#reader x ace

“Here, Boss,” Saber called as he finished placing a small pile of dry wood in the middle of the cave, with the crew circling it in anticipation.

“Ah, Thank you, Saber!” he laughed, kneeling next to the stack, and snapped his fingers, watching as the small spark that left his fingers quickly ignited the campfire. Standing up, he heard the satisfied sounds the crew let out as the warmth of the fire slowly spread through the cave.

“I’m Sorry, guys. I didn’t notice it was that cold,” he apologized sheepishly, scratching his neck nervously.

“Don’t worry, Boss, it’s hard to get cold when you’re made of fire, isn’t it?” Ganryu cackled, gaining a few chuckles and similar teases from the rest of the crew

“Hahaha! I’ve never felt cold since I ate it!” he stated proudly.

“Still, this blizzard is quite strong,” Skull piped in, looking towards the cave entrance. A white screen greeted him, as strong winds crashed against the bamboo, littering the entrance, with various pieces caving in and snapping under the pressure.

“Yeah…the snow has already buried everything. I’m glad I managed to get some samples of the flora before the blizzard blew it away; I saw some flowers that might have potential in medicine.”

“You gouing to add it to that rubbish story of yours, Dak?!” Banshee cut in with a loud laugh

“Ha! No way Doc! You could call it the magical blue flower, the flower that saved the Spade pirates,” Finamore mocked, joining in on the fun at the expense of the masked man.

“…”

“That’s enough; leave him be,” Mihar scolded, sending a disappointed look to the two.

“Sorry! Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Finamore snickered, sounding very far from apologetic about his actions.

Ace frowned, noticing the doctor’s growing frustration and embarrassment at the taunts, but before he could scold his subordinates, his head snapped to the side at the sound of rocks sliding down, small pebbles falling onto the floor close to them, his head quickly shooting towards the lynx next to him as he began yowling and hissing in the direction of the disturbance.

“Kotetsu?”

“It’s probably an animal boss, but regardless, be careful; animals become much more dangerous when they are cornered,” Skull called back to the Captain from his spot at the campfire, knowing the man was more than capable of taking care of the animal.

“Well, looks like the cave came with Dinner included!” Ace grinned, approaching the source of the sound

“Boss, look out!”

Ace’s eyes widened as the animal launched itself towards him, causing them both to crash on the ground, rolling around as each tried to overpower the other until they eventually came to an impasse with the other person on top of Ace as they both attempted to push the other off.

Ace took this moment to take the person in; it was, in fact, a person, but Ace doubted her to be human if the snake-like eyes and horns were anything to go by. It wasn’t this that threw Ace off; it wasn’t her veins that pulsated in anger or the sharp fangs that threatened to sink into his skin, nor was it the sharp claws that he was currently trying to push away that threw him off; it was the fact that it was a girl, human or not, what had attacked them was a child.

“Tch,” he growled, managing to overpower her and push her off, watching as she skidded away using her hands to maintain her balance, growling at him on all fours as she pushed herself forward and jumped towards him once again, this time with one of her legs raised high. Ace had barely enough time to parry the hit, raising his arms in an L shape next to his head with one of his hands raised to protect his face as the other one rose to grab the kick that she sent down, groaning at the force of the hit but managing to keep himself upright as the force pushed him back.

“What are you?” he huffed out as she wasted no time to go in for another hit, her fist aiming for his face as he ducked to the side.

“I’m sorry about this!” He called as he ran to her,crouching as she attempted to take the opportunity to attack again. He positioned himself behind her, extending his arm out and bringing it down on her neck, causing her to slump down; catching her before her body crashed on the ground, he let out a sigh.

“What the hell just happened?” he questioned, looking up at the crew’s shocked stares, the campfire, and its long-forgotten warmth as they tried to take in what had just occurred.

“Thats…. That a demon,” Skull muttered, approaching his Captain, the girl resting against him

“I heard about this race on one of the travel logs I read a while ago, a race that had been nearly wiped out by a sudden inflection that caused the person to become…demonic.”

“I think I've heard about that too. The infliction suddenly spread among them, and the marine wiped them out, saying that they were beyond help.”

“So what you’re saying is that all that happened just happened because of a sickness?” he gaped out, looking at his officers as they slowly nodded their heads.

“What are you going to do?” Mihar questioned looking up at Ace

“We’re not going to kill her, are we? She’s just a kid…”

Ace shook his head at this as if even having the thought repulsed him.

“We’re going to help her.”

