Chapter 28
Whitebeard had gotten lucky today it seemed. Ace hadn't tried to ambush him in his sleep this time, no, the little brat had gotten distracted by one of the photos on his desk. A photograph of Rouge and him, her sitting on the arm of his chair, laughing, holding a fancy necklace she had stolen earlier that day. Ace put down the paint gun, or at least Whitebeard thought it was a paint gun, and went up to his desk to get a proper look.
"You have photos of my mum?" Ace startled.
Whitebeard smiled. "Hundreds. I tried to get that mother of yours to be my daughter for years! Guarararara, you would have been my grandson if I had succeeded, and you would have hated it. You think we baby you now," Whitebeard snorted fondly. "My grandchildren get spoiled rotten."
He leaned over, grabbing the photos from his draw. Ace began to pull away, but Whitebeard placed his hand on Ace's back, coaxing him back down. Ace startled, but settle against him, carefully taking the photos.
Rouge with her flower crown. Sailing in the Little Red, clinging to her hat. Posing in a kimono Izo made for her. Planting kisses on Marco's, Jozu's, Fossa's Thatch's, Shank's and Buggy's faces, half the kids were horrified, but Thatch was beaming, until she ruffled his hair. There was another photo of her booting Roger overboard.
Ace's eyes were bright with wonder, and Whitebeard couldn't help but ruffle his son's hair. Finally after all these months he managed to finally get Ace to stop running around ambushing people. Bloody Spade Pirates. They were all little terrors. He insisted that Rouge had taught them her ways, but she denied it, even after all this time.
Like hell he'd believe that.
.::.
"WE HAVE A WAY TO LURE ACE IN!" Thatch screamed, as Marco entered the dining hall.
Marco rubbed his ear. "With what exactly yoi?"
"You don't need any help," Thatch snorted. "He never does anything to you. He's always polite and happy around you. But just in case I suppose I should tell you."
Haruta beamed. "Tell us!"
"Show him photos of Rouge! Pops got them out and Ace has been sitting in there with him for hours. Peaceful and calm." Thatch awed. "It was beautiful."
"Rahahahaha!"
They all jumped. As one they turned to face Rouge, who was seated upon a table, a table now full of dirty plates. Thatch screeched.
"WHY ARE MY PLATES DIRTY?"
"I'm going to up your torment," Rouge cooed sweetly. "Can't make it that easy for you assholes to win over my kid."
"Why can't you torture Marco?" Thatch hissed, waving her aside, trying to gather up the dishes. "He's the one Ace is usually calm around!"
"Because Marco takes the time to talk to him and get to know him," Rouge said, smiling fondly. "As good of a big brother as ever, aren't you, darling?"
Marco smiled warmly, clearly pleased. Thatch huffed, shaking his head. He was a good big brother too, and he had taken plenty of time to ease Ace into their lives.
"Also, your reactions are far more delicious than Marco's." Rouge smirked darkly.
Thatch winced.
Ah, that was the main reason then. Rouge always enjoyed messing with people.
.::.
Rouge laid on the sunbed she had dragged out next to Sam (Marco's right hand in the medical division), Tate (one of the head nurses) and Cornelia. They were all soaking in the sun's rays as explosions went off in the Black Moby sailing next to the Moby Dick. Barry had declared a paint ball battle against the Whitebeards, except the Spades had hoarded the paint guns to themselves and ambushed Atmos when his back was turned. Now there was a lot of screaming and running, while Ace sulked on the arm of Whitebeard's chair. Teach eating a pie right below him, laughing at the chaos across from them.
"I wanna go over there," Ace pouted.
Whitebeard huffed. "If I let you go over there Fossa will have even more walls to fix by the time you're finished with your chaos."
"I'll give Fossa a sword fight later to let him get off some steam," Rouge said. "It's been a while since I fought 'Fossa the Flaming Katana'."
"Because your son and his crew keep breaking my ships!" Fossa scowled, carrying a bunch of nails and a hammer in his free hand as he walked past, grumbling.
"Sorry!" Ace held up his hands, smiling sheepishly.
"If Eddy stopped throwing him through walls that would help!" Rouge said, then paused. "Wallace, don't throw Namur overboard!"
Wallace had Namur dangling over the railings of the Black Moby, but he looked up when Rouge called.
"But we're both fishmen! We'll be fine!"
"Yeah, we're good!" Namur threw her an upside down thumbs up.
So a thumbs down?
"Urgh," Rouge groaned.
She heard Namur squawk as he was dropped, then a splash. This was New World, the idiots. Yes, Namur was a seasoned swimmer, and a fishman, but the seas was a wrathful queen. They couldn't trust that she would remain as relaxed as she was now.
"Rouge!" Haruta yelled, marching out the side door of the Moby Dick. "Why are all my clothes gone? I don't want any dresses!"
