Chapter 4

One Year Later...

The night was dark, and not a star in sight. The moon's beauty was hidden behind the thick layers of the clouds that formed. The sea was calm, and everything was quiet; a bit too quiet.

A yellow haired man was standing on watch this night. His eyes were wide and alert. Suddenly a soft gust of wind blew past him, caressing his tanned skin. It was abnormal. The nearby trees had not moved, neither had the flag that bore the crew's mark. Indeed, this was peculiar.

To the untrained nothing would have seemed out of place, but the scent of an unfamiliar vanilla and ginger lingered in the air, and light nimble footsteps could be heard. Slowly he got up, yawning and stretching like he was preparing for bed. He made his was down the hallway, turning a corner, and then another. Unexpectedly, a fist of fire aimed at the wall, right where the intruder's head had been.

"Oi." A crew member yelled, distracting the young pirate.

It was enough to allow them to escape. They ducked and ran past many of the other unaware and half-awake crew members. The figure turned, heading straight to where all of their loot was. The crew ran after them, but their delay gave the thief ample time to escape.

As everyone entered the room, with weapons in their hand and their devil-fruits prepared, the intruder turned.

"Stop immediately, you are surrounded." shouted one of the shipwrights of the ship.

A light chuckle emitted from the girl. Her lips curled upwards, and as she grinned, dimples formed in her rosy cheeks from under her hood.

"It would seem as if I am." Her voice smooth like velvet.

"Do you know who we are?" Growled one of the crewmen, angry that she was laughing in their faces.

"I would be an idiot if I stole from people I didn't know about."

"And yet you still tried to steal from us." another said, thoroughly intrigued with this mysterious girl.

"Tried?" She laughed louder, making them even angrier, "No, no sweetie pie, I am going to steal from you, quite successfully too."

Before anyone could react, she became a blue mist that covered the room until only the Cheshire grin on her cheeks remained. When it vanished, she had, as well as everything in the room.

"What the hell happened just now?" asked a very angry, but slightly intrigue pirate ask as he stormed out of the room to see if he could spot the girl.

Everyone followed behind him, wanting not only their loot, but to make sure their crewmate didn't do something stupid. Low and behold, as they made their way onto the deck, not a soul could be seen.

"Shit," one growled, "How are we gonna explain this to the captain?"

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The moment they saw the remainder of their crew dash down with angered looks on their faces, they knew something was wrong. These were the few that decided to stay back to restock before joining them, but they took longer than usual, and were extremely pissed off.

"Is something wrong?" one crew asked, gaining the attention of the others that were not too drunk.

"Some chick stole all of our loot." Another growled, drawing his swords, "I say we hunt the wench down."

"What?" everyone shrieked.

They were the most formidable pirates on the sea. Who in their right minds would even think about stealing from them?

"What did she look like?" Thatch asked, causing some to roll their eyes.

"Long blue hair, pale skin..."

At this instant, the former Spade Pirates' eyes widened. All of them thought of one specific girl, and as their crewmate continued to describe her, the possibility of them being the same person grew.

"...And she left in this weird blue mist thing."

Instantly, Ace cackled loudly, drawing the attention of his brothers. It could only be one person in his mind, the same girl that he hadn't seen for almost a year now.

"What's so funny, kid. This was your loot too."

His attitude was confusing for those that weren't originally apart of his crew. No one knew his connection to this mysterious thief, nor the character of the thief like he did. He was sure that this entire thing was a prank on his behalf.

"It's nothing, it's just I didn't think she would be so bold."

"You know this girl, son?" Whitebeard ask.

He became intrigued. Many of the affairs of his newest crewmate before joining the crew still went unknown. He had only recently began opening himself up enough to talk to majority of the crew, a process which had taken months. He was bursting with both pride and curiosity at the willingness of his son to share a bit of his past with both himself and the crew.

"Yeah, Ches couldn't hurt a soul. She probably just stole it to prank me or something. It will be back in the morning."

Thatch rubbed his chin in thought, "So we have nothing to worry about."

"Nope."

Marco looked at the other Spades Pirates for confirmation, but they all had mixed reactions. Some nooded, but a good number were uncomfortable. They had only encountered the girl once, but her reputation as a notorious thief rung amuck. While she was on board the former Spades' ship, they were unable to interact with the girl for the short period of time that she was around.

"I mean, she and Cap'n are real close and she never stole from us per say..." one started.

"...Yeah, but she's a thief..."

"...And there was this one time she pinned us to a tree."

Ace glared at his old crew, causing them to shut up instantly before turning his attention to his captain. They knew that their ex-captain was incredibly fond of the girl, despite her reputation. This had been the only reason the vast majority of them had not bothered her when she was with them, however, precautions are precautions and they didn't trust her.

"If she doesn't, I'll personally find her." he stated with such conviction in his voice, a bit annoyed with the negative reactions.

Whitebeard rubbed his chin in thought, "Alright, but even if she does, I want to meet this brat you speak so highly of."

Ace smiled. He knew his captain would believe him.

"Sure thing, Pops."

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"And here I thought the 'World's Strongest Man' would have the world's strongest security." Cheshire said running a hand through her hair.

It was way too easy to steal from the pirates, and even though they had a fast reaction time to being under attack, it wasn't as quick as she would have expected. The WHitebeard Pirates had gotten cocky with power. They clearly believed that no one would attack the main ship, with the bulk of the pirates on board, yet it happened. In fact, had she been on a mission to kill, they would have regretted being so laid back.

'Perhaps these were some of the newbies.' she thought hopefully.

