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Chapter 12: Brother from another mother

"Hey, Thatch," I almost whispered. Since Izo had moved into my tower, I hadn't dared to speak very loudly anymore. When I had my genie's attention, I continued. "I have an idea. You cook pretty decent, so I thought, if you make something great, I can take it to Izo and surprise him with 'my' cooking skills."

Thatch looked at me as if I were crazy. "You want me to cook, but you'll take the credit for it?"

"No, don't see it that way!" I just realized that sounded pretty mean. "It's just to fool him. Wouldn't it be fun? To see the look on his face? Because he probably doesn't expect that from me."

"With good reasons," Thatch answered.

"Or you could come with me as Stefan, and I can tell him my dog cooked it. And when he doesn't believe me, you'll turn back and I can properly introduce the two of you," I opted. That wouldn't be as much fun, but if Thatch wasn't going to let me take credit for it… Besides, it would make it a lot easier if Izo knew about Thatch. There was of course still the possibility of Izo trying to steal my genie, but somehow I had started to trust him more, and I didn't think he would do that. It was still a risk, though.

"No," Thach said. "I'm not ready to officially meet him yet." Before I could ask why, he continued. "I know how badly people like to steal genies. What if he tries to steal my lamp?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one who told me to trust him?"

"Yeah, sure, you can trust him… but we just can't be a hundred percent sure that he won't try to steal me, right?"

"That's the whole point of trust, yes." I narrowed my eyes. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"I... No, I don't…" Thatch stammered.

"Listen, if you know anything about Izo that I should know, you'd better tell me," I said. "Even if that means I won't trust him anymore."

Thatch shook his head. "That's not it. It's nothing, okay, forget it. I just want him to meet me when I'm ready. I mean, he only knows me as a dog… A genie is a whole other thing. It might be better to meet him when I'm free, you know, after you made your third wish."

I kept looking at him with piercing eyes, not buying his excuses. However, he might have a point. Izo at least couldn't steal him anymore, when he was not bound to the lamp anymore. Still, I just felt that he was hiding something from me.

"Okay, I'll cook for you, and you can pretend you made it, okay?" Thatch gave in. "And I will join you, but only as Stefan."

I sighed. "Fine." I would get it out of him, eventually.


Two hours later, Thatch had prepared two plates with beautiful looking, and even better smelling food on it. Thatch had made sure I still had to steal the food before he prepared it, because he would only get me food out of nowhere again if I used my third wish for it. But that wasn't worth it, in my opinion, no matter how much I loved food.

It was still a little early for dinner, but I had to make sure Izo wouldn't already have made something for himself. So I took the plates when the food was still warm, and slowly descended the stairs, being careful not to drop anything. I was halfway down the second stairs when I heard Izo talk.

"… guess. I found him. I know where he is. My hunch was right."

I reached his floor, and curious about whom he was talking to, I pushed the cloth aside that gave him some privacy.

"Really? That's wonderful news!" A dark haired man with a big mustache and a top hat said. He didn't see me yet, as he was facing Izo. "So he really was in–"

"Ace!" Izo, who had seen me, interrupted him. "What are you doing here?"

I looked from the one man to the other. "I didn't know you had a guest." I studied the man with the top hat for a bit, while he did the same with me.

"I thought we would announce ourselves before we'd barge in," Izo said, looking accusingly at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry, I wanted to surprise you." I held the plates a little higher to emphasize my words. "I just didn't take your guest into account…"

At that moment, Stefan came walking in, letting out a happy bark, and walking a circle around Izo's guest, before returning to my side. I raised my eyebrow at him. What the hell was he doing?

Izo sighed. "Alright, let me introduce you. Vista, this is Ace, he is my partner in crime and lives above me. Ace, this is Vista… my brother."

I looked at the man again. "Brother?" I didn't know Izo still had contact with his family. Besides, I wouldn't have guessed they were family… There wasn't much resemblance between the two.