“So, how did we end up like this again?” Ace cried as he avoided another hit the now-awoken girl had thrown his way. Ace barreled towards her, taking hold of her arms, and pushed her to the ground; holding her as she tried to break free.

“Hey!” He called, scowling as she showed no hints of having heard him.

“Hey!” He yelled

“You’re in there, aren’t you?! So, snap out of it! You must be scared, right?

If what Deu said is right, you lost your family; I’m sorry. I can’t do anything to get them back for you, but I want to help you, so you need to calm down!” He boomed, pausing as he noticed her struggles had changed, rather than the sudden jerks and bucks from before, there was just trembling. Looking down at her, he slowly let go of her as he noticed the slight dampness on the ground, accompanied by cries that echoed around the cave.

He backed away from her, opting to sit on the ground beside her as she slowly rose, tight fists trying to wipe down the cascade of tears that now filled her eyes as loud wails and hiccups escaped her.

“Hey…” he frowned as she continued sobbing. Her howling reminded him of his own brother when they were smaller, back when the youngest would cry at the slightest sight of danger. With this memory in mind, he crawled toward the girl and pulled her towards him, enveloping her in a tight hug as he began cradling her.

“It’s going to be okay, you’re going to be okay. I swear on my honor that I will find a cure for you,” he vowed, placing his head on top of hers and rubbing her back. His eyes snapped towards Mihar as the man approached him, smiling at him and, sitting next to him and, joined in the efforts to soothe the girl. Seeing this, Skull and Deuce shared a glance before they joined the wailing girl until, eventually, slowly, all of the crew followed suit, forming a circle around her and their Captain.

“Trés bien! What do you zhink Dokucha?” Cornelia gushed, looking at the young girl and examining her outfit happily.

“Din’t know you were good with the needle,” Ace gaped, watching as the girl ran in circles around the deck, her hands falling behind as she did

“Hmhp, you barbarians simply do not appreciate a good outfit if it hits you in ze face,” he scoffed, straightening his coat as he spoke.

Dokucha grinned, the action slightly hidden behind the bamboo that she now held between her teeth as she further analyzed her new clothes. Once satisfied, she ran towards the man, wrapping her hands around his legs.

“Are you trying to say zanks?” He questioned as he crouched down to her high, grinning when she nodded

“It was nothing! Mon Cherri!” He beamed, hugging the girl close, watching as she made her way towards his Captain. She jumped into Ace’s lap, scrambling to straighten herself.

“She sure is lively,” Mihar smiled, watching as she began drumming her hands on Ace’s thigh in a nonsensical pattern. Her eyes closed, and her mouth quirked up in what he could only guess would be a grin.

“She is! It reminds me of my kid brother! All around the place!" he grinned watching as she made her way off his lap and onto the next form of entertainment, this time on Kotatsu as the small feline took a hold of her scrub and launched her in the air, only for her to land on his back as he began walking her around the deck, muffled giggles and purrs escaping the pair.

“Looks like you have your first student, too, Mihar!” Ace grinned, standing up and patting his shoulder as they watched her raise her arms, he feeling the wind passing her as Kotetsu began running.

“I think things are about to get much better from here!” He called as he ran after Kotetsu, letting out a cackle as the feline sprinted away from him with Dokucha holding on tightly to the lynx’s scruff

It did, however, also come with the realization that those two were currently pretty distracted and for the first time, you weren’t held by a half-naked man, surrounded by pirates, or incapacitated by water. This, you happily noted, was your chance to get out of here and find a place to hide away with your ninja-like skills. A place that was…-

“Did those two boneheads just abandon you like this, kitty?” the voice connected to the two hands that picked you up cooed at you.

Okay, so your perception wasn’t the greatest at the moment. So what?! You’d been through a lot, okay?!

With a deep, deep sigh, you just hung there in those hands that had closed around your ribcage, not even bothering to fight anymore. You were so done with this shit.

1/10 stars. Do not recommend. Service personnel is pretty hot but ultimately fails at its job.

“Shall we finish the job, hm? Maybe by the time we’re done, Marco will have scrubbed that feral little raccoon clean, too,” Thatch murmured and you were taken over to the shower he had just occupied.

And then… with a start… you remembered that he had been in exactly that shower like a moment ago and he’d been utterly naked. You also remembered that you had visually confirmed only minutes ago that he had a fine ass and the rest of his anatomy had also been pretty convincing.

On the one hand, for the sake of your modesty, you should be very concerned with the fact that he was probably still naked and you were about to enter a shower – also fully naked because you didn’t really count fur as clothes – with a man you had met less than an hour ago.

Had he saved your life? Yes.

