Yes! I cheered into the clear starry night before racing below deck. It was probably about three am but not only was I wide awake but I just couldn't wait. I had been stuck on the ship for the past few weeks and though pranks were still quite fun I was dying to get off the ship. And with that island being so close I was going to die before morning, before the sun rose.
The New Year's party had died just a few hours ago but Willow had turned in earlier than the rest of the crew, who were passed out drunk or something like that. The party had been great as most of the Whitebeard Pirates parties tend to be.
I stopped in front of a door, grasped the doorknob and turned it all the way before slowly pushing it open. Usually I'd bound in, noisily and probably flipping on the lights as I did so. But not only did I want to make a quiet escape I also didn't want to get mauled by all of the passed out drunk, or hoping to sleep off a hangover, people I woke up at this hour, logia type or not I'd be in deep shit.
Under the blanket of night I slowly and quietly crept into the room, over to the bed that was bolted to the floor. I slipped my hand under the pillow until my fingers brushed against warm metal. I pulled the crescent blade out from under the pillow and once I was safe I hissed, "Hey, we've reached the island." That was a bit of a lie because we hadn't docked and we'd have to use my boat to finish the trip. Unfortunately she didn't budge. "Psssst. Hey." I tried again gently shaking her.
Again nothing. So I tried again.
And again.
Until she stirred and rolled over. Slowly she cracked open her eyes and in a raspy, sleep filled voice asked, Luffy what do you want?"
"To explore." I told her wondering if she were conscious enough to make sense of what I was saying, or if she were awake enough that she could tell that I wasn't Luffy.
"What time is it?" Willow asked sitting up and rubbing at her eyes, looking much like a child. Oh so out of place on this ship.
"Three or something." I answered honestly then nearly face palmed. No one was going to explore with me at five a.m. let alone three or so in the morning.
She let out a groan and lightly pushed against the middle of my chest and she flopped back, lying back down. "Go to bed."
"Nooo. How 'bout you get out of bed." I suggested grabbing her wrist and lightly pulling on it. "Come oon or I'll leave you." After I said that I realized that it wasn't much of a threat.
"Nooooo Luffy, you'll destroy something." She groaned rolling over so that she could grab the wrist of my free hand, as if she thought that would keep me- or Luffy- still.
"But it's my birthday." I told her hoping that would get her up and going. It's been my birthday for a total of three hours, meaning that I only had twenty-one hours left of my day and had wasted one hundred and eighty minutes it. I had to make up for lost time!
"Your birthday isn't until June." Willow muttered.
"May 5th." I instantly corrected. Luffy's birthday was May 5th, not June whatever she thought it might be. "Come on, you can sleep when my day is over."
"Fine fine I'm up." With those tired words she sat up again, swinging her legs around to the side of her bed this time. When Willow tried to take a step forwards she ended up stumbling. Fortunately for her she didn't have a long fall because both of her small and now slightly calloused hands landed on my chest, halting her descent to the floor.
She looked up at me with wide eyes. "Y-you're not Luffy."
Now she could tell? I wondered how the difference between laying down and standing and then tripping made her able to distinguish the difference between Luffy. But I only smiled widely and said, "Nope, I'm Ace."
Instead of getting all flustered and stammering like I expected her to do, a lazy smile spread across her still sleepy face and she quietly half whispered the words, "Hello Ace."
"Hello." I pulled her towards the door of her room. My birthday was wasting away! I couldn't afford to waste even another second.
"Where are we going?" She asked not resisting me even a bit.
"The island." We hadn't docked yet but that was ok. I had my own boat for a reason. I couldn't wait until we docked, after the sun rose and the crew felt like raising the anchor and getting to work and docking.
"Oh. Why so early?"
"I just couldn't wait." It was true enough.
-Marco-
I expected to be woken up bright and early by either an excited Ace or some trouble he had gotten into.
Though no one was really acting like it, we all knew his birthday had been approaching. We all knew that it was going to be upon us starting the second 11:59 yesterday turned into 12:00 today.
But despite the expected noise I was awoken by silence, blissfully peaceful silence, which was weird, odd, unheard of.
Instantly I was up.
