Chapter 13: Shipping Out Again
Koala was making arrangements with Captain Hargrave for the three of them to ship out on the return journey, and Ace was laying in the grass half on top of Deuce, playing with the long strands of his pretty blue hair. They had long finished the bottle of wine– and a second one besides. Ace had been, with difficulty, holding back more fits of crying every now and then.
It was a soaring joy mixed with a deep and strange melancholy.
“I missed this,” he murmured. “Just laying in the grass with you. Me, you, and a bottle of wine.”
Reminds me of when we were kids, too, Sabo teased internally. Minus the wine.
Minus the wine. I would have given anything to share a bottle with you like this, too, Sabo, when I thought you were dead. Now here we are sharing the same mouthfuls.
Deuce lay reclined, one arm looped around him and the other behind his head as he smiled up at the sky. “Me too, Ace. For a bit there—no, longer than a bit. Ever since Whitebeard, I thought I’d never get the chance to again.”
“I wish I could say ‘has it really been that long?’ but no– if anything, it feels longer.”
The halcyon days of the Spade pirates felt like a lifetime ago.
Ace sighed. Whitebeard… Whitebeard had derailed everything. There was no Deuce and Ace any more. There was sure as hell no more Spade Pirates. There was just ‘Pops’ and what he wanted.
Deuce tensed against him with a sharp laugh. “The days sure stretched on and on, at least where I was. Tending to the old man day in and day out. They weren’t as comfortable as this, that’s for sure.”
Ace leaned his head on Deuce’s shoulder. “For me, too. I just… I wish I knew what I should have done.”
Sabo was quiet. He didn’t have any answers, just a deep melancholy that mirrored Ace’s.
Deuce knew what he should have done. He should have smothered the old bastard when he’d had the chance. In the moments when Marco was out, in the moments of weakness Whitebeard pretended weren’t there.
But it always felt cruel, he’d always hesitated. ‘He’s doing some kind of good for people I guess, the power imbalance would be a nightmare, Ace would be furious’.
And so it kept going, and going, and going. He hissed softly through his teeth as he rested his head against the top of Ace’s—and the strangeness of his host’s fluffy blond hair. “We were caught up in a hurricane, Ace. Not much we coulda done.”
“I guess,” he murmured through Sabo’s lips. Deuce could hear all of Ace’s sadness, his frustration. “It feels like I should have been able to do something, but that’s the whole point I guess. I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything. I lost.”
Deuce huffed low under his breath. “He beat you, yeah. And then he took advantage, Ace. He used all kinds of shit against you to twist you up inside so all you’d be is an extension of him. That’s what he did to everyone.”
He’d bitten his tongue—held it in for a long time—but talking to Crocodile on that ship up here helped. A lot.
Sabo’s pretty, scarred face wrinkled with Ace’s usual expression of confusion– and a trace of anger. “No!… I mean… did he? I guess… kind of, yeah.”
“He absolutely did!” Deuce half sat up, enough that he didn’t jostle Ace too bad as he looked down at him. “All that shit about being your dad? You think that was his way of being friendly? He knew—he knew how that kind of stuff can move people and influence ’em!”
Ace flopped upward, and pushed his fingers through the locks of that blond hair.
“He had all his men call him ‘Pops’, didn’t he, Ace?” When he answered, Deuce realized that it was Sabo speaking, now. He shook his head, and met Deuce’s gaze. “Sorry, he’s… shaken.”
Deuce shifted against him; he still wasn’t exactly used to it. Who could be? Not after such a short amount of time. Two people in one body, one of them someone he’d only recently met. He prepared himself for if he tried to pull away, to let him, without hesitation.
He smiled awkwardly with a shrug. “Yeah…I figured he might be a bit shaken. And yeah…he did. He had everyone call him Pops. He acted like a domineering father, to build a kinda loyalty among everyone.”
