"Alright, let's get going-"
"Ace…"
The Fire fist sighed, turning around with a bit of a pout. He was so excited now, going out and seeing everyone and announce their biggest, well, announcement. Ace frowned, though, when he looked back, meeting Marco's eyes as he stood up from his seat at the desk with an unsure gaze. Was he still nervous?
Granted, Marco had every right to be. It was only yesterday he'd discovered this egg he'd laid and had gone through a stressful day from hell trying to hide it and avoid being caught. Only to have Ace find out later in one of the most embarrassing ways possible and now, just like that, he was alright with it and ready to just show their odd offspring off to the world. Of course it made him nervous, he was old and had wisdom and shit, but he'd never went around and told anyone about this kind of thing. It had to be done right!
He averted his eyes down to where Ace had tucked their small, odd yet cute, offspring. Dammit, this was hard. It was unexpected, to say the least, how accepting the firefist had been about all of this. He'd only known the egg for a night now and he was already totally wrapped around it's figurative finger, enthusiastic of what it could be. So it was only natural that now he wanted to go out and tell their family, the crew.
But even if Ace was alright with it and Izo didn't seem to mind after a few embarrassing laughs, what would the whole crew's real reaction be? Would they be just as accepting? Of course they would have to let the old man know about this first. He really should have known that when Ace found out about this, there was no keeping it a secret any longer. This was going to be known regardless. Still, he didn't want Ace's fun to be ruined because of his concerns. He sighed and moved his eyes to the Fire fist's pocket.
"I don't think it's safe in there, yoi." He thought on the fly, though it was true, he could just picture the many different ways Ace could forget about it and sit down without thinking about it and smash the poor thing. "Let's just keep it here for now."
If anything, that only made Ace childishly pout more. "What? Why? Marco, this is our kid! Don't you want to show the little guy off?" He slipped his hand back in his pocket, taking it out and cradling it close to his face, as if Marco couldn't resist the amount of cute. "Come on, they'll love 'em."
It was cute, the way Ace already referred to it sometimes as either gender, but Marco wished he wouldn't get so attached since it wasn't going to be a child just yet. It was an egg after all, nothing was set in stone if it would be anything. That heat that could be felt could mean anything.
"Ace, you know I've got to go and tell pops. He has a right to know before anyone else."
Ace sighed. Marco was right about that, the old man might be a little crushed if they went around announcing it and not knowing. Besides, would he even let them keep it? He had enough faith in his adoptive father that he knew Whitebeard wouldn't let anything bad happen to it, it was the fact if he would even let them have some type of kid on the Moby Dick. Children weren't often seen on pirate ships, the Whitebeard fleet included.
The Fire fist looked back down at the egg in his hand, massaging his thumb up against it for a moment while he pondered before he walked right past his bird lover and plopped down onto the bed, holding the egg up to the light still and glancing over at Marco.
The phoenix rose his eyebrow slightly at his change in demeanor. Why was he even surprised anymore, it had only taken him a while to get that close to Ace, but already he was attached to that egg. He sighed, this ought to be interesting.
"Alright, fine, go talk to him. Me and the little guy will be here waiting for ya."
"You're going to stay inside with our egg, and not go to lunch? What do you take me for, yoi?"
"I'm not going to leave him alone." Ace explained, his tone a little more serious. "It's not going to be by itself."
Ace wasn't going to leave it alone in their room. Marco could worry about him maybe accidentally sitting on it all he wanted, but it would eat him alive to think that his offspring, even if they didn't know what it was, was somewhere alone on its own without him. He wanted it by him at all times.
Marco could empathize with his feelings. He was the mother to this egg, after all. He loved Ace and that was probably the very reason he wasn't in his phoenix form with his talons in his eyes, the way that his jealousy boiled in his stomach that he was spending more time with the egg than he himself was. Of course, he wasn't going to do that and he respected Ace enough not to press on the subject. It wasn't often that tone of voice slipped into the younger man's words.
So the phoenix just shrugged in a 'suit yourself' manor before walking over to the door and beginning to open it.
"Alright then, yoi. Watch it closely and don't freaking sleep on it. I'll be back and then we can…" he paused, his eyes shifting because he couldn't believe he was actually about to say this. "We can show the egg off."
