Author's Notes: So, clearly, someone is reading this short story like it's a regular story. Why don't you leave me just three reviews? Just three. It's very, very free and takes little, little time to drop. You don't have to write anything fantastic. All I need is three people, just three scurvy pirates, just three devil fruit eaters to say "Green". If you give me that, you can have full-length episodes of absolute chaos from Ace and the Spades crew. I'll even give you a sexy scene or two just for being a homie. How 'bout that, eihppas7? As a thank you for being a new supporter of this anime short story, I will drop one sexy snippet. XD That cool? After that, will you give me the green light? I just need three. X3

~ ... Stranded on a Camping Trip ... ~

Three alliances. He really had three pirate crews as part of his fleet! Ace was beyond excited about having dinner with the other captains. Schooner and Vangra were on their way to meet this new captain and ally on the coast of a fishing island. Schooner was probably the most excited to meet a new ally because of the fisherman's background the other captain possessed. As a gift for the new alliance, Hedao Murkshade of the Hangman's Scream gave Ace a smaller boat to attach to the Bloody Doubloon and use if only one or two people were needed to greet or negotiate with another person. Ace also received another cannon and some other upgrades for his ship. His baby was looking better and better with each new comrade. Even his bounties were getting costlier with time, but Ace limited his thefts to other pirate crews and local libraries mostly. Cargo ships were getting new guards and upgrades to defend themselves against pirates. While that wasn't a problem for a devil fruit user, one or two cargo ships had the privateers onboard now or acting as escorts. They were hitting pirate crews pretty hard. Ace didn't see Nesi in any of the newspapers, but he did see Pieter van der Does on the cover of a story. It wasn't a big headline, but it was a big enough deal for Ace. He kept an eye out for that and advised the other captains to do the same. Keep a low profile for now, only steal smaller cargo ships if necessary. Ace may have met and challenged Pieter before, but he never got to see how powerful he actually was.

A soft thump and a dip of his personal boat sunk the nose until Ace spotted a pair of gentleman's shoes very familiar to him and a pink worm with a happy smile on his face. He gasped, looked up, and was met with a smiling Nesi and Baragon. She was carrying a decent-sized box in her arm and dropped it gently before sitting down. He hadn't seen his floor scrubber since she was put on trial for piracy after the first war. Those nobles were sick! Why would they enjoy watching her die by being burned to death? They even had the nerve to propose cutting her entire hand off! Was losing two fingers not enough? Looking down at her gloved hand resting on her knee, Ace took note to the new reptilian fingers replacing her once very human, very small fingers and her hair getting longer. She didn't have the buzz cut anymore, which was a pity because he dug that style for her, but the asymmetrical bob gave her country girl beauty back. If he had to be honest, the purple hair did look good on her. She was more of that elegant soldier and confident woman. Removing her overcoat and folding it for Baragon to lay on, Nesi chuckled and greeted her captain. From there, the two started catching up on things.

"Really? Already?" Nesi asked, proud and surprised about the new ally.

"Yeah. He's a pretty cool guy. Him and Schooner will get along just fine. He likes women, but he's a bit classier than I thought. He's well-spoken, polite, blunt. I guess everyone just feels safer around him, so they follow him. Makes sense. He does kinda make you feel at ease," Ace explained.

"Man, your fleet is going to be huge by the end of the year!" Nesi complimented, chuckling as Baragon let out a squaw and started dancing for Ace.

"You bite me on this boat, worm, and I'll pitch you into tomorrow," Ace threatened with a dark smile.

"Stop torturing my snookums. He's saying congratulations," Nesi said softly, cooing at Baragon's cuteness.

"Well, that opens this up to a new question," Ace said, gaining Nesi's attention with a soft 'huh?' in response. "How the hell did you get out here with no ship?"

"Oh!" Nesi replied, laughing aloud. She started blushing, scratched the scaly part of her scalp, and said with some shyness, "Well, I, uh..."

"Scrubbing bubble," Ace growled through his teeth.

"You're kinda close to government territory. They were going to blast your ship with cannon fire," Nesi explained, shivering under Ace's gaze. She was clearly nervous about having to give the warning. She then continued, "I recognized your hat, so I stopped them and came over."

"Why can't I see the ship or the cannons?" Ace growled next, dark smile still on his face.

"I... jumped...?" Nesi replied, sweating nervously and looking away.

"What's in the crate?" Ace then asked, no longer growling but curious of the contents.

"Oh, just stuff for you and the boys," Nesi answered, no longer avoiding subjects. "Food, clothes, money, camping tools. Thought it'd be helpful. I was hoping to buy coats for you all since winter's on the way, but the best I could do was get thicker bed sheets and shawls. Your price tags getting bigger!"

"You shouldn't do that," Ace said quietly, locking eyes with Nesi. "You earned your money to survive in the world. Stop spending it on us. We're men. We'll do it ourselves."

"But I want to!" Nesi replied, blushing and pouting. "You're my friends! And you're my captain, captain! You never promoted me from floor scrubber or ship cook, so I'm trying to do better. You said build up my moxie!"

"You already had moxie, Nesi... There was really nothing for me to do to help you build it. You just had to find it in yourself," Ace confessed, looking down sadly. "I only taught you one or two fighting moves. The rest you did on your own..."

"That's not true!" Nesi said, leaning forward to keep Ace's eyes locked with hers. "What happened to your self-confidence, Ace? You did more for me - someone who was clearly going to be an enemy in the future - than anyone else. You gave me a chance when no one else would. You may have pushed me away before, but something in you changed your mind. I had to prove myself and prove that there was something that I could do to make things easier for everyone, but you would've never known that had I not tried to make you proud. I got to see you be a real captain throughout all of this. The more you improved and came into your role as leader, the more I had to push to surpass you. You're getting harder and harder to beat by the day. I don't have a fleet the way that you do. I don't even have a ship! I'm just going through naval training. You did in a year what I may never get to do in the next five. You taught me in months what I would've never had a chance to see in my lifetime. That's not worth celebrating, captain?"

Ace was quiet, unable to answer, but he did take off his hat and put it on Nesi to hide the desire in his eyes. He wasn't going to be able to hide it forever. Just like before, he couldn't hide Nesi's progress as a pirate on his ship, couldn't hide his fear when she was sick, couldn't hide his anger when Pieter took her away from him, couldn't hide his protectiveness when other boys or men cuddled up to her. Right now, he couldn't hide the fact that he wanted to feel her kiss again. They hadn't done that small thing since they met Primrose Sedzig. In that moment, he was losing control of his urges. When Nesi squirmed and tilted his hat up to laugh softly, his floor scrubber looked gorgeous. The boat rocked a bit when they hit something. They reached land.

Nesi helped Ace pull his boat to shore and docked it. They sat together, talking about different things like usual, and expressed concerns about certain things happening in the world from changes to maritime laws to arresting cargo ships. Ace told Nesi about how he felt about the warlords and how he wanted to perhaps change it a bit to match more with the privateers. He wanted to reorganize it somehow. Nesi gave him some ideas and, before long, it was night. They made a fire to camp out and continued speaking until Nesi fell asleep. Ace smiled at her before his smile just disappeared. He sighed, crawled over to her, and kissed her lips.

"You're ruining my dream, floor scrubber," he whispered to her. He started talking in between kisses as his urges grew stronger, "I don't want to be some government dog. I don't even want to be married this fast, but... you're making this so difficult."

She shifted. He stopped, licked his lips, and just stayed next to her. He wouldn't be able to hide it much longer. He wanted a wedding night with his former crewmate.