Immortal twin flames

Chapter five

Ace knew he couldn't slack off, not while he was held up on Whitebeard's ship. Finding empty rooms on the ship was surprisingly hard but once he did he claimed them as his own, turning empty storage rooms, bed rooms, and just closest into places to train and think.

He woke before the cooks, slipping into the kitchen to grab some meats, vegetables, breads, and fruits, but only the ones he could identify. He'd quickly take his meal into one of his hiding places and flash fry with his flames. It was hard, having to make do with what he could easily steal and not being able to get anything spicy. After eating his devil fruit, he had taken a particular liking to hot and spicy foods to a point that anything too sweet made his stomach rebel. He couldn't grab those things though especially because he couldn't even grab enough for his monstrous appetite to begin with! No, he had taken to "feeding" his flames spare woods and cloth to make the hunger pains subside just a little. (though how he found out he could technically 'eat' flammable foods was a completely other story that should not be mentioned) His frame was slowly getting skinner even with him eating clothes, blankets, woods, and anything he could get his hands on that wouldn't be noticed missing.

With the hunger keeping him awake and his stubbornness making sure his narcolepsy didn't make an appearance where anyone could see him, Ace suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. He had stumbled into a room that had a couple hundred transponder snails- so like any good thief would do- he snagged like five. Not, that is to say, that he could call anyone. His crew had a snail but he never thought to learn the number. Not because he was too busy or dumb or anything he just had never needed it or saw a reason to need it. How was he supposed to know he'd be kidnapped by the strongest man in the world? Beyond that, while Makino had a snail he had never thought of possibly getting her number because it was used to call shitty Gramps or Shanks. Luffy and the bandits don't have a snail, he wasn't even sure his little brother knew how to work one! Sabo was dead and he would rather die than call Shitty gramps- shitty gramps would probably kill him for becoming a pirate so there was no point there anyways. He had Shanks number, but he couldn't ask him for help. Not when it could start a war between the two emperors. So, he had 5 snails, and no one to call.

"This is rather depressing." He muttered to himself, carefully feeding the snails some salad.

"I don't suppose you guys can talk on your own?" he asked hopefully.

The snails shook their bodies and their eyes swayed back and forth.

"I'm taking that as no. Well, whatever," Scowling heavily, "I'm going to talk to you guys anyway..."

So, he spoke of his brothers. "I had two brothers, Sabo who was smart, he was teaching me how to read. He was such a weak kid when we first met. Didn't know how to fight or nothing. I taught him that, how to skin a boar and gut it to. He, he was a good brother. And Luffy, he's not dumb, he's smart in his own way... really, he is! He knows a weird amount of information about beetles, I'm not sure exactly why he likes them so much... I built him an entire thing to show them off. He doesn't just know about beetles, he just, he gets people. Everyone says his eyes are vacant that he's not all there, but they're not true. He can look into people, understand them at their core. He's- he's something else. He'll be the king one day, I know it."

He told them of the shitty Geezer and the bandits. "...and once he tied Luffy to a swarm of balloons and just set him off into the air. I ran after him before the geezer could tie me up. He floated out a good mile of the coast, so, I swam out there. It was a good thing Sabo made us practice so much after Luffy became ours. We nearly drowned that day. I never saw Dadan stand up to Garp, he never threw Lu towards water again."

It was as he spoke that some of the snails began to change, one began to freckle, another one day got a scare, and the third lines formed on it's front to show off cross bones under a blue S.

"And you guys wouldn't believe the dreams I've been having..."