aira

i. 

the gentle rocking of the Moby Dick and the gentle streams of light filtering through your cabin blinds are what coax you awake the next morning.

blinking away the sleep in your eyes, it takes you a second to remember the events that occurred just hours ago when the sun had yet to rise and the moon stood high in its place. the memories are solidified as such–and not as mere dreams–when you feel a light stirring on top of your chest.

Ace mumbles something incoherent as he adjusts his head, still deep in slumber. his face rests on its side atop your chest as his firm arms lay on either side of your body with one hand interlocked with yours while the other stretches out and dangles over the edge of your bed. your free hand–the one not held clenched in his damp palm–is draped across his back, bent at the elbow just enough for the tips of your fingers to reach the base of his hair at the back of his neck. you drag your hand up further until his mildly sweaty, wavy hair is weaved in between your digits before you start scratching at his scalp gently.

he hums softly and shuffles a little but settles back into deep sleep with a faint smile stretching across his freckled face. taking a few quiet minutes to look at his peaceful self, a warmth swells up in your chest. you can’t quite remember the last time you’ve seen him so calm and relaxed, even as children he was always on-edge regardless of being awake or asleep.

a sudden light knocking snaps you out of your thoughts as your eyes dart over to the door of your cabin slowly swinging open just a crack.

“hey, (Y/N), you awake–” you recognise Marco’s voice before you see his face but once you do, you immediately catch how his eyes widen when he spots Ace sleeping on top of you. his mouth begins to form an ‘O’ shape but you cut him off before he can say anything embarrassing.

“leave!” your tongue tingles as you use your Devil Fruit ability, careful not to speak too loud in fear of waking the young man resting on your chest. as expected, your commander obeys without question and shuts your door but it doesn’t take long before you hear muffled shouts about how some people now owe him a lot of berry. 

“guess we won’t have to break the news ourselves, huh?” Ace mutters as his eyes flutter awake. he grins when your eyes meet his and you can’t help but smile, too. “good morning, pretty,” he hums before inching forward to brush his lips against yours.

“g’morning,” you reply in the middle of the kiss as you feel your face heat up when it dawns on you that this really is happening. you are, in fact, in bed with your childhood love and he is, in fact, kissing you good morning.

you idly wonder if life could get any better than this and, for the following months, it does.

ii.

it doesn’t take long for you and Ace to become very comfortable as partners and the endless teasing from the division commanders and Pops himself doesn’t fluster you as much as you initially worried it would. it helps that aside from poking fun at the both of you, they wholeheartedly support your relationship and aren’t afraid to show it.

Marco was the one who suggested transferring you from the first division to the second–purely out of sheer coincidence–when it was announced that Ace would officially join that division.

“i don’t know what you’re talking about,” he’d said as he turned his head away to hide his teary eyes when you asked if he would miss you being his second-in-command.

“y’know i don’t have to change divisions just for Ace, right?” you teased while elbowing Marcoin the ribs in an attempt to get him to show you his face.

“well, we all know you want to,” he replied as he ruffled your hair, “and what kind of big brother would i be to stop you?”

Vista had been the one who taught Ace about the language of flowers which eventually led to you receiving a bouquet of one hundred and eight sunflowers. when you asked him what it meant, all he did was turn red, stutter incoherently before setting himself on fire.

“he’ll tell you whenever he’s ready!” was all Vista said with a hearty chuckle when you asked him for its meaning instead, knowing full well if you tried asking Ace again the entire ship might go down in flames.

Thatch was the one who prepared a twelve course meal just for the two of you after Ace offhandedly mentioned the anniversary of the day you first met Luffy and him was coming up soon.

“how’d you even remember that?” you’d asked incredulously, finding it hard sometimes to even recall the current day of the week, let remember a single date from so many years ago. in response, his face flushed red.

“i-i don’t know! i just do, okay?” he huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away, his freckled cheeks turning an even deeper shade of red when you started to laugh.

on the mentioned day itself, you and Ace exited your cabin for dinner only to find the ship was entirely empty except for Thatch and Izou–with the latter promptly whisking you away the moment he spotted you leaving your room.

after half an hour of waiting in the dining room by himself, wearing a suit that was definitely not his, Ace felt his jaw drop when he saw you enter as Izou shut the door behind you. a light layer of makeup was painted on your face, the amount just enough to accentuate your features without overshadowing your natural beauty. 

when Ace’s eyes trailed down from your face to your body, he realised then it was the first time he’d ever seen you wearing a dress and it was perhaps the most beautiful dress he’d ever seen. although, if he were to be honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely sure if the clothing itself was beautiful or if it was because you had been the one wearing it. 

that evening, for the first time in his life, Ace ate as slowly as possible, working his way through the different courses at a snail’s pace. the food was delicious but seeing your candle lit face smiling at him from across the table satiated a yearning deep in his heart. 

later that night, after you’d long fallen asleep, Ace slipped out from your bed and found Thatch still up, prepping ingredients for the next day. to the older man’s surprise, Ace bowed deeply and thanked him for the meal and for putting a smile on your face that would be engraved into his memory for the rest of time. Thatch simply laughed and said it was no big deal, that he was happy to do it for the both of you. 

