This is my second and last project for the opreversebang. I worked with blacktaiyou (Tumblr), but their PC is down, so... yeah. But check out their tumblr, they're great!
Warnings: swearing
Beta read by Akage987! Also, thank you for kicking my butt and getting me to write!
Ace's day was turning out to be great. Actually, the whole week had been great, which was a bit weird. He wouldn't say he had bad luck, but things never seemed to go as well for him as they did for others. In any case, he didn't care. He got promoted, Luffy got into college, Sabo got together with Koala, Garp had called off his visit. Oh, and did he already mention that he got promoted? He was just so, so happy right now.
It was Ace's break right now. As was tradition, he'd opted not to leave his office. He sat down on a chair, put on his headphones, played some random song on his iPod, and took out his sandwich. He didn't really know what was in the sandwich because Sabo was the one who'd made it, but he found that didn't really care. He rarely did when it came to food. Unless…
He looked at the sandwich suspiciously. He didn't think Sabo had done anything to it (nor Luffy, for that matter) but he wouldn't put it past him. When Sabo was in a good mood, strange things tended to happen. Hesitating for a slight moment, Ace took off the piece of bread covering the sandwich and carefully studied whatever was in it.
Some ham, lettuce, and tomatoes. It seemed alright. He took a small bite, and spit it out almost immediately. Sandwiches weren't supposed to be sweet, were they? Ace put the sandwich back in the little plastic container and glared at it. It would appear that Sabo had mistaken sugar for salt. Again. Honestly, Ace was starting to get worried. However, he perked up when his favorite song started playing. He jumped from his chair with a grin. Despite the situation with the sandwich, he was too ecstatic to be able to sit still for too long. Besides, it's not like anyone would see him dancing around on the twenty third floor, right? The building across the street wasn't high enough for anyone to catch a glimpse of him through the window, there weren't any security cameras (at least ones he knew about) in his office, and he seriously doubted anyone would come visit him in his office at this time of day.
Having come to that conclusion, Ace started dancing to the music. It was fun, and it reminded him of how much he missed going out to nightclubs with his friends. He put one foot down in front of the other, threw his hands up into the air, and started swaying from side to side. This went on for around three minutes, and just as the song was coming to an end, he turned around to face the window-
-and promptly froze. His hands slowly dropped to his sides and he was quick to tear out his headphones the second he saw someone outside his window. He had blond hair, was wearing purple overalls, and holding a squeegee. But that couldn't be right, because there was no flooring or anything outside his window. Blinking twice, he noticed the contraption the other man was standing on. Whitebeard Cleaning. Huh.
Having ascertained that he wasn't hallucinating, and that the man wasn't doing anything too dangerous (at least by Ace's standards), his mind finally managed to get back to the matter at hand. And he blushed. Hard. The man outside his window was leaning against the side of whatever the contraption he was standing on was called and smirking at him. It was a very sexy smirk, Ace's mind noted.
Ace, in turn, told his mind to shut up.
The man outside laughed at him. At least, it looked like he was laughing, because Ace couldn't hear much through the closed window. Scowling, Ace made his way to the window so that he could open it. He supposed it was really luck that this particular building had windows that opened. Well, as much as tilt windows could be opened, anyway.
The second it was open, Ace took a calming breath of fresh air, before turning to the man standing outside and scowling again. He really shouldn't have doubted his bad luck (because yes, after this embarrassing event, he was ready to admit that his luck was bad). Oh, and his cheeks were still burning. His whole face felt like an inferno.
"Wow, you're on fire," the man said, the comment only serving to deepen Ace's scowl and intensify his blush.
"What are you doing here?" Ace asked. The man raised an amused eyebrow.
"I'm washing the windows," he replied, waving the squeegee in the air. "It's nice to meet you, too." Ace furrowed his eyebrows. That wasn't right. He hadn't been told that any window washers would be coming by, had he? Ace knew that he had a bad tendency of zoning out when someone was talking to him (especially lately), but he didn't think even he would miss something this big.
Nope, that settled it. The building manager hadn't told him anything. The man outside seemed to be having the same thoughts, if his raised eyebrows and receding grin were anything to go by. Ace could see his chest heave with a sigh.
"I take it that you didn't know I'd be dropping by?" the man asked. Ace shook his head furiously.
