Woops, it has been more than 3 months :( did you assume I was dead yet? well, it was a writers block... but I'm back! with a new, but not so long chapter. Next one will probably take a while again though, because there are a lot of fan projects going on on tumblr this summer, in which I'm participating. But I'll try to have the next chapter up in September at last!

Anyway, enjoy~!

Chapter 9: You really have trust issues

After promising Izo I would pay him a visit in two days, I had managed to get him out of my home. It wasn't that I didn't like his company, but I needed some time alone. Or as alone as I could get. I was also worried about Thatch.

When I was sure Izo had left the building, I sat down. "Thatch?"

The upper drawer of the cabinet flew open, and Thatch stuck his head out of it. I didn't ask how he fitted in such a small place, because the answer would probably be 'because he was a genie'. After having looked around, he slowly got his whole body out of the drawer.

"Is the coast clear?"

"Yeah, he's gone," I answered, but then I looked slightly concerned at him. "You know where the lamp is?"

The upper drawer closed again and the bottom one flew open, showing the bronze oil lamp. "You didn't think I'd let myself be stolen that easily, did you?"

A relieved sigh escaped my lips. Izo had gotten the benefit of the doubt, but I was far from trusting him completely. "You could have been too late to prevent it. I don't know how soon you noticed him."

Thatch snorted. "No," he said almost offended. "I'm faster than Izo."

I chuckled. "That's good to know."

"But I was right about him not being a betrayer," Thatch pointed out as he sat down in the other chair.

"He still has to prove himself."

Thatch shook his head. "You really have trust issues, you know that?"

"Maybe you have issues trusting people too soon," I looked skeptically at him. "Besides, if you have so much trust in Izo, why did you hide?"

Thatch looked away and shrugged. "I didn't know who was coming up the stairs when I heard footsteps, did I? So I did the first thing that came to mind, which was hiding." He looked at me again. "Besides, you wouldn't hear the end of it if Izo found another man in your home."

My lips formed themselves into a smile. "That's absolutely true."

Izo pushed a cup of damping tea into my hands, which I couldn't refuse, since I had promised to stay for tea the last time I was at his place.

"So I have mapped out the gardens in my mind, with where all the guards are and where the possible entries to the palace are," Izo started to tell. "I haven't had a chance yet to actually get inside the palace. So the plan is as follows: on the east side of the palace is a window, a little too high to climb through on my own, but together it shouldn't be a problem. The only guard that could possibly see us is the one patrolling along the surrounding wall. If we can get in without being seen, that would save us a lot of trouble."

"Sure," I said, but to be honest, I wouldn't really mind it if I was seen. At least not if it was by Marco. I was even almost looking forward to it. He still owed me an explanation about our last conversation.

"If you have any information about guards on the inside in that area, it would be really nice if you could tell me about it now," Izo said, with a look on his face as if he thought I was keeping something from him. Did my face give something away?

"I don't. I mean, I'm not even sure which part you're referring to," I told him. "The palace is big, you know, and so is the east side of it. I only know last time there was a guard inside the main back entrance, but he went outside as soon as the other guards thought you were gone." I looked accusingly at him, just to show him that if anyone wasn't to be trusted, it was him. "The first time I went to the palace, there was only one guard at that entrance to begin with, but then the gates were open as well. I think they close them at night."

"Could be." Izo sipped from his tea, seeming to think about something. "So you haven't seen any other guards inside the palace at all?"

I shrugged. "Of course, I've seen a few guards that walked around in the palace, but they didn't seem to be stuck at a certain place like the east part or something." I smiled barely visibly. "And there's Vivi's personal guard dog, or something, I don't know exactly what he is. But we don't have to fear him. Or at least I don't have to fear him. He's an okay guy, he knows Vivi and I are just friends now, so he tolerates me."

Izo raised his eyebrows and looked at me to see if I was serious. "You've got to be kidding, right? Does he know who you are?"

"Yeah, we've even talked a few times already."

"Ace!" Izo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Are you really that naive? There's no way a guard will let Fire Fist Ace walk around freely through the palace! It has to be some kind of trap."

"No!" I placed my empty tea mug on the floor and rose to my feet. "You don't know him! He's a really nice guy, and he understands that Vivi needs someone to talk to! He sure is a much nicer guy than you!"

Izo raised his eyebrows, but instead of the quasi-offended face I was expecting, he cocked his head and looked curiously at me. "Portgas D. Ace, are you crushing on that guard?"

That question completely caught me off guard and I felt my cheeks become hot. "What? No! Of course not! The hell, man?"

Izo chuckled. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course I am! Seriously…" I tried to fight the blush of my face. Izo shouldn't ask such embarrassing questions, even though I expected nothing less of him.

