It wasn't often that news from the East Blue made the paper. In fact, she doubted she'd ever even seen anything from there make the front page. What with North Blue's history of conquest imposed by Germa 66 and the West Blue's rampant Mafia groups and struggles for power, in addition to the general news from the Grand Line- it rarely made the World Economy Newspaper. After all, it was rare for the weakest sea to see anything close to competing with the rest of the world's turmoil.

That was why there were so few Marines stationed there. There'd been some influx since Arlong disappeared into it, dragging Fishman crewmates behind him as he went, but with the Shichibukai Jinbei seeing him as a brother… there wasn't much they could do without breaking his contract and subsequently pissing off all the rest of the Shichibukai. (One does not simply breach a contract with pirates, even if said pirates could give less than a shit about each other.) Though, considering the lack of trouble Arlong had been getting up to, they'd stopped going out of their way to look for him.

(She'd been told that there was a rather dedicated Marine Captain that had been working overtime to protect the civilians there, if he should ever truly cause trouble. A Nezu- Captain Nezumi, if she recalled correctly. She would like to meet him, a Marine like that, he must be an honorable man.)

So, when she settled in to quickly go over any and all paperwork that reached her desk, she wasn't expecting one of her crewmen to run in with the day's paper, shouting, "C-Commodore-! Commodore Isuka! The- The newspaper has published an article from the East Blue and- and you're not going to believe this."

Isuka takes one look at the headline and grits her teeth.

"Why was I not briefed on this?!"

She raced to read the print, gloved hands crinkling the paper beneath her fingers, not knowing how it was already made public knowledge when each and every Marine and Government official should have already been told before anything went out. Something like this, of this magnitude, of this… this disgrace!

"To burn down their entire livelihood…" She slams the paper on her desk, fist cracking the wood beneath it. The burn on her hand itches like a harsh reminder, as it always did. "...I'm reminded again and again every single day why pirates-"

Her eyes flash with fury.

"-are the scum of the earth!"

"It's them! It's them!"

Dahlia can't help but giggle as the Den Den Mushi's eyes lit up with sheer joy. Her lips purse, amusement dripping from her voice as she fails with trying not to laugh. "It is rather obvious if you've seen them before, isn't it?"

"It is though!"

"I mean, how many pirates are there that wear bright orange cowboy hats-?" Dahlia couldn't stop the snort, covering her mouth. "Ooh, but you know how long it's going to take the Marines to put two-and-two together. Roddie was just a bad apple- the rest though! They have no excuse."

Maple giggles. "Garp started throwing cannonballs at rocks once he saw the news! He's got pretty good aim, you know!"

Dahlia smirks. "Ooh? How has training been with him by the way?" She shifts in her seat, legs crossing as she folds the news piece away and slides it into a drawer. Something tells her she's going to be collecting quite the sum of news clippings about their dear Varela's little pirate crew and this is just the first of many to be found, even if it doesn't actually name any of them. "Being trained by a Vice-Admiral… that must be tough."

"Ah-ha, I can't feel my bones anymore!"

She sounds way too happy to be saying that.

"But it's going good! We just left visiting Garp's home island-" she chirps, "-it's too bad I had to help out on deck all week, I really wanted to meet his other grandson! Apparently, he wants to be a pirate, just like Ace!"

Dahlia can't help the cackle that escapes her. "He sure has quite the selection of kids there, doesn't he?! What sort of karma does Garp have-?!"

"...the papers come, if you want to read it? There's some news from a couple islands over that you might want to take a look at."

"Why? We have things to do, don't we-"

"We think it… We think it might be about Katsura and those pirates that kidnapped you."

"...What?"

Tava rushes to steal the paper from their hands, brow already furrowed in anger as he grits his teeth and glares down at the harsh print that describes a general group of pirates with- with a pirate in a bright orange cowboy hat among them. The picture- a destroyed building, recognized as a Celestial Dragon Ingredients Plant run by a man named Tiberius and an ex-Marine Captain named Kigu who were labeled as missing after the destruction and-

He crushes the paper in his hand and shakes his head. "Well, we know what direction to not go in, don't we?"

It gets a round of agreement from those that listen.

"Ever since Kat left, the seas have been clear. Not a bad current in sight. Not like before-" Tava tosses the paper down and crushes it beneath his heel. "-it's just proof to all of us that… that monster was responsible for every problem our island has ever faced in recent years! If we make sure to keep out of his way as we sail, we'll be fine."

"But…" someone tentatively calls from behind and tilts their head, "...shouldn't we be worried?"

"Yeah, we should- like, call the Marines or something-?"

Tava snorts. "They never helped us. Why should we warn them?" And tugs his jacket closer around him as he stomps off back towards the boats the islanders were preparing, "Besides, do you really think they'd believe that a group of pirates have a Sea Beast under their control? That- That bastard, Katsura, somehow convinced it to follow him. It's the only place it could have gone, so only we know the truth."

That, once he left, far beyond the horizon, and the islanders slept a little easier knowing that one source of their fear was gone, they were surprised to not see the crashing waves that ate their shorelines. Harsh waves hardly more than an echo that grew dimmer with each day that passed. As if the Beast had been truly, finally, defeated-

Only, when the few brave souls that dared to pull up a makeshift boat and search the waters, there was no sign of a body. No corpse to haul back and present, displaying the victory.

Just unsettling quiet waves and a boat long having disappeared beyond where they could search.

"Doesn't mean we have to share it!"

"W-Where is this?"

He stares upwards in shock and finds himself quickly taking notes as he describes the world around them, hoping to capture his feelings and the atmosphere properly. He's not sure on how well he managed but he'll go over it later to figure out how to better word it- so it comes out as something he can be proud of.

The world around him- it's still.

As if frozen.

They're the only thing that moves on the sea and he can't tell you how, not for sure. Because there's no wind to push or pull at the sails and no oars pulled out by the rest of the crew. They're moving and it seems that only the veterans on the crew know how. "It's the Calm Belt." His Captain- Roddie- settles in on the railing next to his own seat, a warm smile across his face as he dramatically throws an arm up. As if showing off the emptiness. "This ship… it used to belong to the Marines. You can even still see some of the paint underneath. It was made specially to cross the Calm Belt."

Jones, who is setting up the table for everyone to eat at, calls with a long-toothed grin. What he had prepared was a bit odd looking but, if he was being honest, it smelled like heaven- though, to be fair, that was most food to him nowadays. It wasn't just Jones. "It's how we escaped most of the forces that followed us out of Mariejois, Deuce!"

He blinks and then makes sure to make a note of that as Roddie sticks his tongue out at his chef and his first mate. The blonde only laughs in response.

That had been something curious to learn about once he had regained the majority of his strength. That the Creep Pirates had gained their bounties and reputations from running into Mariejois and only managed to come out with a book on Devil Fruits, of all things. Something that Deuce hadn't known to really exist- not until they told him otherwise and gave examples of infamous pirates and famous Marines that utilized the powers.

It was also something that-

That the crew refused to give him many details about. No matter how he asked or who. They'd simply grimace, say something cryptic that told him nothing, and his novel was slowly becoming much, much more steeped in mystery than he had ever assumed it would.

"And after that… you were trying to locate a specific fruit?" He asked. More for clarification than anything. "That led you to hide out on an island called Saigen, in plain sight of the Marines, is that right?"

"Yep!" Roddie chirps.

"Where someone stole it from you and ate it?"

The nod Roddie gives is a bit sad but it still does have him huffing out a small smile and- "Actually, here." Roddie holds up today's newspaper and gives it to Deuce, stopping his notes for a minute. "Front page. That's the crew that stole the Luck Luck Fruit from us. Something that… well, it would've made all our lives easier if we had gotten our hands on it."

Deuce blinks down at the page in question, eyes narrowing slowly as he reads every word and commits the description to memory. "...What did you need it for?"

"Money. We could've gone to any casino and had a steady influx of money for any and all purposes. Technically stealing. Technically not." Roddie sighs. "Of course, it just couldn't be-"

"What do you need that much money for?"

"To pay off Fischer, of course!"

That's a joke, obviously. And Deuce raises a brow as he waits for an actual answer. Roddie seems to lose whatever exuberance that he had and turn… almost dreary. It's a look that doesn't suit his normally smirking face and Deuce shifts uncomfortably because- he really doesn't like that look. "It… That amount of money and the freedom to access it whenever… it would have allowed us to buy back our…" He shakes his head and hops off the railing. "Well, it's not that important, at the moment. Not anymore. We'll just have to figure out some other way to get money."

Deuce watches him turn to leave, completely bypassing the lunch table and clutches the newspaper tighter in his grip.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Jones offers him his arm to help him to the table and he takes it carefully, apology on his tongue. "It's a long story. The Captain- He'll tell you eventually. Just know that it's… something incredibly important to him. Something he wants to get back."

And Deuce nods. But his gaze hasn't left the newspaper, not completely, and he takes careful notes before he picks up his fork and actually digs in. Determined to get the information down no matter how hungry he is or how delicious the food smells.

...

...

Dadan pops the cork off of a sake bottle with an ease that spoke volumes of her character. It's only mid-afternoon but stress lines are starting to already appear on her face as her eye twitches. If she'd thought for even a second that, with Ace gone, it would be easier keeping hold of Luffy without his influence- she was dead wrong. "What a world it is…" Her eye twitches harder as she takes in the disaster that is her hut. "When you realize that Ace was the good one."

There really is no getting a hang of the disastrous whirlwind that was Monkey D. Luffy. And, even if they got mad at him, all he did was laugh and carry on with his day. Maybe they'd be lucky to get a completely unapologetic sorry out of him but otherwise…

Otherwise, if they were hoping for any bit of calm, they were shit out-of-luck.

"He… slingshotted through the roof."

"There's a… Well, actually, I'm not sure what that is. Deer? Bear? Moose? Shoved into the fridge and-" The bandit in question grimaces. "Let's just say that it does not fit."

At least he was sleeping right now. Snoring away on the floor and wrapped up with medicine and bandages from another run-in with Garp. His grandfather had done quite the number on him, especially with how pissed he was to learn that Ace had taken off without telling him- which, what the hell did he expect?- and had even run into the brat by accident. Luffy had nearly cried in relief when he learnt that his brother had managed to escape with the help of some criminal lady that had presumably joined Ace's crew already.

"Snore~!"

Oh, she could already feel a headache coming on.

"Boss! Boss!"

Aah. There it is.

"What?!"

"T-The news-! The news! I didn't realize it before, but it h-has to be." The bandit stuttered. "It's Ace!"

The whole room falls silent.

Luffy's snot bubble pops and he leaps to his feet and, "Ace! Let me see-!" And completely overshoots the slingshot and adds another whole to the huts wall.

Dadan is quick to rip the newspaper from her lackey's hand and to whip open the page he had been pointing to and- She doesn't even need to see the description to know that it's him. Her eyes fill with tears unbidden and she wipes her eyes, "Damn brat…"

The title…

The title tells her all she really needs to know.

The paper is stolen from her hands by a screeching Luffy desperate for any news or bounty on his older brother, excitement so palpable that it has everyone else scrambling to read over his shoulder as he eyes zoom across words. Too fast to actually comprehend them. And Dadan-

"Told him not to but- guess I really couldn't stop him, huh? He's already off… challenging the world." She smirks a little. "Heh. Knew he would. He's been doin' it since the day he was born."

Dadan is lost in memories.

Ace once sat down across from Dadan in the middle of the night, arms crossed and legs crossed. That sort of haunting, harsh stare that had only gotten worse over the years on his face.

Dadan would sip her cup, as if it didn't bother her. He'd notice if she'd let him. And she refused to let him see how much older it made her feel. How empty it did too. Dry and barren and a husk of what she once was.

She hates that he looks so much stronger than her. That he's had to be. Part of her is proud too. A bigger part hates that it makes him look so much older than he is.

She… knew she was a terrible parent. Knew she was a bad guardian. Had known that any effort she had put in would be in vain- someone like her, she was not made for this kind of work.

It didn't stop the fact that her heart broke when he spoke.

Or, the part that she buried inside, that loved him like a son, curdled with rage and contempt for the ones that caused it.

"...Why?"

It's rare that Ace breaks. The mask falls away and a whimpering, tired, and cracking boy can be seen for just a moment. In the way his voice cracks, a high pitched creak that's wet and threatens to spill over.

The ones they call gods. The ones that rule the world.

"Because they can."

Sabo was not her son like Ace was. But he was one of her kids. One of her boys. And, when Ace leaves, slumped and dragging his feet, a corpse of a child, Dadan cries.

Because she is powerless. And she knows she is nothing.

But she never wanted him to think he was too.

It's a terrible thing to realize that, of all the things that she'd failed at teaching him, it was to know when to not pick a fight. It was something she regretted- something she knew she'd exacerbated far beyond reason, under some stupid and naïve thought that it would only have him stronger and more prepared in the long run.

Just another mistake of many.

"Oy, crack open another bottle! We're celebratin'!"

She ignores the cheers that erupt, taking her cup in her hand and gulping it down as if it were a shot. The acidic burn in the back of her throat only serving to clog her up even moreso-

She wasn't crying. She wasn't upset!

After all. They were bandits. And bandits could celebrate one of their own growing up and choosing his own path in life.

She just hoped that Ace was prepared to face the consequences of the world bearing down on him once it inevitably learns of his transgressions, that he would have people loyal to stand by his side- because he was finally getting his wish, wasn't he?

To give a response back to the so-called 'world' that stole a brother from him.

Dadan was smart enough to know that, even if he hadn't truly meant to, Ace could never back down from a fight once it started- even one he accidentally involved himself in. And this was just the beginning of what she hoped wouldn't be just another short story.

