Honestly I have no idea what to put for my first post, but here you go. Portgas D Ace x gn/reader.
Portgas D Ace who started off as your closest friend would search the whole ship for you just to show you a random lizard he found
Portgas D Ace, the man who would fold with the slightest of affection you give him
Portgas D Ace, who, somehow, fell in love with you first, (then you kinda followed)
Portgas D Ace, the man who was too scared to confess to you, however his feelings for you were increasing rapidly
Portgas D Ace, who couldn't believe his luck when you did confess to him
Portgas D Ace, who'd do anything for his lover, anything
Portgas D Ace, who would come to your room everytime to hang out
Portgas D Ace, who suggested (begged) for you two to have a shared room
"it's to give space for the new recruits, babe, trust." "Whatever tickles your fancy." "IM SERIOUS!"
Portgas D Ace, who slams his whole body on top of yours when he's exhausted
Portgas D Ace, who trusts you with his body when he falls narcoleptic
Portgas D Ace, who, gives the best and suffocating hugs. (Have you seen the size of this guy, he's HUGE)
Portgas D Ace, who's patient with his lover
Portgas D Ace, who is okay with a lover who's not into sex
Portgas D Ace, who HATES it when he's vulnerable around you (I have this headecanon he has a problem of slouching intentionally, which makes his bangs cover his face)
Portgas D Ace, who'd cry his eyes out the moment you reassure him
"It's okay, my love, I'm not going anywhere." Ace's breathe hitched. His sniffles became audible and with a blink of an eye, you were lifted off the ground, Ace hugged you. Your shoulder the level of his head as he buried his head. He started sobbing. You sobbed too. You both were sobers. (Lol... Yeah you're right, I'm cringe...)
Portgas D Ace, who is your complete lover boy. He visualizes you as Aphrodite/Ares themselves. His God/Godess
Portgas D Ace, who has no problem in seeing you naked. Till later when he realized that you were naked, he explodes in his room
Portgas D Ace, who almost combusted when you saw him naked, it was at a very unexpected moment
Portgas D Ace, who appreciates your patience with him
Portgas D Ace, who buys accessories or gets a tattoo that remind him of you , just to have a part of you with him forever
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Finally went to a card show there were only like 2 one piece single vendors there(it was really small anyway) and they had a TON of Ace cards available and they were even nice enough to offer one card from each of them for free. But here's the collection so far!
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This past June 24th, two massive earthquakes destroyed various cities of the country, the first one being of 7.2 and the second one of 7.5: the strongest of our history... I don't live in Venezuela at the moment, but my family lives there! Thankfully they're fine, but the rest of the country is in shambles... (Update: there's been replicas of the earthquake all around the country... Yesterday there was a 5.2 replica...)
There's an estimate of 50.000 missing people, many of them under the debris of fallen buildings, other couple of thousands needing medical treatment...
Millions lost their homes and their families... My dear Venezuela needs help!
Please, if you know any venezuelan artists, commission them and help them! Thank God I don't need it, so please focus on other artists from venezuela! If some venezuelan artist is here on Tumblr, reblog this post with your commission charts so others can see it!
(On my Twitter, I have a lot of venezuelan artists reblogged! I want to warn you, I also have a lot of sensible images and videos from the earthquake and the aftermath reblogged on my Twitter too...)
Now, if you want to help more than one individual, here's a link to Caritas if you'd like to donate: Caritas (it's a Catholic assisting organization)
Yummy (a venezuelan private delivery company, they are offering free rides to hospitals and deliver medicine all across the country and are recollecting money to help refill medical treatments, food and any thing the affected civilians need)
(Update:) DO NOT DONATE TO THE RED CROSS!!! The venezuelan branch is compromised!!! It has direct ties with the corrupt regime, so any help you want to send to the Red Cross will be STOLEN by the dictatorship!
I wish I could do more... But the least I can do is share this information with all of you. I hope this post reaches venezuelan artists and any kind of person that wants to help... And, please pray for Venezuela 🙏
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Ace could speak to others. Very briefly. And yet, after finding this out, his response was basically to grin and say cool and then… not speak to anybody unless you accidentally brought his words across.
Even then, it was normally by chance and he wouldn’t say anything more when they looked at him.
So, the first time you did it purposefully was when you spoke to Marco again on Sphinx Island who, it turned out, was sceptical of the idea of resurrection at all. Something you’d more than expected and prepared for but Ace spoke past you, his voice moving through the barrier with a sharp ease you hadn’t expected.
“You’re literally a phoenix!” he complained. “They’re meant to do the whole dying and returning to life thing.”
You stared at him for a second because there were better ways to try and convince somebody that this was possible. And you had planned on mentioning his ability to sort of speak to the real world now.
Without suddenly causing Marco heart failure.
As it was, he almost jumped. His head snapped toward the source of Ace's voice so quickly that his glasses shifted crookedly across his nose. For a second, he simply stared into empty space, every muscle gone rigid.
Then his gaze flicked toward you and back again.
"I can hear him now?"
“Sometimes,” you said. “It takes a bit of focus but I’ve always been able to take things across the barrier. Injuries, items, or anything similar. It turns out what I hear can also be moved through if I’m focused enough.”
Marco blinked, his expression entirely unreadable for a second as he stared at nothing. Then he roughly cleared his throat. “Being a phoenix doesn’t mean I can resurrect yoi,” he said. “I thought you might remember from the first five times I told you that.”
“You’ve still never tried it,” Ace muttered good-naturedly.
“Hearing him is more convincing,” Marco admitted to you. “But if you can do that, why do you need my help for it?”
You gestured toward Ace though you knew Marco couldn’t see him. “Ace will come back with everything he currently has. The injury that killed him was horrific and I don’t know if he can survive without a doctor nearby.”
