A little one shot. Enjoy~

One of the den den mushis to one of their protected islands rang late into the night. Like, early morning late. Marco was the only one awake in the area, having done paperwork for the last two hours, way behind. He was in a funk, and realized too late that his reports were painfully unfinished. So here he was, 2 AM and still working on paperwork.

He put the pen down and took off his glasses to go and get it. He hoped nothing was wrong, but why else would they call? He quickened his pace and went into the information room and picked it up. It was a big one, with blue shell. Connected to one of their most populous islands. They had never called before, being so big that they weren't usually bullied by pirates or marines.

He picked it up, and immediately heard the sounds of commotion.

"Give that back!" an angry male's voice said. There were the sounds of crashing. A child's voice joined in.

"I just need it for a minute!" he shouted, voice squeaky. A child had stolen their island's den den? Was this some prank? It wasn't a very funny one if it was. Prank calling the Whitebeards had never happened before, but abusing the den den was wrong.

"Who is this?"

"Marco! Hey - leave me alone! I gotta talk to them!"

"Who is this?" he asked again in irritation. But there was more shouting and finally, Ace shouted, and the sounds of bodies falling were made. "Did you just attack our island's members? Who are you?"

"Don't be mad! You'd do it, too! They kept trying to take it from me and I even asked nicely!" the young vice said angrily. Marco's brow raised. This brat had balls. Yelling at Marco, acting all familiar. "My name is Ace, I gotta talk to you and Pop - Whitebeard!" The blonde's brows went even higher.

Ace, the little kid, called Whitebeard "Pop". Way too familiar. "You can talk to me. I'm the first mate."

"I know, but it's really important," Ace insisted. Sounding frustrated and getting upset. How old was he? Marco sighed and said it better be important. "It is!" He took the den den and walked through the ship to Pops' room, where he was sleeping. It had been a long day, getting into three storms in one day.

"Hey, when are you visiting this island again?" Marco said it was none of his concern. "You're being a butt head."

"Do you want me to hang up?" he asked in an unamused voice. Ace backtracked, apologizing. He hadn't meant to say that, it was just hard to keep his mouth shut a lot. Well, he was pretty honest. "If this is a prank call, we'll have your island leaders punish you."

"I don't live here."

"So, you just went to that island to talk to us, then?" Marco asked in disbelief. The den den nodded. Ace's reply surprised him.

"Cause butt face Bay wouldn't believe me and didn't even let me on her ship! It's all so stupid," Ace said angrily. Marco was really confused, curious and annoyed by now. It was too late, and he didn't want to wake Pops. "Hey… Thatch is with you, right?" Ace asked quietly. Marco didn't know how he knew of Thatch. He laid low and didn't have a bounty.

But why was he asking anyways? But Marco humored him, saying he was. Sleeping right now, because it was late. "Did I wake you up, feather head?" Marco hung up. He knew Ace would call him back, but maybe this would teach him to be damn respectful. He was a Whitebeard commander, he deserved respect from a brat that sounded no older than eight.

The den den did call again. "YOU ASSHOLE!" he hung up again. And the call came back. Marco sternly said this was his last chance. "You a-... okay." He was clearly holding more insults inside. Very little self control, it seemed. And a temper. He wasn't making it come across like he was to be believed very well.

He just sounded like a bratty kid acting way too familiar, making up rude names to someone who protected their island. Though, he didn't live there. And Bay hadn't given them any notice that a kid wanted to contact them. She probably figured they would have no need to speak to a young child with an attitude.

The boy was silent the rest of the way. Marco knocked on Pops' door. "Pops, I'm sorry to wake you, but we have a call from one of our islands," Marco said through the door. There was the sound of creaking, him getting up from his mattress. He could be heard walking to the door, and opened it, looking tired but concerned.

"Is everything alright?"

"I don't know. Can I come in?" Ace was staying very quiet on the other end. Maybe he'd be polite to Pops. He'd already blown his chance with Marco. What a little brat. They were not far from that island, but they weren't planning on visiting.

And they wouldn't go just to meet some kid who wanted to see them. He was on the den den with them and that was as good as it was going to get. He sat on the bed, and Pops did, too. "Ace has called us from Poppy Island. He wants to talk to you. Has stolen and knocked out those in the room."

"You're already making me seem bad!" Ace complained. Marco continued, saying that Ace wanted to speak to them, and had apparently already tried to get to Bay, but she didn't believe him. "Cause she's always mean." Pops wasn't happy with their den den being stolen and having his islanders hurt in the process.

"And what can I do for you Ace?" Pops asked in a frosty tone. Maybe Marco shouldn't have set it up like this in the beginning. He just hoped, for Ace's sake, that he showed some respect to the captain or their call was over and done with. The den den took a deep breath.

"You gotta listen the whole time, 'kay?"

