Before we begin I'd like to say a very big thank you to all my reviewers and followers and...favoriters? I saw them and I immediately wanted to start writing more chapters. And since you guys were kind enough to listen to me and gimme some reviews, I'm gonna be a good girl and update more chapters, more often. :)

The cover picture of this fanfic was made by the really talented emixo0...I should have probably said so in the first chapter...*chuckles self-consciously whiles rubbing head*

Happy reading!

Disclaimer: One piece enye me dea! (That's "One Piece is not mine" in my local dialect)

Chapter 4- He thinks..

Anne is lounging comfortably in the comfy three seater couch in the darkened living room, something she usually did when Luffy wasn't around to keep her company, with her legs tucked underneath her enjoying one of her most favorite shows- 'Fire-Acers!'- when she feels the right side of the couch dip in. Someone has just joined her, and she didn't even realize it. She can't say she's surprised, she friggin' loves this show and tends to solely, and unashamedly so, focus on it whenever it's being aired. It features the most awesome job in the world afterall-firefighting.

Anne knows it's not Luffy, her poor brother couldn't be stealthy to save his life and she knows this because everytime he decides to join her on the couch, instead of settling his butt down calmly in his seat like a normal person so they could for once both have some relaxation time infront of the tele, he prefers to pounce on her just so he can start a wrestling match for the remote. She always won though, but that didn't stop him. And she finally figured, quite amusingly, one day that he didn't really want the remote, he just wanted to wrestle. The fact that after every single one their impromptu matches, the remote would always lie somewhere forgotten, was evidence .

So no, it wasn't Luffy. There was only one other person in the house though and if her calculations were correct... She turned her head to spare a look at who just sat by her and sure enough, there he was. The kid Luffy brought over. What was his name...it had sounded like the name of a game she and Luffy had loved to play as kids. Marco Polo...that was it!

Marco.

Weird name. Although, it did seem to fit him. He certainly looked like a Marco...Still, it was a pretty silly name. She turned back to the TV, chuckling to herself at his name as she resumed watching her show and started to wonder where Luffy was.

Marco had been heading downstairs to get a glass of water after the tedious study session he'd had with Luffy. Damn it, but teaching Luffy was hard. All he'd been doing for the past three hours was talking and explaining-at least trying to- and the knucklehead still didnt get it. It didnt help that Luffy's attention span was like that of a goldfish either, asking ridiculous question after question on every equally ridiculous topic he could think of every chance he got instead of focusing on his own assignment. Marco had ignored him the first few times thinking that if Luffy got no answers maybe he'd lose interest in asking at all, but that didn't work as Luffy started ignoring HIM and kept on firing the questions anyway. Then Marco reasoned that if he gave in a little and answered some questions maybe Luffy'd be satisfied with whatever answers he got and finally focus on the assignment. That had seemed to work until Marco had realized that seventy percent of the questions he'd been answering was not project-based.

As soon as Marco had managed to actually get Luffy on track(through a lot of yelling) and had gotten him to start putting down notes and ideas, he had darted out to get some well deserved space? and a glass of water for his abused throat. At least, that was his goal, until he had descended down the stairs to see Anne to his left in the living room and all his body's needs had been switched off, at least almost all of his body's needs. But he didn't want to even go there. She was sitting on the couch, mind totally focused on whatever show was on the tele. The screen was the only source of light. The dim bluish glow falling over her face making her look ethereal. She didnt seem to have noticed him and he found himself edging closer and closer until he was standing right next to the couch, standing right across from her. And then he was actually sitting in the sofa, right next to Anne. There were butterflies in his stomach being this close to her, even though there was an extra seat in between them.

She turned to him, as if to find out who had just sat next to her. He tried to shoot her his most friendly smile but she didn't seem to notice. Upon seeing him, she had seemed to be considering something, her eyebrows knitting in a way that looked cute on her. Marco found himself wondering what she'd look like angry. That must be quite a sight, and also, did he just use the word "cute"? His musings were disrupted when he heard her chuckling and found that she had turned back to the television.

Her good mood seemed to affect him because he found himself smiling and asking, "What's funny?" She slowly turned to him and her smile slowly dissappeared. She looked backwards towards the stairs.

"Where's Luffy?" Did she just ignore him?

"He's upstairs. On an idea-finding adventure. His words, not mine. Hey, and also, thanks for the, uh, sandwiches " He chuckled slightly.

"Oh", she answered uninterestedly and turned back to her show.