"From another mother," Vista added.

Izo chuckled. "Yeah, but we had the same father."

"And who's the dog?" Vista asked as he petted my genie.

"His name's Stefan," Izo and I said in union.

Vista raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Izo. "Stefan? That's not a very common name when it comes to dogs."

I frowned. "It's not that weird either." Or was it? Izo had reacted in the same way when he heard the name for the first time.

"No, it's not weird, but…" Vista looked at Izo, who barely visibly shook his head.

Still, I noticed it. I didn't say anything about it, however, I would speak with him about it later, when we were alone again.

Vista shrugged. "It's nothing."

"Well, anyway, I have food." I gave Izo a plate and handed one to Vista as well. "Here, you can have some as well, I'll make myself some more later," I said as my stomach growled loudly.

Vista laughed. "It smells really good, but I should get going again. You sound like you need it more than me." Now that I had a hand free, he held out his hand so I could shake it. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Fire Fist."

I snorted, not all that surprised he knew my nickname. I shook his hand, noticing how firm his hold was. "It was nice meeting you too."

"Izo, we'll continue our talk later. Can you come to my place tomorrow?" Vista asked.

"Yeah, I'll be there," Izo said with a short nod, and Vista took that as his cue to leave.

Both Izo and I sat down and started to eat in silence. I was just waiting for Izo to explain everything that was going on, because I felt like I really missed some information here.

"This is good," Izo commented and he smiled, though it came across as a bit sadly. "Really good. Did you make this?" he asked skeptically.

Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten I'd come here to pull a joke on him. "Yeah, of course I made it. Who else would've made it? Stefan?" I couldn't help but glance at the genie and chuckle.

Izo snorted. "You probably stole it from a restaurant."

"I didn't." Well, I wasn't lying.

Izo huffed one more time, after which the silence returned.

After a while, I was done with Izo not explaining himself. "So, who were you two talking about when I arrived?"

"Hm?" Izo swallowed the food in his mouth. "Oh, no one." He waved my question away.

"Really? You both sounded pretty delighted that you'd found this guy." I was so done with people hiding things from me. "Doesn't sound like no one to me."

"Really, it's no one you know," Izo kept saying. But he didn't look at me when he spoke. "Vista just lost track of someone a few days ago and asked me to help search for him, that's all."

Even though he sounded very convincing, I still didn't quite believe him. I still felt like he was keeping something from me. "And what was that thing with the name Stefan? You both had to comment on that name…" I tried fishing some more.

Izo raised an eyebrow. "It's just a weird name for a dog."

"That might be, but then why did you give a sign to your brother as if he couldn't tell something?"

"Jeez, you're a little paranoid, aren't you?" Izo shook his head.

"Yeah, you know why?" I jumped up, getting a little fed up with him. "Because you're hiding things from me. Don't try to deny it, because I know you do! I just wish everyone would–" I stopped mid-sentence and glanced at Thatch, who was looking way too innocently at me with his puppy eyes. But I wasn't going to fall for his innocence a second time. I was relieved I noticed my mistake before I finished the sentence. "I just hoped everyone would stop hiding things from me. I'm sick of your secrets! Am I not trustworthy enough? I let you live in my home, for God's sake, the least you can do is trust me!"

Of course I could use my third wish to make both Izo and Thatch confess their secrets to me, but that would be beside the point. They should just trust me enough to tell them out of free will. Besides, I wasn't going to give Thatch the pleasure of using my third wish so easily. This wasn't important enough.

Izo looked unimpressed at me. "Are you done?" He shook his head. "You're right, I might be a little too afraid to let people know a lot about me. Stefan isn't a weird name, but it's just a funny coincident. Vista and I used to know a dog named Stefan, that's why we thought it was remarkable." He sighed and looked at me. "I guess it won't do any harm, letting you know that."

