The morning was greeted with bird chirping and scuffing of shoes inside the house. A curly orange haired woman ambled her way towards the wooden ladder that led to the brat's room. The ladder rungs creaked under her weight as she climbed each one carefully. She poked her head up, surprised to see that no one occupied the room. Where could they have gone?
The woman grumbled. The two brats were always troublesome to deal with. They ate way too much they were sure to out eat the animals in the forest someday, their incapability to do or really they were seriously unwilling to do any kind of house chores and that left a very tired Dandan. If someone left them alone they would be wearing the same clothes for a week straight. At least a certain dark green haired lady came by and scolded Luffy to change his clothes from time to time. The problem was Ace: he came by out of the blue saying he was visiting and let himself in without asking. The brat didn't look like he changed out of his trousers during his trip back to Mt. Corvo. She noticed he'd been wearing the same old pair of black cargos. He didn't even bother to get new clothes.
The woman blinked at the sight of Dogra and Magra standing next to…something that was on the ground.
"What are you two doing?"
"B-boss.." A short man and another man whose hair was styled like a rooster turned around. They stepped away from each other to reveal tangled bodies.
Dadan squinted her eyes, knitting brows in concentration and confusion. Surely, her vision was deceiving her.
There were three people sprawled on the floor right in front of the entrance and Dadan immediately knew it was Ace's narcolepsy at work. He probably collapsed after arriving at the doorstep only to fall through it and face-planting himself. She shivered, it was no wonder last night felt like it was in the middle of winter.
The strange sight wasn't that Ace was on his stomach or that Luffy was loudly snoozing off on his older brother's back. It was the man Ace held in his arm by the waist. An unfamiliar man dressed in plain black.
Dadan counted to make sure. She pointed a finger, Ace, and shifted it over the boy on his back, Luffy, she sucked in a breath. Ace…Luffy…her expression twisted into complete confusion as her index finger landed to point at the third man. What was going on?
"Morning, Dadan," Luffy said as he sat up. After greeting her, he let himself flop back down, curling onto his side and rubbing his face against Ace's back for warmth.
"Oh hey, Dadan, morning to you too." Ace mumbled, a bit muffled by the floor. He didn't move an inch to make eye contact with the orange haired woman—that took much effort. The third man sighed in content and shifted.
Ace sprung up, lids heavy with grogginess. He yawned before realizing a person he didn't know lying beside him face down. As he slowly processed this information, the man suddenly pushed himself up with both hands only for a sharp inhale of breath to be heard. He glanced around, taking in the unfamiliar scenery.
"Who are you?" The blonde man's eyes met a pair of dark ones. Ace opened his mouth to speak but a gruff woman's voice interrupted.
"That's what I want to ask! Who is this brat?!" Dadan yelled, directed a finger at the stranger, then redirected it to Ace.
He quickly glanced at the orange haired woman but didn't answer and craned his neck to look at the blonde. "Who are you?"
The man almost let out an automatic response of I asked you first though. "I'm Sabo, nice to meet you." After all, the situation would get nowhere if everyone refused to introduce themselves first.
Ace inspected the man from head to toe, his attire, his hair, and his face. The man had medium wavy blonde hair parted at the middle, large round eyes with a burn scar on his left and a black top hat where blue goggles rested at the base. His pants were tucked into his black boots and the impression Ace had was—for lack of a better and elaborate description—the man was well-dressed. However, something about the white layered cloth tied around his blue button collared shirt was bothering him.
Is that supposed to be a fancy napkin or something?
Ace realized he thought aloud when he felt a gaze on him and a closed hand moving to a mouth.
Sabo chuckled into his hand, amusement clear in his eyes. "No," he gently picked the cloth in-between his fingers, "this is a cravat. Most definitely not a napkin."
As if finally noticing Dadan's existence, he turned to her and stared. "Who's this old hag?" He gestured a thumb to the woman's direction.
