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Ace doesn’t have a soulmate.
No matter how many times Sabo or Makino down in the village try to convince him otherwise, he knows the truth. After all, who would want to be eternally bound to the son of the devil?
Garp tries to reason with him that maybe his soulmate just wasn’t born yet, but Ace wouldn’t hold out much hope of that. He looks down at his unmarked body and scowls.
Luffy’s hands had already started gaining marks when they had first met, tiny tattooed flowers blooming all over his fingers. Makino likes to tell him that maybe his soulmate is a future chef, cutting their fingers as they learn their way around their knives.
(“Shanks says that he could be a swordsman!” Luffy would whisper excitedly, when stars litter the sky in the dead of night and three young voices plan for their futures out at sea. “Perfect for my crew!”)
Sabo’s flowers are mostly in places that are harder to see, and he didn’t talk about them much. Ace doesn’t know if he did so in some weird attempt to comfort Ace or because he didn’t want to think about what the location of his flowers imply. Sabo’s back, neck and wrists are home to almost an entire garden of blossoms in various shapes and sizes, with a huge marigold taking up the center of his back. Luffy had been all over him the first time he saw them, bugging Sabo with questions about who he thought his soulmate could be. Ace has learned a long time ago that Sabo would never budge on the subject, always making sure to keep his neck and wrists covered at all times.
Ace has no right to judge him for wanting to be secretive. Not when every instance of someone asking him about his lack of flowers has resulted in the other party receiving a broken nose. He does wonder though, who on earth could have that many scars?
He figures that they’ll find out eventually, when Sabo meets his soulmate.
But then Sabo dies.
The flowers on his soulmate will wither, and Ace tries desperately not to think about it.
•
It’s months later, when both of their tears have dried up, that Luffy gasps and grabs his arm.
“Ace, Ace look! You have a flower!”
What
He spins around, his stomach twisting into knots. Jerking his arm out of Luffy’s grasp he takes a deep breath.
Only to find skin as blank. Just as it always has been.
Luffy squeaks pitifully in response to his glare, backing up into a tree
“T-there was a flower there! I swear!”
He crosses his arms over his face, clearly expecting Ace to hit him and obviously surprised when the blows never come.
“Ace?”
“Just shut up,” Ace spits, “hurry up, we need to get going.”
Luffy, for once, doesn’t argue.
Ace is sure that he has questions, but either the scowl on his features or the sudden development of common sense keeps him from asking them.
The truth is, Ace knows exactly what Luffy saw. He had seen it too, countless times. Tiny glimpses of blooming ink out of the corner of his eyes only to vanish when he turns to look.
For years, he had thought that it was just his lonely mind playing tricks on him, but Luffy saw it too.
He hates this. What, the universe couldn’t be happy with just not giving him a soulmate, but had to constantly tease him about it?
Garp had told him that his parents had been soulmates, that the king of pirates had truly loved his mother.
(“He loved you too Ace, they both did.”)
How cruel then, that his son was deemed unworthy.
•
Life goes on, soulmate or not, and finally, Ace sets out on his journey.
It’s everything Ace could have asked for and more. He gathers a damn fine crew if he does say so himself, accidentally eating a devil fruit in the process.
He’s making a name for himself, “Fire fist Ace”. Fucking badass. A name that has nothing to do with Roger and everything to do with him.
Whitebeard was an unexpected obstacle. He can’t say that he truly believed that he would be able to defeat him, but he certainly wasn’t expecting to be invited into his crew, especially not after he had, oh you know, tried to kill him.
His crew accepts this new arrangement far sooner than he does, and honestly he doesn’t blame them. The thing is, Whitebeard’s crew, and hell, even the man himself, they’re all so nice.
The first person that greeted him when he woke up in the infirmary after his spectacular failed attempt on Whitebeard’s life was a man with a tattoo on his chest and a mop of blond hair.
