Firestorm (Ace x OC)

Chapter 17: Before the Heat

Ace took a moment to think about what was just said, "Eleven or Twelve years huh?" he questioned while trying to look the girl in the eyes, a simple nod of her head being the only immediate response. "Why have you been hiding it for so long?" he asked venturing a guess towards why she hadn't figured out her devil fruit abilities. Seeing her eyes dart to the ground immediately told him he had guessed correctly.

Ryoko's gaze never lifted from the sand as she spoke, "Because of what happened the first time... I don't want to tell the others that. I don't want anyone to see it." She began to ramble while clenching her fists as sweat beaded on her forehead. 

Ace's brow furrowed for a moment before he gave a grin of reassurance, "I'm sure the others wouldn't hold whatever happened against you." He put his free hand onto her other shoulder so that she was fully facing him, "You don't want your crewmates to know, perhaps you should try to figure out what you can do. You said you turn into something so that would be a zoan-type fruit, if ever you have the time you could come to the Moby Dick with me. I have a friend named Marco who is a zoan fruit user, he's a phoenix."

The silver blue eyes slowly glanced up to meet the onyx eyes of Ace, seemingly hesitantly as she reached up and grabbed both his hands and took them off her shoulders before releasing them and beginning to walk a few steps after the main group. The girl looked behind her for a moment, seeing Ace standing there for a moment processing, she quickly returned to his side and grabbed his hand, "Come on, I'm not leaving you behind." she says softly. 

This snapped the boy out of his thoughts before he looked at the girl holding his hand and began to walk with her, the silence felt loud but not as awkward as he had thought it would end up. 

It was a couple minutes of this silence before the quiet was broken by Ryoko, "I'm sorry... I just didn't know how to react... I shouldn't just walk away without saying anything..." 

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I figured it might just be helpful. Not to mention the Whitebeard Pirates are all very skilled so you wouldn't need to worry about any of us." Ace says with a cheeky grin, pushing the rim of his hat up a bit, "I can tell you a bit about Marco and Pops if you want."

"Pops?" Ryoko questioned glancing at him, eyebrow raised in interest.

"Yeah, Whitebeard." Ace says with a bright grin, "He's an amazing man, I think of him like my father, all of the crew does too. He is very compassionate, but he does have a certain appearance to uphold, so he can be rather... not hostile... he can be hard on people. But don't worry, since you know me and I know you, he wouldn't be too hard on you."

Ryoko blinked at him a few times, "What about this Marco fella you were talking about?"

"Ah, Pineapple." Ace says causally, grinning wider upon hearing the choked-off laugh Ryoko let out, "He's one of the reasons I joined the Whitebeard pirates, he never did give up on me. He's a good man. I think you and he would get along well."

Ryoko snickered quietly, "And why the nickname?"

"His hair looks like the blond version of the top of a pineapple, he hates the nickname," Ace says with a laugh. "It's half of the reason that I call him that."

The girl smiled at that, "it's a silly but endearing nickname huh?" she says before picking up the pace a little, still dragging the boy behind her.

Ace grins brightly and nods at her comment, "That would be the case," He says as they finally reached the rocks. "We should help the others set up camp," he says causing the girl beside him to nod and walk off towards where Zoro was currently putting up the guys' tent.

The reason was pretty clear as to why Ryoko decided to go help Zoro, as Sanji was putting up the girls' tent and certainly wouldn't allow her to help him. Ryoko grinned slightly toward Zoro as she helped him by holding the middle of the tent up and in place so he could fix it in place between the rocks. Even though it wasn't entirely necessary, it did make putting the tent up faster.