Disclaimer: One Piece© Oda Eiichiro.

A/N: Fast update, yay! I've been working *beam beam*

Jealous

When morning came, she found herself lying—quite literally—on top of the nakama she'd decided to use as a pillow last night. In the moment of delirium in her half-conscious state, she'd felt him warm and soft and breathing under her. The next moment, she was clumsily tumbling off the bed with a yelp and eyes wide open in shock and embarrassment. She hit her head by the little side table and landed very gracelessly on her butt. Woken up by the clamor, Ace sat up to find the woman moaning wantonly on the floor, clutching her head in her hands.

"You okay?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Do I look like I am?" she cried. After the initial shock set in, she regretted her impulsive reaction for last night's overindulgence in sake had left her completely disoriented and her head throbbing like it was going to split.

"Hangover, huh?" he asked over a yawn, springing out of bed and helping her up.

"Real bad." She admitted, envying his lithe movements as she stumbled around still disoriented, with her head swimming in jelly and threatening to explode.

"Here," he handed her a glass of water. "Rehydrating will help."

"Thanks," she said.

"And maybe walk around a little when you feel better," he said.

If it hadn't been for most of the missing pieces of the previous night's blackout puzzle, she wouldn't be forcing herself to concentrate so hard. Something was definitely amiss, and it was driving her irritatingly crazy that she couldn't figure it out. It was just little things she wouldn't otherwise notice but her nakama was acting just a wee bit weird. His tensed forearm muscles under her fingers when he kept her from stumbling. The way he averted his eyes when she looked up. That was bothering her big time. He always looked her straight in the eye when he talked to her. Oblivious, charming, confident and sarcastic. Today, he had an undertone of apprehension to himself.

"Don't stare so hard," he pinched her nose. "You'll squint permanently."

"Shut up," she lightly punched his arm. "Since when were you uncomfortable with someone staring at you?"

There it was again—either the hallucinations from last night were back or his ears were actually tinged red. The unexplained avoidance of eye-contact continued.

"Ace—"

"I'll see if doc has anything for your hangover," he said and literally dove out of the room.

Whatever was his problem? Xena was too irritable to think. She would've yelled if her head didn't hurt so much. She had more water and took her time to get herself in some semblance. When she was sure she could walk around without stumbling facedown or throwing up, she ventured out of the room, apprehensive and on the lookout for any signs to indicate absurdity on her part the previous night. But everything was sunny and nice and normal (well, as normal as it got in this crew).

Everyone was cheerful and about their business and she forced herself to distraction in helping around, only her mood was evidently sullen and they wisely kept their distance from the brooding ball of gloom. And while she kept dropping hints at every possible occasion if anyone had anything to tell her about her demeanor last night—which pretty much didn't do any good—the only one who seemed to know was very conspicuously avoiding her. Even when she tried to run into him—accidentally—she always found him hurrying in the opposite direction with some or the other business that couldn't wait. All of those attempts and brooding and the residue of an ache that very comfortably remained in the back of her head made her furious enough to decide to hunt him down and beat the truth out of him. So when the next time he crossed her in a flurry to get something done, she grabbed him by the back of his bead necklace and decided she would threaten to choke him if he ran away again.

"Xena-chan… hey…" he said very normally.

"Don't you 'hey' me, Firefist," she glared. "Just spill."

"Eh?" he looked at her, all innocent. "What?"

"You've been acting all weird." She said.

"No, I haven't." He replied.

"Look at me and say it." She said.

He fixed his eyes on her all pretentiously confused but there it was, she could see the apprehension in his face. Like he was trying so hard to hold his gaze at her face.

"I did something weird while I was drunk, didn't I?" she studied his face for signs. The only other time she remembered having gotten so drunk to lose her bearings was at a festival in her village and the distinct memory of her coworker barmaid who'd tried to drop her off was fresh in her head. The girl ran away from her apprehensively after that, never to drink with her again. What kind of monster did she turn into after a few—well, not quite few—drinks?

"Come on, Firefist, your face is giving it away," she sighed. "I did something really stupid and you can go ahead and embarrass me."

"Well, you… you might have kind of sort of tried to kiss Kyuupid and then that girl you're always attached at the hip to," he said finally. There was going to be no roundabout way of saying this.

"Wha…" her eyes were wide as she tried to come to terms with that info. Of all the things? A kissing monster? She would've much better preferred suicidal monster or something. So she remembered she'd felt an overwhelming warm feeling for those two new friends of hers and had wanted to tell them how she… loved them…? Well… she wasn't going to rule out the possibility of having tried to express that with a kiss… But for god's sake, trying to kiss an okama and then a girl?

"I'm straight." She said promptly. That was the first fact that needed to be established to him.

"…Yeah nobody's doubting that," he said, surprised and amused at her reaction.