"If I had known, do you think I would've been dancing around in my office like that?" Ace all but demanded. He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Ace shook his head. "Alright, let's try this again. My name is Ace. I work here, and am currently on my break," he said, smiling slightly. He would have extended his hand and gone for a handshake, but as he didn't really have how to, so he settled on raising it in a lazy wave instead.
"Marco," the other man said. "So, where did you learn how to dance like that?" Marco asked smirking once again. Ace felt the blush, which he had been pretty sure had been almost completely gone, come back with full force.
"I-" he tried to say something, anything, to come up with an explanation, but it would seem that his brain just didn't want to cooperate. Outside the window, Marco chuckled.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Marco said, raising his own hands in mock surrender. Ace sighed, but smiled nonetheless. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. He was probably coming off as very weird, wasn't he? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marco subtly flick his eyes over Ace. Almost as if…
Was Marco checking him out?
Ace grinned. It was time to get revenge for all the embarrassment Marco seeing him dancing had caused him.
"Were you just checking me out?" he all but purred, a smirk rising to his lips as Marco's eyes widened. However, it appeared that Marco didn't even have the decency to look too ashamed at being caught, because a grin was back on his face within a split second.
"And if I am?" Marco asked, eyes lighting up in amusement. It was right then that the bell signifying the end of his break rang, and Ace sighed. He turned around, grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from his desk, and quickly wrote down his number.
"Unfortunately for the both of us, it seems that I have to get back to work now," Ace said, squeezing his hand through the window in an attempt to pass the piece of paper to Marco. "Call me," he said as soon as Marco took the paper from him. Marco was surprised, if his widened eyes were anything to go by, and Ace smirked. He closed the window and turned around to leave the room. He had an important meeting to get to.
(line break)
"You're kidding me! You managed to pick up a guy while you were at work?" Thatch exclaimed in disbelief. Marco smirked and nodded. "H-how? How is that even possible? Without even trying! It's so unfair!" Thatch wailed. Izo, on the other hand didn't seem all that surprised.
"Have you called him yet? You know, to set up a date?" Izo asked. Marco shook his head. He'd been planning on it, but he had to admit, he was a little bit nervous, which was weird. Twenty three stories up in the air and he was fine, but the moment he was back on land everything seemed different.
Marco sighed. He was overthinking things, he knew.
"Not yet. I'll get around to it eventually." Izo nodded, smirk rising to his lips. Marco didn't really like that expression on Izo's face - it never boded well. Judging by Thatch's suddenly suspicious gaze, he didn't like it either.
"I know you will. Because if you don't call him or text him today, then I won't hesitate to do it for you," Izo almost threatened, smiling sweetly. Marco sighed. He probably shouldn't have said anything. Why did he always tell them these things?
Then again, he had this weird feeling that even if he hadn't told Izo what had happened, Izo would have figured it out on his own. Marco didn't know how he did it, but Izo always seemed to know everything, especially about his brother's sex lives. It was really scary (read: creepy) sometimes. No one seemed to be able to keep anything hidden from Izo, no matter how much they tried. Izo seemed to have missed his calling. He should have been a private investigator instead. Narrowing his eyes in imitation of Thatch's suspicious stare, Marco discreetly lowered his hand into his pocket to check to see if the paper with Ace's number was still there.
It was. And he hadn't told Izo about it either. Izo, upon seeing Marco almost glaring at him, raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, please. I'm your brother, I've known you for years. You like this guy, there's no way in the world you would have forgotten to get his number. Now, I suggest you text him and arrange a date." Marco just sighed and raised his arms in surrender. There was no arguing with Izo.
"I'll get right to it," he said, leaving to go to his bedroom. Although, he wondered where he should take Ace. Maybe a restaurant? No, no. But if not, then where? Ace seemed to enjoy dancing, so maybe Marco could ask him out to a nigh-
"Take him to a nightclub," came Izo's shout. Marco shuddered. Sometimes, he swore that it was as though Izo could read minds. He had no doubt that Thatch would agree with him. As Marco entered his bedroom, he kicked the door shut behind him. It would hopefully keep Izo's telepathy thing at bay. He dropped down onto his bed, dug around in his pocket for the piece of paper, and grabbed his phone from the nightstand.
Then, he stared at it. And stared. And stared some more. It was a really nice phone, he thought. He'd gotten it from Thatch for Christmas a few years back. It had a touch screen (as do most phones these days), and although Marco hadn't been particularly fond of it at first, it had grown on him.
"Marco, I swear to god that if you don't start typing up a message within the next five seconds I am ripping that phone from your hands."
