Author: As you will notice, I'm changing a lot of things. I'm totally up to date with the manga and anime, so please don't review saying "Oh, that not true you know". Don't spoil it for the people who aren't completely caught up.
So this chapter is early because I got time off of school because of Queen's Day, a Dutch holiday.
I fixed chapter one and modified some stuff, so if you don't want to get too confused, re-read it. Sorry about that, but I want the story to piece together. If you want chapter three to be uploaded on Saturday, I want five reviews. I don't need a superlong one, just say like, I liked the scence with whatever.
Ace's POV
"Have you seen a man wearing a straw hat?" I politely asked the man.
"No.." He replied glancing at the bounty poster. "There's a restaurant up ahead, the owner is well connected. I would ask him."
"Thank you." I said with a bow.
As I continued towards the restaurant up ahead, worry flecked my thoughts. Did Luffy get the message in Drum? Was he all right? But I shouldn't worry so much. That kid was born under one hella lucky star. Even the old fart couldn't get him into harm, which was one damn impressive feat.
Quinn might be around here too. The girl had been flanking the newspapers for some while now. But so had Luffy and I. But with our articles they would say the places where we went crazy. Every article mentioning her said that they couldn't locate her, only her name written on a wall. Pesky girl.
I entered the restaurant and sat down on a barstool.
"The house specialty please." I requested of the owner.
In five minutes I had a plate of steaming rice in front of me.
"The rest of the menu too." I asked with my mouth full. This small plate wasn't going to cut it.
"You all have stomachs like whirpools!" Dadan complained as we again cleaned the house of any food. "Everything gets sucked in and nothing escapes!"
"So sir, I was wondering if you…"
Quinn's POV
This damn desert country was hotter than a summer's day in Fuchsia Village. And those were pretty hot. I was only wearing a white piece of cloth around my chest, short leather pants and long cowboy boots that came over my knees. It took me almost everything to make it seem as if the heat wasn't affecting me in the slightest bit.
Then I spotted a restaurant with a big crowd in front of it. Quickly I jogged towards it.
"A customer just died in there…" Somebody whispered.
"They say he ate a Desert Strawberry, a poisonous kind of spider that looks just like a strawberry. This shows just how dangerous the desert is…"
"I knew the poison was strong, but not like that… He just died in the middle of conversing with the owner and in midbite."
Oh God, this sounded quite familiar. That freckled idiot had gotten another one of his narcoleptic fits. One day he'll drown in his soup. With a sigh I pushed aside the people and entered the restaurant. The place was empty and in a mess.
A muscular back with a flaming spade tattoo faced me. So he got a tattoo. It's pretty cool actually. Slightly wavy hair peeked out from under an orange cowboy hat rimmed with big red beads. And of course, in his hand was a fork with some meat on it.
"Typical…"
I stood directly in front of him, wondering what I should do to wake him up. Suddenly, his head jolted upwards.
"Huh?" Ace groggily said.
"HE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD!"
"HE'S ALIVE!" The crowd shouted.
"Oh…" he said as it dawned upon him. "I fell asleep."
And then he ate the meat on his fork. I knew there was only one idiot like that. Ace noticed his face was covered in rice, so he used the woman's skirt to wipe his face. On his right bicep was a tattoo spelling ASCE, with the S crossed out. He probably didn't notice the mistake until the tattoo was done.
"We thought you died!" Everybody happily exclaimed with a sigh,
"You hire comedians or something?" He said pointing his thumb towards the crowd.
"Uhm... No, we're just glad you're alright." The owner replied.
And then his freckled face fell in his food again.
"DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" They all shouted at him.
He woke up again, which is probably due to him breathing in some rice or whatever.
"Yo." I said as I stood behind him.
He turned around and I saw the surprised look on his face.
"Hey Quinn, long time no see. Didn't expect to find you here as the damn papers don't tell a thing about where you are."
"Didn't expect to see you here either Fire-Fist Ace."
"Better than Mystery Quinn. Not a track of you of you to find anywhere, except your name." Ace tauntingly said.
