A Strange New Little Brother

Vacation

Lots of Ace fluff in this one. The Whitebeards are the best family for our baby faupta. Enjoy~

Ace was behind Marco's leg a bit, Haruta with them, too. They were on a protected island and Ace was allowed on it. Nobody would hurt him, and they'd stay there for a couple days so he could thoroughly explore it. They were wonderfully patient with him stopping to sniff everything, looking inside shop windows, asking what things were.

He had the mark stamped on his shoulder, so nobody should bother him, though they were staying with him anyways for safety. Couldn't have some idiot ruin it and hurt him. Nobody would let anybody else hurt him, even if it was attacking one of their own citizens. Their members came first.

Ace got lots of treats, a lot of candy and ice cream. He even got a snow cone but that give a brain freeze he'd neve felt before, and freaked him out. Haruta said it was normal when he got a brain freeze and got scared at the new feeling. So, after that he ate the cold things more slowly. He was allowed inside most shops because Marco was with them.

So many looked at him strangely or in shock, but knew he wasn't dangerous when he was with the commanders. They got him all sorts of different foods, and he was very interested in a red beaded necklace at a jewelers. Haruta bought it for him, and now he had a necklace that he seemed very proud of and showed it to everybody once they got back on the ship for the day.

"Ace like beads," he said at dinner, admiring it. Whitebeard said it looked very nice on him, and he smiled brightly at it, nodding. After he ate dinner, the faupta raced to his bedroom to go to bed, excited about going back on the island the next day.

The commanders were left eating their food, able to tell where Ace had gone, straight to bed. "He's so damn cute sometimes," Thatch comments while putting his cleaned plates in the dishwasher since Ace had zoomed off the minute he finished his meal.

Whitebeard said he was happy Ace was enjoying himself. "He got many weird looks, of course, but was so distracted by everything he didn't notice. He learned all about the island's shops. We spoiled him," Haruta explained.

Marco thought he deserved it. After being kept on the ship for so long, after healing Pops, after saving Thatch's life, he deserved to be pampered for a long time. He was their baby and they'd do anything to make him a happy one. After they were all done with dinner, they retired to bed, and once everyone was asleep, Marco had no doubt they could all tell Ace was taking advantage of the quiet nighttime to roam the ship.

Not loudly or quickly, just wandering around various places. He knew not to go outside during the night, so he kept all of his exploration inside. In the morning, there was a scratching at his door. He sat up and yawned before getting up. He opened the door to see Ace. "On island, on island," he said. Marco grinned and said they had to have breakfast first. "Then fast breakfast."

"Okay, I'll eat faster than usual," Marco said, and went to get changed before going to the galley with Ace, who scarfed down his food and went to his room to get his new beads and then came out and impatiently waited for Marco to finish, who did eat faster. Marco thought it was adorable, like almost everything Ace did.

When they went on the island, this time the went into the forest of the place, Thatch tagging along this time. He explored everywhere, seeing new creatures and plants that he inspected, but sometimes growled and hissed at. Surprisingly, he was the most suspicious about big insects.

Marco handed him an apple from one of the trees at the edge fo the forest, and Ace ate it whole, very happy about his outing. But halfway through, he said he was tired and wanted a nap. So Marco picked him up and carried him around before his nap was over and he was reenergized to continue his outing.