I don't own One Piece, I only own Tyler.
All Ace could feel at that moment was dread. It wasn't because they were being attacked by a rival pirate crew, or the Marines thinking they could defeat them. No, what had Ace feeling like he was going to pull his hair out from stress was because Tyler was sick.
It's normal for someone to get sick, Ace knew that, but when Tyler was sick, it was like his mind turned into a five-year-old mind. And not the quiet, well-behaved type, no Tyler was the clingy, must always be watched because he'd disappear if you took your eyes off him for a second, type.
All the messy white-haired man wanted most of the time was to cuddle, and he would cuddle anything! When they were still kids and Tyler had suddenly picked up the flu, he got up in the middle of the night, left their tree house and found a cave with a mother bear and her two cubs.
The most terrify thing about this isn't not being able to find the assassin, or that he cuddled up to a sleeping, dangerous bear, all because he said that they were warm and one of the most comfortable things he has ever had the pleasure of sleeping on. No, it was that the mother bear and her cubs, loved him and basically adopted him into their little family. Hell, the bears would come and visit him even after he got better. And every time, Tyler would catch them some fish to eat and cuddle up to them for a nap.
But right now, they were thankfully out at sea and Tyler couldn't really run away in the middle of the night to find something soft and fluffy to cuddle up to. The only fluffy thing on the ship was Stefan, Pop's giant dog who hated everyone but Pops, sometimes Marco and Tyler. As soon as they came aboard and Tyler spotted the dog, he vowed to become friends with the dog, which he did, much to everyone but Ace and his old crew's shock. Tyler loved animals and animals loved Tyler.
Right now, Tyler was on Ace's back with his arms locked around his neck and his legs locked around his stomach. The sick man was wrapped in a too big, lime green hoodie that he usually wore to bed whenever they got close to a winter island. He doesn't fare well in the cold. Ace doesn't even know where he found such a bright green hoodie in the first place. He was wearing green fluffy socks as well, again, Ace had no idea where they came from either.
Ace was just walking around the deck, just helping whenever he could. He completely ignored all the strange stares he was getting because of Tyler. Ace was surprised that no one had asked what was going on.
"What is Tyler doing?" Ace heard from behind him destroying his last thought.
Turning around Ace saw that it was Thatch that asked. "Oh, Tyler's sick." Ace said like it was obvious, which it was to him and his old crew.
"Why isn't he in bed then?" Thatch was concerned when he saw that Tyler's cheeks were rather flushed from a fever. The man should be in bed and not clinging to his boyfriend like a baby koala does its mother.
Ace gave Thatch the deadest look he could muster and said in such a monotone voice that made Thatch sweat drop, "He won't stay in bed. Every time I try to put him to bed, he starts to make a fuss, it's just easier this way."
Thatch was silent for a moment before nodding slowly, "Are you talking about a twenty-one-year-old or a five-year-old who doesn't want to go for a nap?" Thatched asked curiously.
"Both." Was all Ace said before going back to what he was doing before Thatch came over. Suddenly, the weight on his back was lifted off. Turning around quickly, in case Tyler decided that he wanted to run off and possibly give his dear boyfriend a heart attack, only to see Tyler in Thatch's arms bridal style. "What are you doing?" He asked quickly as Thatch turned around and started to walk away.
"I'm going to try and put him to bed. He needs to rest. After that I'm going to go and make him some soup to help him get better." Thatch said over his shoulder before going down the stairs to where the commanders sleep. They each got their own room, while Ace and Tyler shared one.
Getting to Ace's room was the easy part, Tyler was fast asleep and had been the whole time, but he was snuggling into Thatch with a look of pure innocence that made Thatch just want to protect him from all the wrong in the world, forgetting for a moment about how dangerous Tyler is when he needs to be.
The hard part was putting Tyler into the bed because as soon as Thatch let the man go, he woke up and started to whine pitifully, a sound the cook didn't know he could make.
Thatch didn't have much time to think about that before Tyler grabbed his arm and pulled him down onto the bed and threw his arms around him like the older man was a teddy bear. Thatch blinked for a few seconds at the sudden change, before trying to unhook Tyler's arms from around him, with no success.
"Tyler, let go buddy so I can go and get you something nice and warm to eat." Thatch grunted, still trying to get free from the sick man's death grip.
"Nooo…" Tyler whimpered strengthening his grip on the cook to stop him from moving. All the older man's wriggling was hurting his head and making him dizzy. "I just want cuddles, no food!" He said in a nasally voice from his blocked nose.
Thatch sighed in defeat, thinking about what he could do to get out of this, he had things to do like make the crew lunch and to get his sick brother some warm soup to eat. Thinking back to what Ace said on deck about Tyler being fussy when he was sick, the man must be a clingy sick.
