Chapter Eleven: Too Charming
She was sharpening the Alabasta inspired weapon with her handheld whetstone. The piece was almost finished. She was humming and smiling as several of the crew members began to celebrate with Ace aboard. Their eyes kept meeting. She kept having to look away frequently. He was pretty and charming – a deadly combination. He had a very similar charisma to Luffy, which was infectious, but Ace was more mature, polite, and handsome. It wasn't fair.
And, she felt badly for being flattered. She could feel her wedding and engagement ring strung through a necklace underneath her shirt resting against her chest. He knew too. She told him in the bar she just left her husband and wasn't ready, and he was giving her those eyes. This was karma for being a shameless flirt to the crew without any intention of following through and getting people's hopes up. And she kind of deserved it.
"Are you gay, Ace?" someone asked flippantly, sounding mildly interested but not at all sensitive to the subject.
"Oi, Zoro, don't ask such personal things!" Nami said, punching him on the head.
He glared at the girl and looked as if he thought of retaliating. Sanji, however, intervened and clashed with him. He yelled at him for thinking of hitting Nami, and Silas had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.
"I'm into whoever interests me," Ace answered simply with a playful smile and shrug. "Silas interests me." He looked over his shoulder and flashed her that smile of his.
Yet again, her face was on fire. He knew he was charming. He had to. She just had trouble believing it, but she could clearly tell he wasn't lying. The eyes don't lie, and he shared similar ones to Luffy. Ace just happened to have more maturity than his younger brother. He may have given the Straw Hats that vague answer as a way of not outting her which she appreciated. He may just be into women since he did claim to have clocked her as a woman when they were chatting at the bar. It just confused her as to why he would find her interesting. She remembered Luffy saying the same thing too. What was interesting about her? Nothing except she's unhinged, strange, and gender confused. She didn't think that was interesting. She'd met plenty of people like that.
However, she did appreciate how comfortable he was with his sexuality that he was just straight up honest about his interest in someone seen as a man. His lack of care of what others thought of him was really appealing. So often men were in competition with one another, and some of them used women they were with as a means of one upping other men: no, I have the baddest bitch; no, I have the baddest bitch. You know, that sort of thing. Being openly into another perceived man didn't let him be a part of that competition, so she supposed Ace didn't care about that.
She realized she had carved a heart into the handle of her new weapon. She shook her head. Damn, old habits really do die hard.
She declared herself finished for the day and decided to let the forged metal cool off. She put the hammer down and startled slightly when she noticed Ace observing her weapon. He gave her a small smile, and she returned it.
"Huh, Silas likes Ace, but he flirts with Nami-san and Vivi-chan," she overheard Sanji say. "It doesn't make sense!"
"Who says he can't like both?" Luffy asked casually.
Maybe, Luffy wasn't such a dummy after all. He's still very simplistic, but he wasn't thinking in binaries. Perhaps, she wrote him off too much as a dumb-dumb.
"I don't trust it," Sanji said.
"You just hate him because he's better with women than you," Zoro said.
"You want to fight, moss head!?" Sanji shouted.
A big smirk crossed her face, and she had to hold back from laughing. She could see the amusement on Ace's face too.
"Aren't they a lot of fun?" she said fondly, gesturing to the ridiculous play fighting.
"Gonna stick with the crew?" he asked.
"I'd like to."
She really, really would. She felt as if this fun with the crew and adventures were going to end soon. After all, her husband, who most likely believed she was kidnapped, was looking for her. And he wouldn't stop until he found her. Their marriage may be on the rocks, but his loyalty was strong. It was what she liked about him. However, he and the marines wouldn't take too kindly to her getting along with pirates and beating up bounty hunters. He'd drag her back to LogueTown and who knows what afterward. Divorce? Trapped in the home until he trusted her again? Both sounded bad.
"You should do whatever you want," he said.
