It's my fave thing ever in Ace lives asl fics where the three of them meet up somehow and Sabo purposely keeps himself at arms length and just watches Ace and Luffy interact and feels this awful loneliness and separation from them cuz they have ten+ years of history with each other now and Sabo will never be able to get close to them to that degree anymore. They're talking about their childhood on Corvo after Sabo is gone and all these adventures and Sabo is just smiling and watching and listening and stuff and it doesn't look like he's bothered because he's so energetic and supportive and is ruffling Luffy’s hair and teasing him and laughing, but later in the night when Luffy and Ace have fallen asleep and are draped over each other Sabo just stays awake sitting across the camp fire from them and watching them because despite everything, despite how Ace and Luffy do not care that so much time has passed, Sabo can't stop himself from caring and feeling guilty and blaming himself for everything, because he's the one who lost his memories, clearly he's the one at fault, right? He's too embarrassed to say all of that out loud or confide in either of them because he knows they'll just tell him he's being ridiculous, and he knows he's being ridiculous, but he just can't help it.
