I AM SUPER MEGA SORRY! *bows* I have no excuse for such a late update. I hope this chapter will make it up to you, despite the fact that it feels like I'm overcompensating (because there was nothing happening in two previous chapters and now there's a lot of stuff).
I literally killed my beta, so R.I.P. aqua-empress. Alright, almost killed, she's still alive but barely so.
One more thing, in this chapter there's a line from a tv-show. I want you to try and guess which one is it. The first person who'd get it right would 'guest appear' in (if my calculations are correct) chapter 11. Clues will be in the end A/N.
Song of the chapter: Take Me Away by Globus (youtube amv Take Ace Away)
Disclaimer: still not mine.
The closer they got to Dadan's the colder Ace's feet were so to speak. People who came with him, Luffy or Sabo were weirdoes in their own ways, so it wasn't that odd for them to meet Dadan and her gang. Sempai, however, was a normal human being, who had some 'run-ins with the law' as a child, namely he was completely sane and normal now, his criminal past long forgotten and buried in the backyard of his house. Well, Ace's criminal past was also buried in his backyard, he didn't steal or anything, but he was used to these kind of people, he came to Grey Terminal at least twice a week after all. Not to forget the fact that he grew up here, making everything seem normal to him, despite his brain telling him that this was way outside the box. Oh, and while he was at it, Pochi the second hated him to the core and attacked him the second he was in the vicinity of the house. The last thing Ace wanted was for sempai to witness him fighting with an angry bullterrier.
Ace sighed, moving forward with a decent pace, Marco-sempai strolling along as if he was out in the city park where the biggest thing were pigeons. To make everything worse, they already had a run-in with a giant bear who, after spotting Ace, gave out a high-pitched yelp and ran for his life. Ace pretended it had nothing to do with him. Sempai pretended he didn't see anything, which, by the way, was something normal people did.
Approximately two hundred metres from the bandit lair Ace stopped. He had to explain some things.
"Sempai, we're almost there."
"So?"
"You'll have to do exactly as I tell you, no matter what."
The answer to that was a crooked eyebrow.
"The people we're going to meet… they are… um..." Ace searched his brain for the best word.
"Special? Different?" Marco-sempai suggested.
"Yeah… kind of… Anyways… um…" this was slowly turning into self-torture – Ace had no idea how to explain that he was brought up by cutthroats and that they were about to enter the said cutthroats' lair and at the same time that these cutthroats were mostly harmless. How do you explain that to a normal person without sending them running for their lives? How do you explain that you are not a bait to lure helpless (not so much in this case) prey right in the hands of murderers? That's textbook criminal psychology!
"Do you know that dog? It's sneaking up on us," sempai interrupted Ace's train of thought.
"What?" he looked around wildly, praying it was just a stray wolf.
Unfortunately he had no such luck. Right behind him, by the bushes, was a fugly bullterrier Ace wanted to wipe from the face of the earth. Pochi the first was a super-awesome dog who Ace loved to bits. His successor, however, was a hyena, skipped from the zoo dressed in dog's clothing. It was as if the dog had some kind of vendetta against Ace. The only thing that would satisfy that dog was to raise its leg on Ace's tombstone.
"Come here, doggy," Marco-sempai bowed and patted his legs to get the hellish creature to him. To Ace's gigantic surprise, the mutt wagged its tail and trotted to sempai for a petting. "Good boy," sempai fearlessly patted the monster. When he saw Ace's expression, he frowned. "You don't like dogs?"
"Oh, I like dogs very much. This here is not a dog."
"What is it then?"
"Monster from the depths of hell itself."
"Like Cerberus?"
"No no no, I could cuddle and play catch with Cerberus, this is a creature of pure evil."
"I take it that you know this dog?"
"This is not a dog."
"Alright, this evil being."
"Unfortunately."
