It wasn't like Ace and himself were both really drunk, Thatch defended to himself, and his plans usually proved to have gone okay after all the people involved had calmed down a bit. Plus, he mentally added, they're both mooning. It's stupid!
Of course, he very easily kept those thoughts to himself as Ace nursed his sake and glared at him for even insinuating that he couldn't win over anyone he wanted.
"I bet I could," the freckled man was saying, limbs a bit more uncoordinated than they usually were as he tried to put his drink down and illustrate his point at the same time.
"As if," Thatch snorted, crossing his arms, and Ace looked like he wanted to see Thatch on fire when the cook continued speaking, "You've been mooning over Marco since you saw him go all blue-birdy and kick ass a few months ago. You're never going to get enough backbone to get him to even go on a date, let alone kiss you."
"I bet-" Ace said, repeating himself as he shoved his finger onto Thatch's nose and making the cook stare cross eyed at the appendage that had almost ended up his nostril, "That I could!"
"Hah," Thatch challenged, internally reminding himself that this was for a good cause, "If you can, I'll wear one of Izou's kimonos! But if you don't then I'm telling him about your massive whooper of a crush, and I'm not going to leave anything out."
"I'll remind Haruta to get new camera film," Ace retorted, shooting Thatch a cocky grin, and Thatch snorted at him derisively, making Ace glare again. "I will! He'll kiss me, and then you'll be wearing Izou's kimono!"
As though to solidify his decision, and their bet, Ace slammed his jug onto the floorboards, alcohol sloshing over the edges. The two pirates looked at the mess he'd created, before Thatch heaved himself to his feet with a long-suffering sigh. "I'll go get more. And a towel for you to clean it up with."
Ace nodded, and Thatch headed away, bypassing Izou and Jozu as he did so.
"Told you I could," he whispered tauntingly to Izou, who only sniffed at the brunet.
"Well we have to see if your plan actually works first."
This was a stupid idea, Ace internally bemoaned to himself when he woke up the next morning and remembered the events of last night. Oh God this was a really stupid idea.
Kneading at where a small headache was pounding his forehead, Ace made his way to the kitchen, trying to figure out how he was meant to get out of Thatch's dare; or, if that failed, how he was meant to get Marco to-
Kiss him.
He felt something heavy and sickening drop into his stomach, and forcibly swallowed, thankful now for his hangover; because if he did happen to throw up he could just blame it on that.
God, what had he even gotten himself into? He'd been perfectly happy just relishing being friends with Marco, Izou, and Thatch, and if he messed this up then he wasn't even sure Marco would want to talk to him again – why would he, when Ace's badgering for a kiss would probably leave the blond feeling awkward and unsure about how to best turn him down?
Ace couldn't even pretend that he'd forgotten, because Thatch'd promised he'd tell Marco everything if he couldn't get a kiss!
The pyrokinetic almost considered groaning aloud, kneading even harder against his forehead, and entered the slightly more subdued dining hall, grabbing a plate and food before flopping into his usual seat and pressing his cheek to the cool wood.
"Good morning Ace-y boy!" Thatch greeted cheerily, probably with a shit-eating grin on his features and Ace half-considered setting his pants on fire before deeming it to childish. "What's got you in such a mood? Planning another joke?"
Oh as if he didn't-
Ace's mind suddenly stopped and backtracked.
A joke.
Treat it like a joke.
He could do that – he could treat the whole thing like a joke, like a dare that Thatch had come up with, and when Marco turned him down, he could just laugh the whole thing off! Neither of them would be hurt, Ace could continue being friends with the blond, and he'd still get pictures to blackmail Thatch with.
"Thatch I could kiss you!" he cried in excitement, bad mood forgotten, and he leaped to his feet at the idea that Thatch had inadvertently given him.
"Shut up!" came the roaring snap of the rest of the crew, most nursing their own hangovers, and Ace sheepishly sat down again.
"You have someone else you're meant to kiss," Thatch said, giving him a half-disapproving look that was completely ruined by the fact that he was waggling his eyebrows madly.
"I kind of don't want to know what this conversation is about, yoi," Marco said as he placed his plate down next to Ace, and the pyrokinetic almost jumped, having not noticed the Phoenix. Firmly, Ace scolded himself, telling himself that the sooner he put his plan into action the sooner he'd be able to get this over with.
It did very little to calm the butterflies deciding to tap-dance in his chest, but he still forced a confident grin and turned to Marco, saying as he did so, "Can I kiss you?"
The blond froze where he stood, about to sit down, and Thatch gave a hacking cough and a splutter, having just decided to take a drink of his orange juice. Ace saw Marco swallow, before the zoan rolled his eyes to the ceiling and finished sitting, picking up his fork.
"You're still drunk, aren't you," he said, in a tone that didn't even phrase it as a question as he stabbed for an apple slice.
