A.N. Yay! One more chapter before vacation! I rock. No, not really, but I'm proud of myself :}. I finally put Smoker in here! Enjoy and review!

Monday rose without hangover, but Ace was still grumpy. At 9 o'clock he had to be in central Marine office to meet his partner. It was huge building in the harbor with blue tile roof and white walls. Ace didn't like it. It was too sterile. He sighed and entered the building. He walked in a small room with receptionist desk in the middle of the room. There sat an old woman with expressionless face. Ace went to her.

"Yo! I was told to be here at nine am." He greeted her.

The receptionist raised her head. "Portgas D. Ace?" She asked, still not showing any expression. Ace nodded. "Fifth floor, room 8." She finished talking and again started to scribe something on her papers.

Ace decided to ignore her lack of emotion and went to the stairs. Finally he reached the fifth floor and thought to himself 'there probably are no fatties in the top floors' and chuckled at the thought of a chubby marine climbing stairs to the tenth floor. He soon found room 8, the doors where simple white color with metal number in the middle. He knocked. When there was no answer he decided to just come in. When he entered the first thing he saw was a big desk and a cloud of smoke around it, then most of the smoke gathered in the chair and a person started to appear. 'So a devil fruit user huh?' Ace thought as he overlooked the person in front of him. Muscular body, white hair, two cigars in mouth and a frowning expression.

Ace smiled, now he was sure he will have fun with this marine. "Hey pal, my name is Ace and it looks like we'll be working together from now on." He stated and sat in the chair right across the smoking marine.

"I know." He grumped in a loud baritone. "My name is Smoker and I hope that, that old pirate explained everything to you." Ace nodded and Smoker guy continued. "Good. Today you're following me, so it meand that we will be here until four, so make yourself comfy, but not too much."

Ace looked around Smoker's office. It had white walls, a black carpet on the floor, a big cabinet filled with documents, a window in Smoker's right that leaded out to street. In the corner near the door there was a sink and a hanger with white cloak. Between window and cabinet there was a big grey leather sofa. Ace decided to crash there and take a nap, he was glad that today he wore a black t-shirt which said: I'm as bad ass as I look, brown long shorts and black combat boots and his orange hat with smiling goggles.

He laid down on sofa. "Hey Smokey, wake me up when it's lunch, will ya?" He said with a smirk, pulled his hat on his face and before Smoker could say anything about the pronouncing of his name he could already hear quiet snoring. So he only sighed and cursed the higher ups about this stupid project and a fact that now he's like a babysitter for one young pirate.

- II -

Ace woke up because someone was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes, pushed his hat from his eyes and saw Smoker.

"So you're going to eat or not?" Asked the older male.

"You never have to ask me that! I'm always ready to eat." Ace responded excitedly.

Smoker shrugged and stood up. "Let's go then." He said as he started walking towards the door.

Ace jumped up and followed the marine, noticing that it was already one o'clock. When they entered the cafeteria many pairs of eyes shot at them. Of course they did, not every day you will see a pirate and a marine casually walking in marine's base cafeteria. But neither of the pair minded the looks and people started to lose their interest in pirate. The lunch was for you to choose, so Ace filled four big plates and traced after Smoker to a table where few people already sat. A pink haired woman, a black haired woman looked dangerous while bulky men around them didn't seem that way.

"Smoker!" The pink haired woman shouted. "Introduce Hina to that pirate you're with."

Smoker sighed. "Ace this is Hina, Hina this is Ace." He showed the pink haired woman. "And that's Tashigi." He pointed at the black haired woman. The woman nodded her head in acknowledging his presence and continued a conversation she had earlier. But Hina was persistent and made him sit near her and Smoker by his other side.

"So pretty boy, it looks like you will be stuck with my grumpy friend for a while." She said with a sly smile.

I shrugged. "It's fun to hang out with different people." For some reason he felt that he should defend Smoker.

Hina giggled. "Well if you say so…" She extended the last syllable. She looked like a girl that after years of waiting finally got a candy.

After lunch they returned to Smoker's office. The older man returned to the paperwork and Ace decided that he didn't want another nap, so he took his phone out and started looking through messages. He wrote Luffy that he will probably won't be able to meet him until weekend. Then he just played some games in his phone. After an hour he got bored and decided to explore the building with the best excuse he had.

"I need to go to do some business." He said as he stood up.

"Yea, yea, just don't get lost." Smoker mumbled not even bothering to look up, so he missed the smirk on Ace's face.

"I will try." He said and quickly got out of the cabinet before Smoker could see his grin.

A.N. So next chapter is going to be in the end of the month sorry about that, but I hope I come back with lots of ideas and huge amount of enthusiasm. :} Hope you like it and even if you don't still review! See ya later! Peace V(*_*) .