Disclaimer: Ace fans are usually found to be Zoro fans, as well as Shanks fans (and everyone thinks Mihawk is cool). Haha. But of course, I don't own them or any other One Piece-related characters/plot.

Some comments on my style of writing: I really try hard to get my grammar straight, especially because fanfictions are usually viewed as bad pieces of writing (and because good grammar is the first big step to a good story). So, if any of you find a painfully obvious (or completely hidden) mistake, don't hesitate to laugh at- uh, tell me. I will fix it right away (unless I think it is better the way it is). Thank you.

Oh yeah. Chapter six really was kind of inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean (the new one), as a few of you presumed. My friend and I went to watch it some time ago (I think it should be classified as a Comedy. We were laughing through the whole thing).

That doesn't mean that I suddenly decided to put in some dead pirates because they looked cool (ahem) in the movies! The movie just helped me describe them better (I had always wanted some dead pirates to annoy Mel). Hehehe. Sorry for writing such gross stuff, but it's just so much fun (riiight)!


Friend and Foe

Chapter VII

"Errrgh!"

A frustrated growl came from Mel at the sound of thunder and rain. The now moist smell of rotten carcasses was really not very enjoyable, to say the least. She generally liked rain, but only if she was safely inside a cabin or a room, which meant that she only liked the rain minus the part where you get drenched and catch a cold afterwards.

Ace almost laughed at Mel's irritation but was quickly distracted by the fact that fire wasn't working very well in the sudden heavy rain. Some of his attacks, of course, still worked somewhat since the rain couldn't really stop corpses from exploding. It slowed down the fighting anyway, and Mel wasn't happy to see that there were still quite a lot of undead creatures ready to kill them.

She was still shouting random directions to Ace which was now a lot harder, what with the heavy downpour and occasional peal of thunder.

Naturally, the corpses that got too far into her comfort zone were promptly kicked or thrown overboard by the aggravated woman. It seemed as though she had gotten over her determination not to get into contact with the bodies.

It felt like hours and hours of fighting to Mel, who certainly hadn't had such an experience before, and was steadily receiving more blows than she was dishing out. Her body would be covered all over with nasty bruises as soon as this was over.

Since not all of the corpses really had weapons, they stuck to kicking, punching, and the occasional attempt in throwing Mel overboard. Not that it would have achieved much if they had actually succeeded, since it was very unlikely for her to drown; and nobody got near enough Ace to even touch him properly.


The fighting was of course, not at all dull anymore. By now Mel had become, without even noticing, a big part of the battle. With no weapon whatsoever and not too much skill in offense, she was forced to think of creative ways to avoid getting killed (or thrown into the raging sea).

When she found herself holding a skeletal arm that had come clean off of its owner, she proceeded in using it to whack other corpses until the arm slipped out of her grip and she had to go on with hand-to-hand combat.

She was now adjusting to the fact that bones and skulls rolling around were nothing more than disgusting (and therefore very effective) weapons. It was a lot easier to knock down the enemy with this knowledge, even if randomly flinging around skulls wasn't all that accurate.

Once, Mel managed to somehow hit Ace on the shoulder with one of these spare skulls, thus receiving a frown and a "What was that for?" She grinned apologetically; her aim wasn't much to rely on.

Needless to say, Ace was thoroughly amused at the few glimpses he got of Mel chasing after, or being chased by, invisible beings. The sight of the normally composed girl running around and fighting in a very unladylike manner was more than enough to make him laugh- and the concentrated look of utter disgust on her face was absolutely priceless.

They later figured out that Ace's 'blindness' had probably been caused by the fact that he was a Devil Fruit user, and the corpses had undoubtedly been creatures of the sea. Mel said that this had actually been beneficial to him, since he hadn't been distracted by the fact that he was actually fighting a bunch of dead people.


Then came a time when Mel was seriously out of tricks and was considering a trip over the railing. The corpses, there were still many, were definitely encouraging her to do so by constant attempts on chucking her into the sea. But since she didn't want to do something that evil/dead people would approve of, she decided against it.

The rain poured down on them as if the very sea had turned upside down. They, not to mention the smelly skeletons, were absolutely drenched by the time the moon had come up to loom over the ship.

Tired, hungry, and irritated, Mel finally reached the end of her patience when a corpse she was trying to tear down kicked her. Not that she would have terribly minded (since this had already happened several times), but the force of it sent her toppling straight into a pile of rags and bones.

