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Benn pulled Whitebeard aside as his crew and Luffy boarded the Red Force, his face blank and stone cold.
When Whitebeard saw his look, his grew more serious too. “Beckman.”
Benn nodded, his arms crossing as his gaze met the bigger man’s evenly, despite the fact that he had to look up, “I thought I should warn you, in case this happened again.”
Whitebeard nodded, showing the shorter he was listening.
The shorter man sighed, his gaze traveling to where Luffy was bouncing between Shanks and Ace, not quite wanting to leave the latter. “Before Luffy had gotten taken we brought him into a weapons shop with us,” his gaze then averted back to Whitebeard, his eyes furious, despite his face being blank, “as you’ve probably noticed, Luffy can’t retract his ears and tail.” Whitebeard nodded, “which means that no matter where he goes, people will know what he is. We brought him into the shop with us, thinking everything would be fine because this island belongs to you. But- when we brought him in, he was glared at, and multiple times people tried to walk up to Roux, who was holding him at the time, to tell him to take Luffy away because he wasn’t welcome there. It got to the point that I had to send Roux and Luffy away in order to save the boy from the hate and discrimination, while Yassop and I finished shopping.” he then took a deep breath, “When they were gone, a man had approached me and told me ‘you shouldn’t keep a thing like that around, because they go feral after a while’ it took me threatening the man and telling him who’s crew Luffy belonged too in order for him too back away.” he then glared a warning to the older, “if that is the kind of thing you condone among your people, then I want Luffy nowhere near it. And if that means nowhere near you, then so be it. We can figure out a visiting plan for Ace alone.”
Whitebeard’s eyes narrowed in silent anger at both the threat and the implication that he condoned it. “I can assure you, brat, that that is not the behavior I condone. As you know I have multiple morphs on my crew, two of them being my commanders. I will ensure that this island and every other island we stop at in the future that is under my protection are aware of it.”
Benn’s shoulder’s dropped some at that, he took a long drag of his cigarette and nodded. “Thank you.” he sounded genuine, allowing the older man to nod.
“Benn!” the younger’s head whipped towards the call, and he chuckled fondly at the scene of Luffy waving at him wildly from Red-Hairs shoulder, “that’s all I had to say.” he then met Whitebeard’s gaze, “we’ll keep in contact.”
Whitebeard nodded and watched as the younger walked away, toward Luffy and his crew already on their ship.
The emperor averted his gaze when he felt his first commander approach, his eyes guarded, “what was that about, pops?”
Whitebeard took a deep breath, his gaze narrowing again, “It seems the islands under my protection don’t quite understand the definition of equality, son.”
Marco tensed, “the boy?”
The older nodded, earning a sigh from the commander, “Ace isn’t going to be happy if he finds out -yoi.”
Whitebeard chuckled, “That’s fine, I was thinking about leaving this to him anyways. If I know civilians, they’ll complain about that interaction with the Red-Hair’s eventually.” he then grinned and met Marco’s long-suffering gaze, “until then, we will stay docked here.”
Marco sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, “You're cruel, you know that, Pops?”
Whitebeard barked a long and loud laugh, earning many confused looks from his sons.
—
Ace whistled as he walked down the street with a pep in his step, tipping his head with a grin to anyone that waved.
He took a deep breath, his hands resting in his pockets as he watched the locals of the island walk around and go about their daily lives.
“Hey- question,” Thatch said, tilting his head toward the younger commander curiously.
Ace raised a brow at the other man, “answer?”
Thatch nodded and ate another sea king bite, “what if a sea king ate a devil fruit?”
Ace paused his face scrunching up as he genuinely thought about it, “well- they wouldn’t be able to swim, right? So it’d just be a sea king stuck on the bottom of the ocean I think.” he answered.
Thatch tilted his head, “Okay- but- what if they can swim? They just say ‘fuck you’ to logic, as they do on a daily anyway, and just continue swimming” he purposed.
Ace scowled, “I’d be pissed. And that’s impossible.”
Thatch shakes his head, “But is it really? Fishmen can eat devil fruits! And so can inanimate objects! Who’s to say a sea king can’t? Would they even be affected by water? Would it weaken them?”
Ace went to answer, but was cut off by an annoyed Marco, “why is this even a conversation?” he asked.
The two ignored him and turned toward Namur, “Have you heard about a sea king eating a devil fruit?” Thatch asked, genuinely curious.
Namur raised an eyebrow at them, but answered nonetheless, “Yes, actually.” Thatch cheered, Marco sighed, “And no, they can’t swim. Yes, they do get weak. My ma’ had met one when she was young. It had lived a sad life.”
Ace nodded and turned toward Thatch with a raised eyebrow, “see? Can’t swim. Impossible.”
Thatch pouted, “But- imagine how cool that would be! If a sea king had-”
“Sirs!”
All four men’s heads whipped toward the voice curiously. It was a shop owner, a weapons shop owner to be specific.
Marco stepped forward, “yes?”
The shop owner stopped in front of them, face slightly pale but also insulted, “Something happened! A rival emperor crew had come into my shop and threatened me!”
