Brothers

"Tell me more about your brothers," Cara said thought she didn't want to. She hated the fact that she was getting bored and wanted to talk to someone. She would have preferred Ami, but the girl wasn't here. All she had was Ace.

"Really?" Ace gave her a skeptical look. Both teenagers were sitting on the railing of the ship, fishing lines dangling in the water.

"Unfortunately, I've very bored. Who did you meet first? Sabo or Luffy?"

"Sabo." Ace faced forward. "He was from a noble family."

"A noble boy wanted to be a pirate?"

"He did. He hated where he was living. He hated how everyone looked down on others who weren't as fortunate as him."

"Was he annoying as you?"

"Ha ha." Ace elbowed her. "Keep it up and I won't talk to you anymore."

"Is that a promise?"

"Shut up or I'll shove you into the ocean."

"I'll pull you with me." Cara lifted their chain. "And I'll let you die."

Ace shook his head and continued. "Anyway, Sabo and I started gathering treasure from other pirates and bandits so we could get a ship. Along the way Garp arrived with Luffy. The little brat followed me around everywhere. No matter how harshly I treated him."

"So you were born a jerk. I was wondering."

"Luffy surprised both of us," Ace said, ignoring her comment. "He was caught by a pirate Sabo and I had stolen from. Luffy saw us with the treasure. We were sure the kid would open his loud mouth and tell the pirate where we hid the treasure. He didn't. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up having to work for this pirate for a while. We had to move crates for him."

"Crates?"

"It turned out they weren't normal crates. They were set with explosives. The nobles were planning on burning to death everyone who they didn't like. They wanted to clean the island for the arrival of the Celestial Dragon that ended up killing Sabo. Sabo found out about it and tried to stop it. It didn't work. His family locked him up inside their house. One day he managed to escape. Unfortunately, that day would also be the day he died." Ace cursed under his breath. Anger filled his face. "If I ever get my hands on the one who killed Sabo I'll murder him with my own hands."

Cara tried to relate to Ace. She couldn't. "And Luffy? What about him?"

"Luffy." Ace's smile came back. "He's quite the kid. He's friends with Red Hair Shanks."

Cara's eyes widened. "You two know a lot of famous people."

Ace nodded. "He often begged Shanks to take him on his ship. It never happened. But Shanks did save Luffy. He was causing trouble with some mountain bandits and, in turn, got himself into serious trouble. See, he had eaten a devil fruit. The gum gum devil fruit. Shanks had it. The head mountain bandit was beating up on Luffy when Luffy tried to stand up for Shanks and his crew after the bandits had insulted them. Shanks and his crew arrived in time to stop the beating and defeated the bandits. But the leader used a smoke bomb and escaped to the sea with Luffy. He threw Luffy into the water. Unfortunately for that bandit the locate sea king appeared and ate him. The beast turned his eyes to Luffy. In the last second Shanks arrived and save my brother. In the process, losing his left arm. Luffy was beyond upset. But Shanks didn't hold anything against him. In fact, he gave Luffy his beloved straw hat."

"All three of you sound very annoying."

"Hey!" Ace elbowed her, but without malice.

"Anyway, sounds like you had a lot of fun when you three were together," Cara said.

"What about you? Do you have any siblings?"

"Nope." Cara shook her head. "I'm an only child. Well, I do consider my best friend Ami as a sister. She has an older brother and sister and a younger brother. Sometimes they fight so much it makes me glad I'm an only child."

"You might biologically be an only child but you do have siblings."

Cara glared at him. "Don't you dare call those men who serve Whitebeard my brothers. They are not."

"They are since you're a daughter of Whitebeard."

"Never call me that bastard's daughter again!"

And just like that the small amount of civility that wormed its way between them snapped.

Ace closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. "Whatever." He climbed off the railing and ditched his fishing pole. "I'm taking a shower."

Heat flooded Cara's face. "Oh! No! You're! Not!"

"Oh. Yes. I. Am." With that Ace grabbed Cara and tossed her over his shoulder.

"Ace!" Cara kicked and beat him with her fists, hoping her strength would come so she could knock him out. No such luck. "Don't you dare get naked in front of me! I won't stand for it!"

"You don't have to look." Ace entered into the bathroom.

"Ace!" Cara's heart pounded. Nothing she did was going to get her out of this mess.

Ace dropped her.

"Ouch! Don't do th-" Cara started to glare up at him, but stopped when he reached for his belt buckle. She turned away. "Moron! Idiot! Garp and those bandits did a lousy job of raising you! No decent man would strip in front of a woman who wasn't his wife!"

"Lucky me I am a pirate, not a decent man."

Cara thought she would die when Ace dropped his shorts in front of her. As Ace stepped closer to the shower head, she plotted his murder while doing her best to keep her hand away from his body.