One dead eyeball stared at her out of a disembodied skull that lay next to her head. Lovely. The rain seemed to be mocking her as she tried to jump up from the most nauseating thing she'd ever fallen into. She yelped when she slipped on the wet, slimy floor and promptly collapsed back unto the heap of nasty now-dead-again pirates.

Later she was very glad that Ace had been too busy wiping out the rest of the enemy to see her. He probably would have teased her about this for years.

In any case, Mel was not at all happy about lying there amongst reeking heaps of death, and finally she decided that her good temper was no longer of any use - after chucking the one eyed skull right at the corpse that had kicked her.

"Alright, that's it." she snarled through gritted teeth, "Go BACK to where ye came from ye-" and then she made a sound halfway between a growl and a bark. Ace told her sometime later that it had sounded like some terrible unworldly curse word.

Surprisingly, everyone froze. Mel blinked, half of her fury blown away by this unexpected reaction. The corpses, those that were still moving, turned to stare at her. She stared right back. Then, suddenly, a round of cheers broke out as the undead pirates cackled maliciously.

"Aye, then. To the bottom of the sea it is!" yelled the captain, who, although he had been the first to attack Ace, had somehow survived. At his command, the rest of the ghostly crew ran off in different directions, away from Ace.

Ace and Mel shared puzzled looks. The ship then suddenly swayed and gave an abrupt jerk that almost sent Mel back into the small mountain of bones. She caught herself just in time and instead stumbled to the railing with Ace rushing to her side.

"We're sinking!" they informed each other in unison. Immediately, a couple of corpses seemed to appear out of nowhere, trying to keep them from escaping. They reached out for Mel who was nearest as she yelped at the sight of them.

Ace then instinctively took her by the waist and pulled her off the ship and unto his boat, which was threatening to sink as well. He wrenched out his dagger and cut the rope that had attached the boat to the ghost ship.

Mel held on to her bag which had miraculously stayed on the boat as they shot off just in time. They could hear wicked laughter echoing from the huge ship rapidly descending into the waves.

As the ship's mast finally disappeared as well, the rain seemed to diminish by the second until it died down and the sea grew calm once more.


Ace held out a flaming hand so Mel could warm up a bit. He himself was already dry, his Devil Fruit ability allowing him to do so very quickly. Mel, on the other hand, was still as wet as anything.

She had wrapped her towel over her shoulders (her bag was conveniently waterproof, and so nothing in it had been affected by the unexpected rain) and was now squeezing some of the water out of her hair. She only stopped chattering her teeth when she was offered the sudden warmth.

"Hmm, that was a bit disappointing." muttered Ace after a while, referring back to how the fight against those dead pirates had ended so abruptly.

"Only because you couldn't see them." Mel replied grumpily as she remembered just how revolting the whole ordeal had been.

"Well, still-" he tried to continue but was cut short by a glare.

"Be thankful you didn't drown, Mr. I-can't-swim." she muttered, trying not to smirk at his recklessness.

"You're the one who's still wet." he commented, shaking a burning finger at her.

She laughed and shook her head violently to spray him with more water. A small water fight broke out between them but ceased promptly when Mel yawned and declared that she was about to die of tiredness.

Ace grinned at that and let her fall asleep. How she could sleep so peacefully after all she had gone through, he couldn't guess.

He kept a foot burning near her sleeping form to keep her warm and spent the night dozing off while gazing up at the stars.


"Aaak!"

Mel woke abruptly the next morning by the sound of crackling flames and the smell of burning…hair? She let out a yelp as she sat up, only to see that her hair had caught on fire. Luckily, only the tips were slightly singed when she swiftly put out the offending flame with some sea water.

"Ace, didn't I tell you not to stay on fire while you're sleeping?" she inquired after splashing some more water unto Ace's face.

"You looked cold." he answered after waking up completely and grinning sheepishly at her.

"Hmph." was all Mel could say to that before getting out her retractable fishing rod; she was getting very hungry for some fried fish.

There were very few things that Mel could say that she was actually good at, and fishing was definitely one of them. The first time she had managed to lure a dozen or so fish unto the boat in less than a few minutes, Ace had honestly been impressed. As these fish were usually as large as two adult feet, it was more than enough for the both of them.

