Chapter Text
Ace groaned slightly as his eyes cracked open
By the looks of it, he had fallen asleep again apparently. Honestly, being diagnosed with Narcolepsy at seventeen was not what he had asked for! (To note, he hadn’t even heard of the disorder until he got diagnosed with it).
Ace rubbed his eyes and started to look around the room he was in. Last he remembered he was in the park. He had just finished buying all of the school supplies that he and Luffy needed for the new school year. It had been annoying to cross town to get the supplies on sale, but they just couldn’t afford to just grab it at any store. And on his way back, he sat on a park bench for a minute and ate a snack, which must have been when he fell asleep.
Ace squinted; it was hard to see in the dark. It was a dark room with – bars?! He was in jail?! Ace jumped up from the hard bench he was on and ran up to the bars. He grabbed them and stuck his face forward into the bars, trying to see if could see anyone “HEY!” he screamed, shaking the bars the best he could “WHY THE HELL AM I IN HERE? I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” that you know of’ added Ace mentally, but that’s details that they don’t need to know.
“You can relax.” stated a gruff voice from around the corner. Ace blinked. He didn’t recognize that voice. He was sure he knew every cop in town. He had lived in the area his entire life.
The cop turned the corner, and Ace’s jaw dropped. He certainly didn’t know him. The man was huge. He had a large, tall built, solid with muscles that was barely contained in his button up uniform shirt. Ace could see the buttons straining to keep closed. He had thick white hair that made him look clearly much older than he probably was and a disgruntled look on his face as he came up to the bars, holding a set of keys “I found you sleeping in the park and I didn’t want to leave you there to get mugged, so I brought you here to sleep it off in the drunk tank.”
“I wasn’t drunk!” barked Ace, feeling flustered. Why was he feeling flustered anyways? Why was this cop so good looking?
“I know that. I looked at your medical alert bracelet.” Ace blinked and looked down at his wrist. He always forgets that he wears it – guess it came in handy now
The police officer opened the gate and Ace stepped out “You carried me here?” Ace asked with a big smile on his face. Damn, he wishes he remembered being a carried by the man.
The man grunted “Of course I did, it’s not like I could wake you up to walk you here.” Ace chuckled, then he turned and noticed something was missing “Where’s my bag?! Did I have my bag with me?!”
The man nodded, facing Ace as he pointed behind with him with his thumb “That ugly ass green bag? Yeah, it’s in my office, c’mon.”
“Hey, my bag is awesome” stated Ace as he followed the man to his office, his eyes scanned downward. Nice
The police officer opened the door to an office and walked in to grab the green bag on the ground, leaning against the big wooden desk inside. Ace looked at the door and read the plate, surprised
“Captain C. Smoker?” Ace read out loud. The man turned his head slightly as he made his way back to the door, handing the bag over to Ace, who quickly checked to make sure everything was in there “Yes? That’s me. I have to say I was pretty surprised that this bag was filled with school supplies and food.”
Ace laughed “Hey, the school year starts tomorrow! A guy needs his supplies!” then Ace paused “How come I don’t know you? I was sure I knew every cop in town”
Smoker lifted a brow, staring at Ace. Ace could feel his stomach swirling – what was going on? “It’s not assuring for someone to say ‘they know every cop in town’ you know.”
Ace shifted the bag onto his shoulder “Hey now, I’ve lived here my entire life! Of course I know the people! Also, my Gramps’ a cop, sorta.”
“I just got transferred here. Today was first day on the job, and lucky for me, I find a sleeping teenager on a park bench.”
“A transfer? You sucked at your old town or something? And a captain on patrol? That’s different. The last guy just sat on his ass and did nothing” stated Ace
“I like to know my area. And no, I was transferred since I did so well and my services were needed here.”
‘I know what I’d like for you to service me with’ quickly thought Ace, biting his lip to contain the comment in. Shit. He might be too into this cop. “Oh, I see”
They walked down the hallways towards the main reception area. It was completely dark outside.
“Uh…what time is it?” asked Ace, looking towards Smoker, hoping for some good news. ‘Please let it like, super dark at 7pm or something’
“Around 2am.” replied Smoker, grabbing the thick leather jacket on the coat holder near the front of the reception area. He turned to a young woman with short black hair, sitting at a desk typing away that Ace didn’t recognize either. How was this possible? Marco made a point of making sure they knew every cop in the area. “Tashigi, I’m going to bring this kid home. You hold this place down”
Tashigi nodded, a determined look on her face. Ace lifted a brow, guess she took her job seriously. “Yes captain! I’ll make sure everything stays in tip top shape and I’ll see you in the morning!”
Ace blinked, looking at Smoker “You’re off the clock?” Smoker grunted, taking a cigar out of his coat pocket and sticking it in his mouth “I’ve been off the clock for a while, but I was waiting for you to wake up so I could take you home.”
