To Catch a Phoenix (Marco x Reader) - Part 6
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You broke another piece off the roll and placed it carefully in the palm of your hand.
“Gentle,” you warned.
You unfurled your fingers and the news coo immediately snatched the piece. You watched it swallow the thing whole in disappointment and sighed. Greedy. You broke off another piece to keep it occupied while you flipped the newspaper over once more to read through the remaining pages.
Nothing of interest.
You hadn’t expected there to be much to read about but you’d bribed this coo for so long it felt cruel to ignore it now.
It hopped forward onto your leg to get to the rest of the roll and you placed its paper back into its bag while it scoffed the bread down.
“Eat slower,” you reprimanded. “You’re going to choke yourself.”
It, naturally, did not listen. It immediately attempted to swallow half at once. You clicked your tongue and nudged it from your leg. It didn’t die. Once it managed to get its food down, it stood there, waiting for more before you shooed it away.
Only then did it take off and return to its paper route through the sky. You dusted the crumbs from your hands and watched it go, white wings vast against the blue horizon.
Funny. Lately, you’d started to find many birds looked quite unimpressive.
Somebody called your name and you leaned over the crow’s nest to find the source. Haruta gestured you down. You sighed.
Sometimes you missed being with the Spade Pirates. They never had to do this amount of work to keep the ship running.
“Marco was meant to approve a route through this next stretch of islands,” Haruta told you once your boots hit the deck. “He wasn’t at breakfast today. Did he give anything to you?”
“Why would he give something to me?”
“You’re also awake at ridiculous hours like he is.”
Denial would be foolish. Half of the Whitebeard Pirates had attached themselves to the idea of your crush and you were yet to correct any of them. They gave you small jobs like this in return for your dishonesty.
“Go and grab it from him, please,” Haruta said. “I want to discuss it with the rest of the division.”
You gave a small salute, tapping two fingers to the side of your head. Marco should be in his office at this time. There were benefits to his rigid schedule. If he wasn’t there, somebody else had had an emergency but for now…
The door was ajar.
You came to a curious stop. Reflected against the wooden cabinets, a faint blue glow coloured the room. The hue was familiar enough.
You pressed your palm against the door and, quiet as you could, nudged it open.
Marco was fully transformed. Nothing but feathers and blue flames that appeared weakly over his body. He didn’t lift his head at your entrance.
Oh?
The realisation softened your footsteps as you took a very careful look over where his head was tucked against his body. He was asleep. Actually so. Settled atop his desk and half his work but very clearly asleep.
You stepped in and he didn’t rouse.
The brilliant blue of his feathers glowed against the sprawling papers. Flecks of embers fell from their surface, drifting carefully down before dispersing over the stacks.
His chest rose and fell steadily.
If you’d had the option, you didn’t want to wake him. He looked far smaller here than he did on deck. Those massive wings were pressed tightly into his sides.
You quietly stepped around the desk and looked over the papers not under him.
You found invoicing from the previous port, an enormous report on the ship’s current capacity, a detailed breakdown of the storeroom’s cold storage, and by that point, you were already starting to see double.
How he went through all of this in one day…
Marco shifted and his one wing adjusted. Beneath a flash of gold, you spotted the corner of the map.
Of course.
You moved back to the front of the desk, every step light. It had been years since you’d last had to stalk so quietly but your muscles remembered. So did the thrill of adrenaline. You carefully reached for the paper, hand slotting into the warm space under his wing.
His eye didn’t snap open.
He blinked twice as though carefully roused, head tilting up as he stretched his neck.
You scratched the side of it before he looked to you. Partially on instinct. You’d calmed many birds that way and for a second, it seemed to work. Marco rolled his head to the side to allow the touch to continue. You managed to catch the edge of the route map. You pulled and he adjusted his weight enough that you managed to get it out.
Something sharp pinched your finger.
You startled, hand jumping away from his neck. His feathers had ruffled along his neck. But he hadn’t transformed yet. Interesting.
You smiled and moved your hand close to his neck again. His beak snapped sharply at your fingers.
“Aw come on,” you teased. “You were enjoying it.”
He snapped at your hand again. You laughed and dodged around the bite, baited it to the left and then managed to get a scratch on the right. A faint churring sound rumbled through his chest before his beak clicked shut close to your fingers.
Another nip made you withdraw your hand with a giggle.
He was actually biting at you.
“Ow,” you complained and you flicked your hand. “That hurt.”
