Witch68 - If you ever need to find the way into someone's heart. Try helping them by shaving. It works miracles as you can see.
WinterRose61 - Ah yea, my summary/not summary may have made it sounds it thatch and Marco... they did inspire it. Excuse the confusion. Happy you still liked it! Shaving is the way to the men's heart!
Commence mission: Save their freckled baby from drowning!
Namur was getting visibly tired from saving their baby brother each and every day out of the hands of the cold and harsh ocean. Thus, they, the absolute best and favourite brothers, have taken it upon them to find ways to prevent their cute brother from drowning!
And what better way to safe someone from the ocean's clutches than a life-jacket specifically designed for this exact purpose? They were so smart!
They were all huddling around the corner, whispering of their plan when Haruta suddenly silenced them all, "he's here, get in positions."
There were nods all around and Marco was the first to leave the area, casually waltzing over the deck as if he owned the place and had no ill intention at all as he approached their target, looking as alluring as possible.
"Well, hello there, beautiful. Haven't seen you around lately-yoi"
The other gaped at him like a fish out of the water before he started laughing, almost doubling over, "M-Mar-hah-Marco! What-hahaha What the hell! Hahah I saw you, I saw you like 10 minutes haha before this!" he wiped tears from his eyes, "We sleep in the same bed even! What are you doing!"
Growing the tiniest bit red in the cheeks he continued with the plan, he would kill the others later since he could see them laughing in the background, this was definitely not needed and they had fooled him. He cleared his throat as he took a step forward, closing the distance and grabbing Ace's chin with his hand. "I just missed you, my fire. Is that so bad of me?"
"A-ah, n-no." Ace's cocky attitude quickly disappeared as they were pressed chest to chest, he could feel Marco's breath on him. He tried to look away, but Marco held a strong grip on his chin, "don't look away from me, love, you'll hurt my feelings."
Blinking, he kept still and held eye contact with the other, even if he wanted to look away from the intensity. He felt red started going to his neck and started leaning forward, he wanted a kiss n-
"NOW!"
"Huh? AH!" Before the freckled one could turn around, he was jumped from behind and manhandled into who knows what. He knew they were his brothers so he wouldn't turn to fire, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to fight them off, so he hit them and going by the reaction he got a few good ones in.
After a while they separated and they all panted, Haruta now sporting a red eye, Izou's hair was dishevelled and … "Who are you?"
"What? It's me! Thatch! Your favourite brother!"
"... Thatch has funny hair... you're not him."
"My hair's not funny! Izou, give me your hairspray!" The stranger went for the geisha and opened his kimono, oh he would get hell for this later, not like he had anything to hide under, but still, and pulled out a small can of hairspray, using it to shape his hair into his beautiful pompadour again before turning around.
"Thatch!"
"Thanks Ace, you're such a nice brother to recognise me."
"... Sorry ... but, what the hell is this." he motioned down with his hands to his chest.
"A PFD"
"A what?"
"A personal flotation device Ace." He sighed when the other still looked at him as if stupid "A Mae West, a flotation suit, a buoyancy a-"
"It's a life jacket-yoi."
"Thank Marco! Why were you using such difficult words, Thatch, geez." He gave himself one more look before he spontaneously burst into flames, including the item on him.
The others gaped at him with wide eyes while Marco just sighed and mumbled a 'I told you it would go like this.'.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!" the three other commanders yelled in shock.
The second commander simply quirked up an eyebrow, "I told you guys last week that I don't wear shirts when you tried to put me in one, why do you think this one would have another fate?"
"Be-because you had Marco to distract you!"
Turning to his love, he spoke as if he was betrayed, "You joined them! I thought you liked to see my abbs!"
"I do-yoi. They just made a good point that you are drowning a hell of a lot lately, and Namur is starting to get tired of fishing you out, so it would help greatly if you wore it."
Wiping fake tears from his eyes he turned around, "If you just don't want to see them, Marco, just say so. I'll- I'll wear a shirt if you don't like my toned body anymore." He turned back around, moist eyes, "Am I getting old? Are there wrinkles?"
