And some important facts, since this is AU, Ace is only two years older than Luffy. Meaning, Ace is 18 now and Luffy is 16. One more thing, Luffy can be a little OOC. Not much, still the obvious, dumb, reckless, overprotective of his nakama kind of guy we all know and love, but he'll be slightly stronger and slightly smarter.

It all started with a normal morning on the Moby Dick on the first part of the Grand Line, the Paradise. Thatch doing pranks, Marco punishing him and Ace making another failed attempt on killing the Whitebeard. Normal.

And it simply went downhill from there...

Ace was leaning on the mast, rubbing his still sore arm from the fall moments before, as well as glaring at the laughing fourth commander, who was reading the newspaper.

"Will you stop laughing!?" Snarled finally the teen, only making Thatch laugh more. When seeing the flames flickering from Ace's shoulders, Thatch held up his hands in defense.

"I can't help it!" He defended between giggles. "It's not everyday someone attacks Oyaji only to get slammed to the railings...Now, that I think about it, ever since you came, it is everyday! Hahahaha!"

Ace glared daggers at his laughing form and lunged at Thatch, who made a run for it around the deck, newspaper still in hands.

"God, are those two pirates or kids, yoi?" Asked rhetorically the first commander, Marco the Phoenix. Whitebeard let out heartily chuckles, watching Ace chase Thatch around. Really, Ace would fit in his ship perfectly, he just had to make Ace see that. But the kid sure was stubborn.

"Here Marco, catch this!" Thatch called and threw the newspaper to the other commander, who caught it with ease and opened the day's news.

"Come here!" Thatch yelped as he jumped out of Ace's fire attack, which went towards the sea, luckily not burning the railings. Thatch gaped while Ace smirked.

"Are you nuts?! That could have killed me!" Thatch yelled at him, while Ace mocked shock on his face.

"No! Really?" He asked sarcastically.

"Could have done us all a favor." Marco played along while smirking. Thatch gasped again and cried fake tears. He went to Whitebeard's chair and whined at his adoptive father.

"Oyaaajiiii! My brothers are being meaaaaaan!" Whitebeard chuckled again, hurtfully ignoring Ace's 'I'm not your brother!' comment.

"Well, well, looks like someone else started roaming the seas!" All of them turned to Marco, who was reading the newspaper with an interesting expression which totally conflicted the usual lazy look. " 'The new rookie pirate has managed to successfully take out some of the biggest shots of East Blue with relative ease in less than a week, all by himself. The pirate is a teen and so far, nothing apart from his name is known information to the government. His location is also unknown for the time being, but there's a possibility that he has already entered the Grand Line.' " Marco read out loud to the three.

Whitebeard seemed curious. If it interested his vice captain, then it sure was someone worth considering. And by the sound of it, the kid had been able to enter the Grand Line in less than a week of sailing. It seemed that he had found an interesting brat. Though maybe he would wait until he saw proof that the brat had enough of a backbone.

Thatch, however, looked like he had touched the seventh sky.

"A new brother already?!" Ace shrugged, showing he couldn't care less and mentally felt pity for whatever poor soul that had inquired these insane pirates' curiousity. But from Thatch's reaction, his view of this crew didn't improve. It just showed that they didn't really care for choosing new crewmembers, that they wouldn't care if he joined or not cause there were always others on the sea. He already knew that, he did. So..why did it...?

"But isn't he too young?" Marco asked, successfully bringing Ace's attention back to them. "I mean, just look at his grin! Who grins like this in a poster? He can't be more than fourteen."

Something inside Ace's chest clutched tightly and it suddenly became hard to breath. Young? Grin? Poster?

'No. No no no! No. Way.' Ace inwardly denied the possibility. He wouldn't believe it for a second, it wasn't until next year, it couldn't be. Rushing towards the other three, Ace snatched the paper from Marco's hands, leaving the later stunned into silence for two reasons. One, because he didn't expect the teen to behave like that. Two, because Ace's expression was one of shock, proudness, anger and happiness altogether.

Ace, for his part, was ready to jump into the ocean and swim to the Calm Belt and possibly strangle the one on the wanted poster. The big characteristic grin, the scar under the left eye, the old straw hat. The paper with the poster said 20.000.000 Beri on the head of the new pirate. Not bad, Ace had to admit. Wait, that wasn't the point!

'Luffy!' Thought in astonishment the Fire Fist. 'You better have an explanation about this! There's no way you're seventeen, so why did you set sail?! And if it wasn't enough, these damned pirates now are-!'

Ace stopped his thoughts, stunned into silence. Slowly and carefully, he turned around to the two commanders and Whitebeard, who were still staring at Ace with furrowed eyebrows.

Ace pointed weakly at the wanted poster. "You...The pirate you wanted to recruit...it doesn't happen to be..."

"Straw Hat Luffy?" Marco finished for him with a raised eyebrow. "Yes. He seems to have a cnack for the pirate life and he seems interesting. Oyaji likes him and I also approve. Why?"

Whatever reaction Marco was expecting, he didn't get it. The eyes of the three Whitebeard pirates widened when Ace started laughing. It was the first time they had seen the moody ex-captain laugh like that. He would just smirk when the situation was in his favor or when he got to lit Thatch in fire, but never laugh like he was truly amused or happy.

