Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece...

Special thanks to kerennie for betaing the chapter/story and helping with ideas :)

Chapter 7: The Truth is Revealed

Luffy grinned as Ace stared at her, not realizing that he was either losing all hope of Luffy ever becoming sane or that he was just simply not happy with her idea of him joining her crew when he had his own family that he enjoyed being with.

Luffy's laugh was cut short as Nami came over and hit her over the head, knocking her face first into the sand.

"Just what do you think you're doing Luffy?! We can't challenge the Strongest Man in the WORLD just because you want Ace to join our crew! He's the 2nd Division Commander as well! Do you have any idea what that means?!" Nami yelled angrily, and probably because she was terrified of the prospect that they probably were going to challenge the old man just because Luffy thought of it now and she was too stubborn to let anyone sway her.

Pulling her face out of the hot sand, Luffy fixed her hat and laughed again as she stared at Nami. "Joining the crew, means joining the crew. Ace can still be a Whitebeard Commando or whatever if he wants once he joins us, but he's part of MY crew if I find Blackbeard first. What else could it possibly mean other than that?"

Nami growled and punched Luffy on the head again, once more sending the blacked haired female into the sand. "You are insane! We're going to have to go through Whitebeard's entire ARMADA of pirates AND all his Commanders before we can even get close to Whitebeard to challenge him!"

"Just let it go Nami." Zoro spoke up, clearly having no problem with the ideas. "Luffy's made up her mind already, you know that. Nothing we can do but follow along."

Nami turned to Zoro angrily only to burst into (mock) tears, just like when she learned she was doomed after learning of Crocodile. "My life is over! Why did I ever agree to be a navigator for a bunch of idiots!" she complained as she hunched over and Vivi even tried to console her yet again.

"You guys are forgetting something…" Ace spoke up, a tick on his forehead indicating that he was not happy with this turn of events. "I don't WANT to join your crew Luffy! I like the crew and friends I have already!"

Luffy, once more out of the sand and fixing her hat, stared up at Ace for a moment, no emotions for that moment and then a grin spread out once more. "I know. That's why you can still be Commando with them even after you join us. That's also why I said 'if I find Blackbeard first'. So if you were really against the idea of joining me, you'd find him faster than me right?" Giggling at the stunned looks on everyone's faces once more, Luffy stood up and went to Vivi.

"Hey Vivi, which way? I wanna beat up Crocodile already and find Blackbeard, okay?" she asked happily, not at all concerned that Crocodile was in the way.

It was Usopp's turn to cry and beg Luffy. He was at her side, pulling on her coat. "Please Luffy! I don't wanna go after Blackbeard! Ace is a cool guy and all, but if Crocodile doesn't kill us, Whitebeard will! Not only that, this Blackbeard guy is bad news! If he could do the most unforgivable thing without even blinking, he's gotta be crazy powerful! Please Luffy! Reconsiderrrr…"

Ace wanted to say something that would put his Pops' name in good graces with the liar, but he figured that exaggeration was the best way to go to convince Luffy to give up her stupid idea.

…

Or Not…

"Really?! Is Whitebeard really that strong?!" Luffy asked with stars in her eyes and then turned to Ace expectantly. "Is he Ace?! Is he?! What about your friends? Are they strong too?! When can I meet them! Tell me everything!"

Brushing off Usopp and his worries, his mouth was hanging open as Chopper, who somehow woke up briefly, Sanji, who was also now awake, and Nami were all glaring at the sniper. He just made it official now and they all knew it. Zoro was just yawning and ready to go as he waited for people to start moving again.

On the other hand, Ace wasn't sure what just happened. At first it seemed like it was in his favor, Luffy's idea of finding Blackbeard, since he knew what the bastard looked like and she didn't. But then the moment Usopp said about how strong Pop's was, Luffy changed from determined to find Blackbeard to… determined to meet and fight Whitebeard.

"Uh… Yeah Luffy, he's strong. Even I can't beat him…" Not to mention that Ace tried killing him for nearly a whole year. But he wasn't going to say anything about that. Normally in the event that someone wanted to beat up Pop's, Ace was in their face and defending his honor. Luffy however didn't mean anything cruel by it, she just wanted a good fight and the chance to, clearly, have him on her crew whether he wanted to be or not. "I can tell you more about the crew later though."

Luffy looked even more impressed and her grin went even wider. "Wow… a flesh and blood person even my big brother can't beat… I can't wait to meet him." She stated excitedly as she hooked her arms around Ace's, keeping him close as she didn't want him getting the idea he could avoid joining her and the crew.

