its been a while but we're here off the unannounced hiatus. hope you like it fam.
He finds himself back at Marco's the next day, bereft of brothers. Luffy left for Zoro's and Sabo took off with Robin much earlier in the day, leaving Ace grumpy and feeling purposeless. Marco texted him and apologized for the last time, stating that Haruta is now fine. It leaves Ace a little curious, wondering exactly what happened, but that is not his family and that is not his business.
With a slightly sour mood, Ace seats himself on the couch beside Marco.
Marco waves his fingers at Ace in a slightly ridiculous gesture that makes him grin, "Bad vibes today?"
"How could you tell?" Ace asks, genuinely confused. He always thought he'd been adept at covering up said bad vibes when he didn't want them broadcasted. Marco shoots the other a smile and a shrug.
"Your face. Look a little far away. What's up?"
He says this and prods Ace to talk about it, and doesn't once sound anything less than concerned. Its nice to have; his current friends are usually the types to just downplay his problems or to wait for their own turns to talk. Even so …
"I don't know, more brother shit. Kinda stuff we talked about last time, but I'd rather forget about it for now." he says, "Thank you, though."
"Yeah, no problem. You're all right otherwise?"
Ace quite suddenly adjusts himself, legs hanging over the side of the couch and head in Marco's lap to face the TV. It makes him laugh lowly, reaching down to toy with his hair.
"Now I am. If this is okay."
"Absolutely."
They lay like that, in silence, for a while. Ace goes back to thinking how nice it is to be in a shared silence with someone, a shared silence he can exist in instead of one by his lonesome. He feels like a ghost like that, a shell of a person.
Ace notes that its after the marathon that Marco asks.
"Do you wanna make out?"
Casual, a little hopeful. Just like that. Ace takes the time to wiggle around to his back; he thinks he would like to, very much. Is everything going to be this comfortable with him … ?
"Yeah." he answers, nods.
"C'mere."
Ace stands from the couch then, but only to straddle Marco's lap, the moths behind his ribcage going wild. Marco is all grins, placing his hands comfortably on Ace's thighs. He brings his hands up to cup his cheeks before kissing him just as sweetly as they did before. It feels good to kiss Marco, to sit in his lap, to touch him.
Its a little messy, tongue and teeth and quiet snickers, but that's to be expected when they're just figuring one another out. Its certainly been a while since Ace made out with anyone, but this is good. Marco kisses like questions - is this okay, do you like that, can you give me more? And Ace meets him with answers.
Its when Marco moves to Ace's neck with a gentle bite and a smirk into the skin that a moan rolls out of him. And its when his hips seem to rock forward of their own accord, sweet burn between his legs, that the door opens.
"Yo, Marco, answer your fucking - HAHA, FUCK."
Ace gets off from Marco's lap quicker than shit, seating himself on the couch with his eyes trained on his lap. Marco sighs, raises his hand in greeting to both the grinning Thatch and the older, absolutely massive gentleman by his side.
"Did you forget we were coming over? I tried to text you like, eight times."
"Phone's in the bedroom. I was a bit, uh …" Marco gestures, presses his lips in a line, "Making out with Ace."
Ace scrunches his shoulders and the older man makes a low, rumbly sort of laugh - gurarara.
"This the boy you told me about?" he asks, voice gruff with amusement. Ace feels very much like he'd like to disappear. Thatch just whistles lowly and carts his twelve pack of Rolling Rock to the kitchen, shimmying his shoulders as he goes.
"Get it, Marco, get it, get it-"
"Yes, pops. And Thatch, shut the fuck up."
"Make me, stud!"
Pops? Fuck.
This is the patriarch that Ace wanted to meet, right fucking here, and he was caught moaning like a slut on his son's lap. At least there's no screaming, no throwing of fists. Just incredible embarrassment. He can live with that.
Maybe.
Whitebeard extends his hand, "I'm Edward Newgate. You can call me Pops or Whitebeard."
Ace stands up to take his hand in a shake, absolutely dwarfed, making sure to make eye contact, "I'm Ace. Its … Nice to meet you, sir."
"I didn't say 'sir', son, I said Pops or Whitebeard."
