Hey~ it's been a wonderful day off~ got my nails did, slept in, and am nao watching Dinsey and writing cause MULTITASKING!

Sorry about the short chapter previously~ It was needed yet hard to write filler . This was also difficult because instead of planning out this chap I was busy fantasizing about the angst and smut chapters XD they are coming! Be warned!

This chapter is once again dedicated to Setsuyume cause she's still a dear and is technically my beta XD also to InspiringLight for the lovely review, and the person I am going to blame for the BlindGypsyAce fic that is now stuck in my head. All your fault.

Also a special thanks to 6Lisa9 for her kind words~

SET SAIL!

Marco was a bit at a loss of what to do. He never had to deal with a person who randomly falls asleep. Was it an illness? Was Ace sick on top of being unable to see with his eyes? That couldn't be good for him at all could it?

Marco lowered Ace's body to the floor, taking care not to hurt the teen as he did so. It was odd, touching the fire wielder and not feeling the constant heat that seemed to be a perpetual feeling in the room. Was the fire not active while Ace was asleep? That was quite dangerous for anyone daring enough to attack the "captain" while he was sleeping.

What an odd person Ace was in the first place. Having fire constantly around him, being so unrelenting towards him or Thatch, hating that pops wanted Ace as a son. What has the teen been through to seem so thoroughly pissed at the idea of a father?

Marco looked down at the sleeper in his lap and hid a small smirk with his hand. This kid was just adorable, especially with all those freckles. Of course he was also quite sexy, showing of those deliciously toned abs and pectorals, and his muscular legs. He definitely wasn't hard to look at; quite the piece of eye candy.

Of course with Marco being distracted by the wonderful view that is Ace, he didn't quite notice when the young man who held his attention started to stir. Luckily he was able to snap out of staring when Ace let out a small groan and the teen's fire flared out. For some reason it didn't feel hot like it did earlier. Marco may not be able to be burned by the fire but he did feel the heat. How strange.

However the almost exploratory movements of the fire were not long lived, the heat returned almost as soon as Ace's eyes snapped open and he shot up from Marco's lap. His fire was now wrapping tightly around that toned body while simultaneously reaching out and gently touching Marco's person.

"Wha-" Ace spoke with confusion, the flames pulsing out again, covering the full room, but curiously not burning anything, Marco noticed a bit out of it. After all the combination of Ace and fire should be banned, he simply looked too sensual and sinful.

"Relax, yoi. You fell asleep in the middle of our conversation. You've only been asleep for a few minutes at the most, yoi." Marco spoke blandly, taking care to not look too interested in Ace's ability to fall asleep in a flash.

Of course Ace had to flush brightly at the man's statement. Damn the teen for being so attractive. He must have some damn good genes to look so great, even when freshly roused from sleep.

"A-ah, yeah, that happens. Have something called narcolepsy? Least that's what the doc Gramps took me told us." Ace faced up, if he could see he would likely be staring at the ceiling.

That explained a lot. But damn what a stack of cards against the young man, blind and narcoleptic? What a combination. On the other hand he was gifted with a devil's fruit and he had quite the skill at hand-to-hand combat. It was fascinating.

Ace of course took the time while Marco was musing to himself to send his fire in a more complete circle around the room. As he was doing that he noticed his hands weren't on something that felt like hard wood, in fact it felt almost like flesh.

And in that moment Ace's face was never hotter, realizing Marco must have caught him and then laid his head in the elder's lap. How utterly embarrassing. Ace shouldn't be this oblivious around this man, he was an enemy after all.

"Was there a reason why you were in this room in the first place?" Ace spoke, trying to nonchalantly move away from the man with the soft fire, hoping said man didn't notice Ace pulling away. Of course Marco was incredible observant and did indeed notice and smirked, not bothering to hide it with his hand this time. Also Ace trying to redirect him was adorable indeed.

