"Give it to me."
Coffee flew over the table, covering the commanders who were in the line of fire.
"E-excuse me-yoi?" Marco stuttered out, looking stunned at a very determined second commander.
If I add no special warnings, you just gotte expect basic stuff, nothing really special happens that I think would need a warning. As you'll read in here, I don't feel there's anything worth warning for as it's just some very basic innocent stuff related to the Omegeverse. If anyone wants me to add some kind of warning in this or other chapters when I haven't put something, just let me know.
It was breakfast-rush in the mess hall of a ship that looks like a whale. Like almost any day, the commanders were discussing very important pirate affairs, crucial to their survival.
"We don't need that-yoi."
"We do! It's very important, it could make or break our whole image!"
"Who even came up with this idea?"
"All together Marco! We've already sat together while you were stuck in your office and it was decided it was very, very, very very very very very crucial to our future survival as one of the strongest pirate crews."
"Every single one of the commanders is in on this? Really Thatch?"
"Yes! Just ask around!"
With a raised eyebrow the already tired first commander scanned the table, and indeed, everyone was nodding along seriously, making small comments of the importance of this item.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and gave exasperated sigh "The figurehead doesn't need a moustache-yoi."
"Pops agrees it does."
"... of course he does" Marco grumbled before releasing another sigh "Why is this so crucial? Please explain."
Different commanders piped up around the table, "It will instil fear into our enemies!" - "It's fashionable." - "We can ram other ships with it!" - "How else do others know who we are?!"
Marco already started zoning them out pretty fast, the reasons getting more ridiculous by the second, their captain smirking at him was not helping either, they already made their dog have a moustache, isn't that enough!
"BACON!"
"..."
The table grew quiet at the sudden outburst before everyone in the area started laughing at their second commander. Moments after sitting down for breakfast had the kid gotten an attack already and faceplanted his food. They had made sure he didn't drown in his sunny-side-up eggs and let him sleep.
"Dear, the bacon you're looking for is pasted to your forehead."
"Huh?" He reached up, and indeed, just like Izou had said, there was his piece of bacon, he quickly snatched it off and put in in his mouth, wiping the remains of food off of his face while he chewed. "Thanks, Izou!"
"No problem." The geisha-lookalike just smiled before returning to his own food.
To Marco's blessing, the previous topic seemed to have been forgotten for now. As thanks for Ace unknowingly saving him, did Marco give some of his bacon pieces to Ace.
The receiver didn't know why he got extra bacon, but he wasn't going to complain, bacon is bacon. So, he thanked the first commanders before continuing to inhale his breakfast.
"Marco, give me your sash."
Coffee flew over the table, covering the commanders who were in the line of fire.
"E-excuse me-yoi?" the first commander choked out with a cough.
Breakfast had still been going on peacefully, no more weird topics coming up, many had been enjoying a last cup of coffee or chocolate milk before starting the day. When apparently Ace had decided to break the peace of the meal with this strange request.
"Ur sash, the belt, the blue fabric thing always wooshing behind you, give it to me."
Marco was dumbstruck, why did Ace want his sash? He had his own belt? He was sure he was making a very stupid face too right now, not having expected this question. He looked towards the other commanders, searching for an answer but they were all watching on with their own curiosity of what their baby brother was up to now.
"You …" Marco swallowed, looking Ace in the eye for any reaction towards his confirmation of the question, "You want my sash? You want me to take it off and give it to you?"
"Yes, I need it. Quickly."
The first commanders couldn't detect anything but pure determination, Ace was sitting up straight, looking Marco back in his eyes, 100% serious as if the situation was really a matter of life and death, nothing that would indicate that this was some kind of joke or prank.
Not really knowing what to do, Marco slowly started to undo the knot of the sash while keeping an eye on Ace. Said person was eagerly looking at Marco's hands that were working on the knot.
Releasing the sash from its daily place around his waist, Marco folded it in half before hesitantly extending his hand.
The moment the sash was undone was the moment Ace had perked up drastically, he was smiling and looked so happy that Marco swore he saw some twinkles and flowers blooming behind the other commander.
Taking the sash Ace yelled a 'Thank you!' while getting up from his seat before almost running towards the door and disappearing into the ship, all the while cradling the sash against his chest.
After a moment of silence someone at the table commented on the situation, "Well... That was strange ….."
Marco didn't know who voiced this thought, but he certainly agreed with the sentiment. He made a mental note to check in on Ace later, to see what he was doing, he quite likes that sash...
