OP. Ace Marco - White Day Shopping

One Piece: Portgas D. Ace and Marco on their way back from shopping on White Day

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I've always wanted to try and make one of these fake screenshots and here is the result, heehee... Hope you'll like it

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~DRABBLE~

NEW WORLD, JEWELLRY SHOP

"I'll take this one!" declared Luffy while pointing at a ruby ring.
"A very good choice, Sir." smiled the young saleswoman, "Which size would you like?"
"A size?!" titled Luffy, quite puzzled by the piece of information," Hey, Sanji, what size do you think I should take?"
"Don't ask me!!!" roared Sanji, a vein bumping on his forehead, "It's already bad enough to be there seeing you choosing a RING to offer to one of my goddesses... I'm not going to help you on top of that! A RING?! Do you even realize?!"
"What's the matter seriously?" frowned Luffy, quite perplexed.
"Let him sulk, Luffy..." laughed Usopp, "It's because you chose a ring on top of choosing her birth stone, so of course it means a lot..."
"It means something?" repeated Luffy while tilting his head on the side, even more dumbfounded than before.
"Of course!!!" exclaimed Usopp, "For girls, rings are... well, you know... no, you don't know, obviously, hum..."
"If I may join in the conversation," politely chimed in the saleswoman, "Jewels all have a meaning, because they create a bond between men and women. SO depending on the jewel you are choosing, we can tell which kind of relationship you want to build with the person. Bracelets are for strenghtening bonds, so they also make wonderful gifts for a friend. Necklaces are more like a mark of property, the reflect of a desire of possession. Earrings are more adapted to a peaceful and independant relationships, due to their duality. And rings are the strongest bond, because it is the most official and emblematic jewel of all. The same can be said about the stones and..."
"Mahaahaaaa..." suddenly chimed in the quavering laugh of the old shop-keeper, "But this kind of symbolism only works when you make your choice unconsciously... Tell me, youngster...?"
"Me?" asked Luffy while pointing at himself.
"Yes, you... Why did you choose this ring, and why did you choose a ruby?"
"It's quite obvious, it's because it's her birth stone and Luffy wanted to..." began Usopp, before being glared at by the old shop-keeper and swallow back the rest of his sentence.
"Because a ring looks nice." simply answered Luffy, apparently not concerned by the mess happening around his choice, "and I don't even know what birth stones are, but I like red, I think it's a cool colour."
CRASH. A good part of the surrounding pirates had collapsed on the world, flabbergasted by such an innocent answer, while the old shop-keeper was laughing his false teeths off.
"Heehee..." laughed Marco at seeing the scene, "Your brother is definitely as interesting as ever, Ace... Oy, Ace...?" called Marco when turning on his right, before realizing that his interlocutor was gone.
Indeed, a couple of display cabinets away, Ace was gazing at a set of jewels, not even hearing the ruckus caused by his little brother.
"This stone is called Amber." softly chimed in the voice of another saleswoman, as small and old as the shop keeper, "It does not have the shine of other precious stones, such as a diamond or a sapphire, but for the passionate, its gleam is worth all the precious stones in the world."
Ace couldn't help smiling faintly at the description which was perfectly finding echoes in his feelings, as he was bowing politely to the old lady, his eyes still lingering on the stones in display.
"What do you think, Sir?" asked the old saleswoman with a mischievous smile, "Isn't this stone bewitching?"
"Indeed... you never get bored with gazing at it..." answered Ace with tender smile at recollecting a pair of eyes of the same colour.
"If you look at it more deeply, you will see that all amber stones are different, with an infinity of nuances..." pursued the old lady with a conniving smile for her client at seeing that his own eyes was seemingly remembering an infinity of memories linked to this stone, "The reason is that amber is from a different universe comparing to other mineral stones."
Ace's smile grew wider at the remark, quite amused at thinking that such a statement would indeed fit the owner of the amber eyes which had bewitched him quite fairly.
"Amber is born from the lifeforce of pine trees, a soft and warm material, but time and patience only whill shape it into such a beautiful gem..." calmly explained the old saleswoman with a melancholic smile, "I believe this is the reason why amber is so befitting for the warmth of sunlight: it gives it a myriad of gleams and nuances one can never get bored with..."
Ace's expression had softened gradually, as he was associating each characteristic to the one occupying his thoughts, tenderly remembering the thousand and one expressions that he had seen crossing her amber eyes, and among them, the gleam of happiness of an enlighten smile was by far his favourite.
"So tell me, Sir... Do you like this stone?" asked the old lady with a patroning giggling smile.
"Yes..." smiled Ace with a tender gaze for the stones shining in the display cabinet, "More than any other..."

