Chapter Text
Ace wondered why Marco had him come by for a mission so early in the morning. It was unusual, to say the least.
As was Marco reading the newspaper. He usually just got the highlights from everyone else, too busy to deal with it personally. “Anything good, Marco?”
“You’ll love this. It’s about your brother Luffy.”
“Luffy?” Ace asked, sitting on the desk.
“Yep, kid made the headlines in a big way…for a lot of things.”
“Well don’t leave me hanging, what happened?” Ace demanded.
“So, as I understand it, here’s what your brother’s been up to,” Marco said. “He’s gotten both Big Mom and Kaido to declare him an enemy-”
“What,” Ace said.
“Took out Doflamingo and liberated the island of Dressrosa from him-”
“Okay that sounds more normal,” Ace sighed.
“Somehow gaining a fifty-six-hundred strong fleet in the process-”
“What,” Ace repeated.
“And has spent at least the last month or so in an alliance with the Heart Pirates, and is apparently why Trafalgar Law is no longer a Warlord.”
“…What?” Ace demanded.
“Your brother’s been doing some serious legwork towards his Pirate King goal,” Marco said patiently. Ace hated when Marco used that voice on him.
“…Let’s start with Trafalgar Law. Wasn’t he the asshole who sent the Marines one hundred still beating hearts to become a Warlord?” Ace asked.
“Yep. Guessing he got kicked out for working with your brother…looks like he helped with Dressrosa,” Marco said. “And Punk Hazard. Marines are kind of vague on what went down there but it sounds like your brother’s crew and Law saved a bunch of kids and took a guy who worked for Doflamingo hostage.”
“What the hell has Luffy gotten himself into?” Ace groaned.
“A pretty sweet setup, if you ask me,” Marco said. “Ace, we need an alliance anyway. Go check on your brother and offer a team up.”
“You want me to what?” Ace asked.
“Go to your brother. Offer an alliance. His fleet apparently takes partners in addition to subordinates,” Marco said. “And frankly it’s either him or Shanks at this point, if not both. We need allies in this new era.”
“We might get Shanks anyway. There’s rumors some of the others of the Worst Generation want to take him on,” Ace said.
“Ace. Go get an alliance from your brother,” Marco said firmly. “That’s an order.”
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around all this,” Ace admitted. “Luffy’s been in the New World for, what, two months?”
“Yep,” Marco said. “And frankly if I ran down to look at the betting pool I’d say the odds were being adjusted well in his favor over the whole Pirate King thing.”
“This is insane.”
“Ace-”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it, I just said this is insane,” Ace defended himself. “I mean…he goes from barely surviving Marinford to…this?”
“And staging the first ever breakout of Impel Down. Your brother’s going places, Ace,” Marco said, shrugging. “And we need that kind of power on our side. He’s already taken Fishman Island under his protection, for crying out loud.”
Ace was pretty sure if he heard anymore his brain would grind to a halt, “Where was his crew last seen?”
.o.o.o.
Ace didn’t really like the new Striker. It was an improvement in some ways, he supposed, over the one Blackbeard had smashed to bits, but he kind of missed fire spitting everywhere as he sailed across the seas.
True, stealth was more important for him now than ever, but that didn’t mean sacrificing style surely?
At least the directions had been correct. Ace slowed Striker down a bit as he approached the cluster of ships.
There weren’t enough here for fifty-six hundred people by any means, so Luffy was probably being Luffy and being utterly free range with his subordinates or something. There were only three flags besides the Straw Hats’ and while Ace didn’t recognize two, he knew the third was the Heart Pirates’.
That flag was attached to the submarine Ace had very vague memories of from after Marinford, which was being towed behind the back of the Straw Hats’ new ship.
Might as well let people know he was here. He tossed a massive plume of fire into the air to make it obvious he wasn’t trying to sneak up on anyone.
.o.o.o.
Trafalgar Law had been having a relatively normal day. His engineers wanted to do engine inspections and then modifications so they’d tied the sub to the Thousand Sunny and Shachi, Roy, and Franky had gone at it. Any of his crew not inclined to mechanics were happily mingling with the Straw Hats, Barto Club, and Beautiful Pirates. He’d spent the morning working on his swordplay with Zoro, with a lot of bruises to prove it, and was now listening to everyone else yammer on and eat the huge lunch Sanji had made.
