Still not entirely sure how I like how it turned out, but here we are so enjoy!

Summary: Ace starts noticing he can sense Marco better, why?

Title: Flame lit

He watched the play of Marco's fire as it sprung to life, coating his arms in blue flaming feathers. Ace had trouble looking away, but he had to. They were currently engaged in a battle, and being distracted was a bad idea. So instead he turned to his side, a smirk on his lips and lunged towards the marine that was looking to surprise him.

The entire time he was fighting, he felt an odd pull towards where Marco was. Shaking his head he twisted and kicked out with a flaming heel, barely noticing as the marine fell to the ground.

The battle didn't last much longer, it was only three ships of marines they had to fight, and most of the commanders were on the flag ship for once. Really, it was a bad plan that the navy had no chance of winning. As the finished killing the troops of the ship and making sure they had sustained no casualties they rolled out the sake barrels for a celebratory party.

Ace didn't much care for the party for once, he grabbed himself a plate, well more like he stole Thatch's and went off to search for Marco who hadn't yet joined the festivities.

He found the first mate leaning against the railing at the front of the ship, looking thoughtful. Slowly, so his presence would be noticed, he made his way to the phoenix's side. Ace set the plate between them.

"I brought food, you can have some if you want." He said quietly.

The air between them had been growing strange over the past few months, and Ace wasn't sure what it meant. Truthfully, they had always had an odd tension between them, Izou called it a sexual tension; but it didn't make sense, for that to occur the feelings would have to be mutual.

"You're actually sharing?" Marco let out a breath that Ace took to be a laugh.

He pouted. "I can share if I want to, most of the time I don't want to."

Marco looked towards him now. "Right, sorry."

While the air had lightened, there was still the strain. Ace wondered if he had done something odd in the past few months that made the first mate mad, he couldn't think of anything. In fact, the only thing that he could think of that was different was he was able to sense Marco more and more. I don't know what that means though, and I don't think Izou would know either.

Marco reached out for something on the plate at the same time Ace did, and they touched. The fire user felt sparks ignite between them, and they were both yanking away as both of their fires had sprung to life. Ace looked at his hand like it had betrayed him, his fire had never done something like that before.

Marco was doing the same thing, then he shook his hand.

"Sorry." Ace replied quickly, not wanting to be chased away.

"I'm the one that should be apologizing." Marco waved his apology off with his hand.

Ace didn't fail to notice the unusual tone in the older pirate's voice. "What do you mean?"

Marco sighed. "Its hard to explain. But you understand what a phoenix is, correct?"

"Yeah." Ace nodded. "The basics, it's a bird of fire that can be reborn from its own ashes. Its immortal."

"That's true. The phoenix is an animal, as much as any, only its powerful. It has its own urges."

Ace didn't understand where this was going. "Okay?"

Marco rubbed a hand over his face, and the fire user knew that meant he was irritated. They fell silent, and Ace grabbed a piece of food while Marco gathered his thoughts. After several minutes of silence, Marco spoke.

"It seems my phoenix has taken a liking to your fire."

That doesn't help at all. Ace blinked in confusion.

"I think you're able to sense me, at least more than you can other people?"

Ace swallowed the food. "Yeah, how did you know that?"

"My phoenix was trying to get you to notice it. For whatever reason, it wants your fire. Just now when we touched, it was trying to draw out the flames from you."

"Is that a bad thing?" Ace asked first, then a second question came to mind. "How's it able to summon my fire?"

"It could be." Marco answered the first question, then paused for the second one. "I can only think that it's because your fire is connected to your emotions, whatever they are about me makes them easier for my phoenix to call to them."

My feelings? Shit. "Uh... You said that it could be a bad thing?"

"For you yes. When I researched it, using the myths that spoke about phoenixs and phoenix-like creatures, it was a first step." Marco cut himself off abruptly.

Ace raised his hand to scratch at the back of his head, laughing. "First step to what? Kidnapping me and ransoming me?"

"In a sense."

The fire user blinked in surprise. "Seriously?"

Ace pursed his lips thinking about what he could mean, nothing was coming to mind however. Zoan types were strange to begin with.

"Yes."

"What exactly does that mean?"

Marco dropped his gaze and looked out to the sea. Ace frowned and turned his gaze to the sea as well. He wondered if he was going to get an answer, or if Marco was just going to drop the conversation and never speak of it again.

"Marco-" Ace could help himself as he fell asleep.

When he awoke he was in his room, and there was a presence he easily identified as Marco. Which was odd considering he hadn't even moved his eyes from the ceiling. He turned his head and saw the blond leaning against the wall, staring at him.

"Marco?"

"That's a bad habit of yours, falling asleep in the middle of a conversation." The phoenix teased.

Ace sat up. "Yeah, sorry, working on it. Not making much progress."

Marco pushed off from the chair and made his way towards Ace. The fire user knew something was off about the man, but he didn't put up his guard knowing that Marco wouldn't hurt him.

"About earlier, why it could be bad for you..."

"Yeah?"

Marco stopped and kneeled in front of him, well it was more of a crouch but he knew so that it was they were eye level.

"From what I read, its the first step into accepting someone as a mate. Being drawn to them, and in your case since you're fire it's a lot worse."

Ace blinked, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. The phoenix (the bird part) wanted him for a mate? His chest swelled, and he had to remind himself that it had nothing to do with Marco's own feelings. The two are connected aren't they?

He didn't notice that Marco had started speaking. "I'm trying to control it, but it's hard considering I'm inclined to agree with my phoenix on how nice it would be."

That counts as a confession right?

"But I know that you don't feel the same, so I will try and see if I can stop it from progressing further."

Ace had heard enough. He was still mostly confused about the whole mating and phoenix thing, but he was sure Marco would explain it to him at a later date. But he had to the tell the first division commander before he lost this chance. Even though he wasn't mentally ready to confess.

"I don't really get it." He began, hoping to keep his voice even. "But I want to try this."

Marco looked at him, the lazy expression completely vanishing. "Ace... there isn't a try. If you let the mating process happen then you can't go back on your word."

Ace thought about it. Wondering if he could see himself with anyone but Marco in the future. The answer was easy, he couldn't, and he knew that there was no way he'd lose these feelings he had for Marco. He hadn't ever felt love before the blond had welcomed him into this family and didn't judge him in the least.

He nodded. "I want to do this, Marco."

"Ace..." Marco frowned.

"No, I know this is what I want. It'll work out." He knew the first mate was liking overthinking everything making this hard for him to make the decision. "I trust you."

That seemed to be the right thing to say as Marco was suddenly moving upwards and capturing him in a kiss. He was pressed back into his bed, and fire was lighting up between the spots where their body met, Ace had to concentrate on making sure his mouth didn't light up and also on making sure that the fire couldn't cause any damage.

Marco pulled back, a small smile on his face, it was a lot more meaningful than the large grin he usually wore when he was happy.

"Thank you, Ace."

Hope you enjoyed, leave your thoughts below! Later!~IF