Weird and silence meant that something was wrong, especially since it was Ace's birthday. Before taking a step away from my hammock I checked my room for traps and pranks that may have been set up while I slept. Fortunately there were none that I could see, not in my room or in the hall or just outside my door. As much as that was a relief the feeling that something was off increased.
Before going up to the galley I checked Ace's room for him. But as was expected it was void of the birthday boy. Sighing I went up the stairs that lead up to the deck and opened the door, stopping short not even two steps out.
Well this certainly explained everything. I thought but what was Willow doing lying in the middle of the deck as well? Ace I could understand, the explanation was easy enough. Their hands were clasped together. She had probably been pulled out of her bed, out of her room and dragged up here and when he had collapsed she had gone down with him and hadn't gotten up because he probably had woken her up enough that she was barely able to walk. But that was only my theory.
Well now that I knew that the ship wasn't about to go down, that the world wasn't about to end and that Ace hadn't caused any apparent trouble I let out a laugh and walked over to the out could in denial couple. It wasn't too early but they were the only two on the ship's deck besides me and the lookout.
"Willow." I said reaching out and gently shaking her. She came too rather quickly, sitting up and muttering my name as she recognized me looking with a confused expression.
"Um . . . hi?" She asked poking Ace in the cheek until his head turned but he didn't stir.
"We need your help kiddo." I told her standing. Ace could wake up and continue whatever he had been going to do without Willow.
"We?" she warily asked giving me this suspicious look.
I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle as I said. "The crew and I. As you know it's Ace's birthday today." He had been singing it to just about everyone for the past month. He'd also dance happily as he proclaimed when his birthday was to friend and foe, person, animal and object alike.
"Oh. It's finally here?"
"Yeah and the crew wants to make him something special-"
"That's where I come in right?"
I nodded. A cake wasn't that special really but not only did everyone like cake but that's what people had besides alcohol on someone's birthdays. Plus Ace always insisted that a birthday was not a birthday without a cake. So because 'his day' only came once a year we let him think that he could do and have whatever he wanted on his birthday. And getting cake was part of getting his way.
"Yup. No one really wants to make that 'something' special for him and so-"
"You all figured I would?"
I nodded again. It would also be rather disastrous for over three-fourths of the crew to actually try and make him anything. Half of the things that he received as presents were simply things that that caught his eyes on a raid or something. We didn't usually go out of our way to celebrate birthdays, well except Pops. We celebrated enough things so birthdays were just another reason to party hard. Not only that but all of our pride would be completely diminished if any of us were caught dead doing anything other than throwing a massive party for him sometime tonight.
She let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand back through her blue hair and said, "Fine. But only because none of you are manly enough to make even a cupcake for your favorite division commander."
She began heading towards the door of the deck but before she could reach it I asked, "Could you make a cake?" Everyone was going to fight over who got the privilege of shoving Ace's face into the cake he annually demanded.
"Yeah I suppose."
Usually we just sent someone, usually a newbie, to buy a cake for the sole purpose of smashing it into his face and therefore meeting his demand of having cake. But we had other unplanned as of yet plans for Willow so we couldn't have her leaving the ship with Ace.
"Any specific flavors?" She asked reaching the door and looking over her shoulder at me.
"I thought you knew Ace better than that." I teased her.
"I-I do." She managed, stammering for the first time in a while. Thankfully she had grown a bit more confident and had been stammering less and less, she wasn't stuttering at every other word and or syllable anymore. And that meant that Ace didn't have to deal out any more black eyes for the people who thought it smart, fun or funny to tease her about it even once.
I smiled at her tomato red face and said, "Alright then you'd better get started."
-Willow-
"What are ya doin' in here girlie?" A voice asked as I turned towards the fridge to get out the eggs and milk, the flour already on the counter.
Out the corner of my eye I saw Cole hop onto the countertop and settle there, intently watching me as I moved about. It had taken forever for me to find a recipe for a cake and even longer for me to locate everything I would need. Fortunately I was making some progress and was close to starting to actually baking the cake I had been requested to make.
"You do know that Fire Fist is already on that inferno island right. You know he's raising some hell without his 'innocent' partner in crime." She said.
