Chapter 46
Very Extremely Not Good

After an other nice day on the island of Kusai the night of the festival was finally there, and the Straw Hats were determined to enjoy its loveliness to the fullest. A variety of booths lined up along the main street displayed all kinds of delicious roasted dishes and warm alcohols. Some were also selling souvenirs, while others proposed games. The whole town was illuminated with thousands of candle lights and torches making the whole scenery look extremely pretty and heart-warming.

The festival also featured a procession of dancers and acrobats wearing beautiful red, orange, and yellow costumes adorn with fluttering ribbons. The sight of the lovely dancers making Sanji swoon in delight, while the rest of the pirates watched their performances with jolly amazement.

Watching all this Eli easily understood why the fire festival was the favorite of the people of Kusai.

As the Ace's show was about to start the crew sat down on the grass and waited eagerly to see what their flamey crewmate had prepared for his audience. When the young man made appearance the crowd whooped loudly; he surely was a star that night, and from the smug look on his face Ace highly enjoyed the fame. For the occasion he was wearing a flame patterned shirt making Eli laugh mockingly at the appropriately themed piece of clothing.

The flame user's performance was entertaining, and very pretty; Ace shaped his fire in all kind of things. The most amazing, in Eli's opinion, being a huge flame dragon raising up high in the sky.

Despite of how dangerous and frightful fire was, that night it just seemed magical and bewitching.

The festival took the pirates long into the night. After Ace's performance they enjoyed a fireworks display while eating and drinking happily. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper did their stupid dance. Sanji flirted with all the girls that went by, his speech growing more and more slurred as Zoro kept refiling his glass with a large grin of his face. Nami drank a lot too and like always Eli awed at her surprising tolerance to a large amount of alcohol. Robin was silently watching the happy pirates, smiling warmly at their stupid games while Ace ate, drank, and laughed without restraints in the good company of his friends.

And at last, when the lights of the festival began to go out, the pirates started to shuffle one by one toward their hotel. Tired yet happy as drunken pirates could be.

As she was in a highly playful mood that night Eli demanded to be carried by the star of the festival. Amused, Ace complied and she climbed clumsily on his back while holding a sleeping Luffy by the arm.

"Oops ! Staiiiirs !" Eli said, pointing the 'obstacle' before giggling stupidly.

While Ace climbed up the stairs the both of them couldn't help but laugh watching Luffy's head bouncing on every staircases as it would be expected from the rubbery boy he was.

"Which floor...?" Ace asked, absently looking at the hotel corridor. He had apparently forgotten where the pirates' rooms were.

"Four !" Eli yelled out, completely unaware of her own loudness.

"No..." Ace muttered in disbelief. "Really ?"

"Yup ! Chop chop !" Eli ordered playfully, trying as hard as she could to hold back a laughter.

Ace grinned, held the girl's thighs tighter and climbed up the large staircases with all haste, dragging a very bouncing and thankfully unconscious Luffy behind them. Yet, once they had reached the fourth floor Eli couldn't hold her laughing fit anymore.

"I lied !" Eli managed to say despite of her convulsing laughter. "It was TWO !"

Chuckling like a child, Ace rapidly climbed down the stairs making the girl whoop joyfully as he jumped several staircases at once, landing on the floor with a loud thud. On the other side, the customers of the hotel weren't exactly amused as the careless pair heard some of them uttering harsh threats quite loudly.

After a few wrong guesses into finding the boys' room, making the occupants of the bedrooms yell at the very amused pirates, they threw Luffy negligently on his bed and went out of the room laughing goofily through the, thankfully, empty corridor.

"Now you !" Ace said and began the search of the girls' bedroom annoying the rest of the hotel's customers.

Right after opening the bedroom's door Eli dashed over to the large bed and bounced on it with a loud, muffled thud, while Ace entered the room laughing at the girl's childish behavior.

"It's not... my room !" Eli giggled, stretching her long arms and legs all over the mattress.

The girl was on a very large bed, the only one of the luxury furnished room. The moonlight was gently piercing through large opened windows. A fresh night breeze making the scarlet curtains flutter slowly.

"Ah..?" Ace looked around questioningly, and after a few seconds scratched the back of his head. "Oh yeah it's mine... Sorry." With a sheepish laugh the young man shrugged. "Well, looks like you won the royal suite !"

