this chapter is so much longer than the first; there's just not a good place to break it off. i'd like to thank everyone for their reviews, follows, and faves; they really kept me going! you're all the best.
Eight o'clock comes, bringing with it the sun and another night's hard-earned wages. Marco can't seem to get out of there fast enough, with that shift-end vigor like gas in the tank. He checks his phone just after sliding into his car. Sure enough, its lit up with a message from Rakuyo.
Breakfast today, in case you forgot.
Nah, he couldn't forget that. Rakuyo should know, especially since Pops would end up hauling his ass back home bodily if he forgot. He shoots back, " affirmative, presently en route " as a joke, and starts up the car. Its not like its a far drive; he suspects that everyone is there already.
Whitebeard's kids are always prompt to respond to his requests. One sort of has to be prompt. Its not that's he's especially demanding, but that he's helped out so many of them in huge ways that they all feel indebted.
When Edward Newgate says jump, his kids ask how high. Its just how things go.
Need anything while I'm out?
He sends the text at a red light, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. This is a weekly occurrence; same time, same place. It never gets old, thankfully; everyone gets along and they help one another out. These get togethers are always looked forward to, not dreaded. Bracketing his week neat and cleanly, time to catch up with those he's called his family for so long.
Haruta said they want ice cream for their waffles.
They even used their manners this time.
Of course they do. He soon turns into a small grocery store to procure the ice cream, and a new pack of smokes.
Word. You got it.
Marco puts the phone down and climbs out of the car to head inside. Not even when he reaches the door, he sees a pair of men that he recognizes, exiting.
Shanks, hand raised in greeting when he notices Marco, with his seldom-seen, severe-looking partner. Mihawk, or something. Marco greets him with a nod in turn. The red-haired man is all smiles when he strides up, but Mihawk looks more reserved. Marco only ever met the guy once.
"Sup, Shanks. And Mihawk, right?"
Mihawk nods curtly, and Shanks beams, speaks, "Its been a while; Whitebeard invited us over for breakfast today."
"No shit?" he says, "Must wanna talk with you, or something."
"Ah, he might've mentioned something." he waves his hand dismissively. Marco has to smirk.
"Hope you're not in trouble with Pops. You know how scary he can get."
Everything about Shanks is good natured, even when he rolls his eyes at the comment. He's such a genuine sort of guy, but Marco has seen him get fierce before. Respectable. Even if they banter, its a good sort of banter; Marco approves of him in general.
"I suppose its a good thing that Whitebeard doesn't have me on a leash, hm?" he teases. Marco sniffs.
"Shut up, man." he says, flatly, then adds, "I'll see you there, yeah? Haruta will flip if I don't get there with their ice cream soon."
"Of course." Shanks replies, inclining his head, "See you there."
He turns his back on Marco, heading back with Mihawk to their car, bag-laden. Marco watches them for a second, before walking inside the store himself.
Wondering casually what Whitebeard needs Shanks for, he heads to the freezer. Top secret old queer veteran business, no doubt.
The both of them go way back, though the details are lost to Whitebeard's kids. Just old friends who have one another's backs, who sometimes bicker. Marco isn't especially curious about whatever they went through together, though. Their business is their business.
Soon enough, he's walking back to the car with ice cream, new smokes, and a carton of orange juice, because the crew goes through it like its nothing.
The trip to Whitebeard's is short from there. Cars all parked in the driveway, Marco does a quick count. He's the last to arrive, of course.
He lets himself in, met immediately with the smell of breakfast and the din of laughter and conversation. Kicking off his shoes at the entrance, he holds the bag out to a passing Haruta, who takes it and bounces on their heels.
"Thanks, you're a life saver." they grin, skipping off to put the ice cream and orange juice away.
Thatch, Jozu, Izo, Vista, and Rakuyo are seated at the table, looking wide awake. Marco nods his hello and lights his cigarette before sitting beside them. Haruta strides back in from the kitchen, taking their place beside Izo.
"Where's Pops?"
"Talking with Shanks and Mihawk." Rakuyo says, and the look on his face spells 'top secret old queer veteran business' indeed. Just as suspected.
"Someone is in trouble. And it ain't me." Jozu says, "I've been good."
"I'm sure," Izo snickers. "Maybe we're all in trouble?"
"Nah. Its Haruta."
"Yeah, definitely Haruta."
"Definitely."
