"Luffy!" Nami shouted from inside the bathroom…
"Yeah…"
"Why is there a sandwich in the bathroom?"
"Huh? There a sandwich in the bathroom?" Hailey asked with wide curios eyes, it was after school and she was at their home. She had been introduced properly to all their friends at school and had met Ace; her new protector, Nami smiled at a job well done.
Right now Hailey sat in front of the TV and was letting Usopp teach/beat her at video games. Nami had walked into the bathroom with a half eaten sandwich waiting for her on the toilet seat,
"I was hungry" Luffy said and walked to her, Nami held the lunch meat sandwich in her hand and let mustard fall on the floor. He took the sandwich and in one gulp he ate it all up. Nami sighed and cleaned up the mess.
"How can you eat stuff like this?" she said and lightly bonked his head, Luffy, with a wide grin, just rubbed his head and backed away from her.
"I'm just hungry…" he said bluntly and walked over to the couch...
"d-did he just swallow a half sandwich in…in one gulp…" Hailey asked in a high voice. Usopp smiled a little when he saw how shocked she was
"Welcome to my world…" he said and turned back to the game.
"Hey, your man is crashing!" he shouted and she when back into her clumsy attempt at driving the animated car with a shout
"How can you be so good at this…?" she said when her car crashed and burned…
"Well you get practice when you do nothing but play all day…" Zoro said she he walked out of his room "hey!" Usopp shouted and turned away…
"Oh hello Zoro-kun did you have a nice sleep?" she said politely and smiled at him. Zoro started looking a little flushed, not used to someone asking him about these things. He nodded and sat down besides Nami and watched the two of them hit it off…
"Wow, I never knew that video games would be this much fun" she said as she stood up and walked to the kitchen, she searched for a while for something…
"Can I help you with anything my princess?"
"Nonono, thank you I want to find the glasses on my own!" she said and stared to open and close the doors to search for the glasses
"Well just know that I am always more than happy to help you with anything!" he said and turned on his cigarette
"…You smoke?" she asked and shut the third cabin…
"Yup" he said and took a long drag of his wrapped cancer "why, does the smoke bother you?" he said and prepared to take the cigarette out.
"No-no! My mother smokes like a chimney, so I'm fairly used to it" she said and scratched her head,"Ough! Where are these darn glasses!" she said and pouted
"Eeh Hailey, they are right here" Sanji said and opened a cabin behind her. "Oh…" she said and blushed a little… she walked back to her seat with a light pout...
"Hey Hailey. Why are you always so polite..?" Luffy asked her from the couch…
"Yeah you really don't need to be so polite to us" Usopp said. Right after the TV labeled GAME OVER he groaned and started the game again.
"Well… just a thing. I was always taught to be nice…to my parents this was weary important, they have weary sophisticated friends…"
"But you don't need to be this way to your friends, do you?" Nami asked with a nice can of soda in her hand…with witch Hailey's eyes went wide. But that was it; she got little guilty face on and looked down
"Eeh…well…" she didn't need to say anything ells.
"Oh…erm…well that's ok, you just…"
"Oh please don't talk about that…I just wasn't allowed to have that many friends…" she said in a low voice. "Mama didn't like it when I brought home other girls to play with"
There was a long kind of awkward silence in the living room right after she said that, Hailey looked to the ground and fiddled with some of her hair in between her fingers. Nami looked around her, all she met were little guilty looking eyes (and Luffy who didn't show any facial expression) and then the back at her. She was staring at her can of soda…
"w-would you like my soda?" she said as meekly attempt to break the silence. Thankfully Hailey nodded excitedly and took the can, and then she took a long sip…
"Mmh I never get to have this anymore...i forgot how good it is!" she said happily and turned to the TV and took the remote to try and play again. This ended a little different than expected; Nami thought and leaned in to Luffy who was watching the little princess try her hand at different types of games.