"No! I'm insulted that you think so." Smile, he ordered himself, very firmly telling his heart to stop sinking, because he knew that this was going to happen before he'd even said anything, back when he'd first realised that he had a crush on Marco the size of Whitebeard's chair.
Marco shook his head, rolling his eyes again, before seeming to realise that he'd forgotten to pick up something to drink, putting his fork down and leaving their table.
"Hey Marco," Thatch called loudly, and the blond turned around, a curious expression on his face that the both of them automatically read as 'yes'? "Ace-"
"He didn't say no!" Ace shot to Thatch in a deadly and panicked hiss, firmly grabbing the cook by his lapels and dragging him to sit down again.
"Wants more orange juice!" the cook finished off flawlessly, Marco's expression turning more then a little befuddled as Ace once again began to seriously consider setting the cook on fire to repay all of the heart attacks the brunet was giving him.
Marco could brush the first incident off as nothing; a one-off prank or a dare instigated by Haruka or Thatch.
And then it happened again.
He wasn't a hundred percent sure if it was an accident or if Ace had done it on purpose for some unfathomable reason (considering Ace's usually impeccable balance, he was leaning towards the latter, but that just left him with more questions than answers,) but the both of them were now currently sprawled on the deck, Ace having tripped and sending the both of them on an express trip to the floor.
"Can I kiss you?" even with a large grin on his features, there seemed to be something serious in Ace's eyes.
Or he was probably reading too much into it, just like he'd read too much into the incident a few days ago at breakfast.
Marco had to take another breath before he could feel like his heart wasn't going to jump out of his mouth with how hard it was pounding, but once again snappy words came out instead of the yes he so desperately wanted to say. "Do you have any indication of personal space at all?"
"Yesss," Ace said, drawling out the word in a tone that was obviously, 'of course I do Marco.'
"Well could you get off me then?" Marco asked, expecting Ace to listen.
He wasn't sure if he was meant to be pleased or despair when Ace didn't move, and when a slow smirk instead spread across Ace's features his heart stuttered and firmly started to scream at him to just kiss him. "Why? Is it because I'm hot?"
Yes.
"Your body temperature is quite warm, and it is the middle of summer, Ace." Marco pointed out instead, finally managing to get his elbows under him and lever himself up, Ace moving lest he end up accidentally bashing his head against the deck. Brushing himself off, he offered a hand up to Ace, who took it and heaved himself to his feet, before grinning at Marco.
For a moment, Marco's grip tightened on Ace's hand as he frowned; he wanted to ask why the younger man had twice asked him for a kiss – why Ace was, well…flirting.
Marco wanted to know if this was all really was a joke to him, or if the flash of seriousness in Ace's eyes revealed what Marco hoped it did. He wanted to know if Ace meant something more.
The blond opened his mouth, about to ask, before he closed it again and let go, hand dropping to his side as the grin seemed to waver on Ace's features.
Ace seemed stuck for a moment, his lips slightly parted like he was about to say something, and Marco wanted nothing more than to rescind his earlier half-refusal and see if Ace really wouldn't mind kissing him.
The moment passed however, and Ace's grin grew strong again, the young man giving him a barely lifted wave of goodbye as he backed away. "I- I'll talk to you later, Marco!" then he was gone, leaving Marco with more than enough questions and almost no answers to assuage his worries with.
Footsteps from behind him made Marco refocus his concentration on his surroundings, and when Thatch leaned his elbow Marco fought back the urge to sigh; he didn't want to deal with his friend's pestering right now, not with how confused the short conversation with Ace had left him.
"Wow," Thatch said, refusing to move until the blond flicked his arm, "what's got your feathers all ruffled?"
"Your stupid bird puns, for one." Marco grumbled, taking his eyes off where Ace had disappeared below deck to face his friend.
"They're not stupid, they're witty." Thatch defended, before his expression changed to one of curiosity and he peered closely at Marco. "What'd Ace want you for, anyway? He looked a bit close."
"Nothing, he just fell over. Shouldn't you have been keeping watch, yoi?"
"I was keeping watch!" Thatch defended, before grinning like an idiot, "On you guys."
Marco groaned and swatted his friend, before stalking off to see if he could find someone who'd help him make sense of all of this.
"See," Izou said, smirking at Thatch knowingly, "This is why you don't interfere."
Thatch refrained from answering, instead casting his crewmate a grumpy glare. "It will work," he shot, "because I refuse to let them pine anymore."
Izou snorted.
The first person Marco considered going to was Izou. However, he'd quickly scrapped that idea, knowing that while his sibling's perceptiveness was what he wanted to use of to make sense of this, Izou would probably have him figured out in three seconds or less, and then proceed to either tease him mercilessly or grill him for details.
Either option was not one he looked forwards to suffering through.