Ace is not proud of the fact that fight or flight had kicked in, causing him to lash out at the poor man that was just trying to take his vitals. The man had quickly excused himself, laughing, saying that since he was so worked up he’d let a familiar face look after him instead. Ace could have leapt out of the cot in joy when the next person to walk through that door was Deuce, who after yelling at him for messing up his bandages, filled him in on everything that he had missed out on while unconscious.
The man that he had just assaulted was none other than the first mate himself, Marco the Phoenix, a man who possessed an incredibly rare Zoan devil fruit. He was also a doctor, who apparently, upon hearing that Deuce had some medical training, had offered him access to the ship’s extensive collection of medical textbooks.
“Ace, he’s actually really cool, everyone is. The crew, your crew, I mean, is all ok. They didn’t hurt us. Actually I’m pretty sure that Whitebeard already officiated us as part of the Moby Dick.”
And it was true. One wouldn’t think that he had tried to kill their Captain just days before based on the way that the crew acted around him. As soon as he was cleared from the infirmary, people were quite literally lining up to introduce themselves. He met the various division commanders and got a taste for how truly massive this ship and crew was.
He also discovers that the entire crew referred to Whitebeard as “Pops” which was…odd.
“It’s not really weird to us.” Marco tips his head back to look up at the stars. Ace had decided to try, again, to take on the strongest man in the world. He lost. Big surprise there. Marco had found him definitely not sulking in the crows nest and had decided to stay and talk. Out of all of the commanders Marco was the one he knew the least about personally, so it struck him as odd. Not that he would say that out loud, he had some manners. “We’re like a family, you know, yoi. Brothers or whatever. Do you have any brothers?”
“Yeah,” Ace picks his head up. “One. His name is Luffy.”
“Oh? Older or younger?”
“Younger. Three years.”
“Then you understand what it means to have a family who cares about you, and you understand what it means to be the oldest brother, yoi.”
Ace looks at him skeptically.
“No way you're the oldest person on this crew.”
Marco laughs. “No, but I was the first, so that counts for something.”
They continue like that far into the night, and slowly, day by day, Ace’s walls begin to crack and crumble until he catches Deuce eyeing him one night. There’s a soft smile stretched across his face and Ace realizes that he’s been drinking and laughing for the better part of the night and he hadn’t for a moment felt uncomfortable in the company of these men.
Finally, he felt home like he hadn’t felt since he was ten years old, running towards the future with his brothers at his side.
He also started to learn that he worked well with the other crew members, both on the ship and off.
(The first time he incinerated a Marine ship in front of them was apparently spectacular enough to warrant a party to honor the event. He didn’t think that what he had done was all that special, Whitebeard told him that there was no need to be humble.
“Ya know Ace”, Thatch, the fourth division commander and Chef slurred while Haruta desperately tried to pry the pint from his fingers, “ ‘feels like we’ve been waiting forever for you.”
Anyone who commented on his flustered expression was subjected to a flaming elbow to the gut. Deuce had to learn the hard way.)
Marco though, Marco is different.
He was always the nicest, the first to offer assistance, to volunteer to show him the ropes, and offer a tour of the ship. Not to say that the others didn’t do any of that, but it was different somehow, when it was Marco. It was different when Marco told him that he was doing good. Or when he praised his skills in battle, or when he pointed out his navigational skills as they poured over maps. He was patient, supportive and, and….
“Oh, so you have a crush on him.”
Saber would later praise himself for how quickly he managed to dodge the ball of fire that he suddenly found had taken the place of his Captain.
“No I don’t”
Saber looked at him incredulously
“Dude, Ace, buddy, you just spent the last ten minutes ranting about how much you enjoy spending time with him compared to everyone else. And about how kind he is, and how much you admire the fact that he cares so much for this crew, and how strong you think he is-“
Ace slapped his hands, thankfully not on fire this time, over Saber’s mouth.
“Ok Ok I get it! Don’t be so loud they’ll hear you!”
Saber just rolls his eyes.
“So you admit it, you have a crush on him.”
Ace burrows his face in his hands. Saber laughs. Unhelpful bastard.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you just..go talk to him? I mean clearly he, at the very least, doesn’t hate being around you. He’s way closer to you than any of us. Maybe just, invite him for a drink at the next island that we stop at.”
