His Firecracker Her Rock

Chapter 8 - Heated Blankets

Chapter 8 - Heated Blankets

"Hey Luffy!" Ace knew that Dawn was not doing too well. The bleeding had stopped but he could feel her shivering and knew she needed to rest. "I bet Dawn and I can get back before you!"

"You're on!" Luffy shouted in excitement. He quickly jumped into the small dingy Ace and he used to get to the island and started rowing like there was no tomorrow, completely forgetting about the sail which would have made things a hundred times easier. But that was Luffy for you.

"You're smarter than you look too," Dawn whispered as Ace carefully jumped onto her boat. Resting around Luffy was impossible. Something Ace had learned the hard way growing up. Had he not offered to race Luffy back to Rusukaina there was little chance of her getting any shut eye.

"At least give me some credit!" Ace laughed. He placed her onto the bed in the small cabin before unmooring and unfurling the sail. The wind was luckily on their side today and he barely had to adjust the sail to head in the right direction. "So you think you'll be okay?"

"I already told you I'm fine!" Dawn tried to yell but it came out more like a childish cry. "I just need to sleep for a bit,"

"Need me to sing you a lullaby?" Ace teased as she pulled her blanket up to her nose and tried to hide her shivering. "Or would madam prefer a heated blanket?"

"What the hell is a heated blanket?" Dawn asked before she could stop herself. Truth be told she was freezing and if a heated blanket was as warm as it sounded then that would be heavenly.

Ace smirked in response as he grabbed her blanket, much to her dismay, and then hugged it for a few seconds before spreading it back out over her.

"How's that?" Ace grinned. This was something he had done for Luffy whenever he was sick, and it appeared it would now be something he would do for Dawn as well since she held the warm blanket as close to herself as possible.

"It's cooling down already..." Dawn whined her face pink with both embarrassment and fever. "Can you do it again?"

"I will, if you say please," Ace booped her nose as she tried swatting him away.

"Please..." she mumbled, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you," Ace teased, cupping one of his ears mockingly. Dawn was far too stubborn and prideful to beg. She turned onto her side to face the wall and did her best to stop her teeth from chattering. "It's just one teensy tiny word..."

"Since it's so teensy tiny then why do you care if I say it," Dawn grumbled the sass in her voice overpowered by the exhaustion.

Ace decided to just wait her out, eventually, she would say it, he planned on teasing her about it before finally reheating her blanket. But the second she turned back to face him with round teary eyes he caved. He caved so fast.

"Ahhh don't cry!" Ace panicked, as he looked around for another blanket to heat up. "I don't think there are any more blankets,"

"What about this one?" Dawn sniffled as she motioned towards the one she was using.

"I can't keep taking that one you'll get chilly every time it cools down and I have to reheat it," Ace answered with his finger on his chin trying to come up with a solution. "I've got it!"

Ace's solution; become the blanket...

"What are you doing?" Dawn gasped as Ace got under her blanket and wrapped an arm around her. She no doubt would have beaten the crap out of him if he wasn't so warm.

"I'm your heated blanket, n-now go to sleep," Ace ordered with a stutter.

He was glad Dawn couldn't see his face as it no doubt was just as pink as hers. He swore he had never blushed so deeply before, nor had he ever felt so nervous. His heart was at the back of his throat threatening to explode. And he was having a hard time controlling his breathing.

"I take back what I said, you are as dumb as Luffy," Dawn was no better. Her face had turned ten shades redder and was on the cusp of blacking out. Her heart was pounding like mad but at least she was no longer shivering from being cold. She eventually fell asleep and for the first night since Marineford, did not have a nightmare.

Ace stayed up all night making sure she was warm, that the ship was headed in the right direction, and that Luffy hadn't fallen into the sea. At one point Luffy eventually unfurled his sail, only after seeing Ace had opened his, of course. Surprisingly they were making pretty good time and made it back to Rusukaina by morning.

"Hey Dawn, we're here," Ace whispered as he not so gently shook her awake. Ace still wasn't her biggest fan. But she was Luffy's sister. On the other hand, she did have to be carried all day yesterday and then left Ace to do all the work getting them back to Rusukaina while she slept.

"Don't shake a sick lady like that!" She yelled as she began to shake him the same way he had shaken her.

"I didn't," Ace shouted back. It wasn't easy for him to rip himself from her iron grip, he was pretty sure there was going to be a bruise or at least a red mark for a bit.

"What do you mean you didn't?! You just shook me awake!" Dawn argued as the two of them butted heads, both literally and figuratively.

"Yeah, but you're not sick anymore! Besides you are barely a lady, I mean your snoring could wake the dead," He bickered back sassily.

"I don't snore!" She countered. The two continued to squabble until finally landing on the beach a couple of minutes after Luffy.

"I won!" Luffy cheered. "What did I win?"

"How about a new crewmate?" Dawn offered, although she wasn't sure what her dream was, she knew she had time to find one. Having seen Luffy's message in the newspaper she knew that for two years he would be training on this island. While he was doing that she would master her Arnamental Haki before going to the new world, to find her own goal before meeting him and the rest of his crew there.

"You mean it?!" Luffy exclaimed with a giant smile.

"Of course!" She smiled back. She was more than glad Luffy was taking to her so quickly. She had been very nervous but fortunately, her worries weren't as warranted as they had seemed.

"Wow I can't believe I got two new crewmates on this island, this is great!" Luffy said merrily before rushing off to the fort no doubt to find Rayleigh and start his training again.

"Did he say, two?" Dawn questioned out loud more to herself than anyone else.

"Yep, he got me to join the very night he woke up," Ace smirked over his shoulder as he followed his captain, "Welcome to the crew..."