-Ace-

When I finished my sentence I realized that not only had I had an episode but that the person I had been blindly talking to was immobilized at my feet, staring up at me with these vivid and bright bottle green eyes.

"Oh hey my hat." I said happily reaching for it. When I plucked it off her head I noticed that she not only whimpered but that she also flinched. "Thanks for keeping it safe." I said with a smile.

My head and chest no longer felt bare as i put my hat back on my head.

Despite me smiling she didn't move from that position with her hands clamped over her mouth and her eyes wide with fear. Her expression remained frightened and her straight teal colored hair was falling into her eyes.

What was I supposed to do?

Sure I was used to people being afraid of me, sometimes it was best but right now was not one of those times. Maybe I should try to make her feel more comfortable. Yeah that had to work! I held out my hand for her to take so that I could help her up and asked, "Who might you be?" Again I tried smiling but when that felt forced I gave that up.

She moved her hands but didn't fully uncover her mouth, just moved them enough to stammer, "W-w-w-willow."

I sat back down on the couch, not wanting to tower so far over her. Maybe I had been intimidating her by standing. "Well Willow I'd like to thank you for taking care of my hat and bringing me here. It's a comfy couch you have. You did bring me here right?"

She nodded and quickly tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear with a tiny timid 'yes'.

"By yourself?" I questioned. Again she nodded but didn't speak. Sighing heavily I asked, "Are you afraid of me or did I just startle you?" I was betting on having just startled her.

I mean I hadn't given the girl any reason to be really afraid of me. I doubted that she knew that I was a logia type or that I was Fire Fist Ace. But before she could answer I stood once again and offered my hand saying, "Come on let me at least help you up. You brought me all the way to your house all by yourself."

I was only trying to be nice. I was trying to thank her before I left to see where exactly I had ended up and then getting to that forest that I wanted so badly to see. But have you ever tried to sincerely thank someone while they were looking up at you from the floor with such wide and frightened eyes?

No?

Well it's hard.

Her reaction wasn't immediate and she seemed to have to study my hand and probably question my motivation and what I'd do after helping her to her feet, before tentatively she removed her top hand from the other hand that was actually covering her mouth. She reached out and put it in mine. In comparison to mine her hand was small and delicate. Closing my fingers around her hand I pulled her to her feet with none too surprising ease.

"Th-Thank you." She muttered in a small quiet voice her face turning a rather adorable shade of pink.

I shook my head and said, "I only helped you up." From my understanding of the situation I was in and last night's events, I had gotten so drunk that I completely forgot what happened after leaving the bar; Willow had found me and somehow taken me to her house where I proceeded to wake up and startle her pretty badly.

"Well thanks for everything." I said heading for the door. I had to get to that forest and I doubted that in my drunken state that I had even made it out of the city. Stupid newbie. I cursed the damn brat and then Thatch for having convinced me to take the challenge.

"Um . . . H-hey where are you going?" The teal haired girl asked in a shaky voice, as if she were still recovering.

"To explore the forest." I swear I had said that a million times already since docking and it hadn't even been a full day.

"D-do you . . . w-want me to show you?" she asked casting her eyes to the floor the moment they made direct contact with mine.

"Show me what? The way to the forest?" I paused. "Nah I can find it."

"N-no. The . . . forest. I uh well I k-kind of know it well. . . Better than anyone else." She wasn't exactly boasting about her knowledge, in fact she seemed a bit embarrassed now that she had spoken out about it.

"Alright! Let's go!" I walked back over to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. Instantly she went stiff under my arm and I looked down at her slightly concerned. I guess she didn't like that or maybe something was wrong? "You ok?" I asked just to make sure, after all I couldn't have my guide drop dead or be mad at me before the tour even started.

She nodded, grabbing my wrist and gently removing my arm from around her shoulders. I must have given her some kind of look that made her feel the need to defend herself because she muttered, "Sorry, personal space." Before walking around me and to the door. She opened it and gestured for me to walk out. So I obliged and stepped outside.

The temperature was nice and there were a lot of tall thick trees with large leaves bigger than average sized umbrellas, heck the leaves could be umbrellas. Some light made its way through those large leaves and shone on the ground. I tried to take as much as I could as fast as I could so we could move on but there was a lot to see. Large hanging vines and plants, climbing ivy and lots of moss.

Willows soft voice pulled me out of my mind with the words, "As y-you can see, w-we're already here."

-Willow-

I so shouldn't be doing this. I had things to do, stones to collect and holes in my house to patch up. I don't even know why I had offered to show him around in the first place. I wasn't the most sociable nor most talkative, I wasn't the best leader and I certainly wasn't about to win the tour guide of the month award. In fact I'd probably just disappointing the boy named Ace.

Closing and locking the door behind me I sighed, once again wondering why I had decided to do this.

