Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The pirate gave a bit of groan as he stretched out as much as the treated rope under his stomach would allow. Hammocks were wonderful space savers on ships, especially those that homed large crews. They could end up a bit awkward for individuals who had certain sleeping arrangements, however, and that went doubly so for couples. Of course, the way that they swayed with the rolling of the sea around the frigate, or galley, or whatever form of vessel a crew ended up calling home made it far more hypnotic and easier to fall asleep. Especially when that sleep was following certain activities that could in fact be seen as nearly impossible to pull off in such a situation.

Ace caught himself in that thought as he lay there, half awake.

Home.

What an odd sentiment. After all, what was home for a tragic orphan? What did a Son of the Sea, a pirate known and feared far and wide, consider home? Those who didn't know the call of adventure on the open sea, the feeling of salt air on their skin, would probably say that vagabonds who traveled from port to port would have no use for home.

But if you asked the pirate… they would say that their home was their nakama, their crew. And that wherever their crew was was where they were at home. Plain and simple. Others would say that it was their ship.

He gave a soft sigh as his thoughts began to drift from his current location to his own ship, to his crew… how were the Whitebeards getting along without him now? Did they think he was dead? Did they know him better than that? Did they even miss his company, what with all of the bodies that made up the fleet to begin with?
If he really stopped to think about it, other than out there with the old man, with the other division commanders and pirates, the only place that Ace could really think of himself as moored and stable, as at home, was here with his brother. With Luffy and the rest of the Strawhats. Even before they had changed vessels from the Going Merry to the Thousand Sunny, before there had been rooms upon rooms within a cavernous hull, when they had all been pretty much sleeping in the same quarters, he had felt right at home here. Despite sometimes feeling as if he was pulling Luffy and company away from whatever course it was they had charted before he arrived, the Mugiwara pirates had always been kind, or at the very least, respectful of him. They had gone out of their collective ways to make him feel accepted from the word go.
Of course, that was probably only because he was their Captain's older brother. And above that, because he bore the brand of one of the most feared and famed pirates since Gol D. Roger's death on his back. But he tried not to think about that too much. It would only make him miss the old man, Marco and all the rest too much and cause him to head off on his own solo mission again before he felt he was ready to.

“You awake?” he heard the gruff voice belonging to the man next to him ask. When he was lost in his own thoughts like this it was easy to forget when he was sharing a bunk, sharing time and space with someone else. Ace could only nod, running his freckled cheeks against the ropes of the hammock. During his first visit, the Strawhats were getting more numerous and at the time it was getting hard to find an individual place to stay on the Merry. However, he had never really minded sharing a place to sleep with another warm body.

He was attempting to be careful not to let his brother know what he was doing, that he was really involved with a member of Luffy's crew. And that it was the first mate at that, the person that Luffy needed to be able to trust the most out of all of them. After all, there were days when Ace could barely even admit to himself how good it felt to be next to this particular pirate, to feel the slightly cooler touch of another's skin against his when he wanted and needed, to feel the roughness and the scars and all the things that came along with the experienced swordsman.

When he’d first and finally managed to track down his little brother, and Luffy had asked him to stay for a few days, he’d been bounced about by the crew. Everyone had had too much of just one of the brothers' and their antics to even consider letting Ace near them. Let alone letting him share a bunk. To be honest, it had felt like rejection after being alone at sea for so long… after three years away from the only family he’d ever known, and then to be away from his second family for months on end. It was just…

But then there had been a grunt of indecision, of not caring either way. A shrug of the first mate's lean shoulder had seemed like heaven.

After all, the man he was with now… had the same tendency that Ace did about falling asleep anywhere that seemed even the most remotely comfortable. And that included tables, chairs… the rigging of the sails, even the crow’s nest if one felt so inclined. So in most cases it never really seemed like an inconvenience to share a hammock with Zoro, that was when they were both in the same hammock and one or the other of them wasn't in some other random location.

And yet, this hammock was where they’d always found themselves.

Ace couldn’t help the echoing sigh that slipped past his lips, the soft murmur of contentment as the two swayed slightly with the rocking of the boat underneath them. The waves had such a mellowing effect… he felt as if he could fall back into sleep any second now.

“I know you’re awake, Portgas.” He heard that gruff voice again. He felt a hand work its way from its place at his side over his smooth back, across his tattoo that displayed not only his pirate’s pride, but his allegiance to Whitebeard and his horde of a crew. Pleasure caused his breath to leave him yet again as the swordsman's comparatively cool fingers worked over his own heated skin.

“Oh? And how is that?” Ace finally managed to work his groggy voice. He turned his head slightly, lazily to the side to watch the movements of the man who shared the piece of hanging netting with him.

“It's that fruit of yours," Zoro murmured dreamily back to him, eyelids half cast as he sleepily ran his palm up and down Ace's spine, over the purple skeletal face and crossbones of his tattoo. "You cool off a bit when you sleep. It’s not much, but you feel like a normal person, almost. When you wake up, the Flame-Flame Fruit gets to work again, and you’re blazing hot.”

A dark chuckle worked its way from the older pirate's lips then. Zoro was a man of few words, and he could be so awkward about his wording because of it, but he always seemed to get his point across. “Are you telling me that I’m not as attractive when I'm sleeping as I am when I’m awake?” he prodded, testing the waters.
The glare he got from the dark eyes watching him was well worth the remark, he figured. After all, he knew that the swordsman was attracted to him. He’d seen it on more than one occasion in the works, and… had very nearly been caught returning the affection that his brother’s first mate seemed so reluctant to give him on most occasions. Ace felt like he had to fight for every inch Zoro was willing to give, but honestly, he enjoyed that challenge.

“That isn’t what I meant, and you know it you damn brat.” Zoro grumbled, turning to his other side, pressing his own back against Ace’s shoulder in an attempt to freeze him out. A usual reaction, a deeply ingrained flashback.

“Don’t be like that, Roronoa…” Ace murmured, turning awkwardly in an attempt to not fall off of the hammock. After all, no matter how close they were, there was only so much space and stability. In the end, he had to flip completely around in the opposite direction that Zoro had in order to get his arms around the swordsman. The motion had all but tired him out, even though he’d only just woken up. However, the scent he found as he buried his nose into the swordsman's hairline gave him a bit of a wake up call… as intoxicating as he always found it.

Zoro had a most unique scent, almost inhuman in its metallic qualities. It was also very earthy, grounded in reality like the man himself. He found at times he couldn’t get enough of it, almost as if he would die if he didn’t get himself a fix of it. Almost as if it were some sort of drug. He honestly felt as if it were better than… most rums.

“How am I supposed to be when you start acting like your brother?” came the annoyed sounding grunt.

“Ouch… that’s harsh…” Ace murmured, frowning a bit against the back of Zoro's ear. He moved away, his warm arms unraveling from around the Strawhat's scarred stomach. Ace loved Luffy, he did, but… in times like this, being with someone he adored, it hurt to be compared to the little idiot.

It wasn't as if they were actually related by blood, as Ace was in the constant habit of reminding himself. As far as he knew, their captain had yet to divulge that tidbit of information amongst the members of his crew. Luffy didn't betray trust, not easily, anyway, and when he had caught up with the crew back in Alabasta, Ace had tried to impress upon him how important it still was to keep the secret of his birth just that - a secret. However, it didn't make his own undisclosed wounds any less hurtful when comparisons like this one came.

Ace had grown up used to keeping those secret hurts buried as far down as he could possibly manage, only allowing them to bubble to the surface in the form of violence and rage. And sometimes extreme at that. And it was no different now. He tried his damndest to keep his face neutral as he felt that cut settle deep down into his chest. Next to his aching heart, covered in the scars of a thousand such battles. Not just from being compared to his adoptive brother, but whenever his biological father, or even his mother were mentioned.

Sometimes, Zoro could just be too harsh, too… unbending in his own right. Like the weapons he carried, he was gruff and sharp and unwilling to bend from his own ideals. It was those same attributes that had made winning him over so hard in the beginning, that had made getting close to him finally so damned rewarding… that had made becoming the man’s lover such a very treasured part of him, just like the marking he wore on his back, like the memories he bore of his own crew, of the times when Luffy and he were small and the little rubber boy had needed looking after, more so than he did now as a somewhat capable adult.

