Eventually, Ace and Luffy went away from the party, deciding that they needed to talk.

Ace and Luffy just sat on the cliff looking at the ocean for a while, just enjoying each other's company for a bit. This was one of the few times where Luffy didn't mind if it was quiet, normally he hated it, but at the moment... he was just happy to be with his big brother after not seeing him for three years. It was Ace that finally broke the silence.

"I'd almost forgotten how quiet and peaceful the East can be. I've been in the New World for so long... it's funny, even though we're here on business, it doesn't feel like it. Must be because this is my home sea. Despite... everything that happened." He finished softly.

Luffy just hummed quietly, an image of Sabo running through the forest and laughing with the two of them, followed by Sabo being led away by those stupid High Town guards. "You should visit before you head back, Makino and Dadan really miss you. Even if Dadan will never admit it." He replied. "You still have people here who care about you, no matter what you might think." Ace just glanced down and stared for a minute before smiling. He didn't see this side of Luffy often, when he did he made sure to listen.

"I just might do that... I'd have to talk to Marco about it first though. We are on here on mission after all and now we have prisoners to keep track of." Ace said, but he was thinking about the destruction of Arlong Park. Despite what he said earlier to Marco and the others about Luffy being destructive, he usually didn't bring down entire buildings like that unless something was really bothering him.

"Say, Luffy." He waited until the boy looked up and hummed to show he was listening. "Why did you tear the building down like that? I mean, I know he was the enemy and all, but... you don't usually go on a rampage like that."

In answer, Luffy took a pen out of his pocket and just handed it to him, saying, "This was in the room where he forced Nami to draw her maps for him for the past eight years."

One look, and Ace knew.

This pen had blood on it. This pen belonged to one of Luffy's friends. One of his Nakama. The blood was hers.

Oh.

If there was one thing the brothers were known for back on their home island, even back when Sabo was still with them, it was for making anybody who hurt somebody they cared about seriously regret it. Throughout the Grey Terminal, people knew that if you touched one of the two brothers, you better hide, and fast. Or you may as well be dead. Entire clearings had been made and piles of trash destroyed by one of the brothers rampages when they were searching for whoever it was to hurt the other. They weren't called the Demon Brats of Mt. Corbo for nothing.

And Arlong had hurt Nami. Now Ace was wishing they didn't have to deliver Arlong to Jinbe in one piece, he was already not happy with the shark over the injuries Luffy had from the fight. Ace may have just met Nami, but he considered his brothers Nakama to be his Nakama. Provided that they took good care of his kid brother of course.

"Man, now I kinda wish you left something for me to destroy. You've gotten stronger since I left, little brother. I mean, tearing down piles of trash is one thing, but a tower made out of stone like that?" Ace whistled. "I can't wait to see how big they put your starting bounty out as. I mean, Arlong was the biggest bounty in the East Blue, not to mention the other big names you took down the past few weeks."

Luffy BEAMED at the praise. He could have outshone the sun if he wanted to. Ace smiled, "Of course, probably not as big as mine was starting out," he just couldn't resist the teasing. It was just too easy!

"WHAAAATT?! Ace, you meanie, my bounty is so gonna be bigger than yours!" Luffy shouted, standing up and towering over his seated brother. Ace just started laughing, his baby brother hadn't changed at all in the past three years! After a minute of glaring, and pouting, Luffy started to laugh with him, eventually falling back down to lean into his big brothers side. Ace just smiled and wrapped a protective arm around his shoulders.

After a few more minutes of silence, Luffy decided to ask the question that had been bugging him since being told his brother sailed under another's flag now. Last he checked, his brother had major trust issues, and he definitely didn't like following orders. He had a feeling he knew the reason, but just to make sure...

"Hey, Ace? Why did you join the Whitebeards? I thought you said you would never sail under another?"

Ace smiled. He knew this would come up. "Whitebeard gave me a family. Somewhere to call home. They'll never replace you or Sabo, nobody can... but... I don't know. Being with them, kinda feels like being back on Mt. Corbo with the two of you. Ya know, belonging somewhere. I'm... proud... to call him my father."

Luffy just smiled. Yup, that's what he had thought. And considering the issues Ace had with his dad... for him to willingly and proudly call anybody his father was, well, huge. He was already resolving to thank Whitebeard somehow for that.

"But enough of all that, what have you been up to stuck on the island these past three years?" Ace asked.

Luffy just grinned mischievously. Ace immediately felt sorry for whoever had gotten beat up the past few years. "Beat up a few people in the terminal, robbed a few nobles stupid enough to be out near the gates, oh! I had to get better at hunting, all the meat started running away at the sight of me." He starting pouting at the thought of all the meat running. "Dined and dashed a few more times... its kinda hard to get into those places when it's just you... but one of the things I lifted off the nobles was a crest, so..."

Ace smirked and shook his head, "The usual trouble then?"