"Yeah." Where else would he be if he weren't sleeping still? "Marco wanted me to bake a cake for him."
"Why would he want that?" She asked sounding clueless as to why I would need to make a cake or as to why Marco had requested that I make one. "Why'd you agree to make it?"
"Because I'm probably the only one on this ship capable of making one. I'm probably the only person who is willing to do so at least." There was nothing wrong with making a birthday cake or helping out the crew.
"Yeah that's probably true. But during the few minutes that I stayed on that damn summer island I saw a bakery. You don't have to make one. But otherwise that's probably true. So you have the hots for Mr. Fire Fist dontcha?"
"W-what?" I gasped whipping around to face Cole, who was wagging her eyebrows at me.
"You heard me loud and clear girlie. You've got the hots for Fire Fist and Fire Fist had got the hots for you. Am I incorrect?"
"Yes!" I managed in a louder than it should have been voice. She was as wrong as it was to call Izo a girl.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
There were no feelings between Ace and I, no hots to be had for each other.
Not that I was willing to admit to. But even then I don't think that I have the 'hots' for him, whatever that actually meant.
But before I could say anything else Cole burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that she ended up falling off of the counter and landed hard on the floor. She was gasping wildly for air as she clutched her sides. "M-man . . . Willow . . . you-you're . . . such a-a . . . riot." She gasped out in-between fits of laughter and loud inhales for air.
However despite her laughter I was no amused. Heck I didn't even get what was so funny.
Finally though she managed to stop laughing, catch her breath and righted herself, done rolling around on the floor. Cole stood and headed towards the door but before she walked out said, "Come get me when you're done."
"Alright but I might be a while."
"Why? It's just a cake." She asked giving me a weird look. I opened my mouth to explain that I wasn't just making a cake when a smile split across her face and she nodded her head. "Unless you're making more than just a cake for Fire Fist. Something a little extra, something special and just from you right?"
"N-no."
"Oh don't deny it honey."
"Shut up Cole." I managed to grumble at her.
"Then just admit it."
"Yes. Ok I'm making another little something for Ace, something other than cake." It was embarrassing but I hadn't really gotten him anything even though we had known about his birthday for quite a while now. And I really doubted that he'd like a work of art . . . he'd probably try to eat it or something. So I really hoped that he liked brownies since those were the only things I knew how to make by heart.
"You're so cute girlie." She said pinching my cheeks. "Just keep lying to yourself and you're going to come to regret having not told the boy sooner." And with those rather ominous sounding words Cole decided to walk out.
But I didn't have peace and quiet for long, just long enough to put the cake in the oven and start making icing, when the door slammed open with a loud, "What the hell smells so- oh hey Willow. This is where you are!" Those pleasantly surprised words filled the kitchen and my ears before two strong arms wrapped me in a hug from behind. "You know I was told that you had left the ship so that you couldn't explore with me."
"I wonder why they told you that." I muttered swatting Ace's hands away from the bowl of chocolate that was for the icing.
"Willow." He whined trying another line of attack.
"Ace." I tried to make my voice firm, to sound as though I meant it when I said 'no'. But that wasn't working for me, never really had, and would probably never really work for me.
"But it's my birthday." He said as he kept trying to dip a finger into the bowl that I was holding out of his reach.
"How old are you? Are you still seventeen through twenty one or are a bit older?" If he was older than twenty one then he was older than I thought he was, meaning that there was more than a year between our ages. But then deciding that he needed an extra incentive I added, "Tell me how old you are and you might get a treat." Extra incentives usually worked with Ace.
He stopped struggling and put his lips so close to my ear that they grazed against it. His hot shallow breath sent freezing cold shivers down my spine and raised goosebumps along my arms and across the back of my neck. I swear he was doing it on purpose, trying to make me react like this.
Then ever so quietly he said, "I'm twenty."
I squeezed my eyes tightly closed then quickly opened them. "A-alright. You- you can have the b-bowl in the sink." I told him.
"YES!" He cheered unwrapping his arms from around my waist and his strong chest disappeared from behind my back, his body no longer pressing me into the counter as he strained to reach the icing I was making.
