Shekilaria made me a fanart (i'm so giddy saying that every time like, my fics have fanarts guys! can you believe it?!) and it's super cute! I cannot link it here in FF, but i have it up on the one i posted on Ao3, so please check it out there? How do you usually put links in this site?

I had a friend of mine read little early bits of this and was like 'wait a sec, isn't this[SPOILER] don't tell me that[EVEN LARGER AND A 70% ACCURATE SPOILER]' and her explanation led me to believe that yes, some people might already figure out the twist at this point, but hey.

Just... just enjoy it as it is please, i know i'm not the most creative person out there.

Hope you'd enjoy!

The sight of legions of troops leaving Castle Oro Jackson caused anxiety across the entire city of Raftel, adding to the already tense atmosphere across the underwater metropolis.

Prince Ace, beloved son of King Roger and Queen Rouge, has been missing for over a week.

Roger saw the last of his officials and generals scramble out of the meeting room, face stormy and expression extremely dour, a reflection of his inner turmoil. Nothing, no one has found a single trace of Ace, not one caught sight of anything, no one can find his son. With heavy arms, he lifted himself off from the throne, his long, blood red tail twitching ever so slightly as he floated back and fro. Where could he be?

"We need to widen the scale," he muttered finally, wringing his hand behind his back, "Search all across the seas, have more people sent out. Turn all stone, interrogate even the smallest, newly hatched guppy, there has to be something,"

"Roger, we already sent out everyone," The only person left in the room, his advisor reminded him, his own moss green and ground coloured tail giving a single wave until he stood next to his king from where he sat, "It's been a week, he must've gone far. Perhaps, he might even have reached—"

"No! No, he can't possibly find a way to cross the currents, Rayleigh," the king stressed out, gritting his teeth, even though he knew the merman has a point. Where else could Ace had possibly gone to? He's always been a curious one, and added with his daredevil attitude, it never bode well, "Not to mention, he won't be able to find a way to get pass The Gate,"

Silvers Rayleigh pursed his lips and folded both of his arms, staring grimly at his king as he muttered lowly, "You know that sea king is far more loyal to Ace, than he is to you. Or did you forget what he is?"

How could he? It was the entire reason he was this panicked, why he had done all of these security countermeasures to keep him in the castle, all for nothing. The dark haired king gritted his teeth with an intense frown, waving his advisor off with a jerky motion, "Send some of the troops to the end of the sea and check for any clues of the prince's whereabouts. Use any measures necessary to find him. Post rewards for any information, triple— no, quadruple the amount for anyone who managed to find him and bring him back. I want my son back home, save and sound," And with that, he floated away out of the room, leaving the advisor to sigh glumly at his retreating back.

The king would usually be full of smiles to anyone he passes by, but today, just like the last few, none of the servants or soldiers dared to approach him. They merely bowed a little as he passed, not given enough time to utter a single word as he rushed to the end of the eastern wing of Castle Oro Jackson. The deeper he came, the more the lack of people becomes apparent, and he swore that the moment Ace returns home, he'll have this entire hall and the grounds outside of it to be filled with guards.

The very last room on the hall, the one with the biggest and most ornate door was ajar, and the moment it came to sight, Roger slowed down, chest heavy and his breathing stuttering. Quietly, he floated to the stone gate, lips downturned and all anger or anxiety washed into nothing but sorrow. He pushed the door quietly, weakly, revealing the room that for the first time in so many years, was missing its owner. Fully furnished, fully equipped with anything anyone could possibly want, full of personality and comfort, and yet it still failed compared to the world outside.

On the large, plush bed, he found Rouge sitting on the middle of bed made out of the finest coral and covered by soft algae, looking distantly outside of the looming window right next to the bed. It held the most magnificent view of the entire Raftel, overlooking the most flourishing part of the city. Quietly, the king made his way over, sitting on the edge of the bed without a word.

"Maybe this is our punishment," after a long bout of silence, he finally heard the queen said quietly, voice distant, "For trying so hard to defy fate,"

Roger's face scrunched up in displeasure, "We're parents who wanted to protect our son. There's nothing wrong in that,"

A hand was placed on his muscled shoulders, and the turned to find Rouge's tear-welled eyes looking down at him, irises only a shade darker than her hair reflecting his own face at him, "Look what that achieve, Roger," she told him sadly, "My baby, our baby is now out there, unprepared, all alone, and anything could happen to him. He didn't know the danger, didn't know what could be waiting for him out there,"

"We'll find him, Rouge," he cradled the mermaid's delicate hand between his own larger ones, but right now, as they trembled, they didn't feel any less fragile than hers, "Nothing will happen to Ace. We'll find him and bring him back here, and everything will go back to normal,"

But Rouge's face didn't look relieved or convinced, and Roger knew his own belief of his words were shaky at best, "It won't," her words were soft but the impact it had on Roger's painfully clenched chest was immense, "You know what he is after. You know he'll find out what we've been hiding from him for all of his life. It was always going to happen, Roger, no matter what we did to prolong this, we know it's inevitable," she pulled her hand back, before framing the side of his face, focusing his sight to her, "It's always been our son's destiny,"

He tried to find a word to assure her - and himself - to deny the dawning realization that he knows she's telling the truth. But he can't.

