Part V
The world faded around Ace.
Well, that wasn't a precise description. The people faded around Ace. He was aware of Luffy holding his arm and of Marco holding his hand, but he couldn't pay them any attention, not when his senses were overwhelmed by all the sensations that assaulted them.
The light hurt his eyes. He knew it wasn't a bright day —he hadn't been isolated so long that he had forgotten about the sun; even if he didn't remember what a bright sunny day looked like, he did remember they were much brighter than a day in which the sky was covered by grey clouds. Despite the relative lack of brightness, though, there was so much more light here than at any given moment down on level two that Ace had to raise his free hand —the one of the arm Luffy was holding onto— to cover his eyes. Luffy moved his hands to hold his upper arm now.
There wasn't any wind to hit his body, which made sense because they were in the Calm Belt —he had heard some stories about misfortunate adventures on the Calm Belt, and knew the wind never blew here— and so the sea was perfectly still. The sea. Ace had forgotten just how special the sea was. He remembered wanting to be a pirate, and sitting on a cliff staring out at it for hours, but he hadn't remembered anymore what it felt like to look at it. There was something about the sea that just called out to it. Maybe it was the smell of it, or perhaps something else. He knew here he couldn't experience everything the sea had to offer. Suddenly, Ace wanted to be able to hear the waves, maybe see a seagull. He had never paid much attention to seagulls as a kid.
By the time he paid attention to his surroundings again, they were walking up some wooden steps at the rear of the group that had come out of the prison. It was then that Ace realized he was about to be surrounded by thousands of people —Marco had told him how big his crew was, and there were all the freed prisoners, too. He tensed, and stopped. The moment he had thought about it, he had become aware of all the presences surrounding him. It was overwhelming.
"You okay, Ace?" Luffy, who had stopped after climbing another step and noticing he wasn't moving, asked. His arm had stretched to keep his hold on Ace's elbow.
"I'm not sure," he admitted, lowering his hand. His eyes were getting used to the light.
"What's wrong?" Marco asked from his side.
"It's just… I've never been around so many people."
"Oh." Luffy looked serious all of a sudden. "Don't worry, Ace, I'll beat anyone who tries to bother you."
Ace blinked.
"That's not—" he cut himself off. He doubted he could just explain haki to Luffy, not without a demonstration or ten. "Thanks, but I don't think anybody's gonna attack me." He didn't add he could defend himself. If this crew decided to attack, neither Luffy nor Ace would stand a chance anyway.
"Okay, then." Luffy began to tug them up the stairs again. He was three steps ahead, rubber arm creepily long.
"Can you handle it?" Marco asked him in a low voice.
"Yeah. I don't have a headache or anything. It just surprised me." Which was much better than when he had gotten his haki. With the limited instruction Gramps had been able to give him, Ace had spent a month with horrible headaches before he learned how to handle it.
And then they had taken the last step, and were now on the deck of a ship —the Moby Dick, one of the most famous vessels in the world, Ace remembered— surrounded by people who had all their eyes on them. Had Ace been anyone else, he would have backed away. Being himself, he straightened up.
He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, maybe a tense moment or awkwardness, but he hadn't been expecting what happened instead.
"Hey, Marco," someone called from the crowd, "how was imprisonment?"
"Boring."
And then they were swarmed by as much people as could reach them, good humor and somewhat subdued laughter all around. They were talking to Marco, but also to Ace and Luffy. There were so many words being spoken all at once that Ace couldn't make a single sentence out.
They were herded into the ship, where Ace could see some of the people who had participated in the attack —the guy in the kimono was hard to miss— and being attended by a group of nurses. Nurses dressed in short pink dresses and stockings with leopard print. A couple of guards and Hancock yesterday aside, Ace hadn't seen a woman in years, and these women, he could tell, were hot. His eyes zeroed on them and someone next to him elbowed him.
"Nice, eh?" asked the man, grinning at him.
Ace found himself grinning back. It wasn't so much the sight of the women as the fact that the realization of what was going on was finally sinking in. He was out. They had done it. He was out of Impel Down and he was free.
Marco looked at Luffy, who nodded at him from his place next to Ace as the nurses fussed over them, before walking away from the group.
Because of his powers, Marco was exempt of their mostly mandatory check-ups after a fight, and instead went to talk to Pops. The man was standing to one side right outside of the thick of the group.
"You look good, Marco."
"Of course I do." He stopped when he was standing next to his father. "How's Curiel?"
"He could be worse. He's going to live." There was immense relief in Whitebeard's voice when he said this. "Ivankov just headed down there to help speed up his recovery."
"That's good."
They fell silent, looking at the crowd. Some of the last prisoners to flee, including the wax guy and the one with the red nose, were on the ship as well, and they were now just sailing off of Impel Down with their stolen marine battleships. The order had been given as soon as they had made sure everybody was on board a ship.
"You have found a strange army," Whitebeard commented.
"It wasn't me, that's all Luffy."
"Luffy? You mean the Strawhat kid?" Marco nodded, and Whitebeard gave him a knowing look. "You like the kid, don't you?"
"He's got potential." Marco didn't say that often. He could call someone interesting, or even strong, but he rarely encountered anyone with the potential to be great. This last week, he had met two such people.
"And what about Ace?" Whitebeard made a half grin when he said the name, and Marco was sure he had been about to say 'Roger's son' instead. It seemed like, from the moment they had escaped, Ace had decided to drop his indifference and make it clear that he didn't like his biological father.
"He's got potential, too." He found Ace in the middle of the crowd. He could only see his face from where he stood, as well as the back of a nurse's cap before him. From here, Marco noticed Ace's cheeks were a slight shade of pink. He was blushing. Marco smirked and decided to point it out to him later.
As Whitebeard wasn't saying anything, and it wasn't really like him to stay silent for so long, Marco turned to look at him and found himself faced with another knowing look, only that this one was mixed with slight surprise.
"Seriously?"
"What?" Marco asked, unsure he understood what was going on.
"It's been a week, Marco," Whitebeard said, sent a very pointed look in Ace's direction and burst out laughing.
