I woke up to my body being shaken with small whimpers reaching my ears. Small droplets of something splattered on my chest and quietly sizzled.
"A-ace?" A small voice managed. "Ace please wake up." After that my body kept being shaken and quiet sobs started up.
For a moment it was hard to arouse myself out of sleep but when I remembered who I had gone to bed with last night my eyes snapped open and I was instantaneously awake.
"A-Ace tell . . . t-tell me that I- we didn't- we did didn't we?" She whispered the last sentence.
When I looked at Willow she was hunched over my with my sheets clutched to her chest. Her green eyes were wide and watery and she looked as if she were in pain of sorts. I didn't know how to reply, how to comfort her and tell her that I had miraculously been strong enough to resist her most of the night, even when she had somehow stripped out of her clothes.
When I didn't say anything she hung her head and apologized. We had slept but that was all that we had done in the end. She was once again using her long teal hair as a shield to separate her from me.
Reaching up I tucked her hair behind her ear and said, "There's no need to apologize. You were totally trashed." That was an understatement to be honest. From the first kiss I knew exactly what she had drunk.
"But I-I should have stopped." She managed as my thumbs wiped her tears from her cheeks. She flinched when my hands touched her face.
"It's fine really. Look why don't you stay here and I'll go whip up a hangover remedy. After that you can shower if you want." Like usual she mutely nodded. I kissed her forehead before getting up. Willow let out a squeak but I only laughed.
"Hey Ace have you seen-" A voice said as my door swung open. "Holy shit man this is where you two have been!" And with that my door was quickly slammed closed.
"Ace!" Willow screeched as I ran out still not dressed. Though I don't remember having lost any articles of clothing so how had I woke up naked? Maybe I had undressed in my sleep again. I've done that a few times. But had I done that last night?
Well I was going to make sure that whoever that was didn't tell the entire crew what they had seen and make sure that they didn't have the chance to jump to conclusions either. Willow was already upset enough as it was and we hadn't done a thing . . . expect literally got naked while sleeping in the same bed. Ok that sounded really bad.
"HEY!" I shouted causing the person to turn around and slow down just enough for me to be able to tackle him. We rolled a few times before I ended up on top.
Their eyes widened as I said, "Ha! Now if you tell anyone what you saw you'll regret it."
The guy was about to answer when I noticed a pair of sandals inches from the top of their head as a voice asked, "Ace, what the hell are you doing?"
"Making sure he doesn't spill anything." I said quickly glancing up at Marco before glaring down at the guy I was pinning to the floor.
Marco let out a heavy sigh and said, "That's an order." I think he was referring to the not spilling anything but I wasn't too sure and the guy I was on top of didn't seem to be too sure either. But Marco was pointedly looking at the guy. "Now Ace get up before there are any other spectators. And while you're at it go put some pants on."
"Ok." I stood up and the guy made a hasty get away. "Can I borrow yours?" Marco gave me this what the fuck look before snapping a 'no'. "Why? I'll return them." I needed to get Willow that hangover remedy now; I could get a pair of pants later.
"Ace, return to your room and clothe yourself." Marco said with a shake of his head before he continued on his way doing whatever he had been heading to do when he had interrupted me and the guy.
Instead of listening to him I turned myself into fire and went to get that remedy that I had promised.
-Willow-
He told me that he would get something that would help me a bit before he proceeded to climb over me and get out of the bed. Instantly I covered my eyes with my hand as not to get an eyeful.
I heard someone walk in and after a few words I took a peek just in time to watch Ace rush out of the room butt naked and shouting something at whoever had carelessly walked in. I called after him; he shouldn't run around a ship naked. But when he didn't immediately come back I lay back down, trying to figure out what had led to waking up in my undergarments next to a naked Ace.
From what I managed to piece together there was a challenge that I had been stupid enough to accept because of some kind of jab about Ace and Marco. Then between that and waking up were blurs of tight grips, giggles, hot breaths and incomprehensible words. With a heavy sigh I closed my eyes and tried to get rid of the nauseous feeling.
Not a few minutes later I was shaken and as I opened my eyes once again a hand was gently slipped under my back and I was slowly eased into a sitting position and a glass as well as a few pills were pressed into my hands. "Here ya go." He said as I eyed the suspicious looking liquid in it. A smile spread across Aces face and he added, "Hold your nose and drink it as fast as you can." His tone was soft and the volume of his voice was quiet. I wondered when he had gotten dressed because the man sitting next to me was stark naked no more.
