Breaking Tradition (AceXReader)

               “And the princess lived happily ever after… the end.”

               “Wow! I wish I could be a princess!”

               “The princess must be so lucky to have that life!” little girls were surrounding an older woman as she closed the story book to a princess story.

               “Princess (Name) hopefully will never be put in that much danger,” the older woman replied as she began to lead the children away from under the tree.

               “But if she does, then she gets to find prince charming right?”

               “Well, our princess is already engaged to a prince.”

               “Did he save her?”

               “Well…” you watched from the highest window of your palace. You sighed at the freedom of the little girl. You wish you had such freedom as a child. You wished you had freedom like your friend Vivi does. You wished to make your own story.

               “Princess (Name). Your fiancé has arrived at the docks.” Your maid informed you. She walked to your dresser and closet and picked out an elegant outfit for meeting your fiancé for the first time.

               “Have you seen him?”

               “I haven’t seen nary a hair of him.” she walked over to you and dressed you. “Princess are you nervous?”

               “Oh not at all! It’s just…” you looked down “I know it’s my duty but…” you sighed and clenched you fist “oh, it’s nothing… never mind…” your hair was arranged beautifully and your body was adorned with jewels and silky fabrics. Your face was hidden by a veil as it was tradition in your country for no one outside the royal family and servants to see your face before marriage, even your fiancé before your wedding. You lift yourself up into the carriage with the assistance of the driver. Your maid walked out and tapped the driver’s shoulder.

               “Listen up! Be careful with the princess got it! There is rumor of pirates at the dock! There are gonna be guards behind you and in front of you. Protect the princess.” The maid glared and walked off. You were in a cabin all by yourself and the driver was outside in the front as he nudged the animals to go. You began to cry. You never wanted this. You never wanted to marry a man you have never met. You never wanted this but you felt like it was expected of you. You have heard your mother before talking to your father about giving you the chance to choose your husband, but you had to ask for it from your father before it could happen. You were afraid to ask and you were afraid that if you didn’t do it, your kingdom would be missing valuable funds.

               While you ran along your train of thoughts, you were stopped by a commotion outside your carriage.

               “Don’t let them near the princess!” you froze and panicked.

               “Don’t you dare touch my fiancé! Do you know how much I need this money!” you heard a man. You felt heat near your carriage. You panicked even more and your carriage tipped over before you passed out.

               “Oh, so what they do is they create a decoy and the decoy has the most jewels on it and is basically a doll” a male voice close to you said. You felt your dress being lifted and you shriek and pull it down “OH SHIT WE GRABBED THE REAL THING!” a man jumped back into another surprised man. The one that had lifted up your dress had black hair and freckles. He had no shirt and an orange hat. The other man had blonde hair with an open purple shirt. Your veiled face was in shock as a rather large man walked in.

               “Yo gramps… we grabbed the actual princess……” the black haired male turned to the man with a white mustache.

               “W-where am I-I?” the blonde held his face with disappointment at his comrade’s mix up.

               “You’re on a pirate ship Princess.” The blonde walked away “This is your problem now Ace. Good luck.” The large pirate, you suspected the captain, also walked away

               “Hey! Where are you going!?”

               “Ace, you’ll have to figure out this problem on your own. I’d be happy to have her here, but you got yourself into this. I told you to grab the decoy, not the actual princess.”

               “White beard!”

               “W-w-w-w-white b-b-beard!?” you pressed yourself against a wall. You were on the ship of the great White Beard. He was powerful, dangerous and famous across the grand line.

               “Okay… um…” Ace knelt next to you and you curled up in fear. You held your veil close to your face so he couldn’t see what you looked like. Tradition held firm in your soul. “I’m Ace…” he held out his hand to shake. You cautiously gave him your gloved hand. “Right, you’re a princess, princesses don’t shake hands.” He delicately took your hand. “So uh… what’s your name?”

               “P-princess (Name)….” You said as you loosened up a little.

               “Alright (Name), here let me help you up,” he lifted your delicate body up by grabbing both your hands “Okay, first of all, I am so sorry. I thought your family would do the decoy thing and there would be a doll of you or something!”

                              “My family has stopped that tradition for years now… my grandmother was the last to have a bejeweled decoy of her…” Ace’s face was dumbfounded. He slapped his hand to his face and groaned.

               “So… there was no reason for me to even try in the first place…” he slouched with a disappointed look

               “…I suppose so…” Ace fell backwards. “AH! I THINK HE DIED!” you screech. The blonde walks back in with some clothing.

               “Jesus, should have known he would do this.”

               “He just fell!”

