Happy Easter!

In the winds of the holiday, I decided to add a bit of my Marco/Ace trivia. Their official song, in my opinion, is Die Young by Ke$ha :D

Beta'ed by aqua-empress, the most efficient beta I've ever met. It's like she sits there 24/7, waiting for the next chapter to arrive XD Thanks a lot, hon!

Disclaimer: no, not mine... and I doubt that it will ever be.

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Whoever lived up in heaven hated Marco. Hated him enough to take his brain, throw it out and replace it by a useless piece of crap. At least, that was what Marco was thinking, as he resisted banging his head against his desk – it could result in even more brain damage than he already had. Why the hell did he agree to go out with Ace today after school when he was a) tired, b) brainless and c) got aroused every time he saw his kouhai, was a question of the day. Hell, maybe even a question of the year, given that there were only a couple months left of it and that Marco doubted that he'd be in as much trouble as he was now.

After some thinking, Marco corrected himself – he wasn't brainless, he was brain-dead. He had a good brain before, so he could only assume that all his brain cells decided to commit suicide sometime yesterday. Or, rather, the rational ones, which was the majority. The ones left were complete idiots and good-for-nothings.

Marco sighed loudly and stared at his religion teacher. Not a thing of what the teacher said made it to the part of the brain which stored everything important. Fortunately, whatever brain cells he had left, had enough sense in them to at least fake his usual expression (even though it was always bored, now he had to concentrate to not to look extra bored, because there was a huge difference).

But really, what was he thinking yesterday, promising Ace an all-you-can-eat buffet? He wasn't bothered by the economic aspects of it – it was, after all, an all-you-can-eat buffet, he was afraid (yes, Marco could admit that he was afraid!) of the social aspects of it. Meaning, he'll have to spend time with Ace and appear friendly and nice, while he would probably undress his kouhai in his mind. It won't be hard to do – he remembered every damn detail because of that photo…

Marco sighed and stared out the window. His execution was nearing – the bell would ring in twenty minutes. Maybe he could ask Robin to kill him, she'd agree out of pure curiosity. Although that way he'd be in for one slow and painful death… Still, he'd be spared the humiliation, so he had twenty minutes to decide. Death and torture or just torture… At least he'd be dead after Robin was done with him and he was sure that she won't get in trouble for killing him… If he chose the option number two, namely going out with Ace, he'd be tortured for the whole week. That was six days, including today. Robin wouldn't torture him for six days, right? Maybe a day or two and then just kill him, right? Yup, option Robin it was.

Maybe he could just cancel it, say that something came up and just walk away as fast as he could? Immediately, Pops' face appeared in Marco's mind and no, Pops didn't raise cowards. Marco sighed again. He got himself into this mess, so he should get out of it by himself. Thus, when, in fifteen minutes, the lesson would end, he'd go out and get it over with.

Marco kept staring at the clock as it ticked away the minutes. Normally, he'd be happy to finish early and there was no practice today, so he would have time to, as he once put it, play amoeba. Playing amoeba meant that he would lie on the couch as a boneless heap with minimum brain activity. Although that only happened when he escaped school before those he dated decided to take him out. That was it – if he ever survived this week, he would stop dating altogether.

Staring at the clock didn't help much – it even felt like that damn clock picked up the pace and, before Marco knew it, the bell rung, signaling the end of the lesson and the school day for some. He started to gather his things slowly, in hope to postpone his torture.

"Best of luck," Robin said with a smile, as she watched Marco shuffle his things.

Marco just glared at her, grabbing his bag and walking out of the classroom. Robin had a club practice today, otherwise (Marco was dead sure of it) she'd walk him to the gate and make fun of him. She'd probably say something in front of Ace just to embarrass Marco too. Or both of them. Marco could clearly imagine Robin saying 'Have fun boys, just remember to use protection!' He didn't know about Ace, but Marco was dead sure that if she said that, he wouldn't be able to keep himself from blushing.

Marco made a detour to the bathroom just to drag out the time. He was there for about ten minutes, eight of which he spent staring at himself in the mirror and wondering if he committed suicide here, would he haunt the school like in the urban legends. He knew for the fact that the cooking club thought themselves haunted, because food disappeared suddenly, but he was sure that there was some other explanation to it.

When Marco walked out of the school, he saw Ace waiting for him at the gate. He sighed again and walked over there. Just outside the gate were several girls, discussing something. Whatever it was, it had Ace shaking with silent laughter.

