Loving the Pain
Chapter 2: Memories of the First Day

Still brooding Marco was sitting in front of his computer screen in his work room. His hands were moving over the keyboard without typing anything. Somehow it was no good today. He didn't have the slightest idea of what to write. Giving up he pushed the keyboard away. He was simply lacking the necessary concentration at the moment and besides, he still had a few more days left before he had to hand in this report.
Maybe he should just go to bed. After all, Ace was still here and if he was lucky the younger man would stay for the rest of the day.
He inevitably had to smile at the thought. It would really be a great weekend if he could spend the whole day together with Ace. Moreover, he could then try to take the younger one's mind off things.
He really hadn't looked too well. Marco was really wondering what it was that bothered Ace so much. But unfortunately Ace had never really told him anything about it.
The only thing he knew was that the black-haired man was suffering from nightmares. But he didn't even have a clue what those nightmares were about.
He had, just once, caught Ace talking in his sleep. Something about a fire. But he had never asked him about it. It didn't feel right. If the younger man wanted him to know he should tell him himself.

But now that he was thinking about it he remembered hearing about a fire in reference to Ace before. Scraps of a conversation of his father that he had overheard. But somehow even back then no one had told him anything specific and that even though he usually knew about everything concerning his father's work, because he usually had to deal with it as well.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head. It had already been five years since he first met Ace. What a long time.
He had been 27 back then, still living close by the boarding school of his father. Actually, he had planned to move further away from it for some time, but then his father had gotten sick. Worrying about the old man he had stayed, especially because he owed his life to him.

He still remembered the day Ace arrived at their boarding school. It was the day that marked the end of his quiet days. They haven't had someone as bad as him in a really long time.

Flashback

Standing next to the desk of his father, Marco had his arms crossed in front of his chest, watching the two people who had just entered the room with a bored look.
An old man with short grey hair and a beard, wearing a white suit, who introduced himself as 'Monkey D. Garp' and a boy with black hair and stubborn looking, dark eyes, out of which he was looking at his father defiantly. Furthermore he had freckles on his face and was wearing an eye-catching necklace with large, red beads above a yellow shirt.
He was also wearing black, washed-out trousers in knee length and heavy looking, black boots. All in all he was dressed weird for the occasion, was what Marco thought.

"Introduce yourself." Asked the old man next to the boy, but the boy stayed silent with a cheeky grin on his face, so the one who had introduced himself as Garp did it for him, but not without letting an annoyed sigh escape his lips: "This is my grandson, Portgas D. Ace."
Marco was wondering about their different surnames, but most likely they were not really directly related. Things like this were happening pretty often, if someone who, for whatever reason, had to take care of a child and then was overwhelmed with the task of taking care of said child. After all their boarding school was well known for taking care of 'special cases'. Which meant as much as: Children that were uncontrollable. And they didn't even do such a bad job at it, after all his father always seemed to know what it was that these children needed. And that was something that Marco had experienced first-hand when he first came here.

"Hmm. There are still a few things we need to talk about, but the boy doesn't need to stay here for it." Edward finally said. "Marco?" The person addressed looked at his father with a questioning look on his face. "Yes?"
"Why don't you show Ace were his room is?"
"Of course." With these words he walked over to the boy and asked him to follow him with a friendly smile on his lips. The black-haired boy complied with this request. When he was already at the door, he turned around and waved briefly to his grandfather, saying "See you, gramps."

They were silently walking behind one another along a long hallway. To their left was a row of windows that was allowing them to look at the inner courtyard.
Marco was debating if he should try to talk to the boy, but somehow Ace didn't look as if he wanted to talk to him.
He took a glance back over his shoulder, the black-haired boy had his lips firmly pressed together and was looking at him with a scowl. It was at this moment that Marco realized that the boy would probably cause him a lot of problems in the future.

In the end he asked the younger one briefly: "How old are you?"
The black-haired boy gave him an annoyed look and then replied in an unfriendly tone of voice "That's none of your business, pineapple-head."
Marco turned his head back around and went on walking down the hallway in silence. Well, that didn't work too well. "You don't have to tell me." He answered irritated. "But you could at least call me by my real name. Which is, by the way, Marco and not pineapple-head." He added in a challenging tone of voice.
"Just leave me alone." Ace said, tucking his hands into his pockets with a pouty face.
"Fine with me." They were approaching a hallway to their right and followed it. At the end of the hallway was a staircase. "We just have to go up here." Marco noted briefly.
At the end of the stairs was a door on the left side, which had the numbers '301' written on it, it was the first of a series of doors located in this new hallway.
Marco stopped in front of the '301' door and Ace did the same.

