Chapter Text
You heard water splashing against the hull of the ship in which you were imprisoned.
The shackles around your hands and feet felt cold and heavy. Your clothes were dirty and ripped. Even your collar, which as an Omega you were recommended to wear, was taken away. It’s been days since you had seen the sun and the shackles felt unnecessary with how weak you felt. Looking through the dark, the bars of your cell only dimly lit from the cracks in the ceiling above you. Moldy Bread and Water laid at the end of your feed. You shoved it farther away. Your Stomach felt like it was trying to eat itself but you still insisted on not folding under your hunger.
Trying to keep yourself together you pulled your legs towards your chest. You started to hate the darkness that swallowed you up. Back then you just started working in a little bar on your home island. It was your first real job outside of the orphanage you grew up in. The nuns that raised you were worried, telling you that working in the town as an Omega was more than dangerous. Not taking them too seriously you just waved their worries away. Wanting to finally start your own life.
You cried thinking about how right they were. It didn’t even take a whole week for rumors about you to start. Omegas were rare, not even making up 10% of the population. Even in your orphanage you were the only one. Since your second gender presented everyone had been quick to tell you how dangerous the world was. How you should just choose a reliable Alpha and settle down as quickly as possible to prevent being targeted by shady people.
But you wanted to be your own person, not shackled to another just because of your second gender. Working for your own money, having your own place to live in. The owner of the bar was the only one in the whole town who offered you a job. He had even been nice enough to offer you a room above his bar. The work was nice and easy. Not many travelers frequented your little town, so you knew most of the guests. Taking orders, filling up empty glasses and cleaning up tables wasn’t much, but you were able to earn your own money and that made you more than proud.
On your last day a bunch of unfamiliar sailors entered the bar. They didn’t even pretend to be there for food and drink. It didn’t take long for the owner to pull you aside and tell you to go up to your room as discreetly as possible. Sadly, as the bar wasn’t that big, the warning came too late. With a nasty grin the Captain came up to the owner, while you were trying to hide behind him. It was obvious in the way he eyed you that he knew about your second gender. These sailors looked around for potential slaves to sell.
“How much for that untouched calf behind you mate?”
A sour taste flooded your mouth as the man tried to haggle with your boss trying to simply buy you. You were thankful that the owner of the bar didn’t even think about exchanging you for money, but those sailors couldn’t have cared less.
“Well, I tried playing fair, old man”
The rest of the evening played out like a nightmare.
As they opted for violence to just take you a lot of the interior got destroyed. You tried screaming, kicking and punching them as much as you could, as one of the lackeys grabbed you by the waist but they were much stronger than you. The owner tried to fight but you still winced remembering his beaten up stature. Some of the townspeople had tried to help you as well but they just suffered a similar fate, getting heavily injured. The last picture of your old Hometown you remembered was a sad and blurry one as you screamed and cried for the people to save themself. Soon enough they brought you under deck, through a long storage room, throwing you in a single cell far from the other slaves they had already collected.
“So you don’t cause trouble with your sweet stench, little whore~” chuckled the man who pulled at your limbs to put the shackles on you.
“But don’t worry! We are alpha enough to take care of you anyway” another man laughed and sent a shiver down your spine, as he came closer to you.
Some of them had smelled like Alphas, but most had seemed to be Betas. Nonetheless they were dangerous and disgusting.
“Don’t damage our cargo” a different voice, the captain, shouted from above and the men scurried leaving you alone in the last second.
Day after day you lived in fear of someone opening the doors. What they would do to you. Omegas being sold as slaves was nothing new to you, but you never would have thought that it could happen to you. Your town was small enough that you felt safe. Every time a man came down to bring you food and water your body tensed up eyeing their every step. You only allowed yourself to breathe again, after the person had been gone again. At some point you lost track of time. Only noticing the sun going down and the moon coming up by the change of light in the darkness which consumed your surroundings. It's been probably weeks and your anxiety grew with each night. Not only did you fear that they could get you any moment to sell you away, but you also felt your heat approaching. Not trying to imagine what would happen if an Alpha got attracted by your scent…
—--
“The ship coming towards us seems to be a slave trading vessel, commander!” the cabin boy yelled down from the mast.
