Ace couldn't sleep, laying in the uncomfortable hospital bed in the infirmary. His friends knew now. He didn't know exactly what he'd said, since he couldn't remember what happened after he finished that stupid cup of lemonaide-alcohol. He hadn't thrown up anymore, but he had a headache. And not his usual one, which he had done a good job of not being distracted by today. It was an improvement. And now this made him so humiliated and ashamed.
He never wanted anyone to know why he didn't want to be their family. He felt weak. Not in strength, but with his emotions. He should be past this, but there was no way he was going to force himself to be fine with being called son or brother. He wouldn't do that to himself or he wouldn't be able to stand being around anyone.
He was upset with Marco. He was there, he should have stopped Ace from saying anything too personal. He forgave him, he felt regret and guilt, but Ace was still disappointed. And he felt wrong to feel that way. It wasn't Marco's fault for Ace reacting to the alcohol strongly. But he had just assumed Marco would take care of him when he couldn't. And the first mate dropped the ball this time.
Ace still loved him, but surely he was allowed to be upset? He didn't know and wouldn't say anything about it. He'd internalize his problems again. Like he'd been doing, had done his short adult life.
Tami came in a few times to check on him, and Ace pretended to be asleep each time. He had a very hard time falling asleep by himself. But, he needed alone time and wouldn't ask to have Marco come and sleep with him. Weak.
When Ace opened his eyes in the morning, he was surprised he'd fallen asleep in the first place. His throat was sore, and he was terribly thirsty. He was given some water, and asked how he felt. He replied in a monotone voice, "Fine." Tami wasn't satisfied. "Really, I'm okay. My throat does hurt a little bit, but not very badly."
"Alright. Well, I'm not comfortable giving you any non-natural, human medication, so I'll ask for Thatch to make you some numbing tea. It'll be drunk at room temperature. Nothing too hot or too cold while your esophagus is still hurt. Soft foods only, like soups and applesauce."
Ace wasn't looking forward to the restricted diet, but it was only for a little over a week. It would be fine. "You don't have to be confined to stay in here, but come in twice a day for a check up. I want to make sure nothing gets worse. And no shouting," Tami said sternly, and Ace promised he wouldn't, and then left.
He had to change, and his clothes were in his and Marco's room. For the first time in a while, Ace wanted his own room again. But only for today, probably. He still loved Marco, he was just still a bit upset about what he said last night, and that Marco hadn't stopped him. He headed to his room, and slowly opened the door, feeling someone inside who he assumed was Marco.
The light slowly entered the room as the door opened, and he saw Marco laying in bed with his eyes open. Ace didn't need the light to be on to see the circles under Marco's eyes. He hadn't slept, because of Ace. The sayla sighed and went to the dresser and took his shorts out. "I'm sorry you couldn't sleep because of me," Ace said sadly.
Marco sat up quickly. "It's not your fault. The phoenix was throwing a fit for much of the night. I knew you wanted space, but it wasn't happy with that." He said it with an annoyed voice. Ace knew he wasn't annoyed with Ace.
"I need to take a shower," Ace said quietly, only glancing at Marco once. He didn't want to see the hurt on his face. Ace was upset, but he did his best to never lie to Marco, even if he hid some of his problems sometimes. "I'll see you at breakfast."
"Okay. See you then…" Marco replied softly. Ace went into the bathroom to shower, thinking about things and not looking forward to seeing his friends pity him. He hated pity, even if it came from a good place sometimes. There was a fine line between sympathy and pity. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between the two.
When he came out, fresh and smelling good, he got dressed and then headed to the galley before he heard an unnatural beeping sound coming from the bedside table. His eyes widened and he ran over, yanking the drawer open and finding his broken bracelet beeping. He thought he might be getting a message from home, or someone making contact with him, finally.
He looked at the cracked screen and frowned deeply. It was just announcing that it was about to break apart completely. It hadn't charged in months, so Ace was still shocked it hadn't died yet. It was unfixable and unusable, but it had still held power, even if he couldn't access it here.
