Ages:
Marco: 40
Ace: 26
Marcy: 3

Relationship status: Happily married!

"I'm sorry about all this... They said they would visit 2 more times before we get the last papers to finish everything."

"It's not your fault-yoi, it will be worth it."

"It will be."

Flashback - 2 months prior

Standing before his daughter, Marco tried to explain the current, or better yet, future situation, "We love Marcy very much, and no one will ever replace you. But we, daddy and me, also want to give a good home to another child. They will be your big brother or sister."

"... But ... Daddy and papa have Marcy?" the little girl asked confused.

Kneeling in front of his daughter, he put a hand on her head, "and we love you very, very much Marcy. No matter if we get another child, they will never replace you in any way. We will love both of you, no one forgotten. We simply want to give another child the chance to grow up in a loving home, one who hasn't had the chance before."

Marcy frowned at her papa's words. "P(r)omise?" Bending down next to his husband, Ace smiled at her, supporting Marco's talk, "We promise."

Sniffing she and rubbed her eyes. "Marcy still the baby?" She liked being their baby.

Ace looked at Marco, exchanging a knowing smirk before the blond quickly picked up Marcy in his arms as he stood up, exposing her tummy to his freckled husband who blew a raspberry on it as soon as he had the chance. Marcy has always loved it, already since she was a baby and it hasn't lessened in the slightest. As expected, it made the little girl squeal in delight, laughing as it tickled her.

A moment later Ace pulled her shirt back down and put his hands on Marcy's freckled cheeks, smiling at her, "you'll always be our little baby, Marcy!" He answered as he squished her cheeks.

Bursting into laughter, the little girl hugged her parents, giggling at the Eskimo kisses she got back.

-Earlier that same day-

Marco was sitting at the kitchen table, tapping his finger on the table. He looked at his watch. CPS was going to be here in five minutes. Marcy was napping on the couch after watching her afternoon cartoons. And Ace, who was taking his usual nap to keep his narcolepsy in check, should be up by the time they got here.

While he was sure they had done nothing wrong, that they came to visit still made him nervous. Before he could check the time once more, their doorbell rang.

Standing up quickly, he walked to the door, opening it, feeling even more nervous inside even though he knew they had nothing to hide.

Two people dressed in suits stood before the entrance. "Good afternoon sir. We're here to inspect the home of Mr. Portgas-Newgate and possibly talk to his daughter."

"Welcome," He held the door opened to let them, and gave them a smile. "My husband will be down in a minute." Having heard the doorbell, Marcy sat up, rubbing her eyes and blinked as she looked around.

After letting them in, he shut the door and smiled at his daughter sitting up. "You are more than welcome to speak with Marcy."

The agents looked at each other for, skimming through a small file they had in their hands. They turned their attention on Marco, "Are you Mr. Ace D. Portgas-Newgate?"

Marco blinked, "No. I'm his husband, Marco Newgate, and Marcy's father-yoi."

"Then, we're sorry. But we cannot accept your approval to talk to the child. Only their biological parent can grant permission"

He bit his tongue to not say something he would regret, he didn't want to be the reason they couldn't adopt. Instead, he kept up his calm facade, "Please, take a seat. My husband will be down in a few minutes. He normally rests around this time of day." They did make it perfectly clear that Ace has Narcolepsy when they started to fill out the papers. Hiding something like this could hurt their chance of adoption.

"Papa?" the girl looked concerned to the blond. Damn, Marcy was getting too good at reading him even when he tried to hide. He picked her up, "Don't worry, sweetie." After the CPS agents sat down, Marco took Marcy and went upstairs to check in on Ace.

Just as Ace was walking out of their bedroom, he blinked when he saw his husband, "CPS here?" as seeing the other nod he continued, "I thought-" - "They want your okay too-yoi." Ace blinked at that, what did his husband mean? He should be able to tell them everything they would need too. But he wouldn't fight anything right now. He walked forward and gave Marco a kiss on his cheek, "Well, let's go down then."

Following his husband, they went down the stairs, Marcy still being carried in Marco's arms.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting." Ace said to the workers as he got down.