-0-

A fun little fact about bounties.

Not everyone got a wanted poster.

"Hey, Ace!"

A quick glance reveals him perched on the crows nest seat, yellow shirt billowing and orange hat knocked off his head. It's a windy day, one that has Quinn grumbling and pinning her hair back with bobby pins and small, messy braids pulled into what Kat… thinks is supposed to be a bun. It's such a mess that he can hardly make sense of it, so he settles on simply shaking his head as Ace takes a look down at where he stands. "Here! Look-" He holds up the newspaper a bit, careful not to let go lest it get stolen from his hands. "You might want to read this!"

"Please tell me it's nothing bad…" Quinn groans.

"Aa, well."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence, Kat."

Not everyone got a specified amount either.

It made sense. The amount of paper needed to produce a single copy of the World Economy news across the world… the cost alone would be astronomical- hell, even just the smaller regional newspapers that only covered certain parts of each of the Blues, simplifying the process in the case of a criminal had a specific area of operation, had trouble printing all the bounties specific to them. Considering all of that, it was actually pretty rare that someone got a bounty that was seen worldly. Twenty Million was the minimum, but there were exceptions to every rule (cough Chopper cough), and, with criminals usually having an area of operations specific to them that they rarely left, the "worldly" bounties were more along the lines of pirates or island-hoppers.

(And the marines wondered why pirates were so gung-ho about infamy. They were just exacerbating the problem by giving them the most attention.)

But that didn't really matter. The point was… the cost of printing every single bounty across the world… it was astronomical.

(It was one reason why Nico Robin was so hunted, hers was spread across every civilian's dinner table, despite having a bounty that was now-considered pretty average overall. The Marines rarely updated for inflation. Of which there had been quite a bit over the years.)

If it wasn't for the existence of slavery, Quinn would wonder how it was possible without the technology she was used to.

That said, that was only one of the reasons why there wouldn't be a wanted poster. The other reason, though? Relatively simple. Sometimes- Sometimes they just didn't have a picture or a concrete idea of who the criminal was.

"Is it about us?!" Ace calls down and they can all see that there's untameable fire trailing from his head and hands as he leaps down onto deck and Quinn finds herself clapping sarcastically at the sight- he'd made a rather impressive superhero landing there. Very cool. "I thought we didn't want there to be anything?"

"We didn't." Quinn moaned. "Someone must've talked."

Kat's head tilts as he holds the paper up. "A- Aa, I mean, technically it was kept under wraps so- so I think we're good."

"What do you mean by 'technically'?"

CELESTIAL DRAGONS OUTRAGED! MYSTERIOUS PIRATES DESTORY EAST BLUE SPICE FACTORY!

Quinn squints, reading over Kat's shoulder with Ace on his other side. "Does… Does that say destory?" She snickers. "Someone's getting fired." It went all over the world too. She felt a little guilty actually- they probably rushed the story because of them and everything.

In shocking news, an East Blue Spice factory financed by the Celestial Dragons that produces the majority of the world's number one spices was destroyed by an unnamed pirate group. The destruction, the result of arson, spreads across the island and has left the majority of the residents homeless and without jobs. Many of whom are being forced to leave the island and move to a smaller island, named Starving after its lack of resources, instead of staying.

In response to the people's outrage the Government, at the urging of the Celestial Dragons, have issued a bounty for the pirates responsible and a reward for anyone with any information on the identities of the pirate group. The only descriptions that authorities could find at the scene was of a few pirates of a larger group, presumed to be an armada: the first, an older man with a on-fire bright, orange cowboy hat that wielded flamethrowers; the second, a dark woman that could instantly kill a person with just a look, theorized to be a Devil Fruit of some kind; and a third, a sword wielding Fishman with a scarred face. If any information is found then please…

"Okay. That is… very wrong?"

"Apparently, Kat and Spice have fused, chehaha!"

"I can kill people… with just a look? What the hell? Were they playing telephone when they were being told this?"

"The-" Kat snorted a little with laughter. "The only thing they got right is Ace's hat! And- even then, why did they specify that it's on fire?"

Ace's head turns to flames unconsciously and they all nod: "Oohh~ that's fair."

"Well, it might've been the embroidery I put in, too." Quinn smirked. "Oh, oh. Maybe I can get some commissions, Ace- brag about me."

"I don't know… that's gonna be hard."

She goes to punch him in the arm but he dodges, glad that she misses the relief on his face from missing the hit and not finding her hand burnt as it passed through. He shakes his head to clear the sudden jump of bad thoughts away.

The door to the galley opens and Spice comes creeping out, moving over to a corner of the deck where he had begun to set up a small training area, a box of weights wheeled in after him. He stares at their crowded forms and then raises a brow: "What did I miss?" To which they hold up the paper for him to read himself, the blank look on his face bored and unchanging. Until he lifts his gaze up and says, "Maybe I should file a lawsuit. I didn't realize they named the factory after me."

Ace and Kat blink, bemused.

Oh. Spice Factory.

Quinn snorts.

"Can you even Copyright yourself?"

Quinn would like to say that nothing changed after that. She really, really would. Unfortunately, one small thing came of it and left her completely strung out to dry.

What was it, you ask?

Why-

It was Ace getting cocky of course.

"Ace, please," she moaned, dragging her good hand down her face, "Never, ever get famous. It'll all go straight to your head."

He's not listening.

Because… yeah. She should've guessed. But still.

The first time it happens, they're on some island that none of them really care to learn the name of- well, other than Spice, she's come to learn that if he isn't cooking then he's either got his camera snapping or is writing in a plain-looking journal that's already over crowded with all the extra papers stuffed into it. The explanation she gets, when she asks, is, "Cook book and logbook," which she had completely forgotten about the latter being a necessity and was glad that someone knew what they were doing.

("Speaking of, Kat." The boy jumps to attention. It's rather cute, actually, he salutes and everything in a sort of bastardization of the marines. "You should probably start keeping one as well, but for navigational information."

"S-Sure! I don't know how well I can make it though… I'm better at drawing than writing."

Quinn sighs. "I'll help. We'll just make one for everyone to add to."

"Like a pirate diary?" Ace asks, confused, but there's an excited interest there. Like it was something new that he hadn't really thought about beforehand and couldn't wait to hear about. That was one thing Quinn was starting to notice about him- he was incredibly enthusiastic about learning new things, and it would be a lie to say that she didn't think it was unexpected. Though, on a second thought, she couldn't help but think that it made sense. There probably wasn't a lot of learning opportunities with bandits and certainly not ones where there was… er. A decent teacher is probably the nicest way to put it.

Frankly, Quinn is a little surprised to find that everyone she's met so far seemed to be able to read and write, let alone the extra skills people seemed to be cultivating in random areas.

"Yes, Ace, exactly like a pirate diary."

It ends up with Kat carrying around a bunch of pens and a journal that Quinn had turned into a handmade excel sheet on the right-hand side and a free for all on the left, where it was filled with either: Kat's doodles of islands or strange currents and shells he found; pictures of them or notable landmarks that Spice had taken; and Quinn and Ace's random musings… the latter of which was usually a response to one of the others rather than his own personal thoughts. It was incredibly messy but- somehow made sense? It helped that they each chose their own color of pen to write with and had incredibly different handwriting.

Ace grabbed an orange pen and had shockingly clear and simple letters. The thing that made them distinct, though, was the fact that they were often spaced far apart, to the point it was almost awkward to look at, and were written like he was about to tear the page with the tip of the pen. It wasn't a surprise to find the pen spilling ink every now and again or his lines coming out incredibly thick. And it was a little adorable watching him write because he stuck his tongue out as he did it with such a look of concentration on his face that it almost looked like he was trying to glare a hole in the paper itself. They're pretty sure it's because he doesn't want to get any of it wrong. He also signed his name like his tattoo and Quinn had almost bodied Spice trying to keep him from saying anything because she so did not want that can-of-worms opened right now.

Quinn would have selected a yellow pen if it wasn't for the fact that… well, it was yellow. It was just terrible to write with unless you were doing it on non-white paper, which, they weren't and she begrudgingly said goodbye to her favorite color. So, instead she was supremely boring, going with a simple black one-

Wait, no.

Kat plucked it from her fingers and instead handed her the dark purple one, looking away as she raised a brow at him.

Compared to the others, Quinn probably had the messiest handwriting, mostly for sheer speed at the ease in which she wrote. Also, she probably had the most spelling mistakes and corrections out of everyone. Crossing out words and rewriting them above once she noticed. More due to her thinking faster than her hand could catch up with. Combined with her habit of making lowercase a, e, and s's cursive and the fact that her lowercase g and j's looked similar to the point it was hard to distinguish between the two… yeah. Her handwriting was probably the worst, even if the most grammatically correct and with the best syntax.

Kat had the prettiest handwriting. Letters small and written almost like he was typing them. The only strange thing that Quinn could find is that none of the letters seemed to change size- the capitalization on his K was the same size as the lowercase a in his name. And then there was the fact that he put little whiskers around his signature and- it was very cutesy. The color he'd chosen was a dark, but vibrant, green.

And then Spice had chosen yellow- the fucker- and seemed completely disinterested in the fact that it was incredibly hard to read any of his writing, especially if they held it up to the light. The only thing Quinn could actively tell about any of it was that he seemed content to make nothing but bullet point notes instead of actual sentences and his letters were all thin and tall and took up the most room. Easily beating out Ace's writing.

The only solace that they had, because he would have easily filled a page without a care in the world, was that he kept his writing to the back of the photographs he added for the most part. Or slapped a sticky note on a page after they were done with it and then wrote his own information down.

Quinn could honestly say that the writing seemed to suit him.

But she was still kinda annoyed that he chose yellow after she passed it up.)

They find themselves in some bar and the lot of them really aren't paying that much attention.

To Ace, specifically.

Not that they normally needed to. The young adult could handle himself in every sense of the word and they would be hard pressed to find somebody in the East Blue that could give him a run for his money. Something that, disappointingly, Quinn had actually been hoping wouldn't happen even if she knew the likelihood of haki… it was just- Ace was very obviously the kind of guy that would get arrogant if he was left without trial for too long and a Logia- Ugh, a logia! Would not help him curb that bad habit. But the point was that, being in a bar, simply eating and drinking and doing something normal, there didn't seem to be any need to pay him mind.

After all, it wasn't as if he was doing anything particularly worthy of note, just sitting on a bar stool, legs crossed back behind the bars of it, and lazily engaged in a conversation with a bartender that looked impossibly bored out of his mind, so there was no reason to worry. At one point, even, Quinn had leaned over to catch the tail end of their conversation and got something along the lines of- "What's in this? Do you have any tabasco-?" -and immediately checked out of the conversation.

The rest of them weren't with him. Having chosen to instead hide away at a booth when the stares and looks Kat was getting were starting to make him anxious- Quinn had glared at a giggling snooty looking girl so hard she cried and Spice had seemed mildly impressed by it- and were now busy distracting themselves watching Spice judge the food they'd been given with a critical eye.

It was…

Surprisingly entertaining.

Because, despite his expression seemingly never changing, there were minute differences in the muscles on his face that, in watching closely, just came out stranger and stranger with each time he tasted something new.

Quinn and Kat had to laugh at him. And Kat was rather exuberant in letting him try bits and pieces of his own food just so he could see his reactions.

Honestly, it was pretty quiet, with light chatter and conversation from the other patrons, giving the whole bar a lively sort of feel. It was a comforting atmosphere that they could each just- relax in. Which, after days and days at sea, was something that they desperately wanted for a little while, having just come out of a storm that- wasn't bad, just exceedingly long lasting and generally annoying. Even Ace had been exhausted by it, more tired than usual because his narcolepsy had been acting up at the most inopportune times and only Quinn had been able to really pay attention to his faltering steps- Kat was much too busy in the water, though prepared to catch him if he fell in, and Spice was proving to be an MVP when it came to holding the ships course and keeping to Kat's shouted instructions- and, once they'd actually caught a break to sleep, Ace had been stuck with a bout of insomnia that had him taking watch and doing pushups on deck.

So, yes, they were all thankful to find a dusty town that was dreadfully average. And there didn't seem to be a problem to be found, other than Kat's uncomfortableness with garnering attention, but, of course, someone had to come in and ruin it all.

Wow. Shocking.

"Hey, Quinn," she hums a noncommittal response to Katsura because her fork is hanging from her mouth and she's trying to read the back of a jar of hot sauce with a pandaman making muscles with a fiery background behind him, "Your fruit is kinda weird, isn't it?"

She turns to stare down at her plate, confused. "...no?" It just looked like normal fruit, if a bit unripe.

He's equally confused.

For a moment.

And then sputters: "Wha… What- no! No! I meant, I meant your Devil Fruit."

Oh.

"Oh." Her brow furrows, "What about it?"

Spice interrupts just as Kat opens his mouth. "You ate a Devil Fruit too?"

"Y-Yeah? You didn't know?"

"...No one tells me anything."

"A-Ah," Quinn rubs the back of her neck sheepishly, "Sorry. I just figured… Well!" She coughs into her shoulder, a little embarrassed. "I ate the Luck Luck Fruit and am now a lucky woman."

Spice looks her up and down.

Stares.

And then snorts. "Luck isn't a power."

"I mean, you're not wrong." Quinn grimaced. "I don't know what to do with it half the time. Especially since I only really affect people."

"Well that's just it," Kat turns to her midway through shoving some parts of his food onto Spice's already piled high plate, "I wouldn't think that luck has enough… tangibility to be something of value. How exactly does it even work? Can you like… feel luck?"