“Even with a doctor on hand, you’ll struggle,” Marco said. “That punch was nearly instant. You may as well just move him on properly without traumatising yourself.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
Marco looked toward the voice and his expression softened minutely. “Ace,” he said. “You know it’s true. You know what your body looked like when you died yoi. I can’t even begin to imagine everything that was wrong.”
Ace stepped forward, shooting you a temporary pleading look as you allowed his voice to move through the space between worlds. It wasn’t perfect. But it was the best chance he’d have of talking to Marco again.
“Come on Marco, I’ve seen you heal crazier things than this.”
“On who? Certainly not anybody I can remember. The damage was beyond fatal.”
“But if anybody could…”
Marco shook his head. “Speaking to you while you’re invisible is… Do you really want me to come and sit there just for a chance of watching you die a second time? Close enough that it would be my fault this time?”
The words seemed to strike a nerve in Ace. He flinched but didn’t respond, moving half a step away. You gave him a small expression of sympathy but he wasn’t looking at you.
“It’ll be fine,” he said finally after a silence that stretched for far too long. “I know it’ll be fine because I’ll also have my fruit this time.”
“There is a chance it’ll work better,” you said, speaking up and drawing attention to you. “Previously, I understand he was far too tired for his logia to properly heal him but now, he should be rested and fed enough for it.”
Ace eagerly nodded and summoned a small fire in his hand that Marco immediately glanced toward.
“It’ll be overextended if he has any other injuries,” Marco said. “I’ve seen how long it takes Ace’s fruit to work before and he can stay hurt for longer than you think.”
You glanced over at Ace’s body. Marco was right. While most of those could vanish the second his flames came back stronger than before… it was going to require even more energy than just the main one itself.
“He’s not in the best condition,” you admitted.
“But you can take the injuries before you try to bring him back?” Marco said, his attention moving to your hand. “It might be worth it for you to draw them across to you. Then I can heal part of it before anything happens.”
That… that wasn’t a bad idea. If you could take some of the bigger stuff then he’d have far more time to try and turn back into flame before anything in his actual body packed up.
“What?” Ace said. “You can’t do that!”
But you had expected that response. For a second, you looked at him. “It’ll only be for a few seconds at most,” you explained. “It’s not like I’ll be walking around with it. You said Marco’s a very good healer.”
“It wouldn’t be long at all,” Marco said. “I can heal them as you transfer them.”
Ace still shook his head, taking a very clear step away from you and crossing his arms. “No? These things are annoying as hell. You don’t have to put up with that.”
You sighed and then shook your head at Marco. “It’s not going to happen. But if you can heal them on me, I’m sure you can do the same on him, right? If you’re right there when I drag him across.”
Marco frowned. “He’s being stubborn.”
“True,” you said. “But you also know where he died. I need somebody to take me there so there’s two benefits to your help.”
He thought about it, then sighed and took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose before he put them back. “Alright. I’m not promising anything but… I suppose I would be rather foolish to turn down a second chance. We don’t often get those.”
Relief bled through your veins stronger than blood for a second, pooling in your muscles as you breathed out. He was going to help. For the first time in a very long while, you found yourself wishing you could hug somebody in thanks.
Ace’s touchiness really was starting to rub off on you.
“Thank you,” you said genuinely. “I’m confident but still nervous of this entire situation.”
“I can believe it, yoi,” Marco said.
Ace stepped back toward you, his hands running warm over your shoulders as he pulled you a little closer. “Don’t worry, Marco’s the best. Nobody’s better than him with this kind of stuff.”
You tilted your head to the side to smile at him. “I can believe that.”
“Whatever he’s saying is probably wrong,” Marco said.
“That you’re reliable?”
He couldn’t hide the faint, affectionate smile that flashed across his face for a second before he shook his head. “Yes. Instead of where he died, maybe you can use his grave? Your fruit has a chance of working on either.”
That was actually a very good point and for just a second, you realised that Marco must have read up more on your fruit since the last time you’d met him.
You raised an eyebrow. “It might work if he’s got ties there. You’ve been reading?”
“You've got one of my family members following you around in death. Of course I looked into it yoi.”
Ace squeezed your shoulders tighter. “I have a grave?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” you asked.
“Well because… I don’t know. I just didn’t think that it would be that important when I died because of something I did.”
“That’s not a reason to not have a grave.”
Marco looked toward the horizon. “It’s not on this island so we’d either have to fly or take a quick ship ride. Are you okay in the air?”
“Air?”
Ace’s grin turned wide again. “He’ll carry you.”
You’d done countless things in your life but being carried over the ocean by a phoenix was not about to be one of them. You used the excuse that Ace couldn’t be brought with easily to defend yourself against the unexpected flight, opting instead to hire a small boat at the port. He teased you the entire way about being scared and putting your hand over his mouth did nothing.
Marco watched the entire exchange with a look of strained familiarity.
Once you arrived at the island, he led you inland along a narrow path worn smooth by countless footsteps. The climb wasn't steep but it was enough to leave the ocean spread beneath you by the time you reached the crest.
The graves sat there alone.
Wind stirred through the grass surrounding them, carrying the scent of salt and sun-warmed earth. Two stones stood side by side against the horizon; one larger than the other, both maintained with a care that immediately tightened something in your chest.
Marco stopped a good distance away and nodded you forward. “I’ll meet you back at the ship. I’ve already visited Pops today.”
You approached them slowly, allowing Ace to hang behind you as you did. Both stones bore markers that tugged deep in your heart: a flowing cape and a great blade to the right and a dagger and hat on the left.
You lowered your head in respect and breathed out slowly.
