#acena

Selfish

Nami slowly, methodically swirled the punch around and around the faux crystal glass in her manicured hands as her hawk-like eyes watched the well-dressed patrons meander around the ballroom. She was sitting alone at one of the decorated tables, legs crossed to strategically display just the right amount of thigh but not enough to reveal the presence of her Climatact holstered just below the junction of her leg and pelvis. Her brown eyes flashed within the holes of the mask she was wearing, a white one with little kitten ears and tangerine-orange accents that match the embroidery of her regal silk gown. As she stalked her numerous mice, the cat thief slowly brought the glass to her lips to primly sip at the spicy punch. Her eyes soon bored into the businessman who was sweating just watching her every saucy move.

Bingo, she thought, unable to keep her lips from curling into a smirk. He would perceive it as more flirting, anyway. She set the glass down and took her clutch, turning to make quite a show of her walking up to the refreshments table by swinging her hips provocatively.

Seducing gross old men isn’t my favorite pastime, but… Their wallets never disappoint, she thought with a devious giggle as she approached the table.

The Straw Hats’ next destination was Saobody Archipelago, better known as the entrance into the New World, but there was just one island before that stop—this one, so appropriately dubbed the “Island that Never Sleeps.” It had established a name for itself due to the overwhelming population of rich persons of all backgrounds—from those who had crawled their way from squalor to those born into royalty—and their proclivity to throw nightly parties beginning the instant the sun set. It was another desert island, but somehow they had retrofitted it into a partying oasis—magnificent castles surrounded by man-made pools and shrubs and palms. It truly was a grand metaphor for making something out of absolutely nothing.

It was only one night until the log pose reset; it would have been reasonable for the Straw Hats to simply moor within the bay and wait for it to adjust before getting underway, but the Straw Hats never did the reasonable thing, did they? Luffy was just chomping at the bit to get off the boat, and for once Nami was willing to indulge him. After all, this was a pickpocket’s treasure trove. Nami was going to pilfer every Belli she could between sundown and sunup. So here she was, leaning over a table dunking a marshmallow into the chocolate fondue fountain in plain view of a wealthy silk merchant she recognized from the East Blue.

Giggling demurely, she flashed him a wink before bringing the soft, spongey sugar confection to her lips and very suggestively swirling her tongue around it to lap up the liquid chocolate. She had to avoid cringing as his face turned an ugly purple-red and he tugged at the collar of his shirt that had been hugging his bulbous neck even before Nami had begun her operation. It was enough to almost make her abandon her efforts, imagining his sweaty hands on her as he pulled her in for a dance, but she reminded herself of the fat wallet just peeking out of the pocket of his waistcoat.

It’ll all be worth it in the end, Nami.

“Tell me,” purred a smooth voice suddenly. Nami gasped as a bulky frame in a tuxedo suddenly forced its way between herself and her target, and she looked up to see a brown-haired, freckled man adorned with a tiger mask that had plastic flames licking at the ears and whiskers, “do you put on such a show for all your admirers, or just the ones you want to relieve of their Belli?”

“What the—?” she cried and stood up on her tip-toes to watch in dismay as the merchant was hauled away by his wife, who was scowling and dragging him by the ear. Surely the grinning man in front of her had alerted the woman to her husband’s debauchery.

“You jerk! He was probably carrying ten thousand Bellis in that wallet!” she huffed as she pouted up at him dourly. There was no point in denying his accusations; besides, she had this strange inkling that he really could care less about her sticky fingers and was more interested in her. Well, if he wanted to play with Nami, she was sure she could find something on his person worth her time.

Cooing, she traced her index finger abstractly over the thick muscle of his pectorals. “That’s all right, though,” she said with fluttering eyelashes. “If you went through all the trouble to get me by myself, surely you have a lucrative offer, no?”

The muscle bulged beneath the black fabric of his tuxedo as he rumbled with laughter, making Nami’s finger bounce as she held it right over his sternum.

“So, this is why you were known as the Cat Thief in the East Blue. That pretty face sure does hide a devious mind, doesn’t it, Nami?”

