The second time in same evening Shanks stumbled into his own home and crashed straight to bed. His head felt like it was exploding. So much had happened in so little time. he wasn't even able to handle this much information.
The most important thing was clear alright - Marco was in hospital and though his condition was still critical, nurses had told Shanks that boy would be alright. Redhair smiled a little. Pineapple sure hadn't received his nickname "Phoenix" for nothing. It was simple miracle that boy was even concious when Shanks had arrived to help him.

Teacher curled under his warm blankets and was lost in thought in mere seconds.
His and Marco's relationship was moving onwards with increasing speed. Maybe they were little too fast, but this time Shanks didn't even give a fuck. Marco had proved that he loved him by confronting the worst gang in their little town for turning Shanks in as a pedophile. This though made teacher smile widely. He was in debt for his student and he knew how he was going to pay back...

~*~*~

Few days passed before Marco was in condition to go to home. Nurses and doctors were really amazed by the speed he was healing and they would've wanted to keep him longer to find out his secret, but Marco was sick of hospital and wanted to get home already.
His doctor gave him a strict order to stay at home and not to go to school, since stress and any kind of physical work could open his wounds or cause him to faint. This order stressed Marco even more, since he was already late on his school work and his teachers wouldn't be too pleased with him. Especially Shanks' and Alvida's lessons were giving him hard time since there were tests and lots of homework from those classes.

Phoenix arrived to his dirty flat apartment. There was still empty coke cans and candy bags from Shanks' visit. Seeing those things and remembering that day kind of warmed his heart. He was still proud of that fact that he had stood up for a dear person.

At first Marco considered that he would clean up his apartment but since he was nerd, he just sat down to his couch and reached for his laptop. Oh how he had missed his games, messenger and of course Facebook. He haven't been in touch with his friends for few days and he was needy for information about their lives.
The first big shock was Ace's profile's frontpage, which informed him that Fire Fist was in relationship with Rob Lucci.

~*~*~ Few days before, Ace's and Luffy's apartment ~*~*~

Luffy wandered to his and Ace's bedroom. His eyes were filled with tears that decreased his sight. Bed was only mess of whiteness in his eyes.
He slowly stripped himself from clothes and fell to bed. It was weird how the bed felt so uncomfortable now that Ace wasn't there to cuddle him. Instead there was empty space and coldness of missing person.
Younger D. could hear his brother's sobs from couch. It was the most horrible sound he had ever heard. It broke his heart into pieces and teared his ears off from his head.
Luffy tried to block the sound of sobs by curling deep inside the blanket, but it didn't help at all. Sound of Ace was stuck on his head as a replay.

Luffy stood up from the bed and walked to living room, where Ace still was. Older brother was curled on couch, still fully dressed. He didn't even have anykind of blanket.
Luffy tightened his grip from his blanket and did what seemed to be the best thing to do. He fell ontop of Ace and curled into tight ball. If someone had walked in, it would've been impossible for that person to explain the situation. There was fully dressed older brother and somekind of plushie ball on his back.
Younger brother wrapped his arms around Ace's body, snuggling his head to his brother's back.
"Ace... don't be sad... I was and idiot...", Luffy whispered. He felt how Ace's sobs quieted as other guy tried to catch his words.
"I... just.. It isn't fair... Lucci always gets what he wants. You're mine..."
Luffy knew that he wasn't making any sense in his words but somehow he also knew that Ace would understand what he had meant. Like proving his thoughts true, Ace turned and hugged his little brother.

"Don't cry for me, Luffy... I'm the biggest idiot here...", he murmured and gently kissed Luffy's forehead while he wiped away his tears. "I'm just so confused... I want to be honest with you. I love you, but I also love Lucci. He's good looking and everything I've ever wanted. You're my little brother, Luffy... It's not right to lust for you or have any kind of other feelings towards you than brotherly love... I hope you understand."

Luffy did understand. But even if he did, those words broke his heart into even more tinier pieces. He understood, but it didn't mean that he needed to like that fact.

~*~ Present time ~*~

Ace was now officially dating Lucci.
This fact didn't seem to amuse his and Luffy's friend group, since everyone were worrying their asses off for Luffy, who had fallen in deep depression. of course he didnät show it when Ace was around, but everyone else saw straight through his fake smile.
Straw Hat's friend group was gathered to playground. There was depressing atmosphere lingering above them. Nobody said nothing until Ace rushed to them with wide grin on his face.
"Oi guys, guess what? Marco's out from hospital! Shanks just informed me about it", he declared happily. Usopp was the only person who seemed to cheer up even a little by this piece of information, but everyone else remained silent, making Ace frown a little.

Chopper was the first person to act. Little reindeer stood up, climbed on to the rock and lifted his hands above his little head.
"Hey guys! Let's have a sleepover! I'll finally going to have that apartment of mine in a week so we could spent that weekend together. It's been far too long since we had anything like this", reindeer declared, immediately earning applause from Ace.
"That's a great idea! Count me in. We should invite Marco too, it would totally cheer him up", he laughed. Somehow this made Franky annoyed, since he asked:
"Don't you have date with your boyfriend?"
Tone of cyborg's voice didn't go unnoticed by Ace, but he decided to play his dumb card and instead of getting all offended, he smiled happily as happy boyfriend should.
"Nope, he told me that he's busy around Christmas time so I'm having free weekends until the Christmas", freckle face declared happily, earning tchk-voice from Franky. Cyborg turned to Luffy.
"Your brother is a manwhore."