The boundary between worlds was thin here. Thin enough that you could feel it slightly against your skin even without trying. Warmth radiated from the rightmost stone. Not heat exactly, but the sensation of standing near a hearth after coming in from the cold. It settled over your skin in slow waves, steady and untroubled.
Death lingered there peacefully. The soul connected to it rested well.
Ace’s gravestone in contrast, was almost painful to look toward. It was cold, jagged, and wrong. As though it was created for somebody who didn’t belong there.
There was no way you could use this spot to bring him across. There was nothing here for him.
Ace moved toward Whitebeard’s grave first and sank down next to it, sitting cross-legged in the grass as he stared. For a few seconds, he stared and then his shoulders tightened. Tears slipped down his cheeks silently and you said nothing because you knew nothing would reassure him here.
“He shouldn’t have come for me,” Ace said, rubbing roughly at his face with his palms. “He shouldn’t have… everything that happened and he didn’t even need to die in the first place! I could have just met you afterwards and everything would have been fine!”
“Ace…” you said. “I haven’t resurrected you yet. If they’d cut your head off, I wouldn’t have a chance of it.”
“But even if you didn’t, I still died.”
Bitterness crept into his voice like poison, anger curling just beneath the surface. Flames flickered along his fists as he clutched them tightly. A deep ache thudded in your heart.
“Your family did what they could because they loved you,” you said. “I’m sure they considered it worth it, no matter what.”
“I didn’t want them to die.”
“I know.”
“And it’s not like you could bring them back.”
But part of that sentence felt far too hopeful; as though Ace was silently hoping that you’d tell him he was wrong and there was a secret way. You supposed you had caused that suspicion of your fruit by not exposing everything to him.
You shook your head honestly. “Even if I wanted to, his soul has long since passed on,” you said. “His grave is peaceful. I wish you could feel just how much.”
Ace nodded and sniffed, pushing himself back to his feet. Silence stretched for a second before he looked toward his own grave and the flowers that decorated it. “Found out where my hat went, I guess,” he said. “I was worried Teach took it.”
You reached for the hat, hesitating for a second. It felt wrong to take something off a grave marker like this, even with the ghost standing beside you.
You looked around to make sure you were alone before you picked it up.
“Should I send it through?” you asked. “I’m sure it’ll come back with you after everything as long as you’re wearing it.”
He stared at it for a second before shaking his head. “No,” he said. “I’ll get it back after everything works out. Then I can wear it again properly.”
“Then it’ll be safest here.”
You reached forward to put it back on the grave but Ace caught your arm before you could do so.
“Wait, wait. You should keep it. You can wear it for now.”
“Me?”
He nodded enthusiastically, eyes still red from tears but far more excited now. “Yeah. Then when I come back, it’s right there.”
You laughed, flattered but already knowing how that would look. “As sweet of an idea as that is, I think it might seem a bit uncouth to everybody else. They’re going to think I stole something off your grave.”
He pouted and you had to look away before you said yes purely based on how large he was making his eyes.
“But everybody important knows I’m with you. So, they’ll know it’s temporary.”
“Not everybody.”
“Please.”
“Ace, what about all the people we pass in the street? They’ll think that either I’m a very strange fan or I stole something from you.”
He crossed his arms. “But you’d suit it so well.”
You looked back at him, curious at the way he said it. “I’m getting the feeling that this is some kind of ploy to see me wearing your hat. Do you actually want me to bring it with or are you just wanting me to put it on?”
He grinned, unabashed even when he’d been caught. “Honestly, it would be kind of hot.”
You almost laughed loudly at that. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll give you something to look forward to.”
His free arm found your waist, pulling you close so you couldn’t reach the grave anymore, hand held out awkwardly, still holding the top of the hat. Now you couldn’t avoid his pleading expression in the slightest. Especially not when he leaned in to kiss you softly, lips warm and relaxed against your own.
“Come on,” he said. “You know you want to. It’ll look so good on you.”
“You’re impatient.”
“Absolutely.”
You rolled your eyes and sighed, bringing your hand around to gently place it on your head. It felt very strange to do so. The woven brim brushed your fingers as you lifted it and for a second your stomach twisted unexpectedly. This wasn't simply a hat. It had sat through rain and sun atop a grave marked with Ace's name.
Yet when you settled it onto your head, all you could think about was the way he was looking at you. The brim hung a little too low over your eyes and you tilted your head up to him curiously.
“If this doesn’t suit me, you can’t ever tell me.”
But you didn’t think he would need to lie because he was looking at you so fondly that you almost melted from it alone. His freckles were all bunched up from his smile and that expression was dangerous for your heart.
His arms tightened around your waist. “Yeah, you can’t take that off.”
“I have to.”
“It looks too good!”
You twisted in his arms, managing to break away for a second before he caught you again and tugged you back against his chest with a peal of laughter. You squirmed, not truly fighting too hard, and he leaned back as though to pick you up when his breath suddenly caught sharply. You stopped moving and he gently released you.
The pleasant mood slipped away in a second.
You winced in sympathy, turning around to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Come on, we can’t play around here forever,” you said. “I’m sure Marco’s waiting.”
Ace looked contemplative and for a second, his eyes flicked up to the hat on your head before he glanced back down at you. “Does… would you still…”
You turned your head to the side curiously. “Would I still what?”
He sighed and gestured to his side. “The thing you were talking about with Marco. I… I think it might not be that bad of an idea. To be able to touch you easier, you know?”
You smiled gently, uncertain how you could even begin to describe the warmth curling in your chest. “We can ask him,” you said. “But I'll gladly do it for you. Even if I wish your motives would be more focused on yourself.”
