Well, here's the second chapter up less then a week after the first as a thank you to Honyaku for the lovely Review!

Reviews and F/F are appreciated and are good motivation, and I hope you all enjoy reading this fanfic as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

Suggestions on how I could improve are also greatly appreciated! Enjoy 3

Several hours later, Ace finally finished cleaning all of the latrines on board. Whilst cleaning the latrines he had had a narcoleptic attack, making him pass out in the middle of the job. This meant he was now tired and hungry and in need of a shower.

Putting the cleaning supplies away in a nearby storage room, Ace decided to find the showers, figuring that it would be the smartest thing to do considering that they should be empty at this time of the night. Whilst looking for the showers he was lucky enough to find a spare change of clothes which he grabbed without hesitation.

After finally finding the showers, the tired and hungry male was quick to make sure there were no other marines around. Then again, what marine would have a shower at 1am.

Sighing tiredly, the narcoleptic man was quick to strip and throw the soiled clothes in a corner before letting his hair down. He found it annoying to keep his hair tied up, much preferring to have the wild, raven coloured looks loose. The glasses were also annoying as they liked to slip off of his nose, meaning he had to keep pushing them back up.

Sighing happily, Ace threw the towel he had found on the floor not far from the showers before turning them on, feeling impatient. He wanted nothing more than to be under the hot spray of the showers, the water and warmth soothing his tense muscles. Finally stepping under the hot spray, steam rising up around him, Ace couldn't help but let his guard drop. The warmth and relaxation caused by the hot shower had him tipping his head back, moaning in appreciation. He pushed back the black locks that fell in his eyes, water dripping from his body as his mind slowly went blank, the raven haired male slowly relaxing.

It is for these reasons that he didn't hear the door to the showers open and then close as Smoker stepped inside.

Smoker, himself, had just finished filling out the paperwork before deciding to have a hot shower before bed. Unfortunately, the shower connected to his room had broken again, meaning he had to use the ones for his men. He wasn't pleased that, once again, he would have to have the shower connected to his room fixed.

Expecting the showers to be empty at this time of night, Smoker was surprised to find the showers on when he entered. Stripping of his clothing and placing them to one side, the Commodore slowly padded through the steam filled room until he reached the showers. Glancing at the outline of the man in the steam, he thought for a brief instant that it was Ace. He quickly pushed this thought aside, however, as that was not possible; the raven haired male his mind had flitted to was dead. Stepping under the hot spray of the shower, Smoker started to relax, wondering why he had been thinking of Ace so much for the last couple of weeks.

Ace, himself, had noticed Smoker only when the man had stepped under the spray of the shower next to him. Cursing his luck, Ace prayed that the steam was thick enough to hide the obvious tattoo on his back. Being brought back to life had not altered his physical appearance in the least, and he still had the tattoos from before he was killed. If anything, he had simply gained more scars due to the fight he had been involved in before his death.

Keeping an eye on Smoker, he waited patiently for the man's guard to drop, making sure to keep his back facing away from him. The only problem with that plan was that it meant exposing his stomach. He had a horrifying scar on his stomach from when he had been killed, and, glancing at it, he was pretty sure it would be a dead giveaway as to who he actually was. The scar itself was healed and didn't hurt in the slightest, but it was obvious that he had been punched through the stomach as he had the scar on both his stomach and his back. However, the one on his back wasn't as visible due to the tattoo.

His chance to escape Smoker presented itself in the form of a man stumbling into the showers naked and drunk. Several more marines followed in the same state, causing a ruckus, and they caused a long enough distraction for Ace to quickly pull on his 'uniform' and tie his hair back up. His attention was once again pulled to the commotion when he felt hands on his waist pulling him into the group of stupid, drunk marines. Cursing his luck, the raven haired male started to struggle, trying not to harm any of the drunk men too much as that would probably be a bit suspicious. After all, he was supposed to be a new recruit, not an experienced fighter.

The whole time this was happening Smoker had been glaring at the men who had stumbled in, disturbing his relaxation. Shouting and trying to get some semblance of control had proven to be useless as well, as they simply laughed. At first he didn't know why they were laughing until one of them shouted out a loud 'Naked'. That was the first word he had understood from the drunk marines.

Flushing slightly from a combination of embarrassment and anger, Smoker quickly located his towel and wrapped it around his waist, two lit cigars already between his lips, the smoke swirling around above his head.

Upon looking back up from grabbing his towel, Smoker found the new recruit trying to get free from the hands of the drunk marines. They started to try and remove the struggling raven haired man's clothing as said man attempted to regain freedom, knocking out a couple recruits in the process. Smoker was quick to realise that the new recruit was the one who had been in the shower as well, as the man still had wet hair, a few beads of water running down his neck to his collar bone.

Reaching over and pulling the tanned man from within the group, Smoker growled and finally got their attention.

"Either sober up or you will all have cleaning duty for the next month."

Smoker had placed Ace just behind him, having stepped forwards to address the men before him. He realised that most of them were the new recruits and felt his hands twitch in anger as they continued to be loud and annoying. His smoke extended outwards, knocking the men out quite successfully before he turned to the only new recruit who hadn't been a part of the drunken hoard. Examining the man who was flushed and panting softly from the struggle, Smoker was curious as to why the man had been showering so late, and eh voiced his question.

