They weren't ashore more than fifteen seconds before Luffy bolted toward town, loudly declaring his search for a restaurant.

Honestly, Usopp was impressed he'd held out that long.

"Ugh," Nami groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "Does he even understand what it means to have a price on his head?"

"I hope he doesn't get into trouble." Vivi said.

"Don't worry, Vivi-chan," Sanji said. "If we need to find him, just look for the noisiest spot in town."

"That's not very reassuring, Sanji-san."

"Luffy can take care of himself," Zoro said, in that tone he occasionally adopted when their captain was absent. "Let's eat and figure out our next move."

"On the plus side," Usopp mused aloud. "Nobody will be paying any attention to us with him running around like that."

Chopped canted his head to one side.

"Huh. Did he do that on purpose?"

Simultaneously, everyone present save the doctor said:

"No."

"Razzafrazza… Sonnuva… Piece of…"

Portgas D. Ace grumbled and swore under his breath as he picked his way through the remnants of several consecutive walls; how many buildings had he left a person-shaped hole in? More to the point, which idiot had sent him flying?

He'd been enjoying his meal before that Navy captain showed up.

("What's Whitebeard's second division commander doing here, Portgas?"

"Nothing major. Just looking for somebody.")

Smoker, like most marines Ace knew, hadn't been all that flexible.

("I'm tracking a different pirate right now. Save us both some time and give yourself up."

"Don't wanna; why don't you save us both some time and pretend we didn't see each other?"

"Can't do that.")

In the middle of their impasse, some dumbass came barreling into the restaurant and crashed into Smoker, who, in turn, smashed into Ace and they'd both gone flying.

"Ah."

Ace found a family staring at him and realized he'd interrupted their meal.

By walking through their living room.

After his ballistic body had installed nonconsensual ventilation in their home.

He planted his feet together, straightened his back, and dipped into a bow.

"Sorry for the intrusion."

Unbidden, he recalled another of Makino's lessons.

("Just relax and smile, Ace-chan. You'd get into fewer fights if you stopped scowling all the time; you've got a cute face, after all."

"I'm not cute!")

Ace offered a smile as an apology before stomping on ahead. Minding his manners still didn't quite suit him, which didn't surprise him. Contrary to what a lot of people thought, the crossed-out S in the ASCE tattoo on his left arm wasn't an accident; he was filling in for someone who'd been much better at the big brother gig than him.

Luffy had been the best at smiling of the three of them.

Ace grumbled, thoughts of his kid brother putting him in a sour mood. He'd taken the time to stop at this backwater outpost trying to meet up with him, and now he'd barely have time to smote the bastard who hit him before–

Snarf. Gobble. Munch.

Ace stopped in his tracks just inside the restaurant's new hole in the wall.

There, stuffing his dumb rubber face, was his little brother.

Ace's face split into an effortless, natural grin.

"Hey, Lu–!"

"STRAW HAT!"

Slam!

Ace's face met rubble courtesy of a revived, snarling Smoker. By the time Ace collected himself, Luffy realized he was staring down a marine captain, shoved everything edible on the bar into his mouth and tore off into the street. Smoker gave chase, hot on his heels.

"Dammit." Ace muttered, picking himself up to run after them.

Not even a hello between them and Luffy had already landed himself in trouble.

"We probably shouldn't have sent Sanji-san to get clothes for us," Vivi said diplomatically. "Dancers won't exactly blend in with the common people."

"I love this!" Nami said, twirling in place so her skirt flared out.

Granted, the bare midriff and shoulders suited her style more than Vivi's; the princess had a point, too. They would stand out.

"Dancers are common people, too!" Sanji argued, openly admiring them. The outfits probably weren't as common as the cook wanted them to be, but he seemed thrilled enough with the two of them.

"Still," he said, throwing a grin toward the boys. "The ladies look great, but you guys look more like bandits!"

Zoro grumbled mid-munch, half a drumstick in his mouth.

"As opposed to you?"

"Bandits are just pirates who gave up on their dreams," Usopp said with a dismissive shrug. "So that tracks."

