HOLAA913: *heart emoji*

WhiteyWolf26: I was kind of irritated myself when writing Teach as a good guy, lol. But for the story I needed to be vigilant!

"ACE! ACE!" Thatch screamed, running down the hall to the library where Ace had been carried after a sleep attack. He slammed the double doors open, freaking out poor Stefan who was napping on the carpet at Ace's feet. It freaked Ace out as well, who jolted awake at the sharp and sudden noise.

Ace rubbed down his face. "What, Thatch?" he asked tiredly.

"Look, look! They finally noticed!" Thatch said excitedly and hurried over, thrusting the newspaper in his face. Ace took it with a huff before his face brightened. Finally, an article and photo was released of him being on the Whitebeard's crew.

The grainy photo showed mostly his back with a profile visible, showing it was indeed Ace. Plus, the hat and flaming arm might have been obvious it was him. Finally, the world knew he was a Whiteebard. He looked at the title and not the photo. "Rookie Firefist Ace Joins Whitebeard Pirates, Adding Another Threatening Figure to the Yonko Crew." Ace sat proudly.

"Hear that, Thatch? I'm a threatening figure," he said with a grin. "Finally acknowledged! Man, Gramps is gonna be so pissed!" Ace said with a laugh. He'd told thatch about Garp before, so the chef knew what he meant.

Thatch laughed and patted him on the back. "We're stopping at the island tomorrow, finally, to restock. Any bad feelings about it? Please, say no, we can't make it another two weeks," Thatch said, sounding begging. Ace replied that he hadn't yet. "God, I hope there's nothing wrong."

Ace leaned against the couch, looking at the newspaper with a satisfied smile on. "Betcha some people are gonna be mad," Ace said, though he was still smiling. He would be on a high after this for a while probably. Thatch flopped down on the couch next to him.

He replied, "Probably. 'Perfect Ace' strikes again. You know, I never thought people would be mad at someone for being a good person. Like, regular people getting mad about that. You're the opposite of an a-hole. You'd think people would like that! Hmph, it's ridiculous," Thatch grumbled.

After Ace had put out the island fire, some grew angry with the positive attention he often got for various reasons. The commanders tried to stomp out the sparks, but they couldn't monitor every person under them. Ace had gotten used to it by now, even if it was still irritating. He'd been on the crew for over two months, even though it still felt like he'd been there for years.

They were going to have the fall party once they resupply, finally. And then Ace could have the cherry pie eating competition with Teach. He'd moved on from Teach's heartless words about the burning island, since he said that Ace was a good guy for saving so many people. Maybe Ace had just read him wrong in that moment.

"Thatch, do you think everyone plays favorites with me?" Ace wondered. "Not including you, since you're obvious."

Thatch looked up. "Hmmm, I don't think so. With me, yeah, but with the others, we have plenty of close brothers who aren't fellow commanders. Atmos's closest brother isn't a commander, and some of the others are like that, as well. I think Marco has a soft spot for you, but for reasons like mine."

Ace pulled his legs up to sit cross legged on the couch, boots off so he didn't walk on the carpet. He patted the couch for Stefan to come, who wandered over. He walked up the little stack of books to the couch since they tried to keep him from jumping as much as possible. He was seventeen now. Old little guy.

"Is that wrong? Some people complain, I can hear them. I don't feel like I'm taking advantage of your affections. Marco let me have some privileges but said he'd do that for any brother who needed it," Ace said.

"I mean, I don't think it's wrong. I think people are just saying that because they don't like that you have positive attention by some of the commanders. Those who complain don't try to be besties with us commanders, so why are they complaining about it?" Thatch wondered. Ace shrugged. He was tired of complaints by people he'd never talked to before. He felt almost controversial on the crew. He hated when someone would say "Ace is too perfect".

Ace is most definitely not perfect. He suffers from whatever is wrong with his head. He suffers from anxiety and chronic insecurity. He was missing two years of his life. Just because he had talents and was a nice person didn't make him perfect. Nobody but Marco and Thatch knew about the full extent of his memory troubles.

They didn't know he'd already suffered from insecurity and fear over the news of him being Roger's son ever got out. Even after Pops told him about Roger, that he wasn't a "bad" guy, his name still haunted Ace, always looming over him, even if it wasn't noticeable much sometimes. He was scared of anyone on the crew knowing. Pops knew, but that was it. Well, Deuce did as well. Still, it was scary.