Marco blinked slowly, puzzled, before it clicked in place what this was about. He sighed. Sometimes he forgot that Edward Newgate wasn't only his father, but also his oldest and closest friend. He was the person who knew Marco the best in this world.
"Yeah, well, you can't blame me, I really like him. Besides," he added once the laughing fit had subsided, "I'm almost convinced he's going to join the crew."
"You offered?"
"Of course."
"And what if I disagreed?" Whitebeard asked, but he was clearly amused.
Marco snorted.
"Pops, Ace is the sort of guy you would offer to join the crew even if he was trying to kill you."
Luffy liked the Whitebeard Pirates.
He had decided that when he had met Marco, because he didn't think someone like him would be in a bad crew, and meeting the members of the crew who had attacked the prison had only made him more sure of it. Now he had no doubt, he really liked these people.
They were a lot, and were all being very nice. A group of nurses —Sanji would love them, Luffy was sure, and Brook too— had come to check on them, and had been very surprised at Luffy's wounds, but let him be when he explained that Iva-chan had healed him with his powers. One of the nurses was now telling Ace that he should do some things to recover —exercise, not to be outside too long at first and that sort of thing— and that the most important thing of everything was to eat. Luffy nodded along, because that was very good advice.
She told Ace he shouldn't eat too much at first, though, which Luffy thought was stupid. Food helped to heal, so the more Ace ate, the faster he would recover.
When Blenheim entered the deck, conversations around halted, and he could feel every pair of eyes on him. He went to talk to Pops, who was with Marco close to where the nurses were checking on everybody who had come onto the ship. He had already gone through that; once Ivankov had used those strange powers of his on Curiel —he had said something about luckily Curiel not being nearly as far gone as Strawhat, and not needing extreme measures, and Blenheim wasn't sure he wanted to understand what he meant— he, along with Blamenco and Ivankov, had gone through the check up. Blamenco had some scratches that needed to be patched up, and Ivankov had decided to stay a little longer in case he needed to do something else, so Blenheim had come to update Pops.
He had already noticed the ship moving a while ago and known things were alright here, but felt glad all the same at seeing Marco standing there. This past week without him had been strange not seeing him next to Pops, it was sort of a given fact that whenever there was a serious situation, Marco was always there.
"How's Curiel?" Pops asked.
"Drugged, right now. He'll recover." A collective sigh followed this. "He woke up for a while, said we better save him some booze."
That lifted the mood considerably, and some conversations broke out.
"We're still throwing that party?" Marco asked next to Pops.
"Party?!" All of a sudden Strawhat was there and grinning so widely it had to hurt, Ace —it had become clear he didn't appreciate being called 'Roger's son'— standing behind him with a strange shine in his eyes. Blenheim wondered how long it had been since the poor guy had been to a party.
"It'll take a while, brat," Pops said, a grin on his face as he looked down at Strawhat. "We don't have anything ready."
"Aww, that sucks," and, much to the astonishment of almost everybody present, Strawhat started to pick his nose with his pinky finger.
Blenheim blinked. There he was, a rookie pirate, talking to the most feared pirate in the world not only as if Pops was just any normal person he didn't have anything to fear from, but with a blatant lack of respect that was hard to wrap one's mind around.
A quick look around showed he wasn't the only one staring in disbelief, and if the quirk on Pops' lips was anything to go by, he found Strawhat, at the very least, amusing.
"You're Whitebeard?" Strawhat asked, still picking his nose and still acting as if that name didn't have anything special. Blenheim's incredulity grew. He caught sight of Marco next to Pops, and he had a small grin on his face, the one that said 'I know something you don't and I'm laughing at you in my head right now'. It wasn't directed at Strawhat, it was directed at the crew. Before Pops could answer, Strawhat continued: "I'm Luffy, I'm gonna be the King of Pirates."
Right then, Blenheim's brain almost shut down. Not only was that one of the craziest statements he had heard in years, and delivered in complete seriousness, but there had been a challenge in Strawhat's voice as he said it. He was daring Pops —Whitebeard— to argue with him.
Is this kid insane?
Pops laughed. There was an approving look on his face, the one that was usually followed by an invitation to join the crew. But the invitation never came, because, of course, the Pirate King had to be a captain on his own right.
Instead, Pops said:
"You've still got a long way to go then, brat," and laughed.
Strawhat —Luffy, better to call him by his name— laughed along with him, and both Marco and Ace chuckled too. It was obvious they had already known that little tidbit, because they were the only ones not boggling at the scene.
"While you get the party ready," Marco said, moving from his place, "I'm going to take a shower." He grabbed both Ace and Luffy by the collars of their shirts. "And these two will, too."
There was still silence by the time the three had disappeared through a door. It was Vista who broke it.
"What do we do?" He looked at Pops.
"We need to keep an eye out in case the marines show up," Pops decided, and then looked around. "Izo, take a group with you and get started on the party preparations."
Izo raised an eyebrow.
"You're not expecting me to cook, are you?"
Pops laughed.
"Nah, just make sure everything goes smoothly. Round up the cooks, too, they should get started."
Izo nodded. What no one mentioned was that the reason they needed Izo to supervise was because nobody had replaced Thatch as head cook and unofficial party planner of the crew. By the fallen expressions around, Blenheim knew he wasn't the only one who had thought of that.
Marco had led Ace and Luffy to a bathroom a couple of decks down from where most of the crew was, and left saying he would bring some clean clothes for them. Ace didn't doubt he would, but he was also sure that the main reason he had left was to give them some time alone. It was the first time since they had met, and Ace had to admit he was nervous. Now that they were alone and the adrenaline rush from the battle was over, Ace didn't know what to say.
Or maybe he did, and he was just afraid of doing so. Luffy would be angry, and Ace would really deserve it if he decided to beat him. Taking a deep breath, he turned to look at Luffy.
"Luffy, I—"
"I'm so glad you're okay," Luffy said before Ace could go any further, and, suddenly, he found himself with an armful of Luffy, his rubbery arms wrapped three times around him.
That shattered any reluctance Ace might have felt about saying what he needed to. He wrapped his arms around Luffy and buried his face in his neck, eyes squeezed shut.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Luffy."