Then again, anything was better than yesterday, when the Barto Club had showed up so they could party with the Straw Hats for Bartolomeo’s birthday. On the upside, he had a lot of blackmail material on his crew now thanks to holding his liquor better than all of them bar Bepo. And he’d had the sense to cut himself off while the bear foolishly challenged Nami to a drinking contest.
In the morning hangover cures had been dispensed with gusto by Chopper and Nami and everyone had recovered to go about their business. Or if you were Law, be an idiot and spar with Roronoa Zoro to test your swordsmanship.
So he was relatively relaxed when a massive flare went up off the port side.
“Hey, it’s Ace!” Luffy cheered, leaping to his feet…and then bending back down and grabbing another hunk of meat to devour.
“Luffy-sempai’s brother?” Bartolomeo asked, starry-eyed. “So cool!”
Law tried to remember if Sabo had gotten that kind of reaction from the green haired fan. He wasn’t sure.
“I’ll signal the other ships to let him over,” Brook said, getting to his feet. “Don’t need anyone panicking, yohohoho!”
“Think it’s just a visit?” Law asked Robin.
She shrugged, “I’ve never met Ace, myself. But it could be a visit on a whim. Nami says he’s like a more polite, calm Luffy.”
“Huh.” Since brash and hyper were two words Law considered essential in describing the Straw Hat captain, imagining him without those traits was harder than one might think.
“Oh, hey, Traffy!” Luffy said, mouth partly full from yet another hunk of meat. “Go get Sabo! Ace has to see Sabo! Come on, please?”
“All right,” Law said, getting to his feet. From what he understood, Luffy and Ace had thought Sabo was dead for a long while. Actually, Ace was probably coming here at new of Sabo being alive. “He’s in the library, right?”
“Yeah, he’s helping Chopper copy those medical books you lent him,” Nami said.
Law nodded. Sabo had popped back in after the chaos on Zou and was apparently “deciding” whether to stick with them through the fight with Kaido or not. “Thanks.”
.o.o.o.
Ace tossed a rope up to the ship to get Striker tied on, only for a hand attached to a long, rubbery arm to shoot down and haul him up onto the deck himself, “Whoa!”
“Hey Ace!” Luffy cheered, hugging him.
“Hey yourself,” he said, hugging Luffy back. “Now what’s this I hear about having a fleet?”
Luffy pouted, “It wasn’t my idea, they all said they wanted to follow me and I couldn’t talk them out of it.”
Of course that was what happened. Ace chuckled, “Two months in the New World and making all kinds of waves already, I see.”
“As a future Pirate King should, of course,” a woman with long dark hair said. “Nico Robin.”
“Portgas D. Ace,” he replied.
“Oh yeah!” Luffy said. “You don’t know Robin or Franky or Brook! I’ve got to introduce you!”
“Franky’s on the sub, Luffy,” Robin said.
“Okay, okay, he can wait, but there’s still Brook!” Luffy said.
Ace was soon introduced a tall, violin-wielding skeleton, who was only all too happy to finally meet his captain’s brother. Ace liked him though he had to admit, Brook was weird even by Ace’s New-World-shaped standards. Ace was then was reintroduced to the crew he knew. And allowed to grab some of the food that was on the deck.
“And these are Bartolomeo and Cabbage-”
“Cavendish!” the blonde pirate hastily corrected.
“-uh huh, Cabbage,” Luffy said as Cavendish buried his face in his hands. “Cabbage brought us some info on Big Mom and Bartolomeo wanted to have his birthday party with us.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ace said.
“Likewise,” Cavendish replied while Bartolomeo cheered something about “sempai” that Ace couldn’t entirely decode. Huh. A crew made of fans of his brother. That was…certainly a thing that apparently existed.
But he was still one short.
“And the head of the Heart Pirates?” Ace asked casually.
“Oh, Trafal-guy?”
“You know, I might almost prefer Traffy,” a dry voice said.
Ace looked over to see a lean man in a sweatshirt, jeans, and white hat come up onto the deck, a long sword braced against his shoulder.
Luffy laughed, “I knew you liked it when I called you Traffy!”
“Traffy” frowned, “That’s not what I said, just that’s better than…you did that on purpose…oh, never mind.”
He glanced at Ace, “Trafalgar D. Water Law, Captain of the Heart Pirates.”
