So sorry that this update is fairly short, but i've been busy and i wanted to post during this rare down moment. Hope you'd enjoy!

"—were seen leaving together holding hands, and entering what was reported to be Mr. Newgate's car. The very same car where our reporter found the pop star leaving out of very later that day, bushy tailed and grinning from ear to ear. So sorry boys and girls around the world, but it looks like our beloved Spade's off the market! " The poor, faultless magazine was thrown to the floor, joining the rest of its brethren to form a mountain of glossy and bright coloured papers, "Of all the things you have to cause today, it's thi— Ace, are you even listening to me?!"

From the side, Sabo watched silently as Trafalgar Law's left eye twitched when he realized that no, Ace was not listening. Instead, in the middle of his quoting snippily at every article he had brought over, unnoticed by both of them, Ace had sneaked over some of the thrown away magazines and newspaper. Currently, he had his face hidden behind one of said magazines - one who placed the headline of his news next to some expose about another celebrity's recent divorce - teeth biting down hard on his lips.

"Oh my god," he gasped not moments later, fingers trailing over one of the overblown picture of him and Marco exiting the cafe in the middle of a crowd, "They caught a picture of this!"

Law thumped his upturned palm with the magazine rolled in his other hand, "Exactly. We need to take care of this as soon as—"

"Can i have this? And this one, this one, and this one? No, wait, that other magazine has a better lighting. I need to scan and frame all of this— Ow! Law!"

"Will you take this seriously, you braindead fool!" Again, Law smacked down the magazine right on top of Ace's head, making the dark haired singer wince and whined in pain, "My phone has been ringing non-stop since the fucking crack of dawn! Every two bit trash writer that calls themselves journalist wanted a scoop and an exclusive interview, every shitty talkshow wanted to have you on to explain yourself, Rayleigh wanted me to sort this out quickly, and i haven't finished walking Bepo around the park yet because of this shit! He couldn't have his favorite hotdog from the corner food stall! He didn't have time to roll around his favorite flower field I don't have time to even kiss him goodbye! He was sad when i left! Do you enjoy making Bepo sad, Ace?! Do you?!"

With every word that came out of Law's mouth the more intense his smacking around become, and Sabo quickly pulled him away when tears started coming out of the corner of Ace's squeezed shut eyes and before he could do a lasting damage, "Goddammit, Law, stop squirming before you take someone's eyes out!" he ignored the screamed 'good!' and finally settled on swiping the magazine away.

In the scuffle, Ace had smartly moved away, holding up several magazines that he had swiped from earlier as a barrier between himself and the still snarling Law, "L-look, i don't know what the big deal is! It's just a fake dating news, it's not like this is the first time this happened," he then paused, and Sabo had to stifle a sigh when he predictably become starry eyed, "Oh my god, i got into a fake dating news with Marco,"

Considering he had spent a great amount of effort in restraining Law, Sabo think it would be a complete disservice to his own will to protect his brother if he ended up smacking Ace with the magazine that he had confiscated, "Ace, focus!"

"No, you're right," the freckled male said, turning solemn, and for a brief moment Sabo was glad that he finally got through before Ace's face turned horrified, and he knew he hadn't, "Marco's always been protective of his private life, and he hated being put on a spotlight like this. Oh no, what if this caused him distress? What if I caused him distress? Shit, i knew i shouldn't have gone out with those pants. They made my ass looks great, sure, but they attract way too many attention,"

Law turned to him with a growl, "Can i please beat some sense to him now?"

"No," Sabo sighed, not adding the silent 'only because he's the reason we have a paycheck'.

Oblivious to their exchanged, Ace reached into the front pocket of his hoodie to pull out his phone, "I have to text him quick and find out. Oh shit, what should i say? 'Good morning'? Yeah, that's a good start. 'I'm so sorry' sounded pathetic. I can't ask if he's seen the news, that's just being facetious, and i'm not sure not sure if Marco would appreciate that. 'I had a great time yesterday'?" He paused briefly, as his face suddenly evolved to a different colour entirely, the red flushing all over his exposed skin, "Aah, i can't say that! That sounded way like something else! Though i won't mind if it's—"

"Oh no, you don't," Shrugging off Sabo's hold at last, Law stalked over and would've swiped Ace's phone away from him if the other raven hadn't been fast enough to dodge, "Until we sort out this mess, you are not going to be in contact with him. No texting, no calls, and you sure as hell is not going to see him face to face, public or not,"

The shocked gasp that came out of Ace would've been funny at any other moment, but he looked so honestly stricken that Sabo didn't have the guts to laugh, "Y-you can't do that!"