"I don't understand, look at it!" at that sempai courageously lifted the incarnation of evil and hugged it and that incarnation only wagged its tail happily, making attempts to lick sempai's face. It made no sense – this was the friendliest Ace has ever seen this monster. It was always kind of grumpy and if it saw Ace, it instantly went berserk or it ambushed him from behind.
"I am looking at it. I haven't looked away since you noticed it."
"Come on, it's totally harmless," sempai scratched the monster behind its ears.
"Yes, and I am a daisy."
Sempai rolled his eyes at the lost cause and changed the subject:
"You were saying? Before, about the people?"
"Right… Anyways… Do what I tell you and no one will get hurt," Ace said with a sigh.
"Aha…" Marco-sempai nodded solemnly, but it was clear that he didn't take Ace seriously.
Ace just shook his head with another sigh and moved to the lair. Sempai followed him, curiosity clearly evident on his face. Ace just rolled his eyes to such naivety. The devil-creature was set loose from sempai's embrace and trotting beside the said sempai, for once looking like a real dog. Not that it made Ace trust it a slightest bit, there was no way he'd ever trust this monster, whichever disguise it used.
Once close enough to see the house from behind the trees, Ace turned to Marco.
"Wait here," he said. Marco-sempai answered with a raised eyebrow and an overall sceptical look. "Humour me," with that Ace left his bags and, lightly tapping his shoulder with his staff, went to the house. He was still doubtful about this whole thing – yeah, sempai was strong, but Ace wasn't sure if sempai could fight with a gun pointed at him. Maybe he shouldn't have left sempai alone… Ace turned around just to make sure that Marco was still where he left him and indeed there he was, petting the hellish monster.
Ace rolled his eyes at that and went to the house, carefully avoiding the spots he knew were holes. Of course, now they were camouflaged, but he was one of those who dug the holes, so he knew the approximate locations. He stopped in front of the door, not too close, and knocked, using his staff. He knew these people all too well to stand close to the door.
At first nothing happened, which made Ace suspicious. He took a gliding step to the side, so that if the door opened, he'd be behind it, and knocked again. No answer again. They probably were luring him in, but Ace wasn't easily fooled, so when, after the third knock, the door opened violently and several knives flew out. Used to this kind of prank, Ace kicked the door shut and enjoyed the curses coming from behind the door. He stood vigilantly, ready to evade whatever came his way, when the door opened again.
"I told you it was Ace! He's the only one who has a habit of kicking doors into people's faces," said a voice who Ace recognised as Dogra.
"'People' shouldn't try to kill me when I decide to knock on the door," Ace huffed, finally stepping forward. "This is the exact reason for why I can't bring people with me!"
"We're not exactly your next-door-neighbours for you to bring people with you!" Dogra argued, looking up at Ace angrily.
"As if moving you bunch into the town would make you less hostile! The first thing you'd do is to break in your neighbour's house!"
"Now, now, it really depends on the neighbour, whether I liked him or not…" said Magra.
"Idiots…" Ace muttered under his breath. "Where's everybody?"
"Dadan's inside, others are out, but they should be back any moment," Dogra said. As if to illustrate his words, there was a yelp from around where Ace left Marco-sempai.
"Shit," Ace hissed, bolting in that direction.
Nothing in his life could have prepared him for the scene he ran into. Ace's jaw slacked as he took in the situation. Marco-sempai had his back against a big tree surrounded by bandits with drawn guns. It would have been fine if the scene ended with that, but it wasn't all. The hellish creature was in front of sempai, growling at the bandits, one of whom sat on the ground with a bloodied nose. What didn't fit into Ace's understanding of the world was the fact that sempai held one of the bandits as a living shield hostage, sempai's left hand holding a gun pointed at the hostage's head. Sempai's right arm was lying on the hostage's shoulder, pointing a gun at other bandits. Neither side seemed to want to put down the guns.
"What the…" Ace heard Dogra say next to him. "Who the fuck is that?"
"My sempai…"
"Why'd you bring this psycho with you?"
"He's not a psycho!" Ace defended. "It's called self-defence!"
