con fuoco - chapter three (pt 2)
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“Oh, hello guys!” Luffy exclaimed, pleasantly surprised to see his friends standing outside his apartment.
“Hey, Luffy,” Sanji said. “Is Ace here right now?”
“Yeah, but he’s busy,” Luffy grumbled. “He’s in his room-”, and he purposely spoke louder, “--packing his stuff five days early!”
“I’LL FORGET SOMETHING IF I LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MINUTE!” Ace’s voice retorted.
“See? He’s busy,” Luffy said, shrugging. He moved aside to let Sanji, Zoro and Nami into his apartment.
Nami sighed. “You should follow your brother’s example,” she muttered darkly, sitting on the armchair.
“Huh?” Luffy turned around, picking his nose.
“Don’t bother,” Zoro said dryly, collapsing spectacularly onto the sofa, earning a scowl from Sanji who sat down next to him a couple of seconds afterwards.
Ace joined them a few minutes later. “Sorry for making you wait,” he apologized, jumping into the other unoccupied armchair. “Did you guys need to talk to me about something?”
“You’re going to Water 7 in a few days, right?” Sanji asked.
“Yeah,” Ace answered. “Smoker and I are taking the train there a day after the rest of the orchestra because the old man has to finish some things first. Galley-La is going earlier and setting up and stuff.” Ace smiled and tapped his foot absentmindedly. “I’ve never been on a train before. It sounds like fun.”
“Which train are you and Smoker riding on?” Nami asked.
“… The ‘Puffing Tom’, I think,” Ace said slowly. “I’m pretty sure we’re riding on that one and not ‘Rocket Man’ or whatever that express train is called. It’s just too bad we won’t be able to see the train go on the water,” Ace sighed. “There’s a bridge between here and Water 7, so there’s no need for the train to do anything special…”
“I want to ride on a train,” Luffy whined, pouting. “I want to see you play at your concert!”
“We all wanted to,” Sanji chuckled. “There were no more tickets left, remember? Franky might have been able to go, since he’s friends with Mayor Iceburg, but he and Robin will be on vacation. FRANKY, YOU BETTER KEEP ROBIN SAFE!!!” Sanji shouted randomly, shaking a fist.
“Be quiet and tell Ace what you wanted to say in the first place,” Nami ordered Sanji sternly, rubbing her temples. “And Luffy! Stop poking Zoro!” she snapped, temporarily halting Luffy from poking the green-haired man who had fallen asleep many minutes earlier.
“RIGHT AWAY, NAMI!” Sanji exclaimed loudly. Then he turned to Ace and began speaking to him in a normal tone. “Anyways, because we won’t be able to see you play, we decided to just throw you a good-luck party with lots of food. How does that sound?”
Ace laughed and said, “It sounds great, especially if you will be cooking.” After a moment of thought, he said, “Can Smoker come too? And maybe my friend Tashigi as well?” Ace wisely neglected to mention Tashigi was female, bless her soul. The later Sanji found out her gender, the milder her suffering.
“I don’t mind more people,” Sanji replied thoughtfully.
“Besides, we don’t know much about the people you’re seeing at your rehearsals,” Nami added. “It’d be nice if we could meet them and talk with them. Smoker didn’t stay long last time we saw him. I don’t really blame him,” she remarked dryly, swatting Luffy’s fidgety finger away from Zoro’s stomach.
“When are you planning to have this party anyways?” Ace asked, kicking his younger brother in the shin to dissuade further poke-attempts on the man asleep on the sofa.
“Ouch! Nami, Sanji and Zoro wanted to have it three days from now,” Luffy answered, frowning and rubbing his leg. “It’s at Sanji’s apartment, just so it’s easier on him because he can cook there.”
“Well, go invite your friends,” Sanji said, standing up. “We’ll leave now, so see you soon. Marimo!” Sanji kicked Zoro in the side. “Get up, we’re going!”
“What the hell,” Zoro grumbled. “Bye, Ace, Luffy,” he said, yawning.
