltered slightly.

Zoro and Nami exchanged a confused look. "Maybe we should go back to the ship, this place is boring anyway." suggested Zoro. "But it's not time to go back yet and I want to go to that shop over there." said Nami pointing to another clothes shop on the other side of the street.

"I am not carrying any more of your bags you slave driving hag!" said Zoro through gritted teeth, who was carrying 20 bags already.

"But Nami I'm hungry! And those shops are so boring, I want to see if Sanji's making food yet!" said Luffy, who seemed to be acting normally again.

"Fine, back to the ship it is." Nami growled in irritation, having been out voted.

They were making their way back to the ship, there was hardly anyone on the streets anymore as all the shops were closing. Suddenly Luffy saw what he thought he had seen earlier. A tall man with short curly blond hair, a black top hat, shorts, a navy blue jacket and an iron pole over his shoulder was walking up the street in their direction.

Most of his face was hidden in the shadow of his hat, he seemed to be preoccupied with reading the letter in his hand and hadn't seen Luffy, Nami and Zoro walking his way.

Luffy stopped dead, shock etched upon his face. He had only seen a flash of the man earlier and thought it might just be his imagination, yet here he was again. 'But it can't be him!' he thought desperately.

Unable to take it any longer he shouted out to the stranger. "Oi, you!"

Zoro and Nami hadn't noticed Luffy stopping again and jumped when he suddenly called out. "Luffy what are you doing? Come on we're almost-" Nami began exasperated, but stopped when she saw Luffy's face.

Zoro stared at the intense emotion in Luffy's wide, shocked eyes with concern before looking over to the stranger.

He had stopped walking now and looked up from the letter and as the light revealed his face, Zoro heard a sharp intake of breath from Luffy.

"Sabo?" asked Luffy tentatively, his voice trembling. The strangers head turned sharply to look at Luffy when he heard his name.

Sabo couldn't believe it, he had looked up to find himself staring at a face he had been wanting to see for the last 12 years. He felt a huge grin appear on his face and answered "Hey Luffy!"

Luffy however did not smile, in fact he looked totally lost. 'Oh shit he thinks I died.' thought Sabo.

"But-but Dogra said you died!" Luffy began. "YOUR DEAD DAMN IT!" he screamed, his voice cracking.

Zoro and Nami watched confused and shocked as Luffy's eyes began to fill with tears.

Sabo sighed, his smile fading slightly. "Luffy, I didn't die." "But Dogra saw-" Luffy began. "I'm guessing that Dogra saw my boat getting blown up by the Tenryuubito right?" Sabo interrupted him. Zoro and Nami's eyes widened. Tenryuubito?

Luffy nodded slowly. "But you never found a body right?" said Sabo. Luffy's eyes widened even more.

"So, did you guys ever get my letter?" asked Sabo, grinning and scratching the back of his neck trying to lighten the mood.

"SABO!" Luffy cried and launched himself at Sabo, wrapping his arms around him, tears streaming down his face.

Luffy was sobbing uncontrollably into his chest and Sabo could feel Luffy's fingers gripping the back of his jacket like a lifeline. Sabo returned the hug fiercely. "Still a crybaby huh?" he said with amusement in his voice as tears started to roll down his own cheeks.

Zoro had never seen Luffy cry like this before, he wondered who this Sabo was to get such a reaction out of him.

After a few minutes when Luffy had calmed down a bit Sabo looked over to Zoro and Nami for the first time and smiled. "You must be Luffy's nakama." he said, then paused for a second. "Thank you for looking after my idiot younger brother."

"BROTHER?!" Zoro and Nami exclaimed. "Yeah, I'm Sabo!" said Sabo, as if this explained everything. "Ne Sabo!" Luffy began, he had let go of Sabo to dry his eyes with his sleeve and grinned. "I want you to meet my nakama, they're the best!" he said proudly.

