#wordword

"You'd think," Marco says, leaning his head on his hand, watching the rest of the bar. "There'd be something interesting happening."

"Do you want something interesting?" Ace asks, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Because I think we can get the guys in the back to fight us."

Marco considers the table Ace nods at for a long moment before shaking his head, "They're too easy."

"That's what you get for having standards and not going to the bar that Jozu likes," Ace says finishing his dinner. "We could be in the middle of a bar brawl by now."

Marco considers Ace for a long moment, "do you want to brawl?"

"I'm trying to entertain you and you're not helping."

"It's revenge for not being invited to your attack on the marine base on the last island."

Ace laughs, eyes shining in the candle light, "you shouldn't be. I left Kingdew black out drunk in a cell and left him to fight his way out when he got sober. He still hasn't forgiven me."

"Why did you leave him? Normally you make sure everyone gets out."

"Maybe for fun, maybe because he insulted someone," Ace answers, shrugging. He raises his mug when the bar tender next looks their way. "The world will never know."

"I could ask Kingdew."

"He won't answer if he's smart," Ace nods politely to the person who comes to refill their beers, sliding money over to them. "If he's stupid, he'll wake up naked tied to the front of the ship."

Marco raises an eyebrow, far more curious than he had been before.

"I, however, am going to go back to the ship. Because this is boring and I can think of plenty more fun things to do."

"Like?"

Ace grins, having slammed back his drink, "Strip poker."

"You want to lose that badly? You've got two items if you don't count the hat."

"You are overestimating how much I am wearing," Ace says, turning to leave. "If you don't want to come with me-"

"That," Marco says quickly finishing off his own drink and standing. "Was never stated. Maybe we can try something else, I don't think we will get far playing strip poker."

“Shiba’s looking over here again,” Gin mutters into his lunch, still confused when he had decided that being friends with Kurosaki Ichigo was a good idea. Why it had seemed like a good idea. “Do you know why he’s so interested in you?”

Kurosaki hums, barely glancing in Shiba Kaien’s direction before turning back to his lunch, “He’s been doing this since I joined the academy. One of my teachers mentioned that I looked quite a bit like a Shiba, even if my coloring was different.”

“I doubt that a Shiba would have as much trouble with kido as you do, Kurosaki-kun.”

“I doubt that a Shiba has as much spiritual energy as I do normally,” Kurosaki says easily, grinning when Gin looks back at him.

Kurosaki isn’t wrong. He had broken the orb that measured spiritual power when he had come to the academy, shattered it with a small application of his power and then asked if there had been something wrong with it. Like he had expected it to last longer.

“You’re not going to talk to him?” Gin asks curiously, because he knows that getting a noble’s name would only help them advance both here and in Soul Society.

“No,” Kurosaki answers, leaning his head on his hand. “If Shiba-dono wants to speak to me, he should come talk to me himself instead of expecting me to. If he wants to ask about my family, then he should gather the courage to do so.”

“You could be a noble.”

“What would that do for me that I couldn’t do for myself?” Kurosaki pauses, finally looking at Gin instead of off into the distance.  “Would you consider us allies?”

Gin considers him, chewing slowly as he thinks about the last six months. About how hard Kurosaki has worked and how he’s forced Gin to be better, work harder and push beyond the limits that he had before. Because he would never have improved the way that he has without someone to measure himself against instead of the memory of Aizen.

“Against?”

“If I said I was looking for a man with an orb that stole something from someone I care for,” Kurosaki shifts, leaning forward, eyes almost too bright.

“I would say that I’ve been looking into something like that too.”

Kurosaki nods, looking far too pleased with himself. Gin would be upset if it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to find too, if it might not be easier with someone like Kurosaki, who seems to grow stronger every time they fight.

“Then I suppose that makes us allies,” Kurosaki says looking pleased.

“Please take care of me,” Gin says easily, grinning when Kurosaki laughs. “You know who we’re after?”

“There’s certainly an illusion surrounding that man,” Kurosaki answers, which is answer enough. They are after the same man. 

“Do you have a plan?”

"I didn't even know you could climb trees," Ace mutters to himself as he carefully puts his weight on a new branch.

This high up, they're more likely to give under his weight. It almost makes him miss being a kid. Back then he could have scurried up to the top of the tree without worrying it wouldn't hold.