Roger stays silent as Rouge pulled him in an embrace, one hand clutching hard at his missing son's cold, empty bed sheets.

"I hope you know this is the very opposite of sneaking,"

"Pfft, what are you talking about, we are totally unseen!"

"…No, no we are not,"

Luffy pursed his lips, taking in the lack of any recognizable paraphernalia that might identify him as a general and noble's son, his casual float that won't attract attention and the seaweed hood he had over his strawhat to conceal the unusual thing. In the end, he shrugged, "What? We're already blending in. Or, Zoro, do you mean your swords? I told you we don't need them,"

Defensively, the green haired merman next to him clutched the three swords strapped by his side, scowling, "No, stupid, i'm talking about that,"

"Whaaaat? You mean the food in the bag? But we'll need them! The journey to the human waters would be really long, remember?"

"That bag is easily four times your size and it's blocking the entire road! And stop saying our destination so loudly, damnit, you're the one who wanted to be discreet with this shrimpbrained idea!"

"It's not a shrimpbrained idea! We're going to save Ace!"

And wanting to save his brother and take him back home is not stupid. He'd seen how stressed out King Roger and how sad Queen Rouge was about this entire thing, and not even his dad's best man can seem to find him. Ace had always been really good at disappearing once upon a time, before he was always trapped inside of his room and never allowed to leave, "Do you think it's because Ace got bored staying in his room every day? I think it's been over 12 years since he can go outside and play anymore,"

He has been quite young when it all happened. He, Ace and Sabo had been going on as usual, exploring Raftel from corner to corner, until Ace decided that they're old enough to go beyond the borders and see what is outside of the city itself, something they were all always warned against by their elders. But they did anyway, and nearly got caught by evil mermen who lurked outside of the city. They recognized Ace as the prince and him as General Dragon's son, and had wanted to capture them for ransom.

What followed had always been fuzzy at best, but Luffy remembered being caught by one of the mermen, his fin and tail not strong enough to make him swim faster than adults. Ace and Sabo tried to free him, and were almost caught too if it wasn't for the Sea Kings who suddenly appear out of nowhere to save them.

King Roger and his army, including his dad came not long after, and Luffy could still remember the king's ashen face, looking fearfully at the Sea Kings that guarded the three of them from the running would-be kidnappers. He wouldn't listen to them saying that the Sea Kings came to help them, and the day after, he was told that Ace can no longer go outside.

He thought that it had been a punishment for them venturing out beyond the border and going against what they're told not to do, since Grandpa Garp had grounded both him and Sabo. But days becomes weeks and week becomes months, and suddenly, Luffy barely ever see Ace outside again. He was always trapped in his bedroom, looking sadder and angrier every passing day until he just finally seems to accept it.

He never did understood why. As year passed, Sabo became a scholar and his dad's right hand man to lead some some super secret army made by the king that he can't even tell Luffy, while Luffy would gain a lot more friends and goes on adventures all around the sea.

But Ace? Ace was always trapped in his room, day in and day out, unable to leave.

"Probably. As nice as his room may be, it must be suffocating and lonely to be locked in one place for such a long time. It might as well be a gilded cage,"

Luffy let out a soft and sombre hum, "Yeah, but even though he's free now, he's still out there all alone, like he always was and that's sad. That's why we have to find him quickly, so he won't be anymore,"

"What is that?! That's so cool!"

With how dark their surrounding has become, the bright shine of the fire made it look like Ace's eyes were shinning even brighter than they were supposed to in his wonder. The darker grey tone of his eyes seems to lit up, and faded once again as the merman finally looked away from the newly lit bonfire to Marco, face eager and demanding at the same time, "What is that? What do humans use it for? Why is it… Oh! Oh, it's exuding something! I've never seen anything like this before, it… it feels different, like the surface of the waters here at day time,"

Before Marco can say anything, he suddenly shot out a damp and clawed hand out of the water to reach towards the bonfire. It was only the blonde's quick reflexes that managed to stop him, "No, no, don't touch it, it burns,"

"Burn? What's that?"

"It's…," With a sigh, he turned from Ace to look at the fish gathered around the merman's tail on the shores, the likes of barramundi, carps and trouts still staring up at him. Marco proceeded to look away.

