Chapter Text
Marco is everywhere Ace goes. It has been like that for a while. But right now, he is exactly where Ace likes.
The warmth of his breath ghosts over Ace’s cheeks, the fall and rise of his chest softly meets his own. Maybe Ace imagines it, but that rhythm has somewhat fastened since they gotten this close and now they are perfectly in sync. Marco’s fingers hover over his back indecisively until they finally settle, curving around his waist in a gentle press that has Ace’s body request a shiver. Ace denies. Although surely, this is the first time in his career that he has to suppress emotions instead of acting them up.
“Well,” Marco says, voice warm. “I’m starting to think that we’re contractually obligated to be in each other’s lives.”
“You think?” Ace asks back. “You signed your live away to this for the next three months”
The tip of Marco’s nose is brushing his and Ace tries his best to keep the look on his face in the realm of defiance. Although he wouldn’t be surprised to learn it has drifted past that 5 minutes ago and has now hit swooning. There is nothing unwilling about this situation that he wants more than anything. And more than any pose before, Ace wants this to never end.
“Great!” Marco’s manager and pose instructor elect compliments. “Darlings, you really sell me the love!”
And his comment has both of them blushing. Next to him, their real photographer looks miffed. “No!” he grouses. “Now it looks too real!”
His fingers meet his forehead as if they are terribly hard to work with. First they looked too happy, then too bored and now it’s apparently too convincing. But Ace doesn’t mind, so long as it prolongs this proximity. Knowing this won’t be the last of it is the cherry on top.
“Romance, romance, romance,” he says, tipping his fingers, spiky nails first into his forehead. “That’s the whole problem here! It’s supposed to be a bromance!”
Marco’s manager looks a little worried and like any minute he might step in. After all the photographer is basically yelling his sentences now. Not that it’s very intimidating and internally Ace can only roll his eyes. Romance, bromance… as if it made a difference. Realistically they are just filming the gayest shit a big cable network has dared to order for the prime time sending spot.
“Let’s try something else,” the man laments. “Marco you back down a little as Ace leans in.”
Finally a man for his vision, Ace thinks. The smug smile plays itself out on his lips as he carefully moves closer while Marco backs away a little. His breath smells like the chocolate covered strawberries Ace has spotted at the buffet earlier. But he didn’t have time to try them since he’s run late. He would not mind tasting them from Marco’s lips.
Oh god, what am I thinking? Ace tries to focus back on the task. Promotions. Fotoshooting. Look smug. Look cheeky. Lean into Marco. Yes, certainly this isn’t the worst job his management has ever booked him.
“You smell so nice,” Ace's mouth blurts and promptly flusteres them both.
“It's… I–,” Marco scratches his neck, a finger slipping beneath the collar.
For some reason Ace has to register and it has to register as sexy and intimate despite knowing Marco doesn't mean to go for that.
*I'm not wearing any scent,” Marco finally finishes and he's blushing noticeably now. Their photographer notices as well. Somewhere far away in Ace's brain, his agitated complaint and a sound like he is throwing his hands in the air are registered. Not that he cares.
Secretly Ace is very thankful for the ever present greedy instinct of both managements to leech onto every viral moment, to milk it until forevernever. Capitalize on the hype their show appearance has created for as long as someone’s willing to ship. Their fans are thirsting for more and to a degree Ace can understand. His fans and he are excited about the same thing, and Ace doesn’t mind sharing a bit of it, to get a chance at more.
He wouldn’t mind if everyone else could just get lost for a moment though, as he stares into Marco’s pale blue eyes and they stare back into his in a way that confuses Ace more than he can comprehend.
Maybe a little surprise adoption by aliens? Or an urgent mass evacuation drill that only he and Marco are miraculously exempt from? Ace decides that it wouldn’t matter to him how bizarre, he’d accept any scenario that gifts him this moment with Marco, but alone, unblinking.
“You keep staring like that, I'm gonna get ideas,” Ace hears himself mumble. It's outrageous what his mouth and brain do without consulting first.
Marco seems to agree, this time he's not even able to blush he just blinks away for a moment as if confused then his eyes land back on Ace's face. And Ace can see how his words register as the tease they are and Marco snorts a little. “Do you always talk like this?”
