Hi! Thanks for the follows, favourites, and - everyone's joy - reviews! Sorry I haven't answered them; I've been a little under the weather. That said, I have this chapter ready and two more nearly done, so hopefully I'll get those up soon. I really loved the brief Shanks - Marco interaction we got at Whitebeard & Ace's funeral, so I sort of expanded on that. Hope you enjoy it!

"Why did you come?" Marco asked, leaning against the railing and looking up at the stars. It was a beautiful, clear night, but grief held sleep at bay and he had wandered to the deck of Red Force looking for solace. What he found was a red haired captain he had never expected to owe.

"I didn't come for you," Shanks replied quietly, seriously. "I respected Whitebeard and I liked Ace, but I didn't come for any of you." Marco had over a thousand siblings and knew how to wait. Eventually, more words came. "I met Luffy when he was seven," Shanks said, surprising the phoenix, "and we became friends."

"Ace always spoke well of him," Marco admitted, a fond smile finding its' way to his lips. Seeing the boy at Marineford, it was easy to understand why Ace had loved him so much.

"I knew that if Ace was there, Luffy would be, too." Even though Marco had heard stories - from Ace, from the newspapers, from pirates who encountered him - the phoenix had never once considered that a rookie would jump into the middle of their war. Far less immediately after storming Impel Down for his brother. The boy was a beautiful kind of insane.

"You'd start a war for him?" Marco questioned curiously.

"I'd end a war for him," Shanks countered with a wry smile. When Marco didn't rise to the bait, the red head continued. "I try not to get involved; he'll come to me when he's ready. But yes, I'd start a war for him."

"We owe him a lot," Marco murmured.

"He wouldn't think so," Shanks said, tilting his head up to the sky. "If he's awake now, I guarantee you he's blaming himself for Ace's death."

"It wasn't his fault," Marco protested, before realizing that Shanks didn't need to be convinced.

"No," Shanks agreed. "Ace died a free man thanks to Luffy. That's all any of us can ask for."

"He chose his death," Marco agreed, and while the grief hurt, there was acceptance there because both Oyaji and Ace had chosen their deaths. Their bodies were being preserved in transit to an island in Shanks' territory that the red haired captain assured Marco they would be free to visit anytime. In the meantime, their graves would have the protection of a Yonkou. Marco would have preferred burying them on one of Whitebeard's favourite islands, but he knew that the seas would be in disarray after this and that protecting their territory would cost a lot of lives. The beginning of the new era was being washed in the blood of his family, and Marco couldn't see what good could possibly come of it.

"They'll need you to lead them," Shanks pointed out to Marco, who acknowledged the weight of being the First Division Commander with a nod, "that's why I thought you should stay with us until the funeral. You need time to grieve."

"Thanks you," Marco said, because he knew that time to himself would be a rare gift in the upcoming months. The two men stood side by side looking at the stars for a while. Inevitably, it was Shanks who broke it.

"You remind me of myself," he said, glancing at the blond, who tried not to look offended. Apparently he didn't manage it, because the Yonkou cracked a genuine smile. His first, that night. "Roger was dying when he handed himself in," Shanks revealed, surprising Marco, who turned to face him fully. He'd never heard this; it was probably only the crew who had known. "We'd tried everything, but it was incurable. He decided he wanted to go out with a bang."

"I did wonder what happened," Marco murmured, because there had been no big fight, no story; all of a sudden he was being held by the marines waiting for his execution. "I'm sorry." The man continued, and Marco wasn't even sure the red head had heard him.

"I would have sailed under his flag forever," Shanks acknowledged, and if the man's eyes were glassy, Marco didn't mention it, "but we didn't get forever. I built my crew - they're great - but even a decade after he died, I was still missing for something. It wasn't till I found a seven year old kid in the East Blue with a smile too big for his face that I found what I was waiting for."

"No one can replace Oyaji," Marco commented quietly. "Or Ace."

"No," Shanks agreed, "but you can find a new love in time." Marco glanced at him.

"Speak plainly, Red Hair," Marco said, irritation seeping into his hair.

"You loved Whitebeard, and Ace, and all of your current crew," Marco nodded, his eyes wary, not certain where the other captain was going with this, "but loving someone else isn't betraying them."

"…I fought for Straw Hat," Marco pointed out. "Ace gave his life for him, and Oyaji ordered us to protect him…"

"Yeah," Shanks acknowledged, "but that's why you fought for him. For Whitebeard. For Ace."

"…What do you want me to say?" Marco asked, because dealing with this man had never been easy, and Marco wasn't up for playing games.

"Isn't all true loyalty built from love?" Shanks questioned, earning the phoenix's full attention. "I'd like to believe my crew loves me," the red head admitted, "and I certainly love them."

"What do you intend?" Marco asked, focusing on the man in front of him. Shanks met his eyes. "You're planning on loosing," Marco theorized, but the offended look on the Yonkou's face made him reconsider.

"I wouldn't try to loose! If I did, there would be no point in Luffy winning!"

"But you believe you'll loose," Marco rephrased, feeling his way through his answer. He examined the red head's face for clues as he continued. "When pirate's fight and one looses, they are often given the option of surrendering and joining the fleet or dying." He'd only met Luffy briefly, but the kid didn't seem big on killing. "You're planning on flying under his flag." Marco said with a sort of shocked awe. It was unheard of. A Yonkou flying under someone else's flag? Marco tried to wrap his head around the thought. "I knew you were crazy," he muttered. Shanks smiled warmly at him.

"There's no shame in flying the Pirate King's flag."