Disclaimer: One Piece characters belongs to Oda and not me, cheers.


Two minutes to the beginning of homeroom and Ace couldn't make himself stop staring at the closed door of the classroom housing his 'husband'. He was terrified of entering. Though he wasn't sure what would be worse, facing Robin's creative wrath or 45 minutes trapped in a room with at least 15 plastic, bug eyed, and creepy dolls.

One minute to homeroom, he remembered Robin's pleased look as he woke up to Luffy's finger in his face. 45 seconds, he saw the glassy eyes of the doll and shivered. Thirty seconds. The door was flaking on the both sides. 'Do they never paint this thing?'

All right, this was ridiculous. He couldn't be late to class because a doll freaked him out… a little. 'How was he going to get through the semester if he couldn't do this?' He took a deep breath, told himself dolls were not that bad and Mrs. Robin definitely could be, walked into the room, and felt looming regret.

They were everywhere. For every pair of students there was a fluffed up doll in a dress or a pair of overalls sitting on the edge of the students desks, facing front. The dolls raggedy hair color ranged from the bizarre, like pink, to the mundane but all of them had those creepy still doll faces and unblinking killer eyes. Some people had even gone the extra step of putting bows and necklaces on the things, as if that would make them less creepy.

The still eyes followed Ace as he made his way to his desk in the back. He had to walk between two columns of desks right past an army of the hellions. Thankfully, all of the little Chuckie's were mostly on the right so he could just stick to the left.

They all looked like they had been used in some horror movie production or maybe some old lady's creepy collection had been donated to the school and a teacher had decided to use them to freak out the students. That was believable. Ace had always suspected some of the facility had it out for the students. He skirted around the last doll before making it to his desk and signed in relief. Though it turned out, he was a little too soon to be relieved.

The students had rearranged themselves to sit next to their partner for the project, apparently. And there, right next to his desk, was Luffy. He was talking to some curly haired guy with a long nose and a girl with orange hair, who Ace had seen off and on around campus. He didn't see the doll on Luffy's desk though. Taking that as a good sign, he turned and dropped his bag on the ground by his desk ready to get on with it.

Ah, but that was a mistake. His focus had been so set on making it past the front line he hadn't even noticed the infiltration into his camp. Because there was their leader, Lola, staring up at him with, hopefully, sightless eyes, from the very center of his desk.

'He said he would make her pretty….' He could have sworn those were the words Luffy had used. But no, Luffy had clearly confused the word pretty for terrifying. 'He should have just named the doll Tina…instead of messing with him.'

Because there she sat looking like Talky Tina ready to pass judgment on the unwitting victim. She was wearing a blue and white checkered dress, contrasting sharply with the blood red ribbons haphazardly wrapped around her waist and hair, trophies from her last victims no doubt.

"Awe, you still don't like our baby." A high whine broke Ace out of terrified daze. "And I made her all pretty too."

"This isn't pretty." He snapped, backing up to see Luffy pouting at him but still keeping Lola in his sights. "Why is it on my desk? And where did you get a little dress from anyway?"

"Mrs. Robin let everyone pick out stuff from up front! She picked out the dress for Lola." Luffy beamed at him, ignoring the important question.

'Of course she did... Mental note: never piss off Mrs. Robin.'

Luffy waved at someone at the front of the room, most likely Robin, with that contagious grin of his before turning back to Ace. "Robin's really nice! Oh, but I choose the ribbons! Do you like it?"

"Sure, Sure. It looks really… interesting." Ace grimaced, if interesting could mean horrific, but he should probably play nice when in its presence. He noticed Luffy scowling at him from the corner of his eye, surprising him with the uncharacteristic expression enough to face him, though anything other than a smile seemed like it would be out of place on Luffy.

"Hey, you promised to say her name remember? And she looks lovely not 'interesting'" Luffy huffed leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Right, I did. I will!" Ace chocked out quickly as the bell rang. He spun around to see Robin getting up to stand in front of the class. If he wasn't sitting before she began talking he was going to be destroyed. He had seen the result of the mental torture she could put students through for simply talking during class. There were even rumors that she had driven a fellow teacher insane after he had disrespected her favorite subject. Now that teacher was living in an institute rambling about ancient weapons and banana crocodiles. What were banana crocodiles anyways?! "Now can you please take Lola?!"

Luffy leaned back even further, stretching like a cat, and grinned up at him, looking for all the world like he wasn't going to take the thing off his desk any time soon. 'What was the little brat playing at?!' "Hmmm… Okay! But we have to go get food again today. Okay?"

"We did that yesterday?! How often do you go there?"

'Was he being blackmailed!? Damn, Luffy didn't seem like the type.' Robin was halfway to the center of the room and her gaze was beginning to shift in his direction. Panicking, he wondered if he could just shove the thing aside with his bookbag. He turned to do just that, freezing in terror as he meet the dolls cold dead eyes and for a moment, he could hear a velvet whisper ~ 'My name is lovely Lola and I don't think I like you.' Robin was a few steps away.

"Okay! Just- Now!" He whispered harshly to Luffy.

"Okay." Luffy chirped, jumping up, grabbing the doll and dropping back in his seat, in one smooth move. He slide into his seat and risked a peek at the front of the class.

