I'm back with the third chapter, at last! I apologize for the very long waiting, but my work keeps me quite busy and I've been writing less and less as a result. I hope this chapter will have been worth the wait at any rate! Please, leave a review ;)
Life was horrible.
Also he was never going to trust Izo with his problems again. The little bastard had actually gone and blabbed to anyone who cared to listen that Marco had love problems. It was just a fucking pity that the only two people who had cared to listen to Izo's brilliant news were also the nosiest most annoying brothers he had. Namely Thatch and Jozu.
As a result he had spent the past few days avoiding the two horrors to escape the snide comments, knowing looks and probes to reveal more about the object of his affections. Izo had at least had the decency not to mention it was Luffy.
By the time Saturday and the promised shopping trip with his Asian brother had rolled around, Marco had threatened to cancel more times than he could count and he was just thanking small mercies that Haruta and Vista – number 3 and 5 respectively on the top ranking of busybodies – had been too preoccupied with work and paperwork to hear Izo's revelations.
He hadn't cancelled the shopping trip in the end. Partly to escape Izo imitation – very good imitation – of a Banshee and partly because the shopping trip had initially been meant as an apology for missing Izo's birthday party a month before on accounts of a last minute business trip. So there he was, Saturday morning, freezing his ass off while he waited for Izo to arrive. It wasn't an especially nice day. Not to mention the temperature had dropped suddenly a few days ago.
It was one of the many downsides of living on the Grand Line, which was known for its unpredictable, and at times dangerous, weather. Almost every winter started as a huge slap in the face. This year they had lost twenty degrees in one day and Marco hadn't quite recovered from the drop. He was a child of the South. He could deal with warmth. Not so much with cold.
He blew hot air on his fingers, cursing at Izo and his chronic tardiness. He could call it 'fashionably late' all he wanted, it was still fucking rude to those who were left waiting for him. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat and started an internal rant about how much he actually hated his brother sometimes, all the time. He had just gotten to the part where he was swearing to himself that he would never bother going out with Izo ever again – ignoring the fact that he had made that exact oath to himself before – when the Asian crossdresser finally deigned to make an appearance.
"Morning!" Izo positively chirped at the blonde.
Marco glared.
"I'm not even that late!" Izo protested anticipating the accusation.
Marco pointedly checked his watch.
"You're exactly twelve minutes and forty-five seconds late. You could miss the end of the world with that kind of delay."
"Oh shut up." Izo muttered affectionately, slipping his arm through Marco's and pulling him along the grey street. "Doesn't the weather feel Christmasy?"
"It feels like absolute hell and I'm considering seasonal migration."
"Oh come on!" Izo countered animatedly. "You can't tell me you don't like winter. It has Christmas! It has New Year's!"
Marco grunted.
Izo sighed.
"Would it make you feel better if we started with a hot chocolate?"
Mollified, Marco nodded and let himself be pulled along to a nearby café.
"News on the Luffy front?" Izo asked once they were seated with two steaming cups of hot chocolate in front of them.
"I've discovered he's actually amazing at avoiding people." Marco answered blandly.
"You haven't seen him at all?"
"Not a single hair."
"Impressive." Izo noted, sighing with satisfaction as he took a sip of his warm beverage.
Marco followed suit. An unknown fact about him was that he had a major sweet tooth. He didn't normally have much of an appetite for anything – the amount the D brothers ate was not only baffling to him it was also mildly sickening – but cakes were a different matter entirely. He could eat them by the dozen. So long as it was sugary he'd eat it whole in record time. It was actually impressive that Thatch who knew everything about everyone's eating habits hadn't found out about it yet. It was less surprising that Izo had noticed as nothing escaped the man for long.
"Well I'm sorry to say you might not see him for a while longer. I hear a blizzard is coming this way. They don't know how bad it'll be but if it's anything like our usual ones we might end up stuck at home for a few days."
Marco looked up at his brother in surprise.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked.
"Ace knows a girl whose sister is talented at telling the weather. Apparently."
"Uh."
"He was a bit evasive about both the girl and the sister but he seemed pretty sure of himself when he told me."
Marco grunted.
A blizzard. Exactly what he fucking needed.
"If I thought you had any potential for sympathy, I'd ask you to kill me now." he muttered hollowly.
To be fair, Izo made a very good attempt at it in the next few hours, if only death by shopping was an actual thing. Marco certainly felt on the verge of death by the time they were coming out of the fifteenth shop. Thankfully, Izo mercifully decided at that point that they had done enough shopping for one day.
They parted at the bus station, Izo jumping onto a bus that would take him back to the docks where the dormitories were located, while Marco opted to walk back, as his flat was only fifteen minutes away. Besides, if Ace's shady contact was right and there was a blizzard, he would need to stock up more canned foods and other essentials, which meant stopping by the supermarket on his way home.
He sighed. Sometimes, he really felt the universe was against him.
Clearly it wasn't enough that he was suffering from intense emotional pain because Luffy was avoiding him, there also had to be a blizzard which would inevitably make the wait longer. God. This was all so fucked up. He was starting to think he should forsake drinking altogether. If it was going to cause so much trouble it would be for the best.
