I feel like a lot of you will be going 'IT'S ALIVE!' right about now :D
This fic has been around for two years now and I'm incredibly grateful for the amazing time we've had together. When I published the first chapter I never thought this fic would get anything more than a 100 favs and that was with the very best case scenario. Now it's more than 200 favs and over 260 follows and it's really all thanks to you guys. I would not be here now (and neither would this fic) if it wasn't for the awesome support I got when I first published it. Thank you so much for that.
A special thank you goes to lunarshores and her wonderful beta-ing skills.
Song of the chapter: Fan Va Bra by Jakob Karlberg.
Marco was slowly starting to panic. Even if he had never been vain, he had to admit that after Koala was done with him he started to look good. In fact, he would even go as far as to state that he started to look hot. The mohawk gave him an edge that wasn't there before, making his appearance more striking. Now, however, he was starting to doubt that upgrade. He didn't notice anything at first because he was too busy keeping Ace's hyper brother at an arm's length. When that brother left him to continue setting up the camera on the computer – then he noticed it. It was back. Full force. The thrice damned x-ray vision.
The situation couldn't have been worse. From what he'd heard from Robin, Ace had never been together with a guy before and while Sabo did seem nice enough, there could be all sorts of reactions from a pat on the back to a full-blown rage. Even if Ace did like him, Marco just knew that he had no chance of winning that one. What made the situation even worse was that he wanted nothing more than to touch Ace at the moment and he was very well aware that he couldn't do it right now, which made him want to touch Ace even more. Whoever said that what you can't have you want even more must have been in a similar situation.
He tried looking anywhere but at his kouhai, keeping his itching hands in the pockets of blue-green jeans Koala forced him into. It wasn't helping much, to be completely honest. He could pull off a semblance of his normal, slightly bored, look but behind that mask his emotions were running wild. Marco was seriously afraid he would do something stupid if he got anywhere near Ace and it didn't look like he could stay away since Koala literally pushed him in Ace's direction.
"Ace, give him Modelling 101 before we put him in front of the camera," Sabo said as he took up the camera.
"Isn't that your old one?" Ace finally looked away from Marco, taking a few steps back.
"The new one is being stupid. I'm going to properly fix it tomorrow since I doubt Marco can sit here for hours, waiting for me to be done."
"If you say so." His kouhai shrugged and went to stand in front of the white screen. "Did you put the speakers back in?"
"Yeah, DJ, whenever you are ready," Sabo said mockingly to Koala.
The blonde stuck out her tongue at the photographer and went to sit behind the monitor, dragging Marco with her. She pushed him into the chair and pulled the keyboard towards her. By tapping a few keys and making a couple of clicks with the mouse Koala launched a sound assault on them – apparently the player, the computer and the speakers were all on maximum volume. It seemed like the whole building shook as they scrambled to protect their ears from the loud sound. Marco almost expected for the ceiling to fall on top of them before Koala realised what was happening and muted the computer.
"Are you trying to kill us?" Sabo grumbled from where he was crouching and covering his ears.
"You were the last one to touch the computer!" Koala argued as she checked everything before playing the music again, this time on a manageable volume.
Still somewhat dazed, Marco absently watched as Ace rose and did a quick stretching to warm up. He saw Sabo pick up the camera, still blissfully unaware – the music was kind of in background, not bothering him at all. Only when Ace moved slowly did Marco realised that he wanted to go Antarctica. Or anywhere, really. Just as far away from this forsaken place as possible. Hell, he'll take the x-ray vision over this torture any time! They couldn't seriously expect him to sit still while Ace was doing what could only be descried as dancing right in front of him! Marco had to get out of here. The only problem was that his body refused to move from the stupid chair.
"This is not bad," Marco heard Koala say next to him. "It normally takes him a couple of shots to get going, but this is really good."
