"I'm grateful for your help Thatch, but really, a shirt? Buttoned up? Do I honestly have to wear one?" Ace raised an eyebrow as his older nakama dressed him, doing up the buttons that the Fire Fist refused to do.
"Believe me kid," the man said, straightening up to fix Ace's tie now, "it makes a good impression."
"But Marco's seen me topless millions of times. You all have."
Thatch snorted at Ace's attitude before turning his attention to the boy's messy mop of black hair: to straighten or not to straighten? Izou was bound to have straighteners hidden away in his room somewhere... "You, young man," he said in a fatherly tone, deciding to go with just giving the hair a much needed brush and probably a trim too, "have obviously never been on a date before."
"Yes I-!" Ace began indignantly, but Thatch cut him off.
"With someone who you live with, and thus someone who has seen you at your very worst at 4am after a night out?" Ace went quiet at the commander's words. "Make an effort tonight, show him you're not just some unruly super-powered teenager, and I guarantee things will go well."
Ace nodded in agreement, cheeks colouring slightly; he had never gone on a date with a crewmember before, never mind a male crewmember.
"When I get back," he said quietly after a few moments, "do you want to know how it went?"
Thatch smiled warmly at the crew's newest recruit. "I'd be offended if you didn't tell me."
[-]
"So? How was it?"
Ace sighed. "The damn bastard turned up in his usual stupid clothes and had the nerve to ask if I was feeling ok because I'd 'got dressed for once'."
Thatch didn't think he'd ever laughed so hard.
Hi! I wrote this for the LiveJournal One Piece 300 word challenge with the prompt of "Dates" a few years ago, and I won :) I never thought to submit it here until now, so I hope you enjoy!
