Tick Tock [Portgas D. Ace/Sabo Fan Fic]

Stifled

A/N: So, I suck and life is hard, but have this. THEORETICALLY next chapter should be out soon since I'm kinda excited for it's been over a year since i said that last time so LOL. I'm so sorry...

The flashing lights seemed far too bright when cast against the night sky, the echo of a siren ringing through his ears even after it had quieted, replaced instead by the footfalls against concrete and poorly polished wood, voices bouncing among familiar walls. The questions, when they came, fell on half deaf ears, lost between the hammer of his own heartbeat, the hiccup of choked sobs that matched the threat of his own burning within the confines of his chest and a single minded focus on the raspy breathing besides him.

Time, like a river dammed and disjointed, traveled in every direction, a sluggish trickle turned flood. The next few hours blur together in that way, sound and light and feeling numbed, like watching a film through a distorted screen; not real.

There's a steady sound in the background, apparent only after he'd forced himself into the back of the ambulance in a daze. A repetitive, metallic drone of sound. The only constant seemingly found in the back of a white room with machinery and frantic feet brushing past him, Sabo clung to the noise, solace found there where he stood like a statue, knuckles white where they griped at a handhold besides him. It's steady, calming even, that droning ' beep ... beep ... beep ' that cut through the voices. But it's fast, faster than his own frantic beat that drums like a panicked bird within his chest, trapped behind bone and sinew. A heartbeat, he finally acknowledged after a moment, Ace's heartbeat.

He's pale, still shaking where they've strapped Ace to a thin table. Like a corpse -- some small, fragile voice whispered within. He tears that thought to pieces before it can take root, a shaky breath the first thing to part his thin lips. Sabo's aware ( distantly ) that he likely shouldn't be here. That he's in the way. But, he can't force himself away, can't deny the panic stilled, frozen in the depths of his own mind as some useless self preservation. He can't move, can't react. All he can do is stand there and watch, listen to the continuous proof that everything will be fine. It's fast, off kilter, hitched at a speeded rate that doesn't match his own, but it's present. For now, just knowing that Ace is still alive, his heart still beating, is enough to keep Sabo from stepping closer, from putting up an unnecessary fight he had almost sparked when curled onto the floor, wrapped around his brother's feverish form.

When the medics first arrived and tried to pull Ace away from him, he had snarled like some wounded animal, rationality lost at the first glimpse of blood. Fingerprints bruised where they pressed into Ace's arm and side, a vice-like grip that went unnoticed when pitted against the heat and threat of pneumonia. Sharp eyes, hitched breath and a protective panic thrown up like some useless set of armour were torn down in an instant when hazy blue eyes focussed in on the tear stained expression of Luffy kneeling not even a foot away, the grip on his own shoulder clawed with desperation.

It was enough, in the moment, to tear his attention away and allow the slimmest glimmer of rationality to slide back into place.

And now, what was left of that was fading fast, abandoning him just as he had his younger brother, not sure yet whether Luffy had managed to climb into the ambulance as well or if he was perhaps left to call on a friend. Perhaps it was selfish, but Sabo didn't care at the moment.

His focus was solely on Ace.

Arriving at the hospital was much like the night as a whole, moving as if separate from his own body when he stumbled free of the vehicle and moved to follow, eyes trained on the dark halo of sweat lined hair, chasing after each shaky exhale. The lights, when he stepped into them and outside of the night chill, were only a momentary blindness, a split second where Sabo was left to blink and collect himself before feet were moving forwards again.