"I wish people would stop calling me perfect. I'm far from perfect. It's not like I want everyone to know how broken and messed up I am, but acting like I'm some awesome person who can do anything just puts a bad taste in my mouth," Ace said in annoyance.

Thatch frowned. "You're not broken, Ace." The teen looked to Thatch with his eyebrows raised.

"Don't lie, Thatch. There's so much wrong with me," Ace replied, leaning back further into the plush couch. Stefan crawled into his lap. Thatch was looking at him sadly. He changed the subject, which Ace was glad of, and changed it to christmas plans. Ace didn't remember ever having a christmas, so he was not really informed on the customs or what went on. What they did to celebrate.

"So, what do you want for christmas?"

"My missing memories." Thatch frowned at him and Ace laughed. "I don't know. I've never really been given gifts. I mean, Luffy gave me my stupid hat, but that was a going away gift. We never did anything like christmas. And if I did it as a pirate, then I don't remember."

Thatch grinned. "You're first christmas! We'll make it perfect, I promise!" he swore, and then started muttering about decorations and food and music. Ace didn't know what to expect, but looked forward to it, to a new experience. He just hoped it would be a surprise and he wouldn't know anything that would happen. It wouldn't be a useful vision to know how the night went or what gift he got.

He found himself smiling, looking forward to experiencing a new holiday. He knew about birthdays and New Years, but nothing else. He relaxed as Thatch babbled about meal plans, desserts and decorations, gushing to Ace about what the ship looked like when it was all decked out in decorations. He looked forward to helping decorate, even if he didn't understand the point of holly and mistletoe over other plants.

-x-

"We're here! On land, finally!" Haruta cried as he collapsed to his hands and knees on the dock. "Oh, I've missed you!" he cried, literal tears. Thatch joined in on it and soon both of them were sobbing about missing land. Ace was snickering from the side of the ship, happy to be docked somewhere, too, other than an island that wasn't on fire.

Maybe he could map this island, too! Not today, today he wanted to spend his allotted money. He was about to jump off of the ship before pausing. He sighed and pulled at his hair when he got the bad feeling, but it was clearcut.

He pulled on Marco's sleeve, and said in a hush, "I think there's a marine ambush here. I don't know the details." Marco nodded seriously and made an announcement.

"Everyone, there may not be a marine base on this island, but there have been ambushes here often. Be careful and stay aware of your surroundings," he called, everyone nodding before jumping off of the ship and running to the island, barely sidestepping the crying commanders, who suspiciously quickly collected themselves.

"Onward, adventure!" Thatch bellowed, holding his arm up and running to the island from the long dock. It was a stampede of pirates, and Ace was glad he waited to be the last one. Ace had barely gone out of ear shot when Pops asked how Marco knew about ambushes. He wanted to stay to listen, but didn't and instead walked onto the island, unlike his other brothers. He was not interested in brothels or alcohol, so he leisurely walked around, looking at the sights with a content expression on.

"U-Um, excuse me?" he heard a girl's voice say behind him. He turned around and asked what she wanted. He didn't mean to sound rude, but it came across that way. "Do you know your way around here? I think I'm lost." She was just a little kid, looking frightened.

Ace awkwardly said he didn't live on this island. "I'm just visiting, I don't know where I'm going or where anything is," he said honestly. She frowned and looked at her feet. "Where were you trying to go?" he asked, not liking seeing her start to cry. He remembered that he'd made friends with a little girl at Wano, too. Maybe he had an unknown soft spot for kids.

"The fish market. I've never been to that part of town," she said quietly. Ace wanted to ask how she'd gotten lost all the way on this part of the island, but didn't. He looked around and bit his lip. He was a Whitebeard pirate, clearly on his back, so would he be seen as harming her if he helped? Well, he'd be fine.

"How about we head there together?" Ace offered with a smile. She grinned and nodded, holding her otter backpack in her arms. Ace nodded and the two headed into town. Ace had no idea where he was going, just tried to find the smell of fish. Hopefully his senses were as good as they were back on Dawn Island.

A few of his brothers saw him and gave him questioning looks. He gave them uncertain shrugs, not knowing what he was doing. He got them stuck at dead ends four times before she asked, "Mister, do you know what you're doing?"