"What are you thinking about Luffy?" she asked just for the heck of it. She knew he was going to answer 'food' or 'when's dinner gonna start?' but Luffy didn't answer… the dark shade over his eyes was back, that meant he was thinking hard about something interesting…
"I'm thinking...That I'm gonna take you out tonight Nami!" he said suddenly and looked at her, smiling his signature grin. "No matter what!"
"Oh really? Well that sounds fun" she said and cuddled up to him closer… then again, there were moments when she just couldn't be apart from him. She liked him weary much and thought that he liked her back, that's about as much as he liked meat.
"I'm home!" the high voice of Chopper sounded from the front door.
"Hey Chopper!" Luffy shouted out to him as the small kid walked into the living room. They were all there, watching Usopp beat Hailey in a large variety of games…
"How was your day?" Nami asked and moved her legs to give him space, choppers brown curly hair was covered with something…like some green looking powder.
"Exhausting!" he said and lumped onto a beanbag chair in right besides the TV. "Had to take two tests today…nether of them didn't have anything to do with being a doctor and for the last the traffic was horrible. So the bus didn't want to move at all…"he pulled his hat down over his eyes and stretched out in the chair.
"Well at least you made It home alive…" Usopp said and chuckled a little
"Yeah, well just barely..."
Down town in the fire department of the Grand line, Ace was waiting for his shift to end. He just had a little brake for when he went to meet this Hailey girl… ad now this was just another one of those long nights when he had to sit and wait for time to pass…not that he didn't like his job, he did like it allot. There was just something about fire that he was just drawn to it, but at the same time he knew better than anyone hat fire was dangerous and uncontrollable. That's why he joined the fire department, to save the people who treated it wrong…
"Oi, Portgas?" behind him Thatch was cleaning up after him quite a mess he could make with just a bucket of chicken wings…
"Yeah?"
"Up to something after work?"
He was about to say no when he suddenly pictured her face in his mind. No he was supposed to meet with her, and be her bodyguard… there was something in his mind that didn't think this was god idea…and there was a good reason to think so too. A man like him would not be welcomed easily with the Cross family, and Hailey didn't look like she would be for any trouble…
"Yes I'm…busy…" he decided with a sigh to go anyway. Or ells this Nami would most likely kill him. Although he didn't like the fact that she could to that, which she defiantly could not, but she st couldn't let it go…
"You are one of the only ones I trust completely" she had shouted with a simple smile over her face, like to just give her an innocent spirit. Ace had seen threw it like a glass window.
"Oh really?" he had asked with a harsh look in his eyes. The same look he used to get the truth out of people. It worked almost every time, only the most gut hard folks could stand it when he looked at them like that. And this time it worked like a charm…
"Alright! Alright! You were the first one that popped into my mind and the one of the few people that Luffy trust completely, and he thought it was an amazing idea. He wanted to see and talk to you so bad!" she was using the guilt speech…and it was working…
"he was so looking forward to it…aaah the exited face on him …I can see it so clearly, oh the poor boy" she soothed dramatically and walked around him.
"Mmh I want to meet my brother too but why the hell would I want to babysit a little rich snob…" in this case he was talking about the Cross's in general. He was so sure he was going to get out of this. But before he could just get up and leave. Nami pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and waived it in front of his nose,
"Ah, what the hell is this!" he said and grabbed her hand…the he saw it…
The piece of paper was in fact a check. A large one "t-that's a lot of zeros…" he said and lowered her hand forcefully… he looked at her smug face for a while…and after about three or four minutes of trying to stare each other down Ace gave in… besides a ten thousand beli check was allot of money when it comes to it…
Ace sighed when he thought about it and leaned back "why, were you going somewhere?" he asked Thatch, who was just about to start on a cold beer. When Ace glared at him for flaunting his favorite beer in his face when he couldn't have any…"no drinking on the job…"
"I was thinking about driving up to a bar in red line…"
"Huh, that actually sounds f-"
"Did I say bar, I meant a strip bar" he said and took a long drag of the beer.
