Valkyria : Enjoy the latest chapter of In Loving Memory.

Disclaimer : I claim no rights to the anime/manga One Piece

Current Song : Make You Mine - Crystal Kay.


"With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable." - Thomas Buxton.

Chapter Four : Flames of Remembrance.

The smell of the sea, the burning of heat of the sun and the gentle sea breeze did nothing to distract Ace from the object of his affections currently his arms.

"Are you going to let me go sometime soon, Ace? My legs are falling asleep."

"In a minute, can't you just enjoy the moment, Luffy?"

"What moment?" Luffy squirmed in his arms. "My legs are falling asleep."

With a disappointed, yet fond sigh, Ace released his husband watched with a grin as Luffy walked around, stumbling once, to get movement in his legs again. Sometimes, he still can't believe he got married, but he wouldn't deny that he loved every moment of it.

"Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we take a vacation?"

"Vacation?" Ace grinned at the enthusiastic, hopeful expression Luffy was wearing. "We're pirates Luffy. Every single day should feel like a vacation."

"You're Captain, Ace!" Luffy pouted and Ace resisted the urge to reach down to kiss those lips. Those damn pouts always did him in.

"Yes, I'm captain." Ace gave Luffy a full tooth grin. "So?"

"You can sit around here and give orders all day if you want." Luffy pointed to himself. "I have to keep your ships in maintenance. All forty-six of them."

"No, you don't." Ace chuckled. "I made sure there was an engineer on every ship to keep it in tact. You just have to watch over the Moby Dick and the others."

"Little good that does." Luffy's eye twitched. "I'm constantly getting messages about something breaking down and I have to take a small boat to check it out. I can't even sit down and relax for a hour-"

"You're relaxing now." Ace interrupted.

"And I'm always running around fixing their mistakes." Luffy continued. "I want to go somewhere."

"Where?"

"We're going?"

"No, but I'm curious about what and where you think a vacation is."

"Fireworks Island."

Ace's brow furrowed. "Fireworks Island? Why there?"

"The annual fireworks festival, of course!"

Ace stared at Luffy for a moment. It had been a while since they went anywhere and Luffy did work hard hopping from ship to ship everyday.

"Alright-" Ace quickly held up a hand when a beaming smile broke out on Luffy's face. "You have to be the one to tell Nami we're changing course."

"What! Ace! That's not fair. No fair!"

"I'm not going to tell her." Ace chuckled when Luffy jumped in front of him, frantically waving his arms. "I'm the Captain and I'm scared of her. Sometimes."

Luffy snorted. "Yeah, sometimes."

"Well?" Ace crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you waiting for?"

"I don't want to tell her."

"And yet you want to go?"

"You're the Captain, Ace. You tell her."

"I don't want to."

"I can make you tell her, you know." Luffy stared up at him with a determined glint in his eye that made Ace aroused and worried all at once.

"Oh really? And how's that going to happen, hmm?"

"No sex."

Ace's eye twitched. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Luffy repeated, wearing a wicked grin. "No. Sex."

"I really wish you would try to do that, Luffy. You would give out before I did."

"I would not! You jump me everyday when we go to bed-" Ace reached forward and clamped his hand over Luffy's mouth. But the damage had already been done. Ace heard the laughter and snickers of his crew. Turning, he shot them all glares which made them quickly return to their assigned tasks.

Bunch of bastards.

"We'll both go tell her, alright?" Ace took his hand away from Luffy's mouth. "Why do you have to be so loud?"

"You like it when I'm-"

"Luffy!"

Luffy snickered, wrapping an arm around Ace's waist. "Thank you, Ace! You'll love Fireworks Island."

"I'm sure I will, Luffy. I'm sure I will."

Ace blinked when the sky suddenly turned dark, narrowing his eyes, he looked around to see all of his crew gone.

"What the hell...?"

"Ace."

Hearing the fear in Luffy's voice, Ace looked down into his husband's eyes. "Luffy? Wha-" Ace gasped sharply when he saw Luffy slowly disappearing. "Luffy!"

"I'm sorry, Ace. I'm so sorry."

"Luffy!" Ace reached forward to place his hands around the smaller man only to have them faze right through. "No, no, no, no, It's gonna be okay, Luffy. I promise." he tried again, desperately trying to get some hold on his smaller husband.

"Ace-"

"It's going to be alright, Luffy, you'll see-"

"Ace, wake up."

"What?"

"Wake up, Ace!"

"ACE! WAKE UP!"

"Luffy! No!" Ace cried out, shooting up on the bed, frantically looking around. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Marco staring down at him with a blank expression.

"Alright?" Marco asked, stepping back.

"Yeah," Ace ran a hand through his sweat matted hair. "What is it? Something wrong?"

"Not really, just wanted to talk for a bit." Marco dragged a chair from Ace's desk, sitting down. "About Luffy."

