Title: What are the Odds?
Summary: For denizens of the Territories, life is generally pretty good. Provided of course that one is able and willing to conform to the rules imposed by whomever is in the charge of the area. However when the World Collective, a group of allied territories, declares that they are resuming hunts for people who seem to have the Devils own abilities, life becomes very complicated very quickly.
Pairings: Marco/Ace.
Warnings: AU, Language, canon-typical violence, possible Out of Character moments, too many characters, OC's galore, implied sexual content, slow burn
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. I simply play with them for my, and your amusement.
Authors Note: Fun things are fun and also very tiring. Im not sure why exactly I felt the need to state that as Im pretty sure its one of those universal truths, but then again Im also a little loopy from driving just over 2333 km/1450 m in 4 days. Anyways I wanted to make sure I got this chapter up and out for you all before I go fall asleep cause I have some serious zzzz's that I need to catch up on.
As always, the magnificent Ktwontwo has been an absolute gem and beta'ed this chapter for me. Seriously guys you should go check out their stuff. Its phenomenal and you definitely wont regret it.
The fantastically amazing absolutely outstanding awesome Idaida on tumblr is responsible for the lovely cover art. Thank you again for choosing my story in the 2016 OP Big Bang. It was a pleasure to work with you! To all of you readers who are lamenting the fact that you cant make out much detail never fear! Yall can find a much larger and better version of the magnificent stupendously phenomenal picture here! post/143364258999/one-piece-big-bang-2016-what-are-the-odds
And now, without further ado we return you to your regularly scheduled story!
Chapter 7: No Such Thing as an Ordinary Day (NSTOD)
"So why am I here again?" Thatch asked the mixed crowd of employees and customers outside of the small grill.
Thatch frowned as he watched the nervous group. They all clustered together nervously and Thatch shook his head slightly. This was not normally something that he had to deal with. Usually when there was a problem within the territory proper the citizens simply went to the local Enforcers office where they would handle the problem.
This was not what had happened this time around. Instead they had called him directly. Whatever they needed his help for had them rather worried for he hadn't heard a single greeting from these people since he had gotten here. That alone would have made this strange situation unusual but it was even more so for him. Thatch was a frequent visitor to the various eateries in this district. Talking shop with the various chefs was his favorite way to relax and it always gave him new ideas to try when he cooked for the family.
"Well…" one man started, but he clearly had no clue of how he was supposed to explain whatever the problem was and the sentence trailed off and faded back into silence while Thatch watched entirely unimpressed.
That feeling continued to grow when no one bother to speak up after a few minutes of waiting. "Look," He finally said once he'd had enough of their dithering, "Is this a prank that one of the others put you up to?" Thatch asked facing them, hands on his hips. He was actually a little surprised by the reaction that question got.
"No no no!" The man who had been unable to articulate his thoughts only a moment ago was quick to reassure him, "No pranks. Nothing like that at all!"
"Then what is it?" Thatch asked. This was taking time. Time that he didn't really have. There was a lot of paperwork that he wanted to finish this afternoon, if only to show the others that he actually could get his paperwork done before the deadline.
The first man looked sheepish and turned away. Another person took the chance to speak but they didn't do much better at conveying the problem that he had been called to fix. "Its… well…" the second man began.
"We don't know what it is." A woman said stepping forward and cutting off her coworkers. "They think someone died in the shop."
Thatch blinked. He couldn't have heard that correctly. "Sorry, did you just say someone died?"
The woman shrugged and Thatch marveled at her ability to remain rather unconcerned with the entire situation despite the fact that he had apparently been called to deal with a dead body. "Someone might have died" She said, "But we don't know."
"Right." Thatch said, scratching the back of his head in befuddlement. This was certainly a new one. "Well, what happened that made you think someone had died?"
"About halfway through my shift a young man came in and ordered a fairly large lunch. He began eating and we left him alone after that, as he had ordered a substantial amount of food and we thought it would take him some time to finish it. Eventually one of the others noticed that the young man hadn't left and went to check on him. We found him collapsed on top of the table in his lunch."
"We thought he might have died but couldn't tell of what" Came the rather meek voice of the original speaker. He twisted his hands together nervously then continued albeit reluctantly "Its… possible we overreacted but the papers and the transfract broadcasts have stressed that we call the enforcers or the commanders if something strange occurs."
"And we figured that a perfectly healthy young man collapsing during his lunch constituted as being strange" The woman said with the same uncaring tone that she had expressed earlier.
"He also hasn't paid." Someone else muttered from the midst of the group though it was impossible to tell who had said it.
"And the manager said to not bother the enforcers and called you instead," said another person from the back of the pack.
It was as if that last statement had broken the log jam and the employees and patrons all clustered around him babbling about where they were and what they had been doing at the time the young man had collapsed. Thatch's eyebrows rose at the explanations. He had been too dismissive of their problem initially. The manager had done the right thing though. A person suddenly dying was rather strange and potentially very serious especially during Pirate King protocols. The enforcers would have kicked this up to him anyway and the as yet unnamed manager had somehow realized this and cut out the middle men.
