And here you go, just some silly and cute little thing to end things up for this fic. I hope it is alright with all of you.

Hope you'd enjoy!

"This is cheating,"

"I'm not playing,"

"I don't care, this is still cheating,"

Marco would've argued further, but he saw Ace's finger moving on his periphery, slowly and indecisively choosing in between cards he held in his hand before he finally decided on one. He tapped on the card and looked up to him from where he laid his head on the blonde's shoulder, eyes wide, eager and hopeful, "This one?" he asked, and with a small smile, Marco gave his surrounding a quick glance, noting Thatch's still disgruntled face, to Vista shaking his head despondently as he folded his cards, to Kingdew silently arguing with Atmos about which card to throw away next.

He turned back to Ace's stormy grey orbs, giving the younger a lopsided smile, "Go ahead,"

Ace grinned back, picking the card between two fingers before he paused and turned back, grin turning mischievous, "A good luck kiss first?"

"You don't need good luck, Marco's been helping you win 15 hands in a row!"

Thatch's complaint, like so many before was ignored, and Marco barely resisted as Ace leaned up to press their lips together. There's giggling from the side, probably from Haruta, when Ace shifted even further on his lap to throw away the card he had pointed earlier and was given a new one by Rakuyo, who acted as the dealer for the night's round. Ace picked it up, and Marco only had to look at Ace's face to know that he pulled a good one. The kid really need to work on his poker face.

Evidently, he wasn't the only one paying attention, because to his side, Blamenco groaned, putting his cards face down and murmuring sombrely, "I fold too,"

"Oh, come on!" Thatch exclaimed, desperately staring at his card as if it would magically make whatever it is become better, before he finally put it down as well, "Urgh, fine, i fold,"

They all revealed their hands, and it was probably a good thing that all of them folded because Ace's card was indeed the highest out of all of them. The young commander collected his winning bet with a happy cackle, ignoring the groans from the other contestants around the table. The amount of belli he had amassed on his side of the table was higher than the rest combined, and those who realized this eventually left to be replaced with other daredevils who wanted to challenge Moby's latest poker champion.

Not Thatch, though, Thatch was still sitting on his chair sullenly, "Okay, now do a round without Marco's help,"

"I'm not helping him,"

"You literally just told him which card to throw away!"

"I didn't, i just told him to go on ahead with it if he wanted to, Ace's still the one playing,"

Whatever complain the chef would say next was interrupted by Rakuyo dealing the cards, and once the final one was given out, he immediately exclaimed loudly, "Ha! Not even Marco can beat this hand, come on, do your worst, lovebirds,"

Ace snorted at his enthusiasm, but he placed one hand on Marco's thigh and his finger started moving to make a stuttered and awkwardly worded sentence, using the language he had only started learning for the past weeks.

'I give up?'

Somewhere behind them, Marco could hear Jozu scoffing, and he already suspected the man to have figured out their little under the table communication. He only chuckled, wrapping both arms around Ace's waist and nuzzling his nose against the crook of his neck, while letting one hand slide down on the younger's naked waist to write down a simple and short 'No'.

Ace giggled, though if it was from glee over being able to win again or from the tickling along his skin, Marco could not tell.

Being able to be so close like this still felt unreal to Marco, despite how many days have passed since they decided they want a serious romantic relationship with each other and how many nights Ace had spent in his bed. They didn't let people know immediately afterwards, but it was rather telling to most when after Fossa and the shipwrights had painstakingly fixed Ace's bedroom, it was still left empty and unused. The commander had grumbled about wasting his precious time fixing the entire room only to have it being made into a storage again, but nonetheless congratulate them.

Getting together means there's no big change between their interaction as a whole, but it was the subtle changes that made all the differences. They're not joined to the hips, and sometimes still kept their distance out of respect to everyone else during formal meetings and anything less than a relaxing time like parties and breaks, and during those times, they'd gravitate to each other like it was the most normal thing to do. Ace was still reckless so there is still a need for Marco to scold and berate him, but these would result in a tender moment at night in the privacy of their room, where Ace would express his regret and Marco telling him that he was worried.

At Ace's request as well, he began to open up about stories from his past and hear more about Ace's life as a child back in an island in East Blue, something feeling amused or horrified by his upbringing, and understood a bit more about how he was shaped to the person he is now. He mourned a little boy that died a long time ago and he never met, whose memory will always be alive in Ace, and he would chuckle and feel some semblance of pride when he found a strawhat wearing boy's grinning face being included in the new batch of wanted posters that month.

He slightly regretted telling Ace about it, though, because it took weeks for him to be able to convince the younger that as proud as he is for his brother, no one wanted to see the walls in Moby being plastered with Strawhat Luffy's wanted poster. And certainly no one needed to have at least one copy of said wanted poster as well, so please stop giving them out to everyone you come across.