Sabo didn’t pull away– quite the opposite, he lingered closer when Deuce shifted his body. He had a far away look in his eyes.
“Ace thinks about it, sometimes. He wonders if Whitebeard was manipulating him deliberately. And then he wraps around and thinks that he’s awful for thinking that, and that he only feels like he was manipulated because he’s ‘weak’ and ‘pathetic’.”
“Bullshit.” Deuce let his arm linger around the man, leaning his head on him again when it was clear he wasn’t going to get upset with him.
“That’s bullshit, and exactly the kind of bullshit that staying with the old bastard only made worse!” He ran his hand through his hair. “I mean…I mean—fuck. There were times when I started to second guess myself. ‘He must be a good man’, ‘maybe I really am only suited to being a second rate doctor’, ‘if Pops said it had to happen, I have to try to be okay with the loss of the crew and the ship’. But—that’s bullshit. He knew what he was doing!”
Sabo wrapped his arm around Deuce in return, and nodded. “I suspected as much. Obviously I didn’t know the man myself, but seeing Ace’s memories– I feel like I have more of a detached perspective. I think even if he wasn’t consciously manipulating Ace– and he may well have been– I think it’s just as bad if he was doing it unconsciously. He knew… he knew how to make Ace do what he wanted.”
Deuce grit his teeth. “…he did, that was one of the things I hated about him. He took my captain, my partner, and convinced him to run around in Whitebeard’s name. We’d talked about our fathers—about wanting our own legacy. Whitebeard killed all that.”
Sabo’s body seemed to shiver under him, and he rested his head on his shoulder. Ace’s tone came again from their voice. “I felt like I didn’t have any legacy at all, Deuce.”
“You left an impact on me, Ace,” Deuce sighed softly, nuzzling his cheek against the top of his head. “And on a lot of other people too—but after we burned our flag, I think we burned both our legacies with it— or at least the possibility of ’em, anyway
Ace closed his eyes, nuzzling him back. “I feel so stupid. What kind of a man does that? What kind of man just… gives up and lets himself…” He broke off with a choked noise.
“The kind of man who’s had a hard life. The kinda man whose biggest step towards making something for himself got swept out from under him and then beaten down, literally beaten down, until some holier than thou prick convinces him that the only legacy worth following is HIS and your only worth’s in spreading his legacy around like the fucking plague!”
Ace rested his head against Sabo’s neck, and took a shuddering breath. His hands snaked up, and grabbed Deuce’s coat collar as he lifted his chin to look up at him.
“You’re right. Of course you’re fucking right. But I– I don’t want it to end like that. It ended, Deuce, I’m dead, but I still want to– Do you think we can fix this? I want to fix it.” His words were broken, and rambling, but his gaze, shining through Sabo’s face, was intense.
Deuce looked deep into his eyes. If he wasn’t already convinced that Ace was there, that look would have done it. He nodded firmly.
“I mean, we’ve got a pretty good shot at it right now, don’t we? Sabo and Koala ain’t Whitebeard. You’re still here. I’m somehow still here too. If we’re both here, and we’ve got backup like that— I don’t see why we couldn’t. Just takes a bit of positivity.”
Admittedly—positivity wasn’t his own strong suit. At all.
“Oh is that all.” Ace chuckled, and finally– suddenly– pressed a kiss to his lips. Deep, and eager and hungry and desperate.
Deuce was taken by surprise, but the taste of wine on Ace’s tongue and the desperate longing for those lost moments between them eased it quickly enough. He wrapped his arms around him, drawing him close as he met his hunger with a hunger of his own.
The kiss was at once unfamiliar, and terribly familiar. There was no denying it was a different face, different lips, different tongue. But the passion all belonged to Ace– passion Deuce had thought had been fully given up long ago.
It was a passion he’d let wither in himself. Who needed it when you were bound to the operating table? But it came rushing back with the familiarity of Ace’s kiss.
He clung to him like a lifeline. If his passion could come back even from death, maybe they really did still have a chance.