(^_^)
Psycho?! Now Marco was pissed. The only psycho here was the jerk with the broken nose – Marco didn't sneak up on people and put a gun to their heads. He glared at the dwarf next to Ace, mindful of his living shield and kind of thankful for Izo's shady past with gun-dealers. Otherwise he would have had a lot less of an idea what to do when a gun was pointed at his head. Meanwhile, Ace started to negotiate with the sneaky jerks. Damn right he started with them, there was no way Marco would have put his gun down when he was that outnumbered.
"I know you started it, so put your guns down," Ace made the most idiotic move ever – he walked in and stood exactly between Marco and the thugs, directly in the line of shot.
"Ace, move away, there's no telling when that lunatic will start shooting! Garp-san will skin us alive if you'll get hurt!" the dwarf tried to reason with his stupid kouhai and if it wasn't for the purpose Marco would have minded being called a lunatic a lot more.
"Offend him one more time and I will flay you," Ace growled at the dwarf; Marco didn't expect Ace to stand up for him like that, not that he minded that at all. "Now, put your guns down."
"Not until he releases Happa!" argued one of bandits.
"Not until you lower your guns," Marco shook his head; at that Ace face-palmed with a loud sigh.
"Alright," Ace nodded, although he sounded ticked off. "How about we trade hostages?"
"Wha..? No way we'd let one of our own be a hostage!" the bandits argued, showing a surprising unanimity.
"Then it's good I'm not one of your own anymore, isn't it?" Ace rolled his eyes.
"NO WAY!" this was even more evident agreement of opinion among thugs than before, which made Marco raise his eyebrows a little.
"What do you say, sempai?" Ace completely ignored them. "I'll be your hostage instead of that idiot, as you can see I'm much more valuable."
Marco nodded hesitantly – it's not like he had much of a choice here. He watched as Ace casually cast his staff aside (the dwarf picked it up immediately) and walked over to him. Unlike the bandits behind him, his kouhai looked calm as a cucumber. Trying to act as if he was exchanging hostages every day, Marco released the slow idiot he was holding. True to his word Ace took the idiot's place, although not without showing the direction for the idiot with a strong kick in the ass. Then, pointing the gun away from him with two fingers, Ace ordered:
"Happy now? Put your guns down," and then he whispered barely audibly. "Sempai, I'm so sorry for this, I didn't think they were this stupid…"
"I don't mind at all," Marco murmured and to his surprise Ace's posture stiffened immediately. Unsure what it meant, he scanned the surroundings for any possible threats (aside from the obvious one that still refused to lower their weapons). "What is it?"
Ace shook his head slightly and repeated:
"Put the guns down," when the bandits grumbled but still didn't obey, Ace whispered to Marco. "Could you please fire in the air to show that you are serious?"
"What?" Marco wasn't sure he heard correctly.
"Could you fire into the air? Just not too close to my ear."
"Why?"
"Didn't I say 'do what I tell you'?"
"Yeah, but why should I fire in the air?"
"Just do it."
Trusting Ace to know better, Marco lifted the gun he pointed at the bandits and shot in the air. He had never fired a real gun before, so the loud noise startled him a little, but not as much as the raven that fell on top of one of the thugs. Oddly enough, the poor bird worked really well – the bandits dropped their guns and raised their hands as one.
"Did you know?" Marco frowned, trying to keep himself from laughing at the expressions on the faces in front of him.
"I had no idea…" Ace snickered. "Although it worked perfectly, don't you think?"
"Perfectly, my ass…" Marco grumbled, releasing the magazines of both guns and removing the slides, allowing everything to fall on the ground. He then threw both guns far away into the forest under angry shouts from the bandits, half of whom ran after the guns.
Ace smiled at him apologetically and ordered to the bandits:
"There's food from Makino in the bags, take it inside. I think it's still warm so don't put it in the fridge."
