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- Luffy
Ace is very much Marco’s type. Passionate, stubborn, polite, smart, yet still a complete dumbass. In a very charming way. He is also insanely handsome and that dimpled smile is too cute for words. And while he is strong and capable, he is also bratty and naive in a way that makes Marco want to take care of him.
He feels a bit like a dirty old man but whatever. He’s a pirate. The whole point of that is to live his life in ultimate freedom. Besides, they lead a very dangerous life and Marco’s fruit all but ensures he will live longer anyway.
Point is, Marco has a plan. He will approach Ace during the feast tonight and see if he is receptive to a relationship. It doesn’t have to be serious, even if Marco would like it to be. Ace is a free spirit and if he wants something more open then that is fine. Marco is an adult. He can and will handle this situation with grace.
And no, he will not put his plan on hold for another night. Like he has for the last three months. He had his reasons then. He definitely did not get anxious about Ace’s reaction and chicken out. Marco has never ‘chickened out’ of anything in his life. Because he is a phoenix, a legendary mythical bird of untold power and has nothing at all in common with a chicken. Shut up Thatch.
Marco is just about to get up and make his way over to Ace (no really, he is!), when a shout interrupts him. “Ship in sight! Approaching starboard!” No matter his personal agenda, first mate duties come first. He immediately starts barking orders at the crew while he takes his position next to Pops. Chances are the ship is one of theirs, or at least friendly, but one can never know. There are plenty of people stupid enough to attack Whitebeard. Could be Marines.
“It’s the Thousand Sunny!” The lookout shouts a while later.
That…is one of the last ships Marco expected. Strawhat Luffy doesn’t strike him as the type to attack people without a reason. And while he has defeated the two previous Yonko Kaido and Big Mom, he has made no move against either the Whitebeards or the Red Haired. Until now. Unless this is some kind of courtesy visit, but why in the world would he do that?
“What do you want, Strawhat? What could be worth aggravating the Marines with a meeting of two Yonko?” Pops asks, once they were granted permission to board. It doesn’t look like they are here to fight. In fact, it looks like Strawhat’s own crew has no idea why they are here either.
“From you? Nothing.”
“Oh? Who are you looking for then? Be warned, I will not let you harm my crew.”
Strawhat seems to entirely ignore him and keeps searching the deck of the Moby. Marco can’t help but be impressed by his guts. The crew around them is getting restless from the rising tension.
“Why’s it so quiet up here? What’s up with - oh. Hey big bro.” Ace has wandered back onto the deck. He must have been in the storage to fetch some more ale, because he has a barrel under either arm. Marco can’t help but let his eyes wander over the well-defined muscles in his arms and how they are barely straining around - wait. Big Bro?
“ACE!” Strawhat shouts and a second later he has wrapped himself around both Ace and the barrels. Literally. Those Gomu Gomu powers are weird as fuck. “You didn’t tell me you made it to the New World! And that you joined Mustache-guy’s crew! What happened to your own?”
“Well you where kicking Kaido’s ass instead of meeting with me like you promised. What are you doing here anyway?” Ace isn’t even trying to dislodge Strawhat.
“I came to meet you!” The man crows excitedly.
Marco doesn’t know if it’s a relief or just plain weird that Strawhat’s crew looks as lost as he feels.
“I didn’t know you had family! Why didn’t you say something?” The Catburglar shouts angrily.
“Yohoho, how touching!” Humming Brook - who is apparently not wearing a skull mask, but Marco is not going to overload his brain with that information right now - has taken out a guitar from who knows where and is starting to pluck at the strings.
“SUPERRRR!” Cyborg Franky shouts for absolutely no reason at all while striking a ridiculous pose.
Yeah, nevermind. They are taking it all in stride already. What a fucking madhouse.
Soon the party is back in full swing. It’s wilder than before even, with all of the Strawhats involved. Celebrating suits them, somehow. Marco would not have imagined that before, when all he really knew was what he had read in the paper. Then again, the Whitebeards aren’t much like their image themselves.