"What's up?" Marco asked, curious.

Ace just waved his hand, motioning Marco to follow him. Once they were far enough, the boy burst out laughing.

"What's this all about?" Marco asked again.

"They were from the cooking club… and they discussed how yesterday the food disappeared right in front of them…" Ace choked out between the laughs.

"I take it you know where it went," Marco couldn't keep from smiling.

"Yeah… I do… It went the same way my lunch went today…" Ace laughed.

"And?"

"Luffy should really be a ninja in the future…" Ace finally could straighten himself, although he still chuckled.

"You mean, your brother is the ghost that's haunting the cooking club?" Marco laughed out loud.

"I can't believe Sanji haven't caught him yet…" Ace laughed.

"He stole food from Sanji?" Marco was impressed – not everyone could do something like that.

"Only because Luffy uses Nami as a distraction," Ace explained. Nami went with it because that way she didn't have to spend money on feeding Luffy.

"Damn… That's… clever!" Marco had to give it to Ace's brother – he was smarter than he looked.

"I know," Ace chuckled. "So, where are we going?"

"Somewhere central," Marco answered – he had no idea, which restaurants had an all-you-can-eat buffet, but he figured that they could just look for something interesting.

"Ah, so you have no idea?" Ace raised his eyebrows.

"No."

"Well, lucky for you, I have. If you don't mind pizza, that is," Ace looked at Marco, questioning.

Marco remembered ten pizza cartons and shrugged – if Ace wanted, he could have his beloved pizza, Marco wasn't picky when it came to food.

"Good, I know this place, they have a pizza buffet and it's not expensive either," Ace smiled. "Plus that's about the only good pizzeria in the city, at least in my opinion."

"Is it the same place you ordered from yesterday?" Marco asked just in case.

"Yeah, it's not far from here either."

Marco nodded, motioning for Ace to lead the way. As it turned out, it wasn't all that hard to be around Ace. It was a bit like thinking about the elephant – you tell yourself to not to think about it, but you still do, but when it's in front of you – you can look at it, you don't need to think. The elephant in this case walked slightly ahead, leading the way. After a minute, the elephant decided to break the silence.

"Hey, sempai, why did you chose judo?"

"There wasn't anything else to choose from," Marco shrugged. "What about you?"

"Because no matter how big and strong they are, I will defeat them," Ace answered, not looking at Marco.

"They?"

When Ace didn't answer, Marco remembered what Pops told him yesterday, about the Grey Terminal. It made sense that Ace wanted to learn to fight properly. Especially if there were real thugs around. It was surprising that if Ace grew up at the Grey Terminal, he could function so well among the people at Enies Lobby. Speaking of which.

"Why didn't you go to Mariejois?" he asked.

"You saw that, didn't you?" Ace chuckled. "Then you know the answer."

"Really? Just for an extra hour of sleep in the morning?" Marco frowned.

"Yup, just an extra hour of sleep," Ace turned his head and looked Marco in the eyes. "It's one hell of a difference."

"If I had the choice, I would have chosen Mariejois," Marco glared back at Ace, the anger from yesterday came back, so the words came out harsher then they should have.

"Me too, if I had the choice," Ace laughed. "However, my doctor had a completely different idea."

Marco's frown deepened. He didn't quite understand, it felt like he was missing something important.

"Basically, if I went to Mariejois, the amount of stress and the lack of that extra hour in the morning would have put me in the hospital, on the psych ward, if I remember correctly," Ace explained with a smile. "So yeah, I need my beauty sleep."

Marco nodded, showing that he understood. Damn Robin, for knowing everything and not telling him. Also, he was an idiot, for jumping to conclusions and assuming Ace was just a spoiled brat. Robin did tell him yesterday about Ace being sick, but he didn't remember what it was. Marco remembered, though, that it made Ace pass out randomly during the day. He should watch out for it, just in case.

"Here we are, not too far from school, right?" Marco was brought back, when Ace stopped and pointed at the pizzeria across the street. The place didn't look too big, nor did it attract much attention. After taking a closer look, Marco thought the place looked cosy and inviting. He decided that he liked it.

The inside of the place was in warm tones, with comfy sofas and nice, clean tables. There were several customers, having their late lunch. Ace went straight to one table by the window and left his bag on one of the chairs.

"Come on, sempai, here you have to pay before you start eating," Ace said, turning to Marco.

