god it feels like its been forever? i don't have a set schedule for my updates, but this one feels overdue. thanks everyone for your reviews! i read them all the other day and it gave me the strength to finish this chapter.
Ace's eyes are trained on his Nintendo DS, like they have been all morning. Sunlight streams in through the bay window, a beam under which the house cat lays. Both Luffy and Ace feel similarly lazy, as is par the course on a summer day. They've committed themselves to the sunlight like the cat, before.
Stretched out across the couch, feet in Ace's lap, Luffy heaves a dramatic sigh.
"You're being boring."
"Good." says the other, eyes still trained on the screen.
"Good bye, Ace!" Luffy yells, rolling off of the other onto the ground. He catches himself on his palms, push up stance, before rolling to a loose cross legged position. Then he buries himself in his phone, sending a mass text out.
i have a boring brother someone save me
A reply comes back relatively quick. Sanji.
Sure thing. I'm with Zoro, Usopp, and Kuina right now.
Is that all right?
The prospect has him bouncing where he sits.
hell yeah it is! im at dadans, come get meeeee
He all but throws his phone down on the floor, flopping down on it himself. Every movement today is dramatic, that's what he decided.
Sabo happens to be at Koala's, bless him; it had been Ace and Luffy's turn to applaud and whoop and holler at him before he set off to the girl's house. The way his face colors all bright red at the cheering makes the others laugh every time.
Honestly, he more than deserves some time with her. Its been rough at his home as of late, sending the normally cheerful boy into spots of quietness, dropped smiles. Ace figures its nothing he can't bounce back from, but its also nothing he deserves.
"Sanji is coming to get me soon, so you'll have to function without me."
"I can manage, I think." Ace says evenly, "You have fun though, yeah?"
Its clear that Ace isn't invited along this time, which is fine by him. As much as he enjoys the company of his brothers, time away from them can be valuable, too. The clock chimes noon, bells sounding throughout the otherwise empty home.
Luffy ends up scrambling out the door in about twenty minutes' time, a "catch you later, Ace!" thrown hastily over his shoulder. He waves his good bye, watching out the window as Luffy quite literally jumps into the car; he can even hear the younger boy howling, "drive, drive, drive!" as he hangs out of the damn thing.
Ten minutes burns away in the light of the DS, before it occurs to Ace that he actually has chores to do today. Dadan left a list.
He ends up getting up after another forty to mow the lawn. Summer heat beats down on him, sweat collecting at his temples from the exertion. When the work is done, he brings himself to the quiet house again to finish the dishes. He feeds the cat and takes out the garbage, putting on music on the living room's stereo.
It seems like he does all of this on autopilot, not thinking very much of anything. Going through his motions, little robot boy. Sinking back onto the couch with John Frusciante playing, he thinks very pointedly, fuck, I'm lonely.
And he doesn't know how to fix it.
His brothers are gone, and his friends are all either jerks from high school, or jerks hanging out with Luffy. It dawns on him that he might need new friends, but this isn't a novel train of thought for him.
Friends like most of his aren't real friends, but Ace can sometimes get starved for company. They crack insensitive jokes from time to time, but they buy cheap beer and smoke good weed, so its not like its all bad.
Lonely though Ace is, he doesn't much feel like going to that level.
Beggars can't be choosers, asshole, he tells himself, and he stares at his phone. He's scrolling through his contacts list on the way to 'T', before he stops at 'M'.
He ends up texting Marco.
hey its ace. not sure if there was some queer illuminati codeword that im missing or not
And he waits.
The codeword is codeword, actually, so you're lucky.
What's up?
Ace laughs despite himself, fingers flying over the keypad.
a whole lot of fuck all basically
my brothers all left and the cat doesnt wanna spend time with me
It feels sort of strange and somewhat exciting to be texting someone new, and it dawns on Ace howlame that actually is. Whatever; the conversation is decent.
What do you usually do when you're bored?
hang out with straight white guys.
At least he's easy to talk to, so far. Ace tips over on the couch, closing his eyes for a moment. The playlist on the stereo is almost over; he'll need to get up and change it.
Are they getting on your nerves, or something?
Ace ends up telling Marco about his shitty friends for a few texts, before the conversation falls out to where they went to school, how long they've been around the area.
Ace finds out that Marco is a relative newcomer, where Ace has been in the same house for most of his life. Its been six years since Marco relocated from Washington, down into the sunshine and heat and noise of California.
