Chapter 45
First Date

"Island ahoy !" Eli yelled happily upon seeing the dark shape of an island standing out in the horizon.

Closing in, the pirates could see that the said island was quite small and simple; no huge trees, no desert spanning all over its ground, no large drum-like mountains, and somehow, the simplicity of it all gave the pirates the pleasant sensation that maybe, this time, they could relax happily without facing fearsome enemies.

Upon docking, the pirates looked questioningly at a little boy who was observing them while glancing at a sheet of paper he was holding tightly.

"Are you Fire Fist Ace ?" the boy finally asked looking at Ace with wide and slightly amazed eyes.

"Yup," the flame user replied, smiling smugly as joy lit the boy's face.

"Wait here please," he said, running away briskly.

The pirates shrugged at the boy's puzzling behavior before resuming to their tasks. They took their bags, locked the doors of the Merry and as they all set foot on the ground, the crew was silently awed looking at a thick crowd gathering before them.

Usopp started trembling like a leaf while Zoro put his hands on his katana preparing himself for a mass attack. The swordsman was soon joined by Sanji taking a defensive stance in front of the pirate girls.

"Welcome !" a round man said. He was rather small and wore a large top hat almost as tall as him. He bounced happily, his arms wide open toward Ace. "We've been expecting you !"

Eh ? The pirates raised their eyebrows questioningly, remaining on their guard as the man hugged Ace tightly.

"Is it a family reunion or something ?" Sanji asked, looking at the cheerful faces of the citizens.

"Ace ?" Luffy asked, looking at his big brother who only shrugged.

"Welcome to Kusai Island," the man said, releasing Ace from his hug. "I am the mayor."

"Nice to meet you," Ace said. "How can I help you ?"

"Well, come come ! I'll tell you everything on the way," the mayor said motioning the pirates toward the town.

Walking through the street of the pretty town, the mayor explained that the island didn't normally welcome pirates with such warmth, but since 'Fire Fist Ace' was here, things were different. Apparently, despite its small size, Kusai Island was renowned for its multiple festivals that attracted people from the surrounding islands to enjoy them. The one that made the citizens most proud was their summer festival which celebrated fire.

"Ooooohhhh..." the crew uttered in unison as they instantly understood why the mayor seemed so interested in their flamey crewmate.

"We would love to have you as a special guest this year," the mayor said ecstatically, his eyes sparkling like a thousand stars. "Of course, we will offer rooms for you and your crew."

"Hey old man !" Luffy frowned at the round man. "I'm the captain !" he said, pointing a thumb to his chest.

"Oh really ?" the mayor said with a highly surprised look on his face, which made the pirates burst into laughter at their young captain whose frown kept on darkening.

"Yeah really," Ace finally said, apparently very amused, too, while patting his little brother's shoulder.

"Oh... Anyway, like I said, we'll offer you free hotel rooms and food, as well as drinks in all the establishments of the town if you could do us the honor of participating in our festival."

The offer made the pirates look at the mayor their eyes glowing with envy. Even the previously angry captain was completely seduced at the idea of having free food. Free food, free rooms, free booze... Every Straw Hat could easily find their happiness on this highly welcoming island. Also, since it would take the Log Pose two days to set, they had absolutely no reason to refuse the request. In the end, though, it was still the flame user's decision whether or not he wanted to entertain the citizens with his abilities.

"Do it do it Freckles," Eli pleaded, soon joined by the rest of the crew.

"Sure thing," Ace said with a proud smile, making the pirates leap for joy.

The young pirates were shown to a gorgeous hotel and given three rooms: one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for Ace... They could have been jealous being stuck all together while the flame user had the luxury of having a room all to himself, but upon seeing the nice-looking rooms, the large and cosy beds, and the wonderful view, they just whooped happily... not to mention that it was all free. Nami especially looked like she had died and gone to heaven.

As soon as the redhead saw the azure swimming pool of the hotel, she took her swimming suit and planned a lazy day by its side. She offered the two other pirate girls to join her, but they refused the offer politely. Robin apparently had some shopping to do, and as for Eli, the perspective of sunbathing lazily all day wasn't quite attractive enough. She had already been extremely lazy the past number of days after their departure from Alabasta, and looking at Robin, a much more interesting idea popped into her mind: spying on the mysterious woman.

Following the archaeologist from a distance, Eli found nothing really interesting. Apparently, Robin needed some clothes and therefore spent her time shopping through the main street of the town, the number of her bags increasing exponentially as time passed by; she and Nami apparently had that much in common.

After a while, Robin sat herself outside of a café, and Eli hid behind a tree to watch her. The beautiful woman hardly went unnoticed as almost every male passing by ogled her outrageously. However, she didn't seem to be aware of that or just didn't care as she kept her attention on her book while enjoying her drink.

A short squeak escaped Eli's mouth as she felt someone tapping her shoulder from behind, and her surprise didn't falter as, turning around, the girl's eyes fell on an arm, obviously Robin's, waving nicely.

"Why don't you come and join me, Miss Chronicler ?" a mouth in the palm of the hand offered kindly.

That's... creepy... Eli thought, watching the mouth smiling at her before walking over to Robin while scratching the back of her head sheepishly.

Still, Robin didn't seem to be angry at the sneaky girl as she welcomed her, her chin resting in her hand and a little smile on her pretty face.

"What can I do for you ?" she asked as Eli sat down across the small table from her.

"Nothing... really..." Eli said hesitantly. "I'm sorry if I bothered you."

"Not at all," Robin said obviously amused. "What would you like to drink ?"

