Disclaimer: As always, I can't claim credit for the wonderful world of One Piece because all characters, places and references are the copyright of the genius Eichiiro Oda, and everything else is simply a figment and work of my imagination.
A/N: Written because these two don't get enough love. Takes place about roughly 2 years before the start of Romance Dawn Chapter 1.
30 Million Beli
"Did you find anything interesting on that old geezer's ship?"
"Ne, unless you count his collection of watermelons - he had 50 of them all lined up from red to yellow!"
A hearty round of laughter broke out among the assembled men, the sounds of their merriment nearly drowned out by the roaring of the frothy sea. Overhead, their Jolly Roger fluttered buoyantly in the breeze; the crimson red spade stark against the black and white crossed bone and skull motif that accompanied all lawbreakers of the sea.
The black-haired pirate at the head of the table snorted. "While you fellas were busy counting watermelons, I managed to raid his safe." Twirling the brim of his orange cowboy hat as the plastic blue smileys clinked gently at his movements; he tossed his crewmates a cocky grin. "Turns out he wasn't that useless after all."
The men's eyes widened at their youthful captain's words. "Senchou, you can't mean…"
Ace grinned fondly at his men, before raising his tankard triumphantly. "To days of adventure on the Grand Line and nights filled with meat and wine. Kanpai!" Another round of cheers sounded, as the men crashed their tankards enthusiastically before gulping deeply. "Now, where's the food?"
Hidden safely behind the galley door, a pair of eyes watched the celebrations silently from within the shadows.
It hadn't taken long for the pirates to fall asleep. In fact, their idiot captain's head had hit the floor before he had taken more than a sip of wine, the bubble sticking out from his nostril trembling gently in time to his snores. Silently, she stole across the deck and into the main interior of the ship; taking care not to tread on a stray toe or finger.
No matter how poor or basic the ship, every pirate crew had a place where they stored their loot and spoils from plunder. Be it a safe, a cubbyhole, or even once as she had discovered – beneath a crate of rotting fish, no hiding place had ever escaped Nami.
"Where could it be?" she hissed, her eyes darting around the room as she surveyed the sparse, makeshift dormitory that must make up the crew's beds. Dirty clothes littered the wooden floor and the pungent smell of seawater permeated her nostrils, intertwined with the stench of stale sweat. "They couldn't have had much time to hide it."
"Maybe you could try looking in the captain's quarters?"
As a dark figure stepped into the faint moonlight reflected on the floorboards, Nami nearly fell over in shock.
"You!" She pointed at him, half furious and half panicking at the sight of his calm demeanour. "You should have slept until morning! I put my strongest sleeping draught into your ship's wine caskets."
"Oh really?" Ace raised his left eyebrow, stifling a yawn with his hand. "I fell asleep soon after the party started, so I'm not sure I even tasted much of the wine. My narcolepsy kicks in pretty badly after a fight," he continued nonchalantly, before his dark eyes snapped to hers. "What are you after?" he asked baldly.
"None of your business," she snarled, her eyes frantically darting around the room as she looked for any exit she might be able to escape through. If only she could just distract him long enough…
A hard tackle to the ground suddenly knocked the wind out of her. Coughing, Nami found her arms pinned to the sides by the pirate captain as he straddled her hips, a grim expression on his face. She struggled against him, but his strength was far superior to her own. Nonetheless, as she twisted her body furiously from side to side, he suddenly spied the mark on her left shoulder.
He let out a low whistle. "So what do the great Arlong Pirates want with a humble rookie like me?"
Nami growled. "I'm not here in my capacity as a member of the Arlong Pirates. And don't ever call me one of them again!"
The dark-haired pirate let out a small bark of laughter. "You bear his mark, so that means you have accepted him as your Captain and leader. I'll ask you once again – why did you come on board my ship and what are you after?"
Heat flooded her veins at his flippant remark about Arlong, but Nami realised that getting angry was useless in her current predicament. She tried to turn away, but he grabbed her face and forced her to meet his eyes. Even in her rage, she couldn't help noticing that while he had an annoyed, almost angry expression, his eyes remained a soft, gentle dark brown. His face was young and he had, rather amusingly, a smattering of freckles on both cheeks. As he continued staring down at her, she realised with a start that he probably wasn't much older than she was.
Finally, as the minutes dragged on the orange-haired girl mumbled, "Your map. The map to the Grand Line that you got from Old Man Kei's ship this afternoon."
He looked surprised. "The map? If you say you aren't here as part of the Arlong Pirates, why would a girl like you possibly want with a map to the Grand Line? Are you planning to sail there to find the One Piece?"
Nami growled. "I hate pirates and I'm certainly not interested in the One Piece! Until I fulfil my goal, I cannot leave Arlong and sail the Grand Line. I just wanted to….sell the map." As his jaw comically clunked downwards, she tugged experimentally at her wrist to see if his grip had slackened. It hadn't.