The cross-dresser got up as well. "Good. That means you can stay away from him. You might think he's a nice guy, but he's still a guard. You can't trust him."

"Says the guy who has 'history' with a captain of the city guard," I flung back.

Izo opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, and I felt a little victorious for putting him in a situation where he didn't immediately knew what to say back.

"That doesn't mean I trust him, though," Izo eventually said.

"You trusted him to not arrest you."

"That's different." Izo sighed. "Fine. Do whatever you want. But I'm not going to save you if you get caught."

A little while later, the two of us had successfully sneaked into the royal gardens again. Reaching the window Izo had spoken of wasn't a problem either, but I needed to sort a few things out before going inside. "So what do we do if there is a guard near that window?"

Izo shrugged. "If he sees us, we take him out. If he doesn't, we make sure it stays that way." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and looked up at the window, showing he was ready to go in.

"What is the plan once we get inside?"

"I'm going to search for the treasure room," Izo answered, clearly annoyed I had to ask. "You go do something with the princess or something. Try to get her to tell you where the treasure room is, in case I don't find it."

I shook my head. Like she was going to tell me something like that! Well, Izo probably knew that already, so I chose to just ignore him. I didn't actually care that much about what his plans were, anyway. I jumped up, and a second later we landed in the windowsill.

When no guard was to be seen, Izo carefully jumped down again, inside the palace. "Well, okay, see you in an hour." And before I could even say anything, he was gone already.

I shrugged and made my way towards Vivi's room. It didn't take that much effort to avoid walking into guards on my way, because apparently they were all stupid and didn't expect anyone to actually get inside. Well, everyone but Marco, of course. He wasn't stupid. He had, after all, caught me once, when I was trying to sneak past him. I chuckled at the memory. It wasn't such a bad memory after all, even if my situation had seemed worse at the moment itself.

I had reached Vivi's room and knocked at her door. A few seconds later, the door was opened. When she saw me, Vivi put her hand on her hip and tried to look reprimanding at me, but a smile broke through on her face nonetheless. "Just casually coming through the front door now, are we? Should you not be more careful?"

I grinned at her, and she stepped aside to let me in. "Well, to be honest, getting into this palace is the hardest part of reaching you. And even that's not very hard. But once you're inside, it's a piece of cake. You can just walk past the guards when they're looking the other way. Unless it's Marco, of course, but I didn't see him anywhere." Vivi closed the door behind me. "What actually is he? Is he a guard? Or just a servant?" I looked around to check if there really wasn't anyone listening, before I continued. "Is he a eunuch?"

Vivi chuckled. "No, he's something between a servant and a guard, or just both of it at once. One of the people assigned to keep me save and take care of me."

I didn't wait for an invitation and sat down on the sofa. "Just like that bird guy who saved you from me on that rooftop?"

"What, Pell?" Vivi closed the book she'd apparently been reading and sat down next to me. "No, Pell is a lot higher in rank. He is one of the two top guardians of the kingdom. Marco, for example, is not allowed to leave the palace, much like myself, ironically. He seems like a perfect care-taker in that aspect."

"Why? Why can't he leave the palace? I mean, he's got that seastone necklace, right? So shouldn't he be able to just leave?" I wondered out loud. It didn't make sense. I was pretty sure I'd seen palace guards spending their free time in the city, even lower ranked ones. Not that I knew them personally, so I couldn't be a hundred percent sure that they worked inside the palace, but still.

Vivi shook her head. "I don't know, actually. Maybe he has done something, and they don't trust him outside anymore?" She shrugged. "I shall ask him sometime. But enough about Marco, how are you?"

I was a bit disappointed we were already done talking about Marco, as I wanted to know way more about him, but I decided to leave it at this for now. "I'm okay. I actually made up with a friend. We'd gotten into a fight, sort of, but we talked about it and we're fine again."

She looked amused at me. "Really? I thought you didn't have any friends?"

Only then I realized I had just called Izo a friend. That had definitely not been my intention. "Well… he's not actually a friend… more of an acquaintance. Someone I'm more or less friendly with. I don't even trust him completely, so… yeah. Anyway, I thought he'd betrayed me and he said he didn't, so I guess I'm trying to believe him."

"Trying to believe him? My, you really have problems trusting people, don't you?" Vivi asked with raised eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes. "Why is everyone saying that like I don't have a perfectly good reason for that?! I mean, everyone I've ever asked said I shouldn't have been born and if they'd know who I was, they'd put everything in it to kill me, so yeah, I don't trust every random stranger I meet."

"Why would they want to kill you?" Vivi looked shocked at me.

"Obviously because –" That was the moment that I realized I hadn't told her about my father. Of course not. The only people I'd ever told were Thatch and Sabo. I guess I'd just gotten so close with Vivi that I'd forgotten I hadn't told her everything. "Never mind. I can't tell you."

