Shower

"You have to do it." Ace stood toe to toe with Cara. His face set in determination to accomplish his goal.

Cara placed a hand on her hip stared at him. "No. I don't."

"Yes. You do. You smell worse than a decomposing body."

"I do not." Cara snorted, though she knew she was getting to that point. It had been some weeks since she last had a shower. She had an internal bet going that if she wrung her hair half a gallon of oil would come out of it. But showering with a man chained to her wrist was not ideal. There was no way on this planet that she was going to shower with him beside her. It was bad enough that she had to stand beside him when he showered. "The only way I'm going to shower is if you take this stupid chain off and let me in the bathroom by myself."

"That's not going to happen."

"I can't take a shower anyway. The chain has to be removed so I can undress and dress," Cara said. Surely that would make sense to Ace. It had to. "Unlike you, I don't wear only shorts and shoes."

Ace shook his head. "I'm not letting you go for such a long time."

"Long time?!" Cara stomped her foot. "How long do you think it takes for a woman to shower?!"

"Too long."

"Only if that woman has really long hair." Cara waved at herself. "As you can see my hair barely falls past my shoulders. I'll be twenty minutes tops."

"Still long enough for you to break free with your strength."

Cara glared at him. "If I had my strength I would break the chain right now and jump into the ocean."

"You're crazy."

"At least you wouldn't be able to follow me."

"Maybe not in the water." Ace crossed his arms, bringing her hand closer to his chest. "But I would in the ship. There's no way you can swim far enough to get to an island. Even you could manage that then a sea king would eat you."

Cara growled. Of course she wouldn't be able to swim to an island. Of course a sea king could eat her. Why couldn't Ace be stupid enough not to notice that?

"Now are you going to take a shower willingly or am I going to have to bathe you myself?"

Heat rushed to Cara's face. She took a step back. "You wouldn't dare!"

Ace leaned towards her, a dark grin on his face. "Do you want to wager on that? I am a pirate. We can do some very... disturbing things."

Cara twitched. For a second she couldn't believe that Ace would forcefully shower her himself. But she quickly realized that he would. He had no problems getting naked in front of her. Ripping her clothes off her would only be a short stone throw away. With a heavy sigh, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "How about a deal?"

Ace lifted an eyebrow. "A deal?"

"Release me so I can take a shower and you can stand in the bathroom, but facing the door." Cara stared him down. "It's not like I can fit through the porthole. With you standing by the door I can't escape that way either."

Ace pulled back from her, contemplating her words.

"Come on, Ace. I'm a girl. I need my privacy. You've already invaded it enough."

Ace sighed. "Fine. Deal."

Cara nodded. She walked with him to the bedroom. Grabbing her clothes they headed for the bathroom next. She adverted her eyes when he reached down his shorts and pulled out the key. The weight of the cuff fell away as Ace took it from her. Ace then took his place facing the door. Cara quickly undressed and took the fastest shower of her life.

"Finally." Ace turned back to her. You're intolerable to be around."

"Shut up!" Cara gave her hair an aggressive brush. At least she felt a lot better, and cleaner, now that she had showered. Hopefully their deal would carry on until she got back home and she wouldn't have to be threatened by him. Sadness settled in her chest at the thought of her home island. "How long until we get back to Sphinx?"

Ace hummed. He pulled out the eternal pose and looked at it. "Probably in four or five days if we don't run into any problems along the way."

Cara sat her hairbrush down on the sink and faced him. "Great." She felt Ace staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing." Ace shook his head. "Shall we go back out on the deck now?"

"Whatever." Cara shrugged.

The two teenagers headed back out on the deck where they were spending most of their time. Settling in they rotated their time by steering the ship, keeping watch for others ships, and watching the sun move across the sky.

Before long the sky changed from blue to orange to navy. Stars twinkled in the night. Cara's eyes dropped from them to the young man with her. Ace had fallen asleep again. She shook her head. "It's amazing you haven't been killed yet with how often you fall asleep. You had to have been born under a lucky star or something."