"You sure we shouldn't pull out the ladder," Haruta yells from somewhere below him, probably already filming. "We can get the truck closer!"

"Shouldn't you be doing this in the first place?" Ace calls back, frowning when one of the branches he's holding onto creaks loudly. "How did I end up in the tree?"

"Truck was on the other side of the fire putting it out," Doma answers, arms crossed over his chest when Ace risks looking down at him. "And it started screaming."

"Still can't believe dogs could climb trees," Haruta says, raising his phone higher to get a better shot. "You ever see one up that high?"

"Not even once."

Ace ignores them, shuffling higher and finally, finally, leveraging himself up onto the branch across from the dog, offering his hand to it.

"Hi, aren't you a good boy?" Ace cooes, smiling when the dog whines and presses into his hand. It takes a long couple of minutes to convince the dog to crawl carefully into his lap, still whimpering softly. "Poor baby."

Rigging a harness onto the dog and lowering him down takes another hour. After which, Ace can finally start the slow, careful work of making his own way down. It takes longer, some of the branches he used to go up snapping under his weight and others taken out when he lowered the dog.

"You definitely ruined that shirt," Haruta laughs, scratching behind the dog's ears. "That's what you get."

"I'd like to see you climb a tree in a polo shirt and not mess it up," Ace says tiredly, pushing his hair out of his face. "Ugh, I still have to inspect the scene."

"You mean the first one," Doma corrects, looking quite content as the dog shoves him down and sprawls over him. "Since we just put out fire two. In the other building."

"Don't remind me, that's gonna end up on my list, I know it," Ace sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "Call me if you can't find the dog's owner, I can keep him for a couple days."

"Or he could live at the station," Doma says, muffled.

"If the fire chief lets you have a dog, I will eat your fire coat," Ace shouts, hurrying off back to his truck for his equipment. "Thanks for the help!"

"You're overpowering it again," Unohana says, still smiling when Ichigo looks up at her. "We've been over this."

"Overdoing is as bad as under doing," Ichigo repeats tiredly, dropping his hands down and ending the attempt. "This is the tenth time."

"And you've lasted longer at where the kidou should be before overpowering each time. You have far more power than most everyone here."

He glances at her, allowing her to lead the way to the table already set, "Not you."

"No, but I wasn't at your level when I started to learn healing," Unohana says, sitting down. "Stronger than normal, but I suppose it should have been expected in your case."

Ichigo scowls at his cup, because he knows what she means. What they always mean. At least she hadn't gotten the idea to kill him like so many others had.

"Do you want to try again?"

"Not yet," he says finally, taking a drink. "It's harder than I thought. Focusing power into such a small amount. I can hold power for a while, it's just.."

"Overpowering is easy when you're trying to fill a bucket with a spoon."

He raises an eyebrow but nods after a moment, "that's close to what it feels like. I am sorry for taking so much of your time."

And the younger Luffy series, please 💖💖

Okay, so we will start with missing: one dragon and if that's not too long we'll do the other.

"Ace, starlight," Marco pauses, swallowing hard before pushing forward. If he refused to acknowledge what he said then it wasn't real. "What are you talking about?"

"Haruta's birthday is coming up," Ace says slowly, eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure what to get for it. You know how Haruta gets, always complaining about having too many of something or thanking you to your face and then regifting it to Jozu two days later, who always gives it back to you even though he feels guilty about it."

"And you want advice? Or to complain?"

Ace snorts, grinning as he leans in closer, "Darling, if I wanted advice? I would ask Balmenco. We both know that Haruta regifts your presents at the party to whoever is closest."

"I can't believe you would say that," Marco mutters, ignoring the way his throat gets tight and his heart stutters in his chest. It didn't, couldn't, mean anything. The pet name was just in response to his own slip up. "To my face, none the less."

"Don't worry, I still love what you get me for my birthday, sunshine."

Marco ignores the sound that Thatch makes from behind him, smiling easily as he relaxes. It's another game, Ace has played plenty of them since joining the crew. And if Marco got to enjoy being called harmless pet names because of Ace's competitive nature, he wasn't going to complain about it.

"I'm sure you do, sweetheart, that's why you never use any of them," Marco teases, biting back the urge to laugh as Ace flusters. "It's okay, we both know that you want to keep them safe from the others when they try and pay you back during the prank wars."

