The war was over.

The waves still crashed against the shore as if the ocean itself mourned the loss. The sky above was painted in silver and blue, the moonlight spilling across the sand like a quiet, cold fire. The air carried the smell of salt, heavy and still, almost suffocating in its silence.

But inside your chest, the heaviness was nothing compared to what weighed on your captain’s heart.

Ace was gone.

The thought alone made your stomach twist. It wasn’t just the world that had lost a hero—it was him who had lost a brother. And though grief had taken its place inside you too, it was nothing like the storm that burned behind Monkey D. Luffy’s dark eyes.

You had decided, like the others, that two years apart was the only way forward. Stronger. Wiser. Ready to stand tall so that what happened at Sabaody Archipelago would never happen again. But tonight, none of those promises could soothe the ache. Tonight was not about strength. It was about surviving the silence that followed war.

Beside you, Luffy sat cross-legged in the sand, his straw hat resting on his back, its shadow no longer hiding the emptiness in his expression. He wasn’t laughing, wasn’t yelling, wasn’t filling the night with his usual reckless energy. He stared at the horizon, shoulders hunched, fists loose in the sand as if the weight of them was too much to bear.

For the first time since you had met him, Luffy looked… small.

You watched him from the corner of your eye, the flicker of moonlight catching the curve of his jaw, the way his lips pressed together hard as though keeping back words that might break him. He wasn’t the cheerful soul you had always known, not tonight.

And you wanted so badly to reach out, to close the space between you, to hold him and promise that his pain didn’t have to be carried alone. That you were still here. That he didn’t have to pretend. But you stayed still, your hands trembling slightly in your lap, because you knew Luffy. He didn’t ask for comfort. He carried everything until it nearly broke him.

The tide whispered against the shore, a rhythm steady and cruel in its indifference. You tilted your head back, gazing at the endless sea, hoping the stars would offer some guidance. But even the stars looked dim tonight.

Then, a voice.

Soft. Almost fragile. So unlike him that you turned instantly.

“Do you think…” Luffy’s words caught in his throat. His eyes stayed on the sea, but his fingers dug into the sand as though anchoring himself. His voice was quieter than you had ever heard it, laced with a tremor he couldn’t hide. “Do you think we’ll get stronger? Strong enough that… that I can stop something like what happened to Ace?”

He didn’t look at you, but you could see the sheen in his eyes, the storm fighting to break free. He wasn’t asking as a captain. He wasn’t asking as the man who dreamed of being Pirate King.

He was asking as a brother who had lost the person he couldn’t protect.