"eh…tempting…"he said and thought about it for a while…getting a lap dance and poll dancers with a glass of jack & coke in his hand…on a week day, and waking up with massive pounding in his head… and rather see the little princess for the rest of the day…
"But I'm gonna have to pass on that offer…" he said and stood up it was right then when the bell started to ring and the light started to flash…
"Hmm…what's this?" Thatch asked when Ace started to get ready for trouble…
"This is your key moment to leave" Ace said right before his adrenalin started to go wild, this kind of rush was why he loved this job… there was a poll that lent down to the bottom floor and he grabbed on to it, but just before he slid down he held on "…or of your not leaving then try not to make a mess" then he slid down to the ground, ready to do what he did best…
The fire truck was just about to leave and what? Ace did a move and snatched his hand on the car right before it left and with that he was gone. With Thatch left alone he couldn't help but admiring the situations his friend made his living from…he did admire the scene he just looked like it was cut out of a movie... There was no doubt that he was one of the best…
"Luffy, stop the hell with this nonsense and give me the fucking keys!" Sanji shouted and tried to snatch the keys from Luffy…
"No I wanna drive this time!" he shouted back and tried to block sanjis kicks… (And doing poorly)
"Hey nether of you should be driving let me do it for once!" Usopp said and tried to get the keys…
"You guys are all idiots!" Nami shouted and pounded down on their heads and so they all fell down holding their heads… "Can't you even decide on who will drive the fucking van!" she was interrupted by Hailey, Hailey's laughter
Hailey's laugh filled the room, so clear and naïve. It sounded wonderful. And it felt wonderful she didn't get to laugh very often and these people were just so funny…
"Oi, what's so funny?" Luffy asked with an annoyed face on, he didn't like to be left out of a good joke… he let go of the keys and let Usopp and Sanji fight about it…
"I just- *gasp* you guys…haha! You're so funny *snort*" she tried to gasp out and catch her breath at the same time, after a while she calmed down and "fighting about something so little" she said smiling. "it's funny" Luffy joined in the laughter even though everyone doubted the he even understood why she thought this was funny at all…
As they walked out to the car, Nami holding the keys and looking mildly satisfied…
"So where are we going?" Hailey asked when she sat down in the front seat (due to Nami's request)
"We are going to pick up our friend Franky from his job…he works down town in a work shop"
They drove for about a good five minutes, when they noticed a little rough-housing close to the work shop,
"Do you smell smoke?" Chopper asked and opened the window. Brown curly hair blew from his face and the air came in the van, they all could smell the smoke…
"t-the work shop is just around the corner and w-"Sanji stopped in the middle of the sentence went hey saw that a large column of black smoke was rising from the direction of Franky's work shop…
"Oh no…" Nami said and drove as fast as she could around the corner. Hailey saw the worried face they had on and got an uneasy feeling. The first thought that came into her mind was getting her phone fast. She had 911 pinched in and was ready to click the call button when they saw the building the workshop was in…it was like a bon-fire!
The entire house was ablaze! A terrifying sight for them as they saw a line of men lying in front of it the building, all laying on their backs and all past out. Their skin was ether scarlet red and tainted with black or it was just their clothes that were burnt…
When Hailey walked out to the lot and saw fully what had happened he covered her mouth and tried to keep from shouting. She saw that the guys all had so straight faces on when they walked out of the car.
"Franky!" Luffy screamed when he ran to the house,
"No Luffy don't!" Nami screamed out and tried to stop Luffy from but Zoro got in her way and ran after Luffy instead
"Watch over Hailey!" he shouted and bolted after him like a lightning. When Nami turned around and saw the frightened expression on the princess she remembered that they were supposed to protect her, with a stubborn huff she walked back to Hailey and took her hand…
"Are you alright?" she asked, a little funny feeling when she felt that her hand was cold and shivering.
