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His brothers were acting oddly which, based on past experience, immediately put Sabo on edge.
Pausing on the threshold of the kitchen, he narrowed his eyes. There was nothing immediately noticeable; his brothers sat at their usual spots around the table, stuffing their cheeks with cereals, Makino was cooking something on the stove, Dadan was- wherever Dadan went to in the mornings.
To a bystander, all of this would look perfectly normal. To Sabo, however, who could read Ace like an open book (and Luffy like a baby bath book, but anyone could do that), they couldn’t look more suspicious.
The way Luffy was stuffing his mouth to stop himself from saying anything, the way Ace was carefully avoiding meeting his gaze even as Sabo moved into the room-
And, oh, there it was. He wasn’t able to see it from the entrance, but it became visible the moment he stepped closer: an ornate silver cloche placed over his usual spot at the table.
It better be hiding something edible. And not in the “edible if you go roast it over fire” way, but rather something he could eat straight away and not get sick from. It was way too early for any of their pranking bullshit.
At least the cloche wasn’t hissing or shaking this time.
“What is that?” He asked, moving to grab a milkshake from the fridge. Whatever his brothers had planned, he refused to deal with it on an empty stomach.
“A gift,” Ace smirked, still looking anywhere but at Sabo.
“Why?”
Luffy rushed to swallow his mouthful, nearly choking in the process. The conversation was put on hold briefly as both Ace and Sabo rushed to pat Luffy on the back, helping him clear his airways.
“It’s your special day!” Luffy had used his newfound breath to say.
Sabo blinked, absently kicking at the still open fridge — “Sabo-kun, use your hands,” “Sorry, miss Makino,” — and sat down at his spot.
“...my birthday was last month,” he pointed out.
Luffy appeared lost for a moment. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
He didn’t wait for Sabo to answer, clearly deciding that his unholy combination of cornflakes, coco pops, cheerios and whatever other cereals they had lying around was more important.
Glancing towards the calendar, Sabo squinted at the date — April 23rd — trying to figure out what was so important about it. As chaotic as their calendar usually tended to be, filled in with half a dozen different handwritings jotting stuff down in an uncountable number of different pens and markers, covered with various stickers and post-its, today’s box was completely empty.
“...It’s a day when we have nothing planned?” Sabo hazarded a guess.
Ace just kept snickering, even after Sabo slapped him upside the head.
“Just tell me!” He said — it wasn’t a whine — taking a large gulp of his milkshake.
Picking up the cloche with an overdramatic flourish, Ace revealed what sat beneath it: a pile of English muffins.
Sabo slowly lowered the milkshake bottle.
He wasn’t going to turn down free food, obviously, but still. “Someone, please elaborate.”
“Today’s the national English muffin day!”
The elaboration did not help in the slightest.
“I’m- I’m not even English,” he bemoaned, wishing he could use the crying emoji in real life.
“Well, no,” Luffy said somewhat thoughtfully, and Sabo braced himself for the incoming piecemeal of Lu-logic. “But your parents are French and you hate them, and French and English famously hate each other, so-”
Sabo supposed this made about as much sense as anything in his life did.
“They better be good,” he said as he sat down at the table, grabbing one of the muffins and inspecting it closely. At least it looked edible…
“Of course they’re good! Sanji made them.”
“Good to know!” Sabo promptly hid the rest of the muffins back under the silver cloche, separating them from his brothers’ wandering fingers.
The back doors opened and Dadan entered the kitchen, full bags in her arms, making a beeline straight for Makino who, still busy at the stove, absently raised her head to receive a peck on her lips.
“Eugh!” Sabo and his brothers chorused theatrically, just as they did every time the two kissed (including at their wedding).
“Shut up, you brats,” Dadan groaned, reaching into the bag she was slowly unloading and tossing a donut at Luffy’s head.
It backfired—like always—as the boy merely opened his mouth wide, somehow managing to fit the entire donut inside, and chewed on it happily.
“And you-” She pointed at Sabo, her other hand still buried deep in the bag. “You’ve got something going on today, don’t you?”
Sabo blinked.
“Yes, but I only learned about it fifteen- uh,” he ducked under a flying card. Luffy helpfully outstretched his leg to reel it back towards the table, so that Sabo could pick it up. “Congrats on your blank- ... Dadan, I think you’re meant to write the occasion in this space.”
“Well, I don’t rightly know the occasion now, do I?” Dadan said, sitting beside them with her own breakfast, which consisted of a singular black coffee. “Enjoy whatever it is, though. See the guy on the card? He’s sure enjoying himself.”
Sabo snorted, electing to offer Dadan a muffin off of his stack in exchange for going through the effort of finding a card with his exact look-alike on it.
This was his entire family summed up: they’re a little confused, but they’ve got the spirit.
And connections to provide some truly mouth-watering English muffins.