Chapter 9: Reading Eyes

Spade immediately tried to make a run for it.

Marco didn't let her.

"They're here," he hissed. "Get down."

"I am not going to bow to them," she hissed back, struggling to get away. "Let me disappear; it'll be fast."

"They've already seen you."

She opened her mouth to retort, but he kicked the back of her knees, causing her to reflexively crumble to the ground. When she attempted to straighten back up, he crouched down beside her and pushed her head lower. She could taste the bitter grass in her mouth. Through her peripheral vision, she could see Ace leisurely lay face-down on the ground; he had fallen asleep. That idiot.

"We all hate them," said Marco by her ear, "but you can not attack them. Whitebeard's not lookin' for a fight right now, Spade. Behave yourself."

She was trying; she really was. But she was gripping the blades of grass so hard, the skin over her knuckles was already stretched so taut that the veins of her hands were protruding out, and Spade could swear that she could feel the blood oozing from her palm. A deathly silence fell over the crowd as the three Tenryuubito members approached.

Calm yourself, she thought mechanically. Calm, calm, calm.

"How boring," the woman said, "this life is…move faster, you stupid slave. And to think that you were supposedly a captain in the Grand Line? You're horribly weak."

"Shalulia, there's really no need to be so angry," her father, Roswald, said. "Just hit them a bit."

Spade gritted her teeth as the group neared, her eyes catching sight of a bloodied human, crouched on the ground on all fours, supporting a woman whose head was submerged in a bubble-like contraption to prevent herself from breathing in the air of "contaminated" people. It was a pathetic sight…the human slave was struggling to support the burden on his back, but given his condition, it didn't seem very easy. Spade could hear Marco muttering something out of the corner of his mouth, but the words were unintelligible; she could feel the anger clouding her judgment, blocking her senses, and all she knew was the rising hatred in her chest, and the growing desire to lash out and attack.

"Will you move it?!" Shalulia said sharply, smacking her human form of transportation against the side of his head. He let out an anguished groan. "Don't just sit there and moan; move!"

There was a huge gale of wind, abrupt and strong, catching the inhabitants of the scene by surprise. The Tenryuubito woman, balanced gingerly on a tottering surface, fell over onto the ground at the breeze. Spade let out a long breath quietly as she avoided Marco's angry look.

"I can't believe this!" shrieked Shalulia, straightening up and dusting the dirt off her clothes. "How dare you! To let me, of all people, fall to the ground trodden by you commoners—Father, kill him!"

"By all means," Roswald said lazily, pulling out a pistol.

The slave tried to make a run for it, but Spade could easily see that there was no way he was going to make it. And judging from the scenario, she had definitely been the one who had instigated all this. Thus, she had to be the one to remedy it. Slightly.

Another gust of wind battered the group, a gust so strong that several shingles from the roofs of nearby houses came flying off. The younger male Noble, Charloss, also toppled off of his seat.

"This is preposterous!" Roswald roared. "Who's doing that?! We are the Tenryuubito! No one brings a hand against us!"

"Sir," a nearby servant said, "it was the wind. No one is harming you."

"Shut up, I say!" shouted Roswald. "Even the winds must obey us! We are the Tenryuubito!"

"Spade…" breathed Marco warningly, the grip on her neck tightening.

"I know, I know," she whispered to the ground, wincing at his grip.

"Get back here!" snapped Shalulia, dragging her slave back by his chain and sitting on his back again. "We're leaving! This cursed winds…"

Spade was all for seeing them leave, and resisted doing anything further that would perhaps lengthen their stay. Her mind began to repeat words over again, Go away, go away, go away.

The recitation of phrases seemed to fail her miserably. Inconveniently, Spade was at a place nearest to the street, and just as she was about to rejoice that they were leaving, the Tenryuubito stopped in front of them.

"What's wrong with him?" Charloss asked, nudging Ace's head with his foot.

Spade felt an immediate surge of anger.

"He's probably dropped dead or something of the like," Roswald answered. "You know these commoners…they simply die of starvation."

"Oh, how gross," Shalulia said, wrinkling her nose. She seemed to pause directly in front of Spade and Marco. "Hm. Why are you holding her neck down like that? Is something wrong with her?"

Spade made a movement to answer the question herself, but upon feeling her resistance to his grip, Marco held her neck tightly and made sure she did not look up.

"She's got a disease that makes her all jerky an' stuff, and if I didn't hold her down, she would go wild," he answered cautiously.

Damn straight she would.

"Ew," the woman said disdainfully. "What do you think of that, brother?"

Charloss's attention was now fixated with someone else, however, and he was no longer listening to his family members.

"You," he said, pointing at Risha, who trembled violently at his address, "look up."

Risha obeyed, her eyes averted from his face.

"Hm. You're attractive. I like you. I shall bring you back with me and make you my wife."

