Chapter Text
Izo sat in the dark room of the Moby Dick with a bright light glaring at his face, mostly annoyed but also concerned on why he was getting interrogated by the second division commander of the Whitebeard pirates.
“What’s this about, Ace? This better be important.” Izo warned with no venom behind his voice as he crossed his arms and leaned back slightly, Ace having a serious furor in his brow.
“Have you seen this man? I need to know where he is.” Ace replied and held a wanted poster with a tight grip, sliding it over the table for Izo to see it. Once he did, the former kozuki clan member groaned in annoyance before standing back up to yell out from the door, Ace moving right behind him with puppy dog eyes.
“Come on Izo! Don’t you want to hear the time my brother-“ Ace started desperately, being cut off by Izo calling for Marco.
“Marco! He’s at it again!” Izo called with irritation dripping from his voice as he looked back over to Ace.
“You are NOT yapping my ear off with that ‘kid Brother’ shit again!” Izou demanded, imitating Ace’s voice and how he always says ‘kid brother’ like it was his own damn name. With Luffy’s bounty photo still griped in between his hand, Ace held onto Izo as he forced both of them out the door with Ace being dragged behind. Now grumbling something about how Izou wouldn’t want to hear a story about his cute younger brother from when they were kids as he popped back up on his feet.
“You don’t know where he is though? Bummer. I gotta find a way to get there somehow.” Ace casually sighed and moved to walk in the other direction as he didn’t just waste at least 10 minutes of Izou’s time on the same interrogation that he’s been doing with everyone on the ship. Once Marco finally decided to show up from his name being called, Ace was already moving to his last victim; pops, to ask the dying question to. Marco and Izo watched Ace stroll over to Whitebeard with a bounty rolled in his hands in utter confusion and disbelief.
“Why is Ace even doing this-yoi, he literally could just look at the news and he’d probably find his brother’s face right there.” Marco sighed, pushing his glasses back to the curve of his nose as he looked back at Izou.
“Must want to see his brother for something. Strawhat still doesn’t know Ace is even alive after merineford, he passed out from shock just from Ace falling in his arms.” Izou replied with a slight look of concern, cupping his cheek in his hand as he watched Ace try to talk pops into making a search party for Luffy even if he technically wasn’t even missing.
Marineford was hard for the whole crew, Ace and pops almost dying just from the events left everyone on their toes and still a bit shaken. It was quite a sight to see Ace in the arms of Shrawhat Luffy with a gaping hole right in the center of his chest. It was almost unreal on how the magma fist managed to miss his vital organs so doctors were able to save his life right after his younger brother got carried away by Jimbe with magma burning his rubber skin. Ace was saved by doctors, but he was under a coma for almost the whole year after. It was about a year and a half after the incident, leaving large battle scars on everyone but most importantly, mental scars. Ace gotten wary and even protective just at the mere mention of his brother’s name, knowing he hasn’t seen Luffy since then and he didn’t even know where he was. The scar on his chest was just a snark reminder that he almost failed to keep his two promises to Luffy: to protect him, and stay alive. They seemed so simple, but he almost failed twice during the same situation.
Nobody knew that he was even alive, being pronounced dead by the government and even had his name on the front title with an insensitive article below that Ace did read a few times. It was like he had the weirdest kind of freedom, with only his crew knowing of his still beating heart.
The crew knew Ace had changed from the trauma-filled war, but just hearing ‘kid brother’ made everyone groan in annoyance because they knew Ace was about to tell the LONGEST story on how sweet, caring, loving, cute, and stupid his younger brother.
“I don’t blame him-yoi. He been acting a little anxious ever since he woke up a few months ago, must be stressful for him.” Marco sighed and crossed his arms, squinting slightly to fix his falling glasses as they both watched Ace’s search party idea get rejected by pops. Marco was definitely more irritated this little brother craze than anything. It was annoying, but he couldn’t help himself to agree on some small terms of Ace’s stories. He met strawhat during the war of the best, so he knew the young boy definitely has a lot of character, and maybe he was a sight for sore eyes, which is surprising considering his father’s cold and distance face. Just seeing the joyful face of Luffy reminded him of his own days in his childhood with a hint of charm that could woo anyone.
As Ace slugged back over to Izo and Marco with a small pout on his face, Izo grabbed at the shoulder of the user of the flame-flame fruit.
