Chapter Eighteen: The Prince and the Pauper

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown."
-Shakespeare, Henry IV

"No way," Mia said as she held her sleeping brother in her lap, staring at her grandmother with wide eyes. Faye had grown older as her grandchildren began to grow. Her beautiful granddaughter looked just as Anne had when she was only ten years of age.

How long had it been since she started her story of meeting one certain pirate and soon became trapped in a world of something she had told herself to stay away from.

"He took you to One Piece?" she asked, sitting on the edge of her chair as she continued to rock her brother to sleep. The poor boy had been up all night crying from an ear ache. Faye had asked to watch them so both parents could get some sleep; leaving the shop closed for the day.

Faye chuckled and leaned back in her chair. It had been a few days since she had moved from that position. Her old bones no longer had the strength to walk around town like she used to. Sometimes, she would just simply sleep sitting up, not finding any motivation to get up and walk the few feet to her bed.

It was only a matter of time before she would no longer see the sun rise from her window; or hear the laughter from her grandchildren; or curse herself for how much Anne looked more and more like Ace every day.

It was only a matter of time…

"You have quite a habit of interrupting me, sweet child. Your mother was never this talkative."

Mia smiled sheepishly before going quiet again, waiting for the story.

"As I was saying…"

OF MEMOIRS AND MAPS

"You're Gold Roger's son."

It was a statement more than a question.

"You're Gold Roger's son."

For some reason, it didn't feel right coming off my lips. The rolling of my tongue felt foreign. I couldn't look at him.

"You're Gold Roger's son."

Ace seemed to squirm under my gaze; my jaw fell slack as the thought finally processed and I was able to realize where exactly we were.

"This is One Piece?" I asked, my voice cracking into an octave higher than usual. Sea god, why hadn't I seen this coming?

Ace rubbed at the back of his neck, eyes closed as he sighed and tried to find the right words.

"Well, it's my One Piece."

Men and their confusing words…

"What do you mean by your One Piece?"

Ace looked up at me, his expression serious, once again.

"Roger had his One Piece, all the treasure he had stolen and found hidden away. This is my One Piece. My treasure."

"This old shack?"

Ace pursed his lips, sitting up straight from his position on the floor.

"It's not that old!" There was a silence between us before he sighed again. "This is what is left of the village that my mother was born in. The rest of the village is underwater."

I was taken aback by the words that I was hearing. The village was now underwater?

"What happened?"

Ace shrugged, uncrossing his legs as he leaned back with his arms holding his upper body up. He looked out the glassless window to the right of me. His eyes were dark with nostalgia.

"How long has it been since you've been here?" I asked my voice soft as the darkness over took us; only a single flame from a small candle kept the only warmth in the room.

But… Ace had a reddish glow to him. It was like a sun trying to come out from behind the moon. It was faint, but I could see the red lining of his silhouette.

"When I left Garp's dream to become a pirate… about a year and a half ago."

I nodded, although I gave a soft snort of laughter at his words. I knew exactly what he meant.

No more words were spoken. I had many answers, but I couldn't bring myself to ask them.

Ace was the son of Gold Roger, the infamous Pirate King. Ace grew up under the supervision of a Mountain Bandit; he ate a Devil's Fruit at the age of eighteen; he had a friend, Sabo that died when they were just children. (He farther explained that that was the reason for the crossed out S in his tattoo.) He had a younger brother, Luffy; his 'grandfather' was Monkey D. Garp – the supervisor of my father and brother.

Ace was a 'prince'.

I was a pauper.

Sea God, it sounded like some shitty story that my mother used to tell me every night just so I would get bored enough to fall asleep. (I will never admit that I actually enjoyed the stories.)

If only my prince charming could sweep my off my feet now.

"Why are you telling me this?"

Oh wait…

The distant rolling of thunder interrupted my thoughts, and I looked straight to the window to watch as a flash of violet lightning outlined the clouds as it struck the sea. I shivered at the cold wind that blew though the glassless window from the pouring rain. The waves bounced and jumped high, but none touched the house.

