A Guest reviewer pointed out I'd already written Marco using the can opener in chapter 3 (which I had totally forgotten because it's been too long), so I removed that from there, as the plot demands it in chapter 5. Thanks for the help :)

Though, as far as my sparse updates for this story go, I haven't taken too long this time, less than two months :D

Chapter beta-read by Aerle :)

Chapter 6

It takes Ace an hour to get over the fact that he has been lying to himself for two weeks and that the events from the night he met Marco actually happened. Well, he doesn't so much get over the fact itself as he does get over his initial freak out —he hooked up with Marco, Marco is a bird; does it count as bestiality if the guy had a human form at the moment?

His first freak out is followed by a second one when he realizes that Marco has basically vanished, but the second one only lasts about twenty minutes because obviously the blurring and vanishing thing is part of his weird blue bird powers.

And, oh, fuck, Marco is a bird. What is this, a fantasy book?

It isn't until an hour and a half later that Ace's brain can think of anything other than 'bird', and that other thing is Marco's expression.

Because he obviously hadn't been alright.

Ace's first thought is to call it terrified, but he discards the idea because that is not how Marco had looked. Worried. Worried and afraid would be a better description.

And then it hits Ace like a brick to the head. Of course. Marcois a bird, and the thought might be repetitive, but it isn't like there are any bird people around, and Marco had been in that godforsaken cave, and it might even have been some sort of prison now that Ace thinks of it, because he had opened it from the outside. He has to wonder what Marco went through before ending up in that cave, and suddenly he feels like a piece of shit for his reaction. He may not have been able to see his own face, but he can imagine what it looked like when he saw the blue fire and he knows that Marco had seen it.

"Oh, fuck."

It isn't common for Ace not to feel hungry, but it is still something that happens sometimes. That is why he hasn't bothered to bring out any of the food he still has in his bag, and instead he has limited himself to light the fire once it became dark.

He is sitting, legs crossed, on the ground, his mind still lost in the events from earlier that day, when he hears a twig snap some feet behind him. Ace turns around, and there is Marco, standing at the edge of the line of trees, empty hands at his sides. It looks like Ace isn't the only one who is not feeling hungry today. Marco meets his eyes for a second and it seems like he is about to take a step forward, but he doesn't. Instead, he averts his gaze.

Seeing Marco hesitate like that is so wrong that Ace forgets all the thoughts that have been swirling in his head for hours and jumps to his feet.

"Hey," he says, and when Marco looks up at him, an unsure expression on his face, he takes a step forward.

Marco doesn't back away, but he doesn't approach either.

"I'm sorry," Ace says. He knows Marco hasn't learned those words yet —it's not like Ace says them often— but Ace hopes he can get the meaning across. He takes another step forward. "I shouldn't have reacted like that. I'm an ass, okay? And it's true that I wasn't expecting that, but I shouldn't have freaked out like I did," he continues, though it's more for his benefit than for Marco's, because he knows Marco can't understand what he is saying. Still, Ace needs to get it out, and perhaps Marco will at least see that all the words he is saying are meant as an apology.

He has been slowly approaching Marco as he speaks, afraid that he will scare him off if he moves too suddenly, and once he is standing in front of him, he takes his hands. Marco looks down at their joined hands.

"I'm sorry," Ace repeats. "But it's fine, okay? Nothing's wrong."

Marco looks at his face again, and there is a hesitant pull at the corner of his lips that tells Ace he may have understood the meaning of his last words. Ace smiles up at him.

"I'm sorry," he says once more, because he really is and he doesn't think he can get across just how bad he feels to have affected Marco so much that he has reacted like this. "I won't do that again," he promises, even if he's sure Marco doesn't understand the words. He will do everything he can to avoid reacting in a similar way if any other weird occurrence related to Marco happens from now on.

Marco smiles softly now, and he frees one of his hands to raise it to Ace's cheek. He brushes the skin below his eye with his thumb and leans slightly closer, but stops. He hesitates, and Ace realizes he doesn't think Ace will want to kiss him again after what has happened.

Ace moves to stand on his tiptoes, grabs him by the shoulders and presses their mouths together.

He isn't going to let Marco have any doubts about the state of their relationship.

If Marco wraps his arms around his torso and clings to him with a little too much strength, Ace doesn't mention it.

The next morning, Ace grins like an idiot when he walks out of the cave to find Marco cooking breakfast as usual. His stomach growls noisily —they didn't eat anything last night, they simply spent a long while making out like teenagers and staring at each other before going to bed— and Marco looks up at him, a small amused smile on his lips.

Ace is really glad to see it, even if it's at his expense.

"Morning," he greets.

"Morning," Marco answers back, and Ace blinks, taken off guard.