Luffy nodded. "Oh yeah! I also beat up one of the other bandit families, they went to Makino's bar and tore the place apart, hurt Makino, and stole a lot of her sake. I got most of it back for her though, they didn't have a chance to drink it all." Ace turned his head to stare at his little brother.

That was... different.

All the bandits usually avoided causing trouble in Foosha, they knew that the old man was there a lot, they knew that Garp was in the Party Bar a lot. They had to have known that if Garp heard of something like that...

But instead it was Luffy to have heard of it. "Well, I guess now the bandits on the mountain know why we were so feared in the Terminal, huh." Ace mused out loud. Luffy smirked. "But still, what were they thinking attacking the Party Bar like that? Didn't they know how much Garp visited the island? Morons." Luffy just hummed in agreement. "So, who was it exactly? Anyone I know of or were they new to the area?"

"It was that family on the other side of the mountain, that guy with the weird hair and big nose. I don't remember what they were called. He's the one that Dadan was always complaining about that took her targets and stuff." Luffy said.

Ace ahh'd. That guy. Yeah, he was an idiot alright.

"So, what about you, any cool adventures?" Luffy asked, almost bouncing up and down from his position under Ace's arm. Ace laughed and sighed fondly. His kid brother, he pitied the world now that the ball of energy that was Monkey D Luffy was set loose upon it. He really hoped the Strawhats were up to the challenge.

For the next few hours, Ace told story after story of his adventures on the seas, either with his old crew, or with his new siblings on the Moby Dick. Neither pirate noticed when Marco found them, stood and watched for a minute, smiled and walked away. Nor did they notice when members of Luffy's crew did the same.

"...By then of course, the paint was dry and Marco..." He was cut off by a soft snore from the boy next to him. He shook his head in exasperation, but smiled fondly. This was not the first time Luffy fell asleep to a good story after all. If Luffy really wanted to hear the end of it later he would come bug him about it then. He usually did, assuming he remembered he was being told a story.

Careful not to disturb Luffy, Ace laid back so he could watch the stars, with Luffy asleep with his head on his shoulder. The next morning, when Marco and the Strawhats went to find the two, they found the two brothers asleep with Ace wrapped around his little brother protectively, just like when they were younger.

The crew and Marco watched for a few minutes before glancing around at each other, shaking their heads, and again walking away.


Back at the party after Luffy and Ace left...

At some point into the party, the Arlong crew woke up, and they were not happy about being tied up while the weak humans they used to rule partied around them. After first mocking that the humans thought that mere ropes could hold them, trying and failing to break them and then just looking like a bunch of idiots for trying, Marco walked up with a transponder snail in hand. One that was currently connected to Jinbe.

"They're on old friend." Marco said into it, while the Arlong Pirates just stared at him wondering when he got there and why he was talking into a transponder snail like somebody wanted to talk to them. They got their answer when they heard Jinbe's voice coming from the snail. And their former captain was not happy with them.

"WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU WERE DOING!? HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY JUSTIFY WHAT YOU DID AS BEING OK, OR RIGHT? THOSE HUMANS PROBABLY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW FISHMEN EXISTED, AND THEN YOU SHOW UP AND GIVE THEM EVERY REASON TO HATE OUR PEOPLE WHERE BEFORE THEY HAD NONE! YOU BETTER HOPE MARCO AND ACE TAKE THEIR TIME RETURNING YOU TO ME BECAUSE WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON ALL OF YOU...!"

While most of the fishmen were cringing at the sound of their angry ex-captain, they had never heard him lose his temper before, those who had still been partying after the fishmen woke up stopped what they were doing to stare over at the sight of their oppressors cowed by whoever was on the other end of the line.

Arlong was not as cowed as the rest of them though. "Jinbe, the traitor to our race, the human-lover. These humans were pathetic weaklings, who would have only hated and enslaved us. Humans were born to hate us, because we are superior-"

"No, Arlong. We are not superior to humans. We are different. Difference does not equal superiority. They were not born to hate us either, nobody is born to hate, they learn hatred as a result of others actions. Your actions, Arlong, have taught them to hate fishmen. Just because a few humans enslave and hate us, does not mean ALL humans enslave and hate us. Nor does a few enslaving us give us the right to start enslaving them. That just brings us down to their level and I will not stand for it. That's not what I've worked for all these years." Jinbe sighed. "That's not what our queen was working towards either."

"It doesn't matter what she was working for, it's because of the humans that she's dead! It's because of the humans that Tiger is dead!" Arlong yelled, only for Jinbe to yell back.

"And their last words were to not hate the humans! The more we act in hatred, the more they will hate us, and the cycle will never end! The cycle must break if our people are to survive and be free!" A few of the Arlong Pirates nudged Arlong when he opened his mouth to keep arguing, they knew it was pointless. When Arlong didn't respond, Jinbe sighed and started speaking to the villagers surrounding the captive pirates.

