Chapter 3 - Of two men and a ring
"Geoffrey…" Ace spoke in a low voice so Zoro wouldn't hear them from where he slept on the couch in the room next to theirs. He rolled over so he was almost laying on his lover's stomach, with his face turned to him.
"Did you mean everything you said earlier, when I was in the kitchen?" It wasn't hard to hear the hope in Ace's voice, and Smoker smiled at him and nodded.
"Everything. I want to stay with you forever and ever, Ace." He stroked Ace's cheek with his hand.
You're the sunshine of my life", he said and grinned, and was rewarded by Ace's fist in his stomach. "Oh, well, maybe more like the fire of my life. I was just teasing, honey."
"You know you kinda ruined a fine moment there. You're making me sound like a girl..." Ace looked a bit displeased on the outside, but he had trouble hiding how happy he had been by Smoker's comment. Smoker chuckled, and added:
"You have a very masculine voice for a girl, right?" This time, both of them laughed.
"Your nephew is a lot better than I originally thought, thank God. I really have had enough of homophobes and racists and all those fuckers. You know, I see why you like him, he's a good kid. I don't see why I couldn't meet him before?"
"Well, the thought never really occurred to me, partially because he was living with Carl, whom I trust less and less. I think he is on the negative scale right now. I wouldn't trust him with an ice cream cone right now." Smoker's voice rose a bit in volume, so Ace shushed him down.
"Geoff, not now. Leave the kid alone tonight, let's talk about something else."
"Well, except the bastard Carl, would you like to meet the rest of my family?"
Ace was a bit surprised, but nodded slowly. Smoker wasn't known for loving his family.
"Well, in sufficient amounts." Ace poked out his tongue, but Smoker just smiled lovingly at him. The older man' eyes were filled with admiration and love, and looked as though they were shining.
"Ace..."
He rolled over and stretched over the side table that stood on 'his' side of the bed. He reached in and began searching for something in the dark. Ace crawled over and leaned his head on Smoker's shoulder.
"What are you looking for, Geoff?" Ace asked, and kissed said shoulder. Smoker hesitated a couple of moments, before pulling out a little black item.
"Ace, sweetie, this may not be the best time, but... but..." He sat up in the bed and the covers fell to reveal a well-trained stomach. In most cases, a half naked Geoffrey in bed would have been reason enough for Ace to not sit still, but now he sat as if he was made of stone, in shock, and he had to strain himself to remember how to breath.
Smoker took up the black velvet box and opened it slowly for admiring the content before slowly turning it towards Ace.
Ace looked as if he had been taken from an old Hollywood movie, with his hand over his mouth, and even if he denied it forcefully a couple of days later, he was on the brink of crying. If he had had problems breathing before, it was simply luck that Smoker didn't need to revive him with the mouth-to-mouth.
"Ace, do you..." Smoker he trailed off. He tried to remain calm and keep control, but his voice betrayed him. He continued fighting to form the one important sentence.
"Ace Portgas. Do, do you, do you want… to marry me?" He bit his lip hard as if he had done something stupid.
Ace couldn't tear his eyes from the shiny ring. It was a braided ring: with one trail of silver, one trail of gold, and one trail where small, small diamonds. It was unbelievably... beautiful was the only word Ace could find, but the ring couldn't be described with words. It was much more than a beautiful ring. It was the beautiful love from Smoker to Ace.
"Geoff, I…I…", Ace seemed to stutter more than Smoker had done before, and Smoker became even more nervous and turned his gaze away from Ace and closed his eyes. He had put everything on one card, and how daring it had ever been, he didn't want to loose what he had betted. He let the ring rest on the covers.
Ace had never been much for talking; he was a man of action. He knew exactly what he was going to say, but he couldn't create the words. Instead he picked up the box, picked out the ring and placed it on his right ring finger. It fitted perfectly. Smoker must have looked up his finger size before he bought it. Ace wondered a bit how, since he didn't own any other ring, but left the question unanswered and looked at his lover and now fiancé.
Smoker sat quiet, still with his eyes closed as if he was waiting for someone to finish him off. Ace took Smoker's hand, brought it to his mouth and kissed it. Smoker opened his eyes and looked at Ace, and he didn't see the angry or displeased look he thought he would receive, but a pair of eyes filled with tears of joy, and a mouth that in a few seconds met his own. Ace dragged his hand through Smoker's hair and the older man felt the hard metal from the ring against his skin. It was first at that moment Smoker really understood. In a pause of the passionate kiss Smoker tried to actually say something.
"Ace... I..." He didn't get to finish his thought up sentence before Ace cut him of.
"Yes, stupid-Smokey! I don't want anything else. I want to be here with you forever and ever."
Smoker smiled as Ace took his words out of his mouth, both literally and figuratively spoken. They really completed each other. Ace was the lively, young adventurer, with a bit doubtful past, but he did put his heart in everything he did. Geoffrey was the older, but not old policeman, known for being the eternal bachelor, but who had now confessed that he had found the love of his life. As far as they were concerned, they belonged together, and they had agreed not to care what the world thought about them.
Ace's family, or what was left of if, didn't have any problems with it at all. His mother was dead and his father had disappeared years ago, so the only family member remaining was his little brother Luffy. Luffy wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he knew that Ace loved his Geoffrey, and therefore he didn't have any problems with it. Luffy was stupid at times, but he wasn't blind. Well, Ace's grandfather was still around, but Smoker got the shivers imagining telling his boss that he was screwing his grandson.