That was a question that has her scrunching up her face, trying to find the right words. "It's like… setting a bunch of alerts on your phone but forgetting to put the sound on, so all you get is the notification once it's gone."

"...What?"

Right. Not a thing here.

She looks up, trying again but much slower and even less unsure this time. "...It's like setting up a bunch of alarm clocks but the alarm itself is broken so all you get when they go off is a...the hands stopping." She tilted her head. "It's not that I actively… feel it, when I leave a mark on, say Ace, but I can't forget that I made it in the first place. Like- I left a mark on Ace when he went off with Spice in the factory but I knew that it disappeared sometimes towards the end there."

Spice stares. "Was it that gold thing on his tattoo?"

"Yeah."

"It disappeared when he and I switched one time. Kigu had been about to stab him with a water covered sword," he hums slightly, "the bullets only hit where water had covered his skin, didn't actually hurt him on the inside even though they went through, but a sword saturated in liquid… that would have done damage, wouldn't it?"

"...Yeah, pretty sure."

Kat, distracted now by the conversation, doesn't notice Spice grab the hot sauce from Quinn and lean over to pour it on his food. "Huh. So- like, can you control the luck?"

"Mnh. I mean, like the intent, yeah? I can give people bad and good luck." Quinn frowns. "But I'm not even really sure how I've been doing that. It just kinda… worked out that way." She winces. "Aa, that sounds bad, doesn't it?"

"You're just winging it?"

"...I never know what I'm doing at any given moment of any day."

Spice nods, like he expected as much. Quinn tries to not feel a little offended.

"But then-" Kat frowns. "How do you… What does it... " He's having a hard time wrapping his head around it and Quinn- Quinn feels that. Seriously. She doesn't know what's going on with it. "If you give people good and bad luck… how do you go from there?"

She muses over the question, turning it over. Quite frankly she'd been vaguely wondering about it herself before but now that it's been asked more directly she's actually trying to figure out ideas and- It's hard to think about, since luck is such a… non-physical thing. And she's not sure what sort of drawbacks she'll find once she dives into it more but… "Well, right now, I've only been using it actively. Maybe I can rig a way to use it passively, so it's always affecting me or people around me. Or figure out how to use it on objects rather than people- or activate it through something other than touch." She offers. "Or just being able to control when it's used. Because, right now, a mark could save you from tripping over your own feet or it could save you from getting stabbed with a sword. That's not worth much. When it could disappear before you really need it."

Kat nods slowly and she feels a little bad because it seems like he's still having a hard time understanding. "That still doesn't explain…"

"I don't know. I-" She struggles. "It's more like I'm affecting the ratios of something happening and spinning it towards one end. Like when you flip a coin, it should be fifty-fifty. But, with a luck mark, you're more likely to be short on a flip or make it too long and that may make it more thirty-seventy instead."

She shrugs: "What I'm more worried about is the downsides."

"Downsides?"

"Like drowning?"

She shakes her head. "Ace's physiology has been entirely changed. He can barely touch people without bursting into flames, he doesn't feel pain unless someone works around his fruit. That's a downside, at least, I'm pretty sure it is." She turns to Ace, brows furrowed, and a soft frown drifts onto her face that both Spice and Kat recognize as being a look of worry. Ace doesn't notice the look or the route the conversation has gone so he doesn't say anything, much too busy eating. So Quinn just shakes her head and moves on. "I haven't… really noticed anything problematic like that. So while Ace has already been working to overcome his drawbacks, I can't seem to find any. And, when they show up, I'm not going to know how to fix them, especially if they show up at a bad time."

"Maybe you don't have any?" Kat, thinking way too positively, chirps.

Spice immediately shakes his head.

"Oh. I may have the luck fruit but I'm not nearly so lucky." She sighs. "Shit, it's probably going to be a give-take kind of deal or something… That's gonna suck. Power balancing is weird."

Kat goes to take a bite of his food and Quinn covers her mouth to hide her smirk as Spice finally looks triumphant. "GAH- SON OF A- Spice! What the hell, man?! What even is this-?!" He retches, reaching for a glass of water and practically drowning himself with it.

"It's…" Spice begins slowly, staring down at him blankly. "The burn of knowledge."

"The hell it is!"

"Kehahaha!" Quinn couldn't help it, burying her face into her hands and howling in laughter.

Across the room, Ace had turned at Katsura's pained shout, only to chuckle when he realized there wasn't anything serious going on and he could go back to conversing with the bartender. The man snorted at the scene. "Quite the rambunctious group of friends you got there."

"Yeah…" Ace grinned. "They're great, aren't they?"

"If you say so," He rubs a random glass down with a rag, probably just to be doing something considering it's too early for most to drink and the majority of people have already gotten their orders for food. "But, if I may ask: why haven't you joined them? They seem more than welcoming and there's enough space left in the booth for one more."

"Why would I?" Ace gives him a cheeky smile. "All the food and the good company is up here with you!"

Quinn shakes her head, laughter calming. "So, since Ace is busy flirting for food-" He hunches forward and sputters a denial when he overhears her. "-I've been meaning to ask if either of you… well, I'm a terrible fighter. And I sure would like not to be."

Yeah, Quinn wasn't much of a fighter and that was understatement of the year.

Oh, yeah, logically, she knew how to defend herself against any normal brand of person but, unfortunately, this world was fresh out of those. So she was stuck in a bit of a bind.

(Self-defense classes had given her the knowledge on what to do but not the instinct to act. And she couldn't always be acting defensively. It hadn't worked with the Mime and she doubted it would work on those with any modicum of actual strength or training.

Considering, also, that self-defense inherently meant that her assailant would likely be the one making the first move and she doubted she could take the standard of this world's hits… yeah. It was not looking good for her.)

Goddamnit, was she even strong enough to actually hurt anybody without breaking her own hand? She didn't know. Didn't want to test it out all that much either.

But, she'd have to.

If the Grand Line was coming up.

"Get a sword." Is Spice's advice.

"That… I'm open to the idea of it but, for now, I need something more short term." Sword training… that was a commitment of years. And Quinn didn't have that kind of time. "And, I mean, I have a knife?"

"Mnh."

He… doesn't seem impressed.

"If you think about it, a sword is just a big knife!" Kat offers. Unhelpfully. "How do you want to fight?"

"Good."

Kat's head tilts.

Spice, the perceptive one he is, hums, finger on his chin in thought as he eyes her up and down. "You are pretty weak." Okay. Thanks. That was nice. "You're just trying to fix that, aren't you?"

"Yep."

"...You should try something else."

"Wow, thanks." Her eye twitches and her response is dry. She's quick to move on. "Anyways- yes, at the moment, I'm not very strong and I'm pretty sure each of you could break me like a twig."

"I think it would be a bit easier than that."

Quinn scowls at him and he raises his hands in surrender, brows risen and lips quirked up. Not even faltering when Kat elbows him in the side. She thinks she doesn't help herself with the reactions she gives, Spice takes too much enjoyment in needling her.

"So much for having a serious conversation," Quinn muttered as Ace gained a thoughtful look, "I just figured if I got pointed in the right direction I can work around my own suckiness."

Spice opens his mouth-

Kat facepalms. Quinn dares him with her eyes.

-and closes it with an all too amused smile. Though it was clear the only thing that had stopped him from saying anything was because he thought they were more hilarious the longer he was able to push their buttons.

(Quinn thinks Spice has way, way too much experience as an older brother.)

Ace jumps in before Quinn can snark something back- (what? She thinks she can vibe with Spice. He's got an attitude that's definitely fun if it's engaged with)- a bright expression on his face, almost as if a light bulb had been set off above his head. "We should have spars!" He breathes, looking particularly excited, stars in his eyes. "I did them all the time with Luffy and-" He cuts himself off with an unfaltering ease that Quinn only notices because she has the context of things she shouldn't know. "Our ships big enough for a one-on-one if we're careful and it'll-"

The door to the bar slams open and effectively silences every single person in the building. Mostly because it's loud, startling, and leaves the hinges squealing in protest at the harsh treatment. The sound followed by the clunk of heavy boots shuffling across the ground and the rough click of metal. A sword hanging without a sheath, dangling from the hip of the man that walks in.

It's… a little underwhelming in all honesty.

A pall settles over the bar and they seem to be the only ones unaffected by it all. A quick glance around shows people ducking their heads and pointedly avoiding eye contact, the few women in the room trying to look small and nonexistent and everyone else just trying to look uninteresting.

Quinn wrinkles her nose and unapologetically stares the man down and then-

She hides it but she can't help but snort. Barely a look and already she can see how he reeks of arrogance and other, more literal, smells. Gross. He didn't look like he'd taken a shower in ages, a bottle of alcohol and other swill hanging lazily from between his fingers, and-

She'd seen enough of cocky supervillains and no-named criminal characters on TV to recognize him as fodder.

(Shit. She didn't think people like this actually existed.)

She shuffles away a little as he gets way too close to their table.

It's in disgust, not anything else. Quinn's pretty sure even she could take this guy in a fight. Though, she'd be hard pressed to get anywhere close to him until he'd cleaned up a little. It was just… hard to overstate her disgust.

"I want all the alcohol you have on ya!"

Disgust. So much disgust.

(Look, she's not really one to react like this, but the smell is enough to have anyone revolted. She's pretty sure everyone in the room has pushed their food away or are gagging as they looked away and covered their noses.

It was just that bad.)

He takes a seat next to Ace.

Quinn, Spice, and Kat all wince simultaneously in sympathy. Even despite the fact that he hadn't so much as twitched at the man's presence and was instead starting to slowly grin, hat shadowing his eyes and-

"Oh no." Quinn sighs under her breath.

She already knows how this is going to go.

Katsura and Spice take one look at her slowly slumping form and the way she pinches the bridge of her nose, glancing at Ace, and sympathetically place their hands on her shoulders. Yeah. This was going the completely expected route. Aa, it was sure to happen eventually.

Because…

Ace is sitting with his back and arms to the counter, one leg crossed over the other, and Quinn almost instantly recognizes the position- it's the same exact way he had sat when facing Smoker down in his manga appearance- the grin on his face, absolutely wicked compared to the sunny one they were all used to.

They would all like to make note of the distinction. Because, what they normally saw was light and cheeky, shining with a childish that spoke of excitement and wonder at the sea and the world around them. This one though-

This one made him look like a little shit.

Quinn had to hide a snicker. It suits him, just as much as his other smiles, but this was wilder and vibrant in a way that spoke volumes of his ability to get into trouble.

He tilts his head back to narrow his eyes at the man as he shouts impatiently at the bartender. "Hurry it up!" He snarls and, oh, it's a bad move, because Ace had already shown himself to kinda like the man behind the bar. "I don't have all day- I'll have your head for this!" Ooh, definite bad move.

And thus came the whispers from the other patrons.

"That's the infamous bounty hunter-"

"They say he's a rising demon in the East Blue."

"Kills anybody that gets in his way, just lucky that it's been mostly people with bounties so far-!"

Well. That was certainly fun.

Katsura gapes at the sudden dump of information, disbelieving and Spice shares a look with Quinn that has both of them rolling their eyes. Yeah. "Demon"? No way. What was with all these people-? It was just a really gross dude who's apparently also a murderer.

Ace speaks up, silencing the rumors.

"So you're a famous bounty hunter?"

His voice is carefully flat but they know him well enough to tell that he's not impressed. It doesn't help that the guys sword is obviously starting to rust a bit from mistreatment.

The patrons tense, gasping in horror.

Spice needs some popcorn just watching their reactions.

And the apparent bounty hunter simply cackles, causing a sigh of relief to rush through the room. But they don't buy it for a second. "That's right," Quinn cringes and has to physically lean away when he breathes directly into Ace's face, the smell pungent and rank, but Ace has nothing if not a stomach of iron so he says not a word, "I could take on anyone in this sea- be they Marine, Pirate, or some other scum!"

"Is that so?" Ace drawls.

"You got it. Anybody!"

There's a pause caused by the bartender rushing to place down a bottle of sake that the bounty hunter swipes up all too greedily and begins to guzzle down like it was his liquid-life. Quinn doesn't know, maybe it actually is, but that doesn't matter.

Not in the face of Ace steadily lifting his gaze, grin wild and roguish.

"Wanna bet?"

So it really wasn't all that unexpected. Was hardly a problem even because the guy had made some vague threats to the new bartender friend of Ace's and had been intimidating everyone else with his stench- really, Ace had just been looking for an excuse to fight. Get some exercise in. Because, for him, at least, it seemed to be a relaxing afternoon excursion for him. One he was all too ready to indulge in.

Fine. Whatever.

Quinn didn't care so long as he picked his fights with people that wouldn't come back to bite them in the ass.

(She thinks he'll be fine until they make it to the Grand Line but, already, she could see the habit beginning to form and the stressful days ahead.)

He had the skills to back up his confidence.

(Quinn just hoped he wouldn't get complacent with his fruits intangibility but she could already see him purposely taking swords to the gut that he could've easily dodged. It was always- Ugh, she knew he wouldn't get hurt, as did he, but instinctively… It always made her stomach drop.)

And it was the East Blue so it was probably fine and good that they got up to some squabbles. She needed the practical experience after all!

...Only, it would be fine, if Ace didn't make it a glorious opportunity to start running field-tests on his Devil Fruit powers.

Good News? He's got the Fire Fist he's famous for pretty much down.

Bad News?

(Ace… please, no.)

...He burned down his new bartender's friend's place of business.

Let's just say, the new friend isn't all that friendly anymore.

(They had to run from a mob when the fire spread to other buildings.)

