Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda. I'm just playing around with them for a while.They always mark each other before battle.
Pell usually does it with his nails, racking them across Chaka's skin till he leaves a small patch of thin red lines. Chaka, like the jackal he turns into, applies his teeth in love bites that stand out in vivid purples and browns on Pell's pale skin.
It is a ritual of remembrance, meant to remind them that their lives are not their own. They belong not just to their country but to each other, and while they will be forgiven for sacrifice the same will not be said for heroic stupidity.
It is also a warning, a silent notice. To those who would seek to harm, it warns of support and protection. To those who would kill, it warns of retribution to follow. To those who would capture, it warns of someone who will stop at nothing to retrieve him.
After The Incident (the one with the bomb and the stomach twisting grief and the miraculous regaining of everything) they find themselves hesitating in their ritual. Find themselves looking at large patches of burned skin and scars that bisect a broad chest and feeling unable to mar the other man's body any further. Find that they are filled with the silly but unshakable notion that if they add any more damage they will undo the miracle that brought the other back.
They also find that treating each other like fine glass jumbles the way they communicate, fucks with the solid trust they have in each other. Luckily for the time being there is peace, so most don't suspect. Those who do know the wounds that caused the rift are still too fresh for outside interference.
The hesitation lasts about 6 months, right up until Pell sees what he thinks is Chaka go down under a pirate's blade, something that distracts him enough that one of the pirate's crew mates manages to bash him in the ribs hard enough that he has to fight with everything he has not to pass out right there on the battle field before he can drawl another breath.
When they get back to the palace he lets the doctor have them just long enough to patch them up, then drags Chaka back to their room. He pulls the other man on top of him in their bed, each tearing at the other's clothes to get to the skin, the heartbeat, the still there life underneath.
Afterwards they lay tangled together, sore and sated and covered in each other's marks, and as they breathe in each other's air through goofy grins they find that things between them are starting to slide back into place.