Marco obviously knew Ace was faking and knew the young man also knew how handsome he was, but he still couldn't resist the moist eyes and was instantly all over the other, forgoing all of the plans to get him in a life-jacket. "no, no, no, Ace, please. You're beautiful! Handsome! You whole body looks amazing and if it were me I wouldn't even let you wear pa-"
"DON'T FINISH THAT SENTENCE, MARCO!" someone yelled from the deck, the last thing they needed was for Ace to lose his pants too and say he had permission from the first commander. And seeing Pops was all for the 'freedom of expression' for his kids meant he wouldn't even try to stop it.
"... I love you, Ace-yoi!" He put hands on the other's chest before running them over to his abbs and to his side, holding his waist and pulling him closer, "All of you is so perfect!"
Blushing madly Ace put his arms around Marco's neck, fluttering his eyelashes "Really?"
"Of course! You're the reason I wake up in the morning, you're my sunshine, my-"
"... We've lost him..." - "Yeap, I told you the pineapple was useless if it involved Ace." - "I atleast thought he would have some value..."
The three looked at each other and nodded, onto the next plan.
Several days later Ace yawned as he rubbed his eyes to get rid of the sleep, the bed felt cold so Marco probably already started his day, if he remembered correctly, he had a meeting with the nurses or something... whatever.
Throwing his legs off the bed, he got up and walked to his shared closet with Marco, getting out a fresh pair of boxers before blindly reaching for some pants... where are all his pants? He looked up and, oh there was one. He picked it up and started putting it on, making a weird face as he did a few steps in place, these felt... weird? He didn't know how but... they felt as if they were a different material, more... plasticky?
He looked through his closet again, even going through Marco's, "Gosh, what did we do to our pants?" not even Marco had any pants left in his side of the closet. Did they wear them all already? He was sure he had some more left last night... Laundry was only next week... maybe he should take up Marco's unspoken offer of going pantsless and, he hummed and licked his lips, if Marco also didn't have pants... They could be pantsless together! Such a nice couple goal!
A giggle left him as he put in his belt in the new pants and made his way to the mess hall to get his well-deserved food to live another day.
When he got there he got around 6 plates stacked to the brim with breakfast items, he normally had more, but he decided to forgo the messier items, not wanting to ruin his last pants even if he wouldn't mind going around in boxers.
He didn't notice three pairs of eyes smiling at him as they saw him enter with... pants... Ace's normal... normal pants.
"I got it! I got it!" Ace ran after the item in the air, jumping far too high for a normal human being thanks to his fire to grab the item and fall back down into a crouch, holding it up in victory "GOT IT!"
Seconds later the item was flying back to the other side of the ship, this time a lynx catching the item and... throwing it further. How did he throw it?
No matter... Namur was just already sighing from his place, sitting on a barrel near the side of the ship, near Ace. Because there was 90%… 99% chance of him drowning by this activity. Who the hell played catch with a bouncy ball on the deck of a ship, in the middle of the sea.
It's not that he found the activity in itself weird, they had a whole collection of sizes and designs for bouncy balls, they even had the material on board to make them themselves to their own designs, but... they had rooms for these things. Inside rooms where you could play with them to your hearts content without being in danger of freaking drowning. Namur didn't get it, did it add spice to the game? Did it add another level o-
"ACE!"
Gosh, here it is...
"NAMUR, ACE FELL!"
"Of course he fell." He slowly jumped off the barrel and turned around, starting to stretch as he looked at the ripples in the wat- "Wth"
In the water, Ace was paddling like a dog, trying to stay afloat. Namur must admit he was getting good at franticly moving in the water despite the seawater sapping his strength, but... his pants were inflating... How? And it wasn't that they were absorbing water and gaining a bit of mass, no, they were genuinely starting to look as if Ace had just decided to put on balloon as pants.
"Ho-"
"It's working!"
"huh?" looking to the side he saw Thatch, Haruta and Izou looking over the railing with excitement, they must have planned this because Ace looked as much in shock at his pants as he was looking at it.
"Look Namur!" Haruta called for him, "now Ace doesn't drown immediately and you don't need to run all across the ship! Now others can easily fish him out too instead of you needing to dive after him."
