Gosh I'm updating this so late. My life got chaotic with papers and preparing to take my ACT (test to prepare for college in case you're from a different country). I'm writing this note even though I don't know when I'll be posting this since I'm studying for my AP American History class. American history is painful and I wish I could avoid it, and most politics. Thank goodness I don't want to be a lawyer or politician. I'm also preparing for Showcase which is a musical-glee-like-thingy and my swing dancing recital. Please enjoy reading this because I will most likely be gone for a while. :(
Warnings: I can't even list them all. Just beware that it was rated M for a reason.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Chapter 12
Cassie was spending another day in the library. It would normally be rather boring and ordinary, but a certain annoyance had chosen to show up. Sitting across from her grinning like a madman was Aster. Sure he was handsome enough to look at, but Cassie couldn't care less. He wasn't Ace.
"It's cute how you think you can ignore me," Aster taunted. He kept the frown from his face when she simply turned a page in a book. "Ignoring me will get you nowhere. Princess…"
She abruptly snapped her book shut and set it down on the table and grabbed another book. She was completely ignoring him. She made no move to even acknowledge him. Even though he could tell she wanted to say something about that word.
"Do you want to know why I hate it when people call me Princess?" Cassie asked surprisingly calm.
"Please enlighten me," Aster said. He smirked inwardly at his victory, but stopped instantly.
Her expression turned from calm into one that shocked him. He hadn't seen such a pained expression in a long time. The last time he saw that the woman who had been like a mother left him. They looked so alike it was painful. The way Cassie's round eyes had tears threatening to fall was such a struck such a familiar feeling, it hurt him to think about it. He wanted to yell at her to stop.
"Someone close to me used to call me that," Cassie replied. "A few people still do, but most avoid it. There are probably about four people who get away with it regularly. The one who refused to refer to me as anything else was executed. She was one of the few people I could trust and the only true friend I had growing up. I prefer not to think about that time in my life. My actions caused her death. Please understand that and do not refer to me as Princess anymore."
"What makes you think I would respect your wish?" Aster asked. He had an amused look on his face. He was putting up a front to try and not seem so interested in it.
"You have to be more fucked up than I am to act like you do," Cassie answered bluntly. "If you get rid of all your emotions by having sex I have come to a few conclusions about how this is possible. One, you were jilted by someone you loved. Two, you're actually a raging homosexual and covering it up. Three, you have abandonment issues with someone, like perhaps your mom."
Aster let a dark smirk come over his face at her conclusion. She watched him with narrowed chocolate eyes, but he was unaffected.
"You're completely wrong," he stated. "I think it would be a crime not to share myself with the world. Most women come crawling into my bed once they realize who I am. Try it just once my darling and you won't regret it."
Cassie shook her head at him and turned her attention to her book. Her face had a look of indifference now.
"You never wondered what sex feels like? I find it hard to believe," Aster muttered. Cassie scoffed at him and sent him a look that said everything. "So Ace had you? That's surprising that he would touch something so innocent."
"You're completely dense." Cassie stood up from her chair and began walking out. Not surprisingly Aster was right behind her.
"How am I dense?" Aster asked. He was surprised that Cassie stopped completely and looked at him.
"My relationship with Ace is a bunch of things that should have never happened." She began walking with her back to him. "He decided one day to take care of me even though I put those who he dedicated himself to in danger. That was the same day I decided that I wanted to actually talk to someone. That opened up more things than you could possibly hope to comprehend. We are allowed to do things with each other that we can't do with anyone else. I bet you have never seen Ace selfish, but I have. Together we're both completely out of character."
He watched her walk. For once his eyes weren't drifting up and down her body, but they looked at her posture. She gave off a dignified air that he wasn't used to seeing. He could only remember seeing them in very few pirates and fewer of those were women. He could really only think of one.
"Do you want to know?" he asked. She gave him a look with her eyebrow raised in doubt. "You have to be curious. You wouldn't have asked me if you weren't."
"If you want to go ahead," Cassie huffed. "Just realize I don't want to be around you."
"You were right my mom left me." He saw her back tense and knew she was listening. "I joined a pirate crew soon after she left me by myself. I found a new woman to love as my mother. However, as both of us got older it wasn't the love between a parent and child. At least it wasn't for me. She got knocked up and left me all alone."
He watched in shock as Cassie turned and looked at him. The way her brown eyes pierced his eyes was amazing. He could feel everything she was saying. She didn't have to speak out loud. She said she was sorry to hear that and then she was asking the question why. She wanted to know why he told her his story.
"I trust you," he stated. She scoffed before walking towards him her eyes never leaving his. "Call me crazy, but I feel like you and I are alike. I'm guessing you're quite rebellious. I was like that at your age. You could grow up to be just like me."