Haruta kicks at Marco under the table just as the three eldest walk back into the room. Whitebeard looks over the table and nods, as if satisfied.
Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate is the patriarch of a house of queer strays, taken in at various points in their lives; he helps them get back on their feet or find a sense of family, community - whichever they need more. He's incredibly adamant about the notion of created family, and all the strays he's taken in cling to this notion wholeheartedly.
He stands proud at the head of his table, in front of his small pack of family and friends.
"Everyone here? Good." he says gruffly, "Dig in, you animals."
Luffy - God bless him - is stir-crazy in the tiny motel room, alternating between bouncing on the edge of the bed and staring out the window. Rain beats down hard on the pavement, providing a sleepy sort of sound that might lull Ace back into it. He always gets tired on rainy days.
Nights are no better.
"Do you remember when we were like … seven and ten and ten and we were coming home off the bus stop and it rained really hard like this for, like, five minutes?" Luffy pipes up from his spot at the window. He looks back to grin at his brothers. "Cleared up quick, too."
"Sure I do." Sabo says, "We got absolutely drenched and Dadan barked at us for tracking mud."
"What good times." comes Ace's sarcastic remark.
"It totally was! We should run out there again. Right now."
He's not waiting for a response, opting instead to whip off his hoodie and go bounding out the door. Sabo and Ace share a look before slowly rising to their feet to stand at the doorway like the weary caretakers they are. Luffy, barefoot and laughing, races around by himself in the dark of the motel parking lot.
"You're gonna get sick again!" Ace calls.
"You sound like an old man!"
"He got you there, old timer." Sabo remarks. He then sighs, as if contemplating some great thing, before taking off running after Luffy. Ace tails him quickly, not about to be outdone. Fuck it, he figures.
The steady crash of rain dampens both their clothes and their laughter. Ridiculous as it is, Ace actually feels pretty good about not caring and running around in the rain with his brothers. Most things are better with them.
Luffy ends up leading the two of them to the patch of grass that borders the parking lot, sitting down to watch traffic. As they creep closer to midnight, it slows to a few passing cars a minute.
The rain lightens to a mere drizzle as time passes.
One of the cars - a familiar looking jeep - pulls in and parks nearby. The trio watches the driver climb out, but only Ace's gaze lingers. Marco squints at the boys and makes his way over.
"You guys get locked out or something?"
"No." Luffy says brightly, turning back around.
He blinks, slowly, "All right. Just needed to dance in the rain, or whatever?"
Luffy nods and shoots Marco a thumbs up, "You got it."
"Heh, not the weirdest shit I've seen around here. Have a good night, then."
Before he can turn to leave, Ace calls out, "Hey, when do you take your smoke break?"
There's a grin on Marco's face he doesn't even bother to hide, "One thirty, usually. You gonna bother me?"
"If I have a nic fit, sure. Marco." he tacks on the name with a small snicker, which earns an odd look from both Luffy and Sabo.
"I'll be waiting with bated breath. Ace." Marco nods, still smiling, and turns to head inside.
Sabo's eyebrows furrow in a silent sort of, "what was that?".
"We ended up talking yesterday. He's kind of funny, I flirted at him." he explains.
"Did it work?"
"Well, its not like I asked him on a date." Ace shrugs, "I'm just sort of playing."
"Ace of hearts," Luffy teases, flopping over across his lap. Ace tugs at his hair, to which Luffy sticks out his tongue, defiant.
"I'll Ace-of-clubs you if you don't get off me, kiddo." he says it playfully, pinching at the younger's cheek.
Luffy cups his hands around his mouth and boos at the pun.
"Hey. No clubbing, please." Sabo says, though he laughs a little, "And we should head inside. Its getting cold."
Sabo stands, and Luffy offers his hand. The elder helps him up, and the third follows suit. They're drenched from head to toe and the chill of it has begun to work closer towards their bones, leaving them shivering just slightly.
They end up back inside, huddled on the bed in new, dry clothes, toweling off their hair.
As soon as he's dry enough, Luffy jumps underneath the covers for warmth. He still looks wide awake, like the hour doesn't touch him. Sabo flops over across his legs, while Ace changes his shirt, opting to stay in his jeans.
Swiping the bottle of rum off the table, he takes a seat on the bed to join his brothers.