Marco barely kept a yelp from escaping his lips as he started, hearing Izo's voice. His phone skittered away from him across the bed. He would have sworn, but he really didn't want Izo to hear him. Still, he didn't waste any more time looking at his phone. He grabbed it, put in Ace's number, and started typing.
(line break)
Ace's gaze flitted from one pair of jeans to the next. He had no idea what he should wear. Well, except for the shirt. He'd already chosen a shirt. It was a plain orange button-up - one of his favorites (probably because of the color), but he had no idea what he should wear with it.
The choice was made for him when Sabo pushed him to the side and picked up his pair of black skinny jeans. Ace didn't even try to object because he knew that it would be of no use. Instead, he sighed and started to change. A few minutes later, he was looking at his reflection in the mirror. He looked… decent enough. At least, that's what he thought until Sabo started staring at his hair.
"There's nothing wrong with my hair," Ace whined, but he knew it was all in vain. There was no going against Sabo in matters like these. Ace doubted Sabo would let him out of the house unless he looked perfect. Sabo reached over to grab a hairbrush from the wardrobe and raised it to Ace's head. Ace, in turn, shied away from it and pouted up at Sabo, once again annoyed at the difference in height. It was completely unfair that Sabo was taller! He also had a nasty habit of reminding Ace of it.
"Ace, I'm warning you. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." Ace contemplated on whether or not arguing with Sabo would be worth it or not. He eventually settled on 'not'. He really didn't want to have to iron the shirt again. It was annoying enough to have to do it the first time; he didn't want a repeat. Instead, he let Sabo start brushing his hair in what Ace knew was a futile attempt to get it to stop looking messy. He'd already tried taming the jungle atop his head more times than he cared to count, and he'd given up. Ace started at their reflections as Sabo brushed it, blowing the occasional strand away from his face. He should probably cut his hair; it was getting a bit long, although he had to wonder how he'd look with short hair. Like, very short hair. Or an undercut.
Fuck, he was nervous. His thoughts were spiralling out of control. He wasn't usually nervous before a date. Actually, he didn't remember the last time he'd felt like this.
After nearly three minutes of brushing and styling, it seemed that Sabo was finally satisfied. Ace himself didn't see much of a difference, though. To him, it seemed that his hair looked the same way it always did - untidy. Besides, what was the point in styling his hair if it was just going to get messed up in a while anyway? He seriously doubted that it would stay this way while he danced. And the wind would probably mess it up the moment he walked outside.
It was then that he noticed Sabo eyeing the can of hairspray on the far end of a nearby shelf (he didn't even know they had hairspray to begin with). Ace glared at him.
"Don't you dare," he growled. For once, Sabo conceded.
"In that case, put on your shoes, and you're all set to go. Have fun," Sabo said with a grin. Ace nodded and quickly left the room before Sabo would come up with another crazy idea. He was starting to feel really nervous. Why had he agreed to this date, anyway? Yeah, Marco was rather attractive, but Ace really should have thought things through before agreeing. He'd only spoken to Marco for a few minutes!
He should probably stop being so impulsive.
Ace was out the door and in his car before he knew it. The drive to the nightclub wasn't long. It only took him around 20 minutes. He was pretty sure that he knew why exactly Marco had chosen a nightclub, of all places, for a date. Ace was still embarrassed over the whole Marco-catching-him-dancing-in-his-office thing, but he was trying to get over it. Mostly unsuccessfully, but at least he was trying. He wondered if Marco even knew how to dance. Probably, because otherwise he wouldn't have invited Ace to a nightclub. If he didn't, then at least Ace would have something to tease him about.
The nightclub was huge, but dimly lit. There were no flashing lights yet, but Ace had no doubt they'd bring out a disco ball sooner or later. Probably sooner. There were tables on either side of the large room, and a dance floor in the middle. The nightclub was still mostly empty, so there weren't many people dancing to the music blaring from the speakers overhead.
Ace gave the place the once-over, looking for Marco. When he saw no sign of him, he made his way over to the bar at the opposite end of the room. He settled down on one of the stools and ordered a lemonade. It wouldn't do to get drunk just yet, after all. He'd wait for Marco to get here first.
Ace glanced down at his watch. 10 PM. He was nearly fifteen minutes early. Taking another sip of his lemonade, Ace fished his phone out of his pocket. Since he had nothing better to do, he might as well play a game. Besides, there was that one level on Cut the Rope that he hadn't managed to pass in days, and now was as good a time as any to try to get past it.