"Right. Whitebeard, then."
Their eyes meet, and Ace wonders if he's always that gruff. If they're going to butt heads. He seems like a strong personality already …
Thatch comes out of the kitchen again, puts a beer in Ace and Whitebeard's hands. Ace pops it open immediately and sits down beside Marco again. He's the only one not drinking, of course, but he doesn't seem bothered by the alcohol in the room. Whitebeard sits in the arm chair and takes the remote, flipping it onto some sports game.
Marco slings his arm over Ace's shoulders, casual. The gesture seems to say that its ok, that nothing has been made weird over being walked in on, for anyone. His shoulders slacken just the slightest, he moves in closer to the other.
"What do you do, Ace?" Whitebeard asks suddenly.
Smoke pot and hang out with my brothers.
"I'm between jobs right now." he responds, takes a deep swig of Rolling Rock.
"That's a foul." Whitebeard says that at the TV, but turns again to Ace with his grin and grumbly laugh, "How far between?"
"Couple months." at least its genuinely not a lie, even if he does feel shitty about it, "I make due."
"Maybe you can get him a job at the motel, Marco." Thatch pipes up, "Y'know, so you can make out on the job."
"How many times do I have to tell you to shut the fuck up before you actually listen to me?"
"Ya gotta make me, killer."
Marco makes a noise like 'hn' and shrugs, "Probably wouldn't be hard to find you a job though, honestly. Got connections at a lot of places."
"The queer illuminati is a truly wonderful thing."
"Queer illuminati?" Whitebeard asks, to Marco's laughter.
"I started calling the fam that and it kinda … Caught on, I guess."
"That sure is a name for it."
Thatch begins to rattle off a list of alternate names for the "fam", starting with Gays on Parade. Ace pays more attention to the conversation around him than the baseball game on TV, listening to the back-and-forth between the trio. Its funny, its interesting. He doesn't mind so much just listening.
"Fuck, I think the Packers just got a hole in one." Thatch says, conversationally, and Ace nearly spits out his beer in his laughter. Marco catches onto it and snickers himself.
There's a spectacular play by the Yankees an inning later, a play that makes even the typically sports-indifferent Ace sit forward. Everyone sits forward, in fact, beers in hand and eyes widened like a flock of owls.
When the play is finished Marco and Thatch high five and the latter yells, "GOOOOOAL!"
It makes Ace laugh again, hard, covering his face and shaking his shoulders. When he finally gets over the laughing fit, he looks over at Marco. The other is affording him a fond look, smile reaching his eyes, though he holds it briefly before turning back to the television.
He feels warm in his core at the look, at Marco's presence.
The game trudges onward, leaving the Yankees with a win against the Red Sox. Whitebeard, Thatch, and Marco all seem satisfied. Ace himself certainly enjoyed their company. Even as the three of them launch into a discussion about family and queer politics that Ace seems outside of, he sits and observes, prefers it over the crude language of his other friends.
Its after they chill for a couple hours more that Ace finds himself at home again, tired, opting to crash in his bedroom instead of shooting the shit with Dadan and her merry band of assholes. He thinks about the day, about Whitebeard and Thatch and especially Marco.
Whitebeard did quite a bit of observing towards the end, seemed like, slowly slogging his way through a couple beers and chiming in here and there. Thatch was much more talkative, gesticulating with his hands and picking on Marco, who gave it right back to him. It was a nice time, but he finds his mind wandering back to when he was seated on Marco's lap.
That was good. Very good, even, though the asking about it was a little abrupt. He doesn't figure it'll happen any time soon, but he thinks about going further with Marco. Marco coaxing moans out of him, teeth and lips on his neck, or Ace kissing his way down his chest, and -
He rolls over to face the wall and stare at it.
Its been a while since he's fucked anybody, though God knows the urges are still there. He considers carefully his last fuck, and it makes his guts sink.
"Don't tell anyone this happened," he'd said, zipping up his pants and looking back at Ace on the bed, "Okay?"
Ace had averted his gaze and picked a cigarette off of the night stand.
"Ace."
"Yes, okay, I won't tell anyone. Fuck." he shot back. He left shortly thereafter, leaving Ace feeling utterly hollow and alone.