Now that he had a decent idea of what was going on Thatch ignored the rest of the babbling in lieu of indulging in a bit of speculation. Hopefully this would be the only case of such a thing happening. If it wasn't then this could be the start of something extremely problematic and Marco, Izo and Jozu would all have a field day with this. Thatch hummed to himself. For now he would treat it as an individual case, but he couldn't help consider the implications and possibilities and frankly, he didn't like where his speculations were headed. He made a mental note to find out if Marco and the others had considered contingencies in case someone ever tried to weaken them with an act of bioterrorism. It hadn't happened before but Teach, Blackbeard, was enough of a bastard that he would use it if he thought of it. Thatch shook his head. There was no use borrowing trouble, especially as he didn't think that was the case here.
"You said he was healthy?" He asked the woman who had established herself as the only truly competent person in the group, intent on confirming that last thought. "Are you sure? He wasn't coughing, pale or unusually sweaty? Did he have any open wounds or anything?"
The woman raised an eyebrow. "None of that. He was a perfectly healthy young man as far as I could see."
"Did he eat anything other than what was served to him? Take any medicines or anything?" Thatch asked, attempting to think of all the ways someone could carry in a plague or poison.
"No medicines or anything. The only things that he ate or drank were things we served him."
Thatch nodded and continued on, "How old would you guess he was?"
"Mid to late twenties." The woman was starting to sound annoyed now. "Is there a point to this?" she demanded to know.
"Yes" Thatch said, honestly surprised that she hadn't caught on yet. "I'm trying to figure out why he collapsed and died. If he was a young man then it's highly unlikely that his death was caused by a heart attack or some other health issue. If he wasn't sick and the only things he ate and drank was what was given to him and they were not messed with then I can probably rule a variety of things out before I even see the body."
"What?" Someone in the group squeaked and Thatch ignored them in favor of continuing his deduction.
"Which means that it'll be safe to approach the body. I can't rule out poison just yet. Was there anything strange in your kitchen this morning or unusual about his food?"
"The only thing unusual was the amount he ordered" the woman said, and annoyance started to change to anger "Are you accusing us of something?"
"Not at all." Thatch said cheerfully. "Just trying to figure things out. It's entirely possible that something happened elsewhere and took a while to kick in. So…" he said rubbing his hands together, perhaps a little to gleefully for the seriousness of the situation but he couldn't help it. This was so much more interesting than paperwork
"It's probably nothing and if it is actually something I'll take care of it personally," Thatch said intentionally pitching his voice so that all could hear. Hopefully that would keep the rumors down while he investigated. Thatch suddenly realized that he had no idea which of these idiots standing around was actually in charge, or for that matter which one had placed the call. None of them looked like they had more than three brain cells to rub together at the moment.
"So where's the manager?" he asked.
From the mutters and murmurs of the group Thatch quickly determined that the manager was still inside keeping an eye on things.
"I'm going go inside and inspect the body." Thatch announced to the crowd. Once again he hoped the I'm in charge and I know what I'm doing attitude would keep things from getting out of hand. A few of the more curious employees trailed in behind him. The interior of the dining area was rather well lit, making it immediately possible to discern the source of the disturbance. The manager was still nowhere to be seen.
Exactly as the wait staff had said, a young man in an orange cowboy hat was slumped over on one table face first in a plate full of food. Several other plates with varying degrees of fullness surrounded him. Thatch studied the young man for a minute, attempting to figure out who he was. He wasn't at all familiar to Thatch, but the Whitebeard Territory was a rather large place so that didn't mean much. The knife on his belt however implied the kid wasn't a local. This deep into the territory only members of the Enforcers bothered to wear weapons openly and even then they were considered by the citizens to be paranoid as they normally didn't need them. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Did anyone bother to check and see if he had actually died?" He asked as he continued studying the young man.
"No." Said a voice from behind him and Thatch turned to look at the speaker. It was the woman from outside leaning against the front door frame effectively blocking access. "I didn't think we needed to. It was fairly obvious that he's dead. Why else would he collapse in a plate of food?"
Judging from her clothing she was the waitress who had been serving the guy who had collapsed.
Thatch shrugged and turned back to the body, refusing to let the citizens see his loss of bravado. He had hoped, rather desperately that someone had bothered to check. If the guy had keeled over due to something contagious he really didn't want to touch him. If he could figure out if the man had died by just looking at him, he would. Unfortunately that was going to be impossible. The way the young man had fallen, his hair obscured his face. Not that it would have helped much if Thatch could see it anyways. Based on how he was sitting, he had landed face first in his plate of food. Funnily enough, the guy hadn't let go of the burger that he had been eating when he had perished. Thatch snorted softly in amusement but then grimaced as he realized that he would actually have to touch the kid. Thatch gulped, this was going to be so nasty. He stretched out a finger to touch the man's shoulder. With what seemed like agonizing slowness his finger drew closer and closer. It was less than a centimeter away when the unthinkable happened. The dead guy sat up.
Thatch jumped back with a rather manly squeak that he hoped to hell no one else noticed. He doubted anyone did, as his only witness was the woman in the doorway who he had heard react in much the same manner. The noise didn't appear to bother the young man either as he simply took a bite of the sandwich that he was still holding and exclaimed "Damn! That is a tasty burger."