When Ace finally let him breathe, panting himself, and flushed in his brother’s face– that was when they noticed that Koala had come back.
Deuce was flushed under his mask, and only flushed deeper when he noticed Koala standing there with her arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face.
“You boys busy? Or can I step in?”
Ace coughed and rubbed his neck, grinning embarrassedly. “Got a bit carried away, but please!”
She leaned in with a grin. “Don’t let me stop you. You’ve earned it. I just got back from finalizing a few plans with our ride.”
Deuce ducked his head. “Well…I suppose we’ve bummed around on this island long enough huh?”
Ace, who still hadn’t broken physical contact with him nodded. “I gotta say, I’m not keen to hang around my own grave. And besides– it’s a boring island.”
It was. Boring, or idyllic, depending on how you felt about it. Whitebeard’s charming little farm paradise.
Deuce looked out at the windmills and the grassy hills.
“Yeah. Even before you guys showed up I was thinking it was a pretty dull place to die.”
Koala puffed out her cheeks, giving him a look with her hands on her hips.
“No more talking about death! Geeze, honestly!” She shrugged her shoulders “I can promise you both—depending on what we decide to do once we shove off, we could be headed to MUCH more interesting locales.”
With his free hand, Ace reached out and grabbed Koala, pulling her onto the pile with them. Koala squeaked, but she tumbled into the pile of them, immediately curling up as comfortable as can be against him, Ace and Sabo.
“Where are we going, anyway?” As if interrupting himself, his voice changed. Sabo, now. “Guess we have to figure that out.”
“Well…I suppose we do, huh?” She leaned her head back against their shoulders. “Given that two of you are pirates, and two of us are revolutionary agents…”
Deuce chuckled under his breath. “Well…a crew of technically two bodies ain’t a lot for a pirate ship.”
“We started from two last time,” Ace murmured. “But…”
“But we kind of had a special ship, didn’t we? …a small ship that ran on a devil fruit you don’t got anymore.”
Koala tilted her head “…oooh?”
Ace felt the loss of his devil fruit keenly, as keenly as every other part of his body, and maybe more so than some. Sabo could feel it in waves coming from him. With the crossover of their minds, sometimes he felt it too– that instinctive reaching for something that wasn’t there.
They hung their head.
“It’s true, we don’t.” He gave Koala a little smile. “It was a little ship that ran on my devil fruit’s fire. We sailed it until we had enough men to crew a real boat.”
“I helped make it, Ace wouldn’t have gotten very far without me.” Deuce winked teasingly. “…it was a real masterclass of engineering though.”
Koala put her finger to her cheek. “Now that does sound interesting, but sadly not feasible with the way things currently are. But there are more traditional methods of sailing if you really want to commit to that.”
“Sure, we could steal Hargrove’s ship. If we’re going to go pirate, shouldn’t we steal one?” Sabo was joking of course, but Ace still rushed to clarify, shoving him mentally. “No, that would be a rotten thing to do to someone who helped us, Sabo. He’s joking.”
Ace knew why Sabo was joking, too. It was a surprise to hear Koala talking, almost seriously, it sounded, of them running off into piracy.
Sabo had already promised her he wouldn’t.
Deuce raised his eyebrow “Hargrave’s not a bad guy. I’d feel like a dick, but—I mean. I guess I could go poking around—”
Even with Koala’s earnest talk about possibly running off to become a pirate—they could see the way her brow subtly knit and her eyes didn’t quite look up. She was probably feeling guilty—and maybe a bit like a people pleaser.
“Of course, the Revolutionary Army’s got plenty of ships…and it’s suited Sabo and I for a while, but I know you two are pirates. Like—real pirates. I wouldn’t blame you for finding it stifling.”
She’s trying to make herself okay with it, but she’s not, Sabo murmured silently.
I know. I don’t even know if I’m okay with it, honestly. I said I wanted to start again, and I do, but–
But being impulsive is what ran you into Whitebeard?