Ace’s head was swimming. Why was this guy so nice to him? But then Smoker’s words replayed in his head and Ace’s blood ran cold “No! No, no! You don’t need to do that! I can get home just fine by myself!”
Smoker lifted a brow, scowling “Boy. It’s 2am. I’m not going to let a kid walk home at 2am.”
Ace visibly bristled “Oye, I’m nearly 18! I’m not a kid! And I’ll be fine!”
Smoker grunted, pointing at Ace, clearly annoyed “I don’t give a shit what you think, I’m driving you home. Now, c’mon.” Ace groaned as Smoker grabbed his arm, bringing him outside towards a police cruiser and unlocked the door of the passenger side, gesturing to Ace to get in “Either you do it voluntarily, or you get the pleasure of me waking up your parents as I deliver you to the door in my custody.”
Ace groaned, rolling his eyes as he sat in the car “I’m telling you, I’ll be fine!” Smoker closed the door and walked around the car, getting into the driver’s seat.
“And I’m telling you I don’t care about your youthful perception of invincibility.” Smoker started the car and turned to Ace “So, where do you live anyways, kid?”
Ace paused for a moment. Did he really want to tell this cop where he lived? Guess he didn’t have much of a choice at this point
“Corvo district.”
There was a heavy pause before Smoker’s scowl got even more severe as he pointed to Ace “Like hell I would let you walk there! I’m driving you right to your front door!” then he turned around, looking at his mirrors as he pulled out and started to drive towards the district.
Ace paused, surprised.
He was honestly expected to get kicked out and given a bus fair. Nobody willing drove to Corvo district. Even the city buses only barely go close to it, either at the neighbouring town of Windmill or at the edge of the Gate district. But nobody drove through Gray Terminal district (or what’s left of it) and much less Corvo. Who was this man?
“Uh, I know you’re new to town and everything, but you could just let me off near Gray Terminal, I can make my way easy home after that.”
“No way in hell. I read all of the reports; I’m taking you right to your front door. I’ll be damned if anything happens to you under my watch”
Ace’s heart was pounding in his chest. This man needs to stop saying all these things, he was going nuts! Ace dug through his bag for his cell as Smoker kept driving him to his place in silence. He pulled it out victoriously as he got his hands on it among all the crap in his bag, afraid it had gotten stolen while he slept. It was a beaten up old thing. Marco offered time and time again to replace it for him, but if his phone was too nice, it might get nicked at home and sold off for god knows what. He flipped the orange phone open, his small charm of his favourite character from a rhythm game he played dangling to the side, a small present from Izo.
‘Good, the battery’s not completely dead’ Ace mused as he flipped through the notifications. He quickly shot out a mass text to a bunch of his friends and quickly flipped his phone shut. He couldn’t hide the smirk on his face when his phone started buzzing like crazy.
Smoker raised a brow, quickly looking in Ace’s direction then back on the road “Pretty popular at 2am, aren’t you?”
Ace laughed “Are you accusing me of being a hooker?”
Smoker sputtered, slightly turning red as he looked towards the road again. The area was looking worst and worst now; it wouldn’t be long until they left the Gate district. “No, I’m saying kids like you should be in bed by now so nobody should be texting you.”
Ace huffed “For the last time, I’m not a kid, I’m 17! I’ll be legal in a few months!”
“Which means that until then, you’re a kid.” replied Smoker, barely looking away from the road.
Ace groaned, lounging back in his seat. He really didn’t want Smoker to think of him as a kid. He was starting to formulate plans for this man. This gorgeous piece of man. Maybe he should have made a fuss so that Smoker would have had to restrained him – Ace cleared his throat. He needed to calm down. Getting hard in front of the cop would just be embarrassing and would not lead to hot steamy sex inside the police cruiser. Porn is a mountain of lies.
As they entered Gray Terminal district, Ace could see Smoker looking around, unable to mask his shock as he looked around. “What the hell happened here?”
“It happened about 7 years ago.” Said Ace, nonchalantly, too used to this story “A giant fire broke out and the entire district went on fire. It killed thousands of people. And the people who lived here were really poor, so either you died or you lost the very little you had to begin with.” Explained Ace, leaving out the part that it was done on purpose by the aristocrats living in High Town district and that Ace had been in the district when the fire ravaged, but he knew it would make things awkward and he didn’t know if he could trust this cop just yet.
Smoker grunted, clearly annoyed “And of course because it’s the slums, barely an effort was done to help. Always the same goddamn story. And looks like they haven’t even tried to really rebuild it either. Typical.” Ace blinked, surprised at what he heard. Maybe this guy wasn’t a stooge who just listened and repeated to everything his higher ups said. That’s odd for a cop.
Ace laughed slightly “I like you already, Captain!” Smoker snorted “Alright, we’re in Corvo now, so what the way to your place?”
