The next chapter is where the story will really kick off with Ace getting new crew mates with the possibility of a a devil fruit! Enjoy! :3

It's been two weeks from the incident he had deemed the "falling asleep on his birdie" accident (which Marco thoroughly disapproved of). Now they were in Alabasta, happening to dock on the wrong side of the island, now what did he, Portgas D Ace, mean by this? Good question! What he meant was that they dock on the complete opposite side of the island from where the town was. This honestly couldn't be any worse than it already is….

10 minutes later

Ace couldn't believe he put his foot in his mouth, how could it possible worse he said! He really shouldn't say anything again in fear of jinxing himself again, but in all things considered Marco was fine in fact Marco was the one dragging him on a rift through the desert. The reason they, well Marco, wasn't flying was because this was a kingdom them not wanting the extra attention plus who knows if there are Marines here or not….

"Sorry Marco but it's just so hot! I wish I had fire powers too, this is just unfair!"

"Hahahahaha, that's all you would want from your power, the power to resist heat yoi?"

"After I get out the desert maybe no, but it would help right now….ahhh, I'm dying Mmaarrcooo!"

"Alright love, just hang on, hahahaha."

"You're lucky I'm too tired to punch you…."

"You're lucky I'm willing to drag you yoi."

"Touche…."

The silence extended as they(Marco really, with him dragging Ace) walked through the desert, it was night time already in just a few hours and to say Ace wasn't happy with the temperature change was a understatement. They were both under a rock that was thankfully decided to stick out of the sand so when the morning came Ace didn't wake up to the scorching sun cooking him like bacon….mmmmm, bac-

"Ace, come on yoi. I'll keep you warm for the night, scoot over here."

Ace behind Marco's back was thinking about being close to the other, smiling like a cat who got the milk but then thought of all the embarrassing moments of every time they slept together. Ace honestly didn't know if he wanted to sleep next Marco anymore with the thoughts running through his head too, being damn lucky he hasn't gotten an erection from just sleeping next to the man….

He knew he just big time jinxed himself.

Ace silently groaned as he walked over to Marco, plopping down next to the other. Ace didn't know how the man got a fire going but the man was magical all on his own, and he was getting heat so he wasn't complaining. He laid against Marco's chest, blushing up a storm closing his eyes as arms wrapped themselves around his body.

At least he wasn't going to freeze tonight….

Ace closed his eyes for what felt like minutes until they shot open, the heat of the day slowly roasting the rock and the shadow they were in, if it makes any sense. He groaned trying to sit up and save his numb legs but soon found he was restricted from doing so as he realized that Marco had a iron grip on him.

Just why? Why him ocean gods?

"Marco, Marco please."

He shook the other's shoulder, but the other just rolled over with him on top. This wasn't good at all-

"Hm, Ace…."

Definitely not good! So instead of dealing with this calmly, he shook Marco's should while screaming in his ear.

"Marco! Wake up!"

Marco's eyes flew open and he jolted as his body sat up for him, making Ace slid into the other's lap with their mouths smashed together. You know when you're in a awkward moment but you're the type to freeze instead of moving out of said moment, yeah that was Ace. So he he was looking into Marco's wide eyes as their lips were smashed together, Ace backed up quickly covering his mouth, looking at Marco who wasn't even that much fazed at the kiss!

"Ha aha ha! See look Marco it's morning we should get going!"

Ace stood up and went from underneath so fast not even hearing the small ok from the other as he focused on looking at their surroundings. Nothing desert around them still but on the bright side Ace could see a speck in the distance so hopefully that was a town. Ace was about to turn to the other about to tell him the good news when Marco past him heading in the direction of the town. Ace didn't think anything of it because thinking back to the kiss they shared was wrong, that's probably why Marco was ignoring him….This is when he began to panic. What if Marco thought he did it on purpose and that he set it all up? What if Marco thinks he's a freak that-

"Ace, I can practically hear the gears whirling in your head yoi."

"Ah Sorry….Marco I'm sorry about the kiss by th-"

"Don't worry about it Ace yoi. It was an accidental after all."

Yeah an accident….At this moment Ace wondered why he saw himself visually starting back at the start of square one.

"Yeah….Oh, I was about to tell you that I saw a speck in the distance! I think it might be a town!"

"Alright let's make for that than yoi."

Ace nodded following behind the other as soon as he got the rest of their stuff off the floor. They then again began their trek through the desert, and after what like an hour Ace started to complain about the heat again before and only few minutes later Ace stopped with Marco not really paying attention to it and kept walking.

If only he had turned around to see why and noticed that Ace only stopped because he fell asleep face first in the sand.

Ace's Pov

When Ace woke up he realized it was about mid day as he saw when he looked up then looked around….Ace jumped up now frantically looking around because it seems Marco didn't stop walking which means Ace was now lost and without a direction to go. Ace tried to look for the speck he saw earlier but saw nothing, Ace sighed resigning himself to fate as he started to walk in the direction he had been facing when he got up.