               “Hey Marco are those clothes for (Name)?” Ace got up and stretched. Marco twitched his eye slightly before handing you the bundle.

               “H-he… How? H-h… uhhh…” you were confused

               “Don’t mind that, he’s narcoleptic at times.” Marco informed you before leaving again.

               “Wait! Uh… um… sorry… W-what’s your name?”

               “Marco. Don’t come to me for problems, Ace is in charge of you.” The blonde walks out once more and closes the door.

               “Don’t mind him (Name), He’s just pissed that I didn’t get the money we needed.” He then led you out to another room.

               “Who’s your lady friend Ace?”

               “Shut up Thatch!” Ace yelled at a man as he led you into the room. “Okay princess, go ahead and change in here. I’ll be back in 10. He left you and locked the door behind him.

               “I guess he doesn’t want me to escape…” on the outside of the door Ace was walking away

               “That should keep the perverts out!”

               As you began to change, you noticed there was no proper veiling for your face, so you improvised with scarfing your face. You noticed a mirror and checked yourself. Your once elegantly made up hair was messy and slightly tangled. You began to fix it as you brushed all the jewels and gold beads out of your hair. Ace walks in to see you in the middle of this process. He was silent and noticed all of the valuables dropping from your hair. He walked forward to try and get a glimpse at your face, but a scarf blocked his view.

               “A scarf?”

               “EEK!”

               ‘SMACK!’ you had slapped him across the face. “OH MY GOD! I’m so sorry! Please don’t kill me! I’m so sorry it was an accident!” Ace rubbed his cheek and smiled

               “There was quite a bit of force behind that slap princess! I’m impressed!” he then picked out a jewel from your hair “by the way,” he picked out another one before you realized he was helping you. You let him do what he wished. “What’s with the scarf, princess?” you pull the scarf up over your face more to conceal yourself.

               “… It’s tradition…”

               “Tradition?” he brushed out a rather large ruby from your hair and he examined it.

               “The princess of my kingdom is not to show her face to anyone outside the royal family and the servants. No pictures, no drawings, nothing. Not until I marry at least.”

               “Eh? Really? Oh, I guess that works for some girls. Do you like it?”

               “My mother did. It’s tradition”

               “That wasn’t my question, do you like it?”

               “Its tradition” Ace dropped the question and pursed his lips.

               “Geez! How many jewels are in your hair?!”

               “I was on my way to meet my fiancé when you attacked.”

               “Your fiancé?”

               “Yes, I was meeting him for the first time.”

               “As in arranged marriage?”

               “Its tradition” Ace gives you a perplexed look

               “Well, have you talked to him?”

               “No,”

               “Do you like being in an arranged marriage?”

               “It’s tradition.” Ace got a rather peeved at your tradition reasoning.

               “Welp! I guess I’m gonna keep you for a bit until I can get an eternal log to your home country. Until then, we’ll be on this ship for a bit.” Ace got up. “You can have my bed. In the mean time I am going to use the jewels from your outfit to purchase a log and an apology gift for Marco and my captain.” He left the room with your jewel encrusted dress and the gems he pulled out of your hair. You sighed and looked at the mirror.

               “How long until my freedom runs out…”

Two months pass and Ace loves to be with you everywhere. He enjoys making you laugh and seeing your eyes smile. He has never seen your face, but your beauty does not concern him. One day in a market he was walking with you beside him. He liked to keep you close to ensure your safety. Marco was tagging behind you two to keep an eye on Ace. White beard liked you and treated you as a daughter, and he assigned Marco to make sure Ace wouldn’t do anything too reckless with you

               “Eternal logs being sold here!” he exclaimed. “I guess you can finally get (Name) back to the Grazing hill kingdom.” Marco went inside and purchased one. Ace went cold as did you, but you accepted it. Your freedom was over. Your days with Ace were over.

               “Um… thanks Marco…” you thanked him as he dropped the log into your hand. Ace glared at Marco as the blonde left you two. You turn to him and look up at him. You have fallen in love with the pirate since the accidental kidnapping, even though you denied yourself every time you thought of such feelings.

               “…We’ll head out after we stock up my personal boat…”

               “Ace,” you stopped him

               “Yeah?” your eyes translated a longing, but it was one you couldn’t say.

               “Sorry, it’s nothing… Is there anything I can do to help?” that started your journey on the sea. The first day on the small ship was alright at most.

               “The bed is so small…” you observed. Ace watched your movement. He had decided after a few minutes on the boat alone with you that he needed to woo you to keep you. Not that he minded.

               “It’s alright, we’ll just sleep in the same bed. There is no room on the floor for me.” He grabbed you in his arms and pulled you down into the bed. Your face was on fire.