Ace sighed, pointing towards a dirt path off to the side of the road “It’s actually down that way, but you won’t be able to get to my front door. The old hag I live with is paranoid about getting robbed so she made sure that we lived in a rather secluded place where you couldn’t just drive up, but if I just go down that road, I’ll be home in no time” explained Ace, truth be told, it was more that Dadan herself WAS a crook and didn’t want the cops to be able to easily get to her and the family, but details.
Smoker grunted, pulling over besides the dirt road Ace pointed out and turned to glare right at him. Ace could feel himself get hot, the pit of his stomach going insane “You’re not messing with me right? That leads straight to your house? I won’t get to work tomorrow morning and find out you got killed or anything?”
Ace blinked, not sure what to do with all this concern from the Captain. So he grinned “I’ll be just fine, don’t worry about it! Thank you for the ride though!” exclaimed Ace, quickly pulling out his lighter from his pocket and lighting the Captain’s cigar “These work better when they’re lit!” teased Ace, getting out of the car
Smoker blinked, surprised, then he smirked “I was trying to be polite, maybe you didn’t like cigar smoke.” stated Smoker, as he rolled down his window. Ace smiled, going around the car to stand in front of the window “You’re sure you’ll be fine? I can walk you to your door, it’s no problem.”
Ace chuckled “Trust me; I’ll be dead if I show up at my door with a cop. You can just head home.”
As Ace was saying that, two guys started to approach the car. One was holding a knife, the other had brass knuckles on
“Hey,” one of them called out “Looks like it’s our lucky day! Someone has some shit they can give us”
The other one smirked “Yeah, and here I thought tonight was going to be a slow night!”
Ace paused, turned his head towards the two and glared, lifting his chin up and staring right at the two, his smile dropping instantly “The fuck you just say?”
The two men became white, scrambling as panic overtook them “Holy fuck it’s Ace, let’s get the hell out of here!” And they ran off, almost tripping over themselves as they did.
Smoker paused, looking at the scene and then back at Ace “…Do I even want to know?”
Ace laughed “Nope! It’s better if you don’t! Goodnight Captain.”
Smoker sighed, rolling up his window “Goodnight brat.”
Ace paused a moment, then sighed before turning around to start his trek home. “I guess brat is better than kid.” mumbled Ace, walking up the well-used dirt path to his home.
Ace jogged up the path, knowing very well that the longer he took to get home, the less sleep he was going to get that night. He was already looking at barely 3 hours of sleep, the police station being a considerable way from his home. Ace walked up to the decrypt old dormitory and sighed. It looked like shit. Granted, a long time ago, it was probably some sort of military housing or something, for it to be in the middle of nowhere near a forest. Basically it had been abandoned a long, long time ago and they were basically squatting. As long as someone was always home, they couldn’t have the house taken from them. It was falling apart though, if Ace was honest enough with himself. But Ace was the only one who really did any repairs on it and he went to school full-time because if he didn’t, he’d attract the attention of social workers and that’s the last thing he needed.
Ace knew very well that if a social worker ever visited their home, he and Luffy would be taken away. And he also knew very well that they wouldn’t be kept together. Luffy could easily be reclaimed by his gramps, but Ace – it wasn’t guaranteed. And it’s not like anybody took care of Luffy like he did, so he’d be damned if anybody else got him.
Ace unlocked the door quickly, sticking his key back into his pocket. He closed the door as quietly as possible to not wake up the occupants of the house. Thankfully he’s lived here his whole life, minus that stint where he, Luffy and Sabo lived in their treehouse, so navigating in the dark wasn’t an issue. He quickly made his way to the hallway that led to the bedroom, carefully navigating around the people sleeping in the living room. Once in the hallway, he grabbed the rope hanging from the ceiling, pulling it down to reveal a ladder and the opening to the attic. He carefully pulled it down and quickly climbed into the attic and pulled the door shut with the ladder. Once it was carefully closed, he surveyed the room.
It was a tiny, cramped room, with two small beds crammed into a tiny space. Between the two beds, there was a small dresser with two lamps on it and behind Ace a chest that was filled with whatever junk they shoved in there and a bookcase filled with many random things as well. On one of the beds, Luffy laid sleeping, drool on the side of his mouth as he was muttering about meat. Ace chuckled quietly, walking up to his brother’s bed and plopping down in front of it. He reached underneath the bed, using only the moonlight to see, and pulled out a red back pack and groaned.
Ace was sure the bag was in better shape than this last time he saw it. This would put him back. Ace turned around and reached out under the unoccupied bed and pulled out a Danish cookie tin and opened it revealing a sewing kit. As fast as he could, he repaired the bag as much as he could, but the reality of the thing is that it needed to be replaced.