Marco shrugged and put his bag on another chair. He found his wallet and went to the cashier, who looked oddly familiar.

"No way… I thought for sure that after yesterday, you'd never want to see a pizza in your life," said the cashier to Marco.

"Hi, Usopp! Didn't know you'd be working today," Ace came over and smiled at the cashier.

"Man, that's classical conditioning, you'll get him running over you again in no time," the cashier told to Marco, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Marco blinked.

"You are encouraging him to run you over again, if you'll buy him food."

"Ah, no, this is completely unrelated, I lost a bet," Marco explained. "Plus, he already ran me over today, so I think I'm safe for now."

"Really now, Ace? Why are you so dead set on sending this poor guy to the hospital?" the cashier turned to Marco's kouhai, after giving Marco a look full of pity.

"Hey, it's not my fault sempai gets in my way when I'm in a hurry!" Ace defended himself.

Marco just rolled his eyes at that and paid for the buffet. The price was, indeed, reasonable, like Ace said.

"Just don't run this time, Ace," the cashier chuckled, giving Marco his change.

"Can't promise anything – old habits die hard," Ace laughed loudly and went to the buffet.

Marco nodded to the cashier, put his wallet into his back pocket and followed his kouhai. For a moment he just stood there, watching the comedy show called 'Ace and the buffet'. The amount of pizza on Ace's plate grew quickly, until it became a small mountain. Marco decided to ignore it, after all he had a lot of siblings and saw a lot of weird eating habits. He took a plate for himself and chose a couple of slices from different pizzas.

"What do you want to drink, sempai?" Ace asked, already empty-handed, his mountain of pizza was back at their table.

"I don't care, anything," Marco shrugged, as he went back to their table. He sat down and stared at the mountain. The topmost slice was slowly sliding down towards Marco and he stared at it with interest, waiting for it to fall. Ace came back right on time to see the slice slide down the mountain and onto Marco's plate.

"What's this, sempai? Are you stealing my food with telekinesis?" Ace asked, putting down two glasses with cola.

"No," Marco answered, still looking at the mountain – another slice was sliding down in his direction.

"Looks more like a 'yes' to me," Ace laughed, catching the slice and biting it. He sat down and looked at Marco with a smile.

"What did he mean by saying 'don't run'?" Marco asked, busying himself with his pizza – anything to not to look at his kouhai.

"Oh, that's because when I was younger, like ten or something, me, Sabo and Luffy did a lot of 'eat-and-run's," it came out somewhat muffled and Marco looked up from his plate, only to see half the mountain already gone. Marco blinked – he barely ate half his slice, there must be something wrong with his perception for sure. Nobody could eat that fast. "Luffy always left an 'Iou treasure' note."

Marco blinked again – right in front of him the mountain dissolved to nothing in a matter of seconds. He looked up at Ace, but his kouhai looked pretty normal, chewing thoughtfully.

"I'll go get seconds," Ace said, once he was done chewing.

Marco followed him with his eyes, looking completely confused. It was humanly impossible to eat so much in so little time. Just in case, Marco looked under the table and on the sofa Ace sat on, but he saw no trace of that mountain (except for the slice that escaped to his plate). Meanwhile, Ace came back with another mountain, albeit a smaller one.

"You looked confused," his kouhai said, as he sat down.

"Um…" Marco didn't know what to say. "Seconds?"

At that Ace's face became bright red.

"Y-yeah, why?" Ace said, looking anywhere but Marco.

"I'm just… I'm trying… I'm sorry, I must have seen wrong or something," Marco looked at his clock just in case, but the time was what he expected it to be, they haven't been in the pizzeria longer than ten minutes. "I'm sorry, don't mind me," Marco blinked again, shaking his head.

However, in a second, he changed his mind – he didn't see anything wrong. This mountain was dissolving as fast as the first one. Marco sat there and stared at Ace's plate, completely baffled. His mind was playing tricks on him for sure, there was no other explanation. Marco looked up at Ace, but there was nothing strange with the boy, except that his face was still flushed. 'Cute,' Marco's inner voice said and Marco nodded absently in agreement.

Ace's eyes met Marco's for a moment, as Ace took a bite of pizza. Marco's eyebrows rose, when Ace averted his gaze, his face tomato red. Marco looked down at Ace's plate, his own completely forgotten. Ace's plate was empty once again and Marco shook his head. He rubbed his eyes, just in case, but the result was the same.