               “A-ace...” you pull your scarf up over your face. After a few moments of silence Ace soon spoke up.

               “Hey (Name),” this was a first. He usually called you by princess or Diamond Head, but the way he said your name made you warm inside. “I never got around to asking why you cling to tradition so much, when it seems to make you cringe?” you froze. Was he really asking you this? Was it really that obvious that you hated your tradition?

               “I… It’s my duty… as the princess of the land to do all I can for everyone and out myself last…”

               “So the face covering, the arranged marriage…” Ace had pressed your back against him and put his head over your shoulder. He cuddled you more and listened to your reaction

               “Especially the arranged marriage… The prince I was going to marry promised wealth for my country, and with winter approaching and the rise of pirates, I was worried about my people and their life style. My father while a reasonable man, I never want to trouble.”

               “So, tell me the truth (Name), do you want to marry the prince…” you went silent. You didn’t, but you were no longer in control of your life. While you had no freedom, you had responsibilities that had to be taken care of. With all the thinking you were doing though, you had noticed that Ace had fallen asleep. You sighed in relief, and fell asleep along with him.

               The next morning Ace woke up before you did and cursed at the fact that he fell asleep before he could get an answer from you. You rewrapped your scarf around your face.

               “Good morning Ace,” you tell him as he was steering the ship. His gaze rose from the log to look at you. He smiled a goofy smile at you before beckoning you to come over. You reluctantly obliged. He then swooped you up in his arms and held you so that you could feel the wind of the sea

               “It feels great on your face y’know!” he told you and you gave him a ‘not amused’ look. You took your scarf and secured it tightly. Later on he continued with getting all the tradition out of you. You only fell even more in love with the man.

               On the final night, you were in the forest of your kingdom. The inky darkness masked your presence in the dark. Ace held you close to make sure he wouldn’t lose you in the night.

               “(Name), don’t worry, I’ll get you home… I promise…” his voice was filled with pain and you wished for it to not be there. As you walked further, you began to recognize your surroundings.

               “Princess! Is that you!?” You heard an unfamiliar male voice. His voice had a fake enthusiasm to it, and seemed actually a bit panicked.

               “Prince Rasmus, I have returned. I apologize for holding off our wedding.”

               “I thought you were dead!” his surprise was more disappointed than grateful. Ace was suspicious of how the prince acted.

               “I am not as you can see, now, can you lead me to my mother and fathe-.” You were interrupted by guns being pointed at you. Ace immediately guarded you.

               “What the hell Prince? What are you doing!?” he yells at the prince before him.

               “If only you stayed away a little longer princess and this kingdom would be mine. I guess I have to execute my horrific accident now eh?”

               “What do you mean!?” Ace glared at the man and wrapped his arms around you.

               “A-Ace…”

               “If you paid attention to your traditions, then you know of the old lost princess policy.” Your eyes widened and you pulled up your scarf.

               “Lost princess…?” Ace questions

               “If something were to happen to the princess 30 days before her royal wedding, her husband to be officially takes the throne as a compensation for the prince not having a queen,” he begins to walk a little to the left as he continued to explain. “for it to be immediately enacted thought, the princess must be confirmed dead or missing for 70 days, after which a funeral will be held and the prince will be crowned king.” He took a gun from one of his guards and points it at your head “And it only has been 67.”

               “You… YOU FIEND!”

               “It’s tradition… my late lady.”

               “Fuck tradition.” Ace took you and jumped up into a tree,

    “AFTER THEM!” Ace used his flame-flame fruit powers to burn the bullets being shot at you. “I’m not burning too hot for you am I (Name)?”

               “No! Don’t worry about the heat when we’re being shot at!” you tell him. He nodded and fled to a place where you two could regroup.

               The moon was concealed by clouds and your eyes were filled with tears. 3 days until that man had his way with the kingdom because of tradition.

               “Hey, you okay (Name)?” he knelt close to you and held you. You immediately wrapped your arms around his neck and cried into him. He cooed into your ear and rubbed your back. How he wanted you to stay there, how he wanted to tell you. How he wanted to tell you how much he loved you.

               “Don’t worry (Name), I’ll fix this.”

               “No… I need to do this…” you told him. “All of this is happening because of tradition… I think I understand now…” you back up a little from the man you loved and found comfort in. “I need to go do something Ace…”

               “Then let me help!” he told you. You look into his determined fiery eyes and nodded.