"Why?" Luffy asked, and Ace realized he hadn't figured it out. He hadn't expected him to, but it would have made this easier.
He would have stepped back, at least to be able to see Luffy's reactions, but it was difficult to move away from his rubber limbs. And maybe a part of Ace felt comforted by the hug.
"That day, when I left—" he sighed, swallowed and decided to just spill it, "I knew I wasn't coming back. I'd talked to Gramps already and we'd decided on it."
Luffy didn't speak or move for what felt like an eternity. Ace waited, shoulders tense and arms clutching at Luffy's clothes, suddenly afraid he would let go.
"Why?" Luffy repeated finally, his voice smaller than before. Ace was reminded of something he hadn't ever forgotten, of a little boy laying face down at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, his oversized straw hat covering his face full of tears as he mourned one of his brothers. He closed his eyes.
"The marines —or the government, I don't know— figured out what Gramps had done. With me. Sengoku told him he could hand me over or they would come for—" He realized Luffy might not know. "Do you know who your dad is?"
He felt Luffy nod into his neck.
"Gramps told me."
"Yeah, so, it was me or both of us. Not even Gramps could fight all the marines."
Again, there was silence, and Ace waited for a reaction, any reaction.
"I want to punch him."
"Who?"
"Gramps."
Ace chuckled. Not so much at Luffy's words, but at what else they told him. Luffy wasn't angry, not with him. He hugged him tighter.
"Just wait until he can't beat you to a pulp, okay?"
Marco approached the bathroom with a handful of clothes hanging from his arm. He hoped those two had had time to talk, because with all the mess in Impel Down, conversation hadn't been a possibility, and once the party got underway there wouldn't be many chances for it either.
Finding clothes for Ace had been easy enough, his own —with a belt to hold the pants up— would do for now, but Luffy had been another story. Marco had felt a little bit like a creep entering cabins and opening closets in search of something that would fit him. He wasn't exactly sure whose clothes he had taken finally, but he had left a note taped to the door of the closet promising the spending money for the next island would be doubled in exchange for borrowing it.
He stopped outside of the bathroom's door to ensure he wouldn't interrupt anything too personal, but as Luffy was talking about a restaurant where he had apparently met one of the members of his crew, Marco pushed the door open. Ace was already looking at the door, and Luffy turned when he heard it creak open.
"Are those for us?" Ace said.
"Yeah." He dropped the three outfits on a bench and looked at his reflection on the mirror —his shirt was ruined, and he had liked it.
"We can bathe now?" Luffy asked enthusiastically. Marco was about to correct him, saying they were going to shower, when he noticed the giant tub —that looked more like a small pool— in the middle of the room was already half filled. Luffy didn't wait for an answer before practically ripping his clothes off and jumping in —it was a good thing the tub wasn't too deep or full, or that might have been dangerous.
Ace gave Marco a slightly dubious look, as if he wasn't sure they should have filled it.
"Sorry, Luffy just couldn't resist." He snuck a glance at the tub, and Marco knew he was eager to go in as well. Marco guessed showers in Impel Down —if there were showers and they didn't simply wash the prisoners with a hose whenever the stench grew too insufferable for the guards— were cold at best.
"Don't worry about it." The water was filtered from the sea. Marco had simply thought a shower would be faster, but he guessed there would be no problem if they took a little of extra time.
Marco decided they would take as much extra time as Ace wanted when he saw Ace's face upon entering the bathtub. His eyes widened, his pupils dilated and he actually groaned out loud as he dropped down on one of the benches that ran the inside of the border of the tub. He just sat there for two long minutes, marveling at the fact that he was in a bath of warm water, and only snapped out of it when Marco, too, entered the tub.
Then Ace moved, and began to try to swim backwards on the shallow water. It was clear he had known how to do it before, and was trying to get the memory back. Luffy raised his cupped hands over Ace's face and dumped water on him. Ace sputtered, then glared at his grinning brother and pushed him. Luffy's ass landed on the bottom of the pool and he didn't waste time in kicking up and soaking Ace further. Things developed into a childish squabble in which the brothers threw water at one another and ended up running around the tub with Ace chasing Luffy with a bucket full of water in his hands.
As an adult, Marco should do the responsible thing and stop them. Instead, he grabbed either of them by an ankle and pulled their flailing bodies back into the water. The bucket fell to the ground and spilled its contents on a pile of clean towels.
After that, the brothers teamed up against him.
It was a massacre. That had been the first thought to cross Sengoku's mind after they had finally reached Impel Down.
By then, there had been no pirate ships on sight. In fact, there had been no ships at all on sight, only debris floating on the water that made it clear what had happened to the marine ships stationed at the prison. There were bodies floating on the water as well, and there had even been a couple of Sea Kings swimming around the prison, snacking on them. Aokiji had frozen the sea monsters before they could do more than look at the new arrivals.
Sengoku had had to forbid Akainu to pursue the pirates, and the man hadn't been pleased at all at the order. But they couldn't go after them. Not only was it unlikely they would catch up to them —they had arrived too late to even know in which direction they had left— but they weren't in any condition to fight. Back in Marineford, with all the traps and being in their own territory, the result of the fight had been unclear already. If they had arrived on Impel Down while the pirates were here, maybe they would have been able to win, if they had managed to trap them in the prison, but on open sea, against a fleet like that, the chances of winning were minimal at best.
If they even caught up with them.
When they had entered the prison, Sengoku knew he had been right in his choice. Level one was practically deserted of prisoners —only a few remained, and all those cursed the Whitebeard Pirates in a way that revealed their hatred went past not having been freed— and there were dead guards everywhere.
"Search for survivors," was his order. He didn't expect there to be many.
They had found less dead guards in level two, but it held just as few prisoners as level one.
Level three, however, showed there had been a hard fight on it. There was one of the Demon Guards in a very lamentable state, and they had found Hannyabal barely alive. He looked like he had been beaten by a giant repeatedly. Or an absurdly strong commander, more likely. He had been taken to one of the ships for urgent medical treatment.
The stairs to level four had made them pause. Sengoku had seen one of the marines move away to throw up to the side. He couldn't blame him. There had been crushed bodies, hundreds of them, littering the steps. It had taken a long half hour to remove them, and not a single survivor had been found.