"What the… I must be seeing things…" Marco muttered under his breath. Something didn't add here, he just had to figure out what. His train of thought was interrupted by laughter close by and Marco saw the cashier make his way over to them. Marco stared at him, unsure if that man knew the answer.

"I take it this is your first time," the cashier chuckled. "You look like you've seen an UFO."

"Usopp," Ace said, pleadingly, getting even redder in the face, although Marco was sure that was impossible.

"What? Did you see the look on his face? He barely touched his own food, trying to figure out where yours went," the cashier, Usopp, was smiling widely.

Marco frowned, when both Ace and Usopp looked at him, equally curious.

"I guess you haven't met Luffy, or you would have understood where the food went," Usopp said.

"Would that make a difference?" Marco asked, getting more confused by the second.

"Oh, trust me, it makes all the difference in the world. He's a black hole."

Marco looked at Ace for any kind of confirmation and Ace nodded, his blush gradually receding.

"So?"

"Well, your food wouldn't have been untouched, if you had Luffy anywhere near you. Ace here needs to keep his shape up, or he'll starve."

"Wait a sec, you mean he," Marco pointed at Ace, "ate two mini-mountains of pizza in less than a couple of minutes?"

It was all that was needed to make Ace tomato-red again, Marco was dead sure that he could fry eggs on the boy's face, it being that red.

"More or less," Usopp said proudly.

Marco's brain short circuited again – he couldn't put such eating habits and the body he saw together. With such eating habits Ace should have been at least four times the size he was. Not that Marco complained, he liked that body a lot, he just had hard time doing the math. Ace must have had one hell of metabolism or he trained like crazy. Those were the only explanations Marco could come up with. Or both, Marco added after some thinking.

"Don't you have work to do?" Marco was brought back again, when Ace tried to shove his friend away from their table.

"I do, but this is much more fun," Usopp answered with a smile.

"Will you go away?" Ace said, still red in the face.

"That was rude!" the cashier laughed, but seeing as Ace got up to drag him away from the table, he lifted his hands in defeat and retreated back to the counter.

Marco blinked, surprised and looked at his kouhai, who was clearly uncomfortable. He wasn't going to ask why he chased away his friend, because if it was Marco… well, he would have done the same. He was lucky Robin had her practice today, or he'd be the same color as Ace.

"He was really annoying," Ace said sheepishly. "I'm not like that all the time…"

"Friends have their good and bad sides," Marco chuckled, deciding that if he spent more time on thinking about black hole called Ace, he won't have any time to eat his pizza. Thus, Marco continued to eat, as if nothing happened.

Ace nodded, drinking some of his cola. Marco decided that if Ace wanted to take another helping of pizza, he won't stare, no matter the speed it will disappear with. However, Ace didn't go to get any more food. Marco smiled – apparently Ace would rather die than eat in front of him ever again. Of course, Marco was the one to blame, but it was the first time he ever saw somebody eat that fast.

The rest of lunch was spent in silence as Ace refused to speak and Marco was busy chewing. After Marco was done, they said goodbye to Usopp and left. Right outside the pizzeria, as if he felt it, Marco got a call from Thatch.

"Yeah?" Marco answered, thinking about everything that could possibly be wrong – Thatch never called him at this time of Tuesdays because he had classes.

"Hey, are you free now?" Thatch asked.

"It depends," Marco said, eyeing Ace and trying to figure the importance of this 'date'.

"I need you to pick Izo up from school, because I can't and Pops is stuck at some meeting… Vista and Jozu had work today, so they couldn't come."

"What happened? Why does he need picking up?" Marco frowned, dreading the answer.

"He got into a fight with some jerks who didn't like his style. He won, of course, but he got suspended for three days, including today," Thatch explained.

"Why didn't you call me right away?"

"I got a text from Robin saying that you were busy, so I tried them first."

"How the fuck did she get your number?" Marco went cold.

"No idea, but, apparently, Pops, Vista and Jozu got the same message, so I'd guess she has all our numbers…"

"How did that happen?!"

"Like I said – no idea. So, are you free enough?"

"Yeah, I'll pick him up," Marco sighed.

"Your friend is scary."

"Tell me about it…"

"I have to run, see you later."

Marco just hung up on Thatch without responding. Robin was scary. Or, rather, her ability to acquire all sorts of information was scary.

