This is the shortest update for this story so far, but it covers a decent amount of things and I decided to just post it anyway.
As always, beta-read by Aerle :)
Chapter 12
The next morning after breakfast they open Jimmy's book on the fifth page, which shows Jimmy in his preschool classroom. Now, Ace could stick to his first and easy explanation —which Marco does understand— about how preschool is a place where parents take their little kids so they're taken care of while they work (of course, Ace is sure that what he means by work and what Marco thinks he means by work are two entirely different things, despite Ace's best efforts to explain the concept), but reality remains that Ace, Sabo, and Luffy will start their respective classes not too long after their return. The sooner Ace gets this explanation out of the way, the more time Marco will have to get used to the idea that he is going to spend many hours alone most days (Ace will plan how to occupy those hours when the time comes).
His mind made up, Ace closes the book.
"Okay, let's talk about schools."
By lunchtime, Ace thinks he has gotten across the importance of learning in modern society, and why he has to go to college. It has been long and pretty complicated, because he has had to find a way to explain what is taught in at least early school years without going into too many details or confuse Marco too much. That has turned out to be even harder than he expected.
"Show me," Marco says suddenly.
Ace blinks.
"Huh?"
"To… read. And write."
Oh. And yes, of course Marco needs to learn to do those things, and Ace can't believe he hasn't thought of it before now.
He nods quickly.
"Wait a sec."
Ace runs into the cave, grabs his mostly untouched notebook and a pen, and, as a last minute thought, the bag of food.
They spend the remainder of the day working on the alphabet.
Marco is truly determined to learn how to read and write. The following day, once Marco proves that he mostly remembers the alphabet, Ace brings out the books they have already gone through and he starts teaching Marco how the words he already knows are written (Marco writes them out slowly, all letters separately, and making an effort so they are legible), switching that with occasionally asking Marco to try to read a word out loud and correcting him when necessary.
Marco is very puzzled and annoyed by the fact a letter or a combination of them can be pronounced in more than one way. Ace pats him on the back and tells him it sucks, but he will have to deal with it like everybody else.
Two days after Ace starts teaching Marco to read and write, they settle on a new routine. They train first thing in the morning, then Marco goes off to hunt some breakfast (after two days of relying on their food supplies, it has become obvious there is no way they will last until the end of August unless they start hunting again), then they spend the morning on writing and reading lessons, eat lunch, go through part of Jimmy's book, they train some more, eat dinner, and spend the few hours until they go to bed doing random things. The first night that will be laundry, because they have been putting that off.
That is the plan Ace comes up with, at least, and Marco agrees. Ace knows they won't stick to it all the time (they might get distracted, or a difficult explanation might come up), but it is good to have some guidelines.
The next pages of Jimmy's book are easy enough to explain: Jimmy's lunch break, playing with friends in the school playground (having a visual example makes it much easier for Ace to explain the concept of playing, and he grins triumphantly, goes back to the first page, points to the damn toys, and explains that those are to help kids play; Marco finds Ace's triumphant behavior hilarious), then Jimmy's mom comes to pick him up.
The next picture that has Ace grimacing shows Jimmy and his mom buying groceries.
Ace sighs, reminds himself he will have to explain money at some point before they leave anyway, and plunges into the explanation.
As it turns out, Marco is familiar with the concept of money, though he is very skeptical about the materials used to make the currency Ace shows him.
"Paper?" he asks with a frown, examining a ten thousand beli bill.
"That," Ace says in his most serious voice, "is one hell of a long and complicated story I don't even know how to begin explaining." Because he isn't going into specifics of why humans no longer use precious metals as currency. He doesn't think he knows enough about it to come up with an understandable explanation even if it was meant for someone who fully understands the English language.
Fortunately, Marco understands enough of that sentence to let the subject go.
There is a TV amongst Jimmy's afternoon activities. Ace points to it and shakes his head.
"I can't explain this one," he hurries to say before Marco asks about it. "I'll show you at home, okay?"
Marco looks a little disturbed (Ace's reaction might have been a little too intense), but he nods. Ace sighs in relief.
He has half a mind to let Luffy explain this one, if only for the entertainment value, but then Marco might not forgive him the bewildering experience, so he will pass on it. Luffy will pester Marco enough with no need of Ace giving him ideas.
Fortunately, there are no more horrors in Jimmy's book, just him drawing, his dad showing up right before dinner, a stupidly happy family meal (Ace scoffs and makes a point of explaining to Marco that real families aren't that annoying), his perfectly easy to explain nightly routine, and Jimmy going to bed at a reasonable hour with no complaint like the perfect fictional child he is.
Ace closes the book with a happy sigh, glad to get rid of Jimmy. That is, of course, when Marco says he wants to try reading the book. There are some two or three short lines of text per page.
They spend the entire following morning with Jimmy's book. Ace never thought explaining the verb 'greet' would be so difficult.
Ace's new bed has arrived, and Sabo has just sent him a picture of it. It's large enough that it can fit both Ace and Marco comfortably, but it doesn't appear to be too large for Ace's bedroom (because of course Sabo has made sure to buy a bed that fits well in the room, while Ace would have chosen the largest bed available). Grinning, he shows the picture to Marco.