Ace snorted, and said, "Not really. I don't know where the fish market is, it's a big town. I'm just keeping you safe if there are any bad guys here." She asked why there would be bad guys.

"Like, pirates?! Bad pirates?!" she asked in a panic. Ace's eyebrows raised and he nodded.

"We definitely don't want bad pirates to bother us," he said sternly, nodding along with his words. Man, if anyone found out about this, they'd totally make fun of him. He was glad she didn't see the mark on his back, if she would even recognize the tattoo. Though it was a skull and crossbones. Pretty pirate-ish. Anyone should know that. "How old are you?"

"I'm six," she said. Ace nodded, and followed his nose as he caught the scent of fish. It smelled terrible. Raw fish was horrid while grilled fish smelled delicious. God, Thatch and the other cooks had to deal with this smell while cooking? He wanted to plug his nose but didn't.

"Well, we're at the fish market," Ace said, stopping in front of the first grouping of stands. "Were you supposed to meet someone here?" he wondered. She nodded, saying she was looking for her mom. "What's she look like?"

The girl (whose name he still didn't know) said her mom was tall and with long red hair. That she worked here. Again, Ace wondered how the hell she'd gotten lost on the opposite side of town. Who the fuck was supervising her? "Ok, let's look for her," Ace said, and he looked around for the woman. She was easy enough to find, and Ace crouched down in front of the girl.

"That her over there?" he asked, pointing through the crowd. She gasped and ran to her mom, who shouted her name and picked her up. Ace adjusted his hat and stood up, a satisfied smile on, and walked away. He waved his hand up when he heard the shout of "Thank you!"

Ace was in a pretty good mood for the rest of his exploration of the town. He was drawn to a cheap jewelry shop, seeing a beaded necklace pretty much identical to the one on his hat. He walked in and bought it, paying way too much money for it, before putting it around his neck.

Just from buying that, he was out of money. 50,000 berries sounded like a lot, but it was really enough to pay for expensive sake or a full course meal. Or an overpriced necklace, whatever floats your boat. When he was on his way back to the ship after a few hours of just hanging out in a tree in the park, he came upon the clear remnants of an ambush, dead marines all over the place.

Ace poked one with his toe, seeing he was clearly dead, not just unconscious. He was glad if his warning had helped anyone out, and walked back along the long dock to the ship, jumping up onto it. He found Pops in his chair, being checked by the nurses. Sometimes Ace felt bad for them, having to deal with Pops' stubborn pride.

Marco landed in front of him, addressing Pops, "The rest ran, but I got them. There shouldn't be any marines left, and if they are, there's no way they'd attack in such a small number." Pops said that was good, and Marco turned to Ace, clapping his shoulder and thanking him for the warning in an undertone that the others couldn't hear. "How'd your outing go? Got a necklace?"

Ace nodded, and told him about how he helped a lost girl find her mom before buying the necklace since it matched the one around his hat. "So when does the christmas stuff happen?" Ace asked. Marco had chuckled when he heard Ace helped a lost child.

"We'll start decking out tomorrow. Today's just an outing for everyone. You can make the map after everything is in place," Marco replied. Ace's stomach rumbled, and he said he would go get something to eat. "Better not step into Thatch's kitchen."

Ace grinned. "You know Thatch can't get mad at me," and headed to the kitchen to eat some leftover pasta from two nights ago, which was still fine to eat. He stuffed his face, and when he heard Thatch's loud voice in the hallway coming towards the kitchen, Ace stuffed everything in his mouth, too full that he almost choked, but then stuck the bowl in the sink under another bowl to not be noticeable.

He turned around and hurried away, only to stop when his name was called. "Ace? What is this bowl doing in the sink?" he asked in a sweet voice.

"I was doing the dishes for you," Ace lied smoothly, even though it made no sense.

"Hmm, then why is this not washed out? And if you were doing the dishes, you did a shit job," Thatch replied, totally knowing Ace had gotten something from the fridge.

Ace put a hand to his chest in mock hurt. "How rude. I worked hard, you know," he said with a deep frown. Thatch snorted and said, "Yeah, okay, I totally believe you."

"Well, that's good! See you later!" he said, and ran from the room. He ran straight into Teach, who was in a very bad mood. "Whoa, what's wrong, Teach?" Ace asked, shocked by the extreme anger and grumpiness on Teach's face. He looked away, eyes narrowing.