He had been reasonably weary when Ace had frowned at him the moment they landed on this small islet to rest for the day, and true enough, the young merman had said something about a message for him from the fishes that follows and appear on their journey. It would seem that his refusal to consume them lately has offended the nearby ecosystem, who felt like their willing sacrifice was all for naught and even took it as an insult to the care they took to grow healthily for the prince and his pet avian's sake.

Marco didn't know what he is more confused about; the fact that not eating these very aware and very intelligent beings made him more guilty then eating them, or the fact that apparently, to fishes and whatever other sea life there is, he is now only known as 'the prince's pet avian'.

Well, he supposed he had been called worse things by worse people before.

Which was the reason for the bonfire in the first place. They're nearing the colder part of the seas, something that he wasn't particularly fond of, and despite being a zoan, he didn't exactly fancy eating raw fish every single day until the end of this chase. But the moment he lit up the little sticks and branches he had gathered, Ace immediately had bombarded him with a millions of question, while staring at the fire as if it was the most fascinating wonder he had ever come across in his life.

Then again, for someone who spent their entire life under water, fire probably is a fascinating wonder.

The more the day passed, the more like there doesn't seem to be an end to the difference between their species. Just yesterday, he caught Ace lying on the beach of the island they rested on, obviously sleeping and unaware of the small fishes that crowded and nibbled on his skin. Fearing the worst, Marco had shooed the fishes away, until Ace told him that it was how merfolk cleaned themselves, letting these little fishes feast on whatever parasite and algae that covered their body after swimming for so long.

Seems like today it was Ace's turn to be bedazzled by 'human wonders', which is a direct improvement from every other heart attack inducing mer behaviours he had Marco witness, "So this is what a 'fire' look like. So it's hot? And what's 'cook'? You're not going to disrespect the fishes even more, are you? One of the barramundi's sister in law is friends with a hammerhead shark and he said they're going to teach you a lesson and drown you if you do,"

"I'm— what?" Marco could only blink and shook his head once he decided those string of sentence made no sense and thus indigestible, turning to the bonfire once more to keep stoking the flame, "And, it's not… disrespectful to the fishes. I think. I'm just going to cook the fish so it won't have any bacteria and healthier for a human like me to eat,"

"You're calling them dirty?! I knew it was another insult!"

"No! It's… ugh, just let me show you,"

He picked up one of the fishes and after a quick and mumbled gratitude, slammed their head on the nearest rock as he was taught to do. The commander then picked up one of the thinner stick and the dagger he had stolen from the pirate ship days ago, slitting out the stomach and taking out the insides, cleaning its gills and scales, before stabbing the fish through with the stick and stabbing the other end of the stick on the ground, close enough to let it be roasted over the fire.

"Now what?"

"Now we wait until it's cooked,"

It didn't take that long, but in his impatience and hunger, Ace already began eating, starting on the trouts who lined up next to him even though his eyes never left the one near Marco's fire. He stopped munching by the time the human picked the stick out from the ground, presenting the now smoking and discoloured fish to his merman companion, "And now the fish is cooked. Careful, it's still hot,"

Not that Ace seems to care or even affected, as he pinch out a flaky part from the cooked fish's side, staring open mouthed wonder - that shows bits of chewed raw fish meat - at the now more tender meat and even crispy skin. He put that little bit into his mouth, and immediately widened his eyes while started blowing out with squeezed eyes, obviously unable to handle the heat on his tongue. Marco shook his head and chuckled, somewhat amused, "I told you it's hot,"

But despite his little jab, the merman still swallowed, and the zoan watched as those grey eyes blinked a couple of times before turning back to him, eyes even wider so and grinning, "That.. that was amazing!"

"I'd say cooked and cleaned fish does taste better than raw, yeah,"

"Cook all of these guys!"

"Yeah i— what?"

"Cook them! I want to eat them cooked from now on! Come on, cook them, cook them!"

The fished started making bubbling noises underwater, somewhat adding to the urging.

"I… there's dozen of them down there!"

"Then start cooking now! Come on, Marco, i'm hungry and i wanted to eat more of that!"

What had he done?

What had he done to himself?

"Any changes on Poseidon and Teach's location?"

In the midst of eating the last of his roasted fish - courtesy of Marco's thankless hard work - Ace's eyes flickered away from the fire he had been staring at intently, his gaze turning distant yet focused, "None, Poseidon is still in the same place as before,"

Marco gave him a noncommittal hum as he sat by the dry patch of land close enough to the waters, staring at the log pose in his hand with the help of the bonfire and the moonlight.

It's been 5 days since he continued his journey with Ace in tow, and if his observation was correct, the merman seems to be leading them away from Grand Line and towards East Blue, claiming that Teach hadn't moved at all. And from the newspapers he snatched from a randomly passing Coos this morning, there hasn't been any news of Teach's location or next movement, and he's not sure whether or not this is a good thing. Teach surely has a plan, doesn't he? Wherever he was, Marco would imagine he's trying to gather his crew before making his way back to Grand Line and into New World.

