[One-shot] Uncovered Secrets
Title: Uncovered secrets
Theme: # 8 Surprice - Set 3
Claim: Ace
Words: 1950
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU, SmoAce, a little angst and prob. OOC
Disclaimers: Nah, not mine.
Written for30_onepiece
Yeeeeah… Late nights, an evil desire for something a little unhappy. Oh, you can also blame “My happy ending” by Avril Lavigne, as I abused it during the writing of this.
But it was so easy to write that I am ashamed that I didn’t make it any better than this…
He woke up to the low murmuring voice of his lover lying beside him. At first he thought Smoker talked in his sleep again, but as the younger man heard more and more of what was said, Ace started to believe that the other man wasn’t sleeping at all.
“Good, good Nami! I’ll meet you at two down in town.”, Ace heard Smoker Say. The black haired man lay still, pretending to sleep. Who was this Nami, and why had Smoker never told him about her? Especially if he was going to meet her. The police officer laughed into the phone with a light tone in his heart, that special laughter that the world so seldom heard from the grumpy man. A knot started to build up in Ace's stomach, and it was hard to keep him breathing even.
“Oh, I am sure it’s beautiful. It’s from you after all!”, Smoker continued, and the uneasy feeling Ace had felt before only grew worse. Could it really be true? Was Smoker cheating on him? With a woman? Smoker's special, wonderful laugh rang out in the room again, but Ace was in no condition to enjoy it as the next sentence made small tears spring from the corners of his eyes.
“If he suspects anything? Ah, ah, not a thing! He is laying beside me, sleeping like a baby!”, Smoker stated, the words making Ace's heart skip a beat, but not in the usual romantic way Smoker usually made it do.
“I’ll see you later then!” Smoker finished the call and placed the phone on the small table next to the bed before he slipped back next to Ace with his arm wrapped around the younger one’s waist. Ace felt Smoker's breath on his neck, first a little faster, but as the gray haired man drifted back to sleep his breathing evened out. When Ace was sure that Smoker had fallen asleep again, he lifted the muscular arm away from his side and sat up at the edge of the bed, feet placed on the cold floor. He looked over his shoulder at his lover. Or was he really his lover now?
After hearing that conversation, he wasn’t as sure anymore. He had thought that he was going to spend the rest of his life together with his boyfriend, but maybe he wasn’t good enough for Smoker? His mind tried to find a solution with a happy ending, but all his thoughts drifted back to the idea of Smoker cheating on him.
Looking over at the other man’s night stand, Ace bit his lower lip and rose from the bed. The phone felt small and innocent in his shaking hands as he went through Smoker's call list. Not only once, but several times the last two weeks had Smoker called this Nami, or received calls from her. Yet, he hadn’t told Ace a single thing about her, and somewhere deep down in Ace's guts, it felt strangely like a knife stab.
Smoker turned around where he rested on the lonely bed, and a soft sob was heard from Ace. Something was very wrong, but somehow, Ace feared to find out what was. He thought of waking Smoker up to take it right there and then, but at the same time, he didn’t want to hear what he thought and half knew that he was going to say.
For the moment being, he just wanted away from everything. Away from the ever present question ‘why?’.
He left the phone where he had taken it, and walked over to the wardrobe as quiet as he could. His face was stern, but tears threatened to burst out any minute. He stuffed pants, a couple of t-shirts and underwear in a backpack along with his favorite sweater given to him by Smoker for his last birthday. It felt weird to bring the sweater, but despite whatever Smoker had done, the three years with him had been the best in his life.
He got dressed, and checked that he had everything he needed in his wallet as well as his cell phone. For a moment, he pondered if he ought to bring his keys, but at the end, he left them on the counter along with a note saying: “Don’t call me for a while.”
---
Waking up in an empty bed was never a nice feeling, especially not when it hadn’t been empty when he first fell asleep. Sitting up in the bed, Smoker rubbed his tired eyes, looking over at the bathroom door to see if Ace was there. The door was wide opened with no sign of the other man. The wardrobe door was also opened.
“Ace?”, Smoker mumbled, looking around. When no answer met him, he tried to call his lover’s name louder, getting up from the bed. Not bothering to put pants over the boxers he had slept in, the gray haired man walked over to the opened wardrobe to close the door, but stopped his motion as he gazed upon the mess of clothes left in there. It was obvious that a lot of them were missing, and he noticed that the backpack that usually hanged on the inside of the door also had vanished. Suddenly, Smoker got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, and once again he called out Ace's name. He ran out in the kitchen only in his underwear.
