Hello everyone, here is the next chapter
This is a bit of things
There is also a poll on my profile about the next story I will write, feel free to leave a vote
Hope you enjoy
Read and relax
Ace sat in her room, just staring at the wall, not sure what to do. She didn't want to do anything, but she probably should. Not that she knew what to do. She decided to skip breakfast, even though she was hungry, but she didn't want to head out. But as lunch neared, her door opened and Deuce came inside, giving a concerned look to her. "What are you doing?" Ace shrugged. "Nothing." Deuce frowned. "Nothing? You can't do nothing." Ace shook her head. "I am literally sitting here and staring at a wall." Deuce blinked. "That… that really is nothing." Ace nodded. "I said so." Deuce nodded. "Apparently. Why are you doing nothing?" Ace shrugged. "I… I don't know. I don't know what to do." Deuce nodded. "Want company in doing nothing? I've never truly done nothing." Ace shrugged, and Deuce moved to sit down beside her, also staring at the wall.
And after some silence, Deuce spoke. "Does doing nothing means we can't talk?" Ace shrugged. "We can probably talk. Anything special?" Deuce hummed. "I don't really know. I got some small responsibilities on the boat, so I need to leave in an hour or two." Ace blinked. "You got… responsibilities?" Deuce nodded. "Yeah, I asked for it though, as I was bored a lot." Ace nodded. Maybe she should ask for some responsibilities too, to not be as bored. Deuce hummed. "You want to join in on them? I could use help." Ace gave a small nod. "Maybe. I am bored a bit." Deuce nodded. "Is that why you're doing nothing?" Ace shrugged, and Deuce nodded.
They then sat in silence for a while, before Deuce said he needed to leave, and Ace joined him, helping with his duties, which was small things like moving things and small cleaning and making sure the boats were good. It was okay to do it and it was fun, especially as she was doing it with Deuce. He really knew how to cheer her up. But as they were doing the last bit of it, Marco asked her if she would like some small duties during the day, and she nodded to that. Marco said he would check what the duties were and where she could help and inform her of it during breakfast what she would be doing that day. That sounded good. She wanted something to do. She also hoped she would be with Deuce during it at the start. But she didn't want to tell Marco that, she didn't want to seem prissy and needy.
The rest of the day went by fine and when the next started and breakfast was coming to an end, Marco informed her of what her duties for the day were, and thankfully, all of them were with Deuce. She was glad about that. And the day went by fine, her having fun on her duties with Deuce, he was amazing in cheering her up and making her be in a good mood. She was so glad she had found Deuce, she really loved that man.
When the next day came, there were no duties for her, so she went to her room after breakfast and did nothing again, just staring at her wall. It was something with it that was calming, it put her mind at ease. As she was staring at the wall, there was a knock at her door. "Who is it?!" "It's me," Said Thatch from the other side of the door. Ace frowned. "What do you want?" The door slowly opened, and she turned to look at the chef. "It's dinner, you missed lunch, Deuce is worried." Of course this was Deuce's doing. He wanted her to 'bond' with the pirates, but it was hard. "What have you been doing?" Asked the chef, and Ace shrugged. "Nothing." The chef nodded. "Nothing… okay. Why're you doing nothing?" Ace shrugged. "Don't know, there's nothing to do." Thatch hummed. "There is always something to do in the kitchen." Ace gave a small grimace. "Never liked kitchen duty." Thatch nodded. "Okay. How's your tattoo healing?" Ace shrugged. "Fine." She was made of fire, all wounds healed nice on her.
Thatch nodded. "Okay. You want some dinner? Deuce misses you." Ace gave a small chuckle. "Of course. I should probably head out. I didn't know it was so late." Thatch nodded. "Yeah. Come on. We're having beef." Ace nodded. "I like that." Thatch nodded. "I know. Deuce said so when I mentioned it. The reason I came to fetch you." Ace nodded, she was glad about that. She really liked beef.
The two then headed to dinner and Ace sat down by Deuce, who was glad to see her, and she was as well. As dinner was over, she stayed in the galley for a bit, but as she was, she heard a commotion out on deck and headed out, to see a woman who was speaking to Whitebeard in an angry manner, obviously mad about something. This would be interesting to watch, to see how the captain would handle this.
After some words, from both parts, the woman got a gun and moved her gun around, and shot it, seeming to be randomly, but it was directed at her. And at first, she smiled. She was fire, a bullet would just go straight through her and she was fine. She loved her fruit. But as she was about to smile, she felt her breath stop in her chest, and she felt as if her lungs were filled with fluid as she coughed, and moved a hand to her chin to see it covered in blood. What? She was about to speak, when things became fuzzy, and she heard someone yelling, before she hit the deck and things went black.
-x-
Marco watched as Tira moved her gun around, before she shot, not seeming to be aiming. But it hit Ann in the chest, and he expected her to be fine, Tira was a no one and had dull bullets and Ann was made of fire. But, as he saw Pops on his way to speak, he heard a strained cough, and turned to look at Ann, who had blood coming from her mouth, her chest also starting to get filled with blood, before she fell down to the deck, which had them yell out, Marco not sure what was happening. "If she's a devil fruit user, she's as good as dead. Hollow point seastone. Shame." Marco gave a glare to Tira, and could see everyone doing the same, aside from those who were trying to help Ann. How had she gotten her hands on this? Hollow point seastone was rare.