After ordering a fruit cocktail, the two pirates discussed casually about the book that Robin was reading. It seemed a bit like Eli's log book since it was telling the story of a pirate crew who had traveled on the Grand Line fifty years ago. Eli politely refused Robin's offer to lend her the book as she wanted to have as many surprises as possible during her own adventure. The girl's enthusiasm made the archaeologist chuckle kindly.

"Yo Twig," Ace greeted. "Robin," he said in a more reserved tone of voice as he looked a bit suspiciously at the black-haired woman.

"Freckles !" Eli beamed at her friend. "Do you want to join us ?"

"Sure," Ace said sitting down next to Eli.

Robin seemed to want to resume her shopping as she stood up almost right away.

"I'll leave you two alone." She gave the pair a little smile.

"See ya !" Eli waved happily and watched the archaeologist walking away.

"You like her, don't you ?" Ace asked seriously, as Robin's figure disappeared in the distance.

"I do. She's so mature, and confident, and mysterious..." Eli listed dreamily. "Yep, I like her."

Ace sighed, smiling lightly at his cheerful friend.

"Not to mention she's quite a beauty !" Eli pointed out as it was, in her opinion, a really important part of Robin's charm.

"You like girls now ?" Ace asked smugly.

"Of course I like girls..." Eli said slowly, frowning at the young man's odd question.

"I mean like... LIKE !"

"I don't understand..."

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't..." Ace stood up, fixing his hat with a smug smile on his freckled face.

"Hey tell me !" Eli whined, while paying briskly for her drink.

"Maybe when you grow up."

"What is that supposed to mean ?" Eli's frown furrowed. "I'm taller than you !"

Ace laughed childishly while Eli sped up to walk by his side, making a pouting face.

Walking through the streets of Kusai, the pair found Luffy stationed at a small place near a brochette stand. The boy was stuffing his rubbery mouth continuously, the waitress refilling his plates relentlessly. How brave she was, Eli thought while she and Ace were waiting at the stand to order some of the delicious-looking brochettes, too.

The said waitress was quite small and thin; however, she had extremely large breasts which Eli couldn't help but stare at in awe. She had a cute, delicate face framed by long and straight brown locks while a part of her hair were tied with a little red bow on the back of her head.

"Are you friends with him ?" the waitress asked while preparing their orders.

"Him...?" Eli asked.

"The boy wearing a straw hat," she specified, still focused on her brochettes.

"Oh... yes, he's our captain," Eli said giving the cute waitress a smile.

"Captain..." the waitress said softly. "Could you tell me his name please ?" she asked, turning around to fill the plates.

"His... name...?" Ace and Eli exchanged a glance, their faces turning red as they held back their laughs for they could see exactly where the girl was going.

She had a crush on Luffy.

Oh, god... Eli turned around and held her mouth to prevent laughs from escaping as she didn't want to hurt the poor waitress's feelings.

"Luffy," Ace said with an amused tone of voice. "That's his name."

"Luffy..." the waitress repeated slowly as if she wanted to taste the name. "Thanks !" She took the plates and walked toward the boy's table with a large smile on her cute face.

Apparently, since they had given the information too easily, the two pirates weren't rewarded with their order which sadly and quickly ended in Luffy's stomach. Yet they didn't care, the girl had a crush on Luffy... Luffy, Luffy ! Rubbery, dumb, meat-lover Luffy... and that was only worth all the brochettes in the world.

Extremely excited at the odd situation, Ace and Eli hid in a nearby alley to spy on the strange couple. And that was how they spent the rest of their day... following them around, laughing at the multiple and unsuccessful flirty attempts of the waitress on Luffy. The boy was so terribly dense that the situation was highly comical for the two spies.

Yet the waitress was persistent. She took Luffy to a romantic flowery garden, but the boy didn't see a thing. Then she took him for a dance, and how funny it was; Luffy was willing to dance with the nice brochette girl but apparently not really skilled judging from her cries of pain. At last, she took the dense boy to a cliff where several couples were making out quite outrageously, but blind Luffy still didn't see a thing, and he left the poor desperate girl behind when he felt hunger striking his bottomless stomach once more.

Overall, it was an extremely good day, and Eli was so very glad to share it with Ace, for he was probably the best friend with whom to enjoy the fun of the situation.

Eli was about to walk away from the love cliff to meet up with the rest of the crew when Ace held her back, holding her hand.

"Let's stay here for a bit," Ace said with a warm smile on his face. "Okay ?"

Eli looked at the sun setting in the horizon and smiled as watching it with her dear friend seemed like a very good idea.

"Okay."

Eli sat down, and behind her, Ace wrapped his arms around her resting his chin on her shoulder. They both stayed there, laughing at Luffy's first date while the sun was slowly disappearing into the sea.

Within Ace's embrace, Eli felt protected, and glad. She was so happy of how their friendship had evolved; they still teased each other everyday like before, but now there was something more, something warm inside of her every time she saw his smiling face, something that prompted her to spend her time with him, something that made her feel that their friendship was the strongest bond she had ever had with anyone before. And Eli made the silent wish that it would remain like this forever.

"Eli," Ace said softly in her ear.

"Mmh ?"

"We should do this more often."

"Do what ?" Eli turned her head slightly to the side to look at his face from the corner of her eye.

"Hanging out..." Ace said. "Just the two of us."

Eli smiled. It had indeed been a very good day and apparently for him, too; there wasn't any reason not to reiterate it in the future.

"Sure," she nodded cheerfully.

to be continued

Betaed by Iwin Ulose.

I'm back :D
I missed And and Eli so much that I am really happy to be back.

Thank you for all the reviews, I missed you guys !

I hope you enjoyed this calm chapter. We will stay on the sweet island of Kusai for one more chapter.
And Twig will be updated on monday for more details on Ace and Eli's first date ;)

See you soon.