Spoiler alert : don't read (at least the last part) if you haven't read One Piece chapter 550 (or been spoiled before reading other fics).
Chapter 34
Newfound Fetish
After paying for the bottomless pit's bill, Ace and Eli met with Chopper at the café. Since the sun was starting to set in the horizon, they decided to look for a hotel for the night. The pirates opted for a cute and quite cheap hotel located near Ido's entrance. They made a reservation for two large rooms and walked outside to wait for their crewmates at the town entrance.
Looking around lazily, Eli yawned as she noticed that the town's liveliness was starting to falter as the sky reddened.
Within the nearly empty street, Eli's lips curled up when she noticed a building with a 'Bath-house' sign. Taking a bath would be a perfect recreation to conclude this highly lazy day in her opinion. Therefore, and without warning her companions, Eli walked bouncily toward the bath-house and walked in, completely unaware of the townspeople's frightened stares and their warning gestures.
"Boy or girl ?" the matron asked harshly as soon as Eli entered the establishment. She was a tall and portly woman with curly hair and a dark frown on her face.
"Heh ? What ? Hrm, girl..." Eli stammered, blinking as she was a bit incredulous before the woman's extreme rudeness.
After a few seconds examining her customer, the woman turned around to pick a bath towel, gave it to Eli, and pushed the dazed girl roughly to the women's changing room. Looking over her shoulder, Eli saw the matron welcoming Ace and Chopper with a grunt before throwing towels at them.
Wow...
Oddly, the changing room was empty but thankfully sparkling clean. While taking off her clothes, Eli wondered if bath-owner's rudeness might have had something to do with the low attendance rate of her establishment.
Eli wrapped herself up in the towel, took her soap and shampoo, and entered the bath room. It was fairly big and simply decorated, and the ambient steam carried a nice and light smell of jasmine. The fact that she was alone inside gave Eli the enjoyable feeling that she was some kind of VIP.
After taking a quick shower. Eli tiptoed to the bath with a blissful smile on her face which only grew larger as she dipped the tip of her foot in the warm water... However, when she immersed herself in the bath... a frightful thought made its way to her mind...
What if I drown ?
After all, Eli was all alone in the bath that seemed to grow larger as the seconds passed; there was no one to save her from the delightful yet treacherous water. It would be a really stupid kind of death if the girl was found drowned in these shallow, jasmine-scented waters.
Hearing her crewmates' voices on the other side of the wall, Eli sighed in relief... and soon rolled her eyes noticing that it wasn't reaching the ceiling, a defect that the girl had found recurrent in all the bath-houses she had been to. And apparently Alasbastan baths weren't an exception to this rule. Were the bath-house architects of this world some kind of freaky perverts ?
Eli quickly moved to the bath's blind spot in fear of Ace's facetiousness.
"Hey !" she called out. "Are you alone ?"
"Yup," Ace replied. "And you ?"
"Yup."
Apparently, the bath-owner's rudeness wasn't only driving the female customers away from her establishment...
Slumping lazily in the warm water, Eli let a soft moan of delight escape her mouth. She rested her elbows on the bath's rim and closed her eyes to fully enjoy the relaxing immersion, the soft scent of jasmine filling her nostrils.
"Are you alive ?" Eli asked after a few minutes.
"Yes, why ?" Chopper asked.
"Well... since the three of us ate a devil fruit, and one of us is narcoleptic... I thought it would be kinda stupid to drown in a bath-house."
"Oh..."
Stretching out her legs, Eli rubbed her muscles to unwind them. As her pearl dipped into the hot water, the girl smiled seeing it glow. She raised it to her eyes and complimented herself for the nice idea she had. What a nice gift it was...
"Hey, are you still alive ?" Ace asked.
"Yup."
