"My mom." A soft voice muttered.
Those two words were spoken in a volume that was just barely audible under the words spoken by Marco, "The second division commander before you."
"But I thought that it hadn't-"
"Well I'm off to talk to Pops." Marco interrupted me, turning his back to the two of us and giving us a lazy backwards wave.
"So is that a no to getting drinks with us?" I called to him. That's why I had introduced them, so that if I got into some kind of bar fight like I tended to do for a little bit of fun on this rather boring island, then I wouldn't be leaving lil ol' Willow in the middle of a bar by herself. She'd attract all the weirdoes and creeps within seconds, like blood and sharks or like meat and Luffy.
"Not today." He said continuing walking away and lowering his hand.
I looked at Willow and looped my arm through hers. "Looks like it's just you and I. Ever been to a bar before?" It was a stupid question but I asked it anyways. I mean what was the likelihood of Willow having been to a bar before.
She shook her head. "No. I-I like champagne but this one time when I was little I had a bottle of my mom's alcohol- I haven't a clue what it was- but she let me have a whole bottle for myself. . . I only took one sip."
I laughed and with that pulled her into a bar.
It was filled with chatter, dim dirty lighting, thick smoke and people enjoying themselves. Some people talked, some people drank and a few people played games. A few people were arguing loudly which startled Willow when we first walked in and a few other people were battling it out with their fists before being escorted out by a man three times my size.
Sitting down at the bar I ordered two drinks, something mild for her and something strong for me. "Whoa Ace!" She exclaimed grabbing onto my arm with both hands and very worried eyes. "Y-you're not going to drink that stuff are you?" she asked as my shots were put in front of me and her dainty drink down in front of her. I had wasted no time picking up one of the shot glasses so she stopped me just as the rim of the glass touched my lips before I could toss it back.
"Yeah." I answered lowering the glass a bit. So it seemed that Willow knew what I had ordered and its strength because when I looked at her she looked quite concerned and she wouldn't look so concerned if she didn't know what I was drinking. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm not going to have to carry you home am I? I-I-I mean you're going to be ok if you dr-drink those right?"
"Yeah. Don't worry." I smiled and then asked "So are there any festivals happening soon?" I hoped so. Festivals are always great fun.
"Well there's the annual festival of light. We celebrate all forms of natural light. We celebrate the sun in the day and at the night we celebrate the moon, stars, lanterns and fireworks." She explained.
"What kind of things do you do at this festival?" I asked knocking back my first shot and laughing as Willow's green eyes widened over the rim of her glass.
"W-well we- in the day it's mostly for children with arts and crafts, contests and things to do, see and, buy outside. Vendors line the streets, people from other islands come in with their goods and some make lanterns for the floating lanterns at sunrise."
"And night?" I asked expectantly. While most festivals were the same, with light festivals of sorts each island did things differently. And by the sounds of it we were going to skip right to the night half of the all day festival.
She shrugged with a most peculiar expression that only flashed across her face, not lingering long enough for me to figure out exactly what it had been. "I've heard that there are more adult themed things. There's lots of alcohol and drinks. I think there's fire breathing, juggling and fireworks as well as other stuff."
Did that mean that she hadn't ever been if she had only heard about those things? Or maybe it had changed since she had last been.
"Sounds fun." I said. I was so not about to miss an opportunity to party!
She shrugged nonchalantly not meeting my eyes. "I haven't been in several years. And I hope you have fun when you go."
"When is it?" I asked. Thoughts and plans for the two of us whirling through my head at dizzying speeds, plans spinning and forming, being thrown out or revised over and over.
"Next Friday." She answered. Good we could attend. "Speaking of fire may I ask you a question?" I nodded. The only question that ever really hurt anybody was one questioning about my biological father. "Well remember in the forest with the wolves?" when I half nodded, half knocked back the second shot she continued. "I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but how did you produce that fire?"
Surely she had her own hunches about it. But even if she didn't, I decided to be nice and just simply answer her question. "A devil fruit. It's part of why I can drink so much. I just burn it off."
Something clicked behind her still worried looking eyes and she slowly asked, "Literally?"