Again, it was the simplicity that he and Luffy shared that was so refreshing. Here, she was being all complicated when she didn't see the bottom line of her own life: do what she wanted. It was her life after all. The only person she'd ever owe in this world would be her children, but she didn't have any.
"Yeah, yeah, I should. And you know what I want to do?"
"What?"
She picked up the nearest bottle (probably from Zoro's stash) and smashed the 40 against the rail much to Usopp's anger.
"Party!" she shouted.
Just about everyone agreed with the sentiment. It provided a good distraction for her. She didn't pick the hard liquor this time – learnt her lesson on the empty stomach thing. Zoro, however, did demand that she mixed drinks for them much to Sanji's ire, so, of course, she did it.
The martinis were shook with her unreasonably strong forearms before serving. Everyone took a big gulp, and pride swelled inside her at the pleased looks on their faces. Still got it.
"Were you a bartender?" Ace asked.
"Nope, just drank a lot," she said, hiding behind the tall glass and looking away.
Suddenly, Zoro slammed the glass down in front of her, startling everyone but her before demanding, "Silas, you and me: drinking competition."
A smirk grew on her face. Hmm, it seems everything is a competition amongst young men like him. His pride must still be wounded when she thoroughly trounced him by hunting the best dinosaur. Her smirk only grew, showing teeth.
"No, I'm challenging him to a cooking contest," Sanji said with his thumb pointing towards himself.
She could feel her grin becoming feral as she chuckled. She had to make sure her voice was still deep. This was a first for her. Men have never fought over who'll beat her in a competition. She thought she'd only be fought over for dates in teen years. It just made her laugh harder. Damn, life was funny.
Finally, the two of them paid her some mind instead of head butting with each other. The whole crew and Ace were looking at her a little funny. Oh no, was her voice too high, or was she too scary? She didn't know how to be normal even if she tried.
"If it's anything like that hunting competition, you'll both be pissing your pants before we get finished drinking."
The looks of concern turned to ones of anger from the two boys as they glowered at her.
"Dammit, Silas!" they both shouted, going in for the attack.
She cartwheeled out of the way, shawl and turban still intact. She could feel the showmen in her smile as she looked at those angry faces of Sanji and Zoro. However, Vivi, Nami, and Ace were laughing, and she noticed they looked at her in that certain way she couldn't quite name. It made her—
"Boo!"
She turned around and saw Usopp with an extremely disappointed look on his face. Aw, he tried to scare her.
"Why?" she asked simply.
"You did it to me," he pouted.
"Like this?" she said noncommittally as she stood on her tiptoes almost touching faces. "Boo."
Usopp spooked worse than a horse, screamed, and flew backwards behind the orange trees. She started laughing behind her hand.
"Your eyes are terrifying when you do that!" Usopp said.
"So, I've been told," she shrugged. Then, she turned around to see some incredulous Straw Hats sans Luffy. "What? Are we partying?"
She grasped Luffy's hands who laughed with her as they danced. Soon the rest of the crew joined in including Ace. She didn't intend to dance with him, but here she was: dancing with a man she was interested in as a married woman. And, he was the same man who bailed them out by beating up her husband in order to give them all an out. She was a pathetic and terrible person just like she knew all along.
As she danced with him, trying to match those warm smiles, she couldn't help the comparisons. Smoker is austere. That's who he is, and she liked that trait. She wished she was as disciplined and driven as him, but he wasn't flexible. He wasn't unfair, but during their marriage he'd only express confusion when she wished to change something up. It didn't excuse her leaving him for pirates like the coward she is. She just made things worse. Then, there's Ace: warm, open, easy breezy. He didn't care that she chose to present like a man right now. He told her to do as she pleased and didn't care how to fit it to his standards or world. He was such a pirate: free spirited and didn't care for social conventions.
"Having fun?" Ace interrupted her thoughts.
She put on a smile, grasped his hand, spun him into her, and then dipped him low. She looked down at him and saw the look of surprise on that pretty face before they started laughing like a bunch of school kids.
"Only a little," she said, letting him back up.
