I'm sorry it took so long! It's the end of the semester again, so I'm a bit busy. My last deadline is on the 16th of june, so hopefully I'll be able to update faster after that ;) Also, I just finished my other multi-chapter, so this is the only one I need to be updating now ^^

Thanks to Aerle and Thérèse for betaing! :D Also thanks to Kyuunonana on tumblr for giving some advice on how to deal with shot people XD

Well, let me (finally) give you some Marco now ;)

Enjoy!

Chapter 4:

Can I come in?

"Can I come in, yoi?"

Vivi looked at me with wide eyes. I returned her look with worry. What to do now? Could she keep the man on the other side of her door out? Should I jump out of the window? I could remember walking up at least two giant stairs, but that didn't necessarily have to be a problem.

"Your Highness?" I saw the door handle slowly go down.

"No! Don't come in!" the princess suddenly exclaimed. The man effectively stopped pushing down the handle. "I-I'm changing. Please give me a minute," she added.

Then she waved her hands at me in a shooing motion – or that was how it came across to me. "Quick, get into my wardrobe," she whispered so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.

I looked behind me, where an enormous wooden closet was standing. As fast as I could, I got onto my feet and tiptoed towards it. She passed me and opened the two doors of the wardrobe. Taking out a dress, she pushed me inside. I ended up between tons and tons of clothes. I was sure I could get lost in here. What on earth did a human being need that many articles of clothing for? How did she even have time to wear everything?

The doors were closed behind me and I was left in almost complete darkness. Almost, as the top of the closet doors were made of a sort of raster. I shoved some of the clothes on hooks aside, so I could stand a little more comfortable and could just peek through the raster, into the room. I could see Vivi pulling the dress off the clothing hook and throw it onto the bed.

"Alright," she said out loud. "You can come in now, Marco."

The door opened and a man walked in. He wore a posh uniform, a little similar to that of the guard outside, but not exactly the same. I guessed his age at somewhere in his late thirties, but that could also be because of his tired looking eyes. However, the most intriguing feature of the man was his hair. It immediately reminded me of a pineapple.

"What is it?" the girl asked him, obviously trying to sound polite, but not really succeeding.

"I came to check upon you," the man – Marco – told her. "Bob told me you had seen a rat and he went to look for it, but he couldn't find it. When he returned, you were gone, yoi. We were worried."

After what Vivi had just told me, the concept of 'worried' got a whole other meaning.

The princess sighed. "I'm fine. I was just changing clothes, no need to worry." She smiled, like she was happy everyone was so concerned about her. "But why has he stopped looking?"

The man kept looking at her. "It seemed the animal you are referring to, wasn't there… anymore. However, Carue was acting a little strange too. So that worried us as well."

What, so this man could read the duck's behavior? Ducks were always acting weird. Why did he think he could base anything on how the animal acted?

I saw Marco stepping a little further into the room and closing the door behind him. He looked around, eyes lingering on the bed and on the dress that had to 'prove' that Vivi had been changing earlier. Then his eyes travelled on and he ended looking straight into my eyes. Well, he could almost certainly not see me, but my heart still skipped a beat.

"Your Highness," Marco began talking again. "Could it be that I heard you talking to someone just now, before I knocked at your door, yoi?"

She visibly tensed. "No, no, of course not. I, ehm, I was talking to myself."

She wasn't a very good liar. She didn't even sound convinced of it herself. Neither seemed Marco. He slowly walked towards me. Shit, he could see me?

However, the man let his eyes wander around the room again. So maybe he hadn't seen me. I almost let out a relieved sigh, but remembered in time to not make a single sound.

When the blonde came closer, my attention was caught by his necklace. Or rather, what I had first thought was a necklace. Now that he was close by, I could see it was anything but decorative jewelry. This ring around his neck couldn't easily be taken off whenever he wanted.

The fact that this man had eaten a devil fruit, but couldn't use his powers anymore, immediately made me feel a little sympathy towards him. Just a little though, because he was still working in the palace and thus for the government.

Marco came to a stop at the foot end of the bed and crouched down. When he got up again, I could hit myself on the head because of my stupidity. In his hands, were a pair of slightly dirty and worn out, black boots. My boots, to be precise.