Marco brought his head close to you and you grabbed for him. Your fingers closed around his beak. He twisted himself back but you held firm, keeping him there long enough to press a kiss straight onto the top of his forehead.
He froze.
His feathers were already raised from the playing and you smoothed them down over his head and neck. He stared at you with wide eyes as you let go of his beak.
“You drew blood,” you pointed out, raising the hand so he could see the small chunk taken from the side.
He looked at it but didn’t move.
“Anyway,” you said. “I’ve got what I came here for. You can go back to sleep now.”
You lifted the approved route so he could see you’d taken it. You made sure to close the door properly behind you as you stepped out.
Haruta stared at your hand when you passed over the map. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“Caught myself on a corner,” you said. “It’s not too bad.”
“Should have had Marco fix it up for you while you were there.”
You shrugged.
You doubted Marco would have healed it. He had looked far too stunned at your method of shushing him. He… probably didn’t mind. Even if he did, you couldn’t bring yourself to feel too bad about it. He had bitten you quite hard. True, not as hard as it could have been but it still burned.
A small kiss on the head was something he could deal with as punishment.
“Did you know he sleeps in his office?” you asked Haruta. “Hardly seems comfortable.”
Haruta shrugged. “Sounds right. There have been times when Thatch has taken dinner down there because he won’t eat otherwise.”
“As a bird.”
“As a bird?”
“He was a phoenix,” you said with a nod. “Fully.”
Haruta thought about it. “Strange.”
It was the confirmation you had wanted. Marco sleeping was already unusual. Marco sleeping as a phoenix gave you something new to think about. And a perfect opportunity if he planned to make a habit of it.
He hadn’t moved at your approach. Hadn’t even lifted his head until you were almost touching his side.
And indoors, he couldn’t fly away to escape.
“Please go bandage that,” Haruta said.
You looked toward your hand and sighed. Right. Somebody had bitten you hard enough to draw blood.
The infirmary was decently occupied but Deuce lifted his head when you called his name. He was a good ally to have. You were quite sure none of the nurses trusted how often you came down to bother Marco.
To be fair, you did disrupt their work constantly.
You continued to do it now, not moving from the entrance to one of the beds like you knew you should.
Deuce took one look at your hand and the chunk missing from your finger before he gathered some bandages. “I told you not to feed that bird,” he muttered.
“How do you know it’s from a bird?” you asked, jokingly.
“Don’t you remember when you first started baiting it over and it used to nip you all the time?”
“It likes me well enough now.”
“Clearly not enough.”
You heard his footsteps without even needing to turn but you did, twisting your head around to smile at Marco when he stepped through. He was far more awake than he had been several minutes ago.
And you could have sworn you saw a flicker of guilt in his expression when he noticed you.
Interesting.
“I got bitten by a bird,” you said as way of explanation. And to tease.
Marco’s expression shifted into something more measured. He looked around the infirmary toward the others.
“She feeds albatrosses,” Deuce explained and the uncertainty fled.
You sighed at him. Did he have to ruin your games without even knowing it?
“I see, yoi,” Marco said. “How deep is it?”
Deuce lifted your hand up. “It’s not deep. I’ll clean it and wrap it, but bites can turn nasty if you leave them.”
“I can heal it then,” Marco said.
You shuffled a step away from him. Deuce had to fumble to catch whatever you knocked away from your hand but you offered no apology.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” you said to Marco. “There are plenty of others here who are more in need of your powers.”
“I thought you wanted to see my powers in action,” he replied. “Or have you changed your mind?”
“It’ll mean more if you use them when I’m bleeding out from a deathly wound,” you reassured.
“Does that happen often enough that you look forward to it?”
“You’d be surprised,” Deuce muttered. “Can you take a seat please? You’re moving too much.”
You smiled innocently but made your way to one of the beds, only a little surprised when Marco followed. An action that was more surprising to the rest of the first division who gave small looks toward their commanding officer’s path.
“He’s talking about the time a boar nearly gored me,” you explained.
“I actually forgot about that,” Deuce said. “I was thinking about that time you slid down a hill and knocked yourself out for almost a minute.”
“Strangely, I don’t remember that.”
“Not very surprising.”
Marco hummed and reached for the bandages. You swiped them before he could and tossed them to Deuce.
Deuce paused, hands wrapped around them.
“You’re too busy to worry about a bird bite,” you told Marco. “Look how many people want your attention.”
He stayed only a second before he stepped away from the bed. “Make sure you give her something for potential infections.”
“Not needed,” you said. “He’s a clean bird.”