Ace and Thatch were tied, but as Ace was the one he was currently confused by, it really only left one person who knew the both of them well enough to maybe have some suggestions; Thatch.
Considering Thatch had been quite delightedly throwing puns at him for the past week or so, he was rather hesitant to ask his brother for help, but if he didn't he was pretty sure the anxiety was going to eat him alive.
Of course, what Marco hadn't expected when he'd finally found Thatch was for the man to rather awkwardly try and worm his way out of the conversation. Suspicions now awakened, he'd cornered Thatch in the kitchen, shooing everyone else out with a well placed, shark-toothed smile that they could all easily read as, 'Thatch is in so much trouble'.
They'd scampered pretty quickly after that, leaving Thatch to try and cast Marco reassuring grins and flutter around the kitchen.
Yeah, his brother really wasan awful liar.
"Well, yoi?" he demanded, crossing his arms and arching an eyebrow, and Thatch very firmly tried to do everything he could to not look the blond in the eye.
"Well what?" Thatch finally decided on as the best answer, and if only Thatch was better at controlling his body language! While his voice was almost perfect, completely nonchalant, his body was still betraying his nerves. He may have been a good swordsman, but off the battlefield Thatch was more easily read than a book – it didn't help that they'd known each other for so long, either.
Marco merely arched his eyebrow even higher and gave him a look.
Thatch very firmly tried to avoid getting pinned by his look, and while Marco usually would have continued with their game of cat and mouse, he really didn't appreciate having his feelings tugged around like this, nor the constant state of confusion he found himself in.
He was going to kill Thatch if he found out that it was something he'd done that'd made Ace act like this. "What did you do to Ace?" he demanded.
"Nothing!" Thatch yelped, trying to give him an innocent smile.
"Oh yeah, yoi?" Marco asked rhetorically, giving Thatch his best you tell me right now glare, "Then why has he been trying to kiss me?"
"I didn't have much to do with it," Thatch finally admitted sheepishly, "I mean-"
"Oh no, I'm sure alcohol probably helped a lot." Marco butted in, shoulders dropping as he sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose."What the hell did you dare him to do?"
"Nothing!" Thatch defended again, and Marco's disbelieving look had him quickly continuing. "I didn't! He was the one who said he could get anyone to kiss him, he's the one that started it!"
Marco had to force back the clench around his throat after Thatch spoke, instead sighing again to bring himself time and not feel like he was going to scream. He really had been deluding himself when he thought he'd seen any sort of emotion other than determination in Ace's eyes when the young man asked to kiss him.
"Yeah, well you're going to end it, yoi." Marco said sternly, fastening Thatch with a stern glare and ignoring the twist in his gut that was looping around and around, tightening by the minute. His brother's joke had caused him no lack of confusion and pain, and to find out that it'd all been the result of a dare made him try to hold onto his rage instead of the hollow pain of loss. "It's not funny to play around with someone's feelings, Thatch."
"Wait, wait, you mean you know Ace has a crush on you?" Marco's brow furrowed in confusion, mouth opening to speak, but Thatch didn't seem to take notice, instead steamrolling forwards like he was wont to do. "I mean, I thought you were just being thick again. You usually do your stupid 'for the good of the family' and 'there is no way anyone likes me' shtick whenever anyone gets a crush on you. You mean you just didn't want to get his hopes up?"
Thatch looked completely stricken by what he perceived to be a giant mistake, but for the moment Marco couldn't correct him, absolutely stunned by Thatch's revelation. His mouth opened, trying to form any words, but no sound came out as the blond tried to sort through everything his brother had said.
"Ace-" Marco finally managed, sounding almost strangled, "likes me?"
The first words Marco said to him when the Phoenix found him on deck made his stomach drop out from underneath him like he'd fallen from the mast.
"Thatch told me everything."
Ace felt himself freeze in panic and mortification, eyes going wide as he stared at the Phoenix. There was only one thing that the blond could possibly be referring to, and the knowledge that Marco now knew about the bet and his crush caused Ace's stomach to drop.
That isn't fair! He wanted to blurt out, desperation making him stupid, Thatch could at least warn me that I was running out of time!
Thatch's cautious peering around the blond phoenix had Ace take back his last mental words, however. He'd obviously been coerced into revealing their drunken bet. 'Sorry,' Thatch mouthed, looking genuinely apologetic, but all Ace wanted to do as realisation dawned on him was to jump overboard and let the sea swallow him up, or painfully strangle Thatch to death.
Actually, both seems like a pretty wonderful idea, he mused hysterically to himself, mind already constructing the worst case scenarios; Marco letting him down harshly, Marco kicking him overboard himself, asking Ace never to talk to him again, getting Ace to leave the Whitebeards-
"Ace-," Marco started to say, but the pyrokenitic interrupted before Marco could even start speaking.
