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Ace, it seemed, had a lot of little idiosyncrasies. The brat could easily be tricked into drinking coffee, which he hated. Just hand him a mug and he’ll drink it without even looking, and then immediately spit it out with the most disgusted look on his face. Sakazuki finds it amusing every time. He also found out that the man is an incessant flirt, focused mainly on driving Smoker into an actual blushing and spitting fit whenever the man was on base. Sakazuki also learned that the only one who matched Ace’s disdain for authority was his grandfather, which wasn’t at all surprising. The Admiral could totally see that this child would have to get put in his place over a hundred times before he agreed to be part of Whitebeard’s crew.
Sakazuki had learned a lot about Ace’s past over the past few weeks, he learned that Ace was quite literally a feral child growing up, hiding out in a forest filled with giant and dangerous animals. He learned that Garp had been ‘training’ the brat and Strawhat quite possibly since they could walk. (Sakazuki could feel the pity building in the pit of his stomach when he saw Garp deliver a “Fist of Love” when Portgas was being particularly insubordinate.) Suffice to say, the brat had endeared himself to the Admiral just by being himself (those damn D’s). The extra protection from being Sakazuki’s new ‘protege’ had lessened the weight on Ace’s shoulders, allowing the more outgoing part of his personality to shine through. The fights the brat got into over his heritage grew more seldom, as did his punishments and reprimands.
Of all the things Sakazuki learned about Portgas D. Ace, he never learned the significance of those beads around the kid’s neck. They had to be important. The Admiral saw Portgas break a man’s hand for attempting to grab them, a look of murder in his eyes and an uncontrolled burst of conqueror’s haki pulsing around him. What better way to find out than to ask. It couldn’t be as disturbing as hearing about Portgas cutting Straw Hat out of an alligator...more than once.
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“My necklace?” Ace asked, almost incredulous around a mouthful of food. Whoever ‘Makino’ was, forgot to teach him table manners when giving the brat lessons. (A little voice in the back of his head told him that even if this woman tried it wouldn’t help, not when his grandfather ate the same way.) “Man, that’s such a boring story.” The flush on Portgas’ cheeks made Sakazuki raise a brow. “Why do you even care?”
“You once nearly took a marine’s hand off because he tried to take it. Forgive me for being curious, brat.” Sakazuki answered, leaning forward slightly. “I would think you’d get bored of talking about cutting Straw Hat out of various animals' stomachs.”
Portgas snorted at that. “I think it’s funny the way you turn green when I talk about that.” He chimed smugly, not at all intimidated by the glare Sakazuki sent his way. “It was a gift from the old hag that raised Me and Luffy,”
Old Hag?
“She has a matching necklace” Ace started, putting down his spoon to rub awkwardly at his neck. “We, Luffy and I, broke hers weeks before I set out. We got into a really stupid argument and Luffy pushed me and I tried to catch myself before I fell and I ended up grabbing her necklace and it snapped. Beads went everywhere. Dadan was so mad we made ourselves scarce for the next couple of hours. And when everyone was asleep I just,” Portgas made a waving motion with his hand, refusing to meet Akainu’s increasingly interested gaze. “I picked all of ‘em up and put ‘em in a little bag. Dadan made a new necklace and we never talked about it again. Few weeks later I’m getting ready to shove off and Dogra gives me a box and tells me not to open it until after I can't see Dawn over the horizon, that it’s a ‘goodbye brat’ gift from Dadan.” Sakazuki was left wondering why it seemed that no one taught Portgas how to show familial affection like a normal person. The Admiral watched as Ace fiddled with the beads with a soft nostalgic smile on his face, “Stupid old hag, thinking she can win me over by just giving me a gift.” The younger man laughed, discreetly wiping his eyes. “Haa… I think she’d keel over if she ever heard me actually talking nice about her.”
“Is that what you call talking nice?” Sakazuki said aloud before he could stop himself, making Ace laugh loudly.
“Mountain Bandits aren’t really known for being ‘nice’ Inucchi.” Portgas replied, still chuckling to himself. That’s another new thing to file away into the ‘What in the Goddamn was this child’s upbringing’ folder. Mountain Bandits? Seriously Garp? Every marine within earshot heard all about how his grandsons were going to become strong marines when these boys were growing up. Did that fool truly believe that they were going to even think about joining them when they were raised by criminals?
Sakazuki paused for a moment, looking at Ace with a truly scandalized look. “What did you just call me?” He asked lowly, as if daring the brat to say it again. The devilish look he got in return almost made him risk Garp’s rage, almost.
“Haa? You don't like it? I heard Kizaru and Aokiji call you that a couple times. And since I’m your ‘pRoTeGe’ I thought that gave me nickname rights?” Sakazuki felt a vein in his neck throb.
“It absolutely does not give you any sort of ‘rights’ to call me something as silly as that. I’ve known those two fools for decades and they don't have any ‘nickname privileges’ either.” Sakazuki rounded the table, intending to storm out and end this conversation where it stood.
Sakazuki really should have known that a half feral young adult with problems with authority would have absolutely not let sleeping dogs lie. “What about Akacchan~?” Came the lilted tease. The Admiral growled and whirled back around, stomping back to the too proud brat. He couldn’t kill the kid, no, but he could still be violent. Sakazuki grabbed the back of Ace’s head and shoved it into his still full plate forcefully, ignoring the muffled protests and scrambling.
“Stop being a shithead and eat your food.” Akainu grumbled as he let the brat’s head go, striding out of the mess hall and ignoring Portgas’ hysterical laughter at getting under the Admiral’s skin.
“Okay Sakacchan~!” Came the lilted call, the clamoring of plates followed by the hurried sound of footsteps.
“ BRAT !”
As Sakazuki chased Fire fist out of the mess hall and throughout Marineford, only one thought crossed the Admiral’s mind.
This kid’ll be the death of me.