Once the order was given, Ace went to the house and Marco followed him, unsure if he'd get shot in the back or not. His attention quickly changed to the house though – he wasn't sure if he's ever seen something like that. It had its own lookout tower and Marco could easily imagine Ace climbing up there as a kid. Well, at least he would have climbed it at some point. The house was only one storey high, but high enough to probably have an attic. It was made of yellow bricks and had a red roof, but what really caught Marco's attention was a pair of crossed swords above the exit. It kind of reminded him of a jolly roger. In the doorway stood a humongous woman with flaming red curly hair and very masculine features. She wore a white shirt open in a way that made Marco wish he was blind, really. Over the shirt she had a long pink beaded necklace that, combined with military-coloured pants, wide leather belt and a heeled boot, looked ridiculously out of place. One of her legs was in a cast.
"Who'd you bring this time?" the woman croaked at Ace.
"That's Marco-sempai, he's the captain of my judo club," Ace answered. "Sempai, meet Dadan."
Marco ignored the ignoring of the whole 'boyfriend for a week' thing because it didn't matter, not at all. What mattered, though, was the brain dynamics of Ace's brother, because no one in their right mind would say that the woman in front of Marco looked anything like Nami. It made perfect sense that Nami wanted to kill that idiot for offending her like that…
"He looks stupid," Dadan said, looking at Marco and he realised that he's been staring at her with his mouth open for some time now.
"I am sorry… I am so very sorry… I am truly very sorry…" Marco turned his head to Ace, although his eyes were glued to Dadan. "I am so sorry, but how is THAT 'looks like Nami'?" he pointed at the woman in front of him.
It seemed like the whole forest roared with laughter, although it was only the bandits and Ace, who bent forward, holding his stomach. The only ones who didn't laugh was Marco himself and Dadan.
"This is priceless…" Ace chocked out after a minute, wiping the tears from his eyes. "For the future, don't ever trust anything my brother says about appearances, names and how things work. His brain works differently from ours…"
"Aha… But still… what's the common denominator?" Marco frowned, studying Dadan, trying to find anything that looks remotely like the number three on the 'Most Wanted' list.
"Um…" Ace stared at Dadan as well. "Right! It's the hair colour!"
"Is that so?" Marco looked at the object in question. It kind of did look like Nami's hair, only it was super curly. Izo would have killed to have naturally curly hair and would have had a fit about the way this woman was treating her hair.
"It's gotta be it! It's the only thing I can think of…" Ace shrugged.
(^_^)
Despite the little 'accident' with the hostages and a slight misunderstanding, Ace could say that sempai's integration with the Dadan Family went really well. While Ace talked to Dadan about school and how Luffy and Sabo were doing (the latter had too much to do to be able to come often and heck if he knew what was going on in that head of Luffy's), Marco was dragged into a game of poker. Ace seriously suspected that the bandits wanted to have some fun with sempai and make him loose big, but their hopes were crushed mercilessly. Despite their desperate cheating, they were still losing to sempai, who sat there with an amazing poker face.
Soon the whole gang gathered around to watch the grand finale – Marco versus Dogra, who was the best player in the house. It was amazing that he was as good as he was given the fact that he and the whole gang were terrible liars. Ace, who knew a trick or two himself and learned the basics of poker cheating here (the rest he honed during breaks with Nami who was a genius when it came to cheating money out of people's wallets), was surprised that even with everybody staring at him, sempai just sat there serenely, showing Dogra a perfect royal straight flush in spades. With a perfect poker face.
For a moment there was complete silence, then…
"Cheater!" Dogra cried indignantly, throwing angrily his four of a kind on the table.
"Beg pardon?" Marco asked politely with slightly raised eyebrows. "Unlike you, I don't have an extra set of cards in my sleeves."
"This is slander!"
"I don't know, he's probably right…" Dadan said thoughtfully.
Both players were forced to take of their shirts off and true enough, Dogra had sleeves full of cards. Marco, however was clean as a whistle. It made Ace very thoughtful, namely what would happen if sempai was to face Nami in a poker game. Nami was notorious for never losing a game, so sempai could be a worthy opponent. That is unless he already played against Nami and lost, although Ace didn't think that sempai was the kind of guy who could lose. It was kind of a no-brainer that Marco-sempai won, no matter what.
