Chapter Text
Just like how there was guaranteed to be a party in the beginning of every month, the amount of hungover people littering the dining hall was equally predictable. Crew members and Commanders alike were strewn all over the place, useless as a a dangling seaweed, and should one dare to strain their hearing, one can hear the displeased rumbling from the captain’s quarters, just a few feet away. Only several lucky or smart enough not to get absolutely wasted the night before could function normally, but those were rare far in between the crew.
On one of the larger table near the kitchen, where most of the commanders were gathered, Fossa grumbled around his newly lit cigar, holding them to his mouth with shaky hand. He had his other hand on Namul’s back, who was half sobbing and half groaning, rubbing and patting the fishman’s back to provide little relief in his bouts with headache, “I hate you,” the blue-skinned commander sobbed, “I threw up everything i had this morning and i can still taste stale beer in my gills, why would you dare me to jump into Pops’ tankard, Fossa?”
The swordsman grumbled, “Well, how am i supposed to know you’ll breathe the beer in?”
In front of them, Curiel looked up from his slump, stripped helmet tilted on top of his head, “He’s a fishman, you dumbass, breathing in whenever he’s in a body of water is a reflex!”
“Well, it wasn’t water, it’s beer! How am i supposed to know he’ll do the same?!”
“Dumbass!”
“Don’t call me a dumbass!”
“Shut the fuck up!’ came the irritated chorus from the people around, immediately ceasing all sorts of fight in between them.
In between them, Vista chuckled, taking a calm and elegant sip of his morning tea. He had been one of the few who had abstain from drinking too much last night, on account of his division having patrol last night, where he had taken over the duty and let his men enjoyed the party. Lack of sleep was nothing compared to the result of getting hammered all night long. From in front of him, he could see Thatch and Rakuyo glaring at him with envy, which he promptly ignored.
Next to him, with a giant air intake, Jozu rose from his previous slumped position, “I’m never drinking again,” Which is a goddamn lie that someone always says the day after party, which they all know would never come true. Soon, the next month will roll again with new reasons to celebrate, and the entire ship will be reduced into a group of useless mess. It’s a good thing the marines usually refrained from attacking them or else, Moby will be utterly defenseless.
“But last night was pretty damn wild, even for our standard. Hell, last night was wild even for Red Haired Pirate’s standard, ” Kingdew piped up from the very end of the table, leaning his massive build against the wall, “It’s the new beer. Man, i love it whenever we go landed on that North Blue resort, we always ended up leaving with the best drinks in all 4 seas,”
A chorus of agreement sounded throughout the dining hall, when a crew member from the other side of the room half-shouted, much to his fellow hungover victim’s irritation, “It’s the good Grand Line weather! We haven’t seen a clear night in weeks!”
“The food! It’s the food! The fourth division has outdone themselves!”
“Good music!”
“Good nakama aaallll around me,” someone singsonged, earning him both admonition for being too loud and weak cheers.
“Good nakama indeed,” Thatch cackled in the middle of the noises, digging into his pocket and shooting his arms up to reveal bags upon bags full of belli. One of the shiny gold coin fell from the flimsy bag to his forehead, not that the cook seems to notice. Jozu’s face immediately went sour at the sight of it, as does Atmos and several other men on the tables behind them. Even swaying on his seat - and needed to be kept balanced by Blamenco and Rakuyo - Thatch twirls the bags in his hand proudly, making sure that the clinking noise from the inside is audible with every motion, “My nakama made me rich last night!”
“Come of it, you just got lucky!” Atmos groused from afar, staring forlornly at the bag that was previously in his and several other’s possession, “How are we supposed to know that they’re already together?! Everyone thought Marco still had a ‘can’t-spit-it-out’ sickness!”
“Pretty sure they’re already getting it on,” Rakuyo said from next to Thatch, swatting the bag of bellis away when Thatch dangled them in front of his face. Underneath the table, his flail rolled around, bumping on to his leg probably in an attempt to tell him to lower his volume. It had been pretty drunk as well last night, “That kiss last night, and then ‘turning in early’ after that?” The dreadlocked man whistled, and once again, his flail bumped against his leg in protest.
