❛ WE'LL SEE HIM AGAIN! ❜
₊˚៹ . ❪ episode : 101 ❫˖ ₊˚.⋆
࿐┊ CH. 7┊🏴‍☠️🌊👒

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The crew had made a stop again mid way of their walking across the desert, since most of them were hungry or wanted a quick rest before heading off again into the heat storm.

The pirates were all gathered around in some rock cover, and sat on the sand where Sanji had just finished cooking, and a few of them, aka Usopp and Luffy were complaining about not getting enough food.

"Seconds! Seconds!" Luffy chants lifting up his bowl and spoon, hitting them both together to create a loud noise that had Sanji irking at the needy male, and for Happy to look up from his spot on Nami's lap beside Vivi on a rock.

He ended up slamming to bottom of his shoes into Luffy's and Usopp's face, causing the sharp shooter to fall down and for the meat lover to twitch, "Don't act wasteful! You've had enough calories!" Sanji scolded Luffy, still having his foot on his face.

The straw hat wearing male stretched his rubber arm out to steal some of Zoro's meat that he hadn't touched yet, "Hey! Luffy! Why, you-!" He exclaimed watching that happen, and stood up with his fists scrunched up, "Keep your hands off others' food!"

"Why does this happen at every meal?" Vivi asked the girl beside her worriedly, and also tiredly at the boys bantering below, surprised the Monkey D. girl wasn't involved this time but knew she was with her older brother.

Happy shrugged his shoulders perched on one of Nami's leg, joyfully munching on a piece of raw fish that he was lucky he had, "Because (N/N) isn't down there keeping the boys under control." He remarked bluntly, gaining chuckles in response from the other two.

Up on another rock a bit further from the chaotic scene, Ace moved his dark eyes away from his younger brother to his little sister who was beside him sitting on the rock, and also eating the food that Sanji cooked for them all.

"Are you really heating up the bread with your power, snips?" He questioned in a humours voice, watching her hold the food over the flame in her palm ginning cheekily, "You should of asked the cook, I'm sure he would of done it for you."

She tried to ignore her brothers hinting tone that he spoke with, and instead lifted up the now crispy bread crust, "Nooo, I don't wanna bother him with that." She drawled out giggling, and took a huge bite from the bread to talk with her mouth full, "Plus I have my abilities, so why not use them?"

Ace chuckled staring at her fondly, shaking his head a little making his orange hat slip down, "You really haven't changed since we were kids, have you?" He mumbled softly more to himself, and panicked when she almost choked from eating the bread too fast.

She giggled with her cheeks puffed out from the food, swallowing the rest of it down to release a long breath of air satisfied, "One thing has changed since than," She started off wiggling her fingers around, to make flames appear on the tips of them and smirked, "I've gotten better at controlling the elements and such."

He hummed a bit worriedly at how easily the fire was responding to her, not wanting to get into the topic of what she carried inside her, "I expect nothing less from my kid sister." He mused ruffling the top of the hat on her head, making her fake a groan of annoyance, "But there's something else I wanna discuss first."

She perked up confused at his sudden serious attitude, crossing her legs over one another to face him fully instead of gawking at Zoro and Sanji down below, who were currently walking over to where she was arguing.

"Now I don't want to assume anything (N/N), but while I've been here with your crew I've noticed somethings." He began to talk in strong voice, raising his eyebrows up at her with a wide smirk at her lost expression, "One being that the swordsman, and cook fight a lot mostly over you. And second, what's going on between your three?"

You sound like you're assuming, she thought to herself deadpanning at Aces' first sentence, before her eyes go wide quickly averting her gaze to the side, "I have no clue what you're talking about." She claimed embarrassed, and fiddled with the bracelets on her exposed wrists.

He gave his sister a pointed look leaning his face closer to hers, which had her trying to avoid his teasing expression, "C'monnn, I know you can't be that naive." He says trailing his speech, before gently pinching her flustered cheeks, "You may not see it, but something will happen eventually (Y/N). It's pretty obvious how they feel about you."

She paused her movements trying to push away Aces' fingers off of her, pondering on his words that echoed around her mind. Could they really...? she trailed off in a thought, furrowing her brows conflicted as she glanced down to the two who were below on the sand.

Sanji also looked up from putting out the fire with some sand, pulling up his leg from squishing a swearing Zoro with it, and made eye contact with her (E/C) eyes from where she was sitting on the rock beside Ace.

