Of Rivals and Oniichans

CHAPTER 2: Recollections - Part I

NANOHANA, ALABASTA
Two Years Prior

"Hmn..." Ace frowned as he sat, finishing up his 99th plate. He left a message in Drum saying that he'd stay in Alabasta only for ten days. But after the eight day, he still couldn't find her, and that's when he got agitated. Maybe she wouldn't even try to look for him, damn her.

It didn't really get easier when the ninth day came and he found out Blackbeard may be in this town called Erumalu because there was still no news of her crew's arrival.

He chewed on his meat a bit more harshly than usual.

And then he fell asleep.

He was woken up by the sensation of flying, followed by the realization that he was no longer in his seat, covered in rubble, along with a marine he distinctly remembered to be troublesome. The smoker guy started saying something when his thoughts drove back to Luffy.

He imagined actually meeting her and he grinned at the image, his insides swelling with eagerness. He knew what she looked like now, roughly, based on her wanted poster but it has been over three years—

His line of thoughts stopped as he stared in front of him. "What is with all those wall punctures?"

"We went through there."

"...what?"

Smoker ignored him and grunted as he followed the massive tunnel of walls leading to whatever sent them flying. Ace shrugged and followed, primarily out of curiosity. As he walked through each hole he was again reminded of her and how she has run across one of the island's longest cave in an attempt to find the legendary bat as big as a man (that also liked children and chewy substances).

It was something Sabo made up with to make sure she didn't explore that part of the island (it had a lot of snakes), but all Luffy heard was adventure.

He chuckled to himself like an idiot, just before noticing a family in their newly-opened dining room gaping at him. He bowed and apologized for the interruption, before heading his way.

She's probably still the same, he thought with a smirk and imagined how she'd react to seeing him, before his feet stopped at a thought: How will he react?

He's now well past his hormonal stage. Seeing her again shouldn't be torture. He nodded at the conclusion and went on his way.

He found out shortly after that he was wrong. Very wrong.

He saw her eating as much as he had, gobbling up so much food into her rubber mouth that her eyes became slits and she had no idea he was there. She was her usual unruly self, and he had never seen anyone so beautiful.

Then his face violently got shoved to the floor and, after a loud bellow yelling "Straw Hat!", she disappeared.

...

He found them soonafter. It seemed that the Smoker guy had been hunting his sister down for a while and he watched as she nimbly avoided the attacks and even disappeared on him, only to realize that she just fell down a gap.

This made him cackle. That girl never changes.

Then she found her crew (hilariously luring the marines to the whole team) and they run. Ace knew Luffy can't use Haki yet, so he jumped down and showed off his newly acquired power, courtesy of the Old Man.

"Whoa, Ace!? You ate a devil fruit?" She yelled, sparkling, but as much as he wanted to chat right now (or something else) they needed to lose Smoker first.