"This is Zoro, he's going to be the best swordsman in the world!" Luffy said pointing at Zoro and then at Nami. "And this is Nami my navigator, she makes really cool maps!"

Then before anyone could do anything Luffy grabbed Sabo's arm and started running back to the ship shouting that Sabo had to see the rest of his nakama and his awesome ship. Leaving behind a rather stunned pair of pirates. "Typical" muttered Zoro before taking off after the apparent brothers followed by Nami.

When they caught up to Luffy and Sabo, Luffy was dragging Sabo onto the deck of the ship and shouting that everyone had to come and meet someone. Zoro and Nami came to stand beside them just as the rest of the crew emerged from various places.

"Sabo these are the rest of my nakama! Chopper, Usopp, Robin, Brook, Sanji and Franky, aren't they cool!?" Luffy said excitedly, pointing to each crew member in turn.

Said crew members, though surprised, couldn't help noticing that Luffy seemed even more ecstatic then usual. Who was this guy Luffy was so happy about?

The question in everyone's mind was answered almost immediately when Luffy practically shouted that his name was Sabo and that he was his older brother, a huge grin plastered on his face the whole time. "Pleased to meet you!" said Sabo grinning too.

Needless to say the crew was rather shocked. "Brother? ...But what about Ace?" asked Usopp.

At the mention of Ace both Luffy and Sabo's grins faltered. "We-we thought Sabo died 12 years ago." said Luffy looking down at his feet so his eyes were shadowed by his hat. Sabo put his hand on Luffy's shoulder and sighed sadly, it looked like Luffy had taken everything a lot harder than one would expect from the happy-go-lucky idiot.

Luckily Sanji chose this moment to announce that dinner was ready and that they should eat now and talk later. Luffy perked up at the mention of food and immediately made his way over to the kitchen.

Dinner was the same chaotic event it always was with Luffy stealing everyone's food, even Sabo ate a lot like Luffy did, but slightly more mannered.

When everyone had eaten their fill the table quieted down with the exception of Luffy, who was still chewing on a piece of meat.

"So Luffy, you never answered my question back there, did you guys get my letter?" asked Sabo. Luffy swallowed whatever he still had in his mouth and his face fell into a slight frown. The rest of the straw hats listened closely, curious to learn more about their captain.

"I think so, Ace said that you left ahead of us to get away from the nobles." answered Luffy. "Nobles?" asked Sanji surprised. "My parents are nobles and I ran away from home when I was 5, but they eventually found me. My father was threatening to hurt Ace and Luffy, so I left." Sabo explained.

The crew took a minute to digest this revelation.

"What happened in the fire? I tried to get through to you but the guards beat me up, I was really worried." said Sabo, looking over at Luffy again.

"The Bluejam pirates cornered us and nearly killed us both, but Dadan and the guys stopped them. Ace wouldn't run away so Dadan stayed behind, but they didn't come back for a long time and there was so much fire, everyone thought they were-"

Luffy had been starting to ramble before he broke off. No one needed Luffy to finish the sentence to know how it ended, the unsaid word vibrated through the silent kitchen before Luffy continued.

"And then Dogra came back and said that you had been shot down by the Tenryuubito. Ace was so mad, Dadan had to tie him to a tree..." Luffy trailed off, his eyes shadowed by his hat again.

"I see." said Sabo quietly after a minute.

The crew couldn't make much sense of Luffy's story. Knowing him, they were sure he was leaving out a lot of the details. The glimpse of Luffy's past however, was rather shocking, and that was without the details.

"Ace" said Luffy, his voice beginning to tremble. "Ace promised me he wouldn't die too." he had raised his hand in front of his face and raised his head slightly so it was no longer in shadow. Everyone was shocked at what they saw.

Luffy was staring at the palm of his right hand, looking utterly traumatized and obviously not as over Ace's death as he lead everyone to believe.

"Sabo, why weren't you there?" asked Luffy in a broken voice, tears threatening to spill, still staring at his hand.

