It was early in the morning. Ace was already awake, leaning against the railings as he looked up at the sky.

The sunrises in the New World were beautiful. A gorgeous mixture of yellow, orange, red, blue, and purple rising to the sky and reflecting on the ocean water. Even now, months after he'd first seen it, it still manages to take his breath away.

"Ace!" The peaceful silence was interrupted by a voice. Haruta appeared beside him a second later, the shortest commander having to jump a little to be able to sit on the rails.

"Good morning, Haruta." Ace smiled at him.

"Morning! What are you doing here?"

"Just watching the sunrise."

"Well then sorry to interrupt but Pops called a meeting with the Commanders and you need to come."

"Meeting?" Ace asked, already pushing off the railing to start heading inside. He knew that every now and then, at least once a week, Pops and the Commanders would have a meeting to talk about anything needed on the ship or any problems. If there was a problem they'd talk about it and try to fix it. That seemed to be today.

"Yep!" Haruta jumped off the railings dramatically, giving a small pose at the end. Ace clapped.

"Why do I need to go? I'm not a Division Commander." Ace started walking.

"It's about you." Haruta followed.

"About me?" Ace stopped walking. He knew that the meetings were supposed to address any problems, including people. Did he do something wrong? Do they not want him anymore? Did they find out about Roger? Are they going to kick him ou-

"That's right. But don't worry! It's nothing bad."

Ace gave a hesitant smile. He sure hoped so.

There were thirteen other people in the room – giant, like most of the places on the Moby Dick, having a Captain the size of Whitebeard kinda required that – Ace and Haruta just entered. Whitebeard and twelve of the Division Commanders.

Whitebeard was drinking in a massive throne looking chair, Izou and Kingdew standing straight either side of him, blank-faced as usual. Marco was looking ready to go scold him for drinking, Thatch looking on in amusement. Blamenco and Jiru were talking to each other, Blamenco laughing at something he said, permanent smiles on their faces. Rakuyo was sitting against a wall, fiddling with his chained mace. Jozu and Vista were having a conversation near the window with Namur was looking out said window. Fossa was smoking a large cigar a little way away from him. Blenheim seemed to be trying to fix his loose braid.

Atmos and Curiel weren't there and it took Ace a moment to remember that they left on some assignment the day before and won't be back for a few days.

All in all it seemed pretty normal and that they weren't about to tell him they hate him for whatever reason.

Heads turned to face them as they entered, Haruta running to stand next to Namur, grinning brightly.

Ace closed the door before turning around, standing a little rigidly as he faced them. Whitebeard smiled. "Good morning, Son!"

"Morning, Wh-Pops." Ace stumbled on his words, still not used to calling anyone Pops. He gave a polite small bow. "Morning, everyone."

As the morning greetings were returned, Ace tried to force himself to stop shifting around. "So, uh, what exactly did you call me for? Is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, yoi." Marco interjected, no longer glaring at the drink in Whitebeard hand like it had just murdered his entire family line, walking forward. Whitebeard used the moment where Marco wasn't paying attention to him to chug the rest of his drink down.

"We just needed to talk to you about something, yoi." Marco gave a short side glare to Whitebeard, having heard the rapid swallowing, before stopping in front of Ace. "Since you're new and all, yoi."

Ace gave a slight tilt of his head, promoting Marco to continue with a hand gesture. Marco did. "You do know that when you joined our crew you became a son to Pops and a brother to the rest of the crew, right?"

Yes, Ace knew that. Knew that long before he joined the crew. Before he even met them. Everyone did. It was well known how the crew of the man titled 'The Strongest Man in the World' functioned like family with father-child relationships between the captain and the crew as well as sibling relationships between the crew themselves.

Ace just didn't understand what this had to do with being called in here or what was wrong. Was he a bad son? It wasn't like he had any practice with that. He wasn't really sure what exactly a normal father-son relationship would be. Though he guesses this wouldn't exactly be considered normal. They were pirates and the father in this scenario was the Edward Whitebeard Newgate.

Maybe he was a bad brother? He'd like to say he was a good one. He has two of his own after all. Or had. Sabo was dead. Even now, seven years after it happened, it still hurt to even think about.