Nodding with resolve Thatch put his arms under his little brothers' knees and upper back before lifting him off the bed as he started to leave the room.
"Where are we going?" Tyler asked in a sleepy voice. The soft swaying of Thatch walking was very soothing for the sick man and it was putting him to sleep again. That's the main reason Ace just lets him cling to him when he's sick, the body heat and whenever he walks around it puts Tyler to sleep very easily. He was like a baby that way.
Thatch looked down with a slightly amused grin stretching his lips, "I'm going to take you to someone who will cuddle with you." He told the man, not mentioning that he was going to bring him some soup soon since he rejected that idea earlier. It's better not to stress him out too much.
Tyler didn't say anything just hummed as he slipped away in to a light slumber, he could never get any good sleep when he was sick, unless he was in bed with Ace next to him.
It didn't take Thatch too long to find who he was looking for, the man was talking to the old man, probably about something boring.
"Marco!" Thatch called out gaining his brother and father's attention.
Both males raised an eyebrow when they saw that Thatch was carrying Tyler.
"What are you doing with Tyler, yoi?" Marco asked confused. Thatch didn't answer just gave his brother a big grin before pushing Tyler into Marco's arms, who was quick to catch him so he wouldn't fall. Opening his mouth to shout at Thatch for being an idiot and potentially hurting their brother but stopped, furrowing his brows and looking down at Tyler. He was a lot warmer then he usually was, and his face was red. "Is he sick?" The blonde asked the cook.
Thatch nodded, "Yeah, I found Ace just carrying him around on his back a little while ago, so I took him and tried to get him into bed, but he started to whine and wouldn't let me go. He's a very clingy sick, I think." Thatch told them looking down at Tyler before turning around, "Good luck." He said before going below deck again before Pop's or Marco could say anything.
Marco sighed knowing that there wasn't anything he could do, especially if Tyler was as clingy as Thatch made him out to be.
"Oh, hey Marco. When'd you get here?" Marco heard a scratchy voice asked from under his chin.
"Hey Tyler, yoi. I've been here, you just got here." Marco told the man and he looked up at Pop's who was giving Tyler a very concerned look.
"Oh, that makes sense…." Tyler trailed off as he looked around him, "Where's Thatch, I could have sworn he was just here? Did he have to go and get Ace out of the ocean again?" He asked innocently.
Marco chuckled at that before shaking his head, "No, Ace hasn't gone for a swim just yet. Thatch had to go and do some work." The blonde explained to the sick man.
Marco could feel Tyler nodded under his chin before snuggling his face into the crook of his neck, his messy white hair tickling his neck slightly leaving a slightly itchy feeling behind which was ignored when Tyler spoke again, "You're really warm, Marco." He mumbled before going silent again, obviously falling back asleep.
Marco sighed before giving his father a long, suffering look that made the old man let out a chuckle. Shaking his head Marco moved so he was on the side of Pop's chair and sitting down with his back against it and his little brother in his arms.
"You're a good brother, Marco." Was all Pop's said before a peaceful quiet fell over them, both content to just sit in the morning sun together.
For the next hour Marco sat against his father's chair with Tyler in his lap with his head tugged under his chin. Sometimes Marco would bring a hand up and run it through the messy white locks when Tyler would start to move around in discomfort from his sickness but would go still once Marco started to pat his hair.
A lot of his brothers and sisters would give them weird looks before realizing how red Tyler was and gave sympathetic or concerned looks.
A nurse had come up and checked Tyler's temperature with a thermometer, she seemed to be happy with the results saying that the fever went down a little. She had obviously taken his temperature earlier in the morning.
It wasn't until lunch that Marco moved from his position. With sigh, Marco stood up, making sure that he had a good grip on Tyler before making his way down to the dinner hall with his pops. Entering the dinner hall, Marco was met with the usually loud lunch noise, but it seemed to have woken Tyler up since Marco could hear him groan.
Looking down Marco saw that Tyler was looking around the dinner hall before his eyes stopped and just stared in one direction. Looking in the direction Marco wasn't surprised to see Ace look back at Tyler with both concern and relief in his eyes seeing the sick man. Marco was quick to make his way over to the table where Ace was sitting and put Tyler down so he could sit down on his own.
Once Tyler was on the floor, he immediately walked so he was behind Ace and just draped himself over his boyfriends back and shoulders, hugging him around the neck.
Ace couldn't help but smile at his clingy boyfriend, as mean as it sounds it he loved the attention he would get from Tyler whenever he was sick, he just wished the sickness wasn't making him like this.
"Did you have a good morning?" Ace asked his boyfriend who was now rubbing his cheek against his own like a cat.
Tyler hummed before burying his face into Ace's neck, not seeing the amused looked that the two was getting from the rest of the people at the table but Ace saw them and blushed brightly only increasing their amusement. "I did, I had a good nap with Marco." He said in scratchy voice.