"W-what?!" stammered Risha.
Ace was beginning to stir at Risha's exclamation. Bad timing…Spade squeezed her eyes closed, not wanting to see the rest. She could hear his voice, slow and groggy from waking up.

"What's going on?" he said. She could feel him shift on the grass, and immediately knew that he had looked up at their faces, because Shalulia gave a high-pitched shriek.

"How dare you!" she screamed. "You looked up at me! Bow down this instant!"

"Hm. Oh. Shit."

"Shit is right," Marco said, his words only audible to Spade. "We've gotta get out of here."

"You dare curse in front of us?!" Roswald yelled in indignity.

"Uh, no. That was my bad. Sorry."

"The impudence!"

"The horror!"

"Take her to be my wife."

"Oh, shut up, brother!" Shalulia said snappishly. "If you want her, you might as well take her too!"

The next thing Spade knew, nails dug into her scalp and pulled her head up. Marco instantly released her, letting Spade look up at the female Noble's face. Charloss was looking in her direction.

"She's not as pretty," he said defensively.

"Take her and be done with it! We're leaving now! And Father, kill that boy."

"Hey, missy, it'd be good if you let go of her now," Ace said with a tinge of coldness, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Spade's wincing expression.

"Kill him. Charloss, take them both! If you don't want one, I'll make one my maid!"

"You know, for some reason, she looks vaguely familiar," said Roswald slowly. "Perhaps it's her eyes…that's an interesting shade of green. Hm…yes, Charloss, do take her."

"I could do with a few more maids," said Shalulia, agreeing and pulling Spade by the hair.

"I am not going to be your maid," Spade snarled, reaching up and gripping the Noble's wrist, forcing the Noble to let go of her.

"You…you dare speak back to me?! I am one of the Tenryuubito—I own the lives of you commoners! Such impudence will not be tolerated!"

Shalulia raised a hand and slapped Spade's cheek—or, at least tried to. Spade immediately dematerialized, letting her palm pass straight through.

"W-what?" Shalulia said, surprised.

Roswald's eyes widened as he watched the scene.

"You…" he breathed.

"Time to leave," Marco said, straightening up and taking Spade into his arms. He dematerialized, taking Spade along with him against the roaring winds in their ears.

"Let me go, Marco!" she shouted, hearing nothing but the sound of blood rushing past her ears. "I can fly by myself!"

More like she wanted to go back and beat the crap out of them. The mere remark that Roswald deemed her to be familiar infuriated her; if she wasn't familiar, then they all had brains the size of peanuts…she was going to kill them, and kill them well…

"Hell, no, you're not!" Marco yelled. "You'd probably just go back and try to attack them again, you idiot! I told you already, you're s'posed to control yourself! This is all your fault—we'll be lucky if they don't call an Admiral here!"

A flame appeared alongside them, and Ace's head appeared among the dancing warm colors. He had caught up with them easily.

"Where're we going?!" he asked.

"Where's Risha?" Spade said scathingly over Marco's ephemeral shoulder, annoyance mixing in with her fury as she found something else to be angry about.

"I think they're too busy looking for us to care about her," said Ace shortly, "—or at least, I hope so."

Marco skidded to a halt at the beach, letting Spade down. Ace materialized beside them both.

"What now?" Ace said.

"You two get back to the ship," said Marco tersely. "I don't think they saw my face very well, so I'll go back to the park to round up the men, hurry up and get supplies, and follow you guys as soon as I can."

The seriousness that seized Ace whenever he was faced with an important dilemma had once again resurfaced. Spade found herself scowling at his bipolarity; the playboy had existed just ten minutes before, and now Ace was looking at Marco with an expression of duty and responsibility.

"Roger," said Ace, nodding.

"And whatever you do, don't let Spade out of sight."

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"This's a big deal, Spade! To think that you'd actually provoke an attack when I specifically told ya not to!"

"Whitebeard's pirates shouldn't be so afraid to fight," snapped Spade. "What'd you want me to do, let her drag me off?"

"I wouldn't have minded," remarked Ace coolly.

"Shut up," she said, glaring at him.

"We don't wanna deal with Admirals right now, Spade," Marco said seriously. "Now, I'm going to go. Ace, take 'er back. Fast."

"Sure."

Both of them stood still as Marco disappeared into his strange phoenix form, and only when he was out of sight did Ace bother to speak.

"The old guy seemed to recognize you," commented Ace.

"And?"

"You got a history here, don't you? You said you've been here before, to get those tattoos on your legs, and then you said you hated this place and the Tenryuubito, and now one of them actually recognizes you. What happened?"

"He didn't recognize me," Spade said evenly. "You're imagining things. Let's get back to the ship."

She turned away to walk back towards the boats, but Ace appeared before her, a deep frown embedded on his face.

"Could you just try to stop being so enigmatic?" he demanded. "I'm trying to help you here!"

"I don't need your help, Ace. Especially not from someone who has his arm around every other girl he sees."

"So you're jealous?"