I did exactly as he suggested and after putting the pills in my mouth and drowning its contents I spoke, "W-we should n-never speak of this again . . . e-ever."
"Okie dokie. No problem. Remember where the showers are?" he asked me.
How could he be so cool and calm about this? I mean I guess freaking out wasn't in his nature unless it was his temper flaring- both literally and figuratively.
I let out a really stupid sounding, stretched out uuuh. If he'd given more time to answer I would have eventually figured it out it was just really hard to think around the pounding headache and crappy feeling I had.
He reached up and ruffled my hair saying, "Grab your things and I'll remind you."
"C-can you not look?" I asked feeling my face heat up. I suppose the request was silly considering I wasn't even completely naked and he had probably seen me last night.
But Ace just let out a laugh and said, "I've got a towel in here from last time. Hope you don't mind a dirty towel."
"I-I . . . it's fine really." And with those words he began tearing apart his room looking for it and keeping his tattooed back to me.
I dressed and asked, "Say I decided to finally get Pops mark, where do you think I should get it?" It felt weird calling him whitebeard or anything other than Pops.
"Where do you want to get it? Surely you have a slight idea where you want it to be. I mean I'd say your back but then you'd have to go around shirtless-"
"No." I was not going around topless, unlike certain people on the crew.
He laughed. "Well what about your arm or your ankle? Cole might be able to fit something on the inside of your wrist. So-ah ha! Here ya go Willow." He exclaimed interrupting himself and grabbing my wrist. He dragged me out of his room, which now looked like a disaster zone, and into mine. "Get your soap and stuff."
I obeyed and he dragged me to the showers.
"Th-thanks." I felt stupid needing to be shown where the showers were after being here for so long. I could have eventually found it myself but I was glad that someone had offered to help me.
Before I pulled the curtain closed between us he flashed a goofy grin and said, "No problem. So how'd you get so wasted in the first place?"
"A challenge." I muttered none too proud of the fact that I had been goaded into a drinking contest. Slowly I stripped watching Ace's boots not move an inch.
"A drinking challenge? Who challenged you?"
"Izanagi." I muttered surprising myself by remembering the answer as I turned on the shower. After that there was no answer, no response, no laugh, no 'oh', no nothing. "Ace?" I asked feeling silly that I had expected him to still be there. But I hadn't heard him take off and I had only looked away from him long enough to face the wall and turn on the water.
After my refreshing shower I decided that I was actually quite hungry and after a bid managed to find my way to the kitchen.
I thought I'd be alone, since it was- well I didn't even know the time, but I did know that it was between when we congregated for breakfast and when the dinner bell rang. I thought that I'd walk into a large, eerily silent room filled with empty tables and bodiless chairs but that was not the case.
When I saw the bare tattooed back I let out a chuckle that usually wouldn't be too loud but now sounded a bit too noisy. Oh I should have known he'd be here of all places. When I sat in front of him with a simple bowl of cereal he instantly asked,
"Better?"
I nodded. "Very much so. Thank you so much for everything." There was a pause of near silence where we ate in peace. Ace isn't exactly the quietest, neatest eater around. "So how was your trip?" That was almost code for what kind of trouble did you weasel your way into and narrowly escape form this time? And for what kind of mischievous fun did you have on your mission thingy.
"Boooring." He yawned before launching into a very long, elaborate and detailed story told with wild hand gestures and plenty of face palm worthy things that I could almost perfectly envision Ace saying and doing. When he finally finished his story we were long dong with our food, we got up and left the galley leaving our things on the otherwise empty table. He said that someone else would come and pick up our mess when I tried to take care of it.
"So are you up for training today?" He asked as we more or less started in the direction of the training room.
I nodded but before I could answer someone called out our names, Fire Fist and girlie. We both turned around at the same time to see Cole walking up to us.
"So did you two have a good night last night? You were quite loud. I didn't realize you guys were such freaks." She winked at me with a sly smile.
Instantly I felt my face start to burn before I turned towards Ace and rested my forehead against his shoulder. While I was mute with shock that she had said that, Ace was trying to stammer out some kind of denial.
Coles Laughter however cut off his denial attempt. "You ready to get your tattoo girlie? Ready to take up Pops mark and officially join the family?"
