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He was like the sun.
Deuce could always tell that much, even through the strange haze of hatred and suspicion that he had held onto during those days on Sixis.
Looking back on it, Deuce rationalised it as the dehydration and starvation getting to him. Because there was no way he could ever really hate Ace. His dad? Yeah, the guy was the villain in all of his bedtime stories for as long as he could remember. He hated his own father as well, so at least they had something in common to start with.
Even when he’d been angry at the idea that Ace was somehow the same shadowy monster his dad was, he had looked at him, with those beautiful eyes, had given him a name, had shared the fruit that Deuce was very nearly about to kill for, and he had smiled so fucking genuinely it made him feel like punching something. Then he accidentally turned his hand into a ball of fire and started screaming.
The ridiculousness of the situation, and again, the dehydration and starvation, made him burst into laughter.
And from that moment on, Ace was like the sun to him.
He was bright, bubbly, and literally a ball of fire. A star.
If anyone else on their new crew had looked in his notebooks and journals at the time, they would have found an atrocious amount of poetry about their captain, and then they would have found themselves at the mercy of one of Deuce’s new medication trials.
Thankfully, the Spade pirates were smart enough to not pry into the locked box that Deuce kept under his bed in the medical bay. Either because they respected his privacy, or because they were frightened, he didn’t really mind.
He kept his feelings in check, went about his business, threatened to kill the bounty hunters that had come after Ace, threw marines overboard when they came for Ace, patched Ace up when he got hit with haki or seastone weapons. It was normal, and cool, and fine. Ace was his sun, and he was content to orbit him. It was for Ace, all for his captain.
When that damn Marine, Isuka , somehow impressed Ace enough for him to throw her a lifesaver, Deuce felt a small part of him fester into a ball of anger and jealousy as he continued to remain in the orbit of Ace. Isuka’s name was half scribbled out in his journals, and written angrily in the logbook every time she showed up again, playing cat and mouse with Ace.
Because it was fine , fine that Ace had an interest in a girl, maybe not fine that she was a marine, but he wasn’t the one to decide what Ace liked.
He was a fool to entertain the thought that Ace even liked men, let alone the kind of man that Deuce was. A part of his brain cried out against the rest, because of that particular fact. Once upon a time, he might have actually had a chance with his captain, before he realised who he was, and cut off his hair and ran away from home. When he was still a girl, before Ace gave him his name.
He had sulked in the medical bay for a week, and cried into his pillow far too many times until Ace had out of the blue suggested that the crew take an impromptu vacation to Sabaody. The rest of the Spades had been delighted, and Deuce couldn’t deny that it would be a good break. It would serve as a good distraction, and he was able to spend the week it took to get there sewing a new cloak for Ganryu, to make sure he wouldn’t be a target for slavers due to him being a Longarm tribe member. He did poke him a couple times during the sewing process though. Just as retribution after the logbook incident.
And they got to Sabaody.
“Deuce!” Ace’s cheerful voice broke into his thoughts, a hand intertwining with his own. “C’mon, I wanna go on the ferris wheel!”
“What-” His question died in his throat as Ace laughed and pulled him along through the crowd, jostling and bumping into other fairgoers as his captain led him to the large ferris wheel at the centre of the fairground.
“Have you ever been on one of these before?” Ace said as they reached the line for the ride, hand still firmly in his.
“No, and isn’t this something like, for little kids?” Deuce tried to protest the idea of being in a small enclosed space with his accident prone captain who was literally made out of fire (not to mention that he was also the man who was the object of his affections!), but the line was getting shorter and shorter, and Ace was definitely not stopping. He had wanted to go on it, but by himself! At night! When no one else would be looking at him doing it!
“Where else are you going to get to go on one?” He swung their hands back and forth, and craned his neck back to look at the top of the ferris wheel.
“Fine.” Deuce sighed, but even if he hadn’t agreed, there was no getting out of it. They had gotten to the front of the line.
“Two please!” Ace’s grin was infectious, and the teenager who was working at the gate smiled back shyly.
“Do you have tickets?” They asked, eyes flicking between Ace’s face, to Deuce’s red one, and to their interlocked fingers. “Oh! Never mind, we have a special on today, just step into the gondola that’s at the gate, the ride will be starting soon.”