He held her waist and brought her close. The familiarity struck her. It was like greeting an old friend being held in someone's arms like a woman. She'd been having so much fun trying man things that she'd forgotten this. His open chest was warm and so muscular. He was friendly and handsome and—
Oh shit.
"Silas! Silas! Pull my arms! Let's see how far they stretch!" Luffy interrupted.
He took her away, and she let him. She couldn't look at that beautiful face any longer without complications that was for damn sure.
She gave Luffy a smile as she grasped his hands and let him run. And, just to be a little shit, she tied his hands, specifically his rubbery fingers, to the mast. She felt the mischievousness grow inside her as she heard Ace step behind her.
He said, chuckling, "Your siblings must've suffered."
She laughed it off. Then, when Luffy's arms reached their limits or perhaps the man tripped and the weight of stretching so far caught up to him. The captain came flying backwards and crashed into the mast, making the whole mast shake with the impact. Everyone was shocked as she started laughing behind her covered hand. Ace wasn't wrong. People suffered around her, and it was kind of funny.
"You did that on purpose," Luffy whined.
She was and everyone was still laughing as she untied his fingers. Luffy sagged to the floor as everyone continued to laugh and clink drinks.
Suddenly, Ace fell to the floor. Everyone looked over and an incredulous sound escaped them. Silas crouched down and placed her two fingers on his neck. His pulse was normal and relief flooded her.
"He's alive," she said simply. "Ooh, he's snoring."
Luffy laughed and said, "That's just like Ace!"
"Narcolepsy?" Silas asked.
"Narca-what?" Luffy asked, dumbfounded.
"It means someone falls asleep at random," Chopper explained, poking Ace's face.
She sat down with her knees drawn up to her chest, resting her chin on top of them, and looking down at the side of his sleeping face. She wiped the hair from out of his mouth with a gentle brush.
"So cute," someone whispered, and she could guess who it was. And of course, in the following, she heard angry noises from a certain chef.
Silas smirked as she continued to watch Ace sleep. She knew she was fucked. She wouldn't, but she definitely had a crush on this handsome, charming man. And, she knew she was stupid for it, but she could restrain herself. She wouldn't let her hopeless romantic within control her.
Everyone deemed it bed time at that point. Fine by her, it had been a long day, and when they docked at Yuba and made a long trek. She needed the sleep.
Sanji scooted far from her. Oh? That was new. For the past few nights during their adventures, he didn't make such a show of staying away from her during sleep time. The only new piece of information on her was that she was attracted to Ace and therefore men. Hmm, was he afraid she'd touch him in his sleep? Ha! Oh, excuse her, this was a serious topic. If she hadn't molested him or anyone else these past few nights, then she wasn't any more likely to do so now. She had given zero indication thus far. He was projecting. He assumed that since she was attracted to men, she would act on that attraction while someone was vulnerable probably because he had those impulses. He may have never acted on them, but he assumed she had them and would target him. It made her mad. There were plenty of people who wished to sleep with her, and she had no desire to get away with assaulting somebody in their sleep to get her rocks off. It didn't feed her soul.
She turned on her side and faced Ace in the dim lighting. He suddenly awoke with a jolt, and everyone in the boys' room jumped except Silas.
"Are you okay?" she asked casually.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he asked just as flippantly as her.
She shrugged and made a non-committal sound as the others behind her sounded annoyed before settling back down for bed. He gave her a smile to which he returned.
"I don't remember why you said you were here in Alabasta," she said.
"I'm here to find Blackbeard."
"Edward Newgate? Oh, oops, that's Whitebeard," she said. "So there's a Blackbeard and a Whitebeard. How derivative."
She was vaguely aware of Whitebeard in that he was Roger's rival, a Yonko, and all the boys with daddy issues joined. This Blackbeard guy was new. She hadn't heard any scuttle butt about him.
"He's disgusting. Whitebeard took him in like one of his own, and he killed one of us for a stupid devil fruit."