"I'm listening," Pops replied. They both wondered what the call was about.

"Uh, I don't know where to start…" Ace said. "You know Teach right? He's there, right? The fat one with an ugly smile?"

"Yes, Teach is here. Don't insult one of my sons, Ace."

"I don't mean to. It's hard, I'm a loud mouth." Marco agreed with that. "Anyways, you have to be careful of Teach. He's bad. Like, really bad. He wants a devil fruit, the yami yami no mi. He'll kill Thatch for it."

"What?!" Marco exclaimed angrily. How dare some kid accuse one of their own of murder?! Marco looked to Pops, who also didn't look happy.

"I don't mean it to sound like I'm slandering him! Well, I am, but that's not the point! You have to get rid of him before he hurts Thatch. I know he'll do it! And he'll do even worse! That asshole, he messes everything up!" Ace started to rant. They could hear the sounds of shouting on the other end, and then the sounds or running.

Looked like everyone Ace had knocked out woke up, and he was still hoarding the den den. He really wasn't doing a good job of making his case. He kept putting his foot in his mouth, constantly. And he hadn't done well in the beginning by calling Marco names and being completely disrespectful.

"Ace, why do you think this?" Pops asked, growing irritated when Ace was swearing at the others following him.

"Don't throw rocks at us!"

"Go away! I'll give it back soon, stupid heads!" Ace shouted.

"Why do you think this?" Whitebeard repeated in complete impatience.

"Cause I was there! And he killed Thatch and then me!" Ace exclaimed. Marco looked at Pops who sighed. Neither believed the kid. Pops asked where his parents were. "That doesn't matter. I came all this way to talk to you and neither of you are taking me seriously at all! Do you want Thatch to die?!"

"Ace, if you say anything else negative about my sons, I will hang up. Return the den den and go back to your parents. You are lucky you won't get punished from us," Pops said, voice holding anger. After all, a stranger was accusing Teach of murdering one of their own. It was a serious offense. And Ace said he was there and died, too?

It just sounded like a little kid spinning a story. Maybe if he'd been polite the whole time, from the moment he called Marco, they would take his words more seriously. But Teach would never kill any of them, they both knew that. So neither were especially concerned with his words. They'd trust someone they had over 30 with them than an eight year old child.

"But I'm telling the truth! It's important that you believe me! You have to get rid of him for everyone's sake!"

"I am not getting rid of one of my sons based on your claims. This call is over." Marco hesitated when tears came from the den den. Silent ones, and then it disconnected with a slam! There was no call back, and both worried that the snail had been killed and now they had no way to reach their island.

They called, but it didn't answer at all until a good ten minutes later. And it wasn't Ace's squeaky voice. "We're so sorry! We tried to keep him away from it, but he's surprisingly strong for his size. We're so sorry to inconvenience you, and it's so late, too."

Pops assured them it was fine. He asked where Ace was now. Apparently he'd disappeared, crying and swearing angrily. "How old did he seem?" Marco asked. At least the den den wasn't destroyed or dead. That would have been very bad if it had died. They only had one connected to that island.

"Seven at most."

"Where were his parents?"

"He came alone. Shoplifted some food and then disappeared until he broke into city hall to get to the den den mushi. I don't know where he's gone now. He doesn't have anybody with him." Pops shared a look with Marco. They asked if it seemed Ace had any mental illnesses. Maybe he had schizophrenia or something. Or was just crazy. It was quite the crazy claim he'd made.

"He has no ship with him? Any belongings?"

"We couldn't see very well. He might have had a backpack on, but it's quite dark out now…"

"If you find him again, give him money and food and then send him on his way." Marco was surprised by Pops' words. Ace was a little shit, but he was seven. Sending him off meant forcing him off the island and into the New World waters. He looked at the man, who was frowning deeply, no doubt realizing his words as well.

But where would he go? He didn't belong on that island. He had to have come from somewhere. "Keep your eyes open. Then update us if you find him again. For tonight, go rest," Pops said. The others on the line apologized one more time, and hung up. Marco took it and said goodnight, Pops clearly exhausted and in a bad mood.

"Goodnight, son. Stop for tonight. I'll give you a one day extention. But keep on top of things." Marco nodded, slightly embarrassed. He took the den den to his own room, and went to bed after cleaning up the things in his office. He put the snail on the dresser across the room. He was bothered by everything Ace said.

He was clearly not a reliable source at all. A seven year old with a bad attitude and a thief as well. He didn't spare much thought on it.

-x-

A week later, with no word on Ace or where he went, they got a call from one of their allied ships. Squard. "Hello? Squard?" Marco asked in surprise.

"...No, it's Ace." Marco's eyes widened. No way. There was no way the seven year old had Squard's den den. He didn't believe it. But that definitely was not the voice of a pirate. "I stole their den den." It really was the brat.