Now they were on level four, and a group had gone ahead to scout levels five and six. This level was the one with the most survivors, though not many prisoners remained —same as in the three previous levels. There were many unconscious guards moved to the sides and into rooms, in a way that suggested someone had used haoshoku haki on them.
Sengoku watched as a group of medics carefully lowered a shackled Magellan from one of the cells —they had refused to remove the kairoseki, because it would be too dangerous to handle him with the poison. He was barely alive, and his survival wasn't guaranteed.
He wasn't the only one they had found.
Shiliew had been in another cell, heavily wounded as well. Sengoku had ordered they patched him up there and sent him back to level six. He wouldn't allow a man as dangerous as him outside of this prison. He could understand why Magellan had let him out, a look around proved just how desperate the situation had been here, but that decision would cost him his position at the very least.
Then again, Magellan wasn't the only one who would lose his position after this. Sengoku was already composing his resignation letter. He doubted they would want him completely out of the marines, but after this disaster, he couldn't stay as their visible leader either. He wouldn't want to, even if he was allowed, not after such a terrible miscalculation.
"It looks like your grandson got out, after all," he told Garp, who was standing silently next to him.
Garp was silent, looking somberly at the scene just like Sengoku was doing. He may be an insensitive idiot sometimes, but he was no monster and Sengoku knew he was as affected by the scene here as he himself was.
They had lost, and the world wouldn't be the same after today. Maybe it had been a bet too risky to make.
By the time they left the tub, Marco was sure he would be yelled at for the mess the bathroom had turned into. But Ace had laughed —hard enough to need to clutch his stomach when Luffy somehow had managed to get his head stuck between two cupboards— and that alone made any scolding he might receive worth it.
Ace was staring at himself on the mirror, a disgustedly fascinated expression on his face. Marco knew that, aside from whatever reflection could be seen on the water back in the cell, this was the first time he saw himself in years, and he obviously didn't like what he saw. Shaking his head as if to clear it of whatever thoughts had been running through it, Ace transferred his gaze to the toothbrush Marco had handed him —Marco had raided the supplies storeroom when he had gone in search of clothes— and he didn't seem any less fascinated by it than by his appearance, though there was nothing that horrified him in the toothbrush. Luffy was energetically brushing his teeth and, as soon as Marco was done squeezing toothpaste on his own brush —he didn't care they were about to eat, he really needed this after a week stuck in that cell, and yellow teeth was something his powers didn't take care of— Ace practically jumped the tube and squeezed a little too much paste on his toothbrush before starting to brush his teeth frantically.
Luffy, unsurprisingly, was the first one to be done.
"Is the food ready?" he asked Marco.
"I don't know, but we're not there yet." Wherever 'there' was. Marco guessed they had decided on a meeting point with their allies.
Luffy had stopped listening after 'I don't know', it seemed, because he had thrown the towel around his waist aside and practically jumped into the shorts Marco had brought him.
"I'm hungry!" he exclaimed, throwing on the shirt. "I'll save you something good, Ace!"
And he was out the door, running up the corridor the way they had come.
Ace shook his head, a fond smile on his face.
"He hasn't changed at all," he commented before going back to brushing his teeth.
"At least there are no crocodiles to eat him here."
Ace almost choked on the toothpaste and Marco laughed, ignoring the glare aimed at him.
Marco finished first, deciding he probably wouldn't get his teeth back to their previous white state in one go and settling for the clean feeling in his mouth. He grabbed Ace by the wrist, stopping his motions, when he noticed a pink hue on the paste he spat into the sink.
"I think that's enough. You'll hurt yourself if you keep going."
"I'm not done," Ace argued, glaring at his reflection on the mirror. His teeth were an unhealthy yellow color, that was true, and it was a small miracle he hadn't lost any in seven years, but there was only so much he could do at once.
"It'll take some time, don't overdo it."
Ace sighed, still visibly annoyed, but let Marco take the toothbrush from his hand. Marco picked up Luffy's abandoned brush as well and, as there weren't any empty cups, he put the two in his.
"Hey, Marco." He noticed he was still holding Ace's brush and let go of it. Ace was still looking into the mirror. "What I said the other day… I still mean it, you know."
Marco stared at him. He didn't need to ask Ace to explain what he was talking about, he knew very well what conversation he meant. And Marco had promised he would fuck him if he really wanted him to once they got out. He smiled.
"That's good to hear."
Ace turned to him, a determined look on his face, and grabbed Marco by the shoulders. Marco didn't move, though he knew what was going to happen, and let Ace initiate the kiss instead. It was forceful, hungry, clumsy and a little awkward, and it may well be one of the best kisses Marco had ever experienced.
Marco tangled his hands in Ace's now soft hair, and angled their heads in a way that would make it easier for his tongue to delve into Ace's mouth. Ace opened his mouth eagerly, and his tongue came out to meet Marco's. Marco tried to guide him, to help him match his own movements, and before he realized, it he had pushed Ace against the counter, and his hands were running over his torso, down his sides and to the edge of the towel. He trailed his fingers right above it and felt Ace shiver, he nipped at his bottom lip and pulled back to see Ace's reaction when he pinched his now hard nipples. Ace closed his eyes and bit his lower lip, hard.
"Don't hold back," Marco whispered into his ear, and kissed him right below the earlobe. "I want to hear you moan."
This time, when he pinched his nipples, Ace gasped, and that was an improvement.
Then Ace's hands abandoned his shoulders and trailed down his chest, tentative, exploring. Marco traced a path of kisses and soft bites down Ace's neck, encouraging him to continue, and soon could feel the tip of Ace's hard cock against him through the flimsy fabric of their towels. He wasn't indifferent himself, but he realized they couldn't take long, and he didn't want to take Ace here, like this, the first time.
A look into Ace's face, however, convinced him he couldn't just cut things short and leave him like this, either.
He kissed Ace again, and with his left hand made short work of the knots holding their towels around their waist. Marco broke the kiss right before pressing their bodies together, and smiled upon hearing the soft moan Ace let out, his head arching back, when their hard lengths brushed against each other.
