A Dragons Fire [Portgas D. Ace x Reader]

41

Changing Tides

6.8k words

Warnings: lots of cursing.
Good fucking luck. I would not wanna be you rn...

*

Turns out the that Whitebeard pirates had informants of their own who infiltrated the Diamond Alliance. Spies if you will. We were heading to meet them at an island when a message came by bird mail telling Whitebeard they had urgent information about the enemy that needed to be shared. Safe to say when a message like that comes in it would be stupid to ignore it.

All the division commanders were asked to attend the meeting with him as well as myself. Given my background, he thought it would be best to have me offering suggestions on next courses of actions when we hear what the informants have to say. Advisory duties never end on this ship. It could be as little as what the cooks should make for dinner or as big as offering potential battle strategies which my mother had thoroughly prepared me in.

I don't know what's to come of this next battle, and I was currently okay with that. The seas are as unpredictable as people so nothing they could throw at me would have me falter. Not anymore.

There are numerous amounts of things to do on a pirate ship. Keeping oneself busy isn't a hard task. However when downtime comes around, I mostly find myself watching Ace playing cards with the boys. I would join but they get a little too rowdy for me to handle and when they get serious about it, it's almost like entering a war. The screams of frustration, the cries of despair and the victor rubbing it in the losers faces never letting them forget it. More then once I've held Ace back from starting a fight, but if it wasn't him starting it then it was someone else. That's when I gave up and let him join the fighting.

Except tonight's tournament-yes, tournament-was even more intense then all the others. I thinks it's because we were approaching a new island that was bound to come into view any hour now and they wanted the glory high from a victory against the others. I could practically smell the tension in the air since my other four senses picked it up quickly.

The night started off with a game of go fish and while childish, many people ended up in the infirmary. The winners from that round went on to play slap jack where one guy named Jack actually got slapped during the round from some of the other drunk players. Safe to say he wasn't very happy with that and rage quit when he was two turns away from winning.

Next up was rummy and I was surprised when I saw Ace actually win it to move on to the last round. I thought his luck ran out when he almost lost in slap jack. Not to mention, he too joined in and 'accidentally' slapped Jack which sent him to the infirmary. Then they played war to thin out the competition and the name was fitting considering the atmosphere I was put in cause Ace wanted emotional support. He won that too, advancing to the final round.

The last game being played was signal and everyone needed a partner for it. Six people were in the final rounds and to no one's surprise it consisted of the division commanders. Marco, Jozu, Speed Jiru, Fossa, Izou and Ace. Despite my earlier reservation, Ace somehow roped me in to being his partner for the game. There would be a total of five rounds and whoever won the most won.

To win signal, one partner must get all four of the same number and discreetly tell their partner who sits directly across from them. Before the match starts, both partners get their cards and meet up to exchange what they have and discuss strategies and signals being used. Then they go to their spots and the match starts. During the match, if someone notices the other person doing something suspicious then they can call them out and if they have it the other partner can't call it, if they don't the game continues as usual.