Ace spread his lips back into a super excited grin and he let out a chuckle at Marco's expression, which was that a tiny spread of red? "It's gonna be fun~"
0
Marco honestly hoped Ace would be right about that, that it would indeed be fun because as he stood outside pop's bedroom door it was anything but fun. He was freaking out. How was he supposed to tell his adopted father he was actually now sort of a grandfather? It was bad enough trying to get enough courage to approach him and tell him about his and Ace's relationship and ask for some sort of blessing. They were lucky it was apparently painfully obvious and he already knew or else his feelings might have been hurt they kept him out of the loop for so long.
Well, not this time. He could know all the horrifying and embarrassing details if he wanted. Or more so if Marco could even bring himself to say it. He took a deep breath, glaring at the wood of the door before lifting up his hand, practicing sentences in his head of how he would go about this. Unfortunately, no matter how he tried to imagine it in his head, there wasn't really a correct way to go about it. So he just knocked and listened to the 'gurarara' of his father's laugh, knowing there was no turning back now.
He opened the door, shooting the older man a polite smile before closing it behind him and approaching him. This was going to be so freaking humiliating.
"Oyaji," he started off pretty casual. "Good morning."
Oyaji towered over Marco from his place where he was resting, a calm and serene expression on his face that could only mean the nurses had him doped up on something extra good today. He gave a small nod then really opened his eyes to take a good look at his son.
"What is it, Marco?" the old man questioned, since there was only a handful of reasons his first commander would come and visit him out of the blue like this.
Which only made Marco internally squirm. Here he was, ignoring his duty as first commander to come and talk personal with Whitebeard. But this was important too, was it not? Oyaji deserved to know since it happened on his ship and whatever hatched out of the egg would ultimately reside here, hopefully.
There must have been a slight change of emotion on his face because Marco hadn't even responded yet and he just seemed to know something was bothering him. He let out a deep breath.
"Marco," His eyes met the phoenix's. "You can tell me anything."
Dammit. Definitely no bullshitting about the crew's activities to get out of it now. But as much as Marco just wanted to get it out on the table, there wasn't a right way to say this. At least Izo guessed it with some hinting and Ace… Ace just kind of knew somehow on his own, but still. Well, someone had once said that honesty was the best policy.
"Oyaji…" Marco clenched his teeth, taking a deep breath. "I laid an egg yesterday."
The larger man's eyebrow rose. An egg? That obviously wasn't something he'd ever expected to hear about. He was expecting something a lot different and more pressing to be bothering his first commander besides this. Though it did make sense with his particular fruit that perhaps it was able to happen.
"You don't usually lay eggs?"
Marco couldn't help it, that made his eyebrow twitch. "Oi, no, Oyaji, this has never happened before! Should I keep it, toss it overboard? I don't know what to do with it, yoi. Can I really keep an egg like this?"
Whitebeard just sighed, settling his chin in his hand and watching his poor son ruffle his feathers in flustered rambling.
"What has Ace said?"
The top of Marco's cheeks slightly warmed at just thinking of how Ace had been reacting, how affectionate he was already to the odd egg and calling it his own and wanting nothing more than for it to be safe. It was so endearing, but of course he wasn't going to tell Oyaji that. He just averted his eyes a moment.
"He's in there trying to pick a name for it."
"Then I think you already know what to do," Oyaji pointed out.
Marco pressed his lips together and relaxed where he stood. Old man was right, hell he knew he was right and he really did want to keep it. Just in the back of his mind he couldn't help the thought that any offspring he and Ace could have would be safer off ship or it could be a liability. But damn, he wanted to be selfish and keep it to himself. Just imagining Ace cuddling with it or learning more about it without him was getting him major jealousy feels again.
And the old man wasn't giving any orders on what he should do with it specifically, so he took that as a freedom to do what he seemed fit. Which was to go back to his egg and try and explain this to everyone else and hopefully, just maybe, one of Moby Dick's physicians could find out what's inside their egg.
"You'll be a great parent, Marco." Whitebeard grinned from where he rested, having watched as his first mate drifted off into his mind to worry.
Marco looked up at him, slightly confused for being pulled out of his train of thought, but then a warm smile graced his face that mimicked that of his father's. No matter what happened, his support was much more important than anyone else's.