Needless to say, Ace's ability was very useful here, considering that he could fry up the fish instantly. So, it was only a matter of minutes until they could eat. After they had done so, they would dump the remains back into the sea and go back to skipping over the water on the little boat as they had done for quite a few days now.

Mel always found it amusing as to how their roles seemed to be switched. The girl fished and the boy cooked. Ten years from now, she would say, they would probably look back at this and laugh.


Marine headquarters- the one place where it was, apparently, necessary to curse about people behind their backs. As the targets were usually infamous pirates, nobody seemed to think that this was wrong at all.

"Last seen in Nanohana, eh?" muttered an elderly marine, one of the highest in not only age but rank. He sat towards the middle of a large oval table.

All the men that were seated on one side wore black suits. The other side had no chairs, but there stood a marine, one that had been sent by Smoker as a messenger.

"Yes, sir." he confirmed.

"Why don't we just ask her to come quietly? The girl doesn't look like much of a threat…" the old man said, turning to another high-ranking officer.

"She could, however, become a great aid to the government if Hina's claims about her were to be true." the other implied. "And a great enemy as well, when it comes to that."

"But what's this I hear about her being with a pirate?"

The young marine, looking a bit nervous about being in a room with such important people, replied quickly: "Sir, it looks as though she's traveling with Fire fist Ace."

"Interesting."

"We'll have to act fast then, before she becomes too friendly with pirates." declared another important-looking marine officer.

"Indeed." replied the first.

"Should we add to the bounty?" this was followed by murmurs and indecisive ramblings.

"Thirty five million." they finally agreed and so the command was given to send out new posters.


"Oh, did I show you this already?" Mel remarked, pulling a piece of paper from her bag.

"What-" Ace was about to ask what it was when she held it up to his face and he burst out laughing. It was the Wanted sign of Mel she had torn off a wall in the streets of Nanohana the day before.

"Ten million Beli?" he asked finally, still grinning from laughing so much.

"I know- they're mad." she said grinning as well. They then went into a discussion as to why the government would risk spending so much money just to get to Mel. It was obvious that they had noticed her partial immunity to Devil Fruit powers, but how much did they really know?

"Well, they don't know my name yet." Mel pointed out.

"They probably do by now, and this picture is all they need, anyhow." Ace replied. Then, with a sly smirk, he added, "Why don't you join White Beard, now that you've got some bounty on you?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Riiight. I'm not joining who-knows-how-many pirates just because the government wants me." she said skeptically.

She also told him that she highly valued individuality, so much that she would never accept to being a part of an enormous crew, and would therefore probably end up running away like Black Beard. They joked around for a bit until Mel got into a fit of laughter when Ace told her that if that ever happened, she could call herself No Beard.

"At least we can shake hands on finding Black Beard together." said Ace after they had calmed down, offering her a hand (which wasn't on fire).

"That would be lovely." Mel smiled and assured him that she would try not to be too much of a bother as they shook, or rather slapped, each other's hands.


Ah, Vacation Island, such a beautiful and crowded place. In fact, it was probably the best place for a pirate to get caught by the navy. Not that any pirate really cared about this; and so it was quite normal to see some pirates here and there in sunglasses and flower patterned shirts.

Ace had stopped at this island to gather information on Black Beard. Mel wasn't so keen on joining in as she was still very sore from all the fighting, and so she set out to find a nice place to rest on the beach.

After a bit of walking, or limping, she finally found an unoccupied patch of sand complete with the shadow of a big palm tree and a beach chair. She plumped down on it and let out a satisfied sigh as she stretched out her aching legs. Then she folded her arms behind her head and closed her eyes for a quick nap.

Soon, however, she woke up at the sound of voices growing near to her rather isolated spot of land. Judging by the heavy footsteps, they were a bunch of men, or even pirates. Mel tried to ignore them by pretending to sleep, but was surprised when they seemingly stopped right in front of her chair. She stole a quick glance out of barely open eyelids and saw that a few men where standing around her in a semicircle.

They were leering at her with smirks on their rather ugly faces. One of them stepped closer and examined her from head to toe, his lips curling into a disgusting grin.

"Yep, that's her. Thirty five million Beli." he drawled, apparently under the impression that the young woman was still asleep.

"Why don't we keep her? She looks worth more than that to me." a short man on the far right commented.