From between the two giant pillars that are Atmos and Bleinheim, Haruta poked his head out, eyes bright regardless the bags underneath them, “Wait, what if they got together a long time ago and we’ve only found out yesterday? Marco’s always been secretive, i bet he made the decision to keep it on the down low until yesterday!”
“Maybe that’s what him and Ace was talking about before we found them!” Jiru added from right across the lithe swordsman, glancing between Haruta and Kingdew next to him, the corners of his lips forming a scandalous smile, “I thought maybe they were fighting because Marco looked so tense, but what if Ace was trying to convince him to come clean to us?”
Their exchange was stopped with a quick swipe of a fan in between them, “Hmph. Shows what kids know relationships,” Izou scoffed, pulling a single stray strand away from his face, “And so unobservant. They were hiding on their own before you and Kingdew went looking for them, and throughout the whole truth or dare game, they’re completely engrossed with each other. Ace even had his hands on Marco’s thigh, smiling all shy, and that kiss? The passion, the fire, the way Marco pretty much had to haul Ace away?” he snapped his fans on his palm, swiping it to the general direction of the entire room, “Boys, that’s the sign of a new couple barely out of their juvenile admiration towards each other and yet to discover the land of intimacy!”
“Ewwww, Izou, don’t put it like that, they’re still our brothers!”
“Oh, stop acting like children!”
Mass hangover soon forgotten, the activity in the dining area began to pick up with plentiful of speculations about the First and Second Commander’s love life, starting from the simple possibility to how far they have gotten to what sort of things they were up to last night or even the times before when no one in the ship was any wiser. No topic of conversation in the suddenly crowded area strayed away from the same topic, even if it differs in aspects.
“I’m telling you, the relationship has got to be new! It can’t be that old, we would’ve noticed something!”
“You mean you won’t notice, Izou, no one in the entire world can beat you in being a busybody,”
“You want to repeat that, Curiel?!”
“No, remember how Commander Ace was touching his lips all the time yesterday? Bet they first kissed yesterday, calling it now,”
“Oh my god, you don’t think that’s Commander Ace’s first kiss, do you? Is that why he’s like that the entire day?”
“Come on, Commander Ace is totally a virgin, you can tell. If they did sleep together yesterday after they left, then Commander Marco popped his cherry, no doubt about it,”
“Dude! That’s our commander! Can you please not talk about his—”
“His what? Virginity? I’m just speculating, Commander Marco’s the one who took it!”
“We don’t even know that!”
“Come on, Jozu, huh? Huh? What do you say? One more bet, double or nothing! Atmos, come on, you too! Blenheim! Izou! Vista! Come on!”
“Thatch, the day you come close to my money will be a cold day in hell,”
It was in the middle of this amalgamation of rowdy exchanges that Ace walked in, oblivious to the eyes the silence that immediately descended or the eyes that followed his every steps the moment he appeared in sight. Even the kitchen staff stopped what they were doing the moment he approached, one of them silently pulling out one of the larger plates that they had and slowly stack it up with every variation of breakfast that morning. It was mostly greasy food sprinkled with bitter grounded roots, a well known hangover cure from a secluded island in Grand Line, but he supposed the commander won’t mind.
Or notice, apparently, because even as the plate was placed in front of him, the dark haired youth barely gave it a single glance. He looked lost in his own thought, eyes staring blankly to the floor. He continued to be in that same dazed state as he finally took notice of the breakfast served in front of him seconds later and walked over to an empty spot in the commander’s table, quite far away from the rest. Then, instead of digging in as usual, Ace lethargically plucked a piece of seaking jerky from the top of the mound before nibbling on them.
His odd behaviour entering the dining hall had caught attention, and the fact that his food didn’t disappear in a blink of an eye raised a lot of eyebrows.
Commanders and crew members alike looked at each other, silently exchanging questions in between themselves. It was near comical what a coordinated move it was in between over 1000 people, and it was with the same amount of coordination did everyone’s eyebrows raised in alarm when Thatch stumbled out of his seat and made his way over to the lone newcomer.
“Good morning, Ace,” he greeted normally, or as normally can one be with a large mischievous grin on their face, “So uh, didn’t see much of you last night,”
Ace, still quietly nibbling on the same piece of jerky, hummed noncommittally.