Now the prospect of someone else … That's at once safe to consider as well as nervewracking. There's just a whirlwind of emotions, there, a whirlwind that he's too tired to skirt the edges of. He feels the anxiety and shame of his past fucks above all else.
He just wants to sleep, but it doesn't find him for a while. In the meantime, he occupies himself with inane sites on his phone - facebook, a seldom-used twitter. He gets about three hours of rest before Luffy is knocking and entering his room.
"Hey, wanna pull an all nighter with me and everyone? Sabo's ma and dad left unexpectedly, so its a party at his place. You can bring who you want."
"Hell yeah, I do." he says groggily, making Luffy laugh as his sleepy enthusiasm. Ace takes a couple moments to get ready, brushing out his hair and the sleep-taste from his mouth. A couple of Luffy's friends are in the living room - Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami. The rest will show up, undoubtedly.
Ace considers who to bring, if anyone. Definitely not his cis friends, as they're absolutely unbearable. Bonney he hasn't seen in a while; he considers her his best friend, but she's only just got off of vacation from Italy with her girlfriend a couple days prior. Still, he texts her, asks her if she's free. Opts out on Marco, as he's probably too busy or something. He doesn't want to get too clingy, either, and they had just seen one another.
Bonney texts back an affirmative, says she'll meet him at Sabo's if she gets directions.
So off they go, in Sanji's car, cruising down the street to 80's tunes that Zoro complains about. The two of them bicker as they go. Ace finds that it feels pretty good to be among more people, and the prospect of a crowd and booze is exciting.
The house is on the nice side of town, naturally. Spacious enough for a house party, certainly, but at least this is a small gathering. Sanji parks, and the crew files out and into the house. When they enter, Sabo is seated on the counter with a glass of wine, Robin and Koala in front of him.
"You look like a tool, grab a fucking beer."
"Its my mom's." is all Sabo says, making Ace reconsider. Sabo motions with his head down to the bottle next to him. "Take a glass, if you want."
So he does, and Sabo hops down with his glass, goes about doling out drinks. There's quite an array of them, and most opt for beer.
Its Luffy who slams his hand against the kitchen counter, "I want to play Kings!"
At some point during the game, Luffy traipses off to the bathroom only to come back about fifteen minutes later with a pirate hat perched on his head. He's all proud grins, a slight sway in his step, plopping down on his chair.
"Where the fuck did you get that?" Zoro asks.
"I am the Pirate King." Luffy says, helpfully.
Ace polishes off his bottle with a roll of his eyes, goes to get another from the fridge. He doesn't feel drunk or even buzzed, yet, just some sort of warmth in his limbs, like a preamble. There's music playing from the corner, something that Usopp put on after Sanji and Zoro kept bickering about tunes.
Its when he pops open his next beer that Bonney and Perona enter the house from the kitchen door, carting a couple bottles of what appears to be vodka. Bonney looks far more tan, brighter in general, smile spread across her face at seeing Ace. She pulls him into a hug and Perona just blinks up at him when she pulls away.
"Hey, great to see you. We're playing Kings, if you want in."
"Oh, fuck yes, I do, but I have to tell you about Italy."
She wiggles her eyebrows and then goes to dig through the cupboards looking for shot glasses, "So, like, have you ever gone on a wine tasting thing? Like, at a vineyard? Perona dragged me to it."
"This one kept swallowing the wine instead of spitting it out." Perona sighs.
"Listen." Bonney says, without explaining further, and goes to pour out three shots of vodka.
"I'm listening." Perona sniffs, making Ace laugh. They've always had a great back and forth.
They've been partners since sometime in the middle of sophomore year for them all, bonding over the hordes of people who comment on their pink hair whenever they shared classes together. Ace finds Perona good and snarky at points, calmly kind at others.
Bonney hands out the shots and clinks her glass together with the other two, before they all down them.
"Anyway, yeah, I didn't get tanked or anything-"
"Yes, you did."
"Just because I asked to make my own wine right then and there does not mean I was tanked!"
The pair keeps bickering with Ace chiming in here and there, laughing mostly, taking shot after shot. The game in the dining room is utterly neglected, and as they finish shot number four, Sabo rounds into the kitchen.
