Ace walked sluggishly into the Galley and grabbed his breakfast. When he got it he sat down at his usual table and started eating silently, everything from last night still on his mind, that's all he was able to think about.

He was eating quietly, worrying everyone around him with his silence and bad mood, when Thatch and Marco walked up to sit across from him, suspicious smirks on their faces. Something happened. Ace glared at them, not wanting to deal with teasing and stuff like that. Especially from Thatch, he is the reason he feels like shit. With his stupid remarks of him being in love with Luffy, and shit like that keeping him up all night. He has no idea what he's talking about.

"Are you okay Ace? You look like crap." Thatch added, a smirk still present on his face. Ace glared even harder at him. He stood up from his seat, eyes covered by his hat and hair, and stood there for a hot second. Thatch looked up at him with a sorta confused sorta scared face, a sense of foreboding in his body. "Uhhh, you good Acey?"

That was the last straw, next thing you know Ace is jumping over the table grabbing onto Thatch's collar and Shaking him roughly. "This is all your fault, you just couldn't keep your big mouth shut. Having me spend all night thinking about … what you said. That I … l-l-love … Luffy." He said defeatedly, halting his shaking of Thatch.

Thatch on the other hand had his eyes swirling because of the shaking. He stopped and shook his head to compose himself. "When did I ever say anything about love," he asked confused.

What?

"I said you like her. WAIT, DO you love her?" He was shocked and amazed at the same time.

Ace let go of Thatch and backed up. "I-I-I … I DON'T KNOW!!!!!" He said, face crimson, and ran out the room. "I-I'm leaving now!"

"Wait, I want to go again too, don't leave me here Acey!!!!!" Thatch screamed. He grabbed his packed lunches he made before he went to breakfast and ran out of the room following Ace to meet up with Luffy. Leaving everyone else in the galley confused about what the hell just happened.

Ace made it to the bush to enter the garden, where Luffy was … SHIT how is he supposed to face her now. He doesn't know how he feels. What if he messes something up and she ends up hating him. He was just about to think of something to do when he felt two hands on his back.

"I know that face, don't think just do it!" And Thatch pushed him into the garden … right into Luffy. The poor girl didn't see it coming. She was walking around looking at the beautiful garden, because she didn't have to worry about her restraints, when she heard yelling. She stopped in front of the rose bushes and turned to look into the forest. Then Ace came in fast, causing them to almost fall. Almost. Ace caught himself and caught Luffy around her waist.

They stared at each other in the eyes, then Ace's face turned crimson, again, and smoke was coming out of his ears. Luffy had a small blush herself, not as big as Ace's, but still there nonetheless.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Thatch said slyly, coming into their view. Ace threw his arms up in the air like he was surrendering and dropped Luffy. She blinked for a second, still suspended in the air, then squeaked as she fell to the ground. Thatch had one hand covering his mouth as he tried to stop himself from laughing. Ace, still flustered, apologized and went to pick her up.

"Hey guys, did anything new happen?" Luffy asked as she composed herself.

"NOTHING, no-nothing happened, why do you ask? Pff psh pff psh." Ace yelled, crossing his arms and giving a fake enthusiastic smile, making weird noises with his mouth. Luffy raised her eyebrow at his weirdness, then giggled at it. Why does his weirdness bring warmth to her heart?

"No reason, anyway Acey, you forgot to sing me a song yesterday." Ace froze at this, Thatch's head snapped up and he faced Luffy. He was immediately in front of her and grabbed onto her shoulders, his body oozed seriousness. Her face got serious as well and she looked into his eyes waiting for whatever he needed.

"Did you just say, sing a song?" he asked seriously, she blinked at him. Then nodded her head. "Did you sing her songs Ace?" he turned to Ace, Ace jumped and turned around.

"That's none for your business Thatch!"

"Oh my Oda, YOU DID!!! Are you going to sing another song?"

"NO!"

"Wait, you're not?" Luffy said with a gloomy expression. Ace turned to her and started stuttering. While Thatch made his way to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She pouted, and when Thatch saw her pout he had the audacity to pout as well.

"He's such a jerk isn't he Luffy?" Thatch asked pout still on his face. Luffy nodded her head and sulked a little. Ace was still speechless, only Incoherent words coming out of his mouth when Thatch came up with a brilliant idea. He grabbed her by her upper arms and turned her to face him, looking into her eyes. "How about you sing a song with me? Won't that be fun Lu?"

Ace's eye twitches at the nickname, that was his nickname for her. No one should be using it but him. He scowled at Thatch and was about to protest when Luffy AGREED! "Okay, what song?" Ace's mouth went agape yet again as he watched Thatch come up close to Luffy and talk about different songs to sing.

"Do you know the song Wellerman, it's a pretty popular sea shanty?"

