#mhmbab

Pulling out the leather-bound journal, he set it carefully on Luffy's lap.

"Please don't destroy it. There's only this one copy."

Luffy glanced up at him, baffled. It was better than anger or sadness, at least.

Law motioned towards the book wordlessly and leaned against the desk; No description he could give for the book would be better than Luffy just taking a look himself.

He pulled the cover open gingerly, recoiling slightly at the sight of the first page. It was inked almost fully black, with only three coloured letters right in the middle of it: red A, blue S and yellow L.

Their first Jolly Roger, Ace had told him. The one they flew over the treehouse right up until they abandoned it after their brother's death.

Law supposed it might still hang there, if no one had bothered to take it down.

Luffy whipped his head up, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Keep going," Law encouraged. "He wanted you to see it, eventually."

Looking back down, Luffy turned the page. And then again, and again, and again, moving through the pages fast enough to make it clear he wasn't actually reading any of the words, barely looking at the pictures.

If he was anything like Ace, he likely couldn't read all that well, not even the carefully calligraphed words Ace had bribed Law into writing for him.

That was fine, though. There would be time for reading, later. Luffy already knew most of those stories, anyway. He had been there for them.

The only novelty would be getting to learn Ace's perspective on them; Something that, judging by his words, Luffy could clearly use.

It didn't take him long to reach the end, flipping the pages faster and faster until he reached the end of the filled portion. The few dozen empty pages fell towards the rest easily, opening the journal on the last page, the one Ace had most often returned to.

Luffy's hand carefully traced the edges of the portrait carefully inserted into the back cover.

"This..." he trailed off.

Law gave him a moment. When it became clear he wasn't going to continue, he filled in himself.

"Is Sabo, yes."

Luffy looked up at him again. There was old pain filling them, old tears.

"Ace had been working on it for a long time," Law elaborated. "I have a whole binder of his previous attempts, too. He wasn't happy with how this one turned out, either, but he said it was the closest he could get." And then, because he had been curious for the longest time- "Did he get it right?"

Luffy hunched his shoulder. "...I don't know," he said. "I don't- I didn't remember what Sabo looked like, anymore."

It's been ten years, to be fair. If someone had asked Law to describe Cora-san, he would have had troubles, too. Feathery coat, heart-dingled hat, wide lipstick smile, spikes under his eye, that much he remembered.

But how many spikes? Under which eye? What colour were the eyes themselves?

Time had an unfortunate habit of sanding away the details, taking the sharp edges of memories and tumbling them into blunt, opaque things, like sea glass.

Check out

#FowlFicsBits for in-tumblr snippets of my WIPs

#FowlFicsZines for any zine stuff

#FowlFicsPromo for any promotional stuff (aka POs, open applications, stuff like that)

#FowlFicsRandom for anything that doesn't fall under the other categories

#FowlArt for the art stuff because making a whole new blog for just that sounds overwhelming xD it's all OP and it's all my creations anyways so what's the difference if it's made out of words or brushstrokes?

Currently working on:

#Dadazuki - Sakazuki being forced to adopt baby Ace via Garp's bullshit. Currently posting, 2/7

#SFOI - Crocodad DofuWani bullshit where Luffy accidentally went along to one of the Warlord meetings and Doffy took an instant liking to him. And then spent three years convincing Crocky to let him get closer. Currently at 24k of non-chronological bits. Approx 50% complete; progress is being made! Currently posting, 1/10

#SepEntNika - Nika as a separate entity that devolved into me shipping Nika and Ace together pretty much immediately (Currently three pieces posted)

#MHMBAB - AceLaw AU. Plot begins post-Marineford with its canon ending. Mainly just Luffy and Law and the insurmountable mountain of grief they're working through (currently: 1 part posted, going slow)

(and approximately a ton of other WIPs at various states of creation)

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