“Maybe I can convince Garp to get Luffy one for Christmas.” muttered Ace as he finished up the last stitch. He put the bag down and reached into his own bag, pulling out the school supplies he had bought for the both of them, separating them into the different classes and labeling them accordingly. He quickly put the supplies in Luffy’s bag and set it besides the dresser for Luffy to find in the morning. Ace then quickly flipped his phone open and saw the time.
3:35am
Fuck.
Ace set the alarm on his phone for 5:30am and plugged it into his charger near his bed. He quickly stood up and took off his t-shirt and hoodie and stripped off his jeans. Fuck it, he was sleeping in his boxers tonight. Ace laid on his bed and his mind quickly went back to Captain Smoker.
‘God he was gorgeous’ thought Ace, his hand grazing down his stomach. Ace was well aware of his sexuality, with his crushes being more or less exclusively male but he had never gotten that worked up over another man before. But man oh man, did the Captain hit all of his hot spots. Ace closed his eyes, thinking of his chest, his arms, his face, that chin, those warm brown eyes, his hair, fuck he wanted to run his fingers through it, wanted to nip his earlobes, suck on his neck - WHOAH! Ace jumped, eyes wide open as he remembered where he was, who was in the bed besides him and also that he REALLY needed to get some sleep because tomorrow is going to suck ass if he works on even less sleep than he already has to work with. Ace smirked to himself as he closed his eyes. One thing’s for sure, he wasn’t done with the Captain.
Alarms could die in a fucking fiery pit if you asked Ace.
Ace groaned, turning over in his bed to turn the goddamn offending thing off. He then shot a glare at Luffy who was still sleeping away. The bastard had another hour easy to sleep in. Ace shook his head, dragging his tired body out of bed. He opened the dresser and pulled out the clothes he needed and his green bag and opened the hatch, heading downstairs. If he was lucky, nobody would be up at this time.
Ace quickly slipped down to the main level and beelined straight for the bathroom. Success! It was empty! He quickly closed the door and locked it, not taking any chances of someone coming in. Ace turned to look at himself in the mirror and groaned. Fuck, not only did he look like shit, he’d have to shave this morning again. Ace considered himself pretty lucky having taken so much of his appearance from his mother, but of course his father had been a hairy man and that’s what he had to have inherited from him – that and his built and hair colour. Ace sighed, turning on the shower. The pipes loudly creaked and moaned in protest but Ace didn’t care if he woke everyone in the house. If they’re just going to laze around the house all day anyways, they can goddamn sleep later. Ace got into the shower and his mind wandered back to last night.
He smiled to himself, closing his eyes. He wondered how the captain kissed. Would it be small pecks, or would his kisses be deep and serious. He took his job really seriously; he probably took every other aspect really seriously too. Would he hold him tight? Would his grip leave faint imprints of fingers on his hips? Would he grip his hair? Would he cup his ass? Grip his ass? Would he be gentle and forceful or demanding and rough? Would he-
“ACE! I TOLD YOU TO STOP USING THE GODDAMN SHOWER AT 5 IN THE FUCKING MORNING! YOU’RE WAKING EVERYONE UP IN THIS HOUSE!” screeched Dadan while banging on the bedroom door.
“Well now the mood is killed” muttered Ace, shaking in frustration as he grabbed his washcloth and the sad leftover soap he had left “UNLIKE YOU PEOPLE, I HAVE PLACES TO BE! I’M ALMOST DONE ANYWAYS, SO WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE” screamed back Ace, he didn’t need this today!
“YOU BETTER BE, OR I’M CUTTING OFF THE WATER” threatened Dadan and then Ace could hear her stomping away back to her room, slamming the door
‘You do that already when you don’t pay for the fucking water’ thought Ace as he quickly showered and shaved himself. He got dressed and quickly got out of the bathroom.
Even though Dadan said that he had woken up everyone, it didn’t actually seem like anyone was up. Ace made his way to the kitchen, carrying his bag with him. Once he reached the kitchen, he took his bag out and removed assorted cold cuts and a few vegetables, boxes of granola bars, cookies and snacks and a loaf of bread and condiments. He quickly started putting together two lunches for himself and his brother and put them in the shopping bags that the ingredients were sold in. One day he’ll have to get Luffy an actual lunch bag. Ace then took out a small carton of eggs and took the vegetables and cold cuts he had left and cut those up too and started to make an omelette.
“That smells good.”
