Ace had never been very good at telling the truth.

He was good at lying. To strangers, to his brothers, and most of all, to himself. It was easy to dismiss his feelings and push away others, ignoring the hollow pain that tinged in his chest every so often.

Replacing everything with anger was as easy as breathing. Except with his family. At first, with Luffy, it had been easy to see him as a nuisance, to just push him away and block the innocent rubber boy from his heart. His shields were firmly in place.

But then Luffy had told him that despite everything, he had wanted Ace to live. Even after Ace tried to kill him. Even after he discovered that Ace was the son of that man. Even when he realized how useless Ace was—after he learned that his so-called 'strong older brother' wasn't even good enough to save his other brother.

But other than Luffy, it was still easy to lie. When his crew joined, he lied and said he was an orphan with no family. Said that he couldn't care less about Gol D. Roger. Hid his narcolepsy for as long as he could (after his 'death'… those idiots, putting him in a coffin without checking his pulse… it was a little harder to hide). Ace had lied a million ways and had a million more ways to lie.

So sitting near the railing of an enemy ship, it was easy to lie.

"Are you hungry?" The annoying orange haired chef—Thatch, was it?—sat down next to him, placing a bowl of soup on the ground.

"Not hungry." Ace answered, ignoring the way that his stomach grumbled in protest.

Thatch raised an eyebrow. "I think that your body would think otherwise." He answered with a slight frown. "If you don't eat up soon, you'll be in big danger."

"I'll be fine." Ace replied coldly. "Besides, how would I know that it isn't poisoned?"

Thatch groaned, exasperated. "Haven't we been through this before?" He muttered sourly under his breath, before pointedly taking a sip of the soup, a bite of the bread, and cutting out a portion of the meat before shoving it between his lips. "There." He mumbled through a mouth full of food. "Happy?"

"No." Ace answered.

Thatch scowled. "Why not?" He asked rhetorically.

Ace made a vague gesture. "How can I be?" He demanded. "You kidnapped me! I don't want to be here, and besides, why would I do something that would leave me indebted to my enemies?"

"You make a good point." Thatch agreed. "But we're not your enemies."

Ace snorted. "That's what they all say." He answered. And they're all a bunch of no good liars. He added mentally. All except Luffy, that is.

Sure, they'd get along well at first, but after a while they'd learn what he truly was, and they'd abandon him. After all, nobody would accept someone with the blood of that man running through him.

Thatch studied Ace's face with a peculiar type of curiosity, and then frowned slightly, as though he had discovered something but didn't particularly like what he had discovered, before he stood up and declared boldly, "Perhaps they're lying, but we're not. We'll accept you, no matter what."

Ace snorted. "I doubt it." He answered icily, before standing up and walking away.

"Why so sour?" Thatch called out after him. "Your crew seems to adore you, so surely you're not so surly with them. There's no need to be so cruel to us, we'll all good people here."

Ace froze. "Where's my crew?" He demanded.

Thatch smiled. "We'll send them off tomorrow, so today's your last chance to talk with them. Would you like to see them?"

Ace hated giving in… but his crew… they had worked so hard to help him achieve his dream. "Where's my crew?" He repeated angrily.

Thatch's smile widened, as though Ace talking to him was a good thing or something. He picked up the tray of food and held it out. "The information's quite important." He noted airily. "It'll cost you." Ace frowned, and Thatch's smile just continued to grow wider. "You have to finish all this food first."

Ace's features twisted in confusion, and then morphed into paranoid suspicion, but he took the food and gulped it down anyways. Maybe it was poisoned, but he owed this much to his crew. I was so stupid. He realized. So, so stupid. But Ace had always been pretty stupid, hadn't he?

0o0o0o0o0o0

Nick was fond of his captain. Quite fond, in fact. So fond, that he had been stupid enough to challenge the Whitebeard Pirates because his captain had mentioned it seemed fun.

Oh, sure he had tried to talk his captain down, but something pained flashed across his captain's features, and all he could say in the end were words of agreement and half hearted warnings.

His captain, idiot that he was, obviously got captured. So Nick gathered up the rest of the Spade Pirates and they stupidly decided to challenge the Whitebeard Pirates again, without their captain, who was by far their strongest member. In hindsight, that was an incredibly idiotic decision that should have killed them.

But it didn't. And there was Captain Ace in front of them, alive and well (although slightly more irritated than he had been before, though that was for obvious reasons), scowling slightly at the red haired Whitebeard until the man finally held up both hands in surrender and left them in peace.

If it weren't so terrifying to see the infamous man in flesh and didn't feel so unrealistically dizzying, Nick would have laughed at the sight. "So, captain, how have you been doing?" He asked when they were left to brooding silence. I told you that he was the strongest man in the world. He mentally added. Why didn't you listen?

"Fine." Ace answered, his voice clipped and short, before he added distantly, "And you?"

Nick's heart clenched in pain. Ace only spoke so politely when his guard was up, and the only time he had spoken like that with Nick was when they had first met. "Better, now that I can see you." He answered with a slightly forced smile. "You seem tired. Been fending off sleep attacks lately?" Ace rarely seemed tired, since as soon as he felt that way his body would force him to sleep, so he only seemed tired when he fought off his narcolepsy.

