Pulse

Ace retreated back up the hill after the drinking and storytelling really got going; he'd had trouble getting drunk even before his Devil Fruit started acting up and he didn't want to listen to his brothers and friends reminiscing about him. A dead man had no place in a wake.

As he wandered up the slope back towards the graves he gradually became aware of a beat in his head and Zoro's gradually increasing interest in what was happening at Ace' end of the connection. The asura had backed off completely during the funeral but something had brought his attention back; probably something connected to Fox as she was one of two things that held Zoro's constant attention.

Ace vacillated between being amused and exasperated by the fact that the only things the asura was interested in were his ambition of becoming the strongest swordsman in the world and Fox. Oh and alcohol, but he'd give up alcohol in an instant if it meant he could have the first two. His dreams were all of sparring or of Fox, or both. Some of those dreams had jerked Ace awake in the small hours of the morning, hands clenched into fists as he reminded himself that Fox was his best friend and pregnant by someone else so he should not kiss her awake and see if she'd be willing to help him with the 'problem' accidentally invading Zoro's fantasies had left him with. Never mind that she was wearing a baggy tank top and shorts and was sprawled halfway across his chest. Never mind that the damn asura's cast-iron certainty in how he stood with Fox was wearing down Ace' rather tenuous sense of self to the point that looking at Fox sometimes made him think mine before he caught himself and remembered those weren't his thoughts.

It didn't help that sometimes when he thought that he got an echo back from his best friend that said mine in answer to him, and that Zoro always responded with and mine. He may have been a pirate but he had morals. It did not help that the asura was a shameless pervert where Fox was concerned –despite barely even noticing other women existed– and had practiced his little eavesdropping trick until he could observe the world through Ace' senses without it affecting either of their bodies' reflexes. Zoro had been mostly present for over half of the four days before the immediate run-up to the funeral and had been driving Ace crazy with his obsessiveness. Some of it had slipped through; Fox however hadn't minded being pulled into his lap to snuggle or having her hair played with and had happily snuggled back. The smugly contented and lethargic feeling in his chest had frightened him because he wasn't sure how much of it was actually his. Shutting out Zoro was much harder than shutting out Fox. Well, shutting out how the damned asura felt about Fox was the bit he couldn't work out how to do. He couldn't look at her now without thinking about how her skin felt under his hands, watching how her muscles moved under her skin and following the graceful swing of her hips as she walked. When he wasn't wandering into Zoro's dreams he was often having similar dreams of his own.

Ace stopped dead as his eyes suddenly registered what the light up ahead was and stared, the asura watching through him abruptly rising closer to the surface to raptly observe the scene before him illuminated by flickering lamplight and the distant stars.

Fox had changed into dark red for her second dance, picking a calf-length but lightweight silk skirt and a tiny corset top to go with the heavy jewellery she would be wearing and a gauzy scarf as a prop. She was also wearing matching thin slippers to cushion her feet against the pebbles and potentially sharp vegetation underfoot.

Unlike her previous performance, this dance was all about joy and celebration. Whitebeard had enjoyed a long and full life, had a massive family and had died on the battlefield defending what mattered to him. It was also more than slightly suggestive, as Pops had never hidden his fondness for pretty girls and was probably grinning down at her from the afterlife. This dance was best performed to music, but Fox had been taught to fight to the beat of her pulse and could dance to that beat just as easily. Her stamina meant her pulse was steady despite having danced for so many hours already so she twisted, kicked, gestured and twitched with confidence and grace, never missing a step. This was a long routine, not anywhere as long as the earlier one but still a considerable effort. It was also harder due to the little flirtatious movements of her hips, stomach and spine that had to be fitted around the steps without disrupting the flow of the routine.

Fox subsumed herself to the ebb and flow of the beat in her head and let her body move unimpeded by her higher mind, just as she did when she fought. Her body knew what to do and thinking would just slow her down. This utter obliviousness to everything outside her dance floor came back to bite her when she finished and resurfaced to find herself being stared at by Ace, who had Zoro's insatiable appetite peeking out from behind the flame Logia's own burning –and fiercely denied– lust.

"I've never seen you do that before," her best friend managed to say, his voice a full octave and a half lower than the newly-established norm and his eyes wide and dark.

"Being a slave rather soured dancing for me," she said calmly, moving slowly over to the side where she'd left the portable clothes chest, "well, performing anyway. I've only ever danced once since until today and that was for your Pops' seventieth."

"That was you?" Fox caught a mental flash of several different faces and gossip about who could have smuggled a dancing girl on board to give Pops a private performance.