Thatch blinked at that statement while he watched the kid continue eating as if he hadn't just successfully freaked out one of the Whitebeard Enforcer's commanders and a good portion of the restaurant's staff and patronage. "What the hell?" he finally muttered and the man looked over at him in rather obvious confusion.
"What?" he had the nerve to ask as he finished his burger in another couple of bites and reached for another plate of food.
"They thought you were dead!" Thatch said, taking the moment to study the young man now that he could actually see his face. The term young man was a rather generous description, Thatch decided after a moment. He couldn't say how old the other man actually was, but he didn't look to be much older than twenty
"Thought I was what, then?" The kid, as Thatch mentally dubbed him, asked his confusion and bewilderment growing.
"That you were dead!" Thatch repeated.
"I'm not dead." The kid countered calmly, crunching a potato chip as he spoke. "I'm pretty sure that I'd know it if I died."
Thatch rolled his eyes then amended his statement. "Ok, fine. You're not dead. But you did collapse and freak everyone out."
"I did?" The kid looked around, noticing for the first time that the restaurant was completely deserted and there was a whole group of people was peering around the woman in the doorway. "Oh." He said softly and turned back to Thatch looking genuinely remorseful. "Sorry. I fell asleep."
Thatch sputtered. "You fell asleep?" He heard an echo from the doorway and sighed. He waived a hand at the woman indicating that she could explain the situation to her coworkers and let them back through into the dining room. They did have a business to run after all and he could handle this especially now that they were aware the man hadn't actually died.
"Yeah. It happens. Sorry." The kid said again, looking rather curiously at the people who were now drifting in and getting back to work. Well most of them were, Thatch noted. Some had stopped and were staring at the pair.
"So you weren't trying to get out of paying by pretending to be dead?" a random member of the wait staff asked as he walked by, apparently unsatisfied with the explanation he had been given.
The kid stared at the nosy employee but didn't even get a chance to answer as the female server chose that moment to drag him away by the ear.
Instead the kid looked horribly offended and turned to Thatch, "Wha? Who thought I would do that? Are there people who seriously do that? Honestly though who would even do that? What kind of person do you people take me for?" The kid demanded
"I don't know." Thatch said with a shrug as he shot a glare at another overly curious employee. "What kind of a person are you?"
"No one special, so no need to get worried Mr. Pompadour." The guy said with a wry smile. "I'm just your average guy running errands."
Thatch snorted. "A guy who falls asleep in his lunch is not someone I would call particularly average, but whatever." There was a moment of silence as the conversation died and the guy returned to his food. Unwilling to let the potential for an interesting afternoon slip from his fingers, Thatch asked suddenly "Wait, what did you call me?"
The man looked slightly startled, but he took the time to swallow his bite before speaking. "Well, I don't know your name and I had to call you something."
Thatch eyed the kid who was still sitting and eating calmly. Something was definitely suspicious here. In Agvitatmaa the leaders of the Whitebeard Enforcers were rather famous. Why hadn't this guy made the connection? "Well, I can tell you that my name is definitely not Mr. Pompadour. It's Thatch." He said, watching the others reaction closely for any sign of something amiss.
"Thatch?" The kid repeated as if he had never heard it before. The realization of Thatch's identity never appeared to come. "Nice to meet'cha Thatch," the kid said with a beaming grin, "M' name's Ace."
Well that certainly confirmed it. The kid, Ace, definitely was not a local. Judging from the reactions Thatch also had a sneaking suspicion that figuring out exactly where he hailed from was going to be a challenge. After a moment's thought Thatch decided that this was definitely worth his time The paperwork he had left on his desk wasn't even due for another couple of days anyways. If Marco got to take off every other afternoon to visit his Border Bar, then Thatch could very well take the afternoon to make a new friend.
"Mind if I join you, kid?" He asked.
Ace looked surprised, but shrugged. "'M not a kid, but sure."
Thatch's grin grew as he took the seat across from Ace. "Great!" He said joyfully as he flagged down one of the wait staff. After ordering, Thatch settled himself more comfortably in his seat and turned his attention back to the enigma that had become his lunch companion. "So what brings you here to Agvitatmaa Ace?"
Ever since Haruta had burst into his office, just under a week and half ago Izo knew that Marco had taken to leaving his door open when he was inside working on paperwork. Presumably it was because it made things more convenient when people had come by looking for help understanding the Pirate King protocols or any of the new routines that came with it. Now, though Izo thought, Marco had simply grown used to it. It wasn't a bad idea. Sure it took him a little longer to finish his paperwork but it also was allowed him to stay better connected to the rest of the family as they popped in and out at random times for any number of reasons. It had the added benefit of making sure that when Marco wanted something to stay private or to not be disturbed, all he had to do was close the door and everyone immediately knew to leave it alone. The only downside Izo could see was that he couldn't throw the door open dramatically when he needed to talk to Marco.
Izo tapped on the doorframe interrupting Marco as he reached for the next report in a pile of them.
