This is for the MarcoAce week on tumblr day 5. The theme was dancing. I wrote this while procrastinating writing day 4 yesterday, so it was kind of unplanned XD

"Happy Birthday, Ace!" Luffy yelled and laughed in his absolutely delighted way, hugging him tightly as Ace tried to blink the sleep from his eyes. "I'm so glad Ace was born. Here!" He thrust an envelope at Ace. Every year it was the same. Luffy would burst into his room as soon as the sun was peeking above the horizon. This behavior would have been annoying any day, but the day after New Year's Eve parties, it was just plain cruel.

Ace looked warily at the cheerful red envelope held out to him by his little brother. The anticipatory expression on Luffy's face made him even more reluctant to open his birthday present. Luffy's presents were always unique, and while they usually turned out to be exactly what Ace needed later, they were often troublesome in the beginning. With Christmas so close to his birthday, this time of year tended to be a little hectic.

He was still recovering from the orphaned bear cub that Luffy had given him for Christmas. Luckily, Luffy had managed to mix up Ace's and Law's presents (how did someone mistakenly give someone else a bear cub?), and Ace's gift had become a much more manageable leather jacket. Now he just had to worry where his younger brother had come up with the money for that. Luffy still hadn't given him a straight answer. All in all, Ace wasn't sure he wanted to open his latest gift.

Still, the hopeful look his brother was giving him was impossible to turn down, and Ace anything but a coward, so he accepted the envelope with his usual cocky smirk and opened it. Inside the unintelligible handdrawn card, was a gift card for six weeks of free ballroom dance lessons. At a gay bar. It was no secret Ace swung both ways, but still. And why ballroom dancing of all things? Ace groaned internally, looking at Luffy's excited expression.

"Isn't it awesome! Bon-chan is going to teach the class, and he told me he'd make sure you got special instruction. It's at Iva-chan's place! He's trying something new." Great. There was absolutely no way he'd get out of this, if Luffy's friend owned the place. The first lesson was next week.

oOo

Luckily, it wasn't required to dress up for the lessons. There was just no way Ace would put on a tie and go to dancing lessons. He loved his little brother, but there were limits. Ace reluctantly went to Kamabakka about five minutes before the lesson was supposed to start. These people did take care of Luffy, after all, so he at least had to pretend to be excited. How did Luffy come up with such ridiculous gifts anyway? He sighed and trudged through the door. Of the dozen or so people there almost all of them were at least twice his age and came with someone. Great.

Ace walked past the empty bar over to the dance floor, where he was instantly greeted by Luffy's friends.

"Ace-boy, how good of you to make it!" Iva said, "It's always nice to see some young faces at one of these."

"Thank you for taking care of my brother," Ace said politely, not mentioning anything about the dance class.

Bon Clay spun over enthusiastically, dragging an obviously reluctant man over.

"Ace, here's your partner! He also has no one to dance the dances of love with!" Bon Clay shouted, ignoring Ace's and the blond's mortification and the curious stares of the other students. He spun off again, this time with Iva in tow, without introducing the two. Ace examined his new partner covertly. He might be a bit older than Ace, but damn, he was hot. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"I'm going to kill them, yoi," the blond said under his breath, still bothered by the curious stares of the others, before holding out a hand to Ace, "I'm Marco."

Ace smiled and shook the offered hand. "Ace. Did you also get forced into coming?"

Marco grimaced. "Yeah, it was a Christmas gift from my brothers. They seem to think I need to get out more. I couldn't get out of it." Marco blushed. "Not that I don't get out. I get out plenty."

Well, this evening was looking better and better. Ace grinned at the agitated man.

"Same here. Well, about the brother at least. It was a birthday present. My brother is friends with the owner." Ace made a show of stretching his arms above his head, moaning as he did so. He noticed Marco eyes latch onto the movement. Definitely promising.

"Want to come on the dance floor?" Marco blinked at him. "It looks like the lesson is about to start." Ace pointed where the others were gathering around Iva and Bon.

"O-oh... right." Marco barely had a chance to answer before Ace grabbed his hand and pulled him over to where the others were clustered.

"Alright everyone! Let's get started. We're going to do a basic waltz today," Iva said, "Let's start off by getting into the basic position with your partner." Ace tuned out the instruction and tugged Marco closer, putting one hand on his shoulder and adjusting his grip on the hand he'd yet to let go of. Marco was even more unbalanced by the sudden movement than Ace had hoped and his palm landed squarely on Ace's ass.

"You've got the right idea, but I think it's supposed to go a little higher up." Ace smiled flirtatiously. "It's a shame, though."

Ace smirked at the flustered blond, who hastily corrected his grip but pulled him a bit closer than Bon-chan was demonstrating with Iva, blushing madly. Marco regained his composure much faster than Ace expected, and leaned in to whisper in Ace's ear.

"Don't think you're the only one who can play that game, brat." His lips just brushed Ace's ear as he pulled away, at the same time his leg slide between Ace's, following the steps that Bon and Iva was describing to the class.

Ace had definitely underestimated ballroom dancing, but he should have known. Luffy's gifts always turned out to be the best.

Reviews are always appreciated ^^