He grabbed the bowl from the sink and like Cole had, hopped onto the counter. Unlike Cole though he chose the counter right next to me, running his index finger along the inside of the bowl and then sticking it into his mouth. "This is delicious. So what are you making?"
"It's your birthday remember?" I reminded him in case he had somehow managed to forget this fact within the previous seconds, minute at the most.
"Are you baking me a present?" The excitement in his voice rose considerably. I avoided the question and we talked for a while. At random intervals he'd ask the question and I'd avoid it every time. We talked until the timer for the cake went off and he asked the question again.
"Look I can't tell you. Now take the bowl with you and get on out of here." Despite having been in the kitchen for a while he was still in the process of literally licking the bowl clean.
"You wound me." He gasped.
"You're logia, you'll be fine. Now get out." I grabbed his wrist and pulled him off of the counter and to the door. Unlike the first time he had used that as an excuse I knew that he meant. I knew what a logia was.
Opening the door I was surprised to came face to face with Haruta, who smiled and pulled Ace out of the kitchen handing him a piece of paper saying, "Yeah. I figured you'd be here. Here figure this out. We decided that instead of giving you your birthday presents you'd have to find them. Knock yourself out." Those were the only words that needed to be spoken to have Ace's undivided attention. After skimming over the paper Ace looked up, smiled at the both of us and raced out as fast as he could.
Once Ace had zoomed off Haruta walked in and asked, "Are you almost done? That's not going to keep the birthday boy busy for long."
"Yeah. I just need to put the icing on them and stick them in the fridge."
"Then hurry up kiddo."
"Don't rush me." This had to be perfect.
"Don't put too much love into it. We're just going to smash his face in it."
"Oh."
"So but all the icing on the top." He suggested as I stopped the annoying beeping and pulled the cake out of the oven. Wordlessly I obeyed, not bothering to make the cake pretty, not that he would have noticed the designs I would have put time and energy into.
"Good. Now let's go. We've got other plans for you."
"Huh?" I asked as I was walked out of the kitchen.
-Ace-
I smiled at the hand written buffet tickets from just about half of the crew. I couldn't wait to use them! My stomach growled at the sheer thought of a buffet meal.
I raced off to the kitchen to not only return the licked as clean as I could possibly get it bowl but to also show off my newly acquired loot!
"Lookie what I-" I exclaimed bursting into an empty kitchen. ", got." I finished with a normal voice and a frown as I looked around. "Where'd you go?" I wondered aloud as I tossed the bowl into the sink. "Wiiiiiiillllllllooooooow!" I shouted for her as I raced out of the kitchen.
"You lookin' for the kiddo?" Fossa asked stopping me after I leapt down from the empty crow's-nest and onto the deck.
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
"It's a bit obvious Ace. But I think she said something about a birthday surprise for you in your room." He said.
"Really?" I asked before racing past him, through the door, down the stairs and into the hallway. Reaching my slightly singed, but otherwise unmarked door I grabbed the handle and flung it open as I stepped in, flipping on the lights as well.
I heard a sharp intake of breath that wasn't mine before I froze dead in my tracks not even two and a half steps into my room.
"OH MY SHOLY SHIT!" I exclaimed seeing what was on my bed.
Was I even seeing correctly?
Just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming I pinched the skin of my arm in quite a few places and then gently smacked myself on my cheeks. But still the sight before me stayed in place, the scene didn't change in any way shape and or form.
A blue haired, green eyed girl was lying on my bed with dark purple and bright orange ribbon wrapped around her, curling her into a loose fetal position that the binds held her in. The dark purple ribbon tied her ankles and knees together, wrapped around her thighs in two places then went up her torso and what I could see of her back and sides. The purple ribbon also tied her wrists together and held them to her clothed chest. The orange ribbon on the other hand didn't appear to be doing any tying, just decorating, and crisscrossing over the dark purple ribbon and her clothes, which she was still thankfully earing. Though her black pants had been swapped for those extremely short shorts I hadn't seen since her second day as a pirate.
Before I made any other kind of move, I moved my leg back and quickly kicked my door shut so that nobody could walk by and just happen to see this sight. I could just imagine all the shit I'd get if anyone saw this.
