Fanfic of Ace and OC's adventures as they go from young pirates to the terrors of the grand line.
Characters: Ace x OC (fm)
Genre: Romance Adventure
Word Count: 4.7K
CW: Theft, Gunshot wound, Blood, bit of Hurt/Comfort, They are silly young pirates
Let's go!
The winds were strong and pushed the clouds quickly along past the high noon sun. Kara held the hood tighter as another salty gust threatened to blow her cover. She took long even strides moving in a straight line towards the start of the busy plein air market in front of her. She nearly missed her step when she heard the screech of a marine behind her.
"Stop that maaaaaan. Stop Sir you must pay! Sir you must be good! Stop that man he is a menace!"
Okay. Not shouting at her.
Even steps Kara, she thought to herself. She sucked in a lungful of air to level out her breathing and strained to listen to the action behind her. She felt it more than heard. Heavy fast steps getting closer. The pursued was gaining on her along with his pursuers.
The plan formed quickly in her brain and she gave a blessing to whatever gods there were as this distraction would be perfect. Steady steps until she could hear him right behind her and then a sidestep and dodge into the alley to the left. A perfect plan. Only she sidestepped in sync with the stranger and they collided. Hitting the ground in a tumbled mess of limbs and a cloak.
Ace was suddenly looking at the sky. His head hurt where it had just collided skulls with the dumbass he had run into. Bolting upright he saw The Girl he had hit was already moving off him with a very stunned look on her face. Her cloak was completely off. Now wrapped awkwardly around his arm. Her hair having been half knocked out of its knot was hanging in weird purple strands around her face. She looked his age, he thought dumbly and was now being screeched at with him by the marine.
"He hit a lady! Get him he has fallen!"
Ace grabbed his orange cowboy hat from where it had fallen placing it back on his head before extending a hand to the lady.
"My apologies, you surprised me jumping in the way so quickly" He felt his eyebrow twitch. She wasn't even paying attention to his apology. Her eyes were on the shopkeep who was now pointing at them.
"That's her the thief!" The shopkeep yelled.
Ace groaned. Kara swore.
"They are in cahoots get both of them!" The Marine screeched.
Pleasantries weren't getting them anywhere. Ace went to grab the young ladies tanned arm but before he could she had his hand and yanked him up. With surprising strength she pulled him up into a run towards the stuffy depths of the plein air market.
It was a tough run. The market was packed and they dodged in between people buying sticky fruit sticks and bartering over colourful flowy pants. Ace looked back a couple of times and saw her still there close behind him ducking under ladies trying to hand out perfume samples and the marines further back right behind both of them. They were going to have to split up.
"There's another alley up ahead we have to split up" she shouted beside him. Ace grinned at her.
"I'll draw them off. Very nice meeting you" and with maybe a bit more flourish than usual he jumped up on a cold noodle bar jumped and stepped over and between the bowls and flipped off into an alley.
Kara caught herself halfway through an eye roll. She ran low and straight trying to get as many people as she could in between her and the marines before jumping into her own narrow alley.
She ran wildly on the cobblestone through the streets and back through more alleys until she fell into a crowd trying to catch her breath. The many feet of the group were moving her up the hill to the Isiltili waterfalls and great woods that made up the centre of this island. Tourists swarmed en masse on the cobblestone below the falls and on the high-viewing bridges that crossed in front of them.
Kara looked over her shoulder back to the oceanside. From here you could see straight to the docks and they were swarming with marines confirming her suspicions from this morning. She would have to lay low through the day and duck out on the charter ship at night.
Sidestepping out of the open and back into the cool shade between two rows of brick and wood houses. She checked both ends of the alley before she crouched by a small half door in the side of one of the buildings. The pin that was keeping up what was left of her updo was good and tangled in there and Kara whimpered as she pulled on her hair to free it. Her hair finally came undone and with the pin in hand, she got to work on the little storage door lock.
It would not go quickly and Kara was sweating a bit. After grabbing the beginners thieves tool kit she had from her bag the contents were spilled haphazardly on the cobblestone between her and the door. Her eyes were closed as she tried the third tool in the lock her ear almost against it. She did not see or hear the shaggy black haired young man until he was right behind her staring down at her handiwork.
"What are you doing?"
