Ace missed his hat. The tacky orange cowboy hat that would sit up top his head was a comfortable weight that was always there, after Luffy had gifted it to him of course. Now it was gone, the Marines had stripped him of almost everything personal before they took him to his execution.

So, what does one do without a hat? They look for one of course. Ace would feel out of place again without his hat. Sabo and Luffy both had one and he did too, once upon a time.

He fucking misses his hat.

—-

They had just reached a new island to stock for more supplies. So, Ace pulled an Oden and immediately tried to jump the ship and run into town, but before he could Marco attached himself to Ace's arm. "Where are yah going, yoi?"

Shit, Ace has a weakness for the blue bird and everyone on this pile of driftwood knew it. "Just to go shopping."

Izou, of course, heard shopping and popped into existence right next to him, "shopping?"

"KAMI! Izou, where the bloody hell did you come from?!"

"Shopping?"

Ace knew he wasn't going to get an answer, "yeah I'm going to look for a hat, what does it matter?"

"A hat?" Izou had this disbelieving air about him that never seemed to leave when he was talking with Ace.

"Yeah, a hat, what about it?" Ace responded quickly.

All Izou did was look him up and down, "a hat?" He had raised one of his eyebrows. Ace was trying to stay serious, but Marco was clearly trying to keep a laugh from coming out.

"Yes, a hat, why?" He bit out.

Izou seemed to be sizing him up, Ace's style of clothing had changed from when he was first on the ship, instead of his cargo shorts and absence of shirt, he was wearing black pants and a white shirt that unfortunately reminded him of Shanks's. He wore shirts to cover his scar, he hated what it meant, and he didn't want to worry anyone on the ship. His hair had grown longer as well, he had the shoulder length hair tied back into a small ponytail, and his shoes were black, they raised him up about an inch. And no hat.

Izou finally sighed heavily, like he had just made peace with something he knew would go wrong, I'm gonna kill him-

"Fine, let's go find this. . . hat of yours." Izou reluctantly walked to the side of the ship to make his way down.

Ace just started at the empty space in front of him. Marco tugged the lucid Ace after Izou, happily laughing at the older's stupidity.

—x—x— —. —xx-

They had been to so many shops it wasn't even funny anymore. Marco was clearly bored and Izou had been ranting on about the best color that would fit him. Before, the older Izou had said that his color was warmer colors, but now the younger Izou was just ranting on about color theory or some crap.

They walked into another store, the walls were lined with clothes of all types and colors. There were hats that lined the top of the walls, on hangers right under where the wall became the ceiling. And sunglasses that were on racks at the front of the shop, sitting by the window. They walked around, Izou still ranting, and Marco was looking around bug-eyed. It had taken some time to get used to Marcos eyes being as open as they were considering that the older Marco always had them half shut with a constant bored look on his face.

He was getting tired of looking.

Then he saw it, the hat was sitting innocently in one of the dirtier corners in the shop. It was clearly an old, weathered hat from the dust and the dulled colors, the golden hue of the straw glinted in the lighting. The straw was poking out of place in multiple places and the murky yellow ribbon tied around it probably was the only thing keeping it together. The best part though, was the bright blue goggles resting on top. Luffy and Sabo. Yellow and blue. The hat obviously was well loved, and probably was a kids hat at some point, judging by the colors.

He walked straight over to where the hat was hanging and grabbed it. He could feel Marco's eyes trained in his back -and the silence that followed Izou after he stopped talking- and looked at the hat that sat in his hands.

The rough edges and the musty smell reminded him of the room he and his brothers had stayed in, after Sabo had supposedly died, they never went back into that room, the one in Dadan's house. It had become stuffy with dust; lungs would fill quickly and the harsh coughs that followed only stirred up more dust.

"That one?" He could feel Izou's eyes on him and not the hat, probably catching his expression.

"Yeah, reminds me of my brothers."

The tense silence that followed was expected, he hardly talked about his other brothers much at all. They still were with him though, and would be in the future, they were, after all, inseparable, even after death. Idiots don't die alone, their gramps had told them, they all die together 'cause they all thought it looked fun when the first guy did it.

"How does it remind you of them, yoi?"

Ace looked up and met Marco's gaze before his eyes snapped back to looking at the hat. "My little brother had always worn a straw hat and my other younger brother had goggles on his hat."

Marco peered a little closer at the old hat, "it smells like dirt."

Ace promptly burst out laughing, Izou was clearly trying to hide his laughter by the shaking of his shoulders and Marco just had his nose wrinkled.

— - - —-x—+—- —

Ace's new hat sat up top his head and the goggles rested around his neck, he missed the red beaded necklace as well. They were chatting animatedly while walking back to their ship, which was on the other side of the island, when Ace heard something. The distinct sound of a gun clicking, and the tense few seconds before the trigger was pulled.