"How did you manage that?" Marco asked, snippy and annoyed... and slightly concerned.

"They got scared and ran away. Let me talk to Thatch."

"Give the den den back, now, Ace," Marco said in an ice cold voice.

"No. I'm not giving it back. I'm keeping it for good, and I'll spam you as much as I want until you believe me. Let me talk to Thatch," Ace insisted. Marco took the den den to Pops instead. His jaw was set and his face showed cold anger. Why would Squard or his crew give up their den den mushi? It's not like they'd keep it out on deck or something.

Did Ace go inside the ship and take it from them? How did he even get from the island to their ship and then away? It made no sense. Marco pressed the mute option on the snail that shut off the one way connection.

"Ace is back. He stole Squard's den den," Marco said coldly. Whitebeard looked baffled as well, thrown off guard completely. "I'm playing it again. Ace, you're not speaking to Thatch, you're speaking to Whitebeard."

"I said to let me talk to Thatch. Not you or Whitebeard. You already showed you don't believe me at all."

"What is your purpose, Ace?" Pops asked, voice just as cold as Ace's was. He said he'd already told them. He called to save Thatch. He was really insistent on this. Should they believe him? He was pretty determined. But the captain didn't look convinced at all. "You're not going to talk to Thatch. Talk to us."

"I know once your mind is set it's hard to change it. I made a bad first impression. Let me talk to Thatch."

Marco refused. "Then I'll call back in a little bit." And he hung up. Marco was bothered, as was Pops. Now they had no way to contact Squard if he needed their help. This was a problem. And Ace did call an hour later. Marco didn't want him spreading treasonous words around the ship. Thatch was gullible and would tell everyone about this. He had a big mouth and was bad at keeping secrets.

Ace did indeed spam them the entire day. Finally, Marco took the gear off of the den den so it couldn't be connected at all. That ended 16 hours of the den den ringing over and over and over. Now he couldn't contact them again. They didn't turn the gear back on until two days later, and it was returned to Squard.

He had no clue what happened. Everyone on the ship couldn't even tell them what Ace looked like. He'd knocked them all out with haki. A seven year old had that strong of haki? Marco had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, but not bad enough for him to doubt Teach. He was drinking with Thatch, eating his beloved cherry pies. He would never kill Thatch.

Ace didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

-x-

There was no sign that Ace had gotten another den den mushi in the past week, but they did get a call from one of their smaller islands, and Marco wasn't hopeful enough to think that it wasn't Ace. He seemed smart and calculating, even if he admitted he had a big mouth and little control over how he spoke.

And it bothered them that he was so determined to slander Teach. Nobody else knew about the conversations, not wanting this idiocy to spread to the more gullible members. Especially Thatch. Marco would be unsurprised if Ace was targeting Thatch just so he'd spread it around and cause problems.

He wanted to know where Ace came from, and why he was going too far to just slander their crew, which was a real, real problem with Pops. If he were to say that to him in person, well, things wouldn't go well. He would most likely knock Ace out and put him somewhere, but it was difficult to deal with a child.

It would be cruel to exile him somewhere when he had nobody with him and seemed to have nowhere to belong. Marco could see himself pitying him if his behavior and attitude weren't so bad.

He'd been incredibly disrespectful from the start. Being too familiar, and then outright insulting Marco. Like he'd trust someone whose first impression was of that. He clearly hadn't thought things through when he opened in such a disrespectful way. Well, Marco hoped that was the end of it, as Whitebeard had called all their allies and told them to watch out for a young kid trying to steal den dens.

To say they were all surprised was an understatement, and Squard was humiliated about Ace breaking into the ship after disabling the whole crew, and taking a den den. He had kept the den den until he stopped calling, and it was back to Squard. So strange. What was his objective? Did he really believe his own words, because he had never met Teach.

Marco had asked him if he ever met a little kid named Ace, and the man was confused by the question, which was an answer of itself. But he'd said he hated kids and hadn't ever met someone like him. Maybe Ace saw him, or maybe Teach did something rude to him sometime and this was payback.

If he was seven, then doing this kind of childish thing shouldn't be that surprising. He was just immature, even if he tried to sound the opposite. So, Marco answered the den den of the small island quickly, not expecting it to be Ace.

"Marco-san! Help us, some kid set the whole island on fire!" the voice screamed. Marco's jaw dropped, and sprinted to Pops. the man was coughing as if there was smoke everywhere, and sounded terrified. Whitebeard was shocked as well, that Ace went so far as to burn people to get his message across.

This completely crossed the line, and nobody would blink twice about killing him. After all, he was a danger to their islands and allied crews. Just how strong was this damn kid?! Whitebeard asked for the situation, but the man didn't answer. It was the brat. "You will come to this island and speak to me in person or I'll kill everyone here and raze the island to the ground," he threatened darkly. He sounded evil. Angry, too.