"You like that?" Marco asked, and he moved forward to kiss the lower half of Ace's neck. Ace nodded. His hands had stopped, and now one of them was at Marco's hip, the other at the back of his head. Marco trailed a hand down up Ace's thigh, and stopped short of his erection. "Tell me, Ace, have you ever jerked off?"
Ace was blushing, but by no means did that mean he was shy.
"Yeah, a couple of times."
Marco moved his hand, and he had barely wrapped it around Ace's cock —Ace shivered— when another idea crossed his mind. He let go, which earned him an annoyed look.
"Hold onto the counter."
"What?" Confusion replaced annoyance on Ace's face.
"Just do it," Marco insisted, and Ace did.
Then Marco, not taking his gaze off Ace's face, dropped to his knees. Ace's eyes widened, and he could see the anticipation, even wonder, shining in them.
Marco held on to Ace by the hip with one hand, and traced Ace's length with the tip of the fingers of the other hand. Above, Ace gasped and his body tensed up. Marco ran his thumb over the slit and gathered the pre-cum leaking from it. He spread it over the entire cock before wrapping his hand around it. Ace moaned again, and in that moment it was clear he had really done this no more than a couple of times. He wouldn't last long, and with that thought in mind Marco leaned his head forward. He let the tip of his tongue trace the head of Ace's cock, and he received a loud groan this time.
He trailed his hand down to Ace's balls, and brushed them gently with his fingers, but decided to leave them alone for now, unsure of how Ace would react and not wanting to ruin the moment.
Marco moved forward, taking Ace's entire length in one moment and making Ace release a moan so loud it might have been a shout in response. If he had been able to, Marco would have smirked, but with his mouth, full that was just not possible. Instead, he sucked around Ace's length, let the tip slid a little down his throat —Ace's hips bucked under the hand still holding them, and he would no doubt he thrusting if Marco let him go— and then moved back, slowly releasing him as his tongue traced patterns over the veins of Ace's cock, his free hand coming back to apply pressure on the released area.
As he had predicted, Ace didn't last long. The second time Marco took him in deep, Ace grabbed him by the back of the head with both hands, cursing incoherently, and Marco had sucked on him only once when he came, releasing thick spurts of warm come into his mouth, gasping out Marco's name as he did. He swallowed around him, and licked him clean once he was done, releasing Ace's now soft cock before looking up.
His cheeks flushed, Ace was panting heavily and looked down at him in sheer fascination.
"You…" he started to say, but didn't seem to know how to finish his sentence.
Marco stood up and grinned smugly at him.
"I take it you liked that."
"Liked?!" Ace exclaimed, and Marco was sure he was going to say he had more than liked it when Ace cut himself off, eyes looking down. "What about you?"
Marco looked down, too. Yes, he hadn't come. He had been focused on Ace, and had neglected himself. Now that Ace had pointed it out, he noticed he really needed to fix it.
Ace moved forward and reached out with his hand. Marco stopped him by the wrist.
"You don't have to," he said, looking him in the eyes. Ace scoffed.
"No, of course not. I want to. I don't know how to—" here Ace hesitated, "suck you off, but I can do this."
Marco looked around, eyes settling on one of the shower stalls.
"I'll need a shower after this, then," he said. Ace grinned, agreeing, and let himself be dragged into the stall. It was better not to dirty the floor if they could avoid it.
As it turned out, there was some food ready, but no one was allowed near it. Luffy had been bodily dragged away from the kitchen —it seemed he had found it through the smell, a technique Ace himself remembered using as a child— by Izo, and he was now sulking, sitting on the figurehead. Ace went to sit with him.
"It won't be too long, don't worry," he told him.
"I'm hungry," Luffy whined. "Aren't you hungry?"
Ace pondered that question, and the best way to explain.
"I want to eat," he said, slowly, "but I'm not hungry. I'm too used to not eating for long to be hungry now, really."
Luffy turned to look at him, a serious and pissed off expression on his face that really didn't fit him.
"I should've hit those guards harder."
Ace grinned.
"I hit them harder than you, don't worry."
"You didn't," Luffy argued. "I'm stronger."
"Ha! Sure."
They glared at each other, but then grinned and snickered. Ace had missed Luffy too much to even bicker with him as they used to, and Luffy seemed to feel the same.
"Hey, Luffy," Ace said, turning to stare at the sea. They were still on the Calm Belt, and Ace was curious to know how the ships could move with no wind. The sails were even folded.
"Yeah?"
"Tell me about your crew."
Marco was sitting in one of the ship's crow nests. He wasn't on watch duty or anything, he wouldn't even if it was his turn, after being in Impel Down, but he had really missed here. There wasn't really any wind, the only moving air he felt was a result of the dials moving the ship forward, but even then, as faint as it was, it was a great sensation.
Vista climbed up and leaned on the railing next to him.
"How are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Marco answered.
Vista raised an eyebrow.
"Just fine? I saw Ace. He didn't have those hickeys before."
Marco grinned, but didn't say anything. Vista shook his head.
"What's his deal with Strawhat, anyway? We know he was there for Ace, but not why."
"They're brothers," Marco told him, and Vista just nodded. That explained everything for them.
From here, Marco could see Luffy and Ace sitting on the figurehead. Luffy was talking animatedly, gesturing wildly with his hands and making fighting motions sometimes. Ace's expression was changing from incredulous, to grinning, to plain disbelieving and back to grinning.
"How long had he been there? It looks like they hadn't seen each other in a long time," Vista asked after a while, but Marco shook his head.
"It's not my story to tell."
It took a few hours to reach their destination, and it was almost the hour originally scheduled for the executions when they arrived. The irony of it wasn't lost on Izo. They had settled to meet with their allies on a small uninhabited island in the opposite direction from Impel Down than where Marineford was.
As soon as they were there, Izo sent people to see if they could get some food from the marine ships —they had a lot more people to feed now, and might fall short with what provisions they had brought for the party— and wasn't really surprised to discover the former prisoners had raided the food storages in those ships. There was still a lot of food left, though, and they could add some to what they were cooking for the party. Soon, their allies would start to arrive, but it was clear by the mood that they wouldn't wait for them to start.
