Summary: It seemed to be yet another bright and sunny day aboard the pirate ship Moby Dick. Fire Fist Ace, the Crew's 2nd Commander, is rather bored and wonders to himself why he keeps receiving nothing but unexciting and tedious tasks from the Oyaji these days, until he meets her. Troubles arise when this strange girl is brought upon the ship, but Ace finds her quite out of the ordinary. Interesting. And just like that, his world was turned upside down. Little did the protagonist know what his future held for him. She created storms. He was fire. And strangely, they matched one another. With each their own little broken pieces, they found that they completed each other. His dejected past that he wants to forget and her wrecked present that she wants to run away from, it all matched in the end to create an unsure future. But they wouldn't take it any other way. Ace x Azu

Author's notes: Romance, humor, action, fluff, and all that good and cute stuff will be included in these drabbles. I initially intended to make a full story fanfiction, but then I realized I had no major plot with an evil guy to write, so I decided to just make drabbles. As in, I decided that I will be making mini-fanfictions, all together in here. So, yes, there might be some chapters connected, each group with little plots and different stories. That way, I can write the oh-so-loved romance scenes faster so that the bigger fans of love don't have to wait that long for their favorite parts. Of course, some chapters will not have that much romance (I don't want to bore the readers with only that stuff), as they will describe the characters' backgrounds and normal stuff like that. I hope I won't make Ace too OoC, as this is my first try with a One Piece story.

Rated T for some mild cursing language and future mature contents. Please do enjoy this first chapter and tell me what you think with a review. ^^

Disclaimer: I do not own Portgas D. Ace or One Piece. That work of art belongs to Oda Eichiro, the mastermind behind everything. I own only Sakurai D. Azure, or Azu, my OC.

-AxA-

Azu's Profile

Name: Sakurai D. Azure (Azu for friends)
Age: 18, 29th October
Height: 160cm
Bounty: 37,000,000

Devil Fruit: Ame Ame no Mi (Rain and storms)

Type: Logia

-AxA-

Chapter 1

The sky is way too boring… Introduction

A Gray Cloud

A loud sigh could be easily heard to whoever would pass by the sidelines of the deck of the infamous pirate ship Moby Dick, whose Captain was no other than Whitebeard. He was a well-known powerful pirate who survived the age of Gol D. Roger, the former King of Pirates who was now deceased. Returning to the previous sighs, the large figure that did so shifted from his sitting pose to a standing one. Placing his hands sluggishly on the railing, he gazed upwards to the far too blue sky and adjusted the orange hat on the top of his head. He noticed with another audible sigh that there wasn't a single cloud in the atmosphere, neither white nor gray, which only made it much more boring in his eyes.

"Why the hell don't we get more exciting tasks?" Fire Fist Ace asked himself as he gazed idly to his comrades in the middle of the deck. "I'll die out of boredom this way." He added to himself with a small annoyed frown.

There was a small group, of about 8 men, chatting about dividing some boxes and sacks of loot. They had just got it from a small island a few days ago, and were still trying to evenly divide everything, from treasure to beli. Ace had no interest in such affairs, as his boredom was the only thing he was trying to conquer. With another sigh, he turned around and looked towards the ocean once more. There were no waves, no sign of other ships, Marine or pirate, and they were supposed to arrive to the next island in about two more days. Two more annoying, utterly boring, days. For Ace it wouldn't be days, but probably years, and as he thought it would be the end of it, much to his boredom's unhappiness, he spotted something far in the ocean. He rubbed his eyes and looked closer with a small frown, thinking it might be his mind trying to trick him, again. In between the jolly blue sky was a small dark gray cloud. He kept staring at it, only to notice that there was a ship of some sorts just beneath it. He looked around the ship, but the sky was still clear blue, so it couldn't be a storm. And yet, the same gray cloud remained there, hovering over the ship as it sailed forth. That and it was raining, but only over that ship. Ace tilted his head to the side slightly as a smirk made it way to his thin-ish lips. What a weird cloud it was, and it was coming right towards him. This should be fun, he thought for himself. This would definitely cure his boredom for the time being. As he was about to say something to motion the Moby Dick to move faster towards the other, apparently, smaller ship, someone else reacted quicker than him.