Discreetly, the pompadoured cook glanced to his fellow commanders. Rakuyo, Jozu and Vista, the one closest to him shook their heads, with Vista even motioning to him to go back to his seat, while the rest simply looked at each other. Thatch ignored them, instead leaning and putting on a large grin, “Had a good night then?”
Someone hissed ‘oh my god, Thatch’ lowly yet audibly, but Thatch paid them no mind. Instead, he paid full attention to Ace, who flinched at his question, missing on the jerky and biting his lower lips and tongue instead. The older man noticed the bruise on the side of the Ace’s lips then, and what seems like a leftover of dried blood. He was about to ask about it when Ace replied, voice quivering slightly, obviously upset, “No. No i didn’t,”
Without even looking, Thatch knew that everyone was now looking at everyone again, this time with the same amount of alarm and shock as he’s feeling. So many thoughts ran through his head - and possibly everybody else’s - and looking at Ace did not help stifle his growing worry. Ace looked downright miserable the moment those words left him, biting on the insides of his mouth and bowing his head down, not before Thatch missed the way he squeezed his eyes shut.
Then their ‘little brother’ opened his mouth once again, and Thatch was left aghast, “Just thinking about what happened last night… It hurts. It hurts so bad,”
“You poor baby!” was the only warning anyone gets before Ace was steamrolled to the side by a blur of pink and purple that was Izou, latching to his side and smothering him in what was probably supposed to be a comforting gesture, “Oh, you poor, poor, sweet child, i’m so sorry to hear that! Really, Marco should’ve known better! Oh, Ace, i’m so sorry to hear—“
“What’s going on here?”
Thatch glanced to the side and immediately gulped. The temperature in the room seems to drop significantly once he saw Marco looming over him, eyes in a stern glare and holding the same coldness as his voice as he aimed his sight at both himself and Izou. A quick glance to the side also told him that everyone else had purposefully avoid looking at their general direction, and Thatch couldn’t blame them; Marco’s freaking scary when he’s like this.
But while Thatch immediately evacuated the vicinity - before he can get talons to the face again - Izou was a lot more adamant than he is, still clung to Ace’s side and glaring deviantly at the First Division Commander, “Leave him alone, Izou,”
“And just who do you think you—“
“Now,”
He didn’t need to raise his volume, but there hasn’t been a time that tone of voice and the calm fury behind it wasn’t scary on its own. The sudden weight and pressure in the room made Thatch scrambled even faster back to his seat, hiding behind Blamenco’s larger body. Izou was visibly surprised and shaken by the intensity of Marco’s reprimand, and despite still hesitating for a few seconds, he eventually left with one final pat to Ace’s shoulder.
When Marco sat down, the pressure hadn’t left. Everyone visibly shudders as he gave the entire area a cursory look, as if daring people to give them any extra attention.
It was when Ace spoke that it finally died down, and the change in Marco’s stern expression was enough to give any onlookers a whiplash, “Why are you here?”
Everyone was holding their breath again, but it wasn’t due to fear over Marco, but in trepidation over Ace’s own silent fury behind his words. Even Marco seems caught off guard, eyes widened from their usual half-lidded position, and there’s a quiet hesitation in his voice as he replied, “I wanted to check if you’re alright,”
Ace scoffed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. It reminded them of his rebellious days, when he was still convinced that they’re the ‘enemy’, and would do nothing but spite them and their father. “You saw that i was this morning,” he uttered drily, “Before you ran off on me,”
A low ‘oooo’ escaped from Thatch’s mouth, low enough that he’s sure it didn’t reach Marco or Ace, but the room was so silent he can’t be too sure. Blamenco slapped his side, shushing him.
The look on Marco’s face was nothing short of devastated and full of guilt, “I… I didn’t mean to…,”
“You never did,” Ace snippily, “Forget it,” suddenly pulling his plate in front of him and devouring it in the same, if not faster rate than he usually does. Those who were sitting in the correct angle to be able to see him behind the impressive mound of food could see that he was forcing himself to eat, instead of actually being hungry. In front of him, Marco opened his mouth, but decided to keep quiet.
For a moment, nobody dared to speak. People began to come in one by one, entering the dining hall with groans of pain or simple chatters, but all of that immediately fell silent upon noticing the tension running inside. Once or twice, someone would sit down and ask their neighbour what’s going on in a stage whisper, before being quickly shut by said person or even their entire surrounding.