Ace rubs at his face exasperatedly.
“Saber, I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Because Marco has a soulmate.
A row of amaryllis bloom across his shoulder and around his knuckles. Gladiolus frames his hairline. Small clumps of columbines litter his knees and ankles. Crocus blossoms line his elbows and forearms, and daisies show a form that looks suspiciously like a bite mark right on the side of his left hand.
Yes, Marco has a soulmate, someone that faith or god or whatever chose specifically for him. Someone that would complete him perfectly in every way.
Someone that Ace isn’t.
How on earth could Ace burden him with the knowledge of his affection when he knows that he could never fulfill him the way his soulmate will?
How selfish of Ace to take all of Marco’s kind and friendly gestures and interpret them as anything more than that.
But it’s hard, so hard to ignore the way Marco smiles at him, features softened by candle light, so hard to pretend that the way that Marco’s face positively lights up whenever Ace agrees to go explore various town with him doesn’t make butterflies tumblr in his belly like a blushing school girl. And Davy Jones forbid any of that happen around Deuce or Saber because they will, without fail, point out how obviously flustered he is.
The topic of soulmates had come up far sooner than Ace had hoped. He was ready to deflect the no doubt horribly prying questions upon admitting to not having one, but the crew was far more respectful about it than he could have ever imagined, gracefully dropping the subject, never singling him out of it ever came up again.
“Maybe your soulmate just hasn’t been born yet, or maybe they just happen to have no scars.”
Ace lets himself lean back against the crate that he’s sitting on. It’s long after dinner, most of the crew not on night shift duties have already gone to bed. It’s just him and Marco on deck right now, enjoying the summer night breeze. Ace tries to ignore the way his stomach flutters every time Marco brushes closer and hopes that the darkness is enough to hide the blush that has no doubt crept along his face. Although it’s probably hopeless, since it does nothing to hide Marco’s gentle smile, or his strong jaw, or-
“Ace?”
Ace jolts back to reality, mentally slapping himself right across the face.
“What? Oh right. I really don’t think so. I mean, twenty years is a long time to wait isn’t it?”
“I didn’t get my first flower until I was twenty three, yoi.”
Ace's jaw almost drops.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, yoi.”
“Wow, that's incredible. Are you one of those guys that set out hoping to find them along the way or something?”
Marco laughs. It’s a nice laugh.
“No, some of the other guys here are hopeless romantics like that, yoi, but I met Pops way before I knew I had a soulmate.”
“Did you ever give up hope? Before you knew, I mean.”
“Nah, not really.” Marco crosses his arms behind his head, looking up at the sky. “I always had this feeling, I guess. What about you?”
“I don’t know, I guess it’s just that if you never expect anything you’ll never be disappointed, you know?”
“I get that. But, I think it’s fair to expect some things from life. Everyone deserves someone to be with. No one deserves to be alone. Also, Ace, you’re a good person, and you’re pretty bright too. Even if, by some error of fate, you really don’t have a soulmate, I don’t think you have to worry about being lonely.”
Ace almost choked up, trying desperately to swallow down the feelings that threaten to spill out and over. He takes a shaky breath.
“Thanks, Marco.”
“Anytime.”
•
Looking back, it’s really anticlimactic, how it all went down.
Dinner was always an interesting affair, what with just the sheer volume of people that lived on the ship. People spilled out from the mess hall out onto the deck, coming back into the kitchen to retrieve more food or to leave a clean plate. It was always loud and warm and conversation flowed easily across and over tables.
Marco yelps beside him, having accidentally sliced his finger with his knife. It’s there for less than a second, tiny drops of blood barely having the chance to trickle out before they’re burned away by blue flames. Vista pokes at him and tells him to be more careful, laughing.
There’s a flash of ink out of the corner of his eye, just for a moment before it vanishes and Ace goes back to shoveling meat into his mouth. He’s gotten pretty good at completely ignoring it when it happens and not thinking about it when it isn’t.
