'Sup!

Yeah, new story... I have to say, the ideas are spawning and this particular one is a product of the week without internet. May or may not (depending on response) have a continuation.

Grammar was fixed by lunarshores and I am forever grateful for that.

Disclaimer: still not mine and will never be.

Song of the chapter: The Crow, The Owl and The Dove by Nightwish (my fav band of all time)

SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE IN MY PROFILE.

"Ace, your guest is here," said Bonney as she entered the lounge.

"Is it Salamander?" Ace asked from the corner he occupied. Since he hadn't had any guests so far, he had been helping out in the main hall until ten minutes ago. He had just finished his sandwich and had been about to go get something to drink when Bonney entered the room.

"No, it's Phoenix, he's in the orange room," Bonney replied and went back to the reception.

"Alrighty, I'll be right out," Ace nodded and got up. He dusted off the black linen pants he was wearing in case he left any crumbs and quickly moved to the mirror by the exit. After checking his appearance, Ace walked out of the lounge into a corridor and then to the elevator at the end of it. To get to the first floor from the servants' floor, he had to either take the stairs or the elevator and, since the orange room was on the top floor, it was faster to take the elevator.

On the first floor a couple of guests entered the elevator, followed by Conis. Ace took a step back, making space, and bowed politely to the guests, welcoming them. The guests didn't pay him any attention, chatting away about the summit that would happen in a week's time. The summit was hosted by Whitebeard himself, and it was a great honour for any youkai to be invited. None of the guests in the elevator seemed to be invited, but they knew someone who knew someone who had been invited, which was enough for them to talk excitedly about it.

The guests exited on the third floor heading for one of the private rooms. As he was expected, Ace bid them farewell and continued up. The structure of the bathhouse was pretty simple – baths on the first floor, main hall on the second floor, third and fourth were private rooms where guests could relax without the crowd and on the top, fifth, floor were VIP rooms as Ace called them. They weren't really VIP but only a handful of people ever went there mostly because of the extreme temperatures in every sense of the word.

The fifth floor was divided in two parts, one was fire and another - ice. They therefore needed special hosts for those, which was Ace's duty. There were only two fire hosts – Ace himself and his brother Sabo who, if Ace wasn't mistaken, was off stealing food the kitchens right about now. There was only one more ice host; Bay, Robin and Vivi were the only ones that tended to the other side. Sometimes it felt like there was competition between the ice hosts and them, which was quite understandable, not only because of the whole fire and ice thing, but also because of the division of the sexes as well.

When the elevator stopped on the fifth floor Ace went to the small room for servants to change his pants for a pair of white shorter ones that had a hem with golden embroidery below his knees, creating a slightly eastern feeling to them. He checked himself in the mirror again, seeing to it that the pants would look like they would fall off his hips with one wrong (or right, depending on the point of view) move. His torso was bare except for the beaded red necklace but that didn't cover much, staying true to the 'free eye-candy' policy Ivankov advertised. Not that Ace minded that much, he actually preferred it when he didn't have to wear too many clothes.

Nodding to himself in the mirror, he left the room and went to the orange room where his guest expected him. Kneeling before the door, Ace knocked and, after waiting a couple of seconds, slid the door open with a practiced movement. He entered the room almost in a crouch that still looked effortless and graceful after many years of practice. After closing the door, Ace turned around, kneeling again, and bowed:

"Welcome back, master."

When no answer came, Ace raised his head and was met by a bored stare from a giant cerulean blue flaming bird. The bird nested in the middle of the room approximately where the pyre would be.

"I apologise for taking so long," Ace said as he got to his feet and bowed again, deeper this time. The bird kept staring at him silently, but he already knew what it would have said. Straightening himself, Ace walked closer to the bird and touched the floor close to where it nested in a bed of cinders, summoning the fire. The flames came slowly, almost hesitantly, so Ace coaxed them to make them stronger in order to make a steady glow to begin with.

"How have you been?" he asked the bird, carefully touching its back. The bird made a slight circular motion with its head which meant 'fine'. "Good to hear," Ace started massaging the bird's back gradually heating up his hands. "The whole bathhouse is buzzing about the summit, you must have been busy."

At that the bird exploded, ruffling its feathers and looking like a blue fireball. Then it gave Ace the killer glare, making Ace laugh as he calmingly stroked the bird's back.

"Is there really so much to do?" he asked, raising the floor temperature a bit. The answer to the question was a deep sigh and rolled eyes. "I'm certain there are others who could help with preparations."