Yeah.
“It doesn’t seem all that stifling from what Sabo’s been telling me. Seems pretty interesting, honestly. And besides…” He glanced over at Deuce, “We might want to take our time putting the whole ‘pirates’ thing back together. Last time was a bit of a rush job.”
Koala wished she didn’t feel so relieved when Ace said the Revolutionary Army wasn’t so bad. She wished she didn’t feel a little lighter when he seemed to suggest maybe holding off on the whole pirate thing.
It wasn’t as if she disliked them that much. Sure, a lot of pirates could be monstrous, but a lot of them were as kind as anyone else. If not kinder. Pirates took her back to Fisher Tiger and his crew; to some of the few happy memories in her childhood.
But every time she thought of abandoning the cause her heart twisted up in knots. It was almost as bad as the near-painful urge to make sure the others were happy, even if it meant turning her back on the organization that gave her a purpose.
“A rush— hey, don’t be so down on yourself!”
Deuce winced, though, glancing off to the side. “We did kinda charge headlong into it, didn’t we? Even our charming marine rival chewed us out over it a few times.”
Ace held up his hands defensively. “No, I swear, Ko, this isn’t me being down, this is me trying to, you know, actually think for once instead of just rushing into something.”
Koala peered at him suspiciously for a long moment; she was still pretty sure he was trying to appease her. He’d probably noticed her hesitation, right? But, at the same time, things would probably go better if they didn’t rush into it.
It wouldn’t end the same as it had before.
“…are you sure?”
Before Ace could answer, Deuce spoke, leaning back into the grass. “A revolutionary agent though, huh? Think I’ve got it in me, Ace?”
“Well, you’re suspicious by nature, and you love to write things down, so you already sound like a secret agent to me,” Ace teased him. He had one arm around Deuce and one arm around Koala now. “We could give it a try for a while, while we let our pirate plan cook.”
“Ha ha ha,” Deuce snorted as he dropped against his side. “I suppose it could be interesting, and—if nothing else, it’ll inspire my novel writing a bit more, won’t it?”
Koala bit her lip, curling against Ace’s side. “There’s kind of no end to the excitement in the RA, Deuce! We get right into the thick of anything we stick our nose into! And, if you guys ever decide the pirate plan’s ready to take off the burner, just tell me okay?”
“Of course, Ko,” Ace nodded, and smiled at her. Then Sabo’s voice picked up, his face rearranging to a curious look. “Would you ever consider turning pirate, dear?”
Koala’s eyes widened. Admittedly, she had considered it a few times. She’d been saved by pirates. A traumatized slave taken in by the Sun Pirates and taught to cry, to genuinely smile, in the short time she was a part of them.
Their tattoo still marked her back, covering the scars the Celestial Dragons had left on her skin.
So of course she sometimes daydreamed about taking to the sea just like the Sun Pirates.
She flushed deeply, rubbing her neck as she shifted against him. “Well…I mean. The Revolutionary Army’s kind of been most of my life… but… before that I kind of was a pirate. For a little bit at least.”
“Ace keeps forgetting that,” Sabo chuckled lightly. “Admittedly, sometimes it slips my mind, too. You don’t talk about it all that often, well, it’s understandable.”
Koala waved her hand. “It’s because it’s complicated—y’know?”
However, Deuce seemed to lean up from Ace and Sabo’s side with a raise of his eyebrow. “You were a pirate? Color me curious, I wouldn’t have guessed.”
Sabo let him up a little bit, but they made certain they didn’t break contact, slipping their arm around his shoulders. “It’s a bit of an unfortunate situation. I can tell you about it later if Koala doesn’t want to discuss it…”
Koala chewed her lip for a moment, thinking it over. It was an unfortunate situation, full of difficult memories, but…well. It was important to get things off your chest, right? And your own story is always best from yourself.