Does Ace learn any lesson from that? Well, no. But it does give him some new and improved ideas that he's all too excited for.

"Quinn! Do you think I could figure out how to put the flames out once they're-" She's already nodding because she's pretty sure that, so long as he thinks his devil fruit is limitless, it's going to get him further than it would otherwise. And, to be fair, all devil fruits kinda were. "-outside my body? Great! I'm gonna try that!"

She's happy that he goes to her to bounce ideas off of even though she can't really offer much to him- other than handing him a pack of matches and the soft suggestion to "start off small"- especially because it gives her some warning whenever he tries something new.

But it's the second time that it happens that Quinn starts to notice a pattern.

It's a bar again, of course. Though tavern is probably the more accurate word for the majority of the places they visit.

And it's just Quinn and Ace this time.

Spice and Katsura had decided to check out some shops with strange cross-sea fish and Quinn didn't need more of the smell of seafood on her so she'd followed Ace's trail across town and into the lively building that had, honestly, pretty good coffee.

It was a horrible decision on Quinn's part, really. But she'd just been craving a proper drink for once and they didn't have a coffee maker on the ship and Spice hadn't prepped ingredients to make their own when they left Hunting and, while it was on the next grocery list, they still had quite a bit of food to get through before they did any proper shopping and-

Quinn was very stressed, okay? She was very tired and just wanted to ease herself back into her, admittedly, very unhealthy addiction.

Well, Quinn had gotten her coffee alright.

But she had also nearly hurt her broken arm further when she had to lunge to catch a narcoleptic Ace before he could pass out into his own food. "Oh, shit, shit, shit…" She hissed, carefully laying him down so he could breathe, trying to ignore the stutter of her own heart at seeing him drop. There's something cramping beneath her cast and an ache that tells her the sudden motion was definitely unappreciated, coupled with an intense burning sensation that feels like her skin wants to split in half, it ends up taking her a few minutes to ride out the pain and, by the end of it, her lip is nearly bleeding from her biting down on it. "Damn it, that hurts…!"

A careful look shows that none of her stitches have ripped and it doesn't feel like anything is out of sorts so all she can really do is clasp her bad arm to her chest and shakily go back to sipping at her coffee.

Which had, disappointedly, been given to her in a fragile tea cup that barely gave her more than a few sips of espresso.

"Hey!"

Right. Right.

This guy.

It's a different one now, but it is another bounty hunter. Considering that no one actually realizes they're worth anything, it's surprising how many they keep running into. His name is some dumb thing that she already couldn't remember and he was way better smelling and well-dressed than the last one. Even if he did curse much more and seemed a bit more competent than the last.

He had all the same rumors that had followed the previous guy too. And Quinn wonders if there's a theme here. Because, huh, didn't Zoro have the same kind of rumors following him around?

What-ever.

She continues taking the slow, calming sip of her coffee, letting it scald her tongue and distract her from the even worse pain in her arm while she listens to the rhythm of Ace's breathing. Ah, yes. Nice. Absolutely wonderful.

"That friend of yours making fun of me?!"

"Oh no, he's just an idiot."

Quinn's just really annoyed right now. And he can't hear her be mean, so she'll say whatever she wants.

Ugh. She's getting a headache.

"Tch. Damn right he is," Hey now. She was the only one allowed to say it. "I'm going to cut his head off!" A sword is pointed at her nose and he's already partway to drunk if the way he's chugging his bottle is anything to go by. "And his bitch is next!" Oh, uncouth. Quinn has a few problems with that sentence.

She's already halfway through her coffee but finds herself stopping, even though the liquid is so heavenly, tantalizingly close.

Lovely.

She watches him over the rim of her cup. Trying to hold back her disgust at watching him- he really wasn't as bad as the first guy, but still, it was like he was going out of his way to be gross. He was gargling his drink, letting the liquid fall from the corners of his mouth and gush over his front. Spilling all the way down and onto the floor. Quinn's brow twitches at the sight and she can't help but rasp, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Hah?!"

"You're drinking from a bottle, not trying to land a rocket!"

"You-"

"You are an absolute pig. Look at the floor!" She gestured. "You're leaving puddles everywhere. Freak. What're you trying to do-? Catch the liquid five feet from your face?! Clean yourself the hell up!"

Wow. She was way angrier than she thought she was. She hadn't meant to say all of that.

Ace mumbles in his narcolepsy-induced sleep.

It's Quinn's turn to garner all the wide eyes in the room. The bounty hunter's face turns such a deep shade of red that it starts to curb its way into purple.

"You… are some Noble wench, aren't cha?!"

"Why does everyone think that… I thought it was a joke at first but now. Seriously. Is it too much to ask that people conduct themselves with at least a tiny bit of dignity?"

It's almost funny how angry he gets at her complete disregard. And he grasps for his sword, hand going to his hip as he lunges forwards, "I'll kill ya!" The sword aimed to slice her neck and-

Quinn pours her scalding hot coffee in his face.

The resulting scream has the whole bar jumping back in fear. Oh, even worse, a good chunk of the women are covering their faces and screaming, possibly even worse than he was. Which was saying something because he was bloodcurdling, face red with burns, and clutching at it.

Quinn lets out a low whistle.

Not the reaction she was expected. Well, from him, yes, kind of. Everyone else though? No way. They were acting like she was worse than he was and all she had was less of a drink for it all. It was a few folds into way too over dramatic and, if her hands had been free, Quinn would be rubbing her temples to rid herself of the worsening headache.

Ace mumbles and then lets out a snore. She shoots him a glare over her shoulder, lips pulling down. He'd gotten her into this situation, "you should be the one ending it." She's really not all that upset at him, not really- she knows he has no control over it and would probably be bothered himself to know that he hadn't been able to commit- but she was too irritated to actually filter her glare any.

Turning back to fix it on the screaming bounty hunter on the floor. Who, by now, is stumbling back onto his feet, welts and blisters already beginning to form across the peeling flesh. He lets out an angry scream, trying to pick his sword back up.

"Are you done?" Quinn asks thinly.

"I- I'll kill you, b-bitch!"

Far faster than she expected of him, he lunges forward again and Quinn nearly falls over backwards taking a step back, finding him suddenly much too close to her face. Reflexively hand whipping to slap him across the face and-

Oops. That was the coffee hand, wasn't it?

"Motherfu-"

She hisses down at her palm and the sight of shards wedged in her fingers. The cup had completely shattered on impact, both in his face and in her hand.

It sends him back to the ground, bleeding profusely.

Quinn can't help but feel a little numb to it all. (The fact that she does makes her feel disgusted with herself and it churns her stomach distastefully.) Glaring at the blood dripping from the piercing wounds, far more than it had any right to bleed, and growing even more annoyed as it smears across the floor when she accidentally steps in it.

There's a snore from behind her. It cuts off into a snort and her brow twitches as Ace snaps awake, "I'll kick your ass-! Oh, hey, you're bleeding, Quinn?"

The shout immediately falls into concern.

Honestly.

She shakes her head, ignoring the fact that it's done with no small amount of fondness. "Yeah, but it's fine. I took care of the guy 'cause you fell asleep."

He has the audacity to blow a raspberry at her. "Quinn- hey! I wanted to fight him..."

"Sorry, not sorry."

She winces.

"Ow."

And is unsurprised to find Ace leaning over her, suddenly by her side.

Ace carefully takes her bloody hand by the wrist, raising it up so he can give it a critical once over. She cringes as his thumbs brush over a piece and make her twitch away. "Wow, you really got these stuck in there. Want me to pull them out?" He asks that but his fingers are already trying to grab a piece and yank it.

"...If I said no, would you not?"

"Of course. But it's not going to help if you keep them in," he leans a little closer, a boyishly starry eyed look gleaming across his face, "and it'll be super gross watching them get pulled out."

He's way too fascinated by this.

Quinn slumps. "Well, so long as you're careful." She yelps as his finger digs in deep and he shoots her a sheepish smile. "If I could use my other arm right now, I would hit you."

He sticks his tongue out. "Blegh, you couldn't touch me anyways!"

There's a shout and they both turn.

"Crazy wench-!" The bounty hunter howls. "You two- monsters, what's wrong with you-?!"

"Oh, so many things." Quinn sighs at the same time Ace grins, flames flicking up from his shoulders and head and says, "You've still got some fight in you, huh?!"

Ace uses his Devil Fruit again.

There's one less bar on one more island.

They have to run around for close to two hours, chased by the islanders, before they find Spice and Kat at some random food stall selling takoyaki and then- then they're running back to the ship with armfulls of steaming takoyaki on way too many plates and, finally, once they make it back to the ship, Quinn is left wheezing her lungs out as Ace chows down on their stolen food, newspaper spread across their coffee table, so he can pluck the shards from her hand. Careful to not get blood on anything as the boat pulls out to sea and Kat is searching through the bathroom drawers for tweezers to pick out the smaller pieces.

"Ohh, this one's bleeding a whole lot!"

"Why… erk, are you so fascinated by this?"

The third island- it really needn't even be mentioned.

Quinn doesn't want to talk about it.

Ace can't actually. Which, not entirely his fault, but still. All he really remembers is that they landed on a sunny day and some asshole at the dock that was cursing them out had been trying to charge them a fee for landing- to which Ace had beat him up for and was very polite about, he notes proudly- and then there had been a group of assholes and he remembered challenging them (Quinn facepalming, Spice with his sword out, and Kat looking confused by the sudden violence) and then-

Blank.

Not, admittedly, a new thing. Or unusual.

He flinches awake, eyes snapping open, and lets out a decidedly unattractive snort, before he's blinking against the glare of a spotlight from a snail and- "Must've fallen asleep."

"One of a kind, Ace, one of a kind."

The cage had definitely not been there before.

And he doesn't remember there being a party. A costume party too, from the looks of it. He squints through the cage bars, surprised by the sounds of fighting and yelling and a shocking amount of carnage outside.

"Huh?"

He looks down.

The ropes were new too.

"Ace, psst, hey," he lazily turns to the voice of Quinn and lets out a horrified yell- it wasn't a shriek, he does not shriek, damn it!- at the sight of her, "stop screaming, it's just me- do you remember what I showed you about picking locks?"

Well, it was Quinn alright. Grey and ashen with muscle showing and blood dripping all over her, looking like the living embodiment of the walking dead- there was even bone sticking out of her neck and everything!- an incredibly realistic-looking zombie.

A zombie that was currently as tied up as him.

"Even if I got free of the ropes, I still don't have full use of my fingers with the cast and bandages in the way."

"Yeah?" He concentrates to burn the ropes around him, then yelps as he overdoes it and has to stomp it out to keep it from spreading. He doesn't think he could get through Quinn's without burning her, even if he was just untying it, even attempting the knot has him fumbling with a burst of fire that has him hesitant. He drops his hands when he sees her flinch. "I think so? Why are you dressed like that?"

"Don't worry about it."

He blinks as there's a click and Quinn visibly runs her tongue over her teeth and into her cheek- his brows shoot up as he watches, more and more confused by the second- and then stuck out her tongue.

"I- How long did you have those in there?!"

He exclaims, staring at the bobby pins that she clutches between her teeth and lips. There's a pause, like she's contemplating actually answering, before she shakes her head and, in a muffled voice, says again, "...Don't worry about it."

"Why didn't you just keep it in your hair?" He asks. Even as he takes it from her and starts bending it in the way she had taught him, nodding her approval when he showed her the end result. "Wouldn't that be easier?"

He has to admit. He shivers a little taking it from her mouth- that makeup and outfit… It's just way too good and he half expects her teeth to snap out after him.

"I have them there too but these were backups incase they searched me," she glances at the shouting crowd around them and Ace briefly catches sight of Spice suplexing someone through a window and Kat jumping on someone's shoulders, creating nothing but chaos, "and I'd rather not have you dig through my hair for the others."

He stares at the room as he fumbles with the lock.

"...Uh, Quinn?"

"Please. Don't."

"What's up with all of this?"

"Aa, you did."

"They're a cult, Captain!" Kat shouts from… somewhere. He's somewhere. "They were gonna try and baptize the Devil Fruit out of you-"

"Well, that's not too bad."

Spice snorts, dropping down from a secondary floor with two guys under each arm, a skeleton shirt beneath his clothes. "If you think drowning isn't too bad. Take it literally."

"Oh." The lock clicks and Quinn shuffles after him, offering her ropes up for Spice to drive his blade through. "That still doesn't explain costumes. Or Quinn."

"Sure doesn't."

And Quinn refuses to say a word more on the subject.

Thankfully, Spice leans down to Ace's ear, "I'll fill in the logbook later." He pauses before adding: "Kat is dressed as a warlock."

"I curse you!"

"He's really into it."

Quinn's cheeks puff. "Say nothing, Spice! Sworn to secrecy!"

"No."

Ace cackles.

...He burns down half the island. The first thing to go up though is, of course, the bar they're stuck in.

How they don't already have their pictures in the paper is a wonder in and of itself.

("What do you mean the ash keeps getting in the snails eyes and making the picture blurry?!")

She slammed her foot onto the deck, just because she couldn't use her hands without hurting herself. "How many times?! How many times are we going to get chased off an island?!"

Ace laughs.

"Shut up, this is all your fault!"

He just continues to laugh, "Oh, come on, it hasn't happened all that much-?"

"Every island! Every island! The only one was Hunting and that's more the exception than the norm-!"

"What about Starving-?"

"Kat and I got chased out by that damn Mime trying to kill us!"

"Aa, oh right, you mentioned that didn't you? Chehahaha! Whatever happened to him?" Quinn chose purposely yo stay silent. "Are you sure your Devil Fruit didn't give you bad luck?"