Deuce didn’t notice it. You were certain nobody else in the medical bay did. But you witnessed Marco briefly roll his eyes at you. It wasn’t a full roll. But you caught it.
And that made your entire day.
It carried you through the boring navigation meetings and the interesting sharpshooting drills. Your elation only began to fade as night dragged on and you found yourself in the galley. It was quiet; the kitchen filled only with the rolling of the water and the steam of the coffee.
You leaned against one of the counters just as a flash of blue passed by the windows. A shade you had begun to know very well.
Your boots were quiet as you walked out on the deck and made your way to the benches. So, Marco was on watch tonight then?
He looped lazily around the masts as you settled in.
Above you, the sky unfurled in an inky black satin. Constellations painted the heavens from horizon to horizon. You could stare up at them for ages. You kept one eye on Marco while you did and it wasn’t long before he drew closer.
He landed next to you and took the seat across from you. You held up your bandaged hand and his eyes darted to it. His expression remained still.
“You deserved that, yoi.”
You laughed. “Maybe. Haruta asked me to get the route plan from your office.”
“You could have asked,” he said.
“You didn’t have to bite me for it.”
He chuckled and leaned back in the bench. He looked around lazily to check nobody else could hear the accurate claim. At this time of night, only you sat on the deck anyway. The cool wind was the only thing that might overhear.
“You grabbed my beak,” he said.
“Because you bit me,” you pointed out.
“I’ve never had to consider this as potential insubordination before,” he said. “Because somehow nobody else has ever thought grabbing my beak was a good idea, yoi.”
“Is it insubordination if I’m not in your division?”
“Yes.”
You shrugged. “It was so you didn’t bite my face or something when I kissed your head. You were nipping at me.”
He watched you, amusement settling in his expression. “I was going to ask about that next.”
“Were you planning on biting my face?” you asked.
“No,” he chuckled. “But I want to speak to you. Once, I can call it an accident. You’ve made a habit of it now. I’m not a regular bird you can scratch and play with, as much as it might seem that way when I’ve transformed.”
You raised an eyebrow. This lecture felt very half-hearted. Rehearsed, even.
“You don’t enjoy the scratches?”
He didn’t answer and the silence damned him entirely. You couldn’t help but laugh. The sound felt louder on the deck. Marco’s lips turned up at the corners and he shook his head.
“I’ll stop scratching you,” you promised. “And I’m sorry if it offended you.”
“It didn’t offend me, yoi. Just don’t forget I’m still me when I’ve got feathers.”
“I know that,” you reassured.
“Do you? Because that kiss felt as though it was meant to shush an animal.”
You took a sip from your drink and smiled at him. “I would not kiss a random bird that was trying to bite me a few seconds ago. That’s a good way to lose an eye… or get some form of disease.”
Marco crossed his arms over his chest. “Then what was it for?”
“Because it would be far harder to do that when you’re human. You’re a bit tall.”
He chuckled quietly. “That’s not a hunting technique I’ve heard of before.”
“It’s a distraction technique,” you said. “I wanted the map you were sitting on. Which I managed to take because it worked perfectly.”
“You took something from my desk?”
Smugness stole its way into your smile. He hadn’t noticed?
“Did you think I was in there to play with you?” you asked innocently.
He readjusted his seat, still for a second before he sighed. “You could have asked, yoi. I had already approved the map for Haruta this morning. I worried I’d forgotten to hand it over when I couldn’t find it.”
“Now I know what distractions work on you,” you said. “Because I pulled it out from under you while you were awake.”
He didn’t appear too pleased with that but the ease hadn’t faded from him. Offence, perhaps? That anybody had managed to do that rather than worry about the fact that you had.
“I was very tired,” he admitted.
“You still are,” you pointed out.
He raised an eyebrow at you. “And how do you know that?”
“Because a twenty minute, interrupted nap is not sleeping,” you responded. “You couldn’t have been asleep for that long. The desk wasn’t even warm under you. And I know you didn’t go back to sleep after I left because you walked past ten minutes later.”
Marco shook his head in disbelief, a soft breath out your only response. You offered your cup of coffee out and after a brief pause, he took it from you.
“You don’t normally sleep as a phoenix, I imagine?” you asked.
“Sometimes, yoi,” he admitted without much care for the information it offered. “In situations where being a person is more uncomfortable.”
“You could have gone to a bed.”
“I wasn’t meaning to sleep at all.”
“Then why not sleep now?” you pointed out. “I’m certain at least somebody else could take this watch.”