Another no-brainer was that if Ace came to visit Dadan, he had to go hunting. Somehow it became sort of tradition that he, Sabo and Luffy provided meat – something he haven't thought about when he agreed to take sempai with him. Leaving Marco with the thugs was out of the question because there was no way it would end peacefully because the bandits were pretty competitive and, judging by a dangerous glint in sempai's eyes, Marco was too. The solution was pretty easy – Ace quickly dragged sempai out of the shack with him despite the protests of the general population. Maybe he worried about the wrong thing… He should have worried about the fact that the thugs might like sempai and force him to stay… It didn't look like Marco would have minded that, but Ace dragged him out anyway.
"They seemed like a cheerful bunch," sempai said as they were walking away from the lair.
"They are," Ace nodded, pushing some of the branches out of the way. "They take some getting used to, but they are. You seem to have adapted very quickly, sempai."
"Well, if you had fourteen siblings you would have adapted quickly too," Marco chuckled.
"Did you just say fourteen?" Ace stared at sempai with round eyes, imagining fourteen Luffys. He would have starved to death if that was the case…
"Yeah, we're one big family," Marco smiled. "Add me, Pops and Stefan and we're seventeen living in our house."
"Who's Stefan?" Ace half expected to hear 'Pop's boyfriend' so he wasn't sure why he asked.
"Our riesenschnauzer," came the answer.
"Ah…" Ace nodded. That explained how come sempai got along with the devil himself.
"Why, what did you think?"
"A cat maybe, you don't seem like a dog-loving type," Ace half-lied, there was no way he'd say what he originally thought, it's get him either a punch in the face or endless teasing.
"Rather, I'm not a cat-loving type," sempai snorted.
"You don't like cats?"
"You can never be sure with them, they can be purring one second and attack you the next…"
"Look at the bright side – they have better personal hygiene than the dogs. I mean, Pochi the first always found a place to roll in the mud."
"That is true," sempai nodded thoughtfully. "Although I still like dogs better."
"I like parrots," Ace said after some consideration. "They are funny and you can teach them to speak."
"I wouldn't want to have one… Not with my brothers around or visiting occasionally anyway," Marco shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because they could teach it to speak."
"And?"
"Imagine having a parrot and a bunch of brothers who love to prank you. Add those two together, what would you get?"
"A very rude parrot," Ace laughed. "I see where you're going with this."
"That is why I like dogs, you can't teach them to speak," sempai smiled.
Ace smiled as well, although at the thought of him having a parrot. Its vocabulary would have consisted of two phrases – 'Ace, meat!' and 'Ace, food!'. Speaking of meat and food, he'll probably get crock today, mostly because they're tasty and big. Therefore Ace set course to the river, already imagining… Weeeeell, shit. Now there was a matter of how to feed sempai, because he was such an easy prey. Only this morning sempai took his eyes off of Luffy, a mistake no one should ever make. Granted, he didn't know the danger of it, but still…
"Sempai, there's another thing I need to warn you about."
"Aha… And that is?"
"You are incredibly naïve."
"Am I?"
"You are. You expect that if it's your plate, it's your food on it and no one's going to touch it."
"I take it that it's not the case here."
"No. And there are too many people for me to keep away for you to take your time and eat in peace."
"So?"
"So you'll have to do it yourself. Anything goes; it'll be a… real dogfight. If you have to literally kick someone out of the way, do that."
"Aha…"
"Sempai, I'm serious!"
"I'm not saying you're not, I just understood where you're coming from and what happened on Tuesday."
Ace rolled his eyes, blushing a little. Leave it to him to leave an unforgettable embarrassing memory. Good thing sempai didn't mention anything that happened this morning.