The blood drained from her face as he all but revealed her identity and brought his face close, breathing puffing before her nose. Her eyes widened behind the mask, which apparently did little to shield her identity.

“What the—? Who are you?” she growled as her hand inched for her Climatact. He ignored her, reaching out to grab a strawberry and douse it in the chocolate pouring from the fountain. She licked her lips compulsively as he brought it to his mouth and bit down on the end of it, glittering dark eyes watching her from the holes in the mask. She stomped her foot, angry now that her prey had all but been wrenched from her with no offer of recompense.

“Look, buddy, unless you’re gonna reimburse me for my lost money or turn me into the Marines, I don’t have time to waste with you!”

“Reimburse? How about a dance, then?”

Nami scoffed and tossed her head as she rolled her eyes. The sheer incredulity! Still, she knew he was only doing it because he could so easily blackmail her; several high-position Marines were in attendance at the various parties in session across the island, including this one. He knew her name and face, and all it would take was one word and she would be thrown in a jail cell.

“Just one. That’s all I ask. As soon as we’re done, you can get back to relieving all these upstanding citizens of their monetary burdens.”

Nami peeked at him out of the corners of her eyes, arms crossed as she considered the proposal. His smirk was playful, mischievous, but not malicious as far as she could detect. There was some air of familiarity about him that was just tugging at Nami, inclining her to agree. A dance was harmless, and he didn’t seem to have any other angle besides enjoying the pleasure of her company. Snorting air out of her nose, she made another chocolate-covered marshmallow and popped it into her mouth.

“All right, Mister, you have a deal,” she conceded once she swallowed, then held out her hand for him to take. She cocked an eyebrow as he lightly took it and brought it to his mouth to gently press a lingering kiss to the top of her hand. Normally she would be creeped out, but the way his eyes glittered at her from within the tiger mask send electricity shooting up her arm and a blush creeping over her face. Tousled hair like wild grasses above the orange and black-striped mask, dark eyes pulsing with a dull heat, freckles above a confident sneer, and a body like it was sculpted by the gods, Nami would be a fool not to say the man was stupidly sexy—and that voice. Like honey dripping from his tongue, it was enticing and potentially dangerous. Nami very well could find herself stung by the end of this, but dammit if it wasn’t making her all hot and bothered.

Why did she have the nagging suspicion that she had heard it before, though?

Grinning at her all the while, the suave stranger pulled her out onto the dance floor amongst the other well-to-dos waltzing to the string quartet in the corner. Nami, now entranced by every move he made, could only be the puppet to his command as he guided her into proper position, a large hand resting at the small of her back while the other held herself aloft in a light grip. Her other found his broad shoulder automatically, fingers digging a little into the dark fabric.

“You finally look like you’re enjoying yourself,” he remarked playfully as she slowly eased her into the motions. Nami flushed but, ever trying to keep the upper hand, returned his smirk with a demure smile and flutter of her lashes.

“Well, what girl wouldn’t be enjoying herself in the arms of such a handsome man?”

His shoulders jumped up and down with deep, rumbling chuckles. Every one made his thick chest bump a little against hers; he was holding her closely, familiarly, but somehow Nami didn’t seem to mind.

“What’s so funny?”

“If you knew who you were talking to, I don’t think you would be flirting with me so hard,” he snickered, looking back at her. “It’s not like I have any money you can pilfer off me, so you can stop with the roaming now.”

Nami gasped; she was caught red-handed. Her hand had migrated down from his shoulder to feel up his pockets, finding them frustratingly empty. She really had been drawn into a useless venture, and daresay outwitted. She pursed her lips childishly at him.

“I still don’t get your angle here.”

“Angle? Don’t have one, aside from dancing with a gorgeous redhead.”

She was annoyed with her body’s insistence on responding to his honeyed words by gradually reddening her skin, making her unbearably hot. His smile was ever-present, roguish and toothy. She stared hard at it. She knew that smile, dammit, she knew it!

“You really don’t recognize me, do you, Nami?” He sounded sad at the prospect.

Nami huffed and glared up at him.

“Well, how am I supposed to with you covering your face like that?”

“I knew who you were the instant I saw you.”