Marco snapped out of it as he quickly turned to look at monitor... and when will he learn from his mistakes?! The pictures were still being taken, taking the half the screen for a second and then fading back to other pictures but that wasn't the point. The point was that on every single one of those pictures Ace was looking somewhere above the camera with that damned x-ray vision. His head snapped up from the screen to see if he was right only to be hit by the x-ray vision head on. The things he's like to do to Ace right now... 'No, bad Marco! Think... think... think about... about Dadan in a bikini doing Arabic belly dancing...' The blond shuddered at the mental image, his upcoming boner effectively disposed of. At least he found a way to keep himself in line, despite the mental scarring.
"What's with that face? You think you could do better?" Koala asked with a taunt.
"What? Ah, no, I just... remembered something..." Marco lied quickly.
"Why don't you join Ace and we'll see how good you are?" The blonde clearly didn't believe him.
"What? No, there's no need for that..."
"Why do you think you're here? Ace, Marco thinks he's better than you! Drag him out – let's see how he'll do!" Koala said loudly over music.
"I really don't think that!" Marco panicked. Being that close to Ace would result in a lot of sexual frustration and mental scarring and he really didn't want to have either. To hell with pictures - he could just quickly fail at that solo... as long as he could stay away from his kouhai.
"Yeah, bro, get him over here. I think you two would look good together," Sabo pitched in.
"Maybe I should try alone first?" Marco said desperately.
"We can do that later," the photographer answered, checking something on the camera quickly. "Ace, go get him."
"Yes sir," the kouhai saluted his brother mockingly, walking in Marco's direction. "Come. The sooner you do this, the sooner you can get out of here."
Ace grabbed Marcos wrist and pulled lightly. The blond had all the intentions to pull his hand away, grab his chair and dig his feet in – anything to get out of being that close to Ace. Unfortunately those intentions didn't help him one bit because his body seemed content with following Ace wherever that is he dragged Marco to. As a result he barely remembered the photo shoot itself – his memory consisted of 'I want to fuck him' and 'Dadan in a bikini, damn it!'. Marco had no idea how he did but Sabo looked pleased when he finally announced that they could stop there.
"I need to look though them first but I think overall you did pretty good," the photographer told Marco as he saved the pictures on the computer. "I have a question, though – you kept getting this weird face from time to time... I don't even know how to describe it."
"Yeah, like there was a bad smell or something," Koala agreed.
"I just really don't like being photographed," Marco lied quickly, hoping they'd leave it at that.
"Well, you did a pretty decent job for someone who hates being in pictures," Sabo noted, his eyes glued to the monitor. "You guys go get changed while I finish up here and then we'll go grab a bite."
"I'll go check the fridge to see our options," Koala volunteered.
"Alrighty, we'll be right back," Ace said, pushing Marco towards the changing room.
In retrospect, Marco knew he should have known that nothing good would come out of having him and Ace in a small, confined space. At the very least he should have let Ace go in before him so that he would have had a clear escape path. Unfortunately for him he walked in first, allowing his kouhai to close the door behind them and stand in front of the doorway, effectively blocking the path. For a moment they stared at each other before Ace took a slow step forward. Marco watched him carefully, trying to figure out if this was a fight or flight situation. His kouhai took another step and the blond suddenly realised that it was neither. He should have fought or ran on Monday or, at the very least, Tuesday, because now it was way too late for either. What he could do now was just raise a white flag.
v(^-^)v
This week was getting just better and better for Ace. Whatever humiliation he suffered before was nothing compared to the awkwardness he felt at the moment. And the thing was that he only noticed something was off when Marco turned to stone in the middle of their make-out session that Ace completely blamed on Koala and her mad artistic skills. He didn't know if the fact that they were inside the closet made it better or worse. It definitely made a strong point, for sure. For a moment there Ace thought he should just knock Sabo out and then tell him he imagined everything but then how would he explain his actions to sempai? The only good-ish thing was that Sabo would not be able to say that sempai forced him into it if the way they were caught said anything.
"I think you should go outside before he shakes it off – I'll talk to him," Ace said to Marco, eyeing his frozen brother.