"On behalf of our King, I would like to apologize for everything Arlong put you through the past few years, as well as to apologize for my own blindness, if I had known sooner, this would not have gone on as long as it did. The blame for this rests ultimately with me-" Here he had to ignore Marco's sounds of frustration that his friend was blaming himself for Arlong's actions. "-if I had not bargained for their freedom from prison those years ago... *sigh* At any rate, you can expect workers from Fishman Island to arrive within the next few weeks with building supplies, to help you rebuild what Arlong destroyed. I have spoken with our King and he has agreed that as it was a fishman, it is only right... please do not fear them, they will only be there to help. We beg that you do not consider all fishmen to like Arlong, every race has its... bad apples... I guess you could say."

Nami's eyes had widened when she heard that the King of Fishman Island was sending workers to help rebuild. She had not been expecting that, she had been expecting all fishmen, the King especially, to be kind of like Arlong in their hatred for humans. Guess Jinbe had a point when he said that Arlong was a 'bad apple'.

It was Genzo that stepped forward to address the fishman on the other end of the snail, "We will accept your kings generous aid, however, you should warn your people not to take anything some of our villagers say to harshly, it has been a difficult few years. It is good, though, to know that not all fishmen are like Arlong here."

"Do not worry about our workers taking offense, our king will have informed them of Arlong's harsh rule. My friend Marco here will be taking Arlong and his men off your hands before the workers arrive, so you will not have to worry about guarding them or them possibly escaping before our people get there... Are the Strawhat Pirates there?" The suddenness of the question caught the mentioned Strawhats off guard for a moment before Zoro, as the unspoken first mate, stepped up to reply since his captain was off who knows where with his brother.

"Our captains not here right now, he's off catching up with his brother... I'm the first mate." Zoro said.

"Ah, I wanted to thank your captain and the rest of you for taking care of Arlong for us. I understand he hurt your navigator badly, and I especially wanted to apologize to her." At that, the crew glanced at Marco, all of them with their eyebrows raised. It was kinda cool really, brand new crew and they were already acting in unison with each other. Marco just shrugged. He had already explained to Jinbe that Arlong had already been taken care of when he and Ace arrived, as well as why these rookies had gotten involved having heard the whole story earlier on in the party.

Nami stepped up when she was mentioned, "It's alright, I mean, I probably never would have met Luffy if I hadn't been off island working, so... it worked out in the end."

Everyone heard the sigh of relief Jinbe let out at her words. Seems he had been rather worried about her attitude in particular towards what happened to her island. Makes sense, really, considering she was probably hurt the worse out of everybody on the island.

When the conversation was over, and the Strawhats had agreed to pass Jinbe's gratitude onto their captain, even though they knew what he would say, the party resumed full force after Marco and Zoro double checked the ropes to make sure that the fishmen's straining earlier hadn't damaged or loosened them. As easy as it would be, none of Strawhats were in the mood to fight them again, and Marco just wasn't in the mood period.

It didn't take them long to knock Arlong and a few of the other more vocal fishmen out again, they just would not stop going on about fishman superiority! Honestly, what part of being tied up by their own captives made them feel superior at that moment? Marco didn't think he would ever know.

After that was done, he decided to go find and check up on Luffy and Ace, what he saw when he found them made him smile. Honestly, you would have had to be deaf and blind and you still could have been able to tell how much these two loved and cared about each other. Just looking at the protective way Ace was holding his brother... he decided to just leave them be. If they wanted food, they knew where the party was. The next couple of hours, he watched the different members of the Strawhat crew head that direction only to come back a few minutes later smiling

The next morning, when he and the Strawhats realized that neither of their companions had joined the party last night, they all went up to check on them. After all, it was unusual for either of them to pass up the chance of getting food, and there was certainly food at the party that was still ongoing.

Nobody expected the sight that greeted them when they walked up to the cliff. Marco found himself wishing for a camera at that moment. This was just too cute, and he never thought he would be considering anything to do with Ace to be cute. This was a side of Ace that he'd never seen before. Sure, he'd seen how Ace could be if one of their family was hurt, Ace could be terrifying in those situations. But that was a commander watching out for his men, sure he considered them family too, but...

But this, this was a big brother protecting his baby brother. Ace and Luffy were both asleep, Luffy with his head resting on Ace's chest, Ace with his arms around Luffy protectively. Luffy had his own arms loosely wrapped around his brother in turn, but that was almost more like how a little kid would cuddle with his teddy bear or something.

As one, each of the spectators looked at each other, each reading the question on each other's faces, 'should we wake them up?' They all glanced at the brothers again, nah. Let them sleep. Sanji was already planning to set some food aside just for the two brothers for later. Nami was wondering if she shouldn't go grab her camera, she thought there should be one in the house somewhere, if not Genzo might have one... one more glance and she decided against it. This was a private moment, one that the great Fire-Fist Ace probably wouldn't appreciate laying around for anybody to potentially see.

As one, everyone turned around and went back to the party. Marco could discuss plans for getting the Arlong Pirates back to Jinbe later... for now he had to figure out if it would be possible to go to another island nearby and buy something they could use to tow the prisoners behind them on...