She flinched. Why did that affect her so much? The only way someone would be able to recognize someone under a mask is if that person was seared into their mind, every detail, every mannerism, every single bit of them preserved in immaculacy… His hand slowly traveled up the length of her spine, leaving goosebumps everywhere his fingers ghosted, but strangely she did not find it disgusting. She actually found herself arching into his touch, squirming a little so he would touch her more. Her eyes became lidded and her breaths heavy. It was like he was playing her body like an instrument he had mastered. His fingers skipped over her neck to tangle into her short waves of tangerine hair.

“I always thought your hair was so beautiful… The way it catches the sun and glows, like it’s on fire,” he breathed. When did his face get so close? It was angled, lips only centimeters from her own, those eyes sparkling like the sea at night.

Fire… she thought distantly.

He looked her face up and down, always trailing to her bangs peeking above the top of the cat mask.

“So gorgeous,” he breathed as he continued to stroke her hair. “An orange fire, the color of a desert sunset…”

Fire… Desert… Her mind was hazed, drunk on his innocent touches, but somehow the pieces finally clicked in her mind.

“Ace?!”  

“Took ya long enough,” he laughed good-naturedly.

Nami’s face was the desert now, bright red sand and burning heat. She gulped loudly as she just stared stupidly at him. What were the chances of meeting him, of all people, on the Island that Never Sleeps, of all places?! Now it was painfully clear why she had been so at ease and willing to go along with his playful goading; it was Ace, for crying out loud! Oh, the fact that it was him and not a stranger flirting with her was definitely doing some kinds of things to her. She wriggled in his grasp, not necessarily trying to escape but just suddenly very hyper-aware of her dress hugging her slim body.

“Ace… What are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Blackbeard.”

“I am. I caught wind he stopped here for some shady business dealings.” Of course. With all this frivolity and wealth, there was no question there was a seedy underbelly. “I’ve been party-hopping trying to gather information. From what I’ve heard, he’s already left. Just missed him. He went to a neighboring island to keep from attracting the Marines’ attention.”

“If you know all this, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go after him?”

“Well, I was,” he shrugged, then flashed her a wolfish grin. “But then I saw you…”

Nami gulped again as the fire brightened in her cheeks. His face was still that close, his whispered words just barely preventing their lips from touching. She found that hers were tingling with the anticipation and desire of it. It didn’t make much sense, really. Their time in Alabasta had been dreadfully short, certainly not long enough to develop any meaningful relationships… But Nami would be remiss to deny that she wasn’t attracted to him. He wasn’t only physically attractive, but there was just something so magnetic about his personality. Nami had thought about him since then, wondering if he was safe in his search of Blackbeard… Wishful thinking, wondering if once all was said and done if he would come back to Luffy and join his crew instead, even though she knew damn well that he was loyal to Whitebeard completely.

She didn’t realize tears had bubbled up in her eyes until he was sweeping the rough pad of his thumb over her cheeks, catching them as they fell.

“That’s not fair,” she growled at him. She was angry, and sad, and happy, and all kinds of things that made her mind a confused, combative mess. “You can’t just show up here, and say these kinds of things, and expect me to just watch you leave never knowing when I’ll see you again. That’s not fair.”

They had stopped dancing and were just standing in the middle of the floor. Her posture was rigid; all her muscles were screaming to wrench and twist out of his arms, but there was a part of her that relished his hold on her, the way their burning skin touched and send signals propagating across her nerves like fireworks.

“Ace, dammit, I- nnnngh!” she finished off with a frustrated grunt because she really wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. She was most definitely confusing physical attraction with love because she couldn’t possibly love him. But her heart was aching, as it had been with the “what if” hovering over her head ever since Alabasta, and she wanted to both slap him silly and grab him by the front of that stupid hot tuxedo and kiss him until she wasted sure what he tasted like anymore, and surely that was love, wasn’t it? Nami didn’t know, and that made her cry more because she knew whatever the case, she was still going to have to watch him go.

“Nami,” he sighed, both his hands holding her flushed cheeks now. They were so warm. So comforting. She leaned into his touch, eyes closing and pushing more tears down her already tear-stained face. Her emotions going from zero to one hundred almost instantaneously left her weak and she stumbled into him, her feeble hands digging into the front of his tuxedo. His broad frame supported her shaking body as she looked pleadingly up at him.