A warm arm placed itself around my shoulders, instantly feeling me with heat. My cheeks flushed in the dark as I felt the smooth freckled skin of Ace's chest press onto my back. He laid back, pulling me to lay with my back on his chest; affectionate arms surrounded my waist as the storm continued to fall around us.

Maybe I had already found my prince…

"Because you mean something to me, Faye. I don't want to keep any secrets from you."

OF MEMOIRS AND MAPS

The smooth lapping of waves against a grassy shore awoke me. Sea gulls cried out as they searched for fish and a high place to roost as the sun reflected against the waters.

I felt warm; safe. I felt like I finally belonged somewhere, somewhere that I could call home.

Ace's One Piece…

Sitting up, my knuckled the sleep from my eyes and went to place my feet on the ground when—

I fell. I fell off the couch and onto the floor. The wooden floorboards were dusty, old, would creak under too much weight.

But that's not what caught my attention.

No, what caught my attention was the fact that I could look under the soft sofa that I had fallen asleep on and find dusty bunnies that were bigger than me.

I looked up. The ceiling looked miles up above me. I felt like an ant. I was an ant. (Not literally, but I was the size of one.)

I screamed, but it must have sounded like a small squeak of a floorboard, because Ace didn't move from his position on the couch. Somehow, over the course of ten hours of much needed sleep, I had shrunk in size to that of an insect. The only question was how, and I already had an answer before I even asked the question.

I had eaten the Mini Mini no mi.

Holy shit, I was going to be tiny for the rest of my life.

And just at that thought, the ceiling became closer; the dusty balls disappeared out of sight.

Only I would get stuck with such a shitty power. How was shrinking a "powerful" ability? Sure, it would be great for sneaking around (I guess), but, really? And I was stuck with this for life?

I was back to my regular size, staring at the snoring freckled face of Ace as he scratched at his belly while sleeping. God, I was so tired… but knowing what had happened now, I doubted I would be able to sleep until I talked to Marco about this.

Ace awoke a few minutes later, a puff of flames sprouting from his mouth as he yawned. His stomach rumbled with hunger, just as the sky had rumbled with thunder the night before. He noticed me looking at him.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked, brushing his fingers through his hair before placing his—my hat atop his head. I shrugged, catching my calm from what had just happened.

"A few minutes."

We sat there, listening to the waves of the Grand Line, continuing to wake up for the day.

"C'mon. Pops is probably wondering where we are."

Ace held out his hand for me, flashing me one of his familiar freckled face grins as he waited for me to take it. And, surprisingly, I did. My palm met his unnaturally heated one. My green eyes locked in on his brown ones as he pulled me up. We stood there, in the dusty old cabin, looking at one another…

"C'mon."

He let go of my head and turned away from me, bowing his head to hide his eyes in the shadow of his hat. Ace walked to the door, grabbing his bag on the way, before disappearing down to the dock. I watched, waited until I heard the creak of the dock, before I followed.

Ace had told me about his past – but he knew not a single thing about mine. I doubted I could last the whole ride to the Moby Dick in silence like we had been spending it, lately. I had to tell him.

Walking out of the house, I followed his footsteps in the grass to the dock, where Ace waited, setting his bag in a hidden compartment where I had been sitting lately. Hearing the dock creak under my feet, he looked up, closing the compartment before holding out his hand again to help me on to it. I took it without hesitation, cautiously jumping down and situating my rear onto the warm metal.

His feet melted into flickering fire and the boat began to move with a low whine.

I sat with my back to Ace, the fire from his powers warming my back as I folded my jacket to rest in my lap. I pulled my hair back so the wind wouldn't whip it around my face. After awhile as the blue water started to shimmer silver and gold from the sun, I turned to face Ace, his eyes looking out to the horizon for any signs of the Moby Dick. It was only then that I noticed the Log Pose on his rest, and the way he stood with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, Ace?"

