Chapter Text
A little over a week later, it was already painfully difficult to hide the symptoms of his narcolepsy. During his weekly call to Shanks he had suddenly fallen asleep and woke up to Shanks nearly screaming in panic that Ace had suddenly been killed, with Benn trying to calm the rest of the crew and was thankful when Ace had apologized for his sudden lack of noise. When he told of them the predicament he was in, they suggested they could send a carrier bird to give him the medication. The fire logia declined, heart warming slightly at their care for his wellbeing, but not willing to risk anyone on the ship from finding out his narcolepsy or his ties with the Yonko. Ace just thanked that he had been lucky enough so far that no one on board had managed to find out about his...irritating affliction and that he hadn’t yet seriously injured himself. However, Ace knew that he couldn’t keep a secret forever, and he didn’t know how the Whitebeard pirates would react. While they were welcoming to him now, he couldn’t trust that they wouldn’t act differently if they found out.
A loud booming sound shook him from his thoughts and he quickly grabbed Sabo’s top hat before rushing outside, the hat nearly flying off his head as he slammed the door shut. He rushed to the top deck, observing Whitebeard pirates scrambling about. In front of them, sailed a fleet of marine stamped ships, and Ace felt something in his gut curl. He nabbed a nearby pirate, “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Who knows? The damned Marines popped outta the blue a few minutes ago. If you don’t want to be associated with Pops, you’d better hurry back to your room!”
Nodding briefly before letting the man go, the fire logia ignored the man’s words, at least partially, as he continued onto the deck, but placed himself in a position where it would be nearly impossible for marine eyes to spot him. His identity to the marines was a bit...unsteady, if he were to say anything about the topic. While he was now considered a scourge of the sea, he had once worked for the marines in exchange for access to their labs for experimenting and researching ways to save Luffy when his brother was still alive. Fortunately for him, he did not have to help the other scientists in any way, though he felt that was more due to Garp than anything else. Once they had acknowledged his knowledge of technology and science, and affirmed that his interest was purely nonaggressive, made him sign a nondisclosure agreement, and he was given free reign of his designated lab space.
That was, of course, when his reminiscing was cut off as the marines started firing on them. Ace blanched when he saw the guns. Normally, he wouldn’t care, as a logia, objects just passed right through him if he wanted them to, bullets included. But these weren’t normal guns. When he was at the lab, there was a prototype for guns that could shoot seastone bullets, and these guns looked exactly like them. ‘ I guess not a prototype anymore.’ he murmured to himself, and prepared to dodge or use his haki at any moment. At the corner of his eye, he noticed the Phoenix standing there, unmoving, most likely confident the bullets would not hurt him. Uncharacteristically for him (though really, his entire stay on the Moby had been quite a whirlwind of feelings that he wasn’t ready to confront ever, especially not now of all times), he shouted, “Get down!”
Nearly everyone on the ship turned to look at who had made the noise, and realizing who had screamed, immediately took cover. If the resident “emotionless”(they were learning that while the kid could shut down on people, he was not as emotionless as it previously was assumed) kidnappee could release such a fearful expression, then they were going to go down on the deck faster than someone could say “Whitebeard”; well, except for one person. “Stupid Bird!” Ace shouted fearfully, “Get down!”
Right after the words escaped his lips, he froze as multiple bullets hit the Commander straight on, the commander’s chest and stomach turned red with blood within milliseconds. Time slowed, and he noticed Marco’s expression change from one of contempt to one of shock, and then pain, as the man fell backwards onto the deck. The flame user ran towards the Commander, using his busoshoku haki to block the bullets. He internally wondering what on earth he was doing, and shoved the thought aside for later, focusing on saving the man in front of him. “Idiot, did you not think that the marines would ignore the fact that there are two commanders on board that are practically impossible to kill because of their devil fruits?” he muttered angrily, “Dumb turkey, the marines aren’t as stupid as you think you know.”
The man turned at the sound of his voice, frowning and groaning in confusion and pain. “You with me?” he anxiously asked when he approached the man, and he received another groan in return, “I guess that’s a yes.” Ace muttered to himself.
His wandering mind came back to once again ask what on earth he was doing. It was strange, Ace thought to himself, that he had decided to help the other man, as if something pulled him towards the older pirate. He wasn’t one for charity, not even mentioning the fact that he was currently helping the guys who had kidnapped him. Now, however, was not the time to be dilly dallying, a fight was still going on and none of the Whitebeard Pirates were available to aid him. “Now what?” he muttered to himself, before turning to Marco, “Oi, where’s the infirmary?”