The beeping grew more insistent before it shorted out and a spark struck Ace's hand, stinging just slightly. He sighed, feeling bad that he got his hopes up. He'd gotten used to this world over the past months. Would he leave even if he had the choice? He loved Marco, and he had lots of nice friends. It would be a hard decision, but it wouldn't come. It was completely dead now, any chance of being tracked now lost.
Ace was untraceable due to the fact the warp system had been set to randomize. There was no log of the planets that were visited on that setting. He hadn't known that at the time, but that was the main reason he was stranded and never going to get help from his own people.
He held the broken bracelet, wondering why he'd kept it in the first place. Seeing it just reminded Ace of what he'd lost. He wrapped his fingers around the little device, holding it in a fist now. Instead of going to breakfast like he said he would, he went outside, and stood at the side of the ship. A headache was forming, and he released the haki. No one was out there anyways.
Everyone else was at breakfast, where he should be, too. But he was stuck. He couldn't move from that spot as he stared at the last thing he had on his home planet. He didn't even have the clothes anymore, since they were in tatters by the time he'd landed. There was nothing he had to hold any memory of his old life, besides the drawings he'd made. They were in his and Marco's room in the bookshelf, along with Marco's variety of personal books.
Opening his palm, he stared at it again. His hand was shaking as he stared at it with uncertainty. Ace wanted to use the future seeing, to see if he was brave enough to drop it into the sea, but it didn't come on demand. Not yet. He held it over the side of the ship, before yanking his hand back like it had been burned and shoving it into one of his pockets. He felt weak for being unable to just toss the broken piece of tech into the water. It was as useful at the bottom of the sea than in his hand.
He sighed, and headed inside. He stopped at the door, and looked at the commanders' table with uncertainty, seeing those he'd drunkenly confessed to sitting near one another. But he knew he would hurt their feelings if he sat somewhere else. It wasn't their fault that Ace had gotten drunk. Though, he didn't know how long the conversation had gone, so didn't know if they'd had time to stop him from giving out information.
The sayla sighed again, and went to get his soft food, walking to the commanders' table slowly, biting his lip, though not enough to make it bleed. He sat down, and ate quietly. Haruta, Izo and Marco were talking about going on the island later that day to do various things. Ace was happy no one said anything about what he said the night before.
He did notice, like usual, most of those who would be in the galley were gone, most likely sick. After a while of Ace being quiet, Haruta asked how Ace's throat was doing. Marco or Tami had clearly told them about his sickness. Most likely early since there was soft food put out that usually weren't there.
"It feels okay. I'm only allowed to eat soft foods that aren't too hot or too cold," he replied, a bit stiffly. He noticed the nervous looks on the three, and felt he was making things more uncomfortable. But he said nothing of it, and neither did they. Ace kept fingering the thing in his pocket, and Marco finally asked what it was after they were done eating.
Ace pulled out the bracelet. "It made some beeping noises. I thought it was someone sending me a message, but it was just alerting me that it was out of power. It died. Now I'm officially never going back."
The pirates looked worried, probably because they wondered if Ace was no longer happy there. Thatch was with them by then. "Did… did you still want to go back? To your old home?"
Ace shrugged. "I thought I had moved past it. That I accepted that I was never going back. So I was surprised when I felt sad when I knew there was now no chance of anyone finding me. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it, but I haven't decided yet," the sayla explained honestly.
Izo and Haruta looked upset as well, and Whitebeard was listening from a few yards away. He could tell the man was not actually reading the paper. "Hey, Ace?" Haruta finally asked. "I'm sorry we heard what you didn't want us to. We won't and haven't told anyone else." Ace's face became closed, blank.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said shortly. The others nodded, and said they wouldn't. Ace knew they would some time, maybe after his anger and hurt had passed. He was still upset they got information out of him like that.
