Thanks for the follows & favourites! This one's not as fluffy, but I hope you enjoy it!

"So, where did you get such a great looking hat, Ace?" Thatch asked, happy the kid had finally warmed up enough to them to start eating in the mess with them. Apparently that had been a good question, because his face positively lit up. Marco paused in his eating to watch this new side of their future brother, and the nearby commanders dropped their conversations to listen in. They knew the fireball was a good pirate - strong, determined, loyal to his crew - but this was the first time they had seen him happy.

"My little brother got it for me!" He boasted proudly, pulling it off his head to look at it with a lot more affection than Thatch felt a hat truly warranted.

"You have a brother?" Haruta asked, joining in.

"Yeah!" Ace exclaimed brightly. "He's three years younger, a wimp, a crybaby, and…" here Ace's voice trailed off.

"And?" Izo prompted gently, causing Ace to shake his head resignedly.

"No one can describe Luffy," he told them, his smile softening. Thatch had honestly never expected to see such a loving expression on the fierce kid's face. He could see now what Pops had seen from the start: a warm and loving heart buried under a mountain of anger. "I could tell you a hundred stories about him, but until you meet him, it won't really make sense. He's like the sun. He's bright, and shinning, and somehow a world without him would be dark and terrible. He makes people happy just by being around him."

"So the hat was a present?" Namur prompted carefully, evidently not wanting to push Ace now that they were finally making progress with him.

"Yeah, for my sixteenth birthday!" That hat had obviously been well looked after to survive years, especially it's time in the New World. It was at odds with what Thatch knew of the reckless teen.

"So, why orange?" He asked. Because that was a really noticeable hat.

"Cause he couldn't find a red one." When this didn't enlighten anyone, Ace continued, a smile hovering on his lips. "My brother loves his hat and decided that I needed a cool hat if I was going to be a pirate. He wanted to find a red one, since that's my favourite colour, but all he could find was the orange one. He stole it and was on his way home with it when he got eaten-" this caused a stir a table making Ace halt his story.

"Your brother was eaten?" Izo asked incredulously. Ace stared at him perplexed.

"Yeah, it happened a lot." The Commanders were left staring at their recruit wondering where the hell in the East Blue people were commonly eaten. Thatch wanted to ask, but knowing that a lot of pirates hid their origins to protect loved ones and that trust was built slowly, kept his mouth shut. He was fairly certain his brothers were struggling with the same. One day they would know.

"What ate him?" Marco asked, utterly composed, earning a few disbelieving looks from his brothers. Really, they should have known better. This was Marco and nothing as trivial as a child being eaten - apparently alive - was going to shake him.

"Just a crocodile," Ace dismissed, making a few jaws drop, "but then I was stuck getting him out. The idiot dropped the hat so I had to crawl inside and get the damn thing!" Even after more than two years, Ace seemed frustrated by that.

"Why didn't you kill the crocodile?" Izo asked.

"We did," Ace replied, puzzled. "It was supper." Thatch bit back a groan, certain they hadn't done justice to the meat. They'd probably just roasted the damn thing thing.

"So why didn't you cut the hat out as you gutted it instead of crawling back inside?" Ace stared at Izo, gobsmacked, earning a round of chuckles from the commanders.

"If you were so annoyed at crawling in," Haruta commented, "why didn't you insist your brother get it? It was your birthday present, after all." Haruta got a few looks for the suggestion, but Ace just shook his head.

"My brother's an anchor," he answered, and, yeah, a kid having a Devil Fruit in the East Blue deserved a whole new round of questions. "I didn't want to risk having the crocodile go in the water with Luffy inside." These kids were far too interesting, Thatch felt. Ace needed to join soon so they could pester him with questions.

"So are you, Ace," Namur reminded, since he was the one fishing Ace out of the water every time the fireball got knocked overboard.

"Yeah," Ace replied, rubbing his neck in embarrassment, "but I wasn't then."

"So you ate your Devil Fruit after you left?" Haruta asked, and Thatch saw the wariness return to Ace's eyes.

"Yeah."

"Is your brother going to a pirate?" Marco asked, steering the conversation back to safer waters. Ace perked right back up.

"Yeah, he wants to be pirate king!" The commanders stared at him, incredulous. It was one thing for a boy in the East Blue who had no idea how big the ocean truly was to dream like that, but surely Ace would know better by now? Seeing their looks, Ace's face softened.

"Luffy's an experience." They sat quietly, hoping more words would follow. "I was ten when I met Luffy and I hated him. He was smiley, and happy, and looked like he'd never been hurt. I deliberately tried to hurt him. When he followed me into the forest, I chose the most dangerous routes hoping he'd get killed." Thatch felt his stomach churn at the admission, but the pain, and guilt, and shame Ace was feeling clearly eclipsed anything he felt at the story. "It took him six months to be able to follow me to my hide out, but he never gave up. He never even gave himself a day to recover before following me again. My friend-" Thatch heard the hesitation there and knew his brothers had, too, "and I had gotten in trouble with some local pirates and Luffy kept calling my name. Realizing he knew us, they took him, wanting to know where we kept our treasure. Luffy knew. He was seven and he knew, but even though they spent the whole day working him over with spiked gloves -" all the commanders recoiled at the thought of a seven year old facing such brutality - "he didn't sell us out." Ace swallowed hard, and Thatch wondered if there was anyone who wouldn't be moved by such a tale.

"What happened?" Marco asked quietly.

"We had focused on getting our treasure out. I thought he would sell us out right away," Ace explained, not even trying to make it a defence. "When we realized he hadn't, we raided the place to get him back. They were about to kill him. A minute later and he would have died. I was so mad," Ace admitted with a shaky laugh. "Why did he bother? We weren't friends, or family, or anything to each other, but he almost died for me."

"What did he say?" Marco had taken over the questioning, but that was alright. Finesse was not a skill many pirates possessed.

"He said it hurt more to be alone than to be hurt."

"Smart kid," Marco commented, earning a disbelieving laugh from Ace.

"Luffy is anything but smart. He's reckless, and stupid, and clumsy, but… when it comes to people, somehow he always knows. After that… I could never betray him. No matter how stupid he was, no matter what completely insane trouble we ended up in…"

"So you think he'll end up pirate king?" Pops asked, obviously entertained. Thatch wondered when he had joined them and how much he had heard. Ace turned to look at him, obviously surprised to see him there. He faltered before raising his chin and facing the strongest man in the world.

"I'm not sure," Ace admitted, "but I can guarantee you'll meet him one day." Pops threw his head back with a laugh, and Thatch was almost certain he was making plans for another new recruit.

"Ace," Marco said, pushing back from the table, and drawing everyone's attention, "your brother's not the only one who always knows." Ace watched the blond leave with their father, a thoughtful look on his face.