Smoker on the other hand, hadn't dared to even mention it to his family. His mother was a strongly believing Catholic, homophobic, and quite the racist against everyone she didn't believe fit in to her Christian utopia. She would think it was the end of the world if he came home and told her that his lover was half Latin-American and male. Sex with the devil, she would call it. Not that the truth was far from that, he had never slept with anyone like Ace. Well, Ace was the only man he had allowed down in the bed ever, but Ace was special when it came to the enjoyment between the sheets.
The rest of Smoker's family wasn't so great either. His father hadn't had a single job during Carl and Geoffrey's childhood, but had stayed home, watching TV and betting on horse races. Their mother had told them that it was his mission from God, and they had believed her blindly. From the moment they knew what was happening around them they had been brain washed by Christian teachings, with their mother as their strict-and-not-always-fair teacher. He still found it amazing that neither of them had been convinced to continue with religion when they left home, but he guessed that they had enough of it as kids, and that their mother wasn't exactly the kind of person you wanted to take after.
Neither of his parents would accept his boyfriend—now fiancé—he knew that for sure. However, he didn't want to say anything to his brother for the simple reason that he didn't trust him. He was what Smoker could call a fucking-sneaky bastard. Not someone Smoker wanted to share something with, and definitely not more than necessary.
To sum the whole thing up, Smoker didn't have any contact with, or like for that matter, anybody in his family except Zoro, and they didn't meet often since Smoker moved away from their neighbourhood. Before that, Zoro and Smoker had met every once in a while, and talked or trained together. They shared many thoughts, and the common interest for martial arts was what brought them together, coupled with the fact that they were only a few years apart in age. Geoffrey was the younger of the two, and Zoro had been born when Carl was only nineteen. The two were only twelve years apart. Ace was twenty-four, just in the middle of them.
Smoker was brought back to reality when he started to run out of air. Breathless, he broke the kiss and looked longingly at Ace.
"This is really happening. You really want...? You are wearing my ring."
Ace leaned forward and kissed Smoker's neck just where it met the shoulder.
"This is as real as the fact that your mom gave birth to you. I want this more than anything else in the world. And I will bear your ring with pride, always! You see, right now I am just wearing your ring and nothing else..."
To the last sentence he added a low, and also a bit husky and then he kissed Smoker again. His hand sought their way down and started playing with one of Smoker's nipples.
"Ace...Ace, god, stop.", Smoker moaned, and nodded toward the door.
"Zoro is in the room next door. We really shouldn't scare him shitless the first night. He'll never sleep here again if he hears you scream."
Smoker kept a playful tone, but Ace stopped what he was doing and instead begun fondle his face.
"Me screaming? Are you sure that's not just your religious upbringing wanting to wait until after the wedding?" Smoker laughed so Ace, who was laying on his stomach, bumped up and down.
"And you say that now? How many times would we have to get married to make up for all the time you came home from work and dragged me to the bed so could get it off your mind." Smoker, just like Ace before, held a bit of a dirty tune, but it was mixed with teasing.
"No, no, no talk about sex if I'm not getting any tonight, Geoff! That's not fair play! Go on, talk about something else."
Smoker sat up and rested his back against the bed table, and Ace turned around and crawled up in Smoker's lap, back leaning against the broader stomach. Smoker reached down and put his arms around Ace.
"When do you want to do it?" Smoker asked and kissed the top of Ace's head. Ace himself turned his head upwards and looked, a bit puzzled, at Smoker.
"What do you mean? Sex?", he asked.
Smoker wondered for a moment if he was serious or not. He bashed his head lightly, then placed a kiss there a few seconds later.
"No. The wedding!"
"Oh..." Ace felt unusually stupid and blushed. "Pretty soon, but I want time to plan for everything, and make everything perfect. Oh, you'll look so handsome in a dress suit." Ace's dream was brutally killed when Smoker added:
"And you'll look incredible cute in a wedding dress." Ace's chin dropped. He blushed even more, and looked up at Smoker.
"D-dress?! No fucking way, mister! I might be less manly than you, but no way in hell am I wearing a dress.
"Easy, babe. If you don't want a dress you don't have to wear one. But believe me, you would look awkwardly cute in one."
Ace face was so red it was boiling. Him in a dress? No fucking way. He would rather fantasize about Smoker in a dress suit, since he didn't know how to dress himself up. But a dress? No, no, no. Even if Smoker said he would look cute in one, so fuck…
"Stupid-Smokey...", he muttered an crawled back in his lover's strong arms and they both fell asleep.
Another chapter finished, a bit shorter than the last one, but hey! We are moving forward. Is it just me, or might I be able to complete this piece of work? :3 I have got everything planed, and I have got an ending.
When I first begun to write this chapter, I didn't knew this was going to happen, but here we go~ A short part about Ace being happy about Smoker loving him ended up with a proposal. Just one problem now; which last name should they take on? XD
Once again; big thanks goes to my beta's MintyTwins. I hope you had a nice home coming!
I hope I can keep this up, with one chapter in the start of each week, but don't get disappointed if there's no new chap next monday or so, I have really much to do in school and a boyfriend ;)
Now, you have lived with me for over 2000 words in this chapter , why don't you leave a few in return in a review?
