My Own One Piece.

Alabasta

Heat.

Not something I was unfamiliar with. I actually preferred the heat to the cold.

However, given that I was made out of water and we were currently in a fucking desert.

I was dying. I was going to die of heat stroke.

"Are you okay, babe?" Ace asked me.

"I'm alright... We just need to find some shade before I pass out." I said. Ace sent a pity frown my way.

"I guess being water and hacking the system isn't what it's cracked up to be." Ace said.

"Nope." I groaned. Ace turned back to looking for a town. I know he wanted to offer my a piggy back ride, but given the fact that the desert heat was already hot enough and the fact my husband was made of fire. Ace knew it would only make me worse than I already was.

I wiped sweat away from my forehead for what felt like the millionth time.

"I don't even have my body in its water form. Why am I so hot? I'm normally resilient against heat and I've shed my water form for the time being. I haven't been in water form in almost four months now. So why does it feel like I'm falling victim to heat stroke? Am I dehydrated?" I thought. I grabbed my water canester and took a swig from it.

"Well that's slightly better." I thought. Ace looked over at me again. He turned away, but not before I saw the scowl on his face. I felt bad. I know Ace was blaming himself.

I moved closer to Ace. I reached out and opened my mouth to talk to him. But suddenly, my world turned black.

Ace's POV

"Uhn..." I barely heard Aoi grunt, but the sound of a body hitting the sand was loud and clear. I turned and saw Aoi face down in the sand. Her hand out towards me like she had tried to grab me before she passed out.

"Aoi!" I ran to her side and dropped to my knees.

"Heat exhaustion." I murmured to myself. I knew I had to move her before her conditioned worsened but picking her up could also make it worse for her, too.

"Sorry, Aoi. Looks like your perfect husband isn't so perfect." I thought. I growled at myself and scooped my wife up in my arms and ran in one direction.

"Please. Please. Please. An oasis or a town. Either. Please, show up!" I thought. I was in luck. An oasis showed up on the path I was heading. I ran there and set Aoi down under a tree. I walked over to the water and put my hand in.

"It's cold." I said. I reached in my bag and pulled out a cloth. I dipped the cloth in the water and then returned to Aoi's side. I dabbed at her head carefully. Her body seemed to relax.

"Man, am I glad I snuck in to that class." I murmured. Aoi would teach basic medical knowledge to our brothers every now and then. I happend to sneak away from my commander duties to watch my wife teach a class. The class on heat exhaustion.

Time skip.

Night had fallen and the temperature had started to drop. I cooked some food for me and Aoi as I waited for her to wake up.

"Mm... Uh... Ace?" I heard behind me. I turned and saw Aoi sit up, her hand against her forehead. Probably a pounding headache.

"There you are." I said quietly. I grabbed another cloth and dipped it in the freezing oasis water before returning to her side and dabbed at her head with it. She shivered and cuddled in to me.

"I should have come alone... You wouldn't have collapsed like that if I had." I said. She scowled at me.

"You also would have been captured by marines by now." She said. I sighed and kissed her head.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Cold. And hungry." She said. I smiled.

"Well, I have remedies for both." I said. I scooped her up and carried her over to the fire, sitting down with her in my lap.

We ate the food I had cooked. I sneered at the food I made. It wasn't nearly as good as Aoi's cooking. Or Thatch's.

"Sorry. I'm not the best cook." I said.

"It's fine, Ace. It's not bad at all." She said, eatting more. After she was done eatting, she cuddled in to my chest, resting her head on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Why?" She asked.

"I should-" I started.

"Let me stop you there. You have nothing to be sorry for, Ace. I knew what I was getting in to when I first challenged you to a fight back on the ship. We both agreed to this." She said. I leaned my head against hers.

"I love you, Aoi. I don't want you to get hurt because of me." I said. She nuzzled my neck.

"Babe, if I ever get hurt, it will be my own fault. Not yours. I am an adult that can make her own decisions, and have been for quite some time now." She said. I held her closer to me.

"I know... I just.... I can't live with out you." I said. She kissed my jaw gently.

"And I can't live with out you." She said. We lied back and I heated my body with my devil fruit powers to keep her warm. We staired up at the clear sky in comfortable silence.

"Ace... Can I ask you something?" She asked.

"Hm? Of course you can, Aoi." I said.

"Would you... Maybe... One day... Want to have a baby with me?" She asked. I blinked at her.

"What?" I asked. She blushed shyly.

"I said, would you want to have a baby with me one day? Like... Maybe after all this Teach buisness is taken care of?" She asked again. I turned my attention back to the sky.

"A baby, huh?" I asked. I thought for a moment.

"I would, but..." I trailed off.

"But what?" She asked, nervousness in her voice.

"Would I be a good father? Would I be half the father Pops is? Or half the father my own dad was? Would I be a good father?" I asked. I felt Aoi shift to look at me.

"Ace, you'll be a wonderful father. I don't need any vision to tell me that." She said. I looked over at her and was met with jade eyes filled with love.

I took that moment to really examine Aoi's eyes. While at a passing glance, I'd say there were jade, but now that I was really up close and personal, I could see a pluthra of colors in her eyes.

A green blanket over gray, a ring of blue around her pupils, brown and hazel lines zig-zagging through the green and gray area, creating the illusion of the jade coloring in her eyes. I noticed that when she was truely happy, then a small sliver of gray would appear at the bottom of her right eye.

That sliver of gray was present right now.

I smiled softly at her and kissed her head. She smiled and nuzzled my cheek.

"You really think I'll be a good father? What if the baby doesn't like me?" I asked. She giggled.

"Ace, I know that if we ever have a baby, that baby will adore you like you're a super hero." She said. I placed a gentle kiss to my wife's lips.

"I want a baby, Aoi." I said. She smiled and kissed me back.

"I want a baby, too, Ace. But I think we should wait. Until after all this shit with Teach is done." She said. I kissed her cheek.

"I agree. If I were to get you pregnant now, and Teach were to find out... I don't want to think about what would happen." I said. She kissed the tears away from my cheeks.

"What brought his up, Aoi?" I asked. She smiled at me.

"I had a dream where I had your baby. It made me wonder. That's all." She said. I smiled an held her close.

"Go to sleep. We've got a long way to go tomorrow." I said. She kissed my chest.

"I love you." She said.

"I love you." I said. And with that, we drifted off to sleep.