“Great,” Helmeppo exclaims, “now they're laughing!” His hands are thrown into the air again, his lips pinched.
“Closer,” he incentivizes unnerved and Ace doesn’t have to be asked twice.
Any moment now it’ll look too real or too gay for his taste again, Ace thinks with a grin. He steps forward flashing something that is supposed to look apologetical at Marco. Careful, not to cross any lines of decency Marco might want drawn. But there’s no resistance, with every inch of distance closed, Marco simply smiles at him more. Ace stops just short of their foreheads touching.
“Less smiling, Marco,” Helmeppo’s voice sounds almost bored when he twangs like that. “You’re annoyed at this nosey journalist that keeps bothering you about a case you lost your entire career to!”
Marco’s eyes stare at Ace almost forlorn for a moment's worth like he cannot comprehend how he’s supposed to look at him upset. Then he gulps and seems to regain control.
“No! No. Something’s missing,” Helmeppo wails, his voice a whiney pitch.
Probably the only person in the room unsatisfied with their chemistry. Which is surprising. Was their initial dynamic one laced with clear awkwardness? Sure. But since they have spend a lot of time. Professionally.
Whenever Ace is booked for anything, a role, a show, an interview and even during volunteer work, it is almost guaranteed that Marco will jump from behind a curtain or crawl from below a table or dance out of a cake. It is even safe to assume one of the crew members might me Marco in case he hasn’t shown up towards the end of any gig. That’s happened just last week. It isn't like Ace will complain about it. In a way, he is thankful that their managers, who surprisingly seem to get along splendidly, have seized the opportunity to bring them together as often as possible. Which grants them excuses to hang out as often as possible. And Ace is not mad about that.
Well, apart from one problem.
Marco is everybody’s darling.
“A wall!” Helmeppo screams excitedly, his left eyelid is spasming rhythmically, which worries Ace more than just a little.
His sudden outbreak seems to install a similar level of confidence in Marco, who exchanges a worried glance and a hushed “that’s not normal, is it?” with Ace. They agree that it is not.
Turns out Helmeppo wants Marco against a wall. “Ugh, this is genius, perfection. It’s grand cinema!” He shouts as if he personally has invented the wall.
Marco grins at Ace and Ace expects immediate scolding but Helmeppo is too excited about his genius to notice. He rambles on about how subversive it is, that Ace as the smaller one (by like half a head. Come on, Helmeppo!) is pinning Marco to the wall. That he is encirceling him, that that is a perfect allegory for… whatever. Ace doesn’t pay more attention.
“Grand cinema!” Marco’s manager Ivankov validates, but he winks at Marco and Ace as he says it.
Ace is almost glad his manager is stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it. She could be a bit… intense. In a wholly different way from Ivankov. Ace instantly liked the man and liked Marco even more for hiring him. If he needed more confirmation that Marco might just be open to… Well, Ace certainly is collecting the little clues. Keeping them like treasure.
Although, he would have preferred to have Marco to himself. Like just once. Cause that is the big problem. They are never alone.
Marco is everybody’s darling.
No matter how hard Ace tries to make Marco a presence in his private life, the chances are obscured. Something always comes between them, or rather someone.
The first time, when they have gone to dinner after the variety show? Ace has gotten to know Ivankov more than Marco. Then they’ve wanted to try out cliff jumping but Marco’s best friend Aokiji has tagged along. Going for the free fall tower they were followed by a stalker fan and when they’ve just met up for dinner in the city they were recognized by their waiter, a normal fan. And then another and another. And the last time, as they’ve hiked up a mountain, expecting mostly the elderly folks to be into that, there were some more. By the end of the day everyone and their dog has had to get a photo with Marco and Ace, even a horde of seniors spotted them and despite not seeming to recognize either, they took a picture with them as if they were the mountain attraction, as if taking a photo with them is some seasoned traditional ritual. And as sweet as it was, Marco gathering half his company for the run he invited Ace to, there was a camera to vlog it all as well…
All in all it feels more like they are holding surprise fanmeetings and going on friendventures than it feels like they are getting anywhere. Certainly not anywhere near a date.