"I called the fire department they were already on their way!" she said and squeezed Nami's hand back. Like to give her comfort…
"Oh that's good…"Usopp said behind them, keeping a safe distance from the fires…
"w-where's Franky?" she asked in a shaky tone and looked at Nami…she understood why she was so scared; she most likely had never seen things like this except on TV. Not that she could blame her; Nami was pretty damn scared herself…
Nami took a gulp…"I don't know…"
Zoro just managed to stop Luffy before he jumped into the fire to attempt to save his friend that he thought was in here…"Luffy don't you dare!" he screamed and snatched his collar and pulled him back to him…
"But Franky's in there!" he shouted back in his face
"We don't know that!" Sanji said and pulled then both back. "You guys are idiots! There's no way that he's in there" he said and turned to the building.
Suddenly there was a shadow in the fire that became bigger and bigger. Until, like some sort of super-man, Franky came shooting out of the fire! Hailey screamed when that happened and covered her mouth. Franky landed on his back in front of them holding two other guys in his arms…
He sighed when the cold air hit him, it felt heavenly. Then after feeling the air for a moment he snapped out of his state of mind and laid the two men down on the ground. They were both passed out and looking dead-pale… Nami let go of Hailey's hand and ran to her friends
"Franky! Thank god man, are you crazy!" Zoro and Sanji shouted at him
"That was so cool!" still Luffy's scream of amazement overpowered all of them…
"What happened?" Nami asked as Franky put them into a laying possession…chopper shot over to him and immediately went into doctor mode…
"There was a gas leak…I think…" he said and wiped the sweat out of his face he was all red and black from soot…"I don't know what happened…" he couldn't say much more, sirens cut him all of and the fire truck came shooting into the seine.
"Luffy!" Ace shouted as he ran out of the truck, "get the hell away from there!" he screamed and pushed him out of the way,
"All of you! Get out of range!" the men coming out of the fire truck when pulled them out of the range and started as fast as they could to get rid of the fire. "Are they okay?" Ace asked Franky since he was the only one still with conciseness. He nodded stiffly but then looked at him deadly serious…
"There still are some people left in there! I was going to get them myself-"
"You stay right here and don't move!" Ace ordered and got ready to walk into the house. "where are the people?" he asked and placed breathing equipment around his neck.
"There on the second floor. Somewhere in the bigger rooms, trapped I think…" he said and tried to stand, but a huge burn on the side of his leg prevented him from getting up.
"Don't move I said, get a doctor. I'll get the people out of there!" he said and put the mask on his face, he ran as fast as he could and ignored the calls of his brother and partners. He would have to get the people out of there or they would die! 'Second floor, that's where I'm going!" he said to himself and tried to calm his heart. For this he needed to be calm and cool. If his body temperature went up by even the slightest, he could die...
This place was coming apart, all around him pieced of wood and plastic that once was furniture. All was on fire, it was a wonder that the people in there had not seen the fire and got out… he walked up to the second floor and looked around, if they were trapped then saving them could be too late. He cursed and broke down one door. Cold sweat starting to run down his fore head and down his back, which was good the sweat kept his body temperature down where it was safe… inside the room was nothing…
"Damn!" he cursed and broke down the door into another room, there was no one. And so it went on for about three other rooms. No one… this was turning to be a dangerously long time…
"Aaahh! Somebody help us!" a woman cried out, still it only came to his ears faintly with the fire roaring everywhere, but he could hear where it was coming from. The door at the end of the hall.
he ran as fast as he could to theta room and what do you know there was a large part of the roof fallen in front of the door, 'this should be easy' he thought and threw himself on the large piece of wood. It started braking, with a few more punches and a heavy kick the wood would soon cave in.
"Get away from the door!" he screamed and gathered his strength into the last kick. With a scream the wood broke in half and the door came down with it… inside there was a young woman in the corner, holing a smaller person…
"Oh thank god!" she shouted and ran to him.
