captain withering shark {zoro x seme male reader x luffy}

chp: 26

m/n was sitting in front of ace's cell, hands behind his back as he looked at the ceiling. this entire time he was ignoring ace mumbling that it wasn't worth it- that he shouldn't be saved- even though he somewhat put his trust in luffy, ignoring jimbe's doubts that luffy is actually here, ignoring the guards feeling relieved that today was the day they would transport ace.

hours had gone by, m/n had his eyes closed, almost falling asleep from how bored he was. tadeo smacked his cheek with his head and then his wings, making the captain alert. m/n snapped his eyes open, hearing the elevator.

luffy's not here yet. what happened to him? he wouldn't use the elevator... so this means-

m/n stood up, right hand going on his head in a mock salute. "warden."

the warden nodded and stopped in front of the cell, "this is it, portgas  d. ace. you're going to be transformed to marine core. upon your arrival there, you'll be taken to the execution grounds."  (portgas autocorrected to portuguese)

they unlocked his cell, going in and unlocking the chains to the wall. harshly grabbing the second in command on whitebeard's ship. 

m/n hummed, this was bad. he turned to his hawk.

"stay here." he mumbled, "when luffy gets here, guide him to us."

his hawk nodded and flew up, watching as they left. m/n looked at ace, nodding to him.

'trust him.'  he mouthed to ace, referring to both his hawk and luffy.

tadeo stayed flying in the air around ace's cell. he heard loud screaming, noting that it was the straw hat boy his owner talked about.

"ace!" luffy yelled, running to the cage.

he saw two people down, tadeo flew down. screeching to get their attention. luffy snapped his eyes to the hawk. tuning out the giant blue blob talking to luffy about ace. tadeo got on luffy's shoulder, nudging his cheek.

luffy turned to him, eyes widening in realization, "tadeo? captain m/n's hawk?" a bright twinkle entered luffy's eyes.

tadeo nodded flying off and leading the way. luffy and the three followed, a new found jump in his step. he'd save ace and he'll see m/n, he missed seeing people he knew. especially zoro and m/n.

m/n got off the elevator behind everyone, sighing to himself. he had a feeling tadeo had already found luffy, just waiting for them to join. something in m/n's heart skipped, he was excited to see luffy and he prayed he'd get to see zoro too.

he couldn't see one without the other, after all.

"it seems your brother showed up a moment too late." warden said, pulling m/n out of his thoughts.

"luffy?" ace gasped.

and just his name sent m/n back in his thoughts. no matter how composed he looked on the outside, something warm and fuzzy twisted on the inside.

~~

sleeping gas was going through the room, tadeo felt his eyes droopy. but he was more annoyed than tired, m/n was counting on him. so he strengthened his body, grew his size, clawing at the cage in front of the stairs. but he couldn't do anything, luffy fell, so he went small and decided to go to his owner. before m/n would worry or before they knew m/n was working with whitebeard if he passed out on the ground next to the straw hat.

when he got there, he noticed his owner pursing his lips as ace was trying to fight the guards. tadeo could see just how conflicted m/n was. he wanted to save ace right now, but he needed to bid his time, it had to be right. he also knew m/n wanted to give luffy a chance to save his brother, despite m/n and ace being brother's, luffy knew him longer. he deserved that.