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Deuce had, unfortunately, become very used to Ace disappearing on him over the months they’d been sailing together since Sixis. If it wasn’t hunting down local restaurants (while conveniently forgetting his wallet), it was running off into the depths of some forest or jungle or marsh, or, on one memorable occasion, down a ravine.
Ace was an explorer, more so than Deuce was simply by nature and nurture, even if Deuce fancied himself one in his goal of writing an adventure book like Brag Men. Ace was called to wild places just as much as Deuce was called to new villages and cultures, and Deuce had learned to make his peace with his captain vanishing into the wild on any given island and to have the first aid kit handy when he inevitably found his way back home, sometimes with scrapes and some recently hunted animal on his back, sometimes with interesting plants and flowers. Once, memorably and early on in their time together, with an injured lynx purring in his arms, nearly the same size as Ace himself, which had been enough to send Deuce into a fit about no more pets tagging along on Spadille if their newest crewmate was going to be an apex predator, even if Kotatsu was surprisingly meek and had an awfully cute meow.
So Deuce wasn’t remotely surprised to find Ace barrelling back toward the Spadille late in the afternoon, laughing wildly as the Spades exchanged nervous glances at the thunderous racket rising from their current island’s jungle behind him. Whatever it was pursuing him drew up short at the edge of the treeline, a massive form stalking back and forth in the shadows of the jungle’s canopy before yowling and retreating, and Ace hollered something unflattering back at the creature, grinning all the while as his previously hasty pace slowed into a more sedate stroll. Deuce groaned softly, slumping against the railing near Spadille’s figurehead and rolling his eyes heavenward as Ace caught sight of them all watching and grinned broadly. At least Ace hadn’t gotten them chased off of this island, if the wildlife was so determined to stay within the confines of the jungle.
“Yo!” Ace called, jumping up onto the railing further toward the middle of the ship with ease, propelling himself the extra height with a short burst of flames in a display of the deliberate control of his Devil Fruit he’d developed over months of jetting around the seas on Striker. He bent down to scratch behind Kotatsu’s ears, under his jowls and chin, and then with one last fond pat started calling questions about dinner at Bree and offering up details about whatever had been chasing him to crewmates who certainly hadn’t asked to know more about the local oversized wildlife. “...thought they might be bigger than the tigers at home, but not quite, yknow…”
“Captain did say he was from East Blue, right?” Wallace asked, their newest recruit, a Fishman who as far as Deuce knew hadn’t left the Grand Line before, but likely knew the common sense line about East Blue being the weakest sea and the Grand Line being the sea with the most unexpected ecologies and weather patterns. It was a fair question, or would be, if anything about Ace made any sense on a regular basis. Deuce simply sighed, and Wallace scuttled away after a moment to help Ganryu with something near the cannons as Ace approached, still smiling brightly, though Deuce could now see how discheveled he was from what must have been a high-speed, long chase through the jungle.
“What was it this time?” Deuce asked, arching an eyebrow at Ace, though he knew the mask over his eyes hid most of the expression.
“These giant cool lizard things,” Ace exclaimed, eyes wide and gestures wider as his grin only lit up further. “I think they were lizards, anyway, they were definitely weird and had these big creepy bug eyes, but they scuttled like the lizards back home did.”
“Wonderful,” Deuce said drily, glancing warily at the jungle again. “And what exactly did you do to piss them off?”
“Found a nest,” Ace said rather casually, shoving his hands into his pockets, but not before Deuce noticed little red marks in the back of his right hand. Something to worry about later, but not serious enough to drag him to the infirmary over now. Ace’s Devil Fruit at least had the bonus feature of burning out most venoms Deuce had panicked over so far. “I’m not an idiot, I didn’t touch any eggs or the nest itself or anything. But then this baby one came running over to check me out, only I didn’t realize it was a baby at the time but it must’ve been, it was way smaller than the rest of ‘em. Anyway, the big ones didn’t seem to like that much, so I hightailed it outta there.”
“Wonderful,” Deuce sighed, stepping closer to his partner and reaching out with comfortable ease to tug at the open draping of his shirt, sighing at the long tears he spotted in the sleeves that were probably beyond mending again. His necklace had turned around his neck sometime during the day, the heavy clasp sitting against his collarbone, and Deuce shifted it back behind his neck with careful fingers before letting his hand linger there, thumb smoothing over the bump of a vertebrae at the base of Ace’s neck.
Ace nearly purred at the gesture, letting his head droop forward a bit to give Deuce better access, stepping a little closer into his space so they could share breaths for a moment, and he smiled at the unspoken request for more, for a continued quiet moment between them after whatever chaos Ace had managed to find himself in up 'til now.
"Doing okay? Any major injuries you want to mention now?" he asked, eyeing the torn sleeves but not seeing any blood or scratches, so Ace had clearly dissolved into flames before getting any other injuries besides what Deuce was fairly sure was a bite mark on his hand.
"The baby one bit me," Ace muttered, tipping a little like he wanted to lean against Deuce's shoulder and slide into a nap even upright, and Deuce caught a better look at the crooked, disheveled charms on the brim of his hat. "Been feelin' fine, though."
"I'll still need to check you over," Deuce replied, huffing a little laugh and reaching up with his free hand to carefully nudge the smiley face badges back into their proper positions, the red beads resettling easily enough in the process.
"Mmm, gonna check me out, Deu?" Ace murmured, soft enough to almost sound like a purr, and he snorted, letting the hand on Ace's hip drop to wrap around his waist, a teasing little squeeze to soft skin and solid muscle before he moved to step away, Ace whining loudly when he had to catch himself from falling forward without Deuce's presence to lean against.
" That can wait for later," Deuce said, reaching out again to straighten the orange hat on Ace's head and smiling to himself when Ace blinked up at him with soft eyes and a tired little smile. "Come on, let me look at your hand. We can nap after."
Ace cheered sleepily, sliding close to his side, and Deuce let his arm curl around his partner's shoulders as they made their way toward the infirmary door, rolling his eyes at a catcall from Skull and Finamore before the expression dropped again when Ace's head landed against his shoulder in another attempt to cuddle that nearly had them unbalancing in the middle of the deck. He snorted in laughter, nearly overcorrecting them, and Ace was looking up at him in delight, hat once again sitting crooked on his head, until Deuce flicked it off to hang against his back instead as they finally stepped inside and he could shut the door on their ridiculous crew.