"That was me," she agreed, stepping out of the rough square of light so she could get changed. This was a very dangerous game she was playing and all kinds of things could go wrong, but Zoro honestly didn't mind and Ace was second-guessing himself so much and so confused he was ignoring his own feelings. Fox knew she wasn't entirely rational right now –pregnancy hormones were a trip and dancing made her even more reckless– but she had always found Ace alluring and if he'd ever made a move she would have reciprocated. Now she could feel his emotions under her skin in a tangle of passion, desire, hopelessness and pain and needed to do something about it.

Fox could feel Ace' eyes on her in the flickering shadows as she slipped out of her relatively modest outfit into something far more revealing. She hadn't planned on him actually seeing her in this, but now he was here and her blood was running hot and she had a deliciously wicked idea that her mother would have thoroughly approved of. As she changed her anklets she gave Zoro a mental nudge, asking him to back off. He sent her a mental pout, but agreed grudgingly when she gave him an idea of what she wanted to do and why. Ace would not appreciate an audience for what she had planned. As a sweetener she sent her swordsman the idle thought she'd had a while back, her plan of giving him a private performance to test his self-control. The dark, predatory anticipation she got in return made her shiver in excitement before he backed off completely and walled them both off and out of his mind. Fox suspected that the odd monkeys she'd seen him fighting on Kuraigana would soon be suffering her swordsman's frustration at missing out.

Ace' mind cleared slightly when Zoro retreated completely from his mind and blocked himself out, but the clarity didn't last as Fox stepped back into the illuminated area wearing a skimpy little gold string bikini with a fringe hanging down to just above her belly button and a fringe skirt that almost but didn't quite cover her buttocks. Seeing her like that, all pale skin and gleaming fabric and teasing shadows, utterly destroyed his mental processes and the faint chiming sound she made every time she moved did not help. She had bells on her anklets and bracelets and the deliberate stalk she affected as she approached him made them ring out with every step. Her swaying movements also swung the fringes over her stomach and upper thighs and made her breasts bounce in counterpoint; Ace could not look away and distantly wondered if his brain had leaked out of his ears while he wasn't paying attention. He was sure there had been a reason why he hadn't already stripped her naked and had his way with her until she was hoarse from screaming his name but he couldn't remember it right now.

"It was Portgas D. Ace' funeral too so I had another dance in mind to do next," Fox said throatily, walking right up to him and running her hands up his chest to settle over his collarbones, "but since you're here I think I'll do it just for you, my Kajin." She leant forwards into him and gave him a perfect view of her mostly-exposed cleavage. "Here, or on Swift Hunter?"

Ace blinked stupidly before he remembered that this was Pops' grave and his brothers were partying at the bottom of the hill. He didn't want any of them to come looking for him and see her like this. "Swift Hunter," he said thickly, stumbling slightly as the flash of white and warmth engulfed him and they were suddenly standing in the dojo.

"Sit," Fox said, gently pushing him onto the sturdy stool sitting in the middle of the floor. Ace sat, remembered why he wasn't supposed to be doing this and was about to protest when the lights dropped to semi-twilight and Fox moved.

Ace had been hit on by a lot of pretty girls, had bedded a lot of those pretty girls and had seen a lot of ladies in skimpy outfits doing sexy dances, but Fox' movements had an edge of predatory violence that had him aching to do, do something. He'd known she was a tease but this took not just the cake but the entire six-course banquet! He groaned as she sidled close enough to run her fingers across his cheek before backing up again, then twirled around behind him and stole his shirt. Seeing her press the garment against her nose and twitch her hips suggestively almost undid him.

"Fox," he gasped, barely recognising his own voice as he closed his eyes tightly and tried to breathe. Fire struggled to escape from under his skin and he was having trouble keeping in down. "Can't…" he managed, opening his eyes again pleadingly as green flames flickered over his thighs. "Please…"

Fox pouted with her hands behind her back and prowled forwards, dropping to her knees in front of him. Ace was about to ask what she was doing when she started taking off his shoes and he had to concentrate on not bursting into flame. One boot, one sock, other boot, other sock…

The flames suddenly vanished and Ace gasped at the absence and weakness he felt. Shifting his leg he saw a Sea Stone cuff around one ankle. "Wh-"

"Now you can't set me on fire, Kajin," Fox purred, pouring herself up his legs and into his lap with a smirk that promised him everything he'd ever dreamed of doing to her in the bedroom but never dared to try. "So how about I set you on fire instead, hm?"

Ace stopped protesting, stopped fighting and stopped thinking. He nearly stopped breathing. Then he remembered he was a pirate and what pirates wanted, they took and that he had never backed down from a challenge in his life. His answering smirk before he leant forwards to whisper in her ear made her eyelashes flutter.

"Bring it on, Kitsune," he dared her. Her dark-eyed look of anticipatorial delight as she accepted the challenge was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen.

Aaand cut!