"Oh thank god you're finally here." The tangled up girl on my bed breathed out, the look of relief on her face didn't help at all.
This was not good, not good at all. My mind- being the sometimes perverted organ it is- immediately went to all of the things I could do, not only with her but with that ribbon.
But my conscious stepped in and tried to tell my mind that not only would those things be wrong- extremely wrong- but not very gentlemanly either.
But then my mind argued that she was like that for a reason, that she wasn't tied up because she was in the mood to be bound like so.
Then my conscious- I was at war with myself, in my head!
So I firmly gave it a good and firm shake. And as I stepped closer to my bed asked, "What in the name of hell are you doing on my bed like this?"
I considered birthday seduction but Willow wasn't really the seducing type. Unfortunately it didn't cross my mind till later that she hadn't done this to herself, or that there were other minds at work behind this slightly erotic sight on my bed.
She managed a shrug somehow. "Could you please untie me?" Willow's discomfort was obvious. So I nodded and began trying to find the start of either ribbon so that I could untie it and start unraveling her.
I considered burning it but was suddenly afraid that the entire thing would catch on fire and Willow would burn then catch my bed on fire and then the ship and then we were all going to go down.
So I reached down my pant leg and pulled out the dagger that was strapped there. I suppose I could have simply ripped it but that didn't cross my mind either.
When Willow saw it she flinched but said nothing. "Hey." I frowned at the action. "You know I'm not going to hurt you." That should have been obvious and that flinch was unnecessary!
"I-I know." She said, inching away as I brought the knife closer to the strand of red ribbon that went between her shoulder and her knees.
"You want to be untied don't you?" I impatiently asked. We both knew that I wouldn't hurt her, plus traitors weren't exactly welcome on this ship and killing family is traitorous.
She nodded.
"Then stop moving." And with that she did. I cut the red ribbon first and pulled that off. After the ribbon was but a pile on the floor I did the same to the purple ribbon.
"Thank you so much." She said stretching out on my bed and rubbing at her arms and legs.
"No problem. But you know you fail at seducing me right." I had determined that what she had been doing despite everything that told me that she wasn't the type.
Willow raised an eyebrow and slowly asked. "Oh really Mr. Ace?"
I nodded.
"So if I had been a bit less clothed and begging you wouldn't have done anything?"
"Nope."
With a smile she began making these really sexual sounding moans, pants and ah's. And when she did I decided that I'd wait for her to stop before questioning her about what she was doing. But when my name slipped out in a winded sounded moan I slapped my hand over her mouth and hissed, "What the hell are you doing?"
I felt Willows mouth curl into a smile as she pulled my hand off of her moth so that she could answer. "You see the crew thought it would be fun if they made me your birthday present and their expecting us to do . . . things."
"Nuh-uh. I got food tickets." I told her. Most of them were I owe U's but same difference. They both promised food!
"Those were a distraction Ace." She told me in a slow voice as if I wouldn't be able to understand her if she spoke in a normal speed.
"What?" I asked shocked yet not. "Well those were a pretty damn good distraction." Haruta's piece of paper had told me that there were fifty to collect and I wasn't giving a single one back. "But that doesn't explain why you're making those sounds."
"We're expected to do things."
"Things?" I asked cocking my head to the side. I felt like I was missing something here.
"Sex ok? They're expecting us to screw around a bit."
"And so you make noises like that?"
Willow hung her head, reached behind me and smacked me with my own pillow. "Yes."
TO get even with her I grabbed my other pillow and smacked her in the head too. So hard that she toppled over in my bed with a whimpered 'ow'. But then she just lay there, panting and letting out loud moans and my name again.
So again I hit her, hissing, "Stop that."
"Aaah. Don't stop Ace." She moaned out as she sat up and hit me in the chest with a wink.
"Oh. Oooh." I smiled and jumped up, giving Willow room to stand as well. "I get it." I whispered leaning into her with a grin. We were going to mess around a bit but not the way that the crew wanted us to. I bet this was all Cole's idea.
