Second try!

[slowsunrise.livejournal.com]

Title: Not The Same
Rating: PG
Word Count: 299
Pairing: Smoker/Ace
Topic: Vulnerable

 

 

The world 'vulnerable' had never been a word used to describe Portgas D Ace, yet, when Smoker watched the crouched figure on the execution platform it was the one word that came into his mind. The brat's eyes were clouded with a dark gaze, and it looked like hope itself had abandoned the boy.

 

Never before had Smoker seen the raven like that, hurt and utterly broken, and neither did he want it now. His pride as a marine commodore made it impossible for him to interfere in any way, yet would he curse everything he knew if this was the end of the pirate he hated to love. This boy, chained up with a bowed head, that wasn't Ace. There was something wrong about that grim, beaten up look on that freckled face.

 

Were was the grin that seemed plastered to his face? That was the first thing he saw when he woke up?

 

Ace's mouth was a harsh line of cracked lips.

 

Were was the passion showed in both fights and love? The passion that kept the two of them together?

 

The raven's neck was bent, ready to die without a struggle.

 

Were was the Ace he knew and loved? Because he knew it wasn't the small character up on the platform.

 

That boy had since long abandoned his grin, his passion and his life. He had transformed into a broken, vulnerable shadow of his past, and the fact that he lost Ace long before he actually died hurt Smoker more than the idea of losing a lover did. To him, Ace was already dead.

 

With unwelcome tears in his eyes, Smoker looked up at the boy who had sneaked into his life like an explosion, and silently, he wondered:

 

Where was the fire to his smoke?