"Well they are from my favorite person, my heart, how could I possibly allow them to be damaged?"

Haruta is laughing somewhere behind him, Marco can hear him demanding that they pay up, a bet of some kind. He's going to have to find out what it's all about later, probably from Izou, who sounds like he's losing. Or Jozu, who sounds like he's currently taking all of Haruta's winnings.

"Angel, we both know that you use things you love, you don't squirrel them away where they can't be damaged," Marco smirks, lifting one of Ace's hands up and pressing a kiss to his hand. "Better luck next time."

"Do you miss it?" Ace asks, smiling softly when Marco looks at him. It feels like home and warmth when their eyes meet, but he doesn't move closer. "The ocean?"

"Sometimes I miss it more than anything," Marco answers slowly, like they haven't played this song and dance before. "But I think that I've missed you more. Marco Newgate."

"Ace Portgas," he tips his head to the side, where his mom, his mom, is waiting with their umbrella. "Are you busy?"

Marco shakes his head, standing up and brushing off his pants, "I might not be good company, I was walking off a fight with my dad."

"Ace knows quite a bit about those."

"Ma! Don't embarrass me!" Ace whines, though he still looks so happy to see her. "This is my mom, Rogue Portgas."

"Ms. Portgas."

Rouge laughs, shaking her head, "of course you're an old friend. I hope you like stew, its cold enough now for it."

"I'll eat just about anything he can," Marco assures her, keeping both of his hands firmly in his pockets.

"Come on then, we have work to do!"

"She reminds me of you. The smile and the attitude," Marco studies him and Ace wonders what he can see. "Slow this time, don't you think?"

"I think inviting you home for dinner might be a little too fast than, Marco," Ace snorts, following his mom. "You know, you don't have to come. The city isn't that big. I can find you another time."

Marco considers it, Ace knows that face better than most. He can't blame him for asking it to be slow, last time had been fast and they both had died young. It hadn't even been his fault that time, Marco could never let someone in pain go without trying to help and even men could be burned for witchcraft, even if was just healing.

"I want to meet her. Is he-"

"Roger isn't allowed around when I am," Ace shrugs falsely casual. He had never forgiven Roger for his actions, leaving Rouge pregnant for a legacy, or the fact he had done it more than once. "He still hasn't married mom."

Marco shakes his head, looking exhausted, "you think he would grow a brain."

"Me too," Ace sighs. "Coming?"

Marco has known exactly what was going to happen since someone stepped into the bar ranting about Monkey D Luffy and how he's nothing but an upstart that didn't deserve the bounty that he had been given. Not that anyone else who knew Ace expected anything else.

"He's drunk," Marco whispers, knowing that it won't stop Ace. "And you've got a meeting with someone soon."

"Ten minutes tops," Ace mutters, shoving his hat, with the flower crown that one of the children that he had helped earlier today looped around it. "Hold my flowers."

"Kick his ass," Marco sighs, putting the hat on his own head as he watched Ace cross the room and slug the idiot in the face hard enough to launch him into the wall and out onto the street.

He doesn't bother watching to see if anyone else joins in, not even when the bar goes quiet and someone starts yelling, because Ace wanted to pick a fight and he can finish it himself. Ace picks too many fights, honestly. It's making it hard for Marco to pick any.

"Well this takes me back," Shanks grins, sliding into the seat that Ace had gotten up from. "What happened?"

"Someone insulted Luffy where Ace could hear them."

Shanks nods, like he can understand what happened. Marco's pretty sure if Ace didn't have it under control, Shanks would have waded into the crowd to help him. Shanks had bet on Luffy taking Roger's title after all, he wouldn't let his pick be insulted by someone who didn't even have a chance of making it out of this alive.

"Shakky's never going to let him pay this off," Benn whistles as a chair slams into a wall, scorched where it had flown through Ace.

"You'd be surprised."

Shakky had a soft spot for Ace that Marco hadn't been expecting the first time that Ace had dragged him to the bar, insisting that it was the best on Saboady, as long as the shitty old man wasn't in. The fact that Shakky laughed when Ace insulted her husband like that was even more confusing.

"Sorry for the wait," Ace states, wiping his nose with the back of his hand checking for blood when he pulled it back. "Sorry about the wall, Shakky!"

"Try to keep avoid it next time."

"I will," Ace promises, dropping back into his seat. "Shanks!"