"Yes there was. Pops wanted me to bring you topside, something about you interacting with your brothers and crew, yoi." Marco's smirk stayed firmly on his face even when Ace's head whipped around and to face him. The teen couldn't glare at him effectively while being blind, but his facial expressions sure got the feeling across. How cute, trying to intimidate Marco.

"They aren't my brothers. Just like your captain will never be my father." Ace spat out venomously, the previously calm fire flaring and heating. Marco was pretty sure if the fire could affect him he would have one of the worst burns ever, much like Thatch had when Marco kicked him out of the room.

"That's fine for now, Ace. But one of these days you are going to choose us as your crew and you'll call him pops as well, yoi." Marco's voice was no nonsense and Ace admired the amount of confidence in the man's voice. But what did he know? He only knew Ace for a few minutes after all. Ace would never be a part of this crew.

"Keeping thinking that, Marco." Ace sneered; speaking the man's name almost like it was an insult instead of an actual name. Well back to Ace being unresponsive and angry, so much for lulling him into a nice mood for meeting all the characters on deck. Well let's get this part over with so Marco can get back to doing his work around deck.

"Whatever. Come on, kid. Time to go meet the family, whether you want to or not, yoi." Marco spoke lazily, raising himself off the floor and hoisting Ace along with him. Careful not to pull too hard and ram him into the hard wall, that wouldn't get him into Ace's good graces. Not at all.

"I'm not a kid." Ace mumbled as he allowed himself to be pulled off the floor by the surprisingly more muscular man. Damn how much did this guy work out? He was built. Marco just laughed at Ace's grumbling.

"Of course, come on, yoi." Marco replied, tugging at Ace's hand, forgetting that even though the teen was blind, he could see with his fire; which was currently flaring tightly around Ace's person, not reaching any further than just a few inches from his skin.

The walk was silent of all chatter but there were plenty of sounds with the combination of footsteps, Ace's crackling fire, and the other sounds of the ocean and the ship rocking. It was a pretty peaceful walk and Marco had to restrain himself from letting his own fire out to play, because while Marco enjoys seeing Ace react to said fire, he doesn't want his brother's to see the youth like that at all. Nope, not one bit of it.

Ace on the other hand was focused on mapping out the walk with his fire, knowing he can remember it and knowing it'll be useful to know the way out of his "prison" in case he wants to attack Whitebeard or if he needs to escape. Oh, and how freaking warm Marco's hand was in his own. Didn't the guy realize he never let go? Cause Ace sure did and damn is his face feeling hot, stupid fake fire man, with his stupid sexy hands, making Ace flush, how dare he?

Seems the man did know what he was doing because as soon as they reached the stairs that lead to the door for the deck he let go of Ace's hand. Fucker. Knows he is good-looking and is taking advantage of it. Mother of fuck, what an asshole.

Of course before the two could even start the up stair climb, the door at the top slams open and a familiar presence is felt. That fucking joyful guy, the one Ace's fire burned. Well this will be interesting, to say the least.

"Aha! Marco, perfect! Pops wants to see you! And Izou wants to meet the new kid!" His voice was as jovial as the last time Ace heard it and dammit the teen could tell the man was grinning, made him want to grin as well. These people suck.

"I'm not a kid, dammit! And I have a name!" Ace yelled, his voice showing that he was well and truly ticked, but the two elders just laughed. Damn them for not being intimidated.

"Haha. That may be true, kid." Thatch emphasized the kid comment with a playful look at Ace, which he didn't catch because duh, blind. "But you never told me what it was." Ah well, that would explain quite a bit. Ace could have sworn the man knew his name though, I mean his entire crew was shouting it while he was fighting Whitebeard. Well if you could call him getting beat horribly an actual fight.

"My name is on my wanted poster. How can you know that my nickname is Fire Fist and not know that my actual name is Ace?" Ace responded scathingly, facing the man with a dead cow face, his eyes once again covered by his bangs. Can't let anyone else find out about his secret could he?