Ace ended up staying up that night and you found him later in the morning, sleepily cutting vegetables in the kitchen by Thatch’s side.

iii.

over the months, you and Ace become a force to be reckoned with, making your mark on the seas in your sworn father’s name.

it doesn’t take long for the world to learn that the infamous super rookie Fire Fist Ace was now in Whitebeard’s second division and that wherever he showed up, one person would undoubtedly be by his side.

another Devil Fruit user, surely, the marine cadets would whisper amongst themselves as another charred ship docks at headquarters and out of it pours countless soldiers on stretchers. i hear it’s not Conqueror's Haki,” one would say to another, “it doesn’t matter how hard you try, as long as you hear the command, you can’t fight it.” 

some would believe the rumours while others didn’t, steadfast in their belief that there’s no way the Command-Command Fruit still exists–not when the higher-ups insist it's been permanently destroyed. eventually, though, a handful of the sceptics would find themselves facing Fire Fist and his ally in the flesh and if they live to tell the tale, they’d return to their base and insist the Command-Command Fruit user truly is out there somewhere.

meanwhile, out on the open seas, you and Ace can’t care less about what the marines think of the two of you. all you care about are the little moments you share with him–like sitting in the front of his modified Striker as it speeds across the ocean while your hair catches the salty breeze; or the feeling of his soapy wet hair as you comb your fingers through it whenever you shower together, followed by the sound of his laugh after he shakes his hair dry just because he knows it annoys you.

your favourite moments with Ace are the quiet ones. the ones where you’re all alone and neither of you have anything to say but it doesn’t matter because the silence is so comfortable. you like when he lets his hands wander ever so carefully over your bare skin and underneath your clothes. his face always turns so red and yet he’ll stare into your eyes almost shamelessly, silently asking for permission to do more.

and then the quiet moments will turn not-so quiet as your soft huffs and moans fill the air while his fingers dance their way to places only meant for him to explore. sometimes you swear you can even hear the pounding of his Ace’s heart as he experiments with ways to elicit his favourite reactions from you–the ones where your breath hitches or your hips buck into his hand. 

sometimes he’ll let you return the favour but more often than not he’ll insist he enjoys making you feel good more than anything.

on the nights he gives in to his desires, though, Ace makes noises almost unbecoming of a powerful young man like himself. he’ll hide his face behind his hands or bury it into your blankets, unable to bring himself to openly show his teary eyes and drooling lips until you gently coax him out of his embarrassment.

“it’s okay, pretty boy,” you’ll find yourself saying more often than not as you softly pry his large hands away from his flustered, sweaty face. “don’t hide from me, my love,” you’d coo and he’d choke back a moan, fighting the urge to cover his face again, baring it all for you and only you.

and after all is said and done, Ace will sneak food and drinks into your cabin even if you tell him you’re not hungry but you’ll eat and drink anyway because he stole them all for you. you’d thank him by peppering his freckled face in kisses and dragging him to the shower before he can succumb to his sleepiness. you’d clean each other while chatting under your breaths and laughing at each other’s jokes. then, you’ll go to sleep in each other’s arms and he’ll use your chest as his pillow just like he did the night before.

hours later, the sun will rise and you’ll wake up before Ace does, as you always do, and the day will continue just like it had done yesterday, feeling so similar yet so different at the same time.

the little life you’ve built around your family and Ace is good and you’ve never been happier.

but you soon learn that all good times must come to an inevitable end.

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“dinner is ready!” sanji’s voice fills the room as he walks into the living room with a large pot of food in his hands, placing it down onto the table just by the couch together with some plates that zoro has been carrying.

you and nami sit down on the couch next to robin and sabo, grabbing a plate each and starting to serve yourselves. luffy is already eating where he is on the floor while ace goes to sit beside you and grab a plate too.

the room is filled with the sounds of cutlery against plates as well as people talking. zoro and sanji are arguing about the food meanwhile ace is chiming into sabo’s and robin’s conversation every once in a while. nami, luffy and you are talking about which movie you should all watch.

“wouldn’t it be fun with a horror movie or something? maybe zoro would for once admit that he’s really scared of them,” nami says while looking over towards your green haired friend.

he rolls his eyes. “i’m not scared, but sure, if you want to piss your pants you can choose a horror movie,” nami shows him the middle finger as he speaks before turning to look at you. “do you want to watch horror?”