His eyes turned into pink hearts like usually when staring at his beloved, lifting his spare arm up into the air to wave at her giddy, "Hi my angel! You look beautiful as ever!" He gushed out cooing, doing a love dance in circles in his spot.

Zoro scowled hearing the cook flirting with his captain, standing up abruptly to knock his fist back into Sanji's face to make him stop, "Damn curly-brows.." He growled out lowly, before sighing turning to the girl sending her a small smile of greeting before going back to fighting with Sanji.

(Y/N) felt her ears were on fire at their attention they just showed her in front of everyone who was snickering, gripping the straw hat to cover her face more embarrassed. She turned to hide against Aces' side away from them all, not use to the feelings she was experiencing for both males.

Ace just laughed loudly tipping his head back a bit, throwing his muscular arm around his sisters shoulder to squish her against him comforting, "See? What did I tell ya, snips." He snickered mockingly, before a soft smile made its way onto his face, "They'll be great candidates to take care of you and protect you with Luffy while I'm not around to do so."

She straightaway glanced up from under the straw hat confused hearing the last comment, not liking the idea of her older brother leaving but also knew it was going to happen either way. Grumbling she pressed her chin onto his shoulder pouting, and it gained more laughs from Ace pressing a kiss against her temple.

"Okay! Let's get going! Today-" Nami went to announce to the entire crew, dusting off her hands to get rid of any sand on them, but paused spotting Luffy, Zoro and for some reason Happy all wrestling each other beside her.

She felt her veins irk on her forehead, eye twitching annoyed walking up to them eerily quiet, "Knock it..." She brings her fists down to clock them each in the side, causing the trio to fall onto the sand with head bumps, "off!"

(Y/N) was now back on the sand floor with the help of Sanji catching her, which gained him a kiss on the cheek for a reward, and for him to giggle flustered. She crouched down next to the three groaning, sweat dropping at the bumps and picked up Happy to hold him in her arms.

"Now hurry up and clean up!" Nami ordered still irated by the males fighting over the food, pointing at the plates they still haven't fixed up nor cleaned, "We're leaving for Yuba!"

The Monkey D. girl laughed nervously at how scary Nami could get, thankful that she wasn't getting scolded and glanced to the chicken that was now hovering above the air. Her jaw dropped wondering what was happening, and frantically tapped Luffy's arm to gain his attention.

He made a noise feeling her doing that, blinking rapidly sitting up to follow where she was pointing to. His eyes went wide in amazement once he saw the chicken, "Wow! Awesome!"

"You do realise that someone is fishing for it, right?" Happy commented in a blunt tone, looking up at the male who was beaming at the chicken, and to his best friend who was snickering but understand once she heard voices whispering behind the rocks.

The line that was connected to the chicken was quickly pulled back, once the kids stealing it realised they were caught, and it caused Luffy to stand up pulling his sister holding Happy with him, "This mean can talk! The meat's running away!"

Before Zoro could even save his captain from Luffy taking her with him, the straw hat male was picking up his taller sister into a bridal style hold and rushed off after the fleeing food, "Wait, meat!" He called leaping up onto the many rock platforms.

"Hey! Don't drag (Y/N) and Happy into your mess!" The swordsman exclaimed panicked watching them jump across the rocks, sweat dropping hearing her amused laugher and Happy's cries of protest, "Why do I even bother..."

The two children who stole the meat were still trying to out run Luffy, and the two being in his arms, running through the rocks open pathways along the sand, as the only thing the other saw was the floating food piece.

"Get back here meat!" Luffy yelled excitedly grinning like a dork, protecting his sisters head with his palm when he jumped off the rocks onto the sand with Happy trying to break free from the embrace, "Which way? This way?!"

She did spot the two children in the corner of her eyes hiding behind a rock, but decided to leave it knowing how hungry the two must be even if they did take it without asking them. And she also wanted to have some fun also, before the massive fight that was coming up.

"That way, Lu!" She pointed right past the rock where they were, wrapping one arm around Luffy's shoulders while the other one was over Happy's smaller body, who was sulking just wanting to eat his fish, "It went that way!"

He nodded his head rapidly hearing her suggestion, grinning even wider now as he cheered out and zoomed off towards the area she said, laughing more at her and Happy's protest about him running too fast seeing the upcoming larger rocks.

Eventually Luffy gave up trying to run around the sandy place to find the piece of 'flying' meat, and was now walking along side (Y/N), and Happy using his wings to float with them, trailing around some covered area full of taller rock towers.