It was the only time she saw an angry expression on his face. The contempt in his face was real, and she couldn't blame him. If what he said was true, Blackbeard sounded like the scum of the earth.
"Are you going to kill him?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay."
She saw the curiosity on his face briefly before going back to normal. He probably assumed she'd object, but she didn't particularly care to grand stand about the morality of murder of a man she didn't care for. He sounded like a terrible person, so by all means.
"Night, night," she said, giving him a smile before turning away and pulling the blanket over herself.
"Wait."
"Hmm?"
"You seem familiar," he said as she turned to face him. "Did you go to Drum Island?"
"Yeah."
She saw a smile light up his features, and her face felt warm.
"I thought I rescued someone cute," he said.
Now, her face was burning with flattery. He was too cute, too innocent, too kind. She met her match. This is what she did to others: innocuous, sincere compliments while acting as if she didn't know what she did to them. She was a himbo and so was he. However, she was on the receiving end, despite expressing she wasn't ready for it, and she felt as if her heart was beating hard in her chest.
"You're a sadist," she laughed hollowing, incredulously, turning over again.
…
They docked on the coast. She hopped off the rail and stepped onto the sand. Immediately, she noticed a strange looking animal. It wasn't a seal or a turtle. She didn't know what it was.
"Hey, look at this cute thing," Usopp said. "What is—"
"Don't go near it! It's a Kung Fu Jugon! It's super dangerous! Silas, what are you—" Vivi shouted.
She intercepted, protecting Usopp, and kicked the little thing over. Silas watched as it fell over on its side with a goose egg on its head. Usopp was hiding behind her like a kid behind their mom's skirt. She didn't miss that Zoro looked down upon him with an unimpressed look. Figures, he'd be judgy. He had a very strict code of what a man should be which she didn't particularly care for, but it was his choice. She wouldn't dare stop a person from choosing how to express themselves.
"Silas beat it," Nami said. "Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes, whoever beats them becomes their master, and they're the apprentice."
Immediately, a swarm of Kung Fu Jugon surrounded her, and she looked at them perplexedly. Why would they want to follow in her footsteps? She's not done anything that anyone would want to imitate. These poor fools…
"So it's martial arts for them…," Zoro muttered to himself.
Silas flexed her biceps with an uncomfortable grin as they flexed just like her. They looked haughty. She didn't feel haughty. Was she that vain? This was… this was an uncomfortable mirror. Get her out of here already.
She left, and they followed. Each one flexing behind her, and she was skeeved out as Ace laughed and grinned.
"They imitate you so well," he said.
If he wasn't so damn charming, she'd probably be upset. Instead, she just smirked and looked back at them.
"I'm not that vain, am I?" she asked.
"Yes," the entire crew said.
"Well, damn," she said, chuckling to herself.
They should've met her when she was with—
"How do we get rid of them?" Nami complained, interrupting her thoughts.
"I like them," Luffy said, trying to flex his rubber arm to no avail.
He pouted, and a Jugon copied him. Good, they should follow Luffy not her. She didn't want that kind of influence on cute creatures like them. He kicked over one of them by accident since there were so many of them. Immediately, he began showing the Jugon how to do a fighting stance. She was the one accused of being vain, but she only beat them up because Usopp was in danger and didn't know they followed like a dog. Luffy, however, was just doing it because he liked the attention.
"Luffy," Nami whined, expressing everyone's frustration verbally.
Chopper ended up having to communicate to the Jugon and lure them away with some of their food supplies. Please, Luffy, don't make her starve again. She didn't like the fact that it already drug up some uncomfortable memories before. She didn't know what would happen a second time….
They got to the town, and it was a desert town in both senses of the word: abandoned and sandy. She assumed this was Yuba. She didn't bother to keep up with the town names just that they had to trek the desert to get to the rebel leaders to stop it all. She wouldn't say this out loud, but she liked the idea of being a rebel. Down with the system and make a new one that's better. Old habits die hard. However, she knows Vivi, and the princess wouldn't intentionally hurt her people. She loved them, and it must hurt her to see nature take this town back.