"Yes?" He asked looking up.
"Have you seen Thatch?" Izo leaned against the open doorframe. He knew he made quite a sight with his hands tucked into the sleeves of his favorite pink and purple kimono. He just had to find a substitute for a dramatic slammed open door.
Marco opened his mouth to respond then paused. Izo could see he was thinking. In fact Izo could follow the questions from the minute clues on his brother's face: Why was Izo looking for Thatch? Had Thatch had done something? No Izo is too calm if that were indeed the case. Do I really want to know? Is it something I need to get involved in?
"Not recently." he finally responded. "What has he done now?"
Izo smiled and flapped a hand at him. "He hasn't caused any trouble if that's what you're thinking."
Marco smirked, confused. "Thatch is always causing trouble. Though if he hasn't done anything, why are you looking for him?"
Izo chuckled. "He asked for help with the paperwork. I said I would give him a hand if I finished my own in time but he's not in his office. I was on my way to check the warehouses."
Marco blinked. "Thatch asked for help with his paperwork? Instead of just rushing it before the deadline like he always does? Are you sure he wasn't playing a prank on you?"
Izo glared. "For his sake I hope not. Do you know where he is or no, Marco?"
"I don't know where Thatch is, but I doubt he'll be at the warehouses. He dropped by earlier this morning to clarify some things, but as he was leaving he received a transfract call from somewhere in his district. Someone was having a problem and he went out to deal with it. Knowing Thatch, he's probably still there because something or another distracted him. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened you know."
"Great." Izo said with a small frown. "If he's dealing with something in his district, then I'm going to have to go track him down regardless. If I don't and he did get distracted then he won't make it back in time. We still are having that meeting correct?"
"Might want to check the warehouses anyways. He might be done by now. But if he isn't then I'd recommend that you just look for the biggest source of noise." Marco offered. "But yes, the meeting is still happening. In…" he glanced at the clock on the wall next to him. "a few hours actually"
"Right. Thanks Marco." Izo said pushing off of the doorframe.
"Just, don't hurt him when you find him; at least not too badly."
Izo chuckled. "If it really was a prank, I make no promises. But I will let you know when I find him."
Had it really been that long since he had been in the Fourth District, Izo wondered absently as he made his way down yet another side street, still searching for Thatch. He had gone to where he had remembered Thatch's favorite restaurant, the one with the unfortunate uniforms, only to discover that they were no longer located at that address. After coaxing the new address out of the establishment that now occupied that space Izo had made his way to their new premises only to learn that Thatch had left a little over an hour ago.
He also learned that the restaurant had been the source of the problem that had taken Thatch out of the office in the first place. The staff was all to happy to regale him of the tale of the stranger who had collapsed seemingly dead into his lunch and how Thatch had revived him by poking his shoulder. What was really strange they informed him was that Thatch had sat down and had lunch with the guy and they had left together arguing about sandwiches of all things.
The oddity of the situation had struck Izo as odd for slightly different reasons. Thatch arguing about food was not an unusual occurrence in and of itself. No what was bizarre was the fact that Thatch had found someone who could hold his own in such an argument. What was weird was the stranger had by report enough thoughts and ideas that at least one of the chefs had started taking notes. It was just another thing to question Thatch about when he found him, Izo decided.
Well, Izo thought as he left. At least he knew where Thatch and his new companion were headed. The spice market shouldn't be too hard to find despite the fact that it moved around depending upon the season. All you needed to do was to follow your nose.
A barrage of scents assaulted Izo as he exited the ally that he had been traversing signaling that he had finally arrived at the spice market. Izo blinked and took a small step backwards so that he was out of the way of the hustle and bustle and took a deep breath to allow his nose acclimate to the powerful scents that had effectively just been shoved in his face. At the same time, he took a moment to study the crowd. With luck, Thatch would still be here, and hopefully he wouldn't be that hard to find seeing as not many people paraded around with pompadours.
Rather loud boisterous laughter drew his attention towards one particular direction of the market. Lo and behold there was someone with a rather large pompadour standing next to a slightly shorter man in a bright orange hat that Izo recalled as belonging to the not really dead person Thatch had been called to investigate. It was nice to finally find his brother but to see him so relaxed and enjoying himself when Izo had just spent the past hour looking for him was mildly infuriating. Marco's words from earlier made a sudden reappearance and Izo's annoyance grew. If this had been a prank, Thatch was definitely going to get it.
"And that's when I…" Thatch said only to stop when he noticed that his newfound friend was no longer paying attention to the story that he had been telling. Instead Ace had a peculiar mixture of confusion and wariness on his face directed towards something behind him. "Is something wrong?"
"No…" Ace said slowly, "It's just, well, there's an incredibly irate…" Ace trailed off for a moment as if he couldn't figure out what to say eventually settling on "person bearing down on us and I don't know why…"
Thatch didn't actually get to hear the rest of Ace's sentence as it was cut off by a voice that Thatch recognized. "Thatch you inconsiderate, aggravating moron!" the voice proclaimed, and Thatch turned slowly to a sight he knew rather well, an annoyed Izo on the warpath.
