"Hey, Biz. Have you seen Ami at all today?"

Sabo approached his crewmate outside the ship.

"No, I haven't."

"The two of us were supposed to scavenge the palace offices today looking for clues. I've been trying to call her all day but she won't pick up. I'm getting a little worried."

"You think she might be in trouble?"

They all knew better than anyone that she could handle herself. So when there was concern, it meant something.

"I don't know. But she never disappears without a word like this."

"I'll let the others know," Biz said with urgency. "We'll all split up and search the town."

Of all people in town who might've had something to do with this, Sabo had a pretty good idea of who to ask.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Didit was relaxing on the living room couch with a cup of coffee when Sabo came storming in. He snatched the mug from her hand and threw it on the floor.

"Sabo! What on earth-"

"Spill it, 'Mother.' Where's Ami? What did you guys do?"

"Why, I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb!" he yelled impatiently. "Tell me what you did!"

"Calm yourself, boy," Outlook said from behind as he entered the room. "Where is all of this coming from?"

"As if you don't know!"

"I'm not psychic. Enlighten me."

"I know you hate us but we had an alliance! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! I'll ask one more time: where is Ami?! Tell me, or I won't hesitate to fight you."

"No need," a female voice said above them.

They looked towards the staircase and saw Ami coming down, wearing a tank top and dirty jeans, looking a bit raggedy from being up all night.

Next to her stood a scruffy-looking man who clearly hadn't bathed in a long time.

"Ames!" Sabo exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"YOU!" Didit screamed. "What is Grey Terminal scum like that doing in my house? Why would you associate with a… a homeless man?!"

"Chill out, prissy Polly," Ami retorted. "And you might wanna turn your attention to the real scum: your husband."

Outlook's eyes widened in anger.

"I warned you not to cross me," he said. "You know what I'm capable of doing."

"Oh, but don't you need this to do so?"

She pulled out a gold transponder snail.

"What in the name of- how did you get that?!"

Ami motioned to the man at her side. "Yeah, see, this guy is Ren. You know, one of the guys you had fired from office back in the day and banished to Grey Terminal for suspecting you of shady business? He's my buddy now. And as it would turn out, he's a former transponder engineer who knows how to permanently disable them. You remember that, don't you?"

"You didn't…"

"Oh, yes I did. Well, he did. We've been investigating you and going through your stuff since the day I got here. And you know what's cool? When we broke into your safe to get the snail out, we found some interesting stuff."

"Shut your mouth. Shut up right now or else-"

Sabo turned to his father. "What's all this about?"

Ami pulled out some documents and tossed them on the coffee table. "See these? Correspondences with government officials. Written documentation of bribery to bring the old nobility systems back and to make you a Celestial Dragon. It wasn't your idiot son Stelly. It was you. Oh, and don't worry, we've made copies. It won't matter if you destroy these or not."

Sabo turned back to the man with fury in his eyes. "It was you this whole time? Just when I thought you people couldn't get any worse."

Didit ran to her husband's side and clung to him. She obviously was in on the whole thing.

"You insolent brat! Disgusting excuse for royalty! You'll pay for this!" Outlook shouted.

Ami looked him straight in the eyes and her voice turned sinister.

"You thought you could trap and outsmart me? No. You know why? Because I don't give a damn about appearances. I'm always one step ahead of people like you."

She intentionally flashed her scarlet eyes at them for a second.

"How uncivilized!" Didit exclaimed. "You are a terrible princess!"

"Yeah, you're probably right. But I do make a pretty good PI," Ami said sarcastically, tossing the now-broken transponder snail to Outlook.

"Why did you have that in the first place?" Sabo angrily asked him.

"Oh, ya know, to send a buster call to Suna as a way to threaten me," Ami cut in.

"I could kill you!" Sabo yelled at his father, instinctively reaching for his pipe before thinking better of it.

"It's okay, babe," Ami said as she conjured a chain and bound the two criminals with it. "We'll just take them to Dragon and let him deal with them."

"Also," she continued, "Since you two will be gone, Ren gets your house. Case closed."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

When the madness settled down and the two were locked up on the ship, Sabo and Ami finally had a moment alone.

"Hey, I'm really sorry for disappearing on you like that and not telling you the plan," she said. "It took days to get that safe open and I wanted to confirm my suspicion before they caught onto me and-"

Sabo took her hands. "I understand. You did what you had to do. But I really wish you'd at least left a note. I was worried about you."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll try to be less reckless. Tch, the irony… me being the reckless one this time."

That got a giggle out of him.

"So… are we okay?"

"Of course we're okay, since you're okay," he said, kissing her. "You never fail to amaze me."

"And uh… the whole thing with your parents?"

"I'm fine, babe, I promise. Besides, I know Dragon has been wanting to meet them for a long time…"

A/N: Jade West is obvs a big inspiration for this character. A couple paraphrased quotes are used throughout these fics bc she's queen

Anyways. I'll probably start a drabble collection next because I can't stop. Send help-