But still. You were a good girl. (Or at least that’s what you usually told yourself. Most of the time.) You didn’t climb into showers for some naked and very splashy adventures until you were reasonably sure you’d actually end up having a good time.

On the other hand… you twisted in his arms and threw a curious glance down his front, your tail twitching in interest. If the rest of his body was any indication, he’d be…

Awwww. Covered with a towel.

“Miss Kitty, have a seat,” Thatch said and placed you on top of a little stool. You blinked up at him, not fully unsatisfied with the treatment. For one, he was being polite, and additionally, he had basically perched you on a little throne. Yes. Yes. This was acceptable.

Happy to hopefully get rid of the surplus bubbles you generously offered him a paw, somewhat ignoring the fact that you were supposed to be a simply stray cat, and he took it with a chuckle and started to rinse it clean.

“Or should I call you Lady, hm?” he asked and kneeled down next to you, very carefully washing all the remaining shampoo from your fur as you glanced down at him regally.

Admittedly, this didn’t feel too bad, you had your little perch, a pretty damn good-looking guy kneeling in front of you and basically giving you the finisher of a spa treatment…

Maybe you’d actually give them like… 5/10 stars after all.

Within a couple of minutes, you were actually pretty much clean and he turned off the water and stroked you with long, even movements to squeeze the water out of your fur. It felt quite heavenly, to be honest, and you might actually have started to purr a bit again…

Of course, you just couldn’t have nice things, could you?

Because this was when the door banged open – you were pretty sure some tiles cracked at the impact, and a freaking giant entered the room. And not to be dramatic… but he barely fit through that damn door and by your very modest estimate, it was probably four meters high. You started to look up along the legs. And looked up. And up. And.. still up.

When your gaze landed on a bare chest – what the fuck else, this ship apparently suffered from a severe cloth famine – you noticed enough scars to supply a full battalion of soldiers. And as it traveled even further up, you noticed a white captain’s coat slung over wide, wide shoulders. And as it finally reached a face, ducking in below the doorframe, you saw a white beard.

A.

White.

Beard.

You made a gurgling sound as all the air in your lungs suddenly rushed out of your body and you went first stiff, and then hot, and then felt the fur all along your body desperately trying to puff up against the forces of the remaining wetness in your fur.

Oh no. Oh no no no. This was Whitebeard. The legendary Whitebeard. The guy who’d fought the Pirate King and lived to tell the tale.

“I’m hungry,” he said by way of greeting, “and the boys told me to come here.”

The pressure in the room was almost overwhelming and your feral instincts kicked in before a single brain cell could so much as put a word in in favor of reason. He’d eat you. He’d fucking eat you. He was Edward Newgate, the famous Whitebeard. They’d cleaned you up to serve you to their bloodthirsty captain who ate babies and cute kittens for breakfast!

With a battle scream, you exploded out of Thatch’s hands onto the floor and barely managed to land on your feet in your blind panic. In a feat of pure elegance, you somehow tripped over your own tail only one step further, resulting in you face-planting on the floor for about 0.1 seconds, because that was all the time you allowed yourself to waste. Digging your claws into the tiles, you pushed off and actually propelled yourself onto the wall, just below knee height for the giant between you and survival. If you hadn’t been so busy not getting eaten, you’d have complimented your athleticism.

“What the…-,” Thatch managed to say by the time you took the second long leap towards the door.

You’d manage. You were swift. You were like the wind.

“Flight risk!” Ace screamed when you did your third leap and pushed himself off the floor to rush after you. Fate was in your favor. His foot landed on a bar of soap, his eyes widened comically, and his leg was pulled out from under him as he slipped. You’d have appreciated the beauty of it, probably, the arch his body described as his ass went up and his upper body went down and he landed – hard – on first his shoulders and then his head. You heard something crack and faintly hoped it wasn’t his head. It was pretty.

“Not so fast-yoi!” Marco chuckled as he plucked you out of the air in your fourth leap without breaking a sweat, wrapping a towel around you at the same moment. “And here I thought you were getting used to us.”

There was a select choice of words on the tip of your tongue. Among them were several that were connected to a certain part of his anatomy and the places he could shove it. You were not gonna be eaten! You’d scratch their eyes out! You’d carve your name into their faces! You’d fight until your last breath!

You had claws! You were a ferocious tiger, no matter how small! You had the devil’s power…! You… fucking… couldn’t get out of the towel!

“Now, what’s that?” Whitebeard asked, his tone rather surprised than particularly hungry.

