With different eyes

Ace in Adventure Land

I open and close my mouth without saying anything. I would have expected something like a pink T-shirt with a heart pattern. But Loki and Nico have done a great job. Ace is wearing grey tight jeans with a black shirt that is meanly not buttoned properly and thus shows part of his chest. It makes you want to open the other buttons. And now I know who the victim of the prank is: I have to walk next to Ace the whole time and that with my out-of-control hormones. I turn to Mark, Loki and Nico and say miserably, "I hate you guys!" The three of them laugh while Ace looks as excited as I am. "These clothes are uncomfortable!" he grumbles. "Never mind!" the three say in unison. Well at least I'm not the only one suffering.

Without looking at Ace any further, I would otherwise take a diversion to my room, I walk to the living room. Ace follows me, his hands in his pockets. "Are you okay?" he asks me worriedly. "Yes!" I say curtly, not looking at him as I walk to the front door and am finally outside. "Really?" he asks me. I nod and walk to the car. But before I can get in, Ace grabs me by the shoulder and spins me around. This puts his half-covered muscular chest in front of my nose. "Lucia talk to me!" says Ace anxiously. I want to do something other than talk, though. Stupid out-of-control hormones!

And Ace seems to have noticed, because I hear his amused voice: "Maybe the outfit isn't so bad after all!" I gasp and finally get in. Ace follows suit and I help him with the seatbelt. Then we drive towards town. Ace still looks enthusiastic, even though I don't drive as fast as Nico. During the ride we are pretty quiet, each of us thinking our own thoughts. I myself make a list of what we have to get. I hope it comes as no surprise to anyone that the first ten places on the list are occupied by chocolate. Ace's eyes get bigger and bigger the closer we get to the shopping centre. Of course he doesn't know anything about this. I pull into the car park and get out. Quicker than I can look, Ace is at my side again and looks like a child in an adventure playground.

I think about the order in which we should do the business. Ace next to me is already jittering around. I stroll across the car park to the entrance while Ace follows me on foot. One thing is clear, I'm making a roundabout way, otherwise we'll pass the ball paradise and there's no way I'm going to do that to myself! As soon as we're in the shopping centre, Ace wants to make a run for it and I already know where to go: food court! But not with me! Ace will just stiff me again, if I know him, and then there will be stress, and I don't feel like that at all. So I grab him by the shirt and pull him back. Surprised, he looks back and meets my stern gaze. He scratches the back of his head with an embarrassed smile and walks beside me again. In moments like this I'm glad that Ace isn't Luffy, he would have driven me crazy. The first thing we have to do is sell Ace's gold to the jeweller. So, under Ace's disappointed gaze, I move to the jeweller.

That's actually done quickly and we can move on. "Where do you want to go first?" I ask, and before he can say anything I narrow it down: "The food stalls are out of the question!" Ace slumps his shoulders then says, "Whatever, you decide!" I scratch my chin. "Maybe we should get father's booze first. Then we can go to the baby shop and get the cake last." Ace nods and gives me a wait-and-see look. So for father we really need a liquor shop. It's lucky there's one here, if I'm honest I've never entered it, the rum from the supermarket was always enough for me. But I guess that won't be enough for father. But what alcohol can I bring him? It has to be something special. I drag Ace into the liquor shop.

Immediately a salesman approaches us critically. "What can I do for you?" he asks us with polite detachment. Clearly he doesn't think we can afford the business. I smile kindly and say: "We are looking for a gift for a gourmet," which is of course one way of describing Whitebeard. The other term would be drunkard. "The price is irrelevant!" I say and already the man's face brightens. "What does the gentleman prefer to drink?" I am asked. Uhh that's easy: "Sake" I say and hear Ace chuckle behind me. The man strokes his chin thoughtfully. "Should it be sake or do you want to bring him something new?" he asks us and before I can say anything, Ace has answered: "Something new!" We might as well take a bottle for Rayleigh and Shanks. The man shows us a few drinks and Ace is allowed to taste them, I'm not allowed and to be honest I don't have a clue anyway. In the end we decide on a small barrel for Whitebeard and a bottle each for Shanks and Rayleigh, which I insist on. We even get to pick them up later. Ace leaves the shop and I follow him.