An hour or two later of Ace walking had him thirsty again and he didn't seemed to be closer to civilization since the speck was still nowhere in sight. Ace collapsed face first into the sand groaning at his luck before lifting his face once the heat of said sand started to register seeing a now big sand ship,which wasn't there before, was right in front of him. He blinked a few times before he noticed a hatch open up, a person coming out.

"What business do you have here?"

Oh! Maybe these guys could lead him to a town, but if they had weapons he couldn't force them but asking never hurt right?

"Hey could you give me some directions to the nearest town, please?"

"Oh, that's all you want?"

"Yeah, I'm just a traveler looking for my way in the desert!"

"You're so polite! Alright I've made my choice as Captain! I'll give you a ride on my ship hop on!"

"Really? Thank you many for the ride!"

Ace hopped on the ship with a bit of help from the guy, before making his way inside from the scorching heat of the sun. When he landed inside he looked around to all the others who were drinking and having a party! He turned to the Captain remembering Marco was still out there.

"Hey I'm sorry for asking more but I did have a companion who I was traveling with and we got separated could you just look out for him?"

"What does he look like?"

"Well….

Marco's Pov

It had been awhile since Ace said anything which was unusual even their next to him not wanting to eat anything….He should check on-

Marco couldn't believe his eyes when he looked back not seeing Ace anywhere in sight.

Shit.

He knew something was wrong when he didn't hear even a whisper from the other, and now he he was flying across the desert trying to locate his Ace….He was looking trying to see any sign of the boy but his hope was up when he saw some sort of sand ship. He flew to it before gliding to the top, landing on the platform. He made the landing noisy so that they would come out, and his prayers were answered when a man opened the port and came out.

"Have you happen to see my friend yoi?"

"What are you!- Oh! You're the pineapple! I get it, because of your hair!"

Marco eye twitched as he saw a familiar mop of black hair popping itself out of the hatch moving the man out the way..

"Marco! You found me! I'm so-

Ace yelped as a fist met his head, a bump appearing as he groaned out his pain.

"Marccooo! Why did you-Aaaahhhh!"

Marco held his fist up as a new more painful bump was on the first one. Ace began to cry(which he totally denied later) as the pain was settling in and Marco turned to the frightened people shivering now in front of him.

"Thank you for taking care of my reckless friend over here, I lost him on our trek to a town."

"Y-yeah, no problem! There's a town just that way northwest, would you still like us to take you there?"

"If it's no problem then please could you?"

Nothing else was said as Ace was nursing the bumps on his head, glaring at Marco from a distance as the other watched him glare and pout at him. Marco asked a crew member of the ship if he could sleep anywhere only to be lead to a room with a bed, sitting down and swing his legs on the bed proceeded to go to bed. He knew it had been a few minutes almost about to let his dreams take over when he heard the creak of the door, looking at said door with his eyes still partially closed saw Ace sneaking in. Marco sat up watching as the other made his way over, looking down as if he wasn't sure of what he was doing. Marco sighed before pulling Ace in the bed with him, his chest to the other's back with his nose in the boy's hair, falling asleep just like that.

Pov change

When Ace woke up to say he was irritated was a huge understatement. He didn't know what it was that Marco had in his pocket but the fact that it was now poking him and it annoyed him. He grumbled as he tried to shift only to realize that the other had a iron tight grip on him...

Again. Ace tried to wake the other because no doubt they had to get up by now, but to no good. Ace then proceeded to push his body or more like his ass into Marco lower half trying to rise the other only to have the other trust back into his ass with the hard object.

"Acee….Keep…."

The hell was the other dreaming of? Ace was about to give up when Marco gave a groan signaling the other was starting to wake up.

"Marco finally! Wake up, we have to check if we closer to a city!"

"Hmmmm….Ok….I'm up….Shit!"

Ace felt the body of warmth detach from his body looking back to see that Marco had jump backwards from the bed, looking like the world was ending.

"Good you're up Marco. I'm going to check if we're at the town yet! Oh and please empty your pockets before getting into bed, something was poking my back as soon as I woke up. Alright I'll be going to check now!"

Ace made his room out the room leaving a blushing and embarrassed Marco to steam. As soon as Ace went on the deck where the others were he noticed that they had stopped and were sitting a little ways from a town. Ace smiled while fist pumping because a little luck was finally showing it's face to the both of them.

"Thank you so much for taking us here!"

"No problem! You people are pretty nice wish I could meet a lot more people but you know, desert."

"Yeah but thanks again for the ride! Marco were here!"

"I'm coming yoi!"

Ace was practically bouncing, smiling as he saw Marco coming up from the hatch with his bag in tow. Ace grabbed his bag, not waiting for the other as he jumped ship running toward the town screaming about food. Marco sighed as he once again thanked the people before he jump ship as well, flying a bit toward the town before landing on a roof and jumping in the streets to follow Ace. Marco felt a tick on his head as he saw Ace marveling at a golden apple, walking up to said boy and dragging him of by the ear to the restaurant before he could say anything.

"Can we have some food please, anything works. Oh, and make that a large order, I can pay for it."

"Oh, wait! Mister!"

"Yes?"

"Do you happen to know where I can get a devil fruit?"

Sapphire~