The look on his face was honest this time, and I was speechless for a moment. "That was what you didn't want to tell me?" Somehow, all my anger faded away. Had that really been the reason to yell at him?

Izo shrugged. "I now realized it was kinda silly, indeed." He chuckled. "Now, sit down and finish your food."

I did what he said, and we continued eating in silence. I noticed Izo had already gotten quite some stuff in his new home. Apparently, a mattress was easy to get for him, because there was already one lying against the wall, with a few pillows on top of it. How he was able to obtain one without getting noticed was beyond me. I wouldn't be able to sneak around through town with such a large object. Especially not when I stole it and people would be looking for me.

When Izo had finished his food, he stretched out to lie on his stomach, leaning on his elbows and his head resting in his hands. A mysterious smile on his face, he looked at me. "So what's your plan?"

"Plan?" I repeated while licking my fingers clean. Thatch could cook really well.

"Yeah, for when you're going back to the palace," Izo explained.

I shrugged. "I've agreed to meet Vivi in four days, at four o'clock. So that's when we can go again. I said I would come in via her balcony though, to avoid as many guards as possible. I'm not sure what you–"

"No, no, I mean your plan to seduce Marco," Izo interrupted me.

I felt my cheeks heat up. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Stefan lift his head and look interested from me to Izo and back again, but I didn't dare to meet his eyes. Izo had gotten it out of me that I had a crush on Marco, so I could talk about it to Izo, but Thatch didn't know yet. At least, he hadn't known about it until now. "How did you know his name?" I asked Izo.

He snorted. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because of those thousand times you talked about him in the past few days?"

My face became even hotter. "I didn't talk about him that much…"

"Oh honey, do you ever even talk about something else?" He smirked. "Do you ever even think about anything or anyone else?"

Well, I had to admit Marco had occupied most of my daydreams… but was I going to tell Izo that? No way, he was teasing me enough already.

"I didn't think so," Izo concluded triumphantly, after I hadn't given him an answer. "So how are you going to do it? You need a plan, or nothing will happen."

"Izo! Could you stop?!" I still desperately tried to avoid my genie's eyes, not ready to see his judging look as well. "In your eyes, every man might be gay, but I'm not even a hundred percent sure I am."

Izo chuckled. "Not every man is gay… unfortunately, but there is a really easy way to find out if you are." He winked at me, before continuing. "Do you want to have sex with Marco?"

"What?!" I was sure my head was as red as a tomato by now. "I-I, what? No, I mean–"

A giggle escaped Izo's throat. "I'm sorry, I had forgotten how innocent you were. Let's start over. Do you want to kiss Marco?"

I calmed down a little. I wasn't happy about getting called innocent, but I hadn't really been thinking about sex with Marco either. The question had just caught me off guard.

But this new question I could answer. That didn't mean I wanted to, though. I stared at the floor. "I don't know… maybe… I think so…"

"Then there we have our answer." He smiled. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, to like men."

"I don't like men… I just like Marco." I shrugged. I still wasn't convinced.

"Who is a man." Izo sat back up again. "But does it matter what label you put on yourself?" He smiled. "Remember when we first met? I tried to tell you back then as well, you shouldn't look at the world as if it's all black and white. Male or female, straight or gay, good or bad. There are in-betweens. And you don't always have to fit a certain label. Just be who you want to be, not who others expect you to be."

I looked at him, surprised by his wise words, and unable to speak for a moment. Then I chuckled nervously. "I didn't know you could be so deep."

"Oh, I can go very deep," he said in a mysterious tone, and he wiggled his eyebrows to get the meaning of his words across.

I closed my eyes. "And we're back at the usual level. I was almost beginning to worry about you."

"No, but seriously, what are you gonna do to get Marco?"

"Nothing!" Geez, why did Izo keep pressuring so much? "I'll just see what happens. I don't even know if I'll see him next time. And I don't even know if he likes men, let alone if he likes me, so it's probably not gonna work out anyway."