"Look! Our new bed!"
Marco tilts his head to the side.
"It's… tall."
Ace blinks, thinking for a moment that Marco intended to say 'big' before he figures out what he really means.
Ace chuckles.
"Of course it is. It's a lot comfier than the sleeping bag."
"'Comfier'?"
"…Fuck."
That is how Ace lands himself into having to explain the terms 'comfortable' and 'uncomfortable', which given that he only has a sleeping bag, some clothes and the ground to exemplify, isn't exactly, well… comfortable.
It also ranks high in the ridiculous explanations scale, and that is saying a lot by this point.
Ace regrets not buying more vocabulary books. Marco is a fast learner, and the disadvantage of one word pages is that you go quickly through them.
For a moment, Ace dreads he will have to unearth the book on the local flora and fauna that Sabo bought him, because that one is full of complicated vocabulary that he isn't looking forward to explaining.
Then Marco has an idea and, instead of suffering through the book, Ace is telling him how to write all the words they have covered so far. He shouldn't be surprised when Marco asks about the dots he saw in the text in Jimmy's book, but he is. Fortunately, explaining the general concept of punctuation symbols when you can write examples down isn't one of the most difficult things he has done lately, though Marco will have to figure out the finer details on how to use them by himself, because Ace is no grammar expert.
They end up having a conversation entirely in written form, except for when Marco needs to ask for a word.
At one point Marco smirks before bending over the notebook and carefully writing something.
'I want you on all fours.' Ace might have blushed (and yes, he taught Marco how to say that, he has actually told him how to call many sexual acts as they did them; it's useful).
'Convince me,' Ace writes back, and that is how he ends on his back, with Marco on top of him practically devouring his mouth.
A little over month ago Marco had no idea how to put a shirt on, but now his fingers barely needs to pause to unbutton it as it races down Ace's chest. Marco is particularly skilled at getting Ace's pants open.
Needless to say, Ace complies with his request.
When the hell Marco decided it was a good idea to carry condoms and lube in his pocket, Ace can't tell, but, as he has said, Marco is a fast learner.
Ace wakes up to a mouth tracing a path down his neck. His involuntary groan has Marco stopping and looking up at him, a question shining in his eyes.
"Don't stop," Ace snaps, because he isn't that much of a morning person and he doesn't like the prospect of Marco stopping.
With a tiny smug smirk, because he is an asshole, Marco goes back to pay his respects to Ace's neck. There is a hand tracing a slow path down Ace's chest, stopping to pinch his left nipple in exactly the right way.
Ace moves to lie on his back, because he woke up on his side, and it is then that he notices two things; the first one is that they are outside, and the second is that they are both naked. Because of course they would fall asleep naked in the clearing. He is surprised he didn't wake up feeling cold at some point. Maybe it wasn't cold at all last night. It certainly is warm enough now.
Or that could be Marco's mouth that has now replaced the fingers on his nipple. As for the hand, it's headed straight to where Ace wants it.
He has a morning erection, nothing new there, and Marco is ensuring it won't go away.
Ace is so distracted by the mouth —so talented; and that tongue— that he doesn't hear the plastic ripping. He isn't aware of the condom until it is being rolled over his cock.
"Lube," Ace groans out, searching around blindly with both hands. He doubts he is entirely awake yet.
"It's okay," Marco mumbles against his chest. Then his mouth is gone and there is heat surrounding Ace's cock.
Holy fuck, Marco prepped himself before waking Ace up.
Ace forces himself to open his eyes —when did he close them?— and looks up at Marco. Marco has an expression of pure ecstasy as he starts riding Ace without waiting at all, because he just doesn't need time to adjust. And the thing is, while Marco likes to fuck Ace, he loves to be fucked.
And Ace loves to fuck him. He loves the heat and the tightness, and he loves to grip Marco's hips and also the way Marco sometimes just fucks himself on his cock like this, his eyes closed and his expression one of pure pleasure.
Ace doesn't move, because if Marco wanted him to he would have said something, and instead he lets Marco use him for his pleasure while he moans, wrapped in his own pleasure and enjoying the show.
"Marco…" he finally breathes out, because he is too close and he doesn't want to be the first one to come.
Marco looks down at him, nods, and doesn't shift his eyes away from Ace's face as he wraps a hand around his own cock and starts moving it. He is fully sheathed around Ace the moment he comes, pulsing around him and moaning as he spills all over Ace's stomach and chest.
Ace is just considering flipping them over to finish as well when Marco lifts his hips and thrusts downwards again.
It doesn't take long for Ace to come.
"I'm gonna need a shower," Ace says finally after maybe a minute, gesturing at the mess on his stomach and chest. Marco puts the tied off condom on top of the discarded wrapper.
"After," he says.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
In lieu of an answer, Marco bends over Ace's torso and starts licking at his stomach.
Ace groans and covers his eyes with his forearm for a moment. It looks like they will be here a while yet.
He removes the arm and shifts to lean on his elbows to have a better view.
To be continued
I admit I'm not at all convinced about that last scene, but I wanted this story to have a fair amount of smut, so… there you go.
Also, for those interested, at the end of the chapter it's August 12th :)