Luffy's eyes lit up at the name. "Yeah, my pirate friends use to sing it when everyone was really drunk." (hiya author here, I know Wellerman came out in 2021 but we're just gonna pretend it came out before. I really like this song, especially the male and female cover by Charlotte Hannah, so why not put it in.) Thatch's face lit up and he dragged her over closer to Ace, who was getting more frustrated by the second. She's going to sing with Thatch and not him. Why does he even feel jealous, Luffy has no obligation to only have him as her friend or sing songs with just him.

"Okay, you ready?" Thatch asked as he looked at Luffy, she looked back at him and nodded. Thatch stomped his foot to the beginning beat of the song.

"There once was a ship that put to sea"

Thatch kept stomping his feet with the beat.

"The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea"

Luffy joined in nodding her head to the beat.

"The winds blew up, her bow dipped down

Oh blow, my bully boys, blow (huh)

Soon may the Wellerman come

To bring us sugar and tea and rum

One day, when the tonguing is done

We'll take our leave and go"

They sang together, hooking their arms and doing that jumping in half circles till they flipped to go the other way dance.

"She'd not been two weeks from shore

When down on her a right whale bore

The captain called all hands and swore

He'd take that whale in tow (huh)"

Luffy sang by herself again, letting go of Thatch and jump-twirled around herself, going with the beat.

"Soon may the Wellerman come

To bring us sugar and tea and rum

One day, when the tonguing is done

We'll take our leave and go

Da-da-da-da-da

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-"

They sang together, Luffy making her way towards Ace to dance with him now. Thatch was stomping his feet to the beat while Luffy grabbed Ace's crossed arms and spun around with him. Ace finally gave in and danced with her.

They were stopped abruptly by Thatch making a choking noise and falling unconscious on the floor. The other two halted in their steps, Luffy stopped singing and turned to Thatch. There Thatch laid on the floor and a man who resembles a pineapple right behind him, arm raised like he just chopped something. The man walked up to Ace and Chopped him on the head as well, and down Ace went. Luffy looked down at Ace and nudged his body with the tip of her foot to see if he would wake up. He didn't move at all. "Is he dead?" she mumbled under her breath.

"On the contrary, they're just asleep. I'm sorry they have bothered you Ma'am, I'm Marco and these are my brothers. They can be annoying and if they are I will take them with me and we will get out of your hair-yoi."

Luffy raised an eyebrow at the Ma'am part, does she look eighty! And when he brought up the part of the others leaving a look of horror crossed her face. As Marco turned around and pick up his dumb, idiotic, brothers Luffy grabbed onto his upper arm, with both of her arms, to stop him. "No, don't worry about it, I want them here." Now that Marco got a closer look at the girl he was reminded of the party they broke into a few days ago.

"Hey weren't you that singer from the party-yoi?" Luffy looked at him closely and remembered the funny guy with the Pineapple hair, he was one of Ace's brothers. "You perhaps aren't the owner of this property, are you-yoi?" he asked a little worried, they weren't invited to that party, and somehow everyone got drunk.

"Oh, me? No I'm not, Hansuke is. He is not here right now so don't worry." As they were talking Ace and Thatch stirred and were starting to get up. Ace sat up groggily, forgetting where he was for a moment, damn that was Marco's chomping hand. He turned to see Marco and Luffy talking, hearing only part of the conversation. "The name's Luffy." she said, smiling and had her hand out to shake Marco's. And Ace was immediately up at that. He jumped to his feet and ran to Luffy. He slapped his hand around her mouth and pulled her closer to his chest, effectively shutting her up. But it was too late.

"Oh so this is the famous Luffy we have been hearing about-yoi."

Ace was getting tired of being flustered every ten minutes. He felt the blush rising and turned his head, to see Luffy looking up at him with wide eyes. He turned the other way, suddenly finding that patch of grass very interesting. He froze for a second and removed his hand from Luffy's mouth in disgust. Luffy just licked his hand, ew. She glared at him, huffed, and turned away back towards Marco.

"So Ace really does talk about me with his family, thank you for reminding me Mango."

"It's Marco-yoi."

"Yeah yeah Mango."

Ace chuckled at that, she can be funny when she wants to. He looked at Marco to see his eye twitch. "What are you even doing here Marco?" Thatch asked while he made his way to the other three.

"Well I was fine with Ace just disappearing, it was just him and he came back safe and sound the first time so I thought it wasn't a big deal and left him be. But then I saw you left to follow him, no big you just got worried. And then you left again today, excited about something. And when you get excited about something it usually doesn't mean anything good, especially when Ace is involved, AKA more paperwork for me. So what are you both up to yoi?" he asked menacingly while pointing his finger in their faces.

"Okay, do you want a lie or the whole truth? I promise you if I lie you don't have to deal with anything. Scouts honor!" Ace said jokingly and with a mock salute. Marco narrowed his eyes and glared deeply at the younger man. Ace gulped, "Whole truth it is. Luffy here is a slave." he said, pulling Luffy right in front of him. She raised her arm in a short wave. "And we're gonna bust her out. And we would love for you to help." he said enthusiastically, then Thatch, Ace, and Luffy came together in a huddle-like formation facing Marco and smiled brightly. Marco's face didn't change. If anything his glare got harder and his right eye started twitching.