“Bye guys,” Nami said, waving. Then the three of them left.
Luffy turned to face his older brother. “Are you really going to invite Smokey?” he asked curiously.
Ace smiled. “Of course… I’m just not sure if he’ll agree.”
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Tashigi had taken nearly no time at all to convince. After saying “Oh, what a nice bunch of friends you have!” the clumsy musician had agreed to go with Ace to his friends’ party-thing. On the other hand, Smoker had adamantly refused many times for days until Ace finally threatened to sic Garp on him.
“Why am I here?” Smoker muttered, glaring darkly at Ace as the three of them stood outside Sanji’s apartment.
“You don’t like tea, crackers, or the two of them together,” Ace answered mischievously, winking at Tashigi who predictably blushed. “How’s the arm doing?” Ace asked, pointing at the large cast on the woman’s left arm.
“Oh, um, the doctors say it’s doing fine,” Tashigi said, giving her arm a thoughtful stare. “The cast will probably be off soon… but not in time for the concert,” she said, frowning slightly.
Smoker snorted. “It’s not your fault. We’ve been through this already. Can I get this over with now?” he demanded, staring pointedly at Ace.
Ace shrugged and knocked on the door. Sanji answered it and upon seeing Tashigi began doing a spinning circuit around his apartment while simultaneously singing her praises. Tashigi looked towards Ace and Smoker for some explanation, saw matching expressions of resignation, and concluded that such behaviour was commonplace.
Some introductions were made until Tashigi saw Zoro. To everyone’s surprise, she identified him as the person who had accidentally knocked her down the stairs. Sanji promptly kicked Zoro in the head while berating him and for the next few minutes, everybody watched the two of them fight spectacularly until Nami stopped them. Fortunately, the rest of the introductions passed uneventfully, and the dinner went by loudly but more-or-less smoothly (if you excluded the epic fight over Usopp’s steak between the two D. siblings).
“You’re all batshit crazy,” Smoker declared to Ace after everything was eaten.
Ace chuckled and nodded in agreement. “You could say that,” he said, amused. “Our family tends to attract odd people. I guess that makes you one of us now,” Ace teased.
Smoker scoffed. “Once the concert is over, I’m running the hell away from you lot as fast as I can,” he stated grimly, gaining another laugh from Ace.
“Good luck getting away from Garp,” Ace said, giving Smoker a mock-salute. “How was the food?” he asked as an afterthought.
“… Wasn’t bad,” Smoker admitted. Sanji was psychotic but he could cook really well… not that the conductor would ever tell the blond-haired man. Unfortunately for Smoker, Ace yelled “SANJI! SMOKER LOVES YOUR FOOD AND YOU TOO!” to which Sanji replied “I DOUBT HE ACTUALLY SAID THAT, BUT THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT!”. Smoker hit Ace on the head.
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Ace said, grinning cheekily. After letting Smoker sulk for a few minutes (he was definitely sulking, no matter how much he denied it), Ace said, “They’re not so bad, you just have to get used to them.”
Smoker looked at Ace thoughtfully and silently agreed.
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cadence
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Author's Notes:
Bleargh, they're shrinking. Had lots of fun with this chapter though. n_n
Anyways, I'd like to point out that Chapter 4 will take a looooong time for me to write. Firstly, because I'll actually have to think while I write it (because then it won't make sense later on), and secondly, because I'm not quite sure how trains work. Research -- well, a little bit -- is in order!
So, apologies in advance. I'll try to sort everything out quickly. (drifting and tali, nag me so I write faster lol)
[To Tali:]
Happy now? I briefly implicated that Luffy was there xD Although it was my fault in the first place for completely forgetting to mention him. I'm sorry. -_-v I was so excited (i.e. "YES I'M ALMOST DONE") I finished the chapter too quickly for me to notice ahaha.
You didn't have to congratulate me about having less grammatical errors. It's just because this chapter was maybe about half the length of the other ones x'D
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