It was when Ace’s plate decreased to half of what it used to be did the young commander finally spoke again, eyes downcast, “I’m sorry,” he muttered, voice low but considering he was the only person talking, it might as well be a shout, “I don’t know where that came from. You had something else to do, after all,”
“Are you m—“ Marco stopped himself mid sentence, blinking hard and shaking his head, as if he caught himself on time, “It’s alright if you’re angry with me. My sudden exit this morning was… unacceptable, especially after everything,”
“No, Marco,” Ace sighed, “I’m not angry. Last night was horrible and i’m still out of balance and irritable because of it this morning, but i shouldn’t have taken it out on you. You were doing everything you can to help me, i should be thankful to you,”
The blonde commander frowned, despite the small smile Ace throws his way, “Is it still— I mean, Are you—,” he grunted, looking annoyed, but who he was irritated with wasn’t clear, “Ace, you’re—“ he fell silent again, running a hand through his hair.
When the silence became too long, Ace sighed again, “Marco, will you just say what you wanted to? You know you don’t have to be this careful and delicate with me just because of my condition, right?” he shrugged, levelling Marco’s unsure gaze with an even one, “I meant what i said. This situation sucks, but being treated like this, especially by you, is a lot more uncomfortable. I know you meant well, but i can take care of myself,”
“And i also meant what i said, Ace, It’s not that i don’t think you can’t take care of yourself,” Marco replied, “I just wanted to make sure this won’t be hard on you more than it already is. I promised that i’ll be there for you no matter what, and i intended to keep that promise,”
The mild annoyance on the younger’s freckled face slowly faded into awe, his lips slightly parted and eyes wide. When he smiled, it was gentle, almost serene, accompanied with light dusting of blush on his freckled face and a shine in his eyes. He looked absolutely beatific, “You’re always like this. So caring and you know what to say,” Ace’s voice was soft, almost affectionate, and for everyone else who wasn’t Marco, it felt wrong hearing it when it was clearly not for them, “Last night was a horrible experience, but with your words and actions, you made it better. You even made me feel good, really good, and i… i never felt like that before. Even now, just hearing you say that makes me feel safe, like everything’s going to be fine, somehow,”
In front of him, Marco simply looked stunned, an expression copied all around the room. The redness on his cheeks deepened significantly as he suddenly widened his eyes and raised a hand to his mouth, “I— D-did i say that out loud?” he asked with a tremor on his voice and a look of mortification on his face, “Marco, i— I don’t know where all of that came from. I didn’t mean to say it, i—“ he stood up making his chair fall with a loud thud in his haste. He blanched the moment he realized that every eyes in the room was on him.
“Ace,” Marco stood up as well, brows furrowed and one hand extended, aiming for the younger’s shoulder, “Calm down, it’s just the—“
But Ace jerked violently to the side, avoiding Marco’s touch, “I have to go,” he blurted hurriedly, and does exactly that. He was merely a blur of black and orange as he slammed the dining hall door’s open, nearly bumping to an unlucky newcomer and left before anyone can process what just happened.
The dining hall once again descended into silence, all eyes focused on the First Division Captain’s extended arm grasping on to thin air. He retrieved it slowly, then glanced behind his shoulder, eyes finding everyone else’s in the room. There’s threat of absolute pain in those blue orbs, and the pressure from earlier returned tenfold, “If any of you dare to mention what happened earlier, should any of you dare to bother him about this,” this time he aimed his gaze to the commanders, all who flinched without exception, “There will be hell to pay,”
He then left without any other word, taking long strides towards the door. Those closest by to the exit can hear him mutter, ‘There’s got to be something i can do’.
For a moment, nobody talk, not even breath. The pressure slowly dissipate, and at this point nobody can even tell if it’s Haki or just Marco in general that kept them in line.
When someone finally spoke and break the long silence, it was a crew member in the very middle of the room, someone who had been up until Ace entered was fending off his fellow pirate’s speculation about the two commander’s possible love life, “Wait, i’m confused,” he said, looking around the room and back to the empty spot where the two had previously occupied, marked only by Ace’s half finished breakfast, “So, was the sex good or bad?”
“Dude," The man next to him gasped, "Just shut the fuck up before Commander Marco kills you,"