Slavery For Life
Chapter Three: Shopping
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Shopping carts were never meant to do over 30 mph... Somehow, you manage to even break that law.
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The two black-haired friends walked down the street, an awkward silence had fallen upon them five minutes ago when the conversation they were having died. Ace had his hands in his pockets, his eyes facing across the street while he whistled a small tune. Luffy, on the other hand, was looking straight ahead, thinking of something to say to his new friend; hoping to break the awkwardness. But Ace was the first one to break the silence.
"So, uh, where we goin?"
"We gotta go the store to buy some groceries for tonight's dinner."
"Do you have a list, or are you one of those people with a camera for memory?" Luffy laughed at the question, feeling relief as he noticed there was no more awkwardness between him and Ace.
"I got a list right here." Luffy replied, pulling out a folded piece of paper from his left shorts pocket. "I dunno what we're having for dinner, but whatever it is, all these ingredients sound delicious!" Ace gave a grin.
"So you love to eat, huh?"
"Shishishi! Yep! I always have a weak spot for meat."
"What about vegetables and fruits?"
"Eh, I can take or leave em."
"You're lucky you don't have a mom or dad then..." Ace joked slightly. "They'd be all over you about that."
"Yeah, also I'm lucky to not have an older brother! He'd definitely make me eat them!" The two laughed heartily at the joke as they continued their way to the store. As they reached the front of the store three minutes later, Ace had grabbed the list from Luffy; inspecting it closely.
"This is a lot of stuff we're getting. You having a party or somethin?"
"Nope, we always eat this much every night." Ace blinked.
"...We?" Ace asked as the two of them walked through the store entrance, the AC giving a small chill down the both their backs.
"Yeah, I live--" Luffy was suddenly cut off when two rather obnoxious guys bumped into him. The large men stopped and turned to face Luffy, who was already looking straight back at them.
"Oi, punks. You gonna say sorry or what?"
"And why would we say sorry?" Ace asked, his glare freezing one man in his place. The man quickly tapped his friends shoulder and whispered to him.
"Hey, isn't that..."
"Yeah, they're both..." A look of fear overcame the two men as they slightly shook in their place.
"H-Hey, look. W-We're sorry bout bumping into two..." And with that, the two large men made their way out of the store entrance; glancing back nervously. Ace's brows furrowed slightly, wondering what had just happened.
"What the hell was up with them?" Luffy just shrugged before grabbing a shopping cart with a slightly wobbly wheel. "Alright, so what's first on the list?"
"Pound of butter."
"Alright, that's this way." Ace pointed to his left as the Luffy steered the cart in the right direction. As the two walked down the isle looking for butter, Luffy's eyes couldn't help but wander to Ace's bruised cheek. As Ace put the butter in the cart, he caught Luffy staring and gave an awkward look. "Uh, is there something on my face?"
"N-No." Luffy blinked, tearing his eyes away from Ace. "I just started spacing out... Ah, there's the sour cream we need." Ace quickly grabbed the sour cream and set it in the cart. "There's the milk and cheese too." Ace nodded before grabbing said items. "Next, we need thyme." The two made their way out of the dairy isle and towards the spices area. Once again, Luffy couldn't help but stare at Ace's cheek. It really looked like it hurt...
"This is the stuff, yeah?" Luffy inspected the bottle before giving it back to Ace.
"Actually, my cook prefers to use the thyme leaves made by McCormick. Not only is it more fresher, but also cheaper." Ace switched thyme bottles and put the correct one the cart. "We also need salt, pepper, nutmeg, Aji Nori Furikake and chili pepper." Luffy and Ace wondered around the isle searching for the correct spices, only to find they didn't have any nutmeg.
"You sure he doesn't need it?"
"Yep. Sanji says it's not a main ingredient, so he doesn't really need it." Luffy looked at Ace's neck this time, remembering how red it was before. It didn't seem as bad, though you could still clearly see the handprint around the neck. Once again, Ace caught Luffy staring and frowned.
"If you keep staring at me, I might start thinking you're a pervert just like Teach." He said, turning his back on towards Luffy. Luffy looked down at the ground quickly, slightly embarrassed with himself at being caught once again.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help myself. The bruise on your cheek and the redness around your neck really looks like it hurts..." Ace stopped and turned around; a surprised, yet, kind look on his face.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said that. But thanks for caring. No one's really cared for me for the last eight months..." Luffy felt bad for Ace again.
'No ones ever been my friend before...'
'How come?'
'They just... you wouldn't understand.'
"I find it so strange..." Luffy said, catching Ace's attention. "Ever since I bought you, I've been hearing memories in my head..."
"So have I. Maybe we knew each other before... Maybe when we were kids." Luffy nodded, a picked his head up. He looked around in all directions almost in a frantic way. "Luffy? You oka--"
"MEAT!" Luffy yelled, as he pointed towards Ace's direction. Ace blinked.
"You smell the meat from h--" Ace was cut short as Luffy raced the cart towards him at a high speed. Thinking quickly, Ace jumped on the front on the cart as Luffy continued to drive. Ace held onto the front of the cart for dear life as Luffy zigzagged between customers, who had to dodge to get out of the way of the speeding cart. Ace could actually feel a wind blow past him as the continued on at a high speed. Ace looked on, horrified. "L-Luffy! Luffy, stop! You're gonna get me killed!" Ace said as he almost met a box of cans head first. "Luffy! Slow down! The meats not going anyway! Stop~!" Luffy screeched the cart to a dead stop, sending Ace off the cart and landing on the ground with a tumble or two. As he took in deep breaths, he still had a horrified look as he stared at the stores huge ceiling. "I can't believe... I was bought... by this kid..." Ace panted. Luffy quickly payed for his meat before setting it gently into the cart, searching for Ace. He found him sprawled out on the ground. He walked over to Ace and poked him in the side.
"Oi, Ace. What are you doing on the ground?" Ace sat up, his glare focused on Luffy.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Kidding about what?" Ace rolled his eyes and groaned...
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Bad Luffy, bad! No sending Ace flying! XD
Yeah, I just wanted to something really random at the end... Okay, this could use a little more detail, I know. And sorry for the late update. ^^" had writers block for awhile. Oh! And I have a few things to say:
-eternitybeckons- Thank you SOOO much for pointing out all those mistakes. I tend to get careless when I'm writing, so I don't catch all my errors. But thanks a bunchies! :D
-Harumi95- Thank you too for pointing out my errors! It means alot to me! :D
-1337kitsune- The five senses thing I tried to keep in my head, and it helped me a lot when I've been writing now! Thanks for that tip! :D
Well, thank you once again for reading one of my boring stories~! reviews will be nice too. Thank you~! ^^