Maybe it was his Luffy like excitement- I almost expected him to ask about those beetles. Their excitement and want to explore were so similar- that had made me make that offer to show him around before I could think. Maybe it was the nagging thought that I had found him passed out in the middle of the forest that made me feel as though he should have someone looking out for him or maybe it was something else entirely.

But whatever my reasons I was regretting the decision. I was regretting having spoken up.

"As you can see I live here." I said after giving him a second to take in the scenery, to realize that he was in the forest he was itching oh so badly to see.

After I said those words he turned towards me and using almost the exact same words with an expression almost identical to the one Luffy had worn after hearing the news and asked as though he had to reaffirm my words, "Awesome! You really live here?!" I nodded and he grabbed my wrist and began pulling me along saying, "Let's go. Come on we can't see anything else if we keep standing still."

Why was he reminding me so much of Luffy? I hadn't seen that kid for a few weeks, though he had been in the paper several times since. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of Luffy and his crew. They were certainly welcome here anytime they wanted and or needed. Though four crew members and himself, that had been a lot of people and chaos, especially when Luffy himself counted as five to ten toddlers hyped up on candy.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" A questioning voice snapped me back to reality.

"S-sorry." Right, this was show Ace around the forest time. Not reminisce about Luffy and his crew's stay at my house time.

"So you didn't hear me?" He asked, slowing down enough so that I was no longer tripping and stumbling over mostly my own feet and lots of nothingness. I shook my head and decided that it was his fault for reminding me so much of Luffy. "Oh, well I asked where are all of the animals?"

"Most of the . . . creatures . . . th-their nocturnal. The best time to see the forest is at night."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He pouted sounding as though he no longer wanted to see the forest at this time.

I shrugged. "L-look I have something to do. I can show you things on the way if you wish." It was Ace's turn to nod silently and follow me. As we walked I pointed out a few things that I thought might capture his interest, some things that might be considered interesting to him.

"So what were you thinking so deeply about?" He inquired after a few minutes of silence, the sound of a babbling creek getting louder and louder.

"Just . . . stuff." It wasn't really any of his business. I thought as I sat down on the grassy bank of the creek and removed my sandals and took off the messenger bag before rolling up the cuffs of my pants and wading into the deep creek.

Plus what if he were an enemy of Luffy's?

"Oh, that's cool. So what are you doing?" He asked watching me with curiosity that I could almost feel.

"Collecting rocks." I answered looking through the clear water for something.

"What for?" He asked perching on the rock that jutted out the farthest over the water.

"The hole in my house." I answered leaning down and picking up a decent sized rock. After examining it I tossed it at my bag hoping to hit the general vicinity.

"Why do you have a hole in your house? Isn't that a little silly?"

"Someone put it there." I told him. Of course it was silly to have a gaping hole in my house!

"Why'd you let them do that?" Ace asked.

"I didn't realize that they'd want to come in through a solid stone wall." I had a front door for a reason.

"Oh. Sounds like my brother's grandpa. So did you build your house?"

The weird thing about Ace and his twenty questions was that he seemed serious enough when asking them as he perched there watching me walking around the chilly stream and occasionally toss rocks at the growing pile, even though no two rocks hit the same place.

But I guess I could understand how he had reached that conclusion. Unfortunately the idea of me having built my house was absolutely ridiculous. "No, I did not."

"Then who did?"

"My dad." I answered. From what I remembered of him he liked doing hands on things, creating and building things. Things like my house.

The atmosphere changed as he said, "Oh." And for a few minutes it was quiet. The air was almost awkward and tense between us for those few minutes.

It was quite uncomfortable and I was about to say something to try and break it but he beat me to it and resumed his twenty questions.

I found that I didn't really mind them or his company like I did most other people. Maybe it was because he was accepting my short answers and not trying to coax more then I wanted to say out.

"I didn't see any holes. What room has a hole in it?"

"My art studio."

"So you're the artistic introvert? Well I can see that. You're not much of a talker. So can I see your artwork when we return home?"

I shrugged wading out of the water. "I guess." I had nothing to hide and I guess he was going to stick around until tonight. Now I had to cram all of these rocks into my bag. This was my least favorite part of collecting stones for my house because I'd always end up with an armful of rocks and then end up kicking some home because I dropped a few and couldn't pick them up.

-Ace-

Even though Willow was curt and her responses were short I enjoyed talking to her as she collected her rocks for her art studio. I wondered if she was any good at whatever form of art she did.

I watched her push all the rocks towards her bag and then get on her knees and begin to put them in the bag that she had brought with her. I watched her stand and then put the strap over her head before bending over and gathering most of the remaining rocks in her arms. I found it kind of strange that she obviously needed help and though she knew that I was right here watching her that she was refusing to ask for help.