"You'll find out how I did that… eventually." I playfully answered. "Besides, when I saw the crowd outside saying somebody died in here whilst conversing and eating, I knew there could only be one freckled idiot like that. Nice tattoos by the way."
"Took the tattoo artist six hours for just the outline on my back. I spent three days in agony. It was worth it though. I soon came back for the tattoo on my bicep."
"I got a tattoo too." I commented.
"Where then huh?" He sarcastically asked.
"Ace in big bold letters on my butt. Wanna see?" I joked.
"I'm honored my names graces your rear. Why not on you're newly developed chest?" He asked, obviously staring. Last time he saw me my chest was about as big as two peas. Even though my décolleté wasn't that big, it's still bigger than he ever saw.
Flashback
"If you don't have feet, would you wear shoes?" Ace suddenly asked.
"No…" I answered with a confused look.
"Then why do you wear a bra? Nothing interesting there." He said with a smirk.
"Asshole. Like your chest is something to be proud of. Just because you finally got a two pack doesn't mean you have to show the whole village." I bit back.
"It's not a two pack!" Ace said defensively while stroking the said muscles.
"Sorry, my mistake, a one pack. Even Luffy's chest is better developed than yours."
"Luffy has a better developed chest than you, you mean." Ace said angrily. Him and I were both on the brink of attacking each other.
"Take that back freckled baby!" I shouted, grabbing tufts of his hair while tackling him off of the chair he was sitting on.
"I'm sixteen scrawny midget!" Ace screamed back, flipping me under him.
"Little-brother complexed maggot!"
"Shortsighted prude!"
"Nasty man-whore!"
"I only kissed one damn girl, and that was you! How does that make me a man-whore!?!"
"You're always looking at those dirty magazines the old…"
"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?!?" Garp shouted as he saw the two teenagers fighting like little kids.
Ace had Quinn in a chokehold and Quinn was about to kick him in the nuts. Her hand held a tuft of black hair and her lip was split. Ace's nose was bleeding and both looked at each other furiously.
"He said my chest was tiny!"
"She said my chest was less developed than Luffy's!"
"He said even Luffy's chest was bigger than mine!"
"Huh?" Luffy said as he walked by and heard people making remarks about his chest.
"She called me a freckled baby and a maggot with a little-brother complex!"
"He called me a shortsighted prude!"
"She called me a man-whore!"
Then we both realized Garp was paying attention. He was showing Luffy the booger he just dug out.
"PAY ATTENTION!" We both screamed.
"He said, she said." He mimicked with a whiny voice. "STRONG MARINES DON'T FIGHT WITH WORDS! THEY FIGHT WITH FISTS! LIKE MEN!" He proudly boomed after flicking away the booger in our general direcion.
"As a matter of fact, I am a female." I said emotionlessly.
"Not that you look like one." Ace muttered under his breath.
"You little fucker!" I angrily spat as I again tackled him.
"I'm betting on Quinn." Garp said as he saw Ace struggling to move from my iron grip..
"Ace all the way." Luffy said watching Ace bend my arm to its limit.
End of flashback
"I noticed myself too." I said with a grin.
"Got a couple of inches too, you might actually reach my shoulders now."
"What about Luffy you think? He got much taller?" I asked, ignoring the obvious jab at my former height.
"You tell me, last time I saw him he was still fourteen and only barely taller than you."
"You're no fun are you?" I complained. Then I saw his eyes bulge out in surprise as suddenly I was launched forwards, against Ace. After we came to a halt, we both immediately went on warpath.
"Which asshole did that!?!" I growled.
Ace then noticed we were charging right through somebody's dinner.
"Sorry for intruding." Ace said politely with a bow. Why couldn't he be that polite to me?
Immediately he changed back to angry and marched forward. Quickly I pushed him into the ground and sprinted forward as I saw the familiar straw-hat-covered and scarred face.
"Hey Luffy!" I greeted him with a big smile.
He just kept on shoving food in his mouth while staring at me.
"Luffy, stop eating." I said getting annoyed.
Then suddenly recognition dawned upon him. Immediately the contents of his mouth were spewed out at me.
"Hey Quinn! What are you doing here in Alabasta?" Luffy happily said. (A/N At first I thought it was Arabasta, but it is, in fact, Alabasta. In like episode 92, when the Eternal Pose is shown, it says Alabasta. Curse it.)