"Darn it! It's mean, but it ran away!" Luffy grumbled frustrated, holding onto the straw hat on his head with one hand, and they all came to a stop in front of a large grey rock, "I'll make it pay!"

Her and Happy shared a look between each other snickering, feeling bad a bit knowing Luffy just wanted to get it for them to share, and taste even though it was a normal piece of meat. They trio than heard some commotion on one of the rock towers, making them let out a confused noise and look up to see what was causing the sounds.

"No! Hey, you three!" They heard a guff, older males voice suddenly call out urgently from up top on the rock, one that belonged to Scorpion who was hunting Ace down for his bounty, "Run! If that blows up, it'll take half of Alabasta with it!"

A little purple ball that had black circles on it was falling down to them, causing Happy to instantly freak out flying rapidly around the siblings head yelling, while the two just looked dumbly at the object heading straight towards them from in the sky.

"No! It'll blow the Grand Line to the moon!" Scorpion recoiled back onto the flat surface of the rock, covering his head with his arm to shield himself. However nothing happened with the explosion, and he peeked his head back over the side, "Hey, guys?!"

He was expecting them to be down on the sand, but exclaimed surprised seeing the trio now standing behind him on the rock. Luffy was tilting his head, Happy was sweat dropping nervously, and (Y/N) was patting the emu beside her that bent down a bit for her to do so.

"Wh-what happened to the bomb?!"

She glanced away from the emu making cooing noises from her petting it, lifting up her hand to show the older male the purple bomb safely in it, "You mean this?"

"No-!" He drawled out dramatically shuffling back with his hands on either side of his head, forgetting about the ledge behind him as he tipped over now. Yelping panicked, he catched himself with one of his legs dug into the rock, and it made the trio all laugh amused.

"Quit laughing and help me up!" He yelled furiously to them waving his arms around, feeling himself slipping slowly, and took the hand Luffy outstretched for him as he was pulled back up onto the surface.

(Y/N) was patting his back gently seeing how stressed he was smiling at Scorpion, and had Happy perched up around her shoulders looking down at the male weirdly. He was muttering to himself panicked, and looking through his telescope for his target, that had now disappeared from view.

"Popo!" He called to his emu friend gaining a snort back in response, and pulled down the scope from his eye, "We're heading out to where he was!" He hopped onto the saddle around the emu's back, and motioned for the dumbfounded trio to join him also, "Get on kids!"

Luffy made sure to keep his sister in front of him so he could keep an eye on her, and Happy who was clinging onto his best friend head for dear life. They were running across the desert on Popo, not even worried to where the older man would take them.

"So, where are we heading, old guy?" (Y/N) chirped her question over the loud wind rustling over them, holding onto her straw hat with one hand, and leant back against Luffy's back to not full off the saddle.

Scorpion just joyfully laughed wearing a toothy grin over his mouth, "You're very luck kids!" He answered glancing at them through his shades, before back to the road ahead of them, "You get to witness me, the world's greatest upcoming bounty hunter, locked in battle!"

"You're a bounty hunter, old guy?" Luffy asked curiously over his sisters shoulder, and Happy's head, still holding onto the straw hat, and the two a little in front.

"Don't be scared when I say that I've been on many heart-pounding adventures!" He began to brag at the three behind him, and also told them about all his so called accomplishments, "I've fought epic battles with everyone from Double Barrel Danny to Hellbattler Luther and they always begged me for their lives!"

This had Happy deadpanning not believing him, but the siblings buying into his fake fights, and shared an excited look between each other, "Wow! For reals?!"

"No, but someday it will be!" Scorpion declared determined grinning. The duo just laughed nodding their heads in agreement, and made Happy sweat dropping nervously, "In any case, I'm gonna beat Fire Fist Ace! Everyone else but him would be a cinch!"

(Y/N) giggled quietly to herself loving how confident this old man was, and found it amusing that he wanted to fight Ace, "Good luck with doing that, old man." She encouraged, and patted his back rapidly also.

"Hey, don't mock me!" Scorpion scolded at her sarcastic tone she was speaking with, looking at the three for a second growing serious now, "When I do something, I don't kid around! Yes! Men live for big ambitions! I have to show 'em that!"

The siblings and Happy shared a glance between each other lost to what he meant, and went to ask him, but was interrupted by his bellowing call, "Here comes Scorpion, the gallant man!"