“A cat,” Thatch answered helpfully and ambled closer, toweling his hair dry as he walked.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe you should turn back into your human form to show them that you were not a cat and therefore, should not be eaten. Perhaps you should declare that you were not a virgin, either, just to be absolutely sure that they wouldn’t think you were useable for any sort of ritual or for feeding to the giant or…-

No. No. That was dragons. Dragons ate virgins.

What did giants eat?!

“I can see that,” Whitebeard answered, somewhat exasperated, and ducked lower to get a better look at you while you were fighting to get out of the towel. Your claws sliced through the cloth like a hot knife through butter and yet you just couldn’t get free. You shot a wild look at the giant captain.

You were no more than a snack for him. Surely, you weren’t even worth the effort!

But maybe it was no effort. He’d swallow you whole. Like that famous whale at the start of the Grand Line, that supposedly swallowed ships whole. You fought with renewed ferocity and Marco clicked his tongue at you, fighting to keep you under control.

Ace slowly tried to get up again, clutching his hands to the back of his head. “Ouch.”

He was still alive, then. Good. At least you thought it was good…? Perhaps…? At least you hadn’t gotten any cat-eating vibes from him.

The sounds of fabric ripping below your claws announced how close you were to freedom and Marco cursed under his breath, juggling you from one hand to the other to avoid giving you a chance to latch onto one of his fingers.

“Is anybody going to tell me why there’s a cat?” Whitebeard asked finally, his tone surprisingly even.

“It’s our new cat,” Ace said, rubbing at the back of his head. There were tears in his eyes as he tenderly felt around for the quickly forming bump.

“Our cat?” Whitebeard prompted, slowly sounding less patient.

“Yes,” Ace confirmed. “Spot.”

You sank your teeth into a piece of towel and ripped at it, glaring up at Marco, who reached for a second towel, frowning. “She doesn’t have a single spot-yoi.”

“I see lots of spots,” Ace muttered and blinked slowly. “I knew it all along. The soap almost killed me. Told you it causes more harm than good.”

“Your head is way too hard for that. You’re fine. Also, I think Whiskers is a far better name,” Thatch threw in.

Personally, you thought they were both pretty shit. With a low growl, you twisted in Marco’s hands, managed to graze his index finger with one fang, and then were rolled into a second layer of towel. You didn’t feel entirely unlike a burrito.

Heh. A Purrito.

You were hilarious, even when you were 5 seconds away from being eaten. But you were not about to give them any ideas.

“Would you stop that?” Marco asked you with a sigh. “It’s just Pops-yoi.”

“Fluffy?” Ace suggested and slowly came to his feet. Even upside down and pretty sure something horrible was about to happen you could appreciate that the drops of water glittering on his skin and slowly sliding down his very defined abs made him look fine as hell.

“Killer,” Marco threw in and you glowered, wiggling yourself forward and out of the towel wrapped around you millimeter by millimeter. You were still contemplating the idea of turning back into a human – both to be able to think straight again and to maybe tell them that you wouldn’t stand for such ridiculous names. Ah, and the detail to please not eat you or do something else horrible.

Thatch leaned forward and booped your nose. You snapped your jaws at him but he was too quick for you, you didn’t even manage to nick him. “Catness Everclean,” he happily suggested and you couldn’t help it, you rolled your eyes.

So he read those types of books, huh? Probably also read romance novels and smut. You scoffed.

“Boys…,” Whitebeard said with a tone that you knew pretty well from your father. It was the tone he used when he was down to his last nerves and he was between giving you up for adoption and accepting his hand in making you the person you were. Your ears twitched.

“Can we keep her?” Ace asked, slowly coming closer, one eye squeezed shut and with one hand still at the back of his head.

“I don’t think…-,” Whitebeard started.

“Look how cute she is!” Ace immediately continued and grabbed you out of Marco’s arms. Still covered in one layer of towels, plus a few stripes of the first one. You tried to twist but his grip didn’t give an inch.

His effort was admirable, really, but with only your face visible in the layers of towels, and your eyes almost popping out of your head from the effort of fighting for freedom, you probably looked more deranged than cute.

“We already have a dog,” Whitebeard answered slowly.

You hissed, sounding somewhat suffocated. Probably due to the lack of air in your lungs at this current moment.

“Somehow, she reminds me of Ace-yoi,” Marco muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Is she trying to kill us? Sure. But in a slightly deranged and yet charming kinda way. You can’t really be mad at her. It’s cute, in a way.”

For that, he got another hiss. Sadly you couldn’t give him the middle finger right now. Which was probably good, you reminded yourself, he was an evil pirate, after all.