"What are you doing in here … ? Hey Bonney, Perona."
They nod their greetings and Bonney shakes the bottle of vodka at Sabo, grinning wicked, and he regards it with a contemplative sort of look.
"We should play battle shots." he sniffs.
This is the sentence, the very suggestion, that does them all in.
Ace is throbbing, head and core.
Exhaustion settles in his limbs and makes them heavy while he drags himself from Sanji's car into the house, a hungover Luffy in tow. They'd finished off the night by passing out in a big pile in the living room to Rush Hour 2, for some reason. And they started off the morning groaning and complaining and cleaning.
So he sinks onto the couch, simply by virtue of it being closer, and watches Luffy trudge off to his own bedroom looking very much like a zombie.
Ace proceeds to conk out for a couple hours, feeling slightly more square upon waking up. Still, he doesn't dare move so as to not upset the lingering headache wrapped around his brain, nor the nausea coursing through his guts.
A text rolls in from Marco, waking him up.
You alive?
Ace replies with an affirmative;
yeah but barely
He doesn't really want Marco to see him like this; he could probably smell the sick and the vodka coming off of him like axe on a teenage boy.
Barely? What's up?
His fingers come down slow on the keyboard.
hungover there was a party at sabos
last night and we went a bit hard
Ace wonders briefly if any of that would trigger something in Marco, but quickly comes to the conclusion that, no, it wouldn't; he seemed to be just fine when they were drinking beer right in front of him the day before.
I see. Do you need anything?
He worries at his lip a little, pausing in contemplation. Yes, he needs a shower and a pain pill or two, but again, he's not so sure if he's presentable, like this. He drags himself from the couch to the bathroom at a slow shuffle much like Luffy's.
probably yeah
x
I got you. I'm an expert at hangovers.
Can I come over?
x
yeah im just gonna shower really quick
so i dont smell like vodka covered ass
After getting a "haha, on my way" he clambers into the tub and washes away the sins of the night prior, off his body and out of his mouth. The spray of water feels good on him, and so does the clean feeling once he's out.
He doesn't feel like he looks presentable even after changing into clean clothes and drying his hair off. Sometimes it feels like his binder just doesn't do its job, makes him feel disgusting and wrong. Pushing the thought from his mind, he scurries as quick as he can to his room.
Just as he's coming out of his room to wait, there's a ring of the doorbell, so he goes to open it.
Marco stands there, toting a bag of McDonald's and something from Walgreens both. He quirks an eyebrow and steps inside as he's then bid. Ace is happy to see him again, even if he feels like utter shit and probably looks like it.
"You look better than you let on."
"Do I?" he snorts, leading Marco into the living room, "Do you want the tour or do you just wanna take care of my hungover ass?"
"Tour is cool, if you can manage. Dunno if you feel faint."
Ace smiles at him a bit; he looks better than Ace does, certainly, though his face carries a bit of a bored expression. That's just typical, though.
"Well! This is the living room. That right there is a bona fide fucking boombox from the 90's, I think that thing's tough as nails. I'll probably beg Dadan to let me keep it when I finally move out."
Marco laughs, "It still works? That's incredible."
He walks to the kitchen, gesturing inside.
"Like a fucking Nokia. Anyway, here's the kitchen, where I spend most of my time. We used to do family dinners here but that sort of fell apart, for some reason." Ace shrugs.
"Dining room, long hallway we used to slide down on parchment paper. Bathroom, basement, Luffy's room, then Dadan's. And this is mine." he points in turn to each room once they traipse down the hall, stopping at the end, "I think its a bit messy, but."
"That's fine."
He pushes open the door and slowly walks inside. There's band posters up on the wall, pictures and ticket stubs on the corkboard next to the open window. The pictures are of him and Bonney, him and high school friends, his brothers. There's a desk, a dusty bookshelf, a disheveled bed with a nest of blankets proper.
Ace pushes the blankets aside over the pillows and takes a seat, "This is the cave."
"Not too messy, but it looks lived in." he comments, examining the pictures on the corkboard, "You look happy in these."
"Do I not look happy otherwise?"