Ace jumped slightly and turned around, looking straight forward, then down. Oh, looks like Dogra was up
“It’s not for you, it’s for Luffy.” stated Ace, glaring at his roommate, making sure he wasn’t getting any funny ideas
“I know, I know. I also know you hoard food in that bag of yours.” stated Dogra, pointing to the bag
“Well maybe if some people didn’t insist on robbing me when I left food in the cupboards, I wouldn’t NEED to hoard food now would I?” replied Ace, putting the cooked omelette on a plate. He then dumped the frying pan into the sink, making Dogra frown
“Who do you think is going to clean that?” Dogra asked, avoiding commenting on Ace’s statement
“Any one of you that’s spending all day at home. I don’t have time, I have to feed Luffy and get him to his bus so that he’s not late for school. And furthermore, I provide most of the food for all of you, so shut up!” Ace put the lunches he made in his bag and grabbed the plate with the omelette and left the kitchen.
He made his way back up to the room and set the plate down on top of the dresser and pulled one of the lunches out of his bag and quickly put it in Luffy’s. ‘There. He’s all ready to go; now he just needs to get up’
Ace turned to the small window in the attic and pulled the frail curtains out of the way, lighting up the room considerably. Then he turned to his brother, still sleeping away in his bed and loomed over him
“Luffy. Get up.”
Luffy mumbled in response and turned on his side, away from Ace.
Ace lifted a brow, frowning and took the plate and put it right by Luffy’s face “Luffy get up or I’m going to eat this!”
Luffy’s eyes snapped open as he reached forward, grabbing Ace by the waist “NO! IT’S MINE!” then he blinked, looking up at his brother, who looked slightly amused by his antics “Good morning, Ace!”
Ace chuckled softly, offering the plate to his brother “C’mon, eat up and get dressed, we have to go soon to make sure you’re at the bus stop on time!”
Luffy nodded and eagerly ate away at his breakfast, then stopped to stare at Ace “Where’s yours?” Ace blinked, looking through his cellphone messages “I already ate, don’t worry about me.” Ace frowned, staring at his phone “Hey…did we have plans with Sabo?”
Luffy blinked, as he kept eating his breakfast “No? Are we hanging out with Sabo today?!” Ace frowned more, and then shrugged “I don’t know, cryptic text from him, saying I needed to tell him all about last night later? I don’t know, I’ll call him during lunch.”
Luffy frowned, looking down at his food “I wish we could hang out with Sabo more often.”
Ace sighed sadly. He felt the same way as his brother. It wasn’t Sabo’s fault though, Sabo did the best he could, it was that goddamn family of his. Especially after the ‘incident’. But Sabo was back in their lives after so many years, so in Ace’s books, it’s better than nothing.
“He does the best he can, Luffy.” stated Ace, getting up to ruffle Luffy’s hair. Luffy only grinned brightly in response. “I know! I’m happy we just have Sabo back!” Ace chuckled, taking the empty plate out of Luffy’s hands
“C’mon, your bag’s all ready, I packed your lunch and you showered last night, right? Tell me you showered last night, Luffy.”
Luffy nodded, grinning brightly “Yeah! Nami told me that if I didn’t – she would string me alive!” Ace snorted, thank you, Nami.
“Excited for your first day of high school?” asked Ace, setting the plate on top of the dresser – he could deal with that when he gets home
“Yeah! I had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited!” said Luffy, opening up the drawer and taking out a pair of jeans shorts and a big yellow t-shirt with a face on it, quickly putting them on.
Ace lifted a brow at his choice “It’s gonna be cold outside you know, it’s September. Put on a hoody or something, I don’t want you getting sick!”
Luffy huffed, pointing at Ace “You’re wearing like the same thing!” Ace blinked, looking down, he was wearing a Gudetama t-shirt with an opened yellow short-sleeved button up shirt that had purple polka-dots and a pair of black shorts that went to his knees with a heavy orange belt with a big buckle. He had a black cowboy hat on his head with red and blue charms on it. Ace actually had two hats, the other one being orange, and alternated when he felt like it.
“My body temperature is like, a million times higher than yours, kid! Wear a damn hoody!” barked Ace, pulling out Luffy’s favourite red one and presenting it to him. Luffy huffed and put it on, knowing better than to argue with Ace for too long. Ace just smiled, glad that he won and put Luffy’s strawhat on his head, making his little brother grin brightly.
Luffy and Ace slipped out of their houses and Ace went around the back for a moment, coming back with two metal pipes, handing one over to Luffy “Let’s go, we have to get you on the 7 o’clock city bus so that you can make it to Usopp’s in time for the school bus.”
Luffy blinked “Huh? Aren’t you coming with me?”
Ace laughed “Nope! Only first year nerds like you take the bus to school, I’m gonna get a ride in with the guys.”
Luffy huffed, slightly shoving Ace with his free arm “Hey!”
The two boys continued chatting as they walked through the Corvo district and then entered the Gray Terminal district. Even if it was not even 7 in the morning, it was still a really rough district, Ace and Luffy had to be ready for a fight anytime, hence the pipes.