"What the hell, Izo?" Thatch proclaimed in confusion. Why in heaven's name was his brother upset? Thatch hadn't pranked him in weeks! "Whatever it was, I didn't do it!" he continued indignantly. He could always admire a good prank, but if he had to take the blame for one that he didn't do, well that just wasn't fair!
"So this wasn't a prank?" Izo demanded coming to stand next to the pair
"What wasn't a prank?" Thatch asked, honestly baffled.
"Asking for my help and then running off to screw around in the markets? Forcing me to spend an hour and a half tracking you down?" Izo asked, a rather dangerous tone in his voice.
"No!" Thatch said while his mind raced. Had he actually done that? It took a moment, and Thatch grimaced when he realized that he had actually just done exactly that. Explaining this to Izo with the mood the other was in would be practically useless. After all Izo would point out that Thatch could have left after dealing with the problem. He just couldn't get him to understand that not just anyone was willing to argue about different types of bread and how that affected the flavors of different meats or trade hilarious stories of shit that one's siblings could get up to. In addition, the average citizens were all too aware of his position as a district commander and treated him as such. None of them would believe the stories he told because they would be sure that there was no way that any of the other commanders would have fallen victim to a prank. The citizens frequently seemed to forget that the commanders were people too. Ace didn't even seem know who Thatch was making him the perfect audience. Yet explaining that second reason to Izo would be less than futile. Thatch knew had to try anyways. Hopefully Izo wasn't too annoyed with him just yet.
"It wasn't a prank." He said "I honestly forgot."
"You forgot?" Izo asked, and Thatch knew that mentioning that had been a mistake. Instead of calming his brother down like he had hoped it would, it seemed to set off the other man even more. "You forgot. Of course you did" Izo said continuing his tirade "Honestly Thatch. Only you would bother to forget asking for help. What a waste of an afternoon. There were so many other things that I could have been doing this afternoon as opposed to looking for you."
Thatch's sheepish grin turned wicked as he spotted a fallacy in his brother's logic. "They can't have been that important or interesting" he pointed out cheerfully.
"Pardon?" Izo asked
"You didn't want to spend the afternoon working either!"
"What?"
"When you realized I wasn't in the building, you could have kept on with the other things you claim to have needed to be doing. But you didn't!"
"I fail to see what that has to do with anything." Izo said and Thatch grinned even wider as Izo's annoyance shift into the familiar friendly teasing that made up the majority of their arguments and banter.
"You're just using me to escape work yourself. You didn't have to come looking for me, you know." Thatch pointed out calmly, relishing in the expression that resided on Izo's face
Thatch relished the expression that was now present on Izo's face. It wasn't often that he was able to see his brother stunned speechless. It took a moment for Izo to regain his composure but when he did, he simply rolled his eyes even though there was an angry blush across his face.
"Actually I did" he said finally
Thatch's grin morphed into an expression of confusion. "You did?" He questioned
"You forgot more than just paperwork you know"
"I did?"
"Yes, you idiot. Now do you see why I had to come looking for you?"
Thatch's grin returned. He couldn't resist one last jab at his brother. "Nope!" he eyed his brother with faux suspicion "Are you sure that you're just not trying to avoid work?"
He just grinned unrepentantly at his brother, though if looks could kill he would be twelve feet under by now. The look Izo gave him back promised nothing but pain at a later date. Maybe his last comment had pushed it a little too far.
"For the last time, Thatch…" Izo practically growled.
There was a muffled sound that could have been a squeak, a snort, or an attempt to hold in laughter cut off. Izo turned on the source of the noise.
It was Ace, who was just standing there. In fact, by Thatch's assessment, he was attempting valiantly and failing to not react to the scene that had just been playing out in front of him. The expression on his face was rather amusing, Thatch decided before letting out a chuckle of his own. Ace looked like he couldn't decide if he was mildly uncomfortable watching the pair of them argue or if he was supposed to be laughing at the pair.
Izo clearly didn't appreciate it though as he snapped "And just what are you looking at?"
Ace, instead of cowering like any normal and sane person would have, just grinned. "The two of you." He snarked back and Thatch gaped. Did Ace have any sort of self-preservation instinct at all?
"Oh, really?" Izo drawled and that was when Thatch started to internally panic. He knew that tone. Bad things happened to those on the receiving end of it. He was going to have to do something, fast.
"Ace!" he said suddenly, as the idea came to him. "Meet my brother Izo. Izo, meet Ace."
Ace's eyebrow rose in confusion, and he glanced over at Thatch in what appeared to be an attempt to make sure that he hadn't misheard the introduction. Thatch nodded and hoped to hell he hadn't just made things worse as Izo had noticed the interaction and was currently bristling like a rather irritated cat at what he clearly perceived as an insult. Then just as suddenly as Ace's confusion had appeared, it vanished.
There was a small seemingly unconsciously shrug as Ace had just mentally said "eh whatever" about the entire situation and Ace stuck out his hand to Izo. "Hi," He said rather cheerfully. "I'm Ace. I like your kimono. Do you know what it's made of? Or where I could get my hands on some of the material?"