He quickly grabbed Marco and Izou and shoved them behind him facing exactly where the shooter was. He ignored Izou's yells and Marco's yelp. The trigger was pulled not even a second later. Ace could feel the tension grow in Marco and Izou behind him as they heard the gunshot.

He quickly heated his flames as hot as he could. The red flames soon turned deep blue before a blinding white, the bullet melted into a pile of molten before it could even touch him. If he had been hit it would've gone straight through and hit Izou or Marco.

Ace made rules for himself while he was in the past. One; don't cause too much trouble, don't draw attention. Two; have fun. And zero, which proceeds rule one, don't let anyone get hurt.

He could hear the shouting from the other marines closing in, they were coming closer and closer, he pulled the others behind him more, the marines got closer and closer until-

A kid.

Brown auburn hair and a cut on the side of his face, it was clearly old due to the scar that had already taken its place, and- that's Thatch.

They, in truth, weren't supposed to come to this island. They would've gone right by it if not for the fact that Ace had eaten a little too much of their reserve food and they had to make a pit stop. Ace knew Thatch hadn't joined the crew until after the death of the pirate king, Thatch had told him after all. Yet there he was, hair tied back, no pompadour insight and a lot skinnier. This is one change I will welcome. Ace grabbed Thatch's arm, he looked terrified- kami I hate marines- Ace pushed Thatch behind him and pushed him into the others. "Cover your eyes!"

They all quickly covered their eyes before the blinding light of Ace's fire rose around them in a tornado. The flames licked the ground and burned the air dry. Rising higher and higher, he could hear the marines on the other side trying to get in. They couldn't get close enough without burning.

Not before long the fuzziness of Ace's eyes clouded more. 'Shit.' A pulsating pain kept pounding in his head. He dropped the flames and the heat still surrounded him. And he quickly glanced behind him, barely making out the three others before jumping into a fight with the leftover marines.

He was relying heavily on observation haki and it showed. His movements were more jagged instead of clean and smooth. He barely dodged swords and bullets that came his way. Not before long though all the marines in the area had been taken care of. Their bodies unceremoniously dropped on the ground in piles. His eyes stung and the gray cloudiness he had been trying to avoid from the overuse of his fruit came back in full force.

He could only make out the splotches of colors of the clothes that they were wearing. Marco, not surprisingly, was the first to come running over to Ace. The heat only seemed to energize him, and the faint glow of his healing flames under his skin seemed to show his appreciation for the heat. "ACE, YOI!"

He could hear Marco stop running over before continuing, 'crap.' Marco had probably seen his eyes, the last time he had a migraine like this his eyes had looked lighter and murkier for a while afterwards. He reached up to rub his eyes, his eyelids feel heavy and there was a district dryness from the smoke.

"Ace! What were you thinking, yoi?!" Marco prompted, "I could've helped you know!"

Ace still had his hands up rubbing his eyes. A soft chuckle came from Ace, "sorry-"

He could hear the sound of Izou snapping his fan open and walking over before he cut Ace off, "you're not allowed to same sorry any more, you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Ace looked up to where he knew Thatch was standing, "are you okay? Sorry for pushing you."

He felt Izou swat him with his fan at the apolegi, "yeah I'm fine, thanks for helping man, I thought they were going to kill me."

Ace could slightly make out Izou and Thatch but Marco was the easiest. The light that was coming off him from the charge from his fire made Marco glow. He could easily make out his body against the rest of the background. "Why were they going after you, yoi?"

That- that was a good question, Ace hadn't really cared much at all, caught up by 'seeing' Thatch again. "Oh I had painted some dicks on the marine bases again, they didn't like it the first time either though."

Ace felt the silence that stretched on afterwords, he knew that Thatch had gotten Pop's attention because of some stupid prank on the marines, but this just exceeds Ace's expectations. Ace burst out laughing, using Marco's shoulder to keep him up. He felt Marco heat up a little under his hand, he was certain that if he could see he would see a slight blush on the phoenix's face. Izou certainly noticed though.

"REALLY!? DUDE THAT'S AWESOME, WHAT PAINT DID YOU USE-"

"ACE?!"

"ACE, YOI!?"

Izou and Marco had screamed at the same time. Both had mortified looks on their faces, his blurry vision was letting up.

Thatch lightly laughed at the interactions, he coughed a little to bring all the attention back to himself and he held out his hand, "My name's Thatch."

Ace's eyesight had cleared, he could see from Thatch's hand up to his face then down to his feet. Ace pulled down his hat to shield his eyes before walking over and taking Thatch's hand, "nice to meet you kid, this is Izou and Marco, and my name's Portgas-Andres D Ace, but you can call me Ace."