Marco never did find out what Ace had done with his sash, when he had gotten to Ace's room, the commander somehow distracted him, making it clear Marco wasn't allowed in his room. Even if he wanted to check inside, he wouldn't invade Ace's privacy over a sash.
He would get it back at some point, it was only one sash. He decided to leave it, he had plenty of others anyway.
….
Is what Marco would have said 5 days ago...
Not only did Ace start taking more and more of his sashes, always somehow managing to make Marco give them to him even if he had started to refuse. Right now, Marco was really careful and holding onto the one he was currently wearing with the utmost care, it was his last sash. Ace had literally haggled him out of every singly other one he owned, he had a whole shelf dedicated to sashes, how did this happen!
But it didn't stay at that, no, at some point he also started asking for his shirts, and when he stopped giving them after the third one, starting to see his shirts disappearing like his sashes, Ace started sneaking them away when he took a bath or did laundry. When asked about it later, Ace sometimes wouldn't even know what he was talking about. Strangest of all, he couldn't even detect any lie with his haki when he had literally seen Ace happily run through a hallway with clearly his lost shirt!
He somehow was able to, luckily, draw the line when Ace started asking for his pants and got the kid to stop asking for them and prevent him for stealing any... he thinks...
But besides all of that! -As if it wasn't all enough yet.- More weird things started to happen.
Ace would follow him around the ship, literally walk behind him and follow him like a little duckling. He never needed anything either and always just smiled at Marco. Even when he wasn't getting followed, the second commander would pop up in his area a few too many times a day to call it a coincidence.
He was also closer to Marco, physically closer, often standing or sitting right beside him so their shoulders or legs would touch, following Marco if he shuffled away.
At one point he also started asking for some of Marco's feathers, -as if all my clothes weren't enough!-, but he couldn't grant this request even if he wanted too. His feathers simply disappeared when he undid his transformation, no matter if they were no longer attached to his body. He had explained this to Ace, but oh how he wished he could have taken back his words and given Ace a feather. The kid had looked so sad, it was like Marco had kicked his puppy, on repeat! It was the only day in the past week that the kid stayed a bit more on his own, away from Marco, and to be honest, it had scared him a bit.
A day layer Ace was back to 'normal', even if still acting weird, he was glad that Ace was back to whatever he was doing before, Cough practically stalking him cough cough.
Yea... at least this was better than Ace being said, it hurt his very being when the teen looked heartbroken, his inner self yelling at him to comfort the poor commander, even if he didn't really know why.
Most of the crew had noticed the weird behaviour and the teen's sudden gravitation towards Marco, but no one could figure out why the sudden change in behaviour happened.
It was a few days later, an event happening during their weekly meeting, that they finally got some sort or clarity of what could be going on.
All the commanders had already gathered in the meeting room and they were waiting for their caption, Whitebeard, to be done with a morning check-up so he could join them. Passing the time, the commanders were casually talking with each other.
Talking very animated, Ace was telling Marco some story of him fighting a big tiger, showing how huge it was with his arms and how he swung at it. Marco just smiled at him, giving small remarks here and there so Ace knew he was listening.
"And when I told the bandits, they didn't believe me at first! But I did Marco, I did, you have to believe me!"
Marco laughed "Of course I believe you, Ace-yoi. You're strong." he said while ruffling Ace the boy's hair.
A second after he startled ruffling those dark strands, a purring sound emerged from Ace's throat. It instantly put a silencer on the room and Marco stopped his administrations. After his hand movement stopped, Ace seemed to unconsciously push his head up against it, silently asking to be petted more.
Our of pure instinct and reflex, did Marco pick up again and started scratching Ace's scalp and petting through his hair. Once more this was rewarded a purr, one sounding far louder than before in the now deadly quiet room.
The commanders were looking at Ace with wide eyes, only one gender-type really purred at these types of things. But Ace wasn't this? Or at least they had thought so... but here he was... purring... and …. now that they think of it, Ace never did say what his second gender was. They had all just assumed...
After some weird exchange of eyeglances, did Haruta get up to sneak out of the meeting room, returning back not 5 minutes later with, if possible, even larger eyes.
There was however no time to discuss this, for Pops took this moment to arrive and they commenced with the meeting.
Towards the end of the meeting, they made up an excuse for Ace to leave together with Whitebeard to go check some stuff while the rest of the commanders stayed behind.
