I found myself gravitating towards a restaurant, probably because Luffy was obsessed with food.
"May I please have some fried rice?" I smiled politely at the waiter who nodded, seemingly nervous.
Just as my food got here someone plopped into the seat next to me and ordered the same thing. My eyes shift to my left suspiciously before they widened upon realization and without any warning my heart skipped a beat.
Memories flashed through my head, remembering when the man showed up at Sinthaya out of no where. The nights we spent together, the talks we had, everything.
"Ace?"
Said boy perked up before looking to the side with curiosity full eyes. "Hm? Do I know you?"
I chuckled slightly before gently bringing down my hood. "I'm hurt, Ace. Has it really been that long?"
Ace's onyx eyes seemed to light up in revelation as his brain slowly, but surely, began to identify my features.
A grin completely took over his features as he jumped up from his seat and hugged me tightly. "Y/n!"
A giggle escaped my lips as I tried not to let out a squeal when he lifted me into the air and spun around. "Okay Ace! Okay!"
"Sorry!" He gently put me down before rubbing his neck bashfully, an action I guiltily found quite attractive. "I've just missed you. I wanted to visit you, but I got caught up in some stuff."
I shake my head in dismissal of the apology, telling him it was okay before putting my hood back on.
He frowned at this, taking his food from the waiter with a 'thank you'. "Hey, why are you covering your face anyways? Did you finally sneak away from your father?"
The waiter comes with my food and places it in front of me and I do the same as Ace did. "Yes, I guess you could say that."
Before the conversation could continue any further, Ace falls right into his food, face in it and his body following with it. Everyone around us began to murmur about him dying and how I was also going to die because the disease he had was contagious or whatever.
He never changes.
I poke the man in the cheek, trying to avoid the rice on his face. "Ace~" I sung his name, trying to get him to wake up.
At the sound of my voice hitting his ears he shot up and looked around before wiping his face on the skirt of a woman who was trying to check up on him.
"Ace, that's not polite..." I sweat-dropped at his poor manners, watching him grin ignorantly at me.
He began asking if the restaurant did comedy shows as if they all hadn't been worrying about his health two seconds ago.
"I see you still don't have trouble falling asleep." I smile weakly at him, not knowing what I'm gonna do with the man.
Ace seemed to not see any problem with it as he asked me if I still had trouble falling asleep.
I took another bite out of my fried rice as I nodded, confirming that I still, sadly, had trouble sleeping.
"Ah that hit the spot!" Ace had finished eating and finally put his fork down after eating multiple plates. "Say mister," He whipped out a paper from his bag as the guy behind the counter hummed. "Have you seen this guy in town at all?"
My curious eyes couldn't help themselves as I looked over the stack of plates to see none other than my idiot captain. "Ah Ace-"
Before I could tell him, a voice interrupts me and states that they're surprised to see Ace so boldly eating out in public.
"Wh-whitebeard pirates?!"
"That dimwit is a part of the whitebeard pirates?!"
"I do remember that mark on his back from somewhere?!"
"What is such a big name doing here?"
I flinched at the familiar marine's voice.
Crap.
Ace was turned around at this point, that same cocky smile he always has plastered on his face. "I'm looking for my little brother."
The gears started to turn in my head as his words played over and over again in my mind.
Brother...Brother....Bro...ther?
"Brother?!" I covered my mouth immediately when I let the word slip out.
Smoker narrowed his eyes at me as Ace also looked at me curiously.
"Princess Y/n?"
"Well shit, no turning back now."
"What are you doing with Portgas D. Ace?"
Before Ace could say anything, since I could see his cocky smile grow, I quickly jumped in.
"Who said I was doing anything with the man Smoker? I just wanted to eat in peace." Once again letting the lie roll off my tongue, glaring at the freckled man to shut his trap.
Smoker, having so much trust in me, hummed in response and told me to get away from Ace since he's an all so dangerous man.
"Hey now, I would never hurt a lady." He winked at me causing my heart to, sadly, skip a beat once more. "Especially one as beautiful as her."
Smoker seemed irritated at the sentence and glared at the pirate. "As if pirate scum like you have such morales."
Ace sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing as the marine was hardstuck on believing pirates were the devils of the Earth. "So? What do you want from me?"
"To let me capture you quietly."
"Nope, I think I'll pass."
"Yeah, I figured. I'm busy trying to find another pirate at the moment. To be honest I have no interest in capturing you."
"My guess is that it's his woman." I winked playfully at Ace with a teasing smile directed toward the marine. My hood was now down, not seeing any point in hiding my face anymore.
The marine got even more irritated, not liking the joke nor how I seemed close enough to to joke with the pirate.
Ace grinned back at me, letting a small chuckled out before shrugging his shoulders towards Smoker. "Then just look away."
"Cant." Smoke slowly took over Smokers arm after he clenched his fists, getting ready to fight. "Not as long as I'm a marine and you're a pirate."
Ace's cockiness never left, even at the action, as he lifted his head, showing his face. "Such a bland reason. Lets have some fun then."
I scooted away from the fire man since I didn't want to get caught in their fight and I instantly thanked myself for it as they both were sent flying through the wall.