"I was just stopping here for some supplies." I answered. "What about you?"
"Bwim gwona bweat bwup Cwokwodwil." He mumbled with his mouth full.
"Sir Crocodile? The Shichibukai?" Ace exclaimed. "Luffy, what did the guy do to you?"
There he goes all worried again about Luffy. It was a crazy thing to say, but knowing Luffy, he'll actually do it.
"You're not going to be able to stop him you know." I told Ace.
"You're such a troublesome little monkey."
"My friend Vivi, she's the princess, found out he's manipulating the country. And to stop war, she wants to stop Crocodile. So I'm gonna beat him up." Luffy said with a careless smile.
"Oh God..." Ace and me said in unison.
"Well, must be true since Luffy can't lie for his life." I said with a sigh. This was going to be a troublesome stop. And we both said we'd join his crew.
"Luffy, where's your nakama?"
"Don't know. I left the ship first to find meat." Luffy said after swallowing his last bite.
"Have any idea where you're docked?" Ace asked.
"Nope." Luffy answered with a big grin.
"Let's go find the sea then, we'll see your ship sooner or later." I proposed.
"No you won't." A deep voice said. His face was covered in shadows so I couldn't recognize him. "Straw hat Luffy, Fire-fist Ace and Mystery Quinn. Two of the biggest lone pirates talking with a rookie like Straw hat. What the hell's the connection?"
"He's my kid brother." Ace and I said as if it was the most obvious thing. "You're one of the biggest pirates on the Grand Line. How come the last names are different?" The guy asked with a raised eyebrow.
We walked past him, talking about where the ship could be. Nobody cared about what the Marine had to say.
"Hey listen to me!!" He angrily shouted. 'Marines, attack Straw-hat Luffy!"
Immediately Marines started pouring out from everywhere. Luffy started running like crazy and we had to do our best to follow him. Then he spotted his nakama, and like the dense idiot he is, he instantly started running towards them.
"You go to the ship Luffy!" I shouted.
"We'll keep 'em busy!"
Hesitantly the crew started running and Ace and I nodded towards each other.
"So you ate what Devil's Fruit?"
"How'd ya guess?" I said with a chuckle. "Wind-wind Fruit. It's a secret though." I raised my index fingers to my lips.
"Flame-flame fruit."
He made a wall of fire (A/N Sorry, don't know the attacks name, so I'll just describe them 'k?) and I helped him by raising a big wind. The flames started getting quite long and went vertical, burning quite a number of Marines. The annoying Marine captain then sent smoke towards us. Crap! Another damn Logia.
"Ace, let me deal with him! Smoke isn't too good against wind!" I shouted.
"I'll keep the troops busy!"
"You picked the wrong opponent." I growled at the captain that now fully appeared in front of me.
"How you know so sure?"
I just smirked at the over-confident captain. He turned to smoke again, and I raised a big tornado, blowing him away a couple of miles. I started running in the direction Luffy went and Ace soon followed.
Ace's POV
Quinn stealthily jumped on the rooftops and I followed her.
"What are we doing on the roofs?" I asked curiously.
"We can spot them more easily this way. See, look that his ship I guess. Only he would have a straw hat Jolly Roger." She pointed.
"What's Luffy doing here then?" I asked her, as Luffy was slowly walking through the alley below us.
"Let's find out." Quinn said with a wink as she jumped below.
"Hey Quinn! Hey Ace! You guys ate Devil's Fruits?" Luffy asked us with sparkling eyes as we landed next to him.
"Flame-flame Fruit."
"Wind-wind Fruit. You got split up from your nakama again?" Quinn said with a sigh.
"We spotted your ship though. It has a straw hat Jolly Roger right?" Ace said.
"Yep."
I noticed the distant figures looming from several windows and lurking in corners. Looks like Luffy got himself another crowd of enemies.
"Let's get to the coast then." Quinn said. Her eyes met mine and she motioned towards one of the figures. I nodded as I had noticed them too.
Slowly we sauntered through the alleys. It's coming in handy that I've already been here a couple of days. Then the figures showed themselves.