“Hey, they are! Mostly…”
By the time you returned to the ship that would bring you to Baltigo – organised by Sabo – you found Marco with relative ease and explained the graves wouldn’t do. Then you mentioned the injuries and he nodded as though he had expected Ace to come around to the idea the entire time.
You sent a chair over for Ace while Marco healed your injured knuckles with blue flames in an eerily quiet room. Nobody was talking.
The ache from your hand melted away slowly beneath his touch.
“What kind of damage are we talking about?” Marco asked eventually. “There are limits to my healing though Ace would never believe that.”
“There’s a lot,” you admitted with a short glance to Ace who was staring into a corner. “Obviously there’s the main one and I couldn’t take that but plenty of other stuff too.”
Marco nodded. “We want to give him the best chance of survival then you could maybe take portions of the big injury. Things I can heal. The hole itself is dangerous but if we take away parts of it in chunks, that would be a good way to lessen the damage.”
Ace shifted uncomfortably in his chair and you looked to him but he said nothing.
“I can’t take everything at once,” you said. “It makes me very tired to use my devil fruit to transfer injuries and I’m also using a decent amount to let him talk.”
“Then stop doing that. Translate for him and focus on what he thinks is the worst that you should be taking.”
He sighed and gestured to his face. “You can take the lip thing. And uh, there’s a bite on the inside of my cheek that’s been really annoying me.”
“A bite?” you asked.
“Yeah.”
Marco frowned at you and you hurried to explain what Ace had offered as far as injuries went. He gave you a disbelieving expression and then sighed.
“What else, yoi?”
“Oh, the bruises,” Ace said. “The ones on my shoulders are quite bad and there’s also a few on my legs and like here.” He gestured toward his hips and sides. “Those you can take.”
“Bruising,” you clarified to Marco. “He’s listed several areas where it’s quite bad.”
“I would ask if he meant deep-tissue or superficial ones but I know Ace well enough to guess it’s the latter,” Marco said.
“Hey!” Ace protested. “There’s also um… I guess the wrist stuff?”
“Chaffing on his wrists from the cuffs,” you clarified. “Which does look very bad so I’m not surprised he wants to get rid of that.”
He nodded firmly. “That should be it.”
You frowned. “What do you mean that’s it?”
Marco breathed out sharply through his nose and then looked toward where Ace was sitting. “Could you try and get his response through? I want to ask him something directly.”
“Sure.”
He folded his hands pointedly and stared eerily close to where Ace’s head was despite not being able to see him. He carried the air of a man who had had this conversation a thousand times before.
“Bruises, chaffing, and a split lip are not going to be the things that kill you when you’re brought back,” Marco said, his voice deathly calm. “I can heal those for you but I don’t particularly care about them. I want to know what injuries you have that are going to be fatal for you, yoi.”
Ace froze in his seat and your breathing caught for a second; your mind raced to arrive at the same answer Marco had. He was right. It didn’t really matter if you could relieve some of Ace’s discomfort, as nice as that would be. The things Marco needed to take care of were far more than some mild pain.
Ace swallowed and Marco didn’t look away. He waited with an almost inhuman patience.
“I don’t know.”
The answer rang through the boundary between worlds, loud enough for Marco to hear it and nod firmly. He looked to you.
“When we make land, I want you to run an actual examination for me,” he said. “Take a proper look at that injury and tell me what’s damaged. I didn’t… I didn’t bother looking when I was burying him so I don’t even remember where it was.”
You nodded stiffly. Nobody else could see it as well as you could. Not even Ace.
“Alright,” you agreed.
“For now, you can take the superficial things,” Marco said. “Then later we can start moving more serious damage across yoi. There are limits to my fire but I can take care of some internal things but not everything. If his lungs are collapsed, I can handle it but if they’re ripped through… it might be more difficult.”
“My lungs aren’t damaged, I think,” Ace hurried to say. “I can breathe fine.”
Your eyes dropped to the injury. It was hard to imagine that his lungs wouldn’t be damaged with where it went through but in order to see that… you looked away and instead focused on his face where you were used to the injuries.
“Can I?” you asked.
He hesitated for a second before he nodded.
It was strange. For all you had kissed him and touched him before, reaching for his face now felt far more intimate. You brushed your fingers over the split lip and pushed against the boundary. It transferred to you easily and you saw it disappear from him for a second before the stinging made you wince.
Ace immediately caught your wrist, expression twisting in annoyance, as though he planned to pull your hand from his face. He held it there for a second and you smiled, reassuring.
Then you raised your hand further and he moved with you, fingers resting against your pulse point to take the bruising from his cheek. It slipped across and you managed to keep your expression steady even as you felt it bloom on your skin.
He looked away.
You hadn’t noticed Marco moving closer and his voice startled you. “That’s a very deep bruise,” he said. “There’s probably more facial trauma surrounding it. Where does it hurt when he talks?”
It hurt when he talked?
You didn’t answer but Ace slowly lifted your fingers higher to rest against his cheekbone. Though you couldn’t see the injury, you could feel it through the boundary and you pulled it across without bothering to identify what it was.
A deep ache exploded over your left cheek. Everything about your face suddenly felt wrong and pressure bloomed under your eye, sharp enough that tears sprung to your eyes. You clenched your teeth on instinct to avoid yelping and immediately regretted it as the pain worsened.
Marco’s healing flames arrived in an instant. The flames licked across your cheek without consuming anything, illuminating Marco's focused expression in shifting shades of blue. It smoothed the ache before it could take root properly.
You hated that injury. It wasn’t anything like the broken knuckle, far too deep and you forced yourself to blink for a second, still feeling its echoes. What was that?
How had he done anything with that thing?
“Alright,” Marco said. “I don’t like handling internal mouth injuries so you can come back to the bite. What other bruises has he been complaining about?”
