Freckles
chapter 17
Lying on her bed, Eli was finishing her letter to Hiyoko when Nami entered the girls' bedroom. Raising her eyes from her letter Eli looked questioningly at the redhead standing in the middle on the room with her arms crossed. She saw her inspect the room with a frowning face.
For the sake of her privacy, Eli closed her book to hide the letter.
"What's up Nami ?" She asked sitting up on her knees.
Nami's frown furrowed deeper.
"What's up you ask Eli ? Take a look at the room ! Your stuff are all over the place. I can't even walk without stepping on one of your dirty panties !" She snarled pointing an accusative finger at the girl.
"I'm busy Nami ! I'll take care of it later." Eli ranted annoyedly.
Nami took an heavy step toward the girl.
"I told you to take care of it three days ago !"
Eli's face darken at the redhead's aggressive behavior. She stood up, towering above the girl in a menacing manner.
"I SAID I'll do it later !" she snarled through her gritted teeth.
"Like I'll believe you... LAZY ASS !"
"At least mine isn't FAT !" Eli sputtered scornfully.
Nami pulled the girl's hair furiously.
"SKINNY BITCH !"
"BALLBREAKER HARPY !" Eli grabbed Nami shoulder, tearing the strap of her camisole.
Nami gasped, and glared at the sneering girl.
"You riped my top !!!"
"You should be grateful, it made you look like a PORN STAR !"
"At least I'm not FLAT AS A BOARD !"
"Click"
Nothing calming about this clicking sound, yet the girls' fury instantly vaporised. Soon to be replaced by something greater, darker, and far more wicked.
Usopp, Luffy, Ace, and Sanji were spying Eli and Nami's fight from the stairs. Their faces grew dim seeing the girls' vicious eyes focused on them.
Usopp let out a frightened noise.
"They're... coming..." he sputtered running out of the room.
"Wasn't such a good idea was it..." Ace trailed off. "Sanji, I think they're coming for you."
But Sanji didn't hear the warning, his loving eyes never leaving the two frenzied women through his treacherous camera.
The girls exchanged a knowingly glance, and without further ado Eli rushed forward, grabbed the banister, and flipped gracefully her legs forward landing on the pervy cook's back.
With a prolonged, gut-wrenched, shriek of pain, Sanji dropped the camera .
The girl wasn't really the sadistic type, but this once, his cry of pain send a shiver of delight through her spine. Nami stomped repeatedly on the device, until nothing but dust was left.
Once Eli hopped off the whinny young man's back Luffy grabbed him carelessly. Ace and the boy bowed apologetically walking backwards.
They sure did look scared. The girls burst out laughing when the door closed.
"You are really good Eli."
"Thanks, and sorry for the mess, I'll take care of it right now."
"I'll help you."
And that's how Nami and Eli's indefectible friendship started.
Sitting at the kitchen's table, the crew was watching Nami and Ace fighting as if it was a ping pong match.
"How can the entrance be a mountain ?!" Nami said angrily pointing a finger in the young man's shoulder.
"Chill out Nami !" Ace said grabbing her wrist. "Look at the map."
The navigator sighed annoyingly and leaned forward to examine the map carefully.
"... Is that a canal ?"
She looked at Ace questioningly.
The young man nodded.
"Yup."
"Don't be stupid ! Even with a canal, there's no way a ship can climb a mountain !" Usopp said bewildered.
Taking a look at the map Sanji and Eli confirmed that, as mad as it sounded, there was indeed a canal going up the mountain. Eli smiled. Grand Line was really something else, even its entrance was an adventure.
"It's a Mysterious Mountain !" Luffy laughed.
Nami cleared her throat, imposing the silence in the room.
"Maybe the stream of East Blue pushes the water up the canal." She said in an uncertain tone. "Anyway we should reach the mountain in two days, we'll see then."
Eli was in her bed, staring at the ceiling to try to clear her mind, but the girl wasn't even slightly tired. She sighed rolling on her side.
"Hey Nami..." She whispered, hoping that the redhead was having an insomnia fit too, at least she could talk to someone.
But unfortunately for her the girl was sound asleep.
Two more days... She thought.
Grand Line was getting closer and her future adventures obsessed the girl's imagination continuously. Everything was possible there, that was the place were all the most wonderful tales came from; Giants, cities of gold, dragons, mermaids, treasures... As excitement send a shiver through her body she started giggling.
Hearing Nami whine in her sleep, she buried herself under her sheets until the giggles faded.
I might as well get up.
She slipped out of her bed silently, and tiptoed out of the bedroom. Walking through the dark storage room the girl bumped in different objects. A barrel "Ouch", a wooden box "Gya !" a cannon "FRAK !", another barrel "COME ON !".
