- Desire -

Things are about to get a little heated.

Frankie's was beginning to fill up with all the wrong kinds of people, most of whom would easily have a bounty between fifty to a hundred thousand beri in Ace's world. Therefore, it was best if he avoided them by leaving early, and tried not to cause trouble for himself or the other.

Ace trekked the same route back to Luffy's, noticing the beautiful variations of colours in the sky as the sun set that evening. It was unreal how similar their skies were, it made Ace wonder if Luffy, back in his world, was staring at this exact sky right now…

On this way back, he was lucky enough to run into Sanji in the exact same place they parted from each other earlier. Sanji had yet to realize that Ace was heading towards him and simply made his way down the street, looking even more shattered than he did that morning.

"Yo!" Ace shouted after him, Sanji turned around wearily, but recognized him almost instantly; he didn't appear as panicked as he was this morning, but still none the less remained fearful.

"Oh, it's you again huh?" Sanji replied with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Yeah- I figured since we're both walking the same way, we should walk back together?" He questioned.

"Ahh, yeah I would walk back with you but since I'm not going round to Zoro's, I'm not walking past Luffy's."

"Oh, right, fair enough- so you're actually taking my advice?" Ace questioned.

"Well yeah! It's the best piece of advice I've gotten so far…" He paused for thought, "actually… it's the only piece of advice I've gotten so far. I'm not much of a social person and the only people I see outside of college are Luffy and Usopp, and like they know anything about relationships." He added.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." Ace knew exactly what he meant. The Luffy back home didn't care for such a thing, it would definitely be interesting if he knew what an intimate relationship was at least. Even with two good-looking women on his ship, it was obvious that he was still a virgin. At seventeen, Ace had already experienced sex numerous times, both intimately and casually.

Aside from this mornings topic being the only thing they really had to communicate with, the walk home was relatively silent and dull. Although Ace had already talked about what Sanji and Zoro were like back in his world, Sanji was still curious to learn more about them, even if the two were on bad terms. "So… could you tell me more about what I'm like in your world… with Zoro?"

Ace was somewhat surprised, although it was bound to come up again, even considering what happened in the restaurant yesterday. "Well I didn't really get to know either of you when I met up with Luffy and his newly formed crew. I was only really able to observe you guys from a distance whilst we travelled together for a few days." He paused, taking a deep breath for what he was about to say could possibly gain some kind of a bad reaction, "and sadly- the only thing I saw you two do was argue, fight and moan at each other. I don't think you've ever had a civilized conversation with each other…" Ace prepared himself for the worst.

"Ah…" Sanji said, very disappointed. "So all you reallyknow is that we fought a lot?"

"Hm, well… it's not really just that. It kind of seemed like there was a lot of sexual tension in the air."

Sanji perked up a little, intrigue rinsing his mind. "Sexual tension you say?"

Ace nodded, "yeah- like you were both obviously attracted to each other and you knew it, but neither of you were willing to take the first step. In order to combat your desires, you just fought it out. That's what I believe anyway, it seems possible."

"That's a little more pleasing to hear," Sanji smiled.

"Well, even if this is true- I don't think either of you will ever do anything about I'm afraid, not unless you're drunk together or something. Or, maybe I'm wrong…"

Sanji gave him a questioning look, "what? Do you think it might have already happened?"

"Maybe, it would explain a lot about the fighting, it's a great cover. It doesn't explain the sexual tension I felt when I was around them though."

"Hmm…" Sanji thought, "Maybe you should tell them about our relationship in this world. I bet that'd get them going." He smirked.

"Well, I did say this morning that I would." He laughed a little, regardless of how harsh it may seem. Sanji couldn't help but let a smile peek on his face.

They eventually came to part at a crossroads, where Ace proceeded forward and Sanji turned left. Before parting ways, they had time to finish up their conversation. "Well, it's been nice chatting to you again." He smiled. "Now that I'm not going round to Zoro's, I can have a lie in tomorrow before work and wake up feeling refreshed…" He sighed as though he was already living that dream.

"Wish I could say the same thing about me and Luffy, but we're going to some place called Tokyo tomorrow to see that famous author called Sabo."

"Really?! The Sabo?"

"Yeah, that one… I get this feeling though that he might be from my world, I'm told that most of the novels he has written detail characteristics similar to that of my world."

Sanji looked at him with utter amazement, realizing that what Ace had said was true, and that he was meeting Sabo, the greatest author this world has ever known. "That's pretty amazing, I'm sure a lot of people would give an arm and a leg to meet him these days. I actually own a few of his novels too; I'll have to give them a look over again sometime. I hope you have fun in Tokyo anyway, it's the central hub of Japan and it's absolutely incredible."

"Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it."

As Ace turned to leave, Sanji grabbed his arm and pulled him back, seeming quite worried about something. "Please be careful in Tokyo, and keep an extra close eye on Luffy…"

Before Ace even had chance to reply, Sanji was quickly making his way home and waving him off as he did so. Ace remained speechless, stood at the crossroads for sometime, wondering what he meant.

Ace slowly made his way back to Luffy's, taking extra time to think things through.

Happy that Thatch was alive and doing well, he believed he could focus on getting back to his world, but now he had to worry about going to Tokyo tomorrow with Luffy and his other self. He had originally thought that it would go smoothly and would be a simple process, but obviously where Ace was concerned, life was easy to complicate.

What on earth did Sanji mean? Is there something about Tokyo I should know about? But if I'm supposed to keep an eye on Luffy, then it's obviously more because of him that makes Tokyo a dangerous place. He deduced, obviously he couldn't be too sure; it may have been something else. He remembered being told Luffy's father was the Prime Minister of Japan… maybe that has something to do with it?

With the sky now pitch black and clouds beginning to form, a light shower of rain fell upon the district. Since he wasn't in the mood for a cold, he ran the rest of the way and made it back just before the shower turned into a monstrous downpour, so much for the beautiful sunset before.

Ace shook himself off once inside the warmth of the apartment block and rushed up the stairs. He straightened himself up and pushed any remaining worries out of his mind for now, they would obviously resurface later when he'll be trying to fall asleep.

A few light knocks on the door was all it took to send someone on the inside bumbling around, making loads of crashing and smashing sounds. A rather overly-cheerful Luffy answered the door, who was quick to hug him this time.

"So you'll hug me now?" Ace smirked, referring to the other night when Luffy was rather reluctant to hug him when he had first appeared in this world. Luffy had however mistaken him for RWAce and considering the terms of their relationship, was obviously pretty hesitant to go near him.

"Huh?" Luffy replied, clueless as ever.

"Never mind…" Ace added, allowing Luffy to do as he pleased. It was certainly the best feeling he had felt since he had come to this backwards world, he wasn't forgetting the kiss they had shared the other night either, which had stirred up some strange emotions.

Luffy smiled into his brother's chest for the last couple of moments of their hug, eventually leading Ace inside the apartment and closing the door once they were both inside.

Ace removed his shoes and sat underneath the blankets of the kotatsu, staring at the glorious amount of food that Luffy had ordered and not really knowing where to begin. Luffy joined Ace at the table, pulling the blankets over his legs and tucking in to the food.

"When did you get the food?" Ace questioned.

"About half an hour ago, I got it from the Baratie on my way home from college. I was expecting to see Sanji whilst I was in there but his father said he wasn't working today."

Ace helped himself to the food before Luffy had any kind of chance to demolish the rest. "Where have you been anyway? I thought you might've stayed here all day?" Luffy asked between bites.

"Well… um…" Ace was going to tell him about Thatch, but he didn't really see the need to make his brother worry about anything else. "I just decided to take a little walk and get some air… I ended up getting lost but I managed to run into Sanji." Ace smiled innocently; hopefully Luffy was a little gullible.

"Ohhh, well I can understand- this apartment does get a little crowded, even when you're on your own."

Ace nodded, agreeing with him. "It's been a good day though, I've seen a lot of the town and a few familiar faces."

"Nobody recognised you though, did they?" Luffy replied, summarily holding off eating until he was happy with the answer.

"No, no. I kept my self pretty hidden." He paused to await Luffy's response, which was a simple smile. "So was college any good today?"

"Hm? Oh, it was pretty good for a change. Ace stopped by my apartment early this morning and we walked together."

Ace almost chocked on his food, did he hear him right? "You walked with Ace to college? He didn't do anything to you did he?"Oh shit… he doesn't know I know yet.

"Um, no… why would he?" Luffy replied shakily, it only confirmed Ace's suspicions further when Luffy acted like he wasn't hiding anything.

"Well, you just seemed overly weary of him the other day; I just assumed he'd been bullying you or something until now. I mean you were about ready to fight me when you thought I was him."

Luffy relaxed a little and continued to eat, "Oh, no- he was pretty friendly and pleasant today. I wasa little hesitant to walk with him at first, but he insisted. I didn't want to turn him down; we did used to be inseparable." Luffy smiled, remembering the good times.

Ace couldn't help but smile too, happy that they were already beginning patch things up, even after everything that had happened- although, things weren't always this simple, which is what worried Ace the most.

Between them, they quickly finished off the food within a matter of minutes. When they were finished, they didn't really have much else to do.

"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Ace questioned.

