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You and Ace are very different.
You are a young man with a cold temper. You are calm and silent, and you tend to watch and listen rather than acting like a fool without a plan. You know how to keep a secret and despite your ‘cold’ personality, people trust and like you. You’re a good fighter, but you hate when a fight surprises you and forces you to fight when you don’t want to. In other words, you enjoy your privacy and don’t act friendly with those who disturb it.
Like Ace.
You don’t know if it’s because of the total opposite natures of your devil fruits, but you know that you have never met someone in your life that annoys you more than Ace.
Ace is just like his element: unpredictable and potentially dangerous when out of control. You believe that you two are nothing alike.
And you don’t know why, but he is almost obsessed by you!
The first time you met him, it was a little after he joined the Whitebeard pirates. Or, should you say, that the captain kidnapped him. Thatch was the one who introduced him to you.
Just as usual, you were reading a book somewhere on the ship.
“(F/N)!!!”
You recognized Thatch’s voice and looked up from your book. He was walking right at you and you recognised the new one next to him. You silently sighed. Somehow, you knew that something was going to be bothering you.
“You already know Ace I guess.” Thatch as he pointed at the young boy.
You stared at him. Raven hair, chocolate eyes, freckles… you knew who he was even before this fool tried to kill Whitebeard.
“No,” you said bluntly “never heard of him.”
Then you ignored them and looked back at your book. Suddenly, your precious book disappeared from your hand. You glared at Ace that was looking at you with a playful expression.
“No one ever taught you how to be polite?” He asked with a smile.
It wasn’t a threat, or a scold, it was a real question. You stood up and faced him. You two almost have the same age and he was barely taller than you, only a few centimetres. Thatch didn’t interfere: he knew this look in your eyes too well. You were pissed off and the tension between you two surprised him. You never acted like this before…
“What about you?” You snapped back “no hello and you steal my book? This isn’t a proper introduction.”
“You’re right,” he said with a chuckle “where are my manners? My name is Portgas D. Ace, nice to meet you. And sorry for the book.”
He gave your book back.
“I’m (F/N),” you muttered “and don’t ever touch one of my books.”
With a murderous glare, you quickly disappeared to read somewhere else.
After that, Ace started to follow you during his free time. At first, you choose to ignore him. When he will realize that you’re not interest by him, he would leave. But he never stopped following you. After that, you chose to hide. You avoided him all day long and used your imagination to find new hideout. But somehow, he always found you.
With time, you got too tired of this little game. One day, you decided to make this new situation maybe a little more enjoyable or at least comfortable for the both of you.
This is how you started to talk to Ace. At first, you two didn’t say much. You simply stopped walking and turned to him to ask him things like “do you know where Marco is?” or at breakfast “could you give the water please?”
First, he is confused that you finally talk to him, and then he happily answers to all of your questions when he can.
Woow, you think, he really wants to get close to me.
Thatch and Marco seem relieved that you two aren’t fighting each other. Marco even congratulated you for your patience with the new one. When he said that, you simply nodded with a small smile and walked away. You realize that his presence isn’t annoying anymore, it is even comforting. Sometimes, he is reading over your shoulder. Usually, you hate when people do that but with him you don’t mind.
Once, he was reading over your shoulder again. You send a quick look in his direction and sighed. You moved the book so he could read easily. He gave you a surprise look, and you simply smiled.
“This will be better for your neck,” you said.
“Thank you…”
“You know, I should give you some of my books. It must be annoying to read over my shoulder all the time.”
“I thought that I wasn’t supposed to touch at your books?”
“Mmmhh,” you answered absently.
That was the end of the conversation.
This night is a beautiful night. The moon shines bright and high in the sky and the stars are simply beautiful. There is a huge party and all the Whitebeard pirates are enjoying themselves. You, who are the loner kind of guy, have chosen to spend your night at staring at the sky.
“I’m surprised you don’t have a book with you.”
You turn and a small smile appears on your face when you see that it’s Ace. He has finally accepted Whitebeard’s mark.
“I know how to enjoy other things,” you answer “how are you? Does your tattoo hurt?”
“No thank you,” he answers politely “look what I have brought for tonight!~”
He puts a bottle of sake right in front of your eyes.
“The others didn’t tell you that I drink only water?” You ask with an annoyed expression.
“Well, this will change from now on!”
He gives a small cup of sake.
“I hate that about you.” You say.
“Oh come on, don’t be such a party popper!”
“Alright, only one then. Welcome among us Ace.”
Two hours and two entire bottles of sake later.
“Ace,” you say “I thing you drank too much.”
The other young man is lying on your lap and mumbling non sense. You try to take his bottle off his hand but you fail.
“Aaaahhh…” he says with a drunken voice and a stupid chuckle “you’re so nice (F/N)! ~ You know, I truly thought that you were an asshole at first! Hehehee…”
“Good for you,” you sigh.
