This is slightly sexy in the beginning, so I'll put the story below.

Justice and Freedom: Marco had not heard a lot about Rear-Admiral 'Straw Hat' Luffy, not until he crash-lands on his ship. slash.

“Who put you up to this?” Marco asks, because no way their newest rookie just happened to bring Marco dinner because he realized the first mate skipped meals today. 

“No one.” The answer comes too quickly. Ace is not necessarily a bad liar, Marco’s seen a lot worse, but the blonde had been looking for a sign and Ace’s eyes are shifty as he replies. 

Marco looks down at the plate, picking up the fork and taking a bite. He hadn’t noticed before from how immersed he’d been before and the omelette is delicious. Bacon, tomato and cheese… A light goes on in Marco’s.

“So, how’s Luffy doing?”

“Wait, how did you know?”

“He’s called a couple of times before, in a very timely manner.” Marco had entertained that it was Ace who fed information to Luffy about the going-on’s of the Moby, but as far as he can tell, the younger is still oblivious to Marco’s complicated relationship with his brother.

“Luffy just knows things sometimes, I’m not sure how to explain it. It doesn’t happen with just anyone, especially not at this distance, I was actually really surprised when he called.” He seems to pay that particular fact more consideration as he explains it to the first division commander. “Marco is there something up with you two?”

“What makes you say that?” Marco questions cautiously. 

“Luffy called across the sea to pester me into making you a sandwich at almost midnight.”

“Ah, it’s uh, complicated?” From all the conversations Marco’s exhausted brain wants to have -which is none- finally coming clean to Ace about his persistent attraction to his brother is not even on the list. 

“What do you mean complicated?”

“According to him, he likes me.”

“That’s it? Luffy likes tons of people.”

“It's more... a hormone-driven type of liking.”

“I doubt it,” the freckled man scoffs in amusement, “Luffy doesn’t even know what sex is.” Okay, so, Luffy does look very innocent but Ace cannot really think his older brother is completely impervious to his biological instincts, can he?

(Besides, Marco has it in good authority that Luffy is not only very much aware of what sex is, but that he’s rather extraordinary at it too.)

“I beg to differ,” Marco lets it slip, quickly trying to conceal his outburst as a cough but it’s too late, the damage done. Ace’s steely gaze falls on him, the light of understanding shining from within them.

“Marco, please tell me you didn’t fuck my brother.” Marco has the decency to look away, and then, because Luffy should suffer just as much as he, even if it’s delayed, he goes:

“What’s this a map of?” Bepo asked as he looked at a piece of parchment that seemed much older than the others that were on the desk.

“Oh, that’s Cocoyashi. It’s where I grew up.” Nami said with a soft smile on her face, “My sister Nojiko still lives there.”

“You have a sister?”

“Well…we’re not biologically related but we were raised by the same woman. Actually there’s a picture of us right there.” Nami said pointing to the small frame on the desk. Bepo gently picked it up and looked at the two smiling girls standing on either side of a woman with magenta hair with blue-grey eyes who grinned at the camera holding a cigarette in her fingers.

Bepo was silent as he heard Nami talk about the woman in the picture, she had been a marine who had taken her and the other girl in when Nami was just a baby and left the Marines to raise them. Sadly, the woman in the picture wasn’t alive as she’d been shot by a terrible person and the mink felt his heart drop to his stomach.

Marine…shot…dying out of love…

‘Impossible.’ Bepo thought as he looked at the picture, dark eyes shining with unshed tears. Once upon a time he’d heard a similar story from his own Captain. His Captain who had been taken in by Doflamingo’s brother, a marine in disguise who had risked his life to save Law….at a terrible cost.

“Ah…sorry…I didn’t mean to make you feel bad!” Nami said as she noticed the tears gathering in Bepo’s eyes and then found herself being pulled into the large polar bear’s arms in a bone-crushing embrace. “It’s okay Bepo. I’m okay now…my village is fine. No one is suffering anymore.”

---

Bepo was unusually quiet when he came back to the Polar Tang. He’d spent the entire morning and afternoon with Nami, to gain some helpful tips on how to perfect his own maps.

“Oh there you are Bepo.” A voice said and Bepo glanced over to see his Captain leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. The polar bear’s mind drifted back to Nami’s story and how it had matched up with Law’s. His Captain had always been a difficult person when it came to talking about his terrible past but now he knew that there was someone who could understand and it filled the mink with hope for the Surgeon of Death.

“C-Captain…” Bepo’s black eyes welled up with tears and he grabbed Law in his large arms, “Oh Captain!”