0
Around the same time on the other side of the Moby Dick, inside the cafeteria, there was a certain ruckus. Ace had banged his hand against the table to get everyone's attention and stepped onto his seat so that he was standing. Next he climbed onto the table itself, getting as high as he could on his own and grinned at the wail he heard from an annoyed Thatch who'd just washed them this morning.
"Alright you, lollygaggers," he announced, excitement fueling his words. "I've got an announcement to make."
Izo just stared for a long moment before giving a slight sigh. Boys. He took his napkin, folding it and settling it into his lap. He was happy for Marco that he let Ace in about their new offspring, but as he also noticed Marco didn't seem to be around anywhere. He was literally going to shit bricks when he found out this was going down and no way in hell would Izo be missing that show. He elegantly picked up his silverware and continued his breakfast, oblivious to his crewmates who circled around Ace in their curiosity.
"You guys want to know something amazing?" he asked his crowd of friends, who of course were growing impatient. "I'm going to be a father."
Now that caused a confusion. Their Ace, going to be a dad? But wasn't he shacking up with their first commander? Izo nearly choked on his first bite. Really Ace, he just out and said it like that? Did that mean they figured out what was in it? Or worse… Izo could practically imagine Ace prying the thing open to get a look see inside.
Thatch's eyes were wide and he slid in the seat next to Izo, knowing his okama had to have some answers. He was a gossip who was always on edge for some new information to spill, so seeing him here unaffected it could only mean he already knew what was going on.
"What the hell is he talking about? Izo, do you know what's going on with this?" he asked, furrowing his brows and leaning in closer.
The okama lifted his hand and lightly pushed him back by his pompadour.
"Just wait, he'll be pulling out the baby pictures next," he sighed, totally imagining a dozen tiny squares with pictures of eggs on them being tossed into the crowd.
Ace was eating up the attention and trying to answer some of the more basic questions that were being thrown at him. "Proof? You wanna see proof huh? Well how about this?"
He reached into his pocket, his fingers brushing up against the smooth and cool surface to his sweet child and he cuffed it into his hand. He pulled it out, turning it inward towards him so he could give it a soft smile and a silent word of affection before extending his arm up high and showing it for all to see.
"This here is my egg," he explained. "And me and Marco are going to be loving parents."
Marco just happened to step into the cafeteria at the perfect time to see it all go down. He'd gotten curious on his way back to his room at the extra noise from the cafeteria, but he had not been expecting at all to walk in on Ace, holding and presenting their child like an offering to the sky. His face was on fire in moments as the Fire fist finally brought his egg down to give some of their comrades a closer look to it and his dark eyes found Marco in the door way.
"Marco! Come here!" Ace boasted across the hall to his lover, prompting everyone to look over at his shocked expression.
So much for a subtle announcement about the whole thing. No, why do that, please Ace just go ahead and announce to the whole crew that their first commander has been taking it up the rear and laying eggs everywhere. Marco wanted to curl up in a ball and die, but he couldn't. He was the Whitebeard pirates first commander. He forced himself to find composure and glared ahead at Ace before walking over passing where Thatch had begun to pat Izo on the back to help him not choke from trying to drink water while seeing Marco's arriving expression at the same time.
"Ace," Marco called out to the younger man calmly, approaching him and looking down at his egg he cradled in both his hands.
Ace looked up at him with his eager grin. "Look, they all love him, what did I tell you. What did Oyaji think?"
Marco kept reminding himself in his mind he was supposed to be angry, he couldn't just stop being angry because of how happy and excited Ace was, this was uncalled for or something. He reached out and cuffed the egg, picking it up carefully and bringing it back over to himself. He stroked it lightly with a finger affectionately, checking to make sure it was still okay to his standards before hiding it away back safely into his sash. Then he looked back up to its father.
"We need to talk, Ace."
This was a birthday present for Sigrid a while ago but I never got around to posting it cause I was nervous! MyLadyDay was so kind and sweet enough to not only share her birthday story with her (they are two peas in a pod but where am I OTL) but beta this chapter as well! Sorry for being a coward everyone and making you wait, I hope you enjoy it regardless!