Our little love tale - Ace x Reader

Chapter IV

Chapter IV

Narrator's P.O.V

Recovering breath from the previous sprint you had done it was Ace's turn to swiftly face you with a much surprised and amazed expression, lips ajar as if he had not expected for you to take such action and grab his arms so carelessly for the impelling consequences.

Please, don't do this...you don't deserve to be connected to someone like me! enough of this burden on your shoulders!

" Is this how you treat someone who has helped you, Ace? You'd just leave without even saying goodbye at least? and here I thought you were a nice person... "

disappointment laced with worry and sadness could be heard from your voice's tone; and he did not like it, he did not like that he had made you feel such emotions. but that was what happened with him: he made people suffer, he pushed those he loved away.

a curt smile upon his face, the pirate felt somehow, by the still sheer unknown force that was compelling him to do so, that the right thing to do would be to gently rub your (h/c) tresses,  before another hand would engulf in your back, soothingly, pulling you flush against his own frame.

" sorry, ...but you don't want to be associated with someone like me... "

Your hues widened, tears forming slowly onto the corners of your eyes: why did you feel like crying? why were you feeling so many unexplainable emotions you hadn't tasted before for this man specifically? why was this goodbye sounding so painful, as if you never wanted them to leave? You wanted to know more about him, you had enjoyed his short stay but it was not yet enough time to have had the opportunity to share more memories with them, even if short-lived.

and what did he mean by that phrase? it sounded so pained as if some part of his soul had long gone broken inside and needed repair or something to heal it ... and you wanted to know why or what was causing it.

You could not understand it much yourself, if it was out of your worry for others' pain or aching souls, but you just simply couldn't leave him alone now even more than before, after those words had been brought to the light.

Retrieving your frame away from his hold, which left him dumbfounded for a moment as you so violently and suddenly bursted out of it, brows knitted together, an upset expression on your face as your voice rose higher in a some rage.

" ...what do you mean by that?! if i didn't want that , do you think i would have let you off the hook earlier on? or that i would have offered you to stay over the night? if i didn't think you were a nice person or a decent one even at that i wouldn't have said yes to either! I'm sorry Ace, I don't know what is it that has made you think otherwise, but you're not being a burden to me, much on the contrary! I've been most of my life surrounded by unwanted attention, if you were one making part of those, I would not have consented to any of your previous actions! "

Finished with your wave of arguments, both of your eyes widened at the realization that you just had snapped over this simple action, and feeling considerable shame for having done so you averted your gaze away from the pirate, lips curled in a tight purse, feet yet rooted to that spot as you couldn't either speak nor move away from there; why were you even so upset over this? he was supposed to have been a stranger, a recent acquaintance, and nothing more.

....

If you have to leave, at least don't go without telling me so.

blinking away the urge to cry due to your nerves, you were not yet ready for any physical contact of any sort even if just a simple eyed one. so it was with a small start that you reacted to feeling that sensation of the previous night being brought upon you again, as calloused, hard fingers rubbed delicately against your bare skin, caressing the surface of your forearms and down to your hands...much like the touch you had only read yet in books and heard from the experiences of those who have had the luck of trying it.

the touch of someone who loved you like another half.

of course that would be too good to be true, you weren't such a lucky person to have that bestowed upon you as easily. but for the time being, you wanted to engulf yourself in the feeling and even if you were to repent it later on,...well that was for you to think on then.

" ... do you not feel as if I'm a burden then? as if it was not wrong of me for ...being here ? "

there it was, that sad, aching smile again. it brought a pang to your heart and only willed it to give you tears and a motive to shed them.

" why are you saying those things? of course i don't think of you as a burden! haven't I just told you... that? why do you think you are so? you are not! "

" because I am the son of a demon. "

...........

" what? what do you mean by that? "

" i mean what i just said--"

" no you don't. what do you mean by those words? son of a demon? "

at those inquiries, Ace realized he may have had said far too much. yet it was his own fault for telling half of a story he did to want to speak of. of course, for him his captain was his own father, but biologically he could not change the truth, and it still sickened him.

" if i were the son of someone who was branded as a criminal and wanted dead...what would you think of me as? "

the brows of the (h/c) haired woman creased in concern at the question, almost muttered as if he felt ashamed or wanted to hide his very own existence from the world. what had anything of it to do with such? you never even really liked your own parents as much, with all those nobility quirks, having followed your maids attention far better with much humility and still, you didn't consider yourself a bad person, much far from it.

What had he ever gone through to think so lowly of himself?

" Look, i don't know whoever is that was your parent or not, but that doesn't dictate who you are or your reputation; you are a single person, with your own identity apart from them, and you don't seem like a bad person to me much less a burden, Ace. Please, don't think so lowly of yourself. "

A look of astonishment as if he had just seen something out of this world happen before his eyes, you couldn't help but be even more ached by what you could not unveil under that veil of pain he carried. what had he gone through you did not know, but if he did not wish to speak of it then so be it, you wouldn't push him to it. even if it did worry you though...

But again, he opted for the ached smile, however more genuine in happiness than earlier on, as he pulled you against his frame in a tight embrace - as if this had been done countless times before between you, an unusual closeness you didn't know you had already possessed, as raven locks layed against your shoulderblade and neck before a muttered 'thank you' escaped his lips...