As relaxing as the bath was, Eli felt a little guilty thinking about her other crewmates... They had been walking through the desert the whole day whereas Ace, Chopper and herself had spent half of the day doing close to nothing. The sorry girl hoped that the group would soon arrive in Ido so that they could have time to enjoy themselves, too. Nami had been talking about how she would love to take a bath ever since they had left Cocoyashi, and Eli could easily picture how thrilled the redhead would be if she was able to savor a jasmine-scented delight.
"Still alive ?" Eli asked sluggishly.
No answer.
"Are you still alive ?" she repeated a bit louder.
Still nothing.
Eli's eyes widened as the image of her two friends drowned in the steamy bath loomed in her mind. She emerged from the water brusquely with a loud splashing sound, covered her body with her towel, and climbed up a small fountain to reach the top of the wall.
"Why didn't you answer ?" she yelled angrily, seeing Chopper, thankfully very much alive, sitting in the bath with a goofy smile on his face.
"It was his idea," the little reindeer replied, pointing in the direction of the angry girl.
His...?
Ace popping out right in front of her made Eli jump with a loud gasp of surprise and almost fall back. Thankfully, her reflexes were good, and she grabbed the wall's rim, letting out a deep sigh of relief as soon as she regained her balance.
Apparently, Eli's reaction must have been quite comical since it made Chopper giggle goofily.
"Why did you do that, MORON ?" Eli scowled at the mischievous man before her.
His elbow on the wall's brim, Ace rested his chin in his hand. "I wanted to check if you'd actually come," he said, smirking.
Dumbass... Eli thought, glaring at him until... she really saw him...
That was when Eli discovered that she had a fetish for wet Aces...
Oh, god... Eli gulped involuntary, contemplating her friend.
Drops of water rolling from his wet, shaggy hair, gliding down on his boyish freckles. His glistening black eyes diving into hers... His roguish smile mocking her childishly. And trailing down... following the drops' sluggish course, the toned skin of his chest glittering lecherously...
RETREAT RETREAT, her internal alarm warned. You've been staring for much too long !
Eli took a tiny step back, but she still gaped at the attractive young man standing only a few centimeters away from her.
MOVE !
After taking a larger step back Eli did not realize that she was gradually falling backwards... What she did realize, though, was the look on Ace's face which had quickly turned from smug amusement into pure alarm.
Uh oh...
It was approximately at that moment that Eli remembered she was standing on a small fountain and that behind her, there was nothing to step on. However, it was a bit too late for that realization since the wall was already out of reach.
And with a loud yet short shriek, Eli tumbled... and splashed right into the bath on her behind.
"Ow ow ow..."
"Are you alright ?" Ace asked urgently, climbing up the wall in motion to join his friend.
"BACK OFF, SICKO !" the matron yelled, hurling a wooden basin right into Ace's face, effectively sending him flying into the male side of the bath-house.
"Hey ! Are you alright, missy ?" she asked, looking at Eli.
"Yeah..." Eli winced rubbing her aching behind. "Thanks..." She stood up and walked to the changing room dizzily...
Damn !
Her hands behind her neck, Eli was lying on a bench outside of the bath-house, waiting for Ace and Chopper to come out. Try as she might, the snapshot of Ace's hotness did not seem to falter from her mind. A deep sigh escaped her mouth as her tingling legs prompted her to stand up and run... She stretched them upwards, pointing her toes toward the dark sky.
How troublesome it was to have a good-looking friend... Ever since the 'incident' in the winter kingdom, Eli was having a hard time dealing with him casually. There were times when Ace seemed to be acting like he used to before the 'thing', but then he'd take her in his arms and she was confused again.
It made Eli wonder, did she really know him as much as she thought...?
Gazing at the stars glimmering faintly, Eli sighed again, and slowly, the face of the man she loved faded into her troubled mind.
Etowaru...
Aside from the eyes they shared from time to time, Ace was nothing like him.
His black hair was shaggy and untamed while Etowaru's was sleek and dark with elegant tints of silver. Ace had this annoying mischievous boy's smile whereas Etowaru's was always warm and gentle. And above all, the feeling of being like a cat on a hot tin roof whenever she was with the childish flame user utterly clashed with how calm and at peace she felt when Etowaru was by her side...