“Portgas D. Ace, Commander of the Second Division of the Whitebeard Pirates. And this knucklehead’s big brother,” Ace added. So Law was another D…
Law nodded, “I know who you are. Hell, I’ve seen several of your internal organs.”
That was a very, very creepy way to say you’d done surgery on someone. Ace disliked him already…
“Also Luffy talks about you a lot,” Law added. “Anyway, Luffy-ya, I got Sabo.”
Ace’s mind screeched to a halt. “What?
“You ruined the surprise!” Luffy groaned. “Nice going, Traffy. Ace, so…um…Sabo’s alive?”
“Well now how do I make an entrance?” the person behind Law asked and…no. There was no way.
“You’re dead.”
“Nope,” the guy who looked like Sabo said.
“You. Are. Dead,” Ace repeated.
“As a doctor I can confirm for you that this man is alive,” Law offered dryly.
Luffy put a hand on Ace’s shoulder, “It’s him. Turns out my dad saved him and didn’t tell anyone, the jerk.”
“I don’t think he knew I knew you. I kind of had amnesia,” maybe-Sabo offered.
Luffy seemed to think a moment, “Nah, my dad’s a jerk. I didn’t even know I had a dad until I was seventeen, that’s prime jerk right there.”
“Well, when you put it like that…” maybe-Sabo admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “So, anyway Ace…wait a minute, is that my flag? You put my pirate flag in your tattoo? And misspelled your name to do it? Man, I don’t know if that’s sweet or hilarious!”
…Okay apparently it was Sabo. Ace stepped forward and hugged him, “Who cares, you idiot, I thought you were dead!”
“I know and I’m really sorry!” Sabo said, hugging him back.
“I love you guys!” Luffy said, jumping on them both, knocking them to the deck.
Bartolomeo was talking again but Ace couldn’t hear him well over Luffy’s laughter. Something about ‘sempai and his brothers’ or similar. Ace didn’t care.
“You little brothers get in way too much trouble but I love you anyway!” Sabo scolded.
“We’re the same age!” Ace argued.
“Shut up, older brother says so!”
“Same! Age!” Ace repeated.
Sabo made a face at him. Ace pushed Luffy away as he tackled Sabo. Luffy cheered and joined the wrestling match, which knocked it right into Law’s legs.
“Oops, sorry Traffy!” Luffy laughed as Law pulled himself upright with a scowl.
“I see where you learned your…spontaneous displays of affection,” Law muttered.
Luffy laughed and hugged him. Law scowled even more deeply as they all got back up.
“So, what were you doing on Dressrosa, anyway?” Ace asked.
“Oh, Traffy wanted to kick Doflamingo’s ass,” Luffy said.
“That wasn’t it!” Law said. “We thought we’d maneuvered Doflamingo into giving up his Warlord seat and had to give back our hostage and destroy a factory! You were the one who wanted to ‘kick his ass’!”
“Yeah, but then you got in a fight with him anyway.”
“…It wasn’t that simple and you know it, we were tricked. And you’re the guy who decided gladiator fights would be fun!”
“It wasn’t that simple for me either!” Luffy complained.
“Seemed like it to me,” Sabo admitted.
“Thank you!” Law said.
“You just let me tag you in through!” Luffy added, pointing at Sabo.
“And I won it all, yay me,” Sabo said, smirking.
“And apparently picked a fight with an Admiral,” Law added.
“Not that simple!” Sabo said, rounding on him.
“Great, you’ve all made that complaint, now can I ask some questions?” Ace asked.
He pointed at Law, “What hostage?”
“Caesar Clown. Evil scientist. We destroyed his lab and kidnapped him to force Doflamingo to either give up being a warlord or piss off Kaido by not providing what Caesar could manufacture,” Law said calmly.
Ace nodded before pointing at Luffy, “What colosseum?”
“Dressrosa had gladiator fights and I kind of got tricked into by one of Blackbeard’s guys who was there to buy weapons and then tagged Sabo in for the final fight because I had to go save Traffy because he got captured.”
He didn’t like that answer as much but fine. He frowned at Sabo. “And the Admiral?”
“Fujitora. He actually seems like kind of a stand-up guy when he’s not throwing meteors at you,” Sabo mused.
“I thought that too!” Luffy said. “He reminds me of Smoker!”