But instead of getting closer to me she stood on my bed and bounced a bit, waving me over silently. "Harder!" She groaned bouncing a bit so that the bed creaked.
"Harder?" I didn't know if she wanted me to hit her harder of if she were just saying it for the benefit of whatever audience we supposedly had.
"Yeah come on, you've got to get into this so it'll be more fun."
"Are you sure? What if I hurt you?" I asked stepping up onto my bed.
"I'll heal." She told me with a smile but those words weren't very comforting at all.
-Marco-
The moment someone gave the signal that Ace was in his room and that the door was shut, the crew came out of hiding and gathered near the entrance of the barracks in case they came out. But even then some of the crew spilled out of the entrance and into the hallway.
Sighing I shook my head but stayed out in the hallway, leaning against the wall on one side of the door to the barracks. The walls were quite thin so it wouldn't take much for them to be heard. I was simply here to make sure that things didn't go horribly wrong. I couldn't think of anything that could possibly go awry with people of the opposite sex and ribbon- ok scratch that there were lots of things that could go terribly wrong. But not with Ace and Willow, or so I desperately hoped. And if for some reason things did manage to go wrong I was here to save the day and patch things up.
Of course the rest of the crew wouldn't stop giving me crap about being a perverted old man, which I denied but had given up explaining my reasons to them.
There was yet another loud thud and then the words, "Ace stop being so rough."
The more noises, thumps, thuds and moans, groans, sighs and whimpers that there were the more words that were spoken from the other side of the door, the more bloody noses there were on this side of the door. It was rather amusing yet mildly disturbing to watch Pops crew being reduced to a bunch of perverts with bloody noses and some unconscious comrades.
"Shut up and take it!" Ace's voice sounded followed by a whap and a whimpered ow.
I looked around and saw that eyes had widened and that looks were being exchanged, as if they had to confirm that it was Ace and Willow in there behind that closed door. But besides Pops they were the only two missing from the group. Some nurses were standing around the hall, whispering and giggling at times.
After that several people fell back with massive nose bleeds, some people just lay there, now unconscious. The nurses looked at them and then at each other, not moving, not doing a single thing about it. Though none of the crew would die of a bloody nose, so it was fine I suppose.
From the crowd rose a person that picked their way through the body of the crew before settling themselves against the wall beside me with crossed arms. It was a moment before they spoke. "So do you really think it's Willow and Fire Fist in there?"
"It's them." I confirmed. I wasn't too thrilled that they had such an audience and if Myra saw this she'd beat the crew senseless, there would be rolling heads and she'd be spitting fire. She would be so pissed that I hadn't done anything to stop the crew. Thank god Myra wasn't here. I also wasn't too thrilled that the crew was deriving any pleasure from this.
"But do you really think it's them in there? I mean its Willow and Ace. They're going at it like freaky animals." They said.
"I'm aware." I could hear just as well as Cole and the rest of the crew. I could hear every whimper, loud sigh and vocal gasp. I could hear the thumps, bumps and few crashes that sounded behind that door.
Cole chuckled. "I'm sure you are." She paused for a few minutes, just long enough for the words 'no n-not there!' to be faintly heard. She let out a short laugh and shook her head. "God, they even sound like freaks."
"Maybe we should break them up, or knock on the door at least." Then after we docked somewhere else they could go at it where the entire crew couldn't hear them, where they didn't have an audience.
"Hold your horse's phoenix boy. No one's forcing them to do anything."
"We set them up." At least she hadn't been naked or tied to the bed or anything else. Really the ribbon had been the tamest one that had been thrown out there, the only one that Willow had been somewhat willing to go along with.
"But they could be doing that cutesy snuggling stuff."
"Ace doesn't do cutesy."
"Really? Willow does. And besides he doesn't do aggressive, rough and rather dirty either. I mean he's a freak, point blank. But he's not that kind of freak as far as I'm aware at least." Cole said. We talked over Aces and Willow's voices.
I didn't know what to say to that. Mostly because her words were true and there wasn't much else to say. Ace was- as Cole had kindly put- a freak, but he was Ace. Usually there were no words to describe the boy.
"Hey." She suddenly said looking over at me.
"Hmm?"