Ace still fingered the useless device in his pocket, unable to leave it alone even if it didn't have any chance of being usable. After breakfast, he left the room without Marco, feeling lonely but not wanting to be around anyone. He went to the library, to his favorite spot, and tried to get rid of the oncoming headache, which he could tell by now whether they were from conqueror's or observation. It was observation, building up but he was unable to control it at all. He rubbed his temples, trying to make it go away but knowing it wouldn't.
After about fifteen minutes of the headache getting worse, he saw himself holding the bracelet and snapping it in half. He stilled, not knowing how the future him was braver than the present was. But it showed that he was able to do it. But not yet. The vision may have been only a minute into the future, since he was still in the library in it, but he didn't want to destroy it with his own hands.
After an hour of stewing in his own depressed thoughts, he headed back outside to the back deck, and looked out at the ocean. It was very pretty. He couldn't help but start comparing it to his own home, and he didn't like that. He wanted to forget, to move on.
He once again dangled the bracelet over the side of the ship, and opened the palm of his hand to let it fall into the water. There were a few tears in his eyes as he sat down and curled into a ball against the railing. Did he make a mistake, or was this the best - and only - option to do?
He didn't know.
-x-
Marco was miserable. He didn't know what to do, and felt like a terrible person. The others were feeling this way, too, but Marco was worse. It should have been him to take care of Ace when he couldn't, and that included what had happened. Marco just let him continue to talk. He should have stopped him!
Now, he didn't know what to do. Ace was mad at him, or at least upset and maybe disappointed. They'd never gotten into a situation like this. Usually things went smoothly. He couldn't help but worry Ace would leave him over this. Maybe leave the ship now that some of the crew knew very personal information that he didn't want anyone to know.
He had told his fellow commanders to not say anything, or press him. They did apologize, and Marco wasn't upset about that, it had to be said, but Ace closed immediately after Haruta brought it up. Then he left, and Marco didn't follow.
After an hour of being alone in the galley, he went to search for Ace. he looked everywhere before he headed out on deck. Ace's presence was dimmed, and he was scared from it. He did find him, sitting against the railing, in a miserable position. Marco felt bad, he should be the miserable one, not Ace.
He didn't hesitate to go over and sit down next to him in silence. Ace didn't acknowledge him at first, and it was quiet, until he looked up, and Marco saw tears on his face. He panicked that it was his fault for making him cry. The phoenix inside was angry at Marco. It was uncomfortable, but Marco couldn't blame it for it's anger and disappointment.
The first mate couldn't stop himself from wiping the tears away from Ace's face gently. "Are you okay?" Ace shrugged, but didn't say anything. "Is it about me? And the others? I'm sorry they brought it up. I told them not to."
Ace wiped under his nose, and replied. "It's not from you guys this time. I dropped the bracelet into the ocean. I don't know if it was the right thing to do." Marco was surprised to say the least. The questioning look made Ace elaborate. "It was broken, and looking at it just made me want to go home. My old home. And I can't go there ever again, so what's the point of keeping it if it just makes me sad?"
"I guess there was no point. I'm sorry you can't go back to your world. I didn't know you still missed it like this," Marco said softly, keeping the worry out of his voice.
Ace replied, "I didn't know that either. I thought I moved on. I guess some part of me was hoping to one day be able to make a connection to home." Marco hesitantly put his arm around Ace's shoulders, pulling him closer. He didn't protest, to Marco's relief. "You don't have to worry about me leaving you guys. I'm upset and disappointed, but it's not like I stopped loving you cause you made a mistake."
Again, Ace showed maturity beyond his years. Marco felt silly for thinking one thing, no matter if it was important to Ace, would erase what they had. He couldn't help but bring his knees up, and hid his face in his knees, like a child again. He didn't want Ace to see him upset like this. That he'd made Ace so unhappy, and disappointed in him. "I'm so sorry, Ace. I should have stopped you before, I know that. I won't ever betray you like that again. I swear on my life."