"Are you alright? I'll get you out of here…" he said and wrapped his arm around them both. He led them to the only window and smashed it with his fist. The girl screamed when he separated the older one form her daughter and leaned out the window.
"Hey! I got them!" he screamed so loud that his partners could hear and brought a net to catch them in,
"You go first…" he said to the older one and pushed her out the window, she shouted when the rough fabric caught her in the air.
"Damn!" he shouted and grabbed the smaller girl and pulled her into his arms, and with that he jumped himself…the little girl screamed in fear when they both fell. He landed safely in the net and she stopped screaming when she felt she was on save land…
"Dude are you okay?" his partner shouted and pulled the little girl out of Ace's arms. She ran as fast as she could to her mother, and the both of them were led to a safe distance.
"Just fine" he said and pulled his breathing equipment off his face, and then he went to help bring the fire to its end. But sadly it wouldn't do any good. Soon after that the whole building started to fall apart. The fire men were pouring water on it as fast as they could, to prevent the fire from spreading; thankfully they managed to kill the fire before anything ells caught on fire. And after about three hours of work the building caved in…
Ace sighed and sat down in the back of the fire truck, he started to take off his equipments, and he stripped down to his regular pants and shirt… His white t-shirt was so wet that it could most likely fill a bath tub so he took that off to,
"Ace!" Luffy shouted and ran to his older brother. Fast on his heels his friends ran after him, "that was soooo cool!" he said with admiration in his eyes.
"Heh, nothing too it," he said and grinned, his entire body glowing with sweat. Truth is told he was exhausted, the fire drew energy from hem and he was as thirsty as hell. But he would not let his lil' bro know about that…
"That was amazing, how did you get through all that?" Nami asked him and Usopp and his friends agreed, even Franky…
"Man you should be admiring him instead; he went in there with no help…nothing to protect him…" Ace reminded them, also to get them out of his face, he needed cool air… they went to their friend and talked to him for a while, with him looking weary pleased with himself…
He looked over to the little princess, sitting on the hood of the van. she looked shocked up… he also saw that she was staring at him, he felt her eyes on him.(not so surprising, there were a lot of people staring at him) but her eyes felt different, they weren't just admiring him. He felt the curiosity in them and the naÏve feeling in those dark brown orbs... soon he just couldn't help but walk up to her.
After Ace had jumped through the window, to Hailey it was all just a big blur… she stared at the man…that man who came jumping out of the fires like they hadn't hurt him at all… she was amazed at how brave that was, how brave he was. And now he was walking up to her… she felt her insides melt when she stared at him. His bare chest and his incredibly well toned torso… his stomach … gorgeous arms…
She suddenly realized what she was thinking about and quickly looked away from him; she felt her cheeks burning up…
"Hey" he said and smiled at her. She smiled back "hey" she said shyly and smiled.
"so what do you think?" he attempted to make her nervous, she was staring at him so hard that he thought that it would be fun to take her for a little ride, nothing big, just to give her little taste…
"I think that I'll be in weary safe in those hands" she said with a soft smile.
"y-you think…" he said and suddenly felt like he was forgetting something.
"Yes that was so brave of you." She smiled and with that Ace totally forgot that he was going to something. Her eyes felt like they could sink into his soul, but that didn't feel bad… it was so good for some reason
"Naah it was nothing really…" he scratched the back of his neck, "just my job" he grinned big.
"Some job, you are really brave doing this for a living"
"Oh stop!"
"…Is this what they were talking about adventure?" she asked suddenly in a shaking tone after a little while, she was still a little shocked. The fire man standing in front of her had walked in and out of the building and had actually jumped out of there with a child in his arms. After that the building had crashed to the ground before her eyes, and that was as much she had only seen in movies…
"Depends…what do you think adventure is?" he asked, after short moment, he took her in and saw that she was deep in thought
"I don't know, I've never had one…" she said and blushed
"That can't be! Everyone has had an adventure, come on what do you think…"
"Well…"
"Hey Ace come over here for a second!" another one of his partners were calling him
"Oh damn. But hey, think about it!" he ran over it his partner and saw that Thatch and Marco were both there.