"Izo." Izo replied warily shaking Ace's hand all the while studying him rather intently.
Thatch, for his part was left floundering by the sudden change in conversation. Ace really was an enigma. He had given no inclination of any sort of interest in fashion during their conversation and his own clothing seemed to imply that he didn't particularly care for it either. If it wasn't for the confusion that could be found on Izo's face, Thatch would have sworn that he had misheard that last set of questions.
"Do you cross-dress as well?" was the first actual sentence that managed to work its way out of Thatch's mouth. Thatch then proceeded to wince for two different reasons: one his own lack of tact when addressing something as serious as that and because Izo had just kicked him in the shin.
Thankfully Ace didn't appear to be offended at all by the question. "Nah, it's cool and all; but not my shtick."
Thatch just continued to stare at his new friend, while Izo relaxed just a tad bit more. "Then why were you inquiring about the fabric?" Izo finally asked.
"It's not that weird of a question, is it?" Ace asked and suddenly Thatch couldn't breath as the absurdity of the situation struck him with a fit of giggles while Ace and Izo looked at him curiously.
"No, not particularly," Izo said giving the other a fairly obvious once over, "It's just well, you don't look as if you care about such a thing at all."
"I don't." Ace said bluntly, but a rather faint blush colored his cheeks all the same. " I don't even know that much about it but I've got a brother who really likes nice clothing and to look sharp, and well, the fabric that your kimono is made of looks like it'll last so I figure if I get him some, he can make an outfit out of it. Though only if there is some in another color, seeing as my brother doesn't really like pink."
"You're genuinely interested in the fabric?" Izo asked, almost as if he couldn't believe it, and Thatch knew that Izo had been sucked into the mystery that was Ace, the same way that he had.
"Yes?" Ace questioned as if he couldn't understand why this was garnering Izo's reaction.
Thatch supposed he probably couldn't. Quick on that thought's heels was another more alarming thought. Thatch just started to pray that what he now expected to happen wouldn't. Izo suddenly smiled. No such luck Thatch thought, though he absently noticed that this was the first real smile that he had seen Izo give someone in months.
"Then yes, I know where you can get something similar." Izo declared grabbing on Ace's arm and started towing him towards another street. "Thatch, are you coming?" Izo called back. Thatch smiled and hurried to catch up as Izo hadn't bothered to wait for a response. "Now what colors does your brother prefer? Do you know what season he is?"
Ace's eyes grew wide and Thatch had to laugh at the slightly panicked and pleading look that he was. Apparently, Ace had just realized that he was in over his head. Unfortunately there was nothing Thatch could do to alter Izo's course when he got like this. They would both have to sit and bear it, though he could say with some certainty that this was definitely worth wasting an afternoon on especially if Izo cheered up.
Thatch, despite his initial misgivings, found he was enjoying himself. In and amongst all the shopping he was still having fun exchanging stories of all the trouble that his siblings had gotten into. Izo's presence only seemed to enhance the experience as he added some of his own recollections. It was surprising to him that Ace too had some stories about his brothers that could rival theirs for sheer craziness.
As the afternoon wound on Thatch started to notice that Ace seemed to find some of the stories familiar. He couldn't tell if Ace knew something about the events or if it just reminded him of things Ace's brothers had done. Thatch was inclined to believe the latter because Ace would inevitably, after one of these bouts of recognition, tell about something his brother's had done that was similar.
"Unfortunately," Thatch continued his story as he noticed another bit of recognition from Ace, "The board had rotted through, though no one knew that at the time."
"Fossa knew." Izo said. "He tried to warn you about it. If I remember correctly, you ignored it."
"Anyways" Thatch continued rolling his eyes, "My plan went off without a hitch, and the prank I had planned was executed perfectly until our older brother walked into the hallway."
"Which sibling was this?" Ace asked absently as he peered at the large clock tower in what looked like an attempt to read the time. "Is this the sibling who smokes, the guy who keeps random things in his pockets, or the magician?" It was clearly no good. The sun was directly in their eyes and they were just a bit to far away from the tower to make out the clock hands. Why didn't he just check his transfract? Thatch wondered as Ace clearly gave finding out the time as a lost cause. Did he not have one? Apparently not, Thatch noted, as the other man gave a shrug then turned his attention back towards the conversation ready to hear the rest of the story. Well that was simply another thing to add to the list of confusing facts about Ace. Everyone owned a Transfract these days. Everyone except Ace apparently.
Pushing his list of oddities aside, Thatch was just about to go on when he noticed that Ace had spotted something in the crowd. As he watched Ace studied it for a second, then he grinned.
"Hey Thatch." Ace said still smirking, as he slipped his bag off of his shoulder.
"What's up?" Thatch asked, curiosity evident in his voice.
"I think I see someone I know in the crowd over there." Ace said gesturing vaguely towards a mess of people, "and I wanna surprise them. Watch my stuff for a second?"
Thatch blinked. "Sure man. Go for it."
"Thanks dude!" Ace said over his shoulder, as he started moving down the street.