Marco lifted his head to peer blearily at Ace, his eyes rolled listlessly before slowly coming back into focus. “Just pry the bullets out, once the kairoseki is out I’ll be fine.” the Phoenix grunted in pain.
Even in this situation, Ace managed to pull off a blank expression even as his heart raced in panic, “Sorry,” he deadpanned, “I don’t pull bullets out of someone’s torso until the third date.”
The teen decided to leave the fact out that he was not going to be able to pull the bullet out without some sort of incision, and he wasn’t about to use the knife his brothers had given him to do it, not even mentioning that it was unsanitary and the blade wasn’t made for such purposes anyways. Besides, most of his more complicated medical knowledge other than basic first aid and those pertaining to Luffy’s illness was theoretical, and he didn’t want to accidentally kill the man just because of his lack of actual medical experience, especially for traumatic injuries since he was, after all, a logia.
Marco let out a pained snort, and rolled his eyes, “Leave me here any longer and there won’t even be a first one.” the man shakily raised a hand and pointed at a seemingly random hallway nearby, “Go down that hallway and turn right at the fourth door.” the man gasped out, wheezing.
“Got it.” Ace said, before dragging the taller man with him down a hallway, thankful that there was a clear symbol on the door of the infirmary, and opened the door with a light kick of his foot.
‘ I am so glad he seems to have a high pain tolerance,’ Ace thought to himself as Marco didn’t even make a peep, and was still conscious as he dragged the man into the room.
Nurses immediately swarmed them, taking Marco out of Ace’s hands and sitting the young man down to check if he was injured or not. Ace waved them away, insisting that he was fine, flinching violently as a nurse touched his left wrist. He didn’t need them to look too closely near or underneath his log pose and bracelet, and was glad that when he had first woke up on the ship with his log pose removed it didn’t seem as if anyone had noticed anything weird, or if they did they were smart or kind enough not to mention anything.
After he had nearly blew up at the over the top treatment he was receiving from the nurses, he managed to escape their grasp and run to his room, noticing as he passed by that the battle was nearly over. He slammed his door shut and locked it behind him before burrowing under his blankets, curling up into a fetal position. Muscles locked up as Ace attempted to calm his shuddering breaths, in, out, in, out, slowly, gently, his muscles relaxed over time and he released his knees from where they were curled near his chest, letting his feet pop out slightly from under the covers.
Touch was uncomfortable for Ace, to say the least. He used to hate it before his brothers changed his mind. Once they were gone, Ace had once again hated human touch, as the only touch he had received from anyone but his brothers had been those with violence, greed, or other nasty desires hidden behind them. Even Garp had punched Ace more than he had shown any physical affection with him, even with the ridiculous naming of his “Fist of Love” didn’t hide the fact that it was still violence hidden within the the care he had for his grandson.
The Red Haired Pirates, however, had come close to what his brothers had felt like when touched him, but Ace hadn’t known them for long enough, so the caring touches and signs of affection had been much too awkward for Ace and so he had tried his best to avoid them. Not even Shanks’ penchant to glomp people, especially when drunk, had made Ace give the pirate captain any more leeway than he did with the rest of the crew. While their touch was done with good intentions and care for the teen, it made Ace’s skin crawl in fear that they were becoming part of his family, that they would be put at risk if they associated with him. Now that he had already reluctantly accepted them into his mix match of a family, they were far away somewhere on the vast ocean, and Ace kind of missed the hugs the red haired Yonko gave and the reassuring pats on the shoulder the Yonko’s first mate liked to dish out to their youngest honorary member.
On the other hand, the Whitebeards were strange, their touches were filled with care and familial love just like the Red Haired Pirates, but unlike the Red Haired Pirates, they had no previous connection with him other than occasionally seeing his face in the newspaper perhaps. Ace couldn’t understand, no, didn’t want to understand, the implications behind the difference of the Whitebeards and nearly everyone else he had known.
Suddenly, the events of the day rushed past him and he remembered when Marco had joked about not having a first date even as he laying bleeding out on the ground, and heat rose to his face. He was no expert in any sort of human relationship, but he was pretty sure the older man was flirting with him. ‘ He was probably just trying to distract himself from the pain.’ Ace reasoned with himself, yet somehow, he could not shake the blush off his face, and groaned.
“I swear the Whitebeards are going to be the death of me, one way or another.” The fire logia muttered aloud turning and twisting this way and that on his bed, trying to get comfortable and absolutely failing.
His stomach grumbled, ‘
I really need to start stealing more from their storeroom or else I’ll die of starvation first
.’ Ace thought unhappily, rubbing his stomach until he fell into a fitful nap to hopefully keep his narcolepsy at bay