Flowers in Winter

Chapter three

Smoker tried to walk as smooth as possible, an extra lumpy scarf around his neck as he walked into the police building head quarters. The occupant inside the scarf kept squirming, softly talking in his ear, "Are we almost to a place I can get out? I'm really hot."

Smoker growled back, trying not to move his lips too much, least someone think he was going crazy. "I told you if you took the shirt, you could stay in my pocket instead."

"But that shirt was super ugly! I wouldn't wear it if it was the last thing on earth!" Ace complained, holding onto the tiny orange hat Smoker had bought him, along with a few outfits, for Christmas.

"You picked it out!" Smoker growled, forgetting to not move his lips. Luckily, they had made it to the office and only two people were in there. Unluckily, only one of the two people was who Smoker wanted to see.

Tashigi smiled, "Good morning, Smoker! Did you have a fun Christmas eating Chinese in front of the couch?"

Smoker rolled his eyes as Ace whispered, "Heh, didn't get around to eating much of that."

Hina tapped her nails on the desk, making Smoker's eye twitch in annoyance. He got out a cigar and a lighter, but as he put the rolled stick in his mouth, he noticed Tashigi and Hina staring at the lighter he pulled out. He looked at it and rolled his eyes. It had purple flames all over it, topped by a pimp hat, and to get fire, you tipped the pimp hat back. Ace had picked it out and he had paid for it without even looking at it. Now he was regretting that choice of action. He growled and lit his cigar before putting it away.

Tashigi blinked in surprise, "Smoker, that's a bit of an…unusual type of lighter to pick out."

Hina just burst out laughing.

Smoker growled again before taking off his scarf and revealing the tiny human sitting on his shoulder. The cop pointed to Ace, saying, "He picked it out."

Ace waved a bit, smiling. "Hi, My name is Portages D. Ace, but you can just call me Ace."

Hina stopped laughing and watched as the mini human walked down smoker's arm and jumped onto the desk, walking around in his bare feet, a pair of shorts, and his orange hat.

Tashigi tilted her head, "Where did you come from?"

Hina said at the same time, "Why is he so small?"

Smoker looked at Ace, smiling, "Answer them, I'm going to sit here and smoke."

Ace looked at the two women and scratched the back of his head. "Um… Well. I don't know why I'm so small, but I came from the flower-"He was interrupted by Tashigi giving a gasp and picking up his hat from off of his head.

"Oi! Give that back! It's my hat!" He started jumping for it, before giving a yelp as Hina picked him up and started flipping him over and looking at him from every angle. He scrambled off her hand and ran over to smoker, crawling up his arm to perch on his shoulder, half hidden behind the cop's neck.

Tashigi smiled and awed, "That's so cute…"

Hina smirked, "Though, Hina doesn't know why Ace would run to Smoker. Smoker is a bad tempered grey haired gorilla who doesn't know how to treat woman right."

Smoker was also curious as to why the beta human ran to him. He looked towards Ace as best as he could, but was stopped as Ace climbed up in his hair and sat there.

Tashigi leaned forward and perched the orange hat back on Ace's head with a small smile. She then turned to Smoker, "So you didn't just sit in front of the TV eating Chinese again this year. My wish came true."

Smoker snorted, "I would have been perfectly happy eating Chinese in front of the TV. Unfortunately, this brat ate it all before I could get a single bite in."

"Oi! I was hungry! What was I supposed to do; I had just been born…technically. Besides, chicken and broccoli tastes good…" Ace smiled in memory of the large meal.

Smoker shook his head slightly, sitting behind his desk and starting to work on the mountain of papers left over from Christmas. Ace climbed down from the top of his head to explore the wide expanse that was the cop's desk.

His exploration was cut short as Tashigi picked him up again, this time holding him in her hands. He looked up at her and blinked curiously.

She smiled, "Are you hungry? I don't really want the rest of my muffin." She said as she strode over to her desk and set him upon it. He instantly brightened and, despite Smoker's injections of 'he just ate!', promptly started wolfing down the rest of the pastry.

Hina shook her head and left the room as Ace leaned back and went to sleep in the wrapper.

Lbh: ok, that is it for a little while. I know the chap is short, but I have been really busy and am really tired, so I figured a short chapter is better than a crappy chapter. Anyway, thank you all who read this, and I adore reviews. Despite all thoughts, they do encourage me and I do get them.

Reviews make the world go round and my day happy!