Chapter 57
A Foolish Girl In Love

Eli was shuffling at an amazing speed and behind her, a cloud of dust filled the air as her feet scraped on the ground. Panting hardly like an overworked racehorse, Luffy and the gold were heavily weighing on her frail back. Her legs were burning, her lungs and throat too and the girl didn't know if she would be able to cope with this excruciating pain much longer. Yet, after bragging to her crewmates that her and the young captain would be back 'way before dawn', the proud girl couldn't just give up.

At that moment, however, Eli wasn't thinking about that. All in all, she wasn't thinking the least bit. Luffy might have said something but as blood was hammering in her ears Eli wasn't sure. She wasn't sure of anything. Where was she ? What was she doing ? Running away from something or running toward something ? Was she even running...?

As the hazy questions echoed in her mind, her vision twirled and the girl collapsed roughly on the ground.

Gasping for air, Eli rolled on her back. She just needed a minute and then she would be able to stand again. Just a little minute... or maybe two. Her chest was heaving with an unprecedented magnitude as she gazed wearily at the stars shining brightly in the night sky until Luffy's grinning face obstructed her vision.

"Thanks !" he said cheerfully.

"Wh- What...?" she managed to gasp through her burning throat.

With a childish laugh, the young captain took off and sluggishly she followed his course with her eyes, a feeble smile making its way to her lips as she saw that, in the end, they had reached their destination.

A quick whining giggle and Eli rolled her head to gaze at the night sky again while allowing her weariness to spread through her muscles.

In the end, it didn't take the two pirates more than half an hour to reach Mock Town, kick Bellamy's arrogant ass and go back. Thanks to the speed of the errand, the Straw Hats were perfectly on schedule for their impending departure to the sky island.

Proudly, Eli was sure that this feat would definitely shut Nami's grumpy mouth and so closed her eyes as a reward for her exhausting achievement. The sound of the waves crashing regularly filling her ears, the girl let her fingers run through the grass, delighted at the refreshing touch on her heated skin and gradually, she drifted in the peaceful darkness.

"Hey," Ace said, crouching behind Eli's head. "Are you alright ?"

The medallion of his hat dangling slowly before her half lidded eyes; Eli was hypnotized by the sight of the young man's face.

Ace was close, not dangerously close, but close enough for the girl to be able to count his every freckle. His head was leaned downward; strands of raven hair were falling on his face. Quite charmingly, they were partly hiding his dark, inky eyes but she could see; he was looking at her, only her, and floating within the breeze that was caressing his face, Eli felt like she was the luckiest girl in the world.

Accompanied by a quiet whine, a sigh of content escaped her lips.

"Eli...?" Ace cocked a brow as he watched the girl gazing at him quite foolishly.

"Hey..." she breathed quite dreamily.

"Are you alright ?"

Her eyes snapping open widely, Eli's mind raced back in her mind. Oh god ! Briskly she sat up, a hand on her chest as if to contain her jumping heart inside of its ribcage.

"Fine," she mumbled, fear and many other emotions thudding in her ears.

That was so very stupid ! Her big green eyes staring forward, Eli mentally slapped her forehead and as it wasn't enough, she pictured herself uprooting a tree and bang her head with it.

Behind her, Ace sighed and stood up which caused a creak in her neck as Eli fought against her want to look at him over her shoulder. What if he saw ? But apparently, the young man was completely oblivious of her worries as he started walking away silently. Utterly irritated at her own reaction, Eli grabbed her knees, nails biting her skin.

His footsteps grew fainter and the girl ruffled her hair frantically, racked with an impossible dilemma; should she let him go or follow him...?

"Wait !" She stood up like a shot and stiffly walked in his direction. Apparently she had chosen the later choice. "What- where..."

Great... Manifestly, the chronicler couldn't come up with an intelligible sentence, her frantic heartbeats apparently incapacitating her brain. Covering her face, Eli squeezed her eyes shut while trying desperately to calm her frenzied mind and form a sentence containing more than one word. Preferably a sentence that would mean something, obviously.

"What are you doing... these days...I mean... now... where are you going ?"

There... Well almost, but that was still quite an achievement for the brainless girl she had become.