"Give me one reason to not kill you." Said Pops with a deadly calm voice, a glare at Tira. Tira swallowed, now realising she had messed up. She was dumb as a rock after all. The reason they didn't take her as a threat. "I didn't mean to!" Yelled the woman, and it wasn't enough for Pops, who moved his bisento and decapitated the woman, which was much less than what she deserved for harming a family member, but Pops was mad, so he got it. The man then sent a worried look at those who were helping Ann, trying to put pressure on the wound and make her breathe, but nothing seemed to work well. Marco then decided to take charge and ordered Haruta to run ahead to Bay, while Curiel carried Ace to the infirmary. He just hoped things would work out.
He did notice Deuce to the side and he looked really worried, which made sense. He and Ace had a special relationship. He then headed to the infirmary to see if Bay needed any help, and found out she had taken Ace in for emergency surgery to remove the bullet, which they hopefully could do before she died. This was a bad situation. He did let Bay do her surgery with the nurses, he couldn't help much there. But as he was out, everyone asked how Ace was, especially Deuce and Pops, and he said he didn't know, she was in emergency surgery, which spoke on how serious this was.
Nothing happened for a few hours, before Bay came out on deck, and everyone spoke at once, making Bay speak up. "Shut up!" Everyone quieted down, and Bay looked around at those out. "Portgas is… stable. For now. She already stopped breathing twice, but hopefully she won't again and she will heal up and be fine. But I make no promises." That meant it was bad, and Bay was the best doctor there was, and this was a serious situation. Bay then went back to the infirmary and Marco was out on deck for a while, before he walked towards the infirmary and headed inside, and as he was, he headed over to the bed Ace was in. Being the only one in the infirmary right now. But as he was close to the curtain he heard Deuce speaking. "Don't die on me, Ace. Don't you dare die on me. I need you." Marco sighed, he knew this was bad. And he headed out again, to leave Deuce with Ace, and he really hoped Ace would recover. When he got out on deck, many asked how Ace was doing, and Marco didn't have any news. Everyone was worried for their new family member, and Marco wished it wasn't Ace who went through this, that it was someone else, like himself. He would have survived, being a phoenix made it possible for him to heal fast and regenerate. But, they needed to wait and see.
When evening came, he headed back to the infirmary with Pops, to see how Ace was. When they got there, Deuce was asleep in a chair, probably not wanting to leave the woman in bed. She seemed to be stable, which was good. They then sat down in some chairs, and Bay came over after a bit, giving a sigh. "She is still stable. And I hope she will wake up soon. If she does, that means she will make it." That was good news.
They then decided to stay there for a bit, but after half an hour, the machine Ace was hooked up to started to beep and blink red. When he looked at it, he felt his heart fall a bit as the woman was stopping to breathe again. He moved to grab the oxygen mask and yelled out for Bay, which also woke Deuce, who was thrown out with Pops, so they could work. When the oxygen mask didn't do much, they needed to intubate, which seemed to work and she was back to being stable, or as stable as she could be right now. He decided to stay in the infirmary and help keep an eye on Ace.
Nothing happened for the next few hours, and after 3, Ace was back to just having on an oxygen mask. She was improving. As she was better, Deuce was let back in and he was worried for Ace. But after 5 more hours, Deuce called out for him, as he was checking a few things, and when he got over to the two, he saw Ace was slowly opening her eyes. Ace was waking up. He moved a hand to her shoulder. "Ace?" Ace gave a groan, before her eyes fluttered open, and looked at him. "W-wha happen?" Marco gave a smile. "You got shot, but you're going to make it, yoi." Ace nodded. "Okay… I feel bad." Marco nodded. "I can have Bay give some more pain medicine, yoi." Ace nodded and he went and got the doctor, who was glad to see the woman awake and okay.
When she had given some pain medicine, Deuce moved his head to Ace's. "You're going to be fine." Ace gave a small chuckle. "Did I worry you?" Deuce nodded. "You did. I love you, Ace. I can't lose you." Ace chuckled. "I do too." It was a loving moment, the two really were close. But he was glad Ace had Deuce, who was here to help Ace adapt to them. Deuce was pushing Ace in the right way.
The rest of the day went by fine, and Ace got even better, she was up and out of bed as night fell, But as she was out of bed, she had mentioned she wanted her binds, which had Deuce shaking his head. "No! You can't wear your binds! You got shot in the chest!" Ace gave an annoyed breath. "Then what should I do?!" Deuce gave a glare. "Don't wear them! Not until you're healed!" Deuce then motioned to the doctor. "I am sure the doctor will agree with me!" Bay nodded. "I do. You shouldn't wear them. Not until the wound has healed." Ace groaned. "No! I hate this!" Deuce shook his head. "Don't care. You need to heal first. Deal with it." Ace puffed her cheeks up. "I feel naked without them!" Deuce shook his head. "But you're not naked. You have your clothes on." Ace shook her head. "But I feel like it!" Deuce shook his head. "Too bad. You have to live without them for some days." Ace sighed. "I hate this." Deuce sighed. "Ace, please try to be out as well." Ace sighed. "... I'll try, okay?" Deuce nodded. "Good." The man then leaned in and hugged her former captain, and Marco decided he could speak up as well. "No one will care about it, yoi." Ace sighed. "I will." Marco nodded. He got it. "Just, be yourself, yoi." Ace nodded. "Fine. I'll do my best."
Marco was sure the next few days would be a bit hard for Ace, but he was sure she would do just fine.
And that's the chapter, hope you enjoyed
This was a bit of things and hope it was good
If you have any scenes you would like to see, don't be afraid to leave a comment, or send a PM
And I love feedback too; it is what keeps me going!
If you want to, come follow me on Twitter, where updates will be posted, and if I'm late. My twitter is Azuruko You can leave comments, requests, ideas, or just say hi (a link is also on my profile).
Or, you can join my Discord server, Azuruko's fiction, for the same reasons as my twitter. Instant invite: discord . gg / 6hzMhbR