Be Careful, Aloha!

"A super cool underwater theme, awesome!" Diver says. Our team met up at the shop that Straw Hat had told us about. Octo smiles at Straw and says, "This is a great idea!"

"Especially considering how close Aloha's house is to the beach!" Straw says then gasps. "Oh. My. COD! Look at this~!" She holds up a stuffed shark that was as tall as her, almost taller.

"It's kind of sad how a stuffed shark is taller than you, though, dearie~." A voice chimes, mockingly from behind us. I turn around to see Forge. I tilted my head around her. Army and his team stood a few feet away. Army....I shook my head, riding myself of my thoughts.

"Ah, nice to see you as always, Forge~!" I greet, waving. She looks at me weirdly.

"Uh...nice to see you too...what're you all doing?" She asks, noticing the theme of what my team was looking at. "Ew, another party?" Forge asks.

((I'm sorry, I needed someone to be the party-hater, I have nothing against precious Forge~!!))

"Ah...yeah..." I mutter awkwardly. I was barely paying any attention to her, but, her captain instead...Army seemed to be on my mind more and more lately. It was bothersome...why did it bother me? I don't know what's wrong with me...am I sick? No, I don't feel sick.

"Are you alright?" Forge asks, breaking my thoughts.

"Gah! Uh, yes!" I lied, turning my attention to her. "What's your team doing here? Heh?" I ask her, forcing myself to keep my eyes on her instead of Army.

She cocks an eyebrow at me and nearly follows my gaze to Army when I interrupted her. "A-Are you guys doing something?" I ask urgently, she turns back to me.

"Us? Oh, sir is here trying to find you, actually. He needed to tell you something urgent." Forge admits, turning to Army and shouting, "Sir! I located Aloha!" Before turning back to me.

"W-What?" I squeak. "R-Right now? I'm a little busying..." I say, trying to think of an excuse to leave quickly. No, no, no, don't come over here! Army walks up to us before I had the chance to run away. I can hear Diver snickering behind me. I shoot a glare at him and he bursts out laughing. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Army. Forge had walked off.

"Can we talk?" He asks. I nod slowly. "Um, you mind if we leave this place? It's a little crowded." He says, pointing to the door. I start walking and he follows. When we were far enough out of earshot of any inkling or octoling Army turns to me. "Aloha...I..." He starts. I feel myself panic internally. CALM DOWN. HE'S NOT EVEN DOING ANYTHING TO YOU! I mentally scold myself.

"I'm sorry," He says. I bite my lip, waiting for him to continue. "I- I figured out why you were bait for our team, to win and I should've helped you so I'm sorry." He finishes.

"Mmm, it's okay. Hey, is that my team? I better go! It's okay, though, Army! Okay, bye!" I yelp and run around the corner before panicking. "Gahhh, I hate myself!! Why did I run? Why did I RUN? What the holy hel-"

"Aloha!" Army's voice called. I froze and clamped my mouth shut. "ALOHA!"

Oh my cod, do not do this to me. I'm going to panic, I'm going to panic and flee. He probably knows I was lying. Did he notice? I carefully come back to him.

"Yes?" I squeak.

"Are you sick? You look a little pale..." He points out. I flick my head down, staring at the ground.

"Nope, I'm fine~!" I lie, not looking up. "What's up?"

"Uhm, Diver texted me...said you're throwing a party and that you needed help so I'll help you. A-Are you sure that you're okay?" Army grabs my wrist, pulling me forward a little before putting his hand to my forehead. "You're burning!" He says.

"I-I don't think t-that's from being...sick," I whisper. He ignored me.

"You're going to throw a party? You look deathly pale and you're burning up, there's no way you aren't sick! You need to go home, now." Army says- no- demands of me. I stare blankly at him.

"I-I really don't feel bad, I'm just a little pale, who cares?" I ask, trying to pull my wrist free. His grip was tight. He pulled me closer to him.

"I care. Now, where's your house at? If you don't tell me, I'll ask Diver." He says. I sigh and give up, telling him where my house is. He led me there and only left after he made sure I was going to stay put. I had to promise I would, before he left. I mentally cursed myself for being so easily flustered by him! Why is it only him? I flirt all the time and that never happens!

I laid on the couch, staring up at the roof. My phone buzzed, I picked it up. It was Diver. I glared at the phone deeply before picking it up.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Wow, rude. Army told us what happened, you good?" Diver asks, snickering.

"No, I'm not good. I'm horrible! This is your fault!" I accused.

"Aww, Loa!" Diver says in his teasing voice. "Do you have a...crush?" He whispered the last word, crush, and my face got hot.

((Note: I've always called Aloha, Loa because it's such a cute nickname, so if someone calls him "Loa" it's Aloha. >.< Oof. I'll go away now!))

"S-Shut up!" I snap at him. "What do you want?" I repeat my question. I heard giggles on the other side of the line. "Ugh, WHAT is it?" I sighed.

"Nothing, it's nothing at all..." I heard Octo say.

"Yeah, it's just that Army is all flustered and worried about you. He said that you looked really pale and sickly. Not to mention you were burning up...but, of course, you aren't sick are you, Loa~?" Straw teases.