"As your manager, yes i can,"

"That's not fair! It's not like this is the first time this happened! Remember Vivi? Or Doma? Hell, remember that stupid gossip news outlet that's so insistent in telling everyone that i'm in a kinky relationship with Smoker? That's way worse than this and you didn't stop me from seeing them!"

"No, because unlike those other cases," With one sharp tug, the magazine Ace dropped was back in Law's hand, being flicked from page to page in near superhuman speed, it's a miracle nothing was ripped, "This time they got pictures of you two! Compromising pictures!" he flicked a page open with a harsh tug, and shoves it in front of Ace's face. It was one of the more worrisome ones, Sabo noticed, fittingly enough comes from one of the less reputable trashy gossip magazines. It captured the moment Ace might have leaned in to Marco to say something, but the angle made it look like they were discreetly making out, complete with Marco leaning down slightly. It certainly didn't help that they were in a corner, and if Sabo hadn't had his ear talked off the night before about every single detail of yesterday's event, he would've believed the first impression too.

Sabo was too busy staring, that he belatedly noticed that the screaming match next to him had stopped and both dark haired men were now staring at him, "What?"

"Tell him, Sabo!" Ace yelled first, pointing at Law, "Tell him he's being unreasonable! He can't stop me from seeing my f-friend!"

"You tell this little shit," Law growled out, pointing to Ace, "That he's done enough damage as it is and i swear if he does something to make this all worse—"

Whatever creative threat that Law was about to unleash unto Ace abruptly stopped at the chime of text message alert from Ace's hand. Ace glanced down to his screen, deep frown on his face before he suddenly widened his eyes. Sabo watched from the corner of his eyes as Law's eyes bugged out, and he suddenly lunged, "Oh no you don't!"

Only, Ace was faster and more nimble, evading him to the side and cradling his phone protectively against his chest, "You can't make me! Sabo, get him away from me!"

Before Sabo could even process what's happening, Ace had already fled, making his way to his room with Law hot on his heels. The door was slammed close, probably near enough to clip Law's nose, and the manager simply had to appease his anger to the door, banging and hitting against it repeatedly and shouting out Ace's name and forbidding him to follow through with something. Sabo had an inkling of what just happened, but he settled himself with sitting on the sofa and cleaning up the rest of the fallen and scattered magazines.

Perhaps Ace had a point. This isn't the first sudden big news he was involved in, and out of every possible 'scandal' that could've happened with a big name like Spade, being reported to be dating someone he was only briefly seen with in public was one of the tamer things.

Sabo silently watched as the door next to Ace's bedroom was thrown open and out come Luffy, who immediately tackled Law down and insisted that he played video games with him, effectively stopping Law from his rampage on Ace and continue it on Luffy, both quite unresponsive to his ire. He looked down on one of the magazines, sighing as he read the large caption - 'SINGER & ACTOR: THE NEW POWER COUPLE?' - and took in the detail of the picture accompanying it, the one of Ace and Marco making their escape from the cafe, holding hands.

This will… complicate things, but there's already a procedure to follow through with this sort of situation; pick one reputable magazine/daytime talk show, have them and Ace read out a carefully woven script that will hopefully kill off any future possibility of speculations, and then things can go back to normal. They can still go back on track with marketing and promotional schedule. After all, it is as what Ace calls it. A fake news, not some odd truth they had to hide away.

Simple.

(There's a little voice in the back of his head that mutters 'as if', but Sabo ignores it, a long polished survival instinct when it comes to Ace and Luffy)

Luffy and Law entered his periphery soon enough, his fellow manager slumped in defeat as Luffy sat him down in front of their plasma TV and left to boot up the gaming system. A cursory glance to the small clock on top of the TV told him that all of these events occurred right before 8am, and the blonde let out a mournful sigh and took out his phone, quickly texting Koala to regrettably inform her that the breakfast date they're planning to have today probably won't happen.