That was love. Ace was really more like a playmate.
But why did she even need to compare them...?
"Elisabeth~"
Sitting up, Eli smiled seeing her pirate friends walking over to her. She stood up and sadly observed the pathetic state of the group; they looked completely dried, worn-out, hungry, and annoyed...
"You are so fresh and you smell so good~" Sanji said, using his remaining strength to whirl around Eli, albeit slower than usual.
"Well... thanks, Sanji." She smiled, amused. "You look drained, and you smell like sweat."
"Did you... take a bath ?" Nami asked with a slightly cracked voice, leaning forward to smell Eli.
Eli nodded sheepishly to the frowning redhead and, to ease her anger, pointed at the bath-house on the spot.
Weary as could be, the pirates shuffled over to the establishment, quietly greeting Ace and Chopper on their way.
Upon seeing Ace, the tingling sensation in Eli's legs increased. She suddenly needed to move as much as she needed to breathe.
"I'll go find a tavern," she told her two crewmates, and without waiting, she started walking through the city.
But of course the young man and the reindeer joined her; therefore, Eli found herself speeding up unconsciously while inwardly preparing herself to face all the things Ace could say to annoy her and how she should react to them... 'You looked kinda stupid there' would earn him a glare and some insults. 'I can't believe she let you go in the women's side' would be a simple efficient punch in the face. 'Did you see something you liked ?'... Well, for that, Eli would kick him in the privates, run away, and then the humiliated girl would have to join another pirate crew.
The one thing she wasn't prepared to face was his silence.
Come on, say something, I know you want to... Eli frowned staring forward.
Ace wasn't even smirking; he was just there, as if nothing had happened, and that silence was killing her slowly, she couldn't wait, he had to put an end to her suffering, her mental health was at stake...
"Eli-"
"What ? What do you want ? You have something to say ? Spit it out !" Eli blabbered frantically, glaring at Ace.
To that, the young man not only blinked in puzzlement, but also gaped and stared at her for a few seconds before clearing his throat.
"There's a tavern right over there," Ace said, pointing to the entrance of a tavern that Eli had missed as she was too focused on her thoughts.
"Oh..." Eli followed them sheepishly, putting her hands in her pockets.
"Eli," Chopper whispered to her ear. "Is it that moment of the month ?"
Oh how stupid he was, and how unlucky he was to be in his human form, for if she had looked at his cute face instead, Eli's wrath might have lessened, but he wasn't in cute form and Eli's rage was unstoppable... She launched her fist into the doctor's stomach, sending him flying to the other side of the street...
After a good and huge dinner in the good company of her friends, Eli felt a little better. She joined Zoro at the bar and order some litchi liqueur, the sweet taste of her favorite drink putting the final touch on her raised spirits.
"Look look !" Eli elbowed the swordsman with a goofy grin when she saw two men eyeing Nami and Vivi.
"What ?" Zoro asked sharply.
"Those two guys," she said quietly, pointing toward the two men with her chin as discretely as she could. "Looks like they want to eat Vivi and Nami alive !"
Zoro looked at the two men, then at Nami and Vivi, and at last back at Eli, raising high a do-I-look-like-I-care eyebrow.
You might be cool, Zoro... but you're so not fun... Eli sighed, slumping on the bar, and looked absently at her small glass of litchi.
"Hey," Ace greeted. "What's up ?"
"Freckles !" Eli grinned thinking that Ace would surely be a better company than the grumpy swordsman. "Look over there, the two guys, they're totally checking Nami and Vivi out."
"Really ?" Ace discreetly turned his head to look over his shoulder at the said men. "You're right," he said with a smirk.
"Ohohoh they're moving," Eli said excitedly. "I betcha they get to say less than ten words before Sanji kicks them out."
"Ten ?" Ace huffed. "You're underestimating Sanji... I say less than five."