He turned to Vivi again. "So who's are these, yoi?"

"Mine," the princess said quickly.

Of course the man didn't buy that. "These are a man's boots, Your Highness."

"No, they're mine," Vivi insisted, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

The blonde sighed. "Princess, they are about ten sizes too big for you." He was so bold as to sit on the girl's bed. "Please, come sit with me for a moment."

Arms still crossed, she gave him a disapproving look. But after a few seconds she gave in and sat down next to the man.

"Look, Vivi," he started, surprising me with how informal he suddenly was. "I understand that you're at an age where you get interested in boys, yoi. But you are the princess and I have to protect you. You cannot just date any guy you meet."

"Marco!" she said with a bright red face. "We are not dating!"

The pineapple head smiled. "So there is a guy. You know I am not really one for rules, but I have my orders too. If something happens to you, they also look at me."

I snorted mentally. This guy didn't seem too bad, but a little stupid. If he wasn't one for rules, then why was he so keen on keeping this job, where rules seemed to be quite important. Oh well, it probably paid good.

"I don't mind if you meet with some guy, yoi. But you have to be careful. Boys your age mainly focus on physical contact, I can affirm that from when I was young."

"I think he's a little older than me," Vivi brought in.

That made Marco raise his eyebrows. "How much older?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "A few years."

A short chuckle escaped the man's lips. "That doesn't make the situation much better, yoi. Rather worse." He shook his head. "Men around the age of twenty are perverts."

I snorted insulted. Excuse me? Just because he couldn't keep his hands to himself, didn't mean that I was the same!

At that moment I noticed the two on the bed had frozen and I realized I had made a sound, however small it might have been. Shiiit.

"I-I don't think he's like that, Marco," Vivi tried to say before the man could stand up to search for me. "Besides, we're not dating or anything! We just talked."

Marco smiled. "If you say so. Just be careful, alright? You're too young to lose your virginity. Or to lose it at all to some stranger, yoi."

"That's enough!" the princess said with a head like a tomato. "You're embarrassing me!"

Marco laughed, a sound that somehow made me a little less tense. "Alright, I think you get the message, yoi." He stood up and continued a little more quiet, as if he was telling her a secret, "Is he still here somewhere?"

I wondered why he asked it though. It was pretty obvious he had heard the sound I made before and besides, why would I leave without my boots? However, I hadn't expect Vivi to nod in response. Why would she do that? Was she trying to get me arrested after all? I was considering to burst out of the wardrobe and try to get away, but quickly decided that wasn't the best course of action. Maybe it wouldn't be necessary.

Marco shot a look at me – or at the closet – but didn't come any closer. "What's his name?"

I had never been so quiet in my life. If she told him… well, to be honest, it wouldn't be the end of the world. I mean, even if he tried to catch me, what could he do? He didn't have his devil fruit powers and beside that, the seastone ring around his neck also made him weaker or at least less energetic than usual. I could easily handle him, should it be necessary.

However, the princess restored my faith in her a little. "I can't tell you that."

The man sighed and finally – fucking finally – put my boots down on the floor again. "Well, I'll just go get you some tea then, alright? I'll be back in ten minutes, yoi." Before he walked out the door, I could swear I saw him winking at the princess.

The door was closed and both Vivi and I let out a relieved sigh. However, a few seconds past in which I still wasn't completely sure if I could leave my hiding place. But then the girl opened her mouth. "You can come out of the closet now."

I immediately pushed the door open and stepped out of the wardrobe, inhaling the fresh air. It was only now that I realized how musty it had been inside it. "What the hell was that all about?"

"Don't ask me," she answered. "Just be glad it was Marco, who came after me, not anyone else."

I shrugged. "Guess you're right."

She looked up, into my eyes, looking a little lonely. "Well, you should get going now. He gave you ten minutes to leave."

I nodded and pulled on my boots. When I was all set to go, she spoke to me again. "What are you going to do with what I've told you?"

I thought about this for a moment. "Nothing." Maybe tell Thatch or Izo, if I felt it was needed. "Should I do something with it?"

