By God, had he done it this time.
"-And stay the hell away from me!" you barked furiously, face flushed red with fury as you stormed across the ship's deck. Ace was hot on your heals and sputtering all sorts of excuses you didn't want to hear, but apparently everyone else did. Though it was dark out, you could see the surrounding men jab each other with a knowing smirk.
"Hey, it's not like it killed you! Why are you so worked up about all of this? I Just –!" In a desperate measure, he managed grabbed your arm and forcefully reel you round to face him. Only he didn't expect you to use the momentum and swing your hand round to land a hit directly on his cheek with a satisfying slap.
You repressed the urge to flap your hand about as if you'd just been burnt. The tingling in your fingertips was another thing to add to your 'Why Ace is a jerk' list.
The entire ensemble watching froze, including Ace as you glowered at him. Breathing hard with furious adrenaline, you wanted to scream and curse and tell him he's a big, fat idiot who can jump in the sea and get eaten by a sea king for all you care, but you were so mad you couldn't even get the words to form.
With one final huff and a growl you whipped round and charged for your room. Ace noticed your movement and even though you'd given him a pretty painful reason as to why he shouldn't, he swiftly attempted to chase after you, but you were already wrenching your door open-
"Oi! Wait! I –"
-And then slamming it shut.
You could vaguely hear Ace calling after you above the faint roars of laughter from the other members of the crew, and the occasional thump of his fist on the wood. His stubbornness another thing you could add to that list. He apologised from behind the door. But you ignored it, and when Ace heard no reply, he resorted to pleading for you to at least open the door so he could talk to you. But you were stubborn and didn't want to.
Ace to paused momentarily when he heard your angry footsteps behind the door and straightened up, preparing his best apology. But his hope plummeted when he was met not with your frowning features and instead the sound of the door's lock clicking into place.
In defeat, he rested his head against the door and quietly grumbled your name. Although you hadn't said it, he got the message loud and clear.
I'm not talking to you!
He clenched his teeth. If you weren't going to forgive him, he would have to give you a reason as to why you should.
Thus began Ace's numerous attempts to make amends.
The next morning, you had woken up relatively early and decided the first thing to do would be filling that empty ache in your stomach. Groggily getting up, you briefly looked in the mirror and proceeded to get dressed into your usual attire: Shorts, an off-the-shoulder top, and your favourite jacket. It was too big for you, and when you slipped it on it seemed to drown your slender figure in its fabric. But you liked it that way. Cosy.
You walked over to the door as you tied your hair back into its regular, messy bun that sat low and snug in the nape of your neck and allowed the stray strands to do as they please.
Eyeing up the key sat unfamiliarly in its lock, you remembered you had actually locked the door to keep that flaming beast of a man away and scowled. You reached up to twist and unlock. Drawing the door back, you were surprised to find your view of the ship's deck interrupted by a very well-built chest, but not surprised in the slightest to find out it was Ace who stood in your way.
"Yo –!"
You slammed the door shut before you heard anything else.
Breakfast could wait, you decided.
Crawling back into bed, you easily drifted into a light slumber and hoped you'd be up before lunch.
Not long after, you were awoken with the soft knocking at your door.
"Go away, you piece of shit!" You croaked. "Lying assholes aren't allowed in!" Huffing and puffing you begrudgingly turned in your bed, expecting a stream of apologies, excuses and reasons as to why you should open your door, but none came.
"It's Marco," The door said and, as if you were about to be in trouble with your mother, you leapt from your bed towards the door, fumbling with the key after considering the possibility Marco would beat you to a pulp after the insults you just hurled at him. Nevertheless, you yanked the door open to meet Marco's unimpressed expression with a stern glare of your own. "I brought you some food-yoi."
Your eyes immediately lit up, sparkling with joy as you ogled Marco and the tray of goodies in his hands with such admiration and love you think you nearly creeped him out. He only smirked when you eagerly took it from his grasp. "You did? Oh, thank you!"
You could kiss him but guessed he wouldn't appreciate the action and you valued your life.