Ace nodded, and kissed Marco's cheek softly. "I already forgave you. Just cause I'm upset still doesn't mean I didn't forgive you. I love you. Everyone makes mistakes. If I forgave and moved on from strangers harassing and injuring me for childish reasons, I won't not forgive the person I love for doing the first thing wrong." Marco smiled and nodded, reaching over to kiss him softly on the lips.
When he pulled away, Ace's face was flushed and he looked around to see if anyone had seen. Marco stifled a laugh at how much Ace was embarrassed with PDA. "I'm sorry, I had to," Marco said, still wearing a smile.
Marco spent much of the day with Ace, soaking in the fact that Ace didn't want to leave him or the crew. He had greatly over reacted, but he just wasn't used to things going bad between them, no matter how temporary. Marco told the others they were not to bring it up again. And not be obvious in trying to convince him they wouldn't neglect him. It would just make things worse. If Marco hadn't told Ace, they could have secretly tried to convince him, but Marco just couldn't do that. It was the wrong thing to do, and it would break Ace's trust in him even more.
The other three commanders and captain agreed that it was better to tell him in the long run, and let him choose someday if he wants to be family instead of friends. Sadly, Ace avoided those who knew, hurting Thatch's feelings. When Ace had gone to do his duties for the sixteenth division, Marco went to Thatch directly.
"Thatch, it's nothing against you personally that Ace has isolated himself from you guys. He's embarrassed. You know how he gets, he hides when he's upset," Marco explained to the chef when he was working on dinner.
"He didn't isolate himself from you," Thatch replied, a bit of a bite in his voice. Marco could understand. Thatch was jealous, and rightly so. He was good friends with Ace, so having the sayla shut him out hurt.
"That's different," Marco protested.
"Cause he likes you more? Since you guys became a couple, you're always first pick. Almost every time, he chooses you over me. We were really close! I was there first!" Thatch lamented. He sounded actually angry, surprising Marco. Thatch had never been angry at Ace. Or maybe he was just frustrated.
Marco sighed. "We have a completely different relationship, Thatch," he said calmly. "We share a bedroom, we wake up together, go to bed together. You've been his first choice of his friends. It's different and you know it."
Thatch huffed, sloshing a pan with seasoning in it. "What about when he didn't even sit with us? With me? He started hanging out with a bunch of other people." Marco frowned.
"So are you telling me you didn't want him making other friends and branching out? You only wanted him to be your friend? Don't you see how messed up that is? What, is he only yours since you found him first? I hope he never hears you saying that," Marco replied, a bit coldly.
Thatch frowned. "That's… that's not what I meant. I do like that he made friends with his division, but still… I just want to spend more time with him. It's not fair." Marco didn't comment that Thatch sounded like a child, seeing he was truly upset. "I don't want to be pushed out like Haruta had been."
Marco sighed, sad for his brother. Ace meant a lot to him. The sayla did still spend quite a bit of time with Thatch, though it was clear he spent more time with Marco. Ace sat at the commanders' table more often than not those days. The phoenix zoan had no idea that Thatch was feeling this way. But he was being considerate by not bringing it up with Ace. He knew that Ace would react negatively. He'd be ashamed and try to spend more time with Thatch, even if he didn't want to.
Marco would talk to Ace about it. Not too in depth, but he would.
He found Ace sleeping in the library before dinner. He woke up with a small sneeze, startling him awake. Marco chuckled. "Hey, Ace? Can I ask you something? You don't need to answer," Marco said, sitting next to him, shoulder to shoulder. Ace was so warm it was nice. Their fire mixed a bit. He nodded. "How come you cut back your time with Thatch?"
Ace's brows furrowed. "I did?" he asked in confusion.
"A bit. You used to follow him around and hang out at every chance. It doesn't happen much anymore."