You struggled to force your voice into something more normal before you spoke. “His shoulders.”
You reached for your face with your free hand, rubbing over where the injury had stabbed through you. You didn’t want to bother Marco with too many questions but that… that had not been comfortable at all.
“Are you able to continue?”
You looked to Ace for permission and the grip around your wrist tightened for a second. He nodded, jaw still clenched tight. You lowered your touch further until you could touch his shoulders and found those bruises were nothing in comparison to the ones on his face. You carried them over without complaint, bringing finger-shaped bruising across to your body without a worry.
Marco healed them all with his expression growing darker with each one.
“Wrists?” you asked.
Ace held them out to you without complaint and you wasted no time shifting the dark cuff marks over to yourself. Unlike the ache from before, these ones burned. Like a rope rubbing constantly against skin too thin for it.
They were as ugly as you remembered them looking but you barely got a second to care for them before blue fire washed over them. When you looked toward Marco, he looked furious enough to unnerve you.
“Anything else?” he asked, his voice tight.
You shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. You could take more but you could feel that you should rest. Even if you didn’t want to – wanted to relieve Ace of more pain – you shook your head.
“I’ll need a break. Not for too long but enough that I can rest.”
Marco nodded and stepped away. “When you have time, consider the wound. I’ll walk you through a proper examination later.”
“Thank you,” you said.
He didn’t respond, just nodded. Ace followed closely behind you as you left the room, his fingers running over his cheekbone slowly. You couldn’t help but smile, happy to see that he seemed to be feeling relieved from it.
“That thing hurt,” you commented. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad. Why didn’t you mention it before?”
He breathed out through his nose and dropped his hand. “Forgot, really. I don’t even know when it happened.”
A strange mix of anger and sadness curled through your stomach, disappearing quickly when Ace suddenly reached out and caught your wrist. You stopped in your tracks, turning properly when you were immediately met with a pair of warm lips against your own.
You blinked, surprised. “Hi?”
He grinned and did it again, longer this time. “That feels so much better when it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
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Ace could speak to others. Very briefly. And yet, after finding this out, his response was basically to grin and say cool and then… not speak to anybody unless you accidentally brought his words across.
Even then, it was normally by chance and he wouldn’t say anything more when they looked at him.
So, the first time you did it purposefully was when you spoke to Marco again on Sphinx Island who, it turned out, was sceptical of the idea of resurrection at all. Something you’d more than expected and prepared for but Ace spoke past you, his voice moving through the barrier with a sharp ease you hadn’t expected.
“You’re literally a phoenix!” he complained. “They’re meant to do the whole dying and returning to life thing.”
You stared at him for a second because there were better ways to try and convince somebody that this was possible. And you had planned on mentioning his ability to sort of speak to the real world now.
Without suddenly causing Marco heart failure.
As it was, he almost jumped. His head snapped toward the source of Ace's voice so quickly that his glasses shifted crookedly across his nose. For a second, he simply stared into empty space, every muscle gone rigid.
Then his gaze flicked toward you and back again.
"I can hear him now?"
“Sometimes,” you said. “It takes a bit of focus but I’ve always been able to take things across the barrier. Injuries, items, or anything similar. It turns out what I hear can also be moved through if I’m focused enough.”
Marco blinked, his expression entirely unreadable for a second as he stared at nothing. Then he roughly cleared his throat. “Being a phoenix doesn’t mean I can resurrect yoi,” he said. “I thought you might remember from the first five times I told you that.”
“You’ve still never tried it,” Ace muttered good-naturedly.
“Hearing him is more convincing,” Marco admitted to you. “But if you can do that, why do you need my help for it?”
You gestured toward Ace though you knew Marco couldn’t see him. “Ace will come back with everything he currently has. The injury that killed him was horrific and I don’t know if he can survive without a doctor nearby.”
“Even with a doctor on hand, you’ll struggle,” Marco said. “That punch was nearly instant. You may as well just move him on properly without traumatising yourself.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
Marco looked toward the voice and his expression softened minutely. “Ace,” he said. “You know it’s true. You know what your body looked like when you died yoi. I can’t even begin to imagine everything that was wrong.”
Ace stepped forward, shooting you a temporary pleading look as you allowed his voice to move through the space between worlds. It wasn’t perfect. But it was the best chance he’d have of talking to Marco again.
“Come on Marco, I’ve seen you heal crazier things than this.”
“On who? Certainly not anybody I can remember. The damage was beyond fatal.”
“But if anybody could…”
Marco shook his head. “Speaking to you while you’re invisible is… Do you really want me to come and sit there just for a chance of watching you die a second time? Close enough that it would be my fault this time?”
The words seemed to strike a nerve in Ace. He flinched but didn’t respond, moving half a step away. You gave him a small expression of sympathy but he wasn’t looking at you.
“It’ll be fine,” he said finally after a silence that stretched for far too long. “I know it’ll be fine because I’ll also have my fruit this time.”
“There is a chance it’ll work better,” you said, speaking up and drawing attention to you. “Previously, I understand he was far too tired for his logia to properly heal him but now, he should be rested and fed enough for it.”
Ace eagerly nodded and summoned a small fire in his hand that Marco immediately glanced toward.
“It’ll be overextended if he has any other injuries,” Marco said. “I’ve seen how long it takes Ace’s fruit to work before and he can stay hurt for longer than you think.”
You glanced over at Ace’s body. Marco was right. While most of those could vanish the second his flames came back stronger than before… it was going to require even more energy than just the main one itself.
“He’s not in the best condition,” you admitted.
“But you can take the injuries before you try to bring him back?” Marco said, his attention moving to your hand. “It might be worth it for you to draw them across to you. Then I can heal part of it before anything happens.”