(^_^)
When Ace told him that it was going to be a real dogfight, Marco didn't take him too seriously. Who would? He expected some competition, some pushing… He didn't expect for it to actually be a… The word dogfight described it perfectly. Marco didn't even get to marvel at the fact that they were eating a crocodile (which, by the way, turned out to be awesome) he really wanted to take some home with him to give his brothers a taste but dismissed that idea the second it all started.
He was literally sent flying as he was pushed out of the way. When Marco tried to approach the meat he was shoved and kicked (the bruises were going stay there for weeks for sure) and some part of him refused to believe that this was happening. Thus, when that stupid dog stole the piece he finally acquired, Marco saw red. This was the first time since Pops adopted him that he told his self-restrain to stick it. Needless to say, there was a LOT of anger bottled up over the years and the release of it equalled a nuclear blast.
He came to his senses when he was standing in the middle of the room, right next to the giant plate that still had enough meat on, with a dead zone of two meters around him. The bandits were covering in fear, more than half of them sporting bruises and cuts of various degrees and looking at him with terror. Marco quickly looked around and found Ace to his right, sitting on the floor with a plate full of meat in his lap, looking up at him in awe.
"Wow…" Ace breathed. "Sempai, what are you still doing at school? You could be making money as a hit man or underground fighter…"
"That… hm… wasn't intentional…" Marco managed to say. He quickly got himself some meat and walked over to sit next to Ace.
The bandits slowly came to their senses, approaching the meat sneakily. They watched Marco with a corner of their eyes, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. It looked hilarious, so he (in order to cheer himself up because he was starting to feel down because of his outburst) glared at random bandits, who turned white and retreated from the plate the second they saw him glaring at them. Ace, done with his meal, was rolling on the floor laughing.
The fact that Ace found it funny and wasn't afraid of him after witnessing the whole scene made Marco immensely relieved. Before Pops came around Marco didn't have any friends because people were afraid he might lash out at them (a stark contrast to how people were going out of their way to make him like them and call them his friend now, it didn't even feel like a 180, more like 540 or even 900). He felt very happy about that, somehow it made him feel like he was fine the way he was, that he didn't have to hide who he was.
Marco reached for a piece of bread and his jaw dropped when he saw his hand. Unbelieving, he stared at both his hands – both were a bloody mess. It was weird, he didn't feel a thing but he could clearly see that the skin was torn on his knuckles…
"Sempai, what're you… Holy shit!" Ace jumped when he saw his hands. Marco watched, dumbfounded, as his plate was confiscated, but only briefly so, because Ace quickly put all kinds of things on the plate including more meat (for a second there Marco was ready to kick Ace's ass if he planned on getting away with his food) and then grabbed Marco's forearm and pulled him up. He obliged, although mostly because Ace had his plate and there was no way that after all that happened that he'd leave it out of his sight.
Ace pulled him into a kitchen, closing the door behind them. It was pretty old-fashioned and small, compared to the rest of the rooms. It contained a working space and left barely enough for a table, pushed to a wall with three chairs around it. Ace put the plate on the table and led Marco to the sink, opening the cold water tap. Marco still didn't feel a thing, so he just observed as Ace first tried the water himself, then carefully put Marco's hands under the water, tenderly washing the blood away.
"Are you afraid of me?" Marco suddenly asked, surprising himself.
"Of course I am!" Ace snorted. "The whole club is terrified of you, I thought you knew about it."
"I didn't mean…" he started, but was cut off.
"Sempai, what do you think? Why would I be afraid of you if I'm capable of the same thing?" Ace looked up from the sink, smiling. "Plus they deserved it - that was no way of treating a guest."
"I honestly thought you were exaggerating," Marco laughed.
"Next time you'll know better and will listen to me," Ace laughed too. "Doesn't look too bad… Does this hurt?" Ace gently pressed around each knuckle, testing the bones.
"I honestly don't feel a thing," Marco shook his head, observing Ace's concentrated face.
"Can you move your fingers?"
Marco did just that, wriggling his fingers as if he was playing piano.
