It had been an entire day and a half since I had blown up at the Whitebeard crew, and not once had I left the infirmary. Both dinner and breakfast sat cold on the table across from my bed, untouched and unwanted.

My anger had lessened to a faint simmer, now overtaken by fear and confusion. Had I been too hard on Ace? He thought he was doing the right thing. How was Doflamingo coping? Were they closing in at that very moment?

A knock against the door made me flinch, and I bit down on my tongue until I heard that familiar voice call through the wood.
"It's me. Are you ready to talk now, or should I come back later?" Ace asked in a surprisingly polite tone. Pulling my knees to my chest, I nodded, not that he could see it.
"Yeah...I guess..."

Hesitantly, Ace entered the infirmary, closing the door behind him and approaching until he was a few feet away, dragging the wheeled chair so he could take a seat. The silence was heavy for a while as I avoided his gaze, but he eventually cleared his throat and gripped the situation by the horns.

"I don't regret what we did. Whether you realise it or not, you had to get away from Dressrosa." Was he really starting off like that? He truly hadn't lost an ounce of audacity from his childhood. Gritting my teeth, I glared at him from the corner of my eye.

"What could you possibly know about my life, Ace? We haven't seen each other for a decade. I belong in Dressrosa, and it isn't your call to make." I wanted to snap at him, but my voice came out flat, much to my dismay.

The chair squeaked a little under Ace's weight as he shifted, looking entirely unconvinced by my words.
"I know all I need to. The fact that you said you were his when we were kids. How scared you were when he called you. When you begged me to come and save you one day. He raised you and now you're engaged to him, (Y/N). That's sick."

How could you possibly understand?

I knew it was sick, in a sense. Our relationship when I was growing up had suggested one thing, but my adulthood had spurred another. I understood that, but it wasn't for him to decide.
"Don't start on this shit, Forehead. I'll punch you again, and this time I'll break your nose." I threatened, hearing the chair complain as he deflated.

Raking a hand down his face, Ace sighed, his skin stretching downward and bouncing back once he pulled his hand away.
"Fine, forget it for now. There's other stuff we should talk about." Accepting his change of topic, I scooted around a little, not quite facing him completely.

"Fine. How's Sabo and Luffy? Did they end up being pirates too?" I asked, true interest apparent. I had often thought about all three of them, and how they had been going. Whether they had chosen to follow their dreams, or taken a different path.

When Ace took a sharp intake of breath, I faced him fully, dropping my knees and waiting for him to speak. Whatever he was about to say seemed like it wasn't going to be pleasant to hear.

"Uh...Luffy's good, last I saw him. Been a while now, but he's gotten stronger..." He began, toying with his bottom lip as he attempted to bring forth the words he needed. "But...Sabo...Not long after you left...Y'see, there was an incident, and he..."

My anger vanished in a metaphorical puff of smoke before he even managed to finish his sentence. Lunging until I was close to falling off the edge of the bed, I reached out and dragged Ace the rest of the way by the cuff of his shorts, eyes wide and pleading.

"Ace, tell me he isn't dead!" There was no way. Not Sabo. Not the charming bright spark that had welcomed me as his sister. There was no possible way that could be the case. Ace lowered his eyes to where my hand gripped his clothes.

"He set sail a few months after you left. We were told he sailed across the path of a Celestial Dragon, and he..." I could tell it was hard for Ace to talk about, but I needed to hear it. "They blasted his ship to pieces. Dogra saw it happen, and told us...I'm sorry..."

Finally releasing him, I took a few moments to register what he had told me. Ace had always been harsh on me, but he wasn't a liar when it came to things as serious as death. I covered my mouth with my hand as my eyes began to water, sitting back on my heels.

"N..no...I'm sorry..." I murmured, turning my head away before I began to cry fully. "I just can't believe it...He barely got to live..." Ace just sat there, looking like he wanted to console me, but he chose against anything physical. I likely would have refused it, anyway.