That… that wasn’t a bad idea. If you could take some of the bigger stuff then he’d have far more time to try and turn back into flame before anything in his actual body packed up.
“What?” Ace said. “You can’t do that!”
But you had expected that response. For a second, you looked at him. “It’ll only be for a few seconds at most,” you explained. “It’s not like I’ll be walking around with it. You said Marco’s a very good healer.”
“It wouldn’t be long at all,” Marco said. “I can heal them as you transfer them.”
Ace still shook his head, taking a very clear step away from you and crossing his arms. “No? These things are annoying as hell. You don’t have to put up with that.”
You sighed and then shook your head at Marco. “It’s not going to happen. But if you can heal them on me, I’m sure you can do the same on him, right? If you’re right there when I drag him across.”
Marco frowned. “He’s being stubborn.”
“True,” you said. “But you also know where he died. I need somebody to take me there so there’s two benefits to your help.”
He thought about it, then sighed and took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose before he put them back. “Alright. I’m not promising anything but… I suppose I would be rather foolish to turn down a second chance. We don’t often get those.”
Relief bled through your veins stronger than blood for a second, pooling in your muscles as you breathed out. He was going to help. For the first time in a very long while, you found yourself wishing you could hug somebody in thanks.
Ace’s touchiness really was starting to rub off on you.
“Thank you,” you said genuinely. “I’m confident but still nervous of this entire situation.”
“I can believe it, yoi,” Marco said.
Ace stepped back toward you, his hands running warm over your shoulders as he pulled you a little closer. “Don’t worry, Marco’s the best. Nobody’s better than him with this kind of stuff.”
You tilted your head to the side to smile at him. “I can believe that.”
“Whatever he’s saying is probably wrong,” Marco said.
“That you’re reliable?”
He couldn’t hide the faint, affectionate smile that flashed across his face for a second before he shook his head. “Yes. Instead of where he died, maybe you can use his grave? Your fruit has a chance of working on either.”
That was actually a very good point and for just a second, you realised that Marco must have read up more on your fruit since the last time you’d met him.
You raised an eyebrow. “It might work if he’s got ties there. You’ve been reading?”
“You've got one of my family members following you around in death. Of course I looked into it yoi.”
Ace squeezed your shoulders tighter. “I have a grave?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” you asked.
“Well because… I don’t know. I just didn’t think that it would be that important when I died because of something I did.”
“That’s not a reason to not have a grave.”
Marco looked toward the horizon. “It’s not on this island so we’d either have to fly or take a quick ship ride. Are you okay in the air?”
“Air?”
Ace’s grin turned wide again. “He’ll carry you.”
You’d done countless things in your life but being carried over the ocean by a phoenix was not about to be one of them. You used the excuse that Ace couldn’t be brought with easily to defend yourself against the unexpected flight, opting instead to hire a small boat at the port. He teased you the entire way about being scared and putting your hand over his mouth did nothing.
Marco watched the entire exchange with a look of strained familiarity.
Once you arrived at the island, he led you inland along a narrow path worn smooth by countless footsteps. The climb wasn't steep but it was enough to leave the ocean spread beneath you by the time you reached the crest.
The graves sat there alone.
Wind stirred through the grass surrounding them, carrying the scent of salt and sun-warmed earth. Two stones stood side by side against the horizon; one larger than the other, both maintained with a care that immediately tightened something in your chest.
Marco stopped a good distance away and nodded you forward. “I’ll meet you back at the ship. I’ve already visited Pops today.”
You approached them slowly, allowing Ace to hang behind you as you did. Both stones bore markers that tugged deep in your heart: a flowing cape and a great blade to the right and a dagger and hat on the left.
You lowered your head in respect and breathed out slowly.
The boundary between worlds was thin here. Thin enough that you could feel it slightly against your skin even without trying. Warmth radiated from the rightmost stone. Not heat exactly, but the sensation of standing near a hearth after coming in from the cold. It settled over your skin in slow waves, steady and untroubled.
Death lingered there peacefully. The soul connected to it rested well.
Ace’s gravestone in contrast, was almost painful to look toward. It was cold, jagged, and wrong. As though it was created for somebody who didn’t belong there.
There was no way you could use this spot to bring him across. There was nothing here for him.
Ace moved toward Whitebeard’s grave first and sank down next to it, sitting cross-legged in the grass as he stared. For a few seconds, he stared and then his shoulders tightened. Tears slipped down his cheeks silently and you said nothing because you knew nothing would reassure him here.
“He shouldn’t have come for me,” Ace said, rubbing roughly at his face with his palms. “He shouldn’t have… everything that happened and he didn’t even need to die in the first place! I could have just met you afterwards and everything would have been fine!”
“Ace…” you said. “I haven’t resurrected you yet. If they’d cut your head off, I wouldn’t have a chance of it.”
“But even if you didn’t, I still died.”
Bitterness crept into his voice like poison, anger curling just beneath the surface. Flames flickered along his fists as he clutched them tightly. A deep ache thudded in your heart.
“Your family did what they could because they loved you,” you said. “I’m sure they considered it worth it, no matter what.”
“I didn’t want them to die.”
“I know.”
“And it’s not like you could bring them back.”
But part of that sentence felt far too hopeful; as though Ace was silently hoping that you’d tell him he was wrong and there was a secret way. You supposed you had caused that suspicion of your fruit by not exposing everything to him.
You shook your head honestly. “Even if I wanted to, his soul has long since passed on,” you said. “His grave is peaceful. I wish you could feel just how much.”
Ace nodded and sniffed, pushing himself back to his feet. Silence stretched for a second before he looked toward his own grave and the flowers that decorated it. “Found out where my hat went, I guess,” he said. “I was worried Teach took it.”