His eyes softened, they were doing this for him. He turned back to look at a sputtering Ace as he spoke "Aw, thank y-… that doesn't look good." in the water Ace was trying to keep his balance, but it was a losing battle. They all watched how he slowly started turning in the water until he apparently went over a limit and flopped upside down, legs kicking out in the air as the rest disappeared below sea-level.
The previous excited trio went quiet beside him, "... That... didn't work as expected..."
They stayed watching Ace kick around, a hand sometime poking out the water, slapping it before disappearing again. the kept staring untill a screech and a blur of blue flew past.
'Aaaah, right... Ace was drowning now, true true'... "ACE-YOI!"
While Namur heard the first commander yell, he berated himself for being stupid and just watching as Ace drowned. He watched Marco dive down to catch the other to pull him out. Closing his eyes, he let out a breath of relieve, good good, Ace would be fine n-
POP
'Pop?'
Another screech was heard and all that was visible before him when he opened his eyes was a giant blue phoenix that was looking with wide eyes towards the sea and his talons. Talons that were holding onto a ripped of piece of fabric, and no more Ace to be seen. Where did he go?
"Namur!" Izou yelled, "Ace!"
That was all he needed before jumping in and diving deep into the sea where he last spotted the second commander. With his excellent sight and smell, he found him not long later and pulled him out, the poor teen choking on air and water when he could breathe again.
Back on board, Namur laid him down on the deck so he could come back to his senses. A panted out 'Thank you' and 'I thought I was going to die' came from slightly pale lips. He gave a curt nod and watch Marco fly over, crouching next to Ace.
"I'm so sorry, love-yoi! I tried to grab you, but I didn't think the fabric was so weak, my talon went right through it!"
'Aaaah, so that's what happened', Namur looked over to Ace's pants and indeed saw a neat round hole in the side. Explains his sudden sinking.
Once Ace caught his breath, he sat up, giving Marco a quick kiss and thanking him for trying to save him before getting up and sending a murderous look at three commanders that were looking anywhere but Ace.
He bursted into flames, destroying the already ripped pants and leaving him in his boxers.
"Marco."
"Yes, my fire?"
"I'm going to steal your moves."
Having said that, the second commander approached his targets and promptly kicked them all overboard. Walking back into the ship he spoke to Namur, "Thanks again. And... don't save them, they can swim. I got some pants to hide from certain individuals."
And that is the story of how the Whitebeard pirates made headlines of the local gossip magazines, questioning if pants were now a forgotten clothing item for well-known pirates, if maybe it showed the status or rank. A whole story was dedicated to it, saying things about it being fashionable to it showing that even without pants they could defeat anyone. With the Whitebeard commander's popularity, it quickly became a trend to lose pants when setting out as a pirate. When the press came to their ship, the very starters of it however refused to give any comments.
Looking over his morning newspaper Marco sighed, "You guys... Have you all really not learned you lesson yet?"
"Shut up, birdbrain."
The blond raised an eyebrow, "all your tries have gone up in flames, literally, and you started a whole fashion trend, has it really not been enough."
"No. We just need to find a way to keep him upright."
"That's really the only problem?"
"Yes. And make the pants fire proof and then it's all perfect."
"... Wel..." Marco folded up his newspaper and stood up, "Don't involve me in this, and don't come whining if you have burns or get thrown into the sea."
Thatch, Haruta, and even Izou, all made an ugly face at the first commander, murmuring its his boyfriend that keeps drowning and calling him names.
The blond just raised an eyebrow and snorted before turning around and leaving the area, he wasn't going to get involved in this, like Ace had said, he loved the abbs and the man himself too much to help anymore to cover anything up. And he sleeps in the same bed... he really doesn't want to anger the living torch even when he can heal. The other had figured out at what heat his healing got triggered and is now able to stay slightly under it. Bringing him every piece of the feelings of almost burning, but not enough to trigger his healing flames to bring him comfort, and when he tries to leave the bed the other whines and fakes cries that he hates him and his fruit,… and then he isn't able to leave and goes back to bed to hug his living torch... He's weak to Ace okay!