The bird hissed angrily, swiftly opening its wings and almost hitting Ace in the face, but he just laughed at that. Apparently there weren't so many volunteers as one might expect and the entirety of the summit planning and preparations fell on the bird in front of him. The same bird who had probably turned maniacal, and whose brothers sent him to the bathhouse to relax in order for them to survive. He waited for the bird to settle down and raised the temperature a little bit more, continuing to massage its back.

"Aside from that, has anything happened? Granted, you didn't have much time to think lately, but there must have been something since you last came here?" The bird answered with a movement that resembled a shrug and looked at Ace with a raised eyebrow. "I've been well, thank you. My days are pretty much the same, so nothing much has happened. My brother is fine; he's probably stuffing his face right now. They still can't find a way to keep him out of the kitchens, which is pathetic because we've been working here for twelve years… last Wednesday actually. That's a long time, but I haven't given it much thought."

Ace carefully took the left wing and stretched it out, working his way through tense muscles. The bird seemed to have calmed down judging by how the wing slackened between Ace's hands. He knew exactly how to get the bird calm and relaxed, since it has been coming to the bathhouse frequently for the last half a century, long before Ace started working here. The man who taught him every trick of the trade resigned five years ago to 'bug the crap out of Mihawk' as the man himself put it. Ace was kind of sad to see Shanks leave, but he did not try to stop him because the man really deserved it. Despite the loss of an arm, he was still brilliant in their trade and Ace was proud to have been his disciple.

One could think that working at a bathhouse was a low class kind of work, but Ace liked it and was rightfully proud of his job. Being merely a fire elemental could not get you very high on the social ladder of youkai and working in the best bathhouse in the business was an achievement on its own. He and his brother were chosen before other elementals simply because they were young and could be taught from scratch – something they had thought was a bad thing turned out to be their golden ticket.

Working for Ivankov was not easy, mainly because of his eccentric (that's to put it mildly) fashion. Well, actually Ace would be lying if he said that Ivankov was a bad boss. He was fair to his employees (although sometimes it felt like he was a slave driver); they had their wages that, compared to other places, were extremely generous and they had their days off from time to time. That was a lot more than a simple fire elemental could ever ask for – most elementals worked for only food and roof over their heads.

All the while he worked, Ace talked about some insignificant things, his voice low and soothing just like he was taught. While some guests preferred he worked quietly, others liked him to talk as a background noise or actually have a conversation with them. Sometimes he even had to hum or sing, depending on the guest's mood.

After massaging both wings, he started on the neck. By that time he raised the temperature so much that no one but a fire elemental could enter the room. The bird was already dozing off, resting its head on his shoulder. With his hands softly running through the feathers Ace started creating a flaming cocoon around the bird using the fire to go through the pressure points a second time.

He started humming instead of talking, lulling the bird into slumber. Its head was still on Ace's shoulder while the body was covered by a flaming blanket that gently massaged its body. In about half an hour, he would wake the bird, who would be slightly drowsy but completely refreshed and ready to take on the preparations for the summit once again. Some of his co-workers said that he just sat doing nothing most of the time, but that was far from truth. Among other things, he constantly worked on his relationship with his more frequent guests, so that they would trust him enough to completely relax in his presence. Phoenix, for example, was a very private person who did not trust anyone besides his immediate family, and it made Ace extremely proud that the bird could relax and take a nap with him around. In his turn, Ace would do just about anything to keep that nap uninterrupted.

There was a knock on the door, and it slid open, revealing his brother.

"Ace, Salamander is here," Sabo said in normal voice and Ace glared at him angrily – the bird in his arms stirred at the loud voice and unfamiliar presence.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" he replied quietly almost singing the words, using his fire to calm Phoenix down.

"But he's one of yours," Sabo lowered his voice getting the hint.

"Are any of your guests here?" Ace asked, shifting a little from his kneeling position.

"No."

"Then take him in my stead, you won't die after treating him one time," he said, aware of the reason Sabo didn't want to meet Salamander – the lizard had a weird thing for the blond, which made it almost impossible for Sabo to work with him.

"Can't I just take over here?" his brother pleaded.

"No. Now close the door," Ace replied sternly. Had Sabo been busy he would have asked Salamander to wait for him in the main hall and get him after he woke the bird up, but his brother was free, so Ace saw no need in cutting the relaxation short. Unless he really had to be somewhere else, he spent the whole time his guests were here with them – from the moment they entered the bathhouse and until they left it. Today was an exception since he did not have any appointments and was on his break when Phoenix came in. In such cases, whoever was close escorted the guest to the chosen room while one of the people on reception went to get Ace.

After his brother left, the bird in his arms relaxed again – even through slumber it felt the unfamiliar presence and tensed up. He continued to hum whichever song came to his mind, allowing the scorching heat of the room slowly fade to steady glow to keep the room warm but not overly so. The bird was still in the fiery cocoon, so it didn't feel the changing temperature.