"Ace! You are not tolerable anymore! If we come there and the island is truly razed to the ground, you will be executed, child or not!"

"Then I'll see you soon." and he hung up. Marco and Whitebeard were shocked and horrified. And the first mate started to think being flippant with an obviously crazy child had not been the best course of action. This whole mess was caused because he made a terrible first impression. If he hadn't, then Pops may have been less angry and terse. Maybe they could have reasoned with him, but it was too late for that.

And based on his words, he didn't seem to give a shit with being threatened with death. They sailed that direction, everyone told about somebody setting the island on fire, but nothing more. It would set off a panic and maybe make some angry that their disbelief and snippy reactions had been the possible cause of an entire island being wiped away.

It was concerning, and they got to the island as fast as they could. From a distance, they saw huge plumes of fire coming off of everything. How long had it been burning? It took them two days to get there, with Ace somehow knowing where they were and the closest place to go to. He was too smart, and Marco thought it could be a devil fruit of some kind.

Everyone was shouting in worry and anger at what had caused this. There were no screams at all. Did that mean everyone had died? It was scary, and if that were the case, Marco would feel responsible, even if he shouldn't. This kid really believed what he was saying. But why risk his life to tell people a lie when they'd kill him for it?! A child's thinking, of course.

When they got close, they saw Ace there, holding the den den and standing in the flames. "Ace!" Marco shouted, and flew down to capture him until every single flame was sucked back into his hands, and they saw that the island, the buildings and trees, were absolutely fine. The ground wasn't charred at all. Not one bit.

Ace was glaring at him furiously when Marco landed in front of him, but didn't back down. He was short and really was only seven years old. Tiny and angry. But Marco was glad it wasn't real fire. But it must be a devil fruit. Though that threw his thinking that Ace knew where they were by a devil fruit. So who the hell was giving him information? Ace looked past Marco and saw Teach there.

The phoenix worried he'd target Teach with fire, and stood in front of him. "Hey! Fatass Teach! Look at this! The yami yami fruit! I'm gonna eat it right now!" he shouted, provoking Teach for no real reason until Marco felt a very angry aura behind him. Teach looked furious, but also… happy? Triumphant?

Ace made to bite into the purple and swirly fruit, his mouth inches away before he was shot in the head, and Teach jumped down to run at him, shocking everybody. The bullet, thankfully, went right through Ace's head, unharming him. The kid was a logia. He took a big bite out of the fruit, and the fat man screamed in rage, and shot Ace some more before Marco restrained him, saying he was just a kid, and to leave him alone.

The boy was unharmed from every attack, and stuck the purple, carved apple in Teach's face. "Do you believe me now?!" he raged at Marco, who was speechless. "Teach, you wanted that fruit, right? It must make you sooo angry that it's not real. What would you have done for it? If you were willing to kill a child," Ace taunted.

Teach ripped away from Marco, stronger and larger, and moved to strangle Ace for tricking him before Ace let off conquerors haki so strong, Teach was out like a light, and half of the crew passed out.

Ace managed to shove the man off of him, and tossed the fabricated fruit to the ground. "There. I took care of your problem since you wouldn't do it yourself," Ace said coldly. Marco didn't know what to say. Ace looked extremely hurt, emotionally, and threw the poor den den at Marco's feet. Ace had a backpack on and turned around to leave.

The phoenix could hear Ace's quiet cries, and it made him feel like crap. He had no idea Ace's story or how he knew any of them like that, how he knew Teach would want that devil fruit when none of the crew had ever heard the name of it. But Marco was distracted by handcuffing Teach when Haruta hurried them down.

Ace was gone, and Marco felt deep self-hatred at how he'd reacted. He looked up and saw Pops had an expression of guilt on his face as well. Now that they knew that Ace had been correct about Teach and the fruit, it wasn't unreasonable to believe everything else he'd said. He hadn't hurt the islanders, as Marco found them all locked in the town hall and perfectly fine, if not a bit traumatized.

Marco made to fly around the island to try and find Ace and ask questions, but he was nowhere to be found. Marco couldn't find him even using haki. Had he left already? It had been half an hour since he walked away crying. "What do we do, Pops?" Marco asked.

"Apologize sincerely," the captain said stoically, others wanting to know what this was all about. He had to explain, and many were shocked about the whole situation. And a bit disappointed about them keeping it a secret from even the commanders. Thatch was obviously hurt that they didn't take a threat on his life seriously, and he went on the island to search for the kid, even though Marco couldn't find him.

Nobody found him, and Marco and Whitebeard were unhappy they couldn't even apologize for how they'd treated him. Just a little boy who wanted to help them save one of their own. It left a bad taste in Marco's mouth that would probably be there for a while.