It's been about two weeks since the incident and while Ace had been very suspicious of the trio with everything they had tried to give him, even when it was Thatch's food, he watched him make it or took dishes he knew the other chefs prepared. They weren't sure what Ace was trying to avoid, not like they could put a lifejacket into his food... if they did the raven would probably just eat it and even give compliments to the chef. It was now a lot better already, and there were only occasional squints of the eyes now.
In these two weeks, Ace however had still needed savings from the sea about... 9 times... which Is far too much! Namur almost cried when he sees Ace coming onto the deck for Pop's sake! So, their plan was still in action, and now that they had come to the island, it was the perfect time to execute!
They had thought of many things, all fireproof ideas. They had made up a new blow-up-pants, only the pants now also had a build in shirt! Yes, you heard that right, the moment it touched water, the pants wouldn't just inflate on its own, no, it would rise up Ace's chest too, making something that looked kind of like a shirt, and tadaaaa! The raven would be able to float and not drown face down!
However, with Ace's distrust in them, they couldn't do the pants changing trick again... and the man would now be suspicious of every single pants that even felt slightly different than the other... so it kind of threw that idea out of the window...
Haruta then came with the genius idea of 'Safety-vest-beads!". They would make replica's of Ace's beads made of some kind of cork material that would also slightly expand in water, make Ace wear that thinking it's his own necklace, and bam, the guy's floating not only with his pants, but he also got support on his neck so he wouldn't flip over into the sea!
….
It never got further than making the beads though, they never even got to testing! To see if Ace would be able to tell the difference between their beads and his own, they started by making one and placing it on the deck, shooing anyone away that tried to pick it up. They would now see if Ace would pick it up and suspect his necklace if he lost one, indicating he thought it was a part of it.
They however all knocked their head on the railing at what actually happened. Ace had walked on deck, as planned, saw the bead, also planned, went and picked it up, very much planned, and then brought it closer to his face, everything was going so well... until... until... HE FREAKING ATE IT! He just, their local fire hazard just put the whole thing in his mouth and swallowed it! Didn't even make a gross face as he made his way further to his lover boy and Pops.
They overheard the old man asking what Ace had just eaten of off the floor, making the raven smile and answer happily "A cherry!".
A cherry... he had thought it was a freaking cherry! It was foam, cork, and paint, all items that shouldn't taste good and had been in the bowels of this ship for years and years on end! They were surprised none had mold, besides that one part, but they were able to cover it with paint so if you don't see it, it isn't there.
With a sigh this led them to the drawing board again, and Thatch swore he could hear Marco laugh at them from the distance.
But now, now here they are! All standing on the boarding plank and laughing evilly, maybe they should stop... they were gathering a lot of attention to them.
"You should-yoi."
The trio screamed and Izou was barely able to catch onto a passing crewmate to be able to stay upright and not fall into the sea, he called a quick 'sorry' since now the other he had grabbed, did land in it. But he was less important, he hadn't been wearing makeup, Izou had, he would understand.
Haruta laughed nervously, "What should we do, Pineapp- Marco."
"... You know... when you try to hide things, you're only giving yourself away more by using my name right...? Anyways, you guys weren't just full-blown cackling, you were each monologuing to yourself about everything you've done to Ace these past weeks."
"We weren't!"
Raising an eyebrow at that Marco turned to their head chef and started retelling what they had been speaking about just now.
"Okay! Okay! We were talking out loud we get it!... O. M. G." Thatch's eyes widened and he looked around, "Ace didn't hear us right?! Where is that little sh*t!"
"First of all-yoi, don't call my boyfriend a little sh*t, only I can do that. Secondly, he's not here. He was one of the first to disembark when we arrived."
Letting out a relieved breath, they all clapped each other on the back, glad their plan was still in action.
"You guys want to tell me what you're up to?"
"Nope!" Haruta laughed as she popped the 'p', "we're just going to go shopping, aren't we guys! No birds allowed."
"That's very right dear, just a nice shopping trip between the commanders, without wings."
"Yeap, no bird wings at least."