Strawhat was back to trying to enter the kitchen, and he was hard to hold back.
Marco approached Izo.
"I've just thought of something," he said. Izo looked inquiringly at him. "Has anyone talked to Squard?" He directed a pointed look in Ace's direction, and Izo understood what he meant.
"He didn't like it much when we told him we were planning to free Roger's son. He decided to stay in the New World and keep an eye on our territories while we came here."
It was for the best, Izo thought. Squard held a very serious grudge against Roger and, though no one could blame him for it, holding it against his son was an entirely different story. It would take the man some time to get used to the idea of having Ace around —at this point Izo didn't doubt he would join the crew— and it was better if they weren't close together until Squard had accepted it.
Luffy jumped at the food as soon as the first tray of meat was placed on one of the many tables now littering the beach they were at. No one reacted to his actions, which was strange because Ace remembered people had always been horrified at their table manners whenever he had gone with Sabo and Luffy to the city.
Soon the tables were covered in food of all kinds, and everybody was eating and talking.
Ace hesitated for a moment before stepping next to Marco. He stayed away from where Luffy was, as many people seemed to be doing as well, because no plate around him was safe from his all-reaching rubber hands, and he ate at a dizzying speed.
Ace looked down at the table and tried to decide what he wanted to eat first. His stomach was now growling, awakened by all the amazing scents assaulting his nose. They were too many and too mixed together for him to be able to tell which scent belonged to which dish, and everything on the table looked very appealing. There were different kinds of meats, what he thought —at least by their shape— must be fish, vegetables, breads, potatoes, and most plates had a different-looking sauce. There were, as well, many drinks placed amongst the food.
It had been too long since Ace had last seen real food to be able to discern what most dishes were past the barest notion of meat or vegetables, and in some cases he wasn't even sure if something was meat or fish.
He settled for a random plate of what he was reasonably sure was meat, because he remembered he had liked that best. He grabbed a clean fork off the table, stabbed a chunk of meat and brought it to his mouth.
He froze.
It was... like nothing he could truly remember or have imagined. He didn't have the words to describe it, but it was all flavor and sensation invading his mouth, and it had nothing to do with the bleak prison drivel that he was used to.
It wasn't until Marco rested a hand on his shoulder and asked him if he was alright that Ace realized he had started to cry.
Then Luffy's hand was there, holding a plate before him in offer, and Ace ate everything on it. He ate everything on the next plate he was given, too, and kept eating and crying because this was the best day of his life and he couldn't believe he had forgotten just how wonderful food was.
Marco was sitting on the sand, away from the thick of the party. Ace was curled next to him, head resting on Marco's lap and arms wrapped pitifully across his stomach. Marco was running a hand through his hair.
He had known it wasn't a good idea for Ace to eat too much so soon, but after seeing his reaction to the first bite, he hadn't had the heart to tell him to slow down, and now Ace's stomach was protesting violently to the overload of food. At least he hadn't thrown up.
Marco had put a bottle of water next to him, ready in case Ace grew thirsty, because Ace wasn't getting anywhere near booze in his current condition. He had commandeered a bottle of everything alcoholic for himself, though, and had already gone through the rum and two different kinds of beer. Being unable to get drunk had its advantages.
And he had missed this.
It was already dark, and the party was still going strong. By now, there were more people drunk than sober, but everybody was in such a good mood that not a single fight had broken out. Ivankov was demonstrating her powers —she was in a feminine mood, and thus had turned into a woman for the time being— and turning whoever asked into the opposite gender, or modifying body parts. Izo, Marco remembered with an amused grin, had been terribly offended when Ivankov had offered to turn him into a woman.
Farther away, Luffy was leading a massive dance, and Marco wasn't sure if he should be more worried or amused by it. Luffy, an arm around Buggy's shoulders and another around Bon-chan's, was moving without the slightest resemblance of coordination while they all singed Bink's Sake, and he had chopsticks pushed into his nose and mouth. Many people, and some of them Marco knew would regret it once they sobered up, had copied him.
"That looks fun," Ace said, and Marco looked down at him.
"You'd like to join?"
"Yeah," Ace sighed out, because he was still mostly unable to move.
Marco patted him on the head. There would be another chance for that, there was no way this would be the only party they threw while Luffy was with them.
"Even the chopsticks?" he asked, and Ace chuckled.
"Even the chopsticks."
Right then, someone ran up to Pops with a pair of giant chopsticks. He laughed and accepted them. Marco shook his head.
Ace felt disoriented when he woke up. He was in a dark room, resting on a soft surface and with an also soft fabric covering him. A bed. It was a good thing he hadn't fallen asleep on the floor, or he might have feared that it had all been a dream. But he remembered. It had been late into the night when Marco had convinced him to go to the infirmary and maybe get something to settle his stomach. The nurses there had given him an epic scolding for being so irresponsible and eating so much —even Gramps had trouble reaching that level of angry disappointment— and, after giving him the medicine, insisted he should stay the night at the very least. They made no secret that they were worried about his health after his stay at Impel Down. Ace wasn't sure whether he felt more grateful or annoyed about it.
Marco had said he would stay with him, and, sure enough, Ace could make out his silhouette sitting on a chair next to the bed. By his stance, Ace could see he was awake.
"Have you slept at all?" he asked in a whisper, not wanting to raise his voice in case there was some patient nearby —Curiel was in a single room, not in the main area of the infirmary with all the other beds where Ace was, so he wouldn't hear him, but there might be other patients.
"A little. I'm not really tired."
"What time is it?" He had always been good at guessing the time, but he felt a little disoriented right now. He blamed the meds. Or maybe the bed; Ace had always been capable of guessing how long he had slept based on how sore his neck felt afterwards, but the mattress and pillow were just too comfortable for that.
A blue flame appeared in the darkness, and Ace sat up suddenly, startled. Marco smirked at him, his lit hand giving a creepy appearance to his face. Ace had forgotten Marco could do that.
The light was enough for him to be able to read the clock Marco pointed to on the wall. It was around four twenty five, which meant Ace hadn't really slept more than three or four hours. He felt much more rested than that.