I couldn't help but smile at her expression she was staring at me with. "Yeah." I couldn't risk running around drunk off my ass with marines around even if they weren't that much of a threat. There were still other threats that I had to be able to be aware of.
"So you turn into fire and you burn off the alcohol?"
"Yup. So I've got a question of my own for you to answer." I told her giving her a chance to say that she didn't want to answer any questions of mine. But when she nodded with a nervously stammered 'ok' I asked, "Are you going to the festival?"
"Of course not."
"Why not?" I mean I know that she isn't a party animal which was ok I guess. But from the expression that had come over her face when she spoke about the festival before the pirates that Luffy had just recently defeated had come to her island, the memories were pleasant.
"I just don't. It's crowded, the girls are expected to get dressed up and made up. It's so overwhelming and that's when all the creeps come out and true natures are revealed . . . and stuff."
"I'll protect you from creeps and stuff. But you're going this year." I insisted. Protecting her would be easy and the both of us having boat loads of fun was going to be the ultimate goal during the festival.
"You can't make me." She defiantly said giving me this 'I dare you to try' look. One not quite in character for Willow, but one I would look I would certainly have fun accepting the challenge of.
"I can and will." I told her. It was my two week mission to make Willow realize what she was missing in life, to show her how to live and loosen up, to enjoy life before she kicked the bucket. Before she could look back and say, 'I wish I had done more'.
Though thinking about it I didn't quite know what had started this mission. Maybe it was just something to do, a way to pass the next two weeks. . . .Or maybe it was something more. . .
"Look you can go and have a great time with Marco. B-but I'm not going. I'm sorry."
I couldn't help but laugh, which was a reaction that seemed to confuse Willow just a bit. She didn't seem to understand that she didn't have a choice, that in the end I'd have my way and she'd be accompanying me to this light festival like it or not. Of course she'd enjoy the celebration a hell of a lot more if she just went with me willingly.
But even if I had to throw her over my shoulder or literally drag her kicking and screaming to the celebrating and then literally drag her everywhere once we got there she'd end up having fun, enjoying some part of the night and the festivities.
"But I don't want to go with Marco. He's no fun anyway." Marco would probably put a damper on things; he'd try and keep me under control and acting rather tame. He probably wouldn't let me crowd surf or juggle fire after taking over the fire dancers stage and he probably wouldn't let me do anything fun except drink a few drinks and have harmless fun. Not that I wanted to harm people in the process of having fun. But sometimes it happened.
"He'll be more fun than I would be Ace." She tried to argue with me.
But once my mind was made up it was awfully hard to persuade me otherwise and everyone knew that. Everyone except her that was and it was going to be fun to see how much Willow would try and persuade me, how much she'd resist before she ended up giving in. Because she and I were going to that festival, it was part of living, loosening up and having fun.
I shrugged with a smile. "We won't know unless you come with me." That's how life is. It's even more unpredictable then the weather and currents of the Grand Line and the New World. Life was all about the chances you did or didn't take, the things you experience and the (sometimes) wonderful and awesome people in which you get the privilege to meet.
Willow leaned towards me and hissed, "But Ace I know how exactly how these things go. I get dressed up and made up before we go out and then a little later you'll have your way with me . . . or you'll try to at least. My pleading and begging won't stop you and I'll have to resort to a few cheap shots because if I didn't you'd just be too strong for me."
I was in the process of gulping down another shot when she spoke, when her words caught me off guard, causing me to spit it back out in surprise, in order not to choke on the clear liquid. After getting my back firmly smacked I managed to say, "Whaddja say?" and ended up startling Willow. She opened her mouth to repeat what she had just said but I didn't let her do so. "Parties, celebrations, festivals and all of that fun stuff aren't supposed to go like that Willow?"
"Th-they're not?" she seemed genuinely surprised.
"No, not at all. Who did that to you?" She had sounded pretty convinced that's how things were supposed to go, that that exact thing had happened to her.
"I-I don't mean to sound r-rude . . . but why do you . . . care? Why-why does what- what I just said anger you s-so?"