"Pretty early, we should probably go to bed soon if we have any chance of getting up in the morning." He joked as he begun clearing the table and removing any lingering rubbish around the room.

"I'll suppose I'll get a shower now then; I doubt I'll have time in the morning." Ace added.

"You can go first, I'll finish up." Luffy replied. Ace made his way to the bathroom and had a quick shower whilst Luffy finished cleaning up his apartment. It was one of the very few times he actually feltlike he should clean up, and he too was waiting to use the shower, so it was a perfect time killer.

When Ace was done, he stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but his boxers, carrying his clothes over his arm. Luffy was waiting outside the door and greeted Ace with a gaping mouth and a heavy red blush spread across his face. Luffy averted his gaze quickly and looked elsewhere in the room.

Ace noticed Luffy's strange behaviour and couldn't help but smirk as he proceeded past him. Luffy pounced into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him and resting against it as he regained his composure. He had seen Ace that naked many times, but for some reason, today he was a lot more attractive, even the word sexy could be used.

Luffy climbed in the shower and quickly turned it from boiling hot to freezing cold, hoping it would cool a currently throbbing problem downstairs.

On the other side of the door, Ace was tucked up in bed watching the TV that Luffy had left on whilst he went for a shower. He wasn't paying much attention to it though; he had other thoughts on his mind.

Which were quickly thrown out the window when Luffy re-appeared, also in just boxers. This was most probably payback for embarrassing Luffy just before, as Ace had a similar reaction. Luffy turned the bathroom light off and joined Ace in bed, being careful not to get too close to him however, in case he suddenly became uncomfortable with the idea of them both being practically nude and sleeping next to each other.

Luffy lay back against the headboard and intently watched the TV without really giving much thought to Ace staring over at him, pondering over his strange attitude tonight. Sure, this Luffy was pretty strange already, but tonight was different- there was some kind of weird atmosphere filling the room because of him and it was drawing Ace in against his will.

"Luffy?" Ace questioned, but didn't gain much of a physical response from him.

"Hn?" He replied, eyes still focused on the TV.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…"

"You sure?"

"Hm"

Ace wasn't particularly sure what to do; Luffy had never acted this way before, this included the one back in his world, he'd never seen this distant, odd behaviour. Most of the time however, his odd behaviour was a sign that he was just down or worried about something and because he wasn't much of a normal person, he portrayed these feelings oddly.

"Do you want to cuddle for a bit?" Ace asked, smiling softly. He knew in a time such as this, all he needed was a firm reminder that he wasn't alone.

That singular sentence grabbed Luffy's complete attention, he looked over quite sharply and at first wasn't quite sure what to say, but his mind decided for him, "yeah…"

Ace pulled Luffy over and wrapped his right arm behind Luffy's shoulders, allowing him to rest his head in a more comfortable position on Ace's chest.

"Comfy?" Ace questioned.

Luffy snuggled up closer and simply let himself go in the way of awkward feelings. This was the perfect end to a day, even Ace could agree that this way pretty comfortable and it was nice to be this close to someone you cared about. He didn't want to prioritise one Luffy over the other however; he cared and loved them both equally.

They both watched TV for at least an hour before Luffy finally noticed that Ace had fallen asleep, although he was unsure as to when exactly. Luffy grabbed the TV remote from his bedside table and shut it off. He quickly checked the time and once again set numerous alarms on his phone, just to be safe.

Luffy snuggled up again next to Ace, resting his head on his shoulder and bringing the cover up closer to his neck. It seemed like Ace was already in a deep sleep, and for the first time in a while- Luffy found himself unable to fall asleep with ease.

He remained in his comfortable position for some time, staring blankly into his dark room whilst he tried to figure out why he couldn't sleep. After some deliberation, he made a rather interesting move, without really realizing what he was doing exactly.

Luffy carefully slid out from Ace's arm and positioned himself on top of Ace's groin. He carefully rested his hands on Ace's well-toned stomach in order to keep himself upright, but tried his hardest not to apply too much pressure in case it woke Ace up.

He remained still for some time, quietly watching Ace sleep. It was almost as if he was possessed by some kind of perverted, stalker-like demon… he couldn't control his actions.

He leaned in ever so gently and quietly inhaled the other's scent. Luffy only wished that he could do more and not be easily detected; he worried that if he continued Ace might wake up and push him away, although he didn't really seem like the type of person who would, unlike the other Ace.

Luffy leaned in further, the gap between their lips was closing slowly, all the while Luffy's eyes didn't quite know where to focus, as they altered from gazing at Ace's delicate lips and then back up to his eyes.

The distance between their lips was infinitesimal, Luffy had stopped short, unsure whether to proceed or not… but he was so desperate, this was worth it. A quick peck should suffice at least, he told himself.

