Her hair is dark.
Dark and very soft, which he knows because he's made a bad habit of touching it. Even at the start. Valentine - whose dark eyes never provided even the slightest hint to what she was thinking - would just look at him, bratty and scowly with all his freckles and skinned knees, the entire monstrous picture of him, and pensively accept him tugging on the wayward lock of her long hair as if the fundamental state change it implied was his right. Like he had any right to it at all.
Her hair was dark. Except when the light hit it.
In the sunlight coming through the trees, he saw the color in the whirlwind of sleek black fanning out behind her. Green, exactly like Makino's (though he hadn't even known the kind face of the woman it came from at the time), deeply green as Dadan's empty bottles of rum strewn around the kitchen counter where she somehow thought he still couldn't reach. Like cloudy colored glass and old moss, and even that - his first, private, fleeting thought on the matter, one of the many to follow - was beautiful.
And then it caught the light and he saw the blue.
Sleek and glossy like the rooster's tails he remembers seeing in the village when he was small enough to still be allowed there, just chasing the green, the smooth transition of color at another angle-
And then the red, following it, the startling ripple-shine of vivid rust as she ducked one of Luffy's godawful punches - slow as she was, even she could do that - and seven hells, how many colors did this girl have in her hair?
The answer ended up depending on the situation.
Wet from the rain or the bath, glimpses snuck from surreptitious glances caught from the corner of his eyes, it was endless black, a cascade of ink far longer than it had any rights to be in the jungle. Ace considered his hair long, for god's sake, and it was only to his jaw! But hers reached the middle of her back, meticulously cut in a way that belied only the attention a caring adult could give, and Ace felt resentment curl in his gut, stoking the already-raging fire.
When they ran through the jungle for the hunt, the crybaby running at the mouth like he always did, the dumb girl silent like she always was, and Sabo at his back (like he should be), the light hit it and made it bleed different colors. It just looked black if you didn't pay attention, but when the sunlight was really bright it started demanding it, undertones deep red-blue-green like bird's feathers. Not quail feathers, or any of the other small brown speckled runts that scattered at any loud noise, but the big ones; the ones with wide wingspans and trailing tails, cries bright and melodic as they soared through the canopy, far higher than Ace could reach.
Ace hated it.
And of course, even before they got forced into this whole mess (friends, what a joke), Sabo wouldn't shut up about her. From a three word description, if that. Idiot.
She's surprisingly decent when she's not being a stick-in-the-mud judging asshole.
He always saw it in her eyes, that wariness, different from the disdain and the hate but close enough that he hates it fiercely-
But that's all gone and he figures she was genuinely afraid of him, before, which makes him feel not guilty exactly but not… great. Not that it's his job to make random girls not-afraid of him. He doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks.
But she's so…
He doesn't know how he missed it before.
He understands why she treats Luffy the way she does, now, begrudgingly, so that's one bad mark against her gone. And that hated look in her eyes is gone, too, leaving behind something he can't figure out. And she's not weak, exactly, not anymore, getting better at punching and fighting faster than even he and Sabo did (though of course he's not gonna tell her that), way faster than the crybaby (even though 'crybaby' sounds way too affectionate, even in his head, damn).
And she saved Sabo's life.
(When she was bleeding on the riverbank, that dæmon of hers standing over her body and snarling, eyes wild, Sabo pushed away and safe, he felt his view of her shift like tectonic plates, inexorable and permanent.
He can't, for the life of him, figure out her motive.)
The fact that all the stuff he hated about her before isn't there anymore (or that from a different angle, perspective shifted, it's less hateable and more understandable, which he's not gonna think too hard about, thanks) means that she's at the very least tolerable.
He wishes it was only that.
She guides (he can't think of another way to phrase how she pokes Luffy towards certain conclusions, matter-of-fact and cajolingly) and teases Luffy like a pro - makes the kid happy, as stupid as that sounds, and as stupid as Ace feels for noticing - banters whipcrack sharp with Sabo and takes to fighting with determination, treats him politely and includes him without being overbearing or too obvious about it. She mutters all these little jokes, quiet, in Luffy's ear that make him laugh like Dadan's dæmon Koro does, that make a reluctant smile sneak up on Ace whether he wants it to or not.
She's waiting for him to do something, sort of, or maybe just waiting for him to talk to her at all. So he does.