She jumped nearly losing her grip on the pin. "Hiding. I've almost go it"
"You sure? That's a lot of tools." he said still looking down at her. His looming over her only made her hands more sweaty.
"Yes, thank you" "Bah!" swearing as she dropped the next tool in nervousness and surprise hearing a shout from down the alley. Two marines popped around the corner pointing at them from where they had both entered.
"Ah, They found us" the black haired boy said. How could he sound so amused?
"Why did you lead them back to me?!" Kara exclaimed. Two marine rifles were raised and pointed right at them. She moved to plan B which was just frantically banging on the lock with her fists.
"Time to run!"
The man grabbed her around the waist and pulled her from the door before the shots could fire. Kara scooped what tools she could as he half-carried her away from her failed breaking-and-entering attempt. The young man immediately put her down once they were around the corner helping her to stand up and then they were running again.
They ran up hill towards the waterfalls. The street nearly packed shoulder to shoulder. The marines had stopped any attempt to fire lest they hit a civilian. They raced quickly between crowded snack shops with barrels of popular pickles and more touristy trinkets. A large line up outside the trinket shop further masked their position from the marines and they took the chance to dive between multiple racks of clothes outside of an open door shack.
"There's a ship at the dock" Kara said without thinking as they sped by the trousers. How she ended up with this guy was beyond her. He seemed adept at getting away from the Marines which was something she was still figuring out. He might still be able to lead them off of her trail.
"It's still swarming with Marines you wont be able to get there-"
"until the evening ya. So what's your plan?" she asked.
They got to the changing rooms on the other side of the entrance and he opened the curtain to shove them both in. Marine boots went stomping by mixed in with the happy chatter of tourists shopping for clothes.
"Plan?" he said
Kara was panting heavily trying to catch her breath so she just nodded her head.
"I figure it out." he replied. The young boy gave her a devilish grin. With the freckles he looked like a school boy about to hide a frog on his teachers chair. "Not much of a Pirate are you? What did you steal?"
Still trying to catch her breath Kara raised up the log pose on her hand. Thankfully the fragile compass had not broken and was still strapped on her wrist. Freckles acknowledge it and raised up his own arm where he wore a matching log pose. It finally clicked for her then that this was not just some food thief.
"You're a pirate? who are you?" she said.
"Portgas D. Ace of the spade pirates. "
"Spade Pirates? never heard of them"
"We are just getting started, want to join?"
"Ha, no thank you. I just need to get to the ship before it leaves."
"Be my guest" the boy, Ace, said and gestured to the little cloth door. He stepped out of her way so that she could exit.
Kara wiggled past him and peered out. The Marines had dispersed quite a bit but they were still patrolling up and down the main road. Any alley or open area was going to be too easy to get caught in as they had caused quite a commotion.
"My ship is at the dock on the quiet side of the island. Come with me-?"
"Kara"
"Come with me Kara and I can hide you until nightfall and then sail you back to your ship" Ace offered.
"Are you certain?"
"What else are you going to do?"
Kara had no idea. She was at a loss on how to deal with this many Marines on her tail and had no desire to get captured this early on in her adventure. She didn't want to be a burden but he was offering and she was out of options.
"Thank you, I'll take your offer. I think we can get to the other side going along one of the trails through the park." upon seeing her opening she slipped out of the change room with Ace right behind her and they darted up the hill behind the shop going into the woods.
Ace could feel his heart still racing and his head felt airy.
They moved light and quickly up along the trail to where he had left his boat that morning. It was a great day by pirate standards. A good meal and drink. Successful escape from the Marines. The day would be even better with a new crew member.
He looked at the girl. Kara wasn't exactly the big round marksman with a love of cigars and knowledge of the best pubs on the grandline or the skilled ship hand who was good with a cannon that he originally imagined a potential first crew member to be.
She was nearly the same height as he was, a bit underfed, with sun damaged skin and long thick wavy hair. As her canvas bag shifted at her side he saw the decorated hilts of two different sized knives. They weren't extraordinarily flashy but they looked well crafted. He didn't see any jolly roger or pirate crew insignia and considered that it might be rude to ask her.
Being raised in the woods by Dandan Ace knew he kept a fast pace on the trail and was surprised how well she did to keep up.