               You began your plan with you going into town and purchasing clothing, in particular a dress that you modified to be more revealing by re cutting the shoulders and adjusting the waist to be tighter fitting. You got ahold of your maid who you basically had to gag to prevent her from squealing and crying too much to reveal your position. She then got ahold of your favorite guards to help with the plan. They nearly shot at Ace, but after explaining the situation they all calmed down. On the 69^th night at 11:00, you put your plan into action.

               “You look marvelous my princes.” Your maid complimented you as you left the dressing area of the camp that you designated. For once in your life your face was veil free. Your eyes painted slightly with black eye liner and the makeup emphasized your natural beauty. Your hair was adorned with flowers instead of jewels to illustrate your beauty and not your wealth. “Your boyfriend is in place with the other soldiers.” You blushed at your maid’s words but nodded your head.

               As you arrived at the palace, a traditional setup was on display and people gathered around to see the coronation of their new king. 11:57, just in time.

               “I will now begin the ceremony, as you all know, we as a kingdom suffered a great loss. The loss of our beloved princess. She was only a week away from her wedding ceremony with Prince Rasmus.” The Prince held a rather smug look on his face before looking towards a sad king with a pitied expression. “Tradition speaks of a rule for us, and tradition will crown a new king as to help with the loss of a queen.” 11:59. “Now, on the 70^th day and no sign of our princess, I crown Prince Rasmus,”

               “A liar!” Ace yelled before jumping down and snatching the crown from your father’s hands and the queen’s crown. Rasmus with a furious expression motioned to the guards.

               “Seize him!” some guards moved while others stood unmoved and held back the others. You placed a veil on and moved forward with confidence. Your maid held back Rasmus as he cursed at her.

               “What is the meaning of this?!” your father yelled before he noticed the rather confident female figure walking towards him. He began to wonder the identity, but his eyes along with many villagers widened when you spoke

               “He has ill intent father, and that ill intent and greed led him on a plot to kill me.” Rasmus couldn’t believe his ears when you were speaking without fear.

               “Is that the princess?”

               “But she’s too late! It’s 12:00!”

               “What does she mean though? Ill intent?”

               “Who’s that absolutely dreamy man with her~!” you ignored the comments and reached up for your veil. Ace did not know about this part of the plan as he stood there with the crowns in hand.

               “Too bad Princess! Tradition states that I am officially king now! Without you! So I order you to be execute-.” He stopped when you threw your veil down on the ground below you. Ace was awestruck by your shining beauty. Villagers were in shock and guards were confused on what to do

               “A ruler should reign over their people based on good morals and respect, not based on customs set in the past. Traditions are for our culture, not our every step of life.” Ace placed the queen’s crown on your head before smiling at you lovingly. The king noticed Ace’s affection towards you and smiled. “Our engagement is officially off you pig.” Guards then took the Spoiled prince away kicking and screaming about having no proof, but your father believed every word you said. Villagers soon left and you were left with your mother and father.

               “My little (Name) became so brave… was that because of your friend over their?” Your mother was looking at Ace. He gave a goofy smile before walking over to you and placing an arm around your shoulder.

               “About your little (Name)…  I hope you know I’m a pirate right?”

               “Yes, we are well aware of that young man,”

               “And I don’t know if you know this, but in the time I got to know your daughter, I realize how valuable she is to me, and how much I need her.” you blush at Ace’s confession.

               “Oh, and you want me to let you keep her with you? Well what if I say no?” your father said rather playfully. Your mother could see what was going to happen next.

               “Well like I said before, I’m a pirate.” He lifted you up and the guards immediately pointed weapons at him. With a smile he looked at the king “And pirates steal valuable things! So later king! I’ll take care of your daughter!” he ran out with you giggling in his arms. This was a dream. Your father yelled at him

               “At least carry her properly you ruffian! Like the princess she is!” his angry voice was full of tease as he saw his daughter truly happy for the first time in her life.

               As you arrive to his boat, he quickly takes off to the island he agreed to meet white beard on after Ace dropped you off. With the slight change in plans however he had to go quick before Marco had convinced White beard to just go without him.

               “You know this makes you a pirate now,” he tells you as you sit in his boat. He could barely keep his eyes off you and your beauty.

               “if it’s with the one I love, then so be it.” Ace choked on air and fell back “A-Ace! Are you alright!? I’m so sorry! I didn’t know if you felt the same! I can leave! I’m-.” he quickly got up and kissed you passionately. You felt light headed before kissing back.

               “I love you too (Name), never think otherwise. Got it princess?” he smiled and you nodded before he kissed you once again.

               “You know… in the old tradition, the first person I kiss supposedly will be by my side forever…”

               “Well I guess that’s one tradition that we’re gonna keep.”