"I'm sorry!" he blurted desperately, short nails biting into his palms and hands shaking, because he didn't want to hear whatever words the Phoenix was going to say to him. "I swear, I won't ever mention it again, or do anything like this again or even talk to you again if you don't want me to, I promise. Just- please," he begged, feeling the words squeeze themselves from his tight throat in almost a whisper. "Can we still be friends?"
Friends was enough for him – it was more than he deserved, to have the level-headed and calm Marco care for him! He didn't care if Marco didn't want to spend any extra time with Ace than he had to, but to lose Marco as his friend made a startlingly painful ache nestle itself into his chest.
He didn't mind if Marco wanted to just stay friends. Staying friends was more than enough to survive him.
"I just wanted to know if it was true." Marco said softly, and Ace felt his stomach sink even lower. He couldn't even lie about it, now.
Couldn't use his original plan of pretending that the entire thing had been one giant joke, because he'd so foolishly blurted out all of his fears without even waiting to see if Marco had believed the cook or not.
Jaw clenched, eyes fastening to the deck boards, Ace gave a jerky nod. "Yeah," he admitted, hating how quiet his voice was but unable to muster the strength to control himself, and make the words louder.
"Okay, now kiss!" Thatch said, sounding way to excited, and Ace's head snapped up, staring at the cook in undisguised horror. Thatch was still trying to further a relationship that was never going to exist? While his tenacity was something that Ace usually admired, the pyrokinetic only wanted nothing more than to set him on fire. The mortified burn on his cheeks could probably fuel the flames.
"Thatch!" Marco said, voice pitching, and Ace wanted to melt into the floor.
"You know you wanna," Thatch mumbled, his words causing Ace no small amount of confusion, and Marco cast the cook an irritated glare. Thatch's expression finally fell into irritation, and the brunet cast his hands up into the air in exasperation. "Seriously!" he shouted, loud enough for the entire crew to hear him, "Just kiss him already!"
"Thatch, you're not allowed to make decisions anymore." Marco snapped at him, glaring at the cook. The brunet quickly shrunk back, probably remembering all of the events that had led up to them being in this position.
Ace could practically see his cheeks beginning to smoke with how hot they felt to him, and he had to force himself to stay standing, almost deliriously dizzy on his feet. "You-" he started to say, before Marco cut him off.
"Ah, my turn, this time." The phoenix offered him an almost shy smile, looking adorably hopeful, and Ace felt his heart skip a beat; actually, make that three. "Can I kiss you?"
Unable to speak, the pyrokinetic instead gave a shaky nod, feeling a large grin pull up his lips. Marco's own grin probably rivalled his own as he pressed his lips to Ace's, and it was though his heart leapt through his chest; he felt light headed as he found Marco's hands and tangled their fingers together, delighting in the fact that the blond didn't pull away, instead smiling and squeezing his hand gently.
He could smell the sea and hear the vague sound of what seemed to be someone clapping, but all of his attention was focused on Marco; Marco, who was here, who was kissing him! Even in his daydreams, he'd never expected it to be...this perfect.
"Well that wasn't as much of a catastrophe as it could have been." Thatch said, having seemed to decide that their kiss had gone on long enough, and Ace considered groaning at the interruption. Instead he slowly pulled away to fasten Thatch with a glare.
"I'm gonna hit him," Marco mumbled, covering his eyes and the red tinge on his cheeks with one hand, but to Ace's quiet exhilaration kept one of hand entangled with the pyrokinetic's own.
"Not if I hit him first."
"Please don't hit me-" Thatch raised his hands, and then paused, looking to be debating with himself for a moment before a large grin spread across his face. "I'm not bready for it."
"Never mind," Izou said from behind them (almost making Ace jump because Oh God they'd just made out in front of the entire crew), knuckles cracking, "I'm gonna punch him before anyone else. I could stand you meddling, even if that's my job, but your puns are wearing on my last nerve!"
"They're grating on you?"
Izou growled, and Thatch gave a quiet yelp, quickly scampering for Whitebeard's chair in a vain attempt to hide.
(Half an hour later Izou had been informed of the requirements of Ace and Thatch's bet, and as the cook had technically cheated, the crew had banded together and herded him to Izou. "You look beautiful," Izou had said teasingly when Thatch finally emerged from the bathroom, shark-toothed grin wide.
"Shut up," Thatch grumbled in embarrassment, flushed red up to his ears and trying to hunch lower in Izou's kimono.
"I get copies of the pictures, right?" Ace asked with a laugh to his tone, and Haruta gave him a shrug.
"Twenty beli each."
Thatch's expression had became hilariously offended. "C'mon! I'm worth more than that!")
AN: Another of the challenge things with Nez; this time, two characters in a competition.
I got really stuck while writing my half, and then when I finally got an idea, it came out like...well, you've read the results.
((aka tHIS WAS NOT MEANT TO BE AS LONG AS IT ENDED UP BEING?))