Sup!
So this should have been published last week if not for unfortunate loss of internet I suffered last Monday after a storm. Worst week of my life, if you ask me...

Anyhow, the answer to the little contest from last chapter is Greys Anatomy and the first person who got it was LeiaGrey who sent me a PM. She will appear in the next chapter (or the one after that, I'm not sure if I'll manage to squeeze her in someplace next chappie).

Oh, fun fact. While I was browsing FF from my phone, I found a story called Seven Days in NaruSasu fandom (yeah, I was that bored). I started reading it, but it turned out that the author was just writing the manga down, changing the names of the characters and I have to say that I liked mine better XD

Still beta'ed by aqua-empress... I should be embarrased that I still don't know how to spell the name and have to check every time.

Disclaimer: not mine.

Song of the chapter: The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit.

PS. Some of you might hate me for this chapter, hehehe XD

Marco tried to suffocate himself with one of his pillows. This was ridiculous. He refused to believe that yesterday really happened. Marco stifled a moan, turning around and trying the other pillow, in case it worked better for his suicidal ideas. His alarm was going to ring in ten minutes and that meant getting up and going to school and, most likely, meet Ace… Marco started banging his head against the pillow, cursing anything and everything.

He noticed that Ace acted weirdly when they left the bandits, but didn't pay much attention to it, especially not when Ace was climbing right in front of him, providing an amazing view of that ass of his… Marco covered his head with the first pillow, hoping that two pillows would work better. When they climbed up and when Ace turned around, his cock twitched with interest at the way his kouhai was looking at him. Then… He had no explanation or excuse for what happened next. Marco tried to stop, but when Ace whined and pulled him back, he blanked out completely and when dry-humping Ace into a tree wasn't enough he actually tried to take his kouhai's jeans off. Fortunately Ace came around and successfully prevented it, but Marco wasn't able to look him in the eye after that. As if that wasn't enough, his stupid brain kept replaying each and every second of that all the way to his house and, to make things even better, he spent the whole night reliving that moment in the woods.

The alarm went off and Marco jumped, staring at it in absolute horror. He hesitantly moved his hand and turned it off and rolled on his back with a desperate sigh. The thing worse than encountering Ace at school was the fact that Robin would know right after seeing his face. Add Ace's reaction (whatever it may be, though Marco seriously suspected that he'll run away the second he'll notice him) and it would be disturbingly clear. Even for the people who weren't Robin.

He literally rolled of the bed, falling on the floor in hopes of breaking something that might grant him a day away from school. Yeah, Marco could easily admit that he was a coward if that gave him a day off or, at the very least, teleported him to Antarctica. At least there won't be any incredibly fuckable kouhais and overly perceptive friends. Just some penguins and some crazy researchers.

Marco got up from the floor and started to get dressed, completely ignoring his bulging problem. He sighed, shaking his head at another issue – his obvious lack of any kind of self-restraint. It seemed like it just packed and left for vacation on the Bahamas at the beginning of this week, taking his common sense with it for company. Rolling his eyes at his own stupidity, Marco went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He did that automatically as he stared at himself in the mirror, his bored reflection glaring back.

He rinsed his mouth and, after a final look into the mirror, he… Hold your horses. What the fuck was that? Marco stopped and carefully pulled away his collar, already knowing the answer. There, just above his left collarbone, was an angry red mark. He felt blush slowly creeping up his face, so he quickly covered the mark and hastily left the bathroom. He had no idea when that happened, mostly because… Marco shook his head violently. 'Bad idea, don't think about Ace,' he told himself.

Snatching his bag from the chair in his room, Marco went downstairs to the kitchen, trying to make as much noise as possible. As expected, he couldn't be even half as loud as Ace's brother, but, apparently, loud enough for seven of his brothers to tell him to stop making such a ruckus in such God forsaken hour. According to the clock it was only half past six, which Marco pointed out to each and every one who told him to be quiet. Seven out of seven told him to stick it and be quiet.

In the kitchen were Pops and Thatch, two only morning persons in their household. Even Marco (despite waking up early every day) hated mornings with a passion. He dropped his bag on one of the chairs around a small table for six (it was small compared to the table in the dining room which could have all of them sit down and eat at the same time) and went to the fridge to get some milk for cereal and coffee.

"Morning, kiddo," Pops said from behind his paper.

"Morning," Marco closed the fridge, located both cereal and milk on the table and went to get himself a bowl and a spoon.

"Do I need to know?" Pops asked, pointedly looking at Marco's knuckles. The blond looked at them as well, his hands looked much better than yesterday and, since he came home quite late, he didn't have to explain anything to Pops then.

"Er… Not really, no," Marco sat down and poured himself some breakfast.

"You would tell me if there was something wrong, right?"

"Yes," Marco nodded.

"You came home pretty late yesterday," Thatch said.