LATER ON

Marco, Ace and the Mugiwaras were now walking down the main street in direction of the harbour, as joyfully and chaotically as usual.
"Heehee..." chuckled Marco, "It's not everyday we're casting anchor on the same island at the same time, but I really appreciate... It's just priceless how everything your brother does turn into such a show, oy..."
"Hum... yeah, sure..." mumbled Ace, a bit out of it, while trying to stuck a brown paper bag in the pocket of his black short pants.
"Hum...?" paused Marco while arching an eyebrow at seeing what his interlocutor was doing, "What is it?"
And before Ace could defend, WhiteBeard's First Commander had swiftly grabbed onto the bag and brought it back to his eye level, shaking it softly to try and guess its content.
Ace flushed and countered angrily to try and grab the bag again, but in vain, and the only result to his fighting back was to make Marco even more curious about the content of the bag.
"Don't tell me it's from the jewelry shop too...?" grinned he in a rhetoric tone, taking Ace's angry-embarrassed-bat-at-denying expression as a positive answer before carefully opening the bag to let its content slide into his hand, under the revolted expression of his nakama.
GLING. Afternoon sunlight made an amber necklace gleam in his hands.
"Wow..." whistled Marco in a teasing smile, "You really did take something too..."
Ace made no answer, blood starting to flush in his cheeks a bit more, but his swift and repeated attempts to take back the necklace from Marco's hand were quickly dodged.
"But somehow..." paused Marco with a perplexed gaze for the amber stone enchassed in a gold frame and hanging around a brown leather strand, apparently not bothered much by the attacks of his nakama, "I think it looks a bit plain, as a gift, oy..."
Ace had by now stopped hoping to snatch the necklace back, and was sulking a bit on his right, his eyes under the shadow of his hat and his cheeks way more red than usual, patiently taking onto him to wait for Marco to finish his inspection before recovering the jewel.
"Don't make such a face, oy. It's cute and all, and it's true she's more of the 'natural' type of beauty than the sophisticated one," kept on Marco with a faint lecturing tone, "So considering it's your first time offering a girl something, it's not that bad... But come on, Ace, you could have taken something more... well, precious-looking, you know..."
"Tsk, It's not that I didn't want to..." mumbled Ace, finally unsealing his lips, but his expression still hidden under his hat, "But the other ones were just too expensive..."
SHIN. Marco had stopped abruptly, leaving his interlocutor distance him by a couple of steps before stopping too and turning an embarrassed face towards him.
"Oy..." muttered Marco, his face the picture of pure disbelief, "It can't be that you PAID for it?"
Ace flushed even more and averted his eyes with an annoyed sulking expression.
"Ace, you PAID for it?" repeated Marco, this time with a deeply amused tone as he was struggling hard not to bust into laughter.
If Marco hadn't been Marco, Ace would had knocked out his interlocutor and taken back the jewel by force to hide his embarrasment but... Marco was Marco.
"Heehee... No, seriously?! You actually PAID for something?!" chuckled Marco, laughter growing more and more in his tone.
"J... just shut up!!!" ranted Ace, his cheeks beat red of embarrasment.
At that point, Marco couldn't keep quiet anymore, and he finally busted into laughter, to Ace's bitter ressentment. So WhiteBeard's Second Commander walked away, fists clenched and flushed with shame, leaving behind his laughing nakama.
"It wouldn't be the same if I had stolen it..." muttered Ace between his teeth, as if speaking to himself.
Behind him, Marco's laughter had finally quieted down, and he tried really hard to recover countenance, before finally catching back with his nakama in a couple of wide and quick steps.
"I see, I see, heehee..." chuckled he while sending Ace a strong friendly slap in the back, "It's cute, heehee..."
But Ace had diven into mutism, and he simply snatched back the necklace Marco was holding on to him, before putting it back in its bag and his pocket.
And while Marco was still laughing up his sleeve, both Commanders finally reached the harbour.
"Marco..." called Ace, his voice dead serious as uttering the last part of the sentence, "Just to let you know... if you tell anyone about that, Marjane will have some roasted phoenix to serve us for dinner..."
"Sure, sure..." chuckled Marco, not the least impressed by the threat, but inwardly thinking that such an episode would definitely be best to keep for his own personal amusement.
An inconscious desire of possession, hum... thought he while remembering the words of the old shop keeper about the symbolism behind jewels, mentally imagining Ace trying to capture an inseizable hazelnut-haired girl by trying to put her a collar like one would do on a wild animal, Definitely worth watching over it, heehee...

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_{One Piece, Portgas D. Ace, Phoenix Marco © Eiichiro Oda & Toei Animation
Background Element: One Piece Anime © Eiichiro Oda & Toei Animation}

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