“Lady Floofiness,” Ace said as if he had heard nothing. When he tried to kick Marco who stood beside him, the older commander simply moved out of his way. “Once she’s dry, you can see for yourself. She’s really pretty and very, very gentle.”

Okay. You were pretty happy he hadn’t cracked his skull open. He was pretty cute. Plus, he probably wouldn’t let you get eaten. You hoped. At least he was your best shot in this room.

Marco snorted a laugh. “Gentle? She tried to amputate my finger. Again.”

“You held her wrong,” Ace hissed under his breath. “You need to support her…-“

“Butt. I know-yoi,” Marco answered with a shake of his head, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

What was this fascination with your butt?! You had a pretty great one, sure, but in your human form. That you were not about to show them. You had decided so. Perhaps your animal instincts had been a bit overwhelmed by the giant standing at the door, but you slowly lost the fear of somebody wanting to eat you.

Or perhaps you were just going numb. Whichever one.

You squinted up at Whitebeard, who was looking at you with a frown. His beard twitched as he regarded you and you quickly reversed direction and instead of trying to get out of the towel, you buried yourself deeper into it, away from his prying eyes.

“Stefan might not like it,” he finally said.

“He likes Kotatsu just fine,” Ace countered. “And she’s much smaller, won’t take up any space. She can sleep in my cabin.” He started to slowly unwrap you and you grabbed one corner of the towel and tried to hold onto it, suddenly not desiring freedom so much. Freedom meant having no barrier between you and those piercing eyes.

You were still holding onto the towel desperately when two giant fingers grabbed you by the scruff of your neck and picked you up. Gulping, you winced when your body went limb, suddenly unable to do anything but stare at the giant man who had picked you up. He held you in front of his face and you held your breath. This was it. This was the end.

He opened his mouth and you squeezed your eyes shut.

Goodbye, cruel world. I’m leaving you today.

“Stefanie,” he said then and you slowly opened one eye back up.

A brief moment of silence, then Thatch cleared his throat and Marco shuffled his feet, searching for words. Ace was less polite. “That’s a shit name, old man,” he blurted out.

“Fluffy isn’t much better,” Thatch murmured and Ace shot him a glare.

“Says the man who suggested Catness Everclean-yoi.” Marco crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head.

“Yeah, and Killer as a name for a teeny tiny fluffy cat clearly wins a prize for creativity,” Thatch shot back.

Marco shrugged. “We can also call her Calamity Jane, seeing as how she made Freckles almost crack his head open, made you bleed for the first time in, what, four years? And has actually managed to nick my skin here.” He lifted a finger with a frown and you could see a tiny drop of blood there for a moment before blue flames engulfed it and it was gone in the next moment.

Thatch, who saw the sparkle in Ace’s eyes, quickly shook his head even as he took a look at his forearms and registered with some surprise that you had indeed managed to scratch him. He dabbed at it with the end of his towel, still shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”

“I think it’s cool,” Ace weighed in and came to stand just below you, holding his arms out expectantly. You curled your tail around yourself and hoped that you’d indeed be handed over again. Ace was the one who held you in the most comfortable way – by far!

To be fair, perhaps you hadn’t given Marco much of a chance with your little panic attack.

But that was hardly your fault. You were in a room with Edward Fucking Newgate, also called Whitebeard. Also having the highest bounty in the whole of the fucking world. You were pretty sure a little panic was justified.

“You just like it because it fits into your little card naming scheme. Ace. Spade Pirates. Spadille. Calamity Jane,” Thatch accused him and when Marco raised an inquisitive eyebrow, he shrugged. “Queen of Spades? Calamity Jane?”

“Oh,” Marco made and rubbed at his chin. “Then no.”

“Hey!” Ace snapped and lifted himself on his tiptoes to reach for you.

You honestly shouldn’t feel so relieved at the guy heartily grabbing your butt, but at least Whitebeard let go of the scruff of your neck and you dropped into Ace’s outstretched hands. Gulping down a shiver – not quite successfully – you were happy when he brought you close to his chest again. Especially since he didn’t seem to mind that you were still wet.

“I haven’t said yes yet,” Whitebeard reminded them with a sigh. “At least I know now why they were all snickering like idiots when they sent me here.”

“You also haven’t said no yet,” Ace reminded him with a grin and started to stroke you with long, calming movements. Eyes unblinking and brain simply overloaded thanks to the last hour, you lay there against his chest and contemplated whether this was karma. Whether perhaps you had stolen one too many times from the rich and given to the poor. Mainly you, actually. But you were poor.

Ugh. You needed a cocktail with lots of rum and a cigarette.