Chapter Six: The Captain and His Words

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea."
~Isak Dinesen

Faye pushed the notebook and pen away from her as the tears finally came down. She missed Mia, her best friend, more than ever. Remember when she said some things needed to be locked away so that weakness couldn't be used again? This was one of those moments.

She wanted to lock away everything that she as feeling. The sorrow had already eaten away most of her soul, and now it was savoring the rest.

"Why…?" she whispered into the empty room. "Why Mia? Why not me, or someone else? She had so much to live for… I was only a reject of a human. I needed to die." The only answer given was another small breeze from the sea below her.

She sighed, wiping the salty tears away from her wrinkled cheeks.

She wouldn't dwell in the past. It had happened, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Seems I've lost count of the times I have cheated death."

But that was another story for another time.

---

I didn't watch as we sailed away from Loguetown. I didn't listen orders where shouted out to our next destination. No one touched me, or even got near me for that matter, as I sat off in a corner by the stairs that lead up to the quarter deck. My bag was propped against the railing, shifting every now and then whenever the ship hit a rocky wave.

That's exactly what my life was.

It was a ship hitting the rockiest waves through the worst storm. There were tall and fast ups with slow, bottomless downs.

I know, I sound like a very pathetic damsel in distress, but to tell you the truth…that is what I was.

I was pathetic, hiding away and definitely in distress. Sure my Prince Charming wasn't exactly as I had expected (he didn't have shining armor and I still think he was lying about the whole "falling asleep" thing,) but oh well. Beggars don't whine.

Speak of the devil, here comes my "Prince" as we speak.

It was quiet again, not exactly quiet like it was back at the shop (just that thought made me go into another round of tears) but it was still an uneasy one. Ace sat beside me, moving the bag over so he could take its place.

I wouldn't like at him, I couldn't. I could still remember that just yesterday afternoon she was alive and well, flirting like she always was. And here was the main cause of her death.

"Go away." He didn't budge. He only moved closer. "I said, go away." Think of a threat, Faye. Those work really well! Think of one that will make him run home to his momma with his tail between his legs.

I finally looked at him; he was staring at me. "Are you deaf? I SAID–"

"I know what you said, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it." I was shocked speechless. Great, now Mister "Hero" is being stubborn. Just another thing I need to add to my list…

I turned my eyes away from him and stared at the cracks in the wooden wall behind the stairs. I had nothing else to say to him. If he wanted to sit next to an emotionally-confused woman, more power to him.

Damn it was quiet. Where was everybody? NO. I wasn't going to give in and look around. I could feel Ace's brown eyes burning holes into the back of my head. I wasn't going to give in any longer and let me just be putty in his hands. I was a woman, god damn it. I was as stubborn as a mule, as sly as a fox, yet as beautiful as a peacock when I showed my true colors.

"You're going to have to move on, sooner or later." Whoa, WHAT?

This time, I couldn't stop myself from snapping my head back over to look at him.

"Excuse me?!" I bellowed, not particularly happy with him anymore. "You did not just say that!"

Of course he wouldn't be fazed by me. I was just putting up a cover to protect myself from being seen as the broken girl. His brown eyes pushed past the already tumbling walls and right into the true me. The girl who was really shattered, not broken, inside; the girl who was needing someone to pick up the pieces and put them back together no matter how hard it was or how much pain they had to endure from the broken pieces.

Ace sighed, and covered his face with his hands. "I'm not good at these things, okay?!"

I blinked, my angered exterior disappeared.

I couldn't help but laughed. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind; I think I did just lose my mind.

And then there went the tears. My laugh turned into sobs and I buried my face in his shoulder.

Like I said, I am an emotionally-confused girl right now.

"You really don't know how to comfort a girl when she's in her time of need, do you?"

"Well, I've never needed to be a Prince Charming before, so this is new to me."

I laughed again. Well, while I'm out of my mind, I might as well get to know this guy. Who knows how long it will take to get to the next island.

"Where am I going to sleep?" I asked. I was actually curious about this one. The ship didn't look big enough to hold but only the Captain's quarters, the crew's quarters (which were probably under us as we speak) and maybe a storage room beside the captain's quarters.

"Well, seeing as you wouldn't be too happy to sleep with the crew," I made a face, but he couldn't see it. "I'll just give you my bed, and I'll take over this shift for the crow's nest for the night. Ratch needs the sleep, anyways."

No…could I really take his bed from him?

"Alright, that's fine." Well, I guess I could.

Ace muttered something under his breath; I guess he thought he could keep his bed.

"Come on, then." Suddenly, I was lifted from the deck and standing on my feet. I wiped my eyes, trying to get the salty feeling off my cheeks and out of my eyes. Ace had already grabbed my bag and slung it over his shoulder. Then, he gently took my elbow and pulled me into the captain's quarters.

It was quite homey looking. The walls were of a dark wood with a few lamps and lanterns scatted across the room. There was a desk, looking as if it was rarely used but for only storing useless junk, that had a few opened maps and books on the surface. I couldn't exactly see what they were from my position, but they looked quite old.

