It was now evening and ace & luffy just come out of their room only to see thatch yelling something while climbing the rope.
Ace and luffy went near them. Thatch was now on deck with a, bag?
"What is this thatch?" Asked haruta.
"I was walking in this Town to search for a certain mushroom but nobody has it here so an old man told me that i could find that mushroom in the forest here and look i went there for mushroom and i certainly was able to find them but I found a devil fruit too." Said thatch pulling out the fruit from the bag.
The fruit was large, light purple made up of many small teardrop-shaped components with swirly pattern.
Everybody was yelling something about this fruit or giving thatch their opinion. Because he doesn't know about this fruit and he don't want to lose his ability to swim only to be able to turn into some giraffe.
Pops hit his murakumogiri on the deck a little to gain everybody's attention.
"Calm down everyone. According to our rules whoever found any devil fruit is the owner of that fruit, now" he looked at thatch. "Thatch my son, what do you think about eating this fruit?"
"Umm oyaji i don't know, i mean we don't know what fruit is it and i don't want to lose my ability to swim only to turn into something boring and uncool. Ones i will know what this fruit is, then only I'm going to decide that whether i should eat it or just throw it into the sea or just give it to someone else " said thatch while shrugging his shoulder.
thatch went away to prepare for dinner and everybody again started talking, playing around till dinner. In this all, nobody noticed a certain someone who got his evil eyes on that fruit.
"Luffy wanna play cards with us" ash asked luffy while showing him cards.
Luffy looked at ace with puppy eyes wanting to play with them, he knows that his puppy eyes always work on him.
Ace sighed knowing full well that the moment luffy show his puppy eyes, it's impossible to say no to him.
Sighing again he just nodded his head, luffy face lit up, he yelled a "yosh" and went to play with ash and others.
Ace was there standing near railing looking at luffy who was happily playing with them without a care of the world.
That's when Marco came near him.
"So why luffy was behaving like that? listen, it's been 2 months since luffy is on ship minus the time he was unconscious. Me and thatch had spend most of the time with him and he had never behaved like this for even once, so what happened?" Asked Marco, he was genuinely surprised with the way luffy ran away from teach.
"Tsk. Why would I tell you anything about *my brother* "ace said putting pressure on my brother word.
Marco just looked at him without saying anything, he had a level of patience that even saint could envy.
Ace just glare at him.
"Tsk even if I tell you, you won't believe" ace said, Marco still didn't said anything, still staring at him.
Ace tsk at that.
"Luffy just got a bad vibe from that man, luffy told me that he is not good and luffy's eye for people is damm good, so if he says that someone is bad then they are definately bad" said ace as he turned to Marco ready to listen to a long ass lecture of how they are brothers, a big family and blah blah, but to his surprise Marco didn't said anything he was in his own world, lost in his thoughts.
Now that Marco think about it, "he also used to get a bad vibe from him in the start he would tell oyaji that he didn't like him and all but thatch always told him that it might be because of his dark humour and weird laugh that's why, so over the years Marco got used to it, he no longer got any bad vibe from him even if he felt, he always thought that it's because of his dark humour, but now looking at luffy and listing the same thing that he used to tell oyaji about teach is just making the feeling that something is not right and something bad is going to happen even stronger. Now he doesn't know what to do ? He just can't go and doubt on his brother, right?" Sighing Marco rubbed his hands on his face and he looked at ace. Remembering why he actually decided to talk to ace.
"So i have another question for you ,yoi?" Marco said now again with a calm expression. One could never tell what is going on his mind, the way he always have this cool and calm facade.
"What?" Ace said folding his arms together, looking towards luffy who is happily playing cards.
"So when do you plan on giving in and taking oyaji's mark yoi" Marco asked calmly.
Ace turned to him eyes filled with anger "what".
"You heard me yoi" Marco looked at him.
"You have been on this ship for over 2 months now and luffy's practically adopted by everyone on board including oyaji and me yoi. You are the only one who is holding out and behaving like we are your enemy yoi." Marco pushed off the railings now facing ace properly.
"You could have left at last island, we docked on, but you didn't yoi and you could find any ship to set sail yoi."
Ace face paled at that. He was trembling faintly, freckles standing out more. His fist were clenched.
"You haven't been attacked or harmed, even though you seem to think that we are trying to poison you but you seem to trust that the food we give to luffy is good to eat. You glare and growl at everyone but I've seen you help other crew members with basic chores and other things yoi should I tell you more."
"Listen ace, we want the two of you to stay with us, we want to protect you guys like a family, why don't you just make it official, get the mark and join us, join pops"
Ace bared his teeth, fist clenching - unclenching . Ace was finding it hard to breathe, the question that hit harder than fist of love that ace had been trying to avoid ever since he wake up. His anger simmered up, his shoulder was on fire he glared at Marco.
"You kept on saying that and claiming that you accept everyone as brother but...." Ace trailed off for a moment, a broken laugh squeezed the past hurt and bitterness that had been inside him from years. "You can't actually accept everyone, it's not fucking possible, it will never and i know it." Ace spat those words like venom all while glaring at Marco with fire on his shoulder.
Before marco could say or ask anything, ace went away in his room and this time he didn't even took luffy with him.
In marineford ~
The marine hero was sitting on his chair tapping his foot on floor in and anxious way.
Garp was glad that sakazuki didn't bring luffy or ace here but the problem is he doesn't know what happened to them, he doesn't know if they are okay, he doesn't even know if they are alive-.. no he shouldn't think like that , they are his grandson obviously they are alive probably eating good food.
Knock knock.
"Come in" garp said while sitting on his chair.
"Vice admiral garp, there's a letter for you from north blue- someone named green has sent it to you and it's an emergency."
Garo nodded at the marine when he came and give that letter to garp.
Garp sighed. He is already worried and scared for his grandsons, and now some random person has sent him an emergency letter.
Garp opened that letter.
______________________________________
Garp-san, it's me dadan. I know you are confused about the name on the letter, so first of all luffy and ace is safe and are in safe hands. When the magma admiral came for luffy all of us were scared but one bandit told me that whitebeard pirates were here. Since we are not strong enough to fight an admiral or protect luffy, I told ace to ask WB pirates to help them and they took luffy and ace with them.
And about the name on letter , this is the fake name and adress apparantly we got to know that they are checking every letter which is from east blue so we changed the name and location.
From
Dadan and makino.
PS: all of us are safe here including makino.
______________________________________
Relief wash over him upon hearing that ace and luffy are safe, he might hate pirates but he know that whitebeard is a good man and he will take care of his grandsons and about sakazuki even if he was able to find ace and luffy, he won't be able to win against whitebeard and his skilled commanders.
Garp sat on his chair feeling light headed, his racing heart settling down.
Garp stood up and went towards his ship.
(Here our chapter ends. Thankyou for reading and voting on my story😄)