#daadzi

It wasn’t very often the King Of Goa found himself concerned with the plight of others. Especially someone as lowly as a pirate. Portgas D. Ace was a different kind of pirate though, one the redhead actually knew from his childhood. Reading of his capture and imprisonment only seemed to bring back memories of that time years ago.

For once, both Stelly and his adopted older brother had the same goal, getting Sabo out of Outlook’s manor. Sabo didn’t want to be there and Stelly wanted to inherit everything for himself, so-- it made more sense to work with him instead of being petty and trying to ruin a reputation the blonde didn’t even want.

Besides, anything he could have down would only have driven their father into stricter rules for Sabo. He’d never leave then!

And while the blonde couldn’t leave the manor, Stelly could. Which is how he met Ace and Luffy trying to sneak in. What formed from that was an unlikely acquaintanceship and almost sometimes even- friendship. Ace and Luffy were just gutter rats to him but yet the redhead almost preferred their company to all the other children he knew. They weren’t looking for a way to backstab him, they just wanted their brother back.

So-- Stelly helped them. It was for his own gain, he’d claim, but it benefited everyone to get Sabo out of there.

“Father! You already said you adopted me in case Sabo didn’t work out! He’s going to ruin your company when he gets it, give it to me, I want it!” With the combination of Stelly hounding Outlook and Didit for being their only son and Sabo’s detachment from everything, how could they not agree that the redhead was the better son?

That led Stelly to his current goal. Somehow getting Ace out of Impel Down. He tried the obvious of just buying him, as Stelly knew he had the power to do so. There was something else keeping Ace there however, that the warden and anyone else there refused to budge on. Stelly couldn’t name a high enough price but he could bring in someone they couldn’t refuse.

Ace was to be part of the redhead’s tribute to a Celestial Dragon then! No one had the authority to turn that away. First though, he would be brought to Stelly’s own kingdom. For cleanup and presentation he said. Can’t go giving the World Nobles damaged goods now can he? What the marines didn’t know, and they couldn’t change now, is that Stelly was just going to keep Ace there in the kingdom now.

Even standing in front of the pirate now, still bound in his seastone, Stelly could hardly recognize him. Whether that was just from how Ace had grown or how beaten he looked though--.

__

“It’s good seeing you again, Fire Fist...”

Over 2 years had passed since the battle of Marineford, and the world itself changed. All who once called themselves a Whitebeard lost everything that day... while the Payback War may not have been until later, even then, from the moment pops died they knew it was the beginning of the end.

The Whitebeards were scattered, and both World Government and the Blackbeards wanted their heads. The World Government to try to pretend the events are Marineford weren’t a catastrophic failure, and the Blackbeards to steal their Devil Fruits and further humiliate Whitebeard’s memory.

But at the least, Ace had been saved. And those in hiding rejoiced in that.

And here she was, back to her childhood home of White Hare Island, running ramen and soup stand. It wasn’t a bad life, honestly; she had actually come to enjoy it quite well, and much like her father her hunting of the man-eating rabbits of the island were quite appreciated... but it couldn’t compare to the Moby Dick.

So it was a great surprise, to see Ace once again, in the cold of White Hare Island.

Ah yes, it had happened again. Thus was the case of someone who suffered from a sleeping disorder though. Could he really be faulted for something that was beyond his control?

In the eyes of the World Government: Yes However, that was for completely different reasons.

Easily roused from his sleep, Ace awoke with her query. Red eyes blinked slowly as he tried to process his current situation; was there any danger? No, not likely. If she was a marine, she would make an attempt to catch him while he was off guard and not bother waking someone so dangerous.

He sits up with a soft noise, stretching back.

As for her question: “Maybe I was guarding it in my sleep.”

The first rule of finding yourself in a foreign land was to gather intel, adapt and improvise until the mission was successful. The ultimate mission for any assassin apart from completing an assignment was to survive. Fairytales loved to portray assassins as these invincible monsters that no one understood what it truly meant to be one. To kill and to leave. To retain your sanity despite the crimes you had committed until you felt absolutely nothing...

She may have left her sword for her crown but the years she had spent training was ingrained into her that her mind had rebooted into gathering information when her eyes opened in foreign land. What better place then a bar with the loose tongue of intoxicated fools?

They would be in there for quite some time before their absence was noted that morning. Or rather, before Deuce awoke later, his sleeping schedule a mess with each long shift he finishes. 

The smell of sex was faint in the home, but still notable enough for the raccoon to know something was up. Beneath the first scent, he picked up another, sweeter: Omega heat. 

This brought him pause, of course. Ace was on suppressants, but then-- contraceptives don't always work a hundred percent of the time. An omega's heat was bound to catch up to them at least once a year, and it seems Ace's finally had. This was unfortunate, but natural. 

Now, he understood. 

Still the raccoon waltzed into the room without invite-- bringing cold drinks and breakfast in tow. "Break it up," he orders with an authority not fit for a beta. Luckily, he did not go into a lust-driven madness from the scent Ace was giving off. That was the perks of a Beta status. "You need to eat at least."

Ace was luckily in between sessions when Deuce appeared, taking the chance to catch his breath. His body was trembling from exertion, but he rolls away from Luffy and lays on his back, staring at the ceiling.

   Luffy was content laying by Ace’s side, pulling herself close to her mate while nuzzling into his neck. They had gone a few rounds already, taking up much of their morning and only really resting in between each session to recover-- well, for Ace to recover anyway. Luffy’s stamina is high and she could very well go the whole day with little to no rest, but she knows that Ace needs some time to recover and lets him rest when he needs too. Its no fun if Ace can’t keep up and its just not fair.

   At the order, Luffy pops her head up and groans, sticking her tongue out at the beta but quickly perked up at the mention of food. Her ears stood straight and he tail flicked eagerly as she smelled the air to get an idea of what Deuce made for them. No matter what it would be, she’d still eat it, but she was curious and wanted an idea.

   That thought however, was quickly lost, food was food to her after all.

The treehouse they had built was far away from the town, his father, and everything else Sabo hated about the stuffy place. Too many people there thought they were better than everyone else and treated those they called “commoners” like trash. To Outlook, his son was one of the prestigious young men-- meant to attend balls and galas, grow smarter to take over the family business one day--.

Sabo had no interest in trading companies though. All his interest lie in the little wolf boy sleeping beside him. Would Ace have thought he was creepy for watching him sleep? He just loved how peaceful he looked. Loved how he could try and count his freckles only to find himself falling asleep too.

He was smitten, already so in love with the mystical boy who’d come into his life. Instead of being stuck in that gilded cage his father called his bedroom, Sabo was now out having honest to goodness adventures with Ace and discovering more of this world his parents had tried to keep hidden from him for so long.

Sleep came quick, and found Sabo scooting closer to Ace to wrap small arms around his waist and bury his face into Ace’s chest. That sleep did not stay though.

He wasn’t sure if it was the smell that woke him up or finally feeling that Ace wasn’t next to him anymore. The little blonde boy rubbed at his eyes, which were already starting to sting for some reason.

The corners of Auger’s lips twitched, slowly curling into a smile. What a simple minded child. This is who was supposed to take down the man fated to be the king of pirates? It was laughable, really.

“Oh, did I hit a nerve, Fire Fist? Aim a bit too close to a scathing wound somewhere deep inside you? It’s still festering after all this time, isn’t it. Continue that fiery facade of yours as long as you wish.” He continued, leaning down closer to the younger man’s height, a hint of some deep malicious spirit flickering behind his one visible eye.