"Glad you two decided to let up begin." She was looking right at them and the small smirk on Robins face did not bode well for their future. Luffy only smiled obliviously, maneuvering the doll to sit on the edge of his desk facing Ace.

Ace just wanted to be glad he wasn't the only one Robin focused on. Though he didn't understand how this clueless guy would think to blackmail him, even if it had been poorly done. He didn't have to wait long for an answer.

As Robin began to speak, the orange haired girl hissed softly back at Luffy. "You were supposed to get him to agree to pay not just take you, idiot!"

"Huh?" Luffy rubbed his head sheepishly. "Oh, opps."


"All right class, I'm sure by now everyone has had a chance to go over the handout from yesterday and meet your newborn." Even with the depressing topic, Ace couldn't keep the smile off his face as Luffy bounced in his seat, throwing him a grin as Robin continued with a smile. The teacher had a talent for smiling in a way that made you cringe in fear but it still was not nearly as maniacal as the frozen one Lola was giving him.

"I am passing out the main objectives now that were not included in the sheet from yesterday." The professor walked the length of the room handing out the sheets as she continued to speak. Luffy was nearly vibrating as he tried to contain his excitement, a stark contrast to the stillness of the doll, making it hard for Ace to ignore Luffy and his…desk. 'Why is he so excited anyways?'

"Use the last minutes of class to go over the main objectives with your significant other and ask any questions you have now. Otherwise, have fun and know that…" Here she passed until the entire class was watching her and in the silence that reigned, she continued. "The dolls tell all." Instantly the tension in the class skyrocketed and Ace knew then that he wasn't the only one slightly put out by the creepy assignment.

"Shishishsi, Don't worry Ace. We'll be fine." Luffy grinned in his direction. "Lola's pretty cool."

He was saved from having to reply to that absurd statement or ask why Luffy thought a creepy doll was 'pretty cool', when Luffy turned around to respond to something the curly haired kid was saying.

He could only hope that the handout didn't require he spend too much singular time with Lola. Right now, he didn't mind the current 'arrangement' with Luffy carryin' the thing around. He could work something out for the week he had to care for it.

Ace accepted the handout as it came around glancing at the objectives. He quickly spotted the main objectives. He sighed in defeat and glanced at the clock. There were just a few minutes until the bell rang and he decided to suck it up from here on out. After all, it was just a few months and most likely, the doll would not kill him in his sleep if he were nice to it, probably.

"So it looks like we're going to have to build a pretend life together as 'partners'." He looked sideways to see if Luffy was listening to find him grinning at him again, practically vibrating in his seat.

"Sounds awesome!" Exploding out of his seat Luffy grabbed his stuff off the ground. "But look! My grandpa gave me this really neat stuff we can use for Lola. This way I can't drop her."

He could only watch, frozen, as Luffy tried, rather unsuccessfully, to put on a bright red front facing baby carrier. As Luffy continued to tangle himself into the baby carrier, he packed up for the end of class, crossed his arms, leaned back and watched.

When it became apparent Luffy wasn't going to be able put it on alone, he stood to help, submitting to his fate. Just in time to catch Luffy as he fell backwards towards him.

"Whoa! Careful." Catching Luffy in his arms he was forced him to sit back down to avoid knocking the desk over as he supported Luffy's weight. Looking down at Luffy, he was ready to tell him off. Only break out into laughter at the picture Luffy made.

Luffy's arms and legs were both tangled so well in the straps of the carrier that he looked like a mummy wrapped in red. While Luffy scowled down at the carrier as if it had personally slighted him.

"How did you manage that?" He whipped the tears of laughter from his eyes his left hand. Since his right hand was trapped under Luffy. "I as watching you too!"

"Geez this was so much easier when gramps was helping me." Luffy groused pouting. Though a small smile was pulling at his lips. He couldn't stop his own smile as he shifted to stand puling Luffy up with him.

"Alright, lets get you out of this thing so we can get to next period." Pushing Luffy up to stand, he unclipped the straps and watched them fall away immediately. He burst into laughter again and bent to pick up the carrier. When he stood again Luffy had his arms crossed and was scowling at him now.

"Sorry, sorry." He put his up in surrender. "That just surprised me. I'll help you this time. Okay?

"Okay" He chirped immediately brightening. Luffy held out his arms so Ace could wrap the carrier around him. Reaching around Luffy forced him to step in close and he had to fight of his blush as he got close enough to feel his warmth.

"There you go." He patted Luffy on the shoulder as he stepped back. "You look great."

"Thanks a lot, Ace." Luffy dumped Lola into the carrier and grabbed his bag. He turned to follow suit. Luffy stood up straight, placed his hands on his hips and grinned. "See? Now I can't drop her."

"Uh, right." He had to concede that this was a much better alternative than having Luffy dropping or stuffing their 'kid' into a bag, even if Luffy did look ridiculous.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go." Luffy sprinted to the door and Ace couldn't help the chuckle that came to his lips as he watched Luffy. 'Maybe this wouldn't be such a hard project after all.'


Okay! Sorry for any OOCness and grammar issues. But look Ace seems to be overcoming his fear… Slightly.