A/N: First chapter in my To Look At the Sea Without Wishing side fic! I know a lot of people were wanting a look in at what Ace was up to, so he's up first! Takes place sometime during chapter 22, after the bounty posters have come out.

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Ace knows that they don't understand it.

Well, okay, maybe 'understand' is the wrong word. Because if there's one thing his nakama understand, it's the glowing pride you feel when your siblings succeed at something. There's a reason they throw a party every time one of their siblings gets a bounty increase, after all.

And this is his little siblings first bounties! Of course he's proud!

But they're not members of the Whitebeards. They're Ace's siblings, but they're only theirs by extension. The most they know of them is what Ace has told them which, admittedly, hasn't been much up to this point.

But, he'd been a bit distracted, okay? What with the fight with Jinbe and then being captured and trying to kill the Old Man over and over again. And then he'd decided to take on Oyaji's mark, to become his son, to have a father, and it's all just been happening really quickly, okay?

Then again, how long has he been using that excuse? After all, that's what he'd kept telling himself when he continued to forget to send Lu and Ana a letter, letting them know how he was doing and the adventures he'd been on. He knew that Luffy probably didn't care too much - sure, he would've liked to hear what Ace had been up to, but he wasn't going to get mad about it. The fact that Ace had been too busy to send a letter simply meant that he'd been having a lot of fun - but Ana was guaranteed to be pissed.

Honestly, Ace was kind of dreading the next time he saw them, just a little. His devil fruit wasn't going to be of any help, either, if they'd learned enough haki before they'd set sail, something he had no doubt of.

His shins were going to be bruised for weeks.

The point was, though, that his crewmates didn't really... get his excitement. They were excited for him, of course, had even offered to throw a party - they might not be the Red Haired Pirates, but it wasn't like any of them ever said no to an excuse to party - but it was kind of a distant thing. They were excited on his behalf, because he was their brother, rather than excited for Luffy and Ana.

Which was okay, and something he appreciated all the same. After all, besides Sabo, Luffy and Ana, he'd never expected to have people who were genuinely happy for him, even for something like this. It made warmth flood his chest, almost like the Mera Mera no Mi but better. Like receiving hugs from Ana or grins from Luffy or fighting with Sabo by his side.

Still, though, his newfound siblings continued to let him go on and on about it, even after days had passed. They bore his bragging with exasperated fondness, most of them amused to see this newly revealed part of him, only jokingly accusing him of having an overbearing brother complex a few times.

They never told him to stop, never grew bored or irritated with his stories. In fact, Thatch even instigated a few, searching him out and asking questions and looking downright gleeful at the way Ace's face inevitably lit up.

And, okay, maybe Ana had had a point when she'd first accused him of the big brother complex all those years ago. But it wasn't that bad, surely? He was just really proud of them! And he missed them a lot, so of course he enjoyed being able to talk about them to anyone who would listen.

As he talked about them, he remembered the strange warning Ana had given him the night before he'd set sail. It wasn't that he'd ever forgotten it - it was ominous enough to raise the hairs on his arm when she'd said it, after all, and it had clearly been important to her - because he'd promised that he wouldn't, and a promise was something he never wanted to break if he could help it. It had made gathering a crew a bit trickier than it might have otherwise been, had him second guessing his choices more often, though maybe that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, he knew without a doubt that the ones he'd picked for the Spade Pirates were all good people, beyond a doubt, because of it.

He hadn't handpicked the members of the Whitebeard Pirates, though. He didn't want to doubt any of them, these people that had taken him in, had given him a home and a father, but he'd made a promise to one of the first family he'd ever had, and he wasn't going to break it.

Still, gazing out over the packed galley while all of his nakama ate lunch peacefully, joking around and bursting into random fits of song, he couldn't help but desperately hope that these halcyon days never ended.

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A/N: I've been debating on making this side fic for awhile now, just as a place to put any extra bits that won't be going into the main story, like deleted scenes or alternate POV's. Anything, really. So, if you've got any requests, let me know. Not promising that I'll write them all, but I'll definitely give it thought and, if the inspiration is there, I'll write it down.

As always, thanks for reading!