“He also wants to dismantle the Warlords System and has some issues with the Government already,” Law added. “If he wasn’t charged with getting Luffy’s and my heads I’d see if we could maybe ally with him in the future…”
“Those meteors are so awesome,” Luffy said.
“They were pretty cool,” Law agreed idly before going rigid with an expression Ace could only describe as wondering if he’d really just said what he’d said.
“Plus he made sure neighboring islands got the real story, including that pirates freed Dressrosa,” Sabo said. “I’ll be keeping an eye on him for the Revolutionary Army. He’s an interesting one…”
“I supposed,” Law said, seeming to recover. “Ace-ya, I didn’t quite catch why you were here?”
“Oh, yeah!” Ace said. How had he not mentioned it yet? “See I came to-”
.o.o.o.
“…He still does that,” Sabo chuckled.
“He can sleep standing?” Law mused. “Unusual for a human…Luffy-ya, if he wasn’t your brother I’d be far too tempted for an in-depth look at his bone structure…”
“No. Not happening,” Sabo said.
“Eh, Gramps and I do it too sometimes,” Luffy said shrugging.
“…Do we wake him up or what?” Law asked.
“Nah, leave him. He’ll be up sooner or later,” Luffy said. “Zoro, did you get Ace’s boat tied on right?”
“Just hauled the whole thing up. Seemed more sensible,” Zoro said.
“Huh it’s kinda small when you see it on the Sunny,” Luffy mused.
Law stretched, “Well, if you don’t need me anymore, I might as well get some reading done. Bepo!”
“Yes, captain?” Bepo called back.
“Planning on moving any time soon?”
“No, captain!”
Law pulled a book out from under his jacket, “Great.”
Sabo watched in amusement as the feared Surgeon of Death curled up against a fluffy white bear to read a book. Luffy sure could pick them.
“Suppose Ace will be rooming with me?” he asked. The Sunny had limited space for guests, and given how the Straw Hats and Heart Pirates were bouncing between the Sunny and submarine some nights they were very low on sleeping space.
Hell, one night Law had given up his usual room for staying over and just split Luffy’s bunk. And now Sabo had proper big brother blackmail.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Luffy said.
“If he’s anything like Luffy he won’t want you out of his sight for a bit,” Zoro said, smirking.
“Yes, I remember the rubbery clinging,” Sabo agreed.
“He only put you down to fight Fujitora,” Zoro said.
“Good thing I got a message to the Revolutionaries that I wasn’t kidnapped…” Sabo muttered. “Well, okay, I was but…you know what I mean.”
“We know,” Robin agreed.
“Hey, guys, if Ace is here we’re going to need even more food!” Luffy said.
“I’ll get the fishing rods!” Usopp said.
“We’ll set sail before dinner, give the chefs an easier time,” Cavendish said. “There’s an island of rare flowers we’ve been seeking out that we think we might be finally on the right path for.”
“Feh, flowers,” Bartolomeo scoffed.
“They taste exquisite, you barbarian,” Cavendish said, tossing his hair.
“Eh, meat’s better,” Luffy said, sitting on the railing near Law and Bepo to fish. “Hey, Traffy, do you know how come Cabbage can eat flowers when they taste bad?”
“Because he’s weird,” Law said, not looking up.
“Oh, okay,” Luffy said as Cavendish yelled, “That’s not it!”
“Do you think you’ll catch more of that eel?” Bepo asked.
“Ooh, good pick, that eel was great,” Usopp said.
“So try to get eel or just catch anything and hope for eel?” Shachi asked.
“Catch anything. We’re feeding Luffy and his mildly less gluttonous brother here,” Usopp said.
“Pass me a rod, this sounds like a nice way to pass the time until Ace wakes up,” Sabo decided.
.o.o.o.
Ace woke up with a chalkboard around his neck with a tally of how many minutes he’s slept. Nami smirked at him, waving the chalk, “Over half an hour. You must have been tired!”
“Very funny,” Ace said. “Where are Luffy and Sabo?”
“Catching dinner with a lot of the others,” Nami said, pointing to the main deck. Luffy and many others were fishing. Luffy was also chatting with Law, who was reading while leaning on a…polar bear?
“So…that’s a polar bear,” Ace said.
“Bepo. He’s Law’s navigator,” Nami said. “Also commonly his pillow.”
Ace hopped the rail, “Sorry about that. Anyway, I came here because the Whitebeard Pirates want to propose an alliance.”