He stopped dead on as he noticed that Ace's heavy boots were gone, as well as his jacket and wallet. His keys rested on the counter, acting paper-weight to a small slip of paper. The officer snatched the letter and his eyes grew wide at the short sentence. The letter wasn’t signed, but even an idiot would understand that Ace had left. Ace had left him. Realization hit Smoker, and he felt nauseous. His lover had packed up his things and left him. ‘Don’t call me’, the letter had said, but how could Smoker just accept this? And now of all times?
Walking back towards their (his?) bedroom, the man tried to sort things out. What could it have been that made Ace leave Smoker so hasty? Knowing Ace, Smoker never thought he would be such a coward as to sneak away when he slept. But that was how. The main question was why. Wasn’t he good enough for his brat?
Smoker frowned at the ridiculous question. It was too surreal. Ace just didn’t leave people like that, not after several years of devoted loving. Some thing was definitely wrong. His police senses kicked in for a moment and he pondered if Ace had been kidnapped and had written the note to protect Smoker? Sighing, Smoker felt glad that no one could hear his thoughts as it was probably one of the most ridiculous ideas in the world’s history. Stuff like that didn’t happen in real life, and if certainly didn’t happen when he was sleeping next to Smoker.
Picking up his cell phone to call Ace and finally getting the answer to all his questions, he noticed that the phone wasn’t in its normal mode. Pressing a button to wake it up, his call list appeared before him. He was sure that he hadn’t left it like that after his call to Nami.
Suddenly, another idea sprung into his head when he saw the numerous times Nami’s name appeared on the list. It must have been Ace who had looked through it. Had he been awake during the conversation? Smoker bit his lip as he tried to remember everything. The brat hadn’t thought…? Almost laughing, Smoker shook his head. Oh, how he loved that silly boy.
---
He had tried to sleep, he had tried to just look at the watch on the wall to make time and he had tried to stare at a certain spot on the wall. He had tried everything that wouldn’t make him think of that. Damned be it, he couldn’t do it. No matter what he did, the thought of Smoker with someone else seemed to fill his mind.
With hands over his ears, he rocked back and forth, as if sitting in fetus position would help him. The tears had since long started to fall down his cheeks, and he felt the cold salt stream slowly pour down towards his chin and mouth.
Ace didn’t hear when the door to the cheap motel room was opened, and he didn’t notice the steps when boots started to walk down towards him. A little part of Smoker broke when he saw the small figure sitting on the edge of the unmade bed, rocking and sobbing. The younger one still hadn’t noticed him as he stood straight before him, and fell down on his knees.
Ace's breath hitched, and when he raised his gaze, he looked straight into Smoker's gray eyes. The raven tried to crawl backwards, but the bigger man grabbed his hands and held them tight in front of his chest. With a genuinely worried voice, Smoker asked:
“Ace? Why are you here?”
Not answering Smoker's question, Ace twitched slightly. Didn’t Smoker know that he knew about that? What was he supposed to say?
“How did you find me?”, he questioned back, surprised at the shaky tune his voice held.
“I am a police. I shouldn’t be allowed to work at the station if I hadn’t been able to find you again.”, Smoker smiled slightly, releasing one of his hands to dry away some of Ace's tears.
“But w-why?”, Ace continued to sob. Why what, he didn’t say.
“Because I love you.” Smoker said, desperately trying to dry away the tears that still dripped down Ace's face. He wished he could explain everything.
“Ace”, he said and tilted Ace's chin upwards, kissing away the newest tear on his cheek. “I don’t know what you may think have happened, but I can assure you, it’s not what you think.”
“Nami…”, Ace stuttered, not looking into Smoker's eyes. “is she your girlfriend? You talked with her this morning when you thought I slept.”, he continued with a grim tone in his voice.
“Nami is hardly a friend. I talked with her this morning, and yes, you wasn’t supposed to her that conversation.”, Smoker said, and when the last word had left his lips, Ace turned his head away from Smoker's palm.
“Listen to me Ace! Please!”, Smoker begged, turning Ace's face towards his own. “You weren’t supposed to hear it because I love you more than life and everything.”
Not seeing the connection, Ace looked confused at his lover.
“What?”
Smoker let go of Ace's face and put his hand in his jacket pocket.
“This was supposed to happen very differently, but I want you to know that you’re my one and only. I want to tell you now and forever that you are beautiful, wonderful and all that jazz. So, please let me do that. Nami was the one who made this, so I am thankful to her, but there is no way that she or anybody else in this world could take your place.”
Taking a small box out from his pocket, Smoker opened it and rose up on one knee. Inside of the little box, a small velvet pillow rested, with a sparkling ring in the middle. Ace looked at it for several seconds, trying to sort things out. This was definitely not what he had expected. Not in a thousand light years.
Raising his other hand to wipe away the remaining tears from Ace's face as they had stopped falling now, he leaned forward to plant a kiss on the raven’s cheek.
“Marry me, Ace”, he whispered into his ear.