All the anger and sleep from the day prior has drained off of Ace, like shedding a second skin with the help of the two with him. Some pessimistic part of him, dank and dark, knows its just going to come over him again. It always seems to come back around, and he hasn't gotten any better at fighting it off.
"Are you gonna go visit that guy?" Luffy asks, pulling the blanket up to his chin. The sleepy voice pulls Ace from his reverie.
Ace shrugs, swigging at the booze, "Maybe. He's cute."
Luffy rolls over and makes a humming noise, as if in contemplation of his brother's decision.
"I guess." he yawns, shaking his head.
Sabo yawns too, before piping up, "We have to check out soon, huh?"
"Not if you don't want to."
"Nah, I think I'll be fine if we do. Mom and Dad will probably be in their martini and muscle relaxer comas like they usually are on weekends." he says it simply, punctuating it with a shrug, but Ace can hear the sardonic tone stitching together the words.
Luffy makes a noise that sounds a lot like disgust. He's always made his disapproval of Sabo's situation well known; then again, its hard not to. Its his call, ultimately.
"If it gets bad, I have places I can go. You guys know that."
"How is your girlfriend, anyway?" Ace asks, snickering. Sabo buries his face in the covers, a quiet 'shut up' thrown at the other.
The trio lapses into silence after that, but its an easy sort of silence.
Its nice to have, a quiescence that doesn't need to be filled.
Ace is met with the whooping and hollering of his brothers when he exits the room, much to his dismay. He shoots them a middle finger and shuts the door quickly, before glancing around to see if Marco is indeed out for his smoke break.
He's about seven doors down, a distance that feels like a football field. He walks it anyway, nodding his greeting at the other.
"Sounds like a real wild party in there," Marco says by way of greeting. He shakes a Crush out of his pack and hands it to Ace. Then he flicks a Zippo out to the end before Ace can so much as ask. Once the cherry is glowing and smoking, Ace leans against the building and nods.
"They're almost always going bonkers." he says, mirth curving his lips upwards. "Thanks, by the way."
"No problem, champ."
"Champ? Jeez." Ace shakes his head, "Your vernacular is pretty strange. That one made you sound like a lame older brother. And I'd know what that sounds like."
Marco grins, eyes focused elsewhere, as if remembering some sort of private joke, "I've been called all that before, Ace."
A silence similar to the one before, in the room, falls over them. They smoke their cigarettes in peace, just a few drags, before Marco pipes up again. Ace ashes and turns to face him.
"I gotta ask - and normally I don't ask patrons this - but … You're not, like, street kids or anything, are you? Just 'cause you come here an awful lot."
"No." Ace answers, brows furrowed a little, "No, the three of us have places to go back to."
"Right. I'm sort of in the business of worrying about that kind of stuff."
"Are you? You kind of looked like you couldn't care less every time I came in," Ace exhales the sentence with his smoke. Marco laughs a huffy sort of laugh.
"That's just my face." he replies, shifting his weight from over one hip to the other, "My Pops sort of instilled that worry in me."
"You and your Pops run an orphanage?"
"Kind of."
"… Under the table orphanage?"
He laughs again, taking a moment to drag off his smoke and exhale. Ace does the same.
"Nah. We just give back to the queer community, mostly helping homeless kids find places to stay. Networking and giving resources, stuff like that."
This piques Ace's interest; he lifts his head a little, eyes trained on Marco.
"Really? That's awesome, man. I'd like to do stuff like that, too."
"No shit. Its not that hard to get into, you just gotta meet the right people." he punctuates the sentence with a wink that makes Ace smile.
"Are you the right people to get into the queer illuminati?"
"Suppose I am. Hazing is pretty wicked, though."
"You're funny, Marco."
"Been called that, too."
A car turns into the parking lot, then, signaling to Marco that the need to get back to work is imminent. He doesn't look especially pleased about that, exhaling out smoke. The cigarette is smoked down to the bust, so he clips it on the bottom of his boot.
Ace watches him pull a pen out of his pocket, then grab his hand to scrawl something on the palm. His hands are a little rough with callouses; grip firm, warm.
"My number." Marco says, slipping the pen back into the pocket of his jeans, "If you're for real on the queer illuminati thing, text me some time."
"Can do, Marco."
Marco's eyes seem to twinkle at that, with something other than the glow of artificial light overhead. Ace gets the distinct feeling that he's thinking of something private again, that he might very well be walking into something resembling a secret society.
