text: Ace tossed a rope up to the ship to get Striker tied on, only for a hand attached to a long, rubbery arm to shoot down and haul him up onto the deck himself, "Whoa!"
  
  "Hey Ace!" Luffy cheered, hugging him.
  
  "Hey yourself," he said, hugging Luffy back. "Now what's this I hear about having a fleet?"
  
  Luffy pouted, "It wasn't my idea, they all said they wanted to follow me and I couldn't talk them out of it."
  
  Of course that was what happened. Ace chuckled, "Two months in the New World and making all kinds of waves already, I see."
  
  "As a future Pirate King should, of course," a woman with long dark hair said. "Nico Robin."
  
  "Portgas D. Ace," he replied.
  
  "Oh yeah!" Luffy said. "You don't know Robin or Franky or Brook! I've got to introduce you!"
  
  "Franky's on the sub, Luffy," Robin said.
  
  "Okay, okay, he can wait, but there's still Brook!" Luffy said.
  
  Ace was soon introduced a tall, violin-wielding skeleton, who was only all too happy to finally meet his captain's brother. Ace liked him though he had to admit, Brook was weird even by Ace's New-World-shaped standards. Ace was then was reintroduced to the crew he knew. And allowed to grab some of the food that was on the deck.
  
  "And these are Bartolomeo and Cabbage-"
  
  "Cavendish!" the blonde pirate hastily corrected.
  
  "-uh huh, Cabbage," Luffy said as Cavendish buried his face in his hands. "Cabbage brought us some info on Big Mom and Bartolomeo wanted to have his birthday party with us."
  
  "Nice to meet you," Ace said.
  
  "Likewise," Cavendish replied while Bartolomeo cheered something about "sempai" that Ace couldn't entirely decode. Huh. A crew made of fans of his brother. That was…certainly a thing that apparently existed.
  
  But he was still one short.
  
  "And the head of the Heart Pirates?" Ace asked casually.
  
  "Oh, Trafal-guy?"
  
  "You know, I might almost prefer Traffy," a dry voice said.
  
  Ace looked over to see a lean man in a sweatshirt, jeans, and white hat come up onto the deck, a long sword braced against his shoulder.
  
  Luffy laughed, "I knew you liked it when I called you Traffy!"
  
  "Traffy" frowned, "That's not what I said, just that's better than…you did that on purpose…oh, never mind."
  
  He glanced at Ace, "Trafalgar D. Water Law, Captain of the Heart Pirates."
  
  "Portgas D. Ace, Commander of the Second Division of the Whitebeard Pirates. And this knucklehead's big brother," Ace added. So Law was another D…
  
  Law nodded, "I know who you are. Hell, I've seen several of your internal organs."
  
  That was a very, very creepy way to say you'd done surgery on someone. Ace disliked him already…
  
  "Also Luffy talks about you a lot," Law added. "Anyway, Luffy-ya, I got Sabo."
  
  Ace's mind screeched to a halt. "What?
  
  "You ruined the surprise!" Luffy groaned. "Nice going, Traffy. Ace, so…um…Sabo's alive?"
  
  "Well now how do I make an entrance?" the person behind Law asked and…no. There was no way.
  
  "You're dead."
  
  "Nope," the guy who looked like Sabo said.
  
  "You. Are. Dead," Ace repeated.
  
  "As a doctor I can confirm for you that this man is alive," Law offered dryly.
  
  Luffy put a hand on Ace's shoulder, "It's him. Turns out my dad saved him and didn't tell anyone, the jerk."
  
  "I don't think he knew I knew you. I kind of had amnesia," maybe-Sabo offered.
  
  Luffy seemed to think a moment, "Nah, my dad's a jerk. I didn't even know I had a dad until I was seventeen, that's prime jerk right there."
  
  "Well, when you put it like that…" maybe-Sabo admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, anyway Ace…wait a minute, is that my flag? You put my pirate flag in your tattoo? And misspelled your name to do it? Man, I don't know if that's sweet or hilarious!"
  
  …Okay apparently it was Sabo. Ace stepped forward and hugged him, "Who cares, you idiot, I thought you were dead!"
  
  "I know and I'm really sorry!" Sabo said, hugging him back.
  
  "I love you guys!" Luffy said, jumping on them both, knocking them to the deck.
  
  Bartolomeo was talking again but Ace couldn't hear him well over Luffy's laughter. Something about 'sempai and his brothers' or similar. Ace didn't care.
  
  "You little brothers get in way too much trouble but I love you anyway!" Sabo scolded.
  
  "We're the same age!" Ace argued.
  
  "Shut up, older brother says so!"
  
  "Same! Age!" Ace repeated.
  
  Sabo made a face at him. Ace pushed Luffy away as he tackled Sabo. Luffy cheered and joined the wrestling match, which knocked it right into Law's legs.
  
  "Oops, sorry Traffy!" Luffy laughed as Law pulled himself upright with a scowl.
  
  "I see where you learned your…spontaneous displays of affection," Law muttered.
  
  Luffy laughed and hugged him. Law scowled even more deeply as they all got back up.
  
  "So, what were you doing on Dressrosa, anyway?" Ace asked.
  
  "Oh, Traffy wanted to kick Doflamingo's ass," Luffy said.
  
  "That wasn't it!" Law said. "We thought we'd maneuvered Doflamingo into giving up his Warlord seat and had to give back our hostage and destroy a factory! You were the one who wanted to 'kick his ass'!"
  
  "Yeah, but then you got in a fight with him anyway."
  
  "…It wasn't that simple and you know it, we were tricked. And you're the guy who decided gladiator fights would be fun!"
  
  "It wasn't that simple for me either!" Luffy complained.
  
  "Seemed like it to me," Sabo admitted.
  
  "Thank you!" Law said.
  
  "You just let me tag you in through!" Luffy added, pointing at Sabo.
  
  "And I won it all, yay me," Sabo said, smirking.
  
  "And apparently picked a fight with an Admiral," Law added.
  
  "Not that simple!" Sabo said, rounding on him.
  
  "Great, you've all made that complaint, now can I ask some questions?" Ace asked.
  
  He pointed at Law, "What hostage?"
  
  "Caesar Clown. Evil scientist. We destroyed his lab and kidnapped him to force Doflamingo to either give up being a warlord or piss off Kaido by not providing what Caesar could manufacture," Law said calmly.
  
  Ace nodded before pointing at Luffy, "What colosseum?"
  
  "Dressrosa had gladiator fights and I kind of got tricked into by one of Blackbeard's guys who was there to buy weapons and then tagged Sabo in for the final fight because I had to go save Traffy because he got captured."
  
  He didn't like that answer as much but fine. He frowned at Sabo. "And the Admiral?"
  
  "Fujitora. He actually seems like kind of a stand-up guy when he's not throwing meteors at you," Sabo mused.
  
  "I thought that too!" Luffy said. "He reminds me of Smoker!"
  
  "He also wants to dismantle the Warlords System and has some issues with the Government already," Law added. "If he wasn't charged with getting Luffy's and my heads I'd see if we could maybe ally with him in the future…"
  
  "Those meteors are so awesome," Luffy said.
  
  "They were pretty cool," Law agreed idly before going rigid with an expression Ace could only describe as wondering if he'd really just said what he'd said.
  
  "Plus he made sure neighboring islands got the real story, including that pirates freed Dressrosa," Sabo said. "I'll be keeping an eye on him for the Revolutionary Army. He's an interesting one…"
  
  "I supposed," Law said, seeming to recover. "Ace-ya, I didn't quite catch why you were here?"
  
  "Oh, yeah!" Ace said. How had he not mentioned it yet? "See I came to-"