WinterRose61 - Yes! Excuse my absence! Especially for this story, an update had taken far too long. Poor poor first commander will always have Ace be suspicious of him. and haha yea, thinking maybe Shanks will rescue him, but nope! Don't worry, he'll definitely appear!"

"Your feet!" Ace cried out as tears formed in his eyes.

"My … feet?" With confusion Marco looked down, wiggling his toes as he did so, "They're fine-yoi."

"Not these feet, your other feet!"

"?"

This story has no injuries or anything, don't worry about any of that at all when you start reading!

"OH MY GOODNESS!"

Everyone on deck turned their eyes to their second commander who was staring with horror over the railing.

"MARCO!"

Thatch snorted as he saw their turkey flying in the distance, coming closer and closer. With hands in his pockets he walked towards the horror-stricken commander, hiding a small smile. "What did you do, bud? Need to hide anything before he gets here? You don't have a lot of time on your hands, he's a fast flyer unlike his real turkey brothers and si-"

"HE'S HURT!"

"What?" Now that grabbed the chef's attention and of course others' around. He heard how the nurses were already being called while he called for a spyglass cause damn, was he getting old or did Ace have super vision? And how would Marco even stay hurt? He heals of everything, and he's a phoenix now so that means no seastone is preventing any healing. So it must be pretty bad if he's still hurt.

"I... Dont' see anything. Izou? Curiel?" He questioned the two who were both squinting to see their first commander. With both being sharpshooters they were better at noticing irregularities far away.

Both shook their head, "Don't see anything wrong with'im."

"Me neither... Ace-dear, what do you see? What do we need to prep?"

"HIS FEET!" Ace looked at them for a moment as if they were stupid before turning back, knuckles white as they clenched the wood, obviously worried about his fire buddy.

All three who didn't see anything wrong with said feet or... better, talons, looked at each for an answer but no one knew what Ace saw. But they wouldn't take the risk of not prepping anything, so they instructed for a stretcher to be brought on deck, if something was wrong with Marco's legs, walking may be difficult.

A silence on deck stretched as the phoenix grew closer, all anxious to see the damage that had their second commander pale as a sheet.

Normally, everyone was excited when he returned from a mission, everyone including his Pops waving at him already from afar, getting drinks out to start a party. But now... nothing, everyone was just staring at him. So instead of making a few rounds around the ship, show off his form, he quietly transformed and landed onto the deck, "Ehm... 'Afternoon-yoi?...", He greeted everyone in a quiet manner, not sure what was going on, "I'm ba-"

"MARCO! OMG ARE YOU OKAY? WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"Ace?" Wtf, Ace was suddenly all around him, patting him all over and screaming as he did so... whatever, he just had to reassure his brother he was fi-

"OH GOD! OF COURSE YOU'RE NOT OKAY, WHAT AM I THINKING!"

"I am fine-yoi"

"WHERE'S THE STRETCHER? OH MY MARCO! DON'T DIE!"

While Marco looked totally fine, besides hella confused. The nurses still approached with a stretcher, for there must be at least something wrong with Marco for Ace to be reacting this way. Their second commander never lost his cool like this.

"Commander, please lay down, we'll take you to the infirmary." One of the nurses calmly spoke to Marco, the team ready to carry him.

"I am not hurt-yoi. I don't know why Ace is yel-"

"Your feet!" Ace cried out, tears forming in his eyes as he was shaking the blond's shoulders.

"My … feet?" He looked down, wiggling his toes in his sandals, there's nothing wrong with his feet? "They're fine."

"Not these feet!"

"?"

"Your other feet!"

"I don't... I only have one pair of feet-yoi?" why did he sound like he was questioning himself?

"Your birdfeet Marco! The birdfeet!"

Still being confused, just like every member on the ship, he transformed into his hybrid form to check his... bird feet as Ace put it. Did he get a scratch and not heal it or something? It did happen, if a wound didn't even break skin, it sometimes stayed if he didn't notice it and actively healed it. But a reaction like this, for that?

"SEEEEEEEEE! God! I don't want to lose you, Marco! We gotte get you treated right now!"

He stepped a bit in place, trying to see all sides. But he saw nothing that had never been there, no spots, no dirt, no weird feather growing in a place where there shouldn't be a feather, nothing. "Ace-yoi, there's nothing wrong with my talons."

Ace was crying by now, holding his shoulders as he trembled, "There is! There is! They- they-" he chocked over his own tears as if the blond in front of him was saying his last words, "They're- they're- THEY'RE BLUE!"