"I wanted to shower with you!" Was the instant reply, and Smoker couldn't help but growl in annoyance. Shaking his head, the silverette demanded a real answer from the raven.

"Well, I was cleaning the latrines like you told me to. Do you have any idea how many there are on this ship!" a quiet mumble of, 'and my narcolepsy didn't help' also escaped the dark haired male.

Looking the young man before him over with slight approval, Smoker inhaled the nicotine from his cigars deeply, enjoying the relaxation that it caused. Both him and the recruit before him were ignoring the drunken babble as they spoke. "Well, brat, looks like you're the only smart recruit no board. Either that or you're lucky. Tell me, what's your name?"

Ace paused as he was asked his name and his mind started to work a mile a minute as he grinned up at the silver haired male, hiding his internal panic. He blurted out the first thing he thought of which just so happened to be, "Spades! My name is Jack Spades!" This name had come into his mind as he had been thinking of his name, which led to him thinking of the ace of spades and then the jack of spades. He prayed that Smoker wouldn't call him out on how ridiculous the name was, but he relaxed a moment later when the older male simply nodded.

"Well, Spades, from tomorrow you'll be training with me. You have clearly had some type of combat training and you seem to be more adept at it than them," Smoker glared pointedly at the marines now passed out on the floor, "so tomorrow report on deck at 7am sharp for training."

Nodding at the raven, Smoker turned and, after grabbing his clothing, stalked out of the showers.

Ace, for his part, was cursing internally and, on the way out of the showers, he kicked one of the recruits in the side, not exactly happy with his current situation. He quickly made his way back to the storage room where he had hidden his actual clothing, his hat and his skiff and flomped down in the space that he had left for himself. Glancing at the broken skiff, eh figured he should try and gets some work done on it before he slept, so for the next hour he pulled the skiff's engine apart, taking into account the damage and sighing as he realized that the problem would take at least a week to fix. Looking around the storage room, he quickly gathered most of what he needed and hid it by his skiff before curling up to sleep. At least he would be able to tease Smoker for the next week, that is, as long as he wasn't found out by then.

After getting only four hours sleep due to doing work on his skiff the night before, Ace found that he was struggling to stay awake as he made his way on deck. As he walked through the halls he couldn't help but snicker as he recognized a few of the drunk recruits from the night before cleaning the hallways. As far as Ace was concerned, they deserved the punishment. Stepping on deck at 7am, the raven haired male stifled a yawn, slouching as he walked over to where the grey haired marine was standing.

Said marine had been shouting out orders to his crew before turning to Ace, an eyebrow raised as he took in the dark haired man's messy hair, tied up in a rush, and the glasses starting to slip off of his nose. Sighing and shaking his head, Smoker made his way over to Ace, "Right, drop and give me 200 push-ups and then we'll get on with the real training."

Ace looked up at Smoker with a startled expression, but that expression slowly turned to a cheeky grin as he replied, "Ohhh, you want to see me all hot and bothered before the 'real' training? Oh, Smokey, I didn't know you felt that way about me!"

Scowling at the now laughing male, Smoker turned his back, "300 push-ups, and another comment like that and it will be 400." Walking over to Tashigi, Smoker started to discuss some work with her as he waited for Ace to do his push-ups.

Ace had already started on the push up and was doing them quickly and efficiently, not bothered by the high number of them in the least. If anything, he was amused, especially as he wondered what Smoker's reaction would be if he had a narcoleptic attack in the middle of said push-ups. Laughing softly to himself, the dark haired male started to hum, and, once he reached 300, jumped up onto his feet, balancing on the balls of them as he looked over at smoker, a few beads of sweat making their way down his neck to is collarbone. After all, if Ace was going to be stuck in marine clothing, he might as well wear it in a way that he found comfortable , meaning the top few buttons were undone.

Laughing and waving at Smoker, he bounced over, saluting the Commodore playfully, "What next?"

Smoker looked the boy over, he knew 'Spades' had done all 300 as he had been counting, but the boy didn't seem fazed in the slightest. Sighing and shaking his head, Smoker called over one of his strongest men. "You will be spending the next hour training with one of my men and then you will be training with m-"

Smoker couldn't finish his sentence as he suddenly had an armful of brat, a.k.a 'Spade'. Ace had flung himself at Smoker, a cheeky grin on his face, "Awwww, come on Smokey, you know you want to play with me yourself!"

The smoker flowing around Smoker's head was slowly darkening, a vein on the commodore's neck throbbing as he started to get angry. Ace, himself, was babbling away, well aware of how he was making Smoker angry and the surrounding marines weary. Neither Smoker nor the marines could figure out if 'Spade's' was stupid or simply insane. As the raven haired male looked up and smirked, the marines nearby came to the conclusion that he was simply crazy, especially as Smoker started to shout at the boy. All Ace did was laugh and urn off as Smoker tried to catch him.

Ducking into a room, Ace successfully avoided Smoker, and, as he looked around the room, his eyes lit up with unadultered glee.

This room was filled with some rather interesting objects that could make the week he was stuck on board pretending to be a marine a lot more fun.

And he knew exactly where to begin.