"Whoa! Hey, why didn't you tell me about this?!" Ace exclaimed grabbing me by my shoulders and holding me at arms distance, looking really excited.
"Huh?"
Ace looked so excited about the decision I had supposedly made.
"Izanagi made a bet- by the way Fire Fist was," Cole turned on Ace, "Was giving him a black eye really necessary?"
"Of course! I could have done way worse."
"True." His answer seemed to satisfy her because the conversation went back to the tattoo that I was supposed to be getting. "So where do you want it?"
There was a long pause where I'm assuming I was expected to insert my answer, but I didn't.
Cole let out a sigh and said, "If you're worried about pain it won't hurt much. If you're worried about permanence then don't because I can move and remove it until we get it right."
"Come oooooon Willlooooow." Ace whined before putting on a huge grin and saying, "It's about time you know. Plus Cole's the best. She ate this devil fruit that lets her do some wicked things with ink, needles and flesh- OW!" He grumbled mid-sentence letting go of one of my shoulders and rubbing at the back of his head as Cole glared at him.
"Shut up Fire Fist. You're not helping." She then turned towards me. "Listen Willow you have two options. One get the tattoo, or two suffer the consequence of losing a bet and refusing to do whatever the deal was."
"Which is?" I asked. Well maybe if it wasn't too bad I'd do it.
"Don't do it Willow!" Ace shouted loudly even though I was still only arms distance from him. "It's not worth it, trust me!" His volume didn't lower and he kept yelling.
"I thought I told you to shut up Fire Fist." She sent another glare his way and said, "You'd have to be Izanagi's slave for a week."
"A week?"
"Yeah. Someone decided that twenty four hours wasn't near long enough to make them suffer and regret not doing whatever." Cole explained in quieter tones then Ace.
"Well I've been thinking about my hand . . ." I wasn't being anybody's slave for a week. I didn't even want to know what exactly being a slave meant that I'd have to do.
Both of them smiled at me and Ace let out a whoop and began rambling on about showing it off the moment Cole was done and something about a celebration. But Cole easily silenced him and said, "Alright come with me to my room." And with that she turned around and began walking away from us.
I quickly followed but when no one fell in line next to or slightly behind me I stopped and twisted around asking, "Aren't you coming?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I want you to surprise me."
"Ace." Cole grumbled in an exasperated voice. "Kiddo here isn't going to want to party, especially not after last night."
"She doesn't have to drink. It's tradition anyways. We could always have non spiked punch or juice or something else to drink." He argued.
"You just want another reason to party."
"Yup!" And with that he turned and ran off.
"And you're head over heels for him why?" Cole's voice reached my ears as I watched his retreating back.
"W-what?" I asked my heart stopping as I whipped around to face Cole, unable to believe that she had said that.
She smiled coyly before saying, "Come on girlie it's about time you bore the great and wonderful Pops." But she didn't say a single word about her previous comment, she didn't validate that I had heard correctly or that she had even said anything out of the realm of our current conversation.
"Y-yeah." I weakly agreed. I was so nervous now. I had been hoping that Ace might come with me so that I'd have a bit of comfort, or someone to distract me a bit from the pain that was sure to come.
"Scared?" Her voice asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.
"Sort of." Yes I was scared. But I didn't have many other options, be a slave for a week or get a tattoo? The tattoo was certainly the lesser of the two evils.
She was quiet as we reached a door and walked into a room that had to be hers. Because it honest to god looked as though Coles personality had manifested just long enough to throw up everywhere. All four walls had been painted black and her room didn't have a porthole. Just about every surface, except for the floor beneath our feet, had graffiti and original works of art and posters of sorts everywhere and most of those artistic works were cockeyed, at odd angles or even upside-down.
She forcefully sat me in a chair that resembled that in which a dentist might have. And then proceeded to start unpacking a black case with silver trim. It looked like an instrument case with two silver latches to keep it closed. As she began hooking things up and stuff she began verbally walking me thought the process of what was going to happen and how it was going to happen.
First was the design phase where she'd sketch Pops Jolly Roger and possibly add things, patterns or a background around it if I wanted. After that we'd pick a place on my body to place the outline and then after that she'd start actually inking the tattoo.
"Don't worry Willow." She said as she dipped the needle into the purple dye that she seemed to have the most of.
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A/N: I just want to thank everyone for their support so far. It makes me really happy and warm and fuzzy and stuff. And as always feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism is all welcome and very greatly appreciated.