When the time came, he gently shook the bird's wing.

"Master, it's time to wake up," Ace's voice was slightly higher than his humming was. The bird gave him a long sigh, changing the position slightly, but refusing to get up. "Come on, now. Are you planning on hibernating here until next spring?" He shook the wing slightly harder this time. The bird sighed again, ruffling its feathers and raising its head to look at him sleepily. "Good morning," Ace said with a smile. He knew he was a little bit overly familiar with Phoenix, but he also knew that the bird preferred it that way.

"What would you like to do now?" he asked the bird as he got to his feet. His legs prickled a little after sitting still for a long time.

The bird didn't answer, easily breaking the cocoon and stretching its body. It flexed its wings by flapping them a couple of times. Ace went to a drawer by the door and took out a navy blue silken yukata with a simple pattern of stars. He went to the bird and held it out invitingly. The bird looked at the yukata, nodded and turned into a man. As a bird, Phoenix was regal and magnificent, but as a man, he was breathtakingly stunning – body trained to perfection, tanned skin, wheat blond hair and cerulean blue eyes that seemed to look into his very soul. The man turned his back to Ace, and he helped to put the yukata on.

To be completely honest with himself, Ace liked the bird better. Mainly because in bird form he didn't make Ace feel the way he wasn't supposed to feel and did not give him a chance of a false hope. Tying the sash on the blond, Ace hated himself for being so unbelievably stupid.

"I would like something to eat," the blond's voice was slightly raspy from sleep, which didn't help Ace's predicament a bit.

"I take it you would like to dine in private," Ace said with a slight smile, referring to the whole summit thing and the number of people who would like an invitation that currently were in this very building.

"Very perceptive of you," the blond smirked.

"Please follow me," Ace nodded.

They made their way to the elevator, finding there Vivi with a guest of her own waiting for the elevator to arrive. Ace greeted her guest at exactly the same time as Vivi bowed to Phoenix. They smiled at each other at their synchronised movements and waited quietly as their guests exchanged greetings.

"Fancy meeting you here, Aokiji," Phoenix said.

"Right back at you, Marco. Shouldn't you be preparing for the summit instead of slacking off in Ivan's bathhouse?" Aokiji replied.

"Do not talk to me about it unless you want me to cut off your tail and give it to Izou to make a fan out of," Phoenix growled angrily.

"Ooh, scary," Aokiji laughed.

The elevator announced its arrival by a soft ding, slightly distracting the guests from their conversation. Ace entered the elevator last, pressing number four; Vivi already pressed two to get to the main hall. The ride was a short one and, after bidding Vivi and her guest farewell, Ace went to the reception of the fourth floor to find a free room and sent orders to the kitchen. He made the order and led the way to the assigned room, Phoenix following him silently. According to Ivankov a good host made sure that their guest didn't have to talk to the servants unless they wanted to, namely they had to know guest's preferences and guess the guest's wishes before they had to voice them.

The bar was even higher for those who had regular guests – you were royally screwed if you mixed them up and got something wrong. Some people even got fired when they made a giant faux pas, smaller ones got you instantly demoted from host to lowest ranking servant that got to interact with guests. If a servant made a mistake they were demoted to the 'invisible ones', namely those servants who weren't supposed to be seen or heard by the guests. The only people who had any margin for mistakes were trainees; once you flew solo, mistakes were unacceptable.

Their room was one of the smaller ones designed for a small company up to four people. It had a low table in the middle and many cushions on the floor. There were two traditional paintings on the walls joined with other rooms, the wall opposite from the door had a beautiful tapestry portraying mountains covered in morning mist.

Soon after they settled down (Ace did his best to keep his professional friendly face, more than a little distracted by his guest), one of the trainees knocked, bringing them tea and some snacks to keep them occupied until the food arrived. Unless the guest wished so Ace was not allowed to touch food other than to serve, but Phoenix wasn't one who liked being watched while he ate, so Ace always got to eat a nice meal whenever he was here.

While they waited for the food, they passed time with a friendly conversation; Ace made sure to avoid that topic. Phoenix came here to relax, not to think about unpleasant workload waiting for him at home. Therefore Ace talked about some funny situations that happened to him or his co-workers and other completely unrelated topics. Right about when he was running out of other things to talk about (after all he was just as curious about the summit as the guests), there was another knock on the door, and a trainee entered the room carrying a tray full of food. Both Phoenix and Ace stared at the food, the guest did so with curiosity, his host – with horror.

"Coby, I did not order this," Ace said trying to maintain a collected façade. This was exactly the thing that would get one demoted on the spot or, depending on the guest, fired.