“I was a slave in Mary Geoise for a while, captured, well, sold by my parents, when I was a kid and serving under a Celestial Dragon.”
She heard Deuce suck in a sharp breath through his teeth.
“…I see whatcha mean about an unfortunate situation,” he murmured as he leaned into Ace and Sabo’s arm.
Sabo and Ace nuzzled between the both of them as they sat in their little pile. Four people in one three person flop. Koala noticed it was Ace who spoke next.
“I haven’t really heard the whole story either,” he admitted. “But I’m pretty sure she ended up rescued by the Sun Pirates?”
Koala nodded as she rested her head against Ace for a moment before she leaned forward and unbuttoned her shirt enough to slide it down her shoulders just a bit—enough that the edge of the sun tattoo was visible.
“FIsher Tiger saved me; helped me and the rest escape while he was freeing himself and his fellow fishmen. Back then, I ah… I’d somehow wound up on their ship after the escape.” She shook her head. “A human girl who only ever smiled on a ship of fishmen revolutionary pirates. Most of them took a liking to me, and Fisher Tiger promised to help me get home. I was an honorary member of their crew, even getting this tattoo to prove it and cover up my brand.”
Deuce whistled softly. “…the Sun Pirates—yeah, they’re no joke. A tough bunch if I ever heard of ’em. We ran into one of ’em before, didn’t we Ace? Jinbei.”
“Oh we sure did.” Ace grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nice guy, under all that. Haha…”
It was clear Ace had complicated feelings about Jinbei, but Koala—Koala sat up with wide eyes.
“You met Jinbei???” She bit her lip. “He was one of the nicest on the crew to me. Even when Arlong objected—he always took the time to try and help me break outta the shell I was put into.”
Koala had known eventually he’d become a Warlord of the Sea, and a bunch of other stuff had happened, including him showing up during the horror at Marineford. But all she really knew anymore was the stuff in the papers and the relevant material that filtered through the RA’s intelligence lines.
Deuce grimaced a bit as well. “Well uh, meet is kinda a strong word.”
“We fought.” Ace explained quietly, leaning into Deuce a little more. He pushed Sabo’s blond hair out of his face. “Stupidest fight I ever got into. Didn’t exactly lose. Sure didn’t fucking win.”
He was quiet for a moment, but before Koala could react, he shook his head. “Well, I’m just brooding about the fight because of the way things turned out. We became good friends. He was there, in Impel Down with me, and at Marineford. He was with me when I… when…”
Ace’s voice dropped to a rough whisper. “He would have given his life for me, if he could have.”
“Ah…” Koala’s fingers clenched against her knees. “I’m sure…sure he would have. I’m sorry, Ace. I…well…”
Jinbei and Ace had fought—she had to wonder why, over what purpose?
She remembered Jinbei, tall, broad, with a smile wide and kind, picking her up when she was pushed over, and helping her pull away from chores she didn’t have to do.
He’d taught her how to fish, and about the finer details of sailing, and even helped her when she learned how to cry. He, as well as FIsher Tiger and Hatchin, were among the fondest memories she had of her time as a Sun Pirate before—
Before taking her home damned them.
Deuce pressed his hand to his face for a moment, his shoulders lightly shaking as he took a few breaths.
“Hey, the past is the past, right?” He turned towards them and flashed a smile. “No sense thinkin’ about what ifs!”
Ace smiled his shaky smile and shook his head. “Yeah, exactly. Besides, I didn’t mean to roll right over Koala’s story, anyway. So, you sailed with Jinbei.”
Koala twitched, and she looked up with wide and staring eyes before she nodded.
“Yeah, I did—and Hatchin, and Fisher Tiger, and Arlong and everyone else. Arlong didn’t like me much, c-cause of the way humans treated them, but I was still treated like a part of the crew anyway. They were gonna take me home, but, it was a long voyage and we weren’t exactly in a rush. They taught me about being a pirate—about fishing—fishman karate, and even little things, like that I don’t have to serve or pretend to be happy..”