Okay that... that stunned not only Marco, but the whole deck.

"I... Yoi... Yes... they are..."

Sobbing Ace dropped to the ground, touching Marco's blue legs as if they could fall apart at the slightest touch, "Does it hurt, Marco? Do you still feel them?"

"No, it doesn't hurt", It even tickled but he wasn't going to say that, "And yes, I feel them... But Ace, why? Why are you crying over my legs or well, talons?"

"B-be-becouse! They're blueeee!"

It couldn't be... Ace had never realised that... that... "Ace-yoi... Look at me."

He only continued when a teary-eyed freckled face looked up as said person was now hugging his legs, snot and tears running down.

"They've always been blue."

"N-no."

"No?"

"B-birdfeet are y-yellow, Marco. Or orange."

"Mine aren't."

And that was the wrong thing to say apparently because more tears escaped as the commander sobbed and sniffed, pulling up his snot.

"THAT'S THE PROBLEM! How long has it been like this, Marco! Are you dying!? How long do you have left!?"

While laughter had already been going on all around them, Marco slowly came to the realisation that Ace was serious. His friend really thought he was hurt, even dying.

"I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!"

That was it. With one look he silenced the whole deck and made the other commanders usher everyone away from them as he himself slowly kneeled down. He opted to stay in his hybrid form even if it made him have no arms, it just felt like a better choice to not hide the blue talons now.

"Ace-yoi." He spoke as gentle as he could, lightly tracing the side of a freckled face with his feathers, brushing some tears away, before moving down to his shoulder and bicep. "I am okay."

"But-"

"shh, Ace. I am fine." He repeated in confidence, but still trying to stay gently. He just had to get it across that he was indeed fully fine. "I am not hurt. Nothing bad happened on my mission, I didn't even cross a single marine. My talons have simply always been blue-yoi."

"But yellow... I've not... I've never seen blue birdfeet."

"That's very possible. They're not common. But I promise they exist." He wracked his mind for an example, "Blue-footed Booby" he smiled remembering the one bird he knew that had blue feet, "they even named them after their blue feet because it's so rare to have."

A few seconds later, Ace chuckled quietly, "booby."

Snorting Marco let out his own chuckle, "yes, booby. Don't ask me why they have that in their name because while they have blue feet like the name says, they certainly don't have boobs."

Nodding Ace continued to look at Marco's feet, still lightly tracing over them.

Normally he wouldn't let anyone keep touching him like this, not in human or phoenix form, but he could make an exception this time. "They feel like normal birdfeet right?"

"Bigger."

He shook his head with a small smile, "well, I am a big bird."

Ace laughed at that, "You are... turky"

"Oi" he lightly swiped Ace's head, but no actual intentions to harm, he was just glad Ace was taking the info well. He let the raven feel his legs a little longer before he slowly transformed back, the hand on his legs tracing over them one more time before retreating.

With having hands now, he put one on Ace's head, gently ruffling his hairs, "Thank you, Ace, for worrying about me. I'll tell you if I ever feel unwell, okay?"

"Okay..."

Helping Ace up, he pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back, "I'm really fine... Do you... Do you want to see some pictures when I was a teen?"

"What?" the second commander pulled back lightly, confusion in his eyes.

Scratching his neck there was a light blush on his cheeks, "Yea... ehm... Pops liked to take pictures of my progress-yoi, of my control of the Phoenix and just... every day growth, so well..." he couldn't believe he wanted to fidget a bit, but he never showed these pictures to others, he just kept them hidden in his room. But he still felt Ace was the tiniest bit worried about him and he wanted to relieve that. "Then you can see that my feet have been blue from the very beginning. You can see that they've really been like this all along and won't need to worry."

Wiping his face of his tears and snot, Ace nodded, "I would like that."

"Let's go to my r-"

"I WANT TO JO-"

SPLASH

"-oom. I have one of the picture books Pops made myself." Marco gently led Ace towards the doors inside, only having stopped to throw a pest into the ocean. "Let's stop by the kitchen too, grab a hot cocoa or something for you."

"Thank you, Marco."

The blond simply smiled as he held the door open, letting the raven go in before he followed quietly.

So... Was I the only one that thought Marco had yellow feet all this time? I never really paid attention to them that much, but I just assumed they were a yellowly orange since the first time he appeared! My whole image of him is a lie.
I didn't even realise it until a friend pointed out that one of my Marco figurines had the wrong coloured feet, they were yellow instead of apparently needing to be blue.
I am more of a fan of the yellow feet though haha.