The metal pipe had been Ace’s signature weapon when he was kid. When Sabo joined up with him, he adopted it too, and when Luffy joined them years later, so did he. To this day, even though they were both incredible at basic street fighting, people had learned to leave the boys with the metal pipes alone. Ace wasn’t called ‘The Devil of Corvo District’ for nothing.
Soon enough they made it to the first and only bus stop in Gray Terminal, just in time to see the bus rolling up. Luffy handed his pipe back over to Ace “Alright Luffy, you go straight to Usopp’s, okay? And I’ll see you in school.” Luffy nodded, getting on the bus with a bright side and warm goodbye.
Ace waved back until the bus was out of sight and then smirked. It was time for his plan. Ace quickly bolted down the street, right back to the house. He put the pipes back and started running in the opposite direction, towards Windmill district.
It took Ace a good 10 minutes of solid sprinting to get to where he needed, but soon enough, he pushed the doors open to Party’s Bar. Technically it was a pub, but details. Ace smiled brightly, waving at the woman behind the counter.
Makino was in Ace’s eyes, the only real saint he’s ever known. She had been so incredibly nice to him as a kid that she’s also the only girl he’s ever had a crush on. Makino was taking care of Luffy since he was born, so Luffy kinda considers her like his mom. But when Luffy met Shanks, everything changed and Luffy’s gramps decide that Luffy needed to live elsewhere, hence how he wound up living with him. But Makino visited often enough, which is how he got to know her.
“Ace! What are you doing here? Don’t you have school?!” asked Makino, shocked to see Ace. Ace merely grinned “Don’t worry! School starts at 9:30! The thing is, I needed some of your amazing coffee!” answered Ace, pulling out his wallet and taking out the money he needed. A Large should be good?
Makino frowned slightly “Ace! You didn’t need to come here for that!”
Ace shook his head, presenting her the money “No, I really did! It’s not for me though, it’s for this cop that really helped me out last night, I wanted to give him the best coffee in town as a thank you, he’s new to town too, so maybe he’s become a customer!”
Makino giggled, grabbing one of the to-go cups and poured the coffee inside “Not every day you’re thankful to a cop, Ace. I thought you avoided them like the plague.”
Ace blushed, shifting his cowboy hat off to scratch his head “Yeah, I know, but this guy, he was, yeah. I just want to say thanks and stuff.”
Makino giggled again as she handed him the cup and a bag of cream and sugars “Here, I’m assuming you don’t know how he takes it. Tell this officer hello for me and thank him for me for helping you”
Ace smiled brightly, man, Makino was the greatest “Will do!”
Ace then bolted out of the restaurant and started to run towards town. If he was lucky – he’d get to the police station by 6:30 and hopefully the coffee will still be warm, but Makino had packed it up real tight, so Ace hoped so.
Thankfully Ace’s prediction was right and he rolled into the police station at exactly 6:30, with a bright smile on his face. “Good morning everyone!”
Tashigi blinked, standing up, surprised “Oh, you’re the boy from last night! Did you forget something?”
Ace shook his head and grinned “No, no, but is the captain in? I wanted to give him a little thank you for last night”
Tashigi blinked and then she smiled brightly, turning around “I’ll go get him!” but then she tripped on something Ace couldn’t see past the counter and fell flat on her face. Ace jumped, wanting to go help her but not knowing if he was allowed around the counter, but she quickly got up “I’m okay!”
“Tashigi, did you just fall again?”
Ace couldn’t stop himself from smiling brightly. There he was! Smoker turned the corner, staring at Tashigi, not impressed. She smiled brightly “I’m okay sir! Sorry, I was coming to get you, the boy from last night is here and –“
“I can see him.” stated Smoker, turning his gaze towards Ace, lifting a brow. “How come you’re here, brat?”
“Came to show you that I’m not dead?” teased Ace, smiling, and then he presented the coffee to Smoker “Actually I wanted to bring you this as a thank you for last night. It’s coffee from Party’s Bar and Makino makes the best cup of joe in town, so here you go!”
Smoker sighed, smiling slightly “You didn’t have to do that, kid.”
“But I wanted to! I could have gotten mugged or worst out there and you helped me so are you really not going to take your small thank you gesture?” stated Ace, wiggling the coffee cup a little more, pleading eyes at Smoker
Smoker rolled his eyes and approached the desk, taking the coffee “Alright, I’ll take your coffee, but it’s my job to make sure people are safe.” Smoker took the bag of cream and sugar and started to prepare his coffee, Ace carefully watching how he did it for future reference “Don’t you have school?”
Ace blinked, surprised to have gotten addressed and grinned “Yeah, but like, in a few hours, I’ll be fine!” Then he watched as Smoker took a sip, the man looked surprisingly pleased with the coffee
“Shit, you weren’t kidding about this coffee” stated Smoker, looking down at the cup. Ace grinned “Makino’s the goddess of coffee, let me tell you!”
