AN: So sorry for the delay! Hope you like it, though. Again, it's unbeta-ed so I apologize for the mistakes.
"Thank you," Marco said to the landlady whom he had woken up just to open the door to Ace's apartment.
Their landlady nodded weakly, apparently still half-asleep. "Tell that kid to give you a key next time. Will save me a lotta trouble."
Marco chuckled. She always said that, but she'd always come help when he asked her. "I will. Don't worry." She gave a half-hearted wave before trudging down back to her place, her yawn reverberating along the floor. Marco should bring her a thank-you gift later.
Finally, he turned back to the door and opened it, calling Ace's name and receiving no reply still. He had tried calling his phone, but it was not connecting. He had knocked and called out Ace's name for ten minutes before deciding to get the landlady.
Oh, the things Marco did for this guy.
Sometimes Ace's recklessness still caught him off guard. But he made a promise to watch over Ace, and Marco was not about to break that promise anytime soon. Plus, he did not mind looking out for his neighbor. His neighbor whom he had feelings for.
Marco beat himself up internally as he made his way to Ace's bedroom, hating how his thoughts these days consisted of confessing. Did he really want to break the friendship he had with Ace? He was not even sure if Ace was into guys. Marco bit back a groan in frustration. He was not having this internal discussion at Ace's place!
"Ace?" he called out one more time, knocking at the bedroom door. No reply still. Marco took that as a sign to barge in and check if Ace was really just asleep and not murdered in his bed.
Thank God, Ace wasn't. There he was, snoring away at nine in the morning, covers twisted around his torso, one leg dangling from the bed. Marco held back a snicker. The sight was nothing new as he had been helping Ace get to his weekend job for months now.
Marco stayed rooted by door. "Oi, Ace, if you don't want to be late again, I suggest you start moving."
Ace twitched but did not wake. He simply rolled over to his other side. "Ace." A snore. "Ace, wake up." Another snore. "Ace, breakfast is ready."
Like a jack-in-a-box, Ace was up, looking left and right with half-lidded eyes. "Breakfast, where?" he mumbled.
Marco shook his head as he couldn't hold back a chuckle anymore. "You're hopeless, y'know that?"
Ace's eyes settled on Marco. His brows furrowed. "Marco? What are you doing here?"
"It's a Saturday. What else would I be doing here?"
Ace blinked once, twice, before he exclaimed. "Ah! I'll be late for work."
Marco checked his watch. "Yeah, you'll be if you're not ready in fifteen minutes."
"Shit!" Marco thought he had never seen another human being desperately getting out of his twisted bedding. It was no surprise when Ace stumbled to the floor. When he tried to stand, he tripped and grabbed on a table in an attempt to regain his footing, to no avail. He landed face first, and the papers on the desk scattered on the ground. Ace sat up and rubbed his face, glowering at the mess he made. "I'm so fucked."
Marco shook his head before going to stand before his dejected neighbor. "I'll get this. You go change."
Wide eyes focused on him. "You're a saint, Marco. You know that?"
"I think you emphasized that point enough every Saturday."
"Oh? Good."
Marco rolled his eyes. "Get going, Mr. Narcoleptic."
"Am not!" Ace scrambled to his feet while Marco crouched down to sort out the mess. "Hey, after that, help yourself to some tea. Luffy and Sabo sent me tea bags; said I should try them 'cause they're natural and tasted good and they help fight free radicals—whoever they are."
Marco threw his head back and laughed. When he looked up, Ace was already pouting at him. "You just want me to fix you a cup." The pout turned into a lopsided smirk. Ace said nothing as he disappeared inside the bathroom. Marco kept smiling at Ace's antics. Ever since Ace accepted a part-time job, it always went like this with them. He would wake up Ace, sometimes help him get ready like what was happening today, and then give him a lift to work. Marco had offered since their destinations were on the same way and since it happened only every Saturday until the end of next month.
Plus, it gave Marco more time to spend with Ace. Not that he was going to admit that out loud. Dammit, he's too old for this kind of thing! His siblings might argue that age was just a number, but it was more complicated than that.
Marco shook his head when he felt a migraine coming and focused back on fixing the fallen papers. He really needed to stop this habit of overthinking in the mornings.
Marco realized that the papers were all Ace's drafts. It was what he did in school, and Marco had never seen one of Ace's works before. After a quick scan, he realized he was holding a page of a personal essay. Out of respect for Ace's privacy, he stopped reading and went back to his work, only to see a familiar line on another paper.
I have always been in love with you. Always will, Trace. Never forget that.
Marco blinked twice, but the line remained.
No. No way.
It couldn't be.
Marco realized he had stopped breathing after ten seconds of staring hard at the paper. He inhaled sharply, and he realized his hands were cold and clammy. His eyes then scanned the rest and his suspicions were confirmed.
Ace had the draft of thefirefist's fanfiction Always Have, Always Will.
He knew because he had drawn this scene. Marco reread this part no less than five times to capture the emotion—to show with lines and colors what thefirefist had showed with words.
He could not believe it even though the truth was right in front of him. The draft even had some lines that had not made it online. Marco did not know why he was denying, in all honesty. Probably because things like fate and destiny never happened in real life.
Ace and thefirefist were the same person? What kind of twisted fate this was.
His mind went into catatonic mode. Lack of caffeine and this morning's revelation turned him that way. Marco could not remember putting all the papers back on the desk, nor walking into the kitchen to make some tea.
He was slowly warming up to the idea, though. He simply had not imagined his favorite author to be someone like Ace, but now that he knew, Ace was perfect to be thefirefist. And! Ace was a creative writing major. Marco scolded himself for not realizing sooner.