Sabo and Luffy seemed to like him well enough as an older brother. But Luffy is also way too trusting and naive and Sabo was from an abusive fucking family so that doesn't exactly set a high bar.

Ugh, enough of this spiral! He's in the middle of a conversation. And he won't know what they mean until he answers.

"Yeah?" Ace replied, all those thoughts taking course in only a couple of seconds. "Am I...bad at it?"

"No, no, no!" Thatch exclaimed. "Nothing like that. You've been a great son-" Whitebeard nodded, smiling fondly. "And mostly a great brother. Just, uh-"

"Mostly?"

"What this ineloquent and inarticulate imbecile is trying to say-" Izou interrupted, giving Thatch the stink eye, who grinned back sheepishly in response. "-is that you've been a great brother to the ones you've actually attempted to be a brother to. You've officially joined us for a little under two weeks now. And the only people you ever talk to are Pops, us Commanders, two nurses – Metra and Lola –and your old crew. There are many more members that you haven't even attempted to talk to."

Izou turned to Thatch. "There. Now that wasn't so hard now, was it?"

Izou turned back to Ace. "And speaking of your old crew, we already talked to them about this. They just left minutes before you arrived. We were going to talk to all of you at the same time but you weren't in your room and we couldn't find you. Besides, while you were still trying to kill Pops, your crew was making friends so they aren't as hopeless as you. They've already gotten close with their Division as well. At least the ones who've already gotten stationed."

Ace blinked even as relief poured into him that they didn't hate him.

He tried to think about where his crew – old crew, his old crew, that was still hard to remember, he'd wanted to be a Captain ever since he was a child – told him where they were being put.

Ace himself was in the Second Division, which was a little strange seeing as it doesn't have a Division Commander. He wondered when, if ever seeing how many years he's heard it's been empty, a new Second Division Commander would come along.

Deuce was in the First Division with Marco, both a fighting and healing division. Kotatsu was in Eleventh Division after Haruta begged Whitebeard for the large lynx to be with him. Wallace was with his fellow Fishman Namur in the Eighth Division. He was pretty sure Finamore and Banshee were with Thatch in the Fourth Division.

The rest of them, the other fourteen, haven't gotten stationed yet. Or at least haven't told him about it. The Commanders were still deciding where everyone fits and goes. It was only a few days ago he himself got stationed in the first place.

The relief faded away – at least mostly, he was still relieved they weren't going to kick him out – when he realized where exactly this was going. "You need to start talking and interacting with other people. There are more then just us and a couple nurses."

"I-" Ace stared.

When it became clear Ace wasn't going to say anything else, Izou continued. "This is a family crew. You need to at least attempt to be family with everyone."

"Everyone?!"

"Yes, everyone."

Marco re-entered the conversation. "Though you should of course start small, yoi. Maybe with your own Division. Or the nurses. Or whoever you'd like. Then work yourself up from that until you get to know the whole crew, yoi."

"You-" Ace sputtered, stepping forward to stand right in front of him. "You do realize how many people are on this ship, right?"

"I'm the First Division Commander. Of course I do, yoi." Marco appeared completely unphased by Ace practically getting in his face, blue eyes half lidded as always, face calm.

"We know that becoming a member of a large-" Ace glared. Because wasn't that the understatement of the century. Marco ignored him. "-crew isn't easy, yoi." Ace's glare increased because, again, understatement of the fucking century. "Creating and building ties with so many other people is an arduous task. But people have done it before, yoi. You can as well, yoi."

Ace glared.

"You just need to interact with more people. More crewmembers. Your new family." Jiru said. "Engage in group activities. Talk with other people. Make friends."

"How many people even are there?!"

"And-" Marco heightened his voice after being interrupted again. "-that's not to mention all the subordinate crews, both their captain and their members, or the allies-"

"I thought the subordinate crews were the allies!"

Marco glared at him for being interrupted yet again. "They are, yoi. But we have two different types of allies. The subordinate crews, whose captains and some of their members used to be an actual part of our crew before setting off on their own, and are still Pops children, and the normal allies, who are more friends and don't have a father-child relationship with Pops or a sibling relationship with the rest of us, yoi."