"Got my hopes up about something that didn't pan out. Well, see you later, Ace," he grumbled. Ace watched him stomp away, back hunched over. Whatever he got his hopes up for really made him upset. Ace wondered what would cause that, since he was usually really laid back. Well, he'd leave Teach alone for now. Looked like the cherry pie eating contest wouldn't be happening that night.

Ace wouldn't stop hearing about pirates gushing about christmas, and he hoped he enjoyed it like others expected him to. He didn't want to have to fake, but he also didn't want to disappoint them when they were all so excited for it.

When Ace went to bed, he had a headache, but not from seeing anything. Just a headache, even if he didn't know the reason. At first he was afraid he'd have a painful vision, but he fell asleep just fine, and had remembered to lock the door so he didn't wander out of his room.

-x-

"Hey! What are you doing?! This is my property!" an old man with a hunched back shouted at Ace as he stood at the peak of part of the island. He did know he was trespassing, but had just hoped nobody would notice, since the home to whoever owned this property was far from where he needed to be.

"I'm making a map and need to measure all of the peaks. I've done nothing to your crops," Ace replied honestly, putting his notes in his backpack. He was done there, and didn't want to get in a tiff with some random guy.

"Still, this is my land! I should report you!" he shouted, poking his cane in Ace's direction. Ace really doubted reporting a pirate would do anything good for him. So Ace just said, "Not happening," and turned around to walk away, showing off his tattoo, which he heard the guy freak about.

There were no marine bases here, so the guy couldn't call them on Ace. Going on islands without bases were nice because he knew he could mostly trust that he wouldn't be interrupted. He had the shores to measure next, and was heading down to the cliffs and then to the beach. He wasn't involved in the decorating today, as they all wanted it to be a surprise for him.

Everyone was really excited for Ace's first christmas, including the former Spades since Ace didn't remember their times celebrating the holiday for two years. So, Ace didn't know what to expect besides decorations, food and presents. They did something called "secret santa" where each person buys one gift for another.

Usually nobody bought one for their close friends, wanting to branch off more and think outside of the box. It was plenty easy to get gifts for close brothers/friends, but getting one for someone else required them to talk to you and give hints. Ace thought it was a good idea. He had someone from the third division.

He had hinted for anything art related, since he liked to draw in his spare time, so Ace was going to buy him a journal and a nice pen. When he'd asked what Ace wanted, Ace said the same. Having a notebook or sketchbook of some sort might help him practice drawing certain things on his maps. Plus, he had nothing else he wanted, so that was easier than trying to come up with something.

So, he spent the day on the island mapping before quickly hitting up an art store and buying a nice journal and pen with quality ink with his present money, which they were all allotted the same amount of money.

Nearing dinner was when he headed back to the ship and boarded it to see the door open to the inside, since it was nice outside and getting some fresh air inside would be nice. There was rainbow glowing coming from inside, and he entered to see fairy lights, rainbow colored, taped to the ceiling, making the room glow a bright array of colors. As he walked in further, he saw wreaths and decorations on door knobs. There were some plastic ornaments hanging from the ceiling where there weren't lights. He smiled, looking around.

When he entered the galley, he saw nobody was eating, and instead there were massive rolls of wrapping paper that pirates were working on to wrap. Ace looked at his watermelon bag that held his presents and brought them to his room to wrap when there was more room and left the mapping supplies in the office. Mine. He ignored it like he usually did.

The voice in his head liked to insist that this was his office. And when he walked past the second division bedroom to get to Marco's to write on his paper, whose list was longer than before by now, he kept hearing that that was his bedroom, but had refrained from opening it and looking or going inside.

Since the galley was busy at the moment, he headed to the crowsnest since the weather was so nice. He watched the island from high above, seeing the fish market in the distance. He wondered if the girl got lost a lot and why she had no damn supervisor to look after her, a six year old.

Haruta came out to get Ace for dinner, saying things were wrapped up, adding "no pun intended". Ace said okay and jumped down from the crowsnest. "Man, I wish I could do that without breaking my legs." Ace chuckled, saying it didn't hurt, but wasn't exactly comfortable. They walked inside and Ace saw that all of the wrapped presents, which varied in quality, were in the corner of the room, taking up most of the far wall.

"How long does it take to open presents?" Ace wondered.

