You knew Ace was gone the moment he stopped running along side you. Your pleas to leave mixed in with gunshots and war cries and the incessant voice that made Ace freeze in the first place. You pulled on his arm, looking past his shoulder to the bodies littered over the battlefield and the towering fortress behind that.

In the blink of an eye, Ace was running back into the heat of battle, flaming fist colliding with Akainu’s molten one, fire smashing against magma. Then Luffy was gone too, chasing after his older brother like the game of tag they’d play as kids. You tried to pull him back, but you couldn’t keep up with them.

In the time that you were steadying yourself on your hands and knees, you looked back up to see Akainu standing tall, victorious, and Luffy on the ground, holding a limp Ace in his bloodied hands and begging him to stand up, stand up stand up—

You think you screamed for your boyfriend, and after that was a blur. You remember Marco coming up and helping you to your feet, barking orders in your ear to help him drag Ace away. You blacked out the rest of it.

Marco caught you up after you woke up three days after in your own bed on the ship. Your body was sore, bandages and gauze wrapped around gashes you couldn’t remember getting. Marco explained what happened, telling you what you wanted to hear last. He knew you well enough to know you were gonna book it out the room and towards Ace’s as soon as the doctor said ‘he’s alright.’

Ignoring Marco’s scolds, your legs ached beneath you as you stumbled to Ace’s cabin, tears in your eyes for what you were prepared to see. You chose not to knock; you didn’t want to accidentally wake him up.

You peeked your head in the room—furniture surfaces dusty after he left to kill Blackbeard—and there he was. Sitting upright on the edge of the bed with gauze wrapped around his torso, hints of red bleeding through the bandages.

He stared back, studying all the things that’s changed about you since he left months ago.

“…Your hair’s longer.” He whispered.