Finally finding the door she let out a sigh of relief before turning around to glare at the evil obstacles.
"I'll kick your asses you know I can..."
Her glare furrowed as if she waited for them to reply.
"Good !"
Walking outside and up to the lounge she rubbed her arms vigorously as the sharp cold of the night made her shake and shiver.
"... What are you doing here..." She asked slowly scanning the room.
From left to right Ace, Luffy, and Sanji were in the room, eating, eating more, and smoking.
"Mellorine..."
Oh no...
Eli looked at her outfit. Her night shirt was large but barely long enough to cover her panties. She slapped her forehead seeing Sanji executing his 'loving dance'.
"Mellorine mellorine..."
Should I go ALL the way back through the evil storage room TWICE or just stay like that ? Eli pondered. Luffy and Ace won't care after all...
"Mellorine mello-"
"Sanji ?"
"Yes Mellorine ?"
She walked to him and brought her lips to his ear.
"I have no underwear..." She whispered teasingly.
A few minutes later Sanji finally unfroze, and the four of them decided to play cards.
"Let's play Pirate King !" Luffy said ecstatically.
Eli rolled her eyes.
"... You always want to play Pirate King Luffy."
And you always win, she though bitterly.
The worse thing was that he always won not because of his strategic skills, the boy was way to slow, but out of pure luck, or instinct, or fate... There's was no way to know what it was, but anyway it was getting on the long time losers' nerves.
"Do you know any other card game during which he won't eat the cards ?" Ace commented wryly.
The young man made a point, it was Pirate King or nothing.
After a few seconds, probably the time for his brain to process the jeer.
"HEY !" Luffy yelled diving onto his brother.
"What's Pirate King ?" Sanji asked ignoring the two brothers' wrestle.
Since Luffy, Ace, and Eli had invented the game back in Fuschia it was natural for him to have no knowledge of it.
"First of all we need to be four, which is perfect. I guess we could also be six or eight, but it'll get really tricky. Then we have to be divided in two pairs, and-"
"I'll be your partner Elisabeth !" Sanji jerked up raising his hand up in the air.
"Sorry man, but she's mine."
Ace smirked tying a knot out of his little brother's limbs.
"Yup we have a long time revenge to satisfy." She said.
Her face darkened remembering the half-splitting grin on Luffy face after every game they had lost.
"Anyway... Prior to the game, partners confer to create secret signals to indicate their pair what cards they need, any kind of signal is allowed as long as it is voiceless. If you talk you are excluded of the game. Also partners have to sit diagonal each other."
"This... is the One Piece." Eli said showing the joker. "The goal of the game is to have no card in your hand except for the One Piece."
"The dealer deals all of the cards to the players. Then during the first phase players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have. During phase two, and once every turn, partners can exchange a card, that's when the signals are used. If it is too obvious the other players can take a guess at one of the cards, except for the One Piece, if it's correct the trade is canceled, if they are wrong their trade is canceled in return. Then, beginning with the dealer, the player on his left offer his hand facedown. That person selects a card and adds it to his hand. If the selected card makes a pair with their original cards the pair is discarded, then he offers his hand to the person to their right and so on."
"Of course you don't HAVE to discard a pair. If you only have a pair and not the One Piece in your hand you can keep it, if not you loose..."
"The winner has to be called Pirate King during the next day, and him and the winner in second have to agree on a forfeit for the losers."
"Let's play ! Let's play !" Luffy said jumping up and down.
"There's one last rule ! when one of the players is incapacitated like... I don't know... let's say... fall asleep !"
Eli stared heavily at Ace.
"His cards are shuffled and dealt to the remaining players, and no more trade are allowed. Is that clear ?"
"Crystal clear Elisabeth !"
"Ok now team meeting !"
Eli sat across Sanji, Luffy on Eli's right, Ace across Luffy, and Sanji on Ace's right. As soon as the girl dealt the cards, the game started.
Surprisingly Eli had the One Piece in her hand. That happened once every hundred games.
Heh this is a good start, she thought.
Everyone got rid of their pairs, and Eli rested her foot on Ace's knee. Luffy's signals were as obvious as the nose on Usopp's face. He actually showed the numbers with his fingers. So Ace canceled their trade on the spot. Eli had to entrust the One Piece to Ace so that Luffy won't pick it up. She tapped the number of the card she needed on the young man's leg with her foot, while faking signals with her hands.
The game went on well for a while. Each time Sanji picked the One Piece from Ace, he warned her tapping her foot so she could follow the card and pick it right away. The cook tried to shuffle his hand, but Eli's eyesight was too fast.