"Hell if I know." She gripes, head falling into her semi-good hand. "...Why can't we… just go somewhere… where the locals don't hate us…?"

-0-

It's a day of gentle winds and still seas. Any experienced pirate of the Grand Line- and especially of the New World- would know that it's simply the calm before the storm. But, ah, the veterans of the sea would know to savor it as well, and not let paranoia get to them.

The News Coo salutes with a squawk and is off a second later to whatever other ship it finds on its route.

A huff over the raised price and the retrieved newspaper snaps open with a flick of the wrist. The frontpage is partly some slaughter spree that one of Big Mom's crew had gone on when they were given the wrong order and the other half is another update on the situation in East Blue. Which, unsurprisingly, was a paid spot by a Celestial Dragon, pissed at the destruction of something they'd claimed.

"Someone keeps burning islands in the East Blue." He can't help his brow raising and letting out a low whistle at the numbers and islands written about, even though it was undoubtedly exaggerated, it was still looking like a pretty big number. "Seems like it's those pirates that went all revolutionary a couple weeks back. Can't get a read on the MO though."

"Did they announce the bounty yet?"

He looks for any numbers that stand out, scratching his head. Careful not to mess up his carefully styled hair. "...Looks like… A grand total of Thirty-Six Mill. For the prime three and anyone additional. They estimate that there's about fifteen pirates in all."

"Pretty damn good for the East Blue. Twelve million each. That's getting close to the highest bounty there."

Spikey, cobalt blue hair tilts to look down from the crows nest where they're standing by the railing, face paint scrunching in vague humor. "Is it?" There's a laugh. "That's kinda pathetic, don't you think? Hey, Teach, you're good at remembering this kind of thing. Who's got the highest bounty in East Blue, right now?"

"That would be Arlong, zehaha. At twenty." The large man crunches from around a bite of cherry pie that he had managed to convince the kitchens to make for him. "They get a picture there, Commander Thatch?"

Thatch shakes his head. "Not even a blurry one, apparently they've been avoiding the Marine cameko's."

"Smart, if cowardly."

"Zehaha. They know when to pick their battles then, don't they? Suicidal for someone from the East to try to pull the revolutionary card if they don't have the power to back it up."

"...They should just straight-up punch a Dragon in the face."

Thatch snorts. "Not everyone's got a death wish like you. And don't you have paperwork from the second division you should be doing right now!"

There's a moan. "Urghhh." And the blue haired man pathetically tried to hide behind the wall of the crows nest. "When I promised Oden to watch over his division for him until someone worthy took over I didn't think there'd be so much writing!"

There's a pause.

"Oy, Thatch! Oden was terrible at math! Why the hell is there so much of it for me?!"

"I don't know, ask Marco. The flaming blue chicken-mother."

"He wasn't supposed to hear me say it!"

"And that makes it okay, yoi-?"

Thatch goes back to reading the paper, ignoring the yelp and thud as he falls out of the crows nest and makes contact with the deck. Sending Teach into a loud fit of laughter that had him choking on his food a bit. "These new pirates though… wonder if the burning islands is something they do everywhere or is there something the Marines and the paper aren't saying."

-0-

He was a simple shop keep. Clothing and second-hand brands and donated hand-me-downs that no one wanted anymore, it wasn't a bad business. Maybe not the most respectable, but it was his.

Now. As a shop keep to a business that was open everyday- a person could need new clothes at any time after all- he prided himself on knowing each and every one of the residents on the island. It made it much easier to pick out new, prospective customers and helped him keep the good graces of everyone else.

So, when he spotted the one with freckles and a bright orange hat, he very much stood out to him.

(Now, he'll admit, that, at first, his heart had leapt into his chest because, for a moment there, he thought it was that new pirate-criminal everyone had been talking about. The one who had been setting fire to islands nearby them.

This thought was quickly discarded though as the man- though, if he was being honest with himself, he was really more of a boy- turned around.

He was much too young to be responsible for that kind of terror. Much too young to match the description of an older man with flamethrowers as well. And, while there were fancily embroidered flames on his hat, it didn't match with the demonic imagery he had in his head. So, really, it was just a teen with an unfortunate taste in fashion.

...And also in spelling apparently. If that tattoo on his arm was anything to go by.)

The young man didn't even look quite old enough to be a traveler all out on his own yet. But, then, he supposed, he could be mistaken. He was getting on in years and, at some point, all the young faces started to look the same. Especially with strangers.

Though, if he had his own guess, from the way the kid was looking around, he'd be willing to bet he was looking for someone. Probably his friends ran off without him or something.

After that, he goes back to work and he doesn't spot too much of him, but he doesn't think he leaves the market area.

And when, in boredom, he goes to try and spot the stranger again, he finds that the kid has one of the pretty girls that work down by the fisher's boats flirting with him. And, apparently, the boy was much too dense to even really notice the, frankly, terrible advances the girl was attempting.

(An older lady, the late farmer's widow from across the town, takes one look at the poor tries and nearly laughs herself silly. "Ouh, reminds me of when I was a young lass." All too delighted as she went out of her way to eavesdrop and likely gather some embarrassing blackmail on the poor girl for her later years.)

It doesn't help that the dense boy perks up at the offer of food and the girl seems to mistake it as interest in a date itself- already dragging the boy off on a supposed outing at one of the small outdoor food courts that were popular among the dock workers.

It causes quite the commotion. His eating.

Enough so that the workers on afternoon break start up a round of betting that has the fishers girl turning redder and redder in raw embarrassment and humiliation. Standing up and knocking over her chair as she throws up her hands and says something about how "all the good looking guys had something wrong with them."

The boy didn't even seem to have heard her, too caught up in his already paid for meal.

And then-

Well. He honestly wasn't quite sure what happened, though he was smart enough to be able to make a good guess. The poor girl had been stomping away and was now being harassed by a group of no-good troublemakers that'd overheard her complaint and thought they might be able to show her what a "real man" looks like. Idiots, the lot of them. It was a real squabble that was undoubtedly going to get out of hand. Especially as the cowboy stands up and punches one of them in the face when he takes it too far. It was a very impressive punch, actually, sends the idiot sprawled out on the ground and serves as a catalyst to piss off the rest of them.

(Notably, he doesn't stop eating even as he does it, looking more annoyed by the interruption than anything.)

"Oh no. Not again." The shop keep nearly jumps out of his skin as someone breathes out from his side, sounding more exasperated than actually irritated. "How many times does that make it now?"

It's a- In his opinion, a rather striking woman. All dark, mysterious, and wild, wispy hair. A quick glance and he can tell immediately that she's not from around here- and not just from the island- her eyes are shaped differently, her body… softer looking than the, compared to her, angular feminine types he's used to seeing, and the only suitable descriptor he could apply to the differences were: exotic and outlandish. Yet, even as he tries his hardest to guess a sea she might've been from, possibly West Blue but even that doesn't seem right, he doesn't think he could just assume anywhere off the top of his head.

At least, not without a high chance of being wildly wrong.

She's got her arms loaded down with a couple of shopping bags and she's counting money in her wallet and-

She turns to him and he's stuck by how sharp her eyes are. They almost feel like they're actually cutting into him.

"Hey, how much for that shirt? The one with the UFO."

He startles.

"O-Oh, that's 2000 beli! It's still in pretty good condition so not much was knocked off the price. I- Are you not concerned for your friend?"

She waves a hand in the air. "He's fine. So long as there's no fire at least." She frowns as she picks the shirt up and looks it over. It's made up of a sunset-gradient, red to orange to purple, with a white UFO shape in the center with a large bold print of GREETINGS underneath. There were white dots of stars in the purple. "Got anymore like this? He needs more clothes… Uh. I'm not sure what size he is actually."

"The cowboy-?"

"No, sorry, my…" She struggles for a second before shrugging. "Brother? He's really into the extraterrestrial." She pauses and then mutters under her breath something that he's pretty sure is: "Which is ironic considering me." But he can't be one-hundred percent on that because she quickly continues. "He's shorter than me. Bout here. And about… the size of that boy over there.

She points to one of the boys currently stuck in a chokehold under her friend's arm, starting to turn blue from a lack of air.

The… shop keep does not know what to make of this situation so he simply offers a slow, "...I think that's a medium." And starts looking for other alien shirts while keeping an eye on the fighting.

"Oh, by the way," she stops as she finishes paying about to wander off, "do you have or know where I could get binders?"

"Huh. If you're looking for that kind of thing, you'll probably only find it in Logue Town. Anywhere else wouldn't be commercial enough to really carry it." He scratches his head, looking around. "I don't think I got any- most people try an' keep that stuff a secret. So you'll probably have to look around a bit if you're gonna even find anything in-store."

She scowls. Not quite a glare on her face as she looks down, not yet, and is clearly thinking on it- but even if it's not pointed at him it still has a shiver rushing up his spine and a chill in his bones.

This lady- Yikes. There was definitely something creepy going on with her.

"Right. Thanks."

He sighs in relief as she turns to walk to her friend, a new shopping bag adding to the weight on her arms. And he's glad, now, to see her leave. The friend had completely laid the group he'd been fighting with out flat and he didn't want to see him sent in his direction. Still eating too. "Hey, Ace!" The name is a simple one. And it makes him wince in sympathy when he spots the misspelling of the tattoo on his arm. The boy's head shoots up in greeting, hand waving and voice muffled but the woman just completely talks over him. "Let me see your hands."

He seems confused, just as much as most of the people who had been watching the fight were at the woman's sudden appearance and request, but sticks his food the rest of the way in his mouth and offers up his hands. Even as the fishers girl- who had done a complete one-eighty and was now fawning over him- glared at her.

There's a bemused expression on Asce's- sorry, Ace's- face as she reaches out and clasps both hands. "Mnh, they're warm…" She mutters. He seems more taken aback than anything. "Bring them down…" He does so, hands following her own. At the same time, she lets the bags slide down the length of her arms and onto his, "Now bring them back up…!" And with a quick flourish they slide down his own arms and she lets go, a triumphant smile on her face. "There we go!"

He splutters. "Oy, that- I don't want to carry your bags-!"

It's a stark contrast to the fighting and looks he'd received and it has the workers laughing, a few even going so far as to try and copy the move. The shopkeeper simply shook his head.

Odd strangers.

...

...

Fighting.

Fighting.

It was not something that she'd ever really thought about.

Quinn had mentioned it before. Parkour and self-defense. Those were the two things she had going for her. Even if the parkour she hadn't done in awhile and was shaky at best and the self-defense needed desperately to be relearned.

The latter… she'd rather wait. At least until her arm healed because even just jostling it wrong was enough to have her shoulders tense and her eyes squinting to hide the pain. She was beyond thankful that the shards that had bloodied her free hand, the cuts and piercings she'd gotten from it, were already almost healed- mostly just thick scabs and red lines now. It would scar, probably, barely enough to even be all that noticeable, but what was one more.

Quinn-

She wanted to go for a run.

She could feel it in the way her leg shook in anticipation and she fiddled with her hands.

More than that though, she wanted to climb. And jump. And to do awkward rolls and dangerous races and-

But Ace had other plans.

He eyed her up and down and crossed his arms over his chest, humming. "Being honest with you…"

"Yeah?"

"You wouldn't last a day on Mt. Colubo!"

She sighed. Yeah, she could tell him that much.

He can't help but laugh a bit at her reaction. "C'mon, show me what you got! Maybe you'll prove me wrong."

She makes a face. "Oh, I seriously doubt that, Ace…"

This was not it. Not even close to what she wanted to be doing right now but, well, she'd dug her own grave here, hadn't she? And Ace was all too enthusiastic to grab a shovel.

She gets her ass kicked.

Hard.

"Are you even trying?"

He sounds disappointed. Which, yeah- fair.

Whatever.

She lays sprawled on her back, blood dripping from her lips from where she'd bitten her tongue and Ace is crouched lazily next to her, peering down. The asshole isn't even breathless.

She groans.

"...Hm. Thinking."

His brow raises, "Yeah? That's not really going to help you, you know? If you spend the whole time thinking about what to do instead of actually doing it." She doesn't deign that with a response and he shakes his head. "What about?"

She sits up, grunting. And rubs her forehead with her good hand, feeling Ace watch her every move. He hits hard. Really hard. And the first one she'd gotten, straight to the stomach, had sent her vomiting over the side of the ship, which was enough for him to grimace guiltily and reel in his strength.

("Forgot that everyone else isn't made of rubber…")

She huffs out something like a sigh and turns to give him a critical eye. It has him startled momentarily before he returns the stare down, neither blinking.

Quinn's not sure when it starts. Not exactly, it's hard to pinpoint an exact moment, because it isn't exact or even linear. But one day, when the boat is lifted by the crashing waves, so forcefully that it sends them all crashing out of their seats and rushing to get the ship under control, she notices the laughter and grins breaking open over everyone's faces. Even her own, despite the scraped knees and slivers in her palms.

That the shaking of the boat beneath her feet, the instability that has her nearly tumbling with each step. That, even when she accidentally falls into the water and gets fished out by the back of her shirt, she's laughing, too.

"Oh, I can't wait for us to get to the Grand Line and deal with it's weather."

It reads like her usual brand of sarcasm, to their ears.

But she's telling the truth. For once, she can't wait to find the road ahead.

And, now, staring him down and watching him grow more confused by the second, even as he attempts to maintain a serious expression, and manages so with surprising success, after he's just beat her up in the most one-sided fight he'd probably ever been in before-

Quinn feels it more than the thought even occurs:

She can't let him die.