Nami snorted; bandits or not, the draping cloaks and head coverings would make them harder to recognize on top of protecting them in the desert.

"Chopper? What's up with you?"

"It burns," he groaned, hooves over his face. "Too many smells. My nose is gonna fall off."

"No wonder," Vivi said sympathetically. "Nanohana's known for its perfumes; it'd be harsh for someone with a nose as sensitive as Tony-kun's."

Nami hummed, eyeing the sample that'd come with the dancer's outfits. Smiling coquettishly, she arched her neck and sprayed a spritz of it on her nape.

"AGH!" Chopper cried, clutching his nose. "STOP!"

"Ah~!" Sanji cried in a very different sort of way. "Heaven!"

Zoro scoffed and rolled his eyes; pausing halfway through a swig of the bottle of booze he'd taken from their supplies, he suddenly snatched Vivi by the shoulder and pulled her down.

"Hide!" He hissed.

Nami dove behind cover; they'd gathered at the outskirts of town after picking up the supplies they needed. In front of them were the streets, behind them was practically open desert. Chopper's ears twitched.

"What's dat?" He whispered, still clutching his nose.

Zoro poked his head out, scowling into the thoroughfare. A general ruckus drew closer.

"Navy's chasing someone." He grunted.

A beat.

Usopp hoisted a bag of their supplies onto his shoulder.

"What're you doing?" Nami asked.

"What'd we say before?" Usopp asked in an entirely rhetorical tone. "The noisiest spot in town?"

Nami stared at him; she pressed her mouth into a thin line and squeezed her eyes shut.

"AAAAAH!"

. . .

She recognized that yell.

"Motherfu–!"

"Oi, Zoro!"

"Don't lead them here!"

"Can we have one hour of peace between docking somewhere and running for our lives?!"

"Can't handle being a pirate, witch?"

"Don't talk to Nami-san like that!"

"Hurry back to the ship," Vivi called over her shoulder. "We'll dock the Merry further upriver and then walk to Yuba!"

Whilst the others were multitasking–running, bantering and hashing out plans–Usopp had his attention divided between their rear, where flashes of fire and smoke continued flaring up to combat each other

"Didn't think I'd get to see Ace here!"

And their captain.

Portgas D. Ace; Luffy's beloved older brother, a cornerstone of the rubber boy's universe, and one of the Yonko Whitebeard's commanders. In exactly that order.

("We'll talk later, Luffy; you all go on ahead, I'll deal with these guys!")

Ace's 'voice' burned, warm and fierce and quick to flare much like his Devil Fruit ability. Usopp hadn't spared him quite as much thought as he probably should have; he'd been occupied with a few other things. Not to say he wouldn't do anything.

The sniper broke out of his musings and noticed his captain, by virtue of the fact that he was running backwards as they fled, split off from the group down a separate alley. Usopp hoisted his share of the supplies onto Chopper and made a sharp turn down a different street.

"Where are you going?" Nami called after him.

"Gonna make sure Luffy makes it back to the ship," he yelled back. "You all board the Merry and move if you have to; we'll find you!"

Usopp wove up various streets and took all kinds of turns, yet Luffy's path never seemed to intersect with his. He saw a stack of crates and barrels grouped beside a street stall.

"Screw it."

He hiked up the stack, hopped briefly on the roof of the stall and hurled himself on top of the nearest building; the layout of the town was close enough that he could move from building to building. After another couple minutes of playing leap of faith, he caught up with Luffy, who'd finally noticed he'd been separated from the crew.

"Huh?" He looked around. "Did they get lost?"

Usopp pinched his mouth shut; he huffed out irritation on a sigh.

"I should be glad you didn't destroy anything when you weren't looking." He muttered.

"Oh, that's happened."

Usopp nearly jumped out of his skin; Ace, disregarding Usopp's Haki entirely, had somehow ended up right behind him wearing a wide-brimmed orange hat and a freckled grin. He laughed.

