Chapter 6
I sat leaning against the wall, knees pulled against my chest as I stared at the floor while everyone else was enjoying their meals. I felt as though I had just lost my appetite.
Grumbling, I buried my head into my knees, hugging myself tightly.
Why the hell was I so stupid?! I should've been more aware of what I was eating, my god, I lost the ability to swim because I was such an idiot.
Now I just had to sit an wait to figure out what kind of ability I got, although I had been sitting there longer than needed for such said ability to settle in.
What if I got something completely stupid or useless? What if it was something super powerful but with huge drawbacks? I was scared, actually, for the first time that I was ever in this world, I was truly scared of not being able to be myself anymore.
But wait, Luffy technically ate a useless devil fruit, and in the future he ends up getting super powerful with it.
I felt myself become a little less worried, so with that thought, I looked up... to find a plate of food being held in my face. I reached out, grabbing it. "Um, thanks..." I slowly looked up to see Ace looking back down at me, his usual expression set on his features.
I watched Ace walk away from where I sat, grabbing himself a plate and piling it with nearly half of the meat on the main tray of food, causing an angry outcry from Luffy and yells of desperation from the other bandits as they attempted to at least get one bite in.
I saw Sabo laughing in the background, causing me to smile.
Somehow seeing him smile made me smile too, which was no surprise. Smiles were created to be contagious, after all.
I was startled though when someone sat next to me, a gigantic pile of meat staring me in the face a second later.
I picked up a piece of my own meat, chewing on it and turning to look at Ace, who suddenly decided to make his presence known. I watched in slight fascination he began stuffing his face with the meat he kidnapped from the main dish.
At one point he paused, slowing down his chewing to turn his head and stare back at me, before swallowing and continuing to stare at me.
The two of us continued our staring contest while I chewing on my drumstick, Ace reaching out to his pile to pull another out.
Just as I swallowed and cleared my throat to speak, Ace spoke up before me. And the first thing he asked was, "Did you really eat a devil fruit?"
I nearly spat up all of my food in his face just then, and if I did I would've made sure that he suffocated in the pile of regurgitated meat and berries.
I nodded my head instead, refusing to let this boy's irritating question get to me.
"Well, yeah. At least we think so." I replied, blinking.
"Mhm." Ace answered back, pulling a bone from his mouth with a light pop and discarding it somewhere on the floor. "Have you tried using your ability yet?" He questioned, raising a brow.
Wow, what the hell. NOW he decides to show interest in me, and the first thing he shows it in is my devil fruit. Asshole... but he's a cute one... never mind. Just someone tell me HOW an asshole of all things is- I'm not completing that sentence.
I shook my head. "Well, I don't know how to activate my ability first of all, and if I could, just how useful would it be?" I stated, shrugging lightly.
Ace seemed to think for a moment, before leaning against the wall behind us, verifying my reasoning as fair. After I finished my meal, I set the plate down next to me and went back to my previous pose of devil-fruit gloominess.
Thanks Ace, for reminding me about the fact I could've eaten something that gave me dumb abilities.
Suddenly I felt something jab the side of my arm, and irritated by this sudden intrusion in my personal space, I looked up to find Ace in a similar position as myself.
"What're you so droopy about?" Ace asked me, adverting his eyes when I tried to make eye-contact with him. What...?
"Erm, the possibility of eating a devil fruit that could potentially be useless." I said flatly. "And then on top of that I wouldn't be able to swim."
Sulking, I pressed the palm of my hand on my face. "Dammit." I murmured just softly enough for Ace to hear. "Now I'll probably be useless to you guys..." I felt tears prick my eyes at that realization. I'd be alone... again.
Suddenly I felt something hit the back of my head, causing me to snap out of my feeling-useless mode to pay attention to the now-steaming fist of Ace, who stared down at me with a pissed expression on his face.
"Shut the hell up," The ten-year old growled, crossing his arms together. "Don't ever say that kind of thing around me. That's stupid." Ace spat, crouching down to my level so that we were staring at eachother eye-to-eye.
"We'll figure out your ability, and then somehow figure out how it'll be helpful to you, or perhaps even us. But until then, don't you dare start saying shit like that." Ace said flatly, his gaze now having had softened, but was still just as harsh looking.
"If you want to be my friend," Ace said flat-out, causing multiple people in the room to look up and stare at the two of us. "Firstly, don't be so depressed about yourself or who you are."
My eyes widened, his words pulling at my heartstrings and causing a few tears to escape my eyes as I threw myself at him, shocking the black-haired boy and knocking the both of us to the floor, everyone's jaws in the room dropping when they saw what I did.
"T-th-THANK YOU!" I cried, happy tears streaming down my face as I hugged Ace tightly around his waist.
"L-LET GO OF ME YOU DUMBASS!" Ace shrieked, his face flushing when he realized what a compromising position he was in, having a girl on top of you in a male-inhabited home wasn't the best idea... for obvious reasons.
"Ooooh my~! Ace has got a girl~!" Teasing cat-calls and whistles sounded throughout the room, followed by Dadan's screaming and Ace's pissed-off shouts.
But I didn't care, I thought, smiling as I sniffled. For some reason, feeling accepted by this dumbass made me happy, as I was cool with that... despite having him shoving my face with the palm of his hand in his vain attempts to make me let go of him.
"As if I'd let go of you, Ace-san!" I chirped, ignoring his attempts to get me off of him as a mischievous smile graced my lips.
"GET! OFF!"
