Serious
Ace awoke to the smell of food, stumbled out of bed and across the tiny hall into the kitchen, where every surface was covered in boxes of food. Uncaring of his relative state of undress the pirate dug in, making sure to sit close enough to Fox at the table that they had skin contact. One of his favourite things about the woman's Devil Fruit Power was that it cancelled out his narcolepsy unless she was feeling vindictive and triggered it on purpose.
"So," Fox asked after he'd demolished half the dishes and had slowed down a little, "who died?"
Ace froze, fork halfway to his mouth.
"I know someone is dead, Hothead," Fox said, her voice as tranquil as the Calm Belt and twice as dangerous, "I can feel it. Someone who matters to me is gone and not in a manner of their choosing. Who was it and what happened?"
Ace' appetite fled as wild fury boiled in his gut. He put down the fork. "Thatch is dead," he said shortly. "Marshall D. Teach murdered him."
Fox nodded, eyes downcast. Ace didn't comment on her reaction; Fox' attitude to death was very, very strange. She would mourn, but for now she probably wanted more information and a shot at 'balancing the scales': vengeance.
"He murdered Thatch over a Devil Fruit; I'm hunting him down."
Fox raised her head to meet his eyes and Ace had to make an effort not to flinch: her eyes burned with cold, controlled rage. "I will leave it to you for now, Fire Fist," she said evenly, addressing him with the nickname off his bounty poster that she rarely ever used, "but should your mission prove unsuccessful remember that I would be happy to take over for you. I will be telling the Sea of Thatch's death, so should Blackbeard be found walking free the ocean will not shelter him."
Ace nodded, chilled. He generally forgot that his friend was the greatest assassin on the Grand Line and possibly in the entire world as she rarely let that part of herself surface. 'Telling the Sea' meant that Fox would be sharing the information with the network that was run jointly by her mother and Ace's sister Ama. This network was also where a lot of Fox' contracts came from. Ace wanted to complain that there was no way he would let Teach escape, but Fox would just tell him that in that case it shouldn't matter to him whether or not contingencies were in place, so he didn't bother to say anything and went back to eating.
"I know it stings your pride to have me planning in case of failure," Fox added more softly, "but experience has taught me that no matter what we may desire things always go amiss at one point or another. Sometimes we can compensate for the change with little difficulty, but not always. Remember that you are not the only one to want him dead."
"He was my responsibility!" It burst out in a wave of rage, sorrow and betrayal that sent flames dancing along his arms and warming the room by a good ten degrees.
"Your responsibility, yes; that however does not mean Thatch's death was your fault," Fox said firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Those are two very different things. The weight of his murder is on Blackbeard's shoulders and his alone, as it was his choice to kill his crewmate. You are simply doing what you can to deal with the situation."
Ace nodded, not willing to talk through his food in the presence of a lady. Makino had been strict about that kind of thing.
"Should you ever decide however that you'd rather the traitor met his death on a Kairoseki blade one dark night, just let me know," she added suddenly with a smile that chilled Ace's blood. "You know how to reach me, so don't be shy. I'd do it for free so as to have a proper grave gift for when I visit Thatch myself to say goodbye. Nothing says 'I care' like a severed head."
Ace wisely did not comment.
The previous conversation having been closed, Fox waited until there was no food left before asking Ace why, exactly he was hanging around Nanohana in the first place.
"I'm waiting for my little brother!" Ace said brightly, handing her another stack of dishes to be washed.
"You have a brother, Hothead?" Uh oh, Ace knew that tone: he was in trouble. "You have family you never told us about?"
"He's my foster brother, not blood family," Ace tried to escape but it proved futile.
"So what! Shyarly's adopted and it doesn't change a thing! Portgas D. Ace you are in so much trouble when your sisters hear about this!"
Ace abandoned all pretence of dignity and prostrated himself on the kitchen floor. "I'm really, really sorry. I'm an idiot for thinking you wouldn't be interested and a selfish moron for keeping him to myself. Please don't sic my sisters on me."
Fox paused for a moment before relenting. "Fine; get off the floor and tell me all about this little brother of yours so I can placate them properly."
Relieved that he wasn't going to have to keep a watchful eye out for vengeful twenty-foot mermaids while hunting Teach, Ace perched on the edge of the kitchen table and started talking.
"His name's Luffy and-"
"Wait!" Fox held up a hand and twisted around. "Luffy? Monkey D. Luffy?"
Ace' face lit up hopefully. "You've met?"
Fox put down the plate she was holding and laughed, her high, hyena-like yips bouncing off the walls as she clutched her stomach and rolled on the floor.
"He's my captain, Hothead," she finally managed to choke out. "Good grief what a coincidence!" Dragging herself into a sitting position she leant her head against Ace' thigh; "So he's your brother? I can see it."
"You've joined a crew? My brother's crew?" Ace couldn't believe it. Not just the odd coincidence; Fox had had both Whitebeard and Red-Hair Shanks practically begging her to join their crews for the better part of five years and had remained unmoved. For her to have joined his little brother in such short order was pretty miraculous.
"He had a part in rescuing me from a sticky situation and then wouldn't take no for an answer," Fox informed him. "Oh, and he's going places. Whitebeard and Shanks have already gone places and are just hanging around waiting for life's next excitement to come to them."
Ace wanted to argue, but couldn't. It was a nasty way of putting the truth that would probably make both Yonko laugh, but that didn't make it any less true.
"So how's he been?" Ace demanded, wanting to hear all about what his brother had been up to. "I saw the bounty poster but I want details!"
"You tell me about Luffy's childhood and where he got his powers from and I'll tell you all about his recent adventures," Fox bargained.
"Okay. He got it off Shanks, apparently; this was before I met him," Ace began, dropping to sit on the floor and pulling Fox properly into his lap. "Apparently Shanks decided to use Foosha Village as a base for a few months back when Luffy was seven…"
More of Ace and Fox.
