Fire Fist Ace stood guiltily before his captain like a naughty school boy. Captain Whitebeard was not happy. When he gave an order he liked it to carried be out promptly. It had been months since he had given his last order to the Fire Fist and still Blackbeard was most emphatically not dead yet.

"Just what the Hell have you been doing with yourself?" he growled between two huge swigs of rum. Cue involuntary flinches from his attendant nurses.

"Looking for Blackbeard, Captain," mumbled Ace, not even trying to sound defiant because he knew it was only partially true.

"In Alabasta?" Whitebeard's voice dripped sarcasm.

"I'd heard a rumour that he was at Yuba-"

"And you believed it?"

Ace skirted round that issue. "I got Scorpion out of the bounty-hunting business," he said instead.

"Yes, he was a much greater threat than Blackbeard will ever be," the sarcasm was so thick now, you could almost see it. Ace did not reply, so he continued. "And Schwänzenburg? What the bloody Hell were you doing there? As if I need to ask…"

"Actually, Captain, I was collecting information," said Ace, confidently. Well, it was true. Sort of. "Information that turned out to be useful, as it lead me to a naval fleet with details of Blackbeard's whereabouts-"

"Oh? So why isn't he dead?"

"Well, uh…" Ace rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "By the time I got there, he'd gone…"

Whitebeard's eyes flashed. "Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time running around delivering letters to the bloody marines and reuniting little milk maidens with they long-lost parents, you'd have got there in time!" Despite his heart sinking with guilt and indignation, Ace had time to marvel at the level of detail to which his captain kept himself informed. How did the old git manage it? He wondered what else he knew, and was thankful that he made no mention of the rather embarrassing incident involving the doctor who happened to have the same name as Ace's quarry…

"And two days on Buggy the Clown's ship! I don't want my name associated with that prick! If that's not a monumental waste of time, I'd like to know what is."

"They were going the same way I was, and it was two days free food…" protested Ace, lamely.

"That's a shit excuse, and you know it!" Then there was pause, during which Whitebeard's eyes slowly widened with horror. "Don't tell me you were doing the same thing you were doing in Schwänzenburg – not with…"

Ace chose to ignore his Captain's implication and instead said: "With all due respect, Captain, I'd like to see you resist the advances of Iron Mace Alvida."

"Alvida you say?" Whitebeard gulped some more rum. "'S it true what they say about her? About what the Sube Sube fruit's done to her?"

"The rumours don't go any where near doing her justice, Captain."

"Oh. Well. That's different then, I suppose. However," Whitebeard cleared his throat. "I'm still bloody pissed off."

Ace bowed deeply. "Please except my humble apologies, Captain."

"Humble apologies, my arse! Just find the bastard and bump him off!"

"Very good, Captain." Ace bowed again and turned slightly towards the port side of the flagship, where he had moored his skiff. "Shall I…?"

"No, I've got one more thing to say to you," Ace turned back expectantly. Whitebeard put down his tankard of rum. "Look. I don't make a habit of passing judgement on the extracurricular activities of my crew, but there are some funny stories circulating about you. I'll say this and I'll say it now: whoever he is, and however blond and fit he is, he is not more important than the missions I send you on. Got that?"

With that sinking feeling again, Ace bowed once more. "Yes, Captain."

"Good. Bugger off and get on with it then."

Ace didn't need telling twice.

Well... that was a very short chapter. Looking at it now, it's almost filler. But I wanted to keep the alternating Ace/Sanji POV going, and anyway I wanted to include Whitebeard because he rocks. This cpater and the next one took an awful lot of thought before I wroteall ofwhat I've uploaded here in the past 24 hours. I decided to upload them before I changed my mind and procrastinated any more.