Ace is hanging all over the Cyborg like an excited child. There goes Marco’s opportunity to ask him out. With a sigh, he grabs another ale and goes to sit down. He notices too late just who is beside him. In his defense, Strawhat Luffy had spent the entire time so far being exceptionally loud, so there was no way he could have expected him to just silently sit and stare at him.
“Hm.” Strawhat says.
Marco jumps in surprise, barely managing to save his ale from sloshing over.
Strawhat narrows his eyes.
“Yes?” Marco asks, doing his best to hide his nerves. He’s one of the most feared pirates alive, goddammit! His bounty is even higher than Strawhat’s, he really doesn’t need to feel anxious right now.
Strawhat just keeps staring, lips twisting unhappily. “Hm.” He says again.
Marco takes a sip of his ale in an attempt to hide how jittery he feels.
“You want to fuck Ace.” Strawhat says.
Marco chokes. “What?” He coughs.
“You do.” Strawhat nods seriously to himself. Then, in a move that is inexplicably terrifying, he starts picking his nose, eyes seemingly drilling a hole into Marco’s skull.
“Hey Luffy! Look!” The strange little tanuki creature interrupts them. For some reason it has chopsticks shoved up its nostrils and is doing a strange dance. Strawhat bursts out laughing and runs over to join it.
Marco is left alone to try and make sense of that honestly surreal conversation.
- Sabo
There is a man standing on the ocean in front of the Moby. There is no mistaking that top-hat and pipe - it is the second in command of the Revolutionary Army. Little is known about him, in fact almost nothing. There are a handful of pictures in news publications from various revolutions around the world and nothing else. Even his name is a mystery. Yet now this enigma of a man is just randomly standing right in front of - well. He’s crouching on their railing now. Marco holds out a hand to hold back the crew. This is not a man you attack without knowing what he came for, even if he is trespassing.
“Good afternoon. I’m looking for my younger brother - about my height, dark hair, freckles. Allergic to shirts. Have you seen him?”
Marco just stares for a minute. Because that was a description of Ace. Ace who never said a thing about any kind of relative, only for his Yonko brother to pop up out of nowhere a few days ago. “That does sound a lot like a member of our crew.” He says cautiously.
The man grins brightly and even though they look nothing alike, that smile is almost identical to Ace’s. “Great! Would you fetch him for me?”
That turns out to be unnecessary, as Ace takes just this moment to investigate the commotion. With a loud shout of “SABO!!!” he runs up and tackles the man into the sea. Marco lurches forward. Of all the reckless things –
The both of them are just fine as it turns out. Sabo, as the guy is apparently called, is keeping Ace above the water with an ease that speaks of long practice. “So, you got a fruit as well now, I hear? Fire suits you.” He laughs.
“Damn right it does!” Ace answers but can’t quite inject it with his usual energy. Sabo laughs some more, then grabs onto one of the ropes the crew had thrown down for them. He easily pulls both himself and Ace back on board.
“Nice to meet you!” He greets them again. “Thank you for taking care of my baby brother.”
“Not a baby.” Ace mumbles petulantly from where he’s lying on the deck, trying to gather enough energy to dry himself. Sabo, crouching next to him, condescendingly pats his head.
Around dinner time Sabo joins them in the mess hall, slowly making his rounds around the crew, embarrassing Ace in as my ways as possible. He has just finished telling a gleeful Thatch about some of Ace’s childhood misadventures, when he notices Marco. He exaggeratedly looks him up and down, then turns to Ace with an absolutely shit eating grin.
“Ace, you really need to get your daddy issues under control.” Sabo says, casually.
Ace, with his cheeks stuffed with more food than should be humanly possible, fixes Sabo with a glare. “Excuse you, I love my daddy issues. Only good thing that waste of oxygen ever did for me.”
Marco nearly inhales his own tongue. He really wishes his phoenix would let him get properly drunk sometimes, because he is not equipped to deal with that information. At all.
- Garp
“Garp approaching!”
Oh shit. That is the last thing they ever need. Garp is a loose cannon on the best of days. Odds are even on whether he is going to try and arrest them or if he will get spectacularly drunk with Pops and then try to arrest them.