"I take it you have to run," Ace said, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, I need to pick my brother up from school because he got suspended and I'm the only one available."

"No worries, I totally get it," Ace laughed.

"Does your brother gets in trouble often?" Marco raised his eyebrows.

"You have no idea," Ace laughed loudly.

"I'm sorry I have to run," Marco felt he needed to apologize – most of his dates got angry when he had a family emergency like that.

"What are you talking about? Shoo! Go get your brother before he gets into more trouble!" Ace waved his hands in dismissive manner. "If it was me, I'd be running right about now," he said, because Marco just stood there and stared at Ace in shock. It was a first for him – not only his date didn't get angry, but urged him to get going.

"Right, see ya!" Marco finally nodded and turned away.

"See you tomorrow!" Marco turned his head a bit to see Ace standing there and waving him goodbye with a smile. He raised his own hand and waved.

(^_^)

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Later that evening Ace was sitting on his bed with his laptop and watched series with facebook open. For the lack of anything better to watch, he was watching some of the newer episodes of The Simpsons. Ace had to give it to the scenarists – after twenty plus seasons the show didn't get boring. Ace's favorite was Grandpa, he was just too hilarious.

Between the episodes Ace checked facebook, but there wasn't much going on there. At least, that was true twenty minutes ago. Now, Ace stared at it with wide eyes and slacked jaw in complete horror. Making a complete fool out of him apparently wasn't enough, someone upstairs just had to completely destroy Wednesday morning too. There was a simple update from Marco – 'Got a call from coach, we move tomorrow's practice from afternoon to morning. If I don't see you tomorrow at six, consider yourself dead.'

Ace fumbled after his phone and looked for Marco among his contacts. Sending a message took way too long time, so Ace called instead. It took only four signals for Marco to answer.

"Sempai, what is the meaning of this?!" Ace didn't care about the fact that he raised his voice, he was too angry.

"Ace? What do you want?" sempai sounded confused.

"What do you mean what do I want?! What the fuck? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Unless you have a good reason to speak to me in that tone, I'm going to slaughter you tomorrow."

"That's what I'm talking about! What the fuck!"

There was a silence on the other end for a minute, giving Ace enough time to come to his senses and wish for a quick and painless death. He just yelled and swore at Marco-sempai, he will die tomorrow for sure.

"I see…" sempai finally said. "Sorry about that, but there is nothing I can do, the coach moved the practice," there was some more silence, because Ace was still mentally writing his will and didn't dare to breathe. "Do you have a hard time waking up or staying awake in the morning?" Marco asked.

After a minute Ace understood that he was supposed to say something, but he couldn't remember what sempai said because he was too busy writing his will.

"Um… Can you repeat what you said?" Ace dared to ask only because if he hung up, he'd be dead for sure.

Sempai repeated his words; oddly enough he didn't sound angry, just concerned.

"Both, actually," Ace answered. "Luffy normally wakes me, because I sleep through my alarm…"

"How about I pick you up tomorrow morning? Just in case," sempai suggested.

Had Ace eaten something at that moment, he would have choked.

"I'm sorry?"

"I asked, if I should pick you up in the morning, just in case."

"Um… That would be great, but I don't want to inconvenience you."

"The only way you can inconvenience me is by not showing up for practice. That way I'd have to kick your ass when it's not even your fault, so give me an address."

Ace, still in shock, just rambled his address out without thinking.

"Good, I'll be at your house quarter to five. Go to sleep now."

"S-sure…"

Ace didn't get to say anything else, because sempai hung up. He stared at the ceiling, amazed. Not only did he get away with yelling and swearing at sempai, he also got an alarm to wake him up for sure. He just forgot to ask what the catch was.

(^_^)

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In the Newgate household Marco retreated to the bathroom and locked the door with record speed. He would have loved to talk to Ace some more, but Thatch just had to walk in when he set the time. Of course that buffoon had to raise a ruckus and get Marco chased to the bathroom, in order to hide from his overly curious brothers. His only hope was that Pops would chase them away and let Marco go to bed early.

I'm grateful for all the reviews, favourites and follows. I'll try to answer the reviews from now on, because I suck at that.

Hope to see you soon.

Rhe.

PS. Won't be as soon as one could hope, I have an exam on Thursday next week. Plus I have to finish next chapter too, it turned out that a lazy person is always a lazy person despite the circumstances. Not that I didn't know that...