Now, Marco usually loved silence, found solace in it. He was a quiet guy-kept to himself and spoke only when necessary-and as such tended to prefer being around silent people. Birds of the same feather and all that...he should be loving this. He should be glad that Luffy's sister seemed to be the total opposite of Luffy. Should be reverying in the blissful silence that only seemed to be interrupted, not unwantedly, by hushed sounds of the show...but he didn't.

He didn't want to be quiet around Anne, he wanted to talk and for her to talk back. They might have just met, but he found he wanted a lot more than just being able to look at Anne, he wanted to know Anne. And since she was such a difficult person to read-and usually he prided himself on his ability to read people upfront, most people anyway. But with a blank page like Anne, what better way could he get to know her than making her talk? He decided to test the waters.

"Good show?", he asked expectantly. He hadn't actually watched a second of it yet, he was eyes were already occupied. He sat up a little as she turned her head to him with annoyed look.

She scoffed,"If you weren't so busy oogling me, you wouldn't have to ask that", she replied dismissively.

Marco felt his face heat up as he tried to sputter a denial but at her look of warning decided to settle for a weak shake of his head. She humphed and muttered loud enough for him to hear,"At least you have the decency to look embarassed" before turning back to her show.

She'd noticed! Marco screamed in his head and continued with 'Ohmygod she'd noticed and she definitely thinks I'm a creep now way to go Marco there goes your chance I bet she's not going to indulge me at all now,not that she used to but at least I could hope but that's gone now...Shit!' Marco had never been so embarrassed, and that was saying something. He wasn't so easily, it took quite an effort to make him that state, but Anne had done it so easily and effortlessly if he wasn't so busy trying to stare at the ground into opening up and swallowing him up whole, he'd be impressed.

But Marco wasn't the type to go down for a long time. He picked up his head from it's pathetic position and puffed out his chest a little as he countered with a truthful, "How couldn't I?" Would it be alright if he gloated at how surprised she looked then? With a raise of one delicate eyebrow she turned to him so slowly he thought she was going hit him but then did the exact opposite. She smiled. And it took a moment for his mind to catch up.

"Yea?" She asked pleasantly.

So, it seems she responded to sweet words. He quelled the tiny disappointment he felt that this wasn't more of a challenge. But then she was looking at him, and seemed to be listening to him so it was more of a win than a loss. And he wasn't going to let this seemingly rare opportunity escape him. And so, from the recesses of his mind, he began to do a little cataloging. Remembering all the methods he had seen and thereby learned from his friends...well, actually Thatch. 'Smooth moves' Thatch had called them. Marco had told him they were idiotic idiosyncrasies, and that he should stop torturing him and the poor girls...he didn't listen of course and currently, Marco was for once glad for his best friend's stubbornness 'coz he'd a few good ones from Thatch. Sometimes, being a wingman paid off a little-though he'd never tell Thatch that. He was going to pull out the big guns now. The big net for the big fish...oh, he'd better not say that.

"Yea", he shrugged."When I first saw you, this afternoon, I thought that maybe, you were related to the sun" Oh God, please let this work.

"Huh...why?"

"Because you brightened up my day" He met her eyes and smiled self-conciously, even that sounded cheesy to him! But that one was the only one he could remember, for now. And actually, he thought, it seemed to be working as she smiled bashfully. She slowly scooted closer to him across the couch, going on all fours before placing one hand right next to his thigh making the couch dip in and raising the other to cup the left side of his face.

"Aww, that's so sweet", she breathed, smiling demurely. Her breath ghosted on his lips. "What else you got?" Her hand slowly skimmed the side of his face and reached the back of his head, fingers digging into his soft blond hair. His heart was beating so hard so fast he thought it would fly out of his chest. She was so close, too close. Her dark hair falling forward and tickling his cheeks. He didn't know what to say, what to do. He wasn't expecting this much of a reaction and he was stumped. His mind was going into overdrive and he needed to calm down, act rationally. He took a deep breath...and made everything worse as he breathed her in. Goodness, she smelled like vanilla and chocolate. She must've eaten some ice cream earlier or used some really incredible body cream...and why was he even thinking about that? He needed to act fast. He needed to downplay it, to gain control of himself. He gently grabbed her small wrist, the one that belonged to hand whose finger pads were currently gently caressing his scalp. He was going to try a ris,y move He smirked and said confidently, suggestively,"Hm, how about you climb onto my lap and we can talk about the first thing that pops up?"