As he started walking toward the bedroom's door Eli sat up on her feet.

"Stay !" she said. The girl let her fingertips caress the silk bedding with a soft rustle. "It is your room after all !"

"... Are you sure ?" Ace asked.

"Yeeeeaaaahhh come ON !" Eli did not reconsider even on split of second, and motioned the young man to join her, patting the mattress while she chuckled foolishly.

After all, what was wrong about two friends sharing a bed ? Nothing surely, and they already did it before.

Ace threw his boots and hat away, and lay down on the bed roughly next to his happy friend. Eli tuck up her feet while giggling at the smiling young man, and brought her hand to his forehead to brush some stray strands of hair away from his freckled face. Amused, she stuck out the tip of her tongue as it made Ace go cross-eyed to look at the unwilling dark strands that kept falling on his face despite of the girl's multiple attempts to keep them still.

Definitely nothing wrong there either.

Therefore Eli didn't find any reason preventing her from shifting closer to Ace in order to warm herself up a bit against this heated body of his. The young man wrapped his strong arms around her, and Eli soaked in his delightful heat giving her warm and dear friend a large grin.

There was still nothing wrong with Eli playing with his shaggy hair while Ace was caressing the pale skin of her arms. It was completely innocent and meaningless. Just as meaningless as Eli slipping her hand under his opened shirt to tickle the young man's ribs mischievously, and just as innocent as Ace rolling on his back while holding her hips to tickle his jesting friend equally.

What could be wrong there ? Nothing obviously since they were both giggling stupidly. That was more than enough to prove that they were doing nothing worth calling 'wrong'.

Naturally, once their tickling fit had finally came to a stop Eli thanked her dear friend for his mercy giving him a soft kiss on his freckled cheek. An harmless kiss indeed, therefore doubtlessly nothing could be wrong with that. Nor with Eli lying on top of her smiling friend, nestling her head next to his with a deep sigh of contempt.

Eli found nothing wrong with Ace playing with the loose strap of her tank top. Not even when, once he was done playing, he laid quietly a kiss on her small shoulder. It was so not wrong that she even returned the gesture kissing his broad neck in the same fashion.

The two pirate friends didn't seem to find anything wrong in exchanging those soft and sweet kisses. After all, it felt so good and that was once more a very good proof that nothing was wrong there.

And then why would it feel wrong for Eli to run her fingers through his deliciously warm hair while Ace slipped his hands under her tank top to caress the skin of her thin back. After all friends were suppose to make each other happy, and giving her such pleasure Ace was definitely a very good friend to Eli.

But maybe it was wrong after all...

Maybe it was wrong for Ace to suck the lobe of his friend's ear, effectively sending shivers of delight throughout her body.

Perhaps it was wrong for Eli to feel pure bliss as the heated part between her spread thighs was pressed against her friend's hardened member, straining against the fabric of his shorts.

It might be very wrong indeed for Eli to rest her forehead on Ace's while his hands moved in circular motion slowly but surely toward the sides of her back. Her whole body quivering with pleasure when the warm skin of his large hands teasingly grazed the side of her small breasts.

After all the giggles had long died, only to be replaced by their erratic pants. And the amusement in their eyes had somehow morphed into pure, burning desire.

It was probably terribly wrong that while their intoxicated breaths caressed each other's faces Eli's lips lingered a breath away above Ace's. Unable to withdraw nor to push forward as it seemed that a tiny stronghold of will held their defenses there; in her heated lips.

Yet Eli's reason didn't mouth any complaint and she didn't seem to find anything wrong with Ace's hands fondling her breasts at last. She even uttered a loud and encouraging moan of pleasure, while arching her back upward involuntary. The sitting position causing her to rub slowly her hips along his length.

But maybe Eli's reason couldn't be heard since Ace occupied her every senses with delightful sensations; his natural smell mixing with that of the fruity liqueurs, the sounds of his erratic breaths and from time to time a low and so enticing groan, his experienced hands roaming over her sensitive skin, the taste of his warm skin, and the mesmerizing depth of his heated eyes...

