#shockandlock

All I Want

Bright lights twinkle, anyone would flinch on the intensity on how bright the room looked and the ceiling light or lamps weren’t even on. Yips are accompanied with a chiming of laughter from two individuals in the kitchen, the smell of baked goods wafting through the home. Marco had just come in through the door with a big box in his arms and the one of them has a smaller box with tiny holes in it. He quietly sets the big box on the coffee table before setting the smaller box to a small table that got shoved behind the Christmas tree. After it was hidden with no way to see coming in from the kitchen, he slides the large present by the tree with the other presents.

If there was one thing that Marco learned over the past few years is that his boyfriends’ loved decorating for Christmas, even more than Halloween. The first time spending Christmas together in his home, it startled him coming home from work to find tinsel wrapped around Ace and lights around Sabo’s neck like a scarf as he place them up. The whole living room was bright and even had them trailed down the hall. The bedroom had small candles, fake and some plugged in, bringing a warm glow to it. Decorations grew over time, gaining some of their own and impulsive buys, mostly on Ace’s part.

They waited until after having dinner at his family’s house to open their own presents. They only stayed to around five o’clock, max. The three of them liked cuddling up on the couch and watching Christmas movies that they did every year. The hot cocoa would run dry by tonight, though they had backups, and it could not be helped. Mistletoe hung around in every doorway to give each other excuses to provide more kisses. It always left them giggling in joy and sharing more.

“I’m back!” Marco says out, hearing clicking on the hardwood and ready’s himself to be pounced by a dalmatian. “Hey there, Stryker! You making sure they don’t burn down the house, yoi?” Barks come out sharp and tail smacks everywhere, thumping against the wall as he shows his joy. Licks get his face as Marco sees Sabo at the doorway of the kitchen.

“Mistletoe!” Ace hollers, twirling Sabo to soon plant a big one to lips, both sputtering in laughter.

“Presents after cookies are done?” Marco asks with a smile and Stryker barks to Ace with hops.

“Yes, yes! You will get your doggy cookies!” Ace cheers as the dog hops over in excitement to the man and gets picked up. A hand rubs o the spotted chest and Ace nuzzles a freckled cheek to the head of the happy dog. “Who’s a good fire dog? Who’s is a good boy?” Yips leave Stryker with wiggles and Marco shakes his head as Sabo begins rubbing against the side of the dog as well.

“Let’s get baking done!” Marco mentions, the two cheering and Stryker barking happily as they go to the kitchen. 

After some sneaked cookies, accompanied with burned tongues, they got the cookies to platters to cool as they go to the living room. Stryker got some of his biscuits and happily ate them as they began dragging out presents. They are all excited and the tradition of small gifts begins. Ace bought cheesy socks for them all and a headband for Stryker, who wore it happily as he also got a new large bone for Christmas. It didn’t take long for the dog to sneak off, hitting the doorway along the way as it was rather large.

“Yes, the full season of Mentalist!” Sabo cheers, holding up a couple seasons with the rest inside.

“We are going to busy for some nights,” Marco looks towards Ace, who is grinning brightly.

“You know you love it, too!” Ace mentions as they all enjoy the show, but he receives a snort from Marco as he wouldn’t deny it.

Marco opens his box and looks over to the both as they are snickering, pineapple tissue paper is taken out with an exasperated sigh. As he got it out, he soon is surprised to see a plush blue bird. “It looks like Fennec…” He mutters as his bird looked like a small phoenix, but they lost him a few months ago. It was understandable, he was getting older and only passed because of old age.

He holds the plush, moving the box to the side and gets both hands on it. Even though it is made of only fabric, it looks handmade, and he brings it close to smell the scent of lavender. It’s the scent that helps him to soothe from any stress that may be coming along. Marco gives a deep breathe before pulling it away and smiling to his boyfriends.

“Thank you, yoi…” the words make the two grin bigger with little bounces.

“Someone handcrafted it, took some time and it was so hard to not give it to you earlier!” Sabo says and Ace gives an agreed whine as he leans to the side.

“A month! We have been holding on for a month!” He says with another whine and Stryker howls from the hallway. They all laugh at the reaction, accompanied with some barks echoing.

They continue, Ace cheering as he holds up a kit in hand. “Hell yeah! I have been wanting to trying whittling!” Hands grip the set of carving knives and waving them up and down.

“Maybe it will show you how to be patient,” Sabo remarks with a smirk and gets a balled up wrapping paper chucked at his face.

“Hush!” The remark starts a mini wrapping paper war, and Marco has to stop it when boxes go flying.