“You got to stop worrying about that damn kid so much, he’s probably fine.” Izo started, his face firm with concern for his friend, “Just relax, pops would probably let you look for him if you had a disguise. Many people wouldn’t be very happy to see zombie boy moaning and groaning about trying to find his cute brother” Izo grumbled with an eye roll, flicking Ace in the nose as his face light up.
“You think Luffy is cute?” Ace asked with a cheeky smile.
…
“Shut your mouth.” Izo Muttered, his annoyance being hid under embarrassment as he quickly turned to walk in the other direction.
Ace took his sweet time to fully process Izo’s words, a lightbulb flickering over his head as he scrambled over to the sleeping quarters to find leftover clothing to hid himself “I’ll be there soon Luffy! Bye Marco!” Ace yelled with a grin and went on his way, packing like there was no tomorrow and throwing on new clothes as a weak excuse for a disguise.
_____
It didn’t take long for Ace to find a new outfit, now wearing a simple black Hawaiian shirt with gray a floral pattern to cover his tattoos, keeping the same shorts but switching his A belt for a plain orange one and his face hooded with a large black trench coat. It wasn’t the most stylish outfit he worn, but it’s not like he had a record to keep if the world thought he was dead.
“Not bad, wore this coat when I was looking for Luffy on drum island too!” Ace laughed as he dashed over to Whitebeard, who was still in his chair on the deck drinking godly amounts of booze.
Ace stared up at his old man with big hopeful eyes, Whitebeard looking back with clear amusement, already knowing what the boy wanted.
“Whatever you’re thinking about doing, Brat, just go. Down’t get yourself killed again and come back to the ship in one piece.” Whitebeard laughed almost like he could read Ace’s mind, shooing him away with a dismissive hand which got a cheer and overjoyed grin to the younger man’s face.
“Thanks pops! I’ll for sure come back!” Ace beamed as he quickly moved to his small boat, Marco yelling out to him about something he didn’t quite pick up on from the splash of the water as his feet planted on the boat. Ace turned up to look at Marco, who had a mad yet fond look on his face, throwing down his own vivra card to Ace.
“So you can get back without getting captured!” Marco yelled down with a lazy hand raised to say goodbye, Ace catching the paper with a smile and a wave to start the boat with his devil fruit powers.
Lately, his usually big and beautiful fire wasn’t crackling the same as it did before the war of the best, but Ace had just assumed it was from not using it in over 11 months.
“Poor girl..” Ace coos to his fire like it was a baby, his hand twirling a small huff of flams off his calf and watching it jump to each of his fingers. As much as Ace didn’t want to admit it and destroy his pride, he had a deep connection to his fire, almost loving it as much as he loved himself (very false statement).
——
Luffy sat down on the grass with a small huff, closing his eyes while falling down to lay on the ground, letting his body relax as his chest rose and fell softly. Rayleigh had left the island not very long ago so he was by himself, which Luffy usually hated, but he didn’t mind it as much as he thought. The silence wasn’t suffocating like it was supposed to feel like, it was almost like a soft cold comfort for Luffy to think.
To really think.
Luffy had his own little schedule everyday on the island: wake up, train/fight, find food, eat, think, eat second lunch, fight some more, REALLY think, fight, dinner, sleep. Luffy was eating his dinner at the moment over a flaming fire, tracing mindless shapes around the x-shaped healing injury across his chest as he zoned out looking at the back of his eyelids. The two years were very hard without his crew, especially since every little thing on the island was just a reminder of his dead brother. A reminder that both of his brothers were gone.
Luffy tried to get rid of the memories of Ace and bit at the large piece of meat in his hand, trying to ignore the comforting sound of the fire cracking as he chewed with full cheeks.
‘Am I really alone?’
‘No, I can’t think about this right now. My friends are waiting for me.’
‘My crew is out there..’
‘Did it have to happen like this..?’
‘Did he have to die?’
“Psst!” The small sound made Luffy’s eyes shoot open, sitting up straight and looking around with the hair on his arm stood up.
What was that aura? It was god-like, yet it felt like his own. Luffy could tell whoever made that sound was trying to get his attention, but who and why was the question..
“Morning, sunshine!” The mysterious person giggled, the voice sounding exactly like his own but surrounding the forest instead of just regular speaking.
“Are you.. me? Who are you! Show yourself!” Luffy muttered in confusion before snapping out of his confusion to stand up and shout out his other words, quickly scanning the forest for anyone. Or anything.
Nothing. He was alone, his observation haki couldn’t even catch where this voice was coming from, yet alone who it was.
The mysterious person giggled before speaking again.
“I’m Nika! Your devil fruit!”