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It was almost 1 January. That meant for most people that the new year was starting and that meant a new beginning for lots of things, but for Ace it was the most horrible day ever. It reminded him of how he should have never have been born and the sacrifice his mother had made for him. Ace hated January first with passion.
Back in the forest he never celebrated his birthday. Sabo and Luffy did try. They bought him gifts and Ace accepted them for their sake, but it never felt right. Ace did always go all out with his brothers’ birthdays. He gave them gifts and let them decide what to do that day. He gave them the biggest share of meat and then they would spend the rest of the time in their treehouse playing games or do something else.
The Whitebeard pirates came in their life precisely after the grey Terminal fire. Thatch and Izo had just landed on the island and saw Sabo's ship go down. They saved him. Dogra saw that the Whitebeard pirates had Sabo and had immediately gone back to the bandit’s house to inform them. Ace being the reckless idiot that he was, grabbed his pipe and together with Luffy challenged Thatch and Izo to a fight. Thatch and Izo, who saw brother potential, just kidnapped them right then and there and took them back to the Moby Dick.
After some struggling, fights, a visit from fucking Garp and Shanks, many threats from the dawn islanders and a lot of stubbornness the ASL had finally agreed to join the Whitebeard pirates. Luffy joined only the family and not the crew, because he was going to be the pirate king and a pirate king could not serve under any other pirate.
Out of the ASL, Ace's birthday was the first birthday to come with the Whitebeards. On the last island that they had landed on had Sabo and Luffy gone to ‘explore on their own’ aka birthday gift seeking for Ace. So Ace had stayed on the ship that day. He did tell Sabo and Luffy that it was unnecessary, but those stubborn shits wouldn't listen and Ace guessed that they already had found some gifts for him.
Ace had sometimes seen birthdays of other kids on Dawn Island. The child would sit in the living room. He or she would be surrounded by family and friends. Then someone would bring a birthday cake. The kid must blow out all the candles, everyone would then sing for the birthday guy and then everyone will enjoy their time together and have fun. Ace would stand there and look through the window as it happened. His heart would always hurt when he saw things like this. He also wanted a birthday cake and then eat it, sing and spend time together with his family, but he couldn't have that. Monster didn't deserve birthday cakes and presents, so he never asked for them.
But a week before his birthday Thatch came up to him and asked what he wanted for his birthday. Ace needed a few seconds to process those words. He had replied with a "What?" And Thatch just repeated the question. Ace had become so shocked and then angry that he had just stomped away.
He later asked his brothers how Thatch knew that his birthday was coming and Luffy then said that he had accidentally let it slip and that probably all the Whitebeards pirates knew by now. Ace could have strangled Luffy at that moment, but instead he punched the wall next to him hard and stomped out the room without saying anything.
The next day was chaos. Ace could have sworn that every fuking whitebeard pirate had come to ask him what he wanted for his birthday and to everyone of them he just glared, sometimes punched or kicked them and then walked away. He wanted them to leave him alone and understand they shouldn't celebrate the birthday for someone like him.
On the day after that almost everyone got the message and dropped the subject and the days after that too. On the second day before his birthday day Marco brought up the subject again. He told Ace he needed to speak alone with him and when they were he had asked what he would want for his birthday. Ace had told him to kindly fuck off and to mind his own business. He wanted to walk away, but he couldn't because Marco was standing in front of the door. "Ace, what do you have against your birthday-yoi?" Ace didn't want to answer that so he stayed silent. "Look we would like to celebrate the birthday of our newest brother, but if you really don't want to we can stop it-yoi." Ace looked away.
Deep in his heart all he wanted was to have a birthday cake and eat it and spend time with his family, but he didn't want Thatch or any other person to use up some of their precious time to spend on his dumb wish. It had to be difficult to make a cake, so no. "I don't want anything, okey."
Marco looked at him. Ace knew Marco knew that he was lying. Marco sighted and sat down. He motioned for Ace to come sit next to him as well. "Okay, well that's Bullshit and you know it yoi."