“I guess this means my visit is pretty much over, then.” Ace murmured, keeping his tone at a well practiced deadpan to not give away his feelings. He gathered up the little bit of clothing he’d worn boarding the ship the day before, and began pulling his shorts on, sliding them up over his hips and fastening the belts that held them in place. Throughout this, he noted that Zoro didn’t move, and barely seemed to register the sounds of Ace zipping his fly, gathering up his other effects from where he'd piled them on the floor, or even when he opened the door to slip out of the cabin and into the hallway.

He heard nothing of any stirring from within as he left the room behind, head hanging a bit on his shoulders as he pressed his wide brimmed hat onto his skull, made sure the sheath of his knife was secured against his left hip, and moved up and onto the deck of the Sunny. It and the crew quarters, as well as so many other things, were far larger than the accommodations on Merry had been, so of course if he had wanted he could stay and have his choice of rooms without fear of running into or getting in the way of any of the other crew. Yet, Ace just still felt too flustered to even consider this alternative at the moment.

He could remember back in Alabasta when he had first met not only the Strawhat crew but also their charming little caravel. His first impression was that the poor ship had been showing its age and the intensity of the travels it had borne the Strawhats on thus far. From what he had heard this round, the Merry had finally broken down just a few weeks ago. If even that, after one final heroic battle. Everyone, not just Ace, was still getting used to the sparking new Sunny, and most of the crew could be considered to be in mourning. After all, the Merry and it's smiling little caprine figurehead had been what had gotten them all to the Grand Line in the first place. Ace was no stranger to the feeling, since he himself had had to say goodbye to Piece of Spadille after his own crew had been absorbed into the Whitebeard pirates.
It had not been an easy day for him or his former crew.

It was as if the whole of the Sunny was a ghost, as only Ace stood on the moonbeam soaked deck planking. It very much unlike any of the ships in Whitebeard's fleet, but especially on the Moby Dick, where despite the size of the battleship, you were nearly constantly tripping over a crewmate or two.

It made Ace's melancholy all the more poignant for himself. He missed them. What was he doing out here anyway? The old man had told him point blank before he had left that he didn't need to go on this crazy man hunt. Perhaps… perhaps he should have listened and never left in the first place.

It wasn’t until he had the mooring line of his skiff untied and in hand and was about to drop off the rail and onto the small vessel, that he felt any kind of presence anywhere on the deck.

Arms wrapped around him from behind startled him. Had he been any less lost in his own thoughts, he would have allowed his Flame-Flame Fruit powers to activate and not only burn whoever it was, but to escape that grasp. As it was, they wound around him like steel cables, holding him tight, pulling him in close. A head came to rest at the small of his back, short cropped hair tickling against the skin just above the hem of his shorts. All things considered, in Ace's mind there was no doubt as to what was happening, who had finally decided to catch up with him.

“You’re lucky I have good balance.” He murmured, looking down into the dark water as it gently rolled beneath them and the lapping waves chopped the reflection of the moon above them into dancing slices. As soon as he had felt anything, he had brought both of his hands down against the rail he was perched on, digging his fingers into the underside. Had he not done this, had he fallen and missed the skiff, unless the Zoro there had jumped in behind him, he more than likely would have drowned.

“I knew you wouldn’t fall.” the swordsman grumbled. “You’re too stubborn to fall.”

“Oh?” Ace retorted, tightening his grip on the deck rails in both hands. He wondered if Zoro meant what he was saying, or if he could guess the true scope of which he was speaking. The man was notoriously hard to figure out, especially for Ace, who was so used to the blunt childishness of Luffy that anything deeper than two dimensions became rather difficult to figure out. Even the Whitebeards weren’t as hard to figure out as Zoro sometimes could be.

“Yes.”

“How do you know that…?”

“Because you don’t seem like the person who’d let what I said back there affect them. Or the type that would let yourself take that kind of a dive,” He said. “You can act like your brother… but you’re not him, Portgas.”

Something in Ace melted at those words, forcing a breath out of his ribcage. The older man shoved Zoro’s arms away from around himself so that he could step down off of the Sunny's rail and retie the mooring line he had in his hand. He hadn't really wanted to leave, ofcourse, and knew that what Zoro had just said was the man’s way of apologizing to him. That much, he had been able to figure out. Almost before he had finished his job, the calloused, rough hands or his brother’s first mate took up his wrists and held them. The grip was so tight, so unwavering that Ace almost felt as if he'd just had handcuffs placed over him. That really wasn’t something he would have relished the feel of – if it wasn’t another pirate holding him like this.
If it wasn’t Zoro holding him like this.

He was spun around, his lower back pressed into the rail that he had just been perched upon. His hands in front of him, held immobile, Ace could do nothing but watch Zoro a few moments in confusion from under both his lashes and the wide orange brim of his hat.

“Why not just let me go?” he managed after a few moments, when the silence between them felt as if it had stretched out for far too long.

“Because I don’t want you to yet. Besides, if you snuck off without saying goodbye to anyone else, think of how devastated Luffy would be.”

Ace almost rolled his eyes, but instead just shifted his gaze, and his all-too-still feet, away from the swordsman. His brother was a cover that Zoro used often when he couldn’t really fathom putting the entire reason for extending Ace’s stay on the Strawhat’s ship completely on his own shoulders. After all, it wasn’t as if any of the other crew, aside from himself and Luffy, had any particular attachment to Ace.
Sanji hated it when the older brother was around, at least as far as he seemed to show publicly, because it usually meant more cooking and less food for the rest of them, especially where Nami and Robin seemed to be concerned. Chopper, the adorable cloven-hooved doctor, seemed indifferent as long as he didn’t have to treat any major burns. Ussop was more scared straight than anything, and Nami really only saw the use in putting Ace to work while he was on the ship. After all, he was less brain dead than Luffy, and, like her, had a back for navigation.

And that wasn’t even taking the newest members of the crew into account. Frankie and Robin really hadn’t formed any sort of opinion of Ace either way. Of course, Robin was somewhat fascinated by him, if just for the fact that he could have been named a member of the Seven Warlords like her old boss Crocodile and yet, had turned down the offer. The title would have made Ace untouchable in the eyes of the Marines, as well as make him an invaluable ally to any pirate crew around the world. He was pretty sure the cybernetic shipwright more or less viewed him the same way that Chopper did - he was fine as long as there were no flames around his precious ship.

Ace was ripped out of these thoughts of the rest of the crew by Zoro’s slightly wind-chapped lips brushing against his own. The kiss was short, and chaste, but Ace knew the passion the man was capable of if he wasn’t out in the open. He figured that Zoro was just afraid to show how soft he could be to the other members of the crew, and so liked to keep their little jaunts a secret.

Which was fine. It was. It wasn't as if either man knew how Luffy would react if he found out that Ace and Zoro were… involved.

“Apology accepted," the older pirate managed, leaning forward and placing his forehead against Zoro’s. The motion caused Ace's longer hair to cascade a bit, curtaining both of their faces so that their eyes could only see each other. The motion knocked his hat backward off of his head, but it was held close to his shoulders by the large medallion at his neck.

“Good.” Zoro murmured, steel grip still holding Ace's wrists as they both stood there on the open decking.

“Are you going to let me go now?” Ace asked after another long few moments. He was still pinned against the rails of the Sunny, though he could hardly bring himself to care. Not with Zoro’s lips moving across his throat and chest the way that they were. He could escape any time he wanted to anyway, though he was more than content to just soak up affection here in the moonlight as long as Zoro was willing to douse him in it. However, standing there was beginning to feel less than ideal. It was almost claustrophobic for the pirate, not that the former pirate hunter seemed to care or even to notice.

“Why? Doesn’t this feel good?” Zoro asked as he looked up from where he was near buried in Ace's collar bone.