The sayla frowned. "That was before I was part of the crew. I have to do other stuff now, and then with the haki problems, I wanted to stay away from everyone, not just Thatch. Thatch is still one of my favorites. Well, my favorite besides you."
Marco knew Ace had a very valid point. He had other duties, he couldn't just hang out with Thatch all day every day. But, maybe Marco would try and have him spend some of his time with Thatch. Well, it was Ace's choice, but he'd suggest being with Thatch more often.
"Did he say something about it?" Ace questioned. Marco would be honest. As often as he could, he would tell the truth to Ace.
He nodded. "I think he feels very guilty about the incident recently. He is upset that you don't hang out with him as much as you used to. It was mostly pouting and complaining like a kid, but he means well. I'm sure he's jealous that you spend much more time with me than him. Again, it's not the most mature of views, since our relationship is much different than you and his," Marco explained. He left out some of the quotes of Thatch that would not be beneficial to his cause.
"Don't couples spend more time together than friends?" Ace asked. Marco shrugged.
"Depends on the situation. You and I spend more time together based on sleeping in the same room and such, as well as being more physically intimate, like holding hands and hugging, and forehead touching. You have more time for me since we're together in different situations." Ace nodded, but was looking a bit guilty. Marco was worried about that, but the truth was what was best, and he hadn't revealed the childish and selfish things Thatch had said, even if he didn't mean them in that way.
"Everything will be fine, don't worry," Marco assured. Ace nodded, but Marco couldn't tell him accurate that was. How sincere. Ace pinched his temples, and Marco noticed his eyes close and face grow irate. Probably another vision that he had no use for. Next came a small wave of conqueror's haki. Everyone had expected him to get the hang of it quickly, and he was improving just by himself. There was no more need for help to not let them build up.
He hadn't trained with Whitebeard on how to activate it on purpose. Getting his other haki under control was more useful at the moment, since he wouldn't be using the conqueror's haki in any fights. "Vision again?" Marco asked sympathetically. Ace nodded, and sighed.
"It's annoying," Ace replied. Marco nodded.
"Is it still very hard to block out feeling everyone on the ship? You've been sleeping better for the last couple nights," Marco pointed out positively. Ace nodded his head.
"I've been sleeping better, but it's still distracting a lot. I'm able to try and not think about it, but it's always there. I always feel everyone everywhere." Marco told him that was good, and then asked him if he'd gone in to see Tami about his throat today. Ace shook his head and stood up, looking over the railing for just a second about his bracelet that was gone forever.
The two walked inside and to the infirmary, holding hands. Marco stroked his thumb over Ace's hand gently and slowly, something he knew Ace liked. When they entered the infirmary, Pops was there for a check up, looking annoyed. Ace sat on another one of the beds to patiently wait for one of the nurses to come to him.
Marco sat with him but listened to what was happening with his father and captain. Ace set his hat down on the bed next to him, but Marco wasn't paying much attention to him. "The drinking is not helping your health, Pops. You need to cut back on it at least a little bit." The captain huffed, predictably. "I'm serious, it's going to cause problems for your heart. I don't know how your liver isn't destroyed by now." Whiskey sounded quite sour, and Marco knew why. Pops was incredibly resistant to the thought of less alcohol. Marco wished he would take it more seriously.
"I'm fine. Booze won't be my downfall," Pops said stubbornly.
"You have a human body, whether you are strong or not does not make you invincible to things like this. If you continue to drink as much as you are, you will be shortening your life. Cut back drastically, or drink more mild drinks."
Whitebeard scowled, and Marco was feeling deep disapproval in his heart, and the phoenix agreed. It may not be as emotionally attached to Pops as it was to Ace, but it still cared about the captain and his health. "Ace's heart can handle pumping blood from what used to be two. My body can handle some booze."