“Where is my grandson?” The man shouts after he jumps on their deck. Grandson? What?
Just then Marco notices some movement in the corner of his eye. Ace seems to be trying his best to belly-crawl his way out of sight.
“Oh no you don’t!” Garp suddenly thunders. He grabs Ace by the back of his neck and hauls him up, shouting something about ‘the fist of love’ or some such nonsense. Ace shouts back and soon it devolves into a completely incoherent bickering match.
“What is going on here?” Pops finally, mercifully interrupts. “Let go of my son, Garp.”
“Hmph. He is my grandson! And I will discipline him as I see fit. You were supposed to be a Marine you foolish boy!”
“Oh fuck off Gramps! I was never going to be a Marine and you damn well know it - it’s a miracle I got to be anything at all what with your shitty teaching- “ And they are off again.
Marco…feels like he should stop being surprised at this point. So, Ace’s older brothers are a Yonko and the second of the RA, of course his grandfather is a Marine vice admiral, what else would he be?
Of course, that is the exact moment both Ace and Garp somehow fall asleep standing up. Garp even has his fist still hovering in the air.
Marco’s inner doctor nopes right the fuck out of there. This is not how any of this is supposed to work!
Garp wakes up first and is somehow extremely offended that Ace is sleeping through his lecture. “You ungrateful little - !”
He shakes him violently. Marco can’t help but make a small sound of protest. He regrets it immediately when Garp’s eyes snap to him.
“You.” He says. His angry scowl smooths into something colder and infinitely more dangerous. “Break his heart and you will wish I took you to Impel Down.”
“U-understood, sir.” Marco stutters, but Garp’s attention is already back on his grandson, as if he had never been interrupted.
- Shanks
“What do you want brat?” Pops asks. Shanks is standing before him, calm as ever. Only difference to his usual (albeit rare) visits is that he did not make an entrance via excessive amounts of emperors haki. It’s a relief. Clean up always takes an unnecessary amount of effort.
“I came to see how my baby brother is doing, of course. Haven’t seen him since he entered the New World. Of course, back then he was a captain himself, so I have to make sure he’s alright now that he isn’t.” Shanks smiles pleasantly.
“Ace? Just how many more brothers of his are going to assault my ship?” Pops raises an eyebrow. He sounds mostly resigned at this point.
“Ah, you met Luffy and Sabo then?” Shanks grins widely. And yes, Marco can see the resemblance, now that he thinks about it.
“I did. I wasn’t aware you had such a large family.”
“I don’t. Ace is my half-brother by blood – we have a different mother, and Luffy and Sabo are his chosen brothers. If anything, Luffy is something of a son to me.”
“I see. And Garp?”
“He was here too? He raised the three of them.”
“No, he didn’t. Old man was barely there - I maybe saw him like twice a year, tops.” Ace hops off the upper deck railing he had been lounging on. “Yo.” He greets.
“Baby brother!” Shanks shouts and goes to wrap Ace into a one-armed hug. “I heard you got yourself a bird problem, so I had to come and investigate!”
Marco freezes. A bird problem?
“All of you can stop meddling, already. I got this!” Ace crosses his arms.
“Of course, of course. Just trying to keep the cradle-robbing to a minimum here -”
“Oh, fuck off. Don’t pretend you care about age gaps now! How old is your current girlfriend again? Sixteen?”
“Twenty-two.” Shanks goes dangerously gooey eyed. “And what a beauty she is! She does this thing with her hips, that - “
“Too much information!” Ace shouts, his hands covering his ears. “Why are you like this?”
Shanks’ grin only widens. “And such a wicked tongue. You won’t believe what -”
They keep on bickering back and forth, but Marco can’t tear his mind away from Ace’s supposed ‘bird problem’. Does that mean what he thinks, no, hopes it means?
- Rayleigh
The tension on the ship is tangible. Dark King Rayleigh is standing on their deck, looking calm and relaxed, with a bland smile on his face that has them all on edge.