With haki the commanders felt when they were out of earshot, when they were, they immediately started talking all at once "What was that before!" - "Marco what did you do?!" - "Ace can't be...?" - "No, he has never had..." - "I thought he was..."
"SILENCE-YOI!"
"..."
"Thank you. Haruta, what did you see." Marco was nervous about all of this too and had 10000 questions just like all the others, but talking all in between each other would get them nowhere.
Haruta stood up to gain some hight over the others, he looked a bit unsure of himself. "Well... Ehm... I went to his room, to check, because the purring is a sign of... you know..."
"Aaaaaaand?" the other prompted Haruta on to continue
"... There was... a nest..."
"..."
"Are you sure-yoi? Absolutely sure?"
"I... Yes. His bedframe was standing up again the wall, being pushed almost behind his closet, while his matrass was pushed into the corner of his room where the bed normally was, and … it was filled to the brim with blankets, pillows and even some tablecloths..."
"So he stole them! I knew I didn't misplace them!"
Haruta ignored the chef in favour of looking towards Marco, meeting his eyes "But... ehm... weaved through it all... were your clothes."
"My- My clothes?"
"Yea, all those sashes he's been taking from you, and the shirts too, even a pair of pants that I am pretty sure of you didn't give him, were al carefully scattered throughout it. It wasn't just a pile of random stuff... It was really a nest."
"But" Rakuyo started "I thought Ace was a Beta."
Vista agreed while twirling his moustache "Yes, his wanted poster says Beta too, doesn't it? And he doesn't have a real smell either that would indicate otherwise. Maybe it's just a fluke?"
"You don't just make a nest as a fluke" Kingdew remarked "... do you?"
No one reacted, they didn't really know. All of the commanders were Alphas, so they didn't really have any personal experience regarding this stuff...
"... It was an actual nest." Haruta emphasized "You can go look at it yourself but... That absolutely wasn't some fluke of 'I'm going to build a fort' or something. Especially not with Marco's clothes all used in between the soft items. And …. Hasn't anyone noticed that Ace has seemed... off the past week? Especially when he was asking for Marco's stuff."
The commanders all silently agreed, their second commander had sometimes seemed to be in some kind of trance, only to return from his room, after having put away something he had gotten from Marco, as if nothing had happened.
With all these signs, there was really only one answer of what could be happening and they all kind of feared it. Don't take it the wrong way, they don't care about what anyone's second gender is, everyone is an equal in their crew, but it was always... special... when it revealed itself.
"...How did you manage to make a pup imprint on you Marco?"
"I... I don't know, Thatch. I haven't done anything special right? And if he's really a pup, he shouldn't even be able to smell me yet... right-yoi?"
"Maybe he doesn't realise it himself..." Izou added with uncertainty before growing surer "No, with the way he has been acting, he definitely doesn't realise he's been doing stuff out of the ordinary, but he's somehow gotten attached to you. Why else would he take only your clothes?"
"And it's not even for general comfort... I think... Wouldn't he have gotten some stuff from his old crew, or at least from Pops too then...?" Rakuyo added to the conversation
"True... and... what are we going to do now? He's clearly imprinting on Marco, and if he... ya know... goes through it with all of Marco's stuff, it will only reinforce this bond. But if Marco, or anyone for that matter, tried to take his gathered items from Marco away now that he's already put them in his nest, there's a high chance he'll take it as not only a rejection from Marco, but also from the person taking it away. And we all know this could have bad consequences..." Curiel said, and with him being the ship's head-doctor, the others knew that he knew what he was talking about.
The room grew silent, no one knew what to say or do in this situation. Even with the amount of people that have joined their crew over the years, they've never had a situation like this before. No matter the outcome, one thing was for certain. The Whitebeard Pirates had a presenting pup on their hands. And with the way it was looking, one fairly sure to become an Omega very soon.
What's been happening in this fic? - Nesting + pre-heat!
A small amount of time before an omega's heat starts, the omega will start making a nest. In this nest they'll find the safety of their Alpha by using items that smell like them like their clothes or other items that were in their possession. The nest will help the Omega to go through their heat comfortably once it arrives. Besides items from their Alpha, a nest will mostly be made up of soft materials such as blankets and pillows.
Someday, someday I'll write Ace actually presenting, but not today and probably not soon hahah
Extra: I am so nervous and excited at the same time, I'm close to starting to work for reals! Monday I'm going to get a tour at an workplace, so many nerves!