Her room was filled to the brim with gold coins, gems and other loot, which was becoming a bit annoying to an extent. She had never been in the presence of so much money, and it was putting her on a high adrenalin rush. Everywhere she turned, there was gold, jewels and treasure; even in the bathtub. Although she felt incredibly rich, it wasn't worth having yet another powerful enemy after her. Besides, Whitebeard was one of the few pirates she respected. He was a good man that gave back and protected those that couldn't protect themselves.

"I'll have to carry this crap back." she stated a bit irritated, before smirking at a bounty poster on her wall, "I guess we met again after all..."

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She gracefully walked across the deck, blue mist surrounding the entire ship. She hopped over the knocked out bodies of the drunk crewmates, and gently smiled at them. Never before had she seen such a closely knitted group of people, nevertheless pirates.

As she made her way to the storage unit of the ship, her mist began to spread, dropping large bags of loot into the compartment. She never knew how annoying so much treasure could be until she stole all of the Whitebeards'. It was even a hassle to bring back.

"So he was right, yoi." She heard from behind her.

Cheshire turned, her blue hair swaying around her. Before her stood a blonde man that she had only seen in picture, but it was easy to see that it was indeed him. His blonde hair was styled in a way that reminded her much of a pineapple, and his lazy eyes and relaxed posture was the same as she had always seen.

"Marco The Pheonix," Cheshire stated, folding her arms, "Can't say I expected you to talk to me so idly."

"Because you're a thief, yoi?"

"Partially, " she began, walking around him and eyeing him up and down, "But mainly because of what you Whitebeard pirates did... Or didn't do."

Marco raised and eyebrow, obviously confused and wanted the girl to elaborate more. It was clear that she had some sort of grudge against his family. He couldn't say that this was abnormal. People tended to blame others for thing out of their control to ease the pain. Being the strongest pirate crew alive made them the easiest targets.

"Nothing. If you don't know, I don't know either. " Cheshire spat venomously. She then turned to scan the area, "So where would my most tolerable pirate be?"

The entire purpose of this trip was for one person alone. She could already imagine the raven-haired man's reaction to her appearance. It was something she both dreaded and awaited seeing.

Once again Marco raised an eyebrow, "You mean Ace, yoi? Second door to the left on the first floor. "

"Thanks, Pineapple Head." she stated walking off, relishing in Marco's annoyed grumble.

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Ace gently snored in his sleep as he laid on his back, limbs spread widely on the bed. He then turned over, cuddling the warmth next to him. Even in his sleep he admired the familiar scent. Was it vanilla? Ginger? Both? After a brief moment, he came to his senses. He didn't fall asleep with anyone. Opening his eyes, be saw familiar blue tresses laying across his arm, their owner in a deep, peaceful sleep.

"Cheshire?" he muttered sleepily.

She stirred slightly at the sudden disturbance of the peace before prying one eye open.

"Shh, I'm trying to sleep and you're making this hard for me." she grumbled, snuggling closer, "You're really warm."

Not knowing what to do, he froze a bit, feeling his face getting warm. A girl had never been this close to him before. He made sure to stay far away from them after Makino decided to have the talk with him. However, Cheshire was making it extremely hard for him to concentrate. Her hair was tickling his chest and arms, even brushing his nose as she squirmed to find a comfortable spot in his arms. Ace was sure she could feel how tense his muscles were, and how uncomfortable she was making him.

"Relax Ace," she said groggily, "You're a pirate, I know for sure that you've had tons of women in your bed before. Just think of me as one of them"

He most certainly did not want to do that. Her words didn't do anything to make him relax, if anything they made him even more wary, especially when she turned. Her chest rubbed against his forearm that draped across her bare stomach where her shirt rode up. What put the icing on the cake was her backside touching his pelvis area. It gently grinded against him in a way he was extremely uncomfortable with. Cheshire had also grown since that last time they saw each other. She was becoming less and less of the girl he met fixing her roof. Her curves were more developed, her hair was longer, but she still had those mischievous eyes no matter how much turmoil tried to cloud them.

Luckily and unluckily for Ace, the door to his room slammed open. His brothers dashed into the room, wide smiles on their faces.

"Ace, you were right she brought back our-" Thatch paused, taking in the scene before him, "-What's going on here?"

Immediately, the remainder of his brothers stuck their head into the door. After examining the situation, wide grins would spread across their faces, and loud chatter soon followed, most of which was extremely inappropriate.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, " Cheshire moaned, sitting up, causing the strap of her shirt to fall on her shoulder and the hem of her shirt to rise even more until it was above her stomach. This did not help poor Ace one bit, "I'm up, I'm up, I'm up. Can't a girl catch a break?"

Yawning, she got out of bed and threw on her boots and sat on Ace's bed as he tried to calm down his brothers. All of them had the wrong idea of what was happening in their head, and he needed to clarify things before they got too out of hand. In all honesty, he needed a distraction from the girl before him.

"So are you not going introduce us to this dear lady, Ace?" Haruta asked, fanning himself.

"I'm Cheshire." she stated, swiveling around Ace to take a look at his brothers, "Nice bunch of pirates you've got here, Ace."

Ace shook his head, "Still hate pirates I see."

This resulted in various reactions from the other pirates.

"Well I don't like thieves."

"Why?"

"I don't care. We're great."

"She's just jealous."

"If you don't like us then why are you here?"

Ignoring them, she shook her head, "Nope. Hate is a strong word. I merely dislike them with a passion. I hate Marines."

A loud laugh echoed throughout the halls of the ship, all of them turned to see their captain standing there, watching their reaction with a bit more of the crew behind him looking curiously.

"I like you brat." he laughed.

Then he began again, "You should join us."

"What?!"