"I was too far away." said Sabo in a blank, hollow voice. "By the time I found out, it was only 2 days away. I couldn't do anything." he said through gritted teeth, frustration clear upon his face.

"It's ok, it's not your fault." Luffy said.

"It is! If I had just paid more attention to what was going on, the execution date was known for a month before it happened! I just can't help thinking that if I had just found out on time, maybe I could have made a difference." cried Sabo, all his pain and regret finally spilling over the edge.

The straw hats watched Sabo sadly, Luffy was reminded of when he himself had been consumed by that same guilt and regret after the war.

"Our bond as brothers is my treasure." Sabo continued. "Ever since I left Goa it's been my dream to see you and Ace again, but Ace died thinking that I'm dead, he's gone damn it! And, Luffy... I- I'm so happy you're still alive." Sabo reached over to Luffy, who was sitting next to him and hugged his little brother tightly.

Luffy stiffened slightly in surprise when Sabo hugged him, but quickly relaxed as he was pulled into Sabo's lap. He looked up at Sabo's face and saw that he was crying, Luffy laughed and said "Look who's the crybaby now!"

The crew was surprised by Luffy's sudden mood change, but then again, as Zoro thought amused 'This is Luffy we're talking about.'

"Baka." said Sabo through his tears. "Even if I cried for the rest of my life I would still pale in comparison to you." he chuckled, attempting to dry his eyes on his shoulder as he was still holding on to Luffy.

"Hey!" said Luffy offended as he stood up, breaking away from Sabo and was about to argue when Nami asked "So who's Dadan?"

Luffy looked around at Nami and answered her while he sat back down on his own chair. "Dadan's a mountain bandit that jii-chan dumped me and Ace with, and after a while Sabo came to live with us too."

"You grew up with bandits?" deadpanned Nami. "Just goes to show that your grandpa's even more crazy than I thought." commented Sanji.

"Ne, Sabo! Do you have a crew?" asked Luffy. "No I-" but Luffy cut him off. "Ehhhh?! You're not a pirate?" "No, I'm a revolutionary." said Sabo.

"Revolutionary? How did that happen?" asked Luffy confused.

"When my boat got shot down that day, it was Dragon who saved me. He also saved most of the people in Grey Terminal from the fire, they're all revolutionaries now too."

"Dragon?!" exclaimed everyone. "You mean my dad? What was he doing there?" said Luffy slightly surprised.

"I don't really know why he was in Goa, he only said that he was watching the Tenryuubito ceremony and apparently he was born there too. But I think he was there to check up on you Luffy." said Sabo grinning.

"On me?" said Luffy, now even more surprised.

"Yeah, he found out that I knew you and then he kept asking me questions. Now that I look back on it it was pretty funny, he was all worried when I told him you guys were in Grey Terminal during the fire, before he pulled himself together and said that he was sure you would be fine. It's funny because Dragon is normally really serious and doesn't show emotion." said Sabo, now looking smugly amused.

Luffy had a strange look on his face after hearing this. "What's my dad like?" he said after a while.

"Well like I said before, he's always serious and not very interesting to talk to. You're nothing like him, I mean you don't even look like him!" finished Sabo, still very much amused.

"So what brings you to this island Sabo-san?" asked Robin.

"I was on a mission, I can't tell you what it was though, but it's not very interesting anyway. I got a letter this morning saying that I have to get back to headquarters tomorrow." said Sabo, a serious tone replacing his amusement from before.

"What? But you just got here!" whined Luffy.

"Sorry Luffy, but to get back on time I'll have to leave tonight." Sabo said as he stood up from his chair and turned to face Luffy. "Besides, you're not a weak little crybaby that needs protecting anymore. You're strong and you have some great nakama."

Luffy didn't say anything, he didn't have to, the blinding smile on his face told Sabo everything.

Sabo ruffled Luffy's hair and was walking towards the door, when he paused on the way out and said; "Oh and Luffy... good luck on becoming pirate king."