"Luffy once ran through a tree and didn't notice until it fell; almost took off a bandit's head, damn near made his buddies shit themselves."

Usopp didn't have any trouble picturing that scenario playing out.

"Usopp," Luffy called up, beaming. "Ace!"

"You never change, huh, Luffy?"

Ace leapt off the roof down to the street. Usopp slid his feet over the side and tumbled down after him.

"Always need someone to bail you out."

"Hey," Luffy argued with a smile. "Most of the crap we got into was your idea!"

"Sure," Ace drawled. "And who decided to run through a mess of marines?"

"I was hungry!" Luffy pouted.

"Right. And ditching your crew?"

"It's not my fault they went the wrong way!"

Usopp pursed his lips. If Luffy started picking up others bad habits, he'd have to resort to drastic measures.

Like kicking Zoro's ass.

"Right, right," Ace huffed with a knowing grin. He turned on a dime toward the mouth of the alley and started walking. Luffy fell into step beside him with practiced ease; Usopp trailed a couple paces behind. "Where's your ship, anyway?"

Luffy screwed up his face in concentration, eyes aimed skyward; the lines in his brow vanished at the same time he proudly answered:

"Near water!"

Ace threw his head back and bust out laughing, the sound tinted with familial derision and fondness.

"A Captain oughta know where his ship's docked, right?"

He threw a backward glance over his shoulder, directing the question at Usopp. The sniper blinked and shrugged.

"Usually." He agreed on a resigned sigh.

"Oh!" Luffy exclaimed. Clearly, he'd all but forgotten Usopp's presence; not that Usopp could ever hold that against him. His captain stretched an arm backward and snagged at his collar, tugging him forward. "Ace, this is Usopp, my sniper! He's an awesome shot and he tells the best stories!"

As ever, Usopp had to consciously restrain himself from preening at the boy captain's excited, earnest praise; claims like my crew's the best fell from Luffy's mouth with the same casual conviction anyone else would use to say that the sun rose in the east every morning. The heartfelt affirmation left a warmth and fullness permeating from his chest straight down to his toes and–

'Did it get hotter?'

That idle musing, and the sense that a pair of suddenly less-than-friendly eyes were boring into the back of his skull, left the marksman beading a cold sweat from his brow.

"Stories, huh?"

Ace's voice was void of the joviality he'd been using since reuniting with his brother. Usopp's mind raced, wondering what could've been done or said that would put a Yonko's commander in the mindset to smite him. Going off his tone, he sounded… accusatory?

Thankfully, Usopp had ample experience being scared shitless, so his brain still worked a little bit. With a little brother like Luffy, Ace would've been especially leery of any sort of deception.

"Yeah," he squeaked. "Helps the kids fall asleep."

Just as suddenly as the heat came on, it vanished.

"I see." Ace said, all grins again, swatting Usopp's back in what could've been an unspoken apology.

"And our doctor is a man-reindeer with a blue nose!" Luffy said.

For all his severely protective nature, his rubber captain possessed not even an inkling that Ace had been considering whether or not to reduce Usopp to ash; that was probably even more terrifying than the fact he was capable of doing so.

"And a cook who smokes and fights with his feet!" He babbled, rattling off details of all the Straw Hats.

Ace gave Luffy his full attention as they walked, smiling like the doting brother he must've always been.

"And we're traveling with a princess and a huge duck right now!"

"A princess?"

Luffy laughed, beaming.

"They're all really funny!"

Ace snorted.

"I bet you're the funniest of all," he said. Usopp silently agreed; by every definition of the word. "It's just like you, putting together a such a small, weird crew."

Coming from anyone Luffy claimed relation to, Usopp chose to take that as a compliment.

"Now we just need a musician." Luffy said.

Usopp shook his head; even over the course of two lives, he still didn't understand his captain's obsession with filling that position in particular.

"Yep," Ace nodded decisively. "Gotta have music."

'Him too?!'