Sempai only gave a quick nod before leaving the closet and the changing room as quickly as possible without running. Ace sighed and scratched the back of his neck – just what the hell was he supposed to say in this situation? He didn't even start thinking about how to tell his family and friends that he was probably bisexual now. He was too occupied by his own internal crisis and the creation of his master plan (there wasn't much of a plan, to be completely honest with himself) to think about how other people might react to that.
Ace was brought back to earth when his brother jerked, looked down at his, now empty, hands and camera on the floor, then back at Ace, back at the camera and back at his brother and several more times back and forth between the two.
"SHIT! That's my new camera!" Sabo finally figured out his priorities. He quickly bent down to pick it up and groaned. "Damn it! Now I need a new lens!"
"Sorry?" Ace offered sheepishly.
"You!" The blond seemed to have connected the accident to the cause of it.
"Me?"
"You!"
"What about me?" Ace wanted to face-palm – this whole situation was about him now.
"How long have the two of you been together? Why the hell don't I know anything about it? I thought we were brothers! Why the hell didn't you tell me anything? How long have you been into guys? Why didn't you tell me about that? Do you think I'm gonna judge you, is that it? Were you even planning on telling me anything? Well, that's nice to know your opinion of me! You think I'm some kind of judgemental homophobic prick, is that it?" Sabo's rant was like a dam breaking – Ace couldn't say anything even if he tried. "How could you even think something like that about me? Some brother you are! Well, are you going to say anything?"
"Um..." Ace completely forgot what he was about to say thanks to Sabo's furious glare. "One question at a time, please?" He said, unsure if he'd get his head bitten off anytime soon.
"How long have the two of you been a couple?" Sabo asked sternly, tapping his foot impatiently and crossing his arms on his chest.
The obvious answer would have been Monday but Ace still had no idea what the hell possessed him into asking sempai out. Plus, they didn't do anything until Wednesday and even that had a debatable reason. Ideally Ace would have said that they started to actually date today but if Sabo decided to ask Marco about it the answer most likely would be Monday.
"Well?" His brother snapped at him.
"Monday?" Ace decided to go with the obvious answer.
"Monday? Didn't look like Monday to me, at least not this Monday," Sabo said sceptically. Ace just shrugged at that – there wasn't anything he could say there. "Fine, suppose I believe you. Whatever. More importantly, since when are you into guys?"
In a perfect world Ace would have been able to answer something along the lines of 'since a month ago' or at least 'since last week' BUT. This was not a perfect world and Ace himself had no idea when it started. The catalyst was definitely that fight on Wednesday but before that very fight (or the aftermath of it) he had no interest in guys whatsoever. None. Nada. So, what could he tell Sabo without a risk of being forced to go to a psychiatrist?
"Ahem," the blond cleared his throat loudly.
"Wednesday?"
The reaction to that was an extremely thoughtful face. Sabo hummed absent-mindedly with a frown on his face, making Ace quite nervous.
"What are you thinking?" He finally dared to ask after a minute.
"I'm just... I mean... You were with me the whole Wednesday after school. The hell happened during school time?"
For a moment Ace was extremely confused about what Sabo was talking about - he didn't see him this Wednesday. Then it hit him and he just couldn't stop the face-palm.
"This Wednesday, Sabo."
"Excuse me, what? I think I misheard that. Did you just say 'this Wednesday'?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Hold on. Back the hell up. Didn't you just say you two started dating this Monday?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Okay... So, what, like he asked you out and you didn't want to turn him down?"
"Y-yeah, about that..."
The expression on Ace's face told Sabo everything he needed to know.
"Oh no you don't! Hell no. Don't even try to tell me what I think you are trying to tell me cause if you are..." Sabo's right hand flew up to tangle in his hair. "You did not... Why would you... No way... Tell me you did not ask him out."
Ace just shrugged, completely at a loss as to what to say.
"Why?" Sabo whined.
"I'll tell you when I know the answer to that myself," Ace said sincerely.
Sabo made a deep sigh, clearly not angry with Ace anymore. He made another exasperated sigh, rolling his eyes at the same time, and said:
"You do know that this is screwed up on so many levels?"
"Oh, you don't even know the half of it. That's just the tip of the iceberg," Ace snorted.
"Do tell," Sabo raised his eyebrows.
"So, to begin with, I ran him over. Literally," Ace said, happy that he could finally complain to someone. "Then I asked him out. And he's in my club, actually he's the captain, and I sort of lost control during sparring with him..."
"So he's a masochist."
"Wait up, he beat me," Ace raised his index finger to emphasise the point.
"Okay, so you're a masochist."
"With the way this week went – I probably am now. So, that was Monday. Then came Tuesday. I ran him over. Again."
"You're both masochists." Sabo nodded solemnly.
"I'm not done. Then I made him buy me food and basically behaved like Luffy. Later I cursed him out."
"I'm not sure I follow this development..." The blond shook his head.
"Now, Wednesday. I made him wake up at like four in the morning and go all the way to my house to pick me up for morning practice. Then I fell asleep on the bus and he had to get me and my bags off of it somehow. Then I almost ran him over again."
"You know what? You're a sadist, not a masochist. I seriously feel sorry for the poor guy."
"Hold your judgement," Ace raised his hands.
"What, there's more?"
"You have no idea. So, then I dragged him over to Dadan's. Of course the guys tried to shoot him, and so he took Happa hostage. Then I dragged him with me for the hunt."
"Don't tell me he was there during meal time..." Sabo shook his head in disbelief.
"What more – he kicked their asses," Ace said proudly. "Then, on our way home there was... hm... an accident? I mean, it started as a fight but then it turned into what you happened to witness..."
"You know what," Sabo interrupted. "I don't want to know. You're both equally screwed up."
Ace chuckled, nodding in agreement. His brother laughed a bit too before his face became a frown again.
"Wait. Marco the judo captain – he's Robins best friend, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Ace asked, confused.
"Find another boyfriend. I don't care who you date as long as it's not him." Sabo said sternly.
"Why?!"
"Because I want you to be together with someone who won't dump you by the end of the week," the blond crossed his arms again.
Ace wasn't expecting that. He didn't think that Sabo would know about sempai's... schedule. Though it made a lot of sense that he'd be against it – if Sabo dated someone like that Ace would also be against it. Still, he was working on a plan, damn it! Plus he still had his two days and he wasn't about to let them go to waste.
"Damn it, Ace!" Sabo pulled his hair again. "You're going to be stubborn about this, aren't you?"
He just sighed, looking away from his brother. What could he say? Sabo already figured that he wasn't going to give up now.
"Why? Just why would you do that? Unless... no. I refuse to believe that you are THAT stupid," the blond studied his brother for a moment. "Damn it, Ace!"
"What?" Ace stared at Sabo anxiously – his brother looked like he just had an epiphany.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?"
"I'M WHAT?" Ace gaped.
The only response he got was an extremely sceptical eyebrow from the blond. That didn't happen unless Sabo was one thousand percent sure about something or wanted Ace to think about something stupid he did. Therefore Ace started thinking. Was he really in love with sempai? He's been in love before, though none of those times were anywhere near as confusing as this.
There was his first crush on Makino which, given that at that time he thought all women looked like Dadan, wasn't too surprising. Then came Conis – his first girlfriend, she was similar to Makino in many ways. Those were the only times he went way out of his way to make them like him, much like he acted now. Then there were a couple more fairly unremarkable and slightly awkward girlfriends during junior high and then came high school. In the beginning he had a huge crush on Nami (but really, who hadn't?) though she quickly cured him of it. After Nami came Vivi, though by the time Nami tried to set them up he was over her.
Later he and Bonney had a lot in common (mainly all the food they both loved) but it didn't last (because neither of them could afford to have a significant other with equally healthy appetite). Then there always was that pedestal that was occupied by Boa Hancock (every guy that ever met her definitely had one (except for Luffy, that is)).
After combining his experiences, analysing them and comparing them to the situation at hand Ace had to admit – yeah, all the signs were there. He was just too busy being confused to notice them. With a sigh Ace slowly looked at his brother, who patiently waited for him to come to a conclusion.
"I... I guess I am," he said slowly.
Sabo shook his head with a sigh.
"We've known each other for a long time, and I've seen you do a lot of stupid and crazy things but this, this is the first time I'm wondering what it's like being you." He finally said. "I mean, what went on inside your head for you to end up in this situation?"
"Hey, I am what I am. Though I dare say I'm still better than Luffy," Ace answered with a smile.
"That's a close call," the blond smiled as well but became serious once again. "You know he's going to dump you on Sunday?"
"Thanks for reminding me. Like I didn't know that already."
"In that case it's time for me to give him a stern talking to of an older brother."
"Who the hell made you older? I'm older than you by almost three months!" Ace objected.
"Come on, we both know that me being born after you was a mistake of nature. If anything, you just proved that I'm the only mature one out of the three of us," Sabo smirked.
v(^-^)v
Marco was resisting a strong urge to pace frantically, waiting in the studio. To be absolutely honest, his first thought after noticing Sabo was to knock him out and later tell him he imagined everything but he seriously doubted Ace would have been fine with that. Thus he waited. Ace and Sabo has been in the changing room for ten minutes already. He knew that because he probably checked his phone more than hundred times. This was exactly what he absolutely did not want to happen! Well, with the way this week was going he shouldn't be surprised anymore – if Ace was involved Marco was sure to do the opposite of what he was supposed to do. He didn't have a slightest idea why he'd act like that – it just was the way he functioned since Monday. And what the hell was taking so long? Were they trying to figure out the cold fusion in there?
He shook his head at himself, annoyed by his own impatience. If this was how long it took for them to talk about it then he should just wait. Still, how long do such talks normally last? Marco checked his phone again only to see that a mere minute has passed. The blond refused to believe it – it felt at least five times longer than that. He was about to give up and start pacing to get some of the nerves out when he saw the doorknob move. Marco immediately changed his mind – he'd love for them to take ten more minutes or half an hour.
The doorknob may have been turned but the door stayed closed. The blond felt his eyebrow twitch – why turn the thing and almost give him a heart attack if no one was coming out? Were they doing this on purpose? Before he could get more frustrated the door opened, revealing the brothers. Well, that partially answered what they were doing – Ace was back in his uniform sans the tie.
Marco quickly looked at Ace's face to see if there were any clues as to how the conversation went. His kouhai met his gaze and mouthed an unmistakeable 'sorry'. The blond frowned a little with confusion – what could Ace be sorry for? Did he panic and blamed everything on Marco? Ace made a scared face and quickly pointed at his brother. Marco looked at Sabo but he was turned to look at his brother who quickly made an innocent face and hid his hands behind his back. The blond looked back at his kouhai, more confused this time, - in response Ace made scary eyes that clearly stated 'don't look here, look at Sabo', so Marco turned to the other blond in the room.
One look at Sabo made it clear that Marco was about to be eviscerated.
"Listen carefully because I am not going to repeat myself," Sabo started, his voice low and even though no less threatening. "I don't like you, I don't approve of you, and I think Ace deserves better than you. However, since you won't be staying for long I will look the other way. Make no mistake though – you hurt him in any way, and you will regret the day you met him. Am I being clear?"
"Yes," Marco nodded, fully aware that a different answer would have severe consequences. In reality Marco had no idea what Sabo meant by 'won't be staying for long'.
"Good. Now, change and go to the kitchen," Sabo turned away from him to face his brother. "And Ace, please don't violate my working space – I don't want to go through the cleaning process again. Once a month is enough."
"It's not my fault you left Zoro and Sanji in there for half an hour," Ace argued.