But as Ace shared more of his life, it was only fair that Marco shared his. After he began teaching the basics of his language, he told of the fate and end of the tribe that used it beforehand, in which he was the only survivor. He shared about a pretty normal life growing up in a secluded island, fearful of the outside world and the unknown, until the day he came across a weird looking fruit while venturing the forest and decided to eat it out of curiosity. As a young naive child, he saw no wrong in showing the elders that he can make funny blue flames and change his body to that of an avian, which only resulted in him being captured, sentenced and punished severely, until they found out that he couldn't die or even be injured by all swords and axe.

It will be a long, long time that he spent inside of a small confined space, left there in hope that he'd starve and die, out of sight and out of mind. There are still some brave men who thought they can kill off 'the little devil', and that was the most interaction with human he had during those long torturous times of his life until a lost pirate found his way to the island.

They had wanted to kill the pirate as well, with how unwelcoming they are to any newcomer, but the big, muscled man defeated all of them with a power that can shake the earth itself. The village was destroyed, leaving no survivors but those who were also prisoners of the tribe, and just before the pirate left, he came across the corrupt elder who ordered for his murder and kill him. Before leaving, he had snuck around the dead man's belonging, searching for any loot to keep when he came across a battered child with several weapons sticking out of him, yet no blood or injury evident around him.

Ace held him a little bit tighter that night, whispering repeatedly how glad he was that Marco is still here because of Pops, and in return, Marco would tell him that he is glad that he had a wonderful and strong woman as a mother.

Telling such a horrifying past should not be a mood-setter for intimacy, and yet that was the very same night that they made love for the first time, Ace unwilling to let him go and Marco with no intention to slip away from the comforting embrace he was cocooned in. It had been mind blowing, passionate, and loving, and as Marco held Ace's trembling form, whispering 'i love you's to each other, nothing felt like it can be as perfect as that moment.

Above him, Ace let out a little gasp, squirming a little on his lap. Marco quirked a brow at the steadily rising flush across his freckled cheeks, until he realized that oops, maybe reminiscing about that night right about now is not a good idea.

He pressed a little kiss to the side of Ace's temple, taking a discreet peek at the cards on his hands - he has a pretty good hand right now, who said Ace needs his help all the time to win? - and tracing a quick and abbreviated 'sorry' to the side of the quivering hips. For a while, Ace didn't answer back, and Marco has to wonder if he forgot what that particular word meant again - memorizing a completely new language and their lexicon hadn't come easy to Ace - until he felt the logia user shifted, enough to nestle his half-formed arousal in between round, soft globes.

It was Marco's turn to give a hitching breath, his hand clutching Ace's waist tightly as he buried his forehead on the younger's nape. He squeezed the narrow waist again when Ace purposefully bounced, looking to all like he was just shifting on his seat when really he was sitting right on top of Marco's erection.

'Stop' he traced down the raven's side, pinching slightly at the end of the tracing.

Ace only laughed and leaned back against his chest, giving him a full display of his cards. Marco widened his eyes, glancing at Ace's smug grin and looked back down at the card in disbelief. 'Nice' he write down again on Ace's naked skin, smiling as he felt soft kisses on the side of his stubbly jaw. The other players were still contemplating their cards, with Curiel being involved in a hot debate with Rakuyo about pulling his bet back because he mistook a stain on his card to make it look like something else.

With most of the room's attention being on the two, Marco leaned down - carefully pressing Ace's card down on his lap to avoid showing it accidentally - and pressed a kiss to the younger's lips. Their angle made it slightly awkward so Ace turned his body slightly, turning him sideways on Marco's lap and allowing him to also looped both arms around the older's shoulder to pull him down to a better kiss.

'"I love you," Ace murmured, the only one sentence in Marco's long forgotten language he seems to be able to say with the correct pronunciation and accent, and since the first time he showed this particular skill, it never ceased to make the blonde's heart to flip and flutter inside of his chest. The language and its origin were something he'd rather forget in all honesty, but that it can be made into something he only shared with Ace, their own secret little language, truly made it into something wonderful in his mind.

"And i to you," he whispered just as lowly, the tip of his nose brushing against Ace's own as they engaged each other in another lip lock.

Ace's hesitation when it comes to kisses was gone nowadays, thought there were still times where he was shy in his approach, especially when he was the one who started it. Marco found that he's a very active kisser, always moving, nipping and even biting at times so he allows it, even if it sometimes means their kiss will be messy indeed. They'd have time to work on Ace's finesse, he supposed, just like now.

"Hey! Hey, lovebirds! Get a room! Or better yet, finish this round!"