She feels her lips quirk into a soft smile, unbidden- and Ace blinks rapidly in response, caught by surprise- before she's grabbing the brim of his hat and jerking it over his eyes, completely cutting off his line of sight. "You're some kind of monster." He freezes, tense and she can see his fists clench and-

She knows she's not good with words, this is proof of it, but…

Ace twitches back as she pulls the brim back up, both hands on his cheeks as she rolls her eyes and forces eye contact once again, smile positively beaming. "But definitely the best one I've ever met."

And hopes beyond hope that it's enough.

She pats his cheek, stands back up, using his shoulder to pull herself up and stretches out her aching bones. Pointedly not looking at Ace.

Otherwise, she would've seen the almost shell shocked expression on his face, almost like she'd been the one to punch him in the gut, and there's a wobbliness to him that wasn't there before. Like he was going to fall over, even though his feet were firmly planted and his balance was impeccable. Or seen the way his face shifted through a myriad of emotions before he was wiping his hand over his mouth to hide what might've been a grin as his eyes followed along the definition of her legs, all the way from her foot and up past, until he's eyeing the curve of her stretching her arms above and behind her head.

The brim of his hat keeps the sun from blinding him as he watches her face.

"That's what's on your mind?"

"More or less."

"And that has to do with fighting because…?"

"Oh, not really." He swipes at her legs and sends her yelping, back to the ground. "Kehehe! Sorry, sorry, Mr. Portgas. Your training is distracting I guess," she hums, laying on the ground and resolute to not move now, "I want to run!"

The declaration is met with a chortle.

"Well, with how trainin' is going for you that's all you're going to be doing."

"I don't really learn by getting my ass-kicked, you know?"

He snorts.

"How else is there?"

"...Know how I taught you to pick locks?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we try that method?"

Ace pauses, thinks it over then grabs her by the shoulders and forcibly stands her back up. "Sure." And, hey! Once they start heading down that route, Quinn starts picking up the moves and doesn't have to suffer through being beaten up. She's pleasantly surprised that, while Ace is definitely an impatient teacher and demanded a lot, he was good at it.

Must be all the years having to dumb things down for Luffy.

("Hey, better already!"

"Y-Yay…" She groans, holding her face where Ace had nearly knocked her the hell out. "Everything… hurts…"

"I could still absolutely destroy you, but you're learning something at least."

"Yeah, I know." How to take a punch maybe.)

The islands, quite honestly, start to blend together. It's a marked difference from what she remembered because the Straw Hat's had seemingly been out at sea for the vast majority of the time. It makes her wonder how many of the small cover stories that Oda drew, the ones where it was just them hanging out and being harassed by odd little animals or just being silly, were actually true to the canon of this world. It would fill in a lot of blanks at least.

This island was a small one. Primarily farms and separated lands with dirt roads connecting them, a little town down by the dock where Kat and Spice currently were-

Quinn had meant it when she said she had wanted to go for a run.

This wasn't exactly what she wanted- preferring concrete and ledges to jump and climb- but a walk like this was fine.

"This is the first time I've seen a baby cow in-person in my life…" She mutters, balancing on the small stone wall built next to the side of the road, careful not to step on the barbed wire fencing beneath. "So cute."

Ace snorted but nodded in agreement. "Want to meet them?"

"Oh, no way in hell." She makes a face. "If I grow attached to one, I won't be able to eat any of them anymore."

Ace cackles.

"Chehaha! That's one way of looking at it!"

They go back to walking in a comfortable silence again.

There really isn't much to see or do. And Ace doesn't have Luffy's power to rocket them anywhere or the same ability to get into wack-a-doodle, crazy hijinks, so overall it's been a pretty calm couple of weeks. Definitely not boring, Ace would go stir crazy she was sure, but…

It was nice.

And it was nice that they could just be calm like this.

"Your…" Ace stops walking for a second, hesitating before bulldozing on. "...wrist. Does it hurt?"

She blinks.

Once. Twice.

Huh, somehow that's not what she expected. Not at all. She looks down at the cast. It's seen better days, especially since she'd been tossed into water a couple times, and is beginning to lose its shape but she only needs another couple weeks before she can take it off. Hopefully it'll last until then. "Sometimes. It's not that bad anymore. It hasn't been that long yet though." She catches the edge of her lip, lets it go with a pop before she can begin chewing. "Medicine gets rid of most of the pain but, so long as I'm careful, it's fine."

"I've only broken a bone once before."

He didn't really remember the experience all that clearly. He'd been young, younger than when Luffy had been when they first met. And Dadan had said something about him getting an infection from it and almost dying until Garp brought a real doctor to check him out.

It was a blur, mostly.

But Ace remembered being scared.

"Oh yeah?" Quinn perked up. "How'd that happen?"

He looks away. "A-Aa, will you look at that-?"

She grins. "Ace, how'd you break it?"

"I think I'm getting hungry, how about-"

Quinn grabs him by the shoulders and wheels him back around, hopping off the wall. "C'mon, Ace! Tell me! How'd it happen-" He tries to do everything he can to look away. "It can't be that bad!"

"...Fine. I-" he mumbles. "Fell out of a tree."

Her brows furrow. "Oh, well, that's not so embarrassing." She sounds disappointed.

"Oy, what were you expecting?"

"I don't know. Something funny with you, kehe. What- did your brother accidentally push you?"

"It was before I met either of them."

Ace is a little surprised when she simply nods and doesn't ask about the pluralization or the fact that he'd said met- he thinks pretty untypical of most. And something in him relaxes at the lack of questions.

"That must've been fun. Did that bandit-mother of yours help?"

"Yeah. Surprisingly a lot actually. I don't know if it was because she was afraid of Garp or what but-" Ace's thoughts short circuited. He sputtered. "Mo… Mother?!"

Quinn gave him a confused look. "Isn't she… like your adoptive mother?"

"Whe-Where did you get that idea?! She's- She's a man among men! She's not my-" He opens and closes his mouth. "She's big and burly and is ginger and always wears a beaded red necklace- there's no way that she's my- ah."

Ace stops short as Quinn suddenly hums, small smile deceptively soft on her face as she leans forward, fingers sliding under his necklace so she could inspect it closer. One brow delicately raised, "...always wears a beaded red necklace, huh?"

He glances down at it.

"...aa."

It- It'd been a gift.

From Dadan, though she hadn't actually planned on giving it to him. Dogra and Mogra had been the ones to gift it, before he'd left, and Ace had pretended to not notice her sobbing when she saw it- or the warm feeling it'd given him. She… She wasn't his mother. Not really adoptive either. But she was his… parent?

He stares Quinn in the eye and swallows.

"...They're prayer beads…" He admits, voice desperately small and Quinn's eyes flicker in interest. "We're- I'm not religious or anything but- Dadan always liked the symbolism."

"They have a name?"

"Mala."

"And the symbolism?"

If possible, his voice grows even smaller and quieter, shoulders coming up to hug his neck. But he doesn't pull away. "Red ones mean… Power and stuff like that."

Thankfully, Quinn let the beads fall back into place and he sighs in relief, the nervous pit in his stomach releasing and the embarrassed flush that he knew was starting to rise dissipating. "'A man among men?'" Her lips quirk up. "What does that even mean?"

"Uh…" He let his head reboot, albeit slowly. "It means just that! A man among men-" He doesn't know how to explain it and Quinn laughs at his attempt. "She's like- the respected boss of bandits or whatever- A man among men!"

She chortles. "So it's a compliment then?"

"No- I mean, yes?" He tried to go over it in his head, not really seeing what she was getting at. "...You see that as a compliment?"

"It sounds like your saying that she stands out as an equal to be respected, or goes above and beyond compared to all those other bandits. How can that not be a compliment?"

Ace stares at her, then snorts. "Well, she certainly doesn't see it that way."

"How'd you say it?" Quinn shakes her head. He has a feeling that that ones rhetorical. "Anyways, what'd'you end up breaking?"

"I- My arm? Like, right here?" He gestures to his left forearm. "I guess I fell on it wrong, or something."

"Ooh, matching." She raises her left arm up.

Ace rolls his eyes. "Seriously?"

"Seriously, seriously." She taps the cast, in a tune that Ace vaguely recognizes as being something some of the bandits hummed at points during the year, claiming it to be because of holidays. "It's fine, by the way. I knew what I was getting into. So don't worry about it."

He looks away. "I wasn't worried."

"Sure you weren't."

"Oy, I'm not lying. Oy, hey, Quinn- I'm serious! Stop looking at me like that- I wasn't worried!"

...

...

"Aaaaaa-! Oh, hi."

"Hello."

"Aaaa-!"

Spice watched as Ace went yelling away, running from the spatulas and pans chucked after him. More for effect than anything, he's guessing. "Does this happen often?" He asked at the same time he crouches to collect the kitchenware that was now piling up on the ground. The chefs here, if you could even call them that, clearly had no respect for themselves if this is how they treated their tools of the trade…

"We haven't been to enough islands with people to tell just yet." Quinn follows where Ace took off. "But, if I think it's going to be a recurring theme… yes, definitely."

"Should we… pay them?" Kat shifts uncomfortably, scratching the back of his head. "I- I mean. It would be kinda rude not to, wouldn't it?"

"Good thing I don't care."

"Quinn."

"What? It's my damn money." She pauses. "Our… It's our damn money."

"Who put you in charge of finances again?" Spice muses.

"I'm good at math."

"Your only qualification."

She shrugs. "Would you rather do it?" Spice doesn't say anything. "I… like having something to keep track of. I also keep track of all our supplies and what we're gonna need but, hey, if you want to take the responsibility-"

"I'm good. You're on top of the boring things, got it."

"It's not really all that boring."

Obvious disbelief.

"...I don't know if I can be on a crew with such a big nerd. How do you manage it Kat?"

He opens his mouth to respond-

"Hey, don't talk to him like he isn't also a humongous nerd."

-he closes his mouth.

"And Ace is a bit of a nerd too. Just gotta find the right thing." She tilts her head, following after the sight of him running in circles with her eyes. "He's more of a massive dork though."

Spice sighs. "How could I pick such a lame crew?"

"Excuse you. What makes you think we let you pick- you were ours from the get go. We could feel the perfect balance of energy in our nerd-to-dork ratio."

Kat snorted. He actually has no idea what they're talking back. Suddenly struck by the thought of- wow, Quinn is weird. Before shaking his head, trying to get back on track. "I don't know. It's one thing for one of us to dine-and-dash but it's another for Ace to do it."

"He'll… destroy all the small businesses in the area."

"Easily."

Quinn clicked her tongue. "...well, if you have your own money, you can pay it off. Otherwise, though, no. So long as he can get away without dragging us down? It's fine as far as I care."

"How can we have money if you're in charge of it all?"

He's got her there. She sighs and rubs at her eyes pinching the bridge of her nose in the same motion. "I'll start putting together allowances every time we get to a new island or something. But, right now, we barely have enough for necessities and I would have splurged with getting Kat some new clothes-"

It was worth it. He'd nearly cried and had worn two at once once she presented him with the bag, "I've… I've never really gotten a gift before. N-Not one that I can really remember!" And then nearly laughed himself silly once he realized they were all space and extraterrestrial-themed.

"-if Ace and I hadn't robbed that group harassing that girl." She paused. "I think you all are a terrible, horrible influence on me. I would've never even thought to do that before I joined this crew. You're making me use my powers for… for evil."

"We didn't make you do anything." Spices eyes roll. "Besides, you didn't even feel guilty, did you?"

"...They deserved it, acting like that. Pissed me off."

"Right. Because that's the normal reaction."

"Well, I wasn't planning on doing anything at first! I was just frustrated because people like that suck but, as we were walking away, I was stuck in my head saying 'great, can't do anything about it' but then," she raised a finger, "I realized 'yes, but actually no.'"

"...I feel like you're quoting something but I haven't a clue to what…"

She noticeably deflates. "Point is. I'm already a criminal now, might as well do crimes."

"So you got drunk with power."

She chuckles. "Well, when you say it like that…"

Kat lets out an exasperated laugh. "Really?"

"It was more of a light buzzing- a buzz of power."

"Really!"

It probably says a lot about them that none of them go to grab Ace and make a quick getaway. Not wanting to also be blamed for his dining-and-dashing routine that he was starting to pick up. He was on his own there.

Speaking of which, they all blink as he slides to a stop, turns around and bows at the waist, "thank you for the food!"

They burst into laughter.

"You're thanking them?!"

They're sent into another round of howling at the reaction the restaurant workers give.

Oh, Quinn hasn't been here for very long. Not really. They're pushing a month now in grand total since she'd joined Ace's crew but it somehow feels like it's been much, much longer.

It feels strange because now it was starting to get hard to remember a time when she wasn't with them and- to be perfectly honest, she didn't think she was missing much.

"Really are such an odd crew…" Spice mutters.

"You're part of us now, so what does that make you?"

Quinn had to admit that she'd been a little worried when Spice joined. Afraid that he would upset the balance that their trio had created or introduce some new dynamic that left them wanting. Apparently, there had been no need to because Spice slotted into their lives and crew with an ease that had her envious.

Don't get her wrong- it wasn't the same as it was before. It couldn't be, after all. They were so closely interwoven in each other's day to day lives- and with them being on a ship like they were, both before and now, how couldn't they be?- that every conversation each of them had as individuals painted them as a whole. Adding a new person into that was bound to change what they had. Making Spice a final piece of a puzzle clicking into place and, by simply joining, he became a source of something that Quinn only realized now that they were sorely desperate for: Calm.

She'd be the first to admit that she only realized that fact because she thought it was weird how much more relaxed she'd been. It was one thing to realize you were tense, it was another to realize you weren't.