“An alliance?” Luffy asked.
“Wow,” Usopp said. “This sounds interesting.”
“Yeah it does,” Luffy agreed. “But…I’m already in an alliance with Traffy!”
“You can have multiple alliances,” Law said, not looking up from his book.
“Okay, but you’re my main ally right now so your opinion matters too,” Luffy said.
“By which you mean you’ll hear it but then do what you want,” Law said.
“…Maybe not?” Luffy offered. Law chuckled darkly at that. What a creep…
“So you’ve probably heard about the new warlord Weevil by now,” Ace sighed.
Luffy frowned, “Uh…nope.”
Ace blinked, “You’re allied with a guy who was a warlord one month ago.”
“He never asked me. Not like I know much about Weevil anyway,” Law said, glancing over the edge of his book and shrugging.
“Not like we ever ran into him in person either,” Bepo said.
“Very true,” Law agreed, going back to reading.
“Fine. Edward Weevil is a man claiming to be Whitebeard’s son,” Ace said. “As in, genuinely related.”
“Unlike all the other sons Whitebeard had running around, is what you mean,” Robin said.
“Exactly,” Ace said. “He became a Warlord and started hunting all of Whitebeard’s old crew and allies down.”
“Seems an odd target,” Usopp said.
“Not really. The Whitebeard Pirates don’t put much stock in blood ties or other former families,” Ace said. He smirked and slapped Luffy’s back, “Certain exceptions allowed, of course. So his claiming to be related to Whitebeard…not very impressive. Especially when he’d never served with him. The fact that he declared the rest of us to not be Whitebeard’s sons didn’t help.”
“Bet you must be popular then,” Usopp said.
“Yeah…” Ace said, rubbing the back of his neck. “From our intel he really hates me in particular.”
“Because of your part in the Whitebeard War or because despite your bloodline now being publicly known most pirates would still accept you as Whitebeard’s son over Weevil?” Law asked idly.
“Both,” Ace informed the insensitive asshole. He wouldn’t set his brother’s ally one fire. He wouldn’t. He was so tempted but he wouldn’t. “He goes after the captains and then destroys the whole area around. He’s taken out sixteen crews and hundreds of civilians.”
“Whoa,” Luffy said.
“Out of curiosity, what was his former bounty?” Nami asked.
“Four hundred and eighty million,” Ace said.
“Not that bounties are entirely accurate indicators of strength, but it does put him behind three people just on this ship,” Nami said.
“Three?” Ace asked.
“Me and Traffy hit five hundred million after Dressrosa,” Luffy said proudly.
“Nami-ya has a point, though, it’s not a good indicator,” Law said. “Blackbeard’s former bounty was zero when he was a Warlord and he did defeat Ace-ya back when he was at a bit over five hundred million.”
Ace glared at him for that one. Law did not react.
“Hey, what’s your bounty now anyway?” Luffy asked Ace.
“A billion. Mostly due to reasons other than me,” Ace said, hoping they got the hint.
“I’d assume Weevil has Haki?” Sabo asked, thankfully.
“Might not matter, though. We can just trick him into one of Traffy’s rooms!” Luffy said. “Worked on that Vergo guy! He had really strong Armament Haki and Law chopped him up easy!”
“I’m flattered, Luffy-ya, but it’s never quite that easy and you know it,” Law said.
“…Chopped him up?” Ace asked. “What exactly do your powers do, anyway?”
“I can create Rooms that are under my total control,” Law said. “If you’re in one I can put you in pieces, throw you around, rip out organs…”
“Like those hundred hearts you needed to be a Warlord?” Ace asked.
“Mm-hm,” Law agreed. “I actually got more than half from this one big crew of utter assholes, too. Made things a lot easier. I mean, not like the Marines needed the hearts to be from famous pirates…nor could they really have verified it if they wanted that. I can also fix a lot of diseases and other things you people who don’t care about medicine would find boring.”
“Yeah. I like the cooler stuff, like you cutting a mountain in half,” Luffy said.
“And naturally I have to care about what you like,” Law chuckled.
“I think the way you can handle things like poison and such are interesting,” Chopper said.
“Might be because we’re the only two doctors here.” Law’s smirk took on a crooked, more amused bent.
“I’ll say. They’d be hopeless without us, wouldn’t they?” Chopper asked innocently.