Feverishly waiting for his answer, Eli spread her fingers a little and squinted at him not so stealthily; a hand on his hip, Ace was looking at her, a very puzzled expression on his face.

A deep sigh, slightly annoyed, and then an arms folding, somewhat condescending.

"We are preparing the Merry," Ace said after a moment. Narrowing his eyes, he leaned forward to observe the girl's face. "You should rest, you look exhausted."

"Not at all !" Eli said loudly, waving her hands as she did before clearing her throat. With a sheepish laugh she scratched the back of her head. "I'm fine, let's go."

Still suspicious, Ace leaned a little bit closer to her, making the girl lean backward, very uncomfortable to studied of the sort. Eli swallowed hard to put her heart back in her chest; he was close, very close, so close that she could feel his unnatural warmth caressing her skin.

Was it even permitted to be so hot ?

"Fine." Ace straightened up and walked over to the Merry.

Stunned, Eli felt her legs tingling; her body yearned to follow him. She could feel her every muscle fighting, they wanted to make her walk in his direction, follow him wherever he was going, no matter how wrong and torturing it was, and while this silent battle was raging inside of her, Eli wanted to whine, to run, to flee. She wanted to slap her own face to remind her body that she was the one in control.

But she wasn't in control, Ace was, and as she saw the young man looking questioningly at her over his shoulder, Eli wasn't so surprised when her legs started moving on their own to join him. No, she wasn't surprised, yet she was slightly irritated.

Damn...

Her irritation, however, quickly vanished as Eli climbed on the Merry. Curiously, she found that, on the little ship, everyone was bustling about. Lanterns lighting up the deck, the sound of hammering resonated from all around. Apparently, most of the damages caused by Bellamy were repaired and now, the monkey-men helped by some of the pirates were equipping the Merry with great wooden wings.

A soft smile on her face as she watched everyone working together in such a good mood, Eli felt pumped up again but as she turned her head to share some words with Ace, the young man turned to leave.

"Where are you going ?" Eli asked, watching him opening the hatch leading to the males' quarter.

"The keel is damaged, I'm taking care of it," he said while looking down before disappearing inside of the room.

Without giving it a thought, Eli armed herself with a hammer and a lantern and followed the young man. However, her impulse came to a stop as her foot touched the first rung; she had no idea how to repair a keel... Maybe she would be more useful with the rest of her crewmates.

Looking absently at the tool in her hand, a little voice in her head told her that it was not like it mattered if she knew or not how to repair anything, and even if her heart started pounding harder as she understood why she had so quickly chose this task, Eli obediently complied to the little voice.

Climbing down the mast, a musty smell mixed with male sweat invaded the girl's nostrils. She planted her feet on the floor and as her eyes traveled around the room, Eli noted that it was the first time she entered the males' quarters. The dorm was much larger than the girls'. The main mast of the Merry ran through the center of the room which was equipped with six hammock and couches. At the feet of each hammock, the girl could distinguish the name of every pirates carved in the wooden wall.

Looking over her shoulder, Eli noted that she was alone; Ace must have entered the room which gave access to the keel and so, a mischievous smile on her face, she found herself approaching the hammocks in search for his.

How childish... Eli chuckled heartily, seeing that unlike the others, his name was pyrographed in the wood. Her hand moved on its own and her fingers caressed his name absently, a warm sensation arising inside of her as her fingertips touched the burnt letters.

"What are you doing ?"

Startled, Eli spun on her heels to look at the young man. Silent, he peered at her, behind her and back to her again, deeply. A black brow went up and the girl swallowed hard feeling her whole body tightening as if trapped within an invisible net.

"I was just..." Eli cut herself short; what was she doing actually ? "Looking, just looking..."

Looking at your name... she finished inwardly, incapable of confessing that simple thing because then he would surely know that seeing those three letters made her, somehow, happy.

Apparently accepting her explanation, Ace left and when she saw him disappearing behind the door, Eli exhaled agonizingly. The girl stayed still for a moment, feeling the sharp tension gradually dispersing from her body. Her heart, however, was still squeezing painfully, a hand on her chest, she wished she could ease the ache. But how could she ? A blow didn't cause the pain she felt...

It was love.

Love was an addictive anguish, unbearable and delicious; exquisitely excruciating. And she wanted more.