Ace– or maybe it was Sabo– grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. “It must have been a hell of a voyage, huh?”
She squeezed his hand back with a smile.
“It was. Honestly, some of the most fun I’d ever had in my life. Even if things were a little hard, even if not everyone accepted me, I was part of the sun pirates—and I’m very, very proud of that fact!”
Her smile faltered. “Even if it’s partially my fault we lost Fisher TIger. Or…rather…my parents’ fault.”
Sabo– it was definitely Sabo– squeezed her hand again. “It was not your fault. No matter what anyone said, dear. And I think that’s probably all the story we need to go into for now, yes? The point is you’re just as much of a pirate as Deuce and Ace here.”
Deuce nodded his head, leaning around him with shaky grin.
“Yeah, no need to get into it. I believe you. You’re a hell of a pirate, which means when the time comes, I’ll try to tempt you guys back into the pirate life for sure!”
Koala squeezed Sabo’s hand back, and she pushed the well of feelings back down with a bright smile. “You’re damn right I am! But…Deuce, that’ll be only after we’ve tempted you into the life of the Revolutionary Army!”
“Exactly.” Sabo’s smile came back again. “We’ll show Deuce a taste of what it’s like to run with our crowd, eh, dear? And anything else is further off on the horizon.”
Deuce looped his arm around them with a shake of his head. “Never saw myself as a revolutionary—wonder if this means I’ll someday have to go against my hometown.”
Koala waved her hand with a smile. “Oh don’t worry, as long as it’s not a fascist regime or some kinda oppressive kingship, you’re fine!”
She leaned on Sabo’s shoulder with her chin, smiling from ear to ear “I think you’re gonna have fun~.” she reached over to poke Deuce just under his mask. “we’ll see if the big bad pirate can keep up with the banner of freedom!”
On the return voyage, Ace and Sabo, and Koala kept Deuce close. There wasn’t very far for him to go of course, but he found himself rarely out of arms’ reach of one or the other of them. Usually both of them were right on top of him.
He got the feeling that Ace worried that he’d disappear if he let him out of sight. It wasn’t as if he was a solitary man (at least when he was in a good mood) so it wasn’t unpleasant. When he’d been parted from Ace, he let himself get prickly and distant, but he didn’t have to do that anymore, did he?
So sure, he let himself get clingy right back, usually leaning on Ace and Sabo’s shoulder, or holding hands—even Koala, who he’d only just met before the voyage, seemed keen on suction cupping to his side. In a good way, it reminded him of some of the better times amongst the crew, and the honorary crew. Before things went so bad.
They’d told more stories on the trip, giving plenty of time for Deuce to hear countless tales about the Revolutionary Army from both Sabo and Koala. In a way, it got him a little excited.
He’d always assumed they were kind of a stuffy group—lofty but ultimately ineffective. The way Koala told it, he had to imagine he’d been wrong all this time.
He would miss piracy of course, but maybe this would be something interesting to fill the void. Like being an adventurer fighting for justice. That was what he’d set out to do in the first palace, wasn’t it?
“I’m going to keep it a secret for a while,” Ace said, the last night before they arrived on Dressrosa, where they’d meet up with Revolutionary Army contacts. “Me being here, I mean.”
They were all laying together in the bunk, a comforting tangle of limbs and blankets. Him, Ace and Sabo, and Koala.
Koala nodded, her head against Deuce’s chest as she spread herself out under the blankets with a little ‘mmmh’ “I was thinking you might—we’d talked about it a while back.”
“Keepin’ it a secret huh? Then I’ll make sure my lips are sealed. Won’t even write about it in our memoirs until you give me the go ahead, Ace.”
Ace chuckled and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Thanks, Deu. I just… I don’t know. I’ll figure out a good time to reveal myself. But until then, just pretend we’re just Sabo when we’re around other people.”