Still, if there's anything Marco knows about him - which apparently, not much, he thought bitterly - was that Teach was quite intelligent. He should know that staying in one place when he's wanted by a Yonko crew is a bad idea, and while he might also had moments of laziness, it doesn't make sense why he would be wasting so much time hiding.

Various scenarios appeared and was disproved in his own mind, and the blonde only shook his head. He can't help but to think there's something obviously wrong, and he hated that he won't know what it is until they caught up with the bastard.

Is it possible that Teach has abandoned Poseidon somewhere and he's continuing on a wild goose chase? After all, he's been following Ace presuming that Teach would be with his stolen treasure.

Actually, what exactly is this Poseidon? Considering it can be stolen, it couldn't be one of the poneglyphs, unless he somehow found a way to unearth those enormous slabs of rocks and carry it with him, but that raised even more questions. Poneglyphs are the only thing known to them that has anything to do with One Piece and Raftel, so how did Teach even know it's also related? It can't be a mere coincidence, can't it? Him accidentally finding the merfolk's territory because of storm is one thing, but Teach leading an attack to what sounds like a well guarded sanctuary has to be a well calculated plan.

And how did Teach even know about it when the merfolk's own prince were entirely clueless to what it is?

"Hey, can i ask you something?"

"Hmm? Sure, what is it?" Ace narrowed his eyes, and turned his body away from where Marco laid, "I'm not sharing the cooked fishes. You said yourself that you're already full,"

"No, i'm not asking for your food," the blonde suppressed the need to sigh out loud, "I just wanted to ask, but you said you were kept sheltered your entire life, right? Weren't you at least taught about how your own kingdom works though? Don't you have lessons and stuff about how to run a kingdom, the important artefacts and treasures like One Piece or this Poseidon we're chasing after?"

At his question, Ace grew somber, lips downturned and he even put his food down. The dark haired merman sighed, "I'm not allowed to. No one ever told me why, but i was always told to stay in my room. I barely ever meet anyone aside from my parents, Ray, and Sabo and Luffy. My parents never told me anything about what's going on outside, Ray only taught me basic stuff and not much about the kingdom or the people, and Sabo and Luffy couldn't too. When i sneaked out, it was the first time in 12 years that i saw Raftel up close, and it has changed so much. It didn't seem to change at all from my windows,"

"You have any idea why?"

Ace shook his head, brows furrowed in irritation that doesn't seem to be able to muster enough strength into anger, "I know i'm clueless about a lot of things, but even i know that being kept in that place for so long, even though i always have servants at my disposal and all of my needs met, that's not living, you know? I miss swimming from one side of Raftel to the other, i missed talking to others, i never get to travel like i always wanted when i was young. I'm the prince, but i know nothing about the world i could only see from my window,"

It's hard to think that this free spirited being was ever kept locked in - 12 years? That's almost like a lifetime to be kept in one single room - and as curious as Marco was as to why, he didn't think he'd get the answer out of Ace, "Well, you're here now, even further away from your kingdom,"

The dark haired merman nodded, "I know, but once this journey ends and i have to take Poseidon back home, i will have to go back to that room again, trapped in and could only see the world outside from that damned window. I…," he took a deep breath, and muttered in a small voice, "I don't want that,"

In the span of few days, Marco had seen a lot of sides of Ace, but this one, this sad, gloomy one seems like a reflection of what he looked like for the last 12 years being a captive in his own kingdom, his own home. As a pirate, as someone who lived his life freely in the seas, whose entire life was based on freedom, Marco couldn't imagine what it's like to be him. Or he did, but it was such a distant memory that he shuddered thinking about it, let alone imagining someone else in that position of helplessness and the feeling of being stuck.

But he couldn't think of anything to say to make things better, so in the end, he simply said, "Well, it's not like we're nearing the end of this journey, i think we barely even begun. Don't think about having to come back just yet and enjoy what you're doing now. Think of it this way, you're probably the first merman in centuries to ever venture outside of your own territory, and right now, you have more knowledge than the entirety of your kingdom about what's outside their kingdom,"

He smiled, wider still when Ace glanced up to him with a considering look, "Hell, you're probably the only mermaid in centuries who knows what's a fire and why it burns. Think of this as your turn to explore these human shores, out from your seas," he motioned to the sky, blue eyes never leaving Ace's darker ones, "A part of this world,"

Ace kept quite, but when he does speak, a small smile finally bloomed on the merman's face, a beatific and gentle one that caught Marco genuinely off guard, "You're right, Marco. Thank you,"

The blonde decided that even with the smattering bits of fish meat around his teeth and lips, it was a good look on him.

There's a reference there somewhere at the end. Please tell me you get it, and tell me off if you think it's too cheesy.

Because i did. But i'm not gonna delete it because of how proud i am of it.

Thanks for reading!