"It's quiet now." Cole let out a laugh. "You now I bet he fell asleep. Let's just take a tiny peek at them." She grabbed my wrist and had already started picking her way across to the other side of the hall.
"He probably did." I agreed. "But I don't think you should-"
"I just want to see if they did anything. I mean they could have just been making sounds and throwing things around." Cole said reaching the door.
"I doubt Ace would do that." I muttered under my breath only to receive this 'oh really' look from Cole.
"That's quite debatable is it not?" She tried the door and frowned. "It's locked." She examined her only tatted arm with an even deeper frown. "Well damn that sucks. I aint got nothin' useful on me today either."
"That's just too bad." I dryly said, rather happy that they had been smart enough to lock the door and that Cole didn't have anything tatted on her arm that could have helped her get into the room. I had no desire to know if those two had sex or were just doing as Cole had suggested and were just making noise.
"Yeah yeah, try not to look so over joyed. I mean we should probably clean up the crew before they," she inclined her head towards the closed and locked door. ", decide to get decent again and come out of hiding. You know, before he realizes that he was set up." She said.
"He's not stupid." If Ace wanted to be, he could be quite intelligent. Plus Willow had probably told him why she was tied up in ribbon on his bed in the first place.
"That commander is a rather questionably statement." She said while beginning to push some of the crew members that had flooded out of the barracks and into the hall back into the barracks, leaving trails of blood on the floors.
Having nothing better to do I ordered the nurses to bring some cleaning supplies as to get the blood off the floor and then followed suit.
-Willow-
We were sweating heavily and clutching pillows that had been turned into weapons. However we were both grinning as we circled each other like birds of prey around a carcass.
"D-don't . . . stop . . . now." I quietly panted.
"Tired?" He whispered in a teasing tone as he reached up and pushed damp hair back off of his face. A few of those strands stayed where they had been pushed when he had removed it.
"Hmm." I audibly thought aloud. "Yeah kind of."
"Ok then." He winked at me before loudly asking, "Ready for the grand finale?" As he asked this he lifted the pillow high above his head.
When I saw that I shook my head as I backed up a few steps. "N-not really."
"Well too bad!" He exclaimed rushing towards me. Surprised I let out a screech as I tried to scramble back. Only I ended up tripping over my own feet.
Almost instantly he was on top of me and smacking me with his pillow.
"Ace!" I screeched using my pillow as a shield as I tried to stop him. But it wasn't until he suddenly rolled off of me and onto his back next to me did he let up and then stop.
"That was fun." He breathlessly said with a laugh.
"Yeah." I agreed.
"We should do that again."
"Yeah."
"Is that all you can say?" Ace asked moving his head so that he was looking at me but was still lying on his back.
"No." I contemplated rolling over onto my side but decided that I'd be like Ace and just be lazy and move only my head. "Happy birthday."
Ace smiled and I thought he was going to kiss me until his lips pressed themselves against my forehead.
I don't know how we did it but we fell asleep right there in the middle of his bedroom floor, sweaty, hot and trying to breathe regularly once more. And despite being on the floor of someone else's room I slept well because today had been a very long day, one that had started at three am this morning.
However despite my deep sleep I was awoken by a loud grumbling right below my ear that startled me out of unconsciousness, or at least partially woke me up.
The words, "You awake?" chased away the rest of the stubbornly lingering unconsciousness.
"Hmm." I muttered wrapping my arms tighter around my pillow.
"I'm starving." Ace voice exclaimed quietly from somewhere above me.
"You're always starving." I told him snuggling into my pillow even more.
"Yeeeeah but if I eat I won't be starving anymore."
"That's true."
"Plus I haven't had that cake smashed into my face." I could almost hear the grin in his voice when he said that, which was just too much for my sleepy mind.
"And you . . . want that?"
"YES! Cake is awesome! And I heard a rumor yesterday that it was made by a very good cook."
"I made it." I muttered not wanting to move. I was extremely comfortable right where I was. I really just wanted to go back to sleep.