Maybe it was a pride thing. I thought jumping off the rock and taking the bag silently, not offering to help and not asking to help but just did so.

I also collected the rocks from her arms and said. "You forgot your shoes." The looks that I received were priceless. First there was genuine shock, as if she couldn't believe that this was happening and then disbelief as she looked over her shoulder to see that she had indeed left her shoes on the bank.

"Th-thanks." She managed after racing back to her white sandals. They reminded me of Marco's but were white. After putting them back on she resumed her place next to me and said, "But I- I can't let you carry all of those by yourself."

"And why not?" I asked twisting away from Willow's outstretching hands. I could easily handle the weight.

Maybe it wasn't a pride thing with Willow but instead an independence thing. That had to be it.

"Because I just can't. I-I mean I can't let you do all the work while I just meander next to you, empty handed."

"Sure you can. Anyways you've got to show me the way back to your house." Maybe she felt as though she needed to do something. She opened her mouth to argue further but I quickly interrupted her. "I want to do this. Don't worry about it. I'm glad to help." It wouldn't be very funny, nice or polite to watch the girl struggle under the strain of all of the rocks all the way back to her house when I could easily handle it.

Plus if Makino ever heard of this she'd never let me hear the end of it if I didn't help.

"At least let me carry one." She pleaded.

"Ok." I said letting her snag a single rock from my arms. I guess she could handle one rock after having somehow managed to carry me to her house by herself. I was still trying to figure out how she had done that.

With Willow having gotten her way she said, "Let's go." As she began walking ahead of me.

It was kind of very disappointing that there wasn't much to the forest during the day. But it was also pretty neat that I had found myself a guide, not that I needed one. But then again I had never had a guide when I explored various islands, so maybe it would be as fun if not more fun than exploring by myself. The more the merrier right?

"You walk fast." I said. Maybe I wouldn't have to slow down that much for Willow tonight.

"Oh . . . I'm sorry." She slowed down and matched her strides to mind.

With her walking next to me I realized that she was about six inches shorter than me and for every single stride I took she took two. "No need to apologize."

"Sorry." She repeated. We chatted; well I did most of the talking until we reached her rather charming stone house with a red front door and shutters on the square windows.

"Come round back." She said leading me around the side of the house.

Reaching the back I saw not only a large gaping hole in the stone wall but also a pile of rocks. The only person I could think that would do such a thing would be Luffy- no scratch that there were a lot of people that I knew would put a hole like that into the thick stone wall but Luffy was the first person to come to mind.

"Right there. You can just add them to the pile." She said dropping her single rock into the pile. After handing her now empty bag back to her she gestured into the room and said, "This is my art studio."

"So you draw?" I asked carefully examining the drawings that so heavily covered the walls that there was almost no stone visible between the sheets of paper. There were some shaded pictures of black white and every shade between. There were other papers covered with bright vivid colors. Different mediums had been used as well as different styles but one piece of paper stood out the most.

It was a nearly blank piece of paper with a red arrow that pointed up and below that arrow were the scrawled words Luffy wuz here.

Smiling I took a few steps towards it and asked, "So you know Luffy?" I noticed that the picture that the arrow was pointing up to was a shaded Hercules beetle in a pair of hands.

"W-what is he to you?" she cautiously asked. I could hear her shifting from her place in the middle of the gaping hole in the wall. She was smart in not only not telling me if she did or didn't know him but also in not answering my question before I revealed my standing with him.

However she didn't need to be so guarded, he was my little brother and that's exactly what I told Willow. The air seemed to instantly relax and I could practically hear the tender smile in her voice. "Yeah, I know him."

"Is he doing well?" As his older brother I had the right to know. Plus with a little brother like him you tend to worry.

"Yeah. He's a big ball of pure energy. Busting through my wall didn't faze him at all." She laughed softly, probably on her way to being lost in the memory.

The sad thing was that I could almost perfectly imagine Luffy crashing in from somewhere. I could see him stand up in the midst of the stone rubble and rising dust, check for his precious straw hat given to him by Shanks and then continue on his way through the house as if he had used the front door like any other normal person, as though he hadn't just crashed through a thick stone wall.

Speaking of Luffy I hoped that whatever crew he had scrounged up was taking good care of him and that he was taking good care of them as well.

I couldn't help but smile as I said, "I'm well aware." Luffy was a lot of things, a pain in the ass was certainly one of those things and there were a lot of ways to describe him and as Willow had said he was definitely a ball of pure energy. "So he's claimed his picture huh?" I was honestly surprised that he hadn't taken it with him when he had left.

"Yeah. He says when he becomes the pirate king that he's going to not only buy all of my artwork but he'd also going to make me his artist." Again I could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke of Luffy. She didn't stammer when she spoke of him and there was a certain fondness in her voice, like a mother talking about her child.

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