"You've made yourself a rather interesting acquaintance." Izo commented wryly as the pair tracked Ace's path through the crowd, something that wasn't hard to do at all thanks to the vibrant orange hat he was wearing. To their amusement he slowed before darting into an alley only to peer out around the corner a moment later.
"Isn't he a hoot?" Thatch agreed. "I mean, look at this. Have you ever seen someone fail so badly at being sneaky?"
Izo hummed in agreement. It was true. For someone who was attempting to surprise a friend Ace was doing a remarkably poor job in remaining hidden. His 'sneaking' about, if one could even call it that, was having the opposite effect and was instead drawing stares and whispers from the people around him.
"Who do you think it is that he knows?" Thatch wondered aloud scanning the crowd. "Whoever it is, they have to be rather interesting. I mean, like attracts like right?"
Izo shrugged. "I honestly don't know. However I do think I see someone we know rather well" Izo said, scanning the crowd as well. "Thatch, isn't that Marco over there?" He asked pointing towards the section of the market. Another quick scan of the crowd let him know that Ace was still heading that direction.
Thatch peered into the distance. "What-dja-know, I think it is." His voice turned incredulous as he noticed what Izo had. "There is no way. Marco's not all that interesting."
Izo snorted, but offered no comment and Thatch turned to face him "Do you seriously think he's trying to sneak up on MARCO?"
Izo frowned as pieces of the puzzle that was Ace started to come together. "Thatch, someone told me earlier that the two of you were arguing about sandwiches. Why?"
"Huh? Oh well, because Ace works in a sandwich shop out in the Border."
"Shit."
"What?"
"Thatch, that means Ace is Marco's friend from Outskirts. As in the guy we've been speculating and teasing him about liking for clicks."
"Ok?"
"Thatch, you know how Marco reacts to surprises, and the guy he likes just asked us to watch his stuff so that he can go surprise Marco!"
Thatch blinked before swearing a blue streak. "Come on. We have to stop him!"
Marco had no clue as to what was happening. He had been chasing his brothers all over the fourth district for little over an hour now, from a grill to a spice market then to a fabric market. From there he tracked them to pastry supply store, to liquor market to a different spice market before he finally found them. He had just caught a glimpse of his brothers talking to someone he couldn't see before the crowd blocked his view. When he could see them again Thatch and Izo had lost their conversation partner, turned around and were looking in his direction though it was apparent by their expressions that they hadn't noticed him yet.
He started moving toward them occasionally losing sight of them due to the sheer numbers of people. Luckily they didn't seem to be moving. He hadn't even made it half way towards them when the crowd parted and he could see that their expressions had changed.
Marco had no time to figure out what the expressions which would most likely tell him why they had changed when someone came at him from the side. He didn't bother to think about it, instead letting muscle memory and instinct take over. He turned into the attack in order to meet it head on and get a hand in his attacker's shirt. Taking a couple of steps back Marco turned again, pivoting, his other arm coming up underneath his attackers arm into the armpit before Marco dropped to throw whoever it was that was stupid enough to attack him over his shoulder. They went over with a rather familiar sounding Whoop! Marco followed up his throw and pinned his attacker to the ground only to find himself staring down at a rather familiar freckled face.
"Ace?" he questioned, even more confused than he had been before. Of course the goofball underneath him didn't help matters. Seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he had just been thrown and landed hard enough to knock the wind out of him Ace was beaming up at him.
"Hi Marco!"
Marco blinked, still working on figuring out what was going on. Finally he sighed and smiled wryly. "Is this going to be a common occurrence?"
Ace hummed softly as if contemplating the question. Neither had noticed that they had yet to let go of one another. "Maybe?" Ace finally said. "I mean, I certainly hope not though. I don't particularly fancy ending up on the floor every time I try to give you a hug."
"What?" Marco asked, looking down at Ace confusion across his face not entirely sure he had heard the other man correctly
"What?" Ace asked back, apparently just as confused as Marco was, though Marco had no doubt that it was for entirely different reasons
"What?" asked a third voice and Marco looked up to see Thatch standing next to him, carrying a couple of unfamiliar green stripped bags.
"Why are you all asking the same question?" Izo asked sliding up behind Thatch. "Ace dear, had you told us you knew Marco, I could have warned you that this was a bad idea."
"Eh, no harm no foul." Ace said. He was still lying on the ground. Marco scrambled off him then moved to help his friend up. "Besides," Ace continued "It was fun."
That drew stares from all three of the commanders.
"Getting flipped then slammed to the ground in the middle of a market is fun?" Izo finally asked, disbelief coloring his tone.
"Well, I'm not hurt, so yeah." Ace said, craning his head to get a look at his back assessing the level of dust he'd acquired.
"Were you dropped on your head one too many times as a child? Because I've been taken down by Marco before and I can assure you that it's not all that fun," Thatch stated gruffly.
"Not to my knowledge." Ace replied as he started brushing off the dust. He had managed to get most of it save one spot in the middle of his back which resulted in him attempting to twist himself around in order to reach it though it appeared futile. Ace simply didn't appear to be flexible enough.
Marco just chuckled softly as he reached out a hand to get the spot Ace had missed. "I'm honestly not sure why I was surprised that you consider tackling people an appropriate greeting. I've heard your stories about what you and your brothers got up to."