Usopp blinked; on a whim, he cast out a pulse of Haki, careful to avoid actually looking around. They were surrounded by a generous handful of unpleasant company that'd yet to reveal themselves. Though compared to the brothers casually ambling either side of him, they amounted to little more than flies; small wonder that they weren't at all concerned, assuming they'd even deigned to notice.

"Fire Fist Ace!"

One of the flies shouted, jumping out in tandem with his buddies and brandishing a sword.

"Today's our lucky day–just think, your head is gonna get us promoted to agents!"

He pointed at Luffy.

"And your bounty will fund the party afterward, Straw Hat!"

'Ah,' Usopp thought idly. 'These must be the Billions Vivi mentioned.'

"So," Ace said blithely, walking right past the bounty hunters alongside Luffy; they'd hardly even paused for the would-be assailants. "Let's head to the port. We can figure out where to go from there, right?"

"Sure!"

"Hey!" The snubbed grunt barked. "Where d'you think you're going?!"

Usopp clicked his tongue; none of the buzzing BW bugs had even spared him more than a negligent glance. Granted, he didn't have a bounty yet; more of a boon than a burden maybe, but still. Luckily, he knew several ways to get attention.

THWAM.

Chief among them, a big, fuck-off hammer.

"What th–!"

"I might have an idea where they went." He said conversationally when the brothers turned back, just as seven out of the gathered fodder had their faces forcefully introduced to the ground.

The other Billions let out a battle cry and leapt out of hiding to charge for their backs. Ace just smirked, letting his bag drop from his shoulder while he rolled out his neck; Luffy chuckled and pulled out a steel pipe.

"Let's make this quick, then."

"Hey guys!" Luffy shouted.

He ran on ahead toward a caravel with a lamb figurehead. Ace watched him go; he hadn't been able to keep a smile off his face since they'd met up. He'd briefly split off from the other two to collect his skiff, having trusted Usopp to finish leading Luffy back. A pretty redhead leaned over the balustrade, frowning at his little brother.

"Luffy, you can't just run off like that, you have to pay attention," she scolded. "What would you have done if Usopp hadn't gone after you?"

Ace glanced back at the marksman, who shimmied up the anchor to pull himself onto the ship; quite a surprise, it'd been, to find out someone on Luffy's crew already knew two forms of Haki. He'd only demonstrated one earlier, but then, Luffy seemed keen to boast about his nakama. Not just awakening, but mastering Observation Haki, and he was the sniper?

Ace's kid brother was cheating.

"I woulda been fine," Luffy said with a laugh. "Ace was with me!"

"That's your brother?"

The question came from a man with three swords on his hip and keen green eyes; Ace immediately thought of Marco. Luffy's swordsman possessed a similar air of cool stability and tempered sturdiness about him.

"Yeah!" Luffy said, gesturing with a grin. "My big brother Ace! He set out to be a pirate three years before me!"

Ace hopped up from the shore and perched in a crouch on the ship's railing.

"A pleasure to meet you all," he said, inclining his head. "Thank you for looking after my kid brother."

"Don't mention it." They chorused.

"While I'm here," he said. "Luffy; I was looking for you to make an offer. You oughta join the Whitebeard Pirates with me! Your nakama too, of course."

Luffy blinked at him.

"No."

"Pwa-hahahahaha!"

Ace burst out laughing at the flat-as-paper refusal.

"That's what I figured," he said, shaking his head. "But I had to ask. Whitebeard's a great man; the best in this era! I'm gonna see him crowned Pirate King–sorry, Luffy, but it's not gonna be you!"

Luffy huffed, nostrils flaring.

"Yeah? Bring it!"

Ace stared his little brother down; Luffy didn't so much as flinch.

'Good. Exactly how it should be.'

He dug around his pocket.

"Here," said, flicking his vivre card Luffy's way. "Hang onto that."

"A piece of paper?" Luffy wondered aloud, staring at it with a frown.

"Don't want it?" He teased.

"I do!"

"That'll let us find each other again." He said, smirking at Luffy's rare serious face. He tipped his hat.