Ace's heart clenched. Yeah, he knew it. It was just that he didn't want everyone to waste their time. Why couldn't they see that he wasn't worth all the effort.
"Look. How about we do it for this year and if you don't like it, we won't do it next year-yoi." Ace thought about it. 'If it means they wouldn't go over the trouble again next year, then maybe it was alright to celebrate it. He would tell them that he didn't like it and everything was fixed. No more birthday parties for monsters. He would have to sit through one time. It couldn't be that good. It was all so they wouldn't do it again...fuck he was such a bullshitter. Maybe he just wanted to know what a real birthday party was like. He could be selfish for one day, right?'
It was silent for a moment before Ace slowly nodded. Marco smiled. Mission successful. Marco stood up and began to walk out of the door. He looked back at Ace. "Glad that you decided to celebrate. I think we have the perfect thing in mind-yoi."And then he closed the door, before Ace could say anything back. A smirk crossed Marco’s lips. He was going to make sure that it was going to be the best celebration ever.
It now was December 31, almost midnight, almost January first. Ace was nervous. He didn't know what to expect. They were all counting down. "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Happy birthday Ace!!!" Fireworks were going off all around them and exploded into beautiful colours. Everyone began to sing. "~Happy birthday to Ace, happy birthday to Ace~" and on and on. Thatch went back inside the kitchen and came back with a ginormous birthday cake. Some people were also getting presents.
Ace watch in shocked as this all happened. His mouth hanged open and there were tears streaming down his face. Luffy jumped on Ace's back. The "I'm so happy you were born!" Said by Luffy was followed by many yeahs and of courses.
"How about we do presents first and then cake, my son?" Whitebeards suggested. Ace could only nod. He was totally speechless.
Luffy jumped off Ace's back and ran to Sabo and then dragged Sabo who was holding a present to Ace. "Here, here, open this!" Said luffy excitingly. "Luffy and I thought that this would be the perfect present." Ace grabbed it and opened it carefully. Inside the box was a bright orange cowboy hat with red beads and two smiley faces. He took it out of the box and put it on his head. "Shishishi, now we all have hats. We are like the hAtSL"
"Luffy, that sounds lame."
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes it does!"
"Sabo, tell Ace that it is cool!"
"I'm sorry Lu, I'm agreeing with Ace here." Luffy pouted "Meanies."
The Whitebeard pirates were laughing around them. "Ace open my present!" "And mine!" "No mine first." Ace was overrun with people who wanted to give him presents. He opened them one by one. He was almost done when Thatch shouted that the cake was ready to be eaten. The put the presents carefully aside and then walked to the cake. Thatch handed him a big piece of cake and then went on to serve the rest.
Ace picked up his fork and cut a piece off. He carefully ate it. It was delicious! I didn't get why he never tried this. Sabo and Luffy had similar reactions. All three of them, were absolutely shining from delight. Ace's heart was full with a big, warm, fuzzie feeling. He felt like it might explode from happiness. There wasn't an even a tiny little bit of negativeness on his mind.
They partied till 4am before Ace had a narcoleptic attack and fell asleep. Luffy had already fallen asleep on Whitebeards lap. Marco had caught Ace before he hit the ground and then carefully picked him up. Marco flew to Luffy and also picked him up. He mentioned for Sabo, who looked dead on his feet, to also come.
They walked together to their room and Marco put them all to bed. Ace really did look peaceful when he slept. It was much better than the usual grumpy expression he wore. He stroked some of Ace's bangs out of his face. He then turned to leave, but before he could Sabo spoke "Thank you. It meant much to him that you went all out. This is the first time we really celebrated. I'm just really happy."
"No problem kid, that is what family is for. You just wait for yours and Luffy's birthday. It will be as cool as this one-yoi"
Marco put the lights out and silently closed the door.
Mission successful indeed.