“It does.” the words fleeing his lips could barely be defined as a breathless moan.

“So then why?”

“Won’t someone be coming up soon to make sure we’re on the right course?” Ace asked, swallowing, his eyes soft, understanding. He knew how hard it was to be a man on a ship with few women, especially those who showed no interest in you. He knew though, that anything above the friend level with either Nami or Robin was out of the question for Zoro. They were nakama, were crew, practically family, and little or nothing more. For the longest time, Zoro even hated Robin.

Ace had the tickling suspicion that that fact had a lot to do with his past, the past that Zoro never shared. Not even in their most private moments. The past from before he was a pirate. Before becoming a Pirate Hunter, even. He knew Zoro had been hurt, somehow. Deeply. Maybe even irreparably. All Ace knew for certain about any of it was that he was glad enough that whatever pain was there, the swordsman didn't seem to let it bother him too much. Not in outwardly apparent ways anyway, not while he was around. He wondered if on some level his presence somehow managed to bring the swordsman some sense of peace.

The fact that he could just be himself; that he could let down all of his defenses around Ace.

If that was the truth, Ace felt even more at ease with his position, with his importance, even here on another crew’s ship. Some proof that he was needed in this world, in spite of everything. That Ace… mattered.

The thought crashed into him, making sure that the irony wasn't lost on him. That he couldn't bring himself to share his own secret pains in reciprocation. What a pair they were…

The green-haired swordsman gave a gruff huff of breath, frowning in almost a pouting sort of expression that made the devil fruit user’s knees nearly give out.

“Fine…” he grumbled, letting go of Ace’s wrists. “You do have a point. I don’t think we need Nami spreading things around.” He said, finally allowing the older pirate a bit of breathing room.

Ace gave a slight sigh, and watched as Zoro walked away a few steps. The swordsman didn’t say much, but he also didn’t go too far before he stopped and stretched, letting out a deep yawn as he did so. “Let’s go back to bed…”

“But weren’t you just bugging me about being awake?” Ace asked, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

“Shuttup.” Zoro grumbled.

Ace could only chuckle, a smile lighting his face as he saw those dark eyes turn to look over at him from under deceptively heavy lids. Zoro wasn’t tired, not now anyway. He knew the man well enough to know he’d conk out at the first sign of needing to, even if there was something on the ship that needed his tending to whether he wanted to tend to it or not. It was no problem what they did in the middle of the night.

Especially in the middle of the night. Most of the Strawhats slept like rocks, and those that didn’t knew how to keep their mouths shut.

“You coming, or what?” the swordsman asked after a few long moments of the two just standing on the gently rolling deck. Neither spoke, but Ace came over to him, and in a gentle fashion, rested his messy crown of loose dark curls on Zoro’s shoulder. “That doesn’t answer my question," the younger man breathed in exasperation at his antics.

Ace just chuckled. “Yes it does, dunce.” He said, snaking his arms around the swordsman’s lithe, muscled body.

Zoro’s eyes narrowed at that, and he very roughly shoved his captain’s older brother away from him with a shrug of his strong shoulders. “You’re doing it AGAIN.” He growled.

“Sorry, I can’t help myself, I swear…” Ace whined, following swiftly behind Zoro as the swordsman stomped back down toward the crew quarters under deck. He was heading back toward his cabin, that much would be obvious to anyone. Even if they weren’t sleeping with him.

“Get lost, Ace.”

That caused the dark-haired man to stop dead in his tracks, his eyes twinkling in delight. “You called me by my name!” he giggled, almost giddy.

“Oh… god…” Zoro growled. “You’re damn near impossible. Go cuddle up with someone else!”

“But no one else wants me to cuddle with them…” Ace whimpered, floating along at the swordsman's heels again.

“Well right now, neither do I.” the younger man practically hissed.

“That’s such a l-“ Ace didn't get a chance to finish the sentence. They’d reached Zoro’s room, and the swordsman had entered first, slamming the door closed right in his face. Had Ace been expecting it, he could have easily slowed his stride, or even used his elemental powers to avoid even being hit like many hosts of Logia-type Devil Fruit Abilities. As it was, however, the boards had cracked right against his nose. “Ow…” he whimpered, stumbling backward a few steps. He sniffled, smelling nothing but the copper tang of blood and gingerly testing the cartilage, trying to ascertain the damage done. “Ow… ow… owwwwww…”

“Mne?” he heard a soft sound from somewhere farther down the hallway. Ace turned, only to see none other than his brother standing sleepily outside of his own now open cabin door. Luffy was rubbing at his eyes as he crushed a pillow to his chest with his other hand. He’d obviously been woken up by his first mate’s slamming door. The older of the two idly wondered why it was that none of the others were awake considering the noise, why it had to be Luffy that was seeing him like this. “Ace….? ‘zzat you?” he grumbled, words slurring together in an almost incomprehensible soup. Before Ace could say anything here or there about it, his brother was already crouching beside him, his wide, childish eyes singing with deep concern.

“You’re bleeding…” Luffy murmured, suddenly wide awake and reaching forward to tip Ace’s head back with his hand.

“I’m fine, Luffy…” Ace grumbled back, giving a sigh as the pressure of his brother's hand caused him to rock back so that he was sitting rather than crouching there in the hall.

“Did you annoy Zoro or something?”

Ace looked over at his brother as he leaned back against the wall, his eyes widening as they traveled to his brother's face. For being an idiot, Luffy could be unpredictably rational and perceptive when he needed to be. He had always had a back for that. “Uh…”

“Zoro doesn’t like it when people get really close.” Luffy told him, giving a soft sigh. He reached into the pocket of his shorts for a bandana."He's kind of like you that way," Once he had it in his hand, he gently but firmly placed it against Ace’s nose. “You sure you’re ok?”

Ace had had to hold back a scoff at his brother’s first comment. If only he knew. But then again… he couldn’t help but think that it was better that his brother didn’t know about the relationship forming under his own jolly roger. Ace placed his hand over Luffy’s so that his brother could take his own away, nodding a bit. “Yea… just stings.” He murmured, choosing to expressly annoy the added jab at his own personality.
Luffy nodded, his face still concerned as he crouched in the hall beside his brother, elbows resting atop of his knees. It was painfully clear that he wouldn't just go back to bed on his own, not for a while anyway. No, Luffy seemed to need to make sure that Ace was really alright for now. Despite saying he was fine, he didn’t look alright.

He looked hurt. And not physically hurt.

A hurt that he didn’t know if he could help, one that had been following his brother around since... Since before they had chosen each other as siblings. And that had been such a long time. Ace’s eyes looked glossy, though he knew it would take more than a hit in the nose to make his older brother cry. Ace was strong, a great fighter, and had been since he was a kid. He’d been through too much for something this small to hurt this much.

“Do I need to kiss it?” Luffy asked after a while.

That caused Ace’s head to snap up, and too soon apparently, as he immediately looked dizzy and his head tipped further forward so that his chin was against his chest to regain some stability. “Luffy!? What the hell?”

“Well… when we were little…”

“Dadan isn’t here, Luffy… neither is Makino," the older of the two sighed, his voice softening the next time he spoke, "And I don't know if you just haven't noticed, but we aren’t little kids anymore.” Ace told his brother, gesturing with one of his hands to their adult bodies. Well… Luffy still looked pretty childish, probably as a result of eating the Gum-Gum fruit.

“But you’re hurting, Ace…” this time Luffy's voice was soft, almost pleading. When was the last time Ace'd heard that tone from him?

One look at his little brother’s face, and Ace felt something deep within him start to crack, leading him to expel a soft sigh from deep in his lungs. Those big eyes, the watery orbs that told of his need to help the man he looked up to, that he admired, they had always had a power to in turns both annoy and break Ace down. Luffy had such a huge, kind heart, and helping was all he had ever wanted to do, especially where Ace was concerned. Help and nothing more. He didn’t mean to hurt, or to make anything awkward or difficult between the two of them, but he could see that his brother, for some reason that he couldn’t fathom, was just…

It was hard for Luffy… he could see that.