"Hmm…" she thought about it for a while…
"Hello miss Cross…" a sly voice sounded behind her, made her look back quickly. "…hey calm down, no need to strain you neck…" there was a man there, long sort of curly hair went down into his eye that glared at her in a animal like manner, I little beard on his chin made the cocky smile get to her and made her shiver… but not in the way Ace made her shiver
"Hello, who are you…" she asked in a much too high voice than she intended it to be…
"You can call me Luccy and I think I should know you…" he said and seductive tone…
"Eeh I suppose the pictures in the paper helped you there…" Hailey was getting a little freaked out his eyes stared at her so passionately and lustfully…
"Indeed," he said and bowed to her, "it is truly an honor to be in your presence…"
"I'm not a princess, you don't have to bow to me" she said and hoped the tone she had would give him a clue. But no…
"Quite so, but you do indeed resemble a princess by beauty…"
"Oh…you!" she said and looked away embarrassed. She covered her cheeks and tried to get rid of the blush.
"Hey fire man… isn't that Luccy?" Marco asked when his eyes travelled to the mugiwara car…
Ace looked back, his blood froze in his body, what the hell was that bastard doing talking to her? No way would he let him get to her!
"Oh hell no!" he shot and ran as fast as he could to Hailey; she didn't know this man and could easily be hurt by him. She would not get hut under his watch…
"Hailey!" he said sharply and she looked at him, Ace was sure she looked relived when she saw him, but Luccy sure didn't. And Hailey saw that when Ace showed up into the picture the possessiveness in Luccy's eyes disappeared…
"What is it Ace?" she asked and stood up from the hood
"Go to Luffy, now!" she did as she was told without a single question
"Portgas." Luccy said coldly and shot him a nasty glare…
"Luccy…" he answered in an equally cold. "What are you doing here?" he asked and hid his hands in his pockets,
"just wanted to see what all the fuss was about" he said simply and like just to try his nerves Luccy shot his eyes to Hailey that was just walking away, back turned to them Luccy's eyes traveled down to her butt…
"just a burning building… surprised you didn't see it from far away" he didn't smile or anything when he was talking to him and that amused Luccy to no end, he knew how much Portgas hated him, he had a feeling his little game would be even more fun that he thought
"That's not what I'm talking about…" he gestured to the little princess talking to Luffy.
"You stay away from her, no one here wants trouble…" he warned him, eyes shooting fire at him…
"I'll stay away from her, but I can tell you there is trouble brewing…" he said and turned around. He walked casually away from him, leaving Ace mildly pissed off. He walked back to his friends frowning…
"What was that about?" Marco asked and grinned, "Someone stealing your lady away?" he asked teasingly and grinned, but stopped when he saw the dead serious…
"No, just Luccy, being… Luccy." He growled and let the others laugh about it…
He looked over at the little princess, she looked so easy going and soft, easy target for someone like Luccy… this had trouble written all over it… perhaps there was a reason for him to try and protect the little princess…
Luccy walked from his target feeling weary pleased with himself; his plan would be easy to get through with. The house had just been a phase, nothing like making a grand opening. That little girl looked as stupid as her father, she would make for an easy target…the only problem was now, that damn fire man…who did he think he was, she didn't belong to him. She should belong to Luccy, and she would belong to him. Now that he had met with the little princess and the next step would be easy to take care of…
Luccy smiled at himself as he looked back. Portgas was just standing there talking, what did he think he could do for her. Ace couldn't protect her from the dangers here...especially if someone were to accidentally lure her into the bad part of the city…
She wouldn't last a minuet in the red line…
A/N please R&R if you like this, i need a bit of motivation...oh and I'm sorry of the characters seem a bit ooc…don't hate me ;Þ