As he stepped into his local supermarket, his traitorous thoughts brought him back to the night that had started it all. Was it bad that he didn't regret doing what he had done? Of course, it wasn't like he could regret feeling so much pleasure making love to the person he had liked for so long. There would be something wrong with him if he did. He did regret the circumstances in which it had happened though. He wished he could make it better, mend things with Luffy, but he was starting to think he was never going to see the boy again.
So maybe he was a little bit depressed, he thought as he mechanically filled his basket with canned soups and other long-lasting foods. But he had very good reasons to be, he told himself firmly, standing in front of the cashier, as the male scanned his items with the speed of a lethargic snail. The slowness of the process was almost hypnotizing and Marco found himself staring fixedly at the man's hand. He snapped out of it just in time to give the man the exact amount of money required – he didn't even want to know how long it would take for the guy to give him change.
Once that was done, he gladly left the premises. He turned to head towards his flat and found himself staring at Luffy's hunched figure. The boy hadn't seen him, he had a hand on the wall, potentially to help keep himself upright, and the other was clutching his stomach. Marco could only barely make out his face and for a second he thought he'd make a mistake because Luffy wouldn't be so close to his flat after avoiding him for so long.
Then the boy lifted his eyes and jumped in surprise as he met Marco's blue gaze. He made a movement as if to run away but Marco was faster and before Luffy could disappear from his sight once again he grabbed the boy's hand.
He wanted to say 'don't run away' or even 'what happened to your face' – a very ugly bruise was forming on the boy's left cheek – but his throat felt oddly constricted and no matter how many times he tried to address the boy nothing came out. It unfortunately didn't help that Luffy was stubbornly refusing to meet his eye again. Marco tightened his grip around Luffy's fingers, noting absently that they were cold as ice and that not only was Luffy not wearing gloves he was also wearing a very thin coat that couldn't be much help considering the dreadfully low temperature.
"Luffy." Marco began intending to suggest they go back to his place and warm Luffy up – in a perfectly platonic way – before anything else.
He never got to finish because at that moment the alarm signalling an impending weather turmoil began blaring. Marco winced as he usually did when he heard the awful wailing. It was a perfectly horrid sound but it had the merit of being anywhere in the city. And it seemed Ace had been the right about the blizzard. He muttered a curse under his breath and, without waiting a moment longer, he started dragging Luffy towards the apartment building he lived in.
A heavenly warmth greeted them as they passed the doors and made a beeline towards the elevator. Marco lived on the seventh floor and although he considered himself to be rather fit, he had given up on the stairs after the first time.
The ride in the elevator was as awkward as one could imagine. Luffy was still not saying a word and staring pointedly at the ground and Marco had lost his chance to smoothly let go of his hand, so here they were, holding hands while making every effort to avoid each other. It got so ridiculous that Marco decided to make an attempt at conversation but before he could find something suitable to say, the elevator stopped on the seventh floor.
They shuffled out and Marco briefly froze in front of his door. With one hand holding the grocery bag and the other holding Luffy's, he had none free to unlock the door and he wasn't sure what he should let go off. He remained uncertain until Luffy took the bag from him. Interpreting the gesture as a sign of impatience, Marco hurried to open the door to let them in.
Once inside, he turned to Luffy, intending to offer he took a warm bath but found himself staring instead. It had only been a couple of weeks since the last time they had seen each other but suddenly it felt like years. Luffy's hair was falling into his eyes, brushing the top of the bruise that was marring his pale skin. And Marco took it all in like it was the first breath of fresh air he'd had in forever. Absent-mindedly, he reached a hand to trace the scar under Luffy's eye. He was consumed by the desire to kiss him but the tenseness he could feel as he touched the boy stopped him. He took a shaky breath and turned away, letting the boy's hand go.
"You should take a bath." he said, taking back the grocery bag without looking at Luffy. "There are towels in the bathroom cupboard."
He fled into the kitchen, meaning to put the groceries away, but the tingle on the back of his neck told him that Luffy had followed him. He turned to look at him, feeling strangely vulnerable. Their eyes met and Marco felt his heart drop. Luffy looked on the verge of tears. His lips were tightly pressed together and there was a hopeless look in his eyes, as if he thought he had lost something for good. And it was tearing Marco apart to see him like that.
He would have wanted to take him in his arms and hold him but the memory of Luffy's body stiffening under his touch left him frozen in place. It was Luffy who crossed the distance between them, Marco's name leaving his lips in a soft murmur. And before Marco knew what was happening, he was holding Luffy flush against him, the boy's arms wrapped around his neck and pulling him in a deep kiss.
Marco kissed back on instinct, unable to concentrate on Luffy's lips when his fingers were tracing the boy's hip, his thumb drawing circles on the soft skin, when the sound of the boy's heart – or maybe it was his own? – was drumming in his ears. His other hand slid down Luffy's spine making the boy moan against Marco's mouth, and all the man could think of was that he had to make it happen again.
They parted and Marco looked down at the boy. Luffy's face was flushed, his eyes dazed and his lip wet. He was breathing a little harder than usual and his lips were still parted as if he was waiting to receive the next kiss. It hit Marco suddenly that he would never be able to let go of something so perfect.
Then Luffy called his name as if questioning why he had stopped and he could only bend down to kiss him again, indulging the desires of the beautiful boy in his arms.