And, looking back, she can see why. As much as Quinn loved Ace and Kat- and she thinks that without acknowledging the full connotations of that word, ignoring the way it made her chest squeeze and stutter in surprise over the sheer simplicity in saying it- there was a decidedly small amount of maturity. Unsurprising, really. Kat might as well still be a kid and Ace had never bowed to an authoritative figure before in his life. In combination with her, who was inclined to go with the flow for the most part, even if she knew it would end badly or work her up, it was a disaster waiting to happen at best and unnecessarily stressful at worst.

A presence like Spice though? An older man and experienced older brother with tantalizing food and not a single humble bone in his body was taking a weight off her shoulders that, not only had she not realized was there, but also made her realize that she hadn't been prepared to bear it. Not at all.

(She could have. But she hadn't wanted to. It was what had her tense, pent up like a spring about to burst, and she didn't need a return to stressors like that- especially when they can be avoided.)

Honestly, though, Spice was fitting in well, even if they'd had a few hiccups getting to know each other. Especially considering Quinn hadn't spent much time interacting with him on his home island.

...

...

Spice isn't sure exactly what to make of Quinn.

She's tall for a woman, not anywhere close to his height of course, but humans can often push the threshold of "giant" for no reason other than wack genetics- Big Mom was a testament to that fact- nine feet tall was hardly unusual the further you explored. The point was, that he very much had to look down on her when speaking to her. Something that, he'll admit, pissed people off endlessly and that he went out of his way to make worse more often than not.

Quinn simply raises a brow, not cowed in the least, from having to look almost directly upwards to make eye contact with him.

"I don't see how they think you were once a noble," he stares, "I think most of them would be scared, wouldn't you?"

It startles her out of the serious façade. "Right?! Right?!"

"Then again, I haven't met any. So perhaps this is accurate."

"Gh. You're just saying that to mess with me," she huffs, "I'm not a damn noble."

"Hm… Why does it bother you so much?"

"People can make assumptions of me all they want. But I at least want them to be based on something that I actually am." She grimaces. "And Noble in this world-seas-place-augh has all sorts of connotations that really don't paint a picture that's even close to accurate."

He hums.

"...You know when you say things like 'in this world' people may even think you used to be a Dragon."

She pales, jaw dropping and looking so horrified that he doesn't know if he hit the nail on the end or is so completely out of left field he can't even see where the game is even happening anymore. She makes a noise that sounds somewhere between a wheeze and a choke. At a loss for words.

Yeah, Spice really doesn't know what to make of Quinn.

"What's your food preference?"

"Auh?"

He asks, because, really. He had meant to already but asking it now serves to throw Quinn even further off her game- a victory; one that he smirks at 'cause now it was worth the waiting. Especially with the flabbergasted noise she gives in response.

"M-My… food preferences?"

"Yes."

She makes a couple more noises that sound like dying in the back of her throat before she's shaking her head and carding her hand through her bangs, not looking even slightly mollified by the obvious change in subject. "I- I'm not allergic to anything except seasonal allergies. I'll eat anything."

"Sure. That doesn't mean you'll enjoy it."

She frowns. "It's…"

Quinn opens her mouth, closes it, then falls silent and just shifts awkward in place. It's almost like she's afraid of saying anything and he can see her glancing off to the side with a nervousness that has him growing impatient. "Why are you making this so difficult?"

"I-" She looks like she's about to say something but stops. "I don't like whole tomatoes. Or chopped, or anything like that."

"Clarify."

"I don't like the texture. Pureed or… ketchup'ed is fine. Just not when they're big."

Well that's the weirdest way she could have ever possibly said that. What a weirdo. "Okay. Anything else?"

She bites her lip.

"Just say it."

"I… don't…" She winces, looks away. If possible, she looks even more nervous than before and he thinks she might even be breaking into a sweat. "Like seafood."

He stares.

"You're a pirate."

"...Yes."

"Seafood is the main diet of at least ninety percent of the population. The only people that have the option of it not being a significant part of their diet are rich."

"...Yes."

"The only food you had access to before on this crew was fish and what you picked up from a tropical island with weird animals."

"Unfortunately."

"...Is that why you eat so little?"

"No, I just don't eat a lot in the first place. But it- definitely keeps me from going back for seconds." She shakes her head. "I mean. I'm better with fish than things like clams and oysters and… yeah. And I've never had Seaking before, so maybe I'll like that."

"Is there any seafood… you do like?"

"Um. I like clam chowder."

"You just said you didn't like clams more."

"...I like the chowder part more than the clam part."

He rubs his temples. Yes. He really didn't know what to make of Quinn. He cracks an eye open, "...Are you sure you're not a Noble?"

"Stop it."

Quinn couldn't help but pout. "Jerks." If there was a rock or pebble to kick, she would be doing so right now. Instead, there isn't, so she has to settle for crossing her arms over her chest and slumping against the ship's railing. So she was a bit huffy. She felt she should be. Especially since the two causes of her annoyance were still cackling like madmen.

The door to the cabin opened.

And Spice stared.

"Quinn, there's people in my way." He deadpans, face blank. Though, through careful observation and practice, she was beginning to get a handle on his minute expressions, she could spot his brow twitching into a furrow and the slightest of wrinkles in his forehead starting to crease the longer he stared.

She ducks her head, nods. "Yep."

"Why."

He asked, voice stressed.

Quinn cleared her throat, "They wanted to-"

"PUSH-UP COMPETITION!"

"That."

Katsura giggled, a bit breathless from his shout and managed to belt out a triumphant: "I'm winning!"

"Wha- no!" Ace rebuked, sounded both incredulous and affronted. "I have at least two on you!" Saying that, he pumped out a few more quicker than Katsura could even go down. The pair of them down on one hand each, the other placed firmly behind their back. "I'm- not- gonna- lose-"

Quinn just pinched the bridge of her nose.

Spice's brows raised.

"Good to know at least one of us is mature enough not to join in on the antics."

She blushed.

Visibly.

Her grip on her arms tightening, tensing, as she looked away.

And Spice's face fell flat.

"Hrmn…" She coughed into her shoulder, trailing off, "Well, I…?"

Ace cackled, "She got, like, twelve in and then keeled over!"

"Oye!" She snapped, "I did not," she clenched her fist indignantly, trying (and failing) to hide her suddenly blooming red cheeks, "I got… at least twenty."

"You say that like it's impressive." Spice ends up deadpanning at the same time Ace shoots her an amused look, both eyebrows raised, and says, "Wimp!" The both of them not even trying to hide their obvious judgement. She flushed.

Pressing her lips together into a flat line and looking away with a muttered, "Whatever."

Katsura was taking a shower.

So Ace was the only one to start screaming. "What are you doing-?! Grab her, grab her, grab her-!" He's tugging at his hair and feeling completely powerless because she's much too far away and his first instinct was to jump in after her but he can't anymore. "She's drowning!"

Spice stares blankly.

Much, much too calm.

"...Huh."

"Don't just say 'huh'! Help out!"

"...She's a pirate. She should be able to swim, shouldn't she?"

"NO!" Ace howled, falling to his knees and punching the deck in sheer frustration. "She's a Devil Fruit User!"

Spice blinks.

Slowly.

And then suddenly comes to awareness. "...Oooh. Right." He's still much too slow on the uptake. "Forgot about that."

Quinn does eventually get saved. Getting held up by the back of her shirt and not looking unlike a frazzled, pissed off cat as Spice yanked her back onto the deck and held her up in her weakened state. She lets out a little cough. Spitting up water and looking like her eyes are close to rolling into the back of her head from lack of oxygen. "Screw…" She coughed and hacked and almost sounded like she was a frog croaking. "...you…"

Well.

She's alive.

At least.

"Didn't realize you were serious about the luck thing. Sorry."

Kat's crying.

"Shut up, no, I'm not!" He sobs. "Don't look at me!"

Spice huffs out something that sounds close to a laugh. "...It's just East Blue Royal Seafood Amok." He tilts his head. "Have you really never had it before?"

"Is… so good though…"

He snorts. "Obviously. I made it after all," he points to Quinn, who's currently fighting off Ace's attempts at stealing her food with resounding failure on all fronts, "but I'm pretty sure even Quinn would have-"

She shakes her head. "Sorry, never even heard of it before."

"-then Ace-"

"I mean. I still don't really know what it is and I'm eatin' it."

Spice's brow twitches. "Uncultured… swines…"

"Hey."

(Ace leans down, grabbing Quinn's shirt and lifts it up to wipe his face on it.

She stares.

Grabs a handful of food off of her plate, the bit that remains, and slaps him upside the head with it. "The fuck! Quinn?!")

Kat and Spice purposefully ignore the squabble going on right next to them. And the fact that Quinn just bit Ace when he went to pinch her on the cheek and tug her face in opposite directions and successfully pissed him off enough that he's tackling her onto the ground beside the table.

("Stop biting me!"

"It's the only thing that works now!")

Yes, they safely ignore that.

"It's a fairly common dish. And for someone who's a pescetarian, I would assume that you've tried it at least once or twice."

Kat smiles a little, sharp teeth poking out from between his lips as he rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Well. Before the East Blue I lived in the Grand Line, so this wasn't so common there. And- I've kinda been… alone since I had to move here." It turns a little sad. "After Queen Otohime was murdered, it wasn't really safe for my mother or me to stay." He then perks up. "I've never really had the chance to go out an eat and the only food I've been making for years has been over a fire or what I could find in some people's garbage-"

There's a second where the squabbling freezes in the background and it's enough for Ace to get the upper hand now that he's not worried about teeth nipping at his fingers and to throw Quinn flat on her back. She blinks up at the ceiling, blank. Before a vicious glare pointed at no one appears on her face.

"-so this is really, really good! I haven't thought about food like this in awhile." Kat chirps. "This is the first time I've had a homemade meal in… in… I don't even know."

Quinn shoots him an unreadable expression.

And Ace and Spice share a look.

"Hey, Spice, your cookbook… it's meant to explore dishes from other cultures, right?"

"Of course."

"Mnh. I may not be much of a chef, but I know a bunch of recipes. If I wrote them down, you'd probably want to try your hand at them, wouldn't you?"

"Naturally."

Quinn nods and with an ease that belied the blatant manipulation, she turned to Kat, "Why don't you join me, Kat?" Said boy doesn't catch on. It probably helps that Quinn is so nonchalant about it that it barely even comes across as a question, said as if she were describing the weather and it leaves no room for argument. Not that they imagined she'd get one. "I'm sure Fishman Island had recipes Spice would be interested in. Maybe a couple favorites from when you were a kid."

"Oh, really? I don't know if I would remember them…"

"My own home-"

Spice is surprised to see both Ace and Kat freeze at the words and the way Quinn's voice is a little tight when she says them. He gets the rather accurate impression that Quinn doesn't talk about herself much. And especially not where she's from-

(Unbeknownst to her, it's part of where the "Noble" joke came from. Because where Ace and Kat shared details of their own home island, Quinn would say nothing. And the things she did offer up were never in direct referral to any place in particular, as if she was being purposely vague.

She was. And they were right.

It also gave them the semi-accurate impression that she didn't want to share it with them. Whether it be because she didn't trust them- something they were admittedly disinclined to believe- or because there were too many memories wrapped up in it that were… probably not good. They don't know.)

-but freely volunteered info is freely volunteered. Even if it's still vague and only done out of controlling the flow of a conversation.

Ace and Kat are probably a bit too rapt.

"-is pretty worldly, especially when it comes to food. It's a bit like what Spice intends to do actually. Bringing a bunch of cultures food together, whether fusing it or just introducing it to the general palate." And it even has Spice attentive with a descriptor like that. "So I might've heard of something similar to something you might only remember a little bit about and could probably help you with anything you've forgotten. Or point you in the right direction. You know, if we write it together later."

It gets an excited: "Sure!" And Kat unaware that he's just been manipulated into sharing recipes from his childhood for Spice to try his hand in and present him with. Then again, they don't know if he would care even if he had noticed.

Later, Spice will turn to Ace with a curiosity that only grows, and ask, "Where is Quinn from?"

"Don't know exactly. But she said the Grand Line one time. Why?"

And he'll frown and offer a shrug in response. Hoping a little, that they might run into Quinn's home sooner or later once they reach that graveyard' sea. Food-fusion and a wide-range of dishes from over the world- it sounded almost too good to be true.

(Honestly, it sounded a bit like the All Blue, but that sounded ridiculous to even him.)

"What's their name?"

Kat nearly falls off the railing he's sitting on and into the water below, startled. "Huh?"

"Your… weapon. Your claws."

Spice honestly doesn't know what to call them.

"Oh. They- They don't have a name."

That makes his lips, already pressed into a line, thin even moreso. "You should name it."

"I- Why?"

Kat is… confused. He holds up the claw-like blades and inspects them diligently. Spice had come over while he was cleaning them and he carefully places one down to start on the other. Spice simply shrugs, "There's power in a name. It makes a connection. Why do you think people name pets?"

It garners a surprised chuckle. "Weapons aren't exactly the same."

"Why not? By your side, something you take care of, and, depending, they protect you."

Well. When he puts it like that, it just sounds obvious.

"Does your sword have a name?"

"Yes…" There's a moment of silence, or as silent as they can be with the ocean slapping up against the side of the ship as noisily as it possibly could. Kat couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of unusual currents popping up lately, ones that he'd expect to find closer to Belle but decided best to not draw attention to them when they didn't seem to be causing any problems. "Sage Weaver. I named it after my mother." Kat jerks in surprise. "It was her sword. Once. And went by a different name then… but now…"

He trails off and Katsura doesn't ask for more.