"Why weren't you at breakfast this morning-yoi?" He asked, although already knew what the reason may be. The news of your little show on deck had spread like wildfire, and Marco was almost impressed at how his fellow crewmen had the ability to gossip like teenage girls at a house party (also Ace had vaguely explained what transpired with great distress).
"That idiot was at my door this morning and I'm not speaking to him," you replied childishly, pouting as you dug into the breakfast that had so kindly been brought to you. "I'm surprised there was any food left." You commented, reminding Marco of the fact that if one was late to breakfast, Ace had probably already eaten their share.
Marco ignored your statement with a slight smile. He decided not to tell you the fiery devil fruit eater had not so much as touched the food this morning, as he was busying himself with ways to win you back.
"And you aren't speaking to him because...?" Aware of the fact you two often pulled pranks on one another, Marco wanted to know exactly what Ace had done this time that was so bad.
"Because he's a lying, traitorous asshole that thinks it's funny to exploit other people's fears and use it against them! I trusted that son of a bitch, and he betrayed me!" You cried dramatically.
Also aware of your grave fear of heights, the blonde briefly wondered how Ace had managed to pull off a prank that ended with you stranded mid-air and had to commend his superior ability to wind people up. "But he caught you, right? I don't think Ace meant to –"
Did your ears deceive you? Had Marco betrayed you too?
"Why are you defending him? Don't tell me, Ace set you up to this?!" You screeched, anger swelling up in your right hand. You'd slap Marco, too, if it weren't for his already fed up looking expression and the fact that he was shaking his head at your accusation.
So he'd just decided to side with Ace anyway? Without even listening to your side of the story? You sent him your meanest glare and waltzed past him, rebelliously nudging his shoulder as you did so.
Hopefully starting your duties for the day would distract your need to hit something.
You stormed off to the kitchen. Dangerously dragging up the sleeves of your jacket to your elbows had your crew members gulping nervously, believing you were hunting down a certain someone down and beat him to within an inch of his life. But really you were just going to clean the dishes.
You arrived in no time, whilst somehow managing to steer clear of that stupid freckly imbecile. A bonus on your part. Thatch was already there and cleaning with enthusiasm. He threw you a cheery grin and a wet dishrag as you stepped in. You muttered a hello and quickly got to work.
Thatch chuckled at your grumpy behaviour. "Good morning, what took you so long?"
You mumbled something inaudible and Thatch snickered at your reply. "Oh, come on. You know that ignoring Ace has got to be torturing him. You're his best friend. I'm sure he's sorry for what he did," Thatch reasoned.
You scoffed. Had all the men in this godforsaken ship taken it upon themselves to meddle in your business? Siding with that two-faced, fraudulent, deceiving douchebag, no least?
Aggressively, you cleaned the dish and tried not to think about smashing it over his head.
"Oh yeah? Well… well, tough luck! I'm not friends with that shit head anymore!" You weakly retorted, hoping the issue would be dropped.
Although, a part of you had considered forgiving Ace. He seemed sincere in his apology, and truth be told you really didn't want to argue with your best friend. But the other conflicting and more stubborn part of you felt he had just crossed the line this time and you were already too far in to back down now. Especially after slapping him, too.
Thankfully, Thatch caught on to your conflicting mood and let the subject go, for now. Besides, although it certainly wasn't rare that the pair of you argued, they scarcely lasted any longer than several hours. A day at most. So, he figured you'd let it go before long.
You, on the other hand, swore to hold this grudge against him until your dying day.
You continued to clean the dirty dishes, and thankfully Thatch had opted to converse lightly with you on matters that didn't involve that flaming buffoon.
Your peace was short-lived, however, when you heard said man stumbling through the doors of the kitchen. Your eyes accidently locked with his. He appeared to be out of breath, but you wouldn't know, you'd stopped looking as soon as you confirmed it was him.
"Yo, Ace!" Thatch called, and you cursed at his kindness. You rolled your eyes and pulled a face as if the act made you nauseous.
"Yo, Thatch!" He cheerfully called back.
Bastard, you thought.
Trying hard to maintain focus on your dishes, you ignored the sound of his heavy footsteps as he approached you.