"Not long when everyone does it at the same time. I can't believe I got Thatch. He already has every cooking thing on the planet!" Haruta complained dramatically. "But I got him something," he added mischievously. Ace wondered what it was.

Ace sat with Deuce that night, wondering what he'd gotten for his present. "What did you get for your guy?"

Deuce swallowed his food before saying, "A kit for cleaning the hilt of his sword. Everyone has cleaner for the blade, but his hilt is pretty dirty. What did you get?" Ace told him about his gifts, saying they weren't too original but it was what his guy hinted for. They then got on the topic of Ace's mapping process.

He told him about running into the man after trespassing on his land. "He got scared once he saw the mark," Ace commented. Deuce and the other former Spades had marks, but none were very obvious besides Deuce's, whose was on his shoulder, the same one Ace had his tribute tattoo on.

After dinner was cleaned up, those who hadn't wrapped their presents yet did their wrapping under clusters of holly and fairy lights, lighting up the room with a colorful hue, even if the regular lights were on. There were so many massive extension cords in the plugs so they could all be lit at the same time.

When Ace went to put his gifts in the pile of presents, he noticed they were in sections, and he put his in the third division section so they were easy to get everyone instead of digging through over 1000 gifts. That would take forever. Ace was getting really excited about it, and decided to start his map tomorrow since he would probably end up getting tired and being unable to finish it that night.

The next morning, Ace ate some breakfast before going to the office and starting on his map. He was no longer on autopilot, and knew what he was doing. He wished he had gone through the process of learning for real, since he would have been able to see the difference between his first maps and now his better ones.

Stefan ran in, and Ace almost spilled ink on his map when he jumped against Ace's calves. He put the pen down and crouched to ruffle the dog's head. "What'cha doin' here, Stefan?" Ace wondered, and the dog ran to the doorway, barking to get his attention. Ace stood and followed him out, Stefan going slower now. He led Ace to Pops' room and stared at the closed door.

Ace walked to it and opened it just a crack. "There you go, boy," he said as the dog ran in. He barely saw him crawl into a comfortable looking dog bed. Ace saw the book they used to keep the door open and reached inside to get it and put it in place. He smiled at the dog sleeping already, snoring loudly.

He went back to his map to finish it up. It had been a couple hours since he'd started. He really liked the peace and quiet he got in there, even if he sometimes heard other commanders working in their own offices with the doors open, the sounds of pens scratching paper, or adjusting chairs.

Some grumbled often, especially Namur and Atmos. Nobody liked doing paperwork, but they had to. After he finished his map, he put the supplies in their places and blew on the ink to dry it. He waited for it to dry, which happened quickly as they were just lines and no large pools of it. He smiled at it and rolled it up before heading to the navigation room.

Nobody was there, thankfully, and he opened the New World map catalogue and looked for this island to compare. His was a bit more detailed, but looked correct. He didn't know why master Zeke thought the Whitebeards had shit navigators and mapmakers. Had he ever seen any of the maps before? He wondered if the guy had met the crew before. Marco didn't recognize the name, so Ace wasn't too confident that was what had happened.

He pulled out some of his maps from the cubby, the ones that weren't needed by the crew, and took them to his room after swiping a roll of tape from one of the rooms that held papers, pens, ink, rulers, tape measures, etc.

When Ace got to his room, he taped his maps to the walls and smiled at them. The sea charts were in also now on the wall, since nobody needed them and they were just fun for Ace to make. He felt his room had more personality. It had just been empty before. Marco's room had been more personal, with books and little decorations on the shelves. Plus, he had photos in frames of family.

Ace hadn't been able to not look, seeing him when he was a teen with a much smaller crew than it was now. He looked so goofy and fun. Ace wondered when he got "boring". Well, he was a lot older. Don't people get more mature as they age? Dadan and Garp sure didn't seem that way. He looked away from his maps and left the room, returning the objects he'd used to put them up to their rightful places.

He went to the bathroom before going to bed, locking the door behind him. He wished he could make more maps, but he was unable to conjure past land specifications he'd need to make a map when he was conscious. Unconscious was a different tale.

But, when he woke up, he was more shocked than he had been in weeks. He put his face in his hands and growled. He turned on the light fully and saw what he'd done to the floor. It wasn't even neat! It was smeared and messy! Why would he try to draw on the floor!? Would he get in trouble? He hoped not, he hadn't done it on purpose.