Marco nodded and looked to the far away ship on the horizon. “Are we just leaving them be?” Thatch, on his right, asked, earning a disapproving look from their new crewmate.
"What?" Trying to meddle in decisions above your position, Portgas?” He teased his new cremate.
Ace's last attempt to fight with whitebeard was just a few weeks ago and most of his old crew had already adjusted to life on the Mobydick. He himself took much longer to come around but Pops had been set on recruiting him, since he didn’t run after his fight with Jinbei. Ace was slow to warm up to others, but he started talking to more people after Marco had done his magic on him. Of course the phoenix insisted that he had only brought him food, but Thatch didn’t really believe that. In the end, it didn’t really matter as the fire user proved himself to be a valuable addition to their crew.
Marco had once said that Ace reminded him of a cat which just needed more time to acclimate to their new home. You know, like a stray kitten.
“I’m going to check in with Pops-yoi, but you should… YOi!”
The phoenix started but was interrupted by Ace running and jumping on his Striker making his way towards the ship.
“This knucklehead” he cursed while Thatch chuckled a bit.
“Get ready!" We are hijacking this ship!” Thatch shouted across the deck hearing the excited noises of his division.
“Tell Pops". I’m going after him” Marco told him with a big sigh turning his body into that of a phoenix and catching up with Ace.
Ace didn’t believe that freeing the people and attacking those bastards was even in question. If Whitebeard was really the type of pirate to just let these people alone, he would have to regret joining his crew. And he never wanted to regret anything in his life! His Striker raced through the waves, before he jumped with an impressive flip on to the enemy ship.
“Hello, I have a bone with you bastards to pick”
—-----------
You jumped hearing a bone shaking scream from above.
It was followed by more screams and the sound of a big fire raging.
Is the ship burning down?! But you were still on sea? What was happening?
Trying not to panic you listened to the voices above you yelling and fighting. Pirates? Marines?
“There are people here!” you heard somebody yelling.
“Get them out on the boat!” another voice shouted and you tried to figure out if those people had good or bad intentions.
Crawling to the bars of your cell, your shackles rattled from the sudden movement. A bright light was suddenly blinding you. It came from the entrance to the storage. You averted your eyes, no longer being used to this much sunlight while hearing steps coming in your direction. Your heartbeat quickly got faster but nearly stopped after you nose got hit with that scent of burning wood and saltwater.
—----
Ace didn’t know what made him come down here. Most of the kidnapped people had been found in the opposite part of the ship and here it just looked like they kept their food and equipment. “I should have stayed above deck to fight more” he ruffled through his own hair, annoyed. Butt still, something nudged him to explore. Like an itch that wouldn’t get satisfied till he saw with his own eyes that the ship didn’t have more secrets to hide.
He stopped.
The scent of flowers hit his nose and moved directly into his brain as if somebody had just pushed him into a bouquet of it. It wasn’t uncomfortable, rather the opposite, but the intensity really overwhelmed him for a bit. Holding a hand to cover his nose he walked towards the scent. Did those monsters smuggle drugs? Omegas? With knitted eyebrows he tried to figure out where the scent could come from, but he also started to notice a haziness which he wasn’t used to.
No, he knew this feeling but it was never this strong.
Ace had been growing up with an Omega brother who never had enough tact to warn him before his heat would come. Monkey D. Luffy had a disdain for medication which made dealing with his first couple of heats a nightmare. At some point Luffy and he had learned how to control their urges to a point that made medication quite obsolete. Marco had often reminded him that his way of dealing with other heats or his own ruts was dangerous and reckless, but it had never been a problem.
At least till now.
“Fuck” he cursed as he stood infront of your cage. Your appearance behind the crates and bags that hit him like a ship. Shaking in fear you looked up to him and for a second the fire user let your scent take over his senses. Who? What? He hadn’t even noticed how his own scent had gotten strong enough to mingle with yours. A sweet caramelized scent filled the room and his brain. His eyes absorbed all of your features that were visible in the dark. Your hair, skin, frame and even the color of your eyes, that looked equally shocked at him as he was at you. Ace was, even for a short moment, very glad that those thick iron bars were separating the two of you.
Take her.
No!
This is your Omega!
