Sometimes Marco feels a bit guilty about his relationship with Ace. He thinks the raven is too young and that maybe he is being selfish be keeping him to himself when Ace still has a lot of things to experience, while he has had a lot of time to live and know things.
Notes: Request from samfree15. You never really think about how messed up Ace was until...
“So, Ace, you got any stories?”
Ace glanced up, raised an eyebrow at Vista. “I’ve got lots.”
“Bet they’ll be about his brother,” Thatch said with a snicker. Ace glared at him.
“Fine, if you’re so sick of hearing about it, I won’t tell the story.” Ace crossed his arms, daring his audience to say something. Marco, Thatch, Vista, and various other Whitebeard Pirates all exchanged glances.
Finally, Marco took the lead, his half-lidded eyes amused. “You know Thatch was just teasing you, Ace. What were you going to say yoi?”
Ace mock-zipped his lips and then took a swig of his drink. Thatch rolled his eyes.
“Fine, fine, I apologize. Get on with it, you baby.”
The second division commander eyed Thatch for a few seconds - probably judging whether or not he was being even remotely genuine - and then capitulated. “Right, so there was this time when Sabo ‘n I -”
Ace groaned. “He’s my other brother - we’re, er, we were the the same age - and I knew him for a while before I met Luffy. An-y-way, as I was saying, Sabo and I once tried to kill Luffy because Bluejam was after us - er, our stash - and Luffy found us, and he was being loud so we tied him to a tree and then -”
“You what?!”
Ace’s exact words seemed to have finally registered with the pirates. Vista gave Ace a concerned look. “You tried to kill young Luffy? I thought you are very close.”
“We are,” Ace affirmed.
“But you -”
“Yes.”
Vista looked to be at a loss for words. He turned to Thatch for support, who looked to Marco. Unfortunately, the Phoenix seemed just as surprised.
Ace blinked. “What?”
“Ace, buddy,” Thatch said, shifting so that he could sling an arm around Ace’s shoulder and pull him close. He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper that was just as urgent. “Usually, when people are brothers, they don’t try to kill each other.”
“He was the one that told us how to do it,” Ace said. Thatch threw his hands up into the air in defeat.
“I give up. Marco, do something! He’s insane!”
Ace rolled his eyes. “What, it’s not like I kicked him off a bridge again.”
“Again?” A pirate whispered. “Did he just say ‘again’?”
“I think he did.”
“Is he serious?”
“I think he is.”
“What the hell kind of -”
“Insane -”
Ace’s eyebrow twitched. “Oi, I can hear you. And shut up; it’s perfectly normal for people to be like that when they first meet.”