"You're going to get him water-wings-yoi? You'll never get that on him."
"Thatch, you stupid!" Both Izou and Haruta hit Thatch over the head who whined in return. Marco only gave a sigh as he went down the ramp that led to the island, "well, I don't care. I warned you guys to not come to me if you get burned, just remember that.
The three huffed and mimicked the other, adding 'Yoi's' behind every word to impersonate the other. He didn't have his tick that often... did he? No, he didn't! … He'll get those three back later, or maybe Ace could in his stead when they tried to get him in water-wings... those idiots would be sitting on burns for a while.
With Marco out of the way, finally, the three went on their way to gather the finally ingredients for their master plan!
It was the next day that they were finally going to do it. They had spent the whole night and a good portion of the next day working on it, but it was done!
So, here Izou was, waiting for Ace to return from his trip inland.
"Ah, my favourite baby bro!"
"I'm not accepting any clothing items you make for me for an indefinite time-period."
"...how do you even know that word..."
"Marco taught me. I mean it."
"... I don't have clothes for you, I have bracelets!"
"Bracelets? I already have bracelets."
"They're not for your wrist silly, they're for around your biceps!" Izou took a step forward, ready to take Ace's arm and put the items he had in hand on, only for Ace to pull away.
"You could have done something to those too." The fireman squinted at him.
"We haven't, I swear! Here, look at them yourself." Izou handed Ace two items, "I found them on the island and thought they would match your beads. And, as if those other two idiots would have my good taste to be able to match items."
Even if still suspicious, Ace held the bracelets and inspected them. They felt and kind of looked the same as a jade bracelet would feel, only, these were blood red, almost the same shade as his beads indeed.
"I got them on the island. The little jewellers shop just halfway in town, I'm sure you've seen it, the brand is even engraved on the inside."
Twisting the band and looking inside, Ace could indeed see the engraving, huh, they were telling the truth, "... Thank you, Izou... These are nice." And they actually were really nice too, now they just needed to fit well since you couldn't really make stone smaller.
Izou smiled and took the bracelets back, "let me help you put them on! They should fit you, I measured your biceps in your sleep".
"Thank y-, O-oi, that's... creepy."
"It was for a good cause, dear, don't worry about it."
A few moments and pained noises from Ace later and the pieces were on. On each bicep a shining red bracelet was glistering in the sun. On Ace's left arm, the bracelet fit right between the A and the crossed-out S, only slightly over the A, but it didn't cover anything of the most important part of his tattoo, so Ace was good with this.
Izou clapped his hands together, "they look so good on you!"
The raven glanced at him before looking at the bracelets as they caught the sun and reflected it. He moved his arms a few times and they didn't come off and they actually felt comfortably. "... Thank you, Izou. I like them. I'm sorry for being suspicious."
It was a good thing Izou was a good actor or he would have sweat dropped, he may still feel the tiniest bit guilty for what was to come... they would need to let Ace keep these bracelets even after their plan. "It's okay, Ace. I'm very pleased that you like them. … Well, then, Enjoy them! I have ehm, I still need to finish some paperwork before your boyfriend comes for my head, bye!"
In a hurry Izou scurried off to his room, the second he opened his door he was bombarded by questions by the two other in on his plans.
"Don't speak over each other! … It went well. Too well even."
"What do you mean?"
"Ace adores the bracelets!"
"That's good, isn't it?"
"Well, yea..." The geisha glanced over to his desk, another sett of red bracelets on it, "but I'll feel so bad when we replace them with the water-wings..."
Thatch stood up and slapped Izou on the back, "It's to save his life, Iz."
"I know... For Ace's safety."
The first time Ace fell with his new bracelets he had been very suspicious if they were going to blow up but... nothing had happened and he had been visibly happy about it.
The trio watched him like a hawk, seeing him get more and more relaxed as days passed... which means... time to strike.