Boa Hancock arrives just as Helmeppo, still blissfully grinning to himself, announces that the shoot is over. Ace can barely tell Marco goodbye as she yanks him aside and inquires how it went. Boa Hancock has an interrogation-like style of asking. And talking. And walking. She’s wonderfully blunt. And of the opinion that only she can talk to Ace like that. Anyone else and she’ll rip them to tears.
✧
“What if he’s forgotten?” Ace whines into the phone.
Boa next to him is wearing her headphones and is doing one of her car meditations. Sometimes Ace wonders if she really meditates or if she just needs an excuse not to talk to him between gigs. Boa hates unnecessary talking.
“He’s not,” Robin assures, but her voice lacks real convincing power as if she’s just rattling off a list of things Ace needs to be told.
Kinda their dynamic these days.
“You’ll have an entire tv show to film. Plenty of gifted time to test your worst assumptions.”
Robin is right. It’s just that at some point Ace has started to wonder whether Marco is just incredibly popular with friends, or not really interested in Ace. His blushes and stuttering today tell a different story. While it's fun to flirt with Marco in public, Ace wants to flirt with him in private.
“He seems to have enough best friends already,” Ace huffs, aware how sulky that sounds. Outside the leaves are starting to catch colors.
“That’s a given. There’s fifteen other men in his group alone,” Robin says dryly. “Plus it’s Marco.”
Golden retriever Marco. Yeah.
Right.
“You’re just confused that not everyone is so full of energy, yet so low on social appetite.”
“HEY!” he shouts and she giggles. Then he has to laugh as well.
Again, Robin is right. As a rule of thumb he spends about half his time around a lot of people and the other half alone or with a select few, he’s closest to. Maybe Marco works differently. Maybe…
“There’s no way he dates like that though?” he says incredulously.
Robin laughs. “Who knows, maybe you were invited to group dates all along.”
“Who does he think he is? The bachelor?”
That seems to wake up Boa Hancock. “There’s a new bachelor?”
Boa is a reality tv addict. And she knows literally everyone who’s ever graced a tv screen. Very helpful when she’s feeding him names at award shows. She has some photographic type of memory for faces and even knows a few pointers about them.
Ace can’t decide, does he want to see her office or would it be like walking into an obsessive police officer’s investigation board room. Marco might want to visit for research purposes to prepare for his role.
“I was just joking.”
She glares at him, clearly upset and about to comment something like ‘that’s no joking matter’, but they’ve arrived at the record studio for the radio show.
To Robin he says. “Thanks, you really know how to push my ego. I’ll have to hang up now.”
Robin laughs and answers, “Your ego needs no pushing. And if you can’t trust your gut on this one just trust mine.”
Ace spares her the comment about her IBS flares. He would never trust that gut.
His phone bings. Your manager looks like a supermodel. It’s Marco.
If Ace is frequently accused of being the most random texter, texting as a stream of consciousness, then Marco surely is the most attentive one Ace has encountered. Since knowing him, Ace's phone buzzes and bings with little messages and pictures constantly. Something always reminds Marco of something they've talked about. And Marco remembers well.
Without having to think for a second Ace’s fingers fly to type the response. Says the man whose manager has won multiple pageants.
Instead of a text Marco sends back a picture. It shows him lifting Ivankov in a beautiful glitter gown with a tiara on her head. Her sherpa says “Miss Drag Korea 2023”. And not even the giant flower bouquet that tries to hide half of Marco’s face, can conceal the giant, proud smile that spreads across his lips.
It’s adorable. Especially knowing it was Marco’s idea to sign up for drag pageants at all.
More than anything, Ace knows that he wants to kiss this hype beast of a man. And maybe he would even like to keep him. He shouldn’t be feeling like this, after knowing Marco little longer than a few months and a handful of truly private conversations, but he just… does.
Marco, Ace realizes, might be too dangerous to play with.
Contextless, he sends back a photo taken during his last vacation. They’re at the beach bar. Boa Hancock wears a straw hat and frowns for the camera.
Week 1 of shooting “Cold Fires”