Luffy forced himself to close the distance and the gap disappeared, their lips were now pressed together in a very delicate manner. Luffy held his breath, hoping Ace wouldn't wake. His eyes remained focused upon Ace's, he pulled back slowly, accidentally rubbing himself against Ace's sensitive area and summarily waking him up.

As Ace's eyes slowly opened, blinked a little and then shot wide open when he was able to make out that Luffy was sat on top of his groin.

"Wha- Luf-" In a heated panic, Luffy again forced Ace into another kiss, just as he had done the other night. Ace had a hard time figuring out what was going on or how this situation had come to be, all he could comprehend at that time was that Luffy was kissing him, and not the simple kiss on the cheek or peck on the lips, it was a full on, deep kiss that seemed to last a life time.

The kiss only seemed to improve when Ace found himself unable to resist the temptation of kissing back. With one hand, Ace gripped the nape of Luffy's hair and rested his other on Luffy's skinny waist.

Ace wasn't really sure what he was doing, but it felt right. He believed it wouldn't go any further than this and he was alright with that, but he felt Luffy playing around with the buckle of his belt and it was at that point clear what his true intentions were.

Ace immediately pulled away and looked Luffy dead in the eyes; he loosed his hand on Luffy's nape and lowered it to the other side of his hip. "We can't, Luffy." He spoke softly, as though he were sorry for not allowing him to continue.

Luffy averted his gaze and stared beside him, he couldn't understand why Ace wouldn't continue. "You want to though, right?"

He thought about it for a moment and realized he wasn't particularly sure. It wasn't like Luffy was unattractive; Ace had definitely noticed his looks and he did seem like a perfect partner for Ace, but since Luffy was so dense with this kind of thing and he'd never shown any interest towards it, Ace had never bothered with the idea.

But upon coming to this world, things were different. This Luffy was pretty hormonal and very open about his feelings, it was something Ace thought he would never have to deal with, and now that it was finally happening, he wasn't really sure how to respond. "Well… that's a pretty tough question."

Unfortunately, Luffy- being as dense as he was, took it the wrong way. "You don't find me attractive do you?" He snapped, pulling back a little from Ace. Although he wasn't the kind of person who would stay mad at Ace for very long, in fact, if he suddenly turned around and offered sex right now, Luffy would have gladly gone along with it.

"No! Don't you ever think that!" He protested, "I will love you more than anyone else in this world, but I have a Luffy that's been created just for me back home, that's why we can't do these kinds of things. You can't fall in love with me because I don't belong in this world." He finished.

Luffy sighed in defeat, "but I don't want you to go…" he saddened.

Ace smiled softly and pulled him into a tight embrace, "just as I have a Luffy waiting for me, you have an Ace waiting for you, right?"

Luffy nodded slowly, trying to hold back any tears that were beginning to well up in his eyes. Luffy sat back on Ace's lap and posed a questioning look, "what's wrong?" Ace asked.

"Well, I really want to do it with you Ace, so can you at least promise me that we'll have sex before you return to your world? It'll be something to remember each other by…"

"Hmm…" Ace locked hands with Luffy and pulled him closer, "How about I surprise you with the answer before I leave?"

"So you won't promise me?" Luffy saddened a little… he had hoped Ace would say yes, eventually.

"No Luffy, sex isn't something you should beg for or even promise to someone you love. It's something so special that its better being a surprise, which is why the day before I leave, I'll surprise you with the answer, kay?" Ace smiled.

"Okay," Luffy smiled in defeat… damn, he was a total sucker when it came to Ace. Luffy unexpectedly gave Ace one final kiss for that night, with a glimmer of hope that it might lead to something a little more exciting, but in actuality Luffy didn't want to upset or anger Ace and pulled away first. Ace couldn't help but feel a little upset that it was over so quickly, but he shouldn't be doing these kinds of things with Luffy to begin with, he didn't really see the harm in just an innocent kiss though, it was kind of fun and exciting.

Luffy climbed up off Ace's groin and lay beside him once again, wrapped up in Ace's strong arms. "G'night Luffy," Ace added with a smile, pulling Luffy closer to his body and bringing the covers back up and over them.

"Night Ace"

Luffy was able to drop off much quicker now that he had settled his issues with Ace… and he had a lot to look forward to, the future was indeed, very bright.

Sorry about the wait guys, I thought I had writers block or something and I wasn't able to write this chapter for ages, but then I came back to a few days ago and managed to finish it within a day! .. Even I confuse myself sometimes. Sorry if there's loads of mistakes as well, I'm really tired today, but I wanted to get it up.

Thanks for reading! x