It's awkward until it isn't, and when she teases him for the first time and smiles at him, all that pensive attention turned up bright and focused on him like a spotlight, he stares like an idiot. He's seen her smile, before, but it was always from the side or less wide or not at him. Hearing her say something clever and getting one-hundred-percent of her attention and a smile on top of that feels like-
He doesn't know exactly what it feels like but all the words flood from his brain like spilled soup and he splutters.
And she keeps doing it. He doesn't even hate it, which sucks, because if he really did and he told her to stop then he knows she would. She listens to what he says to her, listens to what everyone says to her, whether it's Luffy's excited rambling about the pluses and minuses of each type of meat in the jungle (Ace has no idea how she listens to that one) or Sabo's (heavily embellished) adventure stories (half of which Ace is in!) or even Ace's own advice, little pointers he can't resist giving her when she always hears him.
She hears him.
So she stops being hateable and starts being alright, and Luffy's kind of alright, too, smiley little bastard (seriously, who the hell smiles that much?), all that grinning and energetic enthusiasm wearing Ace's spiky defenses down (seriously, who taught that kid to smile so wide? he needs to have words with them), so they're both kind of alright and dammit.
And then he likes them, as time passes and he feels his face twisting into smiles more often. He talks because there are people to listen, smiles because they smile and he couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to, shares scraps of opinion and thoughts and feelings offhandedly until things build and build and build and then-
Things happen too fast and now they're here. You can see his problem, can't you?
He doesn't know what being happy feels like, doesn't think he ever will, but if it feels anything like this, he thinks he wants it.
And then everything gets out of hand and Ace has a family now. Shit.
He wanted to say brothers with Luffy and Sabo, but Valentine sure ain't a sister to him, so that was a no-go. He doesn't have the right to claim them as brothers, anyways, so maybe it's for the best.
He spent too much time planning that little sake-sharing ceremony and then way longer hesitating about it, eyeing the bottle of sake and stolen cups he'd hidden under the loose floorboard of the kitchen every time he passed. He's surprised nobody noticed him glancing at it every time they went out the door, he felt damn obvious about it.
But it happened and now they're all family. They can't leave.
No takebacks.
Selfish or not, Ace has what he wants. And he can't put a name to the feeling in his chest, but whatever it is, it isn't the sort of thing that wants to let people go.
The tenacious, possessive fear creeps up on him the whole run into Foosha (he hasn't seen the streets and buildings in years, a sickening nostalgia tugging at his gut, and they look smaller- or is he just taller?), until he and Sabo are holding Luffy back with hands over his mouth as Val hugs a green-haired woman with a headcloth that looks a lot like her. Val's mom, obviously. Makino.
Ace hates her immediately on principle, for what she's about to do (like hell Ace is gonna let her steal Luffy and Val away, he'll grab 'em and run when he has to, he's tense and ready to lunge at any given moment), but that lasts about as long as it takes for him to see Val's shaking shoulders and understand that she's crying.
Aw, hell.
Val calls something out, voice clear and high and disturbingly fragile, and Sabo lets go of Luffy. With Ace's fingers already gone slack, Luffy slips out of their grip - damn kid is tiny but slippery, it's gotta be the rubber - and sprints out and-
Ace can't really stand to look at two of the most important people in his life walking out of it, so he swallows down the lump in his throat and looks away.
She's so nice. Is she really Val's mom? (The fact that Val even has a mom is a huge slap in the face until he meets Makino, and then it's an even bigger one because how could Val and Luffy leave this?
Should've figured that they didn't leave of their own free will.)
Turns out he didn't need to think so hard about when he's gonna grab them and run. Apparently, Makino doesn't hate him and Sabo on sight (who knew?), which is quite honestly ridiculous, considering that Ace is pretty sure he hasn't met an adult even once that hasn't immediately despised or ignored him before. Not that he can recall.
Guess Val's weird tolerance for demon blood runs in the family.
He can see it 'cause their faces are basically the same shape, but Makino's got her hair up (and the bits he sees shine just green, nothin' else) and she's so much softer than Val.
(Valentine can be kind, can even be nice, but she's never soft with anyone but Luffy.)