"No problem sir, it's a pleasure to meet you. We're here because of your request to adopt. We would like to take a look around the space you want the child to live in and would also like to talk to your daughter and ask a few questions."

Ace nodded, "Of course." he bent down to Marcy's eye level after Marco had put her down. "These nice people are going to ask you questions. Make sure to tell the truth, okay?"

"Okay daddy!" Marcy said nodding to Ace as he stood back up. "Myself, or my husband, will be more than happy to show you around." Ace said looking to the workers.

"Thank you very much. If possible, I would appreciate it if my colleague is allowed to talk to your daughter in a more private setting? Just my colleague and her, as to not influence her reactions by having the parent figure in sight. I, myself, would at the same time like a tour."

Marco nodded, "Of course. We have chairs and a table outside." He looked at Marcy "Let's get your shoes, okay? It may be sunny out, but it's still chilly." Marco led her back to the front door, so she could get her shoes on, he also took her spring jacket out of the closet by the door and helped her put it up. Marcy zipped it up and Velcroed her shoes, standing up and following her papa back into the house and to the sliding door.

Unlocking the door, he took Marcy outside and placed her on her own tinnier chair. "Alright Marcy, this man will ask you questions and like daddy said, please answer honestly. If something is wrong, yell for me or daddy and we'll come running."

"Okay!" Marcy called and smiled.

Ruffling her hair, he led one of the agents outside, offering a chair, before going back in, starting to show the other person around the house.

"Would you like to start on this level or the upstairs?" Ace asked then other worker.

"Let's do this floor today, please."

Ace and Marco both nodded, "Of course."

The worker pulled out a note pad from his bag and announced he was ready whenever they were.

"Well-yoi. This is our living room and dinning area, including the kitchen. We spend most of our time in here when we're not working." Marco started telling him. As they went around, the worker took notes of different things he saw and of what they told him. He took a peek into the bathroom that was on the main level, made some notes. Checked the laundry area, made some more notes. Looked into, and through, the pantry, once again making notes.

The amount he wrote made them a bit nervous, but he didn't seem put off by anything, so that was good.

When they opened the door to Ace's streaming room, the CPS agent seemed to freeze for a moment, blinking an extra time before walking in. He took a moment to look at the setup of multiple screens, headwear, music boxes, VR-sets, controllers, consoles, ... Seeing some backdrops and ring lights, he pushed them lightly, seeming to check if they were sturdy and wouldn't fall.

Seeing the reaction, Ace decided to give some more info, even if none was asked "Ah ehm, like I mentioned in the papers, I'm a online streamer for work. This is the room where I record everything, you could say that this is, kind of, my office."

"Do you stream day and night?"

"I do."

"You had a sleep disorder, right? Doesn't that influence it?"

Ace mentioned how he has set schedule, so it doesn't influence it negatively. That his work schedule is always the same, so he can main time a healthy sleeping schedule to keep his narcolepsy in check.

The worker hummed and wrote more things down.

"You stream in the middle of the house, doesn't it bother the other residents?"

Seeing as this was about him and Marcy, Marco decided to answer "No-yoi, since Ace was already streaming before we build this house, we made sure to make this space sound proof. Even if we were right behind the other side of the door, you would barely hear it if he was streaming. It doesn't bother any other people in the house."

"I see... Then I've seen enough and would like to join my colleague outside for a moment to talk to your daughter before we take our leave."

"Of course." Marco lead them to the backyard, seeing Marcy was still chatting with the other CPS worker who was taking notes.

Ace swallowed hard, really hoping he didn't mess anything up for them by having a set like that. He tried to keep his cool and not let the CPS worker see his distress. He felt Marco squeezing his hand for a moment, making him give a wobbly smile at him.

After waiting in silence, a few more minutes passed when the workers returned inside with Marcy, she still looked happy, so they guess that was a good sign.

After talking a bit more, the duo thanked them for their time and left the house.

"I'm going to lay down." Marco said, not making eye contact with his husband who blinked at the sudden statement.

"You okay, babe?"

