The long nosed boy peeked through the leaves and branches to see one boat lazing away in the current. It looked to be a simple fishing boat and he'd been narrowing his eyes at the figure lying in the middle of it, wondering if the person was sleeping or dead.

The boy shrugged, not really caring and he decided to go back to the village to play with the Usopp Pirates when a whirring noise caught his attention.

"Get out of the waaaaaaaaay!" a female's voice shouted as her boat hurtled across the ocean, water spraying haphazardly behind it.

The long nosed boy's eyes popped out of his skull and his jaw dropped to the ground as the boat crashed into the idle fishing boat and an explosion ripped through the trees on the island.

"What just happened?!" the boy exclaimed as the tiny fire was extinguished when the wreckage sank into the arms of the water.

Aoi was holding onto a barrel that was dipping up and down and squirted out an arc of water, completely soaked. She saw the silhouette of a human watching from the island and waved at him.

"Oooiiiii!" she yelled.

The boy started and he pointed at himself after glancing around to make sure nobody else was around.

"Yeah, you!" Aoi said. "Is this the Lizard Islands where I can find Honey Village?!"

"Huh?" the boy thought he must've heard wrong. "This is Gecko Islands and the village is called Syrup Village!"

"That's what I said!" the dot in the water yelled.

The boy sweatdropped. "No, no."

Somebody emerged from the water, gasping for oxygen right next to where Aoi was floating. The raven haired boy had freckles scattered onto his cheeks and an orange cowboy hat hung around his neck. His yellow short sleeved button down transparent from being soaked through. After he caught his breath, during which Aoi watched him uninterestedly, he rounded on her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he questioned her sanity. "Were you trying to kill me?!"

Aoi raised an apologetic hand. "Gomen."

"A 'sorry' isn't going to cut it!"

"I told you to get out of the way!"

"You didn't give me enough time!"

"You want to go, freckles?!"

"You have freckles too!"

"Hello~!" the boy on the island called. "Do you need any assistance?!"

"No!" the boy yelled.

"Yes!" Aoi said at the same time.

Their glares sparked electricity.

"You one of those guys that thinks asking for help affects your masculinity?!"

"You one of those girls that can't do anything without somebody watching over you hand and foot?!"

"I don't want to hear that from a dimwit who couldn't even get his lame excuse for transportation out of the freaking way!"

"Uh huh..." the island boy slowly side stepped away. "I'll... just... be going..."

"Oh! Wait!" Aoi roughly pushed the cowboy's growling face away and tossed something into the air.

She stepped onto the boy's face, him emitting a grunt of annoyance and pain as she jumped into the air. The small object she'd thrown expanding into a board that she planted her feet on just as it landed on the surface of the sea. A burst of energy and she rocketed toward the island, leaving the raven haired teen sprayed with more salt water and quite disgruntled.

Aoi flipped in the air, docking on the beach. The board shrunk again and she flicked her wrist, the tiny compacted device flying into her hand. The island boy was gawking at her. He had a prominent, long nose, a bandanna around his curly hair, and dark skin.

"I was wondering if any large ships are hanging around here," she said up to him.

"L-large ships?" the boy stuttered, trying to remember. "There were some at the harbor but they left a few days ago."

Aoi tsked. "Missed them."

"Oi, seaweed head!" the boy from before stomped up to Aoi, his drenched shirt in one hand and a bag in the other. "You better not be trying to escape retribution!"

"Such big vocabulary coming from such a hollow mind," Aoi said matter of factly. "I'm amazed. I truly am."

"You should be. Single celled life forms such as yourself would never have the brain to think, never mind be able to keep your bloody boat from crashing into mine!"

"Huuuuh?!" Aoi squawked up at him.

"I'll leave you two to it," the island boy took the chance to escape.

"At least I can properly belt up my pants!" referring to the way his belt was unfastened and loosely threaded through his pants.

"It's called style. Which you obviously don't have!" Ace threw his shirt at Aoi and it wrapped around her face.

Aoi snatched the shirt off her face and wringed the water out, glowering in disgust at him. "You're behind the times, wannabe cowboy!"

She threw the shirt back at him and he hung it up to dry on a limb of a tree. "What about you? Steampunk? Really?"

Aoi was about to retort when she sneezed and shivered a bit. The teenage boy sighed and considered the setting sun. "I'll get a fire going."

A little while later, a fire was crackling in a makeshift pit and fish frying over it. Aoi was going through her things, making sure to dry them out meticulously. The raven haired boy was chewing and sucking the meat off the bones of the cooked fish so quickly, he might've been related to a vacuum.

"So, you're a cook?" he summarized.