You reached for the hat, hesitating for a second. It felt wrong to take something off a grave marker like this, even with the ghost standing beside you.
You looked around to make sure you were alone before you picked it up.
“Should I send it through?” you asked. “I’m sure it’ll come back with you after everything as long as you’re wearing it.”
He stared at it for a second before shaking his head. “No,” he said. “I’ll get it back after everything works out. Then I can wear it again properly.”
“Then it’ll be safest here.”
You reached forward to put it back on the grave but Ace caught your arm before you could do so.
“Wait, wait. You should keep it. You can wear it for now.”
“Me?”
He nodded enthusiastically, eyes still red from tears but far more excited now. “Yeah. Then when I come back, it’s right there.”
You laughed, flattered but already knowing how that would look. “As sweet of an idea as that is, I think it might seem a bit uncouth to everybody else. They’re going to think I stole something off your grave.”
He pouted and you had to look away before you said yes purely based on how large he was making his eyes.
“But everybody important knows I’m with you. So, they’ll know it’s temporary.”
“Not everybody.”
“Please.”
“Ace, what about all the people we pass in the street? They’ll think that either I’m a very strange fan or I stole something from you.”
He crossed his arms. “But you’d suit it so well.”
You looked back at him, curious at the way he said it. “I’m getting the feeling that this is some kind of ploy to see me wearing your hat. Do you actually want me to bring it with or are you just wanting me to put it on?”
He grinned, unabashed even when he’d been caught. “Honestly, it would be kind of hot.”
You almost laughed loudly at that. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll give you something to look forward to.”
His free arm found your waist, pulling you close so you couldn’t reach the grave anymore, hand held out awkwardly, still holding the top of the hat. Now you couldn’t avoid his pleading expression in the slightest. Especially not when he leaned in to kiss you softly, lips warm and relaxed against your own.
“Come on,” he said. “You know you want to. It’ll look so good on you.”
“You’re impatient.”
“Absolutely.”
You rolled your eyes and sighed, bringing your hand around to gently place it on your head. It felt very strange to do so. The woven brim brushed your fingers as you lifted it and for a second your stomach twisted unexpectedly. This wasn't simply a hat. It had sat through rain and sun atop a grave marked with Ace's name.
Yet when you settled it onto your head, all you could think about was the way he was looking at you. The brim hung a little too low over your eyes and you tilted your head up to him curiously.
“If this doesn’t suit me, you can’t ever tell me.”
But you didn’t think he would need to lie because he was looking at you so fondly that you almost melted from it alone. His freckles were all bunched up from his smile and that expression was dangerous for your heart.
His arms tightened around your waist. “Yeah, you can’t take that off.”
“I have to.”
“It looks too good!”
You twisted in his arms, managing to break away for a second before he caught you again and tugged you back against his chest with a peal of laughter. You squirmed, not truly fighting too hard, and he leaned back as though to pick you up when his breath suddenly caught sharply. You stopped moving and he gently released you.
The pleasant mood slipped away in a second.
You winced in sympathy, turning around to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Come on, we can’t play around here forever,” you said. “I’m sure Marco’s waiting.”
Ace looked contemplative and for a second, his eyes flicked up to the hat on your head before he glanced back down at you. “Does… would you still…”
You turned your head to the side curiously. “Would I still what?”
He sighed and gestured to his side. “The thing you were talking about with Marco. I… I think it might not be that bad of an idea. To be able to touch you easier, you know?”
You smiled gently, uncertain how you could even begin to describe the warmth curling in your chest. “We can ask him,” you said. “But I'll gladly do it for you. Even if I wish your motives would be more focused on yourself.”
“Hey, they are! Mostly…”
By the time you returned to the ship that would bring you to Baltigo – organised by Sabo – you found Marco with relative ease and explained the graves wouldn’t do. Then you mentioned the injuries and he nodded as though he had expected Ace to come around to the idea the entire time.
You sent a chair over for Ace while Marco healed your injured knuckles with blue flames in an eerily quiet room. Nobody was talking.
The ache from your hand melted away slowly beneath his touch.
“What kind of damage are we talking about?” Marco asked eventually. “There are limits to my healing though Ace would never believe that.”
“There’s a lot,” you admitted with a short glance to Ace who was staring into a corner. “Obviously there’s the main one and I couldn’t take that but plenty of other stuff too.”
Marco nodded. “We want to give him the best chance of survival then you could maybe take portions of the big injury. Things I can heal. The hole itself is dangerous but if we take away parts of it in chunks, that would be a good way to lessen the damage.”
Ace shifted uncomfortably in his chair and you looked to him but he said nothing.
“I can’t take everything at once,” you said. “It makes me very tired to use my devil fruit to transfer injuries and I’m also using a decent amount to let him talk.”
“Then stop doing that. Translate for him and focus on what he thinks is the worst that you should be taking.”
He sighed and gestured to his face. “You can take the lip thing. And uh, there’s a bite on the inside of my cheek that’s been really annoying me.”
“A bite?” you asked.
“Yeah.”
Marco frowned at you and you hurried to explain what Ace had offered as far as injuries went. He gave you a disbelieving expression and then sighed.
“What else, yoi?”
“Oh, the bruises,” Ace said. “The ones on my shoulders are quite bad and there’s also a few on my legs and like here.” He gestured toward his hips and sides. “Those you can take.”
“Bruising,” you clarified to Marco. “He’s listed several areas where it’s quite bad.”
“I would ask if he meant deep-tissue or superficial ones but I know Ace well enough to guess it’s the latter,” Marco said.
“Hey!” Ace protested. “There’s also um… I guess the wrist stuff?”
“Chaffing on his wrists from the cuffs,” you clarified. “Which does look very bad so I’m not surprised he wants to get rid of that.”
