Ace/Marco (2)

(Wound Up Too Tight At Midnight)

He was running. His feet pounded on the forest floor with each step he took. His breathing was erratic as he struggled to pull in air.

He ducked and weaved over and under branches and fallen trees. Adrenaline pumping through his entire body spurring him forward even when his body felt like it would give out at any given moment.

He could hear them behind him running to keep up never seeming to stop or falter. He glanced back for a moment, his eyes met a bright glow of flames in the darkness, his ears catching indistinct angry words of snarls and growls.

His head snapped back around in fear to keep moving. To get away.

His breath caught in his throat as he forced himself to a sudden stop on the edge of a ravine that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He teetered precariously on the edge for a moment before he threw his weight backwards to land on ground behind him instead.

He panted at the spike of fear that had ran through him in a matter of seconds, before looking at the edge of the ravine in a panic, hoping to find someway to get across it.

His heart sank. There was nothing. No bridges. No trees. No little pathways. It was too wide to jump across, and there seemed to be no end in sight to the deep and dark ravine.

Suddenly the voices behind him got louder and everything in him tensed and bristled. He whirled around trying to attempt to meet them head on. He called upon his devil fruit only to jolt horrified when, instead of fire, all he felt was pain.

It was right in that moment that a fist came from out of nowhere and connected to his jaw.

All he could hear was screamed accusations calling him a demon, an abomination, the devil's spawn. All their faces were blurred and looked like dark pits of darkness. There was so many of them.

Suddenly they had him kneeling on the ground his hands spread out, many hands holding them in place. A hand was in his hair yanking it up, making him stare across the ravine to the other side, his eyes widened in horror.

Luffy was there on the other side, bound and gagged, so was Dadan, Makino, the Spade Pirates, Shanks, Whitebeard, Thatch, the other Commanders on the Moby Dick, and so many other people he had met.

The faces as dark as night, started laughing, and too wide, too unnatural, too white smiles curved on their faces. A great contrast to their void like appearance.

He watched horrified and unable to move as one by one everyone he knew, and everyone he met was pushed into the ravine.

He was sobbing by the time it got down to two people. Luffy and Marco. He screamed when Luffy was pushed and tried to wrench forward to save him, like he had tried for the majority of them, but just like before the creature's hands held too tight.

He looked up horrified into Marco's eyes. He too was bound and gagged, but unlike the others who had had unimaginable fear, loathing, guilt, or other emotion of hate towards Ace, Marco's eyes seemed to speak the words; 'I'm sorry.', 'please forgive me', and something else Ace couldn't seem to place.

Marco had suddenly been grabbed by his hair and hurled off the ravine cliff. Ace had frozen in horror.

It was sudden when a deep tearing ache seared in his chest and he whimpered.

The abominations laughed before disappearing, and suddenly they weren't the ones standing on the other side of the ravine, he was.

He wasn't thinking as he took a step forward to peer over the edge of the ravine.

He looked down into the abyss, not knowing what to do.

Something hard slammed into his back and he was sent flying over the cliff face.

And he just kept falling.

Ace snapped awake with a gasp, sitting up, and looking around the room frantically.

It was okay. He was back on the Moby Dick. He was in his room, on his bed. Not somewhere deep in the woods watching his family be murdered because of him.

They were okay.

He panted as he let his head fall into his hand.

He hadn't had one of those dreams in a long while.

He wondered what may have triggered it..

He looked back up looking around his room for a moment before looking down at the blankets he had kicked off of him in his sleep.

He probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep tonight, anyways.

He might as well get up.

He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. No point in just laying in bed doing nothing.

Setting his hands on the edge of the mattress, he slid himself out of bed and left his room.

Being on the Moby Dick meant getting used to a lot of noise. Even at night there tended to be a good amount of sounds to make up the song of the ship. Snoring from the more rambunctious, mumbles of sleep oriented dreams, and unfortunately the occasional moans of a mild nightmare.

But tonight it was almost eerily silent, as he walked the halls, intent on getting to the deck to feel the night air, help him clear his head. Maybe he could trade with whoever was on night watch. Well one of the ones of night watch.

Since the Moby was so big it took pairs to watch over her and her residents as they slept.

Usually a higher ranking member and a lower ranked member, each from a different division, but that wasn't a rule. Ace knew that one of his division members was on watch tonight, but he wasn't sure who his subordinate was paired up with.

Hopefully it was someone that wouldn't complain too much if Ace traded with his division member.

Ace sighed again as he took hold of the door handle leading to the open air of the night. It didn't matter really. If they complained Ace would just go lay down somewhere near the figurehead and watch the stars instead. He hadn't done that in a while either.

He snorted and trailed his eyes along the long wood planks of the deck. He took several steps out into the cool night air when he didn't immediately spot his division member.

