The conversation between Ace and Marco and everthing that happens after it is all lunarshores :D

Beta'ed by lunarshores.


Ace had thought that this day would be just like any other. After all, how could anything interesting happen if you were a counselor at a children's camp? If anyone had asked Ace when he'd woken up, he would have said it couldn't.

Just like every day this past week, as soon as they'd eaten breakfast, Ace took the children into the woods. Ace had already taught them how to recognize poisonous plants, so today, as a reward, they were going from a swim in a nearby lake. It was supposed to be fun.

Of course, that was before Ace hauled a body out of the river. The children gathered around him and the man he was carefully putting down on the soft sand. Ace told them to take two steps back and told one of the older children to dig his phone out of his jacket and call 911. He ignored the screams from some of the younger kids and checked for a pulse.

He was very surprised when he found one, although it was very weak. When he noticed that the man wasn't breathing, Ace immediately began to administer CPR. First, he checked to see if anything was in the stranger's mouth. Having found nothing blocking his airways, he leaned down, placed his own mouth over the man's and started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Two breaths later found Ace putting his palms on the man's chest, pushing his arms down. After thirty chest compressions, he leaned in to give the man mouth-to-mouth once more, his own heart beating ferociously in his ribcage.

Fortunately, it didn't have to come to that, because the man's eyes snapped open and he started coughing. Ace carefully helped turn him so that he was lying on his side. The water to leave his lungs quickly, as he lied back down on his back and took a few quick breaths, blue eyes staring uncomprehendingly at the sky. When those eyes turned to him, Ace found that he couldn't look away. Now that Ace was actually looking at him, he noticed that, despite the man being soaked to the bone, he was very handsome. Blond hair framed a handsome face, and his blue eyes seemed to reflect the sky itself. Ace forced himself to turn away and looked for something to cover the stranger with. After all, it wouldn't do for him to die of hypothermia after all Ace had just gone through to save him.

The blond looked up at him, dazed. Ace checked his pupils, and they seemed a bit different. Maybe it was just a trick of the light.

"Hey, I'm Ace. What's your name?" The blond blinked up at him.

"You're reahlly prutty." He slurred his words to the point Ace had trouble distinguishing them. The kids understood just fine, unfortunately, and started laughing madly.

So, maybe he wasn't imagining the pupil thing.

"That's nice, but can you tell me your name?" The man frowned, then seemed to think about it for a second.

"Maaarco. Wha's yours? Your haaair is sooooooo shiney." The kids were now giggling uncontrollably.

"I'm Ace. Okay, Marco. I need you to focus. Can you give me a number to call? Someone's probably very worried about you."

"Toooo col' to ffoocus." He lit up. "I knoooow." Suddenly Ace had a lapful of a very hot, wet Marco. He snugged into Ace. "Waaaaarrrm." He sighed contentedly. Ace blushed bright red. Somehow, he was pretty sure this wasn't how rescues were supposed to go.

"Wha' wasss tha' about a phoooone numer?" Marco mumbled into the side of neck. "You can haf mine. I liiike you. Your waaarm and your hair is sooooo shiiiiiny." Ace heard the distant roar of sirens. Thank goodness. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. He gestured to one of the older kids to come closer. The brat was one of the troublemakers.

"I'm just going to assume you have this all on video." The kid's smirk was all the answer he needed. "Fine, but send me a copy, alright? I'm pretty sure he needs to see this when he wakes up." Ace smirked at him, for once in perfect harmony with the kid.