Ace held his breath for a long moment. He couldn’t resist that pouting. He'd never been able to, not since Garp had beaten the importance of actually behaving like family to the younger boy into him. Not since the two of them had lost their brother Sabo. Besides, it wasn't as if anything could make this ache in his chest any more painful than it already was, right?

“Ok… fine.” He breathed.

Luffy brightened a bit, and reached over. He took Ace’s hand that was holding the bandana to his nose, and moved it away. He was glad to see that his brother had stopped bleeding. He just needed to wash his face and he’d be fine now. Still, he leaned up, and very gently pressed his lips to the bridge of Ace’s nose.

“Better?” he asked, receiving a nod from his sleepy looking brother.

Ace was dazed as not even seconds later he was being hauled to his feet. One moment he’d been sitting in the hall with Luffy, and the next, his shoulders were being held, and he was pinned to the wall by them. Unconsciously, his body temperature began to rise rapidly in defense, his powers springing to life as danger molded with the confusion.

“What the hell?” he heard the grizzly growl before he could even manage to lift his head and look up… even before the dizzy black spots had cleared from his vision after the sudden motion.

“Zoro…?” Luffy's voice was obviously and endlessly just as dazed as Ace himself was to see his first mate suddenly manhandling his brother.

The swordsman didn’t answer him though, didn’t even so much as look away from the prey within his grasp. His dark eyes were angry as they bored into Ace’s. He seemed…

“What the hell’re you doin’?” Zoro repeated, face contorted in a severe frown. The fact that Ace was stupefied in his grasp didn't seem to register much. It was as if the needle on the record of the swordsman's brain was stuck in one particularly nasty scratch.

Luffy stood, an angry frown on his own face. He was panting, hard, his eyes wide and angry, pupils small. He was practically biting his lip to keep from doing anything rash
.
“Huh? Answer me, Portgas, what the hell are you playing at?!” As he asked, Zoro brought Ace forward and then back again, smashing his head rather indelicately against the wall, causing a grunt to pass from the eldest of the three men.

That was enough for Luffy. He brought his fist into Zoro’s face. As the swordsman stumbled off to the side, releasing Ace from his grip, he let out a few deep breaths in an attempt to recenter himself and keep the fight from getting to a point where it caused damage to the ship. Ace, dazed where he stood, allowed his knees to lax and crumpled back to the floor. The flames that had begun to dance and lick at his shoulders in a defensive measure smoldered out as he did so. The back of his head was pounding as he looked unfocused up at the two other men.

Zoro was beginning to recover, drawing himself into a stable stance, glaring past Luffy to where his brother sat on the floor, now leaning back against the wall. He reached up. Wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. In doing so, he inadvertently showed off the singed skin on his palms from where Ace's flames had marked him.

“What’re YOU doing?!” Luffy turned his first mate's question back on him, his voice low and grave. He pointed behind himself at Ace, having come between the other two powerhouses when his punch had connected with Zoro's jaw, ready to defend his brother for as long as it would take him to recover his faculties and tag himself back in. “Are you trying to hurt him?”

Zoro frowned, his face looking severe and deadly serious. “I think Ace can take care of himself, Luffy.”

“You think I don't know that?!” Luffy spat back. “But that doesn’t mean you can toss him around for absolutely no reason!”

Ace just had to smile at that. Luffy could be a simplistic idiot, sure, but he really did have attachments. A stalwart sense of loyalty that held true no matter what may happen. The longer and stronger bonds always held over newer ones. Which meant that any loyalty that he had to his first mate was trumped completely by his loyalty and love for his brother, blood relation or not. Luffy was like a raging bull, and Zoro was probably lucky that they hadn’t yet woken up the rest of the crew at this point.
“Luffy, it’s ok…” Ace murmured from where he was sitting.

“No it’s not! My nakama shouldn’t be beating up my family!" The Strawhats captain snarled.

“Luffy, I’m ok…” Ace tried again.

“But your nose, and your head…” Luffy murmured. He turned his back on Zoro, and moved over to where Ace was sitting, running his hand gently through Ace’s longer tresses of dark hair as he crouched down before him again. For all intents and purposes, their rolls had momentarily reversed and Luffy had become a protective mother hen.

“Well deserved.” Ace assured, giving a soft smile. “It’s ok. Promise” he reached up, patting his brother affectionately on the shoulder in an attempt to continue to calm him down.

Luffy looked Ace up and down a bit as he crouched there. It was as if he was trying to discern if his brother were lying to him or not. As if he were trying to see if Ace could actually handle the situation if things were to get rough if Zoro had managed to injure him. After having never once getting the upper hand over Ace when they had fought as children, Luffy obviously had no doubts in his brother’s skills, but seriously, why had he just let Zoro do that to him? Something funny was going on as far as he was concerned, and he was going to get to the bottom of it, eventually. He sighed.
“Ok.” He murmured. He gave a yawn then, and picked up his pillow before heading back into his cabin. As he reached the door, the young captain turned and looked back, giving his first mate a warning glare. The meaning was clear. If anything further happened to Ace, Luffy would have Zoro’s ass.

“What were you doing?” Zoro's voice was much softer after he'd managed to calm down enough to get Ace into his room, back into the gently swinging hammock to recuperate. The older man was now just relaxing with one leg hanging off of the netting. Zoro had taken a chair off to the side, and was sitting backward upon it, watching Ace as the Whitebeard pirate relaxed. He looked sleepy again, like he had earlier. “Why’d you let him kiss you?!”

“It was my little brother…” Ace groaned, laying one of his arms over his face, blocking out more light and attempting to avoid his still sore nose. The hit to the back of his head had been harder than it had seemed in the moment, and the light from the rising sun outside of the porthole was beginning to bother him. “For crying out loud… just my brother…” he repeated.

Zoro was frowning when Ace shifted his eyes to gaze over in his direction. It wasn't as severe as the one he had borne out in the hallway, which Ace refused to see as anything but a positive. However, it seemed as if Zoro wasn’t buying the explanation he was being fed, no matter how true it happened to be. “And…?” the swordsman asked, one of his thin brows arching over a deviously suspicious eye.

“And you slammed a door in my face.” Ace huffed. “You’re lucky my nose isn’t broken…"

Zoro blinked, straightening up a bit in his chair. “I thought you stopped before it-“

“Well, I didn’t.” Ace grumbled. “It hurt, I’ll have you know.”

The younger man's expression softened as he drank in the whole situation finally. It was the most odd thing to see there. The eyes were wide, and yet… there was a deepness there that went far past what anyone would believe that the swordsman could be capable of. A massive spread of character and… softness. It was moments like these that Ace cherished.

As he watched, his one eyes half mast, the green headed swordsman leaned forward, and gently placed his lips to Ace’s nose, just as Luffy had. After a short peck that was obviously meant to sooth and alleviate some of the pain, that he had caused, he moved his lips down to Ace’s. THe older pirate could taste that same metallic twinge that made the other pirate’s scent so exotic. He felt Zoro’s hand snake under his head, calloused fingers carding through his semi-curled mop as they moved through the dark strands, almost as if he were searching for something.

And then, all at once, Zoro was sitting up again, and was looking down at Ace. His fingers had found a painful spot on the back of the other pirate's head, and even just the soft touch caused a wave of pain to move toward the front of his head from the back, causing a full body wince.

“You have a lump.” The swordsman murmured.

“No, shit…” Ace hissed, giving the man over him a flat glare with absolutely no venom behind it at all. He just couldn't bring himself to manage it. Nor did he wish to.

“I’m sorry.” Zoro murmured. “I probably gave you a –“

Ace sighed, cutting him off. “I’m fine. If you think I haven’t gotten hit in the head before, you’re wrong. Really, it's just a dull ache…”

“We can get Chopper to look at it”

“I said I’m fine. Your reindeer does not need to look at the back of my head, Roronoa.” Ace insisted. "I know you all ran into my grandfather at Water 7. You all know what me and Luffy grew up with."

“Ok, fine.” Zoro huffed back, bemused expression playing over his face.