The Alpha inside of him flared up in such an intensity that it scared Ace for the first time in his life. “No” he exhaled, frozen in his stands just a few meters apart from yours.
“MARCO!!” he bellowed as loud as he could to make the commander rush to you.
You jumped again at his loud voice. As soon as this man had entered your field of view, your heat had flared up in a way that had nearly overwhelmed you. With an all too familiar fever raging through your body you had been holding on to the bars of your cell for dear life. The man in front of you seemed equally as shocked and the scent that filled up your nose as soon as your eyes met his. This was too much. You tried to keep your composure by closing your eyes, but the heat mixed with the exhaustion was just too much. Losing the strength in your grip you fell against the floor and into the sweet nothingness of unconsciousness.
You did not remember what had happened much after. Only the faint but calming smell of pineapple and even more blinding lights before someone, a nurse?, poked you with something sharp. A needle? Shortly after that you fell asleep staying dormant till the next day.
You woke up to a nurse opening the windows and looked around pretty groggy trying to figure out where you were. The room was big, with many beds and little dividers which kept the patients separate. You could see a few nurses running around in pink outfits and leopard printed boots? You probably looked very funny with your roughed up state and the confused look on your face as you looked at the blonde man that just entered the room.
“She just woke up, Marco '' said a nurse flirtatiously but the man didn’t really hear it.
Or he ignored it, who knew.
Looking at him coming to you, you panicked a bit but the sweet pineapple scent came back calming you down a bit.
“Don’t worry,” he said, pulling a chair near your bed and sitting on it.
“I’m Marco. We rescued you and the others from those Slave traders. This is Whitebeard's ship” he explained, taking your arm in his hands to check your pulse.
“The pirate?” you asked, your voice cracking after having not talked for so long.
He nodded “We will arrive on an inhabited island in a week or so. You and the others can find your way home from there” he said, turning your face to him to check your eyes, temperature and so on.
“Huh” you said dumbfounded. Pirates have saved you…
“We gave you medicine, but your heat is still active even if you should feel much better” he continued to explain and you felt it too. Your body still felt hot, but the haziness and pain was much more bearable.
“What's your name?” he finally asked, smiling a bit.
“Y/N” you said, thinking how he not only smelt a bit like a pineapple but also resembled one a bit.
At least he didn’t look scary, which you would have expected from a pirate. He actually looked really friendly with his sleepy eyes and the lazy smile.
“Okay Y/N” he started explaining again. “The nurse will give you more suppressants. Please take them with every meal until your heat ends. Under normal circumstances I would ask you to just stay here till we reach the island, but we have too many patients right now so I’m asking you to stay with me, okay?”
You nodded slowly. It was quite a lot of information to take in but for now everything was better than to be confined to a small dark space again.
"Great.I’m going to look after the other patients and the nurse will help you get ready” he smiled, satisfied with your willingness to cooperate. You just now noticed the group that had built at the entrance of this infirmary.
“Is she awake now?”
“Is that the Omega Ace triggered?”
“Oi! I didn’t do that on purpose!” a familiar voice cursed.
“Let me see! Let me see!”
“I want to see the Omega too Thatch! You are too tall!”
The nurse chuckled amused behind you, while you saw how a book flew past you right into the group that blocked the door. It made you flinch again.
"Silence! This is not a Zoo, you animals!” Marco yelled, making the group disperse and flee.
A bit amused you shook your head and turned to the nurse who helped you to get situated a bit. She showed you where you could wash yourself and gave you a new set of clothes and a few towels. You thanked her and got to work. Your thoughts swung back and forth like a pendulum between the fact that you were on an actual pirate ship now and the mysterious Alpha that had found you in the first place. Just remembering the scent of burning wood and the sweet caramelization made your heat flare up against the medication. A bit surprised you shoved the thoughts into the back of your head. A future You could figure that out.
The clothes were nothing fancy, some simple sand colored pants that you could tie with a red shawl to your liking and a Shirt which was just a tad bit too big. In some way you looked like a young cabin boy.
Stepping out of the bathroom back into the infirmary you saw how Marco argued with the one you just have tried to forget. The hairs in your nape were standing up, seeing just his stature so close to you.
