One Piece © Eiichiro Oda.
déjà vu—already seen; a feeling of having already experienced the present situation.
Marco woke up with a jolt.
The sudden movement made his entire body ache. He couldn't see anything, but by the faint smell of vanilla and mint—which he was very familiar with—made him realize where he was right now.
His office.
And he's been sleeping in his desk—his desk, full of unsigned papers and handful of contract that he should review before giving them to Pops. Working with your father made you had the entire perks you could take, but he's Marco. And just because he's a director in his own old man's company, didn't mean he could slacked off.
That maybe explain why he's sleeping here, then. Maybe he was taking another long hour and fell asleep. Frankly, Marco didn't really remember.
His old age maybe came with a few side effects.
He stretched his body, hearing his joint cracked here and there. His position wasn't very comfortable—he had been sleeping with half his body on his desk for how many hours—he couldn't keep track. He glanced at the clock, and it showed just few minutes after midnight. He just realized that the entire floor was dark. And the only source of light in this room was from the little standing lamp on the corner of his room.
Marco gather all this things—which wasn't that much, just his notebook, his wallet, car and apartement's keys—and walked out from his office. There wasn't anyone in this office beside him, and Marco had been working here long enough, he didn't feel afraid or paranoid even after hearing so much weird story from his brothers.
He stopped his track as soon as he arrived in the basement. Because, strangely, his car was the only one there.
Okay, maybe because working hour had finished hours ago, all the employes already went home and it was actually normal. Except, it wasn't. Because usually there were two or three cars that stay in the basement for weeks, or days. Mainly it's Pops' or his brothers'. But, yeah, he just shrugged it off.
Marco left the building as soon as he got into his car. Tonight was especially quiet, and cold. He turned on the heater, and radio-too quiet to his liking, and Marco despised the ticking sound of from his watch. There were only two cars that passed him by, considering that it was midnight, so this was normal. Marco drove himself to his apartment. The last time he spent the night there was a week ago he slept over at Thatch's place because Haruta was in town. And that meant, Marco had to drive his youngest brother around everywhere the brat wanted. The lack of ciggaretes in his dashboard made him groaned. Seems like Haruta threw it out when he was not looking. Damn brat.
Two blocks before his apartment, a weird, yellow light caught his attention. He slowed down his car, and stopped right in front of a ... bar? It seems like a bar. He rolled down the window, and his stomach grumbled at the smell of food. He sighed, decided that he would eat before going home because well, no food at home. And Marco was sure whatever leftover he had in his refrigerator could not be eaten anymore.
The first thing he noticed when he entered this bar, was the lack of customer there. This was a nice bar. Most of the stools were from wood, and that remind him of Thatch's special room in Twins Blade. There was a grand piano near the stage, a long table with two bars, with many kinds of alchohol displayed. He brought his steps toward the bar, smiling at the bartender as he reads the menu on the chalkboard.
"Tonight's special is fish n chips," the bartender grinned. "Our boss made a secret recipe so the taste would be different from any kind you've ever tried."
"Well, I'll have that and coffee, please," he looked around the bar. "No customer?"
"Nope," the bartender responded, with a loud 'p'. "We just had our grand opening this evening, sir. And we don't do much advertisement, "he said. "You are actually our sixth customer for today."
Marco just nodded.
His fish chips and coffee came a few minutes later. He gulped down everything, because, damn. He did not realize just how hungry he was untill his taste the food. He moaned in pleasure as the soft and tender fish filled his mouth.
"This is damn good," he said. The bartender chuckled with a 'told ya'. For a while, it was just the two of them, with the barista busy doing whatever he needed to do, and Marco finishing his meal and coffee. The soft sound of instrumental music was the only thing that accompanied their silence, and Marco had no problem with that because he himself wasn't a talker like his brothers.
Right after Marco finished his coffee, someone plopped down beside him. Marco took a glance—young man, maybe about 25-ish, with dull red hoodie, eyes wondering toward the bartender's zone. Marco tore away his gaze, didn't want to be accused eyeing the man—well, the man beside him was an eye candy. With sharp jaw, freckles across his face, and kinda grey eyes?
He kept his focus on his phone, reading his family group chat—which never silence even for a minute, if it's not Thatch, it's Haruta, and sometimes Namur and Vista threw shit toward each other, or even Pops giving his kids updates of Stevan and his pups. This time it's from Izou, bitching about an actress that had so much—even too much—request about her dress that was designed by Izou.
Izou : this bitch saying she'd wore the dress for that big award so I've to designed it real classy and glamour
Izou : idek she'll win or not. she's bitchy and fucking demanding and hasn't she look at my dress before? i'm insulted that she made any assumption that I'll make her dress something casual and not award-worthy
Rakuyo : least she pay u good
Izou : she better be
Pops : [send a picture]
Pops : [send a picture]
Pops : [send a picture]
Pops : Stevan the fourth just peed in Thatch's bed
Pops : he misses him
Thatch : UGH POPS
"Oh, didn't see you there."
That made him shifted his gaze toward the voice—the man. That man now looking at him with an amused smile, maybe because Marco was chuckling alone. He cleared his throat, turned his body so he faced that man, and smile, "Well, hi?"
There was a faint surprised on his face, and he said, "You look awfully familiar. Have we met before?"
Marco raised his eyebrow, "No?" yeah, there's no way he'd forget this eye candy in front of him if they ever met. And he didn't know what drive him this brave tonight, the next thing he realized, he already strechted out his hand and told his name. "I'm Marco."
Almost immediately, a hand—smaller than his, but more calloused—greeted his, along with a cheerful voice. "Ace," he said. "Oh, you want to order something? I've some recommendation—"
"He's already done, Acey," the bartender suddenly appeared, looking amusedly at Ace. "He ordered your Mom's amazing dish. Don't wory, I'm good at what I do."