Cheating ? No... The girl was merely using her 'natural' abilities, that's all.
She giggled inwardly, they actually had a chance to win this time.
But Sanji wasn't stupid. It didn't take him a long time to figure that Eli and Ace's obvious hand signals were fake. He took a pick under the table.
Damn !
Eli had hardly ever seen this expression on the cook's face. Pure boiling wrath, and it was really, REALLY scary. She didn't have to be a genius to understand what caused it since the young man's burning eyes were focused on Ace.
The sight of the girl foot on Ace's leg and his hand curled up around it must have triggered it. And the freckled man's smirk wasn't helping calming down the love cook's dangerous anger.
Damn ! We had a chance... Eli though biting her bottom lip.
On impulse Eli rubbed her foot gently against Sanji's leg to prevent him from ruining her game.
"...Mello-"
"Sanji OUT !" Luffy yelled, excluding his own partner.
Eli slapped her forehead.
That was frakingly stupid, she scolded herself.
Now it was between Ace, Luffy and her, and she had absolutely chance of winning.
Stupid stupid...
"Huh was I asleep ?" Ace asked sluggishly. "Who won ?"
Eli was slumped on the table across the young man.
"Luffy obviously... Hey Sanji ! Freckles is awake."
Sanji walked to the girl and handed her a plate.
"Elisabeth... Do I really have to do it ?" He said pleadingly. "It is really embarrassing..."
Eli nodded nibbling on her cinnamon french-toast. She snapped her fingers, pointed him and Ace, and showed them the door with her thumb.
"What ?" Ace asked stealing a toast from the girl's plate.
The cook sighed glaring at the young man.
"Come on..."
Seeing Ace and Sanji walking in the room Eli high-fived Luffy. This was like a fantasy coming true, even better.
"What the hell ?" Usopp muttered looking at the two young men.
"They lost a game." Eli replied, delight in her voice.
She rested her chin in the palms of her hands, her lips curled up into a blissful smirk.
"And as you can see their forfeit was to exchange their clothes."
Too bad we broke the camera...
The next day the crew was on the deck waiting for the ship to reach Reverse Mountain. The tension was tangible. Well, except for Luffy. The straw hat boy was following Sanji everywhere demanding to be fed.
How can he be hungry ? Eli wondered feeling the butterflies in her stomach multiplying as the minutes passed.
Perceiving the ship accelerate she stood up briskly to see what was going on.
"Guys, I think you should come check this out...."
Luffy and Usopp's jaws dropped seeing that the ship was heading right into Red Line.
"Oh frak..." Eli muttered.
As the ship got closer, they could spot the 'mysterious' canal.
"To starboard !" Nami yelled at Sanji, Ace, and Usopp who were trying to steer the rudder.
But the stream was so strong that the whip-staff broke in their hands.
Luffy inflated himself just in time to bounce the ship away from the cliff.
Eli's eyes widened seeing it brushing the canal's door in slow motion.
That was close, she thought letting a deep sigh of relief escape her mouth.
The pirates watched in amazement as their ship was shot up the canal at a tremendous speed. When they reached the top of the mountain it was hurled in the air for a few seconds.
A few seconds of divine ecstasy.
"We're FLYING !!" Eli and Luffy yelled euphorically.
Going down now, the Merry was even faster than before. With this emotional roller-coaster adrenaline kept rushing in the girl's veins. She could feel her pulse throughout her entire body and that felt frakingly good.
"Congratulation little brother."
Ace was behind the boy smiling.
Luffy looked over his shoulder.
"Ace ! We're going to Grand Line !"
Impulsively Eli jumped on Ace's back ecstatically and shouted : "LET'S GO !" shooting an arm in the air.
to be continued
Eli can be such a tease... (poor Sanji)
It's is the fic's 1 month birthday :)
Happy birthday ! Woo !
*puts her hands in the air and drinks lychee like she just doesn't care*
I'm having more fun writing it than one month ago, and my dear readers you are part of this happiness.
Thank you for visiting, hitting, following, favoriting, and of course reviewing.
Really Shibo26 ? And yet I thought we was only saving the integrity of his food... She's my hero ; o ;
I try to update every two days ThexWhitexPhoenix :)
Hi there hi there ! Etowaru's name doesn't come from Edward Elric, nor FMA. Try again ! huhuhu...
Here's more Emma0707, and I LOVE Ace too :3 (obviously)
Thank you Tropicall ! And also thank you for your advices, I'll try applying them (already starting to). About the lovey-dovey scenes you'll have to be a bit patient those things take time :)