"Wait a min—holy shit…did I try to kiss you too?" she glared into his eyes. Everything fell into place with his ears still red at the edges and his gaze conspicuously slipping off for escape route. "OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY KISSED YOU." She said, her tone dead with the certainty that his now openly blushing face lent to her conclusion.

He just looked away and let her ears blow up in steam and her face turn red in mortification.

"Please deny it," she said.

He just looked the other way and didn't even try a denial.

"Firefist, you were such a damsel in distress, you couldn't even fend off a pathetic drunk little girl?" she glared harder at him. By this time, she should've burned holes through him with that fiery intensity.

"I don't know, Xena-chan you just took me by surprise," he confessed.

"Surprise?" she gave him an exasperated look.

"Well, would you expect a dead drunk person to wake up at the slightest stir and kiss someone out of the blue?" he said. And it was nothing but the truth. He'd been convinced she'd passed out clinging to his arm but when he tried to disengage, her eyes flew open and all sober and innocent, she asked if he were leaving. And before he could even answer, she'd kissed him and told him to stay. And stay he did all night in that awkward position, half buried under her, not daring to move a muscle all night.

"Well, at least tell me it wasn't your first," she said. "You've been acting like such a violated maiden all day."

"'course not," he said in an offhand tone which made her wonder if it really was. She'd be feeling guilty for stealing someone's first even if it were this stupid, dorky, adorable pirate. She just covered her face with both hands and sat down on her haunches. Here she had armed him with the most embarrassing truth about herself which even she didn't know and instead of being the usual tease that he was, he'd been acting like a maiden of fair heart. Maybe more mortifying than the fact that she turned into a kissing monster was the fact that he hadn't been able to dodge her assault.

He stared at her doubled over form and wondered what to do next when she didn't stop shaking for almost half a minute. He was getting convinced that she was having a seizure of sorts when she suddenly looked up at him and gods, he had never been so glad at seeing her laughing face. She was gasping for breath and all red in the face but she was laughing and that was all that it took to make him feel better.

She was weird and awkward and easily embarrassed and all day he'd been apprehensive that she'd remember the events of last night and never be the same Xena in front of him. But here she was, laughing at her own little mess despite all her mortification and that was the girl he knew best. Perhaps it was as good that he didn't reveal the other little detail of the episode to her. How needy and clingy and whiney she'd been and desperate to make him stay. In her sober state, she was such a contrast to that girl who'd had the hollowed loneliness in her eyes. She might like to show she was all independent and unattached but on the inside, she was probably very lonely and hurting. That could explain her silent crying in sleep.

But in that moment, seeing her laugh so easy and free, he decided to keep that part to himself. In her sobered state, she was confident and stood with an indifferent and quiet dignity and even if it were just a front, he wasn't going to hurt it. If he could do anything to nurse that wound bleeding her on the inside, he would in his own unassuming way. For someone who had walked in those shoes, he knew if he made it obvious, she would only draw away. And he wasn't going to just stand there and watch someone he called his nakama to go down the road.

"Okay," she said finally. "I'm not even going to try and pretend it never happened, 'cause you know, I'm not the kind of person who forgets. But let me just say this doesn't change anything between us. At least I'd like to believe so. So we're still nakama… right?"

"Yeah," Ace grinned and although he'd been decent enough to not tease her over it, his raised eyebrow and that cheeky grin was indicating something very sarcastic and mortifying was on its way out of that mouth of his.

"Land ahoy," somebody shouted from behind them and she'd never been so glad. The joke was going to have to wait.

The ship docked so gracefully at the port, it brought to mind the wreckage of the previous ship fresh in contrast. This was the first time she was watching a ship dock while she was aboard. All her life, she'd just watched them come and go from her village but had never given it much thought how it'd feel to be on top of it. Now she felt like she wanted to pin all those little new experiences into her head in all their glorious details.

"We should thank the crew first thing and get out of their sights," she said as they marched towards the crew that was preparing to alight. "I'm about done with this pretending business."

They bowed sincerely and bade their goodbyes to the crew and a sniveling okama captain wishing them a long love life. When in the midst of that, her hand had slipped into his, she hadn't even realized. A curtain had fallen from between them. The unspoken difference between them of man and woman somehow washed away with the knowledge of that one sleight on her part and the fact that it hadn't changed the equation between them to the least degree. Things appeared to be in their most natural form with him and she was glad of the comfort his being beside her provided.

They wound in and out of the maze of streets in the bustling market on the far side of the island, thankfully huge enough to guarantee against their running into the Cupid crew anymore. She seemed to haven't even heard of the name of the town before—which was a new worry because it was obvious she was somewhere quite far away from home and wasn't sure how they'd get back now. And again, they were hungry and utterly broke.