It makes sense, he supposes, that Marco has learned the word when Ace uses it as a greeting every morning, and Ace decides the next thing he will teach him is the exact meaning of the word, as well as the rest of the periods of the days. Marco already knows the meanings of 'day' and 'night', and Ace thinks he can use that, along with some simple lines on the ground, to explain the other words. It could take a couple of days to get them across, but it won't be one of their most difficult lessons. He isn't going to think about their most difficult lesson so far, he is in a good mood now.

He walks to the fire and sits down next to Marco, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. He isn't sure why he has done it, but it feels like the right thing to do now.

Ace has decided to postpone his trip into town a few days, at least until he is sure that everything is well with Marco again. They still have some food left, and he has no doubt that even if they didn't have any cans left, they could last perfectly fine for a few days. The trip, in truth, is not so much for the food as it is for everything else Ace wants to buy. All of it has to do with Marco, and now, even more than before, Ace wants to help him adapt as best as his limited teaching skills will allow.

For now, even if he is smiling and training with him again, Ace knows Marco is not fine. He can tell because he is more clingy than previous days. He has been pulling Ace into random hugs all day; every time Ace has lost one of their matches he has found himself trapped in Marco's arms for at least a long kiss, though more often than not it has only been an embrace that has lasted even minutes. They showered earlier that day, and it was the first time they didn't do anything in the shower. Instead, Marco insisted on simply washing him, but he did it with such care that Ace felt like he was being worshipped with every touch.

He has never felt like that before, and doesn't really know how to react half of the time, but he is surprised to discover that he likes it.

Ace has decided, after some consideration and maybe a little bit of boredom while he waited for Marco to come back with dinner, that they should probably work on some more general words that so far haven't come up but might be useful at a later time, probably when Marco's inevitable exposure to society comes.

That is how Ace has found himself chasing after pebbles on the ground, trying to find ones that will work for his purpose of teaching Marco the numbers. It sounds easy, really, and finding the first ten ones hasn't taken much effort. More, however, require that he widens his search area. He could stick to only the first ten numbers for now, of course, but Marco is a quick learner and they don't have all that much to do to begin with, so Ace has decided that they will devote the next day to study, if everything goes well, up to one hundred.

He has some forty pebbles so far, he lost count a while ago, and has realized he will have to actually move away from the area directly surrounding the fire if he wants to reach his mark.

He really hopes Marco won't come back yet, because he still hasn't reached the language knowledge necessary for Ace to be able to explain why he is crawling across the forest ground like an idiot.

From behind, his position probably doesn't look all that innocent.

Ideas that at first thought seem good, genius even in some cases, have a tendency to backfire.

Pointing at different parts of his own body and naming them before asking Marco to repeat the name —Ace explained the verb 'repeat' yesterday, and it has proven very useful already— was a good idea, he knows that. But Marco also has ideas of his own, and in this case said idea has been to take over the pointing part of the exercise from Ace, only that he has changed pointing for touching. Caressing, more accurately.

Now Ace is very busy trying to remind himself that he has to answer Marco's questions, and that jumping his student before the lesson is over would make him an even worse teacher than his abysmal skills in the whole thing already do.

The smirk on Marco's face makes it clear he knows exactly what Ace is thinking.

Maybe Ace should punch him.

Their earlier, finally aborted, lesson on body parts has reminded Ace of something very important he needs to do before his trip into town. He can more or less guess Marco's size, but it would be best to be as sure as possible that what he will get will Marco, and for that there is no better option than to take his measures. Fishing the measuring tape out of the bag takes some time, it was lost at the bottom, beneath almost everything else in there.

Marco looks at him curiously when Ace tells him to take his clothes off, probably because Ace doesn't look in the mood to do anything sexual —which he isn't planning anyway— but he does, and sits down when Ace tells him to. Crouching before him, Ace balances his open notebook and a pen on a knee, and takes Marco's right foot. Marco is looking down at him in curiosity as Ace measures and takes note of the numbers, only to then move to the other foot. He then tells Marco to stand up and starts to measure the rest of his body, beginning with the width of his shoulders, going down to the arms, the length of his torso… It isn't until he wraps the measuring tape around Marco's hips that he realizes the whole experience can be interpreted very wrongly, and of course that is the moment Marco chooses to turn his head around and raise an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, shut up," Ace mutters, even though Marco hasn't said a word. He can feel the heat rising in his cheeks. "You're a pervert."

Marco doesn't understand the words, but he has a very expressive face, and Ace knows he has figured out Ace is just muttering because he is embarrassed. He smirks.

"And an ass," Ace adds, and slaps said ass because it is, well, right there.

As a student, Portgas D. Ace has always hated exams. It is a fact that has stayed constant during all the years of his schooling, since the moment he first put a foot in a classroom to the present day.

