text: Ace woke up with a chalkboard around his neck with a tally of how many minutes he's slept. Nami smirked at him, waving the chalk, "Over half an hour. You must have been tired!"
  
  "Very funny," Ace said. "Where are Luffy and Sabo?"
  
  "Catching dinner with a lot of the others," Nami said, pointing to the main deck. Luffy and many others were fishing. Luffy was also chatting with Law, who was reading while leaning on a…polar bear?
  
  "So…that's a polar bear," Ace said.
  
  "Bepo. He's Law's navigator," Nami said. "Also commonly his pillow."
  
  Ace hopped the rail, "Sorry about that. Anyway, I came here because the Whitebeard Pirates want to propose an alliance."
  
  "An alliance?" Luffy asked.
  
  "Wow," Usopp said. "This sounds interesting."
  
  "Yeah it does," Luffy agreed. "But…I'm already in an alliance with Traffy!"
  
  "You can have multiple alliances," Law said, not looking up from his book.
  
  "Okay, but you're my main ally right now so your opinion matters too," Luffy said.
  
  "By which you mean you'll hear it but then do what you want," Law said.
  
  "…Maybe not?" Luffy offered. Law chuckled darkly at that. What a creep…
  
  "So you've probably heard about the new warlord Weevil by now," Ace sighed.
  
  Luffy frowned, "Uh…nope."
  
  Ace blinked, "You're allied with a guy who was a warlord one month ago."
  
  "He never asked me. Not like I know much about Weevil anyway," Law said, glancing over the edge of his book and shrugging.
  
  "Not like we ever ran into him in person either," Bepo said.
  
  "Very true," Law agreed, going back to reading.
  
  "Fine. Edward Weevil is a man claiming to be Whitebeard's son," Ace said. "As in, genuinely related."
  
  "Unlike all the other sons Whitebeard had running around, is what you mean," Robin said.
  
  "Exactly," Ace said. "He became a Warlord and started hunting all of Whitebeard's old crew and allies down."
  
  "Seems an odd target," Usopp said.
  
  "Not really. The Whitebeard Pirates don't put much stock in blood ties or other former families," Ace said. He smirked and slapped Luffy's back, "Certain exceptions allowed, of course. So his claiming to be related to Whitebeard…not very impressive. Especially when he'd never served with him. The fact that he declared the rest of us to not be Whitebeard's sons didn't help."
  
  "Bet you must be popular then," Usopp said.
  
  "Yeah…" Ace said, rubbing the back of his neck. "From our intel he really hates me in particular."
  
  "Because of your part in the Whitebeard War or because despite your bloodline now being publicly known most pirates would still accept you as Whitebeard's son over Weevil?" Law asked idly.
  
  "Both," Ace informed the insensitive asshole. He wouldn't set his brother's ally one fire. He wouldn't. He was so tempted but he wouldn't. "He goes after the captains and then destroys the whole area around. He's taken out sixteen crews and hundreds of civilians."
  
  "Whoa," Luffy said.
  
  "Out of curiosity, what was his former bounty?" Nami asked.
  
  "Four hundred and eighty million," Ace said.
  
  "Not that bounties are entirely accurate indicators of strength, but it does put him behind three people just on this ship," Nami said.
  
  "Three?" Ace asked.
  
  "Me and Traffy hit five hundred million after Dressrosa," Luffy said proudly.
  
  "Nami-ya has a point, though, it's not a good indicator," Law said. "Blackbeard's former bounty was zero when he was a Warlord and he did defeat Ace-ya back when he was at a bit over five hundred million."
  
  Ace glared at him for that one. Law did not react.
  
  "Hey, what's your bounty now anyway?" Luffy asked Ace.
  
  "A billion. Mostly due to reasons other than me," Ace said, hoping they got the hint.
  
  "I'd assume Weevil has Haki?" Sabo asked, thankfully.
  
  "Might not matter, though. We can just trick him into one of Traffy's rooms!" Luffy said. "Worked on that Vergo guy! He had really strong Armament Haki and Law chopped him up easy!"
  
  "I'm flattered, Luffy-ya, but it's never quite that easy and you know it," Law said.
  
  "…Chopped him up?" Ace asked. "What exactly do your powers do, anyway?"
  
  "I can create Rooms that are under my total control," Law said. "If you're in one I can put you in pieces, throw you around, rip out organs…"
  
  "Like those hundred hearts you needed to be a Warlord?" Ace asked.
  
  "Mm-hm," Law agreed. "I actually got more than half from this one big crew of utter assholes, too. Made things a lot easier. I mean, not like the Marines needed the hearts to be from famous pirates…nor could they really have verified it if they wanted that. I can also fix a lot of diseases and other things you people who don't care about medicine would find boring."
  
  "Yeah. I like the cooler stuff, like you cutting a mountain in half," Luffy said.
  
  "And naturally I have to care about what you like," Law chuckled.
  
  "I think the way you can handle things like poison and such are interesting," Chopper said.
  
  "Might be because we're the only two doctors here." Law's smirk took on a crooked, more amused bent.
  
  "I'll say. They'd be hopeless without us, wouldn't they?" Chopper asked innocently.
  
  "Most certainly," Law agreed magnanimously.
  
  "Stop being a bad influence on Chopper," Nami scolded Law.
  
  "Oh come on," Law huffed, rolling his eyes.
  
  "Show Nami more respect!" Sanji scolded.
  
  "Maybe if you show me more respect, Blackleg-ya," Law replied, his voice taking on a hard edge.
  
  He and the cook had a glaring match for a few moments before Sanji looked way with a huff at the exact instant Law brought his book back up.
  
  "…Is this about the bread thing again?" Luffy asked.
  
  "Bread thing?" Ace asked.
  
  "Law hates bread. And when Sanji's mad at him pretends to misremember about," Sabo said. "It's funny."
  
  "No it is not," Law insisted.
  
  "Oh come on, he always has some onigiri or something he brings out after you get pissed off," Nami said.
  
  "It's still not funny," Law aid.
  
  "You're funny, Traffy, live with it."
  
  Law glared at Luffy, who just kept laughing. Ace wondered if their whole alliance went like that.
  
  "Let's talk about it in the morning," Luffy said. "Bright and early!"
  
  "The pirate version of bright and early," Ace corrected.
  
  "Shishishi, what did you think I meant?" Luffy said.