"Because you don't trust me either?" She sounded offended.

I looked at her and shrugged. "No offense, but you're still the princess, which makes you practically part of the government."

"You're right. But I had hoped you would know by now that I'm different from most of the government." She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking accusingly at me.

"I know you are." I sighed. I should have never let her know I had a secret I couldn't tell her. "But this is something very big, which I really can't tell. I'm sorry. It's nothing personal, even if you weren't the princess, I wouldn't tell you." I still didn't exactly know why the hell I had told Thatch about it either. And only after I'd known him for just a few minutes! It probably had something to do with him being a genie, or maybe he was just very good at getting things like that out of people. Anyway, I now trusted Thatch, but only as much as I trusted Dadan with my secret. I didn't think I would ever trust someone for the full hundred percent. Or at least no one after Sabo.

"Well, fine." Vivi let her arms rest in her lap. "If you don't want to tell me, then don't. Tell me more about what you've done the past days, instead."

I was glad we could talk about something else and told her what she wanted to know. After that, she talked a bit about her own past few days, but soon she stood up and looked as if she'd made up her mind. "I want you to show me the city."

"What do you mean? I can't really walk out with you to give you a tour now, can I?" I got that she wanted to leave this palace, but I couldn't really help with that. And even if I did help her escape, the guards would probably get really pissed and make sure they caught me this time. I usually got away with being a criminal because my offences were relatively small. Beside the stealing, the worst thing I'd done was eating a devil fruit. At least, that was a crime in the eyes of the government. If I helped the princess escape, they would definitely see it as kidnapping and maybe even worse. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd send the highest ranked guards after me. The ones with devil fruit powers.

"Please, Ace, you have to help me. I'm going crazy in here." Vivi looked pleadingly at me. "And the stories you've told only make me want to see the city even more!"

"Yeah, but I can't." I really wished she wouldn't look as if she would lead a miserable life if I didn't help her. "The palace guards aren't aware of me, and that's why I can get past them relatively easily. But they are focused on you, on keeping you here. So it's just not possible."

"We can find a way around that…" Vivi's eyes kept begging me to save her.

On the one hand, I felt like she was complaining too much, because she still lived in a freaking palace, and got everything she wanted inside these walls. But on the other hand, I knew how much it killed her that she couldn't go outside on her own. I sighed. "Let's compromise. If you get a map of the city next time I'm here, I'll show you where things are on it, and tell you a story of something that happened there."

Vivi smiled, but I could see it was forced. "It's a start…" she said.

I nodded. "It's a start." I knew it would probably want to make her go into the city even more, but I just couldn't leave her without anything to look forward to.

I rose. "I should probably go again, though." I looked at the door as if I half expected someone to come through it. "There will probably come someone to check up on you soon. Right?" I hadn't seen Marco yet, after all.

"Yes, probably." Vivi nodded.

"Unless it's Marco, of course, then I've got nothing to worry about." I didn't even know why I tried to mention Marco's name as casually as possible.

This time a real smile appeared on Vivi's face. "I haven't seen him today, so I wouldn't count on it."

I shrugged. It wasn't like I was here for Marco, after all. Still, I felt a little disappointed. I tried to push the feeling away, however, and walked towards the door. "Well, I should get going then." I opened the door, but stopped for a moment for a last question. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know where the treasure room is, do you?"

Vivi raised her eyebrows. "Of course I do."

I put on my most innocent smile. "So… where can I find it?"

She chuckled. "You cannot." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Ace, did you really think I would tell you that?"

"You trust me, right? I was just curious!" I thought I was pretty convincing.

"If you tell me your big secret, I might just tell you where it is," Vivi said teasingly.

I chuckled. It wasn't as if I'd actually expected her to tell me the location of the treasure room. "Well, in that case, see ya!" I waved and left the room without a second thought.

I jogged as quiet as possible through the halls and down the stairs, since I had a feeling I was already a little late for meeting up with Izo. When I reached the hall we first entered, I already saw him hiding behind a giant plant, which appeared to be a good enough hiding spot from the guards inside the palace. He hadn't seen me, however, but just when I wanted to sneak up on him, a guard entered the room.

I quickly pressed my back against the wall in the direction the guard was coming from. I held my breath, and hoped that if I just repeated the phrase 'please don't see me' in my head often enough, he actually wouldn't see me.

The guard walked past me and moved to another room within half a minute. He hadn't seen me, nor Izo. I snorted because of his stupidity and failure as a guard, and made my way over to Izo. Before he could register what was happening, I'd wrapped my arm around his waist and jumped up to the window, smiling, because I had been able to surprise him. "Time to go!"

TBC~!

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