"A food place! I finally found one!" A stupidly familiar boy with a strawhat jumped up all excited to finally get food and 'stop starving'. He immediately scarfed down the food before realizing the holes he made in the wall. "What's with these holes? Old man, you have a weird hobby."
"Luffy..."
"Huh?" His eyes lit up like Ace's did as I began to realize how similar they really were. "Y/n! Are you eating too! Did you see the holes in the walls? Weird huh!"
I shook my head, my hand on my forehead. Too much has been happening and it's all giving me a headache. I'm so used to the small, quiet life in Sinthaya that all this excitement is new.
And yet so exhilarating.
The freckled pirate got up first, cursing whoever had thrown the two, but he stopped when he spotted the boy. He stumbled upon his brothers name before finally being able to speak. "Hey Lu-"
"Straw hat!" Smoker immediately sent Ace into the ground which sent the man asleep. They had a stare off—Smoker and Luffy—since Luffy probably didn't recognize the man. "Quit eating!"
"Ah!" A lightbulb went off in Luffy's head as he finally recognized him. "You're that smoke! What are you doing here?!" Luffy put his hand up, telling Smoker to hold before shoving all the food in his mouth. "Thank you for the meal!"
Before I could say anything, Smoker ran after the already gone Luffy in an intense chase.
I walked over to Ace and poked his cheek again, to which he immediately jumped up and started to run after the two. "Wait! Luffy it's me! Hey Luffy! Wait!"
I sighed at the three, knowing they were all stupid in the same aspect. Putting the rest of my money on the counter in front of the cook and apologizing for their trouble, I quickly ran after them.
"Tashigi!" Smoker yelled to a girl with dark blue hair that I haven't had the pleasure to meet.
His woman perhaps?
I really don't know why I was so interested in the man having a romantic interest. I just thought it was a funny concept or maybe there was something else. Either way, now was not the time to be thinking about it.
"Yes? Do you want a towel? This kingdom is quite hot!" She spoke wiping her sweat off with a small towel.
"Catch that man! It's strawhat!"
"Strawhat?!" She immediately unseathed her sword and lunged at him. "I'll stop him!"
I clicked my tongue in annoyance and hopped up to a roof, following Luffy's action. Don't ask me where Ace went because only lord knows now.
"Search every square inch for the rest of Strawhat's crew!"
The girl followed the man's order as I quickly realized she was apart of his squad.
This is bad news.
I watched Smoker run after Luffy and Tashigi run the opposite way with a band of marines.
~•~
"There you guys are!" I panted, my hands on my knees finally finding the two brothers fighting off some marines.
"Y/n!" The two exclaimed at the same time before turning to each other in confusion and asking how they both knew me.
"Whatever!" I jumped down from the roof I was in and stopped their conversation, irritated at the two. "It doesn't matter!"
I clicked the pen that was previously in my pocket and it extended into a metal scythe that was black and f/c. I jumped towards the remaining marines and knocked them out with a swing on the blunt side.
"Woah!" Both brothers yelled in awe, stars in their eyes.
"You didn't tell me you could do that!" Ace held a fat grin on his face, proud for some reason but also in shock.
Luffy, on the other hand, was more focused on my weapon. Asking me how it worked, if he could try it, if it could turn into meat too—yeah, I don't know how that last one was relevant, but then again it is Luffy.
More marines came and Ace told us that he'd hold them off so that we could go ahead. "Luffy! Take Y/n with you!"
Luffy laughed and wrapped his arm around my waist. "Duh! She's mine anyways!"
His?
The rubber boy didn't give me time to think as we were launched into the air and towards the ship.
"Holy shit!" I screamed, air violently rushing past my face and the height now getting to me as I looked down. People, buildings, the ocean all rushing past me in a blur.
Luffy only laughed as he held his hat down with one hand, holding me tight with his other. "Whooo!"
We ended up colliding with Sanji, all three of us hitting the side of the Merry. Luffy on Sanji's legs and me on top of Luffys back and Sanji's chest.
My eyes spun in different directions at the fall and I had to shake my head to get myself back in check. I look under me to see Sanji looking as if he was in heaven and Luffy seemingly having the time of his life. A sigh escapes my lips as I got up before helping the two guys up.
"Oh right! Ace!" Luffy seemed to glow as he talked about his brother. About how strong he was and how whenever they'd fight he would win. "But I think if we fought now I'd definitely beat him!"
A thud was heard as Ace landed on the railing behind me and Luffy. "You're gonna beat who now?" I looked up to see Ace's cocky smirk once again, something I've always found very attractive.
I won't lie, the man had definitely caught my attention the night he came to Sinthaya and he's continued to have me in his hold ever since then. It wasn't a surprise though since he was the one who introduced me to what kind of world was beyond Sinthaya.
"Hey! Hey! There's a bunch of Navy ships headed our way!"
We all looked back at the sound of the panicked voice to see that we were indeed being chased by multiple Navy ships.
"Don't worry Luffy." He grinned at this brother, sending a quick glance my way. "I'll clean them up."
He hopped on his small...ship before heading towards ships and releasing his Devil fruit. He did indeed clean them up and, very quickly might I add, as we all stared in awe. A strange bubbling sensation rising in my chest as he looked back at me with a confident smirk.