Marco, however, seems to be far more amenable to them than Ace has ever been. It is a good thing, because Ace realized as they ate lunch that he should probably make sure that Marco actually remembers what he is teaching him. He should probably have thought of this long ago —as soon as the lessons started, ideally— but Ace has never claimed to be perfect, and luckily there is no one who can point out this little mistake to him. Marco doesn't count, because, judging by how confused he looked when Ace first pointed at a rock and asked 'what is that?' —he has had to cover that question first, but an hour and a good deal of antics later that is done with— the idea hadn't crossed his mind either.

"Number?" Ace asks, pointing at the pebbles arranged on the ground so that they can be counted easily at a glance.

Marco looks down at them, a frown between his eyebrows as he mulls over the answer for maybe half a minute.

"Forty-three," he says finally, and Ace is glad to notice he doesn't sound hesitant.

Ace grins.

"Right." That's a word he thinks Marco has figured out on his own just by Ace's use of it.

"Seventy-one," Ace says, and Marco has already understood that when Ace says a number it is because he wants him to separate that amount of pebbles to prove that he has understood it.

He does.

"I need you to wait here for four days," Ace says finally the day he has decided to make his trip.

Marco blinks, and he looks at him from where he is hanging some clothes. He knows most of the words in that sentence —'need' being the exception, and Ace will work on that when he comes back— but obviously he isn't sure he has understood the meaning of the sentence.

This is going to be a difficult conversation.

Ace gestures Marco over, and he comes and sits next to him.

"Tomorrow," he starts —he explained that word the day after the mess with the blue fire, "I have to go. For four days, I'll be back in four days."

"Go?" Marco asks, he doesn't know that word either. 'Back' he does, because Ace has made a point these few days of saying 'I'm back' whenever he comes back from doing anything, even if it's only taking a short walk. He wanted to get that term across before this conversation, and he thinks he has managed it.

"Yes, go. Away, far away." He points in the general direction of the town. Marco looks in that direction and frowns. "I'll be back," Ace assures him, not sure if Marco has understood, but the important point is to make it clear that he is not leaving him.

Marco looks at him again, still frowning.

"Be back?"

Ace nods fervently.

"Yes. In four days." He doesn't think it will take him that long. It took him around a day to arrive here from the town the first time, though the trip there will probably be a little faster because he will travel light, and he has no intention of spending the night there if he can avoid it. He also doubts it will take even an entire day to get everything he wants, as he has a pretty detailed list of items already, but he is telling Marco a longer period of time than he expects to take in hopes that if something happens and it takes him a little longer to return Marco won't worry by thinking Ace has lied to him.

Marco opens his mouth, but closes it again. Ace has the feeling he wants to say something but doesn't know the words for it. Ace takes one of his hands in both of his.

"I will be back in four days, I promise." Marco doesn't know the meaning of the word 'promise', but he hopes his earnest tone is enough to express how serious he is. "You wait here, okay?" he asks, because he needs confirmation that Marco has understood what he means.

Marco hesitates, looking him in the eyes as if he is looking for something. He finally nods.

"Okay. I wait here."

Ace smiles and leans up to kiss him. He has learned that kisses work very well to reassure Marco that everything is fine.

Early the next morning, barely after dawn to be more precise, Ace hoists the now almost empty food bag into his shoulders.

He isn't taking much more than what he needs for the trip to and from town, the only item that might be deemed unnecessary being his gun. Ace had completely forgotten about it, and think it is a miracle that Marco hasn't found —or been interested— in it, because it could have been a disaster. A flash of blue fire crosses his mind, but Ace decides he really doesn't want to learn if that fire could heal a shot wound. Now the gun is in his belt pouch, along with all the papers that will ensure he won't have any trouble for carrying it around, as are two cans of food, a couple of energy bars, his bivy sac, the spare battery for the flashlight and his wallet, with his ID, shopping list and all the money Sabo stuffed in there. He has his flashlight and full canteen secured to his belt —usually Ace would take both full canteens, but he isn't taking Marco's away from him, he simply will have to be more careful— and a few matches, his lighter and the Swiss army knife in one of his pockets. He has tried to leave the last one with Marco, but Marco has insisted that he takes it. Seeing as Marco can pry a can open without the appropriate opener, Ace sort of sees the point.

He is leaving everything else with Marco; the remaining food, the sleeping bag, the portable shower, the water carriers… He hopes it will serve to reassure Marco that he is indeed coming back.

Marco doesn't look as tense now as he was yesterday, but that doesn't mean he looks alright either. He is standing in the middle of the clearing before the cave, next to the now extinguished campfire and the remnants of their early breakfast, looking at him with a conflicted expression on his face.

Ace walks up to him, takes him by the shoulders and kisses him. Marco brings him closer, and the gesture that was originally meant to be short grows longer until Ace has to pull back to breathe.

"See you in four days," he whispers.

Marco nods, but pulls him in for another kiss before letting him go.

To be continued

Still accepting ideas for things Ace should get, or even do, in town :)