Hey folks! Next chapter here! This one stays all in Marco's PoV, a feat that I don't think appears again in such a long chapter anytime soon. But anyway, enjoy!
Thatch dropped by Marco's apartment the next day, relaying an important piece of information that had apparently slipped his mind last night. Marco had to pause the fight he was in to answer the door, which left him in a worse mood than before it.
"Hey, forgot to tell you yesterday, but the guy with Ace is joining the team. Mainly just for ferrying purposes for the minute, but once that's done, I want you to teach him how to wait tables. I would ask Koala, but she refused, saying she needs to work on her lawyer case. So, can you do it? Can you?" Marco really should've been immune to puppy faces by now, but somehow Thatch's managed to get through his cuteness defense, and he agreed. Thatch's pleased face at the end was worth it, and Marco found himself saddened he didn't have a phone at hand to take a photo of it.
After spending way too much time playing Ultimate Adventure, Marco headed out to the animal centre. The place had always helped him calm down in the past, and the fact that today was his day in charge of the birds made it all the more sweeter. Don't get him wrong, he loved animals in general, but there was something majestic about the birds kept there. From their speed, to their plumage, the ones here were special. Well, to Marco at least.
He signed in, then put on his headphones and started cleaning out the cages, filling them with food and water as he did. He started on the budgies and moved upwards, ending at the majestic peacock affectionately named 'Showoff'.
Marco himself loved Showoff, his feathers always pristine and glowing, especially when he strutted around with them. He could watch those feathers for ages, but he had other things to attend to. Namely, the birds of prey.
Again, he went round in size order, done by meat. He started with the kestrels and red kites and their voles, went around to the owls, with their… whatever it was that morning. The owls didn't seem to have a stable food like all of the other animals, which was strange, but Marco rolled with it. Today's menu seemed to be mouse. After that, he went around to the peregrine falcons, which his hoverbike was named after. They had some rabbit, as did the smaller eagles, plus a random otter who had somehow snuck in. (the otter had the food, not the eagles having an otter for food). After that, the sea eagles had some tuna, and the condors a large slab of beef between them. The vultures… he had no idea what they were given. Quite a lot of different things seemingly.
Once he'd done that, he lay on the floor near Showoff and began sorting through his head, which took way too long to do in his opinion.
—
At 7 the next morning, he was up at the Wyvern, incredibly glad for the extra manoeuvrability on Peregrine after Ace fixed her up. The added speed and cornering meant he could have a longer lie-in by 20 minutes, which was a good trade-off in Marco's opinion. He was still pretty tired, but nowhere near as bad as he has been on his other shift days. After all, the tiredness only seemed to disappear for short bursts of time, and occasionally a large part of the day was spent trying not to land head-first in someone's fry-up. What, did you think his bored expression was just that? No, it was his way of hiding when he was way too tired. 'If you don't ever open your eyes fully, no-one will think you're hiding the fact you are tired' was one of Marco's favourite bad quotes, if only because it fitted him, his personality and his face shape to a 't'.
Thatch appeared with the keys, and Marco had to 'very gently' shove his way to the front of the 3-person queue. Thatch's cooking was amazing and could probably destroy the world with its amazing taste, and he wanted to be the first to get some. Plus, he was the man's brother, surely he deserved a hint of kindness.
"Hey guys! Food's ready, so come in!" Was heard a moment later from Thatch. The three hungry people came in and sat down at the table in the middle of the kitchen, which happened to be the only space not covered in plastic wrap. Thatch had really gone overboard with the floor protection.
After they had all eaten, the new guy with surprising speed, almost as fast as Ace's, Thatch assigned them jobs for the day. Marco and the new guy were clearing out the top floor. It had been abandoned for years, who knew how much shit had been left to waste there?
—
After day one, the two were finished clearing the top floor out. They did however need a skip to get all the stuff away from the Wyvern. The windows were also taken out, replaced with sliding doors, as Marco realised that everyone could freeze in winter if they left the place open-air all year round.
Sabo was a nice guy. Witty, charming and also caring once you got into his good graces. Marco was glad Ace had him, even if he was secretly jealous of the guy. He'd just have to cope.
Speaking of Ace, he appeared twice a week, either with Tori and the rest of the Wepril mechanics, or on his own. Both times it was Sabo who served them, and Ace and Sabo were so open about their relationship that Marco couldn't help but feel a small part of him break inside. Sabo… that name seemed familiar, but he couldn't think why.