Thatch's shout made them broke their kiss, with Ace still breathing heavily and Marco blinking hard to remove the fogginess from his eyes. On the table, the other players had already laid their cards out, Curiel almost sobbing with his measly two pairs and Namur scowling at the direction of Thatch's hand, which turns out to be a straight flush. It made sense why the chef sounded so cocky, "Come on, you can make out some more after i beat you and get my money back,"

True enough, whatever had transpired before seems to have lead to all 3 of them to go all in, with all of their belli being stacked near Rakuyo. Everyone's eyes were on them - with Haruta even squeeing on the background - expectantly waiting on Ace to reveal his hand.

On his lap, Ace turned to face him briefly, before smirking and using one hand to push all of the money he had collected the entire night to the dealer's direction. Thatch's smug expression began to falter, especially when Ace took his card from his other hand and threw it down on the table.

The cards slides to the table haphazardly but all facing up, in order from 10 to King, and in the middle of them, bearing the print of Whitebeard's mark is the ace of spades.

"Royal Flush," Ace haughtily announced, "Sorry, Thatch, those are my money now,"

Damn, if that voice and that increasingly superior and victorious look on his face didn't make Marco's erection even harder.

"Nope, not now," he said, not even bothering to hide the urgency in his voice as he lifted Ace up effortlessly in a princess carry, making the young commander yelp and probably startling those behind them, "Rakuyo, hold on to his winnings, he'll pick it up tomorrow. Somebody can take this seat,"

"But Marco—" whatever protest Ace might had suddenly died down, particularly when his body slid down low enough that he can probably feel the undeniable hardness against his waist. He then snickered out loud, probably giving away any discreetness that Marco hadn't killed off yet, and looped his arms around Marco's shoulders again for a more secure hold, "Yeah, i'll pick those up tomorrow. I got some other winnings to collect tonight,"

They exited with a mix chorus of boos and screams over 'TMIs', which was what their moments of affection together was often met with these days. It was vastly different than the cooing and awes they were met with the first few days they made it official, and Marco didn't know which one he preferred better.

As they stumbled their way out of the dining hall, half kissing and half giggling between themselves, Marco found he also could care less about that right now.

Back in the dining area, upon the couple's exits, Thatch let out a grieving howl as Rakuyo silently collected the large pile of money into one big bag, mentally noting to give it away to Ace the following day. Or maybe the day after that. Whenever it is that he can emerge from the bedroom without complaining about sore back and hips for the rest of the day.

"New rules for poker nights!" the sorrowful chef announced, his voice drowning Izou's flat 'oh grow up, you sore loser' from behind him, "No sitting on people's lap and no helping people out! We all banned Marco from poker nights years ago because he kept winning, there's no point in keeping that ban up if he'll play with Ace as a proxy,"

"But he really wasn't helping him tonight,"

The auburn haired chef aimed a glare at Jozu, who spoke up, "Yeah right, as if i didn't see all those hand movement under the table. They're not that slick, the bastards," he bit his lower lips, sighing while watching the large bag and the metallic clacking sound they made as Rakuyo dropped them to the ground. All of his money saved up for this month is there, he won't have enough to spend on their next destination. And their next destination is supposedly a really good port with nice bars and good looking maids.

The corners of Jozu's lips twitched upward as he gazed to the now empty chair, "No, those hand movements weren't any tricks or anything related to your card game, i can assure you,"

Thatch frowned at his words, even more as the paramecia's smile grew a bit more with every passing second. Then as revelation dawned on him, he made a horrified face, loudly making a gagging noise even if deep down, he wasn't all that surprised. He was truly happy for them, saw how happy this new relationship made for them, and to be honest, if the whole kissing thing didn't happen all that often, he won't mind them that much.

But there is a difference between feeling some semblance of warmth in your chest watching your brothers happy, and knowing they did things under the table while you were all watching. So that's why Marco was suddenly so insistent about leaving. And oh lord, he probably hadn't been imagining the tent he thought he saw on the blond's pants as well.

The fact that maybe he, and practically everyone else, came to the wrong conclusion from Jozu's words didn't even enter his mind at all.

From the middle of the crowd, Jiru, who had moved forward to take over the place Ace and Marco had vacated suddenly stopped on his tracks and glanced sadly at the seat, "I think i'll play standing up then," he said solemnly, clutching his bag of money on his side, "I am not sitting on that seat until someone disinfect it 100 times,"

And that's the epilogue and thus the end of this fic! I want to thank you all again for reading to this far, whether now or in the far future, for being patient with me and for all of the lovely likes and comments, or even for the simple fact that you gave this fic a chance.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, for all of the comments and likes and like always, hope you liked it and see you on the next story!