"Fire-fist Ace, Mystery Quinn and Straw Hat Luffy. Your heads are ours." A burly man with a lot of chest hair said. We ignored all of them and just went on ahead. They just stood there stunned and we then we could clearly see the sea. Luffy's ship was not too far from the coast. He launched himself on board and we followed soon followed using our ships.
"But I'm stronger than him now!" Luffy said with a booming laugh.
"Stronger than who?" I said as he stood on the ship's railing.
"You're still a scrawny scatterbrained idiot." Quinn added.
"Luffy, who the hell are they?" A muscled guy with three katana whose hair reminded me off moss asked.
"Ace's my older brother and Quinn's my older sister!" Luffy grinned.
"You have siblings Luffy?!?" They all shouted with a surprised look.
"Hey Luffy, you keepin' silent about us? That's not too nice…" I said lazily. "You'll pay for that you little maggot!" Quinn shouted as she kicked Luffy off of the ship.
Immediately the crew went into attack mode, the guy with the katana unsheathed them and they all were ready for battle.
"Chill…" I said with a bored expression as I watched Quinn's artificial air current bring Luffy back.
"Sorry…" Luffy said as Quinn let him roughly fall onto the deck.
They relaxed and a guy with a curly eyebrow offered us something to drink. We accepted and soon Luffy, a raccoon-dog and a long-nosed man were toasting to all kinds of different things. I was just sitting on a barrel observing them with a smile. Looks like my kid brother found some good nakama.
Quinn was talking to a good-looking, orange-haired girl with a big bust. Just as they looked over, the curly-eyebrow guy started fighting with the swordsman. Insults were being thrown around and when I looked back at Quinn and the redhead, they were both laughing.
I sauntered over to them.
"What's so funny?" I asked with a curious grin.
"Luffy." The redhead replied, giving me a sexy smile and a good view of her boobs. "And you."
"So you were talking about me?" I replied with a husky voice.
I was flirting with this girl just to annoy Quinn. She hated it when I just ignored her and started hitting on one of her friends. Then she stopped bringing friends and started hanging out with Luffy and me. I never really wondered why. I heard her huff and she walked away.
The redhead was still flirting with me and I forgot to pay attention. Quickly I faked a narcoleptic fit. I almost never did that but this was an emergency. I heard Quinn's laughter and the mad walking away of what I assumed was the redhead. Luffy soon joined in with Quinn while the rest of the crew were probably wondering what the hell just happened.
"He's narcoleptic. He randomly falls asleep." Quinn said.
"It happens everywhere! Once, he almost drowned in his soup!" Luffy excitedly added.
I think it was Quinn who walked over to me, and then she blew in my ear. Quickly I 'awoke' and groggily did as if I just woke up. I hope I wasn't going to need this trick more often.
"Faker." Quinn whispered in my ear.
The girl with the long blue hair was now smiling.
"So Luffy, how come both your siblings ate a Devil's Fruit?" She curiously asked.
"Yeah! You had it even before you became a pirate right? And before I saw you I never even knew a Devil's Fruit actually existed!" The guy with a long nose added.
"I ate the Gum-gum fruit when I was seven. Shanks and his crew had taken it from an enemy ship and I accidentally ate it for dessert." Luffy said without thinking much of it. "I didn't even know Ace or Quinn ate one until now."
"I ate the Flame-flame fruit shortly after leaving our hometown. I had just taken over a ship, and there, under lock and key I found it. I ate it, thinking it was probably something boring when suddenly my hand turned into fire." I told.
"I saw a Marine captain try to buy it from a merchant on the first island I visited on the Grand Line. His face annoyed the crap outta me, so I stole it and ate it. The captain angrily shouted to me that I just stole his Devil's Fruit and some other stuff. I didn't really care or think I actually ate one."
As soon as they heard our stories they stared at us like we were idiots.
"What can be the chances of three siblings each eating a Devil's Fruit unknowingly…" The swordsman said shaking his head.
"Everybody knows how one sort of looks like…" The guy with the long nose added.
"All three of them are hopeless idiots… They do come from the same gene pool though…" The redhead sighed.
