"Guys...does this seriously happen all the time..? If you're telling me the truth, I really think he should be evaluated by a medical professional..."

Ace and I had been shackled together for three days and counting, and this was the sixth instance where the man had slipped into complete comatose whilst eating. I'd already gained the reflex of catching his head before it smashed his meals.

"Nah, he's fine, yoi. Just a little narcoleptic. The only way that would cause a real issue would be if he were to crash out during a fight, but that hasn't happened yet, so..." Marco shrugged his shoulders, entirely unphased by the situation, so I chose to leave the problem for another day.

"What are we talkin' about?" Ace suddenly sat straight up, as though he hadn't just been snoring away, drooling into the palm of my hand, which I was now wiping against his bare shoulder. 
"You, being a freak of nature. Nothing new." I muttered, pushing my food over to him, now having lost my appetite. My insult was cancelled out by my offer, and in a matter of seconds he had his cheeks stuffed like an oversized chipmunk. 

He's kind of cute when he's just...wait, oh, nonononoNO. Nuh-uh. 

Shaking the horrendous thought out of my head, I was brought back to reality when the wooden bench seat beneath me creaked, and I slowly turned to see a large man with unruly black curls seated next to me, his grin riddled with gaps and holes. As cruel of me as it may have seemed, I instantly took a disliking to him, even though he hadn't even had the chance to open his mouth. 

"Teesh! Haths I gun bah-ee?" Ace attempted to greet him with an overstuffed mouth, managing to send a great deal splattering onto my face and clothes. The hulking man laughed heartily before turning his eyes down towards me, his friendliness unfaltering. 
"We haven't been formally introduced. The name's Teach." Wiping off his greasy hand, he held it out for a shake, and I forced myself to oblige, even though he was giving me real creeper vibes. I didn't want to be pissing off anybody other than Ace. 

"(Y/N). Nice to meet you..." I introduced myself in my most polite voice, but I was sure it petered out towards the end. Teach was big, hairy, and he certainly didn't give off a pleasant odor, but I really wanted to stop myself from judging him so quickly. I had a habit of it, and due to the fact I was still very much alive on the Moby Dick, my judgement was often wrong. 

I yelped as I was nearly hoisted into the air by my wrist when Ace stretched his arms up, his yawn deciding that midway through that it would transform into a godawful belch. 
"Well, I'm stuffed! It's post-breakfast nap-time!" He announced, beginning to stand up, which meant I had little choice but to follow. 
"You literally just had a nap in your breakfast! I don't wanna be stuck loitering around while you sleep, you lazy ass!" I snapped, but it was no use. He had made up his mind and continued on towards the deck, and I looked back to see both Marco and Teach waving teasing farewells. 

"Huh? No I didn't. Anyway, I'm still a young man who needs his energy, so sorry, Pancake, you're gonna have to deal with it." Deciding that he was just going to sit himself down on the floor of the deck, down Ace went, arms moving behind his head and his back resting against the wall. "I mean, you're more than welcome to join me if you wanna? I know that the thought of cuddling up to me again is hard to resist. I'm damn comfortable." 

Feigning a gag, I leaned against the guard railing, the wind catching my (H/C) hair which caused it to whip along in the same direction, as well as all over my face. 
"Oh. Wow. You caught me. It's all I've been able to think about for the past decade of my life. However did you know?" I replied sarcastically, watching him tip his orange hat so the brim shaded his face. 
"I'm gonna pretend you're being sincere, otherwise my heart might break into itty bitty pieces." Ace snorted before going silent. It took a ridiculously short time until I heard him lightly snoring, so I took a moment to look down at him to really study the man without him jumping around like an idiot. 

As much as I hated to admit it, Ace really had grown into a handsome man. Whilst they had looked dorky on him as a child, his freckles now gave him a boyish charm, and his longer, wavy locks of black framed his face well. I couldn't even begin to comment on his physique. It would have been dangerous for me to even attempt to do so, and that scared the crap out of me. 

Turning a little, I switched my gaze to the rolling waves of the ocean, the salt air aggressively kissing my skin with heavy pecks. My momentary lapse of considering Ace to be attractive made me feel sick, immediately setting my mind on a different track. How was Doflamingo holding up? Had he flown into hysteria like the last time? Did he actually care that I was gone? Of course he did. He loved me. 

Right..? I mean, sure, he did a lot of terrible things, but...surely he loved me...

The fact that I was starting to question it had my stomach attempting to reject the small amount of breakfast I had eaten, and I tried to clear the nausea with fresh ocean air. I kept my shackled wrist as low and still as I could, as to not disturb Ace from his slumber. 
"You know, I actually think he's enjoying that you can't run away from him." 