He says he likes it a lot better.
The conversation carries Ace through the living room to the kitchen to his room; time rolls off.
What are you up to now, besides texting me?
still nothing :P
Wanna hang out or something?
I got everything done I needed to get done.
He considers this, too, but it doesn't take much mulling.
The front porch is wet where its rained, leaving the seat of Ace's pants despairingly damp. His legs move of their own accord, bouncing up and down a hundred miles an hour. Maybe it should occur to him that its a nervous gesture. It doesn't. Marco agreed to come get him, thankfully. Ace feels he has done more than enough driving for the past few days.
Marco requested that he be shown around the neighborhood a little, being that its an area he's seldom visited. Ace has enough stories to fill a book or two; good thing he was a problem child.
He pulls up in his jeep, arm hanging out of the window and music barely audible from the distance between them. Ace nods his greeting, circling around to climb in the passenger side. He finds he doesn't recognize the music at all. Its something like EDM, quiet in volume but energetic.
Marco looks as sleepy as he always does, posture a little slack in the driver's seat, but his eyes still have that odd spark in them when he looks over to Ace.
"Hey, man." he greets.
"Yo. Where we goin' first?"
Ace hums in thought, considering. He pipes up after a moment, "Turn outta here and take a right. There's a playground around here I used to haunt."
"Yes, captain." Marco backs out of the driveway, "Playground, huh?"
"Yeah. I started running away to it when I was like, seven? Dadan caught on pretty early, but we'd go there anyway."
"You and you brother?"
"Brothers, yeah."
"Tell me about 'em." he turns the right as he's bid, coasting down the main road at a leisurely pace. Ace thinks; where to begin with them?
"There's Sabo, who's a few months younger than me. He's the nice brother, he's always kinda … soft on Luffy. I think he's probably a better person than I am, a lot more patient."
"Mmhm."
"Take another right two blocks up. There's, ah. Luffy, who's younger by three years." he crosses his arms over his chest, leaning back into the seat more, "He's fun and loud and really blunt. He could probably beat anyone in an eating competition. … I want the best for both of 'em."
Ace stays silent and shy for all of two seconds at the admission, before piping up, "Do you have any siblings?"
"Yeah. Bunch of 'em. They're all ridiculous and I dunno what I'd do without those jerks." he snickers under his breath, shakes his head, "I get what you mean about wanting the best for 'em, though."
"Are you close in age?"
"Mmm. Most of us are twenties, thirties, but I got a younger sister named Haruta who's eighteen. They're a trip."
"Go straight for a three blocks and then turn a left onto Maple. It'll be on your side." Ace instructs, before continuing, "Little siblings are always a trip, I think."
"Even the big ones are. Sometimes I'm the guy everyone goes to for their own shit, which isn't a bad thing. I like helping, you know?"
"Yeah, I get you. Sounds like you get along, at least …"
"Most of the time." Marco muses, mirthful. He seems like the kind of guy, to Ace, that has a lot of inside jokes; it almost always looks like he's remembering one of them. An intriguing sort of guy …
The jeep rolls to a stop at the park soon thereafter. Its a decent size, though back when he and his brothers were younger, it seemed so much bigger. So much more impressive. This was their battle-worn castle, their spaceship, their respite. The swings off in the distance lent to more grass stains and hurt wrists and ankles than anything else; the field held their kickball games and tag.
"Tell me about something that happened here." Marco says, once they're out and heading towards the wood chips. Ace searches, stepping up onto one of the platforms to stride to the bridge, where he bounces in place.
"Mmm … One time a bunch of us were out playing Manhunt, if you know what that is."
"Nah."
Marco joins him on the bridge, hands closed around the teal railing, paint chipping.
"Its like hide and seek, but you look for a single person. I was really good at it and no one ran faster than me. Everyone wanted me to be 'it', 'cause I was the best." he tells him, snickering at the memories, "My claim to fame, being really good at Manhunt when I was ten. Anyway, see that fence waaaay over there?"
He points to a red fence on the other side of the playground - this old wooden thing, faded and weathered.
"Mmhm."
"I hopped it 'cause I hadn't before, and we had basically exhausted all the good hiding spots. There was this huge dog on the other side. Scared the fuck out of me even though all it did was bark, so I screamed bloody god damn murder, and the dog's owner came out. I had to book it the long way around and … God, I started laughing my ass off like half way to the park, but I was shaking so bad that I just ended up collapsing on the grass."
