"Hold on a minute!"
"The captain was…."
"...with Marco?!"
"So," they chorus, "they'd slept together before?!"
"They're sleeping together now?!" Izou's shock mirrors their own.
"Backtrack, how do you know this, where you at the war?" Nami questions.
"Was I at the…! You have no idea who I am!" The crossdresser accuses.
"Eh, aren't you Mister Marco's brother?" Brook interjects.
"I mean yes, but… you know Marco's a pirate, right?" Izou now looks at the trio quizzically.
"Yes, yes, of course, we know he sailed under Whitebeard," Nami dismisses as if it was no big deal. Izou huffs, youngsters nowadays. He puffs out his chest proudly.
"So did I," he announces, "I'm Izou, former sixteenth division commander of the Whitebeard pirates."
"With Whitebeard?!" Chopper screams.
"Oh," Nami says, a strange look in her eye, "you sailed with Ace." Her tone is solemn and fond. It bites at Izou's chest, the smell of ashes clogging his nostrils for a moment, but he manages a soft smile.
"I did," he acknowledges, and because he's trying to treasure the past instead of erasing it, he adds: "when Ace first joined the Whitebeard pirates, before he got his own division, he was under my command."
"We met him in Alabasta once!" Chopper pipes up excitedly. "Our Captain Luffy is his little brother." Izou wonders momentarily at the use of present tense. By their expressions, Izou holds no doubt that the Straw Hats know Ace passed away, but… Izou smiles at the reindeer, something warm blooming under his skin. He likes them, no surprise there, Luffy has good instincts for people, Izou has learned. No matter what, Ace is his brother.
"I know," he chuckles, "your captain screamed it quite loudly at Marineford. Even if he hadn't, Ace wouldn't shut up about him." Izou gives them a look, conveying his seriousness. "Ever."
"He did seem like that type of guy…" Nami mutters, rolling her eyes. "The complete opposite of Luffy. Never even hinted at his existence once until he was standing on our deck. We almost couldn't believe they were related! Ace was so mature and polite… ahhhh."
Izou blinks. Ace?
Mature? Polite?
"Excuse me?" he chokes out.
"What's wrong?" Chopper cuts in.
"You're talking about Portgas D. Ace, right?" the older pirate clarifies.
"Of course!"
Izou bursts out laughing. He laughs and laughs until he gets stitches thinking of the snot-nosed brat who lost to Whitebeard a 100 times.
"I think I have a story for you…" he acquiesces after amusing himself to snorting at their confusion, "Luffy and Ace are much more alike than they seem." And so the afternoon spirals into bursts of awed wonder and endless reminiscing, Izou doesn't remember the last time he spoke so much. The Straw Hats counter each ridiculous story about Ace with one about Luffy, and Izou has to resort to using another brother to one-up them. It's a little impressive that the Straw Hat's monster trio seems to catch up with the entire Whitebeard's Ship shenanigans by themselves. As the laughter dwindles down, leaving a pleasant hum in the air, Nami is the one who asks.
"Hey, Izou," she calls out, her glance sparkles in curiosity, switching gears in the conversation, "do you know what happened between them? Luffy and Marco, I mean." Izou nods, remembering a different time.
"Some of it, yeah." A small part of him reminds him that it's Marco's personal business, but this does involve the Straw Hat's somewhat, and Izou's always had a penchant for gossip, "but I think only those two know the entire story."
"Nami…" Chopper begins, but he too is leaning forward in interest.
"Hush, Chopper," the navigator interrupts, "can you tell us?" Izou makes an exaggerated thinking face to mess with her but eventually nods.
"Sure, this is what I know," he agrees. "Marineford ended when the Red Hair Pirates arrived to back up our side. By then, Ace had passed away saving Luffy" at this, the three Straw Hats jumped but don't interrupt, "and Whitebeard had as well, not before ordering a retreat. Luffy was being carried off the battlefield by Jinbei, but they were attacked by Akainu, who led the marines in striking the retreating pirates."
"That's where Luffy got his scar." Izou nods in agreement, confirming the doctor's suspicion.
"Marco got in between, and eventually, through a joint effort, they carried him all the way to the docks, where Trafalgar Law took both him and Jinbei underwater." Izou comments, "he… missed Ace's funeral while recuperating. I know it was a bit touch and go for a while."