"Ah! the Isiltili waterfall you can kind of see it" she suddenly said pointing towards the gap in the trees where you could see the glittering waterfall
"hmm oh ya, in the morning its very cool. The sun hits the water and its like the whole forest lights up. Did you see it as you sailed in? It's like a glowing beacon."
She shakes her head. "No, I didn't get to see it as we came in. I would have loved to. Even just being here close to it is breathtaking."
"The grandline is full of sights like these. With that log pose you can find your way through islands covered in jungle, ones with volcanoes, and islands where it's always snowing." he pointed to the compass on her wrist.
"I'll settle with anywhere away from East Blue but a jungle island would be cool" she said it thoughtfully her eyes still on the waterfall.
Ace found himself surprisingly remorseful to tear her away from it.
His ship was anchored on the other side of the forest and they would have to keep their head down to make it through the crowds and tourist booths that were ahead of them by the entrance to the waterfall bridge.
"c'mon, I've gotta get to my ship before the marines spot us again."
The stalls at the start here did not have too many customers and they were still in the line of sight of the streets below if someone looked hard enough.
"Right" Kara said and she followed.
Some of these customers were odd Ace thought as they marched along the thin trail. Two taller guys in nondescript long brown capes yet wearing very odd-looking straw fedoras with feathers were quietly admiring a pickle stall display a few stores up the hill. The pickle tender not there to take the order. More of the hats were on display at the feather stall closest to Ace and Kara.
The shopkeep was there and suddenly tripped knocking the stand of feathered fedoras all across the trail in front of them. Ace's companion jumped back in surprise but they both bent down to retrieve the hats. "I thought they were taking flight" Kara quietly said kneeling on the ground next to him and Ace suppressed a laugh. With a few hats in his hands, he offered them back towards the owner.
He didn't take them.
"Abandon hope you miserable pirates." The shopkeeper stepped out from behind the feather shop counter holding a particularly rigid and bright orange plume in his right hand. He pointed the feathery tip toward them.
"I suppose you thought you could escape, I suppose you thought your crimes would be overlooked but no!"
The shopkeeper ripped off his white mustache which floated to the ground like a feather. Underneath the disguise was the very red faced screeching marine.
Ace tossed the hats onto the counter with a bit of a sigh. Here we go.
"I am Captain Francoise of the 18th Branch of the Marines. Isiltili is my peaceful domain and not a single-" he ripped the bright orange feather he had been brandishing revealing the sword underneath " - crime will be tolerated or forgivEN!".
The fedora men with excessively large motions disposed of their capes and hats revealing military uniforms underneath and rifles.
Ace looked to the path past the fedora stand back to the city. Blocking that escape, from behind the counter, another marine popped up from his crouched position and raised his gun at the two of them. Another Marine much less gracefully stood up by Ace from a fully seated position where he had been lying completely obscured by the bushes. Captain Francoise smiled.
This guy was weird Ace thought but he had brought with him a lot of back up. Straight up running would lead this small army back to his ship and then he'd be hooped.
Ace looked subtly as he could off the edge of the trail over his left shoulder. The dropoff was intense and looked impossible to navigate on foot without sliding to your death. He was also pretty tired of running and this weirdo had started screaming again at the girl beside him.
"I've been here so many years awaiting for the day I could prove my great defence against a true miscreant and she has arrived!" Weirdo marine pointed the sword to her
" What?" she looked at him confused. She continued "I am leaving I am off your island in a second I have the one small thing I need and now I'll go"
"You will not go anywhere. I reported you the moment I saw you, a girl with purple hair. Well my military connections are perfection they saw you come in on a ship from Lelou. Not many tourists from Lelou only escaping rebels! My men reported a girl with purple hair walking off the cargo ship alone."
Ace grumbled a bit too himself. This guy was spending quite a bit of energy on her. She must be a big shot and he was being ignored.
"A rebel girl named Kara from Lelou with purple hair and exceptionally thin eyebrows! I see you now!"
Ace couldn't resist looking and saw that she did have exceptionally thin eyebrows. Her bangs mostly covered them but they were especially visible when she scrunched what hair was barely on her face into an expression of disbelief. "Again, I've barely done anything on this Island and I've no interest in being stuck here" She stepped back towards his side where the drop off was.
She's gunna try to run again ace thought. But no name is made by constantly running. "Well now that we all know each other I should introduce myself. My name is Portgas D. Ace and I am going to be the Pirate King."