"Deuce!" Ace smiled brightly at the bartender. "Been looking for ya. Can you fetch my juice inside? Kinda forget to take it home."
"Sure, sure," Deuce, the bartender, turned his head toward Marco. "This is Ace. The owner's son."
"Also the one who designed this cafe!" Ace added, almost sound like he was insulted. "You like the atmosphere here, Marco?"
"Cafe?"
"Yeah," Ace looked smug this time. "By day, it's a Cafe, after 10 we turned it into a bar. Great idea, right?"
Marco hummed in approval. "Your idea?"
"Well, no," Ace grinned. "100% my Mom. I only designed it as she like."
And he did great job, Marco thought. This cafe slash bar was unique, and despite having most tools made out of woods, Marco also noticed that there were also a coule of couch at the corner of this building.
"Um, but are you sure we haven't met somewhere?"
"Yeah, maybe?" this time even Marco didn't sound so sure. "Any reason why you thought we've met?"
"Just, you look awfully familiar," he said, earning a small smile from Marco.
"You must be mistook me from other people," he said casually. "I mean, blond hair, blue eyes, it's a bit common here, isn't it?"
Ace gave a little nod, maybe still so sure that he'd met Marco before. But then he shrugged it off, combing his hair so its not covering his eyes.
They settled for a little conversation, with Deuce joined here and there between them and other customers that just came. He learned that Ace was 27, just back from his work in Marijois—designing another restaurant there—and he was from Dawn Island, but spent most of his teen day here in Raftel. Ace was a chatterbox, apparently. And easy going, too. He kept telling stories to Marco, not really care about the fact that they just met or the fact that Marco was a lot older than him. His antics made Marco felt at ease, not a bit uncomfortable, and in return, he also told Ace about himself, his work, and his family.
"Fifteen brothers?!" Ace gawked. "Hell, I have two and its already too much headache. And you have fifteen?"
Marco just laughed. "Most of us are same age, so its not really a problem."
Ace nodded, still in awe. "So you are the first that your old man adopt, right?" Marco nodded. "Was it lonely back then?"
He shook his head. "No, because Pops still gave most of his time for me. And it wasn't long until Pops adopt the second one—Jozu. Just a year and half after me."
Deuce came again for them, this time he brought two glasses of orange juice. He laughed at Marco's surprised face. "Well, yeah. It's in the house, don't worry," and then he gave a smirk toward Ace. "And Acey here is a lightweight so he can't handle alchohol," then shifted his gaze back to Marco. "And I saw you coming with a car, so I guess no alchohol?"
Marco smiled, "Thank you."
And then they talked again, and Marco lost in time. It wasn't untill Deuce started to clean up, both of them spontaneusly looked at their watch. Marco gave a 'tsk' when he saw its already almost 4 and he had work tomorrow—or this morning. The same happened to Ace. He groaned, and Marco could heard his little murmured about having an important meeting not more that 6 hours from now.
"Damn, I didn't realise that its already this late," Marco sighed. He took out his wallet and gave his card to Deuce, and turned his head to Ace. The younger man was busy with his phone, and Marco could see that Ace was setting pick up location for his. "Where is your home, Ace?"
"Um, Sir Jackson St. Why?"
"Oh, we are heading the same way," Marco stood up. "Come on, I'll give you a ride."
"You didn't have to!" Ace waved his hand, "I could just order uber or something—"
"It's near dawn, I doubt you'll get one easily." Marco took his card from Deuce. "Come on."
Ace sighed, and took his bag from a chair beside him. "Deuce, put it on my tab, yeah?"
Deuce nodded.
"Let's go."
"Can you type your—, thank you."
"I'm supposed to be the one who said that," Ace said, a bit embarrassed. "You have a nice car."
Marco chuckled. "Well, I saved a lot ever since my first payment. Been wanting this car since college, you know."
Marco kept his focus toward the road, a bit careful because there's a lot of drunk driver at this hour. Then they talked again, as the car brought them to Ace's house. Sir Jackson St. was a location for a real estate. Most of the rich people in Raftel lived there—including Pops, but years ago. Pops sold their old house there and moved to his current house, about fourty five minutes from the city. That also meant Pops always coming late to office—without complaint from anyone. Not when Marco was the one who practically run the company for the last four years. Pops only went to office to signed anything he needed to or attend meeting—the important one, mostly with the officials of Raftel. The rest of his work was handled by Marco.
"My house's just around the corner—hey, you're quite familiar with this area," Ace nudged him a bit. Marco just smile, and stopped his car where the GPS told them Ace's house was just a few meters ahead.
They stopped in front of a big house. Marco raised an eyebrow because Ace's house was just a few houses before his old one. "You live here?"
"Just for a while," Ace said. "I'll move to my own flat next week or so," he gave Marco a smile. "Well, thank you?"
Once again, Marco didn't know what drive him to be this brave tonight, but now he was holding Ace's hand right before the man left his car. "Um, I, uh, you are a great company, and I, um, I want to keep talking to you?"
Ace just laughed. "Give me your phone."
They exchanged number just like that, with Ace made Marco promised him to informed the younger man as soon as he arrived in his house. Marco laughed, saying that he's not a kid, but nodded when Ace just rolled his eyes.
"Thank you again, Marco," Ace said, "See you soon?"
"Yeah," Marco gave him a smile, nearly as wide as Ace's. "See you soon, Ace."
My first work in this fandom? Yeah, finally. I'll try to update this story once a week, because I already have the drafts for each chapter so I hope it'll go as I plan lol. If there's any mistakes, please kindly tell me? English is not my first language and I tried hard to write this one. If there's something bothering you, you can pm me and if there's some mistakes I'll fix it. Thank you.