“it’s not my favorite, but sure,” you say before everyone agrees, watching as luffy switches the tv on to look for something on netflix. “are you scared? of horror movies, i mean,” ace suddenly asks, his head now turned to you.

you shrug your shoulders. “depends, but jump scares always gets me,” he chuckles lightly before luffy finally clicks on a movie and the intro starts playing, it’s ‘halloween kills’.

“you chose this just because you know me and y/n couldn’t sleep after this one,” nami swats the back of luffy’s head, but he only laughs at her antics, going back to eating the food on his plate.

as the movie goes on, you can’t help but glance towards sabo and robin who are sitting rather close to one another, and if you look closely, you can see his hand on her thigh, squeezing it each time there’s a jump scare as if he’s comforting her.

ace seems to notice the same thing and looks at you with a raised brow, trying to hide the smile that is dying to break out on his face as it is starting to become more and more obvious that his brother has been lying about them just being friends.

your exchanged looks are however interrupted as there’s another jump scare on the screen, the characters in the movie screaming at the top of their lungs which causes you to jump in your seat.

nami covers her face as if to hide from the screen, but zoro who’s sitting beside her peels her hands away, forcing her to look at the tv which causes sanji to give him a blank stare.

“i didn’t know you would find it that scary,” ace mumbles and you roll your eyes at him. “it was unexpected, okay?” he puts his hands up in the air before turning his gaze back to the television.

the movie continues and you keep looking towards robin and sabo every once in a while, and when the movie finally ends, they’ve held hands for the majority of it.

you let out a sigh of relief when the movie finishes and lean back on the couch. nami does the same and the two of you look at each other. “they’re definitely a thing,” you whisper and she nods in agreement, her smile wide.

luffy stretches after having been sat on the floor for so long, and sanji looks towards the dishes on the nearby table. “so, who’s taking care of the dishes, because i’m not?” he asks, looking around the room, no one offering themselves.

zoro points towards you. “y/n was the last to get here,” he speaks and you roll your eyes, but too tired to argue, you get up from your seat on the couch. “i’ll help too,” the familiar voice of ace rings through your ears and you look back, flashing him a light smile.

you collect the dishes from everyone and walk into the kitchen where you begin washing them. ace is there to help drying them with a towel.

“if they keep telling us they’re just friends after this, i don’t know what i’ll do,” ace chuckles as you hand him a newly washed plate. you nod in agreement, giggling as quietly as you can so the others won’t hear what you’re talking about. “it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve been dating for years.”

the tall boy beside you laughs softly. “same,” he mumbles before you go quiet for a short while, but it doesn’t last long. “i’m happy we all hung out today though, not just because we got to spy on them,” ace admits with a smile playing on his lips.

you look at him, reflecting his smile. “yeah, me too. i didn’t think i would be able to look at you ever again after what happened last week,” he shakes his head when hearing you say that, ruffling your hair. “don’t worry about it, it’s not like i’m gonna hold it against you.”

“i know, but it’s still embarrassing. but thank you for helping me,” you look back down towards the dishes before handing him the last bit of cutlery that he quickly cleans, putting it away in the right place. “of course, i’m happy i could help.”

you lean against the kitchen aisle, your gaze moving back to ace who is already looking at you. “i feel like i only embarrass myself in front of you. i’m either super drunk or am getting scared to death by a stupid horror movie,” you admit which causes ace to smile wider.

“nothing you do is embarrassing, don’t worry,” he speaks, taking a step closer to you. you can’t stop your heart from beating just a little quicker, wanting to jump out of your chest.

your eyes are stuck on one another, no matter how many times you look away, you can’t help but look back at his mesmerizing eyes. they almost twinkle like the stars, shining bright due to the strong light in the kitchen.

having him so close makes it difficult to think, and you seem to have the same effect on him as his face is suddenly right in front of yours and his lips suddenly on yours.

you instinctively put your hand on his arm, not to push him away but rather to pull him closer as your lips finally begin moving against his. his lips are slightly chapped, but that doesn’t matter as the two of you are this close.

it does however not last for long as you suddenly hear your name coming from the hallway, it’s nami.

you immediately push ace away, looking at him with wide eyes are you’re finally coming to your senses, realizing what just happened. “y/n, i’m about to go home,” nami says as she walks into the kitchen, looking towards you and ace who are now as far away from each other as you can possibly be.

“i’ll go home too,” you reply, looking towards ace who goes to leave the kitchen, what the fuck just happened?

TEN | MASTERLIST | TWELVE

PAIRING: portgas d ace x f!reader

SYNOPSIS: who could’ve known it was so easy to fall for portgas d ace? it’s only unfortunate that he’s your best friends brother.