"Oh. Is the party still going?"
"Yes, and it will probably continue until breakfast."
Ace's stomach twisted at the mention of breakfast. He grimaced.
"I'm not sure my stomach wants me to eat."
"You should. Something light, at the very least." Ace knew he would. His stomach may be complaining, and would perhaps give him some trouble afterwards, but this was food they were talking about. "Also, Luffy is here too, now."
"What?!" The only reason Ace didn't yell was his conditioning in level six to avoid doing it.
"He's fine," Marco assured him. "It seems the energy from Ivankov's adrenaline boost has worn off, and now he has to sleep off the aftereffects. He'll be up again in a day or two." Then Marco pointed to Ace's other side, and when he turned he could see, thanks to the blue flames still present, his brother sleeping on the bed next to him.
"He really overdid himself, didn't he?"
"Of course he did. Wouldn't you have done the same?"
Ace nodded, because it was true. That didn't change the fact that Luffy was an idiot for charging into Impel Down alone.
"How are you feeling?"
Ace paused before answering, realizing he hadn't even stopped to think about it. His stomach still hurt, of course, but he no longer felt like he would have to turn over at any moment and throw everything up.
"Much better," he admitted. "Next time I do something so stupid, stop me."
Marco chuckled.
"I'll try, but you're too stubborn."
Ace wanted to glare at him, but ended up with a half smile. He couldn't deny the truth in that statement.
"Try to sleep," Marco told him, and stood up. "I'm going to make sure no one has died from alcohol poisoning."
Ace snorted. He had paid enough attention to the party to know that was a real possibility. Marco would have been the one to die of that if it wasn't for his powers, seeing how much he had drunk.
The fire went out, and then there was a mouth against his, and Ace held onto Marco's shoulders as he tried to kiss him back. It was hard, half-asleep as he was, to follow his movements.
When Marco pulled back, Ace leaned back on the bed and brought the covers up even though it wasn't really cold —they were soft and nice.
"Hey, Marco," he called before Marco reached the door.
"Yes?" His silhouette moved, signaling he had turned to look at him.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For being right."
When Marco made it back to the beach, he noticed it seemed emptier than when he had left almost four hours ago with Ace. There were still a lot of people, but it seemed easier than before to walk through the crowd of drunken pirates.
"Aren't we missing people here?" he asked Pops, who thankfully had finally put those damn chopsticks aside. Marco might not care about knowing about Whitebeard's sex life like most sons did about their parents, but he had discovered that, even as pirates, there were some things one didn't want to ever see his father doing.
"The prisoners just left."
"Oh?" Marco raised his eyebrows, and jumped on a rock to sit closer to eye level with Whitebeard, who shrugged.
"It seemed they wanted to meet with the crew of that red nosed kid from Roger's crew."
"Oh, yeah. He had the idea to free them first, didn't he?" Marco wondered if that meant they were joining Buggy's crew. That would be interesting, really, seeing that guy —who really wasn't strong at all— with so many subordinates more powerful than him. But many people from the old days had recognized him as the kid from Roger's crew who used to go around with Red Haired Shanks, and that had left many of the prisoners awestruck. He had seen it all day, and the awe with which the former prisoners looked at Buggy had only increased as the party advanced and more people remembered where they had seen his face before. If they really joined him, Marco thought, it would be amusing at the very least.
"How's Ace?" Whitebeard asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Doing better."
Pops chuckled.
"Who would've guessed that even a D. could eat too much. This is a strange world."
Marco smiled. Strange indeed.
The next day, Ace allowed himself to be convinced to stay in the infirmary with only minimal fuss. As a child, he would have refused to stay here any longer than strictly necessary, deeming it a waste of time, but now he was so comfortable —and in a real bed— that he was more than willing to stay. He wouldn't be able to stand it for more than a couple of days, he knew himself and had no doubt he would grow restless soon, but for now he wanted to enjoy the luxury. The fact that Luffy was here was only another reason for him to stay. With the light of day, he could see Bon-chan was passed out in the bed next to Luffy's, and it was then that Ace remembered he had been given a hormone boost as well.
Early in the morning, many people drifted into the infirmary. They were mostly dragging their feet and their skins looked any variety of shades between white and green. Most of them were sent out with a scolding and nothing to alleviate their hangovers, but the ones that were worse off either received a pill or two or were ordered to stay.
Ace got many looks from the visitors, and was sure, had they been feeling any better, some of them would have talked to him. As things were, Ace only had a conversation with the nurse that checked on him —her name was Emma— and later with Marco, who appeared at mid-morning to bring him some breakfast on a tray. Aside from the food, there was a folded newspaper on it as well. Ace was amused to see the nurses check what Marco had brought before letting him get it anywhere near Ace.
"You can't eat meat or dairy," Marco told him as he sat down on the same chair from last night, tray balanced on his lap.
"I'm not complaining. What's in there?"
Marco handed him first a glass of orange juice —it was easy to guess that was what it was, given the color— and Ace decided not to risk it this time and drink slowly. He was halfway through the glass when a hand appeared out of nowhere and stole the bowl of cereal on the tray. Ace turned, surprised that Luffy was awake so soon, and was left speechless when he saw that no, Luffy wasn't awake, but he was somehow wolfing down the cereal with complete ease.
In the stunned silence that followed, Luffy stole the apple and ate it as well.
"I can't believe this…" Ace muttered.
"Your brother has some strange skills," Marco commented, a mix between amusement and bafflement.
Ace's glass was stolen from his hand.
Behind them, Emma said something about calling for more food, and left the room in a dazed state.
"I need to learn how to do that," Ace decided, watching how Luffy drank the remaining juice without spilling any on himself.
Ace had finally managed to eat breakfast —it had been necessary a full cart of food to distract the sleeping Luffy so he could eat— and Marco decided it was time to show him what had appeared on the newspaper that morning.
"You made the cover page again," he said, handing over the paper.
He saw Ace open the paper and look at the article that covered the entire page. His eyebrows soon went up. It wasn't strange, half of the cover was taken by an image printed from the den den mushi surveillance records of Impel Down, where they all appeared on their way up the stairs from level three to level one after all the fighting had been over.