Leaning back Ace got out of range of the gun closest to his left. He grabbed the barrel pointing it uphill towards Captain Francoise as he punched the marine. The gun shot off hitting the tree cover above the marines. All of them ducked to avoid the spray of tree bark. Ace swore in his head. He didn't want to accidentally hit some passerby.
He ripped the gun out of the marine's hands and used the butt of the gun to knock its owner out before tossing the rifle into the woods. He then rounded on the next guy up the hill and before he could regain his rifle aim Ace had him in a grapple.
One shot flew past his shoulder hitting the ground near where Kara was. She stood there genuinely shocked for a moment as the bullet whizzed by.
Ace knocked his Marine to the ground and shouted back to her. She was still frozen until the Marine on her right finally jumped into action and grabbed her arm. Ace couldn't see the rest of what happened as he turned to challenge Francoise with his defeatherized sword. He only heard the grunt of the marine behind hitting the ground and Kara's shout after.
"Ace up in the woods!"
They had gained the edge of that fight but it had all been for nothing. Francoise fresh recruits marched out of the bushes each with a disguising fern on their head. A row of standard issued gun barrels all lined up pointed towards them.
Ace knew about their famed inaccuracy but at such close range they didn't stand a chance he booked it back towards where Kara had stood and saw her already running ahead down the trail to more tree cover before the bullets rained to the ground.
Gunfire. For the first time since leaving her home island Kara heard shots fired in her direction. She was frozen behind the thick tree she was using for cover. Angry that she was stuck and pissed at her current companion who was lying down sheltered poorly by a boulder and clearly nursing a bullet wound.
Ace's face was scrunched up in pain and Kara felt her heart tighten.
The marines might've left him alone if she had gone. From her position behind the tree, there was a decent path into the city and the boats at the harbour were in eyesight.
The boy was clutching his side blood leaking between his fingers. Most likely by leaving he would be fine. They would capture him sure but they would treat his bullet wound and probably send him on his way after being punished for his infraction. Maybe he could escape after her. Maybe he could make it down that hill but not alone and not easily with an injury like that.
Kara caught his eye across the path. Willing for him to see how sorry she was. He was bleeding out on the forest floor but looking at her he just smiled a devilish grin. Everything seemed to freeze in that moment. Reaching for one of the two knives on her belt Kara held it up to her chest and waited for the break in the shots. The smallest gap and she took it.
Pivoting elegantly away from the tree and across the distance towards where Ace lay she threw the knife precisely towards where the Marine captain stood. Narrowly missing his head he screamed and dropped to his knees.
Now beside Ace, she grabbed him as shots began to ring off again.
"Hold onto me" she said as she pulled him close and maneuvered them both over the edge and down the steep incline off the trail.
The rocks roughed up her legs and back as they went down and they both pitched forward once they hit a large root rolling down along the plant life until they landed at the lower trail.
Kara got up quickly and grabbed Ace who looked near passing out from the bullet wound at his side. Flinging his arm over her shoulder she commanded he get up and they hobbled over the next edge of the lower trail and started slowly stumbling down on foot this time to the beach.
The sounds of the marines thankfully getting further away. She helped him climb down the shelf of rocks and collapsed under his weight when they finally hit the sand. "Where's your ship" she shook him a bit. Ace weakly pointed to a partially hidden inlet up a head.
A couple of cabins were on the beach and a small dock with very tiny sailboats. Not the kind you could live comfortably in. Ace guided her as best as he could in between grunts of pain towards it and when the coast was clear they darted out into the open. Their footsteps sounded uncomfortably loud on the dock but they still made it onto the little ship. On the boat a small human sized hatch was hidden under a crate of fishing supplies. Kara popped it open and slowly lowered Ace down before sliding in herself, closing the hatch, and doing what she could to wiggle the crate back on top with the piece of rope ace had tied to the bottom.
Finally, she could breathe for a second.
Ace's ship was cramped. No room to stand up and most of the space was taken up by a long cabin bed on one side and barrels of fresh water and what she assumed were crates of food on the other.
Ace was lying on the floor. His freckles and black hair in stark contrast to his paling face. Kara whispered his name and he stirred a bit.
"I gotta get you in the bed" she moved him as gently as she could disturbed at how little strength he had to assist. He was pretty thin and it worried Kara not certain how much blood he could lose before really needing a doctor which she wasn't. He wasn't puking blood so that could be a good sign.