And so, Marco braced himself for a small bit of heartbreak every Monday and Thursday, while keeping his poker face firmly on. He could probably be an actor next, if the jobs he was currently in went south. He would be able to star in a romantic tragedy. God knew he felt like he was in one now.
—
Tori rang up Thatch somewhere in the week, asking after Marco.
"He seems fine to me, why?" Thatch's reply came.
"I don't know… There just seems to be a forcedness between him and Sabo. I don't know why. Could you check up on him please?" Thatch smiled softly. Ace really had been a good addition to the Wyvern. Marco now had more people around him that cared, and Ace came around more often, but was served by Sabo… again, the realisation on Thatch's face was amazingly obvious but this time it was tinted by a sense of horror.
"Shit, Tori! I just remembered! I forgot to tell Marco that Sabo is Ace's brother!"
A confused reply came from the other end of the phone, "I don't see what that has to do with Marco…"
"Marco doesn't know the two are brothers, and you know what those two brothers do? They touch, hug, whisper in each other's ears, tease about crushes! But Marco can never get the context from the other side of the room, so…"
"He thinks the two are in love!" Tori yelled quietly. Thatch hummed in confirmation.
"So how to fix this?" He asked.
"Operation 'Sabo-is-not-Ace's-boyfriend' is go!"
—
On Saturday, Marco drove over to the location Ace texted him the night before. Ace and Tori were doing their systems check that day, and he hoped Ace hadn't forgotten that he had promised Marco a go at piloting the Jack.
When he arrived, he was greeted with an empty field with some trees in, and so decided to camp out in a tree. It was surprisingly easy to climb and comfortable.
After 10 minutes, the Jack glided down to the ground, and Marco hopped out of his tree (what could he say, he was possessive), in case it was blown up while he was still there. When he got out, Ace did a double take at his sudden appearance, while Tori screamed. And then got laughed at by the other two people there, because his reaction was funny as hell.
"Hey! I have every right to be surprised! People don't just pop out from nowhere like that!" Ace agreed, but still laughed anyway.
Marco then explained he had been sitting in a tree for the last 10 minutes waiting for the two to arrive, and that if they were actually looking they would've seen his bright blue and yellow hoverbike about 10 metres from said tree. The two looked to where Marco was pointing at his hoverbike, which was exactly as described, and had the decency to look sheepish. Once Marco was done chuckling at their expense, Ace asked,
"So, would you like a tour?" Marco agreed, and they spent a good half an hour going through everywhere inside the Jack, with Ace and Tori checking everything worked, and Marco seriously feeling like a deadweight.
That feeling stopped when they reached the cockpit, and Marco gasped in awe. The inside was bright red compared to the grey of everywhere else. In the centre there were two chairs, one with Ace's name on it, the other with Tori's. Ace's had two joysticks, one on each side. Tori had a set of buttons which slid round when he sat down to come in front of him. There was another joystick with a large button next to it, then a series of smaller ones underneath it, labelled flamethrowers.
Ace was standing next to him, a smirk plastered on his face. "You like it? It was my design, and I got the guys to help me make it!" His face lit up with nostalgia, then dimmed again. "But that was before…"
"Stop talking like we're dead!" Tori interrupted Ace's nostalgia from the other side of the cockpit.
"Sometimes I still hear their voices…" he trailed off, and Marco suppressed the urge to laugh. These two acted a bit like Benn and Shanks, their antics were pretty similar after all. There was enough of a difference between Ace and Shanks that Marco could fall in love with one of them though. Heavens forbid he fell for Shanks! He would forever be ashamed by his bad tastes then!
"Anyway, you want a go?" Ace's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"If you would -yoi." Ace nodded and left the cockpit to set some things up, and Marco got into his chair. Tori got into his, because apparently it needed both sears filled to lift off. Marco then eased the Jack upwards, marvelling at the smoothness.
Not that the Phoenix wasn't smooth, there was just a point where he and Thatch were shoved violently into their seats as it kicked off. Marco had been tensing in preparation, but it never came, which he was glad for.
Ace had placed some targets around the field, aided by his own hoverbike which had come from… somewhere. According to Tori, they were going to fly past each and shoot it with the lazer. Marco set off for the one furthest away at top speed, to test it out. It was much faster than he had expected, and a trip that from his estimates would've taken about 10 seconds only took 6. Tori just about fired at the target before they were onto the next one.