I almost regret to be sober…
Much to your surprise, he pinches your cheek.
“Ace stop! It fucking hurt, you brute!”
“But you have such a cute face!” He says.
You blush. What?!
“Awww, isn’t it cute? This is the first time I see you having another facial expression!”
“Ace, stop it…”
“But whhhyyyyy??? It’s so funny!”
“No it’s not, let me go!”
You gently pull his hand out of your face. He grabs your hand and squeezes it tightly.
“A-Ace? What are you doing?”
“Just stay… don’t go… please.”
“Ace, this isn’t funny. Sto…”
“The first time I saw you, I knew there was something special about you. This is why I followed you, to understand what was so special about you. Then I found out… I found out what I already knew since this time when I stole your book: you are not like me. You’re the water and I’m the fire. We are too complete opposite elements and it’s so… peaceful…”
“What is peaceful?” You ask.
Now you are curious. You want to hear what he has to say.
“You are. Because you’re not like me… and it helps me to forget what I am… and it’s great… really great…”
He seemed almost… sad.
“But,” he says while drinking another sake cup “I feel kinda sad. We are so different… so different that you will never love me the way I love you.”
Your heart stopped beating.
What????!!!! You thought for the second time that night, Is that a CONFESSION ????!!!!!
You freeze and dark red creeps on your cheeks. You open your mouth in confusion but no words come out from it. Ace doesn’t seem to notice your reaction though as he continue to speak.
“You know I actually never fell for a boy before… I hope you won’t hate me for that, but (F/N) my feelings for you are…”
Oh boy.
“Okay that’s enough,” you awkwardly answer with a high pitch voice “I think you have drink too much for your own good Ace, I’ll bring you back to your room.”
“(F/N) wait please…”
“Come on, you drunk ass!” You nervously laugh; “let’s go to bed… to SLEEP! Yes to SLEEP, not something else!”
You grab his arm and try to pull him up but to no avail. He grabs your arm as well and tries to pull you down.
“(F/N)!” He exclaims “listen to me!”
You are internally screaming. Damn it, he was mumbling over his sake cup five minutes earlier and now he was looking at you with those serious dark eyes! Those beautiful eyes…
argh NO, stop thinking that! You shake your head and try to pull him up once again. This time, you pull too hard and fall backward.
Your eyes shut in anticipation and your body tense. You are about to use your logia powers when hands catch you before your head hit the ground. You slowly open your eyes.
You blush when you see Ace’s dark eyes staring right into yours, his face only a few centimetres from yours. You both stare at each other for what seems to be ages. Then, he closes the distance between the two of you and kisses you gently. At first, you are too shocked to react. Then, your hands find their way to his neck and scalp and you deepen the kiss with passion. The kiss seems to last forever and you can’t complain about that. Ace’s tongue is doing wonders and the heat that comes out from him is overwhelming.
The two of you part away only when the lack of air becomes unbearable. Ace is watching you with half closed eyes and something is… off.
“Ace?” You carefully say.
Suddenly, his eyes close and he falls with all his weight on you. You sigh. Damn narcoleptic.
You manage to push him off you and you drag him to his room. Almost everyone on the ship is already asleep or unconscious so no one would pay attention if they see you struggling with Ace’s heavy body. After difficult efforts that even required your logia abilities, you manage to get Ace in his bed. You sit on the edge of it for a while, listening to Ace’s snore and recalling all the events of tonight.
Holy mother of god, you think.
A bit clumsily because you are quite under the shock, you walk back to your room and fall asleep quickly.
The next morning
Ace wakes up around noon. He has the feeling that a hammer is crushing his skull. Groggily, he sits on the edge of his bed. How did he end up here? The last thing he remembers is he and (F/N) sharing sake cups together and… Slowly, all the events of the previous night come back to his mind and his eyes widen.
“Oh shit…” he whispers.
Ace runs for hours, looking for you. Many give him a curious look and when he asks Thatch, Marco and Izo where (F/N) is, they simply smirk and they seem quite amused. Finally, Ace finds him. He is reading as usual.
Ace stops next to him, panting. The young man doesn’t react to his presence. Is he mad at him? He has all the reasons to be…
“(F/N)!” Ace says “I am so sorry for last night! I was drunk and what I said… Well, it’s the truth but it wasn’t appropriate! Please forgive me!”
The freckled man bows.
Please forgive me, he internally prays, please forgive me!
The (H/C) male slowly marks his page, closes his book and gets off his seat. Then, he grabs the brunette face and kisses him fiercely. Ace’s eyes widen. (F/N) pulls him away gently after a few minutes and smirks at him.
“There is nothing to be sorry for,” he says before walking away as if it is the most normal thing in the world.
Ace needs a few minutes before he actually reacts and follows the young man happily.