PELAGIC - Ace x Reader x Law

CHAPTER ONE: Fight Back

"Luffy, if you mention food one more time, I'm gonna whack ya." 

"But Aaaaaace! I'm staaaaaarving! Even my hunger is hungry!" 

"You literally just ate, you glutton!" 

"Sabooooooo! You're not supposed to be the mean one! Ace is!" 

"Hah?!" 

Taking a deep breath, Ace decided to not use his trusty steel pipe to cave his little brother's skull in. Instead, he just pinched the bridge of his nose. It had certainly taken some time, but he had eventually learned to cope with the Luffy's...personality. 

"I hope we can find something valuable this time." Sabo grunted as he climbed over what looked to be some kind of splintered rocking chair. 
"I mean, even if we don't, we can just go slice up one of the gators down by the river and sell the skin. Those nobles'll pay anything for crap to make their fancy bags and stuff." Ace responded, further up the steep trash pile than the other two. 

"Yeah, the skin is too chewy, anyway." Luffy piped up, one hand holding his oversized straw hat to his head so it wouldn't fly away. 
"Duh. That's cuz you ain't supposed to eat it." 

Either way, they had to hunt at least something on their way back home. They had promised Dadan, after all. It was a fair trade. They caught them animals to eat, and in turn, Dadan let them live there. She didn't really have a choice since Garp was involved, but it made things more civil. 

Once Ace made it to the top, he slung his weapon over his shoulder and scanned the unsightly vista of Gray Terminal. Trash, trash, scavenger, trash, scavenger, scavenger, little girl being dragged along by a man, scavenger, trash-

Blinking himself out of his groove, Ace took a double take, eyes honing in on what he had scanned over. Just as he thought. A young girl, likely no older than his own little brother, was being dragged along through the dirt by the hair. The man who had hold of her looked like the typical scum that usually lurked around, but what had Ace irked was the fact that the girl wasn't putting up a fight. 

"What's up? Seen something that looks like it'll fetch a good price?" Sabo joined him atop the unsanitary hill, following his gaze until it landed on the pair. "Yikes. I don't know about you, but that looks like some bonified slave trader shenanigans if you ask me." 

Slowly tapping the pipe against his shoulder, Ace nodded in agreement, ignoring Luffy as he clambered up to squat on his other side. 
"I dunno what's going on," He hummed, pinky finger shoved deep into his nostril. "but what are we doing now?" 

The air was silent as the two elder boys shared a look. Whilst no words were spoken, their conversation was loud. 
"Throttle the guy, save the kid." Ace announced assertively, having already started sprinting down the other side of the hill before he even finished speaking. 
"Right!"

"This is what you get for biting me, you little bitch. I don't care who you belong to, you're not getting away with that shit." 

The trio had reached the pair pretty quickly, and were now close behind, tailing them just in case he wasn't the only one. 

"Right. I get it." The girl mumbled, completely limp as she was dragged along the coarse earth. It would have been shocking if she hadn't collected shattered glass and metal deep in her skin. 

"Don't play smart with me, brat! You just wait until the boss finds out about your lil episode! You'll be even more sorry when I do that!" The kid yelped out when he yanked her hair harshly, and she curled in on herself a little. 

"I..I'm not..! I said I understood!" There was a clear shake to her voice now, and Sabo grit his teeth. 
"That bastard..!" He hissed under his breath, fist squeezing tight by his side. It really was infuriating to see, but Ace still couldn't comprehend why that girl wasn't even attempting to fight back.