Time flew by really quickly, especially considering how Ace was unable to win the damn level. Just as he was about to quit the game, he noticed a shadow looming over him. He turned around and lifted his head to see whoever was standing behind him. A grin formed on his lips the moment he realized it was Marco.
Marco was wearing a purple button-up shirt, similar in color to the overalls he'd been wearing before. He also had on a pair of dark blue jeans and sandals. Ace had to say, he really liked those jeans. They clung to Marco's body in all the right places. So did his shirt, now that he gave it another, closer, look.
"Hi," Ace said, putting his phone down. Marco smiled back at him.
"Hey," he greeted, sliding onto the stool next to Ace, and glancing at Ace's phone "Cut the Rope? My brother is constantly playing it," Marco said, chuckling fondly. So he had a brother, huh?
"Yeah, I'm sort of stuck on a level," Ace explained. Marco hummed in reply, waving the bartender over and ordering a Piña Colada.
"Can I have a shot at it?" Marco asked. Ace shrugged and handed him the phone. He looked over Marco's shoulder as Marco restarted the level. A few seconds later, Marco had passed it on his first try. Ace was frozen with surprise.
"How?" he asked, eyes wide. He'd been trying to pass that for the past fifteen minutes or so, and on a few other occasions before. He'd had half a mind to look up a walkthrough on the Internet, but had decided that he wouldn't cheat.
"Magic," Marco answered, grinning at him. He passed Ace's phone back, and all the while Ace couldn't stop staring at the three stars that were on the screen in disbelief. And he couldn't even get one… Oh, how glad he was that neither Luffy nor Sabo were here. He'd never hear the end of it.
But damn, Marco had done it on his first try! He'd only spent a few seconds analyzing the level, and then he'd won, just like that! Ace looked up at Marco with newfound admiration.
Only to find Marco looking down at Ace's hand with a bit of alarm. At first, Ace didn't really understand why, but then as he glanced down at his own hand, he saw what had captured Marco's attention so thoroughly.
Ace was wearing a ring.
It wasn't what it looked like at all, though! He opened his mouth, wanting to explain the situation as soon as he could, but Marco beat him to it.
"You're married? Fuck, why didn't you tell me. I am so sorry, I-" Marco stammered. Ace shook his head and interrupted before the situation could get more out of hand than it already was. He put his hands up in a placating manner.
"No, that's not it!" He argued. "I'm not married, I'm single! This isn't what it looks like!" he breathed, the words flowing from his mouth in a rush.
Marco looked up at him with a doubtful, hurt look on his face. Ace swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd ruined it. Why hadn't he taken the damn thing off when he'd had the chance?
"Then what is it?" Marco asked. Ace took a deep breath in an attempt to get some of the redness, that was most assuredly on his cheeks, under control.
"It was a gift from my brothers. We all have one. It's a symbol of our brotherhood," Ace said, face burning with embarrassment again. He would kill Sabo. Not for a second did Ace doubt that Sabo hadn't reminded him to take the ring off on purpose. He was probably laughing at Ace's expense right now. If this whole fiasco ruined his date (the first one he'd gone on in months!) Sabo might even end up much, much worse than dead.
Ace tore himself away from his morbid thoughts. It was no use thinking about that now. He had to fix this situation before Marco got spooked and left, and Ace really, really didn't want that to happen. He'd deal with Sabo when he had the time.
"I never would have agreed to go on a date if I had someone, believe me!" Ace eased the ring off his finger, raising it to eye level so that Marco could see the letters engraved on the inside.
ASL
They were just barely visible in the dim light of the nightclub, but they were there. He heard more than saw Marco release a small sigh of relief. Ace slumped his shoulders, feeling the tension that had been between the two of them melt away.
"Look, I'm really sorry about all this. I messed up, big time. I should have remembered to take it off, but I rarely remember that it's there anymore," Ace apologized. "I'm so sorry. Please don't leave," he said in a small voice. Fuck, he'd ruined everything, hadn't he. His still-panicked mind calmed down somewhat upon hearing Marco chuckle softly.
"It's alright. It's my fault for jumping to conclusions," Marco laughed, making himself more comfortable on the stool and thanking the bartender as she passed him his drink. He took a small sip before turning back to Ace, who was currently sliding the ring back onto his finger.
"You're not going to leave, then?" Ace ascertained, breathing a sigh of relief when Marco, still smiling, lightly shook his head.