Ace shrugged, looking away slightly. "Can't sleep around enemies." He answered.

Maybe they aren't enemies. Nick wanted to say. Maybe they're kind people—after all, they didn't kill us even when we attacked them. They're not so cold hearted… not as much as we'd like to think, anyways. Looking into the faces of his crewmates, he could tell they wanted to say it too, but nobody dared for fear that it would make Captain Ace clam up again.

"We're not your enemies." Nick offered weakly.

Ace gave him a tired smile, one that Nick rarely saw on the man who usually seemed so carefree and empty headed. "Of course you aren't." He answered in an assuring voice, as though speaking with a child. "You're my crew, after all." His gaze swept across all of them. "You're all the people I chose." You guys are special.

Nick smiled proudly, and he could see the other members smiling too. "We'll help you take down Whitebeard!" He declared boldly. Nick knew it was stupid to say, that it was incredibly idiotic… but it was worth the wide smile on Ace's face. "Maybe not immediately, but we'll train to be much, much stronger! Right, guys?"

"Yeah!" The rest of the crew declared, all leaping to their feet.

Ace's smile softened, before he answered, "I know you guys would." Nick's heart plummeted at those words. He knew what would come after. "But you can't."

"Why?" His voice sounded weak and tiny, even to his own ears. "Why not?" Stop. A tiny voice in his head told him. You're going to explode. But Nick couldn't find it in himself to care as his voice rose in anger. "Why can't you trust us with these things!? You just decided this, out of the blue—and then you don't even have faith that we're loyal enough to stay with you to the end? Why do you always have to do things by yourself!? How come you won't tell us? Just—one word. One word is all we need." All his adrenaline faded away and he repeated. "Just one word, captain. What do you have to lose?"

Ace's hands folded together, and he looked away, pained. "I'm sorry." He replied. "It's just that… I…" He seemed like he was about to say something, but that look of pain—why? He's not the one who's own captain won't even trust him with a secret—fluttered across his face and he said nothing.

Silence reigned over them.

Finally Ace stood up. "I do trust you." He finally said, his voice pained but firm. "But this is my own fight—this is something I need to do. I'm a stupid person, and I'm fairly useless… so… thank you for having me." He bowed. "But it's about time you started chasing your own dreams instead of following me on my stupid whims. I…" Regret flashed across Ace's features as he started to walk away. "It was fun while it lasted."

For a moment, Nick could feel only numbness, like he had been dunked in ice cold water and was drowning.

"No!" He could hear his voice screaming as he stood up and chased Ace. "No! You can't do this to us! You're our captain… Ace! Stop it, dammit! Don't—" The door closed behind Ace. "…go." Nick could hear the other members of the crew shouting as well, but all he could feel was that cold, numb shock. Why?

0o0o0o0o0

"Are you sure that it was a good decision? Your crewmates all looked pretty heartbroken."

Ace barely looked up as he shut the door shut behind him. "You were listening?" He tried to muster enough energy to feel angry, but all he could feel was a hollow hole gnawing into being in his chest.

Thatch shrugged. "I was going to leave, but your conversation seemed quite interesting, so I decided to listen in a little." He answered sheepishly, but his grin dubbed him as unrepentant. Ace frowned at him, before walking away. "Oi, oi!" Thatch quickly chased after Ace, before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why'd you do that? Your crew seems devastated… don't you care about them?"

Ace froze, and he offered Thatch an icy glare. "My affairs and the affairs of my crew are none of your business. Besides, they aren't even my crew anymore—we've just disbanded, didn't you hear?"

"Yes, I suppose." Thatch agreed. "But what do you mean, this was your fight alone? That's stupid, you don't seem to have any history between you and Oyaji—so why do something as stupid as challenge him? On a whim? Why would you disband on a whim? You said a lot of weird stuff too, back then… like thanking them for having you?" He snorted. "How stupid is that? I mean obviously they really care about you… so why act so distant?"

"Do you ever shut up?" Ace interrupted, sounding irritated. "Or are you just naturally stupid?"

"Naturally stupid." Thatch replied wittily in reply, already used to his brothers teasing him about his airheaded personality. "Anyways, you're avoiding the real question. What the heck was that all about? Why did you act like that to your crew? And don't give me that 'they're not my crew anymore' crap, because we both know that it's not true—at least not to them, and not to you as long as you care about them as much as you seem to."

Ace eyed him cautiously, before he answered, "Maybe you think that I care about them more than I actually do." It was carefully calculated, but Thatch could tell that it was a lie, and a half hearted one at that. "Besides…" Ace added again. "It's none of your business."

"But…"

Ace turned and walked away, ignoring Thatch's protests.

Watching the teen's retreating back, Thatch's curiosity gnawed at him. Why's he so distant? He wondered in frustration.

He won't find out. Ace decided confidently. First of all, he's too stupid. And besides, Ace was very good at lying.

A/N: I kind of like this. At first I intended for this to just be a one shot, but now... I dunno. If you want me to continue, follow the story and I'll know, I guess. Or just PM me if you don't like it enough to follow it... Anyways, anyone else watch Ace die years ago and still feel sad every time you hear the word "Ace"?