“Why do you do that?” Ace asked after a few moments of silence passed between the two of them.

“Do what?”

“Get mad at me like that?”

“…” Zoro didn’t look as if he knew what to say, how to answer. After a few more moments, the swordsman’s cheeks began to flush a light shade of red. Slowly, Ace began to sit up on the hammock. The room around him spun a bit as he placed the heel of his hand against one of his eyes in an attempt to make that stop. The other supported him, arm shaking only slightly at the elbow. “You shouldn’t be-“

But before Zoro could finish the sentence once he noticed Ace was up, the man’s lips were pressed to his, the touch not as soft as usual, but was somehow more needy. Searching, wanting, looking for something that the swordsman wasn’t willing to divulge to him. Something that Ace felt he desperately needed to know.

When the flame-flame fruit user couldn’t find the answer he was seaking inside of the first-mate’s warm mouth, he sighed, once again relaxing back into the comfortingly rolling netting on which he was reclined. His eyes were glazed over, as if he was fighting some narcoleptic spell. For all Zoro could tell, that was what was happening now. Or worse. He could have given Ace a concussion earlier and not realized it… what if he was on the verge of passing out? And not in a way that Ace’s body was equipped to handle, for that matter?

He swallowed lightly, looking up over the childishly freckled cheeks to Ace’s eyes. They were soft and understanding as the hand that had been on his own head while Ace had been seated more vertically moved and rested on Zoro’s short green mop of a haircut. The fingers locked a bit in his cropped hair, and then massaged as the hand ruffled the already messy locks the swordsman kept. He didn’t know if he enjoyed the familiarity of the sensation, but Ace at least seemed to be alright, to know what was happening with him, to feel comfortable… and beyond that, as if he had figured something out in the quiet that had once again stretched out between them.
At least that made one of them.

Zoro right then would have killed to know what it was that his captain’s older brother knew. Or at least he until Ace decided to speak up.

“You get jealous, don’t you, Zoro?” he asked.

“What’re you…” Zoro grumbled, brows hitching slightly as Ace’s hand gently traced down from his hair, along his temple to his cheek. The calloused, yet soft and warm pad of the other pirate’s thumb traced over his cheek right under his eye. Like Luffy, if he wanted to be, Ace could be especially affectionate. Not to say that Ace couldn’t lose himself in a moment of wild passion. No, far from it. In fact, these soft moments when they came amid the sporadic times when the two of them got to see each other… they emphasized that wild spirit even more so on the days where fluff was not enough to curb Ace’s ravenous appetite.

“Of my brother.” Ace explained, a sort of serenity falling over his face as he spoke. “You got jealous of him kissing me.” A cocksuredness had taken over the Whitebeard pirate's tone as he continued to speak, not willing to wait to hear if Zoro would either confirm or deny his theory.

As he continued to touch Zoro’s face, gauging his reaction, his lips upturned and he let out a knowing chuckle. A sort of serenity had seemed to wash over him. A supreme realization had come to him in his own words. They were the same. Zoro and he. Scarred, fragile individuals who shared the same wounds, even if they refused to speak them to each other. As long as they were together, the two of them would probably always have blowouts like the one they had just suffered through. But it was because they held the same pettinesses and insecurities. The same jealousies, especially where Luffy would be concerned. Ace leaned over, and kissed the swordsman right between the eyes. Some old wound was, if not starting to scab over, then at least had overcome its own stubbornness and had begun to close. “Don’t worry, he was just trying to make me feel better.”

“I’ve never meant more than blood to Luffy.” He added when Zoro looked as if he were calming at the assurances being given. He didn't have to understand the importance of the words to feel their power. “And the same goes on my side of the stick. He’s my little brother. Protecting him, loving him, is my job, Zoro. And that's all it will ever be.”

The swordsman blinked over at Ace, watching the soft, though somewhat sly eyes that belonged to the brother of his captain. He seemed to have given the swordsman an apology that he hadn’t asked for, and yet, at the same time, had opened up a can of worms in the same instant.

Because, like Ace, Zoro's wounds were still just as raw, just as bloody.

Jealous? Him? Of LUFFY?

“You have to be kidding…” he grumbled.

“Then what else is there?” Ace asked as one of his left brow raised high over his speculating eyes. When Zoro didn’t answer right away, he shook his head, getting all the confirmation he could ever need. “Well, then… see? You’re jealous of Luffy and all he was trying to do was ease my pain. You really should have thought more before you closed that door. It's not my fault that you decided to get mad again and didn’t think I was right behind you.”

Zoro let out another one of his huffs, and Ace was just about to coax more of an apology out of him when there was a call for breakfast.

Almost immediately there was the sound of a scrambling stampede in the ship all around them, everyone racing to try and get down to the galley before Luffy had a chance to eat all of the food that Sanji had probably worked the last few hours to prepare. And everyone on the Sunny would know their captain well enough by now to know that no matter how much the chef prepared, it was probably never going to be enough for everyone if there was a second person with the same sort of appetite that Luffy had.

Ace chuckled. “We’d better go eat before Luffy beats us,” he said, getting up. He took one of Zoro’s hands and led him out of the cabin before rushing ahead of him once they hit the hallway.

He and Luffy were in the middle of their own private eating contest by the time the swordsman got into the galley and was able to sit down with the rest of the crew.

“Oh Nami-swaaaaan, my love!” Sanji called over when he realized that all of the crew had assembled for their meal. As usual the blond chef had eaten before anyone else, knowing that if he didn’t, he’d have to cook more to be able to feed himself, and would STILL have to compete with Luffy for the extra servings. He was standing by the Sunny’s full kitchen, wearing his pink ‘Doskoi Panda’ apron over his somehow always fresh-looking formal wear, sleeves rolled up on his long sleeve shirt, as per usual when he was working. Balanced in one of his hands was a pie plate. The pastry was steaming in his hands, but the well-practiced fingers of the chef neither flinched nor burned due to the heat.

Luffy looked up immediately at smelling the pie, not even so much seeming to hear the announcement. It also, but to a lesser extent, caught Ace and Zoro’s attention as well. The former was more interested in stealing food off of his brother’s plate while Luffy was distracted, and Zoro was sipping at a cup of sake that he had poured some would argue far too early in the morning.

Nami barely looked up from her map at Sanji’s advances. She was so used to the crazed routines of the crew that she could multitask through it with hardly a worry. “Yes?” she asked, a fork poised halfway between her plate on the table and her mouth.

“The pie you asked me for last night is done," the chef continued in the sing-song voice that he used when talking with only his female crewmates, cigarette balanced perfectly on his lips. “It’ll be good to eat with lunch, but I can cut you a piece to have a piece now, if you’d like.” Of course, had any other beautiful little thing happened to be on board and walk by it would capture the lecherous attention right away from Nami.

“Oh. Zoro wanted that pie.” the navigator shrugged dismissively, popping her fork in her mouth and turning back to her charts without another thought.

“What?” Sanji blanched, serenity fading quickly from his face.

“Zoro wanted it.” Nami repeated, looking askance over at Sanji, who had already transferred from normal man into a chef volcano.

Zoro blinked, and looked to Nami as if to tell her to keep her mouth shut and leave him far away from the dra she was dragging him into. His disinterested eyes then passed to the chef. “I knew you would have said no if I asked.” He explained with a shrug of a shoulder.

“So you used Nami to get a pie?” Sanji growled out.

“What is so wrong with anyone else wanting pie?” Zoro growled back, standing from his place at the table, very obviously irritated that Sanji was choosing to start something this early in the morning. It would be just as easy to not make a whole scene and just go on about their day. For once.

Everyone else just watched innocently, including Ace, who was by now engrossed in the fight going on between the swordsman and the cook. It happened very often on the Sunny, the two were more at odds than at ease with each other, and it usually took a lot for Ace to be able to drag the swordsman away for a little personal time. Part of him thought that the two of them enjoyed this. And maybe enjoyed it just a little too much.