He looked down at me, giving a muffled sound of acknowledgement.

"You've told me about your past. It's only right that I tell you about mine."

He gave a quiet sigh, before powering down the flames and his feet melted back into view. He sat with his back pressed against the mass. "You don't have to—"

"I want to."

He kept quiet.

"I was born on an island in North Blue called Ynis Witrin."

I fiddled with a frayed tread at the end of my right sleeve.

"My mother was Emery Lynette." I looked up at him. "Have you ever heard of the Isle of Women?" He nodded. "My mother was from Amazon Lily." He nodded again. "When she left to conceive a child, she found my father and they had Jyrik. She was not allowed back due to her child being a son."

There was a silence.

"My father, Vice Admiral Callaghan Vian."

Ace stared in shock.

"He, and my brother Jyrik, are under the supervision of your grandfather, Monkey D. Garp."

Silence. We simply floated in the water.

"It was constant winter on Ynis, and I hated it. There was only four months of warmth before the cold came back. I hated winter, but I hated what my father did even more.

"Ever since I was able to walk, he would take an hour out of my day to push me to my limits, train me to become the Marine that he was training my brother to be. I loved my father more than anything, but I hated that he brought his work home.

"One day, when I was just old enough to start having a good memory, my uncle Marco came over. He was the kindest man I had ever known. He would play with me, and tell me stories of the Grand line, and be the father that my own never was.

"Then, when I was five, my father and uncle Marco had a big fight. That's when I saw his phoenix powers. They were fighting about Marco joining Whitebeard's crew. He was the Vice-commander of the third division at the time.

"After that day, I never saw my uncle again. Mom would always sneak in with the paper every morning to read me anything on Whitebeard, or Marco, but…"

I brought my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them as I felt Ace's eyes burn onto my skin.

"When I was ten, my brother was old enough to join the Marines, and my father couldn't have been happier. But, now that my brother was gone, he had all the time to train me. My brother… changed over the course of the next two years.

"He had always been so nice to me, beating up anyone who made fun of me and carrying my around when I got hurt… but the Marines changed him. He wasn't nice, or the big brother that I could look up to. He shunned me for not being able to hold up to our father's standards.

"Mother was always busy doing housework or talking with her friends. Father was constantly out at sea trying to capture his own brother and Jyrik… Jyrik just disappeared off the face of the planet and became Lieutenant Callaghan."

I finally looked up, seeing as Ace looked at me with an indescribable expression. There was no pity, or understanding, or sadness, or empathy…

"I was thirteen when I taught myself to sew," I looked away from him and back out at the sea. "It was my escape from all the hardships. I would cut apart some of my own clothes and create something new from it. I was sixteen when I ran away from home.

"I snuck onto a merchant's ship and when he found me, I was put to work as their tailor until I paid off my journey and found myself in Loguetown. There, I met Mia while looking for a place to stay, and we stayed together. She was very good at mathematics, so with the money that we had saved up we opened The Sun's Home and then you came along…"

I laughed to myself, remembering all that had just happened over the past eight or so months.

"Now, let's get back to the Moby Dick, eh?"

I smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes, and it felt… forced. Ace could see that it was fake, but he nodded and stood again, starting off in a slow push to get the speed caught up again. It was only another two hours before the Whitebeard Pirates came into view.

Ace roped his boat to the Moby and Thatch threw a ladder for us. I usually climbed up, Ace following by a foot or two. The first person I looked to when I was a board, was Marco.

He smiled, happy to see me, but his smile fell at my serious expression.

"I need to talk to Whitebeard."

A/N:

Yay! We finally know about Faye's past!

Yay! Ace told Faye who he is!

YAY! Faye finally realizes her feelings for Ace!

Yay! …Ace has feelings for her?

Another chapter (and a bit longer than the last two.)

I have band camp in about forty-five minutes and do NOT look forward to doing the hula or doing drop spins for four hours.

But this is the last week, yay!

Enjoy. Review please. :iamhappyplz: