Alright, I've had this written for almost two weeks. I'm sorry, I just really didn't feel like doing anything, and by 'anything' I mean even sending a chapter for beta-reading.
Thanks to Aerle and The Red Harlequin On The Luna for revising this chapter :)
Chapter 4
It has been only a few days, but the two men have fallen into a strange sort of routine that seems to fit them both fine.
By the time Ace wakes up, Marco has already been awake long enough to catch breakfast. Ace is trying to wake up earlier than he is used to to accompany the man, as he is curious about how the blond seems to be so capable at hunting —far more than Ace himself and his two brothers are— but he is not an early riser and he doesn't dare to use the alarm from his phone, as he is worried about what Marco's reaction would be to it. Ace doesn't want to risk losing his phone.
They have started to train together, an activity both men enjoy, and once they're done Ace picks something to eat for lunch. A couple of times now, however, Marco has disappeared on him and come back with something for them to eat. The same can be said for dinner.
Throughout the day, whenever Ace gets an idea to explain how to say something to the man, he tries. There has been a varied range of success –or not exactly success— so far. Marco has proven to have a good memory, and remembers easily the names of things. Mostly, at least. After the incident with the phone, the man has become convinced that said phone is 'that', and Ace is still trying to explain that no, a phone is a phone and 'that' is a general word to refer to things that are at a certain distance. So far, he has managed to explain 'this' to a certain extent as, though Marco does use it for things that are close, he also uses it for those that aren't so close, the ones that should be referred to as 'that'. Actions are also posing somewhat of a problem. Some of them, like cooking or drinking, are easy enough, but others not so much –Ace tried to explain 'teaching' to the man through gestures and some words here and there, but he finally gave up after one too many confused blinks.
At least Marco knows to interpret Ace throwing his arms up and plopping down on his back as a gesture of exasperation, and he has taken to apologizing by bringing him food –it didn't take long for the man to figure out that Ace's stomach is a bottomless pit. The boy doesn't mind, of course, and he makes sure to thank the man with a huge grin. Marco seems to have learned the meaning of 'thank you' without need for an explanation, only due to the situations where the words come up.
Sometimes, Ace thinks that teaching the man would be easier if he had some of those children's books full of pictures, but then he remembers it would probably mean having to teach the blond how to read –most of those books have text, even if it's simple— and Ace is fairly sure that would be an abysmal experience right now. Marco doesn't have nearly enough vocabulary to be able to learn how to read.
Ace would wonder if Marco even knows what script even is, but he is putting a great effort into pushing any thoughts about where Marco might have come from out of his mind, because he doesn't have any logical ideas that can explain the man currently living with him and his brain insists on bringing up blue flames whenever the dark haired man is distracted. Ace knows he is in something that might be called denial, and that at some point he will have to sit down and think about what he saw the first night in that cave, and about everything that he has witnessed and doesn't quite fit any theory the boy has come up with so far, but for now he is going to ignore every deep thought that would defy any conception of logic, reality or the way the world works that he has grown up believing as undeniable truths.
He isn't going to think of strange paintings, giant birds, blue fire, almost cute innocence and cluelessness about basic things, highly developed survival skills or monstrous strength and too fast reflexes.
No, he definitely isn't.
Ace isn't one of those people that take a while to adapt to their surroundings when they wake up. The student's senses register everything around him in a matter of under a second, as if he hadn't been asleep and had already known what was around him to begin with. The first thing he notices is that, despite having his eyelids closed, he can tell it's still dark outside. It bothers him, because Ace likes to sleep the whole night without disturbances and the few nights he has to wake up in the middle of the night to pee annoy him.
The second thing he notices is the warmth around him and also under him, and again Ace doesn't need to open his eyes to identify it as a body. A strong one, at that. Ace has slept in a similar, yet different, way often enough to recognize the feeling, though usually he is the one serving as a pillow –something few people would guess about him is that the boy is a cuddler, a fact that has surprised more than one boyfriend or lover in the past.
He doesn't bolt, he probably should have imagined this would happen as they are sleeping on the same sleeping bag, but he does open his eyes, that adapt easily enough to the darkness of the cave. There isn't nearly enough light to get a clear look at Marco's face, but he can see enough to tell the man is asleep, something confirmed by the chest steadily rising and falling beneath him.
Ace guesses this means the man is a cuddler, too –and also that it would no doubt surprise even more people than Ace being one does, because the blond looks even less like it than the boy does— because what he has seen of Marco's reflexes tells him there is no way in hell the man wouldn't have noticed when Ace first wrapped himself around him. If it bothered him, they would probably have ended having a night brawl.
Carefully, Ace moves away and leaves the cave to do what his annoying body is now demanding, wistfully thinking of the sleeping bag acting as their mattress and even the blanket that by the time he woke up was thrown to the side and off his body.
When he comes back, Marco is awake and sat up on the bed –Ace has the uncomfortable feeling that the man woke up the moment he moved away. Ace walks back to the sleeping bag, not sure if he should say anything, and yelps when Marco grabs him by the arm and pulls him down, the man laying again on his back so Ace falls on his chest once more. He almost complains, maybe even intending to pull away and turn his back on the man, but he knows himself well enough to realize he will be back to this same position eventually, and decides it's not worth arguing over it. And he doesn't really want to think how they would make up after a fight –if they did— when they can't talk properly.
That doesn't stop Ace from feeling like an overgrown teddy bear.
Ace likes talking to his brothers, he really does, but lately it has become an increasingly uncomfortable thing to do. It's not because of the conversations themselves –he always enjoys hearing about what is going on in their lives while he is away— but because of his companion.
Every time Ace gets a call from either Sabo or Luffy, Marco just sits and stares at Ace in fascination. There is no doubt that he can hear at least part of what whoever's on the other end is saying —not that it's a hard thing to manage, given how enthusiastic Luffy can be— and the younger man can practically see the wheels turning in his head as the man tries to understand what to him is obviously a great mystery.
At first it was amusing, but now it's quickly turning to unnerving.
Marco, despite his half lidded eyes, has a very intense stare, and when he is so obviously trying to find answers Ace can't help but feel as if he is being dissected by those eyes.
It doesn't help, either, that he is worried the man will make some noise that won't pass as forest background noise. Like attempting to say something, the man has been doing that ever since Ace started to teach him. If that happened while talking to Luffy there would be no problem –his little brother wouldn't probably even notice— but Sabo would pick on it right away and ask questions. Ace doesn't want to answer questions.
He hasn't told his brothers about Marco because he doesn't know what to say. He has never liked lying to his brothers, and he suspects any lie about it would eventually come back to bite him in the ass either way, but he isn't sure how to explain his current situation. He doesn't even know where to start. Luffy would probably find it cool, but Sabo would worry that he is with a complete stranger in the middle of nowhere, even more if Ace let slip that the man is stronger than he is.
Still, he suspects the situation will come to bite him in the ass either way, because the moment his brothers learn about it, Luffy will whine that he kept his 'adventure' to himself and Sabo will, at the very least, yell at him.
Ace wonders if he should tell them, because maybe Sabo could investigate Marco. Even without a name, there can't be that many blond guys his height missing. Remembering the blue flames again, he discards the idea, because the less rational part of his mind points out he probably wouldn't find anything.
And that is another reason not to tell them. Again, Luffy would find it cool, but Sabo would wonder what Ace has been smoking.
Ace may not be a particularly fussy man when it comes to one's appearance, but there is a limit to how long two guys can spend without a shower when they're training daily and it's summer. That is how he finds himself fixing the portable shower, the water already inside of the bag, to a branch of a tree he has deemed strong enough for this purpose.
Now he is left with the problem of explaining to Marco how to shower, hoping the man will understand the reasons for it and agree to do it and –he isn't sure if he wishes this to happen or not— get him to understand enough of the explanation so the man can shower by himself without the need for a demonstration first.
As it turns out, Marco doesn't understand enough of the last point for that to happen. The man seems to get the importance of washing –he has done so various times these days, after all, even if mostly his hands— but Ace realizes his attempt at explaining a shower through wild gesturing with his hands –one of them holding a soap bar— hasn't got through to him as well as Marco's solemn nodding might have suggested. The man has understood how to turn the water on, but the moment he steps under it with his clothes still on Ace groans. Then he realizes Marco hasn't changed once since he gave the clothes to him and wants to punch himself. Ace doesn't have many clothes, and now it looks like laundry will become a task of every few days. He isn't looking forward to it.
He steps next to the man, turns the water off and gestures for him to get out of the space that he has designated as shower.
"Undress." Marco just blinks and Ace sighs. Repeating the word, he takes his own shirt off and then, saying it again, follows it with his pants.
Marco hasn't moved more than his eyes, that are unashamedly traveling over the younger man's naked form –Ace makes a point of not showing any signs of being uncomfortable— but when the boy repeats the word a fourth time the blond does as he has been told. Ace does as Marco has before and shamelessly looks the man up and down. If the blond isn't going to even pretend to possess the slightest bit of modesty, neither will Ace.
"Just watch, okay?" Marco has already somewhat learned the meaning of 'watch' –though it took a lot more stupid gesturing than Ace will admit to— and he seems to understand the general idea of 'okay'. The small smirk the man gives him convinces Ace he has understood and, soap bar in hand, the student steps under the shower, his back to the blond man, turns it on to get himself wet and, after turning the water off –it's not as if there's enough to waste, and Ace doesn't feel like walking to the river and back halfway through his shower— and begins to soap himself up.
He is almost done when he hears the man move, and having heard him is the only reason why he doesn't jump in place when he feels a warm body close behind him. Marco takes the soap from his hands and Ace turns around to make sure that the man doesn't somehow manage to destroy the very much necessary bar –or at least that would be his excuse if anyone asked, but the truth is Marco has had his show, and now Ace wants to watch his.
The man, who is already wet due to his previous incident with the water, isn't nearly as awkward as Ace had expected, which does wonders to improve the appeal of the simple act he is performing, but the soap bar does slip from his hand once and when he bends to pick it and his head comes dangerously close to Ace's crotch there is no denying he has noticed the younger man's state of arousal.
Similar to how Marco is right now, as Ace can clearly see.
Ace isn't embarrassed. It has been a while since his last relationship –something he isn't going to think about— and he hasn't had any one night stands since then—though it probably wouldn't have mattered if he had spent all of last night having wild sex. Marco is hot, it would be stupid to even try to deny that, and showering with a hot guy would of course make him hard.
Ace watches in fascination as Marco moves to lather his thighs, and the way he almost casually caresses himself as his hand goes down couldn't have been mistaken as an accident by anybody.
He is so fascinated, even though the man's hands don't move anywhere near to his length again, that he misses the moment the blond finishes and is startled when the soap bar appears before his eyes. Pretending he hasn't been caught off guard, Ace takes it and places it on a nearby rock that's acting as a table –that rock is one of the reasons why he chose this spot.
The boy turns the water on again and begins to rinse himself. He stops, however, when Marco takes one of his hands. The man doesn't know how to ask permission with words, but it isn't necessary. The look he gives him, accompanied by the tentative brush of a hand over his upper arm, tells Ace all he needs to know. Perhaps he shouldn't, there are a thousand and one reasons as to why this is a potentially bad idea, but a part of his mind points out that he has spent days with Marco already without any serious incident, and that he knew much less about a good deal of the casual fucks he has had over the years.
He nods, and the man begins to run his hands over Ace's body, helping the water to get rid of the remnants of the soap. Ace, never one to stay put and let others do everything, places his own hands on Marco's chest to do the same for the man. They move closer to one another in a way that the water falls more firmly over both of them, but soon their hands are pressing each other's skin more firmly, in longer and drawn out movements intended to caress instead of just wash.
This time, when Marco kisses him, Ace doesn't push him away, instead answering the kiss with as much energy as he is receiving it. They move even closer so that their bodies are pressed together, and Ace groans when his cock rubs against the man's –because they are close enough in height that Ace only needs to stand on his tiptoes for that to happen.
Marco thrusts his hips forward, and then Ace does the same, starting a quick and heated dance that has them panting whenever they part their mouths for air. Later Ace won't be able to tell when the bag above them ran out of water, because all he can feel is Marco's mouth over his, the man's cock moving against his and the blond's hand wrapping around the two lengths.
Ace shudders, feeling too good to be annoyed that he came so soon, but whatever annoyance he might have felt vanishes when he feels Marco, mere seconds later, follow him into orgasm.
They remain standing, clutching each other in their arms, and Ace can't tell if he is holding Marco up or if it is the other way around.
Probably both.
He hears Marco chuckle, and then feels lips kissing his temple. Ace takes it as the man's way of telling him he liked it, and he turns his head to kiss him again, a slower and sloppy gesture this time, to tell him he also enjoyed it.
Once, a year or so ago, Ace had a great, long and kinky night of sex with a perfect stranger a couple of days before starting his first year of college. The first day of class, however, he met said stranger again, who happened to be in one of his classes. Now, Ace has never been one to feel ashamed of many things, and sex certainly isn't one of them, but the same couldn't be said about the other guy, who practically had a panic attack upon seeing him. He even went so far as to drag Ace into the bathroom –absolutely inconspicuous, as is expected of such a common action— and demanded he didn't breathe a word.
Apparently, the guy who had happily partaken in a good amount of activities –most of them using said guy's toy collection, as Ace's is sadly small and lacking— had a girlfriend and a 'reputation to maintain'. Ace is not as much of a bastard as others may believe, and he has no interest in destroying anyone's relationship, so he would have agreed easily. But, as the guy had more demanded than asked, Ace had added a nice punch to the nose to the deal.
Having that incident as his only experience of having further contact with someone that he had had any sexual encounter with before without being in a relationship with them, Ace is nicely surprised when Marco doesn't display any awkward reactions once the effects of the afterglow vanish, nor the next morning. It is true that they can't exactly argue, nor have an uncomfortable 'morning after' conversation, but there are still many ways in which awkwardness could manifest. It doesn't, and Marco acts the same as he has so far. Mostly. The next day, Ace notices Marco smiles at him more, and many of these smiles are most certainly not innocent gestures.
The feared morning after, too, the man brought more breakfast than usual, which Ace was more than happy to devour.
For everything else, things are mostly the same. They eat, they train –and Ace isn't getting his ass handed to him— and they engage in their teaching sessions.
Currently, Ace has pulled his book out and is trying to teach the man the names of the plants around them –there is no doubt now that he knows the plants themselves. Trying is the key word here, as Marco is too fascinated by the pictures of the book to pay any attention to him. He has taken it from Ace and is looking at the forest pictures, and up and around them and again at the book.
He looks cute, there is no denying it, and if Ace wasn't worried about the repeat of the previous phone incident, then he would pull his phone out and take a picture of Marco.
Vaguely, he remembers reading something about how when cameras and pictures were first invented many people feared them, and wonders what Marco's reaction would be to a picture of himself.
Ace decides he needs his phone too much at the moment to risk discovering the answer.
To be continued
You know, you're lucky I'm a pervert. Originally, there wasn't going to happen anything at the shower scene, but when I started writing it I realized there was no way these two would be able to keep their hands to themselves. My first idea was to have no smut for at least the whole first month.
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