But, enjoyable or not, the daily routine of the two fighting each other, be it verbally or physically, was mildly entertaining to the rest of the crew at the very least, and even some of their guests. Others found it rather disheartening. But, being on a ship, most people knew that not all personalities would coexist together peacefully. And that was exactly what was going on here, right now.

But, no one saw what was coming next. Even Zoro's lightning reflexes couldn’t bring his legs or head to duck fast enough as the pie that Sanji had just been holding so peacefully in one hand flew forward and smacked him right in the face. The pie plate slid ever so slowly down from his forehead and over his eyes before falling off completely and clattering on the floor.

“Stupid Marimo. Using a woman just to get food.” Sanji grumbled, quickly lighting up another cigarette in an attempt to calm himself down as he turned away from the crew at the table and back into the kitchen to start in on the dishes.

To the swordsman's credit, Zoro just sat right back down instead of rushing after the chef in search of a fist fight and some reasonable retribution. Pie filling and crust shards are absolutely covering his entire face, his eyes and mouth are closed in tight lines as he sits there rigidly. Sitting next to him, and especially in light of what had happened between the two of them, Ace would have to lie to say he wasn't impressed with the cool his lover happened to be showing in the moment. Part of him had to wonder if Zoro was restraining himself in order to allow him to continue to recuperate from earlier and not draw attention to any lingering pain or other symptoms.

“Isn’t that hot, Zoro?” Luffy asked in an awed whisper from where he was seated at Zoro's other side, watching the swordsman with wide, disbelieving eyes. Farther afield, Chopper and Ussop were both staring at Zoro with wide eyes and even wider expressions of shock.

“You should probably go wash that off, Bushido-san.” Robin pointed out quietly from the other side of the table, still calmly eating her own breakfast.

Ace, meanwhile, seated at Zoro’s side, couldn't help the smirk slowly sliding into place on his lips. Zoro is being incredibly less than reactive right now, acting like the better man and sitting as still as he could manage, showing a lot of restraint. Despite this, somehow, the older pirate wants to try and get a rise out of him. Badly.

He leaned over, getting himself very, very close to Zoro, close enough to feel the heat coming off of the pie filling on the man’s face. “That must be really uncomfortable.” He whispered, sliding from his seat so that he could straddle the younger pirate's lap. Who cares about being discreet right now, when he had such a delicious chance to play? He might never get another one at doing something crazy like this.

“Ace?” He heard Luffy’s voice, but didn’t reply as he put both hands on Zoro’s shoulders, leaned forward, and, with only the very tip of his tongue, licked a gentle line up the bridge of the swordsman’s nose, freeing it of the crust and pie filling that had accumulated there and beginning to run down while leaving the man's skin tasking sweet and sticky. When he leaned away again, Zoro’s eyes were opened, and a bit confused.

“Mnnnnn….” Ace hummed, smiling down at Zoro. His hands rolled back until his forearms were draped over the swordsman's shoulders, Ace's wrists crossing delicately behind his head.

“He did NOT just…” Sanji’s voice was incredulous from where it sounded behind him. Apparently the chef had left his post at the sink to attempt to dig his heels into Zoro just a little bit more. “He didn’t… eh.. eh… ewwww!”

“But, Sanji, aren’t you always telling us not to waste food?” Chopper asked innocently.

“But that’s not… I think I’m going to be sick.”

Ace was just licking the filling away from Zoro’s eyelids when he felt a tug at his shorts. He looked over, and saw Luffy looking up at him, blinking with wide eyes.
“Hmn?” he murmured, swallowing the delicacy that he had pulled back into his mouth.

“Is it good pie, Ace?”

Ace nodded. “Mmhmn.” He murmured, promptly going back to his previous preoccupation. He was thoroughly enjoying himself if he had a chance to say.

He never in a million years would have thought that a second later Luffy would be joining him, licking at Zoro’s cheek a bit. He knew his brother just wanted pie, and was innocent in all of this, or at least, he hoped his brother was innocent in all of this. Despite having known Luffy for most of his lifetime, however, there was something in the back of his mind… that lonesome part that was still an orphan longing for love and attention, and knowing that the grandest act of love that he would ever experience in his life had both been the cause of his survival and in the same instant had been the very act that had forced him to grow up as that lonely orphan. And that part of him was dark and no longer willing to put up with certain emotional pains in his life.

Orphans, competition and rejection did not good bedfellows make.

And it was even worse when those feelings were coupled with the ugly monster that was jealousy.

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Zoro asked as he looked over at the human heap that was Ace from where he stood by the closed door of his cabin, leaning against the wall and running a dampened cloth over his face.

After Luffy had decided that it would be appropriate to join his elder brother in his little game of food-related foreplay, Ace had just stormed off without even a word of explanation or warning. The one clue that he had given the swordsman or anyone else in the room as to what was going on in his head had been to rather roughly push down against Zoro's groin when he'd gotten up. As if it was the only way he could even possibly communicate how irate he was. As if Zoro had asked for any of that shit to happen in the first place.

It had taken Zoro far longer than he had licked to extricate himself from his captain's innocent parroting of his own sibling's actions. By the time he had even had enough room to stand up, Ace had disappeared from the galley without a trace. And worst of all, none of the other Strawhat's had managed to see which direction the Whitebeard had stalked off in. No, they had all been either too absorbed in getting their own meals down, enjoying watching Zoro squirm in discomfort, or just hadn't cared enough to take notes.

Ace, after all, was an adult. And he was an adult that wasn't even part of their crew.

So Zoro had gotten his hands on a damp dishrag to continue cleaning himself off, and had attempted to find Ace on his own. Because there had been a look in his eyes when he had left that hadn't sat right with him at all.

Luckily, the first place he had thought of to go had been where he ended up finding the older man.

Ace was laying in Zoro's hammock, where he'd been just a few hours before. All the swordsman could see of him was his smooth skin stretched over Ace's subtly chiseled back and the bare skin of his feet, as his black leather boots were laying under the hammock rigging. The symbol of the Whitebeard pirates was distorted ever so slightly and glaring back at Zoro as he breathed in and out. It looked too rehearsed to be as even as it appeared. There was no way that Ace had managed to fall asleep in the short amount of time it took to get here from the galley, even if his stomach was sufficiently full and pulling his mind into a narcoleptic stupor.

Ace was faking. Upset, whatever, but he was obviously ignoring Zoro on purpose -

"I'm tired." the man grumbled, not moving so much as an inch from how he had been found just a few moments before. "You kept me up last night, remember?"

"That was not how you react when you're tired." Zoro grunted, coming farther into the room. "If you were tired, you would have dropped off in the middle of that stunt back there and it wouldn't have mattered-"

"Like you would know..." Ace interrupted him, practically spitting venom like a cobra. "Face it, you don't know anything about me." That second part, that emotion wasn't anger. It was something different.

"Ouch..." Zoro pantomimed, sitting down on the hammock behind Ace's bent knees. It always amazed him how Ace could curl up and look so amazingly comfortable no matter where he managed to do it. From his new vantage point the swordsman could see that his head was propped up on one folded arm, his other was hanging off of the hammock. His eyes were closed, and he looked as if he were almost straining himself to keep on a calm, if sleepy, mask.

"Get off." He said then, frowning down at Ace.

That caused one of those droopy eyes to pop open and to glare furiously up at him. "Excuse me?" Ace growled indignantly.

"Well, since you pointed out that I don't know anything about you, why should I want you sleeping in my bed?" Zoro asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest as Ace shifted more so that he could look the younger pirate head on.

"So get off, there's plenty of other cabins for you to sleep in here. It's not like we're on the Merry anymore and only have so much space."

"Fine." Ace retorted. He moved to get up, taking his hat and bag with him. It had been laying near the hammock.

Zoro watched him for a moment, figuring he would catch the man in a bluff, before deciding that it probably wasn't worth it and instead opening his mouth before Ace could really step out of the door. "You're the jealous one." he grumbled.

Ace's entire body froze in mid motion, major muscles going completely tense as he stood there. The swordsman swore he could hear something emanating from the other pirate, almost like a growl, but not quite. It was somewhat more dynamic, richer in context though it took him a long time trying to place it.