"Well then, missy, looks like you'll have to come with us!" the first fat man barked as he went to grab Mel. He stopped dead when her eyes shot open abruptly and she glared at him as if he was an annoying bug in her face.

"Really?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms, not bothering to sit up. She grinned wickedly as she caught sight of an unmistakable orange colored hat behind the small gathering of men.

"Yeah! Really!" one of the men answered hastily as if trying to assure himself. The others nodded vigorously, seemingly a bit put off at the confident attitude of this helpless young woman.

"Really, now?" came a voice from behind them. They turned around to find Ace gazing at them with his arms crossed, looking mildly interested. It wasn't long before they bolted off in different directions, screaming like little girls.

Mel laughed heartily at the sight, almost falling from her chair. Ace just grinned broadly and sat down on the warm sand next to her.

"I'm up to thirty five million." Mel commented when she got back into a comfortable position.

"Looks like you'll need to learn how to defend yourself then." replied Ace, giving her a nudge and smirking.

"A little girl like me? Impossible." she declared, giving him a dramatically incredulous look.

Ace looked at her thoughtfully and agreed, "You're right."

Mel let out an outrageous huff at his response and dumped her bag at him. He caught it effortlessly, grinning as he told her that she ought to stay behind him wherever they went from now on.

Then he took off running back to his boat with Mel's bag in his hands. Mel chased after him, stumbling across the sand, laughing and shouting. Neither of them bothered about the strange looks they received from almost everyone on the beach.

And so they left the island and traveled on to wherever the wind took them for the next few days…

- to be continued –


Comments: How's that? I updated just as I received my sixth review for chapter six. Guess what, reviews actually do help with... updating.. speed. When TrunksgirlBlaze27 (Thank you!) literally wrote a review within the hour that I updated, I immediately started on this chapter. Even though it was 2 o'clock in the morning. Yep, the power of positive reviews is overwhelming.

Tomorrow is Registration Day for our school so I'm going to be quite busy from now on. Who knows how long it'll take till the next chapter! Hmm.. lots of reviews will definitely help (hint hint). Hehehe.

Thank you so much, my regular reviewers! You are truly awesome and deserve longer chapters (which is why this chapter is especially long… kind of).

TrunksgirlBlaze27 : Again, I was honestly amazed when you reviewed so quickly. Thank you for such a thorough review, I was very pleased. Yep, Ace and Mel will be teasing each other for quite a while… this story is getting longer than I expected. The romance part will probably come in very slowly (and yes, I'm definitely putting in some romance… sometime… I think). I'm glad you like it, and please continue reading!

Fiery-Wolf-Angel : Maybe I should put in a warning the next time I write so much gross stuff… oops, too late. Yeah, don't you just hate it when people skip over a whole lot of description just because it can be summed up in a few words? They should go write for a newspaper or something… honestly.
'Pirates of the Caribbean' is, of course, a great movie (both of 'em). Davy Jones made me write the last chapter (…right)! Have fun in your last weeks of freedom. Haha.

Artemis die Jaegerin : Natürlich darfst du deine reviews auf Deutsch schreiben! Ich bin wirklich froh das mich jemand wieder mal dazu zwingt Deutsch zu reden. Ich hoffe das du nicht zu lang gewartet hast, ich hab so schnell wie möglich ge-updated (Naja.. eigentlich hab ich auf den sechsten review gewartet. hehe). Jetzt musst du warscheinlich noch einen Monat oder so warten. Ich muss ja wieder zur Schule (neeeeeiiin!).

ace-lover 3 : Somebody catch that girl! (Calls the police) She went that way! Okay, let's see. Kissing will not be happening immediately, seeing that these people have only known each other for a few days. You'll get a lot of cute scenes though, don't worry- but there will not be any Ace Juniors running around any time soon. That's just… disturbing. Anything else, why not? Now stop tripping around and review.

guest : Thank you! I will.

AppleSauce : Congratulations, you were review number six and you triggered this update! Get yourself a hug from everyone who looked forward to that. You don't want to be a teacher? I do. Hehe. Thank you very much, I really tried to make the beginning interesting, and it looks like I've succeeded. I hope you can read the whole thing soon. Please review again when you do!


Thank you, thank you (bows). The next chapter shall be written as soon as it can be ! I hope.

Please review, it really helps.