"Honey, you're exactly his type," Izo assured me. "I could see it from his face. I can see things like that."

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm gonna trust your supernatural instinct on that."

Izo pursed his lips. "Alright, but you should at least make an attempt at getting to see him. You won't get anywhere if you don't even try."

"Of course I'll try to see him," I said a little too fast. I was more looking forward to seeing Marco than to seeing Vivi, after all. Not that I didn't want to see Vivi, I just wanted to see Marco more. Even if he didn't like me back, I still wanted to see him.

"Good, I trust it you can go on your own then," Izo said, smiling again.

I frowned. "What do you mean? You're not coming with me?"

"I just think we should be a little more careful this time. They're probably more on guard since you got caught and escaped," Izo explained. "It seems a better idea to me if I lay low for a bit. But you can't disappoint Marco."

"Vivi, you mean. Marco probably doesn't care much, except for that Vivi would not be happy if I wouldn't show up."

Izo chuckled shortly. "Whatever, as long as you go."


When I left a little while later, I was immediately followed by Thatch, who changed from dog into human form again, as soon as we'd reached my floor.

"So, Marco? Who is he? Why didn't you tell me about him? Is he in the palace?" Thatch shot questions at me as soon as he could speak freely again.

I sighed. I had seen this coming, but to be honest, I was already quite exhausted from my talk with Izo, which was mostly about that topic as well. I liked to think about Marco a lot, but I didn't really feel like explaining and defending myself every time. Still, I guessed I owed Thatch an explanation. "Yeah, I like him, okay? He's a servant in the palace, who I met a few times. He's the guy that interrupted my first visit at the palace, when I had to hide inside a closet."

"Which you had apparently been doing all your life already," Thatch joked. "Hiding inside the closet."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up. I can't come out if I don't know I'm in it in the first place, can I?"

Thatch chuckled. "So this Marco… what does he look like? Describe him to me."

I couldn't help but smile when I thought about him. I really didn't want to come across as hopelessly in love, but it was hard to hide it. "Well, he's kinda handsome, he has beautiful blue eyes, and he's blond. He's got a bit of a weird, pineapple-like hairstyle though."

Thatch snorted and looked as if he was going to burst out laughing, but straightened his face after all, and urged me to continue.

"Yeah, it's pretty dumb." I chuckled. "Still, it doesn't look bad on him. What can I say more about him? He wears a uniform, yeah, I don't think I've seen him with anything else on. Wouldn't mind seeing him without uniform, though."

Thatch snorted again. "Ace! You're too young to have these kind of thoughts."

"I meant with something else than a uniform!" I clarified. Though, to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing him without any kind of shirt either. "And I'm twenty, I'm not too young," I said, before I added to my story, "and he's got a seastone ring around his neck."

At that moment, Thatch seemed to realize something. "Is he the one you tried to guess the devil fruit from?"

I thought back to when I had asked my genie to come up with devil fruits that could stand fire. We had never really discussed it afterwards. I had been avoiding the subject when I came back that day, because I felt weird talking about Marco back then. I guessed the situation was different now. "Yeah, but we were wrong. He wasn't a dragon."

"A dragon?" Thatch repeated with a snort.

"Yeah, the Mythical Zoan fruit you suggested?"

"Well, I never said dragon, but… yeah, it could have been. What about the Atsu Atsu no Mi?" Thatch asked, while looking out of the window.

"Wasn't it either." I answered. I still wanted to know about his devil fruit though.

"Well, you'll have to come up with another strategy to get him to confess then," he said, looking at me from the corners of his eyes again, and smiling teasingly.

Oh no, not he too. "You aren't going to be like Izo too, are you, when it comes to Marco?"

Thatch chuckled. "Don't worry. No one is as good at meddling into other people's love lives as that guy is."


TBC

Since this is probably the last chapter I post in this year, I want to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Also, it would be a really great (Christmas) present to read your reactions on this chapter ^^