There was surely something extremely wrong with Ace lifting himself upwards to brush Eli's lips with his as the ever so faint contact caused excitation to shoot up in her blurry mind. Entranced, his dear friend eagerly bared his delicious chest. And while the young man's hands held the small of her back, the regular and so exquisite frictions she exerted against his hardened member intensified, her moans becoming uncontrollably louder.

Yet Eli was drowning in a whirlwind of divine thrill, and it seemed that despite of how obviously wrong the whole thing was, nothing could get her out of it...

Except maybe for the sound of someone knocking at the door of the steamy bedroom.

Eli's green eyes snapped open as if she could see at last the position she and her friend were in. And how wrong it was. Her reason raced back in her mind, yelling, screaming the girl to get out of here as fast as she could as if her life depended on it...

Standing up on the spot, Eli jumped out of the opened window, not even caring what floor she was on. After landing roughly on the ground she started dashing frantically as if she was chased by a terrible enemy. And maybe she was... She arrived at the Merry within a few seconds yet that wasn't far enough. Therefore the desperate girl ran along the beach as fast as she could, welcoming the cold and harsh wind while hoping it would lower the temperature of her heated body.

Running along the beaches of the small island, Eli wanted nothing else than to keep on until she would faint.

Throwing her long leg forward, she blasted off from the sand. Feeling so light as she flew in the air while her hair fluttered rapidly. Until she hit the ground again... Prior to this, running had always made the girl feel so free. However this time the weigh on her chest did not seem to lessen no matter how many times Eli took off the ground, no matter how many the kilometers she covered. Each time her bare feet touched the sand, she felt her insides contracting within the grasp of her guilt.

And so Eli kept running, and all the while she tried to find something to blame for that huge mistake. Soon, she found herself stupidly accusing the alcohol. But deep inside, Eli knew that the alcohol was nothing but a mere trigger for a desire that she had concealed inside of her for a very long time, and that what she had done, no matter how wrong it was, she had done by her freewill.

Ever since Ace had told her about his past the two friends had grown closer. The moments they had spent together, the closeness they had shared were so precious to her... indispensable. But now everything was ruined, everything was lost. Because that time, the young man won't be leaving the next day like he did years ago when she had unleashed her want of him.

Ace will be here, and so will she... And Eli will have to face him everyday after this one.

As she kept running the images of the friend she had lost remained imprinted in the mind of the mortified girl; standing on the Merry who kept sailing forward, his strong body gave her a feeling of protection whenever he held her close. He was smiling at her and his childish grin gave her strength and the courage to believe that all the dreams she had they could achieve. His beautiful piercing eyes always seemed to understand her even if they didn't exchanged a word. His dark unkempt hair lovingly caressed by the sea breeze... He was a man of the sea; adventurous, brave, and strong and Eli had wished that he would remain by her side forever.

But their precious friendship was lost... It had vanished silently in the darkness of the hotel room they were in. It had left without a word, without giving them a second chance.

And now what remained ? A pirate girl wanting her crewmate so deeply, so badly, that her desire clawed her insides painfully, along with the guilt of such an impossible, such a forbidden want.

Will she be able to laugh with him like she used to ? Will she ever be able to watch him in the eyes without thinking about how thrilled she felt when his hands roamed on her needy skin ? Will he laugh at her like he did after the incident in the winter kingdom ?

Maybe that would be for the best... Maybe if he laughed at her she could forget, and once more bury the need of his touch deep inside.

Eli collapsed on the beach for the legs couldn't carry her anymore. And after all that was what she wanted; fainting of exhaustion to have a dreamless night sleep. Because if her mind still had a remain of energy to make her dream, she would surely dream of him. And that would be ultimately wrong...

to be continued

No beta this time :/

In my mind the hottest part of this chapter in associated with the music 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' by Daft Punk (the mid part of the song). And so, whenever I hear it I can see Eli straddling Ace :P
There is also an almost quote from the song 'The Garden of Everything' by Maaya Sakamoto, since I was listening to it over and over while writing.

Anyway, it has been some time now since I wrote this chapter and as time went by I was starting to get more and more nervous about it.
I love it, I planned it months ago, and I definitely want things to go that way but I'm nervous and curious to know your reactions...
EXTREMELY curious !

So I'll be eagerly waiting for your reviews.
See you soon :)