Ace chuckled, wondering how Tyler even ended up with Marco when Thatch was the last one who had him last, he saw. Reaching behind him, Ace gently guided Tyler so he was sitting at the table next to him and not draped over him.
Laying his head onto the table not having the energy to stay sitting up, Tyler looked over at Ace with the most wounded looked Ace had ever seen him make before, "Ace." The sick man whined out, getting a few chuckles from his table mates.
"Yes Tyler?" Ace answered waiting for some weird nonsense to come out of Tyler's mouth, this usually happened when he was sick. He would become clingy, needy, a little delirious. Thankfully he never threw up but there's always a chance. He didn't get cold shivers or a cold sweat, even if he did get a fever but he burnt that away within a few hours. The weirdest thing was that he would suddenly decide to share with the world all the weird facts that he's learnt over the years, although the facts were always about a single thing, last time he was sick he started to tell everyone fun facts about sea animals.
"Did you know that your mouth produces about one litre of saliva a day!" It looks like it's going to be fun facts about the human body this time round.
"No, I didn't know that." Ace said with an amused smile as Tyler nodded like he just said something that was very wise and useful.
Everyone around them all stopped their eating and looked over a Tyler, confused about what he was talking about. Looking up Tyler made eye contact with Namur, the only fishman on the crew and one of Tyler's most favourite people in the world. Ace thinks it's mostly due to Namur's calm intelligence, that and Namur is a fishman and Tyler loves water.
"Hey Namur, did you know that your body has enough iron in it to make a nail three inches long?" Tyler asked looking at the fishman with wide innocent eyes.
Namur didn't know what to say to that, to even think that Tyler knew that was a little worrisome honestly. How did he even know that? Wait, he was getting off topic, "What are you talking about?" He asked confused.
It was Ace, Thatch and Marco who answered the fishman for Tyler who was still starting at Namur through wide eyes, "He's sick." Was that the three said.
Tyler blinked for a few seconds before turning to Thatch with a dopey grin on his face that made Thatch look at him with an amused smirk just waiting for what Tyler was going to say next. This was all very amusing to Thatch. "Hey Thatch." Tyler tried to whisper to the cook who sat down to his left.
Thatch snorted to himself at Tyler's attempt at a whisper, he was definitely not whispering because everyone on the table still heard and looked at the sick man, ready for the next fun fact. "What is it, little brother?" Thatch asked pretending to whisper which seemed to make the white-haired man happy.
"A human head remains conscious for about fifteen to twenty seconds after it's been decapitated! Did you know that? I did, it happened once with me. The guy was blinking at me for a few seconds before dying. It was a weird Thursday." Tyler said ending up with a nonchalant tone as he turned away from a very confused and concerned Thatch.
Ace choked slightly on his food after he heard what Tyler said. Quickly taking a drink, Ace looked over at Tyler who was now laying face first on the table. Where the hell did that one come from? Looking up at Thatch, Ace couldn't hold back the snort that came out at the absolute horror painted on Thatch's face.
Thatch turned to Ace who was now laughing at him even more horrified now that he was laugh at him, "What the hell Ace! What is your boyfriend talking about?!" Thatch asked, starting to wonder if they should take the white-haired man to the sick bay, there was obviously something very, very, very wrong with him.
Ace snickered as he pulled Tyler up, so he was sitting straight with a very dull look on his face mumbling more weird facts about the human body to himself. Standing up Ace helped Tyler stand from the table, still snickering to himself and ignoring Thatch's calls of his name.
Once Tyler was up and Ace had his arm around this waist so he wouldn't run off and tell anyone else a weird fact or just run off he turned to Thatch with an entertained look in his eyes, "Don't worry Thatch, Tyler won't show you unless you ask." Was all the fire user said before dragging Tyler away so they could go and have a nice long nap so his boyfriend can recover quicker.
Thatch went white as a sheet as he watched with horror filled eyes as the young couple walked out of the dinner hall, Tyler's lime green hoodie and fuzzy socks and all, obviously not realizing that Ace was joking. Tyler would show him anyway.
Hope you guys enjoyed it, I tried to make it a bit humorous as you can tell from my sorry attempt but I'm happy with the way it turned out and I got some laughs while writing it.
This is the second one-shot in the Tylerverse, yes, I am naming it! The pervious one was Fire and Water, it's basically a quick summary of how Tyler and Ace met and a tiny bit about their history together.
Thank you very much to my amazing editor for giving me a bunch of ideas. LolforeverxD is amazing!
If you guys want to see any kind of one-shot about Tyler and Ace or just Tyler let me know and I'll try and do it.
This only took me like two-three hours, I was so excited about writing this.
Thank you for reading, I love you guys.
Please follow, favorite and review, I would really appreciate it.