The bed was big, not exactly on the level of huge, but it looked big enough to hold two to three people if needed. The sheets and comforter were of a dark red and black pillows lay at the top of the bed against the wall. It looked mighty comfortable right now.

"Night," and with that, I was alone in Ace's room.

Before my head had even touched the pillow, I was asleep.

---

And then I woke up.

My breathing was labored, and my mind wasn't exactly in the best position to know what was real and what was a dream. It was suddenly too hard to breath; the room had gotten stuffy over the few hours I had been asleep.

I sat up slowly and swept my sweaty bangs away from my eyes. I couldn't see anything but a small piece of the floor from where the moon filtered in through a window. I could smell the sea. It was a thick scent, something that comforted me and scared me at the same time. I hadn't exactly been out to see for awhile now. I wasn't used to the up-and-down feeling just yet.

Wrapping the sheet around my now bare shoulders, I slung my feet over the side of the bed and touched the floor. I could feel my clothes (what was with me and pulling my clothes off in the middle of the night? This has never happened before, until now…).

My feet slid across the floor, that way I wouldn't step on something that would make any type of injury to my foot.

My hand reached out for the door and I luckily got it on the first try. After I was out of the stuffy room and into the fresh ocean air, I could breathe perfectly. I took a few deep breaths and slowly let them out. It soothed me.

Gradually, my eyes ghosted across the deck and then followed the mast up to the small area of the crow's nest. What I did next surprised me greatly.

I tied the sheet around my body tightly, making sure it wouldn't fall if I let go of it, and began to grip at the net that led off to where I knew Ace was. Why was I going up there? Because I didn't want to be alone right now; I was at my most vulnerable and I wanted to be with someone. Ace was the only man on this ship that I trusted even if it was just a small bit.

After I had hoisted myself up the whole way, I peaked over the edge of the wooden platform and looked at Ace.

He was staring off at the sea, not knowing that I had just climbed the whole way up here in a sheet and what I called "undergarments". (Just so you know those "undergarments" were nothing more than a few pieces of clothes sewed together just so I could have something under my clothing.

"Got any room for another?" I asked out of the blue. He jumped slightly; surprised to see me already halfway in the small opening that was used for an entrance and exit. Ace was helping me in, careful not to let his hands slip into the opening folds of the sheet. Once I was fully in and leaning against one side of the crow's nest, him on the other, I fixed the sheet to still cover what needed to be covered.

"What are you doing up here?"

"I couldn't sleep." Simple as that.

"Oh…"

There was a silence between us, neither comfortable nor awkward. It was just there because we had nothing else to say.

I looked at Ace, he looked at me.

"I want to apologize for… for how I acted earlier. I'm not a very good person to be around when I'm emotional, or, well… I'm not a good person to be around as it is." And then, there was that grin again.

Everything went back to normal within just those few seconds between us. I definitely had a new adventure before me. Maybe I was already moving on, away from Mai's death, and I didn't know it…

"It's 'kay. I can understand why you were what you were. It's only human."

Those last three words finally made me realize something that I hadn't before.

We're all human (save for the few who weren't) and we all made mistakes, we all had our emotional-breakdown moments, and we all died (sooner or later).

"You know, Ace, you're okay once you get past the flirty exterior."

And we were back to our old jokes and fun. Sure, we weren't exactly friends and we were exactly acquaintances. We knew each other, hell we knew a lot about each other if we would just realize it, but we didn't have the relationship that friends had.

"Thanks. You aren't so bad yourself, Faye."

My heart fluttered. Damn, I loved the way he said my name– WHOA. Slow down, Faye. You just met the guy!

"CAPTAIN!" The both of us looked over the edge of the crows next at the yell, and saw; uh…what's his name? Oh yeah! We saw Hank making as much noise as he could. Why was he trying to wake everybody up? "Captain Ace! We got Marines on our tail, and they're coming up quick!"

Wow, Marines? How did they catch up to us so fast?

Both Ace and me looked away from Hank and then to behind the ship.

Sure enough, we had marines coming after us.

Well damn. Yet another peaceful moment ruined.

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A/N: Okay, I hate this chapter SO much more than I hated the last chapter. Again, no inspiration, but I do have a bunch of ideas. Although, the main ideas for this chapter I actually got from girlkitsune. She has become my new best friend. :D

OH, YEAH. Do you know how many hits this story has gotten? 825 hits! You know how happy that makes me? It makes me so happy, that you get another chapter tomorrow! (hopefully we'll hit 1k hits by Kwanz-anaku-stmas!

Also, I know you all have lots of questions, and, I want you all to review what those questions are! I want to make sure all the questions you have are answered somewhere in the story. If they already have been answered, yet you still ask, I'll point out where the answer is and put you under my "I love my gifted-retards" list. :D That sound good? OH, and I want songs! Anything that you suggest me listening to, tell me about it! I need something to listen to while writing chapters. (I was mainly listening to Incubus, Coldplay, Rihanna, and Beyonce while writing this.)

TrulyMadlyDeeply Yours,
Bri.