“I have come to see my nephew.”
Marco doesn’t know why he is surprised when it is Ace that shouts: “Oh fuck off! I’m not your damn nephew, Silvers!”
The Dark King just keeps smiling. “You look more and more like the captain every time I see you.”
…what?
“I do not! I have nothing in common with that despicable -” Ace’s face twists in disgust.
“He would be very proud of you.” Silvers says mildly.
…Ace is the son of Gol D. Roger? How is this his life? Actually no. That…absolutely tracks. There is no one else it could be at this point. Besides, now that Marco thinks about it, Ace does look a lot like Roger did. His age is a little off, but he honestly doesn’t expect anything about Ace to be normal anymore. There is definitely some whack explanation for that.
“Fuck that!” Ace shouts. Being this furious makes him look even more like Roger, which probably isn’t what Ace is aiming for here. Fuck. And Garp complained about Ace not being a marine - as if they wouldn’t execute him the second they found out.
Wait. “Redhaired Shanks is Roger’s son too?” Marco asks incredulously.
“Indeed. He was raised mostly on the ship.” Silvers studies Marco for a moment. “You know, Roger would have at least attempted to break every bone in your body by now.”
Before Marco can even begin to react to that, Ace says: “What is it with all of you lately? This is my life, and you can butt the hell out already. I make my own decisions!”
“I would never dream of interfering. Now how about we catch up over some booze, hm? I brought some of Shakky’s good stuff.”
Ace narrows his eyes considering. “From the locked up back cabinet?”
“The very same.”
“Can’t say no to that.”
The two of them disappear somewhere under the deck, leaving Marco to once again stew in his thoughts. Maybe he should say something after all. Not all of Ace’s relatives had picked up on Marco’s feelings by looking at him. Maybe Ace does feel the same, or at least something similar? Then again, they were all terrifying as fuck. If Marco had to make a list of people he never ever wants to piss off, those would be his top five. Probably. Maybe after Pops. And after Ace, because he is not only capable of being equally as scary as his siblings, he also knows Marco well enough to hit him where it hurts the most. Fuck, Marco wouldn’t have considered himself a coward before all this, but damn.
+1 Ace
“Hey, Marco!”
Marco looks up from where he just landed on the railing after his nightly flight over the Moby. Ace is jogging towards him with a wide grin, waving.
“Ace.” He greets. “What are you doing up? You don’t have watch tonight.”
“I was waiting for you.” Ace admits.
“Did you run out of meds again? You know the infirmary is manned all night.”
“No, no. My narcolepsy’s fine. I just - “ Ace hesitates, looking uncharacteristically shy. “I wanted to talk to you. You know, alone.”
“I see.” Marco says. It can be hard to catch him alone during the day. Marco is always working, and as first mate and head doctor he usually is surrounded by people. “You can tell me anything, you know that, right?”
“Yeah.” Ace cheeks darken a little. It’s a stupidly cute look on him. Maybe Marco should use this opportunity - but no. Ace has something to say, and it is clearly important to him. Marco’s feelings can wait.
“Um. So.” Ace nervously fiddles with the strings on his hat. “Remember how my crazy ass family all came here and started talking about daddy issues and cradle robbing and shit?”
How could Marco ever forget about that? He thoughts kept returning to all those instances. Hell, they even featured prominently in his nightmares. He nods.
“So, they kept saying shit like that because I’m totally in love with you and they were making fun of me.” Ace’s cheeks are practically glowing by now, but his eyes don’t waver from Marco’s.
“You - really?” Marco asks dumbly. He can’t have heard that right. Right?
“Yes. I’m in love with you.” Ace says again, more confidently this time. A slow grin is stretching over his face. “You’re blushing.”
Probably, but Marco is too busy computing this new information to worry about whatever his face is doing. Ace is in love with him. Somehow, he really didn’t expect that, no matter what hope Ace’s relatives managed to give him.
“You gonna say something? Or should I just kiss you?” Ace teases.
Instead of answering (he still can’t quite find his tongue) Marco just grabs him close and kisses him.