It was almost like the angry flicker of flames when they tried to take over a piece of insufficiently dry kindling.

Zoro matched his motions, looked over the man's shoulder as he came close.

He was biting his lip. Not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to whiten the flesh around his teeth with the amount of pressure he was exerting through his clenched jaw muscles. His face was tense, not in the same way as before, though. His eyes were closed hard. He opened one when he realized he was being watched, and then hid his face behind his hands, which almost fisted around his eyes.

"S-s-so what?" he hissed, trying to cover the quivering of his voice with an outpouring of aggression.

"Ace?" Zoro asked, blinking. Sure, Luffy could be prone to bouts of childishness like this... but Ace? Zoro didn't think he had ever seen anything like it in the older pirate. Was he really that upset? had he really said something so hurtful?

"So what if I'm jealous?" Ace sniffled from behind his hands.

The swordsman reached over after moving around the older man, and took one of Ace's wrists in his hand. He brought the hand away from rubbing furiously at his eyes only to see tears coalescing in his eyes. Coalescing and evaporating within milliseconds.

Zoro blinked.

That he hadn't been expecting. At all.

Ace had just completely broken down. The tears had devolved into complete sobbing in a matter of moments while they stood there. And Zoro had been completely unprepared for it. Just as he had been every other time he had been a witness to the tears of others. What was he supposed to do? He never knew and always felt so awkward.

The next thing he'd known, Ace had closed the gap between them and had begun clinging onto his rough hewn white t-shirt, sniffling and sobbing against him.

Not wanting to incur Luffy's wrath after what had happened earlier, he had moved Ace back into the room. The last thing he needed was another fight with the captain. Or another punch in the face. He needed to figure out what was wrong, quietly.

Privately.

Once they were behind closed doors, he put his arms around the older pirate, not knowing what else he should really do. He'd never had this sort of situation before, with someone he had been this close to. The only other time he'd felt anything even remotely similar had been years and years ago, when Kuina was still alive.

"... s-s-s-so what?!" Ace hissed against his chest in his broken voice

"Ace...." Zoro murmured. He put a hand to the back of the man's head, just to hold him in a bit closer and, he hoped, provide Ace with some semblance of comfort. "What's all this about?" He whispered against the cartilage of Ace's ear.

"So what if' I'm jealous!" Ace cried out in a voice that was still shaking, and terribly so. It was actually somewhat frightening. This was the same man who had destroyed the Billions fleet in Alabasta single handedly. Who had put his own life in personal jeopardy in order to hold Smoker off of their trails for as long as possible on his own. Back when the crew had all been strangers to him at that. The man who was the much feared second division Commander of Whitebeard's fleet.

The man who had refused to kill a bounty hunter that had been after him, who had purposely put out misleading information to entrap him... just because the man had two sons. The man who had protected them in the desert...

And the same fierce lover that he'd known for some time now.

But here he was, looking broken. No, completely shattered.

"Breathe..." Zoro instructed him, voice soft. Not knowing if they would be able to both sit on the hammock right now, he guided them to the floor. Ace was immediately curling up beside him, nearly in his lap, trying desperately to do what had been asked of him.

He was biting his lip again as he tried to stop the sobbing. Tears just kept coming, drying on his cheeks faster than they could run all the way down. There was steam coming off of Ace's face it had heated up so much from the emotion and the tears streaking down from his eyes.

Zoro guided Ace into a position he thought the other man would be comfortable in, hoping that it would help a bit. He also, clumsily, unused to even the idea of having to do this, began to run his hand up and down Ace's tattooed back. He was playing this by ear and had no idea what he was doing in any sense of the word. He just hoped that what he was doing would work.

Thankfully, he seemed to be doing something right as he sat there in silence with the emotional Whitebeard. Ace was slowly calming. His sobbing was slowing to a stop, though his breathing was still very exaggerated and ragged. His eyes were starting to look painful, dry and achy in a way Zoro had only felt once personally, and even that wasn't comparable to what Ace was going through. He watched him slowly stop crying.

"Better now?" Zoro asked him some incalculable moments later.

Ace's eyes flicked up to the swordsman's face, and then back down. "Not really..." he grunted.

"Able to talk?"

"I guess...."

Zoro was amazed to see that Ace's eyes were once again filling with tears.

"Don't cry...." He startled, voice soft.

"Why shouldn't I?" Ace hiccuped.

"Because I don't know what to do when you cry.... its weird."

"Well EXCUSE me!" Ace shouted, shoving away from Zoro a bit, moving to sit up on his own.

"Don't..." Zoro murmured apologetically, reaching over and pulling Ace back down. "Don't... come on..." he whispered. "What's going on?"

Ace sniffled.

"Hey... come on, what's wrong?"

".... I am jealous of him..." Ace murmured.

"What?" Ace's voice had been so soft that Zoro had hardly heard him.

"I am jealous of Luffy..." Ace murmured. "And everyone else on this damn boat...."

"Why?" Zoro murmured, confused. A green brow arched as he looked down at Ace, his face soft. He was confused, but would let Ace speak, let him explain himself.

"Because they really know you..." The Whitebeard told him. "Like I want to know you..."

"You're upset because they know me?" Zoro asked, confused.

Ace nodded.

"You do know none of them have seen me naked, right?"

Again, a little nod. The swordsman had sort of hoped for a laugh, but obviously hasn't gotten one.

"You've confused me." He said instead.

"They know you personally. I still can't figure you out..."

"I can't figure you out either, do you see me crying about it?"

"No"

"Then why are you?"

Ace thought about it for a minute. He just looked up at Zoro, blinking into his eyes that had turned soft thanks to seeing the older pirate break like this. He hadn't thought it possible before, so knowing he was capable of it... he wanted to tread carefully just now. Sure, the swordsman could be rash, brash, obnoxious, rude, and a dunderhead, but he was capable of understanding. Deeply, even, when he wanted to.

"I feel kind of out of place here." he said after a long moment. "Your nakama, isn't my nakama."

Zoro ran his fingers through Ace's long hair. "So you're lonesome...?" he asked.

Ace nodded. "You could say that."

"You make no sense, you know that?"

"I-it's a long story." the flame-flame user told him. "Not… not one I know if I can share just yet." He seemed apologetic when he said this, keeping his eyes closed to keep down on the discomfort. "You just asked me to tell you how I was feeling."

"That's true..." Zoro told him. He reached down and gave Ace's forehead a kiss.

"You're warm."

"I know..."

"No, I mean more than before."

"I guess it happens when I'm upset." Ace shrugged. He rested his head back against Zoro's chest and throat. He snuggled his face into the man's chest a little. Zoro's cooler skin felt good against his own heated flesh. The contrast was enough to be soothing, just as that scent was. So intoxicating. He felt so comfortable.

"Don't fall asleep..." Zoro murmured against him.

"Why not?" Ace grunted.

Zoro leaned down and kissed him lightly again, this time, on the lips. It was a more passionate kiss, not so much meant to soothe, but to agitate. He wanted to stir Ace up a bit, to reciprocate the effort from the galley earlier. Show him how lonely he should be feeling.

Which was the exact opposite of what he was feeling now. There shouldn't be any room for lonesomeness in the man.

And there wouldn't be, if Zoro had anything to say about it.

He continued on until Ace reciprocated the passion he was giving out.

A few days later, the Sunny had docked in a port. Things had gotten back into a more normal spin. Ace had pulled himself back together, and Sanji had generally gotten over his personal freak out after the incident with the pie in his galley.

In addition to all of that, the chef had been lucky enough to manage to stay back on the Sunny and watch the ship rather than run around on shore with all of the others running their normal errands. Everyone else had gone off to go and get supplies, including those for the kitchen, which left Sanji not much to do aside from clean up the ship and make himself something small and simple to eat without worrying about one of the bottomless pits in the crew hoovering up anything even remotely edible.

It also gave him a chance to deep clean and reorganize the galley, his domain.

It was nice and quiet, and he was just settling in with a glass of good wine and a plate of good food when there was a creek of a floorboard from the mouth of the hall that led to the crew's quarters.