Almost instantly my pillow went from horizontal to vertical. I clung tightly, for dear life, to my pillow, the grumbling sound resounding yet again and this time it was louder. "Then let's go! I wanna get cake smashed in my face! Come on, up to your feet!" With that I was grabbed from under my arms and hoisted off of my knees and onto my feet.
"My pillow." I said with a frown.
"My stomach was your pillow, was it comfy?" He asked aiming a goofy grin my direction.
I felt my face flush as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "S-sorry. If . . . if it makes you f-feel better . . . you-your stomach- it's-it was c-comfortable."
Ace let out a laugh putting his arm around my shoulders. "You know for a pirate you're awfully adorable." When my face got even hotter than before he laughed even harder and then he began leading us towards the door of his room.
"I've been called a lot worse." I muttered. Adorable was in fact one of the best things that someone had called me. Ironic when it had come from a pirate, a criminal of the seas.
He pinched my cheek and said, "You're blushing." Of course those words didn't help much.
"O-of course I am." I grumbled swatting his hands away from my face as we climbed the stairs that led to the deck.
When we reached the top he shoved the door open and ran out into the middle of the deck shouting, "CAAAAAAAAAAKE!" His eyes must have been shut because if they weren't then he would have seen Thatch creeping up to him, chocolate cake balanced on the palm of his hand.
Our eyes met and he lifted his index finger up to his lips with his free hand, silently telling me to be quiet as if I was being loud to begin with, as if I was going to warn Ace anyway. He's the one who wanted the cake with all of the icing piled on the top to be smashed into his face. So who was I to deprive the man of that? Who was I to stop him, to deprive him of the pleasure?
So I stood by and watched Thatch slam the cake into Ace's face so hard that not only did chunks of chocolate cake and icing go flying everywhere but Ace was also sent staggering back.
When he regained his footing he turned towards me with wide eyes and a chocolate covered face. "This is the best cake EEEEEEVEEEER!" then he opened his arms wide and before I could tell him to stop, to not give me that incoming hug, his strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me roughly into his splattered body and proceeded to try and kill me via a hug.
"Uh Ace. . ." I heard Thatch's voice say but that didn't even get Ace's attention, it did nothing to ease the constrictor like grip he had on me.
"Yo Fire Fist, you like the girlie right?" A laughing voice shouted. Judging by the nicknames the laughing person was Cole. I half saw, half felt him nod his head and when she saw the movement as well she continued, "Then I suggest you release your hold on little miss here or else you're going to be the end of her."
"What no!" He exclaimed instantly shoving me away from him so roughly and suddenly that I ended up tripping backwards and landing on the hard deck.
For a few seconds I sat there no only catching my breath and making sure that I was in one piece and nothing was broken I gathered my bearings. One minute I was being hugged to death and then next I'm on the deck because of Cole's overly efficient words.
"Happy birthday." Thatch said putting his arm around Ace's shoulders as Marco offered a hand to help me up.
"Do I get my celebration now?" He asked looking around as if searching for signs of a party.
"Yeah. We've been waiting for you."
"Finally! I was waiting all yesterday! It's about time!" He then swiped a finger down his cheek and offered it to Thatch asking, "Wanna try some? Willow made it. It's delicious."
Thatch pulled away from Ace and tried to politely decline the offer. However Ace wouldn't accept no and after chasing him around the deck for a few minutes Ace stopped, grinned and sucked the chocolate off his finger with a shrug.
After that he said, I don't wanna share with you anyways. And besides it's about time you guys celebrated my day. For god's sake it's about twelve hours late."
"You were . . . busy." Thatch looked away from Ace as if embarrassed. Either that or he was guilty of something and didn't want us to be able to tell.
"We didn't think you'd want to be interrupted." Marco said stepping in.
"Well you were correct. Hey, wanna try some of Willows cake?" He offered another chocolate covered finger to someone despite his earlier statement, despite having said that he didn't want to share anyways.
"Stop offering people cake from your face- that's just weird Ace. And start celebrating already." Cole said sauntering up to him with a glass of something in hand.
He let out a whoop of joy and with that his birthday celebration got swinging.
/
/
/
A/N: Well the ending is coming soon, I haven't written it yet but I'm getting there. I promise.
Feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism is all welcome and very greatly appreciated.