“Hey! Bepo! What the hell?!” Law squirmed trying to get out of the mink’s hug, “Let go!”

“Oh Captain!  You don’t have to suffer alone anymore! I’m so relieved!” Bepo sobbed.

One of the usual suspects that regularly feeds my irresponsible behavior of writing fan fiction instead of being productive has pitched me an idea for a Time Travel MaLu fic. Here’s a piece of a previous fic I’d given up on that might make a comeback for a time travel twist.

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Luffy sees his siblings carry Ace in a stretcher towards the Moby Dick and whines a little as his life gets entirely too complicated. He’s not sure how to play this, there’s no way Ace won’t recognize him and tell the Whitebeard Pirates that their Lu is actually a marine. Little brothers from hell.

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Ace has been kept hostage on the Moby Dick for over 30 days now.

Marco threw him off the boat! As Namur carries him up on deck –grudgingly, mind you– and Ace collapses on his hands panting and shaking, he glares at the wood beneath his fingers. Fuckin stupid chicken…!

“Thanks.” He chokes out to the fishman, because he might be his enemy, but Ace could’ve drowned. He’s a violent pirate, but he’s also a very polite, violent pirate. The fishman does nothing but grumble and be on his way. Leaving Ace to his coughing and failure.

“Ready to give it up for the day, Ace?” Ace feels something positive when he recognizes Thatch’s voice, not because he’s getting attached! He isn’t. It’s just Thatch happens to be one of the more tolerable of his captors, particularly because he’s in charge of the food and he’s always there to listen about Ace complain about the woes of his situation.

“…Maybe.” Ace certainly has not given up on taking Pop’s heads, but the Phoenix, a man Ace had originally dubbed as laid-back and cool-headed, seems to be in an ever worsening mood. The empty cold of seawater still hasn’t left him and Ace thinks he’s rather done with provoking the already incensed first mate. He turns to Thatch. “Something crawled up Marco’s ass and died today.”

The other man explodes into laughter, hand reaching for the railing to hold himself up.

“Oh god, don’t let him hear you say that.”

“Is he always so… so…” Ace stutters, getting to his feet and looking at the pompadour man. “I don’t even know, man.”

“Don’t hurt yourself there, I know what you mean.” The man says, still laughing. “Not really, you’re not too off, though. Marco has been in a pissy mood.”

“Because I’m trying to kill P–Whitebeard?” Ace knows Thatch catches the slip, smirking widely. “Shut up!” Ace says angrily, feeling the warmth in his face. “Everyone calls him that, it’s just habit! It doesn’t mean anything!” It doesn’t.  

“Whatever you say.” Thatch’s voice is humoring him, but his eyes tell Ace everything he needs to know. Thatch changes the topic though, mercifully so. “Nah, I mean, I don’t think it’s helping his mood improve, mind you, but Marco always gets irritable when his boyfriend’s not around.”

“His boyfriend?” Ace would’ve never thought Marco the Phoenix could ever participate in something as mundane as being in a relationship.

“Oh, that’s right you haven’t met him. He actually left around the time you arrived, he had some personal business to take care of.” Thatch says, leaning against the railing, propped by his elbows. “Odd, though, now that I think about it. Lu’s never taken so much time off before.”

“Lu?” Ace asks, almost tasting the name. “Didn’t think Marco was the romantic type, pinning after a man.”

“He’s not really, like, rookies take awhile to notice them, if I’m honest. Lu’s a sunshine, but he’s a little dense sometimes, not the type of guy that screams romantic partner. Marco’s head over heels for him though, and the kid does help him out tons around the ship. I don’t think he expected him to be gone this long. He always keeps Marco from stressing out too much, which is very healthy for the rest of us. I think you’d have gotten along great. He’s actually a bottomless pit too…”

“I did think you’d taken it in stride just how much food I can eat.” Ace has pondered why he’s eating habits, which he knew were slightly peculiar but not unfounded, had not earned more disbelief.

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure how the kitchen’s going to survive when I have 2 black holes to fill at the same time.”

“Don’t talk like I’m sticking around!”

Luffy’s Mystery Bird is completed, and Bella Scullw over at FFnet left me such lovely reviews that I’ve been prompted into a writing a OneShot of what happens right after the end. This includes huge spoilers, so be sure to read the original work first. 

“You’ve been sailing with him.” Izo deduces, and okay, he still doesn't like it, but Ace’s little brother... well, Pops orders had been to protect him at all cost. Some unhappiness bleeds through anyways because Marco sighs tiredly, rubbing his eyes and masking his face from view.