Now in natural light he looked much younger. Maybe around the same age as you, if not a little bit older. His black boots matched the same colored shorts. The yellow jacket clashed a bit with the orange hat and belt that had blue accents. The knife was striped in green and yellow while he completed all the primary colors with his red beads that adorned his hat and neck.
“I just want to apologize, okay?” the man said, trying not to get scolded by the much older doctor.
Noticing you, he suddenly turned around, straightened his back, and bowed forward till his upper body seemed parallel to the floor.
“I’m very sorry for scaring you. It wasn’t my intention to trigger your heat or anything” he said very sincerely and you could feel the blood rushing into your cheeks.
“He is just an Idiot who was luckily thinking fast enough to call me,” Marco added, putting his hand on the younger and pushing him even more towards the floor. If he wanted to apologize he would have to do it properly. How often had he told him that heats weren’t something he could just endure?
“I’m not an Idiot!” Ace snapped at the Doctor, but their bickering seemed like good fun, which made you relax a bit.
“It’s okay” you answered after they stopped for a moment. “I kind of figured that it wasn’t on purpose” you smiled a bit and now it was Ace's turn to feel his cheeks turn pink.
“I’m Ace. Portgas D.Ace” the black haired man bowed again and beamed at you with a big grin after he stood up again.
“I’m Y/N” you answered shyly, bowing too to match his courtesy.
“Okay.Out with you now! You apologized, you’re done here - yoi” Marco sighed annoyed and basically kicked Ace out of the infirmary.
The Doctor had noticed a familiar feeling watching you two interact, which alarmed him. The nurses had to notice it too, since they giggled behind their charts and papers. This was bad news, very bad news.
Marco still had to take care of some patients, because of Aces interruption, so you helped the nurse clean up your bed for the next patient and even got some fruit to eat while waiting.
After that you followed him closely. He told you that you were the only Omega on the ship and that you should still be careful even if most of them were friendly.
Most of the other kidnapped people were in rough condition.
It made your heart sink thinking about the treatment they had gone through, while you were pretty much spared just because of your second gender.
“Don’t take it to heart too much,” Marco said, ripping you out of your thoughts. “You are all free now”
He continued to explain that enough people chose to take the slave traders ship and sail towards home with it.Only the few who were injured enough stayed with the pirates.
While following him around you also saw quite a bit of the Mobydick. The ship was gigantic and probably the biggest you ever saw. Long hallways connected gigantic storage rooms and even more rooms that you didn’t enter.
Funnily enough a certain black haired pirate catched your eyes everytime you followed Marco through a crowd of people. It was weird how no matter how many impressions you collected, your eyes always wandered back to him. As if he was a magnet pulling your focus on him. Marco noticed that and pulled you further every time you seemed distracted. Your next stop was the canteen.
“Oi Marco! Stay a minute. I’ll get food ready for both of you” a man even taller than Marco called out to him.
The man had brown hair with a slight reddish tint. It was styled in a way that made it look a bit like the end of a rolled up cigar. A Pompadour you later learned. You could tell that Marco seemed nervous, but because you were his little shadow today and couldn't just not eat, he decided to take Thatch up on his offer. The cook smiled sympathetically as he whispered something you couldn’t hear to the blond. It was early in the afternoon, not many people were here and you sat across from Marco on one of the vacant tables. Thatch brought you two portions of some kind of beef stew and sat down with you cheekily grinning at Marco, who looked at him displeased.
“So~ Y/N-chan” he started swinging his legs over a chair that had been turned around. His arms rested on the back of the chair and he grinned mischievously at you.
The food in front of you looked and smelled so good, that you only listened with one ear.
Thatch seemed pleased that you liked his food and didn’t mind that you were just nodding along for a while. He leaned back for a moment to tell one of his subordinates to give you another portion.
"You don’t seem scared, being on a ship full of pirates?” he asked, propping up his chin on his hand.
With your cheeks still full of food you looked at him. “Well you saved me” and they didn’t take advantage of your heat.
Even as pirates, they were good people in your eyes.
“True, but we are still a pirate crew~” he leaned a bit forward, still smiling.
“Especially one with a lot of Alphas on it. Well, Marco enjoys playing Mother hen too much to let his chick unattended for too long -Ouch!” he twitched after something, or better Marco, hit him under the table.