“Ace, Ace oh my god.”
He only has a split second warning before Haruta yanks his arm away from his plate, bringing his hand up to his eyes, looking for something.
“What the hell? I swear I saw a flower here…”
“Yeah that happens sometimes.” Ace shrugs, nonchalant. Most of the table is looking at them now but hey, might as well explain this bullshit.
“Sometimes they just appear and disappear like that. I don’t really know what it is. I guess the world couldn’t be happy with just not giving me a soulmate but it has to tease me about it too.” He tries for a joking tone but Haruta looks way too serious for it to have landed. Haruta eventually lets go of his hand and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.
“Sorry about that.”
Ace waves him off, and is about to get up to go fill his plate again but immediately bumps into Vista as he does so.
“Hold on a second, please Ace. Haruta, where exactly did you say you saw the flowers?”
“On his finger, here.” And great, his hand is being grabbed again.
”Oh.”
Ace throws his free arm in the air, exasperated.
“‘Oh’ what can someone please explain what’s so interesting about my hand?”
He looks over Vista’s shoulder, hoping to catch Marco’s eye and get out of this situation but Marco is already staring at him. Eyes wide and mouth dropped open like he’s scared? Worried? Shocked? Ace can’t tell, and it’s unnerving him.
“Marco, hey, Marco what’s wrong? You ok? What- hey!”
Ace watches , stunned, as Marco grabs his knife and slices a line clean down the palm of his hand, and Ace’s stomach drops like lead as an equal line of honeysuckle opens on his own palm. Vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared as Marco’s wound is swallowed by his healing flames.
Oh
Silence falls over the dining hall, and the sudden weight of all of their stares finally hit Ace and all of a sudden he can’t breathe. The low buzzing of whispers and murmurs sound like thunder clashing in his ears, or maybe that’s just the wild beating of his heart.
People are starting to get up out of their seats to clamor around them and Ace needs to leave, to think, to get somewhere alone.
“Ace..” Marco moves towards him, arm outstretched and Ace runs.
Pushing past the crowd gathered around him, dissolving any part of his body that gets grabbed into flames until he bursts out of the dining hall and onto the deck. He races across it, dodging various crew mates questions and weird gazes until he minds himself, unintentionally, outside the same storeroom in which he had first confessed his affections to Saber weeks ago.
He lets himself crumble into a pile of old blanks and takes a few deep breaths with the goal of steadying himself but all he succeeds in doing is making himself more aware of the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
Damn it. Looking back now, finally all the small hints started to make sense. How the disappearing flowers would pop up more frequently during battles or when Marco was away on missions. How some of Marco’s flowers are in strangely recognizable places.
How it had taken Marco so long to receive his first flower, because Ace hadn’t been born yet.
He can’t decide whether he wants to laugh or cry.
Because the thing was, Ace had finally truly been ok with not having a soulmate, had even convinced himself that it was better this way. After all, if would just put the other at risk, being tied so intimately to the son of the devil. His mother was hunted down for being the pirate king’s soulmate. He can’t imagine that the marines would change their tune for their son.
And that was another thing, how would they react to Ace’s secret? Deuce currently was the only one who knew, and even he had originally left Ace after finding out. Could Ace survive rejection from the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with? He didn’t think he could, so it was better to not bother at all.
But now, all that was thrown under a speeding train, because not only did he now know for sure that he had a soulmate, but he was right in front of him.
He knew that, eventually, he would have to leave the storage room to face not only Marco, but the whole crew. For now though, he let his head hang in between his arms in silent despair.
His entire body stiffens at the knock on the door. It’s not locked, and the other person probably knows that, and Ace knows exactly who it is.
“Ace,” Marco murmurs from the other side of the door. “Can I come in please?”
Ace takes another breath, he keeps taking them even though they don’t seem to be helping much. Might as well rip this band aid off now rather than later.
“Ok.”