“Wow! This is so cool.” Ace laughed, and continued dragging Deuce to the open doors, sitting on the small bench of the gondola excitedly. He folded his legs underneath himself, sitting criss crossed. Deuce remained at the entrance, awkwardly looking at the very little space he had left to sit in.
“Get in idiot! The ride is gonna start.” Ace rolled his eyes, and pulled him by the shirt to sit right next to him on the seat, their sides pressing up against each other comfortably.
The door clicked closed, and the gondola began to move. They rose steadily through the air, up, up, until they were above the mangroves that made up the Sabaody Archipelago. Deuce’s breath was caught in his throat as he looked out at the fair, and then to the shore. The sea looked so small from way up here, the sun lighting up the waves to make them sparkle like some kind of rare jewel.
Ace laughed, and Deuce became very aware that Ace was practically draped on top of him, head resting on his shoulder, arms haphazardly around his body.
“This would be so pretty at night.” Ace murmured next to his ear, and Deuce couldn’t help himself from shivering slightly. “I love the way the moon looks on the ocean. It kind of looks like your hair Deu!”
“I prefer the sun. It’s like you.” The words fell out of his mouth before his brain could properly register what the fuck he was saying, and he immediately regretted it. He could feel his face flushing, and immediately began to plan for what would happen when he was kicked off the crew, and what medical supplies he could leave for Banshee to have, before Ace laughed again.
“That’s cool as hell- you think I’m like the sun?” Warm arms hugged him softly, but Ace’s voice sounded confused. Deuce really hoped this was the right move, and he took a deep breath before he spoke again.
“I mean- yeah, the sun is the thing that gives us all life, and it’s a big ball of flames in the sky, and you’re so amazing, and happy and the fire fruit, and the sun is radiant, and so are you. So. Yeah.” He trailed off awkwardly, and kept his eyes firmly on the swaying sea below them.
“I always thought you were like the moon Deu.” Ace said in a strange tone that Deuce couldn’t place. “You’re so calm, and beautiful. It kind of balances me out a bit.”
“What?” Was the only thing he could say. Oh god there was so much blood rushing in his head, and it was getting hot in here. Was it him? Was it Ace?
“Yeah!” His captain drew away from his back, only to flop in his lap in the next second. “Like I’m red, and you’re blue, I’m hot, you’re cold, I’m fire, you’re water, it just makes sense.” He shrugged, and Deuce could just see him blushing underneath all of his freckles and tan skin.
“Can we, maybe, circle back to the beautiful thing-”
“Plus, we’re the same in other ways,” Ace quickly added. “Like we’re both trans,”
Deuce’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, and the cogs in his brain finally started to turn as he stared at the long thick scar running underneath Ace’s pectorals that he had thought was the result of a fight long ago.
“And we like guys, and we’re pirates. And our names match!”
“You gave me my name!” He spluttered defensively.
“Oh yeah! Forgot about that.” Ace laughed, and then his eyes met Deuce’s and became a bit more serious. “Deu, if you don’t want this, you can push me out of this little bubble thing, and I won’t get mad.”
“It’s called a gondola-”
And their lips met, interrupting Deuce’s lame attempts to correct his terminology. Ace’s were warm, and surprisingly soft. All of Ace was warm on him, laying on his lap, sharing the heat that he had gotten from that fruit back on Sixis, the day that he had fallen in love with him. Deuce put a hand on the back of his head, fingers curling into Ace’s short black hair to keep him steady as he felt the gondola begin to move again, travelling back down to earth.
But it felt like they were a million miles above the ground, eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of just being , sharing a soft kiss.
The moment was ruined when that goddamn Marine, Isuka, dived headfirst into the gondola, and yelled at them to freeze. Then promptly realised what was happening, apologised profusely, and jumped out the other side, citing reasons about her brand of Justice.
But the moment was gone, and Ace laughed so hard he fell off Deuce’s lap, and then started complaining about having hurt his leg.
Deuce sighed.
It was back to his usual routine of taking care of his captain. His stupid, idiot, accident-prone, fireball captain.
Kneeling down beside him on the floor of the gondola, Deuce looked at Ace’s leg. Nothing seemed off, until he looked up at Ace’s puppy dog eyes.
“Kiss it better?”
Then again, the usual could change. But Ace was still an idiot.