Marco laughs a little, like he's lost something, "I haven't seen you that happy before. Look."
Pulling the picture of him with a pink-haired girl and some blonde he doesn't recognize, he looks over it again. The three of them are laughing, beers and cigarettes in hand, lights bright behind them.
Ace adopts a fond smile as he takes the picture, ensconced in reverie. After a moment, "Yeah. That was a really good night."
"Is there a story behind it?" he asks, settling beside Ace. Ace hums in his thought.
"Yeah. That's Roci and Bonney right there, but we were with Perona and Shirahoshi, too. Can't remember who took the pic, but anyway we got a hotel downtown in Sabaody." he tells him, "Drinking out of open containers on our way from the hotel to this twenty-three hour diner that Roci knew. Some vegan joint with bangin' milkshakes and cupcakes. It wasn't particularly eventful, but it was fun. I think Perona was drinking out of a bottle of wine."
"That sounds fun." he says, wistfulness touching his tone just slightly, "Used to do shit like that with Thatch."
"Ah, sorry if that bothered you …" Ace mumbles.
Marco smiles, offers the bags to Ace, "Don't worry about it. I got you some greasy food and chocolate, Tums and Nyquil just in case."
"Thank you, Marco." he says, bonks his head against Marco's shoulder, "That means a lot."
"No problem. I know how much it sucks." he shrugs, "You'll probably want to get into a Nyquil nap soon if its that bad."
"I think I'll be okay." he doesn't say now that you're here, but he thinks it, "Do you have somewhere to be?"
"Work, after I pay some bills." Marco sighs, "So I should get going soon … but if you need anything else before I go to work let me know, okay?"
"I don't want to inconvenience you any more. You've already done so much."
He pulls Ace a bit closer and kisses his forehead, "I don't think its that much, but … I'm glad to help."
Warmth and sunshine spreads through Ace's stomach, waking up the moths.
Its then that Marco leaves, throwing a quick good bye over his shoulder with a smile. Ace finds himself feeling bereft, or something like it, and that's strange to him.
Its nice, though, that fluttering in his stomach. He'd like to have Marco's company more, his kisses and attention and affection.
Ace slowly manages to get through the McDonald's, taking a strange-tasting dose of Nyquil at the end of it. As he goes, he finds himself with his mind wandering.
Not long after falling into daydreaming and wonder, he's resolved to ask Marco out on a date. Where exactly, he doesn't know. The very thought puts a grin on his face, anyway.
Marco's bills are paid and his gas tank full and car cleaned. He rolls into work feeling productive and awake, though the latter point might just be because of sucking down a monster.
Work starts out dead, as it always does. Its fine and peaceful and he gets some reading done, until the door opens and Thatch comes striding through. He slaps his hand down on the counter with a grin, leans on it some.
"What are you doing tomorrow?"
Marco just looks him over.
"Probably gonna chill and smoke all day, why?"
"I wanted to come over tonight, yeah? House sit and eat all your food 'til you get there. Bring the new kid if he wants to come."
Thatch is up to something. He can hear it in his tone and see it on his smile. What it is, Marco has no clue. He never has a clue, in fact, until its too late and Thatch is doing some off the wall shit. He eyes Thatch warily, but eventually nods.
"Yeah, no problem. You're not gonna smoke all my weed again, though. You better match."
"I'm good for it. I'll let myself in, so you tell Ace to come over. Izo isn't home and I don't like being this fucking lonely, you know what I mean?"
"Any particular reason why you want the new kid there so bad?" Marco asks. Thatch's smile spreads wider and he looks down at the counter, palm still spread on it.
"Hazing."
"I'm not sure I like the sound of that, but all right, I'll tell him. You better be nice."
"I'll treat him real good, don't you worry."
Marco squints. That sounds a bit suggestive, but Thatch probably figures that Marco likes Ace, and Marco knows for a fact that he wouldn't infringe on that. He's probably just going to grill him a little bit.
But then Thatch is leaving after telling him, "later", and Marco is waiting. He'll get out in the morning and probably wake up the two of them when he gets there. Odd as Thatch's hidden plans are, it'll be good.
He hopes, anyway.