Deuce nodded, rubbing the back of his neck with a flush before he turned to catch his lips “Hey, don’t worry. You know how I am about secrets.”
He tapped the mask on his face with a wink. Honestly, it all took a lot of getting used to anyway. Ace and Sabo—he could often tell when Ace was the one speaking, but sometimes he’d be thrown for a loop. Two men in one body. It made for a unique kind of conversation, and it made for its own unique difficulties.
Like hearing Ace’s voice, his words and inflection, coming out of another person’s mouth. At least it was a handsome mouth—Sabo was a handsome man, charming too. Real charming. But it didn’t make it any less weird.
At the very least he was trying to get used to it.
“It must be true, ” Koala mused.”For one secret, you haven’t taken that thing off once in the last week or so.”
“He almost never takes it off.” Ace reached over to touch Deuce’s cheek just under the rim of the mask. “Mostly only when he’s washing.”
Deuce felt his face flushing deeper, and he let his hand rest atop Koala’s head as well as she squirmed to look up at him.
“It’s part of my mystique. My secret identity. If I took the mask off you’d all guess who I used to be.”
Koala made a little. ‘hmmm’ sound, touching her fingers to her lips. “Well…I mean…I can take some guesses but they’re probably way off.”
Ace idly stroked his cheek. “It never made a difference to me when I found out. I don’t think Koala would care, really. She sure wouldn’t tell anybody. She’s just as good with a secret as you are.”
“Maybe even better! I’m pretty well known for being one of the best intelligence agents in the biz!”
Deuce leaned his cheek against Ace’s hand with an amused smirk. “Is that so. Heh. You trust her that much, huh Ace? I think my secret’s pretty big—even the Revolutionary Army might get in a tizzy about it.”
“I do trust her,” Ace nodded. “But don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing you to tell her. I love a man of mystery, you know? Just, if it would make you more comfortable, I know she’d be okay with keeping your secret.”
Koala nodded, a small smile on her face. “I’d be happy to keep it. And I’d keep it as secret as can be. But don’t feel pressured if you don’t want to say…”
Deuce sighed dramatically, and placed a hand on Ace’s head. “I’m trying to hype up the mystery here, Ace. If I’m gonna tell her—I’m damn well gonna make sure it’s dramatic enough to make good literature.”
Ace chuckled and nuzzled his head against Deuce’s fingers, the soft blond curls moving against them.
“Well, if that’s the case maybe we should wait until you can stand on the peak of a church under the full moon or something.”
Deuce waved his hand.
“No, no, no. You can’t just go ruining my setups like that. Now I can’t do that one! I might as well just…”
He hooked his fingers under his mask, and pulled it away. HIs pale blue and wavy hair framed his sharp and expressive eyes as he took a deep breath.
Koala was staring at him, taking in every detail he was sure—especially the distinguishing feature he wore the mask to hide.
A large, pale birthmark that stretched under one eye in a curling shape through the deep olive color of his skin. A birthmark perfectly covered by the delicate curlique accent of his mask when he wore it.
Koala’s brow knit for a moment. “Birthmark…that hair…” she squinted a little more “you’re Alabastan, right? You’ve got Alabastan features when I look at you without the mask.”
Deuce smirked, running his hand through his hair with a shrug of his shoulders.”Got that in one, yeah…I’m from Alabasta—though I didn’t live in Alubarna.”
Do you think she’s going to flip when she finds out?
Sabo was so distracted by the rare look at Deuce’s handsome face– sharper and more present here in the now– than in Ace’s shared memories that he stumbled to even respond to the thought from him.
Huh? Oh, because he’s– well, maybe she’ll be shocked, but I don’t think it’ll be that much. Koala’s known a lot of strange people.
He could feel the grin on their shared face as they watched the interplay between the two unfold.