Ace just grinned at him unrepentant and a bit gleeful. "You don't even know the half of it."
"Were you just out for a stroll, Marco or was there something you needed?" Izo asked and Marco looked over at his brother meeting the other's narrowed eyes.
Marco sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He would have liked to spend more time with Ace, but he had a job to do. "Pops sent me to find you two. He's waiting on us to start."
"Pops?" Ace piped up, confusion across his face for anyone to see.
"Yep." Marco replied, "Congratulations. You've somehow managed to meet two of my siblings."
"You're related?" Ace said, shooting looks at all three of them, before starting to laugh. "Then the stories were about…? That explains…" Ace cut himself off due to laughter and after a moment Thatch joined in as well. Marco and Izo shared a look of bewilderment, but Izo simply shrugged in response to Marco's unspoken question. Eyes narrowed Marco turned to his laughing brother.
"Thatch…" Marco said dangerously, "What stories have you been telling?"
The tone was enough to make Thatch stop and a rather innocent expression appeared on his face. "Oh, nothing important."
Marco didn't buy it. At that statement Ace had started laughing even harder, to the point where he had collapsed against Marco in his mirth. Yeah no. He didn't buy it one bit. Thatch clearly had been telling tales about him.
"You said Pops was waiting for us?" Thatch asked, eyes seeking Izo pleading for help.
Izo caught the hint and rolled his eyes in response. "We had probably better go then, if that's the case. It was nice to meet you Ace."
Marco realized he was in trouble as he saw the expression on Izo's face. He almost groaned in aggravation. Now that they had met there would be no way to escape the inquisition that Izo and his other brothers were going to unleash about Ace and how Marco felt about him.
Izo smirked at him in response as if he knew exactly what Marco was thinking.
Thankfully, instead of questioning Marco in public Izo simply continued on, "Come on, Thatch."
"If either of you are ever out in Outskirts, stop by for a sandwich some time." Ace said as he finally got his laughter under control.
"I will!" Thatch promised. "I want to try one of these weird sandwiches of yours."
"They aren't that weird." Ace protested
"Yes they are." Marco chuckled but made no move to follow his brothers. He was enjoying simply being in Ace's presence and a comfortable silence fell as they watched the other pair head on their way.
After a moment, Izo turned and shot Marco a look that clearly read Are you coming? and Marco sighed again.
"I have to go." He said as a rush of jealousy for how his brothers had spent their afternoon almost overwhelmed him.
"No worries." Ace said with a smile, scooping up the green-stripped bags Marco had first seen with Thatch. "You have work to do. And I have errands that I have to finish. I get it. It was interesting meeting your family though."
"Sorry." Marco apologized, though he couldn't say why he was doing so.
Ace laughed. "No worries. I know brothers can be a pain."
"You haven't even met all of them."
"Oh that's right, you have a rather large family don't you."
"I do." Marco said, wishing once more that he could stay. Unfortunately, that wasn't feasible at all. "I really have to go though. I'll see you later?" Marco asked and Ace nodded. However before he could walk away a hand tugged at his sleeve and Marco turned back to look at his friend.
"Before you go…" Ace said slightly hesitant, as he scuffed his shoe against the ground. "I need to say thanks."
"For what?" Marco asked, confused.
"For the warning you gave a couple of weeks ago and my actions then. The Hunt reached Outskirts today, and because of that, well, I was able to save a couple of really close friends. And I was a dick when you first brought it up. So, I'm sorry about that, and thanks. I really appreciate it," Ace repeated before stepping closer and giving Marco a proper hug.
"You're welcome." Marco said returning the hug. Ace gave him a quick squeeze then stepped away and Marco almost frowned at the loss of contact. He didn't want to leave quite yet, and he didn't think Ace did either. "Out of curiosity," he asked quickly, "What stories did Thatch tell you?"
The question caused Ace to start laughing again. "Nothing much." He said, chuckling. "just this and that. And…"
"And?"
The grin on Ace's face was pure evil. "Pineapples."
Marco groaned, good humor gone. Why did his brother always insist upon telling that story? "Right. That's it. Sorry Ace, I don't think Thatch is going to make it to the Bar."
Ace raised an eyebrow. "No? Why not?"
"Well" Marco said annoyance evident in his voice "You see, I'm going to kill him."
Ace just kept chuckling. "You're going to have to catch up with him first" he said pointing and Marco realized just how far behind his brothers he now was.
"True" He said with a small smile. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Your normal time?"
"Probably."
"It's a date." Ace said with a grin, which Marco returned before rushing to catch up to Thatch and Izo. It wouldn't do to have them return to the Moby without him when he had been the one to go and collect the wayward pair in the first place.
AN: And now, for something completely different! Well, no not really. I just wanted to make a monty python reference. If you've read any of my other works then you know that this is simply me asking for your attention and the hopes that you'll leave me a review letting me know what you think of the story. If you spot any spelling or grammatical errors, please feel free to let me know. If you dont understand something, be it a word or how something happened again please let me know. I really want to know what yall think of this.