The both of them attentively scrutinized the men's every move; the would-be suitors walked slowly toward the pirates' table elbowing each other repeatedly with goofy smiles plastered on their faces. As they got only a step away from the girls, Eli was on the starting blocks to count.
"Hi-"
In a split second, before the girls could even notice the men's presence, Sanji stood up and wiped them away with a swift lateral kick.
Ace and Eli burst into laughter. It looked like they had both underestimated the love cook's territorial behavior.
After that, as he had won the bet, Ace was reading the menu for his reward. Waiting for him to choose, Eli looked at him and bent to see the menu as it looked like something had caught the young man's attention.
"What ?" Eli asked.
"Did you see they served a Litchitini ?" Ace pointed at the cocktails list.
"A what ?"
"Litchitini."
"Say it one more time," Eli said, barely finishing her sentence as she started laughing nervously.
"What ?" Ace raised a questioning eyebrow, looking at the girl holding her stomach from the pain of her poorly suppressed laughing fit.
"Oh...GOD..." Eli looked at him with watery eyes and burst into laughter again. "You just... sound so... GAY !"
Once her laughing fit finally died out, Eli offered a bottle of sake as a reward for Ace and ordered a Litchitini. It was as good as it sounded fun. The two pirates tried fruitlessly to make Zoro say the word 'Litchitini'. Despite the begging and puppy-facing, the grumpy swordsman's refusal was unbendable. Eli thought she saw a glimmer of doubt in his eyes when she taunted him outrageously with a singing of 'Zoro is afraid of a word~', but to their disappointment, he just stood up and went out of the bar maintaining his usual straight and cool face.
The two pirates stayed in the bar long after their crewmates had left, talking, playing and laughing about trivial things such as 'How would Nami look with Vivi's hair ?' 'Would Usopp still be able to lie if he lost his nose ?' or 'Would Luffy still wear Shanks's hat if it was a sun hat with a flowery pattern ?'.
However, as the time passed, Eli couldn't help but notice that Ace's consummation of alcohol was out of the ordinary, even for him. Therefore, she decided that it was more than time for them to join their friends and get a good night of sleep before the long day that was ahead of them.
"We should go now," she said, smiling warmly.
"Wait," Ace said, looking absently at his glass of sake. "What if... I told you that... my father was Gold Roger ?"
Gold Roger ? Was this some kind of drinking game ? Eli giggled already picking her 'fake' mother as a Queen of Mermaids.
She took her chin in her hand and made a series a thinking sounds, looking upwards while thinking of a smart reply.
"I'd say..." she began slowly, "you're lying about your age and your name." Eli grinned.
But Ace kept looking at his glass silently.
"My mother held her pregnancy for twenty months so that the Marines wouldn't execute me... That's why I chose to bear her name."
What ?
Eli was completely submerged with doubts, but her friend's grave tone of voice could not be faked. He was Gold Roger's son... the son of the King of the Pirates, the greatest pirate that had ever existed.
And soon, a question rose in her anxious mind... "What about Luffy ?" she asked gravely.
"Luffy became my brother when I was ten years old," Ace said quietly, still avoiding Eli's stare.
Became...? At that moment, Eli felt that her world was crumbling beneath her feet. All the things she thought she knew... the boys she held so dearly, the only family she had... they had kept a secret so big from her...
Without a word, Eli stood up and walked out of the tavern, her mind rushing with Ace's words repeating over and over again, and the feeling of betrayal digging deep through her insides...
to be continued
Betaed by Iwin Ulose.
Okay, that was hard for Eli, I hope you don't blame her... You have to understand that Luffy and Ace are the only family she has.
Anyway I'm sure you'll be waiting for the next chapter and you should have it in two days (Saturday morning).
Special and official thanks to kouriel and Wolfy0122 for their gifts (link on my profile) you are just adorable !
Well then, as for me, like always, I'll be waiting for your reviews ;)
(oh almost forgot... I drew a little illustration for this chapter)