“That hair, too. I’d noticed it’s a rare shade,” Koala was musing as she reached out to tug a lock of it between her fingers. “That shade of blue cropped up recently among the royal family of Alabasta—namely , in the children of King Cobra. ”
“It’s a pretty rare shade. Most people in Alabasta have darker hair, black, blue-black, the like…” Deuce was saying with an ear to ear grin. He was clearly having fun playing ‘guesswork’.
“Which means…” Koala leaned in to squint at the birthmark again, nearly nose to nose with him. “Are you the lost prince of Alabasta?? The azure haired son with the birthmark on his face who vanished from the palace without a trace??”
Ace couldn’t help but let a giggle escape from their mouth. The guess was close, very close. But…
It’s what Deuce is always worried people are going to think. Even though he’s not quite old enough for it.
The lost prince of Alabasta, with blue hair and a birthmark on his face, who had vanished from the palace decades ago. People didn’t speak of him much, but there were whispers that he hadn’t died, but lived somewhere in secret. Even rumors that he’d turned pirate.
Deuce held his hands up.
“That’d make for a wonderful story, wouldn’t it?” he said with a lopsided grin. “but not quite—I’m a little young for that, Miss Koala.”
“True, though you could have looked young for your age,” Koala flushed a deep pink, pressing herself against the both of them with a pout. “But I can’t be wrong, you’re connected to them somehow. I mean—”
“We all got the hair from my side of the family,” Deuce laughed out loud. “both my cousins look more like my aunt than their old man.”
He’s from a branch family, right?
Exactly. I’m pretty sure they’ve been marrying back and forth every couple of generations. He’s the son of the second most royal family in Alabasta.
“So…the branch family?” Koala echoed with eyebrows raising. She didn’t look exactly surprised, but she certainly looked interested as she traced the birthmark on Deuce’s face. “The second most powerful royal family in Alabasta—originally an offshoot of the king’s family, and renowned as great healers in both the mystical and medical fields…”
“Yeah, the Hekau family—offshoot of the Nefertari’s.” Deuce flushed under the trailing of her finger, his showman’s smile twitching shyly. “My old man wanted me to be a doctor—but my older brother was always better than me. I ran away instead of playing second fiddle to people who didn’t respect me.”
Ace felt a sting of guilt at the reminder that after all that, Ace himself had accidentally forced Deuce into the very position that he’d tried to escape. Playing second fiddle healer to Whitebeard.
He squeezed Deuce’s hand, and hoped he didn’t blame him too much for it.
You know he doesn’t. And if he was hurting, so were you.
Deuce squeezed his hand back, and the look in his eyes, unblocked by the mask, held absolutely no blame in it. He smiled at him with a wink “hey, partner—I think I impressed your brother’s girlfriend.”
Koala puffed out her cheeks, and pinched his, just under his birthmark.
“Hmph! Maybe a bit—I mean, I’m gonna admit, it threw me for a loop! I was expecting something crazy—like, I dunno, that you’re Buggy the Clown’s half brother or something—but I didn’t expect the Hekau Family’s escaped son crazy!”
“Buggy’s half brother!” Ace laughed. “Now that would be crazy!”
Deuce’s eyes widened for a moment as he started to sputter. His hands waved in the air as he spat out. “Absolutely fucking not!!!”
Buggy the Clown’s half brother. The very idea was laughable to Deuce. Even if the obnoxious clown grin on the wanted posters was—well…
There was something about that fucking clown that always made Deuce have to look twice.
“Way too fucking crazy. He’s just a clown, dumbass.”
“Hey, for all I know you could be half clown!” Ace teased, elbowing him. “Wait, sorry, Sabo says he thinks it’s me who’s half clown.”
Out on wild stretches of the Grand Line—staring out at the grand ocean ahead of them—Buggy the Clown suddenly sneezed and nearly tipped into the ocean.
“The fuckin’ hell?” he barked, pulling away his clown nose long enough to rub beneath it with a furrow of his brow. “…must be the salty air.”