Sorry, bit later than I expected.
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Wait a minute. Wait a minute!
Locks knew that orange monstrosity of a hat anywhere. She'd spiffed it up herself with those creepy blue faces! And the wyvern skull!
"Ace?" she asked tentatively.
What had happened to his shirt? (dimly, she recalled something about him being called 'Fire-Fist' and giggling hysterically at the thought of fire-proof pants.)
"Zzzzzz. . ." her older brother snored. Locks scowled.
Zap!
"Holy-!"
Smack!
"That'll teach you to ignore me." Locks said with a superior air, ignoring the face-fault of the crowd.
"I was sleeping! Do you have any idea- Wait a minute." Ace cut himself off to peer into her rainbow-coloured eyes. "Locks?" he said incredulously.
"Yes, Hunter. Locks. Your sister. The one you left to deal with Luffy's lunacy all on her lonesome. The Thunder Queen. Ringing any bells?" Locks said impatiently (No, she was not being snarky, thank you very much!)
"Yeah, I saw your poster! 20 million isn't too bad for a first bounty!" Ace grinned blindingly at her- and once again fell face first into his food, snoring.
"You saw my bounty poster, which only came out recently, and didn't recognise me?" Locks said, smiling dangerously. "Then again, I'm not in my half-form right now . . ." she added, recalling the picture the marines had taken of her with a crown on her head (it was Nami's fault. She was the one who'd told Locks to keep it safe when those marines attacked.
Still smiling, she reached out a hand-
Zap!
"Holy-!"
Smack!
oOo
Eventually, they got around to the subject of their dear little brother (the bane of their existence).
"So, has he been any trouble?" Ace asked.
"Not since we left Goa?" Locks replied. Did it count if Luffy wasn't the direct cause of the madness? It wasn't as if the rubber-boy went looking for dictators to topple.
"Oh? What did he do after I was gone?" Ace was grinning at her with a knowing expression.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Getting eaten by crocodiles, living with wolves, fighting monkeys, getting thrown around by crazy-old-man-Garp . . . He thoroughly cemented his reputation as a dine-and-dasher." Locks grinned back.
"What did Garp do?" Ace asked, face suddenly stormy.
"Don't worry. I dealt with it."
"How?"
"I sabotaged his ship's water supplies with an edible dye. Everything turned neon orange. You could have seen them from a mile away." Locks grin threatened to reach Luffy-proportions. Her face was starting to hurt.
"Why orange?" Ace asked, storm dissipating.
"Well, Garp's first visit was soon after you left, before you got a bounty. Luffy wanted to keep him off your back, so rubber-boy told the crazy-old-man that you were hiding on the island. Orange is your favourite colour, so it made sense at the time."
"The old man fall for it?"
"Spent a month combing the island looking for you. I added fresh dye every two days during his stay. He was still orange from top to toe three months later, though it had faded somewhat."
Ace held up his hand with a grin. Locks slapped it in a high-five.
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That conversation about Luffy? I wrote it ages ago before I even started this and have been dying to post it since. Hope you liked it!