Then Smoker gestured towards Ace with the cup holding the coffee “Also kid, what the hell are you wearing?”
Ace looked down “Oh, this is Gudetama, he’s like, this super lazy egg and- “
“No, I mean the whole outfit”
Ace blinked “What? What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s blinding”
Ace smirked “Maybe I like attention”
“Well you’re going to get it in that” retorted Smoker, not looking impressed
“Well, then I got the attention I wanted.” purred Ace, biting his lip slightly as he locked eyes with the officer.
Smoker turned red and sputtered slightly, not sure how to respond to Ace’s comment. Ace merely laughed and waltzes his way out the door, smirking, proud of himself, as he didn’t break eye contact with the officer “Have a nice day, Cap~tain!”
“Get the hell out of here, you brat!” barked Smoker as Ace made his way out the door, laughing.
Ace looked at his watch once outside. Even though he told Makino that school started at 9:30, it was more like, class started at 9:30, but you were marked late if you showed up after 8:45, so he had to time this just right to not be late.
Ace broke out into another sprint. If he was lucky, he might just make it.
Half an hour later, Ace was cutting across someone’s yard when he spotted exactly what he needed. He bolted into the street, stopping right in front of a car at the stop sign and slapped the hood of the car “Hi!” The driver flipped him off and honked the horn as Ace laughed and went around the car, opening the back passenger door and getting in, taking a seat
“Wow guys, that’s a rude welcome”
Marco turned around from the driver’s seat, frowning at Ace “What the fuck man, I almost ran you over! And why the fuck haven’t you answered your phone?!”
Thatch laughed, sitting in back seat besides Ace, handing him a Tupperware “Here you go, I put aside some breakfast from this morning for you.”
Ace made a pleased noise and took the Tupperware, smiling brightly “Thatch, you’re a beautiful human being, you know that?”
“Stop distracting him with food!” barked Marco, pointing at Ace “You can’t text me that shit and then not answer!” Izo laughed softly from the passenger side, not looking away from the car mirror, as he was checking his makeup. Ace was almost in awe at Izo’s abilities with makeup, he was seriously a magician when it came to it.
“Relax, Marco. Ace is fine.”
Marco huffed, starting to drive down the road, clearly not amused with Ace’s antics “Why weren’t you at the meeting last night? I texted you and you never answered. You missed some really important info”
“Is Pops mad?” asked Ace, digging away at his breakfast. Thatch was such a great cook!
“No, Pops isn’t mad. He figured you had a good reason to miss the meeting. But I’m mad, and I want to know what that reason is!” replied Marco, gripping the steering wheel a little harder
“Oh, I was in jail.”
Marco slammed on the brakes, sending everyone forward. Marco and Thatch both turned to look at Ace stunned. Izo blinked, closing his eyeshadow pallet slowly and turned towards Ace
“Ace. Why where you in jail?”
“And why didn’t you call me?! I could have easily bailed you out!” remarked Marco, shocked
“Oh! I wasn’t in jail for a bad thing! I had a narcolepsy spell in the park so I was taken to the drunk tank until it wore off, which apparently was at around 2am.” explained Ace, finishing the rest of the food in the Tupperware
Izo frowned slightly “That’s when you sent the text, by the way, what the hell was that about? ‘I think I met the love of my life’?”
Thatch chuckled softly “Yeah, that was weird, it isn’t like you to get all mushy like that”
Marco frowned, continuing to drive towards the school “Yeah, mind elaborating on that? You never replied to any of us when we asked you more about that”
“Oh sure! So basically, the cop who took me in is like, amazing! I never saw him before though, but he’s gorgeous and is a brick house of muscles, and tall, and he’s really blunt and honest, kinda really gruff, anyways, I just really liked him. I brought him some of Makino’s coffee this morning as a thank you!” answered Ace happily, still on the buzz from the interaction this morning
Everyone else in the car froze in silence, staring at Ace. Marco quietly pulled over and put the car on park. Then he put his head in his hands “Ace. What was the name of this cop?”
“Uh, Captain C. Smoker, why?”
“OH MY GOD!” yelled the three others collectively, all looking exasperated. “Of course it had to be him! Of course!” cried Izo, carefully massaging his temple. Thatch just started laughing hard, his face turning red and tears forming at the corner of his eyes
“Out of all the goddamn people, Ace, seriously?!”
Ace blinked, confused, then he frowned “How come you all know him and I don’t?”
Marco sighed, opening up the storage compartment between his and Izo’s seat, pulling out an ipad. He quickly unlocked it and started to open up a PowerPoint presentation. “Because you missed some important info last night” replied Marco, before swiping to a picture of Smoker and handing it over to Ace “Is that him?”
Ace smiled softly at the picture “Yeah, that’s him! Can you send me a copy of that?”
“Captain Chase Smoker of Loguetown is one of the three new cops to the area.” started explaining Marco, ignoring Ace’s question “He’s renowned for single-handily solving the ‘gang’ problem over there, and was sent here to do the same.”
“Oh wow, that’s amazing!”
“Ace. We’re the gang problem.”
Ace looked sheepish as he scratched his head “Oh right, haha, shit”
Even though they looked like four teenage boys in a car in reality, they were high ranking commanders of the Whitebeard gang with their own divisions and subordinates. The Whitebeard’s territory was pretty much the entire city. They weren’t an aggressive gang in general, but they could be extremely violent when crossed. Ace had joined the gang about a year prior, after his own gang had been dissolved by the Whitebeards. Ace had tried his hand at taking them down and lost – but all of his men got to also join the Whitebeards, so that was fine in Ace’s books.
It was common in the city to either join a gang or start a gang. There was a severe division in this world, and if you weren’t noble or already well off, you basically had to live a meager existence, join the military or be a cop and have to follow orders for the rest of your life or join a gang and hope to somehow make something of yourself. There was money in gang activity and a lot of it. Ace personally wasn’t looking for fame or glory; he just liked the lack of restrictions that came with being in a gang. Also, he enjoyed fighting more than he cared to admit.
“31 years old, turning 32 in March. Was a captain in the Marines until he was discharged about two year ago and then became a cop in Loguetown, which is his home town and pretty much single-handedly got rid of the gang problem” continued Marco
Ace frowned “That’s it? You usually don’t have so little info; usually you have everything they’ve ever done and what kind of underwear they wear.”
“Yeah, Ace really wants to know what kind of underwear the captain wears” added Izo with a smirk
Ace smirked “You know, fantasy fodder, very important”
Thatch laughed “Oh gross man”
“Anyways” stressed Marco, getting tired of everyone’s antics “I was weirdly enough unable to get any real info about him aside that his mother’s dead and he has an aunt still living in Loguetown. When I asked Pops about it, he just laughed and told me not to be too concerned about it”
Ace frowned slightly. It wasn’t like Pops to just disregard things like this. Maybe the old man knew something and didn’t feel like it was important for Marco to know about it. Which by itself would be really weird since Marco was Pop’s right hand man. Regardless, it was weird.
“The next new cop is Tashigi Shigure.” started Marco, flipping to the next picture on the ipad. Ace blinked, it was the clumsy cop he met at the station. “She was also in the marines with Smoker, his First Lieutenant, actually. When the captain discharged from the Marines, so did she. The two enlisted to become cops at the same time and generally work as a pair.”
“Whoah whoah whoah” cut off Ace, brow furrowed together “Are they like, together?”
Marco shook his head “Nothing to worry about, there is nothing indicating them of ever having a romantic relationship, you can calm down, now.”
“But, she is rather efficient at what she does and basically counters his flaws, apparently the Captain isn’t a fan of any bureaucratic things like paperwork, so she does it.” added Izo as he’s checking his phone
“Exactly. But the one cop that we’re really gonna have to keep an eye on is actually the third new recruit.” stated Marco, as he flipped to the next picture on his ipad. Ace frowned, he didn’t see him at the station.
“He was actually part of the police force since last year but he was recovering from injuries, but before that, he was an undercover agent for secret services. But he chose to blow his mission to save the life of a 13 year old boy that was involved in the gang he had infiltrated to shut down. The boy was dying of white lead disease and there was only one vial of the cure left that was going to be sold off for billions on the black market. Long story short, he was discovered and they shot into him multiple times to try to kill him but he somehow survived. So the two were relocated here a year ago to recover from the affair but clearly their lives are in danger, so they’re technically hidden here.”
Ace frowned “They hid a guy hiding from a gang in a gang infested city?”
Marco shrugged “Well, to be honest, it’s rather brilliant, considering the Whitebeards, the Red Hairs, and all our other allies would never cooperate with the Donquixote gang to hand him over.”
Ace stared at Marco shocked “What?! The guy screwed over the Donquixote gang?! How the hell did he even infiltrate it in the first place? Doflamingo doesn’t just take anybody.”
“It’s easy when you’re his little brother.” stated Marco, flipping to the next picture which showed the cop and Doflamingo Donquixote side by side – the resemblance was clearly there
“His real name is Rosinante Donquixote, but now he’ll be going by the name Rosinante Trafalgar since he apparently insisted that the kid keeps his real name. He’ll be attending our school, hence why I wanted you to know about this before we go. The kid’s name is Law Trafalgar.” explained Marco, flipping to a picture of Law.
“Is he Luffy’s age?” asked Ace, squinting slightly
“He’ll be in Luffy’s homeroom. I already checked.”
“How come we never heard of this guy before though, I thought we knew the names of every member of the Donquixote gang?”
“Because he used to go by the name Corazon.”