Ace bursted into unrestrained laughter and Dadan roared, "Who are you calling old hag?! I'm Dadan, you damn brat!" She stomped forwards, stretching her neck left and right. Her bones cracked as she rolled a shoulder.
"I like this guy already!"
Sabo saw from the corner of his eyes that the freckled man was still laughing and didn't know whether he should take his words as a compliment or as sarcasm. He stepped back, the wooden planks creaking, dread coiling in his guts. He put his hands up if anything were to happen, he'd be ready.
"Oh yeah? Well I think I hate 'em already."
"Wait, Dadan! Is that my…"
Dadan looked at left shoulder and took the hat into her hands. "You left it lying around on the floor. Here, take it back." She tossed the orange hat his way and disappeared into the house, all traces of irritation flown out the window.
Ace placed a bread roll and a bottle of water in front of Sabo. He chewed on his own bread and apologized—that was all he would get for breakfast.
Sabo smiled politely. "No, it's fine. I'm lucky to even be given food." He nibbled on his bread and was surprised to see there was nothing left of the freckled man's breakfast already. Ace hummed in acknowledgement.
"I'm going to go hunt for food, want to tag along?" The freckled man's stomach growled loudly. He rubbed his stomach in circles to soothe it. Sabo blinked.
Oh.
"Aren't you cold without a shirt on?"
Ace shrugged. "No." He flicked his index finger up to tip the brim of his hat upwards, a flame lighting at the tip. "I'm not cold at all."
Sabo's eyes widened. "Is that.."
Ace smirked. "A devil fruit? Yeah it is."
Sabo beamed. So this was a devil fruit ability. He had read about them in books, seen them often causing public disturbances in newspapers headlines, but never had he seen one before his very eyes. He couldn't hide his growing grin and hoped he didn't scare off his newly acquainted friend with his fascination. It wasn't everyday he could see one so close up.
Ace's smirk fell when the blonde's leather glove touched his arm. Fingers skirted up his arm and stopped at his knuckles. His blue eyes strained in bottling his excitement inside.
"Can I…" Sabo started and Ace leaned back, thinking the man was getting a bit too touchy with someone who he met yesterday. "Can I touch the flames?"
Ace cocked an eyebrow and at last understood with a glimpse of sparkling sapphire what was going on. The blonde had never seen a devil fruit user in person much less seen one showcasing their abilities. Most devil fruit users were pirates that sailed on the Grand Line or the New World and there were still some on the Blue seas so it made sense for regular people to be awed. Now that Ace thought about it, Sabo's excessive admiration towards his flame was odd—Windmill Village was more than occasionally visited by pirates. He was brought back to reality when he felt the blonde move.
The man leaned forward, tugging Ace's arm with both hands. The freckled one shuffled away from the blonde's closing in face.
Sabo chewed his bottom lip and fidgeted before repeating, "So…can I?"
With a firm but light push to the man's forehead, Ace stopped him in place.
"I know you're excited but calm down for a second—"
A pair of gloved hands suddenly clasped around his still alight finger, startling him for a couple seconds. Once he pulled himself together, the first thing he did was open his mouth ready to scold Sabo for being reckless. This guy was one Kinder Surprise after another. Fire was not something to be played with and trying to directly touch it was out of the question.
"Whoa!" Sabo yelped and retracted his hands. Aware that he had just set his finger into a larger flame, Ace instantly put it out.
"Sorry about that," he apologized and in a little forceful tone reprimanded the blonde. "Are you crazy? Why do you think it's a such good idea to touch fire?"
Sabo let out a nervous laugh and scratched his cheek. He raised his left hand with his right pointing at it, "Ah, don't worry my gloves are fireproof."
Ace resisted the urge to roll his eyes in response and decided to drop the subject. The guy was ridiculous or maybe he was actually being reasonable—he didn't know what to make out of this guy.
A/N: This took me way longer than I thought it would. The thing that kind of annoyed be while writing was every word I typed out kept going a different direction than what I planned out in my head. The characters have a mind of their own...Also, sorry for all the dialogue. I'm not really good with words and being poetic all that cool stuff.