“Most certainly,” Law agreed magnanimously.
“Stop being a bad influence on Chopper,” Nami scolded Law.
“Oh come on,” Law huffed, rolling his eyes.
“Show Nami more respect!” Sanji scolded.
“Maybe if you show me more respect, Blackleg-ya,” Law replied, his voice taking on a hard edge.
He and the cook had a glaring match for a few moments before Sanji looked way with a huff at the exact instant Law brought his book back up.
“…Is this about the bread thing again?” Luffy asked.
“Bread thing?” Ace asked.
“Law hates bread. And when Sanji’s mad at him pretends to misremember about,” Sabo said. “It’s funny.”
“No it is not,” Law insisted.
“Oh come on, he always has some onigiri or something he brings out after you get pissed off,” Nami said.
“It’s still not funny,” Law aid.
“You’re funny, Traffy, live with it.”
Law glared at Luffy, who just kept laughing. Ace wondered if their whole alliance went like that.
“Let’s talk about it in the morning,” Luffy said. “Bright and early!”
“The pirate version of bright and early,” Ace corrected.
“Shishishi, what did you think I meant?” Luffy said.
.o.o.o.
After the Beautiful Pirates were sent off, Luffy declared it was really getting to be time to eat and Ace’s stomach agreed with him.
Dinner was quickly thrown together by Sanji, Penguin, and two members of the Barto Club and set out almost like a picnic on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. Things were already starting to look like a party—of course Luffy’s crew would be the kind to celebrate the mere possibility of a new alliance—when Ace saw something to make his jaw drop.
He’d been chatting with Nami, trying to catch up on what exploits of his brother’s he’d missed, when it happened. Luffy’s hands stretched far beyond normal reach to grab two large hunks of meat, which was perfectly Luffy behavior. But instead of bringing both bits of meat to his own mouth, one hunk was instead used to almost smack Law in the face before dropping onto the surgeon’s plate.
“Come on, you need to eat more, it’s a party!” Luffy said before going back to pigging out.
Luffy had just handed someone else meat. Meat he had grabbed off the line.
That was not normal.
“Fine, fine,” Law sighed, taking a bite. “Go annoy someone else.”
Luffy beamed, “Nah, I’m gonna hang out with you for a bit.”
“As if I could stop you,” Law said.
“Got that right. Come on, you don’t want Sanji to think you don’t like his food, do you?”
“Penguin made this. I’ve eaten it before,” Law replied, taking another bite anyway.
“Yeah but it came out of Sanji’s kitchen. Don’t insult it if you want to live.”
Law chuckled, shaking his head. “Fair enough.”
Ace shook his head. Was that? Was Luffy? No, no, Luffy didn’t think about people like that…but maybe Law did? Was Law after his little brother? Like that?
His eyes narrowed. Law was definitely one thing, and that was damn creepy. He didn’t think that kind of guy should be doing anything fishy with Luffy.
“You okay?” Nami asked.
“Luffy just gave someone else meat. I’m in shock,” Ace said honestly.
“Eh, we’re all worried Law’s not eating enough,” Nami said. “He’s almost as skinny as Brook! Yesterday in the library Chopper kept nudging candy at him.”
“Did Law take it?” Ace asked.
“After severe exposure to shining reindeer eyes, yes,” Nami said. “They guy acts scary but if you know what to do he’s kind of a softie…a creepy softie, but a softie.”
“Oh thank goodness, I was wondering if I was the only one who thought he was creepy,” Ace said.
“Nah, he’s creepy. Almost all the time,” Nami said. “Kind of like how Luffy’s goofy almost all the time or Sanji’s weird about women almost all the time or Bepo’s apologetic almost all the time.”
“Huh,” Ace said. “But he’s reliable?”
“Law says he’ll do something and it’ll get done,” Nami said. “He’s as serious about the alliance as Luffy.”
“Good,” Ace said. “He’s kind of got a reputation.”
Nami shot him an annoyed look. “As if we’d let him take advantage of our captain.”
Ace nodded, “Yeah, good point. Sorry if I implied otherwise. Big brother, you know?”
“True,” Nami agreed. “But come on, don’t you trust the guy who saved you and Luffy’s lives?”
Ace shifted uncomfortably as she gestured at the scars on his abdomen. Akainu had thankfully his him with a swing instead of a piercing punch, but he pretty much only remembered pain from when it connected until he’d passed out on the ice at Marinford. “I suppose…that why Luffy trusted him to start?”