"My deepest apologies," the trainee shrieked, bowing so hard he almost bent in two. He backed to the door, but Phoenix raised his hand to stop him.

"Wait. Leave the bottle and I'll be quiet about this," the blond said with a slight smile.

Ace quickly got to his feet, confiscating the bottle and making a face at Coby, the one that had 'what are you doing?' written all over it. The trainee stared at him with wide scared eyes and Ace quickly dismissed him, sliding the door shut. As long as no one else saw this, Coby should be safe, but if the head of the corridor got a whiff of what happened, the kid was as good as dead meat. Especially if he knew who was in the room.

After putting sake and the cups on the table he sat down in dogeza and bowed.

"My sincere apologies, master. I will see to it that this never happens again," Ace said.

"This is exactly what can't happen at the summit," Phoenix sighed. "No matter how many times I come here, everything is running smoothly and not a thing is out of place; this is actually the first time something like this happened."

"I can't apologise enough for this, master. If it pleases you, you won't have to pay for this visit," Ace said with his face still facing the floor after sensing clear discontent in his guest's voice.

"That's not what I'm talking about. No one seems to know what they're doing, and Izou and I are running around the house with our asses on fire failing miserably to do anything productive and here, after half a century, this is the first time anything like this ever happened!"

"I am so…"

"Would you stop apologising? I'm not angry at you; I'm angry at the idiots at home," Phoenix sighed. "And would you stop with the dogeza already? It feels like I'm talking to your hair."

Ace straightened himself hesitantly, unsure if his guest would get angry if he apologised for apologising. He returned to his place across from Phoenix and poured his guest some sake. The blond took the cup with a thankful nod, rubbing his temple tiredly.

"Can you tell me how this whole thing works here, cause there's a week left and we are just at our wits end, it's pure chaos back home." Phoenix looked at Ace pleadingly.

"Well, in my opinion, everything works here because people know what they are supposed to do," Ace said after some consideration.

"Thank you, that's very helpful. I think I already said that no one knows what they're doing," the blond snapped.

"What I meant is that we don't run all over the place trying to do everything at the same time. People here have their respective tasks that they are supposed to be doing, like me being here with you or people at the kitchen or even those that see to it that there's enough food," Ace elaborated.

Phoenix just groaned and slumped forward, hitting his head on the table.

"Master? Are you alright?" Ace half rose from his seat, unsure if this was serious. Then the blond started banging his head against the table. "Master?"

"Fuck... damn it…." Phoenix said with desperation in his voice. "I completely forgot about the food…"

"Could you please wait here for a moment?" Ace asked, quickly getting to his feet. He hoped that his idea would not offend the blond even more after Coby's faux pas. He sprinted to the floor reception and shortly returned to the room with a writing block and a couple of pens. Ace sat back down and explained to the confused guest: "If it pleases you, I can help you to organise things a bit since I know a little about how this whole structure works."

"Could you really do that?" Phoenix looked at him like he was his last hope.

"If you wish so," Ace nodded.

"Thank you," the blond said meaningfully.

"Let's start at the beginning. How many guests are coming?"

"No idea."

"Excuse me?"

"I have no idea. Izou's the one who's in charge of the guests."

"I do not wish to offend you, master, but if you don't know how many guests are coming, you're… um…"

"You don't have to say it; I know I'm screwed."

"Alright, do you know approximately how many guests? Hundred? More? Less?"

"Less, I think. We don't have enough place to accommodate a hundred people."

"Fifty, maybe?"

"Maybe? I'm not sure."

"Alright, we'll start with that," Ace nodded, writing 50 on top of the first page and circling it. "There are fifty people coming. What do you need?"

They continued to talk about it long after they got their food (the right order this time) and continued after Coby took the plates, Ace taking notes diligently all the time. He had to tell no twice to the people that came looking for him because his guests were here because Phoenix really needed that help, and he couldn't waste time. They sat there until closing time at five in the morning, by that time Ace barely suppressed his yawns, but they managed to cover a lot of things. Escorting the Phoenix to the exit, Ace still tried to think if they missed anything.

"You will have to adjust everything to the number of guests, but this should get you out of the circles you were running in," he said, handing the writing block with his scribbles all over it. "If you need anything else, please come here, and we'll figure it out. I'll make sure to keep the eleven o'clock slot open just in case."

"Thank you so much, I don't know what I would have done without you." Phoenix thanked him genuinely.

"I am sure you would have figured it out," Ace said with a smile as he bowed. "Thank you for your patronage, and please come again."

"You can bet on it," the blond smiled and left after waving goodbye.

Thanks for reading :D Do leave a review with your opinion on this :D

Gold star for those who can guess what inspired this XD

Hope to see you soon,

~Rhe.