More is opened, finding a pair of slippers for each and a sweater. They got Ace a llama sweatshirt and elf looking slippers as his other ones are getting worn out. Sabo received one with a lizard on it, then some plaid slippers—blue as he loves the color. Marco got one with a dove on it, being bird related, and a pair of blue with yellow as slippers. All that was left is the large gift that Ace is aware of as him and Marco agreed on this for Sabo.

“Is that for us all? I wasn’t involved!” Sabo pouts with arms crossed and Ace is already changing his sweater to the new one he got.

“Stop whining, you will love it!” Ace says with a muffled voice before popping his head out.

“Go ahead and open it,” Marco says as he slides it over to his curious boyfriend. A sigh leaves him with small mutters of being left out as he pulls on the wrapping paper. At this point Marco stands up to push some of the paper and boxes away from the tree. “What is this? Are we getting fish?” Confusion shows as Sabo looks to the tank with some more plain boxes inside as they didn’t want them revealing anything.

“Maybe,” Ace smirks as Marco moves to behind the tree. He grabs the box and brings it out to hold it out to Sabo. Their boyfriend looks suspicious before taking it and opening it to gaze in. Shoulders tense before he jerks his head up to look at them both in shock.

“Y-You got me…?” A small squeak leaves him, small prickles of tears showing on the corners of his eyes.

The two smile as Ace inches closer, “Merry Christmas, ‘Bo!” He says with a grin and they watch as Sabo carefully puts hands into the box. As hands move up, Marco grabs the box so Sabo can hold the small creature in his hands.

“I’ve been wanting an iguana so bad.” Sabo whispers and gets the animal to one hand and begins petting it as it looks around.

“Later we will have to get a bigger tank, so it has room to grow.” Marco says as he is kneeling on the other side of the tank.

Seeing those green eyes glistening in joy at the sight of one thing he wanted so much. He always held off, a little not sure if he wanted to take the responsibility, but Ace and Marco knew he wanted one. The longing in his eyes for one never went unnoticed and they wanted to show how much he deserves one and to know he would take great care of it. The way hands pet along the reptile, it looked to be enjoying it before it scurries along his arm. Sabo gasping as it hurriedly gets to his shoulder, letting its nose near his neck before inching to rest with head forward towards Marco and Ace.

“I think he likes you,” Ace mentions while shifting to move the tank a bit.

“I hope so!” Sabo has hands tightened into fists, grinning brightly as he reaches up to pet more on his new present.

They spend the next hour getting the tank set up, Sabo realizing that they bought the shelf near the couch, pressed to the wall, for a reason now. That was over three months ago, and he about cried again at how much they planned this out for him. Once everything is set up and lamp turned on, Sabo lets the iguana nestle into its home and explore it.

Then they set out to gather cookies, hot chocolate, the three different popcorn in that large can that has Santa on it, and the biscuits for Stryker. There is already a pile of pillows and blankets on the couch that they get arranged for their movie night. On the ottoman part of the couch, they are sure to set up blankets for Stryker as Ace sits mostly there so the dalmatian curls up at his legs. The couch is all done up and Marco is in the middle to let Sabo glance to see his new pet. He knew he would want to and didn’t mind, especially as he knew Sabo would probably scoot to take a glance to it to check on it.

“Home Alone marathon!” Ace cheers as he already pulled up the movie on the television as they are renting them to watch and not have to get up unless necessary.

“Come on, why not the Grinch first?!” Sabo whines and Stryker howls, causing them all to laugh before smashing together on the couch.

“Grinch and then Home Alone, since there is only one Grinch movie.” Marco compromises that they both agree to, Ace a little reluctant. As the movie starts, Stryker is already moving to lounge along Ace’s lap with front paws on Marco’s lap, to be reached by all them, plus Sabo could reach his biscuits better.

Ace doesn’t understand how some people can meet and know instantly that they are soulmates, but others can take years to eventually become soulmates, as if the shared experience made them soulmates. It didn’t make sense and not even research can explain it.

“You’re lost in thought again,” Marco says lightly, smirking when Ace blinks and notices the food in front of him. “You didn’t even notice food. What’s going on in your head?”

“Soulmates,” Ace answers fiddling with his spoon. “They don’t make sense.”

Marco sighs, Ace would feel guilty for the number of times that they’ve talked about this but he doesn’t have an answer yet, “Even I don’t know more about soulmates, Ace.”

“You’re like a thousand years old.”

“I’m only a hundred, you are a thousand years old and we both know it,” Marco counters. “Eat before lunch gets cold.”

“And we’ve known each other for almost fifty years! How are we so old and still not aging? I mean, we haven’t met out soulmates yet!”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Marco smiles and Ace ducks his head slightly to avoid staring at him. “I don’t mind not having a soulmate. I have you and our family and friends.”