"It wasn't me this time," Rouge admitted, holding up her hands.
"Yeah, it was me," Cornelia admitted. "You took my hairbrush."
Haruta groaned. "I used it to hit Barry!"
"Yes, and you never replaced it," Cornelia huffed.
.::.
Ace paused when Po- Whitebeard began laughing. Ace couldn't help but smile with him. The past six months had been a strange but nice time. He hadn't been sure what to think about this 'war' with the Whitebeards, but most of them seemed to really enjoy it, and Ace knew most of the Spades did too. There was some who didn't want to participate, which was fine, and the Spades left those folk alone. Deuce and Mihar didn't really join in either, and none of them tried to convince them to join in.
Besides Mihar was doing a good job driving people crazy anyway. He was surprisingly ruthless with correcting people's spelling mistakes whenever they tried to write up a supply report.
"Commander Haruta!" one of Haruta's division members rushed in, his face pale. He was actually shaking. "T-The snail-"
He had a den den mushi in his hands, and he was shaking like a leaf. Whitebeard's brow furrowed as Marco and Haruta approached. She took the snail from the man, patting his shoulder.
"Hello, Commander Haruta speaking," Haruta greeted. "Who is scaring my division and why?"
"Mamamamama! I don't want to talk to some little girl. Where is Newgate?"
Haruta scowled, but Whitebeard quickly reached over and plucked up the snail from her hands, with a grimace. Ace saw his mum get up and walk over, her eyes darkening as she watched Whitebeard.
"Don't speak to my daughter that way, Linlin," Whitebeard scolded.
"Newgate! I've been meaning to speak to you. The news on the seas is that you took the Portgas witch aboard your ship."
.::.
Whitebeard's scowl deepened. Rouge gripped the pommel of her swords, agitated and could see Marco approaching Ace's side, glaring up at the den den mushi.
"If you're finally done with him, I want the boy. I'll marry him to one of my daughters and finally have a head witch in my family-"
"Like hell you ugly wench!" Rouge spat, yanking down Eddy's hand to yell at Linin.
"Rouge! How are you still alive, you little bitch?"
"Listen here, you nasty piece of shit, if you so much as look at my son I'll tear you apart piece by piece, starting with your fucking ass. I'll shove your ship up it so hard you'll be using it as your new mouth piece to fill your fat ugly gob!" Rouge barked. "And then what I'll do after that is rip out your eyes, shove them down your throat to go with that ship, and fed you to the sharks!"
"You little whore! I thought you were dead already-"
"Yeah, killed by the marines-"
"Then why don't you do us all a favour and stay dead. You weakling! Killed by a bunch of puny marines-"
"Big talk coming from you, you miserable old hag-"
"Enough!" Eddy snapped. "If I have to listen to both of you screaming at each other I'll get a headache! Linlin, you're asking me to hand over one of my precious sons to you. Don't you know what that means? I will have war if you so much as come near one of my kids."
"You've gotten old, Newgate! My children can beat yours in a blink of an eye, and when they do, I'll drag the little witch out by his hair and make his mother watch as he becomes one of my kids!"
"You go ahead and try, Linlin, and if you dare do so, it won't be the Whitebeards you'll have to worry about. I'll kill you myself!" Rouge snarled.
Whitebeard sneered. "Your brats are a hundred years too early to even think about taking on my family, Linlin. And it once again won't be them you have to worry about. If Rouge gets to you first, then she can deal with you as the boy's mother, but if I get a hold of you I'll finish you off myself as the boy's father!"
He hung up the snail after that, growling. He handed it back to Haruta and shook his head.
"Stupid old woman."
"If it helps we could leave..." Ace began hesitantly.
"No!" Whitebeard crossed his arms, then smirked. "And you didn't complain."
Ace blinked. "About what?"
"I called you my son to another crew and you didn't say a word against it, son." Whitebeard grinned, and he laughed when Ace blushed, bright red.
"Seriously?" Ace complained. "That is what you're thinking about right now?"
"Pops has his priorities yoi," Marco teased.
"And you still haven't said anything," Whitebeard laughed.
"I hate you. So much," Ace grumbled.
"Zehahahahaha, we wouldn't let anybody else take our favourite witch!" Teach laughed.
"I'm your only witch," Ace pointed out, then groaned. "The only witch! Not yours!"
"Guarararara!"
"By the seas..." Ace shook his head. "At this rate I might just give in to save whatever is left of my sanity..."
"Give in to the dark side," Thatch cackled a he approached. "We have cookies."
"Tempting," Ace admitted. "But are you really sure about this? If Big Mom comes here to capture me-"
"Hell no!" Thatch latched on to Ace, dragging him into an embrace. "Not my cute little brother!"
