The phone dropped from slim fingers, clattering against cold wood with a sharp edge of finality that stuck like ice into his veins— freezing thoughts in their wake and poisoning already scrambled thoughts.
—Dead
The word alone echoed like a hollow bell in deaf ears, walls thrown in place to keep it at bay even as bricks fell one by one. They crumbled at his feet; a collapsing world dragging him down and deep into an endless pit of despair.
Feet moved beneath him before thoughts had fully formed, a slow gait quickly morphing into closer to a sprint as he yanked at the unyielding metal of familiar car door. The drive flew by in a rush, Ace unable to accept any form of relief as he pulled up to the gleaming white doors. Keys were yanked from their sanctuary, haphazardly shoved into a front pocket even as feet carried him with quite desperation towards a waiting beyond.
He was not ready for the sight that awaited dark hues behind yet another door, wooden barrier in place for a reason that escaped racing thoughts up the the moment just before they were thrown aside. Two forms shrouded in a grim white cloth, faces covered yet he knew. As much as he may wish for them to be another pair, the wreckage of familiar straw hat lay besides the smaller form, the other—
A sharp choking of air ripped from the back of his throat; air a fleeting wish sucked from reach.
He only made it another step before mobility failed him.
The door parted behind him yet Ace made no move, hues of ash frozen on the two still forms. Somewhere in the background there was harsh chatter, a hand falling upon his shoulder before quick fingers brushed it aside, a hissed "Don't touch me," reverberated through the air.
Even more so when a voice matched with hand rose to split through too silent air.
Ace was spinning on his heel before words fully left irritable lips, fists curling around a light collared shirt as little more than a growl ripped from his lips before the larger form was shoved back into a pristine white wall.
"Where WERE you?!"
Roger stared back cooly, eyes sliding from Ace to land on the larger of the shrouded forms. "Rou—" Ace slammed him back again, noise dying in the back of his throat under the weight of unspoken frustration. "They're dead and you weren't there! Mom was in trouble and where were you? And Luffy—-"
His head fell forward limply, grip slipping from where it clung to cloth as another chocked sob racked the raven's form, unshed tears rimming dark eyes.
"Your mother is dead and you're freaking out about the kid that's not even related to you?!" Fierce words finally thrown into the air in response. The next sound was the sharp contact of fist against flesh, a muffled curse escaping into heavy air as Roger stumbled back a step. And still ace was not done. He stood there, fists shaking with silent rage at his sides and dark hues blazing with barely suppressed emotion. A gasp ran through the air, soft exclamation from one of the white-robed spectators within the room of the dead.
"How dare you—"
He was still shaking as he took another step forward, eyes ablaze with inner fire. "He risked his life for her and still you badmouth him? So what if his father's some sort of rebel. So what if you don't approve of him. Luffy never did anything wrong! Luffy is— was one of the only people in this god forsaken world that actually cared and you—"
And still he wasn't looking at him, gaze focused on the still form of his covered wife.
That was when Ace finally snapped.
"She's dead you drunk, son of a bitch! They're both dead and there's nothing either of us can do about it." Shaky tones rose in volume and velocity as ace stood as both mental and physical barrier between the rough looking man and what had been his only true family members.
"The least you can do is thank him for trying to do what we couldn't. At least he tried to save her."
"What did you do?"
"What did I do?"