The door opens and closes, the quiet sound reverberating throughout the whole room. Marco doesn’t make a move to come closer, instead choosing to lean against the door, eyes cast downward. Tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“I’m sorry.” Marco speaks first, voice low and nothing like the sure and confident tone he normally has. “I shouldn’t have done that, in front of everybody. I’m sorry, yoi.”
Ace worries his lip, eventually looking up to meet Marco’s gaze. “I’m sorry too, for running and making a scene. I was just overwhelmed and surprised, I guess.”
Marco gives a small smile. “I was too. I hadn’t thought about how the Phoenix would affect the soul flowers, I didn’t even know it could. I guess I should apologize for that too, yoi, for making you believe that you had no soulmate for all these years.”
Ace chokes up, and Marco jumps when he starts to sob.
“It was..it was better that way, Marco. I can’t, I can’t have a soulmate. I can’t.”
“What the hell? Ace what do you mean?”
Marco was starting towards Ace now, and Ace couldn’t bear to look at his careful and concerned expression, like Ace was something precious that needed looking after.
“I just, I just can’t. It-“ he chokes, “you’d probably hate me for it. And I don’t think that I can keep it a secret. Not forever.” His mother had taken great lengths to keep Ace’s parentage a secret, but between fists of love and telling him to stop being so hard on himself Garp would occasionally let slip that the hunt for the pirate king's son was still unofficially on. There’s no telling how much longer Ace had before he found out.
“Try me. Seriously Ace I highly doubt that you could have done something to make me hate my own soulmate.” That word makes wings flutter in his stomach damn it. “Whatever it is, tell me and we can work through it.”
“There’s nothing that can be done about it!” And shit Ace hadn’t meant to yell.
“Well we won’t know unless you tell me about it! I don’t know if you trust me yet Ace, but I trust you. We can fix whatever it is.”
Ace wants to laugh, or cry, or both. “You can’t fix who your parents are.”
Marco’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Ace barely notices through the curtain of unshed tears.
“I’m the son of the devil, Marco, the son of the pirate king. I’m cursed. I shouldn’t have a soulmate. I shouldn’t have even been born- oof”
Marco had all but barreled into Ace’s chest, squeezing him tight and Ace splutters, breath stolen not just from the act of actually having the air squeezed out of him.
“Don’t-don’t talk about yourself like that Ace.”
Ace tenses up, but it’s so hard not to give into the embrace and just let himself fall into Marco’s hold.
“Ace, do you really think that I would hate you, that any of us would hate you just because of who your father was?”
Ace can barely speak, he’s too busy choking on unshed tears.
“I’m glad that you told me Ace, I can’t imagine the weight you’ve been carrying around, yoi.”
That breaks him more than anything else Marco could have said. He shatters. Right there in that dusty storeroom, and cries. Making a right mess of Marco’s shirt but nevertheless he supports him through it, running a soothing hand up and down his back until the sobs die down into sniffles and finally Ace pulls away enough to look Marco in the eyes.
“Marco, they killed my mother, the navy, for being my father’s soulmate. And I can’t, I can’t be the reason that the Navy goes after you too.”
“Oh Ace, the Navy’s after me anyway, and thrust me, we can handle the Navy. And even if I wasn’t already a wanted man, I’d still want to be with you Ace. I love you, I really do. I think I have since I first saw you.”
“I did too, I guess I didn’t say anything because I felt selfish wanting you for myself when you had a soulmate and I didn’t.”
Marco snorts. “Funny how that turned out.”
Ace smiles up at him. “Yeah”
He has no idea how long the two of them spent in that damn store room. It could have been ten minutes or ten years and neither felt long enough when Marco pulled away.
“We should probably head back up. Let everyone know that we haven’t maimed each other or something. Also Haruta really wants to say sorry for kinda sorta causing all this, yoi.”
“I guess we should. I also need to apologize, I think I burned a hole in someone’s shirt.”
They make a show of walking out on deck hand in hand, laughing as the entire crew cheers.
It’s not long before pops calls for a toast, and drink in hand, half splayed on Marco’s lap Ace lets himself relax.
It’s going to be alright.