He shook his head immediately. “That’s not necessary. Everybody else is asleep already and they need to be to ensure tomorrow runs smoothly. Otherwise, it’s more work.”
“I’m not asleep,” you pointed out.
“You are not part of this crew yet,” he said. “You shouldn’t be on watch at all.”
You hummed and looked over the quiet seas and midnight blue sky. What was there that would threaten a crew of this magnitude? Not much. Maybe a sudden storm or wind change but that wouldn’t hide from you.
“Maybe,” you conceded. “But I’m far less distractable than you.”
“You’ve distracted me once, yoi. When I had just woken up. Don’t commit it too strongly to your memory.”
Too late. You made the motion of jotting it down on your hand and smiled.
“It’s valuable information. I think it would distract you no matter how often I do it.”
“Doubtful.”
Marco looked far too confident that it wouldn’t. It tickled at your pride uncomfortably. You’d worked hard to reach this point and principle drove you to stand.
You made your way closer to his side of the bench and leaned against the table next to him.
“Prove it,” you said.
He chuckled and looked up at you, head tilted just slightly to the side. “What are you trying to distract me from now?”
“Reprimanding me for scratching your neck,” you said. “Which is working.”
“It’s not a reprimand, yoi. It’s a boundary.”
“Still.”
“Then try,” he said. “But all I need to do to stop you is to stand up and you’re going to be too small again.”
You moved, quick enough to hope his tiredness would keep him from doing exactly that. You dropped into his lap before he could stand. His hands caught your hips and your knees knocked against the wood of the bench. The table pressed against your spine so you shifted closer to him and draped your arms over his shoulders.
Whatever Marco had expected you to do, it wasn’t this. You smiled and took a second to look over his face.
“If you want to set this boundary too,” you said lazily. “Now would be the time.”
The hands on your hips didn’t move. He looked over your seat curiously and then shifted your weight so you were settled in his lap.
“How does this help your plans, yoi?”
“I think your brain might be more caught up on where I’m sitting rather than anything else,” you said. “Although feel free to tell me if you still have work to worry about.”
“I always have work to worry about.”
“Clearly I’m not trying hard enough then.”
He chuckled and you closed the last bit of distance to kiss him.
You meant for it to be as quick as the one earlier. Something that proved your point without causing your heart to break your ribs.
Instead, Marco’s hand moved from your hip to the small of your back and kept you there.
Thoughts disappeared. You caught the faint taste of your coffee on his lips. His mouth was warm against yours and when he tilted his head back, the kiss deepened enough to steal the breath you’d meant to use to laugh.
You forgot entirely what you wanted to prove. There was nothing but the pressure of his hand against your back and the slow drag of his mouth over yours.
Then you pulled away.
Marco didn’t move. The air between you felt tight. Small black spots danced in front of your vision. They twisted and turned but you couldn’t bring yourself to look away from the brilliant blue eyes in front of you.
Then you swung your leg off his lap and settled back into the chair next to him. Your drink had become cold by now. It was unpleasant to sip from but you did so to avoid considering anything else.
“See,” you said after the silence had to be broken. “Kissing is the best distraction.”
He chuckled under his breath. “You can have one point for it. Let me see your hand, yoi.”
You held it out to him. Blue flames danced over his fingers and he brought them to the bite on your hand. You watched, fascinated, as the injury began to heal itself. The fire didn’t hurt where it brushed over your skin, only left a faint warmth behind like a buzz of electricity.
“Now you’ve seen my healing,” he said.
You looked back to him, unable to stop your satisfied smile. “Do you want to know a secret?”
“Sure.”
“This is the second time,” you said and tapped the bandage playfully. “You’ve healed me before.”
He paused. You could see the acknowledgement ticking through his brain, but he was still unable to quite reach the conclusion.
“I burnt my hand,” you said. “And you healed it. But if a bite is all it takes, I think I’ll see it again.”
“I don’t think you’ll find yourself with an injury like that a second time,” he said with enough confidence that it made you laugh.
“We’ll see. You don’t seem to appreciate being woken up.”
“I won’t bite for it.”
You glanced toward the healed injury as he lowered his hand. “I’m struggling to believe you on that one.”
“Do you ever plan on forgetting this happened, yoi? Or will it be something you hold onto for years?”
“Until I win,” you said. “Then I can forget it in place of something better.”
“Forever then,” Marco acknowledged.
You turned your head back to the thousands of stars above you. You were lying. There was no way you would forget anything about this man even after you won.
Your lips still tingled pleasantly from the kiss.
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