Anyways, Makino can cook delicious food and she's tall and she owns a whole bar and and she's always smiling (so much more than Val does, he didn't ever think about it until he saw Makino and realized how not-often Val smiles and how quick her smiles go) and she gives hugs. Ace didn't realize you could get cuddled while standing (and not sleeping!) until Makino gave him a hug (what Luffy does to Val doesn't count, they're hardly even hugs and Luffy's weird, anyways, the stuff he does can't be relied on to show what normal people do). Ace immediately wants to ask for another one but he's not gonna push his luck, so he stays quiet instead and lets Sabo get his turn, staring and the ground and hoping he doesn't look too hopeful.
'Cuddling' (at least that's how Val puts it) is already so new to him. He's always wanted it, he thinks, but he couldn't put a name to the feeling, didn't think Sabo did either. Before this all happened, Val still let Luffy hang all over her (while he and Sabo pretended they weren't both looking) and now everything's changed so much that he might as well accept that they've inflicted their weird customs on him, so Ace guesses he (and Sabo) can't really escape. He'll have to tolerate it.
He tells himself this very firmly.
He kinda thought before now that touching wasn't allowed unless you were getting hit. Once he stopped being really little, Dadan started shoving him off her whenever he came near and started getting the point across more clearly not long after that, so he got the hint pretty quickly.
Touching is only allowed if you're really little, or if you're a baby. Same with crying, and helplessness, and asking for help. Babies only.
Only apparently touching is allowed? If you're not Dadan or the rest of the bandits. (And helping too, sometimes, but he's not gonna think about that right now.)
Val and Luffy don't hit him (don't try outside of spars, anyways, not that they can even when they do try, but that's different 'cause it's training), and they don't try to take him off guard (and he knows Val really could hit him if she tried outside a spar, it's stupid but he lets his guard down around all three of them) or smack him around when they get mad, which is the most surprising thing, 'cause even Sabo used to try and do it and Ace would hit him back, 'til Val and Luffy joined up with them for real and things got different.
Luffy doesn't get really frustrated practically at all unless something happens to his hat (lesson learned), and Val doesn't get mad ever, anyways, so he guesses they just haven't ever gotten mad enough at him to hit him yet? Whatever. If the price for cuddling is hitting later, he doesn't really care. He can take it.
'Cause Ace has all these things in his chest that he carries.
They're always with him, tied in a knot, tight and snarly and sparking like tangled yarn or snakes or fire. It makes him mad and makes him mean, but he can't get rid of it. That's just how it is.
Except it goes quiet, when he's with them.
The same way it went quiet and got pushed far far back when they all made the promise, and how it gets muted when they're all laughing and running together and talking. It gets louder when he's alone and louder when he gets hit, but it goes quiet when things are different. And when they all curl up together, he doesn't have to do anything to make it go quiet except let himself do it.
He just has to let himself feel the press of Luffy or Sabo or Val, feel the warmth and the pressure, and that's it. Like magic.
So if hitting later is the price for cuddling, Ace thinks it's worth it. It makes him too warm to give up.
He doesn't know what happiness is, but if this is anywhere close to it, he wants more of it. Even if he can't really see going anywhere better than this.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
(The murmuring darkness in his chest crests into a scream-)
Her hair is gone.
This is, probably, at the end of everything, the least of his worries.
I mean, he thinks to himself, very seriously, worrying at some of the bandages wrapped around the scabbed-over chafing on his arm, the whole head-cloth thingie looks good on Makino, but then again, everything looks good on Makino.
Now that everything's over (fucking hopefully), Val's started wearing her hair the way her mom does (under a kerchief, he heard her say it out loud in that even way she has, weirdly striking new eyes and all, not a hint of a smile on her), and he's begrudgingly put-out about it. He gets it, but-
(Porchemy holding her up and her every feature is painted with pain and confusion and terror, fingers scrabbling at the meaty palm yanking at her hair and she looks so small, strung up like a fish on a line and so expressive but he never wanted it like this, only smiles ever ever ever and if she doesn't stop making that expression right now he's going to SCREAM-)
He still doesn't know what the hell it is, but it figures that his conquistador's hakay or whatever the hell it's supposed to be exploded when Porchemy started- whatever. Whatever. It doesn't matter. The bastard is dead now, just like Bluejam. Val killed him. It's over. It's over.
