(no subject)
"This is not stupid, this is suicide. I can't stand by and let you get everyone killed." The humidity and her agitation has Jack's hair flying in all directions, like a dissolving golden halo.
Sparks fly off Ace's shoulders, taking pieces of his shirt with them. The solid ice-control he has over the Flames is cracked. "You saw Parthos, Jack. You bandaged the women that wouldn't look us in the eye. You helped pull the debris out of the cradles. How can you not take action?" Ace finishes on simmer; it's not his first mate he wants to gut with the black, hooked knife of King's.
"He's a fucking despicable bastard. But Fishman Island-"
"Just because-"
"Ace, shut up!" She slaps him and they're both surprised when it connects. After a beat of silence, Jack continues, "If Whitebeard is powerful enough to claim the one passage through the Red Line as his territory, he's too powerful for us, for you, to take on right now."
Ace collapses into a chair and gestures to the one on the other side of the hotel room. "The others agree with me."
Jack ignores the invitation in favor of pacing. When she fingers the stitched edges of her ruined eye, Ace knows he can't win. "Of course they do, you're the captain. They trust you not to get them killed."
"But King-"
"You can't possibly expect King to be thinking rationally right now." She kicks the opposite chair closer to Ace and sighs into it. The argument is over.
"What are you going to do?" Ace holds a deck of cards out to Jack, watches her face, but the usual tells are absent. He's not sure who won. He sends his excess tension into the oil lamps around the room, burning the wicks nearly out.
"I don't know. I can't agree with you, but I won't undermine your authority." The cards snap when she cuts and shuffles the deck subconsciously. "Parthos isn't the only island like that, Ace. Where do you think people like me come from?" A pause. "We've barely been on the Grand Line a year. We have plenty of time to deal with Whitebeard, once we actually have a chance. Our deaths won't help Parthos or any other island Whitebeard decides to sack between now and when you beat his ass into the ground."
Ace reads the tilt of her neck and the slope of her shoulders: she'll follow his orders, even though she doesn't believe in them. "He's close."
"I know." She deals four blackjacks without even looking at the deck in her hands. She lays the deck in the center, a mock cross, and then stands. "I'll be there when we leave port." On the way out, she knocks her shoulder hard enough on the door frame that the thwack makes Ace's cheek ache.
He lets out a breath and the lamps snuff out. Silence reigns for a moment and then Ace chuckles. "Don't worry, Jack, no regrets, right?"
Jinbei finds the Spades early the next morning and Jack is the last thing on his mind for a long time...
Sparks fly off Ace's shoulders, taking pieces of his shirt with them. The solid ice-control he has over the Flames is cracked. "You saw Parthos, Jack. You bandaged the women that wouldn't look us in the eye. You helped pull the debris out of the cradles. How can you not take action?" Ace finishes on simmer; it's not his first mate he wants to gut with the black, hooked knife of King's.
"He's a fucking despicable bastard. But Fishman Island-"
"Just because-"
"Ace, shut up!" She slaps him and they're both surprised when it connects. After a beat of silence, Jack continues, "If Whitebeard is powerful enough to claim the one passage through the Red Line as his territory, he's too powerful for us, for you, to take on right now."
Ace collapses into a chair and gestures to the one on the other side of the hotel room. "The others agree with me."
Jack ignores the invitation in favor of pacing. When she fingers the stitched edges of her ruined eye, Ace knows he can't win. "Of course they do, you're the captain. They trust you not to get them killed."
"But King-"
"You can't possibly expect King to be thinking rationally right now." She kicks the opposite chair closer to Ace and sighs into it. The argument is over.
"What are you going to do?" Ace holds a deck of cards out to Jack, watches her face, but the usual tells are absent. He's not sure who won. He sends his excess tension into the oil lamps around the room, burning the wicks nearly out.
"I don't know. I can't agree with you, but I won't undermine your authority." The cards snap when she cuts and shuffles the deck subconsciously. "Parthos isn't the only island like that, Ace. Where do you think people like me come from?" A pause. "We've barely been on the Grand Line a year. We have plenty of time to deal with Whitebeard, once we actually have a chance. Our deaths won't help Parthos or any other island Whitebeard decides to sack between now and when you beat his ass into the ground."
Ace reads the tilt of her neck and the slope of her shoulders: she'll follow his orders, even though she doesn't believe in them. "He's close."
"I know." She deals four blackjacks without even looking at the deck in her hands. She lays the deck in the center, a mock cross, and then stands. "I'll be there when we leave port." On the way out, she knocks her shoulder hard enough on the door frame that the thwack makes Ace's cheek ache.
He lets out a breath and the lamps snuff out. Silence reigns for a moment and then Ace chuckles. "Don't worry, Jack, no regrets, right?"
Jinbei finds the Spades early the next morning and Jack is the last thing on his mind for a long time...