While Ace, and the other commanders were all eating in the kitchen, Thatch went into the kitchen as usual to check on his chefs, only to use the backdoor and run to the commander's rooms. In the room he quickly found the bracelets on Ace's nightstand. The freckled commander often only putting them on after his morning shower, which was usually after breakfast, really lucky for them. So, he took them and put them inside his chef's uniform, only to pull out a replica that looked exactly like them and put them back on the nightstand. He swallowed, he hoped this would work, and that Ace wouldn't kill them... well... to late now!
Turning around he left the corridor and went back into the kitchen, picking up a tray he had prepared earlier and walking out as usual. Going to the commander's table and making a whole show of putting it down. Giving Izou and Haruta a piece with a small red bead as decoration, a silently agreed sign that the switch had been a success.
It was only a few hours after that, that they had the chance to see their invention in action. Ace has been playing rugby, rugby!? on deck and of course ended up in the sea by trying to catch the ball.
They hadn't even been close by at that moment, but quickly were on deck when haki flared up together with a curse, "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?"
The trio was at the railing in an instant and squealed in delight, grasping each other's hands and jumping in delight, "it worked! It worked!"
In the meantime, the ocean suddenly seemed to start to bowl, steam rising of it... how... how was Ace doing that without the use of his powers. The trio hadn't even noticed until a certain commander coughed besides them.
"Yoi... I would look down at your creation because your fate is probably located close to him."
"Huh, what are y-" - "Are those bubbles?... Steam?" - "A-Ace-dear, are ehm are you o-"
"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU THREE!"
"Told you-yoi."
They tried to escape but Marco held them in place with his talons, they screamed of betrayal of him which Marco just shrugged off, "I wouldn't have interfered if you hadn't involved me."
"We didn't!"
"So those are not water-wings shaped after my phoenix-form then?"
"To be honest, the patterns I found of them were called 'dragon-wings', I just edited them..."
Marco raised a brow at the geisha.
"... maybe I edited them a lot."
"Who's ready to burn?" a menacing voice turned up from behind them and Izou, Thatch and Haruta all swallowed before turning their heads. They however couldn't stop a laugh from escaping before a single glare from Ace shut them all up again.
But c'mon! Ace was standing there with the angriest face ever, (Which was already very adorable with his freckles), flames licking over his arms as he crossed them angrily, glaring at the trio. But all attention was pulled to the obvious water-wings on his biceps. Bright blue inflatable armbands were high up on his biceps, besides the basic form, there was even a little head on the water-wings... a phoenix head, it had Marco's beak and lookalike glasses markings and all, even Pop's tattoo was visible underneath it.
Somehow Haruta found the power to speak as Ace's flames got closer to their hard work, "y-you can't burn them."
"Ooooh, and why not my dearest, dearest brother?" Ace took a few steps closer, crouching in front of the commander's face, a twisted smile on his lips, "Are you going to stop me? You can't even run." he raised a hand and put in on a bird's calf, "I've got a lovely boyfriend that's got a strong grip on you. Also, thanks for that, Birdy."
"No problem, firefly"
"B-because..." Haruta stuttered, maybe this had been a bad idea, "It-it's a replica of your boyfriend, you- you wouldn't want to destroy that, r-"
"I don't think he would mind."
"I wouldn't-yoi."
"See. Next excuse please."
The commander swallowed, was it just the sun, or was it getting a lot hotter around here, "Ehm, you see... You'll burn Pop's mark! Mutiny!"
That did make Ace blink and stop his movement, the smirk leaving his face and making the commanders in Marco's talons give a breath of relieve before their father's voice echoed over the ship, "I give you permission to burn the wings, son, no matter if my mark is on there or not."
Aaaand the smirk was back. He hadn't wanted to do this... "You can't burn them! Literally!"
Ace just scoffed and lit himself aflame, not minding he set Marco alight too, the man liked being in his flames if the coo that followed was anything to go by. A minute later they slowly pulled back into Ace's body to reveal... totally intact water-wings.
"What the hell!?"
The freckled one stood up and lit his arms on fire again, raising the temperature a lot more than before, but once again they survived. Not even a single burn mark on them.
His anger grew as he looked at the seating trio, be it of heat or fear, "What. The. Actual. Fuck! Is. This."
"S-seastone."
A glare went the chef his way, "What."
