Unmoored [Portgas D. Ace x Female Reader]

The Very Same

When Y/N wakes again, it is night. Her eyes open to the blurred outlines of the stars. She rubs them and sits up. Oh, crap. It really is late. She needs to get inside. Hopping up, she stretches as she walks. Surprisingly, the lamps inside are still on. Huh. Y/N carefully makes her way to the covered door, where Dadan and the bandits' outlines are clearly visible. The sound of pouring liquor mixes with drunken blathering, seeping under the door.

"-'Course it wasn't our fault Luffy's gone! He clearly got lost on his own. Besides, we aren't nannies! Garp should take care of his own grandson!"

"Why don't you tell that to Garp?"

"HAHHN?? YA GOTTA PROBLEM??"

Y/N shakes her heads. Adults, always indulging. She yawns. Well, not her problem. Time for bed...

"-should I care? I'm already giving up on Ace, too-"

Y/N stops. Giving up on Ace? 

"I don't care if he dies or not! I'll just tell Garp it was an accident!"

Y/N turns fully, stepping closer to better hear the conversation. The speaker sounds like Dadan...but weren't Dadan and Ace family? Or...hmm. Y/N frowns. She just realized that she knows nothing about them.

Still...what a cruel thing to say about a child. Though she knows Dadan's words are influenced by alcohol and induced by dislike for Garp himself...she'd once heard a saying. Drunken words are sober thoughts. Is there any truth to these words, Y/N wonders? Though she hasn't known Ace and Dadan all that long...she really hopes not. She'd rather believe that Dadan cares about them deep down than accept that the only real reason she's taking care of them is because of Garp's threat hanging over her head. Y/N snaps out of her thoughts with a shake of her head. She has to know more.

"Truly, what horrible luck we have for Garp to have come to us! Though we are the only mountain bandits in this area..." Dadan pauses to take another sip of liquor.

"Fools of the sea, the navy are! Why venture out into that vast blue graveyard when all we could want- hic can be found on land? Even worse are those...pirates...ahh, PIRATES!! Really, really...really...what terrible luck..."

Y/N squints at Dadan's outline. Is that all she had to say about Ace...? Y/N does not take pleasure in listening to a drunk's ramblings.

As she's about to step away, Dadan says something else.

"It's true, I tell you! The devil's children have the devil's luck! Hic  He's the devil's son! A wild beast, a monster...Whaddaya think the World Government'd do to us if they found out about this?! It'd be better if he died, that demon child!!" Dadan hacks out a laugh.

"Easy, boss...you've had too much to drink..." Some of the bandits gather around, patting her back.

Y/N is speechless. Is this truly what Dadan thinks of Ace? The son of the devil? A demon child? Her mind is spinning. Someone the World Government wants gone...

"Hey, you."

Y/N spins around. It's Ace. "Uh. Hi."

Ace eyes her, water dripping from his damp hair. "...What are you doing?"

Crap. Though there are a million other things she should be considering, like the possibility that Ace could be dangerous to her...She's thinking about something else entirely.

She can't let him hear the terrible things Dadan's saying about him.

She can't let him hear. She remembers the villagers' treatment of her and her mother, and her blood burns. Dadan's supposed to be a mother figure. How could she say such cruel things...? She shakes herself out of her thoughts. Dadan was unwilling from the starts, she shouldn't be blamed...