"Get off-" Ace hissed, scrambling to get free.
"I'll protect you." Thatch petted his head, but Ace hissing the way he was reminded Rouge of a feral cat, or herself, either way worked. "That scary lady won't have you- GAH! What are you six?!"
Ace had licked Thatch's hand and retreated behind Whitebeard's leg. Eddy laughed and patted his head. Rouge smiled warmly at the sight. Yeah, Ace would fit perfectly with the Whitebeards, and he did need a father figure who he could look up too, not one who gave him a legacy of pain like Roger did. The thought made her feel bitter, but it was true. Roger's death did lead to their suffering, Ace's and hers both. If he had held on, didn't need to go out with a crowd before him, then Ace would have been safer.
Baterilla may not have happened, or at least Roger could have protected them from it.
"She won't come after us yoi," Marco explained. "This is just some big talk from her. If she does then she'll know the trouble it'll cause, but now that she knows both Pops and Rouge are here? Well that will certainly give her pause."
"And if it doesn't, I'll just put a pause on her life." Rouge grinned sharply.
.::.
Rouge knocked on Eddy's door late that night. She opened up the door once she was invited in and startled when she saw Ace in his room. He was sitting at the end of Eddy's bed, right next to Stefan who cuddled into him, the giant dog snoring away against Ace.
"Hey..." Ace greeted quietly.
Whitebeard chuckled. "You're got as good timing as ever, Rouge. He was telling me about Roger."
"Damn, I was just coming in to steal your alcohol," Rouge muttered, earning a scowl.
"Don't you dare!"
"He's more upset at that than at the Roger news," Ace scoffed.
"When you came in looking so solemn I thought you had something serious to tell me," Eddy said, grinning lightly. "I don't care who your parents are, Ace. I might love Rouge, because she is my best friend, but even if she hadn't been around, I would still want you on my crew. Everyone is a child of the seas once they set out to sail. That is all that is important."
Rouge sighed and leaned her back against the door, stretching out her haki. Nobody was nearby. Good.
"You know exactly why Ace feels like this though. Why he believes it's important," Rouge said softly. "You know what they say about Roger."
"Yeah, that is true, but they say horrible things about me too in the world," Eddy said, surprisingly softening when he looked at Ace. "Those people who spread stories aren't important at the end of the day. They didn't know Roger, and they don't know me either. They certainly didn't know your mother. The idiots have been trying to erase her name from the world and treat her as if she was some fragile, lonely woman-"
"I like being alone," Rouge admitted, swiping Eddy's alcohol to sip at it herself.
"Shut up you," Eddy hushed. "I'm having a serious conversation with our son."
Rouge smothered down a laugh. "Y'know I never thought I'd hear those words, but please, carry on. I appreciate it."
Whitebeard rolled his eyes, but returned his attention to Ace. "I have to admit it is a bit of a surprise. Sure, there is only one man in the world Rouge would have had a child with, but you don't act anything like Roger, that's for sure." Eddy eyed her. "No, you seem to have taken after the lesser pain in the ass."
"Cheers to that!" Rouge held up her alcohol.
"You're cheering with my alcohol." Whitebeard glowered.
"Mine now. Pirate thief. Ha."
Whitebeard sighed. "Exactly what I meant. Lesser pain in the ass. Unlike those idiots who spread stories around about him, I actually knew Roger, as did Rouge. He was the biggest dumbass in the world, and somehow still managed to charm your mother."
"It took a while," Rouge admitted. "But yeah, I fell in love with him, and I didn't regret a moment of it."
"Even after he got Garp chasing you?" Eddy teased.
Rouge groaned. "That fucker! That was his fault."
Ace laughed softly, startling them both. He threw them a small smile as he got up and stretched. "I think I might need to have a chat with the Spades. Thanks for the chat... Pops..."
Ace quickly left, and Rouge turned to face Whitebeard, and laughed when he let out a victory cheer.
"You big softie," Rouge teased.
"Guarararara, I got another son."
"You're too old for anymore kids," Rouge scoffed.
"Apparently not, because I got another one nice and easy."
"Nice and easy? That took six months of slow torment and suffering," Rouge chuckled. "I thought Fossa was going to throw himself overboard to not have to fix anything else you lot break."
"Worth it."
"The Spades are," Rouge agreed, crossing her arms. "But Ace the most."
"Give credit where it is due, your boy picked a good crew to sail with," Eddy said.
"True. They still sailed on the Spadille despite the fact she was haunted," Rouge laughed softly. "What will happen to the Spadille now?"
"She can sail as one of the sister ships," Eddy said. "I know there is a little lady on it. She grew surprisingly fast, considering the Spades haven't set sail for that long."
"True, she is a spirited young girl," Rouge said, smiling fondly. "So, to our son?"
"To our son."
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