He just let me work through it for a while, sitting there without saying a word until I managed to pull myself together, putting my grief into my back pocket for when I was alone.
"Look...I know you think this is a bad situation, but you're gonna have to grow up and deal with it. You're here, and you won't be going anywhere for a while, so you may as well-"

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?!" Ace yelped as a pillow connected with his face, sending his chair rolling back a foot or two. "You just told me Sabo is dead and you're jumping back to that?! God, you're such an inconsiderate asshole!"

The door creaked open just as Ace stood up, tossing the pillow to the floor and pointing a finger at me, shaking it with as much frustration as his face showed.
"I'm inconsiderate?! We just saved your ass from whatever freaky creep crap that guy was locking you into and you call me inconsiderate?! Grow up!"

Marco and the magnificent pompadour stood in the doorway, looking between the two of us with blank expressions.
"I think you both need to calm down and grow up..." The latter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, but Marco's face stretched wider with an amused smirk.
"Is that any way to talk to your childhood sweetheart, Ace, yoi?"

"SHUT UP!" In perfect unison, Ace and I directed our anger towards the Phoenix, who quickly turned and threw his hands up in the air.
"Wow, that's mature. Jeez, I was just trying to help, yoi."

Clearing his throat, the other man turned to me, motioning for me to follow him.
"(Y/N), I'm Thatch, the fourth division commander and the Moby Dick's chef, and as such, I insist that you come and eat something. Can't have you starving yourself, now can I?"

Eating was the last thing I wanted to do, but I stood up anyway, willing to do anything to get away from Ace in that moment.
"Just keep this freckle faced jerk away from me and I'll do whatever you want..." I muttered, stalking past my 'saviour'.

Thatch cocked a brow towards Ace, stepping aside so I could pass by him.
"Wow, you really have a knack for pissing her off, don't you?" He chuckled awkwardly, scuttling away a few paces when Ace shot him a hard glare.
"She's the problem. Maybe I do regret keeping my promise."

Ouch...

Why had that hurt to hear? I wasn't happy about being taken away from Doflamingo and Dressrosa, so why did I feel such a sharp pang in my chest? Shaking it off, I waited for Thatch to lead me down to the galley, where he sat me down at a bench as he began to whip something up.

"So, (Y/N), I know we all got off on the wrong foot, but maybe you should consider this situation as a good thing." He started, quickly continuing when I took a breath to cut him off. "Now hold on a second, I get it, you're upset, and probably more than a little scared. I understand. But for the time being, why not think of this as a getaway? Time to really think about everything that's going on in your life."

I had to give myself a moment to make sure I wouldn't lose my cool, wary of the stranger wielding a butcher knife not five feet away from me.
"There's no way I can think of this as some kind of holiday. I was kidnapped, and now I'm being held against my will. How am I supposed to react, huh?"

Seeming to ignore the tone of my reply, Thatch focused on preparing the food, beginning to dice what appeared to be some kind of sea king body part.
"Yeah, yeah, no, I get where you're coming from, but think of it from Ace's point of view. He told us about the promise he made to you, and he really thought he was helping you out. If you know him at all, you're aware that he's one hell of a stubborn brat."

You've got that right...

"Isolating yourself and being aggressive isn't going to help anybody. I'm not saying you have to like us, or that you'll be stuck here against your will for the rest of your life. All I'm suggesting is to give us a chance and see how things go. Pops is a man of his word, so if he says things will work out for you, he damn well means it, Missy."

Thatch had a point. Thinking about it, Ace probably did think that I was being threatened and coerced into marrying Doflamingo, especially after how I had reacted to the man during our time together as kids. Still, he wasn't listening to what I had to say, either. He didn't seem to grasp how he had really screwed me over.

"I'm not promising anything...but as long as that forehead with legs doesn't keep pushing me, I guess I can be civil..."

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***I have about sixty chapters mapped out in drafts and each and every one of them are worded ridiculously. For example:

I finished the Doffy fight in Dressrosa. I'm sad. My man got obliterated ;-;

Next Time: Temporary Arrangement***