He nodded firmly. “That should be it.”
You frowned. “What do you mean that’s it?”
Marco breathed out sharply through his nose and then looked toward where Ace was sitting. “Could you try and get his response through? I want to ask him something directly.”
“Sure.”
He folded his hands pointedly and stared eerily close to where Ace’s head was despite not being able to see him. He carried the air of a man who had had this conversation a thousand times before.
“Bruises, chaffing, and a split lip are not going to be the things that kill you when you’re brought back,” Marco said, his voice deathly calm. “I can heal those for you but I don’t particularly care about them. I want to know what injuries you have that are going to be fatal for you, yoi.”
Ace froze in his seat and your breathing caught for a second; your mind raced to arrive at the same answer Marco had. He was right. It didn’t really matter if you could relieve some of Ace’s discomfort, as nice as that would be. The things Marco needed to take care of were far more than some mild pain.
Ace swallowed and Marco didn’t look away. He waited with an almost inhuman patience.
“I don’t know.”
The answer rang through the boundary between worlds, loud enough for Marco to hear it and nod firmly. He looked to you.
“When we make land, I want you to run an actual examination for me,” he said. “Take a proper look at that injury and tell me what’s damaged. I didn’t… I didn’t bother looking when I was burying him so I don’t even remember where it was.”
You nodded stiffly. Nobody else could see it as well as you could. Not even Ace.
“Alright,” you agreed.
“For now, you can take the superficial things,” Marco said. “Then later we can start moving more serious damage across yoi. There are limits to my fire but I can take care of some internal things but not everything. If his lungs are collapsed, I can handle it but if they’re ripped through… it might be more difficult.”
“My lungs aren’t damaged, I think,” Ace hurried to say. “I can breathe fine.”
Your eyes dropped to the injury. It was hard to imagine that his lungs wouldn’t be damaged with where it went through but in order to see that… you looked away and instead focused on his face where you were used to the injuries.
“Can I?” you asked.
He hesitated for a second before he nodded.
It was strange. For all you had kissed him and touched him before, reaching for his face now felt far more intimate. You brushed your fingers over the split lip and pushed against the boundary. It transferred to you easily and you saw it disappear from him for a second before the stinging made you wince.
Ace immediately caught your wrist, expression twisting in annoyance, as though he planned to pull your hand from his face. He held it there for a second and you smiled, reassuring.
Then you raised your hand further and he moved with you, fingers resting against your pulse point to take the bruising from his cheek. It slipped across and you managed to keep your expression steady even as you felt it bloom on your skin.
He looked away.
You hadn’t noticed Marco moving closer and his voice startled you. “That’s a very deep bruise,” he said. “There’s probably more facial trauma surrounding it. Where does it hurt when he talks?”
It hurt when he talked?
You didn’t answer but Ace slowly lifted your fingers higher to rest against his cheekbone. Though you couldn’t see the injury, you could feel it through the boundary and you pulled it across without bothering to identify what it was.
A deep ache exploded over your left cheek. Everything about your face suddenly felt wrong and pressure bloomed under your eye, sharp enough that tears sprung to your eyes. You clenched your teeth on instinct to avoid yelping and immediately regretted it as the pain worsened.
Marco’s healing flames arrived in an instant. The flames licked across your cheek without consuming anything, illuminating Marco's focused expression in shifting shades of blue. It smoothed the ache before it could take root properly.
You hated that injury. It wasn’t anything like the broken knuckle, far too deep and you forced yourself to blink for a second, still feeling its echoes. What was that?
How had he done anything with that thing?
“Alright,” Marco said. “I don’t like handling internal mouth injuries so you can come back to the bite. What other bruises has he been complaining about?”
You struggled to force your voice into something more normal before you spoke. “His shoulders.”
You reached for your face with your free hand, rubbing over where the injury had stabbed through you. You didn’t want to bother Marco with too many questions but that… that had not been comfortable at all.
“Are you able to continue?”
You looked to Ace for permission and the grip around your wrist tightened for a second. He nodded, jaw still clenched tight. You lowered your touch further until you could touch his shoulders and found those bruises were nothing in comparison to the ones on his face. You carried them over without complaint, bringing finger-shaped bruising across to your body without a worry.
Marco healed them all with his expression growing darker with each one.
“Wrists?” you asked.
Ace held them out to you without complaint and you wasted no time shifting the dark cuff marks over to yourself. Unlike the ache from before, these ones burned. Like a rope rubbing constantly against skin too thin for it.
They were as ugly as you remembered them looking but you barely got a second to care for them before blue fire washed over them. When you looked toward Marco, he looked furious enough to unnerve you.
“Anything else?” he asked, his voice tight.
You shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. You could take more but you could feel that you should rest. Even if you didn’t want to – wanted to relieve Ace of more pain – you shook your head.
“I’ll need a break. Not for too long but enough that I can rest.”
Marco nodded and stepped away. “When you have time, consider the wound. I’ll walk you through a proper examination later.”
“Thank you,” you said.
He didn’t respond, just nodded. Ace followed closely behind you as you left the room, his fingers running over his cheekbone slowly. You couldn’t help but smile, happy to see that he seemed to be feeling relieved from it.
“That thing hurt,” you commented. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad. Why didn’t you mention it before?”
He breathed out through his nose and dropped his hand. “Forgot, really. I don’t even know when it happened.”
A strange mix of anger and sadness curled through your stomach, disappearing quickly when Ace suddenly reached out and caught your wrist. You stopped in your tracks, turning properly when you were immediately met with a pair of warm lips against your own.
You blinked, surprised. “Hi?”
He grinned and did it again, longer this time. “That feels so much better when it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