Nearly giving myself whiplash, I turned to find a tall man standing a few feet away. His hair was the colour of a clear, midday sky, and he wore a mask around his eyes, which was to give him an air of mystery, I supposed. 
"Yeah...He really likes making my life a living hell..." I muttered, turning back to the ocean so I wouldn't have to make eye contact. The man moved a little closer to follow my gaze, his long, opened coat catching the breeze. 

"Actually, I think he just wants to reconnect with you. Even when I first met him, he mentioned a girl he made a promise to, and you came up rather often after that. Honestly, for a while there, a lot of us didn't even believe you existed. Just some mythical girl he decided to create to give him that extra drive to succeed." He chuckled, finally drawing my eyes back to him, my expression perplexed. 
"Sorry, Mask Man. I really don't believe that he spoke about me that much. If he did, It would have been insults about my chest, or lack thereof." 

An expression of amusement crossing the man's face, he shook his head as he chuckled, a pleasantly smooth sound.
"Nope, that actually never came up. When we first met, he mentioned that he wanted to get strong enough to save someone he cared about. Eventually, he told us all about you and the little adventures you all went on. He also mentioned you had to return something to him. Never hinted at what that was, though."

Oh dear God, did he mean the kiss..?!

For some reason unbeknownst to me, thinking about it only made me the tiniest bit uncomfortable, and not because it was Ace. It was purely the fact that I was engaged to be wed.
"Sorry, you never told me your name..?"

The masked man offered me a kind smile, finally leaning against the railing.
"I go by Masked Deuce, but you can just drop the Masked part." He introduced himself, and I nodded along with his words.
"Huh. Kind of similar to Ace, in a way." I pointed out.

"Well, he was the one who named me. I threatened to steal Ace for a pen name, but he wasn't having a bar of it." Deuce laughed. "That was back when we first met, before we became the Spade Pirates."

So Ace had his own crew before joining with Whitebeard, huh?

"You really want to go back to Dressrosa, huh?" He continued, his question seeming more rhetoric. "I won't try to convince you to stay, but if you care for my honest opinion, I think he'd be crushed. Sure, he's hot headed, partial pun intended, but you didn't see how he reacted when he read your engagement announcement in the paper."

Biting my lip, I again turned to look down at Ace, who was peacefully dozing away.
"Care to enlighten me?" I asked, trying to mask my curiosity the best I could. Leaning over the railing a little to peer down into the water, Deuce hummed, reaching to readjust his mask.

"I've seen Ace a lot of things. Happy, excited, seething with rage, but that was the first time I saw him truly terrified. He didn't say anything, just rushed up to Pops' quarters, and he was there for a while before he came down and dragged Marco away. Next I saw him, he was carrying you to the infirmary. Wouldn't let a soul near you besides Marco and Pops."

Terrified? Because he saw that I was going to marry Doffy?

"He may act like a brat, believe me, I've been his babysitter for longer than any of us, but he really cares about you in his own, Ace-y way. If you want to go back to Dressrosa, and Doflamingo, by all means, that's your decision to make, and I'll be in your corner, but if you do, please try to take his feelings into account. Even though we merged into a larger crew, he's always going to be my captain, and I don't want to see him get hurt."

As Deuce stepped back from the side of the ship and stretched, I took his words into account. I didn't want to hurt Ace. Honestly, I didn't even really want to butt heads with him like we had been, either. He just rubbed me the wrong way with his approach, and his personality, but I definitely didn't want to hurt him.

Still, Doflamingo needed me. I was certain of that. At least, I had been. Now, part of me was beginning to question it, and my face fell.
"I'll do my best to not hurt him. I can't promise that I won't, but it's not something I'd do on purpose." I responded as Deuce began to take his leave.

"That's all I ask. He's a great pirate, but he's an even greater man. Once you both manage to get on the same page, I'm sure things will work out for both of you."

I just hummed as he departed, watching a lone kestrel swoop past the ship, flying off and out of sight. Once it was gone, I lowered myself to the ground beside Ace, resting my cheek on my knees so I could watch him.

Seeing as nobody was planning on letting me leave any time soon, what harm could come of trying to get along? Doflamingo was already weighing heavily on my mind, but now Ace had weaseled himself in there, making my head feel even heavier.

There was one question I had, however, and it was one I didn't feel comfortable asking him. Why was he so intent on getting me to stay? What purpose or reasoning could he possibly have? There was no way it was simply to keep our decade-old promise. There had to be something more to it, but alas, I was at a loss.

Ace stirred in his sleep, his back sliding further down the wall, and I mimicked his movement, the chain between us rattling lightly.

"Dammit, Ace...You're making me question everything..."

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***Deuce should have been in the anime and I won't be happy until I see him animated. Hashtag make an OVA out of the light novels.

Finally a teenie bit of development.

Also I can't draw female OP characters. Their proportions terrify me more than Barbies and Monster High dolls.

Next Time: When We Were Young***