"You..hahah...Y-you want to r-recruit..haha..L-Lu-LUFFY!? Hahahahaha!" He clutched his side which were hurting from laughing too much. "Oh God! This was funny as hell!"

Whitebeard had been staring at his soon-to-be son with confusement but also worry, while Thatch had been openly gaping at him. Letting a few other chuckles escape his lips, Ace approached the trio and crossed his arms, now smirking in amusement.

"I'm in a good mood, old man, so I'll give you some piece of advice." Ace addressed to Whitebeard, which they had to admit was an improvement. Since he had stepped on that ship, Ace hadn't as much as looked at the man in the eye. "Give it up. There is no way in this world that Luffy would join you. Not now, not ever."

The kid seemed quite sure of that, Marco noted. Sharing a glance with the fourth commander, they both nodded and looked up at Whitebeard, who had a frown placed on his face.

"And what makes you so sure of that, brat?" Asked the Yonko.

Ace snorted. "It doesn't matter, I'm just stating a fact that you'd better accept. Luffy has his own dream to follow." The last part was mumbled and suddenly Whitebeard's interest rose top notch. Not many pirates nowdays sailed out for dreams, and he knew from personal experience that those who did were the ones to truly own the sea.

"Dreams?" Whitebeard repeated, urging the teen to continue, though Ace just turned his head around, a nostalgic smile in his face. Whitebeard now was concerned about Ace, too. There was this air around him, this aura that reflected pain and hurt beside ambition.

"What about you, Ace?" Asked gently the giant man, noticing how Ace's eyes widened and his head turned sharply to face the Yonko. Marco and Thatch stayed quiet and with a serious expression. They weren't too happy about Ace's reaction.

"W-What?"

Whitebeard asked again. "What about your dreams, Ace? What do you seek in the sea? What drives you forward, what do you hope to accomplish?"

"An answer." Ace stated without thinking, then his eyes widened further in shock. He had been holding a conversation with the man he had sworn to kill. This could have been worse only if it had been his biological father instead of Whitebeard.

Whitebeard was about to press on the subject, wanting to know just what Ace had no answer for, wanting to try and clear any doubt or unsecurity his son could have, when a bunch of pirates started gathering to the center of the deck, gathering the attention of the whole crew, especially when a loud 'thud' was heard as something came crashing from the sky.

"What the!" Thatch cursed over the noise of voices as smoke swallowed the deck. Marco rushed to the center, forcing his way through the crowd with Thatch on his tail while Ace stood there, staring. 'What now?' He thought in boredom.

Marco narrowed his eyes in attempt to look through the smoke, while wondering who on their right mind would attack their ship. He could make out the figure by now and almost gaped when he saw it was a human being.

'How could someone survive that kind of crashing!?' He thought in astonishment. Looking at Thatch, he understood the cook felt the same. When the smoke cleared, the person dusted his clothes and put on what seemed to be a straw hat.

'Wait, straw hat?' Thatch thought and his eyebrow twitched. There was no way, right? It was a coincidence, right? Then, the person spoke.

"Damn bird, just wait till I catch it! I'll be sure to eat it!" Marco cleared his throat and asked in a threating tone.

"Hey, who are you and what are you doing here?" The stranger turned around to face him, his face breaking into a grin. Marco's eyes widened when he identified the person. Straw hat, big grin and scratch under eye. He was-!

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Nice to meet ya!"

"Eh? Eh?!" Thatch gaped and looked from the now identified Monkey D. Luffy to the first commander, who had an odd expression on his face. Sighing, he approached the kid who didn't even slip into a fighting stance, which was odd considering he was on am enemy pirate ship and he was a pirate himself.

"So, Luffy." Started the blond. "Do you have any idea where you are?"

Luffy picked his nose casually, making half of the people there drop their jaws. "Nope!"

"You're on the Moby Dick, the ship of Whitebeard, the strongest man on the world." Supplied Thatch, curious to see what the boy's reaction would be. Fear? Nervousness? Unsecur-?

"Really?! That's so COOL!" He shouted in excitement and...were those stars the boy had around him? Either way, they really didn't want to know. "But I need to find my older brother! He's somewhere here on the Grand Line! Hey, banana pineapple head, care to give me a ride?"

Thatch started laughing at Luffy's nickname for Marco while the latter was seriously considering his approval of Luffy joining them. Before Marco would try and attack the kid and leave him with more mental problems than he apparently already had, Thatch put an arm around Luffy's shoulders and started dragging the kid with him.

"Maa, Maa. Let's calm down for a moment." He said cheerfully. "Let's go introduce you to Oya-I mean the captain, Whitebeard. Then you can ask him to get you wherever you want."

"No." Opposed Marco instantly, though the duo would have none of it.

"Really? Ok!" Luffy exclaimed as he started running toward the Yonko's chair, only to stop dead on his tracks at the sight in front of him. The other older pirate hadn't noticed Luffy and continued his staring contest with the Old Man, while Thatch had stopped to stare at Luffy.

"Hey brat? What's up?" Asked the cook. The one word Luffy uttered was enough to make his face pale in shock.

"Ace..."