Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
Ace whimpered softly, ducking his head and covering his ears. He could still hear the growling as They clawed at the door. Sea-stone handcuffs dug painfully into his wrists, sapping his energy and cutting off his flames. He could only curl into a tight ball and hope They got bored soon and left. Ace yelped when the ship suddenly trembled and They cried out. After a few seconds of silence Ace slowly lifted his head, listening. Were They gone?
*CRACK* Ace fell back when something suddenly slammed against the door, a large crack appearing down the middle. They were almost in. Ace looked around desperately for anything that could be used as a weapon before, seeing nothing, crawling into the far corner and curling up again, back to the door and eyes squeezed shut so he wouldn't have to see when They broke through. Three more loud cracks pierced the air before the door burst apart. Ace couldn't stop the weak sobs escaping his throat as he hunched down as small as he could. When strong arms suddenly wrapped around Ace and pulled him from his corner something snapped. Ace screamed as he lashed out, his elbow catching his attacker's gut and making it release him. Turning, Ace charged forward into his attacker, catching it in the stomach with his shoulder and knocking it to the ground.
He was sure there must be more, They always hunted in packs, but the only thing he could hear was his own blood pounding in his ears even as his vision started going dark. He yelped when something large wrapped around his middle and pulled him up, kicking out but hitting nothing. He thrashed uselessly as whatever had grabbed him crushed him against a firm wall, smothering him. Another scream tore from his throat before he went limp, closing his eyes and crying openly now, waiting for whatever had caught him to finish him off. Seconds became minutes, Ace's heart slowly settling to a more normal beat as his tears slowed. Soft noise filtered down from somewhere overheard. Frowning, Ace slowly opened his eyes and looked up.
"Easy now. You're okay." Marco murmured softly, looking down from his perch on Whitebeard's shoulder. Ace blinked, glancing around. He was in the hall now, just outside the closet he'd been hiding in moments ago, Whitebeard holding him firmly against his scared chest. Ace was startled to realize it was Whitebeard's heart he could hear now, rather than his own. "You gave us a real scare, thought we'd found you to late. Guess we must've scared you too, huh. Sorry about that. If you've calmed down we can try to get those cuffs off you now, or at least break the chain. Looks like your wrists are bleeding a bit, we'll need to take care of that. Don't want those things smelling it." Marco kept his voice and expression as calm as possible given the circumstances as he climbed down Whitebeard's arm to get a closer look at Ace. "You calm now?" Ace nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. Whitebeard smiled and loosened his grip on Ace so his youngest son could sit in his hand rather than be squished against his chest.
Ace was still trembling pretty badly and leaned heavily against Whitebeard's chest, breath still somewhat shallow but at least he was no longer hyperventilating, while Marco tried to pick the locks on his handcuffs. No one mentioned that it was usually Haruta or Izo who took care of any locks, not wanting to think of the fate met by the other two commanders. Marco smiled at the soft click as the handcuffs popped open, pulling them off Ace's wrists and examining the cut skin of his right wrist for a moment before leaning down and licking it. "Ah, hey!" Ace yelped, jerking his hand back.
"Easy. We need to clean it somehow." Marco said, grimacing as he swallowed the bit of blood he'd gotten. "If those things smell blood it'll through them into a frenzy. That happens and we're all dead." Ace gulped, nodding and holding his arm out again and hiding his face against Whitebeard's chest. Marco carefully licked the wound clean and covered it with a strip of cloth from his sash before doing the same with the other wrist. "There, all done. We'd better find some cover now, before those things come back." Ace didn't respond except to pull his arms close to his chest, curling closer to Whitebeard. Marco sighed before climbing back to Whitebeards shoulder, double-checking the bandages wrapped around Whitebeard's throat as he did. "Let's get out of here, Pops." Whitebeard nodded and stood, covering Ace with his free hand as he walked.
END
Was originally supposed to be a vampire invasion thing with Ace and Marco the only survivors and Ace waking up at the end to it all being a horrible nightmare then Marco hugging him and being a good big brother until the very last bit had Marco sinking his fangs in Ace's neck, somehow turned into a High School of the Dead style zombie apocalypse thing. I'm not entirely sure how that happened. Hope you enjoyed it anyway. Probably won't continue unless the plot bunnies bite.