They were aware that they both liked One Peace. The discovery was a bit late, though. It had to happen one stormy night when the power went down and Ace invited him over for a movie marathon on his laptop because, apparently, Ace was nyctophobic.
Marco sat on the sofa and waited for Ace to finish finding a movie on his laptop.
"Hmm, let's see I have a lot of Marvel movies," Ace said, distracted as he kept searching.
"Aren't you supposed to be finishing a paper? I mean, you were complaining about it. Loud enough to be heard from my place, in fact."
He pouted. "I don't wanna write in the dark. Who knows what kind of shitty-sorry-what kind of figure pops out while I space out, thinking."
A beat of silence. "Are you afraid of the dark?"
A longer moment of silence. "I didn't say that."
Marco just gave him an amused grin. Ace fully turned to him, and even though the only source of light was from the laptop in front of them, he could see the slight reddening of Ace's cheeks. Marco should not think it was adorable, but it was.
"Yeah, fine. I am scared. Happy?"
Marco quirked an eyebrow. "No. Why should I? Everyone has something they're afraid of."
Ace stared at him like he'd grown another head, which made Marco slightly uncomfortable. He shifted his gaze away to avoid it and his eyes widened when he saw something on the laptop screen.
"You know One Peace?" Marco asked in shock and a little of glee. His neighbor watching anime was an automatic plus for him.
Ace's face cleared like the skies after a storm and was immediately clouded by giddiness. "You know it? Oh, yeah! So that means we can watch One Peace?" Ace asked, grinning.
It was hard not to return that infectious smile. "Absolutely."
After that, they marathoned the next seasons together. When they caught up and started watching weekly episodes, they moved on to discussing the latest chapters. Ace had been amazed to see Marco's humble collection of translated One Piece volumes. Ace had bemoaned the fact that translated volumes were a rare find, hence the reason for his support in fan translations.
Surprisingly, Ace's favorite arcs were not all about Trace. Yes, he enjoyed the Alabaster arc, Ace had said, where Trace made his first appearance. But the highlight of that arc was Raffy's first victory against one of the Seven Warriors and his team's wholehearted loyalty and trust in him. That farewell scene with Princess Mimi? Ace claimed he had outright bawled watching it for the first time-and! he added with sudden fiery eyes. If we're gonna talk about bawling, no man will have dry eyes after watching Going Nerry's death!
Marco had agreed. He did tear up a bit during those two scenes. Just a bit. When he told Ace that, he was not convinced.
Marco had not known he supported MakoTrace, obviously, so he had not thought it weird that Ace's favorite scenes rarely consisted of Trace and Mako. He did remember Ace listing them as two of his top ten favorite characters, though. Since Trace and Mako had very limited screen time, they had not talked much about Mako nor Trace.
Well, perhaps it only applied to Mako, if it was the brothers they were talking about.
Marco had to endure Ace's two-hour rant when it was revealed that Raffy and Trace's other brother, Cabo, was actually alive.
Where was he after all these years?! What a jerk! Ace had exclaimed. He had sounded as if he had been in the story himself. His fondness for the brothers was that strong. Although by then, Marco thought Ace would start hating on Cabo—until the chapter explaining Cabo's fate came out. Ace had arrived on his doorstep, face covered in snot and tears. Poor Cabo! Poor Raffy! Poor Trace! Those poor brothers!
Marco thought that was the first and last time he actually saw Ace cry—and it had been caused by One Peace.
That should have been a huge sign for him. A red flag. He should have known that, like him, Ace's admiration for the series would make him contribute to the fandom. Bring back the happiness One Peace evoked from him. But how could Marco figure out, really? What were the odds that thefirefist was Ace?
And if Ace wrote about MakoTrace, was there a possibility that he—fuck, Marco did not want to guess Ace's sexuality this way.
Going back, in spite of the numerous One Peace conversations, they never mentioned the fandom. No fanfiction; no fanarts. So perhaps, like Marco, Ace wanted his fanfiction life to be a secret. Oh, no.
"Earth to Marco?"
Marco blinked and his eyes focused on Ace poking his head around the corner with a frown, holding a hand up in a wave. "Yeah?" Marco said, hating how his voice sounded strangled.
"You looked like you were in your mind palace or something. Or did you find something incriminating?" Ace's eyes scanned the surroundings.
Marco had to think of a way to stop Ace from finding out he knew about thefirefist. Because he had not yet recovered, he was not ready to deal with all of this at the moment. He wracked his brain and came up with the perfect distraction. "Well, today's the day."
Understanding lit up Ace's eyes. Then he smirked. "Oh, c'mon, it's probably not that bad."
"Yeah." Marco exhaled slowly. "You're just saying that 'cause you've never been to one of our parties before. My siblings are hardcore partygoers."
Ace laughed, and Marco had to crack a smile. This guy's smiles were too infectious for his own good.
Yet he still felt worried, and it was a different type of worry. It wasn't because of Ace finding out anymore. His pretend paranoia was, in fact, real paranoia. It was the first party where he invited Ace as his guest, and he was sure his siblings would make the most out of it, especially Izo. Even if it was technically his and Izo's party, he was willing to forget family if they stepped out of line and planted weird ideas in Ace's head again.
"You love them. Admit it. Hey, you didn't get me a cup." Ace grabbed a mug and a piece of bread. "At what time am I supposed to be there again?"
"Seven. You can come late, though. You know my family's never punctual."
Ace nodded slowly. "Sure." He was making a face the whole time he was drinking tea. "Ugh, I'll get Sabo and Luffy for this. Anyway, let's go." He checked his phone. "Shit. We're late."
"Whose fault do you think that is?"
Ace grinned.
AN: I also post this on my Tumblr, missmissymeira. Feel free to drop by and ask questions.