“What? "It's true!” he tries to defend himself just to get hit again.
Watching both of them you finished your portion and looked at Marco. You kind of knew it since this morning, but it was still unusual for such a big and probably strong man to be the same second gender as you. Marco just looked over some papers while eating his portion on the side, trying to ignore Thatchs commentary. But the man didn’t stop.
“You know, he is the only Omega between us Division Commanders~ Everyone else is basically an Alpha with Haruta as exception being a Beta. But do you want to know his secret~?" He leaned forward again.
"We are basically all just dancing after his tune” Thatch started to whisper.
“If you get lucky enough you could even be chosen as his Alpha during his- Hey!” he got kicked again.
You didn’t really know what Thatch got out of it, telling you all of this but it made you look at Marco again. The blonde man was quite tall. A head taller than Ace but a few centimeters smaller than Thatch. He leaned back in his chair staring daggers at Thatch who he thought was running his mouth a bit too much.
“You are not taking medicine?” you asked a bit confused after feeling its effects right now. Obviously the quality of the medicine changes depending on the doctor, but the ones Marco gave to you felt like the best one you ever took. You felt totally normal, only a bit warmer than usual.
“You should not take medicine every time. The side effects could make your heat irregular or worse” he explained and you nodded. You knew that the main ingredient in heat suppressants were Alpha pheromones and that your body could become too dependent on the stable dosage if you used it too much.
Thatch was clearly bored by the medical side of the whole conversation, so he switched his tactics. “Do you mind me asking if you’re taken Y/N-chan?” he said in a flirtouses tone. You scrunch your nose at his question and he chuckled. Your fingers moved to your neck. It felt naked now since you still had no collar on. The nuns had always made sure that you wore one for safety. In the beginning it only felt restricting, but with Thatchs sudden interest you felt insecure without it.
“I’m not interested“
“Really?” asked the cook and he pouted even a little bit. “People these days are so unromantic! And I thought at least a young girl like you must still have that fire” he complained.
“What fire?” you frowned while Marco just shook his head, not believing that he had to listen to Thatch ramblings sober.
“The fire of searching for your Soulmate!” He put two of his fingers and his thumb together, shaking them. “Thats the one benefit we have as Alphas and Omegas. Finding that one bond, that red string of fate and having this connection that no one can take from you” he enthused.
“Soulmates are fairytales. Any Alpha can bond with an omega of his choosing. The biological necessity behind this connection is probably just the need to further your own-” Marco started, but Thatch waved his hands in front of him with a disgusted look on his face.
“Stop with your nasty science! Love and Fate are not measurable!” he pouted again.
“Are you telling this to every single one of your barmaids too?” Marco raised an eyebrow while he crossed his arms.
“That is not the same-!”
The scent of burning wood took your attention elsewhere, away from the little verbal fight that both men were trying to have. A glimpse of orange an black appeared at the door of the canteen before twitching back into the corridor you couldn’t see.
“What happened for you to be honoring us with your presence, Ace?” Thatch shouted amused and the pirate appeared again in the door. His cheeks were burning as he got caught.
Marco tensed up seeing the younger man, as he had forgotten about him during his talk with Thatch. Something he scolded himself for. Ace had finally, after acting worse like a distrusting cat, starting to thaw his cold demeanor around the crew. He didn’t pick fights for nothing, he talked to others and most importantly he had stopped attacking Pops constantly. But since the firefist had found you in that storage room he had changed again.
Marco wasn’t stupid enough to think that you were finding him all around the ship on accident. He knew that Ace walked into you, maybe not on purpose, but if he stayed with you in a place for two long, then it was guaranteed for Ace to pop up. Even now. He never showed up in the canteen if it wasn’t time to eat.
“Nothing in particular” Ace mumbled, coming over to your table of three, nervously putting his weight on his other foot and back again. He looked around in the empty room, like he was searching for something.
“Don’t think I will give you extra food” Thatch warned him, but even he noticed that Ace was acting suspiciously.
You didn’t even notice how your eyes were glued to him. His whole presence just made the room light up. Was that part of the fire powers he had? It was nice.