"Yo." He was standing next to you now; his towering figure easily dwarfed your own but you refused to relent. Disregarding his greeting, you continued to scrub. Just the last few dishes, now.
He said your name. But you ignored him still. The second time he said it you heard his voice break, but you would not be fooled.
"Hey, Thatch, do you hear something?" You sang. That would piss him off, surely, and you could already sense the vein in his head pulsating with frustration.
Thatch merely smiled at your question, but his tilted head and soft eyes gave you a small warning, a light attempt to anchor your heightened emotions and make you ease up on the poor man a bit. You pretended you didn't see it and instead carried on with the final plate and pretending Ace didn't exist.
"Please look at me," Ace breathed, determined to stay calm no matter how hard you tried to berate him.
Well, this certainly was new. Ace was not the type of man to beg so solemnly and you briefly considered his plea. But you were finished with the dishes and grew tired of him and his silly hat.
"You know I didn't mean to –"
You reached into the sink, steeling your hand like a paddle and swiftly dragged it out and watched as the dirty water fell into his face with a satisfying splash. He winced and immediately brought his hand up to wipe the murky water from his eyes. With him momentarily staggered you took your chance to flee, stomping off and yelling "See ya, Thatch!" before Ace could even register what was going on.
"That girl…!" He hissed and quickly turned to catch a glimpse of you before you disappeared behind the wooden doors.
His stunned silence was interrupted by Thatch's howling laughter. Sighing, his shoulders slumped at the setback and he turned to glare at the man with the pompadour. "She really got you there!" Thatch hollered, doubling over as if he'd taken a hit to the gut.
"Thatch…" Ace mumbled, and the other man finally managed to straighten up, wiping his tears away. "What do I do?"
The next morning, he had taken Thatch's advice into consideration and appeared before your door with a bag stuffed full of all your favourite foods. You politely declined with the slam of your door.
After that, he went to Izo, and later approached you with the intent to bargain your forgiveness with the promise he could make it up to you if only you would tell him what you wanted. You merrily waltzed past him, and cheerfully greeted other members of the crew.
He spoke briefly with Haruta, who convinced him that girls liked shiny things, and Ace would probably get your attention by giving you a pretty necklace or bracelet or ring or something. An idea popped into his head and, using his own heat, he forged a small charm out of glass before tying a string around it and presenting it to you. However, you suddenly became very busy and swiftly moved onto your next job before he could blink.
Becoming desperate, he spoke to Jozu. Pointing out that obviously, the raven-haired man had done something wrong, the muscular man mentioned perhaps all you really wanted was for Ace to prove that he was (at the very least) aware of his wrongdoings and suggested writing a list of things he had done to upset you. Throw in a list of all the reasons why he thought you were amazing in every way and it might be enough to get you to speak to him again. He slipped the papers under your door and waited anxiously. However, both letters came back in nothing but debris. On one square he saw you had scribbled in red: 'I already have a list of why I don't like you'.
You had made contact with him, at least.
It was killing him. Days went by without you muttering so much as a word to him. Sleep was a fleeting luxury and he was desperate to get his best friend back. He had listened to nearly the entire crew and taken into consideration most of their suggestions (be they reasonable) but none of them had seemed to earn him so much as a sideward glance.
He knew he would have to step it up.
With a click of his tongue, Ace finalised his decision to hunt you down with a plan that was sure to grab your attention.
You, on the other hand, were happy to see how your absence was affecting him. That way, he would know exactly how much his little prank had terrified you – that he'd gone way too goddamn far for you to let the issue go and, his suffering, albeit made monstrously worse by you, was something he had coming for a while.
However, what Ace had up his sleeve was something you didn't see coming.
So, when you heard his frantic footsteps behind you – you thought nothing of it.
But then he had seized your arm with such vigour you had no time to interject, whipping you round to face him before you could protest or run away, then yanked you closer to his chest, cupping his hand behind your ear and reeled you in to press his lips against yours.
A/N: I feel like I can leave this story here, but if you feel like it deserves a second chapter (or more), then do tell.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or its characters.