Dazzling lights fill the sky, flashes of red, blue, green, and every other color on the spectrum. The explosions in the air are near deafening, but so are the cheers of the people, ringing throughout the entire island.

No matter where you are on the Grand Line, New Year’s Day always brings forth a spectacle of a festival.

The clock strikes midnight, and around you echoes the clink of wine glasses, kids screaming at the fireworks, and couples facing each other to share their first kiss of the year. A testament to another year of love, the promise of a future together.

You find Ace’s hands wrapped around your stomach and smile to yourself. This marks your second year with him, yet you’re already envisioning how the third year will go, and the fourth, and so on; forevermore until the day death itself must part you two. Even then, you’d put up a good fight.

More importantly, it’s also his birthday. The Whitebeard crew tease you for how you’re always more excited for his birthday celebration than the worldwide holiday, but they always pipe in happily anyway. The sake bottles are already on the table, ready to be emptied the moment the birthday boy returns to the ship, but you also have your own present to give to him in your pocket.

You go to turn your head back to meet his and kiss him as well, for a new year and for his new year, when your face is suddenly blocked by an object that drops down onto your shoulder and slightly pulls your body down on one side. You jump, your surprised squeak drowned out by a new wave of fireworks setting off into the sky, and you glance from the corner of your eye—

Tufts of black hair loosely draped over your shoulder. Freckles faintly illuminated by the light show. Soft, almost inaudible snores.

The realization dawns on you just as the rest of his body weight comes down on you, falling over flat on your back and forcing a grunt out of you as your arms scramble to catch him before he fell straight to the ground against your skin.

Ace has fallen asleep.