Popo now speed off as quick as he could making the sand underneath his feet to fly up everywhere, and for the trio to exclaiming out startled, clinging onto one another as they arrive over a small hill back to where the other Straw Hats were.

None of them saw the trio missing members of the crew on the emu, and only spotted Scorpion pointing down at a glaring Ace stood on a rock, "There you are, Fire Fist Ace!" He called out to him gaining some confused noises in response, "I'm Scorpion! The indomitable hero! I've come from afar to challenge you! Let's fight, fair and square!"

His two children Chip and Tip were also there with the pirates, hiding behind a rock not wanting to let their father see that they were away from the Badlands, and out about looking for him. That was the very reason they left their house, was to bring him back home with them.

(Y/N) now poked her head around the older males shoulder, holding onto Happy's paws around her neck to grin brightly at their friends at the camp site, "Hey everyone! You're here too!" She greeted cheerfully, and pulled Luffy's arm to show he was with her also.

Seeing them three on the back of the emu had the crew repeating their names surprised, Sanji to break out into a panicked sulk for his beloved's well-being, and Zoro to sigh heavily also sweat dropping cornered wondering how she and the other two got into that situation

"What's wrong, old guy?" Luffy asked curiously spotting how Scorpion was nervous all of a sudden, and had sweat running down his forehead staring at Ace who was smirking cockily.

The older male snapped out of his trance turning back to the trio behind him, "Eh? N-no, uh..." He trailed off with a fake laugh, gripping onto the metal handles of the saddle looking back at Ace, "So sorry! Your luck's run out! Your heroic saga that's told on the sea ends today!"

Luffy laughed loudly with his sister waving his arms around over their heads, "This is so exciting!" He cheered and directed his next words at Ace to remind him, "It's a serious fight! Don't pull any punches!"

"I wasn't planning too!" He exclaimed back annoyed, "But there's something I wanna ask him, too!" He added staring at the freaking out bounty hunter, "Move aside you three, and take (N/N) to safety already!"

Hopefully this ends well for both parties, she thought worriedly getting picked up by Luffy again off the emu running towards Ace, and landed onto the sand holding onto Happy in her arms beside her brother watching the fight closely.

⚔️🏴‍☠️⚔️

After the duel between Ace and Scorpion which of course ended with the fire user wining, and for him to find out that the bounty hunter didn't take down Blackbeard, so know he had no reason to stay around expect for his sibling's that he knew he would see again.

In the end Scorpion's children had convinced him to stop, even if he was doing it for their sake but couldn't see his sons in tears any longer, and were now heading back to the Badlands away from the crew.

The sun was setting over the desert also slowly creating a beatufil orange hue over the lands, and lit up everyone's features on them. Ace was stood in front of a confused Zoro, and Sanji, the male asking to talk to them privately before he went off on his hunt for Blackbeard,

"Is everything alright? How come you called me and moss-head over to talk?" The cook questioned a bit concerned to Ace, voice coming out a bit more aggressive when he motioned Zoro who scowled in result standing beside him near a rock.

Ace waved them off placing a hand on his hat to adjust it to he could see them better, "Nah, I'm alright. I just wanted to talk with you about (Y/N)." He assured to two, who tensed up nervously hearing their captains name, and he smiled amused noticing that, "She may be a bit oblivious to your advances, but I'm not and I've seen it since the moment I joined to travel with you guys."

The two were internally panicking now not knowing what to expect from her older brother, faces going pale as Sanji tried to say something, but Ace just held out a hand for him to be quiet, "Let me finish talking first."

He chuckled once more finding it amusing how nervous they were getting, "I have no problem with it, as long as you don't break my little sisters heart." He warned with a murderous glint in his eyes, causing them to rapidly nod their heads agreeing anyway, "But that's why I have a favour to ask of you."

"Well if it's to do with her, ask away than." Zoro remarked in his deep voice, crossing his arms over his chest to lean his weight on one foot staring at Ace for him to continue, as Sanji hummed in agreement surprisingly not butting heads with moss-head.

"As you can already tell I won't be traveling with you guys anymore," The fire uses started off in a serious tone now, flicking his eyes in between the two males listening closley, "which means it will be up to Luffy to continue looking out for (Y/N) alone. But that's where I want you two do that in my place, because I won't always be around to be her shoulder to cry on, nor protect her."

A silence now took over the three a bit away from the others, who were near some other rocks laughing and talking to each other as they waited for them, and waved goodbye to Scorpion and his children on Popo.

