Work Text:
Zoro watches Nami pinch the bridge of her nose with light amusement on his face.
"What," she starts, a vein pulsing on her forehead, "Did you do?"
Her fingers squeeze between her eyes for a second, lids pulled shut, but anger very clear in her posture. The laughable image of her miniature form looming over two equally knucklehead brothers sitting in front of her, knees buried in Alabastian sand, is for sure not going to leave Zoro's mind for some time. The tone even makes the dawned body underneath him twitch despite being out cold, and Luffy averts his gaze to the side in guilt.
Ace, however, evidently has more balls than his brother. Or is purposefully suicidal, whichever way the wind blows with this guy.
"Attacked the thugs," he begins, and immediately covers slightly when Nami's burning gaze zeroes on him.
"And what," she hisses, brows rising in challenge up against Ace's reflexive scowling, "Did I tell not to do?"
"To not attack the thugs." Luffy ends, eyes still roaming anywhere but right in front of him. It only lasts a second, though, because soon the guilt turns to whining. "But they started first! They tried to rob us!"
That seemed to be the last straw for her.
"I said to not retaliate without a plan!" She snaps, shutting Luffy effortlessly, with a fist raised high for a clear hit on the head-
-only to pass through him in parting fire.
Zoro blinked at the display. Nami probably blinked too, given her rather rapt freezing in the middle of the beginning rant. Luffy froze too, face going completely blank and contemplating. Zoro's pretty sure he saw in the peripheral the cook, standing over more unconscious bodies, drop his barely started cigarette from the shock.
"Ah," they all heard Ace say, "So that's what that weird feeling was."
There was a pause, — processing, understanding, — a silent weight. Everyone stares at both of them like they see them for the first time in their life.
Then Luffy promptly bursts into flames.
Ace stares at his hands in bafflement.
Luffy plays with fire just a bit to the left from him, wooping and oohing from how his body transformed from tanned skin to flame. Usopp seems to be particularly fascinated, from what he can see, and Zoro eyes the orange tongues with interest. Sanji tries and fails to hide a smile when Luffy backflips, leaving a pretty trail of heat behind, and-
Well. He's glad his brother is having fun, he's gladly cut off his own arm for that little shit, but… It bothers him. Just a smidge.
Because the fruit, Ace's fruit, appears to work as normal. As it should and always had, — human to fire, fire to human, — easy, simple. Logias are hard-wired to be palpable protectors, maybe, so they come far easier than Zoans tend to do; Paramecias are even more so, because they are just kinda glorified tools that you need to eat first before they work. Marco had dedicated, like, three hours on the short version of all that logic.
So, Luffy's should be borderline blatant, because you don't need to fight it for dominance like an animal and not even really have a need to control it. It's a weapon; a gun or a sword. It should be easy.
It isn't. Somehow.
Ace pulls at his skin, again, and is met with dull, but recognizable pain of it. He tugs his hair, and feels the pull. He tries again, with his cheek instead of an arm, but it's just the same result of null. It didn't distend that much, either, just as far as a pinch would go. Like how it normally works.
Luffy's fruit is rubber, though. It shouldn't work as normal.
Ace pulls and feels the pain. He pulls and goes with the force, and doesn't stretch more than a normal human.
The fruit… doesn't work at all.
He refuses to admit that it kind of creeps him out.
"The fuck's wrong with you?" Ace, looking at his hands, asks no one in particular.
There is a dull throb in his chest that might be laugher or might be just his frustration. Either way, no one in particular replies.
Fire dances in his palm with ease, making Luffy giddy. It licks his cheeks, plays with his hair, worms its way up and down his arms. Stray locks poof with sparks, a little, and he giggles like he's a kid all over again and just starts to know how it feels to be laughing more than scowling. Everyone had very quickly retreated at this point from him, after verifying he was fine, pulling each other in a tight circle to corroborate what to do with the stupid thugs, but this is the second best thing that happened in Alabasta. This is the most gentle fun he had in years.
Because this fire is gentle! It isn't hungry in the way Gray Terminal's fire was, because that burning haze had fed and fed and tired to feed more still even after being put out, char and soot crumbling and chocking any remaining life. You couldn't really walk around for months, and it took even longer to do it safely. It took anything it could grab, that day, and it nearly included every single person Luffy ever knew.
This one's, by comparison, quite docile. Friendly, even! It kisses Luffy gently and retreats back under his skin with absolute certainty of protecting him, and he kind of preens at that.
He likes it — the fire, the fruit. He's glad Ace got more of someones to love him so unconditionally, even if he himself can't quite tell.
Still, it's Luffy's until the strange funny feeling alongside the fruit goes out. He licks his lips, and wonders what he could do with it.
He hums, rising hands in front. The flame comes to life near instantly, waffling lazily around his fingers, and he can't help but snicker again. Swallowing the last of it, he closes his eyes, imagines now as fire stretched high, high above the clouds. A rainbow, almost, except it would wind around him and then up, up, up, distorting and bouncing and free. It would twist in his palms, change direction into an arc at his will, spiraling up above-
He opens his eyes. Frowns, when the ignited flame didn't move an inch.
"That's weird," he says, because it was.
Why didn't it move?
"Why didn't you move?"
The fire crackles, nonessential. The fruit's power settles a warm weight over him, a blanket, but he can feel its inability to deliver on what is on his mind. Luffy frowns further.
Then, the fruits power lilts to the side, left, where his heart beats. It spasm it's power, steady river uninterrupted despite it clearly trying to follow a rhythm, pushing and pulling but not succeeding in the slightest. It curls around the organ, barrier and shield, but…
It takes a moment of thought, and the skies clear.
"You can't do it, can you?" He wonders aloud, and feels another wave of heat. He tilts his head sideways, zeroing onto the flame still swaying in his palm. "You're too rigid. You can't keep up with me."
Suddenly, it fizzles out. Before he can blink, a new lick of orange appears, unprompted, to jump off of the tip of his nose like it got flicked. Luffy immediately goes to rub at it, despite everything, and huffs. Of course his brother's fruit would treat him like he's seven again.
Well, there's that. Guess he can't change this. His eyes roam, until he finds what he wants.
"Ne, Ace!"
Ace startles, "What?"
He watches as his brother pulls at his skin, afforded noise escaping him when it doesn't so much as stretches. Seems like both of their fruits hadn't worked out much.
Luffy cracks a grin.
"Your fruit is boring!"
"Hah!?"