#phoenix0725

“Thanks, Robin.” Marco smiled at his lawyer across the table as she gathered up the papers laid out in front of them.

“Think nothing of it. I’m not sure I’ve ever handled such a easy divorce.”

“Well, it’s mutual, and it’s not like we don’t love each other. Just not like before. We need different things now.” Robin smiled at him, and Marco was glad to see there was no pity in her eyes. The decision had been a hard one, hard for both Shanks and him, but neither were happy, and they needed to set each other free.

Now that they’d decided Marco just felt a tinge of sadness that they’d lost the spark they’d had ten years ago and relief. He wished Shanks well, and he was sure they’d always be a part of each other’s lives, but now they were free. Robin just had to file the papers, and in a month, maybe two, he’d once again be single.

Marco had to admit that he was not looking forward to that. It was nice to have someone to come home to, nice to have someone to share the day to day with, nice to always have someone warm in bed. That had been part of their problem though- Shanks wasn’t one to stay home when there was fun to be had, and while Marco did enjoy parties and going out, he also liked time spent quietly at home together.

“I’ll be going then, and everything will be taken care of in a few weeks. I trust you’ve settled into your new apartment?” Marco nodded and forced himself to smiled. Robin stared at him for a few moments, and Marco had to fight down the urge to shift under her scrutiny. When she smiled, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

“You look like you could use a drink. Unfortunately, I have to go, but I happen to know one of the bartenders here, and he’ll make sure you’re taken care of.” Before Marco could protest, he found himself seated at the bar of the restaurant they’d met at with Robin already waving someone over.

“Ace, this is Marco. He could use a drink... scotch, I think.” The bartender- Ace, Marco supposed- nodded and grinned at Marco. Marco glared at Robin. Not only did she somehow know his prefered beverage, but Ace was ridiculously hot and quite obviously too young for him. She left with a smile, nodding at Ace on her way out.

It was a Tuesday evening, and there were hardly any people in the restaurant, and he was the only one at the bar. Ace turned to get his drink, setting it in front of him with a smile before going to prepare a vivid blue drink for someone sitting at a table. Marco toyed with his scotch- he didn’t really feel like getting wasted somehow even if that was traditional.

He smiled sadly to himself. There was no doubt that Shanks was drunk somewhere. He raised his glass in a silent toast to him and tossed back half the drink. Ace clearly had nothing else to do at the moment and was hovering out of easy walking distance, looking very unsure of whether he was supposed to come chat or not. Marco smiled at him, and he grinned in return, coming to lean on the bar directly in front of Marco.

“Robin almost never buys her clients a drink. Are you okay?” Ace looked at him with concern, gaze drifting to the white mark around his finger, showing where his ring use to be.

“I’ll be okay,” Marco said, and this time he really believed it.

“That says nothing about now.” Ace huffed and crossed his arms. “Fine, want another scotch?” Marco nodded holding out his glass.

Ace poured with an excessive amount of flair, and Marco smiled at his little show. Ace flushed. “They make us you know,” he whispered, and Marco laughed at his put on expression.

“Is it always this slow?”

“On weekdays, yeah,” Ace said mournfully. “I normally only work weekends because of school, but I wanted the distraction. Not that this was much of one before you came along.”

“Distraction from what?” Marco found himself leaning forward on the bar, and he forced himself to settle back in the bar stool.

Ace glared. “Nuh-uh, we’re talking about your problems not mine.”

After taking another sip of his scotch, Marco hummed. “I’ll tell you only if you tell me first.” Ace let out an exaggerated sigh. “It might help to talk about it, and it’s sometimes easier with a stranger.”

“I broke up with my... whatever-we-were this weekend actually. It’s been coming for a while, so it’s not like I was surprised, but yeah. He’s been pining for one of our friends for forever, and he needed the push.” Marco’s eyes widened.  “Now, I have to put up with them dancing around each other instead of just fucking and getting it over with.”

Ace visibly shook himself out of contemplating that. “So what’s your deal?”

“We just fell out of love, I suppose.” Marco sighed and fiddled with his glass, and Ace picked up a cloth and began wiping everything down for which Marco was grateful. It was hard with those eyes focusing on him.“We wanted different things, and we weren’t happy.”

“That’s got to be hard. How long? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to , of course.”

“No, it’s fine. It would have been ten years next month.” Ace’s eyes widened, and he reached out like he was going to take Marco’s arm, but he stopped before he did. Marco wasn’t sure if he was glad or not, and that in and of itself surprised him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Like I said, I’ll be okay.” They didn’t break the silence for a while as Ace worked on closing down the bar.

Finally, Ace broke the silence. “Ummm... this is kind of strange, but do you want to come to movie night at my house on Friday? My brothers and I host it every week for all our friends- Robin comes too- and it would kind of nice to have someone there who won’t be staring between me and Zoro and Sanji with pity.” Ace looked up quickly, and Marco fought down a smile. “Not, like a date or anything, just hanging out.”