Eli let her arm fall to her side and walked over to the door. Expectation, excitation, they were engulfing her as she got closer to the small room in which the young man was. It was such a simple thing, yet catching a mere glimpse of him, threw the girl into a state of agitated confusion.

How troublesome... At this rate, her heart would probably snap of exhaustion within the year.

With a quiet sigh, the girl pushed the door shyly. The room was rather small and the number of wooden cases stacked over each side reduced the space considerably. Observing it, Eli concluded than it would be impossible to fit more than three persons inside. There was no porthole on the walls and so, the only light illuminating the room was that of the little vacillating flame of a lantern placed on the floor next to Ace.

For a moment, she observed the young man. His back facing her, he was straddling the keel while nailing a metal plate to the beam. After this quick and silent lesson, Eli sat behind him; she put her bag and lantern next to her, picked a metal plate and started nailing as well.

Her hammering echoing his, the girl tried hard to focus on her task, on her every movement, and somehow, the simplest act of picking up a nail was surprisingly challenging when, apart from the hammering, no sounds were heard.

Under normal circumstances, Eli wouldn't be troubled by the silence. In the past, the two friends had spent hours together without saying a word. But at that moment, even if it lasted only a few minutes, the lack of verbal exchanges weighed heavily on her hectic heart and left to her thoughts, the girl's mind wandered wildly along his large back, under his shirt...

"Hey !" Once again aware of her loudness, Eli cleared her throat. "What happened to my ship ?"

"Your ship ?" Ace looked over his shoulder and watched the girl questioningly.

"The ship I gave you." Focusing on her metal plate, Eli took another nail and swung her hammer on its head. "When you left Fuschia..." she trailed off as a terrible memory resurfaced along with her words, her hammer weighing suddenly ten times heavier.

When you left... The night before he left.

Obviously, Eli didn't want to think about that, yet her mind wandering wildly in the deeper parts of her memories, it seemed that she couldn't ignore that night anymore. That foolish night...

The night.

They were only kids then. Stupid and terribly foolish, Eli wanted to grow up and get rid of her virginity as if it was the last trace of her childhood. Yet, her affection for him was real and now she saw... She didn't only want to get rid of her virginity. She wanted to take his and him to take hers.

"It was small Twig..." She vaguely heard over the sounds of her own moans and whines playing in her head. "And old, I needed a bigger one."

Eli nodded silently, her eyes glued on her hammer swinging inefficiently on a crooked nail while her whole body was set aflame by the unwanted recollection of the night.

"You needed it or something ?" Ace asked.

"No... I was just... doing small talk," she said almost inaudibly.

Nice job in selecting the subject, she thought wryly.

At that moment, Eli felt that should just leave. She was acting so foolishly and was aware of how annoying she was to him. Yet the girl couldn't be herself, no matter how much she wanted to act normally, she couldn't be the friend that he once knew, not anymore, and Eli hated the person that she had become. A foolish girl in love, brainless and inevitably annoying. A hindrance.

While she was lost in her self-deprecating thoughts, Ace turned around and picked the useless hammer from her hands. Surprised, she raised her head to look at him and as he gazed at her startled face, Eli felt a mighty shiver racing through her spine.

"Eli..."

A last breath.

"You have to tell me..."

A last heartbeat.

"... what you want from me."

And nothing.

Her mind was blank as she stared at him wordlessly. His black eyes, his lovely black eyes, they were gently gazing at her, understanding and warm, just like his tone of voice. Yet, they stunned her, froze her, on the spot. They pierced her with this impossible question and the impossible answer that went with it.

"Eli ?" Ace put his hand on hers as if to bring her back from the darkness she was falling into.

"I think... I heard someone calling..." She heard herself say evasively. The words had come out so naturally that Eli wasn't quite sure if she was lying or not.

"What ?"

"I think... Ima check that out..." Stiffly, she stood up, and finally detaching her eyes from his, Eli took off like a shot.

"Damn it Eli !" Ace yelled from afar. "Come back !"

Walking slowly up the stairs to the lounge room, Eli could breath again, she could feel her body again, yet her mind was in such chaos... Mechanically, she opened the door and closed it behind her. Completely blind to Sanji and Luffy's eyes on her, she sat on the bench of the kitchen table and let her head hit the wood heavily, pained mumbling escaping her mouth.