“Why are you doing this? Why would you do this to me? Of all the selfish, mean, conceited—!” She began punctuating each insult with a slam of her balled fists into his chest. “Egotistical, self-centered, cruel, selfish—!”

After she had rattled off at least a dozen insults, he grabbed her wrists and jerked them up to his face, staring pointedly at her as he held them.

“I know, Nami. It’s not fair,” he conceded with a heavy sigh.

Oh, no, she didn’t want that sad look on his face. She would take it all back. She didn’t mean it, because God, she had never seen such a broken man before.

“It’s not fair, and it’s selfish, but I’ve thought of you every single day since I left that desert.” He kissed her right fist, then the left, lips lingering on her knuckles as his face scrunched up in pain. “Every single day,” he whispered again, and she almost wailed in dismay as his voice cracked. “I know it’s not right. I never should’ve approached you at that damn fondue fountain. I should’ve just left you none the wiser, because it’s not right, saying all these things to you and then leaving. But I just… In that moment… I didn’t think I could go on like that, with just a memory to love…” He was crying too. She could tell by the thickness in his voice, and the tremble in his hand as he took a piece of her tangerine hair, her hair like the desert sunset bright and blazing, between his thumb and forefinger.

She leaned forward, pressing the forehead of her mask against his and wishing that those stupid pieces of plastic weren’t between them.

“Well,” she said in a shaky, shuddering breath, “I guess if you’re selfish then I’m selfish too.”

Before he could look at her in confusion, she slapped her hands against his cheeks and yanked his head down to draw him into a burning, sloppy, desperate kiss. His hands were still wrapped around her wrists and they squeezed so hard she thought he might snap the bones, but then her hands were free because his hands had a bruising grip on her hips, tugging her closer. Every inch of her melted over him, her body burning and molding like lava fresh from a volcano. Ace wasted no time in shoving his tongue into her mouth and Nami welcomed it, swirling it feverishly with his. He tasted like that chocolate-covered strawberry with mute tones of punch, and it had her reeling. She groaned as her knees buckled beneath her but his sturdy body and harsh grip kept her from collapsing.

“Ace—" she gasped, jerking back, but his face insistently chased hers to reclaim her lips with furious fervor. “Ace—!” she repeated adamantly, once more jerking her face away from him despite how much she would like to keep on. “We’re in the middle of the ballroom; we can’t keep making out like this!” she whispered harshly. She could already feel prickling gazes on them.

“Fine,” he said gruffly.

She squeaked in surprise as he grabbed her by the wrist and began dragging her off the dance floor in the direction of a hallway she knew led to private rooms. Her face blazed with blush at the obvious insinuations. She stumbled over her heels, legs jellified after the intense kiss, and couldn’t even find the words to explain that they should probably part ways before it got too heated… Did she even want to explain, though?

The thick plush carpet muffled the frantic clacking of her heels. Once he had hauled her around the corner he was on her again, pushing her up against one of the doors and hands slamming into the hard mahogany on either side of her waist. Nami moaned into the hot, open-mouthed kiss, prompting his tongue to tango fervently with hers again. Her hands jumped into his thick, curly brown hair, scratching at his scalp as she fisted the strands. Frustrated with the constant clinking of the plastic, he growled and wrenched her white-and-orange kitty mask off, chucking it down the hallway as if it had offended him. Nami’s constant ministrations in his hair loosened the small string securing it around his head, and eventually it snapped, sending it bouncing off her heaving chest to fall forgotten to the floor.

“You’re so… fucking… beautiful,” he snarled affectionately as he grabbed her jaw to angle her head, other hand diving into her fiery red hair again. All Nami could do was clutch onto him as he lavished pent-up affections onto her, a desert sky slowly being tinted red by the burning intensity of a dying sun.

She squeaked as his thick arms suddenly yanked under her thighs to hook her legs around her waist. As they snapped closed around his hips, he pushed her into the door, and she could feel his rigid abdominals flexing with every intense move of his body.