He fiddles with his claws.

He doesn't think he could name them after his mother. They were a gift from her, sure, but- He doesn't think her name would suit them. Because, when he thought of her, he didn't think of violence and fighting and to name something made for that after her…

No. That wouldn't work out.

"...I have no idea what to call them."

"That's fine. Take time, figure out something that works."

"I don't know where to even start."

It feels embarrassing to admit. Like he doesn't have a clue as to what he's even doing, which, to be fair, is accurate, but he doesn't want others to know that.

It takes a while yet for Spice to respond and, jn that time, he's cleaned both and is simply watching the sea and listening to the waves crash. There's going to be a small storm during the night. Not a bad one, but it'll probably rain a lot.

"...Well. What do you fight for?"

Hm.

Good question.

Kat will have to get back to him on that.

...

...

Quinn walks into the gallery and nearly turns right back around and walks out. "What the-?"

Kat and Ace both freeze. Like a pair of kids with their hands caught in the proverbial cookie jar but, hell, that would've been welcome compared to this sight.

"Uh. It's not what it looks like?"

"And, pre tell, what does it look like that it's not?"

Whatever.

Quinn might as well join in.

Spice walks into the gallery and nearly turns right back around and walks out. "What the-?"

Kat and Ace and Quinn all freeze. Caught red handed.

"Uh. It's not what it looks like?"

Spice.

Stares.

"..."

Kat is holding a pair of eggs, one in each hand.

"..."

Quinn has a can of non-stick spray in one hand and a spatula in the other.

"..."

And Ace lays on the floor, chest bare like it always is, but noticeably concentration on the flames flickering over his body.

"..."

Spice stares.

Hard.

"...I'll go get my camera ready."

They all cheer.

...

...

"And what's your job on the crew?"

Spice was the cook, Katsura was the navigator, Ace was the Captain- and therefore could be forgiven for not having a niche set of skills- but Quinn, aside from helping out pretty much everywhere-

(He would get his ass kicked if he suggested Cabin Girl, he knows. Even if he was stronger than her. She'd somehow scrounge up the strength.)

-didn't seem to have a specified position.

She opens her mouth. Closes it.

Comes to the realization that she doesn't know.

"I- You know how people say to cut off rabbits feet because it's lucky?"

"Yeah?"

"That."

And since that tells him literally nothing, he goes to ask Ace instead.

"What's Quinn's job?"

He nods.

"Well, she kinda does whatever. I mean, she doesn't think I notice but I know she's been repairing mine and Kat's clothes since we don't really take care of them all that well. And she cleans a lot too," he pauses then makes an annoyed face that doesn't look nearly annoyed as it usually would be, "but she gets on mine and Kat's cases about doing our own chores all the time."

Spice frowns.

"She's smart too! So she kinda took over all the money stuff 'cause, while I'm good at hoarding it, I don't really know how to manage it. And she's been organizing a lot of stuff so-"

He pushes, voice flat, "Is she just a glorified Cabin Girl?"

Aa. There's the real annoyance there. "Hey, don't look down on her." Ace snipes, voice low and in a grumble and an accidental flame starts acting up at the edges of his hair that he quickly pats down, something odd passing over his face. "What's this even about? You're not angry 'cause she talks back to you, are you?"

"No." Not him. "But she talks back to you."

The Captain, he wants to stress.

Ace snorts. "She's been doing it since before she even joined my crew. And she joined within minutes of meeting me." The fire bursts in and out of life and there's a momentary flicker of concentration on his face before it finally snuffs itself out. "Not what I imagined in a First Mate but it's definitely fun."

Something like understanding falls over Spice. "She's… the First Mate then." It clicks into place with a shocking amount of sense.

"Well, yeah. I thought that was obvious?"

And yes, looking back, it certainly does make quite a bit of sense. However, "Huh," that does beg the question on why she didn't just say she was the right-hand, "does she know that she's First Mate?"

Ace seemed flabbergasted by the question. "Why the hell wouldn't she?" Which is answer enough.

"Aa."

So she doesn't know then.

That's… kind of funny actually.

-0-

She would like to think that she retained some semblance of stability in her life despite all its… ups and downs and plot twists. Particularly despite the plot twists. At least with knowing which direction she was headed with her life.

Hell, probably. Or was she already there?

The notion had her snorting to herself.

That said, a pirate's life for me~ wasn't what she had in mind after all this time- and the rocking of the ship beneath her feet certainly wasn't giving her a sense of any stability. Quite the opposite really. It wasn't helpful that sleep was clawing needily at her eyes either, the greedy bitch. Clearly power naps weren't staving it away and, while sleeping like a normal human and not being awake at an ungodly hour was tempting… every attempt at lying down was fraught with sheer restlessness and the overwhelming feel to punch something.

God, could you have a midlife crisis at twenty? Would it even be considered one?

She was pretty sure that that was what she was feeling right now.

So… no sleep. And the bags were beginning to show.

"Ke-!" She whipped around.

...oh, Katsura was just rolling over in his sleep. The lucky duck.

Twitchiness. That was a thing too. A mounting paranoia. Sooner or later it'd run right out of its stables if she didn't get it under control. It had her body tense and her hands shaking violently- to the point where wiping the soap off was a bit harder than it should have been.

Quinn sighed, soft and a little comforting, plunging her hands back into the water.

Between the snores of the boys she really didn't have to be quiet, the steady clink of plates and dishes being washed was rather soothing actually. To the point where she had rewashed and rewashed and rewashed and… you get the point. She placed the final plate back in its stack, foot tapping in a fidgety manner. Impatient, a tiny bit furious.

She stared down at the water in the sink. Though, it was really more soap and dirt by now. Maybe even a bit of blood, she had rubbed a bit too hard and peeled away a bit of skin. But it was dark enough that most of what she could see was only the faint outline of her palms under the water surface, the only light being a lantern that had been left out on the counter and only had a small flame left burning away.

Dimly, she contemplated just dunking her head down and really falling asleep. It would certainly be better than being stuffed in borrowed, too small clothes, sharing an incredibly small space with two baby men and a mini-giant, and on a ship that really didn't even really have a decent fucking bathroom.

(Something in her must've really snapped because she was happy before, wasn't she? Just a couple hours ago, she was fine with everything around her but now- now she can only find the problems.)

That's not accounting for the loss in technology, culture, music, and… everything else she was suffering.

Her shoulders slumped.

Just…

An incredible feeling of loss. Of stability.

"Homesick?"

She would deny the strangled yelp and fumble. Breathing heavily, a hand on her heart as if to stop its rapid beating, "Oh, Spice… you scared me."

"Oh. Sorry." He didn't sound sorry at all. "You had an odd look in your eyes."

"...did I?"

"Yes."

"...hnm…"

Not knowing what to say she looked down at her feet. This was- awkward. He made to move to her side and she shuffled out of his way as he picked the just-cleaned dish and dunked it back into the soapy water, cleaning it. Again. There was a long moment of quiet, broken only by the sound of cleaning dishes until; "So was I right?"

For an equally long moment she hesitated before saying, "...Y-Yeah. I guess… you could say that."

It was a bit of an understatement.

Just by a teensy bit.

Spice nodded. "You know-"

"Huh?"

"I usually am done washing dishes by the thirteenth try but you really take the cake by going for fourteen."

She froze.

"...y-yeah." It came out small, a tiny squeak. She bowed her head. "Sorry."

He shrugged, and in the lighting she could just barely make out his permanent frown twitching down further. "I don't take it that's the only thing that's got you up."

No. It wasn't. But it was- "The most important one."

Spice nodded.

There was a long moment of silence.

"Where are you from?"

"Hm?"

"I may have not been apart of this crew for very long but even I know where Ace and Katsura came from and at least a bit about them. You though, you haven't said so much as a word." Spice eyed her. "Ace said he picked you up from an island called Saigen? Is that your home?"

Quinn scoffed at just the thought.

"No." Then she bit her lip, "It's… hard to say. Where I'm from. Um." Spice gave her an uncomprehending look. "Yeah, that doesn't really help, does it? Keheh." Quinn laughed awkwardly, trailing off.

"Just say it as it is." Spice suggested.

Her lip is bleeding and it stings, and she crouches down, gripping the counter, to rest her forehead against it. "I… I'm from New York. It's not an island… or a country, or village, or town, uhh. And it's not that great of a place but I… do…" She winced. "...miss it? I guess?"

"You sound unsure."

"...It's not the place. But my-" Oh god, this was hard to put into words without saying anything incriminating. "-homes' culture… and everything else! T-This place, the islands we've been going to, feel like a whole nother world." She mumbles softly. "It's… overwhelming." It was such an understatement of the feeling.

It was crippling.

"I think that's what they call homesickness." Spice dried off the dishes, putting them away and clearing the sink.

Quinn felt her lips quirk up, but not happily. She didn't expect him to get it. There was trouble grasping the sheer scale she was trying to convey without completely going off the rails and-

It was just hard. She rubbed her hands over her eyes. "...Yeah, I guess it is."

This was a bad idea. She should've just kept her mouth shut.

"What do you miss?"

Quinn turned around to find Katsura and Ace both sitting up and peering through the dark, brown and grey eyes glinting respectively. Kat was practically laying in Ace's lap, on his elbows, both having fallen out of their respective hammocks and onto Spice's bed, and Ace was rubbing at his eyes tiredly. Katsura was the one to ask the question but Ace was also looking up at her curiously, gaze a bit unreadable. Quinn's bite harshened on her bottom lip, "...Technology, food, languages, books, even the godawful music… there's a lot that's not the same. More than I can say."

"We've got time." Ace stood up, dusting himself off and moving to the table. "The sun's gonna be up in a few hours anyways."

"Yeah, yeah! Tell us all about where you're from."

Quinn blinked wildly. It may have just been her tired state but that hit somewhere soft in the heart.

She glanced up at Spice, who gave a rare smile, "I might as well get started on breakfast then. And you can tell us about all the recipes from your home."

A small smile of endearment flitted over her face and she took a seat across from Ace and Kat. Gently relighting the lantern so they could all actually see each other.

And even though the floor moved beneath her feet she'd never felt more stable.

"I don't know what to say. Not… Not really."

Not without talking about things that would take much too long to explain. Like cars, trains, phones, the internet. But, if she was careful, maybe then… Maybe then she could take a bit of the weight off her shoulders.

"But… The city I'm from, it had a nickname that I've always really liked, and it was true too!" She smiles, a shaky nervousness to the look, one that they grant with obvious interest. "It was called The City That Never Sleeps…"

(If they notice the use of past tense, no one says anything.)

Quinn snaps awake, jerking up in her sleep with a gasp and sudden anxiety gripping her heart, only semi-aware of the fact that she'd startled the boys out of a card game they were playing next to her. They'd let her sleep in when they'd noticed the lack of sleep she'd been getting lately and Quinn is pretty sure that Spice had carried her to her own bed. "Oh. My. God."

"What? What?"

She wheezes.

"I forgot about Reverse Mountain."

-0-

There's the telltale clicks of Morse code. Transceivers registering and quick translations. A quiet murmur in the serious silence of work is the only noise in the room, of multiple someone's giving reports and clarifying information. Careful to not disturb the rest.

"...increase in sales, slave market has been booming ever since that new species started cropping up…"

"...Sharp-Tooth Tribe has been getting more and more isolated over the years and reports saying that they're starting to resort to cannibalism…"

"...trying to implement new slave-grounds in West Blue…"

"...Germa 66 have been sighted near the border, possibly trying to cause a fight between…"

"...flying island spotted over East Blue, attributed to Shiki but need confirmation…"

There's a pause, a click, and then the door closes as a man looking over the room wanders through, newspaper under one arm. There's hardly even a pause as each of the people stationed at their desks offer up the briefest of nods to the blonde.

He sweeps through with hardly a glance before disappearing along an extended corridor on the other side, greeted by a young woman with a scowl on her face and arms crossed.

"Took you long enough."

He offers a small laugh, quiet but it sounds loud in the empty hallway. "Got distracted. Hey, read about that factory over in the East Blue?"

Her eyes roll. "Of course I did. That's old news now." She huffs and grabs him by the collar, tugging him into a sideroom. "And we have a meeting to get to about a new mission- stop keeping Dragon waiting!"

"Aa- Koala!"

"What's got you so interested in it anyways? Or is it just an excuse for your lateness?"

"No, it's-" He rubs the back of his head, sighing out through his nose. "I don't know. I feel like I should be looking for something but… can't seem to find it. No matter how hard I look." He grunts, pulling himself from her hold so he could walk next to her. "It's… annoying."

"...And you chose the one newspaper that has to do with the East blue."

He remains silent.

"Sabo."

"Hrnngh."

"That tells you something, doesn't it? That it has to do with your…"

"Hrrnnnngh."

She scowls at him.

"Look, I don't know, Koala. But I didn't want to go back before- still don't. That's the one thing I do remember." He shakes his head. "If the feeling is that strong, I doubt there's anything worth remembering waiting for me." It's his turn to scowl, glaring at the paper. "I could do without the stupid reminders though."

She sighs, "...Yeah, yeah. I know what you're saying. C'mon. This'll distract you, I'm sure."

He leaves the newspaper on a table, forgotten, as they enter the meeting room and get briefed on their next mission and focus for the next couple weeks, if not months. Unaware that the page he'd left it on was of a faulty, general description of a group of pirates and that this was around the time that his eldest of brothers was supposed to be setting sail. But- ah, such is the lack of interest from amnesiacs that don't know what to look for and don't get accurate information.