She rummaged around his cabin until she found an abysmally put-together first aid kit. A few bandages and thankfully a needle and thread.
She would have to do as much as she could to clean the wound with the water and whatever liquor he had stashed in his ship. She sat next to him on the bed gently moving his open collared shirt to the side. Close to him so she could more easily deal with the wound she could feel the heat radiating from his skin. With what best she could find for tweezers she got to the dirty work of pulling out the bullet shards wincing as he did. She thanked whatever gods there were that for the moment he was still alive.
The stitches were bad. She felt horrible about it. She had only ever watched them be done and didn't have the most gentle hand but she tried what she could whispering kindly to him as she did. "I am sorry, I'm so sorry, almost done, it's almost done"
Ace unfortunately was semi conscious yet was struggling to speak in the pain.
"don't talk" she said "Just hang in there okay?"
"You saved me. You are a shitty pirate." he groaned
"I am not a pirate, and I havent saved you yet. We gotta get you a doctor. You lost so much blood and the stitches aren't quite right—"
"Why?" he got out but then he scowled. She had pulled a little too tightly on the next stitch.
"sorry" she said again. She hated how unsteady her hands were and how the rocking of the ship wasn't helping.
"Why" he got out again taking a big breath. "Did you save me?"
Kara looked down to the stitches trying to be gentler and come up with the right answer. " I couldn't just leave you. You are like me. Starting out. It's too soon for you Portgas D. Ace. You've got stuff to do."
Ace almost smiled at that and mumbled "Hm, stuff" and then was quiet
"Ace?" Her voice wavering a bit.
She saw the rise and fall of his chest but his eyes were firmly shut. He was clearly passed out. Kara finished the stitch and covered the wound with a bandage. Seeing him breathing didn't provide her with much relief. Putting her hand on his forehead she felt him burning up. Her heart constricted and she brushed his hair from his face. He looked so young and he was out here all on his own.
"Don't die on me Portgas D. Ace" she whispered.
She sat there next to him a little longer studying his face. Hearing drops of rain as it hit the wood deck outside and hoping that would deter the marines from looking for them too intensely. Her whole body was aching from being cramped in the cabin and the scratches on her back and legs needed washing too. Cleaning up as best she could with the old rags he had she then collapsed on the floor leaning her head near his on the bed and counting his breaths until she fell asleep.
Ace woke up the next morning. The little light shining through some cracks in the ship deck. He could feel the usual damp spots that told him that it had rained last night. His attempt to sit up was an immediate failure and every memory of pain from the day before came back.
As careful as he could he felt the bandage at his side. More pain but he wasn't dead. He might not be able to sail for a bit. Looking from the bandage he looked at her sleeping face half obscured by her long bangs falling forward in disarray.
She had missed her ship too he thought guiltily. Not a pirate. Would she still allow him to sail her to wherever she was going? He scarcely allowed himself to hope it. Yet he knew there were a lot of things Kara hadn't told him and maybe he didn't need to hear them. There were a lot of things he wouldn't tell her and that didn't mean they couldn't sail together.
He was still watching her as she began to stir. Her neck cracked as she stretched it gently and looked over at him with half-open eyes. "You are still alive" Kara said. Her voice cracking a bit from the early morning but she was smiling. "I wasn't going to die" he replied.
"Well you almost had me fooled" she raised her hand up and leaned over towards him to check his temperature.
Ace felt the heat rise a bit to his face fully realizing for the first time the position he was in half naked on his bed with this girl in his boat.
"Still a bit feverish" she said. She looked still half asleep and half worried her hand lingering a moment before she quickly drew it back.
"I am sorry you missed your boat" Ace said. She looked surprised as if she had forgotten it herself. "Oh it's fine, just a charter to get off this island there will be more but I gotta get you some antibiotics first unless you have money for a doctor?" Ace shook his head. Pirating was not that lucrative yet. He felt okay, if just a little hot and really sore.
"All right, I'll see you in a bit" and she got up grabbed her bag and swung it over her shoulder before carefully exciting.
He watched her open the hatch and take a breath of the fresh sea air. Enjoying the moment of the sun on her face and the wind as she eyed the beach for any more marines. Then the hatch was closed and she was gone.