Three of the four men paused in confusion, all while Marco’s face fell.
Ace stepped forward, his brow furrowed, “was it Red-Hairs crew? They were on the island not too long ago.”
The shop owner nodded frantically, “Yes! Yes, it was!”
Ace nodded seriously. The Red-Hairs didn’t just go around threatening people, but- this was also someone under their protection.
Marco seemed to sigh under his breath, before he met the shop owner's eyes, “Do you know why they threatened you? And can you tell me what they said?”
The shop owner nodded frantically, “I do!” his face then twisted again as if remembering something that pissed him off, “They had brought a beast into my shop, my shop! I have a strict no-pets policy!”
Thatch smiled, confused, “was it a monkey? One of their members has a little monkey companion. His name’s Monster I think.”
Ace nodded with him, only to pause when the shop owner's face scrunched up even more and he shook his head, “No! It was a morph! And it didn’t even have the decency to transform all of the way human!”
Ace’s face fell, and so did the other three’s.
Marco nodded, face grim with an underlayer of anger as if he had already guessed that that was the problem.
“...what?” Ace asked, his voice surprisingly calm.
The shop owner nodded, misreading their expressions completely, “Yes! And one of the members had it on his shoulder! As if it was a human child!”
Ace felt his nails grow sharper as they bit into his palms, his shoulders pulled back and tensed as his eyes narrowed on the man.
Luffy? He was talking about Luffy? How dare he-!?
Someone placed their hand on his chest and stepped in front of him. His gaze snapped to them infuriated.
Thatch smiled coldly at the man, “Sir.” the man's head whipped toward Thatch, “I’m going to ask you to apologize then turn and walk away, okay? We do not condone the discrimination of any species not human, seeing as we have both fishmen and morphs in our crew.”
The man paused his brow furrowing as he looked to each commander before his gaze settled on silently fuming Namur. The man's eyes widened before he bowed to the fishman, “I am so sorry! I have nothing against fishmen, if I offended you, I deeply apologize!”
Namur blinked in confusion, his gaze flicking to the others genuinely lost.
Ace sneered, baring his fangs which had already started to grow.
Thatch blinked at the man too, before he verbally sighed, catching the shop owner's attention. “Did I do something wrong?”
Thatch looked to the sky before he looked to Marco as if asking what to do. Marco just shrugged.
The chef nodded and stepped away from Ace, giving the man a clear view of the pissed-off morph.
“It?” he snarled, catching the shop owner's attention.
The owner paled when he saw Ace and stumbled back a step. Ace grinned at the smell of fear wafting from him in waves, his prey drive mixing with his fury. The commander stepped forward, snatching the owner's shirt and lifting him to meet his glowing silver eyes, “How dare you call my little brother an it. He is not an it, nor is he a pet, you waste of space piece of flailing flesh.” he snarled.
The man was trembling, sweat was beading down his face and his eyes were wide, “i-i’m sorry, I didn’t know!”
Ace’s fist tightened, he could hear the fabric of the man's shirt ripping from his claws.
Didn’t know?
He just growled lowly in response. He’s going to tear this fucker limb from-
“Ace, that’s enough -yoi. He’s on the verge of passing out.” Marco interjected, placing a hand on Ace’s chest and forcing the youngers attention onto him.
Ace’s face fell, “that’s enough? How is this enough!? He insulted Luffy! He insulted all of us!”
Marco sighed through his nose and sent a glare to the trembling man before his gaze traveled back to the panther morph. “I understand, and you’ve made your point. But he’s still a civilian, and under our protection, too. So we can’t hurt them, or lose our cool.”
Ace bared his teeth at Marco- ignoring how the older man narrowed his eyes at the silent challenge-, then to the shop owner, and dropped him.
The man fell on his ass and scrambled back, muttering apology after apology as if Ace was even listening.
Marco nodded and turned his gaze to the crowd of people who had loosely gathered around the scene, “take today as a warning!” he called, surprising many into flinching at being addressed, “we do not condone the discrimination of other species! If something like this happens again-” his eyes narrowed and glowed, “we will take down our flag and will stop protecting this island!”
Many paled at the threat and nodded frantically, while some helped the shop owner up and backed away.
Ace thought they should just do it now. This island gave them nothing, it contributed nothing.
But- he also knew what Pops thought of the islands under his protection, knew he took it seriously, and wouldn’t just stop protecting an island after one incident.
It made him bite back a sneer. He understood. Of course, he understood.
Didn’t mean he had to like it, though.
—
Whitebeard grinned and nodded when Marco reported what had happened in town.
“Good work, sons! Hopefully, they will learn to be more mindful of their words and actions!” he praised.
Ace just crossed his arms and glared at nothing, still fuming from the interaction in town, with no real way to blow off steam.
That only proved to amuse his father further.
Thatch nodded, his own arms crossed, “poor Luffy, how can people be so cruel?”
Namur snorted, “One word, speciesism.”
Everyone nodded to that, “assholes, the lot of ‘em.” Ace grumbled.
Everyone chuckled at that, agreeing.