Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: I was stuck in a time-warp for a while, which is why this wasn't up earlier. Apologies for shortness. Also, hi.
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How to Gain An Invisible Friend
XXXXX/STEP 7
"Oi, Ace!"
Dread Sorcerer Ace, scourge of Fūsha Village, master of demons, devourer of kittens (just the one time, and that was an accident, okay?), scowled at his broth- minion. "It's 'Lord Ace', Henchman! How many times do I have to tell you?!"
"An' how many times do I have to tell you my name's Sabo?" He paused, then reconsidered. "Or maybe I can be a Lord as well... that'd be kind of cool..."
Little-Ace scowled harder, mostly for something to do. "What did you want, anyway?"
Ignoring his brother's expression, Sabo beamed, poking a thumb over his shoulder, back to the main street where he'd just dashed from. "Have you heard? There are pirates nearby. Couple'a the fishermen just got back, say the ship's headed right for the village!"
Oh.
While the brats burbled excitedly about pirates and what they might want in a tiny village - and how they'd beat them up, if necessary - Ace eased himself against a tree, managing not to fall through it, and tried to look nonchalant.
Pirates. There weren't many pirates that came to tiny, insignificant little Fūsha Village, and none around this time, except for...
Yeah. Luffy was nearly seven, so from what he remembered of the dates... it had to be him. Shanks. Not yet Pirate Emperor, but no rookie, considering his childhood aboard That Man's ship.
If he hadn't been concerned about his younger self picking up on something, Ace would have frowned. On the one hand - Shanks! Great guy, great crew, and an actual pirate - he hadn't seen a decent one in so long! But on the other hand... Shanks. Would Luffy's relationship with the guy be ruined thanks to Ace's meddling? And where Shanks went, there went Ben - the smartest guy Ace knew, smarter than Marco even, and that was saying something.
If anyone was going to pick up something weird about Dread Sorcerer Ace's 'demons'... it would be him. And if somehow, somehow, he found out the actual truth of the matter - or if Shanks recognized Rogers in Ace, told him who his father was...
Well. There might not be statues of Rogers, but it wouldn't be two seconds before little-Ace realized his ghostly companion only somewhat resembled the larger, bulkier, older and very moustachioed form of the Pirate King himself.
Which meant that Ace's house of cards was about to come crashing down.
Frick, frick, frickity-crap.
Or maybe it wouldn't? Shanks hadn't known Ace was That Man's kid the first time 'round, when he'd ended up getting drunk with the Red Hair crew; why should Shanks recognize him now, when little-Ace was just a brat?
He had D luck on his side. He could handle this.
Probably.
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He could totally handle this. Huh. Good job, D luck.
While the trio of adorable little nutjobs crowded around the pirates, interrupting their drinking (not that they seemed to mind over-much) and listening to (only somewhat exaggerated) stories about battles, treasure and adventures, Ace settled down on the bartop, crosslegged. There weren't many stools or chairs left, and it was just plain creepy the few times of his afterlife that he'd been slow enough to have someone sit through him.
Shanks was just as jocular as Ace remembered, and Ace tried to keep his nostalgia to the good side of things - better not to remind himself of his own crew (hedidntmissthemhedidn'tmissthem), nine years gone. The man was younger, of course, and it was fascinating to see him interacting with Luffy and the older boys, teasing and encouraging them.
As long as Luffy could keep his big mouth shut in the face of the crew's curiosity over the whole 'Dread Sorcerer' schtick, they'd do just fine. Considering the kid was six, though... well, little-Ace and Sabo had enough experience at giving him a slap to the head to shut him up.
"So you're the 'Dread Sorcerer', huh?" Shanks grinned, half-drunk despite his impressive alcohol tolerance. "Dahahaha, that's cute!"
Little-Ace stared at Shanks as though he were trying to rip the man's soul out with his eyes (which he probably was attempting, actually). "I'm not cute, bastard." He opened his mouth to say something else, and his ghostly self cringed as Shanks laughed again, reaching out to pat the boy's head.
The boy bit Shanks' fingers, instead.
There was a moment of stunned silence as the entire bar froze, even those who hadn't so much as been looking in Shanks' direction. Mouth open in an 'o' of surprise, eyes wide, Shanks remained silent, small child attached grimly to his hand via teeth-to-fingers contact.
D jaws, Ace knew well, were sharp.
A trickle of blood journeyed lazily down the side of Shanks' hand, two red beads pausing as if to consider their destination before casually dripping down to decorate the wooden floor.
"Holy shit," someone breathed, voice almost as filled with awe as Ace with horror. "He just bit the Captain."
"Fifty beli says he's got rabies," another man bet, obviously bored by the spectacle.
There was some mumbling, before one curious pirate queried, "Which one?"
"They're all idiots," Ace muttered, while the betting began. He edged forwards warily, which was ridiculous, because only Ace could see him anyway. "Oi. Oi, Ace?"
Teeth still attached to the statue that was Shanks, little-Ace's eyes steadily turned to the ghost's direction.
"Hey. Look," said Ace, whose diplomatic skills had dropped massively in the last twenty seconds. "It's usually a bad idea to bite pirate captains. Especially guys who are going to be pirate Emperors." Then he adds, because he's a complete idiot, "That guy trained under the Pirate King, he's not someone to screw around with, kid!"
Little-Ace's eyes widened to almost the same size as Shanks', and his eyes turned back to face the man. Then he slowly, carefully, lets the fingers go.
"We're going to die," Ace overheard Sabo muttering, smothered slightly by the fact he had his hands covering his face. "I didn't even live long enough to leave the island."
"You were trained by Rogers?!" Little-Ace exclaimed, torn between awe and horror.
Shanks twitched his (bleeding) hand. "You just bit me!" he yelped, oddly high-pitched.
Neither Shanks or little-Ace turned out to have rabies, but Shanks did acquire something; while Sabo preferred to spend time with Ben, little-Ace and Luffy fixated on Shanks as the Man Who Is Destined To Train Them, which Ace found incredibly insulting (isn't he a better teacher? Huh? Huh?), and ended up following him about (or stalking him), demanding lessons.
At least little-Ace was smart enough to keep up his Dread Sorcerer routine, refusing to tell anyone how he suddenly knew what crew Shanks had been on, even if Ben eyed the boy oddly sometimes, like he was a puzzle Ben was just itching to put together.
Personally, Ace just thought they were lucky the brat didn't bite Shanks' fingers off, hilarious as that would be. A one-armed swordsman is cool, but one with a fingerless hand is just weird. Besides, it was a pain to stand around and watch the crew laughing and drinking so enthusiastically. Not just because it reminds him of the Whitebeard crew, his family, either.
He just really, really wanted to get drunk, dammit.