Ace didn’t even register Thatchs comment. The nervous itch was still there, bullying him to look at you. It had been there since he had left you in Marcos care. He tried not to think about it, but it was pointless. Every single time he wasn’t actively trying to focus on something else, he ended up wandering directly to you. It bothered him, but he refused to think about what this whole thing could mean. This was just him overreacting to your Heat, okay? Nothing more. Nothing special.
Oh, so you are scared of looking at her?
The black orbs met yours with an intensity that made you wince. He looked annoyed and you hoped that you weren’t staring too much. Even if just a minute had gone by, it felt like forever. With a slight blush you looked down to the table. Heat was coming off of his body like Sunrays slithering its way over to you.
Suddenly Marco stood up.
“Work is calling. We have to go Y/N”
Everyone looked at him puzzled, Ace even growled a slight bit, but Marco ignored all of you. Stepping over the bench he already walked towards the door as you panicked and followed him.
“Sorry” was everything you managed to say to Thatch and Ace.
“Don’t forget your medicine” Marco reminded you as you followed him through the corridor, eyes still glued to the direction where Ace should be. He gave you his flask and without further ado you did as he asked, still trying to keep up with his pace.
He threw himself back into work and you stayed his little shadow, trying to help by counting supplies or holding his papers for him. It was pretty easy work and most of the crewmates you met were quite friendly.
Except for one man.
Well, you couldn’t say that he wasn’t friendly but something about Marshall D.Teach made you shiver in fear. He leaned against the first division commander's shoulder and looked at you amused as Marco tried to ignore him.
“Is this the little omega snack Ace was saving? I could take her off your responsibility” he joked and Marco noticed how you tensed up at his joke.
“Don’t do that. You scared her” he warned his subordinate but Teach just laughed.
“I’m sorry little omega~ I guess some jokes are only fun for pirates” he grinned at you, but Marco shoved his hand off his shoulder.
“You are the only one who thinks this is fun” he said and Teach decided that he had scared you enough and took off again.
Just thinking about it made your stomach turn. You couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but that man had the aura of someone dangerous and nasty. The rest of the day got over in a breeze and the sun was slowly settling on the Mobydick.
This time the food hall was packed and a lot of the people you met during the day were here getting their bellies stuffed. A lot of different scents mingled with the delicious smell of food. It actually made you a bit dizzy. Marco parked you in front of the man called Izou and told you to wait.
Izo was a pale man with feminine features. His pink kimono and the voluptuous hair which was styled like a geishas, made him look like a beautiful porcelain doll, one that could kill you if you didn’t respect it enough.
“He seems quite attached to you,” the pretty man chuckled, looking after Marco. Izo had noticed how Marco didn’t leave your side the whole day.
Again the scent of burned wood preceded the man taking the seat beside you.
“He is just overprotective because she is an Omega” Ace growled as he greeted you and Izo.
His scent and warmth was still a lot but he drowned out all other scents which you were thankful for. It made you less dizzy.
“He is just doing his job, Ace,” said Izo in a forgiving tone.This type of bad mood at dinner time was unusual for the pirate.
“By making us feel like criminals everytime we come near her?” Ace said, still openly annoyed.
Raising one of his perfect eyebrows Izo tried to study the mood of the younger pirate. “I really don’t think this is his intention,” he said, shaking his head, but Ace didn’t want to listen.
That itch had hammered away at his nerves for too long. His pheromones grew in intensity till it smelt more like a wildfire broke out right next to you. “If it isn’t, why is he running away with her every time-”
“A-Ace?” you said a bit panicky, grabbing his arm, so he would look at you instead of Izo. Other people had started turning around looking at his direction trying to figure out what was happening. A murmur was going through the hall, but for a second you didn’t notice anything around you. Grabbing him had made you flinch the same way as if you just had reached into fire.
Ace too stopped and looked at you with big eyes. The sunrays catched up to you, surrounded you and the smell of caramelized flowers trickled into both of your brains. The threats connected.
Finally
He jerked back, ripping his arm away from your grip. “No” he exhaled and fear as well as disgust hit you with full force.
“Ace, wait!” Izo called out to him, but Ace ran out of the canteen. This wasn’t happening. This was not happening to him.
Still in shock, the loud noise of metal and ceramics hitting the floor made you turn around. The whole hall looked at Marco who had just turned his back to you for no more than five minutes.
“Shit”