"Well, you don't seem to have broken any bones, which is good, because a hand cast is a pain, trust me, I would know."
"I will trust you on that."
"Now that you know better," Ace added and they both laughed.
"Now that I know better," Marco nodded solemnly, "I swear I will do exactly as you say from this moment on."
Ace rolled his eyes at him and pointed to a chair with a smile. Marco did as he was told, sitting down in front of his plate, while Ace raided the cupboards. In a minute he came to the table with a red metallic box with a white cross on it and a fork. He handed the fork to Marco, who took it happily – he didn't get to eat much yet. The red box was placed on the table and opened, revealing all kinds of medicaments, from Ibuprofen to throat medicine and bandages. After some searching (while Marco started to fill his stomach), Ace took out cotton swabs and a bottle with some liquid. Marco took the bottle examining the label out of pure curiosity. The label simply stated chlorhexidine. He shrugged and gave the bottle to Ace, who raised eyebrows at him in silent question.
First hand that was treated was the right one and Marco felt slightly annoyed at how thorough Ace was, but said nothing because the reason wasn't worth it. So what if he had some trouble using a fork with his left because there wasn't a knife in his right? Marco looked at Ace who was treating his hand with an efficiency of a paramedic with many years of practice. Come to think of it, if he grew up here, it felt like a no-brainer that he had to be able to treat any injuries himself. Marco knew the basics as well and normally he would have insisted on treating himself alone, but, for an unknown reason, he took a step back and allowed Ace to fix his hands. Speaking of which…
"Ouch… now I start feeling something…" he pulled his hand away from Ace and shook it violently. The knuckles were the tell-tale yellow-ish colour. Fucking iodine with alcohol… It was good for any kinds of cuts, but stung like a bitch.
"I'm done with it anyways, so give me the other one," Ace laughed at Marco's expression.
"Sadist…" Marco muttered under his breath, giving up his left hand and taking the fork with a still stinging right.
"At your service," Ace answered, starting on the left hand. "It's not that bad, you know. It will take some time to heal, but it could have been worse."
Marco nodded, admitting that it could, indeed, have been worse. For example if one of the bandits brought a weapon to the table, that would have sucked.
"This is my fault, you know," Ace muttered. "I should have said no when Robin suggested for you to come along."
"Have you even met Robin?" Marco said sceptically. "If she wants something to happen, it will happen."
"I guess that's true, she would have skipped the new exhibition in order to get things the way she wants them," Ace started dabbing the iodine on and Marco winced. Then he imagined Robin here and shuddered – she knew way, way too much and she loved to tease. The only person worse than Robin was Thatch. If he had to choose between having either one of them to tag along, it would have been Robin, hands down. Thatch had no brain-mouth filter whatsoever. At least not when he should keep his mouth shut.
Marco finished his meal in peace (thank God for that), while Ace put the medicine kit away and made some instant coffee. He immediately asked for a cup too, this was a very long day for him, not to mention eventful. He had a very vague idea about what he's going to tell Pops about his knuckles and there was definitely a questioning waiting for him, the second Pops notices his hands. He'll have to figure something out about it, half-truth at the very least, because lying to Pops was not an option.
(^_^)
Ace was leading the way through the forest for one last stop before they were going back into town. It wasn't late yet or, rather, it wasn't too late, so they had just enough time to swing by one place and head home. The place had an amazing view over the city and it would be a pity to pass the opportunity, especially when it wasn't that big of a detour. Sempai didn't seem to mind that, at least that's what he said when they climbed a steep slope. Given that Ace knew every stone there, he was the first one climbing with sempai just a meter behind him.
Ace's mind went back to what happened the lair not more than an hour ago. 'I mean, DAMN! He's not even using half his strength in club… No wonder he was pissed at me this morning, it wasn't even enough to break a sweat!' Ace shook his head. That was it, there was no way in hell he'll ever hold back if he's paired up with sempai. Why did he ever think that Marco-sempai needed to be protected was beyond him. It was Marco-sempai, for crying out loud!