“I didn’t join his crew, Izou.”

“Right, you just travel with them on their ship and go on adventures with them and probably fight for them.”

First spread for my Anime Journal featuring one of my absolute faves 💚💚💚

No plans of writing this as of right now, but I really like this scene, leaves me with so many questions. 

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Marco knows his crew would have different reactions to him bringing a Younko on board, but when Ace punches Luffy in the face, he still thinks it’s a little extreme. Luffy doesn’t move, face twisted to one side, his straw hat unmoved. Marco’s stunned. Enough so that Ace has the chance to tackle the other pirate and punch him again and again and –okay, that’s enough.

  “Ace!”

  Marco grabs his arms from behind, surprised when Ace bursts into flames. As he pulls him back, Ace is writhing and yelling. Luffy lies silently on the ground, flat on his back from the assault.

The lapels of his red shirt are singed from where Ace grabbed him.

  “Let me go! Marco, let me go!” The other man keeps screaming and Marco has never seen Ace like this before. “What the fuck is he doing on this ship?!”

  “Ace. Straw Hat is a Younko, what exactly are you playing at?” Marco’s sure Luffy isn’t the type to go to war over being offended, but Ace –as second division commander– has a responsibility to know better. Besides all that though, Marco’s just worried. Ace is absolutely furious and while he’s known for having quiet a temper, it certainly isn’t like this. “If I let you go; can you control yourself?”

  “Self-control isn’t really Ace’s thing, shishishishi.” Luffy says, swiftly rising to his feet, dusting off his straw hat. Ace shakes in Marco’s grip, and from the back of his head Marco can tell the younger man is glaring. “He’s always been a meany. Not cute at all.”

  “What. The fuck. Are you doing on this ship?” Ace’s voice is dangerous enough that Marco knows better than to let go of his grip, not that he needs to check on Luffy anyways. The other man is clearly unfazed.

  “Well, Marco invited me.” Ace breaks out of his hold to swivel around and zero in on the first mate.

  “Why is he here?”

  “Ace, what is happening?” He looked over his shoulder at Luffy. “And you didn’t tell me you had history with Ace.” Luffy answers first.

  “It didn’t really come up.” The other man says, shrugging.

  “He’s a fuckin traitor.” Luffy’s gaze narrows on him, but doesn’t disavow the notion. Ace’s gaze is wide and hurt, and Marco, who had seen him in failure and in sickness and in grief has never been privy to so much emotion from his fellow commander. What had Luffy done? And, in the long run, what was Marco supposed to do about it? “You do know he used to be a marine, right?”

  “I do, yoi.” Marco hopes that’s all there is to that.

  “Do you know why he’s not a marine anymore?” Marco figured it was probably because Luffy has clearly never been meant for that kind of life, how could he? He was so full of life and wonder and dreams, sometimes Marco felt no even the sea could hold him. Something in Luffy’s eyes change at the question and Marco knows immediately the answer’s not going to be that simple.

  “Ace…” Luffy starts.

  “It’s because he killed another officer!” Ace explodes. “Our– his own fucking grandfather! So I want to know, what is that piece of shit doing on this ship?!” He meets eyes with Luffy trying to send out the message that this is not the time–

  “Marco and I are going out!”

  –to tell Ace they were fucking, and fuck, why did Marco even bother?

Full work

Fix him, he says. Law chuckles darkly.

"Roronoa-ya…" The surgeon hates how weak his voice sounds, terrified beyond belief because of the sudden horror that overloads his existence, too much torment trying to cram itself inside his person. "I'm afraid that if we move Luffy-ya too much, brain matter is going to fall out of his skull."

Luffy might never forgive him, but this is bigger than either of them.

Law loves him.

He wishes he had told him sooner, wishes he would've had impossibly more chances to kiss him, to keep knowing sides to him no one else is privy to. Law loves his kindness and his strength and every single stupid antic of his that never fails to annoys him and amuse him. Law feels like the last couple of months have brought with them more laughter than he's experienced in years. He loves to think that with people like Luffy around, Cora-san's views of the world live on. 

D will surely bring another storm.

Law is unsure about all the prophecies and the void century and ancient weapons, despite how he's discussed the topic with Nico-ya at length, but if such a thing exists, Luffy is smack in the middle of it. Doflamingo called Ds the enemies of the gods, and Law doesn't think he meant the abstract figure of worship. Times are changing, Luffy is a vital part of this era, if not the guiding light of it, and Law believes in him more than he has ever believed in anyone or anything. 

Law is going to save Luffy because maybe Law can do some good in the world too.