"I should make a medicine against stupidity…" The raccoon dog ambitiously said.
"Hey!" Quinn huffed. "Luffy and Ace's stories were way dumber!"
"Not really." I said. "Who steals a fruit from somebody just because their face annoys you?" I taunted her.
"Who eats a fruit without knowing what it is?" She bit back.
"Exactly what you did smartass." I replied
"I was driven by my annoyance of his ugly face!" Quinn shouted back. "You take out an enemy ship and what do you do when you find a fruit? You eat it, not thinking about if it's poisoned or not!"
"If it was poisoned, why did they put it in a treasure chest then huh?"
"To fool morons like you! Narcoleptic asshole!"
"Whore!" I shouted back. Why the hell was she now comfortable with showing that much skin? "You're almost naked!"
"Look who's talking! You've been showing your bare torso for over four years!"
"And what are you? My mom? Last time I checked, she was dead!"
"Good job bringing that up! Luffy like, right next to us you know!"
We both looked over to him and saw his face. His usually cheerful face lost all emotion.
"Good job imbecile." Quinn bit at me as she started comforting Luffy.
You could hear the shushed whispers coming from the two of them. The entire crew looked uncomfortable with the fight we just had and angrily I stormed inside the ship. That was so stupid of me. I was his older brother, and what do I do? I just make him feel bad about our mother's death.
"You guys always fight like that?" The swordsman asked.
"We fight a lot, but not like this." I told him with a sigh. "How's Luffy comin' along?"
"He's fine, I bet he's already bouncing around asking Sanji for food." He grumbled. "I'm Zoro by the way."
"Ace." I said, leaning my head backwards over the edge of the couch.
Quinn's POV
That stupid asshole! How could he just bring that up when Luffy was right next to us? It's been some time now, so I could more or less bring him to his usual state, but seriously, what is his problem? You could see that Luffy still wasn't comfortable talking about it. He blurted out the most private things randomly.
"What was all that about Quinn-san?" The blue-haired girl asked hesitantly. "Do you and Ace-san fight a lot?"
"Yeah, but usually we just call each other names you know. Like Zoro and Sanji." I told her. "Are you the princess of this country, Nefertari Vivi?" I curiously enquired. Also because I didn't want to talk about this any longer.
"Yes. Alabasta is on the brink of civil war because of Crocodile…" She sadly sighed.
"Yeah, Luffy told me." I said. "I'm gonna go talk with Ace okay?"
I stood up and walked inside the ship. Soon I spotted him talking to Zoro. With just one look, he excused himself and followed me to the end of the ship.
"I guess you have something to say to me." I angrily said. I brought my face up to his and looked him square in the eyes.
"Sorry…" He mumbled.
"You better be!" I hissed, grabbing his face. "Luffy was nearly over it when I left! When you left, he was lifeless! Don't reopen old wounds you didn't close! You left!" I said, my tears running. "You saw how bad he was! You want him to turn back to that?"
"I know how bad he was. How do you know I felt when I saw him like that? I couldn't do anything! You were the only one making progress, while I couldn't do a thing. I'm his older brother but I couldn't protect him from that…" He mumbled. My tears were flowing uncontrollably, and he put his arms around me.
"She was my mother too… You guys share the same dad, but he died before Luffy was born and you can't even remember him…" I sobbed into his chest. Something dripped into my hair and I realized he was crying too. Slowly and soundlessly like the strong man he had become. And as I bawled, I realized his strong, callused hands were slowly rubbing in circles on my back. Just like I did with Luffy to patch him up.
"What happened to fixing you?" Ace mumbled.
"I don't know…" I whispered into his chest. His heart was beating erratically, with uneven, fast beats…I stopped crying and wiped my arm over my eyes as I took a step backwards.
"I look like crap now don't I." I said with a failed attempt at a smile. From my backpack I got a dirty shirt and wiped my face with it.
"You always look fine…" Ace said with his hands stuffed in his pockets. His face was looking the other way. Guess he still can't properly compliment somebody.
"Let's go before they're gonna wonder what were up to." I said when I felt a bit a better.
"Yeah, we still need to get to know everybody."