Marco turns to walk into the building, with a quiet "good night" tossed casually over his shoulder, and the spell breaks; the previous notion strikes Ace as a silly one. He flicks the sizeable ash from the end of the cigarette and glances again at Marco's number on his palm. Dropping his hand to his side, he finishes the smoke and then programs the digits into his phone before heading back to the room.
When he walks back in, Sabo and Luffy are sprawled across the bed, which looks a bit like a tornado hit it. The sheets lay strewn about, pillows slumped over weakly, battle-worn, on the floor. Must have been jumping on it, he figures.
"Are you gonna get married now, or whatever it is allos do?" Luffy asks.
"Shut up." Ace yawns. He takes a seat on the edge of the bed, eyes trained on the television. Cartoons, bright. "Do you guys wanna go for a drive or something?"
"Stir crazy again?" comes Sabo's voice.
"Maybe I just want to feel the city air on me."
"You're weird. I wouldn't mind!" Luffy pipes up, "So long as we can get something to eat."
"I knew you were going to say that." Ace huffs, "You bottomless pit."
"So that's a yes!"
Luffy bounds up and out of the room. Sabo and Ace share a look, then a silent count down from five. Before they reach one, the youngest of the three returns with an 'oh yeah!', sliding his feet into his shoes.
The trio is out in the truck in a matter of moments, with Ace taking the wheel. The motel's proximity to the highway is something like convenient, when he turns onto it and coasts. Luffy sits in the middle, kicking his feet and bobbing his head along to the music playing in the CD player.
This is fine, Ace thinks; much better than the days prior, like an upwards climb outside of the negativity. They'll have to return to it soon, but the stays out by themselves just repair the cracks in the armor, give them ammunition.
Ace drives them to a Denny's, much to Luffy's excitement; he'd been expecting something from a drive thru. They find their ways inside, they order drinks. Luffy ends up sucking down his entire drink before the waitress returns to take food orders.
Chin held in his hand, Ace stirs his drink. They fill the silence with idle chatter; dysphoria, gender, transition.
Ace learns its been easier on his brothers, as far as dysphoria goes. He supposes they're lucky, having been blessed with smaller chests. The thought of his own makes him squirm, makes him deflect the conversation in a way that Luffy doesn't notice, a way that makes Sabo narrow his eyes.
The topic moves onto school and friends, weaving stories of this one and that one and how they all fit together. Ace wants to record his brothers' chatter, their laughter, to keep away the negativity. Prayers.
They link their arms and they leave, opting to sit in the parking lot. Time pulls the moon higher in the sky, up to and past her zenith.
Summer will end soon, bringing with it neat and tidy blocks of time with the school year. It was a decent summer; they only got in trouble once for pool hopping.
Before he gets pulled into reverie too deeply, Ace shakes his head and turns onto a side street, riddled with pot holes. Its far away from where Sabo lives, but they're familiar streets, run through time and time again.
"Remember when you were going down that hill on Rowan a scooter in like, eighth grade and you totally ate shit?" Ace snickers, elbowing Sabo gently. The blonde taps his temple fondly with a grin.
"Got my shit-eating scar right here." he changes track, "Remember when we had to go out looking for Luffy and Zoro at like, ass o'clock in the morning 'cause they didn't know where they were?"
"Remember when shut up? I learned a valuable lesson that day!"
"And that is?"
"Never follow Zoro. Ever." he nods decisively, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ace laughs, "You live and you learn, huh?"
Luffy nods again, leaning out of the open window a little. August smells sweet, not quite nature-dead like it will in September. They coast, turning here and there, still keeping up their chatter. The youngest ends up falling asleep, gentle snores, with his head against Sabo's shoulder.
Ace heads back in the direction of the motel, finally, with a sleeping brother and a quiet one. He stays quiet only for the length of the thirty miles-per-hour trip down Drexler.
"Ace, are you okay, by the way?"
He turns the truck, "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You seemed a little antsy when we were talking about chest surgery and stuff."
"Its not exactly my favorite topic." he shrugs. He didn't really notice it, didn't see it as being a big deal. How can it be something approached with enthusiasm and smiles when its so steeped in dysphoria, in necessity? Its just more negativity he wants to be on the other side of.
"Right. … You can talk with us, you know."
"I know, man." he bumps his fist against the other's knee in acknowledgement, some small show of thanks. "I am fine and will continue to be."
"I sure hope so."