(Fire and thick black smoke, burning burning burning, Luffy sobbing, Dadan on fire and her hyena shrieking and maniacal laughter and a lobster boiled red and an agonized scream cutting off into nothing as it dissolves into golden, murky-water-)
He doesn't linger at all on that particular train of memories and thought.
Anyways, she's started hiding her hair and he doesn't like it. Not that he's gonna say anything about it. Obviously. As if he's some kinda idiot that'd talk about wanting to see Val's hair.
At least Luffy doesn't have any sorta filter.
Nice one, Ace thinks approvingly, nodding a little despite himself as Luffy darts behind her and starts prodding at the back of her head. She looks not-annoyed, as she always bafflingly is at Luffy's antics, but she does look…
Selfconscious.
Aw, dammit.
(He can't get that first sight of her out of his mind.
His chest had been aching and painful and it hurt, he didn't know why, the ache throbbing and creeping insidious up to make his eyes sting and his throat choked.
Later, he'll realize it was heartbreak.
Because when he sees them, walking through the trees and holding hands, looking battered and bruised but alive, Sabo (not gone) and Valentine wholly, breathtakingly here, he feels the ache crack and shatter until everything is raw, immediate, crushing and renewing, fizzing as it wells up and pours out of him, golden like sunlight and twice as harsh.
He needs to see them.
"Val!" he screams, struggling against the pain, the ropes, a choked cry rising up in his throat. "Sabo!")
(And then, sooner than he could count the passing of the days, her hair is hidden.
Hidden under kerchiefs like Makino, tucked away in plaits and concealed under fabric.
Even now, he's not sure why he feels the loss so keenly.)
Aurelia had shifted into a peacock, once.
He'd been quietly disappointed at the lack of magnificent tailfeathers (Makino's book made them look eyecatching, eyespots like poisonous moths or keen lamp-eyed owls), but before she changed back into one of her many preferred forms, he'd noticed something.
The bobbed crest was one thing, and the rest of her bodyfeathers were mundanely brown, but-
Shimmering along Aurelia's neckfeathers was a shifting, lustrous array of deep blue-green.
(All that was missing was the red.)
He closes his eyes.
(Today, he thinks to himself, firmly, I'm gonna talk to her.)
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Notes:
(Song for what follows: Moth's Wings - Passion Pit.
Put down your sword and crown / come lay with me on the ground...)
Also, I have strong feelings about the topic of hitting kids.
Oda plays it up for gags, but getting physically punished in any way - especially as a child - greatly affects the development of your attitude about physical touch. I haven't touched upon it before now (no pun intended) past Makino's effective ban against Garp using corporal punishment against Luffy and Val (something like if you think you're laying a finger on my kids, Garp-san, you're dead wrong, though Makino wishes it was just that simple), but I address it here.
I'm not gonna spend any more time on it unless it directly affects character dynamics (which it will, in the future), but if it comes up later, I assure you it'll be in the way of 'character dynamics, ooh, what fun' and not 'Garp, you're a good person, stop being ignorant and hitting your tiny adorable grandson.'
...Because when you frame it like that, it does sound pretty shitty, doesn't it?
I have complicated feelings about Garp. He's indisputably someone who tries to do right, but because he's shackled himself to the marines (in my opinion), the polarized sides of 'pirate' and 'marine' limit him heavily from doing what he knows to be the right thing in many cases.
(Why isn't he an admiral? Too many eyes on him.)
He wants very badly to do good. He also - as Makino would put it - is a good person who makes dumb mistakes and needs to be told clearly when he's wrong.
Anyways, so many things in such a short interlude! Valentine's hair color! (She's got special hair, goddamn it.) Ace's perspective! (In a very limited series of snippets that exclude some very interesting events.) Ace! More Ace!
I don't plan to have these interludes frequently, but this is a turning point in the story and I'm trying to figure out how to get where I want to go. I know where I'm going, and I have a lot of fun stuff planned for the rest of their time on the island, but I'm unsure of exactly how I want to tell it... so if anyone has any strong opinions, I'd be curious to hear them!
That being said, everybody loves Ace (myself included), and getting into his head was... worthwhile. I could've made this a hell of a lot longer, but writers block smacked me in the face, so certain things from Ace's perspective will just have to remain a mystery.
Thank you all for your wonderful, fantastic interest in Val's story. Your comments keep me going, and as usual, this chapter is dedicated to you!