"And a rather good one, if I do say so myself," Aoi tinkered with a particular malfunctioning device.

"And you have pretty cool weapons," the boy's eyes lit up in excitement. "Hey, why don't you join my crew? You can be my cook."

"No, thanks. I don't want to be a pirate," Aoi answered absentmindedly, still working on her contraption. "I'm going to join the revolutionaries."

The boy whistled, impressed. "Well, look at us. Two soon to be outlaws eating charcoal fish together."

Aoi lifted her gaze to look at him. "You said something about becoming the King of Pirates."

The boy grinned. "Just watch, I'm going to make a name of myself and Gold Roger's tale will be miniscule compared to mine."

"Such an unoriginal dream," Aoi went back to her gadget.

"You can say that," the boy bit into the fish again, holding out an open palm. "My name's Ace, by the way. Portgas D. Ace."

"Aoi," Aoi accepted his outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you, Alfred."

"Like I said, it's Ace."

_

The two figures walked into the town, the sun rising behind them. The villagers all looked curiously at them as they passed. The pair looked friendly enough. The girls' eyes were trailing after Ace and some guys were checking out Aoi, but they deduced that since they were walking together they would be in the other aspect of the word together. Both genders begrudgingly gave up.

"That one dude from before said that there were docks, we can find a boat there," Aoi told Ace.

"You still owe me for destroying my sail boat."

"Oh, you mean the bath tub toy you were attempting to travel in," Aoi said uncaringly. "Don't worry, I'll get you a nice rubber duck to recompense."

"You're really unpleasant, aren't you?"

"Same goes for you."

"You demolished my boat!"

"Now you're just bringing up ancient history."

Ace's stomach growled. Aoi blinked. "Keeping a bear in there?"

"I need food..." Ace sniffed the air and followed his nose to a building that had a sign that said Meishi. He grinned. "Score."

Aoi trailed after him, intending to stock up on supplies herself.

While Ace stuffed his face, Aoi went to the counter and bought basic necessities that she had lost in the unlucky encounter with the cowboy. Ace was chewing when he saw a man reading the News Coo and saw something interesting in the headline.

"Old man," Ace said through his stuffed cheeks. "What does it say there?"

"Eh?" the man flipped to the front page and then gave Ace an astounded look. "You haven't heard of the Noble Gases, young man?"

"Noble Gases?" Ace's interest peeked. "What're those?"

"Why, they're the most powerful mercenaries of the Marines."

"With a name like Noble Gases?" Ace said, an eyebrow raised. "Such an unfortunate title."

"You're too young to understand the almighty power of these men and women," the old man said in such an awed voice. "They own the islands up ahead and Pirates don't even dare to think about attacking."

"Hmm..." Ace kept chewing.

As the clerk of the store passed by, Aoi called his attention. "Excuse me, sir."

"Hm?"

"The large ships at the port that left a while ago. Do you have any idea where they might be headed?"

The man stood silently, thinking hard. "Not sure, all of them were pretty shady characters. Didn't talk much. If you go to one of the islands ahead they could probably give you a hint."

Aoi nodded. "Thank you."

Aoi had to pay for Ace as he didn't have any money and as they were walking down the road, Aoi weighed her wallet. It was considerably lighter.

"Does this mean I don't need to buy you a rubber duck?" Aoi zipped up her wallet and pocketed it.

"You owe me a boat," Ace said stubbornly. "You're buying mine when we get to the docks, unless you want to pay me off by taking on the role as my cook."

"Doubtful," Aoi muttered under her breath. "To be in debt to a hay brained cowboy like you on the second week out on the sea... what did I do to the world to deserve this?"

"What did you say?"

Aoi smiled nicely at him. "I just said what a wonderfully, dim witted person you are, Arthur."

A tick mark throbbed on Ace's forehead. "Ace."

"Yeah, that's your name."

He gave up.

When they got to the docks, they encountered a problem.

"Sorry, kids," the boat broker said. "I only have the one."

The two teens stared at the fishing boat bobbing up and down in the water as if happy to finally have attention on it. They slowly faced each other.

"You destroyed my form of transportation."

"Like I care."

.

.

.

"Become my cook?"

"..." Aoi stared at the boat, then place a hand on her face and sighed. "I guess I have no other choice."

Ace grinned and shoved his hat onto her head. "Welcome aboard, first mate."

He leaped into the boat and Aoi processed the words he had spoken. She gritted her teeth. "I'm a temporary member! TEM! POR! AR! Y!"

"Whatever you say, first mate," Ace ducked a ladle Aoi had thrown at his head.

"You want to go, adolescent cowboy?" Aoi had frying pans in her hands, twirling them around menacingly.

"Heh. Bring it, gears for brains."