"Well, uh, that it-" the man, Thatch if Ace remembered right, stuttered out, but Ace didn't give him a chance to try and recover, instead launching into another scalding remark.

"It's even tattooed on my shoulder." Ace lifted his left sleeve to show off the pride of his body; his salute to his dear treasured brother. Of course Marco and Thatch whipped their heads to look at said tattoo and had two different reactions. Marco a gasp like sound of surprise, and Thatch in an uproarious laughter. Marco's was obvious, he was thinking that Ace was blind so why the hell did he trust someone to tattoo his skin? And Thatch's was just as obvious to Ace cause it was a common response, thinking that the tattoo guy misspelled his name.

"Before you ask no it isn't misspelled; I had it made this way for a good reason. And no, I am not going to tell you why that is." Ace spoke curtly, his face changing from being expressive to being stony, obviously there was a story there and Marco was keen to attempt and drag it out of the fire user. But not here, and certainly not with anyone around, so Marco did what he does best, deflected the conversation.

"Well then. Since pops needs to see me why don't you introduce Ace to everyone, Thatch, yoi?" sexy voice say what now? Walking around a strange deck, with the creepily happy guy, and being introduced to people who were his enemy? No thanks.

But of course before Ace could say no to such a ridiculous idea, the strange guy said no problems and dragged Ace up the flight of stair and onto the deck, completely disregarding the fire surrounding Ace. Obviously the man didn't seem to remember the last time Ace disagreed with his statement. A little…renewal of that lesson seemed like a great idea to the teen.

But before he could amp up the flames and burn the asshole, Ace was assaulted by voices and noise, and so much movement, that he froze completely. His body going taut and his fire spread, creating an almost unbearable heat about a foot out of his body, like a makeshift shield. Said heat made Thatch release the youngster and back up at the same time, looking at Ace like he had three heads instead of one.

Well Thatch didn't know Ace was blind, so he wouldn't know that a sudden assault of the senses could cripple him even more than he already was. Ace just needed a few minutes. Of which it seemed he was granted as the deck seemed to fall completely silent at Ace's appearance. Most likely due to the fire more than anything, it was, after all, a wooden ship. Most pirated do freak out at the sight of fire when they are out on the open sea.

Hmph. Amateurs. Like Ace couldn't control where his flames and what they lit on fire. If not, many people would be dead or at least fatally burned. How else was Ace supposed to know what people looked like without letting his fire touch them?

While Ace was off in Lala Land, the rest of the Whitebeards got back to business, except one in particular.

A certain feminine man made his way over to the duo. His dark hair done up in a perfect geisha do, his face pale highlighted by the bright red lipstick on his lips. His purple kimono flowed with every step, showing off his pair of pistols every time the light fabric fluttered out from his well-toned body; the even clicks coming from his geta were quite loud on the still mostly silent deck. The sound easily stirred Ace from his internal mutterings.

"Well, well, Thatch. Who on earth is this rather fine-looking man you have here?" his voice was light and sweet, and if Ace could see he would be convinced that said man was a woman. But Ace could feel that the light-voiced man was in fact a male. Before Thatch could answer though, Ace took an initiative, for the first time since he has been on this ship.

Ace stepped closer to the man, his fire reaching out to encircle the other's feet, being careful not to actually touch the man in case Ace freaked out again and accidently burned the man. Better be careful for now until he could get another shot at Whitebeard.

"My name is Ace, more commonly known as Fire Fist." Ace introduced himself with as little information as he could get away and offered his hand to the light man. Mostly because if he didn't the other most likely would when he said his name, and Ace didn't want to give out any clues to his secret…well one of them anyway.

"A pleasure, Ace. My name is Izou, I am the commander of the 16th division of the Whitebeard pirates." Izou's voice was certainly pleasant to the ear, not as delectable as Marco's but not as abrasive as Thatch's. What a nice change. The man's hand was also quite soft, despite the numerous callouses Ace felt.