"Ace is young and was very healthy when the incident happened. You are an old man, Pops. Don't give me that look, you are old. No one can run from age forever and you know that. If I must, I will have the commanders hide the alcohol and distribute it to you slowly and limitedly. You will listen to your doctor or I will take drastic measures," the head nurse said hotly, in a sour voice.
Pops grumbled out that he would limit a little. Marco knew it was the best Whiskey was going to get for now. Hopefully he'd notice a change after drinking less and decide his health was better than the taste of alcohol.
Tami came out and walked to Ace's bed. "Hi, Ace. How is your throat doing?" she asked with a clipboard and small flashlight.
"A little sore, but eating was fine. It stung a little bit, but not too bad. I haven't been screaming or anything like that," Ace answered. Tami asked him to open his mouth, and Ace did so. Since the back of his throat was not a light red like a human's, it was more difficult to see the tear. The flashlight helped though.
"It doesn't look irritated or any worse. Keep eating soft foods at a normal temperature. Keep your volume low if you can." Ace nodded. It was a short check up, and Marco stayed behind for a bit to talk to Whiskey about Pops' check up.
The head nurse huffed. "That man is too stubborn for his own good. Even stupid I'd say. Why risk your health for a damn drink? His heart is having more trouble, and his blood pressure has raised more. I was serious when I said we'd hide his booze for his own damn good. If you see him drinking so often again, we are taking drastic measures to cut back, if not stop completely. He's strong enough to not go through withdrawals. And if he isn't, then what kind of 'strongest man in the world' is he?" Marco could tell she was furious with the captain's stubbornness.
No one bad mouthed Pops and got away with it besides the nurses. Honestly, they had more control over everyone than any of the commanders. After all, she often gave orders to both the captains and commanders.
"I'll do what I can to make him wean off a bit," Marco replied.
"He needs to eat healthier, too, so I'll talk to Thatch about that later today," the nurse said, fixing the sheets on one of the massive beds reserved for the captain and larger members of the crew.
Marco said, "Thatch is in a bad mood right now, so wait a bit for him to cool off." Whiskey nodded and said she'd wait. They weren't nosy unless it came to someone's health. Whatever reason Thatch was angry was not her business.
The first mate left the infirmary to go see if Thatch was still pissy. When he walked to the kitchen, Thatch was no longer there. Marco went looking around for him, and found him in the library with Ace, Thatch trying to teach Ace a complicated card game that Ace had never been able to get the hang of. Marco smiled at Thatch's happy demeanor, and left the two to spend time together.
-x-
A couple weeks later, Ace and Thatch were on an island, one not protected by the captain or any of the yonko, going shopping for food. Ace had wanted to do it with Thatch, since he hadn't in a long time, so Thatch had only gotten half of the food the day before when Ace had his own duties to do.
Ace had not noticed just how much he'd cut back from spending time with his closest friend. Thatch hadn't once brought up anything about the conversation they never should have had. None of them did, and Ace was grateful. He still didn't want to become family, over half a year after joining. He assumed everyone had finally accepted that he was probably never going to. He was very happy nothing seemed to have come from when he was drunk and talked too much.
Ace had actually felt better lately. After dropping the bracelet into the ocean, getting rid of the last remnant of his home world, he felt like he'd moved on as much as he could. He hadn't drawn in the sketchbooks about his world again after filling the third one. They were to stay on the bookshelf in their room.
Many of the books on the shelf now belonged to Ace. Most of them were fairy tales, unlike Marco's more scientific or more serious books. Ace was walking through the non-perishable section, looking for things like flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt and pepper. All in bulk. The size of the wagon was massive, and both of them worked to push it. Mostly Thatch, but Ace did his best until he got too tired and needed to take a break and only walk for a while.
He released a tiny bit of haki the moment he felt the nudge in his mind. He still could not control it like he wished he could, but it was less of a worry now and he could mainly work on the observation and future glimpsing. He was not coming very far with those. Not one bit, but he would be patient. He had no time limit, after all.
