Smoker/Bellemere is one of those weird pairings that falls into the cannot-be-unseen catagory, for me at least. Because once I started thinking about it, I couldn't stop. I mean, Smoker's been cleaning up Logue Town when we first meet him, which is the supposedly worst part of East Blue, and he's definitely one of the first active Marine characters who's portrayed as a good guy. He's also vocally against the government and the Marines screwing over civilians, and the whole Arlong Park is thing is probably the biggest example of the Marines doing just that in the whole of East Blue. So it's intriguing that he's apparently not the slightest bit aware, because surely he would have been striding into Arlong Park himself if he knew what Arlong was doing. Which just got all these ideas flowing about why he wouldn't know, why he wouldn't be aware of Fishmen pirates being in East Blue, and I don't know, it just sort of turned into the weirdness that is this fic. XD

Ace/Bellemere would be kind of incredible. She's definitely show him a thing or two.

I know what you mean about not pushing at others, at being content to take what they choose to give you and not prying for things they'd rather not share. I tend to be like that too.