With that, she began walking, bring along an unwilling Ace and the others followed – well more like corrected the path that Luffy was going on, into going in the right direction.

Wait… what did she just say?

Nami hurried to Luffy's side as they walked and stared at their captain wearily, unsure if she should take Luffy's words literally. "Luffy… don't you want to and I quote 'kick Whitebeard's ass'?" she asked uncertainly.

Luffy blinked at Nami and then laughed light heartedly. "What are you talking about? Of course I want to fight Whitebeard, but not like I wanna fight Crocodile. Crocodile is going down, simple as that. Whitebeard sounds like a cool guy, I can't wait to spare and see how strong he really is." Then thinking about it for a minute, she frowned and turned to Ace. "Although, I'll fight him seriously if he doesn't let you join me. We made a deal." She was full on glaring at Ace, daring him to tell her falsely that the deal was never accepted.

As far as Luffy was concerned, it was a deal and that was that. More than half the crew sighed in relief that Luffy didn't really want a full out war with Whitebeard. 'Just a friendly spar… what a relief' could easily be read on each of their faces and even Vivi was feeling the same way as she was more than just a little concerned about her new friends. The only one who seemed even remotely disappointed is our dear old swordsman, always ready for any fight that Luffy wants to go into.

"Damn… was looking forward to fighting Vista… Heard he's a pretty good swordsman too." Zoro grumbled out but that was it because Vivi, Nami and Usopp were glaring at him and Sanji decided to pick a fight with him.

"What? Can't you think with anything more than your sword, stupid moss head?" Sanji asked grumpily, somehow completely fine again after Nami's hit to his head.

Now that everything seemed back to normal and calmed down again, Luffy's complaining of the heat continued about 20 minutes later causing everyone to sigh and just bear with it. Well, except maybe Ace because he once again brought up the fact that fire was ten times better than rubber and their back and forth ensued once more.

-Later-

That night, instead of complaining about the heat, Luffy was now complaining that it was cold along with everyone else for that matter. Well, except for Ace and Chopper for obvious reasons. Ace had helped start the fire and everyone that wanted to cuddled with Chopper for his warm fur to keep warm with. Which would be Usopp and Nami… Luffy on the other hand sat with and hugged Ace to keep warm.

Smiling softly as she held him, Luffy couldn't help but think that not only was Ace really warm, she could only recall just how much she missed him and that this was the first full day she'd been with him in a long time. If she thought about the days after he left, she couldn't resist hugging him more tightly, not really noticing that her actions had caused said fire user to blush or that his arm that had originally been awkwardly hanging by his side – was now awkwardly around her shoulder in return.

Nami looked towards the siblings and smiled softly. It was such a cute scene she couldn't bring herself to tease the blushing man right now. "Hey Luffy, you really missed Ace huh?" she asked softly, curious to see how her captain would respond.

Luffy smiled a bit wider and hugged Ace even more before looking at Nami with a nod. "Yeah, I did. It's been a while since I saw Ace and being with him today only helped in making my decision earlier. Ace needs to join us so I don't miss him anymore." Grinning up at Ace, she didn't register his surprised look. "So, no matter what, I'm gonna find Blackbeard first. I may not know what he looks like but I don't plan to lose any time soon, Ace."

Ace's surprise slowly changed to a gentle gaze and he didn't find Luffy's hug so embarrassing anymore for the moment. He held Luffy more confidently by her shoulder and his free hand moved her hat into her face. "Whatever, Luffy. Just go to sleep. Just this once, I'll let you sleep next to me tonight." He was growing more embarrassed as was evident by the blush on his cheeks and he'd shoved Luffy's hat into her face to prevent her from seeing it.

Nami and Vivi looked at each other with a smile and everyone else looked at the siblings with a smile of their own, not seeing the two women nod to each other as if they came to a conclusion together. If Nami's scheming look in her eye had anything to say about it, Ace was in for something big, Nami style, come tomorrow.

Ace stayed awake longer than most of them, all but Luffy were asleep now, but he didn't mind it would give the siblings a chance to really talk. Looking over to Luffy who had put her head on his shoulder to watch the fire pit, he gave a small smile. "Hey Luffy… You said earlier that you missed me… haven't you thought about what I want at all?"

At his question, Luffy looked up at him curiously, her arms were still around his waist but she tightened them just a bit more as though to make sure he wouldn't run off. "Yes…" she answered softly after a minute.

Just the sound of that one word had Ace turn to Luffy in shock. It wasn't the word itself that had him do that, it was the sound she made the word with that shocked him. She didn't sound like his Luffy at all. She sounded meek and… feminine. For the first time since he saw her again, she sounded like an actual girl rather than a wild idiot seeking adventure. "Luffy?" he asked, urging her to continue. She had a look on her face that said there was more to her statement than just 'yes.'