Not expecting to hear another living soul on the ship for the next few hours, the chef instinctively jumped into action, vaulting over the couch he'd been sitting on, and planting his foot in the chest of whoever it was-

Only to feel his foot physically sink into the chest of the person who was standing there.

And heat up.

Quite a great deal.

"... Jeez... some welcome..." The nonchalance in the voice was only seconded by the groggy edges of the words.

Sanji looked up to see he'd kicked straight into Ace's chest. A flame was licking around his leg, and he could just barely see the toe of his shoe over Ace's shoulder. While the flames were intimidating, the chef was accustomed to the feeling thanks to all of his training with Zeff when he had been young as well as his own Diable Jambe techniques.

The blond cook blinked, staring at Ace incredulously as he continued to balance on just the one leg. "I thought you'd... gone with everyone else?" he asked, drawing his leg back out of Ace and shaking the residual flames away before placing it back on the floor. Man was that weird. Kinda gross too if he thought too much about the implications... but it must be nifty being able to save yourself like that. Someone wanted to hit you, and they'd go right through you.

Ace shook his head, looking less than bothered by the attack. "No... was in the shower.... fell asleep."

"I hope not at the same time." Sanji said. Though, it looked as if Ace was alright. He hadn't drowned, and that was definitely a plus. He would have hated having to explain that one to Luffy.

"So what if it was?" Ace asked with a shrug, moving over to the fridge as Sanji went back to his lunch.

The chef frowned when he saw what Ace was doing. If he was honest, it wasn't so much the incredible size of sandwich that the Whitebeard was making himself that bothered him, because he knew that Ace wouldn't be back in there seconds after finishing like his brother would be. No, honestly, it was more the fact that Sanji had told Ace a thousand times if he had told him once, back during their first meeting in Alabasta Kingdom that he was a guest on the ship. All the Whitebeard had to do was say the word and Sanji would make him anything he could imagine. Even after all this time had elapsed, that rule still rang true and it did something to his Chef's pride to see someone he could serve serve themselves.

"Looks like I have to invent a better mouse trap," he joked to himself as he picked up his wine glass and took a moment to sample it's bouquet.

"Sorry to be such a bother, lately." The older pirate murmured as he came over to sit close by and dig in. They were the only two here, he wasn't just going to be rude and ignore any potential conversation. If he'd head Sanji, he wasn't showing it.

The chef shrugged as he took a sip from his glass and leaned down to pick something off of his own plate. "Trust me, you're one of the least bothersome people on this boat. The others went out to get more food, so have whatever you like and don't sweat it. It's not like you're in there every few minutes like your brother."

Ace smiled affectionately. "He's always been like that."

"Really?"

Ace nodded. "I blame Gramps..."

Garp would DEFINITELY explain it, thought Sanji, remembering the old man. He shuddered just a tad. He'd been reminded of Zeff when they'd first met the grizzled old Marine back in Water 7.

The two of them were quiet for a while as they ate lunch. Ace drifted in and out of sleep with his large sandwich in hand - somehow not spilling a bit of the filling it was packed with along the way.

It was entertaining, if only a tad. Not so much as some of the other things that happened on the ship, but entertaining enough.

One minute he'd be perfectly awake, usually in the middle of a sentence... and the next, there would be a quiet snore.

At least it was quiet.

At least he could think.

"Can I ask you something?" Sanji said after Ace had finished his last bite. The chef had finished his own meal quite some time ago and was currently nursing an after-meal cigarette and what was probably his third or fourth cup of whine. The Whitebeard got up, heading into the kitchen proper and actually cleaned up after himself, including washing and putting his plate away. It so never ceased to amaze Sanji how different the two brothers were. Barring the cliche, and the fact that their roles would have to be somewhat reversed to match their personalities, he would say that Luffy and Ace were like Fire and Water.

"Sure." Ace replied as he was washing up, his expression hidden and his back now to Sanji.

"Why the shitty Marimo?"

Ace turned his head over his shoulder at that. "Huh?" he looked sleepy and confused. A smirk slowly started to spread on his face.

"Good GOD NO!" Sanji shouted, immediately realizing what the older pirate was probably thinking. "NO NO NO NO NO!"

And to make matters worse, Ace chuckled at what he considered a huge overreaction on the part of the chef. It was a childish little chuckle, almost a Luffy chuckle. Almost.

"Don't worry, Sanji." Ace said after that, amusement still in his voice. "I know where I'm not wanted."

"Good."

Ace chuckled again, pushing himself off of the counters and coming back over to sit on the sofa again. "But why do you ask?"

"Just seems weird... a shithead like that, and you crawling all over him..." the cook couldn't repress the shudder no matter how much he tried not to offended the older man. He just could not reconcile the images in his head. Why Zoro of all people when there were such specimens of the fairer sex as Nami or Robin walking around?

"Meh" Ace said with a shrug. "I could say that he almost reminds me of Luffy-"

Sanji blanched again.

Despite the perpetual look of fatigue on his face, Ace had taken in the chef's reaction immediately. Within seconds he was laughing so hard he thought his ribs were going to fall out. "Not like that, Sanji! Zoro thought the same thing the other day... I love that I have to keep explaining this."

It took Sanji a long time to get over the shock. He couldn't believe what his mind continued to come up with despite Ace's assurances to the contrary. His captain and... Ace...

It had almost been enough for him to gouge his eyes out with his bare hands.

Luckily, the thought passed, rather quickly. And was easily smudged out of all existence. All it took was a few nice thoughts of Robin and Nami and poof!

All the horrible images were gone.

Much better.

"Well, I mean... it's just that..."

"Just what?" Ace asked, his characteristic left brow cocking as he watched the younger man. He wasn't offended by the questions being posed to him, any of them. He knew Sanji wasn't asking these things for his own personal gain. It was curiosity. Mild disgust, but mostly curiosity. It was sort of natural... he supposed. It wasn't as if anyone ever really asked him things like this though.

"What about back in Alabasta?"

"What about Alabasta?

"That fight you had with that Smoker guy... and-"

Ace's face went serious then. His laughter and smile faded, and his lips straightened to a straight, grave line. "No."

Sanji blinked. Ok. Ace had seemed to anticipate what he had been about to ask, as he hadn't skipped a beat and cut him off before he could even verbally formulate the words. Had he crossed a line? Should he keep going? Should he stop while he was ahead? He couldn't help himself though.

"No?"

"Everyone thinks something happened in that fight. It didn't." Ace said, seriously, even gesticulating with his hand for emphasis.

"You sure?"

"How would I not be sure?" Ace shuddered at the implication. The fight against Captain Smoker in Nanohana had been a hard one for him. Ace had always been an incredibly strong fighter, and he had always been confident in his ability to handle himself. However, he had never, ever, felt anything like that before or since. The Smoke and Flame fruits were too similar and had been canceling each other out, not allowing one or the other of them to gain the upper hand. The elements mixing... them mixing.... he hadn't enjoyed it. It wasn't like sex at all... not in the least bit. He'd just been happy to fight the bastard off long enough so Luffy and his crew could have made it to the Merry and they could all escape.

That was all.

He hated to even think about it.

He'd never wanted to meet Smoker again... and he was glad that to this day he hadn't.

"O....k....." unable to read Ace's thoughts, and only able to see his outward reactions the way that he was, Sanji could only think of how strange this had gotten so quickly. Ace seemed adamant about not wanting to or ever being with Smoker... but the way that he had shuddered like that. Something hadn't quite added up right.

The Whitebeard had descended into eerie silence then. He didn't try to explain anything, or even go back to the subject of his dalliance with Zoro any longer, to the point where it began to worry the chef.

Luckily enough, a few moments later they were hearing footsteps on the deck above them, signaling that the rest of the crew had returned. Sanji went to help where he could in bringing in the supplies, especially where the food was concerned to ensure that it all got to where it was meant to. Ace, on the other hand, made himself scarce. It wasn't until they were preparing to disembark that anyone realized that the man's flame-powered skiff was no longer moored to the Sunny.