Silently, she shook her head. I was almost going to say she could escape with me, but that would make matters only worse, both for me and her. Besides, that was not part of the plan.

Talking about the plan… "Will I see you again?"

A smile appeared on her face. "That would be nice, but… maybe it would be safer if you'd come at night, next time?" When I nodded in agreement, she continued. "The day after tomorrow, around eleven? You could sneak in through my window. There aren't that many guards down there, underneath my window, at night. They think I sleep around that time. There might be a few more at the surrounding wall though."

"That's okay, should be possible." I walked to the door and opened it carefully. No one seemed to be around. "Well, see ya." And with that I left the room and closed the door, hearing a quiet 'bye' coming from behind it.

As quick as possible, I made my way down the hall. As soon as I neared a junction, I pressed myself against the wall and carefully took a glance around the corner. Still no one there. Carefully, I made my way through the palace, hoping I was going the right way. The building was huge, after all, and I hadn't paid that much attention when coming here.

When I hadn't seen anyone after I was halfway through the palace, I began to grow a little suspicious, but at the same time a little less careful. And bumped into a table with some candle stands on it. Which fell. And made a lot of noise. Shit.

I waited until the sound had died out and listened carefully. Footsteps. There were footsteps coming my way of at least two armed people. Fuuuck, where could I hide? I looked around, but going back wasn't really an option and going forwards – well, I would walk into the guards for sure. I looked at the table, which had a large cloth over it.

I could try.

Quickly I dove underneath it. The cloth left a gap of a little more than a foot until the floor, so I crept against the wall the table was standing against, in the hope the guards wouldn't see me. At the last moment I saw one of the candlesticks had fallen onto the floor and was lying half underneath the table. I snatched it away, just before I saw two pair of feet coming around the corner.

"Who's there?" one of the men asked. Was he seriously expecting me to answer?

I heard the other man putting the candle stands on the table back in place. I just hoped he wouldn't notice there was one missing, but apparently he didn't, as he suddenly said, "The princess! Maybe there's an intruder to kidnap the princess!"

The first man chuckled. "Yeah, right. How would he have sneaked in? I rather think the princess is trying to get out again."

"Well, nonetheless, we should check her chamber." The two man quickly distanced themselves into the direction I just came from.

When their steps slowly disappeared, I let out a relieved sigh. Getting caught now wouldn't make sneaking in a next time easier. It wasn't like I couldn't handle a few simple guards, but they would be more careful next time. Besides, they probably knew my face, so what if they deemed me a higher priority to catch? That wouldn't be nice. No, I'd better be careful.

I put the candle stand into my coat, where it barely even fitted. It would be a nice souvenir to bring back to Izo. I crept out of my hiding place and listened carefully before I continued my way. It took me about two more minutes to find the exit towards the gardens again.

I pressed my back against the wall when I saw the guard at the door. I needed to distract him if I wanted to get outside without being seen. I spotted a tree not too far away and send a fiery spark towards it. Unfortunately, my aim was a little off and the grass in front of the tree caught flame. Well, whatever, as long as the guard was distracted. And he was. He quickly ran towards the small fire while he pulled off his jacket, using it in a try to take out the flames.

I quickly made my way towards the place at the wall where I had come from and jumped up, hoping no one would see me. A cloud of dust whipped up when my feet touched the ground on the other side of the wall again.

Izo was sitting against the wall and was petting Tha ̶ Stefan. He looked up at me. "And? How'd it go?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You are looking rather relaxed. Weren't you supposed to be on watch?"

He looked unimpressed back. "I can be on watch while sitting down." When I didn't seem convinced, he rolled his eyes and nodded towards something behind me. "Do they look like they will get in the way?"

I turned around and saw two men – palace guards, obviously – lying on the ground, a couple of yards away from us and from each other. My eyes widened as I turned back to Izo. "Are they dead?"

He shrugged, still caressing Stefan's fur. "Don't know, didn't check. They were down and that was enough. They didn't make too much noise after I had shot them though."

I looked stunned at the crossdresser. He didn't care whether he killed someone or not?! Did that mean he had killed people before? Probably.

"You're looking rather unintelligent right now," Izo commented.