Ace was once more taken for surprise as Luffy did something else that made the fact she was a woman, hit home. This time it was the look on her face. It was soft, lips were in a small pout (which is a miracle considering how she normally pouts), her eyes were glassy as though she was going to cry but tears didn't seem to be forming just yet.

Biting her lower lip, Luffy tried to figure out how to say what Ace needed to hear and still understand what she was trying to tell him. She'd said many times when they were younger that she'd be with Ace and Sabo forever, but no one ever took her seriously. Then Sabo died… and she tried to make them understand even more. She'd claim Ace as hers and no one could touch him, she'd said to Grandpa that she'd be the one to make Ace happy and that she'd be with him forever as soon as she became a pirate. He'd pretty much only heard 'become a pirate' and hit her again which caused Luffy to cry and Ace to fight and defend her only to get hit himself for saying 'become a pirate' too.

She'd asked Makino one day how she could make people understand that she wasn't just being a child, that she liked Ace a lot and wanted to make him smile every day and be with him forever. Her response had made some sense to Luffy, but not enough to understand the actual meaning of the words so she never repeated them.

The day Ace left, Luffy was happy for him that he was following his dream and she'd saved every article about him that she found. The others only saw Luffy happy and training for the three years, they didn't see that Luffy was really lonely as she stared at Ace's newspaper clippings and some of the stuff that Sabo used to use or play with before he died. She missed her brothers a lot, but since one was gone from this world, she could miss the alive one more since she knew he was out there somewhere and she couldn't find him for a while yet. When three years passed and she started on her journey, she looked for friends to ease the loneliness and someday knew she'd find Ace again.

"Luffy?" Ace called again, causing the young girl to look up at him for moment before she buried her face into his chest and held him tightly.

"Ace… I love you…"

Her words were muffled and soft, but it was clear that Ace had heard it very clearly as she felt him stiffen in her arms. She didn't look to see if he was surprised or angry, but Luffy didn't care if he was mad at her. It was the truth. Plus, she didn't really want to say anything when her friends were awake. Makino had told her that day, so long ago, that she shouldn't say anything unless it was just between her and Ace. This was the first chance she had since she felt that those words were the truth that explained all she felt and more. Now that she was older, Luffy just knew that she had to tell Ace.

Luffy confessed how she feels at last XD You guys will have to wait for Ace's reaction next chapter. Also, before I forget, I have a poll up on my profile for what you want to happen during the War of the Best concerning Whitebeard. I had a few people say that I shouldn't kill Whitebeard and so I'm asking for everyone's opinion. There's a few options there. The standard yes or no answer, but also one more. I have an idea for IF I let Whitebeard live, I have an OOC in mind that I could bring into the story. If the third option doesn't give you that hint of what the OOC's role will be eventually, well then just ask me via pm...

On another note, I got a guest review to almost all my chapters, and I'm assuming it's the same person since it was one after another. So I'll just respond to the reviews here. Other responses have been sent via pm as normal.

Guest 1st review:

XD that made me laugh. I don't know why you put it like that but it just made sense all at the same time lol loved it

Guest 2nd review:

Yes, Ace blushing is always cute, you get that in this chapter and the previous one I think so I hope you're happy with that ^^

Guest 3rd review:

hehee Well well, someone is catching some of the little easter egg hints I've been leaving at least. XD No spoilers though you'll just have to wait and see.

Guest 4th review:

Ace... *glares at said pirate*

Ace: What? It's true that you *mouth disappears*

*grins evilly as I hold an eraser/delete button* hehee no more spoiling my story for you... But then again... I like your voice... grrr

Ace's fist is covered in fire and he doesn't look too pleased that I erased his mouth... "Gotta run, sorry!" *runs away*

Guest 5th Review:

Luffy: NO! I'm Captain and I'm gonna stay Captain! *sticks tongue out*

Well... there's the answer to that review hehee Next!

Oh wait that was all the guest reviews oh well XD

I want to thank everyone for reading my chapter/story and for following/favoriting it as well. Here's the next chapter and don't forget to put your vote in! You have until I start writing about the war again before I close it down! Have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Though, I will admit that I sent kerennie about half of this chapter as I wanted to surprise her for the next little bit that I had come up with XD I hope she's surprised. Guess I'll find out soon. Were you surprised? LET ME KNOW! hehe Read/Review/Like... in that order XD lol jk, reading and reviewing is good enough hehee

Ja Ne,

AceAyane