Kingdew started talking for the first time since Ace arrived. "There's also all the places under our protection. You should probably know at least a few of the people in each place. But that's in the future."

Ace though then sighed. "How many?"

"Excuse me?"

"How many people are on the Moby Dick?" Ace would deal with the subordinates and allies and everything else after.

"One thousand six hundred and seventeen men." Blamenco smiled as he said.

"You have got to be joking with me!"

"Nope." Blamenco popped the P slightly. "Not joking."

"It's impossible!"

"What? Too hard for the mighty Ace?" Haruta teased. "I'd have thought someone who spent months trying to kill Pops would be stronger and more up for a challenge."

"Many before you have said that as well." Whitebeard stated. "And they've all succeeded. Some took longer then others and it takes some getting used to but in the end they managed."

"Still..." Ace crossed his arms loosely over his chest, left foot fidgeting.

"At least try, okay?" Whitebeard smiled down at him. "That's all you have to do. And if you can't, that's completely fine."

"...Fine."

"Now do you want some information on the crew to get you started?" Vista asked.

"Yes...please."

Vista smiled. "There are several races – or as some people or places call them, tribes – among us. Like Fishmen, Longlimbs, and so on. Though humans are by far the most. You had a Fishman in your crew. Wallace, right? Most of the Fishmen are in the Eighth Division with Namur but there are a few in other divisions."

"There are no little kids in the crew as Pops doesn't allow anyone under teenage years to join. At least not officially." Jozu added.

"Officially?" Ace asked.

"Yeah." Rakuyo interjected. "Those kids are just the kids of our crewmates. Most of them were even born after their parent or parents became Whitebeard Pirat-"

"Parents? Like two Whitebeard Pirates having kids together? Even if you aren't actually related aren't you all like siblings or something?" Ace made a face. Him, Luffy, and Sabo weren't biological brothers either but he couldn't imagine ever being with them like that.

"Yes, but in such a large crew it's unavoidable for at least some people to fall in love, yoi. It was awkward the first few times but it's good now." Marco shrugged. "None of these kids actually have the Moby Dick, or any of the other ships, as their permanent residence either, yoi. They all live on the islands or places under our protection. But every now and then, when we aren't in active violence with another group and we deem it a safe time, we allow some of them on the Moby Dick, as a vacation of sorts. But the majority of the time there aren't any kids on board. Understand, yoi?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I used to think you had kids join your crew." Ace's crew always said he was amazing with kids, proven during his journey when he met many that took a liking to him and wanted to join his crew. He had always said no, he didn't let little kids join his crew, but said if they still wanted to join when they were older then he'd let them.

Though that's now no longer possible. He isn't a Captain anymore.

"What made you think that?" Blenheim asked.

"Well, for one, I thought Haruta was a kid-"

Haruta looked up, offended. "Hey!"

"-playing dress-up-"

Haruta gasped. "Dress up?! I'll have you know I wear beautiful mature and adult clothing, thank you very much!"

"-when I first saw him but then I found out he was older then me at ninete-"

"I'm almost twenty!"

"-en. To be completely honest I thought he was like twelve or something."

"You thought I wasn't even a teenager?!"

"Now, as I was saying,-" Kingdew interjected, voice raised to stop a potential fight. "-we don't have kids in our crew and our current youngest member is you at seventeen."

Ace recalled how surprised they seemed when they found out his age at the beginning of his second month trying to kill Whitebeard. Haruta had jumped around, saying how happy he was to not be the youngest boy anymore. "Another girl – Sonya – is eighteen and was the youngest before you. She's still the youngest girl now. Pops is the oldest on the ship. He's currently sixty-nine."

Ace bit his lip. So the ages of everyone other then him are between eighteen to sixty-nine. "Is that all?"

"That's about it. And speaking of which, I should be heading to the kitchen. Breakfast isn't going to cook itself. It's already mostly done but I still have to add some finishing touches. Guess what I'm making." Before Ace could even open his mouth, Thatch continued. "You don't have to guess, it's ham, egg and cheese breakfast quesadillas and chicken with a side of blueberries, raspberries, and clementines. Nice, right?"