"No. I just hate you. Get out of my way, Ace."

"Why do you refuse to have a decent conversation with me?! Ever since you joined my crew, you've been reclusive, you just don't open up! Why can't you tell that I'm trying to care about you?!"

"And why can't you tell that I. Don't. Need. You. To."

Ace let out an aggravated growl and gripped her shoulders tightly.

"Stop being a complete bitch."

"Stop being a nosy jackass."

Spade's glare was no less intense than Ace's, but for some reason, the way he looked at her made her feel uncomfortable and…was that guilt she was feeling? But she hadn't done anything wrong! Was she actually feeling bad for keeping him away? But it was for the better…better that he didn't know…

"You're feeling guilty," he said quietly.

"No, I'm not."

"I can see it in your eyes. I can read every emotion you feel in your eyes. And right now, you're feeling guilty, uncomfortable, and…oh, annoyed, now."

"Let go of me; I'm leaving."

"I don't want you to."

Spade could've easily melted into her transparent form, could've easily run away as fast as she could. Something, however, kept her rooted to the ground, staring up into Ace's eyes, her neck aching from the effort it took to look at someone half a foot taller than she. Reading her emotions…what bullshit. His onyx eyes were impenetrable. Undecipherable.

Ace pulled her closer and brought a hand under her chin, forcing her to stay in place, and lowered his lips onto hers. She could feel his other arm curl protectively around her waist, encaging her against his chest. His temperature, always hotter than the norm, seemed scorching and almost painful to touch. She wanted to push him away and yet at the same time lose herself in his arms, in the security they connoted…she could no longer think, and no longer move on her own. Ace, sensing that she was not resisting, took advantage of her immobility and deepened the kiss, running his hand through her hair and trailing the other under her shirt. How many seconds, minutes passed, she didn't know…she had forgotten all about Marco and the anger she'd held for the Tenryuubito, forgotten about the fact that she was probably being hunted at the moment and should probably get back to the ship…all she knew was the fact that kissing Ace made her feel good, above anything, and she found herself responding, pressing her mouth deeply against his, feeling the shape of his lips and the warmth of his breath…

An abrupt cough jolted Spade out of her momentary weakness, and she immediately detached herself from Ace, looking around for the source of the noise.

"Up here, Skye," a male's voice said.

Spade whirled around and looked up into the branches, her eyes landing on a tall figure that was all too familiar.

"Admiral Aokiji…" she said breathlessly.

"It's been a while," said the Admiral monotonously, eyes flickering between her and Ace. "You actually found a guy who could stand you? You beat the crap outta everyone back—"

"Shut up," she flared. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Aokiji raised an eyebrow.

"The Tenryuubito are on their little stroll, and I'm here as a tagalong. Just for fun, y'know. Who would've thought I would've run into you? This must be my lucky day, catching the Ace of Spades."

Ace stiffened by her side at the sound of their title.

"To think that an Admiral would deem us worthy of his time," he smirked. "We're honored."

"Hm. Impertinent boy. Do you have any idea whom you've teamed up with?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Hm. No, I don't think you do. Skye, have you told him about your…previous occupation?"

"Yeah, I was a damn good bartender," she snarled. "You going to fight, Admiral, or are you just here for a chat?"

"The former. But do you really think you can beat me, Skye? Wind never wins against ice. You've never once won against me."

"Alone," said Ace sharply. "But I'm fire, and that melts ice. If we can't beat you—"

"—we can sure as hell get away," Spade finished.

"Oh, how quaint," scoffed Aokiji, his eyes narrowing. "Now you're finishing each other's sentences. Well, I am bored, so I suppose a little two on one shouldn't be too uninteresting. Now then, the two of you…"

Aokiji slid to the ground, causing the surface under his feet to immediately freeze. A faint smile played at his lips.

"Come."


Free Talk:

I'm so sorry!!! I got, what, fourteen reviews??! That's amazing! And I haven't updated in so long...well, it's been like...a week, but considering my normal updating status, (which was seriously like once every three days =.=), it's been a while for me. So I'm sorry for keeping you waiting! And I'm also sorry that this chapter is a bit short...school is a pain in the butt and takes up so much of my time. I haven't been able to type for ages.

I'm probably going to end this little Shabondy Archipelago arc rather quickly and without exposing too much of Spade's past. I hope it's not really obvious what her relationship with the Tenryuubito is, though if you can guess, sorry for making it so blatantly obvious. I am planning for her and Ace just to finally get together already, though exactly how, I'm not quite sure. It'll probably be in the upcoming chapter or so though...

And yes, I did change my username because it's really old and I left this account untouched for three years, so I figured I might as well change it into something different. I hope you guys didn't get confused...I think a lot of you have this StoryAlerted/Favorited, so that might help with navigation. For those of you that didn't, sorry for the confusion.

Damn, I seem to be apologizing a lot.

Well, then, please review!! That'd be awesome. Until next time~

-jenni-