"But wait, Marco didn't go with him, right?"
"No. As the first mate, Marco became the de facto captain of the Whitebeard Pirates."
"Then… how did he and Luffy get into contact?"
"Rayleigh swam to the ship a couple of days after the funeral," Izou explains, remembering the heart attack he'd given the crew as he hauled himself up on deck, shirtless and dripping wet.
"He…" Nami begins, speechless.
"...swam?!" Chopper exclaims.
"Yohohoho! Mister Rayleigh is such a sprite man at his age."
"That is one way of putting it," Izou mutters, "anyway, he said he had a new charge that needed to speak with a Whitebeard pirate. Of course, he meant Luffy, who wanted to pass on his brother's last words to us."
"I imagine Mister Marco was the one who picked up the message," Brook theorizes, and Izou assents.
"They met in Rusukaina and well…"
"They fell in love?" Chopper inquires innocently.
"What? No," Izous laughs in surprise, "they fucked."
"EEEP!" Chopper chokes out. "Just like that?!" he manages to get out from where he's attempting to cover his embarrassment behind his hooves.
"It makes sense, though, if you think about it…" Nami taps a finger to her lip, pondering. "They were both distraught and grieving, and both of them are healthy, attractive men…"
"Stop! Nami, stopppp!" Chopper climbs on the table swiftly in a panic, limbs aggressively gesturing a cutting off motion.
"Fine, fine, jeez, I forgot you're such a little kid," the navigator laughs.
"I'm not!" he rejects, but Nami just bumps his nose and turns to Izou.
"But then, what happened?"
"Well, Marco divided his time between the Moby Dick and Rusukaina for a month, which I hear Rayleigh wasn't a fan of," Izou tells them. "Blackbeard was attempting a hostile takeover of the Whitebeard territories, and we'd been scrambling to fend him off. Eventually, we decided that at the rate it was going, with all of Teach's knowledge of our tactics and logistics, we were tired and disorganized in a war of attrition. We were losing." No matter how long it's been, how rational the way things went. Izou's brothers and sisters were grieving, many of them injured or dead, even more of them struggling to come to terms with all they had been through, "Marco organized an all-out attack to destabilize Teach and his group. He left Luffy in Rusukaina, and even after our defeat, he never went back. He disappeared for a few weeks and popped back up on an island called Sphinx. He lived there until Kaido apparently took him. From what I know, they didn't keep in touch."
"Does that make Marco Luffy's ex-boyfriend?"
And with that question, Monkey D. Luffy himself appears.
"GUYS! The voice comes from outside the hut as Luffy and his entourage spill inside the treehouse," he's as energetic and vibrant as ever, "we made it!"
"Luffy!" All three of the Straw Hat's exclaim, looking at anywhere but at him, guilt catching on to having been discussing their captain's private life all afternoon. Luffy reaches and with impossibly long arms, sandwiches his crew together, squeezing them tightly. As he's shaking them in the air to their cries of laughter and panic, he spots Izou.
"Hey! I know you!" Luffy exclaims, "you're Ace's Nakama! Thanks for all the help last time." His smile is blinding, but his eyes are solemn, and his shoulders straighten as he places his crew back on the ground, much to their joy. "I'm sorry about the old man too." Izou nods, surprisingly touched by the younger teen's condolences.
"I hear it is I who owe you a great debt, Straw Hat," Izou responds, "for what you and your crew have done for Marco."
"Uh-uh," Luffy shakes his head, "don't worry about it. I like Marco." The teen shrugs nonchalantly, he gives the one-bedroom house an overview as if maybe he missed Marco in his excitement; when the raven doesn't spot him, he zeroes on Izou with an unreadable look. "I don't think he'll be happy that you're here," he voices bluntly.
"Luffy!" Nami chides immediately.
"I… noticed," Izou admits reluctantly, unfazed in front of Luffy's honesty after knowing Ace. "He left as soon as he saw me."
"Hmmm," Luffy voices in thought, "where is he?" Izou is about to tell him he doesn't know, but Brook answers him before.
"I believe he might be in the Sunny."
"I see," the young captain says brightly, "well, I'll go see him in a bit. Before that…" he turns away from Izou. "Where's Sanji?"
Ahhh, so excited, I loved writing this chapter! What do you guys think about Luffy and Marco's past?