"Cloud ahoy!" Izo, the one currently up in the mast, yelled to everyone. "There is a strange gray cloud coming this way!" he shouted as he pointed forward, exactly to where Ace wanted to go. "With a ship just below it!" he added.

Ace looked around as every man on the deck perked up at the word 'ship'. They seemed to be happy to be able to chase yet another boat in so little time. He was rather pleased too, as he would be able to finally kill his boredom. His smirk grew wider as the other little vessel seemed to have taken notice on the pirates. It was so, because it looked like it was trying to take a rash turn, but clearly wasn't fast enough to do so. He found it rather amusing the way people acted when they saw a pirate ship. As the Moby Dick grew closer to the other boat, Ace couldn't help but feel somewhat anxious to the scene displayed before his eyes. What kind of cloud was that? How did it appear there, and how come it was only raining above that small boat? Questions of the sort began filling up his mind, but before he allowed them to continue, the young man rushed over to his Striker and settled up to get there faster than everyone. Although he did so, it was not necessary because they had finally reached the smaller vessel. As the pirate went over to the railing again to take a look around, he began listening to a discussion between each party.

"We have no turf with you, pirates!" the man from the other boat said, holding his spear in a defensive way, next to another one.

Ace noticed that the men were wearing fancy clothes. Fancy bodyguard clothes. That could only mean one thing: They were either escorting someone important, like some kind of patron or something; or they were transporting something of high value. But considering the size of the ship, it couldn't be the first option. It had to be some kind of treasure they were carrying. Ace's smirk grew slightly wider, knowing that his comrade pirates were thinking the same exact same thing. He remained right where he was, looking at the scene from the railing, waiting to see if something more exciting happened, as he heard them make their deal.

"… So here's the deal, you two. You give us all the treasure you are currently holding within your boat and we let you walk away unharmed." Itsuya bargained with a rather mischievous smile. "It's a win-win situation, really. Both parties get out with something. We get the treasure and you get to keep your lives."

"We have no treasure here! You better leave this instant." The second bodyguard said with a hasty voice, also holding his spear in a defensive way.

Ace couldn't help but let out a small chuckle and smirk smugly at the scene unfolding before his dark inky eyes, along with any other pirate around the area. These two men had just picked the wrong path, and he was damn happy they did, because things would surely get interesting now. From what he could tell, these men had not much experience with weapons, as they were just holding them against the pirates in a defensive way. Their knees were clearly shaking, for whoever looked at them, but what he didn't understand was why they were so keen on defending their treasure. It was clear that they had some, or else they would have already crept out and ran away in the small life boat that was stationed on the back of the vessel. Maybe they would lose their jobs if they somehow lost the loot in the middle of the journey. This fact only made Ace more interested in knowing what they were holding, thus making his anxiousness deepen significantly. What could it be that was just so important to someone that needed to be guarded so voraciously by the two newbie guards? It was apparently something big, to have caught his attention this way. Ace wasn't usually all that interested in the loots that his crewmates got, but this one made his curiosity spike quite a few levels. And he would be damned if he didn't feed his interest.

"Ah, 2nd Commander." Itsuya said with a calmer tone of voice as he looked upwards, noticing Ace examining the situation thoroughly. "I hear you have been rather bored these past days. Would you like to do the honors?" he smiled politely, motioning to the two guards.

"Sure thing." Ace said, his smirk still lingering in his lips, as he jumped to the smaller ship.

Arriving with a heavy thud from his dark boots, he calmly approached the two men. You could literally smell the fear in their eyes as they finally realized who they were dealing with there. The Fire Fist adjusted the bright orange hat on his head, clouding his eyes from the guards as he spoke up.

"You know; you should do yourselves a favor and take that lifeboat behind your ship to get out of here." He said with his typical smug smirk as he looked at them. "Like that no one needs to get hurt."

While he said that, one would probably assume that he was thinking otherwise from his expression, but in reality, Ace did not enjoy meaningless battles. Sure, fighting was fun and he was looking forward to knock over some heads and get himself stronger, but these men weren't ready to fight him, nor anyone else. That and he was also rather hungry. It was clear that they had been recently hired to transport some sort of treasure and take it to some big, fancy island, but fate had their course crash against his. Even though he did not understand why exactly, Ace was thankful for the events, because now he would be able to diminish his high boredom levels. As he saw the two bodyguards ponder his offer, he noticed that his anxiousness hadn't ceased. At all. He did wonder why, but when he saw the two bodyguards resuming their stances, his smirk grew slightly wider and he placed his thoughts aside.