"I don't think that's possible considering I don't have a dick to think with," Cassie replied. "Leave me alone I want to get ice-cream and actually enjoy it."
Aster held back his smirk as he followed her. People really didn't give Holly enough credit. Was Cassie a predictable glutton or was Holly watching her that closely? He might never know. He watched as Cassie rounded the corner and abruptly froze. He peered over at her letting his signature smirk cross over his face.
How Holly had managed this compromising position he would never know. All he knew was that her lips were locked with Ace's and her leg was thrown over his hips bringing their bodies impossibly close. It would fool anyone. He even wondered for a second if it was an act or if they were actually kissing.
His eyes widened as Cassie bolted away almost too fast for him to see. He was expecting her to make a bigger deal or pull Holly away from him, but she ran. He vaguely wondered if she was really as smart as she thought she was.
OO00OO
Ace pulled away from Holly looking deep into her eyes. They were full of need something he once would have been happy to fulfill for her, but he wasn't capable of that anymore.
"Why are you doing this Holly?" he asked. Her eyes never left his and she made no move to detach herself from him.
"You know I love you," she whispered hoarsely. "I love you more than she ever could and I hate her. She doesn't deserve you."
"You can't say that without knowing her," Ace stated. "Do you need to use seduction to get someone to love you? If you have to resort to that I'm sorry."
"Ace!" she protested. "That selfish little brat doesn't deserve you at all! You don't match each other."
"Do you deserve me?" The way he narrowed his eyes at her shocked her. He was angry and that was a rare occurrence.
"I'd do anything for you simply because you are Ace." Ace removed her from him completely and stepped back looking at her. "I'd die for you."
She watched as his eyes filled with sympathy for her. That made her feel so angry she couldn't describe the feeling.
"I'd hate that you know," Ace said. "I think I couldn't stand the guilt of being the reason for your death. You didn't think of that, right? You thought of yourself and how that would feel to have lost me. You never stopped to think about me. Cassie stops to think about me even if she can be a bit stubborn."
"You can't do this to me," Holly suddenly shouted. Ace pulled away from her.
"Holly you have always been someone close to me," he explained. "At one point in time you might have been the second closest person to me, but you aren't that person anymore. I'm not the person I was the last time I saw you. Both of us have changed drastically."
"Oh do you want to go back to the time when all we did was fuck!" she yelled. I can promise we can do that if you want. Oh wait you have a little bitch trailing behind you lost and confused."
"Don't insult Cassie. she has nothing to do with us. The only thing that matters right now I what we feel for each other. I can guarantee you that neither of us loves each other."
"You can't tell me what I feel!"
"Then I can tell you how I feel," Ace interjected sternly. "I don't love you and I never will. I can't say I'm sorry for what I feel. You're stronger than this. The Holly I know would never let this stop her. She'd walk away with her head held high."
"You're right," she said with a bitter laugh. "We have both changed a lot."
Ace watched her slumped form walk away with her head down, but he still had an off feeling. Something wasn't right.
OO00OO
By the time Aster finally found Cassie it was night time and he was stunned. He had walked into the heat of a raging bar fight. At the center of it was Cassie. She was standing on the table flushed from being intoxicated and screaming at the top of her lungs. She wasn't saying anything coherent, but it didn't really matter. The girl was practically punching anyone and everything she wanted.
People were charging at her and she seemed to be releasing a great amount of anger on them. It was sheer chaos with everyone throwing punches everywhere. Aster took a deep breath.
"Cassondra Hart, stop this nonsense right now!" he yelled. Everyone stopped and looked at him.
Cassie just hiccupped and decided to lunge at him. He very easily caught her in her drunken state and slung her over his shoulder. She screamed and pounded on his back. Then she stopped and he was about to address her, but a retching noise and a hot liquid dripping down his back stopped him.
He contained his anger and kept from hurling her in a random direction. He opted to turn and walk out of the bar with his dignity. He could hear her snoring now. She was calm and completely defenseless.
"Oh, I'll give it to you good," he said to himself.
OO00OO
"Thatch, have you seen Cassie?" Ace asked as he walked up onto the deck of the ship.
"No I thought she was with you," Thatch stated. "She usually is anyway unless she's at the library."
"She wasn't there when I went to pick her up," Ace stated. "She also wasn't near the ice-cream shop. I wonder if she's thinking again."
"She disappears when she wants to think?" Thatch asked. "I never would have expected that. She's been alone for most of her life you would think would want some company now."
"Well, Cassie really just does what she wants to," Ace stated. "For all we know she could be voiding me because I did something."
"The question is did you do something that could have made her mad enough to run away?" Ace sighed and thatch watched him with interest.
"Do you remember Holly?"
"It's hard to forget a girl like her. She's the busty blonde right?"