"Is there a curfew I'm not aware of?" Marco smirked.

"No, I'm just curious what you did yesterday, normally you'd be home relatively early and either occupy the couch or mull over your homework," Thatch countered.

"Just hung out with some friends," Marco shrugged.

"Friends, you say?" Thatch leaned over the table to pull Marco's collar away, but he caught his brother's hand before he could do so.

"Yes, friends," Marco glared at Thatch.

"If you say so," his brother sat back down with a laugh.

Marco rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair to reach for a mug to pour himself some coffee to the sound of Pops' chuckling at the antics of his sons.

"Will we get to meet these 'friends' of yours?" Thatch teased, receiving a glare from Marco instead of an answer. If Thatch noticed the mark quickly, it would take Robin about 0.001 second to do that as well and, given that she knew Marco very well as well as who he was dating this week, he was going to be interrogated thoroughly. Or not, depending on her mood she could just ask Ace 'a couple of questions'…

Marco sighed into his mug, becoming gloomier by the second. How the hell could he have lost control in a way that he didn't notice that he was marked? Granted, he wouldn't have noticed anything at all at that time because his brain didn't get enough blood for obvious reasons, but he had never gone so far as to leave marks on the person he was dating, much less allow them to mark him. He didn't doubt the fact that he marked Ace at all, in fact he was sure that Ace had a lot more than a single mark above his collarbone.

(^_^)

Ace was not trying to drown himself in his sink. Really, he wasn't. He just held his breath with his face in the sink full of cold water. The fact that he woke up before his alarm could be one of the signs of apocalypse approaching. He got lucky yesterday because his narcolepsy knocked him out the second his head touched the pillow because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to fall asleep.

He wasn't having an identity crisis, because, compared to what was troubling him, it was minor and insignificant. So what if he had the hottest make-out session ever with a guy yesterday? Who didn't? Take Zoro, for example. He was a runner-up for the hottest person in the school (with around 1000 students as his competition) and he had a boyfriend. And not just any boyfriend, it was Sanji, who, according to himself, was as straight as a very straight thing.

Ace surfaced, shaking his head and panting. No, the gender of the person didn't matter at all. What mattered, though, was who that person was. Ace glared at himself in the mirror. No, the gender didn't matter. Why would it if he was kissed within an inch of his life by Phoenix Marco! As in, officially the hottest person in the entire school, his judo captain and… yes, his boyfriend for the week. Ace immediately became bright red in the face. Yeah, he wasn't trying to drown himself in his sink.

With a sigh Ace repeated the procedure. After a short moment with his face in the water, he surfaced again and wiped his face with the towel he had around his neck. Ace slowly patted his face, stopping when his fingers reached his chin. He carefully moved the towel from around his neck and the effect was instantaneous – his face lit up like a Christmas tree, becoming tomato red in a second. Resisting the urge to repeat the unhelpful procedure, Ace forced himself to 'survey the damage'. Not one, not two, but six, SIX angry red marks on his neck. Where the fuck was Sabo with his make-up artist when Ace needed them? Right, not here.

With annoyed growl Ace pulled out the plug, draining the water. He then went to his room, angrily throwing the towel on a chair. He had to come up with a plan, one that would make him stay as far from sempai as possible because he wasn't sure if he'd survive any more humiliation. Yesterday was more than enough and if Nami and Robin would get any more crazy ideas, he'd just tell them to stick it. It worked for Zoro, why wouldn't it work for him?

Making sure that the coast was clear, Ace climbed under the table and took out his secret stash. It consisted mostly of candy and hiding in the city library doing homework sounded like a plan to him, so Ace quickly transferred some of the candy into his bag and hid the stash carefully. He didn't know why, but if he ate candy while studying everything made sense and stuck in his brain for a long time.

When Ace came downstairs Luffy was already waiting for him eagerly, so Ace went to the fridge to see what he could quickly throw together.

"You were at Dadan's yesterday?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah," after assessing the fridge Ace decided to quickly make some sandwiches, he wasn't in the mood to do anything more complicated.

"I can see that, there are some big-ass mosquitos in that forest," Luffy nodded.

"What?" Ace frowned, confused.

"Your neck, those were some giant mosquitos," Luffy pointed at the subject of the conversation.

"You have no idea," Ace muttered with a roll of his eyes. If only his friends at school would think those were mosquito bites.

"I do have an idea! How about we eat meat?"

"What is it about you and meat?" Ace sighed, the question was rhetorical, but Luffy answered it anyway:

"It's awesome!"

"Can't argue with that," Ace muttered.

"Right?" Luffy laughed loudly, making Ace extremely envious – his brother had probably only one thing on his mind – meat, and didn't have to worry about anything else, for example that he had to face a super-hot sempai (this had nothing to do with recent events, ask anyone at school, male or female, the answer would be just the same) with whom he got 'extra friendly' yesterday (that's to put it mildly).