"It's not like I don't trust the rest of the crew with her, but I know you two will be there for (Y/N) in a different way compared to them." Ace added on still looking at the quiet males seriously, fiddling with the orange and red bracelet she gave him years ago, and bowed a bit to show his thankfulness, "It may seem like a lot to ask of you, but please take good care of her for me."

Sanji's hair was covering his eyes from view which made a shadow appear over them, similar to how Zoro was beside him also. The cook places a blunt in his mouth not lighting it, a slow but soft smile crossing his lips now glancing at Ace, "You didn't need to ask that, caring and protecting (Y/N) comes easy to me. Just like cooking."

"Yeah. what shitty-brows said." Zoro remarked hating agreeing with Sanji but would for now, staring at her figure a few meters away laughing loudly at Luffy's funny face, making him fondly smirk watching her, "She's our captain, of course we will do that."

Ace gaped at them both a bit shocked to see how easily they melted into softer versions of themselves because of his sister, before snickering gently and nodded his head in approval, "Very well than, glad to know I'm leaving her in good hands."

Turning around he walked back to the others waiting still for them, with Sanji and Zoro following him also to stand behind (Y/N) holding onto Happy next to Luffy, tearily staring at Ace who she knew was going to leave now.

"Are you really leaving, Ace?" Chopper asked hesitantly looking at the male with his big eyes, and gripped onto the Monkey. D girls pant material with his hove.

Ace nodded his head humming in acknowledgement, "Seeing as Blackbeard isn't in Alabasta, I have no reason to be here." He answered gripping onto his bag trap around his left shoulder, "Scorpion says there's a mean who saw him in the west." He digs for something in his pant pockets, and pulled out a small piece of white paper, "Guess I'll check it out."

(Y/N) sniffled loudly with a sad pout over her wobbly lips not wanting her brother to leave so early, taking a step forward to him seeing him motioning to come closer. He chucks the folded piece of paper at her, causing the girl to catch it with hands once she placed Happy down beside her carefully.

"Always hang on to that." He told grinning widely at her, Luffy and Happy, lifting up a hand to affectionately ruffle the top of her hat not wanting to leave them either, "That paper will bring us together again sometime."

She nodded slowly understanding what he meant, looking back to Luffy who gently grabbed the paper to place it into his hat, and she bent down to pick back up Happy who hugged around her neck sensing she was upset right now.

"It's natural for a big brother to worry about his three bungling kid siblings." Ace mused fondly flashing a closed eyed smile at the crew, opening them back up to send Sanji and Zoro a knowing look, "They might be a bit much for you to handle, but take good care of them."

The trio all tilted their heads to the side blinking owlishly in sync at Ace, not getting at what he meant and didn't know if they should feel offended or not. Yet the childhood trio knew he meant well, and he always did when it came to them.

"(Y/N), Luffy, Happy." Ace called their names now serious once again, the sun setting behind making him have a orange hue around his figure, "When we next meet, we'll all be top pirates!" He declared confidently grinning, earning bright smiles from them, "Come to the top!"

Before anymore conversation could go on between the four of them, the crew heard familiar voices of Dip and Chip calling out from in the distance, "Hey!" They were waving goodbye at the pirates, which had the Monkey D. siblings giggling and waving back excitedly to them.

However when they turned back Ace was no longer standing in front of the group, having taking that chance to go knowing it would be harder to leave if he stayed any longer. It had (Y/N) frowning sadly wishing she could of hugged him once last time, but also understand why he left without any words.

She felt Happy squish his furred cheek against hers in comfort gaining a snort from her since it tickled, and felt a warm hand gently touch her shoulder. Turning around she meet Zoro's reassuring smile, and Sanji's soft one from a little behind, causing her features to brighten up instantly.

"We'll see him again, don't worry (N/N)!" Luffy assured grinning at her toothily, sliding his rough textured hand into his sisters giving a firm squeeze, and raised them up into the air cheering, "I'm sure of it!"

─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
ace is now officially gone from the chapters until flashbacks happen or if he's mention and will probably only appear when he yk.... gets caught and that shitty painful arc happens 💔 not excited to write it but anyways that a bit away so im not gonna stress about it yet ajsnsssns even though i
am thinking about it

the boys have made a promise to ace now about y/n eeeehhh!! lets see where this leads them and their bond shall we?? i have a lot of things planned for them and this fic so get ready guys😍

i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and pleaseeee don't be silent readers, it really helps to
keep me motivated lmao :') kisses🫶