"I swear, he's going to drive all of us to an early grave," he heard Law moan from where he sat, and nodded silently before returning to cleaning up and stacking the magazines away. Law won't have any use for them anymore, and he knows that Ace will probably do something stupid and silly like a collage out of these paparazzi shots to hang in his bedroom amongst the other Marco paraphernalia.

Just because he agree that Ace is a pain in the ass sometimes, doesn't mean that Sabo doesn't love him.

Notifications:

900+ Twitter Mentions - View Latest

Jewellry_Bonnes IS THIS TRUE? .gl/spades-secret-romance-revealed-to-be-famous-actor/celebrity-gossip/2367878228 Ace_of_Spades HEY ANSWER MEEE!

TangerineGirl [Photo Linked] [Photo Linked] [Photo Linked] Source: RaftelMorningNews OMG, Ace_of_Spades YOU BETTER HAVE SOME GOOD EXPLANATION! SHDSDHJS

999+ New Comments on Instagram - View Latest

mdeuce_ Heard from the morning papers. Kinda hurt you didn't tell your studio buddies about this but… congrats. Oh, and Kotatsu says hi. He's hurt too

bbigoarsjr Yo spades_ace, i thought you were just a fan of the guy, not actually dating him. But i shouldn't be surprised, every time i so much as mentioned his name or movie you always…View More

345 New Text Message - View Latest

New Text Message from Traffy (°ロ°) [06:47]: DON'T YOU FUCKKING DCARE TO AEXIT YOUR HOSE EFORE I GAT THER YOU HAVWE A LOT OF EEXPLAINWING TO XDO

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [07:31]: Can i call you?

The sound of Law calling for his blood finally faded away with the sound of the game system in the living room being turned on, but Ace knew 'Pirate Alliance 7: Revenge of the Heart' would only momentarily distract him. Knowing Luffy, he'll probably have plenty of time, but it doesn't matter how much time he had left if he spent those blessed time staring at the latest notification on his phone screen.

It's not that Ace didn't want to call Marco, of course. But what should he say? Did Marco also receive this sort of bombardment from his end? Is he pissed off? The text doesn't sound like it, but then again, you can't tell someone's tone from a text. What if he wanted to call to say that maybe they can't hang out anymore?

As the thought passed in his mind, Ace groaned, whining lowly, "And to think i finally met him and be friends with him,"

Thankfully he wasn't left conflicted for long, because his phone vibrates again, showing that he had a new message.

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:12]: Please don't freak out, but i really need to talk to you

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:12]: I'm outside of your house

Ace swore that his heart stopped right there and then. He stumbled as he rushed over to the window of his bedroom, the one overlooking to the front garden and sure enough, he could see there's a familiar car parked right next to Law's, and if he squint, he'd be able to make out the silhouette of the driver, and his unique hairstyle.

In his hand, his phone vibrates again.

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:14]: Wait, i'm sorry, please ignore me

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:14]: I don't know why i'm here, i wasn't thinking straight after my manager lay it on to me i just wanted to apologize and next thing i know i'm here i'm so sorry

New Text Message from Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:15]: This is probably creepy as hell to you

Ace didn't need to think twice.

Sent to Marco (σ≧▽≦)σヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ (✿ ‿ )(ΘεΘ [08:15]: Give me 2 minutes

Ace could probably win a record in world's fastest clothes changing, making sure that he at least looks presentable enough and not look like he was dragged out of bed by an angry manager first thing in the morning. He listened in to the voices from outside of his bedroom once more - he could hear Luffy's triumphant yell over Law's more subdued grumbling - and slowly began to creep towards his window and open it quietly before climbing outside.

It was probably quite juvenile for him to be acting like this, but he was sure that if he walked out from his bedroom, there is no way that Law would let him go so easily, especially not if he found out just who is parked right outside of his house. As soon as he was sure that his window was closed down without making any sound, Ace hurried out, past the gate and towards the dark car right next to the sidewalk.