"What happened here?" Sanji asked.
"Crocodile is what happened."
"He controlled the weather, or did he run everyone out of here?" Silas asked.
"Both. He used this illegal substance called dance powder at the royal palace to make all of Alabasta enter a drought to frame my father. He wants to take over the kingdom, so he's making everyone suffer and blaming Father to usurp the crown. It's disgusting," she sobbed, dropping to her knees and holding the sand in misery. "He's evil, and he won't stop until there's a civil war. I have to convince the rebels that it's Crocodile's fault!"
Feeling badly for the princess, Silas crouched and began to rub her between her shoulder blades in comfort. She was surprised when Vivi turned and started sobbing into her neck and holding onto her. It took only a few moments, but she began patting the poor girl on the back to console her.
The look on Sanji's face was amusing. His face was going red in anger and jealousy, steam coming out of his ears like a tea kettle. He was ridiculous. If he wished to be a man ladies like, it wasn't difficult at least for Silas. He wasn't a bad guy: just young and misguided. Time and maturity might help, but she wouldn't hold her breath.
They headed out.
Vivi, Nami, and Ace walked alongside her. There was a shift she didn't feel as if she understood fully yet, but she did know that Vivi was closer to her. She didn't dislike Vivi in fact she thought of her as a friend and liked her gentle and compassionate nature. It felt bad, leading her on, but she's never been dishonest with the princess.
She focused on the journey, and it wasn't exactly easy. Only at the forge did she see heat waves. She didn't usually see it on hot, unending sand. She was glad she dressed in an open shawl and tanned instead of burned.
The other Straw Hats weren't doing so hot. Ha! They were lagging behind and clearly heat exhausted. Just to be that guy, since they did it to her after all, she stuck her tongue out at Zoro and Sanji. They were visibly angry, but they were too exhausted to retaliate.
"How are you and Vivi not dying in this?" Nami said incredulously. "It makes sense since Ace ate the fire fruit."
"I've lived here all my life," Vivi shrugged.
"I work at a forge," Silas said. "Fire and heat excite me."
And, of course, she didn't miss the look from Ace. She didn't mean to come off flirty, but there it was. And she didn't miss the irritation from Nami and Vivi. Oops, she really was a himbo. It's been a long time since people were charmed by her. It usually didn't end well.
"Water," Luffy demanded.
"You already drank a bunch of water. You need to conser—"
Water filled Luffy's stretchy cheeks before she could finish her sentence, and Nami punched him in the back of the head for it. A lot of it spilled onto the hot sand, sizzling away upon impact. It was deserved. He was being a wasteful, poor leader.
Suddenly, Ace picked her up off the ground and placed her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before jumping out of the way. A confused sound escaped her as she turned over to see a giant sand worm emerge from below. The others managed to dodge with and without help from one another.
The massive worm belly flopped against the supplies, crushing it and sinking it beneath the hot sand with it. Well, there goes that. It wasn't important or anything.
He adjusted his grip, and the reminder made her face hot, and it wasn't the climate.
"What's wrong?"
He was naïvé much like Luffy. His politeness wasn't perfect simply because he couldn't understand what it was like being carried off like a saved damsel when she was a married woman. He was too much, and it was all driving her wild.
"N-nothing, let's go."
He headed out, jumping through the rubble left by that giant worm. She was jostled quite a bit.
"My bad, I'm trying to be careful," he said, patting her ass.
And with that, she jumped out of his hold. She placed her hands on her face because they were cooler. She didn't expect him to get so fresh, but it seemed he didn't understand that wasn't polite of him. The confusion on his face said it all. Well, no one was perfect, and he wasn't being a pervert. He probably thought all friends would be open to it.
"Luffy, you shouldn't have spilled that water," Vivi said. "It attracts all kinds of species that want to take it."
"Why didn't you tell us?" the crew asked incredulously.
