Protectors [One Piece Fanfiction]

Old Adventures: "I love..."

Then again, the two were pretty much idiots.

"Why not just test it out?" Irin thought out loud.

"Test what?"

"The healing thing, of course!"

"Right, that... But uh how?"

She deadpanned at him before rummaging through the sleeves of her kimono to look for something. Feeling the object she was looking for, Irin pulled out a sheathed knife. Irin grinned as she held out the sheathed knife, looking at Ace proudly as if she had just thought of an outstanding idea.

"Whaaat are you doing with a knife?" Ace asked, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.

"Hehe," the pinkette grinned, unsheathing the knife and slapping her left hand onto the bench before stabbing the knife straight into her hand.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Ace yelled as his hands shot towards hers to inspect her fresh wound.

She furrowed her brows and bit her lip as she gathered the strength to pull out the knife. The squelch of her blood could be heard when the knife was removed from her hand and she released a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

Ace watched her movements carefully and with worry in his eyes as his hands remained in midair. The pink haired girl lifted her wounded hand towards her face and inspected the injury.

"That hurt more than I expected it to and it's not healing," she stated, glancing at the fiery boy with eyes that were much too innocent for someone who had just stabbed themselves.

The ravenette sighed before reaching out and gently holding onto her hand, "Of course it hurts!" he scolded, "Why would you do that?"

"I dunno... I kinda got a little too excited when you said I could heal but turns out..." she frowned, "I can't."

Irin had a disappointed look on her face, she thought maybe for once her devil fruit could do something cool; not that her abilities weren't cool but she thought she had the lamest Logia Fruit.

On the other hand, Ace was too distracted with her wound to notice the child-like disappointment that was drawn on her face. "We gotta treat you, let's go!" he exclaimed as he scooped her up into his arms after scanning her knife wound and concluding that she needed more medical attention that he could provide.

"What?! Put me down! It's fine!" she protested, wanting to spend more time at the festival enjoying the scenery and ambience.

The ravenette only ignored her protests as he made a dash back to Moby Dick through the long rows of stalls. "We need Marco for this!" he said.

"We don't need Marco! I can treat this by myself!"

"Okay, then let's head back to the ship so you can treat yourself!"

She puffed her cheeks, "But I don't wanna go yet! I wanna stay at the festival longer!"

"Well who asked you to do stupid shits like that? Hmm? Ace nagged, looking down at her as she remained in his hold with a not-so-scary glare. Sure, her face naturally was rather intimidating but whenever she tried to force a glare, it'd always turn out looking rather funny.

The pinkette gently pressed her right hand on Ace's chest and pushed him away, freeing herself from his hold, "No!" she barked, glaring at him like a puppy.

"HUH?! What do you mean 'no'?! You don't have a choice, we're going back so we can treat that wound of yours!" he scolded.

"But I don't wanna! I wanna stay longer!" she argued, "See it's not bleeding anymore!"