“Ace, the door, the door,” she groaned as she was crushed between the wood and him. She heard him scrabble at the metal for a minute before it finally clicked and the door fell away from behind her, making her jump back into open air. His arms wrapped around her back to keep her in that hungry kiss. He stumbled over the threshold, kicking a few times until he found the door and successfully shut it. Nami felt all the hair on her body rise as she heard the switch of the lock.

He didn’t bother switching on the light or the lamp; the moonlight and lights of thousands of surrounding castle windows were plenty enough to illuminate Ace’s way. He carried her over to the bed and they both fell into it, his heavy weight sinking her down into the mattress as he all but fell on top of her. If she had any breath, it would’ve been forced out of her, but she was already reeling from the intoxicating, dizzying kiss that he kept greedily sucking her into.

All of his actions up until then had been feverish and desperate, nearly battering Nami with their intensity; suddenly, his touch was soft as he pulled back and ran the pad of his thumb over her bruised lips. She gazed at him through lidded eyes as he dipped down to drop soft kisses along her neck, and she automatically craned her head to give him unrestricted access. His hands roamed up and down the side of her body as if he were committing her curves to memory. His lips painted across her neck and across her collarbone then back up the other side of her neck in a circuit, before finally arriving back at her waiting mouth. The kiss this time was soft, gentle, yet somehow more passionate than the ten minutes they had just spent tearing at one another. Her eyes fluttered shut as she could only yield to its feeling.

“I love you, Nami. I mean it. I really do,” he whispered against her mouth as his hands rubbed circles into both of her thighs, exposed by how the fabric of her long dress had bunched around her hips. “Don’t ask me how. It’s stupid, falling in love with someone you barely know, but I—"

“Hey,” she said, opening her eyes to catch his unsure face in her hands. She smiled sweetly at him. “I don’t care how it happened. All I care about is what you’re gonna do about it.” Her eyes glittered as she all but challenged him. A roguish smile flashed on his lips and he crawled further up her body, her legs angling as he kept them pinned to his waist.

“You truly are a seductive, devious woman.”

“Part of my charm, right?” she purred. Her eyes searched his face, recording where each of his little brown freckles was located. He didn’t make any move to kiss her again, allowing her to do so. Her finger came up to start connecting them like a constellation. “Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“Will you keep being selfish?” She wanted him to. She knew he had to leave, and he probably wouldn’t even be there in the morning. He would probably dip out as soon as she fell asleep, resuming his hunt for Blackbeard. She knew that was his duty and she would never ask him to forsake that. She would never ask him to forsake Whitebeard, either, because she knew what it meant to be loyal to someone. No, she would never ask that of him…

“Will you be selfish, and not forget about me, even if our paths go two totally different ways?”

He smiled warmly as he ran the tip of his nose along her jawline, dropping kisses onto her flushed skin all the while.

“Of course, Nami,” he breathed into her ear before kissing her temples. His lips lingered in her sunset hair for a long while as he struggled with the emotions that were threatening to spill over. “I’ll come for you,” he told her suddenly. “I’ll come back. Somehow, someday, I dunno when. But I’ll never forget, not ever.” He pulled back to look down at her, burning honesty in his eyes.

She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, fingers twisting around his slightly sweaty brown locks.

“Okay. Then that’s enough. Now get down here and kiss me.”

He chuckled slightly and did as bid, and her eyes fell closed again as she savored his lips rolling over hers, dripping with love that should not be but was present nonetheless…

Sometimes, things don’t work out like you want them to. That was a hard lesson that Nami learned, the day she read that newspaper and that one night of passion flashed in her mind like the spinning reel of a movie. Every kiss, every touch, every breathy declaration of feeling… They burned bright in her memory, like the desert sun doomed eternally to hover just above the horizon, forbidden to sink and disappear no matter how much it wanted to. She crushed that paper to her chest as the tears streamed down her cheeks, but he wasn’t there to wipe them away that time. They just fell, two rivers of clear water unable to cease flow.

But Nami was selfish, and she never forgot. Not ever. Even though it hurt like hell. Because sometimes the memories most worth keeping did.