(^_^)

Getting school was just short of painful. Marco half expected for Robin to pop up from behind some corner and give him that stupid all-knowing smile that Marco started to hate lately. Normally he didn't have any problem with the fact that he didn't have to speak in order for her to understand, in fact he liked it, but now, when he wanted some privacy, it was annoying as hell. He literally sneaked through school corridors wary of every single dark-haired female and male (which was about half the school) fully aware that this kind of paranoid behaviour was a) not like him, b) ridiculous and c) suspicious.

It turned out that he was paranoid for no reason at all – Robin came slightly late (which happened whenever they had a new exhibit at the museum her mom worked at) and Ace was nowhere to be seen. At least not where Marco walked, which was lucky. A thing that slipped Marco's mind (with all that internal digging and paranoia) was that his friend's attentive behaviour changed drastically whenever the new exhibit appeared - Robin was so excited about all the new artefacts that she didn't care about whatever was bothering Marco, too busy reading in some history book that seemed to weigh a ton. He didn't even try to talk to her, knowing that he'll be completely ignored.

Marco's resolve of being caffeine free for at least half a day crumbled right after his chemistry lesson, mostly because the teacher had extremely soothing voice, lulling the class into a sleepy haze. His reason for refusing caffeine was simple – whenever he went to cafeteria Ace was bound to be there somewhere, but unless he wanted to fall asleep in math he really needed that coffee. Even Robin put away her book with a sigh and tagged along with the rest of the class on their pilgrimage to the cafeteria despite being one of the tough ones.

To be honest, Marco had only a vague idea as to why he was avoiding Ace. Alright, he knew exactly why he was trying to avoid his kouhai and why he was right in the middle of the pack that his classmates formed. Because he didn't know what to expect. Not only that, he didn't know if he should expect anything or even why he was expecting something. He was disoriented and confused and he knew exactly why – this was not his usual weekly routine. Heck, nothing about this week was usual, not the person he was dating nor what they did and definitely not the behaviour. Forget his own lack of control, Marco never knew what to expect from Ace because whenever he thought he knew something Ace proved him wrong every single time.

He retreated from the cafeteria as soon as he got his coffee, hyper aware of his surroundings because Ace tended to run into him in the vicinity of the cafeteria. That didn't happen this time, leaving Marco's day relatively Ace-free so far. He still wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing, despite being fully aware that he couldn't avoid his kouhai forever and sooner or later they'll run into each other (if not today, or even tomorrow, they still had training on Saturday). A giant part of Marco really hoped it'll be later rather than sooner and the smaller part scowled at him for being such a paranoid coward.

Still wary of everyone around him Marco made his way back to his homeroom, closely followed by Robin. Next lesson was double math and both Marco and Robin were in the advanced class, like most of their classmates so that they didn't have to change the classroom. It was one of Marco's favourite subjects probably because math came naturally to him and he didn't have to work on it as much as, for example, biology. In fact it was so easy for him that the teacher had to give him university level material because he finished the textbook the class worked with sometime last year. He would have been proud if not for the fact that Robin could easily substitute the history teacher. The problem with that was that Marco was very ambitious and competitive and, seeing that Robin left him biting the dust when it came to how good they were at their best subjects, it pissed him off. It made little sense because Robin was going to study history after graduation and he wasn't planning on being math professor in some university ten years from now, but it left him feeling like he was in second place and Marco hated being second. What more, Robin knew about Marco's 'little' competitive streak and often teased him about it.

Since today seemed to be on Marco's side so far, the math wasn't hard to do. Although it might have had something to do with the fact that he came at it as if it personally offended his family. Even the teacher was surprised when he stopped to check how Marco was doing.

"Are you planning on finish this book today?" the teacher asked with a smile.

"No?" Marco answered as he quickly scribbled down numbers and checked if the answer was correct.

"Sure looks that way. You are sure you don't want to study math after graduation?"

"I have no intention to do that whatsoever," Marco didn't even look up from his textbook – this wasn't the first time the teacher asked that and he suspected that it won't be the last.

"I just want you to think about it."

"I already did. Math won't make money," it wasn't the first time Marco answered that.

"Just think about it."

"Mhm."

Marco rolled his eyes when the teacher moved on to check on other students. If anything, the teacher was persistent because he's been pestering Marco about it probably since he started at Enies Lobby. And he wasn't trying to finish the book, he was just… focusing on something instead of a very frustrating kouhai. Because, unlike math, he did not understand Ace at all.

Marco clenched his pencil angrily – his mind was running in circles. It wasn't only Ace he did not understand, he had hard time trying to figure himself out. Why did he kiss Ace yesterday? It would have been a totally different story if the raven started it, but no, he was the one who kissed Ace first, not the other way around. Marco glared at his textbook, scribbling away angrily. Why would he do that? He never started anything - they always did. So why?