I shook my head muttering, "I don't know but I have morals." Whatever bastard had done to Willow had ruined her idea of celebrations and parties. I guess that made me mad because parties and celebrations were so fun, so amazing. Not only that but Willow was such a good person. I didn't understand why anyone would want to betray her trust like that and hurt her in any way shape or form.
I was taken aback by Willow's disbelieving laugh and the words, "But Ace, you're a pirate." It was as if those words were supposed to mean something, to have some kind of rather obvious meaning behind them.
"So, look at Luffy. He's a pirate. And besides I wanted to be a pirate for the freedom, for the adventure. I just kindda ended up on Pop's crew." I couldn't help but laugh a bit and sheepishly scratch the back of my head, "Funny story there." It was also a long story and even though he had defeated me and my crew he had accepted us into his crew, his family. Pops had a few rules in which we all lived by. Willow finished her drink and set it down on the bar gently. "Want another?" I automatically asked seeing that the glass was empty.
She shook her head. "No thank you that was enough. I'm done."
I paid, much to Willow's surprise before pulling her out of the bar.
It was still light out and there was still plenty of hours of daylight so now it was time to have some fun!
The next week went by fast, but it was lots of fun. I even think that Willow had just as much fun as I did.
We got in lots of practice dining and dashing as well as running from angry mobs of people. Willow had become quite good at it.
She was also quite fond of screeching about what we were doing at the moment was ridiculous, crazy, impossible, not going to end well and/or stupid. But in the end, after yelling at me or getting over the initial shock that she had actually survived she always looked up at me with this smile that could rival Luffy's brightest smile and would say, 'that was fun, dangerous/stupid/crazy/whatever she thought the activity had been, but fun.'
Some nights I more or less literally crashed at her place, at her little house in the middle of the awesome forest. Other nights, while she slept soundly, I explored the forest and the nights when I did neither I was with the crew at the hotel or out drinking and having a good time with them while not stuck on the ship.
Some of the fun things Willow and I did include pranking the crew and when they cornered the two of us she was my secret weapon because who could beat such an innocent face, such wide and naïve green eyes? And after distracting said crew member we made a mad run for it. Most of the time we escaped. . . a few times we weren't so fortunate.
We used the large leaves from the trees in the forest and jumped off a cliff only to hit each other and then fall into the ocean- that hadn't exactly been pleasant but neither of us could have really helped it- and Willow had to save my sorry ass for obvious reasons. And after making sure that I was ok and everything she gave me a small lecture and a large hug while saying that she was glad that I hadn't died because she didn't know she was going to tell Pops that I had kicked the bucket.
We also camped out, delving further within the forest then we could in a single day. And I reached the conclusion that the trees did in fact move, all night and only when dawn came did they stop.
I taught her how to play poker and was pleasantly surprised when she played quite well. But despite that I also taught her how to cheat in those kinds of games as well, just in case she somehow managed to get herself into some kind of tight situation where she needed to win or else. . .
But right now I was walking beside her towards the edge of town and she was laughing with her hand over her mouth and her head turned away from me as though she didn't want to show me exactly how funny she had found my last comment to be.
At the line of trees I stopped and when she realized that I had stopped she turned around with a confused expression on her face. "Go on home." I encouraged her gesturing for her to continue on without me.
Her brow furrowed and she looked even more confused. "But I thought we were- what about the night festival?" Was that disappointment I heard in her voice?
I couldn't help but smile at that. "So you want to go to the night festival now do you?" Ha! I had won! Not that there had ever been even a single flicker of doubt in my mind.
"W-well . . . " as she trailed off and her face flushed a light pink and she avoided eye contact before her gaze fixed on the ground between us, creating a teal veil between her and I. "If you're ta-taking me than y-yes. I would like to go."
I let out a whoop of joy and began running off. As I ran I looked over my shoulder and shouted, "I'll be back for you in an hour or so." In an hour or so the blue still remaining in the sky would have drained into the black of night and the real fun of a festival would begin.
But first I had to do something.
/
/
/
Feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism all of that is welcome and greatly appreciated.