"I'm hanging up!" I tell her.

"WAIT- NO-!" Diver yells. I hang up the phone. They were probably laughing so hard right now. I glared at the ceiling.

"Ugh!" I whine to myself. I pulled myself up and headed to my bedroom. I flopped down onto the bed and pulled out my notebook, starting to write about today and what happened. I started writing because Diver says that he does it too and that it's an easy way to keep your memories, he told me that's why he's always taking pictures and stuff. So, I started doing it too and printing the pictures off my phone to put inside of the notebook. I finished writing perfect timing as a knock came at my door. I glanced at my notebook and left it open on that page, on my bed.

I sat up. Who could that be?

"Um, coming?" I yelled, standing up and looking around. Nope, everything was cleaned up. It looked pretty okay in here. I went downstairs and over to the door and opened it, only barely before seeing Army's teammate, Forge...

"Uh, hello, Forge?" I greet. She looks up from her hands.

"Oh, Aloha. You're home, good." She states then pauses. "Aloha...do...do you...um...can I ask you something?" She asks, nervously. She was fiddling with her hands.

"Sure, go ahead," I say, urging her along.

"Um..." Forge looked nervous. I raised an eyebrow at her. She coughs then says, "Is there something going on between you and sir?" She asks. "Something...more than friends?"

I felt my face get extremely hot. "E-E-Excuse me a moment~!" I chirp and shut the door before running to the back of the house and screaming.

"DOES IT SEEM THAT WAY? OHMYCOD." I then take a few deep breaths and walk back to the door, opening it. "Nope, nothing at all, why~?" I say, tilting my head in a flirtatious way. She looks up at me.

"O-Oh! I'm so sorry, I thought that maybe you two were...um...dating." She muttered the last part. I quickly hit my head against the door, it hurt. I flinched away from the door and she looks up at me, confused. "Uhm, are you okay?" She asks.

"No- Yes, yes, I'm just fine~!" I say, smiling.

"Um, you're bleeding."

"I'm what?" I ask, touching my forehead. It stung. I pulled my hand back. "Ah. I am bleeding. Oops? That's my bad..." I tell her. She smiles a little before I heard quick footsteps starting up the stairs.

"Forge!!" I heard Army scream. He finds her and sees me. "Forge! I told you not to mess with him!" He scolds her. "He's sick and he should not be answering the door." Army tells her. She nods quickly, embarressed.

"Of course, sorry sir!" She apologizes then turns to me. "Sorry Sir Aloha!" She bows her head and I look at her weirdly.

"Ah...um, you don't have to call me that...I'd prefer if you didn't. Aloha's fine. Also, an apology is just fine, no need to be so formal," I admit sheepishly. "It makes me feel stupid."

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" She nearly bows again but catches herself. "I did not intend it to come off that way!" She admits, rubbing the back of her head. "I'll be going!" She waves and runs off, leaving Army and me alone.

"What happened?" Army asks, nodding to my door. I look at the door then remembered I hit my forehead.

"Uhhh..." My voice trails off. "Nothing?" I smile slightly at him.

"Something happened." He says, tilting his head slightly. He sighs, "Let me patch it up."

"Ah- But, Army I-" He cuts me off by grabbing me by my wrist and leading me into my own house. "A-Army I don't-" He turns to me and tells me to, "Shush" before leaving me in my living room. He knew his way around my house so I didn't bother. The medical supplies were in my bedroom.

It was taking Army a while so I shouted, "Did you find it?" To him from downstairs.

"Yeah, sorry, coming!" He yells. I sigh as he stumbles down the stairs.

"Why do you have to do this?" I ask him. He looks up at me then back down at the things in his hands. He sits in front of me on the couch and sets the things in-between us.

"Because, you are hurt." He says, before applying something that made the wound sting. "How did this even happen?" He asks me.

"Ah, I hit my head," I tell him.

"On what? A dresser or a door or something?" He asks, shaking his head disapprovingly.

"A door..." I admit. "Well, it was mostly my fault, not the door's...actually it was all my fault," I explain to him.

"Tch, you should be more careful."

"I am careful!" I say defensively.

"Aloha and careful in the same sentence? I think not." Army says before saying 'tch' one more time. I sighed.

"I can be careful..." I try to convince him.

"No, you really can't be careful. You won't convince me otherwise." He points to my arm. "Didn't you sprain that this summer? Oh, and didn't you nearly break your nose just two months ago? Not to mention when you fell on your face last week and scraped your knees up so badly. The scratches are still there to prove it!" Army says, proving his point. I pout and he laughs. "Don't be like that, just be more cautious. You get hurt so easily..." He finishes taking care of my wound that I inflicted upon myself by total accident before standing.

He leaves the room to go put the stuff up and for a moment I realized just how careless I was, last year I broke my leg and my wrist when I tripped down the stairs...long story short, I'm a total klutz and I don't pay attention to where I am going...Army came back downstairs holding something in his hands. I looked up at him, his face was flushed and he looked shocked.

"Aloha...do you really...?" His question fades as I realize what he was holding...

My notebook.