"We could do the dine-and-dash thing again…" she wondered aloud and winked at Ace when he gave her a surprised look. A few days back, and she would've totally ruled it out of question on the pretext that it was too much trouble. Now, she just seemed to be in the mood of suggesting more troubles.

"If you can keep up," Ace grinned.

"I can beat you at a sprint any day, Firefist," she rolled her eyes.

"Only, you have a zero sense of directions," he shot back.

"…'kay you win," she said, no more retorts. "Hey but you know what, we really should have a bit of money. I need a change of clothes." Despite all of her little friend Eri's insistences that she keep the clothes she'd borrowed, Xena was now stubbornly back into her own tattered pair and she decided she needed to replace them.

"What do you suggest?" He asked, hoping she had enough sense than to try—and fail—at another bounty hunting.

"I'm good at pickpocketing," she grinned and this time, it was Ace's turn to roll his eyes.

"Well, at least that's better than—"

"Yeah you don't have to bring that up all the time," she snapped. "You know, I'm going to do some exploration around here on my own so why don't you go ahead?"

"Town's huge," he said, shaking his head. "You'll be lost in no time."

"You know you underestimate me way too much, Firefist," she said. One, she did not really want to drag him along to shop with her. She couldn't commit that atrocity. Two, she was going to have to prove that she could do just fine without him as she'd been doing all her life before he wrecked it. "If I keep some landmarks in mind, I can get around to places without getting lost. I'll circle back to this place in… about an hour?" She snatched up the dagger from his belt and strapped it against her thigh.

"Hey, give that back," he held out his hand.

"Come on, Ace I'm just borrowing it," she grinned. "Also, you would agree a puny helpless girl needs it more than Firefist does."

"Fine," he said with a light frown. "Just don't hurt yourself."

"I'm so going to stab myself," she said. "…Anyway, see you in an hour."

"Okay," he said. "And… if you can't find your way back—"

"Then I'll shoot up some rainbows and you can come find me," she rolled her eyes and started walking away, glad that he hadn't insisted on sticking together too much. Every second she spent by him, made it hard to imagine what her life was before him. And she wasn't just going to let that slip away. She hoped to get her head in order in the space of an hour.

Moving through the crowded street, people bumping into each other—pickpocketing felt like cake to her. After a few catches, she ducked into a small alley to account her spoils and never in her life had she felt so disappointed at her hard work. She was going to have to do something bigger and better if she intended to make enough money to buy herself new clothes. Why did people not keep any money in their wallets nowadays? Maybe because of petty thieves like her?

She dumped the wallets and stashed the little amount in her pocket, mixing back with the crowd and trying to think hard for a quick and easy way to make cash. She had to get back in time to show that idiot Firefist in his face that she wasn't all that useless. It was around then that she caught the first look of the tall, blonde man's face. She wasn't sure where she'd seen his face but it was familiar and without realizing it, she had started to tail him. The more she looked at him, the surer she got that she'd seen him on some insignificant wanted poster. Maybe he was a low bounty pirate or bandit.

Even before she seriously started thinking about it, her head warned her it was a bad idea. But irrationality was a contagious disease she'd caught from her reckless nakama and thus the shrill voice of reason was effectively gagged and silenced. It was going to work this time. She had to make it. The last bounty hunting had been almost successful—if only Ace hadn't been there. Maybe she could follow up the plan this time and then rub it in his face. Being with him had been making her feel rather like a useless burden of late. With this bounty, she could treat him and herself to a nice huge meal at least and have him acknowledge her a bit. The blonde didn't even look all that difficult to take down. He was lean and had such a dopey look in his eyes, she was sure he could be knocked out with one blow. She just had to time it right.

So when he ducked into one of those empty, dark streets away from the crowd, she followed like an inconspicuous ninja and pounced at him from behind, elbow out in front to give him one hard decisive blow in the head. But the man had some superhuman sixth sense because for all her stealthiness—and she had been pretty stealthy—the next moment, she found herself shoved against the nearest wall and pinned back with the dopey eyes staring at her with a certain amusement.

"At last, you come out. You've been tailing me for quite a while huh?" he said in a gruff voice. It was pretty evident she had completely miscalculated this man's strength. Despite the inattentive, sleepy look on his face, he was rather perceptive.

She glared at him, thinking fast for the best escape but he had her completely cornered. He lit a blue fire and brought it close to her face and she flinched at once. But the fire didn't seem to hurt. It was so, so close to her face but there was no heat in it. In bewilderment, her eyes darted back and forth from the man's face to the blue fire. On top of all the miscalculation, he had to turn out to be a Devil's Fruit User? There was no doubt at all that her rotten luck had been downright cursed ever since that annoying Firefist Ace had jinxed her happy little life.