He found Marco right behind the wheel of the car, dressed in dark grey hoodie and wearing the same sunglasses he wore the first time they met in the music store, probably a staple to his everyday disguise. Ace walked to the other side of the car, and entered to the passenger seat, quickly entering after a brief look around of his surrounding.

"Hey," Marco greeted as soon as he sat down and shut the door close.

The first thing that entered Ace's mind was that 'he didn't sound mad, oh, thank fuck he's not mad', "H-hi,"

There's a brief silence between them, broken by Marco clearing his throat, "I, uh, i'm surprised there's no reporter hounding your front door. My apartment was swarmed, it took me a while to be able to give them the slip,"

"Oh, it's probably because this is a gated community. Oars Jr., the security guard on the front gate is really scary looking so no one ever dared to come around. Well, except for some sneaky paparazzi," Ace added weakly, remembering some of the pictures posted on the magazine Law brought over. Marco nodded curtly, seems to be out of politeness than actually listening to what Ace said, but he didn't mind. The air is thick with awkwardness right now, and these little talks are not helping in the slightest.

In the end, the blonde sighed, making Ace turn to face him, "Listen, i— I'm sure you've seen the news from this morning, seeing that it's probably on every news outlet possible, and i just wanted to say that i'm so sorry for causing this to happen,"

"What, no! No, it's not your fault—"

"I was the one who insisted on making up for the glasses—"

"But i'm the one who suggested that we should go out in a public area—"

"—didn't watch out for paparazzi, i swear i'm usually really careful but i was really distracted yesterday—"

"—I didn't even wear a disguise or anything, that's probably why everyone saw us—"

"—because well, honestly, i can't believe that i was talking to you of all people! W-what i mean is—"

"—I would but nothing looks good on me and i want to look good for— Uh, i mean, just—"

"—can we still meet?"

"—please tell me we can still meet up!"

In a near simultaneous moment, they two of them stopped talking. Marco was pretty much imitating a goldfish, eyes wide open and mouth gaped, but the sight on the rear-view mirror told Ace that his expression was nowhere near any better.

He was only snapped back to reality when the corners of Marco's lips twitched and slowly let out an embarrassed laugh, which in turn led him to demurely giggle, feeling like a heavy weight of uncertainty was lifted off from his shoulder, "If you don't mind," Ace said in between laughter, "I'd love to, actually. To still see you around. I mean, it's the media, you know? They think everyone's dating everyone,"

Marco coughed, sounding like he was choking, "Y-yeah, yeah, that… that makes sense,"

Again, silence ensues, "This," Ace found himself saying, hand gesturing weakly on the empty air, "This isn't going to change anything, right?"

"No, absolutely not,"

"Oh good, cause, i'm feel awkward enough when i'm around you, i don't think i can handle it if things gets weird— Wait, no! I don't mean awkward in a bad way! I-i mean like, i— I mean, it's you, and i've been a fan of yours for a long time and i still can't believe it that we're talking like this, let alone that yesterday happened and—" Ace bit his bottom lip, eyes squeezed shut as he began to lost the plot of his own explanation. Goddamnit, how many times had he make a fool out of himself in front of Marco?

But Marco only laughed again, a low amused rumble with a dusting of healthy pink across his cheeks.

Ace was positively dazzled.

"Do you," the blonde began, smiling softly and probably ignorant on how much Ace felt like melting just looking at that smile, "I don't know, want to grab something to eat? It's still pretty early, we can get something quick and hope that no one with a camera is awake enough to notice that its us,"

The mention of food made Ace's stomach growl and sent a jolt of mortification through him, "Best idea i've heard all morning," Ace said with a weak laugh, covering his treacherous stomach and cursing it for embarrassing him in front of his absolute favorite idol. But Marco only smiled wider and chuckled in amusement, before driving off slowly.

It didn't even enter Ace's mind that this might be a bad idea, all thoughts of the morning's news and Law's restriction went flying off from his head.

I'm thinking of doing more of the 'texting/phone format' like above, but do you like that? I don't use social media much so i kinda just made them up based on memory.

Anyway, thank you so much and so sorry for such a short update after a long time of not updating this fic, but like with everything else, it's been hectic, esp with christmas coming x_x.

On that note, even if it's a bit early, just in case i don't update until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!