The blond only nodded at the worry in Ace's voice and made his way up the stairs to their bedroom, softly shutting the door before starting to cry. Walking over to their bed, he laid down on it, holding onto his pillow. It hurt. It hurt that they didn't see him as Marcy's father. He loved his daughter so, so much. He took out his phone and looked at his lock screen, there was a picture of the three of them at the park. Marco holding Marcy in his arms as Ace had his arms wrapped around them. The perfect family, the two people that never failed to make him smile. He loved his family so much, so why did it matter that they weren't related to him by blood.

Sitting downstairs with Marcy, Ace asked what kind of questions the worker had asked her. "He asked if I love daddy and papa, how papa made me feel, if papa was nice to me,..." The girl then cocked her had a bit, "he talked 'bouts papa lots and lots."

"Oh?"

Marcy nodded and went on talking about what she could remember about the conversation.

Little by little Ace was starting to see what was happening. For some reason, just because Marco wasn't blood-related to Marcy, the workers were for some reason suspicious of him and his presence. For once it seemed that the age difference wasn't the factor being focused on...

He suddenly thought back to how Marco had come for him, asking for the okay, saying the workers NEEDED his okay. He shouldn't have needed me to say okay, Marco could have handled the CPS perfectly fine, unless ...

"Marcy baby, did those people ask papa something before I was awake?"

"They wanted to talk to me!" she exclaimed, happy that she remembered.

"And papa said yes, right? That it was allowed. What did they say back?"

Marcy was quit, seeming to be in big thought, "I don't know, they used big words. Boo-bii-boilo-biolooogggggg."

"Biological maybe?"

"Yes! Daddy smart!" Marcy looked down "Papa looked sad after it. Then he went to get daddy."

Ace nodded and kissed her head. That confirmed it. He now knew why his husband wanted to be alone. Switching on the TV he put Marcy on the couch. "I'll get you some juice and crackers. Daddy's got some work to do, okay?"

Marcy nodded her head and Ace came back a few minutes later with some crackers and her sippy cup filled with apple juice. "Daddy will be back in 1 hour. That is about 2 shows of the cartoon, will you be fine."

"Yea!" She happily swung her legs as she watched the show, already taking some crackers. Smiling Ace went into his room and gently shut the door.

As soon as the door to the gaming room closed, Marcy watched it for a moment to see if her daddy would return. When he didn't, she slid off the couch after setting her stuff down and carefully went up the stairs to look for her papa. Making it to the first floor, she walked up to her parent's room and took hold of the doorknob, turning it and walked in. She quietly walked over to the bed and climbed on it, using the little step stool at the end of the bed. "Papa?"

Marco looked down at his daughter and blinked, not even having heard her enter, he quickly tried to wipe away his tears, "Marcy-yoi?"

The girl looked him in the eyes before talking, "Marcy love Papa lots and lots and don't like papa sad. Don't be sad." She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him as tightly as she could.

Marco choked on a sob and moved his arms around his daughter, hugging her close while renewed tears fell from his eyes.

Marcy heard her papa cry, "Papa hurt? Papa no hurt, Marcy help" she kissed his cheek and pulled a cracker from her pocket, giving it to Marco before hugging him tightly again.

Letting out a small laugh at receiving the cookie, he lent down and kissed his daughter's head, he may have quickly eaten the cracker too. "Thank you, I love you."

They stayed in each other's embrace, he could feel the little girl patting his back a bit.

Not long later, Ace came running up the steps and held his chest when he entered, seeming to be out of breath. When he saw Marcy laying in bed with Marco, he let out a sigh of relief. So, this is where she went. Well, that's what children do. Give their parents heart attacks, suddenly disappearing.

Quietly, Ace walked into the room and closed the door. Sitting down next to his husband, he wordlessly hugged him and put his head on his shoulder. Simply letting him know he was there for him.

Marco smiled through the tears, he didn't need CPS their approval, he loved his family, and they loved him back. Their love was all that mattered to him.

We're starting on getting their second (and last) kid!

The ages of Marco, Ace, Marcy,... may seem different then other chapters at some point, in the previous chapters where Marcy was 3, Marco was always 41. It also has to do with when their Birthdays are.
Since Marco's birthday is at the end of the year (October 5th), and will only go up one year when passing that day, his birthday will probably seem off the most.