He had barely finished speaking when the hand at the back of his head had tightly grabbed his hair and Anne had headbutted him so hard his head had actually been thrown back a couple of inches. He let go of her hand and grabbed at his forehead as all but one of his thoughts escaped his mind.

WHAT THE HELL?!

Luffy had gotten sooo bored after about thirty minutes of his 'idea-finding adventure' and had started to get hungry so he decided to go downstairs to see about dinner, or actually, what Anne had made for dinner. What he hadn't expected to see , at arriving at the bottom of the stairs(darting his eyes around for his big sister and locating her in the living room) was Anne knocking the brains out of...Marco-sempai? He stopped, wordlessly shocked. After taking about two steps forward towards the living room, Anne got up, unfazed by the headbutting, and stalked angrily towards the stairs pausing just beside Luffy to tell him seriously, "You should really pick the people you bring to this house more carefully, Lu. Goodness knows I have enough freaks and perverts in my life", Luffy turned to her wordlessly and raised an eyebrow quizzically in concern. Anne looked mad. What the hell had happened in just thirty minutes? Anne looked at him and gave him a small smile. Then she leaned up to kiss the side of his head and told him, "Dinner's in the fridge. Make sure to heat it up this time. You can eat without me, I'm not really hungry, I had some ice cream earlier. Goodnight" before heading straight up the stairs and into by her room.

Luffy walked quickly to the couched and glared down at Marco, who was still rubbing his forehead.

"Dude, what did you do to my sister?", he asked angrily. If Marco had stepped Anne wrong, he promised he was gonna punch him so hard Anne's headbutt was gonna feel like a baby's chubby slap. Nobody messed with Anne, not while he was around.

"Huh?" Was all he got as Marco looked up at Luffy with squinted eyes through a portion of his now messed-up blond hair falling in front of his face.

Luffy started rolling up his sleeves and continued to glare down at him.

"My sister. You made her mad. How?" He added quietly, menacingly.

In the foggy remnants of his mind Marco was able to string up a few words and got up, saying,"I think we're done for today"

"You think?!", Luffy asked unbelievably as he dropped his hands and glare up at his senior. Marco winced at his yell.

"I'm going to leave now"

"I think you should."

Marco added reluctantly, and tried not to rile up more an already pissed-off younger brother as he said,"Please tell your sister I'm really sorry, and it was a stupid thing I said and I just...I'm really sorry". He finished lamely. Luffy only replied with silence and a raised brow.

Luffy escorted Marco to the front door and Marco looked backwards towards the stairs. He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it as Luffy opened the door and gestured for Marco to get out. He then added, quite unnecessarily as Marco stepped over the threshold,"You know, I was going to share my dinner with you. It probably even had meat, but not anymore" before dignifyingly slamming the door in Marco face. The loud noise making his already promised headache a definite outcome.

Marco turned to cross the porch and walked down the short flight of stairs only to stop at the gravel driveway. He raised his head and stared, distractedly, at the flag flapping quietly in the night wind. When had it gotten so late? Nevermind, he had a lot to think about. Actually, he had only one thing to think about. One gorgeous, sneaky, tricky, seriously sexy thing(person) to think about.

Anne...WOW! She was crazy! Wonderfully crazy. Other girls would have settled for a well-sounding slap,and he knew this because he'd been around more than once at Thatch's failed attempts at 'smooth-moving' those of the female gender.

And yet the first time HE'D tried it, he'd gotten more than that for his trouble. But seriously though, that headbutt was no joke, granted it was well deserved. Now that he thought about it, it WAS a really rude-and downright disrespectful- attempt at flirting. He'd suspected it at first but she'd let him go on, letting him let his guard down, figuratively threading blindfolded through crocodile infected waters. He'd caress his forehead to try and deflate the swelling he could already feel growing but it still stung like mad. He chuckled to himself before laughing out loud.

Soon he was doubling over with laughter, clutching his sides as he let his mirth roll all over him. After he'd calm down from his laughing fit and wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, he dug out his cellphone and called the first person who came to mind. The phone rang for a while before the there was a click and a very familiar voice, with a very stuffed mouth, said on the other side of the line, "Yo man, what's up?"

"Thatch?" He snickered, "I think I'm in love yoi"

A/N: That risky line Marco used had double meaning...did you guys get it? All I'm going to say is, I really wanted a headbutting to happen since chapter one...also if you're wondering why I named the chapter like that, it because of Marco's last words in this chapter. Thanks for reading and as usual, don't forget to review! ^_^. There'll be more to come...

D.W: 16/04/2015