Disclaimer: I still don't own One Piece, sadly.
Masked Deuce wasn't the only one on the crew by then but he was the only one there to notice that Ace was behaving slightly… off – and it was telling when the First Mate noticed something bothering the captain after a bit over a month into their acquaintance.
Catching a moment alone with the fire logia on the railing, he chanced it. "What's wrong, Ace?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" to his credit, the young captain only attempted the clueless façade briefly, before letting out a sigh. A brief moment of peace settled between them, before he went on to explain, "Today's my birthday." Deuce, eyes wide, immediately turned to face him. "I- It's- We've always had that stupid tradition of celebrating it at Ma- a friend's bar and then sleeping into the night. And in the morning we'd-" he cut himself off forcefully, reminded of just whose presence he was in right then.
Disregarding the "we" and all the other questions that the teenager's answer had thrown up rather than answered, Deuce straightfacedly said, "We need a musician." Ace's "Huh?" went ignored, as Deuce continued by shouting, turning on his foot and heading directly towards the galley where they knew most everyone else was at that time, "Guys, we need some music! A cake, and candles!"
Pausing in his tracks and making an about-face, he deemed Ace worthy of his time for all but half a minute, asking "Do you want anything as a present? Anything in particular?"
Needless to say, Ace was caught looking like a deer in the headlights by then, only getting out a "Bu-" before he was steamrolled over by his First Mate's ideas, "Another pirate crew to attack and loot might cheer you up, or a conveniently located marine ship?" Deuce went back to delegating tasks and requests again by heading into the galley by then. "Oi,-!" was all Ace could hear before the door shut on him.
His brain took about half a minute to reboot. Then, his eyes widened in recognition of what his crew (his crew! The Spades! With him as their captain! He couldn't get over that yet, him having set off only a bit over a month and a half ago) was about to do and on the other hand floored at the lengths they would go for him that he could only imagine just then.
"Oi, Deuce!" shouting accompanied his entrance into the galley.
And when, in the end, the party ended up including way more alcohol than they'd ever been allowed at Makino's (it hadn't ever stopped Ace from liberating some of Dadan's for celebrating their birthdays when they realised adults added it to theirs, but Luffy didn't like the stuff and someone had to drink it) and way more off-key singing and what sounded like overly loud snorkelling attempts on land and cackling and snickering and charade games galore, Ace didn't mind.
The oldest brother hoped Sabo had a good birthday, wherever he was – and knew without a doubt that Luffy would take good care of the grave in Ace's stead. A bit nostalgic, he wondered if Luffy celebrated their birthday too, back on Dawn, even though the two of them weren't there. Two more years! Ace couldn't wait until their brother set sail, himself!
"Hey, Sabo, have a good one, on me, yeah?" were his words, along with a quiet cheers and a reminiscent clinking of his cup against a random one he'd found and appropriated in the name of his late brother. Touching the tattooed crossed-out "S" on his left shoulder, he stared up at the stars as the party slowly dwindled to an end, with him in the middle.
He couldn't help but feel content at his choices so far.