"I wasn't expecting them to publish this," Ace commented.
"They had no choice. Sabaody was full of reporters waiting for a battle and two executions that never happened. And, besides, there's no way the world won't notice so many supposedly imprisoned criminals now roaming free. I have no plans of keeping a low profile, I can tell you that much."
Ace smiled.
"I don't, either. Mind giving me the summary? This thing is long." The text on the cover was only the introduction; the article took over half of the newspaper.
"Basically, they say the truth about the crew assaulting Impel Down, but have changed some things. Somewhere around the second or third page it says Luffy came with them, and they've revealed your relationship with him to explain it —I guess it was too embarrassing to admit a rookie slipped through all their defenses, so they went with the story of the little brother tagging along in a bigger attack. They don't mention Shiliew —no surprise there— and there is a very detailed account of how many guards died and were injured, I guess to gain sympathy from the people using the human factor. They have also altered the story to say that all our allies took part in the attack, as if our crew alone wasn't enough to take on that place, probably also for sympathy: losing against one crew, even us, isn't the same as losing against an army of pirates. They don't say much more, they've promised a list of escaped prisoners as soon as they've cleared the place. Everything else is pro-World Government propaganda and comments on how evil we are. You are a monster, it seems," Marco added, raising his eyebrows.
Ace scoffed.
"Of course. I'm surprised they haven't given me a bounty."
"Oh, they will, as soon as they get everything sorted out. I wouldn't be surprised if your brother's bounty is raised, too, after this stunt."
"What about yours?"
Marco shrugged.
"I wouldn't mind a raise, but I don't know, mine is very high already."
Throughout the day, now that it had become clear the marines weren't going to attack them —they had intercepted enough conversations to know many were returning to their posts, as chaos had broken out after the news of the attack on Impel Down— their allies started to head back to the New World. They left in groups, to discourage any attack from the marines on the way, and soon, the only ones left on the island were the Whitebeard Pirates and Ivankov's people. Ivankov had decided to wait until Bon-chan woke up, because apparently he now was one of his 'candies' and wanted to offer him the chance to accompany them to Kamabakka Kingdom.
The Whitebeard Pirates set sail, not wanting to risk being ambushed there if the marines changed their minds, but didn't have any set course yet.
It was fine, they weren't in any hurry. After this incident, things had settled in the New World somewhat, and no one had tried anything in their territories yet.
They had decided, and it hadn't taken much time, that they would wait for Luffy to wake up and take him wherever he needed to be. It was clear he must have had some destination in mind before he decided to sneak into Impel Down.
By the time Luffy woke up, it was early the next morning, and Ace was already awake. He had spent most of the previous day asleep and his stomach didn't hurt anymore. The only reason he was still here was because he had decided to wait for Luffy to wake up.
"Morning," Ace greeted him when Luffy rose groggily to a sitting position.
Luffy grinned, completely awake all of a sudden, and the next thing he knew, Ace was lying on his back on the bed with an armful of happy Luffy squeezing the air out of him. Ace was still too happy at having been able to see his brother again to complain about the clingy behavior.
"I'm hungry," Luffy said after a while, and Ace raised an eyebrow.
"You spent all of yesterday eating." They sat up. "How can you even eat while asleep, anyway?"
Luffy shrugged.
"I had to learn after the mess at Enies Lobby. I spent three days asleep then."
Alright... Ace thought, shaking his head. He didn't even want to think what sort of fight it had been to make Luffy sleep for three days straight afterwards.
"Let's go eat, then," Ace said, answering Luffy's earlier demand.
Luffy jumped to his feet with a wide grin on his face. Ace stood up more sedately.
Yesterday afternoon, when Ace had woken up to go to the bathroom —because he could go there whenever he felt like it, now, and that would take some getting used to— there had been clothes waiting for the two of them on a chair, so they went to change out of the pajamas they had been wearing first.
"Hey, Ace."
"Yeah?"
"Want to join my crew?"
Ace paused. He hadn't even thought about what he was going to do now that he was out, but, he realized, it wasn't because he had overlooked it, it was because he had already known the answer, even back in his cell in Impel Down.
He grinned.
"Are you kidding? I'd die of embarrassment if my little brother was my captain."
"Oi!" Luffy complained, but he didn't sound particularly offended.
"Besides," Ace continued, "there's another crew I'd like to join."
Luffy grinned.
"Yeah, I'd guessed." Luffy pointed at Ace's neck with a chuckle, and Ace covered the already fading marks there with slight embarrassment. He sometimes forgot his brother wasn't always as oblivious as he looked. "But I wanted to ask."
It had taken the entirety of breakfast for Ace to make up his mind, but finally he had left Luffy with a group of curious pirates who wanted to know how he had managed to get into Impel Down. Ace had already confirmed that Marco's theory had been right —though he noticed Luffy didn't mention Hancock and went straight to talking about the weird beast guards, which seemed an interesting enough story for his audience— and he didn't have any interest in learning anything more that might give him a heart attack.
Luffy was alive, and that was all that mattered.
He found Whitebeard sitting in a giant chair on deck, talking to Marco, who was sitting on his knee as if he was a little kid instead of a dangerous criminal with a shitload of zeros on his bounty poster. He faltered, and was about to turn around and come back later —they might be catching up after Marco's stint in prison, and he didn't want to interrupt that— when they spotted him.
"Is your brother awake?" Whitebeard asked, and Ace realized this was the first time they had talked in person. He wasn't about to be cowed by that.
"Yeah," he answered, and decided to approach them. If they were going to talk, he saw no reason to stay away.
"Are you joining the crew?" Whitebeard sounded strangely unimposing then, no trace of a demand in his voice or even certainty —and he had to be pretty sure Ace would join, everybody else acted as if he already had— and Ace found that reassuring. His shoulders, which he hadn't noticed were tense, relaxed.
"Yeah," he said, and looked sideways at Marco. "I've heard you're a pretty decent father."
Ace had long since learned that one could find an amazing family outside of their blood ties. And he hadn't even noticed how much Marco's words their last night in prison had convinced him to try it out for himself with the crew until now.