"We are not going anywhere!" the first guard said.

"We were given a mission and we will not falter!" the second continued.

"Well, it's your funeral, I say." Itsuya said, taking a step back along with the other three pirates.

Ace's smirk did not waver an inch as he shifted to an offensive stance. He heard his crewmates chuckling behind him and someone saying 'Well, Commander, they're all yours now.' before he launched at them with his burning fists. Man, did these guards made the wrong calls today or what. He had been right from the start; these two guards were not ready to battle in the slightest, as they fell rather easily. Just a couple of, not so hard, punches and the two were down like logs. Once more, Ace adjusted his hat and walked to the door the two were guarding far too willingly. Upon noticing that it was locked, he smirked again and just kicked it open, allowing his eyes to gaze upon the darkness inside the room. Once the dust had finally settled down, Ace walked inside, along with two other men, and waited for his eyes to get used to the sudden darkness. Afterwards, the other two rambled around looking for the supposed treasure, and Ace couldn't help but stare at what seemed to be a medium sized box, covered with some sort of dark drape. He walked over it with heavy steps. The box reached at about his waist and as he was about to remove the cover, Ace couldn't help but swallow silently. What could be underneath? His anxiousness still hadn't seemed to calm as he finally grabbed at the middle of the cloak and pulled backwards with a tug. His expectations crashed, however, when he saw that it wasn't just a regular everyday box. The drape fell silently to the ground, soon to be forgotten, as he saw that it was, in fact, a cage, and that there was something inside of it. No, not something, someone. His face made an incredulous expression as he stared at who was locked up inside the cage. It was none other than a girl. He tilted his head to the side slightly, noticing that she was wearing weird looking clothes. It was rather dark inside, but he managed to see that her hair was blue, and that she seemed to be short in height, as the cage wasn't too big for itself. After a moment of pondering, it didn't take him long to put the current pieces of the puzzle together. It was a small boat that appeared to be rather expensive. It was with fancy-looking, yet weak, bodyguards that put up a feeble fight to try to prevent them, the pirates, from entering the room he was currently inside of. She was a girl that was locked up in a cage and was wearing rags for clothes. He couldn't see anything around her neck, but he could take notice in the large thick Kairouseki chains holding her thin wrists and ankles down. His incredulous expression changed to a small frown as he realized at what he was looking at exactly. She was a slave. She was probably bought by some rich person somewhere and was being currently taken to the buyers, most likely located in the Shabondy Archipelago. All the slaves, mostly caught pirates and kidnapped people, were forcedly brought there to be either re-sold by other rich people or to be transferred to some hellhole, where they would not be ever able to run away from. Ace continued to look at her for a moment. If she really was a slave, and all odds pointed towards that, then he had to do something about it. He had been in the Archipelago before, and he had not enjoyed what he saw there. Those Noble, as they called themselves, were constantly bargaining the lives of innocent people and handled them as if they were nothing more than objects. It disgusted him to a whole new level. So, yes, he would definitely do something about it and this girl.

With the entire ruckus and noise the pirates were doing behind him, the girl inside the cage seemed to finally wake up from her reverie. Upon noticing that she was no longer alone in the room, she silently shifted into a sitting position and gazed back at the large man before her as he crouched down in front of her.

"Hey, look." One of the other pirates said from behind him pointing at her.

"Wait, is that..?" the second asked, clearly confused.

"Oi, are you alright?" Ace asked the girl, out of concern.

".. Freckles…?" her meek voice questioned softly.

The Fire Fist just blinked a few times as he continued to look at the girl.

And that was how he met Azu. That was how his life was turned upside down. That was when his fate dared to change.

End of Chapter 1

-AxA-

So, what did you think? Was it good for a first try? Was Ace OoC? If it was bad, please do tell me what you think where I should improve with a review. I accept constructive criticism; because there is always somewhere one can improve. Flaming is not allowed.

I already have some ideas for the next drabbles, so stay tuned. ^^