(^_^)

So far luck was on Ace's side. He didn't catch even a glimpse of Marco-sempai and Nami, the only prying friend, was too busy trying to kill Luffy whose survival instincts told him to stay away from his girlfriend. Therefore the red head spent the breaks chasing his brother all over the school since, apparently, she didn't manage to kill Luffy yesterday. Still, she managed to give Ace a minute of her time when he accused her of lying to him.

"I didn't lie to you!" Nami said indignantly.

"I beg to differ," Ace said stubbornly.

"What did I lie to you about?" that question received a glare for an answer – there was no way in hell Ace could tell her. When Nami didn't get another answer, she said: "Alright, if you don't want to talk, let me ask you one thing. Would whatever I lied to you about bring me money?"

"Um…" Ace thought about it for a moment. Unless she made a bet, the whole situation from yesterday wasn't profitable to his friend. "I don't think so," he finally answered.

"Then I didn't lie to you. I would only lie or twist the facts around for money," after stating this Nami left, determined to kill his little brother. Ace didn't bother to try to stop her – Luffy brought this on himself so he should get out of it by himself. Kind of like Ace tried to get himself out of this whole mess.

Nami's words confused him even more. If what she said yesterday was true, then yesterday made no sense at all. Nami clearly stated that sempai never touched anyone first which was ridiculous because Ace definitely didn't start the whole yesterday thing. He could be blamed for escalation of the whole situation, but not for starting it. All he wanted was to fight not to get kissed senseless. If Nami was telling the truth and her information was confirmed (and it always was, after all she was the best information broker in the entire school) yesterday shouldn't have happened. Something didn't add up here, Ace thought with a frown on his face.

If Nami was telling the truth (and Ace tended to trust Nami to do that) then yesterday was a mistake. He could see why – sometimes he got excited from fighting too and, well, it was a really, really good fight yesterday and the excitement took a wrong turn somewhere so that it turned out like that. Ace nodded to himself, finally setting everything straight in his head. Sempai didn't mean to kiss him, it just happened in the heat of the fight, adrenaline going the wrong way… Therefore he should just ignore the whole accident and act as though nothing happened.

Content with the result of his internal struggle, Ace decided that he wouldn't avoid sempai and hide in his classroom anymore. Still, he should go to the library anyway – he was getting behind on his homework and he really had to do it. With that in mind Ace went to the cafeteria – thankfully he still had time to get himself a cup of coffee before next lesson. He half expected to run into sempai somewhere there but, oddly enough, that didn't happen. Ace just shrugged it off – it's not like sempai would be there whenever he decided to get coffee. The more Ace thought about it, the more he saw that this whole week was a giant coincidence that started on Monday and just went on. Ace just shook his head with a smile at that.

Apparently, he was way luckier than he suspected. His last lesson got cancelled due to their teacher being ill, who just gave the pages for them to read until the next lesson. Definitely not in a hurry, Ace wrote the pages down and gathered his things. Then he had to make a stop by his locker to get part of the homework he had to do. Taking his time, Ace shuffled through his books. When he finally got the books he needed, Ace slowly made his way out of the school. The corridors were empty due to the fact that the bell rung only a moment ago.

Realising that he'd probably need a snack Ace took out his wallet to check for cash and swore – the coin department was open and the stupid coins scattered all over the floor. Muttering curses under his breath he dropped his bag and started to pick up his money. This definitely proved that whatever good luck he had today needed to be evened out with some bad luck to keep things in balance.

Ace huffed as he tried to reach the coins that rolled under the lockers when his 'balance of good and bad' theory was tested once again when someone tripped over Ace's legs and fell down, voicing a string of curses that, in a teacher's presence, would have earned that person a week worth of detentions. Ace got out from under the lockers with his money in his hand and looked at the unfortunate person. Then…

"Hahahahaha!" he laughed loudly.

"What's so funny?" Marco-sempai asked with a discontent frown, sitting on the floor and glaring at Ace.

"Now Usopp can't say anything 'cause I didn't run you over," Ace managed to say through laughter.

Sempai chuckled a bit as well.

"What are you doing?"

"I dropped money all over the place," Ace said, showing the coins in his hand with a wide grin.

"Do you always finish this early?" Marco asked – it was rare for second years to finish at this time because there were more lessons during the second year so that third year was relatively free for students to concentrate on their future, namely finding a nice university or job and get ready for the finals.

"Nope, my last lesson got cancelled. I'm going to the library to do some homework. Do you wanna tag along?" Ace asked casually, remembering his chosen course of action. Yesterday was a mistake. Nothing happened yesterday.

Ahem... Yeah... *hides under her bed*

Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows.

Hope to see you soon,
~Rhe.