"You won't get rid of me that easily," Marco joked. Ace laughed, downing the rest of his lemonade, He ordered a Sex on the Beach and flashed Marco a smirk. Marco, in turn, raised his eyebrows slightly and made a point out of checking him out.
Maybe this date could still go well, after all…
As soon as Ace got the drink, Marco asked him about his brothers. It led to a whole conversation about who has the weirder family (Marco had fourteen brothers! Fourteen!). Ace told him about the time they had made Luffy think that the apocalypse had happened while he'd been asleep, having even gone as far as to pretend that Sabo had gotten bitten by a zombie. In hindsight, it had been a stupid thing to do, because Luffy had started crying, thinking that Sabo was dying. He hadn't spoken with either of them for a whole week after he found out it had been a prank.
Marco, in turn, told him about the time when Thatch and Haruta thought it would be a good idea to hide all of Izo's makeup (and it kind of surprised Ace that Izo actually wore makeup in the first place, seeing as he was a man, but he'd opted to ignore this little detail for now). They'd ended up having to do all of the chores for two weeks straight. When, after a month Izo still hadn't started talking to them, they had finally bought him a whole new expensive set of makeup brushes as a present and had offered their deepest apologies. The next morning, Thatch had woken up itchy because Izo had decided to take his revenge by sprinkling some itching powder over his bed. Haruta, in turn, hadn't gotten any sleep that night because Izo had stashed alarm clocks all over his room and set one to go off each half-hour. And that was how they learned to never mess with Izo and his makeup.
"Alright, alright. You're family's weirder," Ace decided, grinning. Then, he had an epiphany. "Say, Marco… do you know how to dance?" he asked.
"Probably not as well as you," Marco answered, smiling when Ace flushed, "But yes, a bit." Marco stood up before he finished speaking, grabbing Ace's hand and pulling him over to the dance floor. Ace laughed as he allowed himself to be led to a spot mostly devoid of people. They made it right before the next song began. It was one of those slow, romantic songs. Ace looked up at Marco and grinned again, and Marco smiled back. He let go of Ace's hand, only to put his arms around Ace's waist. Ace, in turn, put his arms around Marco's neck.
They started swaying in the rhythm of the music, taking small steps here and there. Listening to the singers soothing voice, Ace eventually ended up putting his head on Marco's shoulder and closing his eyes. He didn't know how long the song lasted, but it seemed to be over far too soon. Ace sighed, his breath tickling Marco's neck, and leaned back.
He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out to see who the caller was.
Luffy.
Shooting Marco an apologetic glance, he picked up and walked off to the side of the room. The conversation only took around two minutes. It turned out that Luffy had decided to sneak out of the house via the window because he'd found out Garp was at the door (apparently, he had been able to make it- in the middle of the night, but still), but had forgotten that his room was on the second floor of the house and had ended up falling and breaking his arm. It was a miracle that nothing worse had happened. Garp hadn't heard him, and neither had Sabo, and Luffy had ended up walking to the hospital in the middle of the night. Now, though, he needed someone to pick him up because he was underage, and Ace was the only person he could turn to, seeing as Sabo was a bit preoccupied with their grandfather at the moment.
Ace merely sighed and said he'd be there in half an hour.
Well, this sucked. He hung up and walked back to the bar, where Marco was sitting waiting for him. Marco raised an eyebrow when Ace approached, obviously noticing something was wrong by the small frown on Ace's face.
"Luffy just called. He broke his arm and I have to pick him up from the hospital. I'm sorry, but I have to leave," Ace explained. Marco nodded and stood up. Ace paid his bill before turning to Marco again. "Would you like to repeat this sometime?" he asked hopefully.
"I'd love to," Marco answered, smiling, and Ace felt as though a weight had been lifted from his chest. He thought he'd messed the date up far too much for Marco to even consider meeting him again. Ace really liked him, too. Far more than any of his previous dates. On a whim, he leaned down and caught Marco's lips in what was supposed to be a gentle goodbye kiss. Marco didn't react at first, obviously surprised, but after a moment he started moving his own lips against Ace's. They pulled apart to catch their breaths. Ace grinned at Marco, pressed one more kiss to his lips, and stood back up.
"I'll call you."
And then, shooting Marco one last smile, Ace turned on his heel and left.
I'm not sure when I'll get to answer reviews, because my Internet is being a little shit and doesn't want to work properly for more than a few minutes a day.