"Three years, huh?" A blond murmured with a cigarette between his fingers. "Well, you two must wanna catch up. Have a seat in the kitchen and I'll put on some tea."

"Ah," Ace waved his hand. "Sorry, but I can't hang around. Luffy's the only reason I even stopped at a port like this; got other business that can't wait any longer."

He smiled, and raised his finger to spark the cook's cigarette in thanks.

"What?" Luffy all but whined. "You're leaving already? You just got here!"

Ace stood upright on the banister, casting his eyes out to sea.

"I'm tracking down a traitor," he said soberly. "Calls himself Blackbeard now. He committed the worst crime you can on the sea; he killed a shipmate and ran away." Ace shook his head. It wouldn't do to let dark clouds linger just before parting ways. "Both were my men, so it's my responsibility as commander to make sure he answers for it."

He half-turned to hop down to his skiff, goodbyes on the tip of his tongue.

"Could you beat Shanks?"

Ace paused; he turned back around, cocking an eyebrow at Luffy's sniper. Who, for whatever reason, looked queasier and paler than he did a minute ago.

"What?" Ace asked.

He couldn't figure out what the question had to do with anything. Usopp gulped, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"As you are right now," he said, with visible effort. "Could you beat Shanks by yourself?"

Ace glanced around at the rest of the crew; something in the sniper's tone had shifted the atmosphere on the ship, and left Luffy's clearly lively nakama quieter than Ace suspected was normal. Even Luffy, who idolized the red-haired Yonko, just looked excited to hear Ace's answer.

Ace didn't have one to share, though. At least, not one he was keen on admitting aloud.

"Because," Usopp said on a shaky exhale. "Even Shanks is wary of Blackbeard."

That got a reaction from the others; the redhead let out something between a yelp and squawk, the swordsman scowled with his scabbards in a knuckle-white grip, and Luffy…

"What?! That guy can fight Shanks?!"

Luffy's eyes bugged out so far, they about fell out of his skull. Ace frowned.

"How do you–?"

"My Dad is Shanks' sniper." Usopp said.

Well.

Huh.

That explained a few things.

"Look," Usopp said, pacing closer to where Ace stood on the railing. "I get why you need to go after him; I can't stop you, and I don't really have the right to even try." He huffed. "But our Captain obviously treasures you, so I'm going to speak like I would to anyone else on this ship."

Ace didn't even get the time to feel embarrassed by the first part before Usopp pinned him with a glare.

"If you're not careful," he all but snarled. "If you die, then so help me, I'll drag your ass back out of Hell so I can kill you myself!"

.

.

.

Ace blinked. He glanced at Luffy; his little brother's eyes bounced back and forth between him and his sniper, clearly conflicted. The shocked silence only broke with the sound of Usopp's knees knocking, in direct contrast to the fierce glower on his face.

"Luffy," Ace said, using the tone that corralled his distractible brother's full attention. "Make sure you keep this one."

Luffy frowned, brow pinched in confusion.

"He's mine." He said, in the sort of way that told everyone he'd never so much as considered parting ways with any of his nakama.

Ace laughed. He tipped his hat and dipped his head in a nod.

"A slightly dim little brother tends to make a guy worry." He smiled at the rest of the crew. "He's probably given you plenty of grief already, but take care of him, all right?"

Without waiting for a response or confirmation, he leapt down to his skiff. He made quick work of untying the mooring line and set off, grinning at the feeling of eyes watching his retreating back.

He couldn't stop grinning, actually. Luffy had surrounded himself with good people; nakama who loved him enough to fight not just for him, but for things–and people–he cared about. Undeserving as Ace was of that care, he couldn't have asked for more for his little brother.

"You're not getting away, Fire Fist!"

More of the jokers from earlier, still eager to make money off his bounty, crowded toward his skiff on their ships. He pumped more fire to send his skiff flying on ahead and leapt into the air, over all five ships and cocked back his fist as he fell again.

Hiken!

Ace landed on his craft, adjusting his hat as he left for wider ocean with burning wreckage in his wake.

"See you in the New World, Luffy."