Ace awoke to a sterile hospital bed and a bone deep tiredness. He was alive. Despite the best efforts of the world, Portgas. D Ace was alive.

The relieved teen burst out into slightly hysterical laughter. It had worked. His suicidal, stupid, barely hashed out idea of a plan had worked. Had worked because of the idiotic and wonderful crew that had claimed him for their own and had refused to back down, even when faced with the world.

Sudden realisation hit the teen as his memories of the last day(?) came rushing back. Marco. Where was Marco?!

Desperately searching what he now recognised as the Moby Dicks infirmary, Ace couldn't help the bone deep terror that choked his lungs after seeing neither hide or hair of the Phoenix.

Marco couldn't be dead. It wasn't possible. Maybe he was already healed and on deck. Ignoring his shaking legs and weak body Ace pushed himself to his feet and stumbled out of the bed.

He had to find him. He had to know Marco was fine. If he had felt stronger Ace would have attempted to use observation haki to track down the blonde, however as it was Ace could barely stand upright and using haki now was just asking to pass out again.

Stumbling out onto the very silent and very empty deck Ace noted the darkened skies with realisation, it appeared to be late at night which explained the lack of people. Before Ace could decide what to do next a familiar voice rang out interrupting his thought process "Ace?"

Ace couldn't quite help the tears forming in his eyes as he recognised the calming voice, turning around he threw himself into the arms of the very surprised man he had come to care so deeply about. "You're okay. Thank god you're okay."

Rather than dismissing the slightly hysterical teen Marco pulled him closer rubbing soothing and nonsensical patterns on his back "Shh, Ace it's ok you're here now. I'm fine, you're fine. We're alive yoi." And so, for the first time since Sabo had died Ace broke down into tears.

He hadn't broken his promise, he could still live to see his little brother set out and start his dream. He could have a family without constantly worrying they would reject him when they found out his heritage. Even if he did now have new worries about the retaliation his presence may bring.

Bighting his lip Ace shoved those thoughts aside. For better or worse the Whitebeards had claimed him now and he would not dishonour that claim by running off on his own in a misguided attempt to protect them. Not now the world knew who he was.

Besides, the whitebeards were a big enough target on their own that hopefully his presence wouldn't change too much. "How long have I been asleep?"

The phoenix sat down and pulled Ace into his lap with a small smile "Two days yoi, you were exhausted from overusing your haki but you should be fine after some rest. Shanks left this morning to go check up on one of his territories, but he said to get well soon and give him a call when you woke up."

Ace gave a small nod before a mischievous grin lit up his face, no one on the crew knew he was awake yet. Meaning none of them would be prepared to retaliate against his evil schemes.

Ace wasn't exactly happy his secret was out, but there was something of a weight off his chest and right now he felt the need to celebrate still being alive. And what better way to celebrate then with a prank.

Turning wide innocent eyes up at Marco Ace smiled sweetly and batted his eyes, very much ignoring the blonde's snort of disbelief "Birdy, how do you feel about helping your poor exhausted boyfriend out in a small task?"

"Go on yoi." Ace's grin lost all innocence "I just think that it would be best to inform the rest of the crew I'm awake bright and early tomorrow morning." The blonde's eyes widened as he caught on, an evil grin settling on his face.

"Of course, yoi. But I think it would be best if they didn't pin the blame on us immediately." Ace gave another small grin as he kissed the older man on the cheek "I'll do the first through eigth division, you do nine to sixteen?" nodding in affirmation the two separated.

The next morning the entire crew (minus whitebeard) was treated to a beautiful morning wakeup call... at four am... consisting of the sound of several pots and pans banging together in the most loud and obnoxious manner possible.

"Thatch I'm going to kill you." Rang throughout the ship. Ace struggled to contain his laughter, in truth he and Marco had left a den den mushi in each division dorm and had proceeded to use them as speakers to make it seem as if Thatch had been standing outside the dorms as a prank.

Grabbing the blonde's hand, Ace placed the pots and pans back in their places within the kitchen before proceeding to drag them both into the dining hall. Sitting at the commanders table Ace grabbed an old newspaper from the day before and held it in front of his face.

Marco raised an eyebrow in amusement "You really think that qualifies as a disguise yoi?"

Ace opened his mouth to respond but before he could do so the third division stormed straight past them murderous intent practically dripping off their faces. Followed by the sixth division... and the fourth division... none of whom gave even a glance at their obvious hiding place.

By the time two more divisions had gone past them on their hunt for Thatch, Ace stopped attempting to hide his laughter. Marco sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in both frustration and resignation.

"We are supposed to be one of the most feared and powerful pirate crews on the ocean...how the hell is it that none of the divisions have noticed that not only are you missing from the infirmary but that there was no possible way for Thatch to wake them all up simultaneously?"

Ace didn't bother responding, far too busy laughing on the floor. Marco let out another sigh and stared at the ceiling, before he could speak again girlish squeals pierced through the air "Looks like they found Thatch yoi."