"T-the lining o-of the wings, th-they're seastone."
Izou nodded along trembling, "Y-yea, and the fab-ric is high-highclass f-fireproof mate-rial."
Ace took a moment to breath and stood up straight, flexing his shoulders, definitely not making the wings give off rubbery squeaking noises, "I must say... I am impressed in the work you put into these."
The other's blinked at the calm tone, were they off the hook? "Y-yea, we put a lot of effort into them." - "Made lots of pictures of Marco to get it right!" - "We just want you to be save... not drown."
"Hmmmm, it was for my own safety?"
"Yea! We don't want our little brother hurt!"
"I see. I see. Marco, release them." Ace said calmly as he started to remove the wings from his arms. And now that he was squeezing them, he could feel a slight drain of his powers when he touched the seams.
"Are you sure-yoi?"
"Yes. They were only trying to help me, right?"
Flabbergasted the trio scrambled up the moment they could and stood before Ace, smiles on their faces, "Yea!" - "We just wanted the best for you!" - "Of course, we only wanted to help, do you like them?"
"Oh, I like them alright. I just wonder..." he squished them in his hands, "did you do some tests on how much weight these can take? Are they durable?"
Izou pondered, "Well, the fabric is very strong and the seastone enhanced seams are almost unbreakable, so if I were to guess, it would have no problem to even hold up Jozu."
"But you guys didn't test them?" Ace looked all three commanders over as he was lightly throwing the wings into the air and catching them. Thatch was the one to respond.
"No, we didn't actually test them."
He hummed for a moment as he kept tossing up the items, "I feel very unsafe knowing that you didn't test these on the weight-limit before putting them on me. You guys wouldn't mind running some more tests on them, right? To make sure I'm safe."
The trio was stunned. Ace wasn't mad? He was just a bit worried they hadn't tested them fully. They all started laughing softly before going louder, Haruta the first to smile brightly reaching for the wings, "Of course, we'll test them for you little brother! You're right, we should have done more test! We'll get right to it!"
In an instant the smirk returned, "Good. Let me help you guys get started."
Before anyone could comprehend what was happening, the trio was already swimming in the ocean as far away from the ship as Ace could kick the trio. He then handed the wings to his boyfriend with a smile. "Marco-love, you wouldn't mind dropping these off with them, right? They're going to test their durability and resistance for me."
Smiling back, Marco kissed Ace's cheek as he accepted the wings, "It would be my pleasure-yoi." Transforming into his phoenix form, Marco flew off and dropped the wings close by the commanders in the sea before going back to his spot next to Ace.
"Ace!?" The ones in the water wailed, "Why would you do this?!" - "Didn't you like them?!" - "What about the tests?!"
An evil cackle left the raven's mouth, "You're performing tests right now! I'm guessing all three of your combined weight is about the same as Jozu, so you guys can cling to them and see how long they keep you afloat!" He linked his arm around Marco's and turned both of them around. As he walked away, he gave a wave without looking back, "Tell me the results later!"
Only after about 6 hours did Namur fish them out of the sea and allowed them back on deck. They even got scolded by the fishman since they had yelled that they had only done it for his sake, while he never asked for this.
Yes, he was the tiniest bit annoyed Ace drowned a lot, but the boy was always apologetic and made it up by helping him with his commander's tasks and such. Plus... everything could have been solved by just talking to the teen. Which Namur had done in these 6 hours. Simply asked Ace to maybe refrain from the ballgames and such on the open deck, and use the indoor place, or just let the ball go overboard. The teen apologized and accepted, saying he would be more careful, et voilà, the problem was fixed.
Later that day the trio apologized profusely to their baby brother and gave him back the normal red bracelets, telling him they were the original ones and wouldn't inflate, that they would even proof it if he wanted them too. The teen just huffed and accepted them, still thanking them for it and even putting them on, he did like these very much.
Much to the relief of the trio, Ace did also accept their apology, but only one condition...
Weeks later, a new article arose in fashion magazines, once again mentioning three commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, 'Forget going pantsless! Inflatable pants and customized water-wings are the only true way to a pirate's heart!'