Ace tensed. "What about Luffy?"

"You need to be prepared, Ace." Marco stated bluntly. "You need to be prepared-"

"For when Luffy comes home," Ace threw the blankets off and placed his head in his hands. "It's only been a week, Marco."

"Yeah, I know, but you need to come to terms with the fact that there is a fifty percent chance Luffy is dead. I don't want you to get your hopes up is all."

"Yeah." Ace looked down at the simple gold ring on his finger. "Yeah, I know,"

Marco sighed heavily and Ace heard the scraping of the chair before the weight of the bed gave away. Looking up, he saw Marco staring down at him.

"I'm not trying to say we should stop looking, Ace." Marco said quietly. "I just don't want you to get hurt, eh? I don't want you to look in Torino Kingdom, Centaurea or Baterilla and find yourself disheartened or disappointed when there's no sign of Luffy."

"I would rather live with being disappointed. It's better than giving up and always wondering if Luffy is on one of these islands."

"Alright then," Marco rose from the bed and clamped a hand on Ace's shoulder. "We're headed towards Torino Kingdom and if we don't find him there we'll go to Baterilla. We'll look for as long as possible, yeah?"

Ace grinned, a bit weakly, in the face of Marco's enthusiam. "Yeah."


Antaeus closed his eyes in pleasure as the sea breeze brushed against his face and the sounds of the gentle waves caressed his ears. The warmth of the sun bearing down on his skin was merely a good bonus.

For the last three days, Antaeus found himself spending several hours at the beach after he finished his shift at the library with Robin. He sometimes found himself resisting the temptation of spending the night here, but he knew doing that would only worry Robin.

All of these hours at the beach started after his latest memory flash, which lasted much longer and gave him more of a clear picture. In it, he saw himself sitting down at a small dock with the same man in his previous flashes. This time around he was also given a clear picture of what the man looked like.

Heat rushed to Antaeus face as he allowed himself to remember the man's features. Deep dark eyes, high cheekbones and freckles which didn't make him look childish at all. If anything, it fit him perfectly.

Opening his eyes, Antaeus lowered his head so the rim of his straw hat would protect his eyes from the sun. He wondered who the man was? family? friend? or a lover? He hoped it was a lover or a close friend because the path his thoughts were trailing it would be disappointing and a little sick if the man was family.

Speaking of which, maybe it would be better if he gave the mysterious man a name? Antaeus placed a hand on his chin in thought.

Alex? No, that sounded too boring.

Marcellus? Antaeus grinned, it still didn't fit, but the name meant "Defense of the Sea." so it would have to do.

Staring out into the sea, Antaeus frowned when he spotted two ships coming towards the island. Taking a step forward, he narrowed eyes in an effort to see the flag, but it was still too far away. He wondered who they were?

"Antaeus! You here?"

Hearing the sound of his name, Antaeus turned around and saw Sabo and Drake coming down the steps that lead to the beach. His heart dropped when he saw how pale and worried they looked.

"What's going on?"

"No time to explain, those bastards are coming."

Antaeus turned back to the sea to see that the ships were inching closer. "Who are they?"

"Blackbeard." Sabo growled. "I don't have time to explain, get your ass in gear, Anteaus. We have to get you out of here."

"But-"

"Now, Antaeus," Drake commanded sharply. "Sabo and I have no idea what they're going to do and we don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not a child." Antaeus snapped. "I don't need to be coddled."

"We're not trying to coddle you, dammit!" Sabo roared, grabbing his arm. "We're trying to stop you from getting killed-"

The booming sound of cannon fire fazed out the rest of Sabo's words, Antaeus reached up and covered his ears as the cannon fired again.

"Antaeus! Come on!" Antaeus felt hands grab his arms but a pirecing pain exploded at the back of his head, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Hey-"

Blood, fire, smoke and the sounds of dying screams. The sound of wood being destroyed all around him. What was happening?

"Come on! We have to get you off this ship or your husband is going to burn me alive!"

Husband? Who's husband? His?

"Hey! Hurry! The Marines are closing in."

Marines? What did marines want with him?

The flashes came to a halt and Antaeus found himself back on the beach with Sabo frantically screaming in his face.

"Oh, fucking finally! Get up, we have to go, right now!"

Still reeling from the flashback, Antaeus felt himself being tugged towards the stairs only to be blown back when stray cannon fire hit the sand.

"Shit!" Sabo grabbed him again and pushed him towards the stairs. "Hurry, you have to-"

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A couple of locals on the beach?"

With a chill running down his spine, Antaeus slowly turned around to see a tall man with beady eyes standing with three men behind him.

Antaeus didn't need his instincts to tell him that the man standing before him was Blackbeard.

He vaguely wondered how a day could go from peaceful to pure hell in such a short time?


A/N : End of Chapter Four.