He was angry, obviously and quite rightly. Eli's whined involuntary as she pictured the flame user's angry eyes on her. He was mad, evidently. Taking her head in her hands, she pressed her skull forcefully. He must hate her, inevitably... But how could she answer his question ? She didn't know what she wanted. The girl had only realized her loving feelings toward him a few hours ago and since then, she was barely capable of thinking clearly. So how could she tell him what she wanted from him...?

Did she even want to love him ?

"Are you alright Elisabeth ?" Sanji asked from behind her.

Listlessly, she raised her face from the table, looked over her shoulder, and slowly nodded her heavy head, a depressed expression on her face. Of course, Sanji tried to make her talk, but there was no way, no damn way, she would share the source of her sufferings with the cook, with anyone.

Eli was ashamed of those confused feelings. She hated them, she hated herself, to the core and she loved him. She loved his tenderness, she loved his laughs, she loved his touch; she loved him, that stupid jerk, that gorgeous, warm, freckled bastard. It was his fault, obviously. Why did he have to be so nice with her ? Why did he have to smile at her ? Look at her...

With a languid lament, Eli let her forehead hit the table once more hoping that, somehow, the physical pain would distract her from the one choking her from the inside. That invisible yet, genuine pain.

Love.

Being with him hurt, yet being far from him hurt even more and for that reason, Eli decided that she had to go talk with Ace. She had to tell him that she couldn't answer his question, not yet. It was the best thing to do, act maturely for the first time in her whole life and hopefully, he would understand.

To increase her chances of success, the girl asked Sanji for a plate of food. Ace liked eating and so, would probably more inclined to understand her if his stomach was full. After thanking the cook, she took the plate and kicked Luffy away as he tried to steal its content. She walked out of the lounge room, down the stairs, to the mast, and climbed down the ladder for the second time of her life; her heart pounding harder with every stage of her trial.

Standing still before the room leading to the keel, Eli felt hesitation making her body tremble but her resolve was stronger than her fear... maybe. The girl filled her lungs with air, wishing that it contained a trace of courage and slowly, she pushed the door open.

"Hey, I brought..." She trailed off when her eyes fell on the young man, her faked cheerful face quickly morphing into blah.

... Of course.

In the end, Eli wasn't so surprised to see Ace asleep on the floor. The bad timing of their interactions was recurrent and somehow comical. When she had finally decided to talk to him, the young man just had to fall asleep.

A soft smile on her face, Eli put the plate on the floor and mechanically searched through her bag for her marker. Apparently, the girl had some remains of her old self still alive and kicking inside of her and was glad for them.

However, as she bent toward the young man's face to draw the usual whiskers on his cheeks, Eli found herself stricken at the sight of his freckles...The mischievous freckles, the lovely freckles, the charming and childish freckles...The freckles she had fell in love with even before knowing the name of the young man to whom they belonged.

Without thinking, Eli leaned further and pressed softly her lips on Ace's cheek.

How good it had felt then. She closed her eyes as a warm sensation washed over her delightfully, her lips brushing faintly the freckles that she adored, the man that she loved.

That moment, that precious moment, Eli wanted it to last forever... foolishly forgetting that nothing ever lasted forever.

to be continued

Unbetaed. I hope it's okay.

This was a long chapter, wasn't it ? (don't get used to it though !)

I hope you liked it and that you enjoyed this trip in Eli's fuzzy mind.

Ace seemed to be rather distant, which is quite understandable considering the girl's lunatic behavior.
He must be quite confused... Not as much as she is though XD

And now she's kissing him ! (damn you Eli !)
Okay it's on the cheek... AND he's asleep... but that's really something (for her).
Obviously Eli doesn't realize what she is doing yet (does she ever realize anything...?)

I know some of you might resent me for this little cliffhanger (*hides*) but eh that's a pleasure of mine (mwaha) and I can wait to read your reactions about it.
What do you think will happen next ? Please tell me :D

Like always, thank you very very much for your reviews, they really keep me going !
And because I love you so much (so so much) I did a drawing of Eli in a dress !
(omg wtf happened you might ask, well... it was requested on my facebook and I kinda like how it turned out)
You can see it in my profile !

See you on Wednesday for the next chapter :)