“Why else?” Nami asked. “Well, okay that and Law was offering a plan to take on an Emperor. That was prime Luffy-bait.”
“Because of course that’s what my brother wants to do as soon as he gets to the New World,” Ace laughed. “Fight one of the four toughest people here!”
“I’m sorry, you have met Luffy, right Ace?” Sabo asked. “Be happy he settled on a Warlord for a bit.”
“Except now he’s got two Emperors after him,” Ace said. “Three if we count Blackbeard.”
“And he’s going to fight Shanks eventually as well,” Sabo said. “Trust me I’ve heard the whole list of people he wants to fight more than once.”
“Is it long?” Ace asked.
“Decently,” Sabo said. “Luffy’s going to fight his way to One Piece all right.”
“Gramps is going to be so pissed when he does,” Ace agreed.
“Well, let’s get to bed,” Sabo said as the party started to break up. “Come on, you’re rooming with me.”
“Night, guys!” Luffy said, hugging them before they could head in. “Ace, alliance meeting after breakfast?”
“We’d be insane to hold it before,” Ace agreed. “Night, Lu.”
“Sleep tight!” Sabo said.
The guest cabin was small but serviceable, though it was the first Ace had stayed in with a bunk bed meant for guests. “I still can’t believe Luffy has a fleet.”
“I still can’t believe you and Luffy aren’t seven and ten, so I win,” Sabo said.
“Seriously?” Ace asked.
“Yeah it turns out you can get really, really bad head injuries in explosions who knew?” Sabo offered. “It does not making knowing you’re feared pirates any easier.”
“Sorry about that,” Ace said.
“I’ll cope. Second in command of the Revolutionary Army and all,” Sabo said. “I’m used to stuff like this.”
Ace nodded before he got an idea, “Say, guessing motives a big part of your job?”
“Yeah, sometimes. Why?”
“Well, what’s your read on why the Heart Pirates are sticking around?” Ace asked. “It’s weird to have two crews hang out for long periods of time.”
“Well, they pissed off Kaido too, safety in numbers and all,” Sabo mused. “Plus…and this is pure hearsay from his crew and Luffy’s since I can’t compare…apparently Law’s been a bit off since Dressrosa. A little...lost. Sounds like taking down Doflamingo was his one goal and now he’s kinda aimless or something.”
“He doesn’t seem that aimless.”
“Again, going by hearsay,” Sabo said. “Never knew him before Dressrosa so I have no comparison.”
“Luffy seems to like him,” Ace said.
“Oh yes. Apparently when Law was chained with seastone Luffy carried him all over the island looking for the key. I got a few glimpses of it,” Sabo said.
“That’s my brother. Stubborn to a T,” Ace said.
“Stubborn to a D more like,” Sabo said. “But yeah, I got the story out of Franky. Law showed up on Punk Hazard and offered an alliance, Luffy accepted, and then the crew had to tell Law later that our darling little brother thinks alliance equals friendship.”
“And Law just kind of stayed?” Ace asked.
“It’s…they didn’t seem to think he had a choice. Apparently Luffy’s even more pushy now than he was as a kid,” Sabo said. “Should hear his crew’s ‘how I joined’ stories. Every single one’s a riot.”
“So what, you expect me to believe that Luffy just took the reins and a Warlord just let him?” Ace asked.
“Yeah, cause it sounds like that’s what happened.” Sabo shrugged, “Luffy does have excellent force of personality.”
“The old man certainly saw something in him,” Ace sighed.
“You mean Whitebeard?”
“Yeah.”
“I definitely think Luffy might just do it, become Pirate King,” Sabo said.
“Aren’t you working for Dragon’s group? What do they have to say about that?” Ace asked.
“Eh, mostly along the lines of ‘yay, might mess with the government!’” Sabo said. “Not really sure what Dragon thinks of Luffy…but he spent a lot of time always staring out at East Blue before Luffy hit the Grand Line. I…I think maybe he might be proud?”
“He’d better be,” Ace said. His asshole of a biological father at least had the excuse of being dead for not being around. And Dragon had apparently been in East Blue to save Sabo! Why wouldn’t he check in on Luffy? Jerk.
Still, maybe Law wasn’t too bad a friend for Luffy to have after all.