He heard a heavy footfall behind him and turned, looking up to the balcony over the door to see his division member on guard tonight, Jameson, looking down at him confused. He smiled and took a few steps forward, before calling up to the man.

"Jameson! Why don't you go get some sleep? I'll trade with you for tonight." Ace half smiled at the blonde. Hoping his subordinate's brown eyes wouldn't spot the slight tremble in his hands, or the way his shoulders slumped just a little bit, a leftover effect from his unrestful sleep.

Brown eyes blinked at him in confusion before Jameson's eyebrows drew together. "Uh- sure Commander! But.. It wouldn't exactly be right.."

Ace felt himself tilt his head. "What do you mean?"

Jameson looked to the side, as he scratched the back of his head. He grunted. "Marco came out here earlier and traded shifts with Haruta.."

Ace blinked before biting his cheek. Forcing out a reply before he could stop himself. "Eh. That's fine! Don't worry about it. Marco won't mind."

Jameson snapped his head back to the second division commander. "Are you sure-"

Ace cut him off nodding with a cheesy looking grin on his face. "Yes! Yes! Now go on! Go find Erima, and get some sleep with your mate! You guys have worked hard lately!"

Jameson blinked before ducking his head in embarrassment at the reminder of his beautiful female alpha mate, and surrendered to the raven haired alpha's request. "Well, alright."

Ace grinned wide, vaulting himself onto the balcony railing, making Jameson back up a few steps in reflex. "That's the spirit!" Ace started making a shooing motion towards the blonde haired beta, with an comical fake seriousness on his face. "Now go on. Go."

Jameson smirked exasperatedly and gave a mock salute as he backed towards the stairs. "Yes sir."

Ace smirked softly as he watched him go before stepping off the railing and stretching his arms above his head, making every muscle in his back shift at the motion.

Marco was out here, huh.

A pair of desperate, apologetic, sorrow filled eyes flashed into his mind as he stared out over the ocean in silence, his arms still raised above his head, as he just held them there for a moment.

He found himself gritting his back teeth hard and opened his jaw with a grimace, dropping his arms, to rub the ache in the side of his jaw with a hand.

There was something about Marco. Something that always got Ace acting...weird..around the omega.

And Ace knew it wasn't just because he was an alpha.

Despite how he used to act like a douche around the Whitebeards he wasn't one of those alphas that thought they could lord over anyone just because of their dynamic and that omegas would just lay at his feet at the slightest beck and call.

He wasn't like that.

He wasn't affected by Omegas unless he wanted himself to be. He had Sabo to thank for that.

Being around Sabo, despite how short it had been, and it had been far too short, had given him a first hand experience to what an omega goes through and how to block out an omega's unconsciously released scents.

A training, almost.

At least that's what Sabo had called it.

Being in the small, broken little pack with his two brothers had made him more sensitive to his surroundings. More sensitive to scents. Each of them had a role. Even if most the time the roles were shared between them. They were each other's protectors, providers, caretakers, and trainers. They may have been pack, still was when it came to Luffy, but they had been brothers first.

They were family.

And now Ace's family had grown.

The Whitebeards had wormed themselves into Ace's personal space and told him to 'suck it up' when he objected. Told him to learn that they weren't leaving when he lashed out at them. Teased him when he attacked their alpha in a farce to get them to leave him themselves, saying that he should give up because they wouldn't change their minds.

Told him they were all equal children of the sea when he made one last attempt to disprove their claims.

They were family now. Pack.

Ace wouldn't try and get rid of them for anything, anyone, ever offered him.

He loved them all. Learned about each of them through conversations.

But..

But Marco had always been a bit different.

He still loved Marco just the same as he did his other brothers and sisters under Whitebeard's flag, but there was something else there as well and Ace didn't have a clue to what it was.

The first time he saw Marco had been when his eyes automatically trailed to the blond, without prompting. He found himself not being able to, nor wanting to, turn away as he looked the blonde over from his position sitting against the Moby Dick's railing.

Every time after that Marco seemed to pop up into his head more often than that of even his brothers. Everywhere he went in the Moby he could smell exactly where Marco had been and what he touched.

No one else seemed to notice Marco's scent, and there were other omega's on the ship as well so he knew it wasn't because Marco was subconsciously releasing more of his scent than necessary to make up for all the testosterone floating on the ship because of so many alphas and betas gathered together. Besides that's not what Marco smelled like to him.

He had no clue what any of it meant. Why Marco seemed to stand out from the crowd to him.

He smirked, pulling himself out of his musings and looking up towards the crows nest.

Maybe he'd be getting a conversation alongside his need for fresh air tonight.

He didn't know why but talking to Marco always calmed him down.

One of the perks of being Marco-sensitive apparently.