I scowled at him. "Shut up! Shouldn't you check if you murdered people? And, you know, hide the bodies or something?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, maybe." Standing up, he continued, "You can check them. And then you're gonna tell me what happened in the palace."

I quickly walked towards the first guard and saw a small puddle of blood coming from underneath the man's stomach. I removed his helmet and pressed my fingers against his neck. It took a few moments before I felt a faint heartbeat and sighed relieved. "This one is still alive."

"So is this one," Izo responded, getting up from next to the other guard. "Not for very long anymore, though."

That worried me a little. I didn't want to be responsible for someone's death, even if it was the crossdresser who shot them. "Shouldn't we put pressure on the wounds? Or get a doctor?"

My partner in crime raised an eyebrow at me. "You want to help the government?" He narrowed his eyes. "What's your opinion about them, anyway?"

"Of course I don't want to help them!" I was getting a little irritated. "I hate them. But I don't want to let people die, if it can be helped."

Izo shook his head and muttered something that sounded like, "You're so naïve." I decided to pretend I hadn't heard that and let the man continue. "Oh, fine. Let me handle it. I'll make sure a doctor will see them."

He started to walk towards the more crowded part of the city. Stefan trotting right behind him. I followed as well, pulling my hood over my head again and looking at the dog's happily wagging tail. Why did Thatch seem to be more Izo's pet than mine? Oh, whatever, as long as he stayed my genie, he could do whatever he wanted.

After a little while, Izo instructed me to wait in a side alley, while he pulled a scarf over his hair and part of his face. He walked into the crowd, quickly followed by Stefan. I wanted to call the dog back, but was already too late. It would attract too much attention if I did it now anyway.

I watched Izo strike a dramatic pose. "Oh my God!" he screamed in a high voice that could pass for a woman's voice. "Somebody help! Help! Call a doctor!" He fell down on his knees. "Two men were shot near the palace walls! Please send help! They're dying!"

I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud. The thief was hilarious.

A man crouched down next to Izo. "Miss? I'm a doctor. Miss, could you please bring me to the victims?"

The crossdresser let out a surprisingly believable sob. "I don't think I could handle looking at their bodies again. I-I might faint."

"It's okay," the man tried to sooth the supposed to be woman. "Just tell me in what direction I should go."

Izo pointed to the direction we had come from. "That way. Near the wall. Please hurry and save them!"

The man stood up and ran towards the dying guards. After having waited a few seconds, Izo got up too and walked back towards me, wiping away a tear. Wait, had he really been crying?

"Fuck, is my make-up run-out?" he asked me.

I studied his face, only feeling slightly awkward that I got this question from a guy. "Can't notice anything different, so you're okay."

"Good." He walked on, deeper into the alley I had been waiting in. "I could swear your dog snorted at me just now."

I chuckled when I looked at my genie and got an innocent look back. "Yeah, he makes some weird sounds sometimes." Again I followed him, wondering where exactly we were going. "You should become an actor, you know?"

He smiled. "I have done some stage performances in my youth. But fate had other plans with me." A distant look appeared in his eyes. "Not that I complain. At least, not until a certain point."

That got me curious. "What point?"

Izo laughed and stopped at the side of a building, pulling some kind of curtain aside and revealing an open doorway. "You know me way too short to hear about that story, Ace." He cocked his head in a way to urge me inside and I complied. "We haven't even slept together yet!"

I froze in the doorway. Was that what he was trying to do? Get me into his bed? Because there was no way that was going to happen.

Izo laughed even harder. "Don't worry, honey! I was just kidding. Though I wouldn't complain if you'd decide to join me for the night." He went to walk in front of me again, leading me through a hallway that gave access to different rooms. All these rooms didn't seem very big and most had a kind of girly interior, with a lot of pillows and stuff. Some were occupied by girls, some by… men, probably. Izo's kind of men. But most of the inhabitants were real women, I guessed.

Izo stopped near the end of the hallway and pulled another cloth aside. "Come in. It's not much, but this is where I live."

~TBC~

Please leave a review with your thoughts about the story/this chapter! I am really curious what you think about it!

And hopefully see you next chapter! :D