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“All right, guys. You have two hours to find all of the eggs. There are two hundreds of them hidden in the gardens. One of them has a ring inside. No eating the eggs before we gather here, because we want you to be somewhat sober when counting them. We will award a person with biggest number of eggs, a person that can stand after eating them all and a person who finds the ring inside. The rules are clear, so good hunt!” Announced Marco and whistled on his fingers to start the hunt.
All of the Newgate family plus their partners began searching. Marco and Pops sat down to watch others frantically running and/or systematically going through the giant gardens of Moby Dick mansion. Marco was helping with organizing the event and he was better off watching other enjoying themselves than joining them. He also could being nervous on his own without the prying eyes of his boyfriend, Ace, burning holes into his back.
Ace on the other hand was now frantically searching for the eggs. He had quite a nice pile of them already, but he was aiming for getting them all, so he had no time to spare. He already searched at the obvious places, and so now he was going through bushes of honeysuckle. Oh, look, there they were, he thought when he spotted two chocolate eggs hiding under the thick branches. He put them into his basket and then he spotted one in the treetop of a close apple tree. He climbed up the tree to get them. He had to leave his basket on the ground though, because it was hard to hold it while trying to climb up the tree. Suddenly, a shadow flashed past. Ace couldn’t see properly, because he was already covered by the lowest branches but as soon as he grabbed the egg up there, he rushed down to protect his basket. Someone had to mess up with it while he was careless. Must’ve been Thatch or Haruta, those two were competitive devils and Ace cursed himself for not hiding the basket better. But as soon as he reached his basket, he sighed in a relief, the basket was left untouched. Good grief, he was lucky he managed to bump into a fairer member.
“Last five minutes!” Yelled Marco in a close distance. Ace carefully put the new chocolate egg into his basket and ran to search for more. He found a few more and overall, he was quite happy with his haul. He managed to get around 25 eggs. On his way back, he spotted another two, adding them immediately into his basket while he had some time.
“The end! Stop searching!” Whistled Marco. After everyone gathered near the two large tables on the terrace, they put their baskets on said tables and Marco began counting the eggs. Luckily, it looked like the participants managed to find all 200, so he didn’t have to go search for them after the event finishes. He put down the order of people according to their number of eggs. And began reading them.
“In the third place we have Jozu’s girlfriend Genevieve! Congratulations Genevieve, a nice third place with 22 eggs.” Said Marco with a smile. A round of applause followed and Jozu kissed his girlfriend, smiling fondly.
“Now only two contestants remain. Who’s gonna be today’s winner? Izo or Ace?” Asked Marco, trying to hype them up. The other members shouted their favorite’s name! Marco smiled. He already knew the answer, but a healthy competition was not a bad thing.
“The second place: a big applause for… Ace! He found astonishing amount of 27 eggs! Which leaves with our winner of this segment, Izo, who defeated Ace by only one egg, collecting 28 egg in total!” Announced Marco and the participants burst in a shouting and applauding both contestants. It was a tight victory for Izo, so Ace deserved a big applause as well. Now only two other segments were left. To find out the person, who has the ring and to eat the alcoholic eggs. Those two were supposed to happen simultaneously, while they’ll eat the eggs.
“Let’s continue. Now we’ll eat the eggs. Prepare your first egg. Aaand… begin eating.” Whistled Marco again and sat down again. The members began eating the eggs and Marco began slowly sweating. It was approaching.
Ace began eating. Some of the alcoholic shots were good, some of them were worse, but he was managing so far. He ate just around five eggs. He picked up the sixth egg and put it into his mouth. Fight after he cracked the chocolate shell, he noticed something was different. He felt his mouth fill with alcohol and something other. But instead of just the ring, he found two things in his mouth. He spat out the things and widened his eyes. There was indeed the promised ring. Then there was a little laminated piece of paper. And there were words printed on it.
Whitebeard noticed Ace’s shocked look and clapped his hands.
“Attention please. We finally have a winner of the ring hunt. And we have a special occasion here, so please silence for a moment. Ace, son, come here, please.”
Paralyzed Ace slowly walked closer to Whitebeard. Marco stood next to Whitebeard nervous but prepared for what was to come. He took a breath and spoke.
“The ring was hiding in one of Ace’s eggs. I hid it among them on purpose. Because it’s not an ordinary ring.” Marco turned to Ace, his eyes shaking with what he was about to say.
“Ace, we know each other for three years, we went through good times and bad times as well. Those last three years were the best years of my life. I realized I don’t need anything more if I have you. So now, I’m asking you: Ace, would you like to marry me and become my husband?” Marco lowered himself on one knee and held Ace’s hands in which the ring was lying, still partially covered in chocolate and vodka, Ace’s favourite out of all alcoholic beverages.
Ace’s eyes swelled and a small tear run down his cheek. It was a happy tear. Ace smiled and nodded eagerly, unable to say a word and threw himself around Marco’s shoulders.
“Y-yes! Oh my god, yes!” He cried out holding Marco like his own life. He didn’t notice the members of Newgate family clapping and whistling, he didn’t notice Pops smiling fondly at them. He had eyes only for his Marco. Marco pulled out a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the ring a bit before slipping it onto Ace’s finger. Another round of applause surrounded them and the two briefly kissed each other.
Whitebeard put his large palms on their backs, patting them proudly. Then he laughed out loud, like he usually did, and roared.
“Looks like we’re having a banquet this evening, guys!”