Portgas D. Ace x Chubby Reader

Chapter 22: Edward and Chaos

We finally arrived at my surprise for Ace and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"Well? Is it a good surprise?" I asked him as I parked the truck in the animal shelter parking lot. He wore a huge smile as he nodded and grabbed my hand. Ace pulled on my wrist, sending me over to him. We looked each other in the eyes before sharing a passionate kiss.

We got out of the car and made our way inside to look at the dogs first.

Most of them were very sad-looking, with sadness in their eyes and tails between their legs. Some of them looked malnourished and hid in the back corners of their kennels. Others were very excited to see people. It was depressing. I just wanted to take them all home, but Ace and I aren't home enough for a dog.

Ace and I decided to head into the cat room where they are allowed to roam free. We decided to sit on the floor against the wall to not scare them.

Thankfully, we were the only people in there so we could have some privacy. Almost every cat was looking at us, and for some reason, it was making me uncomfortable. I leaned over and rested my head on Ace's shoulder as he then rested his head on mine.

We waited there for a while for a cat to come up to us and right when I was about to give up and approach them myself, Ace pointed at one walking along the wall to us.

The cat's coat kinda reminded me of King Julien. It was mostly gray with a white tummy and paws. Its tail was also gray but had rings of black going up it.

The cat approached me first as it climbed into my lap and looked up at Ace. Ace held out his hand for the cat to sniff before petting it. I saw someone enter the room from the corner of my eye but I paid them no mind. That was until they walked up to us and crouched down to be on our level.

"That's Edward. He's three. Sadly we don't know what breed he is. What do you guys think? Would you like to take him into a private room and get to know him better?" She asked us.

"Can we just adopt him now?" Ace replied. She gave him a funny look.

"I...I guess." She grumbled as she stood up. Ace followed suit and grabbed our new cat from me allowing me to stand up. As we went over and signed the adoption papers, I held Edward in my lap as Ace pet him the entire time.

At least he seems to be a very well-behaved cat.

The adoption did take as long as we thought and afterward, we went around the store to buy stuff for Edward. After Oden and Roger died, we just decided to get rid of everything, so we were starting from scratch.

Ace carried Edward around in his arms while I pushed the cart, and when we got to the cash register, I realized we may have gone overboard.

We got him a scratching post, a cat tree, automatic food and water dispensers, a bed, a bunch of toys, food, a shit ton of treats, litter, a litter box, a collar, harness, a cat backpack, and a leash so we could take him on walks. As I swiped my credit card to pay, my soul hurt, just like my bank account would in a while from the expensive purchase.

Before we left, we made sure to get the most important thing, Edwards' name tag. We went up to the machine and Ace picked out the fish shape name tag. He put Edwards' name on one side and my phone number on the other.

Finally, we left and Ace got into the passenger seat with the cat. I put all of Edwards' stuff into the backseat next to my new dress, except for his new collar and one of his toys. I got into the driver's seat and turned the truck on before handing Ace the white-collar he picked out.

Ace removed the collar from the packaging before hooking the name tag on and putting it on Edward.

"Awww." We said at the same time. On the car ride home, Edward sat on Ace's lap as they played with the toy for about half the car ride. The other half of the ride, they were passed out. Ace was snoring loudly while the cat napped on his chest with his head laying on his shoulder.