Finally my second chapter! First of all, I would like to thank all my reviewers for the lovely reviews I've been left I only hope they are indicative of the feelings of all the people who read this story.If anybody doesn't like it, please tell me, it would be interesting to here a different point of view. I can take a bit of criticism, I'm tough!
Second - apologies for taking so long in updating. I fully intended to get this chapter up in under a week, but I was still doing exams so I didn't have time. Then I had to move house xx I had to spend all weekend packing and moving things and now some of my stuff is in boxes in the house I'm moving into in September, a very little of it is here with me in my University halls of residence and most of it is in more boxes in my Dad's house where Ishall shortly be joining it for the summer. Unfortunately, this includes my computer sob so I had to finish writing this new chapter in a notebook then get up early this morning to type it up in a university study centre. >>
Anyway, enough about my troubles... I hope everyone enjoys this chapter as much as the last one, despite a distinct lack of fluff...
What the Hell was the matter with Ace? The further into the desert they got, the more miserable he seemed to be. He perked up a bit when he had some fighting or something else to do – he appeared to be really enjoying himself helping out those fools in that little village, for instance, but the rest of the time he seemed really unhappy. At first Sanji had assumed it was the heat getting to him, like it was to everyone else, but then Ace himself had explained that, being made of fire, heat didn't bother him. And anyway, it had to be more than just feeling crap because he was he was too hot. It looked like something was really preying on his mind: he was spending increasing amounts of time walking or sitting apart from everyone else, lost in thought. And not very happy thoughts, either.
After a while, Sanji actually found it was beginning to get to him – when Ace was more cheerful, and talking, Sanji had had some really good conversations with him. He loved his nakama, of course, and he particularly loved to spend time with his darling Nami-san, but there were times when he felt that he really didn't have much in common with any of them. Not so with Ace – he had felt an instant sense of friendship and, when they had talked, it had seemed they had a lot to say to each other. As well as this, Sanji felt that Ace understood where he was coming from a lot of the time, which was not a feeling he ever got with Zoro, for instance, or Luffy. But he couldn't talk to Ace with him moping like that. What was the matter with him? Sanji had thought that it might be something to do with Blackbeard; perhaps Ace had been close to the man whom Blackbeard had killed. But he couldn't help noticing that Ace seemed less miserable when he was talking about Blackbeard and, when Sanji had tried to draw him out on the subject, it had transpired that Ace had barely known the dead man. He had been saddened by the incident, as Sanji would have expected any good captain to be, but he seemed to regard the obligation to kill Blackbeard simply as a duty that had to be done, and from the way he spoke about it, Sanji really could not see how it could be the cause of his moping.
In some ways, he almost wished Ace would confide in him – just so that he could feel he might be able to help, or at least to understand. Sanji didn't like seeing other people suffering. But of course, he couldn't just go and ask Ace what was wrong, when he knew him so little. Why didn't Luffy bloody well notice something was up with Ace? He was his brother after all. Then again, Sanji reasoned, Luffy probably wasn't very easy to confide in anyway. It struck Sanji that, quite possibly, Ace didn't have anybody he could share his problems with. A sailor's life could be a lonely one, Sanji knew this from experience, and knowing it only made him wish even more that he could help Ace out somehow.
In the long stretches where there was nothing to be but walk or fight over the water, he found himself thinking more about this more than he probably would have done normally and he started noticing things that, if anything, only seemed to complicate matters even more. For instance: Sanji couldn't for the life of him work out why Ace appeared to resent it when he himself spoke to, or about, Nami-san and Vivi-chan but it was becoming increasingly obvious that he did. He hadn't seemed to at the beginning, and it had only really become apparent to Sanji after Ace returned from that village with all the food and water. Sanji had merely tried to defend Vivi-chan's reasons for believing that Ace might have stolen it, and Ace, usually impeccably polite, had very nearly bitten his head off. After this incident, Sanji was more alert to other indications that something to do with the ladies got to Ace. Naturally, at mealtimes Sanji had little attention to spare for anyone else as he was so busily engaged in seeing that Nami-san and Vivi-chan had everything they required or wanted. But afterwards it always occurred to him that Ace was worse at these times than at others; sitting at some distance from everyone else and eating in a morose silence.
And then, very suddenly, Ace had left. After dealing with Scorpion, he had announced his intention of returning to the sea and then had, almost literally, disappeared. Sanji got the distinct impression that, had it not been for his deeply ingrained good manners, he might have just gone without saying goodbye to any of them, except perhaps Luffy. And – but Sanji was inclined to disregard this thought completely as it seemed so ludicrous – it had seemed as though Ace was trying to avoid looking at him. As they completed their journey, Sanji pondered on these things. The only conclusion he could come to was that one of them, and most likely it was himself, had done something to piss Ace off or upset him. But what? He was beginning to wish he could have got Ace on his own before he left so that he could have found out what it was and put it right.
All too soon, however, they arrived in Yuba and more pressing considerations like imminent civil war and staying alive drove all thought of Ace from Sanji's mind.