Slow and steady wins the race. He carried six massive bags of flour to the cart, which had the Whitebeard symbol on it so no one was stupid enough to steal from it. He loaded many bags of sugar and other powder or granulated goods. By the time they were done at the store, Ace was unable to push the cart.
Thatch didn't often show his strength, but he was incredibly strong. He wasn't usually a main fighter like many of the other commanders, but he could do it. Many times, where there was a pirate raid on the ship, or brash marines, he stayed inside with Ace unless it was necessary to fight.
Ace still had not raised a hand at a human or animal since arriving. Nothing would change that. He'd never fight for fun. Whitebeard had instructed (ordered) Ace to work on ways to retreat or stall people who might be after him. He already knew how to make it impossible for anyone to move by making the surroundings incredibly loud for them.
If necessary, he'd blow eardrums, though he didn't want to. But they'd heal eventually. He was able to move a few meters in fire form at a time, so that was a start. Until he could control his conqueror's haki, he was not allowed to be on the island alone. His bounty was still active after all. He, sadly, didn't wear his hat in public anymore, but no one had recognized him yet. Not in human colors, as he was now.
When the two were walking back to the ship and through the busiest parts of town, they saw some of their crew out and about. "So, then, the marine decided to stow away on our ship. And we ended up dumping him into the ocean since he had a transponder snail and was being a spy!" Thatch said, telling a story that Ace couldn't tell was real or not.
"Why did he dooo… Tha-" Ace slurred, and Thatch let go of the cart to catch Ace as he passed out, turning blue. Thatch easily picked him up and laid him down on the food, draping a blanket over him. He did it smoothly and not worried one bit. Now Ace could not be seen, and could rest easy. It wouldn't be comfortable to lay on the lumpy surface of the packaged and bagged food, but it was better than him being spotted.
They made it back to the ship easily, Ace asleep most of the time. Thatch whistled easily. He hadn't seen anyone see Ace in the couple seconds he was possibly visible, so he was not worried.
The sayla woke up after he was transferred from the cart and to Haruta's arms, still dozing. He opened his gold eyes and looked around to see he was on the ship. He sighed, but didn't apologize since it just made the people a bit irate that he thought it was his fault. "Thanks, Haruta," Ace said when he was set down.
Marco came up from behind and Ace felt his hat set on his head. "How'd it go?" the phoenix zoan asked. Ace smiled. "We got a lot of food. Nothing much happened, but I did have a sleep attack in town. Thatch took care of it, I assume. I helped push the cart a bit, but it was tiring." He said the last bit a little sadly. After all, there had been little improvement on his stamina.
"It'll get better," Marco promised. Ace knew he didn't lie to him, so he really thought that. The sayla wasn't going to take it as a promise, but a hope he had and thought would come true. "Want to go help out with organizing? I was heading over as well." Ace nodded, and said goodbye to Haruta and thank you for taking him up.
"Anytime!" Haruta replied happily. After Ace realized he'd cut out Thatch and he was feeling sad, he started talking to Haruta more. Knowing he had wanted to be friends from the start and Ace just hadn't had enough energy or confidence to be close to more than two people. And those like Mika who was a close friend in only his division.
Thatch was sorting things by expiration dates, and Ace went to help. Soon, Ace was reading the dates as Marco packed the closer ones into one crate while Marco dealt with the heavier objects that were things like the bags of flour, sugar, powdered milk, and such. Powdered milk was important since milk spoiled quickly out on the sea. Powdered milk lasted longer. It may not taste better, but it was pretty close and much more practical.
They spent a good hour stocking and recording dates, before Thatch headed to the kitchen to bake some cookies for their hard work. Ace decided to help, pressing the homemade cookie dough into place on the parchment sheets in the pan. Marco was reading at one of the tables while the two worked.
It was a happy day, and Ace spent most of it with Thatch and Marco, even bringing his sewing tools and that day's work into the library where they were talking. And Ace looked forward to going back into town with Marco the next day.