"I'm beginning to doubt if I should leave the two of you alone here."
"We'll behave, we promise."
Sabo snorted, clearly stating that he didn't believe him, and left the studio. Ace sighed loudly and looked at Marco.
"I'm really sorry about him – he gets a bit over dramatic when he pretends he's the eldest," Ace said.
"Pretends?" The blond grabbed the first word that caught his attention because he was still trying to figure out what Sabo meant.
"Yeah, technically I'm older than him, but I think I lost that privilege today,." The kouhai laughed. "Go get changed, and I'll wait here and make sure Sabo doesn't have to spend more money on the cleaning crew."
"Alright," Marco nodded – he already somehow got on the blond's bad side, he didn't need to make it worse.
He quickly went to change, leaving his kouhai behind. When he returned, back in his uniform and his bag on his shoulder, Ace made a face like he just bit a lemon.
"What?" The blond asked, feeling unusually self-conscious.
Ace studied him with that same expression until he finally spoke:
"Nope, this just won't do."
"What won't do?"
"You won't do. It was fine and everything before but now your prim and proper uniform clashes with your hair in the worst way possible. If I don't do something, Koala will." With that said Ace determinedly made his way to Marco. He confiscated the bag and put it on the floor for easier access to the blond.
First thing to go was the tie – Ace loosened it, took it off and put it on himself.
"I'm taking the tie hostage. From now on the ties are strictly prohibited," he said.
"Why?" Marco raised an eyebrow with amusement.
"Because I said so. Now, go back in there and put the t-shirt back on and don't bother buttoning the shirt," Ace ordered. Marco's eyebrow climbed a little higher at that – he had no idea what his kouhai was aiming at. "Go!" Ace pushed him towards the changing room.
The blond raised his arms in defeat and went to do as he was told. Since he didn't know what to do with the clothes he used for the shoot (he couldn't possibly put them back in the wardrobe), the blond just left them folded on a chair. Putting the t-shirt back on didn't take much time – it was was the uniform shirt that he was hesitant about. Marco eyed the change in the mirror sceptically for a minute before going back out.
"Well?" He asked after coming out.
"Better but I'm not done yet. Come here," Ace made an inviting gesture.
Marco obeyed with a loud sigh, letting his kouhai know that he wasn't thrilled about this. Ace just rolled his eyes with a confident smirk and grabbed blond's right hand to start rolling up the sleeve. Marco looked at him thoughtfully, thinking if he should ask him or not. Maybe Ace knew what his brother meant because otherwise he was going to break his head trying to understand it. He finally decided when Ace was rolling up his left sleeve.
"Hey, what did your brother mean when he said I won't be staying long?"
Ace's head snapped up from looking at the sleeve to stare at Marco with surprised expression. He gazed at the blond for a minute until he was sure that Marco indeed had no clue about the meaning.
"Don't worry about it," he finally said with a small smile, looking back down at the sleeve.
"But..." Marco started but he was quickly silenced by a soft kiss on the lips that left him absolutely light-headed.
"Don't worry about it," Ace repeated with a smile, taking Marco's hand. "Now let's go before Sabo decides to check on us."
I have a couple more things to say now that you've read the chappie :D Originally the photoshoot was supposed to be more detailed than this but with time various ideas sprouted and this was the one I picked. Sorry if you expected this to be more about photos and less about closets ;D
To GreenDrkness - now that I think about it maybe this wasn't exactly what you had in mind. I hope you like it anyway :P
To Alexzandria747 - please don't be lazy this time and log in - I like to be able to answer the reviews ;D
And to everyone who thinks that no one would read their fic because they are a shitty writer and they are bad at English and the idea is not good enough - that was what I was thinking when I published the first chapter of this fic. To add to that I already had 2 sorta shitty ZoSan stories that showed me that not many people here liked my writing. Just find something that works for you and for me it was Seven Days. Same fandom, new pairing. Try changing something and see how it goes ^-^
Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows,
~Rhe.