A Chance Encounter

Just a little one-shot I wrote in between my longer fanfics that I'm trying to finish. Enjoy~

Ace sat in the jail cell in the lower level of the marine base stationed in the grand line. He felt utterly stupid for getting caught. His stupid narcolepsy really got him in trouble this time. Was there medication for that? It needed to stop, since his crew would laugh at him for getting caught. He didn't want to risk this happening twice.

He had been on his way to find Teach, the traitor from his own division, but when he landed on one of the islands in Paradise, he left his striker at the docs and went to ask around for any clues as to where Teach had gone off to. He seemed to be slipping past Ace's fingers through each island he searched on.

And Teach almost always left a mess behind him. Destroying cities and towns, killing or injuring random people and marines or pirates. He really was a bastard, though Ace didnt feel to bad for the marines. Those people are lock cockroaches. They never end.

And that brings him to his current predicament. He'd been in a restaurant in Alabasta, eating to his heart's content, until a marine named Smoker came in, and immediately recognized Fire Fist Ace.

Then they began to battle... until Ace passed out cold on the hard ground, sleeping heavily. Man, what a stupid way to get caught. And because of his damn condition, he was chained to a wall with sea stone cuffs, and in a smelly and dirty place. You'd think a marine base would have nicer quarters, though this was the jail.

While he was cuffed, he was able to feel cold, and it was cold down there. And he was hungry, too. No one had come to feed him. And he was also thirsty. The wall he was chained against hurt his spine, and it was thoroughly uncomfortable. He'd rather be chained to the floor than the wall. God, this sucked.

He had gotten caught yesterday, and since then had mostly been left alone, to his surprise. But he wasn't overly worried He knew Whitebeard would come soon. After all, the ship had been heading to Paradise anyways. Ace just left first. And he wasn't too far from the red line. When they came, it would be great to leave this shithole, and never come back. He was honestly very lucky to not be in a more secure prison. Maybe the marines just got lazy or over confident. It would take maybe two to three weeks for the Moby Dick to come and get him. He would try and wait patiently until then. But he was never good at being patient, and if he got an annoying or rude guard, then he'd be even less patient and just be an ass without meaning to. He sighed at the situation.

He was jerked from his thoughts when a teenager in a marine's outfit walked into the hall and towards his cell. Ace frowned at him. The kid was beaming at Ace. He didn't look like a marine. Most of the lower ranking marines in this kid's outfit were weaklings and scared of pirates like Ace. This guy just seemed not scared and also happy at the same time. The fuck?

He stopped right in front of Ace's cell. Ace didn't see any fear on this kid's face. And why was there someone so young in a marin's outfit? And why was someone so young and small selected to guard a pirate with a bounty over 500,000,000 berris? It was just reckless.

"Hi!" he said loudly. "Your name is Ace, right?" he asked. Ace just stared at him. Wouldn't the kid know his name not only from his infamy but also him being locked in this prison? Word must have gotten out by now, so the world knew about him being caught. What a disgrace!

Ace stared at him some more in surprise, before he grew angry. He was hungry and tired and thirsty and would prefer to just be left alone. But he couldn't have counted on that at all. Even if he was chained and weakened, he was still unpredictable and dangerous.

"Uh, yeah. Who the hell are you?" Ace snapped. Was this kid just toying with him? Trying to seem nice or something and then try to hurt him or some shit? The kid just continued to smile and sat down in front of the call a couple yards from where Ace was chained to the wall. He looked relaxed as he sat cross legged and rocked back and forwards happily.