They sort of just stood there, their hands clasped, Thatch looking between the two like something profound was going to happen, Ace's fire jumping with minor excitement, slightly touching the colorful kimono. This snapped the other man out of their one-sided staring match, because Ace's fire wasn't cool right now, it was not on full blast but it was still hot.

"You burn this kimono and I will throw you overboard. I know you devil users sink like stones, and I will make sure no one saves you." Well that's a little harsh.

"Don't worry. I can control what my fire does and doesn't burn. Your kimono is safe." Ace spoke in bored tones, as if he didn't just admit that he could his control his flame to such an extent as choosing what is burnt and what isn't.

"Really? Does that mean you could burn someone's clothes but leave their body unharmed?" Ace was about to reply with an affirmative but Izou ignored that and just kept speaking. "How kinky." And Ace was flushing again. Should of figured there would be something off about the guy, he was a Whitebeard after all.

"I don't use my flames that way." Ace was offended, why on earth would he use his fire in such an embarrassing manor?

"Pity." Izou drawled, his voice deepening slightly as he leered at the more muscular man standing slightly behind Ace, almost as if the younger were a shield. How odd.

Before Ace or Thatch could respond to the man's words said man sauntered off, swinging his hips suggestively for his onlookers. Which would only be Thatch, but hell, Izou didn't know that. Thatch shuddered a bit at the show, and Ace turned to face his "guide" hoping to get this over so he could go back to the room they allotted him and bask in his fire for a while. Being around this many sensations was too much effort.

"I think Izou is trying to get in my pants." Thatch said, and it completely threw Ace off guard. That was not what the fire wielder was expecting in the least. And it showed on the expression on Ace's face, considering Thatch's immediate words.

"Don't look at me like that. Plenty of men on this ship swing that way, I just don't know if I could find it in myself to even try it." The man was in denial. Yep. Ace could tell by his voice, he did want the light-voiced man; the bigger man just didn't want to say anything. Well Ace wasn't going to comment on it, he didn't really care, he wasn't going to get to know anyone on this ship. And Thatch seemed to get that, as he swung his arm around Ace's neck, one again disregarding said youth's flames. He was gonna get terribly burnt one of these days and Ace wouldn't even bat an eyelash.

Thatch started gesturing to certain people around the deck, saying their names and their divisions but Ace was hardly paying attention. He obviously couldn't see the people the bigger man was motioning to so why even waste his time?

Instead Ace decided to try his hand at being sneaky and spread his flames as thin as he could and sent them out over the deck, trying to keep them almost invisible so he could map out the deck in his mind's eye. It was a bit difficult considering he couldn't even see the fire so how would he know if someone else could? Oh well, it was good practice either way.

Ace was actually enjoying this a bit. Thatch's deep voice easily covering all the other noise on deck so Ace's ears didn't hurt and could actually focus on what he was doing. It was, dare he think it, rather nice. Until of course Ace found a rather grandiose door, tall, thick, and menacing. Where does this go, he wondered to himself.

Ace didn't have to wonder long, the door slammed open almost as soon as he found it. And out came a ginormous figure he would have recognized the feel of anywhere.

The rage came swiftly and Ace was too clouded by it to notice that beside the figure was the soothing sexy Marco. No all Ace could think about was proving himself better than his asshole of a father, and proving that he was better than the man who helped conceive him.

"My sons! Let us welcome our newest member! Fire Fist Ace! Gurararara!"

TBC

Oh my gosh that took forever. Started it at like 7 and didn't finish until 2:30 . had a lot to write~ My dear Setsu pointed out that I was compensating for the previous short chapter but I'm not~ I just write more when I actually am interested in what I am writing~ filler is uninteresting for me to write XD

Now don't expect me to update every day~ I have two 8 hour shifts this week, 3 full days of school, then I am out of town~ so I prolly won't get the next chapter up until Thursday at the earliest, even if I do write while I am at work XP

I hope y'all enjoy this~ I wrote it for you people~ And again don't hesitate to ask me questions~ I don't bite~ I promise~

Much love ^3^