Marco turned a sharp curve and the Jack was flipped on one side for a while. During that time, 3 of the targets were hit, and a loud laugh, almost reaching a cackle, had erupted from Marco. It was fun pulling stunts in not just the Phoenix. After all, if one got too accustomed to one thing, they developed problems that they wouldn't notice otherwise.
Marco righted the Jack, only to double back on himself to avoid a tree, flipping the mech upside down. Tori was having a visibly difficult time shooting the targets now that he was doing it much faster than he was used to and upside down to boot, so Marco lowered the Jack to a bit nearer the floor. That way the lazer was closer to the place it would normally be when the right way up. Tori was a bit better after that.
Once the last target was destroyed, Marco landed the Jack and lowered the ramp so that Tori could get out quickly. He followed behind the vaguely motionsick electrician at a more leisurely pace.
"So? How'd I do -yoi?" Marco asked, a hint of smugness in his tone.
Ace seemed torn between playing it cool and fanboying for all he was worth. Eventually the cool side cracked, and Ace spewed words at him.
"Uh, a bit slower -yoi? I couldn't hear any of that, sorry."
"Oh, sorry. Well, are you sure you haven't done anything like this before, because all the moves you made with the Jack looked really damn precise! Also, how did you get it on one side so fast? It took me ages and ages to do that, then you just come in all of a sudden and do it straight off the bat! Also, I think you broke Tori. He looked really green when he got out…"
"Oops -yoi? I guess I got a bit carried away there, sorry. Thatch can normally take it, so I forgot to tone it down -yoi. As for your question… well, let's just say I have a lot of practise with flying and drone controls," Ace looked suspiciously at Marco, but shrugged it off.
"Ha! And Sabo says having you as my authority on mechs is stupid!" Any good mood Marco had had was immediately dampened by that one throwaway comment. That's right. Sabo. The guy he could never measure up to in Ace's eyes.
"Yeah, well, thanks for having me -yoi. You know where to find me if you need me!" Marco waved as he walked over to his hoverbike and flew away, leaving Ace mildly confused.
(Behind a tree, Tori saw the whole scene unfold. The situation really was dire if Marco got depressed from one mention of someone's name. He texted Thatch about the problem which was spiralling out of control. He hoped Thatch sorted it out soon enough. The two dumbasses deserved to be together, after all.)
—
Marco returned to his apartment later that day, disheartened by that one mention of Sabo. His solution, of course, was to play Ultimate Adventure while eating pizza and beer. He had been at it for an hour at least when his door opened. Not by force though, which prompted him to call out, "What is it, Thatch -yoi?" Thatch, for some unknown reason, was the only person with Marco's house key except Marco himself.
"Well, you seemed down, so I came to check up on you. So, you ok?" Thatch asked.
"Not really -yoi. You know Ace? I think I might be in love with him -yoi. Great guy, funny, and also cute when embarrassed, which is always good to look at. But one problem -yoi. He has a boyfriend, called Sabo, which sounds familiar from somewhere—"
"Marco!" Thatch interrupted, only to be ignored.
"And I've literally never seen Ace happier. So I guess I'm just crushing on this one really damn hot guy who also happens to have a boyfriend -yoi. I mean seriously. Why him, why not me -yoi? Sure, I've only known Ace for a couple of weeks but still why? What's so special about him -yoi?"
"Marco! Li-" Thatch was cut off again.
"Not to mention whilst I'm going through this I now have to work with Sabo every day and pretend to be nice when I'm really breaking inside. Then Ace comes in twice a week and it's so obvious he's in love and I just have to stand and watch and it's killing me -yoi. Seriously Thatch." He sighed despondently.
"MARCO! Ace doesn't have a boyfriend! Sabo's his brother! Seriously! I've been trying to get you to listen the entire rant-thing you just went on!" Thatch yelled. Marco blinked twice, then regained his senses.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier then? I spent ages being depressed over this -yoi! Now get out before I kick you out of this window!"
Thatch left, as he didn't want to be kicked out of the 5th storey window, and Marco had a small party in his room to celebrate Ace being single. Thatch tried to come back in, but Marco kicked him down the hall.
All in all, a good end to a Saturday.
So, what do you think? I'd love to know any improvements you can think of!
Animal facts and most of Marco's mini-rant-thing provided by Lioness66, a great friend (even if they're the most annoying idiot this side of Birmingham!
The real reason Marco knows so much about drone piloting is because when planning Phoenix, he toyed around with a drone prototype for a while. He then deemed it too hard to handle, and came up with the current piloting system!
Reviews, favourites and follows always appreciated!