Ace felt his hands itch, so he clenched the staff harder, trying to calm down. Kind of pointless, given the fact that he's been antsy since he locked eyes with whatever that woke up in Marco-sempai in the shack. Whatever it was, it was not the normal sempai, it was something raw, wild and extremely dangerous. It locked eyes with Ace for a second, but deemed him unthreatening and/or friendly, so it didn't touch him. Ace kind of wished that it did…
They finally reached the top and Ace turned around to look at sempai. It would be unfair, sempai wasn't armed and his hands were hurt… Ace followed Marco's every move with his eyes, moving his right wrist so that the staff pointed to the ground with one end and followed his arm to the shoulder with the other. Sempai looked at him warily, aware of the change in behaviour. Ace would have been disappointed if he didn't.
"What's up?" sempai asked, sounding slightly unsure.
"What do you think?" Ace asked teasingly, looking Marco straight in the eyes. Whatever it was buried within sempai, he wanted it out. Now. As in right now. Ace didn't give a damn that this wasn't like him to act like this and that this level of impulsivity was way above his normal. He let the staff slowly slide through his grip until it hit the ground.
He was not surprised in the slightest that Marco was in front of him in less than a second, giving him little to no time for evasion. Ace smiled widely as he made a quick turn, barely evading the attack and retaliating with an attack of his own. This was way better than the dojo, he's never felt such exhilaration before, it was as if he was on fire… Ace never hid that he loved to fight, but he rarely got a chance to do so without any restrictions whatsoever and this was exactly what he was doing right now. He didn't remember much from Monday because he was in survival mode back then, but now… He didn't know how to start describing what was going on, but he loved it nonetheless.
Ace's advantage of having a weapon didn't last very long, the staff was ripped from his hands and thrown aside, he didn't bother to look where it went. There was no time to do that – if he looked away from Marco even for a fraction of a second, he would instantly lose. He knew it when he challenged sempai that his opponent was stronger than him but he would not go down easily. Especially not when that thing finally decided to show up.
Despite Ace's resolve, his back hit a big tree seconds after it appeared. What surprised him was his lack of surprise when Marco crushed his lips against Ace's, kissing him heatedly. Absolutely light-headed from the fight, Ace's dizzy mind didn't even react to the fact that he was being kissed by a guy, only a quick thought 'Nami, you liar!' passed before he completely melted, kissing back just as passionately.
With a low, rumbling sound Marco pressed his whole body against Ace, making the latter gasp at the sheer intensity of the feeling. The blond immediately used the gasp to his advantage, invading Ace's mouth with his tongue, exploring the hot cavern. Ace far from minded that, his own tongue entwining Marco's enthusiastically, his hands sneaking around the blond's neck. Marco's hands slid under the raven's t-shirt, mapping the firm abs and slowly climbing higher.
Ace had no idea what was going on, but he wasn't going to argue, especially not when sempai pressed their hips together, making him moan loudly. Marco stiffened, breaking the kiss and trying to move away from Ace, but he was having none of that, forcing their mouths back together with a soft needy whine. For a moment sempai was unresponsive, then, with a desperate groan, he kissed Ace back, his hands dropping down to his hips.
Yeah, I'm finishing right there.
I bet you've already forgotten about the little game I started :D Anyway, here comes clues:
1. There's a reference to this same tv-show in chapter one of this very fic.
2. It has a lot of seasons (more than four).
3. It started 2005.
4. My two favourite character's initials are C.Y. and M.B. or vice versa, the first letter being name.
5. The line used here is used in an earlier season (yeah, not even I remember which) while all of five were still alive.
6. I don't have any fics with this show in any of my lists.
I don't want to give much away, but if nobody could crack it, I'll be adding some more clues in the next chappie. Gold star for the person who could tell who's saying this line.
Thanks a lot for all reviews, favs and follows.
Hope to see you soon,
~Rhe.