"Sounds delicious!" Ace complimented even as Izou perked up with an unpleasant expression. "How much are there going to be?"

"The quesadillas are going to be on the larger side. These are hungry pirates, after all. Many of the foods I make are on the large side. Anyway, the chicken are a little smaller then your palm and are on the flat side. The set serving for the quesadillas and the chicken are five each. But you can always have more or seconds. There are going to be about twenty blueberries and raspberries each. The clementines are going to be already pealed. Two for each. Of course for people like Pops that wouldn't be nearly enough so the bigger people or species who need it get more."

Ace smiled. While that was a big breakfast for many people it still wouldn't be nearly enough for him. But he doesn't want to impose and say he eats enough for twenty normal people. Guess he's just going to have to go hungry again.

Izou marched up to Thatch. "Didn't you promise you're making ganmodoki for breakfast today?"

"Huh? Oh, shit. Sorry, Izou, I forgot. I know that that's your favorite food and alll and that I've been promising it for a while but can yo-" Izou glared. "Or I can just make a separate serving for you! No problem!"

Many of the people in the room laughed as the two bickered, meeting officially ended. While heading out the door, many of them gave him reassurances, telling him he'd do fine.

Whitebeard stopped at the door. "Remembering names and putting them to faces will always take time, even without putting interests and personalities along with them, and it's only expected that you need time but I'm sure that with that time you'll do great. I believe in you, Son."

Whitebeard turned to leave. Okay, no pressure. Ace knew Whitebeard said that to calm him down and cheer him on but unfortunately it was doing the exact opposite. Now, Ace was worried about disappointing him when he ultimately fails.

He sighed.

Ace thought back to all the things they'd told him about the crew. One of the things was confusing him a little.

"Hey-"

Ace stopped, hand partially outstretched, when he saw everyone had already left. Well, not everyone. Haruta was still there, heading towards the door. Bur it was pretty clear from the way he'd glared and – regardless of what he'd later admit – pouted during the end of the meeting that he was still angry at finding out Ace had thought he was a little kid.

Well, he was the only one still there and the others were rushing to do their own jobs so they were probably busy. Ace sighed again.

"Haruta." Haruta headed out the door.

"Haruta." Haruta ignored him.

"Haruta, I have a question." Haruta continued walking.

"Come on. Are you still mad I thought you were a kid?"

"Hmpt!"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Haruta stopped abruptly. Ace's head hit the wall as he stumbled to not hit his back. "You didn't hurt my feelings."

Ace rubbed his head, dubiously asking. "Really?"

"Of course. I'm just worried of having such an idiot he thought I was a kid as a brother. You're going to make me worry about you as an older brother. And speaking of which, I'm older so why are you taller?! Get shorter!"

Ace blinked. "I can't control my height."

"You can try!"

"No, I can't."

"How do you know if you haven't tried?"

"I just know." Haruta raised an eyebrow. "It's common sense, okay!"

"Common sense? Can't believe the person who tried killing Pops for so long is talking to me about common sense! And just because I'm short doesn't mean I'm a kid. Besides, don't act like you're so much taller then me! I reach your chin!"

"Look, I'm not saying that. Finamore, my crewmate, for example, is shorter then you but he looks like an adult." Ace gestured around awkwardly. "The height had a little to do with it but you yourself just look like a kid."

"You- Hmph!" Haruta punched Ace's stomach before stomping away. Ace winced.

It didn't really hurt – Haruta clearly wasn't actually trying to hurt him – but Ace just had to say that, huh? Luffy was supposed to be the one who couldn't keep his big mouth shut, not him. "I don't want to see you for the rest of the day!"

"I'm sorry, – Hey! – can you please just answer my question? The rest are busy and I don't want to bother them. Please? When Blamenco said one thousand six hundred and seventeen men were on the Moby Dick, did he mean only the men or all the people on board? Like, are the nurses and woman apart of that? Please tell me they are-Hey, wait! Don't just walk away! I'm sorry, okay! Answer me already!"