"Let me go, ossan," she tried to plead her way out of it. Now that she'd failed at victimising, she had no choice than to pretend a victim.

"Ossan?" he gave her an amused smile. "Ossan will let you go when you tell him what you want, kid."

"I don't want nothing," she said through gritted teeth.

"You just tried to attack this ossan for nothing?" He said incredulously.

"I didn't," she said, struggling to free herself but he was a lot stronger than he looked.

"Sure you didn't," he said, catching hold of the knife she'd managed to reach her hand to. "Hey, where did you get that?"

He looked at the knife with such immediate cognizance that for half a second she was scared he'd take it away and then whatever would she tell Ace? He seemed to be quite fond of the little weapon. But her instincts worked fast enough to recognize the window that little distraction had created and in one hefty shove, she freed herself and ran like her life depended on it. Left and right and ducking into streets and pushing through crowds until she was sure she'd lost the creepy blonde man. But then she realized how utterly lost she was too. In all of that frenzy, she hadn't paid attention to one landmark and now she had no idea where she was. (Also, she did not have the ability to shoot rainbows.)

She walked around cluelessly. She wasn't even sure how she could ask for directions because she literally had no idea of the whole chaotic town. Quite on the edge of infuriated sobs, she promised she was so never leaving his side again if Ace somehow found her this once. Frustration welled up inside her. Her eyes strayed to a dusty wall lined with wanted posters and she immediately recognized the one with a blurred image of the orange cowboy hat covering most part of the face and flashes of red-brown hair camouflaging the remaining features effectively. Bounty:100,000 belli. Kentanka Kaizoku no Xanthippe. They should probably change that stupid nickname from 'Glutton' to 'Queen of flop'. She found some masochistic amusement in that thought. There was only so much she could do now anyway.

As if in immediate response to her agitated thoughts, the sky suddenly lit up with a bright column of fire some streets away. Now, any person of common sense would have run the other way at that but she had never been more glad at Ace stirring up some nice trouble in the midst of the busy marketplace. Funnily, she realized she'd never strayed too far away from the point of rendezvous. Skipping and grinning with glee, she sprinted to where the fire and chaos indicated its source. So what if she couldn't shoot rainbows? Her nakama shot some spectacular fire and she had to be glad at that.

She broke into the circle of spectators looking on at the match going on between a fire-wielding human and a half-phoenix-half-human engulfed in wings of blue flames. It did not take her a second to recognize the dopey-eyed blonde man she'd just managed to escape moments ago. Now, she was convinced Ace had to be as good as—if not better than—her at smelling trouble and sprinting headfirst into it. They seemed to be fighting on equal footing and she was surprised neither was causing any serious damage. Generally, two people of that caliber could be counted on to destroy a whole town if they ran wild. She knew Ace was strong—by far, the strongest man she'd known—but why did he look like he was having a hard time against that ossan? Surely, it couldn't be that he was stronger?

She found herself biting her nails, a scream stuck in her throat as she saw him almost lose to the blonde man—almost. The next moment, the two were laughing and giving each other such brotherly hugs as if they were some long lost friends. The crowd started scattering about as the friendly match reached its conclusion and confused and apprehensive, Xena realized she was dodging behind people to hide herself as she tailed after them into a tiny bar where she took the most invisible corner seat as her eyes stayed glued to the two. Had she ever seen Ace this happy? Who was this creepy blonde ossan anyway? Why was he acting so overly familiar with her nakama? She did not understand.

Watching Ace chatting with that man, she found herself staring like an outsider who barely even knew him. It was like déjà vu of that first time she'd seen him from across the bar. It was such an uneasy feeling of loss and loneliness—to think she'd started to know him and then suddenly realizing she hadn't at all.

Quite unaware to her own self, the green eyed monster called jealousy had crept its way up Xena's spine and reared its head. If only she knew… if only she knew—she would've denied it anyway. Who would ever feel jealous over that stupid Firefist Ace? She wouldn't. She so wouldn't.

A/N: I don't even know what I've written in this chapter. It's an awful mess. I was just rushing through it so bad. Gomen.

So this chapter is the longest so far and though I'm going to try hard to keep my promise for another update before New Year's, I hope it will be forgiven if I am a day or two late.

I'm treading very carefully here when it comes to development between Ace and Xena. It's so kind of comfortable and easy that while I have it all in my head, I don't see them progressing towards that romance *sigh* what am I even x_x

Anywho, guess what familiar character I've introduced here? Aw come on, I've given away all the possible hints I could!

And now, let me just thank tavitaalvarez33, Ezaria, erutan, Nari88 and ilayshua for taking interest in this story and adding it to their alerts.

And as ALWAYS, SNicole25 for keeping patience and still reviewing and Ezaria for such warm reviews :3 thank you so much.

Well, so long!

Thank you for reading.