"This is your room." The blond man finally said while he was searching his pockets for the room key his father had given to him earlier. When he finally found it, he held the key out to the black-haired boy, saying: "Take it."
Ace accepted it and for a moment they were standing face-to-face without saying a word. After a while however, the black-haired boy finally said with an irritated voice: "Is there anything else?"
The blond shrugged his shoulders. Apparently the boy didn't want to listen to any lengthy explanations about this place and in fact he was already pretty annoyed about the whole situation and he really didn't have any desire to deal with it any longer.
Really, if they boy wanted things to be more complicated than they needed to be, then so be it. He didn't care either way, as he had no obligations towards him anyways. He was only helping his father out here, so if Ace didn't want to listen to him that was not his problem. One of his father's employees could take care of him later as well.
That was alright. At least he could get back to some more important things again then.

"If you don't want to listen to what I have to tell you that's your choice." He was still looking at the boy with an irritated look on his face, but then added: "Ah. Dinner's at 6, downstairs." For a moment he was considering to put more effort into this. But somehow they unfriendly behavior of the younger one in front of him was really annoying him.
But then again he didn't even know why he was here. Perhaps his grandfather had really left Ace with them because he didn't manage to take care of him. If it was something along those lines the boy's behavior was somehow understandable.

He looked at him skeptically. The look the boy gave him was still defiant and as he didn't reply anymore, Marco assumed that he really didn't want to know anything else, so he was just about to head back when they boy punched the wall next to him with his fist. Startled by this sudden reaction, Marco stopped in his movement and lifted an eyebrow in confusion. He glanced at the boy with an irritated look. Ace had clenched his hands into fists and looked down.
Marco was just about to open his mouth to say something, when they black-haired boy beat him to it. "You…" he started. "Don't treat me as if I am a burden to you!" He said loudly and turned his head into Marco's direction. He glared at him angrily.

"Ah." Was everything the blond-haired man was able to say. He blinked once or twice, confused about the sudden outburst of the younger one.
This was the last thing he had expected to happen. Had he really done something like this? He had asked him about his age and the younger one had insulted him in return… and then… he might have been a little too annoyed, he realized. And he had actually thought that he didn't want to take care of the boy. He'd really gone too far.

He raised his hand and Ace inevitably flinched at his movement and closed his eyes. He carefully placed his hand on the black hair of the younger one and ruffled his hair for a moment.
He smiled at the boy. "How old were you again?" He tried again.
The black-haired opened his eyes and looked at him in confusion, but the replied quietly "17.".
Marco's smile widened, "So you're 17." And with a wink he added "If you need any help let me know. There's a telephone and a list of the most important numbers, such as mine, in your room. And there should be a map of this building, if you have trouble finding the dinner room later."
Puzzled about the sudden change of the older one Ace turned to his door and opened it. Before he went inside he finally said: "I still don't like you." But then he added with a grin: "But thanks anyways."

End of Flashback

Marco found himself smiling because of that memory.
Granted, their first meeting hadn't gone all that well. But by now he already knew that Ace was really stubborn and that their characters didn't always go well with each other.
In the five years he had known Ace, the younger one had caused him countless headaches, but somehow it was also this complicated part of him that he liked so much.

With a glance at his watch he decided that he had wasted enough time reminiscing. If he didn't go to bed soon, he wouldn't be able to get back out of bed on time.
Sighing Marco closed all the opened programs on his computer and shut it down.
Even though he knew Ace liked to sleep late, he didn't want to waste the whole day. He still wanted to spend some time with him after all.

He closed his books with a chuckle and put them back into their respective place. Before he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, he brought his coffee cup to the kitchen.

When he had finally made it to his room and lay in his bed, it was already six o'clock. Well, he would at least be able to sleep for a few hours.
He pulled his blanket up to his chin and turned on his side.
After a moment of inner peace, he reached out his hand towards the free space next to him and buried his fingers into the soft fabric of the bed sheet. The expression on his face was suddenly really sad.
He was wishing for Ace to be next to him…

Finally done! Thanks for all the nice comments. I'll try to work on this more frequently.
And to answer azab's question: Shanks first appearance will be in Chapter 10, there are a few things happening before that ^ ^;;.

Alena