He choked. "Sell the map?! Are you insane? Even pirates with more riches than you can ever dream of would give up all their gold in exchange for a map of the Grand Line! No gold in the world can replace the chance to sail the most glorious sea…"
"Well that's all I want okay? Gold!" she snapped, twisting her wrists again as she felt a pinprick of tears sting the corner of her eyes. Nami glared back at him again. "If I manage to sell this map to any of the high-ranking Pirates, I would have enough gold to solve all of my problems!" Images of Nojiko, Genzo, the villagers flitted through her minds' eye…just a little while more, Bell-mère'...just a little while more...
She tugged furiously at him again. "So let me go!"
"How much gold do you need?" His sudden question threw her off tack.
She stopped short. "I need 50 million beli more," she answered tersely. "Until I reach my goal."
"30 million beli is all I have. But I can't give you the map."
Fury surged through her again. "You think I'm just going to walk off without getting what I came for? I've been raiding pirate ships for days searching for something valuable enough to fetch more than a 100 million beli!"
"You need the money for someone?"
Nami turned away. "You wouldn't understand," she said bitterly.
"Your family?"
Their gazes collided once again, and Nami felt herself staring into his almost magnetic eyes again. "You could call them that."
Running a hand through his messy dark locks, the pirate captain's expression softened and a somewhat wistful sigh escaped him. "I have a kid brother your age, who's probably saving up every last beli he can scrape together to buy a boat and head out to sea. When we were younger, we made a promise to become pirates and find glory by conquering every corner of these four seas. And with this map," Ace clenched his fist. "I can finally enter the Grand Line!"
She shook her head. "Look buster, I'm not interested in your life story…"
Ace fixed his gaze on her again. "As a member of Arlong's crew you should know that nobody in East Blue will part honestly with so much money for the map – they will probably kill you first or take you as a slave on their ship. You should take the money I'm giving you and continue working towards your goal. No point dying before you've accomplished it," he replied quietly.
A last spark of resistance that had flared in her heart died at his words. He was right – pirates were natural double crossers and if they could kill her rather than fork out millions of beli for such a treasure, they would probably do it. Even if she had the map, it was unlikely she would ever be able to get rid of it alive.
An overwhelming exhaustion suddenly engulfed her.
"Fine, I accept your offer," she mumbled, closing her eyes.
"Good." Nami let out a sigh of relief as his weight shifted, and she rubbed her chaffed wrists.
"Heh," Ace pointed at her, a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry to be so hard on you, but you were being incredibly stubborn."
The orange-haired girl didn't reply, merely staring thoughtfully at the shadows dancing on the dark walls of the cabin. Outside, the snores of the Spade Pirates crew were still rhythmically rising and falling with the sound of the tide.
"Here." He handed her a sack, the metallic sound of coins clinking as he jiggled it casually. "There should be about 30 million beli in there."
Nami grabbed his arm. "Why are you doing this for me? This is all the treasure you have isn't it?" Taking a step back, she shook her head. "I just tried to rob you."
Flashing her a cocky grin as he adjusted the hat on his head, Ace replied, "Because you have a dream, a goal, a purpose in life you need to achieve. Maybe if I help someone with theirs, someone will help me find mine one day." She couldn't be sure if it was her imagination, but the tips of his fingers had suddenly glowed fiery red. "Besides, I can always get some more treasure tomorrow."
As he strode back towards the deck, he called back, "There's nothing else to take, so don't bother staying long here."
"Hey Ace! Looks like your little brother is up to his tricks again!"
Pausing from his breakfast momentarily, Ace snorted proudly as he grinned at the Wanted Poster Marco had just handed him. "His bounty's risen again! 300 million beli...if I recall that's even higher than mine was when I was a rookie."
"And seems like he's got himself a pretty decent crew as well," the First Division Commander chuckled appreciatively, rifling through the sheaf of Wanted Posters before handing them to his counterpart. "Roronoa Zoro, Nico Robin…" He broke off as he noticed Ace staring at one poster in particular.
"What's the matter? Do you know her?" Poking his head over Ace's shoulder, the Phoenix pirate looked back at the picture of the girl; her velvety brown eyes stared seductively at the camera while her lips were curved upwards in a flirty, almost cocky smirk. Fiery hair cascaded from her fingers in a mass of orange waves. "Not bad eh," Marco grinned, poking Ace in the side and eliciting a warning growl from the younger man. "You should go pay your brother a visit, Ace!"
Glancing back at Nami's Wanted Poster again, Ace felt a smile grace his lips. "Yes, I think I will."
A/N: My first foray into OP, so please review if you enjoyed the read! PS I know the Banaro Island duel happened 3 days before the Wanted Posters were released but just ignore this little discontinuity if you can!