"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . ."
Ace's eyes shot open as he sat bolt upright, staring wildly as the most horrible sound startled him awake before dawn.
"Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree."
It was Luffy, singing a Christmas song. Why he chose to sing that song of all songs was a mystery only Luffy knew.
"Shishishi!" Luffy giggled. Ace threw the nearest object, a book, at Luffy's head. It bounced off and hit Locks. The dragon raised her head, glaring blearily at the brothers while growling deep in her throat. The two boys froze, as if that would take her attention off them.
"Sorry." the boys squeaked. With a suspicious glance at the both of them, she lowered her head and appeared to go back to sleep.
Phew. That was close. Ace glared at Luffy, but the rubber boy just smothered a giggle.
Watching the sleeping dragon, Ace rubbed his head subconsciously where her tail had hit him yesterday when she beat up the both of them. Note to self: dragons do not like waking up upside down in trees.
Ignoring his brother, Ace went back to sleep, leaving Luffy to his scheming.
oOo
Luffy was wandering around the forest as the sun came up, looking for today's Christmassy theme. He wasn't having much luck.
Doves were supposed to be white. But all the birds in this forest were rainbow-coloured. Normally, Luffy would have no qualms about dumping a bucket of white paint over the first bird he found, but at Christmastime, you had to do things right. So, white birds and only white birds would do. Luffy couldn't tell a dove from a duck, however, so there was a fifty-fifty chance of him bringing a albino duck to the treehouse. Not that this bothered Luffy in the slightest.
oOo
Ace cracked an eye open as sunlight fell on his face. He sat up with a yawn, stretching his arms above his head. With a faint glowing light, Locks changed into her half-form behind him, indicating that Luffy hadn't followed up on his earlier threat of repeating his partridge incident.
Ace left the treehouse first, climbing down while Locks threw herself into the air and used her wings to slow her descent. They landed at the same time, looking around the clearing. There was no sign of Luffy, or of Luffy having had breakfast. That was unusual, but Ace was going to have his own breakfast before he started worrying about his little brother. He was still mad at him over yesterday.
oOo
Luffy froze when he saw a stream up ahead. Streams equalled crocodiles, and without either his brother or a dragon Luffy wasn't going to chance his mission being ruined. He slowly backed away, intent on finding his birds elsewhere.
oOo
Ace lay down on the ground, a hand shading his eyes. Locks wasn't in the mood for sparring and Luffy wasn't here right now, so Ace was just going to relax for a little while . . .
Squuaaaark!
Ace opened his eyes and stared at the sky, seeing two birds circling the sky above the clearing. They were huge!
He sat up, hand blocking the sun as he continued staring. Not only were they huge, both birds were as black as black could be, and they seemed to be joined at the neck by some kind of rope . . .
Ace paled. That wasn't a rope!
"Locks! Locks, Locks, wake up!"
She rose to her feet at his urging, frowning as he frantically pointed up at the sky. She raised her head, eyes locking on his idiot brother holding onto two enormous vultures for dear life. Looking very put out, Locks changed into dragon form and launched herself into the sky, forcing Ace to jump backwards out of the way.
Landing on his butt, Ace wondered what the hell his brother had been thinking . . .
oOo
"Luffy?" Ace said, deceptively calm when his brother was safely delivered to him (Locks had scared the birds away)
"Yeah?" Luffy said with a grin.
"What was that?" Ace asked, poker-faced.
"Oh, I was looking for doves, but there weren't any white birds, so I went and got black birds instead because black is the opposite of white!" Luffy said excitedly.
Bonk!
Bonk!
Luffy hit the ground, two large bumps on his head courtesy of his older brother and a pissed-off dragon.