“You’re the reason everyone thinks we’re soulmates.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Ace snorts, “You would be the best soulmate.”

“I know. Now eat before your food gets cold. Also, your doctor appointment is tomorrow, don’t you dare skip again.”

“You aren’t my mother!”

i got band pana on jp! no pana urs on en unfortunately

  Omg it's your birthday, munny!!! well almost here...

i use discord more now instead of skype if you ever want to have a chat ^.^

@ewartfaron @shockandlock can i not reply to posts anymore??? or is this my own failing

in any case you’re right i think that was a ripoff one thank god! the proper one isnt much better but its not... That, so thats good:

This happens in the OPverse. It’s short but fluffy, so I Hope you enjoy it, Kris!

(AO3 | FF.net)

After more than a year of living with the Whitebeard pirates and months of bearing their mark on his back, Ace was certain of a few things regarding how the crew worked. One of the most remarkable ones - and one you’d only truly understand if you were a Whitebeard pirate yourself - was that despite the random celebrations here and there, their birthday parties were the wildest and the best ones. They happened in a high frequency due to the size of the crew, but they were all especial in their own way, and nobody was ever forgotten.

Of course, that included Ace.

At midnight, a couple of fireworks were released, and to the sounds of their explosions and of many shouts of “Happy birthday!”, the New Year’s Eve celebration of the Whitebeard pirates turned into Ace’s birthday party.

*****

“You know,” Ace said, lying down on the sand with an arm behind his back and the other holding beer mug, “this is actually nice.”

He breathed deeply a few times, letting the fresh air of the inhabited spring island cool him down, and closed his eyes. The noises of the party were loud even meters away from it, making it impossible to have silence, but Ace couldn’t care less - it was comforting to know his family was right there, happy and having a blast.

“And it’s all for you, yoi.”

Ace opened his eyes to glance at Marco, who was sitting beside him on the sand.

“No, it’s not,” Ace said, rising an eyebrow and smiling cheekily at him. “Half of it is because of the turning of the year.”

Marco rolled his eyes. “If you want to get technical, I’d say a third or a quarter is because of the New Year’s Eve, but the rest is for you. Ask Thatch, if you doubt it. They had to cook a lot more this time, yoi.”

“You guys really go wild with the birthday parties.”

Marco smiled. It was a simple action, and it wasn’t like Ace had never seen Marco smile before, but something about it, about the way it looked so fond, made Ace’s breath hitch and his heart constrict.

“Of course we do, it’s for family,” Marco said, and unaware of the effect it had in Ace - or maybe all too aware of it - he picked Ace’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “And you’re one of us.”

“Yeah...”

Ace wasn’t able to say anything else before the words got stuck in his throat, and he felt heat grow behind his eyes. He pulled Marco to lie down with him, then snuggled closer until his face was hiding on Marco’s chest.

He just breathed for a few minutes, letting Marco’s arms around him and the way he was playing with a strand of Ace’s hair ground him.

For tonight, Ace wanted to allow himself not to think. Here, he was Ace - a member of the Whitebeard pirates, a person who loved his family and who was loved back. If he tried hard enough, he could pretend that was all there was, and surrounded by Marco’s warm acceptance, it wasn’t as impossible as it once had seemed.

Ace kissed Marco’s collarbone softly, then nuzzled his jaw. He felt Marco shiver, his arms  tightening around Ace for a moment, and he smiled.

“Thank you, Marco.”

Ace chuckled when Marco kissed the tip of his nose before pulling him closer.

“Happy birthday, Ace,” Marco whispered, his breath warm and tingling on his lips. “And happy New Year.”

Marco is very careful about looking at Ace. Not that Ace isn’t very attractive, but because Ace is attractive and Marco really, really likes him.

It doesn’t help that Ace trades out which piercings he has in on any given day and that means that Marco is treated to a new combination of piercings and studs each time he sees Ace, which is often.

Today is even worse.

There’s a ear cuff, gold and shaped like a dragon, too many tiny golden studs and interestingly placed rings and Marco, Marco is distracted. Marco is so distracted that he walks into a wall looking at Ace.

“That looks like it hurt,” Ace says hurrying over to help him up. “Are you okay?”

“I,” Marco needs to breath and talk, remain calm. “I’m fine, thanks for helping me up.”

“It’s fine, I’m glad you’re okay,” Ace grins and the lights glint off a stud. “Need anything else before I have to,” He gestures over his shoulder.

Your number?

“I’m fine.”

“I’ll see you later then, Marco.”

Marco waves and tries not to scream because apparently Ace does know his name. Has he been making that much of a fool of himself?

~

Ace grins, making sure not to look back at Marco and pretends to be busy with something that he’s already done.