"Yeah," Ace responded raking a hand through his black hair. "She decided to tell me she loved me today. She kind of forced herself on me, but I turned her down."
"Well, it's obvious that you did the right thing," the older man replied. "Were you planning on telling her anytime soon?" Ace let out a chuckle.
"Not really Cassie tends to be rash when she's mad," Ace said. "I was planning on telling her when we get off this island. She gave you the coordinates for the tomb so all that's left to do is to go and dig it up. We can leave soon."
"I'm going to tell you something about women," his friend replied. "You honestly can keep no secrets from them. You should just give up on it now. I'd tell her the next time you see her."
"It's just that I don't want to assume things. She has a lot of things running through her mind. She could be worry about Alayna or Jack, or maybe even thinking about Claire or her father. I'm sure the prince's death is still lingering around in her head."
"I'm going to tell you something and I want you to remember it for the rest of your life," Thatch informed. "It only takes one mistake to ruin everything. Everyone has weak points and if you accidentally tread on those weak points they'll never be able to look at you the same way again."
Ace watched as Thatch walked away. He was still debating inside his head what to do. He had never wanted to be so careful with anyone before.
OO00OO
Aster walked into the hotel he was staying at with a few officers of his crew. Standing there was Holly and she instantly noticed what he was caring.
"Did you knock her out?" she asked. "I mean I know you were desperate, but isn't that a little too far?"
"I did no such thing," Aster stated. He sighed and let a smirk cross her face. "The poor thing drunk herself into unconsciousness. She witnessed her fiancé kissing another woman. How did that go by the way?"
Holly had a pained look on her face as she just shook her head. Aster noticed but ignored it.
"You're having second thoughts aren't you?" Aster stated. He walked closer to her and looked at her. "You couldn't convince him to betray Cassie, but she's about to betray him. That changes the whole situation. Your chance isn't over even if he did reject you."
He didn't wait for a response as he went up the stairs and navigated the hallway to his room. He had never been so happy to see it. He immediately tossed Cassie on the bed and took off his shirt and pants. He couldn't stand the smell any longer. Seriously he strongly believes that if someone can't hold their alcohol they have no business drinking it.
He walked over to a lamp and turned it on so there was a dim light in the room. He wanted to enjoy this thoroughly. He wanted to enjoy this sleeping little princess as much as possible. She may not be fully conscious, but he was positive he could make her remember his every touch.
He sat down on the bed and carefully ran a hand through her hair. He brushed it back noticing the mark that was still there. He bent over and bit at it leaving a new much darker mark over it. He smiled as he saw her squirm a little as he traced it with his tongue.
He swung his legs over her so that he was straddling her. Seeing her chest heaving up and down in her sleep wasn't helping his desire. He loosened the black corset top and watched it fall off her. He chose to move on to the main course after that.
He slid down her body until he came to her legs. He slowly ran a hand up one and felt her body shiver at his touch. He dragged it down and lethargically pulled off her boots. He massaged her legs up to her shorts and relished in a light groan that came from her.
He unbuttoned the tiny black shorts that had been taunting him since he met her. He took them off and saw lacy green panties. He could only assume they would match her bra which he would get to in a minute.
He pulled them off and separated her legs. He was surprised when she didn't seem excited at all for him. He took a finger and slowly rubbed it up her folds being careful to catch her clit. He felt her hips buck a little. He slowly began to draw circles on her precious pearl as he slipped a finger into her hole.
He hissed at his tightness. He had virgins before and yet she wasn't one. She was tighter than he could have imagined and she seemed to be sucking him in. He increased his pace and noticed how her body was heating up and how she was starting to get wet for him.
He kept going as he reached his other hand up to remove her shirt quickly. She was convulsing around his fingers and was just out bout to release.
"Ace…" she whimpered. He stopped and looked up at her face.
She was making a pained expression and tears were streaming down her cheeks. He felt bad for being so impatient. She was still thinking of another while he was doing this to her. He reached up and brushed the tears out of her eyes. He removed his fingers from inside of her and took her shirt off.
The bra would have matched the panties, but his eyes were focused on something else. Her necklace was unmistakable. He backed away from her as if touching her had burned him.
Everything made sense now.
OO00OO
Oh gosh it has been way to long and I don't know if I can ever apologize for how long this update took. I'm thankfully done with most of the things up above, but I still have my swing dancing recital (we're awesome by the way) and a paper for Ap American history (even though we took that god-awful test) and a comprehensive verb test where I can't move onto Spanish five if I don't get an A or higher, and finals are right around the corner. My birthday was two days ago and yeah I'm now technically old enough to be writing smut fanfiction for most sites.
Thank you to all of my reviewers who I would love to list but don't have time to. I still love all of you. I should be back sometime in mid June or you know sooner if I stop being so freakishly busy.