Ace finally managed to stop laughing "Should we go help him?" Marco paused to consider the idea, on one hand it would be the nice and responsible thing to go save his brother. On the other hand he could ignore Thatch's plight get some coffee, sit with Ace and watch the sunrise...

Marco went and made himself a cup of coffee.

It was several hours later that an exhausted Thatch made his way into the dining hall before freezing at the sight of a grinning Ace "You!" he pointed a finger in dramatic accusation drawing the attention of several loitering pirates nearby "You set me up!"

Ace hid a grin as Marco stood up with a calm face and addressed the mini crowd who had formed upon realising the true culprit of their early wakeup call. Most looked to be torn between congratulating Ace on waking up, or murdering him themselves.

Marco put a blank look on his face "The point of today's early wakeup was a training exercise to see how you would react to an unknown intruder in the early morning yoi."

Ace looked away determined to keep a straight face, despite the utter bullshit Marco was spewing.

"I'm incredibly disappointed to say you all failed miserably. Rather than coordinating with the other divisions you each ran off individually blaming the most likely culprit and didn't even pause to consider other solutions."

Some of the men in the crowd started to hang their heads in shame while a few gave small nods of acknowledgement. How Marco had managed to turn the start of an angry mob, into what appeared to be a bunch of chastised school children, Ace had no idea.

Neither did Thatch based on his open-mouthed gaping and inarticulate hand gestures. Ignoring Thatch, Marco continued to meet the gazes of the steadily growing crowd.

"Not only did you fail to consider another culprit, none of you noticed Ace was missing from the infirmary, what if it had been a real intruder? You also failed to see past the most basic disguise of holding a newspaper in front our faces."

Ace stared blankly at Marco, his ability to guilt trip people was terrifying. This was almost worse than his pranking abilities, some of the more senior pirates looked on the verge of tears.

"You can't be buying this! This was obviously a prank there's no way in hell this was a training exercise. They're messing with us!" Marco sighed as if greatly disappointed and gestured a hand towards Whitebeard who had just appeared.

"Oyaji isn't it true that I told you we'd be setting up a training exercise this morning?" Whitebeard gave a nod, followed by a hearty laughter, mischief shining in his eyes. "That you did my son. Did any of them manage to catch the culprit?"

Wow. Just when Ace thought the whitebeard pirates couldn't look any more downtrodden. Marco let out another heavy sigh "We'll repeat the exercise at some point in future, and I expect all of you to be better prepared, understood?"

There was a chorus of nods and a few "Yes commander." before most of the pirates left, eager to grab some food after their early morning wakeup call. Thatch merely continued to stare at Marco in disbelief.

"This is so unfair, I just spent the last three hours getting chased around by a bunch of angry pirates for a prank I didn't commit. And the end result is you claiming to be disappointed in our performance?! How the hell are you the responsible sibling?!"

Marco took a slow sip of his coffee choosing to ignore the irate chef, who was throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. Ace gave a small grin and a wave "you need to work on your hiding abilities Thatch."

The chef let out a dramatic wail "Even my pranking partner and youngest brother have turned against me! How could you Ace?!" Marco smirked "He just likes me better yoi."

Letting out another dramatic moan Thatch gave an evil smile "This means war Marco! War I tell you!" The first division commander let out a small snort of acknowledgment whilst Thatch turned to face Ace "Still, welcome back little brother."

A grin lit up on the teenagers face as he gave a small nod back and turned to face Whitebeard, "So, can I... I mean, is it ok if I join the crew? officially I mean?" The old Pirate captain gave a warm smile and placed his hand on the teens shoulder "Of course. Welcome aboard Son."

And so, letting out a huge smile Ace leaned against Marco and laughed. He'd finally found a home with a bunch of irritating siblings to share it with. He could fulfil his promise to Sabo. No regrets.

The end.

Omake

because I couldn't resist. I'm sorry I have no excuse this is mainly just crack...

"Ace run! Save yourself!" Usually Ace would never even contemplate abandoning a comrade, he would rather fight to his dying breath than consider abandoning a friend to the enemy.

Unfortunately, these were not the usual circumstances. "Marco!" The phoenix pulled Ace into a passionate movie style kiss "I'll hold him off." Tears pooled in the younger man's eyes "You can't! He'll kill you!"

The phoenix made a partial transformation, a large blue wing blocking the path behind them "I love you Ace. Now run." Unfortunately, the two lovers were too late.

Garp had arrived.

"Second. Division. Commander." the aforementioned commander let out a nervous laugh "Hi gramps?" The marines face turned purple. That... that was not a good sign...

However just as the angry marine took a step towards the two pirates a miracle occurred. Randomly exploding pigeons fells from the sky allowing the two commanders to safely escape to the Moby dick where they lived happily ever after, The End.

Authors note

Hi guys, I honestly can't believe this was the last chapter. I wanted to put a serious thank you to everyone who bothered to read this especially those who wrote reviews because honestly they were so encouraging to read, even the short ones. I kind of apologise for the omake but not really cause I really couldn't resist the idea xD hope you all enjoyed the story thank you so much for giving it a try!