"This is backfiring, if we don't change tactics he might stop the whole operation? Or worse, report it to Oyaji." Thatch whispered. They both paled at that. They don't want to bother their precious Oyaji with this when they can handle it themselves. … And there's also the reason that Oyaji gave the order that he wants them to try and stay away from the mansion the day before. Oh and they tried, they tried really hard, but the adorable cute face of a slave friend was too hard to resist and they ended up back in the mansion garden. "It's time for plan B." They looked each other in the eye and nodded determinedly. Then Ace whispered something into Luffy's ear and she nodded as well.

"No No NO, you are not dragging me into this-" he stopped abruptly when he looked down. Luffy was there looking up at him and giving him the cutest puppy dog eyes he's ever seen, THE PUPPY DOG EYES OF DOOM!!!!! (HAHAHA). He … he c-could r-resist, don't … give … in. He hung his head in defeat. No he can't, it's too powerful. "Fine, I'll help you." No person should have that much power. The others were jumping around cheering.

Then they all sat down, pulling Marco to accompany them on the ground. Discussing the plan to Marco, he gave some feedback and they worked on perfecting the plan till it was time for the others to go.

It was dark out as they made their way back to the ship. The silence was broken by Marco. "So, Luffy seems like a nice girl-yoi." he said with a smirk.

"Isn't she?" Thatch added.

"She is." Ace said with a small blush looking forward.

"And you too get along very well yoi!"

"We do."

"You too will make a wonderful couple." Thatch said.

"Wait… didn't Oyaji tell us to not go anywhere near the mansion yoi?"

"Whaaaaaa-" Thatch said in a high-pitched tone. Marco glared at him and Thatch turned his head away so fast he almost got whiplash. Marco opened his mouth to start scolding him when Thatch came up with a brilliant idea. "Did you know Ace used to sing songs for Luffy?!" Thatch yelled, not so subtly changing the subject.

Ace froze with his hair covering his eyes. Marco froze as well, mouth still open but no words coming out. He turned to Ace with wide eyes and a big shit-eating grin started forming on his face. Ace, already sensing this, started walking faster, about to start bolting it to the ship. Marco slammed his hand on Ace's shoulder stopping Ace from his escape.

"You sang to her?! Oh to be young and in love!" Marco sighed. Ace turned crimson.

"When did I ever say love?!?!"

"This morning." Thatch and Marco said simultaneously.

Ace's face was flushing even more as he was reminded of their conversation from that morning. He totally forgot that happened.

"I'm sure all of our siblings would love her!" Thatch said, clapping his hands together. "Are you going to invite her to join the crew when we finish this whole rescue plan? I'm sure Oyaji would love for her to join, right Marco?"

Marco nodded his head with a bright smile. "It'd be fun to have her there."

Ace had a small smile to compliment his blush at the thought of having Luffy be with him on the crew, waking up in the morning to eat breakfast together, he can train her to use her devil fruit more. Just spend endless days together.

Marco and Thatch, having seen his face, smiled at him and wrapped their arms around his shoulders teasing their little brother as they made their way back to the ship."

Sorry but this is going to be a long author's note. But PLEASE READ!

I know I know it's been a long time, I'm really sorry! 2021 became a lot more hectic than I originally planned. And now I'm back in school and I hate it. It's only been a week and a half and I'm already overwhelmed. I will try to set some time to make more chapters but they might take a while, I will upload as fast as I can. Also my only computer charger broke and I haven't been able to use my computer. I had to learn how to post on my phone, but I figured it out. (Yay me!) Thank you to all of you who stayed. I am really happy you have not lost hope with this fic, I would have(probably not something I should really be saying but it's true). I really hope you guys stay till the end.

I have some big ideas planned for my next fic. I'll give you a little spoiler about it(if you can call it that?), it will be a multi-story thing. Let me explain, let's say a fic is like a book then there will be 3 different books. They all live in the same universe and tell the same story but in different time periods, and it would absolutely be Acelu stories, fem-Luffy and male Ace and go with the canon storyline. It might take me a long time to post it, I want it to be at least all planned out, and I need to watch more of the show to get a better grasp on things to not get things wrong. Buuuut the chapters are way longer because I write whenever I get inspiration and it comes out as a lot. I usually get inspiration at different times and for different stories so it can be a pain to write stuff, another reason why it takes me a long time to post, I don't usually wait for inspiration to hit me with this story that's why it's so short. Sometimes I would be sitting down and chilling when out of nowhere an amazing idea pops in my head and I'm scrambling to my phone to start writing it down in detail or I will definitely forget everything. But I am really excited about this new fic and I can't wait to show you all.

Also one more thing before you go. If any of you have any sea shant suggestions that would be lovely. I don't know any but I want to hear more and find out which ones I like.

Well anyway sorry for bothering you with the big author's note, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and i'll see you next time.