Ace and Marco share a quiet laugh over it, but the former drops his gaze to his shoes. He heads off towards the monkey bars just a few feet away.
"Everyone thought I got bitten, and I was laughing and wheezing so hard that they didn't get the real story for, like, ten minutes. Luffy thought I had rabies."
That earns another laugh out of Marco. Its a nice sound, Ace finds. He starts across the monkey bars, having to hold his knees closer to his chest because of the lack of height.
"Did you get in trouble?"
"Nah, surprisingly," he says it with some effort, still powering through the monkey bars. He gets to the other side and hops down, arms in the air in something like triumph. Marco follows suit. They fall into silence, climbing higher in the playground. Ace slides down the slide and Marco takes the pole down, wood chips crunching under his feet as he hits bottom.
"Tell me about when you and your sibs were younger." Ace says, once Marco has circled around. Ace sits at the base of the slide, turning over a chip in his hands.
"We didn't really grow up together. Chosen family, not biological." Marco remarks, plopping down in the wood chips unceremoniously, "But I can tell you about us more recently."
The notion of chosen family hits home for Ace. He wonders exactly how big Marco's clan is, but nods to start the story.
"My brother Rakuyo does drag, right. So one day he decided he wanted to make me pretty, and I had Izo and him fussing over me for … A ridiculously long time. He's an incredibly dedicated queen."
Marco snickers, shakes his head, "We were all over at Pops' place while we were getting pretty. Pops and Thatch needed someone to run out to the store because we were out of milk, so of course we all had to go out with make up on."
"Oh, shit."
"Yeah. I mean, it was funny — I think I have pictures, hang on."
Marco digs his phone out of his pocket to go through his photos, continuing the story as he goes, "We got a lot of weird looks, but didn't get heckled or anything. I actually got hit on. Pretty hard. Ended up giving the guy my number and … Ah, here we go."
He turns his phone to show Ace, who leans in closer so as to see better. There's a selfie on the screen and — well, damn. Rakuyo does excellent work. The make up is mostly blues, with a dark cerulean for the lipstick. He flips to the next picture, where he looks slightly ridiculous, making an over-the-top duck face.
"Wow, dude. That looks …" his voice trails as he tries to find a word.
"Hot, right?"
Ace laughs, a little embarrassed, "Yeah. So you gave the guy your number and … ?"
"Weeeell …" the quirk of his eyebrow and the grin on his face says it all before he puts it into words. Ace holds up a hand, laughing more.
"Gotcha."
"Ended up staying in the make up all day, though," Marco says, slowly getting to his feet. Ace follows suit, and the two of them walk towards the swings.
They swing for a while, trade stories.
Ace tells Marco about when he taught Luffy how to ride a bike, when Luffy ended up taking off down the block and Ace and Sabo had to chase him. He tells him how he felt like he was in an action movie, how they laughed so hard they didn't even have the heart to chide Luffy.
Marco tells Ace about the poker game a month ago, when he refused to talk to Vista for a week for getting two royal flushes in a row. He says that he nearly flipped the table, it was so ridiculous, that he lost a bunch of money that night, that Vista said he forgave him first.
They end up driving around the neighborhood; more stories, talking about this and that. Ace learns that Marco is a recovering alcoholic. Marco learns that Ace doesn't want to talk about his biological parents.
Hours burn away under their talks, taking them further into the suburbs. The nicer areas.
"I'm afraid I don't have any stories for this part of town," Ace remarks. The houses here are bigger — developments.
"Me either. Pops is in this area, though … Would you wanna meet him and whoever's around?" Marco asks, sounding somewhat hopeful.
Ace nearly makes a sarcastic joke about meeting his parent on the first date, but bites his tongue. This is hardly a date. There's a thick pause while he thinks it over. He's nervous around parental figures, but this man is doing what he wants to do, apparently — helping out the queer community. That's enough to make him want to say yes.
"Its cool if you don't wanna," Marco says gently. Ace shakes his head.
"Its not that I don't wanna, I do. Parents and me are weird, is all."
"Nah, I gotcha. We can skip it."
"No, its okay. I think I'd like to meet the head of the queer illuminati."
Marco laughs and wheels the car around.